Nine Months to Target

Over  the last few weeks I have been hovering around my target of 9st 12lb and then this week I was bang on so I have switched to maintenance and thought I should do an update post!

Stuart and I had switched to Monday & Wednesday for our fast days (previously Monday and Thursday) as Stuart started playing football on a Wednesday and doing the fast day on the same day fitted better with meals etc. It appeared to work well for both of us dieting wise too. I’d often see a good weightloss on a Thursday but even after eating normally on a Thursday and usually drinking, I’d lose weight again on the Friday (I only ever counted the Friday weigh in, I know you aren’t meant to weigh yourself too often but was just curious to see the pattern).

To remind you what my starting statistics were:

Weight: 10st 12.2lb
Body fat: 16.6%
BMI: 24.4
Chest: 35”; Waist: 37”; Hips: 42”; and Thigh: 23”

and now my final statistics are:

Weight: 9st 12lb
Body fat: aprox 15.6
BMI: aprox 22
Chest: 35”; Waist: 35”; Hips: 39”; and Thigh: 21.5”

(A reminder that my height is 5’6” – body fat & BMI are aproximate as I didn’t take note of them when I weighed myself yesterday.)

So, in 9 months, a total of 1 stone off and 6.5 inches. I wish I had a decent before and after photo but I didn’t take starting photos in January and then only took photos after on days when I was feeling slim. This is the best I could do (remember I didn’t actually have a lot to lose as I was already healthy BMI). The first photos were taken on a ‘slim’ day in February and the second lot were taken today.

I’m happy with how I look and feel and as I’ve reached my target I’m now switching to fasting just one day a week. Though, to start with, I’ll still be watching what I’m eating on the now non-fast day just to see how it affects my weight, I wont be restricting myself to 500 calories and I intend to eat 3 meals a day instead of 2.

Today is the first day that should have been a fast day and it does feel weird to eat but this whole experience has taught me some better habits. Things like, when making the kids dinner, I don’t snack as I’m making it and don’t automatically finish up whatever they leave.

I’ve also enjoyed having some days where I don’t drink any alcohol. I eat a lot less chocolate and enjoy more fruit and vegetables.

As I said at the beginning of starting the 5:2 Lifestyle, it wasn’t all about losing weight it was about improving health. The overall thing I think I’ve noticed healthwise is the speed in which I get over colds. I’ve never been a ‘sick’ person and don’t tend to catch many colds/viruses so it isn’t overly noticeable whether I’ve caught less in the last 9 months but I have often felt run down like I’m going down with something but then it has gone the next day and never actually materialises. Anything that is a little more stubborn I seem to recover from a lot quicker.

On the downside, I do get more headaches on fast days but think that is when I don’t drink enough water. I have also suffered from sleep paralysis about half a dozen times (which is more frequently than previously) and it appears to happen on the night that follows the day I’ve been fasting. This can’t solely be attributed to fasting, however, because it also relates to periods when I’m having more irregular sleep patterns due to Millie waking.

Unfortunately, exercise has fallen by the weyside since my holiday in June so I do intend to get back on it in the near future. I fully expect my weight to increase a little as the fat turns to muscle but I’m OK with that because I also expect to see the wobbly bits go a little less wobbly. Like I said above, I am now happy with how I look – which means I am happy with my overall silhouette. I don’t think I want to lose any more fat just through dieting and think I need to tone up now to improve my figure further. Therefore, weight is now less important if that makes sense.

5:2 Something I Can Stick To

I’ve been doing the 5:2 diet for 6 months now so thought it was time to give you an update.

Here are my starting vitals:

Weight: 10st 12.2lb
Body fat: 16.6%
BMI: 24.4
Chest: 35”; Waist: 37”; Hips: 42”; and Thigh: 23”

and my current vitals:

Weight: 10st 1.4lb
Body fat: 15.9 %
BMI: 22. (something or other)
Chest: 35”; Waist: 36”; Hips: 40”; and Thigh: 22”

(I should point out that the body fat index is done on my home scales & is unreliable – these figure show I do not have enough body fat to be healthy which is an utter lie! Healthy range is 21-33%. I can take a photo of my wobbly bits if you want me to prove I have body fat – but please don’t make me do that, it’s not pretty!)

So, to sum up, that’s a total of 4 inches of my body and just short of 11lb lost. In fairness, I expected the inches to be more as I am really happy with how I feel but I guess it’s because of the wobbly belly that comes after having a couple of babies!

