Hi all

Neil. Well done on getting the hard work out of the way and giving yourself and Mrs N revitalising leisure time. How is the preparation for the big bike ride. I haven’t kept up my weekly challenge but I did jog 9k the other day so I am well in sight of my 10k goal.

Cinque. We are getting more acclimatisation weather now. Woke to rain and grey skies. Not too cold but coats etc are now in use. Good news about leafy green vegetables, your Warragul greens are doing you lots of good. Glad you are feeling better, you will need your energy for study.

Anzac. I forgot to say that I would never have guessed your age, you have lovely skin and no wrinkles. How did dog training go, was it clicker class again?

LJ Aren’t there a lot of traps with food allergies. I had a friend to dinner who couldn’t eat onions among other things and I thought I did perfectly but forgot that spring onions count. Thank goodness there is more alternatives now. Bobby does seem to smile a lot, it makes him very popular. You certainly need to plan ahead, you are so in demand these days. It’s nice to be needed though, isn’t it. Your scones tasted lovely, I was lucky enough to be able to pick fresh herbs here at the van park but I did cremate the first batch. One way to limit indulgence.

Thin. I agree with LJ. A road trip ( or sailing trip) would be a great way to celebrate your fancy-free life. Sounds like your body is using less stress hormones and allowing you to get more out of your food. I’m glad you liked the photo, I enjoyed the chance to take it. Thanks for the congrats, I’ll be using your advice to stay in the zone.

Calif. I agree with you about Anzac, I would never have guessed her to be 83k, she has such a nice face and hair that you don’t notice anything else.

Quakka. Still positive, still on the wagon. Well done

Penguin. There was a bi-plane, not sure if it was original as there was no info, and also a replica tri-plane. It was a copy of one used by a German ace, but not the Red Baron. Glad our grandchildren are still at primary school and not going through exams which can have such a great effect on their future. Playground dramas and getting the right support is our current level.

LG. Its hard to be controlled all the time and you just have to put it behind you, see if you can work out the trigger and reset. You have shown great discipline up to now, I’m sure you will get it back.

As I said, grey skies and showers today, we will have to find indoor activities, sounds like op shopping to me. We will stay here until Thursday and then our last stop will be Eden. While it is wonderful to be able to have this trip, I always enjoy coming home to family and friends.

Babysitting was messy today – for the kids anyway. My nephew had an area of lawn removed and replace with sandy loam as they want to fill the area with fruit & nut trees. The kids decided to treat it like a giant sandpit and started making sandcastles. https://imgur.com/a/9ZmxXsQ They got so muddy I literally had to hose them off and get them out of most of their clothes before they came into the house to change into clean dry clothes. Then we walked to the bakery for lunch and I managed to limit myself to a chicken salad roll and a cup of tea. There were so many leftover cakes and biscuits from Saturday’s party in their house but I resisted temptation (for a change) today.

Yesterday I fully explored the wetlands area near me on my walk and found this: https://imgur.com/a/StfEP5G stepping stone to get you across the pond. I did walk across them safely, despite being someone who would be clumsy enough to fall in.

Very tired tonight and will be to bet very early as I have 3 busy days ahead.

Good morning everyone

Sorry I’ve been MIA for a couple of days. Yesterday was busy at work and also had some other stuff going on. All good now.

