LJ, that’s a great idea to use only items in your fridge, freezer or pantry for a week. My pantry seems to be packed lately because I order online for home delivery for a lot of our pantry items and things I already have get pushed to the back. Same with many of the freezer items. I bet I could go at least a week except for some fresh fruits and vegetables. And I might discover more jars of mustard with 2014 expiration dates!

Thin, what a great idea to buy a car with a manual transmission for your daughter to learn to drive. I’m looking forward to dependable self driving cars.:)

We finally got a break on the weather. Thank you for sending it over, Cinque! Our high today was about 33c. Tomorrow it’s supposed to be 30. And it drops down even further at nigh so we can open windows and turn on the whole house fan. There have been so many wild fires on the west coast though. Many are only a few acres and they get them right away. But there is one huge one about 140km from here, as the crow flies, that has reached 307,368 acres tonight with no containment yet. It’s north of here in a very hilly, mountainous forest area. Those are the hardest places to fight fires because it’s harder to get equipment in. They fight much of in from large tanker planes and some helicopters. But they are often grounded because of smoke. It’s moving toward houses so lots of evacuation orders and watches. The wind generally blows in other directions so we haven’t seen any smoke from it here so far. I hope they start getting some containment tomorrow. We have an app called Watch Duty that gives very good and timely info around the clock so we’re constantly checking that.

After being so careful on my FD Thurs, I gained .4kg. It’s funny how that seems to be happening lately, a small gain the day after and the the loss after another day or two.

Well, time for sleep. Take care everyone.

Good morning everyone,
Fitting in a post before I get going for the day.

Good point about salt (with liquid) on fast days to avoid headaches, Cali.

I am enjoying the grits meals. The stew part was quite rich so I left the grits plain, pretty much as you described, Cali. I can imagine people finding them a bit stodgy Thin, is that how you found them? I think of them as polenta with more texture.

Haven’t costs crept up! I am finding myself so excited to buy a vegetable at a good price that I haven’t bought for ages, when I used to buy them all the time. Glad there are still plenty near their usual prices though.

LJoyce, what great little quiches.

I’ve also just had a pretty successful time of ‘eating my freezer’. Today I am going to make some vegetable pot pies that will use up more and nearly clear out my fridge too. But then, of course, I will use them to stock my freezer haha.

Hooray you got some weather relief Cali. That dreadful fire has been on our news too. Two of the worlds hottest days. Poor dear world. Cold here still and some very cold nights coming!

Thin, thinking of your lovely pub night with DD. And your stunning scenery.

I cut out a meal yesterday so it was my sort of fast day these days. I will aim to do it again tomorrow. Even though it slows down ‘eating the freezer’ 😉

Ok housework here I came.

Best wishes everyone

Morning all, weigh in this morning back down 1 kilo.

Cali, I hope you stay safe from the fire. I hear there are some NZ firefighters flying in to Canada to help fight the bush fires over there. Glad you managed to shake that post fast gain. Hopefully you can continue now you’ve worked out what the issue was.

Thin, I hope you have a good day with your DD. My brother spent a while in Yorkshire when he was doing his OE. He based himself in Leeds and worked in an office there to fund his European exploration.

Cinque, we eat our freezer every fortnight. Because I get paid fortnightly, we usually have a full fridge on pay week, then empty it over the next 2 weeks. I do go to the local farmer’s market every week, and seasonal veggies are cheap at the moment. You can get cabbages, cauli, broccoli, swedes, leeks, pumpkin, celery, carrots, beetroot, brussels sprouts, etc. pretty cheap. Meat is up and down in price, but still a lot more expensive than it was 5 years or so ago.

I gave my boy his first lesson in the weekend. It was pretty rough, he didn’t pick it up as quickly as I did when I was his age, so he’s taken after his mother in that respect. Hopefully he’ll improve in the next few weeks before he gets his professional lessons.

Have a great one everyone.

SuzyQ, well done on the first kg gone. I think all of us here had/have a tendency to over eat, that’s what got us here in the first place. Most of us found that, over time, 5:2 helped shape our food desires and portions. There’s also a tendency to over eat the day before and after a FD but that also goes away with more FD experience behind you. While I was so overweight (25kg more than now), I had no idea which foods affected my weight gain. Now I’m acutely aware. One other thing to consider is that we need to be eating the number of calories for the weight we want to be, not the weight we are. That’s where most of us failed on previous diet efforts – as soon as we reached the desired weight, we returned to our previous eating patterns.

