Amy Voce Logo

Fasting Isn’t Fast Enough

I tweeted today about how I’m fasting and a lot of people asked why I was doing it so thought I’d share my food deprived day and the reasons behind doing something which I anticipated being something I would never achieve.

Now I’m always a big fan of a good British winter. I’m not sure you’ll find me in a happier state than sat with a dripping hot Camembert, dipping bread, drinking red wine-to warm me up of course. Or equally on a Sunday afternoon, snuggled up in front of a fire whilst drinking gallons of tea, washed down with a generous serving of chocolate. And of course you have the added bonus that if you do add a few winter pounds, you need to wear twelve layers, hat, scarf and gloves so it can go unnoticed. 
I’m also a big fan of winter thawing out in March. At this point the winter stodge should be naturally transforming to lighter options. Fish, veg, salad, fruit seem tastier. The chocolate cravings lessen, the weather is more ‘running friendly’ and naturally I’ll lighten up a bit. Not this year. Yes. I am officially blaming the climate for weight gain. 
I’m always concerned with healthy eating and living but I’m not interested in dieting at all. I’m not aiming to look like Victoria Beckham, thank god. Beyonce would be nice though. I don’t own a pair of scales, never have. I entirely judge my weight by how my clothes fit and look and how I feel. So when I pulled on a pair of jeans that actually ripped in February, ACTUALLY PHYSICALLY RIPPED, I decided to take action. Throw into that the fact that I booked a holiday which has creeped up on me, in two weeks in fact, where I will be bikini bound! Gulp. So, I joined a gym, started going regularly, even enlisted the help of a personal trainer to get me kick started. That’s all good but then I feel I need to get out of the cold weather stodge temptation. As I find once you get into healthier eating you’re less inclined towards the stodge. Then I heard about this fasting diet. 
Now, I’m not endorsing this, but have decided to give it a go to get me started. You are basically supposed to fast for one day a week (or limit of 500 calories). The guy who originally told me about this really sold it when he said ‘it gives your organs a rest’. I liked the idea of that. They’ve been ever so busy the last 30 years and they’ve NEVER had a day off!
So today I began. Because I was at work this morning, where I actually have to be pretty chirpy and focused (no, seriously) and my day starts at 4.30am I allowed myself a small bowl of bran flakes at 6am. Then just lemon and ginger tea. I also ate a banana at 11am. It’s now 8.30pm and I’ve just devoured 3 delicious, enticing celery sticks for dinner. Apparently you actually burn more calories physically eating them?! Ideal! And to my surprise, I actually feel fine and not as sapped as I thought.
From just one day of doing this I have noticed a lot! Firstly, that I definitely don’t need to eat as much as I do, but that I mainly eat for enjoyment. Eating good food is without question my favourite pastime. Not in a binge, sit on the sofa eating pizzas & chocolate all day gorge type of way. I just look forward to it SO much. So much so that this evening when I didn’t have an evening meal to look forward to and prepare I felt a bit…lost. It feels like such a waste! A good meal is often the highlight of my day.
Also, the difficult thing about fasting is not being able to escape it AT ALL. Everyone eating at work made me gutted with jealousy. I deliberately picked today because I didn’t have much on. But even the petrol stations enormous display of confectionery, turning on the TV I ended up watching Jamie Oliver’s 15 minute meals…so turned onto Friends where they were then sat around snacking. Even Jennifer Aniston!! Every single advert seems to be food. Granted it’s bound to be all I’m focused on today, but I did realise how our lives entirely revolve around food.
Part of today as well was to exercise my willpower which is notoriously USELESS. Partly because I’ll always apply the ‘live every last day like your last’ theory and feel concerned that if it was my last day I would have had a really rubbish celery filled day of boredom. But so far so good. And I’m amazed I’ve not caved. There was a moment of potential weakness in the kitchen where I had a stand off with a half eaten Easter egg. To the point where my hand delved in but I resisted at the last minute. THAT FELT GOOD. 
I suppose if this was my last day on earth, it may have been dull food wise but at least my brain will have achieved something? Oh and my stomach already feels flatter. Who’s up for it next week?? We’ll make celery soup!
God I miss you, you delicious cheesy hunk….
And you. You sugary nightmare. 


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

*