Good morning all, I am still regularly reading all the posts and I love all the information you all have. I also love all the stories, LJoyce I always wished I was adopted when I was growing up and that my “real” mother would come and take me away, unfortunately I wasn’t adopted and it never happened. I now get on better with my parents , dad particularly but mostly I’m the one they come to for help even though my oldest sister is and always has been mum’s favorite. I’m to old to worry anymore! Well done on all of you losing weight and inches and LJoyce fitting in ( and being loose) into you previously tight jeans and skirt ( I would give you a thumbs up but I’m on the computer and haven’t worked out how to do it) thumbs up to Jody also for getting to within 2 kgs of being overweight! I have managed to get into the 60’s albeit high 60’s and am impressed that another couple pairs of jeans that were very tight I can now wear with leggings under them. They are tight with the leggings but not uncomfortable so happy with that. Cinque you will get your Yam Daisy up and running and it will be a great success you have already succeeded with your weight loss and maintenance. Thanks for that tip Cinque I am going to try that as I have back and neck issues from being on the computer all day and at night for work. FD for me today I do Ok with my FD’s still struggling with NFD’s but am slowly getting there. We are meant to be going away for 4 weeks sometime in the next couple weeks and I am not sure how my FD’s will go then, my husband seems to want to eat while travelling at each stop, I don’t get anything except coffee but the smell of his food always makes me hungry! I’ll have to try chewy I think. My dad had a mild heart attack a few days ago so waiting on the angiogram results to see options then making phone calls to brothers and sister who are either on hols or live away, been extra busy last few days with updates for everyone. Enjoy your day everyone and pllease keep up all the interesting things you discuss it’s fantastic!

Haha I wasn’t even thinking when I said that about ice cream with the pancakes, I guess I didn’t even really see it as a breakfast meal, I’d probably have that as my evening meal. I’m not even really an icecream eater particularly, just the suggested accompaniment appealed, although I think I’d prefer the coconut yoghurt, or maybe just a little drizzle of premium Canadian maple syrup.

Reminds me of a story. I remember going to visit my mother a couple of years back, and she was telling me about this incredible maple syrup she’d found at her local market, and how delicious it tasted. This is my mother, who’d been buying maple flavoured syrup pretty much all my life, and I’d been telling her it’s just artificially flavoured sugar water you should buy the real stuff. It’s funny that after all these years she should stumble onto it herself, and realise that it was worlds away from the cheap junk she’d been buying. I think I’ve got a litre bottle of top quality maple syrup in my cupboard, I went to the gourmet food store one day and couldn’t resist, I haven’t even opened it yet because I’m still getting through the small glass bottle that preceded it. I’m not one of these people who fool themselves that maple syrup and coconut oil are healthy, they are just sugar and fat after all, but I do believe in everything in moderation. I try not to deprive myself, because with me I just rebound and want it more. So I’m okay with the tiniest drizzle of top quality maple syrup on my pancakes, because I know that will be enough and it will taste good and satisfy me, and I’m okay with a little coconut oil in my curry (or to cook my pancakes) because I know that will make it taste really really good with minimal added fat.

Anyway, better go, my quinoa with red beans and corn is calling me. There’s a series of packet mixes I really love made in NZ and pretty much what you see is what you get, plus the most delicious spices in them. I had Israeli couscous with apricot and currants last week, delicious. I also have a blueberry and chocolate rice puddding from the same people that I’m yet to try, family sized I’d probably want to freeze it in serving sizes or smaller. A little bit of what I fancy is my new philosophy. I find since 5:2 I can almost always stop eating once I’ve had enough, like I used to be able to do when I was a skinny child, until the force feeding by mostly my grandmother (with the best of intentions) made my relationship with food a bit screwy.

Jody

It does sound like chaos over your way Penguin, but I suspect the changes to the house will all be worth it in the end. I don’t envy you replacing carpets – that’s a lot of furniture to move. Did you get to choose colours and carpets or is is that one of those questions we shouldn’t ask a man? (I still remember the car colour question.)

We have the same issues with birds liking the fruit a little too much. If you want your crop to survive to be picked you have to net the whole tree. Even they they’ll still peck holes in anything they can reach through the netting holes. I even had some ingenious parrots actually tear holes in the net one year – they must have been particularly partial to apples. (Although it’s possible they had some help from the possums.)

