Hello Southern Hemispherites!!

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  • aah good news, the old Cinque is back. And a Sunday fast, hurray! I have just forwarded your email address to Stay. Isn’t it funny how we treasure our anonymity but are happy to go behind the scenes and share our details with total strangers. It reminds me of the good old days when you’d ask complete strangers if they’d ‘mind your bag’ while you went off somewhere.

    I’ve had the same issue as JJulie today – enjoying a little too much fruit for a FD. I’ve tried to keep it to a handful each time, but I’ve had cherries and strawberries and a plum. I’ve been hot and the cold juiciness of fresh fruit is just what I feel like.

    If I was in any doubt that hot air rises I’m not anymore. Boy it was hot at the top of the ladder when you are up at ceiling level. I’ve been pretty slow today and needed lots of breaks but have made progress.

    I have taken some chicken tenderloins out of the freezer to make a large FD stirfry. I’ll make enough for 2 meals so that I don’t have to cook on my next FD.

    I’ve also decided to use up a bit more of the food stashed in my freezer by using the fish & wine stock (leftover from making bouillabaisse), chicken drumsticks and a chorizo sausage to make Chicken Basque – I like Delia Smith’s recipe although I’m going to try using freekah instead of rice.

    I spent rather a lot of money at lunch time without even leaving the house. I ordered the new appliances for the kitchen. I got them from an online retailer I’ve used before and I had to talk to them to make sure the gas cooktop could be converted to an LPG connection. I was trying to buy reasonably priced appliances with good reviews. Unfortunately the dishwasher had been superseded with a more expensive model and the oven was out of stock. However they were most helpful and offered me upgrades to better models for the same price because I was buying so many items. In the end it cost roughly what I’d budgeted thankfully. Everything is due to be delivered the day before the electrician is here.

    Stay, I hope you got the wedding set up accomplished in that awful heat.

    Thin, your memory probably isn’t bad. My infusion was meant to be today but the nurse had to work at the hospital (her main job is in a chemo ward) so she changed it to Saturday. She is brilliant at getting those drip needles in, I have tricky veins and she never misses. I’ve never come across anyone as reliable.

    Cinque, glad you are feeling better now. Hard to avoid catching things from family members, especially grandchildren.

    I’m just having a cup of tea and I’ll cook dinner later, when I can be bothered getting out of this chair.

    Thin, it was Mud Cake?! šŸ˜® I love mud cake! Forget the hand slapping, I would have been right in there helping you devour it!

    LJoyce, I painted a couple in very hot weather and high humidity in the Midwest some years ago and youā€™re certainly right about heat rising. It was miserable. But I understand about inertia too, that once you get a project going, the best plan is sometimes just to keep moving. Youā€™ve done an amazing amount of work these past months, with both the interior and exterior of your house. It sounds like you will get top dollar for it when you sell.

    Cinque, glad to hear you are feeling better. Donā€™t let the grandkids breathe on you this weekend. šŸ˜·šŸ˜ In offices, there seem to be more people out sick in the fall shortly after the kids go back to school, trade viruses, and pass them on to their parents.

    Stay, according to weather reports I see here, you had an extremely hot day for setting up that wedding today. I hope it all went well and everything that needed to be done was accomplished. Theyā€™re predicting a big drop in temperatures for Saturday. I hope the weather reports are correct! It sounds like it will be a lovely day.

    That’s a relief then LJ. Nice and cool here today. Well, 30C is cool for us in January.

    CalifD, I wonder if you and I found the same Stay on FB! I had a quick look again today to see if there were any wedding set-up photos and a completely different Stay popped up! She had told me she was the one holding the baby and I found a lady holding a baby amongst the photos yesterday. Now I have found another person of the same name but with the profile photo showing a lady with a baby. Much more likely to be the real Stay, who probably thinks I’ve totally lost the plot with how I responded to the first FB page. Sorry Stay, yes I am an idiot. šŸ˜†

    Thin, our posts crossed. Do you have a FB account?

    Yes, but I don’t like using it except to stalk other people šŸ˜†

    Ah, I get your drift though – and I see you are ‘friends’ with the new, improved Stay! See how scary FB is, I’m now stalking you too! šŸ˜†

    šŸ˜ You probably wonā€™t be able to see Stayā€™s photos without sending her a friend request. Photos are usually hidden,

    Oh. Well, I’m looking at your husband and your dog right now! OH is OK but the dog is a fine looking specimen. Feel free to look at mine but I don’t think you’ll find anything very interesting!

    I need to check my privacy settings. You shouldnā€™t be able to see those without sending a friend request.

    That’s one reason that I resist using FB. Another is that you have absolutely no idea what they’re doing with all the ‘private’ information you gave them in order to set up your account that they’ve agreed not to show on your page. Not to mention who gets notified every time you ‘like’ something. But this is a rant that I can’t win. 80% of the entire planet uses it and thinks it’s great.

    I wasn’t always this resistant to technology. I was the first person I knew to get an answering machine! I was the only person I knew to have a fax machine for years! Whoa, progressive! And my OH and I had email years before our first friend joined us in California. I was also the first person I knew to have a mobile phone in Perth. What a brick that was! But social media, no thanks.

    I like FB for sharing info with friends but I thought most of my photos were hidden from people other than friends. Apparently not. They donā€™t make it easy to change the settings.

    Thin, you aren’t the only one who’s cautious when it comes to FB. I’ve given FB no accurate info on me, not even the correct name and I just didn’t answer any questions that weren’t compulsory. They think I’m 92 – amazingly I get no advertising.

