This topic contains 27,913 replies, has 831 voices, and was last updated by GdayfromSA 2 hours, 49 minutes ago.
Hi Cinque, I forgot to say hello. Hope your fourth NFD has gone meaningfully. Or at least croissant-free! I’m thinking of you as my chicken miso soup simmers away. I can hardly wait, I haven’t had this one for months. I too had a chuckle at your advice for Jody. All the best for tomorrow. And hope the weather improves a bit.
Good morning,
I’m a bit grumpy this morning. I was hoping for a sleep in, but the construction work next door woke me early. My first cup of tea is slowly reconciling me to the fact that I’m up and about, rather than snuggled up in a warm bed.
It’s a FD for me today. I had too many poor food choices over the last two days so I’ll be glad to draw a line under that and start again with good intentions.
Have a good day everyone.
Have a great day LJ, isn’t it wonderful to be able to have a FD to put on the brakes? All the best to all the Thursday fasters, Cinque, etc. I’ve had my first frothy coffee and I’ve made a large pan of steel cut oats (requires 20 minutes of stirring the old-fashioned way). When I get hungry later, I’ll have that available just to re-heat. It’s a cold, sunny morning in Perth.
Hello again to the Southern Hemisphere.
I enjoy lurking here as you discuss winter foods and weather while we here in the Northern Latitudes slip into summer.
The tips about the freezer are so right on. Having lots of meals in there is a time-saver IF we remember to use them. I keep an inventory list on the refrigerator door so it is handy for meal-planning. Never was any good with spread sheets.
Have a great Fast Day [although by now it is dinner-time for you] and thank you to those of you Aussies who just visited my blog. Hope you like the recipes.
Good morning,
My Thursday Fast Day got royally messed up (managed to write that as though it wasn’t my responsibility 😉 ).
But I do need to be kind to myself as factors mounted against me. I am still under the weather. It seems I have infection in my lungs so I am on some heavy antibiotics.
I was too busy on Tuesday and Wednesday and then had my granddaughter overnight. And I need food with the antibiotics and stupidly started taking them in the mornings (if I’d only thought, I would have had them in the evening and that would work well on fast days). (I don’t want to change now as I need to give them the best chance to work).
So at the end of yesterday, home after dropping my granddaughter off, I sabotaged myself, although I managed to eat good healthy food. I don’t feel well enough to fast today either so I will look after myself with Sunday in view.
Hopefully I am being an example of how 5:2 is resilient enough to deal with a bad run because it just waits patiently for us to get back into its rhythm.
I do hope the other Thursday Fasters held the banner high! LJoyce, may you get a sleep in this morning! Your day looked wonderful Thin!
Yesterday I couldn’t open this site as Computer Said No. Something wasn’t safe. So glad to get it back!
Jody I am so glad you worked out what you can do. Fingers crossed for you.
Hi Redmoonstar! Good to have you back! Good luck with the EOFY chaos.
Hi Fasting-me.
I think I might invest in a bottle of those probiotics Minka spoke about, since I am on those nasty antibiotics for a fortnight. I also have a theory (watch out! ) Well more of a muse… that if I eat really well while I am on the antibiotics, then the gut bacteria that feed on the good food will be more likely to survive. Wouldn’t that be good!
Anyway I am going to give myself a gentle day today. Best wishes for your days too.
Alitalia, another thing I just thought of, someone on this forum said something about new research showing that up to 800 calories/fast day for a woman is okay too. I’ve taken this on board, and so now I’m a bit more relaxed about 5:2 and I think it’s working better because of this. Yes, sometimes I’ve forgotten and had cake on my fast day, or started cooking breakfast. Now if I feel like if I can’t make it to my next small meal, I’ll just have a snack, those little packets of cheese and crackers work well for me. Most of the time I’ll come in close to 500 calories, but it’s just a little easier now, knowing that I can have a little more if I really need it. I don’t know how 16:8 (or is is 8:16) really works though, because you’re probably still having the same calories, just condensed into a smaller time period. You may even be having more calories, because there is no limit, and by the time you get to eat you may well be starving. I remember I used to forget to eat until 5pm or so some weekends in the past, and I don’t remember any dramatic weight loss during that time. But then, when I wasn’t eating breakfast during pretty much my whole childhood, I was so skinny I had to see a paediatrician. But then I wasn’t eating much at all during that time, basically I didn’t get hungry so I didn’t eat. I still don’t get hungry much, but I know I need to eat, and I love food now.
I certainly feel better for having vented on here about Zone Diet, I think the hardest part will be starting it. Thanks so much everyone for “listening” to my rant. Sorry you had to hear that.
Jody
Get well soon Cinque. You deserve a week off from fasting.
Great to know that you’re still out there Bay. How is your maintenance going? You must be approaching four years of 5:2? How rude of the website to jettison one of our veterans! I understand there are issues with the site preventing some posters from gaining access at the moment. Hope that gets sorted out soon.
Good Morning everyone, and welcome back Bay! So good to hear from you🙂 and thank you. For newbies – bayleafoz, or bay, was an experienced 5:2er and on maintenance I think, when I started 5:2 over 2 1/2 years ago. Thin, Cinque and I all benefited from bay’s knowledge, support and encouragement. Bay is one of our wise Yoda’s along with Barata and Purpleveggieeater, and simcoelov who dropped in occasionally.
Check-in: 64.4kgs down 300gms on last week, and close to my goal of staying at 64 for the month if June. The cavalry has started to arrive and some of the stress will be eased, with more family arriving soon to give support for awhile. Not sure where OH is up to with his fasting, though he does get some FDs completed, doesn’t look like he’s put on weight, but we are often going in different directions and both doing a little stress eating at times. Going well, though, and getting through this concentrating on 1 day at a time.
Sorry, I ‘m not able to keep up with all the conversation at the moment. The post I wrote in answer on 23rd ish of June has been re-instated after disappearing, thanks to JJ, the site moderater. If a post disappears after you edit scroll right down to the bottom and you’ll see a link to contact, and let JJ know and the time-ish it disappeared. It’s in UK time, but just get the time of the previous post to yours. My post was about the time I passed out and the cause.
The was a post I wanted to answer but it’s slipped my mind so I’ll see if I can get back to it later. I think it was Alitalia…….
Cinque- get well soon💐🍎
Ljoyce- I am doing the same today – a few wrong choices this week and good reset today.
Hi fasting-me🙂, nice to hear from you.
Minka- well done on the end of your studies and Happy 5:2Birthday!
Have a good week everyone,
Onwards and downwards, and if you fall off the horse get back on,
Merry
Jody- not impeessed by the practitioner – a bit dictatorial. Sorry I’m not able to check up on the Zone diet atm, but try putting it in the search at the top – there may be someone on the forum who’se done Zone and 5:2 together.
Alitalia – I agree with you about high carb way of eating – it’s quite healthy and the longest living populations on earth have lived high carb.
I’ve done it for 11yrs for my OHs health needs in the past and we were very healthy on it. Only ate 1x100gm portion of fish meat or chicken per week.
For me, I needed to change things a bit to do 5:2. I am gluten and grain intolerant, all fully tested. All grains except corn and a very small portion of rice , darn it. On 5:2 I started out with the usual gluten free substitutes, mostly home made, then about 3months in I plateaud, and the plateau didn’t stop. Then experienced 5:2ers advised me to give up grains. Well I wasn’t on them but I was having other starchy carbs, so I experimented for awhile and discovered that all starchy carbs stopped me from losing weight regardless of my overall calorie amoynt per day. So I dropped all gluten free starches plus potato, sweeit potato, corn and peas, and the weight started to go down again. Now I’m maintaining and can eat a little of those starchy carbs again. I’m currently going through an extended period of high stress and a little starchy sugary stress eating happens now and again, but 5:2 is keeping me stable.
