Forgot – funny cat story – my cat Wilbur has recently decided that the water in the shower is what he wants to drink, not from his bowl. He’ll stand patiently outside the shower just looking up at me until I turn on the cold tap so there’s water at the bottom of the shower, then he goes in and drinks. This happens several times a day. Can’t work out why he has suddenly decided that that’s the water he wants!

Good morning all

Quacka – I too am sleeping badly and I’m sure it is playing havoc with my weight and food choices. I stayed up a bit later last night to see if I would sleep better. Went to bed at 10.00pm, slept upstairs so Maxx wouldn’t wake me but still woke up at 3.30am, wide awake. My FD did not end well yesterday and the scales are UP 300g. I’ll never get out of the 87’s at this rate. GAH

BetsyLee, so glad you kept to your TDEE even with a Chinese meal. Maxx, our Labrador, doesn’t often drink water from his bowl. He prefers the shower too! As well as the loo if we don’t close the door, muddy puddles etc. No idea why. I worry that he doesn’t drink enough so when I cook veges for him in the microwave I save the water and he absolutely gobbles that down. So he is getting water as well as some residue veges. That can only be good (Thin jump in if DD thinks differently)

That’s an awesome weight loss Thin, you al inspire me with your success. I know there will be blips along the way but I’m averaging 80% blip, 20% non-blip.

So I’m WFH today and its much cooler thankfully. The ankle still isn’t great but I can manage a gentle stroll soon with the boys. I will get on the exercise bike today and try to work off last night’s FD snacking.

Will check in a bit later. Have a great day all

Good morning,

Anzac at times for some of us it seems like it’s not worth all the effort and it is so easy to give in.

Day after FD for me and I am sitting at 69.3. I get so disappointed and frustrated because I don’t cheat on FDs and maintain it rigidly but it is what it is. I’ve still come a long way and I have to keep thinking of that.

Thursday would be my next FD but we are having a Xmas lunch get together with some ladies from my Pilates class. I don’t socialise much so I will just enjoy the time. Once Xmas is over I will refocus. I don’t celebrate new year and there won’t be any leftovers from Xmas dinner. I have two things to work towards.

1. My nephew is getting married on the 19/1 and 2) my trip to Hong Kong 6/3.

LJoyce your confessions give us all hope, if we were all perfect there would be know need for this forum. Honesty sometimes hurts and to put it out there for all to see takes courage but also gives us strength.

Hi intesha 🙂 you are so right about us needing this forum and none of us are perfect. Enjoy your lunch with the ladies and it’s great to have a plan to refocus after Christmas.

No apology needed Intesha 🙂 I find it difficult to respond to all the posts too at times, especially if I am a bit short of time. The main thing is we are all in this together and I love it.

Quacka, you made me laugh with your mention of the big green shed. We spend a lot of time (and money) at that shed too. At the Wesfarmers shareholders’ meeting which is always in Perth, they give away Bunnings coffee vouchers and I’ve discovered that their coffee isn’t that bad (especially as it’s free). So sometimes, if OH is taking too long, I get a coffee and pinch the crossword from their paper. Funny place to enjoy a coffee I know but it overlooks the nursery which I love!

Yes, sundowners usually means drinks and nibbles at sunset. It was a great evening. Anzac, our hosts were showing us their Rwandan gorilla photos to whet our appetites, not that mine needs whetting. I obviously wasn’t careful enough with the nibbles because I’m tipped over my trigger weight this morning which, by my rules, means ‘nil by mouth’ until it goes back under. Fortunately, it’s a FD. I went for an early walk before allowing myself any coffee so I could get back under the danger zone. Now I’m teetering dangerously close to 60kg so it will have to be a very lean FD, 300-350 cals. Constant vigilance for me because I am never going back to where I was.

I think trifle is a very English tradition and I’ve realised over the years that Australians don’t seem to like it. And, although none of the people we celebrate Xmas with is Australian except my daughter, I stopped making trifle years ago and just have Christmas bombe and Christmas pudding. A lot less work. And a lot more money (everything that goes in the bombe seems to cost an arm and a leg). There are many recipes for trifle though and some are quite delicious when using good quality ingredients. I’m with you though, who needs all that sugar in a bowl?

Intesha, Hong Kong? Did I miss something?

Anzac, it’s funny that Maxx likes the microwave veg water. And Betsy’s shower water thing is funny too. Our precious dingo was an alley dog before we found her and she had a lot of skills wrt sourcing food. She was one of the few dogs I’ve met that knew how to eat cooked bones without doing herself any harm. So, what’s Maxx getting for Christmas, Anzac? I know you’ve got him something? A tasty pair of shoes maybe?

