This topic contains 27,907 replies, has 831 voices, and was last updated by thinatlast 5 days, 8 hours ago.
Penguin, most veggies seem to have at least trace elements of most minerals and vitamins. I’m wondering if magnesium is one of those fat soluble nutrients as it’s particularly high in things like nuts.
By the way 30 different veg could be a challenge in the depths of winter when not much is in season. Guess that’s not a problem for you at the moment.
The weather is teasing me. We have had only one real rainfall in the last six weeks and everything that should be green is brown. Three times in the last three hours I have decided to water the vegetable patch. On each occasion it has started to rain gently, then stopped after about fifteen minutes. That is hardly enough to settle the dust.
Good morning one and all,
LJoyce, such a treat to have a great big catch up post from you!
Hooray to Cali for that productive threat!
Excellent to hear about your op shops, and being closer to family, and finding some good exercise, and having that interesting challenge of entertaining more without it stuffing up your healthy eating.
I’m taking magnesium now because the vitamin D I was taking probably caused hives because I was low on magnesium which means my body couldn’t absorb the vitamin D.
“The best food sources of magnesium are (from highest to lowest) pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, cashews, black and soybeans, spinach, Swiss chard, quinoa, millet, buckwheat, brown rice, Chinook salmon and halibut.” Well, I eat a lot of those foods.
Now I am reading that alcohol and caffeine deplete magnesium.
So my precious coffee depleted my magnesium and that stopped me from absorbing the vitamin D? Sigh.
(Actually, I only found one article that said that, so I will keep researching, and have my magnesium supplement as well as my coffee š )
Cate, cheers that you are experiencing the nice things about doing 5:2. If we can only keep them from outweighing the difficult parts, then it is easy to make 5:2 a way of life.
I did take probiotics for 6 months (years ago now) on the advice of a nice chemist, but didn’t find they made any difference. I take them now in the form of good miso paste, yoghurt and home made kimchi. It is interesting how we each can like or dislike different fermented foods. I couldn’t come at kefir, but am having such pleasure eating my kimchi with almost everything.
But I agree with the health info that the best thing we can do for our tummy bugs is eat a whole lots of vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, as they have fibre that gets down to our lower gut and feeds all the good microbes.
G’day, what a brilliant way to get more veggies into your diet, and replace the bread you don’t want in your diet. They are like mixed vegetable latkes. Such a great idea.
Sybs, are the calories for the beancurd knots on the packet? After writing the other day I realised the thickness of my beancurd sticks could not explain the higher calories, as that was by weight. Oh dear, my wonky brain!
But I have found out that the name yuba comes from the Japanese word for an old woman’s wrinkled skin. Cute.
Penguin, so glad the cramps have gone. I hope it has kept raining. That very gentle rain is the best start for parched soil (well, Australian soil anyway, our droughts often end with torrential rain that washed all our precious topsoil away). Just hoping that it settles in to a good long proper rain.
Johnuc152, could you write more about your research here? I might be interested but want more info before emailing you.
Cheers everyone, Best wishes for a good day. It is day before Fast Day for me and I had a great veggie shop yesterday, so I am going to cook a big veggie stew today. Probably a sayur!
@cinque – sayur is Indonesian for vegetables :-))
I find the student/research email suspect for a number of reasons, like a private email address, no link to any university/research institute, “come-on” promising entry into prize draw, winnings in GBP, and a few more if I really think about it.
Old woman’s wrinkled skin – OMG what a turn on – not
I asked about the calories because I am finding ambiguous quantities, and no indication whether the weight used to arrive at the calorie count is dry weight or wet weight after soaking, which is hugely different.
meeting my friend for brunch in an hour – no worries, since my weight has started to go down again! Able to wear my favourite pair of shorts, zipping and buttoning up without having to pull my tummy in :-))
have a great weekend
Good morning cyber friends and thanks for all the good wishes for our trip which was really fantastic. And very eventful. But that’s what makes a holiday memorable. Despite various dramas occurring almost on a daily basis, the overriding memory will be of the hospitality of the Sri Lankan people. I thought they were super. What a beautiful country.
Merry, my travel scales weren’t quite as good as yours showing that you weighed nil. But I am delighted to report that I returned exactly the same weight as I left, 59.8kgs. I had intended to practice 6:1 but abandoned this as my trusty travel scales showed me losing weight every day. I ate well, tried everything including more bread products (roti, chapati, etc) than I’ve eaten in four years but we also covered a lot of miles on very hilly tracks and we didn’t have any alcohol at all. I loved the Sri Lankan curries, spices, buffalo curd and fresh fish.
Tomorrow will be my first FD in over 2 weeks and I’m all ready for it. Cauliflower soup, almond & coconut milk and Hairy Bikers’ Healthy Cottage Pie all defrosting. Glad you will be with me Cinque and hope you’re feeling as fit and well as you can be.
I’ve skimmed the posts and will have to content myself with that as there’s much to be done around here. Arel, I’m so sorry for your loss, thinking of you. Sybs, I hope your Cape Trib trip was great and good to read that your weight is still falling off. Merry, I trust you’re back in the 5:2 swing of things. LJ, hoping you’re now fully connected and are also back into FD mode following your break for a bit of afternoon snacking indulgence. CalifD, Penguin, Lindsay, Quakka, Stay, GDSA, how are you all?
Good morning Sybs, Cinque, Merry, Cate, Lindsay, GDSA, Arel, Fruitcake, Quacka, Thin and Stay. And good afternoon-evening to Cali & Penguin. And hi to anyone who’s reading that I’ve missed.
I have yet another tradie here this morning – fixing the rear door out of the garage. The builder has been really quick to respond to my list of issues with the house and has even generously offered to organise and pay for some changes that I was going to arrange myself (changing the fitout of some of the cupboards and removing a tree). New homes come with a warranty but with some builders you have to fight to get anything done – mine has been lovely to deal with and helpful and prompt in dealing with things. He’s very young (I’d guess 20s) and it’s good to see someone starting out in this business with such a good attitude.
