Good evening everyone.

After a week where I overate on almost all of my NFDs I decided I needed a revamp and some satisfying low cal meals for lunch and dinner on my NFDs.
Inspired by Thin’s comments on her FD recipes I hunted down the Hairy Bikers low cal recipes online: https://www.hairybikers.com/recipes?dish-type=hairy-dieters
I’m inspired by how yummy most of their low cal recipes sound. I’ll need to make sure that I have veggie side dishes prepared so I stay away from grains and bread as accompaniments. While the weather is still cold I think the casseroles and curries will be very appealing and filling. I’m hoping having a hearty and satisfying lunch on NFDs will help me avoid the afternoon munchies that have had me in their grip this past week. I can avoid it on FDs because I have choice, but on NFDs no amount of self-talk has been helping.
I can also use the same meals on FDs, although just for dinner of course, not lunch too.

Ayame, welcome. I hope you are finding it easy to slip back into 5:2. I can’t face the whole day on zero calories but, like you I do find that once I start eating it triggers my appetite. I get around this on FDs by only eating dinner and just having cups of tea throughout the day.

GDSA, well done on the progress with your studies and qualifications. Also pleased that you have been able to access a suitable vaccine. The number of outbreaks recently in rural locations has probably jolted a lot of country people out of the sense of security they had felt being away from the cities.

Charlie, I’m glad the scales have decided to be friendly again.
That cafe does sound very disappointing. I really struggle to incorporate cafe/restaurant meals into a healthy day.

Neil, scales can be annoying little sods. Hopefully they will be kinder next week. I did see the news of your lockdown due to the Auckland case. Hopefully it will be controlled quickly.

Hello to everyone else, I hope you are doing well and coping with lockdown restrictions if they affect you. Take care.

Good morning everyone!

I did my first FD yesterday and feel incredibly pleased with myself!

LJoyce and thinatlast your comments are so helpful – I thought it was just my lack of discipline that made it feel harder to fast for the rest of the day if I ate something earlier, no matter how small. Total fasting proved to be effective but non-sustainable in long term so I am trying the idea of a splash of milk in tea in morning then nothing until dinner.

Thank you for the Hairy Bikers link – it’s great!

GdayfromSA congratulations on your cert III and good luck with cert IV. I recently completed an online Pilates cert IV – not sure how much I’ll use it until covid situation changes but content was SO interesting. Your point about different approaches for different people is spot on (I was going to say “horses for courses” but my children tell me I’m the only person left in the entire world that still says that). My husband read/listened to Dr Peter Brukner’s book “A Fat Lot of Good”. He’s a well known sports doctor from Melbourne who is now working on diabetes control. Anyway my husband, who did NOT get on with 5:2, has lost SO much weight. He refuses to disclose exact amount but it’s 2 dress sizes.

Thank you for the support and have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Hello again all and welcome Ayame. One of my aims when I finish my Cert IV is to become qualified as a Pilates instructor as a Cert IV add on course. When I have the Cert IV I only have to do a shorter Pilates course to be qualified plus as a PT I will be required to do at least one ‘add on course’ per year to remain qualified.

Neil, when I booked my first vaccine appointment using the online booking system the second part of the booking was to make the second vaccine appointment and it would only allow me to book times within the specified timeframes so all good.

I forget to mention in my haste yesterday that it is also taking regular extended fasts (approx 72 hours) that is aiding my weight loss.

I do like watching the Hairy Bikers on tv but the only recipe of theirs I have ever cooked is the Cornish pasty pastry. I’ve been using this pastry recipe for years for my homemade pasties (not Cornish pasties – peas do not belong in pasties !). I have borrowed a couple of their cookbooks from the local library but again not much of theirs that I would cook. I follow them on social media and was very disappointed to see they are a promoter for a chip company (crisps for our overseas readers). Don’t know why I was disappointed as a lot of the celebrity chefs are now taking payment to promote processed foods – Poh Ling Yeow, Manu Fiedel etc.

It will be a food blow out day today, it’s my birthday so Mr Gday and Miss Gday are taking me to our favourite Indian restaurant for dinner tonight. I have some non-alcoholic wine chilling in the fridge to take as Mr Gday inquired when he booked if they sold NA wine which they don’t, but they were more than happy for us to bring our own for a $5 corkage fee which I thought was extremely reasonable. We never walk out of the restaurant without having the 3 full courses plus authentic Chia tea (my favourite), at least they put the sugar on the side so I can skip that. So needless to say the rest of the weekend will be an extended fast for me.

Must go and do some chores and get a few hours study in before Miss Gday gets home from school. Happy Friday everyone.

Good afternoon everyone.

