5:2 Diet

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Since my youngest child is now nearing six months old, and is no longer breastfeeding, I'm running out of excuses to put off losing the baby weight.  I'm not especially hung up about the number on the scale, it's more about how clothes fit, the general level of horror I feel at my reflection in shop windows, and so on.

Also it's good to, you know, set a positive example to the kids re health and fitness and YAWN.

Anyway,  I'd heard about the 5:2 diet, which is where you eat normally - but sensibly - for five days of the week and fast on the remaining two non-consecutive days.  By "fast", I mean that you restrict calorie consumption to 500 or less.

It appealed to me for numerous reasons.  Firstly, I am hopeless at exerting willpower when it comes to food, and as soon as I decide I'm going to "eat healthy" I immediately crave pasta and cheese and hot chips and so I eat salad for two meals and then go nuts on some massive cheesy nuggets blowout feast cos, you know, I've been dieting (cheesy nuggets being my kryptonite food).  But denying myself for only one day at a time?  Well, that I can do.

Secondly, it apparently offers many health benefits besides weight loss.

And third, it's simple.  It costs nothing to do.  It requires no time-consuming food planning and preparation.  In fact, I get so much more stuff done on my fast days because I'm not wasting time eating.  PLUS, I'm not a big drinker but 5:2 means that I automatically have two alcohol-free days per week.  Tick!

My husband B and I have only been doing it for a few weeks but already I'm a total convert.  I'll keep it up for as long as I can.  We missed a fast day a couple of weeks ago due to J's birthday, but whatever.  Sometimes I go over my calorie allowance on fast day, no big deal.  Most interestingly though, recently we had a big indulgent weekend of eating and drinking, and I was actually looking forward to fast day Monday.  For a diet-hater like me that is really revolutionary stuff.

So far, my strategy on fast day is to put off eating for as long as possible because once I do, I'll be starving.  That said, I still have my usual full fat flat white every morning (I don't have sugar in my coffee anyway) because I MUST HAVE MY COFFEE.  It's only 120 of my calories and it's totally worth it.  Then I drink water all day long, as much as possible.

I'm usually hungriest at about 1 or 2pm, and then it tapers off over the course of the afternoon until I'm quite looking forward to dinner, but not desperate.  

We have a smallish dinner of salad or veg with egg, always an egg!, and that's it.  Normal service resumes the following morning when you think I'd wake up starving but here's the thing.  I wake up less hungry than I do on a normal day.  Then usually I spend the day still in "fast mode" and I'm very conscious of anything I put in my mouth (insert usual joke here).

Now that I've got the hang of it I'm working up to a true fast day - zero or as few calories as possible. I suspect that that would actually be easier than figuring out how best to spend my 500 allowance.  Food is off the table (GET IT! OFF the table!) so you just carry on with your day instead of obsessing about whether this food or that is a better use of your allowance.

Look, I'm not really sure why I'm telling you about this.  I'm usually not really a food fad type person.  I'm always rolling my eyes at the whole paleo/quitting sugar/gluten free thing.  And 5:2 could very well be debunked as a ridiculous food fad in a few years' time.  But for now I like the fact that I can have my cheesy nuggets and eat them too.