Neil and SuzyQ, teaching your own children: One of our friends in Perth was taught in an outback country town by her mother – all primary grades in one class. One evening, she was arguing with her mum at home and said, “Well, Mrs Collins says …..”. (Mrs Collins being her mum!).

Neil, you are so funny. Did you also teach your wife to drive?! As soon as our DD had the first driving lesson, we were informed of all the things we’d been doing wrong – so maybe get a few professional lessons in soon! Hurray for your kg gone too.

CalifD, those fires are a concern. Hurray for shedding the weight. Late night snacking isn’t helpful, is it? When DD returned from South America, she negotiated a much better pay package and a 3 day work week with her previous employer – but it’s only for four months. She gets a car supplied and housing. When she visits, we find a bridge with road access and a safe place to park a car and then use ‘what3words’ to convey the place. The last one was a swing bridge that we’d just passed through.

England does have a good public transport system though – OH and I both have a bus pass which is one of the few advantages of getting old. I remember in California, we couldn’t walk anywhere except to the beach and a car was essential for every little thing. No public transport.

Cinque, I’m enjoying reading about your semi-fast days – even better for slowing down the freezer food consumption.

Good morning everyone,
Still cold and grey here, but preferable to being hot and wildfirey so I am just muttering under my breath.

Cali, hooray for getting back on track. Yes those evening nibbles are a trick. We are so tired that they are hard to resist. All power to you managing to avoid them. Does brushing your teeth after your evening meal help?

Neil, haha I bet your active growing family eats most of the food before it even gets into the freezer!

I have been busy with grandchildren, my favourite thing, but not good for my ME/CFS so a) very glad my freezer hadn’t been completely cleared, and b) didn’t manage to make those veggie pies. Not much left in fridge or freezer now. (But now I think about it, still good for a few more days!)

I am feeling a bit better this morning and hope I can do a good shop and lots of cooking over the next few days. I will start making plans (such a pleasurable thing to do). And Neil, I so agree, those staple vegetables are still a good price most of the time.

Best of wishes for those driving lessons. Different people have SUCH different learning styles. I was not a natural driver, but got there in the end, so fellow feeling if your son is like me.

SuzyQ I think weighing monthly is a really great thing to do. And 1kg is excellent. Picture a kg of fat, gone forever (hopefully) and gone from your waist is absolutely the best.
Fast weight loss usually leads to fast regaining the weight. Let it come off slowly and give your brain/hormones etc the chance to adjust and understand this is your new weight.
As Thin said, this time of having fast days allows you to compare your ‘normal’ eating days and make adjustments so there is not so much excess and to slowly build in some good habits. 5:2 gives you time to do that.

With 5:2 I lost 1kg a month, so after 15 months I was nicely down at the lower end of my healthy weight range. And I got happier each month!

My weight did slowly sneak back up (several kilos), even though I thought I was doing good maintenance, so I did have to keep my eye on my waist. I find scales problematic (demonic), so I just measure my waist, and find that is the best way for me.

It still tries to sneak back up, but is more and more tractable.

Touch wood and whistle.

Thin, I love what you wrote about 5:2 and how it helps our knowledge and shapes our practices.
And I had a good laugh at the ‘Mrs. Collins’ anecdote.

Gday, what a good example this little group is of different ways to keep track of our weight. I’m the opposite extreme from you, but we have each found what works for us.

Best wishes everyone, I hope it is a good weekend.

Hello all

Just home from dear old Dad back to the surgeon for a checkup from his nasty skin cancer surgery. I was not prepared for what I saw – it honestly looks like he got attacked by a crocodile! However the pathology was all good and he is healing nicely

I have been watching what I eat but the few hundred grams I put on are not moving. I will try for a FD tomorrow

Sorry to hear about the gastro LJ, hope you are feeling better soon

yay for a kilo GONESKY Neil

Thin we were hoping to catch a train from London to Edinburgh but the cost was three times more than flying. The reviews were terrible too so we opted to fly. I’m glad the bus system is working for you at least

Cinque I love how you described your 5:2 story and maintenance tips. I need to be mindful; my ultimate issue is aimlessly eating without thinking

Must run friends, catch up more soon

Morning all

Ha, thin. I sat mine in the little country town. The guy who took me was the local cop who was part of the same rifle club I was in, and I was at scouts and school with his kids so I knew him pretty well. He got me to pull out of the community centre where we started, said “turn right…turn right again….turn right again…turn right again…pull into the community centre car park…Congratulations, you passed” My driving test was a total of 2 minutes driving around one block.

