Get Fit Feel Epic Comp & Goal Setting

As you know, I’ve started the year on a mission to get healthy, lose weight and get fit by introducing the 5:2 lifestyle to my life, doing the 30 Day Shred DVD and it is my intention to get back running as soon as I feel fit enough to do so.

So when I heard about the Get Fit Feel Epic competition from Moneysupermarket.com over on Jo’s blog at 2 Stars & a Swirl, I thought what better way to motivate me to stick with it?

I then realised I hadn’t actually voiced any clear goals for my year so, having thought about it a little, here they are:

• To complete all 3 levels of the 30 Day Shred DVD and aim to keep up with doing the DVD at least 3 times a week.
• Get back to running 10k by the end of the year with the aim to enter a 10k race next year
• Get back to 9st 12lb by June
• Tone up the baby jelly belly by the time I go on holiday in June so I look fab in that bikini!

They all look pretty realistic and achievable (SMART even) so bring them on. Actually, having now set myself some goals it has already boosted my motivation a little bit more.

Silent Sunday

Silent Sunday, a photo by Deborabora on Flickr.

Spiritual Encounters

Have you ever seen a ghost or felt a presence? I love a good ghost story!

I’m full of stories but have little ‘evidential’ proof of anything I’ve seen or felt. Some are not my stories but belong to my family. There’s a good story relating to my sister. This is how I remember the story being told to me anyway.

When my sister was born she was one of a pair of twin girls. Tragically, her twin, Anita, died at only 6 weeks old. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) or Cot Death weren’t really recognised back then but it is likely this is what sadly caused her death but we will never really know.

As a family we have all ‘talked’ to Anita over the years. Even me, despite having never known her as the tragedy happened 7.5 years before I was on the scene. Anita has always been part of our family and I still strongly believe she is my Mum’s Guardian Angel. I have always felt a link or a bond with her.

Anyway, I’m digressing a bit. My sister, too, has always talked to her but there was a time in her late teens or early twenties that she wondered whether Anita was actually listening. So she asked her for a ‘sign’. The next day my sister was getting ready for work when she couldn’t find her work boots. My mum had a similar pair so my sister assumed my mum had gone to work wearing them – it wouldn’t have been the first time. Later that day when both my mum & sister returned home from work my sister joked with my mum about her going in the wrong boots, however, my mum said she hadn’t she had worn her own & proved it! They searched high and low but couldn’t find my sister’s boots. So that night my sister said she believed her twin was there could she just have her boots back now.

The next morning, while my Dad was getting ready, he found my sister’s boots on a shelf in his wardrobe. There is no way anyone could’ve put them there as a ‘mistake’ and no one would’ve done it as a joke. No one even knew what my sister had said to her twin that night.

I have stories that are my own too. Such as the sleep paralysis I’ve experienced – as many others have reported, I felt an evil presence in the room trying to ‘get’ me (it happened 3 times in one night and again the next night before I decided I was too scared to sleep & stayed awake watching the TV!). I’ve also started to drift off one night when I ‘saw’ a bright light in the room the other side of my closed eye-lids. I opened my eyes to see a face staring down at me. Frightened but realising it was probably a trick of my eyes, I closed my eyes and opened them again expecting the face to be gone. It wasn’t, it was still there! I desperately woke Stuart up but by then it had gone.

When I was younger, my Mum always used to jokingly call me a witch. I used to intuitively ‘know’ things. I often know when something bad or good is going to happen (but can’t always tell whether it is going to be good or bad). I have predicted things will set on fire (and more recently I dreamt about a fire and knew it was a premonition – although this is the only premonition dream I’ve recognised). I’ve known when I’m going to win a prize in a raffle and what that prize will be (I’ve done this a number of times – I don’t know when I get the ticket but know my number/name is the next to be called out).

I’ve heard things, felt things, I’ve even heard my own name ‘called’ by what sounded like my own voice. That didn’t scare me, it was just weird.

