Hello everyone,
I woke up early (4am) and couldn’t get back to sleep so I went for a walk just as it was getting light and it was so nice! Flying foxes, owls, a micro bat (well, a little one anyway) and the scent of lemon gum.

And then I treated myself to a cup of coffee (I usually wait until after breakfast).
I’m trying to wait until 7 am to eat breakfast, so isn’t it lucky I have you lot to write to!

Gday, I have a pattern of reading your posts, replying, and then finding out you never read them. You had better come back soon to give me the confidence to respond! 😀
Fingers crossed you can.

Neil, wow, you won’t be reading either, for a while. What a wonderful trip to be on! I do so hope the weather is good for you. I hope you have the best time.

Happy Holidays to you too Thin. Hooray for the stitches out! I do hope it might be the end of the bunion saga. What a lovely Christmas present.
Thank goodness for the hand and foot warmers. I hope you are enjoying Oxford. I am rewatching the Endeavour series, so I will be thinking of you as they show the spires, and even more so when they show a bit of the countryside.

I managed to avoid excess food by having a gentle Christmas on my own. My daughter gave me the most exquisite laksa broth that she had made, and some cold chicken, and two of my Christmas day meals were laksa! (I do have to have small bowls). What a treat that was. I wouldn’t mind making it my new tradition.

And now it is my favourite time of year for opshopping as people donate Christmas presents they didn’t want.

Sending out best wishes to everyone.

Hi all and a very Merry Christmas to each and every one of you.

I’ll keep this short and come back soon with more, it’s just to let you know I’m still here, lurking and reading all your lovely news but not posting. I find it really difficult to post when I am not losing or even trying?! I’m happy to report I’m back on the horse! I have a milestone birthday coming up so I really want to reach a target weight for that so I can enjoy it without the guilt.

Currently parked up in Bannockburn, Cromwell, enjoying some really hot days, about 28’c today with lovely clear blue skies, no house sitting for us this year as we have done the previous two years, so relaxing and enjoying some great company, weather, fresh fruit and cricket.

Speak again soon Turn.

Good morning.
I slept a lot better and woke up to the wonderful sound of a kookaburra. Haven’t heard one for years.

Lindsay hello! Sympathy for the mad weather and destruction poor Queensland has suffered. I hope you are keeping cool. And I hope you got through to the handyman in time, got another sleep, and had a restful day after your late night. Still sending that flow of good wishes.

Turn, I know! It is very hard to come here and talk about failing to do 5:2 on a 5:2 forum. Well, I really hope you have got back on the horse, because that way we will be getting your posts again. And yes, why not be trim and healthy for your significant birthday.
I thought Neil must have been bicycling in a circle around you, but I see he is circling just below.

Is it lovely not to be housesitting for a while? Hooray for relaxation.

Thin, thankyou, yes. I did have a lovely time alone. I had been with the family just before Christmas day (minding grandchildren so Rose could wrap presents) and then left them to enjoy family time while my SIL has some holidays.

I am reading your canal update thinking how lovely it would be… and then remembering it isn’t 17c with the sun shining, as it is here. So I hope you are keeping snug and there are no fallen trees or other canal snags.

The five hours will be gone, so I hope you are safely at your destination with all the locks and miles behind you.

Merry, are you there?
Intesha, how are you?
Hi Anzac,
Cheers to everyone.

Having a go at a haiku

So many years unheard
Glorious, heart-filling sound
K-kookaburra

Hello everyone,

Cinque my apologies for not reading your responses to my posts, I do promise to be more on the ball from now on 😄😄. It has been frustrating not being here as often as I used too as I do enjoy the wonderful community we have here. Here’s to a change for 2024.

Apart from cutting down on coffee, which has been going very well by the way, I’m also cutting down on the time I spend on social media – namely FB. I’ve dropped out of a lot of the groups I was in and culled a lot of people/places I followed. FB feed is just full of advertising and absolute rubbish really and I’ve got much better things to be spending my time on instead of mindlessly scrolling.

