Fasting through January and hopefully beyond!

Hi all. I'm Caroline and have been fasting on and off for about 2 years now - had a little interlude where I grew a baby and was then breastfeeding. Kind of got back into it towards the end of last year but then Christmas arrived and it all goes out of the window as usual! Fresh start in 2015! Me and the boy have given up alcohol for a month and I have also given up/ cut down on diet coke as it was getting to the point I was drinking 3/4 cans a day! I have made it a week without my 2 favourite tipples and have substituted with mainly water, occasional cups of tea and occasional sugar free cordial drinks. Monday was the first successful fast in a while - we tend to not eat all day then have tea together in the evening - usually stir fry or something simple. I also made it for a run on Monday morning as well - hoping 2015 will be the year I finally do a triathlon. Run was only short 1.68 miles but it's a start! Did a partial fast yesterday - made it til 4 then decided to go spinning so ate some toast just before as I was worried about being dizzy. When I got back had another couple of slices and somehow 2 chocolates made their way into my hand! Christmas leftovers driving me mad! Reckon I was under 1000 calories so will take it as a low calorie day!

We both weighed in on 1st jan and have vowed not to weigh til 1st Feb (this will kill me as I'm definitely a serial weigher!) I was 10stone 10 at weigh in and I would really love to be under 10 in feb but I know this is a big ask (hoping that giving up the wine will help massively towards this as it was getting to the point I was drinking 4 or 5 bottles a week! Disgraceful!) I'm going to visit my brother and best friend in Qatar in 8 weeks time and would love to be comfortably under 10 stone by then (ideally 9 1/2 but I think over a stone in 8 weeks may be unrealistic! I'll just take what I can get

Plan - fast 3 days a week where possible (2 if not), run twice a week and go spinning twice a week.

Today is an UD for me - off to visit a friend with her new baby so I'm taking lunch and cakes (obviously). Avoiding breakfast (as I try to do most weekdays!) will enjoy soup and fresh baked bread for dinner and then we are having chicken fajitas for tea! Hoping to fast tomorrow (Friday fasts are unheard of in this house as it's usually wine and take out night! But as we are abstaining in January I'm hoping I might be able to manage a few extra Friday fasts!)

Anyhow thanks for listening to me ramble on - little guy waking up now so best go and make him some breakfast (just started weaning him and he is an eating machine! Loves anything and everything so far takes after his mum have a good day x x

Helloo Caroline I'm here to follow im hoping to start very soon so meanwhile I plan to read how your getting on.

Which 3 days do u fast on ??

Hey honey glad to have you along. I tend to change the days I fast on depending on plans. Usually always do mon and Thursday but aiming to slot in another on Wednesdays or Friday's. Have you done fasting before? It's not too hard once you get into the swing of it and distract yourself!! This week not quite gone to plan though and so far only fasted Monday! Managed to fast til 4 today but then started making peanut butter cookies for some friends coming over tomorrow and it all went downhill from there! I did go spinning for 45 mins this evening though so pleased about my exercise for the week. Just need to squeeze a run in this weekend and I will have achieved my target! It's Friday night and so far still no wine in hand - also very proud of this

No I have never done it before. Bet it's the way forward I think now on Facebook these tonnes of inspiration of weight loss. Peanut butter cookies omg they sound delish I eat that with a spoon from the jar.lol oh spin I love that class but find the seats so uncomfortable do you? I might start in February doing 4:3 to start off with. Do you enjoy what u like on weekends then ?

Honey-J said:

No I have never done it before. Bet it's the way forward I think now on Facebook these tonnes of inspiration of weight loss. Peanut butter cookies omg they sound delish I eat that with a spoon from the jar.lol oh spin I love that class but find the seats so uncomfortable do you? I might start in February doing 4:3 to start off with. Do you enjoy what u like on weekends then ?

