Wow bigkahuna! 7.8 ….sorry 2.1 in the first week is insane dude!! Way to go, I’m going to be celebrating your tremendous loss with a wee alcoholic beverage and a classic surfer dance called the stomp! I’m really inspired by what you’re doing and what you say, so are the many guys who are lurking in the background reading but never posting.

Talking about men, has anyone heard from Tim recently? He had been in hospital, I hope he’s improving and on the mend, back to posting here soon! I really miss his funny quips and the challenges that he shared so openly with us all….come back Tim, it’s not the same without you!

Chichita, I’m also finding you to be an inspiration, especially with the artificial sweetener detective work and exercise research. When you give us a taste of your journey, your struggles and triumphs, it truly is a strong message to never give up and believe in oneself. And that each of us can make a big difference, in empowering our self confidence and recovering our health!

So I saw the ABC catalyst program which had an interesting segment on drinking water. It seemed to explode the 8 glasses a day mantra that we’ve all been told is true. Looks like our thirst is the thing we should take notice of, especially for the under 70’s. I’d be interested to see if anyone else has watched it and what you think. It’s available on ABC iview.

Seems like I’m the only one here admitting to doing regular meditation. I like to use it as a helpful tool in soothing my mood and assisting in appetite regulation. I realised that for me eating is mainly triggered by an emotional/ mind thing, and definitely not a hunger thing. That’s why I find meditation and mindfulness so useful.

Well, have a wonderful weekend everybody, I’m off to celebrate on bigkahuna’s success with an Hawaiian shirt and some good old Aussie surf music to stomp to, with a beer in hand.
Cheers!

Stomping ihaw? Wow. That takes me back. I was doing gypsy dancing in the car last night to the amusement of OH and the truck drivers on the highway.
Tim popped in on MCs thread. He is recovering, cheeky as ever, needing 4 kg weight increase and generally lying low. Hopefully we will have him well enough to pester us all again soon…all the best Tim, mate.
Well done Bigdad! Top stuff! P 🙂

Hi ihaw. Indeed I do! Tim has quite an imagination. You’re up early too. Have a good weekend. P 🙂

IHAW. I am going to keep on drinking my 2 litres a day of water on most days, as I feel better when I do. Particularly, on fast days. I use the old trick of colour of urine as a guide. Very pale is the way to go. Some times I can’t quite manage 2 litres. All my life I have drunk too little water, so IF is helping me. Cheers, B

Well done, Jenwren, it’s so satisfying to lose a kg, isn’t it. Enjoy your skinny weekend. Cheers, Bay

Good morning peeps! I’m doing 2 b2b fast days starting today. One my sisters & my nephew are arriving tomorrow afternoon for 5 days. I’m soooooooo excited about seeing here. I told her about 5:2. She really struggled and couldn’t complete a fast day. I’m hoping that with my support & keeping her busy, plus what I’ve learned about creating yummy meals around the 250-300 cal mark that she’ll be inspired & excited to try a fast day with me while she’s here.

BKD – 2.1kg!! How FABULOUS! And i just love that you posted about beers and kit kats because it truly does show that you can have a life and enjoy food/alcohol & still lose (heaps) of weight! So inspiring.

IHAW – Oh thank you! ((BIG HUG)). I felt sooooooo despondent for those 3 weeks I plateaued then put on 4kg. I was really scared this WOE wasn’t going to work for me long term. Every time I posted on here about how disappointed I was I worried that I would be bringing people down or put newbies off continuing. But now I can see that sharing my struggles, followed by my attempts to get to the cause of it & my eventual success creates a really valuable record of not giving up in the face of setbacks.

Thanks for sharing about the Catalyst program. Def going to iView it.

Re meditation – I’ve done various types of meditation since my mid teens. I find it really beneficial. I don’t do it daily at the moment. Meditation is amazing. I’m also a big fan of mindfulness. I definitely try to be mindful when I’m eating now.

JenWren1 – Woooooooooo hoooooooo! Well done on losing another kilo! It’s so exciting. In regards to feeling shaky – my experience is that I very rarely experience this anymore. I don’t know if this will help you but when I get shaky I imagine it is because all of the glucose has gone from my blood stream and now my body is having to break down my fat stores to get glucose! That puts a TOTALLY positive spin on feeling shaky LOL 😉

PVE – Have a great day, whether fasting or feeding 🙂

This is my parting post. But just before i leave i’d like to say, Bigkahundad, the post i was saying don’t get ahead of yourself was the one that you were preaching to all blokes who haven’t even started yet and weren’t even on this thread. Remember? And you’d only just begun yourself. But i wasn’t referring to that when i said don’t get ahead of yourself. I was just saying here you are saying to everyone its going to be a breeze and yet you just admitted you’ve never been able to lose weight before. So i figure you’ll come unstuck here too. Good luck. Oh and i enjoy a glass of wine whenever i want one. I”d have beer if i liked it more too but not every day.

