Have a great walk this morning Sybs and JJulie.

I’m a non-traveler with you Nap, we can enjoy everyone else’s jetsetting vicariously!

I am so glad you savoured your cheese sandwich and piece of pizza. That way the pleasure of them will last longer. And ooh how wonderful to have the soup and sauce from your homegrown tomatoes.

I’ve got heaps of tomato plants coming up from spreading my compost around. I’ve repotted a nice strong one, it will last through the winter in my sheltered garden. I’ve pulled out at least two dozen pumpkin seedlings, but very glad to see coriander (not from the compost, but self sown).

Glad to hear your judgement on milk Penguin. I have just a dash in my tea, but I’m so close to 8:16 otherwise!.

PS Did I confuse you about your young wife? because I gather your ‘health age’ is even younger! She’s a cougar!

Thin, I watched a bit of the pacemakers, it looked lovely, but I set up the fb live q and a with people from the gut program and then turned the tv off so I could concentrate. It was really interesting. Questions were coming in every few seconds! But they answered lots of interesting ones.

Some takeaways:

More and more evidence for the benefits of the Mediterranean Diet.

More and more evidence that ‘fibre’ in foods isn’t one thing, there are lots and lots of different kinds.

Reminder that the fodmaps is meant to be a 4 – 6 week intervention for people with IBS, not an ongoing diet.

Probiotics: the yeast and bacteria in foods (or supplements) that get down to your large intestine alive and that are good for your health
Prebiotics: good food (mainly fibre) that gets down to the large intestine and feeds the good microbes
Symbiotics: taking the the yeast and bacteria together with the food they need.
and a new one
Postbiotics: medicine/supplements containing the short chain fatty acids and the others things that the good microbes produce (which is why we need them).

Just to underline Cali’s weight changes, here is a typical graph of weight loss over 6 weeks. http://www.weightware.com/images/weighttrendgraph1.gif

I’m off to an early meeting (YamDaisy) over coffee. My plans for this year depend on how it goes, so I have my fingers crossed.

Best wishes everyone for your day!

I am going to have to give this system some study. Back tracking a page to look at the posts I lost what I had written. Considering that when I last worked for a living it was in IT, that counts as dumb.

Cinque, she is a cougar in chronological age as well – if two and a bit years older than me is enough to qualify. I have never called her cougar, but I have claimed to be a toy boy. If I disappear from this site she didn’t like cougar!

Good morning everyone,

Cali, your daily chart reminded me why I do not weigh daily anymore. I was forever asking myself “how is that even possible?” I have a bad habit of letting my reaction to the scales affect my behaviour in unhelpful ways.

Thin, I didn’t watch the Pacemakers. I was tired last night and only lasted until the end of Catalyst.
Cinque, thankyou for the list of takeouts as I didn’t listen to the discussion after the program. I can add one more thing to your list of takeouts from the program and discussion – honey. Despite years of being told that honey and sugar are both just empty calories, there is a big difference as honey helps the the good gut bugs (as long as you use the raw single-source honey, not the pasteurised blended honeys that are more common in supermarkets. I don’t add any sweeteners to my diet often, but on the occasions that I do I may be reaching for the honey instead from now on. Porridge is going to taste good this winter!
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/honey-offers-beneficial-boost-to-our-biome/8541442

Sybs and JJulie, I hope you manage to find each other and have a lovely walk. I’ve always found the time goes so quickly when I have someone to chat to as I’m walking.

Penguin I hope you and Mrs P are still feeling well after starting to eat normally again. Did you pay any special attention to the “refeeding” process? I’m assuming the book gives some pointers on how to do that.
I bet those self-sown tomatoes don’t survive the first frost. I have to be careful here not to plant tomatoes too early in spring or the frost kills them.

I have appointments and errand that will take me out of the house for most of the day. I also have my hospital assessment this afternoon which should ensure I can continue my treatment drug for RA for another 6 months. I’m not expecting any problems passing the requirements.

Have a good day everyone.

Penguin, it’s deadly to start a post and then flip back a page. When I must, I copy what I’ve already written before going back (I learned the hard way).

I found the Catalyst doco draining and didn’t stick it out. I’d enjoyed the previous episodes on the same subject. If you can watch The Pacemakers on iView, I recommend it. It’s about some inspirational 90 somethings around the world (UK, Peru, USA, etc) competing in running events in Perth and long jump in S. Korea. I want to be like them. One of the men, a retired UK dentist, opens the programme with the statement, “I didn’t start running until I was 95”.

