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IHAW. Thanks for posting about herbs and vegetables in polystyrene boxes. You made me think that I will do that as soon as I get home and keep the boxes indoors. I have some herbs and veg already in the garden, but we slow down in Winter in the beds. Nearly at the end of a fast day. An egg and coffee this morning and now hone made light vegetable soup, plus steamed broccoli with lemon juice. Another FD done. 🙂
I could have sworn the book says to weigh after cooking – not that I’ve ever done that as I guess you’d have to weigh the plate then weigh plate with cooked food on it one piece at a time – too fiddly for me. In fact I rarely weigh anything any more – I did weigh one average piece of fish etc to start with, now I just assume a rough calorie count, I’m not at all exact about it.
Hi everyone! Just reporting on my fast day yesterday, also today was weigh-in today – how do i know that? i was reminded by the calorie counting app ive been using! amazing!
Anyway, i seem to be at basically the same weight each week at the moment – after 2 days of fasting i weigh myself, then during the week i fluctuate within a kilo of that weight and then on weigh-in day, i’m back down to the same weight – a bit annoying really, but i guess this is the slow process. When i first started i was doing quite strenuous exercise every day nearly, either jogging or playing squash, but now my exercise is sporadic….sometimes because it’s so cold outside i just don’t want to go out there lol.
Anyway, had a nice fast day yesterday – scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and salad for lunch, carrot sticks and hummus for an afternoon ( happy hour ) snack, and Mimi Spencer’s ‘Roast Monkfish with Fennel,Rosemary and Garlic for dinner, with a roasted mushroom, roasted tomato and lots of spinach,beans and carrots. Had 2 tbsp of probiotic yogurt before i went to bed to get me off to sleep and didn’t have too much sleeping. During the day felt a little hungry but managed to get through it with cups of cranberry and raspberry tea, and a handful of almonds.
Feel quite good today and managed not to binge or overeat.
On my fast days i usually weigh everything, but the rest of the time i just estimate.
My stomach must have shrunk because i really feel it when i overeat.
I find i’m happiest on my fast days with between 550 and 600 calories.
Greetings to all of you
Hi Patsy
I have sympathy for your frustration. It makes me curious about a few things. Don’t respond if you’d rather not. 🙂
Let’s start from the position that we are all different and need different triggers for our weight loss. Anything I may say could have no relevance to you. 🙂
Many people find that alcohol, sugar, processed food, and starch of any kind are foods that inhibit weight loss. If you change the type of food you’re eating on all days of the week, would that change results?
You could agree a target for an experiment with your body for a certain number of weeks. See what happens. Good fasting!
Hi bayleaf,
yes,i know the reason for no weight loss this week – i had a 50th birthday to attend on the weekend, and so overindulged and also compensated the following day with lots of junk food. usually i’m eating within my daily intake but had a bit of a blowout – guess it’s not rocket science huh?
i’m feeling good about my progress so far….so decided not to give myself too much of a hard time. been dogwalking so at least when i’m not exercising i’m still actually exercising as a job walking my friend’s dog. got to say tho – it’s quite frosty here at the mo – it’s quite hard to step out!
Patsy, You sound as if you are developing an understanding of the flexibility but commitment required to success with this WOL.
It takes effort to get your head around it, but as you say, it’s not Rocket Science. Calories in, calories out!
Have a good weekend Patsy, Bay and anyone else from SHs on tonight.
Purple 🙂
Hello from the northern hemisphere! I’m in the US for a few weeks and not fasting until I return in august.
I’ve lost and gained 40kgs in my fairly short lifetime (30 years) and the one thing I have learnt about weightloss is that if you push too hard, it will not sustain. Don’t give up everything you love to eat, especially if you are an emotional eater. If you do you run the risk of frustration, boredom and ultimately abandoning 5:2.
If you are starting out on 5:2 give yourself and your body time to adjust. This is a way of life, not a race to a finish line. Do your fasts and listen to your body. The weight loss will come eventually as your body stops craving the things it used to and you relearn hunger cues. Be patient. You are trying to unlearn a lifetime habit.
