Happy Tuesday everyone!

Lindsay, I weighed myself this morning and it was 75.5kg – down 1.8 kg from the previous day – if only that was all fat loss!! But it is a good feeling knowing I’m going to be going down with consistent fasting. Your thesis/research editing sounds fascinating – you’d be a great dinner guest – with lots of interesting conversations around what you read.

Cinque – thanks for the encouragement – yes it will feel SO good to have the weight off eventually 🙂

Neil – how long did it take you to go from 132.5kg to 85kg? That is pretty phenomenal! ATB with getting to 85 again…it’s a mind game sometimes eh.

Anzac – another high fibre option is also inulin. You can literally eat it off a spoon. https://www.health2000.co.nz/shop/shop-by-brands/nothing-naughty/inulin–prebiotic-fibre-58913 You probably know lots of fibre options by now.

I found that having wee bits of salt throughout the day really helped yesterday. I have quite low blood pressure and seem to need that electrolyte boost when I fast. When I first fasted all those years ago I got some pretty bad headaches until I discovered this.

Weirdly looking forward to my Thursday fast – hope this buzz lasts!

Good afternoon everyone.

Cinque, yes I did have a slight relapse, but fingers crossed I’m ok now. Thankyou for your kind thoughts. Sounds like you have been overdoing it too. I hope you are back to normal soon.

Hannah, welcome. So glad to see you getting back into 5:2 with good early results to offer encouragement. We are a mixed bag with some people maintaining and quite a few of us losing those kilos we thought we’d seen the back of and are now having to lose again – I’m afraid I’m in the latter group.
You haven’t mentioned which country you are in, but I’m going to hazard a guess it’s NZ probably south island. (It’s your use of “wee”, the only place I’ve ever encountered that outside of Scotland was the south island of NZ.)

Thin, Malta sounds like a lovely getaway – we can only dream about overseas travel (or interstate travel) here. I’m shocked by those airfare prices. How can an airline do that without making a loss, or compromising on safety – or both?

Lindsay, glad to see you have some work as I remember that the university wasn’t giving you any work a few months ago. I hope everything proceeds well for your husband’s surgery and that the outcome is good. Enjoy your time on the island, a good place to reduce the stress.

Anzac, sounds like work is really rearing you out at the moment, but I am pleased to see they are at least paying you properly for all those hours. It looks like the NSW opening plan will let you take that December trip.

Neil, isn’t it funny how some days you don’t want the few calories you’re allowed and others you want more all day. Take advantage of the low appetite while you can. I’m having a low appetite day today and am determined not to eat more calories just because I can.

Betsy, good to hear that Wilbur is still on the mend. I think you’ve mentioned before that he was a rescue, I’m sure he appreciates his loving home.

Charlie, an interesting diet for the calves, but good that the products aren’t going to waste completely.

Helen, you would think that the counselling examiners would know that negative feedback needs to accompanied by positive without that reminded. Many years ago I remember being taught the “hamburger principle” for providing feedback – negative feedback should be sandwiched between two positive bits of feedback. Your own positive reflections are good bits of advice for all of us.

I’m sure I’ve probably forgotten someone, so hello if I have.

I’m still on restricted daily calories. I started it as Fast800, but have relaxed it to be up to 1000 so that I can stick with it for a few weeks. I am also ok with an occasional NFD to accommodate social events – although I fully intend to watch my carb intake so that I stay in mild ketosis. I lunch out with neighbours yesterday and the cafe was very heavy on bread for the lunch menu. As they also offered all day breakfast I was able to order scrambled eggs with mushrooms and spinach. A good choice for my current plan. I think my most difficult day will be next Tuesday, as I have my great niece and nephew all day (including for lunch and dinner). I’m planning to just do completely separate food for me as they will want things like macaroni cheese and chicken nuggets. They are used to their mum making a healthy meal for herself that is different to their dinner, so I doubt they’ll even notice I’m eating something different.

I hope everyone is having a good day. Take care.

I’m at a loss,

I ate 800 calories on Wednesday, 900 on Thursday, 1,000 on Friday, 2,000 on Saturday and Sunday, 300 on Monday and 1,500 yesterday and my weight hasn’t budged. Still the same 100.5 I was last week. My BMR according to the calculators is 1900 calories so with those numbers plus my daily 45-60 minute walks I should definitely have lost weight. I have no idea what is happening at the moment.

Neil, the formula for losing body fat is a 7700 calorie deficit to lose 1kg
Unfortunately that’s only for body fat. Our weight includes so many other things that the numbers on the scales just don’t make sense sometimes.
Hopefully they will give you a better number next week.

