Morning all.

Summer has finally arrived in Dunedin, we hit around 26 degrees yesterday and today is pretty warm as well. I think that’s all our summer for the year because it’s supposed to get progressively worse during the week and Christmas Day is supposed to be rain and something like 14 degrees.

Thin, what a drama! I’m glad you finally managed to get it all sorted, but it’s annoying that it cost you so much to get it sorted. I guess that’s something that insurance wouldn’t cover?

Turn, yes I really enjoyed the Dunstan Trail, but I rode it in Labour Weekend and it was ridiculously busy. It definitely would be better to do it in the middle of the week when there’s a fewer people on it.

Helen Kate, great to hear from you again. Maintaining weight again is better than gaining. I hope you have a good break.

Anzac, have a great break and enjoy the snorkelling

Charlie, how’s the ribs feeling now? On the mend?

GFSA, Excellent work! Your rate of loss may have slowed down, but at least you’re not gaining like some of us at the moment 🙁

Cinque, I hope you went ok recovering and cleaning.

Well I had a good weekend, not eating-wise but I got some relaxation for once, no gardening, no tee pad construction. I had a couple of rounds of frisbee golf, took the kids out to the playground, watched a bit of cricket and started eating the raspberries and strawberries from our garden that are starting to ripen up now. I had a nice 20km ride in to work this morning, only marred by a run-in with a motorist. The guy pulled out of a driveway right in front of me and I had to yank on my brakes to stop running into the back of him, his passenger wound down his window and started swearing at me. Then they started indicating to turn into a side street that I was going to go up, but he didn’t turn into it, just stopped in the middle of the road even though there was nobody coming. I went round and up the street and his passenger started swearing again and the car drove off straight. I think he was wanting me to go post him on the outside and was planning to scone me with his car door.

Well have a great day everyone.

Afternoon all

Starting to feel a bit more like Christmas now. The office is emptying out day by day as people head away, we’re starting to get tings sorted for Christmas Dinner (Traditional BBQ fare), the presents are almost organised, and the days seem to be taking forever.

I got my ride home done without incident and had a good ride in this morning, breaking one of my segment records for a grunty little hill climb. I treated myself to an early Christmas present by getting a subscription for Strava. I had just been using the free version but there are some cool features on the premium membership that I thought I’d try.

I hope everyone is getting on ok and I wish you all a merry Christmas if you don’t check in again before then.

Afternoon all

Well my weigh-in was up 1 kilo on my low weight from 2 weeks ago, now sitting at 101.5kg. I guess it’s a few to many starchy and sugary foods. I’m still feeling pretty positive about it though. My eating is steadily improving, the slips are still happening but not as frequently, and my exercise is improving with the weather. I managed a thoroughly enjoyable ride last night on the way home from work and another one this morning on the way to work.

I think the thing that threw me last week was the big morning tea shout at work to thank us for our hard work over the year. A day of snacking on savouries, spring rolls, Christmas mince pies, chocolates and cake did the damage. I’m hoping to maintain around this weight for my last weigh in of 2021 next week (no point trying to lose over Christmas, just limit the damage) and then really try to hit my weight from Boxing day on.

I have suggested to my family that we not have nibbles available at Christmas dinner since most of us will be having Christmas lunch with our other half’s families. There are always bowls of chips, dips, crackers, nuts, chocolates, etc at our family gatherings sitting there as temptations. Unfortunately my sister has said she’s not having lunch with her other half’s family because they always meet Boxing Day so says she wants to have nibbles available for her and her family. So frustrating.

Well have a great one everyone.

Thin, your house-sitting set-up sounds really good, and a well-deserved break after the trials of the Canary Islands.

Cinque, I got my booster at about the same time as you. It’s a good feeling to have that third dose in as the case numbers rise here in South Australia as well as all over the place.

I am very happy to have DD and husband and dog here with me for Christmas, and to have the wider family all gathering here tomorrow evening for our Christmas supper. It’s going to be a beautiful day so we can be outside. Most people will have had a big Christmas lunch with in-laws so it will be cold meats and cashew-nut loaf and salads, followed by choc-ices for those who need something more.

