Hi all, I hope everyone is enjoying the extra 2 minutes of sunlight we’re getting per day now that we’re past the solstice, I’ll have to get in and plant our garlic.
This topic contains 28,652 replies, has 835 voices, and was last updated by thinatlast 20 hours, 27 minutes ago.
Good morning everyone
I couldn’t help myself, mostly out of curiosity, so I had to weigh myself this morning. 66.5 kg so not really any weight gain which I’m happy with. I didn’t really over indulge on the holiday it’s just that I didn’t do any FDs and I also ate a bit more than I normally would although it was mostly healthy food.
So I’m happy. Looking forward to FD tomorrow.
Neil, so glad that we are heading back towards summer.
Yes, LJ there are definitely more holidays being planned. Can’t wait.
Have a great day everyone x
Good afternoon all. I hope you are all enjoying some lovely weather. It’s a nice sunny winter’s day here. Perfect walking weather – I went for one this morning and will do another with my best friend this afternoon
As you might be able to tell, I have a bit more energy today as I had plenty of sleep last night. It’s all a bit erratic at the moment. Partly due to the back pain and also the way I react to some pain killers can have me waking at 3-4am with nausea.
Cali, I wish. I promise I’ll get there one day, but I need to do some serious saving first. A couple of nights ago I relaxed in a hot bath with a bunch of travel brochures for holidays in Canada and the US and started to plan. Although at the moment I have more ideas than I will be able to afford – in time or money. I rather like the idea of combining a SW Canada & Alaska trip with a tour of the main US national parks. I was also tempted by the idea of a winter trip to see the northern lights in Alaska, although I worry about the cost of sourcing the right clothing for that type of adventure.
Congrats on the FD weight loss. Enjoy tonight’s dinner.
Quacka, that’s excellent news. You must have been more active than you are at home. I think not being at work, (which tends to involve so much sitting for many of us) really helps.
Thin, good to hear from you. Hopefully your weight will stabilise so you can stop worrying about it. Sounds like you have enough on your plate at present without added concerns. You have a better attitude to 4am starts than I do – I get most disgruntled.
Penguin, I hope nobody ends up with a hernia after all that gravestone shuffling. It sounds like you wife’s foot is already on the mend. Hopefully it will heal neatly.
Merry, it will be nice to combine a holiday with meeting new extended family. Will many of your family and friends able to get to the US for the wedding or are you likely to be it? Also, excellent to hear that your husband is doing well – we are all hoping that continues.
I discovered a couple of weeks ago that if I have stewed or poached fruit on hand I could meet any dessert cravings with something reasonably healthy (because I add little or no sugar to the fruit). If I have it with a scoop of creamy full fat greek yoghurt it feels even more like dessert. I’m continuing the theme this week with granny smith apples cooked briefly with a few sultanas, cloves and cinnamon. This combination is especially nice eaten warm as it accentuate the cinnamon aroma.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
All in all a reasonable NFD which included both an morning and afternoon walk. Also a planned afternoon treat which was lovely.
NFD Fess Up:
Breakfast: pot of tea
Mid morning: banana & 2 tsp nut butter.
Lunch: cup of pumpkin-lemon soup. Sourdough toast with salami and tomato. Three slices dried apple.
Mid-afternoon: cup of tea, slice of toasted banana-walnut bread.
Dinner: small grilled t-bone with roasted parsnip, potato, carrot, pumpkin and kale sprouts. Dessert was an apple and 2 squares of dark chocolate.
Supper: hot milk drink.
FD for me tomorrow. I’ve taken a tub of cauliflower cheese soup out of the freezer for dinner tomorrow.
Hope everyone has had a lovely day.
Hi all
Penguin. Mrs P is one tough cookie, walking 3 miles with a broken bone in her foot. She has my admiration. Yes, weddings can bring out the worst in some people, there might be an advantage to having an ocean separating the families.
Merry. Glad that Mr M is doing well and you have 5-2 tools to help matters along. I had family in Tennessee for a while and health issues were only part of the problems of living there. Other States are probably better.
LJ. Wishful thinking perhaps, Summer would be nice where you are. Your furry neighbour is lucky to have you for company.
Anzac. I saw a relative of Maxx,s on a beach today. He wanted to play with every dog there and his owners just had to let him bound around very exuberantly until we left the area.
In Bargara today, 20k from Bundaberg on the coast. Looks like a nice little village and a great beach. Bobby loves a good beach run but not keen on the waves, not a water dog at all. Listening to live 60’s music and going to watch the rugby later. Not a rugby fan but it is State of Origin and we are in Queensland. Good way to meet other campers. Fresh prawns for dinner, yum.
LJ, that’s exciting, sitting in the bath dreaming of Alaska. Let the water go cold to get a better idea. Seriously, my OH spent 8 summers in Alaska living in tent camps and says he was never cold with all the right gear.
I had a FD yesterday. You and Cinque are quite correct – no time to really contemplate food. I will continue fasting on Sundays only because I want to stay in the habit and it would be all too easy to let things slide.
Quacka, congratulations on overcoming your fear of flying and not gaining weight on holiday.
Up at 4am again this morning so a few moments to spend here but I must be careful not to waste the time as there’s still much to be done. I dare not scroll back to the previous page but hoping everyone’s fit and well.
Hi all, I slipped a bit on the milk fast on Sunday, I had a handful of macadamia nuts and some cheese, but I successfully avoided the carb binge that has plagued me for the last few weekends. Next weekend I might even try doing that egg fast that we were talking about a while ago. I’ve got today and tomorrow to go and then it’s weigh day and I’ll find out if I’ve managed to lose that half kilo that will get me to goal number 3.
Have a great day everyone.
Good morning from a very wet and cold and windy Sydney
I forgot it was hubby’s birthday today. I remembered half way to work and phoned him and apologised profusely. I blame my job as it is consuming me right now
Huge day yesterday; we went to dog training then raced home to cook the Portuguese chicken wings that had been marinating overnight as we were providing the entrée (starter) for a big family get together in the Blue Mountains and the theme was Spanish. Packed up the car, the dog, picked up my Dad and off we went. It was a lovely day with lots of amazing food and yes of course I overate a bit but not too much. Our wings were a huge hit! But we had some superb news….my youngest niece is expecting her first child! Her sister had her first just under a year ago (how could she possibly be nearly 1 already?) so the cousins will grow up close in age.
