Poor Bay.
Forgive her folks. She is all things to all fasters!
Take her advice, though. She seems to know what she is saying, even on the wrong thread 😉
Happy fasting SH folk. P
This topic contains 28,297 replies, has 835 voices, and was last updated by Cinque 2 hours, 30 minutes ago.
Yes, I’m a bit of a loner and I’ve sometimes hidden in bed pretending to be asleep when a houseful has got a bit much. They seem to still get on with things whether I have appeared or not.
The cold morning really taxed my resolve when the alarm sounded it’s cheery call at 6am. Briefly I indulged in the ongoing Monday morning internal debate about why I was still working when others my age and younger have long-ago retired. Fortunately I know why so not too much trouble to get into the shower. Things always look rosier afterwards – wish I could bottle whatever comes out of the shower head, probably make a fortune.
Enjoy the day, whenever you can face it 🙂
Thanks for the welcome note NickyF and others. Our first fast day has come and gone without incident. I’m currently enjoying my frothy cappuccino and, strangely, not feeling particularly hungry. OH went straight for the pantry however.
I can highly recommend the aforementioned ‘Hairy Bikers’ Healthy Cottage Pie’ 270 cals. (from the Goodtoknow.co.uk website). It took up an hour or so to make it, not the 20 minutes stated, but that was a good thing as it took my mind off being hungry. As suspected, the portion size was a wake-up call but it made me realise that this is something we need to adjust on the feast days as well. I was pretty hungry by bed time but it wasn’t unmanageable. Planning the month’s meals will be our success as NickyF affirmed. You know exactly what you’re getting for the day so there’s no temptation to just grab this or that. I’m now thinking I should plan the feast days’ meals too.
I was very happy with the scales this morning despite drinking lots of water and tea yesterday. I am one of those people obsessed with my weight and I do weigh myself daily – but I record it only weekly (with my walking buddy) so this time next week will be a more accurate indicator.
I am equally interested in some of the other medical benefits – in particular slowing the degeneration of brain cells in the long-term – do any of you who’ve been doing this a long time notice any increased performance in brain function – hard to measure, so I guess this would be anecdotal? I find in my late fifties, I occasionally ‘lose words’ and I’m eager to slow this process down.
As you’re a chatty and responsive group, could anyone please help me with a query I posted on the medical thread entitled ‘Fish Oil and Fasting’? Much appreciated.
Hehe Purple! I’ll return the compliment.
Newbies, Purple doesn’t just seem to know what she’s talking about, she really does know what she’s talking about and her advice needs bottling. 🙂
In a nutshell, the condensed wisdom of 5:2
Read the Mosley book
Drink 2 litres of water per day
Learn portion size
Never graze or nibble on food
Eat lean protein and lots of green vegetables
Minimise starches and carbs if you’re also trying to lose weight.
Keep busy and active and out of the kitchen.
Learn to enjoy your fast days and feel your body healing itself. 🙂
Remember that 5:2 is a healthy WOL, first and foremost. Enjoy. We are in it for the long haul.
Enjoy your fast day. Bay 🙂
hello to other Aussies. I’ve just signed up to the website and am into my 2nd week of the fastdiet and so far so good. Although I did overdo the winter food on the weekend visiting my mum in Tumut. I live in Canberra and work fulltime in the PS. Am very interested im improving my health and fitness as I step gently into my 60s but also love good food and wine.
Regarding the drinking of 2 litres of water, it can’t hurt to keep hydrated, but this is from MM:
https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/food-thought-fast-day-losing-weight-drinking-water/
Hi all and welcome to the newcomers …. I’m still fairly new myself and don’t get time to jump on here much, but the thread is funny, informative, supportive and a good read when waiting to board a plane – as I am now. Well, I’ve been in Melbourne for a four day weekend with my hubby and dear friends of ours. 4 days, Melbourne, and my favourite restaurants …. Yep off the bandwagon big time! Literally, because I had also not had an alcoholic beverage for 3 months, not that I drink much anyway. So there was good and wine and cider consumed and thoroughly enjoyed. Every last little morsel. Today should be a fast day but I’m no saint and have a way to go with will pose. So this week it will be Tursday and Thursday, and may I say as much as I have enjoyed my favourite restaurants, wonderful Melbourne coffee, the pork belly at Red Spice Road … I am very much looking forward to fasting tomorrow! Before the weekend I only had a kilo to go to reach goal, it will be interesting to see what affect the weekend of eating and drinking has had. Mind you, I was walking more than 10,000 steps each day – Friday was 19,000, Saturday was 16,000, yesterday over 10,000 …. Today my fit bit went flat but I’ve walked a lot, maybe it won’t be as bad as I’m thinking.
