My verdict on the 5 2 diet two weeks on

I've been following the 5 2 diet for two weeks on and thought that I'd write a little post about how I'm doing on it.  Well so far I have lost 8 lb's!  Not bad considering that I only diet 2 days a week.  I've found the diet easier to follow than I thought it would be; I've been eating three meals a day but have drastically cut down on the amount of snacks I eat through the day.  Following the diet has made me realise just how many snacks I eat over the course of a day and that there's times that I'll just grab a little something because I'm bored or out of habit when I'm having a cup of tea.  Unfortunately those little something's tend to be of the sweet variety and have no doubt added to my weight slowly creeping up and up.

The meal that I've struggled with the most is lunch.  I'm used to just grabbing a sandwich but because white bread is high in calories I'm having to find tasty alternatives.  Miso soup with lots of veggies in is good (I tried it with tofu in but have decided that it's a total waste of calories)  Vegetable sticks with low fat soft cheese were also a good lunch but so far my favourite has been this home made tomato soup.  According to myfitnesspal.com/ it comes in at just 53 calories per serving.

Tomato and oven roasted red pepper soup - serves 4

1 red pepper, quartered
1 stick of celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 tin chopped tomatoes
350ml vegetable stock
60g extra low fat soft cheese

1) Roast the red pepper at 200C for 20-25 minutes.

2) Fry the onion and celery until softened then add the tin of tomatoes and stock.  Simmer for 20 minutes.

3) When the pepper's done blitz in a blender or with a stick blender.  Once pulped add half the soup and blitz.  If you prefer a smoother soup then blitz all the soup.

4) Add the soft cheese and re-heat.  Adjust seasoning to taste and serve.

Trying something new

Well, I'm back from visiting my family up in Cheshire and while I had a lovely time I'm afraid that as usual when I pay a visit up there I rather over indulged.  There was a belated Easter chocolate orange from my parents, an all you can eat Chinese to celebrate my birthday, a party for my niece's birthday a few days later.... The list goes on and on.  As a result I've been left feeling more than a little fat.

Over the last few years I've started and abandoned the Weight Watchers diet more times than I can remember - it has worked really well for me in the past but for some reason I just haven't been able to stick with it recently.  It seems way too restrictive to fit into my life style and I've found myself feeling incredibly guilty when I'm not able to follow it and almost resenting the diet because of this.  So I've been looking for a new way to lose weight.

I first heard about the 5 2 diet a couple of months ago and I have to admit that I was sceptical of it.  It seemed like just another faddy diet.  But I did some research and after buying this book I've decided to give it a go.  The basic premise is that you eat normally for 5 days out of the 7 and have restrictive calories (500 for women, 600 for men) for the other two.  My plan is to restrict my calories today and Friday
Today is my first fasting day and this is my meal plan for the day

Porridge
Miso soup with tofu
Roast chicken and ratatouille

I plan on drinking lots of water and the occasional cup of tea (there's no way I could stay off caffeine as well as cutting down on calories) and will update the blog this evening with how I got on.

More info about the 5 2 diet can be found here thefastdiet.co.uk/