Room 5, ward 2, Cinque?

When Penguin mentioned Amazon, I checked to see if it had landed in Oz yet. And found that it has had a soft launch, whatever that means, in Victoria this past week. So Cinque, you might be among the first to benefit from same day deliveries in Australia.

I had the best FD for a long time yesterday. I made a fresh batch of cauliflower soup (OH brought a large cauli home that he’d found for $1.50, LJ) and the leftover Spanish Fideos. But the main reason was spending the day with a relaxed DD, chatting, laughing and doing nothing much at all. Absolute paradise without the noisy neighbours!

A cool 27C today.

Welcome back, Julie. I enjoyed following your vacation photos on FB each day. I loved seeing photos of the food as well as the landmarks, the everyday scenes of roads and little restaurants, the beautiful Japanese Maples all in fall colors and your family and friends. It was almost like traveling along with you in your suitcase. 😁

Thin, I didn’t realize Amazon’s full site was coming to Australia this soon. https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/11/everything-you-need-to-know-about-amazon-australia/ I knew they had books for at least a few years but didn’t realize they were e-books. I’ve been buying things fro Amazon since the 90’s. They’ve gotten a lot more products over the years. It’s the first place I look to buy everything other than occasional food items and clothing which I have to try on. (I bought the 5:2 book from them, the Kindle version.) They have something called a Prime account which costs $99 per year and it covers shipping on items sold directly by Amazon (which is mostly what I buy) and it’s 2 day shipping. Their customer service is the best I’ve seen anywhere, including brick and mortar stores. If anything at all is wrong with a product they’ll take it back and replace it. They give you a shipping label and pay the freight. There is never an argument from them.

The Prime account covers a lot of free streaming music, tv shows and movies. For us, it’s a good deal because we shop there so often.

I wonder if the Echo will be available there? https://www.amazon.com/all-new-amazon-echo-speaker-with-wifi-alexa-dark-charcoal/dp/B06XCM9LJ4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511755276&sr=8-1&keywords=Amazon%2BEcho&th=1

Thanks everyone for kefir advice, have some research/buying to do when I get back from Straddie next week! We are going over this Friday, coming back Tuesday, large extended/blended family group plus 2 kids under 5 and 2 dogs – watch out Point Lookout! 😉
I rarely drink alcohol these days, but I suspect a few G&Ts sitting on the balcony may be had! I’ll be back on the wagon for food and drink next week….

I don’t know what they call it now, but when I was a lad in Hong Kong there was a place called “Gin Drinkers’ Bay”…..

Penguin, there are likely a lot more strains in your homemade kefir than those at the store. I’ve read that they can’t use those that might continue to ferment and blow up the container.

Thin, in the US Amazon uses UPS, FedEx and the US Postal Service for their 2 day or overnight shipping. They just started a pilot program of their own shipping on the West Coast. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-05/amazon-is-said-to-test-own-delivery-service-to-rival-fedex-ups I’m less than impressed with theirs, but it’s only been a short time. They lost one package, reshipped it and then the original turned up a couple weeks later. They paid for shipping it back to them. A couple times shipments were a day late. (Shipping with Prime is 2 days.) it will be interesting to see how they handle the shipping in Australia.

Thin, such excellent news about your neighbours!
And it was not only bed 5, ward 5, I was in there 5 days. Sincerely Cinque!

It is a week ago I was waiting for the op. They had a busy day and not enough beds so we had to wait and see if the operation would be cancelled. I had come in at 7 and at about 10:30 they sent the poor old lady in the cubicle next to me home, so I was expecting the same. But soon after 11 it was all on.

That was a fast day! I didn’t feel ready to eat until it was so late all they had were water crackers. I ate one, bad decision. So I was really looking forward to breakfast. I’d asked for the diabetic choice and got: weetbix, fruit in jelly, bread and margarine and jam. I had a quarter of the piece of bread and margarine, Horrible.

Then for lunch I got chicken and three veg. It was so good!

Cinque, did you have the surgery the same day you arrived at the hospital or the following day? You mentioned that horrible breakfast, but I wouldn’t think they would let you eat before surgery.

