Oops, I neglected to thank you all so much for your supporti encouragement and congratulations. No change on the scales this morning and I’m off to a girls’ lunch so no fasting either. Thanks for your inspiration GDay !
I neglected to answer some questions. I only did 4 days btb fasting because I had to recover from the paella party bloat, knew I had a girls lunch today and in 2 days time it’s the ABBA party.
When I am at work, I find it simpler, quicker, easier and convenient to make 2 Define, protein shakes, freeze them, then sip them as they thaw during the day. Since Im at work 5 days a week, I Fast 5 days a week. I’m thinking of celebrating with hub on Friday nights and having a nice meal with him when I get to goal which is 6 kg away. On Saturdays and Sundays hub and I are always out so Fasting is impossible, so I do the 5/2 the other way round and do 2/5 just because it’s eadier and suits me. It’s funny now MM is endorsing shakes, Ive always been embarrassed to admit to them.
Well, I’m just going to have scrambled eggs for breaky, have a great day all!

10:30am Thursday, Adelaide, hot day, but it should be the last one until Monday.

Quacka, I hope your FD ended well, despite me making you salivate with descriptions of seafood. Sorry.
We must have been on the same track for dinner last night. I had a combination of zoodles and edamame spaghetti with the home made pesto and a handful of the semi dried cherry tomatoes. I found the pesto made the “pasta” more filling than usual – I’m wondering if it’s the high fat content as most of my alternative sauces don’t contain as much fat as pesto does.

Cali, I’ve never had clam chowder – we don’t seem to be able to buy clams here. I hadn’t considered using Rosy’s substitute – scallops. I can see that working.
Rosy, Having it in a crusty sourdough bowl sounds rather decadent, I like that idea.
Sometimes baking bread can cause a binge, it depend on my moood. But I do try not to cut a baked loaf until it’s cooled – the bread will slice better and have a better texture that way. My way of achieving this is the bake a small roll, or sometimes a batch of rolls, as well as the loaf. Then I can indulge in one hot roll straight from the oven while the rest is allowed to cool.

Anzac, yes it is rheumatoid arthritis – I’ve had it for 19 years now, I was in my late 30s when it started. The early years were difficult. None of the early treatments I tried worked very well and seemed to cause a pile of side effects – some of which were dangerous. Not using any treatment wasn’t an option as without treatment I couldn’t work and could barely function. I think the hardest past of no treatment or treatment that isn’t working is the unrelenting pain, so I perfectly understand have difficult that would have been for your mum. When I’m on effective treatment, pain is intermittent rather than constant, which makes it so much easier to bear.
Thankfully they’ve developed a new type of treatment drugs called “biologics” (I think there are 6-7 of them available now). They basically target specific parts of the immune system rather than knocking the whole thing out. I have found they are much more effective than the older treatment drugs, and while there are still side effects they are manageable and they are a price I’m more than willing to pay for the level of symptom remission I get. I feel like these new drug treatments have given me my life back.
Anzac, although they don’t know what causes rheumatoid there is some indication that it can be inherited, although there are lots of other factors too. So don’t ignore any joint swelling or soreness – get to a doctor quickly. Delaying treatment is not a good idea. Unfortunately I know this because I initially ignored my symptoms for 6 months.

Cinque, Glad you had a good FD.
That always happens to stone fruit in periods of high summer heat, especially when they are close to being picked. The stone heats up and cooks the part of the fruit that’s close to the stone. (I’ve always assumed that it’s the oil content in the bitter almond that is inside the stone that facilitates this, but I could be wrong.

Cali & Cinque, I can only imagine800cal FDs working for me if most of my NFDs were quite restrained or if I did 3 FDs. I really don’t want to do 3, although an 800cal FD would feel quite different I think to my current FDs which are about 400cal, because I would eat lunch too – so it would feel much more like a normal day but with healthy food choices. I’m not ready to jump in right now, but wouldn’t rule it out long term. I can imagine 3 x 800cal days being ok in hot summer weather as the heat seems to suppress my appetite and I’m naturally drawn to fresh fruit & veg. I don’t think I’d mange as well in winter. When I did the VLCD, which was 800cal each day, I started in September and finished the following May, so I avoided winter on 800 cals.

