Hello friends,
I am so fortunate, at the start of this fast day, to be sitting in coolness and listening to the sound of light rain making my garden very happy. (Melbourne). It is a big raincloud, I am so hoping it does lots of fire damping, it would be such a great help.

JellyBones, congratulations on such a good amount of excess weight gone! Oh dear, husbands can say the most dreadful things! Lucky you are here and can get proper kudos!
I had to lose about 20kg before people started exclaiming, but even a couple of kilos and clothes start feeling more comfortable, and the mirror shows you are looking healthier. Isn’t it lovely!
Great news that you and your husband are both doing 5:2, that should make it so much easier.
Fingers crossed Tasmania gets an easy fire season, last years was awful.

LJoyce, I bet all those strength building sessions mean you have muscles stretched and needing to hold water, so all your good work will show up in just a little while.
So exciting to hear you are going traveling. Such a good decision!

Having thrown those larger clothes away is very good impetus to get back to serious 5:2, Betsy and LJoyce (and a few others, and a little bit me too). My maintenance has been a bit lax over the last year and so I am also getting back to fasty fast days. Not much leeway when I am so sedentary (I have a chronic illness JellyBones, CFS and am currently quite bad and mostly housebound).

Cali, news this morning that the smoke cloud from the east coast fires is now larger than the U.S. https://www.severe-weather.eu/global-weather/australia-fire-animation-large-smoke-cloud-fa/

Such terrible terrible news from Kangaroo Island of those two lives lost, and I am so devastated to think of the millions of wildlives, probably including whole species, that are lost.

Off to make a big cup of tea. Hooray for tea on fast days. Best wishes all.

Morning. Cooler conditions down south reported on the news this morning, but unlikely to bring any immediate respite. And more sad news overnight.

Calif, we are fine on Straddie. We had a large fire a few months ago in inaccessible land a few kilometres from us, and that cleared out a lot of undergrowth, and we also have a very active Rural Fire Service which monitors and controls. It’s quite a large island – second largest sand island in the world, in fact, at about 38 x 11 kilometres. (Fraser Island up the coast is the largest, Moreton Island in the Bay off Brisbane the third). Straddie is Quandamooka land and mostly national park, and is well cared for, but we do get fires …just not this time so far.

Penguin sorry to hear about your OH’s foot, and your knee. I like to think that Christmas weight isn’t ‘real’ weight … as long as it’s gone by January’s end When it goes on quickly, it tends to depart the same way. Your grandchildren sound fine young people. How quickly they grow up, and learn I say this as I watch Miss 6 absolutely absorbed in her books, when just a year or so ago we had to read them to her.

JellyBones it’s the first couple of kilos that are often the hardest but you’ve made a start, so you can cock a snoot at Mr JB and tell him to come back when he’s done the same!

I’m hungry again this morning. We went to a live performance last night with my eldest brother and SIL, who offered us soup before we wandered down to the show, but because they are vegans, and I am eschewing carbs, I declined. So, watching the clock till my IF timetable says it’s time to eat. Just an hour to go.

It seems trite to talk about weight and food in the light of all that’s happening. Hope those of you in the fire/smoke zone are doing okay.

Evening all.

Well done on a big weekly loss Jelly. It’s a bit harsh to say that 1.8 kilos won’t make a difference. The weight wouldn’t have come on overnight when you were gaining so of course it’s not going to all disappear overnight when you’re losing it. All we can do is string together the losses week after week and it all adds up.

Oh dear Penguin, you’re in the wars. Hopefully you can heal up pretty quickly. 2019 was a bad year for us too. My dad broke his leg, my son and two of my nephews broke their arms and I broke a finger. Hopefully 2020 will be more accident free.

Unfortunately I’m back to work tomorrow after over 3 weeks off work and I’m not looking forward to it. Although it will allow me to get a bit more routine in my eating. I’ve been a bit all over the place these holidays, but my weight has been reasonably consistent.

While those of you in Australia are hoping to see the end of fires, I spent today preparing to light a whole lot of them. I found someone selling a whole lot of Wattle firewood so I’m stocking up for winter, although with what the weather has been like recently you’d think we were already in it. It has been rainy and only around 11 or 12 degrees and forecast to be the same for most of the coming week.