LJ, that pea story with the little g-nephews was cute. Guess what! DD bought her dinner/dance dress on Monday at David Jones. Phew. She came off quite light at $240 but still expensive for a student, or should I say ‘unemployed’ now. Today she will go looking for shoes. Minutes to spare …

Lindsay, where are you? Arel?

Second verse,

Betsylee, our cats must be related! My Miso cat took a couple of years but finally got it through to me, that she likes a wide shallow bowl of water set in the bath, for her to drink out of. The tap slowly drips, so it works well.

I was about 85kg at my heaviest, and about 65kg when I started 5:2. I was hoping to get under 60kg but 5:2 took me all the way down to 50, and I was heavier than that by the time I was 14. I’m a shorty, so 50 is at the lower end of my healthy weight range.

Congratulations for bridge, Thin and partner! 🎉
Look after that ankle Anzac 💐

I think the bad sleep is catching, I have trouble at the best of times, but last night was a shocker. I’ll take a bit of restavit tonight to help me, it has got so bad. Too hard to find a link here, but I believe that not only does lack of sleep make us hungry, it makes us hungry for the worst foods, and not only that, but our bodies don’t use the energy in the same way and we are more likely to gain weight. Disaster.
Just as well today is a fast day for me!

Intesha, hope you get back to losing soon, but you are so right that maintaining your weight at this time of year, and still fitting in to all your clothes, is big success (and I know how good you look!).
That Hong Kong trip maybe a danger, but what fun!

I loved meringue and trifle! But only home made.

Better stop now. Best wishes to everyone. Hooray for 5:2. 🌼🌸🌺🌸🌼

Congratulations to your DD and you and OH. If it wasn’t for your support and encouragement it could have been a lot harder for her. Well done.

Thin I have booked a trip to Hong Kong next March. It was a really good deal and only 5 days so manageable for Dad.

WOOT WOOT!!! Party time at the Thin home! What a remarkable girl you have there; dstinctions and high distinctions in such a hard course. So happy for you :):):):):):)

Congratulations thin’s daughter! That is truly awesome. You must be so proud thin! What a lovely thing to celebrate. Enjoy x

Thin. That is great news. I guess your vet courses are as hard to get into as ours – it is easier to become a human doctor. That was well done. I expect there is a sense of relief mixed in with the pride!

Betsylee. My daughter has a tribe of cats. One of them made me jump recently. I was sitting at this keyboard when without warning it came over my shoulder and attacked the screen.

Maxx. Most of my dogs have been other peoples’ cast-offs, but for some reason three were Labradors and I baby sat a few others. They were all characters. They all liked water, in the coldest of our winters they just had to swim. (I do tend to talk to dogs)

Intesha. At the impressionable age of 19 yrs I went to work in Hong Kong for a year. The town area was then full of the sort of the sort of bars you would expect in an Asian seaport – beer and girls of negotiable virtue. Someone opened a pub called “The Waltzing Matilda”. No girls, just beer, pies and a darts board. 21 years later when I went back it was still there and still crowded. I had better add that I was an unpaid volunteer and couldn’t have afforded the girls even if I had wanted to live that dangerously. I spent most of my time as the only outsider in a fishing village in the Territories where I learned that there is nothing you can’t eat. Five days will be a whirl, but ask if the Temple Street market is still there. It used to have everything you can imagine, including medicine sellers demonstrating their faith in snake bite cures by annoying live cobras.

Disneyland? The best we had was Tiger Balm Gardens.

Penguin, everyone’s a critic, I assume the cat didn’t like your post!
On the other hand, dogs do make the best listeners – no interrupting other than perhaps the occasional nudge indicating that they’d appreciate a pat to go along with the chatter!

Intesha, any trip away will do you the world of good I’m sure. I always think that looking forward to these things is also half the fun.

Thin, Cinque and Cali I was a vegetarian for about 3-4 years in the 1990s, although I would occasionally eat fish or seafood when out as vego food was harder to find back then. I only relented when my iron levels became seriously low and even supplements wouldn’t correct it. Mollie Katzen’s books were definite favourites. Mine are printed on a course cartridge paper that just seemed to invite me to write on it – so I did. I made all sorts of notes about variations I’d tried and adjustments that I preferred. Unlike most highly glossy pictorial recipe books, the Moosewood books felt like they were inviting me to be interactive and inventive. That was perfect for me as I’m an intuitive cook who can’t seem to ever stick exactly to recipes – I like to experiment and explore when it comes to cooking. I also remember how much trouble I had before the internet existed, trying to translate American ingredients into Australian.

