Thanks PVE. Will try the c-rice. I had visions of shar-pei-like post-fasters in bikinis sporting “5:2” tattoos.

Hi everyone, Doing fast day 3, didn’t have any food until 1pm. It seems a lot better. I had 1cup of 0 points WW soup which I gestermate to be around 50cals 2 Ryvita’s 81cals with 50grms cottage cheese 43cals.174cals used so far,does this sound right? I’m hopping to be able to have some cals left tonight so I can have a banana before I go to bed. On Saturday I made a pizza using cauliflower as the crust, it was really great. Have a great day everyone.

I won’t go into a vivid description. Suffice to say the only advantage of being overweight was a cleavage!

Thanks for the advice ihaw. I went to a physio this morning. I’m strapped up, drugged up and lying flat watching the replay of Gough’s memorial service as I missed it last week. No food yet, so I’m doing well. P

Thanks Bay
I think you can handle the wisdom of the elders 😉 P

Loving the posts! 🙂

Purple Vegie Eater you are inspiring me!! (and giving me a good giggle too)

And joining in the nervousness about the hot summer on the way – we are currently in the process of plumbing up a diesel water pump eventually to have a full sprinkler system on the house and should be having a bunker installed any day now . . . then bring it on! Although might need new firesuits after we lose all this weight. LOL.

Hubby & I each lost more than 1kg last week AND that was even being naughty and having fish & chips on Friday night, although we split 1 piece of fish instead of having 1 each (which we always say we will do but then never do – until now!) and a lot of the chips ended up in the bin. Don’t know if it will last or this is the honeymoon phase of this diet but we just didn’t feel like eating until we were disgustingly full. We just stopped! Very proud. 🙂

Hello everyone, I live in Hobart, started 5:2 on 17 October, excited to be loosing weight after so many years, finally under 100kgs in 2 years! Averaging about 400 – 600 grams a week now, first weeks was about 1kg a week. Is this about right? Also, any tips are most appreciated.

Cheers

Di

Keep the main goal in mind folks. This woe is for the long term health benefits. If you start overweight you should experience a gradual drop to your ideal weight. It might not be fast but it IS sustainable.
If you were healthy in your late 20s, early 30s, that is probably the weight you should be for most of your life. If you are heavier now, for whatever reason, your body simply needs less energy input now. You might be more sedentary, your metabolism may have slowed with age, but these are not excuses to be overweight and unhealthy.
Fasting allows your body to reset itself back to healthy eating patterns and actually stop craving the unhealthy food choices.
You have taken control of your own life by choosing this wol. Be very proud of yourselves!
Sermon over. P 🙂

PVE, that is exactly how it is for me. I was the same consistent, healthy weight all my life until I got pregnant at 38. My weight stabilised back to normal after my first two pregnancies but for some reason after my third it just would not get back. Starting 5:2 got me back on track to my previous eating habits (well getting there anyway). My recent illness threw me off track and I’m finding it hard to get back to the fasting way of life. I have great intentions but so far they have all failed. 🙁 Oh well, I’ll try again tomorrow.
HB

Thank you so much for the encouragement. Really appreciated. It certainly is a fantastic WOL. Shakes and diet companies just don’t compare (and I have tried).

Sorry to hear HB, as with my third pregnancy at 35, my weight spiraled out of control, until now at 46 I finally found something that works. Just keep trying one week at a time. After all its not just the weight loss, its long term benefits.

Cheers

Di

I guess you are human HB 😉

Well done on your PB Nicky!
Keep cool SA folk. We have cold and overcast over here, but your heatwave is due Friday…will give me a chance to exercise safely in the pool. P

Hi and welcome Leepster
Of course. Start with a fast day. Plan to eat 400-500 calories tomorrow. Get hold of Michael’s book, but you can work out your TDEE and therefore what your maximum fast day level is on the calculator on the home page of this site.

Choose leafy salads and lean protein.

Start tonight after dinner. Eat 1/4 of your daily needs (TDEE) tomorrow and resume normal eating on Friday morning.

You can divide your calories (400-500) between 1,2 or 3 meals. No snacks, no alcohol or soft drinks. No milk in tea or coffee.

You could have an egg for breakfast, then a salad (lettuce, carrot, tomato, capers) and a little smoked salmon for dinner. Or go as long as possible and have a hard boiled egg and lettuce for lunch, then the salmon salad for dinner. Drink lots of water.

