Ljoyce – I’ve gone down a notch on my belt and I can feel the muscles on my tum if I poke into the little pooch of fat that’s covering it, so I guess it’s working, I’ll let you know at the end of the month how it’s helped.

Anzac – yes, that’s what I told my boy. When he started parkour the instructor told him he had to be able to do 15 chin-ups and he was discouraged that he could only do 1. I told him that he wouldn’t be able to do 15 right from the beginning and that he had to work at it. He can do 7 or 8 now.

Good evening all,

If you are not interested in Antarctica as a holiday destination please feel free to ignore this post 🙂

All cruise companies offering expedition(feet ashore) cruises to remote areas require a medical certificate from your regular GP attesting to your current medical condition and, if you have a chronic condition, may request a further letter from the specialist managing your condition. You also have to produce a Travel Insurance certificate that shows that you are fully covered for all medical expenses and medical evacuation, should it be necessary, for the Antarctic and South American regions. When you choose your cruise it’s a good idea, if you have any ongoing medical issues, to contact their head office directly prior to making a booking – in general travel agents are not well-informed about this area.

For expedition cruises a certain level of physical fitness/agility will be necessary (a) be able to walk for up to two hours in muck boots (very heavy gum boots) as this is the only footwear permitted in the antarctic and arctic regions – the outsides of boots are disinfected after every shore landing; (b) be able to get into and out of a Zodiac, with assistance, in waters that may rise and fall between 50-70cm; (c) be able to sit, sideways, on the ‘tube’ of a zodiac, holding onto a safety rope with both hands for periods of 10 – 45 (sometimes bumpy) minutes for shore landing transfers and ‘scenic cruising’; (d) be confident walking on wet, rocky and shingle landing sites, on dry rocky paths, and in up to 20cm of snow in aforementioned muck boots. But, this is simply my observations to help ensure that you can get the best out of your cruise.

IMHO, the Norwegian shipping company, Hurtigruten, offers the best, all-round value for money – their single supplement is usually around +50%, rather than the +100% of some companies. The cabins are all comfortable, even those at the lower end of the price range; food is plentiful, fresh, and healthy; dining is informal, no tuxes or gowns required; expedition staff are helpful, careful and caring during shore excursions, and experts in their specific area of scientific knowledge – presenting an excellent program of shipboard lectures about the area you are visiting; their ships visit a good number of sites in the Antarctic Peninsula, often getting as far south as the Russian Vernadsky station at 65’15”.

From Australia the current best travel option is the Qantas/LATAM partnership through Santiago de Chile to Buenos Aires. Most cruise companies provide a return charter flight between Buenos Aires and Ushuaia.

OK, off my soapbox
Regards
PG

Good morning all.

Instead of arriving with my nephew’s birthday cake made, I took the pavlova discs, passionfruit cream and 4 punnets of berries with me to babysitting and let the kids do it. I was so pleased with how well they did. The only bit I insisted on doing myself was placing the 2 pavlova discs as they shatter easily.
I asked Miss5 to cut the strawberries for the middle as I knew her cutting wouldn’t be neat (lots of enthusiasm but accuracy is not her forte) and Mister7 got the job of cutting the strawberries for the top because he’s very precise in what he does. They even decided what pattern they wanted to use to layout the fruit on top. The only thing I had to show them was how to use a palette knife to spread cream. If you are fasting you many not want to look at the pics: https://imgur.com/a/y8R3U7q They did such a neat job and their dad was delighted when he got home as pavlova is a real favourite of his. When you have the time, baking with kids is such fun.

Neil, that sounds like excellent progress. Doesn’t it feel wonderful to notice some leanness and muscle tone after being overweight. I remember the joy of actually being able to feel my hip bones when I lost weight. I’m still working very slowly on the muscle tone.

Betsy, I agree that getting away from tansfats is important but I think on a regular basis crispbreads are a healthier choice. For me they fall into the discretionary food catergory and I only want to have them occasionally not regularly. I can usually tell when something is unhealthy – I could easily eat a packet of tasty crackers (BBQ shapes, yum) in one sitting, but I couldn’t do that with any crispbread.
I tend to use corn thins which are about 100kj (24cal) as I think they have more flavour than the ones made from rice. I try to put interesting toppings including salad veg on them – I find this a very useful option for a summer lunch. I usually use ricotta cheese or avocado as the spread.

