Ok will check out the health food stores instead.
Hi Emmy 🙂 good luck with your first fast day. I use the My Fitness Pal app to track my calories and weightloss.
This topic contains 28,292 replies, has 835 voices, and was last updated by Anzac65 6 hours, 46 minutes ago.
Hi Emmy
I bought a Fitbit after 18 months on 5:2 (and 26kg loss).
I’m using it in order to still fast twice a week for the health benefits and to monitor my maintenance.
Many of us find we eat a lot of fresh, unprocessed foods and these are hard to find on apps.
Kate Harrison’s 5:2 diet books have good usable calorie charts for everyday foods.
It doesn’t take long to get to know which foods will fill you up with minimal cals. Low cal low gi is the way to sustain this. Michael and Mimi call it plant and protein.
Get new scsles and measure your waist etc. Feels great to look back later.
All tge best fir your new journey.
PVE
Hi all!
I get the same brand of miso from my local Woolies in Cabarita on the far north coast of NSW….a long long way from anything diplomatic, but with lovely beaches and plenty of whales frolicking close to the coast.
Talking about jumping around with excitement, I have noticed that my upper arms and the blobby lump of fat under my jaw/chin has seemed to have shrunken…I’m also so very happy that my thighs are also considerably smaller than they used to be before starting the 5:2! Yay!!!
Dancing around the house like a madwoman celebrating this fat loss, while no one is watching is a fabulous way to burn calories!
Have made the vegetable soup today for my fast tomorrow. OH is doing the bowel cancer test. So the conundrum was how to serve up Gluten Free (GF) food with no cauliflower or broccoli or swedes, or radish or melons. Such an odd mix of prohibited items. On a non fast day we had roasted kumara (sweet potato) and salmon and fresh green peas. 🙂
Woohoo IHAW. Dance and laugh like crazy! Sounds great and hearty congrats. With the start of July, it’s a year since I decided to lose 18-20 Kg slowly, taking a year to do it. Well, I’ve split the difference and shed 19 Kg. Can now look in the mirror and say, “I know you!!!”.
My current challenge is to get fitter so have joined a Pilates group run by my Myotherapist. She runs a brilliant Pilates session with a different program each time. This spreads the challenge and tricks my muscles out of getting too efficient, or lazy. She also manages to avoid back pain.
Next challenge is to tackle the liver cleansing department and re-shape the rubber tyre round the middle. It’s much smaller than it was but I suspect that there is a fatty liver to heal so am reading Sandra Cabot on the subject. Am looking into getting a NutriBullet – any users with an opinion of this little machine?
Ros.
Well done IHAW, dancing around is very good for incidental exercise as well as celebrating.
Scales the same for me this week but my waist was 1cm smaller and OH commented that my ‘dowager’s hump’ – that fatty lump between my shoulders is smaller. Not something I had noticed and certainly couldn’t measure but good news anyway.
Hi Bayleaf,
sure is a strange mixture of things for OH to avoid – love to know what the common denominator is.
I made some soup this week too, that was delish – dry roasted pumpkin, orange sweet potato and celeriac. Oh and a garlic bulb. Pureed in the blender with some mixed pepper, cumin, and nutmeg, with home made chicken stock from the freezer. Bliss on a stick!
🙂
Good on you Ros! Excellent work.
Nicky, you can’t call it a “widow’s hump”, think of at as fat. Now you have a sexy new back, like me! It was one of the first things I noticed…shoulder definition and a youthful back again. Saves concentrating on the pancakes at the front(see Thanks Dr M thread if you don’t understand the reference!)
Bayleaf, I find it much easier fasting when the OH isn’t around. He has so many foods I can’t include. I’m having a couple of girlie days away on the mid north coast (whale watching) and can eat whatever I feel like. It amazes me how many different vegie dishes I can think up just using what’s in the fridge.
Went for a 6km walk this morning and come home to cook rather than eat take away. I just don’t find it apealling any more. I was never a big fan, but now I find there is nothing that is not so full of calories and seriously not appealing on offer. My home prepared stuff is SO much better.
Have to finish my bottle of wine before I go home tomorrow (fast day)….
