The fasting begins

Day one of our 12-week fasting phase started with a bang with me completely forgetting to bring one of the shaker things with me to work. I'll just had to do it the old-fashioned way yesterday and use a fork. Not optimal but it worked well enough. I think I'll buy a couple of small whisks for the office kitchen. And today I brought one of the shakers with me and it was much easier.

Food for the week

Yesterday went pretty well. I was only a little bit hungry a few times throughout the day but that is what is supposed to happen. When you sit down to eat lunch or dinner, it is normal for you to feel hungry. I've worked on that one and off over the last few years. Learning to hold back and not immediately reach for something the very second I feel hungry. There is, of course, the old Weight Watchers trick "if you feel hungry, drink a glass of water, do something to occupy yourself and wait twenty minutes". The idea being that many people don't recognise thirst anymore and think they're hungry when really they are started to need some hydration. 

The amount of liquid we are supposed to consume in addition to our five meal replacements is definitely a challenge. At least 3 litres every day. I have a 750ml bottle in work and normal fill that with water once in the morning and once after lunch. To drink three litres in a day, I'll need to fill it at least three times. That's 2.25l and then if I have a cup of tea or two at home in the evening, I'm just about there. I managed to get to 2.85l yesterday but I did end up having to get up a couple of times to go to the toilet during the night so my sleep was a bit disturbed. This morning I drank a mug of water before leaving the house. But I had therapy before work and since I started later, I'm still drinking my first bottle of water. I'm not going to kill myself with trying to do it every single day and if I don't manage it, I'm sure I'll still survive. I'm glad that water is what I normally drink anyway. I'll miss being able to drink milk but very glad that fizzy drinks are more of a once or twice a year thing for me. And of course having to quit drinking caffeine years ago because of migraines is undoubtedly a big advantage now. 

In really positive news, I managed to kill two mosquitos in my apartment last night, and don't appear to have any new bites today. The ones I collected over the past three or four days are mostly all looking red and swollen. That happens every few years and I've never managed to actually look up if it more related to the mosquitos being particularly horrible that year, or my skin/body is just reacting more that year.

In terms of appetite, the other thing I noticed yesterday was that once or twice during the day I really, really wanted to eat something. Not that I was hungry. But that I really wanted to be engaging in the physical act of eating. Interesting. We are allowed to chew a small amount of chewing gum (some gums, not all) but were also advised to try and keep it to a minimum, since chewing activates all sorts of signals relating to hunger and that's what we don't need at the moment. I'm going to try and make it to the recommended six-week mark before starting to do fancy things like adding (certain) herbs or spices to the soups, or lemon juice or ginger to my water, and I think I'll do the same with chewing gum. That one remains to be seen. 

In the plans for this weekend is tackling all of the washing up that has somehow built up again over the past week or so. Then I want to give the kitchen a bit of a scrub and enjoy the feeling of a clear and clean space for the next while. I'm excited to restart my store cupboard slowly and make sure in future to really only get the stuff I know I will use.

Happy Friday everyone!