Cinque, wishing you an all-clear on your scan. How long does it take to get the results? I hate the scanxiety of waiting. But of course it’s a good thing to have frequent follow ups so that if any little thing pops up, it can be taken care of right away.

LJ, your nurse probably thought she could make it until the last minute. But better she stays home if she isn’t well rather than passing a bug on to you.

Thin, I’ve never visited the Anza Borrego Desert, but it looks beautiful in photos that I Googled. I love the desert, especially when there are wildflowers blooming in the Spring. Most of the camping we did was in Northern California, in the woods or on the ocean.

Nancy, I know that feeling of thinking you might be hungry and then realizing you really aren’t. After a while you don’t even acknowledge that feeling as hunger. I guess that’s what makes fasting easier after a while. The feeling is often boredom, anxiety, or just being tempted by something specific. That’s why I try to keep tempting foods out of the house and just eat them away from home. But a TV commercial or even references to food in a novel can get me thinking about food. I try not to dwell on those things. Some FDs are just harder for whatever reason. But they seem to occur less often for me as time goes on. Having the support here on the forum is so helpful. Sometimes it’s just knowing we’re all in this together is what makes the difference.

Oh boy, that’s not to be missed Cinque – but miss it I must as we’re off to our Jazz night thingy. Can I find it later on SBS or ABC by chance? Who are the diet testers I wonder? Your twins? And how was your scan?

CalifD – and feeling hungry from habit sometimes I think. You’re right, it’s great to have like-minded people to chat to especially for those of us whose OFMs aren’t practicing 5:2 or those who don’t have any FMs at home.

OMG Gday, this post from you just showed up this morning! https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/hello-southern-hemispherites/page/306/#post-246884

I am so sorry to read what you have been going through, and I really hope you haven’t been wondering why we all ignored you.

It must be hard to do fast days when you are so exhausted.

I had anaemia, it was on top of CFS so it just felt that my symptoms were particularly bad. But the follow up (investigation indicated it was because of a polyp in my uterus, but they also noticed stubborn cysts on my ovaries, one of which looked a bit wierd) led to my ovaries being removed and I was flung into menopause that way. So I have a lot of sympathy for you on both counts.

I didn’t take HRT but menopause gave me such a chaotic ten years, I would probably go on it if I had my time again.

I hope you can be as kind to your self as you can. Use all your experience and skills to put good things into place and figure out where those extra kilos are appearing from. It is so tempting to eat something when you are exhausted, and impossible to cook up a good meal when you haven’t got the energy to stand up. But keep planning.

Fingers crossed the iron tablets work quickly.

How are you today? Sending lots and lots of good wishes.

Good morning Quakka,
Have fun waiting until you are hungry, and then have a bit of bread or whatever you want.
I am a bit the same this morning, not hungry, but thinking of eating. I am having another cup of tea! 😉
I hope you have a really lovely rest day after your stressful week.

You are all so right about ‘wanting food’ vs ‘being hungry’. I remember when my old cat got fat the vet explained that she is programmed to hunt for food, and if miaowing piteously at me for something to eat was the best available technique, she would keep doing it, even though she wasn’t at all hungry. I am very like my old cat. Programmed to hunt for food. 😀

Nancy, hooray for that stirfry, and thanks re the diverticulitis info. My sister has nursing training and had read a lot, but it is particularly the fasting that she is thinking about. (I wish she would try 5:2).

Arelkade, did you manage a lovely Fast Day to get you back on track. I think it is the ‘reset’ capability of a Fast Day that I love most.

Penguin good to see you post and hear about such energy. I used to be a morning person, but now I relate to the meme that has been going around facebook that says “I’m not an early bird, or a night owl, I am some form of permanently exhausted pigeon” https://i.pinimg.com/originals/da/44/9e/da449e66298f091ed93da6848b156eff.jpg Haha

Thin, I hope it was another wonderful jazz night thingy.
The program will be on SBS on demand and is called both ‘The Diet Testers’ and ‘How to Lose Weight Well’ (just to keep us on our toes). My TV has decided it can’t connect to the internet at the moment so I can’t check which one it is showing under.
It was good to see someone using all the packets in the Prolon pack, and interestingly she had much more energy over the 5 days compared to her friend on the soup diet. They both lost an impressive amount of weight over 5 days, which was the point of the exercise.

