Hello Southern Hemispherites!!

This topic contains 27,857 replies, has 831 voices, and was last updated by  Neilithicman 1 day, 4 hours ago.

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  • How wonderful to hear from you Quacka and I hope you had a nice birthday in late November. Sorry things aren’t going well and don’t apologise for posting about you.
    We are here to support each other. Even if you can’t post too much it means a lot to know you are lurking

    Same to you Intesha, so lovely to hear from you but sorry you haven’t yet found a suitable new home. I hope you can keep posting as we love to hear from you

    Neil, so sorry about the accident. I do worry about bikes on the road, you are so vulnerable. I hope you feel better soon

    Must run, a million things to do before we head up to the Mountains for our family get together

    https://imgur.com/96ZKIp8

    Kia ora, family

    Hey Neil – just read your news about the bike crash. How’s your beautiful new bike? Not too much damage, I hope. And how are you? Sounds as though you’ve got an enforced rest from riding, just in time to spend more time with family at Xmas. (Notice how cyclists always ask how the bike is first?)

    I brought my second FD for the week forward one day, having it yesterday, as we’re on the road today and will be grabbing food wherever we can. I’m planning to eat frugally over Xmas but you know what they say about the best laid plans.

    I trust everyone will have a great Xmas and a rollicking New Year and look forward to an excellent 2021, when we can turn on the news and not hear that dreaded word “covid” mentioned once.

    Ka kite ano (Maori for “see u later)

    Hi John,

    The front wheel is buckled and split and I’ve got the rest of the bike in cycle world for testing. They’re going to check the frame for cracks and whether any of the mechanism is damaged.

    I got a hefty knock to my knees from the handlebars and a possible concussion. The doc said even though I didn’t hit my head I could have gotten a concussion from stopping suddenly.

    Good morning, Kia ora lovely kiwis,

    Quacka, so good to see your post, but I am guessing you have had a rotten time (foodwise) since you posted last. That damned reflux.
    Do let us know what has been happening. Have you been eating often in the hope that protects you from reflux, but has only resulted in putting weight back on?
    We really do want you back in the SH thread, so even if you do start another thread, you have to post here too!

    I was thinking of you just yesterday, while I was rereading the Fast800 book and doctor Mosley recommended people who suffer from reflux stop eating three hours before bedtime. I wondered if that worked for you.

    Do come here and whinge, if you need to. That is what this thread is for. And if we make too many bright, ignorant suggestions, you can just tell us to shut up and listen.

    Neil, oh dear! That is terrible news (except hooray you are okay to write). How are you today? I imagine bruising and shock and headache might be awful today. You managed not to crack your patellas? How is your head? Sending best wishes.
    https://www.thortful.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Get-well-soon.jpg

    Those food munchy triggers are pretty much the same for me. I can handle bread best when it is whole grain and long raise AND has been frozen or in the fridge overnight. I think the extra resistant starch really does make a difference.

    Weird about feeling itchy, that certainly sends alarm bells about an allergy.

    And Intesha, thanks so much for catching us up on how things are going for you and your dad. How frustrating that you haven’t found the right place to move to yet. What a good idea to rest for a bit and get back in the fray when there is a fresh, new, and hopefully kinder year.
    Big congratulations on keeping your weight stable in spite of the continual stress. A triumph in such a bad year.
    I hope the pork and turkey cook wonderfully and you can enjoy a lovely, festive, covidsafe Christmas.

    Those are lovely wishes (since I am someone always overwhelmed with regrets). Yay for a fresh new year.

    Here are my Christmas wishes to everyone
    https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0393/1261/products/Merry-Christmas-from-The-Australian-Coast-Greeting-Card_1000x.jpg?v=1601093851

    Part 2

    Kellbell, woot! 1.5kg is a rollicking start. You are right that it will smooth itself out, but isn’t it nice to have a great loss to start with.
    And great news that you have figured out a way for your fast days to be easy and sustainable.

    Ha yes, there are a lot of posts here. I post nearly every day, and if there is a day with no posts I start getting worried. Haha. It is a very precious little community and so nice to hear the day to day and week to week stories and triumphs.

    Thankyou for your Christmas wishes.

    Anzac, what a year! You have probably headed up to the mountains to family now. I do hope you have the best time.

    It is hard how many people suffer so much without sharing, and I am so sorry your friend couldn’t find a way through. Special good wishes to Mr Anzac.

    So glad that time and space have allowed you to really look after your health. All power to you. Wouldn’t it be nice to work out what you could do to avoid diverticulitis. Fingers crossed you can.

    We did have a delicious time at Noodle Kingdom, but boy, I really noticed the difference to the much lower carb diet I have been having. Pork dumplings, spring onion cake, and chili chicken with peanuts on fresh noodles. So much flour and so few veggies! But very delicious.

    My daughter ended up not coming as her kids were in the wrong head space (tired and irritable) and hence we didn’t go to the markets. But she has discovered she can get fresh roasted chickens tomorrow morning and we are making some super salads. I went to the veggie shop and the deli this morning. I’ll make a gorgeous salady platter! (I hope).

    Jony, such a lovely Christmas picture. I hope your travel today is wonderful and good luck with frugal feasting, I will be trying to do the same.

    Best wishes now everyone, and I leave you with my favourite word in the world, a Luritja word: Witikanyinu. It means ‘keep them safe and included’.

    Sadly we had to postpone our Christmas catch-up with the family. Mr Anzac woke up with a slightly sore throat that quickly developed into a bad cold within a couple of hours of getting up. We can’t risk my 95 year old Dad catching it so I slunk over to his place with the food in full mask and made sure he stayed well away and he is driving up to my sisters. We are very sad but we have already rearranged to the 9th Jan and – always a silver lining – both nieces will be there then so we can watch both littlies open their presents.

    Mr Anzac went and had a Covid test of course. I would be more than very surprised if it is positive as we haven’t been remotely near any hot spots. But you do have to check.

    Maxx is disappointed too as he was very much looking forward to jumping on some new friends

    KellBell – awesome progress! Congratulations! This really is a fantastic forum, so glad you found us

    Cinque, thanks for the kind words. We are having roast chicken, stuffing and salad for dinner tonight and I’m looking forward to it. We cooked two chickens so sent one up the Mountains and kept the other for ourselves. Enjoy yours tomorrow

    That is really grim Neil, I do hope you are ok.

    Jony, awesome pic, thanks

    Merry Christmas everyone

    Merry Christmas everyone! It’s still 24 December here but we’re ready for Christmas Eve tomorrow night, followed by Christmas Day. It will be just the 3 of us, but lots of food, music and probably some movies. Here’s a picture of one of our trees and a Covid ornament that my neighbor gave me. https://imgur.com/gallery/lqAicnn (We finally finished decorating.)

    Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

    I didn’t have a chance to catch up on some of your posts before posting before. Neil, I’m so sorry to hear about your bike accident. I’m glad you are mostly okay and hope your bike will be fixable too. It feels like 2020 just had to get one more bad thing in! Won’t we all be glad to see this year end?

    Quacka, it’s so good to see your post. We’ve missed you. You don’t have to be going well to post here. Goodness knows, it’s been a tough year with some weight gain for me too. But just knowing everyone is here and sharing things about our daily lives is a positive thing. I hope you’ll continue posting.

    Intesha, it’s good to hear from you too. I hope you find a suitable place for you and your dad to live after the holidays. Try to relax and enjoy the time with your dad. Something will show up when times are less busy.

    Cinque, I looked up Noodle Kingdom and found their website had a link to their Instagram pages with lots of wonderful photos. The food looks amazing! So many interesting choices! It looks like it was a very nice place to celebrate.