Anzac, skin cancer is nasty, It’s probably something I’ll have to keep an eye on with my heritage of freckled Scottish skin living in this part of the world with no ozone layer. My dad has already had several cut out or irradiated, and my younger brother has had a couple of suspect moles taken off too. Hopefully your dad will heal up ok from his surgery.

Ljoyce, yeah, I think NFD are the killers with most of us. I especially struggle if I’ve been avoiding starchy and sugary stuff for a while and then eat some. It seems to trigger a landslide I have trouble stopping. “Just one cheese scone” at morning tea turns into a cheese scone, a couple of pieces of toast when I get home from work, a plate of pasta for dinner, and a bowl of icecream for dessert, then some evening snacks.

Cinque, Yeah, my boys usually empty our fridge and freezer every week. I enjoy the Saturday morning shopping trip though, farmers market in the morning for fruit and veg, fishmonger for fish, butcher for meat, Indian grocery store for the fruit and veg we don’t get from the farmer’s market, then supermarket for everything else. It takes a couple of hours, but I find it quite relaxing.

Gday, Keto flu is when you’re body switches from burning glycogen to burning fat, so it is possible they day after fast days if you’re active enough to deplete your glycogen supply.

Suzy, 1 kilo is better than a gain, tracking measurements as well as weight is a good tool. When I was on the way down last time I hit a plateau around 90 kg, but I was going pretty hard at the gym at that time, so although I wasn’t losing weight, I was getting smaller because I was building up a bit of muscle which balanced out the fat that was going.

Well last week was up and down. The end of the week we had one staff member on leave, 3 out sick, one working from home leaving just 3 of us in the office, then our exalted leader decided it was a good time to take one of the guys away for a meeting for 2 hours, leaving with us just 2 of us doing all the work. To rub it in, as soon as that meeting was finished he decided he would “work from home” for the afternoon. funnily enough he always choses to “work from home” on Fridays after there’s been a big dump of snow in the ski fields and calls in sick on Monday. This one was no different, we got to yesterday and, sure enough, he called in sick. I had a big blowout on Friday night, ate too much, had a few drinks and collapsed into bed. The weekend was a lot better though. It was sunny most of the time, so I got a couple of rounds of frisbee golf in, got out into the garden for a while, and then the last 2 days I’ve managed to get out on my bike before and after work. I’m not expecting anything on the scales this week though after my Friday blow-out.

Well have a good one everyone.

Another Monday, another FD finished. After losing 1.4kg on last Thursday’s FD, I slowly put .6kg on the next few days. I hope this Monday FD gets rid of it. I seem to be bouncing around in weight more than I remember from last time. But I’m in the 67’s and going in the right direction. Thin, I had to laugh at your remark about using measurements rather than the scales. I think I would need tattoos to tell me where to measure as well. My waist and thighs seems to move around according to water weight!

Cinque, I love your description of your weight loss journey. I agree that closing the kitchen at night is a good idea, probably healthier too. You can send some more of that cold and gray over this way. We actually had an overcast day last week but it was still really warm. The humidity made it feel warmer It did give the firefighters a chance to get some more containment. The fire that’s close to here is still growing in some places. It’s over 406,500 acres tonight but 34% contained. It isn’t moving in our direction. We aren’t even getting any smoke from it.

LJ, I’m glad to hear you are over that gastric virus. A few months ago there was some of that going around in this area. We didn’t catch it, but people who did were miserable with it. Lots of Covid going around here again. But very few people wear masks anymore. I think I’m the only one sometimes in grocery stores. It’s getting a little cooler here, at least not over 38C. It cools down most nights so we can turn off the air conditioning and turn on the whole house fan which sucks the cool air in from outside. The days are slowly getting shorter now too, so that helps. I think we’ve broken records this year for the most hot days. And we’re still in August.

Neil, I remember when I took my driver’s test. I passed it on the first try but one error was the proper direction to turn the tires when parking on a hill. The tester told me he would pass me, but that I should never move to San Francisco. I moved to Berkeley a few years later but worked in San Francisco for several years. lol! Congrats on the 1 kg loss, Neil.

Anzac, I hope your dad heals quickly from the skin cancer removal. A friend of ours had a cancer removed from the side of his nose and had to have some skin grafted from his forehead. We saw pictures of it and it looked pretty awful. But 6 months later it is hard to tell he even had the surgery. It was really quite amazing.

Suzy, weighing only once a month would take a lot of willpower! The only thing I would worry about is that my weight seems to bounce around a bit, even when there is a definite downward trend. What if you weighed on one of the higher water weight days? Gday’s idea of taking an average of 7 days might give a better idea.

