Good morning,
Oh Rainbow, how awful to have a slower more difficult recovery than you expected. Hooray for Mr Rainbow being such a good helpmate. I hope you improve quickly now. https://www.birthdaywishes.expert/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Gett-well-soon-with-floral-pattern-600×600.jpg
And I hope you can find some nice pottering around to do.

Arelkade, an accountable and kind month sounds just the thing. Happy 5:2 Anniversary! https://www.birthdaywishes.expert/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Happy-Anniversary-wish-with-cute-red-flowers.jpg
I am so, so pleased that Mr Arelkade is doing so well. Hooray!
Each day is so precious, for all of us.

I’m still a little bit crook, but ready for coffee today! I’ve got the final in Hugh’s Fat Fight to watch, and I have booked in for this: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/sdf-talks-lets-talk-about-sugar-tickets-50474715232 which will be interesting re my YamDaisy project too.

Sending best wishes to everyone

Thank you Quacka. We’re doing ok….on edge until next Thursday but my OH is amazing really…just getting on with things.
Those voices in our heads can be quite mean – I’m glad you put yours in its place. I think too we focus so much on weight – but it’s the health benefits that mean so much more.

Morning Anzac, Morning Lindsay, What a lot of lovely people are on this thread.

Arelkade, I popped back because when I read your post I wanted to say: 9 kilos is heaps! It is three of those three litre milk bottles: https://i.imgur.com/fJ8w1Ex.jpg That is so much not to be carrying around every minute, walking with, getting up and down with, having around your precious internal organs. (Goodness, on bad days I have trouble pulling just one of them out of the fridge!)

Lindsay, a beautiful morning! It is cloudy here, but mild and the garden is very happy. What a lovely lunch you will have, all power to your friend.
It is wonderful to hear about life in China, what an amazing time it must have been. I was listening to Phillip Adams talk to Jack Thompson last night, such a great conversation and Jack Thompson was talking about his love for China.

Anzac, isn’t it nice to look forward to a Fast Day, enjoy! Your Labrador sounds a delight.

Quacka your post popped up after I had posted and hid itself at the bottom of the page before! But I found it! And you said what I wanted to say about the 9 kg. Well, can’t be said too often.
And all power to you slapping that destructive little voice down.
Thanks for your good wishes. 🙂

Back to my lovely coffee….

That was good advice thinatlast. As a puppy he destroyed our outdoor furniture, plants – everything he could get his little crazy sharp teeth into. Our hands and arms looked like they had been through a shredder. Then we had a couple of months of calm when he was a well behaved little boy. Then adolescence hit and BOOM. Back to counter surfing and chewing anything his thieving little paws can get. OH accidentally left his almost brand-new, expensive sheepskin slippers within reach on Saturday night. RIP. Luckily for the dog we are firm believers in positively reinforcing good behavior and not punishing bad behaviour….but the stress levels were high on Sunday morning and many darkly muttered f-words directed at the culprit by hubby. As for the dog, he just sat there grinning with a small piece of sheepskin stuck to the side of his face. Oh dear.

His name is Maxx….allegedly because he was so cute we decided to put two kisses at the end of his name. However the cold (and funny) reality is we always said we would call him Max but then OH bought a packet of underwear from Target just before we bought the puppy home and around the waistband was MAXX MAXX MAXX (I guess that is the brand name?) and we took that as a good omen. So in fact it was underwear that determined the spelling of his name 🙂

Exactly LJ – something you’ve prepared yourself and placed in a portion size in the freezer! It does seem strange that your short anaesthetic procedure has resulted in such ongoing discomfort – hopefully you were forewarned at least.

Maxx seems to suit your dog perfectly, Anzac. I agree LJ – and I think he should be given his own pair of MAXX MAXX MAXX undies to rip apart. Please do post a photo of him on imgur if you feel inclined.

Anzac, I couldn’t help laughing at your story of OH’s sheepskin slippers, even though it was anything but funny for your OH. Puppies certainly love to chew!

