Danke, ebenfalls!! Let me know how you’re getting on tomorrow. I’m looking forward to another fast day after eating a lot of Indian takeaway for dinner (although I actually probably ate less than before fasting but felt fuller quicker…) I found ta that my TDEE is only about 1645 cals so I need to be careful on non-fast days. I had 2000 in my head but I’m too small and not active enough for that it seems!! 🙂

Let me know how you get on with the banana pancakes! I eat one nearly every day for breakfast at the moment because I find them so filling and they are refined sugar and refined carb free! A 250 calorie breakfast that keeps me going til mid-afternoon- perfect! Have a great weekend 🙂

Great!! I love them too. Yes, turning is tricky, mine usually breaks but it still tastes good! Have a good run and a good Sunday. Great weigh-in!! I’m waiting to weigh in til Saturday now. The holiday week of (hopefully) salads, fish and veg and not too much pizza and ice cream (for me anyway) begins! I’ve packed my running things and plan to run at least twice after skipping breakfast and before a light lunch :)) I’ll check in next week! All the best! Cheers 🙂

Hi Refinnej, you can have what ever you want, just keep to under 500 calories.
Most of my calories on fast days come from milk in cuppas! 😉

Hi Natasha

When you say youre addicted to food are you eating way too much veggies and whole fruit? Or is it more your sugary treats like chocolate, cakes, biscuits? If its the latter then youre not addicted to food as such, its just sugar that your addicted to. That will take about a month to detox from.

That treat kitty has disaster written all over it. When I started my 5:2 diet I told everyone at work. Doing that worked for me. Damned if I was going to “fail” in front of everyone. In the end they would even tempt me (all in good fun) but it just made my resolve even stronger. Id tell your friend that you cant join in any treats anymore as you’ve started the 5:2 diet.

Hi Beck, hi everyone,

Sorry, I was off the radar on holiday til late last night. As i expected, I didn’t fast and I didn’t even run but it was a very active week. I won’t go on the scales til tomorrow, going to try and do a fast day today, although it will be hard. In-laws are still here til Friday, but their other son who lives with them sometimes does 5:2 so they won’t think I’m completely bonkers.

Beck- well done, sounds like you’ve done really well. You Friday fast day that ended with beer and food is exactly like mine a couple of weeks ago. Sounds like you handled it really well. Have you seen the magic 59?

Natasha- I understand your struggles. I’ve have had various colleagues with whom I’ve ended up getting into bad habits. And I agree, the first few weeks of getting into this way of eating is hard. I’m worried, now having this week off, if I’ll be able to get back into it and get past the three week barrier. I was so gung-ho and I know I will be again if I can do two (or three days) to make up for last week. That’s why I want to do today and then hopefully Tuesday and Thursday or Friday as well.

I’ve read a few tips on here about getting through the first few fast days. One is to have a beef oxo cube as a drink. And you could even chop up a mushroom in there and so you have something to chew on. It comes in at about 20/ 25 cals. I definitely find getting through to the afternoon on no cals or just milk in tea or a beef broth works well. Then I can prepare a salad slowly and eat it around 5-6 and then still have a bit to play around with. Celery sticks and low calorie cottage cheese is also something substantial looking for very few calories. Have the right food available and the wrong food not available and plan a fast day meticulously.

Good luck everyone- have a great Sunday! I really hope I don’t see 60 on the scales tomorrow (my goal is 55kg- (I’m really small)). The lowest I have seen in the lat few weeks is 59.3 but then it went back up to 59.5, 59.7… then time of the month bloating stopped me from taking readings seriously. I hope that despite the holiday week, a better time of the month will boost my reading tomorrow!

Cheers! FrauB 🙂

Hi everyone, thanks for your positivity and encouragement. I have successfully completed my fast day today! (Well it’s not over yet, but I have done so well that I won’t sabotage) I have been at home all day with my son and have even been at the cooker making him several different meals to freeze and store and I didn’t give in. To be fair, I have had one of those days where I didn’t feel that I struggled at all, which was really nice. I had lentil and bacon soup for dinner which came in at 263 cals but I’m going to round it to 300 as I had a splash of whole milk on my morning tea and a few bits of grapes with my son for dinner. So I actually have about 130 call left! Beck I noticed you mentioned fruit, is that something you do regularly? I tend to avoid fruit because of the sugar content, but I would love a banana to round off the day.