The exception to this is my business FB and Instagram accounts which are both steadily growing in followers over the last 2 months. I’ve also jumped out of my comfort zone and am now posting video blogs/posts instead of written blogs/posts. I thought I would be terrible at it and come across badly but actually I’m not too bad, even Miss G’Day is impressed with my videos. I don’t rehearse anything, just decide on a subject to talk about and just start talking. I come across as quite relaxed, composed and natural, which is what I was aiming for but not how I expected I would be.

Miss G’Day is now my editor, and we are getting quite creative with the videos, adding in bits and pieces to make them more interesting to view. Who would have thought it eh; me, the shy, introvert who hates being in front of a camera or speaking in public would enjoy and be comfortable being a video blogger 😄😄 It’s amazing when we push ourselves outside of our comfort zones, anything is possible.

Oh Neil congratulations on the ride but also disappointing the conditions didn’t match the scenery.

Christmas and New Years was very quiet for us as always. I do hope everyone had an enjoyable time. xx

Hi Gemmo and welcome! Yes! I have been successful on 5:2. I’m in my tenth year having started in August 2014 when I lost 23kgs. I’ve been maintaining that weight (60kgs) for the past eight years on a combination of 5:2 and 6:1. I have never missed a fast day in all that time so that’s my number one tip – don’t let anyone or anything get in the way of your fast days.

Sadly, I was 58 when I discovered IF after about twenty years of being overweight, losing huge amounts of weight and gaining it all back, always depressed and consumed by my weight. Ask me anything. If you feel like sharing where you’re located or what you’re hoping to achieve, I will love to hear from you. You will find this a very supportive group – I’ve been here since we were on page 42. My FD is Sunday and I look forward to having another buddy here to fast with.

Hello to everyone else. Internet is lousy but I will reply properly soon. (Cinque, that five hours took several days but we’re finally in our winter mooring.)

Hi Gemmo, we’re all in different stages of our weight loss journeys. I started on the fast 800 for 12 weeks back in 2019, then moved to 4:3, 5:2, and 6:1 and I managed to go from 132.5 kilos to 84.5 kilos within 11 months. I managed to keep it off for a whole year after that before I had a really bad run with my wife’s health, work stress, financial stress, injury, and then the death of my mother. Since I’m a stress/emotional eater my weight has crept back up over the last few years to the point where I’m now back above 100 kilos. I’m still nowhere near where I was before, but still struggling to shift it this time.

Hi Carley Marie,
Welcome here! Are you just starting 5:2?

Carley, welcome back! Did you lose the 20kgs you set out to shed in 2014?

Cinque, thank you, yes we’re finally settled in our winter mooring. It’s canal side with electricity hook-up in a small, picturesque village with excellent public transport to Banbury and Oxford. We’re located between two canal side pubs, one of which is the scene of several Morse episodes back in the day. Our neighbour is a trapeze artist.

I’m fasting today – a small bowl of Hairy Bikers’ Thai Chicken Curry for dinner.

The internet is very poor. The rain has subsided but now it’s cold again. We’re off to Cuba to get some warmth. It’s a country I’ve wanted to visit for thirty years. I don’t have a fasting plan yet but I will have my trusty travel scales packed in my 7kg of luggage to guide me. With any luck, we’ll meet up with DD somewhere on her way back from S. America. I doubt I’ll be posting as I’m not taking any devices except my small phone and the internet is virtually non-existent we’re told.

So, I wish you all a happy and successful start to the year and hope to read lots of fasting news when I return.

Hello dear friends, happy New Year!

I’ve just finished reading all of your lovely posts but I’m on the train going into the office as I was unable to login from home and the helpdesk said I needed to connect to the office network to fix the problem. Drats, not how I wanted to start my working year but it is what it is. It’s tricky to type on my phone so I’ll have a nice chatty catch-up when I am back on my laptop

Our holiday was fantastic but sadly I came down with Mr A’s virus at the end of our trip. It’s a nasty one but one silver lining is a complete lack of appetite so I lost several kilos that I now plan to keep off and continue losing

Back soon!

Afternoon all

Day 2 back at work and I’m starting to get back into the swing of things.

