Anzac, I’m very pleased to hear that you have a FD where things aren’t being derailed by work.

Lilymartin, I have an exercise program I do twice a week to gently build and tone muscle. I don’t think I have any specifically for the back, so thankyou for those ideas.

Neil, very pleased to hear that your builders made good progress despite their late start.

Cinque, I hope your mechanic has given you the thumbs up on your car purchase by now. It will be a relief to have something reliable for the years ahead. You can console your friend, who can no longer drive, by visiting her and taking her for scenic drives in her old car. I did that with my dad when he went into aged care – he just loved going out in his old car.

I had the nurse here this afternoon to do my infusion, but managed to squeeze in a 75 minute walk before she arrived. Although the morning and late afternoon have been chilly, the middle of the day was real spring weather. I went out in a skivvy and light jack and had to take the jacket off 10 minutes in. It was glorious weather for walking along quiet paths with all the trees coming into their new spring leaves.

I hope you are all getting s taste of spring too. Except for Penguin & Cali, I expect a break from the heat and into gentler weather would be welcome.

Hi everyone, good to read all your news. What a beautiful spring day we had today in Melbourne!

lgbran, don’t beat yourself up over Sunday’s EFS (epic face stuffing) day – just pick yourself up and keep going. You’re allowed an occasional breakout, especially for something like Father’s Day, and provided it doesn’t become a habit, you’ll be fine.

neilithicman, glad there’s been progress on the renovations. Frustrating when tradies don’t come on time. Incidentally, I think the only ones also on the September monthly forum are you,lilymartin and me, unless there are others lurking but not posting. I enjoy this forum for the ongoing encouragement and social aspects of the 5:2 WOL; lots of folk on the other forum just use it for accountability, and don’t chat much.

By the way, re 500 – many moons ago, my brother and I used to play 4-handed a lot with my parents, he and my mother, me and my father. When he got a girlfriend, we played 5-handed, so no-one had a set partner. My father chronically overbid his hand, and it was always so funny when his partner ended up being my brother’s girlfriend – she almost groaned whenever it happened. But, they still won more hands than they lost. These are memories of around 50 years ago! I then took up bridge, and played that for a few years thereafter.

thinatlast, travelling to the U.K., wow! – have a great trip. Seems like a lot of people are planning trips over the next little while. Congrats on the 3rd place in bridge. If over 50%, take it as a win.

LJoyce, sorry you missed out on the bridge. Hope your partner is better by next week.

Anzac65 and Cinque, yes, looking forward to the warmer weather, when I tend to drink more and eat less. Hoping my cat starts doing that, too. It seemed a fairly cold winter this year, and he has gained a noticeable amount of weight. Oh, and good that Maxx has been showing positive results from his doggy-training school.

Yesterday was very satisfactory, meeting with someone to look together at my research data. It seems like there are some results showing up which are statistically significant, which makes me very happy.

Hi to everyone else hovering in the background, and catch you all next time.

Hi all

Neil. Well done on the steps. I managed 12000+ today, it was easy as it was a sparkling spring day so plenty of incentive to get out. Glad your builder finally arrived. I hope that the work he did was correct, no power points in the wrong place etc. I’m surprised that you feel that you need extra motivation, you seem to be powering along quite well. I understand about moving your ultimate goal, I expected to be happy with 65k but now feel 63k is better and I am even thinking of 60k but that might take me into the scrawny but saggy area. I don’t need that.

Penguin. We name our public holidays like Queens Birthday etc., we even have one for a horse race and now we have one the day before our AFL grand final. We used to have Show Day when the Agricultural show is on but it now falls on school holidays so it is redundant. Some regional areas still have Show Day but it is only a half-day. I had always wondered if your Bank Holidays had any significance. Yes, that is Mr K leaning on the wing.

Anzac. You certainly didn’t appear stand-offish. I thought you were very warm and pleasant. I hope that the pressure eases up soon, surely once the program is launched everything will get easier. Sounds like you have plenty of time in lieu to take once it goes live. Maxx would have been very endearing with his high5 and sit stay-come is quite hard for dogs to master so he deserves some high 5’s for that. Hope that FD worked as you planned.

LJ. You should encourage your niece to get out and make some sandcastles too, the kids would love to see their mum all nice and dirty. Sounds like you have a very workable plan for September, nothing off limits just eaten with care. The sugar gliders are very endearing. Do they come out of there cage much and what do they do when they are active?

Betsy. You have a very good excuse for not popping in. You must be glad that you have completed that part of the work and you are showing evidence of a trend. Isn’t Melbourne weather delightful when it wants to be.