I am forced to be sedentary from a ME/CFS , which means my TDEE is only 1460, but I countervthat by eating 16-8 on my NFDs , so my first meal is after 12noon. I eat 2 meals a day and do have a mid afternoon snack, and sometimes some fruit or a few nuts in the evening. I’ve been doing 5:2 and 16:8 combined for at least 2yrs. I’m mid 60’s, female, and my 8 hr eating window can be 12 noon – 8pm, 1-9pm or even 2-10pm.
Merry
Forgot, sadly, for me I also had to give up lentils, chickpeas, red kidney beans other dried bean types as they also stopped my weight loss. I haven’t heard anyone else need to do this, but I have long ago got used to my body reacting atypically, so it probably won’t be a problem for you Alitalia. Big fan of complex carbs of all sorts but nit everone can done do grains and lose. On the forum it has become clear that there are a group of people who can’t eat grains, even in whole form, and lise weight. I decided normalising my weight was more important for my health, so gave up complex starches for the duration, and now will be changing back slowly to give my biome time to change gradually.
Yesterday was one of those hungry FDs, but I made it through. I ended up eating dinner at 4:30 in the afternoon. I just couldn’t wait any longer. Not that it mattered as I wasn’t hungry for the rest of the evening after eating my chard omelette and pan fried king oyster mushrooms. It’s made me realise that even through I am trying to get away from being tied to specific meal times, I still have some prejudice. I have let go of set times for breakfast and lunch but I still cling to a traditional dinner time.
Minka, I ended up ordering the inulin from Natural City and bought a bottle of probiotics as well. I ended up having to place the order by phone because the security software on my laptop wouldn’t let me log onto their website as it’s not an encrypted site. I’ll have to wait a couple of weeks for the order to arrive as they were temporarily out of inulin powder.
I have usually proceeded in the same way that Cinque described – eat a healthy diet that provides the right food for the good gut bacteria in the hope that those that remain after antibiotics will be able to repopulate. My concern with taking probiotics is that I would need them often and over the year the cost really adds up. I already spend well over $2000 per year on medications and non-prescription items that my doctors have told me to take. Anything else that adds to this financial burden really has to earn it’s place in my budget. I am going to try the bottle of probiotics that I’ve bought, but long term I’m hoping that adding the inulin (which also provides the right food for good gut bacteria) may be enough long term to allow my but bacteria to survive and replenish their numbers after antibiotics.
Cinque – I had the same problem yesterday, my security software wouldn’t let me log in as it couldn’t verify the site. Glad it’s been fixed quickly, I get withdrawal symptoms if I don’t log in for a chat daily.
Hi Bay, I’m glad you are back. -4 in Canberra this morning I hear! I hope you are snug.
Icy here too, but I live in such a concrete sink, I my garden and I are quite protected. It is a clear sunny day so I have been out to let it kiss my face, and I plan to sit in the sun with my coffee later.
Good luck with the Zone diet Jody, may you get in the zone!
Hi Thin, such a lovely understanding comment… and then my daughter asked if we could do another cooking day on Sunday. Ofcourse I said yes, so I am fasting today. All ready for it. I’ll have a small bowl of mungbean soup with my tablet and miso soup this evening ofcourse.
Merry, so good to read your posts and especially to hear you have reinforcements coming. If you fall in a heap once they arrive, don’t be too hard on yourself. But fingers crossed that you can enjoy them instead and give yourself as much leisure time as you can fit in.
Don’t we all have to fiddle around with the details to get 5:2 working successfully in our lives! The 50 shades of 5:2.
LJoyce, what a dreadful monetary price you have to pay for your health. I bought some probiotics yesterday (different brand but I think they are good ones). I had the idea I could send you the rest of the bottle after my antibiotics are finished, but the salesperson convinced me that I should take them for a couple of weeks after I stop the meds.
I’m about to do some yoga stretches and good breathing to start the day. Best wishes all. I hope today is a good day for you.
Relle, are you all recovered from that nasty spell?
More best wishes to Gday. Thinking of you.
Best wishes to you too, Intesha.
How are you going Alitalia?
Hi Redmoonstar!
Hi BigBooty
And hope you are happy holidaying Minka!
Best wishes everyone else!
Merryme, that was very interesting about you and carbs – complex or simple. i don’t avoid carbs, but I do think that white rice likes me so much that it wants to live on my hips. When I eat it, I gain. And vice-versa.
Cinque, I hope you will be well soon. So many health issues.
Several of you talk about probiotics for gut health. A doctor friend told us that the best way to restore all the good little guys in your gut is by green smoothies. By pulverizing the leafy vegetables, you make them more accessible to the gut flora. If you work your way up to a smoothie made with 2 cups of greens, it might do the trick. The reason I say ‘work your way up to’ it, is that if you jump right to this, you might have some stomach distress since your gut isn’t used to it.
Here is the recipe we’ve used: Green Smoothie 77 calories 0.3 g fat 1.6 g fiber 1.7 g protein 31.3 g carb 30.7 mg Calcium PB GF HINT: this makes enough for three 6-oz servings, so it will save you time on the next 2 breakfasts.
2 cups mixed greens – spinach, romaine, lettuce, chard – roughly chopped 2 oz banana, sliced 2 oz berries ½ apple or pear 12 oz tomato juice [such as Knudsen’s organic] 10 ice cubes
Put the fruit and greens in the blender and swirl it together on ”high” just long enough to break down the fruit and greens. Set blender to “low,” add the juice and ice cubes. Process until smooth. Put what you don’t drink today into a jar in the ‘fridge. Next time you use it, shake it well. If you think it has become too thick, feel free to thin it with water or OJ.
Good luck to you all.
Cinque, I hadn’t realised how much I depended upon your early morning post (at least for me in the west) until it wasn’t there for a couple of consecutive days. While you’re fasting today, you can smugly enjoy your miso soup and think of me eating out tonight – disaster looms, we’re going for gourmet burgers, oh no! Well, at least I have studied the menu and will be selecting the chicpea burger, hopefully ditching the bread (unless it looks amazing) and limiting the fries. I honestly cannot recall the last time I ate fries or chips. It might be five years ago or more. Have a brilliant day cooking with your daughter tomorrow – at which point I will be mitigating the damage and eating my own miso soup. I miss sharing our fast days.
Yes, ditto to your post, hi to all those you mentioned. Intesha, where you be? Raining in Perth at last, hurray! But ooh, a chilly 17C today.
Happy weekend SHs
Today I’ve been busily doing all the housework that I’d carefully ignored for a few days. The need for clean floors and clean clothes caught up with me in the end. Thankfully the sun is out here today, so a bit easier to get the clothes dry.
I did a Thin style lunch today – a big bowl of cereal. I don’t have it very often but I was in the mood for it today and thoroughly enjoyed my muesli with extras (toasted shaved coconut, roasted hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, almond milk). It was a much larger bowl than I’d consider normal have but it has kept my appetite at bay for several hours.