Well, time to get some sleep, it’s after 1:30am here. Keep a watch on the world while I’m asleep!

Neil, congrats on the 2 kilo loss in the last 2 weeks! Stress eating can be tough. Maybe it’s because eating sugar, or foods that contain sweeteners give you that burst of energy, but when that wears off you feel sleepy. Or at least that’s how it works for me. So I know if I eat enough, it will help with the stress. What did your health advisor suggest?

Another hot day here today and tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer. But I’m thankful we’re not close to any fires or down in Florida where they have all the flooding. And I lost 500 grams on yesterday’s FD. I made a big Greek salad for dinner for the three of us tonight. It started out to be a side salad that I kept adding to. Romaine lettuce, chopped red peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and red onions, Greek olives and crumbled feta. The bowl of salad looked large enough to bring to a party but we ended up eating it all and then weren’t hungry for anything else. Dressing was a little olive oil, white wine vinegar, lemon juice, oregano, a little dill and some mint from the garden. Healthy and filling.

Hello everyone,

LJoyce, sympathy for that lost post! Good to hear your news, except for that nasty gastric virus bit. I hope your energy has returned now.

Anzac, hooray for your dad healing well, and I hope you got that fast day in.

Isn’t is amazing how we can mindlessly eat! And our stomach/brain only lets us know about it an hour in!
I am trying to keep mindful (in everything!) but it seems to be going against a lifetime of learning to do things on autopilot!
Well, I am mindfully posting now, and mindfully enjoying every sip of the coffee I have here on the desk.

Yay Thin, lovely fast day, lovely .9 down, lovely empty feeling.

Neil, grrr that idiot boss of yours.

I love the advice you got for stress eating. You would be so good at finding things to give that dopamine hit… except that it happens when we are exhausted, and food is such an easy solution at that time. Food has been the perfect answer for millennia, but fails now we have that ultra-processed food on hand. All power to you finding some healthier alternatives.

I’ve been thinking about what you wrote and realise that having a cup of tea is a good strategy for me, mostly because it gives me a pause. If I can tell myself to have a cup of tea and then have something to eat, and it takes me twenty minutes or so to have my cup of tea, by then the urge has passed or I have had time to figure out the healthier alternative.

Also, I didn’t know it was protein we are hungry for when needing dopamine. (No wonder I have become such a meat eater over the last years).

Anyway, good luck with it!

Cali, I also found 5:2 much harder when I did my second batch of it. (ie a straight forward 15 months losing about a kg a month… then over the next four years doing ‘maintenance’ until I realised how many kilos had snuck back on, and then the hard work of strict 5:2 again.) It just felt that my body wasn’t responding the same way. But still worth persisting ofcourse!

No snacks was crucial for me.

We have about a week of spring weather which is a welcome relief except it really should be winter for another month science-wise.

Oh how delicious that salad sounds!

I got a lovely bag of vegetables the other day. I managed to get to my favourite veggie shop/market and there was so much good stuff!
I made that stew and grits again because I wanted to perfect it while it was still fresh in my mind. One cup of uncooked grits made enough for 8 portions, since I eat small portions and so easy because I can cook it in my small pressure cooker.
Then I made a vegetable bake with chorizo, topped with grated halloumi and breadcrumbs, and 8 Cornish pasties (which I hope can cook from frozen without getting soggy bottoms).
My freezer is full to bursting.
I still have lots of veggies in my fridge so I will focus on them before I get back to eating my freezer 🙂 And add lots of protein for dopamine!

Apologies anyone fasting while reading!

Now I am off to do some outside stuff, I think my garden is about to take off. I have flowers on my broadbeans and lots of baby chard that want to grow up. Ooh and parsley everywhere.

Best wishes to everyone, I hope today is a good day.

Cinque, you’re right about how easy it is to eat mindlessly. That seems to be my biggest downfall. It’s hard to sit down and read without food in one hand. 5:2 helps to break that habit, at least for the 2 FD’s. After more than a month I’m getting back into the routine of it.

Neil, I’ve been adding more salads for family meals lately. I made a Greek style tuna salad a couple days ago that turned out well. And replacing the mayo with a little olive oil and lemon juice made it healthier. I have to chop lettuces so it’s easier to feed them to OH, but I’ve always liked chopped salads anyway. Since he has a hard time with sandwiches other than P&J, it cuts down on the amount of bread we eat which isn’t a bad thing. I still enjoy my sourdough toast and Vegemite with my coffee in the morning, but I limit myself to two pieces of toast.

