Hi California Dreamer, Lucky you to live at the foothills of the Sierra’s! Last time I returned to visit CA A group of friends got together at a mountain cabin at Twin Lakes. Was gorgeous! Do you like Vegemite? I’ve yet to get past the smell though Mr. M who is Ozzie loves it. I know it is nutritious.

I’d love to buy the Altitude Contrast equipment because it is the only modality I’ve tried which has allowed me to increase my fitness level over the past 5 years. However I don’t have the thousands it would cost so use the equipment at the home of a support work customer of mine. I’m a support worker for a couple and the husband is chronically I’ll. The wife invested in many types of technology to reverse his condition. For a nominal fee she lets others use it. I don’t mind paying since I know what it cost for her to buy it.

I migrated to Oz in 1986 after visiting a very close friend who came here and stayed. I visited the friend a couple times and knew that this is where I wanted to be and all worked out for me to do so. I met my former partner of 15 years on one visit. Sorry if this is redundant, you may have said, I haven’t been keeping up with posts, have you had the pleasure of visiting Australia?

Hello Everyone,
More good wishes for your wonderful trip Thin, I hope you come home warm and happy with shiny teeth and a lovely list of no-carb Thai food! An exciting adventure to be on!

Minka you have a tricky problem, good luck in working out a way to exercise and still eat moderately. If there is a way to do it, you will work it out!

Redmoomstar, congratulations on looser jeans! It is so hard with food and travelling, I hope you can be settled for a but now and really enjoy some sensible non fast days (with a very special snack every now and then of course).

My last night was a bit better (regarding my poor old nose) and I am definitely better this morning than I was yesterday. Thanks so much for your kind wishes. I have been feeling very sorry for myself and I am so grateful you have all been so kind.

I’ll go a Thursday fast day this week, so today is lull day. A nice sensible lull day I plan!

Cheers all

Minka, mountain cabins are great (and warmer than a tent!) we stayed in a tent cabin in Yosemite, at Tuolumne Meadows once in July. The weather was gorgeous during the day, but I darn near froze to death at night! Even in a sleeping bag it was so cold. I couldn’t believe it, being the middle of summer. The higher altitudes get much colder at night. We’re not up that high.

I actually found out about Vegemite on this forum. I remembered the name from the song “The Land Down Under” which was such a huge hit. I discovered they sell it on Amazon and had it 2 days later. I like it a lot and have it on toast on most NFD’s. I’m glad everyone here told me to spread it sparingly. It’s very salty but I love the unique flavor. I found a recipe from a website that LJ mentioned yesterday that uses Vegemite in a pull apart cheese bread that looks delicious! But don’t even look at this when you’re hungry. It is truly food porn. 😍😜 http://www.notquitenigella.com/2017/01/24/vegemite-cheese-pullapart-hedgehog-bread/ LJ, there are some great looking recipes on that blog!

Using the Altitude Contrast Equipment at your employer’s home sounds like a win-win solution. It’s handy for you and it it gives them a little extra money to subsidize the cost of the machine. I’ll have to read more about them. I had never heard of them before.

I’ve never visited Australia but hope to get over there sometime it the future. I probably wouldn’t want to leave either. I lived with a Cockatoo for 18-1/2 years who died of cancer about 9 years ago. I loved him so much. I can’t even imagine seeing Cockatoos in the wild. They are such lovely and loving creatures. And all the other exotic birds there are so beautiful.

Cinque, glad to hear your nose was a little better last night. Did you take an antihistamine or is it just starting to go away? Whenever I have a cold I’m completely miserable. I’m always surprised that I remain alive by the end of it. 😄🤧

My FD was easy today and almost over now, it’s almost 8:00 PM here.

Have a great rest of your day, everyone!

I forgot to mention that yesterday I bought “The Diet Myth” by Tim Spector that Penguin had mentioned. I’m only 2 chapters in but I really like it so far. Thanks for the recommendation Penguin.