TheOrangeOne, really what a poor excuse going to the Northern Hemisphere is to stop your fast! 🙂
You say “listen to your body” if I did that I’d be huge adding weight daily oh how I would love to do that. Seriously though in the short time I’ve been on 5/2 I sense a few messages trying to get through.
I suppose, like my school reports “Capable of doing better, must try harder” is the answer.
Admire your 40 kg loss, inspiring.
Tim.
Morning Tim
You must have gone to the same school as me.
How goes the fasting? Are you right into it now? I knew you’d master it 🙂
I am sitting in bed polishing off two small slices of pizza leftovers. Mmmm…After 18 months and 27kgs off, I can do this occasionally, but I would never totally trust “listening to my body” again without also listening to my head (and the calorie counter in it). That way would lead to a very big PVE indeed 🙂
Enjoy your fast free weekend all Aussies and Kiwis. PVE
Purple felt despondent yesterday when I did my weekly weighin, as I had tried really hard ALL week, but had only lost 300gs.
Then I went back over my weight for the last month and found I had lost exactly 2kgs which seems to match the recommend rate of 1/2 kg per week, that I had read about, so felt a bit better.
I think setting a goal and not achieving it is very discouraging for my mind set and now will just accept what ever the scales throw up. As you and OrangeOne say its WOL.
I suppose its I’m pushing to reach the Maintainance goal as theres not much WOL left!
Tim.
Purple, feel I now have a good handle on my fast days and feel comfortable with them.
As Ive said before its the day following where I seem to fall into the big hole of temptation
Just seem to want to eat vast quanities of wholesome food. I’d be embrassed to list to what I had
late afternoon.
My TDEE is 2571 and I think the eat what you want on 5 days has been taken to go for it.
Sorry to everyone for all the posts.
Tim.
Never apologise Tim. That’s what the Forum is for. Others learn from the discussion.
Are you sure your TDEE is that high? Most men are more like 2000. Mine started at 1600 and is bugger all now 😉
Recheck it to be sure and remember you are new at this. Get the fast days right first. Don’t beat yourself up about indulging on wholesome food other days. It will fall into place.
Silver star ☆ Purple
Looking at OrangeOne’s post, re ‘listening to your body’, I’ve found it is a learned exercise.
First it takes Purple’s ‘calorie-counter-in-the-head’ to help with the decision, then it takes the smaller stomach capacity that we are all developing on 5:2. Finally it takes developing the ‘ear’ to really hear what your body is saying – and not your eyes, nose, the fact that someone is passing around a box of choccies.
I think that once you experience what hunger actually is – which you do on fast days – then you are in a better position to listen and understand what your body is saying. It’s not seeing that it’s dinner time, or smelling the dish, or eating because everyone else is.
It really is going inside yourself by shutting off for a few seconds and breathing deeply and asking if your body is really seeking nourishment right at this moment.
Please don’t think I’ve mastered this. I haven’t, but I have found that each fast day, I get closer to it.
Hi Mamaleish and Orange.
I think that listening to the body was switched off in me, and I do agree that some of us (including moi) have to learn it …again. I think we are born with it generally speaking. I have so much emotional conditioning around food that overrides my body’s intelligence that listening to it was lost.
It was lost when my brother was banished from the table for not eating. He felt sick with asthma and anxiety much of the time and our parents didn’t stop to think about anything but their own desperation about his weight loss. Eating up everything in sight made me a ‘good girl’ so I did just that.
It was lost too, when I went to a conservative school too early – at the age of four. It was run by gorgons who punished us mercilessly, excluded parents from the school, and taught in a way that left me mentally stranded. I bought lollies on the way to school for comfort. There was very little listening in me except to avoid that awful world. I discovered I was intelligent in my 30s, but have not discovered my physical intelligence until recently. It takes time and listening to know when I am just not interested in hot chocolate or any other sugary stuff.
I welcome the shift from meat and sugar preferences to a taste for vegetables, fruit and protein of various kinds. I welcome being able to have a little chocolate occasionally rather than demolishing the lot. I welcome the health benefits that are showing themselves. I welcome the feeling of lightness on fast days, and I so appreciate using my ‘search and destroy’ desires as a sign-post that all is not well in my emotional world. New listening here!