Phew, yesterday’s FD is over! So I woke up in the morning with my positive hat on for a good FD ahead, like most FD’s. I went and put on a cuppa and then I opened the fridge to get the milk and saw the mini sausage rolls (I made them for OH’s lunches for a couple days….”uh huh”) and also the Labneh I made on the weekend, rolled in home made Dukkah, nonetheless. So I spent the next hour deciding if I should move my FD to another day and just hoe into the sausage rolls and the Labne, or just go ahead and do it as planned. I decided to just do the FD and then I could have my lovely treats tomorrow, which is now today.
The FD was going well until about 4pm and I bet you can guess what happened next…..yep, in walks the MIL with another loaf of homemade sourdough bread, again on a FD!!! This one was made with some hazelnut flour added so I hoped it didn’t have the hard teeth breakers in it. Well, I had to try some didn’t I and it was sooooo good. I ended up nibbling a few pieces off it and then I made myself stop. I thought I had destroyed my FD and was a bit upset at myself because I have been doing so well lately. When I got home I sliced up the remainder and put most of it in the freezer and then worked out how much I had eaten – approximately but that’s good enough. It was about 200 calories worth and so I just made a plain veggie stir fry for my dinner and all in all the day came in at about 550 calories, including an almond milk coffee my bosses bought for me in the morning. Disaster averted, despite all these saboteurs!

OK so today is NFD, or shall I just be honest and call it EFS day? I’ve had my mini sausage rolls, I’ve had some of MIL’s bread and I ate that with Labneh and it’s only 9am and I feel really sick! Serves me right. I’m going to eat lightly for the rest of the day, if at all, and then am looking forward to my FD tomorrow.

Thanks Klondi for posting the lovely photo of your meeting with Anzac. It’s nice to be able to put faces to the names.

LJ, the stepping stones look like fun! I am glad you made it across without falling in! Kids really know how to have fun, don’t they! It’s great that you let them get out there and get dirty as so many parents don’t let their kids have that kind of fun anymore.
I’m going to sign off on this post and go back to previous page

Good morning….finally some rain in Sydney! It has been steadily coming down all morning and a bit yesterday too.

My jacket just arrived and….it is very very snug. Uncomfortably so but only just. Powerful motivation now to really get stuck in and lose weight quickly. 14 weeks and my goal is to lose 7 kilos at least

I haven’t been able to catch up, so busy and doing crazy hours. Hope everyone is ok

Morena everyone

Weigh in day today, and despite not being overtly strict with eating because of being really busy with work and renovations, I managed to drop half a kilo. I’m so close to my wedding weight at 95.3 kilos now with my wedding weight at 95.0 kilos.

I posted that, then looked at the picture. Yellow, the traditional colour for a trainer, changed a few times over the years and now high gloss black, which apparently stands out more against the sky. That OH in front of it?

The sun is back but not for long as they are predicting deluge rain tomorrow, Friday and part of Saturday. Shame because my niece is having a bbq/cricket day in lieu of a baby shower so hopefully the rain will hold off or not make it to the Blue Mountains

Klondi and Cali, thanks for your lovely words. I have always been heavy; I have a friend who is more than 10 kilos lighter than me but we don’t look that much different size-wise. Klondi, either you need new glasses or I am more skilled than I thought at make -up application if you couldn’t see the wrinkles 🙂 It was such a lovely day and extra special because you hit goal that very same day. Yay!

The tight jacket certainly is a massive motivation to lose weight. Every time I think about eating something I think about having to wear it day-in-day-out for 6 weeks (the 7th weeks is in the Seychelles so no jacket required) and it makes me feel physically ill. The under jacket is ok; it’s when I zip on the waterproof outer jacket that it gets really tight. And as it is likely to rain a fair bit I will need it. So onwards and downwards for sure!

Neil, you are a weight-loss legend my friend. Almost at your wedding weight already! Congratulations

Quacka, well done avoiding those temptations on your FD.

Cinque, how is your throat and that nasty cold today? I hope you are feeling better.

LJ, I had to laugh at the picture of the little ones all sandy. And I loved the stepping stones. I hope you don’t overdo things and end up with a sore back and joints. Take care of you too ok?

