2nd Fast Day

View across the park on Sunday

I finished my second fast day for the week yesterday and found it a little easier than the first. Again I opted to plan my meals beforehand so I knew exactly the number of calories I would be consuming. I think my best strategy is waiting until as late in the day as possible and consuming most of my meals within a few hours keeps the hunger pangs at bay. This usually means a late lunch (3 - 4pm) followed by the rest of my foods around 6pm. Then it's just a matter of discipline and not eating anything later - no matter how late I might be staying up. I have been making this the rule for everyday so it has been easier to follow on fast days too.

In general I am feeling lighter and less bloated in such a short space of time. The water really seems to be helping with satiety levels as well. The only downside I am experiencing is slower digestive transit time and headaches at the end of the fast day and into the following morning. I hope these abate over the next few weeks but all the same, they are manageable.

I haven't incorporated any direct exercising into picture as yet as I really want to focus on getting these habits established first. Too many times in the past, I go into something with so much enthusiasm and way too much effort that I can never sustain it long term, so I'm going with slow and steady because I really want these changes to be permanent.

On Sunday, I did manage a nice walk out with Mr Botts and K. The weather was beautiful so we took Botts out on his trike down to the river and back. There are many decent hills involved and we were gone an hour altogether so I think it was a reasonable effort. 

Mama duck and ducklings 

Plenty River

The flowers on our front verandah are looking beautiful! We bought a whole heap of pansies and violas back in autumn but it was obviously too late and cold so they never really flowered. A good thing we didn't throw them out as they are now looking gorgeous.

Denim blue pansies

Violas on our front verandah

One down...

After a false start, my first fast day is done and dusted. Though I had set out to fast on Thursday, it got to 2pm and I was ravenous which always happens if I've had very little sleep the night before. It was also shopping night so I figured I would switch the fast to Friday instead. I didn't track every calorie but was confident I stayed under my TDEE and was well rested to tackle the fasting on Friday.

Friday I managed to get to about 3pm before my thoughts kept returning to food and the hunger pangs were getting a bit much. If i was out and about I could have ignored it but I was at home with Mum and little man so it was a bit tricky. I already had my foods planned and opted for processed, prepackaged options to make it easy and know the exact number of calories I was consuming. By 3:30, I opted to eat lunch and had a pouch of pumpkin soup. Vegan, minimally processed and quite filling, this was a great option!

By 5:30, I opted to start preparing dinner because I knew we were going to have a tricky night with different family things happening and I really want to keep my eating to before 8pm each day. I microwaved two jacket purple potatoes with salt and pepper and then followed up with a sachet of porridge made up with lite soy milk and a sprinkle of cardamom. 

Delicious! The porridge was sweet enough I figured to knock any after dinner cravings. This kept me going for some time and when I got home very late that night, I sipped a small glass of diet coke as a treat.

Fast Day 1
Breakfast – Nil
Lunch – (Late lunch – was hoping to last to dinner time) Pumpkin soup (140)
Dinner – 270gm Purple potatoes (microwaved) (181), Blueberry/Banana porridge sachet with water and 1/2 cup lite soy milk (186)
Snacks – Herbal tea and 200ml Diet Coke (3)
TOTAL = 515

Overall, I felt quite satisfied and I think keeping food choices simple will help me in this early stage  on the fast days. With this in mind I've bought more soup and porridge for fat days until I get sick of the combination. Like a lot of things, when i get too fussy and elaborate with my choices it usually leads to my undoing so i think the KISS philosophy will serve me well.

Back at the start

It's a funny thing. I just typed the first line of this post and promptly deleted it. It was so negative and miserable. In the interests of doing everything differently this time, I'm not going to start out that way with the shadow and expectation of failure. 

I first dabbled with 5:2 about 18 months ago and for the few months I stuck with it, I found it quite doable, easier as I went along and successful for weight loss. I was losing about one kilo each week. I was first drawn to the plan because I had been leaning towards incorporating a day of fasting (or fasting until night time) once a week anyway and it seemed like a sensible way to start out. Why did I stop? Like so many things I do, I don't always get around to finishing them! 

Anyway, to start this in correct fashion here are my horrifying stats:

• Weight  - 115kg

• BMI - 47.3

• BMR - 1774cal

• TDEE - 2439cal

• Under Bust - 117cm

• Navel - 136cm

• Hips - 133

• Neck - 43cm

• Upper Arm - 43cm

• Thigh - 67cm

• Size (22-24 AUS)

My neck is as fat as my upper arm! A sobering thought. This weight also represents near my highest weight ever (except in pregnancy and shortly after). My whole life I have always been overweight except for a brief few years at university when I hovered very close to the upper end of my healthy weight range. For at least the last ten years I have been a member of the dreaded 'morbidly obese' category with brief stints in the obese category. It makes me sad to think how many times I have lost and regained (with interest) the same kilos.

Now approaching my forties, I notice how my body is aging and exercise is so much harder at this weight than all the other times I have lost weight before and I don't want that to become my future. In the last few years I have been confronted with my family's and my own declining health and it's just shouting louder to me all the time that i have to make the change as soon enough it might well be too late.

To return to a positive note, I do feel in general that I know what to do and am getting stronger in sticking to lifestyle choices that benefit my health. Since going vegetarian a year ago, I now eat and enjoy way more vegetables.

I'm also hoping this exercise in blogging and doing 5:2 will grow my perseverance and keep me accountable. I am a perfectionist and procrastinator by nature and let to many things just slip when I feel I can't do them properly so I am going to try and focus on consistency and perseverance instead.

So, here goes...