EA, I think you hit the nail on the head with the low carb aspect of your diet. People have been telling me this for years and I just didn’t believe them. During my second long plateau, I decided I had to change something and found that cutting out the white carbs made a huge difference. Good luck with your resumption of 5:2 on Monday. You sound slim already. Are you taking the whole family back to blighty – toddler and teen too?

Welcome StayPositive (SP). I treated myself to a variety of Twinings herbal teas for taste treats on FDs. I like peppermint and orange & cinnamon the best. I concur with EA, you’re tough living in a caravan at Ora Banda. I’m also from the UK – south coast. I’d loved to have heard Dr M. speak. He’s given me a new life with the 5:2. Not sure about the health benefits of alcohol though – more and more studies are debunking this as a myth. I find with my advancing years, I’ve lost the taste for alcohol fortunately; I certainly had my share when younger. The calories alone is enough to make me think twice.

Thanks VDO. I’ve never been to Scandinavia, I bet that was lovely. Our Africa trip is at the end of June. I’ve booked some self-catering accommodation so I can maintain control over some of the food. Yes, it would be fun if we could all get together for a long coffee. I haven’t met SueJen in Margaret River but I do have her email address. The people I’ve met from this thread are CharliesMum and FreyaT, both in Fremantle. Neither have posted for many months. You and EA are the furthest out so let us know when you’re likely to be up/down this way and we can fit in with you.

Have a great time in Brisbane Intesha. Hi to Merry and chat tomorrow Cinque.

Welcome Judy! It would be lovely to have you here doing the 5:2 journey with us. I am getting close to maintenance time and know that I will need to keep enthusiastic too!
We are a good thread to be popping in whenever you do have time!
PS I’m a fellow Victorian! Living right in Melbourne.

StayP, my favourite tea is basic black (Dilmah) with milk, and an added stevia leaf when I need it a little sweet. I am a bit snobby (no, I mean a connoisseur 😉 )and much prefer loose leaf tea to tea bags.
But I also have herbal teas, bergamot herb, mint, or thyme from the garden. Ginseng, licorice root, or the beautiful green tea my Chinese neighbour gave me.

I’ve been a bit off colour today but I think I have not drunk enough water, and I get dehydrated very easily (even in Melbourne!). Making it up now. I felt too crook to write an hour ago. We went house hunting today looking at places for my daughter’s family to lease. Four out of five had at least one problem, but one is perfect, so fingers crossed they get it.

(Also didn’t get a lie in this morning)

But, tomorrow is my first Fast Day for a week, so I am looking forward to it. I’ve got the veggie soup out of the freezer and I look forward to the nice clear feeling I get on the day.

I agree about those refined carbs, just not good. Food is better without them isn’t it!

Best wishes to you all, I wish we could portal over for that coffee Thin!
Have a lovely evening!

Hi Judyf, welcome, stick to this thread for support and you’ll be fine. There’s also the Maintenance Chatbox thread when you get back to maintenance again – also a very supportive group.

Yes, too bad you’re so far away Cinque, coffee would be fun. It was tempting to give the FD a miss when I woke to 59.8kgs this morning but I’m doing it for drill. I don’t want to slide out of the habit. Half an hour to wait until my first feeding! I know you don’t weigh so you probably didn’t notice any changes in going to one FD a week this week – congratulations on reaching maintenance. Fingers crossed for your family finding a new home soon.

Evening all.

Thanks Thin. Do you know I went to bed on Friday weighing 61.45 that morning and woke up Saturday morning weighing 60.3! And that was basically high fat, low carb and sugar and positively no physical activity whatsoever! Today I woke up 100 grams lighter as well and that was after a day trip to civilization (with no hot chocolates). Amazing. I’m back on the fasting tomorrow first time in ages and I am really looking forward to it. The 50’s are so close I can almost smell it. And get you Mrs, 59.8 kilos!!! Wonderful. It will be interesting to hear what you weigh tomorrow after your fast day today. I’ve got my trusty 5:2 book out and planned my dinner for tomorrow night. Quite looking forward to it actually.

I was wondering if CM and Freya had posted recently as I’ve only just jumped back in myself and haven’t looked at past posts. I bet you were feeling a bit lonely in WA for a while there!

It’ll just be me and the toddler going back to the UK. Can’t afford to take the whole tribe and the teenager is in year 11 now so can’t take time off school. It’ll be hard going without her but I need to go home to spend time with my parents etc and it’ll be wonderful for them to spend more time with the little one. Plane ride may prove interesting though ha ha.