Sys – congrats on getting into those shorts. I think getting into clothes that we couldn’t do up is guaranteed to make us smile. Visual reassurance that our weight is definitely reducing
Cinque – glad you liked my long catch up post – be careful what you wish for. There were times I think I nearly blew this forum up with my many long posts.
I still haven’t tried bean curd skins, but during my exploration of the nearest shopping centre (which is massive), I found and Asian grocer which I’m yet to explore. I’m hoping they carry both the bean curd skins and the blocks of konjac that Thin spoke of some time ago.
I agree with Sybs about that research request – I was suspicious for all the same reasons.
Penguin – frequent bouts of drizzle is what I remember most of England’s weather from summer and autumn (the only seasons I was there). I hope you get enough rain to avoid some watering soon.
In Australia those with veggie gardens accept that they’ll probably have to water twice daily through the summer, so our yards are usually well set up with underground pipes, taps and hoses connected to the mains water supply. I suspect a lot of English gardens don’t have such plumbing infrastructure, so dry spells may mean a lot of running around with a watering can.
Cate – making kefir means you need to know someone who can give you some of their own “grains” as a starter culture (called grains but they actually look like rubbery curds). I buy my kefir already fermented – a brand called “Milk Thief” here which is one of the few commercial ones that I trust. It’s available in some independent supermarkets and organic health food stores (comes from Victoria). I like this brand because it always seems to have curds on top which I can remove to ferment another bottle of kefir by adding fresh milk and leaving it on the bench for a couple of days.
Thin – your post arrived while I was writing so I’m editing to say welcome back. If you’ve had 2 weeks without a FD and haven’t gained any weight you’ve done exceptionally well. Enjoy the FD.
It’s another NFD for me. As tomorrow is looking like my first quiet Sunday in a while, I may get to actually have a Sunday FD. I don’t think I’ve managed that since I moved in here.
Have a lovely weekend and good FDs, for those who are doing them.
Hi to each and every one of you!
Just catching up on all your very informative and varied posts – so enjoyable reading them all.
Warm welcome to all the newbies – these dear friends, on this forum, are a great bunch and all very supportive.
Welcome back LJoyce and Thin and any others who have been missing for a while. Loved your initial post LJoyce – sounds like you are settling into your new home nicely – you deserve it!
Cinque: enjoyed reading tbe list for some of the foods you eat! I really like hearing of how others manage their routine – thank you!
Question please: what is the best type/brand of container to do sauerkraut in – I’d love to give it a go, and then also try other fermented goods. I haven’t tried to revive my frozen kefir yet and look forward to doing this as well – my microbiomes are in for a nice surprise!
I hope you all enjoying whatever you are getting up to and bye for now! Have a great weekend xx
@arelkade – the best would be a crock pot if you have one, but don’t sweat it, glass is good as well.
Ooh lovely, Thin and LJoyce are both back!
Sybs, yes! I thought when I wrote sayur that you would know I was going Indonesian, and yes, the recipe is such an old one and so very anglified that it is in my recipe book as ‘Vegetable Sayur’ and suggests a couple of strips of lemon zest if you can’t get lemon grass. (I used a kafir lime leaf today).
It is a very quick and easy and delicious recipe so I haven’t updated it to a more authentic one.
I thought the same about the students email Sybs (and LJoyce), but then googled ucl from the email address which is a research university https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ so I think it is probably legit, after all this is a good place to find people doing 5:2, and they weren’t to know that we get lots of spam… but I shouldn’t have had to play detective.
Cheers for your nicely fitting shorts! I hope it was a lovely lunch.
Thin, it sounds like you have had a wonderful adventure, and I think I would rather daily crises among lovely people than an straightforward time among horrible people! (Since I know you came back in one piece).
I’ll enjoy fasting with you tomorrow.
And you too, maybe, LJoyce! And what a lovely builder.
Hello to you too Arelkade. Good luck with your sauerkraut, and with reviving your kefir!
It is nearly the end of the day. A very laidback one for me, but some good little things got done. Hope there is some lovely cool rain for Penguin and Cali.
Best wishes all
Good morning all. Yes Cinque I am still lurking, read the posts everyday but my life is so humdrum I don’t have anything to contribute.
Still do my FD’s Tues/Thurs/Sun. I am struggling to get back to my pre-holiday weight, still 2kg off and 5kg from my lowest. I have started to add an 800 cal day to see if I can kickstart the weight loss. It gets very frustrating and on top of other things I find I get very depressed and feel like giving up. Thankfully I am too vain now and like the reflection coming back from the mirror and the smaller clothes. Still fit into my size 12’s just have a little bit more of the muffin top happening.
Arelkade my condolences on the loss of your brother.
Welcome back Thin and congratulations to all losing, maintaining and newbies.
Have a good day everyone.
@intesha – being size 12 sounds like “the impossible dream” to me – last time I was that size was in the early / mid 80s.
Here is a quick run down on what I do to try to get back into shape. Because I have built in quite a bit of variety, I don’t find it boring, as a matter of fact, I am enjoying myself. Maybe you can find a little bit of motivation in this post, I really hope so.
I do 3 x FD per week, aiming to keep to between 500 – 800 cal per day, and I like it that way, and it got things going again when I hit a small plateau. So I am still dropping a little under 1kg per week, but I started at a huge weight, and still have around 7 kg to go. I also walk every morning, not very far, only about 3 km, which takes me anything between 35 and 45 minutes *when I started 6 moths ago, the same walk took me a little under 1 hour), depending on how often I stop to take photos. A few weeks ago I also started doing 3 x 5 minute sessions with my 1 kg baby dumb bells, doing some resistance and some flexibility stuff, aiming to build up a little muscle again, as well as improving agility, both of which have declined over time, which I find quite irritating – I am 71 years. Next May we have the Great Barrier Reef Masters Games here in Cairns, which I want to sign up for. Sounds crazy? I guess it does, but I am having fun trying to get there.