Morning 😊

LJoyce – I’m completely amazed that you were able to pick me out as a South Islander from one word! Ha ha – had no idea my language was so telling. Yes, I’m from Christchurch.

Neil – sounds so frustrating. Especially when you’re doing the hard work and not seeing the results. Did you have many plateaus when you initially lost the weight?

Helen – I enjoyed hearing your success story from the midnight leftovers temptress. I’ll need to go back in the posts to read some more of Cinque’s techniques.

Cinque – soups have definitely been great fillers in the past. I’m going to be making Thin’s cauliflower soup that I’ve seen mentioned and found in the SH recipe section.

About to embark on fast day two. Here goes nothing

Hi all. I’ve only been able to catch up on posts on this page so apologises for the conversations that I’ve missed.

Welcome to the group Hannah. It’s weird how our weight can differ so much from one day to the next, mainly due to fluid retention (or loss) plus a bunch of other factors which are out of our control. If you are weighing everyday then it’s best to keep a log and work out a 7 day average for each week as this is a more accurate way to gauge our weight trend over a period of time.

Neil it must be so frustrating for you at the moment by the sounds of it. I know what its like to be doing all the right things but not seeing any results on the scales.

Betsy it’s important to make sure you are taking a good electrolyte when water fasting and also ensure the previous days meals contain a lot of good healthy fats to keep you going through the fast. As most of you know I regularly water fast anywhere from 60-80 hours and although there are times when the ‘hunger pangs’ arise they quickly disappear after consuming water, plain tea or coffee. Often our brain interprets our growling belly as being hungry when we are actually thirsty. Betsy I would encourage you to try a water fast again and to push through the hunger pangs as creating autophagy is one of the best ways to kick start fat weight loss, especially when done regularly.

Weight loss for me is averaging about 700g a week, some weeks a little bit more. As of this week I’ve increased my strength training routine as now that I’ve lost a good percentage of body fat (although still some more to go) it’s time to increase my muscle mass. I can certainly feel an increase in muscle in my upper arms so now time to work on the rest of the body.

I splashed out and bought some new weight plates this week (4 x 5kg and 4 x 10kg) plus a short curl barbell so now I don’t have to continually swap weights on my full size barbell when doing different exercises. Everything is setup now for the weight size I need for each exercise. Plus some of the existing weights I have can now stay permanently on the leg exercise extension of my weight bench and I also have spare weights for when I’m ready to add programming progressions to my routine. Over the last few months I’ve added a few other bits and pieces to my gym set up so I’m now fully equipped with everything I need at home to do my full cardio and strength training routine.

Weird weather here lately, mid 30’s one day and then back to mid teens the next. No rain at all of late and none in the near future by the look of the long range forecast. I laughed last night watching the news, in Adelaide it was cold, rain and hail and for me, 4 hours north we had beautiful sunny 35 degrees.

Must go and get ready, Mr Gday and I are going out to our favourite Indian restaurant for dinner tonight to celebrate our wedding anniversary, taking a bottle of non alcoholic wine to share. Happy Thursday everyone.

Afternoon all

Weighed today down 300g from Wednesday, so no significant movement, although these scales I switched to a couple of weeks ago usually read around a kilo heavier than the other ones so on the other ones I would be hovering around 99, so at least it’s better than being up at 101-102 that I was recently. I’m hoping that the extended daylight hours and improved weather will mean I can start get out and riding a bit more, anything to try to get this weight moving in the right direction.

Gday, happy anniversary. How may years have you hit? I tend not to do weights because my legs usually get enough strength training with all the hill climbing on the bike that I do and my arms get enough from the gardening, tennis and frisbee golf. I also find doing weights a little boring so it’s not something I can see myself continuing long term. But building muscle is always a good idea no matter how you do it. It helps to increase your metabolism.

Cinque, carrot soup sounds pretty good, especially if you put some caraway seeds in it. The local farmer’s market sells purple carrots that are purple all the way through, not just on the surface like some varieties. They would make a really cool looking soup.

Well on with the rest of the day and then (again) trying to do better in the weekend.

Have a good one everyone.

A quick hello,

I completely forgot today is my fast day! Yikes, my brain.
So I have had breakfast, but anyway I am going well with my small sensible meals and no snacks, plenty of water and as much pottering about as my health allows.

My carrot soup has been SO good. The only Gordon Ramsay recipe I have https://gordon-ramsay-recipe.com/tag/carrot-soup-by-gordon-ramsay
No caraway, but it would go well.

Charlie G, great work!
Isn’t it growing season! My garden is so so happy, but also plenty of weeds being as opportunistic as they can be.

