Hi Cinque,

The planning sounds good Cinque. Sounds like you did do too much yesterday. Sounds like a bit of brain fog in there too. That walk may have been too far after all. It’s so easy, with ME/CFS to do too much on your best days. A good rule of thumb is to do no more on your good days than you do on your not so good days. A pain the proverbial, but gives your body a little bit of healing room. You might also be fighting off a bug. I found the 500 cal FDs to only be a bit of a challenge for the 1 st 3 weeks and then it was pretty easy.

Unusally hungry day – yep, I get 1 of those about every 3 months. Funny thing is that I don’t seem to put on as much weight as I think I would on those days. Sounds like you handled it reasonably well in food terms anyway. Best not to feel guilty about it. I have no idea of it’s common to other 5:2ers in general or those like us. Again, no guilt tripping yourself. The human body is a complex thing and your’s and mine aren’t working exactly as they should. Who knows, it may have something to do with our damaged energy production.

Hope you’re feeling better tomorrow.
Merry

Hey Intesha, how’s the day finished up?

I wrote this out once already and bumped something and lost it, so……….I ended up with the day at 510 cals. An unexpected FD for me, but it was starting to bother me that the last couple of days I was creeping up a little. Only 100 gms a day, but I didn’t want to end up tomorrow doing a FD starting at the same weight as I started last FD and forever sitting on 68 kgs, so I’m happy to slip a FD in a bit early.

Hope your day ended up really well.
Cheers,
Merry

Hi Merry, are you doing another FD tomorrow or did you just bring it forward by one day? Interested in what you said about comments made when you were younger. I was quite well developed by age 11 and got a lot of comments about my boobs in my formative years.

Cinque, when I started 5:2, I planned my FD meals for 4 weeks in advance. I had them all in a spread sheet with the cals so I could mix and match and it would add up the totals for both me and OH (who of course could have 600 cals). I really liked knowing what to expect and this helped me with the discipline to never go over the 500 cals. I don’t do that any more but I do still always plan a FD ahead of time plus what the OFMs will have.

This week, I weighed 59.something kgs for 7 consecutive days. I have no idea why as I enjoyed two morning teas and that full grazing day with wine at the shareholders’ AGM thing. It couldn’t last and today I was 60.2kgs. Maybe tomorrow, I’ll dip back under again.

Unlike what some of you are experiencing, strangely I haven’t felt hungry at all today – it’s nearly 8pm and I’m up to 267 cals. I will have something before bed as I hate that hungry feeling when I’m trying to sleep. Well done all Sunday fasters, it’s lovely to have so much company as I used to be the only one.

Good morning everyone,
Hi Avent, so sorry to hear of such an awful time for OH and you. I hope everything goes well now.

Merry, yes, I must have overdone it. Sigh. Much better this morning. I’ll take it slowly.

I’m good at planning Fast Days, but I think I need to plan the other days too! ? More thorough planning than I have been doing.
I’ll try it for a while, anyway.

It hasn’t been so much that I have been overeating, but I haven’t had that feeling of a nice meal that I have eaten, and now I am satisfied. I think I need to plan a good two course meal ( non fast days).

Fast day today!
Best wishes all of you! Fasting, or eating well on a non fast day. ?

Planning the non-fast days would be a good idea Cinque. I wish I had the courage to work out my non-FD calorie intake but I just rely on 5:2 having shaped my many bad habits into better ones. All the best for a good FD today.

Avent, so good to have you and your thermomix back. I have often wondered what happened to you after you went AWOL on the beach in Durban and I’ve missed your great sense of humour. I’m really sorry to hear of your recent hard times and hope you’re both soon completely well. Life can change in an instant. Hey, I’m excited to be heading your way in June! We have no plans for where we’re going this time but have booked flights to J’Berg as our daughter is doing a chemical immobilisation course there through uni and thought we’d tag on a holiday since we all love Africa so much. I’d love to head into Zambia or Botswana as we’ve never been.

Morning All,

Welcome back Avent! We’ve missed you. Good to have you back. Oh boy, you’ve been in the wars, both of you, and when one goes through the wars you both do. So sorry you’ve been through all of it. “Life” with a capital L comes along and smacks us when we least expect it. Good thoughts and prayers for a continued upward tragectory for you both. My OH and I both had serious illhealth land on us suddenly overnight so I know how it is. OH’s was a heart attack in his 30’s and mine a severe rare virus 10 yrs later. OH is still going strong 30 yrs later and I believe that attitude and mindset bear a big part in getting well and living a good life with Life challenges. It makes a big difference. We’ve set up all we can do medically, financially, the way we live; soanything else goes in the back of my mind and I get on with normal life with gratitude. We can have the challenges and be unhappy, or we can have the challenges and choose to be happy anyway!