I also went shopping on Saturday (in Melbourne? Who’d have thought!) and bought two pairs of jeans in one size down! Very happy with that.
IHAW, congratulations on your weight loss and to your son on his PhD. I have a father who no matter what I do there’s always something wrong with it. I’m an only child. He’s Croation. I choose to have very little to do with him because it’s just not worth the aggravation and my kids , 20 and almost 16, don’t know or wish to know him. I completely empathise with what you were feeling. I don’t know you and I’m younger, yet somehow felt proud of you when I read how you handled them and the situation. You go girl!
Happy Monday everyone.
Hi everyone, hope the days running well for you. I don’t know why but on FDs I seem to need to visit my pages A Foodie at Heart and Forget the Diet on Pinterest. If its to tease or just drool I am not sure but all the rich food photos seems to turn me off that kind of epicurean delight.
Thats not me at all so it must be that the 5:2 is having an effect subconsciously.
Also I think, that like Pattienc who also travels solo, that as most recipes are for 4 or more and
whilst one can freeze the extra it can become all too hard and one gets lazy and sticks to the tried and true. But I must say I have gathered quite number of tips etc in reading these forums.
Mimi in her books does give some recipes for 2. It will be interesting to see if her new book has any more.
Cheers,
Tim.
It’s a lovely quiet fast day and it’s great to see everyone doing well.
Thanks Jojo, I have moments of love, confusion and bewilderment around my folks. My kids feel the same, and yet we all managed to have a truly excellent time together, without the tears and shouting; mostly because I kept quietly breathing, keeping calmly focused and not buying into their crap.
I’d also rehearsed a little at saying some clear and calm statements which told it like it was for me, and then leaving a space for a powerful resonance….that’s when I rekon you could have heard a pin drop.
I was happy that I didn’t get the usual blanket statement of…. ‘I feel like a failure ’cause I never had a son’….or the other old favourites…..’you looked like a Chinese or Italian baby and I nearly didn’t take you, why weren’t you blond like me?’……or ‘its such a pity, that there’s no one to keep the family name going’.
Staying at a lovely B&B gave us all some space to not get under each other’s skin as much as we normally would. And the duck l’orange didn’t stick to my hips, so fasting is going to be great this week!
Hope the cows and studying are going swimmingly well Charlie!
Freezing your cooked meals into smaller portions is a lovely way of getting yummy food with far less effort, great job Tim!
Well cheers dears, I’m off to do an extended version of the chicken dance!
Be gentle on your fast days until you get used to it helen and orange. I took a whole year before I could go all day until dinner.
Try an Omolette with tomato for breakfast. An apple for lunch or low cal felafels and a heap of lettuce for lunch. Home made veg soup or a little steamed fish and veg for dinner. We could eat that and still only have 400 cals. Veg are brilliant. Look up calorie counts on food and aim for maximum bulk for cals.
Gradually drop lunch or breakfast. This is a long term way of life. Take your time. Experiment with what suits you. Just control the total cals. If you can’t make it the first time you will next time.
Good luck. It really IS worth it. PVE 🙂
PVE great fun even though the Heavens opened. I had 39 ml O/N Sat much needed however
Sat lunch at B/Factory was undercover outside, also ditto band, but bucketing down.
Was told they had to cancel the street party due WX.
Does anyone think this is PVE or IHW ? 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok0ijgLG5uo.
Cheers
Tim.
Hi IHAW and all other SH folks,
Cows are fine and study is going well also, but have decided to take next term off and revamp garden so I can get back to growing all my lovely veggies. Spring has nearly sprung here and this year being fitter and lighter I feel very inspired, must be all the SH folk on this forum that help. 😉
Thinatlast, I have been studying on and off over the last five years, not the brightest, but I get by. Since starting this back in November last year I have noticed a change. Just three weeks into this WOL I had an exam on a tough subject that required lots of shaft answers on 13 weeks of topics. When I sat down to do the exam after reading the questions I was dreading it even more, but as I worked my way through then I was amazed at my recall. I walked out happy and passed easy. Since then I have found study much better and have even gone from just passing to credits and this one is looking like 80% or a distinction. 🙂
So far today fast has gone well just off the make my salad for dinner.