I hope all of you have a happy Christmas and a really good New Year. Thanks to all members of this special group for inspiration and encouragement.

See you next year!

Helen Kate

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Wherever you are, whether you’re in the parts of the world where it’s Christmas Day now or tomorrow, we wish you a wonderful Christmas Day. Whether you’re with family, friends or in isolation give this day to you to celebrate you and all the better thingsnin the world.

Thanks for the rreminder Thin! Enjoy Christmas fare in smaller doses.
Merry xo

Greetings everyone,
I hope you have successfully navigated Christmas Day without too many concerns.
Thank you everyone for your concern of my ribs, at last the pains seemed to have subsided.
Had a wonderful few days with my cousin and her children, Mr 9 followed OH everywhere around the farm and Miss 14 spent a lot of time with us girls as we recounted our childhood, and cooked foods that our shared Grandmother used to cook for Christmas, then I cleverly gave 90% of it to them to take home for their Christmas.
Weight is neither up or down, so with the treats almost gone, I am looking forward to my fast days this coming week. Sorry for my absence, but in the three days leading up to Christmas we spend a lot of time doing Random Acts of Kindness to people that live alone or don’t have family to share Christmas with.
Gingerbread Christmas trees are a great hit, along with small fruit cakes and rum balls, also raspberries, blackberries and Boysenberries from our garden.
Thank you everyone for your tales, I have read them all, and Thin what a drama with your holiday, and yes Neil, motorists think they own the roads around here as well, I no longer ride on our roads, way too scary with all our traffic.
I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas,
I look forward to our shared journey with this wonderful caring group in 2022.
Love and best wishes, Charlie.

Hello friends

Just home from beautiful Lord Howe Island and now have a 3 day turnaround to unpack, wash, repack and somehow get the International RT-PCR test before we head to Fiji

We ate well and were very active as there were so many lovely walks and beaches to find. Just a small gain but I’m happy with that. Fiji will be a whole other story but I am determined to avoid the bad food and I’ve already checked out the sample menu’s at the three restaurants on the resort and there are lots of nice sounding salads. I will hit those and not the burgers and chips

I will catch up on your posts now but I just wanted to drop in and say hello and a belated Merry Christmas

Hello,
It is my longest time between posts! Just hectic.
So nice to read your posts.

Cali thinking of you and Mr Cali particularly. It is so hard to have that memory loss be continuing and not be able to do anything to improve it. I hope you can all make the most of every day. (A couple of days here of nearly 40C so I’d happily send 15 degrees over to your place!)

Thin, I got Pfizer after 2 Astro Zeneca. Glad to be triple vaccinated but oh dear cases are snowballing here.
Lovely to read your fabulous catch up.
Hooray for Christmas with DD and catching up with good friends. And hooray for not being in a Perth heatwave, it was a shocker.
Bletchley Park would be so interesting. I guess there are always wonderful people working hard for the common good, but they are not necessarily the ones with power and influence. Sigh.

Helen Kate, what a lovely Christmas.

Merry, best wishes to you and yours.

LJoyce, yes, sometimes it just has to be the bin. Otherwise you would be using yourself as the rubbish bin (as I always have to say sternly to myself).

Charlie, so nice to read another post about precious family time and those lovely acts of good will.

Anzac I am so happy you had a lovely holiday on Lord Howe Island. I hope every minute in Fiji is a delight too.

Well, last day of a tricky year. But all in all my good eating habits are strengthened, and I am weighing less that I was a year ago (so my clothes say). I’ll know for sure when I have my 4th year follow up at the hospital and get to stand on their big scales.

Looking forward to another year of being good for my own health!

Best wishes everyone.

Evening all and happy new year.

My wife and I are old and square so we didn’t bother staying up to ring in the new year. I got up just after 7am and got out for a nice 50km ride over the peninsula and had an afternoon round of frisbee golf. Eating was good for day 1 of the year. I had a blueberry smoothie made with a bit of protein powder and some psyllium husk for lunch and dinner was some tuna, sauteed kale and a small portion of some potato gratin . All the veg were from our garden, which is a great feeling.

