The FastDay Forum

Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay in posting, it's been a busy long weekend.

I'm only down 0.2 lbs for the week, but there've been hormones and the munchies associated with those hormones this past week plus an event this past saturday, so it's not a huge surprise. Focus has been restored, but had to make up for some re-gained pounds. Glad to be back on track!

@fancyfinch - .2 lbs is still a loss. You have lost a lot of weight in a short amount of time, so the fact that you are still losing, is great!!

The scale is down a bit for me this morning. I really have to try to not ruin it over the weekend. I do have dinner plans tomorrow night, where I will splurge. But I hope to do ok the rest of the weekend and get exercise in both days.

I'm struggling with what to do for lunch on Saturdays. I teach 1/2 hour away from my house from 8 AM to about 11 AM. When I am done I'm pretty hungry. I bring my clothes with me to change into to go for a walk, because I find if I go home then the tiredness sets in and it doesn't happen. So I need something to eat after class, but nothing too heavy before my walk! I'm thinking of seeing if one of those sandwiches or protein boxes at Starbucks might work. I'm sure I'll figure it all out. This is the first semester I've started bringing my clothes. I used to just go out to lunch and then go home and crash, but I'm try to not lose my whole Saturday due to the class!!

Does anyone else have fun plans for the weekend? How are you going to manage your eating?

Hi cblasz, you could just have a banana before your walk, or a hard boiled egg (or egg sandwich if you fancy a bit more). A protein bar could be okay, though good ones are a bit expensive and I still feel they have too many ingredients (i.e. they are a processed food) - though we do find them handy when we are doing long hikes.

The highlight of my weekend was going out to dinner with the family - will tell more in the fasting today thread that I plan to start. Like you, I certainly splurged! The rest of the weekend is devoted to meal preparation for our holiday (will taken lots of home made frozen meals to save time when on the road) and gardening. It is going to be a glorious day today, so outside is where I want to be!

As for the challenge, my new resolve is going okay, but hasn't really been tested yet!

Sorry for my absence. I was going great guns with the challenge and then - something happened! I have no idea what came over me but I stopped fasting, was eating for England and had no interest at all in trying to lose weight! This has resulted in me putting back on every scrap of weight that I had lost during the challenge and, more importantly, I still don't really care!

I have no idea how to get myself motivated again. I have a Christmas cruise coming up in nine weeks time and even that is not enough to spur me into action! So, I thought that I would take my own advice and get back on here despite the total lack of progress on my part. I know that my head has to be in the right place to get started and I am hoping that visiting here will help with that. So, tomorrow I will start again and join the 'fasting today' thread. I hope that there will be others there to join me but, if not, I will just go it alone!

Well done to everyone who is sticking with it. Keep on keeping on!

@Sassy1 thanks for the tips. The thing is that I'm not going for my walk from home, I'm leaving from the college. Also, after my walk I go to the grocery store, so I do need it to be somewhat substantial to hold me over until dinner. But I did manage to find something at Starbucks that worked out pretty well. BTW - the KIND bars that I had the reaction too, are very good, natural bars, with protein and fiber. You might want to check them out as a protein bar, if they have them there. Glad you had a nice dinner with your family!

I'm sorry you are struggling @StowgateResident. It's so hard to know what makes that switch flip in our brains to motivate us to stay on track. I would say that the fact that you did come back here is definitely a good start. Take small steps. Say you'll just fast one day or something. Or I find even just tracking my food, even if I say I'm going to eat whatever I want, helps. Once I start tracking then I start to rethink some of the bad things. It's almost 2 weeks to Halloween so I was going to post that I plan to really kick it up into high gear for those last 2 weeks. Maybe you can do that too!

I plan to get a walk in today and have a lot of errands and work and such to do. Shouldn't be too bad of an eating day, although I'll probably splurge on a Sunday bagel!

Thanks, @cblasz, for your response. I have woken up this morning still with the intention of fasting so fingers crossed that I can maintain the motivation through lunchtime! I am intending to start with the cross-trainer again - it has been gathering dust during my down time - and go for a walk with the dog later. I am not putting myself under too much pressure but am feeling more motivated than I have for the last three weeks. Eight pounds to lose to get back to my target - no problem!

Well, I have to say I'm completely frustrated. I just weighed myself and I am the same as last week. But, up almost a pound from where I was on Friday. In 6 weeks, I've lost 2.5 lbs. I don't mind losing slowly, but to not lose at all or gain is what's frustrating.

I'm really very good during the week and then I splurge a bit on the weekends. But even yesterday when I splurged, I tracked it and it was 1600 calories, which is high, but not that high. (According to most calculators my TDEE is 1700 or so)

I have completely given up candy, except for an occasional dark chocolate square. I've given up sweets during the week. I'm doing 16:8 and one fast day. My calories during the week range from 800-1200, mostly around 1000. I'm keeping my carbs under 100g during the week. I'm trying to get in as much walking as I can.

I don't really know what else I need to do, except to cut back more on the weekends, which is really hard for me. Knowing I can treat myself on the weekend, makes it easier to get through the week. Trying to do this while working two somewhat stressful jobs is hard and the weekend is my reward.