Quakka. I did enjoy the seafood offerings from Eden, I will miss the beautiful quality of fish and seafood we have been enjoying. Are you maintaining or are you still losing, whatever it is you certainly seem to be in a great place.

Cinque. Thanks for all your hard work with the weather, it was really pleasant yesterday but today was even better and Bobby and I really enjoyed a walk to our local leash-free park in between traipsing in and out of the caravan, unloading everything. What is the news on your car, hope it is all positive. I like the suggestion that you can take your friend on outings so that she can still enjoy it. There is some pretty country where she lives. I have started the FutureLearn course today, the one I accidentally enrolled in, it seems to be a bit of reading only at the moment and that is right up my alley. Our course starts tomorrow and I’m looking forward to it. I think you have plenty of time to do each module so you won’t have to push yourself too hard.

LG. I’m glad you are tackling your health issues so vigorously. I completely understand about riding your bike on the road. We have a fairly good network of bike tracks near us and I’m pleased OH mostly uses them. Funny how we fancy a treat and then when we eat it, it’s not as good as we remembered. Just have to bear that in mind next time temptation calls. How did you cook your eggs, I haven’t tried using it for that yet. I did try haloumi but not happy with result. Needs more work. I am inspired to try veggie gardening again. I have a few herbs and one healthy plant of rainbow chard which has flourished over winter. Shows I can do it.

Gday. Great to hear from you with such positive news. Hope that you can continue to have success. I’m not familiar with the requirements of a Keto diet but you obviously know how to make it work for you. Enjoy your holiday and time with your DD.

Cali. I’m just about to watch Glitch. It looks intriguing, you are getting into all things Oz, even being an Aussie Uni student.

Thin. I heard of a seminar which required executives to sit in the middle of a room and be a ‘humming mushroom’. I’d prefer to listen to chocolate. How exciting that you are heading to England. Will you be staying long, visiting your old haunts etc. more travel tales.

Well, we are home and it’s great to be here although we did have a hiccup on the way. 8000km travelled and we waited until we were about 200k from home and blew out a caravan tyre. On a busy road and on the road side. I do have to mention that I have a guardian angel, he/she doesn’t stop me from having car troubles but always makes sure it happens where I can get help There was a small farm gate shop near where we stopped and the farmer who owns it happened to be there even though it was supposed to be his day off. He had all the stuff we needed, an extra jack and blocks of wood etc as we had finished in a bit of a ditch. Needless to say, I bought generously from his shop which actually had some great items. Arrived 2 hours after we expected and unfortunately, there was one last sting in the tail. The electric connection between the car and the caravan had overheated and fused together. Poor OH spent an hour lying on the road (out of range of passing traffic) trying to pry it apart. He was a little frazzled at the end of the day. We are both now relaxing after emptying the caravan and starting the marathon clothes washing event. Wardrobe audit next.

Good morning, such lovely posts to catch up on this morning

My FD went very well and I tried a handful of the carbless fatless noodles that my friend gave me for the first time. They were awesome and added some bulk to the turkey bolognaise I had in cos lettuce. Unfortunately the scales only dipped 100g this morning (sigh) but perhaps it will catch up tomorrow

I was quite hungry later after dinner so had 10 raw almonds and that did the trick. I was ravenous this morning and had my usual mid-week NFD brekkie of a piece of rye mountain bread with a slice of lean ham. It didn’t even touch the sides and my brain was telling me to get some toast. Instead I took a mandarin from the fruit box (we got one twice a week) and also had a big glass of Metamucil and am now enjoying a black coffee. I’m not hungry anymore. Yay!

Glad you finally made it home Klondie and sorry about the tyre. That must have been very frightening given you were on a busy road. So glad you were able to get it fixed quickly. Phew! Enjoy the wardrobe audit. I’m so looking forward to having a big clean out when I get to goal.

LJ, I love reading your musings about appetite, temptation and all the human things we go through on a day to day basis on this journey. It really helps to know all of us go through this and we are not alone

How exciting that your research data is showing signification results Betsy! That must make all of that hard work seem worth it. Fingers crossed it just gets better and better.

You are still providing massive motivation Neil, thank you. 18,000 steps – wow. And massive congratulations on your 37.2 kilos. It feels like it has only taken you a few weeks but that is because time is simply flying past.

I am so determined to see that rare and elusive 83 this week. 84.2 today so it certainly isn’t far off. I have fruit and a handful of almonds for snacks today and Wednesday is my day off from salad at lunch so I have a ham and salad sandwich on low carb bread. Not sure what hubby has in mind for dinner but whatever it is I will have a small portion and tomorrow see that #$#@@ number on the scales.

