Morning all. A quick post, as I’m meant to be doing something else (no prizes for guessing what!).

First, welcome Helen, and good luck with your first FD. I’m joining you today. I usually do Mondays and Thursdays, but had been poorly at the weekend and wasn’t prepared, so deferred it for a day. Thin is right when she says keeping to two set days a week is the way to go – but needs must, sometimes. BTW, Thin is right about most things …a walking, talking success story, and very kind with her advice (as are all of our friends here on the forum).

Cinque, I shook my head reading about your home help’s mask fumbles. A bit like Greg Hunt, perhaps? How embarrassing to be the Health Minister and get it wrong on national television. Human, though. Poor chap.

My GP was all up in the air the other day (in the nicest possible way) about how people aren’t managing to remove their personal protection equipment ….he says removal is as important as putting it on, in terms of keeping contagions contained.

No masks here in Queensland, but I don’t doubt we’ll have another spike now the borders are open, so I’m hoping they will be mandated soon.

LJ, Cali, Cinque a lot of us seem to be experiencing covid exhaustion. It’s that sense of being constantly alert, I think, when even going to the shops or walking the dog is an exercise in distancing and watchfulness. It will pass, I am sure.

Thanks for the tip about the program on SBS tonight LJ … I’ll watch it. My beautiful girl turned 1 on Sunday – and just when I thought she’d reached the age of maturity, this!
https://imgur.com/FQJzDLt
I’d been working and she’d been laying happily in the corner – and I stepped out of the room for a second.

Betsy, regarding finishing a meal with something sweet….have you considered a square of dark Lindt chocolate? I find it satisfies the need, without too much sugar overload.

Gday really sorry to hear OH’s news. Such a worrying time. And all power to you for quitting a bad job, and moving towards something you really want to do, and something that will be helping other people while helping yourself.

Quacka, hope your issues resolve themselves. Good news that the test was negative, although it would have given you something that could be dealt with quickly. Hope you can find some way to maintain this wol, without the reflux.

Cinque, hope your DD is coping with the lockdown without your physical support with the little girls, and that your sister is also managing what must be a very difficult move. What resilient people they are.

Dry July Neil? Good luck with it. I saw something funny yesterday ….a bottle shop ad for Dry July…..dry gin, dry white wine, dry vermouth. I take it that’s not the one you’re doing? Phew, that fire sounds like quite the drama. A relief no one was injured, and top marks for reacting as you did.

Intesha, good to hear from you and great you’ve had a break away. You’re another great ad for this wol….to have lost so much, during the trials you’ve had, is a testament to your perseverance and resilience.

Cinque, after your tip I went online to buy masks like yours, which I love …they were out of stock, but are back in now. I was disappointed though, to find that the inserts come from China. A shame when the mask itself is so terrifically Australian designed and made.

And finally, Turn, so nice to hear from you. I can always picture you on your travels….such a nice way of life.

OK back to the editing. I finished the master’s, and I am now starting a new PhD, recommended by the same supervisor. My first PhD is in a world of woe with a supervisor who is more worried about commas than content, and while I feel for him, it’s not really something that I can help with. I will be so glad when I can put that one to bed, finally. It’s dragged on and on, and if I am being honest, I am pretty over reading and rereading it. Once his supervisors finally approve the content, the dissertation will still have to be reduced by a third, down to 100,000 words. Sigh.

Enjoy your day all.

(Penguin, hoping you are doing okay and have just been too busy to post)

Weigh-in today and no movement on the scale. Still clinging to the 90s by sitting right on 90.0 kilos. 1 more week left in the month to get that 8 back in front of my number.

Good morning, a cold grey fast day for me. I’ll make the most of it.

Helen Kate, I do hope your first fast day went well and you are now discovering the wonderful feeling of the morning after fast day.

Turn, it sounds wonderful that you have watched the boaties in Marple at the locks.
And that you avoided the floods. I hope there is clear sky now.

Oh dear, your poor dad, no wonder he is feeling frustrated. What a roller coaster ride he has been on.
My mum lost her sense of smell after an operation, when she was elderly. She did find it very hard. Maybe your dad might regain his though. Fingers crossed.

My mojo is waking up slowly, I think. It might be an old cat, like Miso (my real cat, Helen Kate). But I am doing a porch drop at my daughters today and asked if Miss 5 could let her doll come home with me so I can start knitting the red, orange and yellow dress for her. So that is a good step. (And a nice small project).

Lindsay, sorry you have been poorly, and hoping you are having a lovely morning after fast day. Mischievous scales. They will do better next time, surely.
Oh dear the news here is full of those thoughtlessly cruel quarantine escapees. When will we ever learn?

I am glad there were some of the masks there, they get sold out so quickly. I do hope you find them as good as I (and my sister) have (if you did end up ordering a couple). Yes, sigh re the inserts. It would be good to have Australian made.

Betsy, brilliant to keep fast days liquid and have your sensible dessert ready on those NFDs when you really need them.

