I have lived in over 40 houses – the penalty for having a father in the service and going that route myself. Twice since we married we were in three houses in one calendar year. The house we are in now we have had for 15 years, which has totally ruined our average. Earlier this year we contemplated moving across the river into a more civilised area and then realised we are not town people. It may happen eventually, but not yet. I’m not sure how large my patch is, but on the rule of thumb that a soccer field is about an acre, I have perhaps half an acre. My grass cutter has a motor which turns the blade, but I have to push it. I have almost no level ground and cutting the grass, according to my smart phone, requires me to push it for 2 1/2 miles. Good exercise. The green house, the veg patch and the fruit trees at this time of the year are supplying us, the grandchildren who spend the long summer holiday with us, the neighbours and the compost heap. For the first time in my life I feel as though I have roots. I can absolutely understand the earlier comments that giving up a property and moving into town is not easy.

Off now to harvest today’s kefir – I need a bigger jar or someone who needs a grain donation.

Hi all again! Sorry for this long post. Admittedly, I’ve written so little for so long, a lot of verbiage has built up! …Probably this is a bit of distraction from the more stressful type of writing of assignments!

New members, sorry I haven’t yet gotten to know you, so have refrained from commenting on your posts. Once I’m finished study in September, I’ll be able to read more posts. Until then, ‘Welcome’ if I haven’t already extended that greeting!

GDSA congratulations on progressing to what I’d call a ‘whisker’ of your goal weight! Well done! Sounds like you and LJ get a lot of exercise in the garden! What a productive way of exercising! I wish I could do the same. Even through winter I’ve gotten midge and mosquito bitten nearly every time I’ve gone down into our garden. Usually the midges hibernate in winter, though this winter that cycle was very short because it has remained quite warm and sometimes even hot. All the best for your studies in the coming new term GDSA! Apologies for not keeping up with everyone’s posts so you may have said… GDSA did you end up blending keto diet practices with 5:2?

Cinque, glad to read you are on the road to recovery. I support you in doing what is best to heal. I’ve had weeks where I needed to forego fasting for medical reasons, too, so understand. Here’s to your appetite and digestion balancing after that course of antibiotics! How are you sleeping? Hoping you are getting luxurious hours of deep sleep at night and waking refreshed!

LJ, you’re welcome! I too need the reminder (big time). It’s Sunday morning and I’m soon to break my fast and staying in touch with what I wrote is the only way I’ll not revert back to last week’s patterns of snacking while multitasking. One night just before sleep, I read a few more pages of my ‘Neuroslimming’ book and I’ve decided to take on a ‘mission’ exercise as the book calls it, to only ‘eat when I eat’. This means truly sitting down quietly and engaging full senses and focus and doing absolutely nothing else at the same time! Last week I don’t think ate without multitasking, even once (of course eating convivially with others is also healthy and an exception to ‘doing nothing else). Anyway, last week I observed that each time I put food in my mouth, I was either doing so while working on the laptop, in class while listening to a lecture, at the table reading, munching while walking around the house, dinner in front of the news because that’s what Mr. M likes to do and because I never get dinner together in time before the ABC news starts and heaven help we miss hearing all the bad news out there! I’m coming to realize that multitasking eating only served to perpetuate my snacking and grazing since I wasn’t attuned to my senses while eating nor my head was always elsewhere! Granted I felt underlying panic of deadlines which drove me and the sheer putting of food in my mouth quashed those fears! So that way of eating had its uses! Anyway, going forward I’ve adopted this ‘mission’ for the time being. I’m hoping practicing such will allow me to engender those qualities I listed better than munching on an apple as I walk around the house searching for seemingly lost paperwork that I know I filed ‘somewhere’!

An IF observation… I did weigh myself this morning post yesterday’s fast and was taken aback when I read 57.2 kg. Yippee! What I’m realizing is maybe now that I’ve maintained goal weight range for nearly a year, my body seems to have adopted that as my new weight ‘set point’. I’ve observed recently that when I stray and eat over my TDEE that I return to goal weight range far more quickly than expected. This morning I began to feel that my body is like a ‘homing pigeon’ which now wants to return back to around 57 kg (middle of goal weight envelope range). …Not that this is making me feel complacent or that my ‘set point’ is set in stone! Of course holding the pigeon hostage in a cage of elevated calories for too long a time will serve to turn the pigeon back into a Foi Gras goose by raising the ‘set point’ back up to where it was prior to starting 5:2! I’m aware that continuing with IF is an essential component of maintaining desired ‘set point’ weight range.

