The FastDay Forum

Hello All

Yesterday I discovered this great journal section. I did start blogging, but actually I think the journal is better.

A few words on yesterday, my fourth fast day - Beginnings are so crisp and still full of hope, aren't they?!
Since I was really on a roll, being a man (easier for weight loss, sorry ladies) I decided to try running on a fast day - Not a full throttle workout, but still.
So, I ran 5K - it was nice, feeling a bit hungry, but nothing out of control. After the run I had a 200 calorie mostly protein lunch.
Soon after I was hungry again, but still controllable. And then...
The neighbours decided to pop in to thank us for looking after their home while being away. So they brought two x Toblerone (400 g, dark and milk kind) and a homemade cake. My wife put on chocolate eggs too.
Bravely I held my stand, sipped my coffee like a good faster, ignoring the munching galore. But for the rest of the day I was so incredibly hungry! Even dinner felt like a wee mouthful of a gourmet restaurant starter.
Today is feast day and now I earned the piece of cake from yesterday and more. A cat with fresh cream couldn't be more happy, having overcome such an afternoon challenge

Happy 5:2

Way to keep strong!

Admire your willpower Running Olsen, don't know if I could have been so strong minded so well done!

Yay you stayed strong and waited for that magical place..tomorrow! X
It's good for us to learn to swap instant gratification for delayed pleasure!

Another feast day, yay! But also a run challenge day: 15 k.
By now it's well over and I'm tired - And happy I'm following "the plan" towards next marathon. I'm also very, very glad I found this forum and 5:2 - To me it is a perfect match: Makes me healthier and running easier.
One of the (hidden) benefits of 5:2 (I think) is that it brings (food) contrast back in your life. That beloved snack/chocoloate [insert your fav here] is just sooo much more delicious after a fast day!
The forum is full of great and inspiring stories about ups and downs, thank you all for sharing that.
My sharings until now are the "easy ones" where things go according to plan. It hasn't always been like that, I started out 2 years ago, 10 kilos heavier and managed to lose 6 kilos with variuos methods. Some weeks ago I started looking (for a thing like 5:2) because I was stuck at a seemingly unbreakable plateau. The bottom fell out of it two weeks ago, 5:2 kickstarted me.

Happy 5:2

Monday 24th of February 2014
Third week on 5:2 starting. Have to say I'm really pleased with how it works. Todays weigh in was annoying because I gained since mid last week. Even if I know fluctuations are a part of it all, I don't want them
The weekend was really great, read a lot here and on various other sites. I am definitely going to look into 16:8 and or a five hour eating window (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHQbg4xH9lw as told by Bert Herring). Must say I'm rather curious how/why it works.

*** Update ***
Fasted all day to evening, which I've never tried before. Not a lot worse than having lunch.

Tuesday 25th - Feast day
Worth noting:
+ Great weigh in
+ New scale arrived! Yay, can't wait till tomorrow. It's areal gadgety thingy Omron BF-511.
+ Ohhhh, and the missus is trying out 5:2 too!

+++ Forgot until now: Raised desk at work - a bit tired from standing more, but was inspired by the thread "Get off your butt! NEAT!"

Good things going on there

Good luck to your wife

Wednesday 26th (Feb 14) NORMAL day.
Of course it wasn't a [the word that suggests eating too much of the wrong stuff ] day, it's was a quite normal day.
I couldn't work standing all day, had to lower desk in the afternoon, but that's ok. I will get used to it. I'm sure standing keeps one moving more/raising TDEE and thus helps balance ye old body faster.
So. I'm thinking, why is 5:2 working for me?
The obvious is taking out (in my case) 1800 x 2 = 3600 kcal every week, would lead to the average losing rate in here: 1 pound a week (or lbs or what ye English call it)
However, I have been losing a lot more, but why, since before I joined the forum I was stuck/plateued?
I looked at my activities: walking, biking, running, desk job and entered the daily average here:
http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
and it came back with a whopping 2947 kcal spent a day (in average)
It was a real eye opener in terms of what moving more can do. I started biking a part to and from work and I'm gradually increasing running time.
So I end up putting in:
Mon - 600
Tue - 1600
Wed - 1600
Thu - 600
Fri - 1600
Sat - 2500
Sun - 2000
----------
Weekly = 10.500 kcal
Spending = 20.629 kcal

The missing ~ 10.000 kcal goes into losing 1.450 kg which is close to what the scale shows.

For me the key has been that the fast days has re-taught me to deal with hunger and on some normal days I eat less, and especially not in the evening anymore. Even if I feel hungry in the evening I don't eat anything because I feel it would spoil the terrain won on the fast days.
Because the fast days are not routine for me and takes effort, it matters more, and that makes me want to stick with the results "won" on those days.

Thursday - Fast day

Skipped breakfast, had some salmon and egg for lunch, 180 kcal or so.
Took advice from @Rawkaren about Rooibos tea and it's great!

But uh oh, I have a colleague leaving us today and CAKE is incoming
Decided I will stash "my piece o cake" in the fridge here for tomorrow.

*** Update ***
Did not eat cake! (proud)
Dropping a tupperware with leftover veggie mash from yesterday almost made a grown up man cry. "Why?!", I cried, "I really needed that!"
A bit hungry after dinner (as almost every day actually)

Friday 28th
Another splendid weigh in, as in "every weigh in is a weigh in closer to the goal" - even if it's pointing in the wrong way.
My father was a captain at sea and I was so lucky to join him on rather long tours when I was 6 to 1o years. Navigating and steering was very interesting and the main thing for a ship is to be on course. However, depending on waves and wind and what not, it deviates. Nobody panics about it and the man at the wheel will adjust the rudder and slowly the course is corrected (big ships don't turn that quickly and a zig zag course is a waste of fuel). All the time we watched the course and corrected.
Just like with calories, a few degrees off course will put you in the wrong place over time.
- Your body is the ship
- You are at the wheel
- Small adjustments will make a big difference

PS I'm mostly rambling for my own sake

Being a person who, to quote my friend "never uses two words when twenty will suffice" myself I rather enjoy your ramblings. Please keep them going!

Well done on the cake resistance, the overall progress, and the very admirable attitude

Saturday 1st of March
Thanks @Winsome!

Before updating today I have to go back to yesterday afternoon. I was biking home from work, really hungry - I noticed someone had dropped a chocolate bar, lying there in my tracks. It was one of those things that come 2 in a pack and I suppose it had slipped out of it. Funny thing is, for a brief moment I considered ditching all dignity and quickly eat it!
On a similar node I passed a Danish shop with "Smorgasbord" and took this picture:
It's a Danish specialty, something we're proud about. It's basically an open sandwich on rye bread.
You can see calf liver with onions, "hamburger", fried fish filets with shrimps and mayonaise (we call that "shooting star")


But that was yesterday! Today I did my run challenge, yay, First 20 k this year!
It went really well and I can feel the lost kilos, uphill is easier. I wasn't sure I could (mentally) go through it, so having that under the belt is nice.
Saturday is my calorie spike of the week and I'm intend on making the best of it. Red wine and Italian food ahead!

Monday, March 3rd.

Fast day no. 7! At this moment I'm commuting home from work and it's great to have dinner ahead. It seems to get easier and easier getting through the fast days. It was a busy day and of course that helps. I'm still very motivated to go through to the target - And not only for the weight, especially also for the blood pressure and other bonus benefits that might come. Maybe someone else has experiences with allergies?

[carorees]

Regarding allergies, check out snorvey's inspirational story in the inspirational stories section. He found a massive improvement in asthma symptoms with 5:2.