Bigbooty I am not necessarily addicted to sugar, though I do eat too much chocolate and other such things. My problem is that I use food for many more things than to combat hunger. If I am sad, cold, tired, unwell, in pain etc I just eat. Toast with butter at midnight is me all over – I’m a textbook comfort eater.

Beck your lentil and chicken meal sounds lovely, how do you prepare it?

FrauB, that tip about the beef oxo cube sounds lovely, I think it could be a lifesaver on hard days. I, like you, try to have all of my calories in the evening. I find it makes for a much more satisfied tummy when I go to bed.

Hooray for a successful Day 1! (Again…)

Hope you all had a lovely weekend, cheers to you all and to a successful week of 5.2 xxx

Hi Natasha, I just read your post! I was busy writing and didn’t see it pop up. Congratulations!! Getting a very successful fast day in the bag is just fantastic! Here’s to another one sometime this week! It sounds like you just got into the zone if you could be in the kitchen all day and still manage it. My first fast day this time around I pretty much lay in bed all day manically reading this forum and the AFD book, drinking glasses of water and tea and feeling crappy about all the work I should have doing while my kids were in daycare. Anyway, well done again, keep us updated with how you feel and how you get on with your next fast day! Cheers 🙂

I love eating. I live to eat (not eat to live) and planning and cooking meals and eating out gives me a lot of pleasure. That also means I sometimes eat for reasons other than hunger. What has worked for me in recent years is to, on a normal weekday, have dinner with the kids or early, by 6pm and then not eat again in the evening. I tell myself it’s because I can’t sleep on a full stomach and it’s also a left over of experimenting with food windows after trying 5:2 two years ago. That way I don’t drink alcohol during the week (on a normal week day) and I don’t eat chocolate or fix a snack in the evening. I drink Roibos or peppermint tea. On the downside it has led to me feeling justified in having a sweet treat straight after lunch which I have found really hard to control. But, 5:2 is helping me shake that habit and the no eating in the evening habit is so fixed now, that if I get the sweet treat after lunch under control I will feel I am winning in my battle against sugary treats.

Anyway, today is a fast day for me and so far so good. I have had two cups of tea with a splash of milk and a roibos with no milk. Going to get on with some computer work and house work now over lunchtime and then maybe have a lentil broth before I pick the kids up if I feel faint and hungry. If not, I’ll wait and eat something with them around 5:30. I have mushrooms in for a mushroom omelette or stuff for a salad. I’ll just see what I feel like.

Good luck everyone and all the best!
cheers
FrauB

Hi everyone! Beck, don’t worry about laughing. It was funny, in a pathetic kind of way and I can certainly laugh about it now, especially as my fast day behaviour has improved… 🙂 I know what you mean about missing wine (and cigs) and chats with your husband. Pre-kids we were much more likely to crack open the vino of an evening and in the summer sit in a hammock outside. BUT- you should still find a way to enjoy a chat together in the evening without cigs and alcohol. My husband works away a lot of the week but when he is here, we try to have a cup of roibos and put our computers away for an hour before bed. Don’t always manage it though… That’s something I’m hoping will change when we move to SE Asia in July. We’ll actually have a lot more time together and he’ll have a lot more time at home.

Anyway, fast day went well yesterday. I had an oxo broth (with mushroom for the first time) before I picked the kids up and then ate a mushroom omelette and salad when they had their tea. then I had a small bowl of fresh mango and yogurt and two strawberries. This morning I did a 5k jog before I broke my fast with my trusty old banana pancake. So filling!!! And the best news of all was my good reading on the scales this morning. I started this diet on 1st May and today is 1st of June, so I can say that in May I lost 3 kilos! I got 58.7 today- first time seeing 58 for while!! I am much more realistic about goals than at the beginning of May and so my goal for June is to lose a kilo, or just over. i.e. see 57.5. Because to be sure, 2 of the 3 kilos I lost in May were water etc and the mandatory skewing of readings by doing a purposeful heavy weigh-in for the first weigh-in (serial dieters will know what I mean :)). So I am now perfectly happy to lose a kilo a month and reach my ultimate goal of 55kg (BMI 24) by August/ September.

Anyway, for all the fasters today- good luck!
Beck- that’s great that you’ve got NFDs under control and are feeling good about it. Importantly, fast days are becoming routine and easy for you and I think that is amazing. I did 8 fast days in May and I hope to do 8 (or more) in June too.