Two days ago there was a wild fire near here, mainly dry grass and brush in an area where they are doing home building. It was only about 4 miles from here, as the crow flies. We saw it right away on the tracking app we use. It quickly went from 1-5 acres to 15-20. We were able to see some of the smoke from our upstairs windows. DS and I were terrified. The thought of getting OH, 2 small dogs and 2 big birds, not to mention paperwork and other things into 2 cars and then where to go was paralyzing. Fortunately they got it under control within an hour or so. But many people in that area were evacuated. It grew to about 40 acres before they had it circled. We could hear the planes going over and dropping water. That is the closest a fire that size has come to us. It wasn’t a FD, but might as well have been. I made dinner for DS and OH, but I barely ate any. There’s another fire about 15-20 miles from here in a mountain forested area. It’s far enough from here and not burning in this direction but it’s grown to over 1,500 acres. Much of it is being fought by air because it’s not very accessible. Many people in nearby towns have been evacuated. Such a scary year! It feels overwhelming sometimes.

Between not eating much Wednesday and then my FD yesterday, I lost .8kg, putting me into the 66’s. Now I have to be careful to keep moving in that direction. It does feel good to have looser fitting clothes and my knee is feeling considerably better. I think we sometimes forget what stress even a few extra kg’s can put on our bodies, especially as we get older.

Cinque, I ordered some grits. They are more popular in the southern states than here so I don’t think to buy them. But now hearing you talking about them, I have the taste for them again.

Time to go before OH wakes up. Have a great day everyone!

🍉 ☕ 🥒 ** Celebrating 10 years of IF with a fast day today! ** 🌶️ 🍽️ 🍅

I lost 23kg in my first year of 5:2 back in 2014 and lost another 2kg along the way with a combination of 5:2 and 6:1. I have never, ever missed a fast day in these ten years, they’re just a part of my life.

I will forever be grateful to Dr M. for changing my life in so many positive ways. Being a slim person is so empowering after spending much of my adult life overweight. I was 85kg, now 60kg. I eliminated my risk of diabetes and reduced my risk of heart failure and stroke to the 3% associated with age. I reduced my risk of developing various forms of cancer associated with being obese. I eliminated knee joint pain.

I’m hoping the practice of fasting delivers other long-term health benefits such as improving my mental acuity or, at least, slowing its decline. It’s a marvellous feeling to be in control of food rather than the other way around.

My only regret is that I didn’t learn of this WOL until age 58. So, to anyone who’s reading, especially if you’re younger with the prospect of turning your health around for the longer-term, – do it now!

Hello Everyone ! Hope you are all well?

To say I had a disaterous eating weekend would be putting it mildly, but its OK because its a new week and I will just start again. (SA had a long weekend and so my bad eating choices began on Friday.) Has anyone tried a 4:3 option when they have been bad 😉

Congrats Thin on your awesome progress and the ability to have sustained it. A girl lives in hope. I am 52 and I do not want to buy bigger clothes, so this has to work for me , even if I just lose inches and my clothes feel looser I will be happy.

My child is still coming to grips with Mom and this fasting thing. She had a Krispy Kreme the other day , on my FD, and the next day I found 1/6 of this doughnut in a tuppaware . I asked her about it and she said she felt so sad I couldn’t have some that she saved me some. Such a sweet child. She is just programmed to see mom eat too much and indulging in naughty treats I think.

Well have a super week all and happy FD’s. The weather is getting warm enough for me to embrace salads , so I am sure I will have a great 5:2 week.

Morning Suzy. When I first started with fasting I started at 132.5 kilos and did the fast 800 (800 calories a day) I felt so good on that, that I did that for 12 weeks and lost 23 kilos. Then I moved to 4:3 for another couple of months, then 5:2, then 6:1 when I got closer to my goal weight. I went from 132.5 to 85 kilos in around 11 months.

If you don’t think you can manage 3 fast days, you can look at your calorie expenditure as a weekly thing. I don’t know what your TDEE is, but say it’s 1800 calories per day, which is 12,600 per week. If you have a big blowout and eat like 3,000 calories, you could do three fasts to get you back on track, or you could do 1 or 2 fasts and then jut reduce the calories you eat on the rest of the days of the week. Eating 1500 calories a day instead of 1800.

Good that you got a bit of a break Cali, we’re the other way, we’re getting a break in the weather this week, which means the temperature is a few degrees warmer than it has been. We’re supposed to hit 16-17 degrees for the next few days, rather than the 10 degrees we got yesterday. We usually get 2 or 3 decent snow falls per year (I count a decent snow fall as more than 5cm on the ground). But this year we haven’t had any decent snow. We’ve had snow falling a few times, but it hasn’t settled at all. We usually get a decent one in September, so there’s still hope.