At the moment I’m trying to bust through this slow but consistent weight gain by starting out on the fast800 that I did so well at originally. I’m into my second day of it now and starting to get that withdrawal thing happening. Fatigue, brain fog, lethargy, dizziness, all the fun parts of keto flu. I haven’t had the headaches yet but I’m only 2 days in, still plenty of time for them to show up. From experience if so can push through the first 4 days or so then it gets easier. Dinner yesterday was beef stir-fry without the noodles that I added in for the rest of the family, tonight will be grilled fish with sweet corn and coleslaw. Friday will be the challenge because we always do movie snacks, and no doubt my boys will still want to eat them. I’ll just try and will myself to not nibble at them.

The real issue with the keto flu is riding my bike home. By the end of the day I’m really fatigued, and cycling up the hill feels so draining that when I get home so just want to eat. I’ll try for two weeks to start out (if I have the willpower to get that far), and if it’s working I might try to extend it.

I’ll let you know how I get on.

Good morning all

Neil, that is brilliant. Such an incentive too.

After my disappointing .1 loss my first week, I now find I’m down another .3, which is satisfying.

How are things in Melbourne Cinque? Exciting, with the Australian Open starting soon? We went to the inaugural Brisbane Open a few years back, and although the atmosphere was amazing, watching on television gave us a better view of the game. One day we’ll get to the Open.

Cinque I loved your haiku. Yes, a blissful sound. We have a kooka family – they’ve been here for years – and they call at around 3 am. I find it’s a sound I can wake to, think ‘ah, must be around 3’, then go happily back to sleep. Unlike the frustrating beep of my phone, to find it’s one of those scam ‘Australia Post your parcel address needs updating’ texts or the like. Can anyone answer me this – I have the sleep function on, so proper, legitimate texts don’t ping, but the scam ones do.

Enjoying my coffee, and about to the diabolical soduku before the roofing man comes. Our new roof had a couple of very minor leaks in the Boxing Day deluge …great to have it tested so soon. The company has been excellent – which is not something we an often say these days.

Have a good one all.

Happy New Year to everyone, hope you have had an enjoyable holiday season!
I have some catching up to do.

My Christmas New Year was lovely catching up with family and a little holiday. I did over-indulge just a little but also didn’t do FDs since Christmas Day so ended up putting a kg back on. Back to a FD last Monday and eating clean. healthy and normally this week has me going down again, and tomorrow is my next FD.

Check in:
Start weight – 73.5 kg
Goal – 62 kg
Pre- Christmas 70.0 kg
Today – 70.3 kg

Bye for now,
Onwards and Downwards

Welcome Gemmo and Carley.Marie.

Gemmo we have a lot of non-fasting talk on the forum as the majority of us have been here for many, many years and have come to know each other very well, so hence the chit chat about other happenings in our lives. Plus some have been in maintenance mode for quite awhile so fasting patterns are routine with not much to report around weight gain or loss.

Carley.Marie I’m a south Aussie too, as is LJoyce. Are you city or regional if you don’t mind me asking.

I joined the forum 2016 or 2017, too lazy to go back to my profile to check the exact year. I lost about 15 kg, regained when I hit menopause and then 5:2 stopped working for me so I switched to my own form of keto and intermittent fasting (48 to 80 hour fasts every couple of weeks) and then lost about 25kg. Have regained a couple of kilos over the last 18 months due to the stress of the unexpected passing of my husband but I am now in the right mindset to get back on track and back to my old routine.

I must dash, I’ve been up since 4am and it’s time to get into my swimmers and off to the local pool for my daily lap session. I like to get there just before they open at 6am so I can get one of the outside lanes, no particular reason, I just like outside lanes 🤣 Happy Thursday everyone,

Oh exciting news, my sauna finally arrived yesterday so I’m hoping I will have time today or tomorrow to assemble.

Day after FD Check-in:

Start weight: 73.5 kg
Goal weight: 62 kg
Before Thur FD; 70.3 kg
Today: 69.9 kg. Yay!!!!

Getting under 70.0 kg was my 1st mini-goal, so mini-goal achieved. Big smiles.

Started 5:2 in November 2014 after severe and then long term chronic illness and putting on about 30kgs, and getting stuck after losing the 1st 10 kgs on my own over several years. Started 5:2 at about 83.5 kgs and reached my goal weight of 62 kgs. So a 30kg loss overall with 2/3 of that using 5:2, and being on the forum for a long time.