CG, you didn’t have a problem with my posts so far as i could see until i wrote that rebirth and karma was a load of claptrap. So i guess i hit a nerve there. And you misunderstood my post about exercise and what i wrote does not contradict what MM says. I’m sure you will get to your goal but you do fret a lot and make things harder than they need to be with your super restrictive approach.

To everyone else, good luck with your journey. I hope you get there and stay there once you arrive as i fully intend to do.

And thanks for being here.

As to artificial sweeteners since you want to see me pontificate on them BD, i have messed with them only once for a very short period of time, didn’t like them, think they are ultimately counter productive to weightloss, so never have needed to do any research into them although i was intrigued by what CG wrote the other day about insulin and such. I looked it up and it seems the research on it making the claims you wrote about is not widely accepted because so little research has been done on it and only done on rats and other research shows no such result. And the rats were not fed a diet protocol anything like yours i.e. they were not calorie restricting. For my part, i can’t see how you could make fat due to an insulin response when your body was already so short of calories. Doesn’t make sense. My bet is you were holding a lot of water.

Hello? Anyone still out there in the cybersphere? Husband and I are starting 5:2 tomorrow and wondering if there are any coeliacs (GF) and/or lactose free participants out there. Also wondering if the 4:3 works well. In Brisbane and aiming to lower cholesterol and blood pressure. Cheers.

Hi nicandpete, welcome!
I’m pretty sure there are people with coeliac/ gluten issues here, just keep your eyes open.
I suggest just sticking to 5:2 to start with, before going 4:3, it’s a lot harder.
I’ve had excellent results with my cholesterol and blood pressure, as well as normalising my fasting blood glucose levels. Which I’m very happy about! Unexpectedly, my IBS cleared up as soon as I started 5:2 nearly 18 months ago, so there’s a lot of hope for those of us with difficult to treat inflammatory gut problems.
Cheers!

Hi nicand pete
My OH is gluten intolerant. It’s easy as many people find cutting out flour based foods is a quick way to reduce the calorie count.
I second ihaw. Get the books. Digest them. Start with two fasts, a couple of days apart, and find what suits you when you have mastered that. Then try varients.
All the best. PVE

Hi Jane, I had the same thing about amp, but then realised it’s something that comes up when you decide to edit a mistake in the original post.
Good luck with everything! You too Lizzie!

I’m feeling a bit dehydrated after my fast yesterday, but that is because I miscalculated and ran out of tea bags!

I managed to last until dinner time again before breaking my fast (the second time) so I think that is what I will aim for. My fast day calorie intake is about 350 so that gives me either two small unsatisfying meals or one substantial meal.

I have a slightly ridiculous way of weighing myself. I like to weigh myself before I shower in the morning but I first step on the scales fully clothed then weigh myself as I shed clothing items! LOL It is much more satisfying to see the scales go down before your eyes.

HB

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Good morning SH mates.

Haven’t logged in since Wednesday and so many posts to read, short and long ….

No time or energy to address all issues but regarding weighing, I weigh myself most mornings but seriously (before breakfast, empty bladder, naked) on Mondays at the start of my 2 b2b days to assess how much ‘damage’ has occurred in the previous 5 days and then on Wednesdays in the same condition and that’s the ‘real’ weight for the week but, like Purple, I only write down my lowest reading so far. If it’s up for some reason then I note it but don’t put it into the Tracker.

Regarding the possibility of starting separate threads I would prefer that things stayed as they are – Purple’s coffee shop is a good analogy and I can catch up with my cyber friends’ ups and downs of life. I also read three other threads, especially on FDs but only post on one of them.

BKD, love the concept of the beer and kitkat diet 🙂

A couple of mentions of last night’s ABC Catalyst program on drinking water. Such interesting findings regarding brain activity and drinking while thirsty/not thirsty. Always felt that thirst was a good indicator but, like Bay, I’ll continue to drink lots on FDs, if only to get my mind off food.