LJ, for some types of biopsy’s they pump air into the abdomen or uterus, I guess so they can see better. If they did that, it could explain some of the discomfort and nausea that still remains. I hope it passes quickly.

Lindsay, my best wishes for a successful outcome on OH’s surgery. Any time they have to operate on the eyes it’s worrisome. But there are so many advances and techniques these days. I’m sure you will both be relieved when it is over. You don’t have to post a long thing, but please let us know how it goes on Thursday. We’ll be sending positive thoughts his way.

Cinque, I hope you’re feeling better as the day goes on. Hope you can get lots of rest. It seems like you’ve been pretty busy these past few weeks.

Rainbow, I hope you’re feeling better by the time you read this. How long before you know if the surgery was a success? How long is it that you can’t bend over or lift things? Do you have a lot of different eye drops to use now?

Arel, 9 kilos is a lot of weight to lose. I’m sure it makes a big difference in the way you look. It probably takes off years. It sounds better in pounds, I think. That’s 20 pounds!

Minka, re Dr. Veraday’s book, I can’t imagine sticking with ADF for very long. Even when I have only 1 day between FD’s it feels cumbersome. It wouldn’t be sustainable for me.

Thin, are you still eating your cauliflower soup on FD? I thought of you when I was eating a big bunch of cauliflower and broccoli today. Those types of vegetables are always filling on a FD. I had an eye doctors appointment this morning for follow up on the cataract surgery. Everything is looking good and my vision in that eye went from not even being able to recognize an eye chart without glasses to 20/20 vision without glasses in that eye. I am in awe of the surgery that can do that.

Awesome report re your eyes CalifD.

I wouldn’t like ADF (alternate day fasting right?) – it would be too back and forth as you said thinatlast.

Cali, what a wonderful outcome of your cataract surgery. I know Rainbow had a different type of eye surgery but here’s hoping that great result is contagious.

Cali, I think the reason for the continuing discomfort and bloating is the endometrial ablation procedure. They removed my uterine lining with an electrical current – this damages the entire internal surface, which then needs to heal. It must take at least a month for this to heal because I’m not allowed to do anything that might allow bacteria to get anywhere near my uterus for a minimum of a month (I’m not even allowed to take a bath, showers only). I have read some descriptions of the after effects that list nausea. I just need to be more patient than I have been.

Thin, let us know how the lentil coconut soup goes – that sounds like an interesting combination.
It’s the horse racing announcers I feel sorry for with those ridiculous names. They often have 2 names – a paddock name that they are called by those who care for and ride them and a competition name (I’m sure there are a lot of rules around the naming conventions). I remember seeing an interview with Gillian Rolton, who won a 3 day event olympic gold medal on a horse called Peppermint Grove. She mentioned that this was his competition name, but to her he was always called “Fred”.

Anzac, I have a bit of a soft spot for vitaweat myself. I don’t buy them often because I find it hard not to eat too many at once. It’s also difficult to have them without butter & vegemite – which adds to the calorie load!

Which reminds me, I did the grocery shopping this morning and bought low salt vegemite (about a third less). It doesn’t taste any different to me so I will probably be sticking with it.

Good morning everyone

It’s a FD for me today. I haven’t had a Wednesday FD for a long time but I had an extra long long weekend so am only returning to work today. I find it easier to do when I’m working. Weight this morning was a bit up but not as much as it has been after a weekend other times. Looking forward to FD just to enjoy that light feeling 🙂

I’m having my almond milk cup of tea that I have missed over the weekend. I did have tea but with normal milk as OH doesn’t like the almond milk in tea. Fair enough. I make white (cheese) sauce with it and he doesn’t notice the difference, maybe because of the strong flavour of the cheese.