Thin, it just shows how well most of the residents in your street get along. You are right, you don’t normally get to meet the people you sell to. I did, because they asked if they could meet me and I was happy to oblige – it gave me a chance to walk them over the property and explain where all the underground pipes were etc.
Sounds like all those things you sold online were worth the effort in more than just money. Too many people buy houses to fit all their stuff without really considering what they actually need at the next stage of life.

Anzac, given the stress you’ve been under at work having one FD per week at home might be a good option moving forward. I had been thinking of suggesting you consider a FD on weekends. It might seem like you are too near temptation, but I think stress and tiredness are harder to fight when it comes to eating.

PG, thankyou so much for that info. Getting a letter from my rheumatologist will take some time, so it’s good to be forewarned about that. I think I’m fit enough to meet the requirements you listed, but I should probably plan this trip before I get too much older. Also good to know that Hurtigruten do Antarctica. I had already identified them as my cruise company of choice for doing the Norwegian fjords (and perhaps further into the Arctic) but hadn’t realised they also did the other end of the globe too.

I have bridge this afternoon. Fingers crossed we don’t end up at the bottom today. I’m still not sure how we managed to do so well last week.
After 2 days of heavy rain and high winds there’s a lull this morning before the next lot arrives. I need to head out for a walk while I have the chance.

Have a nice day everyone.

Oh dear, don’t worry LJ, I’m sure that the couple or teaspoons of sugar in the snacks isn’t going to break the bank.

I am happy with my progress, but I’m really at the impatient stage. I know I’ve lost a heap of weight already, I know that has allowed me to get out and exercise more easily, I know that exercise has started shaping my body, I know the rest of the weight will come off in time now that I’m eating right and exercising, but I just want that last 10 kilos or so to be gone now!!

LJ, I hear you about how easy it is to slip into old habits. I was at work from 7.00am until 10.00pm yesterday and my resolve completely vanished. I ate well all day as I was prepared but then I had a 75g bag of pretzels and then three slices of pizza. Followed by an XL glass of red wine when I got home at 11.00pm to try and wind down quickly. I didn’t weigh myself this morning

I feel good today because the boys let me sleep in until 7.45 and then we had a lovely, vigorous walk in the sunshine. It is VERY cold; I couldn’t believe it when I left the building last night. I honestly have never felt that cold in Sydney

Neil, dig deep for the patience to get through the next few months. Just keep reminding yourself how far you have come

I must run, we are heading out to the shops. Will check in later

Have a great day

Cinque, I was quite worried about you (with the cold weather you were having), I didn’t realise you were trapped in a dungeon 🙂 Welcome back to the real world (of housework). Can you really make sugar-free muhallabia?

Neil, one reason your weight loss will have slowed down is that you are doing much more exercise now that you are lighter. Exercise needs and build muscles, and muscles weigh something. So some of the fat weight you are losing is being added back as muscle weight – how good is that! As Cinque said, now is the time to ensure that what you are doing is sustainable as a WOL, and that you won’t get frustrated because you are denying yourself things you really want. Much better to go slowly and be able to make it a lifetime habit, than go quickly and then “go off the diet” when you reach your goal weight.

Anzac, could you keep something in your desk to replace pretzels for the late nights. I well remember the “smell of pizza”, courtesy of management when they needed us to work late and couldn’t come up with any deliverable food alternative that we could eat at our desk, at that time of night. You would think that with all these food delivery companies they could improve on pizza as the automatic option!

LJ, well done on recognising so quickly (on the way home) that you had strayed from your plan. That probably wouldn’t have happened before you began your weight-loss journey. Now, we also are able to say “oops, that was a mistake” and move on, rather than letting a small mishap derail all the good we’ve achieved.

Thin, I shudder to think what would happen if we had to pack up and move. Our last move was 20 years ago, and PerthBoy is a hoarder. He has boxes of our academic work, plus 12″ computer tapes from the 1960s and 8″ computer floppy disks from the 1970s and all the associated paraphernalia to go with them. We would probably need some of your spare space. As Cinque asked, when are you going to put us out of our misery re your adventurous plans?

Hi, Lindsay, Cali and Betsylee.

I wouldn’t blame those of you suffering the cold, east of the rabbit-proof fence if you went into hiberation for a few days. Wish I could send you some of our warm sunshine.

Have a good weekend all

PG
“If you don’t take care of your body, where are you going to live?”