Glad you 2 1/2 day water fast worked, but rather you than me.

Hope the rest of the decorating goes without mishap – I assume you are doing the painting yourself?

I’m having to write tonight’s zen report after finishing the food because I didn’t want a sticky keyboard. Tonight I chose a navel orange.

The colour is pale orange with a hint of green near the base. It is huge – they definitely breed them big these days. It’s texture is very rough and full of tiny craters – a very bad case of cellulite! It definitely lives up to its name – it has a rather cute belly button.
There is a mild orange scent while handling the fruit, but as soon as I break into the peel I am overwhelmed by the scent of orange and the acidity is catching the back of my throat. The peel is behaving exactly as I expect from a navel – really thick skin that peels off easily without damaging the fruit. The peel is releasing so much orange oil that it’s running down my arm and I have to keep stopping to wipe it off – my skin is going to smell nice after this. In fact I’m just noticing now that the skin on my palm is really soft – must be from the oil in the zest.
After all of the peel is removed I can see the amazing structure. All of those individual segments encased in membranes and packed together to form a sphere.
I pry it apart and remove a segment. The membrane is translucent and I can see the structure and colour of the orange flesh through it. It really reminds me of an insect wing – transparent and delicate with a structure that looks like little veins. The membrane really does its job of containing the flesh, because when I put it on my tongue I can’t taste orange. I think I can taste bitterness until I realise I’m actually smelling that and my brain is getting confused between taste and smell. When I bite into it and leave a piece on my tongue I can now taste the orange, but it’s mild at this stage. It doesn’t dissolve like some other fruits although some filaments separate out – yet more tiny pieces of flesh encased in their own membrane. This is definitely a fruit that needs to be chewed. You can really feel the fibre in this fruit as you chew it. I take just a few of the filaments into my mouth and they taste both sweet and sour. It’s juicy and refreshing. Very nice, and very messy.

Good morning everyone. (And good evening to penguin.) Well, it’s 9:20 AM on Thursday here now, but will be Friday morning by the time most of you read this. Just a few minutes to write before I have to get back to work.

Before I found some regular kefir grains I tried the sachet powder strains. It easily fermented the first few times but didn’t produce grains of its own. Using a little kefir from the previous batches I was able to ferment a few more jars, but it finally fizzled out. I read the same thing as LJoyce about there being fewer bacteria strains in the powdered product.

LJoyce, your Zen Orange experience made me hungry for an orange. Our parrots got the last orange in the bowl this morning. I cut it into pieces for them. One of the birds sat on a perch above where I was crouched down, collecting soiled newspapers from the floor and putting down fresh ones, and ate a piece of the orange which dripped on my head! Good thing I’m washing my hair later!

Penguin, changing carpets is a real mess with having to move everything and the fine dust that gets trapped under the old carpet. Painting at the same time is an ambitious project! I too, am curious about the colors. Inquiring minds need to know! 😁

Jody, those packet mixes sound delicious! They give me ideas for some combinations to try here.

Cinque, your suggestion of lying on the floor for 15 minutes to settle out back and neck issues sounds good. I’m going to try it later today. I’ve had a lot of aches and pains, probably due to my bad posture when sitting at the computer or on the sofa with the iPad.

For some unknown reason I lost about 1 kg overnight and yesterday wasn’t even a FD. But I only lost a miniscule amount on Tuesday’s FD so maybe it was finally shaking loose. Today, Thursday, is a FD for me and hopefully it will cement in that loss. Only about 1.5 to 2.5 kg now to get to my goal.

Good morning everyone,

I need some 5:2 advice re 5:2 and stress.

As our “annus horobilus” continues we have just had a not-quite-the-week-from-hell-but-a-bl…-awful-week mixed in with a birthday, family about to arrive to stay and the big 100birthday about to happen. I have missed a lot of sleep and I have a lot to do here before our rellies arrive. I’ve tried several times to do a fast day because I felt my body needed to have a rest from eating whatever comes to hand, at whatever time, wherever we’ve been. My head is just so full that I can’t remember anything about fasting/stress.

