CG – Please take care of yourself. An oldie but a goodie – lemon juice, honey, whiskey & hot water. Guarantee you’ll feel better.
Doggie – LOL, you’re hilarious. Now YOU are waking-up Pepper in the morning!

On NFD I often enjoy a big stir-fry. For protein I will normally use a mince (turkey, pork, beef or chicken) as this seems to blend throughout the stir-fry better than chunks. Then lots of vege (cabbage, cauli, capsicum, carrot, zucchini, celery, broc, onion, garlic, ginger – really whatever is lurking in the fridge. Add some soy, a little five spice pwdr, some chilli and any asian sauces you have on hand. Tofu is good too. Cook meat off first, add onion, garlic & ginger to cook, then the vege and stir-fry on high for a minute or two. Add a little water & sauces, etc to create steam and put the lid on until the hard vegies are cooked. Delicious. Also great reheated for the next day (or 2) & for FD lunches (small portions) if hungry. Serve with rice, noddles or on its own – really up to you & if you’re eating carbs or not – I’m not. CM xx

CM – that sounds really delish.

Thank you so much CG, Lotus, Uptight for your tips a and meal plans. I can see right away where my extra carbs, calories are coming from. I love homemade bread and do still tend to eat it although I’ve cut down on amount. I will try and give it a miss. Thanks to you I see there are plenty of alternatives. Of course I have margerine with it plus other no no’s. My neighbour gave me a big bag of his homegrown spuds. I cook them and then dab on butter. Thankfully they are nearly finished. I probably eat too much fruit which I know is high in fructose. Tomorrow I’m going to sit down and do some meal planning. So thanks again. I will also eat smaller portions. Some bad habits need to be recognised and acknowledged before we change them. I know I can thanks to all you lovely Aussie Determination team.
For those who enjoy my puppy tales, this arvo I popped into a neighbour who needed a dressing changed. Then I stayed on for a cuppa. Another neighbour came round and told me that little Pepper had been howling constantly since I left. It’s too hot here today ( yes in Tassie ) to not leave windows and doors open. Now he’s exhausted himself and lying in a stupor at my feet. Just as well hubby returns from OS on Thursday.
Cheers Doggy.

Actually, cabbage soup sounds like a good plan for colder fasting days (notwithstanding the flak the diet got, and rightly so, if all you could eat was that!). Thanks for reminding me of it, CG, will use for an FD.

I wonder where all the post go that disappear half way through !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CG Hope the feverish flu stuff is improving for you, if there is an upside it’s 76.4 !! Whacko.
BD the first four weeks my energy levels were really low so I didn’t stress about exercise and still lost enough by watching NFD’s a bit too. If you are still struggling after 4 or so weeks I’d check that you are on the right dose of meds for Thyroid. I pushed through during the days and slept really well at night for the first few weeks then began exercising again (not strenuously though). Hope that helps.
Gypsy ironic if you fell off a pushbike honey 🙂 Have a lovely time with your family, not to mention the goodies! (I said don’t mention the goodies!)
Doggie, you’ll be telling us that you’re watching him sleep next! Love to hear about him you lucky thing. Because I have to cook for OH I still pretty much have what we used to eat. Tacos, fish and salads with gourmet potatoes, chicken stir-fry, chilli, stews, shepherd’s pie n veg. I just tweak some of the meals for me as in, chilli over cabbage instead of rice, more veg in stir fry – no rice for me. Gourmet spuds are good value as one or two of the really small ones in the bag do me and I’m satisfied. I like spicy food so this adds to the meals I alter for me. Huge rice fan so real sacrifice not have it.
Lotus I’m saving up my curry n rice for cold weather and a bit further along in the weight loss. An Indian friend stood over me about 20 years ago and taught me her recipe. It has meat/chicken with lots of potatoes in it over rice and sprinkled with salted peanuts. Beautiful even when I modified it to less oil. Can’t wait.
Often not hungry for breakfast so have protein shake with 150 mils low fat milk and a coffee. Keeps me going til 1 – 2pm. If I’m going to have bread would eat a sandwich and piece of fruit for lunch, otherwise leftovers or salads. As CG says portion sizes are the key to being able to eat normally and even better. YY xx

