The FastDay Forum

Happy birthday wendyjane. Well another fast day done and dusted. In the end we had chicken and vege soup with noodles in the kids bowls. I bought 5 new corelle bowls that are just the right size for an Asian soup. The last 2 times I bought a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket, I froze the leftover bones. Tonight I threw them in a pot with boiling water and in an hour I had a beautiful broth for my soup. It was lovely.

Can I sneak in? Not really fasting today, but half fasting. I do not skip lunches at week ends, so Monday skipping lunch seems really hard. We had 'fathers' day' here in Finland. Kids have grown up, but I made Hubby a low carb chocolate cake. And I bought him After 8s. Surprisingly did not really put on any weight over the week end. But finding skipping lunch today hard. It is also November gray and dark here. Thank God for this Forum!

Good morning! We are expecting 15 inches of snow today and we living out in the country at the end of a power line so we are praying we keep our power though this snow. All schools are cancelled however we home school so no such luck here lol So far the fast is going well but like I said it's still morning here. Have a great day everyone!

Am in today after a heavy weekend of pizza and chocolate cake. Gnocci and veg for dinner.

[carieoates]

Good morning! We are expecting 15 inches of snow today and we living out in the country at the end of a power line so we are praying we keep our power though this snow. All schools are cancelled however we home school so no such luck here lol So far the fast is going well but like I said it's still morning here. Have a great day everyone!

Hope you're all, ok.

Just had the much needed boost of a cuppasoup!
@canoegal hope you & the family are ok x

Today has been my fast day.. the third one since I got back on the Fast Train again.. I managed to lose 2.1 kg last week... but my main challenge is making sure I stay under the reasonable calorie limit on the feed weekends and with it being my son's birthday (and party) last weekend it was hard to keep track! I have a feeling I may have taken a step back, but I'll see when I weigh in later this week.

Anyways, I have a question for all of you: I noticed that some of you just have one meal on your fast days (usually dinner). I have been trying that for days 2 and 3 so far and while it's been easy to go without food I found myself grumpy at key parts of the day. I believe it's more about caffeine than food. I was just wondering if those of you who do just 1 meal a day phased into it gently or just found you preferred no breakfast from the get-go. When I first fasted it was a small bowl of porridge and coffee for breakie and a small dinner but I found my weight loss was very slow. Still not sure how much that was about my mismanagement on feed days or perhaps not optimising fast days...

Anyways, hope to hear some insight!

Thanks, Ladan

Hi @LadanTrying, I definitely phased the reducing to one meal over 6 months. I used to have 3 egg whites for breakfast then a 100 calorie home made vege shop from freezer for lunch then a 300 cal stir fry for dinner. My hubs still has 3 meals and has lost 18 KGS. Weve been 5:2 ing for 20 months.I now usually only have 1 meal but allow myself a lunch if I want it. Most people do only dinner so as not to awake their ' hungry monster' but I have one meal more for the supposed repair and health benefits of having a longer fast. Luckily I don't have a hungry monster so if I feel I need something I will have something around 100 calories before dinner such as protein ( a bit of leftover meat) Try having a cups coffee or maybe a salty drink such as oxo or broth as I know that's what my body's craving when I feel empty and weird- salt! After my home made chicken broth I feel instantly normal.
Hope this helps and let us know how you get on,
Cheers, julianna

we are hanging in there. We lost internet for a while but not power yet. I am so hungry today.. trying to hold strong

Hi @LadanTrying, I don't have anything useful to add as I've eaten 2-3 meals throughout my fasting (since 2011). Like @julianna, I don't seem to have a hungry monster that is roused by eating a small meal but I know this is very much an individual thing.

@Canoegal - good luck with the snow. I have friends in St Pauls and it's entertaining every Winter to track just how deep the snow gets to be.

Good luck to people with more hours to go. I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

I've been fasting all day, but too busy to stop by and post.

Hope you've all had a good fast!

I'm in today. Question: I'm probably going to have to go into the "office" (70 miles one way, ick!) on Thursday, my usual light/fast day. Trying to decide if I should change days for this week only, or just tough it out? I'll have to get up 3 hours earlier than usual and will be sleep deprived, which makes me want to eat!

@LadanTrying, I used to be a big breakfast person (see my blog), but have found since doing 5:2 that I'm really not. That is, I don't have an issue skipping breakfast--lunch is more challenging. I'm wondering though, if the "hungry monster" might be kept quieter by eating mostly protein and fat and skipping carbs (certainly refined ones) earlier in the day. (Note that I am NOT a low carber, but often eat pretty low carb on light days, just seems to work better.)

Yes, I phased in to reducing my number of meals; actually, even on "normal" days now, I seldom eat both breakfast and lunch; if I get hungry late morning and eat, I'm not hungry for lunch. Most of the time, I eat lunch, then not till dinner, which I eat late.

What do I do on light days?
coffee (black), big pot of green tea (it's like a slow drip of caffeine!), water with liquid vitamins and clear fiber (anytime from 10am to 2pm, depending on when the tum complains), cuppa veggie broth with a drop of coconut oil, then "lunch" after work (usually 5:30pm to 7pm): about 150 cals, fruit & nonfat plain Greek yogurt OR a hardboiled egg and piece of fruit; dinner is 9-10pm (I'm a night owl and cannot sleep if hungry!), generally a veggie stir fry. As you can see, by far the bulk is later in the day.

@Ladantrying. I used to be a firm believer in breakfast, and I still do like breakfast on non-fast days. But now I don't have breakfast on Fast days. When I started I did, but i found that pissy breakfast so unsatisfying, I now find it easier just to have black coffee. I went for quite a long time only eating at dinner, except for a miso soup in the middle of the afternoon. But I'm bored with miso soup now. I had a period of having nothing but lately I have started to feel really grumpy and desperate in the afternoon so I have taken to cottage cheese - high in protein, low in calories. It seems to help.

Birthday fast day is over. It was moderately successful. Which is good enough for me. That is to say, I had a rather large dinner out with the family, but the rest of the day just a small bowl of soup mid afternoon.
And since all of you reading this are done fasting for the day, I can tell you I had a piece of Mediterranean sea bass (apparently this is a very "hip" fish these days!) with broccolini (instead of the buttery orzo it was supposed to come with). And a couple of slices of rosemary foccacia. And a small bowl of lentil soup. And a little (honest!) chocolate cake.
What can I say. Birthdays only come once a year for most of us, and birthdays of this magnitude only once a decade.

Wow @WendyJane, what a model and inspiration you are! I am very impressed.