Nap, did your OH believe that cutting down Sunday’s junk day meant that he could bring pizza home on a Tuesday instead? I think he needs a good talking to! CalifD has a lot of a restraint stopping at three slices. I could never have eaten pizza and expected to lose weight. Nowadays, like bread, rice, pasta, etc it’s just not on my menu and I can’t say I miss it at all. Once in a while I give pizza to the OFMs on a FD. Sometimes it smells rather nice but that’s temporary. Nothing tastes as good as being slim feels!

OH will be home from the back of beyond in Qld tonight. My objection to the change of land use next door is due tomorrow. I finished it last night (while watching Catalyst). I collected 59 signatures and was proud of my effort in a street with 42 houses. As mentioned, I know almost all of the residents so it was a time-consuming process warranting a big chat at each stop. I got to know a few more people too. I love my street and I hope the stupid council doesn’t destroy us.

Hi Julie. Yes, another traveller! I live for it. There’s never a plane that flies overhead, that I don’t want to be on. How wonderful to be taking your daughter to Singapore. Have a wonderful trip. Mine this time is a bit of business (well, research) in Vietnam and all pleasure in HK. We often popped down to HK when we lived in China, so we’ve spent quite a lot of time there over the years. I highly recommend it Thin. Where did you go to in Vietnam? This time we are having 10 days in Hoi An before finishing up in Saigon for the work part.
Penguin I laughed at the idea of tomatoes being weeds. I love it when the volunteers (do you use that expression in the UK?) pop up in my garden…my 3 year old grandson adores searching them out and picking the cherry tomatoes before popping them in his dear little mouth. On last year’s Easter egg hunt in the garden, Miss 4 found the eggs while he put all the little tomatoes in his basket.
Calif thanks for the reminder about the weight fluctuations. It won’t keep me off the scales each day, but it will remind me it’s not always about weight.
Where are you this morning Cinque? Hope you’re well.
enjoy your day all.

Hi LindsayL
Thank you for your comments.

I found this link by simcoeluv in the “higher cholesterol when fasting” forum, from 2015 – goes for 1 1/2 hours via interview on YouTube with Dr’s Stephen Phinney and Jeff Volek:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFD2q5iqevY

I hope it copied and pasted properly!

I found it very informative and hope you do too.
Enjoy your day!

Arel, I hope the book gives you the answers you seek. Please stay with us but don’t feel you have to comment on everything – I’ve had a really busy few weeks and had to let some posts slip by. It feels rude not to respond but sometimes it’s overwhelming to go through all the ones we’ve missed. We love having you so join us when you can.

Lindsay, the first time we went to Vietnam, we went to Ho Chi Minh, spent a lot of time on the Mekong and travelled up to Hoi An where we stayed quite a while. There we met and sponsored a young girl for home schooling, spent time with the teacher at her home and arranged for the payments (a mere pittance for her uniforms, books and schooling) and then travelled to her fishing village to meet her family. Our DD was 5 then and she went out selling postcards with the local children every day! They called her ‘Nam Doi’ which means Five Years. Everyone wanted to touch her blonde hair. We also met a guy from Perth on that trip who has now been our very great friend for the past 18 years! We loved it so much that we went back the following year, this time to Hanoi and explored Halong Bay. Again we travelled down to Hoi An. I fear it would have changed a lot now that tourism has really opened up there.

This is the first year ever that we haven’t had at least one overseas trip planned. Our experiences in the hotels of Thailand last year have had a bit to do with that. Certain guests ruining the experience for everyone are enough to put anyone off travel. Merry, Cinque, yes PEACE is all I want! (As in peace and quiet).

My passion is Africa where we’ve been nine times for periods of up to a year. My OH worked in CAR for a year a couple of years back flying helicopters and living in a remote camp with US special forces. Incredibly, he ended up staying about 50 miles from a village in Zaire as it was then where my girlfriend and I ended up for 3 months just before hitching from Nairobi to Cairo in 1980. I never expected to know anyone who would be able to share that experience – and I had no photos so it was amazing to see OH’s photos and re-live the experience.

