Merry Christmas Everyone!
I hope you all have a Wonderful Christmas celebrating it however you like to celebrate-the beach sounds fun- and with all your precious families.
Its been a while (again) since Ive been here and I caught up reading the emails last night while watching the Christmas Carols. Were you there Arelkade, or watching it on T.V?
Lovely post Cinque, you are such a warm, caring person. It goes to show people can’t continue to blame their background/home life for bad behavior.
Calif, you are doing so well to lose weight at this time of year.
Thin, what a wonderful thing for your daughter to do. I must say it’s very sad to see all the stray, mangey dogs in Asia.
We had our Christmas celebration with all our kids and granddaughters on Saturday and my extended family at my Sister’s yesterday. My OH (a policeman) and my older daughter (a paramedic) had to work yesterday but OH did come a bit later as he works shorter shifts.
Both lunches were a bit the same with Roast lamb, baked ham, lots of prawns, 2 salads but there was bread and fried rice at my sisters and we had roast potatoes, pumpkin and steamed green beans (our garden is producing lots- everyone will eat beans!! haha. We had trifle and fruit salad and at my sister’s we had that plus a gluten/dairy free chocolate cake and a pavlova
My weakness is the cheese, deli meat, nut, platter afterwards. I was mostly able to give the lollies and chocolates a miss
3 of our kids and their partners stayed on to play a couple of board games ( Dominion, if anyone’s interested) so it was a wonderful day/night.
Both days we didn’t cook dinner so my weight this morning was 59.2- not too bad
Today Im going to my daughters for lunch. They are doing a smoked beef brisket and Roast Pork Belly and they’ve made it clear -no deserts- Im happy with that 🙂 She lives close to us so we are hoping OH can drop in while working and have his radio with him-Sorry to all the Australians who pay tax 🙂
Im in with the Boxing Day fasters Gang tomorrow!! My younger son and his GF are going to Tassie tonight for 2 weeks so we won’t have to cook for them and my daughter, who lives at home is ‘wedding shredding’ for hers that is in less than 3 weeks so that should make the next couple of weeks easier.
Have a Merry Christmas All and Much Blessing for the Next Year!! x x

Merry Christmas again, everyone! It’s Christmas Eve here and most of you are well into Chrtmas Day. Arelkade, I had to look up the Christmas Carols Live from the Meyer Music Bowl in Melbourne that you were watching. We’re you there in person or watching on TV? I did a search for it on YouTube on our TV and found a few songs from this year’s program, but also a couple 2+ hour full shows from previous years. The quality of the recordings is not like I remember YouTube from years ago. This looks like live broadacast TV. So it’s been playing on our TV for the past hour or so. One big plus for Christmas in the summer is to be able to enjoy a concert like this in an outdoor venue like this in shorts, t-shirts, and low back dresses in what looks like lovely warm weather. We just watched The Wiggles! The big show was the little kids in the audience, dancing along, with their hands in the air, mimicking raindeer horns and singing. They are just adorable!

We spent a good deal of time in the car today. It’s 2+ hours drive each way to OH’s neice and her family’s home. Thankfully, (and amazingly) the traffic was moving perfectly with no stalls or delays. We had a very nice day. All bets were off as far as fasting or watching calories. Lots of chocolate, potato crisps and other foods that I haven’t looked at in many months. Last night the eggplant Parmesan was wonderful and so was a large glass of Chardonnay, and peppermint bark at home —and then half awake after about 3 am with heartburn! Ugh! My stomach balks at eating things now that weren’t very uncommon a year and 12 kg ago!

I am so lucky to have met all of you here on the Southern Hemispherites thread: Cinque, thinatlast, LJoyce, penguin, JustJulie, GdayfromSA, StayinThin, LindsayL, Arelkade, Merryme, Minka and others. You’re a big part of the reason I’ve been able to stick to 5:2 since the beginning of May, even on days or weeks when the scale decided to go on strike and refused to move. Each of you provided encouragement and ideas to get things moving again, and sometimes just diversion. I love that we’re frequently off topic, discussing everything under the sun. I’ve learned new things from each of you, tried new foods and recipes and expanded my ways of thinking. I’ve considered new things. I feel so lucky to have friends like each of you, some that I “talk” with each day. Thank you for being here. ❤️

The first thing I thought of this morning was my 5:2 friends, wondering how everyone fared and hoping you all came out of it unscathed.

