Another fasting day

I really can't be bothered doing daily updates, it's getting obsessive. I'll only be doing fast days and any tips I pick up along the way now. 

Today's a fast day, I just had one big meal in the evening as a change. 

Tilda microwave mushroom rice. 298 cals 

Asda chicken bhuna from the take away range 1/2 pack. 296 cals. 

Total today: 594 cals.   

How low can I go?

Ok so for my next starve day I'm on a veg casserole again. Two reasons: I have a tiny slowcooker, that I've been experimenting with. More of which to come in a later post. 

So as usual with a starve day, no breakfast.

Today for both dinner and tea, I'm having a veg and red lentil casserole. Not particularly adventurous. 

Usual stuff: pack of veg, 75g of red lentils, 2 stock cubes, herbs, ground pepper, Worcester sauce, totals up to: 270 cals. 

After dinner that I had a sugar free Harley's jelly, at less than 4 cals per pot, it may not be overly pleasurable but it's certainly a nice extra, to be able to have a dessert after a meal. 

After tea, I tried an asda great stuff sugar free jelly. Again not amazing, bit of an odd texture, but it tastes less chemically. The asda Jellys only 14 cals, so it's still very managable.

Water only for fluid intake. 

Exercise today has been another rehab class, so not massive exertion. 

By the end of the night I cracked and had a fruit and grain bar and a pack of salt and vinegar snack a jacks. 215 cals. Still in limits, but by god was my stomach aching from being empty. 

499 cals total.

War on weight week 1, day 1

Breakfast has been an asda strawberry fruit and grain bar. 126 cals 

Dinner / tea is a sausage casserole that's currently heating in my slowcooker. 

Pack of Veg: 168 cals

6 Sausages: 588 cals

Stock, other seasonings and flavourings: 85 cals

Total for casserole: 841 cals

Running total 967 cals

Supplementary stuff:

Banana after dinner 103 cals

Banana after walk 120 cals, 

2 fruit and grain bars:252 cals. 

1442 cals for the day. 

Exercise done today: 

Rehab class for my back for an hour, hardly strenuous, mainly weights and stretches, but it the warm up on the machines burned off an extra 100 cals. 

I went for a power walk tonight, and according to my app:

I burned off 1000 cals on a 6 mile walk in 1:33:59

Which means I've already burned off my meals from today already. I am however a bit achy. 

I'm getting the feeling that vegetarians on this diet would have a distinct advantage. Root veg are very fillings yet relatively have a low amount of calories. But I also believe vegetarians eat more healthily anyway. 

The box

In 3 weeks I have to go to an Xmas ball with my parents and girlfreind. I'll be required to wear a posh tailored suit that fit me 12 months ago. 

Problem: it's possible for me to get into it, but it's really tight. So to this end I need to loose weight and quick. To this end I'm trying an idea to manage my eating. 

I've bought two boxes: a 5l box and a 1.3l box from asda. The idea is the night before I lay out everything I'm allowed to eat the next day, this will allow me to allot what I can have for the next day, in a kind of calorie counted hamper for the next day. The big box is normal stuff, the little box is for fridge stuff. 

This isn't a new idea I've invented. When I was quitting cigarettes I bought a cigarette case, put in a set ration for the day, and forced myself to reduce. It was one of many tactics I used to force my body to do what I want. 

I know if I only use the allotted food from the boxes, then I can keep track of my usage. So for tomorrow, I'll be having a breakfast bar for breakfast, a sausage casserole from my little slowcooker for dinner and tea, this will come to about 1000 cals. From there I've added a banana, a couple of fruit and grain bars as sweet treatlets. 

So then I can add in the other little snacks, like bananas, breakfast bars or a pack of quavers etc. My daily need is 2000 cals, so if I keep my calories comming in below 1750, I'm still taking on enough cals for a normal day. 

The second part of the plan I have is I'm going to do some form of exercise it activity every day for half an hour, to burn off a few cals extra per day. 

I'll be drinking water only mon- fri. I'll still be doing fasting days during the week. You'll notice I'm only doing this Mon-Friday.

My weekends I want to be down time, not to pig out, but if I fancy something like a drink, or some sweets, then I can have what I want. The point is I need a something to look forward to. If it's all low cal, and I can't have some fun, then what's the point. If I achieve fitting into my suit by 3 weeks from now, then it will also leave me on track for Xmas. 

