So last week I promised I’d come back and update you on my progress following the 5:2 diet, so here we go.
Day One: Monday 6th January (Fast Day One)
Monday was my first day following the 5:2 diet plan, I’d been eating healthy since New Year’s Eve, so it wasn’t really my first day on the wagon. It was however my first ever fast day. For my first one I didn’t want to be too strict as it was going to be a shock to the system, so my first day I chose 600 calories worth of meals.
For lunch I had a whole carton of Covent Garden’s Carrot and Coriander Soup with 3 of Jacobs Whole Grain Crackers. As a snack later on I had six cherry tomatoes and one Babybel. I also had 3 cups of tea at work with 2 sweeteners and skimmed milk and 3 pints of water. For my first day I was feeling really good, until around 4pm, hunger struck and I felt famished. I decided to have around 25g of peanuts to warn off the hunger until I got home.
For dinner I chose to have ham and egg salad, which consisted of a boiled egg, a slice of ham, mixed salad, rocket, cucumber, peppers and salad cream. It was so yummy and it seemed like a huge portion but it was well within my calorie allowances! It definitely helped fill me up for a while, I did however feel hungry again around 7-8pm so I had one last cup of tea to see me through to bedtime! I have to admit although I did feel hungry during day one, it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be!
Day Two: Tuesday 7th January (Normal Calorie Day)
Tuesday was a normal calorie day, I’m aiming for around 1500 calories in the days that I’m not fasting. Surprising I think I felt worse on Tuesday than I did on Monday, I don’t know if that’s the fast day catching up with me or just adjusting to a lower calorie lifestyle. I stupidly skipped breakfast, I just hate cereal, I’m sure I’m not the only one, so I’m on the hunt for breakfasts I can eat at work! For lunch I had one sesame seed bagel filled with ham, lettuce and salad cream. Am I the only one that finds ham less fulfilling than cheese in sandwhiches and things? It left me uninspired! As snacks I had a handful of grapes, four cherry tomatoes and a Babybel, I love my Babybels!
I did ‘indulge’ if you can call it indulging in a Nescafe Vanilla Latte which got me through the rest of the afternoon! I had quite a few calories left for the day (which I planned) as we were having Pizza for dinner. The calories left allowed me to have two slices of pizza with 100g of wedges and a healthy serving of salad! This is pretty carb heavy for me, which my body doesn’t tend to like in the evenings, but it was a nice treat, although not something I’ll be indulging in everyday! It filled me up a lot though and I didn’t need anymore snacks or hot drinks for the day!
Day Three: Wednesday 8th January (Normal Calorie Day)
Wednesday was my third day on the diet plan and I was determined to eat breakfast, despite my hatred of cereal. So the night before I was looking at ways to eat breakfast at work, I came up with the idea of cooking eggs in the microwave. You can do all sorts of things but the ones that appealed to me was poaching and scrambling. I figured I’d have two eggs with one slice of Granary Bread from Hovis, which is 83 calories a slice. You pour some cold water into a bowl and crack in your egg, cover with a plate and stick into the microwave for about 50 seconds. Its safe to say that after 50 seconds my egg was still raw so I stuck it in for more time, I ended up over cooking it which was not the best turn out, but it wasn’t a disaster! The good news is that actually having breakfast really helped me through the first part of the day, which helped me to lunch time without snacks and unhealthy food, so yay to that! I’m a boring so and so, I decided to have soup again because I love it! For dinner I had baked salmon with mashed potato, with broccoli, peas and carrots! I had 300 odd calories left and I was so tempted to have a bowl of ice cream, but I resisted and just had a cup of tea. I’m wondering how long I’ll last before I get fed up of tea!
Day Four: Thursday 9th January (Fast Day)
The ‘bad news’ for the food diary is that I was boring for the second day of my fast and went for basically the same as I ate the first day. So in terms of variety for you guys there isn’t must to read. It’s just my first week on the diet, so at the moment I’m just trying to find my feet and keep things simple, I’m hoping that next week I’m going to mix it up a little and try things out!