I visited a neighbor who had been one of my earliest 5:2 inspirations. I remember being in awe of how healthy and radiant this woman and her husband both looked back when I suddenly ran into them at the supermarket in 2013! I complimented them on how amazing they looked and they then shared that they’d been avidly practicing 5:2 for a good 8 months. They admitted how good they felt and that the program made so much sense. To me this was visible proof that what Dr. M showed on ‘Eat Fast and Live Longer’ earlier in the year, really worked and I really wanted to try it too, but health issues and medication contraindicated prevented me back then. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago (I hadn’t seen this neighbor since that supermarket chance meeting in 2013!) when I knocked on the neighbor’s door to finally thank her for being a 5:2 inspiration. Was I surprised to be greeted by a much larger sized woman than expected. As always she was good hearted, though the healthy radiance that I’d noted in the supermarket just wasn’t there. I felt awkward asking if she had continued with 5:2 in any capacity, so instead simply mentioned that I’d been practicing 5:2 for over a year and that she’d been an inspiration for me to give it a ‘go’. Just saying this was as if I’d jogged her memory and she recollected, ‘Oh yeah 5:2!’ as if it had completely slipped out of her consciousness! She went on with, ‘I’ll have to get back to that!’ …Oh I hope I wont’ ever ‘have to get back to 5:2’! …Here’s to hoping I’ll be able to follow in your footsteps Thin (if you are reading this), and that I will keep, keeping on so that somewhere in the future, I don’t have to go through all I did, over again, to get back to where I am now! I even wonder what the statistics are of success second time around? …Or if it is more difficult? …Let alone how I might feel in between ‘getting back’, once again the travail of a more cumbersome body, aches and pains from greater stress on joints, loss of confidence and self esteem, etc.

Now it is this forum that continues to be my inspiration! …And as essential to my success as the eating of 500 or less on FDs!

Okay, back to my assignments! I’ve got another big deadline to meet this week! Here’s to me eating as I described above in my previous post!

Minka, I understand completely how study and snacking go together. I did 10 tears of university study (most of it while working full time) and I gained weight in every single one of those years.

GDSA, I admire your energy. Sewing after spending the morning in the garden. I’ve just spent 2 hours spreading pea straw and I feel absolutely shattered – definitely not up to sewing. Sorry to hear you are already having to water the garden. I’m still getting enough rain here that I don’t have to start watering yet.

I was planning to spread 3 bales of pea straw over the garden beds this afternoon, but I managed to do two before my stamina ran out. I really should be doing some housework this afternoon, but I don’t have the energy for that either. I think I might indulge in a bit of reading.

Penguin:-
Building medieval stone walls for the garden sound a bit fancier than what I did for my raised veggie beds. Making raised beds was a necessity, because I’d had rheumatoid arthritis for about a year when I moved into my current house. I didn’t know how the disease might limit me in the future, so I was trying to future-proof my veggie garden. These days there are raised beds made from corrugated colourbond (powder coated iron) readily available in Australia. They come in all shapes, sizes and colours: https://www.stratco.com.au/products/home-improvement/stratco-garden-beds/ These structures have no top or bottom so they are open to the soil below. They are quite light weight to move – an excellent product.
Back when I did my beds these didn’t exist unfortunately. Most people who wanted raised beds back then built them from bricks or sleepers. I didn’t feel able enough to manage that, so I bought several perma-pine sandpit kits. These were made from split treated pine logs that were 3 logs high (about 40cm). They came in 1 or 2 metre square kits. The sides were ready assembled and you just had to join the corners with a few screws. I wanted rectangular beds, so I bought 3 of the large and 3 of the small and mixed them up so I had 6 beds 2m x 1m. I was worried about the chemicals in the pine leaching into my organic veggies, so I wrapped the inside walls in a double layer of thick black plastic before filling with soil. Because I was placing these onto an existing patch of lawn I also had to put a thick layer of newspaper down under each bed to suffocate the grass. Then I had a truckload of compost delivered and carted seemingly endless barrow loads up the hill to fill them up. I tried to do a lot of companion planting – some of which worked to deter pests. I grew a green crop in most of the beds each winter – usually broad beans. I know a green crop should be dug in before harvesting, but I wasn’t about to waste all those lovely broad beans so I usually waited until I’d had about a month of harvesting before digging it in. I really earned those first few harvests.
In 2003 Adelaide’s water supply became a bit perilous so there were very tight water restrictions imposed – that are still in place. It made it even more challenging to keep growing my own veg but I kept going for a few years before eventually dismantling the beds and returning the area to lawn. By then the neighbours’ trees were shading the beds too much for crops to grow well.
I kept just 2 of the “sandpits” and moved them onto a concrete area near the house where it was easier to water and closer for just dashing out to grab a handful of something while preparing dinner. I’m fairly selective about what I grow these days and focus on herbs and leafy greens. I always grow cherry tomatoes, snow peas and patty pan golden squash in spring-summer.
When I move I plan to have just a courtyard garden, but I’m hoping to have enough room to have a retaining wall around the edge of the property with a raised garden bed behind. Although it will be mainly decorative plants I do intend to tuck a few herbs an veg amongst the ornamentals.

