Annette you made mi laugh with that gay men from 50’s comment 😀

my point of view is that i would like them to be standard with no messing around. so i don’t kid myself all year round then go home for 2 weeks, find out I’m not so slim, get depressed, eat myself happy with my mums food, drink to forget and come back 4-6 ponds heavier every year 😉

i love satsumas, wouldn’t mind having few more of them.

Jean! there is one think you can do with a plateau… wait for it to go away 🙂

have a great day!

It’s funny what we think is normal but we don’t know how it came about like sizes made by gay man in 50’s (gonna google it!), or BMI created by insurance companies, or santa by coca cola… crazy world we live in!

I will defo vote for you if (when?) you become supreme leader!
If i would be one I would make sure children get nutritional education at school, with compulsory healthy cooking classes! so many people don’t have a clue what they eat or don’t try new foods at all!

well done on your fast! I had ‘fat day’ today (i call them fat or slim days :)) i’ve been good thou, chicken salad for lunch, and delicious veg curry from fast diet cookery book (i even made roti!) plus handful of almonds, and couple of boiled sweets. just had my last pint of water so i may have to get up for wee 🙁

slim day tomorrow. (my zero noodles coming tomorrow so having stir fry for sure!)xxx

HI Mommabear!

if you bloated and your digestive system is off look closely what you ate last few days. Maybe hormone related too (time of month? heheh) drink lots of water too. I noticed that my weight jumps ups and stays really high if i don’t drink enough. I overcome my plateau simply by drinking water and regularly taking fish oil supplement.

16/8 can work if you are disciplined, have high TDEE-by simply cutting numbers of calories you eat every day. I fast every other day, and even then on my normal day don’t snack, eat when hungry (16/8 are my hours- everything after that is not hunger just need to pick on unhealthy snacks for me 🙂 although I’m not religious with my hours. I try not too touch anything after dinner, but break the rule here and then (especially if there is social occasion) i don’t count kcal i mean dont use fitness pal or other apps- but with years of fighting with eating disorders in my teens I have good understanding what to eat. so i concentrate on eating healthy, filling, well balanced meals with snacks like nuts(love nuts! :), fruit, and veg. I save myself 600/1000 kcal each week for those days when i fancy cake, wine or whatever else so I can treat myself guilt free (i do count those and i find that with that limit a week you can really treat yourself!.) my numbers are very low (BMR 1200/TDEE 1464) so i count those naughty treats to make sure i don’t go mad 🙂

I know what you mean about the scales, they give me understanding whats going on too. By weighing myself everyday i did find out, that drinking water is crucial. And wine make my body ‘store water’ for days 😀 I’m not freaking now after the weekends/ i know my scales will show high numbers if i drunk 🙂

I’m happy today! After 3 days of checking scales everyday just too make sure I can now confirm I lost 2 pounds since i started to drink water! whoop whoop! I officially lost 10 kg (1 st 8 lb) since I started 2 months ago! progress is slow now, so time to put scales to rest for week or 2 🙂 6 kg to go, but next mile stone for me is 8 pounds away, after that I will review my final goal. I don’t want to be skinny, just slim and comfortable so my last 8 pounds may be enough.
not too sure what i gonna do after i lose it all. still have time to think about it. I may go to 5:2 for maintenance with my 600-1000 kcal treat limit? It will be a time to look the scales again and looking what works to keep it off without losing more.

happy fasting! xxx

Just reporting It’s a first day I am enjoying my black coffee! 🙂 It’s crazy how quickly we adapt. I’m seeing big benefits too, as I’m lactose intolerant anyway I feel like a different human being, and I’m not bloated at all. I don’t crave cheese anymore ether. Big HIGH FIVE too fast diet!!!!!!!!!

have a good day anyone! xx

Hi,
Good news Good news, my plateau of three weeks has moved! 2lb off so very very pleased. Although my measurements 1/2″ up on waist and bust, down 1/2″ on each leg! Swimming again so I hope this starts toning up again. Hubby stayed the same this week he seems to be loosing every other week at the moment, 1″ up on the waist. He’s quite happy as long as he dosen’t put on.

Bought a long slinky dress for my summer holiday, fits where it touches but really pleased with the look, no fat bulges! Makes a change no big pull me in knickers! Cheered me up loads.

Going away for 3 days this next week so a bit of a food challenge, swimming Monday before we go and swimming Friday instead of Thursday, feeling positive!

Good luck to all weigh in / measures this week…to all

Jean x

Thanks Phyllis

Annette,

Maybe won’t be as bad as you think. The gym might pull you back.

I would really like some chocolate but I have not got any…shame

X

Well done to you too… Lindyw,

I quite agree with you, I have been for a meal out and with ice cream and beer tonight! Celebration!
I hope I don’t blow it for next week. Still the plan is life long and it has to blend into life, not a diet!!

Hope the scales move to the next number down for you…….always exciting.
X

Annette,

Well done on the weight and measurements over the year. It’s just nice to see yourself melting down into smaller sizes. I think we are all very positive and this forum helps loads with the highs and lows.

Hope you have a good run today…a bit on the cold side..even for gardening!

lol @annette52 yes I can get lost on this forum for a good hour – so I do on a fast day as occupational therapy! At 53 you are a spring chicken too. 🙂

@annette52 the menopause is a pain – so unpredicable, the only thing any one will tell you its not the best time of our lives. Keeping weight under control does help with some of the unwanted symptoms though – so keep up the good work.
Symba – a half eaten chocolate bar? lol 😀

Yes…either eat the rest of the chocolate…or post it to me!

issu,
It did my heart good ready your post. I’m now a very mature woman, but in my 30s I was a lot like you – apart from the two small children. I had tried all sorts of jobs in various countries, but was still discontented and not sure what I wanted to do with my life. I was married but chose not to have children, a choice I’ve never regretted, I’m a good aunt and great-aunt but would have been a rubbish mother.

