All your posts about the why’s & the how’s resonate deeply with me. To be honest, I got tears in my eyes reading some of them.

I started gaining weight as a child, probably at 7 or 8. I continued to grow and finally when I was 12 or so, I starved off some weight. My Mother always had a weight problem and I remember her eating a bowl of lettuce while the rest of us ate dinner. She was up and down the scale as long as I can remember. Anyway, she tried to help me and we had a calorie counter book that was our bible. I remember writing down what I ate and saying to Mother “I only had 500 calories today, do you think I’ll lose?” How sad……that was day after day of less than 1000 calories. I don’t think that lasted too long before I gained back a substantial amount and got up to 200 lbs again. Between ages 16 & 17, I starved the weight off again. I remember be proud to be able to say that I hadn’t eaten anything in 3 days. Sigh……. I kept the 60 lbs off and was quite thin from 17 until my late 30’s. Not that it wasn’t a struggle. Lots of exercise and VERY low calories most days.

Early menopause and being happily married, I let my weight get back up to over 200 lbs. Luckily, I’m tall 5’8″ so the pounds are spread over a large area! LOL! I’d go down 10 or so and then right back up. My high in January of 2013 was 221. I lost 30 lbs in 3 months of a “boot camp challenge” and have maintained that loss since. I’m going to lose the last 40 and get down to my fighting weight. 😉 I’m so thankful to have found IF. The last 40 may come off slowly, but this will be the last time I lose it! I’m hoping 6:1 will be enough to allow me to maintain.

Reading the maintainers stories is so inspirational. For those of us still on our way down the scale…….one day we will be among the maintainers!

Hi FastFastSlow I really enjoyed reading your piece thankyou with your experience and assessment on the 5-2 WOL I personally found your nb very timely given I have reassessed my goal twice since beginning my own journey as the unrealistic became more realistic and the doable doable with the ultimate goal now strangely enough my weight when I was married and that will be me done.. then into and onto the ‘maintenance chatbox’ sharing is caring so bring your friends FFS.
Gold there is and rubies in abundance but the lips that speak knowledge are a precious jewel.
Peace RT

HiSamm, yes i have a fitbit since april, i try and get 10,000 steps in per day, will be getting back to 15,000 in new year, was checking out exercise ball after reading your post..Could be fun too!!

Morning all .. welcome to all who’ve just joined us (including those from maintenance 😆 ).

FD today for me … that’s 2 FD and 2 semi-FD this week.

Interesting reading from those on Maintenance, PVE love the thoughts re fat leaving the body 🙂

Hope to catch up more today … oh, yes, passed OFA training (instructor was really impressed as I got over 99% correct in all theory tests and aced the practical & scenarios too). During the afternoon yesterday during training (we were doing it in the first aid room of all places) we had someone come in needing assistance so I got to practice on a ‘real’ casualty, lol – and again did all the right things unfortunately no brownie points for that though 😀

Onward and downwards one and all 😀 catch up later 😀

Hi Lori

I endorse what Samm says. Simcoeluv answers many questions. A simple way to find him is to go to Forum at the top of this page and search on Recent.

Then there are wonderful people on this thread who can provide support and practical hints.

Cheers, Bay 🙂

Hi Lichtle

My heart goes out to you. The message from all of us Maintainers is the same. This is our new normal. We need to fast each week to reset our system, and twice a week seems to be the magic number to prevent weight gain.

My OH who is the naturally slim one in our family, is now choosing two meals a day plus a tiny snack, where he used to have three meals. I think we can all learn from our naturally slim friends who have always listened to their own bodies.

Our dog is a Border Collie cross with Kelpie (an Australian cattle dog) and she has always moderated her eating to accord with the amount of exercise she is getting. How clever is she! Visitors cannot believe she is leaving half her food in the bowl for later. 😆

Cheers, Bay 🙂

Hi all,

Magnificent day here in Melbourne, we have had Californian weather this week!

Bay I am with you re 4:3, it’s hard! 3rd fast for this week today and I want my breakfast! Never mind, it’s just for Xmas and it makes 5:2 seem like a breeze. Your dog sounds beautiful, the mix of Border Collie and Kelpie would make her extremely clever, (and handsome) but I have never seen a dog leave food in their bowl before!

