My experience with IF, ADF, OMAD, 2MAD

If you are not familiar with these expressions I'll explain them for you. IF is intermittent fasting, ADF is alternate day fasting, OMAD is one meal a day and 2MAD is two meals a day. Well actually, I think they are all variations of INTERMITTENT FASTING so they are all some kind of fasting which is broken by eating windows. I have done all of them so I can give my perspective on this topic.

I was forty last year and I have gained quite a lot of weight. I have 3 children, but I have to admit I've gained weight after I gave birth to my third child. I was actually 3 kilos lighter one month after the birth of my 3rd child than I am now. Complicated. Or not. I have probably gained weight also during the first quarantine (March - May 2020).

Anyway, let's look at some numbers. The weight that prompted my weightloss was 81 kilos. That's actually the exact amount I reached at the end of all my 3 pregnancies, but this time I was not even pregnant. One month after my third child I weighed 71 kilos. And now I weigh about 74 kilos. So that's a very simple math done very quickly. I have lost 7 kilos since the end of November 2020 (81kg - 7 kg= 74 kg). But I still have 3 kg more than in April 2018 (after my 3rd child was born). Nevermind, I'm just explaining this to myself because I can't believe I was able to gain so much weight. I try to eat healthily.

I'll show you some of my pictures even though I'm not a big fan of posting my pictures.

Before children, when I was 58 kg and slim

long, thin arms, no belly

After my first daughter - not too bad

81 kg, children in the back

trying to pose with all that fat

Not happy about it and yes, I have grey hair

By the way, I made all the clothes in the pictures. That's why I took the photos. 

OK, so luckily I found IF on youtube and I'm thrilled. 

I started doing 16:8. So I ate from 10 am to 6 pm and then I fasted for 16 hours. I lost 3 kg. I tried to be precise at first and drank all kinds of things (water, tea, black tea with milk) in the evening to avoid hunger pangs. After some time (like 1 week) I think I got used to the pattern of eating and it was OK. 

Then I wanted to change something to lose more weight. I started doing ADF - alternate day fasting. I lost another 3 kg, so I didn't lose a lot more. But I was happy. In the morning I drank 2 larger coffees with milk (no sugar), a lot of water and some hot herbal tea. So I was fine until 12:00 - noon. I usually get up very early around 5 am or 6 am. And I was working from home at that time. And I had all my three children at home. (We had 2nd quarantine from 16th October to 22nd February - yes, it was looong.) To give further details about my routine on ADF: I cooked myself a 1,5 l of vegetable soup  (made of broccoli, cauliflower, 1 carrot, an onion and enough salt, a bit of turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon of olive oil). So I drank hot salty watery soup. It was delicious and it helped me feel satiated for some time. The biggest problem was towards the evening around 6 pm. I had prepared food for my children throughout the day, of course. So in the evening I was the most hangry. I always ate the overcooked vegetables from the soup together with 1 teaspoon of butter. Or I allowed myself a very small portion of children's leftovers. This was considered to be about 500 calories, no more. Or just a salad.

Then after about 1 month I wanted to change something and I really wanted to try OMAD but my initial problem was when / at what time to have this one meal a day ?! I couldn't decide. So things kind of evolved naturally and I ate at 2 pm because I was really hungry by then. I wanted also to eat at 6 pm but I wasn't hungry then. So I ate around 7 pm. Anyway, I tried to follow the 2 pm and 6 pm regime and it was fine. Basically this was either 2MAD or 20:4 (a variation of intermittent fasting, eating window is 4 hours and fasting for 20 hours). So now we will see. I haven't been doing this for long but I've lost 1,3 kg - also not bad. 

I have to admit I'm not 100% following this every day. Somehow it has become more difficult when we started our normal routine: kindergarten - school -work and I'm not at home all the time like I was during the quarantine. I really hate the feeling of constantly rushing. The stress is the most difficult part. If I feel stressed I also feel I can't follow this routine. So, peace of mind is important part even for losing weight.

I'll post a picture of myself wearing the same clothes as the before pictures, so you can see the difference.

Why would I recommend doing this kind of fasting: - easy, - cheap, - you can actually gorge yourself on food (which is sometimes a nice feeling) ✂ I should re-phrase that: when it's not your fasting time, but your feeding window, you can eat normally or you can eat a lot of food, which is a nice thing to do. 

Making Things for Boys

If you have a son (or a nephew, a cousin, a grand-son, a younger brother or just a neighbour's son et cetera, the list goes on) then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. So, today I'm going to show 3 things that I made for my son Erik (4.5 years). All of them are fairly easy and quick. And they make him happy and occupied for some time.

no. 1: Spiderman - is the first one in line. It's probably not good to encourage the obsession with Spiderman but we just can't help ourselves.

