Day 5 – Fast Day

Today is my second fast day. I woke up at 7am (so much for my weekend sleep in) and by 9am I’m already hungry.

I can already tell that trying to have my fast day on a day away from work is a bad idea. I have no distractions today so that could be a big issue.

I’ve decided to skip my breakfast meal this morning and instead have a more substantial dinner and tea.

Dinner Time – 12.30pm

Heinz Tomato soup – 236cals

Haven’t had soup in a while and it’s low in calories so I figured it’s worth a try. Usually when I have soup it’s with about 3/4 slices of bread so it’s not as filling as I would have liked. Still, better than nothing. Only just though.

Brew Time – 15:30pm

Tea, semi skimmed milk, 2 sweeteners – 12cals

This is a bit of a cheat. On fast days I should only really have black tea or coffee but that’s not something I’m used to yet. I’m sure after a few more weeks of Fasting and cutting out my sugar intake, this will become more easier.

Tea Time – 18:30pm

2 slices of medium brown wholemeal toast (no butter), half a tin of Branston beans and 1 slice of Dutch edam cheese – 400cals

If you imagine really hard for one moment, you will probably understand how depressing this meal looks. I mean, really depressing looking. Don’t get me wrong, I love a bit of beans on toast, but this is on a whole other level.

Calling this a low moment would be an exaggeration but this is probably the hardest I’ve found it so far. I hope this is more to do with bad meal/day planning than anything else but I guess I won’t know until my next fast day which is Tuesday.

Day 4 – Feed Day

Another day another diet. Another feed day today. I’m hopefully going to enjoy my food more today as it’s a fast day tomorrow.

Breakfast – 8:00am

Raisin brunch bar – 150cal

Nothing new to report here. I enjoyed it a bit more this morning but I’m definitely getting bored of brunch bars. Need more variety.

Brew Time – 11:00am

Tea, semi skimmed milk – 12cals

Today I have decided to swap out the sugar for sweetener. In the long run this will help me save calories on on fast days and lower my sugar intake in general. It’s win win baby

Dinner Time – 12.30pm

Hot smoked salmon, potato salad and watercress with lemon vinaigrette – 240cals

Oooh yes this was a very good choice, I must thank my lady for this as she bought me it! And it couldn’t have come any sooner as my appetite is back with a vengeance. Very filling lunch, the potato salad more than helped fill out my stomach.

Break Time – 16:00pm

Even though work is a welcome distraction I am very hungry. I mean REALLY hungry. Just saying

Tea Time – 19:00pm

Steak, onions & mushrooms in oyster sauce with fried rice and beansprouts – 500cals

Sooooooo good. I was more than ready for this, I even went back for seconds (whoops!). I’m definitely hungrier than yesterday and it’s nice to have my appetite back but I imagine this is just going to make tomorrow harder. I guess we will see tomorrow.

On an a slightly related note, you should go and check out my girlfriends food blog. Most of the evening meals I write about on here (and more) are on her blog.

http://heartofcake.wordpress.com

Day 3 – Feed Day

Back to a regular today. Even though I can go back to eating as normal today, I still want to make sure I’m not going overboard on calories.

Breakfast – 8:00am

Raisin brunch bar – 150cal

Back on the brunch bar breakfast. I’m not sure it’s because of the fast day yesterday, but even the small brunch bar has filled me up this morning.

Brew Time – 11:00am

Tea, semi skimmed milk, 2 sugars – 50cals

Like breakfast this morning, my brew has filled me, to the point where it’s made me feel a little sick. Around this time on Tuesday I was already starting to feeling hungry. This is definitely not the case today.

Dinner Time – 12.30pm

Tuna Salad Sandwich, brown bread, snack-a-jacks (sour cream and chive) – 349cals

Dinner time has rolled around and I’m surprisingly still not hungry. This is new, even for me. Unfortunately there isn’t going to be a better time to eat at work so I’ll have to make do. Even though I enjoyed my sandwich, my choice of snack was unwise. To put it lightly, I’ve had better tasting cardboard. If your reading this Walkers, you have ALOT of explaining to do.

Tea Time – 19:00pm

Brown pasta & king prawns with tomato, parmesan and basil sauce – 560cals

My appetite has more or less returned just in time for this meal. Brown pasta is new to me and definitely tastes stronger than regular pasta but it’s a welcome change. And you can’t go wrong with prawns. Ever.

Today has been kinda strange. Unlike normal days my appetite has been practically non existent. Not that I mind, to be honest it’s easier this way. If I’m not thinking about hunger, I’m not thinking about food, and that makes it a lot easier to cut back.

On an unrelated note, while getting my dinner today I noticed that a lot of flavoured water is filled with sugar. That’s something I’m going to have to steer clear of, the last thing I want to bending is loading up on sugar

Day 2 – Fast Day

Today is my first Fasting day, which means I am limited to 650cals. The most I can hope for is that it will go quickly and won’t cause me too much trouble.