Have a great week everyone.
Cheers, Charlie.
Charlie G, I am very encouraged by your acuity improvement report! I read in another thread about a 55 y/o gent who’d noticed a marked improvement in his ‘chess scores’ as he called it playing a certain type of chess whose name I can’t recall (I’ve not been long enough on the plan obviously). Those are both measurable results. I am very interested in this so thanks for sharing. And well done with your exams (especially as I read in your profile that you’re also in your 50s; it’s no mean feat as we advance in years).
This is my first post-fast day after a good fasting day yesterday. I have failed. Just finished dinner and I feel a bit disgusted with myself for how much I served and how much we all ate. Serious adjustment required. I suppose the fact that I feel a bit s*ck is a good sign!
My first day on the fast and somehow I think I have managed to fail the fast part of the fast! Last night I counted the calorie content of vegies and made up a pot of soup. Two thick litres of soup and it only came in at 226 cal. So I’ve been drinking it (eating it) all day and I haven’t really felt hungry. Even though I have been full I’ve been well below the 500 cal daily limit. However throughout the day I’ve still been wanting to graze, I think I do it out of habit, that was the hard part, resisting temptation. Is it okay if I don’t get hungry when I am full of healthy vegies? Or is it necessary to get hungry for the fast to work?
No aitchbee
You don’t have to eat 500 cals. That is a maximum! I have about 350. You don’t have to feel hungry. But try not to graze all day. Give your body a chance to get used to hours of not eating. Restrict yourself to 3 eating sessions maximum. It is the long breaks between food that allows healing.Embracing your hunger, not fearing it, is very empowering.
Thinatlast give yourself credt for what you achieved yesterday. Changes take time to establish. At least you are mindful of overeating now. That’s great progress. P 🙂
Husband and I are having our first day tomorrow, he to lose weight and me because of many years of digestive issues I am thinking this might be a great way to give my body a break. A few kilos off would also be nice. We’re in our mid 30s and generally eat well but probably too much. Hoping we both get through tomorrow ok. Interested to hear if anyone has had positive benefits to their skin and digestive health as a result of 5:2?
Thank you purple, charlie and bayleaf for responding positively to my attention begging 🙂 With your chatty responses, i now feel welcome.
I’ve recently bought the Mediterranean Cookbook from Myer. It was on a special at $27 and a bargain. I’ve been cooking up a storm with it for the last 2 weeks. I”ve made turkish spinach and feta pie, both a greek and an italian chickpea soup (one with pasta), fish balls with bulgur wheat, spinach gnocchi, italian cheesy rice balls, fennel salad, skordalia, lasagne with imported dried mushrooms (not one of my favourite recipes) and a turkish breakfast of egg with yoghurt for breakfast and more. The photos are beautiful and layout great. Mediterranean cuisine is my favourite.
The funny thing is since i started on my low carb experiment a couple of months ago (which lasted six weeks and now its over) i just haven’t been able to stop myself buying food – all good healthy stuff. I always buy at least 10 more things than are on my list when i go into the supermarket. I feel like its turning into a pathology. And my neighbour grows hydroponic greens so i can go to him and for $5 get about 4 shopping bags full. I could hardly eat more healthy if i tried nowadays.
Anyway i rather like the sound of your crumble recipe. i hadn’t thought of that and i do love apple crumble and with yoghurt. So please share any more ideas you have on that score.
Did i mention the pigeon tart i made – thats what i feel i might as well call it because every time I try to type tarte aux pignon, i have a great battle with the computer which autocorrects to “taste aux pigeon” but its pine nut tart. The recipe comes from the mediterranean book too and was delicious even with out sugar and all my other variations. But i made the portion bite sized instead of slice sized and gave most of it away. It is afterall really high in calories.
Thanks for all the tips about the fast diet.
Re fish, bay leaf, I discovered that a suitable replacement for ham (which i try to avoid) is salmon, especially smoked salmon. And I’ve found some great products in woolworths seafood fridges of late: notably ocean chef wild caught barramundi $28 a kilo, and another one of atlantic salmon. But tomorrow or very soon i want to cook Zarzeula, a spanish seafood stew. My freezer is already full of the stuff to go in it. I can’t wait.
