5:2 Update - Week 18, 4 months

Ok, I know I said I was going to post a recipe using PB2 next, but I totally forgot that I owe you a 5:2 diet update today!

Progress ~
I am back on track now that Easter is behind us, and over the last 4 weeks I've lost about 6.5 lbs. for a total of 22.5!

Yeas ago we made a big effort to lose weight and were tracking (and restricting) our calories 6 days of the week and working out about 3 times a week. It took me 6 months to lose 23 lbs. that time, so I'm very excited to see I've reached the same amount in 2/3 of the time! (And only 'dieting' 2 days a week.)

My measurements dropped this month too ~ 1" off the waist, 1/2" off the hips, and another .75" from the thighs. I've been doing Pilates with Cassie Ho (YouTube) for my strength training lately, and it must be working! I've been taking pics monthly, but didn't feel like they showed much of a difference until this month. The front shots are worthless, but you can see some slimming from the side ~




Exercise ~
I've been playing around with my workout schedule a bit. I was doing my strength training (about 10 min.) before my Zumba cardio (20-30 min.), but now I do it after about 15-20 minutes of Zumba to break up the chunk.

For a while I tried breaking up the exercise throughout the day... 10 mintutes here, another 10 there, and so on. It worked well for a few days and was pretty enjoyable (it barely felt like I'd exercised those days), but then I was so busy with work I kept forgetting that I'd only done 10 minutes until it was almost time for bed! After a few days of forgetting, I went back to my normal routine, but I also started writing my times down on my daily to-do list (instead of scrap paper) so I can easily see if I still need to do more.


Food ~
I've also been playing around with the times I eat on diet days, and had some luck bumping back my lunch a little later, closer to snack time, and saving that snack for after dinner. I wasn't any hungrier at lunch time, and was more content at the end of the night. But once I discovered the 100 calorie salad, I've pretty much been eating that at my normal lunch time, and I still have room for the bigger snack after dinner.

I'm behind on posting our new 200 calorie meals, but I've got some yummy Asian Lettuce Wraps, Cabbage Pad Thai, and Singapore Noodles coming for you soon!