And congratulations Thin – an amazing achievement and very inspirational to read your story.

Thanks Lindsay. Getting to this point was made so much easier with the help & support of some amazing people on this thread, past and present, yourself included.

Hi CalifD, thank you! It’s been great to have you here. Fabulous news about your DS. Is she lurking here?

Thanks for your fasty photo, Sybs. Here’s my day’s intake (coffee not shown but the frozen portion of almond & coconut milk gives me two good cups). Cauliflower soup with 1tbs plain yoghurt added to make it thick & creamy but, in the photo, not yet mixed through. 1 teabag for umpteen cups of tea. Well, 2 or 3 usually. And the second photo shows the Hairy Bikers’ Healthy Cottage Pie – who would believe this could be a FD meal? I’ll add about 10 frozen blueberries to the 50gms of cottage cheese if I feel hungry later tonight. What’s not to love about fasting? https://imgur.com/a/37wFkh6

Welcome back CR. I remember you very well because you made me laugh when you said you wanted to lose weight as sweet revenge for when you saw your ex-husband with his new woman. Good luck!

I was a Tuesday faster too & will be glad when it’s breakfast time. I have drunk SO much green tea. I won’t even try to keep up with all of the posts since I was last on here. I hope I get better at it! Coincidentally I saw an exercise physio yesterday & now have a program tailored to me. She was great & I feel really motivated again. With that & 5:2 this weight should start to shift.

My FD yesterday was a can of pink salmon for lunch, a banana as a snack in the afternoon, 454 gram bag of frozen mixed vegetables steamed (mostly string beans and pumpkin and carrots) and a peach. It came in at 513 calories per myfitnesspal.

Thin, I don’t think my DS is lurking yet, but I’m trying to get her to at least come and say hi. She’s a Twitter fan and I don’t know if she’s ever posted on a forum. Love the photos of your food yesterday. That Hairy Biker’s recipe looks good. It’s interesting to see everyone’s countertops. 😁

Gday, I never thought of sprinkling nutritional yeast on hard boiled eggs, but it sounds good. I’m going to try it. I follow about the same sting schedule as you do on FD. Good on you for reducing your wine consumption. I don’t know what it is about alcohol, but it seems to add weight more easily than other drinks or food with similar calories.

Cate, exercise is always good. I’ve been doing a lot of walking lately and it seems to help some. Maybe it’s just that while you’re exercising, you’re not eating.

PS Cali, just saw this. Funniest headline. From an Adelaide paper: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DkiObW8UwAYjwI8.jpg:large

Good morning everyone. I have just caught up on all the posts. Whew!! That was a lot of reading.I have been trying to read a little each day but work has been crazy busy and I have barely had time for anything else.

Welcome Sekgwa and welcome back Charlotte. Hi to everyone 🙂

B2B was almost successful this week. Monday was a great FD and even Tuesday (day) was. I ended up having two beers last night with a very light dinner so I think I may have got to around 800 calories yesterday. I am not too worried as the scales are down again this morning. However, today I am planning another 800 calorie day. So far so good.

On September 8th we are going to the races at Kembla Grange. The OH’s company is hosting it and all food and drinks will be provided, also transport to and from the venue. I am excited as I will be able to wear something nice and hopefully have a lovely day. As an extra bonus, the OH will have to wear something nice as well which will be a change as he is a surfie who wears board shorts and thongs most of the time!!

I’m at work now so I better go and get into it. Hope you all have a great day and hopefully when I post next I will have broken my weight record!! I am about 100g off it lol 🙂

XX

Good morning. Glad to hear that all those fasters yesterday had a mostly good day.

Welcome back CharlotteRose, I hope you slip back easily into a 5:2 routine.

Quacka I have my fingers crossed that the 100g will be gone by tomorrow.

GDSA, sounds like you have a nice time in the Clare Valley and are back on track, diet wise, now you are home.

Cinque, that exercise mantra was well timed as I need to get back to the gym tomorrow. My exercise physiologist has adjusted the program to make my back safer from further injury and my doctor has given me the ok to get back into it slowly.

Lindsay, I’ve always know them as bush turkeys, although officially down here they are called mallee fowl.

