The Maintenance Chatbox… come and share your success with us!

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The Maintenance Chatbox… come and share your success with us!

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  • (We)I have finally cleared all the Christmas goodies last weekend and of course Monday’s weigh-in was a bit disappointing but I managed a fluid only fast on Monday which was scarily easy – much easier than staying withing TDEE yesterday.

    I seem to respond well to FAST DAYS, so I might try and outsmart my brain and do 3 down days a week of varying calories – maybe one very strict one (fluid only), one around the 800-1000cals and the other one around 500-600. It is almost as if the fact that I decide it is a fast day, my brain shuts down the WANTING which is what most of my eating motivation seems to be. I am very rarely really hungry.

    I have to become cleverer than me.

    @fastfastslow – I agree fruit (but not fruit juice) is allowed in the lenten challenge. For the past 20 years my breakfast consisted mainly of fruit and has always played a big (and healthy) part in my life. On fast days, I don’t eat fruit and I feel I have already cut back drastically.

    Lichtie – of course not fruit juice – Devil’s brew, never touch it anyway!!! I was thinking more along the lines of extrinsic/intrinsic sugars – though 6 weeks’ worth of dates and sweet fruit might be cheating… I’ll probably just allow myself apples and oranges, with a high fibre:sugars ratio, if that’s ok with you?
    My real concern is added sugar – cakes, biscuits, sweeties etc. I rarely eat processed foods so that’s not really a challenge for me, though I’m happy to cut them out completely – but I do like to bake, and finishing /’tidying up’ the post-Christmas stuff has been a guilty heaven! But it’s gone now, and I’m back to pre-Christmas weight: it’s just I’m aware that my sweet tooth isn’t very healthy and I’d like to be free of it. I guess your challenge will be jam and drinking chocolate: how our early experiences condition us! I wonder what addictions/aversions we have landed on our children?( I know my eldest cannot face bananas – she was weaned onto them from the breast, and I suspect I overdid it a bit!)

    @fastfastslow I totally agree with you – just added sugar, no matter how healthy the rest of the ingredients ;-)) I don’t eat dried fruit – I don’t see the point unless real fruit is not available. There is no way you can overeat on fruit. It is interesting that we can easily overeat on sugar and concentrated carbs but not on vegetables or fruit.

    I hardly drink alcohol apart from Baileys at Christmas time so that is not my issue.

    It will be interesting to see if 6 weeks of no sugar will actually free us from our sweet tooth. And it will also be interesting if my food consumption on savoury, healthy food will go up to compensate.

    Hi Lichtle, I’m the same when I’ve decided on a FD its like my brain just switches over to that mode but it can go crazy sometimes when I’m on anon FD. Guess it’s all linked with commitment, motivation. I’m so I pressed with you and Happy and going sugar free. Wish you luck!

    Hi Carol
    I’m glad you posted about commitment and motivation. Fast day today and I’m thinking about all the yummy food available at the local farmers’ market! So frustrating that it is only on Thursdays when I’m fasting ๐Ÿ™ P

    I have discovered another disbenefit of IF and weight loss…

    When sitting at the table, I can no longer use my thighs to catch small dropped objects (OK, food mostly ๐Ÿ™‚ but would also apply to pens, etc). Mental note to self: don’t be a messy eater, or always wear a skirt or use a napkin when eating, or be prepared to clean the floor more often, or get a dog!

    And, Happy, small food, like peanuts, drop straight down through my tops. Nothing to impede their progress there either ๐Ÿ˜‰ P

    And when I kneel on all fours and do a ‘cat’ at pilates class (tail curled under, waist and back raised, head hanging) my too-big t shirt falls away from my body and I can see right down to my knees, taking in a flesh-coloured burst balloon on the way. Don’t know who put that there….

    Hi FastFastSlow, I know, it’s a bit of a shocker the first time you see your knees or feet down the front of previously tight clothing. You just have to hope you hadn’t been showing it to the world before you realised!

