Well, yesterday evening/today was another fast day. I probably need a few more before I decide exactly how I'm going to try and make it work best for me. I ate lunch yesterday, had a snack at about 4 and then just after six o'clock I had a slice of quiche. After that I didn't eat anything else. I was out with people from choir and we went to a place I'd never been before and the food people ordered smelled amazing so I'll have to make sure to go back there soon on a non-fast day. We didn't get there until nearly nine o'clock though and although it all looked fabulous I wasn't actually hungry so it wasn't too much of a struggle. Although I do usually go out with choir on a Wednesday, it's normally after rehearsal, i.e. around ten o'clock by the time we get anywhere. And it's definitely much better for me not to be eating a meal at that hour so fasting on Wednesday evening still makes sense to me.
I was fine without any breakfast this morning, too and it was already around 11 before I really started to get hungry. I even went and got myself a fork from the kitchen to bring to my desk so that at 12 o'clock I'd be all set to start eating my salad. And then by 12 I was busy doing something and just thought I'd finish that one thing before eating, followed by being interrupted to get something else given to me and then really just finishing that one thing before eating. So it was actually after 1 before I did eat. I was hungry, very hungry even, but not in agony or pain of any kind. I had salad made up of lettuce, a couple of dried tomatoes (was supposed to have been fresh but I didn't have any so made use of what was in the fridge rather than feel like I was only allowed to have rabbit food) and a simple vinaigrette. Unplanned dessert was a sweet I found in my drawer while looking for something else this morning and very impressed I was with myself for waiting four hours to eat it, too.
I did find that I was hungry during the afternoon, though. I had a small amount of yoghurt at around 5 to keep me going until I finished work, got home and was able to cook dinner. Had to pick up a package from the post office and then got delayed chatting to a neighbour, putting a wash on, doing the dishes from yesterday and checking a cookbook for a potential recipe I nearly changed my mind to doing. So it was actually nearly half-eight before my veg went into the oven. For the last half-hour or so before that, I had started getting really, really hungry with accompanying threat of heartburn so I decided to have the last slice of quiche while I'm waiting. So definitely way more than 500 calories today but at least I got part of it done. I'm happy enough with that for now I think. I'm still not convinced (too many years of Weight Watchers?) that simply calorie counting is really the best way to choose what to eat so I'll have to see how I end up planning my meals in the future.
I also tried to get a meal plan together for next week but ended up with something that has a lot of question marks. Part of it will just be seeing what's at the market and part of it is potential but not firmly planned events/eating out. Also, despite being hungry this afternoon when I was trying to put this together, I felt really lacking in inspiration and had to resist the temptation to just copy last week's plan.
Planned
Saturday
No breakfast (fasting)
Lunch out
Tostada shells with (beef of some kind? chicken?)
Sunday
Porridge
IBN barbeque (bring courgette salad and chickpea salad?)
Wraps with cheese and sweet chilli sauce
Monday
Smoothie
Chickpea salad
Carrot, cumin, kidney bean burgers
Tuesday
Smoothie
Salad (+ cold leftover burger?)
Pasta with tomatoes, onion, garlic
Wednesday
Cereal
Leftover pasta
No dinner (fasting)
Thursday
No breakfast (fasting)
Salad with tomatoes
Soup from freezer
Friday
Cereal
Lunch out
Irish Days in Leverkusen?
That's great going with the fasting. I see you have plenty of chickpeas in the next Meal Plan - they always make me feel less hungry so I hope it works well!
ReplyDeleteLots of chickpeas for the very simple reason that if I'm going to be cooking them anyway, I'll do a big pot and get a few different things out of them. Am thinking now I might also swap something on the plan for chickpea burgers one night. Want to give bean burgers in all shapes and sizes a go this winter since they seem like a good, quick option to be able to throw together (but I think the 'quick' part of that will only come with practice, so am getting some practice in early).
ReplyDeleteOH you are so strong to try this diet! A colleague is doing it at work, and I think's managing it, but I think it'd be tough! I like the way you've thought to do it lunch to lunch - the sleep in between has got to make it easier!
ReplyDeleteThe lunch to lunch thing is just something that seeemed to fit into my life a bit better. Need to spend a bit more time figuring out what to eat on those days but just even doing the fasting part is a good start. Normally, it's fast about 12-16 hours plus restricting to 500 calories on that day. Doing lunch to lunch means sort of spreading it over two days. I think the way to go is to spread the 500 calories between the late afternoon snack on day 1 and lunch on day 2. Dinner on day 2 is back to 'normal' then. The way I see it, every little bit I do is another afternoon/morning/evening that I'm not eating too much of the wrong stuff, so it all contributes in the end. I'm kind of excited to weigh myself on Monday week though. See if even the bit I'm doing is having much of an impact.
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