Anzac ur story of Maxx and the slippers made me laugh out loud! I can imagine how cute he looked 🙂

I will be checking back in over the day. Hope you all have a lovely day x

Good morning all

I do feel lovely and light today thanks Cinque. Glad you are feeling so much better. I had a good FD apart from the two vitaweats. Unfortunately they have them at work; they have one big barrel full of vitaweats and another full of sweet biscuits such as shortbread creams, scotch fingers etc (!). I don’t have a sweet tooth at all, but anything savoury and crunchy like crackers are hard to resist. Nothing much I can do except ignore them. I don’t buy them very often either LJoyce as they will be my go-to if I decide to snack on something.

My weight hasn’t moved as I had a pretty bad weekend but at least it hasn’t gone up. After FD yesterday and tomorrow I hope it will head south.

Happy fasting Cinque, Quacka and thinatlast (and anyone else)

Great photo Anzac, isn’t Maxx cute! Surely he can do no wrong. Thanks for a great start to the day.

Glad you’re feeling better Cinque. The coconut lentil recipe appears on the back of the packet of lentils and a modified version on the pearl barley packet. Surprisingly delicious. It did require the whole can of coconut milk but it was quite a large batch.

Cinque, the trailer for, ‘Ask The Doctor’ briefly showed a photo of Dr M.’s book so I thought they might mention 5:2. I didn’t watch that one. I saw the lady in the surf in the trailer for Hugh’s 3rd edition.

Interesting about the horse names Cinque and LJ. DD says she had to present her horse at rounds and kept repeating its long and silly name under her breath hoping it would stick but her colleagues kept muttering other ridiculous names to throw her off just for a laugh! We understand how the expression, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” originated but can’t yet explain, “Straight from the horse’s mouth”. Does anyone know?

Quacka, we got a double posting from you today so this must mean that you are particularly resolved to a great FD! I’m joining you and Cinque. Strength in numbers. Today a new series of bridge lessons commences and they’re always on Wednesdays so I have to pay extra attention to stay focussed. These will be the last and then I can concentrate on trying to improve my game (plenty of scope there).

Have a great day all.

Good morning all.

Good luck to Quacka and Cinque and anyone else fasting today.

Quacka, I often use almond milk to make bechamel and cheese sauce too. I’m always keen to get some of the calories out of those rich sauces.

Anzac, thank you for the photo of Maxx. He looks so well behaved, sitting up for his photo – shows how looks can be deceiving! I guess he can’t remain an adolescent forever, he will eventually become mature and responsible. You may even be able to teach him to fetch slippers rather than eat them! 😀 Perhaps train him using some old ones that you don’t mind losing!

Thin, I don’t know about those sayings, but my assumption about “Straight from the horse’s mouth” would be that it related to betting on races.

Cinque, I watched “Ask the Doctor” but not Hugh’s program. It always surprises me that people don’t know what is in their drinks, it’s on the nutrition panel that’s stuck to their bottle. I must be the only label reader around.
I am very grateful that my mother taught me to enjoy water (rain water) as my “normal” drink when I was growing up. It meant I never had to learn to give up sugary drinks as I didn’t get addicted to them in the first place.
I’ve noticed that my nephew and his wife treat cordial as a treat that the kids have once a day (and made really weak) and fruit juice is a treat drink they can have occasionally when they are out. The rest of the time it’s water. This will help enormously for their future health and the state of their teeth.

Cali, has your improved eyesight changed the things you want to spend time doing, now that you can see better? I’d probably have my nose buried in a book for weeks!

Lindsay, I hope that birthday lunch yesterday was lovely.

I did finally manage to expand my food choices and eat some cauliflower soup yesterday. It was a struggle, but you see I’d taken it out of the freezer 3 days earlier for a planned FD. After 3 days in the fridge it was either eat it or throw it away and my issues with wasting food won out over my current preference for bland food. It was the strong smell of the cauliflower soup I had trouble with, the taste was fine.