Alitalia, I just remembered something else that I felt I needed to add. Eating a vegan diet can make it difficult to get complete protein (ie all 9 essential amino acids). The easiest way in a vegan diet is to combine legumes and whole grains. Alone they only give you some of the amino acids, but combine these two foods and you get all 9 essential amino acids. Sadly, the ezekial bread you are considering giving up is almost the only bread on the market that actually contains all 9 amino acids. If you are going to cut out grains then you need to do some research to make sure you can replace those missing amino acids. The amino acids that our bodies cannot make and we must consume through protein are: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. A bit of internet research should give you some ideas. I seem to remember that quinoa was a source for those amino acids if you don’t want to use grains, but I haven’t researched this so you’d need to check.
Well, better get back to work – another load of washing is ready to hang up now.
Good morning Thin, it is so lovely to know you look forward to my morning post. Hope you are nicely snuggled in bed.
You too LJoyce surely no construction on a Sunday!
I had a good fast day yesterday (just LOVED my miso soup!) and am just having my morning coffee before heading off to do cooking with my daughter (and little granddaughters… they are so helpful! Especially the crawler!).
Thanks Fasting-me, so hoping that this course of antibiotics knocks out one of my health problems! Thanks for the green smoothie recipe but I have to avoid fruit, so I’ll have my greens in other ways!
I got washing dry yesterday too LJoyce. Wish I had managed more of the rest of the housework!
Best wishes everyone for a good day and food that you enjoy every bite of, whether it is Fast Day soup or lovely normal eating!
Here’s a cute picture the Australians might enjoy, but the Kiwi’s can rightfully complain… You are left out! Dreadful.
https://scontent.fmel1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19510431_1968722170030785_4119841020730575523_n.jpg?oh=c668e7975b7ee35a6c48e081d9de72b7&oe=59CF94BF
Ah good, there you are Cinque. Yes, it was a great sleep-in until 8am, warm and snuggled under the duvet. Have a lovely day with the family. Does your SIL work at weekends or will he be entertaining the little ones while you cook?
LJ, how do you know so much?
Hi Merry. I hope all is well with you.
Last night we were reminded why we never have fast food. This was touted as a home made style burger place with a cosy neighbourhood atmosphere but it was so cold when we arrived that we decided to get it as a take away. (What do people have against heating? I endured a miserable two hours at a new hairdresser last week, not only no heat in the place but the door was left wide open – 17C!)
Anyway, all this made it easier to take a leaf out of LJ’s book and discard the parts I didn’t like. The bun was nothing special so I only ate half. It had been so long since we’d had chips that we forgot to request ‘no salt’ and I couldn’t eat them (which was a good thing). Is this to encourage the purchase of sticky, soft drinks? There was an enormous fridge cabinet full of unfamiliar drinks and we were fascinated to watch almost every patron grab several of these to go with their orders including for very little children. I also forgot to ask for no sauce on my burger but was able to scrape that off at home, leaving me with quite a nice piece of chicken breast on half a bun. DD and I shared that and the chic pea one which was tasteless. The result was no damage on the scales, and the best part was that both the OFMs said they’d prefer to stick to my cooking in future. Even before 5:2, this would have been a rare option for us but now I don’t think it’s an option at all.
Cinque, I’m looking forward to my chicken miso soup tonight!
Hi Cinque & Thin & anyone else who’s reading but not posting today.
My best friend is coming to afternoon tea today, so I’ve just baked a tray of orange & raspberry muffins. It’s a new variation on my reliable orange muffin recipie so I hope they are OK. I will get to send all the left-overs home with my friend to her family. So I can enjoy one for afternoon tea without worrying that I’m going to scoff several more later.
Cinque, glad you had a good FD. Enjoy the day cooking with family. It definitely slows you down when children want to help, but I think being part of the process even as an observer as a child gives you a good grounding in cooking skills and also a love of cooking. I know my belief that I could cook and bake came from watching (and occasionally being allowed to help) my mother and grandmother. They weren’t people who followed recipies carefully and were really good at using what they happened to have on hand – I think my confidence in being very irreverent with other peoples recipies and experimenting, definitely comes from watching them as a child. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realised some people couldn’t cook because they didn’t have good role models to watch when they were growing up I think that’s tragic – not only have they missed a wonderful childhood experience, they lack the confidence and skills to feed their own children well.
Thin, did I ever mention that I used to be a vegetarian when I was in my 30s. I never go into anything without researching it to death first, so I tend to acquire a lot of knowledge that sits there until needed. Although I didn’t have issues with getting my amino acids, as I continued to eat eggs and dairy (can you imagine me giving up dairy – what would I put in my essential cups of tea, soy or nut milk is just not a good substitute in tea – never ever going to happen!)
I actually got to the point of giving up meat when my mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. There is no treatment available, basically all that’s offered is palliative care. So I started researching to see whether there was anything else we could try to prolong her life. One of the many things I researched was food and its connection to our health. My mom made some changes to her diet and added a home blended herbal tea and some vegetable smoothies (over a decade before they became popular). She survived for 3 1/2 years – it’s unusual to survive more than 6 months after diagnosis. Thankfully she felt well for much of that time, although the last 6 months were heart-breakingly painful for her to endure and for us to watch.
After doing all that research it got me worried about the junk I was eating and just what was in my food. I cut meat and almost all refined and processed foods from my diet. I stuck with it for 3 years until I became so anaemic that even iron supplements weren’t correcting it (I could get my haemaglobin up with the supplements but my low iron reserves wouldn’t increase with supplements). After resisting my GP’s advice for a year I finally started adding small amounts of meat back into my diet. I find I still tend to take the approach of hiding meat among the other ingredients so that it’s not a dominant flavour and I didn’t much like the flavour when I started eating it again. I still make a lot of vegetarian meals and only eat meat about 3-4 times per week, and I still have to take iron supplements occasionally when I get careless about not adding enough red meat. My favourite vegetarian cookbooks at the time were American – The Moosewood Cookbook and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest – they are still my favourites and I cook from them often. (These are written by one of the cooks from the Moosewood restaurant that was run by a commune in Ithaca NY in the 1970s.) At the time that I was doing this I was married and even my husband liked the vegetarian meals – he was happy to have his quota of meat in his work lunch and when we ate out. (I think he just didn’t like the alternative – cooing his own dinner!)
Time to tidy the kitchen and set the table for afternoon tea.
Have a good Sunday everyone.
Good morning everyone. I slept in, even on rubbish collection morning!
I’m having an emergency fast day after overeating roast veggies yesterday! I think it might be an effect of the antibiotics. It has been very tricky. I was worried I wouldn’t manage Saturdays fast, but I did.
Does anyone know about this with antibiotics? The roast veggies included sweet potato and beetroot and pumpkin, so maybe it was their (relatively) high sugar. I have soup and a bit of stew that needs eating up in the fridge, so I will have them today and see if I can stick to lower sugar food for the next week of antibiotics.
(Oh dear I am still so full of those delicious veggies!)
I had a good cooking day with my daughter. SIL has tricky health problems, so he was mainly recovering from work, but was helpful when little miss nearly 3 wanted me to sit with her while she fell asleep for her nap, and then took 40 minutes to do so!
It was a lovely successful day and you are right LJoyce, it is lovely to see my granddaughter helping (the 9 month old just tried to eat the peelings!). My mum didn’t want us in the kitchen (I am sympathetic, she was cooking for seven kids and wanted no interruptions) but I did heaps with my daughter and I love seeing it go on with the next generation.
To join in with the vegetarian stories, I became vegetarian when I was 14 (adding to my mum’s cooking stress!) after my older sister did. That was the early 70’s and the world wasn’t vegetarian friendly in those days, but I still have the first vegetarian recipe book I had, and I remember the relief when pubs started serving pasta and I could have something to eat there.
