hello all

Crikey Neil, 300mm in 3 days is crazy and I can only imagine the chaos it caused. Glad you had a good weekend otherwise with your eating and exercise. What an eerie coincidence that Dunedin in Florida flooded at the same time.

My weight loss has stalled and it is very frustrating, but enough on that

It is a gorgeous day in Sydney, 29 degrees and sunny. However a cold change is on the way as it will only be 19 tomorrow. We had our first swim of the season today as the solar heating got the water temperature up to my minimum which is 27 degrees (yes I am a chicken when it comes to cold water).

Your property sounds so beautiful G’day but I’m sorry to hear you are unable to move due to unaffordable housing. I will try and send some luck your way for a lottery win, you absolutely deserve it

I despair about tax also Thin and Cali. I earn decent money but therefore I pay so much tax it hurts. I am getting overtime now (temporarily) and the taxman is loving it

Sorry about your FD Quacka, next time will be better. I have diverticulitis so that brings terrible reflux and I will do anything to ease it when it happens. I’m on medication for it but the doctor advised I should try and only take it on alternative days so sometimes the reflux still sneaks in

Take care all

Hello all 🙂 Im not MIA. Just super busy buzzy. Work and 10 yr old are keeping me well and truley out of any possible mischief. Her term 3 schecdule is enough to put anyone off having kids ( I joke , but its not for the feint hearted) Some activities start at 6:15 am , some end after 6 pm and then there is still homework or studying to fit in never mind eating and sleeping. I also have her dance music stuck in my head on shuffle .

Your flooding sounds crazy Neil . But the weather all over seems very odd. We had snow here in Sept, but so bad it trapped people that were travelling between provinces for hours in the cold. We have never experinced snowfall like this here , so when snow warnings went out, no one took them very seriously as we are used to a slight powdering if we get any at all, but it was the deep winter wonderland variety. It was very scary for those trapped. Shame I believe 2 people actually passed away.

My weight is down another KG. Yay! And more cm on my waistline. I had a horrible 2 weeks where I felt so bloated even on the FD’s and i felt sure I had gained rather than lost, but thankfully not. Not sure what caused the IBS . Im guessing stress ?

I am sorry I have not read through everyones posts. I hope you are all well and having good FD’s

Hugs to you all x

Good Afternoon everyone

Today is FD after a long weekend. Mr Q and I made it a 5 day long weekend so I have had extra time to ruin all my good work ha ha. Eating was pretty good, exercise was good but drinking part not so great. Oh well, back to it today

My failed fast day last week ended up being a CD which was ok with me. The food really helped my reflux and I haven’t had any since. Not sure how it works, but I have been drinking lots of water every day that we were away and eating normal food – nothing spicy. See how I go after today.

thin, the drive across the Nullabor was long lol. We had a camper trailer this time so it made it a lot better than just a tent. We only took 3 days to get across but they were big, big days of driving. We had a 400 litre fuel tank on the back of the ute so we were good for fuel and we took plenty of food/water supplies with us. We only really stopped for toilet and lunch break and then to sleep for the night. We preferred it that way as we only had a limited time off work and would rather spend that time in WA.
Regarding my Wed FD being more difficult – I actually don’t over do it on Tuesday. I usually eat under my TDEE and its always healthy home made food. I don’t eat much sugar at all (except the girls here at work have this lolly jar and I have to walk past it several times a day. This is where I do get a little sugar fix I suppose but not every day).
I’m starting to think that I don’t eat enough on Tuesday to get me through Wed. It’s a heavy weight training day on Tues so I could be just using more energy than I am taking in. Trouble is, that is how we lose weight. That’s ok, I have made it through Thursday FDs before, I just need to keep that horrible reflux away.
Congrats on the 1.3kg loss!

Cali, keep your focus on that downward trend in your weight loss. It’s ok for it to be slow even though we get very frustrated with it sometimes. Your body could just be at a set point and it will take a bit to break through it. I truly believe that stress doesn’t help and I know it is difficult caring for your husband, but you can do this. Just keep going 🙂

Anzac, a swim in the pool sounds lovely. We went up the coast for the weekend where it was up to 30 degrees on some of the days. I had my first swim for the season in the river and it was a a bit cold but I got used to it fairly quickly. There was a lot of squealing until I did though as I’m a cold water wuss too lol
Diverticulitis is a horrible condition. When I had my fruit and veg shop we had customers with it and they would tell me how painful it is. Some of them ended up in hospital at times. Not good. I have medication for the reflux too but I try not to take it. I don’t want to be dependent on it so I use it only when it just won’t go away.

