Moongal – there is plenty of joy to be found on this thread, but also plenty of joy coming your way the longer you stay on this wol (way of life). Thanks for sharing your stats…you will be well on your way back to the 60s in no time!
Lotus – will try the hummus too, a good idea, but not the gherkins..too salty and tangy for me, I’m afraid.
SJ – excellent non fast day and room for chocolate too…woohoo!! Hope your sciatica dies down soon, keep up the exercises and keep your spirits up! xxxx

Aw thanks, SJ – just loving being part of this lovely gang…it was a great stroke of good luck that this was the thread that appealed to me most and where I felt the most at home. Hope to have lots of news from my few days away with the family next week and glad I’m not boring the pants off anyone…if I am, please tell me!!!!!

Hey Fit, don’t worry. If anybody’s pants are coming off, it is because they are too loose! Not your stories. 😉
Cheers!

Good Morning / evening team! I love how this thread is running at night too, 24 hour global support team. What could be a better resource?!
To answer SueJen’s question if I feel very hungry the day after – yes I do sometimes, but that seems to be regardless of fasting pattern or fast calories (went to 510-520 cals couple of fasts). It seems a more mental thing than actual hunger though, as a few times when I did back-to-back fasts, I was not that hungry! Still have not figured out non fast day food. Had read somewhere to have low-carb breakfast, which I did yesterday and got an upset tummy!
SJ- congrats on OH’s weightloss, I am sure he started seeing your results, which is an amazing proof for you 😉
Fit- my OH sees results but still turns up his nose at “starving” ( although i do not patently starve lol!). They’ll get there eventually. 😉

Morning CG! Forgot to mention to you to have yogurt with the meal… Oh well, free detox 🙂
Yes, good idea for all of us to meet next year sametime – most having reached our goal weight by then, with many more joining in this journey 🙂

Yes Yes I am saving already for the big trip to Melbourne. Will work extra hours to accumulate more flexi-time for a few days off. Just name the date(s) please Country Girl!!!!! Excited!!!! Does someone want to invite Michael?

Must go now and find a cushion to sit on…one of the downsides of this 5:2 is that my bum does come so much with automatic padding.

Smiling!

Definitely up for a meet being a melbournite myself.

Do you know what I love most about this WOL? I’m sitting in bed having me regular latte & 2 slices of raisin toast with real butter that my darling 11year old makes me for brekkie in bed on a Sunday.

CG -Indian yummmo! One of my fave.types of food.

Welcome to more new people , I’m pretty new here and you will love these kind and very helpful people.

Have a fabulous Sunday! off to burn lots of coals cleaning my house today and getting ready for a busy week.

Cheers
M.O.M

Yum yum, I had 2 slices of banana bread this morning , hopefully it has magnesium in it. I ended up being really bad yesterday, crackers , cheese double Brie -a whole one- and wine to wash it all down. Oh and spaghetti bolognese -vege – for lunch. No walk! I weighed myself again and was weighing 88.5 kilos. I will not weigh in again until Friday. Hi Fit, even though it’s very cold, at least you got to show off your coral tootsies 🙂 lotus, thanks for sharing what you ate, I might try it 🙂 Suejen, I hope your sciatica gets better soon, it is sooooooo painful 🙁

Up 🙂 I like the “it won’t happen overnight but it will happen” lol. I’m going to prepare my lunch for tomorrow nice and early 🙂 I may even get shinny and glossy locks too 🙂 I keep looking in the mirror and I can see my tummy has gone down , it not as big. I suppose my starting weight must have been higher than what my silly scales told me- my measurements are higher than initially ….so I couldn’t even get that right! Grrrr , nevermind. I know I’m shrinking somehow 🙂

Hi Doggy, 🙂 I can eat … boy can I eat but I have found that since starting the 5 2 I have developed some form of self control – I am focussing on portion control. I have been using a smaller plate for my servings and that seems to help. I find that the miso soup is my saviour. I buy my one from Asian grocery stores 🙂
We are having vege duck tonight 🙂

Fit, that is where my husband’s weight is too. Just around the middle.

Ha! Yes, Lotus, which is why he is finally taking action!

HI all, Have a lot to catch up and only skimmed yesterday, we’ve turned the page, so have decided I’ll just go to the ‘reply’ thingy and do individuals,(smaller blurbs!)