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The peanut butter cookies were amazing! I can take a picture of the recipe if you would like it! Yes spin class kills your bum for the first few times but you tend to get used to it after a while. I do eat anything I want at the weekends. Try to be a bit more conservative with snacks during the week but we have been decorating and sorting the house out to put it up for sale and we have just been snacking on all the left over Christmas goodies and I hate myself!! Did manage a successful fast yesterday though so feeling pleased. Think I'm only going to manage 2 fasts this week! Will see. Why don't you start off doing 5:2 and see how you get on - ease yourself into it gently

Yes I should try the 5:2 really first. How much weight do u wanna lose in total? I'd like to be 10.7 by my summer holiday in August x

Joining you for the ride, if that's ok. Am new to fasting, I started Saturday, so having a nosey through people's diaries for inspiration and support. I've got quite a bit to lose (5 stone - eek!) so hoping there are plenty of people to keep me on the straight and narrow
Good luck x

sarah_lou1981 said:

Joining you for the ride, if that's ok. Am new to fasting, I started Saturday, so having a nosey through people's diaries for inspiration and support. I've got quite a bit to lose (5 stone - eek!) so hoping there are plenty of people to keep me on the straight and narrow Good luck x

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Hey yeah welcome the more the merrier how are you finding fasting??

Honey-J said:

Yes I should try the 5:2 really first. How much weight do u wanna lose in total? I'd like to be 10.7 by my summer holiday in August x

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I would like to lose a stone initially but ideally I would like to get down to 9 stone by the time I go back to work in July (was 10.10 on the 1st Jan so just under 2 stone to lose!) we can do it together

Carrotima said:

Hey yeah welcome the more the merrier how are you finding fasting??

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So far not too bad. I've struggled more with my up days because I've not thought about food on fast days so I've carried on not thinking about it on UD's. But going out for a meal tonight that will involve pudding so will be making up for it

sarah_lou1981 said:

Joining you for the ride, if that's ok. Am new to fasting, I started Saturday, so having a nosey through people's diaries for inspiration and support. I've got quite a bit to lose (5 stone - eek!) so hoping there are plenty of people to keep me on the straight and narrow
Good luck x

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im starting in February and can't wait for a change now x

Well it's a fast day for me today - ate a bag of mini eggs before bed last night so hate myself a little bit! Cups of tea and water will hopefully get me through til teatime when we will have stir fry. Missed spinning last night as we were busy sorting the house out to get it on the market today yay! Not sure whether to go tonight or not - never sure if it's a good idea when I'm fasting! Dying to weigh myself and see if I've lost anything at all (don't feel like I have but you never know!) 2 more weeks til I can weigh in aghhhh!

Nearly made it through the fast. Had stir fry for tea as planned - wasn't that great! Ended up stealing a tiny bit of my sons toast when I made it so reckon I'm closer to 600kcals really (I never work it out precisely!) didn't make it spinning - 2 year old was in a right grump when I picked him up from nursery so didn't want to leave boyo with him and a teething baby! Hopefully will make it tomorrow evening! Not feeling hungry but really want to snack on stuff now - evening is my prime snacking time! Going to cook some fruit and veg to purée up for the baby and then go to bed I think! Night x

Rant alert! I stupidly weighed myself! I've lost 2lbs in 2 weeks I'm down to 10.8 Now I know this is a loss and I should be grateful BUT giving up wine has been so hard for me I honestly thought I would have lost about 5lbs in that time! I have consumed quite a bit of chocolate - that's the only think I can attribute it to so going to try and cut out the crap for a while as well (can't promise I'm not going to hit the wine this weekend now though!) since giving birth in July I remained at 10.3 no matter what I ate and drank and now I've shot up in weight and it doesn't seem to want to budge! With the amount of wine and diet coke I drank over Christmas I thought I would lose a few pounds of water/ bloated weight but no! Grrrr. Just sprained my ankle at the soft play this morning as well so not even sure if I'm going to make it spinning now! Rant over! Positive mindset from now! So far only had a cup of tea and a latte so going to try and not eat til tea now! Making lamb kebabs so definitely won't be under 500kcals but should be able to keep under 1000 for the day. Going to start tracking on MFP and try and keep under 1600 even on up days! Hope everyone else is having a better day

