Hi all. MIA but that happens when I fall in a ditch.

Neil, it’s hard to get back on the pony. You will do it. One day it will fall back into place again.

I started writing two days ago, on my laptop, but I’m currently at the PC keeping Rosy entertained while a man with a big machine water blasts our courtyard and house. All the construction next door that never ends, and our home was so dusty. Very dispiriting. They are taking forever – OH thinks they get someone in when they’ve accumulated a bit more money – but after more than 12 months, I do wish it was over.

I won’t go back over old posts ….perhaps the laptop post won’t be too out of date by the time I get back to that room.

Cinque, I am glad you are able to request a vaccinated helper. Too important to take any chances. I am sorry for Victorians and the pain all over again – hopefully with record vaccinations now, it will start to ease.

Cinque, I hope you get a good result from your doctor – some answers, and a way forward. Hugs to you.

Turn, well done being in the 68s …what a lovely number.

And Thin – another successful FD under your belt (if you even need a belt now 🙂

My weight is soooo slowly going down, but it is going down, so that is the main thing. Only a couple of hundred grams a week, now we are doing 1,500 x 5 and 2 x 800, but I only have a few kilos to go. I may reassess – I could lose more – but if I can lock it at that target weight for a few months, I’ll see how happy I am in my clothes, and whether my rather looser skin gets a little tighter.

I am having real wardrobe woes … my OH suggested I take a large sum and go and buy a new wardrobe. As my DS points out, men have no idea about clothes. A new wardrobe to him means a new pair of jeans and six shirts. I love my clothes …they are just too big to wear. So I’ve been to the local tailor and am having some jackets that I love resized. It’s $120 for each lined jacket, and $66 for the casual unlined one. I think it’s really worth it to have things I love wearable again.

OK I hear the machine has stopped, so I’ll release the beast.

She is a beast too …. I am a mass of bruises on my upper arms…. I was getting Rosy out of the car at a rural show when she spotted two horses being exercised in a nearby ring. She took off, with me hanging firmly to her lead. I hit the ground on my shoulder and got dragged some distance on my stomach before I could anchor her. No real harm done, and funny in hindsight, but the bruises are looking very colourful (it was last Friday).

I’ll come back a bit later, with my earlier post.

best wishes all

Good morning,

Fast day tomorrow. Planning another fasty one.

Lindsay, so sorry you have been in some horrible ditch. Hooray that it didn’t involve binge eating.
That construction work next door is dispiriting. Hoping they are on their last stage.
And Oh dear! Rosy! How you must ache.

Lindsay I think you are planning perfectly. It has been hard work getting your weight down, especially these last few steps. And maintenance is hard, concentrating work for most of us.

I think that planning a year, at least, of sticking to your new weight, making the most of your altered wardrobe and enjoying all the benefits your healthy weight will bring, is goal enough.

Indeed, maintaining that weight is a huge, important goal, and if you are doing that confidently (and your friend too!) over a year or so, you might well be like Thin and be able to decide to lose a little bit more.

Also on your wardrobe, so good for the environment to get beautiful clothes altered and keep wearing them, as well as good for your personal style, and local business too. Win win win.

Anzac, hooray.
You are clearly someone who needs functions as rewards so hooray you have some good ones coming up. Lovely ones they are too!
Onwards to the footy weekend!

Miso was stoic when I told her the pats were on behalf of a dog owner. She accepted them royally. 😀 😀
Big pats to Maxx from me (but sadly, not from Miso 😉 )

So good to have a clever, barky dog when burglars are around. Fingers crossed it gets sorted and you have another safe 20 years.

Keep warm everyone! What an antarctic blast we are getting.

I have my doctors appt soon so I will find out if the lung function tests show anything useful. Hooray for telehealth appointments.

All is looking good for our lockdown to ease, hooray.
And the head person of care services at the council rang me yesterday and was a good person to discuss the issues I had with. She ended up asking me point blank if my regular was one of the people I talked about bending the rules so I said yes and they will follow up making sure she understands the mask wearing rules (which is to have it on at all times).

My non fast days are going well at the moment, hooray. Hope yours are too.

Cheers

I’m a bit behind with posting but I did pop in to read some posts yesterday and again today.

Anzac, all the best with those goals. Keep us posted (if you can with the security aspects). What a terrifying ordeal with the suspected burglars. In our neighbourhood in Perth, we rarely had any break-ins but some would-be burglars were once caught with hand-drawn maps of local streets with all the houses where dogs lived marked on it. Although we hadn’t owned a dog for years, our house was marked with a ‘X’. In later years, we put up security cameras, also a great deterrent. Stay safe.