Lgbran, how did you tackle that downsize after 35 years? PerthGirl, my heart goes out to you! Floppy disks! Oh my goodness. Our very good friends have a huge shed full of ‘things’ they haven’t looked at for decades. It’s not even neatly packed in there. I feel so sorry for their children when, one day, they have to fly in from their overseas lives to sort through all that clobber…… Our items are now inventoried to within an inch of their life so I will never have to go through OH’s things again – straight to the tip! But he has done well overall.

Cinque, yes you have been very patient. PG has already guessed what the next move is so I’ll leave it at that while we wrap us some business over the next week or so. Thanks for asking, I had a long chat to DD yesterday and she is very happy. She likes her accommodation, the beat up vet vehicle and the colleagues she’s met thus far. It’s very James Herriot-like with everyone in the village (from the taxi driver to the service station owner) knowing that she’s the new vet in town! She starts work tomorrow.

Another FD has rolled around. I’ve remained at exactly 56kg for the past 6 days which makes me wonder whether the scales have croaked. Cauliflower soup at 2pm and those strange noodle things in a green packet that LJ mentioned months ago for dinner. I don’t like them much but I knew they’d come in handy when we started camping out at this house. Cinque, it sounds like you had your FD yesterday, hope it went well and you got all caught up with your tasks.

For those interested, Rosy Posy has been in touch. She has reached her 60kg goal weight.

Good morning all.

I’m hoping for a few fine spots in the day so I can walk. Yesterday I tried twice and managed 11 minutes then 25 minutes before having to rush home out of the rain both times. It’s been that weird weather where one minute the sun is peaking out of the clouds and the next minute it’s bucketing down.

I’ve seen lots of reports of snow on the east coast – anyone near that?

Anzac, I don’t think there’s any easy way to handle a day that finishes that late. You’d need to start taking dinner into work as well as lunch to keep it healthy. I think you might need to consider regularly doing at least one FD on your days at home. One of the reasons I originally chose Sunday, was because the weekend was a time I was more likely to overeat. By doing a Sunday FD not only did I get the FD done I removed a day from my week where I may well have eaten over my TDEE if it had been a NFD. So I got a double benefit from that choice. It is hard to juggle the social events, but this doesn’t have to be a forever choice, just an option while your working hours are so long.

Cinque, I agree that there are some foods that we tend to binge on that are very unhealthy in any quantity and others that are good foods that we need to lean to manage well. I had both on my list and I started addressing those that I wanted in my diet – nuts and cheese. I tackled the chocolate issue at easter time as I had a pile of Haighs milk chocolate in the house and knew it was time to start the 15gram rule immediately. It worked very well. Since then I’ve managed to move away from milk chocolate and develop an appreciation for dark choc and the only time I have milk choc in the house is when it’s gifted to me or for baking.

Thin, I know that PG mentioned your next adventure would be on water, but I was thinking of you the other night. There was a program on the ABC with a couple looking for a quieter property in the Perth Hills, surrounded by nature rather than neighbours.
Did you see my earlier post about finding a bridge partner? It has been such a relief to have the consistency of a permanent partner. We’ve only played together in supervised twice, but done well both times.
Thanks for letting us know what’s happened with Rosy. I had been wondering where she went. Good to hear she got to her goal.

PG, commiserations over the hoarding. Is it even possible to read floppy discs any more – or has PB kept a very old PC as well? My parents place took many weeks of clearing out when my dad went into aged care. They’d been there since the 1950s and were definitely of the “it might come handy later” mindset.
After you mentioning Hertigruten doing Antarctica trips I had a good look at their offerings. They have one that is called “White Christmas with Penguins”. As a white christmas is also high on my list of must dos, I think that trip may be the one.

LGbran, very pleased to hear you are getting good use from your airfryer. I love doing veggie wedges in the airfryer. It’s nice having something that’s healthy but feels like a treat.

