Hi Everyone , new and not so new.
MissTina 1974, I found at the beginning I felt dreadful the first fast, headache, starving and had trouble sleeping. It got better as I went on and now I don’r eat breakfast on my fast day ( M0nday / Thursday) and have lunch at abt two of either wonton soup ( at woolies) in a cup and just add H20 and is 42 cals. or a green salad with some red onion and cucumber with a splash of Balsamic vinegar. Then veges and some protein for dinner. I have a herbal tea for morning of afternoon tea. I work full time and am very busy at the moment. it is getting easier.I do drink lots of h20 too.

I am not dropping much in weight but have had some big weekends eating all the wrong food but not gaining weight.

Davina on the exercise front I find I can walk or jog the morning or afternoon of my fast, but if I go for a jog the following morning after my fast I really struggle and thought I may faint at one stage. So have decided to only walk 3 ks on those days. I hope some of this helps. It is a case of seeing what works and then jiggling things around.
Happy Friday everyone. It is almost Summer. 🙂
Jane

Morning all, hope everyone got through their week and their fasts! We had a crazy week here with teenagers getting wisdom teeth out, new jobs and argumentative in-laws – Fun times 🙂 but I got my fasts in, even managing Monday’s while spending all day at the hospital. Those evil vending machines were calling to me I swear.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Good on you Tina. That’s the beauty of this woe….you can pick up any time. There is no start or finish, just waves of fast and not fast
Enjoy your sun shine. Sunny here in Sydney too. P

Hi all, today is my first successful fast day in weeks. I finally got back into the headspace of it.My goodness it was hard to start again. That surprised me as I had been doing so well previously. Anyway fingers crossed, I’ve conquered it.
HB

Well done, HB 🙂

Thanks Nicky. I’m trying again today and I only had my coffee this morning with a little bit of milk. I have a feeling lunch and dinner is going to work better for me this time. Lol – great timing today because I’m heading to the dentist soon and there’s a good chance I won’t be able to eat anything afterwards anyway! 🙂

Happy Tuesday everyone.

Hi Everyone, I’ve been not fasting for the last three weeks after being pretty consistent for 8 weeks and dropping 4.5kgs. I started back again yesterday and had a great Monday fast day. Feeling good about it and seems I didn’t gain much back over the break I had. I had been sick with a gum infection due to a Wisdom tooth so I wasn’t much into eating anyway but had to with antibiotics. Oh Well. As you Say PVE it is good to look at this as a WOL/WOE that can be ongoing with breaks where you need ’em. I am not feeling guilty about not fasting for a while but I am feeling good about getting back into it. Clothes are still feeling looser and I love that!

Great to see you are back on board Fastina. I hope the wisdom teeth (or the space where they were) have settled down.

Welcome maltesers! Have you read Michael’s book…it really helps to understand what you are doing.

I fast every Monday and Thursday. Have done for 20 months. If something social occurs on these days I will either change one of them or do two semi fasts (I have been at goal weight since last April).

I find two regular days work well for me. I know when I will fast. I like having two normal days in between, so it seems like a more natural cycle. I don’t do consecutive days as they don’t total as long a fast as two separate 36 hour low cal periods do.

Work out how much you should eat MAXIMUM on normal days (your TDEE) by going to the home page here. I think it is a good idea to put in your goal weight, not your current weight, as it will be more realistic. Eat up to 1/4 of this TDEE on fast days.

With regards to grumpiness and headaches…we all love food, but your body soon learns to embrace hunger. Make sure you keep well hydrated as most of it cones from food normally.

All the best. We are all here to help at various times. Always someone around to use as a sounding board! Cheers PVE

He’s taken, but I know what you mean 😉 He’s a hero to most of us. P

Hi Maltesers
Just to give you a slightly different perspective. I fast Mon & Tues. With regard to this (b2b) being a slightly shorter fast – while this is true, the difference is only the time between one dinner and breakfast. As I don’t normally eat during this time on my non-fast days I don’t feel I’m losing anything, just postphoning that 12 hours to another time. I have been fasting now for 11 weeks and have lost 11 kg and have lost an average of 10 cm off waist, bust and hips.
I tend to have flavoured tea most of the day and “save” my calories for dinner, when I eat a high protein, low carb meal. The carb component is usually fruit and veggies avoiding anything with a high glycaemic load.
As far as soups go – if you really want to thicken them slightly, I suggest you try glucomannan (the starch in konjac/slendier noodles with no calories in the quantity to use as a thickener) which can be bought as a powder from http://www.glutenfreeshop.com.au – but be very careful as a little goes a very long way.

Glad to see you back HB. We started the same week.

