Desperate to lose some of the baby-weight I have recently embarked on the 30 day shred once again. Whilst it feels great to be exercising again I am not too happy with the rate of weight loss. Patience is not a particular strength of mine.
Not being one to let any new diet or exercise fad pass me by I have decided to give the 5:2 diet a go. I know several bloggers have had great success with it, the lovely Steph from I’m Counting UFOZ and Lucy from The Mummy Returns to name but two.
Today is my first day and this is what I have just had for lunch.
The recipe is actually one I got from my Mum. It really is delicious and very simple to make. You will need:
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, thinly sliced
- 1 baking potato, thinly sliced
- 250g split red lentils
- 1.5 pints chicken stock made with one chicken stock cube
- 50g chopped tomatoes
- 15g butter
- Salt and pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- Place the onion and butter in a large bowl, cover and microwave for 2 minutes until soft.
- Stir in all the remaining ingredients except the chopped tomatoes, cover and microwave for 20 minutes.
- Remove the bay leaf, add the tomatoes and blend.
- Heat for a further 3 minutes in the microwave.
This makes 6 portions and has just 130 calories per serving.
For tea I am going to make a chicken and spinach curry I found on this i-phone app.
I will let you know how I get on. If you are thinking of giving this diet a try do check out Steph’s blog. There are tonnes of great recipes there.
Wish me luck folks.
You might find you lose inches, rather than weight with the shred. You’ll tone up and gain a bit of muscle, which, annoyingly, weighs more than fat. Get the tape measure out, and the change might spur you on. Thanks for the mention re 5:2 🙂
Inch loss I would be happy with! I am just being a bit impatient I think. Thanks so much for the 5:2 inspiration. It is going to be a real help x
thank you for this advice Steph.
Go Jen, go Jen! As you know, I’m a big fan, and still doing it 3 months on (and I normally HATE diets and ‘faddy’ things!) We’ve been doing a total diet overhaul over here (much to Al’s HORROR) and feel soooo much better for it! Hope it works out well for you – there is a great support group on Facebook where you can talk to fellow fasters (called 5:2 diet I think? Something like that!) xxx
Thanks Lucy! Your blog gave me the oomph I needed to get off my rather large bottom. Hope we might catch up with you guys soon. Tom said something about breakfast? Sounds awesome x
You are putting me to shame, can’t believe you are dieting when it feels like you had a baby yesterday. I need to do something now I have no excuse with them all being at school! Best of luck and thank you for linking up with MotivationalMonday x
I love carrot soup, never tried it with lentils. mmm
I just can’t bear lentils though, if I could blitz them so I can’t taste them then it would work wouldn’t it? It looks stunning though, good work!
Nipping over from ‘Recipe Of The Week’.
I started the diet last week but then yesterday fell of the wagon as i had some furniture fitting in…so all i ate yesterday was crap basically. I need to try and get back to it tomorrow but as my cooker is not wired to the mains yet it will be a bit difficult to make the soup…Oh wait i have a soup maker!
Still need to learn more about the 5:2 diet though and need to plan more.
Thank you for sharing and for linking up with the Friday Foodie Round Up
I will give this soup a try! I definitely need to find my mojo again – I’ve had a 2 stone loss this year and have been maintaining for the past couple of months… guess I will be dusting off The Shred DVD again 🙁
I’ve been low-carbing for AGES, but think now I’m at my target weight (kind of – I’d love to get back to my ‘skinny’ teen days but I don’t think it’s going to happen again at my age) I might try 5:2 as a new routine. I don’t know if the theory is sound, but it does seem from TV documentaries and other reports I’ve heard to work for many. I could try your soup then – lentils and spud make it a no-no for low carb! 🙂
Oooooh, how clever – lovely and quick! I’ll be trying this 🙂
Thanks for linking up to #recipeoftheweek. Pinned and Stumbled. There’s a new linky live now if you want to join in 🙂 x