Anzac, I agree I don’t like pavlova or trifle either, despite routinely making them for others!

Quacka, well done on the weight drop. Hope you see a 66 tomorrow.

Lunch at the dumpling place was very nice, but I have definitely eaten too much today. FD tomorrow.

Good morning…it’s a hot one in Sydney today – it will be 32 and super humid. My hair looks like a crazy kitten has had a romp in it, despite my attempts to straighten it!

FD today and it has to be a good one as it is my last for two weeks. I’m not fasting over my break but instead looking to be active and cook/make healthy meals

I’ve never contemplated being vegetarian because I love meat too much and I am not a big vegetable fan, apart from salad/raw ones as you all know. So I would probably starve!

I do hope you get to Rwanda Thin. It’s not for the faint-hearted but I don’t think that describes you anyway – right? What an impressive FD yesterday, I don’t know how you do it. I’m sure you will be as light as a feather today

LJ & Penguin, I yack away to Maxx all the time. An you are right LJ, Maxx is a very good listener. I think he loves the fact that he is getting attention plus I scratch him as I chat to him, so sits there and occasionally cocks his head just like he actually understands what I’m saying! Too cute 🙂

Enjoy Melbourne Minka. I’ve only been down there a few times but I absolutely love it. Unlike sterile Sydney it is interesting and has so many little gems tucked away in alleys.

How exciting Intesha! I love Hong Kong, have been twice and would love to go back someday. Such a wonderful place to explore

That was interesting to read about your adventures at the age of 19 Penguin. I too went overseas to work at that age – but only to New Zealand, not exotic Hong Kong! I bet you grew up fast and learnt a lot in a short amount of time.

I’m actually really busy at work today which is great as I won’t have time to sit and think about food like I do when it is quiet and I’m bored. I will check in a bit later

Ha ha Thin, the same thing happened to my girlfriend and I in Queenstown. She came to visit me when I lived there and we went travelling down south for a week. We were at a bar and blokes would come to talk to us and they would say ‘where did you ski today’ and we would say ‘we don’t ski’. The blokes looked at us like we had three heads each and made an excuse to wander off.

I went to work in Wellington, to help open a new branch of the Investment Bank I worked for. I started in the Money Market/FX world just when the AUD was deregulated and the markets took off. Because it was a new market there wasn’t any older, experienced people here so our team of teenagers – literally – were thrust into leadership roles at very young ages. It was great! Sink or swim stuff. I met my now hubby in Wellington (yes he is a kiwi, thus my moniker Anzac) and I brought him home to Mum and Dad two years later. We’ve been together now for 31 years and married for 26.

Honestly Rwanda was life changing. You have to have a guide with you at all times as it can be dangerous – and to be honest it might be too dangerous now. We went in 2010. If you do go I will give you the name of a fabulous orphanage we spent a day at. The guy running it was amazing – an absolute dynamo. He talked NASA into building them a water purification plant that was ahead of its time and finally the kids there were no longer getting sick from drinking dirty water. It’s a bit (lot) out of the way but you want to see some more of Rwanda other than the gorillas it might be an option for you. I sent an email around work asking for clothing donations and we were inundated! So we took practically no clothes for ourselves and packed all the donations and took them to the orphanage along with some toys.

Congratulations Vet Thindaughter!
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1915/5607/products/congratulations-card-for-graduation.jpg?v=1518480695
Extremely well done!

The Hong Kong trip will be brilliant, Intesha. And what a good compromise a 5 day trip is. Your dad will be fine, and your brothers phone number for emergencies. 😉 I wonder if you will find ‘The Waltzing Matilda’!

Minka, so delighted at the opportunity to catch up with you (and Mr Minka)!

LJoyce, I had a good look at Mollie Katzen’s Frijoles con queso etc casserole recipe. I really like how she has made the layers. I would love to adapt that to make a wonderful tray make that would feed everyone with a YamDaisy meal.
I’ve bookmarked it to try.

(I was a vegetarian from when I was 14 until I was 30, when I ate a bit of fish, and continued having occasional fish. I started introducing meat again, slowly, at the age of about 50. I would miss it now if I stopped.)