Covid years and some other stressful Life and health stuff threw me off track and off the forum and I landed up at 73.5 kgs. So….I’m back on my weight loss journey to get back to 62 kgs and back on the forum again.

Bye for now,
Merry
Onwards and Downwards,
and if you fall off the horse get back on again.

Well…Crap!

I started getting a sore throat yesterday afternoon, it started morphing into achey joints, raised temperature, then by the time I cycled home I was absolutely exhausted. I did a Covid test, and within 2 minutes I had a thick dark positive line on the test. So looks like I’ll be isolating for the next 5 days.

Good morning everyone,

Hello Merry!
I searched images for ‘congratulations on your mini goal’ and google thought this was appropriate, how can I disagree?
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/kCcAAOSwopNiQtOB/s-l1600.jpg

It does sound like lovely Christmas with family, and now a lovely time of eating frugally and beautifully.

Neil, Oh No. Sending good wishes for a full and speedy recovery.
This time I wondered if they had covid specific get well wishes… well, sort of. This was my favourite
https://02dd5f64038d9e2d7aae-56d86e996af26366aec8b255ed6f7c7b.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/img-mwQuVLbO-large.jpg

Your tennis story made me laugh, that phone scrolling! But ofcourse there might have been a deeper story behind it.
Lindsay mentioning the tennis did make me remember how much I enjoyed watching it… was it last year? Anyway I found it on TV but my brain was a bit too jumpy and I didn’t settle into it. I will keep trying though, I love it when I do get into it.

We were brought up to eat everything on the plate, but it wasn’t hard most of the time. 😉 Servings were smaller back in the olden days when I was young (and part of a big family that struggled for money). I was always trying to get seconds. I loved growing up and being able to cook more and eat until I was full and then have dessert.

I was watching “Poirot’ and the show ended with them eating (1930’s) icecream cones that were about half the size of even the smallest ones we have today.

Gday, how nice to start the day off with a swim, and woot for a sauna! I hope it has all gone in beautifully.

Lindsay, I am so sorry to hear about those two tendons in your hip. Let’s see, were you doing high wire acrobatics? Wrestling sealions? Climbing Mt Arapiles?
And on top of bursitis! I know from my sister how terribly painful that is.
Fingers crossed the treatment works! If it works, will you notice gradual improvement? I do so hope it works, it must be hard to manage anything at the moment.

You were right about the rule of 3. 3 is the number! Just 3 things. As small as you like.

Off to do three things now. (I had better count getting dressed as one or I will be in trouble!)

Cheers all

Hello everyone, happy Monday

We have had some horrible humid days but last night a cold change hit so we have opened up the house so the cool breeze can drift through. Even though I love the heat, this was diabolical

Oh no Neil, Covid again. I hope you are feeling ok and can recover quickly

Lindsay, so sorry to read about your hip and bursitis problems. I hope the PCP treatment helps. Enjoy your break on the Island with the girls and fingers crossed for Rosy and her pregnancy

On top of everything else health-wise poor Maxx came home from the kennel with a bug. Lots of vomiting and two vet visits (farewell $600) he is now much better. I’m glad he came good as the next step was x-rays and an ultrasound. Poor poppet but he is back to his bouncing, thieving self and I never thought I would be so happy to see his tail disappearing out the back door with my thong (flip flop) in his mouth. We are looking at other options for our trip this year and have found a lovely couple in the next suburb via the pet sitting website Madpaws who can take him for 4 of the 6 weeks so 2 weeks in the kennel is much better than 6. They have a 4 year old lab so the two of them will have a ball

Thin, Cuba! We loved it so much but the food was mostly terrible. Can’t wait to hear all about it

LJ, we have booked a river cruise whilst in Europe! Ours also starts in Hungary but we are going from Budapest to Nuremberg in Germany via Vienna, Durnstein, Saltzburg and Regensburg (down the Danube). Also on our trip: Venice (because we loved it so much), Amsterdam, Barcelona, London, Scotland, Athens and Santorini

Hello Merry, lovely to hear from you. Congrats on the mini-goal

Cinque, we too were brought up being forced to eat everything on the plate but our portions were HUGE. My mum was a feeder. I still to this day have to think twice when giving myself portions that less is more

I have a brand-new spreadsheet with mini goals and so much motivation. I lost my weight for the last big trip in 2019 so I can do it again

Take care all

Hello everyone,

Neil, so glad the worst is over. Do all the good things, to recover well.

