A year of Fasting 5:2

I am coming up on my 1 year anniversary to starting 5:2 fasting.  For those of you unfamiliar with this idea, you eat normally 5 days a week and then 500-600 calories the other 2 days.  The 2 fasting days can not be consecutive, otherwise you can space them as needed.  I wanted to reflect on how this journey has been and share why I will be taking a break from this lifestyle for a bit.

Things started off very well.  I started gaining energy and really enjoyed the flexibility that not eating until dinner gave at first.  I was pretty quick to start losing weight as well.  The summer was a little hard since the family is around and we do lots of fun stuff, but I kept with it.  When September hit I was into a routine that was easy to keep with.  I quickly did discover that I could not fast on the days I played soccer.  So I moved my Monday fast to Tuesday, the day after I played.  For the remainder I generally did Tuesday and Friday fasts.  This worked well for me, except for the week of my period.

It started with being utterly exhausted in August.  I wrote it off as the back to school time and wacky scheduling.  But then I realized the timing of it.  So I changed and took out a fasting each month.  My energy level came back up and I continued on.  At the beginning of December I was down 15lbs, YAY!  I promptly gained 5lbs back due to holiday eating and cold weather, despite continuing the fasting. 

Unfortunately, I have only lost 2 of those pounds nearly 5 months later.  I have been working out and doing a lot more strength training.  As the weather gets nicer I am adding more walking and some distance running in.  And that is how I have been able to lose those 2lbs.  But I've also noticed I am getting very hungry, even on non-fasting days.  I am starting to wonder if I am eating enough overall, as I know that my body doesn't do "starvation mode" well and I can actually gain weight if not eating enough.  I haven't been counting calories at all.  But with my hard work outs 2x/week, soccer once a week, and 2 lighter work outs, I may need to increase the fuel.

I was so excited in February when I hit my 5th month in a row of 28 day cycles.  I thought I had found something that finally put my body back on track.  But I am not on my 3rd month of 29+ day cycles and waiting to find out the length this month.  My body is clearly unhappy about something going on. 

I am feeling fairly fit.  While I dread some of the difficult work out days, I feel good when the work out is done.  I cut off about 30 seconds from my 2 mile run this week.  And at the end of the 2 miles I didn't feel like I couldn't walk!  So these are definitely good things.  It means that at least the exercising I've been doing is agreeing with my body.  For a variation, I am going to try out a 30 day jump rope, kettle bell challenge.  Looks like it will be fun and a good way to get outside.

I was sleeping great.  I was able to fall asleep quickly and stay asleep all night.  But for the last several weeks I have had trouble both falling asleep and staying asleep.  Some of the research I've found says this is very common in females when they are getting enough food.  I guess our brains start to become hyper-aware so we can do a better job finding food.

I'm debating whether to finish up this month as it would just be 3 more fasting days or just to end now.  I skipped today because it should be time for my new cycle to start.  So I guess that will tell me.  If I have to skip Tuesday then my body really needs me to be eating again.  I'm not sure how I'm so starving today even though it's my third day in a row of regular eating.  I guess my body is just over this idea for now.