This topic contains 28,288 replies, has 835 voices, and was last updated by thinatlast 1 day, 8 hours ago.
I forgot to mention….my Dad, who is 95 on Thursday, passed his driving test last week! We are all so glad because without it he would lose his little bit of independence and he LOVES his car.
Enjoy your visitors Cinque. How fantastic that you can have people outside of your family over again. Who would have thought this is something to celebrate 12 months ago?
Anzac thank you very much for the birthday wishes but it was actually 27th October. I turned 70. Having a hard time with that. I am still lurking and reading everyone’s posts but I’m afraid I’ve hit a brick wall with life in general and don’t have the energy or inclination to post.
My Dad also past his driving test at the age of 93.
Ten days ago I was given 90 days to vacate my property that I have been renting for 22years, so on top of everything I now have to pack up and look for something suitable for Dad. It’s an absolute nightmare. The last few days I have been sorting and culling. Have a huge load to go to the op shop including 7 lovely winter blankets that belonged to my Mum but know one uses them anymore. I’m limited in my packing because I have to leave clear paths for Dad to get around on his walker. Life certainly wasn’t meant to be easy for me the last few years and to top it all off, to get anything decent that fits our criteria I am looking at having to pay an extra $150pw in rent. If I didn’t have Dad’s financial help I would be homeless.
I have been constant with my FD’s and although I reached 62.3 in July my eating on other days has been dismal. This morning I was 64.4. So in the scheme of things not too drastic.
Anyway nearly time for me to get Dad’s lunch.
Take care everyone.
Welcome Rae.
Congratulations, Mr Anzac Senior.
Neil, it’s a spectacular view of the castle ruins at night with the lights on it across the water. Not looking forward to being parked like a sardine in a marina! Fingers crossed for a winter getaway but it doesn’t look very promising.
Intesha, welcome back. You poor thing. I empathise packing up after that many years in one place. Perhaps a good opportunity to cull things though?
LJ, stay safe, 17 now, those numbers can jump out of control if people don’t do the right thing.
P.S. Anzac, sunny and ‘mild’ today. 11C is mild here.
I’ve just seen a news photo entitled, ‘South Australians face huge queues to get tested’. It shows dozens of people in a long queue. It’s hard to see whether they’re wearing face masks but they are standing in close proximity to each other, definitely not 6ft apart. Stay home LJ!
Welcome aboard Rae, 3kg in a week is pretty good going (although week one is always a pretty big week) What’s your goal weight loss?
Sorry to see there are increased measures in Adelaide again with this new cluster, just when we thought everything was going so well again. Stay safe all our South Australian members!
Happy birthday for 27th October Intesha, just 2 days before my birthday Sorry things are going badly for you at the moment. I hope you manage to find some decent accommodation at a better price than that.
Anzac, 95 and still driving is an awesome accomplishment. My grandmother died a year ago at the age of 97, but she was pretty decrepit by the end, she had no vision, was half deaf and had constant health issues. There was no way she’d be able to drive.
Well day 2 on Whole30, this morning was boiled eggs for protein, cooked yellow beetroot and snowball turnips and then some frozen smoothie fruit mix of strawberries, pineapple, passionfruit and mango. Lunch will be the rest of the beetroot and turnips along with some tomato and an avocado. Dinner I’ve got some venison and salad lined up with walnuts and almonds for snacking during the day. Day 1 felt ok, but I did feel quite hungry despite the bulk of fruit and vegetables I was consuming. I was peeing a whole lot more than normal too, so I guess the sugar and starch that had crept back into my diet had made me retain a fair amount of water.
I’ll keep you all posted about how I’m feeling on the programme. The hardest part for me will be to avoid nibbling things I’m not supposed to eat while I’m cooking for the rest of the family. It’s just a habit to have a nibble of cheese here, a taste of pasta there, etc. If you even have one mouthful of something not on the programme you’re supposed to start again from day 1.
Have a great day everyone
Tuesday, a lovely morning in my part of Melbourne,
Welcome Rae_of_sunshine, lovely to have you here, and what a brilliant start to 5:2. Or Fast800? Brilliant anyway. How are you going today?
LJoyce, good news this morning of just one more case in SA. Fingers crossed the next few days bear out that the cluster hasn’t spread very far. Whispering this, I don’t want to jinx it!
Thin, fingers also crossed that the photo you saw was one where distance is distorted by the camera lens. It is easily done. Reporting here has been praising the queues for patience, distancing and mask wearing.
More good vaccine news. Excellent.
Intesha, so good to see your post. https://gal.cdn.renderosity.com/images/image_1051212/file_1051212.jpg?v=1127254743
Awful news to think of you having to uproot after 22 years. It is going to be a hectic 90 days. No wonder you are stressed and feeling like you are in a nightmare.
Might you be able to make something good of it? (Move near to that brother of yours so it is easier to get him to do something when you need to get away?) .
I do so hope you can find a great little place that will suit your dad’s needs as well as yours, exactly in the area you want, and can get there feeling fantastic after a sort through things. Ooh and fingers crossed you find one for less rent than you fear you will need to pay.
I bet your dad wishes he could pay you a generous wage for all you do for him, you give him the best life he can have. Don’t feel you haven’t earned his support, including financial support. Yay for his driver’s license.
Cheers for your fast days! They have kept you healthy through this extraordinarily stressful year… coming to a stressful end, eep. I do hope you can enjoy the last sweet Christmas in your current home.
Anzac, you and Mr Anzac are such a good team I think you will 5:2 like champions!
Especially with salads like the one you described. My mouth watered reading about it.
Hopefully you will develop lovely new habits that suit both of you and will mean you maintain your lower weights once you get those pesky excess kilos off.
Ten pots of spring onions (shallots!) does rather indicate that Mr Anzac is the gardener extraordinaire!
Have fun preparing for, and enjoying, that lovely batch of guests you have coming.
And hooray for your dad passing his test too. Happy birthday to him! My sister’s birthday is Friday 🙂
Neil, having to start Whole 30 from day one again, every mistake, is the biggest incentive I can think of not to taste the family dishes. (I’d need a big incentive too, tasting dishes is so useful when you are cooking!) It will be so interesting to see how you go and hear what you learn (by reading, in both cases 😉 ).
Good grief, it is 10 o’clock already. Must run. So much to do. Yours sincerely, The White Rabbit.
Morning all.
Off soon for my birthday lunch (yesterday) with my brothers and sisters in law. At 38 degrees, I’d rather be home but I am sure it will be lovely.
Intesha, sorry to hear you’re going through another tough patch. Hopefully you’ll find somewhere that suits, at a price that suits too.
Welcome, Rae. This is a good way of life.
Neil, that program sounds not extraordinarily difficult, once you can break the tasting habit. Hard for cooks not to taste as they go, I’d think.
Well done to your Dad, Anzac, for getting his driver’s licence. It’s a passport to freedom, that’s for sure.
Thin lovely you’ll be parked near DD. Hopefully you’ll be able to see more of her when the restrictions ease a little.
OK if I want to answer everyone I’ll have to go back a page, and we all know where that will end up!
One thing I do remember is Neil’s question about my honey. I give it to people Neil, not sell it. This time the hive was so packed they were nesting in the lid, but we took so much honey from one side that after we’d cleared 3 bars and put in three new ones, we decided to do the other side of the hive next weekend. I got around 9 kilos from just those 3 bars. I like to take a jar to my doctor (he does so much for us, and how else can we say thank you…apart from just saying thank you, of course). Then my brothers, my kids, my DIL’s mother (we are friendly, though not close), and a few bottles for my cousins on the Gold Coast, with whom we are catching up at the weekend. and whoosh…it’s gone! and people do love it (and also the idea of it, I suspect).
So, enjoy your day all, whatever you are doing, and I’ll be back in a day or two.
Kia ora from NZ. We’re being told that world-wide we’ll be first in line for the covid vaccines. It makes us look greedy, as we did a good job of keeping Kiwiland almost covid-free and only had a handful of deaths. I’m sure we’ll have a few to spare for our Aussie mates.
I’m into week 8 of my 5:2 regime and still going strong, apart from the odd unexplainable scales blip, as on my two fast days I’m almost monk-like in my devotion to the 600-cal plan. Maybe it was the amazingly delicious green curry from Spirit House at the Esplanade on Sat night – that’s not a takeway as such, but a proper fresh meal bunged into a container so I could whip it up the hill to our place. And then there’s the fish & chips my better half brought home on Sunday night. I restricted myself to a piece of blue cod and some chips.
