Have you heard about the 5:2 or Fast Diet? It's intermittent fasting were you choose two days a week to eat only 500 calories during the day, (if you're a woman or 600 if you're a man,) and the rest of the time you eat normally, as in, three meals a day plus snacks or whatever your preference is. You should also stick to the amount of calories your body actually needs and not go overboard on the non fast days, your body just doesn't need it. There was a book out here a few years ago called "The Fast Diet" by Dr Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer.
I bought myself and Bee a copy at the time if publication, I was interested in it from the health benefits point of view rather than the lose weight point of view, think I tried it one day and didn't bother again.
Fast (excuse the pun,) forward a few years and after my last holiday, I'd gained a few lbs with all the indulgences and meals out and I felt, well, like a stuffed sausage to be frank.
Monday to Friday I eat pretty well, in an attempt to eat the carbs, protein and fats my body needs, I did start to feel like I was force feeding myself a bit. Not in an uncomfortable way nor did I ever feel stuffed but I was ready for something to change so that I didn't feel like I was constantly shovelling food into my mouth.
So I decided to give it a go, I read the book cover to cover, all of the science made sense, there didn't seem to be any negatives to contend with by following the instructions, so I began.
I didn't take lots of measurements as the book advises, I just needed to lose a few lbs and feel like me again.
I hoped the diet would work for me. I wasn't expecting the diet to work on me quite how it did. I've always considered myself to be "skinny" fat. To the world, in clothing, I look slim, I get to see the muffin top, pouchy tum, hanging flesh from the top of my thighs when I'm exercising that no one else gets to see.
All previous diets that's I've attempted, if they work, then I see obvious changes, from the outside, maybe my face, maybe my bum usually chest.
This one is different. My face looks the same, the number on the scale is coming down, but my tum is shrinking, my saddle bags are dissolving, my inner thighs deflating.
Usually diet's target in this order for me; face, chest, anything else you don't want to lose fat from. The last to be targeted would be actually the first on my list, be it; thighs, bum or thighs, or bum ;)
You know how you always read that you can't spot reduce? I believe that this diet targets pockets of fat from the inside out rather than the outside in, or at least that's what it seems to be doing with this bod. Plus, it was actually the internal fat that I wanted to target anyway.
It may be that the only fat that I have is the visible kind, the inner thigh hang, the muffin etc. and maybe that's all this diet has to target. Either way, I'm delighted. I'm only four weeks in and I'm 10lbs down, 6lbs in the first week. Have to say that, when I began this diet, after my holiday, I was the heaviest I'd been for a long, long time, I was 9st 6lbs when my usual weight was around 8st 10lbs, 8st 10lbs being at the higher end of my norm.
To be honest, while I was noticing the changes on my outside, I was more worried about any visceral fat on the inside, rapped, snugly around my organs, comfortably sleeping like a resting snake. Truth is, I don't know if I have a lot of visceral fat as I haven't had the appropriate tests, but I was willing to wage war on it anyway and I suspect that I have.
The outcome is that I can see my visible fat dissolving, being used up and eaten away by this diet like the preferred food of a hungry animal. It gives me some comfort that if it can do that to the stubborn visible, I'm sure it can do the same to the invisible and stealthy kind, if I did in fact have any.
Fast days I have a couple of Starbucks filters with some skimmed milk and around 6pm, I have a good couple of bowls of Spring vegetable soup; celery, carrots, onion, couple of stock cubes and some extra virgin olive oil. Feels so nourishing which I know probably sounds daft but really feels like you're doing your body good, resting it then feeding it with some solid nutrition.
Breakfast (break-fast) after a fast day, is almost indescribable. My Monday to Friday breakfast is my favourite meal of the day anyway, wholemeal, seeded pita, with a whole avocado (none of this only half business,) and the tiniest slice of honey roast ham. Breakfast following a fast day is on a whole other level, maybe the anticipation? Whatever, it is last meal worthy.
I've been given the all clear from my GP to exercise regarding blood pressure, I've been give exercises and stretches from physio regarding dodgy post accident shoulder, so I really should get off my behind now and jump back into exercise to complement the new eating plan right?