Thin I just watched The Pacemakers…I’d recorded it. What an excellent attitude those older athletes have. I must say though I found the 97 year old dentist a real creep…. going online looking for a relationship (all power to him) but then being so hypercritical of the bodies of the women on the site. Wouldn’t you think that by age 97, he’d have learnt there’s more to women than their bodies.
Arel many thanks for the link and for the book title. It’s great to have this information from a fellow traveller.
Thin your travel sounds amazing. How extraordinary that you and your OH share such an experience.
Your sponsorship to educate a Vietnamese child would be life-changing for her and her family.
I worked in HCMC and Hanoi for a couple of years, and first went to Hoi An about ten years ago, I guess. We go back a couple of times a year and I don’t see much change at all … I guess its World Heritage listing protects it to a degree. Unfortunately we do see the development around the beach, and back up towards Danang, encroaching every time we go back.

Hello all….yes im still around but havent logged on for ages. Hope everyone is going well. I am sooo busy but extremely happy and content. OH is still spoiling me to the max and MissD turns 10 on Saturday..
Wow where has that 10 years gone ?

Kefir question – we’re going away for a weeks on Friday and I’m not sure what to do with my kefir. I need to strain it tonight (Wednesday) but not sure if once strained do i put the grains in fridge as they are, do i add milk and put them in the fridge of what else do i do to preserve the grains until i return.

Some of our posts crossed as OH came home while I was typing and I posted a bit later.
Thin, we have a similar story. My DD went to the Solomon Islands when she was 14 and did some work with an adult friend of ours and a team with WHO. My OH also went there on a temporary deployment for 12 months a few years later and was keen to visit the village she had gone to. One of the daughters of someone he met had a photo on her wall of “her best friend” and yes it was our daughter!
Hi Gday, time does fly! My oldest granddaughter has just started school and I can’t believe how fast those 5 years went! Are you having a party?

Hi all – just popping in to say hello. FD yesterday which was fine but I felt a little light headed for most of the morning and then again this morning. Have been trying to think what could be causing it – am on light bp meds but think it more likely that it’s low blood sugar as I’ve been hypoglycaemic in the past. I think I didn’t eat enough on Monday as was conscious of FD on Tuesday. Have upped my carbs today and feel much better. Will keep an eye on it

LJ, am fortunate to have a nephew who works for a large plumbing supply business so was able to get all my tapware etc at quite a discount. I was able to pick a dearer range so am very chuffed with that. Kitchen cabinetry has been delivered – still living rough but getting there. Son is taking a well earned weeks break seaside so things will take a bit longer but that’s ok

Good luck to all fasting tomorrow

Too many posts.

A Penguin and a Cougar… interesting couple!

I often open the SH thread in two windows. One to write my post, and the other one to scroll through. (But not when I am working on my ipad)

Cheers for your reset Arel.

Watched that show Thin, agree with Lindsay about the dentist guy. The only thing he was interested in, was someone being interested in him.
I’ll come and cheer you when you win Old People Gold though! 30 years to work on it!

Wwall, Excellent nephew! Good luck with the kitchen. Hope you don’t get lightheaded again. Low GI carbs sound like the trick. You were drinking enough water? Hope you can get a week at the seaside sometime yourself.

Gday, lovely to hear all is so happy. Enjoy your break. Happy birthday to your daughter!

Wonderful to hear the travel stories. But my favourite is the story about Mr 3 and the little tomato easter eggs.
Lindsay I snuck in a morning post right up the top of the page.

My tomatoes should be fine over winter, I live in a concrete sink and it hasn’t frosted once in the 14 years I have lived here. If it does freeze… well new seedlings will come up in Spring.

I hope Sybs and JJulie got back from their walk okay.

I’m fasting tomorrow. Woohoo!

I liked the others!

Hello all!!!

I started to post a couple of times today, but got waylaid each time.

Sybscairns and I met at the designated place this morning at 7am.

I forgot the aeroguard!!!! but thankfully she thought to bring some with her for me just in case. The area here is lovely and natural, but after all the rains we have had it is abuzzing with mozzies!!!
We had a lovely walk, talking and get to know each other. I found out about a wetlands in Singapore that we can visit on our next trip. Sybs sent me the link by text message and I have checked out how to get there by train/bus.
We are meeting up again on Friday morning and will probably do a longer walk. This area is just so lovely to walk through that it does not seem at all a chore to do the walking and 45 minutes went so quick and there was still so much more we could have seen.

Taiko practice tonight had us moving our bodies as well as the drumming arm movements. My legs are just not used to all the ups and down movements and I am feeling stiff already. But hoping that it was all worth it as a form of exercise for weightloss.

2 minutes to 8.00pm here and I have finished my food for the day. I will make a coffee soon and that will be me for the night.

CalifD, I am waiting for the “woosh” effect to happen as I believe it must be soon.

sorry if you were worried Cinque.

catch everyone tomorrow

Goodness, so many posts!