Cheers all

Morning all

Not a bad weekend. I got a whole lot of stumps from our old hedge dug out, cleared out our top garden and replanted it, got some more garden work done, and got a couple of rounds of frisbee golf in. The weather has turned bad today but it doesn’t matter because I’m back at work and my new plants are getting a good watering.

One interesting thing that happened was when I dug up one of the stumps from the hedge there was something hard buried underneath it. I thought it was a rock, but when I dug it up it turned out to be an old brass tap. It was in such good condition that I could still open and close the tap easily. I cleaned it up in soap and water and it came out looking pretty good.

My eating was pretty good over the weekend, hopefully that will FINALLY show on the scales on Wednesday.

Have a great day everyone.

Hello everyone

It’s a bleak and windy day here in Adelaide. The wind is so strong that the ferries from Kangaroo Island are not running and some of my family are marooned over there in my sister’s house. Not that they will mind too much – fires will be burning and they will be looking out through the big windows at the wild sea and feeling very cosy. The three dogs, belonging to my sister and my brother and my nephew, have learnt to live with each other peaceably. https://imgur.com/a/XV5IV4p

Report. The not-so-good: Last night after my friend had left I finished off the delicious tuna mornay that I’d made for us. It would have been better to send it all home with her! Still, I did enjoy it.

The good: I had a good FD on Wednesday and discovered Stephanie Alexander’s very easy and low-calorie and delicious cauliflower soup – one cauliflower and one litre of chicken stock and one teaspoon of vegemite. Plus parsley and parmesan as desired. Is this the same as Thin’s cauliflower soup that you mentioned, Hannah? … Actually no! – I’ve just looked that up and it sounds so good – I will try that next!

Another good thing is that I’ve done some looking ahead and realised that in the coming week I have social commitments on Wednesday and Saturday so will change my FDs to Tuesday and Friday. Catastrophe avoided!

Cinque, I hope the leaf-blower didn’t hang around too long for you today. They are noisy things. And thanks for the link to the carrot soup recipe. It sounds really good.

G’day, hope you have a rapid recovery. You are normally so extremely fit and active. It must be hard for you to be laid low.

Neil, your level of activity also is amazing!

CharlieG (also very active!) congrats on the great progress you and OH are making in the weight department.

Thin, I am thinking of you in Malta and hoping that it is all going very well.

And Lindsay, hope you and your OH are travelling well and having good times with family.

Wishing everyone a very good week.

Morning all,

Has anyone had any experience with Leptin resistance? I’ve been having a read through some things and it seems very likely that I may have it.

Leptin is the hormone that tells you’re brain when you’re full, and if you have a leptin resistance then you don’t get those signals. It also lowers your metabolism so you burn fewer calories when you’re at rest. The symptoms are being overweight especially around the belly (check), inability to lose weight no matter how hard you try (check), lack of satiety feeling when eating (check), uncontrollable urges to eat high fat, high sugar foods (check) high levels of inflammation, and high leptin levels in the blood (not sure about the last two, I don’t know if the test is available here)

It is caused by high levels of stress (check), lack of quality sleep (check), yoyo dieting (check) excessive snacking (check) under exercising or over exercising (my weight gain started after my heavy bike training for my alps to ocean ride where I was riding 2-3 hours per day on average), exposure to environmental toxins, lack of exposure to sunlight, high insulin levels or high triglyceride levels (I don’t have the last three, not sure about the toxins).

The treatment for it is to increase consumption of lean protein and omega 3 oils, decrease consumption of omega 6 oils, restricting sugary and refined foods, cut out snacking in between meals, and increase the time in between meals. On top of that you can try detoxifying (I’m not sure what that entails), try to de-stress and get better sleep (easier said than done) and exercise moderately and regularly, focusing on strength and resistance.

Well, it’s got to be worth a try. I was already starting to up the protein intake, I can try to incorporate the rest into my diet and exercise regimen and see how things go.

Well I’ll see you all tomorrow after my weigh-in.

Hi Neil,

Yes I’ve done a lot of study and research on Leptin Resistance. Here’s my thoughts:

Firstly, you have been able to lose weight in the past so you could not have been leptin resistant then. So what could have changed that may have caused a possible LR? Two things – a change in hormone balance (caused by inflammation) or a dramatic increase in the intake of carbohydrates (any kind of carbs, other than those in fruits and vegetables), highly processed foods, sugars of any kind etc, basically foods that have been transformed from their natural state.

Over exercising (the bike rides you mentioned) I assumed occurred after you initially lost weight? Intense exercising for 2-3 hours a day, every day, puts a lot of stress on the body. Add the exercise (physical) stress to any other stressors (mental) that may be occurring and there on its own is a recipe for weight gain due to high levels of cortisol in the body. High cortisol levels can also cause insulin levels to rise which triggers the cravings for sugary, carby, fatty foods.