The scales were kind this morning but I know that is because I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch so I expect a jump tomorrow. Oh well, a good week is on it’s way
Sorry to hear about Mrs P’s foot Penguin. What a trooper though
Neil, I had to read your latest post a few times before I realised that you didn’t actually slip on some milk and hurt yourself!
Thin, so lovely to hear from you but sorry that you are waking so early. And please watch out that you don’t end up underweight. I hope you are ok
Klondie, Labradors are just so naturally playful and full of the love of all things life. I know they can be too over the top if they aren’t trained well but at the same time some are trained too much and are too subdued (in my opinion). Maxx jumped all over everyone yesterday but I had pre-warned them and they all turned their backs to try and help us train him out of that. It didn’t work but we will persist. Your trip continues to sound amazing
LJ, so very glad you had a better nights sleep and your weekend sounded lovely. I hope you can get to go on your trip soon – it sounds awesome. I would love to go to Canada but hubby isn’t so keen. Maybe when we are retired.
Hi Merry, how exciting to have a wedding coming up in the US. I love weddings and especially when the bride and groom are family or close friends. It is such a special day. Good luck with the prep. Also glad to hear Mr M is doing well.
Quacka well done on not putting on weight on your gorgeous holiday. I don’t know how you do it but I admire your will power.
Cali, congrats on a great FD and sorry to hear you had air-con issues again. Glad it is all sorted
CD today and FD tomorrow. Hubby is cooking a roast for dinner for Dad tonight but he knows to give me teeny portions of everything. I should take a picture of my plate versus his – he has at least 4 times the amount!
have a great day all,
Good morning,
Yes, it is lovely morning-after-fast-day for me.
My heater stopped working yesterday so I have the portable heater on, which isn’t very efficient so I also have my thickest coat on. One good thing about not owning my own home is that I just need to report it and wait for it to be fixed.
Merry so good to see your email, what exciting family things are going on. So glad Mr Merry is through the treatment and all good wishes that it is clear sailing from now on. And hooray that Fast800 is being such a good plan for you both.
So interesting reading your pounds and stones conversions. I think, when I was young, I only heard of women’s weights in the 7 stone and 8 stone mark.
Klondi, congrats on your clever little ipad, how amazing to set it up like that. Ooh I envy you that 25 degrees, although they do promise some sun here today, after the fog lifts.
Cali, so glad you got your thermostat working, that must have been a hard few days for you, and the animals. Are you back at work now? I do hope, if so, it is going well and not effecting your blood pressure.
Anzac, you had to work on Saturday? Cruel. But well done avoiding the hooray-I’m-finally-home munchies. Good wishes for this week.
LJoyce, I do so hope you had a long, refreshing sleep last night.
Penguin, best wishes to Mrs Penguin. Fancy kefir leading you to blue cheese, that’s something I have always been a bit scared of, but I know what pleasure it can bring to people who get the taste.
I hope everyone has recovered from the graveyard workout, it must look so good after the working party.
Ooh and lovely slim Thin, you were another early waker yesterday, hope you are refreshed this morning too and have energy and action for your project.
Neil, yes! Every extra two minutes of daylight is greatly appreciated!
Quacka, so glad the scales approved of your holiday too!
Happy Fast day!
What lovely lightly stewed fruit, LJoyce. Cinnamon, yum. And such a treat to be planning a trip to beautiful places.
Just checked and found more posts.
Anzac, you are too busy! Very happy birthday to Mr Anzac. Enjoy that lovely roast tonight.
Neil, a good weekend!
Thin, another 4am start. Sending good wishes. Take it slowly and carefully if you are tired. Best wishes for the day.
Best wishes to everyone else too.
And Yay! Ash Barty. 🙂
Morning all, it was my wedding anniversary yesterday 46 years crikey, it was a fast day i had one chicken drum and some leeks with a pale cheese sauce lol,
I remember making custard squares in home ec and got top marks for them, its great to see most of you are fighting fit again, and anzac have no idea how to send you photos i did look but couldn’t figure it,
Neil did you see we had a tornado up here in the far north lucky it was fairly isolated but enough damage done, not as cold here as Nelson
I put on half a centimeter on my waist the past week, i only measure every fortnight my tshirt is too big so tried two sizes down and still roomy but it will do its winter so everything is hidden lol
Thanks for your thoughts ive been here just busy as we all are enjoy your travels those that are off gallivanting dont work to hard the rest of you im going to rug up in front of the fire.
Nice to see the new names and wish you all well stay safe everyone and keep writing you bring smiles to my face
hello all – did not jump on the computer at all this weekend so catching up on posts, and getting to know you all better. I’m most envious of your Qld holidays. Canberra has been quite cold and frosty of late that I am dreaming of a quick getaway to warmer climes. Well done for coping with your flight fear, Quacka; the world now awaits you!
So glad the Winter equinox has been and gone. Longer days now but I know it will still get colder for a little while to come.
Hi Crazy – I didn’t see the tornado, I’ve been quite busy and haven’t seen the news recently. It’s been pretty cold here in Dunedin though for the last few days, single digit temperatures and set for a high of 8 degrees today.
LOL Anzac, no I didn’t slip on some milk, but I did come close to losing an eye. I was playing Frisbee golf and my Frisbee went into a ditch behind one of the baskets. I jumped in to get it and didn’t see a little branch sticking out. It got me right in the corner of my eye, in between my eyeball and my nose. Another centimeter to the right and it would have taken out my right eye. I got a nasty little cut on the corner of my eye though. I’m going to be more careful next time I jump into a ditch.
Neil! Crikey, that was close. So glad you didn’t lose an eye
Hello Penz, stay warm down there in Canberra. I saw the weather report this morning and thought ‘gosh it is cold in Canberra right now’. I’ll stop complaining about the cold up here
Hey Crazy, happy anniversary!
