GDSA, I feel better having read your latest post. Enjoy this heady time and zipping about in your sporty new car wearing your mini skirt. Oh to be young again! Don’t go too far away, OK?

Thanks for the comments about my posts. I know I’m guilty of being verbose and rambling so I think one missive p/d is enough from me. Don’t worry, it might not last; I’m not one for containing my thoughts! I was hoping less to read might encourage Merry, CM and Intesha out of the woodwork. It hasn’t worked.

YoungLisa, GDSA and I both had our only children at age 39 so we know what you mean about being a decade older than most of the other parents. My DD says she never minded this as she thinks her parents are also wiser. You made me laugh about getting stuck in the inner tube. I used to have trouble getting out of the bath when I was 23kg heavier.

Stay, you also made me laugh with your good news and bad news stories about OH’s chocolate. Enjoy your dinner tonight, easy on the wine! Or not.

Quakka, my OH feels deprived when I’m fasting despite my FD planning incorporating the dietary needs of the OFMs. Those who’ve been here a while know that he heads straight for the kitchen for a big cooked breakfast the morning after MY fast days! Meanwhile, I’m smugly enjoying a second frothy coffee declaring that I’m not hungry after my FD. I’ll go for a walk and then have a late breakfast. I’m sure Mr Q will prefer the new, healthier version of Mrs Q and learn to support your efforts. It’s only two days a week after all. I hope you had a wonderful feast day yesterday, I think you made a good decision to eat normally otherwise it’s just like any other old diet. Good job with the 400gm loss.

Hi Minka and LJ, hope your FD went well. Mine did although I only dropped 100gm so I need three sensible eating days now. Enjoy your FD today Cinque sans the fat monks.

Morning all. Yesterday was chaotic so it’s good to be at work and having a FD. Everything started to go wrong when my doctor was nearly an hour late for our appt, and it just cascaded on from there. Picked up the two little girls from kindy yesterday and fed and bathed them (and tried to stop the 18 month old from climbing on to a big cardboard box and launching herself into the 4 year old’s arms. The baby doesn’t know the meaning of caution and the 4 year old thinks she’s stronger than she is!. The baby already has a black eye from a close encounter with the arm of a chair. I then fed their parents when they arrived home from work, and happily closed the door on the lot of them at 8 pm, at which point I sunk into an armchair with a glass of wine, before starting the packing to go to the beach tonight. I’m taking back all the stuff we moved out for the renovation – the car is bursting at the seams!
Cinque – how did you find that picture of the pottery hedgehog! Calif, it is exactly the one I have, which was given to me at least 30 years ago. Amazing.
Thin I love your posts – don’t deprive us by cutting them short.
No movement on the weight (sigh). I feel quite dispirited about it. Fingers crossed the long walks at the beach will help.

G’day, everyone. I somehow lost 100 grams between last night and this morning, but it is a mystery how it happened. Yesterday started out to be a good 2nd day of an extra FD for the week, a B2B with Monday. I made it all the way through until 11:00 PM with 500 calories. Then the Halloween candy that had been calling my name all day got stronger. I didn’t even bother counting how many calories I was consuming, just piled it all into my mouth as fast as I could unwrap those little packets, the tiny candy bars that were 100 calories each according to the bag. But it was a massive amount. Self sabotage at its finest. I knew I shouldn’t have candy in the house. I feel like crying when I think of what the scale would have said, had I stuck to my B2B FD. But today is a new day. I can’t believe I felt full all day after all that sugar last night.

LJoyce, I always pictured you with dark brown hair. I will have to adjust my imagination of what you look like. Nectarines, peaches and plums are my favorite summer fruits too. I’m sad to see them go now that it’s Fall here.

Lindsay, that hedgehog sprouting dish is so cute! I imagined all sorts of things but not a flat-ish hedgehog. 😁 it’s both attractive and useful.

Lisa, at 40 you’re still a spring chicken! 😆 I’m 68 and just starting to feel old. Some days. But not usually. Weight loss surely takes years off most people’s appearance. In fact, I think weight gain it’s one of the most aging factors in many people’s appearance. When I see before and after pictures of people who’ve lost weight, I’m always surprised how much younger a person looks when they’re thinner.