I stuck to my resolve this morning and walked to the shops to get what I needed to create a few of the hairy bikers low cal recipes. I have just finished putting together a moussaka (to be baked tomorrow) and am soaking the chickpeas to make their chickpea & harissa soup tomorrow. I also have plans to make their cottage pie and also Thin’s chicken and bacon casserole. That should provide both plenty of variety this week and also a stash of serves in the freezer so I can cook a little less in the coming weeks. I was very tempted to make some of their curries, but I still have several serves of frozen veggie curries and dal to use up, so I’ll use those first before making more curries. I am on the second of B2B FDs just to get a proper reset before I start my new eating plan. I actually feel better for it already.

Yesterday it was a family birthday and I’d normally do a cake, but my youngest great niece actually likes biscuits much more than cake and she especially loves my shortbread. So I made some shortbread and decorated them with mini smarties, milk chocolate and little flowers made from royal icing (no I didn’t make those flowers I bought them). https://imgur.com/a/ydDBmWp
She was very happy with them and has given the other members of her family strict instructions not to eat them. As I was on a FD I was unable to do any tasting, which was a good thing. I was quite proud of myself for scraping the leftover melted chocolate into the bin and not eating it.

GDSA, happy birthday. I hope you have a lovely dinner out tonight, enjoy. I’m sure you will get back onto your eating plan tomorrow.

Neil, yum yum, hummus and falafel. I too am soaking chickpeas, but most of mine are destined for a spicy veg soup, although I’m sure I can keep a few back for hummus. Thanks for that idea Neil.

Ayame, I’m afraid I had the same image in my head as Neil when it came to the drop in dress sizes for your husband. I was picturing him in a flowery number!
I think there are a few of us here that find our appetite is stimulated by eating and choose not to eat early in the day. Even of NFDs I rarely eat breakfast and try to last until lunchtime or close to it before eating.

News on the covid cases continues to get more alarming. I continue to hope for reduced infection rates for those states that are currently suffering.

Hello to everyone else. I hope you are all ok.

Thin, oh dear sorry to hear you ended up in the canal. It could have been worse, at least it happened in summer.
I always fiddle with recipes to bulk them out with extra veg. (I’ve been doing that for so long I can’t help myself.) I do plan on padding out the volume of cottage pie with extra veg that I would normally include in a cottage pie. Minced mushrooms and zucchini in the filling and carrots and cauliflower added to the mash. That should create a better sized portion without upping the calories by much. I’ll be interested to see what it’s like with leek in the mash – not something I’d considered doing before. If the portion still looks a bit miserly I’m happy to keep this recipe for NFDs as they are my biggest concern at present and I usually think of 400 calories as my goal for a modest meal on a NFD.
What do you normally eat with the chicken and bacon casserole? I was thinking some mash would go well with it on a NFD and perhaps some cooked greens on a NFD.

I started this post at least 5 days days ago ….but stuff got in the way, so I will plough on. And thank you for the call-out Cinque. A motivation for me to get on with it.

I am envious too Helen Kate. A fragrant garden is an ongoing pleasure. I am watching our gardenias getting ready to bloom. Gardening Australia said it was time to give them a gentle prune, but I can see buds forming so maybe I’ve left my run too late. Summer to me is late night swims, with the heady scent from the gardenias in the air (and a bbq somewhere, of course).

Thin, you are an inspiration. Cinque, you too. You are both poster women for this wol.

I have a question – LJ you always seem to be able to shed light on queries. My friend (and I) were wondering if the gut friendly diet we are on is actually working against our weight loss, at this, the sharp end of our program. For example, we are told to eat pulses, beans, yoghurt, full-fat milk products, red vegetables etc., many of which are high carb. Of course there are other vegetables to replace carrots, beetroot, sweet potato etc. but I have been trying to step up the other stuff. We are both struggling to lose the final few kilos, and knowing my weight will zoom up by up to 3 kilos when I finally stop, I’m nervous.

Congratulations, Gday, on finishing your study. Great achievement, and so nice to read about your plans for the future.

Neil, sorry about the lockdown, but a good opportunity as you say to polish
things off around the house. ​Do you do your shopping online now?

Charlie, you really seem to be away and motivated. Great to reach a goal.

I am going to finish here for the moment, and go back and reread. More later.

Good afternoon all.
I did finish making the harissa & chickpea soup https://imgur.com/a/W2fg74e and had a bowl of it for lunch. I overdid the chilli but apart from that it’s good. It would be improved by the addition of coconut milk or coconut cream, but it would certainly not remain a low calorie soup if I did that. I think the final result of this soup will vary a lot depending on which brand of harissa you use and also which greens you add. I used a harissa spice blend instead of the specified paste and my greens were a mixed bag of shredded cabbage, kale, kohlrabi and brussel sprouts.