Cinque, I’m so pleased that you spoke up about the mask wearing and vaccinated help. You asked about the primer. No, the entire roof wasn’t primed, only the treated rusty spots. So it was a case of repeating the four day application process again on the newly found places. We have now made it to Banbury (of nursery rhyme fame) where a final degreasing and masking will take place before inching up to the city centre where there are no blossoms to do the final painting. I’m very anxious and hope there aren’t too many people about when we do it. It gets light at 4.30am and dark at 10pm so there should be scope for that. And the weather continues to hold up perfectly. OH has severe allergies (hay fever) so I get to do most of the work which suits me fine.

Lindsay, I know you wrote at least two long posts but I can’t remember much of it except falling in a ditch, bees, your friend’s amazing weight loss and a Vietnamese woman hugging you. Oh dear. I think hand-shaking, hugging and all that is a thing of the past here. I, for one, am very happy about that as I’m sure I will now be exposed to even fewer colds and coughs than I already seemed to get. I bet you look great with your own weight loss and determined effort.

Time to go and ride a cock horse….

Brrrrrrrrrr

Only 11 degrees as a maximum today. WHAAT? It is freezing. Pooches still need walking so we looked like arctic explorers at 7.30am. It was 5 degrees. Gah!

Three days into my new plan and 300g down. I have set a goal of a minimum of 0.5g per week which I think is very do-able. Sunday we have a family catch up and we are having curries, rice and naan (all home made) so I need to leave some wiggle room by having a couple of very low calorie days this week.

Hope your FD is going well Cinque. Good news with the lung results and I hope the exercise Physiologist can help

Glad the weather is behaving for your priming / painting Thin. Thanks for your encouragement with my goals; I am feeling very strong and motivated.

Lindsay, you are doing brilliantly and I am taking inspiration from you. My birthday is in December, so these are modest goals and I do hope to lose more than stated. But I am not putting myself under any pressure to do so. When did you live in Hanoi? It is my favourite Asian city and I would love to go back some day. How sad for the tailor knowing that her family / friends are possibly going through a terrible time due to Covid

Hi Neil, LJ, Betsy, G’day, Cali and others I have not mentioned. Hope you are all ok

Take care and stay warm!

Anzac, good job planning ahead and making allowances for the curry day ahead. Do your lab forum people sound as if things are returning to normality in the UK?

Cinque, good news and progress with the lung investigation. I hope the Exercise Physiologist comes up with good, practical solutions.

LJ, sorry you haven’t been well. Oh my goodness, three cafe lunches in four days. All the best with those.

Good morning from misty moisty Melbourne… with no new locally acquired covid cases yay!

LJoyce, so good to hear from you, but awful news about that extra rotten pain. I’d been wondering how you were going, and sad news to have to suffer so much just because your infusion was late.
Nice work with your good food days. Ha, so glad to be helpful without realising it, and then being helped back by your insight.

I hope you enjoyed a lovely Good Food lunch at the cafe today, and a lovely time socialising too.

I’m doing good food days too, and have been writing down my next meals so I don’t confuse myself with my faulty memory.

Today: Lentil and chorizo soup for lunch (but really, mostly vegetables) and heating up a piece of ‘quiche’ my sister bought for me (that is more like a cream cheese savoury cheesecake, that I cut into small pieces and froze) (I have thawed a piece).

For supper (since I went veggie shopping this morning) eggplant parma with extra pumpkin in the tomato sauce, and braised cabbage and kale on the side. And then a cup of hot chocolate (no sugar).

Anzac,
It looks like you are slightly warmer today.
Enjoy that curry feast! Do you find you are choosing smaller portions of rice and naan?
A couple of really low cal days work a treat, I am finding. My fast day was good.
My miso soup was just excellent 😀

Thin, yes. Planning ahead is such an excellent strategy for everything, and one I grew up without much idea of at all. Family life was chaotic in the scariest ways so it was all survival: grab what you can while it is there, and no point predicting anything. So exciting to learn what a useful tool planning is, and, inspite of pandemics etc, it is quite possible to plan realistically and reap the lovely rewards.

Lindsay, poor Rosy. Should her injury be able to heal completely (if you just keep away from horses and kangaroos)? I think my arm injury is similar, but I have to keep away from lifting (my pillow, the hot water jug, the milk container) and I just keep forgetting and aggravating it again. (It’s not too bad today).