What an interesting internet history you have! I put up a website too, back in the days when I had to write it all myself in html (or whatever it was) (and very amateur) but now I just ask my daughter how to do everything! It is dreadful I know, but she is just so handy.
Can’t keep up with computers!

Hooray your coffee machine is working again!

Paula, I hope you and your daughter found some scrumptious jewelry!

My scan was quick and efficient, thanks everyone, and I will get the results next Thursday, which will probably involve 4 hours waiting for a five minute appt (public hospital). But if I get told there is no problem and they will see me in a year (or two?), I won’t complain.

Lindsay, so glad you popped in. Sending good wishes and hope you are having a great time.

Merry, missing you!
Intesha, are you travelling yet?

LJoyce I hope your nurse is better quick!

Better go. Mammoth post!
Cheers all!

Good morning SHs,

Cinque, my nurse has rescheduled for next Tuesday, hopefully she’s well then.

Thin, I’m pleased that frothy coffee is back the menu. That must make mornings a bit easier.

Cali, are you still on the mend? Has that cough abated yet?

Paula, I don’t think 246 is too many calories if a meal is filling and can be the main thing you eat on a FD. I make some legume stews and curries that have a similar amount of calories. But 1 cup of it is filling so the higher calories count is ok. “Spending” half of your FD calories on one food is only an issue if they are foods that don’t leave you satisfied.

Quacka, I think recognising hunger and choosing not the eat unless you are sure you really are hungry is a really important step to take. That was quite a learning process for me. You start to realise how often you eat because it’s a meal time rather than because you are hungry. I came to realise I was rarely hungry at breakfast time and was only eating it from habit.

Nancy & Quacka, as you are both looking at what is hunger and what isn’t I thought I’d repost this list and hunger exercise that my dietitian gave me:

Recognising Genuine Hunger:
• an empty or even a painful gnawing feeling in the stomach
• a rumbling feeling in the stomach
• a cramping feeling in the stomach
• a hollow feeling in the stomach
• a feeling of nausea
• no feelings in the stomach at all, but a desire to eat
• a feeling of weakness or lethargy
• feelings of light-headedness or irritability
• difficulty in concentrating
• feeling a bit shaky
• decrease in energy levels
• headache

Hunger Exercise:
Take a couple of deep breaths. Focus your attention on your mouth area— your teeth, tongue, lips and throat. Are there any physical sensations there that tell you that you might be hungry? Is your mouth dry or moist? Are you feeling thirsty?
Now focus on the upper area of your stomach— the area just below your rib cage. What sensations are you feeling? Are there any noises?
Now focus on the lower area of your stomach— are there any sensations there? Do you notice any differences between the upper part of your stomach and the lower part? Does one feel more empty and the other more full? Repeat the exercise.
Have any other physical sensations become apparent in your mouth or upper/ lower stomach?
Now pay attention to your whole body.
Do you feel high in energy or low in energy?
Are you feeling tired? How is your concentration? Are you feeling comfortable or irritable?
Have you got images of food in your mind – are you thinking about what would be nice to eat?
Try to notice anything about your body generally, that might be telling you that you are physically hungry.
If you were to rate yourself so that 0 was absolutely empty, 2 was getting empty, 5 was full, 8 was overfull and 10 was stuffed full, what would you score out of 10?

Cinque, I did immediately notice that the order of posts had changed this morning but wouldn’t have thought to go back and see whether additional posts had been slotted in late. You are very observant. Thanks, I shall look up the programme on SBS tonight. We have the same history of computing & hitch-hiking. I operate on a ‘need to know’ basis these days and, like you, I can ask DD if I need to know.

Sending best wishes GDSA, I can’t offer any wise words about menopause because I barely noticed it. But at least you have the 5:2 skills already so I’m sure you’ll put the right methods into practice to keep the weight you lost from returning.

Cinque, the jazz evening was even better than last week. Very high quality musicians. Last week, the organisers (a man in his nineties actually put it all together within 8 weeks) were overwhelmed by the response for the initial event and kept bringing in more chairs. Last night, there were a third of the people which made it very intimate and more like a concert. DD was keen to come with us and she enjoyed it very much too. We’re so lucky to have this within walking distance. BTW, the three of us drank pitchers of water all evening, not feeling any pressure to drink alcohol.