Cinque, I do actually get to eat one of the birthday biscuits this afternoon. A couple of them were a bit messy when I finished the decoration so I kept them here. I’m walking with a friend this afternoon so we can have one each with a cuppa once we’ve finished our walk. I think having to wait a couple of days to actually eat this biscuit will make it even more enjoyable.
Enjoy the sunshine while you have it, we have some here temporarily too – rain forecast later.

Lindsay, I’m no expert on gut health, but the basic principle I’ve picked up from what I’ve read is “use it or lose it”. The many species of gut bugs seem to be quite specific in what they like to be fed and the more you eat of a particular food, the more of the relevant gut microbes you will have – the converse also holds true. The way I approach it is that I can vary what I eat as long as I keep each species alive, even if the population diminishes a bit – it gives me something to build from later. I have proved to myself many times that they will repopulate if you feed them up – I take a lot of antibiotics an often need to rebuild my healthy gut bugs.
So, if the higher carb choices are slowing your weight loss then you can certainly reduce the amount of those foods you mentioned until you get to a weight you are happy with. As long as you are still consuming some of those foods you will keep a smaller population of those gut bugs alive and you can build it up later once you are at your preferred weight. Just eat enough to keep them alive and perhaps replace some of the higher carb veg with other veg that have lower calories and carb.
For some people weight loss is not very sensitive to carb content and for other people it matters enormously. If you think it’s stopping your weight loss then absolutely feel free to make some changes. My thought would be that you reduce those gut friendly carby foods rather than eliminating them entirely. Replace some some of those red vegetables with some leafy greens. You might also consider swapping yoghurt for kefir for a little while. I have about 100ml of kefir each day and if I’m trying to get my weight down I keep the kefir but cut right back on my yoghurt and cheese consumption (although for me it’s more about the calories rather than the carbs). The kefir has half the calories and a third of the carbs compared to my favourite Jalna vanilla yoghurt and because it’s a probiotic, it does even more for my dairy loving gut bugs than yoghurt. (If you can find it, “Milk Thief” brand of kefir is my firm favourite. Available mostly in IGA supermarkets and health food stores.)
I hope that helps Lindsay.

Time for a walk very soon, the sun is out. Looking forward to it.

Have a lovely day everyone.

Evening all

Great day today. I got a whole lot of gardening done, got out for my first outside bike ride since May, and cooked up my falafel for dinner.

The weather is looking good tomorrow so hopefully I can get some more garden stuff done.

Have a great day everyone

HK, late night snacking is a hard habit to kick, isn’t it? You live alone though, right? So perhaps you could control it in the supermarket instead. Buy some healthy snacky things like nuts, maybe? Regarding the FD at the brunch, congratulations on finding it so easy and no-fuss. Just wanted to clarify, never missing a FD doesn’t mean you can’t swap them around when you know you have a social engagement. Personally, I prefer to get one ‘in the bank’ but occasionally it’s necessary to be in arrears as I was a couple of weeks ago when a friend suggested collecting us last minute the day after DD was leaving.

CharlieG, yeah, no big deal falling waist high in a slimy canal when compared to falling off a yacht at high seas. The UK canals have no sharks or crocodiles (other than our own croc, Ursula). Kudos to you and your great progress so far, that’s a fast rate (pun intended). Sadly, I am yet to see many benefits to my memory from all this time fasting. I keep hoping. I lose words. On the other hand, maybe it would have been worse had I not bene fasting.

Lindsay, I’m only half up to date with your gut flora comments but, if kefir is a substitute for what you’re currently doing, I highly recommend the real thing, not the supermarket version. This is my go to site: https://www.yemoos.com/collections/cultures-milk-kefir-grains but I’m sure you are resourceful enough to find the real grains in Australia.

LJ, I don’t have anything with the chicken and bacon casserole but serve mash and extra veg to OH so you’re spot on. I’ve had that recipe so long that I can’t recall if that’s an HB one or not.

Cinque, I hope you’re feeling well and it’s nice to see you posting when you can. How is the family settling in to their new home?

Let’s hope all these selfish gits protesting against lockdown come to their senses. As I remarked at the beginning of this pandemic, it’s not at all like ‘the war’ when everyone pulled together for the common good. So many self-absorbed people unable to think beyond themselves. I wish they’d put their energy into something useful for the good of the country. As for protesting against vaccinations that aren’t even mandatory, they might as well be protesting against coffee shops.