Thin, the lizard was around for a couple of days and I haven’t seen it since. There clearly wasn’t enough to eat in my small garden to tempt it to stay.

I’ve manged to do 4 very controlled NFDs so far this week and today is my only FD for the week (because I moved the Sunday FD back to Saturday which meant I did 3 last week). The heat is really helping me stay in controlled mode as I don’t feel much hunger when it’s hot. Hopefully something good will come out of all this heat and I’ll get my NFDs back under control before we return to cold weather.

Have a good day everyone.

Hi everyone

NFD for me and so far it has been a fairly good day. I was up early as usual and decided not to walk this morning as it was already hot, even on the coast. I wanted to get a head start on dinner so shredded up the red and green cabbage and made the Thai salad dressing. We are having Thai prawn salad. I made an extra large batch of dressing as I thought I might also have some tomorrow with lunch and then proceeded to knock the jar over and spill at least 3/4 of it! I admit there were a few bad words said! After I calmed down I just added some more lime juice, fish sauce and sesame oil and a bit more chilli jam. I think its ok and I’m hoping it will be really yummy tonight as it will have had all day to ‘develop’.

thin, thanks for your encouragement. No worries about setting an example for Kanga about beer drinking. I doubt she has ever even tried a beer lol. It’s nice to have her doing this 5:2 WOL with me.

I woke up this morning feeling very light as Cinque says. I got on the scales and am happy to be back at 67.6kg. I don’t know what happened over my holidays but I was doing so well with my weight for most of the three weeks and then on the last weekend it all decided to hit me!! I wasn’t too worried as I knew 5:2 would fix that and it has. I’m aiming to be back in the 66s after next weeks FDs.

Omg. One of the girls at work has just bought a massive sausage roll for lunch and is eating it about 4 metres away from me! I wasn’t feeling very hungry this morning so have only had some popcorn and two passionfruit. The smell is amazing. I know I would feel awful if I ate one even if it is a NFD and I can. I would rather have my big cabbage,tomato and corn beef salad with mango chutney dressing anyday. OH and I made this mango chutney over our holidays. The mangoes were left over from Christmas and were really ripe so not exactly the best for making chutney. It actually turned out quite nice although it needed some more chilli for us. Oh, that’s what I was doing when I spilled my Thai dressing – I was chopping up some chilli to put in the mango dressing! Argh!

Well off I go. Work calls. Take care everyone x

Anzac and Thin to clarify. Nephews first wedding but brother is taking third wife.

FD today, 100gms down from after last FD so hopefully my body is in weight shedding mode.

Extremely hot here, went to the gym this morning.

Hoping not to overeat while I am away. Will take plenty of water with me, fruit and almonds to munch on. Thankfully with weddings you can’t really overeat too much but it will be the alcohol that will be my undoing.

Funny you should mention that, Anzac! OH always makes comments about my Quacka flappers (my arms lol) getting in the way. Or he will say something like “are you having trouble with those Quacka flappers?”. Sometimes though he is referring to my feet as well as I often try and trip myself up. Oh dear. Am I able to compete in the clumsy events at the Olympics also???? LOL

Quacka – I’m clumsy too – well known for it within my family and friends. For me it’s not just my feet tripping me up, I have a habit of knocking things over with my hands too. When I start talking animatedly I tend to start waving my arms about – everyone I know protects their drink glasses as I have a habit of knocking them over into their laps!

Quacka and Anzac, if you enter the clumsy category in the Olympics, I’ll have to enter too. It will be an easy Gold Metal for the US. 🇺🇸 !