Purple we watched Catalyst last night and saw the article re CO2, there was a research paper just published by the Catalyst presenter Reuben contributing. (There is a post with excerpts on this forum in the last 24hrs) It actually debunked the global warming theory pointing out that the CO2 we fatties release in our exhaled breath was previously in food that had been consumed. Also said exercise didn’t help speed it up!

Never mind that, I have just been picturing the 43 x 250g blocks of butter lined up that I have lost so far with 5:2, now THAT is sweet. Hopefully just another 40 or so to go before the real challenge of maintaining.

Cheers!

Pve
Agree with first aid training.

when I was 30 was in a public park facility where there was a weight room . A very strong man in his 40s collapsed and the staff were confused and disorganized. By the time paramedics came he was gone. Again something similair happened at the lake.where if I had been trained I could of stepped up.

so I took the first aid and cpr classes and keep the card current. Havent had to apply cpr thankfully. But have responded to car accidents that I happened upon. Seems with internet access so handy it should be something many people should learn.

Perhaps a new approach could be made as an mobile phone app that calls for 911 and then help connect a responder to medical response crews providing gps and speaker phone assistance. As well as sending pictures of wounds. Possibly metronomes to pace and beeps to keep timing. Possibly maps of where nearesr aeds are located. I dont think it would be too difficult .maybe has already been developed.

Hi jojo,

One of my brothers began fasting for health after watching Horizon, but is one of Pharaohs lean kind so can only do 6:1.

I began in Jan 14, but didn’t tell anyone for a month (when I knew it was working).

My Dad is 82, and decided to give it a go in June. He can’t be doing with counting calories, and will be eating more than quarter TDEE (he eats evening meal only now, but that often includes cheesecake and wine 🙂 ). However, he has dropped from 15st5 to 13st7, his blood pressure is lower, and his arthritic knee much improved. He wants to lose another stone, but it’s slow progress now.

He is of that generation of 3 meals a day, breakfast being the ‘law’, and biscuits/cake with morning coffee and afternoon tea and, to be honest, is a terrible overfeeder of others (so is to blame for my fat childhood…!). I am surprised and delighted that he has taken to it so well, and will hopefully now have healthier years ahead of him.

It’s never too late to make a change.

Fingers crossed you can persuade your ‘elderly’ friend. I should warn you if she is younger than my Dad he would be most put out by that description…!

I’ve been thinking about buying a fitbit. Jojo, do let us know what you think of it after you’ve used it for a few weeks. I’ll stick with my cheap Omron for now even if it doesn’t take into consideration the fact that I took several hundred steps this morning carrying heavy sacks. I’m positive I burned more calories than it tells me, and my arms are telling me so too!

Morning fellow losers/fasters 😀 what a lovely day (I hope — it’s too dark outside to see just yet, lol) — I woke at 4am to find we’ve got no power. It came back on about 10 minutes ago, the first thing I had to do was my weights/measures. Happy (in fact ecstatic) to have lost another 700g (approx 1.5 lb) so at least I’m happy that I’ll hopefully be maintaining over the next two weeks with a little judicious fasting/semi-fasting in between functions.

Hi to Wee, Smiffy, RT, Name, Nicky, PVE, Happy, Jojo, Hermaj (hope you’re still reading at least 🙂 ) Amazon, Emel, SAMM and all the new posters (who’s names escape me right now 😆 )

My mother would hate to be called old … she’ll be 85 in under 2 weeks, her boyfriend has just turned 80 … she considers herself to be quite young still as I guess inside she is (as am I btw 😆 ). I guess that if people feel old inside then they’ll possibly age outside quicker, I would still say my mum is spry, she still drives, is quite active and travels overseas every couple of years (due to go again next year).

I’m hoping to get a fit bit before too long as I’d love to know exactly how much I am moving each day, so Jojo please let us know how it goes 😀

Catch up soon … out to work Christmas lunch today, followed by out to tea/dinner tonight with friends (might have to just have dessert rather than meal if still full from lunch) so definitely FD tomorrow otherwise I’ll be like a blimp!!!

