Hello Southern Hemispherites!!

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  • Morning all.

    Yesterday was a lot better than the weekend. I managed to keep myself to a flat white during the day, then a bowl of pumpkin soup, a handful of walnuts, and a handful of roasted chickpeas for dinner. Total of around 780 calories. So far so good today, I’ve just had a flat white and a couple of snacka balls for a total of 200 calories, I’m going to have a small avocado for a late lunch for another 200 calories. If I can keep my dinner to under 400 calories then hopefully that will be enough to counter the excess sugar and carbs I ate in the weekend. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow morning.

    It’s still cold. It was so cold this morning that I got an icecream headache riding my bike down the hill on the way to work, and it’s currently snowing down at sea level. I’m hoping it clears away by the end of the day when I’m due to ride home.

    Looks like it’s just me here at the moment, well I’ll talk at you for a while.

    My back-to-back fasts were enough to counter my weekend carb-a-thon. I saw my 8th consecutive week of losses, down 300g. It may be just a small loss. But after my weekend, I’m happy to see any loss on the scale. Total now is 4.6 kilograms down in 8 weeks. If I keep this average of around 600g a week, then I should see another 8-9 kilos gone by the end of the year.

    Have a good one everyone

    Good Morning Everyone

    That’s great Neil! FD’s are such a good way to undo the damage done from a big weekend.

    This is my third week of FD’s (two per week) and I am super happy with the results so far. After my first FD for the week on Monday, yesterday morning I weighed in at 78.5 kg (a loss of 4kg in just over two weeks). I haven’t been in this weight range since 2020. I am fasting today and can’t wait to see what my weight will be tomorrow!

    The only downside is my reflux is giving me a bit of hell at the moment so I am going to trial a few things to try and fix that. Firstly I am going to give up coffee. it’s no big deal for me as I prefer tea anyway (hi LJ). I only have one coffee per day and only when I am working. At home I drink tea. Since I’ve started fasting I have been having long black’s so I don’t waste calories in my coffee. Before fasting I was having almond milk. A medium almond milk coffee is about 75 calories, not worth it for me on FD’s. I researched a little bit last night and there were suggestions to eat something so that the stomach is not empty. I thought celery would be good because it is crunchy and I like it. I also read that leafy greens are good. Apparently when there is food in the stomach the oesophageal sphincter closes which helps keep the acid in. So obviously when there isn’t food, that sphincter is open and allows the acid and pepsin gases to rise in the oesophagus. I don’t have that much acid coming up just the lump in my throat and constantly wanting to swallow which I read is due to the gases. Who knows? So today I am armed with some celery, some baby spinach and I will have my instant miso soup for lunch.

    As Suzy said in her post earlier this week, we have to make FDs work for us. There is no reason that I have to go all day without eating as long as I stay in my calorie range. I just prefer to go as long as possible so that I have more calories available for dinner as I still try and eat a fairly normal dinner.

    Well I’m on a FD today so I will be checking in here again often. Hope those of us fasting have a nice easy one and hope everyone else has a lovely day too xx

    Hello everyone,

    I had my gorgeous granddaughter stay overnight on Friday which was lovely but hard work (ADHD and her concentration span was about 90 seconds), so I am still recovering. I have been reading posts though, and I will do a bit of answering while I am waiting for homehelp (so late I am worried they cancelled today and haven’t let me know)

    Most important things first:
    OMG Gday! Cafes closed on the weekend! What are they thinking?
    And how sad if visiting one isn’t a lovely experience.

    Also important, how everyone is going with the old 5:2

    Cali I do so hope your weight stops bouncing around confusedly. Maybe a bit less salt and some psyllium husks will do the trick. It would be so nice if you had a long run of easy fast days, but such good reminders that that hunger comes and goes and that we can eat tomorrow.

    Best wishes too with all your strategies for better sleep. Isn’t sleep precious. Even more precious than a full caffeine coffee.

    Ha, I can imagine a rattlesnake thinking a croc would be a good shoe to curl up in.

    Back again with a cup of tea.
    Still no homehelp. I’ll do another post and then ring the council to find out what has happened.

    Suzy Q, it is so good reading your posts and seeing you triumph against difficult fast days, and finding things out about how your body reacts to hunger and fullness and sugar after fast days!
    (I have had to cut out sugar/sugary things altogether because of my twin horrible reactions: one is it triggers binge eating and the other is I feel absolutely poisoned).

    Hooray for new habits. It is such a nice sideline of 5:2 that it leads to reassessing so many of our habits and giving us the space to tweak or change them.

    Hello Thin, what an excellent summary of managing difficult fast days.
    You are such a brilliant ambassador for fasting that sometimes I presume you have nailed non fast days too. So it was a good reminder you gave of what an ongoing tricky business that is. Sending good wishes for these NFDs.

    Neil, Yikes, a 5 birthday celebration when you are still working on movie nights.
    And a blast of cold weather on top of it!
    Life does like to throw us challenges!

    A big woot! and lots of congratulations for that lovely loss, and that lovely trajectory of losing that weight you do not need.

    Hello again,
    Homehelp turned up nicely at the end of the last sentence šŸ˜€
    They had reorganised her appointments for the morning but hadn’t thought to let me know. Lovely clean home!