Dear all

Thin, thank you for your words about the late night snacking. I was cheered that you say it is a hard habit to kick. I am hoping that FD practice will gradually transfer itself to all the days – not that it will happen by magic I know, but just that I’ll learn I don’t have to follow that impulse to finish off some leftovers or eat a few biscuits with cheese. Last night I had a cup of mint tea and just read for a while. Hooray!

And yes I am open to swapping FDs around and would normally have switched my FD from Saturday to Sunday, but this evening we are having a family gathering to celebrate a batch of Leo birthdays that have just happened, mine included, and I wanted to be able to indulge. And then on Monday my ‘girls’ goals group’ – me, my sister, my sister-in-law, my cousin – are having one of our lunch meetings where we talk about the goals we set at the start of the year and how we are going with them – always a lot of laughter and lot of mutual encouragement. So I did need to bite the FD bullet yesterday.

Re your fall into the canal, Thin, it made me remember being in Venice 45 years ago and seeing a poor dog swimming helplessly in a canal with high steep sides and rather recklessly jumping in to rescue it. Luckily, as was the case for you, the water only came up to my armpits and some nice men helped me and the dog out and said they would take it to a shelter. I hope they did. They said that people often tossed unwanted dogs into the canals – the kind of thing that can make you feel despondent about human beings.

On a cheerier note I have just received a picture from my sister of her husband tickling Paddy the lagotto’s tummy, with the newspaper lying discarded beside him on the bed. She says that it is very pleasant to hear him murmuring sweet nothings to the puppy instead of muttering angrily over the news!

I hope everyone and their dogs and cats are doing well. It’s a lovely day here in Adelaide and I shall soon set out for a walk.

Warm wishes to all
HK

Good morning (just) – will be afternoon by the time I finish writing!

Thin I do agree that home made kefir would be better but I don’t know anyone with grains and I am happy to continue with making my own kombucha and buying kefir, as long as I can get the Milk Theif” brand – I don’t trust most of the others to be as beneficial.
I was a bit late stating cooking this morning so my NFD lunch of your chicken bacon casserole has only just gone into the oven. It’s going to be a late lunch so I’m distracting myself from snacking by reading and replying to posts. I realised once I started chopping veg that I’d forgotten to buy a capsicum, so I put some celery and an extra carrot in. I also took the liberty to add some fresh sprigs of thyme as I love it with the chicken, bacon, mushroom combination of flavours. As I put the ingredients together I realised it looks like a french casserole that would have been liberally doused with cream at the end – no I don’t plan on doing that.

Lindsay, something I should have added to my earlier comments are that when testing a change in diet give it a tie period to test whether it works. I’d suggest 2 weeks would be reasonable and try not to change other things – so keep to the came calorie limits that you’ve set and a similar amount of exercise. Then you’ll know whether the changes to what you eat make a difference to your weight loss.

Cinque, yes I aim for the rainbow when it comes to fruit & veg too – not that I always achieve it, but I do try. Finding the purple is a challenge for me as I can’t find purple potatoes, sweet potatoes or carrots locally. They are specialty items and not sold in this part of town. I can get potatoes with purple skin, but they are white inside so I make sure I boil them unpeeled and use as jacket potatoes . I do use red onions and class them as purple – they look more purple than red to me (they certainly leave purple stains on my fingers when I chop them).
Sounds like your daughter is an organiser – a never ending task with 2 small children. Luckily we live in an era where storage solutions are easy to find at an affordable price.
Yes the biscuit was delicious, I ate it slowly. Because my great-niece loves vanilla I replace some of the flour with vanilla custard powder and also added vanilla paste. Even with the chocolate decoration you clearly taste the vanilla in the biscuit.

HK, I agree with Cinque’s advice on snacking after dinner. I will even tell myself while preparing dinner that I’d better eat properly as once dinner’s done that’s it for food for the day. I often need repeated reminding again after dinner, but this approach often works for me.
The girls goals lunch sounds wonderful, have fun. What an incentive to stick to a FD.

CharlieG, well done on the continued weight loss. Enjoy your spring days out on the farm – I know it’s hard work but also sounds like a lovely place to be rather than surrounded by the built-up environment that most of us face when trying to get some fresh air.

Time to check on that casserole, I’m half an hour closer to eating it and it’s starting to smell wonderful.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone.

Dear all

Thank you Cinque for those tips. Some of these things I do try – if I can pause long enough to do so! – but it’s good to get your angle on them. And I really like the idea of bargaining!

And thank you everyone who’s weighed in about rainbow foods and keffir and beans and so on.

LJoyce, hope you enjoy that casserole as much as I did. I plan to make up another batch next week. And I liked your idea of saying to yourself as you cook dinner that you’d better enjoy it as that will be it.

Thin, good luck with doing those amazing locks in reverse.