Have an awesome day all

Cinque, my boys used to play Wizard 101, now one plays Roblox and the other plays minecraft. When I play games (a lot less these days than I used to since my weekends seem to involve a lot of work now) I play old school games. I found an Aussie site that has all the old games I used to play in the 1990s-early 2000s really cheap, as well as more recent ones, so I play Heroes of Might and Magic III and Unreal.

https://www.gog.com/

Ha Neil, nice to know someone else plays computer games. Minecraft is my daughter’s favourite. I started off hating how violent they all were, but when my daughter got Diablo 2 (a couple of decades ago) I was soon killing monsters with the best of them. Wizard 101 is the only one I have kept enjoying. Not the only oldie there!

Good Morning everyone

I’m still here and still fasting, just been crazy busy at work as all the summer stock rolls in. I walked in on Monday morning to a full receiving dock and then had just made a dent in that and another 30 boxes arrived. The day finished looking like I hadn’t even touched the stock on the dock even though I had been working solidly all day! Then yesterday I had just finished all the stock and cleaned up the work area and the bell rang and I received another delivery, this time only 5 boxes though. Oh well, I love being busy 🙂

Monday FD went well and today is my Wednesday FD. I woke up feeling hungry and am still feeling quite hungry. I have an egg salad to have for 3pm if I make it that far and some pumpkin soup for dinner. I need some of your positive vibes friends 🙂

Klondi, your story of the caravan tyre blowing out reminds me of a time when we were going to Victoria for a holiday whilst towing our boat. We had taken a 30km dirt road detour off the highway out to a beach area and pulled up to have a look around. As soon as we got out of the ute my OH walked towards the boat and then started swearing, alot! We had done a bearing in one of the trailer wheels and he could smell it which alerted him to the fact. We were lucky to make it out to the beach as it was, so there was no way we were going to make it to the next town or even back out to the highway. Also there was no phone reception so we were basically up ship creek without a paddle. On the way out there we noticed a small sign saying something about a bush camp with an arrow pointing down another dirt road. We limped back out to where the sign was and turned in, not knowing how far this “bush camp” was. The whole time we were stressing and I was waiting for the wheel to fall off! A long story cut short, we ended up getting to this camp and they had some sites available (ridiculously expensive, for just a sandy, “big ant’ infested site with no hot water showers and one eco toilet!) Of course it was the weekend so the next morning we had to drive into Bairnsdale (a 1.5 hour drive) as nothing else was open at the tiny little town nearby. You talked about guardian angels, Klondi. The camp manager allocated us a site next to a couple that were staying there with their friends both in their respective vans and had family coming later in the week to join them. They lived nearby and so the man had his work ute with him as he was still working for a couple of days. The amazing thing is that he had every tool in his ute that OH needed to get this bearing off and the new one put in and was happy to lend them to us. We bought him a box of beer before we went on our way. We were so grateful to him.
Needless to say, it was a good lesson learned for us and we are now prepared for bearing issues on road trips.

Klondi, you asked if I am maintaining or still losing. At the moment I am mostly maintaining and I’m just happy to let my body do what it wants as long as it is not increasing in weight. I’m still doing two FD’s per week although I had a failure last Wednesday. It’s my first failure in a long, long time so I have put it behind me and am just looking forward.

Heroes of Might and Magic! OH and I played the original version of that game about 20 years ago. We played it on the oldest PC and it was so slow! You could set your horse off to move and go make a cuppa and be back in time to see him just arriving at the destination! lol
Thanks for the site, Neil. I’ll have to look it up.

Well I best go and do some work in case I get another big lot of stock in.
I hope you all have a lovely day x

Hi again,
just about to go shopping, but saw your post Quacka. It is beyond my knowledge but I searched ‘cloudy fermentation’ here https://www.reddit.com/r/fermentation and I gather cloudiness is normal for a lacto fermentation (which is what most of them are) and a sign your cauliflower is still fermenting. If you think it has fermented enough, I understand that adding some salt or vinegar will stop further fermentation, also keep it in the coldest part of your fridge.
Isn’t it fascinating.

Good morning everyone

It’s just before 6am and I thought to post before I go to work early and try to catch up on this work (another two pallets delivered yesterday lunch time). I’ve been awake since 3:30am, it seems to be the story of this week although one morning it was 2:30am.

