Hi everyone
I was just catching up on all the recent posts and read about a slow cooker pork and pineapple recipe. Im wondering if I have missed the link top the recipe or is there another group where you can post recipes?

Hope everyone is doing well. One thing I have learned is to just forgive yourself when you make a slip up and just look forward. Focus on what you can do in the future and not on what you can’t change about the past. 🙂

Quacka, here’s the pork and pineapple recipe. http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/slow-cooker-spicy-pineapple-roast-pork-lemongrass-lime-rice/J37uMZ5v It isn’t a FD recipe so I didn’t add it to the recipe section. It’s for NFD. Julie found a bunch of recipes when I was looking for something to serve guests that could be mostly made ahead of time. Her list also had some other good ideas that I’m going to try in the future.

Coda, thank you for reminding me to post in the challenge thread. I think I got lost in Oz for the last week.😄

Thin and I exchanged pictures and she’s beautiful! Thin, you definitely don’t look old! It’s great to be able to picture you now. You, LJoyce, Cinque and Penguin are such an inspiration because you’ve all not only lost the weight, but have been able to maintain it. I think that’s the other half of the battle. Most of us here have lost weight and regained it many times in the past. 5:2 seems to be the plan that can keep it off and become a lifetime thing.

I wonder how Penguin is doing with Ophelia. It had a lot more strength left in it than lt looked like like in yesterday’s weather reports. I hope he didn’t lose power. Between the hurricanes and wildfires there has certainly been a lot of destruction this year.

Quacka, Julie’s list of creative recipes is on page 264, about 4 posts from the bottom. I just did a Google search on the names of a few and came up on the recipes.

While I was looking for her post I found a link in one of Cinque’s posts that I had missed. I read the rest of her post but somehow missed this:

Cali, this is for you: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/12/australian-desert-reaches-peak-budgie-as-thousands-dazzle-wildlife-photographer?CMP=share_btn_tw

Cinque, what an amazing video! I’m surprised that they didn’t all crash into each other. Nature is so incredible that they are able to fly in patterns like that. Thank you for posting it. I’m sorry I missed it before.

We used to have budgies when I was a little kid. My dad made them a perch and ladder structure and the 2 of them stayed on it, on a buffet cabinet. They went into their cage at night. I remember one, a green one, got really sick and almost died. When he recovered, his legs were paralyzed. My mother held him and soaked his legs in warm water and hand fed him for days until he could sit up and move around with his legs out in front of him. My dad made some changes to his perches and ladder so he could get around and rest on them. He ended up living for several more years and getting around quite well in spite of his legs. My mom continued soaking his legs in warm water and he seemed content to let her. We learned our love of animals from our parents.

CalifD,
I love your story about your budgies. My uncle used to breed budgies and my auntie bred canaries. They had so many cages in the back yard and heaps of birds. The doves used to come and pick up the seed that escaped their cages and there were also magpies and rainbow lorikeets. The birds were eventually all sold as my uncle grew older and after my auntie had passed away but every day he would put out special seed for the wild birds. Many of them returned with their offspring as well. It was lovely to watch his routine with the birds and how they interacted with him when I visited Adelaide and stayed at his house.

Hi JustJulie,

My experience with dieting has always been that depriving myself of things I enjoy is not sustainable. A way of eating that is built on willpower and deprivation is, for me (and for most people) not sustainable. That is, in my opinion, why most diets fail.

Half a bottle of wine is 300 calories. I really like wine too but I’m not the type to drink alone and my wife normally has a couple of sips before saying “I feel dizzy”. If I did like drinking wine I would find a way to cut those 300 calories somewhere else in my diet on my non-fasting-days. Not by eating less, but by making substitutions.

Penguin, glad to hear you are OK. I think you can safely say that your little robin trusts you to provide a port in a storm.

Hope you are all doing okay with the fires and extreme weather.

If we don’t get some proper rain soon, don’t be surprised to be hearing about a horror bushfire season in South-Eastern Australia.