Your food is only limited by your imagination. Go for bulk and flavour over calorie dense foods (potatoes, rice, flour, pasta, sugar, alcohol, soft drinks are calorie dense)

There are recipes in a variety of places on this site, but it depends on your tastes. Read labels. Google foods to find out how many calories they contain. Record everything and plan your food today.

Record all your body measurements as you’ll be surprised how they change.
All the best. PVE

No Monica
You can eat or consume whatever you likewithin the cal count, but a wise choice is to eat filling, low cal foods. Two cuppas would be nearly 100 calories and not very filling. Some people like herbal teas.
Another trick is Slendier noodles in the health food section of Coles. 8 calories per serve. Rinse well and stir into a flavoursome veg ‘stir fry’…onion, garlic, ginger, chilli, spinach, celery, pasta. Very filling. Throw in 50 gms each of cubed fish like swordfish. Voilà! PVE

Dont know if this has been posted before as I am relatively new here, but I have been using an app called EasyDietDiary and it is Australian, so all of our brands of products making it much easier to track. Also has a barcode scanner for any foods you cant find on the list, and an area where you can create your own recipes. I have found this particularly helpful as it works out the portion sizes for you and calculates all the macros, including cals of course.
As for milk in the coffee, well I measure out a small glass of milk each day and just use it to add to my coffee. It means I can include the cals upfront and once its gone, then no more milk for the day. This has worked well for me as I cant stand the thought of black coffee, lol 😉

Hi HB

Just take one day at a time, as Purple says. I found it a breeze to fast from February to April when I was losing lots of weight. Now that I am maintaining, I have to remind myself to fast for the health benefits. I have been maintaining this same healthy weight for four months, however, I have dropped a size in clothing during this time. I believe this is the health benefit of fasting. 😆

Whenever I eat sweet things, I find it much harder to fast on the following day. So I try to have a small treat on the day after my fast, rather than the day before. Be kind to yourself. We are in this long term for health gains.

Cheers, Bay 🙂

OzzyLass where do I find the app I have a Samsung phone and went to the play store but cannot locate one with this name any help appreciated.

Monica

Hello.. Just started today and feeling not too bad. Had a boiled egg and carrot for lunch, smoked salmon and salad for dinner.. Does anyone else think about food more, i find i am psyching myself up to get through the fast day.. And end up thinking about food more than usual. Does this pass once you’ve been doing it for a while?
I have stacks of weight to lose, and i think i can realistically keep this diet up, so i am glad there are these forums for tips and support, and i dont have to spend a lot of money.
I have about 3 different calorie counting apps, they all have different numbers, is it better to go by the packaging.. Or the app? And which app is best for us aussies?
Final question.. Does anyone have any good tips for measuring food? The idea of weighing everything just stresses me out a bit.
I look fwd to talking to some of you here and good luck everyone!

Welcome newbies, especially Leepster in Perth. Glad to see you back HB – we started the same week.

Well done on your new low Nicky. 13 weeks into this and I’ve been stuck on a weight for the past 3 weeks so I take heart from your nice drop after the 4 week plateau. As PVE and Bay keep telling us, it’s a slow & life-long change so hopefully I’m enjoying some other health benefits while I wait for the weight to shift.

Lovely fast day yesterday, my staple 30 gms oats with ½ tsp honey 124 cals, cauliflower soup for lunch 103 cals, and Chinese Chow Mein for dinner 170 cals – leaving plenty of wiggle room for a boiled egg 90 cals, when we came back from the movies in the evening. Didn’t feel hungry all day.

As the newbies have been asking for ideas, here’s the cauliflower soup recipe given to me by a friend who I turned on to this WOE. I gave the other portion to OH to supplement his dinner and he thought it was delicious. Would have been even better if I’d remembered the cayenne.

Serves 2, 103 cals per serving.

400g cauliflower, chopped (100)
2 cloves garlic (8)
1 medium onion (38)
2 cups chicken stock (15)
2 tbs light sour cream (44)
½ tsp pepper
pinch nutmeg
¼ tsp cayenne

Dice onion and garlic, saute in a little hot water on very low heat until soft. Add cauliflower, pepper, stock, bring to low boil. Cook 10-15 mins until soft. Blend. Return to pan, add nutmeg, cayenne, extra water and seasoning as necessary. Warm up and stir through sour cream.

Eat slowly and enjoy!

