Me and the Fast Diet

I was born in Montreal, Canada and was raised mostly as a French Canadian, although I am of vietnamese decent. Because my specialty program was not available in Canada, I ended up studying in the United States. Going through residency, times can be stressful and eating junk food is unfortunately easier. Although not officially overweight, I did gain 35lbs throughout my years as a hospital resident and fellow.

After graduation and getting my first job back in Canada, I had a little bit more freedom to take care of myself again. I slowly lost 20lbs through cooking my meals again and exercising regularly. But somehow, I could never shake off the remaining 15lbs to get back to the weight I had before my residency program in the United States.

I read a lot of different diets, including a couple of fad ones... I also read reviews online and realized that all of them would work for some people and would have their group of fans that swear by them. I love to eat good food, and taking photos of food when I go out, so limiting myself to certain groups of food or saying goodbye to comfort food forever was something that I knew I wouldn't sustain. That's when I heard about the Fast Diet by Dr Michael Mosley on tv, started reading and checking his videos, and because I thought it made sense to me as something I could do, I tried it. And it worked for me.

If you are unfamiliar with the Fast Diet: in very brief summary, it can be described as alternating a "fast day", where you are allowed 500-600 calories for the day, with 2-3 days of regular - eat whatever you want - days. It is also called the 5:2 diet because you have 5 days of regular food for 2 days of fast per week, but I don't like that name because it is very important not to have two consecutive days of fast else you run the risk of lowering your metabolism.

So anyways, after 6 months on the diet, I googled the Fast Diet looking for new menu ideas, but I was surprised at how little I found in comparison to other diets like South Beach or Dukan which I think promote a much unhealthier food pattern. So I decided to create this blog to share my own experience going through this diet, and maybe help others go through it too. Hope you will enjoy it!