Hi LJ, if your Asian grocer doesn’t know konjac, ask for konyaki. Just be careful they don’t try and sell you tofu but you might find it in the refrig. section with that. I thought the Slendier fettucine konjac was a pretty good substitute. You must rinse it very well to get the smell out. Some people find them a bit rubbery but I don’t mind the texture. These days I use my vegetti to make courgetti for Italian dishes. The only Slendier noodles I use now are the Angel Hair variety because I can’t slice the pond scum blocks thin enough to be a good substitute. I use that in the Spanish Fideos recipe which is so filling, 142 cals.

Since you sent through my numbers the other day, I seem to be a lot more aware before eating any ‘extras’. Asking myself, “is it worth it?”. Usually not. I’ve stayed at the low end of 60 all week. PerthGirl made a good point at coffee last week too – she said she never snacks but, if she wants nuts and so on, she adds those items to her lunch which has the twofold effect of eating less other stuff for lunch while reducing insulin spikes in the intervening hours.

Cinque, I for one, would like occasional updates on YamDaisy. I’ve never read a forum before, let alone contributed to one, so I don’t know how to behave properly but we all go off on tangents as we weave 5:2 into our daily lives. I don’t consider it disrespectful, I tend to skip over the paragraphs that are of less interest than others and assume that’s what everyone else does. The only time I’ve ever been offended on these pages is when people attempt to spam us (which hasn’t happened for a while thankfully).

Happy birthday to Craftboy!

thanks Thin – I don’t speak any Asian languages, only European ones so I’ll stick with asking for konyaki.
I also use a spiraliser to create zucchini, carrot and potato strands as an alternative to spaghetti. Although I am also quite happy to just pour a pasta sauce over a mound of steamed or roasted vegetables. I find I rarely actually use normal pasta much these days – it’s become an eating out only dish for me these days.
I think the reason I don’t like konjac as a pasta substitute is that the texture reminds me of rice noodles but it isn’t like a wheat pasta.
After a bit of experimentation, my preferred way of treating them is to rinse and drain well and then put them into a non stick pan and dry fry for a few minutes so it releases the rest of the excess water – the texture is then dry enough that is will actually absorb sauces and flavours – if I leave out this step I always regret it as the dish doesn’t work as well.

Minka, I have been thinking of you and I was worrying that something was wrong. So sorry to hear of your health challenges and fingers crossed you are improving well. Well done for managing a bit of work and study!
What a comfort to be nicely in your goal weight envelope. Good luck for the rest of the week, and all power to you!
https://www.rodalewellness.com/sites/rodalewellness.com/files/articles/2016/06/get-well-floweres-1000.jpg

I hope you find your konjac block LJoyce, I’m doing a shop today too, my fridge is bare! Even my freezer is quite bare. That’s good! I’m going to buy ingredients for my second go at the mung bean stew (the first go was more successful than I originally thought!). Also more tenderloins for my fast days soups, hmmm, yes, I am writing my shopping list on this thread! Red face. But I am having my lovely fortnightly treat of shopping with my friend, after a coffee of course!

Thankyou so much Thin, I had to think about the issue re talking about my project. Apart from worrying about too much off topic stuff, I know there is a delicate balance between getting to know everyone’s interests and lives, which makes for rich friendships, yet on the other side it can be so daunting to new people to feel that they are coming into a group full of in jokes and in conversations. (Don’t mark my punctuation here please! 😉 )
And if I am trying to make sure new people can find out what I am talking about, the best thing is to put the website address, but that really does feel like spam.

But here is a little YamDaisy update
YamDaisy, which is mostly me, but I do have other people committed to help, want to set up cafes to make eating healthy food easy and affordable, especially for people with illness and disability.
Just as we thought we could maybe start with a market stall, we got the opportunity to take over a cafe (really more a kiosk, there are no cooking facilities in it), that services a big community hub which has 400 workers in all the community organisations, and their clients. It is tiny, filled with scavenged equipment, and our landlord will be a big hearted shamble of a man! I It is 40 minutes away, has been run chaotically ie no record keeping, we have no money and I have health problems, but it is such an exciting possibility!
So at the moment I am researching all we need to do to run the market stall, as well as trying to get the data to write a business plan for the cafe and being excited and frightened by turn! Meeting here on Saturday with key supporters to hopefully make some decisions!
http://www.yamdaisy.com/

Day before fast day for me. Cold and rainy in Melbourne!
Best wishes to everyone!