Penguin, I didn’t realise you called all public holidays ‘Bank Holiday’. I thought recently that the UK must have a LOT of Bank Holidays (i.e. when the banks are shut but it’s not actually a public holiday – like here) as most of the people on the Labrador friends forum are from the UK and often use the term throughout the year. Thanks for enlightening me

Cali, it was funny that you mentioned me with dark hair. My entire family have dark brown curly hair and then along I came with blonde straight hair! Hmmmm. It isn’t so straight (or so blonde) any more as age has frizzed it and greyed it. I have to straighten it when I wash it these days which is a chore but necessary else I look like a hippy. Ha ha

Thin, if you don’t come to Sydney on your road trip I will cry! I would love to meet you – in fact after enjoying meeting Klondi so much I would love to meet everyone. By the way Klondi, I hope I didn’t come across as standoffish as I am quite shy and stumble on my words when I first meet people. I laughed at your description of Maxx as ‘engaging’. Is that a polite way of saying pain-in-the-neck super dribbler and chewer of one’s sleeve? I hope you didn’t arrive back covered in dog dribble and hair. I’m so used to it I forget other people may not wish to be out in public that way!

Ok, best get to work. I plan on developing a mystery illness today as there is a half day ‘event’ tomorrow (bowling) that is mandatory attendance. There is also a 2 hour ‘retrospective’ this afternoon which is where we all sit around and congratulate each other or dwell on ‘things we could have done better’. For goodness sake, I am too old for that rubbish! As I am currently doing masses of unpaid overtime I refuse to spend two hours at that today and four hours tomorrow at an event pretending to enjoy myself when in fact I could have a big catch up on work instead. I also can’t bowl as my right shoulder is very dodgy. I also can’t play tennis anymore which is so sad as I used to love it. Oh well, no complaints as there are millions of people so so so so much worse off

Have a great day all

Big hi to everyone who may be lurking and not posting. Are you out there BetsyLee? Are you ok?

Enjoying the post weigh-in NFD. I’m not going crazy (roast chicken and coleslaw for lunch and dahl and chicken livers for dinner) but I’ve allowed myself to indulge in a sausage roll for morning tea.

Klondike – There is one big hill on the trail (imaginatively named “big hill”) The rest is pretty flat as is follows the river up the Teviot valley. I’m going to stay at the camping ground at Millers Flat on the two nights.

Good morning from a very grey day in Sydney. They are predicting up to 45mm of rain so that will be a nice drenching and greatly needed

FD for me today. Yesterday was a totally cr@ppy day with blame for stuff coming my way (it always happens on programs like this one) and while I expected it I was still very downcast. But I didn’t take it out on food or wine, not even one iota. I ate what I brought into the office and we had Thai takeaway for dinner as I was so late home but I didn’t eat any of the fried stuff hubby ordered. I wasn’t able to head home early yesterday as planned, nor WFH today.

Hope your FD went well yesterday Quacka. That Osso Bucco sounds yum as do the home made sausage rolls (which are one of my favourite things).

Hope you had a lovely lunch and catch-up yesterday LJ

I also hope your horrible cold is better today Cinque

Have a super day, will check in often as I will need it to get through what is brewing as another politically stormy day. Sigh

Hello everyone,
How has it got to Thursday? I went and visited my friend in the country on Tuesday and drove back her car as her bad health means they have decided to sell it. I will by it, presuming all goes well when my mechanic checks it on Monday. It is bittersweet as it is so sad that my friend has had to accept she won’t drive again, but so wonderful as they are selling me such a good car at a generous price. My own health is still pretty bad so I am still recovering from the big day.

Fast day today. Too long since my last one. Next job is to make my dashi.

Klondi you have planned your return perfectly with 19’s and 20’s coming up.

I can’t imagine how I will do that study, but I have a few more days to improve I think?

Cali, damp dark dungeons are rather exciting, but I am very glad not to be in one.
I hope you get some clear skies today so you can get out and about.

LJoyce, what a lovely piece of babysitting. I read a great piece, when I was doing my teacher training, about children needing to play with the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. Nice bit of earth play… followed by water!

Anzac, isn’t it nice to think of how comfortable and perfect that coat will be by the time you have your trip. Yay 5:2.
Congratulations for coping so well with your cr@ppy day. New habits settling in as we keep practicing them.