Thanks for your post Cinque, I like what you wrote.

Stay, it was great to hear from you, I really enjoyed your post and read it twice. How many children do you have? You have really been celebrating! But, at that weight, the mother of the bride is going to outshine everyone. Sadly, I’m not your weight this morning but I did get myself back to a happy weight by Christmas morning and all day I didn’t eat any treats or extra items that couldn’t wait for another day. We had fun at the beach (eating cherries), the water was the most amazing turquoise colour and I thought it was good of the life savers to sacrifice a few hours of their own Christmas so that people could enjoy the water safely.

Again, hats off to your OH and daughter Stay for the work they do. I hope they weren’t confronted with anything unpleasant and this taxpayer doesn’t begrudge your OH an hour with his family with a walkie talkie ready to leap into action if required.

The Christmas dinner was great and my only regret for the day was going back for seconds of dessert, instantly feeling sick once eaten. Not too pretty on the scales this morning but I expected that and will now concentrate on getting below 60kg over the next week.

I was interested in your Dominion game as we always play games on Christmas Day. DD had found one called Arrogance and we played Celebrity Heads. The men resist the games and when we have team games, we put them on what we call ‘the grumpy bum team’ (coined by DD when she was younger) and usually they end up laughing and having fun despite themselves, especially if we let them win. Today, Boxing Day (there’s something for you look up CalifD), we have friends and neighbours coming over and there will be board games but not a lot of food.

CalifD, thanks for your nice message. I’m pleased to hear that your car trip was a smooth one and that you arrived safely. I agree, it’s not a day to worry about calories. And it’s interesting how some foods just no longer appeal – I didn’t bother with crisps, stuck to one G&T while others were getting refills and thought there’s no need to stuff my face with ‘treats’ that will taste just as good later in the week.

LJ, same goes with your car trip. We came home in the small hours and there was wasn’t much traffic. I enjoyed the cracker joke. Our cracker jokes were very lame but the ‘fish’ cracker prize was very popular. Does everyone know to what I’m referring?

Hi Everyone

Haha LJoyce, I love that idea of a unforgiving skirt!! and no, I’d no sooner go to a Boxing Day Sale than go naked in Bourke street!!
Calif, wow thats along way to go for one day and I agree, if we can’t eat what we want for Christmas day then life is pretty drab. Christmas is to be celebrated!
Thin, we had a bit of trifle left over, I had some as my whole and complete dinner on Christmas eve and Christmas night 🙁 I will look out for the game Arrogance. We play Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride is also a favourite.

Thin, I have 4 kids. The eldest, a girl-33, is married with 2 little girls. The second, a boy-31, is married with a 9month old baby. They both own their own homes that are 10 mins away. The 3rd, a girl-28, is engaged and her and her fiancé live with us while they save as much a houses are going up by 🙁 and our 4th is a boy -24 who is also living back at home. He and his GF live between our house and her parents, lol-they are also saving to buy a house but that won’t happen for at least a year.

Today I’m enjoying at day at home by myself. Im Fasting, although OH doesn’t want me to. He wants to eat all the leftover food- he hates to throw anything out. So I’ve compromised by eating a small prawn curry for dinner tonight- no rice for me, thanks. My Pilates Instructor is holding a class for those who are around so i will do that tonight too but my main exercise will be mowing lawns- they are growing at an incredible rate 🙁

Enjoy these days between Christmas and New Year- I love the peace and quiet! xx

Hello everyone, lovely to read about your Christmas adventures.
I woke up this morning with no pain! It was a miraculous difference. Pain completely gone. And none all day, even though I have been gradually doing more with my poor arm.
Do you think it was:
A. Christmas magic
B. When I stretched, 2 days ago, to check I didn’t feel restricted, I cleared adhesions I wasn’t aware of
C. I reached a turning point overnight

Whatever, it is SUCH a pleasure.