When did you last have a full set of blood test, were you given a copy of the results or did the GP just have a quick look, only identifying anything that was considered out of the normal range? Things to look out for with a blood test are:

Inflammation levels are identified by the C-Reactive Protein marker which is a protein released by the liver when inflammation increases.

The HbA1c marker measures the amount of blood sugar (glucose) attached to the Hemoglobin which is the part of the red blood cell that carries oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.

Most GP’s will only tell you when these markers are outside of what is considered the normal range but it’s just as important to know if they are on their way to the high end of the normal range.

There is a fasting serum leptin test but to my knowledge it is not available as a routine blood test and I understand that it is also just an indicator of possible LR. Having elevated levels of leptin can, in some instances, cause LR but it is not always the case.

Inflammation and elevated Free Fatty Acids are the 2 main causes of LR as they both interfere with leptin signalling by increasing fat metabolites in the brain. Free Fatty Acids are the by-products of the metabolism of fat in adipose tissue (body fat) which the body struggles to recycle when weight increases.

So how to reduce inflammation and FFA’s – by creating autophagy through fasting will reduce inflammation and assist the body in the recycling of FFA. 24 hours fasting and more is required for this to occur – the longer the fast, the more effective. Also eating foods that are only in their natural state, no carbs except those in veg and fruit, nothing processed which means no grains or legumes and preferably no dairy. Increase natural protein intake, consume soluble fiber, get good quality sleep, reduce stress levels and steady exercise.

Yes I agree that some of these things are easier said than done, but each is a contributing factor which is why addressing only one or some pieces of the puzzle does not solve the puzzle.

Good evening all.

Sorry to miss posting for a few days. Wasn’t feeling well, probable viral infection, and still somewhat lethargic. Covid test negative, which was good, as there’s a lot of Covid around Melbourne at the moment.

GdayfromSA, good comments re fasting. As I’ve posted before, my problem is my daily, tiny blood pressure tablet, which I can only swallow with food – 1/4 of a low GI breakfast biscuit works – so trying to figure out how to do a proper fast is a challenge. I can go for 36 hours, I guess, but no longer unless I skip my tablet. I’m going to re-read Jason Fung’s “The Obesity Code” and see if I can get some clues from there.

Neilithicman, you’re in a frustrating position, but plateaus happen, and you just have to tough it out. Just because you didn’t plateau last time doesn’t mean you haven’t this time. My weight loss is typically a series of steps – down, plateau, down, plateau, about every 3 kgs. Check if your measurements are getting less. That often happens before the weight drop. And, of course, avoid the empty high-cal carbs that have no food value. Been there, done that myself, too often to count! 🙁

Too tired to write more. Good to read all the posts. Stay safe and well everyone.

Good morning friends

Another lovely spring day here in Sydney, sunny and 24 degrees

Neil, how incredibly frustrating for you. I hope the new things you are doing (or not doing) help.

I have lost a whole kilo (eye roll) since I started FD’s again last week but I did have a pretty bad weekend. It was a long weekend but I had to work both Saturday and Sunday after our implementation went pear-shaped and I stress-ate. I’m not finding getting back into fasting easy but I’m sticking to it as I know it gets easier as time goes by. I hope to lose several kilos before our holiday to Lord Howe Island at Christmas. Another thing I’m doing is forfeiting the dog walk with the boys in the morning and going on a big walk on my own. I love walking with them but walking with Maxx is a very stop/start affair as he needs to sniff practically every blade of grass, leaf, rock, post etc. Also there are a lot of big hills near our house and that will help with fitness and weigh loss. It’s great; I have my favourite 80’s music blaring in my ears and I just wish it was socially acceptable to dance along the footpath waving my arms in the air rather than boring old walking. Oh well

Cinque, good advice thanks about natural psyllium husk in the morning but I can’t stomach it. I am having orange flavoured Metamucil first thing on FD’s (which I was taking anyway) and I know it isn’t as good as the natural stuff but at least I’m getting fibre. I hope the weather has improved from yesterday

Hannah, you are doing so well and I too am getting through the tough times envisioning a slimmer self at Christmas.

I hope your family have managed to leave Kangaroo Island Helen Kate. The weather is so changeable at the moment everywhere it seems.