I hope you are all having a great and safe New Year so far and I’ll check in with everyone tomorrow.

Good day everyone, it is my lovely morning after fast day. What a great feeling it is. And my breakfast tastes lovely.

It is still cool and damp, but for the first time the smoke is thick enough here that I am keeping the house closed and not going outside.

Neil, I am thinking of you back at work, I hope you can find a bit of pleasure in at least part of your duties, and can enjoy the discipline it brings back to your life. Maybe that new job will turn up this year.

2019 was a horrible one for me, healthwise, too, so I am hoping 2020 will be a good one.

LJoyce, I hope the latest birthday cake turned out as well as the last. It is lovely to read of the relationships you have with your young relatives. Aunties are the best.
What lovely things you are shopping for at the moment. Did you find your good walking sandals?

Green veg soup sounds wonderful. I need to concentrate on greens at the moment, not only because they are so healthy, but because the warrigal greens I am growing are so prolific I can’t keep up with them. A spicy ‘greens and lentil’ soup would be a good thing for me to make today.

Sending best wishes for everyone.

Evening all

LJoyce, what a great 21st present. Something with a bit of history and meaning rather than the generic drinking glass or giant novelty key that most people give for 21st presents. I didn’t join you in a fast yesterday, in fact I ate quite a bit since it was my last day of holiday. But I was back on the fasting wagon today. I had some miso and Dahl for lunch along with some raspberries and strawberries from our garden, then dinner was one sausage and some vegetables.

Cinque, work was a bit of a dichotomy today. It was busy but laid-back. There was a big pile of work that accumulated while I was on holiday so I definitely wasn’t short of things to do, but because many people were still on holiday this week, there wasn’t heaps of people from other departments pestering me to do things for them so I was able to settle in and work quietly through the pile of work.

I took my bike to work today, it was fine on the way in to work, but the wind picked up during the day, gusting up to 120kph. I was just about blown off my bike a couple of times when I got hit broadside by a big gust, and when I was climbing up the big hill I was going straight into a headwind most of the way. I got home absolutely knackered.

I’ll probably do a second fast day tomorrow before my Wednesday weigh in. Have a great day everyone, and stay safe everyone.

A quick update, before I forget. I’d give the roasted whole tandoori chicken 7/10 (compared to 10/10 in the airfryer). This is what the finished product looked like: https://imgur.com/MxxJj0l (yes the blackened edges were deliberate, I wanted crispy bits)
The flavour and the crispiness of the top was similar to cooking tandoori chicken legs in the airfryer, but the roasted chicken was dryer – probably because it took a lot longer to cook (and I possibly left it in too long because I wanted more toasty edges. On the plus side the new potatoes, pumpkin and carrots that I tucked in around the chicken were amazing and I definitely can’t replicate that in the airfryer because most of the flavour resulted from them soaking up the spicy chicken juices – for that reason I might make it again. I did a big tray of cumin roasted broccoli and cauliflower which was a lovely accompaniment and will go with the lentil curry I plan to make Wednesday.

I’ll be glad to just reheat leftovers tomorrow night as I’m babysitting all day. That means a trip to the bakery for lunch with the least dangerous thing available a chicken or ham salad roll. So that’s the plan for lunch tomorrow.

Have a nice night all.

Good afternoon everyone. We received some much welcomed rain on Sunday. Was light but steady for a good 18 hours. Was lovely to have the dust washed off everything and to smell the freshness. Back to warm sunny weather now and another 47 deg day on Thursday.

As posted before, despite my best efforts my weight has been on the up and up. I’m now at the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life – 79.2 kg. When I started 5.2 a few years ago I got down to 62 kg. I have been feeling constantly fatigued and every muscle aches, despite sleeping solidly for 7 hours each night and eating well I wake up exhausted.

Everything feels like such an effort. I climbed 2 sets of stairs the other day and it was a struggle – seriously I am gobsmacked. So I went to Dr’s today and he couldnt believe my weight increase since I last saw him. Tomorrow I have a full set of blood tests including testing for thyroid abnormalities.