    LJoyce, impressive! Big congratulations. Ooh your poor knee. A friend of mine has recently had a partial knee reconstruction and what a long hard road it is healing from it. Better than the terrible arthritis ofcourse, but still, you have all my sympathy for having to face it again. Good luck avoiding it as long as you can.

    Best wishes to your pot of tea!

    Morning all

    I had a reasonable eating day yesterday, I ate around 2100 calories. But I woke up this morning feeling really full, so I skipped breakfast. I’m still not feeling hungry an hour or so into work. I might avoid eating until I actually feel hungry today.

    Quacka, sorry to hear your reflux is playing up. I find these days that when I have an extended fast, that I get really bad acid stomach that I never really used to get. I used to snack on celery and cucumber sticks when I was doing the fast 800, it’s good for staving off the hunger pangs. Congrats on the loss, 4kg in 2 weeks is an awesome amount.

    Cinque, hooray that the home help showed up. I’m (hopefully) still a few years away from having grandies, I’m in the sweet spot where my kids have got over their hyper stage, and I tire them out rather than the other way around when we go out for walks.

    Well, I hope everyone else is good, and I’ll catch up with you later

    Hello again,

    I meant to write one more post yesterday, but ran out of concentration.

    Lovely to see your post this morning Neil. It was a relief when home help turned up!

    Haha yes, I hope you get some easy years before grandchildren start. But omg it is fun when they do. So much delight and so much less responsibility. šŸ˜€

    Quacka, I missed responding to your post and wanted to as I have so much sympathy that 5:2 has brought reflux along with it. Sooo frustrating.

    My understanding is that a healthy lower esophageal sphincter only opens to let food down or vomit up. It isn’t perfect, so in most people a little stomach acid and salts and pepsin etc come up at times, but the clever body heals it without us even noticing.

    For someone with a leaky LES the stomach acids etc come up more often and can inflame the esophagus. They are most likely to come up when the stomach is working to digest food, because that is when the stomach is producing acid. Generally, an empty stomach isn’t making much acid.

    However, I found (and I know from the forums I have been on that I am not alone) that if I get too hungry, I start getting reflux. The small amount of acid is building up and maybe increasing in anticipation of a meal. And my leaky LES is letting it through. I think that might fit more with your research.

    If my esophagus has become inflamed (and at the moment it is the most inflamed it has been since I was diagnosed early last year) I have to do a tricky balance between trying to eat as little as possible (because any eating irritates it further) and eating often enough to use up the acid it is making (and to stop me starving!).

    On the information I have, we need to be eating small meals as far apart as we can. Soft foods, eaten slowly, chewing well so they are not abrasive on our poor inflamed esophagus.

    I also try never to stretch my stomach with big meals. They reckon the stomach is like a beach ball that isn’t blown up and you can fit in an amount of food about the size of your fisted hand before it starts having to stretch.

    (Every time I eat even just a bit too big meals my esophagus gets inflamed again. I am learning!) (And I have to sleep with the head of my bed raised.)

    Such a balance: small meals as far apart as possible, but not so far apart that you get too much acid gathering in your stomach. I can manage three hours between mine, so I have four small meals a day.
    But I think some people can’t even do three hours.

    Our esophagus heals best when nothing is going down or up, but we have to eat and our stomachs do make acid, sigh. So we can only keep managing it as best we can.

    Oops couldn’t work out how to say all this more concisely. I quite understand your situation may be very different to mine, so no problem if you stopped reading.

    But sending all good wishes that you can heal quickly.

    Good morning everyone

    Thanks for the congrats Neil. Iā€™m very happy with the weight loss so far, even though it is not consistent. After my Wednesday FD I had actually put on 200g when I weighed myself Thursday morning! I ate within my calorie limit but I did have a lot of salt again! I made a Thai beef salad with Konjac noodles for FD dinner. It works out fairly low calorie if I donā€™t add too much beef but the dressing has fish sauce in it. When I checked how much sodium is in fish sauce I found there is 2800mg in one tbsp! There is 2 tbsps in the dressing. So whatever proportion of the dressing I had must have had excess salt in it. Oh dear, I really need to be more aware of the sodium in the foods I eat.

    Hi Cinque, Iā€™ve been meaning to ask you how you control your reflux. Thanks for such detailed information and yes I did keep reading! Itā€™s interesting that you use frequent small meals to control it. The reason I gave up 5:2 last time is because frequent eating helped to keep my reflux in control too. The problem I have is that I was eating too much, all the time. So the weight piled back on and thatā€™s why Iā€™m back here and doing what I know actually works, which is 5:2. I admire your discipline in only eating small amounts, itā€™s something I struggle with. I am still trying to control the over eating on NFDs. I know eating too much doesnā€™t help the reflux but it also works against my FDs. I really focus on protein these days. I used to think I ate plenty of protein but when I worked it out properly, I was actually not eating anywhere near enough. Actually LJ, you mentioned the pea protein in your last post and I had bought some of that a few weeks ago and had forgot that I had it in the pantry. I had some yoghurt, strawberries and that protein powder for breakfast on Tuesday and it kept me full for so long. It wasnā€™t very nice the way I made it though because early in the morning I just scattered the powder over the yoghurt and then took the container to work. When I went to eat it, the powder had absorbed any liquid from the yoghurt and made the yoghurt dry and the powder gluggy lol. Next time I will add it just before eating and mix it in really well.