No quite instantly Thin – I’ve only just gotten home from the city where I’ve been all day. Yes I do have some seasonal substitutes to asparagus that go well with eggs – lighly steamed brocollini (asian asparagus – the thin stalks with the long tender stems) or wilted baby spinach. Both of these are excellent with eggs and I routinely accompany an omelette with one of these veg on FDs. If I don’t want to have to cook the veg I choose nice cherry tomatoes – I find that if I buy roma cherry or grape cherry tomatoes I can get well flavoured ones all year round – the traditional round shaped cherry tomatoes I’ve found to be quite patchy in their quality unfortunately.

No Cinque I didn’t manage to find the block of konjac. There was a Korean grocer that looked promising, but as Wednesday isn’t a market day they were closed. (The central market is “open” Tu,Th,Fr,Sa, but on the other days about 75% of the stalls and shops still open and it’s much less crowded. I usually prefer to catch up with work colleagues for lunch there on the non-market days as it’s easier to get a table at the cafes and a spot in the carpark.

I had pizza for lunch! Now it was pretty small – about bread and butter plate sized, but I hadn’t had pizza for ages so I thoroughly enjoyed it. I ordered a tomato & mushroom pizza as I don’t care for the fatty meats that commonly get put onto pizzas. I happened to have just finished my fruit & veg shopping at the central market, so when my pizza arrived I fished my bag of baby spinach and bunch of basil out of my shopping bag and garnished my pizza with them – yum. I also offered them to the person I was having lunch with, but he was having a pizza with all of those fatty meats and he turned his nose up at the greens of offer.

Thin, with your recipies you reminded me of how long it’s been since I made chilli con carne, so I bought all the ingredients today to make a big batch for freezing. So I’m about to start chopping and stirring.

Hello, end of a fairly gentle day! I took your advice Thin, but hope I can get a lot done tomorrow!
And Thin, you are my model for someone who manages that delicate balance of friendly, welcoming personableness! And I especially love hearing about the dolphins!

I had a lovely coffee and shop with my friend, and glad yours went well too, apart from the konjac block, LJ! And you make me hungry for exactly the sort of pizza you had!

Cheers to everyone, I hope it has been a good day!

Hello everyone,
I have been a bit slack with my posting as of late but still following FD’s diligently. For some reason I haven’t been very good on NFD’s for the last week falling into old, old habits and missed out on the benefits of FD’s. I will have to get tougher on myself and get it sorted.

Cinque good to hear YamDaisy is still alive and kicking in you. Idea’s like that are like a volcano when in the development stage they may calm down for a bit and then erupt all of sudden with extra enthusiasm and vigor and roll on with no stopping it, devouring everything in its path. May have gone too far there but you never know it could be the next Boost juice or McDonalds.

Thinatlast you should report your dolphin and animal sightings. I don’t want to hear about little skinks but a blue tongue lizard, bearded dragon or goanna would be worthy. I love finding nature in unexpected places like cities or your backyard. I have a resident blue tongue who appears every six months or so.

Went out last night with the local chapter of The Beer and Beef club as a guest, my brother is a fully fledged member who goes monthly. Around 40 people last night at a local restaurant we are served a few hor d’oeuvres and then a main designed by the chef. It was at a french restaurant last night and we got wallaby rump (pretty good) with a beetroot risotto, broccolini and feta. Of course there are several different types of beer to try and enjoy. Good fun for $50 and normally a guest speaker from the local community on business, sport, etc.
FD today and a round of golf shortly.
Meals for last couple of FD’s:
2 x white coffee’s 300kj, 500g minestrone soup 800kj, 100g kidney beans in the soup 400kj. Total 1500kj or 358cals.

I, too, didn’t have any luck seeing Joffy’s post, even on his own profile responses. I’ve reported it to JJ as I think there’s possibly a technical error. Enjoy the rest of your FD Cinque (and other Thursday fasters).

Hi all. Thank you thinatlast and cinque and a second thank you cinque for lighting a candle in dads honour – what a lovely gesture. Dad had a lovely send off and I coped ok. Yesterday wasnt so good for me, Miss D returned to school and I was all alone in a quiet house.

Havent bothered with FD’s as such the last few weeks but have still been keeping a general low calorie intake with the exception of a few epic over indulging moments. Exercise has also gone out the window – will endevour to get back on track starting today.

There was enough red wine in the cask in the back of the cupboard for 2 glasses so i had them yesterday with lunch. I wont purchase any more as I felt so much better when not consuming alcohol, even in the smallest amounts.

Sleep has been all over the place. Only 4 hours Wednesday night and then 8 1/2 last night. My body is certainly feeling the effects of the last few weeks.