Re the discussion earlier about whether milk in tea or coffee negates an otherwise food free fast, what about Longo’s “fasting-mimicking diet”? From what I’ve read, that Prolon meal kit includes nut bars, olives, kale-and-seed crackers, “choco-crisp” desserts, and soups with tomato, quinoa, and vegetables. Yet it’s supposed to be functionally equal to fasting. So how could a small amount of milk over the course of a FD be any different?

Kanga, that lady who told you about the woman who ended up in the hospital from doing 5:2, what exactly was the diagnosis? If a person has health problems to begin with, like heart arrhythmia or is hypoglycemic or diabetic, they should check with their doctor before doing any diet. I can’t imagine why 5:2 would have serious consequences for a healthy person.

Hey LJ, it has ended well thanks. Glad yours did too. Have had some really hungry periods but have waited them out. I couldn’t stomach what I got out for dinner – my mince and vege mix – so hubby will have that for lunch tomorrow. Luckily he was making home-made spring rolls ready for the party and had poached some chicken breast and was mixing it with shredded cabbage and a spicy, sweet Asian sauce ready for the spring rolls. So I stole some with just a tiny bit of sauce and rolled it up in lettuce leaves. YUM!

Foxtel weather is saying it is going to be 43 here tomorrow. UGH. Luckily I am working from home but have a lot of cleaning to do. We might have to have the air-con on all day despite the cost.

Night night all, chat tomorrow. Sweet dreams

Hi everyone, I’m seated in front of the TV watching the start of the Djolovic – Tsonga singles tennis match for the Australian Open (for anyone who isn’t into tennis 🙂 ) so I decided to post an update. Went to the Aussie Open yesterday. Just had a ground pass, so spent most of the day in the Melbourne Arena, which the ticket allowed access to – next year I think I’ll buy a ticket that includes the Rod Laver Arena. I’d love to have seen Federer in action. Oh well. Enjoyed the tennis, did lots of walking and stairs – major problem with stairs once I stiffened up from sitting, but coped. I slipped on some water in the bathroom several days ago, and have pulled a major muscle that affects my walking and stairs. Refused to let it affect my enjoyment. Saw two great singles matches, including Cilic (6th seed) in a 4-set match with McDonald – Cilic won.

Aussies seem to be doing better this year than last.

Cinque, Melbourne weather is just plain weird and variable, so no problems. Actually, yesterday at the tennis, the temperature in the arena was pleasantly bearable; quite a relief! Re the ketosis – unfortunately, it means NO calories, so water, black tea or coffee, diet sodas (reluctantly allowed by Dr M), just nothing which has any calories.

Anzac65, keep the Maxx stories coming – they bring considerable amusement to the forum!

Kangarootha, as others have answered, a CD means a controlled day, and various folk have suggested it should be around 1200 cals. A MFD – modified fast day – is around 800 cals, so Dr M’s now recommended level of calories. WFD is a water fast day. OMAD is one meal a day.
Re fasting, as others have written, there must have been another problem with the person who was hospitalised, not just following the 5:2 diet. People have been fasting for thousands of years for religious reasons without problems. Good Muslims are supposed to fast twice a week; Buddhists are encouraged to fast, as are Christians. The Wesley brothers (who started the Methodist church movement) required their ministers to fast twice a week. Intermittent fasting even not for religious reasons is good for the body, giving it a break!!! Dr M writes about that, too. And really, the 5:2 isn’t even a real fast, on the two FD days, just reduced food intake. If there are any major underlying health problems that a person is under the care of the doctor for, of course they need to take on any diet under medical supervision. Again, Dr M says that in all his books. Don’t listen to the naysayers; they are just being saboteurs. If you are in general good health, just go for it!