Anzac, I heard Adam Liaw the other day, talking about how bad the restaurant food was in Cuba. Apparently the trick is to eat in people’s homes, so hopefully Thin has managed that somehow!

So sorry to hear of Maxx’s troubles. I am so glad he is better now, and you have a good solution for the next time you are away.

All power to you with those smaller meals. It must be hard when, what with your early life and then the huge meals eating out and in advertising, you try to give yourself a sensible plate of food.

Mine still have the urge to creep up in size! I have to stay vigilant.

Hooray for your spreadsheet!

Cheers all

Hello everyone.

Lindsay there is only an outdoor pool here, open from November to April so a very short season to be able to swim. The 2 biggest regional towns either side of where I live both have heated indoor pools open all year but it’s a 2 hour round trip to either one of those towns so not possible to swim all year for me unfortunately.

Oh Neil am I right In thinking you’ve been hit with covid a few times now ? What a pain.

Merry congratulations on hitting the mini goal. I remember moving from the 70s down to the 60s, felt awesome to see the new number on the scales.

Loving the sauna, so easy to put together, 3 walls slot into the floor and lock together with locking clips (they must have a special name but no idea what they are called) then the door front slots in and on with the top which was the only section that had screws to screw in. All up about 20 mins to put together. And it looks fantastic too, beautiful wood paneling.

Off to adelaide tomorrow (Friday), just a quick day trip to collect some bits and pieces from Bunnings (for me) and IKEA (for Miss GDay). From Saturday for the following 7 days we have predicted temps of 40 plus here so beating the heat with a day trip only. It doesn’t bother me being out and about in the heat but I don’t like leaving our pets outside in those temps so hence the day trip.

My caffeine reduction is going well. I Abstained for one month and now having just 2 expressos a week, huge reduction from 6 large cups of instant coffee every single day. No wonder I’m not peeing as much in the mornings now !!

Miss GDay and I have been making pasties today. Yesterday we made 18 batches (yes 18) of the Hairy Bikers Cornish Pasty recipe and refrigerated overnight. Today we made 70 (yes 70) pasty slices for the freezer. Marathon effort indeed, started at 7am and cleaned up and pasties in the freezer by 3pm. I’ve had one of the shed chest freezers switched off for about 6 months as I have been too busy to do much batch cooking so it wasn’t needed but I’m now doing a big cook up each week to restock the freezers again.

Last week we made 4 large trays of lasagne, the week before it was stew and batches of rice, next week it will be sausage rolls., then sweet potato and ricotta rolls, spinach and ricotta cannelloni and vegie bakes. All frozen and portioned into one person size meals. Before Xmas I made quite a few different soups for the freezers too. Lots of carby foods there but they freeze well and so easy for Miss GDay to get her own meal if I’m busy or fasting. I always have mine with a large salad so I’m not consuming too much white processed carbs, balance it out with a healthy salad.

Must go, have prattled on enough for one post. Bye for now

Hello lovelies,

Anzac, what a miserable dried chicken story. Hooray for the home cooked breakfast.
Hooray for that 700g gone. You are right, small things make such a difference.
I hope you get some clear dry days n Sydney soon.

Gday, that sauna sounds amazing. Well done! I can’t imagine putting anything together in 20 minutes, I’m impressed!
I hope it was a lovely successful Adelaide trip.
What brilliant batch cooking!

I am just ‘eating my freezer’ and it is taking weeks, even though my bulk cooking is more 4 – 6 serves rather than 70. (I wouldn’t mind having 70 pasties though).
As well as finishing the frozen meals I made, there are bits and pieces like a little container of left over gravy I froze, and some bamboo shoots, tomato paste, halloumi (yum!) and things like that I want to get used up.