August Challenge Accountability:
Activity:
As I’m tracking my weeks from Sun-Sat my first week wrapped up yesterday.
I met my exercise challenge. My goal was a minimum of 35,000 steps and I managed 54,300. That was almost entirely down to the beautiful weather for Sun-Tues where I managed to do over 30,000 steps as it was so nice outside.
My exercise program challenge was to start with one exercise and add one extra each time and do two sessions a week. I started this at the beginning of the month so I’ve now done 3 sessions and the last one (yesterday) had 3 exercises – 2 using the fitball and one with hand weights. Yesterday as good test as my back was aching all day and I was concerned about whether to do the exercises or not. However I did them and it didn’t seem to make a difference – no change in the backache. It was good to know that it didn’t make things worse.
Eating:
I also did a food reset over the first 10 days of the month. I was trying to avoid added sugars, limit processed foods and do an alternate day 800cal FD. (That meant 5 x 800cal days.)
You already know that I have had some slips from avoiding added sugar, but they have thankfully been small.
The 800cal FDs became difficult once the weather got really cold but I stuck with it. It did what I needed it to. You know my relationship with the scales is not a good one, so I measured results with a tape measure. I took my measurements at the beginning and end of the 10 days and I lost 5cm from my waist, 3cm from my hips and nothing from my bust. Needless to say most of my jeans are fitting better now. The tightest ones are still too tight for comfort, but if I stick with the rest of the August plan I’m hoping that will be addressed over the course of the month.
My eating reset continues for the rest of August. Avoiding added sugar and limiting processed foods. I’ve also been limiting grains and fruit to just small serves. In cold weather I find it far too easy to overeat grains so I’m keeping a tight rein on them and increasing veg, fats and protein to compensate.
For the remainder of August I will continue with the same food goals, but I’m returning to my normal 5:2 with 500cal FDs on Monday and either Thursday or Friday.

I’m heading off to do the grocery shopping now. A friend is coming this afternoon. We hope to go for a walk and I’ve promised her scones. As I don’t add sugar to them I will be able to have one and can freeze the rest.

Have a lovely Sunday.

Gee, I miss posting for a couple days and come back to find out Cinque is hanging out in dungeons!

Crazy, great to hear that you lost 2 inches off of your waist. That’s a great accomplishment and you must be feeling a lot lighter.

LJ, I’m avoiding added sugar as well. At the same time I’m concentrating on eating more fiber. It’s really taken the edge off the sweets craving. I didn’t realize how hungry they made me once the initial sugar rush was over. I’m much less likely to snack now. My weight has stayed around the same with a small loss after FD’s. No more 1 kg gains and losses around my FD’s. I’m feeling more relaxed too.

We’ve had mostly lovely weather here, still getting some cooler days than is usual for this time of year. Also some humidity which is great at keeping down the fire danger. It sounds like you’ve had some really cold weather in some parts of the country. The world climate certainly seems to be changing.

Hope you all are having lovely days there.

Hi all, bit of a wasted weekend. The weather was crappy so we spent most of Saturday mooching around the house, yesterday we went out to the entertainment centre so the boys could try out the VR games and my wife and I shot some pool while they were there, but the rest of the day we spent mooching around the house again. You don’t really feel like you’ve had a weekend when that happens. Hopefully the weather is better next weekend so we can get out and go for a cruise somewhere.

I did manage to get my sit-ups done on all the days, This week I’m looking forward to seeing some friends who are in town for a while after moving to Brisbane a couple of years ago, it will be great to have a catch-up.

Have a great day everyone

Oh I forgot to say. I tried the MIL’s bread on Friday. I lightly toasted it and the first bite that I took had something really hard in it, hard enough to break teeth which thankfully it didn’t do. I remember she said that she had used a mix of flours in it including some walnut flour so I think the hard thing was a small piece of walnut shell. I very cautiously had a few more bites and then found another really hard piece!
I have decided I am not going to eat anymore of it. Yes, it will be wasted but it is better than breaking my teeth! I hope my MIL isn’t reading this!!!

Good afternoon.

My FD took an unexpected detour. I had planned to spend the morning chatting with my neighbours over a cuppa at a local cafe. I ended up looking after a sniffly 5 year old who wasn’t quite well enough to go to school. Her brother started coughing when he realised his sister was going to get to stay home. His acting ability needs work, because his mother wasn’t buying his act. I tried to be really careful with frequent hand washing and keeping my hands away from my face, but we’ll see if I end up with a cold too. Despite making sure my patient had frequent drinks and snacks I managed to confine myself to several cups of tea and not ruin my FD.

I went to the hospital to talk to a doctor in the allergy clinic this afternoon. They have decided that the best way to narrow down my cortisone allergy is to do skin tests of all the available brands. They’ll inject a couple of drops of each drug under the skin. I need to go back in September for that as they didn’t have them all on hand today.