LJoyce, great that you can continue to receive the med which helps so much. I think many of us develop aches and pains as we get older which are due more to osteo-arthritis rather than the rheumatoid arthritis which you have. According to X-roys, I have mild to moderate OA in many of my joints – hands, feet, knees – and have some pain most of the time, but nothing like the pain and restrictions of RA. You have my deepest sympathy, and I’m glad you have a form of treatment now that works!!!!

Actually, the OA is one of the reasons I want to lose some weight, to reduce the pressure on my joints. Also, I want to take Voltaren (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug), but my doctor had conniptions about me taking it while I’m on blood pressure meds because of the danger of kidney disease – lose weight, go off the BP meds, and see if I need Voltaren. All part of the “grand plan” 🙂

Oh, LJoyce, not sure if the keto flu would be any worse if I fluid fast (I don’t usually go on a water fast) because I wouldn’t be following Time Restricted Eating; I’d have some fluid with cals throughout the day. I think it’s the TRE that’s causing me problems. The fluid tends to be mainly milk, milk in tea, etc.

CalifDreamer, yes, there certainly are white cockatoos in Melbourne. They come where they can find food. I still remember a few years ago having a peach tree covered in ripening peaches in my back yard. I woke one morning to some rawkous (spelling??) noise outside and there was a row of cockies all sitting along my back fence – and the peach tree was totally stripped of peaches. I didn’t get a one! These days they’re coming for the water more than fruit, though; the tree hasn’t fruited this year.

Interesting comments about the NFDs – according to Dr M’s research, one reason the 5:2 WOL works is that on the NFDs it was found that people only increased their normal calorie intake by 10% – I guess if anyone goes overboard on NFDs, overall they won’t lose weight.

Good morning everyone

It’s my Friday day off any I’m glad my first week back at work is over.

I am planning a morning in the garden today. It needs weeding and the plants need cleaning up. The nets are great but they stop you from just pulling out a weed here or there as you see them! I am also planning on making another batch of pesto for the freezer as my Basil is growing crazily out there. My coriander has gone to seed before the plants even got to grow 5 inches tall 🙁 and my mint is being annihilated by the caterpillars. Poor things must be going hungry because they can’t get to my tomatoes ;);)

Has anyone ever pickled gherkins before? We bought some seeds and when I checked the botanical name against the name of the Lebanese cucumber seeds, they were the same! Now they are growing though they are definitely not the same. I think one of the seed packets had the wrong botanical name on it. So we picked our first two gherkins yesterday and the plants are covered in flowers. I’m wondering if I just pickle them like we do our jalapeños. If anyone has a picking recipe that they use, I would love if you would share it with me 🙂

Well I better go. I need a cup of tea before I get out there. Hope you all have a great day x

Good morning, Melbourne 8:45 am
It is a comparatively civilised 25c here at the moment and I slept fairly well so feeling good!

Sympathy for your scorcher of a weekend Thin, hope it ends with an early cool change. I agree, it is the extended heat that is so cool. So much sympathy for those suffering in it.
Gday, hope you pop in just so we know you are okay. (LJoyce, I had no idea that fruit thing was quite common in the very hot weather. Poor fruit!)

It is 2020 school for Miss 4, I wonder how tall she will be then!

Quacka, so glad you are back to your pre ‘end of silly season madness’ weight.
I’m another one for team SH at the Clumsy Olympics! Watch out Cali! You might have to be happy with silver.

Cheers to everyone who did their fast day yesterday, and all power to those doing it today.

Rosy Posy your OH gave a good analogy. I thought of it as ‘gliding in’ to my healthy weight. Also, if the scales show a big loss one day, it is likely to be balanced out a bit over the next couple of days, because of the constant fluctuations of our weight. The 1cm loss all over is wonderfully impressive, you will enjoy rattling around in that Abba outfit!

Cali, that is a good point about the Fast Mimicking Diet.

Good luck Intesha, you might be needing that alcohol! But fingers crossed you don’t.

Betsy what a great day at the tennis, and lovely to be looking forward to an even better pass next time. I do hope that pulled muscle heals quickly.

