poggy-vegan I’m glad you liked the chick pea cheese idea. I was really pleased when I came up with that as I generally dislike vegan foods that are imitating non vegan food. Processed food is rubbish whether it is vegan or non vegan. Although I am grateful that my son eats vegan sausages as opposed to the real thing. It is a lot of work running a sanctuary but I have been doing it for over ten years now and have a really good system and good volunteers who come and help. We have a lot of really old animals but they are happy. I can’t think of anything else I would rather do. And I can slop around in baggy trousers (most of mine would be falling down if they didn’t have draw strings) without anyone giving me disapproving looks.

Opal shine I had house rabbits for a while but they were so destructive! They ate cables, wallpaper, skirting boards, vinyl flooring, books, bedclothes and one even chewed the pipe on the back of the toilet and flooded downstairs. All the rabbits live outside now and they are much happier and healthier.

On a fast day I eat all my 500 calories in one meal in the late afternoon or early evening. During the morning I drink black coffee and then switch to herbal teas my favourites being peppermint, fennel and cinnamon. If I’m struggling I have a cup of hot marmite which is about 1/2 a teaspoon dissolved in hot water. If I’m desperate I put a few bits of dried seaweed in that as a sort of imitation miso soup only cheaper. It is really important to drink enough and I find the hot drinks better at quelling hunger. The marmite also helps by providing extra salt which you need to compensate for what you aren’t eating. My favourite fast day meal is a carton of organic kidney beans mashed with a couple of chilis and some chili powder with a little cheese crumbled on top (I’m vegetarian not vegan) with some sugarsnap peas or sweet corn on top heated in the microwave and then topped off with salad leaves.This is very satisfying and provides lots of nutrients. Or I have a bowl of whatever I cooked the night before, typically a vegan curry or chili. If I were to split the 500 into several meals I would just be hungry and miserable the whole time. I like to feel full at least once a day. The fast really starts after dinner the night before and finishes after noon the next day as I tend to do 18/6 on NFDs so 40ish hours, every other day. I have a lot of weight to lose so I want to be really focused on this and see results as quickly as possible. I think I have lost a couple of stone already.

That must have been hilarious, the cat shouting back:) We have a talking husky who says helloooo and I love you and shouts at people. But he never barks. He also almost has his own fan club as he spends lots of time lying on my sisters bed half hanging out of the window at the front of the house. We always hear people stopping to talk to him. He lies there on a cushion with his front feet sticking out and his head hanging down. He opens the window himself even in the winter and freezes the house but he likes the cold. We don’t have cats because I am alergic to them. Not to other animals, just cats. I have no idea why. We had a rabbit we called Merlin. He was found straying in a multi story carpark and was brought to us by the security guard. He was in a really bad state and was never very healthy but he had a good couple of years here with lots of room to play and a lady rabbit to keep him company Daisy I think. Animals are very rewarding to be around. They are all such individuals, right from the smallest on up.

I mistype things all the time because my fingers are bent out of shape from arthritis. But at least since I started fasting they don’t hyrt anymore. It was from 230 to 212, only today it has gone back up by 3lbs. 2lbs extra were there this morning and another 1lb went on during the day despite my fasting. That one has to be just water because I only drank coffee and mint tea. I counted my chickens before they hatched obviously:(

I know there are good benefits from fasting for longer but I don’t particularly want to do it as this way I can live with but if it were to get more difficult I think I would risk giving up and there is too much at stake. One meal a day every other day is as far as I want to go. I like food and the prospect of none is too dreary to contemplate. I find that the fact that this way I really appreciate everything I eat gives it an extra boost and makes it more likely that I will stick with it. Everything I eat now feels like a treat. Lucky me:)

I suppose it must form a pattern when you do it everyday and recognise what is going on but I get a bit too tied up in in it so I think I’ll look at it less frequently. I knew it might happen but was on a bit of a high from the good numbers…