That’s annoying about the nurse LJ but you seem to have handled it very calmly. I don’t quite get people who call after the appointment time has passed to cancel. Our lawnmower man called at 5pm yesterday to say he wasn’t coming – a fact I’d actually worked out for myself since he’s normally finished by 10am.

It’s about four hours since I started this so there will be other posts to read now.

P.S. Well hello Intesha! I was very pleased to see your post and to learn that you’re practicing 3 FDs a week – wow. Are there a lot of spoons being licked on the other four days? Not long until your trip so you must be excited by that. It sounds as though your dad is doing very well and maintaining his independence to be able to live alone while you’re away with some support. I hope you have a great time and look forward to seeing you down around 60kgs in the months to come. I am one that loses weight in the face and I feel I do look older with less weight. But it’s worth it. I think. Yes, it is!

Morning guys. I hope you have had a good Thursday, Friday or whever I last logged on. 🙂

FD today. So trying not to eat yet. Getting hungry and my stomach is now rumbling so I might have to soon. I have been following the posts and I get it now, you wait until you are actually hungry – not when your clocks tells you it is breakfast, lunch, dinner etc. This now makes more sense to me.

Hope your Saturday is awesome no matter what you are doing.

Paula

Arelkade. Thanks for the thought. We are still in foreign parts, don’t get back to UK until Monday. Looking at the weather forecast we are going to feel the difference! Enjoy the liquid fast – I have one of those scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. Depending on my post holiday weight it might well be another five day job.

Hi everyone
The liquid fast day lasted until 8 minutes ago. Been swapping bedside cupboards x 4, in 2 rooms, sorting lots of ‘bits’ from drawers, vacuuming behind and under beds, perspiring profusely – so had a chinese BBQ pork sandwich with high fibre bread for more energy, as still lots to sort out! Now it’s a FD! Hopefully no more food till tomorrow morning.

Hope your sore hands feel a lot better real soon LJoyce.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday Penguin – hope you and OH are feeling very relaxed and the weather is kind to you.

Must go finish what I started.
Bye for now!

Hi all,
Long time no read and no post.
Hope all are well and thriving, reducing , maintaining, fasting 2x week.

Welcome to any newbies. I will meet you all in when I’m back on the forum in April.

Check in 64.5kg and holding steady through these last few weeks of my project.

Bye for now,
onwards and downwards,
If you fall off the horse get back on.
Merry
3 1/2 years on 5:2, maintaining for 1 1/2 yrs

Good morning SHs, hope you are all having a lovely Sunday.

I was up early to put the final coat of polyurethane on the new floor boards in the lounge room. I also vacuumed and wiped down the sanded kitchen floor so it’s now ready for it’s first coat of polyurethane, that’s this afternoon’s task.

I’m just heading off for a family brunch to celebrate my aunt’s birthday. It’s a NFD so I can let my hair down a little.

G’day everyone Hope your day is going well. St. Patrick’s Day is almost over here and I had a nice day full of cooking corned beef and cabbage and eating. ☘️☘️☘️☘️ We only have corned beef around this time of year but have enough leftovers to eat it for a few days now. It took around an hour and a half in the Instant Pot to get it falling apart tender, the way we like it. We had it with red potatoes and a green salad the avocado and vinegrette dressing. Cake for dessert. Needless to say, this wasn’t a FD and I’m afraid my eating wasn’t too mindful. I was 58.1 for the past 2 days, so hopefully today doesn’t add too much!

We had a big hail storm this afternoon while we were eating, with a little thunder and lightning. It lasted long enough that we had a good layer of small hailstones on the ground that looked like snow and stayed there for a couple hours. It was around 7 C earlier and now is down to 3 C. Quite a contrast to the hot and windy weather around Melbourne that Cinque is having. Hot and windy is scary because of the possibility of fires in both of our countries. I’m always nervous until the winds calm down. Hope they are calmed by the time you read this.