Lindsay, you will be flying back from coldest winter to hottest summer! Eep.
So lovely to read of that afternoon tea. So sorry to have missed the other half, I’m as annoyed as you are!

Quacka, Good luck finding a good cucumber pickle recipe (I’m betting LJoyce has one!). I only know zucchini 😉 But I think the veggies can be fairly interchangeable.
Enjoy the garden.

Cali, I do the same, half the oil!

Here is an article I want to share. I have been following the commission closely and glad the results have come out. (I am going to the Melbourne launch of the report in a couple of weeks because it is so relevant to my YamDaisy project.) Anyway, I thought many of you would be interested in the issue and in the suggested diet for the planet. https://theconversation.com/how-to-feed-a-growing-population-healthy-food-without-ruining-the-planet-108994

Cheers all, I need to go and clean the kitchen. How did it get in such a mess?

Hi everyone. What a bunch of clumsies you all are. I laughed at your competitiveness attempting to win the Clumsy Olympics. I was going to say that I’m not a clumsy person, but then I was in a rush this morning, overbalanced while my body was twisted in a turn, and have wrenched the latissimus dorsi and lower trapezius muscles in my middle back. I’m currently in agony, lying flat on the floor at Mama Quacka/Kanga’s house because I can barely move. I have pain heat patches on my back and am dosed up on all types of painkillers. Thankfully I didn’t fall, so no bone injuries, but Hubby is beside himself over the phone because soft tissue injuries can last a lot longer. I am most annoyed because this will delay my weights sessions for goodness knows how long. Mama Kanga-Quacka has a huge tv, so we are watching the Australian Open tennis as well. Barty (Australia) vs Sakkari (Greece) at the moment. Being a Greek-Australian, either result is a good one. I’d prefer Aussie Aussie Aussie though!

Thin/Quacka: I have tried beer before but it was so vile that I didn’t try it anymore. Hahaha. Give me a Baileys, Moscato or Margarita any day over a beer.

Not sure whether to fast tomorrow (my usual day) or not, ladies?? The book says to not fast if your body is under intense stress already. Does being barely able to move due to pain count as intense stress? I’d like to keep the fasting routine going, but I don’t want to risk any backlash.

Advice please!

Ok Quacka and Kanga, the Greek Australians win the Clumsy Olympics!

Kanga, keep fasting!

Don’t worry about your weight sessions, they’ll wait. They are great for fitness but not necessary for losing unwanted fat.

Hope you both heal quickly.

Anzac you are just as ridiculous as most other people on this forum. But congratulations for getting under 87!

It keeps reaching 100% humidity here, which is watering the garden. Bye now.

Thanks for the advice so far! I’ve decided I’ll keep fasting tomorrow. If anything, I have a reason to spend the day in bed if I want to, ignoring food and watching movies, napping and reading. Right now I’m not feeling too badly. I’m right in the middle of two lots of painkillers, two heat patches, a pillow and a comfortable chair. I thought I’d take the opportunity to reply to messages!

Firstly, thank you for your well wishes over my back. Much appreciated! Thank goodness it’s the weekend and I can just chill out tomorrow.

GdayfromSA: Oh really interesting. Does the clay work that well? I’d love some articles (with scientific references please) to read about it. If it works that well, I might even start doing it myself. Sounds odd, but I’m interested to learn more, at least. Have you ever used diatomaceous earth? If so, what do you think? I’ve never tried, but I know some people swear by it.

Cinque: Yes, I agree. It may have only been water weight that I lost, but at this point I’ll take it! Heh. I’m only planning to weight the day after Fast Days, if I remember. I would get obsessed and discouraged if I did it every day. No way.

F_M: Thanks for the encouragement. I’ll keep going! I feel so good the day of and day after the fast, that I don’t want to miss out any. I didn’t realised I missed the note about your birthday – a belated happy birthday to you!

