Day 18 – Ireland – CD🚫🚶‍♂️✅ 🌾

@funshipfreddie it sounds like you have an intolerance to something you ate… it’s worth thinking back to what you had at lunch to watch out for it next time… mind you… I do know someone who had a full blown anaphylactic episode after a sandwich he ate once and it never happened again … the thinking was that he reacted to the specific mix (proportions wise) of ingredients on that particular day.

Great to have you back @stitchincarol… 💕
@merryapple I had to look up Church’s shoes … I had never heard of them. Wow… some fabulous style! I’m a shoes lover anyway but when I was on steroids for many many years I gave up buying nice clothes but shoes – no, no, no… as you say it doesn’t matter what weight you are shoes will always fit 😀 I could not tell you how many pairs I have 🙈 storage is an issue! Thankfully I swap my clothes around winter/summer so every year it’s like new pieces 😂 since the pandemic I’ve cut down on buying clothes /shoes and have set myself the challenge to wear or donate. 👍

Out last night – fun night with some dancing…💃🏻 I realised I’m getting more creaky when I crouch to the floor and get back up again😂
Have a great Saturday all!
💕💕

Onward and downward ⬇️
We rise by lifting others 💕

Day 19 NZ NFD 82.2kg

12 days to go and 800gm to go to lose my monthly kg😬I have been eating well – bangers and mash last night so my weight is OK.
@jaifaim Everytime I’m in the UK I seem to come back with a pair of Church’s!☺️I also know my size and have occasionally bought them cheaply on eBay. They don’t have any arch support which I love. In 2019 I was in Shanghai with one pair of good Scandinavian walking shoes that had massive hard lumps in the insoles masquerading as arch supports. I woke up with plantar fasciitis and couldn’t walk. Since then I cannot wear shoes with arch supports for any length of time. I have tried to replace the insoles but they are always poor quality, don’t fit well and wear out quickly… so I stick to my Church’s!! You are only meant to wear leather shoes for one day at a time and let them dry out so I have fun rotating through them!! It’s also worth resoling them – slow fashion!
Your anaphylactic friend is very lucky to have not come across the same allogen. If it hasn’t happened again it sounds like it’s not a regular sandwich ingredient but something odd and accidental that was added to it????
@funshipfreddie And then there’s the furniture, a mixture of mainly Georgian and Art Deco and the two walls of books… I have to really think about what I keep and what goes because it’s an eclectic and interesting mix that has given us great pleasure over the years… I’m not downsizing just doing a rather tough spring clean to find out what’s hidden away and what I can’t live without, which turns out to be quite a lot!!!
Microbiomes are fascinating. Approx half of gut bacteria is genetic and the other half environmental. The variation reduces as you get older. Very obese children have very different bacteria in their gut compared to thin kids, prem babies are different to term babies etc. All these reasons contribute to my dislike of industrialised foods…
@northgeorgia That sounds delicious. Wish I could come over!!

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Day 19 – USA/GA – FD

Weigh-in: 227 lbs. Go away. Today’s WFD should help 🙂

Pocket List – Day 19 🥚
@funshipfreddie
@northgeorgia

Day 20 – South Africa 🇿🇦 – NFD 71.0 kg

That was a quiet weekend on here? I for one was very well-behaved; well, yesterday anyway. Goes without saying on an FD. Planning another one for tomorrow. My scales seem to be stuck at 71 kg. Maybe I need to give them a shake, put in a new battery, or sling them against a wall. Whatever does the trick 🤪

I see Netflix is showing the final season of The Crown. Anyone started watching it yet?

Hoping our absent friends are okay & just busy with work &/or family obligations. Or binge-watching The Crown 🤔

Exactly 6 weeks (12 FDs?) til 2024. Just sayin’…

RESOLVE to the Monday fasters – if there are any…? 👀 🎯

Day 20, London, UK, NFD,

Morning all, no fasting this weekend, I just didn’t feel like it, and that’s ok, providing I ‘feel’ like it at least 2 FDs this week at work. It’s so much easier to fast at work, so I’m feeling confident!