    Well itā€™s my Friday day off today. Itā€™s horribly windy again so I donā€™t think there will be too much outdoor activity. I might head into the gym even though I am pretty sore from yesterdayā€™s class and training but it is good to keep moving when feeling like that.

    I hope you all have a lovely day and weekend too. Looking forward to my Monday FD. I hope to break into the 77kg range next week.
    Take care all xx

    Hello friends, apologies for the long absence. I had a rather major melt-down and retreated from the world in general for a little while

    I have not been able to read back through posts but just wanted to pop in and say hi

    I hope all is well with everyone

    My new mantra: Care but don’t carry

    Take care

    Anzac <3
    Sending so much love and good wishes. It sounds like you are having such a hard time. I wish we could carry you for a bit… but at least know we all do care so much.

    Quacka thankyou so much, and sympathy for that salt messing up the scales. Maybe keep a graph of your weighing results, that will provide nice data over time.

    Esophagitis is mean and nasty but therefore a very good teacher. I can’t believe how little food I can eat without even losing weight (although hopefully I am losing a little: half of that extra inch has gone from my waist). And it is very hard to fit in all the protein and veggies. But quite fun trying.

    Best wishes all

    I’ve been a lurker for a couple of weeks. Lots of interesting posts. And some good losses reported. Anzac, I hope you’re OK.

    Cinque, no, I’m afraid my NFDs will probably always be a work in progress. Perhaps that’s a good thing in a way – a constant reminder that I’m still the person I always was wrt food but that now I have tools to do deal with it. One of those tools is strict adherence to a FD every week. This acknowledgement is probably preferable to reaching a goal weight and then fooling myself that I can just return to ‘normal eating’. Relationships with food are complex as various posts here reveal every day.

    So today is that FD. It’s a small price to pay to maintain a healthy weight. It’s not just the loss on the day, but the absence of any weight that I would have gained without doing it, ongoing adjustments to portion control and food choices, and ultimately avoiding that slippery slope.

    Have a great week all and be strong.

    Thin, I somehow missed that YouTube video of your DDā€™s travels last year. It is just amazing! So many interesting animals and gorgeous scenery. So many times I wished some of the scenes would continue beyond a second. I loved seeing those wild macaws flying through the trees. Thank you again for posting it.

    Anzac, I hope things are calming down for you today. I too, am sending love and good wishes your way. Is there anything we can do to help besides sending virtual hugs?

    Cinque, thank you for the explanations of acid reflux and how fasting affects it. OH relieved a lot of his by sleeping with his head raised. First he used a foam wedge that Iā€™ve probably written about here before. Now that he canā€™t get up the stairs to our bedroom, he sleeps downstairs in a hospital bed which is great for being able to adjust the height of his head. I sleep on the sofa a couple feet away.

    Our refrigerator decided to die about a week ago. At first it was just the freezer and then a day later the frig too. It was a good sized side by side. Luckily, we have a smaller one in the garage that we were able to stuff with things like meat and cheese that would spoil, but we shop less often these days and stock up on more at a time. We had the frig for about 19 years, and according to the repair shops, the life expectancy is about 15 years so it wasnā€™t worth trying to get it repaired which would have been expensive.

    Iā€™m home with OH almost all the time except a few hours when the caregiver is here 3 days per week. So I spent the better part of a week on the phone and on websites of several stores. I wanted a white refrigerator because our kitchen cabinets and other appliances are white. And I wanted one that was counter depth so it wouldnā€™t stick out so far. Itā€™s very difficult to find white ones these days. Everyone wants the stainless steel. White ones are often special order and more expensive. I remember when they were the cheapest. And we needed it as soon as possible and most stores were at least a couple weeks out. I finally found one that could be delivered in 2 days. It was more expensive than the ones I wanted, but we now have a refrigerator. Itā€™s one with French doors and bottom freezer drawer. Less freezer space than the old one but more refrigerator space. They delivered it at around 9:00 in the morning when OH is usually sleeping, but with a sleep mask and foam earplugs, he slept right through the delivery, set up and hauling away of the old one. So thatā€™s my excitement for the week.

    I hope everyone is having a good day.

    Evening all

    Well the weekend was going ok. The weather was good, so I got some gardening done, helped set up for the frisbee golf tournament, and met a friend for cards yesterday. I was playing the tournament all day today. Then right as we were finishing up, I got a phone call from my son to say that he had crashed and hit his head on the school ski trip and had a concussion. We have to wait until they get back tonight to find out if he’s ok.

    Yes Thin, NFDs are always the issue. I ate too much yesterday while we were playing cards. Friday night wasn’t too bad. I ate around 2400 calories, which is about my TDEE, but yesterday I racked up around 3100 calories. So today So had a fast day and stuck to 800 calories. I’ll try doing a control day tomorrow and then another fast day on Tuesday before my weigh-in

    Anzac, sorry to hear things haven’t been going well. Please check in to let us know how you’re doing.

    Oh no, Neil, I hope your son is okay. Did he crash on the slopes while skiing or on the bus that took them there? Sending positive thoughts your way.

