Hi Sylvestra,

I am sitting outside in sunny Hamilton, NZ catching up on the recent posts. I know this is not to do with the diet but I was interested to see that your nearest town is Kirrimuir. My family emigrated from there in the late 1800s. When we went to Scotland we visited where our families had originated which was much more interesting than doing the tourist bit.

What a great feeling to have to put another notch in the belt. I am having a fast day after a pre-Christmas family get together. They are all off to the beach for three weeks holiday the moment school breaks up.

Feel a bit discouraged today. 🙁
I’ve been doing really well and lost about 15 kilos sinnce September. Then over the weekend had a bit of a binge. Not really bad – 2 croissants, twix, fruit, fizzy drinks – and put on 2 kilos!
I suppose much of the 2 kilos will be water stored from the extra carbs, and I know many don’t like to weigh everyday, but I like to, to keep an eye on things and I’m used to smaller ups and downs of course weighing every day.
I’m just a bit shocked at 2 kilos since Saturday!

But, onwards and … er … downwards I hope!

One thing, I have a painter doing some work over the next few weeks and waiting for him to arrive – or often not – is the worst thing eating wise I have ever come across. Sitting at home with a mixture of anticipation, irritation and disappointment is not a good combination. Glad it’s a fast day today 🙂

Just had to get all that off my chest 🙂

WoooHoo, Sylvestra!!

I wouldn’t worry too much, Speedy. Fifteeen kilos since September. Respect!

So you put on 2 kilos over the weekend? No doubt as you get back to your virtuous ways, the 2 offending kilos will quickly disappear. Your success on the Fast Diet has probably made your metabolism work more efficiently.

In my own case, time was that a relatively modest binge of the kind you describe – like a 48-hour visit to the ma-in-law who used to stuff one full of goodies, never just one but 4 cupcakes at a time – I would come back half a stone (3+ kilos) heavier and feeling as sick as a pig and pretty well unable to eat for a couple of days. Even so, it would take months to get rid of the flab, if indeed it ever did disappear.

Conversely, on a recent 12-day holiday, both I and the other half who are following the Fast Diet, took time off from 5:2. Two things happened. Firstly we found that when feasting we could only eat in relative moderation before feeling full. Secondly, although we each gained 2 kilos, which in itself was a vast improvement on the cupcake situation described above, we each lost them within a couple of weeks as we resumed 5:2.

Hopefully, the same thing will happen for you.

Thank you Hermajtomomi 🙂
I will Sylvestra, 🙂

Good luck with the move PreciousBooBoo.
I don’t write very often but I often read and I’ll miss your comments so hurry back 🙂

Hope your move goes smoothly,PreciousBooBoo. Just think – lovely new home for Xmas.

Good luck in your new home, PreciousBB, hope the move goes smoothly.

Sylvestra, sorry to lower the tone, but apart from knowing Kirriemuir as the home of JM Barry, from my mis-spent youth I remember a very rude rugby song sung by cousins, colleagues, etc entitled The Ball of Kirriemuir. I won’t go into detail.

Hi audrich, me again. Another one of yours I missed first time around. You say you dress as if you were going to a funeral. If that means you wear a lot of black, well, so do I, BUT I usually off-set it with a touch of bright colour – quite often it’s red. All black get-up with bright red socks (courtesy of Virgin Atlantic) and big red drop earrings – my two weaknesses, earrings and books. Other than that I’m not in the least acquisitive.

I’ve worn black since my teens. While all the other kids wanted to be Doris Day or Debbie Reynolds (shows how very ancient I am!) I wanted to be Juliette Greco, hanging out in smoke-filled cellars with a bunch of (preferably very handsome and sexy) French intellectuals. Apart from top-to-toe black I wore white lipstick and enormous quantities of black eye make-up. I probably looked like death warmed-up. I thought I looked great. What a terrible little poseur I was! La Greco is still around. Now 83, she still looks fabulous and can still sing just like she used to.

Hi hermajtomomi,
Thanks very much for your nice words about one of my posts. No, I don’t write for a living unless writing emails telling people what to do and then telling them off for not doing it, count, lol.
If you find the words evocative, I say that it was the place and the time that made it come together, it was a convergence of perfection. I’m with sylvestra when she says the West coast of Scotland is a truly wonderful place. My mam died in 2004 and I miss her everyday, so those memories are like precious wee jewels that glint away in those dark days that we all have to cope with.
She was a slim lady, trim to the end and she was a practical, forthright Scots woman: “Do ye really need another jam piece? That’ll gae straight to yon hips, hen!”
:D)

Sylvestra – …and the all-pervasive smell of patchouli oil. Far out, man!

Audrich – one thing I remember from past visits to the West Coast of Scotland is the light – sort of pearly and luminous. Your mum sounds amazing, with that no-bulls**t attitude mixed with great kindness I found so appealing while I was recently up in Glasgow working on my MA research project (see earlier exchange of posts with Sylvestra). You obviously have wonderful memories of her.

Hi audrich.

I know and love the School of Art and have visited it several times, always on a tour guided by a student. Sadly this year there wasn’t time but on both research trips I made a point of going to the reconstructed CRM house at the Hunterian. I confess that as soon as I walk in the door I start to fill up and by the time I get to the top of the stairs to that beautiful white room I’m in full blub – that’s how art, architecture and interior design sometimes gets me. I also got the Scotland Street School for the first time. My research topic was the Glasgow Tenement House and how it was acquired by the National Trust for Scotland and became a museum. The lady who was the first property manager there now manages The Hill House so I had a lovely trip there, combining some very useful research with a good wander round. We also made it to the House for an Art Lover, about which I have mixed feelings.