I would have liked to have got to my target by now which was 9st 12lb and I have been hovering around this 10st 1-2lb weight for a while but if I look at the overall achievement then I can’t be disappointed and, like I said, I feel good and I am mostly happy at how I look in the mirror. Sure, I can see all the lumps in the wrong places and the bits that wobble that shouldn’t but if I stop being so critical and try to see myself as others would see me (i.e. if I was looking at someone else with my body) then I am pleased with where I am.

My loss has been slow going but I put this down to not having much to lose (& being a healthy BMI to start with) and to really not restricting what I eat or drink on the non-fast days. Others have followed this diet and lost weight quicker and more lbs than I but the whole point of this for me (aside from the health benefits being just as much a priority as the weightloss) was that I wasn’t going to be restricting myself for 5 out of 7 days so it was something that I could stick to. And 6 months down the line I think I’ve proved that. I normally give up on diets around the 6 week mark!

Exercise has been a bit up and down. I will exercise regularly for a few weeks and then it will dwindle off to nothing for a few weeks before I kick my but and get back on it again.

I have a couple of theories relating to patterns to weightloss:

Effect of the menstrual cycle

Week One: Just after my period my weight drops
Week Two: I stay the same or go up a lb or 2
Week Three: I either go up a lb or if weight went up week before will stay the same then about a day before my period I will drop back to what I was at week one
Week Four: I stay the same as the end of week 1 and 3.

I weigh myself once a week but if I was to weigh myself once a month at the end of my period (which usually finished on weigh day – Friday), I would notice a loss without all the stay the same and weight gain disappointment in between. Usually my weightloss is between half a pound to a pound but more frequently, especially recently, it has been half a pound.

Effect of Exercise

As I mentioned above, my exercise routine has been a bit all over the place so I’ve noticed that on the first week that I start exercising again my weight will stay the same. I wont lose until the second week of exercise (unless it coincides with week 3 of my menstrual cycle). If I stop exercising, I will lose more weight than normal but will put it straight back on the week after.

These observations are just theories rather than scientific fact at the moment as I haven’t been documenting the changes and because the exercise is so erratic it is hard to know what effects are down to my menstrual cycle as said above, down to what I’ve eaten & drunk that week or from the changes to exercise routine. If I could stick to the same exercise routine for a couple of months I’d probably get a better idea with regards to the menstrual cycle theory.

Well that’s not going to happen this month as I’m going on holiday and plan on stuffing my face for a full 7 out of 7 days with little exercise for the next 2 weeks.

Health wise, I am useless and never did go to get the all over mot check I said I would. I did google but couldn’t find somewhere to get the blood tests for free (the place I’d heard about was for people over 50) and didn’t think the Drs would do it without good reason so it never happened. I have had a BP check this week which was worryingly high (I’ve always suffered from borderline high BP and checks 10 years ago concluded White-Coat Hypertension). I did tell the Dr that I’d been doing the 5:2 diet in case she thought it relevant but she didn’t see why that should raise my bp. So, I’ll be back for tests after my holiday when hopefully the holiday will have worked its magic and I’ll be well rested and my BP will be back to healthy again.

As a side effect, Stuart and I have both noticed our sleep is affected on Fast Days. Stuart suffers more than I do, finding it hard to get to sleep then often waking early the next day, I suffer just occasionally.

Otherwise, all feels good! I plan to pick up again when back from my hols!

Au revoir!

Prawn & Mushroom Stroganoff

Serves: 2
Calories: 271 Calories

Another Fast Day was upon us and I had started to get a bit bored of the delicious, but frequently consumed, stir fries and curries and fancied something different. Then I was reminded how ‘healthy’ stroganoff was for you. I didn’t have enough mushrooms to do mushrooms alone but we did have a bag of prawns in the freezer (another 5:2 staple!) and a bag of spinach in the fridge.

Rice uses up too many calories for us (we prefer quantity as we have big appetites). We have been substituting normal rice with cauliflower rice which works really well with a curry but worried it might over-power the stroganoff too much if used here so I just went with butternut squash chips instead!

It was a delicious and filling meal and all for much less than 300 kcal. I did say, if I was to do it again, I’d perhaps use either less spinach (and more mushrooms if I had them) or perhaps I’d use asparagus instead. Stuart said he’d prefer more squash. I’ll leave it to you to play with it.

