Tuesday 21 August 2012

5:2 Diet - Fast Day BBQ Chicken Drumsticks & salad - Friday August 17th 2012

Did you happen to see the BBC Horizon programme on intermittent fasting, and how it can help your health?  Really interesting (video has been removed from YouTube and BBC but you may find it in an archive somewhere)

Anyways, I watched it. And, in the company of more than one food blogger, I decided to give it a go. As you will know if you have read my various blogs, I have battled with my weight since time immemorial. Certainly since I gave up smoking about 20 years ago. I have never been able to stick with a diet for long enough to make real inroads into my excess weight, because I feel so deprived all the time. I want to cook.  I want to bake. And I want to eat what I cook and bake. Because what is the fun in cooking and not eating it? None, I'm telling you.

So this idea that by cutting your calories right down to the bone (roughly 500 cals) on 2 "fast" days of the week, whilst eating what you want on the other days, sounds really attractive. I know that basically it is just averaging out to what you would be eating on any other diet, but to be able to say to myself "Don't worry about it, you can eat that tomorrow" is so inspiring to me. Not "you can eat that in around 4 years time" but "tomorrow" .  Wow!!! . 

I kicked off on Wednesday with a very simple salad with a small portion of left over Portuguese roast pork from Tuesday, no pics, cos I wasn't sure if I would be able to keep to it, and didn't want to announce to the world what I was doing if it lasted all of 14 hours. But it was really none too bad at all. So today I am repeating the experience.

I stripped the skin from some chicken drumsticks, pressure cooked them with some chicken stock and onions, and then roasted them with some Jack Daniels barbecue sance that I was lucky to win in a competition from Eat In magazine. With a measured quarter cup of basmati rice, and a green salad, the meal came to 266 cals (as calculated in My Fitness Pal). Added to the fruit salad I had for breakfast, with a spoonful of Total Greek Yoghurt and a few flaked almonds, the entire day totalled out at 443 cals.

And it was only 24 hours until the next day and eating whatever I wanted. Hurray!


2 comments:

  1. That looks delicious. We are giving the diet a go too. So far not too bad, I am missing bread on the fast days though.

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    1. thank you!! I am not missing stuff so much as just finding it unusual to actually feel hungry. I cope with it by telling myself I can have anything I like in the morning. Seems to work, and I hope it continues to!

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