It has been useful to have these challenges along the way so that I’ve learned some of this stuff and I’m glad to share it, hoping that it’s useful to someone in this forum. Thanks for all your sharing and support.
Cheers,
Ros.
Hi Ros,
I am always fascinated by the way childhood conditioning can affect us. I am sorry yours was so difficult for you.
It really does put the onus on us all as parents and teachers of the next generation of eaters, to care about and guide their way of eating and relating to their bodies. When we are children, we soak up everything that is going on around us and I don’t think a lot of adults understood what they were doing.
Saying that, I was always taught that it was a good thing to put on weight – so we would be healthy and strong. I think it came from parents who lived through the depression and wars.
It is a lifetime’s effort to escape from childhood conditioning and I would still rather serve a small portion than leave food on my plate!
You sound as if you are winning the battle against your early conditioning – and enjoying that sense of victory and growth in confidence as well. You should be really proud of yourself – keep it up!
Purple, re TDEE cross checked with the Mayo Clinic which seems to use the same standard.
Both are within cooee of each other. Mayo 2540. I would suggest that my age of 79 is the factor.
Ros, enjoyed your post. Well done. Think your ” feeling of lightness ” on fast days is really listening to your body and would like to be able to do that on the other 5 days as well. Heres hoping.
Cheers,
Tim.
Thanks for your feedback Mamaleish and Tim. Must say I don’t want to sound as though childhood was too awful – school was pretty awful but lots of family stuff was really lovely. I have certainly come to recognise that challenges are an opportunity to learn, and if one doesn’t ‘get it’ the first time around, one can rely of life to provide a second or third opportunity in another guise! Very tricky, but how helpful.
One does have to sort things out for oneself – you’re so right about habits, attitudes and beliefs being visited upon successive generations until someone start to think about it all. Good on us for thinking!!!
Tim, I reckon you’re doing so very well. Keep on truckin’ as they say in the classics! That feeling of lightness is so wonderful, aided and abetted by my Pilates sessions. Oh my goodness, how the improved balance, core strength and resulting reduced back pain impresses me!
Miles of smiles,
Ros.
Re TDEE using the fast diet calculator but this time dropping the activity level from moderately to lightly active, which is what I would much prefer to do:), The figure only drops to 2253.
Googling I found, as Purple said, that one needs to subtract some 15/25% to arrive at a realistic figure. 450 is 20% so say 1800cals Very happy now that found I’ve my target WOL figure.
This diet is amazing, I’ve mentioned before the lift I’ve had in my mental health outlook well
last night for the FIRST time in years and years I slept through the night.
You can not know what that means to me, it took awhile for it to sink in as normally I am up 2/3 times, although over the last couple of weeks it has dropped to around once a night.
Violet May you Brussel sprout lover you! I have found 3 different formualrs to calculate TDs
but as above am now settled on my final figure.
This web page shows 3 different calculators http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/
Cheers,
Tim.
It’s so wonderful that you’re now getting a full night’s rest! I find you a true inspiration Tim, keep up the get work!
I was so happy when my husband mentioned that I no longer snored, six weeks into the 5:2. I am getting fair better at sleeping too, and my digestive problems have cleared up, never to re-emerge! Yay!
Tim, well done on all those calculations. That is basically what I was getting at. Even though I walk a lot, I still calculate as sedentary to give wriggle room.
Fantastic that you are already reaping rewards from this WOL. We all react differently, but whatever gains you get certainly motivate you to keep going.
Just back from a long walk. Unfortunately, it started to drizzle at the furthest point from home! We could have caught a train, but we made a join decision to sprint home. Young lithe things that we are (now).
Hi Mamaleish, Ros, Violet, IHAW and any others around today. Heading rapidly to fasting Monday. Better eat something fabulous today!
Purple;)
Hi everyone.
Such an interesting disucssion on childhood food conditioning – thanks for your thoughts.
It had taken me a while but I now find I can (mostly) tease out the real hunger messages from the others, including the stress-induced one. Not wonderful but practice makes perfect!
Happy Sunday. Nicky
Hi Mackie and welcome to the mob.
This thread is full of people from Aust and NZ, mainly because we are all awake at the same time. But everyone is welcome.