I’m doing another NFD today. As I have my infusion scheduled for Friday and a wedding to go to Sunday I’ve decided that Thursday and Saturday will work best as my other two controlled days. It still feels a bit weird not to be doing proper fasts – I don’t think I’ve ever skipped them before. I am reassuring myself that 3 x 800cal days means a 1800cal deficit for me (1400TDEE-800), which is the same as 2 x 500cal days gives me. So what I’m doing at the moment should be able to maintain my weight just as well as 2 FDs. The only difference really is that I actually often eat less than the 500cal on a FD.

I’ve drunk my way through 2 large cups of tea while writing this and I’m seriously considering going back for a third! (In addition to learning to like water I can also attribute my love of tea to my mother as well!)

Have a good day all.

They are lovely LJoyce

I am at work and reading your lovely posts while having my first food of the day – two cherry tomatoes and an apple. It feels so so good to be back on my FD routine. I will answer more a bit later but wanted to say something about fruit juice and sugar. My Bali travelling companion and I have DDs about the same age, who have kids about the same age. I commented that mine only gave her little ones milk and water, to which my friend responded that her DD gave her kids fruit juice every day, but only organic. I bit my tongue and didn’t comment that there was as much sugar in organic juice as in non-organic. And, my friend and her OH routinely drank three or four juices at the breakfast buffet. So right Thin – people just aren’t informed. When I was raising my kids we thought it was healthy to give them juice. Now the pendulum has gone the other way , but unless you’re committed to Dr M and 5:2 and Hugh etc… there’s still a lot of misinformation about what constitutes healthy food/drink.
My friend also drinks diet coke by the can….at least 2 or 3 a day. I do bite my tongue because I tend to get on my bandwagon and I can get pretty tedious …but it does shock me. (That said, I have the occasional soft drink – but it’s diet tonic in a G & T so I can rationalise it, fraud that I am).

Oh dear, I hope it all goes well GdayfromSA. We do tend to think the worst but that is just human nature. Fingers and toes are crossed for your OH

I used to drink a lot of diet soft drink but finally worked out it really wasn’t good for me. I too love diet tonic water Lindsay, especially if it has some gin in it! I will have a diet tonic with dinner sometimes but otherwise water or wine (weekends…ish). I drink a gallon of water every day, during the day, as the females in my family all tend to suffer from kidney infections and/or UTI’s and lots of water is a good way to keep them at bay.

9pm Wednesday

Hi everyone. Having a late check in. I’ve joined Thin, Cinque and Quacka with a FD today – next one is Friday.

Rainbow, LJ & Cinque: I hope you are all feeling a whole lot better than you all have been recently, my thoughts are with you all

Anzac: Congrats on your recent 2kg loss – very happy for you

Lindsay: all the best for a wonderful outcome for your OH’s surgery – thinking of you. Thank you so much for your kind words

Quacka: thank you so much for your good wishes – for me to lose those 9kg is just wonderful. I agree with you, the support, encouragement and friendship on this thread is amazing

Cinque: Thank you for the gorgeous Anniversary card – loved it! Also, the 3 x 3litre bottles of milk. My little dog is 8kg, and if I pick her up, it’s an effort to carry her around, so I really appreciate the benefits that 5:2 is doing to my body and how valuable it has been to lose the weight!

Thin: thank you for your kind words, and your flower was just delightful (not a wasp in sight). OH is the KD part – you have an amazing memory! I enjoyed your comment to Cinque re: ready packaged meals and supermarkets. I feel the same about McDonalds, Kentucky Chicken, etc – no concerns for people’s health, just money in the till!

Anzac: enjoyed reading about your cute puppy and how he got his name. His photo is just gorgeous!

Calif: thank you also for your kind words – I’m so glad the kgs have been lost. So pleased for you and your recent eye surgery outcome – a great result. It’s amazing what surgery can achieve now!

LJoyce: Loved your orchids and they must be loving where you have put them!