GDSA, I’m glad you’re still weighing yourself and eating sensibly. And congrats on the new car!

Thin, forget that idea of posting only once per day. You make me feel guilty about my long missives. And I like reading your posts.

Stay, I agree with everyone here about chicken and chickpeas being a great combination. I’ll probably try that this week. Right away I thought of curry for the spices. Anyone else?

Cinque, hope your FD went well. I’m doing my second one tomorrow.

Julie, when do you leave for Japan? I’m thinking it’s on the 13th, but I may be remembering wrong.

Quacka, congrats on your weight loss. Glad you finally escaped the plateau!

For dinner I made something I haven’t had since last autumn because it requires nice Mediterranean veg and I only make it when they are in season.
I prepared thick slices of zucchini, field mushrooms and red capsicum and I blanched 2 bunches of asparagus. Then sprayed them all with a olive oil and sprinkled lemon pepper over them. I have a cast iron griddle plate that goes on the gas cooktop but gives a BBQ finish to the food. I had so much veg that there are enough leftovers for another full meal. Normally I would add meat or haloumi to the griddle as well but not tonight. I had ricotta cheese that needed to be eaten so I served the veg with a big scoop of ricotta. It was delicious, and reminded me of all the flavours of summer that I look forward to. I sometimes also add eggplant slices,and blanched green beans and broccolini stems to this combination, but I had enough with these tonight.

Hope you are all having a delicious dinner too.

LJ, I would never have pictured you with a bob, nor golden highlights. I shall have to adjust my mental image. You have not mentioned bingeing in a very long time – well done!

Lindsay, thank you, I love your posts too. “…. happily closed the closed on the lot of them at 8pm ….” made me laugh so much.

YoungLisa, Cinque, I wouldn’t trade all the travelling and freedoms I enjoyed in my 21 years as a childless adult either. My own mother was a teenager when I was born (having married my dad at 17) and essentially still a child herself. In the 60s, my friends thought her very hip with her mini skirts, coiffed hairdos & the convertible Triumph. Not well-equipped for parenting though. (Think Harper Valley PTA). There are pros and cons for parenting in both age groups. Perhaps, by 40, we have less physical energy and mental flexibility, and it certainly requires a big effort in communication since we’re essentially two generations apart. But maybe we are more worldly and better placed financially.

CalifD, don’t beat yourself up, 11pm was almost the end of your second FD (OK not really, but don’t forget that the first FD had ended 16 hours prior). And you lost weight. Thanks for your comments about my posts.

Penguin, did you know that the Aussie ‘Timtams’ are ‘Penguins’ in England? Do they still make them? You’re no longer a flightless bird but a chocolate biscuit.

Joffy, what’s happened to you? Are you still doing 2 coffees and a minestrone soup?

OH and I are taking our kayaks across the Swan River to the city today. We will have a coffee at Elizabeth Quay and then paddle back. I have yet to see any dolphins when we’ve been in the kayaks.

Hi Everyone
Interesting talk about ages of becoming parents. We married young, got a mortgage and had 4 kids by the time I was 32. We had lots of friends in the same situation and we just carted our kids around, putting them to bed at friends houses (in their double beds) and now is our time to travel every year and have been doing so since our youngest turned 18. We were empty nesters for 1.5 years and it was a nice taste of things to come haha. Im enjoying the kids that are home atm and they are saving to buy their own houses. Our 2 married kids own their own houses.
I too have struggled with binge eating and am finding it hard again as we have 2 young fit men in the house who eat. a. lot.!! and so we have lots of snacks in the house again. My daughters fiancé brings chocolates, chips and lollies home every Friday night for a night of relaxing in front of the TV 🙁
Im doing a FD today as tomorrow we are going out with friends to celebrate one of their birthdays.
Tonights movie premier will be one with out alcohol for me -yes you can do this Judy!!!