Our ‘freedom day’ is looming and I am looking forward to seeing friends and family, getting my hair done and feeling like life is a bit more normal. Poor Mr Anzac looks like a crazy hippy version of Richard Branson at the moment but said he is enjoying his new look. Hmmm. He has been worrying about our big retaining wall at the front of our property for years as it is cracked and has finally got reconstruction underway. He dug out several MASSIVE roots and is working like a Trojan to dig out all the dirt required to start taking the wall down and building a new one. He is the most practical, handy person I’ve ever heard of and I am very lucky. For those who are new, we bought this house in 1998 and it was very rundown and poorly designed. Mr Anzac quit his job (at my urging) in 2009 to concentrate on renovations full time. Best decision ever as our work/life balance then became so much better and best of all we now have a gorgeous indoors and outdoors with a resort-style backyard complete with in-ground pool, beautiful decks and an outdoor kitchen. Downstairs our new bedroom opens out onto a courtyard with private outdoor bath and shower and inside the rest of the house has been redesigned and here I sit in our dining room with ceiling to floor glass sliding doors looking out over our lovely vista. Of course it has taken all these years to do it as he does most of it on his own with just the odd tradie. This was the only way we could afford it; if we had hired builders it would have cost 10 or 20 times as much. The work has taken its toll as Mr Anzac has more ‘broken’ bits than good bits but I can’t get him to slow down. I have become used to living in a house where at least one bit is a construction zone!

There, I’ve gone and warbled about myself for too long and have run out of time. Back soon for more of a catch up. Take care all

Good morning all,

Interesting to read about the LR from Neil, Cinque & Gday. Most of the advice on how to combat it sounds like basic healthy lifestyle choices. It does sound super frustrating to be in that state. I know that for me Dr Google plays with my mind …”maybe the reason I’m overweight is this or that reason”… Neil I wonder if you’ve looked at your eating habits when you were consistently losing vs the plateau. Are you doing regular eating 5 days (without binges) and 500-800cal fast days twice a week? You’re taking your healthy seriously and I hope it pays off for you on the scales and in how you’re feeling.

Helen – I tried the vegemite Cauliflower soup. I think I would have liked it enough if I hadn’t tried the one on the https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/southern-hemispherites-fd-recipes – this is a firm favourite now for me! The garlic and the sour cream add a lot of flavour that I missed with the vegemite one. Glad I tried it tho.

Wow Anzac – your house sounds amazing! What a hardworking OH you have. We have a ‘as-is-where-is” house in Christchurch that we’ve done lots to. It’s currently two-toned outside as we’ve painted half of the outside and then had to stop to get barge boards fixed and the electric wiring put underground, which then required a new switchboard, etc Hahaha – one of those situations where you go to fix one thing and realize that in order for that to happen you have to do five other things – gets expensive and time consuming! Can’t wait for the front of the house to be painted and look cohesive.

Did my two fast days on Monday and Wednesday this week as school holidays means a change in schedule. Feeling good to have them done 🙂 DD & DS currently playing together very happily so making the most of peace…who knows when war will break out in the current fun & games!

Hope everyone’s weeks are going well.

Afternoon all

Cinque, glad you had a good fast day, bike riding weather is definitely here today. It’s 21 degrees and nice and sunny. I’m going to try to get out and stretch my legs a bit this evening after work.

Hannah, I hope your fast days went well. I love the school holidays. My boys are both teenagers so they’ve spent the first half of the week mooching around the house by themselves, but next week I’m taking off work and we’re going to head into Clyde for the week. I’m planning to take my boys on the new cycle trail from Clyde to Cromwell as well as trips in to Wanaka and maybe in to St Bathans.

As for your question about my eating, I have struggled with it since February when I was eating so much while training (I ended up riding almost 1,500 kilometers during February), but even when I manage to string a couple of weeks together of good eating, fast days, and decent exercise I haven’t been able to shift the weight.

The Leptin resistance is supposed to lower your base metabolism while removing your satiety signals. One thing I noticed was on my fast days I try not to eat until around 1pm, and I had not been struggling to do that at all. I didn’t really get hungry. I’ve been on my new programme for 3 days now, and today I got ravenously hungry at around 12:30 even though I’d eaten breakfast this morning. Hopefully that is a good sign that my metabolism is starting to ramp up again. Another good sign is that I had my lunch of tuna and avocado salad, 2 kiwifruit and some whey protein with psyllium husks mixed in (meal total around 650 calories) and now I feel absolutely stuffed with half of one of the kiwifruit left to eat. It’s been a while since I’ve actually felt full before finishing a meal.

What I’ve decided to do:

*Stop drinking any caffeine to try to aid my sleep
*Cut out alcohol in the weekend, because that usually come accompanied by junk food.
*Stick to 3 meals a day eaten at the same time (7:30am, 1pm, 5:30pm), No snacking in between
*Cut out sugars and limit processed foods
*Turn off tv and devices by 8:30pm, take a nice relaxing bath or shower, read for an hour and then be in bed by no later than 10pm
*Keep my higher protein intake up, cut back on Omega 6 and try to eat more Omega 3
*I’m going to start doing a bit of strength training despite the fact I don’t really like it.
*Stop fast days until my metabolism kicks back in and I start dropping weight on my 1800 calorie a day limit.