I hope everyone had a great new years and I wish you all a great 2022.

Merry Christmas (yes a bit late I know) and Happy New Year (also a bit late) to all.

Christmas was quiet (as it is for us always) and New Years quiet as well (again, as it is every year) although I did manage to stay up until 12.10am, only because Miss GDay pestered us to stay up and watch the midnight fireworks on the ABC. Must admit I was in bed at 8.30pm, reading a book with a pot of tea waiting for the New Year to arrive with Mr GDay having quite a few snooze (or should I say snoring) sessions along the way to midnight – it’s all go at our house…..lol.

I write today with some good news – about half an hour ago I submitted my final assignment for my Cert IV in Nutrition and Weight Management course…..Yippeee. In the last week I’ve submitted 8 separate assignments. They were all three quarters finished months ago but with Mr GDay having several hospital trips to Adelaide and being unwell and my week away with Miss GDay the assignments were sitting in limbo for about a month until I was finally able to get back to them again in mid December. So fingers crossed there is not too many re-submissions required once assessed.

Weight loss is still going well but I didn’t reach my goal weight before New Years as I had hoped – too much time spent on study and not enough fast days but I’m very, very close so watch this space in the next few weeks.

Stinking hot weather here of late, many days over 40 degrees with air conditioners running around the clock. Neil I did have a chuckle at your recent post about summer arriving because the temp had hit 26 degrees, I’m thinking wow we get that temp during Winter. And windy, every day has been so windy, the only exception being early morning at 5.30am when I go for my daily walk. A few days ago I was joined by a couple of very cute kangaroos while out walking, they took quite an interest in me and followed me quite closely for the majority of the walk.

I must dash, want to watch the SA tv news. I don’t watch the tv news often as I’d rather scroll through the ABC online news and pick which stories I want to read, but as covid is running rampant around our state at the moment and many cases reported in the major town about 10kms from where I live, I’m eager to see todays update.

Bye for now

Morning all, wow sounds like we’re a bunch of party animals 😉

We have a bit of relief after yesterday’s temperature. We hit 32 degrees at home, and while I still managed to get a bit of gardening done and played a couple of rounds of frisbee golf, most of the day we were just sitting around the house. Today it’s a far more comfortable 23 degrees. I got out for a big morning ride and this afternoon we’re going to take the boys out to an animal park so they can get out of the house.

Have a great one everyone

Good evening all. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

Sorry I’ve been MIA for a while. Had to put my head down and really focus on some doctorate work there for a while. Still have STACKS to do, but am finally getting into a weekly rhythm I can work with. The weight’s not going well – gained 2 kg over the Christmas period – but as I’ve finally either eaten or disposed of the remaining Christmas treats, etc., it’s time to knuckle down to weight loss again. I can understand LJoyce’s frustration with being given so many edible treats. Mind you, mine were also partly self-inflicted, as there are some things only available at this time of year, but – brakes on. I’ll try to post fairly regularly, too, for more accountability.

Thin, seems like you’ve managed some travel despite Covid, and also Anzac65 to Lord Howe island. Good for you.

Congrats, G’DayfromSA, on submitting your assignments, a great relief.

CalifDreamer, so sorry to read of your OH’s memory difficulties. I guess you’ve looked into his meds, to ensure nothing is causing side effects like confusion? Blood pressure too low is something which comes to mind.

Neilithicman, glad that road rage driver didn’t inflict any damage, or rather, that you avoided being “doored”. That’s what I’ve heard it called here.

Cinque, are you triple-vaxxed now? I got my third dose just before Christmas.

Okay, hi to everyone else. I’ll catch up more next time.

Stay safe, stay well everyone.

Hi everyone

Neil, Thin, Betsy, Cinque, GDSA, Anzac, Cali, Charlie, Merry lovely to hear your updates of life at the moment.

