The FastDay Forum

I've been away for a while.... away from work and away from any fasting. A fast from fasting! ha ha

Anyway, I thought I'd start back at work with the weekly challenge - and my challenge this week is to do the 5:2 proper.

For those that know, I've been doing an eating window of 7 hours and pigging out on all sorts in the 7 hour window.

So far so good today, I'm home from work and have had a pear as a snack (no crisps/chips!!!). Dinner is a home made beetroot soup.

How is everyone else? (I'm now going to read through some threads to find out)

Thanks @Wakki22 for kicking off this week's challenge. Nice to have another Sydney sider on board, too. I always find that you can't go past just plain, simple, uncomplicated 5:2. It always works for me, just that I've finally realised that I just have to stick with it f-o-r-e-v-e-r. I am going to take @Sassy1's very good advice and publicly commit to naming a day to get to that gym this week. Just not today.

I teach Monday to Friday and spend three hours commuting from my school each day. On Monday and Thursday's, I also do after-school tutoring which means I don't get home until after 7pm (after leaving home at 6am). Saturday's are also spent all day tutoring.

It's a squeeze it in kind of thing. As Tony Robbins says, though, I have to make it a 'must' and not just a 'should'. Woulda coulda shoulda then don'ta.

So tomorrow I will commit to a day. Hold me to it!

[Tracieknits]

I'm sorry your eating windows aren't working out so well. Unfortunately, we've seen that a lot here. Caro's had great success with hers, but she still just eats reasonable portions and almost no carbs ever. So I suspect her success has far more to do with the carb avoidance than with the windows.

I'm committed to staying on track. I like having different days of the week with different calorie levels, to keep my metabolism confused. And I've upped the exercise back to 10K steps/day (which is about 4 miles of walking).

Thanks for getting us started @Wakki22! Welcome back! I hope things are a little better for you now. I've sorta thought that your window was kinda long, considering you start so late. I have a 7-8 hour window, but I start at noon, so I eat lunch and dinner in that time. I do also track my calories/carbs and avoid sweets during the week. Good luck this week! Do you want to join our June Solstice Challenge?

@fat_Teacher - I can't believe you commute 3 hours to work. Have you ever tried to get a job closer to home, or considered moving closer?? Maybe you should join a gym closer to work! Anyway, good luck with going this week.

Good luck with your challenges this week @Tracieknits!

I suspect this week is going to be busy and stressful again. (It may be that way until the end of the school year in June) and as I mentioned on the June Solstice Challenge thread, it is teacher appreciation week and they are providing (i.e. tempting) us with all sorts of food. I've decided that I will only partake in the lunch on Friday and none of the desserts. Otherwise I will stick with my usual program!

So my goal will be to get my 15 minutes of walking in every day (in addition to the walking I do for work) and an hour long walk after my college class on Saturday and swimming on Sunday.

Have a great week everyone!!

@Fat_Teacher all guns blazing!!!! I wish you a strong will with your challenges this week - especially the gym with all those hours on the road & tutoring.
I have a rule that if on a day I don't feel like going, but "should/intend to" I tell myself to go in to the gym for 10 min, and if I don't like it, I just pack up and go home.

Thank you @cblasz I am better. Things are finally settling at work - not the most optimal results, but I still get paid and that's really what matters - you work to live not the other way round. I'm feeling less stressed, and I think that's made it easier for me to do my first 5:2 day on 600cal! yeah! (I didn't count cals, but I've done enough counting to know where I'm at more or less)

@Tracieknits - I reckon it was the stress at work that made me abuse the window theory...
The good thing was I didn't put on weight because of the long fasting windows even though I was going through a bag of Chilli Chips a day and then some!!

Oh I forgot to mention my other challenge for this week and next: that I've stopped drinking any alcohol and any snacks for 2 weeks. If I feel good, I'll extend that to a month.

ps tried quitting coffee too - but I can't be an over achiever just yet... so blew that one ha ha

[Tracieknits]

non regaining is great!

I have to limit alcohol too -- aside from it having calories, it tends to lead to eating things I hadn't planned on eating. So when I'm behaving, I am for sharing a bottle of wine with my husband two nights a week -- max three, but can't do that every week. And only on Fri, Sat or Sun.

I try to limit snacking unless (1) I've waited at least 15 minutes from the time I decided I really really needed a snack, (2) I've had a glass of water and (3) it's nutritious and not carby, like a hard boiled egg or small piece of cheese.

Dear @fat_teacher

Re your challenge... Given your very busy schedule, getting to the gym does seem rather ambitious, unless you go on Sundays. Or are you able find a time in the week (presumably it could only be after work on Tues, Wed or Fri) that is reasonable for you? Or....do you really need to do all the extra tutoring? What is most important to you? Or...would some other form of exercise be more suitable? Can you go for a walk at lunchtime, or do an exercise class of some sort at lunchtime? What is possible/ realistic for you?

I have found a website that is full of great ideas for weight management - it has a holistic approach. There is lots of info there, I am still making my way through it and do intend to start a discussion thread about this so that hopefully a few people will look at it. But I will post a link here anyway. I am working my way through the 10 steps mentioned, and think the goal setting one might be useful for you - worth looking at all of them though, and the related links.

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/min ... dy_fat.asp

Best wishes and good luck as always.

Thanks @Sassy1 for the ideas page. I will take a peek on the train on the way home. If I am going to schedule it, my first day will have to be a Wednesday or a Tuesday or a Friday. All that tutoring is a business that my wife and I run. It's a busy life but then I like it busy. It does have its downside and that's snacking on the run, getting home and collapsing into a chair to watch TV or having a few or more glasses of wine (which I don't do anymore).

@Cblasz, it's not three hours each way just three hours in total. I leave home at 7am and arrive at 8.30am. Leave work at 4.30pm or 5 and get home 6 or 6.30pm. Except for two days a week where I start at 7am. I love the work I do. The students are fantastic, most of whom have some form of mental illness that prevents them from attending mainstream. It's either us or they stay at home withdrawn from the world. It makes it all worth it. I'm not complaining about my travel ... it's just a part of my life. As exercise has to be again.

Watch this space.

Oh well, that's a little better. And I see you take the train, so that probably makes it a little better. I have long school days too. A lot of people don't understand what goes into teaching. I have a 20 minute commute and still I leave my house around 8 and get home around 6, except on the nights I go to work at Starbucks on the college classes I teach on Saturday, since I can't afford to live on my teacher's salary alone!

I haven't been getting my 15 minute walks in, because I am administering state tests in my computer lab and therefore I lose my prep most days. We only get 1/2 hour for lunch (if that) and I spend most of that time eating and working. So often I just run out of time for the walk. Sometimes I have students in my room using the computers, so I can't leave them alone. But I do love it, too. I work in a low income district and since I don't have my own kids, I feel like these are my kids. I teach the whole school, so I've seen the 8th graders grow up from Kindergarten! All the work we do is for the kids!

Anyway, despite not getting my actual 15 minutes in, I'm still getting in plenty of steps, so I'm ok with it. I've decided to try to enjoy the teacher appreciation lunch today. There will be salad and chicken that I will have and will try not to have the garlic bread and pasta (the best parts of course) or the dessert! I did manage to resist the "candy bar" yesterday! Although I did have a small cupcake for my friend's birthday. Tonight we also are attending an award ceremony for some of the teachers in our school who are being recognized as Outstanding Teachers, so I have no idea really what landmines await tonight!

Ok, I've rambled on enough. Have a great day everyone!