For the well padded....larger gentlemen :)

[phat_stak_tipa]

*This is a personal account of my achievements, i am not a doctor or health consultant, therefore no liability will be mine in the event of ill affects, follow this at your own risk*

Now that is out of the way, just thought i would share my experiences of a 'diet' i have been on now for almost 12 months, some of you may have heard about or seen this at some point, the 5:2 diet!

The last week of September 2014, i weighed in at 108.5kg naked on my bathroom scale, basically the heaviest i have been in my 32 years of life.

Over the years since high school i have gone up and down in weight, after some stressful family issues and 'other diets', active jobs and non active jobs. Anyway something had to change, a month before i started, my partner of 12 years told me she was pregnant after 15months of trying for a child, so happy days for us!

I had started to think about my health and also got sick of being fat and outgrowing clothes, i had also watched a story on TV about the 5:2 diet, which in a nutshell is 5 days eating normal and 2 days of only eating 2500kj, the average adult diet is 8700kj per day. Google it and check the details of the 5:2 diet for yourself.

After watching it i thought its too good to be true, but it sounded like it was a 'lazy' way to diet. Me being inclined to be lazy thought lets give it a shot!

In the lead up to hitting 108.5kg my kj intake was huge, i am a storeman and whilst i walk 15km (measured) a day around the warehouse picking stock, it is not an overly demanding or heavy environment.

A typical day of food for me was: 4 slices of vegemite toast, big bowl of cereal using 500ml of milk, small container of chicken/veg stirfry and rice (homemade) a coke and chocolate bar, then home for dinner which could be more stirfry or spaghetti or takeaway maccas, kfc, and of course some dessert mostly chocolate and of course more coke or pepsi. So rough kj count would be 12000+kj!!!

Now onto what i call the lazy 5:2 diet, the peanut butter sandwich diet, health freaks look away lol.....so i started out doing the diet on Monday and Wednesday, so you have to stick to 2500kj on those days, you can eat that how you want to but try to not to exceed it, on those days i eat a mixture of 2 apples, a peanut butter sandwich (no butter) and a big bowl of microwave vegies or vegemite toast (with butter) and a small amount of fruit juice. Sometimes its all peanut butter sandwiches and vegemite toast, other times veg and fruit, do what suits you just try not to eat more than 2500kj, so its super easy and cheap too! Years ago i did the Bodytrim diet it sucked so much, no carbs, lots protein small meals loads of prep and cooking, sure i lost weight but it was crap!

Before i explain the harder parts of the 5:2 diet il give you my weight loss, im now 90kg, im 178cm tall, instead of wearing size 38-40 im now in 32-34 pants and i have about 5kg to go until im 85kg and back to my weight when i was 21! There is no time line for that but il get there. I now do 4.5-2.5 diet which is half day friday also, reason being that i lost 12kg in about 3months and the last 6kg took until May this year doing the extra half day on Friday, as you get lighter it takes longer to lose weight.

I fell off the wagon when my son was born in May, i had a month off work and didnt stick to the diet and gained 3kg so back to 93kg, those 3kg took until now to come off, but i have not been strict on myself like when i first started. Here is the beauty of the diet on your eat days pretty much eat what you want, if you can keep it to around 8700kj combined with the 2 diet days you will lose weight, i still have eat days that exceed 10000kj but i still lose weight.

So 8 months to lose 18kg with no exercise other than work, and i mostly eat what i want, it isnt the healthiest diet but if i became more focused on healthy food it would be even better, in saying that though the warmer weather makes it easier to eat fruit and veg. I still eat bacon and eggs twice a week and pancakes on the weekends, i have chocolate and soft drink but this diet has helped me slow down on it.

Some other positives are that i have heaps more energy, im happier, my partner has lost weight also eventhough she is not on the diet because we dont eat much takeway anymore, i really dont like maccas anymore after not eating it for so long, kfc and opporto are a once a month thing now and it's usually burger meals, i had an issue with my left foot hurting (on them all day) the arch was killing me but as i have lost weight that has gone and my knees are better also.

Now the negatives on the diet days, you will feel tired and flat, i find if i am struggling il have a can of coke zero or pepsi max as i dont drink tea or coffee to get my caffeine hit and perk me up, but i find this pain for one day at a time is far better than trying be good all week or having to go to the gym, as time goes on it becomes easier to deal with it, keep yourself busy and drink lots of water.

I dont smoke and i dont drink much maybe 10 drinks a month if i am lucky, im good with money, but my weakness is food, this diet has helped me be motivated to be healthier as results have come quickly and it is easy to stick to with mildly good will power.

There is heaps of info about it online and there are other health benefits of this type of diet (not necessarily mine), that was a long post but its the truth and if it helps even one person then good stuff!

This will be my way of life now, once i reach my goal weight il do one day a week and see how it goes, and il be adding some mild exercise such as push-ups and sit-ups to get things toned up.

Cheers!