Welcome Judy. Stick with us and you’ll get your 5:2 mojo back in no time. I’m just starting back again after a break for health/family reasons and I am the only one I know doing this so this group keep it real for me.

Hope you are feeling better now Cinque.

Well the husband is dishing up the dinner so I shall say night night but will definitely be checking in tomorrow for moral support.
xxxx

Morning all. I hope all the Monday fasters are having an enjoyable day.

Thanks Thin and thanks for the reassurance regarding the flight. I hope I can convince the toddler to sleep on the plane. I might break the journey up a bit en route as well. I don’t normally do this as I like to just get on with it but thinking it might be a good option this time.

How have you gone on the scales after your fast day yesterday Thin?

I was still 60.2 this morning and so far have had two cups of hot water with lemon squeezed in, water and am now enjoying a decaff coffee with cream!! I usually have it black on fast days but decided that I would have the cream and factor the calories in for tonights meal (I was struggling to make up the calories anyway and came in under so figured a bit of cream wouldn’t tip me over the edge.) It’ll be a happy day to fall back into the 50’s and I have a bigger incentive to lose the weight now – clothes shopping in the UK!!

Well I shall check back tomorrow to report and see how everybodys going.

EA xxxx

Hi everyone
You all are doing so well with your fasts today. I am bored at work- the only one here I what is usually a busy medical centre. Everyone is on holidays, sick or on maternity leave! I’ve changed my menu as I forgot about my boiling eggs last night so I’m having an orange instead. I’m also having a bassa fillet for dinner. It’s great to read how you are all going strong – very encouraging.
Judy

EA, I didn’t mention the scales today as I was up after my fast! No logical explanation, thought it best just to keep quiet and hope it goes away!

Clothes shopping in the UK is a great incentive. I’m looking forward to winter so I can wear the clothes & shoes I bought in Spain.

All the best for the rest of the day, you three fasters.

Hello everyone,
It’s so GOOD to hear about your trials & achievements. I’m off to work now & having my 2nd fast day as I snuck one in yesterday. Will chat to you all later but just wanted to say well done to all those who fasted yesterday & please join me to anyone thinking about it today (I’m doing another 2 in a row as I’m on a roll!) Take care & stay hydrated x

Hello Everyone,
The water did the trick, when I was feeling crook the other day. Then I had a very enjoyable fast day. I was super hungry and kept thinking, ooh I could just eat that! with all the temptations around, but it was so easy to remind myself it was a fast day. And then, when it was coming up time for my soup, I realised I could go without it. I did still have it ( and enjoyed it greatly) but once life settles down I would like to try a complete fast.
I am going to fast tomorrow instead of Thursday because I am doing a first aid course on Thursday and I know they are having particularly lovely healthy food for lunch. So I’ll be here with you other Wednesday fasters!😎
Thin I hope your cheeky scales are behaving themselves now! 😡 EA congrats on being in the fifties! 🎉
StayP, woot got two in a row! 🎈 How is it going? Merry cheers for your downwards trajectory 💐 Judy, I thought medical centres were always crazy busy! I envy you those fresh picked mushrooms! 🍄 ( I bet they didn’t look like that!)

Hello everyone else in the Southern Hemisphere! Best wishes for the day! 🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺

Hi, all, it’s been a few days since I had a chance to post. A welcome to you, Judyf. I too am new to this forum, and work full-time so also don’t have lots of time to post, but I think checking in when we can is perfectly okay 🙂 The only problem is I get to read everyone’s posts and am usually working and not having time to reply then, so by the time I come to reply I’ve forgotten everything and takes ages to go back over posts and make a note of things I wanted to comment on. I think it will be easier when I remember everyone’s names, for a start! Like yourself, I joined here as (apart from my sister) no one else I know is actually interested in doing the 5:2 at the moment, or discussing it in minute detail… funny that, eh 🙂

Cinque, it would be great if you were able to portal over to meet us for a coffee, and Thin and EA, I really hope we can manage to do so. I’m not sure when I’m going up to Perth next, but yes, I’ll definitely sing out and see if we can manage something, and if the others can’t and you’re free perhaps we can be a merry band of 2 🙂

And, Cinque, sorry to hear you were feeling a bit poorly recently, and I’m very glad water did the trick. I’m realising more and more that with all the exercise I’m doing I need to be drinking more water as I can feel very lightheaded and crappy if I don’t have enough. I’m really pleased that it’s finally turned a bit colder here as exercising in the heat is no fun for me. Even with the air-con on at the gym, I just sweat buckets, but today it was far more pleasant.