On Thursday I have a phone consultation with a clinical nutritionists based in Adelaide as there isn’t one in my area. Hopefully between the Dr and the nutritionist they will be able to identify what is going on with me besides the effects of menopause

Just a quick post – I entered my age, height and goal weight on the BMI calculator – my TDEE if lightly active is just 1336 cals. What!? If moderately active, 1506 cals, and realistically, with mainly walking, I’m not moderately active. Scary. My current TDEE is just over 1700 cals. Oh to be a few inches taller!

G’day it’s tough when your health isn’t right. And particularly, when you don’t know if the weight gain is a symptom or a cause. Hope your medical team can sort it for you, and soon, so you can get your zing back.

Betsy, .6 is a good weekly loss. Like you, I feel back in the swing, but had been through the upward spiral too, and it’s a relief to finally get it under control again. (knock on wood and whistle).

It’s been a funny old (expensive) start to the year. My new year’s resolution was to tread more lightly on this earth. That was weight loss, obviously. But it was also to cut down on my consumption and live more simply. So how did that work? Mmmm, a work in progress.

In December my dish washer gurgled no more. Rather than replace it, I found a very fine young technician who fixed it for $427, which is better than the $1500 for a new one. More importantly, I didn’t need to dispose of the old one on the tip.

Then a few days after Christmas, my home washing machine ground to a halt, just moments before I got a call from DD on the island, to say the machine over there was kaput. My repair man got back from holidays on Monday (a long wait without a washing machine) to say that the parts for the home machine were no longer available so he couldn’t fix it (to be fair, it’s given me well over 20 years, which is pretty good for white goods). Rather than replace them both with new machines, he’s providing two reconditioned ones which he’ll guarantee for 12 months. Again, less to land fill, and $300 each is better than around a thousand each for comparable machines.

Oh, and did I mention the pre-Christmas trip to the dentist will come out at about $2400, less the health fund rebate, which is two thirds of not much. Funny how premiums keep going up, while rebates don’t.

Neil, that’s a great challenge that will require some commitment – but we know you have that in spades.

Hope the fires aren’t burning near any of you this morning, and the smoke isn’t causing health problems. And a heartfelt prayer for good soaking rain.

Good morning all.

GDSA, I’m glad for the rain but sorry to hear about your weight troubles. I hope the GP is able to figure out what’s happening.

Neil, sorry to hear about the weight gain. It doesn’t hurt to have a reminder of how quickly weight can go back on when we return to old eating habits. You know how to get it off though, so I have no doubt you’ll get back into the mid 80s again. Your cycling challenge sounds like a good year long goal for staying active, especially if you enjoy cycling.

Betsy, I agree with your lament about TDEE. For those of us that are lacking in height the numbers are never friendly, especially when trying to maintain a healthy BMI. I think this one reason we are overweight in the first place – we are eating what we consider a reasonable about of calories, it’s just that it maintains a weight that’s higher than we want to be.
Yes the piece of family jewellery was very well received by the birthday girl.

Lindsay, now I’m not surprised at the difficulty you are having with 16:8 now that you’ve explained Rosy’s role in it. On the rare occasions I’m up at 5am I’m definitely looking for food by 10am instead of noon. As this is a daily routine change for you, the only thing I can suggest is that you reconsider when your 8 hour window ends in the evening. I find that although I aim to start eating at noon each day, the reality is that I finish dinner much earlier than 8pm so I can eat 1-2 hours earlier in the morning if I need to. Would an earlier dinner be an option, especially while you aren’t working? This would allow a mid-morning snack to tide you over until lunch.

No post yesterday as I was very tired after babysitting which was 7:30am-4pm. It was a bad food day for me. I chose a very sensible lunch but then proceeded to help the kids get through the big bowl of hot chips! When I finally got home I collapsed onto the lounge with a pot of tea and a very large handful of homemade shortbread (eaten straight from the freezer). Needless to say today is a FD. Should be easy as it going to be hot here for a couple of days. I need to behave better when I’m tired, my will power is just MIA when I feel exhausted. I have babysitting again tomorrow afternoon – but just for 2 hours as my nephew is doing day rather than afternoon shift at the moment, so that should be fine.

I had a bit of a scare yesterday as my left knee was so inflamed I was struggling to walk easily. It just came up overnight for no apparent reason. I took an anti-inflammatory tablet when I got home and hoped for the best. It’s a bit sore and swollen this morning, but much improved so I hope whatever was wrong was temporary. Worryingly, it feels a bit too similar to the start of my right knee troubles, which ended in a total knee replacement. I’ll just keep my fingers crossed and keep moving as safely as possible.