    Cali, surprisingly mud cake is one of those desserts I can take of leave. Now wave a baked cheesecake under my nose and I’m a gonner!

    Penguin, I saw this snippet on the news – you aren’t the only Penguin who pops in to to say hello to passing Australians. http://www.antarctica.gov.au/news/2018/penguin-pops-in

    Stay, hope the wedding is wonderful tomorrow.

    I’ve just tried to get most of the paint off in the shower. It took a lot of scrubbing with the body scrubber and I think I lost more skin cells than paint. But I’m sporting fewer grey patches now.

    Just trying to finish my FD meal, but for the first time I think, I’m actually struggling to finish it.

    I think it’s cooling down to 35C tomorrow. I guess it’s an improvement but still sounds pretty hot to me. I’m just wishing for some cooler nights. I struggle to sleep when it’s warm – I woke at 4:30 this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. I ended up deciding to go out with a torch and start watering the garden.

    Morning all. OH and I still have the lurgy. Not really sure what it is, it seems to be cyclic – in the morning I will feel better and in the afternoon I feel as though yesterday I played a hard game of rugby and got trampled by the entire opposing scrum, which is a 25 year old memory. CalifDreamer, in Rugby Union there are eight men in the scrum, the biggest, heaviest and most aggressive on the field. It is where I played and at 6’5″ and 255 pounds I was about average for my position, so when they all hit you you notice – there are no helmets or body armour in our form of the game. The only good thing about this ailment is that it is effective as a weight loss measure – down two pounds yesterday.

    Apart from 5:2, I don’t touch social media. I am a member of a couple of organisations that have FB accounts and to see them I had to open one myself. The accounts I wanted to see were pretty superficial. I then looked at the account of a friend in a band I was playing in. There was an enormous amount of personal info, not only about his family , his home circumstances and political convictions but inevitably the band stuff included me. I went back to my own page. In the less than ten minutes I had had an account, seven people I had never heard of wanted to be my friend – and I had revealed nothing about my education, home or interests to attract them. At this stage I cancelled my account. FB took some persuading that I meant it and on the secondary email account I use for things I am not entirely sure about, they keep telling me that if I come back I will find I have lots of friends.

    In fact I have revealed more about me on this site than at any time in the past and I am not always entirely sure that is a good idea. The 5:2 community is a large one, open to the world and it certainly isn’t just us.

    LJ you can’t escape Penguins. Last night I was reading a book about dogs and apparently there is an island in your part of the world where the Fairy Penguins, the smallest type and I think now renamed something else, were being decimated by foxes. The problem was solved by persuading one of those dogs that lives with sheep and guards them that the Penguins were his mates. Penguin population has recovered and the penguin/dog combo are now a tourist attraction..

    Couldn’t agree more Penguin. On all counts. I suppose you’re right that this forum is also social media. And I often feel I have revealed way too much here. I asked a close uni friend if she could stop asking me to ‘friend’ her as I only have two FB friends and don’t want any more. She revealed that she’d never asked me to ‘friend’ her but had received similar requests supposedly from me. It’s all too creepy for me.

    Here’s the Penguin story: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35039105 We’re apparently not allowed to call them Fairy Penguins now. OMG. Take me back to the days when, if you saw an unattended bag you’d think, “I’ll have that”.

    Hi Cali, Cinque and Thin,

    Lol! My friend received the Inbody composition scan just prior to having fat frozen off her hips and belly. If I had a spare couple of thousand dollars lying around, I’d consider getting fat frozen off my hips and thighs too!

    I was privileged that my friend invited me along to get the scan at the clinic where she received the fat freezing treatment. I found the fat freezing process interesting! …The medical practitioner spreads antifreeze gel over the skin, so it doesn’t freeze. A suction cup machine is placed on the desired area and the fat within the suctioned area is frozen for 70 minutes. The fat cells die during that time and then over the next 5 weeks macrophages come along an enshroud the dead cells and escort them out of the body, never to return. Once those fat cells have been killed, the body is not able to replace them. The procedure doesn’t take away all fat, only what the suction cup can ‘grab’, similar to what we can grab in our hands, so it smooths out bulges and reduces circumferences. Fat freezes at a higher temperature than does skin, is partly why the skin isn’t harmed during the procedure, plus the application of the antifreeze gel! The medical practitioner explained that when we lose weight, we don’t rid our body of fat cells, but rather empty their contents. The smaller or empty fat cells can can again fill up and expand. I suppose any fat left behind can expand and fill the vacuum left behind by this process. That would have been a good question for me to ask! I did ask if this freezing treatment froze any visceral fat. The answer was, ‘No, because that lies beneath muscle adjacent our organs and the machine is only able to reach what it can grab; fat closer to the skin. The medical clinic was disinterested in my friend’s over range visceral fat level and focused only on the cosmetic explaining how much slimmer and trimmer she will look in that area once the process is complete.

    Admittedly, I don’t regard the fat that freezes and dies during these treatments as a type of fat that poses a health risk. From my understanding it is only visceral fat that poses a health risk, not white or brown. The machine is only able to ‘grab’ and freeze fat within range of the skin, which would be white or maybe brown, though I doubt that, since it is only produced by the body in response to very cold temperatures!

    Thin. “Ah sweet, lovely dog” quoth the other half.

    When I was in the service electrical engineers were known as fairies – they put up the lights at Christmas. All of the branches had nicknames – armourers were plumbers, cavalry were donkey wallopers. We called the Navy fish heads, they called us crabs. Even then the politically correct were not keen on some of them but it is difficult to ban them. After the Falklands campaign the troops on the Islands started to call the slow speaking locals Bennies. Benny being a dim witted character in a current soap. The commanding General said that upon pain of punishment this was to stop. After which the locals became “Stills” – we still think they are Bennies but are not allowed to say so.