I couldn't find a T-shirt with Spiderman on in the shops (I didn't go to great extent of trying). So, I took one of his tops and quickly drew an image of Spiderman. Actually I've taken the picture from the net and just copied it on the shirt. I bought special felt-tips (for fabric) but they were rubbish. So, I took a permanent marker and it worked well. The first picture is after six months of washing. So I recently just retouched it.

no. 2: a sword; Every (proper) boy needs a sword. I bought 2 wooden swords from a man who makes wooden crafts. But then we needed the thing (casing) to put the sword away. If possible it should look like the one He-man has. It's the thing across his back. Well, I think that the thing around the waist is good enough for a little boy. He's not difficult to please, you can see he's smiling. 

 

It's made of felt (white and blue) and an elastic band. There's nothing much to say, just carefully look at the picture. SCABBARD is the word (= the thing to put the sword in).

no. 3: an eye-patch (Zak Storm, pirates etc.); So I tried to make an eye patch but I wasn't very successful. If you make one, it should be very comfortable, it shouldn't hurt the other eye. Keep that in mind. It was fun for 5 minutes.

and one more (no. 4): Spiderman mask: easy-peasy. I took the template from Burda 1/2019.

Next time: Making things for girls.

My Alabama Chanin T-shirt

Finally, my Alabama Chanin Project
When I first came across Alabama Chanin on Pinterest or Google I thought, ah, I don't like this. This is not for me. I really thought so. I don't have the time. It's so rustic/ rural.
It's so hommemade. Ugh.

an example of Alabama Chanin

and another one 

But I guess things stay with you subconsciously. I can't even say when exactly I started to actively search for AC (=Alabama Chanin) on Pinterest. But I did my exact research. That means I looked at pictures over and over again, carefully studied them and made up my mind to try and do my take on Alabama Chanin.

I did it my way, of course. The simplest, the easiest variation possible.

So here it goes.

1. pattern: I chose a simple but very useful pattern - a basic black T-shirt. 

2. material: I prefer viscose jersey to cotton one. It's more slinky and  more sophisticated.

3. drawing/ painting the picture on the fabric: I couldn't bother buying spray colours (in the past I used to silk paint, glass paint etc.). I just didn't want to spend any more money for that. What's more, I've got tons of fabric, haberdashery, magazines, baby & kid's clothes (not to mention the shoes) - I've got 3 children. I really don't need new equipment of any kind. I've got 2 sewing machines.
So, my solution is to use simple ordinary white chalk - I'm a teacher, by the way, and we still have blackboards at our school (even though whiteboards are coming). So I drew the picture of a flower on the fabric by using a simple white chalk. It's very useful.

4. embroidery: I decided to use a backstitch because it looks good, professional, even though it's done by hand. I used cotton thread and a large embroidery needle - it was easy to sew/ stitch.

5. cutting: I cut out the top layer of the fabric using ordinary scissors.

6. finishing touches: I like the garment to have nice, clean look. So I sewed everything with my sewing machine and hemmed the edges by using a twin needle. (I'm saying that because the edges in AC garments are often left unfinished/ raw and the garment is sewn by hand - which I really dislike).

My findings are the following: 

❁it can be done fast if the garment is not too big and if it doesn't have too many pieces; 

❁viscose jersey is very nice to wear; it's not too warm or too thick; it feels really nice, soft;

❁ it's not difficult to cut out the fabric, just do it slowly and concentrate hard; 

❁drawing with chalk is for me just brilliant, because you can wash it off easily and at the same time it stays on the fabric long enough so that you can do your embroidery; 

❁use a BIG/ HUGE stenciling so you are quickly done;

❁ think carefully about the colour combinations          

                                                            ↜    and    ↝   

I have to do more of these kind of garments - they are pretty unique and stunning.

Some more pictures during the process of making:

This kind of  technique is called: reverse applique - you cut out the top layer.

Other techniques that she (the designer - Natalie Chanin) uses are: negative reverse applique and couching. There are many more variations but I would love to try those two. However, I always try to keep things quick and simple because I have 3 small children and I really don't have the stamina to do overcomplicated things.

One useful source is the following web page:

http://blog.londasfiles.com/textures-alabama-chanin-part-v/

http://blog.londasfiles.com/alabama-chanin-stitches-part-vii/

And you can have a look at their page directly: https://alabamachanin.com/

Making a doll

I was asked to make a doll for our school children (4th grade) beacuse they are reading a book by Alf Projsen and they exchange this doll with another school. In Slovene we call her čajna ženička = the tea lady - (Teskjekjerringa in the original). Anyway, I like a good sewing challenge. 

My inspiration was: (pictures from the book) 

                               

My creation was this:

Purely by chance I came across a doll in Burdastyle magazine 9/2012 

and immediately I decided to use the pattern and just change it slightly.

The process of making - in pictures:

  

  

 So, that's it. I'm to lazy to write a very detailed tutorial. I hope pictures show the process.