Another 5:2 Diet Update

Today is my second fast day this week, but I haven't been so very good lately…

Since the start of summer, I've had weeks when I haven't even managed one fast day and unfortunately this shows. I've gone up four kilos, so my total loss is now at a mere 4 kilos since I started the Fast Diet about a year ago.

The reasons behind my fall from grace have been many.

Holidays are always a hard time to do a fast, and to be honest, in Provence I didn't even really try. How can you fast when your family are all expert cooks in their field? We have a master baker, a Spanish drinks expert and the rest are just general foodies. And there was an outdoor BBQ, and we were surrounded by vineyards. My love of French rose and champagne is well known.

Another reason may be that the Englishman, having lost the weight he intended to, is now permanently on the 6:1 regime, and annoyingly, he seems to be able to do it even on holiday. Having the bloody extra 100 calories helps, I'm sure! (Men do have it easy in every way, right???) Because I've been on my own for the second fast day in the week I've found it more difficult to stick to the 500 calories. Even if the Englishman's routine shouldn't matter to me, it does.


But I hate the feeling I get from having that extra weight back on, so I am again determined to try to lose the additional bulge, hence it's strictly back to 2 fast days per week!

I'm lucky that Daughter is now at home and also on the 5:2. She has a steely determination (where did she get that from??), which helps. And then there's this wonderfully active Facebook group, so I should be fine, right?

Makes a 'Scream' face.

The 5:2 Fast Diet Update - Five Ways How the Diet Has Changed my Life

It's now been over six months since I wrote the first ever 5:2 post about a fasting diet I'd seen on TV a few weeks earlier. The rest is history: Dr Mosley and  Mimi Spencer wrote The Fast Diet book and included that first post in it. The book is now world-wide best seller for the small indy publisher Short Books.

Sadly I don't think this makes me a world-best selling author, too; but I digress.

Anyway, I thought it was about time to let you know how I'm getting on with the Fast Diet.

1. Feeling Great

I have just started going back to the gym. After all my problems with the small op, my back and my frozen shoulder (touch wood!) I feel fit. The extra weight I'd gained due to the health problems has gone, and I feel as if I am back to myself again.

2. Feeing Healthier

What's more ( again, touch wood!) I seem to be able to shrug off any colds and sniffles very quickly. I can't really put this down to anything else but the Fast Diet. Before I started the diet, I'd get two or three really bad colds a year and I'd be poorly at least for a week, and it would take two weeks for me to feel fully well again. Now any little sniffles take just a day or two to clear.

3. My Weight


Although my weight fluctuates, I have kept the 8 kilos off that I lost in the first 3-4 months. This is quite  a feat since I've had several long breaks in the diet (Christmas and holidays) when I've eaten exactly what I've wanted (cinnamon buns, Daughter's cakes, beer, pizza, curries etc., etc.). I also do not count calories on the days when I'm not fasting. To me, being able to not worry about what I have on the 'free' days is what this 5:2 diet is all about. Plus there are weeks when I just do one fast day.

4. New Relationship with Food

The 5:2 Diet has given me the confidence not to eat. This sounds strange, but in the past I'd be afraid of feeling hungry, and would often eat a meal 'just in case' I might feel hungry later. I've learned that feeling hunger is OK; it's nothing to be afraid of.

5. Healthier lifestyle

Taking into account all the pizza and cinnamon buns, on the whole as a result of the 5:2 diet, I eat more healthily purely because on the fast days I cannot have the empty sugary and fatty calories. I also think that my body has got used to eating less sugar and fat on the non-fasting days too. I also drink less wine (mores the pity!) because I just don't seem to want as much of the bad stuff as before. There's also independent evidence for this: the little health scare I had just about at the same time I started the 5:2 diet, with raised glucose levels, which is the first sign of developing type 2 diabetes, has totally disappeared. My levels are now normal.

In summary, I feel great! Of course I'd like to lose more weight. To be table to fit into a size 12 (again) would be nice, but since I am quite tall (175 cm), of a certain age, and have - what someone once very gamely put it - a tennis players physique, size 14 is OK with me.