One of the things I’ve noticed with the fitbit is that it gives be hourly reminders to get up an move if I’ve been sitting for too long. I find that just so helpful as it’s too easy to sit at the laptop or tv etc without realising how much time has passed. It doesn’t mean I need to go walking, just move – there are always household chores that can provide the required movement. It definitely adds to my daily steps too. I find it much easier to get my steps up around 10000 by by heeding the hourly reminders to move. I have realised that what I was doing before relied a lot on one long walk each day to get my required steps, I am now able to get to 10000 steps with just a 30min brisk walk, although I do often go further than that. I think it must be better for my heart health to be active across the day rather than just in one of two isolated blocks of time as my resting heart rate is down by 9 beats per minute in the fortnight I’ve doing this.

I’m planning to go for a walk to and around the shopping centre on these hot days to minimise my sun exposure. This week is a bit busy and I have a rare day with no commitments today, which I will enjoy.

Hello to everyone who’s reading this forum. Have a good day.

Morning All

Just a quick query to those in the know….

How often do you weigh yourself? And at which point in your week do you do so?

I’m wondering if it’s wise to weigh myself the day immediately after a fast day, as this may give an overly optimistic result, and that I’ll add a bit of weight on the following few days.

Or am I overthinking this – and it doesn’t really matter that much, which day is ‘weigh day’?

Is weighing myself daily, too often?

Many thanks

Hi all, I took my bike to work today and so I’ll be taking it home again (9.5 kilometers return trip) and at lunch I biked out to the frisbee golf course for a round and then back to work again (10 kilometers round trip) Since I only have to average 5.5 kilometers per day to hit the 2020 it looks like I’m not going to have any trouble getting there. I might have to see how many times I can do 2020 kilometers during the year 😉

Jelly, I don’t think it matters when you weigh yourself, as long as you pick a time and weigh yourself at the same time each time. You will weigh more at the end of the day than you will at the beginning of the day when you haven’t eaten or drank anything.

I weigh myself first thing on Wednesday mornings. It used to be after my fast days because I used to fast Monday, Tuesday and Thursdays, but now I just fast Monday and Thursday so it’s after a regular eating day.

Good luck

Hi all, rain at last but not enough to do much good, still it was nice to hear it through the night although the thunder and lightening were quite severe.

I commiserate with all who are struggling with the weight but feel heartened by the fact that you are committed to continuing this way of life. It is so easy to throw the towel in and say it is all too hard. I have been on this journey for 5 years and many times have wondered why I am doing it. Then when I start feeling sluggish and the muffin top reappears I have my reason for continuing. I like what I see in the mirror on good days and being able to get into smaller clothes.

The support in this group is worth its weight in gold and I thank each and every one of you for your input.

Back to Pilates this morning and it felt good. I am actually 2kg lighter than I was this time last year but still about 3 kg away from my lowest.

Talking about trips. I have booked a week away on the Gold Coast to stay with my long time friend and her partner who moved up there late last year. That will be towards the end of February. Then end of May I am off to the UK. My daughter and son in law both turn 40 in June so big celebration although my daughter can’t understand why I want to spend all that money to travel when they will be here in July. Maybe one day she might understand. Together with some of her friends we have booked a surprise weekend away to Pisa in Italy so that might change her thoughts. Even though she is a mother I don’t think she fully understands how heart wrenching it is for me not to see her or my grandchildren more often.

I will spend two days in Singapore on the way over.

I have even more reasons to lose a few more kgs before I travel.

Jellybones I am another one that weighs nearly every day and records but on Monday I also record my body fat and BMI. I have done this from the start and it gives you a snapshot of what triggers the weight gain and how the weight fluctuates. I also add comments so that I know how I’m thinking at the time.

As Neilithicman says it’s purely a personal preference.

Intesha, it’s good to hear you and others are finally getting some rain. The firefighters are probably happy to see it. It sounds like you have some nice trips planned for this year. The birthday celebrations should be fun and totally worth the trip. It will do you good to get away and it’s a great incentive to stick to 5:2 before you go.