Cinque, glad you’re feeling better today. Planning NFDs sounds like a good idea. My weight loss is slower than the usual too, and I found that what I did on NFDs ended up being the other key to successful overall weight loss over time. Because I can’t exercise any calories off, and I never seemed hungry in the early mornings, I started doing 16:8 on NFDs, i.e. Not eating till after 12noon and eating between 12 and 8 pm. Sometimes it’s 1pm and 9pm. It’s like a 16 hour mini-fast. There are people who do various variations in the 24hr clock. Read one who did 19-5 recently. Maybe that was Rogue Trader. Anyway, 16:8 works well for me.

Thin, yep, going to do another FD today. First back to back ones for me, and first 4:3. Won’t be doing it very often though. OH did a fast day yesterday too. He had an early extended breakfast meeting with a friend today, and I think because he was very busy yesterday, and I ended up doing a FD, he just did too. So he’s probably not planning a FD today. I have dinner out with a group of people at someone’s house tonight. A monthly thing in rotating homes. I decided a while back that I didn’t want to upset my Mon Thur FD routine, so I don’t have anything in the day, choose from the shareplates offered, working out 500cals by guesswork. It works.

Forgot to say – Mon is my ‘official’ weekly weigh in day that I graph, and I was 67.7kgs this morning. Happy to ditch the 68’s on the graph!

Off to the hairdressers today. They serve coffee and tea with mini mini little cupcakes – tiny little things that a friend bakes. The icing even twinkles. Sometimes I eat them, sometimes I don’t.

Hi Merry, ha re the hairdressers, just the kind of mistake I continually make! You will enjoy it tomorrow!

Good luck with your back-to-backing!

One thing I have already learnt today is that I don’t have as much milk in my tea as I thought I did. Good!

Hi EA, just checking in before I head off to a meeting. I so hope we can give you all the support you need to cope with toddlers, kids, busy life AND 5:2! You deserve it!

Don’t be too disappointed, what can we do but try things, and then if we find they don’t work, try something that might work better.

I am also fasting today. I waited til the afternoon to have my coffee and wow!, I feel like I am on speed!
I hope I don’t talk too fast at this meeting!

Cheers for the rest of your fast day I hope you enjoy getting back into it! ?

Hi EA, welcome back, so happy to see you on here again. I know I could have emailed you too but I’m so wrapped up with learning Spanish when I get any spare time and then sort of keeping up with the MC thread too. Wow, you have really done your homework re: this thread and summarised well all the goings on that you’ve missed. Top marks for that. When I get back from hols, we’re going to have to make a big effort to get together with CM & Freya even if we all have to trek up to the cabin the woods with a packed lunch! I can’t remember your weight before you fell off the horse so I’m not sure if it’s as bad as you think but you’re here now so it’s good to have you back.

ha ha well you can tell who hasn’t eaten anything today! I am thanking myself. That was meant to say Thanks Thin. Roll on dinner time…

EA, yeah, I had to read that a few times before giving up! So are you saying that new swimming costume doesn’t fit any more? Don’t worry about catching up with all the posts, it can be daunting. Right now, there are just a few regulars on this thread so it’s easy to keep up with but I’m sure we all agree, anyone can just pop in, read the most recent posts if we have time but, most importantly, let everyone know how we’re getting on.

I’m hoping at least three weeks of our trip will be spent in a place remote enough that little or no English is spoken and I can get a chance to improve my limited skills. If not, I’ll be the typical uni-lingual Brit and rely on others’ ability to speak English. I do know that the cleaner of the casa where we’re staying in that white village can’t speak a word of English so I can try it out on her.

Good morning,
It is the warm light morning of a hot day. I’ve hot the blind up over the kitchen window. That means summer is here!
I really enjoyed my Fast Day yesterday. Licorice tea seemed to help with my dizziness, and waiting til the afternoon to have my coffee unleashed the caffeine, blitzed the distracted lack of concentration, and in the end I didn’t even have my evening soup: wasn’t hungry before the meeting, and after it I just wanted to unwind and then go to bed.
Sorry about that sentence, it might be unreadable!

Now to see if I can have a good normal eating today. I have lots of good little meals planned if I need them, and lots of good drinks ( sipping my first licorice tea as I write). Let’s see how well I can understand my body’s signals!