We had some nice warm days earlier in the week but today has been stormy with gusts of over 60mph and became rather exciting as a large tree blew over and narrowly missed a row of rabbit hutches. It has wrecked the fences on their runs and damaged a couple of fruit trees too. I had to rescue two of them in the middle of all the wind as the tree was threatening to settle and entirely block access to it. The remaining trees were thrashing about wildly and it was rather scary. But did they cooperate in their rescue? Of course not. Rabbits are not cooperative creatures. They made me chase them from one level to the other and open every door before I cornered them and then they wriggled like mad all the way to the barn. They weren’t very impressed about being dumped into a stable full of plastic bags either as it had been being used for storage. But I got it all nicely bedded and they calmed down. Later I had to move another pair too and discovered the tarp on the feed shed roof is shredded from the wind. There is rather a lot of work to do to fix all the damage but at least none of the animals were hurt. I just hope we can get them their runs back soon as I hate locking them inside.

I managed to make rather a pig of myself yesterday. Nearly made myself sick. I was so close to not being able to keep it down. But actually that means my stomach must have shrunk considerably because I wouldn’t have struggled previously. And I doubt I actually went over TDEE, I just ate too much at once, so no harm done and hopefully a lesson learned. I need to be extra careful on NFD Saturdays when it us difficult to get away to sit down to eat properly because of volunteers and visitors. I tried to hang on by eating a big chunk of cheese and ended up not being able to wait for dinner and eating out of the pan instead.

I don’t think I’m losing this week but I am not going to check until Wednesday. Confirming it won’t do me any good, and actually even if I’m wrong and I have it won’t be helpful either as it will only set me up for disappointment if it then goes the other way again. I am a bit too fond of competitions to cope with the set backs easily. I need to remember that for me not gaining weight is a win all by itself and see actual weight loss as a bonus as well as already having all the other wonderful benefits of fasting – the reduced pain, the clearer thinking, the increased energy. The scales really don’t matter that much, I am already winning. And I am now wearing my second pair of purple trousers that are a size smaller and didn’t fit even when I bought them:) I was nervous about trying them on in case I got depressed if it was a failure but they are the right size now:) It is a pity I don’t have any more clothes to grow down into but it has been too long since I was smaller than this. And I hate shopping so it won’t be a reward to have to buy new ones. I will use the draw strings to hold my trousers up for as long as possible.

Glad to hear that you are feeling peaceful ADF12kgless. Our mental state is the determiner for what we make of life. Happiness is not so much about what happens to you but by what you make of it. I am hoping that I have finally got a better perspective on life. We humans really know how to torture ourselves. There is much to learn from animals and much to gain from being around them. They have been my therapy for a nunber of years now. We help each other.

And I’m glad your upwards blip went away Poggy Vegan. These smaller movements are not really significant. It is the trend that counts. I have been cooking more cauliflower lately too. I just learned hiw healthy it is. I had no idea it contained complete protein. I always assumed it was a bit of a nutritional non entity mainly because it is so colourless I suppose. Yesterday I stir fried it with samphire and chilis and coconut. Although the show got stolen by the potatoes I cooked with chillies and parsnips and kale with mustard, flax and chia seeds. That was far too delicious! I am not very impressed with samphire. I will use something nicer with the cauliflower next time.

I doubt I’ll grow much veg this year. Our garden is too shady for it to grow very well. We are on the east side of a ridge and have tall trees or buildings on every side. There is too much traffic to grow anything out at the front where there is sun. Nowhere at the back gets more than an hour or two of sun even in the summer. Which is good in that it means I don’t have to worry about the animals overheating in the rare event that it actually gets hot. I have tried putting veg in pots in the past and using a piece of adjacent land as an allotment but the watering of the pots is too time consuming and the neighbours by the allotment plot are too obnoxious. They complain about everything, especially any visitors we get, and I don’t want to deal with them. Instead I’ll concentrate on getting woodland flowers and climbers growing around the animal enclosures and on the fences. The snowdrops look lovely at the moment, and the helebores and the primroses are starting to flower. I put in lots of soft fruit a few years ago as that grows in part shade. I should have the energy to pick it this year. The birds got most of it last year.

Opal shine the first couple of weeks are the hardest. You will be in the flow of it soon. I hope you find it suits you.

