A night with....

....Dr Michael Mosley

I mentioned in my last blog post, that my sister and I were having a rare night out together, listening to the fabulous Dr Michael Mosley speak at his 'Trust Fast Health' Tour. It was a varied evening, where he spoke about his career and the various medics who have inspired him and what led him to develop and write his various books - The 5:2 Diet, The Fast Diet, The Blood Sugar Diet, The Clever Guts Diet and his most recent edition Fast800. I didn't come away learning anything new, as I have done a lot of research into fasting and Time Restricted Eating (TRE), to find ways to help manage my PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). It's the Time Restricted Eating that interests me the most, rather than restricting my calories. It's about eating in a small window of time, so for example 12/12 eating in a 12hr window 16/8 eating in an 8hr window 18/6 eating in a 6hr window..... The longer the body is in a fasted state, the bigger the benefits to your health. Blood sugars levels regulate and restore, once sugar stores are used, stored fat starts to be used and a whole other lot of health benefits follow. 

I get hungry once I eat. If I don't eat, I don't get hungry, so if I don't eat until 12 midday and as we eat tea early at 5:30/6pm, I would effectively be eating in a 6 hour window, so my fasted state would be 18hrs. I do find this quite easy and will try to be more focused in this approach, for say a month, as I've really only been doing the odd focused burst every now and again. Will get half term over and done with and will try this approach throughout the month of March, just before the Easter holidays begin. The idea is you should then only eat 800 calories a day, following a Mediterranean style diet, but that is for people who have a lot to lose. He does say you can do the 800 calories a day for just two days if you want to lose a little. Haven't got that far into the book yet but as I've less than a stone to lose and I like eating!!! I will find what works for me. 

I still go to Slimming World every Saturday morning, more for the accountability of the scales, rather than the plan specific now, as I tailor my diet to manage my PCOS long term. Hard core PCOS diet is gluten, dairy and soya free, with low/no carbs and low/no sugar. I have to find a way to manage my weight long term, without feeling deprived or restricted, so finding a happy balance is still very much a work in progress. But I have kept the weight off now for nearly 4 years now, give or take an annoying stone......

..... whilst eating the most delicious food!

Will keep you posted as to how I get on.