    Ethical questions of the day.

    1. Being unwell I am watching afternoon TV and I have just seen an ad for Kellogg’ s Cornflakes. A series of happy, apparently fit, slim, enthusiastic eaters were asked the best time of day to eat them. Half of the enthusiasts were in nurses uniforms or had stethoscopes round their necks. Is this even legal?

    2. I am currently slow cooking shin beef and appropriate veg in a bottle of Cameron’s Tontine stout. Can I argue that the alcohol will all evaporate and therefore that this is an alcohol free day?

    Penguin, having eaten in hospital cafeterias several times in the past and being delighted that they served WW options with points clearly marked, I was dismayed to see that they were hardly touched. And almost all of the doctors and nurses were eating the giant burritos and chocolate cake. šŸ™„ It made me wonder if they knew something I didnā€™t šŸ˜³ I never count alcohol in cooked recipes because all of it is probably evaporated unless you add it at the end.

    Thin, I emailed you some questions about what you can now see on my FB page. Your sleuthing can hopefully help me hide most of what isnā€™t hidden. I like being able to share photos with far flung family and friends, but I donā€™t want to share them with anyone who has a FB account, bogus or not. What I canā€™t hide, Iā€™ll delete.

    The T2 arrived! It was shipped from the east coast of the US. I really like the Lamington which Iā€™m drinking right now. I used my big cup which is about 300 ml and let 1 tsp brew for about 5-6 minutes since itā€™s a big cup. The tea itself tasted like average strength and the flavoring mild. The coconut was the most prominent. I hardly tasted the chocolate. Iā€™ll use a normal size cup next time and see how it goes. But I like that the flavors didnā€™t overwhelm the tea leaves. I havenā€™t tried the others yet.

    FD was successful yesterday. Took me down to 58.4. Iā€™m trying to stay under 60, so that worked fine. I hope I can continue to maintain this way because itā€™s not difficult. It sounds like most of you maintainers do about the same with 2 FDs and have been successful for a long time. Hopefully I can follow in your footsteps. šŸ˜Š

    Good morning everyone.

    Working backwards:

    Congrats on your good fast day Cali, glad you are enjoying your teas. Good luck with fb!

    Penguin, science may say that not all the alcohol burns off, but why not go with general acceptance this time! šŸ˜‰

    Sorry you are still so ill. Keep looking after yourself, that exhaustion is hard and you need to rest til it has completely gone (many people with CFS developed it after post viral fatigue, so I make a point of reminding people not to push through).

    As for that ad, if the UK is like Australia, they only do something about it when they get complaints, so I hope you can cut and paste that description of the ad and send it to the media complaints authority.

    A little (sad) update on the dog minding penguins story http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-15/oddball-the-penguin-protecting-pooch-and-dog-behind-movie-dies/8272784

    Minka, how amazing that fat freezing procedure is. However, I was just hearing (was it on ‘How to stay young?”) that empty fat cells are handy to have in our bodies. They send out very useful hormones. They send out less and less of the hormones as they fill up with fat, but when we lose fat and empty the cells, they start producing more again. (https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2010/acs-presspac-october-13-2010/new-evidence-that-fat-cells-are-not-just-dormant-storage-depots-for-calories.html ) They were talking about one of the hormones particularly, that helps us age well.
    Ofcourse, we do have millions of them.

    So so glad yesterdays heat is gone. So sorry for those of you who still have it. Pop through the monitor to my place for a little relief!
    It was so hot yesterday and my car ac is so crap, that I changed my day of having Miss3, that will be today now šŸ™‚ Will wear face mask and big rubber gloves and spray disinfectant at her.

    (Not really)

    Thanks for sending my email to Stay, Thin.
    Stay, thinking of you today. I hope it all goes marvelously.

    LJoyce, good luck to you today too. Hooray for such a talented nurse. And congratulations on how much you have been able to get done . So impressive!

    Thin, I bet it was a good walk. Saw the news that a puppy breeding place near Perth has been shut down. Hope all the mummies are ok.
    Do our California bungalows look like the ones in California?

    Day before fast day for me.

    Cheers all.

    Cinque, I think the term ‘California bungalow’ is a bit like English Muffin and French Fries. Have a lovely day with Little 3. I couldn’t open your link but hope to read it later (problem at my end).

    Minka, that fat freezing sounds like something from a horror movie! I’d like to get my visceral fat measured. What sort of facility offers this assessment and what is the likely cost of a genuine service? I note that Groupon has a deal for Body Composition Analysis at a facility close to where I live that says it measures total body fat, hydration, bone density, lean body mass, visceral fat, metabolic age and includes Tanita Bioimpedance body composition analysis. The normal price is $50; groupon much lower – is it likely to be dodgy at that price? I thought it would cost hundreds. It’s held at a Physical Nutrition clinic whatever than means.

    Yesterday while doing the normal grocery shop at Coles, I noted boxes of T2 teas on the shelves. That’s the first time I’ve seen them anywhere but at the T2 shop. Glad you like yours CalifD. I don’t like their sweet varieties.

    Medical students are not trained in nutrition so doctors can’t be relied on for dietary advice and they’re often not the best role models. My neighbours both practice 5:2, both are trained doctors. The husband on his FD eats nothing all day and then has a piece of, wait for it …… Kentucky Fried Chicken for his FD dinner. Thereby reverting back to original definition of fast food.