This afternoon I even got down the pressure cooker and made that Nigerian red kidney bean stew, finally. What a treat, I feel so satisfied after my first bean meal for 5 weeks! (I think you will understand LJoyce)

Edit, just saw your post LJoyce, best wishes to your uncle, I hope he gets seen soon!

Cali, I think you are doing more than 24 hours unless you actually start eating at midnight after your 24 hours is up, and I don’t get the impression that you do that. In the FAQ on this this site it does say that a fast day is meant to be 36 hours – from just after dinner on your NFD to breakfast time on your next NFD. (See the “Is a “fast day” 24 or 36 hours?” question on the FAQ link at the top of the screen.)
In reality, a lot of us don’t eat breakfast so we’re probably doing more like 40 hours on a normal FD. Of course that includes eating up to 500 cals during those “fasting” hours. (I’ve never attempted anything as strict as a water only fast day.) I’m not how long B2B fasts should be, I’ve assumed it’s 36+24 more. Trying to do 36+36 means the fast would end in the evening of a third consecutive FD – that sounds completely unreasonable! I don’t think Michael Mosely covered this as it wasn’t the way he approached his FDs, I don’t remember reading about it in his book.

Cinque, I’m so glad to hear you are feel and moving better. The fact that you’ve actually started cooking is a good sign that you have more energy again. Glad you finally got that stew cooked.

Stay, given how many many people live with you I’d imagine having the house to yourself for the day would feel like a bit of a treat.
I have a similar attitude to boxing day sales. We don’t have the same tradition in South Australia, as until very recently we’ve had really restrictive labour laws that prevented most shops from opening on public holidays. Frankly there is nothing I want to buy that I’d risk getting trampled for.

LJoyce, your post wasn’t showing before mine last night, it just became visible this morning. I hope your uncle got his meds sorted out and is feeling better. It sounds like California isn’t the only place that sometimes has very long waits in the emergency rooms. Part of the problem here is that there are still many uninsured people who don’t have other options even for regular illnesses. Emergency rooms are required by law to see people, so that’s where many go. It had gotten better with Obamacare, but now that there will be no penalty for not buying insurance, I suspect there will be more uninsured again.

Arel, my sentiments exactly on finally having a day to relax without having to worry about driving someplace, preparing a holiday meal, or making sure the house is in order for guests. This year seemed like I was always a step behind, with some decorations that didn’t get up until the very last minute, and some cleaning that was last minute also. I need to be more organized. The intention is alway there, but the execution sometimes doesn’t materialize. Too much time spent online I guess. But in terms of my time spent here, that is certainly a positive thing! The couple kg’s I put on over the holidays is nothing compared to what I weighed at this time last year. And I have that accomplishment to share with all of you here on a daily basis. Thank you for being here!

Cinque, I think all 3 of those things contributed to your feeling better and pain free. This way of eating has left your body in good shape and able to cope with the surgery. Maybe it also contributed to making it a less extensive one than it could have been. I was wondering about something when you were talking about your arm movement. Did they do the keyhole incision under your arm? Because of ribs being in the way it’s hard to imagine where else they could have done it. If so, that had to disrupt a lot of muscles and things to get over to the lung area. No wonder you were in pain.

All of you will be waking up to Wednesday soon, while I’m still in Tuesday morning and just starting a much needed FD. I think most of you had a FD yesterday, so I hope it was successful and that you’ll be waking up a little thinner!

Good morning,
I loved the magic dog joke LJoyce, it’s the best cracker joke!
So glad you had a nice day G’day, sorry about your own family… but glad about your mum.
Stay, what a lovely busy family. That does make Christmas fun!
Arel, what a lovely classic Christmas celebration. And hooray for a rest day.
Cali I’m glad you had Boxing Day off work, even if it wasn’t called Boxing Day.
LJoyce, congratulations on hiding all your treats. I hope. They can stay hidden for a few weeks and give you a break.

Yes the keyhole incision was a couple of inches under my arm, I believe they go in between the ribs, I think they must have pushed and tugged a lot, and I believe the surgeon reached in with fingers to feel the mass.
I don’t have any more energy, but being able to use my arm again makes everything easy and so many things possible, like getting my pressure cooker down! Today I have started some bread making. Woot!