Today was blip day, actually, as I weighed 300g more than I did last Tues morn. And on yesterday’s FD I tried so bloody hard!
Overall, in 7 weeks I’ve lost 4kg, which is apparently OK.
Today I took my 4WD to the panelbeaters for assessment after I found a big hole smashed thru the front panels. Obviously someone in the supermarket car park was parking by feel! Then I went for a 4km power walk along the top of Otago Harbour. The attached pic was taken there. It shows Dunedin’s answer to sophisticated public spaces art, the Molars. The six 61/2 tonne teeth are designed to demonstrate the process of delay, according to the artist, although for some Dunedin art lovers the decay is happening too slowly! To non Kiwis, the tree pictured is a cabbage tree, unique to NZ. Fun fact: It’s not actually a tree, but a member of the orchid family.
Stay well and keep shrinking folk!
Cinque, let’s hope you’re right, maybe it’s a generic photo of a pre-covid queue: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-54954923 37 cases now. It can quickly get out of hand.
Jony, well done, I’d say 4kg is a good steady loss over 7-8 weeks. Getting the FDs right and making them sacrosanct as you have done is the key to this in my view. The rest is a work in progress. I found that 5:2 helped shaped my food choices and portions over time without my even realising it. So, enjoy the green curries and blue cod – feast and famine is what this is all about. Annoying that someone sneaked off without owning up to dinging your car.
Lindsay, Happy Birthday!
Neil, you lost me when I got to beetroot. The only food in the entire world that I just cannot swallow. Well, OK there were some live bugs in Thailand too. I admit though, I’ve never heard of a yellow variety of beetroot.
Morning all. Is anyone else still getting linked to page 494 when clicking on the link to reply to this thread? we’re on page 496 but whenever I click the link to reply I get shunted to page 494.
Thin, we’ve grown all sorts of varieties of beetroot, yellow beetroot is nice and sweet, we’ve also grown a white variety which doesn’t stain your hands when you’re working with it, and also a red and white banded variety that looks like a target when you cut it in half. https://www.burpee.com/vegetables/beets/beet-chioggia-prod000609.html
Day 3 of W30 and it’s chicken and kumara for brekkie, avocado and salad for lunch and then something with eggplant for dinner. I had a good ride this morning over Mt Grand, up Concord to Middleton Road and then down past the St Clair golf course, Aberdeen Road, Riselaw Road, Cliffs Road and then round the beaches and harbour to work. It was a nice morning but a bit windy in places.
Jony, if you had quite a bit of salty food with the fish and chips and curry then the gain could be a bit of water weight since salt and sugar make your body hold onto a bit more water. If you don’t have any more overly salty foods and work those pedals of your bike to sweat out that water you’ll be back down without too much hassle.
That’s awesome Lindsay. I’m sure my younger boy could help you with the excess honey, I open up a new jar and it’s gone within a week. I’ve been getting the nice local whipped honey which is really good for spreading on toast.
Rae, don’t worry, just keep chipping away at the total and you’ll get there. It’s a marathon not a sprint. I lost almost 45 kilos and it took around 11 months.
Well I better get cracking on my work, have a great day everyone
Lindsay I CAN’T BELIEVE I missed wishing you happy birthday on Monday! I was so smug at the end of last week that I had remembered it was Monday… and all of a sudden it is Wednesday! My brain seems to put everything in separate little compartments and then misplaces the compartments. Sigh!
Here I am bringing a little posy of flowers to you to add to the procession of celebrations you are having this year. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5b/1b/79/5b1b79cb143f6a13ba141aa89b4c6bd6.jpg
Rae, won’t you love saying goodbye to those 30 kg! That is how much I have lost from my heaviest weight, and it is SO nice to be without it!
Jony, I love that molar art! I had not heard if it before. Don’t artists have amazing minds! And I also love the tree being part of the orchid family (a lovely big orchid I can present to Penguin!)
Hooray for how strongly you are going on 5:2, never mind a few scales blips. You will be noticing 4kg, but is anyone else commenting yet? I had to lose SO MANY kg before friends started noticing.
Thin, that photo certainly makes it look like people are standing way too close.
My heart is going out to SA Health trying to get public testing quickly happening on a large scale, at the same time as they are tracking contacts up stream and following up on everyone who is isolating. We are learning on our feet how to deal with a cluster before it gets out of hand. But aren’t we lucky to be able to do this. And a special hooray to the young doctor who insisted a reluctant patient with mild symptoms took the test and identified that first case.
Neil yes… until this morning when it went to 495. I keep meaning click on the ’email our technical contact’ at the bottom of the page, that is the helpful JJ, but I haven’t managed to yet.
Haha I wonder if Thin will even open that beetroot link.
Penguin, I think cabbage trees would be better called orchid trees, here is a big bunch of orchid tree flowers, in situ, for you this week, with best wishes, as always. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/65/e5/df/65e5df5dfea6a889422a4ad6d2f12d28.jpg
I’m off to prepare for home help. And it is fast day.
Cheers all.
Good morning friends, cloudy but humid here today in Sydney
Welcome Rae! This is a lovely forum where you will enjoy lots of support and friendship. I lost 15kg last year on 5:2 but have put about half back on after an epic 7 week holiday and then landing home smack into Covid….but am now undertaking the journey to get to my goal weight. I need to lose 20kg to get there. We can do it!
45kg in 11 months is more than epic Neil. Most people focus on around half a kilo per week but your average is 4kg per week. Your extreme (in a good way) exercise regime contributed heavily to that.
Mojo is back this week thankfully. I’m not doing FD’s just now as my head isn’t there, but I’m focusing on 800-1000 calories per day and low carb. I’ve lost 600g since Saturday so something is working. I have also stuck to my exercise plan of 1 dog walk, 1 dogless walk and at least 20 mins on the exercise bike. I feel great for a change 🙂
Thin I’m with you on beetroot. There are many things I will not eat and beetroot is up there amongst those at the top. I’m so glad you will be moored near your daughter.
Neil, I open this website from an email and it now opens one page back – so today it opened up at page 495. It is some sort of software glitch I guess.
Happy birthday for Monday Lindsay!! We ended up getting to 37 on Monday and it was stifling, but I hope you had a lovely birthday lunch with your brothers and SIL’s
I had a good chuckle White Rabbit – oops I mean Cinque. I feel like that constantly; always looking at my watch and complaining about not having time to do what needs to be done. I need to aim to be more like the Cheshire Cat or even the Caterpillar (minus the hookah) although my favourite character of all time is Tigger. If I bounced around half as much as he does I would lose weight in no time! I bought my gorgeous great-nephew a Tigger for Christmas and my great-niece a Piglet amongst quite a few other things…..I’m allowed because being an indulgent Great-Aunt is acceptable. I just love Winnie the Pooh
Jony, 4kg in 7 weeks isn’t just ok, it is fantastic. If you go too hard it isn’t sustainable (unless you are Neil) so keep chipping away.
Time to get back to work. Hi to LJ, Betsy, Cali, G’day, Quacka (are you out there?), Intesha, Penguin and any other of our friends who are reading. Take care all
Anzac, 4kg a week would be epic, but you’re giving me too much credit. I lost 45 in 11 months so it’s 4kg per month, or just under 1 kilo a week. Most of it (25 kilos) was in the first 3 months when I was on the fast800 then more leisurely 20 kilos in the remaining 7 months on 5:2, you can see my graph here which really shows my battle with maintenance
Good afternoon all.
Happy belated birthday to Intesha and Lindsay.
Intesha, despite the stress and upheaval of having to move, I too am hoping that you find somewhere that suits you and your dad even better than where you are.
Thin, I think being moored somewhere that sounds a bit quieter and is near your daughter would be excellent – especially as European travel sounds so inadvisable at present.
Rae, welcome to the forum. Sounds like a huge loss for week one. If you are doing 5:2 it will likely be a lot slower than that moving forward, only Fast800 seems to keep a faster rate of loss going. However, it’s more important you find a pattern that suits you for the long haul.
Neil, my graph is similar – fast weight loss on 800cal per day with a constant battle to stay stable in maintenance.
Jony, many things have an impact on our weight and the scales often don’t reflect effort. If progress in the numbers is an important motivator, I would suggest a tape measure, as I found that those numbers sometimes reduced even when the scales didn’t.