Gday, your property sounds beautiful but I understand why you would want to move closer to where things are happening.
Are you still doing keto? I read before that you eat in a four hour window which is amazing. Is that everyday? So would it be like a 2pm lunch and then 6pm dinner or do you sort of graze throughout the 4 hours? I’m just asking because I like to see how fasting works for everyone as we are all so different

Wow Neil! 300mm in 3 days is scary. This weather you are having is not getting me excited about coming over lol. You are doing great with your FDs and your NFDs. I bet your weigh in will show this tomorrow

Hi Suzy. Good to hear you are still around 🙂

I’m with you thin, I hope Cinque is ok.

Back to work. Hope everyone has a lovely day and look forward to reading all your posts xx

Wow Neil that’s a lot of rain, struggling to get just a drop here. And weird weather in your region too Suzy. Why can’t we all just get a little bit of everything, excluding the bad stuff ☀️🌧️

Quacka yes my 4 hour window is everyday. I have 2 meals, no snacks, no grazing. I have recently shifted to a window of 10am to 2 pm, previously I was noon to 4 pm. I made the change so I have a larger gap between my last meal and bedtime as I go to sleep around 8.30-9pm.

My daughter also only eats 2 meals a day however her 2 meals are spread further apart and she will sometimes snack in between.

Yes I’m still keto.

Last night we had a birthday dinner to attend so my eating window was 3 to 7 pm. On Tuesdays we have weekly appointments in town, mid morning and late afternoon, so on tuesdays my window is a shorter window of noon to 3pm.

A meal for me is not always just one serve of a particular thing. For example, my first meal of the day could be 3 boiled eggs with one of my homemade keto bread rolls (they are small rolls) with mushrooms and spinach or kale from the garden. Then 20 mins later I will have a protein smoothie packed with lots of other nutritious goodies followed up with a small cup of mixed activated nuts and seeds. Then my second meal about 3 hours later could be a plate of mixed veg followed by organic yoghurt with fruit.

I’m very particular about each mealtime being protein rich, lots of good fats and fermented foods such as my homemade sauerkraut, kefir and kombucha.

I always have a smoothie every day as this is where I add what I call my ‘goodies’ which is psyllium husks,maca powder, spirulina powder, broken cell chlorella powder, organic turmeric powder and black peppercorns, egg protein powder, kefir, quark, kombucha, mct and flaxseed oil and I’ll add an avocado if I’m not having avocado in another meal of the day. Not really a smoothie as such as the avocado makes it a very thick mixture so I usually eat with a spoon rather than drinking it. I know a couple of these powders might seem weird to some of you but they are all there for a specific purpose. Fresh food choices where I live is limited to the rubbish that Coles and woolies provide so I have to get some of the essential nutrients into my diet via organic powders. I absolutely refuse to eat farmed fish or any animal protein that is not 100% organic and grass fed.

I do my one hour strength and cardio training either before my first meal or between my 2 meals. It depends on the day of the week and what I have on. But it’s always done before noon.

Oh daylight saving kicked in on the weekend, it throws my body clock out of whack big time for a week or 2 when it changes, everything feels wrong with time and I feel totally drained and out of sorts. I don’t get why daylight savings is necessary. Our body needs a constant pattern to function well and daylight savings does not contribute to that at all.

Ive prattled on enough, time for coffee. Have a great day everyone.

Just a quick hello to say I have been busy and sore, my inflamed esophagus is not settling. Saw my doctor today and have stronger meds and an endoscopy planned. On grandma duty tomorrow but hope to do a proper catch up on Thursday. In the meantime sending all my best wishes.

Quacka Spirulina and Broken Cell Chorella are both algae’s, both super nutritious with the latter having a lot higher nutrient value. I do enjoy my diet, just wish I had access to better fresh food options.

