After the bumpy fasting ride of last week, I needed an attitude adjustment and a Win, with a capital “w.” Granted, things had started out rocky for me. I had coped with a bout of the stomach flu during week two (I was pissed off, mostly because the virus struck on an eating day) and a couple of failures of compliance, most notably last week after a sugar binge. But I was determined to get myself on track and finish strong. As I myself have preached, fasting is a mental game. What I needed to do was reset my frame of mind.

I had studied Alternate Day Fasting inside and out, I had watched videos, I had followed someone on Instagram who’d lost more than 100 pounds and I had talked about it with friends and family ad nauseam. Now I needed to throw my brain into autopilot and roll with it. This weekend, I had a lightbulb moment: Instead of stewing about my small defeats, what I needed to do was stop overthinking and submit to the plan. (My name is Laura and I have a teeny tiny problem with being headstrong and overthinking things).

Two words came to mind: “Surrender, Dorothy.”

Surprisingly, this little mental reset worked and I had a great fasting day on Saturday. Creatively, I felt re-energized and was able to successfully crank out a 1,500-word magazine article about a certain purple you-know-who. Last night I stayed up writing until 10:30 p.m. and stopped myself only because I looked around and couldn’t find Andy and the kids, only to realize they were in bed! This is a revelation: Normally, I am a grumpy and exhausted zombie by 9 p.m.

Getting on board with Alternate Day Fasting has taken until the last week of January, but the effort has been so very worth it. I’m even considering continuing with the plan in February. I feel like I’m just getting started.