Dear everyone – I have been “lurking” for long enough! This thread is the first thing I look at on my fast days – Mondays and Thursdays – and always find inspiration! Have been fasting since mid October after picking up the book – lost 12lbs up to Christmas (stopped on 21 Dec and put 5lb back on over Christmas/New Year/January birthday period) but hey ho I plan to be in this for the long haul so not panicking at all! They’ve almost all gone again and hopefully will have got rid of the last of those pesky 5lbs by the end of this week and be back to normal. Will kick up the PC tomorrow morning to read as usual – but now I’ve blown my cover!
Carolyn x

well Annette you can’t give up pudding for February because it doesnt rhyme!! We have a dry July for alcohol free (so nice little rhythm to that ) but searching through the months it looks like enjoying pudding has to stay.

Great achievement, Annette, to start a thread and end up with a community of fast friends! Really nice to hear some new voices too in recent days!

I’m struggling to get anywhere close to my target at the moment – I seem to be hovering around the weight I was at the start of December before the Christmas break. I managed not to gain more than a pound or two over Christmas but did get used to eating cake and biscuits again, which is a pity.

Ive just got a part time tutoring job and take along home made cake or biscuits for my students for our coffee break – and if there is any left over, Im not very good at resisting it for the rest of the week!

In addition, Im finding it difficult to stick to 500 calories on fast days. I do most of the hard work and then eat too much at supper! I need to get some will power back if those last few pounds are to vanish!

Ive changed my fast days to Monday and Thursday rather than Tuesday and Thursday – and having a two day gap inbetween does feel quite a luxury. I dont think I could handle two low calorie days in a row like you Annette! But can quite understand your reluctance to do without the sticky toffee pudding!!

Feeling a tad despondent this morning! I restarted this way of eating a couple of weeks ago after a few weeks off due to me taking up a temporary contract which required being on my feet 12 hrs/day running to and from a stock room. I have re-started with a much more honest approach than I had prior to Christmas. No drinking alcohol on a fast day (yes, I really did do that), no sneaking high calorie nuts on a fast day (after said alcohol), sticking to 500 cals strictly and exercising like a woman possessed. Yesterday (a fast day for me) I headed to the gym and did my HIIT on the treadmill (I used to be a personal trainer so I know a thing or two about HIIT and I know that I was working out really hard), I did a full body weights workout too. This I am doing three days a week. I am fairly active outside of the gym walking my dog and when it’s not raining I try to walk everywhere as I hate trying to park a large car in a minuscule space! I have even adopted a low carb approach (still eating lots of veg) to control my sweet tooth and have cut down on the wine hugely (at least three days a week off and only a couple of glasses the other days). Two weeks ago I was 11st 7lbs. This morning I was disappointed to read that I am up a pound a half! It’s not near my time of the month, what on earth is going on inside me?! I am 43 years old, was 9st 7lbs in my early to mid 30s. The weight used to fly off me with a similar regime back then. I do feel and think I look better and people have mentioned I look slimmer but when I’m a stone and a half – two stones away from my goal and not losing, it’s very depressing! Any advice would be appreciated. 🙁

Thank you Reluctant multi-tasker! You are absolutely right in all your suggestions. I will start to use MFP app again. I do feel better without the wine so a weekend only approach is what I’ll aim for. Years ago I would be able to just diet and continue to indulge in my Chardonnay habit. I guess it’s more of a fight in your 40s! Have you been doing this long? How close are you to your goal? 🙂

Bought a pair of size 12 jeans today which amazingly fit fine. ( even after lunch out at the all you can eat Chinese buffet for my husband’s birthday) I’m aiming for 10st at the moment so another 3lbs to go but may try 9st 12lb. See how it goes,no pressure now after having lost over 2st. Now what should I do with my size 16s and 14s?

Aw thanks Cathyork. I think you’re right about the charity shop thing though isn’t there always the temptation to hang on to them ‘just in case’ arrrggghhh-think positive!!!!

Sonunda, congrats on your loss! God, how I’d love to be so close to seeing the number 9 on the scales! Get rid of the big jeans. There’s no going back that way!

Hi Ali43 – we will all celebrate with you when you see the 9 on the scales! I’m sure you’ll get there – you sound quite a determined person! My weight has fluctuated quite a lot between 10 and 9 in recent weeks and it seems a long process to get sufficiently below the 10 mark to feel like Ive achieved what I set out to do.

Hope the MyFitnessPal helps – it can be quite a revelation to find that a seemingly healthy juice drink that you’ve picked up at a cafe has quite a few calories in it that you’d rather have had in food form! Im certainly watching what I drink now as it seems the easiest way of avoiding sugar etc. Sparkling mineral water and lime is my way of coping with fast days – and a lot of tea (though I cant do without milk).

Good luck with the no wine regime till Friday! It should taste even nicer for the wait!

Hello all

I love reading so many posts and when you feel you need that bit of extra motivation to keep going
I started 5.2 last wednesday, fasted yesterday and this Fri also fasting. I sat and watched the documentary which I found online of 5.2 and really wanted a change in eating so thought I would give it a try
I have found it so easy and do not feel hungry, fast days can be tough. I normally weigh in on a Tuesday and lost 2 inches from my body, not bad but scales stayed the same, I remember reading alot of posts saying it takes sometimes a week or so for the scales to show.
I was going to my local rosemary conley class and struggling to keep to 1300 cals a day, basically starving myself, but 5.2 is so easy
I have also noticed my clothes are looser, I do not have a lot to lose, only around 10 lbs, I do hope this works for me as love it
Hope those scales move…..

