Yes, I can be obsessive... I totally agree about the benefits / approach of 5:2. My blog from today might explain my issue a bit more?? Or probably just more obsessing!!! Ideally I don't want to have to fast at all to maintain my weight - maybe just a window approach but a wider window, but only to have the benefits of fasting, not to reduce how much I eat (I read somewhere that 14 hours without food can be enough to get benefits for women, so if I can stop eating by 8.30pm then have brekkie at 10.30 - most days - that would work).
My main challenge remains to stop the mindless eating in the evenings. Doesn't happen too often now, but still happens, and once I get into that pattern, it is hard to stop without having a fast day to break the pattern. I also have the situation that once I start eating I want to keep eating, especially with processed carbs of course. I have had some success with following the Amanda Sainsbury-Salis Don't go hungry diet approach, where you focus on just how hungry you feel before eating, and how full your feel afterwards. I also have some success with distractors which can divert me from eating when I don't need to.
I don't have a problem with the evening eating if I am genuinely hungry, but I do find it much harder to assess my hunger levels in the evening. I guess I am not too concerned about what I have been eating in the evenings lately, apart from feeling that it is a bit more than I need, hence a fast to compensate.
The bigger concern is when I keep eating when I KNOW I am full, and even when I am not enjoying at all the food that I eat. What IS that about??
I guess all the above just confirms how much I am obsessing!!
I don't weigh myself anymore but I can't fit into the clothes I bought when I was at goal, so I expect I am 3-5kg, maybe more, over goal. Although I would like to be the size I was at goal weight, it may be that that weight is in fact too low for me. So I want to focus on healthy eating habits as the goal, and making what I eat about a choice that I consciously make, not something that is driven by some other force. If you follow.
Wmr309's point about obsession is a very good one. A discussion thread that I have thought may be worth raising is how much time many of us spend thinking about diets, eating, weight and all associated things. Not healthy, I don't think. Prior to starting 5:2 I rarely gave these a thought; now, as you say, I am obsessive, spending far too much time each and every day thinking about it. I don't think I am the only one. (Mind you, having retired, and with generally a very good life, I do have time to think about this as I don't have a lot of other things to worry about..... Lucky me, I know.)
And I think this has alerted me to a solution - I need to fill my life with more positive experiences.
Day 13
by Sassy1 on 26 Sep 2016, 22:02
I did fast (almost) til evening yesterday. I started to get hungry later in the morning, but managed without food til the drive home when I did have a hard boiled egg and one quinoa rice cake. I was ravenous by then... Steak and veg for dinner, rather a lot of potato/sweet potato, and an orange. That would have been fine, but I had had a late invite to catch up that evening with friends I hadn't seen in years. I declined dinner and said I would arrive for coffee, but they hadn't even started eating when I got there. I chatted with them while they ate the main course, but I just couldn't refuse some dessert(we were at one of their places and everyone had brought something - lots). Our hosts' kids had baked as well, and I could not refuse when they offered their produce. Didn't have too much (ie I could have eaten lots more), tried to keep the serves small, but it did rather blow the calorie limit. Banana cake, baked cheese cake, rice pudding and whiskey cake (the latter was divine!!).
Hmm. Well I am certainly not fasting again today! In fact, I am wondering if I should stop the fasts and just concentrate on only eating when hungry. However, when I tried this before (a la the Don't go hungry diet) although most days I would eat okay, often enough I would eat more than I needed. I rarely ate less than I needed. So then fast days were the only way to compensate. Not ideal or what I wanted at all. Will reflect on this.