Cinque, I love your description of how your brain’s filing system is causing you problems – mine does the same thing. As I’ve said before I don’t have a problem with my memory, it’s the retrieval system that’s a bit hit and miss. I know the information is there because it pops up eventually – usually several hours or days too late!
Anzac, well done on your Dad keeping his license (yours too Intesha) – wonderful to keep that independence while they are still safe behind the week.
Well things have changed a bit here in the last 24 hours. When I was at the hospital for my rheumatology clinic appointment our government announced a 6 day shut down. When I was driving home an hour later the queues outside the supermarkets were ridiculous – looked like a very dangerous place to be with all those people, mostly still unmasked. I decided I could definitely manage with the food I had at home – although I might need to ration milk!
At least I’ll have time to keep up with posts on this blog as I’m not even allowed to leave the house to go for a walk – I hope they relax that one soon as I’ll really pack on the kilos if I become a couch potato.
Our chief health officer said that the Adelaide outbreak is a new strain of covid that came in with an infected person from the UK. They said that within 24 hours of someone being exposed to this strain (and days before they have any symptoms themselves) they have already replicated enough virus to be infectious themselves. No wonder it’s spreading so easily. They said that they’ve contact traced 5 generations of the virus spread and are now working on the 6th generation. I guess if a new generation of infection is happening every 24 hours it’s hard to catch up. No wonder they want us to all just stay home for a while.
On the positive side, my rheumatology appointment went well and I have been approved for another 6 months on my treatment drug. There were also no nasty surprises on the hospital scales this time. It was this time last year that I got such such a shock when I realised how much weight I’d gained. It was very nice to see a 7 not an 8 on the hospital scales – especially when it’s an afternoon weight on a NFD, with clothing and shoes on.
Time for me to have a look at the freezer and pantry and revise my meal plan for the next week – I had intended to buy fresh food tomorrow but I’ll see if I can manage without.
Take care all.
Evening all.
A busy day, with Rosy to the vet (all good – just shots) and me to the doctor for results of blood tests taken on Saturday. Also all good. Cholesterol fine, blood sugar (my constant worry) via HbA1c is a happy 5.5. Vit D a little low (it’s a fine balance between 50+ sunscreen to save my skin, and enough rays to keep those D levels high enough) and my thyroid levels a little off. All minor, and nothing to worry about.
Thank you Cinque for the flowers …and no matter a day or two late. Nice to have something when the day has been and gone. And what a fabulous bunch they are!
Anzac, thanks too for the birthday wishes. One lovely brother gave me a bottle of limoncello (we holidayed once with him in Italy), another the latest Robert Dessaix book ‘The time of our lives’ (on growing old well …meant kindly I’m sure 🙂 and my vegan brother a virtual feast in the making, with a pink oyster mushroom sprouting kit, home made coconut yoghurt, and a jar of home dried orange peel, ground very fine. I added half a teaspoon to my morning black coffee, and it was ….different. An acquired taste, perhaps. How spoiled am I, though.
My lovely children put on a very special afternoon for me on Sunday …my DD cooked your favourite, Cinque, an Ottolenghi (ooh, sp?) feast. Slow roasted lamb shoulder with caramelised carrot, turmeric potatoes and a roasted pumpkin, spinach and lentil salad. Yum. And Miss 7 cooked me a pineapple upside down cake, with guidance from her Dad. My present was a terracotta bird bath (I have just the spot, sheltered under some low branches, and my bees can share it too). My lovely son gave me a silver pendant on a chain. But there’s a story. When Mr 6 was only 5, he drew a bee for me, which my designer son turned into labels for my honey. For my birthday, he found a silversmith who copied the illustration into a beautiful pendant. The pic isn’t great – it was hard not to get reflections on the silver – but hopefully you’ll see how lovely it is, and why I’ll treasure it always.
https://imgur.com/cqE9QZl
https://imgur.com/DpxjTQl
I love that Dunedin dental art Neil and Jony. A special type of creativity.
I also opened the pic of the cabbage tree …. it looks very much like some of the big cordylines we see here. Beautiful flowers.
Big hello to all who are around and reading, but not posting.
Tomorrow marks the beginning of my post birthday reset. 4 kilos now before mid-December.
enjoy your evening all.
Good afternoon from the northern hemisphere. I am reasonably up to date with events, having read the posts every few days – new names (welcome), good news and not good news. Covid still being a problem to us all. After a frustrating few weeks in which we have packed and disposed of books and furniture without having any idea when we will move, or even if the sale is going ahead, it looks as though things are happening. It could now happen quickly, although we still don’t have a date. My best guess, and it is only a guess, is that it will happen about the time my current course of chemo ends in December. Which will be good timing. I can get the line out of my arm and regain full use of it – a one handed box packer isn’t much use to anyone. We don’t know where we are going to live. We need a rented home for a few months whilst the new buy has some serious work done but we can’t commit to that until we have a date.
OH just answered the phone – a friend in France I haven’t spoken to for months has called.
What’s more annoying than losing a post on here? Losing a post here and not even realising it. My answer to several this morning isn’t here at all. Grrr. And the only thing I can even remember writing was to Neil, that yes, I am also taken two pages back on the thread which I think may have contributed to my undoing this morning. I blame Cinque.
Never mind, hello to all. Penguin’s post wasn’t here before so that was a treat. How about a relaxing narrow boat while you’re getting your new abode fixed up? Good that your treatment will be ending soon. I hope it’s been a success.
Lindsay, so pleased you enjoyed your birthday.
LJ, how frustrating about the covid numbers. If you can manage with LL milk, I’d stock up on that. It’s what’s kept me out of a lot of stores that I didn’t feel comfortable venturing into. Then again, you have the advantage of knowing your local stores and when they might be quieter.
Here, we are told that if we behave ourselves in the lead-up, we might be allowed out for Christmas. The fear is that if some concession isn’t made, people will socialise anyway and, having done so, it would be unlikely they would conform at all afterwards. Apparently, for every day we spend spreading covid over the festive season, we will need an extra five in lockdown. I am excited by the prospect of spending Christmas with DD who has Xmas Eve until 28th off work, exactly the five days being considered for our release into another household. I would love to see where she lives now, it’s tantalising being so close but not being able to spend time together.
Gosh, we seem to have a lot of people telling us how to lose weight here lately. Oh well, JJ responds very quickly ridding us of such posts.
CalifD, the first of my brother’s two appearances in The Crown ended up on the cutting room floor. It should have been Ep 3 because he was in a scene in which there was an attempted attack on the Queen. There is so much scope for material that they film many more stories than are ultimately used. This happened to some of his scenes in Series 3. He gets paid anyway and he loves all the set and costume design, make-up and rubbling shoulders with celebs, but a bit disappointing for his devoted fans in the family! We’ll see if his other part made it …. they’re going to have a field day with Harry’s wife if they found Diana unpalatable.
Morning all, day 4 on Whole30 and I’m feeling better already, I’m a bit more regular, not getting the stomach pain I was getting, I’m getting that flushed skin feeling that I get when my body is switching to burning fat and I feel like I’m thinner, but of course I won’t know until day 31 because I’m not supposed to be weighing or measuring myself during the programme, because it’s not supposed to be a weight loss programme but a health programme.
It will be interesting when I get to the reintroduction phase to see what was causing my stomach issues. I will have to alter what I’m eating slightly though, I got the Whole30 book out of the library, and although there is no calorie counting and all fruits are fair game, they say it’s best to have only 2-3 servings of it per day and to eat it as part of a meal, not as a snack or a dessert replacement because otherwise you’re just changing out your sugar cravings for fruit. I was snacking on a frozen smoothie mix (mango, pineapple, strawberry and passionfruit) after work and for dessert. I don’t have to reset because It was a recommendation, not a rule that I was going against. Another recommendation that I may struggle with is to eat 3 meals a day with no snacks, I usually have nuts as a snack in the morning and afternoon, but I’ll try to eat bigger meals and incorporate them in with my meals instead.
Good morning all from a very quiet Adelaide. No traffic noise – which is very odd. I have tried to start the day by doing a few laps of the long hallway – I’ll need to repeat that regularly. I’m also doing a FD500 today as I don’t want to start this period with a day of overeating.
Penguin, lovely to hear from you. Glad to hear that your house sale is proceeding – even of the actual date is still a bit uncertain. I hope you find a suitable and timely rental near the new house.
I hope you are managing this course of chemo as well as you did the last.
Lovely to hear from friends in France.
