Hello lovelies! Happy fast day for those doing Mondays.

I shake my head with all of your family food memories, it seems we grew up with these bad habits that keep dogging us, until we stop and take the time to closely examine them….once we see them for what truly they are, and how destructive they can be, we can the choose to try an entirely different bunch of habits around food, eating and nourishing ourselves.

I had a mother who absolutely hated cooking, and only knew how to burn lamb chops and turn every type of vegetable into a grey slimey sludge. Dad had his own demons, and insisted a plate of hot food on the table at 4.30, at which time he would literally demolish the plate in 5 seconds flat….after which he would scowl at us eating ‘too slowly’, and insist on getting the food into us faster, by shovelling it into our mouths himself. If we resisted, or weren’t hungry any longer, we would be lectured on the starving children in….Biafra, India, China, Bangladesh, etc, or his own hungry childhood during WW2 in Europe….and sadly this whole scenario would turn into tears and anguish for my sister and I every time. As we would be forced to finish every single molecule of food on the plate.

I still have those destructive memories, but they no longer rule my life and my eating habits.

I now love feeling nurtured, nourished and demonstrating to myself every day, just how much healthy delicious food is part of cherishing and enjoying my and my family’s life….not a chore, nor a race, but a way of acknowledging that I’m alive and loving it!

I love this forum, and the difference we make to each other!

Morning All,

So interesting to share some of the ‘early conditioning’ stories. What learning challenges they present us with, and I think I mentioned that my experience tells me that failure is not on the agenda because we learn what we can when we may. Opportunities come around again to learn more about the same stuff but at new level with more wisdom each time – life is an upward spiral.

I love Pink Ladies and Fuji apples, Purple. And IHAW, I can imagine that meal times for your family were quite a struggle overall. I recall the ‘leave the plate clean’ rule and I used to eat all the stuff I didn’t like first (including sprouts) and leave the best until last. That meant that I was always feeling stuffed to the gills and got bigger and bigger. These days I eat what I like first and leave the rest if it’s too much.

Oh, and let’s not forget the b******y table manners. End-less-ly!!!! Why is the meal table so fraught for lots of young folks?

Hears a giggle. Y’know I said last night I’d be busy and happy on Monday Fast Day? Well, I got up very early and started MAKING BREAD! Two 1Kg loaves of sourdough spelt bread are proving in the kitchen. By tonight I will have the place smelling heavenly, can you believe this???

Ahem, it’s for tomorrow morning. Will report in. 😉 Enjoy the day.

Cheers,
Ros.

Here here ihaveawaist! Hip hip hoorah to all the wonderful immigrants to this fabulous country. And the original mob who’s food we ignored for too long. Without these influences we’d still be eating burnt lamb chops and grey overcooked veg!
I can smell your bread from here Ros. You must have amazing resolve 🙂 P

IHAW, thank heavens for all the cultures who came here after the war, and brought their wonderful food. I was just explaining what a falafel was on another thread. I love all the Mediterranean people’s food plus Asian food. How lucky we are. 🙂

We were very lucky in that my Dad was interested in nutrition, and would only make us eat liver for the iron, which of course means I can’t stand it. Otherwise, we never had to finish our plates. In a family of six kids and very modest income, there were no leftovers.

Bayleaf, you’re right about being busy helping with the fasting. I think it is partly diversion and partly that exercise tends to suppress appetite a bit too. I must add however, that the bread making was something of a mistake really. Yesterday,I had to feed ‘Gloria” which is the name of my sourdough starter – she’s three years old next month. Decided on the spur of the moment that I would put up some leaven for bread, not thinking that tomorrow would be Monday! Anyway, I tend not to be tempted on fast days because it’s just one day and I usually have meal plans for the following day.

BTW, your shopping spree sounds great. Isn’t it nice to buy things that are not only smaller, but made of lovely fabrics, like the silk shirt you bought. There are more shirts around at the moment which pleases me too. I’m so tired of the plastic elastic tops that make me feel as though I’m wearing a sausage skin. Gimme shirts every time. Bathers are on the list for me too.

Cheers,
Ros.

IHW wrote “badly cooked stuff we inherited from jolly old England” Try 12 years of boarding school starting as a 5 YO in the UK during the war. Breakfast sloppy porridge. Lunch Cod or Haddock cooked in its own juice with a plain slice of bread and a lettuce leaf. Dinner 1/4pint milk and fried bread with Marmite. To this day I don’t eat fish even though I’m a Fly Trout fisherman, too many bad memories.
The last 3 years where at Geelong and saw me throw several hissiefits when I first arrived which ended up with with me having salads and cheese, no meat. God the food was awful.