Hi all. Hope you’re all well and happy. Thanks for the tips on leg cramps. I’ll give the magnesium a go, until I can build up natural sources. Like you Penguin, I’d prefer to get my nutrients from food, but sometimes supplements are necessary. Sybs I tried to relate the attacks to what I was doing on the day, and there was a definite correlation between work days and bad nights. I sit almost all day at work, only getting up for a brief walk up the corridor to top up my tea beween consultations. But yesterday we had a long walk and I had another bad night, so perhaps something else is going on.
A lovely day yesterday in the winter sunshine. Breakfast out at an urban village near where we live, then we sat at a footpath cafe while OH drank an Italian thick dark chocolate (and I had water). Lunch today with visiting European relatives – but I chose the restaurant so know what’s there for me. I’ll break the 16:8 fast at 12.30. I’m trying to lose 3 another kilos before we head off to Bali in 5 weeks.
Penguin I googled your robin. How sweet he is. And nice to know he’ll be back with family.
LJ great to see you back after your internet battles. The NBN men (7) came here in April, to put in the cabling. Left some unsightly orange tape holding the cable pipes to the uprights of my carport – and despite numerous calls and promises, they are still there, gradually coming unstuck and looking ugly. I have a suspicion that because we were pleasant to them, they took us for pushovers …so all the platitudes but no service. Grrr
Intesha, you are so so close, and as you say, such a nice feeling to look into the mirror and like what’s looking back.
Good morning Southern Hemispheres, hope you are all having a lovely Sunday.
Intesha, good to hear from you. Not sure I agree that a supposedly humdrum life requires no comment – have you read some of my posts. Sometimes it’s more about having someone like-minded to chat to, rather than having something interesting to say.
Doing 3 FDs and adding an 800cal day as well sounds like a lot of restriction to me. Could you look instead at making some minor adjustments to your NFDs rather than doing the 800 cal day?
It might also take time (more than our patience levels allow for). Two years ago, after losing most of a 9kg weight gain with 5:2, I plateaued 1kg above my goal and 5kg above my lowest weight of recent years. I got stuck there for 3 months before accepting that even with 2 FDs this is where my body weight wanted to be at the moment. A couple of months later I noticed my weight was slowly moving down again and I got that pesky kilogram off. I didn’t go much lower than that until I added masses of extra activity with the renovation.
If you can find the patience to wait a little longer and stick with a FD routine that feels comfortable you might find your body weight decides to move once you stop stressing about it. I sometimes think that “watched pot never boils” analogy works for weight loss too, especially when we are close to goal.
Sybs, masters games? Wow, now that’s quite a goal. What sports are you planning to compete in? I totally understand your goal of improving flexibility, agility and muscle tone. I’m trying to do much the same thing.
Cali, are you still taking some time away from work? I know you were thinking about retirement – does it look any more attractive yet?
Joffy, if you are reading, I hope you now have an effective treatment program for your RA, and that you have managed to stop the weight gain with 5:2.
Sounds like Intesha, Cinque & Thin are fasting today. I am too.
I don’t have to cook as I have leftovers from the veggie, chicken, konjac noodle stirfry I made for my Thursday FD.
Have a good FD or NFD all.
Intesha, so glad to know you are still here. Good luck with that extra 800 calorie day.
I think you need to post every day because it is the little daily highs and lows we share, the minutiae of life with 5:2 that reflects successes and failures, delights and disappointments. Have I convinced you? What about this, your ups and downs and how you deal with them are really useful to the rest of us, especially the newbies here. The keeping on keeping on, getting back on the horse, turning new behaviours into habits, every day triumphs.
I’m having an every day triumph (not yet 11am š ) with my Sunday fast Day. The yuba and mushrooms are soaking for my miso soup tonight and I’m making a big pot of spiced apple tisane (cardamom, cloves, lemon and an apple teabag) to drink through the day.
Sybs, how wonderful to be aiming for the great Barrier reef Masters games! You might even be in your size 12 sports outfit by then. What an inspiration you are.
Lindsay, the front page says you’ve posted here, but it isn’t visible š
I’m listening to a doctor on the radio (3RRR Radiotherapy) talking good nutrition and saying JERF! Just Eat Real Food. I’ll remember that. He’s basically meaning no free sugar and as little processed as possible.
Also this popped up today: https://www.healthier.qld.gov.au/colour-recipe-wheel/
Cheers
Good Morning everyone, and special hellos to Intesha and Joffy.
Joffy – How are you? I hope things are starting to stabilize for you, and maybe a bit of improvement from getting your head around the RA.
Intesha – you are not alone in being a bit up from previous weight but still in size 12ās. I comfort myself with that.
I wrote a long catch up post on the way home from my school holiday grandparenting trip, but lost service on my phone just before posting. Ce la Vie.
My grandparenting trips always come with starchy carbs, my nemisis, mostly GF, but some wheat and potatoes there in the last 2 days. Potatoes, at least, are not unhealthy for me, but always push my weight up. Wheat makes me retain fluid and makes joints ache with a bit if inflammation. A few days and it will be gone again.
While with my grandchildren I did another āfirst time in 20yrs since getting ME/CFSā. Thank you 5:2 , and thank you to my exercise physiologist who helps me keep various bits of me working. I might be a bit up on my achieved goal weight of 62kgs in November 2016, but Iām in the same clothes size and it feels great.
FDs Mon and Thursdays.
Starting my daily weight recording and Monday graphing again starting tomorrow.
Onwards and downwards,
If you fall off the horse get back on it.