Welcome maltesers and well done for making the switch to this new WOE. But did you have to choose that tantalising handle?

Great weight loss ibardell; mine’s a more modest report. Today marks 16 weeks of FD & I’m 7.2 kgs down with 2″ off my ‘waist’ – which is almost starting to look like one according to OH. I come here on Thursdays to sing about my progress and I hope it encourages others to keep going.

My tips as a relative newcomer to the forum are plan ahead for the fast days – I plan mine for the whole month – it’s much easier to stick to it and gets the hassle of planning out of the way. Organise your family’s meals around your fast meals rather than the other way around. The non-fasters in your life can have larger portions, extra veggies and some rice. If, like me, you dislike black coffee, treat yourself to a variety of Twinings herbal teas, 20 cals, and re-use the same bag all day. If you experience a plateau, don’t worry, I think we all have at various stages.

I’m working my way back down through the sizes in my wardrobe and now wearing clothes that haven’t seen the light of day for 13 years. Very happy! (I will reward myself with some new clothes but it seems a waste when I know I have another 10 kgs to go).

Let’s keep each other going through the over-indulging season. I’m not worried at all. If Christmas Day falls on your fast day, remember you can change it to Wednesday. Have a great day everyone.

Ha ha, you’re making me laugh maltesers. I might be older than you but I remember the ad slogan as being “they melt in your mouth, not in your hand”.

I think it’s normal to sort of over-compensate after a fast day at the beginning. In time, you might find that you actually want less and eat smaller portions after a fast day.

Personally, I’m an obsessive weigher, at least twice a day, but I only record my weight weekly the day after the second fast. I only took a waist measurement when I started – wish I’d measured more places and recommend you do that as you’re just starting out.

If you can’t fast on a particular day, just switch days. If you simply ‘cut down’, you may well see some weight loss over time but, to enjoy the health benefits, I understand it is very important to keep below 500 cals. Have a read of ‘the book’ if you haven’t already and then do whatever works best for you. It might take a little while to settle into a routine. Don’t know what a staminade is, but maybe give that to your horse and drink water yourself. Keep us up to date with your progress.

Hi Nicky! Great update thanks. I was pleased to notice that the ‘high waists’ are back in the stores, couldn’t abide the hip hugger style pants and thought they’d never go away. Like you, I have whatever I want on non-fast days. I don’t ever count cals on feast days which I why this is all so achievable for me. Everything is guilt-free now but there are lots of things I just don’t want anymore. Over Christmas, I’m just going to take the view that it is only food, it doesn’t own me. Let’s see if I’m still pushing this message post-Christmas!

Thanks for the encouraging words PVE, Bay, Nicky F and Thinatlast. I’m glad to be back, it’s funny the way the brain sometimes makes things seem much harder than they really are. Thinatlast I had to laugh at your comments about highwaisted pants because I am the exact opposite. I was horrified to discover they had come back into fashion – give me mid to low rise any time!
HB

Ha ha, I don’t care if I’m in fashion or not – I just wanted to be able to find them! Now that I’ve lost a bit of weight, I have about 6 pairs at my disposal! I’m sure you all look lovely in your hip huggers but, honestly, it’s just criminal for some people to be wearing them out in public. 😆

Hi all, hope everyone has had a good week and happy fasts!

Well I weighed in this morning and have reached goal! I started on September 17 weighing 68.9kg, my knees were aching and I was struggling to get up our stairs without shooting pain in them. My sleep was pretty ordinary and I was really lethargic. I am very much on the height challenged side of life and was looking very round and short.
This morning the scales read 59.7, my knees are pain free, I am sleeping so much better and no longer feel like I need a nana nap every afternoon.
I am one very happy faster and am very grateful to this forum for all it’s help and support.
My OH asked me this morning what I do now which is a good question. I think for now I will just keep doing my two fast days and keeping to my TDEE on non fast days. When I feel I’m ready I will head over to the lovely Maintenance people and have a chat about what to do next.
And to celebrate I’m off out for lunch 🙂

Congratulations Jenklar! Fabulous news. Welcome to the “under 60s” club. We are a very happy health bunch. You will be most welcome on the Maintenance Chatbox. ..everyone is! Come and share your ideas on maintaining. P 🙂

Thanks Purple Veg Eater and congrats to Jenklar too.