Quacka, good reminder about remembering to drink plenty on fast days.

Morena, and Snap Neil, I have run out of milk too. Luckily no-one is cooking bacon here.
I’ll be very sensible and make dashi and then enjoy a coffee at the corner cafe.

Best wishes to you all.

Hi Ljoyce, snacking is my weakness too, the especially bad time is when I get home from work. I have found that it is not as bad on days that I delay having my lunch. I’ll eat some nuts/biltong around midday, then eat my lunch around 2:30. Perhaps if you try delaying your lunch an hour or two and it may help with your snacking too?

Hi all, sorry to be MIA over the past several days. I had to enter all my study survey data into the computer program and it took time and concentration. Didn’t feel like doing other things on the computer. Plus, it’s been COLD again. What’s happening to spring? I’m on the computer late tonight as I have NO INTENTION of getting up before about 10 a.m. tomorrow. Supposedly around 1-2 degrees in the morning, probably between 6-7 a.m. No thank you.

Okay, enough of a rant. My eating has not been great, but at least I’m not gaining, either, just staying around the 73-74 kg range. I’m thinking I might go back to the basics, 5:2 (maybe 4:3 occasionally) and have TDEE days on the other days of the week. I’ve been trying for CDs 2-3 days a week as well, and then I’ve just been feeling deprived and my eating goes out of control. The stress related to the study hasn’t helped, nor the cold weather and feeling tired as I’ve also been working on tidying up the garden. Pleased with what I’ve done there, though.

Well, I’ve read (scanned?) all the posts – too much to comment on everyone’s. Great that Anzac65 & Klondikekween were able to meet up with their OHs and respective fur babies. Loved the photos, and neither of you look in any need to lose weight. I know Klondi is around her goal weight, but you don’t look much above yours either, Anzac65. So, while you work down to your goal weight, be assured that you look good anyway.

Penguin, well done to England to win the 3rd Ashes Test so amazingly (sniff, sniff, boo-hoo!). Well, there’s always the decider, and Steve Smith will be back batting. One of the scary things about his concussion, which you may not know, is that it was one of his close friends, Philip Hughes, who was killed in a freak accident when he was batting in a State (Shield) match in Adelaide some years ago – he was struck on the neck like Steve Smith, but died. A really tragic event.

Neilithicman, great that you’re near your goal weight, and hope the renovations get completed to your satisfaction.

Cinque, hope you’ve recovered from the grandchildren-shared sniffles.

And LJoyce, did you enjoy looking after your grandchild (or grandchildren?)

Quacka, let’s inspire each other for the spring!!!

LindsayL, I missed it in your post, but from others, I think you’re considering retirement?? I retired last year at 68, after a long battle of wanting to keep working. In the end, I just couldn’t keep working plus do my studies, and was really sick all the time. Then redundancy packages were offered and it was just the right timing. I’m sure it will all come together for you, and you’ll know the right time to make a move.

Who have I missed? Sorry, will try to keep up better.

Okay, it really is late, so must close. September is coming, early spring, warmer weather, and new goals for losing more and moving DOWN off this plateau.

Catch you all again next time!

Good morning friends

Cinque, glad you are feeling better but stay warm. 4 degrees! Yikes. How exciting to be getting a new car.

You stay warm too Betsy and good luck with getting your study related computer work done. Thank you for the lovely words about the photo, I think the black outfit and the angle must have helped as I am really quite overweight.

LJ, I’m with you re bread. It is my kryptonite (sp?). I don’t have any biscuits or other snacks in the house (apart from S&V chips which the boys enjoy but I can resist if they aren’t open). I have to fight hard not to snack on bread instead and too often find myself in front of the microwave defrosting a piece.