Hi Everyone. I’m new to the forum, but started the Fast Beach Diet on 20 October, hoping to reach my goal by Christmas. Managed 4 kg loss so far and on track. A couple of tips/suggestions that help me for those who are interested…
1. Easy Diet Diary – available through App Store only at this stage. While I dont have an iphone, I do have an ipad and it works just as well on this. I keep track of everything. Keeps me busy and mindful of everything I eat/drink.
2. Couldn’t find Slendier noodles but did find Changs Super Lo Cal Wok ready noodles in Coles – cheaper than Slendier and essentially same product (10 cals/serve).
3. I have found Hikari Instant Wakame Miso Soup sachets very useful on Fast Days – 28 cals/sachet – as a late morning snack. Keeps me going till luchtime.
PS. I don’t work for any of these companies!
Good luck to all – happy fasting.

Hi Robbie J,
You may think that weighing food is a pain, but it really helps at the start. Over time you come to understand how much of things you can eat, and it really helps get some weight off in the first few weeks.
Remember though this is not just a diet but a lifestyle change, that is you are committing your health to this for the rest of your life, and it is very doable. I have been doing this for a year now and in that time have lost more than 25kg. My long term goal is to be half the person I was. There are others here that have been going even longer than that like Purple, Bay and IHAW, and they have attained great results.
Two things to remember, be gentle to yourself and take it one day at a time, and at the start measure, measure, measure, both your food and your body, you wil be amazed with the results.
Here endth the sermon.
I have had two great fast days this week as I was totally distracted doing other things. Monday with our brigade we burnt 10 kilometres of roadside fire breaks and today we mustered cows for preg testing. Monday night dinner was at 10-30pm, by then I was past feeling hungry so had a tiny bit of fish with a small salad, tonight I have a meeting so light salad before I go.
To all the newbies welcome,I hope you enjoy your journey and the results are what you seek, this is all about us being in control.
Have a great weekend folks
Charlie

I actually find I enjoy weighing the food and working out how much I am allowed. Like some sort of maths word problem brought to life . . . plus, you really realise just how much you eat on a daily basis.

One tip is that we keep a few different low cal pre-packed foods around (i.e. vegimite & crackers snack pack, mini tubs of yogurt – like for kids’ lunches) not the healthiest or most filling of options but if you are short on time you know you can grab X amount of those. I try to keep each option to under 100cal so I know I can use 5 & hubby 6.

If you already have a good plan for what you are going to eat, then you don’t have to think about it. I am fine as long as I don’t have to make a decision when I’m hungry – then I’m just a big pile of grumpy.

The first few fast days were easy – on the 2nd one I didn’t even eat all of the food I had allocated myself (!) but today I have really been struggling. Not helping now that I am baking for an office lunch tomorrow. BUT I know I will enjoy the indulgence tomorrow all the more having been strong today.

And reading these posts really helps keep me going. THANKS for sharing your experiences.

Thanks for the encouragement folks.. Second fast day and going ok, a bit tired this arvo but i might be tired anyway!
Great tip kazz on the prepared snack idea, i will try that.
thanks Charlie, i dont mind weighing the food just wondered if there were some tips like a handful of mushrooms is x calories, that kinda thing..
I find some of the apps arent always that accurate even with weighing food, like i had 2 crispbreads, lite from aldi, and 2tsps of hummus.. Willow creek brand.. That gave me some slightly different results across the board, i use MyFitness pal, Fat Secret and Calorie King.
I guess as i go along i will remember what certain food is worth.. Or not worth it! (I passed on a skinny capp today thinking no, thats one apple or more)

Robbie, Kate Harrison’s 5 : 2 Diet book and her recipe book both have a really good section with lists of common foods and normal quantities. It’s available through Booktopia online. Has some really practical suggestions and recipes too. PVE

As kazzandtater said, thank you for sharing all your experiences everyone, it does help me stay on track, especially the tips and recipes. I’m not much of a cook so I do struggle with that!

Just a tip RobbieJ, I buy chicken breasts, weigh what I’m allowed to have, and freeze it in the small portions. Seems to work, and doesn’t take long to defrost, then I just use it in a stir fry (I buy the packaged stuff at Woolies).

Happy 5:2-ing

Di

Thanks for that PVE, will search for the turkey, not so easy to find in Tassie though.

Just a bit excited, had to use a pin to keep my trousers up today!