From now on, i’ll try to moderate the length of my posts a bit more.
Thanks ihaveawaist I really hope so! I am seriously considering tucking into my lunch now (two bags of steamed veggies and a plain can of tuna) but am using this blog to try and get inspiration to hold out until 1 pm otherwise there is no chance I’ll hold pit until dinner ( more veggies with steamed chicken ). Lucky I love vegetables. Was hoping this would be easy at work due to busy but seem to have picked a really slow day. Maybe another cup of tea….
Hello everyone. Newbie from Melbourne here and going to do Mon Thurs fasting. It looks like a popular choice so see how I go. Fasted yesterday and did ok but quite a bit of rumbling and now I’m a bit confused about what to eat. Is calorie counting a pain. I suppose it gets easier.
Love reading all your posts and good luck to everyone
Jaksee
Although I failed the fast part of diet yesterday, I still fell below 500 cals for the day. And today I feel great, yesterday I had nothing but filling, delicious vegetable soup, 3 cups of tea and a couple of thin rice cakes. I slept well, even with the kids disturbing me, and today I feel energised and my stomach isn’t bloated. If this is how I feel after one day then I’m definitely going to continue with it.
Thanks for your advice PVE, I’m going to meal plan for Thursday, certainly beyond the soup option that I did yesterday. I think because I am a stay at home mum I am so used to being able to just eat whenever I am peckish. When I was working I hardly ever snacked and I maintained a normal weight, now three kids later and working from home I’m not the svelte young thing I was. Realistically I am only about 8-10 kg heavier than I used to be, but I have favourite clothes just waiting for me to return!
Hello from Geelong. I started this fasting diet last week after seeing the programme on SBS. A day later I had cholesterol results that were high, so I have decided to try the fasting to reduce it. I already have a very low fat diet which hasn’t brought it down. I was also really interested to learn that fasting helps the brain develop new pathways. This can only be beneficial. I have lost almost a kilo after only three fasting days over the last week and a half. It’s great!
Hello everyone,
My husband and I completed our second fast day yesterday. Im surprised at how easy it is to get through the day with a couple of bowls of low cal soup and a heap of veggies to dry fry or steam. I almost had a moment of weakness while cooking eggs and bacon for my daughter who had just completed the 40 hour famine. I have decided that if I can survive the smell of bacon frying, then I can ignore the smell of anything on a fast day from now on.
I’ve just had my mother and grandmother over for morning tea – scones with jam and cream, which almost seems to defeat the purpose of yesterday’s fast day. However I reason that two weeks ago, Id probably be eating the scones today, along with everything else in sight both yesterday and today.
Im encouraged by everyone’s weight loss and health improvements and Im enjoying reading and learning from those of you with a bit of experience. With any luck my 5:2 book will arrive later this week. 🙂
Good luck to anyone who is fasting today.
Ella
Great work on starting your fast, I found that my high levels of cholesterol were lowered to normal, after I was on 5:2 for 12 months. There was also a great lowering of my blood glucose and blood pressure, so I’m happy not to need medication and have good control over these issues with diet alone.
It something worth celebrating, I’m in the mood for a little flamingo!
Hi SH mates!
Hi HennyM and Jaksee and welcome to the thread. We’re a friendly mob and some of the longer-term contributors have a wealth of wisdom which they’re happy to share.
Second of my 2 B2B fasts today and so far so good. I work M-W and usually keep some miso soup sachets in my desk drawer but haven’t needed them for a few weeks. Looking forward to mushroom and spring onion omelette with salad for dinner, with only black tea and water since 6.30 this morning, when I had water-only unsweetened porridge made with 25g oats and an orange.
Cheers all, Nicky
Hiya,
I’m in Canberra and this is only my 2nd week. I have a friend who is also doing it and has lost about 6kg in 3 months.
I found the first fast day really easy. The second was a struggle after I had something to eat.
Looking forward to the support and outcomes.
I have health as my main motivation. High cholesterol, high BP, strong family history of heart disease.
Fingers crossed Michael Moseley is right.
Hello fellow Canberrans! The blistering cold does not make fasting easier.
I have found that PVE is absolutely right – eating makes you hungry. If you can possibly bear it, you might find it easier (in the long run) to save your calories for the night time meal.
My current favourites:
Tortilla pizza with prawns, vegies and herbs
Chilli & Coriander baked chicken
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17 Aug 14