Merry
@cinque – I really like my Dried Bean Curd Knots (the cute ones:-)), but today I went back to the Asian Supermarket and found a packet of Dried Beancurd strip. They are already cut up into narrow bands like the dried Asian egg noodles. The brand is TIANQUANYUNSI, the packet is green and white with a photo on the front. I’ll use them like normal Asian noodles and turn the into a mie goreng, with heaps of chilli, garlic, fresh ginger, shitake, greens and maybe a little chicken. they seem to have 110 cal for 25g dry. I’ll report back and let you know how they turned out, just in case you feel like having a change from soup
Good morning all, especially fellow fasters LJ, Cinque and Intesha,
Merry, what was that ‘first’ that you recently achieved? You are such an inspiration. Commiserations on the lost post, it’s so irritating and happens to us all eventually.
Cinque, you are mentioning a lot of delectable ingredients these days.
Sybs, every time you post your age, I am again shocked. I keep forgetting that you’re in your 70s because your posts reflect a much younger person. I hesitate to ask what those Masters Games involve. I, too, would like more flexibility especially after face planting on a train track after falling victim to a trip wire. I often think about re-starting yoga but never seem to do anything about it.
LJ, other posters are welcoming you back. Where have you been? I agree, Intesha should just jump in and post once in a while. There’s no need to comment on your humdrum life if you don’t feel it’s warranted but reports on weight status, length of time practicing 5:2 are always welcome.
My harvested milk kefir did not survive two weeks in the fridge. I got a nasty shock yesterday. Today I shall revive the hibernating batch. Arel, have you brought yours back to life yet?
This is my first FD for over two weeks. I also suspended fasting in Spain a couple of years ago as I was losing too much weight walking up to 15km a day in the mountains. I can see that it might be tempting to think I’d continue to ‘get away with it’ on return home but this way of life is now entrenched in my psyche. I’ve lost a further 400gm so my eating habits have clearly been shaped to sustain a size 10 person now. I am convinced this is due to rigidly adhering to the fasting practice. I’m toying with reverting to 6:1 to see how it goes. Or perhaps I’ll just treat myself to frothy coffees on my second FD. I don’t want to get complacent but I don’t want to lose more weight either (it’s a dream to be able to say that after decades of being overweight).
Stick with it!
Hey Thin, well done on your trip. Tripwire on railway tracks? Did you stumble into a movie or a local skirmish ?
Waterslide! Itās the steps up and the getting up at the bottom thatās been the no go zones till now. Stairs still have to be paced, but are now do-able, and getting up and out isnāt as easy as I remember. Because the end on this slide is like a long high sort of bath shape. For quite a lot of years even getting ready to go down and going down would have taken way too much energy. Lots of fun now though, with a rest afterwards.
@thin – here is a link to the GBR Masters Games http://www.gbrmg.com.au/ – I am going to sign up for table tennis. Competitors are grouped, and there is a 70+ age group. It’s also possible to compete in a lower age group, should no one else sign up for 70+ The TT place is only 10 minutes by car from my place, so I think I’ll start “training” soon, if I can find someone to join me. Anyway, it sounds like a lot of fun. There is also a Pan Pacific Masters Game at the Gold Coast in November, and they have some other sports which interest me, but the cost for transport and accommodation is probably prohibitive and will stop me from going there.
Good luck Sybs!
Well done Merry! Good grief. No-one will believe you have ME/CFS if you keep this up.
We were told that we could take a short-cut to our accommodation by walking along the train tracks. I didn’t see the trip wire and literally flew through the air horizontally. My knees landed on the gravel, my ribs on the sleeper and my face and outstretched hands on the track. OH attempted to come to my rescue and did EXACTLY the same thing! DD said it was quite a spectacle to see both parents literally flying horizontally and face planting within seconds of each other. OH emerged totally unscathed (he’s far more flexible than I) but I was covered from head to toe in bruises which changed colour daily for the duration of the trip. We had a good laugh about it later but it was awfully painful for a day or two. However, this turned out to be the least of many dramas we experienced on this ‘trip’!
Merry, oh, I’m disappointed! Just kidding, I’m still impressed.
Indeed I can’t find a railway definition for ‘trip wire’. It may be an American term used by OH – CalifD? It’s a thin metal wire running parallel to the train track stretched approx. 6″ above ground level in the vicinity of train stations. Its purpose is to alert engine drivers of other trains on that track. In our case, the definition is best suited to its military use as a first line of attack. Later, we’d see various people walking around that town with bruised and bandaged knees and exchange the ‘trip wire?’ knowing nod.
Train tracks = railway line, any help?
Thanks Sybs, I was fortunate not to damage my dodgy knees or break any bones. Two days later, we were attacked by a swarm of bees which was one of the most terrifying things I have ever experienced. DD is allergic to bee stings and we were a considerable walking distance from town so I was very worried for her but unable to help her much as I was also under attack. I just kept pulling out the stingers from her face and neck knowing they could have proved fatal.
I won’t bang on about the dramas because we loved it so much. And just to balance it out, here are some highlights from a country of stunning beauty and incredibly kind, hospitable people. We were fortunate to see leopards on safari and to watch sea turtles in the ocean directly below one of our booked rooms. We enjoyed incredible scenery in the mountains from some really funky old trains and our stay in one town coincided with a 15 day Hindu festival where we met pilgrims who’d walked 90 days to get there as part of an annual personal sacrifice. DD got to help them bathe & scrub their elephants in the river. The food was divine and did I say the people were so friendly and warm?
How are the fasters going today? I’ve just had my soup and am hardly noticing it’s a FD. DD is packing the car for her next (and final) prac assignment – a mixed vet clinic a few hours’ drive south of us.
