The FastDay Forum

Lovely idea@Juliana.Rivers and motivation will be kept going after the current challenge ends this month. I will certainly want to be part of it, and thank you!

Just an idea for simplicity - or is it? How about entering weekly weight centrally on the challenge thread on a chart/table coming up only at the top of the new thread, (eg name + number + goal, weekly weight columns to fill in, needing about 9 boxes going across to enter weekly weight). It could also help to shorten signatures which get longer with added results over the weeks, whilst still using our forum tracker. Probably too complex to set up without glitches!

Well, as someone who gave up sugar and starch completely for a complete year and can still remember the awfulness of that Thanksgiving and Christmas, I have to say I will be enjoying my sugary foods this year into the holidays!

Even when I did "Christmas and Thankgiving" are "eat what you want days" while stringently eliminating starch and sugar the rest of the time, it was still a problem, because I was looking forward so much to eating the traditional holiday treats that when someone didn't bring something to the dinner that I had been looking forward to, I felt a huge burst of deprivation that made me both sad and resentful. A 50-ish women in tears because she didn't get to eat a chocolate truffle on Christmas morning is nothing you ever want to see--or be.

So hard won experience has taught me that it is much better to aim for moderating your intake of sugar rather than eliminating it. It's much tougher to do that, but the payoff is that you will lose that intensely emotional love/hate relationship with sweets that leads to the almost inevitable binging that follows total denial.

What I love about 5:2 is that I am not going to extremes or imposing my idea of perfect nutrition on myself or on others, the way I have done on earlier, more stringent but no more effective diets. And as I have allowed myself the freedom to eat without all that compulsivity, I have noticed that my eating on non-fasting days has become far more reasonable.

One thing that I love about 5:2 is that this is the first long-term diet I've been on where I don't have dreams in which I'm consuming all the forbidden foods I'm not allowed to eat on my diet. These were a constant feature of my low carb diet days and I'm very glad to see the last of them.

And the weight loss and health results of this diet appear to be the same or better than my low carb diet, which is very interesting indeed. My fasting blood sugar is lower than it usually is on a very low carb diet and my blood sugars after eating even very carby meals are in the normal range as long as I take my metformin, but I was taking the metformin while eating low carb, too. Best of all, my blood pressure is looking a lot better, though I won't know if that is permanent until it gets cold, as my BP usually surges in December and stays bad until spring.

So while I'm happy to join a Christmas challenge, it will be a "eat like an ordinary person five days of the week and fast on two" challenge. If I manage to shift a pound or two, that would be delightful, but mostly I just want to be able to get through the holidays not packing on five pounds.

Lovely idea@Juliana.Rivers and motivation will be kept going after the current challenge ends this month. I will certainly want to be part of it, and thank you!

Just an idea for simplicity - or is it? How about entering weekly weight centrally on the challenge thread on a chart/table coming up only at the top of the new thread, (eg name + number + goal, weekly weight columns to fill in, needing about 9 boxes going across to enter weekly weight). It could also help to shorten signatures which get longer with added results over the weeks, whilst still using our forum tracker. Probably too complex to set up without glitches!

Not sure what the forum administrators can set up but yeah, signatures can get awfully long.
one thing i want to make sure i get is a definite starting point and goal for each person. remember last year i found it hard to decipher back in the thread. you dont have to give starting weight but can if you dont mind.

thanks for feedback.
reckon we can start the sign up for the challenge process say September 22 which is a Monday. that is right on the end of the falling into Spring one i think.
gives us a good week get our fasting/abstaining hats firmly on.
get ready.. get set.............

Well, as someone who gave up sugar and starch completely for a complete year and can still remember the awfulness of that Thanksgiving and Christmas, I have to say I will be enjoying my sugary foods this year into the holidays!

Even when I did "Christmas and Thankgiving" are "eat what you want days" while stringently eliminating starch and sugar the rest of the time, it was still a problem, because I was looking forward so much to eating the traditional holiday treats that when someone didn't bring something to the dinner that I had been looking forward to, I felt a huge burst of deprivation that made me both sad and resentful. A 50-ish women in tears because she didn't get to eat a chocolate truffle on Christmas morning is nothing you ever want to see--or be.