@merryapple, when I sold my flat and moved in with my mum🥰, I had to put everything into a storage unit, at a cost of £300+/month, every time I visit to grab, winter clothes or find the perfect pair of shoes (don’t ask!!! I could probably open my own shoe shop if I thought I had too many……………… which of course, I don’t!!😂) I think of all of the things I could/should get rid of, or could have REPLACED with the £300/month I’ve spent over the last 2 years!!! Convincing myself they’re just ‘things’ is the hard part, I’m a true sentimentalist!!! Maybe you could use the “If I had to pay extortionate fees for a storage unit, what would I keep” game, to help with downsizing!!

@funshipfreddie, I also went down the shoes to wear to Church rather than shoes made by Church’s route🤣😂, thanks for the 6 week reminder ………… Not!!!😲😲😲

@northgeorgia, baby steps will still get you to your destination!!!

Ok, back to work😱

“Success is not the absence of failure; it’s the persistence through failure.”
— Aisha Tylor

Keep the faith folks

Day 20 – USA/GA – FD

Weigh-in: 223 lbs. Today, I’m planning on a FD500, and it will unfortunately be my last FD of the week with Thanksgiving coming up. Still, if successful, I’ll have in my two days this week (finally!!) and be back on track through this rocky holiday period and into 2024.

Pocket list – day 20
@northgeorgia

Day 20 – Rural Nebraska, USA – NFD

Okay, I have a new acronym for us: PLLDS–“Post long-list-day smugness”!!! I was up on Saturday morning in time to do some additional tidying–that’s after an amazing amount of tidying and cleaning and productiveness on Friday–as well as get our pork tenderloin for supper into its marinade, then was out the door by 8:10 to drive to my meeting 40 minutes away, then the meeting was finished more than three hours early (when does THAT happen?), which gave me time to–you get the idea. The point is that I never stopped moving and accomplishing, and while many of you seem to think that’s what I do every day, nothing could be further from the truth. When I’m not forced to be productive, I’m right where I am at this moment: at my end of the sofa with my laptop in front of me. The busy three day stretch, starting Friday morning, ended with dinner out in Omaha with four of our dear friends–the other two couldn’t make it–after a lovely two hour performance of much of Handel’s Messiah.

But now the desserts I’ve indulged in have caught up with me (I made them for after church on Sunday, which is why the leftovers came home with us), and the scale is once again ugly. I’ll send the pan of sweets over to church with DH where it can be served at tomorrow’s blood drive, so at least it won’t be around to tempt me further.

Today’s plan? Leftovers. No more than the 1500 I always have in mind, and perhaps closer to 1200.

@merryapple Yup, balancing “keeping the treasures because they’re treasures” and “ditching the treasures because they aren’t actually treasures” is the ongoing challenge in my life. One of the many things I accomplished over the last few days was to put away all my warm-weather clothes and pull out all the cold weather stuff, and try on the pants and only keep out those that are big enough to fit this enlarged body. In the process, I got rid of a dozen tops I’d been keeping as “cool tops” but hadn’t worn in at least five years. Sometimes it takes those five years to talk myself into decisions, you know?

@jaifaim and @merryapple I have foot challenges (had surgery years ago to insert a steel plate in each big toe “knuckle” that prevents any real bend there), so my love has been costume jewelry for the exact same reason: no matter my weight, the fun necklaces still fit! 😂😂

@jaifaim Your night of dancing sounds fabulous!

@funshipfreddie So odd about how sick you got on Friday, but so glad it went as fast as it came!

@excelsior12309 Here’s a way to look at your sloooow progress: it IS progress. I’m so envious of your mojo that you’re accomplishing an actual loss! There. Feel better about your sloooow progress?

Which is not to say I’m discouraged, because I’m fine. What I ate over the weekend was only slightly more than seems “reasonable,” and that’s our instruction, right? The problem is that “reasonable” is such a loose description, and what was reasonable even five years ago is now “unreasonable.” I’m working on it. It’s a slow process, but I’m working on it.

Okay, I have actual things to do on this laptop, and I haven’t even made my pot of coffee yet, LOL! Have a grand one, everyone!