Neil, I think it was poor weather all round for the southern hemisphere last weekend. Luckily the only one in my house getting grumpy was me, I didn’t have to contend with bored kids.

Quacka, what a shame about the bread. Walnuts are lovely in bread, but you do have to be really careful with the shells. If it was a walnut flour rather than walnut pieces could you suggest that your MIL sifts it before use next time – that will keep the shells out.
I bought a cauliflower too and 2 heard of broccoli, but I plan to roast mine along with pumpkin parsnip, carrot and kale sprouts.
I’m planning to do that in the morning so that I have lots of veggies ready to go with evening meals. I’m hoping that will help me fill up on veg rather than bread.

Anzac, given the week you’ve had I think staying in the 84s and not ending up with a gain is still a good rsult. You had long days with poor food offered to you when you worked late and your working hours and the weather would have made it difficult to move enough to deal with any poor food choices.

Cali, I’m a big believer in high fibre. As you mentioned it reduces sugar cravings and feeds our gut flora. For me it’s also been critical for managing IBS symptoms.

I pulled the last serve of mung bean soup from the freezer for dinner. It was lovely, filling and warming. If the cold weather keeps up I’ll be making more.

Hi all, haven’t been in touch over the weekend, just felt “blah” for a few days. Finally realised this evening that I probably overdid it last Wednesday when I dug out my cherry tree. It was an exhausting job, and the freezing cold we had here in Melbourne for the past few days FDs were totally unappealing.

Well, never mind. I’m actually feeling better now, so back on the computer, and FDs again from tomorrow. Like Anzac65, I’m getting tired of this plateau I’ve been on for a while, but I have to persevere. Actually, I think, Anzac65, yours has continued considerably longer than mine, so I shouldn’t complain.

LJoyce, I agree with you re crackers/ crisps, etc. I’m better off without any of them. Actually, in the past, I rarely ate crisps, it’s only something I’ve started to do over the past couple of years. I think they’re a habit I can break relatively easily now; it’s a matter of choice. Cinque, you’re right, they’re not food, just a concoction of fats and sugars designed by taste to keep people eating them!

thin, you keep tantalising us! I don’t remember PG’s suggestion, was it a houseboat?

PerthGirl, the weather in the SE of Australia has been COLD! I sympathise with Neilithicman, I guess the weather moved across to NZ from us. But, supposedly warmer from tomorrow. It’s helped the dams, but….
How long will you and PB be away? I’ve forgotten – is it Bali?

CalifDreamer, do you get your fibre from breads, or added fibre from drinks or ..? I’ve been having some protein bars in the past few days which are high in both protein and fibre, but low in carbohydrates.

Quakka, sounds like MIL’s bread is best avoided if you don’t want a potentially expensive dental bill.

Great to hear that RosyPosy has reached her goal weight.

Crazyartist, great to read of your reduction in measurements. Sorry about you needing a new van, though.

Talking about reduction in measurements, I have been buying clothes in the end of winter sales, in preparation for next winter, in smaller sizes (my optimism reigns supreme! But, why not?), most things at half price. Very pleasing.

Catch you all next time. Way too late tonight.

My pic of Maxx didn’t work so I’m uploading on my phone. I think that means you might not be able to see it unless you are also on your phone.

Such a cutie….those eyes!

http://imgur.com/gallery/6ePg6JT

https://stonesoupvirtualcookeryschool.com/2018/08/fermented-turmeric-cauilflower/

Anzac, what a cute picture of Maxx in his Green Bay Packers scarf! (My favorite team) https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2458/4861/products/GB-AUT-STD-S2BD-SW-SP-03_1024x1024@2x.jpg?v=1558489216
He’s beginning to look like less like a puppy. Has he lost his baby fat?

Now Cali, haven’t you been around us Aussies long enough now to know that our sporting teams wear green and gold? LOL. The Australian Rugby team beat the almighty and mostly unbeatable New Zealand All Blacks. So you can imagine the awkwardness in the Anzac household at the end of the game (tee hee).

Maxx has lost weight and his muscle tone has improved. He is looking quite ‘buff’ these days (but I may be a tad biased. Thanks for noticing!

LJ, I had about 10 seconds before Maxx decided the scarf was much better off him and into his mouth. Like everything. I then put it on a shelf behind a plant and he started barking at it as though it was an intruder. Sigh

Excellent FD so far and it is 2.00pm. I have another meeting so must run

Hi all,

Is Cinque stuck in the dungeon again?