OK I get it that most people would just not try to fast any days through this, but I really need to keep myself as healthy as I can through this rollercoaster, and 5:2 helps me stay healthy in round simple terms. My body’s doing reasonably well given I’m eating differently and it’s all over the place – you all know these times and how that happens. I really would like to get 1 fast day done – today if possible – before the hordes descend

– but am I stressing my body further by trying to day a fast day or not? Can someone give me some advice please or if anyone having a slow day could look up anything on 5:2+ stress for me I would really appreciate your support today.

Thanks
Merry

Lots of interesting news here.
Forgot to say, in that nice ‘lying on the floor’ exercise, his recommendation was to do it every day. So one 15 minute go at it might not be miraculous! I am too slack to do it every day, but I mean to, and I definitely do it when aches remind me.

Thin, I hope your walking partner can manage to do some things for her health eventually. When my friend was concerned about me doing 5:2 she kept saying I was successful because of will power and (something else I can’t remember) that just felt really incorrect. People on the outside see with different eyes!

I have to keep facing up to how stressed I am around waste. I know that if I eat when I don’t need to I am using myself as a rubbish bin, but it is still so hard to throw anything out, and I feel like I have failed good housekeeping when I do. (I fail in all sorts of other housekeeping ways, so it is interesting how emotional that one is!)

LJoyce I love that step in your recipe, to pour boiling water on the cauliflower and then leave it to dry before seasoning and roasting, Brilliant!

And I loved what you wrote about new habits and old habits. Exactly right!

So interesting to read about your relationship with your sister. Wow family dynamics are tricky. I am one of seven children and the complexity of it still makes my head hurt! And the realisation that the kids that seemed to be more favoured didn’t actually have it better, re long term mental health, took me a long time to get.

Woot woot! re the looser clothes. Yay!

Redmoonstar, when I had the fantasy that maybe a belonged to another (kinder) family I only had to look in the mirror to have my hopes dashed. The family likeness is terribly strong!
Woot for your jeans too! Plan for your trip as best you can, and best wishes for your dad.

Penguin, your home sounds wonderful. I hope order reigns soon! I hope you do start keeping bees! Glad it was an excellent fast, cheers for the next one.

Jody, your maple syrup story reminds me of the time when I was a teenager and my mum bought a little jar of cinnamon powder and, for the first time in her life, she got one that wasn’t months (years) old. We couldn’t believe the amazing smell! No wonder I buy whole spices and grind my own!

Happy fast day Cali. I do too much sitting at the computer too! Better go and do some yoga/lying down now!

Cheers all!

LJoyce, that’s a great approach and one I have adopted from the beginning.

It’s why I like to schedule my fast days as early as possible during the week, so that I can reschedule them later in the week if needs be.

Well, I’ve had a productive day so far.
I drove over to Blackwood and joined the fitness centre so that I could take advantage of their current deal of 18 months for $155. Then I got straight onto an exercise bike and did a 30 minute interval training cycle – I supposedly covered 10.1km and used 130 calories. (I think I need to take a cushion with me, that seat was very unforgiving!)
Then I walked to the other end of the town so I could get blood tests done.
I decided to look in the Salvos store on the way back to the car and bought a pink top and pair of black track pants that fit perfectly – a grand total of $11.50. I decided to tease myself by trying on some size 14 jeans. I could get them on and do them up but they were definitely too tight for comfort, I’ll stick with my loose 16s for now.
On the way home I decided to call by the wood yard and see if they had any wood available. They had some wood and a long queue, but I joined it and managed to load 140kg into my boot, which is not stacked under the eaves to keep it dry.

After all that I think I’m done for the day. I’ve lit the slow combustion, made a chicken and spinach wholemeal roll for lunch and am Just about to have a pot of tea.

Cali – I did notice that we weren’t told the colours, but I doubt we’d be any the wiser if we had been. Everything has very odd names these day. I’ve been searching for suitable paint colours for my house and I’m thinking about “Dulux – Hogs Bristle”. Now I’m assuming that everyone knows what colour the bistles on a hog are so that must be perfectly clear. Basically is a light warm greyish neutral.

Cinque – every recipie I’ve seen for roasting veg like cauli, broccoli or brussel sprouts involves oiling the raw veg and putting them in the oven. I always thought the finished texture wasn’t quite right. Then I used a bag of frozen broccoli for roasting and it was so much better. Having actually turned a glut of excess veg into frozen veg I know the process. They aren’t cooked just blanched before snap freezing. So I thought, well I can do that with fresh veg too – the result was so much better and it’s a lot less fuss than par-boiling. I also use blanching to cook asparagus. I trim the base and stand them in a tall narrow jug and cover with boiling water for 5 minutes. Once drained they are cooked just enough for me.

