getting stuff done: creating my life

If anyone in the hell is interested.  I have done 3 weeks of this thing now and its going OK.  I was hungry the last day I did it.  ANd just to put the record straight I only do the 500 calories 1 day at a time and do 2 days of this in a week.  I have chosen Monday and Thursday.

I am managing to continue with it so far because I believe that fasting is actually good for you.  And also it is working.  I am losing weight.  and I am not being 'good' on my days off either. 

So there's that update.  I have lost 2 KG. 

My Hub just told me, he didn't like me doing this 5:2 thing because he needs my focus to be on him and his diet.  His diet is to just not eat carbs.  And I am pretty much servicing this diet with delicious nutritious food every day.  I make him breakfast even sometimes.  He does appreciate it.  But not to the extent that it deserves.  Am working on not being resentful.

As for me, am now on day 3 of doing it on 500 calories.  Its an interesting process.  I have discovered I can do it, obviously, and yet there is  - eveyr time  -the whole. OH MAN! I've done this challenge, what? do you mean I have to carry on doing it....  seriously? 

So yes I am not relishing it, each day that I start I am dreading it.  And this morning when I worked out that I put 63 calories (or some such) into my tea in the form of milk!!! WHA!??? I tried to drink black tea first thing and that was NOT a good idea.  I am going to have to accommodate the use of calories in my tea... I like my morning tea - A LOT.  And black tea made me nearly barf.

So I ate some breakfast and this was like an egg, some paltry amount of broccoli and half a tomato.  Its not very much 500 calories when you divide it up into meals.

Having said that.  I do now actually feel absolutely fine.  Full even.  My breakfast was sufficient and I am going dancing shortly and honestly I feel no different to when I normally eat breakfast.  Am all high hopes again and this is a breeze.

So yesterday I did a day of the 5:2 diet.  Actually it wasn't that hard.  I did feel weird and I did want to eat a lot more than I did, but I never actually had a rumbling tummy or gnawing hunger pangs.  I didn't even wake up starving hungry this morning.

And today is Hub's start day on his dieting regime.  Actually he watched the video for Lipotrim and scared himself shitless.  He has a few business meetings to go to this week and he just can't face the whole meal replacement thing.  I'm not surprised and I don't blame him.  He is starting the 4 Hour Body diet today though, which is essentially a diet with no carbs.  Or you can eat beans and lentils.  But no fruit, sugar or bread or rice or potatoes.  And it has worked in the past.

And so  - while at the end of yesterday I felt a bit meh about this 5:2 thing.  It felt like a bit of an effort to do it twice a week.  Today I feel that its actually something I could take on.

And the little extra around my middle, which I generally dismiss as being  - "not that bad for someone my age" is perhaps aiming a little low.  I can do better and being fit is really important.  Not for 'check out my abs' reasons, but for ourselves, our energy levels and for looking after our bodies as well as we can.  And while I am not exactly old yet, I am nearer old than I am young.  And I want to be able to look after myself for as long as I can. 

So.  Am going to do the 5:2 and I am goingt to avoid carbs in general, though not yet obsessively.  Mainly because I have some extremely delicious pasta from Italy still to eat.  And I can't let that go to waste!! I will do my yoga every day and do a class once a week.  I am also going dancing every wednesday morning.  There  is a new class  - which is basically  - move your body however the damn well you want to.  And there is great music.  I love that.  Not sure what else yet.  But I will keep you posted.

I met Charlotte Gomez at Likemind (a low key networking for creatives, entrepreneurs and freelancers that I used to organise) about a year or so ago.  At that point she had just arrived in Brighton and she was getting to know it.   I was impressed with her energy, and indeed later tried to get her to co host Likemind with me  but she was too busy with her own stuff by then! 

Anyway, she has just created a new website and it looks great.   I particularly liked her sage advice on how to nail a business meeting.  Good points all. Check them out.

http://charlottegomes.com/5-easy-tips-to-nail-a-business-meeting/

So I did this BBC quiz thing, and apparently they are well behind the idea that regular fasting is good for the body.  So I have decided to do the 5:2 diet for a while to see what happens.  To see if I can manage it.  To see if I lose a little weight and feel better.

I am feeling pretty good at the moment (got up before 6am today no trouble!) and have been eating pretty well, but Hub is planning to do some crazy Lipotrim thing to lose weight. He is so not into cooking so food diets are really hard for him.  He has diabetes type 2 and has been told to lose weight - so far this hasn't happened despite not eating sugar any more.  He did this off his own back and its prescribed from the pharmacy and involves surviving on 2 meal replacement drinks a day.  So my fasting 5:2 effort is kind of in support of that too.

Its 10.43am and I have to admit I am obsessed with the time.  I have been drinking copious amounds of ginger tea and I have just had a black coffee.

Its not easy.  I don't feel bad though.  And the tea does seem to stave off the hunger pretty well.  Lets see how it goes.   I may well be posting obsessively about it too!

Yes.  Here I am at 11.47.   I got bored more than anything.  I wanted to eat my lunch, I got up early, that's OK I justified it all to myself.  So.  I ate 257 calories.  2 poached eggs and some broccoli and courgette.  With a little smoked salmon and garlic, chilli flakes and apple cider vinegar.  I must say I don't feel very full.

This could be hard!  On the other hand, I am also fine.  And so "hard" is perhaps relative.  Maybe its all habit! I think if i were extremely busy then it might help.  Right then.  Cracking on!

1433.  I feel absolutely fine.  

At 1730 I was really really hungry.  But the food I ate filled me up.  I have drunk an inordinate amount of tea today.  And Im now off to bed  - bit early - don't want to be trying to sleep hungry.  It wasn't fun and I missed lots of yummy things.  Can't imagine how folk do this 2 times a week every week.  Felt like a marathon of concentration and tea drinking.

But I did it! and really its OK.  Just different. 

For the last 2 days I have been getting up at 6am.  Or no, hang on it is 3 mornings I have done no! 

6am.

I was inspired byan article in, I dunno ES magazine or something, all about getting up early and how it gives you a heads up on the day and has lots of benefits.  I have read before that, you know, successful people get up early.   I know that Zen Habits chap gets up at 4am.  Its not something I have really experimented with much though.  As a child i was an early riser.  I remember in summer waking up before 6am most days and hanging around waiting for other people in my family to wake up. As a teenager until - well  until I became a mother actually - I was a night owl.  Motherhood kind of forces sleepless nights and mornings on you,  and yes I got up at 4.30am because my baby was awake.  But I couldnt really do anything.

Now my baby is a full 8 and a half years old.  And doesn't wake up until 7.30am!  And I was impressed with this article. And also my friend Posto Felice  has been rising at 6am to do exercise.  I felt a little jealous of her discipline I guess, and spurred on by this article, I decided to try it.

Certainly it feels more spacious in the morning.  I get an hour to myself  - sometimes 90 mins.  I have got up done some yoga, washed my hair and eaten a full on cooked (paleo stylee) breakfast by 8am.  It feels really really good.   And is getting easier because  - of course - I am now heading to bed and getting to sleep earlier.

I like it.  I have had some very good ideas, got a head start on the day and generally feeling rather on top of things (and smug as husband said he would but hasnt yet! ha ha! beat you!!) Tomorrow I am going to use the time for sorting out a vast number of toys which are in boxes and were all stuffed beneath the spare bed in Bub's room.  Generally driving me slightly crazy.  Toy storage, no, lets re name it as it really is, "TOY CREEP" is driving me crazy.  Where will all this lego GO???

So I will sort it out.  yes I WILL.  And then I will feel so much better!!!