Penguin – I hope the asparagus that you dug up stayed gone. I found that it was pretty persistent. No matter how hard I tried to dig it all up there would be enough roots left to resprout – very hardy plant.

Minka, I had the same dilemma at dinner. I made my favourite roasted cauli salad. A key flavour ingredient is toasted pine nuts – the more I add the better it tastes. At almost 3000kj per 100grams I limited myself to 30g (210calories). I definitely couldn’t have this as a FD meal unless I reduced the pine nuts to no more than 10g.
I love nuts but I’m always horrified by just how many calories they contain – must be why they taste so good.

Minka, thank you so much for your post this morning. Your story about your neighbors and how they looked on the 5:2, and then your visit to thank her a few years later and finding her heavy again was the inspiration I needed. I’ve had a rocky couple of weeks with a plateau in the 62’s (and now low 63’s) and my 5:2 motivation has been waning. Friday and yesterday I ate too much, not really anything unhealthy but just too much of what I did eat. But your words put me back on track again. I don’t want to be the fat neighbor who gave up the healthy looking body for a heavy one.

After attending my 50 year high school reunion a few weeks ago, I saw firsthand what weight does to a person in terms of aging. The thin people looked a lot younger than the heavy ones did. Some of the heavy ones were unrecognizable. Thank goodness for name tags! And I can see what weight does to people’s knees and just their ability to get around. I need to stay focused.

I guess some of the reason for overeating is anxiety. The last couple weeks the world news has been very worrisome, and although I know there’s nothing I can do about it, the low level of anxiety is always there, even when I’m doing other things.

LJoyce, your raised bed project from years back is the same problem I’d have here, and it’s what keeps me from putting them in the back grass area. The only way to get dirt up there would be to haul it up the hill (about 2 meters in places) with a wheel barrow which would be difficult since there is only one pathway due to stone steps and trees and such in the way. It would be a huge job. Lots of challenges living on a hill, even though there’s a flatish area up the steps. Penguin, building a wall from medieval stones sounds just amazing. This last winter we got plenty of rain, but the 4 – 5 years before that were a drought where we had pretty severe watering restrictions. It typically doesn’t rain at all between mid-May and Mid-September. It’s really around November or December before we get much. And there’s no reason to think the drought conditions won’t happen again in the future. We use an automated drip watering system (which we’re constantly repairing because of clogged drippers or new plantings) with just a few sprinklers on the hill in front. GDAY, how does a water tank work? Is it very large?

I suspect that the discussion about being mindful or present when eating hit home for many of us – it certainly did for me. I remember behaving the way Cinque described with the eclair – the first of anything I ate I barely tasted and would always want one or two more. The only way I can stop that is to focus on tasting and enjoying every mouthful. But the trouble with recently learned behaviours is that they don’t come naturally and our old behavioural patterns keep trying to re-emerge. So having reminders to pay attention to this is a very good thing.

Cinque – when your cup of tea tastes better it usually means you are getting better. I think some viruses mess with our taste buds. I think once I move I’ll probably have about the same amount of planting space as you currently have. But I’m OK with that and don’t mind using pots. I want to do some travel and trouble with a large garden is that it’s hard to leave it unattended.