We have Instant porridge here which I don’t like at all. After 1 minute in the micro they are one big mooshy mess. Then there are Old Fashioned or rolled oats or rolled oats that take 3 minutes in the micro. Those are the ones I like. They keep some shape after cooking. Steel cut oats take about 20 minutes on the stove. I’ve never tried them in the micro. I like them, but rarely make them because they take too long. I’ve read that you can cook them in a rice cooker. Or the Instant Pot. But I’ve never tried.

I love whole cranberries cooked in with the oatmeal. It satisfies my sour tooth. 😁 I add a small handful to about 3/4 cup of oatmeal.

Cinque, I’ve finally made the connection with ward 5, room 5 now that you’ve added another 5. Cinque! D’oh! Something else that went over my head this week was Penguin’s reference to a dog’s name causing confusion. Unless Penguin (or another member of the household) shares that name, I am still baffled.

CalifD, I understand that Amazon either establish their own delivery service or use reliable brands already established within the country of the market they’re entering – or a combination. It’s important to them to offer options that have already developed trust in the customer base. Yes, I’m interested to see how this works in Oz. Most populations are concentrated in coastal cities but there are also communities scattered far and wide in remote parts of the continent. I’d be happy with 3 day shipping but usually have to wait so long that, by the time the item arrives, I often can’t remember what it was I bought. This isn’t just a function of sluggish shipping; vendors aren’t always efficient with dispatch.

We had a delicious meal at the Vietnamese restaurant last night. Lots of really different, fresh flavours. Pain on the scales this morning.

Good morning all.

Thank you for the welcome home.

I did not loose any weight yesterday on my FD. i think my body is adjusting to the return home and I am still feeling a little sluggish.

I will have another FD today as I really want to get back into loosing some weight not just maintaining the loss I have already had. I still have my goals to get to and with Christmas just around the corner I need to loose a few more KG before the big day!!

Reading the posts about Amazon and postage…..I have purchased books before and they took some time to arrive. I have also purchased goods from Japan, mainly make-up that my daughter likes to use and their postage for overseas had no options and was a flat $15 rate. The goods arrived in Australia within 3 days. Where I have ordered things from Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane for them to take 10-15 days for delivery. It seems that normal post things come up here by truck where if you pay the extra things will come by air and be quicker. I usually get the cartridges for our office printer from a company where if you spend more than $100 (which is easy to do when paying for these things) the postage is free and they arrive the next day.

Also Postage in Japan is so much better and a better price. For example, I usually take treats for some friends in Japan that I dont always get to see so post the treats to them once I get there. It costs me about 1,000 yen depending on the size of the package, which is about AUD$12.00. A few years ago I posted a block of vegemite chocolate to my friend in Japan who is a vegemite fanatic. The cost from Cairns to Japan was $50 for just one block of chocolate!!!
Another interesting thing is that recently the transport company Toll has been purchased by Japan Post and while in Japan recently we were discussing that Japan Post has interest in Australia Post now.

I went looking for porridge yesterday afternoon. I went to a health food shop, but got confused with all the different brands and packets and still did not find the steel cut variety. Then I went to coles, both the cereal and health food aisles but was still confused. My mum used to buy Uncle Tobys oats, which you can still buy but I wanted to try something different. Ended up not buying any at all.

Thin, I was unsure about Cinque’s ward 5 bed 5 post too until the 5 days was said and then it clicked as well.

Cinque, great to see you posting again. You must be feeling better. Hugs are still being sent to you along with well wishes!!

LJ, you didn’t have 5:2 in your toolbox last Christmas. You won’t gain 9kgs this year. You will work around the temptations using your FDs. If you do have a binge, it will be the first for a long time and you will learn from it. Don’t worry! You are a vastly improved person with your food choices and control than the person you were this time last year. We’ll start the Silly Season challenge in a couple of days and those participating will support each other. We will not gain any weight LJ!

JJulie, the steel cut oats I use are from Coles. I can’t recall the brand because I empty the packet into an airtight container. Give them a try! About the postage, I buy some products from China and they seem to arrive before I’ve pressed ‘send’. I don’t know know how they do it.

