Pemti,

Your description of the food on offer there is truly mouth-watering, and I’ll be interested to hear how the smoking goes. I have a big veg patch, polytunnel and a couple of glasshouses, but live in north-west England where summer sometimes doesn’t bother to turn up and the growing season isn’t long enough!

Jo,

I hope I won’t have offended you, and if I’ve said anything unjust then I do apologize. I know from personal experience that it’s easy to find reasons to fail and excuses for not fulfilling our true potential. I can always rely on my OH to annoy me out of my comfort zone!

Hello Fast Trackers
Nicky Emel and Aussie O in South Australia Nama in Victoria Bay in ACT PVE in NSW WiWi & Barata in NZ and Jojo SAMM HappyNow Amazon Herm Lizzy Ply Tartan lass Smiffy Lor_PA CakeyWakey Sarah103 HealthCoachB Tessy pen nib Iona72 Pentimento pranayama and Hello World (You All know Who You ARE) 😉

So You Think English Is Easy?
Read to the end . . … a new twist
0
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce .
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present .
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
　
Let’s face it – English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted.
But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
　
PS. and one of my personal favorites- why do we drive on parkways and park in driveways?

Have a happy weekend all you beautiful losers 😉
Peace RT

Hi everyone, your old pal checking in to say hello! I keep up with reading the pots, and I am always appreciative of advice, empathetic toward your struggles, and happy for your successes, whether personal, professional, or health-related.

I have been maintaining for awhile, but find about 8 pounds have crept back on since last summer. Same reasons as ever, busy, stress, et. al. January is always a hard month for me emotionally.

Anyway, I just read the Daily Mail pieces about MM’s 8-week Blood Sugar Diet, and I am up for joining you, Jojo and anyone else. I have been thinking a lot about “Do what’s doable” (thanks, SAMM), and fasting has just not been doable for me lately. What has been doable is drinking lots of water and sticking to 16:8, and that success feels good. I believe that the 800-calorie 2-month plan will be doable for me as well, and getting away from the sugar is necessary. (I recommend Fed Up on Netflix as well!) I downloaded the 2-weeks worth of menus, and plan to follow them and then repeat. After a few weeks, I will incorporate some fast days.

I am starting on Monday, February 15th and will post regularly for accountability.
Happy Valentine’s Day, all. Love you guys.

Hi Jojo and Tangatawiwi. I understand Jojo’s draw to the 800 diet (The Blood Sugar Diet). It’s designed to deal fast with fatty liver, poorly working pancreas and blood sugar problems, including Type 2 diabetes, so its aims are specific to that range. In the book Dr Mosley has a discussion of the safety of fast weightloss (research indicates it’s fine). He also says not for those with Diabetes Type 1. I’m considering it too, but not sure I could do it effectively, so hoping my high blood sugar will come down with 5:2.

Kia ora Wiwi,
I’m very new to 5:2 but I’d like to be your silent follower… I love your talk! …at least while you are in Europe anyway. I agree that 800-cal per day does not seem to me like a WOL. I ‘think’ we all want to embrace a lifestyle change vs a ‘diet’, yes? For me, the ‘work’ I need to do is all in my head, just stupid head-games-work; work to overcome and resist imbedded bad habits and replace them with self-loving, healthy, even FUN new better habits that create a smart way of eating and moving my body. I know this sounds like “La La” talk but I really believe this is the way to go. I just don’t want my health program to be a burden to me but rather I’d like it to become as regular, comfortable even unconscious as my current ‘bad habits’ have been these last many years (the sticky little f–kers)!

And I was always taught that work-equals-love and love-equals-work so this is just a bit of work like we’ve all done all our lives, yes? So we just get up and go to work like usual only this time it’s totally and completely for ourselves and we are even training ourselves for this lifelong work/love WOL. I’m so silly-excited about being smaller and fitter and more limber and more pain-free. It just can’t be OK for my sore joints to carry an extra 45-lbs all day every day…they are gonna be SO DAMN happy when I get rid of the excess weight of all this FAT…and when I hit my end-goal I’m gonna buy me a size 10 pretty dress! Yup, I sure am.