    Morning Cali.

    He fell and hit his head on the ice up at the ski field. I was mightily pissed off because when he got back we found out the teachers hadn’t taken him to get medical attention up there. They had just bundled him in the van and driven him home. When he got home he had splitting headaches, blurred vision, and dizziness, so we had to take him down to A&E. We were there for over 7 hours, finally got discharged around 4am.

    Neil, so hoping your son is okay. A head hit is such a worry so I am sending lots and lots of good wishes that the concussion isn’t bad.

    Good luck with your control day.

    Hi Cali!
    I am like your husband, sleeping with head raised. Bed chocked up and then pillows in piles. His hospital bed has an extra handy use!
    Ooh yikes. Farewell old fridge. Welcome to the new one! It sounds wonderful.
    Hooray that Mr Cali slept through the delivery.

    Ooh Neil, your post just came through. Yikes, that is a nasty concussion. What a night. I am so glad you are all home now and I hope he can be quiet and recovering now. Best wishes to your son and all the family.

    Hello Thin, Cheers for works in progress!

    I’m doing well. Esophagus is settling down well. School holidays so I am doing as much grandma stuff as I can. Must get organized.

    Best wishes all

    Neil, itā€™s frightening that the teachers didnā€™t seek medical care for your son right away, before bringing him home. An injury to the head could be serious. After 7 hours in A&E I hope they got answers. You both must have been exhausted after all of that. I hope his symptoms are going away now.

    Cinque, Iā€™m glad your esophagus is settling down. Iā€™m sure you are enjoying the grandma stuff. Itā€™s hard for me to imagine them as older than the toddlers we heard so much about several years ago. So are they easier to look after now or harder?

    Our temperatures have gone up a bit for the past few days but with the days getting shorter, it cools off quickly. Itā€™s that lovely time of the year when we rarely use the air conditioner or the furnace. And itā€™s getting to where our weather is closer to yours in the southern hemisphere for a short time.

    CalifD, I’m so happy that you enjoyed the one second video. I thought you might but then, when you didn’t comment, I just assumed you were way too busy with your OH’s care. Your old fridge did well. I’ve been told that ‘white goods’ as they’re weirdly called are designed to last five years and one day. Remember when our parents’ appliances lasted their entire marriage? I mourn our last fridge. I loved the freezer drawers being at the bottom. It had external ice and ice water dispensers but wasn’t the silly size that encouraged one to house lots of unhealthy sauces and ‘non-food’ items in the door. I’ve never put magnets/childrens’ drawings on my fridges as I dislike clutter. I’m in awe of how you could get earplugs into someone else’s ears – what a star you are.

    Neil, you were right to be mightily pissed off. Head injuries can go quickly downhill (and I don’t mean in the school van) and it’s not for teachers to assess. So pleased that you got your lad to A&E and I hope the length of time spent there was mostly monitoring his head injury, not waiting to be seen.

    Cinque, wishing you happy days with your grandies and hoping they don’t tire you too badly.

    We had an Indian summer lasting about a week. We managed to prep and get two coats of paint on the roof. It’s now heavy rain for the foreseeable future. We are stuck anyway as one of the locks ahead that should have undergone winter maintenance last year is being repaired now and not re-opening until 25 October. We will then have three days to fly down twenty locks to get to another one that is closing for winter works. If the River Soar floods at any time during those three days, we will be stranded for winter.

    Day after FD and only 600g off this week. I will strive to drink no alcohol except when we go out to a jazz club for our anniversary at the weekend. Dining/drinking out is so expensive that it’s self-limiting in that respect.

    Hello all, happy Monday

    Thin, that all sounds so stressful about the locks and whether or not you will be stranded. I hope it all works out ok. Everything in the UK is so expensive, especially when you convert it to AUD but we have budgeted for it all and just have to cop it on the chin. How many years are you celebrating for your anniversary?

    I am all back to normal, thank you for your good wishes. I had a very good fast day last week that really encouraged me to keep at it. I am having another one tomorrow and am determined to get into the 80’s for the trip. 2.8 kilos to go

    So glad your Esophagus is doing well Cinque and good luck with the Grandma duties that I just know will tire you out terribly

    Neil I am horrified at the cowardly behaviour of the teachers. You should complain long and loud. I hope your boy is recovering now

    Our weather continues to boggle here Cali, today 27, tomorrow 25, Wednesday 30 and Thursday 18. Poor Mr A is demolishing and rebuilding the retaining wall (yes he is 60 next year but refuses to age) and the unexpected hot weather is playing havoc with his concreting

    Take care all

    Afternoon all

    Well my boy slept until 3pm the following day. He says his headaches are getting better, but his neck is quite sore. The hospital checked his neck and cleared him of serious injury, but he’s off school and work for a week, and been referred to the concussion clinic for follow up. I’ve rang the school and requested the principal call me to discuss the incident.

    Anzac, great to hear you’re feeling a bit more up now. They say you’re only as old as you feel, and a bit of destruction/construction is a great way to feel good. Only issue with age is the aches the following day last a bit longer šŸ˜‰

    Thin, I hope you have a good run on your locks. It looks like you’ll be racing down the river at the same time I’m racing around the Nelson cycle trail.