As I grew up I became friends with people who were mostly vegetarian (hippy types in the Dandenong Hills 😉 ) so we had our own little vegetarian culture. It included the Moosewood books!
The first dead animal I ate was when I was up on Goulburn Island on a teaching round in the mid 80’s. It was a spear caught fish cooked on the beach on a fire lit by two sticks rubbed together, by a most charismatic indigenous man. How could I not eat!
And I gradually ate meat more when my young teenage daughter was demanding it and I was too ill and tired to cook us separate meals.
Well, best wishes all for a good day today! Cold and sunny here again!
Good morning from a sunny but very windy Adelaide – I hope all of my trees stay upright. Thankfully the one most at risk has lost its leaves for winter so its less vulnerable at the moment – it tried to tear itself out of the ground during the bad storm after christmas.
Cinque – my appetite does sometimes change with antibiotics, although it’s not predictable. At the beginning of a lung infection when I start the antibiotics my appetite is often repressed – in fact a reduced appetite for a couple of days is one of my early warning signs that an infection may be starting. As I start to feel better but still on the antibiotics I notice the change in appetite – sometimes back to normal or sometimes more. I’ve always though it was more about the health changes than the antibiotics as I also have comfort eating patterns that are tied to being unwell. Personally I wouldn’t worry about overeating veggies, even if they were higher calorie veg – there are much worse things you could have indulged in.
My mum mostly had a similar attitude to yours when it came to cooking and baking – stay out of the way I’m busy. However she did let me stay in the kitchen and observe. I quickly learned that if I wasn’t a bother I’d be allowed to stay and watch – it’s how I mostly learned, by watching mun cook meals or bake and in the summer my mom and grandmother would get together to make huge cauldrons of jams, preserves and chutneys. Once I was older and could be trusted not to waste ingredients or injure myself on sharp implements I was allowed to take over some tasks, occasionally. For my mum it wasn’t lots of kids that made her busy it was the fact that she worked outside the home – not that common the 50s & 60s – she said she couldn’t face having no money of her own. So weekends meant the laundry, most of the house cleaning and the baking all had to be done.
I had a bad day of overeating myself yesterday and it wasn’t on veggies. Today is a FD thankfully. I’ve made a miso soup with barley, mushrooms & spinach for dinner.
Thank you to all of you for such positive feedback I appreciate and will action your advise . I’ve just put into action the 16:8 and 5:2 have cut out more than two slices of Ezekiel bread and am filling up on veggies and experimenting with some of the hare kistnas recipes and tweaking them fully vegan like aloo gobi , my fats in the rest of my diet includes coconut and some cashews/ pine and tahini , beans are my main protein , I make no oil refried beans , chickpea salads / pastes . The possibilities of veg and legumes is gloriously endless , I’m loving this lifestyle, Thanks to everyone , oh and I’ve dropped 3 kilo since I posted first , not fat of course but it’s a great start especially since I wrenched my back on wed night and have copped a herniated disc , losing the weight will help my doc says lol
I’m all out of Cinque and don’t have any fasting buddies now! Luckily, FDs are so much a part of the routine that I hardly notice the difference. Too many muffins LJ? They must have been tasty.
I’m one of those who had no role models in the kitchen. My mother was very young & inexperienced when she married & I was born 10 months later, the first of three. When I was little, she went to night school to learn to cook over 12 weeks and I endured that repertoire of dishes for years to come. I was a skinny, little runt as a child (much as I am now, he he!) except that I had no interest in food whatsoever.
Until about age 7, getting anything in me other than scrambled eggs or frozen fish fingers (yeah, thawed & grilled) was done through coercing, fighting, yelling, re-heating, smacking & general unpleasantness which could last hours due to both parties’ stubbornness. And then, at age 9, my mother left us so there was no happy family mother-daughter cooking happening in our home and I was sent off to boarding school to be fed mass-produced food-like substances. Food for me as a child was only ever a chore and meal times something to ‘get through’. I blame these (and other) experiences for my ‘issues’ with food in later life.
Of course, anyone can learn to cook and my own family has enjoyed freshly prepared food as the norm for 25 years. But it’s the love of cooking, preparing and serving food that I think gets passed down through generations and that’s the thing that I’ve never understood because I never had it myself. I watch cooking shows where these women pile food on plates which they, and their recipients, equate to ‘love’ and I just don’t get it.
Anyway, I’m here now. 60.2kgs, a good fast and a spritely walk behind me and feeling great. Hope you’re all having a wonderful day too.
Thin, I think the fact that you’ve managed to put those awful traumas behind you sufficiently to develop a better relationship with food is such an achievement. I know you still have issues, but you really have turned your relationship with food around. I’m sure your own family benefit from the changes you’ve made.
Alitalia, glad to hear your weight is shifting with the changes you’ve made. I hope your back heals quickly.
Hi Southern Hemispherites and our Northern Hemispherite, fast_me. Where did you say you hail from, fast_me? Can’t remember if you mentioned this?! In any case, I’m originally from the Northern Hemisphere myself.
Welcome Alitalia! Great that you are finding your way with 5:2. In this forum there are those following all types of diets and that’s one reason why I like this way of life! …It can fit into many cuisine philosophies and preferences. …I was vegan for 15 years though it lead to a number of health problems so was required to eat animal protein again and cut way down on the carbs. I do remember one thing helpful was a Sandra Cabot talk I once attended where she stated that eating a nut, bean and seed all in the same meal provided extra protein and good fats. …Another thing that has helped me shed fat is by eating it! When I was vegan, I ate very little fat and I’ve since learned the value of consuming lots of fat. It helps me feel full longer and I find I eat smaller portions if I include healthy serves of fat (butter, olive oil, coconut oil – and I admit I’m a cheese lover!)
Thank you all for the anniversary cheer! Your celebration art work was especially appreciated Cinque!
Thin, I’m sorry the burger place you went to didn’t offer a burger wrapped in lettuce instead of bun! …Or a low carb bun. Even ‘Grill’d’ offers a low carb bun made from almond meal! I’m actually also quite fond of the ‘Grill’d’ Caesar salad minus the croutons!
I’ve been reading all the posts, though have now been so busy with work since TAFE term ended. In fact over the past week I worked 40+ hours filling in for other staff who have been taken ill. Tomorrow I’m being flown to Sydney along with a couple of other staff members where we are attending a training course.
I fasted on Saturday, though can’t see an opportunity to fast again until next Saturday (since I’ll be traveling for work etc.). Since commencing maintenance I’ve found that I’ve been able to get through a number of 6:1 weeks and even sometimes have gone more than a week without fasting when required due to travel or medical reasons and I’ve maintained reasonably well. This might partly be due to the fact that I have quite a wide goal weight envelope of ‘wiggle room’. I allow a whopping 2.5 kg space of wiggle room, though am of the current feeling that maintaining at the lower end of that range is healthiest for me. I’m near the lower end today at 56.3 kg (my range is 56 kg to 58.5 kg) …Well, that could change if I end up gaining more muscle mass! If/when I do, I’ll be much happier at the higher end! How will I know if I’ve truly gained extra muscle mass kilograms instead of fat? I’ll be getting another Inbody 770 body composition scan in September and it will let me know whether I’ve had success or failure in this area! I urge anyone who weighs themselves on a home scale to undergo a body scan to find out their body composition. The Inbody isn’t the only method of scanning body composition. Getting a DEXA scan offers even a slightly more accurate reading. DEXA scans cost around $60 and many gyms offer an Inbody scan for as little as $15. Even the $15 scans include the scanning of visceral fat and a general report about this. Why I urge everyone to get at least one or two of these is because it is important to know if we gain a little weight whether it is actually a ‘good’ thing or ‘bad’ thing. All weight gain isn’t bad, though most seem to view it as such. Gaining muscle weight is wonderful because each extra gram of muscle is like a furnace that utilizes calories, whereas the same amount of fat utilizes very little caloric expenditure, if any! If I’m exercising in any capacity and gaining weight, I may be gaining valuable muscle.
