After seeing the documentary, I bought the book. Surely, it couldn’t be this easy? I was the biggest cynic.
The number of times I’ve put on 6kgs (1 stone), lost them, then put them on…. I love food. I love cooking. My natural weight is 6-8kg more than I would like. I’m 1.6m tall (5’2 and a half)and my natural weight is 62kg (9.7 stone). OK in the past four years it’s been more like 64kg…. Not overweight but perilously close to being so, and certainly not ideal for someone who’s had a spinal fusion and has chronic pain.
Since menopause my cholesterol has rocketed to 6.2. (It had reached 7 but I gave up eating cheese…)
OK, I thought, I’ll be the exception. I’ll prove them wrong.
I chose Monday and Thursday.
Four months later I have lost 6kg! I’m now 58kg! (9stone, 2lb).For the first time in living memory, I no longer fear being hungry, dread being deprived. If my husband forgets and brings me a glass of pro secco, I shake my head and cheerfully say, ‘It’s a fast day.’
What truly amazes, flummoxes, and astounds me is that it is so easy. OK a few growls early on in the process but nothing like the dreary deprivation of dieting. The most difficult thing I found doing without was the amount of tea I normally drink. Anywhere between 4-6 mug with milk and a spoonful of honey per mug. That’s even fallen off on non-fasting days to 2-3 mugs.
I have one slice of wholemeal toast and a small banana and coffee with some hot milk(a must-have) for breakfast, nothing for lunch (or a mandarin, if pressed), fluids (water, herbal tea) during the day and either a boiled egg or small piece of steamed fish with vegetables or salad (no dressing) for dinner.
The 5:2 turns around the old ‘tomorrow I’ll start a diet’ with ‘tomorrow I’ll eat what I like’. And without meaning to, I find that I do not overeat on normal days and I have started to do without the treats I normally dream of whenever I have been on a diet.
My digestion enjoys the rest. I think that the 5:2 fits in with our natural eating habits of old. And not just from the hunter-gatherer days. More recently, regular fasting days were part of many people’s lives. In winter people ate less (and enjoyed the splurge at Christmas or Chanukah).
It is such a relief to ditch the idea that you need 3 meals a day, or that grazing is the way to go. On normal days, if there is nothing available that really tempts me for lunch, I’ll simply have a piece or two of fruit.
Next week I shall have my first cholesterol test since I’ve been on the 5:2. I can’t wait and hope the results will be pleasing.
And I seem to be surrounded by people with similar stories. Our vet. A fellow post-graduate student. A good friend and her husband. My father, still practising medicine at 83, has intermittently fasted all his adult life.
And, like my father, when I eat on a non-fasting day, I really enjoy and appreciate my food.
Hate to say it, but I’m a convert. And worse than that, I’m quite evangelical about 5:2. So, thank you, Michael and Mimi!
Even when I reach my desired weight (54kg or 8.5 stone – given my height), I shall maintain the 5:2.
PS Our much-loved kelpie-cross needs to lose 2-3kgs. I’m thinking of putting her on a canine 5:2 version…
7:43 am
4 Oct 13