Cheers to everyone fasting today!

PS that trip sounds just wonderful Thin!

With all of the concern overseas I decided not to post for a while. I had to shop on a fast day and blew it completely. Don’t see the family much at all. Usually I have to travel to them. However we will be having an early Christmas here early in December so the children can spend time with partners families on Christmas day. Next year it will be here on Christmas Day. I am the only one that has large enough pots to cater for all of us. If all come it will be 15 altogether.

We are expecting another couple of days of extreme heat. This will test the garden. I am a little impatient waiting for things to grow, but I just realised that most of the garden is only three years old.

Merry, I had the same problem with my mother who was 5′ 4″ approx and 6 stone. I was always called fat and chubby. A plain jane. I was 8 and a half stone on my wedding day. Normal for my frame. This has gone on all my life, telling me I should be skinny like one of my daughters. This really upset me so I got my wedding dress out and put it on her. I could not do it up as she was to big around the waist. She is a 6 or 8 depending on brand. This was a real boost to my confidence. It is relative. We can’t change other people’s opinions but we can change our reaction to them.

Good morning all. Reading some of your comments recently it is awful how family can put you down and suck the confidence out of you when you were all perfectly normal. My sister used to tease me for being stick thin so you can’t win either way!

Yes I was rewarded on the scales today Thin and went from 65.5 yesterday morning to 64.7 this morning. Happy to be back below the 65 mark (psychological, I know).

This morning so far I have only had two cups of tea (with milk) and water as I am going to a morning tea this morning so thought that could be my breakfast. I am still going to be mindfull about what I eat though as I want to get in the right head space all the time, not just on fast days. I really want to see those kilos dropping to the 50’s in the near future.

Thin – cooler weather sounds wonderful to me. This English Rose wilts above 30 degrees.

Well, had better get off out before I am late.

All the best Tuesday Fasters and I hope all Monday fasters have had good news on the scales this morning.
xxxx

Hi everyone, glad you came and posted GL. It is hot wind here! I have cardboard boxes covering my coriander seedlings, as they are the most vulnerable, but the boxes keep blowing onto the driveway!

I’m having a good non fast day. I needed to find a balance between eating what I felt like, drinking all I needed, and not dumping too much food on my body at a time! So my system is to have a bit of food, wait an hour, and if I am still hungry, have some more. I think it is working. The break between, with drinks, gives me time to decide if I really am hungry. (Both meals so far I have been! :p ) But it feels good. And I am having very good food and even with two servings, I don’t think I am overeating. Well, I’ll find out won’t I!

Last week my boobs seemed smaller and I was able to go and buy some exercise bras (no wire anywhere!) and wear them. Oooh the blessed relief! (I hate bras!). This week my legs seem skinnier and I have some pyjama shorts, really daggy ones, that come to my knees, and I am wearing them with so much pleasure seeing my skinnier legs sticking out below. Oh the pleasures of 5:2!

PS Have to agree with everyone saying how awful families can be with body shape. So awful! I think we all might have suffered it. Thank heavens we can grow up and change…. hard though it may be! I think at 58 I am getting there! 😉

Cinque, last night I was in bed remembering how my Dad used to make rhymes about us as children using our first & second names. I’d completely forgotten all about it. My brother’s was ” ******* Miles, full of smiles”. Mine was ” ********** Carol, fat as a barrel”. Charming, eh? Perhaps you can help me think up something appropriate for him, his middle name was Stanley.

Hi Merry, our posts crossed. I love the kinds of places you describe. Off the beaten track. Yes I think people appreciate it when you try and make an effort to speak the local lingo. CM is on a cruise in NZ so maybe no reliable internet.

Hi Nap and Cinque, and other FDs,

A little revue of my last few days –

Sunday- did my unplanned FD, went down 0.9 kg from 68.3 to 67.7kg Monday am. So far so good. Happy Dancing to kick 68 away.