Day 21 – South Africa 🇿🇦 – FD

Well, that was a measly-looking pocket list for a Monday?! Even counting @merryapple, only 3 fasters? Maybe we can do better for Tuesday.. 🤔

@stitchincarol – you’re digging out the winter woollies, & we’re packing them away! The temperature reached a balmy 24C yesterday, & I wore shorts for the first time this spring. There’s even a heatwave in Durban; it was 30 C this morning – at 8 am! I’m so glad I moved 🥵️

@merryapple – imagine what TVs will look like in 20 years? There were virtually no flat-screens 20 years ago. We’ll probably have holograms floating around the room 📺 That big whoosh is coming, I’m sure 🎯

Hop on the list, fellow-5:2-ers, we can eat tomorrow 😜

Pocket List – Day 21 🍇
@funshipfreddie

Day 21, London, UK, FD

Yes, @funshipfreddie, we can do better today …………………………….I hope we’re 3 and counting!!!!🙏🏽

@excelsior12309, weight slooowwly coming down is still weight slooowwly coming down!!! I’ll take it whichever way I can get it!!!

I love Autumn, if only for the colours that never cease to amaze me, I saw a gold tree on Sunday!!! No joke, I stopped in my tracks because the sun hit it just right and it wasn’t yellow, or orange or any kind of combination of colours it was a shining GOLD tree surrounded by lots of snap happy folks…………… like me, not that my pic does it justice😞!!!

@merryapple, no, never heard of Church’s shoes, definitely my style, perhaps not my budget!!🤣🤣 I have a thing for Fly London shoes at the moment, a bit quirky, but most styles offer me the height I (desperately) need in a wedge which won’t cripple me!! Awaiting delivery of my Fly Yoza mousse in black from the Black Friday sales!!!

Today feels like a soup day, so, soup for lunch and soup for dinner, hopefully the lentils this evening will be enough protein to satisfy me, otherwise I’ll have an early night!

We’re a little light on challengers this month, I hope everyone is ok, just resetting ready for the nightmare December challenge. I’m glad I’m not American (I feel for you guys), 2 challenging months in a row would be trouble as I can develop a bad habit in the blink of an eye, good habits take AGES to stick!!! No doubt the January challenge will start off with lots of participants holding fast to their resolutions!!!!

@jaifaim, I wish I had discarded my larger clothes when I disposed of the extra lbs!!! That way the slow regain would have been more noticeable ……………….. I definitely wouldn’t leave the house naked, so there would have been no option but to fast my way into the clothes I had!!! Lesson learnt!🤔

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”
— Dale Carnegie

Pocket List – Day 21 🍇
@funshipfreddie
@jaifaim
@flourbaby

Day 21 – Rural Nebraska, USA – WFD

Yesterday was decent, although probably higher in calories than intended; it’s only this morning, typing that sentence, that I realize I’ve gotten casual about using MFP, so I’ll get back into that routine.

Our boys have no desire to do Thanksgiving after their shift on Thursday–multiple hours serving Thanksgiving dinners at the country club makes them more interested in going off to be all alone to wind down–so we’re doing our Thanksgiving on Sunday instead. I toyed with inviting friends over and cooking a true feast, but decided it would be lovely to have the day all to ourselves, and DH was completely on board with that plan. So we’ll have a small turkey breast, mashed potatoes and gravy (to which I’m indifferent, but DH adores), and Brussels sprouts. Even with the oyster appetizer I’m doing and the cherry pie for dessert, it’s a tiny, tiny Thanksgiving dinner, which suits both of us just fine. Sunday will be focused on making all our beloved dishes gluten free; I have the recipes, so we’ll see if the authors of them know what they’re doing and saying when they say we won’t be able to tell the difference. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤞

@funshipfreddie Oh, that is indeed toasty for only 8am, and this early in your summer season? Ugh, eh? Do you still have friends who live there?

@merryapple Oh, how fun to have friends visit you from so many years ago!

