Thanks annette52 .. I cheat when I measure so I am better with TOT trousers of truth . Much better for me xx

A seaweed salad is a perfect change from ordinary lettuce salads. I serve it with brown rice & quinoa, 3oz. of protein, and 2 Tbsp. sesame/vinegar dressing drizzled over the rice/quinoa and whatever protein I’m serving with it.

You can pile on the salad. If you prefer to add noodles instead of the rice, you can sub out shirataki noodles. I think you call them “miracle noodles” in the UK; the ones made from mushrooms.

Enjoy.

ps.

I wish we could post pics. I’ve started taking pics of my meals for my 2nd portfolio.

You’re welcome. Seaweed salads are available in supermarkets or Trade Joe’s, if you have one.

They are 5 cal. per cup. and a normal serving of pasta is 1/2 cup is about 110 cal. per 1/2 cup.

You do the math and I’ll take the shirataki noodles any day.

Once you find the seaweed salads, you’ll love them and you can put every ingredient you listed above that you love to eat on it, too.

Winter salads can be fun. Use your heavy beans like lima, pinto, kidney, blackeye peas, gandules, even black beans and add cucumber, tomatoes, onion, celery, chunks of salmon or beef, pork, and beets, fruit. Your heavier veggies and thick and hearty cuts of meat. If you don’t eat meat so much, you can double up on your fish and seafood. Dressings should be heavier, too, unless you prefer the lighter and you get full fast. I like ’em all.

I’ll make some composed salads (designed like art) for my porfolio that I’ll carry to job interviews, but will share everything healthy here in our forum.

Hello fast friends, I wore the white Capri pants today that looked awful at Easter and triggered this weight loss journey! Thankfully they now fit much better. I also tried on my fab charity shop dress, still can’t zip it up, but the sides of the zip are a bit closer than they were, so all good stuff.

I have done an almost total fast today, just had two ryvitas at 7.30 tonight, and I feel great! For any newbies out there, the fast days definitely do get a lot easier. I am not hungry but still wide awake at 10.25 which is really unusual for me!

Etheriel your salads sound amazing! I am going to try to find seaweed in the uk if it’s possible and have a bash!

Happy fasting everyone. Lynne

Lynne I am exhausted at just the thought of 30 lengths . Well done on the capri pants .
I did my 3rd ever fast yesterday and I wait and have my calories all at once . I am loving my new kitchen scales so I know exactly what I am having . I had cabbage,cottage cheese baby tomatoes and sliced ham then I had a ww Yoghurt and a highlights hot chocolate .. all came in at 450 calories . I REALLY enjoyed it .
I am so loving this WOL and all the hints too.

Wee xx

Hi Annette,

Woo hoo – 2lbs! I am very pleased for you – hope it is the start of a trend. So nice to see a good result 🙂

Cath xx

Thank you all so much for the posts and the tips . all loosing weight and all so positive . Whenever I check my e-mails and see a post from here I have to go to it ASAP 🙂 .

Wee xx

Bonjour fast friends! I am back in France and will be here for most of the next three weeks, eating the 5:2 way will be a challenge so I have been trying full fasts as I find it a lot easier NOT to eat on fast days, or at least stick to around 100 Cals rather than trying to eat only 500 Cals.

I did a full fast on Saturday and Monday this week and started to see the scales move again, even though I was well over my TDEE on the days in between. Today was another fast day (I usually try to do 4:3) but I have had a ham and cheese baguette for dinner…I did burn up 500 Cals in the gym today to offset dinner! Day off tomorrow and I plan to eat and drink lots!

I too have found a SOT which I can’t fasten up now, at Easter it was at least six inches too small on the waist.

Annette your swimming is brilliant! I hate swimming, have always wished I enjoyed it as it’s great no impact exercise. Weemam keep trying on those trousers every couple of weeks…they will start to fit better. I still have only lost about 7lbs..been doing this WOE for 16 weeks now…I counted up on my fitness pal…BUT I reckon I am down a couple of dress sizes, I am getting back into my thin clothes…it’s like having a whole new wardrobe!

Take care everyone and keep posting!

Well done on the SOT Linny . Better than winning the loto 🙂 xx

Sorry to hear that, annette. I’m sure you are doing nothing wrong and I wholly sympathise with your plateau. It’s getting close to my ‘personal worst’ of 5 months. Mine started to move when I suddenly discovered that carbs at lunchtime made me feel queasy – I don’t eat breakfast anyway – and I ate, and continue to eat, only the sandwich filling, usually lean protein and leafy salad, and forget the bread on both fast and non-fast days. Might be worth a try.

How is the Master’s going? For me, it’s dissertation time, folks. I’ve got quite a lot of stuff already but a lot more deeper exploration is required. In September, I shall be in purdah for a whole month while I put it all together for delivery on the 29th.

So glad you are enjoying the studying, annette. I thought you would. Good luck with the current essay.

The dissertation is 15,000 words. The subject is European cinema, specifically looking for, and happily finding, connections between French cinema of the 30s (a movement known as Poetic Realism) and the British New Wave of the late 50s and early 60s – e.g. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, A Taste of Honey and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.

