Day 1 of the Diet: Fasting

Day 1

(Note: I kept track of the diet in my journal this past week (on old fashioned paper) so I'm transcribing the next few days of it here until I catch up!)

I decided to start with a fasting day. I really wasn't sure if I would *totally* fast (i.e., eat nothing, just drink water) or try to eat under 500 calories. I thought I'd see how it went. This was a good week for me to start because my husband was traveling so I wouldn't have to worry about not eating at dinnertime with the family - I'd just make dinner for my son.

I thought it might be easier to not eat anything -- cuts out the decision-making! - but that didn't quite work. I knew I'd at least drink my two cups of coffee (with about 1/8 c 2% milk each, so 60 calories total) because that's non-negotiable. So I did that. Typically, I'm not really hungry until 10 or 11 anyway. That was true on Day 1, too.

I did get hungry around lunchtime so I decided to make some miso soup, something I eat regularly anyway, but it's really low-calorie and delicious. You just take 1-2 tbsp of miso (I use Miso Master Organic Red Miso) and stir in about 2 cups (sometimes more) of almost boiling water (apparently if you use boiling water, the heat kills some of the beneficial aspects of the miso). I then added about 1/4 cups of raw spinach leaves and a splash of soy sauce. Yum! Not super-filling, but not bad, either. (Calories: About  50-60)

An hour later I ate a Wasa Multi Grain cracker (another staple): 45 calories. Satisfied my need for some crunch.

I was fairly hungry by mid-afternoon so I opted for a big cup of green tea (0 cal). I like it better than coffee in the afternoon, because the caffeine hit is less intense. It did lessen my appetite a little.

My hungriest time of the day is always 4-5 pm. No different today. So I ate another Wasa cracker (45 cal) with a hard boiled egg (78 cal). The protein helped and held me over while I watched my son eat a burrito. I just drank a lot of water and tried not to pick at his leftovers. I was pretty successful, though I might have had a tsp of guacamole (apparently a whole avocado is 250 cal so let's say 45 calories; I made the guac myself and it contained avocado + salsa + lime juice + salt). I'm only human!

Finally, later that evening I had a small glass of red wine (100 cal).

All in all, it was about 425 calories, I think. Not bad! Yes, I was hungry most of the day, but knowing I could eat freely the next day made it not too hard to take. Mostly I missed the crunch.