Do you skip breakfast on purpose or are you not the breakfast type? Or what keeps you from not just having breakfast on the non-fasting days? If you are really hungry? Sorry, maybe I got you wrong but I am confused :-D

Until now (one week finished) I don´t find anything particularly hard, but there might be something after a while. Right now I completely agree with you that this is the best plan for me.

I find not having supper in the evenings the hardest on my fast days. I have a lateish breakfast, a lunch and then tea. On normal days I have supper as well - often just a bit of toast, a piece of fruit or a yoghurt - or I feel really eaty and might head for something less healthy.

I always eat breakfast though. It sets me up for the day and stops me craving sugary foods at elevensies time.

I have to eat breakfast no matter what I keep from working out at night. When I don't eat breakfast I don't have energy left. I tried it 10/23 and did 500 I got so weak. 10/27 same I had breakfast but still weak. But my 10/7, 10/29 and 11/02 I lost 4.3

Tomorrow I will do 4:3 again. Same my breakfast omelette then Ill have miso soup 2x a day. Dinner I haven't decided.

Bottomline I still do cardio for an hour. Fitness for me is essential.

I am just starting 5:2 but have fasted/cleansed over the past 25 years on/off - mostly way off since having kids. SLEEPING is the hardest for me. It really revs my system up at night. I can eventually get to sleep but I wake up super early. I don't feel hungry, just tired and revved at the same time.

When do you eat last meal on FD? Easier to sleep and not snack too much later in evening when I had dinner around 7-8pm. Do you light exercise during the day or take an evening walk? Might help too. Or find other routines that help you signal to body it's time. I think there's a reason for all those hot baths for toddlers as part of their bedtime routine

Trial and error FTW

I am trying the later dinners on the evening before the fast and keeping my 500 cals to a 24 hour window for now. Eventually as my body adjusts and if I am sleeping ok I will stretch it out to 36 hours if I can be civil and function. Even 24 hours of low 'clean' cals is great progress for me at this point to do twice a week!

foamroller - great idea! thanks

These are all really helpful ideas! I am tempted to try the antihistamine but then again I already take a lot of antihistamines for my allergies so I'd like to avoid more. I will play with the hours when I exercise and the hours when I eat too, trial and error FTW.

Foamroller wrote: »

Oh, I forgot to mention a very useful trick to me.
When I'm too wired to sleep or just need to wind down, I listen to "binaural beats", sleep or meditation as search words in youtube. Really like the Brainpowerwave channel, no fuzz, not too intrusive. I wouldn't take too seriously all the titles and their claims on what they're aiding.
Jody Whiteley is ok too.
Or you can search for nature sounds if you're into languid waves, silky rain and mountainstream, which I also like.

I have a weight loss hypnosis app that puts me to sleep as soon as she starts talking It's a good one because it just fades out at the end with music and shuts off. I sometimes wake up through the night with my headphones plugged in cuddling my iPad As a weight loss app, I'd say it doesn't work, but boy it sure does relax me! Maybe it would work if I managed to stay awake!!

gle8442 wrote: »

These are all really helpful ideas! I am tempted to try the antihistamine but then again I already take a lot of antihistamines for my allergies so I'd like to avoid more. I will play with the hours when I exercise and the hours when I eat too, trial and error FTW.

I wouldn't use any medicine that is prescribed for another condition to alleviate something else, as a general rule. (Although the guys who did sildenafil before it was rebranded as Viagra, probably begged to differ when they were testing blood pressure and heart conditions).

On a darker note. Medicines are only clinically tested for which they were prescribed. Also, very often the body adapts to doses of medicine, thereby maybe reducing the effect it would have until you REALLY need it vs. allergies. A parallel would be the overusing of antibiotics that probably will make them inefficient as medicine in their present development in somewhere between 20-30 years time.
( http://www.bbc.com/news/health-21702647 )

Besides, most anti-inflammatory medicines, prednisol, antihistamines and NSAIDs (to a lesser extent) are said to be a last resort type of medicine. They reduce symptoms of inflammation, but you risk increasing inflammation episodes. So it CAN become a bad loop. Don't remember how this was explained medically, but I've read it many places. I had a really bad blood inflammation 4 years ago and I lost the ability to walk for some days, got hospitalized and was put on prednisol. It comes with very clear instructions it's NOT FOR PROLONGED USE.

I'm not trying to scare you. I grew up with a mom who had migraines, she used medicines heavily. I'm not opposed to use medicines or supplements to help. Just be conscious about the choices you do for your body and mind.

Edit: Sometimes I foamroll to relax muscles. It's very painful, so the body releases beta endorphins after.