This Will Either Be a Glorious Experience or a Horrific Experiment

As I have shared for a few months now, I have been stuck on the scale. Seeing only the slightest improvements by eating regularly (I think I discussed how we had virtually stopped eating at work and then would over eat in the evenings; if I didn't well there's the cliff notes version of it).

I physically feel myself becoming slimmer and have eye witness commentary (because they are always reliable), but the scale's mind is slow to change. A pound this month, a few ounces here, nothing as substantial as the effort I feel I am putting in. Which is a recipe for a disastrous back slide.

I have a co-worker who has been steadily slimming down. She is already slender but with her petite frame and being towards middle age noticed she was developing a bit of a tummy. She is big into natural and organics and energy and so on. She started doing intermittent fasting; commonly this is called the 5:2 diet, but as you know, I LOATHE the word diet. I am going to refer to it as the 5:2 method or IF (intermittent fasting) method.

She has been singing its praise for months. I kind of shrugged it off the way I do when people start going on about what sounds like a fad diet. Then another gal in the office decided she wants to try it so lady A brought the book for this methodology in for lady B. Since it was floating around I asked if I could borrow the book. I wanted to give this thing a read.

I did. I read the whole thing in less than a week. I may be gullible, but I am sold. The science behind the method is fairly sound (though I can guarantee there is something out there that will argue against it) and the various trials really peeked my interest. Further more the lab results on participants blood work and the improvements on their body compositions is astounding.

Being a nerd, the biological and chemical side of this whole practice has me bouncing off the walls.

I am just going to give you the bare bones premise of the methodology and if you find it as interesting as I did you can check out their website and book here: The Fast Diet.

The idea is that for five of the seven days of the week, you eat a normal, balanced diet; with the occasional treats and so on. The remaining two days of the week you only consume 25% of your "feed" day calories. So, as a woman you'd eat around 2,000 calories a day, five days a week and then only consume ~500 calories  two days a week. Everyone's opinion on the when to consume the calories is different, but the common thread is to basically fast. If you need a definition of what it is to fast check out the wiki page here: Fasting.

Many religions fast in one form or another for various reasons. Again, for the in depth check out the site and so on. The main difference I find with this compared to all the various fad diet babble I have heard is that it is completely flexible and sustainable.

All this I could go on and on about, but it's not for me to convince any one else to try this crazy thing. It's for you. As I experience this super fun method I will share my results and notes. That is one thing they strongly suggest is taking little notes, ESPECIALLY on the fasting days. That is just what I did, today, my first official fasting day. I wasn't sure how I was going to approach this; I was prepared to need to have a light snack (granny smith apple) if I absolutely needed it. But I didn't and it felt GREAT.

The following are the notes I jotted down throughout the day:

9:30A - I feel hungry and "shaky" but I think it's a mental thing. More water and tea.

10:15A - Feel surprisingly focused and alert. No hunger pangs. Just made some herbal tea (passion and orange) to cool and pour over ice once black tea is gone.

11:45A - Lunch hour is upon us and I feel a little intimidated. Looking forward to our walk in 30 minutes.

12:47P - Lunch walk = great. C struggling with the hungries. Asked if he was writing anything down when it was overpowering, he said no. Wished he'd known how it helped earlier. He had an apple. Told him that's fine. He gets 100 calories more a day than me anyways. Zen tea brewed and cooling.

1:15P - Realize going to Pinterest is/would be a bad idea on FD (fast day). Luckily before going to it!
Small victory

2:05P - Struggling, not sure with what. Just feeling my mind screaming for all sorts. Not emotional... I think. I can make it. 3 hours +/- until a delicious dinner. Just need to finish work! IPO here I come.

3:55P - I DID IT!!

Then we came home, bathed the gremlin and had a deliciously wonderful dinner. I made a light soup with the leftover pad thai veggies from last night. Edamame, broccoli, zucchini, red bell peppers and tofu in chicken broth (seasoned by the leftover sauce from last night and some ginger). It was soooo good.

Now the real struggle: to make it to bed without snacking. I can do this...

Our plan is to fast Mondays and Thursdays (they also are the most common days). Once we reach our goals we will switch to a 6:1 method. Obviously, when we get preggo this will be 100% on hold. It is not healthy to repeatedly fast while trying to grow a human.

As I start to see results (or lack there of) I will be sure to share with you. I will also share my notes as we go from most of the fast days unless it's super boring such as repeatedly writing pickle... Ha!

I will not be giving up my Thursday gym night, plenty of people fast and are still active. We each have one gym night affected by the fasting so it is balanced. We'll see how this goes.

As always, you are welcome to leave your thoughts below. Am I crazy? Have you ever tried something similar? What ever you want.

Now for some tea and anime. *smiles*