Oh I can hardly write for the want to get up ‘n dance, sigh, Ella’s on the Irish Radio singing from 1956 “I Get a Kick Out of You” how apropos! Bye for while, stay strong folks..

Hi Jo, Ply and anyone else considering the Blood Sugar Diet.

I have read the book twice and looked at the research and I intend to join you for at least four weeks.

I came to this forum having lost 17 kg and three clothing sizes, very happy with myself and knowing that I would have more trouble maintaining than losing the weight. This has proved to be true. I am grateful for the support, both tough love (thanks Purple and Happy) and the softer kind that I have received through the forum. I have never contributed to any cyber talk other than 5:2.

Like Ply, I have been having difficulties in maintaining the lost weight. I lose it on fast days and very slowly regain on non fast days. Being totally free from sugar and white carbs is not having the impact I hoped. So a reset of eating habits is definitely in order. Hence the BSD. I intend to go on the BSD for the first 4 weeks, as a minimum, as I only need to lose 4 kg. I will then see where I am courtesy of blood tests etc.

Nicky, as a fellow Australian, you are probably aware that in our 70 th year we are entitled to all sorts of free or low cost benchmark testing, eg, in four weeks time I’m going to have a swag of blood tests done, and a Dexa bone density scan.

Wiwi, it is indeed a study of one, and what works for me may not work for you. Keep up your great work. 🌺🌺 I am happy that the research shows that those who lose weight fast often can keep it off longer, contrary to myth. It also shows that 800 calories of nutritious food a day is doable, because the cravings go away. It’s important to have a minimum of 2 litres of water a day while doing the BSD.

We do have to permanently reset the amount of food we eat, and the type of food we eat. I am also doing at least 10,000 steps a day. Some days I can manage 20,000 steps when we play golf.

Sunshine to the NH. 🌞🌞🌞☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️

Cheers, Bay 🌺🌺🌺🌺

Good luck Girls!

I won’t be joining you this time round, but I’ll be cheering from the sidelines.

Jo, I’ve also read the book, but need to re-read as I think there may be lessons for all of us in there.

8 weeks is a long time, but there are other options not just 800 cals a day, and it is compatible with 5:2. And as Bay notes, you don’t have to do 8 weeks if you achieve your goals sooner.

It is a commitment, but with a promise of hopefully seeing a good weight loss in relatively short time. And I think that would give you a real boost?

I second Happy, Jojo (good committee member, me!) in the 3lb loss – ANY loss being positive. Good luck to all the BSD, don’t count me in, thanks.

We had another lovely meeting with Wiwi and her OH this afternoon. Amazing the friendships that are developing through this forum. And it’s great to see my OH on the downward trend after the excesses of Christmas and Sydney.

Great that the Aussie government give the over-70s a full check-up, Bay. Take full advantage of this, ladies, and mark the progress. There’s nothing like that on this side of the ditch.

It’s called “mindful eating”, Pent, and it is what we all need to do, every day, for the rest of our lives. Eat regularly with a “naturally ” skinny person and you’ll see they do this all the time, whether it’s WHAT they eat, or, more often, HOW MUCH they eat.
Anyone can get fat: that’s easy.
Everyone can be slim, too: but it takes vigilance.
I think it’s worth it. P 😀

Thanks Purple “mindful-eating’ Like that. My OH is angular and healthy he goes coo-coo when he gains 1-kg. He always picks off the crispy fat from his food which my former (pre-5:2) self picked right off his plate with a long experienced reach of the arm with attached fork and ate every bit with deep abiding pleasure). But recently one supper-time I realized that I served him (6ft-190lb body) the same portion as I served myself (5’6” and 187lb body) HE works or plays physically most of the day doing something active and I didn’t (at the time). What a SHOCK. My portions are now FAR less than half of what I previously ate and I make better food choices and I MOVE more. Yes life-long vigilance is the action for sure,…….. like any addict does.

One more contribution of my 2 cents worth…make the process your goal rather than the product. One you have control over, the other you don’t. So make your goal,”Follow my eating plan for two weeks,” rather than, “Lose 3 pounds in two weeks.”

