5-2-go!

Everyone’s been talking about intermittent fasting, especially the 5:2 version, so, after noticing that my stomach was getting in the way when I bent to put on my shoes, I decided I had to give it a go.

I persuaded Steve to join me – even though he will lose his extra kilos by whizzing round Richmond Park a few times on his racing bike.

The first problem was choosing a day when we could have our first fast. We ended up plumping for bank holiday Monday. So, yesterday, this is what we ate:

. Breakfast: apple, pear, ½ kiwi, ¼ grapefruit.

. Lunch: big salad of grated carrot, tomatoes (3 between us), onions, red pepper (1/2 between us), cucumber, watercress, rocket, and spinach with grated ginger, lime juice and crushed garlic.

. Dinner: a salad of blanched leeks, carrots, beans, broccoli and courgettes with more spinach, watercress and rocket, onion and ginger.

. Snacks: one banana and one apple each.

This may have added up to slightly more than our permitted 500 calories (I didn’t tell Steve that men can have 600), but it was hard enough. Half way through supper I had to down my cutlery and give up, suffering with vegetable fatigue. And the thought – as we watched Arne Dahl on catch up – that if I felt hungry I could return to the leftovers was quite enough to put me off doing so.

I was worried I would wake up hungry in the night, and I did. At 4.30am I felt hollow with hunger, not the kind of hunger that would propel me out of bed for an early breakfast, but the type that made me will myself to sleep, thinking “only two hours to go”.

I felt pathetically weak when I got up to make the tea – but wonderfully cleansed.

Today has been a joy though – a small bowl of yogurt and banana and then coffee and sour dough toast and salty butter for breakfast; a ciabatta roll with humous and salad for lunch at the ICA. And now we’re about to tuck into some meatballs, rice and dahl (and not the Danish type tonight).

Our next fast is scheduled for Thursday. Watch this space to see if we go through with it...