39 Again

A general panic at being in my 40s

Just keep swimming…

Jan 21

Posted by heather in 5:2, IDF | No Comments

I’ve just been getting on with it for the last week, more or less having supper every day and breakfast every other. As a weight loss technique it’s very effective: it’s taken me a fortnight or so to lose all the weight I put on over Christmas, ie about half a stone. As that was my total weight loss to date I was very annoyed to have gone back to square one! I was amazed how easily I settled into the pattern.

I disgraced myself over the weekend as I was “allowed” chocolate, and that sort of thing seems to flick a switch in my brain and put a different area in control. Today I’ve been to the supermarket and I’m cooking a few things – it’s incredible how often that happens on fast (ie no breakfast) days, or maybe I’m just more conscious of it. I’m determined to hang on in there today and get back into my pattern. I need to taste the mince I’ve made (well ahead of time) for supper and the broccoli & Stilton soup I’ve made for the freezer but I daren’t, as I know I’ll be switched on to food if I do and suddenly it’ll be a bowlful of soup and the floodgates will open.

It’s not a diet, it’s a journey

Jan 14

Posted by heather in 5:2, LCHF | No Comments

I’m often asked about LCHF and fasting by people who like the idea but “could never do it” – well phooey to that; if I can do it, anyone can do it. Something that comes out in every conversation is how things have changed over the year that DH and I have been doing this. At first we were like kids in a sweet shop, gorging on all the things we were ‘allowed’ to eat and in my case, majoring on frozen berries zizzed up with double cream. Then things settled down and became very salad-focussed over the summer, together with introducing 5:2 fasting. In the autumn things changed again as we ate fewer salady things and wanted more warming winter foods, and this year they’ve changed yet again as I’ve tinkered with my fasting pattern.

For us, changing how we eat hasn’t been a single, overnight step; it’s evolved and it will probably carry on doing so. I’m managing well on a much smaller food intake than I could have envisaged a year ago. I’m also learning how food fits in to my life. It’s punctuation and something to do.

I don’t know how much weight I’ve lost since climbing back on the wagon a fortnight ago. I weigh myself in very specific circumstances, circumstances that haven’t arisen for the last week. That way I know that what I’m seeing can be trusted. This isn’t all about weight, health plays a big part too, but I’d be really disappointed if I didn’t shift this baby weight too.

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New regime

Jan 11

Posted by heather in 5:2, IDF, LCHF | No Comments

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Remember these little fellas? They survived that day, but they finally bit the dust yesterday when I was losing the will to live over some vile and hateful sewing I had to do. I hate sewing. That little fact is bound to come up again at some point. It doesn’t mix well with a little boys who wreck their jeans on the knee.

Apart from that the new regime is going well. I’m still a bit HIT and miss (arf arf) on the exercise, mainly because trampolining is my favourite form, but the trampoline is wet much of the time at the moment. I’m trying to keep on my toes in other ways though, mainly by not putting off chores or stalling if there’s something I need to get up and do.

I’m trying a very low food intake at the moment. I’m having supper every day so that I can eat with the children, and every other day I’m having breakfast too. The odd other morsel of food is passing my lips but it’s really not much – a handful of peanuts, something like that. My shrinking meals are LCHF and are sustaining me amazingly well. I don’t know if I can keep this up long term, it might be too much (or do I mean too little?). Temptation is slowly receding and my energy doesn’t seem to be affected at all. I’m down a pound so far this week, but I’m in the second half of my cycle, which means water retention with knobs on. Reservoirs will be shrinking and bath taps dribbling, I retain so much water over these couple of weeks. My stomach needs its own chair when I sit down and a wheelbarrow when I walk around. Still, it’s effective in making a girl look forward to her period.

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My, how birthdays do drag on

Jan 9

Posted by heather in 5:2 | No Comments

We’re still finishing up the birthday goodies. Despite that, fasting goes well and really, it’s a relief to be back to 5:2. As always it’s the temptations rather than the hunger that can be problematic. I do wonder how different it is for people who spend less time at home, where food is easily available, and who don’t have young children who need food put in front of them several times a day. Tonight, I’ll eat supper with my children because I want to inculcate good eating habits in them. It means my fast is 24 hours instead of from suppertime one day to breakfast the day after next, but I don’t eat at all on a fasting day so perhaps that compensates?

This was interesting I thought: BBC article – all about standing up to lose fat. It chimes in with my developing habit of not sitting down for more than 20 minutes a day. I got very involved in something I was working on earlier and completely forgot to keep moving, but working standing up would address that. I’ll try it tomorrow. That’s Ernest Hemingway in the photo, who always stood up to work.

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Birthday Binge

Jan 7

Posted by heather in 5:2 | No Comments

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There was a birthday in the house yesterday, which of course meant a birthday breakfast, cake and an Indian takeaway. With a beer. I didn’t want to be churlish so joined in cheerfully – no, make that ‘with alacrity’. On the upside we threw ourselves around at the adventure playground too.

Today, being a Monday, is a fast day, and about time too. It must have been a month, and I need to get back in the swing. In itself it’s been fine – good energy levels, hunger has been entirely manageable – but seeing my son eat leftover birthday cake then after school making my daughter toast and Marmite was a bit hard. My name’s Heather, and I licked my fingers!

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