My daughter has given up on the veg box as they messed around her payment, so I am celebrating what a good and interesting time it has been fitting my cooking around the veggie box, and also enjoying getting back to my old routine of planning some meals first and then buying to suit them… as soon as I have eaten the freezer.

Neil, Happy Holidays!
Enjoy that one coffee a day, and all the lovely things.

I had a very social day yesterday meeting up with my sisters and their partners, my daughter and kids and my nephew for a lovely lunch. I ordered so cleverly (sharing things with a sister) that I didn’t have leftovers for my doggy bag! But then my granddaughter had a couple of her pizza pieces left over for me to bring home 😀 Beautifully cooked in a woodfired oven so a treat for later.

And it was so good to catch up with the son of my sister Jan (who died 15 months ago) we talked for a couple of hours before he went back to Bendigo.

I did an absolutely brutal clean out of my wardrobe, and I am so pleased I did. Everything left are things I just love so much.

Best wishes everyone. Keep doing the good things!

Well what a week it’s been. We headed over to the island last Monday evening, with two of the little girls and the doggos. Beautiful Tuesday morning walk on the beach, swim, icecream and lunch, all had showers and settling in to read and snooze, when I got a call from OH in the bathroom. He was passing blood – not a few drops – a couple of cups, at least. Emergency evacuation off the island, a week in hospital (where he remains) and no answers. All they can say is there’s no sign of malignancy. Very scary. Hopefully he’ll be home tomorrow.

The little girls were such troupers. After the paramedics took OH, we had a couple of hours until we could get a barge home. They packed all their things and helped clean up the house etc., all without needing to be asked. I brought them home with me – they could gave gone home but I felt if they needed to talk about what happened, it would be best so I could explain things. So we sat on the sofa and we watched The Castle (‘very sweary marmar’, the 10 year old warned), and they went to bed comfortable with the events of the day.

The 10 year old blew me away. After the paramedics left, she commented that the intertwined snakes on their uniforms were the same as Hermes had. Ignorant me thought she meant Hermes the brand. No, she was talking about the caduseus symbol and Hermes the Greek god. How does she know these things?

Turn, Anzac, no news yet on Rosy’s pregnancy. We should know on Thursday when she has her ultrasound, but I feel she is in whelp.

I love the notion of eating the freezer Cinque. Mine unfortunately is stocked with meat (I bought a side of beef, so OH could have more red meat)and not delicious home made things. Lovely to have that catchup with your family, and your sister’s son. You must miss her.

anzac, yuk for dry grilled chicken. We had something similar in Portugal with translation of a dish, which seemed to say “Mother of Chicken”. In fact that’s exactly whatit was; a boiled whole hen. Nothing with it. Just boiled hen.

Your cooking sounds amazing Gday ….what a task. Ditto with the sauna. Very practical skills you have.

Nei, glad the Covid is passing. Still, how very unpleasant.

OK, dog dinner time, and it’s a stinking 38 degrees so cooking chicken porridge is the last thing I want to do, but it’s so good for them, and makes their coats shine so beautifully. The temps drop by 10 degrees from tomorrow, but a cyclone is circling and the BOM is forecasting severe flooding if it swings south.

My weight is holding, btw, but not dropping much. Well, .1 of a kilo a week since the start of the year. At this rate, it will take 10 weeks to lose just one kilo which I can then put on with just a day of careless eating. Still, bigger fish to fry just at the moment.

Hi everyone,

Hi Turn – lovely to hear how you are going and what a good start it’s been. Well done you. Great idea to get everything sorted and re-stocked to set up for continuing 800.

Lindsay – Woah, hope Mr L is improving, it get’s sorted and he’s back home soon. So grateful for our paramedics and ambos. Quite an experience for you and your kiddies and what troopers they are. Maybe your 10 year old has been reading some of the Percy Jackson series. All revolves around kids who discover they are the 1/2 mortal children of Greek Gods. We’ve had a similar experience of a younger one, and that was the source.

Cinque – So sorry to hear about your sister. How special to have a wonderful family catchup and some dedicated time with your sister’s son.

Thin – Cuba hey, you do get around. So interesting to visit there but the universal dry chicken sounds dreadful. Wishing you some much better 5:2ish food.