@jaifaim And you too have a California friend coming this week…makes me want my California family to come visit; you can be sure I’d cook like a crazy woman if they showed up! 😂🤣 No, the foot issues are gone; the surgeries were 10 and 8 years ago, and they scraped off all the build up from the arthritis (calcium, maybe? I’ve forgotten), and then screwed in the metal plate so that the joint could no longer bend; that way the pain is gone and the enlarged joint doesn’t come back. Back in the day, the pain was excrutiating, but now there are no problems at all. Well, except that I can no longer wear lovely high heels, but have to settle for sedate pumps with tiny heels that barely count at all! 🤷🏻‍♀️

@flourbaby I went to check out Fly shoes…they are also outside my budget, and probably not my style, but they made me smile to think of you in them! And you made a good point about why it’s good to ditch the clothes that are too big; that may persuade me to do so this time, when I finally get back down again…after dealing with the November-December back-to-back holidays challenge unique to Americans; thanks for the sympathy!

@northgeorgia Yeah, it fascinates how your and my journeys are so similar, and have been for a long time now. One of us has to break this horrid pattern!

Well, mouse #4 just got caught–like JUST, as I was typing. There’s no way to know, but I have a sense that there’s still one more in the house. We’ll see, but it’s lovely to know there are four gone!!! The big question is how long did we have them before we even realized? YUCK.

Have a grand one, everyone!

Pocket List – Day 21 🍇
@funshipfreddie
@jaifaim
@flourbaby
@stitchincarol WFD

Day 22 – South Africa 🇿🇦 – NFD 71.0 kg

@stitchincarol – thanks for that graphic description of your Thanksgiving dinner; on a FD?! I was almost salivating over my keyboard. And that was before I’d even gotten to the cherry pie 😳 Luckily it was 5:45 pm when I read it; just 15 minutes before I could tuck into my apple 😅 Yes, I still have friends in Durban. The climate is so different there, even though it’s only about 1000 km away. You sort of get used to it, and air-con makes it tolerable. Officially it’s not even summer yet, but I heard the temperature inland is reaching 40 C in some areas 😱

@jaifaim – I didn’t fast Monday, but I did Sun/Tues. Next one Friday, I think.

@flourbaby – ‘two challenging months’. That made me think. I mean, we create our own problems. Traditionally Christmas was supposed to be a day or two. And Thanksgiving is supposed to be one day, I imagine. But we go overboard with the excess. ‘Black Friday’ seems to be a month long now too. It’s madness. We need to go back to basics. Humbug 🤣

@merryapple – Boo Boo would not be thrilled about lions & tigers roaming around the room, but she’d love a few squirrels, birds & chipmunks, even if they were holograms. She already spends way too much time watching cat videos on YouTube. At least she doesn’t try to get inside the TV anymore 🐿

Happy Hump Day! 🐫

Day 22, London, UK, NFD,

Yesterday’s FD was ok-ish. A few peanuts fell into my mouth!! I have no credible excuse except ‘they were there’!!🤣 Anyway, todays NFD will be controlled, I have a prawn salad with avocado and a garlicky yoghurt dressing for my OMAD which should balance out the peanut episode!!🙏🏽🙏🏽

The thing I need to focus on is EXERCISE, I’ve decided to walk at least 30mins per day even though I promised I would reacquaint myself with Leslie Sansone and do some Walk, Walk, Walking at home! It’s now Day 22 and I’ve only done a 45 minute ‘Walk at Home’ once, which I enjoyed EXCEPT …………………………… Leslie kept telling me how important that 1st meal of the day was, ‘After all it breaks your fast and gives you energy for your productive day’😲😲 Ohhhh, Leslie!!!!🤦🏽‍♀️🤨😞 Stick to the exercise!!!

@stitchincarol, Thanksgiving dinner sounds fab!! No need to have the table groaning under a mountain of food!!! It’s easier without guests, I never want guests to feel underfed😁, but I also need to not put them under pressure to sample everything & eat like lumberjacks!!!!