Cheers to all
HK

It’s so good to see so many posts here, and sorry I haven’t been posting so often. It’s been a rough couple of weeks here with worries about Covid and a big bush fire that is within about 40km of here. The winds, which have been relatively calm in the last few days seem to be blowing it in the other direction but it’s close to 85,000 acres now with 0 containment.

The good news is that I’ve managed to stick to my 5:2 since the beginning of the month and have lost about 2.1 kg so far. DS is doing it as well which makes it easier. I’ve been eating a lot of Vegimite and miso which probably makes me retain more water, a blood test confirmed my sodium levels are back within the normal range. Amazingly, it hasn’t had much impact on my BP although I’ve been taking meds for that for a long time.

I’m sorry to see the Covid numbers going up in Aus and NZ. But happy to see everyone getting their vaccines. Good on you, GDSA. I’m glad you decided to get yours. Sorry to hear about all the lockdowns, but that’s the one thing, along with vaccines that seems to work. I think our numbers would be a lot lower here if we had more lockdowns, but that isn’t politically popular these days. I have to have an outpatient surgery on Tuesday and I’m very uneasy about going to a hospital, even though I’m vaccinated and I’ll only be there for a few hours.

LJ those biscuits look great! You always do such a beautiful job of decorating. I agree with you and thin about homemade kefir having more of the good probiotics, but when I was making my own I always seemed to have too much because it takes only 24 hours or less to ferment and unless you drink it every day you end up with a lot.

I have so many posts I want to comment on here, but it’s late and I need some sleep. Take care all.

Lindsay, your latest post sounds upbeat despite your frustration at the stubborn 4kgs. Can you just leave it at that? If you’re a size 10, are you sure you need to lose more? I have a picture in my mind of your being a tall person – but maybe it’s all those shoes of yours that make me think that! I know you’re worried that your weight might go up if you stop doing what you’re doing but maybe you just need to accept this weight for now at least? You could nominate a trigger weight to prevent going higher. I’m going to take your advice and lengthen the non-eating time overnight. Does that include coffee in the morning (just asking!)? Glad to hear that you have some kefir grains.

CalifD, well done for getting back on track with 5:2 despite the concerns with the nearby fires. Are the increased cases of covid among unvaccinated people? It’s going to remain hard to control the numbers with scores of migrants walking across the southern border and sent to live in communities throughout the US without covid testing. 48,000 families were accepted in June alone. If they’re not a health risk, I ask why then do we need quarantine for vaccinated citizens? This is the problem with politicians handling a pandemic. They make populist, illogical decisions. All the best with your surgery tomorrow.

Neil, you reminded me that we have a jar of tahini to make some hommus. Great snack suggestion. So far, we have:
nuts
celery/carrot sticks with home-made hummus

We completed 22 locks yesterday. 16 of the 29 have to be done together but we were on a roll so we kept going through the remaining six. There were so many gongoozlers towards the end and I put three sets of interested young children to work on the gates which they loved. It’s great to see children keen to learn and enjoying the outdoors.

Anzac, where are you?

Hi all from a warm sunny Kaiteriteri.

Well, at least it was before the sun went down, quite a spring like day here today, warm and sunny with some cloud but little winds, same forecast for tomorrow.

We are still here, we hadn’t planned on leaving here yet, even if we were able to so nothing has really changed for us. Went supermarket shopping on Saturday with a mask on, single shopper, all OK. OH and I have both had both of our Pfizer jabs with no reactions so do feel a little safer.

Lovely to read all the posts and catch up on what everyone is up to, you all sound so busy, makes my life feel quite mundane! I decided I had had enough of maintaining my weight and stepped up the anti the last few days. I think I was inspired by something you wrote Thin about snacking and there being no place for it. Needless to say I have gone ‘all or nothing’, and am only eating two meals a day, keeping the protein up, within about an eight hour window, and no evening treats. It seems to be so easy to justify those evening treats (in my mind) when that period of time is really no different to any other period of time throughout the day. I definitely don’t struggle eating my first meal of the day which is very rarely before 12 noon or 1pm, so why in the evening? I took your cue earlier today Cinque, frying a concoction of leafy veg, including red & green cabbage before cracking in a coupe of eggs and popping on the lid until they cooked…delicious. Dinner was a yummy chicken/prosciutto/avocado salad out of the blue book, followed by a small amount of yoghurt/blueberries & almonds. I have certainly had my seven a day today?

Lets hope I see a drop on the scales in the morning, I would so love to be at 67kg!

