Thank you for the welcome, Cinque and bigbooty! Today is meant to be my start date, not sure how it will work as I have a party to attend, it might be the wrong day to start.

Not sure in the sense that I will be exposed to a lot of temptations, food and drink, but on the other hand I have to start sometime. I will see how it goes. Not having breakfast as I have a Pilates class at 10:30 and prefer to go on an empty stomach, will see how the day pans out. If today is too hard, I will wait for Tuesday, the next good time for me.

Will update later on.

Cinque, I will look for the mid-fifties thread, thanks for the invite.

Edited as I forgot to add: my lovely hairdresser, a fantastic looking gay man (who really knows about style and is helping me to love myself) says that all I need to look fabulous is to lose a few Kg – he is being kind and generous! I could do with losing lot more than “a few”! Anyway, my next haircut is booked for 13th July and he expects me to have lost 5Kg by then. How’s that for a challenge? 🙂 Slim for your hairdresser!

Here I am, after the wishful thinking of last Saturday, how did I even imagine that I could do my very first fasting at a wedding party, I don’t know! Over-enthusiastic is the only way I can describe it.

Anyway, today is my official proper first day of fasting and I am quickly learning that there is never an “ideal” day to start. Today I had to cook a fry up breakfast for the 3 men in my life, my husband, his cousin who stays here with us often and my son. Glad to say that in spite of being exposed to temptation (oh, those hot toasted buttered muffins!), I stuck to my water.

My son normally lives away but he is quite unwell with a very painful ear infection, so he has moved back for a few days to be looked after by his mum.

My ideal first day, as I had envisaged it, would have gone like this: up, shower, go to Pilates, then grab a nice cup of decaf Americano with soya milk while out (40 cals), shopping for much needed t-shirts, then back home, lunch of scrambled egg with smoked salmon and spinach (160 cals), followed by gentle walk to the park, cup of green tea in the park cafe, reading the papers and my new book (The Curse of Lovely ironically, how to learn to say no to others’ demands). Stroll back home, bit of pottering in the garden, weeding and tidying up, then cook early dinner of smoked haddock with asparagus and samphire, (200 cals inc. a tiny drizzle of olive oil). Watch DVD of Spectre while munching on a bowl of strawberries with a splash of cream (100 cals). All interspersed with drinks of water infused with slices of lemon and mint sprigs. Early night with a nice cup of camomile, relaxation music and the feeling that I have really looked after myself today.

POOOOOFFFF! Burst that bubble. The men needed feeding and I complied (easier than letting them thrash the kitchen), could not make it to Pilated because of giant traffic jam, had to look after my son who needed medicine and reassurance. Now my husband has asked me if I would join him to the allotment, which I will, but somehow my day is taking a different shape. I might still be able to rescue the afternoon with some gentle pottering and a late lunch.

The weather is helping, though, the sun is shining and it makes me feel happier, therefore more inclined to stick to my plan.

My friend has just knocked at the door and asked if I want to go to the cinema with her this early evening, YIPPEE yes! Great excuse to abandon the family for a couple of hours, and yet another change of plan.

I am learning that I need to adapt my fast days to the circumstances!

Will update on how my first day goes later on.

After a fraught few days (family illness, food cravings) and an accident involving a spoon and a carton of Green and Blacks choc ice cream, finally yesterday I did my second day of fasting.

I am, so far, pleasantly surprised at how easy it seems to be, how minor the hunger pangs are and how much I can eat on 500 calories if I plan it carefully.

My day was also easy because it was magical. I attended a literary festival and was so engrossed with the readings and creative writing workshops that I did not give much thought to food. I went back home to eat my two meals, which helped.

Food:

Noon: 2 small eggs omelette with mushrooms and parsley, spray oil. 150 cals

Early dinner: crudités to start, a few sticks of celery, 1/4 fennel.
1 oz quinoa, 1 oz red lentils, chopped spinach, 2 cherry tomatoes, 1 stick celery, 1 tsp Marigold stock. It made 2 good bowls of nourishing, filling soup.
4 chopped strawberries with 100g natural soya yogurt. Total 350 cals.

The other day, before the ice cream accident, I was 84.5 Kg. Brilliant, I broke the 85 Kg spell! This morning I could not resist weighing myself and I am 84.8, mildly disappointed but majorly relieved that in spite of the unwise eating of the other day I managed to remain sub-85.

I had 3 solid days of uncontrolled eating, masses of carbs, bread and butter featuring very prominent and even cake and biscuits, which is unusual for me, a clear sign that something was very much in imbalance.

I felt the cold a lot, cloudy and rainy days normally don’t bother me too much if I feel ok but somehow I felt really badly affected by this spell of unseasonably cold weather. All I wanted to do was drink hot tea and eat hot buttery toast. And marmite! I also ate some good quality food, my usual eggs and veg, natural yogurt with nuts and seeds etc…but interspersed with chunks of carbs. I even had a glass of wine, not a good idea. At least the bread was a good quality wholemeal sourdough so I did not get the tummy bloat that white sliced gives me, but I still ate far too much of it. And I even overate the good stuff.

The sign that I ate too many starchy carbs is evident on my face: I get what I call “carb-face”, a puffy, rounded look, my cheekbones disappear and I get (even more of) a double chin. This normally disappears as quickly as I return to my usual way of eating, eliminating most starches and eating only the usual suspects: lean proteins, good quality fats, tons of non starchy and green veg, nuts, seeds, a bit of pulses and small amounts of unrefined whole grains like buckwheat, quinoa and millet, my daily staples of when I feel in balance.

Today is my fast day no. 2 of week 2 and I really look forward to it. The plan is:

No breakfast, just water and herbal tea before Pilates.
Noon early lunch of 50g smoked salmon with lettuce, tomato and celery salad, 1 tsp oil and squeeze of lemon.
Dinner: asparagus omelette, steamed broccoli and courgettes with 1 tsp olive oil. Strawberries with 2 Tbsps of natural yogurt, or soya if I have the time to go shopping.

Ready to start my day!

One month on and I haven’t lost a gram of weight. Getting quite despondent, maybe I am eating too much on the 5 days. Feeling so hungry every day, regardless of what I eat.

Yesterday I attempted a fasting day and had salmon and veg for lunch, thinking I would just have yogurt and berries before bed, but I had such painfully aggressive hunger pangs that I ended up eating a takeaway, yogurt with jam and also 2 slices of bread and butter. I just could not get enough food to satiate me.

Today having another go at fasting, plan is no breakfast, boiled eggs and greens for lunch, light soup and yogurt for dinner. Will be back to report later.

18th Sep, week 2 day 1.

Easy to fast until 5-6 pm then have a fairly large meal. Today it was 100g raw sauerkraut for start, 250g of steamed mixed veg (radish tops, courgette and runner beans from allotment plus some celery for extra fibre) with a squeeze of lemon juice. Followed by spicy tomato, black beans and veg sausage casserole with 25g pasta cooked in the sauce. Total of 450 cals.

About to make myself a hot chocolate (4 almonds blended in water with 1/2 tsp raw cacao and one dried apricot, 1-2 cardamoms for flavour, heated up) total 50 cals, to take to bed with a good book.