The FastDay Forum

Nice to see that it's working for you , both in terms of weight and psychology (which is even more important in the long run, but of course so much easier if the weight is doing fine )

Month 15 of maintenance: 9 stone 0 lbs. One pound over goal.

Routine: Continued with 6:1, for the second month, after 5:2 got too hard.

Motivation: I'm finding it very hard. I have to drag myself to do the one day a week, and my eating is very disordered on the other 6 days. Also finding alcohol more of a temptation. Well, it has been Christmas I suppose.

Health: I caught a cold on Boxing Day, which I still have some effects from. That has put a hold on plans to sort out an exercise routine, though at least I did get off the couch today and go for a walk. I'll check out the local gym next week. I've also decided to try to wean myself off my HRT (it's Livial). I've probably been on it for about 15 years, and have been fobbing off my doctors' warnings for about the last 7 years. I've read the statistics and the risks are acceptable (to me) under age 60, but they increase significantly after 60 and now I've passed that birthday I feel I had better quit. So far I'm skipping one day every three. It will take a while to see if the symptoms kick in. I try every year or so to cut down to half and the symptoms always re-emerge. It is possible I can live through them for a while and they will abate, or I may be one of those women who either have symptoms or use HRT forever.

Cheers to all
kl

Month 16 of maintenance: 9 stone 4 lbs. Five pounds over goal, up four this month.
Routine: Continued with 6:1, but even that got too hard, and last week I didn't fast at all. Every day seemed to have a reason why it wasn't a good day for a lean day. I retired at the end of 2014, and the loss of the work routine has made it a whole lot harder.
Motivation: Well actually it's back. Really. Today is a lean day - the first of 2 for this week, come what may, no excuses. Gym tomorrow.
Health: I still have a cough from the cold I caught on Boxing Day - it seems a lot of people have had similar, so obviously a virus was going around. I've continued skipping one day every three of Livial, so far so good.
Cheers to all
kl

Month 17 of maintenance: 9 stone 2.5 lbs (as at 11th March). 3.5 pounds over goal, down 1.5 this month.
Routine: Went back to 5:2, and it paid off! However, I still haven't solved the problem of the unstructured life of the new retiree. I used to have lean days on Mondays and Fridays - the weekends were always feasting time. Once I went off to work without breakfast that was it - there wasn't any food except the restricted lunch I had packed, and I only had to fight temptations for the two evenings a week. But now I have things on all the days of the week that either need my energy and concentration levels to be high, so I don't want to fast, or involve socialising with food. Or else I'm at home without distractions and all sorts of food available.
Motivation: Was better, at the time. But I'm half way into the next month by the time I am writing this, and it has wilted a bit again, faced with the temptation levels mentioned above - only one fastday this week.
Health: I had barely shaken off the last of the Boxing Day cold when I came down with another one. I was seriously annoyed. I moved up to skipping alternate days of Livial, and the menopausal symptoms kicked in with a vengeance. I decided that life was not worth living like that. I've put myself back on the full dose of a daily tablet again. I'll give it a few weeks to settle back down, then try to see if 2 tablets every 3 days is sustainable long term. I figure that if I need the medication, I should only take the absolute minimum effective dose. On the plus side, I have my new implanted front tooth and am denture free, hurray hurray hurray. Apart from the eye-watering cost, the process was relatively painless. The implant looks perfect but doesn't quite feel as good as the real thing. But I'm very lucky that science has made this possible, and I can afford it - in the old days I'd just have to grin and bare the gap.
Cheers to all
kl

Hello @kentishlass. Just a crazy thought (I have lots). If your difficulties with having fast days are linked to your still settling into retirement, why not have 2 fake work days a week, rather like those men we hear of who are too ashamed to tell their families they have lost their jobs and leave their homes in their work gear at the usual time and do not return until the evening? What you do is up to you - volunteering, reading in the library, afternoon cinema, window shopping, stroll in the park, museums, bingo. Of course no eating out, drinks only.

Not such a crazy idea at all, thanks for the suggestion, I think you are right!

Month 18 of maintenance: 9 stone 2 lbs (as at 11th April - once again I am late with the update). 3 pounds over goal, down 0.5 this month. I'm happy with that - isn't it amazing how much better any weight looks when you are passing it on the way down, not on the way up!

