How's it going?

Hi fellow blogists,

It's been a while since I caught up with you and reported on my progress on the 5:2.  Today's a fast day and I'm struggling to be honest which is why I thought I'd check in and give you an update of the last month or so.

I've skipped a handful of fast days due to some personal issues and I regret that but the only way to move forward is to accept that I've had some off days and get back on the wagon.  Sometimes life takes over and I don't think that the 5:2 is enough of a habit for me yet.  I'd like to get to the stage soon when I don't even think about it on Mondays and Thursdays, get out of bed, go to work and let the day fly by.  I've continued to read about peoples' experiences on the 5:2 online and am surprised about the number of people who don't have an issue exercises on a fast day.  A new step class has begun at my gym and I've tried to attend twice but both times I've felt quite dizzy and have had to stop.  I'd be interested to know how other people on the diet are managing combining exercise and fast days.

The weather turning sunny is going to help on fast days I'm sure.  Having a salad with a hard boiled egg or some ham on a sunny day will be refreshing and healthy, although it's also nice to have a glass of wine in the garden when it's sunny out - but there's always tomorrow!

I hope your fast days are going fast and that you're seeing results.  Will check in soon with further updates.

All the best, Emily.

2 - 2!

My most recent fast day ran from 2pm Sunday until 2pm Monday.  The book outlines this approach which intrigued me so I thought i'd give it a go. 

I enjoyed a Mother's Day roast at 1pm so by 2pm I'd finished my roast chicken and rice pudding (yum).  I found the rest of the day very easy and woke up not hungry at all.  At lunch time on the Monday I had a low calorie hot chocolate and two kallo chocolate rice cakes which are a recent yummy discovery of mine.  They are so gorgeous in fact that I've subscribed via Amazon to having a pack sent to my work address every month! 

Gorgeous chocolate rice cakes 56 calories!

I had my dinner slightly earlier than normal on Monday evening (5pm) but I didn't need to count calories as I was off the fast by then.  I enjoyed a casserole with a couple of glasses of Shiraz.

I am so impressed with the 2-2 that I think I'll keep it going alongside my 'normal' fast day on Thursdays. 

My clothes are feeling more roomy and the scales are showing I've lost 4 pounds so far!  Yay fast days!

How's your fast day going?

It's my 4th fast day today.  It's going really well; how's yours going?

I've had just two Belvita biscuits for breakfast (116 cal) and am on the black coffee and fruit teas all day in preparation for a massive salad tonight. 

Below is my ongoing food diary which I have used since starting to fast to keep track of what I'm eating and to also monitor my mood and the difficulty rating of getting through the day.  Doing this has also meant that calculating food has become easier and quick as I go on as I can simply copy and paste one cell into another.  I've included a simple macro in the total cell (=SUM(D2, F2, I2)) to calculate automatically the total calories consumed over the day.

Get in touch if you're on a fast day too, it would be good to hear how you're getting through it.  See you soon, Emily.

Advice to a friend

My friend is on her 2nd fast day and having tough day...

My second day was like that too.  Have a low cal hot choc as a treat and do some crunches at lunch time to take your mind off eating.  Fantasise about food you'll enjoy tomorrow.  You can have ANYTHING you want tomorrow! Stay strong X

 

Eating out on a fast day = not such a nightmare!

Hi everyone,
Yesterday was my 3rd fast day and I was dreading it because it included a meal out.  The quality may not be Michelin but the choice and flavours at Wetherspoons are quite good so I looked online and was really pleased to see that their menu not only has calories on it but there's an option to search for foods of certain calorie content.  Perfect for my fast meal out. http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/food/dietary-requirements

I chose a skinny chicken burger with salad and no dressing (429 with dressing) which I enjoyed very much after a breakfast of half a portion of porridge and black coffee.  One tip I recommend is, as the book says, eat very slowly and enjoy each mouthful.  I ate the burger with a knife and fork so it seemed more like a proper meal and put my cutlery down between each mouthful to make it last longer.  I was the last person to finish eating and because I was eating while everyone else was I didn't get jealous over their larger, yummier-looking meals.  One friend wanted a starter which I thought would be really difficult so after a quick chat she agreed to have it with her main - lovely friend.

I also found that diet coke worked wonders for my appetite last night with lots of lemon.  It hydrated me and the bubbles filled me up.