I do hope that the swell of people getting vaccinated is enough to lift up those reluctant ones and get them joining in. I imagine the contagion scare of the last few days encourages people, and then the sad news of a blood clot death discourages them.

The podcast I love most https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/episodes/ I heard recommended on line, and then he mentioned this one: https://www.thefrenchhistorypodcast.com/ which isn’t as good, but I can skip through to episodes I am interested in. It is well researched.
Otherwise I mostly listen to the ABC listen app and will put a plug here for Sammy J who has just started a lovely 15 min podcast of favourite bits from the week’s broadcast https://www.abc.net.au/radio/melbourne/programs/sammyjsnackpack/

Ooh I am envious of your fire, enjoy it for me!

Well I am off to do some tidying and cooking. Best wishes all

Good evening all.
Thankyou for your kind thoughts. I am managing and am accepting of the current flare up because I know it will be temporary and will return to better managed symptoms that are occasional rather than constant. I will also be glad to fit back into my trousers! The inflammation in my legs means most pants, while still comfortable around the waist and hips are skin tight over the thighs and knees and look appalling. It’s too cold for skirts so I will be glad to see the back of the inflammation and back into a wider range of warm pants.

Neil, I really feel for you with the current battle you are having with food. Approaching a weight limit that you hoped to to cross again can be so alarming. I hope you can find a solution that works for you. I think keeping busy and finding distractions that allow less time to think about food is a hopeful approach.

Cinque, lentil and chorizo soup sounds really inviting I do like full flavoured lentil soups – tasty and very filling.
I think going to an exercise physiologist is an excellent idea. I hope they can suggest exercise options that don’t make your CFS worse.

Lindsay, I’m not significantly impacted by the cold – I think that’s more of an issue for people with ostoarthritis. The only weather event that has a noticeable impact is rapidly changing barametric pressure – when the weather changes from dry to humid I get a lot of joint pain.
I absolutely understand getting favourite clothing remade to fit. I did that with several quality garments when I first lost weight. Given how difficult it can be to find things you love and that fit well, it’s a safer bet to adjust your favourites.

Anzac, enjoy those curries, sounds lovely. Having several short term goals is an excellent idea – much easier to get our heads around than one huge goal.

Thin, I hope that horse got you safely to Banbury. I also hope the weather is favourable for finishing the roof. It does seem a bit unpredictable at present. Our prime minister has just missed his first meetings at the G7 conference as high winds meant going by road rather air.

Hello to everyone else, I hope you are all managing well.

I was quite pleased with today – a GFD despite a cafe lunch. I ordered a grilled chicken burger without the bun or fries and asked if they could add a bit more salad to compensate. It was delicious and also a healthy meal. I also managed to restrain myself when I got home – something I’ve had continuing difficulty with when eating out – my brain usually decides that the day is now open season on all food. Something I’ve noticed is that including plenty of legumes is helping my GFDs. I made hummus as a healthy snack option and also a big bowl of felafel mixture that I tuned into large burger patties. The felafel burgers are now cooked and frozen but I can easily reheat one and add a dollop of greek yoghurt and either salad or cooked veg. Most days I am having this as one of my meals.

Tomorrow is a FD – something I rarely do on a Saturday, but I’ve only managed one FD this week so it has to be tomorrow.
Take care everyone.

Good morning everyone, still cold and grey here and friends in the Dandenongs are coping without power and internet, and more flooding expected in Gippsland. But only one new community covid case.

Neil, so much sympathy. But yay to you for working out it is the soon-as-you-get-home-from-work time that sets you off. And you have worked out that you are not actually hungry at that time, so it must be triggered by something else.

That will help you think of some strategies. I know you will come up with the best strategy for yourself, but here are some ideas just in case one of them triggers some good ideas for you:

Drink 500ml of water over 30 – 60 mins before you eat anything.
Have a bath or a shower.
Do some yoga/mindfulness for 20 mins
Lie down and read with the door shut and alarm set for 20 – 30 mins.
Go to your wardrobe and try some of your favourite clothes on (haha yes, that is one of mine)
Have a bowl of soup if you have too long a stretch until dinnertime.
Make it a regular time to catch up with your wife and or sons to talk about the day.
Take up knitting (me again) or some other hobby to unwind and keep your hands from picking up food.

You might need some emotional care too. So do chase some up if you think it would help.

Having said all that, I hope you aced it last night and are now having that wonderful weekend.