Penguin, thanks for letting me know about the 16:8 and milk. I will keep it up as is until Friday morning, and see how weigh in goes with no milk. Then next week I will try it with milk, and see if there is any difference. Love your tomato story – I have no luck with the ones that self seed, they don’t produce much fruit. On saying that, I chucked in a whole heap of pumpkin seeds straight into the ground, thinking only a couple would take – and I have 13 plants growing strong!

CalifDreamer, thanks for saying you do enjoy your pizza. I want to be able to maintain, not only my weight, but also this lifestyle, which does mean enjoying some things like pizza from time to time.
Thin, I cannot let OH take the blame solely for the pizza – I did cave and agree to it. And it was really nice. I love my pasta, rice and bread – it probably has a lot to answer for with my weight issues. I try and not have bread everyday now – and treat it as an occasional thing. I also don’t eat as much pasta as I used to, and rice no more than once a fortnight (usually much less). I have recently discovered cauli mash, which does have a small amount of potato, but is mainly cauliflower.

Yes, Cinque, we will just sit at home and hear about everyone else’s jet setting! I haven’t been many places at all – born in UK, and came to Australia as a youngster. Other than Japan for a choir tour, I haven’t travelled really at all. That must sound so boring to you travellers!

Good morning everyone. Fast Day for me!

Penguin, so glad you are with someone who is stong, powerful and graceful. And so glad she is with a penguin 😉
(Witty, artistic, intelligent. http://animalinyou.com/animals/penguin )

JJulie, the more strong, powerful and graceful members here the better!

So glad your walk with Sybs was lovely. Although I notice she hasn’t been back. I will start worrying soon!

Taiko practice sounds just wonderful. Hope the aches ebb away before too long.

Nap, fingers crossed that you can be like me and keep bready things as an occasional part of your diet, but Thin’s experience shows that even if you end up realising that you have to give it up, life can still be good.

I’ve got some vegetable soup out of the freezer and I’m going to jazz it up a bit with some extra spices and herbs for my lunch. Oops I forgot to soak my yuba and shiitake, for my evening miso soup, better do it now.

Cheers all, Best wishes.

Fabulous news JJulie! Very happy for you. You deserve it.

Thin it was a typo….were away for 1 week so thanks for the kefir advice.

Miss D is having a party with 11 kids but thankfully not at home. Ive hired a venue that is specifically for kids, filled with climbing structures, slides, jumping castles etc. Plus they supply the party food and decorations so my only chore is the bday cake…..easy peasy.

I decided for Miss D’s birthdays from now on she will receive ‘experiences’ rather than a present that would be discarded when she lost interest or wasn’t the latest ‘have to have’ item anymore. So along with OH we are going to spend a week in a delux cabin at Adelaide Shores Caravan Park. The park has a pool, splash zone, go carts, jumping pillows etc plus close by is putt putt golf, skate park and the mega adventure skymate structure. Plus the park is on the beach front….yay. MissD knows she is going away but doesn’t know where.

Good Morning All

back from my friend’s place and catching up.

Julie – I reckon the “woosh” was triggered by our lovely walk :-))

I am going to check out the Tony Ferguson books.

When I have trouble getting up to the 16 hours in the 16:8 my trick is to start preparing my first meal about 30 – 45 minutes before the target time. By the time the meal is ready, I have arrived at the target time – anyway, it works for me, and I just thought I mention it.

Hi everyone
Just checking in. FD for me today – going ok!
Enjoy whatever you are getting up to and have a great day. Bye for now!

JJulie, if you like middle eastern flavours you’ll love Ras el Hanout. It’s one of my favourite spice blends. Fabulous with legumes, veggies, lamb or chicken. I forgot to say that after the stock has cooled to room temperature, put the lid on and put it in the fridge overnight. The fat layer will set harder and is easier to remove that way. All the soups I ate growing up had this as the base. Mum would just remove the fat, the whole spices and the bones and leave all the meat in the soup. Even her “chicken” noodle was full of chunks of lamb shank meat. She also made a potted brawn, buy adding veal shanks, mace and salt to the pot (along with the lamb shanks and bay leaf)and used much less water. Once cooled a little, the bones and whole spices were removed, then it was all pressed into a terrine dish with just enough of the stock to make it all set. I hate the brawn made from pork, but this one is lovely.

