Hello 🙂
I’m sitting here with a mug of hot water with a thin slice of lemon in it, in place of my usual coffee with milk and sugar, on day 1 of this new regime.

I’m 60, fat and frumpy … golly – just saying that, admitting it, is difficult. I went through a period just a wee while back where I had 5 operations in 3 years and that, along with a difficult menopause, piled the weight on and I am now carrying 4 – 5 stone excess. How I got to the 5-2 diet is a longish and not very interesting story but here I am, hoping that this will make a difference in ways that other changes to my lifestyle haven’t.

I’m considering deeply the psychology of this fasting thing. I seem to have thought of food all morning and that is far from normal! I had a 243 calorie breakfast (I can’t seem to do without breakfast) and my plan is to eat nothing more until around 6.30 this evening. The book is right though – the thought that I will eat freely (of sensible foods) tomorrow is remarkably helpful. I hope to pop back in here and give an update tonight – the discipline of that may help me stick to my plan.

Thank you Cinque! (I’ve been Elfstone in several other sites, including a writing site for many years; it ‘feels’ like me now!)

“All power to you on this first day of fasting” – I don’t feel very powerful right now!! I nibbled one ounce of raw carrot at around 1.00 and I’ve drunk a couple of glasses of water since, but I have to say I’m a bit low on energy and I fell sound asleep in my chair for an hour. That’s not normal either. Hey-ho I just have to grit my teeth and get through to “dinner” time. All that I’ve read here suggests it’s going to be worth it. 🙂

Good morning to everyone and to you Cinque – good evening perhaps where you are?

I survived my first fast day quite well in the end. I had a real slump in energy between lunch and around 3.00 and I was wondering how on earth I would get through to dinner time. In fact after 3.00 I began to pick up again and felt really quite good.

I managed to hold out until 6.45pm and then had a salad (no dressings) with smoked trout. I have read here in the forums that food tastes better on fast days and I can certainly vouch for that!! I was so hungry and that simple salad (lettuce, cucumber, celery, half a small carrot and one small tomato) tasted wonderful!

I decided not to risk any exercise as I wasn’t sure how I would react to the fast (I reacted very badly to my second attempt at the Atkins diet, which had worked well for me 8 years ago).

This morning, surprisingly, I didn’t feel hungry. I had my normal breakfast and then went out to the shed to try HIIT for the first time. I had started back on my exercise bike a couple of months ago (and boy! was that a struggle!!) and had worked gradually up to 30 minutes at 20mph. Sadly I wasn’t losing any weight so I thought I’d try the regime Dr Mosley recommends in the book. I have to say that 12 minutes of that left me feeling as though I had done the 30 minutes.

I may well fast again tomorrow; I thought that as this is not having any bad effect, I might try 4:3 and see how that works for me.

As it is evening in Australia, you will be nearly through your fast. I hope it went well. Calorie-free cuppas are ok I think, as long as one doesn’t nibble biscuits with them – and isn’t that the temptation! 🙂

Good morning fasters 🙂

Today is my second fast day. I’ve had half a grapefruit (59 calories) and I’m about to out to the shed to do some HIIT on my exercise bike. I still felt quite good yesterday and ate sensibly sticking to 1031 calories without really trying too hard. I certainly wasn’t hungry.

I haven’t weighed or measured myself since Friday morning. I decided it was better to hold off and do that just once a week. How often do the rest of you measure/weigh?

Wow!!! Weighed myself this morning, one week into the diet; I’ve lost 6.5 pounds in the week!!

– and still feeling good. I think I’ve found an eating regime I can stick with. 😀