Fasting and Feasting

I know, I know!  It has been a while….blah blah blah…  In honour of my new follower (yippee!!), I thought I would put fingers to keyboard and waffle on a bit.  It’s also a celebration of a year since I started out on this “journey”, and I just wanted to mention, once again, how amazingly impressed I am with the IF WOE (Intermittent Fasting Way of Eating…). 

Although I was thrilled to see the weight dropping off, I know from many past experiences just how difficult it is to keep it off.  With the best will in the world, it is very difficult to continue, on an on-going basis, to deprive oneself of all the nice things to eat in life, such as cakes, biscuits, chocolate, ice-cream, desserts, wine, curry, bread, etc etc.  It only takes a holiday, Christmas or just a bad week-end to start back on the rocky road to letting the pounds slowly creep back on.  At the risk of sounding rather evangelical (once again) about this particular approach, I truly believe that it is a do-able long term solution to not just losing the weight, but KEEPING it off!  Whilst it isn’t exactly enjoyable going through a day until tea time without a calorie passing my lips, the knowledge that it is only for that short period, and the next day I don’t have to think about dieting gets me through. 

Yesterday was a fasting day.  I drank my way through a couple of litres of water and a couple of black coffees, and made it until 6.00pm, when I had an M&S salmon and grain salad meal for 375 calories.  I also had some melon, grapes and asparagus, and a couple of cups of (white) tea.  Today is a “feast” day.  That doesn’t mean (unfortunately!) that I can stuff my face with absolutely anything I fancy, but just that I don’t have to think too hard about watching what I eat today.  It is someone’s birthday in the office, and that means cream cakes – yum!  I will still opt for the “least bad” option (a chocolate éclair at 185 calories), but I will enjoy it without any guilt or worry that I have blown my diet.  On previous “diets”, giving in to a cake would have the negative psychological effect of making me think “oh no, blown the diet again – might as well continue to pig out and start again tomorrow…” (or next Monday!).  I know, I know!  It isn’t logical or sensible, but I can’t be perfect all the time!

Will you just GO AWAY!!

I don’t know if it’s a sign of getting older (probably is – everything else seems to be…), but the amount of personal space I require seems to increase as the years go by.  Maybe I have always been like this, but I feel that I am getting more and more intolerant of people encroaching on MY space.  The alternative, and a more likely possibility, I feel, is that people are just getting ruder, and feel more inclined to step into other people’s space and just, generally, try to take up far more than their fair share of personal space.  

This is particularly prevalent in the gym.  Not that I go as often as I should, but I try to go at least once a week at lunchtime, which appears to be the quietest time (in terms of number of people rather than volume of the blasted racket they play…). My first stop is the treadmill, where I do a 15 minute jog/fast walk whilst watching Loose Women.  I have a strategy for choosing my treadmill out of the bank of 15 or so:  If there is no-one on one of the ends, and no-one on the one next to the end, it’s a no-brainer, and I go for the end one.  If not, I will try to pick the one which has no-one either side.  Should this not be possible, I will choose the one where I will be next to a woman rather than a man, as there is less chance of grunting noises punctuating the thudding sound of ginormous feet smacking the treadmill with 15 stones of force (less chance, but no guarantee…).  On a REALLY good day, there is pretty well no-one using the treadmills, and I happily (!) jump on to the end spot for my 15 minutes.  Well, this contented feeling doesn’t last!  What happens next defies all reason and laws of probability.  If I was young, fit and attractive, I might be able to understand why the treadmill right next to me is ALWAYS the one that is chosen by the next man coming for his run.  Women don’t do it!  They, like me, will walk to the far end and chose a treadmill with some space around them.  Not men – oh no!  They obviously have the need to be as close as they possibly can to another body – perhaps they are reverting back to childhood, and it’s a sub-conscious mother/son thing.   [WARNING - Digression coming up] They do it on the train too – whilst the majority of ladies sit with their thighs and knees welded together, trying as hard as possible to take up the minimum of space, the same cannot be said of most men!  They squash their large backsides and thighs into the small seat next to you and open their legs W—I—D—E!!!  Whilst you shrivel to the far corner of your seat, pressing your thighs even closer together, matey boy presses his copious mounds of thigh flesh against your thighs.  You suppress feelings of revulsion and try to read your book whilst balancing on one thigh and leaning at an uncomfortable angle.  Meanwhile matey boy has opened his broadsheet paper right across his lap and yours.  He noisily flicks through a few pages before lolling back, eye’s closed, tongue protruding, and snoring like a wart hog with a bad cold. [End of digression].