Cinque, I hope your heater gets fixed ASAP as it is not nice to be cold in your own home and have to wear a coat indoors. Is your landlord quick at these things? I hope so. And yes, I am too busy and I don’t like it. I love my weekends where we do nothing but potter around the house but it is a busy time birthday wise. Lunch next Saturday for a friends birthday then back up to the mountains the following Saturday for a lunch for my little great-niece’s first birthday. Then slam home from that to a dinner party with two close friends at our place. A week off then a big birthday lunch for hubby and another friend with the bigger group of friends. Phew! Will have to have very very controlled days and good fast days during the week.
Good Morning everyone
Back to work this morning. Ugh. I have to look on the positive side and remember what this working thing does for me – allows me to go on holidays!! lol
I’m on a FD today and feeling quite good about it. I had a really bad night’s sleep last night and am feeling tired today but I am not going to let that stop me from fasting. We had a lot of rain overnight and it felt like every time I did go back to sleep the rain woke me up again. So it was a vicious cycle of being awake, napping and being woken up again. Oh well, the rain was lovely and everything is looking alive this morning. I am not liking this cold weather though! Take me back to Cairns…..
Happy birthday for hub, Anzac and also Happy Anniversary, Crazy.
Hope you all have a lovely day. Keep warm (or cool, Cali) x
Monday 11am. Quick post as I have to leave work soon, head home to collect my suitcase and catch a cab to the airport for my flight to Adelaide. FD for me and will be an easy one as I won’t eat until early this evening. So far 2 x coffees and 3 x glasses of lemon, ginger, mint water. After i check into my accommodation I usually head straight to the Central Markets to do my food shopping for my stay but as I’m flying down on a Monday instead of my usual Tuesday the markets are closed….sob sob. So I will have to shop at Coles instead….sob sob sob. At least the health food shop in the Market arcade will be open so I can still stock up on my pantry items to take home. It’s quite windy here (and freezing cold) so not looking forward to the flight. Happy Monday everyone
What a busy Monday morning for posts.
Happy anniversary Crazy and happy birthday Mr Anzac.
Anzac, Crazy & Neil, it seems to be the morning for misinterpreting the New Zealander’s posts. I read Crazy’s post and was wondering what damage a tomato could do, when I realised it was a tornado! That’s what happens when you scan quickly instead of reading carefully.
GDSA, there are always a small number of stalls open on a Monday so you’ll still be able to get some fruit and veg. (Usually some of those closest to the central escalators open every day.)
Cinque, I hope you get that heater fixed very quickly. This is not the time of year to be without it. I had a winter without proper heating when I lived in the hills and I found the only way to cope with just a little portable heater was to heat only one room, keep the door closed and pretty much live in there – especially in the evenings.
Hello to everyone else who’s reading – Thin, Klondi, Penz, Penguin, Cali, Merry …
Good luck to those fasting with me today – Quacka, GDSA and anyone else on a FD. Are you joining us Cali?
It’s another sunny cold day here – nice walking weather and after a second night of decent sleep I feel energised to move a bit more.
So you can see how close a call it was
https://www.flickr.com/photos/43493775@N06/48117694461/in/dateposted-public/
Neil, you had a very lucky escape.
GDSA, The market isn’t locked up because the cafes want to trade on the non-market days. I think the market might really be closed on Sundays, but I often go there for lunch on the quieter days of Wednesday and sometimes Monday when it is meant to be closed. I’ve found about 10% of the stalls are open on Mondays and about 50% on Wednesdays. I always seem to manage to go home with a bag of produce.
Thanks Ljoyce. Just been to markets and most of the fruit and veg stalls open so all good there. Stalls not open that I usually go to were for goats cheese, prosciutto and sourdough so went to coles and bakers delight to get those.
Surprisingly the huge Coles in Adelaide CBD sells exactly the same products as my small coles at home. I was expecting a more varied range of produce. The next 2 days after work i have to head the other direction (Rundle mall) for the rest of my shopping list which is not food related except for haiges chocolates…
Hi everyone, just checking in. Had a run of NFDs last week – too cold, plus stress organising data entry for some analysis to be done on Thursday. Done now, plus 2 more interviews today. I need a break!!!!! But more things just seem to pile-up – and I’m retired no less. What is going on? Well, my response has been bad, but is improving from tomorrow.
Oh, and for some reason, I’m sleeping less than normal, which probably hasn’t helped the eating. Fortunately, the scales have so far been kind, and I’m only 1.6 kg over my most recent lowest weight, so a few fast days should fix that. I WILL NOT go above 75 kg again.
Too late now to comment on other posts – will try to catch up properly soon.
Good Morning all
FD was ok yesterday but started to feel sick in the tummy about lunch time and still sick this morning. Wondering if it was the konjac noodles I had for lunch…..
I have eaten some breakfast today hoping that will settle it down. Almost had the day off work which is very rare but I know I have too much work to do. The bosses are back next week and I want to get some things done before they come back. At least I did my FD and it came in at 410 calories.
Neil, lucky that branch missed your eye! It was very close.
Betsy, hope things do settle down for you quickly and you can get back into your FD routine.
Gday, was thinking of you yesterday when you said you weren’t looking forward to the flight. Glad it went ok and the food markets sound heavenly.
We found some markets in Cairns that had amazing fresh produce. Some of it was brought in but a lot of it was locally grown. We bought a red papaya, dragon fruit, passionfruit and also some veggies – tomatoes, cucumber, avocado etc. They also had a couple selling coconuts. He was using this big spike on a stand to break open the outer coconut husk (something I have never seen before and looked like hard work) and then she was using a machete to break open the coconut itself. Then she would scoop out the fresh coconut and place it back in a half shell, top it with some fresh fruit and then drizzle with honey. We tried one with dragonfruit and it was so delicious, the coconut was so soft and fresh. I thought the honey was overpowering and would have asked for it be left off next time but OH thought it was ok. A real treat.
There were also amazing Asian produce stalls selling some things I had never seen before.
There were lots of food stalls selling cooked food too but I managed to avoid those, even though I was really hungry and they had the most amazing smells coming from them.