I’m a bit down as I failed another FD yesterday, second one in only two weeks. I’m not sure where the duck that was quacking about non-negotiable no nonsense FDs just a couple of weeks ago has gone? I was so hungry all day yesterday and my pumpkin soup just didn’t do the job last night. I had egg salad at lunchtime so that was protein and it should have been plenty but the hunger demon was just at me. ALL DAY. So I overate last night. Probably a 900 cal day but still it is NOT a FD.
I’ve actually been hungry all week and it got me thinking, why? I’ve also been craving sugar which is a very rare occurrence for me, like cake seems so inviting even though I don’t really like it and it always makes me sick in the tummy when I do have some. So, Monday morning I opened a new brand of almond milk that is “great for frothing”. Unusually, I didn’t read the ingredients when I bought it, probably because I knew it would have some gums or something in it to make it able to be frothed. I didn’t want it for frothing, mind you, I just thought it might be good for putting in coffee as it wouldn’t split, which it didn’t. A bell went off in my head and I thought “maybe the new almond milk has sugar in it”. Yep, sure enough, 2nd and 3rd ingredients are sugar and maltodextrin. 🙁
It’s not an excuse but just me trying to understand why this uncontrollable hunger all week. So there you go. I need to avoid sugar, which I usually do but it’s those sneaky ones you have to watch out for.
So next week is another week. I’m putting it behind me (again) and looking forward. I’m keeping my positivity strong and next week I WILL be completing two NNFDs (no nonsense FDs) without having two or three cups of sugar laden tea in the morning!

Klondi, I’ve been meaning to ask, how did you cook the mussels?
Cinque, thanks for the link to the fermenting info. It has inspired me to try some more! A very interesting site.
LJ, hope you are feeling better today. Yes, I always find plenty of shoes that I would like to buy each season but then I remember exactly how many I already have (and how many actually get worn from that cupboard full). I did try on a beautiful wedge yesterday that I absolutely love. It’s only $129.95 and I get a staff discount off that so I may splurge on that one. If I get time I will take a photo and post it later.

Hi to everyone else. Sorry this post was all about me. Don’t worry, I’m not giving up!

Take care xx

Good morning

Hey Quacka, I’m sorry about yesterday; we all have our ups and downs, especially me! After such a good FD on Tuesday I had a shocker yesterday afternoon. There was an afternoon tea that I avoided but then the brutes brought all the leftovers out and put them on the snack table that happens to sit directly behind me. Normally it just has chocolates on it which I can easily avoid, but they had chips and biscuits. I had a very very stressful day and ended up in an EFS frenzy. The tight jacket image left me – briefly – and when it came back I was SO angry at myself.

We just have to move on, just like you said.

Today is a FD and I just unpacked my lunch and found hubby forgot to pack the thai dressing I always make. It is so important as the salad tastes pretty awful without it so I will have to start checking my lunch pack myself. Yesterday he forgot my carrots which make my smallish NFD lunch stretch so that may have been a contributing factor to the EFS. I have some balsamic dressing here so that will have to do.

Sorry you weren’t feeling well yesterday morning LJ. Hope you are feeling better today.

Cinque, Maxx is shedding his winter coat at the moment and the amount of fur that builds up every day is incredible. I had to miss dog training on Sunday to cope with it. It’s driving me nuts! It is bad enough when he isn’t doing an official moult. Good luck dealing with Miso fur balls

OK I have to prepare for two icky meetings without thinking about food. Will go now and make coffee. Have a great day

Klondi, welcome home! And what is a homecoming without at least a little excitement on the final leg of your trip? Glad your guardian angel had your back and sent that farmer with all the tools needed to change that tyre. I think by the time we get to be our age we have quite a few guardian angels to look out for us. Too bad they can’t help with unpacking the caravan and washing all those clothes! I’ll be anxious to hear how you like “Glitch”. We finished the 2 seasons a couple days ago. It seems less strange once you get into the second episode. The first just seemed bizarre.

Cinque, I’m sorry that car didn’t turn out to be better. I asked OH about 3 cylinder cars and he said they don’t usually run well. Like LJ said, maybe your mechanic can keep an eye out for a replacement.

Quacka, cow’s milk has lactose which is a type of natural sugar and gives milk it’s sweet-ish taste. I usually look for non-dairy creamers with some type of sugar because they taste closer to milk or cream than the unsweetened variety. I use about a tbs of creamer in my coffee or tea which isn’t a lot of sugar, usually about 20 calories per tbs. (On FD I often drink it black.) If I were making a latte or other fancy drink I would look at unsweetened ones but for a cuppa or two, I don’t worry about that small amount of sugar. I consider it the lactose replacement. I have had a couple of failed FD’s in the last week too, something that is very rare for me. It wasn’t due to hunger, but more to do with my mood or boredom I guess. My weight has reflected this. I simply must do my two FD’s per week if I am to maintain and lose the couple kg’s that have now crept up. More walking would certainly help. The binge watching the TV shows and neglecting exercise certainly doesn’t help.