Signs are good so far, but I’ll trial this for a few weeks and see how things get on.

I hope everyone else is good and spring is starting to give you some nice weather

Have a great day everyone.

A quick follow up from my earlier ramblings about the breakfast research. This seems to be the most recently published paper. https://www.jabfm.org/content/jabfp/34/4/678.full.pdf
While they published data on all deaths, they were specifically measuring deaths from cardiovascular disease. The highest link with longevity was with the group that ate breakfast and also consumed more than 25g fibre per day. The same benefit from fibre was not obtained by those who did not eat breakfast, but did consume more than 25g fibre per day.
This is quite relevant to me as I aim for > 30g fibre per day but rarely eat breakfast.

Good morning,

Neil, that sounds like a wonderful list of strategies. Good luck with them.
Sorry to hear about that sore arm, I hope you got a much better sleep last night.

LJoyce, I had only watched the first of that series (always hard to listen to the info showing I am likely to die earlier because of my chronic illness, sigh.) But I have watched the other two now.
I had to wait a long time for the info you are pondering! It just snuck in at the end.
I found it quite annoying as it was given without background, context or even what the hypothesis is.

I think Dr Longo must have had a proviso that what he said wasn’t edited (fair enough, he wouldn’t want to be misinterpreted through editing) so they had to leave in those snippets that I think may be his own prejudice (eating breakfast suits him) and a hypothesis about the 12 hours that has not yet been fully researched (ie the only things I can find about it are his opinions, not any published or peer reviewed research).

I have figured out that the concern with fasting and gall stones is that we need our gall bladder to be working to keep spitting out cholesterol before it forms gall stones. The gall bladder takes a rest when we are fasting.
Personally, I’d be surprised if 12 hours was optimal across the board, I imagine it varies from person to person.

Also, the fast mimicking diet is one he sells, and while I am confident he is not trying to rip people off, he is very clear that it is almost impossible to do a fast mimicking diet without buying his product.

Because of his Fast Mimicking Diet, chemo patients would not have that problem with the gall bladder.

That’s my take on it anyway.

Morning all, we’re back from our warm and sunny break in Malta. The hotels work hard to make it covid safe and everyone travelling there has to have been double vax’d. The Maltese themselves are 95% vaccinated. The boat survived being left unattended on the canal albeit opposite a marina where we know some boaters.

The Mediterranean diet was abundant in restaurants and we enjoyed several fish dinners. And we drank too much alcohol. Tomorrow’s a FD.

It sounds like you’ve been having some interesting discussions, some of which I would like to go back and read more thoroughly, especially the revelations about the hazards of skipping breakfast and fasting longer than 12 hours. I’m unlikely to change my fasting habits though, it works for me and being 25kgs heavier posed many more health risks I would think.

Anzac, before I left, I read a few posts and remember your wishing me a good holiday and anniversary (thank you, it was fun) and commenting that you hadn’t done a proper fast for a year. How you got away with that without my noticing I’m not sure! I’ll have to keep a closer eye on you, my friend. I’m happy to see that you’ve lost a kg in a week, well done, keep up whatever you’re doing now.

Anzac, we, too, undertook major extensions to our house when OH lost a job twenty years ago, converting our 2bd/1ba cottage into a 5bd/3ba house remaining faithful to its 1930s style throughout. OH gave new meaning to the term ‘owner builder’ as we did absolutely everything ourselves – OH learned bricklaying and I learned lead lighting in the process. It took years to complete as he became employed again during the process but it was like working for wages and added significantly to its value.

LJ, the algorithms that control airline pricing and scheduling are mind-boggling. You can be sitting next to someone on a plane who’s paid twice your fare. If you’ve ever had a frequent flyer flight out of Australia, you’ll know that you still have to pay several hundred dollars in taxes (which is a cheek considering it’s called a loyalty programme). But my point is that tax forms a huge part of the pricing. Flights to Europe operate more like a bus shuttle, can cost as little as £10-15 and offer absolutely nothing but the seat. This suits us well as we’re the 5kg luggage family. But they charge extra for luggage, food, guaranteeing seats together, etc and make money from fines such as failure to bring a boarding pass – a whopping £55. No air corridors either, you walk in the elements out to the plane.