LJoyce, so glad you can count on the extra pain being temporary and fingers crossed it is lessening already. Don’t weigh until you can fit in your trousers again!
Lovely work having a good food day that included a cafe meal. Nicely done.
I am similar, wanting to eat when I get home from a social meal (or meeting). I never quite nailed that one, but I haven’t been out for so long I have had no chance to work on it haha. All power to you managing a good transition from outing to insiding without involving food.

Mmm yum yes, full flavoured lentil soups. I read that and immediately wished I had put even more lentils in mine haha. I made enough to have a container full left so I might get some lentils just starting to sprout and add them in.

My eggplant parma was the real treat, I aced it, and felt so good after eating it. And I have three more portions of that in the freezer. (I forgot the pumpkin in the tomato sauce, found it sitting in its container in the microwave later, haha, but it can go into today’s stuffed capsicum).

Yummo falafel and hummus.

Happy Fasting today! I will take the baton from you as you end your day.

Hi Thin, I hope the roof painting survived Mr Messy’s input, chuckle. And that the wind calms down for the next coat.

The camera sounds great, my sister has something similar set up on the big paddock she is planting out with natives, and it is fun.

Yes I survived my childhood fairly well, and home help is next Wednesday which is also my birthday, a strange confluence of feelings about that!

I have today’s food sorted and I’m all set for a fast day tomorrow.

Cali, I am missing you too.

Cheers to everyone.

Monday morning,

I had such a good day yesterday. Fasty fast and a lot done. And my breathing stayed good.

Neil has been knitting a new bicycling outfit for himself: https://andreasnotebook.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Knit-Punk.jpg
That’s right isn’t it Neil?

Still cold here, Miso the cat thinks we should move to Brisbane. She is making do on my lap.

I had a big early post-fast-day breakfast, what a treat. Now back to my everyday routine. I am making a big veggie bake with layers of pumpkin, kale, chili red kidney beans and potato topping. I’ll cook some green beans as a side dish and have some for lunch.
Poached chicken added to my soup for supper, and I might have pan fried halloumi as an accompaniment.

Let’s see if I can have another day getting things done!
Hope you can too,

Cheers

Tuesday morning,

Haha Neil, I notice the model doesn’t look very happy in that outfit either.
Oh dear, nasty weather so easily ruins a weekend.
Those evening munchies are so tricky. I hope this week is much easier.

But hooray! It is my turn to be on a good roll, at least I think I am. I am getting my veggies in (that tray bake I made was tweaked slightly to be cooked in my ramekins, and I made 8, very yummy too. One eaten, one in the fridge, and 6 in the freezer).

I started today with mushrooms on toast. The plan is eggplant parma and veggies for lunch and fish pie and steamed carrots for supper.

My problem is that it takes about an hour after eating for that feeling of satiety to come through, but luckily I have been able to potter around enough to distract myself while I am waiting. And the pottering around also helps with clearing up etc. Win win.

I think I will have my fast day tomorrow, but it might wait for Thursday. Still going through the options.

Sending best wishes to everyone

Hi everyone,
Hope everyone is doing well in these weird times!
I’m hoping that I’ll be able to be here most days now and catch up with all you wonderful fasters!

This is just a quick check -in and as usual over the last couple or 3 of years I have some reading to do to catch up with where you’re all at. It’s time for me to get rid of the Covid Kilos for good ( down 2 kgs in the last 2 weeks) and 7kg and a bit to go to get to my previous goal weight of 62kgs.

You may or may not remember that when getting to my goal weight I was unable to lose anything if I ate any starchy carbs at all, including any in veggies or lentils beans etc, so no potato, sweet potato, corn, peas, banana etc or my weight would come to a crashing halt no matter how many FD’s I did, and whenever I took those out the weight would go down again. So… I’ve just been diagnosed as insulin resistant, even though on blood sugar tests I’m within the normal range. My glucose tolerance tests also showed blood sugar within the normal range but insulin resistance score sky-rocketed at the 1 hr mark. I have appts with someone who is great at helping people with insulin resistance, and a dietician straight after. At this point I don’t know how much they’ll be able to help given I’m already eating the way you’re supposed to eat to not have this, and have done for a looooong time. Being multi-grain allergy/intolerant and gluten intolerant doesn’t help, but I’m thinking the challenge is more ME/CFS relate, not being able to exercise properly for 24 years, and don’t know if I can do any more than I’m doing. Anyway, I need to do some reading up on ME/CFS insulin resistance incidence etc. ME/CFS affects peoples’ guts in various ways and I’ll have to go looking for specifically pancreas related challenges. I already know I have a slight mitochondrial dysfunction. Another dive down into the science is due.