I studied my level 1 Reiki at the end of 2011. Just before I sat the course (but once I had already booked it) I started experiencing things such as unusual scents in strange places. Then after my Reiki course I saw, for the first time, what I believe was an angel or spirit guide. It was just a white orb about a foot in diameter  that slowly disappeared in the corner of the room. Again, I wasn’t scared, I was comforted. I have worked with angels for a while but have had no interaction or communication with them except my one way dialogue to them and through readings using my Angel cards.

I’ve often been too scared to ‘see’ anything and I’m told I have the ability to ‘see’ but they wont present themselves to me if I don’t want it. As I’m getting older and more aware, I am realising when I do experience something I rarely feel fear these days, unless its late at night and I’m on my own in the house – or I see a scary face!! Oh, and the sleep paralysis can be extremely frightening.

Everything I’ve experienced I’m sure can be explained by a sceptic but I still believe in the things I have seen or experienced and I believe them to be spiritual.

I would love to hear your stories if you have any. Do you believe? Were you a non-believer until something happened to you that changed your mind?

Fast Track to Feeling Good

“I feeeeeel gooood! doobidoobidoobidoo I knew that I wooooouuuuld”

I’m coming to the end of my third week since I changed my lifestyle to that of the 5:2 plan and I’m really getting into the swing of it now.

Firstly, after deciding only a foolish person would weigh themselves on a Monday, I have moved my weigh day to a Friday. So I stepped on the scales this morning and I weighed 10st 7lb exactly and my body fat is down to 16.1%. That’s 4.2lb down on where I started. What a great way to start the day and go into the weekend!

Secondly, yesterday was my 6th Fast day. Stuart and I have slotted into quite a nice routine of our Fast days being on a Monday and a Thursday. It wasn’t necessarily our intention to keep them the same but they do seem to be good days and its worked out well for us to keep them that way. But its still nice to know we have the flexibility to move a day should we need to. Though if we did move it to another day, it is easier if we both fast on the same days so we would both need to change it.

It has started to feel really easy now. So much so, I felt confident enough to exercise on a Fast day. Yesterday, I did my 30 Day Shred DVD in the morning (level 2), drank lots of water, then I walked 1.5 miles into Southbourne, with Millie in the buggy, to meet a friend for lunch and do a bit of shopping. That lunch was the first food I had eaten that day. I didn’t feel faint or weak or even that hungry. I felt good!

I was a little nervous going out for lunch but Maxine was happy to be flexible so we found somewhere that suited my diet. I thought if there was a tomato soup that’d be fine or they did an all day breakfast, I’d be able to ask for a piece of dry toast topped with a poached egg, and I’d be ok. I looked in the window of the first place and saw mountains of cheeses and cured meats, the menu read pizza, paninis, scrambled egg…I thought that maybe that wasn’t the best place to go!! Just a tad too cruel! It was a deli too so all the delicious offerings were all on show. Instead, we went to a Gastro-Pub place. They did do all day brunch and I did see poached egg on the menu so thought that would be my fall-back option but I was really hoping for soup. I was in luck, they had a choice of two soups – chicken & vegetable and Mediterranean vegetable! I opted for the Mediterranean vegetable. It came with bread which I should have pre-emptied and asked for it without but I took home the bread (a lovely piece of ciabatta) and gave half to my mum and froze half so it didn’t go to waste! I did decide to leave about a third of the soup though to make sure I didn’t go over my calories as I had no idea how many were in it. I’m sure I would’ve been fine if I had eaten the lot as it wasn’t a huge bowl and from what I imagine the ingredients were, I doubted it would’ve been that bad but, not knowing, I erred on the side of caution. The lady joked when she took the bowl away it must be a tough diet if you aren’t even able to finish your soup – haha! For a drink I had a small diet coke and some tap water.

After a lovely lunch catching up with my friend, Millie and I walked home again (well, Millie didn’t do much walking! Lazy moo!) taking a diversion to some further shops slightly out of my way on a mission to find some red wine vinegar for a Fast day dinner I was going to try. Unfortunately, I found none and cooked something else for dinner (the yummy Vegetable Pot I blogged the recipe for). When I did get home, I admit I was knackered and had very little energy to do much else until dinner time!