Lindsay, what a lovely idea from your son to have the drawing made into a pendant – definitely something to treasure.
Thin, I do have powdered milk as a backup – I find that if I mix some up when I have half a bottle of fresh milk left and combine them it still mostly tastes like fresh milk. I find the liquid long life milk has a metallic taste and really dislike it in my cups of tea.
Neil, sounds like you have settled into your 30 day plan. I hope it produces the results you are after.
I pulled the icecream maker for my Kitchenaid mixer out of its box this morning. I have half a litre of plain yoghurt in the fridge and also a large pot of stewed rhubarb, strawberries, apple and pear. I was thinking of attempting a frozen yogurt by combining equal quantities of the two.
I’m glad I have the big pot of stewed fruit as the only fresh fruit is a small punnet of raspberries and 2 bananas. Although my strawberry plants have a few berries that are slowly ripening. https://imgur.com/a/USzpMol The local sleepy lizard likes them too, so I’ll have to get to these before he does.
My fresh veggie situation is also a bit meagre – I have a bag of onions, 3 carrots and half a cucumber in the fridge. I had a look at the veggie patch this morning to see if it could fill any gaps. https://imgur.com/a/xR6OiqE I have one very tiny zucchini, which I hope grows quickly and finds some friends soon! My perpetual lettuce is doing well and I am also starting to pick a few cherry tomatoes. My spinach plants are also healthy but still too small to start picking.
However I do have at least half a dozen bags of frozen veg and also a big tub of frozen veggie gratin, so I can get by.
However given the only reason I can leave the house is to go to the supermarket or pharmacy, I am considering walking to the supermarket tomorrow for some fruit & veg – but if it’s crowded when I get there I won’t be going in.
Have a good day all. I’m off to do some housework.
Cinque, nothing from you in two days. Hoping you just lost a post like me rather than you are unwell.
LJ, powdered milk’s a good emergency option but I’d have to be desperate to use it. I’ve found (with all the brands that I’ve been exposed to over the past year) that LL milk varies quite a bit in taste. I’m just using up some almond milk that I originally bought to freeze for FDs. The box did caution not to and I can see why. But it also read, ‘may contain traces of nuts’ which made me laugh.
Neil, good to hear that you’re happy with your new regime.
Morning all,
Well day 5 and sugar withdrawal hit me like a Mack truck yesterday afternoon. I got dizziness, headaches, waves of nausea and general feeling of being unwell. I’m feeling better this morning but apparently it can last a few days so I’m not looking forward to that.
We’re away to Timaru for the weekend. My wife is off to a wedding and I’m going to do stuff with the boys.
Well have a great day/weekend everyone.
Kia ora from Dunedin NZ! I’ve been a bit slack on the posting front this week. My beloved e-bike suddenly started making alarming noises going downhill yesterday so I rode straight to the bike shop. Diagnosis? I’ve worn out the disc brakes. Repair work under way as I type. I actually went to have a look at another e-bike today, which I might buy for other family members in the hope they might come riding with me. All the female family members say the No. 1 priority is a comfortable seat! Mine doesn’t have a seat, just a long strip of hard fibreglass, but to me it’s very comfy!
So I had to have a long walk in the Dunedin Botanic Garden instead today. Wonderful place! I wandered up into the hill gardens and happened upon the rhododendron dell, which reflects the love affair Dunedin gardeners have with rhodos. Flowering is almost done for the season, with the last blooms expected next month, but as you can see from my pic, some late-bloomers are still catching the eye.
My 5:2 fasting journey seems to have stalled – on Nov 6 I was 102.5kg and this morning I was 102.2kg, despite the fact I’ve had 4 fasting days in between. Very discouraging, although as LJoyce noted recently often the scales don’t reflect the effort we’re putting in. Maybe I have to look closer at what I eat on non-fasting days? Programme literature says we should eat “normally” on those days but I’m getting the feeling there’s an unwritten message there we really should be very careful about what we shove down our gobs on those days, too. To fellow Dunedinite Neil – hope your body gets over its craving for sucrose very soon without your having to indulge in a sugar rush!
Back to things botanical – to Lindsay L, you mention cordylines in Oz. Our cabbage tree is cordyline australis (australis is Latin for southern). The imported cabbage tree is called the Torquay palm and also the Torbay palm in the UK, so now I’m keeping a close eye out for cabbage trees as I watch reruns of “Fawlty Towers”, as that’s set in Torquay. What was last year judged the greatest UK sitcom of all time has become rather cringeworthy with age but some of the plots were brilliant! Oh, and I may have got it wrong when I said the cabbage tree is not a tree but an orchid. Further research suggests it’s a member of the lily family. Seems I was barking up the wrong tree, sorry lily.
Good Afternoon all,
The SA lockdown will be lifted early. So instead of next Tuesday we will return to a reasonable kind of ‘normal’ from midnight Saturday (tomorrow night). I won’t go into the details as I’m sure you will all see it on the news.
The announcement was made just as I returned home from doing the weekly food shopping and watering a friends garden/feeding his cat as he was in Victor Harbor when the lockdown was announced and was unable to return home on time so venturing out for those chores was allowed. No issues with line-ups etc at the supermarket although there was no loo paper or fresh meat. Luckily (or unluckily I feel) the butchers shop was open so I went there to purchase my 2kg of minced beef and 4 chicken breasts. I nearly died when he handed me the bag and said ‘that will be $62 please’. OMG I bought chicken and mince not prime fillet steak! Really, I’m still gobsmacked about it and thinking the butchers were price gouging because the supermarkets had run out.
Welcome to the forum Rae. Jony, yes you will stall at times and yes you do need to be careful of what you eat on non fast days. Although they say ‘eat as normal’, that does mean eating nutrient dense whole foods and not junky, processed foods so you may need to revise your non fast days if you lean towards the latter.
Neil my jaw dropped when I read your weight loss averaged to 4kg per week (can’t recall who wrote it). I’m in awe at your weight loss but that seemed totally amazing. Thanks for the correction and clarification….lol.
Not much happening here at the moment. Miss Gday and I were supposed to be going to Adelaide next week for 4 days for medical appointments and shopping but that has been cancelled now. The following week Mr Gday and I were supposed to be going to the Barossa Valley for 3 days and then onto Adelaide for an 80th Birthday party but that has also been cancelled.
Yesterday was extremely hot so we were stuck inside under the airconditioner (as will be the case again tomorrow) so we binged watched The Crown while I sewed faced masks for us all plus a few other odd sewing jobs that I’ve been putting off. Oh Thin…. please do tell us the roles your brother played in The Crown, it’s driving me nuts not knowing which one he is.
Tomorrow I have some cooking planned for the morning. I will make a big batch of bolognaise sauce for the freezer, hence the purchase of 2kg of mince. I will use some to make a couple of slabs of lasagne (with homemade pasta), also for the freezer. The chicken breasts will be cubed, marinated and skewered on skewers (mmm…is that the right terminology – skewered on skewers?), also for the freezer. Last week I had a pasty making day and we now have 3 dozen pasty slices in the freezer. Over the last 2 months I’ve had a cooking frenzy and our 2 chest freezers, the upright freezer and the freezer above the fridge are now full. I’m planning for the hot weather over the next few months when I tend to have no inclination to put too much effort into cooking and I also want to get ahead with my 2 current studies as much as I possibly can.
In saying that, I have already completed (since starting late August) 7 out of the 11 units for my Cert III in Fitness. Two of those uncompleted units are the First Aid course (which I’m booked in for in mid December) and the work experience component so I really only have 3 more at home ‘study’ units to complete. I’m really wanting to finish them by Christmas so I can fully concentrate on my Weight Management Cert IV studies for the first 3 months of next year.
Take Care all x
Hi GDSA, sounds like you are coping with the on and off again restrictions.
Not surprised at the meat bill. I’ve noticed butchers here charging $20 a kilo for mince when people are panic buying.
I had a big grin on my face all afternoon, knowing than once it cooled off a bit I’d get to enjoy the treat of a walk outside! It was a slight irritation to wear a mask, but very enjoyable. It was a sign of the times – I saw just one car but both a Coles and a WW delivery van – every time I turned into a new street, there they were again. Clearly many in my suburb were getting groceries delivered just in time for dinner.
John, lovely rhododendrons.
Neil, that sounds an awful reaction but rather underscores the need for it I suppose?