Hi All!
CG – glad your daughter is cracking the whip and that you are taking ‘sloth’ day – sounds lovely! I wonder….is it absolutely necessary to be sick to have a sloth day or can we all join in?!! 😉 Fab news about getting into the 76’s….woohoo!!
I’m so sorry to hear about GG’s dad, very difficult time for all her family. My thoughts and best wishes with them all.
Doggy – very good question to focus us what we eat on non-fast days, as I now know that is what held me back in the beginning, I was just not being careful enough. Now I limit carbs as much as possible, but have porridge for breakfast as it keeps me full for hours. I don’t eat bread at all, have one potato (instead of the four or five I use to!)…I am Irish after all! Lots of fresh veg of all colours, fish, chicken, turkey and small amount of red meat. Sometimes pasta or rice to go with particular dish but always brown or wholemeal variety and less than I used to have in the past. I agree that my appetite has changed and I eat smaller portions overall now too. In case I’m beginning to sound like a saint, my big downfall is chocolate (remember the battle with toblerone a few months back!!) and I regularly have weightwatchers choc chip biscuits to stem the cravings. I know my OH has bought me big Easter egg so will struggle to portion that out to limit the damage. That’s why I am staying on 5:2 for the moment because I will need the wriggle room over Easter. I also keep an eye on my TDEE and try to keep below it. So cute about you checking on Pepper like new mum!
Best of luck to all for the week ahead. I weigh in tomorrow and take measures, so hope all still on track!

Good morning everyone

I am a bit behind on what’s going on, never seem to have time to catch up

CG have a couple of days rest, your body is asking for it. My 76kg it’s falling off again good on you.

This week I feel a lot thinner funny how you know. Will find out Friday. Having been doing my fasts counting calories and doing my gym workouts so will see. At work we have three different kinds of Easter eggs and hot cross buns on Monday fast day, didn’t have any. then Yesterday had a couple of eggs felt sick, why do I have to keep learning the same thing.

Lashed out and bought a Fitbit on the weekend to count my steps, let’s just say I need to move a lot more to get my 10,000 a day. I think this will push me closer to my goals.

Anyway have a great week.

Bali, getting the Fitbit is a great thing! I have a similar one (different brand) and almost unconsciously have increased my daily steps. Amazing how we end up competing with a machine! The first day, and teh end of the day I was about 9700 steps ( after walking the whole day…) and at 10 at night, OH had to laugh as he found me walking up and down the bedroom to make it 300 more. Lol
Also, your weigh-in On Friday is sure to be successful! All the best
CG , congratulations on the loss. 🙂
Yum, Fit, SJ, Up and others – A big hello Wave from Foggy Sydney

Hey Bali – well done on taking ‘steps’ (see what I did there?!!) to counteract the easter eggs. I’m sure the thinner feeling will be proven on the scales, but even if the numbers aren’t what you expect, we all know that a changing body shape is also part of this journey. Best of luck 🙂
Lotus – you’re so funny, trying to outdo a machine!! Think I’ll change my name to Fitbit, sounds kinda cool!
CG – you’re so right about mothers trying to be all things to all people and feeling guilty if we sit down to rest for five minutes, but you also know that if we look after ourselves now, then we will be better able to look after others when we need to. The dose you have seems to be doing the rounds over here too. One of my sisters has exactly the same symptoms and is only starting to feel a bit better now after two weeks. One of my friends is still trying to get over it six weeks after it began! Sry…don’t mean to depress you, but you should not beat yourself up about lacking energy or the will to do anything, it’s all part of the dose. Follow your instincts – rest, drink plenty and definitely don’t feel guilty!
Weather here has been just awful for the last few days; very windy, cold, heavy showers and not at all like spring – so it’s back to warm drinks and comfort food.
All the best to the whole AD gang 🙂

Misfits Shine – how cool does that sound? BD, good on you to do so much in spite of your misbehaving Thyroid.
Fit, you can be rechristened Fitbit (now that you are a fit little bit!), but I am calling dibs on “Misfits Shine”! It sounds just like me…. 🙂

CG, Sorry, I meant to explain better, basically the fitbit/similar smart pedometer will not need WiFi or another network to operate, it measures by impact. It does need WiFi or network to sync the results to phone or iPad. I am greedy with my steps ( still competing lol, but doing an average of 13k steps daily – with your active lifestyle, you will probably clock more!) and so wait for close to bedtime before syncing, so uses the home WiFi network for that.

Now SueGen, pick yourself up, girl! Give yourself a good talking to and remember how far you have come…..but most importantly remember how amazing you’ll feel when you get to where YOU ARE GOING. I think you’re right, in that it was your weekend’s “carb-fest” that has effected you. We’re not only here for the weight loss….it’s those long-term health benefits that count just as much. So don’t feel like you’re about to tumble back to old-ways – keep going. Read some of your earlier posts, when you were losing, motivated and feeling great. Remember how forgiving 5:2 is!! Back on the horse….you’re just having a bad day, love. It happens to all of us. Stick with it – and in CG’s words YOU CAN DO IT. CM xx
PS Think I’m gonna get a FitBit thingie too.

https://www.fastday.com/fasting/why-do-we-eat-more-than-we-need-and-gain-weight/

And an excerpt from this article that may be of interest:

We have circuits in our brain that control ‘hedonic hunger’ (eating when not hungry). These circuits exist for evolutionary reasons, telling us to stock up on food while it is plentiful. These pathways, unfortunately, appear to be more active after a period of weight loss and drive us to put weight back on. When food is always available and we never experience periods of famine, these hedonic hunger circuits are always turned on: we are hooked on overeating. Our hormones, including thyroid hormones, leptin and ghrelin do try to minimize the weight gained, but for most people a gradual increase in weight over the years is normal.

