Decision Made! 5:2 it is!

I think I mentioned a couple of posts back that Mr FD was flirting with the idea of the 5:2 (or Intermittent Fasting) diet, but that I wasn't really convinced. Well, after a week of food that included slabs of lemon drizzle cake, pizza, chocolate biscuits, chocolate bars and wine, I think I can confirm that I've officially given up on the healthy eating that saw me lose 6 kg before Christmas! I haven't got into the swing of things again, and I've seen my weight loss falter and then slowly begin to creep up again.

 So, let's give it a whirl! Let's try this 5:2 eating plan, and eat reasonably healthily for the rest of the week. We've decided that Monday and Friday will be the best days, as I'm in the house then. Although that means there is temptation of stuff to nibble, it also means that healthier snacks are more easily available should we be close to breaking point PLUS we're not exerting too much energy, which, for the first couple of weeks, might make a difference to whether we keep it up.

I'll post my menu plans for the week, as usual, but on Fast days, I'll post the whole days planned food. It will help see what the calories are doing. 500 calories a day doesn't seem a lot, now I think about it!!

MONDAY: Breakfast: egg (78 cals)/1/2 slice bread (35) = 113
                    Lunch: Hairy Dieters Golden Veg soup = 102 cals
                    Dinner: Frugal Cook's Dhal = 200 cals
This gives me a total of 415 calories, leaving 50 cals for 100ml semiskimmed milk in coffee, and 57 calories for a Taillefine yoghurt when necessary!!! Yes, I know that takes me over 500 calories (by 22 cals to be exact) but I'm not going to faff about too much worrying about the odd 22 cals extra.

TUESDAY: Fresh pasta, pesto and mushrooms - as I've said before, Tuesday is one of my out-late-teaching days, so I want a quick meal. Last week I got held up on the motorway home for about an hour - sudden snow caught us all on the hop, and there were some breakdowns (or possibly accidents) which blocked the route. I had my book with me, so I turned off the engine and hunkered down with Inspector Lynley (having alerted Mr FD to my delay) I got home at 8.45 pm, ready for my pasta-and-sauce!

WEDNESDAY: Slow Cooker day! I'm trying a recipe called Israeli Chicken  This isn't quite the recipe (mine doesn't use marmalade) but it gives the idea that this is a chickeny-orangey dish. We're having it with rice and probably green beans.

(this isn't a pic of the actual recipe - but it looks delicious all the same!!!)

THURSDAY: I think I'll use the slow cooker again, and follow Frugal Queen's recipe for a bolognaise sauce.  Mr FD can be in charge of cooking some pasta so I can prepare it on Thursday morning, & it will be ready when I get home from teaching in the evening. Then the rest can go in the already-stuffed freezer!

FRIDAY: Fast day (if we've decided to carry on!!) Breakfast: 30g porridge oats (105 cals)/ 20ml milk (from daily allowance of 100 ml = 10 cals)/= 115 cals
Lunch: Hairy Dieters Posh Prawn Cocktail = 139 cals
Dinner: Hairy Dieters Cajun Chicken. In the recipe book, this comes out at 284 calories per portion, but that includes potatoes. On a quick calculation the potatoes work out at 82 cals per portion, making the chicken & dip = 202 cals. So if we have a big salad - mostly leaves, but some cucumber and pepper too - it will probably be about 250 for the lot.
Total for day = 504 This will go up a bit for my milk for coffee, but I should come in under 550

SATURDAY: Hairy Dieter's Southern Style Jambalaya which sounds tasty and delicious, and indulgent but reduced calorie. Yay!

SUNDAY: Pork chops, roast vegetables, potao wedges and gravy. No recipe needed!

LIGHT MEALS: See Monday & Friday!!! No, really, they'll be of the soup and sandwich variety, using up the Hairy Dieter soup from Monday, plus the soup I'm going to make today. Yelp. It's nearly midday and I've not made it. Excuse me! Back in a bit!

Soup now simmering - squash, onion, celery, carrots, half a slowly-going-soft yellow pepper, lambs lettuce (going brown), cabbage (left over from Wednesday), courgette-and-pesto sauce (from last night's meal), harrissa paste, tomato purée and a stock cube. Should be tasty.

I don't know if this I.F. will turn out to be a  frugal way of eating - we 're eating less, but maybe I'll be buying more stuff...I don't know. We shall see. The prawn cocktail for example has quite a lot of expensivey stuff (smoked salmon, prawns) but maybe it's balanced out by the lack of bread/ carb-y things. Still...it's worth a go.

Angela - the Hairy Dieter's fish stew was delicious! I was very pleasantly surprised. I threw (squeezed) in some Harissa paste, which made it slightly spicier, but I really enjoyed it. I used some of the frozen squid-mussel-prawn mix that I had in the freezer, instead of just prawns. It was a tad faffy to make but worth it, in the end.

Debbie - thanks for the heads-up on cauliflower pasta sauce...I'm not sure I'm a great fan of cauliflower...but I do like it in a cheese sauce! Maybe I should experiment a bit more...apparently it works well as a substitute for rice, crumbled up, which would work on the 5:2 diet...but I can't quite imagine it! Thanks too for your kind comment about the blog.


And the now-compulsory LOLcat:

(seems appropriate, as it is STILL snowing!! Mr FD despairs of getting down to Roanne to collect his new bike!)