NeilIithicman- saw that you’ve been having challenges with weight loss after doing it successfully before and wondering if this is what you may be experiencing as well – Insulin Resistance. When I plateaud after about a few months on 5:2 and couldn’t get off the plateau no matter what I did, someone suggested I give up grains, and I was already off those having a problem with them but I substituted ‘starchy carbs’ and my weight started going down again. I think that original plateau was about 3 months. Over the years I trialled various things to see what effect they’d have to work out exactly what affected my weight loss and stopped it when it shouldn’t have.

Cheers for now,
Merry

Hi Merry, lovely to hear from you

Sadly we have not heard from our dear friend Penguin since late last year I think

Cinque, just wanted to wish you a happy birthday for tomorrow. Hope you have some lovely things planned (other than home help doing the cleaning).

Busy week, so I’m afraid I will need to catch up on posts later. Take care.

Hello Southern Hemispherites

I was with you for a few months last year when I committed to the 5:2 diet/way of life and lost several kilos and felt much better for it in many ways.

Then there was a lot going on in my life and I left, feeling unable to keep up with the emails and also that I’d lost the weight I wanted to lose.

In the months since then I have put much of that weight on again, most of it in the tum area. I’ve had a couple of tries at going back on the 5:2 but they quickly fizzled out. Being part of a group and reporting to that group seems to make a big difference. And this group is such a warm and supportive one.

I’ve started reading the emails from everyone again, and am enjoying them. Nice to have news from Thin’s canal boat and from Cinque’s Melbourne flat and from all the other places. And nice to hear of people’s strategies and struggles. Cinque’s list of ways to avoid the evening munchies was terrific and very interesting to me as a confirmed evening muncher.

So thank you Cinque and I hope you are having a very happy birthday!

I had a fast day last Saturday and will have another today. Hard-boiled eggs, tuna, dahl, broccolini etc here I come!

I may not to be as regular a correspondent as some people here but I will be reading the messages with interest, and expect that I will check in quite often.

Warmest good wishes to everyone.
Helen Kate

Hi all.
Just a quick post, to wish you a very happy birthday Cinque. Hope you are doing something fun, and a lovely day leads into a lovely year.

Helen Kate, nice to read your post. I think many of us have lost, gained, and then rejoined. And most, very successfully. Just stick with it, and report in to us all when the road gets rocky. We’re all here to help you along. Are you doing the 800 calorie fast days?

As of this morning, I broke my sticking barrier, and am now only 2.8 kilos off my goal. That’s after following the program, and not losing anything for 3 weeks. Well, 500 grams off, 500 grams. That sort of plateau. My friend and I had planned for two weeks of fast 800 to end the financial year, but in the end decided it could be counter-productive (after 11 weeks on Fast 800, our weight loss only started to pick up when we added more calories), so are doing alternate 800/1500 days, with the hope of my knocking off this pesky 2.8.

I’ve just come from the clinic and having my second AZ jab. OH had his yesterday. Even my DIL, who’s not yet 40, got her first Pfizer yesterday, so we are all feeling much more confident.

Neil, good for you for working out a way around the evening munchies. I found it a very trying time too, between getting home from work, and putting a meal on the table. My solution was to boil the kettle and have two mugs of hot water (very Asian, I know, but it really is good for health and skin) as I was preparing food. It seemed to do the trick but we all have different ways of beating the munchy monster.

Merry great to welcome you back, and to read your post. Interesting, your blood readings pointing to insulin resistance. Good luck with managing your condition. I am like you ….any bread, pasta, rice, and I can’t shake the weight. I’ve been trying to introduce a little sourdough as I neared my goal …and I am pretty sure that’s what put me on a plateau. Good you have the skills to do the research and look for solutions.

Anzac, great work on 400. And what Neil said. Is your work a bit easier now?