The 5:2 Fast Diet is a family affair

Having been going on about our new 5:2 Fast Diet to all and sundry for months now, I suddenly realised that almost all of my family are doing the intermittent fasting too!

The Englishman wrote about his experiences with the diet below and our Daughter started the 5:2 fasting as soon as she went back to uni after Christmas. She's never been fat, but felt that she wanted to lose the few pounds she'd put on over Christmas. As she has no access to a reliable set of scales (students!), she can't tell me how much she's lost in the last four weeks, but reported that her hipbones were more noticeable. Oh, the wonders of youth! However much I starve myself, I don't think I'll ever get to that stage; my hipbones haven't seen the light of day in years…

Son and his girlfriend have caught the bug too; on a recent evening out Son told us he'd not eaten anything all day to save his 600 fasting day calories for the meal we were just about to consume. Bad planning, I call that, but all the same, he's looking lean and healthy on the 5:2.

The latest recruit within my family circle to the Fast Diet is my big sister. She's only been doing it for two weeks and has already lost 2.5 kilos. Way to go Big Sis!

The only creature in the family left for me to recruit is the terrier, but I think I might have some trouble explaining the concept to him….

And on that note, here's a gratuitous cute terrier picture.

A day in The Englishman's 5:2 Diet

I promised before Christmas to blog about what we eat during our 5:2 fasting days, and since I am still knee-deep in tax returns, The Englishman obliged me with a 'Day in the Life of…' post.

Although I was the one who really needed (and wanted to) lose weight, it was initially The Englishman who spotted the Horizon programme where Dr Mosley experimented with the 5:2 fasting diet. (His book is now out featuring tips from yours truly.)

The Englishman suffers from high cholesterol, even though he's never been overweight. Rather annoyingly, (unlike me) he's always struggled to keep his weight up, but alas, age plays its part and lately he's been complaining about the soft stuff which has suddenly appeared around his middle. (Welcome to my world…).

So here's A Day In The Englishman 5:2 Fasting Diet.

My 5:2 diet day

I wake early at 6; a habit picked up (not that there was much choice) in the Navy.

I always start the day with a slice of lime in hot water, this is supposed to be good for your cholesterol but it is a great way to sluice out your mouth first thing.  I used to be a great tea drinker but now can’t touch the stuff in the morning and really can’t start with coffee.

Sticking to 600 calories in a day is tough so you have to be really careful about what you eat and when. Get it wrong and the day can seem very long.  When I started fasting I went to bed early to try to reduce the amount of time I had to think about my hunger.

So breakfast consists of Scotts Porridge Oats, just 20g carefully measured (this is probably a man thing but to me 20g means 20g). I cook it in a saucepan with water, a pinch of salt if you like.  Oddly, despite the lack of milk, it still tastes a little creamy, but for flavour I add a handful of blueberries.  82 calories of goodness washed down with an Americano, 1 calorie.  The beauty of the traditional rolled oats is that they take longer digest so you stay full longer.

Breakfast 83 calories.

 Lunch consists of a supermarket salad, provided I can see quite clearly how many calories are in the dish, I’m looking for around 170 calories.  M&S king prawns and crunchy citrus salad is top the choice at 135 calories.  Waitrose have started putting calories in large type on the front of the packaging, this is a big help.  You can spend ages turning packets upside down, back to front, to find in tiny print how many calories and then you find it’s calories per 100g.  It’s a ready meal, so why is it so difficult to tell me how many calories, how much salt, fat etc per packet?  Why do I have to do mental arithmetic (although I know one of the benefits of the 5:2 is improved brain function)?

Sometimes I stay in the office and have a Clearspring Miso soup, 28 calories.  I prefer the fact it’s only 28 calories to the taste (there isn’t any).  I tried Miso beetroot soup, I can eat just about anything but this is beyond the pail. I’ve looked for the “not for human consumption” but couldn’t find it on the packet.

Lunch 135 calories.

Total for day so far 218.

Frequent black teas and a second Americano keep me going during the day.

As I cycle to work I need fuel to get me home; it's 7.5 miles uphill.  For this I eat an apple and banana, 170 calories, 30 minutes before setting off.

Total now 388 calories.