LJ, my rationale for keeping things is that I have paid for them, and throwing them away is akin to throwing money away. Which is why I have enough bits and bobs to furnish a second kitchen. I am getting better at giving things to the charity shops so that they can have a second life rather than moulder on my shelves in the shed. One problem is that the charity shops no longer accept electrical appliances for safety reasons so my ‘outgrown’ kitchen appliances are looking for new homes. The problem originally arose when we lived in our caravan when we were working interstate as consultants and essential appliances were replicated in the caravan.

BetsyLee, my question to Thin was ‘did her new life involve water?’ – nothing more specific than that. We are off for a 2 week cruise around Japan, then we will be home for five days before heading off to Portugal and Spain for a 300km walk along the Camino de Santiago. BTW – why does cold weather put you off fasting? I love the idea of hot soups, veggie casseroles etc to keep the cold weather at bay and, from time spent in Norway in winter, I do know what cold weather is like (which is my I live in WA).

Anzac, I’m not a doggie person but Maxx is definitely cute. I do think you will have to plan for the stressful weeks ahead so that the stress does not derail your good intentions. Can you identify some nice, but good, things to have on hand when you need to stress-eat? In our lives, when we are not on holiday, FDs are non-negotiable. Once we accepted that, over time, we stopped even thinking about them as fast days, we just don’t eat breakfast or lunch on those days. After 2 ½ years I can even batch cook on fast days without being tempted. And, wow … I’m impressed! You label things in your freezer, ours is a lucky dip.

Quacka, thank you for the link. I will follow the recipe exactly as you have done to start with. Could you turn the walnut shell bread into breadcrumbs, pick out any large bits of shell and use it that way?

Neil, it’s probably the right time now to think about how you will define your future WOL. Coming off Fast800 mediterranean was essentially like ‘coming off a diet’. Research shows that it is ‘coming off a diet and returning to previous eating habits’ that causes weight loss trends to reverse. So now might be the time to decide how popcorn, crackers and home made cake will fit into your WOL – perhaps by rationing them as occasional treats, or having a small portion on one day a week. Sorry, tough love 🙂 but I am speaking from experience as well. Is there any temporal link between your migraines and eating bigger quantities of high-carb, low GI foods like crackers and cake?

Regards to all
PG
“You are what you eat, so don’t be fast, cheap, easy, or fake.”

Perth girl, our posts crossed. I intended to continue with a Mediterranean style diet but just upping calories to a normal amount on non fast days. On the whole, I have been mostly doing that. The problem is that once I get a taste of sugary food or salty starchy snacks, I find it really hard to stop eating. The last two weekends have been particularly bad for this, which is why I’m trying a reset this week. I’ll try sticking to the Mediterranean diet until I reach goal weight and then try to re-introduce some starch or sugar as an occasional treat, but I’ll have to be very careful.

My migraines seem to be more stress related, my last one came after a particularly heavy workload for a few weeks, and this one popped up after I had spent 30 minutes working on one document as my computer froze 3 times in a row trying to process it and required a full restart while the incoming work kept flooding in

I did a post earlier but it disappeared.

Weigh-in and I’m down 1.2 kilos to 96.0! I’m past my mini goal of 35 kilos total weight lost and only 1 kilo away from my next mini goal, my wedding weight of 95 kilos, which will also be 5 kilos from my ultimate goal weight of 90 kilos.

I’m hoping to be 95 by the end of August, 92.5 by the end of September, and my goal of 90 kilos (or 89.9 just so I can say I’m in the 80s) by my birthday at the end of October. But of course I’ll take anything that’s moving in the right direction.

I’m still going to try to eat the Mediterranean diet more strictly this week and balance it out by easing off on the intensity at the gym. I’ve been hitting it pretty hard recently to make up for the junk that I’ve been eating. I’m upping the situps to 75 a day this week so that will be a challenge enough, it seems to be working because my waist is down 5 centimeters since the beginning of August, I’m onto the last notch on my new belt.

I hope everyone has a great day and I’ll catch up with all of you later.