Anyway best start this work. Have a great day everyone x
Good morning all
The sun is out but it will be fleeting according to the forecast. In fact I just looked out the window and there are very black, ominous clouds approaching
Stress kills my willpower too BetsyLee, and my job is highly stressful at the moment. We just have to keep reminding ourselves why we are doing this and how it will be SO worth it in the end
Sorry you aren’t feeling well Quacka, I hope brekkie settles your tummy down.
Lindsay – how are feeling now?
LJ, hope you had a lovely walk and a good FD yesterday
FD for me today….
Back later
Good morning everyone from cold, sunny Melbourne. It is a beautiful morning so long as I have enough layers on!
Haha Crazy, it pays to move slowly sometimes. Congratulations again on that 46 years, what a partnership. And celebrating with a fast day is just supercool.
That should get rid of that .5 cm nice and quickly. And going two sizes down in tshirts and still roomy, must feel fantastic.
Penz, Canberra will be freezing, I know. And also beautiful.
Neil, eep! So glad you lucked out with that one.
Anzac, thanks, I’m on high priority for getting my heater fixed, which means, since they didn’t come yesterday, they will come today. Reading through the error messages it seems it will need a new fan, so hopefully that can be done quickly.
LJoyce, yes, the one warm room is how I do it too, but Miso the cat is disgusted and I have to do a lot of brief door opening and shutting!
Quacka, an excellent philosophy. I have thought at times “Oh it is a #@*)! day, so at least fasting will get one positive out of it. And you did! So sorry you are feeling crook this morning though. I hope everything goes well at work. Do you feel relieved the bosses will be back?
Lovely to read about the beautiful tropical fruit delights at the Cairns market.
Gday I was at least a week out with your Adelaide trip. I’ll just bump up my good wishes. So glad to hear of your lovely shopping.
Lindsay, how glad I was to see your comment. I gather you are still exhausted and probably full of symptoms. I do hope everyone has been able to rally around and look after you. It is nice to know you are managing to read daily episodes of the 5:2 sitcom.
I do hope little Miss 3 is recovering too.
Betsy, so glad you got through that difficult week. You did it! I bet everything has piled up now and need to be attacked along with the 2 more interviews… WHAT!
It can be hard to prioritise 5:2 when it is a long term thing, but easier to prioritise a good fast day in the next few days. Lots of good wishes.
Good wishes to everyone
Hi all, fast day today, I’ve had some chicken, broccoli and cranberry salad for lunch then I’ll have a small bowl of lamb shank stew tonight. Today is my double exercise day, gym at lunch and then lane swimming this evening, then tomorrow is weigh-in day. I’m hoping that I’ll be in the 101s and hopefully I’ll get my goal of 30 kilograms total weight loss, just 800 grams needed to get there.
Good morning all,
Well done Neil. It’s always good to hear what others have on a FD – very motivating.
Update: 63.9kgs. Yay! A 3😀
That’s 3.9 kgs gone since I started doing Fast 800 in mid May. I’ve been wary of pushing my body into unknown territory as my experiment with back2back FDs was only viable for 2 weeks then the 3rd week I had an adverse response. I did 5 days on 2 days off for a while then had a couple of weeks off. Now back to it and will be able to stay on it till this weekend. After that I’ll use 5:2 or Fast 800 as a strategy depending on the circumstances. The July will mostly be spent away from home, some in the US so travelling strategies will come into play.
My go-to lower cal dinners are:
Protein:
pork fillet (from Aldi) 125- 130gms, 110 cals/100gms = 149cals
mushroom omelette or other veg filling – 123 calls, plus olive oil spray
miso fish soup with frozen hoki(from Aldi), + low cal veg, hoki no skin is 82 calls/100gms
salmon fillet, 125gm, 202cals/100gms = 252 calls
Back later,
Merry
Adelaide update. I was able to get back to the markets today in my lunch break to get a few items I forgot to purchase yesterday. After work I headed the other direction to another health shop to get more topioca flour and nutritional yeast. I also found the kitchenware shop Mini Max in one of the arcades….oh how I love kitchenware shops….I was in heaven. Ljoyce you will be pleased to hear I purchased a spiralizer on sale for half price. If you have any hints or tips on using one that would be great. I’ve been thinking about one for awhile but always questioned if I would use it enough to warrant the purchase price. I really had to restrain myself so just purchased the spiralizer, a small serrated edged knife and a small hand whisk.
Good evening SHs,
It’s been a lovely winter here here – cold but sunny. Nice enough for both a morning and afternoon walk. Good thing too as I had a bit of a bread binge at lunch time so I needed 2 walks!
GDSA, There’s a Mini Max near me which I love wandering through. They sell excellent baking trays and tins.
As to the spiralizer, cylindrical veg such as zucchini, carrots and parsnips are the easiest to use in the spiralizer. However anything that is solid and firm enough will work. I sometimes put waxy potatoes in, but they need to be cut to fit the gadget first. The same is true for sweet potatoes, celeriac, kohlrabi, pumpkin, turnips and swedes. To avoid waste I usually make veggie soup on the same day so that the offcuts all get used. I also find that once I’ve spiralized veg I can use some that day and put the rest in the fridge tightly covered with plastic wrap for up to 2 days. Although some veg goes brown when exposed to the air so you are better of blanching them first.
I don’t like the spiralized veg raw, although I know some people use them that way. I blanch them by putting them into a bowl and covering with boiling water (I suspect microwaving may also work but I haven’t experimented with this yet). Zucchini only needs 5 minutes but the other veg can be left for 10 minutes. Then I drain it well and I put what I want to use that day into a non stick pan and gently cook it to release some of the water content. At the end of this process, what started out like a huge pile of veggie spaghetti shrinks down alarmingly. I find if I don’t do the pan frying the veggie spirals make the pasta sauce too watery.
I occasionally include some real spaghetti with the spiralised veg (no more than 25% of the total “spaghetti” volume) – you don’t need much to get the mouth feel of eating real spaghetti even though you are mostly eating veggies.
Cinque, you may need to get Miso her own hot water bottle until the heating is fixed! Cats are such heat seeking creatures. I imagine she’s seriously unimpressed with current situation.
Merry, it sounds like you are doing extremely well at getting your weight down before your next travels.
Neil, that sounds like much more exciting FD fare than I usually serve up.
