My week on a plate

As regulars to this blog know, I love the fact that the 5.2 diet allows me to eat what I like five days a week and not gain weight – even if I may not lose it either. That’s important when you have a life that would make any regular diet a nightmare. But finding even two days to diet has been a challenge this week. Here’s how it panned out:

Sunday: 100^th birthday party for my mum’s wonderful auntie Toysie at the lovely Grim’s Dyke Hotel in Harrow. Anticipating a buffet, we gorged on toast at breakfast – then discovered lunch was in fact a three course a la carte meal. I had goat’s cheese mousse with pear and walnut salad, seabass, and then panacotta. Later, back home, we squeezed in a roast chicken with peanut sauce, rice and salad. 

Monday: Fasting. I’d now read the directions on the Konjac capsules and they worked much more efficiently when taken correctly, half an hour before eating. Two before breakfast (a rice cake), three before lunch (soup and another rice cake), and five before supper (our usual miso broth with stir-fried vegetables and prawns). Went to bed un-hungry.

Tuesday: Greek yogurt with banana and honey, then sourdough toast for breakfast; home made smoked salmon pate with toast and green salad for lunch; and then in the evening party food – think sandwiches, koftas, chicken kebabs, cheese puffs, and wine – at a Guild of Health Writers event at the Medical Society of London. We were there to hear how our colleagues are coping with the digital revolution. Healthehelen talked us through the process of writing and publishing an E-book – her own, Gym-spiration: 52 Ways to Wake Up Your Workout, having been such a success that it is in the top 20% E-books, and deservedly so. Lack of motivation must be the number one reason we fail to stick to exercise regimes, and I could have done with Helen calling out motivational mantras behind me a couple of hours before this event, when, as a guest of Speedflex, I’d found myself unexpectedly doing a few rounds of circuit training. The first shock was when the trainer questioned whether I was really safe to take part, given the borderline hypertension I’d mentioned on the disclaimer form. That’s when I realised I really was going to be exercising, not just admiring the machines. The rather nicer shock, at the end of my session, was when I learned I’d burned 270 calories in 20 minutes – amazing! – my incentive to then eat at least 720 calories at the Guild buffet.  

Wednesday: Back on the fast – food much the same as Monday, really, although I managed to sneak in a Whey Hey ice cream at lunchtime. I diligently passed on a load of leftover pink macaroons Steve had from a recent event, and distributed them to friends at Book Group that night – Kate commenting that dieters always like to feed up those around them…

Thursday: Out again – this time at Meson Don Felipe for tapas and rose wine with other health writers. Tapas a little spartan – the odd bean and prawn passing up and down the table (much preferred the tapas at Rosita and the Sherry Bar) – so we all filled up with bread rolls and almond tart for pudding.

Friday: Lunch out at Coco Momo with my good friend Jean – grilled chicken with a superfood salad and about four chips. But Jean had brought me a selection of nutty gluten free pastries, which Steve and I later tucked into with gusto. Then supper: pasta with Steve’s homemade pesto, lots of parmesan, plenty of wine, and more of Jean’s pastries.

Saturday: Lunch out with my lovely eldest daughter, Coco Minnie – Greek salad and focaccia at the Royal Festival Hall, then half a muffin each with coffee at the Tate Modern. Another of Jean’s pastries with a cup of tea when I got home, and now I am planning supper: a red slaw salad with walnuts, orange and feta, and some cold chicken and taboulleh. 
Tomorrow I will weigh myself.