Thin, BetsyLee and LJoyce: thanks for the CD explanation. I find the first couple of days after a FD are CDs for me, but this is Day 3 and not so controlled. Am interested to see if this is a pattern and whether I can be aware of the tendency ahead of time so as not to self-sabotage. Seems I have met the gremlins who ran off with my post. I noticed after you mentioned that it had popped back up again. Strange. Betsy: I loved your religious examples of fasting. So correct. I was saying to Mama Kanga/Quacka that we Westerners often mistake not being over-full or stuffed as being hungry. Most Westerners don’t even know what hunger feels like!

Quacka Duck: You crazy, clumsy girl. Watch what you’re doing next time! What did Mr Quacka have to say about your injuries? Thanks for the heads-up about other people being negative about fasting. I figure it’s from lack of awareness and research that they think fasting is bad for you. Thankfully I have Mama Kanga-Quacka saying it’s a good thing, as well as you, another really close friend, Mr Kanga, and all these lovely people here cheering me on. I’m so glad you got me into this WOE and group, McQuack! Thanks! Also, I’m glad you didn’t have any sausage rolls. You think you would enjoy it if you had one, and then afterwards you would feel like you had a bunch of greasy rocks in your stomach. Not worth it. Besides, the salad you sent me a picture of looked SO good.

CalifDreamer: I don’t know what the woman’s exact diagnosis who ended up in hospital. I didn’t ask, but I know my friend wouldn’t tell me as she needs to protect her client’s confidentiality. I’m sure there must be an underlying condition, unless she fasted for far too many days in a row. After messaging all you wonderful people, I’m not concerned about potential hospitalisation anymore. I need to be sensible and healthy about fasting, not obsessed as I tend to get with new things.

Anzac: I laughed at your manipulation of the scale. Sounds like something I would try, but then get angry at the scale for being so fickle. Hmm…

Quacka: CINQUE said we won the Clumsy Olympics! WOOHOO! First time I’ve ever won anything in my life. Cinque, you better not give us a trophy – we’d drop it and break it accidentally.

Good morning all, I have enjoyed reading about all your misadventures. Wow, some of you might do better just to stay in bed! I’m not going to reply now as it’s only 32C today and I want to take advantage of the last ‘cool’ day before the heatwave. Over the weekend, I’ll be holed up in the air-con with indoor projects and will have more time to reply properly. Still stuck at 59.7kg. Not complaining, it’s just odd to stay the same weight all the time. Have a great day fasters, losers & maintainers.

https://imgur.com/omePxNV
No I haven’t found a new use for cherry tomatoes as tea – ugh!
I went out to empty the tea pot onto the garden and noticed that yet more veggies needed to be picked. My hands were filled quickly, so decided to use the pot. This lot has ripened in just 24 hours – amazing as I only have 6 cherry tomato plants.

Cinque & and anyone else trying to find a use for zucchinis. I was looking through “The Enchanted Broccoli Forest” looking for inspiration and came to her section on pie crusts. She has a golden Vegetable Crust, which is basically made from grated veg. The crust used 2 cups of grated yellow summer squash, which I have assumed means the little yellow button squash that I have growing – I use these interchangeably with zucchini in most recipes.

https://soilborn.org/recipe/golden-vegetable-crust/
This is the closest online version I can find. But my recipe says to use parsnip instead of the turnip in the online recipe. Personally I’d stick with the parsnip as I much prefer the flavour.

The recipe is just for the pie crust – you fill it with whatever savoury delight you feel like.
My personal favourite is the mushroom and yoghurt filling from the same cookbook. Or the cauliflower cheese pie filling from the “Moosewood” book.

Hi All, I’m fasting today, well it is Friday night now, so most of the fast has been accomplished. Cheers!

Happiness this morning. The Robin is back. It is a cold day with occasional sleety snow so I popped out to dig some leeks for the lunchtime soup – he was sheltering amongst the leeks. It is so long since I saw him I was beginning to think he had been taken by one of the many cats that hunt in my garden.

