The 5:2 Way Of Eating

One Year After Beginning The 5:2 Way Of Eating

I'm so very happy that I began this way of eating. I do not have ANY concern about calories on the five days a week that I eat without calorie restriction. I've found that I'm eating a little less (overall; and I'm not trying to eat less) on the five regular eating days a week than before I began this way of eating. I have days where my appetite is big, and I eat big. I'm fortunate that I don't have desires for junk food.

I began this way of eating barely hanging in there (so it seemed at the time) for the first two weeks. At the same time, during the first two weeks, there was a desire in me that carried me through. After the first two weeks I've had no problem. When a calorie restriction day (like today) comes up I have some mixed feelings. The good part of the mixed feelings is that it's simple about what to eat and when to eat. Very little time is needed for food. The bad part is that I'll have to wait a day to eat a bunch of foods that have too many calories to eat on the calorie restriction day. The waiting of one day is almost no problem.

I don't have any strong resistance to having two non-consecutive days of calorie restriction each week. I actually don't have resistance. Why? Because of two things:
1. I've found the foods and the times to eat where I experience very little feelings of being hungry.
2. I KNOW that this way of eating is INCREDIBLY healthy for me.

Eating a lot of food everyday now seems so heavy to do. I have no desire to eat a full amount of calories everyday. When I began it was incredibly hard to get through a calorie restriction day (for the first two weeks). Now these days are easy to get through. I always feel better and clearer the next day, and I look forward to eating lots of different foods the next day. I don't eat more the next day, and I don't feel extra hungry the next morning. (Which surprised me for so long).

The foods and times that I eat are unique to me. I've told others of the way that I eat, and no one has even come close to how I eat on my calorie restriction days. Each person needs to find what works for them. One person has half his calories for breakfast and twelve hours later has the other half for dinner. One person snacks on celery and radishes during the day and then has three soft boiled eggs and a salad for dinner. I've chosen to stack my calories in the second half of the day and rely on egg white omelettes with sauteed vegetables.
I started at 174 pounds and I'm now at 146 pounds (a total weight loss of 28 pounds in a little over a year). I thought my end weight would be 155 pounds. I've done no exercise to build muscle so maybe when I add in weight training I'll get to 155 pounds. I do have a bottom weight of 145 pounds. Once I get to 145 I'll choose to eat more to not go below 145.

I lost sixteen pounds in the first four and a half months (16 pounds in 18 weeks). Then the weight started to come off more slowly. There were times where I didn't lose any weight for weeks in a row, and then I'd more quickly lose one or two pounds. When these plateaus first began I questioned whether I had lost as much as I could while eating this way, and then another couple of pounds would come off. In the last months I've been losing about a half a pound a month. This means that I'm incredibly close to maintaining my body weight with the amount of calories I eat per week. I have no idea how many calories I eat per week. Weight Watchers eating would drive me crazy. Everyday focusing on what I eat and how much of what I eat. For other people, it's the best way to go. I love that I can eat whatever I want to eat five days a week. If I go back to having a lot of calories seven days a week, my weight will go back up. I was weighing 174 for years, so that was the weight that my body would maintain on the amount of calories I was eating. During these years I had no attention to limiting calories.

I've written that I feel clearer and better the day after a calorie restriction day. The most noticeable sign that this way of eating has made me healthier is that I had a skin cancer on my nose for about eight years. It stayed pink and would crust over regularly. After about eight months of calorie restriction I noticed it was not there. I had no blood work done so I don't know what improvement has happened in my blood chemistry. I did have a summer cold. This surprised me a lot. I can go a year or more without getting a cold. A number of people were hit very hard by this cold. I was down for a couple of days. What surprised me most was that I barely had any colored mucus (which means an infection) when I blew my nose, and that this cold didn't go down into my chest. Most times I get a bad head cold I also have days of coughing up colored mucus from my lungs. There was no lung involvement.

I'm 59 years old and I feel this way of eating is rejuvenating my body. Before beginning this way of eating I had the feeling that I was slowly making my body more swampy on the inside; that I was slowly gunking up my body by eating every day. And I had an aversion to outright juice fasting (which I did A LOT in the 80s).

I know I've given my body a breather and given my body an opportunity to 'clean house' during this last year. I don't see any end in sight about this way of eating. I only had one week during the year that I didn't follow this way of eating. I was on vacation. I recommend to vacate this way of eating during vacation, and then to come back to the 5:2 way of eating. For some people this will be bad advice because it could knock them out of their rhythm, and it may be hard for them to start again. Follow what is best for you.

That's it – this way of eating is a great addition to my life and to my health. I'm very grateful to Michael Mosley for researching this way of eating, and for publishing his book.

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