Hi,

I’m here because I believe from the depths of my soul that this way of living makes sense. There is so much information out there telling us about the long term benefits of fasting, of improving your eating habits, of living a healthy lifestyle …

I am a hobby nutritionist and love writing about anything I am passionate about – I’ll probably be blogging about the 5:2 soon as well.

Although I recently ‘discovered’ that in almost all of my childhood photos, apart from the rare year, I was actually ‘normal’, weight has always been a huge issue. I was put on my first diet when I was 1. The family way always obsessed by food. On holiday we’d be discussing what we were going to have for mid-morning snack at breakfast, for lunch at mid-morning, for afternoon treats at lunch, for dinner almost all day … we were on holiday so food was made for 7 or 8 rather than 5 and it was all to be eaten up, each meal. As soon as we got home, 3 of us would be put on a diet (my siblings were naturally skinny). Food was reward, food was punishment, food was all consuming and passion, food was refuge … in short, pretty emotionally charged.

When I graduated from university (feeling still fat and ugly) I was a slim and not so bad looking young woman. Then I started work: sitting at a desk 8 hours a day, minimal sport, enough money to eat what I wanted and when I wanted with no one telling me I couldn’t … well, you can guess what happened. About 22 lbs / 10 kg, that’s what. It might have been over 7 years, but that is still pretty hefty. Then I stabilized, married, gained another 10 lbs / 5 kg, had a baby, dropped a few of those pesky pounds, had injured knees for 16 months with a toddler to look after … gained about another 15 lbs / 12 kg … and then managed to get rid of about 9 lbs / 5 kgs … and got stuck.

I have all the information, I know all the conventional (and sometimes less conventional) wisdom, I’m keen on healthy and clean living, I love moving. But something has been missing. There has been some element somewhere keeping me from making progress. I now believe that, combined with a mental ‘click’, the 5:2 is what I was needing.

I am motivated, I am confident, I am eager to get the ball rolling (hang on, I’ve got it rolling already), and I am looking forward to meeting more like minded souls here to cheer along the way and to cheer me along too. And I am really, really happy that a friend gave me the link to this website!

Thank you Boosty Badger. I’m checking your link as soon as I’ve finished posting this. I realized I missed a very important detail in my post above:

I now have a very realistic impression of what I actually look like, what could be improved on, and how much needs to go. Anything on top of the ‘need’ (only about 10 lbs / 5 kg) is a bonus to bring me closer to that pretty and slim young person I used to be but didn’t know.