Speaking of exercise, many of you know that I haven’t been able to exercise much or sometimes not at all. That is currently changing as I’ve been practicing HIIT interval training a couple or few times a week though have only been able to do this without negative side effect because I’ve been doing so on altitude contrast equipment. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do any HIIT at all since ever time I tried it in the past, I’d crash afterwards. In other words, I’d experience a very unpleasant ‘hangover’ from the exertion. I can’t believe how I’ve been able to exercise to the max and not crash afterwards! I’m aware that this is all because I’m breathing pure 100% oxygen for most of my 1/2 hour workout and am feeling a growing underlying strength with an increase in resilience. Where I utilize the equipment, there is also a hyperbaric chamber and the one time I did the two together, the altitude contrast session and then a couple hours in the hyperbaric, I alit feeling so well, as if I were walking on air and that 20 years had been erased from my biological age. That feeling lasted a whole week, which was great! I just haven’t had a free 3 hours since to return to combine both those sessions again. Seems every time I’ve planned to go back for that many hours, work suddenly calls!
P.S. Intesha, I was viewing various members’ profiles and see that you are traveling well below the goal weight you posted on your profile! Well done for maintaining at that lower than goal weight!
Joffy, how are you doing?
Merry, it’s been good reading what you’re up to and I’m glad extra family support is arriving!
Good morning Cinque, Thin, Merry, Minka, LJoyce, Joffy and welcome to all our newbies.
Yes I am still floating around. My days seem to be so busy but in truth not really they just flow into one another. Mum and Dad are holding their own but my life is just not my own anymore. I am still doing my coaching and although it has been a challenge and I have enjoyed parts of it I will be glad when it is finished in another 8 weeks.
I have still been doing my cake decorating and I am tamazed at the handbag I made, not perfect but so realistic I kept wanting to pick it up by the handles. I have done another biscuit course and at the weekend made 140 biscuits and have been spending hours decorating them, hopefully will finish today. I am sending some to my Aunt in Atherton and Uncle in Brisbane who have both had very serious health issues lately. I am getting quite possessive of them as they are mini works of art 😉😉 I have also signed up for another 3 cake decorating classes .
Minka I had to go back in and read my profile. I haven’t changed it since last year. My weight is a bit of a yo-yo at the moment. Most weeks I do Tues/Thurs/Sun FD’s. I think the extra day keeps me stable. The past four week Monday weigh-ins I have been in the 67 range so I’m happy with that. This morning I was 68.2, today is an FD.
Cinque I too look forward to your daily post you always put a smile on my face. I am coming to Melbourne next week for a few days but probably won’t have time to catch-up, you seem to be very busy with your little ones now. I am so looking forward to some me time.
Thin you make me laugh I think you have got a compulsive disorder now with your eating, I wish I could be so strict with myself.
Well that’s me for the moment. Look forward to all your posts, have a good day everyone.
What a lovely lot you are!
How lovely to wake up to see posts from Minka and Intesha.
Alitalia I am so glad you came back to let us know how you are going. hooray for three kilos down! Fingers crossed your back heals quickly.
Aren’t legumes wonderful. If you have a favourite recipe, please add it here: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/beans-and-lentils-recipes-tips-and-information/
I had a light eating day yesterday and feel much better for it. I also had no trouble breathing! So I am very grateful for these antibiotics. Because I didn’t eat until midday yesterday I am moving along my tablet time until it is in the evening. I think the side effects (sore tummy and then maybe the munchies) might be easier to handle that way too. I have another week on them.
Thin, it was interesting, and sad, to read what you went through growing up. I am also confused about people equating food with love, but I am very aware of equating it with comfort! (A book and eating something sweet was my comfort position as a child!)
We will still be fasting buddies sometimes! Sunday is the best day to cook with my daughter, but we think we will do it a few times and then have a break while they eat their freezer empty. So I will Sunday fast in the break. And now Josie is starting at childcare, I will probably have her overnight on Monday and so fast on Wednesday and Saturday, or Thursday and Sunday… varying according to the state of her freezer! So I will always have a day that coincides with one of yours! Yay!
LJoyce, thanks so much for your info about antibiotics, it is very helpful.
What you said about kids helping and worry about waste would have been a big issue for my mum too.
Minka don’t you do interesting things! I hope the training is fun. You deserve a medal for holding it all together! And that interesting way of exercising with extra oxygen! Hooray for building underlying strength.
Intesha your cakes and biscuits sound stunning! I hope you are planning a specialty baking business to fund all the traveling you will do in the future! Can’t wait until your website is up and we can see your creations!
I am SO glad you are getting a few days away. Dress warm!!!!! I am sorry we won’t catch up this time, but hopefully there will be a next time!
Well done keeping up with the fast days, and congratulations on the coaching you are doing.
Hi Joffy!
PS One thing I have been noticing is how quickly my skin feels tight when I have been overeating and (presumably, since I don’t have scales) I have put on a kilo or two. Oh my skin was so uncomfortable when I was really overweight! Even the slight feeling now makes the next fast day very welcome!
Cheers all, best wishes for a good day!
Hello all, I have been absent for so long that I am way out of the loop. Good to see all the oldies still posting and still doing 5.2.
I haven’t fallen off the diet wagon, still going strong, 21 kgs lighter as of yesterday. I have gone from a size 26 jeans to an 18, and thankfully I can sew because I’ve been able to resize most of my clothes. I still have 24kgs to go but nearly half way. My intermediate goal is to be on double figures before I go on my big trip. That’s 5 kgs in 8 weeks, probably not doable but a goal to strive for.
I love winter, I live on nourishing low calorie soups. I’m sick today, so sitting instead of doing, hence my belated post. Grandkids passed on their flu bugs.
I’ve been walking more and I’m still doing pilates, my muscles are working better and I don’t get the cramps that I was.
Bye all.
Good morning everyone. I didn’t sleep well last night as we had stormy weather which was pretty loud and I kept worrying about the trees and the roof. It seems everything survived without further damage, but it was a reminder that I need to call the roofing contractors soon and get those loose ridge caps fixed.
I had too many NFD last week where I overate. So I’ve decided to focus on getting it right some days in the hope that the behaviour will spread. Initially I’m concentrating on making only healthy food choices M-F. I’m still doing 5:2, this is just to try and get my diet on normal days back onto good foods. The last straw for me was Sunday – I did mention that I overate and Thin asked whether it was the muffins I baked. Actually I behaved myself quite well with the muffins, it was my behaviour that evening that forced me to take drastic action. After dinner I was craving ice cream – I have no idea why in the middle of winter. I did something I haven’t done in years, I went out into the cold night air, got into the car and drove to the shop to buy ice cream. Then I proceeded to eat 1/2 a tub. I feel like my need to add unhealthy discretionary foods to my NFDs is growing not shrinking and I find that frightening. Every time I think I’m getting this behaviour under control I get an clear reminder that I don’t. So I’m going to focus initially on getting it right M-F and hope that I can get a behavioural pattern established. The big risk with this approach is that I may go overboard on weekends, but I guess this weekend will be the first test of this and I’ll re-evaluate if I need to. If it’s a problem, I may need to schedule a FD on weekends to mitigate the risk. This week my FDs need to be Mon & Thurs as I have treatment on Friday and I find fasting the day before helps with the side effects.