It’s hot here today but only 35, enjoy that pool G’day!

Hi everyone else, I hope you have a lovely cruisey day.

Thanks for all the queries about my uncle. Although they still aren’t completely sure what caused his symptoms, they suspect an infection. He had an angiogram (and balloon angioplasty) about 10 days ago and the fact that he is running a fever and has quite a bit of pain at the site of his angiogram and down his leg, means that it’s likely an infection in the artery access wound in his groin. He was eventually admitted to the RAH through the night and is feeling a bit better this morning.

I did a little bit of planting this morning as I was given several plants for christmas and I find it hard to keep potted plants alive at this time of year unless they are in self watering pots. They are well watered in now and I’m hoping will cope with the hot day.

It’s a very quiet day here for me, although I’ll need to go to the shops for my aunt later. She’s low on milk and doesn’t have my uncle to drive her while he’s in hospital.

Hope everyone is coping with their post christmas fasting.

Stay, I’m only off of work for Monday and today (Tues). But it should be a quiet week as many people take vacation time for the days between Christmas and New Years. I plan to use the time to catch up on things that were put off the last couple weeks when things were rather hectic. We will be off next Monday as well. 400 grams is a nice loss after all the eating over the holidays. More will probably come off on your next day. Even after all the wonderful holiday food, it feels good to get back to a normal fasting schedule, doesn’t it?

LJoyce, it’s good to hear they discovered the cause of your uncle’s problem. Hope they can clear it up now with medication.

Cinque, good to hear that your arm movement is getting back to normal. Recovering from the anesthesia they used for surgery and pain killers after, not to mention decreased lung capacity. It sounds to me like you’re recovering very quickly.

Thin, I decided to do the free 7 day trial of Starz that has Outlanders and we watched 2 episodes tonight. It seems really good so far. We’ll try to watch a couple more during the week and then keep the subscription if it still seems interesting. Being that it’s such a popular series, I expect it will be a fun thing to watch.

Gday, how wonderful for you and MissD that she has a new family, complete with kids to spend holidays with now. Both you and she must be delightedly!

My FD today went well. The lack of food was actually a welcome feeling after indulging over the past 3 days. I was up to 60.2 this morning and hope it won’t take too long to get back to the 58’s.

CalifD, that bit of weight will come off quickly I feel sure. I think you did so well with eating carefully in the lead-up to Christmas, that your body will readily absorb any excesses and the weight will disappear with the help of the first fast or two. I’m glad that you’re enjoying Outlander. You mentioned the royals in another thread and I went off on a ranting tangent but meant to say that, although not a royal watcher, I do enjoy, ‘The Crown’ on Netflix. I hope that, like you, I can get below 60kg by Monday. I’ve only eaten 250cals today as I skipped my 2pm cauliflower soup. Have a cruisey few days at work.

Penguin, that seems sad. I hadn’t known that about marriages breaking down at Christmas. But I know that there are lots of family ‘bust-ups’ when extended families get together! Our annoying relatives live overseas so we don’t have to bother with them – or they us. We, and our family friends that we’ve spent most Christmases with for the past 25 years have never exchanged a cross word. Anyway, lovely that all was harmonious in your part of the world. Sorry about yours GDSA.

Good that your uncle is alright LJ.

Hope everyone’s back in the swing of it all.

LJ, I bet you won’t have gained 9kgs so it’s sure to be a big improvement over last year. I’m considering an extra fast on Friday too – I’ll see how things look on the scales by then. ADF never appealed much before but, compared to B2B, it seems quite benign.

Good morning all. Well the xmas tree has been dismantled and the house is on its way to looking normal again. Will vacuum today to rid the carpet of tinsel ‘droppings’ which managed to find their way into every room of the house.

The weather is kinder today at 36 degrees so feeling a bit more motivated to get stuck into some chores. I have dropped 1kg of xmas weight so far so by the weekend i should be back to normal too.