@jaifaim, half your time with your friend and half with your mum ………………………..perfection!!!🥰🥰

@funshipfreddie & @merryapple technology is progressing soooo quickly I fear being left behind, truly scared!!! I remember a task to be innovative and inventive during the early days of my engineering degree many moons ago, when we came up with, amongst lots of nonsense, an all in one toothbrush/toothpaste tube combo (🤭), ‘Baby Velcro’ where you could have Velcro pads on the wall and on baby clothing so you could stick them on the wall for vacuuming (or just peace & quiet!) etc🤣🤣 and my favourite……………………… the hand phone, a speaker inserted in your thumb and a microphone in your pinkie finger. With technology moving as quickly as it is, THIS is not far off, I saw a watch advert recently where you can tap thumb to index finger to do all sorts!!!! Don’t get me started on AI either😱😱😱!!!

Keep the faith folks, persistence is key!!!

Success is what comes after you stop making excuses”. ~ Luis Galarza

Day 22 – USA/GA – NFD

Weigh-in: 224 lbs. I’ll catch up with everyone soon. Thanksgiving cooking happening today and tomorrow 😉

Day 23 – South Africa 🇿🇦 – NFD – 🇺🇸 Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃 🥧

Feels like it should be a FD today, but I’m going to the local golf club for lunch. I will NOT be playing golf though 😅 Golf & fishing – two ‘sports’ that baffle me. So it’ll have to be another Friday FD.

It’s a glorious spring day, so I’m off to rack up some steps before lunch 🚶‍♂️🌤

Pocket List – Day 23 🍒
@merry🍎

Day 23 – Ireland – FD 🚫🚶‍♂️✅ 🌾

Hello, posting but haven’t read etc… very busy here with work and with mum too so will check in later.

Power to the fasters 💪

Oh and happy Thanksgiving 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Onward and downward ⬇️
We rise by lifting others 💕

Day 23 – Rural Nebraska, USA – NFD: It’s Thanksgiving!

Yesterday was a day to celebrate as far as restrained and behaved eating: depending on how much turkey noodle soup I had for lunch and how many calories it is, and on how many calories in the baguette I was given, and how much of it I ate, I believe I was somewhere between 1500 and 1600–and perhaps below 1500 if the damage on the soup and baguette was not as I as I estimated. And I hit 10K steps, which means my total calorie expenditure for the day was far above the 1500 I always assume I’ll burn (yesterday was close to 2,000), so even if I went over my 1500 goal, I still burned all I ate.

Today? Well, this may be a different story, LOL! I haven’t yet put recipes and servings into MFP, but plan to, and DH and I are planning to go for a walk at some point today (a first for us on Thanksgiving, but possible because our “feast” is so small), so that will help compensate.

@merryapple Yup, a FD on Thanksgiving is definitely not the norm, LOL! Have you always celebrated Thanksgiving? Are you originally an American? Do ‘xplain!

@funshipfreddie Enjoy your golf club lunch, and may your steps in the morning add up quickly!

@flourbaby A busy day at work is the perfect way to sail through a FD!

@jaifaim Thanks for the Thanksgiving wishes even on your busy, busy day!

@northgeorgia You and I had the same thought when we typed our header today!

First thing I’m doing this morning is mixing up the pie dough and chilling it, so I’ll drink some coffee and then get up and go do that. Have a grand day, everyone!

Pocket List – Day 23 🍒
@merry🍎
@flourbaby
@jaifaim

Day 24 – South Africa 🇿🇦 – FD 👀

@merryapple – way to go! Whatever you’re doing – keep doing it! 🎯

@flourbaby – cricket?! I didn’t even think of that 🤣 Many S Africans are really passionate about it too. I was persuaded by a friend to go & watch her son & his school’s team playing a few years ago. Longest afternoon of my life. Every so often people would stand up & applaud, & I couldn’t figure out why, because it didn’t seem like anything had happened 😴

Check out Dolly Parton, at 77! https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/nfl/article-12785615/Country-icon-Dolly-Parton-sends-crowd-wild-Dallas-performs-NFL-Thanksgiving-halftime-Commanders-Cowboys-game.html

Happy Fri-yay! 🍹

“A little starvation can really do more for the average sick man than can the best medicines and the best doctors.” ~ Mark Twain

