5:2 Update (Week 2 & 3)

We just finished up week 3 of 5:2 and are really enjoying it! Switching to Monday & Thursday made a huge difference since those 2-3 days feel like a very long break between diet days. ("Fast" days just sounds terrible to me, so I settled on "diet" days.)

On week 2 I had miso soup for lunch loaded with tofu, wakame seaweed, green onions, and shiritaki noodles. For dinner I made a lentil & sausage stew based on this recipe. 5:2 started in the UK so a lot of the recipes you will find measure everything in grams & liters. I end up planning out my own measurements (cups & Tbsp.), calculate all of the calories, and tweak things to get the servings close to 200 calories. The stew ended up being very tasty but looked like a gray-brown pile of mush, so I might change things around next time, haha. Those two meals only totaled up to 300 calories, so I had another 300 to use the rest of the day (although I could have made better choices with them).

I was hoping to lose more than 1 lb. this week and worked out 4 times, including one 45 minute workout! (I usually do 20-30) And of course I ended up losing 1 lb. again. I know that 1-2 lbs. a week is a perfectly normal and healthy weigh loss range, but I was a little bummed to see that the extra work made no difference. Naturally my husband lost 1 lb. each week without doing any exercise.




Week 3 I made Chicken & Kale Scotch Broth (soup) based on this recipe, which ended up being fantastic! I'll definitely have to type up my version soon. For dinner we had an old favorite, Sizzling Rice Soup (see above), and the two meals ended up being about 425 together. Soups are so easy to load with veggies & make super-low calorie, and I love them, so I didn't even notice that I'd planned soup for both meals. By dinner the 2nd day I was not really in the mood for soup & wishing we had something else, so now I know not to make 2!

This time I was determined to lose more than 1 lb., and was really enjoying my workouts for once, so I did 5 (1/2) workouts! Unfortunately the Super Bowl snacks really did us in, and I only went down 1/2 lb. My husband lost none this week, so I guess the exercise did help! I decided to take my measurements again this week and saw that I've lost 1/2 inch off my hips and 2 inches off my waist! (the smallest part of the waist) Very encouraging! Perhaps I am gaining muscle & loosing more fat than I think.