Back to the treadmill!  WHY do men get on the treadmill next to me when there are 14 other empty ones?  I have no idea!  I just know, that I find it EXTREMELY frustrating!  Why can they not just £$*& OFF to a treadmill a bit further away!  I often contemplating breaking wind very loudly to see if that will have the desired effect.  I would say that it’s my manners that stop me, but it’s actually the worry that it might be so loud that EVERYONE in the gym hears.  I try to sneak out a sneaky silent one in the hope that Puffing Billy next door will notice, but he obviously has no sense of smell as well as being a social Neanderthal.   I finish my treadmill workout and move to the cross trainer where, once again, I go through the same routine and experiences as the treadmill.  I finally move over to the free weight area.  Now there are two free weight areas in our gym – one which contains all the great big weights and bars that all the big macho men use, as well as some handheld weights.  The other area, which is where I use, has hand weights, kettle bells, medicine balls, gym balls, light bar weights, a couple of steps, etc.  Sometimes I just randomly pick up a few weights and wave them around a bit and other times, such as today, I try to follow a more structured routine using an app on my iPhone that shows me what to do and logs my progress.  Unfortunately there are usually at least two men exercising in the area when I go there, taking over an area in which twelve ladies could comfortably exercise and forcing me to try and exercise in about 1 meter square space on the corner of the matting.  Today, however, there was no-one there!  Hoorah!  I put down my water bottle, my headphones, my iPhone and my towel on a handily placed box and started to pick up some dumb bells.  I must have started to give off some sort of irresistible smell, because within SECONDS, a man came rushing over and started to drag one of the benches across the floor until he was almost pressed up against me!  He picked up one of the bar weights and took it back to his bench, where he started pushing it up and down and grunting in a most unattractive way (he probably thought it was a mating call!).  I couldn't even get to my phone and water without having to keep walking around him.  I pointedly walked all...the...way... around his grunting form in order to pick up my bits and pieces, but he was oblivious!  I guess I just have to face it - I must be IRRESISTIBLE!!

5:2

Hello again, and a Happy New Year to all my loyal readers!  Yes, I have now doubled my followers, and I am confident that I am on track to get a follower who isn’t related to me J. Anyway, I would like to welcome my new follower, who has already given me some positive feedback about my blog (and that’s NOT just because he’s married to me…).

It's OK - I practice intermittent fasting

Well, it’s a brand new year, and the most popular time for starting new diets.  I am planning to continue with the “5:2” plan I was following for the last few months of last year, as it was working really well for me.  I am so “on trend”, as it is, most definitely, THE diet of the moment.  I started following the 2 day fasting after watching the BBC Horizon programme, where Dr Michael Moseley investigated various different fasting options and ended up trying the 5:2 approach with considerable success.  Michael Moseley’s book is due to be released this week, but a number of people have already stolen a march on him and released books based on their own fasting experiences.  There are lots of blogs (including this one!), there are Facebook groups and Twitterers (if that’s the right term).  Interested in other people’s experiences, I read one of the ebooks, plus looked at some of the comments and questions on Facebook and Twitter.  Now the thing is, one of the reasons why this approach has worked so well for me is its simplicity;  I don’t have to weigh or measure anything, or look up the calorie values of every crumb that passes my lips. For five days a week, I just carry on eating as usual (with the only change being no alcohol from Monday to Thursday), and for the two “fast” days, I eat no breakfast or lunch, then have a light meal for dinner.  This is just a slightly smaller version of a meal I would normally eat in the evening.  No weighing, no fuss, no hassle!   Simples!  Not so for many of the others that are following the plan, it would seem.  From what I can gather, everyone seems to be carefully weighing their lettuce leaves and counting every calorie that passes their lips.  Now, if that works for them, who am I to knock it?  OK, so my approach might mean I am consuming more than the 500 calories I “should” be having, but what the heck?  I am losing weight.  In fact, by one week BC (Before Christmas), I had lost a stone in total!  That was as much as I wanted to lose.  A few pounds crept back on over Christmas, but will soon be banished with a couple of fasting days this week ( I managed 1 fasting day in Christmas week and 1 this week).  I might have to move to one day a week soon to STOP LOSING WEIGHT!!! (Never thought I would be saying that!).   