    Anzac, sorry to hear that Mr. Anzac has a bad cold. I’m glad to hear that you’re postponing your Christmas celebrations. Glad to hear that he went for a Covid test too, just to be safe. There are so few cases there that everything will probably turn out to be just fine.

    Welcome to our little corner of the 5:2 forum, Kellbell. I hope you will make this place your home.

    Well, my iPad battery is just about ready to run out, so again, Happy Holidays to all.

    Good morning.

    My sympathies to those on the sick list – Mr Anzac, Neil – and Neil’s bike.

    Quacka and Intesha it was lovely to hear from you both again.

    I hope everyone has a lovely day with those nearest and dearest to you.
    Merry christmas everyone.
    Boxing day FD anyone?

    Merry Christmas everyone (wow this thread has reached 500 pages) I hope everyone has a great day today despite all the stuff that has happened this year. Forget fasting for a day. Eat, drink and be merry and then look forward to a year that isn’t 2020.

    Merry Christmas to you all.

    Neil, I’m very sorry you were injured…feeling ok? The bike can be replaced, you can’t 🙂

    Anzac sorry your Christmas plans have been changed. Hope Mr Anzac gets his Covid test results soon and it shows no more than a cold.

    Good morning Cinque – hope your salad platter is delish, and your family time is wonderful. I loved your Christmas card.

    Quacka and Intesha, it was great to hear from you. Both having some tough times, but next year is just around the corner and it will be better (how could it not!?) Keep posting when you can – it’s good to know you are still with us.

    LJ are you up and about cooking up your special treats? What an amazing amount of energy you have.

    Calif, Thin, I am not even going to work out the time difference, but hope your celebrations are fun, if different from what was planned.

    Penguin, hope you are well and settled, and enjoy your Christmas, whereever you may be.

    Jony, have a great day with your family….what a nice place to be at Christmas.

    OK must fly – I made the Christmas icecream earlier in the week (a funny family tradition – good ice cream with a box of family favourites and cherries chopped through) pavlova to be cooked (DIL’s favourite),egg custard to be made with the remaining yolks, turkey breast to be stuffed, and the cooking time for a large loin of pork to be thought about. Apple sauce and potato salad are made, DS and DD are bringing their special Christmas salads, and a baked ham and a cooked chicken. I may just make OH a special breakfast, as the kids aren’t coming until 2, and we won’t eat til 4, after presents and a swim.

    This forum has been a constant companion during a very trying year, and I get such a buzz each morning to read your posts, challenges and progress.

    Look after each other, and your selves.

    Good morning, Boxing Day, and a glorious start to a sunny day.

    I had a wonderful but tiring day yesterday, so just going quietly today.

    Anzac, I am so sorry you had to cancel your family Christmas, but safety first, and keeping distant is the biggest gift of love these days. I do hope Mr Anzac has his negative test notification now. Your 9th January family day will be all the more precious.

    Ooh our Christmas lunch was wonderful. I stuck to chicken and salad. Okay, I snuck a few chips. But I so enjoyed it. I’d made two different salads and DD had made a beautiful coleslaw, and I had a watered down prosecco and one mouthful of apricot crumble. Just between you and me, I felt quite sorry for all the others filling their plates up with chips and then chocolates, chocolate ripple cake, custard and fruit cake.
    Yes, I am a food snob :0

    I’d taken the kids to the park in the morning, and Miss 4 was brilliant with her new bike, she will master it quickly. (Miss 6 was so cautious she left her new bike at home and scooted instead). We all had great fun.

    Happy Christmas Day Cali! Ooh great sense of humour with the covid ornament.
    It reminds me of the unfortunate (and very expensive) Australia symbol that came out this year. https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/q_auto,w_412,c_fill,g_auto,h_412,ar_1:1/http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cnn.com%2Fcnnnext%2Fdam%2Fassets%2F200702143118-australia-unlimited-logo.jpg You can imagine the comments.

    Cheers to all the Cali family and your precious, safe Christmas.

    The best thing about Noodle Kingdom is them making the noodles fresh at the front of the shop. So good.

    LJoyce, I was thinking of a Boxing Day fast day, but instead I will take the baton at the end of the day, thanks! Frugal day though!

    Neil I bet it was a wonderful feast day in the Neilithic family, and I hope you are recovering quickly from your big bump.
    Yes, the whole world will let out a sigh of relief when 2020 comes to an end.

    Lindsay, you made me remember when we discovered plum pudding icecream. I was a teenager and we were just beginning to bend the typical English traditions in recognition that our Christmas was such a hot day. The icecream was a wonderful hit!
    I bet you and Mr Lindsay are having a well earned rest day today. But I hope yesterday was as wonderful as it sounded like it would be.

    A lovely garden surprise today, three zucchini flowers out at once, and one will grow to a nice zucchini (two boy flowers), I’ve picked lots of warrigal greens and some lettuce, looked at the baby tomatoes and felt very pleased that I could just about pick some basil. Yay summer.

    I hope your morning is as lovely. Best wishes all.

    Good morning everyone. My brain and body both seem to be on go slow mode today – not that it really matters. I forced myself out for a very long walk before it got too hot, so now if the afternoon is a bit too slothful it won’t matter so much.

    Cinque, glad you had a lovely day yesterday. You were a good deal better behaved around the christmas feast than I was. I was one of those with a plate full of sweet treats – icecream terrine, trifle, chocolates, shortbread…

    After far too many indulgent days over the last fortnight I commenced a strict food campaign today. I’d like to do 800cal days but don’t quite have the mental discipline for it at the moment. So I’m doing option limited days where I allow myself a really narrow range of foods on any given day, but I don’t restrict quantity – I find this much easier than calorie limits. However the very limited choices mean I don’t want to eat a lot because it gets boring quickly and I end up around 800-1000cals without even trying to be. Today I’m doing a fruit only day – I have apricots, strawberries, cherries, raspberries and one banana in the house, so plenty of lovely choices. I thought fruit would let me down gently from the sugar high I’ve been on in recent days. Tomorrow I’m doing a veggie only day. Once my cravings are under control I’m hoping I feel up to a couple of weeks of normal 800 cal days. I can tell by my clothing fit that my weight is up, so I definitely need to deal with that now.

    I hope you are all having a lovely relaxing boxing day.
    Take care.

    Kia ora, fast family.

    Our triple Xmas celebration continued today with grandson Loukas’ 5th birthday. He now has to wait about 5 weeks until he can start school. Our “season” started yesterday with a big family Christmas celebration on my sister’s Cromwell lawn, featuring a table groaning with scrummy food. It was a pity we had to scurry inside with a plate of food just as the lunch started, because heavy rain set in. I was rapt both my surviving siblings were there and we toasted our two dear departed sisters. Part three of our Xmas season takes place tomorrow with my younger daughter’s birthday celebration. I hope the weather finally comes right for that, as today it only hit 13degC and the mercury should have been hitting about 28. I haven’t even been on my bike yet!

    Glad to hear about all the Xmas celebrations here, there and everywhere.

    Ka kite, John

    Morning everyone. My legs are feeling a lot better today. They’re still tender to touch but they don’t hurt to walk or go from standing to sitting or visa versa. I might try a short ride today. My new bike is out of commission for a while but I still have my old one that I can get out for a leg workout. The bike shop assessed my bike and it is repairable. The frame, back wheel and gears are in good nick, but it needs a new front wheel, front forks, handlebar grips, gear shifters, pedals and a couple of other things. It can’t be done until after the new year because the forks need to be ordered from the factory in the USA so I’ll have to make do with the old one for a couple of weeks. It’s going to be around $700 to fix it so luckily the guy that hit me was insured and admitted he was at fault.

