TracyJ,
I seem to have some masochistic tendencies to obsess about food on fast days.
e.g. by not being to stop talking about food to someone I’ve just told about my fasting; or watching one of the food channels for hours on end.
I went with my neighbours to Arundel today to attend a museum volunteers meeting – I’m just showing my neighbour how to edit some video clips into a film – or rather Google is showing me, how to show my neighbour 🙂
They were going for lunch post meeting – couldn’t bear to watch them eat food today – so I tried to walk some of the way home to public transport – after 2.5 miles walking along a wet riverbank, in what turned out to be lost waterproofness shoes, I had to give up about 6 miles early and get the train home – at least I’ve not been tempted.

Oh dear, and I thought I’d had a tough fast day yesterday – you totally win that one snedger – I hope you’ve got a nice treat planned for yourself today.

Maybe it’s a good thing I’m missing out on all the holidays… if I read all this 😉

My co-workers also always hand out stuff at the office… I found that lately I’ve craved baked goods like bread and buns, and they’re usually munching cookies and/or cake around here. I think the craving comes from cutting carbs, and I hope it subsides soon…

Haha maybe just have one spoon of each? 😛

It’s easy to raise the white flag on a fast day, especially with bakery smells wafting into the office (I work in a baking factory) but I’m gluten free so can’t have any of the bakery products anyway, so if I bring nothing to work to eat, I eat nothing.
So it’s cuppa after cuppa and water & more water.
Just think ladies, your hips will thank you tomorrow!

Thank you everyone in this thread. Newbie here and having a horrendeous day today. Yesterday (Thursday) was fast day, but started off early with headache and a bad mood – dose of pms not helping. Struggled mightly throughout the day, decided on no eating at all until 7pm, when I’d have one decent meal. Usually try small meals twice a day with a couple of apple snacks. Anyway, yesterday, had my meal, then felt so down and miserable (cold, still headachy and tired) that I reached for the icecream… toffee fudge sugar nightmare – I daren’t even guess how many calories I consumed. But now I’ve added a huge amount of guilt and disappointment to my general misery. I started reading through posts on this site today and it made me feel worse – all these successful, determined 5:2’ers… even amongst the WOACA… (of which I’m one) ’til I found you – you wonderful flawed fasting failers (occasional and said with humour). Thank you for keeping me sane and making me feel ok for being normal and failing and feeling crappy. I feel better now. 🙂

It is hard to balance encouragement with relaying difficulties. This eating plan works to lose weight only if you can eat drastically fewer calories on some days and restrict the calories a bit on the other days.

It is not easy to follow all the time, but we ought to try. We will mess up, but tomorrow is always another day to try again.

Phew it’s good to find I am not the only one who struggles on some fast days. Some are easy and sometimes there is a birthday in the office and cake appears. I can’t usually resist. Most weeks I manage my 2 days a week but considering I have been doing this for a year I should be on maintainance but my weight does not stay at my goal for long as I overeat on non fast days. Yes I too have a really big battle with my head. I wonder if I will ever get to the point when I see a cheesecake or a muffin and say I don’t want it?

Oh yes, detoxmanic, me too. Hardly surprising when I’ve been doing 5:2 since February last year. Sometimes it’s been a long, slow haul, including being stuck on a plateau for 5 months.

On one occasion I was home alone – OH away attending to his 93-year-old mum – it was freezing cold and the wind was howling outside. I’d managed to stick to my 500 cals until mid-evening when I had an overwhelming urge to eat a bacon sandwich. I conscienciously took only one slice of bread, i.e. half a sandwich, filled with very lean bacon – never buy anything else, and also trim away all visible fat. I do quite often exceed the 500 cals, but rarely by more than 20-50 cals and I don’t beat myself up about it.

Despite this I have lost at least 12 kilos – 26.4 lbs, plus 2-3 kilos that I lost without even trying when taken off steroids prescribed for polymyalgia. For me, a lifelong fatty grossly overfed as a kid, this is well nigh miraculous.

Like you, I forget about fasting over holidays, especially when away from home, but as a result of following this way of eating, I find that even then I eat very much less than before.

I’ve been trying to do the 5:2 fast for about a month now. I have 50 lbs to lose to be on the high end of my normal weight BMI. I am hoping the support will help. Any opinions on if you have a bad fast day should you restart the next day? Or do the best you can on the fast day and restart next scheduled fast day?
Any ideas on how to stay motivated and positive?

Thanks in advance.

I’ve done well for a couple of months – then this week I’ve failed two fast days. I’m stressed and mopey with work and study, and on both fast days, someone offered me cake… I’m doing better today though!
I just need to stop overeating on feast days!

Harshan, Agautro and Katpower Don’t worry. You’re not alone. The beauty of 5:2 is that it is adjustable and it is forgiving. Space your fast days out a bit further. I do Tuesdays and Fridays, which seems to work well, especially as it leaves the weekends clear. Every now and then a week will go by without a fast day. You can even decide when you are under pressure – with work, study or whatever, or even on holiday – not to fast at all for a week or two.

As long as you don’t go raving mad, the worst that can happen is that you regain one or two pounds, which hopefully will disappear once you get back into the routine. However, you will find before long, when you are into the fasting habit, that you can’t overeat without feeling extremely unwell and you won’t be doing it again any time soon.

I think anyone on 5:2 for any length of time who hasn’t blown off a fast is one of the few, more people will blow a fast day occasionally than not.

I’ve been on 5:2 for 15 months and yes I’ve blown a few fast days. DO NOT beat yourself up over it. DO NOT talk down to yourself. One of the great things about 5:2 is that each day is totally new. A clean slate for you to work with.

THINK before you bite even if it’s in your hand. “Is this what I want to do? Will it further my aims, goals, desires, and plan?” If the answer is yes then go for it. If not don’t bite toss it.

Have a plan for dealing with temptation. A quick brisk walk. Run a couple of flights of stairs in your office. A big glass of water. A good talk inside your head “I will not wreck my plan. I will stay with it and I will do this.” Close your eyes relax and breathe and think on what you are trying to accomplish.

Failure to plan is planning to fail.

On 5:2 we have a plan. We even have a plan for fast and non fast day. Fast 1/4 of your TDEE you should even plan what you’ll eat that day so you are ready to prepare the meal. Non-fast day (feed day/normal day) we plan to eat within our TDEE. So we are planning everything, but many of us don’t plan how to deal with temptations, the office birthday party, the co-worker who brings in treats etc. So plan for it. Think on how you will handle the situations. Run practice drills in your mind.

Think and be mindful of why you are doing what you do. A life time of habits in indulgence in times of stress or eating socially at the office etc are habits. We need to change those habits and yes it can be difficult to achieve. Nothing worth doing is ever without challenges. Meet the challenge. You can do this!!!!