Back again!

I thought I’d better check in and give a quick update as it’s been a few weeks.  Although the initial enthusiasm for starvation and increased exercise is somewhat reduced, I have kept up with some of my goals...  First the good news – since the holiday, I have got back onto the mid-week wagon, and have managed to stay off alcohol from Monday to Thursday.  I am also keeping up with the 2 days a week fasting, which is just as well because I have had a couple of fairly indulgent week-ends.  There has been no permanent movement on the scales, only a few mid-week fluctuations either way, so the fasting is managing to balance out the over-indulgences! 

The thing that has gone a bit awry is the daily 10k challenge!  It was difficult enough to get that many steps in a day in the good weather, but over the last month or so the weather has turned miserable, wet and cold, and does not entice me to get outside and walk.  I’m no longer walking round to meet the school bus as the evenings are dark and the walk home is along unlit footpaths – it also means a considerable upping of the whinge level from my son if I dare suggest a walk when it is cold/dark/wet.  On-the-spot walking at the bus stop is all very well, but doesn’t go far enough towards getting to the 10k.  I am contemplating buying a treadmill, but DH is very sceptical and is convinced it won’t get used!  I would like to prove him wrong, but past purchases of steppers, re-bounders, gym balls, weights, a cross-country skiing machine, an “iJoy ride” (don’t ask) and a surfing machine, have not given him confidence that a treadmill will be any different.  I am looking out for a reasonable one on eBay that is not too far away.  This time it will be different....

Further Fasting

This is now week 6 of the Intermittent Fasting, and it isn’t getting a lot easier.  Having said that, compared with watching what I eat 24/7, it isn't that bad!  It has also had some amazing results in that I have lost 10 pounds!  No diet that I have ever been on in the past has achieved that sort of a result in such a relatively short space of time.  My body fat percentage has also gone down a few percent, which is a great result too, and shows I am not just losing muscle but am losing some of the lardy stuff clinging to my waist and stomach.  I am comfortably back in my size 10 trousers and feeling much better about myself.  I will be happy with just a few more pounds off, then aiming for long term maintenance, however, I am going on holiday next week, and am unlikely to spend the week off food and alcohol.  Hopefully a couple of fasting days on my return will rectify any overindulgence. 

Two of my male work colleagues have also been following the Intermittent Fasting plan 2 days a week and, like me, they have had some great results.  It is good to have other people to compare rumbling tummies and drool over our other colleagues' sandwiches.  There are, of cause, the well-meaning know-it-alls who like to share their deep nutritional knowledge gleaned from a mixture of alleged "well-known facts", TV adverts, cornflake packets, and what their mother told them.  I have been told on more than one occasion that missing meals is bad for you, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, your metabolism slows down if you go too long without food, blah, blah, blah....  It is difficult to challenge conventional wisdom, however what we are being told about what is good / bad for us is constantly changing as science advances and more research is done into every aspect of what we eat, drink or inhale.  When you cut through all the variety of diets on offer (eat more/less fat/carbs/protein; eat grapefruits, eat only raw food, eat for your body 'type', etc, etc), the overriding factors for successful weight loss are simply eat less and move more.  This doesn't have to mean living every day constantly counting calories and resisting all the nice things we like but are so bad for us.  Our weight isn't determined by our worst or best eating days - it is determined by our average intake over time.  Therefore, by severely restricting intake to around 500-600 calories on 2 days out of every 7, that will provide the body with a calorie deficit over the week of around 2500-3500 calories (dependent upon your sex, weight, activity levels, etc).  Depending on the intake on the other 5 days, this deficit can either be used to balance out any small over-indulgences (the type that tend to slip by un-noticed, but result in a gradual upward movement of the scales and the waist size), or, for those struggling to lose weight, an overall weight loss with relatively low effort.