Neil, ooh those scales must love the number 90. How frustrating, but fingers crossed for the last week of July. At least you are well into your year at a healthy weight, which I think they are saying is the trick to get your weight memory button re-calibrated.
But I am doing my clever subtle good magic spell so that you do get down into the 80’s in July no matter how much your scales try to resist. So that’s sorted!

Our Covid numbers update looks as if it will be late today, a bad sign. I am feeling dreadful as there are so many clusters in aged care homes now. Just the worst scenario. I wish my clever good magic spells were working here.
(Oh dear just heard it will be in the high 400s).

Penguin, after my big bunch of flowers for Betsy, I had the idea of this for you:
https://selectree.calpoly.edu/images/0500/40/original/corymbia-ficifolia-tree-2.jpg Sorry about the house in the background, but I think nothing looks more like a huge bunch of flowers than a wonderful red flowering gum in bloom. They are native to Western Australia, but grow around here and look so stunning. Proper bunch of flowers from the Southern Hemisphere.
How many treatments still to go?

Must head off and get those knitting needles out!

See you day after fastday (mine) Cheers all.

Hi Helen, I started on the fast 800 when I first tried to lose weight (eating 800 calories every day) and I really struggled with hunger for the first 3-4 days, but then it was like a switch had been thrown and I had a big burst of energy and pretty much no hunger.

If you keep carbohydrates and sugars low on your non fast days then you’ll slip into ketosis and you won’t feel hungry. Ketosis is when your body is burning your fat reserves for fuel rather than your stored sugar reserves (glycogen). The first few days you’ll probably feel pretty terrible though, it’s called the “keto flu” when your body is switching from burning glycogen to burning fat. You might get headaches, dizziness, irritability, trouble sleeping, etc, but it passes and gets a lot easier.

When I was starting out I ate a lot of cucumber and celery along with my protein and fats to stave off hunger, because they are really low calorie but filling.

Just a quick hello to everyone and then off to bed. Yesterday’s FD was very successful with over a kg lost, but a lot of that was probably temporary weight from the weekend and lots of water weight. I hope with normal and a little stress eating today, I will still manage to keep some of it off. I need to plan NFD meals better.

Helen Kate, glad your FD went well. They get to be very routine after a while. That’s why I think sticking to the same two days every week is a good thing. I only change my days for holidays or sometimes if I have a social event one of the days. And with the pandemic there aren’t many social events these days! I agree with Neil that avoiding sugar and heavy carbs can keep the hunger away.

Lindsay, isn’t it amazing how quickly a pup can tear apart a cushion or a shoe? Nothing is safe in their path.

Cinque, there are a lot of people around here that sew masks and sell or donate them. I was convinced early on that they were a good idea and bought a few from a lady in the next town over. Then a neighbor started sewing some really nice ones with 2 filter layers sewn in, so I purchased a few from her. So we have a good collection here and the worn ones can go in the next load of wash rather than having to hand wash them. But I hear that they are selling out in some places here too now that a couple of the large chains like WalMart and Home Depot are enforcing the mask mandate in their stores.

Betsy, I forget about Chobani and other low cal yogurts for FD desserts or snacks. They’re good when you have a few calories left at the end of a day.

LJ, thank you for that photo you sent me on social distancing in Oz. It made me laugh.
You should post it here.

Helen Kate, cheers for a good first day. Here is a virtual bunch of flowers you you, to celebrate. https://www.italianflora.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/gerbere-bouquet-arancio-e-rosso.jpg
It is very common to sleep badly after a fast day, especially right at the beginning. I did. Most people seem to get used to it. The main tip I have heard is to save most of your calories to eat in the evening, so you have a fuller belly when you go to bed. Or at least make your last meal of the day high protein and low GI (ie whole grains or other complex carbohydrate that take a longer time to be digested).
My bad sleeps at the beginning were on top of chronic insomnia, but I was SO excited to be losing weight that I figured I would just ride out the bad nights, stick on music or my favourite program and rest until morning.

Anzac, is work ever not crazy? Is it hard to be strict about finishing times when you work from home? Do look after yourself, and especially tell your bosses that you need time in the day to talk to your 5:2 friends!

Cali, woot woot, a kilo lost! You are getting back into the swing of it!
You are right about the masks, heaps of people are making them and selling them. They sell out within an hour each morning but there is new supply the next day, mostly. Just like toilet paper! 😉
You make me realise I should buy a couple more for when these ones wear out, but I will wait til the situation settles down a bit.

Betsy a lovely catch up. Are you getting back into the swing of your study?

I am hoping to start knitting, but in the soap opera of my granddaughters’ lives Miss 5 can’t find the doll she wanted me to knit a dress for, but Miss 3 has given me one of hers, asking for a red, white and black dress. The doll is 7cm tall, and about half of that is her head. I will need my thinnest needles and yarn!

Well I have had my delicious breakfast after fast day, and a very healthy delicious breakfast too. I am going to make futari again to have with lunch, and a yummy Asian soup for supper. Walnuts if I need a snack. There, that is sorted.

Off to make the most of my day. And maybe a walk, with my mask on.