Neil, you come up with the best challenges! 2020 kilometers on your bike for 2020 is a great idea. That could be a great walking goal too. Converting steps to km here: https://www.convertunits.com/from/steps/to/kilometers I figure it would take about 7500 steps per day to reach that goal if I’m figuring correctly. Anyone up for that challenge?

I tried to make something like tuna rissoles last night. I added some dried potato flakes that I’ve had in the frig for a while to use them up, eggs, chopped courgette, carrots and onions. And I forgot the breadcrumbs and flour. I ended up with tuna hash. I tasted ok, but it wasn’t what I was aiming for!

I came across this this morning. It brought tears to my eyes: https://m.imgur.com/SlUnqgN

Gday from warm and sunny Christchurch. I know I have been AWOL of late but OH and I have finally decided to get these wheels back on the wagon and get serious again! We weighed in this morning at 79 (me) and 94.4 (him)! so are around 6kgs heavier than we were when we set off to Europe in very early June! My gosh, so much seems to have happened since then, now another year, another decade and OH had his 70th milestone birthday on 30th Dec, can’t beleive time is flying past so quickly, I guess another valid reason for getting healthy and fit! We will continue with the 800 model as we both feel comfortable with it and it suited us both last time, also sticking to a 16:8 TRE between 11am and 7pm with the odd day off!

We took charge of our new caravan (home) and set sail on Sept 21st, so we are still very much newbies at this, but loving the nomadic lifestyle very much. We did a house sit over Xmas just because it suited us and was in a lovely location, but now back on the road. We too have a cycling challenge coming up, we are cycling the Alps to Ocean (A2O) with some visiting friends from the UK, beginning 9th Feb, taking around 6 days, so although looking forward to it and know it will be fun, we do need to do some training.

It has been so heartbreaking silently watching the sheer devastation in Australia by the current round of bushfires, my heart goes out to all those affected, we had the smoke here too but I was too ashamed to mention it knowing the catastrophe which had created it. Thinking of you all on here who continue to support us all through such difficult times for you.

It’s lovely to read all of your posts and what is happening in your lives whilst you still manage to keep continuing to reach your goals and some.

It feels good to be back, Turn

Second verse,
LJoyce, so sorry to hear about your knee, I do hope it settles down quickly. That was a big babysitting session, no wonder you were wrecked. But great news , the fitbit being so useful.

JellyBones, I don’t weigh myself at all, except on such occasions I have a hospital appt. I had a bad experience with scales, they did my head in, so I use waist measurement and looking at how my clothes fit. But I do know the health professional’s advice is weekly, on the same day and same time, and make a chart so you can see what happens over the next few months.

Intesha I am SO GLAD you have those wonderful adventures already booked in for the year. And yes, I bet your daughter will understand completely when the next generation comes along. Oooh Pisa! Won’t they love it.

Cali what a wonderful desert. And that poignant cartoon reminded me of another one that I saw https://www.newidea.com.au/media/77159/1578090192766_gj22injs81-1.jpg?width=720&center=0.0,0.0

Turnabout, so good to hear from you, and especially to hear that you might be able to pop in more often. How was Europe? Happy big seven oh to Mr Turnabout. How exciting to be mobile, and wow, that cycling trip looks wonderful.

Lindsay, what fun to have a whole load of clothes ready for the op shop. Rosy sounds completely mad. To think I complain about an 8 year old cat. (She says, getting up to let her out again).

I did have an extra big day yesterday, as I got a phonecall when I was writing my post here, to see if sister and BIL could come over first for a quieter chat than we would be able to have at the busy cafe (which was loud and busy). That was lovely, but it did make it a much longer day (let alone me forgetting to drink enough water).

Today has been a write off, and I jettisoned my fast. Pity, because it would have worked well, but I am onto my third cup of licorice tea, and keeping up with water and I’ll work out in the morning whether to have a fasty fast day (under 400 cals) or a light eating day (around 800 cals).

TTFN

Good morning,
Still hydrating! You are right LJoyce, it is drying weather. It will get humid this afternoon with the change.

I’m glad that your new regime of walking with fitbit reminders should also be kind to your joints. Hooray for the fitbit. And won’t that mini ipad be lovely.