Overall, the exercise – and I did probably do a bit more exercise than I’d usually do on a non-Fast day – wasn’t a problem. I do think I would only do it if I felt up for it on that day, which is how I’m tackling exercise on any day at the moment. A few days this week (this morning included), I’ve just been too tired – the twice a night wake-ups to feed Millie do take their toll!) and I don’t think it would’ve been a good idea to exercise on the first couple of Fast days as my body wouldn’t have adapted to the new routine. But I  wont be avoiding exercise on Fast days from now on!

Smokey Vegetable Pot / Bake

The ‘Pot’ version of this will be the low calorie version. The Bake is what I would add to this meal if I was making it and calories were not being counted.

I didn’t know how this was going to turn out when I made it so I didn’t take much note of timings, therefore what I’ve written are guestimates and you will have to use your own intuition a bit if you think things need longer or less time.

Also, I do not profess to be any kind of chef/cook or recipe writer so sorry in advance.

The calories are based on our exact weights of vegetables so where I have rounded up/down, I’ve put our exact weight in brackets)

Vegetable Pot

Ingredients:

• 450g cauliflower (452g), chopped into small florets
• 400g tin of peeled plum tomatoes, whizzed slightly in a food processor to chop, not liquidise
• 100g fresh baby leaf spinach
• 90g green beans (92g), cut into 1” sticks
• tbsp smoked paprika
• 50g black olives (54g), halved
• 1/2 pt of water
• 300g sweet potato (313g), boiled, drained then mashed (nothing added)

With the sweet potato as a side, our meal came to 300 calories per generous serving exactly. If you chose to do the dish with another side then the vegetable pot came to 172 calories per generous serving. In our opinion, the sweet potato was a really pleasant accompaniment as the sweetness cut through the nutty taste of the cauliflower really nicely.

To avoid using oil, I steamed the cauliflower first. We have a hob steamer so I boiled the sweet potato in the bottom pan while I steamed the cauliflower in a pan above the sweet potato. I made the mistake of not cooking the green beans first expecting they would cook quickly enough in the sauce but in hindsight, it would have been better to steam them a little first.

So, while the sweet potato and cauliflower were cooking, I poured the tomatoes into another large saucepan and added the green beans (see point above) and smoked paprika while bringing it to a simmer.

When the cauliflower was partly cooked but still ‘al dente’ I added it to the sauce with half of the water and stirred it all around ensuring the cauliflower was coated in the sauce. I then continued to simmer for another 5 minutes before adding the black olives (if getting quite dry, add some more water). I continued to simmer for a further 5 minutes, ensuring the cauliflower and beans were cooked. I didn’t at the time but next time I would season here. Finally, I stirred in the spinach and once wilted, took it off the heat and served it with the mashed sweet potato.

Here it is (presentation could do with some work but it looked lovely and colourful on the plate):

 

 

Vegetable Bake

Ingredients:

As above but with the following extra:

• oil for frying
• 1 small onion diced
• 400g tin of plum tomatoes (so a total of 2)
• 1 Tbsp of tomato purée
• 50g grated cheese
• 2 Tbsp of breadcrumbs

I would fry the onions until soft, add the cauliflower and green beans and fry for about 5 mins. Then add the tomatos, purée, smoked paprika and simmer until veg nearly cooked through. Stir in the olives and cook for another few minutes. Pour into a casserole or pyrex dish. Sprinkle with grated cheese and breadcrumbs and put it under the grill until cheese is melted and there is a golden brown top.

You could also add a splash of wine while cooking above and, if you aren’t vegetarian, I bet chorizo would be lovely in this too.

The Observer Effect or The 5:2 Effect?

Week two of the 5:2 lifestyle is complete and no weight lost this week, despite a more ‘average’ eating week, though I do feel slimmer. It will be hard to get a real indication of how much weight/inches I lose is down to the diet and what is down to exercise. I’m no stranger to exercise but I did have a month break over Christmas and I managed three sessions on the ol’ exercise DVD this week. I’m therefore hoping it is a case of muscle weighs more than fat so what I am losing is kind of balancing out on the weight side.