Cheers all.

Good afternoon all, sorry for my absence the last few days. I was very busy and then on my first day at home yesterday I had a very persistent headache all day and couldn’t focus to write a proper post. SO I am back today, headache free and trying to catch up.

As Cali suggested, here is the photo I sent her: https://imgur.com/joQ6TXI
It’s the social distancing sign used in Belair National park, where I walked with a friend on Tuesday. I suspect the non-Aussies will find it amusing.

Helen Kate, welcome. Very glad to see that you got through your first FD unscathed. Not sure if someone else mentioned it, but a two tips that I found most helpful were:
– start eating as late in the day as you can manage
– find a limited number of meals that you are happy to eat regularly on FDs. It makes the planning so much easier and also makes it easy to have some frozen serves for busy days.
I got rather excited to see that you are in Adelaide – so am I. I’ve been practicing 5:2 since January 2017, but you are the first other person from Adelaide that has joined in all that time. If you feel comfortable catching up for a cuppa at some point, just say so.

Quacka, glad the banana helps. My stomach acid sometimes makes me feel queasy in the mornings and the banana always fixes that – I usually have one at 10-11am on NFDs and the banana is my lunch on FDs. I eat those that have a slight green tinge still. My dietitian advised that as they contain a lot of resistant starch when under ripe and are good for our gut health at that stage.
No you’d never mentioned you used to live on a banana farm. Did you get sick of them as a kid? I grew up surrounded by apricots and grapes and I still don’t care for either of them. (Too many hot summers spent either picking grapes or cutting apricots for drying.)

Anzac & Lindsay, did you find anything useful in the SBS program. I thought the discussion was all over the place and focused more on people. I would have liked to hear more about the research on dog brain changes. I was very impressed with the dog who stayed still long enough to have an MRI.
Lindsay – is that bed number 2 that’s been destroyed.

Well done to Betsy, Cali, Lindsay, Anzac, Neil and anyone else I’ve missed who has been seeing the scales reduce lately. Given how many people I know who are having troubles with their weight in recent months I think that’s doubly impressive.
I can finally report some success of my own. After bouncing back up to a worrying 84kg a few weeks ago I was back to 79.5kg this morning. Very relieved to see a 7 again. I like to be in the 75-78 range and that feels a whole lot closer now.

Hope everyone is well. Hope those of you living with stay at home restrictions are coping. Take care all.

Morning all, from rainy Brisbane. It’s overdue, so I’ll ignore my muddy floors and look instead to my cheerful garden.

My Cinque, that red flowering gum was something to behold. Is there anything prettier than a red flower? or a yellow one, for that matter. I have the same tree in my front garden, and every now and then we get a pair of king parrots. But it doesn’t flower anything like the one in the pic.

Betsy a few of Rosy’s litter went overseas (including Finland and Hawaii) and it is lovely to see their pics and antics posted on the special FB page. She was an AI pup, and the Finland owners of Rosy’s litter mate just posted a pic of their two dogs, one a half brother born in Estonia, from AI from the same sire. I’m amazed how similar our litter all are.

Thin, great work on the locks. You must be so so fit. Any news on the visa situation? Are you able to see your daughter now? Nice, to be able to socialise just a little. Sitting by the water, with a glass of wine, sounds very relaxing.

Cinque, I didn’t get those masks, in the end. It didn’t feel right buying an Australian designed and manufactured mask, that needed Chinese made inserts.

Helen Kate, following Neil’s advice, a few of us here do time restricted eating. I practised 16:8, (eating in an 8 hour window) but for various reasons (not going out to work, which made it easier, and an OH at home who likes us to eat together) it has come back a bit to around 14:10 most days. Something that keeps me going on FDs is a big pot of minestrone soup (vegetable soup really) made without the pasta and beans. Very filling but tasty too. Like LJ, I’ve found having the same go-to meals on FDs is the best way for me to manage.

Cali whoo hoo on losing a kilo on your FD. That is a serious amount of weight, water or weekend weight notwithstanding.

Ooh Cinque, that dress will take some clever knitting! Can you do a striped scarf to cover the doll’s very large head? haha….you must post the pic when it’s done.

Good luck with your assignment Quacka … are you nearing the end now? I agree, it would be much nicer to go somewhere sunny to stand on a beach with a fishing rod in one hand, and a beer in the other. But these times will come. 🙂

Love the social distancing pic LJ. LJ, yes and no, about bed number 2. The first one, irretrievable. The second one (this one) has been stitched once before, and when I get around to it, I think I can restuff it and restitch it. At night she has a similar bed over an elevated platform, and she’s had a go at that one too, but it was also able to be resewn. Now, as soon as she gets up, we whip the bed and her blanket away. At least with kids they don’t eat their bedding! How wonderful to be back in the 7s LJ. such a nice number.

OK time to think about my post FD breakfast. Egg sitting on the bench, waiting to be boiled, OH gently dozing in the chair (he did get up at 4.30, bless him).

Good day all.