Anzac, I bet your hair looks great. While you are trying to straighten yours, there are people all around the country trying to get a bit of life into theirs! Enjoy your fast day. It is just one day!

I had a good fast day yesterday and a 1/4 restavit that did give me a better sleep and hopefully broke a bad cycle.

Very much enjoying my morning after fast day!

Thin, nice measurement. Enjoy that hair do and the bridge!

Best wishes to everyone. I hope today is a particularly nice one.

Thanks Cinque, my hair is longish, just past my shoulders and it is very fine but lots of it and halfway between curly and straight. Terrible to look after and I know I am too old to have long hair but I don’t care because I like it! My dear Mum would be horrified if she was still with us. She started telling me I was too old for long hair from the day I turned 40! So at 53 I really should cut it but I won’t. There 🙂

Restovit, I can honestly say, practically saved my life. I too take a quarter (or max half if I’m really bad) sometimes and it works like a dream. I don’t let myself have them too often as they are addictive but it makes a world of difference.

Glad you had a great FD, mine is going well too. Thank goodness for coffee!

Thin, our guides name was Patrick and he was wonderful too. I think I told you the story how he lost his entire family – parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins – in the genocide so it was just himself and his younger siblings. He had to bring them up and he was only a teenager himself. So sad. But as a tour guide he made good money and we tipped him very generously at the end of course. One night he dropped us at our accommodation, forgetting that it didn’t have a restaurant. So hubby and I, completely ignorant to any danger, walked around until we found somewhere to eat. We were sitting at a table at an upstairs balcony when it started getting dark. We started noticing people staring at us and then they started making rude gestures and spitting. We realised that we were in trouble but wisely waited until there was a passing group of military guys and we trotted behind them back to the B&B. When we got back the owner said Patrick was crazily looking everywhere for us and was worried out of his mind. Only then did we honestly realise that it was a dangerous place for white people on their own. There was so much anger that no-one in the Western world came to help them during the genocide. Absolutely justified anger

Rambling again – sorry!

Oooh forgot…what made me smile yesterday was when Maxx came ambling into the dining room where I was working and he put his chin on my knee for an ear-scratch then ambled off leaving a nice drool puddle on my tracksuit pants 🙂

Glad to hear it Anzac, so is mine. So far I’ve had several cups of tea and a small banana. The busy day has helped.
I’m about to have one more cup of tea before I head out to my nephew’s place to look after his kids for a few hours. I should be home by 6:30 and I have chicken and veg that just needs reheating for dinner.

I made the wise decision to package up all of the shortbread I made into labelled sealed bags as christmas presents. I didn’t trust myself to do it tomorrow without eating any! Now it’s out of harms way.

Thin, my brother goes to Rwanda at least once a year to teach bible studies and this year he went on a trek at Mt Bisoke near the Rwanda/Congo border and came across a family of gorillas. The photos were amazing. I only saw them on Facebook haven’t spoken to him about it but what an experience.

What is this I hear about hailstones the size of golf balls hitting Sydney?

I wish I had said it earlier Intesha! Enjoy that busy day!

A friend in the Lithgow area was on the train home when it had to stop because of storm damage (trees down etc) and it took her about four hours to get home.

Here in Melbourne all is calm, grey, cool and humid. Rain expected. But no palm sized hail stones I am glad to say.
Cali, Melbourne summers are traditionally hot and dry, but who knows what to expect these days.

Anzac, your hair sounds lovely. Isn’t it bizarre the expectations we put on different ages! Let’s rebel!

Quacka, Woot! Nicely into the 66’s!
And just so you know, 5:2 keeps working, even when you are jinxing yourself. Just keep to the basics.

Cali, have fun making your tamale pie. Today I am finally going to try one of the individual serve tamale pies I made: I had so much food going, they went into the freezer.

Someone asked how my cat training worked. Big fail. As soon as the nights warmed up, Miso stayed out. Was planning to parcel her up and send her across to LJoyce, along with the bowl she drinks her water from in the bath.
But what made me smile yesterday, was that I cooked ribs and the delicious smell brought her in at 6:30pm. Ha.
I need some meaty spray to use every evening. I presume I can get it on Amazon, Cali?

It’s lull day for me, hoping to make it a good one. Best wishes to those fasting, those just finished a fast day, and those gearing up for a fast day tomorrow!

Cinque, thanks for the celebratory picture, very cute.

Quacka, great news – a personal best! We haven’t heard that for a long time here. Well done. Keep up the good work.