Monday- yep Thin, was feeling it was a ‘good’ day sodecided to do another FD to see what would happen as Id never explored back to back fasts before. Wrong move! Got to 4pm, out Bunnings with OH looking at pots and plants etc, when the world suddenly lurched around and I stumbled against OH and held on while the lurching changed to plain old dizzyness, and then decided to stay still. From then on I started to get really weak, low blood sugarish, and we headed for the B’s cafe and I had just about the only GF thing there – a Byron Bay white chocolate and macca cookie. Probably 300 cals but I didn’t care by then. Got home, ate something else, cheese I think, drink of course, went straight to bed, slept for awhile, felt Ok, so OH drove me the 1 1/2 kms ( I wasn’t game to drive) to my monthly dinner out in rotating homes thing. Hadn’t been for a couple of months and really wanted to get to 1 before Xmas. Had 3 course meal, though reasonably sparish from share plates fir main. Did work out I ate in a 6 hr window, so on the 24 hour division it was a 18:6 day. Except……had slight headache going to bed, didn’t take paracetemol, woke at 3am, headache worse, couldn’t sleep, got up about 4, had a small banana, paracetemol, and the emergency dark chocolate. Eventually got back to sleep.

Tuesday – gone up from 67.7 to 68.2 kg, up 500gms. Felt fine ( new meds are helping I think), not normally normal, but fine in my ME/CFS world. So – will I attempt another FD I thought? Give it a go, I’m already out in experimental territory, see what happens. Home all day, if need be then at 1st sign of trouble. No problems, 1 1/2 hr sleep in afternoon, 5pm and thinking I should eat something protein. Dinner at 7.30 with OH small amt skinless chicken breast with lots of low cal low GI veg, broccoli, carrot, cauliflower, green beans. 1/2 apple, very small plain yoghurt and pear. Probably 750 cals, didn’t count. Slept well, but woke 3 times to pee. 24 hr breakdown is 19:5.

Wednesday – back down to 67.6, down 600 gms, so an extra 100 gms down from my FD on Sunday.

Well, that was a saga, and I hadn’t planned on such detail, but hope someone gets something out of that.
For me, I’m definitely not a candidate for back to back fasts! Would I do 4:3.? I don’t know. Maybe, if I really wanted to get down quicker, but I’m thinking my body is very happy doing a regular Mon/Thur FDs week, and it’s working. I don’t think it’s worth the little extra I would go down. I’ve read numerous times that the 3rd fast doesn’t drop as much as the first 2 do. But, I am thinking that maybe a 19:5 day with lower than TDEE but higher than 500 cals is doable occasionally rather than a full 3rd fast.

Anyhoo…. I’m off out now. I do think the new meds are settling down a bit and there is a little bit of a lift from it. So far so good.

Cheers,
Onwards and downwards,
Merry

Take it easy Merry!

Intesha, ours crossed. Two more fasts until we leave! Your Mum didn’t know any better Intesha. But our daughter keeps reminding us to be nice to her as she’ll be the one choosing our nursing home – it made me smile reading your post and knowing your situation.

Intesha, I ran out of editing time on the above. Are you going to persist with 4:3? I’ve never tried B2B fasting or 4:3 so I’m no authority on either. The former seems daunting. Re: 4:3, I wonder if you get enough of the ‘feast’ effect doing that?

Thin: ‘last night I was in bed remembering how my Dad used to make rhymes about us as children using our first & second names. I’d completely forgotten all about it. My brother’s was ” ******* Miles, full of smiles”. Mine was ” ********** Carol, fat as a barrel”. Charming, eh? Perhaps you can help me think up something appropriate for him, his middle name was Stanley.’

Oh dear! Dad fail!

– I can relate very much to that as it was my dad who encouraged my brothers and sisters to call me piggy.

Well Dad Stanley, I am afraid to say that you deserve a horrible rhyme in response. I’m thinking!

***** Stanley, not very manly

Ha ha Cinque, thanks for the rhyme! What’s your relationship like with your siblings? Were you an overweight child? I bet not.

Hi All
Woke up this morning and decided enough was enough so here I am halfway through my first fast day – so far so good! I actually started the 5:2 over 12 months ago but copped a bit of flack from well meaning extended family so gave up. I’ve done so many things – 12WBT, WW, being sensible, being not-sensible – and here I am 2.5kg heavier than when I was on here last.
I’m not much of a ‘participant’ in these type of forums usually but perhaps this is what will actually keep me on track. I’ve enjoyed the last couple of pages of entries – you all seem like a great bunch!
Wish me well!
merz

Cinque, that is terrible! I don’t know why families are so cruel…

I have done some reading and it sounds like 4:3 isn’t a whole lot better than 5:2 – I think the common average result from surveys is an extra 100g. They also seemed to say that people’s rebound effect (eating more on the non FD days) is worse for those on 4:3. I would be interested in what you find out, Thin.

I gave up on my FD after lunch. I had a bad dizzy spell, and just felt enough was enough. I need to go to 5:2, to see how I fare on that – so I have to learn to let go of the guilt that I am not doing enough.