Well have a good one everyone. I’ll check in tomorrow for my weigh-in

Congratulations Thin on 10 years – you are living proof that ongoing 100% consistency in your chosen eating plan is the absolute key to success – it is what gets you there and what keeps you there long term.

I’m down 3.2 kg in just under 3 weeks. I have stuck religiously to my keto eating plan, eating 2 meals a day within a four hour window, absolutely no snacks in between, and fasting for around 48 hours approx every 10 days.

Being in constant ketosis feels right for me – I know why I did it for so many years in the past because I feel so good eating this way.

When my dear husband passed away in June 2022, I slowly slipped out of the keto way of life as the bad foods crept in as a stress reliever. I’ve found it so easy to slip back into full keto eating again.

Yesterday Miss GDay and I went back through my last 10 years worth of weigh-ins, body measurements and my food diary. It was so interesting to look at the correlation between the food diary and the weight/body measurements. What we choose to eat and when we choose to eat it is most certainly what we become.

The warm weather the last week or so has been so good. Mid 20’s during the day and the cold nights have disappeared, now I just have a sheet and a light quilt on the bed. Feels great to wake up and don shorts and tshirt instead of the winter woolies.

I have a new favourite healthy indulgence food – avocado chocolate mousse. Avo, cacao powder, mct oil, milk kefir, vanilla bean and a few drops of peppermint essence. It tastes so good – I have become slightly addicted- lol.

Well, slowly but surely the weight is coming off. I’ve been in the low 66’s for the past two days since my Thurs FD. Sometimes there seems no rhyme or reason for gains and losses, like a small gain after a FD. Then one night (not a FD) felt so discouraged that I ate a bunch of high calorie things late at night and woke up with a 400gram loss. It must be salt or something that makes me retain water some days. But I will persist. My knee is still feeling a lot better.

We’ve gotten a good break on the weather lately with daytime temps around 27 to 32 and around 17 to 25 at night so no air conditioning at night for a while. And the two big fires closest to us are getting containment. The closest is 91% contained this morning and the really big one that is further away is 50%. The temps and higher humidity is helping.

Our news lately is like a 3 ring circus. Political ads all the time on TV. I’m happy to see that at least one candidate is positive.

I discovered a new olive oil a few days ago. It’s called Pompeian robust extra virgin. It’s been ages since I’ve used anything other than very mild tasting olive oils since I usually cook with them and am not always looking to add olive flavor. I made pasta with ground turkey and mushroom sauce the other night and decided to serve the pasta separate with the meat sauce to put on top, mostly because I made too much pasta. I added the new olive oil to the pasta only. The whole thing turned out so well. The robust olive oil added great but subtle flavor. I used it again last night on some cut broccoli. The only other thing I added was a sprinkle of soy sauce. I was surprised at how much flavor it added. I imagine not heating the oil helped some. I have yet to try it on salads.

My stress level is still high because of DH. I hand feed him and he’s eating well, but losing weight. I’ve added a couple of the Boost drinks but not sure how much good they do. I’m not really a fan. Cottage cheese may be a better option, calories and protein. The weight loss is likely a sign of progression of the disease and I just can’t bear the thought of him passing. It’s so hard. No matter what I do or how hard I try I can’t ultimately make him better. I have to try harder to concentrate on just today, what I can do today. I’m glad to be back here with all of you.

Morning all. I had a bad Friday and ate far too much. I went over my daily calories by around 1000 calories. I’ve been struggling with doing a full fast in this cold weather (it’s snowing again today for the first day of my holiday) so instead I did two semi-fasts. I ate around 600 calories under my daily amount on both Saturday and Sunday, so hopefully that will be enough to offset the Friday eating.

Thin, hopefully you have a good time with your DD, how’s the weather over there at the moment? If we’ve had a run of cold weather, it must be warming up on the other side of the globe.

Cali, I can only echo what Thin has said, I really hope that you managed to take some time for yourself now and then to unwind. Cottage cheese is good for protein, but not overly high on calories. Have you tried avocado?
They are pretty calorie dense, and easy to mash up so they’re easier to eat.

Cinque, thanks a lot for that info. I have ben upping my protein and fats intake. My standard day now is fruit, greek yoghurt and a handful of nuts for brekkie, some form of protein (meat, haloumi, tinned fish, legumes, eggs, etc) with veggies, pumpkin and sunflower seeds for lunch, then whatever for dinner. It’s been going pretty well so far, except for that one blip on Friday. I think tracking my calories religiously again has been helping, so if I do have a bad day, I know exactly how bad it is and I can try to balance it out.

