5:2 Update #1

Ok, six weeks in - four if you don't count my fieldwork mid-way through. I've carried on eating as normal (except for the fast days), I've been to a wedding and seriously over-indulged, and yet I've still lost 9 lbs. This makes me sound as if I have an unhealthy diet - I don't. I eat plenty of veg and am generally sensible, but just have the occasional binge.

I am very happy about this, as you can imagine. My modest goal was to lose a stone, and I'm only 5 lbs away from that in a very short time.

Eat, Fast, and Live Longer?

I'll admit, I've tried Weightwatchers.
I'll admit, I lost about a stone on it.

However, I've come to the conclusion that I am not the sort of person that can do diets: I love bread, pasta, cheese, curries, and pretty much ALL THE FOODS far too much. I fell off the wagon spectacularly and put on way more than I'd lost.

The problem with loving food too much is that, despite having a fairly active job (at least some of the year), the pounds creep on like you would not believe, especially once over the age of 30. Cue a conversation in my office about a month ago, whereby a colleague told me all about the BBC Horizon programme - Eat, Fast and Live Longer (I had to make sure I got the comma in the right place. If eating fast was a prerequisite, then I'd live to 100).


So it goes like this: eat what you like five days a week, but on two non-consecutive days you can only eat 500 calories (or 600 for men). It sounded tough, but the alleged health benefits seemed a bonus to me: weight loss was only one, there was also reduction in cholesterol, lowering risk of diabetes and heart disease, and retarding the development of cancer cells. If even the NHS had it on their website then it couldn't be that bad, in my mind.

I've been doing it for around a month now and I'm the lightest I've been in a long time. I've lost a fair few pounds and am feeling rather good about it all. I even had two weeks off in the middle to go to fieldwork and just picked up where I left off on my return. I've been out for massive curries, I've not given up anything I love. The "hungry days" are actually not so bad. I've found that fizzy water is a great filler and you can eat quite a lot on 500 calories if you choose your veg wisely.

The anal retentive in me has been keeping track of progress in Excel and, as of yesterday, starting tracking body fat and H2O as well. I have a set of scales that measures these - I realise it's not massively accurate, but I'm still interested in seeing what it says.

So, here's my progress. I'll be updating as the weeks go on. The grey bars indicate my hungry days, and the blue my weight (note the gap in the middle when I was away). So far I've noticed that I - unsurprisingly - always drop the day after a hungry day, but then go up again afterwards. However, that rise is rarely as high as my previous weight, so overall the trend shows a gradual drop. It seems sustainable so far, but we'll see!

(Not So) Recent Projects: Hats

Can it really be that the last project update I did was October 2009? I admit, I'm a lazy knitter/crocheter, but it seems that I'm an even lazier blogger. Mind you, the world* is not missing much!

(* my one follower - hello mum!)

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So, prepare for a visual feast of knitwear. Or not. Your call.

First off... hats.




















Not the greatest picture of a Selbu Modern, but an ace hat nonetheless. My first real attempt at stranded colourwork. Looks better in the flesh, honest!

This Everglade I made for my mum, and am kind of wishing I'd kept it. I don't normally do patterns twice but I might consider it for this one.

Note: the blocking pins and the dinner plate are not a feature.

This one was not for me - even my minute head isn't small enough to fit in that one. It's an adaptation of the Snowflake Hat and the chart I made is on the project page at Ravelry.

This is Capucine. And I wore the hell out of it during the snow last year. I know I look like a five year old in it, but I have little shame.

Another hat for mother. This was highly experimental, no pattern involved, and probably ended up being far too hot to wear. I imagine it's now languishing in the bottom of one of her cupboards.

This was my favourite hat ever. Fitted perfectly, great for fieldwork, etc, etc, etc. It's a pattern called Sixty Cables.

I'm finding this all a bit too emotional though, as it was eaten by a mouse a couple of months back. It still hurts to talk about it.

The mouse is dead now. Revenge was mine.

I'm not so keen on this Beanie Brim Cap. No fault of the design: its probably because I ran out of yarn and the brim's a wee bit too small. Also I was probably a bit bitter at the time.

It's a cat, on a hat. It wasn't for me.

I don't have an updated picture of this sadly, but we abused the poor cat into giving him a body somehow, *and* a bendy tail. In fact, this is definitely the maddest hat I've ever made.

I realise it's too hot in Georgia to wear it, but SEND ME A PICTURE, LESLIE!

INSULATE!

Yes, those are Daleks, and no, as established above, I don't have any shame.


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Next up... random accessories.