LJoyce, here’s a YouTube video about making kefir. I didn’t watch the whole thing, but just wanted you to see the straining part with the spatula. That’s what I do to help separate the grains from the kefir curds and whey. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BaJbqJkk0nE

But wait to do the longer fermentations until you have more grains and they’re nice and strong. The longer it goes, the less lactose they have. Eventually, probably after days, the grains would starve for lack of food. They might be kind of fragile now. Keep making it daily, even if you use a small amount of milk, so you get a bunch more grains. I use a jar like this to ferment the grains, and another like it to store the finished kefir in the frig. https://s7d9.scene7.com/is/image/BedBathandBeyond/29229912135432p?$478$

There are instructions for making a cream cheese with kefir too. I haven’t tried that yet.

Hi everyone,

Enjoying all the chat! Lots of memories being brought up too. I have a cloth covered green cookbook which was my grandmother’s. Even with my tiny interest or lack of interest in cooking that book is fascinating. The measurements are captivating – a loaf of sugar, a hainch of this or that meat, and Victorian English recipes. One of my children loved it so much I gave them one as a gift that I found online internationally.

Well yesterday was as weird as I thought it would be. I ended up on a new medication for a few days at least, that needed to start straight away and needed to be taken with food, so my usual FD pattern of no calories till 6pm got thrown out. I didn’t try to count calories, but probably under 800cals. Because of the earlier food my appetite kicked in and I countered it by having for dinner only miso soup with shredded seaweed, a boiled egg, with a tiny bit of smoked salmon on each piece, then a medium orange.

The new medication messes with sleep, so not great last night as well as the previous night. So…..today my food choices have again been out of kilter. I’m absolutely sure that extra tiredness messes with our ability to regulate our appetite and ability to choose food wisely.

Cinque – I do hope you are feeling better soon. Take care, and get lots of rest.

Redmoonstar – good to hear from you

Time for me to hit the hay…….
Onwards and downwards,
Merry
(5:2 maintainer)

Good morning all,

I had a rather early start today – woke at 5am and couldn’t get back to sleep – maybe I was secretly wishing I could hop on the plane with Thin and go on holiday.
There is one unexpected drawback of being up early – the sun comes in at a different angle and shows up all the areas I’ve neglected to dust in a while. So I’ve been running around with a damp cloth cleaning dusty surfaces.

Yesterday’s FD was good but the early start to today’s NFD has not been good. I’ve already eaten muesli with kefir and 2 crumpets. Luckily the nurse will be here in an hour or so to give me my RA treatment and while she’s here I’m pretty much tethered to the spot for a couple of hours by the drip line. That should keep me out of the kitchen for a while.

Merry – I hope you either adjust to the new meds or don’t have to stay on them long. I agree with the very old recipie books – I view them as a bit of a history lesson.

Have a good day everyone.

Hi all.

Warning – I am not in a good mood today. In fact I am furious. Due to a faulty USB Ive just lost a weeks worth of study. I wont go into details but as I do some study during work hours using a work computer I have to use a Govt issued password protected USB. My work computer also had to be fully reset this morning by IT due to profiling issues and I have now lost a whole heap of other work too. For some stupid reason I didnt save my study work on Sunday to my hard drive…..lesson learnt. So I’ve just ordered another USB (my 3rd in the last 6 weeks – all faulty with the same issue) which will take 2 weeks to be approved and mailed out. Grrrrrrr

While I’m griping about IT, can someone step me through how to add a link to a post to add Miss D’s cake photo from my phone photo gallery? I downloaded the app that I think it was Cinque who recommend but not sure how to do it. Perhaps accessing the forum from my phone doesnt give me the options that i need ?

All this frustration is giving me cravings for junk food – all I can think about is scoffing a packet of Twisties. Good thing I dont have any Twisties on hand !!

Have put on an extra kg of water weight this week so not fussed about getting to goal weight until it passes.

