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Wow… i am glad you are making good progress. I started off 18 days ago, first week i lost 8lbs, and 2nd week i added 6lbs. I am doing 20:4 but OMAD. I cannot explain what happenwd… but i don’t track my calories.
To me it sounds like you are enjoying yourself and relaxing more than before, which reduces stress. Less stress = less cortisol, which reduces overall inflammation and allows your body to focus on healing itself. My bro science take on it anyway.
A lasting change is always going to have a greater affect than one that’s not sustainable. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t challenge ourselves, but it’s important to be realistic in how much we can take on.
I’ve certainly experienced that and see it in other folks, there’s this motivation and guilt even to try and do everything ‘right’ from the get go. But this results in a lot of yo-yo-ing when that determination dries up and someone is trying to support a bunch of new habits without having properly transitioned them to routine.
I agree about making one change at a time and being able to live with that change for the long-term. A change I made long time ago was to swap a smoothie for my latte+scone in the morning. Later, I removed the banana from the smoothie and replaced with avocado. Both of these changes have been lasting and made big difference. Eventually, I moved my smoothie to lunch and skipped breakfast altogether and started with time-restricted eating 11am to 7pm. (16:8). Sometimes I exercise. Incremental change = lasting change. Finding one thing I do that could be stopped or replaced with something better.