I hope your fast days are going well too.  Take care.

Quorn bolognese and wholemeal pasta

Hi everyone, today's not a fast day but I wanted to share what I had for lunch today with you as a quick mini-post.

I was hosting an impromptu lunch for family and I made a VERY quick quorn bolognese with wholemeal fusilli.  No photos though as it was really yummy and went down a storm!

I used:
Quorn mince (1/2 pack)
1/2 onion
1/2 red pepper
1/2 courgette
1 clove of garlic
1 beef stock cube (vegetarian would work also)
Dash of red wine
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
Mixed italian herbs
Black pepper
Spray olive oil

Wholemeal fusilli
Reduced fat mature cheddar cheese

I fried the chopped onion, pepper and courgette in a saucepan until the onions were softened and slightly browned and then added the quorn mince.  I added all the seasoning, the wine, a splash of water from the kettle and the tomatoes.  I stirred through and left to simmer for 10 minutes.

While the bolognese was cooking I boiled the fusilli and grated a small amount of cheese on a fine grater (to make a small bit go further).

I served the dish piping hot in bowls and it was very popular.  This amount serves 3 easily.

I haven't worked out the calorie content as this isn't a fast day but it's very low fat and healthy.  A chilly day, fast, comforting lunch!

First fast days

First fast days!

Today is Thursday and my two fast days this week were Monday and Wednesday.  I had originally planned to do today but yesterday I was so busy I forgot to have my breaktime snack and thought why not just do it, so I did.



May not look it but it really was quite yummy!

I had two scrambled eggs as breakfast on Monday which filled me up quite well.  Hunger didn't hit until around 2pm but I kept busy and drank a couple of mugs of fruit tea to fill me up.  By 4pm I had to indulge in a highlights hot chocolate (40 cals) which I savoured, slowly.  This put the hunger pangs at bay for a while.  In the evening I was eager to have my dinner, broccoli and mushroom lasagne, straight away but I took the book's advice and busied myself with a tidy up and delayed my meal until about 7pm.  I ate it very very slowly.  It was lovely but it didn't come close to filling me up to be honest.  Afterwards I was left looking at my plate depressed by the thought of that being all that I would have that day.  My mood over the whole day wasn't too bad but I did find it difficult and I have begun to keep a note of what I eat, my mood and how easy it was on a spread sheet for future reference.



The book was right, breakfast the next day was lovely and at lunch I wasn't as hungry as I thought I would be.  Enjoying a glass or two of red wine in the evening was a refreshing change to other diets I've been on.

So, yesterday was my 2nd fast day.  I had 3 belvita breakfast biscuits (food diary coming soon) which clock up about 160 cals.  I love these and often have them for breakfast if I'm on the go.  They filled me up really effectively and at lunch, despite my colleague eating in front of me, I wasn't overly hungry.  It was so much easier than my first fast day.  In the evening I delayed my dinner again and drank a big glass of water before eating.  I had bean chili (214) with a small tomato, cucumber, broccoli and onion salad (balsamic vinegar only) coming in at 60 cals. 

I've really enjoyed the recipes from the calorie-counting website this week and am really pleased I made them in advance.  They weren't too small either which was quite surprising. 

I'm so pleased to have 2 fast days under my belt, I was nervous about starting it but it felt really good waking up on Tuesday knowing that I'd done it and it was ok, I'd survived!  I weighed myself on Monday morning and again this morning after my second fast day.  The book explains that a lot of initial weight loss is loss of water but I feel leaner already and the scales say I've already lost 4 pounds!  What a motivator!  I'm looking forward to trying out some new recipes this weekend and hearing from anyone who is out there having a go themselves.  Sharing recipes etc seems like a good way to support each other. 

I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend and I'll keep you posted with new recipes and my next fast day soon.  Take care, Emily.

PS - Please see below my fast diary so far:

Day	Date	Breakfast	Cals	Dinner	Cals	Drinks	Other	Cals	Total	Mood	Difficulty
M	25/02/2013	2 eggs	144	Broc and mush lasagne	294	C T T	Options, 1/2 tsp marmite, tom onion salad	75	513	J	Hard
W	27/02/2013	3 Belvita	174	Bean Chili	214	C T T	4 sweets, salad, yoghurt	120	508	J	Easy

Beginnings

Hello, and welcome to my blog about fast days following the 5:2 fast diet, a form of intermittent fasting, made popular recently by Dr Michael Mosley in the BBC2 Horizon documentary, 'Eat, Fast and Live Longer'.   

