Tea & Motivation

Tea to the rescue!

If it were not for the mighty tea leaf (Yorkshire Tea being my preferred brand of course), I am not sure how I would be getting through my first ever 500 cal fast day.

Mosley and Spencer's 'The Fast Diet' has been sitting on my shelf for weeks, promising a world of losing weight and eating what I want, except for a mere two days per week.  I have studiously avoided reading it properly, knowing that this very act would leave me with one less excuse to take the plunge and start.

I discovered this approach to eating via my soon to be mother and father-in-law, who are both looking very trim as a result of routinely fasting for two days out of seven.  As they both work in the health profession and are not ones for faddy dieting, I started to wonder more about the wider benefits to fasting, beyond simply losing weight.  

Mosley and Spencer do a very convincing job of purporting a huge range of advantages to fasting, including feeling more alert, more positive and possibly a slight delay to the ageing process.  As a 30-something bride-to-be, this diet sounds like a match made in heaven!

In short, the 5:2 diet is simple.  Eat what you want 5 days per week and then restrict yourself to 500 cal (600 cal for men) for two days per week.  Ideally you should eat a small protein-rich breakfast, skip lunch (but drink plenty throughout the day) and then have a simple, low-cal dinner.  

Breakfast - half a tin of mandarins, three spoons of yogurt and a brew!

My aims for starting out on this 5:2 journey are to: a) reduce my belly and arm fat in time for my wedding, b) have increased energy for planning my wedding (and doing a very busy day job) and c) well...  if you know my family, we never have a c)!

As the book recommends, I have decided to have Mondays and Thursdays as my fast days.  It makes perfect sense to avoid weekend days, where I will be tempted with 'end of the week treats' but also to spread the two fast days out as far as possible.

So today I have become resolved and my 5:2 journey begins.  My vital measurements for Day 1 of the 5:2 diet are below.

Week 1 Vital Statistics:

Height: 5' 5"

Weight: 68kg

BMI*: 24.95 (just within the healthy range)

Waist: 35.5"

Arms: 11"

*BMI calculated at NHS website.

The first instalment of fast days menus:

Breakfast: half a tin of mandarins and three desert spoons of yogurt - 194 cal*.

Drinks: water, caffeinated tea with skimmed goat's milk, herbal teas.

Dinner: 2 cups of homemade vegetarian bean chilli, 75g boiled rice - 296 cal*.

Total - 490 cal*.

*calorie information found on My Fitness Pal App for iPhone.

I really enjoyed my breakfast today, and felt motivated this morning to make it through to 6:30pm before eating my dinner tonight.  Avoiding snacks has been effortless and it was surprisingly easy to forgo lunch surrounded by my colleagues, who were enjoying a picnic earlier on.  Yet now I have come home, I find myself craving some food but still have a few hours before I can eat dinner.  A cup of tea has provided much needed relief but if I am honest, I still feel hungry.  The upside however, is that I do not feel tired or headachy.  In fact my energy levels feel quite good!

The motivation to avoid being a bulging-bellied-bride along with the knowledge that a brew will see me through the tough times, is enough to keep me going today.  Mosley and Spencer promise that fasting gets easier each time you do it.  We'll see if that holds true.  For now, I am counting down the minutes until I can starting cooking (and eating!) my dinner!