I decided to try a version of the 16/8 plan, where you fast for 16 hours and eat for eight. This seemed to fit my lifestyle better. I'd stop eating around 7 or 8 at night, then wouldn't eat again until 11 a.m. or noon the next day. It basically meant that I'd skip breakfast, then eat three times the rest of the day, consuming roughly the same amount of calories I would if I'd been eating all day long.

"It [intermittent fasting] gets your body out of 'storage mode' and mobilises fat stores for energy," said certified dietitian Leslie Langevin of Whole Health Nutrition. This means that without having a constant food source, your body will dip into the fat it already has stored.

I'm not gonna lie. The first two weeks were rough. Especially on days that I woke up at 4:45 a.m. to do CrossFit at 5:45 for an hour. The hardest part was coming home from class at 7:00 a.m. and having to prepare breakfast for my kids. The temptation of grabbing a banana or polishing off their crusts was almost unbearable. My husband was very supportive and took over breakfast duties so I wouldn't have to smell cinnamon toast. I'd just down a huge glass of water and keep myself busy getting them ready for school. Around 9 or 10 a.m., I'd make a cup of chai tea with a splash of cashew milk. Many intermittent fasters recommend caffeine to suppress hunger, usually black coffee. Also, any beverage under 50 calories still counts as fasting, and sipping on that totally helped, as well as plain water throughout the morning.

Did I Lose Weight?

Yes! I lost about a kilo, which for me was HUGE, since I wasn't seeing the scale budge otherwise. I was still doing CrossFit, so I know I was gaining muscle weight, but still the scale showed a decrease. I was amazed. The biggest thing, and I noticed this after the first week, was when I looked in the mirror, I could see more definition in my abs. That visual progress was what kept me going.