Welcome back, thin! Iām glad you can look back with fondness on a trip that involved trip wires causing falls on train tracks and attacks by large bee swarms, especially when DD is allergic. (Are train tracks called something else in Oz? Thatās the only thing I can think that they would be called.) Speaking of train tracks, my father was always very proud of a photo of the front of the engine of an oncoming train that he took in his teens. He got the shot by lying between the rails on the train tracks and then sitting up quickly when the train was almost upon him, taking the photo, then lying back down and letting the train pass over him. After developing the photo in his darkroom he was a hero among all his mates as the biggerest daredevil of the group. Except one of his friendsā moms wouldnāt let him hang out with my dad anymore because he was too dangerous! š
I guess one of our trips many years ago that stands out among the rest was in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, down at the very tip of Baja. It was a very small village in those days with no paved roads in town other than the town square where one of the only phones in town was located. We knew there could be a problem when we watched several small tornados or water spouts out over the ocean, heading in. Our room was on the beach, not far from the water and there really wasnāt anywhere to go in such a small village if you wanted to stay indoors. The hotel owners told everyone, āNo problemo, tropical storm.ā It did cause concern that they were filling sandbags and placing them around the hotel. We were on the second floor. It was an anxious night, constantly checking the water level on the beach, but other than a lot of noise, water dripping on the beds from a leaking roof and the outdoor pool almost completely filled with sand the next morning, we survived. It was an adventure.
LJoyce, itās so good to see your proper long posts again! Glad your cable provider finally got your internet hooked up. It must have been my threat of us all showing up on their doorstep with protest signs that moved them. Never want to mess with a gang of hungry fasters out there shouting with signs! Things could get ugly, fast! š š®š
Good morning everyone,
Good Fast Day yesterday.
Thin, holiday catastrophes make the best stories. You have had some wonderful ones! Oh dear, you were so close to disaster! I can imagine how stiff and sore you were after that tripwire, but I am so glad it wasn’t worse. And what a relief the bees didn’t do terrible damage.
What wonderful things you saw and did!
You do so well with your eating and exercise on holidays.
6:1 nice space to be in.
Merry, What a delight to be able to enjoy a waterslide! Hooray for you and the prize of good ME/CFS management. What a pity we missed that long catch up, but thanks for writing again.
Best wishes for your fast day today, and hooray for some easy home time when you can be in charge of everything you eat.
I am going to concentrate on smaller serves of starchy carbs and bigger serves of vegetables. New resolution. I think the less exercise we do the less carbs we can cope with, so I can’t really be expected to cope with many at all.
Sybs, those beancurd skin strips do sound like a useful ingredient. I’ll check them out next time I am in the Asian shop. I have been thinking how one of those links I read, when trying to get to the elusive yuba calorie count, clarified that the beancurd skins contain higher protein and fat than tofu. I presume it isn’t that much higher, but there it is.
Ooh, won’t we all be cheering you on in The Games, our own master table tennis player. I hope an excellent training mate comes along.
Cali, what a daredevil dad! I hope the driver of the train didn’t see him, he’d have had a heart attack. (Or she).
And what an experience in Mexico.
How are you going these days? Are you still struggling with side effects of the BP meds? Are you able to do your Fast Days?
Time for me to go and have my lovely morning-after-Fast-Day breakfast.
Best wishes everyone for a good day.
And cheers to Joffy from me too!
Cinque, thank you for that link you posted with the color wheel for healthy meals. What a clever web design! You mentioned that the Japanese word āYubaā means old womanās wrinkled skin. There is a city in Northern California called Yuba City. I was thinking that I wouldnāt want to live there! But then I read that one version of the origin of the name “Yuba” is that during one of these expeditions, wild grapes were seen growing by a river, and so it was named “Uba”, a variant spelling of the Spanish word uva (grape).
Cinque, Iām still having ups and downs with my BP, mostly low now. I switched to a different primary care doc and he is having me taper off of the BP med that was causing so many side effects. It has to be reduced by 1/2 pill per week because stopping abruptly can cause dangerously high BP. The hospital had put me on 2 pills per day, one in the morning and one at night. Iām now in the 3rd week, taking only 1/2 pill at night and adjusting my regular BP med that I took before accordingly. Every week has been different. Wednesday night will be the last of the half pills. Iāll be so glad to be off of that medication and hopefully back to normal. But I imagine it may be a couple weeks for all of the side effects to go away.
Sybs, so glad to hear of your intentions to try the Masters Games. Good on you!
Merry, the water slide sounds like fun no matter how tall it was. You are able to do things you couldnāt do before and that is great progress.
Arel, Iāve made sauerkraut in a 2 gallon crock and even in a large glass jar. The important thing is to keep the shredded cabbage submerged beneath the liquid that the salt draws from it, so it doesnāt spoil. Iāve used a plate with a heave jar sitting on top of it in the crock, or glass weights in the jar. Even the tiny pieces that float out can grow mold so itās important to keep them submerged. Otherwise, itās very easy, just salt and fresh sliced cabbage. I also add some caraway seed.
Holiday adventures -:)) here is one of my more unlikely ones. When on the north coast of Bali – Lovina, I decided a longish beach walks would be a good idea. So I hitched a ride to Singaraja, unfortunately the only vehicle which stopped was a truck loaded with durian – rather pongy! Anyway, once I had climbed over lots and lots of rubbish I started my walk of about 10km. About 15 minutes into the walk, one of my legs got stuck in quicksand. When I managed to get the leg out, the shoe was missing. For the sake of balance I took the other shoe off as well. Unfortunately the beach was not beautiful, soft, sand but broken bits of coral, which left my feet cut and bruised by the time I got back to my bungalow, having to cross creeks on foot and sitting out a huge thunderstorm along the way.
Good morning SHs,
Being able to sit at the laptop each morning and read your posts and leave my own long-winded reply is still making me smile. I really missed it – don’t get along with a phone as a substitute. To be honest it was mostly the limitations of text and screen size that made it difficult, although I did have several days where I tried to post and it wouldn’t leave the text box – just sat there all day, no matter how many times I hit submit. Anyway I’m back my my nice big laptop screen and text I can actually read.
I haven’t weighed myself for a couple of weeks, but in the last few days my jeans felt tighter around the middle. I know that some of what I’ve been eating and the quantity is the problem. It also occurred to me that I haven’t been planning my food week the the same diligence that I used to.