Apologies for the faulty iggur photo – not sure what went wrong, but I’ve attempted to reload it: https://imgur.com/a/ltQPLYh The birthday girl’s verdict was very positive. I now have another cake to make for a Thursday birthday – much more traditional this time – a vanilla cake with fondant icing has been requested (I can’t imagine anything worse). However, whether the cake appeals to me or not is irrelevant – they all know they can request their favourite on their birthday. Unless it’s something that only a professional should attempt, I’m prepared to give it a go.

I’m still persevering with normal 5:2. After a NFD that was a bit excessive, the panicked thoughts about needing to do something more drastic and rigid reappeared, but I managed to talk myself out of it. I needed to remind myself that I’d be much better served by just trying to be a bit more controlled on the next NFD. Which I was.
Today’s FD. Next Monday will be challenging as I have the kids from Sunday afternoon to Monday evening and I have to do a FD on Monday (in preparation for an infusion on Tuesday). I just need to be well planned with my food and to be strong when the kids are eating sausages, chips etc.

I have been spending an hour each day in the early evening working in the front garden. I’m trying to get the rest of the digging, planting and mulching completed so that I can finally declare the front garden finished. This week has milder temperatures, so 6pm gardening means bearable temperatures for gardening. I hate gardening in the summer heat, so getting this finished while the temperatures are mild is important. I have until this weekend to get it all done.

Take care all.

Morning all

Well I’m back at work today, that week and a half off went too bloody fast. I managed to get out for several good bike rides and did a few things with the boys (we went to a couple of movies, went to the animal park, went to the new deep sea monsters exhibit at the museum and had a nice lunch out.) Back to reality now. I guess the good side of it is that I find it easier to eat well during the day while I’m working because there isn’t a supply of snack foods I can be tempted by during the day. I didn’t get through Christmas and New Years unscathed, I gained about 2 kilos, but hopefully now the silly season is over I can get back on track.

My exercise is on point, I think I’ve found a good balance between doing enough to keep my fitness up without overdoing the riding. When I’m not working I’m going out for around 2 hours every other day to let my body have time to recover on the off day. When I’m working I’m alternating riding 45 minutes in riding the long way to work, and riding 10 minutes in via the direct route, again giving my body a chance to recover. Now I just have to match it with my eating.

Thin, I hope you have a good time in Spain. Don’t drink too much Sangria 😉

Betsy, great to hear from you again, looks like we gained the same amount during the holidays, let’s work together and both try get it off by the end of January.

Ljoyce, that ice cream cake looks amazing. I’ll bet my teenagers would make quick work of it. They managed to finish off the rest of the 6kg Christmas cake I made (about 1/4 of it left after Christmas Day and gifting to friends and family) as well as all the holiday chocolates that inevitably get given at Christmas, and the double recipe of lollycake that I made which my wife was planning on giving to her brother and sister. The little buggers are still thin as rakes. What I wouldn’t give to have my teenage metabolism back.

Cinque, LOL A lot of people are like that at the moment I think. I’m not too worried, I put a post up on facebook a while ago saying that I wanted to concentrate on the positive things that had happened through the year, when I started listing them it made me feel really good about the year. Bad stuff will always happen, but if we focus on the positive it will put us in a much better head space.

Have a great day, week and new year everyone.

Good afternoon lovely people.

I am very relieved. I just pulled two vanilla cakes out of the oven. As I was trying a new recipe I had absolutely no idea whether it would work. It’s basically the ingredients for a plain butter cake (also known as a victoria sponge or pound cake – depending on which country you are in), but using a traditional Australian sponge method, but with warm milk and butter stirred in at the end. I was hoping to get the lightness of a traditional sponge with the moistness and keeping qualities of a victoria sponge. It looks very promising so far. I’ll post a photo tomorrow once it’s decorated. Thin, I’m definitely not a professional, just an amateur who enjoys baking cakes – unfortunately I really don’t enjoy decorating them – it’s fiddly and I don’t have the patience for fussy things. I always stress to those who get my cakes, that it will be rustic not fussy – I largely rely on things like fresh berries and purchased chocolates for quick decorating.