CalifD, thank you for sharing your weight fluctuations the other day. There are so many factors involved, undigested food, dodgy scale readings, water retention, but I still rely heavily on my daily weigh-ins for guidance. I am on my way to joining you & Minka in the 58 zone. Go the Californians! My InBody scan thought I was 2kgs overweight. I haven’t been making a conscious effort to lose it but it has been easy with OH gone for 4 weeks as the focus in the house hasn’t been on food. I’ve enjoyed eating mostly plants. It’s my Frothy Thursday and I’m happy to be 59.2kgs this morning which I haven’t seen since last August after a 24 hr fast before flying out to Thailand. My lowest was 58.5kgs when we were walking 15kms a day in hilly Spain & Portugal. I have been very lazy about resistance training, I just hate lifting weights, it seems so pointless. OH got home last night, straight into the kitchen this morning for a big fry-up. His insulin. 😆

My LD book has only just been despatched so it will probably be another week before I get it. LJ, Cinque, I don’t have the benefit of having read the book – if we do the FMD, do we have to buy these meal products in packets and take supplements or would we try LJ’s modification? Penguin, I know you and Mrs Penguin weren’t doing it for the weight loss but did either of you re-gain some of the weight lost in the ensuing couple of days?

GDSA, one week will be fine for the kefir as I outlined including being able to drink the milk it’s in if it smells OK (or you can discard it if you’re inclined). Either way, you should drain it and start with new milk when you return. I wasn’t sure if you’d meant x weeks which would be a different regime.

I think experiences are a brilliant present for your daughter. That’s what our DD gets too – skydiving, black water rafting, swimming with dolphins, flying lessons are some of the presents she’s had (not when she was 10, of course!). We also followed JJulie’s lead from last Christmas with her 18 y/o and paid for an airfare to India for a uni trip she’s going on this year. Have fun at the beach!

I can’t believe the weather this summer. We have only had two hot days. February is often the worst but it’s stayed +-30 all month. It has been more humid than usual but I’ve barely had the air-con on all summer. JJulie, OH watched a heck of a storm in Cloncurry this week. Lost all his hand-washed laundry! Maybe you have it?

Arel, hope your FD is going well. And everyone else, fasting or not. Cinque – what’s the latest with Yam Daisy?

I have a question, and hope someone can clear this up for me.

As far as I am aware, there is the “old” 5:2 with 500 cal on FD, and then there is the “new” 5:2 with 800 cal PLUS 14 hour fast either before or after the 2 FD. Is (or should) the end result be the same?

thank you

well, then I better change down to 500 cal on FD

Hi all, just back from the GP and remedial massage. The massage really hurt today, but I think those cramping thigh muscles might actually let me sleep tonight. I had my potassium levels retested yesterday and got the results today – back to normal – the daily banana did the trick.

Thin & Cinque – I will not be spending nearly $300 on the FMD bars, packet soups and supplements. Nor will I be water fasting – I’ll leave that spartan approach to Penguin. I am happy to follow the program I calculated for myself which is based (for days 2-5) on a caloric intake of 3 to 5 kcal/lb of body weight (9% protein, 44% fat and 47% carbs), less than 20g sugar and be plant based (apart from fish oil which I will take daily). I will make adjustments closer to the time as it will depend on what I weigh just before I start. It may not be the real deal but I don’t care, this is what I will be doing. I haven’t worked out a day 1 program yet, will do that later.
Thin, I’m just having a giggle imagining that laundry flying off into the sunset!

Sybscairns, I think for people with a high TDEE, 800 cals would probably work nearly as well as 500. For those of us with a TDEE well under 2000, I’d be worried that 800cal isn’t an adequate reduction. However, I remember Dr Mosley saying that the best program is the one you can stick to. So whatever you do has to be sustainable long term.

Although I didn’t plan it, I have almost done 3 FDs in a row. I did a genuine FD on Tuesday, but because I was out of the house from lunchtime to late afternoon both days I didn’t get to have lunch (just took a banana with me). As I don’t eat breakfast that means 3 days in a row where I’ve only eaten a banana and dinner. Tonight it’s Cinque’s mung bean stew – to which I’ve added some miso broth and cooked brown lentils and turned it into a huge bowl of soup. I think yesterday would have come in at about 600cals (borlotti bean & veg shepherds pie for dinner) and today probably 500. Although my clothes feel pretty loose, I doubt the scales would agree, because I can feel the extra inflammation around some of my joints and my fingers are puffy with extra fluid – humidity has a bad habit of doing this. I’m afraid I could never live in a tropical area.