Once 4 weeks has past, I’ll revisit my starting stats and take my measurements again to directly compare.

Today is the most comfortable & least hungry I’ve felt so far on a fast day. Sometimes, it feels too easy and I wonder if I should really be having this many calories on my fast day. I know, madness! I could drop it to 400 and still be meeting the ‘guidelines’ as it is meant to be 400-500 calories for women but I’m going to keep it as it is for the time being and I can always drop to 400 later if it feels necessary.

I’ve started making a few observations this week but, as always, the mere act of observing could change the state so it is hard to know whether what we are noticing is actually down to 5:2, the fact we are observing/focusing on things or some other reason entirely.

I have noticed that I’m not sleeping so well & am suffering from more bouts of insomnia. When your baby is still waking up for feeds once or twice a night, this is hard!

I just can’t switch my brain off. I’ve tried meditating, visualisation, trying to drift off thinking of one topic, a whole host of things (I even considered counting sheep) but my mind keeps whirring and the minutes then hours tick on by! Could this be because my brain is becoming more active? Could that happen this quick? I’m hoping that my body will soon start to acclimatise so that, if this is anything to do with 5:2, it will sort itself out pretty soon.

Stuart has noticed an old groin injury twinging again. He remembered reading something on this when he was ill (and first found out about 5:2) about when fasting, your body goes into repair mode and can also work on old injuries, scar tissue etc so can cause some discomfort on a previously ‘healed’ injury while it repairs it further. Again, more something to keep an eye on to suss out whether this is the case. It could also just be down to the colder weather we are experiencing, which is also known to cause discomfort to old injuries. Either way, I broke my arm some years back and I have a small lump that I can feel from the outside where the bone heeled.  Although it is more something I am aware of and you wouldn’t notice it unless your attention was drawn to it and you probably had to study it somewhat, I will notice if this lump changes in size.

Stuart hasn’t noticed much weightloss overall yet, though he is lower than when he started, but he has still noticed a drop in belt buckle. If you weigh yourself frequently during the course of a week, you do notice your body fluctuate quite considerably. After only 2 weeks, its still early days to be drawing any conclusions on anything.

That said – one very noticeable difference which can definitely be attributed to 5:2 – the shopping bill has reduced somewhat! Perfect for a budget-crunching January!

Wake me up, I can’t breathe!

A few times in my adult life I have experienced something rather frightening when I sleep called Sleep Apnoea. Basically, its when you stop breathing in your sleep. This is obviously very serious and is more commonly experienced by very overweight people but there are other risk factors. Bizarrely, none of which I am aware of having. More information can be found about it on the NHS Choices website. I’ve not suffered with it often enough to make me seek medical advice (about once or twice a year then nothing for a year etc) though it is something that crosses my mind each time that it happens. Like now – as it happened again the night before last.

I was dreaming – I can’t remember the dream but I was struggling to breathe. Three times I fault to breathe before I eventually woke myself up. It really is frightening.

A couple of times, it has occurred because of having a cold which makes perfect sense. But usually it occurs in relation to a dream. It is never clear if my dream is a result of the sleep apnoea or the sleep apnoea a result of the dream.

One example of a dream I remember was someone was strangling me in my dream and I was struggling to breath. On this occasion I woke up with my hand near my throat but not in a strangling motion from what I recall. Other times have been less obvious a cause, just that I am struggling to breathe in the dream.

It has occurred to me whether, rather than being sleep apnoea it is actually a form of sleep paralysis which I have also had the displeasure of experiencing. Your mind and body are in a state of between sleep and waking up. Your mind wakes up but your body doesn’t (your body goes into a type of paralysed state when we sleep – for most people anyway, when it isn’t working properly is when we sleep walk etc). Your mind can play tricks on you making you hallucinate, and you have a deep sense of impending doom or someone is out to get you. Again, its extremely frightening. You try to escape this feeling, hallucination or whatever but your body is paralysed and wont let you. Even if you recognise that you are actually still asleep, you fight to wake up by moving your body but your body doesn’t move. Again, more can be found out about this on the NHS Choices website. Well, that’s the science behind it but there are also spiritual beliefs associated to sleep paralysis like you are caught between the spirit world and our world or that it is an actual attach by something paranormal. An explanation of this latter view is found on the Spiritual Research Foundation website. I’ll let you make up your own opinion on this one.