So let's see how we get on. This will either leave me wound up, or looking good with my good lady on the night. Which is after all  the main reason I'm doing this. Come tomorrow night I'll let you know how my first calorie controlled day went. 

The books...

Ok haven't really mentioned the books I'm using. 

There's the actual diet book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Fast-Diet-Intermittent-Fasting/dp/1780721676/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1383949852&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Fast+diet

It's the bible as far as this diet goes.

And further recipies:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fast-Diet-Recipe-Book-Calorie-controlled/dp/1780721870/ref=pd_sim_b_1

These should be enough to get you going. 

Adding flavour

For me the most important thing is that meals on fast days should taste good. That means seasoning, and adding stuff to boost the flavour.

Think about it, that can of Heinz Weightwatchers Carrot & Lentil soup is only 87 cals. It's ideal while you're fasting, quick to cook. But by god is it bland.

This leaves you with two choices, eat the bland, orange, viscous liquid as it is. Or add something to make it taste better. But what to add?

Your first go-to thing should be a pepper grinder, it tastes better than the pre-ground pale dust often shifted as white pepper. And you can get it direct off the spice aisle in the supermarket for a few quid in its own grinder. So why ground pepper? Easy it has 5 calories per teaspoon, and adds a lot of flavours. YES! You did read that right, ground pepper has 5 calories per teaspoon. Same goes with salt it's calorie free, so here are the two basics you should have to hand in your dieting efforts.

Below are some common flavourings, table sauces and other stuff to perk up a meal. It kind of makes interesting reading, I never realised the differences in some of these flavourings. Go to fatsecret.com and find your favorite sauce or ingredient. 

So what else is worth having for that instant flavour addition?

Handy reckoner of cals per teaspoon*.  (For a tablespoon, times by 3)

0 cals - salt

3 cals - soy sauce

3 cals - Colmans Dijon mustard

4 cals - whole grain mustard

5 cals - Worcester sauce

5 cals - ground pepper

5 cals - balsamic vinegar

6 cals - curry powder

7 cals - Heinz  ketchup

7 cals - HP sauce

7 cals - white pepper (see why ground pepper is better)

8 cals - ground cumin

8 cals - chili powder

10 cals - Colmans English mustard

17 cals - Heinz salad cream

40 cals - olive oil

* Information comes from fatsecret.com, foodstuffs that are quoted by the tablespoon have been divided by 3 and rounded up to the nearest calorie. 

08/11/13 Friday fast, ready for my weekend

Another starve days upon me, no breakfast again. With the weekend on me, I had to squeeze in today's fast day, to leave me unhindered to relax on the weekend. This doesn't mean I'm about to pig out, but I do feel that not having to fast on an off day makes it more relaxing to me.

Dinner: wasn't feeling so hungry today, so I grabbed a Starbucks venti Latte with semi skimmed milk, and very nice it was, at 248 cals it was a manageable treat. 

Tea: Baked mushrooms really easy this, quite filling and surprisingly low cal: a pack of 5 large white mushrooms, de- stalk, and bin the stalks. Works out to 220g with the mushrooms I had. Google says there are 22cals in 100g of mushrooms so that's 48 cals for the shrooms. Lay the shrooms in a baking dish, and use a couple of squirts of low cal fry spray, over the top. That's 2cal (total 50 cal so far). Ground pepper and salt over the top to taste, (no calories one of my favorite ingredients for use on this diet). Finally for the treat: Cathedral city do 12g tiny bits of cheese at 50cals each, (100 cals total) slice really thin and pop in the upturned cups of the shrooms. Cover the top of the oven bowl in foil, and pop in a preheated oven at 200'C for 30-40 mins

Ever thought "that was so good, I could eat that again?" Well at 100 cals, with the baked mushrooms you can. 

So today's totals are: 348cals for the day. 

Lessons learned: seasoning is your freind, it adds taste and has no calories. Water fills the belly, but you need to get rid of what you drink, it's a balancing act. 

I think I need to set the fasting days, I've been able to get two in a week so far, but having set days should make planning ahead easier. 

Think I'll try to do a blog entry about flavor and seasonings vs cals as a ready reckoner.

See you later