The FastDay Forum

Hi all,
Anyone got any good tips or had similar experience??? I have been doing really well so far and loving the 5:2 thing but have kept failing on my fast days in the last couple of weeks and each time I give myself a right talking to and promise that I will do better but I can't seem to help it!!!

I don't eat all day (maybe some tea/satsuma/cupa soup for 100cal max) and then I have a dinner, which ranges from a microwave calorie controlled M & S meal or protein with veg or soup and bread. This fills me up and I always make sure its something that will cook quickly and easily. I also keep dark chocolate in cupboard to satisfy any sweet craving I might have after dinner which won't break the 'bank'. However, we have had a few Birthday parties recently so lots of easy accessible food around at the moment as well as 36 mince pies in my freezer! And this extra food/plus feeding 2 fussy toddlers who never finish their yummy full fat food, has been the undoing of me. I surreptitiously start nibbling on their food trying to demo eating for them, then have a few crisps and then nuts and then (and this is the real crux of what's bugging me!) when I break my 500 cal limit, I kind of think, 'Oh well, I've done it now! I might as well eat what I want'. I believe its a primeval food craving that takes over as I seem to have very little control once I start!!!! And although I probably never go much more than 800/900 cals on fast days, Its still really getting me down!!!!!! I also think that because I have also continued to lose weight (1lb a week on average) even though I have been cheating, I am kind of justifying it. I always do this on diets as I always lose quickly at the beginning and get 'too cocky'.
Does anyone else behave like this on diets and what devices /strategies have you put in place to avoid falling into this trap?? Last night, for example, I should have had a cup a soup at 5pm instead of trying to eat my dinner with the girls (as I was so hungry but obviously I can't enjoy my food when they are throwing food, spoons, screaming etc etc around and I also burnt my dinner as prepping for the twins meant it was left in too long). After they fell asleep I had had my dinner and felt wholly unsatisfied so I munched on crisps and nuts!!!! (Atleast the nuts are finished now hahaha). Oh goodness! Help!!!

According to author Josie Spinardi - this is known as Eating coz you ate tho' you may have this blended with some other well known triggers. Eating 'coz you ate is something that people seem to identify with, a lot. One of the essential aspects of fasting is embracing it as a choice so that it isn't experienced as deprivation/restriction and thereby feeling in control of a WOE/eating schedule rather than so out of control that only an iron will keeps consumption in bounds.

The
Happy Eaters
website has a forum where people discuss useful books. From various IF sites, my anecdotal impression is that it seems as if the sense of deprivation or restriction that accompanies IF for some people can trigger binge eating/over eating episodes (my impression is subjective and from people's reports and they tend to be at the less painful end of the clinical continuum - tho' still distressing), a sense of loss of control around food, or over-eating. One of the books that I've regularly seen recommended and commended is:

How to Have Your Cake and Your Skinny Jeans Too: Stop Binge Eating, Overeating and Dieting For Good Get the Naturally Thin Body You Crave From the Inside Out by Josie Spinardi (it's a Kindle but there's an app. that allows them to be read on phones or computers).

The overviews that I've seen highlight the following points:

The Dieting Triangle of Despair: Diet ---> Binge ---> Beat Self Up for Perceived Lack of Self-Discipline and Resolve to

Diet etc. etc.

Spinardi identifies 7 common reasons why the usual forms of dieting are inappropriate for sustainable, healthy weight loss:
1 Dieting intensifies cravings and preoccupation with food.
2 Dieting makes you eat more, not less. (For every diet there is an equal opposing binge. The extent and ferocity with which you binge is directly proportional to the extent to which you restrict what you eat.)
3 Dieting makes you feel out of control with food.
4 Dieting increases both emotional distress and the likelihood that you'll eat in response to the stress.
5 Dieting creates a whole new category of overeating called "Eating Cuz You Ate."
6 Diets don't model naturally thin eaters' behaviour.
7 Diets do not resolve the real reasons you eat when you're not hungry.

Spinardi emphasises what she calls Hunger-Directed Eating and highlights 5 types of Non-Hunger Eating:
1 Gasping for Food
2 Eating Cuz You Ate (I've blown the FD, I may as well carry on blowing it)
3 Mean Girl Munchies (the hypercritical inner voice that many of us have)
4 Licking Your Wounds
5 Recreational Eating

-----

"When deprivation is involved, not only to the pounds stay put, your feelings of powerlessness soar. So, an eating approach that completely eliminates deprivation is not only favorable, it is crucial to successfully achieving your long-term leanness."

"Binge eating is the natural result of food restriction, while emotional eating is the result of a (completely solvable) deficit in one's emotional management skill set."