In the last month I’ve had 2 trips to Adelaide for appointments for Miss GDay. On the first trip I did a fresh food shop at the Adelaide Central Market and on the second trip a fresh food shop at a green grocers in North Adelaide – I was blown away but the freshness, the variety and the quality of the fruit and veg – I was in food heaven and so envious of those who have these food options available to them every day.

My grandparents were market gardeners in Mount Gambier and when they moved to my region when my mother was a small child they did the same here. My childhood memories are school holidays working on one of their many blocks of land. It was very hard work, 7 days a week in all weather, all organic, pulling weeds by hand and no machinery except a small rotary hoe. I was a fussy eater as a child so didn’t appreciate the produce unfortunately, wish I had access to the food they grew now.

Quacka, glad you’ve worked out why your second FD seems harder. You seem to be thriving back on 5:2. If you’ve owned a fruit & veg shop, (or even if you hadn’t) I don’t think you’d be happy with the standard of produce sold in WA. When we first arrived (from California), we were so disappointed with the taste, texture and quality of fruit and veg. There are plenty of suitable growing areas in WA but most produce seems to come across the Nullarbor. I always had the impression that items such as onions had been frozen for the journey. Soggy onions are the result. A tomato had no taste whatsoever. There were farmers’ markets and so on but anything labelled ‘organic’ attracts a crazy price that can be hard to justify. If we’d had more land and not such fine, sandy soil, we’d have grown our own veggies. 26 years of composting didn’t improve the soil.

CalifD, how do you rate the quality of produce in California these days?

The taste of produce was much improved when we arrived in England. People don’t eat fruit and veg in season as they did when I grew up here; it’s all flown in from Europe and beyond year round. What’s striking about it is the amount of packaging. Absolutely everything comes in trays, covered with with plastic. At the extreme, we’ve seen peel hard boiled eggs in plastic containers, packaged peeled oranges – how lazy can you get?

GDSA, it’s not good to be locked out of the housing market in our capital cities. To what do you attribute that? We almost have the opposite problem with too many options, none of which appeal at the moment. There is no utopia. Over the years, we’ve ruled out a number of destinations long considered as having retirement potential. We can’t live on a boat forever but there’s just nowhere that really appeals. I’m basically a malcontent.

Enough moaning. Today’s a FD and that’s a good thing. I was going overboard with macadamia nuts which are so delicious. Now that I’ve checked the calories, that behaviour is getting modified drastically! It was a beautiful pink sunrise, aurora borealis was visible the other night. We’ve had four kingfisher sightings and a tawny owl was hovering above a field. Hard to beat.

P.S. Good morning Cinque, posting while I was taking a long time with mine.

Cinque where are you watching HFW 3 good things – is it free to air tv or a paid channel?

Thin, being locked out of the housing market in Adelaide for me is the same reason the majority of people are locked out – the average house price being $800, 000 to 1.5 million dollars. – unless you want to live in a dump in an undesirable suburb that is, then you only have to fork out a whopping $500,000. Even the average weekly rent on a nice property is higher than my entire weekly income. The world is certainly geared towards the affluent in our society, the not so affluent just keep getting pushed out. And sadly this doesn’t just apply to the property market nowadays.

Neil yes it’s funny how we dislike things as children but our attitudes change as we grow older. I too love gardening and will eat all veg, the exception being cucumbers, it’s not that I don’t like them they give me awful reflux. And tomato’s, I can eat sundried and everything made with tomatoes but can’t eat a fresh tomato, the texture makes me gag. Oh and beetroot (yes we’re back to our long-standing beetroot conversation everyone) I can’t deal with the purple juice staining everything else on the plate so I don’t eat it.

Time for my coffee brew, happy Monday everyone

Good morning Thin, Good morning everyone,

Thin, lovely wildlife!
A double V of geese flew overhead when I was outside this morning, lovely to see them, and hear them.

I miss eating seasonally too. Actually, I do a lot, since what is in season is generally cheap and good quality. Of course we have been used to getting Queensland tropical veggies and fruit in Mediterranean climate Melbourne which I must say I am grateful for. But I do find it crazy to be eating mangoes from Mexico or avocados from California.

All the packaging appalls me too!

Neil, Oh dear those empty carbs. Best wishes for the next couple of days.