Looking forward to our annual local Fair and Fireworks this Saturday. Now Miss D is older she is wanting to go on the big spinning rides – it’s a good thing I like them too although last year I recall having a few head spins and slightly wobbly legs after getting off one of the rides !! It’s the only time of year I can get real donuts so will have to indulge.

Oh well lunch break is over, back to my desk to see what I can salvage….not in the the right frame of mind for it at all. 😤😣😤😣

GDSA – my commiserations, I know how awful that feels losing so much work and all those hours that you’ll never get back. So sorry you are having such a frustrating day. There’s one thing I’ll say about losing all those files and hours of work – it only happens to you once and you become a bit paranoid about backing up on another drive – it’s years since it happened to me and I still back up obsessively. I really hope you have good recollection of what you wrote last time when you sit down to do your assignment again.
I hope you and your daughter have a lovely time at the fair. You better eat that doughnut after the rides so it stays down.

Redmoonstar – I’m glad to hear that a change of climate caused a remission of symptoms – I’ve always been very wary of humid weather. I think it’s changing weather rather than any particular temperature that increases my joint pain. I used to believe that humidity was the problem because I always noticed an increase in pain when it became humid, but my previous rheumatologist said that he thought it was dramatic changes in barometric pressure that actually caused the problem (and changes in barometric pressure usually occur at the same time as changes from dry to humid weather). He said that he had supervised phD research where rheumatoid patients were put into barometric chambers and subjected to lots of sequences in changing air pressure. The most pain was caused by sudden changes in barometric pressure. The rheumatologist said he believed this was because the air pressure pushes on our bodies and has a particular impact on the excess fluid around our joints – it tries to compress it.

I have never had aggressive RA mine started slowly – I actually ignored it for about 6 months before going to a doctor. I have never had a remission of symptoms except that provided by the dMARD treatments (disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs). I have seen first hand just how much remission of symptoms I’m actually getting from the treatment drugs because I have had a few breaks in treatment and the difference between treatment and no treatment is stark – my life just does not function in any meaningful way without the treatment drugs.
It’s all a bit of a balancing act, trying to get the treatment and symptom balance right – I think it’s probably that way for most people with any chronic illness. It’s a delicate balance that can be easily upset.

An unseasonably cold and wet day here so I was doing a little admin when the mail delivered my kefir grains late morning. An outer padded bag and an inner with the grains in a little milk. They are now fermenting. According to the instructions that came with them I should have a small amount of something drinkable by the day after tomorrow. Still wet this afternoon so I made muffin tin sized pork pies (for the grandchildren, honest). There was enough of everything left to make three normal sized ones for the only adult that likes them (me). They will freeze.

Penguin, happy to hear that the kefir grains arrived. It may even be ready in 24 hours, depending on how warm your kitchen is. I think the key initially is to just use a small amount of milk. The more milk per number of grains, the longer it takes. In a few weeks you’ll have lots of grains! They seem to multiply quickly once they get going.

Did you see where LJ managed to start some from store bought kefir?

Good morning SHs, good afternoon Penguin and good evening Cali 🙂

Penguin, I hope your first batch of home made kefir tastes as good as mine did (It was so nice I drank it on a FD, when I hadn’t planned to). I think the result is partly depends on how nice the milk is that you use. I used a full cream milk that had not been homoginised, and comes from a local organic dairy that makes lovely dairy products. I figured if the milk tasted nice to start with then it would hopefully make nice kefir.
Enjoy those pork pies.

Cali, I know people who enjoy vegemite spread on celery sticks as a salty snack. I have tried it and it’s ok, but I’d personally rather wait for NFDs when I can eat bread or crispbread. If you like celery it might be worth trying as a non-bread option. If I’m craving vegemite I often have 2 rice or corn cakes (I buy the plain thin version with added grains). These are about 80-95kj each (19-22cal) depending on the brand. I then put a careful scraping of butter on (about 1/4 tsp per rice cake) then the vegemite. The total calorie count for 2 of these is pretty modest – 243-252kj (58-60cal). They usually end up as an afternoon snack with a cup of tea on days when I’m in a vegemite mood. (Probably once a week, as most days I prefer to have fresh fruit for afternoon tea.)

