The FastDay Forum

Congratulations you must feel fantastic to have reached your goal and done it by eating and drinking all your favourite things

So pleased for you.

Fantastic, well done, you must be over the moon.

Thanks everyone, very kind of you. I find the psychological side of all this the most interesting and I think I'll ponder this further and put a post up about these ponderings. I have, since achieving my goal weight 36 hours ago , eaten a lot of food that I haven't eaten for a while. In other words I have gone a bit mad - but rather than be freaked out by it, or worry about the consequences I am rather just taking note about how I feel about it. Firstly that Indian takeaway left me feeling bloated beyond recognition...going to bed feeling like that was foul...so it is no longer up there on my 'love' list, rather on my 'beware' list. Then I had bfst and a few hours later got seduced by the Eggs Benedict my fellow cafe goer was having and had that as a 2nd bfst/lunch...well that was OK as I had no lunch. Then I decided that I'd make up those Adriano Zumbo choc brownies that I have been avoiding. Well made them had some, thought they were very sweet and also on the 'high cal and not as fab as I thought' list. So by Sunday I shall be fasting as usual, Monday will be 'don't go mad' day, as will Tues/Thurs, I'll fast Wed and go mad Fri/Sat. What I feel most, is that if it all goes pear shaped just add another fast day, cut back on the high cal 'hedonistic' food and all will be well. But in the back of my mind is a very big warning bell....danger Will Robinson!! Danger! Do not forget that IF will keep you slim and in good health, do NOT FORGET this and go back to the old eating. No matter what happens in the future, don't forget this.

Congratulations GMH! Keep us posted on maintenance, but as you enjoy fasting you"ll probably find it a breeze. Well done!

Congratulations and well done GMH

It's interesting to hear of your experiences since achieving your goal, which confirm that this WOE does change your underlying attitude to food which I think is the key to its success.

Good luck with maintenance - I hope to be joining you soon

Well done GMH!

And ditto to windsinger's comment. I think that I am becoming more 'mindful' of what I eat. I don't want maintenance to end up being a sort of yo-yo-ing between fasting and going mad. Well see when I get there!
Good luck GMH, keep posting!

Well done on reaching your goal, GMH!!

Well done on reaching your goal.

What this WOE has taught me is to be flexible. I no longer feel guilty if I have a good hearty meal, I just compensate with my eating the next day. When I know I am going to have a high calorie meal in the evening (such as a pizza movie night with friends last week) I will fast during the day and then have what i want that evening. I did a normal 500 cal fast the next day and felt great.

I still have a long way to go before I can also say I am at goal, but it is really good to hear these success stories. Thanks for sharing!

hi

how did you find 4:3?
ideally i would like to lose 10lbs in 4 weeks and then drop to 5:2 to lose possibly about 6lb
any advice gratefully received

elle

Congratulations, GMH! Good luck with maintenance!

[carorees]

Belated congrats from me too! (still catching up on the posts I missed on holiday!). I'll be interested to hear how maintenance goes from a psychological perspective as I think that's the key to long term success! So far it does seem that fasting engenders a very different mindset than standard diets. Good luck with your ongoing experimentation!

Very pleased for you GMH, well done! AND all that enjoyment along the route. You have set a lovely example, and tell us how you now manage, also that you have learnt to be aware of previous tendencies which made you heavier. Something for all to learn from. This WOL and the forum really re- educate. You must feel on top of the world! Hope maintenance turns out easy. I look forward to reading how you get on.

Carorees and Katharina thanks - well I agree about the psychological aspect - not just maintenance but...well everything really Well firstly what is maintenance I ask myself...is it staying exactly on goal or a bit up or a bit down (u know the just in case scenario). Why do we set the goal we set is another question..I see various people saying their wedding weight, or there pre kids weight or some other mysterious goal. Mine was to get to the previous lowest adult weight. This I did, then I put on .6kg, well that's OK, I'll just lose it like I lost the rest of the weight, no stress. Why do diets fail is another good question. Well seems to me that they fail if we stop them cos we have a) got bored/hated dieting etc or b) we got to goal weight and reverted to our old way of eating. Another question I ask myself is: Are some foods bad or is this just another myth. Some foods make u fatter than other foods, some foods are more calorie dense with little filling. But are some foods bad for everyone or are all foods OK unless you are allergic to them? So with all these thoughts (& many others I can assure you) swirling in my head, I plod along my 'maintenance' path. Which is really no different to my non maintenance path.

I LOVE good food. In a previous life I was a restaurant manager, working for some seriously good chefs, even had a couple of chef boyfriends. I like eating sweet food (but I'm a pedant, it has to be the best cake from the best baker, not a cardboard, machine made choc biscuit from a packet), I like to drink red wine...but it should be at least 3 years old and good wine, not some vinegar with an arty label. I love delicious gourmet breads, not sliced white uurrgggh! I love fresh veg/food (salads my forte), but it has to be interesting and delicious, not processed landfill...or should I say gutfull So I'm choosy about what I eat & drink, but I do like to eat these things, so I do. Now if I indulge in such pleasures on a daily basis, I could easily turn into a porker So I have to work out a way to do this and not start snorting like a pig. So it's easy...do 5:2 and if I put on weight do 4:3. I actually like fasting - not because I like being hungry...actually I'm fasting right now and I'm stuffed! With vegies. But because I like feeling I can eat what I want tomorrow without having to look for low carb (the last 13 years)or low fat (well that was decades ago) or 'diet food'. So when I first started this WOE (mostly 4:3) I just loved it, even more as I lost weight and even when I plateaued I didn't care - I just like eating what I want most days and eating little 2 or 3 days a week. I still feel this way. I vaguely count calories - I have an idea what's in what, so I do a quick add up in my head and think, room for a hot choc or whatever. My next phase will be to get better organised as I was in the beginning (before life got in the way) and cook/freeze healthy meals so I don't have to worry about cooking during the week - planning a bit better. Essentially to me fasting is neither a diet nor a chore, I just love this way of eating. Can't imagine that maintenance will be a problem unless I get struck by lightning or something else that life throws at me. But I never say never or forever. I may get sick of fasting, or I might move to the Caribbean and find I want to eat 7 days a week. But for now this is perfect.

Hi GMH I totally agree with you about loving fasting. I have had to forgo my usual routine for this and last week and I am missing my familiar routine. So this WOE I am really appreciating and too I love eating good quality food, so aim to keep this up but am happy with 5:2 & at least 3 days of 16:8 as well