Good morning. We have some sunshine in Adelaide today, so I’m looking forward to my walk today.

Cinque, a doll’s dress sounds very fiddly to knit, good luck.
Thankyou for the flowering gum pic, very pretty.
If you need an insert for your masks, the best option might be a non-woven interfacing. (From my reading, the combination of woven fabric layers and non-woven interfacing stops more particles.) Here I’d go to a Spotlight store for interfacing, but not sure if you have them in Victoria. Any haberdashery store should stock it.
Glad the glaucoma test was ok.

Thin, that’s a lot of locks to get through. I imagine that with the hire boats now also on the canal you may have longer waits to use locks, especially for the rest of the warmer weather. Hope there is still lots of lovely scenery and walking trails to keep you happy.

Lindsay, it’s amazing to think that Rosy’s brothers and sisters are scattered around the globe. I also got a bit of a shock when you mentioned her first birthday. It really doesn’t seem that long. Although when she’s destructive, it probably feels longer!

I’m having another careful NFD. My weight is still in the 79s and I do not want to see 80 again.

Have a lovely weekend all.

HK and LJ, exciting that a coffee meeting might be coming up. When I lived in Perth, I met several people from this forum at cafes. Stay away from those 80s LJ.

Lindsay, I applaud your stance on not buying Chinese. Governments around the world are posturing but it’s the people who will make the impact by not buying. Our own citizens need to get back to work. How’s the plastic-free life working out?

The locks are busy now but one advantage is that half the work is already done if another boat’s already in the lock and coming in the opposite direction. Everyone’s really friendly and there’s always time for a brief chat in passing so we’re getting used to the busier canals. I was reminded of the Western Australian beaches last evening though. Pop up your sun shelter, put down your towel and marvel over the vast expanse of white sandy beach. Within minutes, the only other person on the beach has arrived and all but overlapped their towel onto yours. Yesterday, we moored in a remote part of the canal where I’d been observing & photographing a heron fishing all day when a hire boater moored their boat using the SAME mooring ring as ours, bows almost touching, so we had the pleasure of looking into their boat all evening and they ours! There are 2000 miles of canal – find your own spot please!

No, we haven’t seen DD since March. It’s not possible to social distance on a 6ft wide boat and there are people she works with whose clients have tested positive for CV. I’d love to give her a big hug.

Cinque, I love bananas. My grandfather was in the banana trade and my grandmother said she hoped she’d never see another banana. Wow, the baby is already Miss 3. Time flies.

We’re making the spousal visa application early next week. It’s taken some time to amass the required information and get documents printed so they could be signed. I read today that there are 400,000 documents to be processed by the Home Office in a backlog (mostly British passport renewals I think) so we’re hoping it takes them a long time to get around to looking at ours…

Good morning everyone,
On a cold morning, but it has climbed up to 7C already. More than half way to our estimated top of 12. (Eep)

Well, just look at all you lovely South Australians posting.

LJoyce, I hope it was a lovely NFD that can keep you nicely in the 70’s. Channel the Skyhooks song!
Thankyou for the insert tip. I’ve written it down so I won’t lose it. Plenty of Spotlights (and Lincrafts) around.

Helen Kate, did you sleep okay? Fingers crossed.
Your soup sounds delicious. Just brilliant for fast days.
I’m glad you enjoyed the flowers. Let me know when you reach your next milestone and I will post another. 🙂

Thin, ha, how crazy of that boat mooring right next to you. Party types maybe?
I don’t think the heron would have liked it either.
Hooray for video chats with DD. Is she still doing all the ‘first vet job’ learning she hoped for?
Another banana connection, I wonder if your grandfather’s business bought Quacka’s family’s bananas.
Hooray that you have got the Spousal Application underway, good wishes that it all goes well.

Gday, how frustrating! Was that 5:2 fasting AND no alcohol, and no weight loss at all? That is just ridiculous. Did you at least feel comparatively well?
I do hope your 60 hours fast gives you a lovely push start and then you can go back to easy and sustainable, with good results, surely!

Well, I am on my Sunday Fast day and soon I will make a pot of soup to keep me going through the day. Not sure yet if I will make one pot of soup, or my usual miso soup as well (and have soup left over for tomorrow!).

I did get knitting yesterday. Here is a pic of the little doll: https://imgur.com/a/HPQzdZH and here she is with her new clothes https://imgur.com/a/n3U70tD
Miss 3 is happy. Thin, she becomes Miss 4 in about 7 weeks. Unbelievable.

Sending everyone good wishes for a lovely day.

Anzac, that was so sweet of you to say that. Yes, having been out of Australia for almost a year, I can say I definitely miss many aspects of it. OH tells everyone he’s Australian which is funny given his obvious American accent (most people think he’s Canadian). Not that I’m not enjoying every inch of England and making up for lost time here. Having lived as an ex-pat for 40 years, I’ve come to realise that there’s no utopia; all countries have good and bad aspects but I think the fact that we moved there for 16 months and stayed 30 years says a lot for Australia. You are not slipping back into the 90s, Anzac!