As I only turned my laptop on occasionally over the last 7 weeks I was not using a meal plan the way I used to. So last night I sat down and actually planned out meals for this week. When I think back to what I did without a meal plan, my meals across the week lacked balance, had too few veggies and included too many easily thrown together meals – usually based around toast.
I also realised I have not been making enough soups. I’ve done enough for FD meals but not enough so that I have this option for lunch on a NFD.
I found a mulligatawny recipe last night that I seem to have most of the ingredients for so I’ll make that today. It calls for blue lentils which I’m not familiar with so I’m using a combination of brown lentils and split mung beans.
If it’s nice I’ll post the recipe.
Sybs, that doesn’t sound like the holiday walk from hell. Quicksand sounds particularly scary – probably because I remember it from movies I watched as a kid where it swallowed people up.
Thin, the trip wire incident sounds extremely painful. I think it’s great that you can see past these things to the good parts of the holiday.
I think 6:1 might be doable for you. Given that you did no FDs and didn’t gain any weight while away it’s sounds like it might work. Also, if it doesn’t the solution is pretty easy, just add a second FD.
Cali, glad to hear you are coming off of that BP med. Going back to one you know doesn’t cause side effects sounds completely sensible to me.
I had palpitation just thinking of your father taking that train photo.
Merry, well done for tackling that waterslide. It sounds like fun and I bet the kids loved it that you joined in.
Cinque & Sybs, I was going to try and find those bean curd skins to try. But now I’m a bit worried about the calories. 110cal for 25g sounds like a lot (that’s 1850kj/100g – more than hard cheese and nearly as much as nuts/seeds) in small quantities that would be ok for a NFD but probably not a FD. The tofu I buy is 300-500kj per 100g. I’m wondering if the fact that it’s dried is why the calorie count in so high. Do the dry bean curd skins swell up a lot when soaked, because 25g doesn’t sound like much. If a little bit becomes a lot after soaking/cooking then the calorie count might not be quite so scary.
In the cold weather I usually choose early afternoon to go for a walk, but I have the window installers coming to make some repairs today. So I’ll go shortly and do a couple of errands on the way.
Yesterday’s FD went quite well although I did need 1/2 banana and a small apple to get me through to dinner time. NFD for me today and I’ll try to get to lunchtime without eating today – I haven’t been doing that much lately.
Have a good day all.
Good Morning everyone,
Heck Sybs, good thing both feet werenāt in the quicksand!
CaliD – wonderful to be able to go off some medication. Well done!
LJ- Yay! for having the internet back on. It amazes me how much we rely on it now.
Thin- Just wondered what you were doing walking on the tracksš
Cinque – I love vegetable curry, whatever itās name. Yes, it is amazing to be able to do things second time around. Kudos to my exercise physiologist, and several years of the most simple of movements to help me get any sort of core strength back. The usual ones, even for the āoldiesā were too hard. Once we worked out which muscles were the worst – sneaky ones as it turned out – weāve very, very very, gradually got them working again. Couldnāt have gone down the waterslide without them functioning again. Not so naked happy dancing!
Check-in: Not happy, worse than I thought – 66.9kg – my graph doesnāt like that at all, so back to basics. FD today- weāll see what tomorrow brings. Miso soup with a piece of barramundi and low cal vegies, and some Asian herb paste.
Onwards and downwards,
And getting back on the horse.
Merry
PS: the good thing about horses- you can keep getting back on them over and over if you need to. Love you 5:2. So great to have you in my life. One of the best decisions Iāve ever made was to use 5:2, and thank you Dr Moseley.
Arelkade i have tried unsuccessfully and now successfully to make sauerkraut. A lot of websites say to use a jar and cover with a breathable cloth or to seal the jar and burp it once a day. In my experience neither worked because in the first option air would get into the jar and for the second option the fermenting fumes could not escape. Both resulted in cabbage that went off very quickly.
So i purchased the correct jars with airlock lids from the internet. They come in all different sizes and its helpful to purchase the weights as well which hold the food under the liquid. The airlocks prevent air getting into jar but allows the fumes to escape. OH is happily eating sauerkraut each day so it must be good !!
@ljoyce – when the 25g have been soaked, they turn into a small “pasta” serving – next time I make some, I’ll weigh the soaked dried bean curd and report back – the high calorie count comes from fat, not from carbs/sugar etc – quite the opposite to normal pasta
@merry – yes, very lucky it was only one leg, it was still quite a job getting it out, seeing I was on my own.
Gday, youāre right about gases needing to escape from the crock or jar, mostly the first few days when fermentation starts and the cabbage mixture actually gets a little bubbly. The crock or jar needs a top on it, but doesnāt need to be airtight. Just releasing the lid a couple times a Day is usually sufficient, or using the airlock lids that usually come with jars. The main thing is to keep all the cabbage submerged. After the first several days, the fermentation that seems bubbly slows down a lot. It starts to taste sour after about a week and continues to get more sour as time goes on. When itās at the level you like, put it into jars and refrigerate it and the fermentation virtually stops.
I use 2 US teaspoons of kosher or sea salt per pound of sliced cabbage and that seems to work well. Home made sauerkraut is so good and stays much crunchier than the stuff in the stores. And the probiotics stay intact if you donāt heat it. We usually eat it at room temperature to preserve all the good stuff. Good luck with making your own.
Iāve been eating way too much over the weekend and my weight is up to 61.4, the highest itās been in a long time. Tomorrow is my Monday FD and is badly needed!
Although I don’t make sauerkraut, when I was researching kefir I came across a few suggestions for using the whey from making dairy products to pour over the cabbage when making sauerkraut (you still need the salt).
Most commonly this was suggested by people who were turning some of their kefir into a soft curd cheese by fermenting it for several days longer. This basically turns drinking yoghurt into curds and whey.
As the whey should contain the same microflora population as the kefir I would think it might make the sauerkraut even healthier for your gut.
Cali, I hope the Monday FD deals with your scales shock.