Whatever your beliefs, sleep paralysis would make more sense (as I don’t have any of the typical causes for sleep apnoea that I am aware of) as a cause can be sleep deprivation or irregular sleep patterns.

Thankfully, it didn’t happen again last and hopefully that will be it for another year or so. Although, I suppose that all depends on Millie and whether I get sleep! I guess it is also worth considering if it could have any links to fasting as it happened after a fast day.

Fast Results After Week One

My first week of the 5:2 diet is complete. I weighed in today and have lost approximately 1.5lb and 1% of my body fat.

During this week I’ve had 2 heavy nights of drinking alcohol, stuffed my face with fajitas & pizza and not really watched what I eat on the non-fast days at all. The day after my fast days I haven’t felt starving and the need to stuff my face and I haven’t felt starving.

It is my intention to eat a more regular, balanced diet on the non-fast days going forward but at least I know I really don’t have to restrict myself.

Stuart and I did think that the best thing for the night before a fast meal was to have a ‘feast’ of a meal which is what prompted the fajitas. Theory being something like, back in the days of caveman, we used to feast on a big meal as we didn’t know when the next one would be or was it because that’s what lions do? Anyway, in fact, this was worse for me! I was absolutely starving from 5.30am (after waking to feed Millie) on the following fast day. I’d rather have an average meal so my stomach wasn’t stretched and expecting more to keep it full.

I would like to exercise too – I am a strong believer in exercise! For mind and body! I’m not an exercise addict, I don’t find the time to be these days, but I enjoy exercise when I get the chance which realistically amounts to once or twice a week.

I go to an exercise class called Buggy Fit sometimes on a Friday morning but after a hard night with Millie the Thursday night, I opted to stay home and do my new DVD, Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred instead. I’m meant to do it for 30 days consecutively but i) I don’t want to exercise on fast days at the moment'; and ii) I just can’t stick to that sort of commitment with family life even if it is for only 30 minutes a day. Anyway, enough of the excuses, (I’m starting to sound a bit defensive here) I only managed the 1 session of exercise. Unless you count the skip (yes as in childlike skipping, holding hands) around the dancefloor to 2 songs at a family party (while sober!!!) on Saturday. What? They made me do it! And y’know, what the hell, I enjoyed it! Everyone should go skipping once in a while! (defensive again, eh? OK, I’ll stop!)

I’m on my third fast day today and they are getting easier. There are only 2 points during the day that I notice that I am hungry. The challenge is making the dinner in the evening as filling as possible for only 300 calories. I made a lovely cauliflower, aubergine and courgette curry last week and I could’ve probably eaten less than I did and still have been full. If anyone has any good ideas for recipes, please send them my way.

I have continued to opt for no breakfast except a cup of tea when the hunger gets me mid morning and then lunch of about 150-145 calories finishing on a dinner of around 300 calories. Soup (whether half a tin, carton or a sachet of cup of) makes a really good lunch and I can even have half a slice, or even full if cup of soup, of bread to help fill me up.

Quorn mince is great for dinners!

I’ve been giving more thought into getting a health check now and then sometime down the line. I might try to give my Drs a call tomorrow to see if this is something they offer (blood tests and the such like) and while there I may mention that I’m doing this 5:2 diet. I am, of course, nervous that they tell me I’m foolish but without any shed of evidence as to back up their theory (despite them being more experienced in the field of medical health than I, I know) but, hey, they may actually support me and give me some good advice. We’ll see how brave I’m feeling. So far, I’ve not found anything that makes me think it may be doing me more harm than good. One brief comment on Wikipedia about some women not wanting to do this as intermittent fasting may cause fertility issues but with no plans to have any further children, this is not something that concerns me. I’m not foolish enough to live on the guarantee all will be well with my family forever, who knows what the future may hold but this is somewhere I don’t really want to dwell on and I have to believe it will all be fine - and if, dare I say it, the worst does happen, whether I’d want more children after can not be known. I have to work in the now and the positive.