    And P, I like your ‘small food, like peanuts,..’ Am thinking it isn’t just ‘like peanuts’, it is actually peanuts…?! For me, it’s ‘small food, like almonds,..’ I wouldn’t know about ‘slightly larger food, like Brazil nuts’ as I never miss my mouth with them ๐Ÿ™‚

    Urrgghh between pancakes and flesh coloured burst balloons! All sounds pretty familiar! I often realise, too late, that I have been leaning over a counter to a (male) shop assistant and exposing, well nothing actually, except underfilled bras ๐Ÿ™
    Any small food Happy! I’ve tried really hard to not even think about peanuts (drool…..)
    Only 10.30am on a 24 hour fast (8 hours to go)and I have already booked a weekend away to a music festival, tickets, airfare, hotel. Gosh, food avoidance can be expensive. P

    Ha ha, laughing so much, you guys crack me up especially the one about the unfilled bra and the male shop assistant Purple!

    Yes, Purple, please let us know the shop with counter and male shop assistants, haven’t seen one of those in ages… might be a bit far to go for me.

    Hi girls if you need a male test subject and are willing to travel I would like to help.
    I have many years of experience, 79, of admiring and will supply Brazil and Peanuts.

    One thing I found in hospital was that having entered my Maintenance period of WOL was set back with my health, but found as a broad statementI tended to restrict my choice from the epicurean delights on the daily menu to conform to my idea of the 5/2
    Soups and Salads where the mainstays . All desserts and sweet items were restricted .

    What I am trying to say is when Maintenance was reached I tended to stick with it and found that the shadow of the diet overcame MOST cravings/longings.

    Pleased to say that after 2 months my discharge weight was on target at 90ks.

    Cheers,
    Tim.

    Tim,

    Your generosity and selflessness knows no bounds!

    So pleased you’re back with us. Are you all better now? I hope so, we don’t want to lose you again!

    Top work on the Maintenance Tim!
    We are currently up your neck of the woods. ..cruising on the Hastings. Beautiful day. Enjoy it mate. P ๐Ÿ™‚

    Congratulations Bay today, and Happy recently, on achieving your 12 months on 5:2 anniversaries. Great achievement girls and well worth the effort.
    Keep up the self improvement. The rewards are completely intrinsic ๐Ÿ˜† P

    Well I found myself back in the low 58s last week. Christmas a dim and distant memory!

    But then a bit of a (for me) carb fest weekend… English breakfast muffins, rice, flatbread, Welsh cakes…

    So this morning I was up near 60kg! Mostly water weight I know, but I felt bloated and puffy, so it was a good incentive to fast today.

    And I found just the thing to take my mind off food and actually put me off food altogether…Losing a cat (and suspecting the farm dogs had caught him). And then finding said cat… 30 feet up a tree! Five hours later he’s found his way down, and I’ve barely felt hungry all day! Result all round ๐Ÿ™‚

    They say companion animals are good for our health Happy ๐Ÿ˜‰ Poor cat must have been terrified (and you)
    57.6 this morning after a long weekend away with much excess. Long fast again today, although I really don’t feel like it on a rainy Tuesday.
    How did our other Aussies go with the holiday eating?
    Cheers MCs. P ๐Ÿ™‚

    Hi Happy, Purple and others, I am up here in sunny Brisbane, sweltering! Helping out with my grandchildren while D-I-L starts a new job. Had got over Xmas excess and back down in low 58’s. On the long weekend I went with my sisters and their husbands to Burrum Heads where my brother lives and there was much drinking of wine, eating of cake and cheese and chocolates and generally much excess. Needless to say I am sure I have put on weight but too scared to weigh myself! I know though it’s not a huge amount, probably that 1.5kg I seem to gain after a weekend of indulgence. Like Tim, I have found the diet has changed my cravings and although I had foods I don’t eat now usually, they certainly weren’t in the same amount as I would have eaten previously. I will have a light eating day today but haven’t been practising 5:2 while I’m here because son and DIL have a struggle at times getting the kids to eat so I am eating the same as the family to be a good role model. I am back home Friday night and can’t wait to get back into my routine!

    Hi Carol
    Enjoy the sweltering! I am saturated from trouping into the city to deliver important documents for my overseas daughter. Fingers crossed they get there!
    I had sandals on and my feet just slopped around in the water. Most unpleasant! So much so, that I thought st*ff the fast and picked up a feta and spinach pastry from the world’s best German bakery. I don’t normally go near it (40 min train trip) so you will understand. And I hadn’t put on weight during the weekend. So, one fast this week ๐Ÿ™‚ P

    Ha ha got it Purple!