Thanks BigBill and nice to meet you.
I did not know that there was 600 or so calories in a bottle of wine. I thought it was double that. But dont get me wrong I am not going to go and have more now that I know that.
Penguin, glad to hear you guys are ok. I was watching the news and all the photos of Ireland and the damage done. We also watched the news about the fires in Portugal and Spain

There is just so much sad news out there at the moment.
Up our way we had three people die on the weekend in a skydiving accident. There is a lot of tandem skydiving up here as a tourist attraction, but these three people were locals from one town. Two of them were professional divers and the lady that was tandem diving had just celebrated her birthday the the skydiving experience was a gift from her husband and children.
Next came the story of an elderly woman who had just arrived from down south to go into a nursing home to be closer to family. She went for an afternoon walk and went missing. They found her walking stick and some clothing on the banks of the river. They have now captured a crocodile in the area and confirmed this lady has been taken by it.
Now we have just had news that one of our survey vessels which is a fishing vessel capsized in rough seas off the coast of Queensland. Six people missing, we have friends onboard and one other friend has his 18 year old son on board. I am just so emotional about this at the moment. OH has been on the phone to the authorities and they have cancelled the search due to bad weather. So many families will be effected by this.

I am sorry but I have to go now.

Hi everyone
There is so much sad news in the world atm. JustJulie, so sorry to hear of your friends lost at sea. Thinking and praying for you all at this difficult time.
Penguin thanks for dropping in to let us know all is well and Orphelia missed you.
Cinque- that was an early morning. I had to laugh when you said your granddaughter wasn’t picked up by the rubbish truck. 🙂 I had my 2 today and a terrible time with Miss 4 for an hour or so and then she was as good as gold for the rest of the day. Miss 20months is a real sweetie.
I had a really good FD today. I had 2 coffee with milk and one tiny teddy biscuit- thanks Miss 4 for sharing, and some bolonaise sauce with a couple of penne noodles. Its the 2nd FD in the week I have trouble with. I also did a Pilates class and a walk yesterday.
I will attempt another FD tomorrow. My daughter is doing one too and we are going shopping together so will keep each other accountable.
Have a goodnight/day everyone x x

JustJulie, We had the news of the woman/crocodile and the fishing vessel here. You are having a hard time at the moment. Take care of yourself.

Yesterday was a partial fast day. Nothing from Sunday evening until yesterday evening. Having had a hard day outside I permitted myself a very large Laphroig, a bowl of my own pea soup and my own bread roll, followed by stewed apple and kefir. To my surprise I was 2 pounds down this morning. Similar eating pattern today. Pilates this morning, home by 11am then the rest of the day digging my veg patch. At the risk of sounding like Beatrix Potter, I was accompanied throughout the day by the Robin. He is now so tame that he will take from my hand any Robin sized delicacies that I dig up.

Hi everyone
Jumped on the scales – down 900g since last week, feels good. Also feel so much better with healthier eating.
Off to yoga this morning, then going for a country drive into the Barrington Tops mountains with OH & neighbours. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous up there with alpine forests, waterfalls & native animals – always on a natural high when visiting the area!
My heart goes out to all those experiencing sad times atm. Thinking of you. Cheers

Good morning,
The last 2 FDs were successful as far as me keeping under 500 calories. This morning I weighed 79.7 again so happy that I am now under 80 again but really need to get out of this weight zone so I decided to do another FD today and see if that gives me the boost I need.
OH had a really bad day yesterday being really busy with ships and meetings to straighten things out not to mention the news about the vessel, Dianne. More news has come up in the media overnight, but OH said he will try to find out more from authorities today. The latest news is this http://www.cairnspost.com.au/news/national/six-fishermen-feared-dead-off-trawler-screamed-from-inside-boat-as-crewmate-clung-to-hull/news-story/0f325800a515fb1a4ba3866373b0677c

I think that I am really taking this hard as we lost another friend, Martin, last year due to a tragic accident. http://www.cairnspost.com.au/news/cairns/passionate-fnq-man-had-saltwater-running-through-his-veins/news-story/4e346f857bc24998afd800fe7c597557

Martin and Ben are very similar guys, both were single, in their early 40’s, no children and loved the sea.