I am currently realising how over-shopping messes up my fasting routine. I had been too low on veggies, overstocked, then my farming relatives brought home produce, my poor fridge is bursting at the seams and I haven’t been able to cook and store things quickly enough. So I think I need a run of 800 calorie days (or vaguely around that number). Hoping I can cook some veggie pies with sweet potato crusts today. I’m going to give it a try.

On edge with all the fire worries today, my heart aches for Kangaroo Island. (and a bit worried about World War 3).

Cheers all, I hope it is a good day where you are.

Good morning (almost afternoon here)

JellyB, Getting into a bit of extra activity is always good if you can manage it. It has less effect on weight loss than dieting, but it offers lots of health benefits for the heart, muscles, bones etc.

Cinque, I’ve been having the same issue – too much food in the fridge and feeling unable to waste anything. I’ve been cooking and freezing to deal with an excess of veg. Do you find that cooking for one person seems to require less food than you think? I keep buying what looks like a modest amount of fruit and veg and it always seems to make more food than I expect. I’ve lived alone a long time, so it frustrates me that I haven’t got my head around this yet.

After a couple of warm days which were B2B FDs I found I couldn’t do another today. Partly because the weather is cooler I think – and a neighbour has been cooking something that smells wonderful. So I decided to raid the zucchini plants (3 small ones found) and I’m cooking zucchini, portabello mushrooms and eggs for lunch. I’m looking forward to a hot meal – it always feels like a treat at lunchtime. (I’m being lazy and cooking it all in a container in the airfryer – requires no supervision.)

I made a veggie and brown lentil curry yesterday and have frozen most of it, but kept a serve for tonight to have with the last of the cumin roasted veg. I had bought pumpkin to go into the roasted veg and curry but most of it is still in the fridge so I need to think of a use for it. I was thinking of making pumpkin soup but realised dry roasted pumpkin wedges would probably be more useful as it gives me a ready-to-go veg to add to each evening meal. I like the currently popular baking method, which doesn’t even require peeling and almost no oil. (There are a few cafes I go to that seem to serve a wedge of baked pumpkin with it’s skin on with most of their meals – that’s where I got the idea.)

I have a 21st birthday lunch to go to Sunday so I’m aiming to be careful with my eating on the days around that. I’ll aim for a 500cal FD on Monday I think.

Good morning everyone from my cool grey drizzly part of Melbourne,

JellyBones, it is good for the soul when the scales give you a nice surprise. Golf sounds fun, and as for the waist measurement, hopefully it will be all down from here. It is great to have it recorded.

LJoyce, you are exactly right about my problem with living alone. Especially because I came from a big family and then went into shared households with constant streams of visitors.
I had been feeling quite successful with keeping my fridge uncrowded… I got thrown by a) eating more veggies, b) my health being worse so it is hard to get to the shops c) thinking I would do big batches of cooking and then not being up to it.
HOWEVER, I have triumphed! I did another experiment based on Lord Woolton Pies (they have morphed greatly, but are atill veggie pies with a veggie enriched pastry top) and that pretty well cleared out the fridge. Now the freezer is full and, if they taste as good as they smelled cooking, I will greatly enjoy eating them over the next few weeks.
I’ve still got fresh veggies, but a manageable amount, and so WOOHOO it is FAST DAY at Cinque’s house.

What a lovely hot meal you made, you are a wizard with the air fryer! And I love pumpkin that way too. It is so sweet and satisfying I don’t miss dessert.

Best wishes all, is anyone else having a fasting Saturday? If so, special best wishes to you!

Morning all.

I had an interesting encounter with a daredevil blackbird this morning. I went for a morning ride out to Brighton beach and had a coffee. On the way home a blackbird jumped out of a tree beside the road and flew through the gap in between my pedals and front tyre. It’s wings brushed my shoe on the way through. I must have been travelling at 20-25 kph so that’s some precision flying!!

The ride was good though. The weather was nice and warm for once and apart from a couple of little hills, it’s pretty flat, so I really enjoyed the ride. It’s about 38 kilometres return trip so that’s definitely boosted my numbers for the week. I might turn it into a regular weekend jaunt.

Have a great day everyone, and a safe day for those of you still in areas affected by fires.

Good morning Lovelies, Sunday, Melbourne, Morning after Fast Day,
It was a fasty fast day!