I just ate a slice of hot pepperoni pizza, now on my FD that I made for my husband’s early supper, shameful moment this is. I’m going to my room for a while for a think.

Well this is the website, so should at least give an overview https://thebloodsugardiet.com

Also see a series of articles in the daily mail (I’ve not read them, but they seem to give a bit more detail). This is a link to one of them, and there appear to be links to the others which walk you through it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3407500/Eat-beat-diabetes-week-week-watch-weight-fall-Dr-Michael-Mosley-explains-changes-experience-follow-800-calorie-diet.html

Hi Ply,

You’ve probably got as much as you’d get from the book! Bay has read it a couple of times, and is planning on doing it so I suspect she will be more au fait with the key points than me. I’m just storing all these things in reserve for when I go through the menopause 🙂

Mmm…drunk on tea, Wi? Interesting high!
Well done on your continued downward slide.😆
Spoken like a true educator, Ply. “It’s the process, not the product”. Absolutely. Without recognising what we do on the road, we will not get to the goal point.
Happy weekend folk. P 😊

12;30 and I am off to bed but had to give you a laugh….

It was so funny with dad yesterday was his 98th Birthday . Took him home to try and coax him to let me cut his hair . He was having none of it and wouldn’t even take his jacket off lol . We had some fun with him and took some photos .A wee while tater we got our jackets on to take him for a drive . I couldn’t find the car keys . ( I always put them in the same place) Asked Dad if he had them NOOO he said asked him to check pockets Nooo he said ( 3 times.) had everything out of the back cupboard where I keep the hair trimmers .Ross and I looked in the bin . looked in drawers , looked down the side of the cushions . Getting really worried . Then about 3/4 of an hour later he put his hand in his pocket and guess what? THERE THEY WERE lol . I had checked his pockets too 🙂 . Phew !!!!. he just refused to give me them as he said they were HIS keys . Got him to check again and he had his own keys in his pockets too ( old ones but he thinks they are his house keys .) panic over we were all laughing but Ross and I I were shattered . Mind you I am just glad we still have him .to loose things lol . It WAS a lovely day though xxxx

Wee xx

Morning/evening all,

I am a very happy bunny as I’ve lost three pounds 😃

Great incentive to stick with my plan.

Have a fab weekend everybody 😜

Penti, well done on your loss but don’t rely on exercise increasing your rate of weight loss as you need to create a deficit of over 3000 calories to lose 1lb and that would be a lot of exercise. I can spend the morning at the gym, work really hard and use 700 calories maximum. Think of exercise as a means to fitness and toning your body, and the buzz you get from doing it is worth the effort 😃

Jojo, if you are going to follow BS diet don’t you think it would be a better idea to follow it to the letter for four weeks before you even think about tweaking it? It may mean making more of an effort buying and preparing food, but surely it’ll be worth it when you step on the scales and if you are declining social invitations you’ll have more time to devote to it.

Woohoo, great job, Amazon and Penti! Hope to be posting a loss next week!

Hi everyone, I’ve been a silent “watcher” this past week or so. Finally had a successful fast day yesterday (of all days!) which is quite unusual for me as weekends are usually TDEE type days, still as suggested I’ve been weighing daily which to begin was making me panic (for want of a better word) and so I’ve waited until I’ve got the panic under control (hence the FD yesterday) and the scales slowly moving in the right direction again. I know it was all in my mind and I tried to calm down (in my mind that is) however every time I’d fail and so the scales just would not move (recorded 6 straight days at the same weight) and now today they’ve moved downwards for the first time since starting to weigh daily and so I believe my “panic” has resolved.

Great to read all your posts and all your doings. I thought about JoJo’s 800cal challenge but I don’t want to upset things now I’ve started going back in the right direction as I don’t feel I’m ready for that just yet.