    Have a great day everyone.

    Morning all.

    Beautiful sunny day, top 28. Perfect. I am going to whip around with the vacuum and the steamie, and then head to the garden.

    We had a lovely Christmas/Boxing Day. The kids loved their presents – so did the big kids! Just the 10 of us, and we set up the dining room table with our Christmas meal, but ate outside and managed a swim between courses. Ditto Boxing Day, which is always more relaxed for some reason.

    My brother and SIL also came yesterday afternoon – we’re all a bit anxious as their son and DIL flew out to New York on Christmas Day…she has a Fulbright scholarship which she had postponed as long as she was able, but if she didn’t start in January, she’d have lost it. They’ll be cautious – but a concerning time.

    I started Christmas Day just under my trigger weight, and my plan is to be comfortably below that for new year. It starts today, with gentle eating and popping leftovers in the freezer.

    Ooh Cinque, lovely to have the zucchini growing in the garden, and yes, yea for summer veges. Does anything beat the buzz of seeing your garden produce food? good for healthy eating, good for the soul. I get that buzz (no pun meant) from my bees which I open the hive and see them beavering away. DS and I took another bar just before Christmas, and it delivered 7 kilos of honey, which went to good homes. I am a very conservative keeper – I only take what I think they need to give, to keep the hive thriving but not too crowded. But 7 kilos from 1 bar was extraordinary. Our mandarin tree – quite large and years old – had only ever produced one fruit pre-bees, but had heaps of blossom and tiny fruit this year, before they dropped during the dry spell while we were away. But I do see a few little fruit maturing, and a companion mandarin I planted earlier in the year has four quite large fruit maturing. Yea for nature.

    OH bought me an exquisite porcelain bee brooch as part of my Christmas gift. I’m a very lucky woman.

    LJ what a great approach to getting back into the groove. Glad you had a lovely Christmas/Boxing Day, and a fruit day sounds ideal. All that’s missing is the mango! (says the Queenslander).

    Jony that South Island weather! Despite the rain, what a lovely time you all had. Happy birthday to your younger daughter.

    And Neil, good to know you are healing. Ouch.

    Stay well and happy all.

    Merry Christmas friends

    All very quiet here in the Anzac household. Mr Anzac thankfully tested negative to Covid and so far I have avoided catching his cold. I must admit I feel very tired and a slight sore throat so I may be celebrating too early. I am having a magic Lemsip so hopefully that will help. I’m also on antibiotics for a diverticulitis flare up plus a UTI so perhaps that will help too.

    It’s so lovely to be off work and still another whole two weeks to go!

    Today is finally sunny and warm as the weather has been quite horrible – cloudy, drizzly and one day it’s cold and the next humid. We’ve invited a friend over so the boys can sit in the pool and watch the cricket (yes we have a telly outside on the wall near the pool). It will be good for them as they are both good friends with our other poor friend who recently passed. They can talk about it which will be healthy for them both as I can tell they are both hurting and bewildered.

    I have slipped from my healthy perch for the last two or three days so I need to get back on my game. How quickly the scales punish us.

    So glad you are feeling better Neil and that the person who hit you is honest about blame.

    I must run and help Mr Anzac with some housework before our friend arrives. I’ll come back for a better chat later

    Take care everyone

    It is a warm, close, dark Melbourne day, waiting for rain.
    How is it going in your part of Melbourne Betsy?

    Sunday fast day for me. So looking forward to making a big pot of Asian style soup (I’m still out of miso), just what I need today.

    LJoyce, I hope yesterday went well for you, and that today you will enjoy those veggies. Those sort of restricted days are such a good idea and I do hope they work well and quickly.

    I’m nearly through my reread of the Fast800 book and found it a really good reread. Half of me would love 2 weeks of 800 a day, and the other half of me thinks I wouldn’t be able to manage it. I might try a couple of weeks of 2:5.

    But first I will have a good fast day today and prepare for my friend who is visiting on Wednesday. I don’t think I have seen her for a year! She is my friend who has had gastric sleeve surgery so we will both enjoy small portions. She likes my Indian recipes so I think I will make my Indian veg stirfry, my favourite dal and a little rice.

    Jony, long and many celebrations come along with large, close knit families! So lovely to hear of you enjoying the festive season. And surviving the mad weather. Happy birthday to little Loukas, and to your young younger daughter, and yay for a glass of good stuff with your precious siblings.

    Neil, so glad to hear your legs are feeling better. I do hope you can enjoy a ride. Doesn’t it make a wonderful difference for insurance, and recovery, when the person who did the wrong thing owns up and makes it all easy.

    Lindsay, fabulous news that you are nicely below your trigger weight and all set to stay nicely below it.
    I love how your family has embraced your bee lady status, and that the bees are bringing you the pleasure… and the honey, that you hoped for. It was a bit touch and go at the beginning, wasn’t it, and look at you now.
    The only thing I have in the garden to compare is my compost bins! Bernard and Fran, my lovely pets, full of all those wonderful microbes turning kitchen scraps to compost. I’ll go out and give them a turn soon.

    What a tricky situation for your nephew and his partner. Best wishes that it is easy and safe for them in the US and they have a wonderful scholarship time there.

    I’ve just got bread out of the oven, which will go in the fridge for the week ahead. Rye, wheat bran and sesame seeds plus yoghurt in the mix. It looks a very good loaf 🙂

    I also have peach and pear drink fermenting, I think it will be ready tomorrow. And I want to start another (3lt) jar of sweet potato fly. I am learning with each batch and even starting to feel (a little) confident.
    (Touch wood and whistle.)

    Anzac, hello, checked the home page before I posted and lovely to find your catch up there.
    What an amazing set up for the men watching the cricket, and a perfect way for them to easily care for each other.
    Enjoy shifting back into your best eating patterns and fingers crossed that diverticulitis goes away and the cold decides not to manifest itself.

    Sending best wishes to you all

    My first two limited options days have gone really well. Despite the sugar in the fruit yesterday I still had a thumping headache, but it was gone today and my appetite is now also very modest.
    This was the main food I ate today: https://imgur.com/a/X77ZYAQ griddled yellow and green zucchini. I had half for lunch with a teaspoon of lemon infused olive oil drizzled over them and then I had the other half with a jacket potato for dinner. Afternoon tea was a handful of carrot sticks and cherry tomatoes. I’m still not ready to face a normal Fast800 program so I need to plan what other restricted days I will do. Given that I’ve just had two low protein days, tomorrow really needs to be a high protein food, but I struggle to eat meals that are just meat. I might cook chicken at lunch time and then graze as I’m hungry, rather than trying to eat a meal sized serve. I’ll need to go back on the veg on Tuesday as tomorrow will have an absence of fibre. I might also do a couple of fluid only days – which means a fruit,dairy & psyllium smoothie for lunch and a pureed veg soup for dinner. That will help me use up the leftover fruit and also use some of the soups in the freezer.

    Cinque, we’ve had the same sort of weather here – heavy clouds this morning with rain rolling in this afternoon. It’s now become quite cold this evening.
    I love the fact that you’ve named your compost bins. That’s so cute.
    That bread sounds yummy – I’m avoiding bread at the moment – a day restricted to just bread would be a serious mistake. Actually I think I could easily eat my TDEE and beyond on just bread.

    Lindsay, it sounds like you’ve had a really lovely couple of days with family.
    What a dilemma for your nephew and his wife – risk rampant covid or give up a scholarship.
    I didn’t miss the mango – I didn’t even get through all the fruit I had in the fridge.

