Hi, I have ‘tried’ 5:2 on a couple of occasions, the most recent being 2 years ago. I really liked it – why then, you may ask, did I not bloody well continue?? Good question is my response but the reason I had to take a break from it was that I am a binge eater and found that all too often I ‘rewarded’ myself on non-fast days with a binge thus undoing all the good work of the fast days. I kept going for a few weeks thinking that at least I would be getting other benefits from fasting but as my main goal was weight loss I was finding I was gaining more weight than ever. So I took the decision to stop and take stock of myself before attempting another go.
I have worked on my mental self a lot over the last couple of years and introduced a couple of changes:-
1. I joined Slimming World in order to have a weekly weigh in – I have tried not weighing myself before but gained 2 extra stones this way, and I don’t follow the SW plan because although it works for some, the idea of having to choose foods from various lists and counting syns automatically puts me in self sabotage mode.
2. I gave up most sugar in March 2016 – I eat foods which are considered Low sugar which is classed as foods which have 5g or less per 100g of the ‘Carbohydrates of which sugars’ measure. I don’t include fruit in that because I feel the goodness in fruit outweighs the bad, and fruit does not give me the urge to binge. My binges always included crisps, chocolate, and ice cream – so removing the sugar option means that I only binge on crisps, and although I can easily eat 18 bags of crisps over a few hours, not having the chocolate and ice cream in addition to the crisps means I save a lot of cals overall. And any good seasoned binger will recognise the swap from sweet to savoury and then back to sweet cycle of a binge happens because you get full of the savoury stuff so move on to the sweet stuff, then you have enough of the sweet stuff so go back to savoury. It sounds pretty disgusting to a non binger I know, but you tend to eat more when you switch between sweet and savoury. So for me, even though I still binge, only having the crisps and not moving to the sweet option means that the binges are short and less calorific. The binges are less often now too and I think this is down to them not being so enticing now that they ONLY contain vast quantities of crisps.
The changes I have made mean that I generally stick to 3 meals per day, and when I do binge (less often), it is over quicker, and with less calories.
I have lost 1.5 stones (21lbs) over the past year or so which altho I’m proud of it, it is very slow progress, and I feel ready to add the next small change in.
So I am going to start by introducing 1 fast day per week throughout January, and if this works well I will move to 2 fast days from February. For me, the all or nothing approach does not work for me as I go into self sabotage mode. Lots of counting and measuring also don’t work for me but I think counting 500 cals for 1 or 2 days per week will be fine.
So whether you are new to 5:2 or are re-starting in Jan after a break, and whether you are a binger like me or not, it would be good to hear from you and what your goals are for 2017.
xx
10:34 am
27 Dec 16