Self-Experimentation

Yesterday was supposed to be a fast day. However, since John was going to be working last night too, my dad invited me over for dinner. As a result, I decided to have another feast day. I was hoping really that if I ate freely, and didn't restrict at all, my next fast day might have bigger weight consequences.

So, for breakfast, I had a bowl of soup, and as a big treat, I had a small white roll with some butter and honey. 361 calories.

For lunch I had... wait for it... some more soup, with wensydale and cranberry cheese and multigrain crackers. That's the last of that cheese though so I'll have to come up with a new snack! That came to 229 calories.

For dinner, my dad had bought crisps as nibbles. The pack was 150g so I assumed that I had half that - which came to 379 calories. Crazy! For dinner we had two small chicken and mushroom pies each, 840 calories (I was on a roll) and for dessert we had strawberries. He had his with cream but I had mine with milk and no sugar. The strawberries were 81 calories and the milk was about 300. So that meal came to 1600 calories, and 2190 for the day in total. Which, considering I didn't restrict myself wasn't too bad really, but to be honest, if I didn't have dieting in the back of my mind, lunch would probably have been a toastie which would have driven things way up!

I didn't weigh myself this morning and I fasted all day. Apart from milk in coffee (123 calories) I just had a small dinner there of a tin of tuna, two tomatoes, some lettuce and some light mayonnaise. 336 calories and 456 for the day in total.

That's it now for today so tomorrow morning will be the test. It'll be interesting to see if the odd cheat day like that will kick my body into losing weight again. It had better.

Surely restricting calories should be enough. I mean, even if it's slow, I can't survive on 2100 calories every two days and not lose weight... Surely!!!

Fingers crossed for the morning anyway...!

AAAARRRGGHHH!!

I've been struggling a bit the last few days. I've stuck to the diet but it hasn't been as enjoyable as in previous weeks. I think it stems mainly from my weight barely moving.
I was reading up on weight plateaus online - seems that being consistently under your calorie count can cause it. So I was wondering if I'm eating enough on feast days. But I do get to about 1600 or 1700 calories most feast days. So my body's hardly in starvation mode. Maybe I just need more patience. I mean, I've lost 11 kilos in a month. That's 24 pounds. Obviously, that's really good. It's just that it all flew off at the beginning and it has slowed down a lot in the last two weeks.

So yesterday, for my fast day, I made mushroom soup and had that with my favourite snack of the moment - wenslydale and cranberry cheese with multigrain crackers. That came to 310 calories. We had dinner early as John was on the night shift, so by about ten o'clock I was hungry again. I was going to have more crackers but I held off. I had a two spoonfuls of soup and a big glass of water. It did help.

I was working in the bookshop today. I had a few messages to do so I left home early and ended up with half an hour to spare. Since I'd had no breakfast, I was starving, so went into a restaurant and got breakfast. I'll admit my eye paused on the Irish Breakfast but my extreme lack of funding stepped in there. I did consider a scone but whilst I knew I could have it, I really felt that I should eat something nutritious. So I had a fruit salad served with natural yoghurt, and a coffee. It was really nice and about 149 calories. Whilst the Irish Breakfast, or the scone might have been even nicer, I still would have felt a bit guilty, feast day or not, and I really do need to get more vitamins. My diet is still very high in carbohydrates which don't supply much else.

Lunch was limited, as I was in the shop and a kettle is all we have access to. So I had a powdered mushroom soup and a multigrain demi baguette. 198 calories and lacking in any goodness whatsoever!

For dinner, I made a pork and apple stuffing roast, with carrots, baby potatoes and mushrooms. That came to about 964 calories and I left quite a bit on my plate - which is pretty much unheard of for me. So the day came to 1311 calories in all. I should probably eat something else. I read a blog (can't remember where) about a girl who at 1200 calories reached a weight plateau. She upped her calories to 1700 and started losing again. So, in light of that, I'm going to have a late night snack. I am hungry - it's eleven o'clock and we ate at half five again as John had to go to work. But now I'm tormented by the idea of eating late at night. Arghhh....

As well as following ADF, I'm also trying to break a lifetime of bad habits - snacking in between meals, and late at night, especially when I'm on my own.

What do I do???

Stuck

So... Weighed myself yesterday - had gone up one kilo. But since I suspect the two I had lost on Sunday were water retention, I was quite happy. Until I weighed myself this morning - up another kilo. So haven't moved in over a week now. Bit fed up.

I decided to carefully calculate how much that quiche I made was and was horrified to discover that it was 4000! Since I had a quarter on Sunday, a fast day, I had 1000 calories instead of my usual 500. Just shows how off food estimations can be. No more guessing.

Yesterday,  I had a lot of coffee, which means a lot of milk. Fat-free but still. Uses up a lot of precious calories. I had focaccia and guacamole like I'd been promising myself for days for breakfast, which came to 215 calories. I'd had a big pint of water before which helped to fill me up faster.

For lunch I had some mushroom soup, three multigrain crackers and 30g of wenslydale and cranberry cheese. 375 calories.

For dinner, John and I finished the quiche with some salad. So that was another 1000 calories.
I also had half a shortbread biscuit and a piece of chocolate through out the day - 108 calories.

So that came to 1787 calories for the whole day. Which is fine and still under 2000. But since my weight hasn't moved, I feel like I've been overindulging and I can see myself getting hung up on my feast days. Which you're really not supposed to do. I bought the book, "The Alternate-Day Diet: The Original Fasting Diet" by James B. Johnson M.D. and he specifically says not to be too careful on feast days, or it just becomes another diet and you'll get bored of it too.

I don't know. He also says that three weeks seems to be the sticky part. Weight tends to not move and people become lazier about food choices, with calories creeping back up. It's important to be really, really strict about tracking everything that passes your lips, even if it's a quarter of a biscuit. I think on fast days I'm ok, I still am very careful but I can see how on feast days, my total might be 100 or so calories more than I calculate, if I take an (albeit tiny) taste of John's dessert, or forget to count one cup of milky coffee.

So as of today I'm going to make sure EVERYTHING is noted. Today is a fast day, and I made vegetable soup for myself. I'm not going to eat anything until dinnertime, and then I'll have a big bowl of that, which is 114 calories. Maybe I'll have some crackers and cheese - 187 calories, or maybe not. No harm in stopping at 114 calories either.

Just wish I could see some more results - it's exciting and pleasurable to do when things are moving but otherwise... not so much.