Poggy Vegan well done getting under 60kg:)) Even if it drifts upnagain temporarily it will soon become fixed. I find Inhave to hit each weight twice before it is permanent and Incan count it properly. And afew peanuts won’t have made much difference longbterm. Your talking about all those kale plants has me wanting to try and use the allotment despite the horrible neighbours. I shouldn’t let them upset me so much. If I successfully grew eighty kale plants there would be no difficulty getting it all eaten. Kale is one of my favourites and the rabbits are particularly partial to it too. Samphire is not worth paying for in my opinion. We got it free from the veg man and I was not impressed, so you weren’t missing much. I love cooking, I like combining things and trying new versions. I envy you that snow a bit. The rabbits, unlike your cats, love snow. It has such good digging potential. It is lovely to watch them play in it. They do lots of skipping about and dancing like young lambs as well as frantic digging. There was sleet here yesterday and I got soaked and really chilled. It took me ages to warm up again even pressed against the radiator. Snow is drier and less unpleasant to work in. Today is much nicer with some sunshine. It makes such a difference. I had to move a pair of old rabbits from their multi level hutch as they suddenly developed cataracts and were getting really wary of jumping down to go out in the run. In order to give them a single level hutch I had to move five other pairs as well to make sure everybun’s accomodation suited the occupants. They are all out there happily exploring and meeting their new neighbours. They are such curious creatures. The oldies with the cataracts are getting around much better in the single level hutch and didn’t hesitate to fully explore the run as well. Rabbits cope really well with going blind as long as their living space is suitable. After all it is dark underground and they navigate their burrows with no trouble. They seem to have very good spacial awareness and mapping skills.

I just realised that I have been measuring my hips in the wrong place. I was going for the biggest measurement which was encompassing my belly instead of the widest which doesn’t. It is still a big number but not quite as bad and matches my waist measurement better. 36 and 46 seems less bad than 36 and 48. 10 inches to go on each to reach goal…not sure if that is realistic but no harm in trying. my chest is disappearing faster and is down to 44 but I am usually a bit pear shaped. I have been wondering what a good goal is for the neck measurement and found a site that quotes 13.4 inches as the border between healthy/unhealthy. Apparently neck measurement is another good health indicator, along with the waist to height ratio and the waist to hip one, many saying that various of these are better indicators than BMI. My neck measurement is currently 13.5 so not far to go on that one. Waist to height stands at 0.53 which is close to ok (should be at or under 0.5) and waist to hip at 0.78 which is already in a good place (should be at or under 0.8 for women).

Weight this morning is the same as it was on Weds morning (209lbs – I am going back to lbs as calling a measurement in kg weight disturbs the physicist in me) despite doing everything right. However I am learning that I need to hit every low twice before it really sticks. I am confident that my weight on Weds will be lower. The tracker is showing quite a consistent pattern for my weight with a steady gradient but regular sideways steps too. If you turn off the neck and goal lines you get a better view. I like numbers and graphs:) I don’t often get to indulge my mathematical side.

My resolve is getting well and truely tested. I seem to be stuck at the weight I first reached on Feb 21st. 3 weeks of fasting for no gain, and they have been more difficult too. I am sure it because of the extra stress that I have been experiencing and because menopause is playing havoc with my hormones. Yesterday I just had to eat early. I kept it to a healthy mealnand attempted to make that the only one but the evening dragged on too long and I ended up eating again. That was the first fast day I have missed since I started fasting every other day in November. I am fighting not to just throw my hands up and give up. I tend to be very all or nothing, but this is too important. It doesn’t help that I crammed in an extra days work on Saturday and now my hip is really hurting so even walking is difficult. My pain levels are heading back towards pre fasting levels, no doubt another effect of the stress and hormones. I would like to go outside and do some gardening in the beautiful sunshine but I dare not risk not being able to get the work done tomorrow as I am down a very important team member and have to do it myself however I feel. So I am faced with a quiet day resting and trying not to eat in order to rescue the situation and get back into a pattern. Thank goodness for my languages. I am getting fonder and fonder of Dutch. I bought a Dutch series on Amazon video and will see how much I can understand without reading the subtitles.