    DD is coming to the end of her second consecutive 10pm-8am emergency hospital shift so I must get my walk in now so I can get a glimpse of her before she goes to bed. Yesterday, she came home, had breakfast and slept all day until 8.30pm. Today she has to miss her beloved Saturday job. Hats off to all shift workers, it’s tough on the body. Meanwhile, OH went to bed at 9pm as he had some 5am flight testing to complete while the air is still.

    Thinking of Stay today (and her shift worker family) at the wedding! Hope your day goes well LJ.

    Good morning SHs,

    I had a bit of an accident this morning. I tipped a pot of tea over my right hand and burnt my fingers. I’ve had them in a bowl of iced water for the last hour. I think it’s working as it doesn’t burn as much when I remove it from the water. I am slowly typing this left handed.

    Thin & Minka the only scan I had done was an “InBody230” scan – $30 at my fitness centre. It doesn’t specifically identify visceral fat, it just looks at where on the body the fat is – so a higher percentage on the torso can mean more visceral fat. At the time I was 76kg which is a BMI of 29. So I was expecting my body fat to be over the normal range. Surprisingly so too was my muscle mass and not so surprising my water levels (that’s from the inflammation). One of the things that surprised the person doing the scan was that despite a knee replacement a few months earlier, I had an identical muscle mass in each leg – he said that’s rare after a TKR op. I think it shows that I really did work hard on my rehab to get that leg strong again.

    Cinque, that’s interesting, I hadn’t realised our empty fat cells produce hormones. Clearly everything is there for a reason, even pesky fat cells.

    Cali, glad your T2 arrived safe and you like it. I find it surprising that when you sniff the tea the aroma can be really powerful, but when you brew it and taste the tea it’s just a hint of flavour.
    It’s not just poor eating habits – I’m amazed by how many nurses smoke.

    Penguin, if what I’ve read is true, burning off alcohol is matter of cooking time. So flaming brandy before serving will leave a lot of the alcohol in the brandy, but slow cooking with wine or stout for several hours should burn off all the alcohol. I don’t drink but I do cook add wine to some casseroles. (Coq au vin wouldn’t be quite the same with the red wine!)
    Those penguins used to be called “fairy penguins” when I was little, their official name now is “Little Penguin”. There are a few colonies around Australia – one a couple of hours from where I live.

    While I have been slowly typing my hand has recovered. Not burning at all now, so hopefully no lasting damage – might have been a way to get out of painting though.

    The nurse is coming after lunch so I plan to spend the remainder of the morning cleaning the kitchen so that I’m not ashamed to have the cabinet maker in there measuring on Monday. It’s not that it isn’t wiped down daily, but getting into all those little corners is something I don’t do often.
    Have a nice Saturday everyone – Stay I hope your dress for the wedding fits beautifully!

    Penguin those are very interesting questions. To the first I’d say, even if it’s legal, it’s not ethical. And to the second, absolutely!
    BTW, thin, you are so right about doctors and nutrition. My daughter took her 21 month old to the doctor yesterday, and he was a little concerned that the little one was underweight. He recommended more milk, to which my daughter explained that she’s still breast fed and anyway, wouldn’t drink cow’s milk. His response? Make her some chocolate milk. Yikes!

    Good grief Lindsay.

    I meant to comment on the California Bungalows yesterday, but then got off on some other subject we were talking about. I looked up photos of the prevalence of them in Aus and was surprised that they were so popular in the 1920ā€™s and 30ā€™s. http://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com/2009/01/californian-bungalow-australias.html
    There are a lot of them in California, but also across the US. Theyā€™re also called Craftsman style houses. Berkeley and Oakland and Sacramento have a lot of them. Did you expand yours, thin?

    Iā€™m drinking the Hot Date Thai this evening, which is very good. I still have the French Earl Gray to try. I may wait til morning because of the caffeine. I wish they made them in a decaf. They did a great job with packaging and the graphics. OH thinks the black box it came in is cool. šŸ˜Ž

    LJ, sorry to hear you burned your hand. I hope it continues to feel better and that your treatment goes well.

    Cinque, I think the only thing to keep you safe from Viral Swamp Virus is a full hazmat suit. But your granddaughter would probably be afraid of you in that. šŸ˜²

    Minka, the fat freezing does sound interesting. I wonder if itā€™s any less painful than liposuction which removes fat cells too? I have a friend who had liposuction, which took away a lot of belly fat and thigh fat. Recovery seemed to take weeks. But then she started eating a lot again and it all came back. It may have resituated the fat but it came back. The freezing would be a big advantage if it couldnā€™t return.

    Stay, I hope youā€™re having a wonderful day. And take lots of pictures.

    Mine in San Diego was known as a Craftsman’s cottage, CalifD. It was a wooden frame house with wooden panel cladding (earthquake friendly). I didn’t make any structural changes. Our ‘California bungalow’ in Perth was along the same lines but it’s brick and tile with all the original 1930s features like ceiling roses, hardwood flooring, 11ft ceilings, lead light windows, picture rails, cornices, etc.

    OH gave new meaning to the term ‘owner builder’ requiring that we construct just about the entire extension ourselves turning it from a 2bd/1ba into a 4bd/3ba and tripling its size. OH learned bricklaying, I duplicated all the original lead light windows and he made the wooden frames for them. We bought hardwood floor panels from friends who were demolishing at the time so they were in keeping with the original part of the house. We raised the floors above the concrete slab so it feels like you’re walking on floorboards, not concrete, which also means there’s no tell-tale ‘step-down’ to signify the start of the extension. The skills we’d acquired by the completion of the job were probably the minimum required to begin the job but we eventually did it.