Cali – Rainwater tanks are a part of virtually every Aussie house. Our building regulations require every house to have gutters around the roof and downpipes to safely take the water away from the house. Most people have a tank that those downpipes empty into. It’s now also a requirement in the building regs that every new house has a rainwater tank. Where I grew up we had no access to treated water that was safe for drinking, our rainwater tanks were the our only safe source. The old fashioned tanks were usually made from corrugated iron, sometimes cement lined. These days there made from moulded plastic and come in many shapes and sizes.
The old fashioned ones:
https://www.google.com.au/search?client=firefox-b&biw=1366&bih=635&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=rust+corrugated+rain+water+tank&oq=rust+corrugated+rain+water+tank&gs_l=psy-ab.3…145830.158276.0.160476.33.30.0.0.0.0.501.4966.0j1j8j7j0j1.17.0….0…1.1.64.psy-ab..16.9.2273…0j0i67k1j0i24k1j0i13k1.3KUgJ6-SL2o#imgrc=ZvVcZ-aVOz7mOM:
The range available these days: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=rain+water+tank+images&client=firefox-b&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjas4X6x9XVAhUJS7wKHSduDlkQ7AkIMg&biw=1366&bih=635

Well I better get going – doctor’s appointment. Have a good day everyone.

GDSA – we seem to have a bit of a theme here. The biggest component of my water bill is also sewer access, to which I am not connected – I also get a bit pissed off every time the quarterly bill arrives. I also have a septic tank that has to be pumped out every few years. My block doesn’t have a street frontage, I’m up the hill behind another property and we share a driveway. It’s a long way from my house to the road so when I looked into being connected to the sewer it was going to cost thousands. So I decided to stick with the septic. Some people have an issue with them, but I grew up with one so it feels pretty normal to me.

I feel pretty cranky with myself right now. It’s a NFD but I ate with care an control all day – until about 30 minutes ago. In less than half an hour I managed to eat a whole lot of extra calories. Despite a large bowl of bouillabaisse for dinner, I felt like dessert. So I cut up a kiwifruit, added some strawberries and poured kefir over it. Lovely, but it didn’t stop the craving for dessert. I then proceeded to eat a generous handful of almonds and the same of sultanas and then a heaped dessertspoon of crunchy peanut butter. None of these are bad foods but it’s a very calorie intense hit that I barely tasted as it went down.
Why do I keep doing these things to myself?

Minka, there may be some roofs around here where they use tar underneath th shingles to seal parts where the roof are joined but I’m not sure. Our roof is concrete tiles that are laid in place and connect on the edges I think. I will have to do some research on that. But the water should still be ok for the garden, shouldn’t it? They used to use tar in road repairs (not sure if they still do) Water tanks tanks seem like a good idea to me, at least in California where it is so dry. Our water bills are around $125 per month and the largest part of that is sewer charges too. I guess sewer charges aren’t unique to California! Ours are recalculated yearly, based on water usage somewhere between Nov and Feb depending on your address.

It sounds like the filtering in the water tanks purify the water enough for drinking? How often do the filters have to be changed?

They do sell them here according to an internet search, but I’ve never seen them advertised or knew anyone who had one. Maybe it is the roofing material thing that Minka mentioned. What do they use for roofing to secure the roofing materials and make the roof waterproof? We do have downspouts and raingutters on all the houses, but they just empty on the ground, away from the house.

Being mindful of eating is something I need to remember too. On FD I am usually more mindful of My food and I think I enjoy it more, probably because of the scarcity of it! Concentrating on one morsel would be a good exercise. But maybe 5 minutes would be more reasonable.

Good morning everyone,
LJoyce, I hope you managed to stop your eat-fest after your post.
Hooray for fast days to balance out those times of overeating.
I read your post last night but I was too tired to write, but I was feeling very much the same. The last two evenings I cooked a lovely healthy stirfry for my evening meal, but both times I made more than I needed but still ate it all up. last night I carefully put a sensible portion in my bowl, but then went and ate the left overs. My tummy is still painfully full. So today will be a fast day, my first for a long time. And then what can we do but keep practicing these new habits that we want to become ingrained? Even if they never do, we will be allright, so long as we keep doing the best we can. that is the difference 5:2 makes.

Note, the Eat Fast Live Longer documentary is being repeated on SBS this Thursday at 8:35, I like seeing it again.