I have taken next week off work to re-synch myself, spend time in the garden, catch up with a few friends for lunch, reading etc and generally get myself back on track both physically and mentally.

Weight has been surprisingly steady at 67.1kg and BMI has remained at 25 so happy that neither have gone up of late.

JJ confirmed there was a glitch in the site which has to do with posts getting mistakenly marked as spam. It’s happened before. She’s published Joffy’s now. If anyone posted before Joffy and it’s not showing up, you can ask her to fix it. We’re only aware of Joffy’s because his was showing as the most recent.

Glad to see BOTH your posts Joffy. Marvellous mushrooms!

Hi Bay!

Craftgirl the HIT bike sounds great for winter! Goodluck with the next lot of bloodtests, sounds like they should make you happy!

Hi Thin!

Gday, I hope you have a gentle healing week, with lots of time in the garden. I am glad you are being so kind to yourself.

I am happy but exhausted. Granddot is having her bath so must rush. Might go to sleep when she does!

I had a good day after fast day, but I have a busy, social weekend, so might have to roll with the punches re Sunday fastday.

Best wishes all.

Hi all! …Just saying ‘hello’ and am poking my head in the thread and will respond with more lengthy writings when I catch up with all posts. I’m still a page and a bit behind. I fasted yesterday and am currently at the bottom of my goal weight envelope. Today weighed in at 56.1 kg.

Good morning everyone. I had such a busy weekend. It would have been way too busy anyway, but somehow I did it with little miss 2 year old along too (current obsession: bubbles).

On Saturday we had the YamDaisy meeting and we are going to try and get the cafe going at the community hub in Dallas, Melbourne. SOOOOOOO much to do!

Then on Sunday we (my daughter and baby came too) had a lovely visit of three generations of friends. 6 year old Lucy, her wonderful mum who brought lunch, and her wonderful gran who had a series of strokes a couple of months ago. It was so good to see her, and she was amazingly good! Given how disabled people I know have been by a TIA mini stroke, Shirl is recovering quickly and managing really well. A good advertisement for basic health as she eats really well and is really fit and is in her 70’s.

So all power to all of us keeping as healthy as we can so we are in the best shape to cope with the misfortunes that may come.

Any way I gave up on Sunday fast day, which began with pea pancakes (trying to get veggies into the little one) and then the lovely pumpkin soup and wholemeal scones we had for lunch, and a couple of home made cheese biscuits.

But then when everyone went home and I had a bit of time and space to myself, I managed to eat a lot more cheese biscuits! Then I pulled myself together and made lots of cuppas and mungbean soup for supper.
(Yes I made the mung bean stew again (for Saturday) and have decided it works best as soup! )

And deja vu, as I was wondering what to eat today, I realised it would be easy, and lovely, to make it a fast day. So the chicken is thawing for miso soup tonight.

So it is Monday morning, the sun is shining in a clear sky, I have a huge project to tackle (at the same time as recovering from that big weekend – I do feel a bit punched!). One step at a time.

Best wishes everyone. So glad to see your post Minka. Hooray for you! And Thin and Intesha getting your Sunday fast days done. Hi everyone else as well!

Best wishes recovering from your busy weekend Cinque and a happy fast day to you. You have exciting times ahead planning your cafe again. At least most of the business plan and other foundation requirements are completed and you can adapt it to its new location.

Welcome Janenoz. You’ll have plenty of Monday fasting company. You haven’t asked for any advice but we tend to offer it anyway! Mine is to weigh and measure absolutely everything, calculate your TDEE & read Dr M.’s Fast Diet book before you do anything. Try to consider this a way of life rather than a diet. Some of us here met our goal weight some time ago but continue to practice 5:2 in maintenance. Ask us anything, there will always be someone who’s been where you’re going. Good luck with your first FD.

Hi all, and welcome Janenoz. I have only been doing this a few weeks and still can’t seem to get my NFD’s under control ( managed to stay under 1300cals yesterday)I’m so inspired by all of you that have got to your goal weights and maintained it. I’m wondering how long it took you all to start losing weight ( not fluid) and how much you were losing approx per week? I am feeling more energized doing this and am now back up to walking my 6-8 klms per day without feeling exhausted half way through. I’m still struggling to sleep on FD’s but I can cope with this. I’ve had a couple bad weeks food wise due to funerals and traveling 4 hrs each way, not to mention the yummy food at the wakes! Merry I too struggle with stress eating and look for lollies so am trying to go for a short walk when the urge hits. Welcome to the Monday fast Day Cinque I find Mondays and Thursdays easier to do.GDay I’m pleased your dad had a lovely send off and that you have taken some time off for you!For all FD people today have an enjoyable one.