I ate far too much on yesterday’s NFD so today I’m going to have to be more careful. I’ve already done 2 FD this week but I may need to add another on Saturday as I have celebration meals to deal with on Sunday and Monday.

Have a nice day.

Cali – vegemite can be used instead of miso or stock concentrate as a flavouring for broths, gravy or stew. It seems a common use in old recipies – those created before ready-made stocks were easily available. I don’t think it’s used much as a stock flavouing these days. I will occasionally add a tiny amount to a gravy if I think the colour is a bit insipid – along with adding flavour and salt it makes the gravy a richer brown colour.
The miso I use is very salty and I have to dilute it with twice the specified water to make it palatable.

Cali, I was just looking at the headlines on a local news site and I came across these photos that I thought you might enjoy. If you scroll down to the second batch of pics (photo number 6), there’s a nice one of a sulphur crested cockatoo. The third batch has a lovely photo of a mother koala with baby.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-29/abc-open-pic-of-the-week/7653724
The very first picture is 2 border collies (farm dogs, great at rounding up stock) on the back of a old ute. The photo was taken at Eudunda a farming town that’s only 100kms or so from where I live now (as you can tell, it’s a while since they’ve seen any rain). I love border collies, they are lovely farm dogs, with great personality, but they can be a challenge as pets as most back yards just don’t offer them enough activity – if they don’t have stock to round they’ll have a go at rounding up the children.

Cali – The wallaby photo was taken in Chewko which is is far north Queensland. It may have been taken in a reserve or it may be a tourist feeding area – there are some places where the animals aren’t confined but because tourists are provided with food to feed them on a regular schedule they lose their fear of humans and come in regularly for food. Either way I would not describe them as truly wild wallabies.

Good morning Penguin – I hope the flavour of your kefir improves with the batches. I used equal parts bought kefir and full cream milk to make my first batch. I think this gave me a good chance that the new batch would taste a lot like the purchased kefir.
If the flavour of your kefir doesn’t improve, there is an idea that I have that may be worth experimenting with. I have heard that the balance of bacteria in each set grains differs with some having a smaller number of species. If you combined some purchased kefir (that you like the flavour of), with your grains and also some fresh milk, I wonder whether the bacteria profile in the grains would change to include any extras in the bought kefir – this may change the flavour of kefir you make from those grains in future batches. You could try doing this slowly – grains+1 cup kefir+1 cup milk and do the same each day so the grains have more time to adapt. I have no evidence about this, just trying to apply logic to the process.

Have a nice day, I’m just packing up to head off to bed now.

Penguin, the longer you let the kefir go, the more sour or tangy it gets. Sometimes I even get a hint of carbonation. If you don’t like it as sour, just harvest it sooner. The flavor might also be due to the fact that the grains were reviving after their trip to you. Mine almost always separates this time of year because it goes fast due to the warm kitchen. I jalways have to shake it before drinking it. It also tends to be a little thicker when fermented longer. (After shaking it.) I prefer sour so that isn’t a problem for me.

I almost always use 1% or 2% milk to keep the calories down. Here’s the nutrition info for a typical 1% milk: http://www.stonyfield.com/products/milk-cream/milk/lowfat-1-milk

I only occasionally use whole milk. It does taste richer and I think it may have come out thicker. I sometimes use goat milk which I can only find in the full fat version. I love the flavor of that, but it’s expensive.

I’m not sure if the strains of bacteria vary a lot on the cow’s milk. They always taste pretty similar to me, other than the sourness which you can control by fermentation time. LJ’s suggestion to mix your own with store bought might be helpful. But it’s not easy to find a brand that hasn’t killed off all the good stuff. At any rate, I wouldn’t try mixing them until I had a big enough crop to experiment with some grains separately. Mine tend to be extremely hardy, but you never know.

