MPM - and a progress update

I’ve been following the 5:2 plan for 10 weeks now and things are going well. Strictly speaking, I had one week of 4:3 (which was bloody awful) and one week of 7:0 (that was the week that we went to Brighton and entered “holiday mode” a bit too early). In that time, I’ve lost 20.6lbs, which is nearly a stone and a half (yay!) and an average rate of just over 2lbs a week which is double what I was expecting (more yay!)

But if you look at the chart you can see that there was a period when things started to move in the wrong direction – basically, most of February. I had three weeks of gains on the trot – one, after an indulgent weekend away, was expected the other two, not so much. The thing that seems to make the big difference for me is alcohol. If I don’t drink anything, I can eat with relative abandon on non-fast days and lose weight. As soon as I start trying to factor in some wine at the weekends or a sneaky couple of midweek pints, it slows right down. It’s a shame as I adore a tipple, but for now, I am putting my beloved g&ts to one side while I concentrate on shifting some poundage. Drinking is going to have to be an occasional treat rather than a regular occurrence.

On to this week’s meal plan and, continuing our plan in March to cook our books, the basis of this comes from Valentine Warner’s “The Good Table”. I have yet to identify any particular theme to this book, unless that theme is “delicious things that I want to eat”. We’ll be fasting on Monday and Wednesday, and D is out on Friday for a team lunch, so four evenings to plan:

Monday: Soup

Tuesday: Mussels on toast

Wednesday: Soup

Thursday: Valentine Warner’s Dad’s prawn curry

Saturday: Moussaka

Sunday: Slow cooked beef cheeks with baby turnips

YUM. That’s the third week in the row where I think we’ve had some absolute treasures to look forward to – and, this may be the fasting speaking, but I can’t wait to get stuck in to that little lot.