    Just popping back to say that the hormone that our fat cells make, one of about 600! but the one they have identified as important in aging, is Adiponectin. Healthy old people have a lot of it.
    The fat cells make more of it when they are not full of fat.

    LJoyce, so glad the burn seems not to have been a bad one!

    Hoping DD has a good sleep today Thin.

    Just cooking some mung bean soup and then hoping to rest for a minute before I put on my hazmat suit and head over to pick up my darling.

    šŸ™‚

    Cinque! Mung beans! That’s what I was trying to remember the recipe for with spinach that I’d loved so much. Do you have that recipe handy?

    DD fast asleep thanks (fortunately we have a few nights’ reprieve from next door before the Australia Day booking on Tuesday).

    Are you OK LJ?

    Hi all, the nurse has just gone so I’m having a very late lunch. Some homemade w’m seed & nut bread toasted with yummy pistachio butter and a piece of watermelon.

    I’ve enjoyed the discussion about architecture. I love some of the older homes but have learned over the years that you have to be able to put up with the maintenance and problems adapting them to the modern world.
    In Adelaide the type of houses built seems to go in concentric rings around the CBD. Basically as the years went on they built further out and you can see the changes in architecture changed over the years as you drive out from the city. Adelaide was established as a colony in the mid 1850s and it was mainly Victorian stone villas that were built in the first 50-60 years. By the 1900s they had stopped adorning the front verandahs with iron lace and were using wood fretwork instead – these were called Federation Villas. There are some excellent photos of both styles here:
    https://federation-house.wikispaces.com/St+Peters+SA+Heritage I particularly like the return verandah villas – these have a veranda and porch which wraps around the side of the house and isn’t just at the front. Drive three suburbs out from the city in any direction and this is all you’ll see – along with some row houses (for the poor and the servants) – usually built from bluestone rather than the sandstone that was normally used for the villas.
    By the end of WW1 the main houses being built were bunglows https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/forward-planning/advice-and-hot-topics/trophy-homes/76069-luxury-triple-fronted-hawthorn-adelaide-bungalow-listed-for-sale.html I lived in one as a share house for many years and I found the front rooms incredibly dark because of the heavy front verandah that seemed to keep most light out of the front windows. There is a ring of these houses about 3 suburbs deep around the inner ring of villas. In the 1930s and 40s they interspersed the bungalows with a few art deco, spanish mission (I used to own one of these) and some mock tudor houses. Unfortunately the suburbs further out were built in the 60s and 70s and in Adelaide it was the era that taste forgot when it comes to architecture.

    Just out of interest I looked up the last sale details for the spanish mission house that I owned with my ex husband in the late 1980s. We paid $119k in 1988 and sold for $136k in 1990 – it sold in 2016 for nearly $1m (although in the intervening years it had been extended by adding a 2 room granny flat). I looked at the photos from that sale – it still had the same kitchen cupboards that I had rebuilt myself, and the same tiling, floor and benchtop that I laid with my dad’s help. It even still had the same curtains that I had made in the master bedroom.

    Cinque – maybe a face mask instead of a hazmat suit? If you paint whiskers on it your granddaughter might want one too.

    Thin – I’m surprised you have T2 in Coles, maybe that’s a new development. The only supermarket I see it in here is the independent Foodland chain.
    Yes I’m OK – infusion went well. I have a couple of red sore patches on my hand from the episode with the boiling water this morning, but I’m hopeful I kept it in ice water long enough to stop blistering. No painting for me today, I’m going to veg out on the lounge and be lazy.

    Well I desperately need a cup of tea – a pot of French Earl Grey I think.

    Ooohh L Joyce that burn sounds nasty. Hope the iced water has stopped it from blistering. And thank you for the very interesting discussion about Adelaide architecture. I’ve always liked your city – the architecture is so different from ours up here in the sub tropics. Our city is changing unfortunately – going are the big timber houses on stilts, with great breezes for the heat (although they can be chilly in winter). So many of the inner-city blocks are being subdivided and the houses that go on them make no concessions at all to the climate or the environment. So they are built on small blocks, too close together, with small windows and Juliet balconies that no one uses, and the air-conditioners go full blast summer and winter. Huge apartment blocks being built, that no one is buying. Our Council is really in the pocket of developers. It’s sad to see the character of a city changing. Oh goodness that sounds bleak – sorry – but I’m watching a house being built a few doors down. It’s for an older couple, but is huge. Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, no insulation,and they cut down all the lovely old trees when they knocked down the old house, because this new one pretty much covers the block. Sorry I’m off on my hobby horse about this – but we know how to build environmentally friendly houses … yet the Council still approves these monstrosities.

    Lindsay,I sympathise. I love the old Queenslander homes with wraparound verandahs. We have similar issues here too – our local council, while constantly bleeting on about sustainability, approves homes with black roof tiles, no eves, massive properties pushing the boundaries (literally) with parapet walls and setback variances becoming the norm. Everyone living on top of each other, overlooking, overshadowing. Everyone knows my views on swimming pools which I consider noise polluters quite apart from the water issue (we live within half a km of a 50m Olympic sized pool open to the public so it has always seemed wasteful for everyone to have a pool). Fine if they must, they’re Aussie icons after all but stop going on about water then. I used see pink sunsets out of my kitchen window every night. They’ve been replaced by a concrete mausoleum bearing down on us shaped like a battleship or something totally inappropriate to the area; it’s the largest house on the smallest block and they got away with building on every inch of the block by having a roof garden (also concrete and which has no value to the rest of the residents). Two people live in that 5bd/3ba house. With a mandatory pool of course. At least they’re quiet!