    Anzac, the cricket watching from the pool sounds like an excellent idea – conducive to talking about the friend they lost when and if they feel comfortable.

    Neil, very glad to hear that you are on the mend and that your bike can be rebuilt. I hope you have a little bell that you can ring every time you need your family to bring you something – it will drive them mad!

    Jony, so many special celebrations and glad to hear you had lots of family there to share it with. I bet your grandson is waiting impatiently for that first day of school – it’s such an exciting time.

    I’m so glad the weather cooled down tonight – good sleeping weather.
    Night all.

    I’ve just made a cup of tea and caught up on the Christmas posts.

    Cinque, are those bikes pink ad purple with tassles on the handle bars? I was fasting with you yesterday but didn’t make it here to post. I did have miso soup for the first time in ages and then bacon and chicken casserole, 249 cals, also not enjoyed for over a year. That helped me drop the 900g gained due to some mindless eating and drinking on Christmas and Boxing Day. So, like you Lindsay, I’m within my wiggle room and have no regrets – you can’t beat this WOL for having your cake and eating it too.

    LJ, sounds like everything is under control at your end too.

    Neil, hoping you and your bike make a full recovery. So glad that you’re alright-ish.

    Jony, that’s a lot of celebrating over several days even if the rain tried to stop play.

    Anzac, so sorry that your Xmas plans got the kybosh. It didn’t sound like covid symptoms that Mr Anzac had but you never know. And now you can look forward to an even better celebration on 9 Jan.

    CalifD, our Christmas Day was probably most like yours, the three of us hunkered down trying to avoid everybody else! But we had a lovely time with DD, savouring every second. We haven’t been able to find egg nog here, a long-standing Xmas Eve tradition with mince pies for us in Perth. But we have instead embraced ‘brandy sauce’ (which I’d never heard of before) to go on the Xmas pud. New traditions.

    Welcome back Quacka and Intesha. I see from the other posts that you’ve posted on the previous page.

    OH’s UK visa finally arrived! What a relief after 3 months lost in the wilderness.

    Happy New Year to all! It will be brilliant, won’t it?

    Morning all

    We’re on holiday down in Riverton at the moment (a beautiful little town at the arse end of the country 😉). We were delayed getting here by half an hour because there was a fatal crash on the road and we had a 30 minute detour to get around it. But we’re here now.

    I went for a decent 90 minute ride this morning up through the forest tracks to the lookouts at the top of the hill and then down around the beach and estuary. I think I’ve done more damage to my left knee than I thought. My right knee was more sore after the crash and is still sore to touch but doesn’t hurt to ride. The left knee is the opposite. It wasn’t as sore after the crash, isn’t sore to touch now, but hurts to ride.

    I’ll have to get back into riding more and back to eating more whole foods this week. Because it’s startling how quick the weight has come back on with just a week laid up with sore legs and eating all the Christmas goodies.

    I hope everyone had a good Christmas and has a great new year.

    Good morning from a crisp bright Melbourne,

    Neil, your bike ride sounds fab, but do get good medical attention to that knee! It could so easily be one of those things that becomes chronic if not dealt with. Speaking as a friend!
    So awful that there was a fatal crash, it hits hard when it is close.
    Best wishes for a wonderful holiday. And more whole foods 🙂

    LJoyce well done on those two limited days. So glad your headache is gone, and that your appetite is no longer inflamed.
    I do agree that an all protein day sounds terrible, maybe meat and low carb veg?
    Your griddled zucchini looks wonderful!

    Hmm, I think I did overdose on bread yesterday despite it being refrigerated. I’ll be better today.

    My first compost bin was black, hence calling it Bernard (for those of you who know Black Books). They are the best pets, quiet and unobtrusive, but very rewarding. Not comparable to Rosy or Maxx (or Miso the cat), but slightly comparable to bee hives.

    Thin, a wonderful festive Christmas by the sounds of it, and woot for wriggle room and 5:2.
    How strange to miss out on eggnog, but hooray for brandy sauce.
    Awful UK covid figures today, thinking of you, and Penguin, and every one else trying to stay safe.

    I am feeling a bit more productive today, I hope it lasts. I decided to make chicken curry for my friend, but it didn’t work out as well as usual (trying to figure out why), so I am off to the shop for red lentils to make the dal and hoping I get my cooking mojo back for the two recipes I make today, PLUS tidy the house, PLUS I remembered that last time she was here I promised I would have a loaf of my bread for her to take home next time, so that is on the rise too.

    Sending best wishes to each and every one of you!

    Cinque, that’s good that you’re reporting a productive day (I was sad to read one of your earlier posts saying that you had a lot of regrets). What strength to be able to bake bread on a FD! Yes, the UK is going from bad to worse with covid. I read that people are going to work after a positive covid diagnosis. How selfish. Apparently, they need the money. It’s hard to fathom that people spend every penny they earn and don’t put anything aside for a rainy day. And then there’s the appalling behaviour of my fellow countrymen on Sydney beaches. Disgusted.

    We had our first Zoom experience with our family friends (Sydney, Perth and London). It worked well. But I’m struggling to imagine how it’s going to work for our high school reunion when there could be 60 of us (probably more like 40).

    Neil, it’s so easy to get complacent, isn’t it? I agree with Cinque, get that knee checked out. Enjoy your holiday.

    Gah, I just lost my post. Suffice to say 2020 just had to have one last laugh; I am in hospital with a bad bowel infection. I came to emergency yesterday (Tuesday) at 8.00am. the silver lining is they are worried about me being contagious so I have my own room.

    I’ve had many drips of antibiotics and already feeling better. Also lots of saline drips as I was severely dehyrdated as Monday and Monday night I could barely stomach sips of vwater. I might even be able to go home tomorrow afternoon just in time for NYE

    Another silver lining is enforced B2B fast days! I’ve not had any solid food since Sunday night. Just clear liquids. Hopefully a huge weight loss. They are going to let me try a light diet tonight for dinner.

    Sorry this has been all about me. I will catch up on your posts hopefully this afternoon. I hope you are all ok

    Anzac, I hope you get well soon. How awful that it go so bad you needed hospital. But it does sounds as if the treatment has turned things around quickly for you. Hope you are home for New Year cuddles with Maxx and MrA very soon.

    Neil, I agree with the others, you should see your GP about that knee. Some injuries get much worse when ignored.

    Hello to everyone else. Hope you are enjoying the final days of 2020.

    Evening all

    Sorry to hear about your hospital stay Anzac, rather an extreme and unpleasant way to lose weight 😕

    Thanks for the concern regarding my knee everyone. I went out for a ride this morning as well and it was feeling a lot better by the end of it. I think it needed a good loosening up to help it come right. If I get time tomorrow morning I might go for another ride to test it out, especially since I found that the local cafe makes the best coffee I’ve had in a long time.

    Have a great one everyone.

    Anzac, get well soon! You poor thing but I am delighted that your intestines have a silver lining. 🙂

    Neil, that’s great that your knee is feeling better and that you’re able to get out riding.

    Great news from the UK today! The Astra Zeneca vaccine has received approval from the regulators. It offers immunity after 2 weeks and the booster can be given up to 12 weeks after the first jab meaning that millions more people can be vaccinated initially. The UK has 100 million doses secured. On the downside, I wouldn’t be surprised if we aren’t placed in a higher tier level today, if not national lockdown. I’ve just had a good laugh at the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock’s quip to the BBC reporter who’d interrupted his responses to her questions several times, “That’s why it’s worth listening to the whole answer”.

    We will likely have Boris’ Brexit deal approved in Parliament today. We have left the EU and the sky hasn’t fallen in.