Merry, good to see you here for a few. Penguin, happy to hear you’re still on holiday. Thin, your jazz concerts sound like such a cool way to spend an evening! That the bands were good makes it even better. LJ, getting the polyurethane on the floorboards has to be so satisfying! Floors always look wonderful after a sanding and new finish is applied. Will they need more than one coat? Hope you can be out of the house for a while when both rooms are drying. The smells from that stuff are pretty strong as I recall. But with the warm weather you probably have open windows so it can air out. Your house must be looking pretty nice with all the work you have done. You have good reason to feel proud!

Good evening all,

While I’m waiting for dinner to bake in the airfryer (a piece of moussaka that I thawed today), I thought I’d give a better post than my speedily written one this morning.

I went to the family brunch and tried something none of us had ordered before – baked eggs with roasted vegetables and pita bread. An unusual combination in a breakfast menu. It was pleasant but not wonderful. I probably wouldn’t order it again. I got all of my planned reno tasks done today and also managed to get rid of a few unwanted pieces of furniture to a friend of a friend. I love finding new homes for things I don’t want anymore.

Cali – Stay warm and out of that hail.
Oh yes the wood floor needs more than one coat of polyurethane. On bare sanded floorboards you need three coats, and it has to be carefully sanded and cleaned of the sawdust between each coat – the polyurethane makes the wood fibres stand up and the floor can feel a little furry so you have to make smooth again between coats. As I don’t have the appropriate industrial finishing sander to do this, I’ll be on the floor with a cork block and strip of fine grit sandpaper doing it by hand! The floor polishing process is basically a 3 day event as it takes up to 24 hours to dry, depending on the temperature. Then another 7 days before you can put any furniture on it. Getting the next 2 coats of polyurethane on is all I’m attempting to do over the next 2 days. Most of tomorrow I’ll be shopping for soft furnishings and Tuesday I have the nurse coming to do my infusion in the morning.

Nancy, congrats on the 2.3kg weight loss, that’s excellent and worth going without the St Pat’s drink. There will be more St Pat’s days and other opportunities to indulge, it’s ok to say no to some.

Thin, good to hear you are still in the 58s before a FD. Good going. The idea of getting stuck into the frozen cake to stop losing too much weight made me smile. Hope your daughter has a fab time in Tassie, what an amazing opportunity.

Arel, I feel for you with the yo-yoing weight, that’s always a frustration. I hope the scales start a proper downward trend for you again soon.

Merry, hope you get your project completed on time. Glad to hear you’ve manage to maintain weight while so busy.

Penguin, hope you and Mrs P had a fabulous holiday. Safe flight home.

The airfryer just “dinged”, my dinner’s ready. Talk to you all again tomorrow.

Wow, what a lot of Sunday posts!

Cinque what is SE agent please? It’ll probably be obvious when you tell me. And thank you for offering to be that person! I’m glad you had a good FD. Your miso soup sounds a bit like mine. I’ve just eaten a quarter of a small Chinese cabbage with mine. That’s a lot of cabbage. And I forgot to soak my mushrooms early enough so they were a bit chewy. My red chilli slowed me down quite a bit too.

LJ, that baked egg breakfast sounds good to me. I might not order it though. One of my FD meals is Spanish Fideos requiring an egg to be baked in the oven on top of the Angel Hair noodles & other ingredients. It takes forever (or so it seems on a FD)! I wouldn’t like to argue with the resident statistician but I’m pretty sure Nancy has lost a substantial 12.3kgs (did it twice in my head). Well done Nancy!

I forgot all about St. Patrick’s Day – it was a big deal when we lived in San Diego, everyone claiming to be Irish, drinking green beer, etc. It’s probably an excuse for drinking here too but I just don’t notice. CalifD, like Cinque, I was also imagining the decorating at your house. It sounds like you celebrated in style and started with a nice, low weight which allows you to enjoy what you’re eating confidently.

Cinque, it was you who got me off eating so much meat I think. Lots of legume recipes being mentioned. And Amazon at Christmas on the Silly Season Challenge got me thinking about how much meat we eat. OH has now said that I should have a pot of that mung bean soup cooked up ‘all the time’. What a turnaround.

Evening people. Had a great day fasting yesterday. Have lost a little since last weekend’s weigh in. Much happier munchkin this week. 🙂

Husband working away from Tuesday early am to Thursday late pm. So fasting will be super easy this week (hoping not to jinx myself).

I hope everyone has a great night and awesome day tomorrow. Another retail therapy day for Courtney and I as we didn’t finish everything on Thursday last week.