To cut a long story short, I went to uni at 36 and loved it, graduated at 39 with a very good degree, qualified as a teacher at 40, stuck with teaching for a total of 5 years before going freelance to do the work I’m still doing 25 years later, well past retirement age. I’m now back at uni part-time, in the final phase of a Master’s. I could never run like some of our cyber-friends do, but I guess an MA is a marathon for the mind.

So go for it, issu. It won’t necessarily be easy – there have often been times when I wished I was stacking shelves in Sainsbury’s instead of kidding myself I was an intellectual – but so, so worth it. It can change your life – new friends, new interests, new knowledge. In my case, it also changed my relationship with my then husband and we were eventually divorced but remained on good terms. I’ve been with hubby no 2 for 27 years, married for 3.

You will probably surprise yourself at what you are capable of. I have actually cried on reading tutors’comments on a couple of my MA essays. Not because they were bad but because they were so full of praise – I couldn’t believe they were writing about ME! And I wouldn’t be surprised that 30+ years from now you will be using your brain in a very productive way.

There are quite a few others on the forum who have been mature students. I’m sure they’ll wish you luck as well.

Hi annette,

Men! What are they like! The grenade-lobbing you describe is, I think, not unusual when a man discovers that his other half has a brain, starts achieving things and slowly but surely catches up with and even overtakes him. How dare we, when we should be content with the kitchen sink and a spot of brain-dead telly of an evening.

My present other half is a highly intelligent guy with a degree of his own, by his own admission not as good as he was capable of, too busy commuting between the union bar, the betting shop and the nurses’ home. He is also very supportive in practical ways, he’s a great copy editor who reads all my written stuff and is excellent at providing visuals – essential if you are doing art history as I am.

BUT all of a sudden when I passed the conversion course offered to people with degrees in other disciplines wanting to do the art history MA, and was then accepted for the MA, he threw all his toys out of the pram. Why was I bothering, especially AT MY AGE? It would be too much, my health and my day job would suffer, I would probably make a complete fool of myself, just wait and see.

I think it said more about him than me, but it hurt nonetheless. At that stage he was going through a bad patch. Now he is working hard to qualify to teach in the life-long learning sector – his subject is Qi Cong (a gentler version of Tai Chi) – in other words he’s now a student himself and much more supportive. Also his predictions have been wrong, I’ve scored a Merit (equiv of a good 2.1) on 3 out of the 4 assignments so far, the 4th one was just a pass, but I know why, my fault entirely. The day job – translation – has also picked up speed lately and I’m coping well, recently despite the mother and father of all colds.

oh, my, all these brilliant and accomplished women!!! just goes to show that weight problems are not because of lack of motivation, gumption or determination. just the need to find what works for us! and for me, and a few of us, not too much chocolate in the house. 🙂

I had broken my plateau along with several of you. saw 136 lbs on the scale for the first time in a couple of decades. then had a “lost my mind ” day and ate chocolate marshmallow eggs all day!!! Back in control now thankful for a way of eating that doesn’t make me a failure if I temporarily lose my mind. 🙂

mommabear, never mind the 16:8 experiment, now you know that particular way doesn’t work for you. you’ll find what does I’m sure.

hope everyone is having a great day!! healing day for me ( my way of acknowledging fast day) and it’s a stir fry for supper. Phyllis

Hello ladies,

I watched Frozen- a Disney film, with my grandchildren yesterday. One of the main themes was about accepting yourself and enjoying who you are.
There’s a breakthrough song where one of the characters transforms into a strong woman who loves being herself. My three year old grandson said
that she used to be medium, but now she’s large. About damn time!

Congrats, all!

NIckyF, I do envy people like you in the sciences. The research you do is likely to do some good and to prove useful to society as a whole. In some cases, it can change the world. Also, quite rightly, there is often funding available from institutions or corporations for such research to be carried out. All of the above applies to the social sciences, too. And of course, research degrees in law, of the sort annette is considering, explore such fields as Human Rights, Inernational Trade, etc, which are hugely important.

When it comes to us layabouts in the humanities, much our research sometimes amounts to navel-gazing – e.g. “A Freudian Reading of Winnie-the-Pooh” or “The Significance of Moustache-Tweaking in the 19th-century Portuguese Novel”. I’m joking, of course, but some theses aren’t a whole lot less pointless. After getting a degree in Modern Languages, I started on a PhD, but it soon deteriorated into CbA (Can’t be Arsed). I have at least been able to apply my degree to my work as a freelance translator and for a few years as a teacher.

Doing an MA at this stage is purely for my own intellectual satisfaction, but it is impacting very favourably on my work as I specialise in arts and media. Also it’s an excellent way to keep the ageing brain in gear.

hermajtomomi, now those sound like some interesting courses. LOL. doing your MA just for yourself, that is a wonderful thing!!! good for you!!!

double happy, glad you haven’t gotten disheartened. the plateaus aren’t much fun, but this too shall pass. I’ve had to forbid more marshmallow eggs in the house, I have no will power around them. told my family to hide them from me. 🙂 luckily for me they are mostly only available a few times a year. fejoas sound interesting. fejoa in one hand, marshmallow egg in the other, sounds balanced to me. 😉

hang in there everyone one, good luck with the fasting. Phyllis