It’s just over a year now since I watched Eat, Fast and Live Longer (EFLL) and it’s the one hour of television that has changed my life more than any other programme I have ever seen.

At the end of EFLL my wife turned to me and said, “Right, I’m starting that tomorrow.” She was so determined, and the arguments in the programme all seemed to stack up so I agreed to join her.

I knew I was carrying too much weight and looking at where I SHOULD be on the BMI charts looked impossible. I’d seen my weight creep past 95kg and then past 100kg I was active but that wasn’t making any kind of dent in my weight and I was finding loose fit 36″ waist jeans becoming uncomfortably tight. I’d never developed a large gut, it was just excess padding all over and I wanted to get in shape so that I would be around to see my daughters grow up.

There was no dramatic melting of fat, I just noticed that slowly and steadily the weight was coming off me. My clothes were fitting better and I had more energy. On my non-fasting days I found it easier to exercise moderation and some of my coping strategies for fasting days(plenty of ice-cold water, chai tea with artificial sweetener and sugar free gum) made it into my regular days.

The real revelation for how much weight I was losing came in November of last year when I loaned my phone to a friend to show him how good the camera was. He took a snap of me and passed the phone back. I was stunned. I looked about 5 years younger and a LOT slimmer. I began the 5:2 plan with the intent that, if I could make it work, this was going to be my eating pattern for life- it’s not a diet in the sense that I’m doing it to lose weight, it is my eating pattern now and always will be.

I’ve lost 36lb, I haven’t managed to quite hit the magic 86kg I was aiming for but I’ve hit 89kg and not put any more weight on. I’ve lost almost two inches off my collar and I just bought my first pair of 32″ jeans in twenty years! I’ve had the odd blip following holidays and business travel and I also found over time that it is important to ‘eat normally’ on your non-fasting days not ‘eat whatever you like’.

A recent check up at the doctor confirmed blood glucose, cholesterol, resting heart rate, liver and kidney function all ‘excellent’. “You’re clearly in good shape, so whatever you’re doing, keep it up,” were his words. As my motivation for starting the 5:2 was to be around for as long as possible for my wife and kids, this was wonderful news.

My wife has also done very well on the plan and has lost over a stone and a half, she’s got more energy and feels a lot better about herself. I’ve also pushed a good friend of mine into the diet as I saw his weight going up and in about three months on the plan he’s lost over 11kg and is approaching a weight that he never thought he’d get back down to.

Some weeks are really easy, some weeks are a bit tougher but I never worry about my weight any more and I don’t worry about food. It has no control over me and I get to see my daughters grow up. So Michael, and Mimi, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

God bless.

Thanks folks. I’ve found that the 5:2 Plan is something that my wife and I have had to develop and experiment with. We’ve found that we need something sweet at the end of the day so we always finish with a small fruit salad and I need something at midday, as I normally go running at lunchtime, and if I don’t eat all morning I really struggle on my run.

Artificial sweetner in tea helps and finding some really strong punchy sauces to lift my dinners also makes me feel better. I’ve found that I’m happier using a small amount of a good rich salad dressing and tossing it well rather than using a larger helping of a low calorie dressing that tastes like wallpaper paste. Getting home from work late means that I always have a number of ‘go to’ meals that I can prepare quickly with the minimum of fuss.

The main thing I learned through fasting is that hunger pangs (as opposed to real starving hunger) really are a state of mind and I can push through them or sate them with ice cold water with fresh lime juice.

I think it really helps as you negotiate your way through this eating plan to experiment and find what works best for you. I never eat breakfast on a fast day but I understand that some people really struggle without.

Something that my wife is also very aware of is not wanting to create a damaging relationship with food for our girls; so we never talk of our ‘diet’ or ‘fasting’ days. We only ever discuss our ‘trim’ days with the girls and say that we’re structuring our meals this way to be healthy for them.

Good luck everyone.