Cinque, it is indeed marvellous to have you back. Thank you for asking, DD had one day off before embarking on the exciting final year of practical rotations. But the vet hospital where she works on Saturdays had an interesting surgical case scheduled so they invited her in to observe/help. It was a cat that had been scalped in a fight and they had to do a skin graft to re-construct its face. Sounds disgusting to me but DD loved it – so there went the day off! I hope you’re enjoying the day with your little ones. Are you breathing well? Does it hurt to laugh?

Good decisions LJoyce,
And don’t forget some of your other tools like that zen eating one you were doing.

I had a lovely time with family today, especially as they brought some panadeine for me, things are getting easier.

Wow Thin, your daughter is a true medico! She will go far.

Thanks Penguin! Thanks Cinque.

Hi Everyone, welcome back JjJwell done on your trip. Travelling and keeping weight stable can be done without compromising the enjoyment of different cultural foods.

Cinque – good to hear you have some help and more pain relief to help get through these early days. You’re due lots of pampering.

Ljoyce – I’m seconding Thin. This will be the Christmas when you look at food differently. You have been gathering and learning 5:2 tools all year and you’ll be keeping them in practice. My suggestion is you don’t give up any fasting days – keep doing 2 a week, even if you have to shift them around. Great that you are passing some of the cooking on to another generation.

Hi Merry, are Malcolm and Vivian a couple? I thought that was one man’s name!

JJulie, yes, what Merry said, I forgot to say good job on your holiday weight.

Thin – I think you’re right. I’m getting mv mixed up with someone else -sorry mv. How are you managing with your diabetes?

Thin – Congrats to your daughter for finishing her year👏🏼 – laughing at her 1 day off going in voluntarily to watch an op. Wishing her well for her last year.

Ah, just remembered a topic – favourite bird – sparrow, the common little ladies and gents. This week a new family of 3 babies made it out of the nest and snuggled down on top of a large post on our veranda, with parental supervision from the gutter above – very sweet.

Hi all, second time poster. Merryme – I enjoyed reading your plan for tackling the silly season. I’m looking forward to having 5:2 up my sleeve for this period, so I can indulge a little an feel less guilty.

So, my wheels well and truly fell off after week one. I did a my first fast day in week two and at 9pm gave in to my extreme cravings and ate a bowl of Sustain cereal. I actually think it was the Magnum ice cream the day before – sugar seems to completely erode any willpower for the days following.

So – I didn’t fast all last week but feel very privileged to have maintained the 2kg I lost in week one. I have been at a conference on Monday and Tuesday and had no chance of doing fast days and I even ate 10 nuggets from McDonalds last night in my last hurrah before shaking myself back into reality. Jumped on the scales today, and have maintained the weight loss despite the deviation.

Today was my first fast day this week and it was going pretty well until about 5-6pm. Went to the supermarket and managed only to buy a little soup for dinner and some chicken necks for my dogs. Took them for a walk after eating my soup, and now ravenously hungry. Going to go to bed early to try and fight the urge.

Hopefully I wake up tomorrow feeling stronger for having survived today’s fast.

Cinque. Interesting. I don’t buy all of it but I believe what it says about the body having a particular weight it regards as the norm, and that you can adjust this. Over the last few years my body norm has come down in steps. I lose some then plateau for a while, but the plateau works both ways – I can break the rules and be unwise quite a lot before I gain weight. If I then start to gain weight I can get it down to the norm very easily. To get it below the norm requires effort. The weight my body regards as normal is now about 45 pounds less than when I started. I would like another 7 pounds but I have been a little too relaxed lately.

Good evening to all,

Yes it is late, I know!! I just had a busy day and although I tried a couple of time to log in and post it just did not happen.

Weight this morning was 79.2kg so that is a little loss from my return home.

I have only had liquids today and then Taiko drum practice tonight that really created a sweat!! It was great to get back to the drumming again.

Thin, I looked for the oats in the supermarket today and read the packets of everyone I found but could not see where they were steel cut. One packet that looked good though was Lowans, but I still did not buy as they had two varieties, original and quick.

