It’s now been over six months since I wrote the first ever 5:2 post about a fasting diet I’d seen on TV a few weeks earlier. The rest is history: Dr Mosley and Mimi Spencer wrote The Fast Diet book and included that first post in it. The book is now world-wide best seller for the small indy publisher Short Books.
Sadly I don’t think this makes me a world-best selling author, too; but I digress.
Anyway, I thought it was about time to let you know how I’m getting on with the Fast Diet.
1. Feeling Great
I have just started going back to the gym. After all my problems with the small op, my back and my frozen shoulder (touch wood!) I feel fit. The extra weight I’d gained due to the health problems has gone, and I feel as if I am back to myself again.
2. Feeing Healthier
What’s more ( again, touch wood!) I seem to be able to shrug off any colds and sniffles very quickly. I can’t really put this down to anything else but the Fast Diet. Before I started the diet, I’d get two or three really bad colds a year and I’d be poorly at least for a week, and it would take two weeks for me to feel fully well again. Now any little sniffles take just a day or two to clear.
3. My Weight
Although my weight fluctuates, I have kept the 8 kilos off that I lost in the first 3-4 months. This is quite a feat since I’ve had several long breaks in the diet (Christmas and holidays) when I’ve eaten exactly what I’ve wanted (cinnamon buns, Daughter’s cakes, beer, pizza, curries etc., etc.). I also do not count calories on the days when I’m not fasting. To me, being able to not worry about what I have on the ‘free’ days is what this 5:2 diet is all about. Plus there are weeks when I just do one fast day.
4. New Relationship with Food
The 5:2 Diet has given me the confidence not to eat. This sounds strange, but in the past I’d be afraid of feeling hungry, and would often eat a meal ‘just in case’ I might feel hungry later. I’ve learned that feeling hunger is OK; it’s nothing to be afraid of.
5. Healthier lifestyle
Taking into account all the pizza and cinnamon buns, on the whole as a result of the 5:2 diet, I eat more healthily purely because on the fast days I cannot have the empty sugary and fatty calories. I also think that my body has got used to eating less sugar and fat on the non-fasting days too. I also drink less wine (mores the pity!) because I just don’t seem to want as much of the bad stuff as before. There’s also independent evidence for this: the little health scare I had just about at the same time I started the 5:2 diet, with raised glucose levels, which is the first sign of developing type 2 diabetes, has totally disappeared. My levels are now normal.
In summary, I feel great! Of course I’d like to lose more weight. To be table to fit into a size 12 (again) would be nice, but since I am quite tall (175 cm), of a certain age, and have – what someone once very gamely put it – a tennis players physique, size 14 is OK with me.
I'm just about to start the 5:2 diet so great to read your thoughts x
Good luck! The thing to remember is not to give up – you'll have good fast days and bad ones, but in the long run it'll be worth it! Hx
Pretty much my experience, and lovely to read a similar story. 5:2 works for me, I feel better, I have a better relationship with food, I can wear size 14 again (like you I'm 5'9"). I refuse to obsessively count calories, and I too take breaks if I feel like it. It works! Not sure I ever was a size 12…the word that someone used to describe me was a 'strapping lass' when I was 16, which I immediately translated as 'horribly overweight' as a self conscious teenager, but looking back I think I had/have a large frame, as I was very slim. The power of words 🙂 5:2 is a way of life now.