Bootsy Badger,
very interesting. I am going to try Rileys thesis, it sounds great. Thanks.

Brie scoffed along with some marzipan(not at the same time)…..clearing out the cupboards now completed.

Hi Steve,
That sounds very interesting and I would like to hear how you get on.I believe that there is a tremendous amount of psychology linked to food consumption and so many mixed and confusing messages about what we should and shouldn’t eat on a daily basis. If it really was as simple as eat less and move more, then we would all be slim.
Perhaps the first step might be to stop seeing this as a diet but as a way of life. I thought that I would collapse in a large heap if I didn’t have breakfast, but I am fine. I thought that I would fall apart at the seams if I didn’t have 7/8 cups of tea…but I am fine.
When I began this, I had large patches of psoriasis on my legs and all over my scalp, but most of all, I was miserable and overweight. I really didn’t believe that I would lose weight fasting for 2 days on 500 calories, I couldn’t see how it was possible after seeing the documentary.I began and started to lose weight slowly, some weeks a lb and some 2 lb. But I also noticed that the weeks that the scales didn’t budge seemed to be the weeks when I was losing fat somewhere.I noticed through my clothes that the rolls of fat were getting less and smaller, that a waist was taking shape, my thighs stopped rubbing together and my clothes were starting to look too big. It was these changes that gave me great joy and the motivation to keep going, I knew it was working, I could see it in the mirror and by the clothes.I had been taking part for 3 months and visited my GP with vertigo-my blood pressure was through the roof. She gave me 3 months to lose more weight or I was going on statins, that was quite and incentive. I never needed the statins my BP was normal, I had lost over 12 inches all over and felt rather fabulous.I also had to explain to my stunned GP what and how the 5;2 is and how it worked. That summer I wore shorts for the very first time in many years, along with sleeveless dresses.
It is clever of you to start now, there will be so much less of you by the summer, so you will be cooler then too.A lb here, an inch there soon adds up to a slimmer new you. This is a positive act for yourself. You are worth it.Perhaps focus on your improving health and then just watch the body shrink. If you want to speed things up, then walk more.You can do it Steve, we are here. If you have a bad day and it all goes wrong, never mind, just do another one instead.
I am really looking forward to the changes that I am going to make in the next 6 weeks.There will be less of us by then, but we just don’t know where it will go from-how exciting.
Just up to 6000 steps, so off for another walk to get up to 10. I will log in with the stats next weekend along with an update of how the no sweets/biscuit/pudding 5 days have been. Fingers crossed.
Good Luck Fast Friends.

Hello Fast Friends,

Hi Bootsy Badger.Yes, back at work for 6 weeks now until half term.I have found a market stall that sells fresh fruit/vegetables x3 times a week at prices much lower than the supermarket. The only catch is the half hour walk each way!

Managed to clock up 16,000 steps before I went to the gym for a bit of running and weights.I have announced to my lunchtime companions that I am not having puddings/biscuits/sweets for this half term. It was OK, I had to be reminded to put the spoon back.Still sticking to x3 mugs of tea and then mindful of what I was eating the rest of the day.My treat at the end of this time will be a pair of silver ear rings that I have fell in love with at the weekend.

Many years ago when I was 22, I used to be a staff nurse with a belt and buckle as part of my uniform. I found this belt over the Christmas holidays and there is a gap of many inches between the two ends.I hope to be able to do it up by the end of the year.

To err is to be human.
Never mind Debbie, lesson learned, tomorrow is another day.

I am struggling with this self inflicted no puds/sweets/cakes malarkey.I haven’t given in, but I am having a wobble on day 4. That said, it has been easier than I thought it would be. I am hoping for good things with the tape measure on Saturday.

Jean!!!!!!!!!!!How lovely to hear from you. I am of the opinion that years of over eating are going to take sometime to adapt, well that’s the case for me. I am very much a work in progress coupled with menopausal conspiracy!I am looking forward to hearing all about your updates.

BB I hope that your mood may lift very soon. Be kind to yourself. I didn’t count any calories at all ever for the first year and continued to lose weight.I find January very hard, but also know that walking helps lift my mood.

I have guessed that there are 6 months until the end of the summer term, which will be approx 24 weeks.That is going to add up to a lot of inches/lbs. I am very much focused on the big long term goal, with lots of little goals in between. It is a marathon and not a sprint.

Morning Fast Friends,
Well done Jean.

I am delighted with a loss of 3 lb and an inch off both my waist and bust. I have had x2 FD, no Ceroc, x1 gym session and have been walking 14,000 steps Mon-Fri. I suspect that my self-imposed no cake/biscuit/sweet rule for the past 5 days has had an impact on the loss, no more empty calories.

I need to lose another 2 lb and some more inches just to get back to where I was before Christmas.But I am still thrilled.It is my Birthday next week, which usually means a trip to the cinema with chocolate, and a meal out with friends as well. Not sure how I will approach either.

It really is very interesting Jean.

I am writing down what I eat every day, with a note of how many steps each day and whether the gym was included too. I have found the no sweets/pudding/cake rule really quite straightforward….and I really think that it has helped to not have that craving for more sugar.I am feeling free of sugar controlling me.