Chiro appointment for Rosy yesterday – her neck was out after being barrelled by a a young weimaraner (largish) on the beach. The owner was laughing that they were ‘playing’. I took Rosy away and asked her to do the same. It was a nice dog, but it was trying to bring Rose down by charging into her at the shoulder, like they do with game. Grrr. I noticed it at a show on Monday (she did well, btw, challenge bitch and open of breed)… she was dropping her neck a little…but all fixed now.
Thin we’d been going to Vietnam for years before I worked there and I honestly don’t think it has changed that much. Well, Saigon has changed, and there are tourist strips in Nha Trang and the beachside resorts, but in the north it is still very much as it was. The people are much more conservative in the north still. (I worked in Saigon and in Hanoi). I miss it a lot. I was trying to find a funny photo that I posted to FB as a memory but it much be in an old computer somewhere.
OK it will be time to collect the kids soon, so I’d better get moving.
Enjoy your day all.

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Cinque
Happy Birthday to you!

I hope you’re being thoroughly spoiled and that your home help arrived with a mask covering her nose.

Hello,
Thankyou for all the lovely birthday wishes… and singing! Cool.

It has been a low key birthday made so lovely by social media, a quick zoom with my sisters and a picture of my granddaughter with a beautiful heart shaped leaf for me.

Home help came, they sent a different worker who wore her mask under her nose. On the upside she did a great job cleaning the kitchen. She scrubbed tiles. Much appreciated.

Wonderful news here. Neil has worked out a great strategy. And Merry and Helen Kate are here!

Anzac, Hooray for three days off work and feeling refreshed.
400g is a nice amount off in a week.

Run away from the burgers and fries! I
must say I’m with LJoyce on this one, I hate those hamburger buns that are too sweet and fluffy, and I wouldn’t want more than a chip or two. Burger and salad seems much more delicious.

What a nice fast day you had, mine is tomorrow.

Merry, such a delight to have you back AND to have your first post followed by a second post this morning.

I am pretty sure I have a similar problem with insulin, but I seem to be going okay with long-rise home cooked bread and whole grains, if I eat less than half the portion recommended. And I am tending more to having root vegetables and legumes as the (1/2 size) carb portion on my plate, which seems to suit me (research not completed yet).

I do so wish we had heard from Penguin this year.

Neil, early dinner is a great move. Does it suit the rest of the family too. I bet the boys are starving when they get home from school, so it probably is the best possible thing for them too.

Yum yum those patties!

My evening meal has moved earlier too. I have that problem for about an hour of really wanting to eat (I wish I could get to the exercise room, but I can distract myself these days) and then I am fine for the evening. Or if I am not, I can think of what a lovely breakfast I will have the next day.

LJoyce, thanks so much for your wishes and good luck with all those things keeping you busy. I do so hope the arthritis pain has died down and that you can enjoy fully everything that is happening.

Helen Kate, good move to come back here for fun and support and get those pesky kilos off again. You might be our wonderful migrating bird who comes to these shores now and then.
It is very irritating how quickly a tum can come creeping back, especially with those pesky evening munchies.
I hope your fast day has been a good one.

Hello all

Thanks for the welcome back. I really appreciate it. This is such a warm and supportive group.

Merry, nice to be getting back on the horse at the same time as you. Good luck to us both!

Cinque, thank you for the generosity of saying I could visit occasionally like a migratory bird – such a lovely image. And I have just discovered all your bean recipes on the forum ‘Beans and Lentils: Recipes, tips and information’ – so many great ideas.

My daughter is reading a book called ‘Alone in the kitchen with an eggplant’, a collection of essays about cooking for one. She sent me a photo of the opening of a piece by Jeremy Jackson called Beans and Me and I think you might like it, Cinque. Here it is:

“Most beans are lowly, of course, but it seems to me that the pinto, the lentil, and the black bean are the lowliest of them all, and all the more charming because of it. Sometimes I picture these three beans holding hands and chiming together, ‘We’re lowly! We’re of the earth! We’re beans for the people!’ And sometimes, when I envision this trio, the black-eyed pea waddles into view and says, ‘Whaddabout me, guys?’’ And the pinto, the lentil, and the black bean say, ‘Hiya, black-eyed pea! Get in here! We didn’t forget you!’ Then they all sing some kind of bean song.”

I think I might need to get the book and see what Jeremy does with his beans! But meanwhile I have plenty of ideas from your posts.

Glad you had a good birthday, Cinque. Hope it is a really good year for you.

Cheers to all
HK

PS Today’s FD has gone well. My plan is to do two FD’s a week, on Wednesday and on Saturday (with Sunday as fall-back) I will stay under 800 on those days.

Thin,I found that photo of fishing, Hanoi style.

First find a lake, then build a little bridge and position your fishing chair, and then place your armchair nearby so you can relax when you’re done fishing.

https://imgur.com/mLfOEb1

The pic was taken at Truc Bach Lake, near where we lived….. John McCain crashed into the lake during a bombing raid over Hanoi in 1967.