Yesterday was a complete disaster. I found out mid-morning that we had to prepare for a big test today and I knew straight away that meant a very late night. It wasn’t work I could do from home so I ended up working from 7.00am until 9.30pm. We were also guilted into going to the bowling for an hour just to show our faces and of course there were hot snacks on offer. So it was 3.30 by then and all I’d had was my small beef salad. I abandoned the FD and limited myself to one mini hamburger then back to work. I had some fruit but then around 6.30 out came the chips, lollies, crackers and chocolate. I had a few crackers and drank lots of water and then the big boss came into the meeting room and said ‘how about I order some thai food for you all?’ Hooray I thought, I can have a thai chicken salad. Oh no, everyone else said they were fine thanks and carried on working and munching. GAH! Of course I ended up with a minor EFS episode at around 8.00pm that involved grain waves and more crackers. I arrived home around 10.30pm and darling hubby offered to make the stir fry he had planned for my dinner but I couldn’t stomach it and asked for a cheese toastie instead which I ate on the couch with a large glass of red wine and a 40 kilo Labrador sitting on my foot drooling on my legs. He got the corners 🙂 

I didn’t have time to prepare anything today so I went to Woollies on the way to work and bought salad ingredients, fruit and some lean ham and turkey from the deli. Am now prepared for anything that comes out of left field today

Hi Lgbran, nice to hear from you and I’m with you to give winter a big flick. We are having deluge style rain and arctic winds at the moment and it isn’t pleasant. The walk to the bowling yesterday involved getting across the Pyrmont bridge which is completely open and the wind was such that umbrellas were useless. We all got soaked and then had to sit half the night in wet clothes and of course I’ve woken up with a tickle of a sore throat. Hopefully it won’t develop

Have a great day everyone and cheers for Friday

Good evening all. Home from a nice but busy day and looking forward to a quiet weekend where I try to catch up on all the housework I haven’t done this week.

I think I’ve mentioned before that my nephew has 2 sugar gliders as pets. As they are nocturnal they are usually tucked into their pouches asleep when I’m there. However as babysitting didn’t end until 9:30 last night they woke up while I was there and I took photos. https://imgur.com/a/6GL79rg To give you an idea of how small these little guys are – curled up they fit in the palm of your hand. I didn’t take them out of their cage because the dogs were inside. They are seriously cute.

Betsy and LGbran, if you are struggling with doing more restriction than normal 5:2 then my advice would be to go back to basics for a while – Betsy I think you already reached this conclusion by yourself. I tried to push harder frequently when I was first losing weight (or plateauing) on 5:2 and the more restriction I imposed the more deprived I felt. For me that deprivation triggers overeating – often with poor food choices. I think there’s only so often our subconscious can hear “no” before it rebels. If you can do basic 5:2 – 2 FDs and 5 days at your TDEE and feel successful at it, that helps build your belief that you can keep going with this long term.

Hello to everyone else. I’ll find time to chat more on the weekend.

Good morning. A bit of a cold breeze, but otherwise a beautiful sunny day. Melbourne, Saturday 11am

Anzac, I hope that throat tickle has gone away.

I must say that the day you called a complete disaster did not sound like that to me.
1. You knew it was a shocker of a day and you prepared as well as possible for it. WIN
2. You found out midmorning about the big test and did your utmost to make sure that wouldn’t derail you. WIN
3. When you had to go bowling and prepare for a late night you changed your plans accordingly, and sensibly chose a mini hamburger as the best option. WIN
4. You ate fruit. WIN
5. When the chips, lollies, crackers and chocolate came out you chose crackers and lots of water. WIN
6. When the option came up for a nutritious meal you tried to have it. WIN.
7. When that failed you were exhausted stressed and disappointed, so you ate what was there. UNNDERSTANDABLE
8. When you got home you listened to your body. WIN.

