Hello Lunaluv and WeeScotty

I’m in Scotland too. The Moray coast. I often use the Norwegian weather forecast because it seems to be more accurate for this area than the Met. Weather has been pretty grim recently and I’ve not been out much either. Apart from walks with my husband, usually 4-5 miles, I’m pretty sedentary too. Early retired.

I had a go at this last summer and it was going well until we had a succession of people come to stay and I lost concentration and focus and ended up back where I’d started.

Anyway, I’ve now completed six fast days over nearly three weeks and have lost half a stone, so I’m feeling quite encouraged and keen to stick with it. Mondays and Thursdays are my fast days.

I feel as though I’m into a good routine, with no distractions. Big problem will be sticking with it when ‘the family’ all gets together for a week in Aviemore in early April.

I have a lot of weight to lose (over five stones) and I have written down a list of reasons why I am doing this, and apart from trying to achieve a healthier way of living, my younger son may get married in November and I want to look presentable in the photos etc. etc. I look at my list every day and I add to it when I find more reasons.

I have set myself lots of mini-goals, otherwise it would be too overwhelming, and the other thing is that I congratulate myself when I stick to my Fast or stay within my TDEE on a non fast day.

Like you Lunaluv, I’ve not felt hungry during the day and I can go for ages without eating. Water and Black Coffee do well for me.

Reading the threads I’ve started to become much more aware of ‘hidden’ sugars, and I agree with those who say that the food processing industry is totally without scruple and keen to get and keep us addicted to sugars. I’ve watched Dr Robert Lustig on YouTube.

Next week, I’m going to try to do more exercise.

Lunaluv, whether it’s possible to lose 5kg before 24 June might depend on how much overweight you are. 5kg is just over eleven pounds and you have about 19 weeks to do it in. I’m sure I would be able to do that, but then I’ve got a lot to lose. If you only have 5kg to lose to achieve your ideal weight than it might be more of a challenge.

Well, I’m heading for bed. Good luck to you both. Talk Soon.

Joan

5:2 eating pattern is sustainable and very doable.

If you have a pattern of not eating breakfast in the morning I’d keep that habit. I had to train myself to skip the morning fuel intake. Breakfast is truly not necessary.

I often only eat one meal a day. Or I’ll have a very light lunch and then a normal supper.

I’ve been doing the 5:2 pattern of eating for 13+ months now and it seems to fit me well. I have made changes to fit me and suit me. I suggest that you try to adhere to the plan for 2 months before initiating any changes. Truly though if you don’t eat a meal now. Don’t add it just to fit the 5:2 pattern.

Some great information in the following posts:

https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/on-plateaus/

https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/if-your-clothes-are-looser-but-the-scales-are-the-same-read-on/

https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/really-no-weight-loss/

Best wishes for your 5:2 journey you are going to be amazed at yourself in a year.

you can do 5:2. If I can anyone can. It is just a pattern of eating. Overtime it will become easier and easier. Recalculate your TDEE everytime the scale drops, eat 1/4 (25%) of your TDEE or less on fast days, stay within your TDEE on normal days.

When you slip up and go over on a fast day or your TDEE on a feed day don’t beat yourself up. Things happen. Just get back on the pattern and get stubborn about it. You will find out alot about yourself on fast days and you can use that in your daily life. You are mentally stronger for fasting and fasting does pay off big time in the health benefits.

Keep on keeping on 5;2 and you will succeed you can do this.

Temp -25C windchill -39C blowing snow.

Lunaulv hope today goes well. If you’ve never fasted before it can be a challenge but a bunch of us are cheering you on. I see you teach. Presume you have read amongst your preparation that while fasting there is an increase in cognitive performance? I was once on a fast ( not for health but spiritual ) and on the third day had to write an essay about something. My mind was so clear I got the highest mark in my life- 97% 🙂 maybe should do that more often?
I always have several books on the go on my Kindle. I promise I am not saying this for effect but at the moment I am really enjoying ‘Norwegian Wood’ by Lars Mytting. it has been very popular here since being translated into English last Autumn. Also Matthew for Everyone by Tom Wright. Sometimes for a bit of nonsense I read fiction, but it is not my usual. I knit too and tried the ‘knitting mystery’ series by Maggie Sefton. A ‘light’ read and probably won’t buy any more but you do get a knitting pattern or two in the back and a recipe for something mentioned in the plot. My ambition is to learn to do lace knitting popular in Shetland and the Western Isles. It looks like cobwebs. Needs lots of quiet concentration and I don’t always understand the knitting instructions.While I was out to work I never had the energy left at the end of the day so am really pleased to have knitted a couple of items for myself this winter as well as small Christmas gifts for friends = mittens, bookmarks. I didn’t go out at all yesterday so wet and windy. Today looks OK so I will plan to get my pedometer on and out there for an hour or so. Just into town and round, the ground is still very sodden after the heavy rain we have had and not much fun to walk on. Let us know how today goes.