Good morning also to Lindsay, Sybs, Thin,Cate, Minka, Merry, Cali, Penguin, Sekgwa and anyone else I’ve missed.

Arel, how are you going?

I’m catching a suburban train today (for the first time in about 30 years). I’m heading into the city to catch up with ex-work colleagues for lunch. It will also allow me to fit in a bit more walking as it’s 5 blocks to the station from home and Adelaide railway station is on the northern end of the CBD so it’s always a walk to wherever you want to go (about 7 blocks for me today).

Today’s photo has some empty dishes to account for an Italian cafe lunch.
https://imgur.com/IXImNo4
My plan is to have a small bowl of muesli with kefir for brunch (because I don’t want to get to the cafe with an empty stomach in case it tempts me to order a big bowl of pasta). Lunch will be either a large bowl of their minestrone with crusty bread or a small bowl of minestrone with bruschetta which has tomato mushrooms and ricotta on it. If I need an afternoon snack I’ll have an apple. Dinner is a small serve of chilli con carne (about 3/4 cup) which I will have with a big dollop of greek yoghurt. Drinks, both home and out, will be either water or cups of tea.

Today is day 3 in a row of NFDs and my tightest jeans did up easily this morning. That normally only happen after a FD, so I think controlling my snacking and taking daily photos is helping with my NFD eating.

Have a good day everyone.

Thank you for the congrats Cinque, I enjoyed the attachment you sent me. I hope you found some nice items at the op shops. I’d forgotten about your sisters visiting this week; have loads of fun with them. I laughed so much at that parrot – where did that headline come from? CalifD, have you ever taught your birds any good swear words?

Lindsay, OMG. Tuesday night? Tomorrow’s leaders with their developing brains permanently soaked in alcohol. God help us all. What do your other neighbours have to say?

I took one of my neighbours to a movie preview last night – “Book Club”. Ageing American actors reading the ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ series so you can imagine the theme. Mildly amusing, not really my style of movie but we did get a few laughs out of it.

Trying to eat some breakfast because I have a class to attend this morning but I just can’t eat this early, especially after a FD. It will have to await my return at 12.30pm. Have a great day all.

Hi Everyone, quick check in at lunch time on my 800 calorie day.

So I have had a small (large) bout of “hangriness” this morning. Work has been busy and things were not going to plan at all and I ended up in tears. I am fine now but I think the frustration of it all just got to me. So anyway I decided I had better eat something, maybe it would help. I ate a mandarine mid morning and then I just ate a small tub of hommus and some corn thins. Also a cup a soup with some konjac noodles and leftover lamb. I am full now and getting ready to get all this work finished! I have had about 400 calories at a guess. I can still do this!!

Oh by the way Cate, I should clarify that I am 100g off my weight record since starting 5:2. I still have about 10kg to lose to reach my goal weight but I know I will get there. I actually love this way of eating as I am still “allowed” to eat.
Please persevere with your FDs. It really works even though there are times when you will reach plateaus and the scales will lie to you. Don’t let it get you down, just look at the long term picture x

Glad it wasn’t me rescuing that parrot. I would have laughed so much I’d probably have fallen off the roof!

Charlotte, good to see you here. This time you’ll embrace this way of life and get to your goal.

Cinque, that story about the macaw is hilarious! Parrots pick up thing they hear often, especially words they hear yelled or spoken in a loud voice. Almost every one of them that lives with humans learns to say, “Shut up!” because they can be so loud. I hate hearing that so I strongly encourage OFM not to say that around them. Ours yell, “Be quiet!” Or “Knock it off!” It’s funny sometimes to hear one of them go off on a screaming tirade (usually around sundown) and then follow up in a quieter voice with “Quiet!” They yell the dog’s name when he runs to the door barking and tell him to knock it off. He often listens. 😁
That cage they showed later with the Macaw in it was way too small for such a big bird. No wonder it took off. Our two birds have large cages but the doors are always open unless we’re away from the house and that’s only because one bird can sometimes be too aggressive towards the other. They have their own room with a big window overlooking the family room. They have big hanging perches and their own small telly and DVDs which they watch in the evening. They scream when the movies end. 😁

Gday, nutritional yeast has a cheesy flavor that’s great on pasta or anything where you want a non-dairy substitute. I tend to use it in spurts and then forget about it for a while. It’s often fortified with vitamin b12. I bet you’ll end up buying more.