Routine: Staying with the 5:2.

Motivation: It's back again, phew. I don't enjoy the 2 lean days a week, but once again, they are what I do. I even did two back-to-back when that was the only way I could fit them into the week, which is a first for me. My lean days are not all that lean - probably 800 calories - so doing them consecutively is not too rigorous.

Health: After the Boxing Day cold and the Valentine's Day cold, I caught yet another one just before Easter, and I'm still coughing. I've pretty much been coughing for 4 months. I deserve a good long stretch sniffle-free now, surely! The full dose Livial is working its post-menopausal magic again and I've just started to cut back to 2 tablets every 3 days to see how that goes.

Cheers to all
kl

I have just read through your 18 months of maintenance, well done you, what an inspiration.

Thanks SkinnyJeans (good name!) I'm pleased if I can inspire anyone. I don't find maintenance easy, but after a lifetime of losing weight and then piling it all back on, plus extra, I'm determined that this time will be different. 5:2 really does seem different, but I'm not going to call "success" until I've maintained for at least 5 years, maybe 10. I'll have an awfully long thread by then!

Month 19 of maintenance: 9 stone 1.5 lbs; 2.5 pounds over goal; down 0.5 this month. I'm happy with that - slowly but steadily heading down to goal again.
Routine: Staying with the 5:2.
Motivation: Not bad. I missed one lean day when life was complicated by house-guests, but I was a bit more controlled on the feast days than I had been.
Health: Not bad either.
All in all, nothing to complain about! Plus spring is here, doesn't it make a difference!
Cheers to all
kl

Month 20 of maintenance: 9 stone 1.5 lbs; 2.5 pounds over goal; steady for the month. That's OK, it's not up, that's the main thing!
Routine: Staying with the 5:2.
Motivation: Not bad. Rather a lot of indulgences and not enough exercise, but sticking to the 5:2.
Health: Mostly good, OH got a cold and I managed not to catch it from him, so my immune system must be working. Major pain in right ankle came on for no apparent reason and lasted for about half a day, mentioned here for monitoring purposes - possible arthritis?
Overall, steady as she goes!
Cheers to all
kl

Month 21 of maintenance: 9 stone 3 lbs; 4 pounds over goal; up 1.5 pounds for the month. It may be stretching things a bit to call it maintenance! But my clothes still fit, I'm still in the healthy BMI range, so I consider myself a successful maintaineer.
Routine: Holidays, what can I say! I had a lovely time. The food was fantastic.
Motivation: Well, I've been back 2 days so really ought to have done a lean day... But heck, I'm having this week off. Not lapsing, just a little pause.
Health: Good.
Cheers to all
kl

But heck, I'm having this week off. Not lapsing, just a little pause.

That's the spirit: a holiday should be a true holiday, including a fasting holiday. Hope you enjoyed it, back to normality today?

back to normality today?

Thanks for your support p-j, it helps!

Yes, did my 2 lean days last week, and half way through the first one for this week. Glad to be back on the programme!

cheers, kl

Months 22 to 26 of (sort of!) maintenance: 9 stone 1 lbs; 2 pounds over goal. If you look at my tracker, you'll see it has taken quite a detour, up to a peak of 9 stone 7lbs in August.
Motivation: It’s pretty much back. I think the turning point was joining a gym in September. I’d been meaning to for ages, and then the local ladies gym dropped a money-off offer through my letterbox just at the right moment. Obviously some extra exercise helps a bit with weight loss, but the real benefit is psychological: first doing something good for myself makes it easier to make other healthy choices, and secondly it’s the routine of it. I go to a morning class twice a week – can’t eat before I go, don’t feel hungry afterwards so it’s easy to hang on for a light lunch, and by then I’m halfway through a lean day without really trying.
Routine: 5:2 on Mondays and Wednesdays – gym days! since September.
Health: Good, except I have yet another cold! I thought 3 at the start of the year should be my ration for 2015. This one is nothing major. Aching joints are definitely improving with the gym classes – what I feared might be arthritis may just be (reversible) rust after all! I took a break from HRT (Livial) for the month of November as my doctor keeps nagging me – one week no effect, 3 weeks of increasing misery, now I’m back on the pills and feeling great again.
Cheers to all. kl