Ingredients:

110g of Raw Jumbo King Prawns
150g of Spinach
1 Medium Onion (finely chopped)
300g Butternut Squash (314g)
150g Button Mushrooms (148g)
1 Tbsp Smoked Paprika
2 Garlic Cloves
3 Tbsp Sour Cream
150ml Knorr Chicken Stock (Gel Pot)
Salt & Pepper
13 Sprays of Sunflower Oil Spray

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees. Peel and chop the butternut squash into large chips (discarding the seeds and fibres). Spray a baking tray with oil spray (I used 4 sprays spread across the tray), place the chips on top spread out and spray the chips with the oil (again I used 4 sprays). I forgot but would recommend seasoning with salt & pepper before then baking for 25 minutes turning once.

Meanwhile, in a non-stick frying pan or wok, spray the pan with 4 sprays of oil and heat gently. Fry the onion for about 5 minutes until starting to soften, add the garlic and paprika and fry for a minute more. Add the Mushrooms with another oil spray and fry on a high heat for about 5 minutes stirring frequently. Add the prawns, fry for 1 minute stirring then add the stock. Bring to boil then cook for 5 minutes or until sauce thickens. Stir in spinach and wilt. Take off the heat and stir in the sour cream.

Serve with the butternut squash chips.

After Eights

Having been doing 5:2 for 8 weeks now, I thought it was time for an update.

I’ve now lost 8lb (weighing in at 10st 4.2lb) and have lost an inch from around my chest, waist and hips (3” in total) with my thigh staying the same.

I’m still finding it easy enough to stick to. On the actual fast day I may occasionally think I could really do with eating more than 500 calories but then think, I can do that tomorrow – which is enough to keep me going.

The weeks I find the hardest, more in terms of mood and tiredness rather than feeling hungrier, is the week after my period. My periods, post Millie, are heavier than before so I imagine my grumps and tiredness are primarily linked to a lack of iron. Theoretically, I probably eat a higher quantity of iron since I’ve been doing the 5:2 so it’s probably doing me some good but it’s hard being tired & grumpy and not being able to fix it immediately with food! Although, typically, I’d be grabbing for the chocolate so not an ideal energy food.

My body fat on my scales does some weird things. As my weight goes down, my body fat goes up, although still hovers around the 16-17% mark. I’ve just looked at some charts and apparently I don’t have enough body fat!!! Odd – I can certainly see fat bits…I’m not sure I understand it…how can I tone, be healthy and have a healthy body fat level????  I need to investigate this more.

Overall, I’m excited that I have less than half a stone to lose to get to my intended goal (9st 12lb). This is my pre-Callum weight and I have been there once since having Callum. Its when I’ve felt most comfortable in my skin/bikini since having children. I am already starting to feel much better about my body and am liking more what I see in the mirror! I’m also starting to fit in clothes I couldn’t fit in before I started this and I have bought my first size 12 Jeans since forever a go! SIZE 12!!!!! I’ve been a 14 for a long time! The downside? I’ve lost my pregnancy/breastfeeding boobs!! Oh well, I was expecting it!

The health benefits I assume I’ll only really notice after more time.

Keralan Style Fish & Butternut Squash Curry

Serves: 2
Calories: 319 per serving (with my exact food weights)

(sorry, not a great photo)

This dish is like a fish chowder but with a good kick of spice and very aromatic. I love Keralan dishes, especially with fish.

As with my previous recipe, I have rounded up or down the measurements but have also included in brackets, if different, the exact measurements I used for the calorie account above.

If I was to award this dish a number of chillies out of 3 to indicate spiciness, I’d probably go with 2 but you can easily adjust the level of spice to suit your own tastes.

I also used frozen haddock but you can use any firm white fish (skinned & boned), frozen or fresh. King prawns would also be nice. If you use fresh fish, just hold off adding it to the dish for a further 5 minutes and for prawns, I’d recommend using raw and adding 5 minutes before the end.

Ingredients:

250g Frozen haddock (not smoked) cut into inch size chunks
200ml reduced fat/light coconut milk (we used Kingfisher – different makes have different calorie count)
330g Butternut squash, peeled & cut into bite size chunks (328g)
6 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 green chilli, seeds removed & finely chopped
1 flat tsp/10g of easy ginger paste (can use fresh ginger)
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp dried curry leaves
1/2 tsp chilli powder
flat tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
8 sprays of sunflower fry-light
Cup of spinach (sorry I forgot to weigh it)
10 spears of asparagus

Spray a saucepan with the fry-light and, when hot, add the mustard seeds. When they start to pop add in the curry leaves, shallot, garlic, ginger and chillies. Fry while stirring until shallot is soft then add the butternut squash.