LJ, sorry your spring weather disappeared again. Our temps have been up and down, but at least around 30 during the day. It’s too bad we can’t combine California’s weather with your southern state’s weather and have moderate temperatures all year round and some rain interspersed with the good weather. It would be great for our gardens and the fear of fires would be greatly diminished. I guess that type of weather would be more like Anzac’s.

Neil, as usual you are knocking those weight loss goals out of the park. Your 89.9 goal isn’t very far away anymore!

Anzac and Cinque, pet hair is just a natural thing around here. Cooper doesn’t shed, but the two cats do. They stay upstairs these days because Cooper is jealous and likes to chase them.

Hope everyone else is going well and losing or maintaining.

Hey Cali, good morning! Or rather good evening!

My fail yesterday was an NFD but in order to get into this coat my NFD’s have to be under TDEE and I went way over yesterday

I just had the idea to try the coat on every night to remind myself how uncomfortable it is.
I too have to get back into walking more – not just for weight loss but also to get fit for walking everywhere on our trip.

Yes FD’s must be non-negotiable. Here is a new acronym for us all: NNNNFD (non-negotiable, no nonsense fast day). I stole that from Quacka actually :)

Good morning,

Quacka, as well as sneaky added sugar you have been coping with NOT ENOUGH SLEEP. This is huge in making you feel hungry, hungry for the wrong things, and hard to make good decisions for yourself. (I know this from sad experience, but the science shows it too.)

So while you are doing your best to get better sleep, I think the best tip is to do what you are doing: try to avoid added sugars and simple carbs. Try to eat as many veggies as you can rather than other foods. Be kind to yourself.
Maybe organise 800 calorie fast days if you have a day that begins before 5am?

Anzac, oops. Hooray that yesterday is over and gone. Good luck today. Yes we do have to remember our minions are human 😉 I hope dear hubby manages the lunches well for the next few weeks though.
Good luck finding times to walk, it is an excellent idea. Trying the jacket on might work best at the end of fast days? That will give you a few days each time and might be more encouraging.

I can hear crickets and see tumbleweed rolling through this thread, it’s pretty quiet here at the moment.

Quieter day on the step count for me yesterday. The weather was atrocious so I didn’t go for my evening walk so I ended up at 11,101 steps. I’m planning on pushing the steps on days that the weather is nice so I’ve got some leeway on days where it’s not quite so nice. Those two 18,000+ step days on Tuesday and Wednesday mean I’m still over my average of 15,000 that I’m aiming for. Still keeping up my sit-ups, 50 a day seems to be a good manageable number.

I had a bit of a nightmare fast day yesterday. The day was fine, I had biltong as a snack around midday and Rogan Josh for my late lunch (300-400 calories total), when I got home I was fine and I made a big vegetable quiche for the family dinner, but then I suddenly became ravenous. I had a slice of cheese and a tablespoon of peanut butter to try and kill the cravings but that didn’t work, I was craving sweet food. I tried a couple of squares of 90% dark chocolate but that didn’t work, I tried a teaspoon of honey but that didn’t work either. I ended up having a row of milk chocolate that my wife had stashed in the cupboard and a couple of tablespoons of goody gumdrop icecream. It wasn’t a real binge, but it still put me well over the 800 calories I normally eat on fast days and threw out my goal of no added sugar for the month.

I’m planning on a semi-fast day today. I’ll aim for halfway between the calories I normally eat on fast days and what I normally eat on non fast days, so somewhere from 1200-1500 calories. I have some leftover chilli beans and salad for lunch and I’m planning on making some pork burgers for dinner, I’ll have mine sans bun of course.

I hope everyone is ok and I hope to hear from you all soon.

Good afternoon.

Thankyou for your concern over the lung infection. The antibiotics have already kicked in and I’m not coughing. I did not manage to avoid the kids very well last night – especially miss6 as she always wants to cuddle close. As I wasn’t coughing I’m hoping that means she’ll be ok.

I am still doing today’s FD but it’s a challenging one. Babysitting ended really late and I didn’t get home until 10:30 and felt quite exhausted. For some reason nightmares woke me up at 4:30 and I couldn’t get back to sleep so I am very tired today. I also have a stiff joints and back pain today which mean I need anti-inflammatories and also pain killers – both of which have to be taken with food. I have figured out how to stay around 500cals and still manage these complications. I had a small banana at 9am so I could take some meds. I have 2 boiled eggs and 1/2 punnet of strawberries in the fridge which I can use as needed for further meds. Dinner is pumpkin-lemon soup, which I chose because it’s my lowest calorie dinner option and I knew I needed room for more snacks today. That all leaves me just enough room for milk in my cups of tea. The key thing that makes this work for me is that today I didn’t go to bridge and can stay home all day. If I’d had bridge or if I was still in the workforce I would probably have reschedule the FD.