Jony, don’t lose heart. We all had to do some tweaking when we started. For some, there’s a bit of a tendency to overcompensate the night before or day after a FD. I think it’s true to say that you can have whatever you want on NFDs but certainly not as much as you want. And as GDSA mentioned, it’s better when what you want is something nutrient-dense and healthy. But it all takes time. We have a lifetime of bad habits to try and undo. Stick with those FDs and all will be well.
LJ, GDSA, that was a short-lived lockdown. I’ve just been chatting to our former neighbour in Perth. Her young daughter is quarantined in a hotel having returned from a rotary trip to France. If she as much as steps outside her room, the two weeks start again. My friend feels that covid is inevitable in WA now that the border’s open. Meanwhile, she’s been working on developing a rapid covid test.
GDSA, I think we’ve seen 5 episodes and I haven’t spotted my brother yet. It will be a teeny part. He often plays a part where we have to ‘freeze’ the screen in order to get a good look at him such as a dead guy at the bottom of the stairs in Poirot! Or a death eater in Harry Potter where we couldn’t tell which one was him! But we get excited anyway.
Cinque, are you OK?
Hi everyone, I did reply to this thread a few days ago about starting 5:2 – Can’t seem to find my comments! I had a good first week. I read the Revised Fast Diet book and then a couple of days later read the Fast800 (both on Kindle). I have taken what I thought was the best of each and tailored my own plan from that. I am going to do 500Cal on Mondays and Thursdays, and 800Cal on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday. Keeping the weekends more relaxed with no restrictions(to a point). I also follow a carnivore way of eating(5+years) as other foods give me inflammatory responses, restless leg and Plantar Fasciitis. I will do one meal a day on the weekdays, I know mornings are best, but that just doesn’t work! I always sneak another meal in at the end of the day, so gritting my teeth through the day is easier for me. I am located in the Far north coast of NSW. Hoping to do this until Christmas, then relax a little bit when I have a housefull of family members. Then in the new year back on full steam ahead as I have about 40Kg to loose. Cheers everyone, and thanks for the welcome wishes. Rae Edit..just found my previous comments hahaha
Cinque, that’s good to know. See you tomorrow for a fasty Sunday.
GDSA, I forgot to comment on that butcher’s prices. Outrageous!
Rae, all the best with your customised plan. I think the ‘breakfast is the most important meal’ mantra has been debunked – at least on this thread many of us experience the hunger dragon which is to say that it’s easier to go all day without food because once we start eating, it seems to awaken a hunger that’s hard to satiate.
Good morning, yes, it is my fasty Sunday, and I am just going slowly, I have a feeling it might be afternoon before I post this, but I did start in the morning.
A couple of days of not posting and I COMPLETELY miss the SA lockdown haha. We got hours of the press conferences and I was sending good wishes all the time. So glad it has been able to be eased. Can you get all your appointments back Gday?
It was my sister’s birthday on Friday and we went to visit (3 generations, me, my daughter and Miss4). On Thursday I managed to go shopping, henna my hair and make chickpea dip, eggplant dip, carrot dip and pita crisps. With carrot and celery sticks, avocado, tomato and some nice olives I was providing our birthday celebration afternoon tea.
Just after I got home from shopping, while making a coffee and shuddering at the sound of the leafblower shrieking outside for 20 minutes, my specialist rang, an hour early. But O my goodness I SO prefer a telephone appointment compared to spending between $15 and $60 dollars on hospital parking, too much walking and sitting in the waiting room for hours sometimes. All good with my ct scan. Another check up in a year.
So then I got back to my dips and also made a batch of vegetable pasties that I froze uncooked, for my sister (and BIL) and worked out all the containers and ice packs for transporting everything..
On Friday morning I packed up and got to my daughter’s to babysit while Rose volunteered at the toy library. We made my famous (and very easy and delicious) chocolate porridge cake with Miss four doing all the mixing. She wants to be a baker when she grows up :). While it cooled we went to the park so she could stretch her legs before our big trip. And once it was cool we decorated the cake with icing sugar and heartsease.
An hours drive to my sisters new home and a lovely time there. All the food was a good (and the pasties successfully in her freezer now). SO glad to be able to celebrate her birthday with her. And also particularly nice to chat to Rose there and back, with the two littlies we don’t often get a chance to catch up properly.
Now I am recovering, my ME/CFS symptoms have kicked in, but I have some easy days ahead and it was such a good time.
Ooh news has come through, doughnut day for SA 🙂 and after today Victorians don’t need to wear masks outside if we are socially distant.
Good grief I have written a novel and haven’t even got to the lovely posts yet. I will submit this and start on a fresh one.
2. 😀
Anzac, love that mojo! Such good things you are doing for your precious health. I hope Mr Anzac is happily losing his belly too.
Haha last week was definitely White Rabbit week for me, yikes, I don’t know how you do it week after week. This week I intend to be Eeyore. (Maxx is Tigger).
LJoyce, haha yes, I want a retrieval system upgrade for my brain.
Hooray for your rheumatology appt, relief for another 6 months.
Miso did NOT get whiskas every second day when I did my alternate day fasting. Yikes, as if she doesn’t already hassle me enough. I just didn’t mention my changed routine to her! And I am only whispering now that she has whiskas tonight or she will be sat in the kitchen giving pitiful miaows for the rest of the day.
Lindsay, another medical appt, it was all go for us this week! Hooray for such good results, especially your blood sugar. You made that happen!
That vitamin D one is so tricky!
Haha the ‘growing old’ book, was it a YOUNGER brother who was so cheeky? The orange powder would go so well in couscous or a dressing or maybe muffins. I feel inspired to make some! And wow, what a mouth watering feast. A very special celebration. As for that brilliant pendant, what a precious gift. I just love love love those curly legs!
Penguin, thanks so much for letting us know that you are okay (enough to write and to look forward to packing with both arms, at least). It must be so hard to be unable to plan, I do so hope everything falls into place now. Especially that a perfect place (maybe a longboat?) comes available for you to stay for those months.
Thin, blaming me for not contacting JJ, when I so carefully and subtly pointed out how ANY ONE OF US could do it????? Yes, you deserve every one of those question marks!
I might manage it in the next few days, folks, but don’t count on me!
My heart goes out to everyone in the UK trying to deal with the awful covid numbers and growing intensive care cases and deaths. I really hope the concerted effort pays off quickly and that the experience gives everyone a reality check of how important our covidsafe habits are.
Neil, have the sugar cravings subsided? I do hope so.
I am so keen to hear how you go after the 30 days, introducing everything again, it will be a long process if you are careful, but if you can identify what gives you tummy troubles, it will make the rest of your life so much better. Do you know if they incorporate the fodmaps research into their categories for reintroduction?
Jony, do you have your old bike back… or a new one! They do seem such fun and so practical.
Wicked of 5:2 to be stalling, but think long term! And haha yes, we probably do need to think a bit about what we shove down our gobs!
Lily tree still sounds so much better than cabbage tree (even though I do love cabbage!).
Gday, aren’t you rocking your course. It is just so good to do something you are passionate about.
A horror story with the meat. That is a butcher you might want to boycott. But doesn’t a lockdown (even a few days of it) change our idea of what things are worth?
Rae, SO annoying to lose a post! It has happened to all of us (except perhaps Jony, since he hasn’t been here so long). So glad you found it was there after all.
You have put together a good combination that should lead to some nice quick weight loss. Should it become too onerous, you can just tweak again to something manageable. It will be lovely to get to your family Christmas time feeling good and successful and ready to enjoy yourself.
As Thin says, ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day’ is no longer universally accepted. Many (maybe most) people intermittent fasting find the longer they can go through the day without eating, the better.
I’ve been listening to a wonderful history podcast that explains that 100’s of years ago (in the UK at least) it was common not to eat until the afternoon, so if you did eat something in the morning it was called ‘a break in your fast’ which is where our word ‘breakfast’ comes from.
Well yes, it is afternoon now. I do just want to call out to you Cali, before I head off to do gentle things for the rest of the day. I fear you haven’t posted because everything is so hard for you at the moment. I am hanging out to hear from you though!
I would like to host a little Thanksgiving celebration especially for you, here on the 5:2 forum. All very virtual so that means completely no calories (incase you are fasting on Thursday)! But it will be full of good wishes and thanksgiving that you and we have all survived a hard year, and that your country will get through these hard times too.
Bye now to everyone, have a good Sunday. I’m hoping to keep myself busy on my fasty afternoon, while resting at the same time. Lucky I am a gemini!