*”what I like and how much”, sorry.

Good attitude Monica. You’ll succeed. Don’t worry about the NFDs too much. I agree, you don’t want it to be like any other old diet. We’ve all been there. Get the FDs happening as a definite routine (OK funerals notwithstanding) and your NFD behaviour will be shaped without your even realising. And, as you say, you’ve done it before so you know you can make it work.

You don’t have to accept that workplace de-stressing lolly corner. Let them know it actually makes you more stressed to try and resist all that temptation and that you’d like an occasional head and neck massage in the workplace instead.

This WOL was touted as being able to eat what you want MOST of the time. I still believe in that. So, enjoy your NFDs for now and let the FDs do the talking. Eagerly awaiting news of your progress…….

Hello all. Im enjoying my time in the garden. Purchased 6 rose bushes which i planted in the front yard today, 2 of which will hold a special place in my heart….they are named ‘Loving Memory’and ‘Papa Meilland’.

Welcome to the new posters. My advice is to take on board everyone’s knowledge, experience and suggestions and by trial and error work out what best fits for you and your lifestyle. We are all different in every way and what works for one may not work for another. Thats why this forum is so good….so many different experiences to draw from.

I’m in the midst of experimenting. FD’s of Tuesdays and Thursdays have worked for me but I’ve also found a 36 hour fast easy and workable too. Reading Keto Clarity at the moment…very interesting indeed.

Looking over my Fitbit statistics for the last few months and my daily average calorie intake is between 500-900 cal and average calorie output is steady at 2300. Ive also found that once a month i escalate to an extra 1.5 to 2 kg literally overnight. So for that week i dont stress too much about the scales !!

Good morning everyone,

Welcome Janenoz! How did you go yesterday? Is your fractured arm the one you use mainly, I hope not! Lovely to have you on this journey. Hopefully you will find 5:2 works for you nicely, to lose weight and improve your health. It has been one of the most positive things to happen in my life!

LJoyce, where are you? I do hope you are ok!

Thankyou Thin, I was pleased with how I felt yesterday, and managed the day well, but I forgot it catches up with me the day after! I am having a slow morning.

Fast day yesterday was excellent, and I loved waking up this morning feeling light and empty.

Merry so good to see your catch up post. Well done for keeping in your healthy weight envelope, and fingers crossed you can manage to get through without your health slipping too much more. More fingers crossed hoping the stress will start easing off soon!

Redmoonstar, so sorry to hear of the funerals, it must be a hard time. Well done keeping on with fast days and wakeful nights.
I’m no good answering your question because I wasn’t weighing myself while doing 5:2 but I remember just noticing my clothes get comfortable, and then loose. I know it isn’t just water you are losing to start with, the water is bonded with the glycogen so it is all part of the proper weight loss.
I hope it was a good Monday Fast Day yesterday and fingers crossed you had some sleep last night!

Hi all, I did sleep for 4 hours straight last night on FD so that’s a start! I am averaging 600-650 cals on FD and planning to get it down around 500, I know some of you are under 400 but as my sleeping isn’t the best I will gradually try and get down. GDay those are both beautiful roses, I also bought Loving Memory for my friend when she lost her son ( he was 17) it’s really beautiful and you see it each day. If you are averaging 500-900 cals per day how many do you eat on a NFD? Do you feel deprived at all and how long did it take you to get down so low? I also had a fitbit and log my calories on MFP, I found with my wrist based fitbit it added lots of steps (therefore more burnt cals) for wrist movement ie: washing dishes, cooking, folding clothes etc.It also added 1000’s of steps when driving in the car. I now have a Garmin and find it doesn’t add steps (some but not many) for driving and wrist movement. I also try not to go to much on what it tell me I have left to eat although some days I know I have gone over and just ignore it! Glad you enjoyed your fast day yesterday Cinque and are enjoying the morning.I have to say again all of you, Thin, Merry, Gday, Cinque, LJoyce, craftgirl & Intesha (sorry if I missed anyone)are inspirations and show the rest of us that this is a working WOL and can be easily maintained and if you lose track can get back on. Janenoz I hope your first FD went well and you slept last night and feel great today. Thank you again to everyone for the advice I am taking it all in and implementing a little each day ( or trying) hope everyone has a fantastic day whether fasting or eating!

