Diet Diary #1: Introduction

Saturday 7 June 2014


I have tried many a diet before and all have failed, and the main reason for their failure has been my lack of motivation. Whenever I look in the mirror, I am unhappy with what I see. I am overweight, and I hate the way I look. I just want to go back to the size I was before I went to uni, and enough is enough, I'm finally doing something about it.

I originally heard about the 5:2 diet on Facebook, and to be honest I just saw it as another 'Fad' diet so for a long time I just ignored it. However after speaking to a girl at work who had lost a whopping 2 stone on this diet, I had to take notice of it. Since then I have read the book on it, watched a documentary on it, and finally started the diet myself.

I have to say that the documentary on fasting was pretty interesting, it turns out that losing weight isn't one of the only benefits you can get from fasting. In fact fasting has been scientifically proven to decrease your chances of getting major diseases, such as heart disease and cancer. If you want to read more on it then there are some brilliant articles on the internet such as this one.

I thought I'd share with you how my first week went, and to keep myself motivated, I'll be posting a weekly diary with my progress in it! I will also be keeping a food diary, but for my first week, concentrating on the diet was the most important thing.

So the idea of the 5:2 diet is that you eat your normal 2000 calories for five days, and then on two days you restrict yourself to only 500 calories. From the very beginning I decided I would try and stick to 600 calories on fast days, to give myself that extra boost at breakfast and lunch, however I think the more used to this I get, the more I will restrict.

My first fast day was Tuesday, and I cannot lie, it was horrific. I made it through breakfast, only eating a small bowl of cheerio's and half a banana, and at lunch I had a tuna salad, which to be honest I didn't really enjoy, and left me feeling a little miserable. By the time I got home I was seriously hungry. It was Tim's turn to cook, and he likes to take his time when it comes to completing any task, so I was getting very stressed and very hungry! Finally dinner arrived, I ate a small bowl of beef and pepper stir fry, and it barely touched the sides. I wanted to give up then and there, I was so hungry and I literally couldn't take it. I ran myself a bath and tried to relax, but I found myself getting more and more stressed. Tim was trying to calm me down, but I was just too angry with myself. I had a good cry to myself, and wondered if I could honestly carry on with this diet.

The next day I felt much better, and I felt very refreshed, and silly for making such a fuss the night before, but needless to say I wasn't looking forward to my next fast day. I managed not to overeat on this feast day, and I stayed just below my 2000 calorie target. This was the day that I joined the 5:2 diet Facebook Group, and I posted on there about my struggles and got a lot of support from the lovely women in that group, and they definitely spurred me on!

My next fast came on Thursday and this time I felt much more prepared. This time I had soup for lunch, and that was much nicer, and filled me up nicely, and best of all it was only 123 calories! I had to admit I was pretty excited for my dinner of home made turkey burgers with salad and a tomato salsa. I can't believe it only came to 299 calories a portion, and it was totally delicious!


I was advised by the lovely ladies in the Facebook Group to weigh myself the morning after my second fast day, and to be honest I wasn't getting my hopes up. However I was shocked to see that I had lost 3 Ib's since my last weigh in! That was encouragement enough to reassure me that I am definitely doing the right thing.

Since then I have been on feast days, so I have been eating normally and making sure I stick to my 2000 calories and don't pig out. I even have plans to move onto a 4:3 fasting set up as I think there are far too many feast days in between my second fast day one week and my first one the next week, but we'll see how I get on. Next week Tim is even joining me on my venture, he's more interested in the health benefits than the weight loss though. To be honest I can't wait to see how he copes with his first fast day, I foresee it being very tricky for him!

Have you tried the 5:2 diet before? I'd love to hear how you got on!


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