Interesting Penguin your comment on xmas season divorce and DV and family upsets in general. I sold my 4wd a few days before xmas and on boxing day called into the buyers house to finalise the signing of the registration papers. The adult children and grandchildren had returned home from across the state for xmas. Wow it was on. Yelling, screaming, grandmother in tears, obscenities being thrown at one another. Being a small town i do know of the family and i would not have thought they would have been so dysfunctional. The grandmother spent some time with me outside pouring her heart out and i felt so sorry for her. As my mother used to say…..you never know what goes on behind closed doors.

Time for my second coffee for the morning and get stuck into chores. Have a great day all.

LJoyce and thin, I don’t take body measurements but I’m sure my waist and thighs expand and contract a lot even in a day sometimes. I can feel a definite difference in a pair of tight jeans on a FD as the day goes on. Tight changes to roomy. I think it’s all in the water weight for me. Same with weight. LJ, I agree that a lot is dependent on how much food is sitting around in the intestines at any given time. Some days things just don’t seem to move along as quickly. Fiber and salt seem to play a part in my case. Although I was at a low weight this morning after fasting yesterday, tomorrow I’ll probably be up. It could have been almost another FD until about 5 pm. Then the holiday leftovers came out of the frig by OFM and I figured that I really did want to fast tomorrow and I might as well eat tonight. A 3 day fast would be too difficult. Or boring.

Anyway, it just seems to me that no matter what our weight is day to day, it really is the trend that is important. Either it is heading downward because we’re losing, or staying stable because we’re maintaining. And I do think that maintaining might be more difficult than losing.

Cali, If I could react like a sensible person to the scales I wouldn’t bother to measure either. Unfortunately I have a traumatic relationship with the bathroom scales. If my weight is up it always seems to lead to despair and eating. And sometimes a loss will lead to celebratory eating. What is really odd if that I can take my measurements and clearly see that they’ve increased and I’ve put on weight and I can be calm an philosophical about it and move straight to doing a FD or a controlled day without fuss. It makes no sense, but I’ve learned to use what works for me rather than what sabotages my efforts. Scales are evil – at least they are to me, only my tape measure has a kind voice.

Good morning everyone. It is cool again in Melbourne, such a treat, and rain is expected – my poor garden is waiting patiently.

Cali, that ‘pounds to kilo’ thing is such a good example of the strange but amazing way our brains work with patterns and anxieties.
I am so glad that you can tape measure without stress too LJoyce.

I’m another one whose waist measurement changes drastically. It makes me think of my baby, and toddler, daughter whose belly swelled with a feed so she looked like a frog.

I didn’t have my Thursday fast day yesterday, but I had a sensible day: no snacks, no seconds (and no desserts ofcourse). I’ll be doing the same today.

My computer is behaving itself again, hooray. I find it much easier reading and writing on it.

Best wishes everyone for a good day.

CalifD, I thought that was very interesting about the conversion. And great that it’s worked so well for you! I also used to have the emotional eating feelings that you describe after weighing – often just thinking, “oh well, I might as well just eat this too” (especially during January after another substantial Christmas gain).

I’m still an obsessive weigher but it doesn’t dictate my mood, just what I eat. I find maintenance requires constant vigilance and, without that guide, I would be lost. So, I’m at the other extreme of LJ’s not weighing – I take my travel scales on holiday! (Have you found a set of those on Amazon yet?) 😆

For example, yesterday after a FD, I noted that I’d shed a decent amount of weight and didn’t wan’t to blow it. So I was careful all day and today I’m rewarded by being at the low end of 60kg. This means it’s not necessary to add the extra FD I was talking of earlier in the week and allows me to switch Sunday’s FD for tomorrow. Not that I want to drink on NYE, but several of my neighbours are going to the river for a picnic and it would be nice to take a share plate – and be able to partake.

Back to your conversion, CalifD, when I moved here I also had no concept of kilograms. Unfortunately, I used it as an excuse to bury my head in the sand about my increasing weight – 87kgs seemed a lot lighter than 190lbs. In fact, I have just had to look that up and am pretty horrified to write 190lbs – remembering that I was 140lbs in California. Oh well, I’m 132lbs now so yippee!

