Tracieknits wrote: So other than fasting 17-20 hours a day, how different are your eating habits now? What are the changes you have made that you think have been the most beneficial? or is it mostly about the fasting?
I know you have been a big advocate for low carb, so just how much dessert do you eat now? Do you miss it?
I don't think that my eating has changed all that much apart from the fasting time, but maybe you will think differently...here's a sample of what I was eating on non-fast days right at the start of my 5:2 journey (so represents what I used to eat every day beforehand) and what I eat these days, taken from my calorie count records (though the 'now' list is not that up to date as I have pretty much stopped logging for the last 8 months or so):
Before:
Breakfast: Granola and yoghurt (500 cal)
10 am: coffee and carrot cake (400 cal)
Lunch: Soup, bread and butter and an apple (250 cal)
Pre dinner snack: pistachios and a glass of red wine (300 cal)
Dinner: Sausages, mashed potato, peas and ratatouille, followed by rhubarb and custard ( 1000 cal)
Total: 2450 cal, carbs 320, fat 70, protein 60.
Now:
Breakfast: black coffee
Lunch: boiled egg plus 1 slice bread and butter, followed by a couple of squares of very dark chocolate (500 cal)
Predinner snack: salted almonds and a glass of red wine (300 cal)
Dinner: Shepherds pie with broccoli followed by a small piece of chocolate brownie (600 cal)
Total: 1400 cal, carbs 100g, fat 75g, protein 60.
It seems to me that the missing of breakfast and morning snack has resulted in the biggest change, cutting out nearly 1000 cal and a load of carbs. I would say though that I have halved my portion sizes of starchy foods, often not bothering with any potatoes if there is enough veg, and generally if we have a pasta dish I would swap half of the pasta for a side dish of veg, and my portion sizes generally have decreased. I eat dessert a lot less often these days, especially after dinner because what used to happen was that we would have the main course and then sit down in front of the TV and a couple of hours later say "do you fancy some dessert?". Now my eating window has closed by that point so I don't have any and this means that my OH also doesn't have any either (he feels guilty eating when I am not
). My OH has also stopped having a high carb breakfast of granola and now has full fat plain yoghurt on its own or with some berries and perhaps some cheese afterwards, and of course no morning snacks either as I'm not having any. He doesn't need to lose weight, but he has found that his skin which had a tendency to flare up with a dermatitis type problem is now clear and his breathing is better. I don't miss the desserts because I do still have them sometimes (like the sample above)I do think that having too many carbs are a big problem for people who have weight problems and probably also for those who do not. Whether I have a low carb diet is debatable as the definition of low carb is open to debate with some studies claiming that a daily amount of 150g carbs is low carb while others say that only when carbs are as low as 50g a day can the diet be called low carb. As you can see my protein and fat intake seems to have hardly changed.
Hope that helps!
I hope you are celebrating in a special way. And a big thanks from me too for all your support and help on our journeys. All the best for the year ahead. How exciting!