G’day, well done on your loss over the last 3 weeks. I’m not doing strict keto, because I have found personally in the past, that when I do invariably slip up and eat carbs, the weight piles back on twice as fast as it comes off. So I’m continuing to eat some carbs, but trying to make sure the ones I eat are healthier, like from legumes, whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

I hope this snow stops so I can get out for a few rides this week, but if not, lazing around at home sounds good too.

Have a good one everyone

Good morning all 🙂 Its a loveley new week. I hope you are all well and had a good weekend?

Discovered a great bean receipe by Buddy oliver that I made and portioned out for work brunch. It has a bit of a mexican flavour vibe about it and can pair well with some avo and cottage cheese. I also have it on a slice of toast if i feel I need a carb. Very low in calories. Pinterest has also been a wonder for new low cal recipes and now I am keen to check out the hairy bikers after all the comments about them.

Olive oil is sooooooo expensive here in SA . What is it like for you guys ? I have had to revert to canola for cooking as I want to cry if my hubby uses it to cook with.

I admire those that can do Keto , but I am a bit of a carbohydrate-aholic 😉 I love pasta , fresh bread rolls , pizza and dare I say it…. POTATOES LOL. I am trying to be more selective about my carb choices though.

Can I ask how many of you do exercise with this or did exercise while getting to your goal weight ? Did it help ? I want to start walking , but in SA its important to walk in safe areas and there isnt really a good place close to my home or work. We have park run / walk but its only once a week and I would like to do this about 3 x a week. A good free exercise ap may also be an option.

Big hugs to all of you going through difficult times. Its great that there are platforms like this where you can get support from across the globe. Technology is great in this respect.

have a super week all x

Suzy, when I was originally doing the 5:2 plan I didn’t do any formal exercise but I did do more walking than I do now. But there were other times, after I lost the weight that I did a lot of walking because I bought a Fitbit. On days when it was too hot in the summer of too smokey because of fires, I walked in the house. Our downstairs has an open floorplan and I can get in a lot of steps just by circling through the rooms and hall. Often when the weather was good I would walk back and forth across our paved back patio. It’s about 30 steps each way. I listened to music which made the time go quickly. OH used to walk or run around the neighborhood, about 8km every other day. But he has longer legs than I do and walked too fast for me to keep up with him. This was before the dementia.

Olive oil is very expensive here too. Like everything else it has gone way up. I bought it from Walmart by mail, but Amazon had it too. It was $15 for $32 ounces which seemed reasonable compared to most of the brands in the grocery stores. All groceries have gone way up in price, somewhere around 20% or more. Is that the same in SA? The high grocery prices are blamed on the politicians here, but from what everyone in Aus, NZ and UK is saying it’s the same where they are. I think a lot has to do with transportation costs, fuel, etc. What percentage increase is everyone else here seeing?

Neil, you seem to be getting a lot of snow this week. We’ve had a great break with beautiful weather the past couple weeks. It feels like mid September, or October and early November. This has been a weird year for weather.

Thin, are you docked in one place now for a while or still moving around? You seem to have acclimated to the small space of boat living. I thought it would drive you crazy after a few months. But I guess seeing new places all the time makes up for the tight living spaces.

Cinque, I think I am going to follow your plan that you had back some time ago of just picking 3 or 5 things to do or rearrange every day. I feel like I’m walking through molasses most days, other than for food shopping or meal preparation. Or doing things for OH. I have piles of laundry to fold and put away and I really need to go through the pantry and get that organized. Doing it all at once seems overwhelming. But doing just a small amount each day would work I think.

Still in the 66’s but creeping up a bit on some days instead of going down. Today was a FD so I’m hoping for a loss on the scales in the morning. Fasting on Mondays and Thursdays, like last time seems to work well.
Hope you all are having a good week.

Morning all, weigh-in today down another 600g. That makes 4 weeks of losses in a row, so I’m pleased with that.

Yes it has been extra cold here the last few days, which is typical when I decide to take a holiday. I went for a big walk yesterday because it was too windy to go riding or play frisbee golf, and I managed to get a snap of some icicles coming off one of the banks

https://imgur.com/a/skGaz1P

The weather is looking better today so hopefully I’ll be able to get some gardening done, or get out for a ride.

Have a good one everyone.

I forgot to say when talking about keto that I rarely eat meat which is highly unusual for a keto diet plan. Mainly because I will only eat organic grass fed meat and secondly meat is so expensive I simply can’t afford it. I’ll occasionally buy organic grass fed mince to make burgers or chilli mince and occasionally buy organic chicken but Miss GDay doesn’t really like meat so it’s no big deal that we don’t eat much of it.

