The FastDay Forum

Well, that full blown cold I was dreading yesterday has turned up today and on a fast day too. I'm playing it by ear though. I had a really big dinner last night, so not that hungry today anyway. I decided to split meals into 3 to see how I go today (I shouldn't have cold and flu tablets on an empty stomach), so had a slice of toast with a little butter this morning, I've got some broth with prawns and veg for lunch - but no idea how this afternoon is going to play. I might just cut back on calories this week rather than fast and pick fasting back up as soon as I'm better, but I'm really not sure.

I feel a little hungry now, but not uncomfortable at all. Craving citrus though, so might buy a couple of tangerines for the afternoon.

EDIT: Nope, body is giving up on me, I'm not just hungry, despite having my broth about an hour ago, but I'm falling asleep at my desk with work piling up. I'm going to go for a work and find something a little extra to eat, will just have to take up the fast again another day.

And it has been very, very welcome. Thanks to my horrid cold last week, not only did I not fast in case I made it worse, but my appetite increased, so I put on a pound during the week - I'm also due for my period, so that may have something to do with it too.

So today, so far so good (EXCEPT SOMEONE STOLE MY FRUIT SALAD AT WORK! ...yes, I know I just have to go out and buy more). I didn't eat all my my veg and prawn soup as I think the carrots may have been off and tasted bitter, so to make up for it and get rid of the bitter taste, I've had some cherry tomatoes and a cup of tea with a sweetener and dash of milk, otherwise it's green tea all the way.

I'm going to weigh myself in tomorrow instead as I've settled on Mondays and Thursdays to fast (I gap of one day like I intended is too close for me). So fingers crossed that I've shifted that pound - most likely water weight, but I'll see how I go.

Working with a personal trainer once a week has been great too, we've settled on this work out plan for me to do once a week for now, before gradually going up to twice a week and adding a swimming session in (if you're wondering why so little lower body exercises, it's because my left knee is pretty badly damaged and I've been told to not to put pressure it, so squats and spin classes are out):

5 - 10 mins on a cross trainer on a low incline as a warm up with some yoga stretching.

10 - 15 minutes of boxing

15 mins of weight lifting using kettlebells if I can steal them off other gym people:

2x10 - bicep curls (8kg weight)
2x10 - tricep extensions (6kg weight)
2x10 each side - side bends (6kg weight)
2x10 - modified hipdrives (6kg weight)
2x10 each side - one arm swings (6kg weight)
2x10 each side - one arm bent over row (6kg weight)
2x10 - floor presses (6kg weight)

Abs -

Plank - working up to a minute
Side plank - each side - working up to a minute
These might take a while getting up to a whole minute without falling on my face though...!

Crunches - 15 or 20 each of:
• Standard
• Side (Left and Right)
• Reverse

...and stretching to cool down.

Despite not fasting last week because of my cold and eating practically everything in sight, I didn't gain when I weighed in on Tuesday and even lost .5 cm from my waist, which is brilliant!

Back on fasting this week, which, besides someone stealing my fruit salad from the fridge at work was totally fine, I only consumed 400 calories too, but found it hard to get to sleep in the evening as my tummy was grumbling a bit and my body woke me up at 5:50am yelling "FEED ME WOMAN!" (I told it to shush and lay in bed for another hour).

First time back at the gym this morning too in more than a year. I discovered that they didn't have 6kg kettlebells so did everything using 8kg KBs, modifying a couple of exercises to use dumbells as a class had started and needed the kettlebells. Otherwise, I did 10 mins straight of boxing and another load of ab exercising and stretches.

Annoyingly I forgot to take a normal bra with me.

"Not a problem!" I thought! "Buy a cheapish one from M&S on the way to work!", I thought!

Get to work, realise fumbling teenage boy of a cashier forgot to take of security tag. So brand new bra now as a small hole in the side where I had to break and pull out the tag (small ink stain, but no one will see it - hopefully). I'm going to have to fix the hole tonight, so annoying. Seriously, it was like a comedy of errors this morning.

That was another fast done and a weigh-in this morning! I've lost 1.25kg this week!

I know it's still probably water weight, but I'm still losing around my waist too, which has dropped by over an inch. 5:2 has proven to be a bit more sustainable than restricted calorie counting every single day (which drove me mad!).

Did notice too, that my weight didn't go up last week despite being on my period and I didn't retain as much water - wonder if it has anything to do with fasting?