Tip: you need to keep stirring if you are using fry-light and on a lowish heat otherwise the oil evaporates and the ingredients burn

Mix the chilli powder & turmeric with a little water to form a paste then add to the pan. Stir for another 3-5 minutes then add the cherry tomatoes, the coconut milk then the fish.

Tip: I poured the coconut milk into the vessel I used to mix up the paste to not waste any of the spices

If the sauce is a little shallow add some water, I added approx.. 100mls.

Bring to the boil then simmer for 15 minutes or until the squash is soft.

Stir in the spinach then serve.

I served with the steamed asparagus (included in the calorie count), mainly because it was in the fridge and needed using but it worked together quite nicely. Feel free to substitute for your own preferred veg if you wish but remember to check the calorie count. If not keeping to a calorie controlled diet, you could probably share this between 3 and add rice.

If you try this dish (whether dieting or not, I’d love to hear how it went so please comment).

A 5:2 Update After 4 Weeks

I’ve been living the 5:2 lifestyle now for 4 weeks so here is a reminder of my starting stats and then my stats today.

Starting:

Weight: 10st 12.2lb
Body fat: 16.6%
BMI: 24.4
Chest: 35”; Waist: 37”; Hips: 42”; and Thigh: 23”

Today:

Weight: 10st 7lb (same as last week)
Fat: 16.8% (more than when I started)
BMI: 23.6
Chest: 35”; Waist: 36.5”; Hips: 42”; Thigh: 23.5”

OK, interesting results! It appears the half an inch I lost from my waist went to my thigh and I actually have more fat than when I started!

How do I feel? Tired and run down. I’ve had a mild but niggling sore throat all week and my right gland is swollen.

Hmmm, I’m not a great ambassador for this am I? I’d be interested to know what is happening on the health front! I really need to arrange those blood tests!

On the positive side, my bouts of insomnia have stopped and brain activity during the day seems to have improved (see post over on my other blog) – whether either of these were down to following the 5:2, who knows.

I have lost weight though so I will give it another month or two and see what happens. I am aware that I’m not starting from too bad a position to begin with. I am within ‘healthy’ weight range and normal BMI. However, my flabby belly is still there and I know I would not like myself in a bikini.

My target weight is 9st 12 which is what I was before getting pregnant with Callum and what I got down to in the summer of 2010. I remember getting to that weight and trying on a bikini and being happy with what I saw so that is why I think its the best weight for me. I hope to get there by June.

I can’t believe I’m posting this but this is me in said bikini on holiday. See, not ‘perfect’ but acceptable and, in my opinion, healthy!

I’ve been too exhausted to exercise this week (except a walk 1.5 miles to Southbourne and back carrying Millie in the sling) but plan to get back on it next week.

I feel comfortable with the Fast days so I’m happy to continue for the time being. My diet on non-fast days has been average. Not over-indulging ‘too’ much and drinking 3 nights a week (once upon a time, pre–Millie it wasn’t unusual to drink most nights if not every night). As I am losing weight not inches, I believe it is the exercise that I need to focus on.

Fast Track to Feeling Good

“I feeeeeel gooood! doobidoobidoobidoo I knew that I wooooouuuuld”

I’m coming to the end of my third week since I changed my lifestyle to that of the 5:2 plan and I’m really getting into the swing of it now.

Firstly, after deciding only a foolish person would weigh themselves on a Monday, I have moved my weigh day to a Friday. So I stepped on the scales this morning and I weighed 10st 7lb exactly and my body fat is down to 16.1%. That’s 4.2lb down on where I started. What a great way to start the day and go into the weekend!

Secondly, yesterday was my 6th Fast day. Stuart and I have slotted into quite a nice routine of our Fast days being on a Monday and a Thursday. It wasn’t necessarily our intention to keep them the same but they do seem to be good days and its worked out well for us to keep them that way. But its still nice to know we have the flexibility to move a day should we need to. Though if we did move it to another day, it is easier if we both fast on the same days so we would both need to change it.

It has started to feel really easy now. So much so, I felt confident enough to exercise on a Fast day. Yesterday, I did my 30 Day Shred DVD in the morning (level 2), drank lots of water, then I walked 1.5 miles into Southbourne, with Millie in the buggy, to meet a friend for lunch and do a bit of shopping. That lunch was the first food I had eaten that day. I didn’t feel faint or weak or even that hungry. I felt good!