Fast forward quite a few years and my beloved wife, in retrospect,I think was partly chosen because of the fact she had done the Cordon Bleu Cookery course! Our meals more than made up for all those 12 years of boarding school food.

Out of interest just rang an old school chum and asked was our school food that bad…YES it was.

Cheers,
TIm.

Purple,glad your cruising. I need to plan and write down in my food dairy, before a late breakfast, what I am having for that fast day. This really helps keep me on track.

How you all manage families heaven knows.

To everyone,hope your fast day is successful and at the end of it do give yourself a pat on the back.
Suggest no food rewards though!

Cheers,
Tim.

Hi all

Purple, glad you’re cruising.

Tim, what awful food you had to endure! Not surprised you can’t cope with fish after that experience.

Just over an hour to home time for me and another fast day bites the dust. Intermittently hungry – correlates with boredom over analyzing data but breaking it up with short brisk trips up and down stairs and lots of tea. Discovered an ancient jar of Bonox at the back of the kitchen drawer (use by Dec 2000) but good thing is only 6 calories/8g serve so have had two today. Made the mistake last Wednesday of freezing leftover miracle noodles and they were like thin slices of thong in texture. Don’t be tempted!

Take heart Monday fasters, only a few hours to dinner, bed and tomorrow’s (relative) feast! Nicky

Hi Bay,

You’ll be pleased to know that other nationalities and cultures also made it to the UK in the post war years, and our food is no longer the gruel of many people’s youthful memories! We even have falafel over here now….!! Although sometimes made with broad beans and not chick peas….

Thanks MM
I’ll have to read it. Changing habits is the key to bodily and mental health.
Poor Nicky…rubber noodles! I freeze the food without the noodles. I’m making our fast dinner with Shiritaki noodles, blue eyed trevalla cut into little cubes, marinated in a little soy and grated ginger root. Cook some slices of ginger root in a hot wok (with a tiny spray of oil), add the fish, spring onions, celery cut into moon shapes, long red chillies sliced through with seeds, a little stock. I also sometimes add sliced fennel and capsicum too. Toss vigorously with a wok tool to stop it sticking. Prepared the Shiritaki noodles (rinse well) and toss in. Toast some unsalted cashews and add last minute.
This all takes a very short time and is delicious. I’m not doing a cal count as it depends on how much you use, but as we have eaten nothing today we can go wild!!! 😉
Cheers Purple

Hi Happy, I do know that the English have adopted Indian food, amongst others. When we visit my brother near Oxford, we go to a very good Indian restaurant in Woodstock. B

Hi all, I’ve just done my first fast day … freaking out a little bit here! I was really busy at work all day (I teach 8/9 year olds!) and managed the day pretty well I thought. But despite being really tired, I’ve had a horrible sleep and now awake at 2am and I had a piece of toast with marmite on … obviously not great 🙁 any suggestions/help from others who had trouble sleeping. I don’t normally have any trouble sleeping … I guess I made it through the 24 hours mark but not the 36 …

Welcome tannitootoo and jeni
tanni, did you eat anything before you went to bed?

Most people find they take a while to get used to the hyperalertness of fasting. We evolved to be alert when hungry. Eating the bulk of your fast day calories in the evening aids sleep.
I also used to teach little people and always found I was desperately hungry after school and terribly tired. The trick I found, oddly enough, was to keep busy by raking leaves or sweeping to get over the ‘tiredness hump’ before dinner. Don’t sit down! 🙂 It does get easier and is life changing!
All the best to both of you. PVE

Hi fellow fasters….another fast day accomplished! Talking about sleep, i had the most incredible sleep last night – as time goes on, am actually finding i sleep a lot better when i’ve been on a fasting day. If i’m a little peckish before bed, always find a couple of tablespoons of plain probiotic yoghurt helps with the hunger.
Last night’s dinner was a soup i’d made already and lunch was a salad high in protein.
Lately i’ve reverted a little bit as far as my alcohol intake goes – this is one of my main problems as far as losing weight goes….in the first 3 months did pretty well losing 3 and something kgs, but lately must be other things that are happening in my life that have made me revert back to old patterns. Some people overeat, i overdrink.
But all in all feel positive about my fasting and diet at the moment and looking forward to weigh in on Thursday.
Happy Fasting!

Hi I am Jan from sunny Mauritius. I have just completed my first fast day yesterday ! so proud of myself. …roll on Thursday for day two.