Hello friends, sorry for long absence. Work is beyond crazy – I did 80 hours last week, 70 hours the prior week and this week not looking much better. Of course weight attention has gone out the window; I managed to break through the 92’s to 91.7 but today am back to 92.9 so the focus is back

I haven’t had much chance to read back through your posts but I will say that olive oil has gone up here unbelievably. We used to get a 3.78L from Aldi for $20 but now it is $50. The same in Coles is $60

I am so sorry about your hubby Cali, I can’t imagine how heart-breaking and difficult it must be to see him decline. As the others said, focus on today and how you are making his life the best it can be. Please take care of yourself too

Happy belated birthday G’day and I’m glad you had a lovely meal

Neil you are doing so well congratulations

You cat sounds cute LJ and don’t they know how to get your attention? I still miss my Oscar cat even after more than 10 years

SuzyQ I am also a carb monster and have to really talk sternly to myself constantly to avoid them as much as possible

Drat that inch Cinque but you will manage to remove it quickly

We had the coldest winter I can remember but last week it suddenly changed dramatically. The feeling of warmth when I walk around the house and outside is doing wonders for my MASSIVE stress levels

Will be back soon….take care

Hello everyone,

My brain is a tortoise. I am getting it into gear for a 5:2 week, but it isn’t just slow… it is curled up in its shell.

In the meantime I just keep doing the best I can. Wakeful nights aren’t helping. Sleep may be the biggest boon for sensible eating. Let’s hope I have some good sleep tonight. And hoping that for all of you too.

SuzyQ olive oil has gone up here too. I had to look up Buddy Oliver’s bean recipe, I still thought of him as Jamie’s little boy. Was it the smoky beans? They look very good.
Re exercise, the main chronic illness I have is ME/CFS and it means I basically can’t do any exercise, so what a relief that 5:2 works so well with limited activity. (I also have LPR just to complicate things). Such a relief that 5:2 (as well as cutting added sugars right out) will help protect me from even more health problems.

I wish I could do exercise of course, my favourite used to be bushwalking, tai chi, and using my pushbike to get around.

Cali, I have been ‘Just three little things’ing and nothing else for the last few days. It didn’t get me on top of things but at least the mess is less than it would otherwise be. I think today I might have more oomph and the three things I put away each time I get up will be bigger things and more complicated things and I might even get the kitchen tidy. Ooh I would love that.

Good luck, ‘just 3 little things’ works pretty well on a pile of laundry. All power to you.

LJoyce, what a lovely social family time (especially that Vietnamese feast), even though disruptive to your routines. I hope you have some nice easy space now to do all the good things.

Hello Sylvie cat! Keep off the keyboard!

Neil, wo that ice! But big cheers for four weeks of downward weighing. I know you will be enjoying your holiday to the full. You deserve it.

Gday https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81I4oHu9JwL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg
That is belated Happy Birthday Wishes, in case it is hard to open. What a wonderful feast. Enjoy being back on your program now.
Jealous of that beautiful fresh olive oil you have access to!

Anzac, I am so glad you found some time in your crazy work filled life to get here and catch up. (I will be so relieved when you can quit such stressful work and retire or do some easier work).
All power to you leaving the 92’s again and having the space to focus.

It is still springish here, I’ve moved the heater our of my bedroom and sprinkled fertilizer on the garden. Is it getting to you yet Neil?

Well I have eaten my little mid day meal and am now enjoying last coffee of the day. And I am very hopeful that next is sorting out that poor kitchen (I got the dishwasher on earlier, so it all looks doable now).

Best wishes to you all. All power to everybody.
Special wishes to Lindsay if you are reading. And Merry and Intesha. Miss you all.

Just a quick stop in today between tasks.

I’m trying to get back into a controlled eating plan, with mixed success.

Cinque, “My brain is a tortoise.” That has to be the best opening line ever!

Thin, enjoy that curry. I was meant to be having a FD salad for dinner but I don’t feel like it. I’m about to heat up some homemade tomato soup instead.

Take care all. I’ll try and pop in for longer in a day or so.

Hi Everyone!

Just wanted to drop in and say hi. I haven’t had a chance to catch up on anyone’s posts yet but hopefully I will soon.

Today is my first fast day for a very long time. It’s 2pm and I have had a black coffee so I’m doing ok. Really happy to be back into it and I hope that I can keep going.

Looking forward to chatting with you all soon x