Boy oh boy am I making the Fasting Days work hard at the moment!! Its as though I'm challenging this diet, to see just how much I can indulge on non-fast days and see if I can still lose weight. The answer - NOPE! I am not entirely surprised to see no weight loss this week, it hasn't been the best week. I have tried and tried to resort to my list of non-food cuddles and on fasting days I have been successful, but on feast days, I've feasted. And I regret it. Last week I was feeling confident and proud of myself. This week I feel doughy and self-conscious.
As I see it, there are two possible scenarios for the reason the scales didn't move this week. Scenario one is that I have gained some muscle this week, which is possible given that my Reformer Pilates class was heaps easier this week and I wasn't hurting for 4 days after!! Scenario two is that I drank my body weight in eggnog and started to resemble the rum balls that I inhaled all day Sunday. Me thinks it is scenario two! Shame.
So, where to go from here. Onwards. And downwards (on the scales only, will be trying for a more positive and happy week this week....no more food cuddles!). I think I need to remember that I am actually trying to lose weight, so a litre of eggnog is perhaps not the way to do that!! I think this week's result are the kick in the butt I need to reset and work harder this week.
As I see it, there are two possible scenarios for the reason the scales didn't move this week. Scenario one is that I have gained some muscle this week, which is possible given that my Reformer Pilates class was heaps easier this week and I wasn't hurting for 4 days after!! Scenario two is that I drank my body weight in eggnog and started to resemble the rum balls that I inhaled all day Sunday. Me thinks it is scenario two! Shame.
So, where to go from here. Onwards. And downwards (on the scales only, will be trying for a more positive and happy week this week....no more food cuddles!). I think I need to remember that I am actually trying to lose weight, so a litre of eggnog is perhaps not the way to do that!! I think this week's result are the kick in the butt I need to reset and work harder this week.
Lunch - Chorizo & Butterbean Soup
Yes, same soup as last week. I can't help it, I love it! I've had another fast-day of soup for lunch and soup for dinner, but figure those aren't the posts I should write about. But, I wanted to put this one back in the mix to encourage everyone, EVERYONE to try it, it really is so delicious.
This fab recipe from Lavender & Lovage.
Snack - Cinnamon cottage cheese
I am losing a little bit of creativity I think! I am just going for the same old same old at the moment. I want to spend some time reading through recipes and come up with a few new snack ideas for next week!!
I had some cottage cheese, sprinkled with some cinnamon on top!
Dinner - Baked Cod with Balsamic Peppers & Sweet Potato Mash
A few weeks back we went to our friends downstairs for dinner and every time we eat with them I am inspired to try new foods. They are gluten intolerant, eat really well, and are darn good cooks. We had the most incredible dinner of baked cod, saffron & currant rice, with another side that I can't even remember but it was soooo good. Anyway, my point is that I've wanted to try baking and grilling my fish the same way to see if I could recreate it, and so that's what I did for my Fast Day dinner.
To cook the peppers, I used one squirt of oil spray (1 calorie) and let the finely cut peppers soften up for about ten minutes in the pan. I then added 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar and 1/4 teaspoon of brown sugar. I possibly didn't need the sugar, because they ended up tasting quite sweet, but they were delicious!
The mash sweet potato really is just that. I boiled the sweet potatoes and when I was mashing them, through in a tablespoon of cottage cheese and one teaspoon of paprika. I wouldn't necessarily do the cottage cheese next time, it didn't add anything to the taste and therefore was a bit of a waste of calories.
And for the fish, all you need to do is bake the fillets for about 8 minutes (depending on their size of course) and then finish them off under the grill for two minutes to crisp up the top. The fish just flaked away but had a great crunch on top.
Drinks
Gosh I was so incredibly dull this week!!! Same same, water and Creme Caramel herbal tea. (2 calories).
Total calories for the day = 488
Exercise
Reformer Pilates and unfortunately that's about it. I had a few physical ailments this week, which made walking quite difficult, so unfortunately I didn't do as much planned or incidental exercise as I should have.
This week my goal is to work out smarter, and so rather than trying to push through the pain, come up with ways of exercising that don't use my feet/hips/back in such painful ways. I hope to get to the pool to do some laps this weekend and I have a new Spotify soundtrack so no excuses for not doing a resistance workout in my living room!!
Weight loss?
Total loss to date = 2.7kgs (5.95lbs)
Boo.
You clearly have the approach and lifestyle nailed, you know to use the will power you show yourself on a fast day as a tool to structure clean and metabolically balanced eating on normal day's But! you are 'human' and it is Winter, biorhythms will have their way its warm fires and hybernation time. I have always found it hard to be all Go GO! this time of year, I think our body and mind needs rest from goals or ambitions, we all need time to just 'be' It's wise to follow a Yin Yang approach in general and it seems we all need to find balance, It's OK just to have a goal of keeping the status quo sometimes, it's OK not to rush or to always expect results, it's OK to just stop where we are every so often and applaud ourselves for what we have achieved...but to stop, count our blessings and stay a while, in a holding pattern. Your doing fine it's good to keep fasting but enjoy the feeding days, remember you are still getting the health benefits, remember this is not a race, weight loss is a stress, your mind and body are both saying Timeout!. Time to smell the roses and restart the record in the new year. Have a wonderful Christmas. James
ReplyDeleteThank you so much James! I really appreciate your comment. I definitely need a little help learning to go easier on myself and feel like its okay to stop and smell the roses. How are you going on your 165 target? I'm going to keep trying the 5:2 throughout the Holidays because if nothing else, it is such a great break for my digestive system for those two days. Thanks again for your comment and encouragement. Wishing you a wonderful Christmas too!! Meg
DeleteHi Meg thanks for asking, I'm 2 lbs off today, I have noted though that the tape measure has consistently recorded inch loss even when the scales stayed still or went up a tad? I am now just an inch over my ideal waist height numbers. I'm of a mind to throw out the scales and simply measure once a month. The most important thing I have noted is an increase in lean muscle mass, other benefits have been increased energy and my eczema has gone. This can only be attributed to 5:2 as I have otherwise continued as normal.
ReplyDeleteThat's incredible James. I do wish I had started off measuring myself too, because I seem to not be losing any weight at the moment, and yet clothes are fitting differently. I am very interested to hear about the other positive side effects of the 5:2 diet too, it's incredible that it has cured your eczema! 2lbs to go! What a champion!!
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