Cinque, a fasty soup day. The doll’s clothes are very clever. So, if Miss 3 is now nearly 4, how old is the previous Miss 4? Yes, DD is still learning heaps at her job, in another week she will be a ‘recent grad’ vs. a ‘new grad’ and has committed to another year working there ‘in her head’ as she puts it. Her colleagues are so supportive of each other and the practice encourages her to do whatever she feels capable of doing – her ‘thing’ is surgery and they’ve assigned her increasingly more complex cases. We think she works ridiculous hours for rubbish pay but she says she’s happier in her first job than anyone she was at uni with. No, the boaters weren’t party people, we haven’t come across the infamous ‘stag’ dos yet! Most people are very quiet on the canals which is a relief to a noise-intolerant person like me. Thanks for the good wishes with the spousal application. I have a cautiously optimistic feeling about it.

Quacka’s parents’ banana plantation. Where was it? My grandad imported bananas to UK from Jamaica. Not quite sure how the trade continued but my grandma said that, during the war, they could get almost anything that was on ration because they had a stalk of bananas delivered to the house every week – and everyone needed food. She always said that bananas are the only food you can’t refrigerate. I bet some of you foodies will have something to say on that!

Hello,
Today is halfway over already! A nice easy day after fastday though. Hooray.
I was a bit migrainey yesterday so went for an 800 cal max, but probably still kept it nearer 600, and felt good this morning. Tidying up 3 small things at a time!

With Melbourne’s numbers such a worry and a mammogram first thing Wednesday morning, I have cancelled my scary homehelp this week. That means I need to vacuum! But I feel well enough to do that. Hopefully in another two weeks the numbers will be lower and my homehelper will be excellent at covidsafety.

Anzac, that work balancing does sound good. Hoping you get some free hours in today, after last weeks pressure. Ha, I must remember to link the Skyhooks video once you are living in the 70’s. (Claim to fame, I went to school with Shirley Strachan’s sister).

My grandchildren must be very into Autumn colours too. Red has always been Miss 5’s favourite colour (6 next month Thin!) and yellow has been Miss 3’s. She keeps saying she loves red, influenced by big sister, I guess, so she didn’t ask me to knit yellow, but that is the piece she is most delighted with. 🙂

Thin, it is so good to hear that DD is well mentored and supported and that they are a good team. Pity about the pay, but hooray she is able to skill up in her chosen area of work.
Ha, I suppose the lack of party boats is a positive to come out of the current pandemic. (They would be my nightmare too).

I agree with your grandma about no bananas in the fridge, but I was always very happy to put overripe bananas (peeled) in the freezer for smoothies and banana bread.

Gday, happy fastdayS to you. Sending you good wishes.
I must say I would count 800 calorie max as perfectly fine as a fast day.

It is bewildering to me that menopause would have such an effect on you. (I was thrown into horrible menopause when my ovaries were removed, 10 years of it, and did put on weight, but once I stopped overeating, it did come off).
The hormones can make us eat more, but you are guarding against that, and extra inflammation associated with menopause shouldn’t make you not lose weight 6 weeks running. So surely next weigh day you will see a good loss. Fingers and toes crossed for you.

Lovely news that you have your curry tree. Maybe check if they grow best outside in the tropics, I have a feeling it might need an awful lot of water.

Your study subjects sound wonderful. I hope you love every minute of your courses.

Ok, three small things are calling me to put them away, so I am off to make them happy. Best wishes to you all!

Good afternoon everyone.

Cinque, I loved your knitting. Now your granddaughter’s doll is ready for a Melbourne winter.

Thin, I have found that I can slow down the ripening a little if I put a banana in the fridge, but the skin colour goes very strange – an allover pale brown. Funny to think of bananas being such an excellent bartering tool during the war.

GDSA, it sounds like a really good study/work plan. As with many country areas, it helps to have more than one marketable skill.
Sorry to hear you are still struggling with your weight and diet. Hopefully the phone consult with the nutritionist provides some possible changes that will help.

RebeccaJil, are you starting 5:2?

Anzac, hang in there with the weight roller coaster.
Thankyou for the congrats, the 70s have been a long time coming. It’s taken me quite a while to get my mental commitment into line lately.

HK, with 2 successful FDs your can see your first week as a real success. Each week it gets easier. I hope you had better sleep after the second FD. I don’t usually find the FDs impact my sleep, but I do consume most of my FD calories in my evening meal, which I think helps.
So glad you are willing to catch up over a cuppa. I am retired, so I often have free time through the week – although some weeks I seem to have far too many things on. If we are going to catch up in person we’ll have to determine which metro area is convenient for both of us. I live south-west of the CBD, near Brighton. Which side of the city are you?