    Only managed to do one good fast last week the Wednesday and Friday one ended up around 1000-1200 cals (just under TDEE). Yesterday, I did really well until I got home at six and “allowed” myself chicken with vegetables “until full”. Unfortunately something in my brain must have taken this as “fast over” and forced me to finish half a bowl of raspberry jelly. ;-((. Whilst below TDEE I am annoyed how I can ruin a whole day’s worth of fasting? Stupid!!!

    FastfastSlow, I have noticed that I am saying to myself: “Well it is not yet Lent and sugar is still guilt free, so just enjoy this little treat as long as I don’t go over TDEE” Oh I despair about my brain. The whole point is to get over the sweet tooth, not to think it is a temporary exercise.

    Lichtle, I didn’t stop at the German pastry either. Once the mind has switched out of fast mode, it is very hard to pull it back. I guess that is part of being a maintainer. We have done the hard yards, reached goal, and can be slacker now. Almost as if there isn’t the desperate need to adhere every time.
    I’d better go to bed. The rainy wether is playing hell on my knee joints, so at least I’m upstairs, away from the kitchen and further temptation. If I limp downstairs, I’d HAVE to eat. ๐Ÿ˜‰ Good night gang. P

    Me too, Lichtie, me too! Oh, the frailty! I’m finding this week really hard: it’s cold, I’m bad-tempered, and I just want to sit by the fire, read a book and eat carbs. So I’ve been to the gym, had my regular vit b12 shot and now am going for a walk! Hope it works!

    That’s right Purple, we don’t have to constantly deny ourselves – which is the reason of this diet and as maintainers we do have a weight point at which we seem to be able to do full fast again without any problems.

    After Christmas I managed quite a few good fasts. Now that I am at my goal weight again I can still do a 24hr fast but want to allow myself to eat a healthy carb free meal in the evening to the extend of not going to bed hungry – 600cals should do – which is much better than 350. In actual fact, I am now inclined to think there is no point in eating 350cals because if I am still hungry after a meal what is the point of eating?

    Being German myself, I really feel for your bakery dilemma. It’s one of the few things I still miss after 27 years in England. It is always a treat when I go back to just enter a bakery with cafe/restaurant attached and just take in the huge selection of breads, pastries and cakes and their wonderful smells. There are very few independent bakeries left here in England. Bakeries are usually part of a supermarket.

    Oh, FastfastSlow – the walk will definitely do the trick. It always helps me. I am very fortunate that I have a 60 minutes lunch hour in which I go for a brisk walk usually between 2 1/2 – 3 miles. Are you fasting today? Is this why you are feeling cold and low?

    Thank you, Lichtie – and especially for reformulating my ‘bad-tempered’ as ‘low’!. Yes, I’m fasting today – should probably forget it and try again tomorrow, but as you said, by this time of day it seems such a waste of the morning’s effort, so I shall plough on and go to bed knowing that Its done. The walk has helped: I enjoyed it, and I think I’m marginally cheerier and nicer to be around than I was this morning. I’m sure the cold is contributing to my carb-yearning (in which case, watch out everyone next week, according to the forecasters!) but actually I think it’s more to do with the last few weeks’ indulgence – not just Christmas, but a belated festive meal with my book group, at which I ate about half a pound of cheese! – so probably better not to give in, but allow my body to re-set. This is going to be tough! But thanks for the support.

    Everybody: is anyone else using the My Fitness Pal app? If so, have you discovered any way to inform it about IF? It nags me on fast days, that I’m ‘not eating enough’ – ie achieving the calorie intake it has determined I need. It’s only a tiny thing, but it’s beginning to sound like my mum – and I’m beginning to think about deleting it!

    Fastfastslow, I’m afraid I don’t use Myfitnespal so can’t help you there. I am glad you are feeling better after your walk. Well done for your determination not to waste a good fast just before bed time. I have not yet figured out what makes some fast days easier than others. For me it is mainly psychological, being in the right frame of mind. I hardly ever “suffer” from real hunger pains/pangs. I just feel empty and this is preferable to feeling too full. I often eat not because I need to but because I WANT to eat. I can’t really put my finger on it.

    I will try another fast tomorrow and I will take your determination with me.

    Read your posts with interest on my phone L and F, then tried for ages to reply. I tried being a phone repair person last night, googled blogs and followed advice deleting all sorts of “useless” apps. Turns out, one of them (don’t know which}was necessary to allow me to sign in to the forum ๐Ÿ™
    Anyway….

    Lichtle, I have a little, little German and decided to speak German one day when ordering at the famous bakery. All went ok until the shop guy decided to have an extensive conversation with me. All I could do was look blankly. Serves me right. But it did feel like being back in Germany!