PVE
I did forget the major banned food from the OH list – red or rare meat, such as salami, pastrami etc. PVE, What a lovely time with the whales and friends. 🙂
Loved my soup for lunch today, even though non fast day. For variety, I added red lentils and chili flakes. Had to have a helping today, it smelled so enticing.
Agree with PVE, I don’t like takeaway any more, except (always an exception!) we have one fish and chip place down the Coast that only cooks fish and chips in the good oils – no transfats 🙂
Am taking grandchildren to the Coast for next week of school holidays. Probably no fasting, but I can keep it healthy. No wifi either.
I hope all of you who are doing ‘school holiday activities’ are really loving them!
Today I decided to do a little photo research, and found some snaps taken of me a few months before I started 5:2. I was really mortified at how big my tummy, thighs and arms were, as well as a rounded face and big neck and triple chin. I remembered avoiding looking in the mirror, as well as trying to hide myself whenever photos were taken.
I decided after looking at those blasts from the past, that I would take some ‘selfies’ as a comparison. Although I don’t like everything I see in those new photos, I acknowledge that my body has shrunk to more normal proportions, and my face is showing its original shape once again…with a lot of extra wrinkles and sun spots than twenty years ago.
I am feeling more and more like a new me is slowly and surely being found, and that in time I’ll begin to like what I see, and feel like a worthy human being without the baggage of all of my self-loathing dragging me down.
Sorry to get so serious, hope that doesn’t depress any of you too much!
Well done ihaw!
Nothing depressing about that. Thoroughly life affirming:)
Well done. I’ve done the same. I’m not even ashamed of the old fat photos now as I don’t look like that any more. And, like others, I’m getting fatter (let’s face it, fat) friends actually telling me not to lose any more. Must be jealous!
PVE
I took photos (front/back/side view) of myself in black leggings and a singlet top before I started 5:2. I actually took them to work out my body proportions (I’m also working on personal style and I sew most of my own clothes). I took another set after a month on 5:2. It was encouraging how much difference even a couple of kilos made to my silhouette. I’m probably due for another set – 8kg down now.
We had a family function last month and I was very happy to be in the photos.
While I am still a bit mad at myself for “allowing” myself to get that big in the first place, I know why, and now I know how to reverse it.
This TDEE thing has really opened my eyes. I’m petite, so it’s no wonder I was slowly getting heavier eating “normal” portions of mostly healthy food. It’s also probably why just eating the “female” portion sizes in other diets didn’t give great results – they’re still too big. It makes sense that smaller people need fewer kJs, but working out the numbers for myself was a real lightbulb moment. Thanks FD and MFP!
🙂
Good one MM – at my weekly Friday weigh in (before the damage of weekends!)I have today cracked the elusive 70kg barrier – have now lost close to 8 kg since starting in late April/May. When I started this 5:2 had never thought I would be weighing in the 60’s – just shows what this can do. And I know I can get a few more kilos off – it is all under my control – a great feeling.
So today, will wear those fantastic trousers I brought so many years ago in Rome but have been hanging up in the “too good to throw out – too small to wear’ hanger. Everybody keep up the good work.
Well done MM and Graham
The biggest advantage of this is the way it opens our eyes to really see the difference between our wants and needs re food. Most of us simply eat too much.
Isn’t it exciting fitting into clothes that were too good to get rid of? BUT, now do the reverse with the big ones. Donate them to charity. You are never going to need them again.
Keep up the great work SH Gang.
PVE 🙂
Hi PVE,
Need some TLC. Tried to cut my finger off, only joking! But sustained an accidental cut to the thumb that won’t quite stop oozing blood.
Am on a Fast Day and making pizzas for OH. The smell is amazing! I will be having clear vegetable soup. Do you smell the whiff of burning feathers from far away?
I am actually perverse enough to be proud that I could make pizzas and not succumb. Will have my bit for lunch tomorrow. 🙂 love this maintaining, hoping to see a PB tomorrow morning.
Thanks, PVE. Your chicken pie sounds wonderful. We are having fish and chips by the lake tomorrow. Maintenance is wonderful! People talking about new clothes made me look at why I was always pulling up my new trousers – they are starting to sag. 🙂 I reckon it could be time to try on the next size smaller. Yay!