Stay – I have the advantage of not having to cater to other people with my groceries so I can keep certain foods out of the house more easily than you can. However, I put a few things in place that have helped with overeating and bingeing. If snacking in front of the the TV (especially on Friday with all those snack foods on hand) is a problem, then a curfew might help. Once I recorded what and when I was eating I could see just how much damage I did in the evenings. I often ate 1200cals through the day and then doubled that total with a few snacks in front of the TV in the evening. It didn’t even have to be a lot a food as the sort of snacks I was eating were so high in calories – a small bowl of nuts can be over 1500 calories. I started off with a 9pm curfew on food – I still had hot & cold drinks after this time but no food. As soon as I got to 9pm I told myself that I didn’t have to worry or think about how to manage food again until tomorrow. As long as I stuck to the 9pm limit every night it was actually easy – allowing myself flexibility with this didn’t work at all. Eventually I found that I could wind this back to dinner time. Once I’d finished dinner then that was it for food for the day. A tool like this might be helpful for you – although it won’t help with the liquids like alcohol. Oddly I now feel a sense of relief when I get to my curfew time as I know I don’t have to manage food choices again for a few hours – I get a break from that metal battle.

Good morning SHs, hope you all have nice plans for the weekend.

It’s not often I’m the first to post in the morning. I had to be up early as the roofing contractor is coming to give a quote for the roof repairs this morning.

I made vegetable chips yesterday. The easy ones were with cavolo nero leaves, sprayed with oil and lemon pepper seasoning and put into a 120C oven for 30 minutes. Then I put 2 potatoes and a sweet potato through the adjustable slicer blade of my food processor – it makes very thinly shaved slices. These took longer (about 45 minutes). The potatoes were quite successful – I tried a few spice combinations as there were many trays – garlic, harissa, lemon pepper. I sprinkled some of the white potato slices with chickpea flour, onion powder and garlic salt before spraying with olive oil- these are definitely the nicest flavour. It was a lot of fuss, so I’m not sure I’ll do this again any time soon, however I now have several tubs of vegetable chips, baked with just spray oil. Now I normally can’t be trusted around chips of any kind, so it remains to be seen whether I can consume these slowly – I did sample rather a lot while making them yesterday.

I’m just sitting down to my first pot of tea while I wait for the roofing contractor to show up.
Have a nice Saturday everyone.

It’s a beautiful summer day in Perth – 31C forecast so I must get my walk in early. Cinque, I’m not fasting today (Weds/Sun) but I wish you well with yours.

Stay, how nice that you can enjoy your adult children and go off travelling every year as well. Where are you going next? I’m looking forward to a big change when DD finishes uni – year five starts in 3 weeks, two days after year four ends. No break because her course was changed from six to five years but with all the same content.

Regarding snacking, I feel we have come to place too much emphasis on food and drink especially for social occasions. Some of you remember PerthGirl who went off to cycle in Europe. When we met for coffee just before she left, she told us that she never snacks. She incorporates everything (such as a few nuts) into her meals and doesn’t eat in between meals at all.

Dr M. talked about this years ago too. In the fifties and sixties, we were told, “don’t eat in between meals or you won’t eat your dinner”. Food manufacturers have convinced us that we need to eat all day long and that our children can’t survive anything without a snack and a drink in hand. Dr M. says this style of constant grazing would be fine without the meals but what’s happened is that we eat all day long and still eat the meals. Something to think about.

You only have to walk down the supermarket aisles to see the extensive range of chips, dips, soft drinks and chocolates, packaged foods to realise what a massive industry this has become compared to one measly fresh food aisle. Our job is to fight back.

Your idea of a curfew is sensible. It’s like 18:6 that some people practice – when we eat within a 6 or 8 hour window, late night snacking isn’t an option. I agree with what you said LJ about setting up the rules ahead of time and thinking of it as increasing the overnight fasting time (even when it’s not a fast day). It’s hard when OFMs are bringing in junk every day but I’d try to view that as “that’s your insulin”.