    FFS, I find it easier not to pick up the fast the very next day. Dump a “failed” fast, learn something from it, but don’t beat yourself up. It really won’t effect your health or weight, so move on and do the next scheduled fast.

    I’m really finding I hate fasting these days if it is not a Monday or Thursday. It is such a well developed habit, I feel really hungry and cross if I have to do it (eg because of the public holiday on Monday) on another day. I didn’t change weight yesterday and will just do the proper Thursday fast tomorrow.

    I had had quite a lot of carbs and cheese during the weekend. I do wonder if that contributed to my excessive hunger. The sudden much colder weather didn’t help either. I can’t imagine how you folk manage avoiding food in your freezing winters. I went to bed very hungry, but of course have woken up not particularly desperate.
    Funny brains we have! Purple

    Thanks, Purple – so good to have friends! Im glad you’ve sorted your phone. Lovely German story : reminded me of the first time DH and I went to France together. I taught him just enough to say ‘please’, ‘thank you’, ‘good morning/etc’ and to order a drink – it rebounded just as yours did. The next sentence I taught him was ‘please speak to my wife, as I’m sorry, this is all the French I know…’
    And Lichtie, I can’t work it out, either, though it may have something to do with Purple’s habitual days: what does make some fast days easy peasy and others really difficult? I’m past having a menstrual cycle, so I can’t blame that; I confess to finding the cold this year (no layer of insulation?) but it does seem to be more about mood and general feelings of wellbeing or otherwise, as you suggest. It’s not so much the amount I want to eat, more the type of food…a bit like a bad-hair day, or a skin breakout – it just is!
    Ah well, nearly there for today. An hour of my book, some rubbish telly, bath and bed. And ‘Wol.f Hall’ on telly tomorrow – yay! Good luck to Aussies starting your fast soon/now…

    No. I haven’t totally recovered the phone. I replied on the laptop. Now on the phone, but using Internet Explorer as Google Chrome is the issue, apparently!

    In French, I learnt to say “Je ne parle pas francais” and “Rรฉpรฉter lentement s’ il vous plaรฎt”. ๐Ÿ™‚ and used them frequently when I got in too deep! ๐Ÿ˜‰ P

    Bien fait!!
    Thought of you this afternoon, as the group of people I was with included a woman who grew up in Perth, Australia. She left at 18 and is now – I guess – mid-40s, but is still missing the sunshine and deep blue skies. Blame it on romance – she came to work, met an Englishman, married him and stayed: says most of the time he’s worth it, but she does sometimes wonder in the winter….

    I’ll bet she does! Mind you, Perth summers are scorchers!
    I think we will wash away today if this torrential rain doesn’t stop. All the schools go back today after the summer holidays. Thank goodness I’m no longer teaching. Wet starts for the year are ghastly! Chaos, noise, wet kids and stuck in the classroom (no breaks) for days. Now I remember why I don’t miss it ๐Ÿ˜‰ P

    Fastfastslow, hmmm I sometimes wonder why I couldn’t have met a mediterranean man 30 years ago whilst working in Tanzania… Warm winters, hot summers and a great outdoor life with simple food…

    …as your friend said: “He’s worth it” and the children close the deal…

    I frequently thank my brave forefolk who made the decision to move to Australia. Just takes a long time to travel back ;( P

    Purple where you born in Australia? Did your parents or grandparents emigrate?

    Well I am having technology problems on my phone now. Think you’ve hexed me P! It keeps pasting the text from the BBC homepage into my message. I’m tempted to just keep typing round it and ignore it…But you’d definitely think I’d gone mad.

    Anyway, two posts lost…

    Lichtle, I too wonder why Monday was such an easy fast when often I can’t commit. It’s true that I don’t need full fasts to maintain my weight, so perhaps that’s part of why I struggle to commit often, but I do want to maximize any health benefits (I guess they’re a bit too intangible though to make me commit).

    P, mmm, feta and spinach pastry. My mouth is watering at the thought of it ๐Ÿ™‚ It’s rarely sweet treats that appeal these days, but savoury every time!