After thinking that the owners had finally moved in next door due to how quiet it had suddenly become last month, it turns out that they have listed the entire 5bd house on airbnb. It sleeps 10. The result so far has been pretty horrid. Large groups of noisy people in rapid succession apparently hosting their families and friends with no vested interest in our neighbourhood or consideration for the people who live here. It feels like we’re living next to the municipal pool. We live on an otherwise very quiet street.

Good morning Cinque. I hope you get the rain you desire. I doubt we shall see any now for several months.

LJ, it’s 30C today and then a fairly hot weekend – look out!

Hello all. Good to read your Christmas/holiday posts and know how you spent your days. Cinque it’s such good news you’re progressing and feeling pain free at times. Calif it’s great to have a friend in the US and hear about your traditions. Thin it’s shocking about the airbnb house next door. Can’t your local government do something?
Penguin I read your post about family issues with interest and have been reflecting on mine since Christmas Day. We have a large family and we’ve always shared our celebrations and this year was no different. However a young woman married into the family five years ago (not to my son I’m pleased to say) and has changed the dynamic. Lots of Boxing Day tension, and a resolution that next year instead of the 20 odd who come for Christmas, and the 25 on Boxing Day, it will be just the 8 of us (us, our daughter, her husband and two little girls, and our son, his wife, their son and their new baby. I guess as we get older, it’s time to scale back but it’s sad when the catalyst is a young woman who treats us all so indifferently and with such disdain. I was quite worried about my husband late on Christmas night – silly man had had chest pains which he’d kept to himself, not wanting to spoil things, while hoping it was indigestion. Time to ease up, I think.
Anyway, as I had planned, all the food has gone, including tipping a huge bowl of trifle a brother made, down the toilet. I didn’t know what else to do with it, and I must say it felt quite liberating. Back to full fast days next week, and I am feeling happy and confident that 2018 is the year I finally conquer my weight problems. Enjoy the rest of the break.

We all seem to be posting on two threads, so most of mine is on the other. Our Christmas left overs are now gone, apart from some bought in snacky things currently in the freezer. I was looking forward to a quiet New Year (shocking thing for a northener to say, unbelievable really), but OH has suggested we get rid of the snacky things with a drinks/eats session with the neighbours at lunchtime on the first. That is possibly better than disposing of them as trifle, the neighbours can wear them on their hips.

To finish off the Christmas family disaster theme. We have a charity which cares for people who attempt suicide or the families of those who succeed. They have reported a fifty percent rise in their case load over Christmas. This is apparently normal, happens every year. Enough of that – tis the season to be jolly.

Thank you for the commiserations Lindsay, Cinque and CalifD. I walked up to the Council this morning and you were quite right, short-term rentals are totally forbidden in any form in our zoning. Even B&B requires a higher zoning and consent from all adjoining neighbours. We live in a very quiet residential neighbourhood so the impact of having up to ten occupants, their associated vehicles, parking issues, noise and the added potential of entertaining their friends and extended family is not lost on our Local Council. The Planning Officer said I only need to bring it to their attention and they will deal with it. All the amenities such as swimming pool, play equipment, cubby house, etc are being discovered for the first time – every two or three days! I know it will take a while but I’ve set the ball rolling – so thanks again!

Lindsay, you made me laugh out loud about the trifle going down the toilet. I hope your brother isn’t moved to come and join us here and read what you said about his trifle’s unceremonious ending! What a pity about the newcomer to the family but good that you have decided to make changes. Who needs that nonsense? But please re-calculate the maths before you set the table or make any Christmas recipes next year. I make it TEN! I hope you can encourage your OH to get properly checked out. Tell him he will really ‘spoil things’ if he’s not around to keep you company next year. Classic male!

Cinque, have you been lounging around in your PJs all this time? Or did I misread what you wrote?

CalifD, I think I could convince you of the need for travel scales if I put my mind to it! They weigh only 700gms. I’m curious to see if they’re on Amazon now ….

P.S. Penguin, yes we are still posting on two sites, sorry. Only until Monday though. I’m sad; some of us will have to say goodbye to diverdog and Amazon whose posts I’ve enjoyed. How do you create a sad face?