Very naughtily we have gone right off-topic here. To continue the Scottish theme but to bring us back to diet and weight loss, a few years back we visited the Rare Breeds Park near Oban, where visitors could buy food suitable to feed to the animals. Except one, poor old Giles. Giles was a very, very fat sheep and on his back they had placed a notice. “Please don’t feed me. I’m on a diet”.

My apologies too for going off topic, although it has been great fun. Maybe we should all wear Giles notices, at least on Fast Days.
My apologies also go to Sylvestra for misspelling the creator of Peter Pan, JM BarrIE. Too carried away remembering – to my shame – most of the words of the rude rugby song.

BooBoo- you’ve got your hands full. I misinterpreted the original purpose of the move- I thought it was more of a trip or vacation. Anyway, good luck and joy!

Sylvestra, Hermajtomomi, and Audrich– I loved the reminiscing. Makes you all fuller , richer people in my mind. I remember white lipstick being the rage, straight hair, and still like Joan Baez and Carl Sagan, too! I recently discovered a familial Scottish connection lost in the past, so the conversation caught my attention. Nice.

I enjoyed the meander off topic. It was a path I walked too in an earlier lifetime. I had my days in Scotland when young and wild and free and exploring the planet, and my interest in architecture took me to places you mentioned. Fact is, mid life weight and arthritis issues had me very depressed about my chances of ever having more adventures. So, the path leads back to the topic eventually anyway. I’m needing some really strong motivation to get off this plateau and go below 70 for Christmas. Please send kick up arse, and Giles notice, my way.

I’m glad others enjoyed the off-topic ramblings. I would argue that by going off at tangents we do, as you say sylvestra, reveal more about ourselves and possibly make it easier for us all to support each other.

My previous experience of going off-topic on a forum has made me a little wary. On the late-lamented BBC Woman’s Hour message board where I made a lot of cyber friends and even improved my debating skills, the moderators suddenly became very touchy and started moddding (is there such word?) any topic that didn’t relate directly items featured on the programme, even though it was attracting a huge number of posts. In doing so they deprived a lot of intelligent women, and quite a few intelligent men, a lot of fun and often comfort and support. Not too long after that the message board was sadly scrapped, allegedly a victim of Beeb cut-backs.

PS I think the expression “Giles notice” should become part of the English language. Giles was lovely. Another example of “big is beautiful”.

We’re LOACA ,what do they expect? Ramble on ladies!

I am on Facebook but only to ‘stalk’ my friends and family. Tee Hee. actually I am a bit paranoid about the jolly thing given the stuff you hear about it. It would be interesting to explore a bit so if you can be bothered, that would be lovely.

Oh and join the club!! I have put on 1.5 pounds today as well. Sh-e-e-e-e-esh.

Thank you Beadybliss 🙂

5 Pounds in 3.5 weeks!!

Wow, I am sooo amazed, really didn’t think this would happen for me….but it is!! I’m just thrilled. And I feel great except for like, Ms Precious Boo-Boo, the sleep thing. My goodness. I go to sleep easily but at 3 a.m. I’m wide awake. Then I get back to sleep around 5:30 for about another hour. This is happening even on my ‘feed day nights’….

I’m comfortably wearing one of my smaller size jeans this morning. I’m just so happy that I’ve found something that is working for me and I’ve been drinking wine some nights as well.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, that’s why I weighed myself this morning, and so will go another month without weighing until just before Christmas–then I’ll see where I’m at….

Good luck to everyone, keep on…..Precious, I was reviewing Dr. Fung’s talk and in Part 4 of 6, about an hour in he very quickly references how adrenaline floods our bodies when we are fasting….so maybe that’s why we can’t sleep! Hopefully I’ll be able to take a nap this afternoon! Happy Thanksgiving everyone, even if you aren’t celebrating it….

Hi.i am 54 and going through the menopause since 45,I am nearly through the whole 12 months of not having a period since feb this year so hopefully i will be post menopausal soon.my weight has gone up nearly three stone ,i am 12stone7lb and i need to be alot less,my eating habits are terrible,chocolate,biscuits cakes,all the bad stuff,that has to change now,i do not want to start health issues as we ladies of a certain age do have to be careful i am sure you would agree.so the 5.2 diet i will try,been on it 3 days now and already i have lost 5Lb as when i started i was 12.12.so good luck to all us ladies of a certain age,and good luck to everyone else who is trying this….
Lyn.x

Hello sylvestra, ladybird, blueocean and all the old stalwart LOACA’s. I’ve been nursing my teenage daughter post-tonsillectomy and I keep urging her to eat things, and when she won’t or can’t, I eat them. So no fasts this week. Poor lass is really suffering, and I’m packing in the ice cream, custard, stewed fruit, soup …

Oh well, back on the wagon next week. ‘We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we’ll not fail.’

A little aside is that I keep reassuring my daughter that she won’t starve to death even if she doesn’t get much food to her stomach. So long as she can drink enough to stay hydrated she will be fine. I learned that from 5:2.

Roba, not only will your daughter not starve, but fasting is probably promoting healing. We (and lets face it, especially we LOACA’a with a food issue) are so afraid of hunger, that we forget to listen to the body. I do hope she feels better, if not hungrier, soon!

🙂 I’ve put them in a tupperware box, upstairs where the builders are rather than taking them some with every cuppa. See! I am trying 🙂

When I was buying them I tred to find a variety that I didn’t like.
Ha! Fat chance – I liked them all 🙂

Ha ha, aud – an ‘enforced’ Chinese takeaway!!!! The vision that that conjures up 😀 😀

Hope it’s not an ‘all you can eat!