Pocket List – Day 24 🥬️
@funshipfreddie

Day 24 – Rural Nebraska, USA – NFD, or perhaps OMAD

Well, that was the most unusual Thanksgiving of my life…and it was purely delightful. Spent lots of time reading (when does the cook have time to read on Thanksgiving????) and kept the dishes washed as I went, and our dinner was delicious and we neither of us missed the traditional foods that weren’t there…I’ll look back on this day with fondness. A bit surprisingly, the scales are up a full two pounds; that surprises me because I didn’t actually eat all that much. What’s more, because I prefer a Thanksgiving dinner served somewhere between 3 and 4, or 5 in a pinch, but not at noon as so many in this area of the country choose, and not at a usual dinner time of 6 or 7 (and we ate at 4:10 yesterday), I was done eating by 5 and didn’t have another morsel until I went to bed. So why the two pounds? Who knows, but I truly ate reasonably yesterday (shockingly, given the day), so I’m not going to be troubled by the scale this morning.

@merryapple Yet another drop on the scale; well done! You’ve truly been all over the world in your life, haven’t you?

@funshipfreddie I was watching that game and the half time show, and Dolly sounded really good–I wondered if she were lip syncing–but what really got my attention is how often she grabbed the “wall” behind her. She moved her feet very, very little, mostly stood in place and swung her arms, and when she did move, it wasn’t to “dance” but to walk back and forth–and grab that wall, as if she wanted the security for her balance. So, she did great (and to wear the same thing as the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders? WOWZA!!!) but she certainly betrayed her age with the details. Made me sad even as I was impressed.

@flourbaby Two weeks off at Christmas?? Is that your choice, or does your whole office get that? I’m sure you’re looking forward to it!

As to our Thanksgiving leftovers, I have about 2/3 of our turkey breast remaining, so it’s perfect for sandwiches, and a fair amount of mashed potatoes, but I’ll save those for Sunday so the boys can have some if they want. There are leftover Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts, but I’ll also save those for the same reason. The leftover gravy interests me not at all. The biggie is the cherry pie and there’s about 3/4 of that remaining. Not sure what I’ll do with it, especially since I’m baking a peach pie for Sunday, but I’m leaning toward freezing serving-size pieces of it.

Today is a busy day, with what’s usually Thursday morning church work to do this morning, a Zoom call at 11:15 with my sisters, a Nebraska football game from 11 to 2, Thanksgiving decorations to put away, Christmas decorations to begin, and GF bread to make so I can cube it up and start the process of drying it for the dressing on Sunday. Good grief, LOL, but I do put a lot on my shoulders some days, don’t I? The decorations are not mandatory–everything else is–but they are what I care about the most, so we’ll see just how much gets done. It helps that I was awake at 6am, so that gives me more hours to get things done.

Have a grand one, everyone!

Pocket List – Day 24 🥬️
@funshipfreddie

Day 24 – USA/GA – NFD

Weigh-in: 226 lbs. My jeans that were fine a few months back are feeling tight and packed. Not a good sign. Anyway, Thanksgiving was nice but a little sad this year. I got to get back into the 210s and eventually find my way back to the 200s where I last dipped into that area a few times in 2022. Getting too close to 230 for my liking.

Day 24 – Ireland – CD 🚫🚶‍♂️✅ 🌾
155,5lbs

Hi all, it is a sad day in Ireland today with two incidents in Dublin yesterday which have affected most of us and our lovely capital which was attacked and looted by thugs following a shocking incident earlier in the day. They say they were demonstrating… they weren’t.
Our government need to crack down on people who have nothing better to do with their time…

But a hero has come out of this all. 🦸‍♀️ ⭐️ A wonderful man from Brazil and power to the fabulous strong women of the north inner city who always think community and justice first 💪

Anyway.. I’m trying to work but am distracted…
Glad to be back down towards maintenance.

Onward and downward ⬇️
We rise by lifting others 💕

Day 25 – USA/GA – NFD

Weigh-in: 228 lbs. Egads, things are getting out of control. Tomorrow will be a FD. I did manage to average out as the same weight as last week, though — so not bad for a Thanksgiving week. But I am worried. I find myself caring less and less. I think it must be another stage of grief, but I’m punishing my body for some reason. I need to reset my mind and get back to good choices on NFDs.