Betsy, so glad to hear you actually got all your data entry finished on time. I totally understand stress eating – studying always resulted in weight gain for me.
Quacka, I hope your tummy has settled down tonight.
Anzac, good FD I hope. Did you have a nice birthday dinner with hubby last night?
NFD Fess Up:
Breakfast: pot of tea and a small bowl of buckwheat cereal with bran.
Lunch: a cup of chicken noodle soup, toasted rye sourdough and 2 boiled eggs.
Unfortunately this was closely followed by more pieces of toasted sourdough spread with butter and vegemite. (Followed by a walk to get me away from temptation.)
Mid-afternoon: pot of tea, apple, a dozen almonds
Dinner: a filo parcel of chicken, mushrooms, leek and bacon. Accompanied by kale sprouts and asparagus. Dessert is vanilla flavoured greek yoghurt and a kiwifruit.
Supper: cup of chai with almond milk
Well I weighed in and I’m not in the 101s like I hoped 😞 I’m in the 100s!!! 😁
I lost a whole 2 kilos and weighed in at 100.4 kilos. I knocked goal 3 out of the park and am now only 500 grams away from the big one…. double digits. So I have lost a total of 31.1 kilos in 22 weeks.
I guess either the weekend binges were holding me back, or my exercise is finally paying off or I’m retaining a little less water today, but whatever it is, it has made me happy!
Have a great day everyone
Good morning all
LJ, I’m so glad you are having lovely weather and being able to do lots of walking. I love walking too. We had a lovely roast chicken dinner on hubby’s birthday on Monday night with my Dad but as he cooked it himself it wasn’t really a treat for him as such. So he decided to have steak and chips last night as his birthday treat and I came home stressed to the MAXX so I had steak and chips too. And wine – on a Tuesday! BAD. So a miserable fail of a FD all round. I can see the slippery slope opening up in front of me and I must do whatever it takes to avoid it. Back up to 85.5 again today.
Did your heating get fixed yesterday Cinque? I can imagine Miso’s horror at not having every room warm enough. I think our pets see as us monkey butlers with all the door opening and shutting we have to do. Maxx will often stand at the back door staring out through the glass door then back at us in the kitchen behind him with an anxious look, only to continue to stare out from inside once we open the door and not actually move. Sheesh!
How is your tummy today Quacka?
Neil, so happy for you! Double digits will be there before you can say ‘double digits’
G’day, I love kitchen shops too. We have one called ‘Victoria’s Basement’ in the Queen Victoria Building and it is a huge cave of a place packed to the rafters with all things kitchen. I could spend days (and a lot of money) in there
I managed to get 30 minutes with my boss yesterday (the only 30 minutes she had in between back to back meetings) to try to get some help and direction with a truckload of issues etc but she spent 27 of the 30 minutes complaining about everything other than my issues and we got nowhere. I think she is on the edge of a breakdown to be honest. I might follow her!
Merry, congrats on your progress too
Ok, I must go and put some PowerPoint slides together for a meeting that I’m not actually sure what I’m presenting on, but guess work does wonders sometimes. Sigh
Sorry for the downer of a post – I will go and find my mojo somehow. I know, when I’ve finished my meeting prep I will open our trip spreadsheet and read all about the wonderful places we are going and how much better it will be if I’m not overweight!
Thanks for listening friends
Have a great day all
Good morning, another cold and crisp morning. Heater still not fixed, I’ll ring them again as soon as it hits 9am. Miso has stayed in the living room, to my surprise. She is a heat seeker and I do turn the heater off overnight. Curled up on her sheepskin she must keep pretty snug.
Anzac, I’m worried about you. I want to grab your boss and let her have a big whinge, but then make her come up with the strategy needed to keep the team healthy. That must be part of her job.
Good luck today. I hope you can think of strategies to at least keep your fast days working, and try your best on non fast days.
Things will get better, even if they involve hiring a lawyer to get you out of that contract.
Neil, big congratulations! https://i.pinimg.com/originals/00/ed/7e/00ed7ea3401fe1605ecaffeca76dc7ec.gif
Merry, great to hear your progress. It must feel just wonderful. You are doing 2:5 at the moment? All power to you.
Gday, more lovely Adelaide shopping.I bet you will have fun with that spiraliser.
LJoyce, I am so glad you are enjoying your first winter in your new home. It is beautiful here too.
I caught most of “Ask the Doctor”. I might go back and watch the whole thing, but I was disappointed the 5:2ers seemed to be eating low cal on their NFD’s too. It won’t be a good representation.
Hi Penz! I hope it is clear and sunny in Canberra too.
Fast day for me. I have shiitake, black fungi and yuba soaking for my miso soup tonight (and still enjoying adding bonito flakes), already looking forward to it. And I have some chickpea and spinach soup for if/when I get hungry this afternoon.
Best wishes to everyone.
Good morning all. The lovely weather continues on here, so more walking today. Apparently the rain arrives on Friday and will settle in for a solid week. So I’ll be back to doing yoga and pacing up and down the hallway next week.
Neil, what a wonderful surprise. You have done so very well. I’m very impressed with how you have stuck with this and not allowed the occasional food indulgence to derail you. That 99kg mark is so very close now and such an important milestone.
I can still remember how it felt to get my weight from the 100s to the 90s. I felt that not only had I shifted weight physically, there was a lightening in the mental/emotional burden of being obese. When my weight got into the 90s I started to feel and think of myself as a normal person, rather than someone who stood out in all the wrong ways.
Anzac, big hug from me. I hope you manage to get some clearer direction on your issues of concern soon.
Cinque, at the beginning of the “Ask the Doctor” program they described 5:2 as 2 days of restricted eating at 2000-3000kj and 5 days where you can eat whatever you want. I was alarmed by that description as it made no mention of sticking to your TDEE. So I felt some relief when they said they were also getting that couple to manage their calories on the NFDs.
I was rather appalled by the person on the ketogenic diet eating mayonnaise as a meal. I also felt my usual gripe at people who think they are on paleo and are eating muffins – show me a caveman who ate muffins!
I hope that heater is fixed very soon.