    Cali, we’re not quite out of using our fire at the moment, but we seem to be heading that way. There’s been a couple of days where we’ve not needed to light it, but still plenty of days where we’ve had it on all day.

    Have fun during the holidays Cinque, they are a lot of fun when you’re on them, but also a relief at the end of them to be able to send the kids back to school.

    Well I managed to keep to 1500 calories yesterday on my control day, and I’ve only had 400 so far today on my fast day, so calorie-wise I made up for Saturday’s excess. But I’m still expecting a gain this week. The sugar and starch I ate on Saturday has brought back my digestion issues. I’m feeling bloated and yuck, and that usually means I’m retaining a bit of weight.

    Neil, Iā€™m glad your son is feeling a little better. Itā€™s good they have referred him to the concussion clinic to follow up and that he will be off of school and work for a week. Itā€™s inexcusable that the school didnā€™t take care of him before putting him on the bus home. I would definitely have some words for that principal.

    Our weather is still all over the place. It was about 37 today and is supposed to be 28 the day after tomorrow. I just wish we would get a little rain. Maybe thin could send some over! Thin, the lock repairs and closings sound challenging. Do they keep working during the winter, or just let it go until Spring? I hope you are able to find a safe place to dock, because I know you like to travel during the cold weather months.

    Anzac, Iā€™m so glad youā€™re feeling better. I have days like that. I wish I was better at meditating. So many people are helped by being able to calm their minds for a period each day. I have a hard time calming my brain.

    Well, time for sleep. Today was a FD and so looking forward to eating a little more tomorrow. Have a good day everyone.

    Well at my weekly weigh in today I didn’t go up. It was a narrow loss of just 100g, but it’s still another week of moving in the right direction. I’ll take it!

    Cali, 37 is too damn hot! 28 sounds like my kind of temperature though, better than the 11Ā° we got yesterday.

    Hi everyone

    Just a quick check in to let you all know I’m still here lol.

    Monday was a successful FD but didn’t result in any weight loss Tuesday. Today I’m down a little bit (in weight) but it’s my second FD for the week so hopeful for a bigger loss tomorrow.

    Glad to hear you’re feeling better Anzac. Well done on the loss Neil.

    Just keep going everyone! Have an awesome day xx

    Yay! I hit the 77s! 77.9kg this morning after FD yesterday.

    ***Does the happy ducky dance***

    Have a great day everyone xx

    Whoop whoop!

    Well done Quacka. My goal is to get single digits over 100. Over the last few years I went from my lowest of 85 kilos, up to my highest since I first lost the weight of 117. My last weigh in was 112.3, so I’m 2.4 kilos away from single digits.

    Whoo hoo Quacka! Doing the happy ducky dance with you! You had a great FD. Now, easy does it for the days ahead so you can stay in the 77ā€™s. I need to do the same. I do great on FDā€™s but I donā€™t pay enough attention on NFDā€™s.

    Neil, howā€™s your son feeling today?

    Big cheers Quacka!
    https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/illustration-ducks-flapping-wings-dancing-600nw-1967985532.jpg

    And that’s Neil and Cali dancing with you because well done you two too.

    CalifD, there’s an annual winter works schedule to repair and replace locks between November and March when it’s quieter on the canals. It’s published every August so, in theory, constant cruisers like us can plan around it. Lock gates typically last 25 years and each one is made to measure. Unfortunately, the Canal and River Trust has lost control of the infrastructure due to poor management. Works that were scheduled last winter didn’t get done. They don’t maintain anything, but go into damage control when it inevitably breaks.

    Thanks to those who expressed concern, it is a worry. But we’ve since changed our plans as when I called to see if the first lock would likely be completed on time, I was informed that engineers hadn’t even started on it (despite closing it to boat traffic). Ten vital days already wasted so little hope for us to pass before the second one closes two days later. So, we now have to take the very long way around – an additional 40 locks and 100 miles – where anything can go wrong from downed trees to broken lock paddles. And one flood-prone river. We bought foot and hand warmers yesterday. We’re still waiting for the spare cylinder for one life vest to arrive before we can set off. OH’s self-inflated while he was operating a lock paddle recently – it was a funny sight but an annoying and expensive one.

    Quacka, great job, well done. You too, Neil. Single digits over 100 – I got it eventually but was having trouble with your maths until I re-read it.

    Anzac, sorry I forgot to answer your question – 33 years.

    Yes, it will be an expensive holiday for you with the Aussie dollar performing so poorly. I’m grateful that we’re not relying on our Aussie finances to live here. The cost of living is out of control on the west coast of Oz though – and of course there’s a housing crisis. Properties have supposedly gone up 65% since we left and there’s literally nothing to rent. Professional people with decent jobs are sleeping in their cars. Fortunately, we always planned to downsize significantly and move away from the inner ‘burbs – even so, returning to an overheated property market isn’t very appealing. Especially in a place that’s becoming hotter, drier and increasingly prone to bush fires. It might be fun to settle in a different part of Oz or even NZ – any ideas anyone? I just need a low population, a great view and a decent climate please. Thank you.