In the evening we have something like poached chicken or white fish with salad.  There are lots of really tasty low calorie recipes online (the BBC one is pretty good, and although I feel hungry during the evening, my relationship with hunger has changed.  I used to feel faint with hunger and would grab a snack as quickly as possible.  Now even on non-fasting days I let it pass and stay hungry knowing the feeling will go.

Dinner 212 calories.

Daily Total 600.

I’ve lost 4 kg since starting the intermittent fasting in August, which is great because I’ve lost that paunch I hated around my middle. I’ve had to get my suit trousers altered and buy new jeans a size smaller.  The problem now is that I’m losing too much weight so have switched to 6:1. Just fasting one day per week has helped stabilize my weight.

When I break the following morning I am hungry so I make a Harley Pasternak smoothie who is apparently a celebrity trainer

Ingredients

5 raw almonds
1 red apple
1 banana
3/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
1/2 cup skimmed milk
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in a blender. (Depending on how powerful your blender

is,you may need to chop the apple and almonds into small pieces first.)

2. Blend on medium-high for 30 seconds (or until desired consistency).

Makes one 16-ounce serving

I add a handful of blueberries or a slice of ginger for variety.

This gives me a 382 calorie boost from the off and sets me up for the day.

Over Christmas and then straight after, on a week's skiing holiday, I didn’t fast.  By the end of break, my body is now telling me it needs the fasting. I feel lethargic and bloated, so strangely I cannot wait to start the regime again.

I’ve never been on a diet before in my life but this works.  It’s not just about losing weight, it’s about feeling good.

The Englishman with Daughter,
looking lean.

4 reasons why I'll never forget 2012

Another year is nearly over and after such an eventful 2012 in London (Olympics etc!), personally I too have had quite a remarkable year. Here are the four major reasons why.

1. In January '12 we finally took the plunge on the property market and moved into our own flat in Crouch End. I cannot describe to you how wonderful it was to set my roots down again. (A few mishaps like being shut out on the balcony not withstanding) In the last 11 months or so we have grown to really love this part of North London, from its pubs (The Maynard Arms and The Queens), to its award winning coffee shops (The Haberdashery and The Blue Legume) to its fishmongers (Walter Purkis and Sons). The End is truly a lovely place to live.

2. The year 2012 also saw the first ever Crouch End Festival, a feat of local arts in the form of music, literature, dance, performance, bunting displays around the Broadway and much, much more. The festival broke all records for both the supply of events and spectators, but to me it was a fantastic way to get to know the local arty folk. (It's reputed that over 40% of the people living in N8 are working in the creative industries - no wonder I feel so at home here). I cannot wait for the 2013 Festival which I'm lucky again to be involved in.

3. The year 2012 was also significant for me because I published my first ebook, The Englishman. As well as having wonderful support from many of my fellow bloggers, who reviewed the book and/or let me talk about The Englishman on their sites (thank you Tania, Karen, Expat Mum and Ruth), it got terrific reviews (4 and 5 stars!!!) on Amazon. It was also a choice of the month at Indy Writers and became an Awesome Indie. It also made the N10 Show locally, where for the first time I read out loud from the book. That was scary….What's more the sales of the book have completely outstripped my expectations. All is now set for the next two books to be published in 2013. My tale of displacement, Pappa's Girl, will be out in January closely followed by a gentle spy thriller, The Red King of Helsinki. All I now need to do is to finish the next one…

4. Last, but not least, this year I found a diet that works for me: the 5:2 fasting. I've talked about it  lot here, but the fact is that I lost a whopping 5 kilos in the first two months! Plus the fasting has completely changed my relationship with food, so much so, that even during this holiday season when I decided to give myself a break with the diet, I've not been overeating as I usually do either. This is truly unusual and revolutionary for me. I cannot wait for the New Year when I will be starting the regime anew. And roll on 10 January when Dr Mosley's book, The Fast Diet is out (where this blog gets a mention).

So those were my highlights of 2012 - what were yours?

The 5:2 Diet and Christmas

Like any diets the 5:2 fasting diet is difficult to do during Christmas. The additional holidays, parties and the sheer amount of food associated with the season would play havoc with anyone's resolve, however bright their halo shines.

