The Fast Diet continues and the BiBs voting closes ... how exciting!!

Well ... how nice is this?? Its 6.30 on Thursday evening and I am sprawled sitting on my sofa with my laptop - dinner in the oven, son #1 in the kitchen with his maths tutor, son #2 at football with my husband and all is well with the world!! Its very rare to find me able to do this sort of thing - luxury!!

I can now trawl the web to my heart's content, safe in the knowledge that there is a scrumptious chilli in the oven and I am up to date with everything that is important. Obviously I could be, at this very minute, hoovering or dusting or maybe tidying something ... but, for goodness sake!! I'm not Anthea Turner and it will still be there for me to do tomorrow ... or the next day.

Interesting news on the Fast Diet front. I had a bit of a naughty week as far as food went ( although I stayed true to my fast days ) because I had friends over for lunch one day and probably ate my body weight in Boursin, but ... my stats were really rather intriguing. Well ... when I say intriguing they are probably quite dull to anyone not on the Fast Diet, but  I thought I would share them anyway.

Although I put on just under a kilo in weight ( just under 2 pounds) my percentages were very different. My fat percentage went down from 44.9% to 41.7% and my muscle and bone percentages increased. I have definitely lost fat around my middle and I am hoping I have lost internal fat too.

The whole fasting thing has eased into a steady routine and I am able to manage my fast days well. I feel hungry, but it is not unpleasant. I tend to have a cup of tea when I get up, then I don't eat until about 1pm when I have a piece of fruit. I then wait until early evening to eat my 300 to 400 calories. I have bought myself a nice water bottle and am drinking way more water than I have done in years.

I feel so much more alert than I did before. My mind is clear and I can articulate my ideas far better than I did before. This of course sounds ridiculous and it may be purely my imagination, but this is how I feel! I am sleeping better, don't feel bloated and ( probably too much information this ... ) I have started having periods again for the first time in nearly a year. I can see this being a long term way of life.

Its strange that when you mention you are on a fasting diet some people have the reaction that you are mad, its not safe, its a fad. My brother in law, when I suggested he go on it rather than struggle to diet, said that he wanted something sustainable. For me, being on this plan seems far more sustainable than the " being on a diet" plan where you spend your whole time thinking about what you can't eat and what you are going to have for your next meal.. Each to their own though.

This week I have no plans to gorge myself on cheese and my hormones will be back to normal so hopefully next week my weight will be lower again.

On other matters the voting closed in the BiBs Awards. I still can't really believe that I was nominated for a national award. I don't know who nominated me, but if you are reading this ... Thank You!!!! Last year I reached the short shortlist for the video section of the BiBs and I don't think it really hit home how amazing it was to be up there. This year we will all find out who has made it to the top 6 on the 22nd May and I am so excited!! If I make it to the last 6 this time it will mean so much! To have my writing, my blog, recognised by a national award would be incredible. I am not, however, counting any eggs or chickens yet as I am up against some very good blogs. Cross your fingers for me??

Horizon and Dr Michael Mosley's 5:2 Fast Diet ... starting week 3.

So ... today is my 5th fasting day since I started Dr Michael Mosley's Fast Diet 2 and a bit weeks ago. I am determined to follow his programme, not only to lose weight, but to benefit from the amazing differences it appears to make to a person's chances of developing heart disease, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimers.

I have read his book and then re-read parts of it, but until last night I had not watched the Horizon documentary in which he first put forward his thoughts. My old blog friend Urban Cynic suggested I watch to get a fuller understanding of his ideas and I am grateful for the advice as I found the programme very interesting and it has made me even more determined to continue.

It is an hour long documentary, but it is well worth watching. The results of fasting seem really quite startling and the effect on the human body quite remarkable.

I am still experimenting with a way of fasting that suits me. I have had days where I felt fine, days where I felt ravenously hungry. Today I have had a glass of water and a mug of chai black tea. I don't feel at all hungry and plan to wait until I do feel that I need something and maybe have a couple of poached eggs, possibly some nice crunchy raw carrots or a tuna salad. I don't want to spend my day obsessed with food!!

It is interesting to see how many hits my posts on this subject have received and also how many people I know are actually following the plan. I have not heard a single bad review. Everyone I know who has started it has felt the benefits. I think its a case of being flexible, listening to your body and experimenting to find what suits you.

I definitely feel more alert, less sluggish and really don't feel the need or desire to fill myself with rubbish food! I will measure and weigh myself tomorrow and see if I have lost any weight, but, to be honest, having watched Horizon last night the weight loss side of this is the least important thing. As I head towards 50 I want to be as healthy as I can be both physically and mentally. I will check back here soon!!

Dr Michael Mosley's Fast Diet .... I am bloody starving here.

I am ravenous. Two weeks into the Fast Diet ( see previous post for details) and I am bloody ravenous. And what's more I have not cheated at all and yet when I weighed and measured myself last week I had lost ..... NOTHING. A big fat ( and FAT is the operative word here ...) ZERO!!

I am not giving up. I plan to continue, but it seems that the " Eat what you like " tenet is not all its cracked up to be. Of course you can't eat what you like. You need to be eating 2000 calories a day apart from on the Fast Days where its 500 calories.

I am not sure of my calories intake as I had stopped thinking about it. To be honest then I would imagine most days I am under the 2000 and some days I am over. I just don't like to have to think about it. I just want to be able to eat healthily and be slim.

I am obese. But I also fit into a size 12 British size. So what's happening there??