Research has been carried out and, although still in early days, appears to be demonstrating many other health benefits that can be gained from periods of fasting, including improvements to blood sugar levels, reduction in ageing hormones and improvements to the brain.  It has also been proved that the body doesn't go into starvation mode after missing one or two meals - so the metabolism doesn't slow down.  People have been fasting for religious reasons for centuries, and have felt many health benefits that have not been recorded widely until fairly recently.

A few articles about fasting:

http://www.fasting.com

http://www.doctoryourself.com/juicefast.html

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/intermittent-fasting

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb/18/fasting-protect-brain-diseases-scientists

At last... progress!

So, I can hear you asking  – is any of this working????  3 weeks in to the new approach, and it is time to get down to the nitty gritty of how it is going.

The first week didn’t include the fasting.  I didn’t have an alcoholic drink all week, which would have saved a considerable amount of calories, and I upped my exercise by going to the gym 3 times and, using my Fitbit to count the steps, upped the amount of walking I did (although I didn’t quite manage the 10k on EVERY day).  Whilst I didn’t write down, or count the calorie value, of everything I ate, I don’t tend to eat much rubbish, and I decided to just try and cut down portion sizes.  I stepped on the scales after a week (well actually, I can’t resist stepping on them every day, even though I know I shouldn’t, but only once a week is the ‘official’ recording) and, to my disappointment, they hadn’t shifted at all!  Not even a measly quarter pound!  It was when I went into work the next day and my colleague told me about the intermittent fasting that I decided to try the 5:2 approach, ie eating normally for 5 days and restricting calories to 500 on 2 days a week.  Well, it is by no means easy to go all day until 6.30pm without eating, but it is quite a bit easier than weighing and measuring and writing down every calorie consumed during each day.  By the time I walk into my house, I am ready to eat the front door! 

I am also continuing with keeping up the walking, managing 10k steps on most days.  I am managing 3 sessions at week at the gym, although I definitely need to get a re-assessment as I need an update to my routines.  Still keeping the alcohol down – just sticking to a glass or two only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.  I was very relieved to see at the week 3 weigh-in an overall loss so far of 6 pounds!  Whilst I am very pleased with that, it’s still very early days to know how sustainable the weight loss is – I am pretty sure it is mainly down to the fasting.  I guess a long term solution might be to incorporate some sort of fasting into my week – perhaps one day each week, or perhaps just missing one or two lunches a week will make it easier to keep the weight down whilst still being able to enjoy the occasional indulgence. 

The aim of the changes I am making is to try and put in place a sustainable eating and exercise plan that I am happy to stick to, not just for a few months whilst I try to shed a bit of excess baggage, but for ever more....  I know there will be holidays, Christmases, special occasions, “bad” days, etc, but I want to be able to face these head on – enjoy the overindulgence, then deal with the consequences!    

Eating / not eating

As I said in my introduction, it is not all about weight loss.  That said, it is most definitely in SOME part about weight loss - about 10-14 pounds.  Not a huge amount in the scheme of things, and not particularly noticeable - the sort of amount that can be hidden under well structured clothing, such that people say "You - you don't need to lose any weight…", but you can't hide it from yourself (or your trousers!).  This is the amount that, over the past 2-3 years, has, very gradually, crept on, slowly easy its way around my middle, the result of not dealing with excesses of holidays, Christmases, special occasions, days with a 'Y' in...