    Hi everyone
    Enjoyed reading all your posts – all very interesting. Currently at my Sister’s home, 2 1/4 hours from my home – be home tomorrow after spending the day with her.
    Can’t individually answer all posts tonight – hope all is ok for each of you & you are enjoying the weekend.
    Can’t believe we are 20 days into this year already – have to slow time down somehow!
    Bye for now!

    Lindsay, I think a few of us are on the same hobby horse. It seems that it’s part of the developers’ rule book:
    1. Cut down all trees, they’ll just get in our road. No one likes trees anyway, do they?
    2. Squeeze either as large a house or as many houses as you can on the block – no one needs a back yard do they?
    3. Do the cheapest fitout possible to maximise profits. That is unless a client is willing pay for all the upgrades of course, might be able to make a profit on that too.
    I’m sorry to hear they are pulling down the old Queenslanders, I think it’s a lovely style of house and unique. In Adelaide the inner suburbs are pretty safe as the villas and bungalows are highly desirable and have a high value so there is no profit in knocking them down. The 1950s-70s houses that are built in that area between the inner and outer suburbs are being bought by developers and knocked down pretty much every time one comes onto the market. I wish they were just putting 2 courtyard homes on those 1/4 acre blocks. Unfortunately they are trying to squeeze 3 or 4 3bed-2bath houses on them – it’s just too much of a squeeze.
    Because our population is comparatively small and stable, the rapid apartment building that’s happened in the eastern states hasn’t occurred here. I hope it stays that way.
    I find there is a lot of difference between councils. Some are very protective of the old houses and some will let developers do anything. I live in the Adelaide Hills council and they are quite restrictive on residential subdivision and tree removal, but they do seem to encourage commercial developments that many of us don’t like.

    Hi,
    I missed the evening news so was catching up with ABC online. I saw that they’d chosen their best animal photos for 2017. They are all rather good. I thought you might enjoy. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-08/best-animal-pics-from-2017/9269234 Cali, there are a couple of cockatoo pics. Penguin, there are lots of bird photos, but sorry no penguins.

    Hi fellow Southern Hemispherites!

    Thin, from my research the only accurate visceral fat measuring services are the ‘Inbody’ and DEXA scans. The ‘Inbody’ scan is the lesser expensive option. Our local dietician and some of the gyms in our area offer scans on these machines for as little as $15. NOt all DEXA machine scan visceral, so if you go down that track, ask first. DEXA scans cost around $80. …If you do opt for an ‘Inbody’ scan, make sure that the machine is an ‘Inbody 550’ or higher. The lower numbered models are the older machines, made before the visceral measuring technology was available.

    Thin, I’ll add that from my research, I found that the Tanita scales use an algorithm which means that your results are based on averages from the general population. In other words, it does so by comparing your weight etc. with averages of others your weight and height, so the results can be misleading and inaccurate. My friends who own a Tanita and who subsequently got DEXA scans proved this to themselves by comparing the two results on the same day. The Inbody does not use algorithms, but rather truly measures only what is in your particular body at that moment in time. Hope how I explained it makes sense!

    Oh and I totally agree, Thin, that the fat freezing procedure sounds like something from the chamber of horrors! My friend said she felt a sharp pinch that was quite uncomfortable at the start of the suction process and some prickling sensations during the freezing segment, but that everything went numb for the 60 minute duration0 of the 70 minute session! After arriving home she reported that she’s had to take it easy and now sees bruising in the area, which she was told is a normal part of the process.

    LJ, I got my scan at the clinic that apparently distributes the Inbody units for the whole of Australia. When I asked about models, I think they said that the 570 and higher numbered models scan the visceral. My friend was scanned by an Inbody 570 which gave her a rounded number of 12 centimeters square, whereas the Inbody 770 that I utilized, gave me the more precise ‘69.2’ and ‘65.0’ cm m2 respectively.

    Cinque, yes I wondered about the long term implications of removal of ‘God-given’ cells (albeit fat) from our bodies! Since only a handful (literally) of cells is removed from strategic places, maybe it wouldn’t adversely affect the Adiponectin production? It would be interesting to know exactly!

    Calif, the medical practitioner at the fat freezing clinic adamantly stated that once a fat cell has died and been removed, that it never grows back or returns. However, like I said, the freezing method doesn’t remove all fat. I could see while the procedure was taking place that it only froze what could be ‘grabbed’ or sucked into the cup area of the hand piece. So, that left a thinner layer of live fat cells behined and I’m sure they too could swell, if one eats to excess. My friend who is unlike me and who never cares to binge or indulge is adamant that this will be a permanent reduction. I honestly couldn’t say the same were I in her shoes! As I’ve mentioned previously, my tendency for emotional eating is just too strong. Anyway, from studies I’ve read, fat cells can migrate (maybe from gravity?) from one part of the body to another (sagging). Also, if we gain weight post freezing or liposuction, fat cells in other parts of the body can swell to even larger sizes than we’ve previously seen. So, maybe the abdomen stays slimmer than expected post liposuction and/or freezing, but our bingo wings or turkey neck enlarge all out of proportion! In that way, we can begin to look lopsided and out of proportion and maybe similar to those I see with multiple face lifts that look a bit freaky! …Well that’s my take anyway! Maybe that’s what my friend foresees and is why she’s already booked in to have her thigh fat frozen!?!

    Have I said, I’ve decided to do my own other experiment using ice packs on my belly, not to rid it of fat, but to help turn both visceral and white fat into healthy brown fat, which will accomplish, what I feel is much more benefit than ridding the body of those cells, which I think is in line with Cinque’s research! …I’m even going to get another Inbody Scan once I’ve completed at least a month of applying the ice pack on my belly for 30 minutes a day! …So there, you all know my latest body experiment! …Maybe I already wrote about this? If so, I apologize for the redundancy. It is just that I’ve thought about writing about it so many times, and told enough friends, though I can’t remember if I actually went ahead and wrote about it in this forum (and I’m too lazy to scroll back and check)!