Breakfast – 10am

Black tea, no milk, no sugar

Unfortunately it’s nothing fancy for breakfast today. I chose to have a liquid breakfast song can have something more substantial for dinner. Although black tea is definitely not my go to drink on a usual day, it’s important for me to keep an eye on unnecessary calorie intake on fast days. It’s something I’m going to have to get used for sure but it will do for now.

Dinner Time – 12.30pm

Smoked salmon sushi – 225cals

Im very happy dinner has arrived. Even though work has been a welcome distraction, my hunger is easily more noticeable than yesterday.

Break time – 15:00pm

As expected I’m already feeling a little hungry. Nothing too serious. I’ve stocked up on bottled flavoured water (peach flavoured, my favorite). At 20cals every litre this is something of a cheat and may not work as a long term solution to keeping hunger away.

Tea time – 19.30pm

Green Thai vegetables with smoked salmon – 460cals

Vegetables have never been more satisfying. I don’t miss the meat as much as I though I might and in the end it turned out quite nice. Admittedly, the lack of rice is noticeable, but unfortunately excessive starch is not an option.

In truth, the lack of starchy carbs is something which is new to me. I’m used to having sandwiches for dinner on a daily basis so this is something I will have to adjust to in the long run.

All in all my first fast day wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. This is good, it makes me feel a bit more comfortable with the prospect of Fasting days in general.

Day 1 – Feed Day

Today is the first day of my Diet. It’s a feed day so shouldn’t be too difficult, just have to make some slight adjustments to my usual food antics.

Breakfast – 8:00am

Raisin brunch bar – 150cal

This isn’t too bad. I pretty much always skip breakfast anyway and by the time I’ve had my morning brew (tea with 2 sugars, textbook) and started work I don’t even miss it so having a little something is quite nice. This should see me right until dinner time.

Brew Time – 11:00am

Tea, semi skimmed milk, 2 sugars – 50cals

I admit that even though today is pretty standard, I’m already starting to feel a bit peckish. I’m not sure whether it’s just my mind playing tricks on me or just freaking out due to the impending fast day that lays ahead tomorrow. I guess we will see

Dinner – 12:30pm

Chicken salad & bottled water – 340cals

Believe it or not, I’m no stranger to a chicken salad, although it’s usually accompanied by a bag of crisps or very occasionally a cheeky pepperami (opinions may differ on whether I can actually regard that as food) but none of that today. No coke or anything fancy today either. Just plain old water. How exciting.

Brew Time – 15:30pm

Tea, semi skimmed milk, 2 sugars – 50cals

I’ve run out if water and in don’t trust tap water from work so tea it is again. I can’t complain, I do love a good brew

Tea Time – 18:45pm

Baked potato with chilli – 550cals

Oh yes. I’ve been looking forward to this all day. I can say with a great deal of ease that I thoroughly enjoyed that. Having the slightly smaller lunch today has probably made me enjoy it more than usual.

Desert – 19:00pm

Fresh pineapple cut into chunks – 70cals

The final bit of food for the day. Fresh fruit. A nice way to finish off the day. All in all my first day was something of a success.

Tomorrow however is a different story completely. Tomorrow is the first fast day and I’m not sure how it’s going to go. I guess we will have to wait till tomorrow to see. So far so good though, feel confident going forward, let’s hope that positivity gets me through tomorrow.

Pre-Diet Introduction

Hello Everyone

Firstly, Thanks for coming and reading this. Hopefully over the next few weeks months it will get interesting and you will keep reading along and checking how I’m doing. Please share this blog with friends, or if you know people who are starting diets, get them to come and have a read.

For people who don’t know me, im sure a little context would help right about now so ill tell you a little about myself. My name is Kenny Davies. I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with dieting and my body in general. About 3 years ago I dropped from around 22 stone to 17 stone. It felt great. Unfortunately, I couldn’t keep it all off.

It seems that no matter how hard I try, I always fall short somewhere along the way and little by little it piles back on again. It doesn’t help that i adore pretty much anything that can be eaten.

So here’s what I’m going to do about it. I’ve recently been reading a lot about intermittent fasting, more specifically The 5:2 Diet. Here’s how it works. For five days (Feed days) a week I can eat regular food, nothing insane but nothing out of the ordinary, just regular food. However, the real struggle is the other 2 days. On the other 2 days of the week (Fast days) I am limited to 650 calories. No carbonated drinks, no fatty foods, no starchy foods, no snacks, no NOTHING! Plenty of water and will power with a little food on the side.

What really appeals to me about this diet is that for 5 days I can pretty much (with some small changes) continue as I normally do. I admit the Fasting days are a little daunting to me but I hope that I can ease into them without too much trouble.

So here’s the bottom line. Whatever happens during this diet, you will know about it. If I mess up, put on weight or just have a bad time in general, I’m going to share it. Hopefully this will make you come back and by sharing with you, help me be a little more strict. I promise to be nothing but honest.

Tomorrow is my first day. A Feed day. I’ve decided my first fast day will be Thursday (that should at least make for an interesting post). I will share what I’ve eaten daily and ill share my weight (scary) on Mondays. I just hope I can keep this interesting enough for you to keep coming back.

Thanks