Anzac, the scales are just teasing you aren’t they. Remember to keep trying that jacket on once a week s I suspect there will be some weeks when the scales don’t move but the jacket feels better – often those things don’t align.

Neil, given how rarely you have a bad FD I think you can wear this little setback.

Cinque, I hope your weather has improved – it’s taken a turn for the worst here.

There will be no walking today as I am too tired and sore and the weather is very unforgiving. It’s been raining most of the day and the wind is blowing a gale.
I’m going to have to turn the ducted heating back on again. The combination of low calories, not moving much and a cold day has me feeling really chilled today. I might have to resort to a soak in a hot bath later – although I risk falling asleep in it!

Hello friends

Tada! Drumroll please…..

News!

It’s exciting!

83.9!!!

It’s no coincidence that I increased my exercise last week – just a little bit – and broke through the plateau

Whoo hoo

Hope everyone is having a lovely Saturday, will check in properly later

Hell everyone,
Cold grey Saturday morning here in my part of Melbourne, but ooh a little bit of sun just broke through,

and now it is gone…

Neil sympathy for your nightmare fast day, but who knows, your body might have had good reason to demand food fast. Hope today is a good one.

Anzac, hooray! the 83’s! https://media1.tenor.com/images/fdd5830cc390577b9121adf540d0121b/tenor.gif?itemid=5645542
Now to consolidate and set!
Enjoy having this weekend which is just for you!

LJoyce, I hope you were able to snuggle up and look after yourself. Heater on, hot bath, and I hope you had something lovely to watch and doze through (after your bath 😉 ).
Heater is on here today. Miso the cat approves.

Betsy, hi. There is nothing as nice as a green garden with plenty of birdbaths making the birds happy. (I guess that means you wouldn’t take Miso either).
Good point about my car decision, but I did feel for my friends. They made a careful decision when they bought the car and can’t understand what problems my mechanics would have with it, and feared the mechanics were ripping me off by making me keep a car that would need more work. But I think we have got over that awkwardness, and I now have my little red echo back.

On Thursday I started that ‘Losing Weight’ course that Klondi and Cali and I are doing on line. Good grief I make hard work of things. The only way I could find to make things work was to print pages out, which I am sure isn’t appropriate for an online course. I will find the app for my ipad and see if that works better.
In the meantime I am rolling my eyes at the two pieces of info they seemed most keen for us to learn (after going through sensible things like have your scales on carpet). They are 1) your weight loss goal should be 5% of your current weight and b) Buy scales, you can’t lose weight safely without regular weighing.

I am very annoyed, being a community development worker who avoids ‘shoulds’ and that everyone needs to do it the same way. If they just said a 5% weightloss goal can be a useful starting point, and scales are a useful tool, I’d agree with them, but they seemed to me to be presented as the main things we had to learn and show we understood ie that weight loss can’t be achieved without them.
Did you read it that way Klondi and Cali?

Anyway, off to find the app.

Cheers all.

Hooray!!! Well done on the plateau buster Anzac !! Hopefully things pick up for you now you’ve broken through it.

Unintentional fast day today. We were running around town all morning and by the time we got home I didn’t have chance to have lunch before heading out to help with our junior tennis open day. I lasted until 3:30pm on a handful of cashews, a cup of tea and a cup of coffee. I had a 3-egg bacon and cheese omelette when I got home, and that meant I was too full for dinner, so I’ve had only about 800-900 calories today

Oh, and my steps are back up to over 18,000 today, I had to feed my parents’ cat today so I took the opportunity to go for a couple of dance walks (I listen to music while I walk and can’t help grooving along as I walk. It must look strange to anyone who sees me)

Anzac, congratulations on getting into the 83’s! That’s such a positive step forward. It should be good motivation to charge ahead, into the 82’s. If you think it was the exercise that pushed you, that’s a good thing to try to fit into your busy schedule. Did you try on your jacket? I always notice my jeans gradually feeling looser over the course of a FD. It’s probably water weight from consuming less salt, but it always makes me feel good.