    Found the perfect property for you thin.

    https://www.domain.com.au/1-fourth-street-beltana-sa-5730-2019052127?utm_source=www.domain.com.au&utm_medium=sharelisting

    This is certainly a down sizer. 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, no maintenance yard because itā€™s bushland, population of 35, views of the Flinders Ranges, 540kms from Adelaide and a very affordable price tag. Haha just kidding, this listing came up on my feed and I thought of you. Probably slightly more remote and under populated than what you were anticipating.

    Honestly Thin every state in Australia is doing it tough with out of control cost of living and ridiculously high house and rent prices, you wonā€™t escape that no matter which state or area you choose unfortunately.

    Good Morning Everyone

    Thank you for the congratulations! I am up 1kg after 4 days of NFD. I didn’t really go much overboard but it is pretty usual for my weight to go up and down.

    Today is my Monday FD so I hope to be back in 77s tomorrow and then see what happens later in the week. We have a long weekend coming up which will probably undo some of this work but whatever (**shrugs**). I am still going to live my life. I focus on 5:2 being a way of life not a quick fix.

    Neil, it’s good to have goals. I have a long term goal and then my short term goals are one kg at a time. So my next goal is the 76s.

    Thin, it’s interesting reading about your life on the boat and all the challenges that you face. What an adventure!

    We went to WA last year and had a look around at a few blocks of land. We contacted two real estates about two different blocks and I have to say they are the worst over there!! One agent didn’t even call us back and the other wanted to put us into a sales contract just to make an offer!! Since then property prices have risen 15% in a year. At times I wish we persevered and bought something but on the other hand I’m happy we didn’t as we are now going to start travelling.
    It’s very exciting for me and I’m also a little anxious (as in a lot). First overseas destination is New Zealand in November. (I’m hoping all that cold weather has gone by then, Neil!). I’m looking forward to catching some of your big Kingfish and also seeing the beautiful scenery. Everyone I’ve spoken to has told me how beautiful it is so I can’t wait to see it for myself. Mr Q wants to go white water rafting and jet boating as well. First stop over there is Raglan for the awesome left hander apparently lol
    We also have the Maldives booked for next year. This is Mr Q’s dream. We stop at Singapore for two nights on the way so that will be an experience for us too. NZ will be our first overseas trip

    Well I better go and do some work. Anyone fasting with me today? If you are, hope it goes easy for you and to all of us a Happy Day šŸ™‚

    GDSA, ha ha, thanks for the info and the laugh. You paint a grim picture.

    Quacka, interesting that you considered WA. I take a dim view of real estate agents and their shameful business model. They’ll say whatever it takes to get the listing and then conduct their future business from your kitchen counter under the guise of a ‘home open’. When we were selling our house in Perth, someone gave me a book entitled, ‘Don’t Sign Anything’ and it was the best read ever. It was a buyers’ market back then but I sold our house for $300k more than the agent wanted to list it for (let alone what he’d later have tried to grind us down to had he secured the listing). It’s a totally different market now of course and we probably should have downsized there and then. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

    Anyway, exciting that you’re off travelling! Don’t be anxious, just have fun. New Zealand will be a great introduction for you. Stunning scenery around every bend.

    Day after FD for me. I’m having two this week as I’ve been overdoing it food-wise. The second will be on Wednesday. I did stick to my plan of no alcohol last week except for the anniversary night out – we each splurged on a ridiculously overpriced Singapore Sling before the meal. We can buy a whole bottle of gin for what they cost! How do people justify spending that kind of money for a cocktail? DD met up with some high school friends in Scotland last weekend and she said that one of them ordered 12 cocktails over the course of the weekend – along with ‘olives for the table’ (Ā£10), starters, main and dessert – and then suggested they split the cost of the bill.

    Have a good week all. Stay strong.

    Morning all

    Quacka, I hope you enjoy your trip here. Top of the North Island is a lot warmer than it is down here in the deep south, so you should be alright. The Coromandel is a nice area if you can make it there, my wife and I spent a week around the Hahei/Whitianga area on our 10th wedding anniversary, and it’s wonderful there, it’s a couple of hours from Raglan.

    I was joining you on the fast yesterday, and I’m fasting again today. I went completely food free until dinner yesterday, having just a flat white during the day, then I had a lamb chop, salad, roast pumpkin and kumara for dinner, around 600 calories. I’ll be fasting again today since we had our big family lunch on Saturday, and I ate far too much dessert. It’s tricky when everyone brings something, and you want to try a bit of everything. Although it seems to be my norm at the moment. Eat too much in the weekend, fast on Monday and Tuesday before my Wednesday weigh-in.

    Thin, Ha, some people have a cheek. My wife and I never usually go overboard when eating out because it’s far too expensive. We’ll get a meal each (my wife usually gets entree size as she doesn’t eat much, we have one drink each, then split a dessert. It’s usually more than enough food for the two of us.

    Building up for my bike trip. I’ve spent the last 2 months doing a whole lot of elevation to get my fitness back up, this month I’m going to concentrate of getting a few more distance rides under my belt, then I should be all set for the 240km I’ll be riding at Labour weekend.

    Have a great one everyone, and I’ll check in tomorrow when I’ve had my weigh-in

    Morning all, well the weigh-in went well. I was down another 800g, making 10 consecutive weeks of losses for a total of 5.5 kilograms. It’s coming off slow but steady. It’s now the lightest I’ve been since December last year. I’m really pleased with myself.