All the best everyone, cheers, FrauB 🙂

Hi Pissupoosa- (cool name!)
I just crumble a whole beef oxo cube into a big mug and add water (and lots of black pepper). Yesterday tried the mushroom trick too and liked it (it added four calories!). I don’t know about constipation, but (look away if you’re squeamish) that could be why I didn’t have a code brown on my run today (I.e. needing to go for a no. 2 while jogging- something I suffer from). In which case, this is a good tip for when I do the actual 5k run at the end of June!!!- I’ll try that again!
I use chia seeds in my home made granola and I throw them in to muffins etc if I’m baking (rarely at the mo). I haven’t used the noodles. I know there’s a craze for some noodles that are really low calorie that you can get at Morrisons that I read about on another thread, Is it those? Unfortunately I live in Germany so can’t get to morisons otherwise I would have liked to try them. (p.s. I have to import my own oxo cubes…)
Cheers everyone! 🙂

Hi everyone,
Becks, yeah- totally, I wasn’t suggesting you should (limit alcohol to weekends) I just meant it’s a shame to miss out on chats because of stopping smoking. I stopped smoking years ago and always thought that I had my best ideas while I stood by the back door having a cig. I was worried I wouldn’t have any good ideas anymore! But I guess I must still have good ideas (or at least what seem like good ideas at the time…)
I love how you hop off the scales if you see a bad reading appear. I am comparatively low tech and record it on a document on my phone so I can pick and choose what readings I write in. Pissupoosa, it’s Beck who does that. I purposefully record an extra heavy reading at the start of a diet so I will definitely have a good first week!
Becks- I’ve got everything crossed for a magic 5 for your tomorrow!! I’ve had an ok NFD. A little treat after lunch (10 mini eggs- 150 cals) but lunch was homemade asparagus soup and a bit of rye bread and cheese. Tonight won’t be mental so I’ll keep within my TDEE quite easily. Hopefully I’ve got the nerves for another fast day tomorrow to complete my planned 3 for this week (to make up for holiday). I think I will.

Pissupoosa, chia seeds are great, but very ‘in vogue’. Their nutritional profile is brilliant but to eat 100g is impossible. Are you planning to have breakfast after your gym sesh? I’m going to sound like a stuck record but a banana pancake (1 mashed up banana, 1 egg) is so filling and less than 200 cals (depending on size of banana). Or low calorie yogurt with berries? Good luck!! I’m still finding my way with exercising on fast days so don’t really have much advice.

Good luck everyone! Cheers 🙂

I’ve been doing average 4-5x week gym/running/home exercise. I’ve started going to a 5k park-run with a friend – only 2 runs so far, but I want to keep going.
I’ve been suffering from depression since my mother passed away 2 years ago. On top of that, 6 months ago my husband was made redundant. So it’s been tough time for both of us. Both our situations have compounded and started to affect our relationship. I was on antidepressants for a while but they didn’t do much in the way of fixing my mood. So I thought I should take things to my own hands and Started doing regular exercise. Does wonders to my mood. Since I’ve already tried the 5:2 I thought I should get back into it.
Nothing like a kick in the butt to get you motivated 😋
Enough with the sop story – I’m coming out of it slowly. My husband has had a couple of job interviews this week. We’re also having counselling. So it’s getting there.

Right I’m off to bed – shall update on my second FD+gym day tomorrow. Night!