Neil – must be a relief to be coming out of this lot of Covid without a nasty dose. While the worst may be over there’s still quite a lot of it around. Best wishes to your wife for getting well soon. Yay for January sport to watch.

G’day – I’m gobsmacked. What a culinary feat. Hat’s off to you and Miss G’Day!

Day after Fast Day check-in:
Start weight: 73.5 kg
Weigh-in: 69.5 kg
Loss to date: 4.0 kg
Goal weight: 62.0 kg
It’s a bit of the usual see-saw between FD’s but still on a downward average overall.

Best wishes to everyone for a good remainder of January. A bit of tennis watching going on here.
Bye for now,

Onwards and Downwards,
Merry,
And if you fall off the horse climb back on.

Good morning everyone. I finally have the time and energy for an update.

I have been busy with school holiday babysitting and had forgotten (as I always seem to) just how tiring that is over the long summer break. The kids went back to school this week. My great-nephew started high school, but he seemed unphased by the transition. More running around for my nephew’s wife though as their youngest is still at primary school for 2 more years.

My last goal had been to not gain weight over December. I succeeded with that up until Christmas day and then the wheels fell off. Several unplanned social events popped up between Christmas and new year and I ended the month a couple of kilos up. That’s now off and I’m slowly inching my way down further. I’m hovering just above 80kg at the moment and am hoping to be somewhere in the 70s when I head off on the next holiday (only a month away).

I am trying to keep my increased exercise regime up, but that’s a real challenge on the hot days.

I’ve had a flurry of medical appointments this week that I deliberately scheduled for after the babysitting ended. Two more appointments this afternoon, including another covid booster with the latest vaccine (I’m happy to be getting that before my trip).

I’m catching up with all the posts I’ve missed and will post some comments separately.

Take care.

Good afternoon. I have now had a chance to catch up on the posts from recent weeks.

Lindsay, I do hope Mr L recovers soon. What a frightening experience for you all.
Amazing things your grand daughters come out with.

GDSA, I hope you are getting some of the rain that’s just arrived in Adelaide.
I am astounded at the food production happening in your house.

Merry, excellent work getting back into the the 60s.

Anzac, that trip is sounding awesome. Make sure you have some days in Budapest. There’s a lot to see. The man who drove us to our hotel from the airport said that it’s a very safe city even to walk around, even in the evening. We took him at his word and it was lovely to see the city lit up at night.
I seriously looked at an Avalon cruise from Budapest to Nuremberg when I was deciding where to sail – in the end a heavily discounted price led me to my chosen cruise.

Neil, glad to hear that you got over covid more swiftly this time. Hope you are back to normal now.

Turn, good luck with the 800cal program – I’m also doing something similar at present.

Cinque, so nice that you caught up with your sisters and nephew.
I do have eating the freezer weeks too, where every evening meal must use something from the freezer. I usually have to resort to that when it’s so full I can barely close it.
I too have been culling clothes – and buying lots more from op shops!

Thin, I hope you are enjoying Cuba, and managing to avoid the overcooked chicken. Hope you manage to catch up with your daughter during your travels.

If I’ve forgotten anyone, hello. Hope you are going ok.

After the weight gain in the last week of December I’ve been very careful with my eating. I’ve mostly been aiming for 800-1000cal every day. I’m not counting calories but have a good idea of food choices and portion sizes that keep me in that range. While the weather’s been hot I’ve been making a large iced mocha for brunch (coffee, cocoa, stevia, psyllium, low cal almond milk and skim milk powder plus lots of ice and water blended in a large tumbler) It’s very filling and keeps me going until mid afternoon when I make a really thick smoothie from one serve of frozen fruit (usually berries), one serve of dairy (usually yoghurt/kefir & almond milk), psyllium, stevia, heaps of ice and a bit of water. It’s so thick I can eat it with a spoon like soft serve icecream. Dinner is a large leafy salad with a small portion grilled chicken or lamb. If the weather becomes colder I’ll need to change my choices, but the cold smoothies have been lovely on the hot days. I’ve been worried about the limited access to exercise while I’m on the ship combined with the apparently excellent cuisine. So I want to be as light as possible before I go. I will be able to walk around the ship, but it only holds 270 passengers, so it’s a much smaller vessel than most cruse ships (no large decks to walk laps around). They have a gym on board so I can use an exercise mat to do some yoga each day.