GDSA. How are you. I really hope your brother is recovering.
Good morning from chilly, dull Melbourne.
Hi Pintinlin! So good to see your post and Woot! Woot! Woot! Hooray for your success! I do hope you can get into those double figures for your plane trip, but even if you can’t quite get there you will be close as damn!
It is certainly soup weather!
I hope you are over your flu bug soon, but keep chatting here til you do!
LJoyce, What can I say. I hope it was delicious icecream. Some of us will always have those types of cravings and we have to work with and around them.
It is a good idea to concentrate on no treats Monday to Friday. Get that sorted and then you can decide how to work with weekends. Step by step!
For myself,the antibiotics are still messing me around, but I am noticing how much better I manage when I have everything planned out! I am now using up leftovers and I need to write out how to put them together so I remember!
Time to start planning the next things I will cook. Plus granddaughter tonight (not for my supper 😉 ) and fast day tomorrow. Friday better be cooking day!
Shout out to Gday from me too.
Hello Everyone,
So I’m starting my first fast day on 5:zone:2, maybe when I’m done I can market it to the world as The Jody WOE and make lots of money. I’m not going to be able to eat every five hours anyway, or within one hour of waking up in the morning so I may as well grab control back and make this diet my own. I’m trying for only 3-4 blocks today, as opposed to the 10 I’m allowed (hate that word). On Saturday I worked from 5pm pretty much non stop until 4am so that’s 11 waking hours when I didn’t have time to prepare a Zone “balanced” meal. I have always mixed up my diets a bit anyway, years ago when I lost weight and kept it off for years, I started with Fast Start from New Idea a very good diet if you like soup as I do, and finished it off with GI Diet (Rick Gallop’s version – also very good). Then a few years back I did Body Trim mixed with I can’t remember what. The low GI has been a feature the whole way through, I know Atkin’s and The Zone say they focus on low GI, but if you’re excluding an entire food group altogether (starches) I think you’re kidding yourself. True low GI every food has a GI value compared to glucose, and Rick Gallop says (and I can vouch for him) that if 80% of the time you choose your carbohydrates from the low GI end, you’ll lose weight and be healthier. You can still eat starchy foods, just pick them carefully, no weighing or measuring required. I lost 10kg on that too, that was all I needed to at the time, got down to 53 from 63. I’ve lost 10kg on 5:2 so far, but I’m now at 72 kg and for my height (153cm) that’s still obese, as is anything over 70kg. So I’m getting so close to merely being overweight. If I could pick a weight it would be around 55 kg, I loved being 53kg after I lost all that weight, but to just be overweight would be amazing. Who would’ve thought I’d be wishing to be overweight. I read an article yesterday about Pink saying she doesn’t feel obese at 73kg and 160cm, that’s because she’s not! Her BMI is a mere 28, just overweight, and that’s months after giving birth. Celebs have a lot to answer for.
I’ve already cheated on my diet, I ate a piece of cake yesterday. My mother made me a birthday cake for the 24th and there was no way I was letting that go mouldy while I ate only what I was allowed to eat. I’m actually feeling good on Zone Diet, but I felt so much better on 5:2 when I could eat what I want just maybe not today, and I actually felt euphoric on fasting days. So I decided I can do Zone Diet, but with the knowledge that I’m going to cheat occasionally like maybe once a day 😝 and knowing that it’s my right now diet it’s not my right diet. I’m just becoming a bit weary of all the planning, weighing, measuring. I’ve been eating the same menu for two days, and I’m on night shift so it’s impossible to get the three meals and two snacks in, as well as to eat every 5 hours. Eggs (a “poor choice” – whatever) cooked in avocado oil, spinach and cottage cheese and an apple for breakfast; steak (lean-ish) and salad/veges and ABC butter for lunch; tuna, cottage cheese, salad/veges and ABC butter for dinner. I’ve also been having a snack of “poor choice” banana, milk and protein powder.
I think I might try my usual fast day chicken curry tonight for dinner, I think that would lend itself to Zone quite well with a couple of modifications. It’s really just “poor choice” chicken thigh (breast is so tasteless), canned tomatoes, green veges, curry paste (yellow or tandoori or green) and a dash of yoghurt or coconut milk, and some natural low cal sweetener usually monkfruit by Norbu. I might just add some ABC (Almond Brazil Cashew) butter, surprisingly almond butter is a good choice, but ABC is my favourite. I don’t have any yoghurt but next time that would be a “good choice”, and probably need to leave out the coconut milk, and add four more cups of spinach (good grief! Popeye eat your heart out).
Cinque, I loved the cat playing with Australia, I loved that Australia is protecting NZ from that massive cat! My quite small cat can really hurt me if she puts her mind to it, so imagine what such a huge cat could do. My cat’s sitting beside me cleaning herself right now just to prove how harmless she is.
Pintinlin well done on losing the 21kg! I know how hard it is to lose just half that weight, although I have done it twice so maybe that’s the same? No I know it’s not. Very well done indeed. I also love winter, for various reasons: my birthday, not being too hot and unable to do anything about it, sleeping in, hot drinks in a house cosy and warm from the fire going all day. Spring and Winter are my favourite seasons.
LJoyce I also do a lot of research into diets before starting a new one, and I also store up a lot of information. 5:2 though, I pretty much jumped straight into, both feet in. I was visiting with my mother, my sister in law was visiting from Australia and she happened to mention it, I started my first fast day driving home from that holiday. It just made so much sense, and seeing how much weight she and my brother had lost, I was sold. And I’ve never regretted it. Those muffins sound delicious, have one for me!
Okay, I’d better go now. Starting work in just over 2 hours, and I want to cook a meal before then and have a Zone approved snack, will probably include cottage cheese 😁 Talk to you later.
Gosh I wrote a lot! Sorry!
Good morning from a very wet and cold Perth. Thank you for your kind & supportive comments LJ & Cinque. It is empowering to finally feel in control of food rather than the other way around.
Cinque, I do hope you feel better soon. LJ, I hope you get the weekdays sorted out. I feel we are quite similar in that we both need strict boundaries within which to operate. So, you’re essentially assigning your different days varying levels of operating guidelines until, hopefully, you have all seven in hand and then it’s just the odd discretion which, for most of us, probably never disappear completely. And why should they?
I’m very much a B&W person, all or nothing, which is why 5:2 lends itself so well to my personality type. Yes Intesha, I replaced a food addiction with a fast addiction. If I licked the icing spoon, it would just be the beginning of a slippery slope so I have to adhere to the rules. Others can be more flexible and less hard on themselves. What a great WOL to accommodate so much diversity.
Well done Alitalia for dropping 3kgs already!
Minka, good job! Your post made me fleetingly dance with the idea of trying 6:1 again. I’ve done this a few times during maintenance. But I decided to carry on with 5:2 at least until we go overseas next month so I can start the holiday from a position of strength. Thanks for reminding me about Grill’d, I’ve tried their low cal bun. I think we’re cured of FF for a long time now. Thailand will be interesting since I don’t eat rice or noodles. Perhaps I’ll have to follow in DD’s footsteps and resort to fried bugs.
Today, I’m branching out and having miso soup with various greens and different types of mushrooms that I have to hand so I’ll have to resort to calorie counting as I’m devising this recipe myself.
Pintinlin, what fantastic news! Congratulations, that’s a huge success. You’ll be so much more comfortable on the plane even if you don’t quite get down to dbl figures. Well done! Please post again.