    Awful way to lose weight Anzac … hope you are starting to feel better, you poor thing.

    Neil, glad to know your knee is a little better – still worth following up with tests to check it doesn’t come back at some time in the future. Where is that coffee shop? When we were in Dunedin we drove out to Port Chalmers, and I had an absolute killer coffee. Very cold and windy day, and quite a few riders come in to shake off the chill and it was lovely to chat.

    I hit my trigger weight on Monday, so had my first FD of the week. I’d not thought I’d do one between Christmas and New Year, but what’s the point of having a trigger if it doesn’t actually trigger a response. Job done. Back under the danger/alarm bells weight, yesterday and today.

    Lunch out with eldest brother and SIL today, but a modest affair.

    My DD has been reading up on the traditions of Christmas celebrations, and has suggested next year we have a much lighter affair on Christmas Day – ham, chicken for my non-red meat eating DIL and salads, and pavlova and Christmas icecream later. I do the best pav (she says modestly) but that’s the only cooking I’ll do on the day. Then, to mark the 12 days of Christmas, a second meal with maybe roast pork and chicken, with mince pies (DD makes the absolute best) and perhaps plum pudding. What a good idea – we get to celebrate twice, without feeling overloaded either day, and we can stagger the gift giving throughout Christmas, and the kids won’t be so overwhelmed.

    Black Books Cinque – our television habits are so similar. I did so like Bernard, and the girl in the shop next door whose name I forget. I think your Bernard may be much less stingy than my girls, but in the end they do much the same thing.

    Hello LJ … hope you are enjoying the last of 2020 too. Good your headache is gone….

    I had the cortisone injection in my foot on Christmas Eve, and when the doctor warned it wouldn’t be pleasant, he was right. The arthritis didn’t leave much of a gap for the needle! Ooooh, how important our feet are.

    On that note, I’d best get up on mine and turn on the news, so see what particular dramas are besetting the world today. Maybe there’ll even be some good news soon.

    Hugs to you all, posters and lurkers.

    https://imgur.com/a/ox938ma

    Hi all. We’re back at home after our week-long Central Otago festive sojourn, which went off well, despite rain on days 1 & 2. On the way home yesterday we stopped off in our old home, Alexandra, to watch some T20 cricket involving our team, Otago, and the team from our two daughters’ birthplace, Canterbury (based in Christchurch). Otago came second, unfortunately. Maybe it was just too hot for our team – the mercury hit 32degC in the afternoon and we were lucky to have a weeping willow to shelter from the sun under.

    I managed a couple of decent bike rides in between birthday parties and Xmas and other celebrations. The pix come from my Bannockburn Sluicings ride and a bad choice of trails on my behalf made for a testing ride. At one stage I ran out of trail and had to scramble down an extremely steep crumbling face, pushing my bike down ahead of me, and my lovely bike now bears some battle scars – and so does my bum!

    Needless to say, I had to forgo my FD’s up in Central, and of course there was lotsa food to eat and drinks to sup, but I was rapt when I jumped on the scales this morning and I’d only gained 1kg. Sweet! Today’s my first FD for a week and I’m throwing in another one on Friday, so it’s back on the fast horse! A restrained New Year’s Eve coming up!

    Keep on shrinking!

    John

    Morning all, well day 3 ride and I went a bit further afield. I went up to the lookouts and then out to Colac Bay and back, all up around 90 minutes of riding and I still feel pretty good (well I did after a coffee and a pile of scrambled eggs afterwards)

    Glad you enjoyed your trip John, my parents went in for the games too. It’s a bit of a tradition for us to go in to Millers flat for a few days and go in to Alex to watch the T20 games, but I skipped it this year.

    Hi Lindsay, I’m down in Riverton at the moment so the coffee shop was a little local cafe called “The Crib”. The coffee was a nice strong brew without too much foam that most people put on “flat” whites these days.

    Thin, good news on the vaccine in the UK, is that vaccine the one that doesn’t need to be stored at super low temperatures like the Pfizer vaccine?

    We’re packing up and heading back home today. When we get back I’ll have to get back out training on the bike. I’m hoping to do the Alps to Ocean track in February and I want to do it over a long weekend, which means I’ll be doing about 100 kilometres a day over 3 days so I’m really going to have to work on my conditioning.

    Have a great day everyone and I’ll see you all tomorrow when it will no longer be 2020!

    Re-reading your post, Cinque, about your compost bins. I quite missed the first time that they were called Bernard and Fran….who of course was the girl next door. (I get there eventually:-)

    Oh Anzac, you will be waking up in hospital, or maybe had one of those hospital nights when you don’t really sleep. But I do hope you are feeling heaps better and really well looked after. I’m keen to hear how you are today.
    https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kk4WfH7m2h8/maxresdefault.jpg

    Thin, wonderful news re the Oxford vaccine approval. UK needed some good news. Melbourne had the same issue with people who were unable to stop working. Here it is because many people work terribly low paid part time casual jobs where they can hardy pay for the basics, let alone save money. The Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment the govt put in place was a very necessary health measure to stop the virus spreading.

    So glad you got to zoom with family friends. Goodness I can’t imagine a school reunion on zoom, but I hope it is fun.

    Hello LJoyce, I hope you are having a good day.

    Neil, hooray that your knee(s) are recovering so well. And hooray for good coffee.

    Lindsay, super trigger response. What a wonderful way to end the year.
    And I love love love your DD’s idea for spreading the feasting over the Christmas season so it is lighter and more enjoyable.

    You started a lovely conversation among my sisters as we reminisced plum pudding icecream, and one sister still had my mum’s recipe and has shared it around.

    Haha re Black Books, my other compost bin is Fran. For a while I had a third one called Manny. (edit: wrote this and then saw your post 😀 )

    Sympathy re the agonising injection in your foot. I do hope the cortisone is doing its trick after all that pain.
    Yes, feet are so precious!

    Eek the news yesterday.

    Jony, welcome home, what a wonderful country you live in. Hooray for managing to feast without ballooning, and yay for getting back on the 5:2 horse. It is always nicely waiting for us.

    I had two productive days, although none of the things I cooked were up to standard, sigh. Fine, but not as wonderful as they should have been.
    I had such a lovely time with my friend yesterday (and she was very polite about the food).
    But it has caught up with me today, and while I can have a slower day, my grandchildren are coming over, with bikes, to check out the flat quiet road here, so I have decided not to fast today. Sensible eating, playing with my darlings, and looking forward to my next fast day.

    Well, it is the last day of 2020. What a year. Best wishes to you all.

    Good afternoon lovely people.

    I am torturing myself – baking a birthday cake while on a strict eating program! As it’s an invented cake, I tasted 1/2 teaspoon of the final mixture before baking – just to make the flavour was what I was hoping for. It’s in the oven now and I have my fingers crossed that it works. I really should just use a recipe rather than winging it like this. The problem was I had an idea, but couldn’t find a recipe that was what I had in my mind. It’s my nephew’s wife’s birthday tomorrow and she loves maltesers. So my idea was to create a layered cake that tastes like malted milk with chocolate ganache filling. The cake will be smothered in whipped chocolate cream and then covered with an entire box of maltesers. The decoration will happen in the morning once the cake is cold. I’m going to have to deliver it tomorrow and then leave quickly before I’m offered a slice.

    Lindsay, I sympathise – I remember having cortisone injections in the foot and the shoulder – the foot definitely hurts more.

    Jony and Neil, sounds like you have both had lovely holidays. Hopefully the bike riding that you have continued to do while on holiday will balance out any food excesses. My walking definitely didn’t balance out my christmas eating!