As I mentioned above, I’ve been scouring the op shops recently. I had a bit of a panic after christmas when I realised I have to dress in evening clothes for dinner on the ship. I own one wedding appropriate outfit only (I go out to lunch not dinner these days so I never replaced my evening clothes collection from when I was much larger)! I can’t stretch one outfit to cover 10 nights! I have a pair of black pants that are suitable for evening and a reversible organza wrap around skirt (plum one side and dark blue the other). They are both light weight and don’t crease so I decided I’d take both garments and then hunt for tops to go with them. I ended up buying more than I really needed – I came home with 13 items. I have 9 tops, 2 lightweight evening jackets, a beaded black lace scarf and a pleated silver wrap. The total came to $102 (it would have been less but 2 items were quality brands and priced around $20 each). I have enough now that I can work out which garment selection gives me the best mix and match options without taking any more space than absolutely necessary. I only have a medium sized suitcase and I have a large pair of rubber boots for getting onto the Antarctic ice that take up half the suitcase space. Given that I also need bulky cold weather clothing I could see it wasn’t all going to fit. So I ended up buying a carry on duffle bag in the post Christmas sales that I can use as my carry-on luggage, so that I have enough space for everything I have to take. I even considered ordering room service dinners most nights on the ship so I could avoid all of the palaver of dressing up, but decided it was just too antisocial to do that. I did enjoy the socialising at meal times on the river cruise.

I have a day off from my eating regime tomorrow. My neighbour always hosts an Australia day lunch to which we all bring a salad or dessert. She placed a special request for a specific dessert – mostachon de fresa – Mexican strawberry meringue cake. (It’s a cross between a pavlova and a cheesecake). I did point out the inappropriateness of her asking for a Mexican dessert for Australia Day. I had better get baking very soon as the base needs to be cold before I can do the next stages.

The drizzle from this morning has turned into heavy steady rain while I’ve been typing. My garden will be very happy.

Take care everyone.

Hi everyone, back in the land of the living, just on 10 days. The first week really struggled awake some days for over 24 hours and completely wired. Eventually went and got some melatonin tablets before I drove myself crazy with sleep deprivation. Had two good nights sleep and last night slept without tablets.
Too many posts to reply to but have loved reading all the messages. GDay you are awesome and such a role model after all you have been through. Hope Thin is enjoying her trip, it’s strange not having her post.
My trip was wonderful if not somewhat freezing. Spending time with the family for Xmas/New Year indescribable , so many memories. Had a chauffeur driven tour of the London Xmas lights, spent time at the Xmas markets in Trafalgar Square and listened to Carol singers, walked down Oxford Street and went to Covent Garden. Had an absolutely thoroughly spoilt afternoon tea at the 5* Corinthia Hotel, the staff couldn’t do enough for us and the food was exceptional. We even got to take home leftovers.
Our three day trip to Spain was amazing. Went to Cartegna to view the three kings festival, also amazing and did some other sightseeing.
Now preparing for my trip to India in March. LJoyce regarding packing. Today I ordered some compression packing cubes from Amazon for $39. I’d never heard of them before but an ad came up in my Facebook feed. They look great, might work for you. There are quite a few varieties of different costs.
Apart from my India and Turkey trips I have now also booked one for Morocco in October. I’ve decided that this year is for me regardless of cost, as we all know life can throw us curve balls at anytime.
I received a Xmas card from my brother but have know inclination to contact him. Still waiting to hear from the solicitor to finalise everything.
Although not back into 5:2 I still leave 14-16 hours from dinner to breakfast. I know it is mostly water but have managed to lose a few kilos since returning. I was 78.3 and last weigh in a few days ago 75.7 Still a long way from the 65 I was a few years ago but I’m determined to get back down.
Hello to Cinque/Anzac/Lindsay/Turn/Merry and anyone I’ve forgotten. Let’s hope this year is a better one for us all. Take care