Good morning everyone

It’s FD for me today and I am going to be having Miso soup for dinner too, Cinque. Yummy.
I had a bit of a feast day yesterday. It was all healthy food (well if you can count Hazelnut and Cacao Smooshed balls as healthy) but it was just too much of it. I probably had about 2000 calories I’m guessing but the strange thing is I didn’t even feel stuffed! I could have eaten more but I was very aware of how much I had already had. I expected the scales to reflect this today but instead they showed a 200g loss. I’m curious what the number will be tomorrow after FD.

Well done on reaching your goals Neil, it’s really lovely to hear all about it. You have done really well and I agree the Mediterranean diet is the way to go. It’s also very delicious!

PG, I had thought about using the bread as breadcrumbs but the hard pieces are so small that the crumbs would make them all blend in. I could feel it all by hand I suppose (like when making fish cakes from fresh fish I always put all the fish through my fingers first to make sure I have got all the bones out) but I would still be worried.
It reminds me of another time I unexpectedly found hard things in my food. I had made a batch of Tamarillo chutney from a crop from our new Tamarillo tree. It was quite a lot of work and the chutney was actually quite yummy. As I tasted it I found a really hard piece of something in it. I checked the rest of the chutney and it was full of these small hard things, hard like stones. I had to look it up on the internet, but apparently the old varieties of Tamarillo can have these hard little things in them but the new varieties have had it bred out of them. I ended up using the chutney in curries but had to push it through a very fine sieve so all I got was a little bit of sauce really. At least it was not all wasted but it was a big disappointment.

The fermented cauliflower is going well. It’s day four today so I think it should be ready. It smells ready! lol. I almost tasted some this morning when I burped it but then I remembered what day it was. I’m sure I will try some tonight when my Miso soup is cooking. I’ll let you know 🙂

Cinque and LJ, I hope you manage to stay healthy despite looking after sick kidlets.

Here’s wishing us fasters a nice easy one and some good results on the scales tomorrow. Have a lovely day all x

Good morning everyone.

So far so good – no sniffles. I’m still inhaling eucalyptus just in case it helps.

I have a rare day at home with nothing on the agenda except all the housework that’s been piling up. I especially need to catch up on washing clothes and floors.
I also need to get some serious walking done today as I only managed about 3500 on each of the last 2 days. Although the clouds rolled in again yesterday afternoon there was no more rain and today is sunny. I hope some of this fine weather reaches those of you in the east today.

Another NFD for me. This week I’ll be fasting Friday as my bridge partner is going away for the weekend so we can play Friday. We will probably play tomorrow morning – also a supervised session but a much bigger group. I prefer not to play Tuesdays as I have to rush straight from bridge to babysitting and it makes for a very exhausting day.

Did anyone see the Catalyst program last night – very interesting. It looked at exercise and diet for aging well. They mentioned 5:2 but specifically focusing on eating mostly non starchy veg on the fast days. It’s probably available on iview but ABC1 is replaying it this Saturday mid-afternoon.

Neil congratulations on getting to your next goal.
Hello to everyone else.

Must get going, chores await.

I’m playing catchup again, so apologies first up to anyone I’ll miss. I started to write this on Monday and just getting back to it now – it’s been that sort of week.

Neil congratulations on such an outstanding weight loss and the good health that comes with it . Imagine, soon being in the 80s again. Wonderful testament to your commitment to this WOL.

Cinque, hope you are feeling well and the littlies’ cold bugs don’t head your way.

Oh my goodness Anzac that Maxx is a sweetie. That expression! (and 84 is OK – I remember when you were miserable that you couldn’t break 85. You are on your way down which is the best direction of all. (I on the other hand am locked right on where I was too too long ago …not putting on, not taking off, and not able to kick myself in the backside to lose those kilos I wanted to before we head O/S in the first week of October…and only myself to blame).

Thanks LJ for the heads up about Catalyst. I missed it but will set the recorder for Saturday.

Thanks too Quacka for the link to the fermented cauliflower. I visited an op shop last Friday and bought a dozen preserving bottles …just small ones, that I thought would be good when the girls finally are prepared to let go of some honey. I could use them for the cauli, in the meantime.

Perth re electrical goods …. our local church supports a lot of refugee families and accept electrical goods – well, a fridge we wanted to give away because it was too big for our needs. Worth a thought?

Mr 4 turned 5 at the weekend and we celebrated with a family picnic in the park. We are so lucky with wonderful families and many cousins with small children around the same age (did I mention before my SIL and DIL are cousins?). A lovely day with a triumph of a birthday cake. He requested a skeleton, pokomon, dinosaur cake, and full marks to DIL’s cake decorating skills, she somehow achieved it.