Big_bill – I agree. I always feel happy if I’ve gotten a FD out of the way on Sunday, it’s a bit of a relief knowing I have plenty of time to fit that second day in.

Penguin – what are you planning on hunting with that new shotgun?
By the way I don’t blame you for getting help with the tall walls. Mine are about 9 1/2 feet and I struggle to reach the cornice (that’s crown moulding to you Cali).

Jodi – we can get some interesting grain blends here too, most include quinoa as one of their grains. I tend to buy the grains separately and do my own mixes. This allows me to use a grain that’s light on for fibre if I team it with one that has lots. I usually cook grains in large batches and freeze single portions. That way I have grains ready to go with just 60 seconds in the microwave – I freeze them in the smallest ziploc bags. I also do the same thing with legumes – I soak and cook a lot more than I need then drain them and freeze in ziploc bags. They are as convenient as tinned, but much cheaper and not as overcooked as the tinned variety.

Well I’ve managed to drink my way through 2 cups of tea while writing. Feel rather relaxed now.

GDSA – that’s good to hear. I have original pine floorboards but I want to decorate with a warm grey as my background colour, so finding one that’s warm enough to match the floors but not to taupe has been a challenge. When I first moved in, beige was still in fashion so I just went with beige, taupe and soft white as my palate. When selling these days, greys and whites are the popular and expected palate so I have to find a way to work with that to maximise the number of buyers.
I’m definitely choosing a more neutral floorboard colour in the next house so that redecorating is less of a challenge.

Penguin – I hadn’t realised that the UK had such tough gun laws. We’ve had similarly tight gun laws here sine the late 1990s. It was a response to the massacre in Port Authur in 1996, where one unstable man killed 35 tourists who were visiting the historic convict site in Tasmania (the gunman later claimed to have been inspired by the Dunblane school massacre in Scotland). This was the one and only time we’ve had a mass shooting like this happen in Australia – most Australians decided once was enough and either happily or grudgingly gave up their guns. We had an amnesty and a huge gun buy-back, to remove weapons that were now illegal from the community when the new laws cam into effect. Military style weapons eg automatic and semi-automatic rifles are illegal and you only get a license for ordinary rifles and pistols with a very good reason (you can’t just own a gun because you want to), police checks etc. Our federal government is conducting another amnesty at the moment to allow people who previously hung onto their guns to hand them in now.
I have extended family that are farmers and they were a bit annoyed, because they use their guns to kill foxes, rabbits and other pests. They also use them to quickly put an injured stock animal out of its pain. Although being a farmer was one of the legitimate reason to get a license under the new laws. Unfortunately the suicide rate among men on the land is twice that of urban areas and the method of choice always seems to be their guns.
My brother-in-law has antique rifles that had belonged to his father and grandfather. When the gun laws changed he was allowed to keep them providing the firing bolt was removed and the guns permanently disabled so they can not be fired, and they still have to be kept in a locked gun cabinet, despite the fact that they can’t be fired – I suppose they are still weapons – you could hit someone over the head with them.
We still have gun crime, but the rates are lower than they were 2 decades ago. In 1996 35% of homicides were gun crime, a decade later it was 10% – the corresponding big increase was in homicides using knives – I guess if someone really wants to hurt another person, they’ll find a way.

Good morning.
Day before fast day for me.

Hooray for strong gun laws everywhere.
As well as the horror of the Port Arthur massacre, Melbourne remembers the dreadful Hoddle St massacre, and only last week in Sydney a toddler was accidentally killed by her dad’s (illegal) shotgun.

Hey Gday, the Crows won didn’t they? Enjoy your Greek things on sticks! 😉

Well I overate yesterday, all good food plus I’m fasting tomorrow, but today I will concentrate on sensible meals and nothing inbetween.

Merry, thinking of you and hoping you survived yesterday okay.