GDSA: I hope your OH’s surgery goes really well – thinking of you

CateAus: Thank you for your kind words, very much appreciated

Hi to anyone else who is reading, or lurking. We are all in this together!
Must go. Enjoy whatever you are getting up to and bye for now xx

Ha ha yes Cali, Maxx did look most offended when presented with the slipper evidence. Sadly, for him, the little piece of fluff on his face was a dead giveaway!

FD today and I’m feeling strong. OH is so supportive, he cooked my small piece of sirloin to go with my thai beef salad (no noodles, just veges) for lunch today and is cooking a chicken breast with lots of spices and vege stir fry for dinner tonight. I have some fruit and all set for a successful day.

I hope everyone has a stunning day and for those on the South East Coast of Aus – HOORAY It is RREALLY raining at last!!! We are supposed to get a months’ worth of rain in the next 2-3 days and the even better news is the parched farmers are getting lots of rain too.

Good Morning All

Not sure if I have already written this or if I just thought it, but Anzac your puppy is just gorgeous!! LJ so are your orchids!

I am on second day of B2B today. Yesterday was a successful FD even though I weighed 100g heavier this morning!! Not worried, it will all even out in the long run.
I had a yummy and filling FD dinner last night. It was a ‘stew’ made from Sujuk (a turkish or lebanese sausage made from beef, similar to chorizo but not as fatty) and a tin of mexican bean mix. I added a can of tomatoes, onion, garlic, celery and carrot and also some home made chilli sauce, bay leaves and italian herbs. I served mine with cauliflower rice. I think I will make that again sometime.

Hope you are all doing well. Have a great day x

Good morning SHs,

I had an early start as I needed to get a birthday cake baked for my niece before I head out to be driver for my aunt again. Her favourite banana cake is now cooling on a rack and, at her request, I’ll add cream cheese frosting this afternoon once it cools. As I’m doing a controlled day today I’m going to have to keep my finger out of that frosting!

GDSA, best wishes to your OH for his surgery today. I hope it goes well and his recovery is speedy. That’s good planning with the motel room – I think being able to cater for yourself helps.

Anzac, well done on your water intake. I only manage to drink enough water when the weather is hot. When it’s cold I seem to replace a few of those glasses of water with cups of tea.
Your OH clearly enjoys cooking – so nice that you have “chef” prepared healthy meals.

Lindsay, I’m sure an occasional G&T won’t hurt. Like most things, it’s excess rather than moderation that causes most dietary problem.
Loved your story of the red setters, I can just picture it – they created their own fair-ground ride! When my sister-in-law got a border collie, her husband lost the sleeves on all of his long sleeve business shirts that were drying on the rotary clothes line. Some were salvageable, but had to become short sleeve shirts for summer.

Cali, Oh dear, I was hoping Thin would be wrong about you seeing all the cleaning that needs doing! I’m sure you can find something more interesting to do than cleaning.

Arel, happy anniversary and well done on the 9kg. I think it’s always worth getting a visual on what the weight loss looks like to remind yourself of just what you’ve accomplished.
Although I’m a big believer in ditching the big clothes, I also think there might be some benefit in hanging onto one garment to remind you of the progress you’ve made.

Quacka, that’s a positive attitude, I am sure it will even out in the long run, sometimes the scales force us to be patient. Hope the second day of your B2B goes well. That dinner does sound yummy. I haven’t seen sujuk, but am very familiar with chorizo. I’ll look out for it – always happy to find a new ingredient to try.

I’m going to try something from the freezer tonight. I’ll cook some veg and put a little chilli con carne with it. At least that’s the plan, I’ll see if I can face it when the time comes. I may end up resorting to having yet another poached egg with my veg. Eggs and ricotta are my main protein sources at present.

Have a nice day everyone. Good luck to all the fasters.

Ok I am struggling people. It is 12 noon, it is cool and rainy here (loving the rain) and this morning I could smell bacon cooking at the cafe next door. So all morning I have been wanting food, any food would do. I think I have been actually hungry only once but this craving is annoying me!!
I have bacon in the fridge at home and may have to cook some up to have as part of FD dinner – if I make it to dinner time.