Hi YY CG Lotus CM thank you so much. Just what the dr ordered!! You have talked some common sense into me AND motivated me to keep on keeping on. I’m such a perfectionist I know….I want to ALWAYS have good days, and ALWAYS lose some weight this week, and ALWAYS stick to my FD or TDEE. But you’ve made me realise yet again that I need to be more realistic, more accepting of being a normal human being who sometimes does stupid things that I don’t really want to do. So I’ve had a good talk to myself and calmed down. What would I do without you all?! And yikes the thought that CG now has a Fitbit & might come to haunt me just to get her steps up is not worth thinking about!!

YY as to poaching chicken it’s one of the few things that I do well as far as planning is concerned. So….very easy, boil the kettle & then add some spices to the water. I mostly use Outback Spirit Australian Herbs Lemon Myrtle – tis lovely (supermarket). But you can add any you like, it just adds a delicate flavour to the chicken – could just be stock too. Then I add the chicken breast (just enough to cover) & simmer for about 10 mins or longer if ch breasts are large. I usually cook 2 or 3 breasts at a time. Then I freeze them ready for any day to add to a salad/casserole/quick meal. They are always so tender moist and juicy this way.

Going to check out that Fitbit. Hugs CG () () () sj

Hello all you lovely AD’s. For some reason I’m feeling as flat as a tack today. Not sick like you CG you poor thing. I think it could be a touch of chronic fatigue. Although I feel fine most of the time I guess I just need more sleep. MOH is home again tomorrow and once he’s de jet lagged can take over the Pepper department.
I’ve been reading about Fitbit with interest. I also have an iPad so will look into it. Most of my exercise is also walking and like CG I go off to another room to get something and then can’t remember what it was!
Lotus you are right on the money re hedonic hunger circuits. There is so much about food, science and metabolism that is interesting. That stupid Atkins Diet really got me with the Leptin Ghrelin circus.
Well another FD tomorrow. By the by, I don’t think I’ve lost any weight this week but I do notice that my face is looking thinner. Pity it isn’t my middle but it must prove that the 5:2 is working.
CG rug up and sloth out. Take care of yourself. Pity the cricket is finished. Are you a Footy fan? I’m not. I enjoy tennis though so will see what APT events are on.
Cheers Doggy

Doggie, you sound just like a new mum 🙂

Hi All you brilliant ADers!
Lotus – Misfits Shine hmmm, not so sure about that. Don’t think you are a misfit. Tweak it a little… and you can be Miss Fit Shines!!! Much better and suits you to a T. 🙂
CG – hope you keep going from strength to strength, especially when you get your fitbit, you are so busy busy and active, I’m sure you’ll clock up the steps in no time. Seems like this is becoming a bit of a craze….might have to join in as I don’t really do any other exercise which I had promised myself to do at the start of this wol.
Suejen – don’t you dare give up on us and you can stop beating yourself up right now, because we’ve all been where you were. I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned the carbfest over the weekend, so just be more careful about that in future. Also, you mentioned planning for fast days and having suitable food ready to eat so you don’t eat rubbish mindlessly while waiting for the good stuff. So you have wisely identified where you went wrong and can now make sure that doesn’t happen again….so you are back on track and this was only a minor blip on the screen of your 5:2 wol! Xx
Well done to everyone who has contributed words of wisdom. It’s so lovely to be part of this great group where support, laughs and the occasional kick in the butt are given with such warmth and understanding.
Weighed and measured this morning…half kilo down and slight loss of cm on hips and thighs. I’m still pinching myself when this happens, because I’ve had several treats on nonfast days but I try to keep below my TDEE and it works!! So happy!! 🙂

Aw thanks CG – after my post I felt like I might have come across as a bit smug and maybe I have upset those who are finding things a bit hard at the moment…which was not my intention at all. Watching Brad Pitt doing anything at all has to be a good thing 😉 Enjoy your well deserved rest days xxxx

Suejen, glad you have decided to stay! We may have had to stage an intervention! See, I’ve gone all american while I am here. 😉

Charlie’s Mum, maybe we should do that! 🙂

CG – so sorry you are feeling under the weather but you sure are a fighter! I reckon your immune system was already low from your back problem and that is why this bug has taken such a hold of you. I think it is probably best that you don’t fast while you are fighting this illness, but you know yourself better than anyone, so listen to your body and do what you feel best. If this dose takes the same course as my sister’s, you won’t need fast days, she lost about 7kg in less than two weeks!! Get your son and daughter to nurse you for a change and lap up the attention while you can.