Cinque, that woman sounds very closed minded and in denial about the problem of obesity. Maybe she doesn’t realize that 63.4 per cent of the adult population in Australia are now overweight or obese. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/australias-weight-epidemic-112m-overweight-or-obese-report/news-story/dff3883181af5338f0165d8ea0feda3a
(The U.S. has 68.8%)

Does she have scientific studies to show that the 5:2 sets off binge eating? I doubt it. Losing weight on low calorie diets is difficult, but the 5:2 is pretty unique in that most people, at least on this forum, report feeling less hungry after a fast day.

You would be the perfect person to present a talk about the 5:2. You’ve lost weight on it, maintained that weight and your teaching and community development background gives you a unique perspective. I can tell from your posting here that you’re very methodical and always looking at different research on the subject. You’re also very positive, exactly what people embarking on weight loss need to get started.

Does she dislike weight loss in general or it’s just the 5:2? Does she realize that fasting actually involves 500 calories? Doesn’t she know that people are already bingeing and they don’t need a diet to show them that? I’d like to see her article.

Thanks so much for your responses LJoyce and BigBooty, and for that lovely support.
My friend said about obesity: “I can’t help but think that if dieting was matched to a person’s genotype, there wouldn’t be an obesity epidemic.” Not quite sure what she means.
This is the article she asked me to read: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellbeing/nutrition/in-the-antidieting-age-what-are-we-supposed-to-eat-20170808-gxrn3r.html?btis

I know when friends of mine have got really into the latest ‘thing’ I have been skeptical and I know fasting is very much the latest ‘thing’ with lots of guru type leaders, and I am even critical of Dr Mosley’s populist reporting (even though I love doctors and scientists to communicate in an accessible way). I am a contradiction!
We have swapped emails again this morning and I think we are just agreeing that we have different judgements about 5:2 and will wait and see how more research shows its worth or not.

LJoyce oops on that little overeating moment. I have another reason to dislike SA Water. My house was one of the first in the neighborhood and therefore has an indirect water connection meaning my meter is located at the far end of my street rather than on my block of land. When development occured around me they ran underground water pipes past my house to run water to the new houses and i had to pay a water pipe fee of just under $3,000.00 for the privilege. Another grrrr from me.

Went to lunch today with a friend so definately not a FD for me but thinking of those who are fasting today.

Cinque, I read that article you linked. It seems to say that you should listen to your body which will tell you what it needs and what to eat. Isn’t that what got most of us into trouble to begin with. My body really wants ice cream. And potato chips. It really really does! And it doesn’t want just a few of them, it wants a lot! No, a lower fat non-sugar substitute isn’t what it wants. It wants the real thing. Or maybe it’s my brain that really wants it. Unfortunately it’s attached to my body. And my mouth! Will my tastes change over time and I will no longer desire those foods? Fat chance! I’ve been around long enough and dieted long enough to know better. I may learn alternative ways of eating (like the 5:2) but there’s a difference between what my body wants and what I know I should eat.

That’s not to say my body doesn’t feel better when I’m thin, it does. My knees don’t hurt when I go up there stairs and I feel more alert, no sugar brain fog. I love that my clothes fit better and I can get into my skinny jeans. But when my body/brain sees ice cream and potato chips? Screw the skinny jeans, bring on the chips!

I think there are fat souls and thin souls in the world. My DH is a thin soul. He eats a single slice of that cake that’s sitting on the kitchen counter and will have a single slice every night after dinner each night until it’s gone. That is, if that cake ever made it through the first day sitting there. Fat chance! I am not a thin soul! I don’t believe my “soul” will change. I will adapt. But I will always have to have a plan. The 5:2 is the best plan I’ve come across so far. It works for me. It’s sustainable.