Oops! I’ve been awake since 3am – nodded off around 6am but had to get up soon after that.
I made the mistake yesterday of being beguiled into eating my meal at midday instead of at night.
I just had a mug of miso soup at night before bed.
Never again! I forgot about the ‘starvation alertness’ but your posts have jogged my memory. Thanks.
Also welcome newbies. I have been going for six weeks and while I am still a bit apprehensive approaching fast days, I really enjoy them as I feel light, energetic and when I hit the scales next morning, quite smug. You will too.
Of course I regain some of the weight on my non-fast days, but overall it is going down.
I am learning that I am in charge and food no longer controls me. Experiencing hunger on fast days is teaching me to listen to my body. No hunger, no food.
I will build in regular fast days as a maintenance procedure to not only stabilise my weight, but maintain the health benefits and this new-found energy.

Hi Jan, take it easily and you’ll be right. Lots of encouragement here, and some good shared experience to dig into as well.

Mamaleish, your comment is interesting to me because I rarely if ever have sleep problems – only if I’m worrying about something and I’m mulling over solutions. What you help me to realise is that I tend to have my main meal at night and usually feel quite full at bedtime. I’m off to sleep in ten minutes or so. And by the way, when something is nagging me, I usually get up and tussle with it on paper. That anchors the highly innovative thoughts I’ve just had in the darkness 😉 and gives me a head start in the morning.

Now, about the bread-making busy work yesterday. I said I would report in.

It was just gorgeous bread (though I say so myself) and as I was cutting up half of each loaf for freezing, I just had to taste some. It was as good as usual, but then one can never tell – tasting is the only way to know for certain. That pushed my 500 calories to 600 but ho-hum, today is another day, Thursday is another Fast.

Interesting thing about weight. My weight is static at the moment, roughly where I want it, but I’m changing shape with exercise. A few people think I’m still losing Kgs but muscle weighs more than fat so there’s a lot of shifting going on with Pilates twice a week and some home exercise.

Smiles,
Ros.

Hi all and Welcome Jan,

Fasted yesterday with no problems, as I had an egg and coffee for breakfast, lots of water, and then 400 calories for dinner that included protein and vegetables. I kept busy during the day and I usually sleep well after a fast day. We are all different. 🙂 woke up this morning and weighed in at 59 kg. haven’t been under 60 kg for 25 years. Weeehoo!!

IHAW, I danced around the house. 🙂

In my own way, I have experimented with fewer calories and felt awful the next day. As I have lost 18 kgs and 2 dress sizes without doing any more than is set out in the 5:2 book, that’s it for me.

Thank you Dr Mosley. 🙂

Hi Bayleaf, what a fantastic achievement – such good work!

Wonderful ratification of Dr M’s regime. Sometimes it’s tempting to over-complicate things when in essence it’s so easy – 2 days of <25% TDEE and 5 days of up to TDEE, no more no less.

Little wonder you danced around the house. I too haven’t seen anything below 60kg in nearly 20 years so you have further reinforced my resolve and confirmed that my ambition to return to that ‘country’ is realistic.

Again, well done.

Such a beautiful ecstatic dance of joy ihaw! I wonder if Bay is doing it on the plane home?
Bayleaf you are an inspiration to all of us. Can’t wait until you post the shots of your new clothes; ) P

Well done Bayleaf! What an achievement!
Nice dancin’ IHAW 🙂
Welcome Newbies.

Hey Bayleaf, you’ve done so well!
I am also under 60 (kgs, not years!), which is the lowest I’ve been since my early teens, apart from a bout of illness 26 years ago.
Very interested in your comment on muscle weighing more than fat.
26 years ago when I was at this weight, I measured much less and probably would have been a size 10. Now I measure more and take a size 12 (not to be sneezed at, I was once size 18), despite weighing a bit less.
I think my motivation now must be picking up weights and lacing up my runners and exercising more to get the fat-muscle balance back again.
Or maybe I just turn up the music and dance!

Hi Purple, I also buy from Booktopia.com.au. They are very quick to supply and it is where I bought all the 5:2 books, as well as light crime fiction novels. 🙂

Confession time, fellow SH’ers. Have only seen the magic number under 60 kg on Tuesday morning, the day after my fast. However, once seen I know it’s within reach. Thank you for all your support. 🙂 I reckon I will be there within 10 days.

It reinforces my usual practice. Usually, I don’t claim a weight loss, if I haven’t been that weight for a week. I just got carried away with joy! And had a rush of blood to the head. Hehe! Fast day tomorrow. 🙂

IHAW, loved the image of you square dancing. Your skirt sounds such fun! Go girl, go! B

Speaking of exercise, i feel particularly virtuous today because i ran 5 and a half km this morning, even though it’s a fast day. Feel wonderful now! Hopefully can make it through til dinner okay.
Good work bayleaf! Can’t imagine what it’s like to be under 60 kg….