    Hi Minka, thanks so much for taking the time to answer my specific questions which led me to believe that I should leave the Groupon deal alone especially as the Dexa scan isn’t particularly expensive (for the vital health information you’re receiving). I’m grateful that you explained the alternative as it would seem pointless getting some generic info based on the population at large. I did know that you’d specified Dexa because we used to have a (document) scanner called Dexxa so it was easy to remember the name. Now you’ve given me more info to check, so thanks.

    The rest of what you wrote was also interesting – good luck with the ice packs! I could have done with that today as it was quite hot over here in the west. If you’ve mentioned it before, I missed it.

    LJ, it seems the local councils are irritating ratepayers all over the country! It’s funny how they’ve forgotten how to represent us, instead preferring to decide what’s best for us.

    Minka,
    I’m impressed that you are trying another self experiment. I thought it was iced water you were going to try, but maybe that was someone else who was talking about it.
    Thanks for the info on the Inbody scans – I was surprised that my results hadn’t included visceral fat when others had said that their Inbody scan did, now I know why.
    I’m not sure about that claim that we can’t grow new fat cells. I’m sure I’ve read research articles that say we do.

    Still got the lurgy, still watching afternoon TV. Currently watching The Tour Down Under – but no one is waving to me.

    Busy being grandma. Write soon.

    Thin, pour boiling water on the dried mung beans to avoid having some that don’t swell.

    1 tbsp ghee or oil
    1 tsp fenugreek seeds
    1 tsp cumin seeds
    3 garlic cloves minced
    2cm ginger, grated
    4 green chillies, chopped (or if you are a wimp like me, one is enough)
    1 large onion, chopped
    2 capsicum, chopped
    1 potatoes in 2-3cm cubes
    1 tsp gr turmeric
    1 cup washed mung beans
    1.5 litres water or stock (adjust to make the consistency you prefer)
    500g chopped spinach
    3 tomatoes, chopped
    juice of two limes
    salt to taste

    Heat the ghee
    Fry the fenugreek and cumin seeds gently for a minute
    Add the garlic, ginger, chillies, onion and capsicum and saute until the onion is translucent
    Add the potatoes and turmeric and cook, stirring for a couple of minutes
    Add the mung beans and stock and simmer for 45 minutes
    Add the spinach and tomatoes and simmer for another 10 minutes
    Season with the lime juice and salt
    Garnish with coriander leaves.

    Thanks so much Cinque, you’re a star. Are you fasting and being grandma?

    A hot day in the Wairarapa New Zealand and would be good to put on shorts instead of covering up. So that’s the aim for the next few months is to get back into shorts for next summer.
    I did IF a few years ago when first publicised and it worked well – cementing a few kilos lost. why did I ever stop – like all things, gradual apathy and circumstances.
    I’m also drawn to the health benefits, especially given heart disease and dementia in the background.
    I look forward to sharing with you all – Im not one for social media, not even on Facebook, but this is different and I think worthwhile.
    Cheers
    Rhon

    Hi SHs, hope you have nice things planned for Sunday.
    I have to pop out and buy a smaller paint roller once the local hardware opens at 11. Then a little bit of painting this afternoon.

    Rhon, welcome. It looks like you know what you are doing as you’ve tried IF before. Many of us here have committed to this being a way of life and have stayed with IF to help maintain our weight and reap the health benefits of regular fasting. I hope you get back into the swing of things soon.

    Penguin, sounds like that bug is being rather persistent. I hope you improve soon.

    Cinque, I remember that mung bean soup recipe, I had put a copy into my legume file. Was this the recipe that you thought would be better with less water as a stew rather than a soup?
    That tip about using boiling water to soak the mung beans is also true for adzuki beans I found – they also have some rebels who resist the soaking process.

    I’m not fasting today as I fasted Wens & Fri, so it would be too many too close together. So I’ll have my first fast for the week tomorrow. I’m going to try and just do 2 FDs this week and also try to do 1-2 controlled days. How this goes will determine whether I keep adding the 3rd FD for a bit longer.

    Good luck to everyone fasting today.

    Hello all. Iā€™m new to the 5:2 eating and will be starting my 1st fasting day tomorrow. Looking forward to it. Quick question: what do you know now that you wished you knew at the beginning of your journey? Would you have done anything different?
    Looking forward to getting to know you all.

    Hi Lj and welcome:

    These links pretty much will answer your question: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

    Good Luck!

    Hi Rhon, welcome, we need more NZ reps. Not a social media fan either, this is the only forum I’ve ever read, let alone contributed to – and heaven forbid, even met seven other Perth losers in the flesh.

    Welcome LJ Mark II. I wouldn’t change a thing from when I started this WOL in August 2014. My tips are read the book before doing anything; plan ahead your fast day intake; eat anything you want, when you want it but do not go over 500/600 cals depending on whether you’re F/M: measure absolutely everything before you start; surround yourself with like-minded people and use this forum for support; master your two FDs before making any other changes and don’t listen to the noise about what other people are doing – 5:2 works exactly as stated. Ask us anything.

    OH and I paddled over to the city this morning, wandered around a bit and paddled back before it got too hot. We’ll break with tradition and go for our walk at sunset. Fasting today.