SP, a shame you’re not still over here too. I know the places you were talking about living, and they’re all lovely. I first lived in Mt Lawley when I came to WA the first time years ago, and have lived in lots of different places in WA since (currently down in the South). 18 mths in a caravan in Kalgoorlie sounds pretty tough!! How was it for you? I haven’t looked into what the “fast exercise” is (I haven’t actually watched the doco, I really should!). I have been doing a heap of my own exercise. We joined the gym a month ago (when I started back on the 5:2 more or less) and I’ve been 17 times in that month, so I’m doing pretty well with it and definitely feel all the better for it, that’s for sure!

EA, I hope when we do arrange a coffee you’ll be able to make it too. I’m perfectly happy to meet in Freo if that’s easier for anyone too when I go up on one of my visits. That experience you had with eating more and no exercise but finding you’d lost the next day is an interesting thing I’ve been contemplating of late (not your particular experience, that it happens generally). As Thin said, I think when it happens it could be to do with increasing muscle, and I also think it’s to do with water retention that happens sometimes around the days we’re fasting, such that the next day you can look like you’ve put on or stayed the same (pretty disappointing when it happens), and then weirdly, after a couple of “average” days, it falls off again.

It’s why I don’t get too hung up on the scales, and go more by how my clothes fit and how I’m looking. However, I need the scales too as a balance, because there is also a fair amount of subjectivity in the above and wishful thinking, so at least seeing the number going down is encouraging on days when I look at myself and think “God, you’re doing well but you’ve got so far to go….” and even wonder if I’m putting back on what I’ve already lost.

I had that experience this week. I actually felt quite flat for a couple of days, I don’t know why (think it could have been hormonal). It wasn’t to do with fasting, weight lost or any of those things. However, in that negative frame of mind my thoughts did all become somewhat negative.

But the reality is, I started at 80 kilos (eek, I don’t say that out loud often, but I know I’m amongst “friends” here!). I’m 5 foot 8 inches (is that about 174 cms?). I’m totally comfortable and happy with my body when I’m around 74, and most definitely feeling really fat and frumpy at 80, which is why I jumped back into action a month ago.

This morning after fasting yesterday, I was 76.9, so I’m very relieved to see it starting to go down again, and visually it’s really showing a lot more now too. In the “old money”, that’s over half a stone, which always puts into perspective how much weight that is more than kilos seem to for me somehow, I don’t know why.

It sounds like everyone is doing really well at the moment so keep it up, ladies, and happy fasting day for anyone who is today!!

Hi Everyone
I lost a whole kilo after my fast day (yes Im a daily weigher- but only record Mondays weight 🙂 ) I also managed to stick to my NFD cals today. I understand what you mean about the units of weight being meaningful to you thinatlast. Even tho I use kilos and grams for everything, I still need to know babies birth weight in pounds and ounces, otherwise its makes no sense to me. I’ll do my next fast day on Thursday. It worked quite well doing it on a work day as I won’t eat any of the nice biscuits that are always there.

Good morning from rainy Melbourne. My garden is so happy!

Thin, I decided to go to 11:3, ie dropping a Thursday fast every second week. I didn’t really enjoy it last week, but it was a bit easier with the house full. I might drop it again next week and then reassess. Too many people have looked shocked that I am still fasting now I have lost so much weight, as if I could go anorexic and still think I need to get skinnier. So it is nice to say to them that I am cutting down my fasts. But I truly think they are just so used to seeing me overweight, that they can’t get their head around me at this size.
I definitely have a bit more to lose, but maybe my body just needs a bit of time to deal with arm flaps and the last layer or two of fat cells. I have been fortunate that I have lost weight easily and steadily with 5:2. Every time I think I might be on a plateau my clothes get looser again. So I am not too fussed about taking it a bit slower.
But I can imagine it is confusing from your end!

I hope you have an easy 5:2 for a short while and get back to your target weight. I’ve just had my coffee too! Ooo I love it! EA have you had yours?

A lovely miso soup to make later.

Vego, it does take a while to get to know people. I appreciate you have written a profile, that helps! I check on them often, since I have the brain capacity of a gnat! I was 80 kg too a while ago, and since I am only 5 foot 3, I looked like a sack of potatoes. I lost most of it by cutting out sugar, thank goodness, but got stuck about 10 kg above a healthy weight, and 5:2 is nicely getting rid of the rest.

I’m another one who needs pounds and ounces to know how big a baby is! And I was surprised what a small number of kg 8 and a half stone was, since that was what I thought I should be weighing (and that is right, infact I am probably best just under 8 stone).

