How much land to feed family of 4

Changing tact on my usual posts I felt I shoudl add this graphic onto the pages

Its an example of how much land is needed to feed a family of 4. (Answer approx 2 acres). No details on land quality etc. but intersing nontheless.

I found this image at this site http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2011/08/21/self-sufficiency-how-much-land-to-feed-your-family/

Wednesday Apr 8 .. a new diet plan

Ok, so its been 2 months since my last posting on this.. Just though I'd fill in whats been happening.

As I mentioned in my last post.. I was a bit dis-illusioned with the progreess of the diet, in particular my inability to control my eating on my off days..

As a result I've abondoned the 5-2 diet plan, and have embarked ona completely new diet.

Introducicing the all new 6-1 diet plan.. (Books, t-shirts, ,baseball caps are in the pipeline )

I figure, that one day of fasting per week is enough, and I don't tend to binge as much.. I used to find the Monday fast day quite do-able (fact today is a Monday and so I'm fasting today). The 2nd day of fasting (normally Wednesday) was always more difficult. As well as that, it was the days after my 2nd fast day where I'd go 'caveman' on the food and devour everything... and so I've dropped the 2nd day of the fasting.

Thinking about it, another approach could be to change the 2nd fasting day to later in the week, so I have a bigger gap between fasts.. However that doesn't site well with my social calendar, so its out..

So far I'm finding this 6-1 diet better.. There's still some binging, but its less mega than before, and of course I still harbour great plans of controlling that better.

However the good news is that some weight has gone.. I weighed myself about 3 weeks ago and I was 102.2kg. Thats almost 4kg lost... I don't know when this weight came off, as I hadn't been weighing myself regularly before then. It may have all occuring during the 5-2 phase

Yesterday I weighed myself again and I was 101.8kg. .. so I certainly haven't put it on during the 6-1 phase, and that's despite some big meals, and some chocolate binging over Easter.

So I'm going to continue with the 6-1 diet for a while more.. My current goal is 98 kg (15 stone). That would be put me lighter than I've been in about 15 years.So we'll see if I make any progress on this.

Why eat when you're not hungry?

Why would you eat when you're not hungry?

This is the question I have to keep asking myself. If I stop and think about it, I will come to the conclusion I am not hungry.. But if I don't stop and think I will often keep snacking.

If there is food somewhere around me, then I have a Homer, "Eat the pudding" moment. This might be just after I 've eaten (and before the food has had time to register with me). My wife has described what happends to me in these times, as an eating frenzy, and I can't really disagree.

To try to describe it, its like a constant battle to impose my rational mind's will over my sub-conscious mind's desire.. and if I have been hungry previously in the day (or days before), then the sub-conscious desire is much stonger, and I end up eating a lot more..

Logically it would seem like the bodies natural reaction to a period of low food. Consume as much as possible when there is food, for tomorrow there may not be.. and it makes sense in a world where you may have to hunt for your food. Unfortunatley I haven't adapted to the ways of the food rich world in which I live.

Managing this 'binge' desire is ultimately the key for me to be successful on this 52 diet. So far I haven't succeeded, but I'm hoping that by trying to get my rational/ conscious mind involed more often I can, 'talk myself out of eating'.

For example today I'm having my usual porridge for breakfast (Of course on my 'off' days my porridge is sweetened and has with more milk than my 'fasting' days).. Its a big bowl of porridge, bigger than the bowl that lasts me all morning and afternoon on my fasting days, but on my 'binging' days I could devour it all in seconds. Today I manged to stretch it out over the morning.

However I did devour my lunch a bit early and uncomfortably quick.. I quickly followed it by 2 oranges. Delishious, but not needed.

So now I'm writing this self reflective piece as an excercise to banish subconscious mind, and to get back in control.. The other thing is, that it gives the food I just ate some time to register with my tummy, and now 30 minutes after eating I'm starting to feel full again..