CalifDreamer. Thank you, that was helpful. The taste of my first batch wasn’t very unpleasant, just thin and a bit further out than the bought stuff. The second batch has been fermenting for about 7 hours and is looking much more like the on-line images. I’ll get some organic whole milk tomorrow and see how that goes. I’ll also get 1kg of the Polish shop bought stuff, drink it until I have enough of my own and I’ll have some left to try LJ’s approach. I may also try adding a little cream – I am having no problems staying below my initial target weight and am relaxed about going further so the extra calories shouldn’t be a problem, as long as I control the whiskey consumption.

Good morning fellow fasters,
Morning after a FD and feeling great. I have been keeping up the fasting on Tuesdays and Thursdays with the regiment you all know I follow and actually extended my last Tuesday fast until 1pm Wednesday due to an early start for work and a time pressure job with a major road closure. I haven’t done this for a while since getting into having brekkie before work with this WOE to stop eating out at smoko or lunch so it was a good experience to remind myself your are not dying of hunger the morning after a FD.

I am contemplating changing something to kick start a bit more movement in the scales as I seem to have stalled, that was until this morning when I saw a lower kg bracket than I have for a while. Must have been my body reacting to the thought of taking away a treat that got it going. I will be making this change anyway for the month of August as I am going to Cairns at the end of the month and I want to feel good in the humidity.

Cinque my daughter was a bit blocked up last weekend (in the nose), I told her to have two hot showers a day as they work for short time and I cooked some hot chilli con carne (which she loves) and that definitely clears the sinuses.

LJoyce great to hear you waving the minestrone flag in my absence of posting. Anyone having minestrone on a Tuesday or Thursday will never be alone in doing so.

GDSA I nearly thought winter was over last week with the warmer days then I was reminded, at least the washing dried quickly and I was able to do the blankets, towels and bed linen in one day.

Merryme is this going to be your new title through security when traveling? Merryme (maintaining 5:2er) I like it.

You and your teeth have a great trip Thinatlast and remember you are allowed holidays from everything even 5:2 if need be, we will not lynch you on your return if you indulge a little.

A trend that has happen naturally without realising, is that I can only have two white coffee’s on non fast days now as it makes me feel overfull if taking on another even at lunchtime or the evening. I can have a tea in the evening on a cold day. This is from 10 months of FD’s and the body (habits) getting used to less coffee’s.

Meals for the FD’s (per day):
2 x white coffee’s 300kj, 500g minestrone soup 800kj, 100g kidney beans 400kj and 150g mushrooms 173kj Total 1673kj or 400cals

Hi everyone,

Joffy – good to see you back again, hope you enjoyed your late nights with the tour de france. Really pleased that your scales have finally decided to be kind – it’s always a good day when you can step off without want to kick them.
I had minestrone for dinner last night too – although it wasn’t a FD, I just didn’t feel like cooking so I pulled a tub of it out of the freezer. Because it wasn’t a FD I treated myself to a generous sprinkling of parmesan over the top – yum.

Cinque – it sounds like that infection has finally turned the corner. Get plenty of rest and fluid. Hope you are feeling a bit chirpier soon.

Cali – the brands of commercial kefir really vary in what they add (I read all the labels and researched each of them online to find out what I could about their manufacturing processes). The one that I bought had the least “extras” added to it – just the pectin, some had lots of other things added. As to separating, both the kefir that I bought and the one that I made separate into curds and whey in the fridge and I need to shake before using – I assumed this was normal. I suspect some commercial kefir wouldn’t do this as they would have added stabilisers that prevent it. Most commercial yoghurt manufacturers do this, it’s usually only small organic producers who don’t. The Greek yoghurt that I buy doesn’t have these additives and continues to separate into curds and whey in the fridge – you can just mix it back together but I usually drain the whey off because I love the flavour and texture of the thicker yoghurt – by the time I get to the end of the pot it’s like cream cheese and is actually spreadable (basically it’s turning itself into lebneh with no help from me).
Like you I aim for 1-2% fat milk for most uses – particularly in my cups of tea, as a higher fat content in the milk leaves an oil slick on top of my cup of tea which is not pleasant. However the kefir I bought and the kefir I made were both full cream. I noticed that the kefir I bought had 200kj (48cal) per 100ml which is the same as reduced fat milk – I assume this is because the bacteria in the kefir grains eat the sugar in the milk and this reduces the calories even in full fat kefir.