Penguin, sadly I’m not surprised by the increase in suicide at christmas. We are bombarded by images of happy families enjoying christmas. The discrepancy between that and many peoples’ relationships with their family becomes rather acute – I think it just brings it into sharp focus and it’s much harder to hide from. I’m sure the financial stress doesn’t help either.
We’ll keep an eye out for the new MM series. They always come here too, usually about 3 months later than you get them. I have tried to watch them online, but I’m always blocked by my country code.

Thin, you are very naughty, you know Cali needs no encouragement to go shopping on Amazon. I too will be glad to get back to just posting on one site, although I’ve been grateful for the extra support on the silly season site. It’s really helped me get through December with limited damage.

I’m making a concerted effort to eat the meals in my freezer rather than buying more food. I’ve made progress but still have a way to go. I’ve done a rough tally and I still have about 22 complete or partial meals in there. And that’s not counting the frozen meat, fish and veg that needs to be turned into yet more meals (there’s enough to make at least another 15 meals). What’s amazing is that I’ve been making inroads into my freezer meals and it’s currently barely 2/3 full, yet still contains so much food.
Given the money I have still to spend on getting the house ready for sale over the next three months, a reduced grocery bill will be welcome. I just need to change my food purchasing habits – I buy my favourite meats, seafood, frozen veg and frozen berries whenever they are on sale. I need to tell myself: “There’s no urgency, this is not the last time they’ll ever be on sale. You don’t need them now, wait until another time.” I also have a tendency to have both an opened packet/bottle of things in the pantry and a reserve unopened one so that I never run out of anything. It means the pantry is always completely crammed and it really is far too much to keep on hand for one person. I figure the more I have on hand the more I have to pack when I move so cutting back will be good in several ways. My sister and I were comparing notes and we shop for groceries the same way – the way mum did. But she had a better excuse, she grew up on an isolated farm and they only got into a large town once a month to shop – a well stocked pantry was pretty important in that environment. With shops less than a kilometer away that are open 7 days a week, I really have no similar excuse. I just need to learn some new behaviours. Maybe then I wouldn’t need so many kitchen cupboards either.
At the moment I’m evaluating which frozen meals are low enough in calories to use as FD meals. Some I can adapt by having half the usual portion and adding some extra veg on the side.

I think I’m ready for that kefir smoothie now, I actually have an appetite. Probably because I’ve been talking about food.

Thin, thank you for the link for the travel scale. Is that exactly the same as the one you have? It does seem compact and would probably tuck into a suitcase pretty easily. The price is reasonable too. Cinque is right – I don’t need much encouragement to order things from Amazon. 😄 But I would want to get the same brand that you’ve used. Scales can be so inaccurate sometimes. We’ve had a couple regular bathroom scales that showed a different weight every time I stepped on them. Even within a few minutes time! Just keep stepping on it til you find a weight you like. 😁

Thin, I’m glad your city council is going to do something about the airbnb house next door. Glad to hear they can’t just turn a residential home into a hotel without licensing or a permit. Your other neighbors would probably not be happy about that either.

LJ, my pantry is stuffed with stuff too. It isn’t very large and I often buy canned goods in cases of 8. We end up putting the cases on the floor and it gets hard to walk around them or to find things. We usually have enough tea to last through 3 winters (6 box cases are such a good deal from Amazon.) It’s so amazing that you can fit so many meals in your freezer. I have to start using zip lock bags instead of plastic containers. You fit so much more in your freezer that way.

Penguin, we have a BBC station on the TV, but I don’t think it carries a lot of the shows you see there. I’ll have to go and search for the MM show and see if we can get it here. It would be great if we could.

Thin, we just watched episode 6 of Outlander tonight. It’s getting really good. It’s nice to have a TV show that all 3 of us can watch together. Stranger Things is the other series we’re watching. Is Grace and Frankie on your Netflix?

All your freezer and pantry stories resonate with me. I always have close to 12 cans of each type of several different beans, corn, tomatoes, coconut milk, etc, neatly stocked on the shelves just like in the supermarket. And a lot of jars of dried beans & lentils. My freezer is always full – when I make a big effort to eat it down by serving lots of ‘freezer surprise’ meals, I instantly fill it up with items on special like you LJ. Oh, and the cauliflower soup of course. If anyone finds a way to store soup in something closer to a ziploc bag than a tupperware container, please let me know.