Keep up the good work everyone. N

Oh Kathryn! SO disappointed. ..go Swannees! And Roosters tonight. 🙂

Hi Nicandpete
I’m also in Brisbane and also coeliac and also fructose malabsorption. I’ve been doing this WOE for 2 weeks now and so far have found is to be relatively easy compared to other diets I’ve tried in the past. The fructose malabsorption makes things a bit more difficult as there are many fruit and vegetables that have the potential to cause be problems but that’s not stopping me. I have found a japanese market at alderley called Genki mart which has a great range of instant miso soup. I got some pork based miso soup just for variety this week (japanese name is Tonjiru). Also has some vietnamese rice rolls for lunch today (non-fast day) which were great.

Hi all – I am a newbie from Melbourne… literally the first day today – brought book last night, read it through then jumped in fasting today with no prep. Silly but will be prepared for next fast day – On this forum to distract myself. Looking forward to Grand Final BBQ tomorrow and eating.

I watched the Mosley Doco a while back and wanted to try, had gestational diabetes with my 7month old son so want to reduce chance of developing type II and lose baby weight. I’m 69kilos and want to get to 60k. Look forward to hearing about everyones successes 🙂

PVE Not a huge footy fan lol, will be stuck with it on telly surrounded by 3 boys in the house,thought I’d go for Hawks as I live in melbourne, either way 🙂 I’m eating sausages!

Hi Mothergoosey and Poot09
Welcome to thread :). I’ve only discovered this thread a week ago, on 5:2 for two weeks,so all new to me too.
I also kinda jumped in unplanned,as I’m quite good at procrastinating. Looks like we’re all similar in our weight loss goal, I’m 65.9 want to get down to 58 mid range of “normal” bmi after too long of being considered Overweight range. So far so good for me, wish you all the best,hope to chat again soon

G’day Tim
Excellent advice. Keep well. P 🙂

IHAW, Tks for missing the old sod, on the mend at home. Small left side stroke, limbs ok, eyesight very burry seeing specialist 1 OCT

As a world renown foodie I am totally ” Pi..ed ” off as I have lost ALL taste and find it devastating.
Think of a pantry full of goodies and you will not be able to taste any of it. My cheeses Oh…..
I can only feel hot /cold and textures, no taste i.e.Tea, Coffee, Wine, Miso, Single Malt, water all the same.
A Gorgonzola/Walnut risotto will be the same as a ” Tapioca Pudding ”

Hey LittleBKHD– good to have another male on the boards to keep the Fems in line. By the way I use ” Fems ” with great affection for all things feminine.

BKHD your on, I will raise your Beer and KitKats to my breakfast this morning.

“3 crushed double coated Tim Tams covered with wipped cream served on a bed of 3 Hash browns which are spread with a Tom sauce. Warm, wet and crumbly” . 🙂 TRUE

Nicky and MM I look forward to your posts.

PVE love the idea of ” Your Coffee Cafe ” and seeing who’s in and catching up as I am doing now.

Have great W/E everyone.

Cheers ,
Tim.

Hi everyone. Welcome to all the newbies! Great to see you on here. I think you’re going to love this WOE.

I’ve just had my only meal for this fast day (a lean steak and 3 cups of veggies!!!). I’ve never eaten as many vegetables & salad since starting this WOE. No wonder my skin is glowing.

I’m doing b2b fast days today & tomorrow as my sister and nephew are arriving late tomorrow afternoon and I’d like to be able to have more treats on my feed days than normal. I’ll continue with 5:2 while they’re here if possible but I won’t stress if I can’t.

Have a great night peeps 🙂

It’s lovely to see that you’re back in action Tim! Sorry to hear you’ve lost your sense of smell, hopefully your doctor is right and it’s only temporary. Soon those roses, the coffe and cheese will start smelling as divine and delicious as you remember!

That’s a great loss Charlie, good work!

Hi all,
For anyone who would be willing to share any fast day recipes, or meal plans for those days, I’ve started a thread of our own to take care of all that….. ANZAC Recipe Thread (Aussies and Kiwis) – others most welcome. Please find the thread and add your favourite low calorie recipes. If anyone has a low cal ANZAC biscuit recipe, well that’d be fantastic! (Yes joking). I figure we live in a totally different climate to the Northerners, and, let’s face it, we eat differently. Let’s get some of our beautiful, light recipes up for all to share.

Hope we can get some contributors. Happy night everyone.
Lizzie.

Well done, Charlie, on your weight loss. Great news. Must be all the chasing after the cows 🙂 Bay