Quacka, sorry you were experiencing so much frustration with your job today. Work can be very stressful. Try not to let it get to you. Take it from me, stress isn’t healthy.

Lindsay, I hope some of the other neighbors are complaining too. Enough calls to the police and they may do something about it.

Thin, “Book Club” is on my watchlist for when it comes to Netflix or some other streaming medium. But it sounds like you were underwhelmed. Lots of good actors in it.

Quacka, thank you! And well done to you too. It sounds like you’re making the healthy changes you need to get to your ideal weight. As you’ve read, I’m so happy to have found 5:2. My only regret is that I was 58 when I finally got control over food rather than it controlling me. But you, spring chicken, are adopting this WOL much earlier in your adult life which could genuinely impact your future health & longevity. I hope things improve at work. I’ve found being slim very empowering & I hope you do too. I remember having to give a public speech after dropping several dress sizes. I felt so much more confident not having to stand uncomfortably with my arms loosely folded across a big stomach, but instead hands free & displaying a waist.

CalifD, the interactions between your birds and dog are hilarious. Do you have all that recorded on video?

Have a good FD, LJ and a lovely time with the sisters, Cinque.

Haha Cali I actually bought 3 packets of nutritional yeast while in Adelaide …..i must have had a premonition that i would like it

Hi SH’s 🙂
LJ- shopping at the Adelaide Central Market & only buying veggies is downright heroic! No wonder you had crackers & cheese. I’m fasting today too. This time I have worked out exactly what I am going to consume & put it into My Fitness Pal. I am not going to eat anything that I haven’t inputted.
After seeing kombucha in here & hearing about it elsewhere I bought a bottle of it the other day & just had 100 ml with my lunch. YUM! It was lemon, lime & mint flavoured. Delicious! I’ll leave enough calories for a whole bottle next FD.
Thin- feeling slim is empowering & I have missed that feeling. I’ll get back there, I hope.
Cali- your salad dressing sounds delicious. Haha re the kangaroos hopping down the street video. I reckon that would be Canberra too.
G’day- I might have to get some of this nutritional yeast too. I just googled it & see it’s high in B12 & is a “complete protein”. Apparently, it has a high phosphorus content which can deplete the body of calcium so some yeast manufacturers now add calcium also. I’ll ask about fortified nutritional yeast in our local wholefood shop. Is that what everyone buys? I recently bought hemp seeds as they are very high in protein & they may do a similar thing. We sprinkle them on just about everything.
I seem to be coping better today, having something solid for lunch( egg, celery, cucumber & 1/2 a tbspn of hummus) rather than a FD soup. It may be the key for me.
Hope everyone is having a good day!

Lindsay, the bird would probably just join in the yelling. Most parrots like noise and don’t need a lot of encouragement. You must hear that with the Cockatoos there. They can be voracious screamers. When Gillian was alive we used to have screaming contests when I was the only one home. He always won. 😃 Fortunately, they’re usually quiet after “lights out” at around 7 pm.
Glad to hear that other neighbors are calling the police as well. I would think that the more complaints they get, the more likely you’ll be to see some resolution.

Tomorrow is a FD for me. Maybe I’ll do a green salad with a can of salmon or tuna for lunch. I want to try to get some more walking in too. The air has been fairly clear the last couple of days. The fires are still mostly burning, but far enough away and the wind isn’t blowing the smoke in our direction most of the time. It’s also cooled down a little, thank goodness! Hope it stays that way for a while.

Cate, I don’t know if our nutritional yeast is fortified with calcium or not. I usually purchase it from a bulk bin and haven’t paid attention to the labeling lately. I keep it in a Lock and Lock container to keep it fresh. I usually don’t like fortified foods other than the D3 in milks because it’s too hard to keep track of additional vitamins or minerals, especially if they’re added to products where you don’t expect them. It could be be easy to overdose on something if it’s added to a lot of different foods. Or interact with the absorption of other nutrients. I’d rather just take a vitamin pill if I think I really need it. Another reason to avoid processed foods.