Hi Wee,
parsnips are sweet when they are roasted. They don’t really taste like anything else. I love them, and they make really nice soup too.
My downstairs neighbour knocked on the door earlier, wished me a Happy Christmas, and given me some freshly baked banana cake still warm from the oven and a bottle of wine.
The cake was lovely, he is a good baker and a very nice young man.
Well under my TDEE today, even after eating the cake 😛

Hi gang
Just lying in bed in a motel recovering from what can only be called drunken indulgence. Not mine, but my fellow party goers! I was relatively restrained!
Started yesterday morning when a dear friend gave me a muffin she had just made. I wasn’t going to have breakfast, but had to eat it to be polite. Thought the lumps were blueberries. No. They were chocolate chip. Urrrgghh. Travelling to the country we stopped for a wee break (literally Wee 😉 ) and had salad with goats cheese tart. Mmmm! Had planned on no lunch. That’s what eating carbs in the morning does to my appetite/resolve.
The evening Christmas party was a sit down affair. Lots of people topping up wine and passing around delicious, wicked nibblies. I had had enough to eat when along came entre…haloumi and salad. Main course of roast pork. I ate the crackling, one tiny spud and brocolini. Gave the rest away, even though it was delicious. I gave desert away too. I watched with amazement as others drank 4 times as much as me and polished off all their food. That would have been me in the past. I just can’t do that now. And I don’t want to.
I feel great this morning. I made sure I drank as much water as I could get my hands on. No dehydration and filled me up.
A couple of OTT feasts like this won’t break the bank, but some of these people obviously do it frequently. How sad. P

Hi jojo,

Don’t worry, no one’s falling out 🙂

Don’t think my Dad’s fossilized yet, just pickled in red wine and gin…!

Jojo,

Re: snacking on nuts. They might be high cal, but it’s fat not sugar, so shouldn’t do too much damage.

Don’t think your daughter will need a spare room for you next Christmas. By then you’ll be able to sleep on an ironing board/ washing line 🙂

Down here we say we good sleepers can “Sleep under a barbed wire fence” which I am certain I could if I needed to! Sleep well you guys! X

My apologies for not keep current.
Last day of being in load out dept for loading trucks. Much more tired than usual sleeping like a rock star all day then out all night. I wouldn’t be able to fast loading trucks all the time.
Only 6000 steps, and craving protein. My appetite seems bottomless . Feeling kind of lost and off track . I look forward to getting back to the IF 4:3 disciplines. Getting back to confidence of moving toward my goal.
Will try to log on so etime this week end.
Wishing you all the best.

Good afternoon to all my fast-tracking mates.

Sorry for long silence, been reading but never enough time to respond to posts. Now my last post is at least two pages back 🙁

Lizzie, such wonderful news on your beautiful bonnie grandson. Aren’t they adorable? Grandparenthood is one of the best things to have happened to me and I love my two to bits.

Welcome new members and thanks to the maintenance mob for your collected wisdom.

Well done everyone on losses.

No losses to report from me because of Christmas socializing and general slackness – so much for my stated intentions earlier!

One bright note though is that I had an EOY assessment at my gym on Wednesday. Since starting this WOL at the end of January this year I have lost nearly 14kg, 15cm from my waist and my fat % has declined 5.4%. In the same interval my lean muscle mass has increased by 6.2%. My PT is very interested in my 5:2 journey, as I mentioned before and was impressed by my results in light of the fact that I don’t feel at all deprived and, having practised this WOL for nearly a year now, can still face continuing – something very rare among his other overweight clients who can only live the ‘deprived’ life for so long before backsliding.

At the beginning of December I halved my bp meds and monitored twice daily in the first week then once or twice a week since. My bp is now regularly about 115/70 so after Christmas I will halve the pills again.

Had a meeting yesterday with other members of an editorial group who haven’t seen me for several months. All very interested in my progress after one asking very tentatively if I was well, as I had ‘lost so much weight’. Another lady in similar position to me with bad arthritis and despair at ever getting her weight under control has resolved to start. Had lots of questions so of course referred her to ‘the book’ and this site.

Keep up the good work all. Life’s a bit hectic at this time of the year but will continue reading, even if no time to post. N xxx