I am cutting down the rice to 50gms/per person and pasta to 75gms/per person now as well. I don’t think that they will notice either!

Onward and downward fast friends, to a slimmer 2015.

I hope so.
I average 14,000 steps Mon-Fri, but then I walk each way 45 minutes=5000 steps
Saturday I managed 16,000. My new toy is what my boys call ‘an old lady trolley’ but it is lime green, aluminium frame so very lightweight. I walked into town once for a date(not something I would ever have contemplated pre 5:2) came home and then went back into town to a very cheap fruit and vegetable stall and filled my little trolley. It was so much easier, I could buy far more and still had the feelings in my fingers! I wish I had gotten one years ago. I gave up car ownership about 4 years ago when I realized that it was too expensive and I could put the money that I was spending on a car, towards my mortgage. I live in a city, so everything is walkable. When I started walking I was 3 stone heavier and thought that I was going to die if I walked for more than half and hour. I work up quite a step hill and used to have to stop every few minutes…..now I walk up without a second thought. I have come a long way way from that grey, wheezing, slow, sweating heap of humanity.

Morning Fast Friends,
It has been a tough week and I have been exhausted. I have now eaten all of the remaining Christmas Cake and anything else I could get my hands on, but I have written everything down.I am surprisingly the same weight, which is rather fabulous.
A 3 part programme has been on this week Horizon-What’s the right diet for you?(BBC 2)with the stark figures that 11 million people in the UK are on a diet and 80% will fail.The theory is that people put on weight for different reasons and thus need different approaches to weight loss.The 3 tribes are emotional eaters-eat when depressed or anxious, the constant cravers who always want something to eat and the feasters who have a weak gut hormone that fails to tell them that they are full. Michael has put a link to this on the home page.
I always thought that I was an emotional eater, not so. I am mostly a constant craver and thus x2 days fasting is perfect for me. I also learned that the moment that you have carbohydrates, the body switches off fat burning. I shall have to re-think what I have on a FD when I am at work, to make sure that I just consume protein and leaves. Rather than get home from work, cold and tired, then have toast and peanut butter, I shall have my homemade vegetable soup that is sitting in the freezer. I am going to continue to work on cutting out cakes/biscuits/puddings/sweets-just another bad habit that are full of empty calories.
Fast Days will now comprise of meat, fish, eggs and vegetables only.
Soup seems to be really good at filling you up for a long time.
One of the Proffs commented that diets don’t fail because of lack of will power, but because of bad habits. Rather empowering, I thought.
I have nailed the tea habit and I thought that it was going to be much harder than it actually was, so now onwards with the snacking of sugar filled nonsense.If you can see the 3 programmes then worth it just to see the model of what 1 lb and 5 lb of fat look like-they are huge-no wonder inches are lost when fat is burned!
My average daily steps are 14,000 Mon-Fri. I need to work quite hard at getting anywhere near that at the weekend….and it is freezing here in the UK.

Hi BB,
I had an Almond Croissant on my birthday which is my favourite cake in the whole world. We have also had apple crumble and ice cream post roast dinner in this freezing weather.I have decided that I will enjoy pudding on Sunday and avoid it as much as possible the rest of the time.I wandered round the shops and saw lots of lovely new spring clothes, but I will not be buying any of them. I will buy myself some new ones in the autumn, when these ones are too big!

I found that I had started to slip in a few carbs on a FD. So, back to just protein and leaves tomorrow, soup in the evening and perhaps an early night.I am not looking forward to my walk to work tomorrow in -2C.

Thank you so much for your kind words. I am glad that you have found the post useful and are thrilled with the new measurements. It is brilliant isn’t it?

FD for me today which means no breakfast but a cup of tea. Lunch was leek and potato soup followed by some brie and salad.Just off to the gym now for a few weights(vanity driven for short sleeves in the summer!)and a bit of running. I shall have some salmon and peas for tea-delicious.

How is everyone getting on?

Morning Fast Friends,
I am still working on losing the festive lbs/inches, but another 2 lb and 1 inch off the hips.I have no doubt that cutting out a lot of the puddings/chocolate/biscuits has really helped plus x3 short trips to the gym. I am delighted that I can lift a bit more weight, but lots more reps. The goal is trim and toned upper arms.
I also have trousers that are too tight to wear, but every week that goes by, I am a little bit closer to not only doing up the zip, but getting to a point where they will look good on. I suspect another month or two until that mini goal.I have another 2 lb and half inch off the waist just to get back to where I was just before Christmas. There will not be any Christmas Cake in this house next year!
I realized that I shall have another graduation to attend this summer when my 3rd son finishes university. I have worn the same dress to the other 2, but would love a new, smaller one this year.Quite an incentive!
My shopping trolley means that I am hauling more food home(stronger/toned arms) and getting more steps in at the weekend.
Weird thing happened at work yesterday. It has been a hell of a week and I decided to treat myself with a pudding, halfway through eating it, I realized that the thought of it was better than the actual experience. Not sure that I will bother with that one again.I seem to be losing the desire for sugar…hurray!