Magnificent day. So many wins. https://www.armyshop.com.au/uploads/product_images/decProduct44482.jpg

Lgbran, all power to you rebooting yourself. I am so glad you have the chance.
Isn’t it good how 5:2, or whatever kind of intermittent fasting we do, allows us to try things and then adjust, until we work out what suits us for our longterm health.
Lovely to have so many gardeners here. I love the heirloom veggies too. I haven’t got worm farms, but two lovely compost bins called Bernard and Fran. I think of them as very easy and productive pets.

LJoyce those little sugar gliders are just the cutest. Best wishes for a lovely and productive weekend. You will enjoy getting your beautiful home shipshape. I have finally got a bit of oomph to do something to mine too.

Gday, SO GLAD to hear from you, and to hear things are going well and your Bali trip is so soon. Hooray for keto, getting you off your plateau, and hooray for you, keeping keto sustainable.

Best wishes to everyone for a lovely weekend. Reminded by LJoyce, I am concentrating on eating mindfully. What a waste of my beautiful food not to!

Cheers all.

Hi all, and a happy start to spring!!!!

Califdreamer- the goal I set at the beginning of my weight loss journey was 90 kilos so I’m only 5 kilos away. But when I get there (I’m actually saying “when” now rather than “if”) I’ll reassess, looking at the way I look now and only 5 kilos to go I’ll probably end up aiming for something in the mid 80s

I’m going to make a big push to get my weight as close to that 90 kilos as I can by the end of September before we leave for our Fiji holiday. I’ll continue on my gym sessions at lunch time and I’m also doing Steptember this month. I’ve been wearing my pedometer around work for the last few days to see what I normally do, and my normal day is 10,000-12,000 steps (including the gym session) so I definitely won’t have any issues with the 10,000 per day goal. 2 years ago I averaged 12,500 per day and last year I averaged almost 14,000 per day during Steptember so this year I’ll set a goal of 15,000 per day. Tennis season is starting again this month (next week in fact) so that will help my step count as well. I’ll continue with my sit-ups as they seem to be helping to tighten my waist up, but 100 per day is too many to maintain so I’ll drop it back to 50 per day.

That’s the exercise taken care of, now the hard part…. the eating. I’m going to try to commit to a no added sugar month and lay off alcohol forr the month, other than that my eating has been pretty good, but I really need to be strict on the sugar. My first test on eating is tonight as we’re taking my father out to dinner for Father’s Day.

I hope everyone has a great day/week/month and enjoy the fact that winter is now officially behind us!

Good morning,

Happy fathers day to all the dads, especially LGbran, Neil and Penguin (Penguin I know you celebrate father’s day on a different date, but you can have a second one with us).

I’m heading up to the Mount Lofty Summit cafe shortly for a family brunch with my cousins.

Cali, I also managed to do 2 weeks sugar free too and then things things got a bit wobbly. I’m hoping a different approach this month will be more sustainable.
Yes the sugar gliders are native – they are one of the smallest of our marsupial possums.

Neil, good luck on having a sugar free September, I hope you do better with that goal than those of us who tried that in August managed. I also have no doubt that you will get to your goal of 90kg. Enjoy your day out with your dad.

GDSA, I’m really pleased to hear that you have finally got your weight loss moving again after all the frustration you’ve had. I hope your new kitchen continues to be a joy to prepare food in.

Cinque, I hope your energy has lasted. I have made a start on the cleaning and still have more to do this afternoon and tomorrow.

I went to an art exhibition with a friend yesterday afternoon. It was mixed media art made by a local community group in the western suburbs. I saw quite a lot that I liked and was intrigued by – especially those pieces that included textiles and threads.

I think we’ve gotten lucky with the weather here. It was beautiful sunny day yesterday, but rain was forecast for today. However it rained all night and now looks like the rain has cleared and the sun’s out. There will will be a few father’s day BBQ organisers who are breathing a sigh of relief!
I’m also glad I’ll be able to enjoy a walk this afternoon.