Good morning,

Thank you everyone, for your help yesterday! Ljoyce, thank you for reading up for me – I really appreciate you doing that for me so much – it was exactly what I was looking for, and I fasted till 3pm. Cinque, your comments coming so soon really helped me relax about my dilemma yesterday. I discussed them with OH and we agreed how sensible they were – to travel lightly and not regret decisions made under stress. Big Bill – hi, and thank you and Cali – thank you too. Thank you both for the back up. It was a hard day but we made it. I am sore and tired so from here on I need to sit back and let others step iin and that can happen now. My ME/CFS makes me more susceptible to severe fatigue, but I haven’t “crashed” something I credit to 5:2 along with a couple of medications. We have had a close family member in hospital with complications from surgery, and another quick trip to surgery needed, but a very challenging situation, now on the mend. OH and I were getting by with about 4hrs of broken sleep each night but fortunately the cafe had very healthy food, and we were able to stay in the family residence provided next to the building. When the cafe was shut there were machines well stocked and 1 had paleo/vegan food and drinks. I had a small a curried chickpea and rice salad from that machine a couple of times. OH had chickpea lentil and buckwheat salad with a something and honey dressing. Eating them late at night seemed weird but we were glad to get something healthy from a machine!

My little grandchildren are here now and more adults to help physically in the house/food etc, so it will be a bit tumultuous for a few days but lovely too. Right now I plan on sitting in the morning sun on the terrace with a cup of hot peppermint tea while everyone breakfasts. Our onvalid is here too now and recovering well. Thank you all once again.

Hogs Bristle comes in 3 strengths – Straight H B, Half H B and Quarter HB. Gday is right Ljoyce – it’s more a fawnish neutral than a grey neutral. 1/4 HB is almost goes a yellowish cream in some lights. We painted DFIL’s unit 1/4 HB before sale as the grey didn’t work with the powder coated metal window frames, but it easnted as neutral as we thought it would be in the light there. HB has been extremely popular for a few years now but is still very popular. Half or 1/4 HB is probably better than full HB for maxium appeal though. Little pots are good to try.

Merry

GDSA, Merry & Cali, I’ve brought home so many paint chips I didn’t know where to start. I agree about the small pots. I’ve thinking about buying some sheets of art cartridge paper and creating a large sheet of each of my short list of colours that I can tape on the wall. If I do it on sheets rather than the wall I can move them from room to room. I want to use the same colour in all rooms (except the wet areas), but the amount of light that each room gets differs greatly, so colours look different. I would be ok with using different strengths of the same colour in different rooms. At the moment I have completely different colours in each room that I chose shortly after buying this place – that’s an approach that isn’t popular these days.

Merry – it sounds like you’ve had a terrible time. I understand know how you got into such a state yesterday – when you have a chronic illness and you are pushing your body beyond it’s limits it isn’t just the body that stops working properly, our brains stop too and it becomes incredibly difficult to think clearly and make good decisions. I think stepping back as you’ve decided, is the only sensible thing you can do right now.

GDSA – are you thinking of souvlaki or kofta? Both are yummy, although kofta is probably more Turkish than Greek – although they do borrow flavours from each other a lot in their cuisines. Lamb on a BBQ, what’s not to like – now there’s a favourite food memory.

I’m doing another FD today – 3rd for the week. I have a family restaurant lunch to go to tomorrow so I can’t do my preferred Sunday fast. My sister and b-i-l are driving down from the Riverland and the we are having a belated celebration for my nephew’s 40th birthday. We are going to a place beyond the southern suburbs so it’s at least an hours drive each way for me. Depending on how overboard I go tomorrow, I may do a FD Monday as well as I have another lunch out later in the week.

Hi Cali

Yes we’ve been getting the news reports of the awful weather events that have peen pummeling North & Central America and the Caribbean. It seems unbelievable that there are 4 separate hurricanes in the same area, not to mention an earthquake as well. I hope your friend in Florida is OK.

I have never heard of being able to buy cauliflower rice. Cauli rice is common here, but we make it ourselves from fresh cauliflower,I don’t think you can buy it ready made. Just put the raw cauli florets into a food processor with the blade and pulse until it turns into the texture of rice. It’s a really useful alternative to grains if you are trying to cut back.

I’ve just spent nearly 2 hours foraging for kindling in the forest next door. I now have a wheelbarrow under the eaves piled high and the big tub inside filled up as well. I’m just hoping that the wood I managed to buy yesterday will be enough for this year.

I’m just sitting down to an afternoon pot of French Earl Grey tea and my first food for the day – a banana. I’m looking forward to catching up with my sister, niece, nephew & their kids tomorrow. Because of the distance, we don’t see each other as often as I’d like.

