Winter is not my most favourite time of the year, not only does it get colder and darker I also always find myself struggling with sticking to my diet. So how do you stick to the 5:2 diet and combat the winter blues? This month I was determined to find a solution.
One thing that is a bonus during the early winter months is that you don’t seem to go out all that often. I find that in the summer I am always out at parties and meeting up with friends for drinks and this is not a great way to sustain any form of diet. Luckily on the 5:2 diet you can arrange your social lie around your slow and fast days. I avoid doing much else but working and being with my family on fast days and hen on slow days I feel happier to go out as there is no pressure on the slow days.
That all being said, if you do not control the food that you eat on the slow days while on the 5: 2 diet then you will find that all of your hard work on the fast days can be in vain as if you over eat for the rest of the week the effects of the fasting will be much less in my experience.
In the winter I find that I really don’t tend to go out and socialise as much as I do when it is warmer in the summer. The thought of getting dressed up and going out on a cold winters night and braving the wind on the rain never really appeals to me al that much and I would far rather stay inside and snuggle on the sofa.
If I stay in then I tend not to ever drink alcohol – this is always a major down fall of mine on every diet because I love to be able to enjoy a cocktail or a glass of wine but they are filled with calories and terrible for a diet!
So this month I have been staying in more and drinking much less which has been a great help, however there is of course always a flip side to everything and not going out and seeing friends as much has left me feeling pretty down at times and this is when I tend to reach for another packet of crisps or biscuits.
I am well aware that I am a comfort eater but it is so difficult to re-programme your mind and its association t food, especially when this is how you have lived for years.
I have found that this month I have been managing to stick really well to my fast days and eat healthily and well but that on my slow days I have been eating way more than I should to lose weight or even maintain it at some points.
In the winter months I find that I am generally alright during the day ad I am able to manage and control the food that I am eating to be healthy, even on slow days. My problems occur when the sun goes down! I have no idea why but as soon as it gets dark I long to eat something naughty as a little treat and with my distinct lack of will power I end up not only treating myself but inevitably gorging on sweets or cheese or biscuits.
Once I start to eat the naughty food then I feel like there is no point in even stopping (which of course there is!) and with these long winter nights it is becoming very difficult to control my food intake.
However, it would be pretty weak of me to blame my diet failings on the season! After all, last year I found the winter to be far kinder to me regarding the 5:2 diet and I was able to make some good progress so I have to turn my frown upside down and get back on the dieting horse.
Christmas seems to be approaching fast and I really don’t want to put on more weight before then because I know I will want to over indulge over this period with all the parties and fun going on.
So to make myself feel a whole lot better I jumped on my bike this month and focused on doing some exercise as I know that it not only helps you to keep fit and healthy and to lose weight but it also releases endorphins to make you feel happy and beat those winter blues.
By combining successful fast days with regular exercise I was able to counter all the bad eating I have been doing on the slow days this month to try and keep the weight off and I found that it worked to a certain degree.
So I didn’t lose loads of weight, but at least I didn’t put on loads either and at the end of the month I have managed to record a weight loss of 2 pounds!
Let’s see how I manage to do in the run up to Christmas during December!
Weight loss this month: -2 pounds
Total weight loss: 29 pounds