I was a little nervous going out for lunch but Maxine was happy to be flexible so we found somewhere that suited my diet. I thought if there was a tomato soup that’d be fine or they did an all day breakfast, I’d be able to ask for a piece of dry toast topped with a poached egg, and I’d be ok. I looked in the window of the first place and saw mountains of cheeses and cured meats, the menu read pizza, paninis, scrambled egg…I thought that maybe that wasn’t the best place to go!! Just a tad too cruel! It was a deli too so all the delicious offerings were all on show. Instead, we went to a Gastro-Pub place. They did do all day brunch and I did see poached egg on the menu so thought that would be my fall-back option but I was really hoping for soup. I was in luck, they had a choice of two soups – chicken & vegetable and Mediterranean vegetable! I opted for the Mediterranean vegetable. It came with bread which I should have pre-emptied and asked for it without but I took home the bread (a lovely piece of ciabatta) and gave half to my mum and froze half so it didn’t go to waste! I did decide to leave about a third of the soup though to make sure I didn’t go over my calories as I had no idea how many were in it. I’m sure I would’ve been fine if I had eaten the lot as it wasn’t a huge bowl and from what I imagine the ingredients were, I doubted it would’ve been that bad but, not knowing, I erred on the side of caution. The lady joked when she took the bowl away it must be a tough diet if you aren’t even able to finish your soup – haha! For a drink I had a small diet coke and some tap water.

After a lovely lunch catching up with my friend, Millie and I walked home again (well, Millie didn’t do much walking! Lazy moo!) taking a diversion to some further shops slightly out of my way on a mission to find some red wine vinegar for a Fast day dinner I was going to try. Unfortunately, I found none and cooked something else for dinner (the yummy Vegetable Pot I blogged the recipe for). When I did get home, I admit I was knackered and had very little energy to do much else until dinner time!

Overall, the exercise – and I did probably do a bit more exercise than I’d usually do on a non-Fast day – wasn’t a problem. I do think I would only do it if I felt up for it on that day, which is how I’m tackling exercise on any day at the moment. A few days this week (this morning included), I’ve just been too tired – the twice a night wake-ups to feed Millie do take their toll!) and I don’t think it would’ve been a good idea to exercise on the first couple of Fast days as my body wouldn’t have adapted to the new routine. But I  wont be avoiding exercise on Fast days from now on!

Smokey Vegetable Pot / Bake

The ‘Pot’ version of this will be the low calorie version. The Bake is what I would add to this meal if I was making it and calories were not being counted.

I didn’t know how this was going to turn out when I made it so I didn’t take much note of timings, therefore what I’ve written are guestimates and you will have to use your own intuition a bit if you think things need longer or less time.

Also, I do not profess to be any kind of chef/cook or recipe writer so sorry in advance.

The calories are based on our exact weights of vegetables so where I have rounded up/down, I’ve put our exact weight in brackets)

Vegetable Pot

Ingredients:

• 450g cauliflower (452g), chopped into small florets
• 400g tin of peeled plum tomatoes, whizzed slightly in a food processor to chop, not liquidise
• 100g fresh baby leaf spinach
• 90g green beans (92g), cut into 1” sticks
• tbsp smoked paprika
• 50g black olives (54g), halved
• 1/2 pt of water
• 300g sweet potato (313g), boiled, drained then mashed (nothing added)

With the sweet potato as a side, our meal came to 300 calories per generous serving exactly. If you chose to do the dish with another side then the vegetable pot came to 172 calories per generous serving. In our opinion, the sweet potato was a really pleasant accompaniment as the sweetness cut through the nutty taste of the cauliflower really nicely.

To avoid using oil, I steamed the cauliflower first. We have a hob steamer so I boiled the sweet potato in the bottom pan while I steamed the cauliflower in a pan above the sweet potato. I made the mistake of not cooking the green beans first expecting they would cook quickly enough in the sauce but in hindsight, it would have been better to steam them a little first.

So, while the sweet potato and cauliflower were cooking, I poured the tomatoes into another large saucepan and added the green beans (see point above) and smoked paprika while bringing it to a simmer.

When the cauliflower was partly cooked but still ‘al dente’ I added it to the sauce with half of the water and stirred it all around ensuring the cauliflower was coated in the sauce. I then continued to simmer for another 5 minutes before adding the black olives (if getting quite dry, add some more water). I continued to simmer for a further 5 minutes, ensuring the cauliflower and beans were cooked. I didn’t at the time but next time I would season here. Finally, I stirred in the spinach and once wilted, took it off the heat and served it with the mashed sweet potato.