Yes, I have enjoyed everything I have seen Hugh FW do, mostly cooking, but including a wildlife series!

Gday, the Three Good Things series is being shown on SBS, I only noticed it last week so I caught up with the first 17 (!) episodes on SBS on Demand. Free!

I am so glad you enjoyed that perfectly cooked scotch fillet. A lovely treat.

Anzac, I hope you get some more really good fast days. Even when our weight loss stalls, there are still all the good health things going on.
Hooray for first swim of the season!

Goodness, there are so many different ways to set off, experience, and control reflux! My inflammation seems to be slowly settling down. Phew.

SuzyQ Hooray for another kilo gone!

The bloating will be something to do with the gut bacteria trying to process your food.

If you are eating more high fibre stuff, there is a transition as the good bacteria that can deal with it grows into huge colonies. In the meantime, the other microbes do their best, but they just aren’t as good at it and this can cause bloating and pain.

Once the good bacteria, that deal with fibre efficiently, are in big enough numbers, there should be no more bloating and lots of other good health effects. It can be easier on your gut to introduce more veggies, beans etc gradually. Build up to a high fibre diet.

(If your amount of fibre hasn’t changed then I don’t have a clue what is going on 😀 )

Work and a ten year old is SO busy! Sending good wishes.

Quacka, good luck working out what makes your fast days easy and sustainable and not setting off that reflux. Bit of a worry if a packet of crackers is needed to sort out your reflux each time!

It is striking, how easily our body grabs those calories and stacks on extra fat, and how frugal, and consistent we need to be to avoid that.

But after that good documentary I saw the other night, the message is be kind to yourself and love your body for doing its very best. Keep as healthy as you can.

Best wishes to everyone now

Good Morning / Afternoon / Evening 😉 whatever time it is where you all are. Hope you are all doing well and having successful FD’s

Just a quick check in to say HI and good grief how quickly is this year flying by?
FD’s were good last week. Doing Wed & Fri this week as we I have my Dad for dinner tomorrow – my usual FD and I have quite a day today with mini me , so I can see it would not work out well to do a FD today. I am learning to pick my battles with fast days. Its easier to be in a good space when doing them.

Thanks Cinque & Neil for the IBS info. I havent really made many changes on my non FD and I cant imagine my FD causing it but I do think that as we get older , our bodies start reacting differently to some foods – probably because of how food is manufactured or grown more than anything else these days. I also do love a bread roll or sandwich more for lunch boxes when the weather is cold – I cannot face salad in winter, so it could also have been that, as it was during a cold snap the carbs were preferable and I over did it .

Anyway, must do some work. Leaving work early today for the first of 3 dance festivals for Mini me. Have a good week all and happy FD’s .

Hi Quacka, I’m joining you on a Tuesday fast. I skipped breakfast this time so I could eat a bigger lunch (I made a salad with chickpeas, feta, onion, beetroot and pickles)

As I posted before, I didn’t go overboard on calories this weekend, but those excess sugar and carbs always seem to make me retain a lot of water. I can see how much extra I’d be lugging to the scales by how much I’ve been weeing over the last two days of not eating any sugar or heavy carbs. I’m sure my workmates must think I’m either sick or wagging work.

Ouch on the dental work, it’s no wonder people avoid going to the dentists until it’s absolutely necessary with the amount they charge these days.

Morning all

Sorry Thin, but when I hear dentistry in Bangkok, my mind immediately jumps to “The Hangover” movie series.

I had my first bump on the scales in 3 months this morning. I was up 200g, but I’m not too worried about it. I’m assuming it’s just leftover from the excess softdrinks I had over the weekend. I’ll see how I get on next week before I start panicking.

Have a good one everyone

I’m going to winge about the weather again, back to back days of 40 degrees here at the moment and in the lead up we’ve had 35 degree days for the last week. Air conditioning on all day and fans all night – unheard of for mid October. What’s it got to be like in January and February which is usually our scorching temperature months.

Afternoon all

I’m not sure what it was, perhaps the rare day of nice sunny weather, but I had a real burst of energy yesterday. I rode my bike to and from work, did half an hour of gardening after getting home, cooked dinner, then did another 90 minutes of gardening. Hopefully this keeps up.