Sybs, thanks for that info. I was anticipating using them in soups or stir fry in place of tofu so I think a small portion might work if it swells that much. It sounds like it will add texture and also help me feel full with the fat content.
It might be nice in a laksa with some konjac noodles instead of the usual combination of rice and mee noodles.
When I want pasta I usually use a soy pasta – no calorie saving but made from soy flour rather than white wheat flour. Oddly I find that I rarely look for pasta as an “at home” meal these days. I tend to keep it as an occasional treat when out for a meal.
When I went for my walk this morning I saw an Indian grocer in a small shopping precinct that’s near my chemist. I plan to return with a bag and money to explore. I bet I can find some of those harder to source legumes. As there is also an Asian grocer in the main shopping centre the only thing I’m missing around here is a Middle Eastern grocer – the nearest one is a 30min drive away. Where I lived before I had none of these so it’s a definite improvement.
My NFD has been reasonable with one deviation from the plan. I made it until lunch before eating and have made a stock pot full of mulligatawny for dinner. Unfortunately I did eat one small rock bun this afternoon. I made a batch to take to my aunt and uncle tomorrow, as they are both recovering from injuries sustained when falling out of the car (separate incidents incredibly). My aunt isn’t up to baking at preset and my uncle can’t get through the day without something home baked with his many milky coffees each day. I ate the smallest rock bun – just to check they were OK as it was an untested recipe – that’s my excuse anyway. The rest are safe from me, I’ll bag them up as soon as they’ve cooled. It tasted very nice actually, but I was horrified at how much butter the recipe required – the same proportions as making shortcrust pasty! The only thing they have going for them is they have far less sugar than most biscuit/cookie recipes.
Hope you are all having a good day.
I had the mulligatawny for dinner and really liked it, so I’ve posted the recipe
https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/beans-and-lentils-recipes-tips-and-information/page/3/#post-260889
Definitely a soup that feels hearty and filling.
Week 2 & 1st FD today- Have a 58 cal soup ready & a little Territory jerky as will be away from home for most of the day. I will do my 2nd on Thursday.
I can’t keep up with everyone’s comments as I am a moderator in another forum & it takes up quite a bit of time, but I love reading all the comments in this thread. Everyone is so friendly & supportive.
I love how I don’t actually feel like I’m “dieting” on 5:2, & also don’t want to snack on NFD’s. Hopefully, the scales will show a drop soon. I know it’s only a week but I want to lose 10 kg before May 2019 as we’re planning a trip.
Good morning!
Well, Lindsay, this morning your post was there on the front page and when I clicked on it, it took me to the post you wrote two days ago https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/hello-southern-hemispherites/page/332/#post-260791
The NBN came to our street and dug holes out the front and then strung cable along the back of the flats and when I asked one of the guys when we might get it he said ‘maybe in a year?’
Five weeks until Bali, it is getting exciting.
Cali, After reading your post yesterday, I came across this! https://www.reddit.com/r/EarthPorn/comments/915ihu/yuba_river_ca_i_just_left_and_already_want_to_go/
Isn’t it fun how often that happens.
I am so glad you are getting close to finishing that nasty med. Fingers crossed that then you will stabilise and feel HEAPS better.
Sybs, quicksand! What a fright. And coral can be murder on your feet. And a thunderstorm. You must have felt wretched. What an unforgettable experience.
LJoyce, you are gradually getting all your helpful patterns in place, and you seem to have managed extraordinarily well through the chaos of being without them.
Oh and your dear aunt and uncle. I hope they recover well. (I’ve been thinking lately that we spend our life getting ready for the huge obstacles, complications, setbacks and illnesses of old age. Oyez.)
Cheers for making soups! That mulligatawny sounds so good.
All the input on sauerkraut is so interesting. The yoghurt whey was also recommended for kickstarting kimchi.
Merry, cheers for that core strength and your clever physiologist. Yesterday’s Fast Day was a good one. š
Ooh, lots to do this morning. Best wishes all!
Good Morning Everyone
First FD of the week completed yesterday. I weighed myself in the morning and was surprised I had only put on 200g over the weekend. I had a very healthy weekend food wise and I guess I cut back some of the alcohol too.
When I weighed myself this morning (day after 1 FD) I was heavier than yesterday!!! Only 200g but I usually go down after a FD. Oh well, see what happens after today.
I am going away for work today which is very rare. I have been tossing up whether to do a FD or not. I will be driving for 3.5 hours so maybe I will just do 18/6. Tonight I am sure the bosses will take me out to dinner so if I last until then I can always choose a healthy meal. I am not setting it in stone and will just see how I go.
Hope you all have a lovely day and I will report back later in the week what my weight is doing!! Hopefully its heading down xx
@cate and Quacka – that’s the fantastic thing about 5:2 it’s not a diet. I have actually started referring to FDs as Control Days, and I have noticed that NFDs don’t look all that much different for me, I tend to eat pretty much the same. The other thing which makes 5:2 so doable is the build in flexibility. Quacka, hope you enjoy your road trip. As far as FD is concerned, don’t sweat it, just do an extra one when you are home again.
Success – I can finally button up a blouse which I have had for ages, but could not even button up when I bought it – being an optimistic person, I was sure that some day it would fit me :-))
Hi all.
OH and I came to a decision on the weekend to cut back on our alcohol intake which has become almost a daily habit since our holiday to Bali. A couple of glasses of red wine each evening with dinner certainly adds up over the course of a week. So no alcohol at home, only if we go out for a meal and seeing as we have already cut down considerably on our twice weekly dining out that means we should only have a tipple a couple of times a month.
I have no doubt the alcohol is what is preventing me from losing the last few kilos to get back down to my lowest weight on my FD journey of 62kgs.
A few busy long weekend’s coming up. Off to Adelaide next weekend to watch the Crows play the Power. This will be the first Showdown we have watched in person so cant wait. The following weekend we are off to the Clare Valley for my upcoming 50th birthday. Weve hired a secluded cabin with open fire so will be quite romantic…perhaps thats when OH will ‘pop the question’ haha. For those of you not familiar with South Australia the Clare Valley is our premier wine region so yep I’m sure we will have a few glasses that weekend.