I weighed again this morning and was down another half kilo to 79.0kg, very glad to see it a little lower and creeping closer to my preferred weight range. I’ve had to take very drastic action in recent weeks to get my weight moving as I was yo-yoing too much. I went onto the updated fast diet of 800cals every day and also strictly limited my daily food choices to a small range of fresh foods. (Lots of veg, a little fruit and lean meat. Tiny amounts of added fats and absolutely no “extras”.) It’s been boring and bland but thankfully very successful. I had been finding dealing with lots of food choices made it difficult to keep my eating moderate enough. The more flavours, the more it seemed to stimulate my appetite and made it difficult to stop at small portions. This has always made my NFDs challenging, and probably will continue to do so in the future when I get back to a more expansive range of food choices.

After a gloomy morning the sun now out so I’m heading out for walk. Funny how I do my best to avoid the sun and heat in summer time but delight in it in winter.

Have a lovely day all.

Hello all, Goodness there is so much going on in this group – people doing all sorts of interesting things.
This is just a quick message to say that, with the help of your tips, my second fast day went very well, and by saving calories so that I could have a late little supper (hard-boiled egg on a tiny slice of bread) I went to sleep much more readily than on my previous day. My next fast day will be this Wednesday. Tuesday is my appointed day but I have friends coming for afternoon tea tomorrow, so it wouldn’t work.
All the best to everyone from HK

Hi all, just a quick one because I’ve got to dash to work. I had real struggles with my eating all the way from Thursday through to Sunday. I ate too much and most of it was bread products. Copious amounts of toast, a bagel, pizza and cake. I had a decent fast yesterday, but I’m going to delay my weigh-in until Friday. That will give me another 2 days to get over the excesses of the weekend and get that magic 8 in front of my number. It will also mean I will have weighed in on the first and last day of July, book ending the month.

Have a great day everyone.

Ah Penguin, so good to hear from you. I am sure many of us were worried when we hadn’t heard from you. I’m also glad that you are avoiding the worst of the side effects.

FD yesterday and disappointing results, although I was super vigilant. No matter, I’ll do another later in the week. I’m yo-yoing a bit too and can’t seem to break my sticking point.

Bananas….what a great fruit. DD freezes them with a stick up the middle, and gives them to the little ones in lieu of iceblocks. My pet grumble (full of them) is the local greengrocer who wraps them on a tray covered with gladwrap. They already have such perfect wrappers (like corn). So I don’t buy them. (but we do have a stand of cavendish bananas in the garden, which delivers some lovely bunches each year).

Which segues into your question Thin – how am I going with reducing my plastic? Work in progress, but still haven’t bought any gladwrap. I use Cinque’s trick – a little plate popped on top of a bowl in the fridge. When the bees are back in production I am going to do a Library course on making beeswax wrappers. I was enrolled in one, but it was cancelled.

Cinque I do have a lovely garden ….but then we’ve been working on it for 40 years. The curry tree I can take no credit for. It’s at the top of the drive, and was a seedling that just popped up.

And that doll’s dress! What a work of art. So small, so sweet. The little one will love it. And soon she’ll be 4. You must be missing them.

Thin buying local has its challenges and sometimes there’s no option. For example, now we have Rosy we spend a lot of time in wet parks, so I decided I needed gumboots. I searched and searched, and all were made in China. I found a company called Merry People. I emailed them, and they wrote back to say although their boots were made in China, they used a family company with which they had had a long relationship (also a video of the production on their website), so I bought a pair. Expensive, but I felt better about buying them than a cheap $8 pair from K Mart, which had produced heavens knows where. A compromise.

Actually one good thing about shopping online for groceries is that is is so much easier to look at products and their country of origin (and ingredients, of course). Time consuming in the beginning, but it’s getting quicker as I learn what comes from where.

How’s the 60 hour fast going Gday? Take a bow friend ….that’s some commitment.

Anzac having your colours done was such a thing a while back …. and so accurate! Hw lovely to be an autumn …such a beautiful colour palette. I’m a winter…purples, black, white, pinks and blues along the spectrum.

Thin, hope all goes well with the visa application. It can be a bit unsettling, I found, being an expat. After I got home from living abroad I found it very hard to settle back – when I was here I wanted to be there, and vice versa. My OH on the other hand loves going back to Scotland, but never feels he wants to be anywhere else but Australia.

Thin sometimes I watch the Yorkshire Vet on tv, and imagine your DD doing some of that complex, rewarding work. How wonderful she’s found her niche, and is learning in such a supportive environment.

79 LJ….whoo hoo! You are so focussed – NFDs can be harder than FDs,because sometimes there is as you say too much choice.

OK I am off for my second coffee, then a couple of hours on the computer before breakfast. Ironically, my latest PhD is researching under and over nutrition in preschool children in Sri Lanka….and Thin, her findings indicate that many are headed the way of British children.
Sad.

Sorry for the long rabbit on everyone – I get on here, and it’s like writing a note to a friend.

Enjoy your day.

Hi all, update on the extended fast. I’m up to 45 hours and all going well. Had a few tummy rumbles last night before bedtime but that’s about it so far. Weight was down by 1.6kg this morning from yesterday morning – yippee.