Arelkade, congratulations for you big loss. Hope you have a lovely outing today on your country drive. The scenery sounds lovely, I would have to take my camera and get lots of shots.

Alcohol seems to be my biggest problem and I thank everyone for their input on the subject. It seems to be the thing that puts the weight on me so quickly. I had a bottle of chardonay in the fridge that OH drank last night when he came home. I was quite happy not to join him as I was determined to not be tempted. I ended up going to bed and leaving him with it. All is good.

Going for my walk now so will catch up later.

Good morning Arelkade,Stay, Thin, Cinque, JJ, Quacka, Cali, Penguin, GDSA, BBill, and anyone else who’s reading

JJ – really sorry to hear about your friends, I too hope they are found. I just saw the ABC saying that the search vessels are heading out again now to look for them.

Quacka and anyone else fasting – good luck with the FD

I can’t safely drink in conjunction with the treatment drugs for RA. Once I came to terms with that I found it easier to choose water instead. What I missed was the glass of wine with dinner, but it’s been a decade so these days I just have a new normal that doesn’t include alcohol. It does help that I don’t have to watch a partner drinking wine that I can’t have.
Penguin, I clearly don’t know my whisky – I had to google Laphroig – here was me thinking it might be some delicious Welsh delicacy and I was confronted with page of advertisements for whisky bottles. I suppose it qualifies as a Scottish delicacy.

I got through my FD yesterday but I had to have several small snacks throughout the day to keep the nausea at bay.

I broke my fat by making a small bowl of homemade muesli and kefir and sat down to have a late breakfast and watch the international news broadcasts that I set to record from 5-7am. Only trouble was SBS was showing a soccer match between Liverpool and Maribor at that time instead today. So I had to content myself with just ABC news this morning. I feel deprived when I don’t get my morning dose of world news. I’ll just have to rely on the internet instead to make sure I’m not missing anything.

Cinque – I also liked the Catalyst program last night. I used to suffer from IBS, also with diarrhoea as my main symptom (although my GP said that constipation is the more common symptom for those with IBS). I no longer have this problem but I can’t be sure what fixed it. The symptoms slowly went away over the same 3 year period that I lost weight, retired and changed to a high fibre low sugar/processed food diet. I personally think that it wasn’t one change that made the difference but the combination (lower weight, better diet, less stress). I also think the comment about the need for personalised medicine is very true. Something that is very apparent when I read other people’s stories in this forum is that everyone is different – when it comes to diet, food and digestion “one size fits all” does not apply. I also think quick fixes don’t apply and beneficial changes need to be a long-term ongoing commitment.
It was good that they looked at what things people can do at home to help their gut flora. I was actually glad that the lady from last night didn’t like that kefir because I could see from the bottle shape that she’d chosen the Babushka brand – that’s the one I don’t trust because it’s made from powdered milk, powdered starter and they add sugar and sweeteners to it. (Unfortunately this is the one most commonly stocked by supermarkets.) I think she’ll be much better off with the home fermented kombucha. I think her comment about consuming live bacteria was telling – the perception that all bacteria are bad is still quite prevalent.

I’m going to the circus tonight with my nephew, his wife and their 2 kids (4 & 5). It’s being held in a hills town near me, so they asked if I’d like to go too. I think it’s been about 45 years since I went to a circus – they came to the Riverland a couple of times when I was growing up there. The program is different to what I remember from childhood – no exotic animals these days, there’s some dogs and horses but it’s more acrobatics now. (I’m not sorry about that change, it’s definitely for the better.)

Have a good day everyone.