Hi Lunaulv

I’m thinking about you and you will be well into your morning at school. I was a teacher too, although a late entrant to teaching. Having grown up children and a granddaughter I can also imagine the hard work you’ve had even before you leave the house getting the children ready for their respective days.

I know what it’s like lugging your laptop in a wee rucksack up and down stairs, but only 3 floors and eventually I got my own classroom.

I was fifty during my NQT year and I only taught for seven years. In England, as a Teacher of Business Studies, you are an ‘odds and sods’ teacher and I had to teach all sorts of things and never got to feel confident in my teaching, and I found the whole experience very stressful. While I have been accepted onto the Scottish Teaching Register, I have decided that it’s a stress I don’t need. Scotland has a completely different curriculum. I managed to stop smoking last year, after 40 years. I would never have been able to achieve that were I still working.

I’ll catch up with you later. I need to do some housework before I go to play Bridge.

you can do this. Remember every day is new and a clean slate. As long as you keep on keeping on 5:2 you will succeed. It’s a pattern of eating not a diet so you can’t fail.

Over time you’ll find what works best for you. I urge you to adhere to 5:2 as written. The only variable is when to eat on your fast days. Some prefer 2 small meals. Lunch and supper or one large meal, usually supper but there are people that like breakfast. I just don’t eat at all. I find if I have a little bit I want a LOT and it’s much more difficult to manage.

Do what’s right for you. You will get to know your body and rhythm better as time goes on. And if you find that you have to have a 100 calorie snack to beat back the cloud to make it through the work day you can do that. There is no one size fits all with 5:2.

Hi WeeScotty

Your pork sounds delicious. I’d like to know more. We are having ribeye steak, not a lot, 135g each. I’m putting it down as 370 calories but I know it will be less because Highland Cattle meat has significantly less fat, but the marbling is wonderful. We will have potatoes, carrots, green beans, onions and mushroom and salad with it. A couple of glasses of red wine to celebrate not going off the rails. I’ve already had Allbran, whole milk and a dessertspoon of demerara sugar. (228 cals)

I wondered what you were talking about when you said you’d already eaten your pancakes until I saw a poster at the co-op in Portsoy and then I twigged.

Ditto regarding inch loss. I measured this morning and recorded an inch off my waist since I started.

Well, I’ve not been to Dundee Rep since I was a student at Dundee 1974 to 1977. Can’t remember what I saw… Must arrange a wee trip to Dundee. I’ve not really been back since I left so I’m looking forward to seeing the changes. Gowd, it’s forty years ago..

I watched the original version of the Cheviot, the Stag and the Black Black Oil on You Tube during the run up to the referendum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-r_J14n100

It’s still there and I see there’s also a ‘meet the cast’ from the Dundee production you saw. I’ll have a look at that later.

Thanks for the link to Ravelry. I’ve just joined and I’ll have a look for some ‘beginners’ projects! It’s windy here today, and bitter, so I’ve not walked today. Rain forecast for later. Going to find my knitting bag..

Yes WeeScotty I find non fast days more difficult than fast days and while I can go to bed hungry, I’m not generally raging with hunger the next morning.

I wonder how Lunaulv is doing?

Sunny -31C windchill -39C.

To weigh or not to weigh or if to weigh how often? For some once a month is sufficient others it is weekly and in my case by medical necessity daily. I have heart failure and if I start retaining fluids my weight will jump and I know to get to the Drs for pharmacological intervention.

My weight does fluctuate by 3 – 5 lbs depending on salt intake and liquids and diet. So I always average the last 3 days. Tracking your weight frequently does help keep some of us on the straight and narrow. I know when I need to tighten up on my eating habits fairly quickly before I fall to far off the 5:2 pattern.

My weight is down 57lbs in 56 weeks on 5:2 so I am going down the right path.

