Anniversary? Yes, I’ve been maintaining my weight on 5:2 for a year today!
I was so thrilled to achieve my healthy weight target (55kgs for me, which is somewhere in the middle of the normal BMI range for my height and age) let June, but I am even more delighted to have been able to stay there. I gave myself a 2 kg range to stay within (53 – 55) and in the last year I have not gone below the bottom, and only temporarily very slightly over (like when I have been away on holiday and not fasted for a week).
So I thought it would be of interest to show you a typical menu plan for a week, bearing in mind that I have a TDEE of about 1300 without exercise, so I don’t have a lot of calories to play with, but I certainly eat well and pretty much what I want.
Ok here’s my meal plan for the next week. It’s BBQ weather! I still have lots of strawberries, the cherries are ripening, artichokes are ready and the shops are starting to be full of summer fruits. Recipes for dishes in bold text are included in 5:2 Healthy Eating for Life, those in italics are in Focus on Flavour. Some recipes are new and once I have cooked them again and calorie counted them, I will share them with you.
- Friday
- Ham, Egg and Chips
- fresh fruit
- Spanakopitta – spinach and feta filo triangles (recipe here)
- Lemony Lamb Kebabs with Wholewheat Pita (recipe here) and Greek Salad with Feta and Olives
- Homemade Strawberry ice cream drizzled with strawberry coulis and sprinkled with strawberry dust from my latest thing, dehydrated strawberries
- Saturday
- Thin Crust Wholewheat Ham and Chorizo Pizza with Green Salad with Seeds
- fresh fruit
- Spring Rolls (if I am able to buy fresh beanshoots, I will make them myself)
- Chicken Satay with Satay Sauce, cucumber, spring onion and carrot ribbons and Beanshoot Salad. Maybe a little rice to go with it
- Cheesecake in Chocolate Cups with Strawberries
- Sunday
- Globe Artichoke hearts with lemon juice and melted butter
- Leftover pizza and salad
- fresh fruit
- Out for dinner
- Monday – Fast Day
- Harira style Soup (vegetables in a spicy tomato based broth) 125
- Harissa-rubbed Chicken breast with vegetable accompaniments 250
- Poached Spiced Cherries with Fromage Frais – 100
- Tuesday
- Peppered Mackerel with Avocado, Cherry and Walnut Salad and Minted Beetroot Salad
- fresh fruit
- BBQ Sweetcorn
- Moroccan style Chicken Kebabs with Kachumber Salad drizzled with argan oil, Wholewheat Maneesh (seedy flatbread) and yogurt with ginger
- Poached Spiced Cherries with filo sesame wafers
- Wednesday
- A picnic of Oven Baked Scotch Eggs, Black Pepper Chicken Sticks with Spicy Tomato Dipping Sauce and Light Coleslaw with Cherries
- Strawberry Marshmallow Mousse
- Chargrilled Courgette Salad (recipe here)
- BBQ Toulouse Sausage with spicy Puy Lentil Salad
- Cherry and Choc Chip Gelato
- Thursday – Fast Day
- I usually start my day with two cups of tea (with soya milk as I don’t like dairy milk).
- Breakfast on non-fast days is a plain yogurt with a few berries and one slice of wholewheat toast with almond butter and marmite; or two slices of toast. Black coffee. I don’t eat breakfast on fast days.
- Mid morning on non-fast days I have a small capuccino made with soya milk. On fast days I have espresso.
- Mid afternoon I have a herbal or ordinary tea.
- While preparing dinner I have a glass of water kefir.
- On non-fast days I do usually have wine. As we often don’t eat dinner until 8pm or so, if I have a glass of wine before dinner, I will also have some nuts. At the weekend I enjoy having one or two pieces of dark chocolate after dinner, but I rarely think of chocolate these days!
- I drink plenty of water and occasionally a glass of unsweetened lemon squash
I hope you have a great week! I’m looking forward to it…. 🙂
Well done – great news, but SO many questions: what is TDEE? How do you dry strawberries and what is kefir water? I’m intrigued. Barbara
Hi Barbara. TDEE is the amount of calories you need to maintain your weight (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). There are calculators online where you can work it out. I first tried drying strawberries in a slow oven but was so bowled over by the flavour that I have invested in a dehydrator. I will probably post some more about that in future. Kefir water is a probiotic drink that you ‘brew’ from grains. The place I got mine from http://www.kefirshop.co.uk is temporarily closed, but I am sure you can find more about it if you google “water kefir”. Thanks for your interest!
Goodness, your menu sounds terribly exotic compared to mine! I rarely bother with desserts (much to Mr FD’s disappointment!)
You have done really well on the 5:2 – I’ve not lost as much weight but I haven’t been as “good” as you. You certainly have some really delicious looking food planned. Do you work as well? If so, how on earth do you find the time/motivation to cook such yummy things?
Hi FD, well I work sometimes, but when I do it is usually cooking for the guests that come to our photography courses….. generally speaking when it is just the two of us I don’t spend a huge amount of time preparing meals as I find that I am busy in the garden (or on the computer) until at least 6pm most days. I have a bread maker and an ice cream maker and they help a lot! But most of my recipes are pretty straightforward and don’t take a long time to do. I often prepare double portions so that half can be frozen for another time too. Of course I have days when I don’t want to do much (hence things like ham, egg and chips!) and this time of the year I use the BBQ a lot – which means that I can get Mr B to do the turning….