Finally, Googling some more on this diet, or lifestyle as I would prefer to call it – I found this great blog, Schrokit’s Corner, from someone else more clued up than me on the subject and is a clever student type that knows stuff…about science and everything. The author and her husband are also doing the 5:2 (or 2:5) lifestyle. Reading through some of her blogs, it appears that her own experiment has grown into a project at her university. If you are interested in this 5:2 lifestyle then it would be well worth a follow! What is also interesting to note is that the author has had breast cancer (or may still have, I’m not overly sure). She would like to see if this lifestyle prevents more tumours arising in future.

First Fast

Day one of the 5-2 diet and my first day of fasting. On a fast day I am restricted to 500 calories.

I have only ever fasted once when I was about 10 for charity. We were allowed only water and milk and it was from sundown to sundown in the summer. I remember eating a massive dinner the night before then enjoying a mass of barbeque meat as soon as the sun went down the following day! I also remember it wasn’t too bad but the consumption of milk helped.

The reason for this diet is partly for dieting reasons but also for the health benefits. As I mentioned in my previous post, Fast is Exciting, I’m not a fan of fad diets, preferring to exercise & eat a controlled balanced diet instead. But this diet is meant to repair your body & make you healthy (reducing the risk of such serious illnesses as some cancers) so I thought it was worth a try. But, I do hope to lose weight too so here are my vitals:

Height: 5;6” (obviously I’m not expecting this to change, I have just added it for reference)
Weight: 12st 12.2lb
Body fat: 16.6%
BMI: 24.4
Chest: 35”; Waist: 37”; Hips: 42”; and Thigh: 23”

Its now 10am and not going too bad. The main cause for my snacking during the day is due to boredom so the plan is to try to keep busy.

I know from experience that I can go a lot longer without food if I don’t have breakfast, I plan to have a poached egg on a slice of toast without butter for lunch then Stuart and I will have mixed vegetables in a curry sauce for dinner.

I did start to get hungry around 8.30am so I had a cup of tea (with SS milk) which was very welcomed for the caffeine after a bad night’s sleep.

In addition, I intend to guzzle water!

I’ll report back again at the end of the day.

****************************************

So, its now 8.30pm. I’ve just had a massive portion of cauliflower & courgette in a jar of tikka masala source for 300 calories. It should’ve filled me up but I actually feel hungrier after eating it.

The rest of the day hasn’t been too bad. The hardest points were at 8.30am and then after lunchtime, about 2pm, after having some stress over a hire car. I am an emotional/comfort eater – as well as eating when bored. Eating makes me feel happy so I turn to it in times of stress.

I also had to remember not to ‘taste’ Callum’s dinner – I was making him cheesey pasta with home made cheese sauce, and you know there’s always a knob of cheese left at the end of grating? I had to sacrifice the whole chunk of cheese to Callum *sob*.

We were warned the hunger comes in waves, and I think that’s fair to say. Overall, it really wasn’t that bad and I think it is sometimes good to feel hunger as it makes you appreciate your next meal a little bit more. There are also many people in the world (the UK included) where what I’ve eaten today would be a feast. Its humbling to remember that!

Tomorrow is a normal day – I can go back to eating whatever I want. I plan to exercise tomorrow too (not recommended on the Fast days).

Deborabora's photostream

Deborabora's photostream on Flickr.

I'm not much of a photographer but I do like a pretty picture. I've set up a Flickr account for all of my favourite photos that I've taken. Since moving to the seaside, quite a few involve the beach!

Please take a look if you are interested.

Fast is Exciting!

It is often at this time of year, we all take a look at our current selves and look for ways to improve what we see! Often, that results in dieting.

I’m not one for fad diets, I prefer the exercise plus eating a balanced diet approach but that’s changing this year.as I’m about to try the Eat, Fast and live longer Diet.