Good morning everyone- hi Beck- yes, I was just about to post. Today is fast day 3 so I will have fasted Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. If today works out, it will be my first three full on fast days in an ADF way. Part of me is apprehensive and a bit resentful of the fast day, which makes me think how much easier 5:2 is compared to AFD. The last few weeks I have gone into my fast days positive and gung-ho and today I’m a bit like ‘really? no breakfast?’ but hopefully I can pull it off. Luckily the routine will be shaken up, as the kids will be with me from 11 and parents-in-law me and the kids will all go into town for the afternoon. I think that will make it easier. I plan to take an apple to have when I really feel hungry and then later on when we’re back at home the in-laws have bought a huge amount of white asparagus (they’re getting their fix before they fly back to Brazil tomorrow). SO I can have a plate of boiled white asparagus and a tiny bit of ham and butter for my calories later.
Also, I must publicly shame myself for what happened last night… It was a non fast day so it’s all ok really but although I’d had a modest asparagus soup for lunch (monther-in-law made it the other day) I decided to finish off my lentil soup for tea to be healthly and have some calories to play with. Unfortunately, I realsied after heating it, the lentil soup had gone off already so I couldn’t eat it. INstead I had some lovely rye bread with melted brie and tomatoes and basil, half a wiener sausage, various other bites of this and that and THEN a FULL-SIZED PINK MAGNUM!!! why? Because it was there… it was the last one of a pack of four in the freezer that dear old mother in law bought last week. At the time when they all had one I only allowed myself a bite of hubby’s because I was feeling virtuous so it was easy to persuade myself yesterday that this last remaining magnum was MINE. Anyway, it was a non-fast day so all ok and hopefully I didn’t got too far over my TDEE. I felt bad though. The last month has all been about control at home for me and any treats have been on holiday or out of the home.
Anyway, enough about me. Pissupoosa, I’m sorry you’ve had a tough time recently and I am so impressed on the upward spiral you are making for yourself. You are Taking Positive Action which is my mantra when things start feeling too much for me and I don’t feel on top of things. All that exercise, 5:2, counselling and hopefully a new job for your husband soon will hopefully help you feel great about life and yourself!
Beck!! WOW!!!! well done, that is an amazing achievement and I am so impressed! 59.6 and a BMI of about -5 :)))) I’m going to be reading/ listening to you very closely now because I am so conscious of how hard I find it to go into maintenance mode. It’s why I’ve realised recently I am a text-book yoyo-dieter. I diet, get results, feel great and then let it all go. I want to break the cycle this time around and so for me, in a few months when I’ve reached my target, maintenance is absolutely key. This really entails rewiring my brain when it comes to sugar and food as a reward. I don’t want to love food any less, because I’m a foodie and it’s all I know, but I must learn to respect the fact that too much over my TDEE means weight gain. that’s it. No way around it.
Anyway, I really am waffling now. Mmmmmm waffles….. going to make another cup of tea. sigh.
Good luck everyone!!! Cheers FrauB

Aarrrggh so frustrating! I just spent my 20 minute lunch break at work typing a post to you guys and I clicked something and its gone! I will have to retype it all later.

Just a quick question guys – my fast day calorie limit is 411, and my dinner and 2 cups of vegetable boullion for lunch bring me to 260 cals. What can i have to use up the remaining 151 calories that will be satifying??? Dinner is soup and I dont want to venture down a carbohydrate path – so Im not going to allow myself a slice of bread or anything as you’ll see from my post later that bread is NOT a good idea for me…

Im thinking a banana and something else?

Yep, if you like bananas, go for it, they are filling. Weigh it with the skin off and I think 100g is 90 cals and medium sized banana is about 100g. If it’s small then there’s still.kore calories. I would recommend low Calorie cottage cheese and Celery and Cucumber sticks or a handful of almonds. Totally up to you though. Shame you lost a long post, that happened to me last week. At least it kept me busy rewriting it on a fast day…
Today going OK for me. I changed my plan and had a 200 cal lunch when everyone else had lunch at home before coming into town. I had 20g of smoked salmon, a gherkin, cucumber slices and a salad with celery, apple, almonds (walnuts are better) and a few raisins and a splodge of full fat natural yogurt. Yum. Now in town. Got a thermos of camomile tea…

Hi again everyone,
Hope you had a good weekend and good weather (where ever you were) 🙂

I tried to eat healthy over the NFDs (Friday-Sunday), but like you and bread Natasha, my downfall is rice! I made a lovely, healthy coq-au-vin (from mimi’s fast cooking recipe book) on Friday but couldn’t resist some rice with that. I’m not going to beat my self up about it, because I donated blood on Friday evening – so I decided my body needed a little more sustenance than usual.
I skipped my usual park-run on Saturday to take my bike for a service, and did a power yoga class on Sunday morning instead – I usually do both.

This is my week 2, fast day 1
Did 30 mins of aerobics around 530 am followed by fruit (papaya, blueberries, raspberries) and yoghurt breakfast (178 calories).
Natasha, what’s your insanity workout? Do you follow an app or video or something? I want to have a structured plan for my home workouts but haven’t found anything good yet. Just been using plans from Pinterest etc.

So far I’ve felt fine. Managed to ignore and not give in to the stomach growls! Been drinking a lot of water and now a mug of Roobosh tea.

Haven’t weighed my self yet – maybe will after the second fast day (Thursday)

S