Hope everyone that is fasting today is going well.
Quacka, business trips can be a challenge for FD but once in a while they are busy enough and meals with other people end up having some good food choices if there isnāt alcohol involved. But I usually switch them around for at home days.
Gday, good choice on cutting down on alcohol. For me itās the one thing that really seems to put on the weight or make it unpredictable. And with your wedding coming up it would be great to be down to a good weight.
Cinque, how funny that you would see that article on Yuba City right after I mentioned it here.
CateAus, thatās the beauty of the 5:2, that it doesnāt really feel like a diet. I usually end up eating pretty much the same things on my 2 FD so itās just part of the routine.
Almost the end of my Monday FD and under 500 calories. I walked a little over 10,000 steps according to my Garmin fitness tracker. Thatās the first time in a very long time that Iāve hit that number. We were grocery shopping at one of the big warehouse stores today so that added a lot of steps. The rest were indoors around my house, first because it was about 38 degrees here today and even in the morning when it was cooler, I would have had to walk too close to the Robinās nest if I walked in our back garden. Iām still a little afraid to walk around the neighborhood with all the hills. 2 more days on the ādreaded BP medā that Iām tapering off of. I hope I wonāt feel any after effects.
LJoyce, your recipe for mulligatawny soup sounds really good. I definitely want to try that one. Iāve heard the name of it before but never looked at a recipe. It looks like an Indian soup or stew, but the name sounds Irish to me.
Hi all,
Just home from a busy day in my old town. I had my haircut, did the grocery shopping, visited my aunt and uncle, went to my favourite cafe for lunch and went for a walk in hilly terrain.
Cali, Iām fairly sure mulligatawny is one of those āBritish Indiaā recipes. There are a number of recipes that we think of as Indian but were actually Indian ingredient and cooking styles adapted to the British palate when India was part of their empire. Not authentic but still delicious. Thatās probably also why the name doesnāt sound Indian.
Merry, have you ever pondered how much weight youād lose by just staying in bed? I remember, when on the VLCD, weighing myself every hour or so one morning and noticing I lost a third to half a kilo per hour. It made me wonder if it was worth getting up. I do realise itās my body getting rid of fluid.
Gdsa,
Enjoy your trips away. I havenāt been to Clare for a while. Iām sure youāll enjoy it, itās a lovely spot for a weekend away.
Sybs, well done on you continuing clothing victories. I think Iāve bought a few of those ānever wornā garments at op shops, that Iām sure someone bought in the hope that theyād lose a few pounds and fit into it.
Quacka, nothing wrong with trying to do a FD on a business trip. Limiting your food to dinner will help. Iād also suggest you aim for 500 cal but accept 800 if your meal choices end up being difficult.
Cate, if your weight doenāt start falling, it is useful to have a look at you TDEE and compare it to what you eat on a NFD. Itās easy to exceed your TDEE and it really impacts weight loss.
Cinque, sounds like Iām not the only one with telecommunications issues.
Well, Iād better go and organise some dinner.
I read all the posts yesterday but didn’t have time to comment. I had it all in my head what to respond but …. now I’m all behind again.
I loved the travel tales, ladies. Sybs, that quick sand story was frightening. Were you living in Indonesia at that time? CalifD, I hope everything is soon back to normal for you in every way.
Lindsay, I too keep seeing posts from you that are not there when I get to the page.
I woke today at 58.6kg which is 100gm higher than my lowest weight in Spain just before I settled back up at 61kg 2-3 years ago. Tonight we’re going to a Vietnamese restaurant so I’ll see what the damage is in the morning but I feel I will revert to 6:1 for a while. As you say, I can always return to 5:2 at any time. The last time I practiced 6:1, I lasted 4 months before the weight started to creep up again.
LJ, I think I lost weight on holiday due to a combination of the healthy, local diet and increased exercise. We ate a lot of fresh fish, fruit and vegetarian curries. No breakfast buffets but a cooked breakfast most mornings and no lunch. I did seem to be eating a huge quantity of bread products (because street/train station food was often a curried something wrapped in roti). I must have eaten less than I thought as I always gain weight eating bread. The main elements missing were meat, dairy and alcohol.
I realised too late in life that I don’t require alcohol to enjoy myself. And that holiday was a three ring circus so I never even gave it a thought. The only dairy we consumed came in the form of a plain lassi which seemed more apt than an alcoholic drink. One aspect that disappointed me was the tea. I’d been expecting perfect pots of tea in ‘Ceylon’ and that just didn’t happen. LJ, I’ll have to come to your house for that.
Cudos to you both GDSA and Quakka for your alcohol reduction plans. GDSA, you did it before and I remember that you reaped the benefits. Your OH will love you for the changes. It’s just a habit. This was the first time after a holiday that OH and I made a conscious decision not to bring in duty free just because we could. We still drink alcohol. But as Cinque pointed out recently, it’s more of a treat when it’s just occasional. BTW, did OH propose while I was away? I see CalifD mentions an upcoming wedding.
Merry, you’ll get there. So determined are you. Try not to flog that poor horse too much!
LJ, that telecom/internet delay is an embarrassment. I heard on the radio the other day that some people had contacted the ombudsman about the same issues and they took 5 months to resolve. Cinque, don’t get excited about NBN. We’ve had it 4 years and our internet got slower and more expensive. What’s this about Bali?
Now I’ve forgotten all I wanted to say by way of response and this is getting too long. I hope everyone is well and happy. Welcome to the newbies (and returning wanderers).
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Michael is touring Australia this September! Here's a link to dates and tickets. Hope to see you there.
Michael Mosley gives an update for 2019, current research in the field and announces a tour starting in February.
Michael looks at the Horizon special, "What's the Right Diet for You" and tells us which diet they say is best for him.
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20 Jul 18