Anzac, scary story. Our friends mentioned that the Rwandan people were particularly unfriendly. (They’ve lived and worked in various other African countries). They learned a few basic local words and got a marginally warmer response.

Intesha, how exciting for your brother to stumble across a family of gorillas.

I was out all day yesterday so very behind in the posts again. It was a disastrous morning at bridge where I played my worst ever but was at least able to see what I did wrong so that’s progress. We still had a laugh. Then off to the hairdresser’s where I was kept waiting so long that I had to go and move my car because someone else’s lateness was cutting into my parking time. It drives me nuts when dentists, hairdressers text me to ask me to confirm an appointment. Yes! I made the appointment, that means that I will be there in good time unless I get run over by a bus in which case I will call you. My hairdresser said people had been failing to show, arriving late or calling to change their time in the whole lead up to Christmas. How inconsiderate.

CalifD, OH is just trying out different sleep device options in an attempt to avoid surgery.

LJ, 36C forecast today, 37C tomorrow. Slightly cooler for Christmas Day. Off for my walk and might be able to read a few more posts when I get back.

Noon, Fri, Adelaide
I’m enjoying the last couple of days of mild weather before Thin sends her heatwave over my way. In preparation for a whole week of hot temperatures I finally packed my quilt away and will just have layers of cotton blankets on the bed for the rest of summer.

Anzac, I suspect when Maxx saw all the hail stones hitting the ground he though someone was throwing balls for him to pay with!
I am with you on the summer fruit. I tend to go a bit berserk when it first comes into season – I don’t know what to eat first and end up buying far too much for just me to eat. The variety of colours and flavours are just lovely. I don’t know how Cinque copes eating just veg and not being able to eat the fruit.

Intesha, hope you enjoy your time with your grandchildren. I find babysitting tiring but usually fun.

Thin, I will taste baking mixtures on FDs, but only the tiniest amount (about 1/8 tsp) so I’m sure the flavour is right. On a NFD it would make me want to eat more, but for some reason on a FD that never happens. Hope your Christmas bombe tastes amazing. I was planning to make the christmas desserts on Monday, but now I find I’m babysitting from 8-3 so it will probably all get done late into the night. Thankfully I’m not hosting so it will be fine.
I never understand how people have lots of mixture left in the bowl – I use a scraper to make sure I get it all out. My mum used to do the same, but I would get the wooden spoon to lick – there was usually a little bit of mixture left on that.

Cinque, I think you had better keep Miso. I’m sure she’d miss you.

Penguin, we seem to be having the most extremes of weather at the moment. The west is in the middle of a heat wave and the east is suffering under storms. I guess it’s just part of the diversity we get when our country is such a large continent. All too often we have summer floods in the north while battling bush fires in the south.

Cali, As well as packaging the shortbread I decided to finish wrapping up all the christmas gifts last night. As there are several hampers full of goodies I think that was wise as now I can’t pinch any in a weak moment.

FD went well yesterday but my weight is still up this week so I’m trying to be careful on the last 2 NFDs of the week.

1.00pm. Cloudy and humid in Sydney – 24 degrees

Nearly home time and the start of my holidays 🙂 The boss has gone to a long lunch and said I can leave whenever I finish up.

Thin, I will be completely accountable to you I promise. In fact I will even take a picture of the scales while I’m standing on them on the 3rd January to keep me honest 🙂 With that in mind just now when I popped out to the chemist I was tempted to buy something extra for lunch and that stopped me! I was 87.3 this morning and I will be no heavier on the 3rd January if not quite a bit lighter :):)

Sorry you had a bad bridge day but hopefully you can turn it around and ‘span’ the challenges of the game better next time. Oh dear. That joke is terrible even to me!

It bugs me to no end when I arrive promptly for an appointment, as I always do as I hate being late, to find myself waiting and waiting because someone else was late. They should be told they have to have a shorter appointment to make up the time – but businesses won’t do it. Grrr

LJ I hope the hot weather doesn’t cause too much discomfort.

I just bought Maxx a stuffed kangaroo for Christmas. It is his 3rd one as he destroyed the other two (and other animals) and OH said ‘no more stuffed toys, waste of money’. But his little eyes always light up with joy when he sees one coming his way and this time I will only let him play with it under supervision; so then when he starts chewing it in a way to tear the stuffing out I can take it off him. Wish me luck – I’m not even remotely hopeful that will actually happen but it will be worth it.

Ok time for some last emails then home!

Have a great rest of the day all