    It snowed in the night but it has been raining steadily since dawn and it has all gone. We got off lightly – further north and east they had it much worse. On Wednesday we had a tonne of firewood delivered, which we managed to get under cover before the weather went sour. We shall just stay here, burning logs and eating the freezer contents until we and the weather improve.

    That mung bean recipe looks my kind of thing, but certainly with maximum permitted chillis!

    Penguin, Looks like we are into the extremes of weather – you have snow we have a heat wave.
    Given that we’ve all revealed just how much is stashed in our freezers, I won’t worry about you running out of food any time soon!
    Enjoy the fire while you get over that virus. Perhaps mung bean stew with extra chilli will help clear the sinuses. Although I was wondering whether chicken soup might be in order.

    LJ. You got my kitchen bugged? We have just finished the soup!

    Rhon and Lj33, welcome to the 5:2 forum! Rhon, it sounds like youā€™re already familiar with the program from doing it before. Lj33, I wish I would have known that if I was going to eat anything with higher carbs, like fruit, to eat them in the evening with dinner. They sometimes tend to bring on the hungries half an hour or so after eating them so better not to have that going on all day. Eating fish, legumes or something else high in protein for around 200 calories is what works best for me at lunch. I never eat until noon on FD.

    Cinque, thank you for posting the mung bean soup/stew recipe. I probably have eaten mung beans somewhere, but I donā€™t remember when and Iā€™ve never cooked them myself. How long would you soak them in the boiling water? Are they a rather quick cooking bean? I like all of the ingredients in that recipe and will get some mung beans and try it soon. I saw several recipes for mung bean hummus on the web, so may try that too.

    We went to some friends house last night for dinner so this morningā€™s weight is 59.5, up almost a kg from yesterday. I ate a lot, but no alcohol! I will hopefully lose that weight after tomorrowā€™s FD. Maintenance seems to be like that, but still learning.

    Penguin, feel better. There is a lot of flu going around California now too. The news says the emergency rooms are inundated. It seems to be a worldwide thing, judging from the comments here.

    Minka, interesting info about the scans and fat cells. When the friend of mine who had liposuction later gained back all of the weight, it seems she just gained all over. It was hard to tell whether it came back in the same places or different places and just shifted back to those areas. Clearly, if a person spends all that money on fat cell removal it should be with a firm commitment not to overeat in the future. The ice pack thing sounds interesting. (But hard to think about when Iā€™m sitting here wearing Cuddl Duds and a fleece top, trying to stay warm! ) Iā€™m anxious to hear how it works for you. It will probably be easy for you to do with such hot weather there now.

    LJoyce, Iā€™ve had at least a couple cups of each of the 3 T2 teas now and love all of them. I canā€™t decide which is my favorite, but leaning toward the French Earl Grey. Iā€™m getting at least 2 cups of tea out of a heaping tsp, sometimes 3. OH tried that one yesterday and really likes it. Iā€™ll have to watch for their free shipping specials because they are rather expensive. But I like them far better than the Bigelow and other tea bags I normally buy.

    Thin, does your city council have meetings that are open to the public?

    Good morning,
    the hot weather led to me minding Miss3 a day later, and that led to my brain thinking simultaneously that yesterday was both Saturday and Sunday, and the part that thought it was Saturday organised my meals, preparing for fasting the next day. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/steven-universe/images/b/bc/Confused-face.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150801064912

    So I am fasting today.

    It has been horribly humid in Melbourne, everyone is saying the weekend felt as nasty as the 40 degrees day, even though it was more than ten degrees cooler. Right now it is quite cool though. Lovely.

    Hello Rhon, Welcome here! Is 5:2 a much easier version of IF for you? I agree that the losing extra weight is very nice for wearing shorts, but the long term health benefits are the real deal. Hopefully you will find the forum helpful, it does keep our minds on what we are doing, and sharing, complaining and problem solving here is always useful, or at least cathartic.

    And hello Lj33. What a good question! I’ve been thinking about it, and really I can’t think of anything. It really suited me just to start. I had 800 calories in my brain (from watching ‘What’s The Right Diet For You), instead of 500 so that made it even easier. And then i just adjusted things as I went along to make it suit me, and ended up only having about 350 calories on fast days, and the days gradually settled into Thursday and Sunday.

    That mung bean soup is so good! It is from Afghanistan.
    LJoyce, other way around: the original is a stew, but I love it as a soup.
    Such a good dish, it has the mung beans and potatoes and then greens and reds in it, so very well balanced. This time I added the red capsicum, cut in squares, near the end, with the tomatoes, so the skins didn’t go tough.
    Add those chilies Penguin!

    I love the California bungalows in the suburbs here. Most are not huge, but large compared to earlier styles, and with that lovely roofline, spacious rooms, stained glass windows and porch or verandah.
    It is farm houses in country Victoria, like my aunties at Yarrawonga, that have the verandahs all around and dark rooms inside. Those cool dark rooms, coming in from the harsh sun, are wonderful memories.
    I’ve only visited Adelaide once and stayed with friends in a huge Californian bungalow (extended), the architecture all around was just gorgeous.

    Minka, of course you are right that losing a handful of fat cells won’t be detrimental to hormone production, when there are millions of other ones. I hope your friend is feeling easier soon.

    I had also read that obese people made more fat cells. When I googled I found this. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/106343.php It seems we double the rate that new fat cells grow, and that old fat cells die. Yes! I hadn’t thought that fat cells would be dying and being replaced! The new fat cell wants to fill up with a bit of fat and so having double the number of new fat cells might be part of the problem of the drive to put on weight again.
    Another article I found: https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/are-fat-cells-forever/

    I’m fasting with you LJoyce, and any other Monday fasters!
    Best wishes to everyone.

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