Goodnight Cali, must be getting late over there.

Good morning everyone,

Fast Day!

Starting with cuppas!

Merry so glad you got through the day and started the next one so well. best wishes to the invalid.

That bought cauliflower rice sounds interesting Cali, does it look like rice? I wonder if they are making it from cauliflower stems, that would be clever.
I only use it when I have cauliflower and haven’t the time/energy to make rice.

The other day I just chopped the cauliflower florets small so I didn’t have to get my food processor dirty! Then I put it in the plate and covered it with dal and heating the dal up in the microwave was enough to cook the cauliflower. Added some coriander leaves to pretty it up and it was a very easy meal.

I’ve also found that a day of food plans falling through messes my head up. Hoping that as my health improves I become more resilient (if it ever improves!)

It is a glorious Spring day here, the first.

Thinking of the people who aren’t so lucky.

Thinking of all you people and hoping you have a good day!

Good morning Cinque, Good Afternoon Cali, Hi anyone else who’s reading

I am also enjoying my first cuppa of the morning.
I’ve just been perusing the menu for the place I’m going for lunch trying to decide what to order. I looked yesterday and gave up – too many choices. The only conclusion I’ve come to it that it needs to be red meat as the beef or lamb meals are braised or grilled, unfortunately all of the seafood is deep fried and I don’t feel like pasta. So probably either braised lamb shanks or grilled steak.

Cali, if you can’t finish that size bag of cauli rice, you should be able to cook it in the microwave and then freeze portions. When I make cauli rice I usually do a whole cauliflower and cook it in the microwave covered for 5 minutes. When it’s cool I create portions in zip-loc bags.

It’s a rain free day here today with some weak sunshine, although where I’m going for lunch is near the ocean so the breeze might be pretty cold.

Hope everyone has a nice Sunday.

RedmoonMonica, your post about wishing you’d been adopted made me laugh so much. Not that it was any fun for you I’m sure but I could certainly relate to it. I made peace with my dad before he died but my mother and I don’t get along at all and we’ve been estranged this time for about 20 years. I sometimes feel guilty knowing she’s getting on in years. She lives in Florida. My brother (who’s also estranged) and I decided to drop her a note to ask if she’s safe so it was good to learn that she’s moved to the panhandle.

Penguin & LJ, I read with interest your statistics and anecdotes about gun crime. Underscores what my OH says that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. He was taught how to handle a firearm safely as a teen and gets very angry when parents purchase toy guns for their children. Guns are never toys.

When I bought my first home in California, I could only afford a dodgy neighbourhood near the Mexican border. My preference for personal protection against home invasion was mace (and a dog). I could have purchased a firearm with no questions asked but, for mace, I was required to attend a weekend training course and pass an examination which certified me as a legal mace owner! Work that one out. Here, I’m not allowed to protect myself even with a tiny can of pepper spray in my handbag. I don’t feel I need one but I don’t have the option.

I feel fortunate to feel very safe where we live. I’m definitely happier living in a society like Australia with stricter gun laws and less gun ownership but, as a fence sitter on the subject, I also feel people’s arguments about gun control are often steeped in ignorance because it’s such a polarising issue. The trouble with amnesties is that law abiding citizens tend to hand in their guns leaving only the bad guys armed. CalifD, I understand your frustration about your laws but at least you can be thankful that you still have freedom of speech. This has now been lost to Australia and Canada where there are laws against it. The ability to have a meaningful, adult debate on any subject is paralysed when we are legislated into how to think and what to say. I’d like to propose that all laws be given an expiration date.

Merry, I do hope all is well at your house and that your family member is fully recovered. I am pleased that you received the advice that suited your circumstances.

Cinque, OH has just flown off to begin a two week job just down the road from you where you worked. (700 kms is just down the road by Australian standards.) He’ll be based at Tenant Creek. Did you visit that metropolis when you worked in the NT? I think you mentioned you’d hitch-hiked through there – or was that me?

LJ, CalifD, I freeze my cauli rice in ziploc bags after pulsing but before microwaving it.

I hope you’re having a lovely day out LJ. I am certainly in need of today’s FD as we had an Indian dinner out on Friday. It seems most weekend fasters chose yesterday to fast so I may be alone. I shall head into the garden and take advantage of some warm sunshine to pass the time and get some exercise.