I just saw this story from the wine country fires and wanted to share with all of you animal lovers. It’s about a dog who refused to leave 8 bottle fed goats when his family was evacuated – and survived, with all of the goats and a deer who joined them along the way. Not all heroes are human!

http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/fires/article179237671.html?#emlnl=Afternoon_Newsletter&id=am9hbm5lbUBtYWMuY29t

Found this group of interesting salads that could easily be adopted for fast days.
Instead of the vermicelli we could use the low cal noodles, instead of the haloumi maybe tofu. Some of the other recipes could be great for NFDs but staying healthy as the same time.
http://www.taste.com.au/quick-easy/galleries/15-minute-weeknight-salads/q6mWgiuT?page=1

Thanks JJ, now that the weather is warming up I’m finding salads more inviting.
I do occasionally use haloumi on FDs – I just need to keep the portion modest. I buy Lemnos organic haloumli that is 1200kj per 100g. On a FD I usually limit the portion to 50-60g. As long as you team it with low cal veg, it’s not difficult to include small portions of higher cal foods. Alternatively you could use paneer – this can be grilled just like haloumi, but has only 800kg per 100g – it’s not salty but has a milder sweeter flavour.

Oh dear, I’m so behind on responding to posts that I don’t know where to start. I’ll try and remember some of the things that stuck with me rather than reading through them all again.

First and foremost, all the best to you Cinque for tomorrow’s test results.

Congratulations to Arel, I believe I read yesterday – or was that today? – that you’d dropped 900 gms. Hurray! And great that your work colleague is also practicing fasting. Keep up the good work!

JJulie, so sorry for all the losses you’re experiencing. The news items you cited made it over here too. I think crocodile stories are instantly zoomed around the world, like news of shark attacks. Hurray for getting into the 79s again – now to keep the trend going! I didn’t mean to sound bossy about giving up the wine for a couple of weeks (I could have done with a glass myself just reading your sad stories to be honest). I was thinking only that if you’re bouncing around on that pesky 80kg mark, there’s no point in continuing doing the same thing and hoping for a different result, something has to change. I’m not into deprivation at all! That’s why I love 5:2 so much. It was only a suggestion for a couple of weeks just to work out what might have an effect.

I remember that I resisted the ‘carbs’ message for so long and then, like many others here, gave up bread and the difference to my weight was dramatic. I hadn’t been receptive to that information earlier, only when I hit a lengthy plateau. As LJ says, we’re all different and it may have no effect at all. I know you’re motivated and you’ll find your rhythm in your own way.

As far as watching OH eat and drink, I am more or less over the feelings I used to experience of ‘missing out’. Now I just think ‘that’s your insulin, not mine’. My neighbours have taught me that it’s possible to enjoy life without food and drink. Many hours have been wasted over cups of herbal tea on someone’s FD!

Cinque and LJ, I watched the gut programme. I can’t honestly say I enjoyed it much. I think it might have been a bit too much ‘reality TV’ for me.

The only other thing I can remember reading is about Stay’s testy 4yo grandie! Gosh, I’d always thought they were perfect angels with the grandparents. I’m happy that the circus has very few animal acts – have you ever been to Cirque du Soleil? First saw them in San Diego about 30 years ago, I think they were just starting up back then. They come to Perth, we love it.

Lovely to hear from you CalifD, thanks, I shall reply! And thanks for the compliments but I think you were looking at someone else’s photo! Loved the story about the dog and the goats. And the budgie.

Oh yes, a little bit of a boost in the today’s mail. After a year of fasting (in August 2015), I’d asked my GP to run some blood tests hoping that my fasting glucose would have come down dramatically from 4.9. I really wanted to prove to OH all the good I’d been doing. Anyway, at that time I had about 100 fasts under my belt so confidently sauntered up to the clinic around 11am (to avoid the mad dash to get there first at 8am when they open so everyone can get home to have a coffee/eat something as I’d always done before.) The nurse commented that I’d probably ‘over-fasted’ but took the blood anyway. My fasting glucose remained as it had been the previous year at 4.9. I was disappointed and just kept quiet about it! Anyway, two years on, I’ve just had a non-fasting blood test for other reasons and was so happy to see that my non-fasting glucose was 4.5. I know it’s only 0.4 down from the fasting glucose but I’m very happy with it anyway. It’s great to bask in a non-tangible benefit of fasting (because my weight is the same as it was two years ago so it’s not a function of that).