Two great things to look forward to when you start air travelling again – no more annoying incessant overhead boarding announcements, passengers can now use their initiative and find a screen for their flight information. And when the flight lands, no scrum in the aisle as everyone grabs their overhead luggage at the same time and then stands paralysed for twenty minutes waiting for the doors to get opened. You remain seated until the stewards reach your seat, one row at a time, get up, retrieve your luggage and exit. One good outcome of covid. I was impressed with the enforcement of mask wearing on jet2.com coming back but several special people on the RyanAir flight thought it was OK to wear theirs on their chin despite several reminders from crew. Gits.

Oh dear sorry, I’m totally off topic. We have to take our Day Two PCR tests today and while OH goes on the bus to deliver them to the designated box, I shall have time to read what everyone else has been up to.

Morning all

First day of my holiday was a bit up and down. In the morning it was pouring down outside so I spent the morning getting some cooking done and a bit of TV watching done. The afternoon it stopped raining, the forecast was for more but I risked a ride. It turned out to be a good decision because it was perfect riding weather. Sunny, no wind and not too hot. I did an old favourite, slog from Bayfield up to the top of Highcliff Road, cruise down to Portobello, and then an easy blat around the harbour back to Bayfield. It was a thoroughly enjoyable 90 minutes.

Thin, glad you guys had a good trip to Malta, what did you guys get up to while you were there?

Charlie, congrats on the loss, looks like you’re into the swing of things.

Gday, yes sugary and starchy foods have been my downfall this year. The issue is once I start eating them I can’t seem to stop myself. I’ve done pretty well for the last 5 days or so, so I’m hoping that I’m starting to turn things around.

Cinque, the arm is much better thanks. It was the same as the first jab. It was sore about 6 hours after the jab and it lasted about a day, but went away pretty quick.

Well into today. We’ll be packing tonight for our trip to Clyde tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it even though the forecast is a bit dodgy.

Have a great day everyone.

Morning all

Thin that trip sounds amazing. I have never been to Europe. So far in my life I’ve only had a few trips to Aussie and a few trips to Fiji.

My wife has been referred to the neurosurgery in Christchurch as the Dunedin unit is a bit swamped so the surgery probably won’t happen until at least January or February next year now.

Well, better pack up for our trip, gave a great one everyone.

Hi all,

I’ve been away for a weekend in Hanmer (celebrating my nephew’s 21st) – so nice to have all my side of the family together (except for the one nephew who lives in Auckland and so was unable to fly down). Wearing a swimsuit is not my favourite thing (yeah that’ll change as the effects of fasting translate to everything fitting better!) but had a lot of fun at the hotpools and went down the hydro-slides over and over with my two.

Thin, it’s nice to have you back – I am pretty impressed with your 7 year record and the 25kg weight loss. In browsing this forum I could see you were quite active. Are you currently living in a boat? Where about in the world are you located? From Aug 2014 – how long did it take you to reach your goal weight?

Neil, I hope you have a fantastic bike riding school holiday trip – that’ll be building up some special memories for your two boys. Hope the food “rules” you’ve created are helping.

Cinque – I think you are right in saying that optimum fasting results vary from person to person and the fibre/breakfast study is not a strong enough link to sway me from the benefits we are getting from 5:2 style fasting. LJoyce – are you still pondering this issue from Dr Longo?

Charlie G – well done on the 7kg! That’s a lot of weight to lose in a short amount of time. Your body will be thanking you.

My body is thanking me today – fast day here – down to 74.9kg (from 77.3kg on 26.09.21). Currently fuelled by cauliflower soup – must be doing wonders for my digestive tract after the weekend’s birthday cake 😜

Off to edit photos from the 21st (used to do photography…now it’s just for capturing family). Hope everyone has started their week well.

CalifD, good to hear from you but sorry about your OH’s memory and related issues. We’re back with Amazon Prime and binged two series of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. Quite exciting.

CharlieG, I forgot to mention your fabulous weight loss achievement so far, and that of your OH. Great job.

Hannah, you two, you’re on a roll. It took me a year of 5:2 to lose 23kg at a steady half kilo per week and a plateau over that first Christmas: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/silly-season-challenge/ I lost another 2kg somewhere over the ensuing six years of maintenance. I found the weight loss year so easy, the rules suit me well as I’m a B&W person, no grey areas. Maintenance has required more vigilance and a constant struggle between never wanting to return to my fat self but still being the same person I always was when it comes to food. The years of IF have helped shape my food habits, portions and desires. And this group has taught me a lot about nutrition and food.

We sold up in Perth and bought a narrow boat (two years ago today actually) as a bucket list thing. We thought we’d stay one cruising season but then Britain got locked down and, as live aboards, we found ourselves in the enviable position of being allowed to cruise when hire boaters and leisure boaters were not allowed on the canals. We took to the lifestyle and, since we can’t return to Australia, we just kept cruising.

I read that Sydney unlocked at midnight, yay for that.