    Cinque, thanks for story behind the names of the compost bins.
    Will you show your granddaughters their names in concrete when they are riding their bikes – or they already seen it?

    Thin, like Cinque I was very glad to see the approval of the Oxford vaccine – so much easier to distribute – especially to care homes.
    Neil, I’m glad to hear that knee is improving.

    Anzac, hope you are home now and feeling much better.

    I weighed myself for the first time in ages this morning to find that I am at the top of my preferred weight range. I’m happy with that as I though it would be worse. I am continuing with my limited eating until I am comfortably back within my range. At least it’s better than last year. On the last day of December 2019 I was 4kg above the top of preferred range, so that’s an improvement.
    I am continuing with my limited options days. Today is fluids only so I had a large low cal smoothie for lunch and have taken a tub of zucchini soup from the freezer for dinner. Tomorrow I’m having mostly eggs, although some veg might get thrown into the mix too and the all protein/fat days do not sit well in my stomach. I’m looking forward to tomorrow though as I have boiled some eggs to turn into curried eggs, which I adore but rarely make.

    Hope you all have a lovely new year’s eve.

    We have another day to go, but it’s already New Years Eve down under and all of you will be welcoming 2021 tonight. There were lots of good things this past year, but a tough one for all of us I think. So let’s look forward to better times ahead in 2021. I think this about sums it up: https://2021happynewyear.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/new-year-2021-wishes.jpg

    Anzac, I’m so sorry to hear that you ended up in the hospital but glad the drip meds and saline have you on the mend. What a way to finish out 2020! I hope you’ll be back at home by the time you read this. I loved reading about OH and his friend watching cricket from the pool. It’s nice to imagine warm weather these days. I always seem to feel cold.

    Neil, it’s good to hear your knees are healing and your bike can be repaired and the bloke who hit you had insurance. Don’t overdo the riding while you’re healing.

    LJ, I’ve been eating more than I should too, but managing to at least hold the line. I’m managing to get in a few more steps each day too, mostly indoors because it’s been under 10C most days this week. I love reading about all the warm weather over there.

    Cinque, have fun with the littles and their bikes today. It sounds like it’s going to be a busy day for you. The Indian food you made for your friend sounds so good. Even if it didn’t turn out quite as expected, I bet it was very good. I made an Indian dish last night with curried lentils, chickpeas, diced tomatoes, green peas, coconut milk and fresh coriander. The nice thing about it is it’s very good for leftovers as well.

    Lindsay, 7 kilos of honey from one bar sounds like a lot! It sounds like your hives are going very well and helping to pollinate your fruit trees at the same time. Does your nephew’s wife have to attend classes in person in NY or can she do it remotely? So many universities are doing classes online these days. At any rate they’ll probably have to be hunkered down most of the time since Covid is so rampant in most states these days. I fear that the numbers will get worse when tests come back from everyone traveling and getting together over the holidays. Too many Covidiots!

    Thin, we will probably be celebrating New Years Eve much the same as you and OH, hunkered down at home. Do people go outside on the boats to ring in the New Year? I suppose a lot will depend on the weather and if it’s warm or rainy. We’ll be at home watching the ball drop at midnight in Time Square and maybe a bit of the entertainment. It will seem strange with the streets of New York empty except for the entertainers. Who knows, they may be filming from a studio somewhere too. We’ll probably get in a couple episodes of McLeod’s Daughters (we just started season 6 out of 8 seasons) and perhaps Outlander. I’m making eggplant parmesan and a salad for dinner. None of us felt like filet mignon or lobster this year.

    John, your family celebrations for Christmas sound wonderful. What will you be doing for New Year’s Eve? I love seeing all the photos of your area. NZ is such a beautiful country!

    Happy New Year everyone! I feel so lucky to have found all of you here and I’m looking forward to 2021 and sticking closer to the 5:2 or FD800 to lose these extra 10kg.

    Good evening and Happy New Year to everyone!

    Please forgive me for not posting for a while. I got caught up in the pre-Christmas busyness, then a dear friend ended up in hospital needing urgent back surgery, and there was a family death. Suffice it to say that the eating has NOT been under control and the scales are showing the damage. I’m entering January with renewed determination.

    Sorry to read of others’ woes, Neilithicman and Anzac65 in particular, glad for those who had great Christmas celebrations, and I am joining you all in hoping for a much healthier 2021! (And posting with much improved frequency).

    https://imgur.com/a/Ms5uanb

    Happy New Year, fast family!

    It’s 12.12am on Jan 1, 2021 here in Enzed, so we can put that horrible ol’ 2020 behind us and look forward to better times in 2021.

    Yes, it will still be tough for a while, but if we all pull together we can get there. We’d love to see the citizens of the world back in our beautiful part of the world once everything is safe again – we miss you all!

    Stay safe, fast family.

    Ka kite, John

    Happy New Year kiwis! Is it safe to cross over into 2021?

    Happy new year everyone, I hope your 2021 is everything your 2020 wasn’t 😉

    Hello everyone

    Happy New Year lovely friends!

    I thankfully came home after lunch yesterday to an ecstatic Maxx

    http://imgur.com/gallery/W8xnr2s

    Two nights in hospital and as wonderful as the medical staff are, it isn’t such a great place to be. But I’m feeling so much better. My arms look like a long-term drug user’s due to the cannula and many blood tests and other needles.

    Cinque, thanks for the beautiful get well flowers. Sorry you weren’t feeling so great yesterday. I’m quite sure your food was wonderful

    LJ, how wonderful that you are within your preferred weight range despite not sticking to plan. It shows that you now make good choices subconsciously.

    Cali,The day the boys were in the pool was the one good day weather wise. Since it has been cloudy, drizzly and cool. Very disappointing for my precious 3 weeks off. I want pool time! I get a bit down if I don’t see the sun for a day or so.

    Betsy, lovely to hear from you and so sorry about your friend and your sad family death. Don’t worry about the diet, like you said, hit it hard in 2021.

    My appetite is completely gone – this is a good thing!

    Hi Thin, Lindsay, Jony, Neil and everyone else. I’ve run out of time again, hopefully I can come back for a better chat tomorrow

    Happy new year everyone. I second Neil’s wish for a better year ahead. I think this is one time than hoping for a better year than the one just gone might almost be guaranteed – touch wood!

    Betsy, I am relieved to hear from you, but so sorry that the christmas period has been such a troubled time for you. I hope this year is a time of healing for you and your loved ones.

    Anzac, very pleased to see you home and I’m not surprised Maxx has you pinned to the couch – making sure you don’t disappear again.

    Cali, I’m very pleased to hear you are able to add more movement to your days despite the many obstacles to being active that you face. I find activity helps not just my physical wellbeing but my mood and sleep patterns too – all so very important.

    Cinque, I hope you are feeling a little more rested and not worn out with the granddaughter time.

    Hello also to Thin, Penguin, John, Neil, Turn, Lindsay, Quacka, Intesha, GDSA, KellBell, Rae_of_sunshine and anyone else I have missed. I hope this year ahead brings positive things for all of you.

    I spent the afternoon at my nephew’s place and helped out with some gardening they were doing. (They sent me home with a lovely bale of lucerne hay which my own garden will love. Lucerne is hard to buy in the suburbs and usually requires a trip to farming areas so it’s a luxury item for me.)
    It was his wife’s birthday today and as she loves maltesers I made a malteser themed cake as her birthday cake. The cake was malted milk flavour, filled with chocolate ganache and covered in chocolate flavoured whipped cream and lots of maltesers. https://imgur.com/a/kMHsrLt It’s always a struggle to get a smooth finish with cream but I think it tastes better than buttercream so I accept a rustic finish as I know the flavour will be better with fresh cream. I left when they decided to go out and get fish and chips for dinner – I just didn’t want to deal with that temptation. I’m having scrambled eggs.