I know it sounds a bit left-field for art history, but I found a lovely lecturer who specialises in French cinema who was prepared to supervise me so away I went. Like you, I’m looking at social and political history, in my case seeing how it affects cinema in the two periods I’m working on.

Annette, have you read Dr Michaels book on fast exercise, it’s about High Intensity Training and provides good reasoning behind not making changes to your body by doing endless amounts of exercise. I have started doing HIT and am definitely seeing a difference in my stomach area, while seeing no difference in the scales. Definitely wortha. Read if you are doing a lot of swimming and not seeing a whole lot of difference. The studies he refers to a worth a read too.

Good luck, I am slowly adjusting my way of eating, what I eat, when I eat and how I exercise and am slowly seeing changes. Have a lovely day. Lynne

Hi Lynne,

Happy to help. After years of being lectured about breakfast being the most important meal of the day, it’s very useful being a non breakfast eater on 5:2 and indeed I believe that neither Michael nor Mimi disapprove if it makes thing easier for you.

So, fast and non-fast days no breakfast and a light lunch of lean protein – roast beef, ham, tuna in brine, chicken breast, with a leafy salad. On a non-fast day you can have a bit of oily fish, like salmon (smoked or otherwise) or mackerel.

On fast days, either a low-cal dressing or just balsamic vinegar, on non-fast days oil and vinegar dressing, maybe some reduced fat coleslaw. On either sort of day a touch of low-fat mayo – I like Hellemans – obviously on fast days no more than a teaspoonful, which is about 8 calories. A fast day lunch for me is usually around 140 cals max, giving me more to play with in the evening when I’m really hungry. On a non-fast day, maybe up to 200. In winter, a nice homemade soup makes a good lunch. Have a look on the LOACA recipe thread, there are lots there. The beauty of soup is that you can have a much bigger helping but simply adding more water and a bit of seasoning.

For a fast-day evening meal I try to stay under 300, so leaving room for a cup of tea and a small piece of fruit. Again, lean protein as above, but with cooked meat and, if you like it, white fish, and lots of cooked veggies or salad wih alow-cal dressing. I’ve just bought the very low calorie noodles for the first time, so I shall start using them too. Non-fast days are not dissimilar but I add oily fish, carbs, usually in the form of potatoes, quinoa, couscous or brown rice, possibly a not too generous serving of pasta and am more generous with salad dressing – I make a mean blue cheese one with 1/2-fat creme fraiche – followed by fresh fruit, which I tend to treat with caution on fast days so as not to bump up the calories, e.g. a nectarine is 80 calories.

As for your boiled sweet, if it really helps you, might it be an idea to reserve a few calories on fast days so that you can take one when needed rather than feeling ill and miserable? There is diabetes in my family. Both my parents were but were able to control it by diet. I’ve recently discovered my brother is also diabetic. I’m not sure why I have so far managed to escape, and I’m hoping 5:2 continue to keep me clear.

Very good, Annette. I applaud your tenacity. Good job on the pants, also. We have little celebrations at our house every week for the little league baseball teams and their parents. Yesterday, was a private birthday party and the mother of the child that I hadn’t seen in a year, exclaimed that I had lost a lot of weight. Miss Chicka was in exclamation mode. She asked how much I’d lost and I haven’t weighed myself in months (husband bumped and broke our glass scale), but I’m fitting in pants I wasn’t able to pull or button.

I’m so happy I lost weight, know that I am still a work in progress. I have also known that not every size 6, 8 or 10, 12, etc., is made to proportion, meaning fitting you according to what the label proclaims. For instance, there are some 10’s, like my beautiful sheath I bought some years ago in hopes I would fit into it one day, will not fit over my hips and butt, but that’s okay. I’m working on it. There are items in my closet that are size 12s and they fit perfectly; especially my silk, gold palazzo pants; they have to flow as you walk.

There are no exact sizes in an exact size. Different manufacturers have different size guides and I say if it looks good on you, no matter what the label says, it’s your size.

Peace Ladies.

Room for another girls, have been fasting since Jan 6th and have lost a stone and a half to date, on a bit of a plateau at the moment but expect things to move again In September after the school holidays.

Sounds like you’re all doing fantastically well.

x

Hiya guys I haven’t checked in for a while . was my 5th weigh in last Monday and lost 14 pounds in total . I am over the moon . I still can’t eat all the calories I am supposed to ( never thought I would say that lol ) . I try to do my fast days on the days I take my dad out . last week ended up with 3 fast days . I am feeling so good within myself though and my RA is getting less painful too ( less stress on the joints) keep up the good work everyone

Wee xx

Hi weemam, and woo, both of you are doing brilliantly!! Congratulations. I do like monitoring my weight by how I feel and how things fit. This past week I’ve been weighing most days because I’m curious to see if the eating small amts more frequently makes much difference. So far seems to be ok, so will probably go back to checking with the SOT this week.

Wishing you both a great week. Phyllis

Hi Etherial, good to see you. Hope you enjoy Nashville! Head a little further east and drop in for a visit. Hugs Phyllis

Hi Lynne, so glad you are enjoying your holiday. Looking forward to hearing what that scale says, I bet it has dropped. Take care Phyllis

Thank you for any ideas or other sources,,,