Cinque, I’ve battled that name issue for years. Back in the day before money laundering was a thing, I used the accepted contracted version of my birth certificate name to open bank accounts, buy shares, etc. OH has a similar issue as his parents named him after his father (an odd thing they like to do in America) but then called him by his second name to avoid confusion. It’s created plenty.

Cinque, OK baton passed. 58.5kg after my FD. Pretty happy with that after 10 days overseas.

Good Morning Everyone in Oz and NZ, and Hi to Thin, CaliD and any readers and lurkers!

Welcome Hannah! You’ve made a wonderful start on 5:2 in couple of weeks. Well done!
Thin is the poster child for 5:2, with Cinque very close behind, most of the rest of us are mere mortals ;). My story – Started Nov 2014, lost 23kgs and reached goal weight over 2 yrs to the day (not able to exercise), get challenged by stress eating, and time away from the forum but still hanging in there, and love being a healthy size and weight.

CaliD – Oh heck CaliD – you and Mr CaliD have had a tough time! Good to hear you are on the other side of the worst and you’re both recovering and you’re back to getting ‘normal’. Hope you’ve found new interesting series and yes the black cockatoo is a beautiful bird. Well done on keeping on with 5:2, and the 67’s.

Cinque- it’s good to see Vic numbers coming down!!! So good to hear you being our cheery flower and award presenter again. I do hope you’re so much better now🌺

I’m on my way back home now and we’re driving in the rain, but there’s not much traffic so far. DD has finished all her studies last week, back at work, grandchildren back at school. I’m happily back doing Monday and Thursday FD’s and they’ve helped balance out some stress eating – a fraction under 70kgs today. Packing myself off on my own in accomodation right next to a beach for 10 days helped get me through this last few weeks and helped arrest a drop in my health. It’s been a challenge living in a situation not conducive to my ME/CFS needs. I made the decision to go home to Wollongong as soon as I could or it would just be on repeat, and Mr Merry with his compromised health decided to come too. We would have liked to see DD and kids through the house hunting and moving in process, but we’ve done what we can. While many are celebrating opening up NSW we’ll be isolating quite a bit longer, and isolating a bit more stringently than before while we see what ‘living with Covid’ means. My GP talks about monoclonal antibidy treatment but it’s in short supply, and I reeeaaallly don’t want my ME/CFS going back to living in a bed again. Anyhoo, enough of the downers.

My beautiful US grandchild is a happy, health gorgeous laughing child, now 9months old. Her parents are healthy and happy, and we’re all gratefull for the technology that allows us to frequently ‘visit’ each other. Lots to be gratefil for!!!

Bye for now,
Onwards and Downwards and
If you fall off the horse get back on!

Hi all

We have slipped back into Winter here; my car is so confused because we seem to switch daily from cool to warm air-conditioning!

Lindsay I have everything crossed and am sending cyber hugs and positive thoughts for your OH’s op tomorrow. I can only imagine how wobbly you must feel 

It was so nice to be able to have my Dad over for dinner last night, our first day of ‘freedom’. We had seen him each week to take meals to him but had to stay well away and so it was awesome to do something so normal again since the middle of June

Hi G’day, I do so wish Mr Anzac had Hippy Mr ‘RB’s’ cheque book! I don’t like the taste or texture of natural psyllium husk. Ugh. Glad the antibiotics did the trick and you are feeling better

I’m glad you had a lovely time with your family Merry but also glad you are looking after your own health too. My best friend (who coincidentally lives in Wollongong) suffered from CFS for years and years

So glad your trip was great Thin and wow, your reno’s sound just as extensive as ours. Yes it takes soooooo long but how wonderful when it is finished. Yes I didn’t fast for ages and kept it a bit quiet but I’m back on now and losing gradually

I hope you get to Op shop soon Cinque

CharlieG – onward and downward! Yay!

So sorry to read about your OH’s health issues Cali, glad he is doing better now

What a lovely week away with family Hannah and congrats on your continued losses

Well because we are extremists, Mr Anzac and I have booked a second trip for our Xmas break. We are going to Lord Howe Island but always said we would ditch that for Fiji if it opened up. It looks very likely Fiji will be open in Nov/Dec so we booked 9 nights at a lush adults-only resort and then decided we would keep LHI too! Why not, we work hard, it’s only money and I’ve had a total of 2 days leave this year. Yay! Double motivation to lose weight now

Hope your holiday is going well Neil.

I’m down 1.6 and I need to speed it up as time is ticking. I have decided to down my calories even further on my CD’s so hopefully that will help. I’m also gradually increasing my walk and started at around 4,000 steps and am now up to nearly 6.000.

Take care all