We’re in the throes of school/kindy pickups while DD does her prac teaching (she’s doing a Masters in Education, part-time) It’s a bit of a juggle with OH walking the Grade Oner to school while I drop Miss 3 off to kindy, before I shoot off to work too. She such an enchanting little fairy of a child, but full of the business. After our op-shop outing on Friday, we went to a coffee shop. Clearly she was up for more. ‘Baba, after we have our cake, can we go to China?” Mmmm, maybe not today!

OK of to clean out the fridge. I’m growing mulch where my vege crispers should be!

Hello to all I’ve missed – PG, Thin, Cali, Crazy. Are you around Intesha – hope you are doing OK.

(Apologies if I post this twice …..the first time it disappeared but I’d copied it so I’ll try again)

Read this (about Doritos) and thought of Betsy’s soy honey crackers:

“They’ve been engineered so you never feel like you’ve had enough. Here’s why:

The chips have the powerful savory flavor known as umami, and also what Mr. Witherly calls “long hang-time flavors” like garlic that create a lingering smell that stimulates memories.

The recipe balances these powerful tastes so well that no single flavor overpowers and lingers in the mind after you’ve eaten a chip. This avoids what scientists call “sensory specific satiety” or the feeling of fullness caused by a dominant flavor.

You wouldn’t eat a whole bag of rosemary chips, would you? But you keep coming back for more and more nacho cheese Doritos.

Two acids – lactic and citric, get the saliva flowing – which triggers the impulse to eat. Another ingredient, buttermilk, delivers even more lactic acid.

Dorito dust has even more impact if you lick it right from your fingertips without the chip to dilute it.

To maximize the pleasure, half of the calories in Doritos come from fat. With that ratio, it feels like the chip melts on your mouth and your brain is tricked into thinking the calories have vanished too. This is called “vanishing caloric density” and it comes with cotton candy too, for example.

To boot, there’s the three artificial colorings which research shows consumers are attracted to.

And the blend of ingredients is ground so finely (one of the finest grinds in food processing in fact) that the powder fills every nook and cranny of your mouth.”

Hi all, haven’t done well on the eating front, but 3-day conference from tomorrow will get me out of the house and away from available food.

Cinque, interesting post about Doritos. I’m sure all other crisps are the same. Actually, I had a victory yesterday. Yes, I did buy THOSE crackers again, plus some honey soy crisps. But, I didn’t eat all the crackers – got to the point where I thought, yuck, I’ve had enough and threw the rest out, plus I went to the cupboard, took out the crisps packet, crushed all the chips and binned them. I think I’ve finally reached the point of “I don’t like these any more”. From tomorrow, like Anzac65, I’m taking serious action to break this plateau/ lazy point.

Actually, something I’m finding odd – whenever I think of my weight, I still automatically think 80-something, then have to correct my thinking and say no, it’s 70-something, i.e., 10 kg lighter. I’m looking forward to being in the 60-somethings and having to do that to the thought of being in the 70-somethings! 🙂

Speaking of weight loss – neilithicman, you are an inspiration with your determination and degree of weight loss. Well done you (even if the All Blacks did lose! 🙂 ).

Yes, hurrah, the weather is finally warming up again a bit. PG, you asked why I have trouble fasting in the winter – because I shiver so much with the cold when I fast, even with lots of clothes on, in winter. In summer, I love it, as it keeps me cooler in the heat.

LJoyce, good luck with the bridge tomorrow. Hope you do well.

LindsayL, our church has a small “op shop”, but for clothing only. If I have electrical goods to dispose of, I try to ask around everyone I know to see if someone can use it. For white goods, there’s an organisation, in Melbourne anyway, called “Kids on the Curb” – they pick up any whitegoods, repair them, sell them, or recycle them, and the money is used to help disadvantaged? homeless? youth. The council now has banned electrical goods in the waste bin, and there’s a specific recycle place for old TVs, microwaves, etc. as they have some very valuable components that can be salvaged.

Anzac65, loved the photo of Maxx. He is definitely becoming less puppy-like.

Cinque and LJoyce, hope you both stay healthy, with all the contact you’re having with sick grandkids, etc.

Okay, need to go. Have to be up earlier than usual tomorrow, as the conference is about an hour’s drive away. Keep on losing, friends!