Penguin, the DW news bulletin says that the temperatures are getting to 40C in Europe this week. If it’s anywhere close to that where you are I hope you have a way of staying cool. Definitely a day to stay in the shade. I worry about temperatures like that in places where people all have central heating but no air-conditioning.
Good morning everybody else, have a nice day.
Good Morning all
Well done Neil, you are doing an amazing job! Can’t wait to hear you are in the double figures, won’t be long as Anzac said. What a great feeling.
Anzac, I’m so sorry that work is tough at the moment and I understand how sometimes it feels like it will never get better. Well I hope it does for you soon. We all need to work but when it is impacting on our health it is a problem. We all know weight impacts on health.
I hope you can keep doing your FD’s. Just thought I would share a little strategy that works for me. I remind my OH that tomorrow is my FD, the night before. I also ask him not to have any beer on those days (which sometimes works and sometimes does not) so that I can avoid temptation. Usually I find that it doesn’t bother me even if he is having a beer but sometimes when it is super stressful at work I do succumb and have one. Easier if he’s not having any at all and there are none cold. Another thing I have been doing lately is deciding exactly what I am going to be having for dinner on my FDs the day before and I let OH know what it is. I have been making lots of soups and he is not a fan so I give him the opportunity to have something else if he wants to. He’s been quite good and having some of whatever soup I make and also some other foods with it. Example, last night he had some pumpkin soup, sausages and extra veggies he made.
One more thing. A trap that I was falling into at one time when I was failing FDs was to try and compensate by having another FD the next day. It didn’t work. It put too much pressure on me and made me super hungry as I felt like I was always denying myself food. Now I try to do my FDs no matter what and on the odd time that it feels like I just can not do it I will eat something small but protein based, a can of tuna or even some cold meat, but not blow it completely. For me it is better to have had a FD at 600 calories than a total failure and make myself feel really bad.
I hope this helps a little as I want you to keep going. Also where is your mantra that you had at your desk at your old job? Get it going again and remind yourself that you can do this! It’s one day and tomorrow is a NFD. x
Ok. I was having my broccoli/cauliflower soup at work yesterday and two of the girls felt they had to make a comment about my lunch. I can tell you I was in a good mood after that. So first one says “ewww, what is that smell. What are you eating blah blah blah” and the second one starts “that looks like baby food, ra ra ra ra.
Ok, it may have smelled a little as it is veggies (the one that made the comment was sitting eating her pizza, this is the one that never eats veggies and just eats c**p) and yes it probably looked a bit like baby food because it was pureed and it was a bit of a funny colour. What I don’t get is why they have to comment. They all know the journey I have been on to lose weight and I can tell you it is not from eating pizzas….. It really makes me cranky and I even was still thinking about it this morning. I didn’t ask them to eat it so just shut up and let me enjoy my food.
Oh, and one of them is my friend who I was sharing my (soup) lunches with the week before I went away. Go figure.
I’m so glad my friends here understand me and what I am going through.
I hope you all have a lovely day and a good FD or NFD, whatever it might be.
Thank you for your get better in the tummy wishes. I am feeling much better. One of the girls told me yesterday that another one of the girls had her sick son here at work on Thursday and you guessed it. He had a tummy bug. They always sit at my desk when I am not here so yeah, I guess I picked up his bug. Argh. I have bought some disinfecting wipes and I’m going to make it a regular thing.
Work calls. I will check back in later xx
Good Morning LJ. I always forget about eggs! They are an amazing whole food and very satiating for not many calories. Thank you for the reminder.
When we were in Cairns a breakfast basket was included as part of the deal and there were some bacon and eggs in it. There were no non stick frying pans and no oil so we ended up cooking the eggs in the microwave. Remember, I don’t own a microwave. That was a funny experience. We wanted them with runny yolks but they ended up hard boiled, super hard boiled. Well, I admit one actually popped. Too funny. The thing is they still tasted great.
We also had some toast and they had left some real butter in the fridge for us, butter cut from a block. Smart little duck thought she would just microwave it for a few seconds to soften it so we could spread it. Next minute (second) I hear a bubbling sound and yep I had melted the butter to the point it was liquid. Ha ha ha ha. You live and learn.
Mmmmm, now I wonder how they will like the smell of eggs cooking in the microwave at work….
If you want a protein hit I can highly recommend Biltong as a snack. There is a Canterbury company that makes the stuff I eat and one 50 gram serving has just 125 calories but a whopping 27 grams of protein! Also because it’s chewy it takes a while to eat and so it helps to make you feel full for longer. It’s cheaper over here than it is on this site
https://www.aussiehealthproducts.com.au/canterbury-bitemeat-chilli-a-d-beef-50g.php
Hello everyone
Thanks everyone for your concern, support and motivation. I’m having a very controlled day and intend on that continuing
Quacka – you are definitely a smart little duck 🙂 I laughed at your microwave antics. I can’t believe you don’t have one at home! We use ours all the time mainly to reheat or defrost. The only thing we really cook in it is rice and it always turns out great
Cinque, I can actually get out of this contract any time I like. Both parties are on a two week notice period; but I have to work for a living, it pays well and they are happy to have me both before and after my big holiday so I don’t end up being unemployed and looking for work when I get home. I can come straight back into this job (that is the plan anyway). So I need to just stop complaining and remember how lucky I am to have a good brain, good work ethic and good enough contacts to land roles like this. I didn’t expect it to be easy but nor did I expect it to be like working in an episode of ‘Allo ‘Allo!
How is your job now Neil? I hope it has vastly improved
Enjoy that good weather while it lasts LJ. I think you are sending us your sunshine for the weekend; it’s looking glorious – 20/21 and no rain at all. It was supposed to rain a lot today but so far it has been patchy cloud and a bit of sun poking through.
I managed a good walk at lunch time and that plus my big ‘fess up this morning has put me in a much more positive frame of mind. I’ve said no to pretzels and biscuits and happily ate my thai beef salad and carrot sticks for lunch.
Quacka, I’ve never dared to try and make a boiled egg in a microwave. I have always assumed it would explode – even reheating a peeled boiled egg is a dangerous game!