I weighed yesterday and my weight has finally dropped again to 206lbs. It is such a relief not be stuck any more. I find fasting much harder when my belief that it will make me lose weight is wavering. I really want to continue to make fast progress so I amngoing to trial the BSD at 800 calories per day of Mediterranean style eating. I am already off the refined carbs anyway so no problem there, sans fish obviously. There is plenty of protein in pulses and cheese so no concerns over that. Flax seeds will contribute some of the good fatty acids. I think it will be good to eat two smaller meals rather than one big one so as not to fill myself up as much and so let my stomach shrink. I plan on sticking to a relatively short eating window though to get as much proper fasting in as possible. 20:4 would be good but I will have to see how sustainable that is. To some extent my work will dictate when I eat so I will need to be a bit flexible.

I am not going to weigh very often. I don’t find seeing the fluctuations in intestinal contents and cell water content that close scrutiny of the scales reveals to be helpful. It bounces around too much with little correlation to actual fat loss, which is the bit I am interested in. Weighing less frequently will focus on that and save me unnecessary disappointment. I next plan on weighing on the 31st for the end of the March challenge. I doubt it is enough time to get under my original goal of getting under 200lbs by the end of the month unless the BSD really suits me and I can stick to it the whole way. Time will tell.

My measurements are down too. My waist is just below 35inches, getting close to the magic half my height marker. BMI is approaching 30 too. My hips are down to 44, as is my bust. Some of my clothes are just ridiculously large now. Much more and not even the drawstrings will make them useable. Maybe I need to buy some braces? I now have to hold my pyjamas up while I walk to avoid embarrassing revelations. It may be time to start wearing the next size down trousers that were a bit uncomfortable when I tried them a couple of weeks ago.

I am sure the losses will be back soon Poggy Vegan. I am going to try not waiting until I am finished at night to eat as it is getting rather late as the days get longer. Last night it was eight before I finished and I had seen that research before. I need to strike a balance between eating earlier and dealing with cravings in the evenings. Also if I eat earlier I get hungrier so eating before 3pm is no good for me.

I weighed again on Friday after the first 5 days of 800 and was down to 203. And my energy levels are back up. Over 3lbs in 3 days! Some of that has to have been a delayed loss from all that fasting done on the plateau, I can’t see that 3 days can really have that dramatic an effect. But I have decided to carry on with 800 calories of only healthy food (veg and pulses and a little cheese) until the end of the month and then reevaluate. I don’t need to commit to the full 8 week blood sugar diet unless I continue to find it easy and effective. My hunger seems to have retreated again and fasting until about 3 is quite easy, then I eat a little and have more a few hours later. I want to keep eating to a three or four hour eating window to keep the most actual fasting time possible. Water, black coffee and teas allowed of course in order to stay well hydrated, although I restrict coffee to the morning to help my sleep. Which has been much better with the 800 calories. It may be just coincidence, or it just might suit me well.

I have reached the 0.5 waist to height ratio that is supposed to be a better health marker than BMI which is good news. My waist has stayed at 34 inches for the past few days so it is not just a blip. And this morning my weight is 200.2lbs nearly, but not quite, at that next landmark. And BMI exactly 30. I am on the brink of no longer being obese but simply overweight:) It has taken nearly 5 months but been such a good thing. I am so pleased that I made that decision.

I am going to continue the blood sugar diet until the 21st at least so a full month, then decide whether it is a good idea to continue it. I don’t want to impact my metabolism by doing it for too long, that is a big calorie deficit. But for now it remains really easy. Having already given up sugar and processed carbs and having practiced fasting on 500 calories hugely reduced the difficulty level. 800 still feels like a generous amount of food to me particularly in the short eating window that I have chosen to use. Especially since I am veggie and so can eat a decent volume of food. Protein simply isn’t a problem. Pulses and cheese have lots and I make a point of having a tiny amount of brown rice with pulses as that completes the protein by providing the missing amino acid. And veg also has protein too of course. Plus there is also all of the protein in my loose skin available to be utilised in other ways now. I only mention this as people always assume vegetarian and vegan diets struggle to get enough protein but that is a myth.