Take care, and those fasting – good job and those not – good job.

Paula

Good morning,
Morning after Fast Day. Oooh it is lovely. I slept quite well also 🙂

Yes Thin, I am your DD’s South Eastern agent!
I am laughing at myself, but I feel absurdly pleased that those legumes are making you feel healthier. I have been championing them (gently!) for over thirty years and it is only with the 5:2 forum that I have found fellow travelers.
Enjoy your frothy coffee this morning.

The Victorian fires have been the worst of the season. They are close to under control now, but there are even worse ones in Southern NSW. Plus a cyclone through Darwin. Poor old country, it is having a battering.

LJoyce I watched Howard’s End last night, but I might try and catch That Sugar Film as I have never seen it. (now that the wifi is working on my telly again. (I turned it off, and then turned it on again 😉 )

Paula, so glad your scales are going in the right direction now. Cheers for a great fasting week! Found a picture of you coming home after shopping for jewelry http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/01/27/article-2546671-1AFF1CB900000578-852_634x637.jpg
🙂

Hi Simco

Have a lovely day, people!

Hi SHs,

I’ve given the kitchen floor a light sand by hand with a cork block, I’ve swept it and hand washed it with a damp sponge to remove every speck of dust. Unfortunately I can’t put on the next coat of polyurethane until it’s bone dry, so I’ll have to be patient for a little while. I am planning to go to a few stores to look for soft furnishings so I might do that first.

It’s been windy and wet here, I just hope the rain moves east quickly so the areas of NSW and Vic that were hit by bushfires yesterday get some needed rain. The news this morning was that 70 homes were lost in NSW and 18 in Victoria, but thankfully no loss of life, that’s such a blessing especially given how fast the NSW fire moved it could so easily have been deadly.

Cinque, I also started using legumes about 30 years ago. As a child I didn’t like them, not even baked beans. In my 20s I was given Mollie Katzen’s “The Enchanted Broccoli Forest” and then I bought her “Moosewood” cookbook. I was married at the time and luckily when I started making lots of recipes from these books my husband liked them too. We happily settled into having several vegetarian dinners each week.

Paula, glad to hear you’ve lost weight this week. I think it is easier to deal with a FD when you don’t have other family members wanting meals that you can’t eat, so hopefully this week will be easier. I also found that the more time I stuck with 5:2 the easier it got. It will become routine and will require less thought, planning and worry than it does at the beginning. I used to worry about being hungry and having food on hand that was within the 500 cals to snack on – having that planned made be feel safe and calm. I don’t think that way anymore, eventually I accepted that being hungry for a short period was ok, the sky wouldn’t fall in and I would get to eat something soon. But it takes time for thinking patterns to change so just do what you need to on a FD to make it comfortable and not stressful.

Thin, I think the baked egg & veg breakfast would have made a better dinner. It was roasted red onion, zucchini, pumpkin and tomato with 2 baked eggs, and a pile of fresh rocket on top. As long as there wasn’t a lot of added fat it might even work as FD dinner. I’ve never actually baked whole eggs – just in things like quiche. I tend to use eggs as a fast evening meal – which means cooking on the stove as it’s ready quickly.
My issue with the meal I ordered was the sameness of the flavour, there was nothing punchy or zingy in it, just all mild flavours. A spoonful of pesto or a little feta would have helped, even some garlic & herbs. I think the main reason I was disappointed was that the previous Sunday (safe cafe) I’d ordered the field mushroom stack which had pesto, feta and balsamic flavours with it and each mouthful was just wonderful.

Well, I’ve finished my pot of tea and probably need to head to the shops now. Not really in the mood but it has to be done sometime.
I’m fasting today so keeping busy is always a good plan as the day flies by without me thinking much of food.

Hi all… But especially Quacka. I too suffer from a genetic predisposition to high blood pressure, and have taken half a tablet daily since my late 30s. When I had it tested just before I came overseas, my doctor was surprised to see it was 120 over 68…. Lower than usual. I told him I was following the 5:2 diet and had lost some kilos. His view was that we would test it more often now (it’s been routinely 130 over 75 or thereabouts (a little lower sometimes) for years. He said if I continued to lose weight, we could reassess whether I needed to stay on he medication at all. (btw when I say ‘half a tablet’ it’s because when I was working overseas, taking 12 packets of tablets for the year was not only bulky but aroused suspicions at China’s border control, so he prescribed a 150mg dose but gave me a script for 300mg, so I only had half as many packets to travel with. I can imagine you are reluctant to commit to a lifetime of tablets Quacka, but maybe this is only a temporary measure til those remaining 10 kilos drop off. Good luck.