    Carol, an interesting experiment in ‘normal’ eating for you. Although it sounds like sensible portions all the way! We must seem like a terrible unsociable bunch, always looking forward to getting away from friends and family and going home to eat our own food… ๐Ÿ™‚

    L, I am Aussie through and through. My earliest migrant relatives arrived from Scotland in 1839. Others arrived from England in 1880s and one grandmother married an Aussie soldier after WW1 (he had emigrated as a young child and fought on the western front). They sailed to Australia just before my mum was born. An interesting mix, I’ve Scottish, English and a bit of Irish blood. I love to travel back to Europe, but this is definitely home. ๐Ÿ™‚ P

    Well that was nearly 3 posts lost! I hit the back button but managed to then hit submit before it disappeared.

    It’s clearly not my night! So I’ll give up and go to bed. Anyway, suffice it to say… loving the discussion, and the lesson in languages (I know speak slowly in Italian is, possibly wrongly spelt, parla piu lentamente – I remember this because of pew pew barney mcgrew…!).

    Night!

    Ok Happy. My fault your phone’s not working. I sometimes get that paste thing happen in this forum too….often really long articles from Crikey (an online paper) that I have sent to someone else. I spend forever deleting them.

    What the heck is “pew pew barney mcgew”? You’ve lost me completely now!
    Just made a mushroom and garlic omelette for breakfast. Gosh, that was good on a wet morning. So much easier to eat on wet days ๐Ÿ™

    In retrospect, yesterday can’t have been a total loss. I had gone 16 hours before the pastry and I’m still in the 56s today. Go IF!! P

    Bouna notte, Gute Nacht, Happy.

    Interesting Purple that you still feel affiliations with the countries of your forbears. I wonder what my grandchildren will feel.

    Cuthbert, Dibble and – what was it? Now I shall be awake half the night trying to retrieve it! All your fault, Happy, if I find myself having a midnight snack…

    P, now we know you’re a real Aussie. They’re the firemen in Trumpton, a BBC children’s prog from the 70s, which always began with roll call – but I can’t remember the last one. Oh nuts!!

    It’ll come to you in the middle of the night when you stop thinking about it ffs ๐Ÿ™‚

    Sorry FastFastSlow!

    Well I just had to Google it. It’s Pugh, not Pew…(I was quite young in the 70s in my defence). And the last one…? I was misremembering his name. Let’s just say his name is the most relevant to the fast diet… ๐Ÿ™‚

    Grubb! It’s Grubb! Came to me in the bath: Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb. How could I forget? Shall sleep sweetly now – night all x

    Yes, well I’m lost with Pugh, pugh, grub etc ha ha! Could have done without all the talk about the German bakery too lol! I loved the food in Germany. One of the things I am really enjoying here in Brisbane is the cakes filled with custard. Sorry, don’t know the right name. You buy them at Asian bakeries. The Asian bakeries here in Brissie are very similar to the ones in Hong Kong for anyone who knows HK. Re fasting and level of ease/difficulty. I have noticed I am sesrching for carbs the day after an indulgence Lichtle, and FFS, especially if I have had wine. I have also noticed my brain can take over and I eat something because I want it not because I am hungry or need it. The brain is still our biggest obstacle to weight loss! I use my fitness app FFS but only to get the calorie content of foods. I don’t use it to graph weight loss. I get the same message as you and so thought it wasn’t really useful to use it in that way because it’s like we’re confusing the app, as you say you are now experiencing with the annoying reminders! . I find my mindset is for fasting Monday’s and Thursdays and they are the best days for me to do it. The only other strategy I have found works well is if I am having a day that is quite different to my routine, I will use that as a fast day. It’s usually a day where I am doing lots of running around or shopping or something that is occupying my mind. For example, today I had to get up early and take my grandson to the city to see an eye specialist, so I didn’t have breakfast, had a coffee while we were out and now I can have a light lunch and light tea and probably be around the 400 mark. Just keep at it everyone!

    Hi Carol
    It is certainly faster getting out of the house in the morning without breakfast.
    I know the buns you mean, but I don’t like the sweetness of Asian breads. I live in an area of Sydney with masses of Asian shops. The food choices are amazing. P

    Hi Purple, Lichtle, Carol, Happy and FFS.

    Such a lovely conversation weaving in and out of topics. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    I agree re some days being really hard. I do not know why, but agree it’s in the mind as well as the body. Maintenance is harder than losing weight in the first place. ๐Ÿ™„ support for all.

    Cheers, Bay ๐Ÿ™‚

    Welcome home Bay. Hope you enjoyed the tennis. P ๐Ÿ™‚

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