I coped really well with my dentist’s appointment this week despite it going rather pear shaped as she couldn’t get my dratted broken tooth out. Apparently it is hooked under a thick bit of bone and there isn’t enough of it left to grab hold of. Another chunk of it broke off too. But she says it should be alright to leave. I could have had a referral for a procedure but I am not up for that. One step at a time! I had a filling done too so it wasn’t a complete waste of time and discomfort. I have been coping better with people too. Something seems to have shifted in my head and things are not as overwhelming as they were six months ago before I started fasting. And summer hours are upon me with longer work days – over ten hours yesterday, but I am able to face another long day today. A year ago I wouldn’t have been able to stay on my feet for long after just half of what I did yesterday. I was in a terrible state. I think fasting is improving more than just the hunger hormones. My neurotransmitters seem to be functioning better in so many ways as well. I am sleeping better, have less pain, less anxiety and I can think more clearly. My language learning has picked up too. I am making great progress. I found I could understand lots more of the Dutch audiobook I was playing to mask background noise as I slept last night. Whole paragraphs were completely understandable. The other night I was playing a Danish one that I couldn’t make head or tail of when I put it on before I went to sleep but by the morning I could understand most of what he was reading. The accent had been assimilated. And I am understanding most of the Norwegian series I am watching on all4 without looking at the subtitles, in fact I can see where what is said diverges from the subtitles, which is quite often. I have learned languages like this before but never several at the same time. I am working on Welsh too, and that is far less difficult than last time I tried it. Anyone reading this is probably a bit baffled by my wanting to do this, but I have Aspergers and do tend to get carried away with things. At least I am not memorising phone books!

Under 200 lbs this morning:) And my BMI has dropped under 30. I am no longer Obese. Yay:)))

It is great that you were able to do so much without hurting afterwards Poggy Vegan. I hope you can find healthy vegan things to eat while you in Frankfurt.

The Aspbergers has a big impact on my life. I find some things neurotypical people take for granted very difficult. Mainly social things but also planning, or executive function as it is called. For example my problem with not coping with being referred to get the tooth sorted is not that I am squeamish or frightened by the idea but that I simply can’t manage the planning involved in getting there. I get severely travel sick unless I am driving but no longer have a car which makes going any distance very worrisome. I only coped with the normal dentist because I could walk there. I can’t cope with owning a car because I can’t cope with getting one repaired etc as the thought of talking to workmen sends me into a panic. I don’t even use a telephone. It is a sign of how much better I am feeling that I have been able to communicate using electronic means as I have on this forum. I don’t usually manage it as I find it difficult to see how people react to me. I know I don’t say the right things. Other impacts are with everyday things such as the fact that I always wear the same thing. I hate shopping and so when I have to I buy multiples. I have never worn makeup and don’t understand why people need more than one or two pairs of shoes. I need my routine although I am not as rigid as many with Aspergers. But there are many things that leave me feeling uneasy until I get them done. I get very focused on my current interests and am happy to spend all my time alone pursuing them. I won’t eat anything anyone else cooks and have very specific ideas about what goes with what. I take questions rather too literally and give too much information…

I think I probably ate too much today. We were given loads of free food again that has gone out of date. I have been having so much fun cooking it. I couldn’t afford to buy such wonderful veg. Huge tubs of assorted cherry tomatoes, heaps of lovely peppers, tenderstem broccoli, samphire, exotic mushrooms, huge breakfast mushrooms, fresh kale…I can’t wait for asparagus season. Today I cooked the big breakfast mushrooms in a wok with onions and chili and then added kale, red pepper and fine beans cooked separately with ginger and mustard seeds to it, mainly because there was too much to ensure it cooked evenly had I cooked it all together. Then a potful of mashed spud with cloves for mum. I had just a taste of potato, three mushrooms and filled up the bowl with veg. It may have been under 400 but it also may not have been. But then the tomato and pepper sauce with black beans I had earlier that was left over from yesterday may have been under 400 and given me some leeway. The beans were under 150 calories, I know that much. The sauce was made with onions, peppers and tomatoes, a bit of olive oil and spices. Anyway it was all very healthy and I ate nothing else and will eat nothing else until at least 2pm tomorrow.