I’m also very happy that I’ve already reached my aim of getting into moderate ketosis so ‘yippee’ again – I’m officially burning body fat. I use a blood glucose monitor which tests for glucose levels and ketone levels. My glucose levels are now at their lowest since I started testing over 12 months ago. Ketone levels are also at their highest since I started testing. So my aim from here is to continue the fast until mid afteroon tomorrow (Wednesday) when I will break the fast with 2 hard boiled duck eggs. I’ll have a light tea of roast chicken and salad greens from the vegie patch with olive oil dressing. I will need to be very careful about keeping my carb intake to an absolute minimum to keep myself in ketosis after the fast and continue fat burning.

Quick update on my study enrolements. Spent yesterday and today on the laptop researching and have decided that I won’t do Nutrition studies. When I read the Scope of Practice fine print I decided it was not for me. I understood that a Dietician was required to follow the Australian Dietry Guideliness and that a Nutritionist had more flexibilty when giving dietry advice but I was wrong. My personal beliefs of food intake for good health do not allign with the ADG at all so there’s no way I could be a nutritionist and give people advice that goes against my personal beliefs. I’m not disappointed just glad I researched well and read all the fine print before going ahead. So I’ve just enrolled in the Cert III and Cert IV in Fitness where I have 24 months to complete both courses (12 months each). It is possible to complete both within 6 to 8 months but my priority will be the Cert IV in Massage as I want to get that component of my business up and running first.

Penguin, great to hear from you and to know that things are going well with the treatment. In your next post, we might hear how the house sale is progressing.

Cinque, those visual disturbances are bizarre and varied, aren’t they? Your poor mother. And how strange that all your siblings suffered, had no idea that it was familial. Migraines were long considered a psychosomatic illness and not given much research attention. There were some awful medications available when I was a teen that made me vomit. These days, mine pass relatively quickly, within minutes sometimes, as you say, avoiding screen time (can’t read it anyway during an attack), dark room or just doing nothing all help. Do any of your sisters mention feeling very cold? Usually, I don’t even mention it to OH, it just goes away and I hate making a fuss.

Lindsay, I enjoyed your rabbit – read it all twice. Commendable effort on the plastics. The Yorkshire vet is exactly DD’s life. It’s all so James Herriot, book one, including the clapped out car. Agree, wrapping bananas in plastic is nuts. What a great idea about placing the stick in a banana before freezing. Why didn’t I think of that?

LJ, Neil, reading with interest your efforts to get back on track. You’re both determined and I have every faith in you.

Hi All, I am a newbie who completed her first fasting day yesterday, Tuesday. It was a bit of a last minute decision so I wasn’t as prepared as I normally would be. I held off eating anything until about 1:30pm when I had a smoothie and then after some modifications to what we had planned for dinner, I am really happy that I survived! Husband and I also completed an 8km walk which I thought would make me starving all day. Surprisingly I was OK.
I will do another fast day on Thursday and then next week, will do Mon & Wed as my set days. I’ve been furiously scouring the internet for recipes and ideas and have found a few pages with some ideas. But no Holy Grail of recipes. I think I need to develop my own catalogue and just rotate meals so I know for sure I am not exceeding the 500 calories. Would love to hear your ideas and thoughts.
Anywho, so pleased this forum exists! 🙂

Good Morning all and welcome mandyclogs and rebeccajil.

Quick fasting update. Still going strong. My 6am weigh-in this morning shows another 1kg down on yesteray so that’s a total of 2.6kg since I started the extended fast on Sunday evening. I decided not to break my fast for breakfast this morning and will instead continue on until 3pm this afternoon as I still don’t feel hungry. So at 3pm my total fasting time will be 69 hours. Think I might weigh myself again at 3pm to see if there is another loss.

Anzac, for a true fast milk is not allowed, only black tea (tea that doesn’t contain any calories), black coffee, water and an electrolyte powder (essential for an extended fast as I am doing now). Supplements and medications are also ok to consume while fasting. Any amount of calorie intake, regardless of how small, will counteract the purpose of a fast. Autophagy (the body using it’s own fat stores for energy rather than energy from calorie intake – food) will only kick in after a minimum of 18 hours fasting but fasting needs to occur for longer for Autophagy to have any reasonable effect. Autophagy is what I am doing now with the extended fast.

Must dash, OH is waiting outside for me to help with some yard chores. Happy Wednesday everyone

Hello all
This is such a warm and encouraging group. I appreciate it very much.
Cinque, your phrase ‘too much chub on the belly’ described perfectly one of the main reasons that I have embarked on this way of eating. I’m also impressed by the other benefits it seems to offer for health in general.
I am on my third fast day. I’ve just eaten a late lunch of three sardines and a big bowl of chopped rocket and lettuce leaves. Surprisingly tasty and satisfying. I have broccolini and hard-boiled eggs there for a late dinner. Cups of tea and coffee and lots of water too of course.
Penguin, this time 4 years ago I was on the chemo trail. Not much fun but worth it. Special warm wishes to you.
Cheers
HK

Another grey morning promising afternoon sun. (Much better than the grey mornings that don’t).

Lovely morning after fast day for me. Hello all you others enjoying the morning after fast day.