    Well done Neil, yippee, great news! I’m sure Cinque will organise some balloons and fireworks.

    Good Morning Everyone

    Nice one Neil! It’s ok if the weight loss is slow and steady as long as you are heading in the right direction, which you are.

    I think we will make it to the Coromandel area. I’m looking forward to seeing as much as we can. Even if we don’t make it to the South Island this trip, we can always come over again. It’s only a 3hr trip.

    Hi thin. There are a few reasons we were thinking of moving to WA for a while. Firstly we have friends there who we stayed with when we went over there last trip (we did have a camper so we stayed in their front yard).
    Also there is great surf except there wasn’t much this time and that was the main reason we didn’t move over!! There is also plenty of work for Mr Q in the mines and even in private companies. At the time I was really over my job and was ready to move away but we are still here lol

    Well today is my second FD of the week. My first FD took me back to last week’s 77.9kg and then I’m only up to 78kg this morning after a NFD yesterday. After today’s FD I should have lost some weight. We are going away for the long weekend and the town we are staying in has some really big hills. I’m going to try and do lots of walking up and down them and try and exercise some of the inevitable weekend excesses away.

    Hope everyone has a great day and if anyone is fasting with me, hope it’s a nice easy one for us. i don’t know why but Monday FD’s always seem much easier than Wednesday’s. ***Shrugs**

    Big shock the last 2 days with huge increases on the scales, then this morning my Fitbit app sent me an email to say batteries in the scales needed replacing. Phew, scale malfunction not a weight loss malfunction thank goodness.

    Oh my goodness Gday! I would have had a few choice words for that scale lol. Glad you got it sorted out.

    Today’s FD has been an epic fail šŸ™

    My reflux was playing up so badly this morning so I ate my veggie sticks, then had a miso soup for lunch. It was still annoying me so I wanted to eat something carby and soak some of that acid up. I bought a packet of plain crackers which were quite low calorie, that is until I ate the whole packet!! Oh dear. So I am now at my FD limit and no where near dinner time.

    Not to worry. I will call it a controlled day as my calories will still be well under TDDE and then look forward to next week. Oh and it did fix the reflux ha ha

    Quacka, I was about to write that I will be joining you in a FD today – but now you’ve fallen off the wagon so I will have to carry the baton alone. Good luck with the rest of your day. My two fast days were always Sunday and Wednesday, not conventional. So you usually do Mon & Weds? Could a possible explanation that you find the Weds fast tricky be because perhaps you tend to overcompensate on the Tuesday eating day and then those not so good food choices might present a challenge (sugar addiction, for example) on the following FD? Just a thought. Then again, it might just be your reflux issue.

    Ah yes, WA – a state heavily dependent on mining and exporting raw materials to China and India. It makes for a volatile boom and bust economy. Did you enjoy your drive across the Nullarbor? It’s been decades since we did that but we absolutely loved it. Other travellers were trying to drive it in record time and comparing notes and quite horrified when we said it took us two weeks!

    Cinque, I’m feeling your pain as I have a day wrestling with the mygov website. I completed my tax return but for the little conundrum where it requires my husband’s taxable income (which I cannot complete until I’ve lodged his return and which in turn cannot be completed until I’ve entered MY taxable income in HIS return). Who thinks up this stuff?

    I logged out of mine to access HIS mygov. When I tried to switch back, I found MY mygov account is no longer linked to the ATO because it claims I used something different to authenticate my account. No I didn’t! It was just half an hour ago … I now have to contact them by phone. So looking forward to that 3am call and being placed on hold for hours and then trying to answer lots of stupid questions to prove who I am.

    Apart from that, my FD went well but I could really do with a G&T.

    Quacka, Iā€™ve been doing the same thing with my weight bouncing up and down between FDā€™s. Itā€™s trending down, but VERY slowly. Mondays and Thursdays are still my FDā€™s.

    Neil, congrats on your loss! 5.5kg is great! You mentioned eating kumara as part of one of your meals. I had to look that one up. Yams and sweet potatoes that we have here look like that. Sweet potatoes are light orange and more starchy than yams which are a dark orange or reddish colour. One of the websites that talked about them had a recipe for a spicy kumara salad that looks good. http://focussedonfood.blogspot.com/2014/09/spicy-kumara-salad.html I think I may have to try it.

    thin, donā€™t even talk about taxes. I filed for an extension this year, the first time I ever didnā€™t send them in April. Now the deadline is Oct. 15th and I keep procrastinating because I have to go through some papers to find what I need. Of course, it hangs heavily on my mind when just getting things together and doing them would be a lot easier. Itā€™s just hard to find the time with caregiving these days.

    GDay, that ā€œdownsizedā€ house you found for thin is certainly basic! It looks like that house and others around it are out in the middle of nowhere by themselves. It makes me imagine what their lives are like and why they chose to live there.
    Housing in California has increased a lot too over the past several years. Even during Covid, a time when you would think the bottom would fall out of the housing market, prices went way up. Maybe because when people were under lockdown they appreciated their surroundings more. Housing prices and inflation in general is a big factor in our presidential election this year. Candidates talk as though this country is the only one going through the high costs when it sounds like everyone here is experiencing much the same. I will be glad when the election is over. Very unsettling times.