I got to the end of August with my best step count ever – over 64000 for the final week. My target for the week was 50000. Moving forward in September I am setting a minimum target rather than an increasing one. I don’t like having target I don’t think I can meet, but I love the challenge of beating targets I think are achievable – so I think setting an achievable minimum will encourage me to do as much as I can. So I’m setting 50,000 steps per week as a minimum for September. I have proved to myself over the last month that even when it’s wet and I’m very busy I can still easily exceed this target, so no excuses for not continuing to do so. I am now at 8 exercises in my strength/toning program. I’ve decided to keep it at this level with 2 weekly sessions and I’m going to focus on rotating exercises as the exercise physiologist suggested and also building up the reps as I’m able to.

I have already mentioned that instead of trying to eliminate processed foods and sugars I’m using a mindful approach this month. My goal is to learn to recognise when I really want something rather than eating for other reasons. I also need to retrain my tendency to eat too quickly, as it usually leads to eating more than I should. I’ve already started the mindful approach a couple of days ago I feel much calmer and more in control of food temptations already.
For example, yesterday I bought a lovely batard loaf of wholemeal sourdough. Normally what would happen is I’d slice it as soon as I got home. I’d eat both of the small end crusts while slicing, then I’d butter 2 more slices to eat with a cup of tea after I’d finished the slicing. On a bad day I’d go back for even more after that.
Yesterday I sliced the loaf without eating any bread. Then I buttered the 2 little end pieces and drizzled a teaspoon of honey over them. I put the rest of the bread into the freezer. I made a cup of tea and sat down and slowly enjoyed every mouthful. While it didn’t stop me from remembering that the rest of the bread was only a few steps away in the freezer, I was content to stop at what I’d just eaten. Taking the time to enjoy the flavours really does help me be satisfied with a small portion.

Now I have to see if I can make that mindfulness work at a cafe brunch.

Enjoy your day everyone.

Happy spring everyone! So glad we have moved into this time of year here (sorry Penguin and CalifDreamer; I know you’re moving into the cooler weather). I am really anticipating an improvement in my weight loss from this month onwards. In August, I gained 0.1 kg for the month, so basically stable. As Cinque and LJoyce have said, being on the basic 5:2 (or 4:3) but allowing normal eating on the other days is less likely to induce any bingeing, though my TDEE days will be around 1500-1600 calories, my final TDEE, not my current one. Still, it’s good to get used to that amount of food. I consider no food to be off limits, in moderation, and I stress, “in moderation”. I’ve 2 open packets of Tim-Tams in the fridge, open 2 weeks, and I’ve only eaten 4 biscuits from each packet. Not bad! I still have to make mainly sensible choices, though, or my cholesterol is likely to go up and my doctor will be unhappy 🙂 .

Neilithicman, you’re a star with your weight loss and sensible approach to eating and exercise as you lose. Good luck during your holiday.

Klondikekween, (almost) welcome home! It will be easier to control everything when you’re in your home environment, rather than having to hunt for the foodstuffs you prefer.

Anzac65, well done for surviving your horror day so successfully. I echo Cinque’s comments. You really did well, with the amount of stress, and I do hope you’ve stayed well despite your drenching en route to the bowling.

lgbran, you’re doing well, good for you. When to weigh is a personal choice. If it stresses you to weigh so often and see no changes, or temporary increases, weekly weighing, or no weighing and basing your loss on how your clothing feels are both fine alternatives. The dieticians used to recommend weekly weighing, but more recent studies have shown that it doesn’t matter which you do. You just need some way to monitor what’s happening, to prevent you from being in denial if the weight starts creeping up again.

GDayfromSA, so lovely to hear from you, and glad you’re still around. Sounds like the keto diet is working well for you, which is great. Whatever works and is sustainable.

Re my study data, I meet tomorrow with an expert in that area from my College, so let’s hope some useful information will emerge. I still have to arrange and do about another 17-20 interviews and transcribe them, but…. that’s still to come, and will happen over the next 2 months.