Well, I could spend ages formatting and googling images for this but then I'd be putting off the actual beginnings and as I'm on my second fast day today I would have lost those initial feelings of trepidation and wonder so here I am with the beginnings with, soon to follow, my initial fast days and how I coped.  

Aged 33, BMI of 26 and generally unhappy with my body I've undertaken the 5:2 fast diet for, potentially, the rest of my life!  The book amazed me and I read it in two days, a real feat for someone that doesn't read that quickly.  I loved the concept, the science and the data.  I couldn't get it out of my head in the following week and I started to imagine my own 5:2 and how, if the science works, it could affect my body, my blood, my mind and my overall quality of life.  

I won't lie, my main aim is to lose weight.  I've been yoyoing throughout my adult life with fad diets and plans.  Outside of specific diets, I've always cooked my own healthy meals but have struggled with portion size and comfort eating on cold days.  If I have found something that works and allows me to eat normally 5 days a week then that would be amazing as my previous downfalls dieting have mainly surrounded that awful feeling of never being able to eat certain things again without worrying about how much of it, if any, i'm allowed.  Furthermore, if this can actually change the biology of me for the better then I want to give it a go for 3 months and then 6 and then, well who knows.

At this point let me clarify what this blog is not: 

• It is not a place to detail the 5:2 fast diet.  The book is excellent, short and cheap (I got it on the kindle daily deal for 99p).  I recommend you read it if you're curious, if you like the sound of it then try it and make your own mind up. 
• It is also not a blog in which I make empirical claims.  What happens to me during this process is only about me.  It may work the same for you, it may not, but what I'm trying to achieve is a type of diary throughout my initial journey that could support others in a similar position.  I'd love to hear from others that are on the diet too.
• It is not a place whereby I intend to concern myself with perfect writing all the time.  I've made promises in the past about blogging and the main thing that put me off updating is that feeling of every sentence needing to be perfect before hitting the publish button.  Too much pressure is very off-putting so here I am and here I'm rabbiting away!

This is a blog that:

• Will hopefully encourage others to consider it as an approachable method for long-term weight management and improved health.
• Will share my own thoughts on fasting, recipes, coping strategies and results.
• May change and adapt as my experience grows, no promises!

Back to me then.  After deciding that I was going to give this a go 2 weeks ago I made an appointment to have my bloods done to gain an accurate 'before' picture of my overall health.  I'm an evidence-based person so this was really important to me.  After all, what's the point of fasting for a month, realising it's working weight-wise but not knowing how it's affecting your inner health?  I waited a week for the results and got them back last Friday 22/2/13.  When I have a little more time I'll word process the results to give my 'before' picture for reference later.  I intend to give this a really good go for 3 months, have another blood test and another in 6 months.  This will enable me to compare the short to mid-term effects on my body and make a decision about whether to continue further.

I'm a teacher, so I was on a week off last week.  I was a bit cheeky and I registered for a calorie counting website and took advantage of their free one day trial.  I was thinking, 'if I only have about 300 calories for an evening meal, I want lots of calorie counted meals ready at my disposal' (some menu ideas are detailed in the book).  So I spent a few hours looking through the recipe database putting 200-300 in the search criteria and taking screen shots (photos) of any recipes that took my fancy.  I now have over 50 recipes for evening meals that contain 200-300 calories.  

I went food shopping and began by making 4 portions each of the following: Mushroom and broccoli lasagne, mixed bean chili and chicken balti.  I froze them all and have labelled the containers with numbers, putting a piece of paper with corresponding numbers on the fridge door.  This way I can write down what's in them and their calorie content.  It's up to you how you plan and cook your fast day meals of course but my thoughts are that when I've had a busy day at work and I come home starving, I don't want to be cooking and risk the temptation of nibbling bits as I cook so I've chosen to prepare most of meals in advance and aim to continue to do this when I get a chance to cook in batches.

Monday just gone, 25/2/13, seemed like a good time to start with my first fast as it was my first day back at work.  So, with my test results in hand, motivation and expectation levels high I began...