This is probably not a good day to write my blog as I am really hungry and don't even have the incentive of knowing I am losing weight and becoming healthy ... as I have not lost weight at all and don't know if my blood is looking healthier ... My husband tells me to keep persevering, but right now I am so sick of thinking about my weight, thinking about what I eat. Its dull.

I shall keep going in the hope that next time I write I will be able to give you good and happy news. But in the mean time I would love to hear how you are doing, what your experience with this has been ... Thanks.

Dr Michael Mosley's Fast Diet ... I have begun!!

I am currently sitting at my laptop in the kitchen eating a bowl of porridge. It is delicious! It is also my breakfast of choice these days, even on my fast days. ... Yes, I did say 'fast days'. I might have to explain that ...

I had noticed a couple of friends at work looking particularly well and rather slimmer than usual - not that they were particularly overweight to start with - and I mentioned how well they looked. It turns out that they had started Dr Michael Mosley's Fast Diet and were enjoying the benefits of said regime. At first I was skeptical  but as the book was selling for only £2.95 and my friends were so enthusiastic I bought it, read it and decided to try it for myself.

Now you may be thinking "fast?? That sounds a bit radical and unhealthy" but this idea is not about starving oneself. It is also known as the 5:2 diet or eating plan and involves intermittent  low calorie days. The book explains far more eloquently than I can here how it works, but, briefly its like this ...

In days gone by we humans would eat well some days because we had hunted well and then we might not eat as well or at all for a day or two. Over the last fifty years or so we have, in the Western world, developed a grazing habit. We are rarely hungry ... we eat because its time to eat and we eat portions that are too large. We eat too much meat, too much processed food. Dr Michael Mosley researched into the history and science of fasting and came up with the Fast Diet idea. This was not a flash in the pan and he self experimented with startling results. Not only did he not die of hunger, but as well as losing weight  ...and  most important of all, his blood test results revealed fascinating changes in his make up:

• His fasting glucose levels had gone down. 7.3 down to 5.0
• 
  
• His cholesterol levels had reduced.
• 
  
• His Triglyceride level had gone down ( high levels are associated with increased risk of heart disease) 1.4 down to 0.6
• 
  
• His IGF-1 level had reduced from 28.6 nmol/l to 15.9 nmol/l (I am no scientist but this is apparently a measure of cancer risk and may also be a marker for biological ageing)
• 
  
•  His BMI had gone from 26.4 to 24
•  His body fat from 28% to 21%
• His waist size from 36 inches to 33 inches
• His neck size from 17 inches to 16 inches

He looks upon this scheme as not so much a diet as a way of life forever. You eat normally for 5 days a week and then on 2 days you eat a quarter of your normal daily intake. For normal daily intake women should be eating about 2000 calories a day and men 2400. So, on split days you eat 500 calories as a woman and 600 as a man.

I started the diet last week. On Monday I ate porridge for breakfast with a teaspoon of honey and a cup of peppermint tea. This came to just under 200 calories. The trick (probably a bad word that and not terribly scientific!) is to leave 12 hours between your intakes of food so for the next 12 hours I drank water and peppermint tea only. Then I ate an Innocent curry which I knew was 316 calories. This was yummy but not ideal as I don't like eating foods I haven't cooked myself from scratch, but the range is fresh and I wanted to be absolutely sure of the calories.

I have to say I found that first day quite hard. I felt ravenous, but my hunger reached a certain level and then got no worse. I did get a headache, but I think that's because I didn't drink enough water. I was determined to reach the 12 hour mark and felt quite a sense of achievement when I did. Cooking my curry I looked at it in my bowl and was amazed that even after one day of fasting the quantity looked huge!! I savoured every mouthful ... chewing slowly and enjoying every burst of flavour! When I finished I felt really full ... bizarre!!

The following morning I woke an hour earlier than usual and felt oddly alert and full of energy. I can't quite explain it, but all this week I have felt somehow ... cleaner, more awake. And although this was not a fasting day I had no desire to cook a huge fry up for breakfast. On non-fast days you can eat what you like, but I enjoyed my normal healthy fare. I did get a twinge of guilt as I made myself a milky coffee, but then remembered that on this day I could drink milky coffee if I wanted. The feeling of glee was lovely!!

My second fast day was Thursday and as I was at work all day it was somehow easier. I suppose the trick is to just keep busy. I made sure that I drank lots and the dreaded headache did not appear. In fact I felt great! I ate 500 calories again and it was definitely enough. The great thing is also that even when you feel hungry you know that tomorrow you can eat normally again. Anyone can make it through one day can't they?? And you feel a sense of achievement when you do finish the day.

Before I started I measured myself ... weight, waist, hips and I also treated myself to a posh weighing scale which measures fat percentage, water, bone, muscle. I worked out my BMI and, as I already knew, I am obese. God, but that's hard to write ...

I am not going to reveal my measurements to you yet, but I do plan on keeping this blog updated with my progress and opinion and if it goes well I shall reveal all!! Stats that is ... don't get too excited. One of the things that I really like about this is the health benefits that the plan appears to have. I am heading towards 50 and if I can reduce my weight while at the same time reducing my risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes then that is fantastic. I also love food, love cooking so this will enable me to still enjoy the odd cheese board without pangs of terrible guilt. The strange thing is that I don't crave anything at the moment, other than healthy foods ... 

So ... my thoughts on the Fast Diet at the moment are very positive. If you are doubtful then I recommend you read the book and perhaps keep checking back here to see how I do!!