The FastDay Forum

The difficulty that I have with many 'diet gurus' today is that I don't want to give up sugar, or other carbs, or indeed anything! My interest in the 5:2 WOL started because I would like to feel that I can have anything that I want and this is how I now eat. The only difference is that now I don't eat as much of everything as I used to!

If the price for this freedom is to fast a couple of times a week, then that is what I am prepared to pay. If I have a huge over-eating day then I try to pull back to a more 'normal' amount on the following days. As you will see from my Tracker, which has more ups and downs than the Alps, I am quite capable of regaining an enormous amount when on holiday or away from home but my answer is to get right back to the 5:2 as soon as I return.

@Sassy1, asked if I had any more tips about eating in moderation and I suppose the answer is 'not really'. However, I think that my desire to stay slimmer (I couldn't call myself slim but I'm where I want to be) has just got to be greater (most of the time) than my desire to eat until I feel absolutely stuffed! I have learned to keep 'desirable' foods out of sight - hopefully, they are then out of mind too!- so I agree with @SSure on that one. Her idea of freezing/redistributing surplus food is a good one, although I have learned to estimate quantities well enough that nowadays I rarely have left-overs.

Another good tip, which I was given years ago, is that if a particular food is really 'calling' to you then have a reasonable portion of it and sit down and enjoy it - without guilt! Don't try to avoid it by eating other 'healthy' options. You know what I mean, and I've done it myself, you eat an orange, then a few grapes - that's still not working so you eat a slice of plain bread, followed by a rice cracker. This list could go on for quite a while - nothing stops you wanting the object of your heart's desire so you end up eating it anyway! The only problem is that you have 'clocked-up' a few hundred calories and still eaten the ..........(fill in the blank for yourself!) Much better to eat and enjoy in the first place!

I'll get off my soapbox now and leave you to enjoy something delicious! Valerie

Hi @CandiceMarie , Sarah Wilson wrote a cookbook called ' I quit sugar' which I don't have but I bought her next book called ' I quit sugar for life' it is such a visually fun and beautiful cookbook. She replaces sugar with rice bran syrup I think in desserts. Its full of mason jar salads, muggins,( muffins cooked in mugs) , fermenting stuff, yummy roasts and what to do with leftovers. You can google her at http://www.sarahwilson.com or www.iquitsugar.com if you're interested. Great thread guys.
Xxx

I agree, @julianna, Sarah's books are a delight to use. I have recipes from her 'I quit sugar' book that I have cooked and cooked and still love them.

Same crazy tasty breakfast as yesterday and a chicken and veg crockpot put on :0)
Hope to be taking grandsons to the zoo this afternoon.

Edit:- Lovely afternoon, now totally shattered
In theory I'm now fasting for 24 hours from 7pm this evening. Let's see how it goes

Really interesting thread! I'm back, after leaving you in the middle of last year when I developed a nerve problem in my back and couldn't stand or walk for more than a few minutes without pain. Was lying down all day. Therefore friends brought meals and DH cooked, and everyone bought chocs and cake of course. Gained 10kgs, but after a lot of treatments, I'm up and about. Anyway, fasting wasn't on. Trying again despite everyone saying, hey you're up and about again, let's go for dinner, cake etc.
Well done all those who stuck with it from last year.
Chez nous, we don't eat much sugar on a daily basis as DH is diabetic, tho when we first met, he ate more than I did of it. We do imbibe...this IS Luxembourg .... But we find most puddings and cakes are too sweet now. DH also has realised he has a problem with wheat, so I rarely bake. Really miss bread on occasion, so we do have, say, a breadish weekend, but it made him lose a lot of weight. I think he was addicted to it. He used not to know when he was full but now he does!
A friend gave up sugar, using diet coke to kill the cravings. She lost 5 kgs without dieting, and now doesn't need the coke! She also doesn't find herself thinking about food until hungry. It took about a month to get there. If having to eat sugar now, (family politesse) she finds that the cravings come back. She believes therefore, it is an addiction for her.
I will look at Sarah Wilson's cookbook ...but I think for us it is better to know the indulgence rather than disguise it! Then accept the consequences!
Thank you all for your input. Really useful.

Welcome back @Hellengerin and hope you stay fit and well now, that sounds like quite a nasty episode. Good luck with your fasts, plenty of help and like minded company here so let's get stuck in together :0)

Great thread, both hilarious and thought provoking. Thank you @mariondot40 for setting yourself up as a target

I have got both Sarah Wilsons books, they are lovely to look at and read although I haven't made anything from them yet, not had enough time.