Hi Merry. Joffy, Bay, Jody, Intesha & GDSA. Did I miss anyone? Hoping your brother is progressing well GDSA. Have a great day all.
After a couple of stormy wet days I took advantage of a break in the weather to go for a walk. It’s the first exercise I’ve done in days.
Jody, hope your adapted diet approach works for you. If I remember correctly the zone diet was about balancing protein and carbs within each meal, and its was supposed to be an anti-inflammatory diet. Although I never followed this diet, When I lost the bulk of my weight I did find my cravings were managed better if I made sure each meal contained both protein and carbs. If I ate the carbs by themselves I was much more likely to binge. One of my favourite snacks originated from that period of my life – fruit slices spread with nut butter (usually apple or banana with almond butter). I still love it and have it several times per week.
So far my attempt at limiting the foods I choose from M-F is going well. Time will tell whether it’s a solution but I’m starting to feel more in control. I have also been taking care to have plenty of healthy foods that I really like on hand. I’ve taken a leaf out of Thin’s book and am starting my day with breakfast at lunch time. Some days I make my favourite high fibre muesli blend and sometimes I make a chia pudding with crushed berries, yoghurt and almond milk. I’ve also made some of my favourite yoghurt blends (I’ve mixed some full fat greek yoghurt with vanilla paste, and in the second container I’ve mixed it with crushed raspberries and orange zest.) Both of these are a really nice accompaniment to both the muesli or the chia pudding. I find that having a high fibre first meal really helps me last longer before the hunger pangs reappear – If I add some fat (via the yoghurt blends) I last even longer. So far I’ve been able to stick to having just a piece of fruit for afternoon tea and then I have a normal dinner. Thankfully my dinners were never the problem, mostly it was getting through the afternoons without eating too much food generally, or just the wrong things.
Have a good day everyone.
LJ, do you use almond milk all the time or just as a low cal option when needed? You mention hot drinks of it quite often. Also, in my earlier post, I’d meant to ask you how your monthly weigh-in went on your first month after having declared maintenance.
Jody, your post wasn’t there when I started mine. Good luck with the ‘combo’ WOL.
Hi Thin.
I use lots of cows milk, usually semi-reduced fat. But I also use almond milk, mainly because it has approx 1/3 of the calories of cows milk. Some things I always use cows milk for – eg cups of tea. But for cooking (eg bechamel or cheese sauce), hot drinks, smoothies and also on cereal I usually use either all almond milk, or a blend of cows and almond milk. If I make a mug of cocoa with cows milk it’s about 150 calories, with almond milk it’s around 50. The version with cows milk takes more than 10% of my TDEE calories – I really have to think twice about that most days. The almond milk version I can easily slot into most days and I’ve come to enjoy the taste. I found I had to experiment with brands until I found the ones I like best – for me it’s the Vitasoy almond milk and the Sanitarium almond-coconut milk – both of these have 17-18 calories and 120mg calcium per 100ml. I only ever buy the unsweetened versions – I don’t need the sugar and they have fewer calories.
For hot drinks made with almond milk I make 3 versions. One with cocoa, one with “natures cuppa” (malted barley & chickory), and one with vanilla paste. The only one that I don’t like unsweetened is the cocoa, so I make this less often. Sometimes I want a richer flavour and will use about 50ml cows milk with the almond milk.
I found that I used a lot of blending when getting used to almond milk, because I was so used to the flavour of cows milk it was an adjustment process. So initially I just replaced some of the cows milk so that the flavour I was used to was still there, then gradually increased the amount of almond milk. I also find that using yoghurt and almond milk in things like cereal, smoothies or chia pudding works well as the yoghurt is the dominant flavour.
With yoghurt I use a really small number of brands that I really like the flavour of. I only use greek or natural traditionally made yoghurts that contain nothing but milk and cultures – and there are very few of these on the market. Most have added thickners, gums and skim milk powder (usually described as “milk protein” on the ingredients). Thankfully there are some made locally by Adelaide Hills dairies with traditional methods that I really like.
I didn’t weigh in on the 1st of the month after starting maintenance – I’m trying to weigh less often and without a predictable pattern so that I don’t induce that pre weigh-in stress. However I have been taking measurements occasionally and until a week ago everything was very stable. When I measured on the weekend most of my measurements were up by 2cm – hence the recent changes to get my food choices under control again. I decided that I wouldn’t weigh until my measurements are back to where they were as it will just depress me – that usually doesn’t help and often triggers a binge. So no scales for now.
Good morning to everyone. Seems like ages since my last post. Have just quickly skimmed through to catch up. It annoys me when Im unable to log in daily and absorb all the posts.
Thank you for the well wishes regarding my brother. He is slowly physically mending but struggling mentally dealing with whats happened – he has a long recovery road ahead. It really has been a crappy year indeed !
Despite no high intensity exercise and no FD’s the last few weeks my weight has remained steady at 67 – 67.5. I have started fast paced walking in my half hour lunch break averaging 3kms each day. Im finding its the only time i can fit exercise in at the moment. Falling asleep by 8.30pm and having a great sleep with no waking.
Study progressing well, have 8 weeks to submit 5 assignments so have been getting stuck into it to avoid last minute rush and panic. 2 more days of work and school then 2 weeks off for school holidays. Looking forward to some wind down time in the garden.
Have a great day everyone
Glad things are progressing well with your brother GDSA and that you’ve managed to maintain a stable weight.
My milk frothed particularly well this morning and I’m looking forward to three days of healthy NFD eating. I agree that the various almond & coconut milk brands taste quite different. I only use it on FDs, don’t mind the taste but use FF milk for all other purposes. My only regret is that the A&C doesn’t froth but I prefer not to drink my calories on a FD.
Enjoy the little one Cinque.
Good evening all,
I have been slack with my posting recently. I do read often but when I am going to post I do like to have some time up my sleeve as I like to be sure of what I am posting. It probably takes me 30-40mins to type a post.
I am happily fasting Tuesday’s and Thursday’s without change for a while now, even with the temptation of a roast on my brothers birthday recently I politely said “no thanks”. Pretty tough when sitting at the table with lamb being carved in front of you and your smelling senses are on high alert due to being hungry. They have even changed to having soda water with a piece of lime instead of Pepsi Max since I told them of my methods.
Congrats Pintinlin on your achievement. I must say my last trip to the tropics and flight was the turning point for me after feeling uncomfortable in my plane seat and being hot and bothered in the humid climate was the kick up the backside I needed to begin this Way Of Life.
I am still hovering around the 109kg mark. I have been having a couple more beers the last couple of weeks around the fire and some winter foods for meals, roasts, stews, etc. so a bit more discipline needed.
Certainly a few long term fasters posting on this page with Merryme, Minka, Intesha, Bayleafoz, Thinatlast and Cinque. I believe you just turned 1 recently Minka? It feels like I have been doing this for years (not in a bad way) which is awesome because it feels so normal and that is how you want for it to feel, normal, a part of your life that you do instinctively.
GDSA hope your brother recovers well.
Meals for the day:
2 x white coffee’s 300kj, 500g minestrone soup 800kj, 100g kidney beans 400kj, 150g mushrooms 173kj Total 1673kj or 400cals.
Hi SH’s,
Gday – good to hear from you and that your brother is improving. When there is a “catastrophic” change in health and wellbeing it is usually the mental/emotional adaptation and acceptance that is the most challenging. My best wishes to your brother and to you and the rest of his family.