Wee glad to hear you had a blast with your Dad on his birthday 😀

RT love the jokes, keep ’em coming lol 😀

Amazon, Ply, Wi, Smiffy, Bay and everyone else in here (sorry can’t remember all the names at 5.40am) have a wonderful FD/non-FD and chat soon 😀 . Cheers, AO

Morning all, it is a gloriously sunny but crisp Sunday morning in Jamieson. Wifi ok, but keypad on iPad playing up, so I am a bit cranky typing on touch screen! Talk about a third world problem!

We have had a few really warm days here, managing to stay cool in the river and a welcome cooler day today. Several cockatoos are screeching overhead, they are so noisy and I would love to know what they are ‘saying’ to each other! Fasting today and going to attempt Amazon’s B2B tomorrow as a big social week coming up.

Well done Amazon and Pentimento for your great losses this week! Everyone on here understands how hard you must have worked to achieve that! And well done Aussie Oma for persisting when it was tough! I find facing the scales daily really works for me, in fact I believe that is one of the most important ‘new’ behaviours I have incorporated into my life. You could easily have given up this week, but you proved your commitment by hanging in there.

Thanks Happy, I have also read your links on the Blood Sugar diet. I am also fortunate enough not to ‘need’ it but it looks really interesting just from a weight loss perspective. Many of you know that my arthritic knees were the main beneficiaries of my weight loss and having the threat of joint replacement surgery was certainly good motivation to lose weight. Good luck to all of you who are going to use it to reboot, whatever works I say!

Jojo I seriously doubt you could stop being such a social person, but maybe even just cut down a bit….be a bit more discerning with what invites you accept? I find it enough of a challenge to maintain (with the hope of losing just a few more kilos) if I am out socialising a lot (hence the B2Bs at present!). From my observations, your present challenge is living with your ex and trying to re-establish your routines after such a big holiday. I think we all need to be in the right head space to concentrate properly on weight loss, so maybe the BSD is just what you need to refocus.

I think its great that everyone on here can find their own version of 5:2 and exchange ideas to help each other. Happy Valentines Day right back RT, you old softie, I bet Mrs RT is being spoilt today!
Have a lovely Sunday all, followed by a fabulous week. Amazon be careful you don’t shoot past your goal in all your fantastic enthusiasm! But please have a swim for me this week, can’t really do laps in the river up here!

Morning/evening all,

A cold clear and dry morning here in London 😊

Hi Nama, I sympathise with your crankiness as I have a dodgy keyboard and have to use the on screen version, hence the numerous typos 😉

This week has been fairly easy as I came back from my trip feeling so good and full of determination and enthusiasm. The fact that my weight has dropped after four days has really given me a boost and I hope next week goes as smoothly. I’ve had to think differently having given up bread and added sugar for Lent.
I am drinking plant Stanols every morning which contain a small amount of sugar as I couldn’t find the sugar free version but I’ll keep looking.
I’ve only eaten fruit, mountains of veg, fat and protein since Monday plus two portions of porage. I’ve had to stop having a spoonful of chutney or a dash of sauce on my dinner as so many contain sugar.

Yesterday I cooked squid, prawns and salmon in garlic, chilli and basil butter and poured it over some salad. It was delicious and I was so full I hardly missed the bread I would have served it with previously.

I’m going to investigate and try some tofu recipes this week as every time I open the fridge the huge block I bought the other day stares accusingly at me….

Have a good one everybody 😜

Hi every body,

HELP! Lost 4.5 kilos since the new year but disappointed!! and about to give up! I’m following the 5:2 to the best of my ability. I have the good days and the bad days.

I’m 81.6 kilos today. At the beginning of the year I planned to loose 2 pounds a week or 1 kilo a week and to be able to be 75 kilos on 10 March.I have a wedding on this day. I still would like to achieve the same results but the plan is not realistic and hard to achieve without change and new approach. I walk for 45 minutes 5 -6 times a week.
Doing the math by 10 march my weight will be 78 kilos if I follow my current plan of 5:2 without any mess! Ideally I would like to loose the other three kilos so it would be 4 pounds a week! is this at all possible? shall i do 4:3? Rouge trader:I like your post on fasters/ balanced diet hunger post.

Would really appreciate your advice & guidance. Thanks

would