Cinque, I did see three dolphins yesterday including a mother/baby pair. But not from the kayaks. I went for a walk later. LJ, we live in South Perth which is separated from Perth city only by the Swan River. Since the construction of Elizabeth Quay, we can pull the kayaks up onto a small sandy beach and have a coffee over there. But in crossing its width, there’s no wildlife except dolphins, pelicans, cormorants and jellyfish. It’s said there are bull sharks in the river but I’ve never seen one. Further upstream, we can paddle in narrow sections of the river with overhanging trees and it’s so quiet you wouldn’t know you were in the city.

Have a great weekend all. Off for my walk.

Good morning all,

Thanks for all the well wishes for my daughter. She is much better and looking forward to a holiday.

I have been just so busy lately. Thursday we had our solar system installation. It was so hot on the roof that the guys decided to finish around 2pm and complete the installation on Friday morning. OH has been so busy I have hardly seen him over the last few days. He left for Thailand early this morning.

With everything happening I forgot to weigh myself yesterday morning, so I did today. I am steady at 78.5Kg.

The conversation has been about pregnancy at a later age. I had my youngest daughter when I was almost 42, so hence I am here at 60 with an 18 year old.

I am not a grandmother and probably will never be one. Eldest daughter found out she can not have children due to all her problems with her kidneys and youngest one says she does not want any kids (well at the moment that is the way she feels)

It is getting too hot here for walking at our usual time so we are thinking of moving it to 6.30am now.

We had a really late dinner last night and I had bought chicken cordon bleu from the local butcher. I sprayed with a little olive oil and baked in the oven. We had salad with it.

I have read the posts but cant remember who was talking about tasty strawberries. After reading that I found strawberries at the supermarket 2 for $5 so bought them. I had one punnet yesterday afternoon and now sharing the second one with my daughter. They are really quite tasty.

Thin, I looked up Elizabeth Quay on Google Maps and can see photos from there, some beautiful ones taken at night. I love playing with that app and “walking” around the area. It would probably work better on the desktop computer rather than the iPad but with some delays and buffering, it’s still kind of cool to explore. What is that building that is a tall glass sphere, enveloped by what looks like a couple brown wind sails? It’s on or next to State Route 5. Are there offices in there? Or is it for observation? It’s beautiful both at night and on a sunny day. I managed to “walk” around it but it took a while at times waiting for the distortions to go away as the scenery download. I am so amazed by what we can do with computers. It’s truly remarkable. And imagine how much more will be possible in just a few years. I’m thankful that I’m living in these times.

LJoyce, I’m glad you have some options for your roof. Home repairs always seem to be expensive. It would be so much better to be able to spend the money on fun stuff instead, wouldn’t it? Are you going to get other bids? We’ve usually found sizable differences in quotes for different home repairs or projects. There were reasonable ones, ones that seemed like too good to be true, where they were likely to cut corners, and then those that were so high you had to think that they were probably too busy with other jobs but might delay those if they got your project at such a high price!

Cinque, I hope your FD is going well. I like your idea of the Friday treat day. That could work for me.
I do the same thing of promising myself on a FD that I can have whatever I want the next morning. But I’m rarely hungry in the morning, so that’s a good trick.

Well, I’m going to go back to walking around downtown Perth for a while. 😁 Too bad it doesn’t burn any calories! (It’s 8:30 PM here.)

