Fasting

[ColinJ]

I had a banana and some natural yoghurt for brunch again. Oh, and one mug of coffee with a dash of honey.

I was going to make leek and potato soup tonight but it ended up becoming leek and potato curry! I omitted the kidney beans and red pepper that I normally add, and the rice or pasta or cous cous or pitta breads and natural yoghurt and chilli & ginger sauce that I usually have with my veggie curries.

I'm going to have a mug (or two) of tea later on instead of my nightly glass of OJ.

It's only the second of my 'fasting' days, but so far the new regime is going well. Yesterday, I had a huge piece of chocolate cake when bromptonfb called in at Hebden Bridge for a cafe stop and I had a Snickers bar later on so I've made no great effort to cut down on calories on my 'normal' days.

This way of eating feels like it will be tolerable on a long-term basis. Let's just see what effect is has on my waistline and sense of well-being!

I'm hoping that when I eventually get down to my target size, I will be well enough to reintroduce just enough alcohol calories to maintain my weight there - say 8 pints of beer a week. 5 days a week of a healthy diet with a few treats including a couple of nights with beer, and 2 low-calorie fasting days would suit me well.

 

[Speicher]

I keep losing a letter when I try to edit a post, strange.

Are you eating the lettuce?

 

[Garz]

It's only the second of my 'fasting' days, but so far the new regime is going well.

Good job Colin!

 

[jazzkat]

Mrs Jazzkat is going to have another try today. Someone at her work mentioned the 5:2 diet and Mrs JK said that I do it and she'd tried but failed, so they are going to have a go together!

 

[ColinJ]

Ooh, the numbers are looking good. I'm not going to tell you what they are until the start of February, but they are very encouraging ... (I thought that my waist felt a bit smaller!)

 

[Zofo]

A top tip from me is to look at the meal replacement shake MRP from My Protein. They come in at 300 cals and are very filling-

 

[Zofo]

It's only the second of my 'fasting' days, but so far the new regime is going well. Yesterday, I had a huge piece of chocolate cake when bromptonfb called in at Hebden Bridge for a cafe stop and I had a Snickers bar later on so I've made no great effort to cut down on calories on my 'normal'

Yes I've strangely found so far the hardest thing is to not reign things back on the feed days. Its very weird just letting go and eating whatever, after years of self denial!

 

[Yellow Fang]

An article on the fasting diet. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is doing it.

I wonder myself if I will keep it up. I intend to. That is largely why am I only doing one day a week and not eating anything on that day. If you allow yourself 600 Calories, that could easily climb up. Fasting completely makes the day special.

Regarding weight loss there are 3500 Calories in a a pound of fat. Fasting once a week would lose me less than a pound a week, assuming I did not make up for it the rest of the week. Overall, I guess it cuts down my weekly Calorie intake by 10% because Tuesday is not a drinking day for me. If you are doing the 5:2 diet that should lose you about a pound a week.

There's something a bit religious about fasting. Prophets were always going on fasts in the Old Testament.

 

[Mo1959]

Giving it a go too. Not being too drastic i.e. weighing and measuring etc. but Monday and Thursdays I have tried to cut right back. Just started it and already dipped just under 9 stone from being just over last week and you really don't feel deprived knowing that you are back to normal eating the next day.

 

[ColinJ]

My resolve was suddenly put to the test this morning!

I had chosen Sundays and Wednesdays for my fasting days so I was psyched up to eat my normal diet today and not much tomorrow, but I got a phone call just before I made my porridge this morning. A friend is either going to cook me a meal tomorrow night or take me out for a curry to celebrate my coming 57th birthday, so tomorrow's fast needed to be moved to another day.

(My birthday isn't actually until next week, but Sunday is the only night that we both have free. 57 - yikes - how did that happen! )

My next fasting day had to be shifted to today or to Monday and I decided that today made more sense.

I hadn't realised that I had been psyching myself up for the 'fasts' but clearly I had, because I found it hard to not eat my normal breakfast this morning. I think it is good to have this happen so early in the process since it is bound to happen from time to time and I need to be able to adapt when it does.

One thing I need to do is to make sure that I have some backup low-cal food in the house. I was going to switch to my fasting brekkie which is a banana chopped into low fat natural yoghurt, but I discovered that I am out of yog. So, I only had the banana, and worse still - it wasn't even properly ripe and was only about 2/3 of full size!

I'm having a salad again tonight with tuna (in brine) and I might even allow myself a tablespoon of hummus to go with it.

 

[The Jogger]

I'm on my way in for a late shift after just having had water all day and I feel good. At seven this evening i'll have m&s fuller longer slow cooked venison in a red wine and onion sauce plus large carrot cauliflower and broccoli micro veggie total 520 cals

 

[The Jogger]

Fuller longer? A bit peckish now....

 

[Scoosh]

Have a drink of water ...

 

[The Jogger]

Did, now looking forward to tea and toast for breakfast, that was a 4:3 week will try for that next week too.

 

[ColinJ]

My chocolate-loving friend was coming round tonight so I told her that no chocolate was allowed because I didn't want the temptation! She brought a packet of Fruit Gums instead which was okay by me because I'm not a big fan of them!

I'm quite good at resisting the temptation to buy goodies, but I'm hopeless at resisting them if they are located in the same room as me!