Hi everyone. Just checking in.
Still getting back into the swing of things.
My Dad is so glad to be back living with us – love him to bits!
OH now needs an urgent pacemaker – has appt on 29 August with Cardiologist. Life is never dull!

I hope you are all having a wonderful week.

Enjoy whatever you are getting up to and bye for now!

* be less polite, sorry

Hi Cinque, I got here a few hours ago but there was no-one around so I went for a walk. Those poor emus! Especially the one that stacked it on the road. Good that you enjoyed your sisters’ visit. Hair appointment shortly so must get on.

Hi everyone,

Hope you’re all doing well. I’m a bit all over the place at the moment, but hope to be back to a better routine shortly.

Checkin: 65.0kgs this morning and 0.7kgs down on my exercise physiologists record this morning, over a 2 week period. I have yet to conquer picking at food.

Someone asked me how pomelo tasted.
Calories 38/100gms .

It’s a weebit grapefruitish if you can imagine taking out any acidic taste, mouth puckering sensation. It has a slight flavour of passionfruit. The pith area is huge and shouldn’t be eaten, the skin of the segments is quite tough. The little, um capsuley things are held more loosley together than in other citrus fruit. One way to eat it is to take a segment, peel of the segment skin off one side and eat the inside. It’s extremely yummy, and people’s faces light up with an Oh Wow response when they first have it. It’s a tropical tree so not sure if it will fruit in Canberra- I think someone said they had a tree in Canberra. It’s vying with nectarines, raspberries and mandarins for my favourite fruit. I hope it becomes more popular, and some orchards start up in Queensland. It’s huge, so heavy to carry home but so healthy and delicious. The hard bit is pronouncing it. I think the vowels are – pom – as hop, el – as in Emma, o- as in sew.

This week I’ve been finishing off things and starting to catch up with people again.

Thin, Cinque, penguin and Mrs P, Intesha – I’ll catch up very soon.

Sybs- that colour looked good on your fairer skin – pity it only lasted a week.

LJ – glad the photos are helping you get thise NFDs under control. I must be the queen of IKEA flatpacks. Not only can I do it, but I enjoy it! Go figure. Maybe there’s a business there – lol.

Charlotterose – welcome back! OMGoodness – a broken leg! Yuck. But you are right- getting your weight back to normal will make a big difference to your health overall. You know you can do this.

This week I’ve been to a funeral of a dear friend, a family birthday, a friend’s birthday, and we have a new baby in the family. The circle of life, and I’ve managed to lose a little this week, but I’ve worked at keeping my intake at those functions moderate , while celebrating at the same time, so my weight has stayed stable this week.

Hugs to everyone,
Onwards and Downwards,
And if you fall of the horse, get back on the horse.
Merry
PS. I have fallen off and got back on every horse on the merry-go-round and 5:2 still does it’s magic.

Crickets, good to see you here! And glad you decided to give 5:2 way of eating a try. There are so many nice people on this thread with lots of experience with 5:2.

Arel, I hope your OH has an easy time with the pacemaker surgery. You’ve had a lot to deal with lately, but this will probably make him feel a lot better once it’s installed. Glad to hear your dad is settling in well.

Merry, my sympathies for your friend and congrats for the new baby in the family.

Cinque, those poor emus running around the city. Is it just because of the fires that they are there? Not good news that there are fires in the winter there. It must be dry.

LJoyce, nice to hear you are figuring out the area transportation and that it’s convenient. Are you still going to keep your car?

Welcome Crickets! I’m chuckling at two people who live together chatting to each other on the forum! Now we just need CalifD’s OH and we’ll have the trifecta.

Well done maintaining the status quo, Merry. I’m already back to 5:2 after a short-lived period of 6:1. I find it’s all well and good when I’m in control of food but chuck in a restaurant meal or lunch at the neighbour’s house – or both – and it’s hopeless.

LJ, Merry, re: snacking and other NFD behaviours, I often ponder why I can’t just eat ‘normally’ every day. Why do I need IF in my life to maintain a healthy weight? Why do my OFMs not require IF? After all, I provide heir meals. While I’m searching for the answers to those & other questions, I content myself with embracing FDs for putting the brakes on undesirable behaviours and re-setting good eating habits like portion control and food choices. We’re still the people we always were wrt food and perhaps your snacking behaviours can’t ever really be eliminated. It’s just that now we have a tool kit called 5:2.