Cooking my breakfast as I write (savoury mixed grain wafers with homegrown tomatoes, lettuce, pickles and halloumi). … So this may have some interruptions! (I cook the wafers/waffles)

LJoyce, oh that Woolton Pie. I was so intrigued by it, but with my first try I thought, hmm, this certainly tastes like British wartime rations! Haha.
But I was pleased with the potato pastry that I actually borrowed from an Italian recipe, and it is more like a dumpling than pastry. A cross between pastry and a mash topping. Very yummy and satisfying.
I have had a couple more tries, realising I want to be less wartime, but still use traditional British vegetables and flavourings. This will be my best yet, I hope. I’ll eat one tonight. They are a perfect size for a light meal. When I finally make it so I am happy I will share the recipe.

And yes with the stocked freezer. I’ll have a couple of days of yummy eating from the fridge and then I will eat out the freezer! It might take me a month (since I add bits of freshness as I go). One way to ensure I never find a duck! 😀 Lindsay.

Water does weigh a lot. Your poor knees, LJoyce. Good luck with all those extra steps.

Neil, what precision flying from that blackbird! Just a whisker (feather?) away from being a dreadful disaster. You make me miss cycling, when I was young and healthy it felt like I was flying.

Lindsay, I so hope it rained!
Oh dear Rose and her underwear fetish! What lovely mayhem your house must be at the moment.
I find bubbly water so refreshing on a hot day! And a very good way to stay hydrated if it isn’t boring old water. Drink it up Mr Lindsay!

How is the eye saga going? I do hope nothing is worsening. I am borderline re glaucoma in my left eye (appt was Tuesday and they want to check again in a fortnight) and when I complained about a scratchy blot on the thing I was looking through at one stage, the optometrist had to explain that I had a cataract starting. Sigh, aging, it takes all the fortitude and resilience we have, right when we would like life to be easy and gentle. That’s me looking ahead!

Hoping today is easy and gentle (or fun and challenging if that is your preference).

Bye now.

PS Breakfast is delicious.

Morning all.

I’m one week into my challenge to ride 2020 kilometers in 2020. I managed to pedal my way through 85.4 kilometers spending 4.5 hours in the saddle. I only have to average just under 39 kilometers per week to hit the goal, so that week made up for the first week this year when I didn’t ride at all and put me ahead of the game.

I bought my first chainsaw in the weekend. I was sick of constantly asking my father to borrow his, and have him turn me down and say he’ll do the job for me instead. I’m over 40 and my dad still doesn’t trust me with his chainsaw. When I told that to the salesman he laughed and said that his father never let him or his brothers use his tools either, even though they all grew up to be engineers and mechanics. He said that when his father died they all went to the garage to divide up his tools, and the tools were all locked up. It’s like he was saying “Even when I’m dead you’re not getting your hands on my tools”

Have a great day everyone, and a good fast to those of you joining me in a Monday fast day.

Good morning

I have a day at home today which will enable me to use lots of water. I’m just finishing off the process of getting the garden thoroughly drenched and then I’ll start on the laundry.

Neil, congrats on the new chainsaw – just don’t cut off any digits. I must admit that I don’t myself with chainsaws – I’m too clumsy and they are quite heavy.
Well done on the head start you’ve made on your cycling target. I’ve been counting steps/kms too towards the 2020 target. I’m at a similar position 87km, although that’s nearly 2 weeks worth of walking. I’m finding that when I look at the 2020 challenge as a daily target it seems easy, but if I had too many slack weeks it would quickly become very difficult. I’m hoping it encourages me to move every day, even when I don’t feel like it.

Cinque, I think a bit of chorizo is exactly what a woolton pie needs – you could call it the Elizabeth David version. I always think of her as the cook you really brought mediterranean flavours to the dull stodgy british fare of the war and ration years. I loved that story of her discovering that unlike other fats, olive oil wasn’t rationed because in the 1940s it was considered to be a medicine and not a food – and it had to be purchased from the pharmacy not the grocer.
Good luck with the paint brush – I use a cotton bud to the same effect although I have both ants and bees visiting the flowers too most days. I finally had some male flowers today after 3 days without any. My best friend was very happy on Saturday as I sent her home with 2 days worth (about 10) of baby zucchini with flowers as they weren’t going to get fertilised. (She’s used to people giving her the overgrown zucchini but not the babies.)
Yes I do have a fairly clear run now until the end of February – the only blip will be Australia day when I have both a buffet lunch and a BBQ tea/pool party to go to. I have already decided that I’m ok with a day off of 800 cal, as long as I keep my carb content moderate. If I ignore that rule it’s so hard to get back to 800cals the next day because my appetite comes roaring back to full force. I even have a cunning plan of how to deal with a table full of yummy desserts without eating any.

