Off the Rails with the 5:2 Fasting Diet

I went off the rails a bit this week with my 5:2 fasting diet. In my last post I mentioned some concerns I had about my failure to lose any weight and increasing hunger pains on my fast days. I received some great suggestions in the comment section from you guys, but it wasn’t enough to motivate me to stick to my fast days this week. I’ve just got too much work on at the moment (which is a nice change from two months ago when I feared there would be no more work), and I can’t be productive when overly hungry.

New Approach to 5:2 Fasting

This week I failed to stick to my plan for 5:2 fasting but what’s done is done. There is no point in beating myself up over it. To be honest it felt like the right choice to make because what I was doing had stopped working for me. I did eat too much junk over the last few days, and I’ve probably undone some of the good work of the last seven weeks but that’s where I am. All is not lost because I am now moving into 5:2 Fasting Mark 2.

I do believe that fasting is benefiting me even if it is not bringing my weight down as low as I’d like. I’m going to try a different approach which involves combining the 5:2 intermittent fasting diet with juicing. This will mean instead of eating just one meal for 24 hours I will be able to drink juice during that period. I expect to still feel a bit of hunger but hopefully it will mean that I can still be productive – at least more than when I was eating nothing. I’ll try to use plenty of broccoli (and similar vegetables) to help me get enough protein into these juices. On my fasting days I’ll also eliminate coffee but allow myself green tea.

Juicing My Way to Health

I’ve purchased about three books on juicing over the last couple of years, but never got around to actually giving it a go. I like the idea of being able to get the goodness out of many servings of vegetables without actually haven’t to eat them. I don’t like eating vegetables but my years of alcoholism are evidence that I can drink practically anything.

I really enjoyed the movie Fat Sick and Nearly Dead , but I didn’t think that juicing would be something that I could maintain. I’ve been able to fast for 14 days during the last 7 weeks so now I know that this is something that I probably could do. Yesterday I made a major commitment to juicing by blowing my monthly entertainment budget on a juicer – it cost just under 4,000 THB (100 Euro or $130 from Fashion Island here in Bangkok). I gave the juicer a go this morning and it was a bit scary to see how much vegetables it used to create a couple of glasses of juice – it tasted wonderful though even if I overdid it with the ginger. Hopefully I won’t have to sell my kidney in order to be able to afford these drinks.

Next week I’m going to try two fasting days where I’ll stick to juice. I’m not going to limit the amount of juice I consume because it will probably be difficult for me to mange more than 500 calories of the stuff. If my appetite doesn’t keep my consumption in check my budget will. If these fasting days go well I might try doing two juice fast days together, and from there I might try for longer. I don’t want to use juicing as a quick way to lose weight. I want this to become part of my way of life. I’ve read reports from people who have been juicing for decades, and they report some impressive results.

My Other Posts on 5:2 Intermittent Fasting

Ten weeks of 5:2 Intermittent Fasting
Second Week of 5:2 Fasting Diet
Week Three of the 5:2 Intermittent Fasting Diet
Changes to My 5:2 Intermittent Fasting Plan
Intermittent Fasting as a Spiritual Exercise
5:2 Fasting Diet Update Week 6
Hardest Day Yet with 5:2 Intermittent Fasting