5:2 Diet

5:2 First Week Recap

| The Bee Life

One week on the 5:2 is officially under my belt. I can’t wait to see the long-term benefits, especially once I get more used to the flow, calorie counting, etc. For those of you who are new to the 5:2, in short it’s a “diet” where you fast for 2-days out of the week.  This means that you only consume 500 calories throughout the entire fast day. 500 total calories, not each meal.  The Fast Diet book that I have read and been working from (cookbook too) is found here: The Fast Diet by Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer. Not only are there a lot of long-term health affects to this, on top of loosing weight and maintaining a healthy weight, but you don’t have a radical lifestyle change, it’s only two days of the week and the other five days you can eat responsibly as you please!

Lesson’s Learned:

  1. Plan better with meals, especially dinner and snacks
  2. It’s all mental, knowing you can’t eat just makes you want to eat everything
  3. Need to get a kitchen scale for measuring food!

My Meals:

  • Breakfast
    • 4-egg whites with 10 cherry-tomatoes and basil pieces = 94 calories
  • Optional Snack
    • 8-almonds (96 calories) + 15 blackberries (18.75 calories) = about 115 calories
  • Dinner
    • Night one:
      • Turkey Burgers with Tomato Salsa = 333 calories
    • Night two:
      • Chicken with Tomato’s and Olives + Tablespoon of hummus = 404

Obviously the math is off and I was slightly over by about 50 calories… oops! *smiles*

Have you tried the 5:2 Fast Diet? What have you learned?

Motivation Needed.

| The Bee Life

You would think that after 24 years of being on this earth, it wouldn’t be so hard to adjust to the time or weather changes… but it is! And it’s even harder when you have a head cold and your apartment heat doesn’t turn on unless it’s below 50… or so they say… ok… ok… gripe session over!

I have to admit that since the cancellation of our half marathon, which would’ve happened this past October 11th – I have not been working out or running. The most physical activity I’ve done lately is all the dancing I did at the wedding I attended this past weekend!! But I do know that I’ll have to run in 9 days because I signed up for the Bernie Kosar 5k Shuffle!

Who is Bernie Kosar? Well… from what I can tell he played football for the Cleveland Browns, and Clevelanders seem to like him.  But since that is WAY before my time, I picked this race based on the race metal, distance, and pure fact that it just looks like fun. Plus I knew I would need some motivation, and any 5k that you can get a metal at, is totally worth it in my book. I have also been desperately trying to get my coworkers to partake in a short “fun run” with me… I was half successful. I tapped in to a few different coworkers (from other departments) who will be participating, with their significant others.  It will be a fun time! Not to mention this race is officially SOLD OUT – so I don’t have to worry about it getting cancelled!

“The Essence of Health is an Inner Kind of Balance.” – Dr. Andrew Weil

Since I haven’t been as active, as I’d like to be or need to be – I’ve made sure I am more conscious of my food intake. Smaller portions, little snacks, veggies, fruits and protein plus the occasional sweet treat! In addition, B and I plan to start doing the “FastDiet” aka the 5:2 diet. This diet consists of five days of normal eating, and any of the other two are fasting. Meaning 500 calories (for women) or 600 calories (for men)… although this depends on your activeness and size/height ratio. My aunts have been doing this for a few weeks now and have already seen gradual weight loss. I just ordered The FastDiet Cookbook and The FastDiet to get started! I like the idea of this diet, because it isn’t a radical lifestyle change, you don’t have to food prep for 7-days a week and you’re able to enjoy a night out… or three! It seems like a good balance.

How do you stay motivated during these darker and colder days?