Good afternoon everyone,
Off work early due to the rain arriving earlier than expected and thought I better pop in a post.
FD for me today and loving it. It feels a bit long between FD’s sometimes, doing Tuesday’s and Thursday’s.
I lived with just rainwater tanks for 4 years though the worst drought in decades. Lake Hume was at 3% capacity, we bought water three times over 2 years. It cost $260 for 20000 litres $240 for delivery and $20 for the water and every time you bought water it rained within a week. We had 60000 litre capacity and our usage for two adults and two young kids was 600 litres per day. It would probably be 800 litres per day now as the kids are older and think they need more cleaning so have longer showers. It wasn’t hard, the drinking water was just a 10 litre carbon filter unit on the bench you would top up a couple of times a day and the best bit was NO BILLS.
Cinque it is hard to understand why people don’t get it. I have told other friends what I am doing and they just say I couldn’t not eat all day. Each to their own. As the people running the neighbourhood thing can choose what they want in their festival it is just unlucky with your friend’s assumptions on 5:2. If you were running an information night of your own in a council room or hall you had acquired then that response would be very wrong due to free speech.
Alright secrets time, The change I made as I mentioned at the start of August was to give up beer for a month to see what happens. Two weeks in and the downward trend has started again going by the scales hitting 107kg which is 20kg gone since starting this WOL. I love milestones. The no beer thing is OK living on soda water at the moment and I have found it to have the same effect as in satisfying after a hard day and you get that ‘ahhh’ and relax so I may keep it up during the week after August.
Meals for days:
2 x white coffee’s 300kj, 500g minestrone soup 800kj, 100g kidney beans 400kj and 150g mushrooms 175kj Total 1675kj or 400cals.
*The above amounts are my average FD. I am never over these amounts but may be under when I forget to buy mushrooms or kidney beans.

Joffy. Speak it softly, because I don’t think anyone has noticed, but I am not drinking whiskey. With no other change, the weight trend is gently down.

Cinque. That is a fairly extreme example of a standard response. Over the last couple of years a number of people seeing me for the first time in ages have commented that I look fit and healthy. When told why, the usual responses are “Thats unhealthy”, “You have to eat three meals a day” “I couldn’t do that, I need the blood sugar” “I never saw you as one of those weirdos”. The most extreme criticism came from the diabetic retired nursing sister who told me that she couldn’t lose weight, nothing works for her, whilst piling extra cream onto her second helping of trifle.

On the morning TV news there was about a minute on the “Fat but fit” possibility – pictures of two British Sumo wrestlers claiming to be healthy, thirty seconds of a medical talking head saying that two British universities have just discovered that being obese, even if otherwise fit, increases your chance of a heart attack. Then on to item about a plastic whale touring UK to highlight our profligate use of plastic, which got longer coverage because it was a plastic whale. This was on the channel that considers itself the serious, sensible operator. Given that kind of coverage it is hardly surprising that there are some false images out there.

Good morning Penguin. It looks like giving up alcohol is helping your weight as well.
I’m not surprised that a plastic whale was considered important. I find most morning news programming a bit “fluffy” for my liking. I have quite an interest in news and world affairs and my morning luxury since I retired is to browse the foreign broadcasts over my morning pot of tea. We have a publicly funded channel in Oz called SBS which provides a lot of foreign language programming. From 5-7:30am they have news in English from various countries (China, Japan, Germany, France, Quatar and Britain). The broadcasts vary from 15-30 minutes. I am never up out of choice at that hour of the morning so I record it and watch it at leisure – and fast forward through the repetition or boring bits. I find it interesting to see what each country focuses on and how they interpret world events. For example, the current tension between North Korea and the US has been the lead story for the last 5 days on the Japanese news, but it’s been burried in the Chinese news – usually the third item. The Chinese story is focused on the need for dialogue.

LJoyce. The only foreign channels I can get here are Al Jazeera and Russia Today. I know that half of the world is trying to close down Al Jazeera, but their English language transmissions give me better world news coverage than the BBC. ITV or Sky. I learned that there were major fires on Madeira that had got into the capital city and were killing people from Al J – no mention on any British channel until holiday flights were delayed. Russia Today I seldom watch – the propaganda is too unsubtle and the station seems to be staffed by Americans who hate America. I have pretty much stopped reading Newspapers – we have right and left wing newspapers and no neutrals. You know if they will support the government or oppose it before you buy the paper and most of the other news seems to be about celebrities I have never heard of. If I want any kind of sensible, in depth coverage and reporters who ask our leaders difficult questions, I have to listen to early morning radio, and even then the programmes are increasingly about the personality of the interviewer.

This is getting worrying. Not only do I see my Father in the mirror when I shave, I am beginning to sound like him.

Hi Frangipani71, welcome. I’m in Adelaide.

We are a mixed bag of people (mainly Aussies), some are still on their weight loss journey with 5:2 and some have lost what they want to and are still following it as a way of life to maintain that new weight. We do tend to get a bit off track with our conversations, but if you have 5:2 question just ask.