Good evening,
Nice work from the Perthians: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-19/perth-cycle-group-fight-club-creates-strava-map-numbat/9562696?smid=Page:%20ABC%20Melbourne-Facebook_Organic&WT.tsrc=Facebook_Organic&sf184895190=1

🙂 Paula

Quakka, do you have symptoms that go with high blood pressure? My sister is getting tested at the moment, she has a sfaggometer (No Cinque, that would be a sphygmomanometer) she uses at home. they said that so many people’s blood pressure is up when they are at the doctors that it isn’t reliable figures. (But hers is up at times, and she can tell by how she feels). Anyway, fingers crossed that yours goes down as you lose weight.

My day has gone really well. I hope everyone else’s has too. Cheers.

LJoyce, would it be worth trying the biggest OpShops? I’ve found gorgeous white cotton sheets, although mainly flat ones I must admit. But such good quality they are perfect even though second hand. Might you be able to ring a few to save legwork?

Hi Lindsay, Cali, Cinque and LJoyce.

Thank you for your responses and encouraging words.

Cinque I have had no symptoms at all. Just a routine BP check at the docs last time found it was elevated. Recently I have been getting headaches which they say can be a symptom of high BP, but I attributed it to eyesight issues. Maybe it has been the BP all along, guess I will know when I start these tablets.

I also have rosacea so everytime I I would visit a doctor previously they would be straight on to checking my BP. A red face is also a symptom but mine is definitely rosacea.

I avoided going to the chemist today. I think I was being a bit of an ostrich, hoping I if I buried my head in the sand, the whole issue may just go away. I talked with my Mum also and she said that she started her medication at age 22! I knew she was young but didn’t realise just how young. The doctor said I am actually young for this to be happening but I guess if it runs in the family……
Mum also told me that my father has been on BP medications for many years also. I didn’t know this.

I am starting to accept that I have to take these tablets. I will continue losing weight and see what happens. Now that I know Dad is also on meds I think I will probably be stuck on them for life.

Tomorrow I am off to the chemist. I’m going to buy a machine and test at home and I suppose I have to start on the meds too.

It’s really great that you are all here. Its good to be able to hear of your own experiences and I love all the support you all give me and each other. I can’t tell you enough how much it means to me 🙂
Q
Xx

Good morning everyone

Feeling more positive today. I’m at work now and we have a chemist across the road. I will go over and check out the BP monitors when it opens.

I hope everyone has a great day. I’m on a non FD today and looking forward to tomorrow’s FD. All the best to you all 🙂

Paulamac65 – Thanks for the recipe – FD today – but will cook it up tomorrow. YUMMMMMM

CalfiDreamer – Thanks for the info – think my eating is definitely boredom. I did read somewhere that it can be better to confront the food your trying to avoid, look at it and build up an immunity – so to speak. I give this a test when I go to the cafe and order my coffee, make a point of staring at the muffins etc, and work on not being tempted. :)) It might be worth a try.

Quacka – Same for me the recognition of wanting food 7 & being hungry, and if I wait a bit any feeling I have I hunger on FD fades away – I hang onto Tomorrow is not far away. :))

Cinque – Noom is $79 NZD a month – will have to ditch it as my budget won’t be able to keep up. :((

Thanks all for this Forum – really good to have a group of peeps to chat to and standby each other in this
pursuit of a healthier life.

LJoyce – No problem – not apology needed :))

But Cali, I was thinking of charging Nancy $70 a month for being here
https://media0.giphy.com/media/ui1hpJSyBDWlG/giphy.gif

LJ – There is a manchester place in Bibra Lake called Texcess Located at 13 Tayet Link, Bibra Lake, 6163
Call (08) 9418 9050 They seem to have a good range of manchester etc.

Sorry guys haven’t read any other posts yet. 🙂

Have a great day, Paula