Bad Patch

This topic contains 3 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by BridgeyBee 4 years, 3 months ago.

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BridgeyBee

5:22 pm
29 Jul 20
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Hi there,
I’m going through a bad patch at the minute.
I’d say I have a further seven pounds or so to go until my target weight. I have an odd little body and carry the bulk of my weight in two pouches on my upper and lower belly. They’re very visible until I’ve really slimmed down. I’m finding the weight loss excruciatingly slow, I’m also feeling painfully hungry on fast days. I’m single with no kids or dependents so find it hard to stay busy on those days, I do the usual with TV, books etc but I find it doesn’t distract the same way as when I’m working, which I’m not due to lockdown/school holidays. I’m drinking my usual amount of water and add a pinch of salt. Mentally I find I’m going crazy, the hunger gets so bad I’m literally dreaming about cream cakes. This is my second time undertaking this diet, previous to this I was doing the one meal a day diet, then I progressed to the fast diet but have also continued OMAD on the other days. Could I be reducing the effectiveness of my fast days by also fasting on the other days? I feel like the more I do the harder this diet is getting and the harder it is to lose weight. The last time I did this diet, at the six month mark I had to stop as I felt I was getting too thin, and I wasn’t doing OMAD on the other days! I’m at the same point now but still have a long way to go….
Oh and in the last six months for general health reasons I have stopped eating all sweets, crisps, biscuits etc If getting to this point feels like such a gargantuan effort how the hell am I going to maintain this? Why is it so hard this time? The kicker is that no other kind of diet gives me the results that the fast diet does, I know I’ll get there eventually but it’s so so hard!
Help 🤞

I hate lettuce

6:05 pm
29 Jul 20
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Take you time and be patient, easy to say, but true! But there is no quick fix.

The 5:2 WOL works as you know, I’ve only been at it for a year, lost 37 lbs. But stuck with it even when frustrated! It’s motivation at times that is lacking!

May I suggest the Monthly Challenge group on this forum. Every month is a fresh start ! Doesn’t feel like a trial or even a challenge for that matter.

I log into the Monthly Challenge each day, I have good days, bad days, but a daily reminder and encouragement on the way to a common goal really helps.

Cinque

12:47 am
30 Jul 20
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Hi BridgeyBee,
No wonder you are frustrated.
Congratulations first, for the weight that you have lost and that, in the middle of a bad patch, you haven’t piled weight back on.

Our bodies are such complex things, but persisting with 5:2, especially since you are eating healthier on your non fast days, with so much less junkfood, will get you there in the end.

You might enjoy reading this, and hopefully it helps show that you are not the only one to feel this frustration: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/really-no-weight-loss/

There are a list of things that have helped me through, and I am still a work in progress, so I will list them in case any of them are useful for you.

Try and make 5:2 easy and sustainable. That is its selling point, and if we get that right, we can do it for the rest of our lives.

We all have those places where weight is last to go off, and first to come on. Eeya, we hate them. But we have to try not to. They are parts of our clever bodies doing their best.

Fast days seem to have times of being harder, and times of being easier. Easier times will roll around again. Hold on.

Lockdown really does make it harder. Meals rule! I am trying lists of things to get done to get me through fast days (and non fast days).

Finding lockdown friendly ways to exercise can be tricky. I have added difficulties because I have a chronic illness, but fitting in the things I can do, help my health as much as the fast day does, and concentrating on getting them done helps me get through a fast day.

It is so lovely when we are obese and start 5:2 and the weight just drops off. But ooh it is hard when there are just a few pounds to go and they really don’t want to move. But hooray for having just a few pounds to lose. Say goodbye to them, they will eventually go.

Once your bulgey bits are gone, you will want to keep them gone, so think of this time as practice for that. Keep working on making the weeks easy with their fast days and non fast days, analyse what makes days hard, if you can, and what things tempt most, and how you respond to boredom, and hunger and disappointment. It will turn ‘being on a diet’ into new good habits for a healthy life.

While your slim self is still tantalisingly in the future, you are here today, healthier because of the changes you have made to your eating, and the youngest you will ever be. This is the life you are living, and it is a good one. Enjoy the day.

And if you have any hints and philosophies that you have discovered, tell me, I need all I can get!

Best wishes and all power to you.

BridgeyBee

9:09 pm
3 Aug 20
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Thanks guys for all your words of encouragement. It pulled me back enough to see the bigger picture,the mind can really play tricks on you at times when fasting is hard-thats the old animal brain I suppose. Funnily enough fasting today has been a doddle, easiest in a long time. So I was going through the reasons why that may be, hormones, sleep, hydration and then I realised,,i was at a BBQ last night so my last meal was very protein heavy. Aha! I’m a carb fiend, I live and die for bread. I know about the effects of eating low-carb before a fast but I’ve always felt that my two days fast were my “sacrifice” for the week so that I don’t have to analyse or probe my diet outside those two days but I think I’m very sensitive to the effects of carbs on my blood sugars. Great, on the one hand I have a solution of sorts on the other I’m not as free on my non-fasting days as I previously thought 🤨