You aren’t alone in having a lifelong weight problem there are a few of us here who have also the same history.

I do agree that reading the book is a good place to start. I’d also recommend you have a good read through this website, especially the links at the top of this page for “Why Fast?”, “How it Works” and “FAQ”.

Welcome to the forums, Frangipani71. I’ve been here since discovering the 5:2 way of eating in Mid May. The members here have been very helpful with questions and answers and are the motivation to keep going when things get tough. I still have about 10 pounds to go, but expect I’ll be following the 5:2 for maintenance after that. I’m in the U.S. but snuck into this thread behind a jar of Vegemite and have it my home since.

LJoyce, thank you for the info on the water tanks. I’m doing some more research here to see if putting one in would be affordable and if the rain in the winter would be enough to make it worthwhile. It doesn’t usually rain at all in the summer.

Jiffy, congrats on giving up the beer and penguin for (softly) giving up the whiskey. I know for myself that alcohol makes it more difficult to lose. And lately, maybe because of not eating as much, I seem to feel headachy from it all the next day. I still like my wine but much less frequently these days.

LJoyce and penguin, we get some stations from Mexico here and I think Al Jezerra is still available. Mostly the news is unsettling these days and I try not to watch too much of it. It’s always interesting to see what the latest is from “he who Twitters”. Sometimes I think we’d be better off with two or three hours of news shows like it was before 24/7 news.

I’m definitely doing a B2B fast day today after yesterday’s fast barely budged the scale. It’s been an easy day so far.

Good morning everyone,

Hi Frangipani, I am Melbourne too!
Good idea to do your reading first and make all those decisions about which would be a good day to start, and how you might manage your intake.
Hopefully it will suit you and become a lifelong tool for good health!
Did you see that they are repeating the documentary tomorrow on SBS 8:35?

I am having my favourite time! Morning after a fast day. Enjoying a cup of tea and beginning to think about what I would like for breakfast.

Best wishes everyone for a lovely day.

Cinque, I’ll have to join you all and watch it on YouTube tonight. I’ve watched parts of it, but never the whole thing. Your post about the book that suggests listening to your body about what to eat – my body would surely lead me astray if left in charge. I think it is waiting and saving up energy for the next worldwide famine!

Joffy, my spellcheck apologizes for calling you Jiffy in my last post and I’m sorry I didn’t catch it! 😙

Penguin, I love the goat milk kefir which is from full fat milk. I think I’ll change to full fat cow’s milk too. It tastes so much creamier! Sounds like you have a huge crop of kefir grains. That didn’t take long at all.

Probably the reason you are struggling to get over the line with that last 0.5 GdayfromSA is the fact you are not increasing your calorie intake enough on your non FD days?! I have lost count of the many diets I have tried over the years and taken a little bit of good from all of them. I have always been a firm believer in that when hitting a plateau a big splurge and a fast is just what the body needs to get it back on track and kick starting the metabolism again. This is why after all I have done in the past and read so far about 5:2 that I really feel it is the best and most sustainable way of eating to loose weight and gain better health. I will be starting on Monday next week and I’m looking forward to this seemlesly effortless plan. I’m currently at around 96k,I was 108k this time last year. I did get down to 88 a few months back but it really crept back up during the last school holidays and the fact that it is winter hasn’t helped!!! I’m a bit of an emotional eater and depression has not been too kind of late either! I would love to get down to 85k that is my ultimate goal for now. I’m taking the kids to Qld for Xmas so will just do my best to loose as much as I can before then. Enjoy your walk SA and keep up the good work everyone 😊

LJoyce, the B2B fast yesterday and today is a one time thing to try to get off this darn plateau, not something I’m going to keep doing. For me, it wouldn’t be sustainable long term. And I believe the 5:2 should work, even as I get closer to my goal. I just need to be more mindful on my NFD. Totally agree that your twit comment is on the right track!

Frang, I’ve found too, that a big splurge can help with a plateau. It’s just that I think I’ve had a few too many NFD splurges lately. My 2 day fast is because I was so mad to find out I only lost .2 of a pound after yesterday’s fast. And I was well under 500 calories. I am feeling a little irritable and hungry now with a few hours til bedtime. I’ve been drinking enough herb tea to sink a ship!