Good afternoon all. Apologies for my erratic participation lately. I finally have a full day at home to catch up on housework.

Welcome back Merry and HelenKate. I hope you both slip easily back into 5:2 and also get those recently regained kilos off easily.
I also had a covid weight gain last year, which I have managed to lose and then regain about three times so far! Every time I have have to isolate with ill heath the kilos go back on again.

HelenKate you extract from the cookery book was just delightful. As Cinque said. I do love legumes. I also love cookbooks that are more personal and interesting than just recipes with glossy pictures. I love those recipe books that also give you an insight into the author’s personality.

Cinque, I had a giggle at you stealing Rosie’s title.
Isn’t it wonderful when you have a variety of lovely things stashed in the freezer that means no cooking (or food shopping) for a few days.
That pic of the punk knitted outfit was a laugh – it reminded me of a colourful parrot. I was imagining it on a bicycle – and the resulting traffic accidents it would likely cause.

Lindsay, congratulations on Rosie’s win, she is becoming quite successful in the ring.

Merry, excellent that you finally understand that insulin resistance is behind some of you diet and weight issues. I hope the professionals are able to help. My cousin’s daughter is pre-diabetic and has been helped greatly by the dietitian she is seeing.

Neil, congratulations on the weight loss. It looks like evening exercise is a good solution for you. My dietitian did say that we need to keep you mind and hand hands busy during periods where we tend to snack.

Thin, I have just caught up on your recent boating blog entries. I know you were worried about the blossom settling in your paint and ruining the finish – but it looked mirror smooth in the pics you posted.

Anzac, how lovely that you had some good downtime on the long weekend. With your work schedule you need it.

Hello to everyone else who is reading but not posting – for once it’s not me!

I had a social day in the hills on Wednesday to celebrate a friends birthday. This involved a restaurant lunch – venison and pine mushroom pie and baked lemon cheesecake. The walking we did around some display gardens certain didn’t make much of a dent in those calories. It was very delicious though and I thoroughly enjoyed every mouthful.
My GFDs (good food days) have mostly been good. Yesterday was the only exception, due to American style choc chip cookies that were left over from morning tea with a visiting relative. Normally they would have been shoved into the freezer to remove the temptation, but they had unfortunately just been thawed that morning. So I ate the remaining two cookies – definitely not on plan for a GFD. I’ll reset today as I’m doing a FD. I have eaten a banana and have plans to make an omelette for dinner with spinach, mushrooms, tomato and possibly a little parmesan or pancetta.

I have been doing some real cardio workouts in the front garden. You know I was removing the old lawn – which I finished finally a couple of weeks ago. In the last week I have been digging 20 holes to plant the salvias into. as the soil is such heavy clay and rocks I am digging holes that are about 8 times the size of the pots so that I can surround the plants with lots of mushroom compost to give their roots a good chance to settle in before they hit the clay barrier. I buy the new crab apple tree for the centre next week.

Take care all, hope you have a lovely day.

Hello everyone

I am typing this in the kitchen while enjoying the wonderful smell of Cinque’s Chickpeas (aka Djaja Tarat – The Chicken That Flew), the first recipe in the Beans and Lentils thread. It is bubbling away on the stove and will soon be ready to eat. I had never heard of the spice blend ras el hanout , but found it easily today in the Moroccan stall at the market. What a delicious fragrance.

I am very hungry. Some FDs are harder than others aren’t they. It’s been a good day of marketing and gardening and family visits.

But I don’t think I’d be sticking with the FD if I didn’t have the good company of all of you. So thank you.

I think my chickpea treat might be ready now. Hooray!

All the best to everyone
HK

Hi all,

A quick post to say I’m still here and reading posts. My goodness I wish there was another 24 hours in each day, so much to do and not enough time to get things done.

Happy to see Merry and HK back on the forum. Best wishes to everyone.

OH no. My post isn’t posting. I’ll give it another crack, and apologies if it comes up twice.
…..

Evening all. I’m slumped in the chair, recovering after having Mr nearly 7 and Miss 3 for the weekend, as DS and DIL celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary with a trip to GOMA for the European masters, a posh lunch in the city, the ballet and a night in a nice hotel, followed by breakfast and a riverbank run. I guess you have to cram it all in when you get a night away. They had a wonderful time. We loved having the kids … except Miss 3 woke at 12.30 and refused to go back to sleep until 3.40 am.