I first heard about it from my husband. Shortly after I had my daughter, Millie, in August 2012, Stuart got ill with bad tonsillitis. It rendered him bedbound for several days and unable to eat. During this time, he was worried the effect that not eating for long periods (effectively fasting) would have on his body, fully expecting it to be negative. After much research (he had lots of time on his hands, when he wasn’t sleeping!), he actually found that to the contrary it could be a good thing.

It was very topical – there had recently been a documentary by Horizon on BBC2 with Michael Mosley and his research into fasting and how a new type of diet could benefit people with not only losing weight but actually reducing their chances of developing serious illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and brain conditions such as Alzheimer's.

Having now watched the documentary myself, I actually feel excited by taking on this challenge. There is a lot of research on this and I don’t want to misquote anything or get any of the facts wrong so please Google it – the 5 2 diet would be good places to start. Here is a good interview with Michael Mosley, on the BBC’s website and I have copied (and linked from Tinned Tomatoes here) the following which may be of interest:

• Our bodies have  a growth hormone called IGF -1. As a child this is what helps our bodies grow, but as adults it ages us.
• High levels of IGF-1 can lead to diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
• Lowering your levels of IGF-1 can help prevent against these diseases and can be done through your diet.
• When lowering your IGF-1 levels, growth stops and your body starts to repair cells. It also uses up your glucose and starts to burn fat, so you also lose weight.

The 5-2 diet involves fasting for 2 days and eating normally for  5. Fasting days consist of restricting your calorie intake to 400-500 for women, 500-600 for men for any 2 days within a 7 day week. The rest of the days you can eat what you want – there is no need to ‘diet’ on the other 5 days. On the documentary, tests showed that it made no difference if you ate a low fat diet on the non-fasting days to if you ate whatever you wanted. They expected that people would eat 175% of what was normal for them on the non-fasting days but in fact it was more like 110% and this did not affect the results.

The original purpose for the fasting approach was not about weightloss but was actually about the improvements it makes to health. When we fast our bodies go into ‘repair mode’. It is thought that fasting can ‘cure’ Type 2 Diabetes (as I know people with type 1 diabetes, I would like to make clear this is type 2 only and not Type 1 which is quite different) and rapidly reduce the risk of heart disease.

It is also not a new concept. Many religions and cultures have believed and been practicing fasting for centuries.

Our (actually Stuart’s) research has found few downsides (though long term research is still continuing) – don’t get me wrong, its not easy or a quick fix. Its a lifestyle change and takes will power and commitment. But from what I have read, heard and understand, it is well worth the sacrifices and knowing that you can eat what you like on the non-fasting days makes it feel achievable.

Anyway, you’ll be able to see for yourself if this is just another whim or a fad diet as I intend to blog my progress and I’ll be very honest. I will be intending to exercise too as I do believe in trying to keep your body fit.

The programme does advise that this form of dieting is not suitable for everyone and that anyone intending to fast for any period of time should seek medical advice first. Having just been pregnant and regularly undergoing health checks before during and after my pregnancy, I am confident enough in my starting health before undertaking this diet but I will be mentioning it to my Dr and/or Health Visitor when I next require a visit.

2012 Reflection and 2013 Projection

As is common at this time of year, I have been reflecting on the year just gone and thinking about what I want to achieve in the year ahead.

So, firstly, looking back. Its been a busy year!

It started on rather a low note as we had to say goodbye to our beloved cat Lottie who had been part of my life for 15 treasured years. Aside from the place in each of our hearts where she’ll always be, I am reminded every time I take to Callum to nursery or pick him up as the vets is right next door. It breaks my heart when on occasion Callum has looked over and asked where Lottie is.

Then life took a much brighter path as we bought and moved into our lovely house in March and then there was that small thing of having a baby girl in August!!!

