My biggest dilemma is that I have to take medicine in the morning. I don't want to eat until around 11 am because I like to have a late night snack of 100 calorie pack of cocoa dusted almonds. I've been putting off taking my medicine but the one I can't put off is an anti biotic.

I guess I can share this ,lol. I have to take an antibiotic before have sex or I will get a UTI.I have to take it with food.

I guess half of a Greek Yogurt would be 50 calories. I need to look up string cheese and baby bell light.

How about you? Is the 5:2 plan working with your life? I also don't like working out with my trainer on an empty stomach.

Will this not work if you have 11 hours in between instead of 12? There must be some reason you have to have 12 hours off.

I'm finding myself eating more snack food this weekend. Healthy snack food but none the less snacks. Total cals always under goal but.... Hope I'm not gaining. ???? Also, walking today so that helps

I went out for nephews birthday lunch at Spaghetti Factory.... I got out of there for under 800 cals. Not that bad really. small dinner tonight and fast day tomorrow. I have kept off my last loss so far... feeling smaller! Do watch the BBC special I posted on the links page, it really tells the whole tale about how the 5:2 got started, and some details not in the book. It makes me feel even better about doing this! This program has been taken down from most of the web, so watch it quick, this sight may pull it as well. (don't know why!) Worth a look.

Hey feed what do you think about artificial sweeteners?

I was reading one of the books today and it said none on fast days!! I suck down calorie free drinks everyday.

I have been reading the studies saying your body acts like Artificial Sweeteners are real sugar... not the calories, but all the chemical reactions, so people who use artificial sweeteners have a higher incidence of Diabetes and Obesity than non users... even people who do not have a weight problem that were in the study may gain weight and have increased Diabetes....

lalalalalala!!! I don't want to know... I use them a lot too! I am trying to cut back.... and Southbeach talks about having Proteins along with sweet things to mediate the insulin kick back.... I don't know. SAD FACE.

http://www.medscape....warticle/807615

I have been reading the studies say your body acts like Artificial Sweeteners are real sugar... not the calories' date=' but all the chemical reactions, so people who use artificial sweeteners have a higher incidence of Diabetes and Obesity than non users... even people who do not have a weight problem that were in the study.

lalalalalala!!! I don't want to know... I use them a lot too! I am trying to cut back.... and Southbeach talks about having Proteins along with sweet things to mediate the insulin kick back.... I don't know. SAD FACE.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/807615[/quote']

Yes I've been reading about that too. But I never want to listen to it.

About 8 years ago I started drinking diet coke it quickly became a weekly shopping item! Definitely can trace my latest weight gain back to those (plus other crap of course)

I gave up all sweeteners way before surgery but since then I'm back on the stuff..

But dammit I like my Water drops!!

I will try and cut back a little but it's not in my heart yet to do it all the way..

The actual 5:2 forum had the same discussion about sweeteners with consuming Protein too.

But really we don't drink and eat at the same time. So yeah...

Going back to sipping my orange crush water flavoring.

OMG! I gave up a HUGE Diet Coke habit, chocolate, everything else bad and NOW I have to give up my Crystal Light? Come on...............l (

I'm not sure I'm ready to give truvia up....I did find non sweetened flavor drops on line.... I have a jug of decaf tea with Guava drops steeping in the fridge right now. I'm going to try and "use" that tomorrow fast day instead my instant green tea with honey, coconut and Fake sweetener that I love so much! I think there is something to getting used to a sweeter profile on my intake because of fake sugars. It's only two days a week.... I'll give it a try this week.

Sorry to say this girls, but I think sweeteners are poison and I never use them... if I happen to have a drink with them in I can taste it and I won't drink it. I hate the taste and the thought of what they do to my system! i would rather have sugar!

Oh... forgot to say, weighed this morning and saw 162! Yes! Fast day today, so lets hope that number stays...

gonna have some fruit with yogurt to start my day! Not sure about tea yet, might be some oats? Oh decisions!

I'm off work now... it is our 6 weeks school holidays and I don't know how the fast days will feel now... it will be interesting to see the difference in how I 'cope' mentally!

I avoid artificial sweeteners for the most part. They're in my Protein Shake and that's about it, besides the occasional Crystal Light or Mio drops. I use fruit infused Water more often than anything else to avoid them.

I can taste the sugar alcohols and it repulses me. I picked up an onion dressing for DH the other day and didn't realize it was the "lite" version. YUCK. I can taste that fake sweetness in there. I just whipped up my own instead. No way do I want to eat something that tastes like that.

I had a bad weigh in yesterday - kinda mad. I bounced back 2.2 pounds after dropping down and so I think my loss for the week is actually 2 tenths of a pound.