Yes Christmas is coming and I wondered what to buy our daughters for their presents. Daughter #1 informed us she will be traveling a lot next year. Wanting to do a singles cruise, then travel to New York, but then also Japan in April. She has saved up some money and has taken a year off of teaching so she can spend some time for herself after her terrible breakup. We have offered to pay her airfare to New York as her Christmas Present. Daughter #2 informed us she is wanting a new laptop to do the special effects for her photography, so we have some expensive presents this year!! As my father used to say to me, what you get now you wont get later!!

There is a lot of information about Christmas foods etc on the posts and I just have to take some time to digest them all. So much information but too little time today to take it all in.

LindsayL, you said you are in Bali. When we arrived on Sunday morning we were told we could not leave the plane until advised due to flights being diverted to Cairns and they were hoping to clear the terminal before anymore people arrived. So we sat on the plane for 20 minutes after we arrived. It was not too bad in the end for us as we were at the end of our journey, but those diverted were only on their beginning and had already been stopped. Dont know the outcome from their journey except that I have seen that the flights are still cancelled even today.

Well now it is getting late so will catch up again soon.

Morning losers & maintainers,

Merry, you’re such a good strategist. Dining with like-minded friends and having an OH who enjoys sharing is such a bonus. Have a wonderful time! Hoping both your dear OFMs are recovering well. I hadn’t realised that I’d had a fast buddy yesterday although you did say so at the top of your post.

Lindsay, I thought that was funny about the week between Xmas and NY having no dates!

SBullen, I also find that FDs can be harder when I’ve had too much sugar the day before. If you’re likely to feel hungry later at night, try keeping something in reserve in your calorie bank such as a boiled egg or 50gm of cottage cheese. If you find you don’t need it, you’ve given yourself an extra bonus.

JJulie, good job staying in the 70s. Steel Cut Oats are with the other varieties and clearly marked on the packet. Lovely gifts for your girls. Do they both live at home? Our DD loves photography too; for her 21st we gave her a voucher to upgrade her camera. That’s been 11 months and she’s had no time off all year to go and buy one.

Cinque, I liked the article you posted. I have no scientific justification for it but the idea of losing weight slowly just makes sense to me and feels right. I doubted you’d be buying his book when I read that exercise is essential to weight loss which we now know isn’t true. I wouldn’t buy it either because, despite what he claims, I think it would seem like a perpetual diet with no clearly defined parameters. I need strict boundaries which is why I’m so well-suited to 5:2. It’s so easy to make it a sustainable WOL.

My UK brother’s staying up to watch the Ashes and wants to know why Adelaide is a half hour ahead of Brisbane when it’s so much further west.

Hi all. Yet another quick skim through posts. Apologies for the fact that I am only posting about myself at the moment as I’m unable to take in much on my quick skim throughs to comment on others posts.

I have my second lot of minor surgery this arvo following the complications from last week. Fingers crossed things go to plan this time.

MissD is having a 2 night sleepover at a friends ths weekend while OH and I have a weekend away. We were planning on some beach time but the forecast is storms and rain…..all good though….time spent together is a bonus regardless of the weather. We made a pac that we will not give bday or xmas presents and instead will have time away together to celebrate the occasion….early Dec is OHs bday.

My planned FDs fell in a hole this week. ..yet another full on busy week. Oh well theres always next week.

Best wishes to everyone

Cinque – I read the article and thought I’d respond in a separate post as I have a bit to say. I do agree with some of it, but not all. Losing weight in stages certainly worked for me when I lost the bulk of my weight, so guess I agree with that as this is the first time I’ve kept the weight off for years rather than just a few weeks/months. I lost roughly 25kg then had an 18month break and maintained before attempting the next 25kg. I had medical reasons for the 18 month break, but I have often wondered if it actually helped me get o my goal weight in the end.

Set point theory however, I’m not so sure about – it’s a theory that can be made to fit some of the lived experience, but not all of it. I’ve lost and regained drastic amounts of weight over the decades. My experience has been that my body is very efficient at regaining losses, but I don’t know how much was biological mechanisms and how much was just reverting to old eating and thinking patterns. I believe it’s not about a set point because all of my old experience was that I did not return to my old weight but to a higher one. This debunks “set point” as I would have returned to the same weight if set point were true, not a higher weight.