I just had two cups of tea in the morning at work and went straight to lunch, I was going to try poached eggs again but work just got busy and I just figured I’d wait. I’m 100% still feeling hungry, don’t think that your body adjusts and you feel fine. My stomach is definitely rumbly and I’m feeling hungry, however, the good news is that I’m not feeling faint or cold like I was in the beginning. The feeling of hunger just seems to be ‘the norm’. Thursday was the day of salads as I had one for lunch and dinner! At work we have a salad bar and I picked out a variety of different leaves, beetroot, radishes, cucumber and a little bit of peppers and a small serving of coleslaw. At home I had a similar leafy and pepper combination, but Chris and I shared a tin of salmon, which we love! If I were going to make this with a bit more time on my hands I’d use fresh salmon for this! I actually found that having a salad at lunchtime filled me up more than the soup did the day before. So I might actually swap these two meals around and have the salad at lunchtime, we’ll see how that pans out!
Thursday night was a bit demotivating for me, Chris and I bought Wii Fit and a board but we bought it secondhand so needed to check it worked. So I had a midweek weigh in which I wasn’t going to do. It come back that I’d gained 2 pounds which was really disheartening. I did weigh myself in the evening after dinner instead of a morning before breakfast so I’m sure that’s something to do with it but I was gutted. On the other hand Chris lost 3 pounds, so it was obviously working for him!
Day 5: Friday 10th January (Normal Calorie Day)
So starting Friday was hard work, I’d gained weight and it made the whole thing feel pointless. However, I am determined not to give this up, I said from the beginning that I’d give the diet a good month or so and see how I get on. For breakfast I had scrambled eggs, which kept me so filled up, I didn’t even eat my lunch till gone 3pm. So I don’t know why I was so full, but eventually for lunch I had a pitta bread, which compromised of two thin slices of chicken break, lettuce and salad cream. The pitta breads I like are by Food Doctor, they are packed with seeds and grains, which I love and they are 130 calories, a pitta which is good. For dinner we had chicken pie and mash, I have to admit that pie isn't my favourite thing in the world and it's full of calories so it is something we'll be cutting out from here on. It was good dinner though, it's really filling.
We spent all of Friday night creating a special Minion birthday cake, it was hard work but we were really happy with it.
Day 6: Saturday 11th January (Normal Calorie Day)
This weekend we had a birthday in the family so it was always going to be a day filled with calories. I had toast for breakfast which was just normal bread so it wasn't as healthy as my breakfast normally is. For lunch I ended up having two of my Food Doctor Pitta Breads with cheese and cherry tomatoes and a little bit of salad cream. We ended up having a slice of special Minion cake after the singing of Happy Birthday, which certainly didn't have a great calorie count! For dinner we had a lot of guests so Chris and I made a load of homemade pizzas, check out our successful dough below!
We had a selection of party finger food, so I had a portion of Caesar Salad and three slices of homemade pizza. I also had a little tiny slither of quiche which also happens to be laced with calories, a portion of profiteroles didn't help either. This all pushed my calorie intake to just over 2000 calories which is a normal calorie day, but I've been having under 1300 calories everyday so it wasn't great.
Day 7: Sunday 12th January (Normal Calorie Day)
The Birthday celebrations continued into Sunday with a Birthday Brunch, I had two Pecan Danishes for breakfast. The thought of this made me sick, just with the two pastries I had exceeded my fat allowance for the day! I think the best part of dieting sometimes is education, it's no wonder I'm overweight because I wouldn't have blinked at having two pastries for breakfast. Around 3pm I was feeling quite hungry and I had a headache, I think probably because I was experiencing a sugar crash. So I had a snack of a Babybel with three Choice Grain crackers. We had the Birthday girls favourite dinner which is meatballs and spaghetti, not the best thing to have on a diet but certainly not the worst.
Sunday was weigh in day and I was so pleased to see that I lost 5 pounds which is much better than the 2 pound gain that I had earlier in the week! It's definitely given me a rush of motivation for this week! I'll be back next Monday with an update!
