Anyone who knows me, or has followed this blog, knows I’ve always struggled with weight and being fit. It’s been a constant battle where sometimes I do well, even for long periods of time, but then something sets me back and I go back into my old habits.
Back in April 2025 I was in an ok spot. Not great, I was heavier than I should be, but not terrible and I was fairly active. I was about 210 lbs. Then I was suddenly laid off from the career I had for a decade. That sent me into a bit of a spiral. By June I was 230 lbs. During the year I did turn things back around again for a while, but as unemployment dragged on any good habits I had disappeared. I made it up to as high as 245 lbs.
This year for New Years I set four goals for myself. One is private but I can share the other three:
- Get a job
- Get to a healthy weight
- Run a sub two hour half marathon
Out of the four I’ve only achieved the first one and I don’t have high hopes of hitting the third or private one. But I still plan to hit the healthy weight.
For the last couple of weeks I’ve really dug back in to try and get back on track. I’m settling into my second new job of the year and I’m feeling really great about it. When I started it I decided I’d start a new schedule for myself that included fasting and exercise. So far it is working pretty well and I’m determined to at least hit the healthy weight.
If I can get the weight down there is a tiny chance I hit the other goal, but by the time I do there won’t be any actual races for me to sign up for so it would just be a run by myself. But even then it’s a long shot given the shape I’m in.
I’ve done fasting in the past and been really happy with how I felt and the results, but again something always comes up and causes me to fall out of the habit.
I’ve built myself a really simple app that I can use to track my fasting schedule. Thanks to AI it makes it easy to build something like this. If anyone else would find it useful you can find it at https://fasting.sandym.ca You can read more about it and how to use it here.
I’m pretty proud of myself today. I’m in the second day of a 72 hour fast and the day started out with some stress, but then we went to have a day at the beach with some family friends. At supper everyone went out for burgers. Even though I wasn’t hungry, the sight of those burgers, fries, and milkshakes, made me want to just dive in. But I did not. Instead I went back to the car and drank a bunch more water.
Sandy McFadden 