In the back of my mind, I’m still concerned that all I’ve achieved is to replace a food addiction with a fast addiction and I ask myself how can that be right? So I cling to the hope that fasting is beneficial to my health in other ways, not just for maintaining a good weight & all that goes with that. I do enjoy the discipline that fasting requires – the notion of being in control over food. Now, in my fifth year of this WOL, all I can really conclude is that it works, so perhaps I need not question why. Stick to the FDs and do what feels right on the NFDs?

Cassava Pastry Update – Disaster 😢😢

Mr Google told me to replace plain flour with cassava flour one for one. So i used my standard Hairy Bikers Cornish Pasty pastry recipie and all appeared to be going well. It looked good, texture seemed right etc so popped it into the fridge for a couple of hours to firm up. However on retrieval I couldn’t roll it out,it stuck to the rolling pin and kept falling apart, not crumbly just wouldn’t hold together.

I knew it wouldnt be any good for pasties so plan B. The meat pie mixture was cooled and ready to go so I used the cassava pastry to line the bottom and sides of my small pie tins which worked ok by pressing the pastry around the tins. Puff pastry on top and into the oven.

It didnt cook through regardless of how long they baked. It was edible…just.

So off i went to coles to buy the standard plain flour and made another batch of pastry reading for pasty making in the morning.

I baked the remaining cassava pastry which will be given to the chooks to eat.

Live and learn….

Good morning everyone,

Welcome Crickets! Lovely to see you here!

Thin, glad you survived the hair appt. I hope Sybs inspired you. I’m thinking rainbow colours!
Maybe instead of saying ‘addiction’ you need to say ‘a platform for my brilliant executive management’. Discipline and control are excellent attributes if they are used on the right things, in the right way. They make you a good bridge player too!

LJoyce, Oh dear re the bus. Glad about the train. And I do hope the physio helps with that lower back pain. It is so nice to see you back on form, eating in the way that is good for you.

Merry, good luck to you, reining in the chaos (whatever is possible anyway). I have always heard and pronounced polelo exactly as you described, but I have never tasted one! It sounds so delicious.
Much sympathy, and empathy, re the ‘picking at food’ thing.
Welcome to the new baby, how delightful. Life doesn’t stop, does it!

CharlotteRose, are you still there? How is it going?

Cali, it is drought bringing wildlife into towns. New South Wales and part of Queensland are badly affected, and I fear it might spread to Victoria (my state) over summer. We are okay today though, bands of rain and chilly winds. :0

Gday, so sad to hear that the pastry didn’t work. It is soul destroying when a recipe lets you down. It will be interesting to discover better uses for the cassava flour.

I came home tired yesterday and managed to eat about a cup of roasted cashews before I cooked my easy chicken and veg soup. So I am still full this morning and will make today my fast day (since I do have chicken and veg soup to eat through the day now), and I might fast tomorrow too, since I am enjoying B2B at the moment.

Oh, and after saying how much I was loving my beetroot kvass, I realised it is still too sweet for me 🙁 . I am letting it ferment a bit longer and I will try again.

I’m off to babysit my littlest granddaughter while her big sister goes to a birthday party. Sending out lots of good wishes to those fasting today, those concentrating on not picking at food continually, those planning for their meals, those making good decisions at cafes and restaurants and those who are having a free flowing day too!

Funny Cinque. I’ll keep that in mind. I’m afraid bridge requires a few more skills, including memory & concentration. I’d be laughing if I had the ability to count to 13 simultaneously in four different suits. Meanwhile, I’ll choose the ‘free flowing’ day from your options, whatever that is. Looking forward to resuming my Sunday fasts tomorrow. Last night I made a delicious soup that I think you originally told me about. Bean curd skin & egg. I added shiitake & field mushrooms, choy sum and a dash of sesame oil. I’d soaked the shiitakes for 24 hours which made a big difference to their texture. The beaten eggs are whisked in just before serving. OH said he liked it.

Morning CalifD, we posted together. Good job getting back under 60kgs.