Here it is (presentation could do with some work but it looked lovely and colourful on the plate):

 

 

Vegetable Bake

Ingredients:

As above but with the following extra:

• oil for frying
• 1 small onion diced
• 400g tin of plum tomatoes (so a total of 2)
• 1 Tbsp of tomato purée
• 50g grated cheese
• 2 Tbsp of breadcrumbs

I would fry the onions until soft, add the cauliflower and green beans and fry for about 5 mins. Then add the tomatos, purée, smoked paprika and simmer until veg nearly cooked through. Stir in the olives and cook for another few minutes. Pour into a casserole or pyrex dish. Sprinkle with grated cheese and breadcrumbs and put it under the grill until cheese is melted and there is a golden brown top.

You could also add a splash of wine while cooking above and, if you aren’t vegetarian, I bet chorizo would be lovely in this too.

The Observer Effect or The 5:2 Effect?

Week two of the 5:2 lifestyle is complete and no weight lost this week, despite a more ‘average’ eating week, though I do feel slimmer. It will be hard to get a real indication of how much weight/inches I lose is down to the diet and what is down to exercise. I’m no stranger to exercise but I did have a month break over Christmas and I managed three sessions on the ol’ exercise DVD this week. I’m therefore hoping it is a case of muscle weighs more than fat so what I am losing is kind of balancing out on the weight side.

Once 4 weeks has past, I’ll revisit my starting stats and take my measurements again to directly compare.

Today is the most comfortable & least hungry I’ve felt so far on a fast day. Sometimes, it feels too easy and I wonder if I should really be having this many calories on my fast day. I know, madness! I could drop it to 400 and still be meeting the ‘guidelines’ as it is meant to be 400-500 calories for women but I’m going to keep it as it is for the time being and I can always drop to 400 later if it feels necessary.

I’ve started making a few observations this week but, as always, the mere act of observing could change the state so it is hard to know whether what we are noticing is actually down to 5:2, the fact we are observing/focusing on things or some other reason entirely.

I have noticed that I’m not sleeping so well & am suffering from more bouts of insomnia. When your baby is still waking up for feeds once or twice a night, this is hard!

I just can’t switch my brain off. I’ve tried meditating, visualisation, trying to drift off thinking of one topic, a whole host of things (I even considered counting sheep) but my mind keeps whirring and the minutes then hours tick on by! Could this be because my brain is becoming more active? Could that happen this quick? I’m hoping that my body will soon start to acclimatise so that, if this is anything to do with 5:2, it will sort itself out pretty soon.

Stuart has noticed an old groin injury twinging again. He remembered reading something on this when he was ill (and first found out about 5:2) about when fasting, your body goes into repair mode and can also work on old injuries, scar tissue etc so can cause some discomfort on a previously ‘healed’ injury while it repairs it further. Again, more something to keep an eye on to suss out whether this is the case. It could also just be down to the colder weather we are experiencing, which is also known to cause discomfort to old injuries. Either way, I broke my arm some years back and I have a small lump that I can feel from the outside where the bone heeled.  Although it is more something I am aware of and you wouldn’t notice it unless your attention was drawn to it and you probably had to study it somewhat, I will notice if this lump changes in size.

Stuart hasn’t noticed much weightloss overall yet, though he is lower than when he started, but he has still noticed a drop in belt buckle. If you weigh yourself frequently during the course of a week, you do notice your body fluctuate quite considerably. After only 2 weeks, its still early days to be drawing any conclusions on anything.

That said – one very noticeable difference which can definitely be attributed to 5:2 – the shopping bill has reduced somewhat! Perfect for a budget-crunching January!

Fast Results After Week One

My first week of the 5:2 diet is complete. I weighed in today and have lost approximately 1.5lb and 1% of my body fat.

During this week I’ve had 2 heavy nights of drinking alcohol, stuffed my face with fajitas & pizza and not really watched what I eat on the non-fast days at all. The day after my fast days I haven’t felt starving and the need to stuff my face and I haven’t felt starving.

It is my intention to eat a more regular, balanced diet on the non-fast days going forward but at least I know I really don’t have to restrict myself.

Stuart and I did think that the best thing for the night before a fast meal was to have a ‘feast’ of a meal which is what prompted the fajitas. Theory being something like, back in the days of caveman, we used to feast on a big meal as we didn’t know when the next one would be or was it because that’s what lions do? Anyway, in fact, this was worse for me! I was absolutely starving from 5.30am (after waking to feed Millie) on the following fast day. I’d rather have an average meal so my stomach wasn’t stretched and expecting more to keep it full.

I would like to exercise too – I am a strong believer in exercise! For mind and body! I’m not an exercise addict, I don’t find the time to be these days, but I enjoy exercise when I get the chance which realistically amounts to once or twice a week.