However there are a couple of studies that show that morbidly obese people who lose large amounts of weight quickly also have a drop in calorie requirements that is beyond expectations – their TDEE is under the average by a greater percentage after weight loss than before. To me this better explains why, when these people regain weight they end up at a higher weight not their original weight. They return to eating the same amount of food as they ate before dieting, but now those calories maintain a higher weight than they did before weight loss. To me this better fits my own experience and that of other morbidly obese people that I know.
I know that my own TDEE is well below the average that the accepted calculation methods say it should be and it’s been that way for a long time. As I’ve tracked everything during weight loss and beyond I also know that this worsened after weight loss.
Before I started my weight loss journey in 2012 I weighed 127kg and over the month that I tracked my food (before stating to diet) I averaged 8,390kj (1,998cal) per day. According to the TDEE calculators I should have been able to eat 9,365kj (2,238cal) and maintain that weight. This means my body needed 10% fewer calories that it theoretically should have to maintain my weight (and my weight was stable over the month I monitored). Since losing those 50kg my body requires fewer calories, which you would expect, but in percentage terms I am even further under the average TDEE than I was before. My current TDEE according to the calculators is 6,780kj (1,620cal), but I know from monitoring that the calories I actually need to maintain this weight are actually 5,800kj (1380cal). This represents a 14% reduction on the calories that I should theoretically be able to eat without gaining weight. It’s more than 2 1/2 years now since I lost this weight and my TDEE hasn’t improved so I don’t think time is going to bring it any closer to normal.

The support group that I had at the time, with others who were morbidly obese and trying to lose weight quickly using a VLCD program reported a similar outcome. For some it was a reason to admit defeat and give up. For me it explained why it was such a struggle to maintain the weight loss – and after dealing with the shock it was actually helpful.

What I don’t know is whether the patterns that occur with the morbidly obese are the same for people who are just overweight – especially those who only entered that “plump” territory in middle age and for the first time ever are faced with the possible need to diet. It’s possible that people who oscillate between binge eating themselves into obesity and crash dieting may have bodies that work a little differently to those who have mostly been a normal weight, or close to it. I guess where I’m going with this, is that one theory may not fit all human beings.

GDay. Being in a very different time zone this is late – so I hope it went well.

Calif We are just holidaying…back to work in a couple of weeks.
GDSA hope all went well today.
JJ is it good to be home?
Cinque hope you are recovering well.
Ljoyce…thank you for your kind words about the scales….but although they may weigh higher than mine at home, they are still going up at a rate that alarms me. Hotel food is laden with hidden calories I think. Even the wiser choices seem to taste too buttery to be the same as a similar dish I would cook. I don’t know what the answer is….unless it’s to stay home (and that’s not going to happen).
Thank you too LJoyce for your honest and insightful comments about weight gain post diet. I once went on a liquid (modifast) diet and peeled the weight off … But also losing my hair and gall bladder in the process. Once I restarted ‘normal’ eating, I regained it all….plus ten kilos, which is where I am now.

1 December, tomorrow for me, is the first day of winter. Today has been a lovely clear day with brilliant sunshine in our part of the country, but cold. 3C with a wind making it feel like minus 3C. In the north and east they have had snow. Tonight’s temp for us is forecast to be minus 3 or 4 C. In the far north it will be minus 10C. I like cold, clear weather, but it is the season for solid, warming and filling food. This evening we are going to a country pub we favour, where there will be a log fire and good food. Yesterday I bought the Christmas goose, which is now sitting in my freezer. This is a fun, sociable time of year and the one at which I most need 5:2.

I had my follow up appt yesterday. They kept my sister and me waiting two and a half hours and then got us in to say yes there was a cancer (non-small-cell which is good) and yes they definitely got it all, so as lung cancers go I won the lucky ride. They really don’t need to follow up, but they will anyway, with scans for the next five years. I can get my stitches out on Monday.
I was wrecked and my sister kept from working on her final course assignment, but we figured that if it was a cosmic bargain we won’t complain.

My breathing has been amazingly good, not that I have worked them hard, but it is as though I haven’t lost half a lung at all. The sites where they had all the tubes (it was keyhole surgery) got quite sore and swollen so that made the stitches really hurt, but that is settling down now.

I just need to gradually increase what I do as my pain levels allow and keep looking after my health.

So it is good news from me.