Yesterday’s FD was a struggle. Like Cinque, I find the after dinner temptation to snack the biggest challenge. I’m trying to use the teeth cleaning method (I think that was Thin’s suggestion), as I don’t feel like eating anything once my mouth tastes like minty toothpaste. I forget though, as my ingrained habit is to clean teeth just before bed.

Neil, sorry to hear the holiday flew by so quickly. Sounds like you had some good family time though.

Thin, have a lovely time in Spain. Is this your first time back since before covid? I seem to remember you spent the winter there just before covid appeared (or was it Portugal).

Betsy, I’m glad to hear you are making good progress with your thesis. I hope you have a little time for other things too this year.

Cinque, I try to have a glass of water before I eat anything, as I remember you saying it’s often thirst. However I’m frustrated by how often I forget to do this.
I too have school holiday babysitting – like you I enjoy spending the time with the kids, but it is exhausting and takes to recover.

GDSA, glad to hear that all those assignments are finally submitted. Hopefully this year will see you qualified and practicing.

Hello to everyone else. Hope you are all having a good day.

Good evening all.

Yes, it’s good to be back and starting to be more accountable again. Most of 2021 I sat around 85 kg, which is one of my “sticking” weights, little change in measurements, either. But – come Christmas and all the goodies not available at other times of the year (read gingerbread, for that) plus 3 separate Christmas meals with different friends, and I am now 87 kg.

So, yes, Neil, let’s aim to lose at least 2 kg during January. If I keep to strict 5:2, it may be more. I’m thinking that on my NFDs I should add some extra protein, to reduce cravings, and on my FDs, to make sure I drink extra water, as Cinque wrote, and LJoyce affirmed.

Cinque, let’s hope things settle down a bit over the next couple of weeks. If pensioners can have 10 RAT tests free from pharmacies over the next 3 months (no more than 5 in one month), as announced today, it will take an enormous amount of stress off the PCR testing queues, and major release of stress off symptomatic folk who just have a slight cold. I’ve been a bit coldy/ fluey for the past 10 days, dry cough and fatigue but no fever or loss of smell or taste so I’m sure it’s not Covid, but how can I really know unless I have an impossible to get test?! All I can do is wear a mask, use hand sanitiser, socially distance, and make sure I don’t have any close contact with anyone, etc. I’m just going out to do the essentials. It helps that I live alone.

Thin, yes, it seems that the bullet Australia dodged for 2 years has finally hit its mark. Numbers are high, but with really high vaccination rates and a slightly weaker variant in Omicron, hospitalisation rates and numbers in ICU are still reasonable. That may change in another week or so, but currently okay. And WA has basically cut itself off from the rest of Australia for now, until their vaccination rates are much higher. The Covid numbers there are miniscule compared with the rest of the country.

Okay, enough Covid. Yummy looking cake, LJoyce. It would be one I’d find hard to resist, though cakes in general don’t appeal to me. I do however love ice-cream and chocolate. Interestingly, my weight gain over Christmas was at least partially due to me deciding to build (and eat) a gingerbread house and indulge in mince tarts. Now they’ve all gone, it should be easier to stay on track.

Aiming for my first FD on Friday, wish me luck! 🙂

Stay safe and sleep well.

Good afternoon,

Fast day today. So far so good 😉

LJoyce, Those cakes sound wonderful.

Good luck with the evening. For some reason I find it easier on fast days.

Thin, they have sorted some things out. Some free tests for us concession card holders as Betsy said, and lots of warnings about no price gouging.
(And now the news is all about the world’s number one male tennis player.)

Betsy, sorry to hear of your unwellness. I hope you feel better soon.

Good luck for tomorrow’s fast day, LJoyce and Betsy, and your planetrip to Spain, Thin.

Okay, nearly soup time.

Cheers to everyone.

After getting a bit frustrated with imgur, I have finally managed to load a photo of the cake.
https://imgur.com/j41qR3B The only fancy element are the flowers that I’ve “glued” to the fondant icing – they were bought at Woolworths. I should probably have covered the side of the cake in either buttercream (which is the filling) or fondant (which is on top), but it just seemed like excessive icing to me. My great niece didn’t care. She was just excited that I’d remembered her love of fondant icing and had put a nice thick layer of that on top. Everyone else I know throws the fondant away and just eats the cake underneath!