Cali – well done on the 60kg – so close to goal.
I’m not actually going to get other quotes for the roofing because this is the only contractor I had a strong personal recommendation for and that’s very important to me. I want to use someone who is likely to be trustworthy and I hate hiring someone I don’t know or who hasn’t worked for someone who’s opinion I trust. This person is local and works almost exclusively in my local Adelaide Hills area – it’s hard to hide bad work when you are local as I live in an area where gossip travels fast. The man who was my gardener for years (and although he no longer does this, he still cleans out my gutters for me) – he used him for his own roofing repairs and was very happy with the quality and cost. I was reassured also, by some of the options he discussed with cost comparisons. There are a number of things I need to get done, for 3 of them he suggested that less extensive and cheaper options were all that was required, and one job be said was not necessary at all. He didn’t suggest shoddy options – just fixes that would be good for 7-10 years rather than 25 years. As I’m selling the house I think fixing something for 7-10 year is reasonable – which is why he suggested it. Although I do need a new metal gully, due to rust in the current one and I hadn’t planned for that cost.
The big costs I still have to deal with before sale are lighting & electrical, plumbing, some new kitchen appliances, a new bench top for one area of the kitchen, floor surfacing & polishing for the kitchen floor boards, painting (if I can’t manage it all myself). I have saved enough in the last few years to cover the estimated cost and it’s a carefully pruned list so that I only do things that I’ll either get my money back on when I sell, or things that would be noticed in a building inspection and put a buyer off proceeding with purchase (like the roof). I also have my own long list of jobs to do as well – basically the things that don’t require a license, much skill, or a long ladder. My current goal is to get this all finished by March so I can sell in early autumn.

Hi all,
Thank you to everyone for their best wishes for my daughter. She is so much better today.

I have been really busy the last few days.

The solar guys came on Thursday to install our system but as it was so hot they finished at 2pm and went home. They came back on Friday morning to finish off and by about midday we were running on solar. Our homestay left in the morning and I dropped her off at the airport. It was quite sad as she was a lovely girl and easily became part of the family.

OH was so busy too. So many boats to see and not enough hours in the day.
In the end I forgot to weigh myself yesterday for my Friday weigh in so did it this morning. I was a steady 78.5Kg I am happy enough with that as I had been tossing around 80 to 81 for a few days. I have not walked for awhile and I am beginning to believe that had something to do with it. Too much exercise too quickly. I have noticed changes in my body and how my clothes fit so definitely something happening.

OH left for Thailand this morning. I am left with running the business while he is in Thailand then on Friday I will fly out to Japan and we will meet there.

So to answer your question CalifD, I fly out on Friday the 10th.
And a big congratulations on your reaching 60kg this morning.

Tonight we are having spaghetti for dinner as my daughter really loves it but OH does not like pasta so we dont have pasta when he is at home. I bought some lovely meatballs from the local butcher in a tomato base sauce so it should be interesting.

catch up with everyone again soon.

LJoyce,

I wont be having too much of the pasta. I dont think my stomach would handle it now.
We have been told we wont see much of a difference in this bill but the next one should show it. As our summer has already started here and our airconditioners are not on during the day we should see a big difference from our bill this time last year. I shall be very interested myself so will let you know.

Someone mentioned stawberries the other day and coles had them 2 for $5 yesterday. I ate one punnet yesterday for lunch/afternoon tea as we did not get dinner till very late last night. My daughter and I shared the second punnet this morning for breakfast. They certainly were delicious.

Hope all are having a nice day.

Hello everyone
You are so close to the fifties Cali! Another fast day or two!

I really enjoyed my fast day yesterday. I processed the rest of the bread so I can use it as breadcrumbs, and as I was putting containers in the freezer I found half a loaf of my own bread! Such a treat. So I had toast and tomato for breakfast. Coffee is on the stove now.

Strawberries and blueberries have been amazingly cheap and delicious here too, very good for when my granddaughter is visiting. Also I have been glad to hear the news that there is a bumper avocado crop this year. Waiting! I have an expensive one in my fruitbowl and I have a feeling it will never get ripe. 🙁

JJulie, life must be so busy now! Your guest from Japan had a wonderful time, it is so nice to think of her returning to Japan with good memories. Sending best wishes for getting everything organised.

Hello to everyone else. Thinking of LJoyce and Thin waking up to a fast day.

It is a beautiful morning here. I hope to have a pottering around sort of day where I get a lot done!
Best wishes for your day!

Thin, I haven’t looked at avocados for the past couple of weeks, but I think they were around $1.50 – just under $2 US$ for a large one and around $1 for a small to medium. It depends on the store and how ripe they are. I really like them in salads. Or guacamole. Here’s an interesting description of the different varieties in CA. I’ve never paid a lot of attention to them. If the price gets high I just won’t buy them.