Enjoy the rest of your evening everyone,
Turn

Haha Thin – I think a size 10 is an abberation. I am more accurately a 12, I think. I could leave it …but I am a finisher, and I would feel I had cheated myself if I didn’t banish that extra 4 kilos. And because I am doing it with a friend, who is also struggling to get rid of her last couple of kilos to get to her trigger weight, we keep each other going. It doesn’t really matter how long it takes. BTW, that extra 4 kilos won’t see me at my lowest. I have been much slimmer in the past, but I feel it will be a good weight for me now, at my age. My BMI too is good, and my fasting blood sugar has gone from pre-diabetes to comfortably in the normal range, so it’s just those pesky few kilos.

I love that you have an image of me as a tall woman. 164, or 165 cm if I stand very straight. One brother said to me years ago now that he’d only ever seen shorter legs on a duck. I do have a passion for heels, but mostly now I’m in boots (with no or lower heels) and flats, with my heels reserved for dinners when I am dropped at the door.

Your question about coffee. No, my 14:10 or whatever doesn’t preclude coffee. I start my day with a killer black coffee, and then another, and then usually another with my mid-morning breakfast/brunch. But no sugar or milk, obviously, so all good.

Yes Anzac, where are you? Lost in work?

Cinque, I meant to say how lovely Rose is in her own new home and making such a happy place for her family.

Gday glad to read you’ve had your first jab. I don’t know which one you got, but I was reading about AZ, and about how its development has been ongoing for a long time, to deal not specifically with Covid, but other similar viruses, and I found that reassuring. It’s terribly concerning how many young people are catching this Delta strain. And save us all from the d….heads (was thatyour word Cinque?) who gathered to protest about ‘freedoms’ at the weekend ….which invariably will extend the lockdowns.

I also have mixed feelings about Dr M. Neil. I think he’s hit on a winning formula with his books, but I do have a little nagging feeling that perhaps he’s a little too motivated by the financial reward. Who knows though – I’m just grateful he came along.

OK, off now to reheat the minestrone that I made last week (without pasta). OH looked a bit crestfallen when I said we were having it for dinner, but lovely man that he is, didn’t voice his disappointment.

Morning All,
Really good FD yesterday, not reflected on the scales, but yes, new size 18 jeans fit perfect this morning.
Can’t remember the last time I was in this size, most likely more than 30 years ago, feels so good.
To prove my determination this time, I am removing the larger clothes as I go down a size, so having just a few things in the wardrobe until I reach my goal.
Thank you to everyone for your posts, I am not good at reply’s but it looks to me that everyone is doing really well.
Thanks for the positive vibes, helps me deal with each day with a smile on my face, something I haven’t done in a long time.
Have a great week, and keep up the good work!

Good morning all.

Charlie, there is nothing like being able to easily pull up and do up a pair of jeans that were once too tight. Jeans are mostly quite unforgiving and I think they are a better indication of weight than the bathroom scales. Excellent work.

Hi Merry, hope you are going well to.

A new series started on the ABC last week called “Doctor at the Door”. The second episode is tonight so this morning, I actually took the time to watch the first episode that I’d recorded last week. It was excellent. The doctor worked with a whole family that was obese and had a multitude of other issues (high blood pressure, high blood sugar, binge drinking, PCOS, autism). I thought of Cinque, as the family’s son was autistic and they had real success in improving his range of fruit & veg consumed. (Given you raised this issue quite recently.) The doctor also talked through the usual strategies that don’t work with autistic children who are fussy eaters. I liked the way the doctor worked through a whole range of issues over 6 weeks. There is a limit to what they can show in a 60 min program, but they covered a lot of ground. There were strategies that I remember my dietitian discussing with me. (Having that reminder was good.) Each episode is a new family that they stay with for 6 weeks. Worth the time to watch I think as I suspect the range of issues and barriers that are impacting the obesity will differ each time.

After saying yesterday that I needed to be more organised to get lunch cooked, I gave it no thought until 11:30am. I had planned to thaw a serve of chilli con carne (this is mostly minced veg, azuki beans and just a little beef). This was to be served over a jacket potato that I boiled and chilled a few days ago. I forgot to remove the chilli from the freezer! So I am now having a serve of the harissa soup for lunch. I might need to add a little chicken breast to it as it is so low calorie that I found myself very hungry mid-afternoon last time I had this for lunch. The chicken is also frozen, but luckily I chopped it into pieces before I froze it so I can add it frozen to the soup. I think I need to set a reminder on my phone to alert me at 10:30 to get organised for lunch! This is the one part of the new routine that I’m still struggling with.

Hope you are all having a good day.