Wednesday Feb 6 .. Fast day 8

So I'm now finishing the 4th week of my fasting, and I can safely say I've lost no weight. The reason I'd imagine is my binging on my off days.

I'm going to try to give it another few weeks to see if I can mange to keep the off days under control, since on the flip side I don't find the fast days too hard really, and in fact feel quite good on them.

What doesn't feel so good is the off days when I just cram myself full of food. .Whats strange is that I'm aware I'm doing it, but I just seem to almost watching myself from an external view.. I've often had days like those, tin the past but recently I have been able to avoid them ..

So for now the goal is to try and get my conscious brain to take over from my unconscious binging brain on my off days.. Perhaps even writing blog entries on the off days might help focus...

This week, meals were pretty similar.. Porridge in the morning/ afternoon, and fish for dinner. Tuesdays off day wasn't too bad, as usual its the stretch from Thursday to Sunday is the problem. THis week again won't hep with my 'hectic' social plans. (3 dinners out, drinks one night, and a breakfast and afternoon tea are all on the cards.. Great.)

Wednesday Jan 30 .. Fast day 6

So first fast day of the week went fine, as it normally does.

Yesterday (Tuesday) I was ok.. There was s strong temptation to inge but I was able to keep it under control. and had a ok day, plus my weekly run. The run is great for getting me out of the house and stopping me from snacking all evening long. Howeer it does also mean that when today on my fast day, I'm quite a bit hungrier than I am on Mondays.. As a result Wednesdays are always more difficult.

We'll see how the rest of the week goes, but I feel that this build up of hunger on Wednesdays doesn't help me for the rest of the week.

But enough negativity... I'm starting today with a cup of tea to help the morning hunger. That way I can defer my porridge (yes I know, I have no imagination, but in my defense its quick and easy to prepare) until 10:30 / 11 am.

My problem later in the day will be that I have offered to bake something for a charity bake sale at work, so somehow I'm supposed to bake a cake, and not eat it.

At the moment I'm planning on making these...
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2011/02/whole-lemon-bars-recipe/
They sound good... and I can look forward to tasting them tomorrow.

I've been following Monsieur Lebovitz' blog for a couple of months (after his pages kept appearing in my search results... No wonder I'm overweight) . I've already tried these Ginger Crunchs, and while my results didn't look nearly as good as those in the photos, they were fairly straightforward to make, and tasted good.

Monday Jan 28 .. Fast day 5

Again I'm glad to be on a fast day anfter a weekend of epic binging.

This constant binging  on my off days is a big problem.. I'm going to try and stick with this diet for a bit longer but I have to get my off days under control.

Certainly last week, Monday was fine, and I didn't binge much on Tuesday. Perhaps that was partly the problem, as I was at my most hungry on the Wednesday.

Its back to basics today. Porridge. This time made partly with tea. I've cut down on the amount of salt I add, and at the moment I'm missing it, as its markedly tastless despite the tea infusion.

I'm also rolling out 2 new teas to my inventory. A Rooibos, and a green tea. The rooibos is robust enough to stand on its own... I have yet to try the green tea, but I'm mildly concerned it won;t taste of anything.

Wednesday Jan 23 .. Fast day 4

Monday and Wednesday look like been the preferred days for fasting.

Monday is ideal as I normally feel like a bit of a detox after the weekend. Wednesday is the next best as we often go out for dinner, or visit friends/ family on the other days. So this week I'm 'on' these days.

Yesterday was a bit of a success. Up until now I had been binging heavily on my off days. Yesterday was the first day I didn't. Partly because I raided the house of all 'goodies'. Snacking on raw carrot doesn't seem like such an appealing prospect. We did go out for dinner yesterday too, but it was a tapas style resturant so we didn't have too much.

BTW I'd highly recommend Dax (we were in the cafe/ bar section). They have a full restaurant downstairs but the bar is good for a casual nibble and a few wines. Its especially good value if you have a deal such as the ones often on here.