Oh dear.

On a plus side, I was just texting to my sister and she mentioned something disgusting about her cold that she currently has. I wrote back to her saying ‘lucky I am on a fast day’. She then asked if I was still doing 5:2 and then asked if that is my way of life now. I haven’t really talked to her about it being my way of life so I’m hoping that something of what she read in MM’s book (that I loaned her) has stayed with her. Or she has been researching it on the net! I would really love for my sister and my mum to start 5:2. I think it would help both of their health immensely and also my sister’s self esteem. They live two doors apart and so could easily support each other. Dad would also benefit 🙂

Anyway thanks for reading my little whine. Hopefully I will make it to dinner. I am going to do my best 🙂

Hope everyone else on a FD or a CD is doing great 🙂 Oh and also the NFD’ers of course 🙂

What a coincidence Cali, we are having a drought here too and today we are getting significant rain for the first time in months also.

Are there any pictures of your dog that you could share? He sounds very cute.

Good luck making it through Quacka…it’s so hard when your senses are in overdrive from a delicious smell of something cooking. I hope your sister and parents look more closely at this WOL. It was my sister who put me onto this and I’m so glad she did.

Good luck keeping away from that frosting LJoyce 🙂

Lindsay, I told my niece about your red setters antics with the sheet on the line. She said her two eldest kids used to do something similar when they were little. Although I suspect their ears didn’t fly back in such a dramatic fashion!
Well done on the blood tests.

Anzac, I did stay out of the frosting, but I have just eaten 2 thin crusts from the loaf of spelt sourdough that I bought this morning. I had factored in some bread today so this is OK.
I hope you enjoy that rare rain. It looks like NSW and WA are getting plenty of rain today.

Cali, as soon as you described your dogs paws as fluffy mops I was imagining training him to mop the floor! What do you think?

Quacka, hopefully the bacon cooking smells ended with lunch time. Do you have some FD food you can have at work? I like Cali’s idea of crumbling one piece of bacon over your dinner. Good luck getting through to dinner time, I hope your afternoon is easier.

After taking my aunt to her appointment I raced home and slathered the cream cheese fronting onto my niece’s birthday cake. This afternoon I went with her and most of my great nieces & nephews to a “Plaster Palace”, where we all painted plaster ornaments of our choice. All the kids were true to form – the girls all chose cat figurines and the boys chose skulls! This was my effort: https://imgur.com/OBsqk25

Not sure the chilli con carne is going to work tonight. The closer I get to dinner time the less I feel like it. I guess it’s eggs again!

Quacka, commiserations on your expanded FD dinner.
I think Merry’s advice of just climbing back on the horse that bucked you off is wise here.
There is always a silver lining too – you were quite likely still under your NFD TDEE, so if you can manage another FD this week it could turn out quite rosy.

LJ, I love your plaster art project! It looks really nice on your table. Sorry you are still stuck with the bland diet. Sounds like you should just go with it for a while until your stomach settles down.

Quacka, it sounds like your OH is trying to sabotage your weight loss. Having T bone steaks and beer there for you isn’t being very supportive. Maybe it’s time to sit down and have a talk with him. Weight loss isn’t just about vanity, it’s also your health. It’s hard enough keeping ourselves in line sometimes without having someone else tempting us with more food than we should eat. The whole family needs to be on board.
On my FD my OH has food that I’ve made ahead of time or I go to Subway and pick up a sandwich for him. (He loves Subway.) Or sometimes I’ll make fish or something that is low calorie and just eat less of it myself.

Thin, it must have been fun watching your dingo run. Did she walk well on a leash? How do you make sure a dog like that gets enough exercise? I love the story about how she adopted you.

Anzac, we rarely get rain in the summer here. Everything that isn’t on some sort of watering system turns beige. It’s so nice when the hills turn green in the winter. It’s raining again today but not too hard. I hope it keeps up. Our trees need it.