I have just had my first week on 5:2, fasting Tuesday and Thursday. I lost 1.1kg and am feel really great about that. I realise some of that is likely fluid, but a lists is a loss and I’ll take it! Tuesday was not too difficult, however I ended up with a very bad headache. I treated it well with strong painkillers and an early night. Thursday I breezed through the day and didn’t even need the Fragrant Pho for afternoon tea to get me through to dinner. I’m loving the meals so dear. I’ve been keeping a record of calories on Wednesday and today and haven’t eaten the 1500 calories I’ve allocated to myself based on TDEE less a bit. My aim is to fast Monday and Thursday to keep eating and fasting days quite balanced.
Hi JoJo
Do you record all food in a diary? It is good to analyse when you get a headache. You may find that it is fasting after a day where you ate sugar or starch. Or else you may find that you did not drink your 2 litres of water on the fast day. Whatever it is, sometimes you can eliminate all headaches on fast days by removing certain foods from your intake. Have fun with this! You are your own experiment. 🙂
I had a weigh-in today. More loss! Yay!!! I’m wearing another item for the first time today – a cardi that’s been lurking in my wardrobe since last winter. 🙂 I can also fit into some size 15 jeans which have been waiting to be worn again for 8 years or so. 🙂
Jojo I’m sorry about your headaches. I get them too sometimes, but am not sure if it’s related to fasting. In my case I think it’s more likely to be hormonal. I hope they’re not a recurring thing for you.
Bayleafoz Well done you!!! A BMI in the healthy range is in my near future now – and I can’t wait!! (26.35 today)
Hi there, I am located in regional western Victoria and starting 5:2 Monday – still waiting for my book to arrive and I am looking to lose maybe 5-8 kg and tone up. Looking at getting a Fitbit too, think it could help me keep on track. I seem to be having a cake and chocolate splurge this weekend knowing it’s all going to get strict from next week!
Hi could use advice/ help in getting through the day following a day of 5/2 fast. Have no problems
with only 2 meals on a fast day but find I am ravenous on the day following and tend to over eat on fruit and vegs.
Have a target of 10 carb units[15carbo gm a unit] a day on each of the 5 non fast days. Lost 19kgs
on this but have been stuck for awhile. Exercise 40 min each day on Exbike and 3 times a week resistance exercises.
For me the best thing about 5/2 is that I am FEELING so much more alive/confident since I started
as I am Bipola 1 and live on my own with 2 dogs who are my life. I can’t really describe the mental lift I have had since starting a few weeks ago. My GP was surprised when I mentioned it to him last week.
Hi Bayleafoz, yes tracking my food. I actually suffer bad headaches and infrequent but severe migraines so I am 99% certain it wasn’t fast related. Thanks for the encouragement!
Thanks MM, thankyou, and congratulations on another good week.
We went to a dinner party last night with so much amazing food, thankfully I was restrained as I didn’t want to undo the good work from week 1. But afterwards it was quite difficult recording what I’d eaten. So I over-estimated, better to be inaccurate against myself rather than in my favour is my thinking. Even though it’s not a FD, going to have a mini-fast of no breakfast, just hot water (it’s cold here this morning!), lunch out with friends and very light dinner.
Happy Sunday folks, hope you all have a fab day whatever you may be doing.
Well done Jojo
I think what you have done with limiting your breakfast after a big night is the way to go. After 18 months and at goal, this is what we do. I look at our social commitments and make sure there is only one largish or calorific meal on a non fast day.
Going out to lunch today, so a very small nibble this morning and home made soup for dinner.
We are no longer consciously trying to lose weight but our kgs are still dropping ever so slowly because we are more aware of consumption versus expenditure. We fast for the health benefits.
Have a lovely Sunday Southern (well Eastern) buddies.
PVE 🙂
In today’s Melbourne Age there’s a Moroccan vegetable tagine recipe. May also be in SMH. Looks yummy! Has carrots, zucchini, chickpeas, eggplant, tomatoes, fennel, capsicum and spices. Looks wonderful. If anyone makes it and has the ability to count calories, I would love to know if it can be eaten on a FD. I will make it for a non fast day.