So Suejen, saw your post first(top of this page) so,if sciatica is the verdict, then he’s right about time, in the ordinary way, plus hot packs and geeentle stretches, but ‘there’s always more than one way to skin a cat’. and sciatica is the province of neuro, or at least specialized Sports med medics. It doesn’t hurt to get a second opinion. And whilst I advocate the longer healing time for most tissues, not so nerves and especially pinched or inflamed ones for whatever reason. (because they become chronic, either paralysing from pressure or reinjuring with movement) I believe you may be able to resolve it much quicker with cortisone intervention. Not the injected kind, but a low dose tablet regime. Because I worked for a Neuro bod and also had him operate and treat my spinal probs twice (25yrs apart) which included the sciatic nerve, I know what works and what he used, with strict guidelines:

– starting with 5mg daily for 5days and reducing the dose gradually over no more than two further weeks, you should end up on half a two mg tablet for two days, then cease – If it hasn’t settled the nerve by then it’s not going to and further investigation is required.

Be aware: Cortisone is a very useful drug but I believe it is over prescribed in may cases and can cause diabetes to flare in high doses. Unless for chronic or auto-immune diseases, this is NOT A LONG TERM MEDICATION. It’s the last stand for severe inflammation or allergy. It stops your body from making it’s own cortisone and if taken in high doses and stopped suddenly it leaves one open to other nasties until you get immune function back, (plus has other unwanted side effects, including weight gain, with prolonged use) . You can’t get it without a dr’s script, anyway, so a consult is required, but I would caution you to be wary of anyone prescribing it in high doses. It seems to be the fashion in GP land these days, to hand out 25mg tabs and say “take one (or two) for a week” with no tapering off (tapering gives your body the time to make it’s own as the drug tapers off). At low doses, no harm is done, it’s just a booster to settle inflamed tissues. Quite magic, as long as settling is all it needs.

And the wolf whistles….. well they were kind old blokes in various stages of decline, not to mention a tipple or two! but a wiggle is soo much better than a wobble, Huh? luck, Suejen, your posts are always so encouraging to others, hope you can get some positive help for the pain, it’s bloogy awful as I recall. xxx Gyps

Raven, great to see you joining us long posters and opening up. I agree with you and Fit, cyberspace is, or can be a dangerous place to put one’s trust. I get a little nervous sometimes when I remember ANYBODY can read what we put up here. Maybe it’s deceiving because we seem cosy in our own little thread?

Anyway, I don’t want to be without the support of this great crew, so guess we just have to have faith in the sincerity of purpose we all have. Certainly those not on the same wavelength don’t stick it out through the highs and lows with us. You have had some profound words to say in your post(previous page,) that gel with me. We do need to accept our own idiosyncracies and value ourselves more, I think. But it’s hard without company and friendship to bounce off. This thread has been a bonus for me in that respect. It’s an exercise in trust. I was becoming quite the recluse. People are becoming isolated in their own homes, age, transport, finance and for oldies the loss of partners and friends, to infinity. Then there’s the lonely hearts club, and many fabricated encounters make cyber life as dodgy as Alice in wonderland’s rabbit hole! So we can really do with a psycho cop! Welcome to the party!

Ha, ha, I don’t mind being (rightly) diagnosed as a wordsmithing yarn spinner! It’s definitely Wonderland in my brain when the world takes to rhyme in my funny bones!….one should ‘never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn”….. thank god Aussies consider that a normal aberration for a bush bard. Just hope I don’t lapse into alziemers in the mix. (no one will realize!). Oregon brings to mind all the best cowboy and Indian movies . Sweeping plains and mountain forests?. Must be spacious and beautiful. Cheers from North Queensland scrub! Gyps

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. Was just what I expected from such a lovely bunch. It’s been a bit over 10 weeks since I started using this clever tactic. I had been researching fasting for weight loss and health improvements for quite some time then I found 5:2, and thought, ‘Hey, I can do that!’. Down to 76kg this morning. 1kg until I hit my next mini goal. Was talking to my mum about it and her doctor had suggested she try it independently of our chat! I think it will take a bit of convincing to get her started, but (from experience) it’s the best way to get where you need to go without feeling overcome by internal diet chat!

So thanks again everyone for your dialogue, humour, clever tips, and kindness.

Tra-la, tra-lee,
A home for me!

Yum Yum, thanks for the info on where to get the book, will fossick it out next time I get to the big smoke.

Am still trying to catch up with posts. So many of you have posted great comments and been really supportive of my ramblings. I do appreciate the feedback, and enjoy reading yours,too. just don’t want to hog the space all together!
But Fit, I think your toes should be photographed and posted, palely elegant in shades of blue and orange!… perhaps we could write a sonnet to them…. So disappointing for you to be facing snow again with the promise of thaw thwarted… Thath’s sorfull….