@wildmissus I love the sound of the soaked oats. What is the muffin mix please? Which shelf would it be on? I don't have breakfast but that sounds like a great winter lunch if it were heated. I wonder if there are any savoury ideas for soaked oats. That's got me thinking.......

@stowgateresident I am in total agreement with everything you have said, very balanced view. Thank you.

Yes, @silverdarling was the instigator of the Moser Roth passion with me following a close second and force feeding them to my Bury st Edmunds meet up chums. Cor, that was an icebreaker and a half

I also think you must have had a web cam trained on me last week, man those assorted baklavas were good and yes, Greek yoghurt and honey at every meal. Hardly surprising that I gained a little weight

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread x

Welcome back @WendyDarling sounds like a good time was had by all in Kos. Don't weight yourself until you have at least one good fast under your belt, it takes the sting out of things We are back in France having a great time, my bruising is settling down now

Ballerina x

Hello @ballerina been missing you. Haven't had time yet to catch up on your c£@£ thread but I understand it's hilarious. I couldn't get into the forum last week so I'm a little behind

Been thinking about this savoury oat lark. Am going to go for spinach and feta for lunch tomorrow. Maybe a sprinkle of nutmeg and cinnamon (thinking Greek flavours that go well together - as in cheese and cinnamon in moussaka) Thoughts anyone? Thanks x

[wildmissus]

[tagWendy Darling][/tag], it is in the baking isle with the dried fruit beside the sultanas. There are other 'muffin mixes' - nuts and chocolate chips. It is quite a new thing in our store. Here is some links for ideas. The third one has lots of ideas in the comments at the bottom for savoury -

http://www.buzzfeed.com/samimain/overnight-oats-recipes-to-restore-your-faith-in-breakfast#1ur3r2s

http://www.katheats.com/favorite-foods/overnightoats

http://www.thekitchn.com/rethinking-oatmeal-7-savory-morning-recipes-177491

I'm with @StowgateResident on the sugar topic.

I've done the whole, extreme, "eliminate whole categories of food from your diet" and "Carbs are EVIL!" thing for long periods of time in the past. It's a great way to work yourself up into a near-religious state of fanaticism for a while, followed by prolonged depression after the novelty wears off and you discoer you have made it impossible to enjoy much of the food-based social interaction, family traditions, and outright pleasure, that make life worthwhile. Eventually people who take this extreme approach crash off it and when they do, the result is very ugly.

The people I've met who can adhere to extreme changes in diet seem to be people who don't much enjoy food. I deduce this as they tend give you recipes for peculiar food creatins that match the requirements of their diets, which they consume with great pleasure, but which, when you make them, are disgusting and bear no relationship to real food.

We are not addicted to sugar or starch. Both digest down to glucose which every cell in our body is designed to burn and which some of our brain cells require to the extent that we die if they don't get that glucose.

Addiction refers to craving substances we don't need: alcohol, cocaine, etc, which alter certain parts of our brain's reward system.

The compulsive need to eat sugar or starch derives from a different mechanism, which has to do with how the brain ensures that it gets the glucose that keeps you alive. If your blood sugar control deteriorates, after eating more starch or sugar than your body can handle, you get steep reactive drops in blood sugar that that cause the the brain to think it is heading for an attack of potentially fatal hypoglycemia.

Mind you, it isn't. But it thinks it is, and your brain has evolved to do whatever it takes to avoid fatal hypoglycemia, which makes it very good at getting you to eat the sugar and starch that will prevent it.

The cure for this is to avoid eating so much sugar and starch that you cause the peaks and the resulting low blood sugars. Not demonizing sugar and starch. Keep the quantities reasonable. Keep whole boxes of cookies, cakes, and the like out of the house.

And if you notice you are becoming extreme in your relationship to food, demonizing whole categories of food while sanctifying others, stop. The online diet culture all too often promotes obsessive compulsive behavior. But long term success with dieting and improving health requires a much more moderate approach.

@StowgateResident and @peebles - excellent common sense and realism here, thanks both for taking the time to post so comprehensively ... and of course we don't want to ban certain foods .... Do we???

We neither want to ban them ... nor make them compulsory

Ooh, toast, don't mind if it is banned or compulsory, either is acceptable in this neck of the woods, lol

Ballerina x

[carorees]

Well said @peebles! Moderation is our watchword here.