I go to an exercise class called Buggy Fit sometimes on a Friday morning but after a hard night with Millie the Thursday night, I opted to stay home and do my new DVD, Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred instead. I’m meant to do it for 30 days consecutively but i) I don’t want to exercise on fast days at the moment'; and ii) I just can’t stick to that sort of commitment with family life even if it is for only 30 minutes a day. Anyway, enough of the excuses, (I’m starting to sound a bit defensive here) I only managed the 1 session of exercise. Unless you count the skip (yes as in childlike skipping, holding hands) around the dancefloor to 2 songs at a family party (while sober!!!) on Saturday. What? They made me do it! And y’know, what the hell, I enjoyed it! Everyone should go skipping once in a while! (defensive again, eh? OK, I’ll stop!)

I’m on my third fast day today and they are getting easier. There are only 2 points during the day that I notice that I am hungry. The challenge is making the dinner in the evening as filling as possible for only 300 calories. I made a lovely cauliflower, aubergine and courgette curry last week and I could’ve probably eaten less than I did and still have been full. If anyone has any good ideas for recipes, please send them my way.

I have continued to opt for no breakfast except a cup of tea when the hunger gets me mid morning and then lunch of about 150-145 calories finishing on a dinner of around 300 calories. Soup (whether half a tin, carton or a sachet of cup of) makes a really good lunch and I can even have half a slice, or even full if cup of soup, of bread to help fill me up.

Quorn mince is great for dinners!

I’ve been giving more thought into getting a health check now and then sometime down the line. I might try to give my Drs a call tomorrow to see if this is something they offer (blood tests and the such like) and while there I may mention that I’m doing this 5:2 diet. I am, of course, nervous that they tell me I’m foolish but without any shed of evidence as to back up their theory (despite them being more experienced in the field of medical health than I, I know) but, hey, they may actually support me and give me some good advice. We’ll see how brave I’m feeling. So far, I’ve not found anything that makes me think it may be doing me more harm than good. One brief comment on Wikipedia about some women not wanting to do this as intermittent fasting may cause fertility issues but with no plans to have any further children, this is not something that concerns me. I’m not foolish enough to live on the guarantee all will be well with my family forever, who knows what the future may hold but this is somewhere I don’t really want to dwell on and I have to believe it will all be fine - and if, dare I say it, the worst does happen, whether I’d want more children after can not be known. I have to work in the now and the positive.

Finally, Googling some more on this diet, or lifestyle as I would prefer to call it – I found this great blog, Schrokit’s Corner, from someone else more clued up than me on the subject and is a clever student type that knows stuff…about science and everything. The author and her husband are also doing the 5:2 (or 2:5) lifestyle. Reading through some of her blogs, it appears that her own experiment has grown into a project at her university. If you are interested in this 5:2 lifestyle then it would be well worth a follow! What is also interesting to note is that the author has had breast cancer (or may still have, I’m not overly sure). She would like to see if this lifestyle prevents more tumours arising in future.

First Fast

Day one of the 5-2 diet and my first day of fasting. On a fast day I am restricted to 500 calories.

I have only ever fasted once when I was about 10 for charity. We were allowed only water and milk and it was from sundown to sundown in the summer. I remember eating a massive dinner the night before then enjoying a mass of barbeque meat as soon as the sun went down the following day! I also remember it wasn’t too bad but the consumption of milk helped.

The reason for this diet is partly for dieting reasons but also for the health benefits. As I mentioned in my previous post, Fast is Exciting, I’m not a fan of fad diets, preferring to exercise & eat a controlled balanced diet instead. But this diet is meant to repair your body & make you healthy (reducing the risk of such serious illnesses as some cancers) so I thought it was worth a try. But, I do hope to lose weight too so here are my vitals:

Height: 5;6” (obviously I’m not expecting this to change, I have just added it for reference)
Weight: 12st 12.2lb
Body fat: 16.6%
BMI: 24.4
Chest: 35”; Waist: 37”; Hips: 42”; and Thigh: 23”

Its now 10am and not going too bad. The main cause for my snacking during the day is due to boredom so the plan is to try to keep busy.

I know from experience that I can go a lot longer without food if I don’t have breakfast, I plan to have a poached egg on a slice of toast without butter for lunch then Stuart and I will have mixed vegetables in a curry sauce for dinner.

I did start to get hungry around 8.30am so I had a cup of tea (with SS milk) which was very welcomed for the caffeine after a bad night’s sleep.

In addition, I intend to guzzle water!

I’ll report back again at the end of the day.

