What have I learned about myself from dieting/fasting?

What exactly have I learned that I can pass on about fasting/dieting now for 88 days in a row? 

It is all about being in the right mind set to lose weight. Plus a good diet plan. It's not going to happen if your not ready to lose weight. It does take effort but it doesn't have to be a downer in life to stick with something that's not easy to do. If it was easy,  no one would be fat or gain weight. 

I didn't make it painful to lose weight. Most of my dieting fails have come from all or nothing thinking. Its easy to get stuck in that, Oh I screwed up, I'll just keep eating and get back on track then to repeat that day after day. I got out of that mind frame. I just concentrated on one meal a day. Once I start eating, some days I want to keep eating. Eating at night helps limit the number of hours I have to stay on track. I'm less likely to over eat due to this thinking. 

I didn't want to cut out all fun in my life. We love going out to try new places for dinner and eating out is just our kind of fun. Breweries are also a lot of fun to try along with the wineries we like to visit on the weekends. I limit myself to one or two glasses because that's enough alcohol for me. Or better yet, I just sip some of Steve's to try without getting a glass of something myself and I sip water or bring my flavored lemon-aid packages to add to my water. I can also snack on low calorie popcorn and we can bring in our own snacks to some of the breweries/ wineries that don't serve food. This way you can control what you eat. We also split our food at restaurants. I never order my own meal. This way, I can eat the smaller half of what we share. I never feel like I have to eat fries. I might try one or two but I never eat my portion. The beauty of sharing! 

I didn't lose weight as fast as I wanted. Because no one can starve for 88 days. I needed to eat! 1 to 2 pounds a week is reasonable amount to lose. I always want to be closer to 500 calories per day but over time it's been around 700- 1000 per day. 

I do think exercise is second to losing weight. At least at first. It's hard enough going on a diet and trying to change that. I needed to focus on one thing first then add in exercise. I still got exercise working every day for a few hours at a demanding job. So I wasn't 100% a couch or chair potato. I just slowly am adding in running, skiing and biking. I do morning exercises to tone every day that doesn't require more then 15 minutes or less of time. Planks, lift weights and done! 

Speaking of planks... I could see my abs this morning when I looked in the mirror. I've been doing planks for a few years now. You also have to lose belly fat to see them. I knew they were under there, I just needed to lose the fat. I use to plank for 2 minutes at a time, now I'm at 1 minute, 2x's bent and straight arm. I also do 30 second side planks 2x's on each side. Makes me feel better to start my day with a little tone up! I  might be doing less now, but I am slowly building back up to where I was at. I don't need to rush it, I just want to keep going forward and have zero set backs because of trying to do too much all at once. 

I still have this lazy diet plan. I sit around a lot at night since I move a lot during the morning to early afternoon. I need to get out of that funk. I sit on my phone reading the news and last night waiting for Survivor to start at 7pm. I pretty much sit on the couch from 3pm to 8/9p. 6 hours of doing little to nothing other then eating my meal for the day and maybe making dinner. I just never feel like doing much other then run to the store and get errands done. Dieting can take a lot out of you, so I'm letting myself have time to just do nothing! At least during the cold winter months. Now that it's spring and temperatures are getting nicer out. I can go for my afternoon bike ride to burn more calories or at least sit on the deck.