Evening all

More work on the garden done today. Hopefully within a couple of weeks I’ll have all the winter wilderness cleared away and have everything ready for spring planting

I find that ironically, I don’t overeat on the days that I am more active. It’s when I’m sitting around the house that I tend to overindulge. Now that the weather is getting better I’ve decided to set myself a weekly activity goal. I’ll set a goal for 1 week, then reassess at the end of the week before setting that weeks goals. My goal for the coming week is 42,000 steps (6,000 per day) and 60km of cycling (4 rides of 15km)

I’ll let you know how I get on. I’m not expecting much on this week’s weigh in because I had a bit of a binge yesterday after the announcement that we were going to have longer in level 4 lockdown. But that will be my starting point for my new activity tracking.

Have a good one everyone

Great plan, Charlie, to get rid of clothes that are now too big. It’s a line in the sand, sending big clothes off. I’m clearing out my wardrobe and taking things I love to the tailor. It’s expensive, but it means I don’t throw away clothes I love, but they are now two or three (or 4) sizes smaller.

Thin, I set my weight as a number I wanted to get too….higher than when I was younger, but all the other markers are now great. But I do want to lose this 4 kilos, and that will be my trigger weight. But my pal and I had coffee today and reached the conclusion that we had pretty much achieved our goals, and we needed to stop being so down on ourselves if the scales varied by a few hundred grams on a day by day basis.

If it takes til Christmas to get rid of these 4 kilos, so be it. OH and I haven’t been out much at all since I started on 31 Jan, and OH needs to get back to some sort of normal social life too. We used to go out for lunch or coffee a few times a week, and with Covid and dieting, it’s gone by the board. So….mindful eating, and losing the obsessive calorie counting from here on, but with an eye on being 4 kilos lighter at some point.

Anzac the temps here in the north have dropped too. It’s been blowing a gale and we got soaked walking the children to school. Nice to hear from you … your OH’s pizza sounds delish. I’m so sorry about your back – you haven’t herniated a disc, have you? So painful.

Neil, sorry NZ is in lockdown again. You guys were so great for such a long time, so I hope it’s just a blip for you.

LJ thanks for the tip about the new program – sounds interesting. I’ll i-view the first episode, but record it from now on.

Oh, and Thin, I did read that a splash of milk in coffee won’t do too much damage if that’s what it takes to get the intermittent fasting times right.

Night all.

(where are you Jony?)

Hi everyone, Good Morning 🙂

Welcome back to 5:2 Ayame! You’ve done this before so you know you can lose those kgs you put back on. Re – eating the smallest thing early on a FD sets off lots of hunger. Sounds like you’re a candidate for the The Hunger Dragon Clan!

There seem to be 3 types of 5:2-ers:
* Those who eat 2 or 3 small meals to make up their Fast Day (FD). Often it’s 2 – a small breakfast and a small dinner. Some of these people can feel a bit nauseous if they don’t eat anything in the morning.

* Those who eat nothing on a FD. Sometimes this is just a choice to make the weight come off quicker, or they just can’t be bothered with working out what and when to eat or it’s just easier to eat nothing on FD’s.

* The Hunger Dragon Clan. These people have an invisible Hunger Dragon in their belly that comes roaring out of it’s cave at the slightest bite of food making it’s way into their stomach. The Hunger Dragon is a ferocious beast that will fight being denied with the strength of a thousand tigers! The Hunger Dragon can, on occasion, be a Shape Changer and turn into an all consuming jealous Hoovering Monster. Nothing elegant about this Nastie! The members of the Hunger Dragon Clan tackle this beast in 2 ways:
– eat all FD calories 1 meal in the evening
– join the FD Non-Eaters and have nothing.

The Hunger Dragon and I are very familiar, and I’m grateful to another Clan member on the forum who put me out of my misery when I was wailing and carrying on about how eating 1 solitary almond could set me off , and suggested I eat 1 meal at night on a FD. That worked for me. Others find the ‘no food at all on a FD’ approach better.

I’ll be cheering you on as you go Onwards and Downwards,
Merry

Anzac, I do hope your back is a lot better this morning!

Snacking: not for the list, but sometimes I find it works well to make my meal, if I am really hungry for a snack. I have started preparing my meal at 3pm, eaten it by four and then been fine for the evening!

Cali, big cheers for keeping on inspite of all the covid and wildfire stress. I hope the fire danger has eased a bit now?

Lindsay, that rainbow chard will be great for red veggies and I read that red skin on radishes are really good too!

And hooray for another member of the tiny ‘beetroot lovers club’ 😀 😀

Oh no the car panel. So easily done.

I had imagined you as tall too. (Well you are taller than me)

Turn, the scales should be sweet this week!

LJoyce, what gorgeous cooking you are doing!

Charlie, woot! Jeans!

Off to clear the surfaces in time for my problematic home help. Have a good day everyone. I’m fasting!