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So, its now 8.30pm. I’ve just had a massive portion of cauliflower & courgette in a jar of tikka masala source for 300 calories. It should’ve filled me up but I actually feel hungrier after eating it.

The rest of the day hasn’t been too bad. The hardest points were at 8.30am and then after lunchtime, about 2pm, after having some stress over a hire car. I am an emotional/comfort eater – as well as eating when bored. Eating makes me feel happy so I turn to it in times of stress.

I also had to remember not to ‘taste’ Callum’s dinner – I was making him cheesey pasta with home made cheese sauce, and you know there’s always a knob of cheese left at the end of grating? I had to sacrifice the whole chunk of cheese to Callum *sob*.

We were warned the hunger comes in waves, and I think that’s fair to say. Overall, it really wasn’t that bad and I think it is sometimes good to feel hunger as it makes you appreciate your next meal a little bit more. There are also many people in the world (the UK included) where what I’ve eaten today would be a feast. Its humbling to remember that!

Tomorrow is a normal day – I can go back to eating whatever I want. I plan to exercise tomorrow too (not recommended on the Fast days).

Fast is Exciting!

It is often at this time of year, we all take a look at our current selves and look for ways to improve what we see! Often, that results in dieting.

I’m not one for fad diets, I prefer the exercise plus eating a balanced diet approach but that’s changing this year.as I’m about to try the Eat, Fast and live longer Diet.

I first heard about it from my husband. Shortly after I had my daughter, Millie, in August 2012, Stuart got ill with bad tonsillitis. It rendered him bedbound for several days and unable to eat. During this time, he was worried the effect that not eating for long periods (effectively fasting) would have on his body, fully expecting it to be negative. After much research (he had lots of time on his hands, when he wasn’t sleeping!), he actually found that to the contrary it could be a good thing.

It was very topical – there had recently been a documentary by Horizon on BBC2 with Michael Mosley and his research into fasting and how a new type of diet could benefit people with not only losing weight but actually reducing their chances of developing serious illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and brain conditions such as Alzheimer's.

Having now watched the documentary myself, I actually feel excited by taking on this challenge. There is a lot of research on this and I don’t want to misquote anything or get any of the facts wrong so please Google it – the 5 2 diet would be good places to start. Here is a good interview with Michael Mosley, on the BBC’s website and I have copied (and linked from Tinned Tomatoes here) the following which may be of interest:

• Our bodies have  a growth hormone called IGF -1. As a child this is what helps our bodies grow, but as adults it ages us.
• High levels of IGF-1 can lead to diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
• Lowering your levels of IGF-1 can help prevent against these diseases and can be done through your diet.
• When lowering your IGF-1 levels, growth stops and your body starts to repair cells. It also uses up your glucose and starts to burn fat, so you also lose weight.

The 5-2 diet involves fasting for 2 days and eating normally for  5. Fasting days consist of restricting your calorie intake to 400-500 for women, 500-600 for men for any 2 days within a 7 day week. The rest of the days you can eat what you want – there is no need to ‘diet’ on the other 5 days. On the documentary, tests showed that it made no difference if you ate a low fat diet on the non-fasting days to if you ate whatever you wanted. They expected that people would eat 175% of what was normal for them on the non-fasting days but in fact it was more like 110% and this did not affect the results.

The original purpose for the fasting approach was not about weightloss but was actually about the improvements it makes to health. When we fast our bodies go into ‘repair mode’. It is thought that fasting can ‘cure’ Type 2 Diabetes (as I know people with type 1 diabetes, I would like to make clear this is type 2 only and not Type 1 which is quite different) and rapidly reduce the risk of heart disease.

It is also not a new concept. Many religions and cultures have believed and been practicing fasting for centuries.

Our (actually Stuart’s) research has found few downsides (though long term research is still continuing) – don’t get me wrong, its not easy or a quick fix. Its a lifestyle change and takes will power and commitment. But from what I have read, heard and understand, it is well worth the sacrifices and knowing that you can eat what you like on the non-fasting days makes it feel achievable.

Anyway, you’ll be able to see for yourself if this is just another whim or a fad diet as I intend to blog my progress and I’ll be very honest. I will be intending to exercise too as I do believe in trying to keep your body fit.

The programme does advise that this form of dieting is not suitable for everyone and that anyone intending to fast for any period of time should seek medical advice first. Having just been pregnant and regularly undergoing health checks before during and after my pregnancy, I am confident enough in my starting health before undertaking this diet but I will be mentioning it to my Dr and/or Health Visitor when I next require a visit.