I will make miso soup for my evening meal.
Best wishes and all good things,
Hi all from Woodend, North Canterbury, South Island.
I have been lurking these last three months whilst moving around and keeping well.
Welcome to the newbies and others still lurking like me, good to hear that mostly you are all either still losing or maintaining. Managing does seem to be the new norm?
The wedding I was planning to get my weight down for has been and gone and I am sorry to say that I didn’t reach my target weight, guess I just didn’t try hard enough, but did get to my lowest weight this year of 71kgs and am now hovering around the 72’s, so not all is lost, hoping to be at 70 by Xmas. I have done something to my right knee which needs further investigation, it is locking and clicking a lot, and the dull aching pain keeps me awake at night. Then, whilst at Forsyth Barr at the end of October I slipped on wet concrete and landed flat on my left kneecap and have injured that as well, so cycling is better than walking at present. OH needs to have his annual PSA check soon so we’re not cycling at the moment either. Suppose we’ll get there soon.
Not really much else to report, hoping to be house sitting over in Bannockburn for Xmas time, if not cherry picking, just waiting for a carpet fitter to come and measure up for the van, buy the carpet and get it laid, then we’ll be off again.
We have had some lovely hot days and visited some beautiful places, but soooo over this crazy wind! Sunshine and showers the order of the day today, 10′ cooler than yesterday!
Happy Fasting everyone, enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
Turn
Good evening all. I am very pleased to be out of shut down and just back into tight restrictions. Although my only excursions today were 2 walks that I attempted to fit in between the thunder showers – I managed that beautifully this morning but a bit damp this afternoon. given that it’s still hot and humid here, getting wet while walking was not that much of a bother.
Turn, lovely to hear from you, but so sorry to hear about the knee damage – sounds like an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon might be needed.
Cherry picking – I think I’d eat more than ended up in the bucket.
Cinque, sorry that our CFS has flared, but it does sound like the wonderful family time was worth the fatigue. I hope you recover quickly.
Thin & Cinque, I am joining you in a FD today – need it after the last two days where I struggled to find restraint.
Rae, that’s a tough schedule you have planned, but I hope it works for you. I will second Thin’s comments – I can do one meal a day (and usually do on FDs), but not breakfast, always dinner. My appetite is usually dormant until I start eating, so the later in the day the better.
I am heating up my one meal for the day – Delia Smith’s chicken basque (although made with barley rather than rice). Looking for to it very much.
Morning losers, another Sunday has arrived. I’m using up the almond milk that’s expired so it feels like a proper FD.
Cinque, not blaming you for not contacting JJ. For jinxing the default page. But not actually blaming you at all, just joshing. And quite a few spammers have found their way here in recent days. Great news on your scan. And the family time. But sorry about the resultant CFS flare up. Can I buy shares in that hospital parking lot?
LJ, chicken basque sounds delish. Out of lockdown in a heartbeat.
Turn, I was thinking about you recently and wondering where you were. That’s too bad about your knee, it sounds painful. I hope you can post more often.
Many posters tell us all about their pets so I thought I’d mention our mog, Bruce (the shelter gave him that banal name and it stuck). The pic shows him a year or so back when he came up with a new trick to gain access to the house (and his food) – he’d leap up on to the washing rack on our front terrace and start pulling clothes off, hoping we might be gazing out at the blue Pacific and would spy him. My wife hates him dirtying the washing so in he comes. No, we don’t have a cat door, as we dislike having half-eaten rats and mice wandering around the house at night . . .
Nice to meet you, Turn. Great there’s another Mainlander in the mix. You must have some great adventures in your peripatetic life. I’ll be up in Cromwell for a family Xmas from Christmas Eve for a few days and will no doubt be taking to the bike tracks to escape the second helping of brandy-laced trifle. You’ll recognise me on the trail – I’ll be the guy powering along gnawing on a carrot.
Sorry to hear about the knee injury. I know your pain, as I snapped my quad tendon (rt leg) in June and it’s taking a long time to heal. Biking’s OK but long walks not so good.
To Cinque – no, just my superduper e-bike left in the shed at the moment, after selling 3 bikes in the last 2 weeks.
Since my last FD last Thurs, my weight has stayed down, a pleasing development. Maybe soon I’ll be able to crack the bottle of Asti Riccadonna I bought for the landmark weigh-in when I go under 100kg. Probably won’t be on my birthday, this Tues (Nov 24). But who knows? Extra-strict FD coming up tomorrow! That means I’ll probably gain.
Good evening all. I’m trying to catch up with more than a week’s worth of posts, aggh! Not that I don’t find them all interesting. My supervisors gave me lots of helpful suggestions re my studies, but have also asked me to complete some work and to text them on Thursday to say that it’s done. I don’t know how I’m going to do it. They want 5 transcripts finished, and it takes so long just to do one. Maybe I’m just too picky on getting them entirely accurate? Anyway, after this evening’s post, you won’t hear form me again till the end of the week.
Oh, and the eating hasn’t been well-controlled. I’m still 5 kg less than I was this time last year, so the blow-out hasn’t been as disastrous, and I am trying to pull the eating in, I really am. What can I say???
Hi Rae, welcome to the forum. You’ll enjoy us all, warts and all with our eating though we may be!! 🙂 (well, some of us, anyway! – you’re inspiring me yet again with your planned eating)
LJoyce, great that your first, larger IKEA project is done – looks good – and I hope the smaller one is finished soon.
Cinque, I’m still waiting to find time to go to an op shop. My 5-6 bags of “goodies” are still sitting in my garage room waiting till I have opportunity. I’d heard somewhere that op shops have been a bit overwhelmed with donations recently – too many people having clean-outs like me, I guess, so it might be better to wait till the new year, when their stocks may be less.
Intesha, so sorry to read of the challenges of having to pack up and move. Hope a suitable place shows up soon.
Neilithicman, hope you’re surviving on the elimination diet. Sounds restrictive in content, but with ample to eat, so may not be too bad. I should do something like that – eliminate all the “naughties” from my kitchen!! 🙂 The whole30 requirement to restart from the beginning if you just slip once seems very severe, even though understandable as an elimination thing. Sounds like the withdrawal symptoms are fairly dire, though. Not sure I’d cope with what you’re describing.
Thin, how lovely that you’ll have a winter mooring quite close to DD. Sounds ideal.
Cinque, I looked at LJoyce’s imgur, and it reminded me – I still have the strawberries which you gave me last year, and they’re fruiting again already this year. They’re in my front yard, so the possums thus far have left them alone – maybe the presence or smell of Wilbur deters them? I don’t get a lot, but a small handful from 3 bushes every now and then is a fairly good yield – thanks again!
jonykiwi, I had the same trouble again with your last imgur photo – it wouldn’t open for me. Not sure what’s wrong. Oh well. Don’t worry too much if your weight temporarily plateaus; it’s a common phenomenon, and tends to be followed by a whoosh of weight loss provided you just persevere. Fitting of clothes can also show a change before the scales do.
LJoyce & GDayfromSA, so glad the lockdown has proven to be so brief. What a hassle with that international student lying – I guess he was worried about his visa, as he would only be allowed to work 20 hours a week, but it sure did cause a panic for a few days. GDay, sounds like that butcher really was price-gouging you with the meat. It happened a little at the start of the Victorian lockdown, too, but the authorities quickly put a stop to it. Great that your studies have progressed so well!
Happy belated birthday, LindsayL, and great to harvest so much honey from your hive. Did you get the other one done this weekend?
I am out of time, and still some posts to read, but the plumbers are coming in the morning (for the last time, I hope!) for what is purported to be a final inspection and polish off a couple of not-quite complete bibs and bobs, so I’ll need to be in bed very soon or my eyes won’t be open at 6:30 a.m. in the morning. Not sure how they’ll manage, with rain here this evening and forecast through the night, but hopefully only drizzle in the morning; we’ll see how it goes.
Will comment on more posts next time. Goodnight for now!
Good morning,
It has been POURING with rain here. The garden is SO happy.
It is lovely day after fast day for me. I did have a fasty fast day, but woke up at 4:30am ready for breakfast! Hung out til 7:30 and made what I am now calling crispbread, made in a heart shaped waffle iron. And coffee. Lovely.
Turn, so good to hear from you, but oh dear, your poor knees. I do hope the injured one heals quickly (I wish we bounced like we did as little kids!) and that you can get the right person to check out your other poor knee and work out how to fix it.
