The FastDay Forum

Fasting day today - day 2 of my 4th fasting week.

I have tried a few approaches to how to most easily get through the day but seem to have started to stick to

cup of white coffee in the morning (skimmed milk)
A Berocca to make sure I get all my vits
Carrot sticks and cerlery with some salad dressing dip to pick on throughout the day
a few cans of coke
Ceasar salad for dinner

It seems to work well for me, and I think I like the fact that I have such a routine.

I'm curious though, do others find a routine helps, or do you need some variety on fast days?

8th or 9th week of 5:2 - no routine - just treat it like any other day without cooking. So walking, gardening, reading, socialising... I fed friends iced choccy cake I had made for morning tea last fast day & there was no pang to have a slice with them.

I have two coffees & a handful of dried fruit or some salad greens & that's enough for me for a fast day. Don't really get hungry any more. My sister started a few weeks after me said she's pretty much the same - she said feeling hungry/having 3 meals a day is a head space thing.

I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it anymore. It's kinda just a habit now.

1st thing - cup of tea, semi milk, 1 sugar (50 cals)
mid morning - 2nd cuppa
mid-afternoon - 3rd cuppa
6-7pm HUGE bowl of home made soup (usually about 250ish calories) - sometimes replaced by a large bowl of stir fried veg instead
3/4 cream crackers (100 cals)
Total 400 (ish) cals

OH and I are hoping that when the warmer weather gets here we can vary it a bit with some salad !!! I'm a girl of routine and this works well for me

I had on my first two fasts and I regret not keeping it on my third so I'll stick to it on the fourth.
Cup of coffee (no sugar) with a wee dram of skimmed milk and a couple of crackers for breaky.
Porridge (basically quaker oats boiled in salted water) for lunch and dinner.
If I crave for a snack, I make broth with half a stock cube and spices.
Salad sounds great but indeed it takes warmer weather to crave it.

Week 9 of fasting and I have pretty much been through every routine possible! I found no matter what I ate, I wanted more so now I stick to 3-4 cups of coffee with skimmed milk, a 55 cal cuppa soup if i am hungry at lunch or at 5 ish when the kids come home and I try to stick to herbal tea all evening. I some times have some protein in the evening if I am having real hunger pangs but the longer I stick to this the less that happens

Peppermint tea / coffee with splash of milk / hot water mornings
Cupasoup or tin of low cal soup for lunch
Low cal ready made dinner / scrambled egg with ryvita for dinner

[carorees]

Rough timing

8am: Cup of redbush tea (black no sugar) in bed (thanks hubby)
Check forum for new members posts needing approving
Let hubby deal with animals and do school run
Shower
9-10 am: Pot of black coffee (2-3 cups)
Browse forum
Housework
11 am: redbush tea
Do some work!
12.30 pm Vegetable stock
Work
2 pm vegetable stock
Work
3 pm 5 mins HIIT exercise
3.15 big glass of water
School run
4 pm redbush tea
Cook dinner
6 pm big plate of vegetables + 100g salmon/chicken, big glass water
Put chickens to bed and feed horse
Browse forum while watching TV
8 pm glass water
TV/forum
10 pm glass water
TV/forum
11 pm bed
Final check on forum!

Do you think I spend too much time here?!

[wildmissus]

Yes, I do like routine...sometimes its the only way I get things done. So far my fast days always have always been Monday and Thursday and I find I drink certain flavours of herbal teas at certain times and in the evening I have sparkling wine, oops I mean water . The only thing that is different is the meal that I have which tends to rotate around a handful of Hairy Dieters meals.

Fasting breakfast for me is pretty much always:
100g strawberries
1 crumbled up weetabix
1 60 calorie yogurt
All mixed together.

I do try to vary lunch and dinner, but I tend to always have grapes for a snack because its easy to vary the quantity of grapes depending on how many calories I have left to play with.

The only other difference between fasting and non-fasting days is that I drink lots of fruit teas instead if builders tea with milk.

Sort of...
First thing mug of hot water & lemon juice, or a Rooibos tea with no milk or sugar.
Breakfast such as cottage cheese, a pear sliced up and sprinkled with black pepper and a clementine or a boiled egg and half a grapefruit. Then a black coffee.
Small lunch of a miso soup, maybe a small apple or a carrot and a dsp of hummous.
Dinner, maybe Minestrone soup, or Spiced Tomato & Lentil soup (from a blog called Tinned Tomatoes, which has some good vegetarian 5:2 recipes.). I've also made the feta nicoise salad from 5:2 book and the 'Mexican' Pizza with spinach, mushroom, grilled peppers, red onion and home made v.low fat tomato sauce and light mozzarella. I usually have some broccoli or carrots as well, cooked to go with my daughter's dinner.
Through the day I drink water or herbal tea or sometimes a second coffee. Have once or twice met a freind for coffee and happily had a capuccino and no cake!!

...hmm, looks like quite a lot now I've written it down! But of course I've put the alternatives. Haven't branched out any further into recipes yet, just doing it for myself, daughter has a regular diet.

7.00am Cup of tea with milk on train
8.15 Arrive at work and have a black tea, and get a jug of water for my desk
10.30 White coffee
Lunchtime - go out for a walk/shopping
Afernoon - a few black teas, and lots of water till I leave work
6.30 dinner - usually a home made caserole with some veg, and a low cal fizzy drink
A couple of cups of black tea in the evening in front of telly.

same food and drink every fast day for 5 weeks!

Morning black coffee
More black coffee
3rd black coffee
Onto water
More water (3/4 pints throughout day)
Lunchtime coffee
7pm tea with a dash of milk (ah heaven!)
fizzy flavoured water in the evening
8.30pm bowl of sultana bran with semi skimmed milk
More fizzy water in an expensive glass as if it is an alcoholic nightcap!

I have never felt bored with it and I stick to it rigidly as it works for me. My fast days are not my days to exite my taste buds.

I've used most of this month to find the right routine for me and the result is:
Fairly high carb meal evening before fast, tea with S/milk, lots of water and one Bovril till evening meal which is usually w/watchers so I don't have to work out too many cals and I usually have enough to have a piece of fruit before bedtime.
It works well for me.

No routine at all!
Coffee with bit of milk - repeat ad lib.
Rooibosch tea or green tea when I think I'm having too much coffee...
Very weak miso in hot water if craving a bit of flavour.
(No food during day, unless social engagements make token bites necessary)
Cook dinner for family, have *very* small amount.