Really struggling with fasts at the moment

[plecofjustice]

Hi,

Wondering if anyone can offer any help and support. I've been 5:2'ing for just over a year now, and have lost 1.5 stones. I got married about 6 weeks ago, and in the run-up to the wedding, got a bit carried away with fasting/restricting and was doing 4:3 with 1200 cals maximum on the other days. After the wedding, I had 2 weeks completely without fasting then another 2 weeks of 6:1 as I was taking exams.

I'm now trying to get back on the 5:2 wagon, and I'm really struggling with hunger. This is hunger I've not known in previous fasts - feeling faint, very emotional, exhausted, dizzy, etc. I'm also really suffering with constipation and my IBS has flared up quite a bit. I've been also really craving sweet foods and junk - so different to before my 5:2 break, when I was eating mostly vegan and a lot of raw.

Not sure what's going on - I've had an extremely stressful few weeks between the wedding, house move, final exams and job change, but I'm on top of that now.

Any tips for getting the discipline back? I was really enjoying more raw/vegan, so I don't know why suddenly all I want is meat and sugar!

THanks :)

[BsshBossh]

Can you ease back into 5:2 - eating more frequently if you need to and allowing yourself more than 500 cals to begin with, or 4 mini fasts a week?

[fuzzywuzzy]

Could you be pregnant? I couldn't bear to be even a bit hungry when I was in the early weeks of pregnancy.

[plecofjustice]

God I hope not fuzzy! No, I'm pretty sure I'm not.

I had a good fast yesterday in the end, so i went back and looked over my food diaries for the last few weeks, and I've really not been eating a lot and drinking too much.

Stuck to a vegan fast yesterday and felt great, and even managed to get the dehydrator fired up overnight, so it's all good. Feeling a lot more positive today. Second fast of the week tomorrow, so we'll see, but hopefully I'm starting to get back on track.And as Bssh says, now I've got a good one done this week, I can always go slightly over tomorrow if I still feel really rough.

[Lilacroses]

Well done for getting back on it. I eat vegan most days now and it's really helped me to get more into fruit/veg and to get rid of the crap in my diet. I:m doing 5 : 2 and some days are definitely harder than others.

[FiscalCliffRocksThisTown]

sounds like your body's response to being starved? (fasting and only 1200 calls on "non fast" days = starvation)

[Littlemisskiwi]

It was pretty extreme to do 1200 cal on NFD. I thought The Fast diet was about normal eating on non fast days. Is that when you lost the most weight? Glad you are getting bac on track. Maybe a 6:1 would suit now.