Anyway, I guess some loss is better than none and I will keep plugging along. There are still 2 weeks left in the challenge, so hopefully I can still reach my goal of a 4 lbs. loss.

Down 0.6 lbs from last Monday. But I was 2 pounds less yesterday morning, lololol! Which is funny because I feel thinner today than I did yesterday, so go figure. Maybe I should have measured inches today instead? Too bad I needed to rush out the door. Maybe I ate 2 pounds of food yesterday? lolol

I feel good, so I'll take it!

I have my yearly checkup and bloodwork this week. I'm interested to see what's changed, since I have lost 25 pounds since last christmas. (Oh my goodness! I've lost 25 pounds this year! Well isn't that something.... )

Hi, @cblasz, my turn to offer words of wisdom now! The reason for your weight gain since Friday is really simple. I expect that you had a few more carbs than usual during your 'splurge' weekend and this is enabling your body to hang on to more 'water weight'. It will have normalised by tomorrow - providing you are moderate with the carbs today- so no need to fret! Just stay strong today and everything will be fine!

Thanks @StowgateResident! I do get that that's probably the case. However, over time it should still be moving down and my weight was the same as last Monday and only about 2.5 lbs. down from the beginning of Sept. So it seems to be a bigger issue!

@fancyfinch - Congratulations on your continued weight loss!

OK, everyone! It is 2 weeks until Halloween! Let's give it all we've got for this final push to meet our goals!!

My weight loss has been slow and I have 1.4 pounds left to lose to meet my goal. To do this I"m going to drink more water, walk more, stick strictly to my plan during the week and try to cut back on weekends!

How about everyone else? What are you going to do these last 2 weeks to meet your goal?

I am going to stick properly to my two fasts a week and make sure that I eat enough, but not too much, on the remaining days. I am also going to attempt to walk every day - only a mile because I'm on orders from the osteopath, and use my cross-trainer for five minutes every time that I have been sitting for an hour. That should do it!

One tricky thing is that my daughter and two granddaughters are arriving on Saturday and staying for a week. I don't like to fast when the children are around so that will probably scupper my plans! I even find myself eating breakfast when they are staying because it's very difficult to explain why I'm not eating and they are. They eat very healthily and don't expect me to be providing puddings, cakes etc but I like to because, in my mind, it's what Grandma's do! However, I shall try to resist and provide healthy and nutritious food - with no treats!!

I'm going to make sure I stick to what I'm doing and add in a couple more fast days just to be sure. Maybe I'll break the old jumprope out a few times? I'm not big on exercising.

I have a week to go before we leave on holidays, and for that week I intend to have either 2 fast days or 3 light days, depending how I go on my next scheduled fast day, tomorrow. Fast/light days planned for Thurs and Tues, with extra light day, if needed, on Sunday.

I also will be trying really hard not to overeat on the other days. I have done well enough re this over this last week, and I am definitely feeling better (and slimmer) for having eaten less overall. (However, feeling slimmer and being slimmer are different things, and I have to accept it will take a while to lose the inches I have regained around my hips over the last 3 years - mainly in this last year I think. "Interestingly" I have not regained much at all on my upper torso...)

My plan and hope for holiday eating is "just" not to eat after dinner or, if I do, to not have carby snacks. I am unlikely to fast - I have trouble fasting when we are travelling and have busy active days.

When I get back, there will be 6 weeks to Christmas. Eek! Btw, I will be hosting the Christmas Challenge, and will post about that early next week, as I would like to get it organised before I go on holiday.

@Stowgateresident, I totally agree that we should not fast around children. I am firmly of the belief that eating 3 nutritious (home cooked where possible) meals (plus healthy snacks) a day is important for children. For most people, if we had done that all our lives, we probably wouldn't ever be overweight. And if your grandchildren enjoy the baked desserts, still make them! You don't have to have a big serve.

I know at some stage on the forum there have been threads comparing what we ate when young relative to now. Although I had packet cereal and white bread, in the evening home cooked dinners with baked desserts were the norm, and processed foods and snacks were a rarity, including chocolate and lollies. Takeaway was only ever the occasional fish and chips. Almost never had fizzy drinks. I was not overweight - almost no child was overweight then. (Unlike now where at least a quarter of young children are overweight.) My mother wasn't overweight either, she was a comfortable average weight - until she started dieting (which had become a real industry in the 60's). I have found that if I can be bothered to make a baked dessert (rarely unfortunately) it can help satisfy my hunger and then there is no need for evening snacking. So, do still make those desserts if the children will miss not having them. (Thus endeth the lecture!!!)

Thank you, @Sassy1, for your reply. Fortunately for me, our grandchildren are happy not to have a baked dessert every day. Once a week is the rule in their home and fruit the remainder of the time. I usually provide two or three desserts for them if they are here for a week. Often fruit based, so maybe a fruit crumble or pie, served with fresh cream, ice cream or custard. The rest of the time we eat fruit. They are also great vegetable eaters so feeding them is really easy.

Your holiday sounds lovely and it is good to have an eating strategy for while you're away. Sadly for me. I usually start off with good intentions and then rapidly fall by the wayside, leaving me with a mountain of weight to shift when I get home. - at least with 5:2 it comes off relatively easily when I return!

Have a wonderful time!