Kanga, thanks for the kind wishes. The Big Event [dinner for 16] is on Sunday. Son#2 was supposed to fly in late tonight, but snow in Chicago pushed that to Saturday afternoon. Son#1 arrives from the West Coast Saturday mid-day. ODH and I have been browning, stewing, and seasoning the Coq au Vin and Beef Burgundy for 2 days. House is clean. The “known unknown” will be the storm on Sunday — 12-20″ predicted starting on Saturday night and continuing ’til Monday. At least all our guests live within 18 miles and are hardy Yankees.

Quacka, my friends call them ‘Bingo Wings’ [as in: the parts that wobble when you throw up your arms and yell “Bingo!!”]. Quacka Flappers has a nice ring to it.

Cali, Kanga: My Sister in Law should be on your Olympic Team [Cali, another American]. She once saw a dead branch on a tree, reached for a rake to pull it down, and guided it right onto her head. Her explanation for this action was to pull down the branch before it could fall off on its own while she was walking underneath it and hit her in the head.

LJ, tnx for the Molly Katzen recipe. We have her ‘Moosewood Cookbook’ as well as ‘Sundays At Moosewood.’ Very useful.

I saw on BBC news this morning about the awful heatwave there in Australia. Hope you all have a good way to get cool. Does it cool down at night? Heat is especially dangerous when it is high during the day and then stays above 70 F / 21 C at night.

re why we lose weight on a Fast Day: Our Son the Biologist says that a Fast Day is like emptying your pockets [= digestive track], so of course you will seem lighter the next day. And of course if you fill up your pockets too much on Slow Days, your weight goes up. It is the combo of ’emptying your pockets’ and then not over-stuffing them that will result in loss of fat.

Snowing now, but just a flurry. Had a new recipe yesterday for a Fast dinner: Cabbage-Sausage Soup by Jacques Pepin. Very good, very easy, economical. Even ODH liked it, tho’ he is predisposed to think he won’t like cabbage. My weight today is somewhere between 7 pounds lower than the average or 0.4 pounds less than yesterday. Weighed 4 times, no agreement. Oh well.
Have a good weekend.

Just popping back (on to coffee now 😉 ) because I didn’t thank you Penguin for your comment about having a bit of milk on your 2 day fasts (at least I think I didn’t! zonked brain), makes sense.

And also to note that Giles Yeo is doing 5:2 for 4 weeks for a ‘Trust me I’m a Doctor’ segment where they want to check other results from 5:2 besides weight loss. https://twitter.com/GilesYeo/status/1085584870368296960
It is all meal replacement packets and someone comments on it. Yeo says “I’m entering a study, thus the food has to be standardised to allow for the data to be interpretable. But I hear you! ”

I do wish they could do a qualitative study, they could do a super one here surveying us about our experiences. I think it would be so interesting.

Good morning from Perth. It’s 7.30am, currently 21C, on its way to 39C I’ve been back from walking for some time, had a coffee while reading the latest posts.

Lindsay, I loved your last post and, like Cinque, was sorry to have missed the other half. Interesting that your Kensington Palace treat was called ‘afternoon tea’. In Perth, they now offer this at various venues at extortionate prices but I’m mildly irritated that they refer to it as ‘high tea’. Growing up in England, high tea was an early dinner around 5pm, often given to children and comprising food such as baked beans, poached eggs, toast or maybe fish fingers, mashed potatoes & peas.

Parents would have ‘dinner’ without the children later and my stepmother saw to it that she and my father would enjoy more expensive items such as steak and a range of vegetables. I resented this a lot, especially since my stepmother is only a few years older than I and I thought, as a teenager, I should be eating with the adults. She had an annoying habit of asking me every day whether I’d like to eat with my younger brothers. But there was never the option to eat with her and my dad so I learned to say yes to baked beans. The result is that my OH, DD and I have always eaten together as a family, even when my DD was very young. And cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off will never be high tea to me! Quite a ramble, but it’s relevant actually as this is just one of many ‘issues’ I’ve had with food over the years. Back to you though Lindsay, I hope you have a safe and uneventful trip home.