And the tea CalifD! I always buy it on special, along with my Carmens muesli. Even when I have a good stock of tea, I still buy more if it’s half price. My pantry overflow is a large cupboard in the laundry! That also houses my TP oversupply. I got used to buying things cheaply in bulk in the US and haven’t ever got over it. My OH is actually one who believes it’s a very good idea to have excess food stocked (well, he would, wouldn’t he!). A supermarket has enough stock to last two days so, if we have a truck strike or some disaster preventing goods coming across the Nullarbor, he is absolutely correct – we’d otherwise be ‘done for’ over here in the west.

Cinque, glad you are making such good progress and can now get the bra on without too much discomfort. It is sad about the domestic violence over the holiday season and I wonder how much of that is caused by excess alcohol – and probably drugs now that they have become more mainstream.

CalifD, those aren’t the scales I have – I just looked on Amazon USA for your shopping convenience. I found out about the travel scales on this thread several years ago. The person who had them (Purple Vegie eater I think or maybe it was BayleafOz) was talking about Petit Mignon at $55:
https://foxandmonocle.com/shop/petit-mignon-travel-bathroom-scales-in-purple

Mine are called Verrette and cost $34:
https://foxandmonocle.com/shop/verrette-personal-light-bathroom-scales-blue
I don’t leave home without them! I note what you said about baggage handlers though and I do take mine as part of my 7kgs hand luggage allowance. They are very accurate and a great friend while I’m away.

My FD has gone well so far. I’ve not been hungry at all. I’m breaking away from miso soup and having another old standby, smoked salmon, steamed asparagus & a poached egg for dinner. 195 cals. DD won’t be home from work until closer to 6pm so I’ll wait for her. Just chatted to OH on skype and it’s 43C where he is. Someone asked whether our WA summers were usually dry and I’m sorry I forgot to answer. Yes, it can be dry for months at a time but, in the last few years, the weather has been very unpredictable.

Hi Everyone
Good to hear you are well enough to start getting out and about Cinque. LJoyce, that sounds like a great idea to eat the food you have on hand before you move. I, too, use zip lock bags the way you suggest. We have been freezing berries from our garden in them and if they leak…:( . Thin, I did a FD today. We had friends around for dinner last night and they brought chocolates which we opened and after they left I ate the rest of the bar that OH had used to grate on top of our dessert- my scales were not pleasant to me this morning 🙁
OH is working tonight and tomorrow night so Im settling in and watching Netflix. Ive started watching “Anne with an ‘e’ “ Its another edition of Anne of Green Gables
Have a great day/night Everyonexx

I’ll be interested to see the new Mosley TMIAD, Penguin. I read up about Tom Kerridge, first time I’ve heard of the Dopamine Diet. I think pulses are my dopamine food.

I did find it fascinating to read that, for most people, having a freezer doesn’t cut down on waste; it just means that, instead of throwing stuff out from the fridge, people cook the food, label it, freeze it, and then throw it out 2 years later.

My biggest frustration clearing my freezer out was exactly that thing where I’d take out a container of mince, cook a wonderful recipe with it and then put three containers back in the freezer. But that is okay, I just kept making the freezer my priority and I got through everything in the end.

I’m probably worse in the pantry, although at least I have cut down from having 8 different types of oil, 7 vinegars, 6 bottles of sauce etc

Thanks so much for the good wishes. I am going to vacuum today! It will be a pleasure.

I’d like to see that recent Green Gables series, it was a favourite book (series of books) when I was growing up.

Congrats on your good Fast Day Thin. I did look up Perth weather and it said ‘during Summer, rain is unusual’. What a treat the first rains after summer must be.

This is my fast day. I woke up hungry so I am having three very small meals, two of which are soup. I’ve had breakfast. It will be followed by coffee and then vacuuming!

For those doing even more exciting things for New Year’s Eve, best wishes! Isn’t it nice to have a fresh new year ahead.

Cheers all!