I do it the old fashioned way. A saucepan of boiling water then put the eggs in for 4-6 minutes depending on whether I want the egg with a runny yolk or hard boiled. If you don’t peel them, hard boiled eggs keep well for quite a few days in the fridge. I usually do half a dozen at a time. It allows me to add missing protein from my lunches and also be a handy mid-afternoon snack on a FD when I’m struggling to make it through to my dinner. The other thing I started doing a few years ago was buying the cheaper and smaller free range eggs. I do this as the 600g cartons have eggs that are only 250kj. My mind seems to work on portions – one egg is a portion regardless of how large or small. I’m the same with slices of bread, which is why I buy the long narrow batard loaves as I get smaller slices.
Next time you want to soften butter, just put little on your toast as soon as it emerges from he toaster – it will soften quite quickly and be spreadable. (Unsalted butter is the only fat spread I use, so I’ve learned that trick.)
Anzac, make the most of the weekend sunshine, Thin is sending her wet Perth weather over shortly . It’s been so nice here today that I was able to have my post-lunch cuppa on the back verandah and I’ve even been able to open the back doors to let in the fresh air today without getting chilled.
Some info on steps, pedometers etc:
I’ve never owned a pedometer so I’ve never known how many steps I do in a day. I just set an arbitrary target of 300mins brisk walking per week in addition to adding incidental movement or steps when I can. However I’ve just discovered there are now many free phone apps that either just count your steps, or use GPS to map a walk and tell you the time and distance covered. I’ve been using them for the past week and was astounded at how difficult it was to get to 10,000 steps. Yesterday I did 2 walks totaling about 70 minutes and I still only made it to 9,600 steps for the whole day. Although I am finding it difficult to remember to keep my phone on me at all times so it counts all the incidental steps.
I went looking for information on how far 10,000 steps was. The Medibank site https://www.medibank.com.au/livebetter/be-magazine/exercise/how-to-walk-10000-steps/ suggests it’s 100 minutes of walking or 8km. (However I suspect that distance is for someone with longer legs and a longer stride than mine.) I was alarmed by this comment on their page: “You will naturally accumulate steps through your day to day activities, but to reach the 10,000-step goal, you will likely need to do a 30-minute walk (or the equivalent in other exercise) as well.” As I said I did 70 minutes of brisk walking outside yesterday and still didn’t get to 10,000 steps, so their assumptions about just how much incidental exercise people are actually doing sounds a bit optimistic to me.
I found this site, which I think is aimed at adjusting activity goals for children’s exercise https://exrx.net/Calculators/StepDistance which allows you to input your height to work out what 10,000 steps represents as a distance for you. For my height (161cm) is says 10,000 steps is 6.67km – which is roughly what my step counter said I did yesterday. This site also has a useful table at the bottom which relates steps to activity level. At the moment I am aiming for 5,000 as my baseline minimum to make sure I keep my TDEE at a reasonable level and above 7500 on as many days as I can manage it.
I seem to be able to get to 6,000 steps without too much trouble – one walk and a bit of housework. Getting above that requires more effort and planning. I will say that by tracking what I’m doing (or not doing!), it encourages me to go for that second walk in the afternoon.
LJ, I wear a Garmin Vivofit tracker 24/7 and I agree that it’s hard to get to 10,000 steps per day without some long walks. I’ve watched the clock while my tracker counts my steps and it usually takes me 10 minutes of brisk walking per 1000 steps. So I agree with that 100 minute statement. I’m 165 cm. Thank you for the info on spiralizers. Pouring boiling water over freshly spirilized veggies and then letting them sit 10 minutes or more sounds like a great idea. The one time I tried spiralized zucchini I put it in the microwave before adding sauce and left it in too long. It turned it to mush. Your method sounds a lot better. I also like the idea of adding a little real pasta for the mouthfeel. I’m going to have to try it.
Neil, that branch hit way too close to your eye! Thank goodness your eye is ok. Congrats on hitting your 3rd goal. Double digits will probably be only days away now. You’re doing an amazing job!
Cinque, I hope your heater is fixed by the time you read this. I hate being cold. Our furnace was out for less than a day this last winter and I just couldn’t get warm. That’s one reason we had the whole thing replaced. Just too many problems with it over the years. I’m sure Miso will be overjoyed to have it fixed too. Most cats don’t like being cold.
Anzac, I’m so sorry to hear about all the stress at work. Before you started they mentioned employee morale was low and now you can see why. It does sound as though your boss is heading toward some type of breakdown. It sounds like things are out of control. I hope the situation improves.
I can’t remember if I posted about this in the last week and I’m too tired to go back and look, but I found a good substitute for wine. I haven’t been drinking alcohol because of blood pressure meds and haven’t really missed the alcohol as much as I sometimes miss the taste of wine. Non-alcoholic wines that I’ve tried taste too watery or more like grape juice. They don’t have that sharper flavor kick to them. Kombucha has the vinegary, stronger flavor and several of the berry flavored ones look like wine in a wine glass. Calories on the bottle show 15 to 30 calories per 8 ounces or about 236ml. I stopped making kombucha not long after I started 5:2 because I didn’t know what to figure for calories since a lot of the sugar is fermented out by the time you drink it. But even at 30 calories, it’s less than a glass of wine and healthier too. Of course I wouldn’t drink a large amount at once because of the cultures in it might be overwhelming, but it is a nice drink to sip. I found a commercial brand flavor called Heart Beet using thin’s favorite vegetable for the flavor. 😁 It’s subtle but actually quite good. And it looks like red wine in a glass.
Crazy, a belated Happy Anniversary and a Belated Happy Birthday to Mr. Anzac.
Crazy, a half cm in the waist is probably just water weight. Judging by the way my clothes fit from day to day, mine probably fluctuates even more than that. Maybe it’s salt or some other food additive or maybe you’re eating foods with higher water content. Or more fiber. Sometimes it’s impossible to figure where it came from but I bet it will disappear in a day or two.
Quacka, people who feel they have to comment on what you are eating can be so annoying. I love both broccoli and cauliflower soups. I usually make them with unsweetened soy milk and sautéed onions and sometimes add a little chicken broth. Low calories and very filling. And so good for you. Eggs in a microwave? It’s hard to get them right and not too dry or rubbery. Scrambled eggs in a microwave are usually more forgiving, if you add a little water to them when scrambling.