    Take care all.

    Well, the last straggler into 2021 here and wishing you all a Happy New Year again. Now we’re all in the New Year. I made eggplant parmesan for dinner and then the 3 of us watched “Death to 2020” on Netflix which was mildly amusing, several episodes of McLeod’s Daughters with the last 15 minutes of the year watching the ball drop in Time Square (with almost empty streets) rebroadcast from 3 hours earlier.

    Anzac, so glad you are back home again and recovering. Maxx looks very happy to have you home.

    LJ, that cake looks beautiful! You make the prettiest cakes! I bet your nephew’s wife loved it.

    Here’s hoping that 2021 is a better year for all of us!

    https://imgur.com/a/tXUujQu

    Kia ora, fast friends

    Who stole summer? We might have done well when it comes to fighting covid but I can’t say the same for our weather. All over NZ, long looked-forward-to events are being cancelled or postponed as the rain keeps sheeting down. We’re into the second month of “summer” but it’s only 13degC here today, so people around the world who planned to visit us this summer can rest assured you’re not missing much – especially if you were going to stay in a tent!

    I started yesterday on my second FD after the big Xmas blowout and ended up ditching fasting after lunch, as my nearest & dearest decided to stage an impromptu dinner party for family. Our little grandsons (5 & 1 1/2) are pictured and I’m sure you’ll agree I couldn’t tell them to stay home as I’m on a fast day! By the way, I went to an Irish bar in Dunedin for lunch and I tucked into a . . . long black coffee (and a thin malt biscuit I had smuggled in).

    Funny thing is, after wining and dining last night, I weighed in this morn and I hadn’t gained any weight since Thurs morning – still stuck on 100.5kg. So maybe after 14 weeks of 5:2 fasting, some of my deep-seated midriff fat has burned off and the fat generated during blowouts disappeared when I returned to fasting? Has anyone else noticed this?

    Oh well, better nip out and check the drainage, as they’re warning of flooding here in Dunners today.

    Ka kite, John

    Good morning, Happy New Year!

    I’m moving slowly and creakily as I had two (lovely) granddaughter days. Now to recover. They had a great time riding around the flats and were impressed to see their names in concrete.

    LJoyce, I bet your malteser loving nephew’s wife just loved that wonderful cake! You master baker, you.
    Hooray that your restricted days are working so well. I do hope the curried eggs were greatly enjoyed.
    And won’t your garden love that lucerne!

    Cali, I loved your New Year picture. I posted it on facebook to wish my family HNY and have noticed our community radio has been splashing it about too. Leap made.

    Well done holding the weight line, and getting those steps in. Such a good idea to think of inside activity when it is nasty and cold outside.
    Ooh yum your chickpea curry sounds good. And you have made me hungry for eggplant parmesan.

    Betsy, wonderful to see your post. But I am so sorry that it has been such a hard Christmas for you. Condolences to you and best wishes to your friend recovering from surgery.
    Keep looking after yourself as best you can, and hopefully you will be back on the 5:2 horse before long. (It is such a lovely, goodnatured horse that just patiently waits when we are away, and is so pleased to see us when we get back. And so delightedly takes us in the direction we want to go.)

    Hi Jony, a lovely message. Hooray for a fresh new year.
    Hooray your scales are still showing a lighter weight. My experience is that fat can pack itself back on very quickly, but hopefully not in your case, with only a small blip and plenty of exercise.

    Thin, I think you might be coming into 2021 whether you are ready or not! Enjoy.
    Don’t look at Victoria!

    Anzac, HOORAY that you are back home. Sending so many good wishes. I hope you can gently slowly gradually eat vegetables that will build up your good microbes and not get stuck in any diverticula.

    Sigh, my food for my friend really wasn’t my best and I didn’t go to my usual place to buy coffee and the vacuum pack stuff I bought instead was horrible, and I even made her a dreadful cup of tea (unless you like tea with no colour or flavour) because I poured it too soon. Coffee, food, tea all below par. Major fail. Reputation in tatters. (Plus I made her a loaf of bread to take home, and over-proved it. Not too bad but just adding to the disaster.) Thank goodness that was last year.

    Well, we (Victorians) are back with an exploding number of new covid cases. Our restaurant safety measures clearly not as good as they need to be. Not the best start to the New Year. Let’s hope we can stamp it out quickly.

    Fast day tomorrow for me. I aim to make it a good one.

    Cheers all.

    Betsy, welcome back, sorry to read of your family death.

    LJ, good job being 4kgs lighter than this time last year.

    Jony, I’ve found that the body will happily absorb the odd transgression. For me, strict adherence to 5:2 in maintenance allowed me an occasional restaurant meal. I think I was more careful during the weight loss phase but it’s so long ago, I can’t really remember. I’ve been on 6:1 for about 15 months and that requires a lot more care on the other six days.

    Cinque, I bet your friend loved everything you offered. Sorry to hear of your covid numbers. I’m going to check the Oz news to find out what you mean by exploding numbers. After months of quietly seething and saying nothing, I’ve started speaking out when covidiots jeopardise my health and safety. The other day I asked a group of people blocking our path on a bridge to move aside. They looked at me as if I had two heads so I asked if they were familiar with social distancing requiring six feet between us. On NYE, I reported a supermarket for failing to keep us safe by allowing hundreds of shoppers in the store and not enforcing either mask-wearing or SD. I’ve yet to hear from the supermarket itself. We wouldn’t normally shop there but our late-night expedition to ALDI the previous night had been thwarted as they’d run out of essentials.

    CalifD, we watched ‘Death to 2020’ after you mentioned it. I’d previously passed it over as I don’t like Samuel L Jackson or any movie he’s ever been in. Like you, we found it mildly amusing, but we thought it had one or two hilarious moments. Interesting that it suddenly transformed itself into a serious documentary when covering the BLM events, then reverted to comedy once that coverage was finished.

    Anzac, so pleased that you’re safely home and out of hospital. Take it easy.

    I must be mad. I asked my eldest great niece what flavour cake she wanted for her 22nd birthday (Wednesday). She’s asked for a vanilla or white chocolate cake covered in fondant icing. The cake I can easily bake, the icing is a different story. I haven’t worked with fondant icing in 30 years and back then I used it to cover those heavy fruit cakes for wedding and christening cakes. Her text sent me straight to the cake tin cupboard and then the internet for ideas. I have figured that the easiest solution is to make a round cake but cover it as if it were a cup cake – cut a disc that sits on the top only. I do not want to be trying to get smooth fondant sides on something as fragile as a vanilla buttercake – I can see that ending in disaster. Now I just have to find time to get to a cake decorating shop and see if they have a block of ready-made fondant that I can buy.
    Clearly my belief that fresh cream and chocolate ganache taste much better on cakes than buttercream or fondant is not shares by others.

    Cali, glad you finally joined us in 2021.
    New years eve in Times Square in on my bucket list – one day.
    Your faith in my cake decorating skills is about to be tested! I definitely see myself as an amateur baker and not a cake decorator.

    Jony, sorry you are having autumn weather instead of summer. I think we are all having a cooler summer this year. It’s pretty mild here too – mostly 20s, which is quite unusual for January which is usually in the 30s. Still after the heat and fires of last summer I am not complaining. Although I admit that 25C is a lot easier to take than your 13C.