As I have spent over 30 years being "careful" what I eat, I should be an expert by now on how much I can eat each day to lose or maintain weight.  Knowing is one thing, and doing is an entirely different thing.  As I don't tend to eat a lot of junk in the form of fatty food, cakes, biscuits, chocolate, sweets, etc, there isn't much to give back on that front.  Calorie reduction can only come from cutting down the wasted calories consumed in liquid form (and I'm not talking about tea and coffee here...), and from managing portion sizes of my meals.  One other option, and one I am going to try, is  to actually miss out some meals.  There are lots of opinions and research about whether or not you should be eating 3 meals a day, and many people saying that you should never miss breakfast, etc, etc.  There is also a lot of research that shows that periods of fasting can not only improve your health, but can significantly increase your expected life span.  [It is at this point that I should be linking through to pages of official research that I have done on this, but hey-ho...].There are many different ways of fasting, including alternate day fasting, fasting for blocks of days at a time, but I am looking for the least inconvenient and painful method.  Having watched a Horizon show on this topic, the presenter tried various methods, and the method he found easiest to live with on an on-going basis was to have 2 days each week with a very low calorie intake (600 calories for men, 500 for women).  This can be split into a couple of small meals, or eaten in just one meal.

My plan is to try this for 2 days a week, eating just one meal on those days.  It will be an evening meal, as I have to prepare meals for DH and DS.  On other days, I will continue to eat sensibly, but not counting every calorie, although I will try to be more aware of keeping portion sizes a bit smaller.  More details of my plans/attempts to follow, but information about the fasting can be found on the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19112549.  I don't think the program is available on iPlayer any more, but it can be found on YouTube.  This is my second week of intermittant fasting, and I will update my progress soon!

Yet another diet/fitness blog?

So how is this one different?  Well the answer is, it isn't!  It is destined to be yet another one of those dull and boring records of a battle against the bulge and an attempt to hold back the ever advancing years.  The good thing, as far as I am concerned, is that it is just for me!!  Every now and again I might try and add something a little more interesting, just in case my loyal follower gets bored (hello sis!), however, in the main, this will just be a bit of a journal to help me on my "journey to betterment".  [Not sure if that phrase makes any sense so I put it in quotes so it looks like it might have come from somewhere else].  The theory being that if I document my plans and my progress, I am more likely to stick to the plan! (Ha!)

ttfn to my avid reader!

Another new start?

I’m back, with news of a brand new me!  Well, that is the plan anyway... I am in the early stages of my “journey” (as I would describe it, were I to be interviewed for my reality TV programme).  Still the ‘old’ me at the time of writing, but hoping that by blogging my progress, there will actually be some!  So, as you are no doubt dying to know what I am waffling on about, I will tell you dear readers reader: I am going to improve my health and lose some of the excess podge that has slowly been growing around my middle!  Not radical, I know, and not something I haven’t attempted in the past (on MANY occasions), however I am going to try a few different approaches in the quest to feel better, look better, ensure that my twilight years are spent in good health and, hopefully, add a few more years to my life expectancy.  Nothing too radical - just a few variations on the eat less/move more theme that is the only way to lose weight sensibly.  

So, why do this?  

• Well, as more and more birthdays come and go, each year seemingly quicker than the previous, it is becoming ever more difficult to battle the gradual upward creep of the needle on the scales (ok, my scales don’t actually have a needle as they are digital, but it doesn’t sound as good... anyway, I digress..).   
• Secondly, the wine drinking has become far too much of a habit, as confirmed by the overflowing re-cycling bin each week.  
• Having been in denial for the previous 12 months, I finally had to give in and start buying a few pairs of trousers in a bigger size as I thought it might be nice to be able to breathe during the day
• Having lost both my grandmother and mother at relatively young ages to pancreatic cancer, I feel that I can't fight the overwhelming amount of evidence that shows that lifestyle is a major factor in the likelihood of an individual developing many of the cancers.  
• I want to look, and feel, better in my clothes 
• I want to be around when my son grows up

Back soon with more details of my approach, and my progress so far