5:2 diet - Graduation looms!

Hello everybody, 

It's been a long time but Pearlie has suggested I write about the 5:2 diet so I'm going to do a post about one of my fasting days. The idea is 5 days of eating normally (Feast Days) and then 2 days a week you fast (Fast Days) and have only 500 calories. The idea is you can eat whatever you want on those 5 feast days but I think a certain amount of self control might be helpful for example not stuffing my face with an entire cheesecake tomorrow!

The 5:2 Diet

I bought some minestrone slim a soups last night as they're only 61 calories and it'll help me keep the calories below 500. The main motivation for this diet attempt is for one my mum attempted it last week and lost a 1 lb without going to the gym and she struggles to lose weight easily so I'm hoping it'll work well for me. However graduation is looming and I have a very nice pink lacy dress which is quite tight and is not forgiving. I would like to lose another 4 lbs in the next couple of weeks so I'm gonna try the 5:2 diet.

I'm 11'11 at the moment and have done well since leaving uni a month ago as I was 12'7 when I left uni. Losing 10 lbs without any serious attempt at losing weight besides yoga, not drinking as much, gym with Brad and trying to watch what I eat a little more carefully. I've still lost 10 lbs despite having Download Festival and a weekend full of beer!

Anyways now for the diet itself, so far today I have had:

Lunch
1 minestrone slim a soup - 61 calories

Drinks3 cups of peppermint tea - 0 calories4 cups of green tea - 0 calories1 cup of tea with soy milk - 8 calories

Snacks1 mini pear - 28 calories1 fat free strawberry Greek yogurt - 79 calories1 minestrone slim a soup - 61 calories

Dinner3 cherry tomatoes - 12 calories1 piece of lemon sole fish - 176 calories1 green pepper - 24 calories1/2 courgette - 20 calories75g mushrooms - 21 calories50g butternut squash - 20 calories0 calorie olive oil spray - 0 calories

510 TOTAL

17:45pm Just had my fish and vegetables and I still feel starving and the fresh sour dough bread in my kitchen smells far too tempting. Trying to decide what to use my last 130 calories on. Tempted to go 10 calories over so I can have a slim a soup and a small fat free Greek yogurt in a bit. So far I can tell you tea and drinking a lot is definitely your friend to stave off the hunger pangs! Shall update before I go to bed :)

7pm - god damn I'm hungry...time for a yogurt, after that I have 51 calories left.

8pm - I have done 40 minutes of yoga to distract myself from wanting to eat. Now I'm going to have a bath and then paint my nails, hopefully won't be too long till bed time :)

9pm - still hungry, will say the worst part of this diet is the evening as I eat more later in the day normally. Do I dare have the slim a soup and go 10 calories over? Really I think it's ridiculous to have to calorie count 3 cherry tomatoes as 12 calories. I think I will have to or at least something as I fear I may pass out instead of go to sleep tonight. Still I'm almost at the end of the day and haven't succumbed to the many treats in my pantry and fridge.

9:30pm I've had the slim a soup so my calorie grand total for the day is 510 calories but now I'm so tired I just want to crawl into bed and watch Buffy.

Verdict: As its my first fast day I knew it was not going to be easy but it didn't sound like it'd be that hard. My god towards the end of the day it got really hard and I wanted to bite my own arm off.

I think there are ways of being more inventive with really low calorie food so you can feel like you're eating more, so experimentation with the fast days is needed.  Sugar free jelly 8 calories for a pint of the stuff, rice cakes, celery etc. It is definitely worth stocking up on as much low calorie food as possible as I wish I had done. However I know now for my second fast day on Friday. 

I feel proud of myself for making it through today despite the lovely bread in the kitchen and my parents talking about their lovely lunch of salmon en croute with creamy crayfish sauce at The Fountain. Temptation was defeated even though I am going to bed early to avoid the temptation of downstairs.

Lots of love and hunger pangs,Laura