I’m having Mexican soup for FD dinner (no, Cinque, I was 60.7kg this morning, very much 5:2ing and trying to get back to 60kg or below). Snap we are posting together. Loads of beans, spices and a little chicken. 277 cals. Hello to everyone I haven’t mentioned today. Have a great day everyone. Stick with it, you can do it!

There’s some witchcraft going on with this thread. It says there’s a post from Stay but that post isn’t appearing. Stay, I think you mentioned losing a post before. The other day there was something weird with one of Cinque’s posts. If you post a long missive, it can be a good idea to highlight/copy before pressing submit. If you find, like JJulie, that you’ve been locked out when you were thought you were logged in, you’ll lose your post at that point. I think we’ve all experienced it in the past – it mostly happened when we we went back to edit something. You can contact JJ, the site admin and she’ll re-publish any lost posts if you give her an approximate date stamp.

JJulie, mushrooms are like a free gift on a fast day! I think you have access to a greater variety than we can get over here.

I’ve just seen that cool budgie photo. Have we heard from Penguin since the storm hit the UK?

Thinatlast. Penguin is fit and well. — It hit Ireland and the north west of the UK.

I have also had posts disappear on me and I seem to have missed some that others have had.

To join the booze conversation. No booze on FDs, I Iose weight. Booze on FDs, I’ll lose less weight. No booze on NFDs , the weight stays off. Booze on NFDs and I’ll put weight on again. Thats simple enough for a brain as old and worn out as mine to understand. Unfortunately I like whiskey so occasionally I stray.

Cinque, so that’s why LJ’s post appeared at the top of this page, when Quakka’s had been there previously. I went back and read Stay’s post but it was the same as she’d written elsewhere. Hi Stay, are you doing the second of B2B fasts today? All the best for that if so.

CalifD, you’re right, where the glucose numbers are WNL, they won’t receive much, if any, attention except perhaps where numbers at the high end of ‘normal’ could be indicative of a person becoming pre-diabetic. When I showed my results to DD, she brushed it off as insignificant, bursting my balloon. Her rationale being that it’s just a snapshot that would have yielded a different reading an hour later or an hour earlier in the day. Then again, I’m not a dog. Haven’t been back to the human doc yet.

CalifD, I looked up the instant pot. We can buy it here for $99. Is there something in the innerds that can be removed for cleaning or must you clean the entire pot after use? Those last few lbs are often hardest to shift. It must be extra challenging for you as you travel for work. I reached a plateau and stayed there so long that I decided to call it maintenance. I think LJ did the same.

We have Bradford pears outside our house. We have a long verge so we have 6 of them. In autumn they turn a beautiful deep orange and red. The street looks amazing for a brief period before the leaves fall.

Frothy Thursday for me. I do believe that fasting makes you appreciate food and drink better.

Thin, the Instant Pot has a stainless steel liner that lifts out. That, and the lid are the only things that need to be washed. It cleans up very easily. Once I forgot to put the liner back in and dumped water in the main part which ran through, over the electrical parts and out through the bottom. I took it apart to let it dry and it was just fine. But the water was only in it for about 30 seconds. I now put a wooden spoon across the top when the liner is out to remind me.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BKHGX0/ref=asc_df_B008BKHGX05222136/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=394997&creativeASIN=B008BKHGX0&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198070682048&hvpos=1o4&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4116306982796808544&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032519&hvtargid=pla-354264804692

Our ornamental pear trees don’t get any fruit, just lovely flowers in the spring and beautiful leaves in the summer and fall. Looking up pictures of the Bradford Pear, I think they may be the same thing. We have 2 of them. There an Oak in front too.