[Re: food choices} "Because managing your behavior by an iron will - rather than autopilot - is a constant, energy-draining source of conflict and tension. You're in an undending arm wrestle between "Do It!" and "Don't do it!" The instant you're weakened, distracted, or slightly off your game, your resolve caves in the direction of whatever is the least painful, and most pleasurable in that moment."

"Hunger Directed Eating is not the Eat-When-You're-Hungry-and-Stop-When-You're-Full Diet. This completely undermines the effectiveness of these body-connecting habits by turning them into a diet with two rules--waiting until you're hungry and stopping when you're full. As we've seen, all sorts of things go (terribly) wrong when we introduce rules into our eating. Foremost, it leads directly to more overeating."

"If physical hunger isn't what launched your current eating episode, then how in the world is being satisfied going to be what signals you to stop? Hunger and fullness are like two bookends. If hunger is what starts you eating, then feeling satisfied would naturally be what makes it easy to stop. However, if feeling frustrated with a project at work is what initiated your eating, then what is your signal to stop? When the problem is solved? When the chips and salsa are gone? When you hear someone coming down the hall?"

Some people don't seem to feel deprived or restricted with IF but others do - it's not clear why and it seems that feelings towards fast days can change over time.

As far as I can tell, people tend to pick the bits of the book that work for them and ditch the parts that feel like they'd be onerous (such as her suggestion to check in with yourself after various food choices and meals and record your rating for hunger, mood, energy and concentration at various times tho' that seems to work for some people who use it to collect baseline data about themselves ).

In the past year, I've seen a number of people on a different forum adopt Spinardi's advice in various food areas and they've mostly reported positive changes in their drive to binge or over-eat or they've regained such a sense of calm with food that they describe it as empowerment that they've never previously experienced. And, these are people who are managing to pull off the neat trick of combining this with IF whereby the fasting is an unbreakable contract that they have agreed with themselves rather than perceived as restriction/deprivation.

I've no idea if any of the above might be helpful to you. I've seen several references to her videos on YouTube and they're well received. To me, tho', it looks like you have a good idea that having some soup and maybe a few minutes to gather yourself before tackling feeding time with your twins might be very helpful. Spinardi also recommends that you should find a new way to signal the end of the meal so that food consumption/grazing doesn't continue (I can't find my notes for that). It might be reading something or saving a recording to watch but it's the end of your feeding time. Good Luck.

Let me tell you my experience, as it might put things in perspective for you.
I have lost 5 stones, 4 of them by fasting. I found early on that I, too, found I wasn't sticking to 500 cals, which is a pretty arbitrary figure. So I resolved to try 700/800 cals fasts and perhaps slip an extra one in every 2 weeks. I lost a pound a week too.
And... I have kept it off.
You are probably running round like crazy with your toddlers and burning quite a few calories, which is why you're losing on your fasts.
Do you watch what you eat on non fast days, too? I cut out potatoes, rice pasta etc and have never felt the lack of them in a meal. I swapped potatoes for celeriac, but the delights of a curry and rice or a risotto are rare treats. Now it's curry with extra veg.
I don't have the depth of knowledge that @SSure has, but I just know what worked for me.
Don't beat yourself up, but don't give up either.

[carieoates]

Having read SSures fantastic post. I only have this little bit of advice

In the morning or the day before your fast go onto a calorie counter site (eg MFP) and log everything you are planning to eat. It's s about looking at what you're allowed rather than concentrating on what you can't have.
Do this on all days for a while just to get a gauge of what your really are consuming.
Check out my tracker. Very slow loss but it stays off.
Fizzy water with some no added sugar squash . Great stuff.
Good luck. Twins how lovely.

I always tend to have a hot chocolate in the evening ( around 9pm) on a fast day. This helps a lot. I to also track my cals and this also helps.

Well we are all different but I used to have this problem when I waited all day to eat until the evening. So I took Varady's advice and eat my calories at lunch instead and save a few calories for when I get home, and have a cup of tea with two squares of dark chocolate. (90%). I look forward to it as a treat at the end of the day for sticking to my fast day and it solved my problem.

Brilliant advice Everyone! Thank you. I knew you'd pep me up. I am determined to solidify whatever it is I need to do in order to make this my way of life because it is by far the closest thing to a proper way to get control of my eating that I've ever felt. Thanks for motivating me xxx

Fantastic advice above, may I just add
No eating after 6.30pm every day, the kitchen is closed to food.
A drink of water (still or carbonated) or black no-sugar coffee or herb/fruit tea is ok.
Good luck and hugs to your twins