Thin, I hope you’re doing well and that life isn’t too stressful. I’m glad to see you pop in every couple of days.
You’re all gaining a couple of minutes of daylight per day and we’re losing a couple. Our temps have been mild, about 25 to 32 for the past few days. I wish it could stay like this, but I know the hot weather is coming soon.
Monday was a FD (lost a kg overnight) and tomorrow (Wednesday) will be my second. We’re having friends stay with us from Thurs afternoon through Sunday afternoon, so I’m doing my second FD a day early. They’re both thin and healthy eaters so it shouldn’t be too challenging to keep my eating under control.
Hope you are all having a great Wednesday.
Hi Anzac, my work is marginally better now, we have a temp in to help who is slowly getting up to speed. I’m still looking for other jobs though because all it will take is for someone to go on holiday for a week and we’ll be back to a pile of work stacking up.
Ljoyce, I’ve done Steptember for the last couple of years where you get people to sponsor you to walk 10,000 steps per day every day in September to raise money for a Cerebral Palsy charity. I found that my daily steps without any extra walks varied between 4,000-7,000 steps per day. I was competitive and tried to do more than my workmates so I ended up doing an average of 14,000 per day, but to do that I was doing a 30 minute walk before work, an hour at lunchtime, a walk in the evening and then racking up huge numbers in the weekend.
Good evening all
Anzac,so glad you are feeling back in control 🙂 I’m happy too that my microwave antics gave you a little laugh.
Neil, I have made my own beef jerky a few times and it is amazing. We absolutely love it. It’s really expensive to buy here so I will have to make some more soon. I’ll post up a photo when I get to do it.
LJ, really interesting about the steps and the trackers.
Hi Cali, nice idea about the Kombucha. It’s really taking off here at the moment and there are so many flavours to try. I’m not sure how much of the good stuff is in the commercial brands but it is a refreshing low cal drink and much better than having a sugary (or sugar free) drink.
I make my soups with just a little chicken stock usually and then purée them up so they stay really thick.
I actually find it quite rude that people think they can make negative comments about food that you are eating. They can think what they like but there is no need to try and turn me off my lunch. Never fear, I have made that many comments about it today and yesterday (all in jest, but actually serious) that I am hoping they will think twice about commenting next time. If I can’t beat them I may have to join them and tell them exactly what is in the food they are eating……
Do not cross the duck!
All the talk of eggs today and I just had to have some for dinner. We were going to have lamb chump chops and salad but I also cooked the eggs. I tried to look up how many calories in a lamb chop and got so confused and couldn’t actually believe how many calories the trackers are saying is in one. Up to 370 calories??? I can’t believe that. Anyway, even though I put one on my plate I couldn’t bring myself to eat it knowing I couldn’t accurately work out the calories. After dinner I weighed the cooked chop and it was 125g then I cut off the meat and weighed it and it was 68g. What do you think of about 140 calories for the lean meat only? I’m going to be eating that tomorrow.
It’s been a bit of a tough FD but I have made it through at 570 calories due to an afternoon snack of Pastrami and a coffee this morning. The lamb chop would have thrown it way over if I had eaten it. Surprisingly I didn’t even need it as I was full with the salad and two boiled (in a saucepan!) eggs. 🙂
Well I have hogged the thread again today. Off I go, bed time soon. Thanks for being here x
Evening all
Quacka, this is the (government) data source I use for most meat. http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/science/monitoringnutrients/afcd/Pages/foodsearch.aspx Just type “lamb” into the search bar and scroll down to “lamb chop” – there are about 2 dozen variations. Then just click on the “F” number next to the right option. This is Australian data, so it’s all in kilojoules. All of their data is per 100 grams, but there is a “custom(g)” column that allows you to work out your portion.
It’s especially good for lamb as it gives you the weighing options for each type of lamb chop, raw or cooked, with varying amounts of the fat left on. Lamb is a fairly fatty meat, so the calorie count is fairly high. Another reason that a chump chop has that many calories is the weight. They weigh more than you think. The average raw chump or forequarter chop weighs 200-300 grams. I usually buy the little loin chops as they weigh 60-100 grams once all the fat is removed, so portion control is a bit easier. The amount of fat that you leave on also makes a big difference to the calorie count – which is another reason you’ll get a lot of variation in calorie counters. With lamb it’s important to use the calorie data for the actual cut of meat you are using, as the amount of fat marbling varies a lot between cuts, and that’s the fat you can’t easily cut off.
As to the cooked lamb, it will be about 900kj per 100g. Your 68g portion is 612kj (146 calories).
I love lamb but for me it’s not a FD meat – chicken, seafood and eggs are the only animal proteins that I can fit into FD meals.
Neil, that’s definitely competitive, but amazing that you managed to average 14000 steps. When I was working my organisation did a few step challenges. You could only join as a team, rather than individuals, as they believed we’d move more if we were worried about letting the rest of the team down. One team had all their step points confiscated when a team member admitted that she hadn’t actually done her steps – she’d attached the pedometer to the collar of her little shih tzu.
Cali, I hope you have a lovely time having friends to stay. Good too that they prefer healthy fare.
NFD Fess Up:
Breakfast: pot of tea
Mid morning: banana and 2 tsp nut butter
Lunch: homemade moussaka (from the freezer), cup of tea
Early afternoon: a little apple peel and 8 sultanas
Late afternoon: greek yoghurt and warm stewed fruit (green apples and sultanas cooked with cinnamon and cloves)
Dinner: spicy sweet potato soup. Toasted sourdough with panfried field mushrooms and 2 scrambled eggs. Then 2 squares of dark chocolate and a small banana.
Supper: hot milk drink
There is often a debate about whether we should eat dried fruit not. I do have it some days, but I try to relate the portion to fresh fruit and aim to have no more than one portion (or preferably 1/2 a portion) per day. So if I eat dried peaches I know that 2 = one fresh peach. It helps me manage an appropriate amount without snacking mindlessly on something that has a lot of calories if you aren’t mindful of the quantity.
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11:51 pm
22 Jun 19