I do usually stop at 2 pieces of pizza. But I’ve been known to eat more when I’m really hungry. The motivation is there to eat mindfully tonight. A big salad along with it might be a good idea.

It’s sad about your neighbors selling their home and moving. New construction nearby could increase the value of your home. Houses seem very expensive in Australia. But it’s hard to compare with currency differences.

Good morning all,

Well it has been another busy morning. I spent a large amount of time trying on clothes to take to Japan. I have my thermal underwear ready, then I bought some new undies to take, and then had to decide what clothes I was going to take.
Last trip I left it to the last minute to pack (in fact only packed the morning I was leaving) I just put in everything I thought I would need and then found I ended up with way too many clothes, some of which I did not even wear. So this time I have everything laid out on the spare bed so I can see exactly what I am putting into that duffle bag.
I have limited myself to six tops, one light cardigan, one waterproof winter jacket, two pairs of pants, one pair of leggings, thermal leggings, thermal top, one pair PJs, and one good dress (light weight that I can put thermal top under for warmth, one scarf and one shawl. I will take only one pair of shoes and that will be the pair I wear on the plane – my walking shoes. I might buy a pair of shoes in Kyoto as there is a lovely shoe shop there that I often purchase shoes from. Then it is my make-up bag and my toiletries bag, camera with accessories, laptop and mobile phone.

Trying on some of these clothes that have been in the wardrobe for awhile, I can really see the difference in my body shape. One pair of black leggings that has a skirt attached to it and makes it look elegant, now actually fits me. I purchased it online about 8 months ago, tried it on, found it did not fit so put it in the wardrobe. Now it looks great on me, so this is what I am wearing on the plane with my lovely new top I bought in Kuranda.

Thanks Thin for the well wishes for my daughter. She is gaining more strength each day and so looking forward to this trip now. She is hoping to be able to take heaps of photos for her photography FB page. We will visit some areas that are just wonderful for photos and try not to make her overdo it all. One day we will visit an island that is called Ōkunoshima or Rabbit Island as I am hoping she will really enjoy that. We will also meet up with a friend in Iwakuni which is famous for it’s bridge. My husband wants to visit a museum in Kure and I want to add a new castle to my list by visiting Fukuyama Castle. We will also visit Nara where the wild deer roam in the park. Once we are back in Osaka we could do a tour of the whiskey factory and visit one of the famous parks called Minoh which has a lovely waterfall. We shall also visit USJ theme park as OH has never been. Not sure yet if we will get a two day pass or go just the once.

With the solar now working I am washing and drying everything during daytime and can have the airconditioner on as much as I want!!!
So with my washing and drying, I am feeling very good about being organised for this trip. I just have to get my daughter to do the same now.

Thin, avocadoes here in Cairns are costing about $2.50 each but the farmers market did have a bag of small hass that contained about 12 of them for $5.99. Just the perfect size for one serving and the stone in the middle was very small. I did a little research on the spelling of haas/hass avocadoes. They are saying that this avocado was bred by a Rudolph Hass in La Habra Heights, California in 1926. It seems he purchased Lyon seedlings from A.R. Rideout of Whittier, but when he planted out the trees and they produced, they found this variety which had somehow developed itself. He ordered 300 trees to be grafted from this very tree, he did not plant out the trees but came to an agreement with the grafter that he grow and promote the variety and Hass would receive 25% of the profits.
Hass was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Probably to immigrants, there is no reference to the name being Haas, although it would not surprise me that is was spelt that way originally and was changed when they immigrated to US. I did find some references to surnames of Hass with Haas in brackets.
It is funny you mentioned that too because I do remember them being spelt Haas years ago.

Thin, Last Thursday the owner of the vessel Dianne was buried in a private family ceremony as the family did not want the media to be there. On Friday they had a memorial service in the Cruise Liner Terminal, then a wake at the pub across the road. My husband attended the service and the wake. The brother and family spoke to my husband thanking him for his help with the water police. He also spoke to the sole survivor of the accident. The investigation is still underway as to what happened and why the liferaft was not deployed. Four men are still missing but the water police are positive the vessel is clear and no-one is inside. What they did say was that they could not rule out the men could be trapped underneath and they will not find out more until they are able to salvage the vessel which is still on the bottom. Not sure when this will happen but it will at some stage, as they are questioning the liferaft problem. There is some word that the release valve failed, but it can not be clarified until they are able to test it themselves.