I hope the wedding was good fun. 5:2 isn’t really the best for ‘I want to be this weight by that date’. It is better for ‘I want to get to a healthy weight and live a good healthy life’. You are winning that one! (knees aside)
Best wishes with the carpet and the Christmas house sitting falling into place, and the weather being kind for your traveling.
LJoyce, Yay! I hope you are having a lovely morning after fast day too. What a delicious classic dish you ate last night. (Also, I read that last line exactly as you meant it!)
Thin, I knew you were just joshing. I joshed you back. (But I am still hoping I might manage to email JJ).
Shares in hospital (and airport) car parks sounds like a brilliant idea. Although not in 2020 maybe. Now might be the perfect time to invest. Rock bottom prices, excellent prospects.
Neil, I hope your shakiness is easing, it is scary when your blood pressure gets that low. Stand up carefully! Pull your tummy muscles in as you rise. Might you be a bit dehydrated? (I know, my mind always goes there). Without grains and legumes you might need to eat more often? Or will it just settle down?
Jony what a lovely looking cat. hello Bruce. My cat Miso is a ten year old black and gold tortoiseshell. Originally my daughter’s.
I’m glad it is the superduper e-bike that is still in your shed.
So glad your scales are behaving themselves, exciting to have your birthday tomorrow, hope your superduper fast day does the trick, but if it doesn’t, the celebration won’t be far away.
Betsy yikes those 5 transcripts! If you are anything like me, you will not only have to be extremely disciplined to get them done, but also to make sure you don’t eat crap to get you through.
All power to you, you will feel SO good to have them done, and it will make the rest of your work feel easier too. I hope you can sort healthy food only in the house, it will keep your brain clear, and lots of breaks for exercise. Sending LOTS of good wishes. See you Friday!
You can take your stuff to the opshop then! But keeping it to the new year will work too, as they mightn’t have as much as they usually do after the Christmas break, with the extra sort-out people did during lockdown.
So glad you are getting those strawberries. I had a little handful from mine this morning too.
And yay, the plumbers finally being done!
Well, I am off to do my three things on repeat.
Best wishes all
Afternoon all
Cinque, we’ve had a bit of rain here as well, but the main issue was the wind. I missed it since I was up in Timaru, but there are trees and fences down all over the place. We came home to find the two pear trees I planted a couple of years ago had almost been lifted out of the ground. There was a big crack in the soil right around the root ball.
Good luck on the transcripts Betsy, 5kg down in a year is a lot better than being 5kg up in a year, I know it’s small comfort but when things are going badly we’ve got to take the small victories
Jony, good luck for your weigh in and a happy birthday for tomorrow if I forget. I remember breaking into double digits on my way down and how exciting that was for me. Hopefully it will give you an equal boost
I’m 1 week into my 4 weeks of elimination diet and I’m already thoroughly sick of not being able to have dairy, it’s the thing I miss the most, a nice flat white, cheese on pasta or pizza, butter on my bread, sour cream on potatoes or chilli beans, I’m making myself hungry just thinking about it. But if all goes to plan I’ll have my 30 days complete and my reintroduction of foods completed by the 24th December, right in time for a Christmas indulgence. I must say it was torture taking my boys to a gourmet burger place in the weekend and have to sit and watch and smell them chowing down on chips and burgers dripping with cheese and bacon before going back to our motel to munch on plain salad and salmon.
I had a good ride this morning over the hills, along the length of the town belt and then back into work, I’m not looking forward to having to tackle mowing our lawn sometime this week though, it’s growing like crazy at the moment and covered in hedge clippings from when I cut the hedge last weekend.
Well have a great week everyone and I’ll catch up with you all later.
Hello all, I have caught up on your fabulous posts but no time to reply individually. Hopefully tomorrow
The big family day went so well yesterday and it was just lovely to see my sister, BIl, two nieces, their hubbies and my great-niece and great-nephew for only the second time this year. Maxx was so well behaved – I simply couldn’t believe it. After the initial 5 minutes of manic barking and leaping when the first arrivees arrived he settled down and only barked a couple of times and just the odd half-leap. The food was amazing (Mr Anzac outdid himself), the weather perfect for a pool party and everyone had a fantastic day. It was the first time my great-nephew had been in the water (he just turned one) and he LOVED it. Our family all love the water – be it a pool or the ocean – and he seems to be following suit. My great-niece is pathologically shy sadly and would only go in with her parents after everyone else got out. She also refused to sit outside with us but spent the day inside with one or both of her parents. I hope she grows out of it.
We are all three exhausted today as the house cleaning was next level (it needed it) and then all the food prep before and during and cooking, serving, clearing up etc. We aren’t 21 any more!
I must get back to work – ugh – so take care all
Thanks again for the welcome.
Thin yes!! I love the way you describe the “Hunger Dragon” it stays pretty quiet during the day I just drink a couple of black coffees and some salted water with Cayenne pepper it it’s time to eat. I am so surprised how well this is going. Total of 4.5 Kg lost in 2 weeks. I forgot how fasting feels so empowering, and with the smallish meals for my One meal I am not feeling weird or deprived. I had two no limits days on the weekend and didn’t even eat much more than on a fasting day…weird, just stopping at full.
Thanks Cinque, i will enjoy the family and not be too hard on myself when I allow some wiggle room in the plan. Just need to not let go of the “ball”completely!
LJoyce it is tough, I have so much to loose, want to keep the motivation as in the past I struggle in motivation if I don’t see those scales going south lol.
Betsylee thank you for your kind words 🙂 I like this forum already, everyone seems very supportive and motivational!
Neilithicman giving up dairy was harder than bread for me…I dropped the cream in my coffee to do afternoon meals, I am ok with the black coffee if it helps keep the fast going longer. I have cheese a couple of times a week now, that’s better than daily as I think it was making me gain weight. (only having it on a 500 day or a no limits day).
Rae, welcome to the forum! 4.5 kg is an impressive amount of weight to lose in your first couple of weeks. I like your idea of salted water with cayenne. I think I will try that when fasting.
Intesha and and Turn, It’s good to hear from you. Intesha, I hope you find another place to live that fits your needs perfectly and that you like it even better than your home now. Moving after you’ve lived in a place for a lot of years is so stressful. Penguin, you’re going through that same thing now. I hope you soon have confirmation of the sale and dates. It’s hard to plan without that. Please let us know how it’s progressing.
Cinque, so happy to hear the good news on your scan. That’s always a relief. And what a nice idea to celebrate a virtual Thanksgiving with me this Thursday! I purchased the turkey for ours this morning, a 16.25 pound frozen one that is now in the refrigerator thawing. I bought a few other things as well and will get the last minute things the day before. Our store always has very cheap prices on turkeys this time of year. I wish I had more freezer space so I could get two. Luckily, the store wasn’t too busy this morning.
Our Covid numbers are getting so high now, even our county is increasing. We’ve been staying at home except for grocery shopping and medical appointments since March, and wearing masks when we’re near other people, so nothing is changed in that respect. But I was horrified to see pictures of people at our airports, mostly wearing masks, but not much distancing. The medical community has urged people to stay at home for the holidays, but way too many seem to pay no attention. I hope we don’t see even higher numbers in the coming weeks. Almost every state is breaking records each week for numbers of cases. And more people in the government seem to be affected every day.
LJ, glad to hear that your restrictions have eased somewhat. When we talked on FaceTime earlier this week, they were just beginning. It’s scary how quickly those few cases spread. Thankfully, your government is right on top of things and Aussies are cooperative with direction. You only have to look over here to see what happens when a sizable part of the population decides they know better and does their own thing.
Thin, sorry your brother’s scene was cut from The Crown. But I have no idea what he looks like so it would be hard to guess who he was anyway with so many characters. I think we’ve watched 6 episodes so far. I never was much of a Royal watcher until Harry & Meghan got married, because she was a character in a TV show we watched here for a few years. But we were all aware of who Princess Diana was. I hope the Monarchy and Prince Charles weren’t really as mean to her as what we see in The Crown. That show so far has not been kind In their depiction of them. My impression had always been more of a fairytale idea of castles and parades and lovely costumes.
We finished the last episode of 6 seasons of A Place to Call Home tonight. We’ve been watching for a couple of months. It was a very good series. My sister cried at the end. We still have lots of episodes of McLeod’s Daughters and several more episodes of The Heart Guy (which was called Doctor Doctor in Australia).
Well, it’s getting very late so I will catch up some more soon. Stay well and safe everyone.