Fast day went well yesterday - ended on 535cal(actually worked it out this time) but unfortunately it was on bad food. Fasted great til boyo cracked open the malt loaf - I resisted then my son decided he didn't like it so ended up polishing his off - that opened the food floodgate and I then had 2 pieces of toast! Managed to not eat again so fast still counts but I usually at least try and include some veg in there! Trying to make up for it today - made a soup in the slow cooker of all the left over veg in my fridge. Turned out well - even my little one ate it (and tried the littlest one on it too - first savoury thing he's tried his face was a picture!) so all I've eaten today is a big bowl of soup and 2 very chunky slices of granary bread - plus a freddo. MFP calculates this at around 730cal so not a fast day but a good low cal day as I actually feel really full (and better for eating some veg!)

Still going strong with the no alcohol! 20 days! Think this is the longest I've done in my adult life without alcohol (other than being pregnant but that's different I didn't have any choice but to give up!)

Ankle still pretty sore after my fall on Friday so exercise is off the cards at the minute. I am debating getting one of those jawbone exercise bands though which track your activity etc can't decide if it's a gimmick or not or whether it would help encourage me to do more exercise. Will do some research tonight and decide.

Not sure when next fast will be. - usually Thursday is my day but I'm doing s back to work day and it's going to be busy as I know they are short staffed - really struggle fasting when I'm at work! Dreading going back full time!

Anyway going to stop rambling and jump in the shower! It's sooooo cold though I don't want to move!!!

So having a bit of a low calorie week apparently.mYesterday ended on just over 1100 calories and nearly half of that was a skinny latte and half a muffin in cafe Nero! The remainder was rack of lamb with a baked sweet potato and broccoli - was lovely! Today despite being at work all I've had is a bowl of homemade soup and 2 (very thick) slices of granary bread! I bed as I type this and debating whether to go and make some tea or stay here where it's warm and just declare it a fast day!

So yesterday ended up being a 600 calorie day - calling that a fast! Weighed in this morning at 10st3 so that's 7lbs down since new year (unfortunately this just takes me back to pre Christmas weight but it's a step in the right direction!! Got 5 1/2 weeks now to try and get comfortably under 10 stone before I go away! Food not been great today though - had toastie and chips for lunch at a soft play centre (not much else on the menu and was starving!!) and have polished off 4 digestive biscuits and 2 quality street pennies! 1103 calories so far! My tdee is 1861 so maybe I can stay within that for tea!

I ended the day on just under 2200 calories! Tea was fine - got me upto 1850 roughly - then the boy opened a packet of biscuits and I jumped right in! Today I have eaten 4 digestive biscuits, 4 cadburys variety biscuit and half a toffee crisp! Why??? I rarely ever eat biscuits or chocolate (except when pregnant then I ate a crunchie every day!) It's been all or nothing with me this week. If I hold off from eating anything at all for as long as possible during the day I can stick to a fast or lower calorie days! When I allow myself day off I go over the top - and I didn't even particularly enjoy my lunch or the biscuits I just ate them because they were there! Definitely won't still be 10s3 in the morning!

Fasting again today but again just snacked on rubbish so feel rotten! My food has comprised a few curly fries off my sons plate at dinner, slice of bread and butter, 2 chicken dippers and 2 digestive biscuits! What's wrong with me?? We have so much fruit and veg in for the kids and I just choose the crap! Aghhhh! I have two cakes to make tonight as well so no doubt I'll lick the bowl! Ankle is still swollen so no runs or spinning this week! Boo! Don't really know what to do about that! Doesn't seem any better! Anyway shower then cake baking for me x

Will u fast today ? maybe buy your own low fat snacks like weight watcher brands??

Im starting on Saturday and I can't wait.