    Cinque, my nephew’s wife did love the cake, as did my nephew. The reason I new she loved maltesers is because he once got into her black books for demolishing a large box of maltesers that she’d had stashed away.
    I am sure your cooking wasn’t as bad as you think. Cooks are alway very self-critical.
    The curried eggs were very much enjoyed. I made 9 of the small 45g eggs into curried eggs and then snacked on them throughout the day. It felt very indulgent but I worked out that it was only about 2300kj for all those eggs. Today I’m back on fruit.

    I’ve decided that tomorrow will be my last food restricted day. I am going to test my willpower and go to “soup for dinner” days. Not something I’d normally find attractive in summer, but the weather feels more like spring at moment. I’m planning to have either a fruit smoothie or veggies in some form for lunch. Fresh fruit for snacks and veggie soup with legumes or dairy for dinner. I can follow that pattern with restrained portions for a week I think I’ll be ready to ease myself back into a more normal 5:2 pattern.

    I realised I hadn’t said what I hoped for this year. I would like to have a more consistent diet. The last 18 months I’ve done a lot of yo-yoing. With smallish weight gains followed by weeks of calorie restriction to get those kilos off. I’d like to actually just my maintain my weight for a change.

    Good morning from rainy grey Melbourne and a happy garden.
    Fast Day for me!

    Thin, our covid numbers are much less explosive today and all linked to one superspreading event at a restaurant. Hopefully the wonderful contact tracers can catch everyone before there is another superspreading event.

    I applaud you for saying something to people who are being covid unsafe. There was a lot of that in Melbourne lockdown and it does make people change behaviour. I’ve said things a couple of times, looked daggers a few times more, and kicked myself for not saying something at other times. Luckily every time we start getting complacent there is another scare.And I really wanted to get this on a Tshirt: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ekt8nB8XUAEKEnm.jpg (I think I might have posted this before, but it is so good, with warning)

    LJoyce, ha you couldn’t have known she would ask for fondant! You might have to put caveats on your offers in future 😀
    (I am with you in thinking it doesn’t taste so nice)

    Cheers for your last food restricted day, and a lovely transition back to 5:2. And all power to you with your food resolution/hope.

    Dr Mosley has a flurry of tweets at the moment due to his wife’s new book of Fast800 recipes called ‘Fast800 Easy’ and a set of articles from him in the Daily Mail. He is doing a week of 800fast to get rid of Christmas kilos.

    I’m heading out of the house (always a good thing on a fast day) to hit Savers and see if I can find pale cotton kids clothes as it is going to be dyeing day this week (the kidlets dyed shopping bags my daughter crocheted for their teachers at the end of the year, and want to do some more).

    And I do hope I feel well enough to henna my hair when I get back home.

    Happy fasting or normal-daying to you all.

    Cinque, I’ll try to paste that link into my phone so I can read the message on the T shirt. I was just thinking today how I’d like to construct a hoola hoop skirt with a 6ft radius and see how many people walk into it. I’m trying to be polite with my comments and making it sound like I’m trying to keep them safe. No point in being antagonistic (although that’s how I feel). They might think about it later as you say.

    The reply from the supermarket was full of platitudes, spelling errors and an extensive list of reasons that people could be exempt from wearing a mask. I sympathise with some of the reasons (others are just ridiculous) but feel if someone can’t wear a mask when it’s been determined it’s helping to keep us safe AND it’s the law, then maybe they forfeit their right to go shopping because, being that vulnerable, they are lucky enough to get their groceries delivered. If that’s too non-PC for today’s world, the least they can do is stay 6ft from everyone else.

    What a rant. Glad the Aussies are on top of things. I’m having a good FD with two cups of coffee so far and one hour to go until my freezer surprise which is chicken something.

    LJ, you’re a saint. Mostly, I have no idea what you’re talking about but all your cakes sound complicated and requiring skills and equipment that I’ve never had (fortunately for my waistline). Approximately how many times a year does someone anticipate an invitation to your cake-making abilities?

    It snowed quite a bit yesterday and settled for a while which was good fun.

    P.S. Cinque, that is just hilarious!

    Good afternoon all.

    I am very glad to have finished my limited option days and will slowly work my way back to a full range of foods. I am still steering clear of added sugars, processed foods, nuts and grains/bread. (The latter two are just because I tend to overeat these.) My intention for this week was to eat just fruits, vegetables, dairy and a little solid protein and make a hearty bowl of soup for dinner each night. I guess I have started that way but it will be soup for both lunch and dinner today. It was cold when I returned from the doctor’s appointment and I really felt like hot soup. So I made greek lentil soup for lunch and I’m making a veggie, dairy and red lentil soup for dinner. (I’ve put both recipes on our Beans and Lentils page: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/beans-and-lentils-recipes-tips-and-information/page/3/
    In case you were wondering, I had no legumes while I did my 9 days of restricted daily options and I really missed them. Hence two lentil soups today.

    Cinque, I think Victoria’s contact tracing has come a long way, they are doing very well with current outbreak. That must be such a relief.
    I had a giggle at your t-shirt.

    Thin, one of our politician’s just echoed your views – “If you don’t want to wear a mask that’s fine, stay home or stay outdoors.”
    I don’t think I’m a saint. I enjoy baking and wouldn’t have offered to bake for birthdays in I didn’t. I bake 11 birthday cakes a year (9 family, my eldest great-nephew’s girlfriend and my best friend). If they were spread out evenly across the year it would be fine. Unfortunately some months are rather over represented.

    I had big win yesterday. I found a packet of ready rolled fondant icing that is more than large enough for my needs. The cake is feeling much more manageable now.

    Have a lovely day.

    Interesting recipes LJ. I had to look up EVO. One of our neighbours in Perth loved baking but never ate any of her finished products. The perfect neighbour! She’d often bring OH a treat for helping her with this or that house repair. I find it incredible that anyone trying to maintain a weight is able to consider baking as a past time. I wonder if Intesha still makes her incredible cakes.

    It was a productive FD with 1kg shredded. I can now go all day without eating so my FD cauliflower soup is a thing of the past but I cheat a bit with milk in coffee. I’m still well within the 500 cal limit which works for me so I’m not reading anything about Fast800 for now.

    Over to the Monday fasters.

    Good morning,
    I had an excellent fasty fast day on Sunday, a good light eating day yesterday and a nice start to today: zucchini flower fritters.

    I plan to make some soup, and am inspired by your lentil soup recipes, LJoyce.

    I’m glad you enjoyed that picture I linked.
    Top of the news this morning is your big UK lockdown, Thin. Thinking of you all.
    Penguin, I’d love to hear how you are going, and sending good wishes still. I haven’t stopped sending you flowers, but last week was crazy. I am recovering.

    Yes, our contact tracing is revamped and so many other processes that were tested are too, but still the newsfeed is full of stories of people getting mucked around and the wrong info etc. These testing times will hopefully lead to more and more improvement in our bureaucracies. And more and more clarity on what good politicians do!

    And good citizens. I have been thoughtless at times, especially at the beginning, learning new habits, so appreciate being told politely rather than angrily. We are all on a learning curve.

    LJoyce, hooray for the rolled fondant. Hopefully now the cake making will be enjoyable.

    Well, I am recovered enough from the last few weeks to start getting myself organised, I hope. I will start with food, organising recipes and shopping so I can start to stack my fridge and freezer again with easy, delicious, nutritious meals.

    I am doing well (touch wood) with a 12 hour, at least, overnight fast. No snacking, and four hours between meals. I am concentrating on lots of low carb vegetables and lean protein.

    Ooh looking forward to sitting down and planning some cooking. But first, the kitchen bench, the lentil soup!

    Cheers all!

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