The main strategy I used so far is simply drinking lighter smoothies in the morning.
My rough estimation is that I only take in now half the calories I used to take before.
So maybe from 800 calories for my morning smoothies (these were very rich smoothies and I was having a few glasses of them), I might be now to 200-400 calories in the morning.
I am just on the edge of feeling an energy drop but it feel sustainable.
My body and mind are adapting to this new eating pattern.
2 challenges I face so far:
first one is tendency to overeat in the evening to compensate for low calories intake in the morning.
This is not going out of balance as what I take in is still super healthy, I simply notice that my tendency in the evening has been to eat slightly more.
Challenge 2 is to measure exactly the calories intake.
At this stage, I use hunger feelings, internal energy level, and rough calorie intake estimation.
I have no tool, no scale, no precise way of measuring calories.
I feel that's ok.
My main tool is to listen to what my body and mind are telling me.
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Today is the first day where I feel a new really stable, fresh energy kicking in.
I feel like my body is using only a fraction of its energy in the digestive process as I didn't have anything really solid today yet.
I feel way lighter now internally and have been zipping light smoothie for the last 3 hours.
I had probably 4 glasses of this light smoothie which probably represents 200-400 calories.
Today, it contains, one banana, one orange, a few spinach leaves, a small piece of carrot, some ginger, half a lime, two tea spoons of raw flour, a bit of salt, one tea spoon of hemp oil .
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I like as well a lot the fact of not putting my body in a state of crisis, rather, listening to what goes on and give it just enough to feel balanced but not too much so that it doesn't waste energy in too much digesting processes.
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This is an essential step for me because I already tried a few times in the past to cut calorie intake. I went into fasting but this usually created a state of crisis internally.
I tested this years ago at repeated intervals, lost weight in the process and did bring my body and mind in a state of crisis.
I felt physically weak because I was being too radical.
Another essential point is that I have been training my body now for 3 years with a raw food diet.
I am now 95-100% raw.
This preparation is a big part of the energy I feel kicking in now.
I learned over the last 3 years how to implement a new nutrition pattern by implementing it softly.
So, my approach now with reducing calorie intake is way softer and wiser.
Instead of just skipping meals or cutting meal sizes, this light smoothie strategy is way easier as I keep feeding my body with simply smaller quantities...
This creates a very different sustainable, suppression free strategy.
The feeling is radically different!
It seems to work really well!
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Remember that I am not doing this for short term gratification or short term fasting.
I am testing to see if these nutrition strategies are stable and can be maintained long term.
So far, it works...