Freeze the rest of them LJ, right down at the bottom of the freezer and all in different spots! 😆 Great job with those restaurant menu choices by the way – and a wonderful role model to the OFMs!

Thin – thanks for the freezer advice.

GDSA – my bag didn’t have 50, it had 12 and I’ve now eaten half of them. The other half are going in the freezer. It’s funny that I can stop at a couple of squares of dark chocolate but have no off switch when it comes to milk chocolate.
If you google Oklahoma and have a look at the shape of the state you’ll understand the pan handle reference – basically the state looks like a saucepan.

Thin – I didn’t realise Florida also had a pan handle. I read a lot of stories about the 1930s drought years, and there was a lot of discussion in them about the dust storms on the pan handle of Oklahoma. I thought it was the only one. You are right about Florida – looks like a pistol shape to me.

The berties beetles are smaller than chocolate frogs – they are about 9grams and have 210kj each. The remaining 6 are safely stashed in the freezer.

GDay. I have strong principles, you are prejudiced, they are bigots. Try reminding people who require political correctness that it is a translation from the Russian. It was what the Soviet state required you to think. I truly don’t care about gay marriage, a friend of mine is in such a relationship, but I don’t like being told what to think

Recently we have had a couple of large scale cases of young girls being groomed and then sexually abused. They went un-investigated for a long time because the perpetrators were an ethnically and religiously different group to the victims and couldn’t be investigated without drawing accusations of prejudice. it was un-PC to suggest that they could be capable of a such a thing. One of our politicians is now in trouble with her own party for pointing out that it was the same community each time and could be happening elsewhere.

Thin. There is no legal way in this country to own a fully automatic weapon or a pistol. However, these are the weapons of choice for our inner city crime. Pretty well every country in Europe has less stringent firearms laws than us, so why do we have the worst gun crime? You OH is right, its the people. If I drew attention to the section of our population that is largely killing its own members I’d be in trouble. The PC reason for their use of drugs and firearms is their levels of deprivation and poverty.

I suspect that one of the reasons people feel misunderstood, or unable to state a view that is different is that other people’s opinions seem to be inordinately important. If someone disagrees there seems to be this need to convince them that they are wrong – why can’t they just think differently?
I believe this relates to self esteem. If we are confident in ourselves and believe we are entitled to our own opinion, it shouldn’t matter what others think. With self confidence we would be able to easily accept that we have an opinion that differs to other and that is OK, we don’t need others to agree to reassure us that our thinking is ok. And yet this isn’t the way I see most of our society behaving.
I know that it’s taken age and time for me to feel comfortable having a view without expecting others to agree with me and not feeling uncomfortable about that. When I was young peer pressure was much more overwhelming.

Good morning,
I am up early, had my lovely post-fast breakfast and now I am enjoying my coffee.

I have been concentrating more as I eat, in that LJoyce-Zen way, and noticing how the way I experience a mouthful changes as I fill up.
I am one of those whose mouth can want to keep eating even when my belly is so full it hurts, but I am noting that it isn’t my mouth (brain…. your problem!) because there is such a distinct change from those first magnificent mouthfuls (vegemite on toast this morning) when I am hungry, to ho hum response as I am satisfied.
I really have to notice what I eat (ie not eat AND concentrate on something else at the same time!) and use my mouth to help me make good decisions about portion size!
That’s my realisation for the day!

Merry, so glad to hear you at the end of the 100th birthday celebration, I do hope your FIL was able to enjoy it.
So lovely to be back to normal, I bet you will enjoy every minute!

Best wishes to any Monday Fasters!

Morning all you Losers…..I’m baaack!! Yes, Thin, pick yourself up off the floor.

I’ve been crazy busy & still am. Won’t be able to check in as much as before but hope I can get up to speed with everyone new. Have had a few holidays and haven’t been able to shift the “excess baggage”. So I’m back in the programme! Want to hit the elusive 59s so I’ve got a little ways to go. Weigh in for me on Friday. I need to be accountable to you guys again to get me remotivated.
PS. Oh and although I’m CharliesMum (by name) I’m now Lucy’s Mum too. My two beautiful cockers spaniels.

Have an awesome day guys!!! Remember nothing tastes as good as being THIN!!