Pre second Baby Body

5:2: I Think I Love You…

BEFORE PICS BELOW BUT HOPING FOR THIS BODY AGAIN SOON!

Peter and I

Pre Babies!

Pre second Baby Body

Post Baby No 1, Pre Second Baby No 2 Body: You will be mine again!

For those who follow this blog (yes you few million at the back *cough cough), you’ll know I’ve been doing the 5:2/ Fast Diet over the last month and this week is my 5th (*proud, slimmer face).

Dr Moseley first advocated the diet on BBC2’s Horizon’s ‘Eat, Fast and Live Longer’ documentary where he discovered that by eating 500 calories a day for women, 600 for men, twice a week, non consecutively, the growth hormone IGF-1 (essential for children but damaging for adults) is lowered, allowing your body to repair itself whiles helping you to lose weight in the process.

I personally will eat more like 7-800 calories on the fast days but I’m up in the night with a baby and don’t get fanatical about weighing what I eat. I also hate weighing myself (yes, there’s a pattern here-scales scare me) but believe I’ve lost a stone (approx 6 kilos) at the very least judging by my clothes and the reemergence of a waist and would like to lose another (including my post preg tum).

I am now wearing structured UK size 12 clothes (as opposed to super stretchy 12’s and 14’s post Alexander’s birth 5 months ago) and along with a fairly sensible diet for the remaining 5 days (with the odd vanilla slice and chocolate eclair thrown in for good measure), the quick results are keeping me motivated.

Most importantly of course, I’m protecting my body in the process and it has made me lower my protein intake throughout the week, eating healthier than before. Yes the first 2 weeks were pretty tough (I managed it solely by sticking pictures of JLo on my fridge and treadmill for non fast day work outs) and very nearly ate my right arm several times (but it would have totally tipped my calorie allowance) then miraculously by week 3, I barely felt hungry on the fast days.

Hunger comes in waves and those waves are now gentle and totally bearable. I always choose low GI foods to keep me as full as possible on fast days (and in life, bar the chocolate eclairs of course) so lentil soup, eggs, oat cakes, apples, hummous and boiled chicken breast are the specials of the fast day. Here is my Auntie Loulla’s recipe for lentil soup which I make religiously in the morning of a fast day and here you will find the recipe for my Dad’s Greek bean casserole.

So here I am again, a fast day and after a long weekend of indulgence, I’m actually looking forward to giving my body a break today. What’s so wonderful about this diet is that you can plan the fast days around your lifestyle (I never do it on weekends so I can enjoy eating with the whole family) or on a girls’ night out or a pressured day of deadlines and like Moseley, I tend to fast on a Tuesday and a Thursday.

Another fabulous bonus is my skin which was not looking its best post pregnancy/battling sleep deprivation and it is now glowing (with a little help from Laura Mercier). My Dad actually told me I look 16 again the other day (Bless him, he wasn’t wearing his glasses and to be fair, I was a mature 16) but still HELLO, I might snog that Moseley if I ever see him. Other awesome side effects include restful sleep when my offspring allow (only restless night was on my very first fasting day) and feeling super energetic despite usual disrupted sleep!

I also spent the weekend buying a new spring wardrobe, going mental in Mango and even took my carefully folded UK size 10 skinny jeans out of a drawer they’ve been nestled in since I was 4 months pregnant and hung them up-wow, totally ambitious of course but who knows, maybe my thighs will be reunited with them again soon…I’ll keep you posted.

So are you on the Fast Diet? If so, how’s it been going for you?

Here is a recipe for hummous if you’d like to make your own. 81 calories in 3 tablespoons. Yum! You’re welcome!

hummus

©Peter Broadbent

Serves 6 people.

Ingredients:

  • 225g dried chickpeas (expand when soaked)  or 400g tinned chickpeas (washed and drained)
  • salt
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 2 tablespoons tahini paste
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 4 tablespoons virgin olive oil
  • some chickpea cooking liquid 6 tablespoons

To garnish:

  • a generous amount of cayenne pepper
  • a small handful of chopped flat leaf parsley

Soak the chickpeas overnight in cold water. Drain them and put into a large pan, covering them with plenty of fresh water and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until soft. Add the salt towards the end of the cooking.

Drain and reserve the cooking liquid. Cool for a few minutes, then tip into a food processor. Liquidise them with the remaining ingredients,  with half of the olive oil. Add enough of the cooking liquid to produce a fairly grainy puree, the consistency of thick mayonnaise. You may have to process the hummus in two or even three batches. Test the seasonsing and add more salt if neccessary, Now pour in the mixture and remaining olive oil and mix well with a spoon.

Put the mixture into a serving bowl and flatten the top. Pour on the olive oil, then sprinkle with cayenne pepper and chopped parsley. Accompany with hot pitta bread or crudites such as sticks of celery and long sticks of carrots and cucumber.

You can of course eat these at all three of Papa G’s award winning Greek Restaurants The Olive Tree Greek Restaurant in Leeds.

Recipe ©George Psarias.

Photos ©Peter Broadbent.

Please ask your Dr before embarking on any kind of diet.

 

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