Hi everyone I just started back on the 5.2 and am so glad I did, managed to lose 1.9 stone on it last year but got depressed started comfort eating and just stopped doing the fast days and it all crept back on, am now 14.12 and feeling like a whale!! Got Christmas party on Friday and can’t breath in my dress, but am due so maybe it will be slightly more comfortable then, fingers crossed, have done 2 fast days this week having a coffee and low fat yogurt for break, coffees throughout day and then tin of scoth broth soup with one waubington thin for dinner as this is filling, and I can honestly say Iv achieved more on those 2 days than I have in weeks, I want to do things to distract from hunger and make time past quicker till dinner but actually feel more energetic on fast day, started last year after a friend lost 5 stone in 6 months on it for her wedding! But she was doing 3 fast days a week, I like to mix it, if I have been particularly bad on a few eating days the next week I’ll do 3 fast days or if Iv got party coming up ect, but tried to do a 3rd fast day yesterday but gave in by noon as have terrible cold and felt staving, when your ill you’ve got to allow yourself and not beat yourself up about it you need nourishment to get well again, but so glad I’m back on it, best diet ever and believe me Iv sone them all!!!! Just wished I’d never stopped and would be nearly at my goal of 11.5 but I’ll get there Iv done it beforw

Hi everyone, been ages I know and feels like a millennium since I posted. Anyway, I have a bit of an excuse. In 100 words or less here goes:

13 year old daughter 6 weeks ago had a cancer scare. This sent us to every specialist for 2 weeks. Result all good. Plenty of comfort eating.

4 weeks ago near new Nissan Pathfinder decides to have transmission problems at leisure. Nearly killed by semi trailer (no exaggeration). Have been fighting Nissan since for refund/replacement. Plenty of comfort eating.

Finally finished house reno and will put on market this week. Plenty of comfort drinking!

Last week, broke off front tooth eating a salad (a salad!). Celebrated with 6 beers and 2 choc waffle Maccas cones. Tooth replaced $1400 later on Friday.

Weight loss: 7kg in 12 weeks. Best part of all this is I have maintained weight loss when I was trying for the first 7 weeks as unbelievably, I have NOT MISSED A FAST DAY during all this. So, although not dieting with 5:2 have been living it as WOL regardless of ‘rolling disaster’ thrown at the family, which is testimony in itself. So, hard to complain when energy dedicated to complaining to Nissan Australia!

Thanks for concern guys…have never lost the faith or will, just been on one of those life detours for a while and will be on still for a few months moving house etc.

Still been catching up with forums and encouraged by all my old friends and new comers, just too busy or stressed to contribute of late. I am determined xmas will have no impact on Mon/Thur fasts and based on last few weeks will be a breeze! Will try and post again soon and miss my old pals here for the regular catchup.

Hi everyone,
Great to hear you are still with us bigkahuna, sorry about all the dramas…..but hope you get compensated by Nissan, and the rest of your teeth last the distance! Good to hear your daughter is ok. At times like this, we need to hold our loved ones close and tell them we love them, all the rest falls a long way behind in importance.
It’s also lovely to hear how all of our new and older fasters are going. I read this thread most days, but recently have been slammed at work….can’t get my act together to post! Hoping to soon have some respite with massaging so many people, and just do the odd one over summer.
My weight is still slowly coming off, but I’ve noticed that my muscle and water percentage has increased, and the fat percentage has dropped! So that must be good I guess!? Bread and salty foods are still calling to me, especially when I have a big day and I end up giving into them….fast days have been good though. Hoping that Christmas and new year won’t be too much of a tempting time food wise! I’ll still indulge in some treats, but plan to fill up on salads and seafood.
Thanks for being such a positive, caring fasting friend Purple, your words of wisdom keep me smiling!
Same goes for Bay, thin and Nicky, keep on keepin’ on!
Cheers for now, time to bring back a little dancing in my life….maybe I’ll try a little tap dancing around the kitchen!

Haha! When I said the odd one, I meant the occasional client, rather than strange….although all of us can be rather strange at times!!
Your sourdough sounds divne, I had to stop baking my own as it was a step too far for me in regulating my cravings for the luscious hot crusty yumminess! Any loaf baked in my kitchen never lasted long, I’m sad to say it got breathed-in, rather than savoured.

Thanks PVE.. Your feedback is really appreciated and certainly helps me personally to stay on track! I really have to keep reminding myself it is indeed a marathon as I just want to be my ideal weight now! I can see though that my body is indeed changing shape which is weird in itself .. Seems to be another lifetime when I was looking like this …

Completed my 3rd fast day yesterday. I got the worst indigestion when I ate; I just had a few grapes during the day and saved all my calories for dinner.

Dinner was pretty healthy: big plate of salad with some baked chicken breast and a little potato.

It hurt like hell. I never normally get indigestion. Any thoughts as to why/how to prevent?

Cheers PVE, will try.

These were the little new spuds so low GI.