Weighed 64.4 on Tues and 64.1 this morning. Thanks for the reminder Cinque that food might fall apart a bit now the cavalry has arrived for help and support. We’ll get into a daily rhytm in another day or 2. Fasting has been dependent on the type of day this week, not our usual Mon/Thurs, but we’re keeping as healthy in our choices as we can, and doing stress mitigation as well, as we can. We can see some of the light at the end of the tunnell. Sorry to speak in metaphors so much, but we have had an identity theft situation over the last 20 months so I am more circumspect in what I say now.
Have bought the Clever Guts Dr Mosely’s new book but haven’t started reading yet.
Best wishes for great fasting everyone🙂
Onwards and downwards, and if you fall off the horse get back on,
Merry
Morning SouthernHemis, I have sun coming through the window!
Also, REALLY felt like I am getting better today, after being completely wiped out after family went home yesterday. However I got so excited about feeling well that I have exhausted myself! 😉
I’ll take it slowly today.
Didn’t manage a fast day, but I am feeling relieved that I am getting into the flow of these antibiotics that seem to make me ravenously hungry for an hour or two and then nauseous the rest of the time. So I am doing something like 3:21 and trying to eat well and as slowly as I can when I am hungry.
Really hoping that next week I’ll be feeling heaps better and I’ll be finished the medication.
I’ll try a fast day tomorrow and see how I go. (Because daughter wants another Sunday cook day, and I am glad to oblige!)
Lovely to read your catchups Joffy and Merry!
Cheers Joffy, what a great achievement, and well done family for changing Pepsi to sparkling water. What a great step! I could almost smell that lovely roast as you talked about it! Well done making your fast day work!
Winter does make a difference doesn’t it! But hooray that stews and bakes and roasts can be part of our lifestyle if only we keep them sensible!
So glad the cavalry has arrived Merry. I hope it is a really lovely time for you all! Hooray for doing so well through June!
Ooh Intesha, I hope someone can go see Dr Mosley and then report back! I will no doubt hear him interviewed all over the place.
I noticed SBS had a post up about him fermenting things at home: http://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2017/06/09/fermenting-food-trend-you-need-your-guts-sake?cid=trending
Jody, Cheers for you and 5Zone2! What a trick it must be! All power to you! Definitely a case to ‘fake it til you make it’ Oh dear, I feel for you with those long work hours! What a juggle. Best wishes! Not sure I will invest in the JodyWOE but hoping you will make millions from it anyway!
Loved your take on the world cat playing with Australia!
Thin I am thinking of you and your wonderful frothy coffees! What a pleasure!
I hope you can have mung bean noodles everywhere you go in Thailand!
I am so sure you made a most delicious miso soup with greens that kept nicely within your calorie limit, that I don’t even need to ask!
LJoyce I so hope you are over that scary bump in figures and that the new things you are trying are working just as planned.
Well, I am like you Joffy, it takes me ages to write a post, and even when I submit it I need to spend more time fixing up the mistakes I suddenly see. So if anyone has posted in the meantime…. a big Hi to you!
Hi, Cinque, Merry, Joffy, Thin, GDSA, Intesha, Pintinlin, JodyW, Minka, Alitalia, Bay – and anyone else who’s reading that I’ve missed.
I made it to the end of my first week of limiting myself to basic good food and no extras. Once I got a couple of days into it, it wasn’t that hard. In fact limiting my choices made things easier in some ways. Oddly, changing one thing had me questioning others too – like how much I was eating of certain “good” foods and also my serving sizes. I’ve managed to stick to good quality food choices and less food than I normally get through on the NFDs. It has made a difference – I measured myself again this morning and most of those extra cms that appeared last week end are gone. It’s funny how I feel no stress when faced with the tape measure, but I’m always worried stepping on the scales.
I’ve eaten more veg and fewer grains this week. Once I studied my food diary I noticed that even when I’d planned to have soup & toast for a meal I sometimes didn’t feel like the soup – so I ended up eating more bread and more toppings. Although those toppings usually were some combination of vegetables and cheese it’s not a good replacement for soup as it’s just not as filling – which in turn lead to more snacking in the afternoon. It was the discussion about bread with Alitalia got me thinking about how bread consumption has crept up in the last few months – not sure if it’s just a steady slide into poorer food choices or if it’s a response to cold weather. I’m pretty careful with my breads – I either make my own (really high fibre with a combination of spelt, rye and legume flours) or I buy loaves from a local organic bakery made from sprouted rye rather than flour. I am happy to have them in my diet. But I’ve had to face the fact that just because I’m happy that something is a healthy food choice, it doesn’t mean I can eat lots of it without consequences – especially consequences for my waistline. I need to always be mindful of the need for moderation – not something I have a good track record with unfortunately. This week I’m down to about 1 slice per day – it remains to be seen whether I can maintain this level of moderation.
The big test for me will be this weekend. If I go berserk and undo my efforts since Monday then it will be a bit self-defeating. However, I am in a good place mentally with this, so I’m hopeful that I’ll still be largely sensible over the weekend too.
I just had a Joffy dinner – Minestrone with extra beans. My added extra was a heaped teaspoon of sundried tomato pesto which really packs a flavour punch. Very filling dinner. I decided I wasn’t having any bread until I’d eaten the soup and knew whether I was still hungry – what do you know, after getting through a big bowl of minestrone my hunger was gone.
Good morning all. LJoyce I like to use SA dairy products too. I buy B&D Farm Paris Creek yoghurt, butter and milk. I see you’ve had some wet and wild weather in the hills, not a drop of rain at all here only some cold winds and rather chilly mornings but the daily sunshine has been delightful.
Im nearly finished reading the super thick Paleo book I purchased at the second hand shop. The majority of the book is about nutrition and health and how the Paleo diet complements this so has been fantastic reading in a broader sense.
I rewarded myself this week – big time! After working my way through a distressing first half of 2017, managing to stick to continual weight loss and exercise (most times haha), juggling lots of commitments and giving up alcohol (which I used to turn to in times of stress) and commencing my Diploma I thought I deserved a treat. Ive always wanted a particular style of coat but the ones I’ve found were a bit pricey – well a lot pricey really! Well I took the plunge and bought one online. It arrived yesterday and is absolutely gorgeous, very stylish and really good quality so quite happy indeed. Miss D nearly had a fit when she saw the price tag.
Time for another cuppa, brekky and then the sun will be up. I love Saturday and Sunday mornings listening to SA ABC radio talkback gardening shows while pottering in the garden. Oh I made a yummy pasta last night with baby spinach and herbs from the garden…..there were no leftovers! Happy weekend everyone.
Hi Cinque, well done ljoyce and how lovely to have a great reward GDSA.
Maybe the beginnings of a virtual fashion parade! Joffy in his swanky suit, you in your coat, Cinque in some of her wonderfull finds, (i’ve seen some in person). Thin looking gorgeously thin, Intesha – looking gorgeous she does, and I remember those pants too. Who else is in on the virtual catwalk? Oh, me in my reward for reaching goal trousers from Gumps in San Fransisco. Any other takers?
Check-in: goal for July is 64’s again. FD’s has been haphazard this last week, with extra people around, while we work out a daily rhythm. DFIL has had falls and consequent trips to emergency this week. Keeps thinking he can do what he can’t. Sad to see his dementia progressing but he is more emotionally settled in the secure unit, which is a relief. I’ve had to go back to 1 session with exercise physiologist. 2 was too much. Lower energy week this week so more bed time for me, though we do have a special occasion in the next couple of days.
Onwards and downwards, and if you fall off the horse get back on,
Merry
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10:04 am
28 Jun 17