Very quickly – 64.0 kg today, day after FD. Doing that “what goes on quickly comes off quickly”. Down 0.9, almost a kg. BMI 22.4, TDEE 1446. Next FD is Thursday.

Happy fasting to the Wednesday fasters tomorrow.

Onwards and downwards,
Merry

Redmoonstar, so glad you got that 4 hours sleep, I know from my insomnia that a straight four hours can be very welcome. Let’s hope it is 5 hours tonight! Enjoy today’s fast day, and your time with your friend tomorrow!

LJoyce, so glad your computer is fixed! I hope your non fast days settle down soon. I was complaining just as you have, and then suddenly it has all gone right again. Hoping it is a long roll for me this time!

Nice work Merry!

It is a lovely morning here, although I’ve got the morning news on and it made me cry.
Hoping everyone has a good day, fasting or not fasting, enjoying every mouthful of the food you have, and enjoying the times between.

Thin what’s in your Spanish Fideos and how do I make them. I generally have either scrambled eggs or an omelette on fast days as the eggs are filling. I am trying only having coffee during the day and one meal in the evening to see if it helps with my sleeping. I also have veggie soup with me in case I need food. LJoyce I am slowly getting down to where I want to be on NFD’s as I to struggle to control my eating on NFD’s and I know the cold certainly doesn’t help as I’m always looking for something warm to eat! I am hoping to get to not eating till the afternoons on NFD’s as once I eat food I just keep going! Merry I can lose 1.4kgs on after a FD but after the NFD’s I’m back up to same or maybe 100grms less. I have lost around 1.6kgs from where I started I think so hoping once I get the NFD’s under control I should lose each week. Have a good one everyone!

Redmoon, the recipe for the Spanish Fideos is on the first page of our SH thread recipe page here: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/southern-hemispherites-fd-recipes/
Slendier brand’s Angel Hair is conveniently packaged for 2 portions but is quite expensive. Alternatively, you can buy konyaki noodles at your Asian grocer for a fraction of the price. Or buy a block of konjac and slice it thinly yourself if you can be bothered. The good things about this dish are that it’s baked in the oven, feels hearty and warming, is filling and, as the konjac has virtually no calories, it’s like ‘free food’! (As Joffy recently described his mushrooms).

I agree that eggs are really satiating and a great FD food. And many of us have found that it’s best to hold off eating as long as possible to avoid waking the ‘hunger dragon’. Going to bed hungry is terrible.

Better luck with today’s fast LJ, I’m with you.

Answering to Cinque and redmoonstar on my low calorie intake.

When i started FD earlier this year i averaged an intake between 1500 to 2500 per day with minimal exercise. I was active but didnt do any high intensity exercise or anything other than taking the pooch for a walk a couple of times a week.

Ive found the longer ive been monitoring my food intake and high intensity exercising for 10 to 15 mins a day the less hungry i have felt. If i have a brekky of 3 eggs, spinach and a slice of rye then i can go the rest of the day without eating and then have a small serving of veg or soup for tea. I dont feel deprived at all in terms of intake but feel satisfied as i no longer feel the need for the standard 3 meals a day.

Im finding of late that 2 meals a day is enough for me. I have never been one to snack between meals and by giving up alcohol ive also lost the empty calories of 2 glasses of red per day.

I would rarely eat any processed food. I eat full fat foods, no sugar at all and keep white flour products to an absolute minimum.

As i said in an earlier post i have lost 6-7kg this year but have plateaud the last month due to stress with my dad and not really trying too hard. Even though i havent lost much the last month i havent gained either so still happy with where I’m at.

Im still not 100% sure where to go at the moment. Stick with 5:2, do a 36 or 48 hour fast once a week or even give Keto a go ? Its all trial and error and working out which one fits me and my lifestyle. Im just taking in as much info as i can and run with what i think is best.

Looking to find a yoga class but not liking my chances being in a small town. Does anyone else do yoga?

Cinque, thank you for your lovely words, it warmed my heart.

Second FD tomorrow. Still eating a little too much but less than the past few weeks. Hopefully will get back into the zone soon.

Well done Merry. If it’s one thing we have learnt from the WOL it’s never give up. We have our bad days, weeks and months but I personally have found that if I stick to my FD’s as much as I can the damage is not catastrophic.

It’s my granddaughters birthday next week and she has asked for a Dolly Varden cake so I will be cooking madly. I’ve also recently done an enchanted cupcake course so I have been making rainbows, unicorn horns and mermaids out of gum paste to decorate the cakes with. I’m really enjoying my new hobby and wish I could just get lost in it but unfortunately other things take precedence.

Cheers for now.