Good on you for starting this fabulous way of life. Have you read Michael and Mimi’s book (look on the home page)? Run around the whole website and the forum as all the threads are very interesting and give you lots of different ideas.
This way of life is all about taking individual control of your life, so read as much as you can and GO FOR IT! PVE
Hi Tim,
I’ve realised that there’s a bit of chat about the ol’ B-Sprouts, and I don’t know whether anyone has put up this suggestion…
Sprouts don’t have a bitter taste if you add a slurp of milk to the water you boil them in. If you want to steam them, roll them around in some milky water first. The protein in the milk stops the bitterness developing in the cooking process. Same is true for other so-called bitter greens – broccoli, silver beet, spinach. I love them now.
Smiles,
Ros.
Hi all,
Must have got your advice ahead of time, Purple. Had a lovely trip down to Sorrento (nearly at the end of the Mornington Peninsula, VIC). Bought lots of clothes size 14 rather than 18 or 20, and had lunch of roasted pork belly with gorjuss vegies and a glass of WA merlot at the Sorrento pub. Went walking at several back beach spots in sunshine with rain falling all around in the distance.
Fast day tomorrow and looking forward to “the unbearable lightness of being” movie I think). Probably a pile of tuna salad for lunch and eggs on a vegie stack for dinner. Lots of water and keeping busy. Happy.
Cheers dears
Ros.
G’day Mackie,
Hope you get the tips and tricks you need here. Good to have you along. Slow and easy does the work for living with food rather than dying for it. Canada is my second home emotionally – lived in Vancouver for three years a good while back and never stopped enjoying those memories.
Miles of smiles
Ros.
Hi Ros, fascinating about cooking B sprouts with a dash of milk. I like them steamed/Mwaved and drowned in butter with a sprinkle of black cracked pepper. Never knew them to be know as bitter
or the other veggies for that matter. I only asked if hating Bsprouts was a female thing!
Thats what I love about our group you learn something new every day.
Hi mackie23, I’m also newbie, a month, you will find all the support and advice you could ever want. Its a very friendly mob. All the best on your journey . Do please ask for help its all here for you.
Ros answering your “Smiles” with a Grin.
Cheers,
Tim.
A-ha, now I know the origin of the discussion which I missed along the line, Tim. I’ve known lots of fellers that do not like sprouts or silver beet either, and many say it’s because they find them bitter. I reckon heaps of butter would counteract that most likely, as does the milk protein.
Now I’m grinning…
😉
Ros.
Welcome Mackie
We visit Canada almost every year, as we have family in Calgary. We love Canadians. They are so polite and friendly. 🙂
As a Purple says, the Fast Diet book by Dr Michael Mosley and Mimi is essential reading as you launch into your new way of life. Early fast days are the most challenging as you don’t know what to expect. After a few weeks, you will enjoy!
Hi everyone,
I think sprouts taste better now than they used to, better varieties or something. I’m trying to grow a few in my veggie patch but a recent Landline prog. implied that every bug in creation loves sprouts so I’ll be lucky to get any myself. A childhood special sprout recipe was sprouts with chestnuts (European ones) and bacon, think that was for Christmas dinner – Mum had to boil then de-shell and de-skin the chestnuts, very labour intensive as I found out myself recently.
In my childhood I developed a taste for salt! My father grew amongst other veggies, runner beans (a cold climate climbing bean) and to preserve some of the crop my parents stored them in glass jars, a layer of beans, layer of salt, layer of beans and so on. When the new years bean crop arrived I still wanted to smother the fresh beans with salt… they persuaded me to try beans without salt but they were never as tasty.
Purple – thanks for the cauli rice recipe, I added leek instead of onion because I had one handy, it was delicious.
Hi mackie23 and welcome, I’m newish and delighted with the results of 5:2 and the knowledgeable help from others doing the FD. I’m aiming to get fit as well as drop some kgs so I can keep up with my nearly four year old Canadian grandson who went on a hike with his very fit(Australian) parents last weekend, he walked the whole way! 61km over 4 days. I visit them in four weeks time.
Back to my Tuesday shopping in the big town list – miso soup at the top.
Happy fasting tomorrow, VM
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