Day 26 NZ NFD 80.7kg

0n Friday I went to a memorial lecture at the Art History Dept for the husband of one of my close friends who died 5 yrs ago. His area of expertise was Nthern European art and the Hapsburg Tapestries. It was very touching to see how moved his students were about his guidance and scholarship. We then adjourned back to their house and had delicious food and drink.
I spent some heavy duty time in the garden y’day which I haven’t done for some time.

@jaifaim OMG I read the news on the BBC ap after I read your post. How awful… and unsettling for you. Sadly social media has created a platform for some of the worst attributes of human nature to rise to the surface.

@stitchincarol Great to hear you had such a lovely Thanksgiving Day.
I’ve never been to Africa…
I know what you mean about being busy over Christmas and New Year. However it was always the left overs after the big days that got at me – mince pies, Xmas pud and brandy butter, shortbread, ham etc etc!

@northgeorgia If I can use my own experience as an example, the first year after my DH died I was having to deal with both his and my mother‘s estates plus carrying on our timetable which was always set down a year in advance. It was the second year I crashed and I ate for comfort and put on a lot of weight very quickly. By the time I got to 93kg I thought I’ve got to reign myself in and start taking care of myself. I used my New Year’s resolutions as a motivator and I rejoined 5:2 last January. Don’t be too hard on yourself but do recognise the effects of grief as you’re doing. As your feelings of grief become more conscious you can experience them without so much psychic pain and begin to reduce trying to push them down with food. Another factor that comes into play is that no longer do you have a father to protect you, his son, so you have to step into your new adult role. I don’t know if this is any help to you – I’m not a psychologist, these are my observations from the school of life and I didn’t have any counselling as I felt my grief was personal and private. My heart goes out to you and I’m sending strength. Kia Kaha.

@funshipfreddie In reference to your quote, my father used to say the best time to study is when you’re a little cold and a little hungry!
I did notice Dolly’s not standing as straight as she might so I guess age is catching up.

@excelsior12309 I assume a heritage turkey is one that actually got to run around a paddock?!

Go well everyone!

Day 25-No. VA USA-NFD

So nice to have a “long weekend” of Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun off work!. I am doing activities around the house that have been waiting for a while. Also, yesterday was an indulgent day, in which many starchy foods were consumed…by me…because I felt like it at the time…so now my weight was up 2 # from yesterday. Of course.

@merryapple, a heritage turkey refers to an older breed, not much in commerce anymore. I believe these live trotting around the fields, in the fresh air. They really are more flavorful than the more standard ones we have always eaten in the past. But on Thanksgiving, many people enjoy the side dishes like stuffing and roasted vegetables more than the turkey!

@northgeorgia, you will get there; right now, we need to wheel the wagon over to you to climb up.
I am right behind you!

Day 27 FD NZ 81.2kg

I had a friend for dinner last night. (Wasn’t that the immortal last line in Silence of the Lambs…?) I had 1 small overripe banana so halved the recipe and made a wee banana cake. I added the baking powder with the flour but forgot the baking soda sitting mixed with milk and ready to go on the bench… The flavour was OK but the texture looked and felt like a discus or a cow pat! Not that I’ve eaten either…😶
@excelsior12309 Lucky turkey! Great stuffing is like a deluxe sausage!😋
I hope all those who were keen at the beginning of the month but have fallen away will join us for December. It can take a bit to get going and it’s well worth it in the end. And you get to do a reset month by month. Cheers!
I’m off to take my Mini in for a warrant of fitness and I hope a clean c/- of the BMWorkshop.

4 days – with two FDs for me – to go before November is up!
Kia Kaha everyone! (Stay Strong)

Pocket List
@merry🍎

Day 27 – South Africa 🇿🇦 – NFD 70.8 kg

I finally got a mini-whoosh after my Fri/Sun FDs. I’m more or less back to where I was at the start of the month. One more November FD on Wednesday for me..

@merryapple – what a coincidence? I’m also up & heading out early to put my Kia (no Kaha) in for its annual check-up. Thanks for the very festive-looking December spreadsheet 🎄

Last few days of November. Have a good week everyone

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” ~ Zig Ziglar