Hi Annette, I am Michael’s wife and I too have been trying to work out ways to weave the Fast Diet into a busy family life. Like you we have hungry young men to feed. It can be hard for Mike on a Fast Day. It sounds as if you are finding really good strategies so as not to be tempted, by cooking what they like & you are not so keen on. We have found that we are eating more healthily as a family now, so we eat the same food as Mike on a fast day – He skips the carbs and just eats a smaller portion, whilst we are all eating more greens and healthy stuff. In fact one of the boys is now cooking from Mimi’s recipe book too.
I have to confess I found it a bit frustrating when Mike first started intermittent fasting as he would arrive home and announce that he wasn’t eating supper (which I had just cooked..) as he’d decided to fast. He now tends to have breakfast, fast during the day and have a 300cal or so supper with us in the evening on his fast day. Much more sociable and only one meal to prepare! Good luck and well done for losing 15lbs. Very impressive!

I’ve lost almost 30 pounds on this way of life. I have four kids and a hubby and like to be in charge of the meals at home. I’ve found that I do best if I don’t eat at all until supper time, when I eat with the family. I like to focus my fast-day meals on some sort of protein and vegetables. Most of the time, my meal is a huge bowl of salad greens – romaine, spinach, chopped fresh vegs – I cut up my vegs for my salad while the rest of the meal is cooking. Most of the calories of my salad come from the dressing – I can’t eat a salad without a yummy dressing. I currently have a delicious recipe for a honey-jalapeno dressing that is only 60 calories for 2 tablespoons that I really enjoy.

The family eats the protein (steak, pork chop, chicken breast), some sort of potato and some sort of cooked vegetable dish. I eat the protein, the huge salad, and if I’m still hungry, I eat the vegetables but avoid the potatoes. I do best if I do a very low carb diet on my fasting days.

My salad ends up being about 150 calories and my protein ends up between 250-350 and I’m comfortably full. Salad takes a long time to eat, so I don’t feel ‘deprived’ when everyone else is eating other stuff, I like knowing I’m getting lots of great nutrients in there and so on. The family didn’t even know I was fasting for weeks. 😀

I know everyone does things a bit differently. I tried Dr. Mosley’s breakfast/supper pattern, but I’ve never been a good breakfast eater and I found that when I did that, I was *starving* all the rest of the day. If I just skip/don’t eat, it doesn’t bother me at all. I drink lots of water – and yes, I do drink sugar-free/artifically sweetened beverages now and then. I don’t like tea or coffee at all.

Anyway, I think it sounds like you’re doing great tweaking the lifestyle to fit your needs. I love it that it doesn’t cost me anything – no special meals, foods, ‘coaches’, etc. It really is so easy to incorporate it into a normal, healthy, active lifestyle!

My husband came in tonight and asked what I was reading (I only bought the books today). When I showed him, he said,
“I suppose that means I’m on another diet, then?”
He got it in one!

Hello fellow fasters,
like yourselves i have a family to feed on my fast days (4 adults excluding myself) my trick like some of you already mentioned is to cook foods for the family that i myself don’t really enjoy, i eat my meal first before i start cooking theirs.
the upside is they get a meal they like more often and im much less tempted, its been so long now i dont even think about it any more.

Husband has yet to notice he is on a “new” eating plan!

I feel for you annette52! Though I don’t myself have four young men to feed, it’s tough enough feeding my two girls, the older of which (11) eats as much as any boy her age (and is still very thin!). And the younger one is a somewhat fussy eater, who nearly always leaves leftovers, which I used to eat as I hate wasting food, but now of course can’t (on fast days at least)… This thread has given me several ideas & suggestions, many thanks! 🙂

I feel for anyone doing this with children. It’s tough for me. My six year old always has some snack around, which is why I probably ended up gaining in the first place. Luckily, my husband has been somewhat on board. He makes food for our son, that I wouldn’t necessarily touch anyway on my fast days (like pigs in a blanket-not a big fan). I have been lethargic and had headaches, and he has encouraged me to eat, something, anything. It doesn’t work that way. Instead, I drank more lemon water and headed up to bed early. The stress of doing this with a family can prove a bit difficult but I am surviving. WE don’t eat supper together as a family (we hardly eat the same thing anyway)

Hi Annette, Shepherds Pie Hmmmm, I use a recipe on the BBC food site for 10 portions for Cottage Pie. It is the best I have ever tasted. Not that yours is any less tasty.
You are not starving, just feeling comfortably empty.
MEN…………..
Good Luck.
P.S. Am I the only male to reply to your post?.

I’m glad to read this thread as I had thought that mums wouldn’t manage to fast. I know I’d have struggled when my children were young. Note I let my OH or my son cook their own meals and I stay out of the kitchen.