I finally tasted kombucha a couple of weeks ago and I quite liked it. My friend’s daughter drinks it and she opened a bottle so I could try it. I have been buying the sugar free brand and made sure it doesn’t say anything about being heated or pasturised. The amount of bacteria in it is less than kefir but hopefully still worthwhile – and I consume a larger volume of the kombucha than I would kefir. I like the kombucha cold in on warm days, but can see myself drinking it much less in the colder months. It’s nice to have another probiotic option as I’m afraid fermented veg is never going to be on the menu for me. I probably need to look into how it’s made, because it is pricey – especially for someone not used to adding the cost of bottled drinks to the weekly chopping.

Do you ever get an injury and can’t remember causing it? I woke with one very sore toe today and noticed that it’s purple with bruising. I have no recollection of injuring it.

Time to get onto some more chores now.
Have a nice day.

Morning all.

The little girls went home last night, along with their pup, and peace is restored. Even Rosy seems quieter this morning – no doubt missing her mate. We’ll take her for a run soon, but first, my two black coffees!

I had my first real fasty fast day yesterday and this morning am .7 kilo lighter. Yea for this WOL. We have booked to go on holiday with my eldest brother and his wife in early March….it’s good to have a target to aim for. We are off to the South Island of NZ. It will also be good to wear all my wintery clothes again…particularly as I bought some new things when I first lost the 15 kilos.

Cinque, hope the cataract holds off for a while, and that the glaucoma is okay. With early diagnosis it is very manageable. OH’s problem is that it wasn’t diagnosed until it had done its damage, but his daughter also has it and it is well controlled. Yes, aging. Not for the faint-hearted, as they say.

I was amused by your story about the chainsaw Neil. I wonder if we ever think our kids are old enough to use dangerous tools? Or our mums, actually. My SIL has offered to lend me his power saw for cutting timber, but my DD has strictly forbidden it.

Hope that sore toe settles LJ.

My run of bad $$ luck continues – my microwave has now decided it doesn’t want to play, and I noticed the pool was bubbling yesterday, meaning air was getting in somewhere. And yes, when I went down to investigate, there was a broken connector bit (I have no idea of the technical term) so the chappie has been called.

I am making a Keralan Aubergine Curry for dinner … I’ll let you know how it goes, but in the meantime here’s the link if you want to give it a try.

https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2019/11/08/keralan-aubergine-curry-recipe/

Good morning from smoky Melbourne, we had the world’s second worst air quality for a bit this morning (beaten by an industrial Indian town), still pretty bad.

Also, NASA tells us our smoke has gone around the world and will soon get back to Australia. So dreadful.

I’m making a couple of dips for lunch with family friends today. When making hummus I did one thing different (adding a bit of water from the chickpeas) and misjudged and my hummus isn’t as good as usual. Sigh. I don’t have enough lemons to try again. It is okay though, and I would still prefer it to the bought containers. I am hoping the carrot dip will come out super delicious though. Fingers crossed.

Lindsay that eggplant dish looks scrumptious! I have some eggplant at the moment, but they are destined for a delicious SE Asian recipe with coconut milk.

Your mechanical/moneydraining bad luck must end. I’ll do a nice goodwitchy contraption of a little mechanical and a little money and some growing things and a rock to make it solid, and that should help!

I am glad the optometrists are catching things early.

LJoyce, good luck with all those appointments, I hope all goes well.

It is good to read of nice feelings about good healthy practices, hooray for 5:2 and the 800 fast.

I had a nice surprise when I checked the waist measurement guidelines for someone. I haven’t put on two inches around my waist, only half an inch. I love a mistake that goes the right way. (Mind you, I eat a meal and put on two inches around my waist, no wonder I have such problems with skirts and trousers!)

Ok I’m off. Missing lots of regulars here, hello if you are lurking!