    CalifD, so glad to hear from you. I agree, it’s better sometimes to just get on with the job and get it over with. Can you believe, this morning I logged in to the tax department without a single problem – after hours of reading self-help/problem-solving messages, trying to ‘chat’ with bots and calling Australia to find they had technical issues with the phone lines. Obviously just a glitch at their end – but so much time wasted and so frustrating! I do our Aussie taxes and OH does our US taxes – I think he gets an extension until June because we live overseas.

    As for the US election, OH follows it closely but I just find the whole thing embarrassing. Agree, it will be better when it’s all over and maybe the US can find some less toxic candidates next time. Our US friends have become so polarised in their thinking.

    GDay, I was looking again at that home listing you posted in Beltran, SA. I didnā€™t notice the link for 19 additional photos before. It looks surprisingly different on the inside, with nice flooring and fixtures and a beautiful fireplace. It also seems larger than it looked just looking from the outside. The views outdoors are pretty spectacular in some directions. I wonder where they get their electricity and plumbing? And where would they do shopping for food and supplies? Intriguing.

    Morning all

    Well spring is certainly a fickle mistress. A few days ago, I was sunning myself in the grassy reserve in the centre of town, because it was beautiful and sunny with temperatures in the early 20s. Today we’ve had a civil defence emergency triggered because we’ve had 2 months of rain in 2 days. It’s been over 210mm of rain in 36 hours and still pissing down. It’s supposed to still rain heavily until midnight tonight. There’s already been flooding and slips around the city, broken water mains, stormwater system struggling to cope with the volume of water.

    Hopefully it eases off soon, although on the bright side, the hydro dams will be nice and full so hopefully the power price will start easing.

    Cali, Beltana is located just over 200kms North from where I live so the landscape is the same as mine, weā€™re both in the Flinders Ranges. Beltana is obviously more remote.

    It was once a thriving township of 100ā€™s of people but the population now is around 40. The nearest town for supplies and for school is the small town of Leigh Creek to the North, about 30 mins drive or to Hawker, about 1.5 hours drive to the South, then the next major township is near me, further South again about 2.5 hours drive which is where all the major services are located for the Flinders Ranges.

    They have power from the national grid and water is from bores and wells, rainwater tanks, too remote for the water pipeline.

    I think the inside of the house is beautiful.

    The Flinders Ranges is a huge area, mostly remote with absolute stunning landscapes and amazing wildlife. Brutally hot and dry in summer.

    Iā€™m located at the Southern tip of the Flinders, my property has numerous huge gum trees which are hundreds of years old, I have views of the Ranges from my house and bush land, creek beds and wildlife right next to me.

    Iā€™ve lived here all of my life but Miss GDay and I really want to move to Adelaide. While we love our house and location, thereā€™s nothing here, all the things we want to do are in Adelaide, sadly we cannot afford to buy anything there, even the worst house in the worst suburb is now unaffordable. So I keep buying a lotto ticket each week in hope of a big win.

    Morning all, it’s been pretty quiet on this forum over the weekend, but we’ve had a pretty hectic weekend here.

    We ended up with 300mm of rain falling over 3 days. Our average annual rainfall is around 900mm, so it’s around 4 month worth of rain. There were a dozen or so houses completely destroyed by landslides, at one point the entire city was completely cut off because all roads in and out of the city were closed due to flooding or landslides. It finally eased off on Saturday, and we had a nice sunny day on Sunday. I wanted to go out for a ride, but I really had to plan my route because there were 37 roads around town still closed. It was absolute carnage around town when I went for my ride to check things out, parts of roads washed away, parts blocked by landslides, some roads were covered in 2 inches of mud, there were trees down and water and sewage pipes destroyed.

    But the one bright side was I had a pretty good weekend eating and exercise-wise. I rode over 100 kilometers and managed to keep my calorie intake to just 1500 calories a day over Saturday and Sunday, so I won’t need to fast both today and tomorrow. I’m going to have a control day today, and have a fast tomorrow before my Wednesday weigh-in.

    I hope everyone else had a better time over the last few days than we did over here.

    Suzy, are you still lurking? I haven’t seen you around for a while. Flick us a post to let us know how you’re getting on.

    Neil, Iā€™m so sorry to hear about all the damage and mess youā€™re experiencing there. It sounds like some of our southeastern states last week which are still trying to clean up and get supplies in after the hurricane. And now thereā€™s another one headed toward Florida. So much flooding and damage all around the world. I hope this isnā€™t a sign of worse things to come with global warming.
    Youā€™re doing great with the exercise, Neil. I hope the scales have some good news for you.

    GDay, Iā€™ve been looking at some of the towns and homes around the Flinders Ranges. Itā€™s such a fascinating area, so beautiful and wild.

    Iā€™m still bouncing up and down between the 65ā€™s and 66ā€™s. Heading slowly down but not practicing enough restraint on NFDā€™s.

    Have a good day everyone.

    Funny you should mention Florida Cali, because there is also a Dunedin in Florida, which apparently flooded at the same time that our Dunedin flooded. I guess it went with the name.

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