Cinque, I agree with all of your comments about the diet myths course. I hope it won’t be too simplistic in the weeks to follow.
I think it was LJ or Lindsay who originally posted a link to some FutureLearn courses a couple weeks ago. They had several interesting looking titles and I couldn’t resist this one: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/food-for-thought I decided to join because it looked like it touched on some of the things we’ve discussed on this forum, about the gut biome. It’s another free course and goes for 5 weeks. It started on Sept 2 so still time to join. The first week’s lectures and lessons concentrated on the connection of our brains to our gut and the blood-brain barrier. Super interesting. I stayed up late listening to it the first night and clicked on a couple of linked YouTube videos that the professor suggested in response to questions in the discussion. I’ve always been interested in why some things can cross the blood-brain barrier and others can’t. And why the brain’s preferred food is glucose (like corn or tapioca syrup) and how it converts other foods to glucose.

Cinque, your red Echo is a Toyota, right? I think it’s marketed as a Toyota Yaris here. It’s a nice looking car. I drive a Toyota and have had others in the past. They seem to be very dependable cars. It’s nice that you have a mechanic there that you can trust. I think you made the right decision about not getting that other car. Even though it’s an uncomfortable situation with your friends now, it might have been more uncomfortable if you bought the car and had lots of problems with it.

LJ, glad your lung infection is getting better. I also find that I need a little more added salt on FD’s. Vegemite on sourdough toast or on crackers is one of my favorite sources. I try not to eat it too late in the day though so I don’t retain a lot of water for the next day’s weigh-in.

Lindsay, good to hear that you’re getting away for a few days break. I hope everything works out re getting the new pup. Rosy is a great name for her. Good to hear that nasty girl has been replaced by a calmer queen. What happened to Ms Nasty Pants?

Neil, I think unintended FD’s are the best kind! Staying busy always helps. I can imagine your neighbors wondering who that skinny guy is who’s out dancing down the street. 😁 (Makes me think of the song, “Dancing in the Street” by Martha and the Vandellas.)

Betsy, good to hear from you again.

Good morning everyone, Sunday fast day for me.

A change is as good as a holiday Thin! At least I hope it is, as you enjoy your barley soup and konjac noodles today.

I’ve got dashi already made so I just need to soak yuba for my soup (hooray I have my favourite brand again) and some brothy celery and kimchi soup with a boiled egg for my early afternoon meal.

Lindsay, so glad the evil queen is gone, and hoping the new one is a darling.
More puppy tales to come 🙂 , and photos I hope.
Won’t you enjoy seeing your shoes walk around the island. And won’t all those seeds make the marmalade set! Good marmalade is the spread I miss most.
But then your jar of honey sounds just gorgeous, and I miss that spread on home made bread too.
Enjoy that weekend!

Cali, I was so glad to read your post and know it wasn’t just me getting frustrated with that course. When I got the app downloaded I reread and realised the log book stuff isn’t assessed and the only job for this session is to discuss the pros and cons of weighing on the forum. Luckily I have had some practice in discussing things on forums!

I’m wondering if they were so prescriptive about weighing in the hope it would make a good discussion. Anyway I have discussed away, so we will see what happens next.

Yes my car is a Toyota (my mechanics favourite) aka Yaris, and I feel confident I made the right decision. I had a good rest day yesterday.

While resting I had my second go at Jamie Oliver’s recipe for chili con carne which I am converting to pressure cooker (which needs a LOT less liquid). I had to do quite a lots of ‘oops I haven’t got that, I’ll use this instead’ and still made a huge pot of deliciousness, but I think next time I’ll have it perfected. I’ve made it extra red kidney beanish but I am loving the brisket.

Best wishes all

Good afternoon

We have been holed up most of this weekend to avoid an arctic wind that has been blowing. We headed to dog school this morning in light jackets because it seemed the wind had gone but it had only temporarily abated. I could only last 5 minutes before I headed back to the warm car as it was absolutely freezing and we only had one emergency warm jacket in the car so I left it with hubby. I’m so disappointed because that is now two weeks in a row I’ve missed watching and hubby said Maxx was a total star again and even did the agility course off leash. Next week it is closed but the following week I don’t care if it’s snowing.

I still forced myself to do a long walk today and I felt so much better for doing it.

Thin, we fly out on the 1st December and time is simply flying past. It sounds like you are heading over there soon too

LInsday, a puppy!! Oh how cute! I can’t wait to see pics. I do love setters and hubby said he had one once and it was smart and lovely.’

LJ is that awful lung infection a bit better? I hope you had a lovely walk and afternoon tea. What a good idea baking mini versions to control your portion. I did the same with Coles ice creams; I allow myself two per week but I buy the 6 pack mini version for me and the 4 pack larger one for hubby.