Judy aren’t those nice biscuits a trick! So glad you are giving them a miss! One a month is probably about right! 😉

Cheers Wednesday Fasters, and Wednesday Normal Eaters!

Hi all
I’ve been having a good read to catch up on the news. Hopefully in another 9 months I will be discussing how hard it is to loose my last 2 kg’s 🙂 🙂 🙂 Well done to you all and thanks for sharing your thoughts and tips.
On my second FD for the week and it is going well which is great cos I was a little apprehensive at the weekend after a bit of a blow out, also menopause is causing a few problems…..
I am really hoping for a new breakthrough tomorrow – 8kg down is the goal. That way I will be over half way to my first goal of loosing 14kg!!!

Hi everyone
It seems quite a few of you are from W.A. Thin-12 km walk? That’s fantastic! Cinque, I too, was thankful for the rain. We have a fairly big vegetable garden. To be honest I’m glad we are over the busy summer harvest. We still have some veggies going but not so much im busy preserving.
Well done to all those who fasted yesterday. I’m doing one today. I ate to my TDEE yesterday and think I’ve been underestimating when trying to be ‘good’ I made up my cals with a red wine 😊 And some almonds
Have a great day!x

Afternoon all

Oh my goodness Cinque- I have way more than half a tsp of cream in my coffee haha. Me thinks I underestimated quite a bit!!

Having said that, I lost another 400grams if my maths serve me well so I am happy with that. Wasn’t really expecting it. It is crazy to think that on Monday morning I weighed in at 60.2 and four days later have weighed in at 58.7.

I put a post up on a low carb high fat fb group I belong to last night and mentioned I also did 5:2. I got a couple of people asking me what 5:2 is so explained very briefly and put up a link for this website. Hopefully people will find that useful.

Thin – you amaze me with your long walks and what a lovely place to walk around. I am so looking forward to the cooler weather so I can actually get outside. Aww, I like your image of me. Better than the hot choc/chip fiend I once was. Hopefully, if I carry on this weight loss trend for the coming weeks, by the time I go to the UK I should be well into maintenance. I just want to buy clothes and feel and look like my old self again. That and the health benefits. I don’t like having things go wrong with my body.

All the best for your fast day today Judy and all the other Thursday fasters.

EA xxxx

I have quite a lot of (full cream) milk in my coffee EA! 😉
Congrats on that 400g! Gone!

Those kranskys sound wonderful Judy! What an excellent OH!

I had a good First Aid training. My health is s bad I was worried I wouldn’t last the day, let alone take in the info. It is 25 years since I did my last first aid training. But luckily we had the best teacher. He explained things really well and explained the reasons why, and answered questions. a lot has changed but I think it is stuck, and I could save your life if you had anaphylaxis and I had an epipen!

But I was a bit of a mess after winding down, and took it out by eating peanuts! I am hungry again this morning, I’ve had breakfast and morning tea already. Need to concentrate on fluids so I have a big cup of tea. Onwards and healthier!

Best wishes to you all!

Hi Nap if you are out there!

Hi, all – I’m fasting today too. Nice to know I’m not alone!!

I’m busy working on a deadline, but when I’m on top of it will pop back in and answer some of the previous posts.

Hope everyone’s day goes well 🙂

The usual for me on fast days, Thin – a spicy lentil soup, yum… a slightly different recipe this time, using a mixture I found at IGA which has lentils, navy beans and Freekah in it (never heard of that one before, but it sounded like it would be good). I made a huge batch the other day and put into containers. I had heaps of chilli and a bit of veg and tinned tomatoes, carefully working out the calories as I went. It’s really tasty. Spanish fideos – not heard of that, does that have meat in it? Hope you enjoy!

Now back to work for me… till later 🙁

Thanks, Cinque. Poor you and your poor little grand daughter, that sounds tough. And so much harder to stay in balance when so tired, and be able to fast, I would imagine. Hopefully the miso will pick you right up. You’re a couple of hours ahead over there, so not so long for you to go!! I hope you get a good night’s sleep tonight. I think I’d better turn my emails off because I’d far rather chat and play than work, hehe…. I’m leading myself astray 🙂 but thankfully not in the food department…

There it is VDU, no meat, very filling. Looks like a lot of ingredients but it’s really quick and easy to make. As I’m fasting twice for a while, I’ll save the other half for Wednesday’s fast. The lentils sound delish – you don’t get many though, right?

Maybe you can sleep away the rest of your FD Cinque! Poor you, how’s the house-hunting going?