Hi arla
Measurements far more significant than the scales, I would say! That’s why Annette’s original post has been so helpful to people. Weight fluctuates for so many reasons, and if your clothes are looser, that’s wonderful. Well done for staying patient though!

That truly sucks! May it change in the future for us both.

Heard a woman being interviewed on the radio today. She spent £5,000 having 9lbs of fat removed via surgery. I’m sticking to the 5:2.

@hermajtomomi Yes that really would suck! [and insert other expletives of choice]. I too rarely drink, have never smoked, don’t eat junk food (there isn’t much of it that is gluten/dairy/soy/potato free), and though I don’t exercise as much as I used to (specialist advice rules out most things that are fat burning) and don’t overeat. The last gets assumed a lot! I shake my fist at my dang PCOS belly. I grew up eating whole food and have always preferred sharp/sour tasting food. Too many things out there are far too sweet {ick/shudder} for me to like.

Is allergy season for me so my asthma = poor core at this time of year. I am going to take up planking this weekend (the exercise not the silly social media thing).

It seems my fingers are thinner – I’ve lost 2 rings in 5 days. The first one I got back cos it was at work and somebody handed it in. But last night’s ring is gone 🙁

Exactly! 2 years ago I suddenly felt really unwell & as it was the day after Boxing Day, my normal GP’s practice was closed. So I went to one I’d been to before, but got a different doc who was obsessed with why wasn’t my high blood pressure being treated + my BMI was too high. He wouldn’t listed to the fact that I’d had very low BP all my life, and that I had several of the symptoms women have for heart attacks. He didn’t do a cardiac enzyme test & told me to take Gaviscon for the unbelievably bad heartburn where I couldn’t sleep. Saw my doc 3 days later and my BP was almost in the stroke zone. Took 8 months to get it under control & another 5 months after that it turns out that it was my gall bladder the whole time! But not the typical stuck stones.

I’ve got all the CT scans & ultrasounds to prove my heart is fabulous, and so was everything else (but the gallbladder). The specialist never said that if I lost weight it would fix it … it might help but wasn’t the cause (a work colleague of mine is has been his patient since he was 35, and he’s a whippet thin cyclist).

I’m hoping that in another 2 weeks I’ll have lost some weight as well as another inch or 2. I’ve got a couple of plastic costume jewellery rings that I’ll wear until my rings fit on the next finger. I’ve worn a ring for 33 years so it feels wrong not to have something.

wah-hey, this morning I dropped to 100g over my starting weight. The lowest I’ve been in the 6 weeks. (Weighed today as I’m away for the weekend so want to use the same scales for consistency).

Finally below my start weight (lost another 1kg since Friday). 😀

started on 7th Jan this year but have only lost 5lb. 1.5 inch from my hips and 2 from my waist. Today is supposed to be a fast day but I have lost motivation and havent stuck to it today 🙁

5lbs and a total of 3.5 inches since 7 Jan is pretty good going and nothing to be discouraged about, Angela.

Could it be that a) you only have a small amount of weight to lose? or b) you already eat healthily so that the change to 5:2 is far less dramatic than for someone who has previously been consuming loads of fat, sugar, etc?

Also do watch out for some very rewarding side effects, like reductions in blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose, and generally starting to look really great. You may also be losing inches in bits we don’t measure. So do hang on in there if you can.

Great news, arla. The downward trend seems to have begun. I daren’t go near the scales as I’m pretty sure I’ll get the same old, same old – still stuck with a loss of 6 or just possibly 6 1/2 kilos since the beginning of Feb 2013. The temptation to throw the wretched scales through the window – without bothering to open the window first – is much too great!

My clothes are getting tighter! Only because I’m replacing my size 16s with size 12s! Getting used to the feeling of going into a shop,picking a size 12 and it fitting,which I’ve done 3 times this week. One dress was actually on the large side,though the jeans are fairly snug due to my ‘traditional’ build and sporty thighs! Over 15kgs gone since July-not far to go now so no particular hurry,don’t think I’ll get much smaller. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone.

Thanks,Freefalling. Hope you get there soon. (I’d better step away from the Doritos if I don’t want you to ‘overtake’ me!)

hello my fast friends, so good to see all of you, welcome to our new friends. life has rather run me over of late, so I haven’t been here much. missed a few fast days because I just couldn’t manage with the doctors visits, physical therapy etc. thankfully the weight has stayed pretty stable (not a lot of energy for eating either, 🙂 ) still a bit brain dead, so need to go. just wanted to say Hi and encourage everyone to not give up. I am sure this way of life is the way to give ourselves the best chance of good health and skinny jeans. 🙂 hugs Phyllis

Desert Island Discs is a great choice for the iPod, annette, with its mix of music and speech, which is sometimes more interesting than the music especially when the castaway isn’t a household name. I didn’t realise you were down in Somerset. Hope you are managing to stay safe and dry. Touch wood, we haven’t suffered much in theis part of North London – so far at least.

Phyllis, it sounds as though you are having a trying time, but you also come across as a lovely foxy lady who won’t let things get her down. Hang on in there. xx.