I'm having a real problem tracking back to how much I've lost. I think that due to the bounces I keep having I'm down about eight pounds in five weeks.

That's not bad but I am pretty sure I lost 2 tenths of a pound last week, too. (I lost 2.5 pounds the week prior.)

Let's hope that this is just a temporary slow down and that I don't progress at this rate for the rest of my time. This is exactly how loss normally goes for me - tenths of a pound a week, or nothing at all, followed by a larger drop (a couple pounds) once every four to six weeks.

In any case, I dropped again today and it's a fast day for me. We'll see how it comes out at the end of the week.

I'm doing the zoo with all the kids today - so drinking lots of water, packing a picnic lunch and gettting in tons of walking. We're having another overcast day (surprise, surprise) but it's only getting up to the mid-eighties and we aren't expecting rain until this evening. A good time to see the zoo - it won't be glaringly hot or rainy, either.

Hope everyone has a good day. I found myself inordinately annoyed at the new 5:2 thread but refrained from posting about the stupidity of treating the sleeve like a diet immediately out of the gate. Now I figure there's no reason for me to feel anything about the choices of other people so I'm staying out of it. I find it hard to understand how new people who can hardly eat are going to eat such a strict deficit or how this program would work for them, but hey, in the rush to "be the skinniest the fastest" people turn into morons.

I'm off - lots of things to do before we head out today. I've been quiet by half of my houseguests left this morning and the other one leaves on Thursday. That'll bring us back down to just the stepkids until my MIL shows up next Tuesday. I may actually find myself with time to relax this weekend!

~Cheri

I can't eat sugar alcohols at all... My bowls complain so much, Its revolting! I mostly use stevia or splenda....

I gained 1.2 pounds , but Im sure its the carb fest I had yesterday, fasting today, it will come off soon.

I'm thinking I wish I had the strength to weigh once a week because I know by now what to expect but when I see the "bounce" it tends to depressed me of I allow it. I usually don't BUT it does keepu mind on WHAT is going in my mouth!

Two pounds up after three feast days but by the end of week I will be back down and hopefully, down another 1-2 also. That's how it works for me. I count my "loss" on Friday morning each week.

I can't eat sugar alcohols at all... My bowls complain so much' date=' Its revolting! I mostly use stevia or splenda....[/quote']

Me too! Yuck!

Swizzly - staying constant on the scale is something we've all dealt with and I want to ask (without offending) if you had considered that you might just need less calories on your regular days to lose? I know you're not gaining (I don't on those numbers, either) but losing is a challenge for me unless I bring it down. Have you tried taking the average of your non-fast days for a week and shaving 20% off that number to kick start your loss? In any case, hang in there. As long as it takes, right? Look at coops, she's a champ.

Thanks for the idea, I'm not offended in the least. Yeah, I've been wondering this a bit as well, especially since my carbs are always pretty low, apart from the odd bit of chocolate here and there. I am so loath to go low-cal that I have a hard time to do it!! I wanted to do 5:2 so that I could eat 'normally' on non-fasting days, which is what I've mostly been doing. HOWEVER, a look over the past few weeks reveals the Summer Of Wine and drinking a lot of calories that way. So I just need to start doing one glass wine, one glass Water, or another similar approach to the social whirlwind we're in the middle of. It will all relax again too, it just is one of those phases. I'm willing to be patient and to try a few small compromises in the meantime. Coops is the master of this, so I have a good teacher in this area...

One feast days we are sill supposed to diet right?

I had my resting metobolic test taken and my TDEE is

1300 calories. I should be eating under that on non fast days, right?

In answer to your first question, my response is NO WAY! LOL. I am doing this so I don't have to 'diet' the whole week long. Ugh. But it clearly is helping others lose faster to do so, so don't listen to me.

In re: your BMR test -- that does NOT give you your TDEE, it gives you essentially the opposite -- it's measuring your basal metabolic rate -- which is how many calories you'd burn if you did NOTHING AT ALL but breathe in and out and hold perfectly still all day. In other words, you burn 1300 just by being alive and having brain activity. So you'd have to add on activity levels to get to a TDEE number. I can guarantee you that even if you slept all day and all night, you would burn more than 1300 calories!! So your target calories could easily be higher than 1300 for maintenance anyhow.

Hey feed what do you think about artificial sweeteners?

I was reading one of the books today and it said none on fast days!! I suck down calorie free drinks everyday.

I use them heavily all the time, always have. I was raised in a Tab and Fresca household, and I still prefer artificial sweeteners to this day. So yeah, I use them all the time, including on fast days, though I've been trying to use a bit less lately. Oy, I can't give up EVERYTHING.

Fasting today, doing fine so far. Will also be fasting Thursday this week.

Happy Monday, all!! xoxox