CalifD, it’s very distressing to see the numbers rising so rapidly, isn’t it? Take heart in the knowledge that Americans will be getting the vaccine very soon now. That’s your big hope. Things will turn around after that and it won’t always be like this. Thanksgiving never meant anything to me and I always volunteered to work so my colleagues could enjoy it. It’s so good that the three of you can celebrate together and not have to travel. It being America’s biggest travel day is what would scare me. Since you pointed out that mask wearing has become a political issue there, I’ve noticed it more. From Trump’s nutty comments to Biden wearing a mask when he’s the only person on stage. No wonder Americans are so divided.
Here, they’re busy prioritising who’ll get the vaccine first. Predictably, the “me, me me’s” are out in force. Looking down the list, as a fit, healthy, not quite 65 year old, I will be in the 8th category of 11 potential categories. Behind obese people – that doesn’t seem fair!
The Crown! I have found this series a bit brutal and very political. My personal feeling is that there must be a lot of truth in the issues being raised because the Q is a popular figure and it would seem too risky to fabricate anything. I was living in the USA during Thatcherism and had no idea that she and Q were no fans of one another. As to my brother, I wish I’d never mentioned it. In the part that wasn’t cut, we were staring at his face for 4 seconds and we all missed it! It’s Ep 5 where Margaret is bemoaning having to greet ‘selected members of the public’. His other part that was cut has been incorporated into a completely different scene, too complicated to explain. About a year ago, he sent me photos of his makeup after a bomb explosion – that part’s been cut too. He doesn’t mind being cut, if he gets a ‘head shot’, he gets paid whether it’s used or not. Quite a bit more than being an ‘extra’.
What a ramble. I did want to comment on other things but have spent too long so quickly now…
Neil, you poor thing, all that deprivation. It makes you realise why this works so well doesn’t it? Completely sustainable. You did make me laugh about missing dairy on your other foods though – “cheese on pasta or pizza, butter on my bread, sour cream on potatoes or chilli beans”. Maybe it’ll be having a very good spin off effect! I can’t have any of those items without gaining weight.
Betsy, I do hope your resumption of studying doesn’t send you into a stressed out spin. You have been doing so well without it.
Anzac, what a wonderful day you had and, oh dear, I hope they don’t indulge that behaviour.
Cinque, up at 4.30am ready for breakfast! I slept in until 8.30am this morning. I’m giving you your question marks back because I didn’t need that many. ??? !!!
LJ, can’t remember what you said but hello! And Jony, Turn, Lindsay, Rae, et al. Have a great week.
Dammit! lost a whole post because it says I wasn’t logged in. Well here goes again
Day 9, almost 1/3 of the way through. Things are up and down, sometimes I have all the energy in the world (I cleaned the kitchen and living room from top to bottom last night) others I feel moody and lethargic. Apparently this eases after the first two weeks so I’m looking forward to that. I was proud of my restraint last night. I made some nutella brownies for the boys’ school lunches. I didn’t lick the spoon, bowl, beaters or my fingers while cooking, and didn’t nibble any crumbs after cutting it when it had cooled. The boys were gleefully packing it into their lunchboxes this morning so I don’t think the temptation will be hanging around in the cupboard for long.
Rae, yes we all have something that we struggle to do without, I’m guessing my older boy would also struggle with dairy as he has lots of milk and yoghurt on his weetbix in the morning, more yoghurt for school lunches and drinks of milk in the evening. I’m not too worried about him at the moment because both my boys are growing so fast they obviously need the calcium for their bones. You seem to be thriving on this way of eating, no hunger and a good loss for the first 2 weeks, you’re nailing it.
Anzac, that sounds like and awesome day, family gatherings are the best but cleanup is always a bit of a mission afterwards.
Cali, sorry things seem to be getting worse. I guess there are so many people over there that just don’t trust the government. I saw a news report over here last night saying that millions of Americans were going to ignore government warnings and travel to be with family over thanksgiving. I’m guessing 2 weeks later we’ll be seeing even bigger growth. Hopefully the vaccine will be available soon.
Thin, it is frustrating that you seem to be punished for looking after yourself while others jump the queue because they don’t care about their helath. I saw a UK programme last night that was really frustrating. It was called “big birthers” and was about a Leicester hospital that had set up a maternity clinic to cater for morbidly obese women. One woman was so frustrating, she had gestational diabetes and was told to eat healthy and monitor her blood sugars 4 times a day. She had such a “don’t care” attitude about the whole thing. She told the doctor she forgot to check her blood sugars most of the time. Then when the doctor pointed out all the unhealthy choices in her food diary she shrugged and said “There’s not much point eating healthy now, I’m not going to lose any weight with the babies growing” When the doctor explained that weight loss wasn’t the point, that high blood sugar caused health risks to both her and the twins she was carrying she just shrugged and repeated that it wasn’t much point trying to eat healthy now. After the doctors visit she was talking to the camera crew, grinned and said “everything I wasn’t supposed to eat, I ate. If I feel like it, I’m going to eat it”
Well busy day so I’m cranking some fast music and craCking into it
Have a great day everyone.
Good morning,
I view obese people so differently! I hope it isn’t only because I have been obese myself. Having had so many years of being overweight and then obese I remember how hard it was and the health issues that come with it.
And knowing how excess weight is related to inflammation and heart disease and high blood pressure and so much more, I would definitely campaign for obese people to get protection through the vaccine as high up the list as their condition stipulates.
I feel so lucky to have found 5:2 and have been able to get down to a healthy weight. That is the reward for me. Every day happiness of being lighter and healthier (not to mention the clothes! 😉 )
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JONY https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7d/e5/7c/7de57ca76f81e5991feee4fd1d035bc5.jpg (for some reason I couldn’t find a birthday bunch of flowers that featured an e-bike 🙂 )
Cali Woot! Virtual thanksgiving is on! The theme is harvest and thanksgiving (of course). Any post of thanksgiving decorations, or better still, sharing of what this years harvest has been for you (metaphorically, garden-wise and any other way you can think of) and what you can give thanks for, will be so welcome. We’ll start Thursday morning NZ time and carry it to you with the sunlight moving around the globe.
I might even try to bake a dish based on indigenous US ingredients.
It must be nice to be planning your feast. Hooray for the turkey.
Yes, it is hard to think that people’s first impulse is not to protect their friends and family from covid, but I know there is so much disinformation and confusion. I am just so glad you and your sister and Mr Cali got your lives sorted carefully to keep yourselves safe.
I read an article saying how lucky we are here that the politicians actually listened to and acted on the Health Department advice, which hasn’t been the case in most countries. Lucky indeed.
Neil, that wind sounds awful. Will the pear trees survive?
So interesting re that dairy. I hope that can be the first food group you can re-introduce. Well done for resisting those yummy brownie crumbs. I thought introducing foods one at a time would take weeks and weeks, so glad you will have Christmas Day to celebrate the end of the experiment.
Anzac, I do hope you can fit a post in today. What a lovely family gathering. A family of mer-people. My heart goes out to your little niece with such severe social anxiety. It is so hard with something like that, everything you want to do to help is just what they don’t need!
Oh to be 21 again. We just didn’t appreciate the energy we had then! I hope you have had some good rest.
Rae, it is so great to hear how you are managing your fast days.
I think you will keep the motivation up as there is always something new and interesting to tackle with 5:2. The most complicated and interesting one being ‘what is normal eating?’ (for me anyway). Still working on it after 5 years!
And getting through Christmas is always a fascinating one, that often needs several Christmas seasons to figure out!
Thin, thanks for the question marks, and the exclamation marks, haha. I’ll find plenty of use for them 😀
Ooh I would love to sleep in until 8:30. But at least it was after 5am this morning.
I’m going really well. Losing those kilos that have slipped back on. I tried on my test trousers this morning and they were easy to do up. I could wear them out, but I won’t until they are a bit looser.
Hoping things are going well for you all,
Cheers now.
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We pay tribute to our dear friend and colleague, Dr. Michael Mosley. Michael was an integral part of our lives, […]
Michael is touring Australia this September! Here's a link to dates and tickets. Hope to see you there.
Michael Mosley gives an update for 2019, current research in the field and announces a tour starting in February.
in Weight loss • updated 1 hour, 28 minutes ago by symba7
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in Welcome to The Fast Diet and Exercise forums • updated 1 day, 8 hours ago by thinatlast
10:58 pm
15 Nov 20