Meanwhile, it’s clinging to the remnants of summer here, I too am going through my cupboards for things so long stashed that will fit me now. But it needs to be cooler to appreciate clothes!.

Doggy, I don’t think you’re on a soap box at all, the poor buggers looking for asylum have a rum deal, I reckon.
Glad your pup is settling. Binalong Bay is on my to see list next trip to Tassie, The ullysses club is having it’s AGM down there either next year or the one after. Am thinking about it. Six thousand K round trip might be a big ask for the old gypsybelle(and I am talking about the bike!) I feel I could do it, but OH is not a happy camper these days. He needs his comfort. but where there’s a will there’s a way! Suejen, taco and mayhem, I haven’t forgotton you. lovely posts. and everyone keep up the good work. the boss will be back with all the goss soon, trust she didn’t blow away!

Shhhh, get back on topic now, she’s coming…..

Fa..ffaaarr..faaaast! you fools! this is serious! I ate the damn chocolates I hid from myself at easter….bah! think I’ll have qa drink to go with it. thank God tomorrow will fix it! toodleoo xxx

Welcome back home CG! It was all so well done of you. All four of you! taking the risk of meeting strangers and making it all reality! I think we will all think about how we can go next year. Long way for some of us. But details for planning when you’re ready. It’s food for thought! And there you are, right back on the money, I never tire of your beat, you drum the important facts to the fore and it so helps to keep one on track. Soup! that’ll do it1 I can have a wee bourbon (and green coke!) and relax. nite all!

Quite off topic but Gypsy bell, how do you feel about nick cave?

Helllllllllooooooo ADs
A big Thank you everyone for your wonderful birthday wishes. Means a lot to me. Thanks everyone!!!
Well, CG left for her farm this morning and dropped GG At the airport this evening. I have had very beautiful few days with these ladies. Enjoyed my birthday lunch with CG, GG and Andrew. Thanks again to all 3 of you for making my day extra special.
And CG, thanks for the compliment, my OH and parents equally loved your company. Hope you are feeling better n steam has settled now…..
Team, i have to mention that the recent few days were full of food, alcohol n specially love. The extra dose of love n cuddles may make me gain some weight as there was an abundance of them. If that’s the case, then be it!!! Love the love that I received from these wonderful people.
Fasting tomorrow (thank God) n may do a b2b as I am full of food… LOL

Ps: as many of you would have seen my picture, I had red hair. GG made me color it back darker, so I have got a new look now. Got my hair colored all black today 🙂 🙂 🙂

HI All gosh I’m late today…can’t even say good afternoon it’s already evening & late for some of you. Had a busy day & only one day left of the open studio. Yeah I will get my house back! Sold lots of prints but no more paintings. Done well really for a first opening.
Not even going to try & do individual replies. Think I need to do another roll call this week to find out who’s still around & where from. I just have to go back & find the darn page where I did the last secretarial job. Have to start recording important page no’s methinks.
Welcome home CG & I expect GG. C hope you got home fa..ffaaarr..faaaast!(thanks Gyps!). We did survive without you but we all need your motivational start to the day. Funny I pictured you (no idea why) as a brunette with longish hair!
well food-wise day was OK today but didn’t track as I planned. Never mind back to FD tomorrow & looking forward to it too. Feel a little full of food today – mainly because we tried our new Dancin Wok shop downtown (terriyaki bento box) & it was just too much for me. My how our appetites chance with 5:2. Don’t think I’ll bother again either..wasn’t that nice.
Are you planned, prepared, ready to be patient & persistent??? Off to boil my eggs folks. Have a great FD all & whether you consume 400/500/or 600+ calories you’re still a winner in my books!! Byee folks suejen
PS Gyps thanks for the advice ..will read over again & poss consult with my GP. Yes I learnt about cortisone as an asthma educator for 8 years so I’ll be cautious with that approach but sounds enticing though.

FB – great to hear from you too since the big AD meet-up. Sounds like you all gelled really well and had a fabulous time. So glad you enjoyed your birthday and best of luck with your new hair colour. You look lovely in the photo, but I’m sure you’re even lovelier now. Can you send us more pics please?
SJ – well done on the successes of the open studio; it will be lovely for you to get your house back so try and put your feet up and relax, you’ve earned it.
Raven – I had a recent experience like you and your OH…definitely not got the same capacity for alcohol as before, so I’ll be taking it very easy next week on my little break. Maybe, it’s our bodies telling us that they don’t want the extra cals involved in a few drinkies?!! 😉 Anyway, I am going to heed the warning and be a very good girl!