Cinque, I think ladies “of a certain age” can wear mini skirts if they wear them with dark tights, like this: http://thenortheastgirl.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/92.png I think if the skirt isn’t too short that still is a nice look, don’t you think? I miss panty hose! Not that many people have legs that look good without stockings, at least in my opinion. Panty hose hide a lot of little imperfections.

That lady looks very classy CalifD. However, if she’s a lady of a certain age, I shudder to think what that makes me.

JJulie, how disappointing. All I can say is don’t forget the ‘feast’ part of this ‘feast and famine’ lifestyle! Just as important IMHO. As Big Bill said, you don’t want it to become like any other deprivation diet. I’m sure you’ll see a big drop when you least expect it. I stayed the same weight after yesterday’s FD, yet after the two NFD days prior to that, I lost 100gm per day. I’ve given up trying to work it out.

Hope you received good news, Cinque.

Hi back from my hospital appt, but no real news. My specialist is overseas, the biopsy wasn’t helpful and so I have another appt for next week (only took two hours and expensive parking!). Well, no news is good news and the nice doctor I saw was much better at answering questions than the specialist so it was all good.

The instant pot is an electric pressure cooker combined with a slowcooker, rice cooker and yoghurt maker. As pressure cookers go, the electric ones don’t work to as high pressure as the good stovetop ones, but that just means you might have to add a few minutes to a recipe.
I bought my daughter the Breville Fast/Slow cooker which is very similar to the Instant Pot, and I found it easy to use. It is lovely that it has a timer so you don’t have to watch it, like my stovetop pc.

So glad the circus was fun LJoyce!

Ha Thin, yep, I am an old lady compared to the woman in the link! My legs look better than they have for decades, but I just don’t feel comfortable with things above my knees, even with leggings! Luckily I have found nice things that are just below my knees and they feel right. But the fashion for shorter skirts on dresses makes op shopping harder at the moment!

Well, off to make my little light fast day snack. Cheers all.

Thanks for the update Cinque.

Instant Pot. Read all about it: http://instantpot.com (oh I see that Cinque and CalifD have since responded). CalifD – do you have shares in Amazon?

LJ, I used to think poodles were yappy little annoying dogs. But after years of boarding dogs in our home following our dingo’s passing, we gained experience with all sorts of breeds. We came to know poodles as incredibly smart dogs. One toy poodle X, Chico stayed with us several times for up to 4 months. We could train him to do all sorts of commands and he could go and fetch a named toy (such as the BLUE ball). Unfortunately, his mum moved back to NZ and we eventually had the sad duty of sending him over to join her via JetPets. It was 5am when the van came to collect him and the three of us stood in the driveway balling our eyes out! DD has since been to NZ and visited him! I still don’t like animals being used for that purpose but I agree with you LJ, it’s all come a long way from the exotic animals we used to see caged up and travelling the country. Your circus antics seem harmless fun in the scheme of things. I’m still a medium/large dog fan overall but I wouldn’t discount a poodle.

Thin, I should have shares in Amazon! I buy a lot of things from them because the prices are good and it’s easy to shop from a tablet. The selection is huge. They seem to sell everything. A best part of it is that I can read reviews on everything. Even when I shop in a store, I often check Amazon to see what people think about a product before I buy it. Their customer service is excellent.

LJoyce, the circus sounds like it was fun. I’m so glad they use mostly acrobats and trapeze artists now. It was probably due to pressure from people about the way some of the animals were treated.
I love Cirque du Soleil. I’ve seen different shows in Las Vegas a few times. Those performers are so talented and the shows are so creative and well done. Most of them have great music too.

LJoyce, I’m not sure it’s even possible to make a modern day pressure cooker of any kind blow up. There are so many failsafe measures. The just release steam and lose their seal of they build up too much pressure. And that’s with a stove top one that you control the heat on. The Instant Pot is automatic, you just select the amount of time. The worst thing that could probably happen is that you overlook or undercook something. Often I just guess at the amount of time. I like that it turns itself off and just keeps the food warm.