For the gardeners among us – I’ve given up on having a vegetable garden, as I refuse to feed the possums instead of me, so in the past week I bought and have planted several bird-attracting shrubs in the area instead, plus have put another bird bath there. That’s a good use of the space in my view, and will bring me pleasure. Sad about not being able to grow vegies, but oh, well.

Okay, catch you all next time!

Morning all, I had a nice dinner out with my dad, I got the chicken and bacon salad with cashews, avoided the chips and dessert so that was a win. I finally managed to get out for a couple of rounds of frisbee golf yesterday too after a month of losing my weekends to work, so that was a nice change. It was a brilliant day yesterday too, nice and sunny and mid teens temperatures. I’ll be fasting today and tomorrow as I had our monthly card evening at our friend’s place as a last gasp before a strict September. Lots of salty and starchy snacks so I’m likely to be retaining a bit of water. I’ll hopefully be able to sweat it out at the gym over the next couple of days.

Have a great day all.

Morning everyone. FD came and went uneventfully. I have popped in a couple of times to try and catch up with posts but had no time to post myself. Can’t remember much except LJ was using getting wet as an excuse for snacking; Cinque acquired a new car; Klond’s heading home; Penguin’s volunteering in the aviation museum during what’s left of the UK school holidays; CalifD is binge-watching shows on Netflix.

Anzac, yes I would def. love to meet you too. You really made me laugh about your work place requirements of team building, etc. My DD used to get so fed up at uni when they had mandatory ‘mindfulness’ meetings in which she would be required to listen to a square of chocolate. She always said she’d be a lot less stressed if she could just use the time to get on with what she actually needed to study instead of wasting time in sessions conducted by psychology students.

LJ, to answer your earlier question, the young couple that own this property haven’t arrived with the bulldozer yet so I assume we could stay a few more weeks. However, we have now booked our flights and will be heading over to Penguin territory in a couple of weeks. Can’t wait to see my DD. Although she has been so busy with work and setting up her townhouse, she still has a chat with me every morning so I get my ‘James Herriot’ fix. One benefit of waking at 4.30am.

Have a wonderful day all, I’m off to bridge to knock ’em dead. Or not.

Neil, I hope you get a pleasant surprise when you get home from work, to find they have made a good start to the reno.

Thin, good luck at bridge. I’m playing at a club nearby tomorrow morning, rather than the one I usually travel to.
I’m sure you’ll have a lovely time catching up with your daughter. I’m looking forward to hearing about the rest of your planned travels.

LJ, hope you do a little better at bridge than we – 3rd and not a great %.
Neil, tradespeople are the same the world over it seems. Unreliable and very little pride in their work.
What a quiet day on here today! Where are all the Monday fasters?

I’ve never learned to play bridge, but my friends and I play 500 once a month alternating at each others houses. We normally get through 2 or 3 games an evening but last weekend we had a mammoth 16-hand game that lasted around 3 hours.

Well apparently the builders finally turned up around 1:45pm but they managed to rip out the wall framing, move all the power-points and light switches and get everything tidied up in the 3-4 hours they were there.

Second of my B2B fast days today, I got by with a couple of handfuls of nuts, a cheese omelette and a broccoli/cranberry salad yesterday. I’ve got some lamb Rogan Josh today.

First day of Steptember today and I’ve put 4500 on my pedometer already by 8am.

Have a great day everyone, and I hope everyone joining me in fasting today has an easy run of it.

Ha, no Anzac we don’t have a different calendar, I’m doing the Steptember fundraiser to raise money for a Cerebral Palsy charity. I’ve done it every year for the past 3 years. It doesn’t run for all of September, just 4 full weeks. So the first day is today and the last day is 30th September. If anyone feels like throwing a couple of dollars towards the cause then my fundraising page is here

https://stept.io/06VAC7F

And if you want to find out more about it then the home page is here

https://www.steptember.org.nz/

Thanks very much lilymartin 🙂