Don’t let us distract you VDU! What work are you doing today? Did you get any rain down there overnight?

ooh, I forgot to tell you! They have a house! It is a lovely roomy one with a great backyard, just one suburb away from me. They will sign the lease in the next couple of days, and move in by next weekend!

(Talking about my daughter, son in law and toddler grandchild, Briz Liz, they’ve been staying with me a couple of weeks as they moved back to Melbourne from Sydney. It has been lovely but pretty full on!)

Welcome Liz, it sounds like 5:2 will be perfect for you. A couple of light fasts a week and those extra fat bits will fade away, and hopefully never come back. Hooray for giving up smoking, and let’s hope you can stay so healthy the horrible lung symptoms will be lessened and maybe even managed?

Your dinner sounds delish Thin. PS Hello to Coast if you are out there lurking!

Hello all,

I’m another Mel and also in Perth. It’s great to be in ‘real time’ with other Aussies and New Zealanders.

This is my third really serious go at 5:2. What happened with the other two times? The first time I stopped becuase I hadn’t anticipated how exam marking / reporting / teaching / running a department were going to mess with my head and how I felt when fasting. Lesson learned: look ahead and plan your fasting accordingly, now that you know what happens in more stressful conditions.

The second time was after my wedding; I just got very complacent and kept saying ‘I’ll go back to 5:2 tomorrow’. I didn’t! Lesson learned: complacency and procrastination don’t work, but acting on what you know makes you feel better does.

SO – back for my third go. I see this as a permanent lifestyle change now and THIS time around, I want to use this forum more effectively for support and encouragement. I do this on my own; my friends and husband, whilst supportive, would rather eat their own head than fast for a day!!!

Good luck to everyone, and I’m going to enjoy reading about how we’re all going – highs AND lows!

X MissMelsy

Hi there thinatlast,

Great to hear from you – another Sandgroper! 🙂

I had my first fast day yesterday and it was a great one; rode the hunger like a pro, and woke up this morning feeling fabulous and chuffed with myself.

Today was a non-fast day and I ate over my TDEEs; the problem with socialising and being polite by eating what others prepare for you! Never mind; tomorrow is another Fast Day (I’m doing 4:3 to kick start the whole process properly).

How did your Fast Day go today?

Good Morning and everyone, and welcome to Liz and Mel! Hi to Judyf, StayPos, and VegoDU. Good to ‘meet’ you all here.This is a good place to be:-).

FD for me and my weekly graphing day, though I do the naked-1st-thing-in-the-morning-after-the-loo weigh every day. It’s a good idea to keep a record of your 5:2 and weight normalisation journey. Measure yourself e.g. Waist hips, bust/chest, and also thighs, arms, neck. Most people weigh but not all. Whether you weigh daily, weekly, monthly, or when you visit your daughter, as Cinque does, it’s a good idea to record it. You will notice your clothes fitting more loosely as you go along, and a little nipping and tucking of clothes goes on before the glorious day when you pass them on to the Sallies, and you fish out those smaller clothes you kept, get new smaller clothes at the Sallies, or get some at the other shops. Who cares. If you have several sizes to go you may not be in the new size long. I remember the day I got a new undies. It was a glorious day!

FD for me today. Down 700gms over last Monday graphing day. This is how my week went.
Mon. 68.7 FD
Tues. 68.1
Wed. 68.4
Thurs. 68.5 FD
Fri. 68.2
Sat. 67.8
Sun. 67.6
Mon. 68.0 FD today

You can see from my week that I went up and down. Wed night was dinner out with friends. Navigated that Ok by having sparkling water and tea to drink, and eating gluten free. Price: up 100gms the next day.
Sunday was a day out in Sydney with a treat and a make do from what was available at a particular place where everything had starchy carbs in it, and the bistro I was expecting, where I knew I could get a meal to suit, was not open. I also had too many walnuts when I got home, rather than 1 or 2: Price: up 400gms this morning. This I’m putting down to fluid retention. I’m adjusting to new medication so who knows if this plays a part. Anyhoo…. The week is done and the graph has gone down, and my New Beginning is on it’s way. A bit of a challenge coming up this next week as I will be eating someone else’s food for the week, but I’m taking my travelling scales, and will have input into the food, just surrounded by temptation.

Happy FD to the Monday fasters,
Onwards and Downwards!
Merry

Also, I went up 300gms between Tues and Wed for no discernable reason

I just ordered the book. It is supposed to arrive Thursday. I had seen Dr Mosley in 2012 on a television program. I would like to start fasting tomorrow. I’m not sure what that should look like. I think an egg and toast for breakfast. After that I’m not sure. Any suggestions would help. Thanks.