Good afternoon fellow SH’s, it’s a gloomy, no Sun, sprinkly rain day today. I weighed this morning & have put on 800gm – feel like I’m holding water in every cell of my body.
My Sister has just left after an overnight stay – always lovely to catch up.
Have just read all your posts & you all have amazing things happening in your lives. Beach holidays, overseas trips, renovations, solar power, new cars, clothes that now fit, etc. Love each one of them.
I found the Chang noodles – yet to try same. Also bought mixed box of sprouted legumes – added a lively crunch to my Thai salad, even OH enjoyed them.
Have printed off many recipes from the suggested websites – plan to have an interesting recipe collection to choose from – looking forward to the taste test for each one!
Have decided to re-read the updated edition of the 5:2 Fast Diet & make note of very important guidelines to help in my understanding of what I can do better – get rid if nighttime snacking should be a good start. Being more mindful each day would also be helpful – do get slack sometimes!!!
I did a 2 hour yoga session in the Copeland Rainforest with our teacher & 15 others yesterday – the different bird sounds while doing our practice was amazing. The relaxation session was devine – still feeling the effects. Recommend yoga to anyone that might be interested.
My FD is tomorrow – intend to be stronger.
Hope each of you enjoy this evening, & the coming week, whatever you get up to. Cheers!

LJoyce, thank you for your observations on housing prices between our two countries and health care costs. Both are very interesting. Health care costs are out of control in this country and while we may have some cutting edge treatments for certain things, our overall outcomes are worse than a lot of other countries. Scrips can be in the thousands of dollars for a single pill if it’s a new and patented one. For example, I’ve read that the new hepatitis C drug (that they advertise on TV) can be as high as $95,000 for a 12 week treatment. http://www.pharmacytimes.com/resource-centers/hepatitisc/will-hepatitis-c-virus-medicaton-costs-drop-in-the-years-ahead I’m not sure how much of this health insurance covers. It probably depends on the insurance policy. But insurance companies can refuse to cover certain drugs or make the copay very high. Copays for ordinary chemotherapy drugs can be in the thousands of dollars for a course of treatment. There are usually caps of yearly copays but it can still cost thousands of dollars. Medical bankruptcies are common here, not to mention depleting savings accounts for many families.

Most companies offer health insurance for full time employees. Most require the employee to pay a portion. My company pays 100% of mine. Before my OH retired he was paying about $150 per month. My DS works for a smaller company and her portion is over $300 per month. This must certainly figure into salaries.

Health care costs are probably one of my biggest money worries as I get older. When I retire I’ll have to pay over $200 per month to have full Medicare policies and supplemental and this doesn’t include dental or vision.

Good Monday morning to all,

Arelkade,I want to do a 2 hour yoga lesson in the rainforest. Your description had me imagining how wonderful that would be.

Gday, congratulations on your new car. Sounds like you had a wow of a time “zipping around all over the place with the stereo cranked up” Yes what colour is it? I am imagining red!!

CalifD, We pay for private health insurance as well as paying the Medicare levy. Our Private insurance is with Navy Health as OH was once in the Navy. As we still have an 18yo living at home she can be covered under our family policy but we pay $400 per month for this and it is not the top cover. If we go to hospital we still have to pay the first $200. This policy does cover extras like dental, pharmacy, physio, glasses etc.

A BIG congratulations CalifD for the weight loss. 59.7 and your out of the 60s!!!

I too was pleased this morning when I got on the scales. After a weekend on not fasting and a huge dinner last night I weighed exactly 78. I was not going to weigh myself today but I was worried I had put it on over the weekend. After my morning of trying on clothes to take to Japan and selecting some that I had not been able to wear before, I was a little concerned I may have to go through the process all over again. But all is good and today is a FD for me so I am hoping I can get down to 77 before I leave. There is only 4 days to go.