Tarkeeth@wirefree I have only just joined, didn’t get a response at all on this thread possibly not the right place for an intro, or perhaps new members not so welcome, either way I am inspired by your story I can’t help with the carb/ravenous advice but did want to let you know it’s wonderful your feeling better and I wish you the best of luck on your journey.
Hi Imarni and Tarkeeth,
Welcome!
This thread is busier around the more common fast days Monday and Thursday (We all need encouragement, inspiration and support). Sometimes you’ll get a response very quickly, other times no-one will post for a couple of days. We’re all here supporting each other, new posters are very welcome. I’m relatively new (4th month).
I hope you both find this thread helpful.
MM
Hi Imarni and Tarkeeth
Everyone is welcome:)
As MM says, this thread is busier on Mon and Thurs. We are enjoying our non fast weekend eating now 😉 Also, I guess if you had a spefic question, it would need a person with that experience to answer.
We ARE a friendly supportive lot and are awake when other threads are sleeping it off.
I’m getting ready to go out. Will answer any questions you have later.
Have you got Michael’s books? Really worth having…if only on Kindle.
Cheers PVE
Hello Imarni thanks for your thoughts also it would seem as though MM has hit the nail on the head with the W/E hush!
Hi MM and PVE, many thanks for the welcome mat and the heads up re fast days Mon & Thr, which
also are my days. Looking forward to tapping into the vast bank of knowledge and support!
Only have Michaels 5/2 Fast book at this stage.
Cheers,
Tim.
Hi Tarkeeth
Welcome on board. If you want to overeat, I would limit the fruit and go for the green vegetables. All kinds. Spinach, rocket, lettuce, silver beet, broccoli, beans, Chinese greens, asparagus, celery etc. You can usually over indulge in these without worrying too much. I squeeze fresh lemon, a tiny amount of quality olive oil and some pepper. Very lightly steamed or in the case of spinach, just wilted.
Have fun!
Hi Tarkeeyh and Imarni
Excellent advice Bayleaf
There are no rules other than 2x 36 hour periods of 1/4 of your daily calorific needs per week.
We found, like Bayleaf, that certain foods are more filling and therefore easier to do long term.
For the first year, on fast days we cut out fat (butter, oil, cheese, milk, cream, yoghurt) , alcohol and starchy carbs (bread, flour, padta, rice, potatoes). I didn’t worry about sugar as we don’t add it to anything and I home cook our fast day food.
You end up with lots of lovely leafy veg andlean protein ( fish, prawns, oysters, turkey and egg). Use onions, gatlic, chilli flakes, grated ginger, lime, lemon and pepper to flavour.
Buy smoked salmon or wrap fish in foil with some of these flavours and steam. Drink soda water, black tea and black coffee and LOTS of water.
You soon get the hang of what works for you….as long as it is only 400 to 500 calories from dinner one night until breakfast a dsy and a half later. It really does work 🙂
Cheers PVE
All the best PVE
Hi Tarkeeyh and Imarni – I have had my Fitbit for 10 weeks now, longer than I’ve been 5:2ing and I find it a great help. It’s a Zip so doesn’t track my sleep but does track steps, distance, very active minutes and calories burnt though I think my daily goal is set a bit high. I can reach 100% and more in all the other goals but the calories burnt usually only gets to 85-95%. I try to do at least 70,000 steps a week, days at work are usually under the 10k so I have to work harder at the weekend.
Good luck with your first fast tomorrow, I’ll be fasting too and have a dental appointment in the afternoon, will have to have a fortifying clear soup before I go so I don’t chomp on his hand 🙂
Eep… I shall have to concentrate tomorrow, remember Mr. Will Power and a tasty small meal waiting at home for me.
I did read this though re. willpower…‘It turns out the energy for willpower is linked to your body’s basic energy supply, so it’s kind of a Catch 22, that in order to resist the temptation to eat, you need willpower, and in order to help willpower you need to eat,’ here’s the link to the article http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/what-the-science-says-about-willpower/5560352
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