So hard won experience has taught me that it is much better to aim for moderating your intake of sugar rather than eliminating it. It's much tougher to do that, but the payoff is that you will lose that intensely emotional love/hate relationship with sweets that leads to the almost inevitable binging that follows total denial.

What I love about 5:2 is that I am not going to extremes or imposing my idea of perfect nutrition on myself or on others, the way I have done on earlier, more stringent but no more effective diets. And as I have allowed myself the freedom to eat without all that compulsivity, I have noticed that my eating on non-fasting days has become far more reasonable.

One thing that I love about 5:2 is that this is the first long-term diet I've been on where I don't have dreams in which I'm consuming all the forbidden foods I'm not allowed to eat on my diet. These were a constant feature of my low carb diet days and I'm very glad to see the last of them.

And the weight loss and health results of this diet appear to be the same or better than my low carb diet, which is very interesting indeed. My fasting blood sugar is lower than it usually is on a very low carb diet and my blood sugars after eating even very carby meals are in the normal range as long as I take my metformin, but I was taking the metformin while eating low carb, too. Best of all, my blood pressure is looking a lot better, though I won't know if that is permanent until it gets cold, as my BP usually surges in December and stays bad until spring.

So while I'm happy to join a Christmas challenge, it will be a "eat like an ordinary person five days of the week and fast on two" challenge. If I manage to shift a pound or two, that would be delightful, but mostly I just want to be able to get through the holidays not packing on five pounds.

Totally understand your point of view. I agree, it must not be a harsh challenge and one that we become resentful about... after all it is meant to be a happy precursor to the big day. hence my thought of "exception days" e.g. the big Christmas gatherings at work and family that often start beginning of December even earlier.
So I guess solid mindful eating and "good fasts" is often all that needs to be undertaken.

Ooh, I like everything that is being said....but especially appreciate @peebles's insight into the psychology of it all.

The current challenge has not gone well for me due to numerous factors, but fasting as a whole definitely has, as I am in the best shape I have been in a long time ( though nowhere near goal) plus I feel I now have the tools to stay that way rather than yo-yo as I have done for decades...

I will definitely be signing up and taking on board the need to be realistic when setting a target!

Thanks @juliana.rivers!

Certainly want to achieve my Christmas 2013 goal this year

I absolutely agree with that rawkaren
I need to keep having goals to reach! Thank you Juliana

Looking forward to running the challenge. I guess a bit like the Michelle Bridges 12WBT challenges where she gets signups before the event, thought we can consider getting people to sign up for a start on October... anytime from NOW..

She builds you up with the challenge starting in xx weeks so why not.. i know some are still working on their Springintofall Challenge and keep going on that but im tooo pumped to wait to see who wants to kick start their Christmas challenge for this year.

So the work will start October 1.. and the first personal "results" say October 10 assuming its say end Friday results day. Well give the first few days for just getting into the swing of things.

I'm Member number 1...
My goal is to get from current 71.5 on Libra trend to 70.0 by December 25 2014.. I know its just a kilo and a half but boy this is really really hard

And I take the extra challenge of cutting out all "extra" sugar during this time.
will create a new thread for "registrations" here it is.. 5-2-diet-chat-f6/pre-register-your-interest-now-for-the-2014-xmas-challenge-t13087.html

Please sign me up to reach 11stone by Christmas. This will be a real challenge because I haven't reached 11 stone anything yet but I hope I may have crept below 12 stone by 1st October so that will make 14 lbs to lose. I will have a holiday in Japan in November but hope that a good weight loss before leaving will balance any holiday weight gain.
Thank you for running this Juliana.

I'll be up for this - lost 5lb or so since starting out again on 1st Sept. Excited to see where I can get by december!

New member here and this challenge sounds just what I need, so please count me in. I have done 5:2 previously and lost about half a stone. Unfortunately 2014 has not been the best year for me and I fell by the wayside. So my goal would be to drop 7lb by 20.12.14 and my extra challenge would be exercising at least 3 times a week for 30 minutes.

Hi @Meg's mom...good to meet you!
Why not go to the Introduce Yrself thread so more peeps get the chance to welcome you x
Good luck on yr fastday journey! X