Make sweet potato fries, toss in a bowl with home made Italian dressing to coat them place on no stick cookie sheet single layer and cook at 230C (450F) oven for 25 – 30 mins add a sprinkle of creole seasoning when you take them out of the oven http://www.slenderkitchen.com/recipe/light-italian-dressing I use a diced red pepper rather than one from a jar add a little cayenne pepper for some zing, use stevia extract as a sweetner and lower the calories even more. You can use this dressing as a marinade on pork chops or chicken as well. Don’t marinate meats for too long an hour in the fridge is good. More time is not better with vinegar based marinades.

I find that taking time and being mindful of what I’m doing makes my food taste better no matter how simple it actually is.

Hi Lunaulv I started in October by weighing once a week early in the morning after a fast day. That seemed OK. Recently I read to weigh once per day ( same time each day) and do a sum weekly to get an average. I have tried for 2 weeks and don’t see any real advantage so I think will return to once per week.
Once a month I write a menu for the next month. I use a table and print it out and keep it in my kitchen. In ‘spare’ room under the table ( now that’s beginning to sound like Narnia? ) on the page I mean not under the table I eat from – I write fruit & veg & meat in season and sources of recipes to look up ( trying not to print everything out or buy any more books) Table is written as two weeks and eaten twice. Easy enough to choose something for the extra days – or never mind the calendar just eat four-weekly pattern. I then review what is in ‘season’ as am trying to eat seasonally which reduces air miles ( not flying things in from Africa or new Zealand ). I get ideas from magazines and online and then fill in the table which gives me an idea of variety in the week. However say if I make soup I eat 2 days in a row ( living alone) or today’s meal ( not fasting) is from the freezer as I made four portions when I cooked it. Not sure how this would work with partner and children unless they eat anything you give them 🙂 You will know what they like? My mum used to say the hardest part was thinking up menus not buying and cooking. I see that now.
The only effort I have to make, and sometimes forget, is to check before going shopping what the NEXT day’s menu is for ingredients. I have been doing this now since August and it is making life easier and am not making many bad impulse choices when I shop. I think I am wasting less fresh food too. Although the celeriac in the fridge is about to climb out and walk away – and I have used it several times.

Motivation: do you have a pair of pants that you know you look great in but they are just too small. Too tight, uncomfortably so? Wear them for a bit then hang them on the wardrobe door where you can always see them. Try them on every few weeks. Feel as they get easier to put on and then finally you get to wear them! That is a a great feeling.

It does take some time and some discipline but you can do this.

Hi Folks

I’ve got such a dress too Lunaulv. I’ve worked out that it must be 20 years old and I hope to wear it in October on a cruise to the Canaries.

I’m afraid I’m not as organised as WeeScotty. However, I have unearthed the electric steamer from the back of the kitchen cupboard, and I’m enjoying the Wok!

I weigh every day, but only record Monday to Monday, first thing before coffee. If I weigh a bit more than I did on the previous Friday morning (after Thursday Fast) then it’s too bad. It’s the long term trend that’s important to me. I will have completed four weeks on Monday.

I’ve got a busy week coming up with U3a and village activities so hopefully I won’t be thinking about food too much.

Hello Lunaulv
All good news then. Weight loss and losing mass. Well done, and also very well done on being able to keep the head when presented with a range of temptations.
I’m doing OK. Going away next week for a little break. Will be a test of whether I can control myself in the face of lots of lovely, tempting food. Bread, mmm. Not had any for ages, and have stopped buying it. Enjoying crispbread occasionally…

Hi folks
Like you WeeScotty, I got temporarily sidetracked. We had a wee trip to Oban, and I consumed too much. Back on track now, but not trusting the scales at the moment. I feel fat this morning, but the scales say that I am 3lb less than yesterday! Ah well, I’ll go by tomorrow any the week by week record. Weather has just been beautiful. Sorry to hear about your belt. Something to aim for, eh?
How’re you Lunaulv?

Hello Joan,
that sounds great, congrats!
True, the difficulty is sticking to the plan and not giving in to temptation too much and too often 🙂

Good luck with your next goal!!
Austrian

Lunaluv, how are you getting on?
I am a teacher, too (although on “baby break”), and I totally feel your pain when it comes to the 90 essays you had to correct. I don’t know about Norwegian students, but students here tend to throw anything at you that is remotely connected to the topic, and then you have seven pages per person to sift through for bits of relevant information or insights. A bit like looking for gold nuggets in a murky stream. Hope your students write only clear and concise thoughts, unlike mine. 🙂

Cheers,
Austrian