What Type of 5:2 Dieter Are You?

It has been almost 2 months now that I've been doing the 5:2 Diet. While Jo has finished her stint on the 8 Hour Diet and isn't interested in following the book any further (though she is keeping some of the lessons she's learned), I'm continuing on with the 5:2 Diet just to see how it works out over a longer period (and because I like not feeling guilty the rest of the time). 

Quick recap: 5:2 diet - you can eat anything you want 5 days a week, and only 1/4 of your calorie requirements for 2 non-consecutive days a week. 

My enthusiasm about the diet has meant that most of my family has also been trying it out (I'll give you some of their results in another post).  In talking with them, I've noticed that we have completely different fasting styles.

My aim when I fast is to get as much possible quantity of food for my 500 calories. I make huge stir fries, and have been known to eat a whole cauliflower mashed with spices (not highly recommended, better to have a bit more variety than that). It truly amazes me how many veggies you can actually eat for 500 calories.

My mother, on the other hand, is determined to eat as normally as possible while shaving away as many calories from sauces, oil, portion sizes etc.

On a regular fast day for me I'll skip breakfast, possibly have a cup of tea with no-fat milk for morning tea, a large bowl of porridge (sometimes 2/3 of a cup, more than I would normally) made with just water, cinnamon and if I need it a dash of brown sugar. For dinner I will then make up probably about half a kilo to a kilo of veggies sauteed in stock or cooked with a bit of soy sauce. (Did you know you can get 400gram bags of stir fry veggies from the supermarket which comes to a total of 120 calories?) I usually add some extra eggplant and maybe a bit of shredded chicken to give it more substance.

My mother on the other hand always has breakfast, which might be a small cooked potato or roast tomato with cooked mushrooms and spinach. For lunch she will have something like soup or salad, and then for dinner will try to get her meat and three veg including some carbs. For example dinner might be a small fillet of chicken cooked with lemon, a small potato, and then some cooked zucchini and mushrooms.

Now I'm trying to decide which is actually the better method. My way means you get to eat huge meals, and you also increase the actual fasting time as you start eating much later. However, my mother's way teaches you a better lesson about portion size and how you can actually be very happy on less food.

Which do you think would be better? If you have tried the 5:2 Diet, which type of dieter are you?

Apps I Actually Use: My Fitness Pal

What is it?
My Fitness Pal is a calorie counter, basically. It allows you to put in your details: how much you weigh, how active your lifestyle is, how much you want to lose over what period of time, etc. It then tells you how many calories you can eat in order achieve that goal, and allows you to log everything you consume and burn through a large online database of foods and exercises.

Pros:
The two features I love the most from this app are:
1. it can scan bar codes and then automatically adds all the data. Great if you end up eating a lot of Lean Cuisine frozen meals. (Okay, so I get lazy sometimes. It's better, I think, than eating take away. Well, cheaper at least.)
2. at the end of each day when you finish logging it gives you an estimate of how much you would weigh in 5 weeks if you ate like that everyday. Can be very motivating and exciting. (could also be a little sad, but I tend not to log on those days... bad Buffy, I know.)

Cons:
As with all these things, they can be a bit fiddly if you cook a lot of your own food. You can save recipes, but if you tend to just throw things together for dinner, can be annoying to track.
Having said that, it is also quite useful to be forced to weigh your portions so you can see exactly how much you are eating and the difference having a slightly larger portion can make calories-wise.

Overall Verdict:
I believe that everyone in the modern world that eats any premade food should at some stage count calories, just to make that connection between what you are putting in your mouth and exactly how many calories it is giving your body. If you are trying unsuccessfully to lose weight and aren't calorie counting, try it before giving up.

Of the calorie counting apps out there, I find this one comparatively easy to use. The bar code scanner helps a lot, even when putting together your own recipes. Also, it allows you to add in the exercise you have done and adjusts how many calories you can eat for the rest of the day accordingly, which is always quite motivating. The database has Australian brands and can differentiate between Coles tomatos and Wooworth's, which is nice.

Add-ons:
There is also a little gadget you can get, the 'fit bit' I think it's call, which sits next to your chest and works out how many calories you are burning throughout the day. It automatically syncs with the program to adjust how many calories you can eat for the rest of the day. 
I have heard of a few people online who have used it (Americans, not sure if it is available in Australia except through the internet) who seem to think it is great. It is around $100, so quite pricey, but if you were serious about tracking how much you are actually burning, it could be worth it.

If anyone has one, give us a shout about how you find it.

It's Christmas - Panic!

Christmas dinners, Christmas parties, Christmas drinks, gifts of chocolates, wines, sweets, days of just lazing around...

You get the idea. Christmas, from a health point of view, is one of the most dangerous time of the year.

And no, you really aren't going to lose the extra weight later. Or possibly ever.

There are many suggestions in magazines to help you stop putting on weight: things you can swap, ways to try and be good. Sometimes they are okay, sometimes they are insane.

Having tried and either failed or been dissatisfied the whole season, I'm trying a new method.

The Zero-Tolerance Method.

Chocolate is just not an option.

I should explain that I am a recovering chocoholic, and I mean that more seriously than I used to.

I always knew I loved chocolate, and relied on it for emotional support, etc. which I knew, but I used to just laugh about it, because there was no way I could do anything else.

But a few months ago I realised two awful things:
1. I had fooled myself I was only eating 1/2 a family block of chocolate a day, until I realised on day that no, I had actually opened this block this morning, and now it was all gone by 3pm and I wanted more.
2. Stephen King was describing his (or someone else's, I can't quite remember) alcoholic period, and how he used to be asked 'how much do you drink' and he would look at the person as if they were crazy, 'all of it.' He replied. And I realised I knew that feeling.

I would eat chocolate from the moment I woke up until I went to sleep. I would eat it until it was all gone or I was unconscious. And just occasionally I woke up to find I had been eating it in my sleep. Seriously.

That was a few months ago now.

I went cold turkey. Completely. Absolutely. No chocolate.

Since then I've snuck in a few bits here and there, and the truth appears to be that having nothing is easier for me than to have just a little. Once I start, I cannot stop.

So this Christmas I'm not going to start.

Worked quite successfully today at my work Christmas party, even though there were maltesers (a big favourite), Lindt balls, chocolate biscuits, cakes, etc. (you get the picture). But I didn't touch any of them. This was partly helped by my second practical method: calorie counting.

This holidays I am going to keep track of ALL of my calories. It is very illuminating, and scary.

I've used Calorie King in the past, which worked really well for me and the forums are great. I'm actually currently using My Fitness Pal, largely because it was recommended to me and it has a bar code scanning function which makes it a lot easier.

Trying to track calories over Christmas is hard, but even just the attempt makes you think about everything that goes into your mouth. And you will be very surprised.

So those are my two methods I'm going to try and use. I have a plan, worked out my strategy, and am going in prepared.

And you can all hold me accountable.

Just to warn you, to make the Zero-Tolerance method work, you really do need to have your will power and motivation stocks up at full, and in the next few posts I'll look at how to do that.

But for now, think about whether you can just stop at one, and if not, don't even have one.