CalifD, I will be watching the posts while i am away for that one where you announce the 58!!!

Have a great day everyone!!!

Welcome CaroCree. There are others on this thread with your condition or similar so you’re in good company here.

JJulie and CalifD, great news and a psychological milestone for you both – keep it up. Or down!

Arelkade, the rainforest yoga sounds sublime. Enjoy the new car GDSA.

I was shocked when we arrived in Australia to discover that even healthcare workers weren’t afforded any health insurance as part of their work package. At the same time, my salary in moving to Australia dropped by 50% and a comparable house in a decent suburb cost more than double what we’d left behind in California so it definitely wasn’t an economically driven move. OH wasn’t part of the ‘network’ so there was no aviation work for him. Food, cars, furnishings, clothing & taxes were all far more expensive. The only thing that was cheap was meat and I was a vegetarian! It was quite a struggle in the early days and we wondered what we had done. But it was other aspects of a life down under that attracted us here and they’ve all more than fulfilled their promise proving that money isn’t everything. We are grateful to live in a safe neighbourhood with clean air, where the sun shines every day, where exotic birds inhabit the garden, a place with virtually no crime and Australia has been a wonderful place to raise a child.

Was I the only one fasting yesterday? It was a good one but I did wake in the night feeling hungry. Have a good FD Arelkade and the Monday fasters!

Hi SHs

I am fasting today and in the right mindset for it, which helps. I’m over my tantrum about the scales yesterday.

CaroCree – have you just started 5:2? I read your background bio and noticed that you have several auto immune diseases. I’m glad the BSD helped with that and I hope that 5:2 does as well. I’ve had RA for 18 years and I find my inflammation levels are effected by my weight. I’m using 5:2 to maintain my weight, and I’ve found it’s an excellent tool for that. I have found that if I gain weight my inflammation levels rise, which makes the RA symptoms worse. So finding a way of getting rid of the excess weight and keeping it off in a healthy way is quite important with inflammatory diseases. Since I started maintenance I’ve been working on improving my gut health as this too has a major impact on our immune system.

Thin – glad you had a good FD. The best I can say about mine is that I did not binge and did maintain control of my eating. I’m fasting today and I have my head back in the game.

GDSA – congrats on the new car, I hope it gives you many years of trouble free service.

JJulie & Cali – well done on the weigh-in.
JJ, hope you can fit everything into that suitcase.

Cinque – I’m definitely not famous, just a bit of a nerd with numbers.

Arelkade – I do yoga in my lounge room to a DVD – your session sounds a whole lot more inspiring.

Have a good day everyone.

Oh forgot to say Welcome to CaroCree. Dont be surprised when we start shortening your name. It might be Caro or CC you never know!! Anyhow glad you decided to pop in.

thanks LJoyce, I registered it as 119 calories from Myfitnesspal but was unsure if I picked the right one. I dont usually drink coffee with milk but remember others posted that they have one on fast days, so I thought I would try it.

Hi kiwiozbrit, welcome to the Southern Hemisphere group – although we do have a few people from north of the equator who pop in for a chat regularly.

Plateaus seem to be pretty common, as do issues trying to manage the TDEE on the NFDs. My TDEE is around 1400 and it took me quite a while to structure meals and food choices on my 5 NFDs to give me a healthy balanced diet and also low enough calories so that the 2 FD actually gave me a weight loss. I got stuck on a plateau 1kg from goal and in the end I just accepted that my body was happy there and I should thin of it as maintenance. The closer you get to goal, the less leeway you have with the NFDs. Once you use 5:2 for maintenance those 2 FDs help deal with any overeating on the NFDs.

To break a plateau I’d suggest careful monitoring calories and food choices on NFDs to start with – just so you know exactly what you are eating. The other thing I’d recommend is making changes to food choices to swap any unhealthy foods for better choices. I found this process of changing choices took some time but I do feel my appetite is satisfied more often now and I overeat far less often.