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Before Christmas, we had a box of
chocolates given to us as a gift - on a diet day of course! We all speculated
about scoffing the lot the next day - but guess what, none of use fancied them
the next day! That indeed seems to be a theme - our overall appetite for eating
more than we need has diminished. Most people I speak to are intrigued and
usually think I'm on a food restricted diet until I explain more. I have to say
I'm a bit of an evangelist, so I am pretty good at converting people - even
some real sceptics.

Like
me, Tina is loving the health effects:

I think our emotional and mental wellbeing
improves a lot on less food. I feel much more positive and clear headed if that
makes sense. A bit like walking out on an early crisp cold morning and feeling
really alive :) I guess that's the sharpness you mentioned. I used
to take two lots of blood pressure tablets, but since losing weight my blood
pressure dropped dramatically. I only discovered it because I started getting
heart palpitations and went to my doc. He took my blood pressure, then told me
to stand up. As I did he actually went 'whoa!' My blood pressure dropped very
low. After monitoring it and seeing how low it had become, he took me off the
medication and for the first time in about twenty years, I'm medication free! My
friends and family all think it’s a great diet too. In fact both my sisters in
law, my husband’s niece and one of my friends have joined your group because
they think I look great!

And
Linda has been reaping the benefits too:

My mother had her six monthly
family day just after Christmas and my nephew, who I hadn’t seen for six
months, commented, “Good grief Linda, where’s the rest of you gone?”! My only ‘problem’
is that having eaten low calorie foods for most of my life it’s hard to eat
anything like ‘normal’ calories on my ‘feasting’ days, so will often eat a
couple of biscuits or have a glass of wine to make up the calories!

Scientists
are busy continuing research into intermittent fasting and I’ll be posting
updates on
www.the5-2dietbook.com
– but I thought I’d end with the
answers to the questions people have asked me recently.

Be honest - have you considered giving up
this diet?

Not
once. With pretty much every other diet I’ve undertaken, I’ve already given up
by month four. On this one, I might have the odd day when circumstances change
- I fancy going out to celebrate something, or a friend calls out of the blue.
But there’s no beating myself up - I simply switch the Fast Day to tomorrow.
This isn’t all or nothing - it’s about a small but permanent change.

Will you abandon 5:2 once you reach the
target?

No.
I’m just two pounds away now and I like the idea of reducing to a fast one day
a week, as a kind of ‘check in’ on portion size and for the health benefits.
I’ll also keep weighing myself once a week, because it’s a good way to avoid
the weight ‘creeping’ back on. Though I hope the changes to my appetite will
also work in my favour there too.

Is this just another diet craze that will be
forgotten by next Christmas?

My
opinion - shared by many others - is that this really is different. It’s not
about cutting out entire food groups, or eating strange foods dreamed up by the
diet industry. For me, it’s about people who are overwhelmed by choice and the
availability of food being helped to make better decisions. The natural appetite
control, the flexibility, the health benefits and the all-round sustainability
of it make it different.

Plus, it’s a ‘craze’ that happens to have been around a very,
very long time - from the unavoidable and frankly scary fast/feast lifestyle of
early man, to the instructions to fast contained in so many religions. A
respite or retreat from excess is something that has worked for humanity for
many centuries. In the twentieth century, those who could, turned their back on
the feeling of hunger, but now I’ve rediscovered what appetite and food mean to
me.

A sense of perspective

I’m
writing this on the evening of a Fast Day when I’ve eaten only one main meal,
with no hunger pangs or ill effects. It reminds me how lucky we are to be able
to choose what and when we eat. Fasting has done much more than help me lose
weight - it’s helped me regain control over my eating habits and make me look
forward to my next meal as one of the pleasures of life.

I really hope you’ve been inspired by the stories of the
fantastic dieters who shared their struggles and their successes. If you’d like
your 5:2 journey to continue after this book, join us. We’re @the52diet on
Twitter, at facebook.com/groups/the52diet or on the new website,
www.the5-2dietbook.com, where you can join the forums, find recipes or download
free tools to make life easier. You can also get in touch with me there, I’d
love to hear from you.

Finally, if you’ve enjoyed this book, or would like to recommend
it to others, I’d be so grateful if you’d think about leaving a review.

In the meantime, keep feasting, keep fasting and keep enjoying
life! Somehow, it all tastes so much better these days…