While I’ve got imgur working I have another photo: https://imgur.com/2Yt0hQg
This is my new door knocker and was a christmas gift from my niece and nephew. They knew I wanted a knocker rather than a door bell and asked what style I liked. I said just get a plain ring in the same colour as my existing door hardware. I was told that a ring was boring and I couldn’t have it – Hadn’t I seen something more interesting. I said, well I did see a dragonfly online that I loved, but it’s more expensive and it’s made in the US. Amazingly they managed to get it posted here from the artist who makes them in Rhode Island in time for christmas – I was fully expecting it not to arrive until late January. I love it, I think it looks like a piece of jewellery.

One more bit of news. I finally finished the front garden planting this afternoon. I can’t finish the mulching yet, as the stores are out of stock of the mulch I want. That’s ok, as I already have a thin layer on the garden and I can top it up later. Now I can have a few weeks of just watering things in until I have to start on the back garden in autumn.

That’s all my news, goodnight.

LJ, the cake looks professional, Is it hard to slice? MY OCD tendencies had me looking for slicing paths amid the flowers and, thick or thin slices, I’d be hitting the florets. Not to mention the hard icing – how’s it done – with a sharp, hot knife? The door knocker is super. I have a dragonfly dangling in the front of the boat. We see spectacular iridescent blue ones on the canals in summer.

CharlieG, gosh, 14 days is a long time to isolate. Is that the govt. guideline or are you trying to stay ultra-safe? Isolation is now seven days here. Even if you live with someone who’s tested positive, you can carry on as normal provided you’re vaccinated and test neg. daily – not possible of course if tests are unavailable to you. I wouldn’t queue up for anything ever, let alone get in a queue with potentially covid + people. How exciting to be making your clothes smaller.

CharlieG, I feel for you. OH and I moved here within a month of DD starting her first job in England (we were coming for the narrow boating adventure anyway but she got here first) and even though we’ve been in the same country since then, we hardly see her. I am still coming to terms with the empty nest and miss her being around so much. Soon, I suspect she’ll be looking at other jobs in who knows which countries and of course we can’t just follow her around the world. Missing the grandchildren growing up would be so hard for you. I read someone’s comment yesterday, “my children think their grandparents live in a computer”.

Hello friends,
Lovely morning after fast day and I had 2 chickpea flour wraps with a mixture of cooked green beans, roasted red capsicum, and avocado (squeeze of lemon) for breakfast. More than 2 serves of veg already.

Dreadfully humid here, but at least it is raining.

Thin, what a delight to see a kingfisher. I woke to the sound of a kookaburra a couple of times since Christmas. So excited because I haven’t heard one for years. I felt terribly deprived.

LJoyce, great cake! (Thin, surely the birthday girl would have just plucked the top off to keep for herself, and let everyone else eat cake 😀 )
LJoyce, were you pleased with your new recipe?

I LOVE LOVE LOVE your dragonfly knocker! Most beautiful one in the world, surely! What a treat it will be to have that welcoming visitors.

Congratulations on the garden done! What pleasure it will be, watering everything in.

I think I said that I am concentrating on two garden experiments this year. Spaghetti squash, and baby watermelons. I had so many watermelon seeds come up, but only two have survived and they are still so tiny. I can’t imagine them managing to grow and fruit and ripen before it gets too cold, but I will keep looking after them the best I can. The spaghetti squash are small and slow too, so maybe it is the season, so far only boy flowers.
I’m also battling woolly aphids, I wish their predators would come along and eat them up!

Charlie, How exciting to be planning a new quilting project, and even more exciting, wonderful made to measure clothes of material and size you can choose! I would love to be able to do that. We might demand some photos!

So sorry you have to say good bye to your daughter’s family for a while. I hope they have a good trip back to Europe. Fingers crossed for a big family Christmas in 2023.

Neil, nice work, and yummy food! I made Ma Ki Dal again yesterday (my current favourite). I’ll have some for lunch.