I have decided to do a third FD this week as I’m concerned about the celebration meals I have on Saturday and Sunday. FD Saturday.

LJ, I never noticed the calories on the full cream kefir, but like you say, it must be the sugars. If that’s the case it would be worth the extra creaminess to use full cream milk to make kefir at home. I always just looked at the calories of the milk itself, but it makes sense that once it’s fermented it could be less.

We have a party/BBQ at our neighbor’s on Saturday. I should do a 3rd FD too, but maybe I’ll just fast during the day on Saturday. Today was a FD and while it went ok, I’m looking forward to eating a little more tomorrow.

Cinque, I’m glad to hear your nose is finally getting better. Now you need a nice sunny day and some warm weather!

LJ, just read your post about the lung infection. Can you drink the kefir while on the antibiotics? Or would the milk block something in them?

I have just harvested my second lot of kefir. Yesterday I put in twice as much milk as on day one (but still not a lot) and today I got less strained kefir but very many more grains. Following the suppliers instructions I weighed them: 65 grm. If I follow the instructions they need about 1.5 litre milk. That seems excessive. 65 grm is a generous tablespoon, possibly 1.5, so I put in two cups of organic full fat milk. We will see how that works.

Good morning from a very wet and cold Adelaide. It’s been raining almost constantly for 3 days and has been 8-10C where I live. I have so many logs jammed into my slow combustion heater that I can barely get the door closed. I had to fish out the thermals this morning to wear under my track suit.

I’m doing a FD today – so far just 125ml kefir and 2 cups of tea. I have a container of vegetable and brown lentil soup thawing for dinner tonight.
Initially I wasn’t having kefir on FDs, but I have reconfigured my other FD foods so that I can have it every day. Some of my FD meal choices give me enough leeway to add it easily and with other FD meals I may need to give up 1/2 piece of fruit to have the kefir if I want to stay under 500cal.

I have restaurant/cafe meals on 3 of the next 4 days, so I’ll need to squeeze a FD in on Tuesday.

Penguin – can you use 1.5 litres of kefir every 1-2 days? That sounds like a lot to me. Have you considered doing the double ferment to turn some of it into a soft cheese? Because the separation of curds and whey in making the cheese removes most of the liquid you reduce a large quantity of kefir to a modest portion of cheese.
I haven’t made cheese from kefir, but I have made paneer (Indian cheese) from fresh milk – I get about 120-150g from 2 litres of milk (full cream makes more).
I’ve looked at a lot of youtube clips on the topic and I think these are the best for turning kefir into either cream cheese or cheese balls if you are interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz8mERlok-8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqGULjLFo4g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mkoUY6ADbk

Cali – I’m willing to keep having the kefir everyday just because I love the flavour. It’s rather nice when you find you love a food that’s good for you – what a happy coincidence.

Cinque – are you feeling any better?

Joffy – have the changes you made helped to keep your weight moving down?

GDSA – hope you and your daughter have a great time at the fair today. Enjoy the rides and that doughnut. I hope your weather is a bit better than mine or you’ll be dodging the rain and wind.

Have a nice weekend all.

Hi Everyone,
So hoping you can kick that lung infection quickly LJoyce! Hope you can take it easy in front of that beautiful fire/stove.

I’m improving, but snails pace so I have no news.
Except we’ve got our first sun for a few days. What a treat.

Sending good wishes to all!