Cinque, my mouth is watering at your ‘big pot of deliciousness’ chilli con carne. I do love Jamie Oliver and I think he always has the best of intentions and his recipes are simple enough even for fairly novice cooks to follow.

Cali, I suffer from foot and leg cramps and I find they increase on FD’s, presumably because we have less salt. I add a bit of salt to whatever I have for dinner just on FD’s. Banana’s are good for cramps too so I will sometimes have a small one on FD’s

Neil I laughed at your dance walks. I find myself unintentionally doing the same when I walk with music. Who cares? We both obviously love music and dancing is one of the joys of life.

OK, the kitchen is calling as I haven’t got around to cleaning it yet. I am not a great house keeper but I do keep the kitchen spotless. With Maxx having his winter moult the floors look like it’s been snowing dog hair and I only vacuumed yesterday. Hubby said he will do it again tomorrow before Dad comes for dinner.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday friends, chat soon 🙂

Cinque, hurray, back on Sunday fasts! I can’t say I enjoyed those konjac noodles ready made in the packet but they served a purpose in that they were handy. I imagine tinned dog food would have a similar texture as the bits of tofu (I think that’s what it was).

It is definitely harder to get through a FD when you only practice one per week. But one is better than none and I’m still under 57kg so I will continue with this regime for a while.

Anzac, you are experiencing quite different weather from us. It’s 25C today and 30C forecast tomorrow! Oh no, I might have to unpack summer clothes before we leave. And they’re vacuum packed. How’s Maxx’s training working out? 83kg, yay!

LJ, my partner and I could never quite come to grips with signalling because there was so much else to think about at the time. But I am more in tune with when my partner might be void in a suit and can sometimes work out when to lead that suit to her. Mine’s a Corolla too. We have the Levin version. The buyer has been seeking a Levin for some time and couldn’t believe his luck when he stumbled across ours (which wasn’t for sale at the time) while attending our garage sale. I can’t believe our luck because he is letting us keep it until the day we leave. He’s even taking us on to the airport. All done on a handshake. There are some lovely people around.

We have another week or so to go, LJ. When I finally get some time to relax and start posting properly again, I will have to find out whether I am still accepted here or whether I’ll need to join the Fat Busting Brits!

Hi all, I got out for a walk this afternoon and played a couple of rounds of frisbee golf, managed to amass 15600 steps. It definitely wasn’t a fast day today, unintentional or otherwise. I didn’t go crazy, I was somewhere in between my BMR and my TDEE so it has been a successful weekend

I had fun at the tennis open day, I turned up and told the club president that I was rostered on to do the bbq, she stared at me for a minute and then said “oh my god I didn’t recognise you! How are you Neil?” I had several other members ask me what I had been doing to get in shape. I realised that none of them had seen me since the season finished last summer 6 months and about 30 kilos ago 😁😁😁

Good morning all

Quick post as I am preparing for a huge demonstration of all the work I’ve done here and this time there are business people in the room. And other people who love nothing more than finding fault. GAH! My team will be there though, and they are so supportive so it hopefully won’t be too bad. Could I have forum positive thinking power for 9.30am to 11.30am (Sydney time) today please?

Still 83.9 but I’m ok with that as weekends are for maintaining, not losing. I would dearly like to lose a whole kilo this week….let’s see how we go

Good morning everyone

Sending positive thoughts your way Anzac and congratulations on breaking into the 83’s. It’s a great feeling when that second number goes down.

Thank you all for your support re my failed FD’s. They are behind me now and I am on a NNNNFD today. I have bought some tins of Tuno so I have one to eat for 3pm and that will get me through to a veggie and very small steak dinner. My weight is still maintaining around the 66kg mark but last week I didn’t see the 65’s because of my failed FD. Very close but no 5 in that number. This week I will see it for sure.

We are planning on going camping in a couple of weeks so I think I will be doing B2B FDs as we will arriving at the campground on Wednesday afternoon which is my usual second FD.

Last Friday I made a really yummy low calorie snack that I thought some of you might like to try. It’s Nori sheets (the seaweed that sushi is made with) with flavourings brushed on and then baked until they go crispy. I made two different batches one with Wasabi and soy and the other with Frank’s hot sauce. They are made with three layers and oil is sprayed in between before brushing on the flavouring. I’m going to try it next time without the oil as I think it will work just fine. The recipe stated that the oil is to stop the flavourings soaking into the Nori but I don’t think it did that anyway. Very low calorie snack and really yummy. I think it would work with Miso too and also powdered flavourings like spices etc. I’ll post a photo up.

Work will slow down a lot this week so I will be able to read more of your lovely posts. Take care everyone x