Penguin, I agree about the milk, especially as part of a 3 day water (or liquid) fast. We all do whatever makes it work for us. In my case, I can’t afford the calories for milk since I only have 350-400 to spend on a FD so the A&C milk is a compromise to make a FD seem ‘normal’. My difficulty lies more in whether that 20 calories is messing with what would otherwise be a 19 hour non-eating window. Perhaps it’s not worth worrying about. I love reading about the robins, digging up leeks from the garden and seeing wildlife on a walk in the woods.

Minka, Friday fasting complete, yeah!

Rosy, the big night has arrived. Have a fabulous time. Lots of dancing. I hadn’t realised that you were the hosts. It kills me to find an error in my post after the 5 minute editing period has ended. I’ve enjoyed significant OA knee pain relief since losing all that weight. In fact, it’s not even a factor any longer. I still have the classic ugly OA knees but they don’t cause me pain.

Kanga, there’s another thing about fasting. I don’t know how much weight you have to lose but, for most people, getting the weight off is beneficial to their health and longevity. In my case, not only have I eliminated joint pain, my BP is normal (I used to be on medication), I am no longer at risk for diabetes (family history) and my risk of CVA is less than 2% (that being attributable to my age which I can’t do anything about). I have a general sense of well-being, have not felt better in 30 years and then there are the psychological benefits that being a slim person brings such as increased confidence. It seems a bit odd that the person couldn’t reveal that underlying medical issue since it’s just an anonymous ‘case’ with no personal identifying information.

FM, how lovely that your sons will be flying home again so soon to help you celebrate – although it sounds like you’re doing all the work! It’s probably not work to you, I know you’re a bit of a foodie. Have a wonderful time.

Anzac, better luck with the scales today? I had home made sushi for the first time in ages last night. It’s been a dad & daughter bonding tradition since DD was very little. That was definitely more rice than I ever want to eat again. Mung beans for me tonight,

Time for the next coffee. So far, we still have the doors and windows open with a nice breeze (wondering where the neighbours are). We plan to see BR at the movies this afternoon. The air-con will running high the rest of the weekend.

LJ, our posts crossed again. Cinque, I agree, there’s a wealth of 5:2 experience available for the taking on these pages.

Have a great day all. See you tomorrow, Cinque and LJ.

Hi Thin (I’ll be here all day!)

Hope it is not too hot yet.

My sister posted this on facebook the other day https://imgur.com/a/DF3kVAV
and we are having fun commenting on it (like, where’s smoko?)
So it was interesting when Lindsay talked London tea, I think it was the same day, and when you took up the topic I decided I had to share.

How awful for the kids to be fed inferior food. I wonder if that was the start of crap kids meals in restaurants etc?

Seeing your post about sushi in among conversations about grated veg and legumes has made me wonder about making them without rice. It turns out I am not the first person to think of it! Google is full of examples. I’m off for a little adventure among the pages…

Cinque, thanks for sharing – I’m vindicated! They’re not serving high tea at these overpriced Perth venues!

I think it was Quacka or Anzac who mentioned making sushi with cauliflower rice recently. It would be fine for me but the OFMs wouldn’t go for that.

LJ, thanks for the heads up on the A&C milk. I’ve been waiting for a sale to stock up as I’m out (except for what’s in the freezer). I think it is Sanitarium that I use, I’ll know when I see the packet.

Yep, that’s the one LJ, cheers! Coles’ pricing starts on Wednesdays here, not sure about WW. Now if I can find a cauliflower for under $4.90 p/h, I’ll be laughing.