Stuart has been through yet another hard & gruelling year at work – I swear every year he says it’ll be better the next year and then the next year is harder still. Its was hard for us as a family with work taking over precious family time more and more until it was with no surprise (but made no easier nonetheless) that Stuart fell ill when he went on to paternity leave and was forced (during long days spent unable to get out of bed) to consider his priorities. That was a turning point for him with how he balanced work time and family time. Unfortunately for him, it doesn’t mean his work has got any easier and probably harder as he has had to try to squish much more into a shorter period as he had made the decision to make working from home the exception rather than the rule. But it has made a big difference to our evenings and weekends so I thank him for that sacrifice – and for a work-a-holic, I appreciate that it is in a way a sacrifice.

We had hoped that by now, following our relocation from Surrey to Bournemouth, to have grown our local social life a little more than we have. We knew that meeting people and making connections was going to be a slow process in a new place but its probably taken longer than either of us expected. Again, probably harder for Stuart as I have at least made many mummy friends especially through my addiction moderate use of Twitter but for Stuart, his only interaction with the outside (of our family) world so far has been at work. This is starting to change now though and I am hopeful we will both start socialising and meeting more people in 2013 [makes Puss in Boots eyes at you all].

The new addition to the family has been another life changing moment on a par to when Callum entered our lives. In some ways the transition from a family of 3 to family of 4 has been less of a shock to the system as from 2 to 3 but it brings with it different challenges and the hormonal breakdowns and sleep deprivation feels much tougher 4 years on from the first time. But when I think how blessed I am with my gorgeous son and beautiful girl, I both beam and shed a tear with happiness . I couldn’t ask for anything more wonderful than the family I have – and knowing that I hopefully wont have to be pregnant ever again just adds even more sparkle to it all (I’m not a very good pregnant lady – Stuart will testify!).

So it will be fair to say 2012 has been an emotional rollercoaster.

Which brings me on to my hopes for 2013.

Quite frankly, above all I hope for a much more chilled year! I wont be making any resolutions as such but there are things I would hope to achieve in the next year.

• OK, I best make it my first point as I’ve already mentioned it above– to start socialising more as a couple. Making the relationships we have already made stronger but meeting more people that we hope will become good friends of the future.
• In addition to the above, I would also like to see more of our current very good friends who are now spread over the UK as our paths have taken us on our different journeys.
• To go to Thailand. It is my current dream holiday. I spent a very brief couple of nights there with work back in 2007 and I’ve been desperate to go back there for leisure and to take Callum with me. Because it is only worth going there for a 2 week period, we would need to take the kids. For both cost and comfort reasons, if we don’t go this year, it would mean waiting several more years longer for either both kids to be old enough to stay with relatives, or we came into a healthy sum of money [checks the lottery numbers!] plus I consider Callum only now being able to cope with a long-haul flight without sending us crazy as the other passengers made plots to throw us out the plane without a parachute between us! I imagine it will be another 3-4 years minimum before Millie is at that stage too.
• I would like to find a good job which I love but allows me to balance my role as a mother. I very much see my job as a career and I feel sad to think I may not be able to embrace it in the same way I could before children. I worry about how I will manage the juggle of school/nursery runs, childcare and work. I wont lie, I have struggled with the sacrifice that my career will always be second to Stuarts as when we took the decision to have a family, my primary role became that of a mother. When I worked full time after having Callum – the balance worked out fine as Callum was in nursery but this year he starts school so I have the confusing arrangement of schools, breakfast clubs, after-school clubs, nursery, child-minder or whatever we decide best suits our lives. Others manage it, so I am sure we will too but I do see it as being one of my biggest challenges of 2013. Firstly finding a job I love and that works for me and secondly sorting out the childcare.
• Finally, as I’ve just mentioned, Callum starts school this year. I hope that he settles well in his new school and our little boy continues to grow in confidence as well as academically and enjoys himself along the way.

So, there you have it!

I’d like to say thank you to all of you who have followed my blogs and my journey through the 2012 and I invite you to stick with me through 2013 (here and here) as I value your support. I wish you all a very happy New Year and I hope you achieve all you desire for the year ahead, whatever that may be - and please feel free to share with me as I’d love to hear your hopes and dreams for 2013 too.