My weigh-in his morning was fine …down .5 for the week, after 3 FDs. My friend lost .7. I have 2.5 to go. At this rate, that’s another month or two away.

Hi G’day….know what you mean about time. Good though that you found a minute to post.

Cinque, happy for you that you are feeling trim. I love reading about the interesting things you cook and eat.

Just as things seem to be easing in Melbourne, we have 2 community cases up here, and Sydney looks to be facing a little trouble. Best wishes to all in the zone.

Yes HK, some FDs are definitely harder than others. Mine yesterday was like that. Starving all day. But then, after eating too many calories earlier in the day, the hunger bear went home. I fed the kids around 5.30, then didn’t really want anything all evening.

LJ ten out of ten for pushing on, after feeling poorly. All that socialising. It did sound lovely. And your cardio workout will deliver such pretty, bee friendly results.

off now to watch the news. Nice to hear from you Cali. Where have you gone Jony? Off the bike and on to the keyboard to let us know how you’re doing.
I am worried about Penguin too. I wish there were some way of making contact.

enjoy the last of the weekend all.

PS I forgot to say, Thin, that I asked my sister about her wildlife camera. She said she puts it out for a few weeks and then brings it in and goes through it while she is having her morning cuppa.

She mostly sees wallabies, wombats and kangaroos. Her most exciting find was seeing two wallabies having a fight.
She found setting it for video was too irritating because wind over the grass is enough to set it off. So she settles for a succession of stills.
She has to go through 100s of pictures of the same wallaby, lots of blurred bits of animal at the edge of the picture and too many rabbits, but she loves the feeling she has a bit of an idea of what is going on there.

Another sister with American friends says they talk about capturing bobcats and raccoons.

I wonder what you will catch!

Good morning losers,

I’m so behind now. A combination of being busy and having a poor signal. I have popped in to read but, as usual, can’t remember much so I’ll do my best.

Helen Kate and Merry, it is great to see you both back here. Merry, it would be great if you could make brief contact with penguin just to let him know that we’ve been concerned. Thank you.

Cinque, thank you for the info about your sister’s camera trap. I was very interested in her findings. Yes, it does say not to position it where the wind could blow blades of grass. I haven’t used mine yet but I have now sourced the batteries and the mini SD card so, when the rain ends, I’ll be ready to roll. I wondered if I positioned it on our bow near my expanse of violas and just above the water line and in daylight, whether it might catch the iridescent blue damselflies.

We had weeks of beautiful sunny, warm weather and we finished the boat roof repairs and painting, not completely without drama but it looks a hundred times better. The main test will be whether we’ve rid it of rust. And then the temperature dropped and it rained and we now have the diesel stove burning in the middle of summer.

CalifD, we haven’t seen any Prime or Netflix as the signal’s been too weak but I’ve made a note of ‘Sweet Tooth’. Do you recommend that?

I was reading an interesting article in this month’s ‘New Scientist’ about junk food. It was saying that, although the dietary message is notorious for changing advice, there has been one very consistent finding over the past two decades – that of highly processed foods being associated with obesity and health issues. These foods do not necessarily contain high levels of sugar or fat (although most do) but it is their factory-produced ultra high processing that causes issues. Conversely, some whole foods such as bread and cereal can be highly processed.

We were recently in a supermarket stocking up. Because all the stores are new to me each time, we have to venture down every aisle. The extent of packaged, boxed, jarred, frozen ready-meals is alarming. The article was saying that preparing raw food from scratch is the answer. It suggests teaching children in school how to prepare simple, nutritious meals from scratch. It goes on to say that people are too time poor to do so – that part sort of annoyed me, we make time for the things that are important. Get off the devices and into the kitchen!

We met two fellow boarders from my high school days last week. It was a fun lunch in a pub – OH and I ordered duck confit salad and it came in a small mound served on a bread board. OH looked so disappointed with the portion size. It turned out to be plenty and was really tasty. I had seen those ‘girls’ once since leaving school in 1973!

I am feeling particularly smug this morning after my FD (I’m very boring with the same old chicken something every week) and weighing in at 57.7kg, my lowest all year.

We are just north of Oxford outside a pub where several episodes of Inspector Morse were filmed. DD finishes a particularly tough on-call weekend in half an hour and, after recovering with a good long sleep, will come and join us to cruise into Oxford where we are allowed to moor for 48 hours max.

Have a great week all.