Good to hear about the fb group (we will miss you if you don’t stil come here sometimes though!).

Cheers everyone

Good evening all.

Good to catch up on all the recent posts. I was very impressed, LJoyce, with your last cake – you made the icing so smooth! Love the dragonfly doorknocker. My lavender is in full bloom at the moment and covered with bees, some butterflies, and I’ve seen a couple of dragonflies there, too.

Thin, re RAT kits, sadly, although pensioners are eligible for free tests, I think we’ll be waiting at least a few weeks before enough become available for us to get any from the pharmacist. I guess it will be like hand sanitiser, which disappeared for a couple of months early in the pandemic and couldn’t be found anywhere, and now there’s almost an oversupply everywhere. Just have to be patient.

Neil, glad you’re staying with us. Each month, I actually join a forum that runs month to month for extra accountability too.

Okay – my FD? Well, I was doing okay, but then disaster! My neighbours had given me a real Italian panettone for Christmas and I’d eaten some, and then some more and then even more over recent days, but I saved some for my Italian friend. Unfortunately, she told me on the phone this afternoon that she already has a full panetone at her place, and is actually needing to lose weight. Well, I couldn’t sabotage her weight loss, now could I? 🙂 So, I polished the rest of the panetonne off late afternoon/ early evening, converting my FD into a TDEE. Well, it’s all gone now, so I should manage better next week. I’ve been drinking water this evening to stop me from doing any further snacking.

Cinque, a kookaburra! How lovely. I see a variety of birds at my birdbaths on my back lawn, but that’s one which hasn’t appeared. I’ve counted 20 different types of birds so far that I’ve seen drinking water or taking a bath.

Charlie G, clever you to be making your own clothes. I’ve had the unfortunate opposite problem by putting weight back on, in having to buy some larger-fitting clothes again. Not many, as I’m determined to lose the weight again, plus I dived into the bags of clothes I set aside ages ago to take to the op shop and retrieved a few items. Once I lose the weight, out they’ll go again.

Goodnight and sleep well.

Just started reading the book and have just registered for the site.
Hoping to get inspiration, ideas and support.

Thin, Facebook is a lot better for instant support. Because a lot of people are on it all the time, you can get instant responses from people when you need it and get the notifications on your phone right away. I like this site and use it for tracking my progress and chatting but it can be a day or two in between posts sometimes.

Betsy, I hear you. I tried a fast day yesterday and did ok on Lunch and dinner, but then I was making some sweets out of some leftover fondant icing (mixed peppermint oil through half, raspberry essence through the other half and coated them in dark and white chocolate respectively and had to nibble while I was doing it. Ended up around 1200 calories rather than 800.

We’ll have a great one everyone

Hello,
Afternoon already!
Still looking after my sore neck, and everything else, haha, including my diet. But I forgot it was Sunday! I’ll fast tomorrow instead.

Yay Neil, and I am glad the fb group is immediate, healthy and supportive. That creeping back on of weight is such a trick.
Congratulations on getting those hours of grass cutting done. I bet the frisbee people appreciate it so much.

Ooh yum those rockmelons! Haha, masks are perfect for holding them.

This morning my squash plant had a girl flower, so I could feed her lots of pollen. Yesterday I picked flowers, dipped them into the besan cheela mix I had sitting in the fridge, and panfried them, and they were wonderful.

Betsy, I love panettone too. I have been especially missing it this year. My home help used to get given one from an Italian family and pass it on to me (she had very conservative tastes) and I enjoyed it so much!

Hooray for managing such a good loss in spite of the overindulgence. Let’s hope you have a wonderful week or two and zoom past your sticking point. You will feel so good!

What a fabulous set up you have made for birdlife! (Mostly pigeons and Indian mynas around here). Poor Wilbur though. I hope he is okay.

Thin, you remind me of the bird life I saw when I was living and teaching in the remote NT. Flocks of red tailed cockatoos, and the white-faced heron standing in the water. So many more.

Enjoy beautiful Spain.

Welcome MS O, have you had your first fast day?

Cheers everyone