Hello Thursday fasters! Neil! Enjoy a fasty fast day, your last in July.

Gday, I hope you are in fine form again today. Such a delight to get things moving.

Helen Kate, yes, sigh, that pesky bellychub. Won’t it be nice to have less as summer rolls in. You are right, the long term health benefits are even more important than that comfort of looking okay in the mirror. Hooray for 5:2 making it easy and sustainable.
Sorry to hear you had a cancer scare 4 years ago. Cheers for getting through it.

Thin, haha, magic mushrooms might be fun if they gave those hallucinations. Sticking to coffee for now though!
Amazing to read about short migraines. Ooh I had numb fingers around the time of the recent migraine, I wonder if that was connected.
Hooray that your spousal application is in process. Do you just wait now, in the UK, living your wonderful life on the longboat?

Well, my fast day was quite easy, so I am happily following it up with some lovely healthy non fast days. My pottering around is getting things done, so hoping for another good day of that. And I have two fat eggplant that want to be cooked today. I have to decide whether to try an African dish or do something even easier. What a pleasant problem to have.

I have all my fingers and toes crossed that Victoria’s covid19 new cases will be lower again today, but braced for more sad deaths.

Take care everyone, enjoy this precious day.

So sad for Victoria Cinque. I really hoped the numbers would start to fall. So difficult for the government to know what to do next.

Betsy, you are MIA. Are you okay? Ditto, Calif.

Dreadful news this morning of two young women who thought going to Melbourne to steal designer handbags was a good idea – and then lied flying back to Queensland. Covid-positive, they are now in hospital, but in the past eight days they’ve been to church (?), bars, nightclubs, shopping centres….and now a sister has tested positive too…and she works at an afterschool care centre. We are bracing.

Wow Thin, that visa isn’t cheap, is it. I thought my permanent right of abode renewal (partner of a Brit citizen) was expensive, but from memory, at around $600, now seems cheap by comparison. Fingers crossed, it works out.

I’ve read lots of different theories about migraines – the one that seems to fit my case is the hormonal theory – which fits because of when my started, and then when the worst of them ended.

Anzac, back to the milk in tea question. I found a lot of good questions and answers on this site https://www.dietdoctor.com/intermittent-fasting/questions-and-answers He (Dr Jason Fung) says that while technically milk in tea doesn’t fall into the guidelines for a true fast, because it can improve compliance, his program allows 1-2 teaspoons of milk/cream.

OK off to get ready to meet my brothers and wives for a picnic in a park, then home for an afternoon of editing. It has to be finished by 1st August, so I’ll be head down, and the other bit up.

Stay safe, all.

Just a quick hello tonight. I fell asleep on the sofa and just woke up and will go upstairs to bed soon.

I read all of the posts that I missed last night and then was too tired to post. Welcome to Mandy and Rebecca! HK, glad you are getting in the swing of fasting. Once you’ve gotten through a couple weeks and realize you really won’t starve to death on 500 calories it becomes a routine. Like many others here I tend to eat similar foods each FD, generally going for the biggest quantity for the lowest calories. I love broccoli and will often eat a whole bag, about 452 grams of frozen broccoli cuts which I cook in the microwave with a sprinkle of lemon juice and tamari.

Cinque, I love those tiny knitted doll clothes. Such pretty colors! I had my colors done many years ago too and found out I was a winter. 75% of my closet is filled with black, white and navy clothing. I like the blue based winter reds too or dark emerald green.

Penguin, so good to hear that the chemo is going well and you’re halfway through. The lack of most side effects probably has a lot to do with your good diet and exercise. I’ll be anxious to hear what’s going on with the house move.

LJ, congrats on getting back into the 70’s! I’m glad you’re heading downward again, even with the NFD’s. I’ve been inching downward too, not as quickly as I would like, but finally heading in the right direction and not skipping any FD’s.

I’ve had headaches, but never a migraine headache. But about 4 years ago I had my first painless migraine with some little geometric black zigzags in my left eye, up near the left hand upper corner. It lasted for about 20 minutes, then went away. I’ve had some small, much shorter ones since, sometimes less than a minute, usually in the AM and usually when I’m stressed. LJ and I have talked about them but never realized so many of you here have experienced something similar. They usually scare me, but now I’ll realize they aren’t that uncommon. I did have my eye doctor check my eyes the first time it happened and he confirmed there was nothing wrong with my eyes.

Thin, that is one expensive visa for OH! How long will it be good for? Any idea how long til it’s actually processed?

Anzac, so sorry to hear about the death of your friend. Maxx surely seemed to know something was wrong. Such a sweet picture of him waiting for OH.

Gday, great job on your 69 hour fast and resulting weight loss! I can’t imagine being able to hold out that long.

So sorry to hear about the new cases in Victoria and now Queensland. Does Sydney still have cases? It doesn’t seem to take much for it to spread. Some states here are going down while others are increasing. The mask debate continues.

Well, time to get back to sleep. Tomorrow is a FD. (Actually it’s already tomorrow!)