Greetings everyone,
Wow, what a collection of posts, thanks everyone for the praise and agreement with me that the bigger clothes leave. Lindsay, I agree with sizing down items you love, as one who sews I have done that to a few items, especially with expensive jackets and pretty embroidered jeans that I had only just bought.
As the cows don’t care I can be less careful taking in work clothes.
LJ I have enjoyed both episodes of Doctor to the Door, it has made OH realise that things are not straight forward and that at times things need to be done in very small steps. (PCOS is something I suffered with until post menapause).
Merry, yes young children are very impressionable, it is good that they understand that Grandma has medical problems that she needs to deal with in her own way under doctors supervision.
Merry, thank you also for explaining the Hunger Dragon. This time around I have chosen to eat only in the evening, and it is making it much easier. OH could go all day and not eat on a FD, yet on other days he snacks all day, then won’t eat his evening meal.
Thin, if we are heading into Summer, then you are heading into winter, will you still be on your boat at that stage, or do you have a cosy house to retreat to?
Anzac, so sorry to hear about your back, I do hope that it is better today, I have a rice bag that I heat in the microwave when that happens to mine, it has pockets in it so the rice doesn’t all go to one place.
The warmth from it helps no end, as I cannot stand cold on mine, I have bone grinding on bone from another life, so I also do Pilates for muscle strength, and one does have to be more careful to take care of it.
FD today, hoping for a good one, stay safe if like us you are in lockdown.
Cheers everyone!

Good morning everyone

I had my 3rd FD yesterday which was deeply unpleasant…… please tell me these get easier!! I decided on a 350 cal meal in the evening so that I could have tea with milk in the morning and another one later in if things got desperate! Which they did. I am sure a lot of this is in my mind because I have time to think about it – being in lockdown rather than rushing around all day.

I’ve lost 2kg since last week but I’m taking your advice and focusing on clothes not weight. Planning to weigh once per week – after my second FD, naturally!!!

Merryme your hunger dragon is absolutely right – thank you – it is so encouraging to hear that other people feel the same. Also I feel for you with young children around – my 4 are much older but I do worry about fasting setting bad example (especially to the girls) so we talk about it a lot!! I think that having a small meal in the evening is probably better role modelling – does that make sense?

Great news my oldest daughter managed to get her first Pfizer vaccine yesterday along with all her school friends!

Has anyone tried 4:3? I was thinking that I could try 4:3 for a few weeks, say to end of September, to kick start my weight loss.

Also do you find that writing on forum helps with resolve?

Thank you all for your advice – SO helpful! Have a wonderful day everyone.

XX

Ayame,

It get’s easier:)

It get’s easier (( ))

It get’s easier, promise!

Once you get past the initial adjustment you may even find yourself looking forward to FDs.

You’ve lost 2kgs since last week -super good!
You’ve already kick started your weight loss:)

I’d suggest you not go under 500 cals at this stage while you’re getting established. I’d also suggest you stay with 5:2 for a while longer and not go to 4:3. Making sure you’re well established on 5:2 for a while will give you a good foundation to understand how your body works with food and with which foods. It’s the “different courses for different horses” cliche that comes in with the decision to do variations of calories and number of days etc. depending on your goals, lifestyle, foodstyle, work and home situations, stress and how you adjust as you go along. You will learn a lot about yourself and food along the way. It’s a different process to ‘dieting’.

Many of us have a background of many goes at ‘dieting’ that we’ve been conditioned to see as ‘deprivation’. 5:2 isn’t about deprivation. When we start 5:2 we can still be in ‘dieting’ mode and think we need to hurry it along a bit too soon. We all have our own journeys and it’s a bit different for each of us, but as Neil said, there is always someone here who has been where you are. We tailor 5:2 to our needs as we go along.

It took me 2 years to the day to lose 22.5kgs, but, I have ME/CFS, so no exercise, and a low total daily energy expenditure. I have childhood history of significant trauma that made me susceptible to stress-eating. When Life with a capital L rears it’s head, as it does from time to time, I find it difficult to sustain 5:2, so I go into a holding pattern of keeping my weight stable till I can get back to doing 5:2. I feel healthier on 5:2 than off it. I no longer take blood pressure medication, and no longer need yearly cardiac checkups. My Drs are very happy with me achieving normal weight, and using 5:2 to do it.

For me, the forum is essential. I was here daily for a long time. I’ve also had to drop out, but I keep getting back on that horse too:). I much prefer to check in daily or most days. I’ve learnt so much from so many people, and the Southern Hemisphere thread is my forum ‘home’ with wonderful people.

I rabbit on a lot! Got on to write “It gets easier!” and I’m still here…..ha ha.

So, must go now!!!!!
Merry