During the holiday season there just doesn't seem any be any opportunity to have a fasting day. To follow my Finnish/Swedish customs, we have a traditional Nordic Christmas Eve which means a lot of food. On Christmas Day we are going to be visiting The Englishman's family, and Daughter's birthday falls in the days between Christmas and New Year. So the only days possible to do the fasting would be during the weekend (which we don't do - see my tips on the diet here). The Englishman toyed with the idea of fasting on Boxing Day, but that idea was soon gunned down by his (loving?) family.

So, after a lot of umming and arring, I decided it'd be best just to accept defeat before the holidays, rather than feel disappointed with myself for not making the fasting days. I have therefore decided that between 22 and 31 December I will take a break from the fasting, and go on a 7:7 seafood diet - see food and eat it.

This may sound drastic to you, especially as my experiences with the diet are going to be included in Dr Mosley's forthcoming book, The Fast Diet, and so I feel a bit of a poster girl (hah!) for the intermittent fasting idea. But there are a whole 12 months in the year 2013...

It's the season to be generous and kind - even to myself!

Christmas picture of terrier just as
a little seasonal bonus. 

Five tips for the 5:2 diet

I've never been a great dieter. I've tried a few of the popular ones in my time, like the no-carbs Atkins, but the only one that ever has truly worked on me in the 'Less food, more exercise' one, which is the hardest one to do. ;-)

But in the last year or so, with my bad back and frozen shoulder, I've not been able to exercise as much as I'd like to (dog walking not withstanding) and it's been really difficult to keep my weight down. Besides, it seems that as soon as I start to do regular sessions in the gym, my appetite shoots up and I lose no weight whatsoever.

So when, after seeing a BBC programme on it, the Englishman suggested we should try the 5:2 diet, I was game. When I was younger and living in Helsinki I did a few complete fasting sessions with my father. This fast would last five days and you were only allowed to drink fruit juices on the first and last days. So I thought I knew what I was getting into to.

But the 5:2 diet, which basically means you eat less on two days per week, is much easier. You're allowed 500 calories (600 for men - so unfair!), which when you think about it isn't that bad. And unlike on the fasts of my youth on this one you're allowed to drink coffee! (Coffee is the one thing I cannot give up these days…)

As well as weight loss, this diet is supposed to be good for your brain cells (cancelling out the damage done by wine), lower your cholesterol and blood pressure. It seems us humans need to feel a bit of hunger now and then. (I always knew this, really.)

I've been doing the 5:2 fasting for about three months now, and have lost 5 kilos. I feel so much better on it, not only because of the weight loss, but because I seem to have more energy and control over my eating. Not that I was ever out of control exactly. (Honest, Gov.)

And that's exactly how this 5:2 diet works. After the initial shock to the system, your stomach actually contracts and you feel less hungry, more aware of how much you eat on any given day, whether it is one of the 2 or one of the 5 days of the week.

So here are my 5 tips to successfully do this diet:

1. Do not do consecutive days - it's too hard and I at least find the second day in a row gruelling. And don't do weekends - we tried a Friday and nearly killed each other.

2. Get busy - the more you have to think about something else other than food, the easier it is. I work from home half of the week, so I try to fast when I'm in the office. And don't watch Nigella on TV while fasting. She's like a Domestic Devil to a me on one of my 2 days.

3. Get yourself an app. I use MyFitnessPal which is a simple tool to count the calories. And that is all you need it for, really, so any other means to do that (a notepad) is equally good. But for those of you, like me, who love apps, this one also records the foods you've used, the exercise you take and the weight you are losing (and predicts what you would lose in 5 weeks if each day was like the one you've just recorded). You can scan the packets to get the correct calorie amount, or you can make up your own meals, or just enter calories.

4. Don't be too hard on yourself. I have missed a couple of fasting days during the past three months. Just because you do that, there's no need to throw in the towel. There's always tomorrow, or next week!

5. Don't go alone. Doing this with some-one is so much easier. Some weeks because of schedules the Englishman and I've had to do different days, and it just doesn't work. Plus it makes TV viewing harder (see Nigella above).

So give it a go…but obviously if you suffer from a medical condition you have to see your doc first.

Happy fasting…!