Fabulous Iona! Have fun.
This topic contains 3,812 replies, has 216 voices, and was last updated by annette52 1 day, 7 hours ago.
Good luck with your fast today Annette. I have had a lovely weekend eating and drinking with family and friends. Back to work today so just having a little bit of fruit at work then omelette tonight. I feel this year I will be able to control my eating (and drinking) over the festive period much better than previous years. I’m looking forward to January when it’s all over and I can start a more focussed attempt at losing a bit more weight.
Annette, you are inspiring. At this time of the year, when the majority of people around us only thinks of how to prepare the next feast, you are getting into detail by reading up more from Jason Fung, you are attempting a 24 fast and successfully complete it…It is so good to read that you are so determined.
My sister wants to do 5:2, since she saw my progress. Hard to believe for me. I feel like nothing is moving. She wants to start in January. I told her she could save time (and Christmas kg) by starting now. Anyhow, I am happy, if she will start at all. She needs to lose weight and I am happy to have her to talk this WOE.
Going through some really tough time with regard to my health: strong cold with stomach problems and migraine. I have been sick all weekend and Monday. Missed out on Christmas dinners and visits on the Christmas market [Advantage: I did not have to bother about calories or food]. Back to the office today, but still not feeling right. Drank Fennel-Caraway-Aniseed tea. That really helped but does not taste good. Today is a fast day and I am determined to keep my fast days, even though I feel like rubbish. [I don’t want to cancel a fast day before the big day] Eating nothing feels good for my stomach, but it is causing circulatory problems.
Still not feeling good today, but I am now on sick leave, so I have the chance to recover. I am on a f-day today. It is harder than usual since I am home. Not sure, if fasting is the right thing, when feeling sick, but since I also don’t know that it is the wrong thing, I will stick to it.
Tomorrow we will drive to my parents, enjoy Christmas without thinking of calories, sugar, fat etc. On Sunday we come back, then the feasting is over. I like this Arrangement: no left overs in my place, no extra food shopping, no preparation.
Annette, hope you enjoy your visitors and all the food that comes with them. Have a great time!
Merry Christmas to everyone!
(I will write after Christmas again)
Good luck with the fast Annette. I have eaten too much today but I have been to the beach for a stroll and out for a walk this evening. I’m at work tomorrow and Wednesday so will not eat anything there. I got a copy of Lustig’s Fat Chance so looking forward to reading that again and will probably get The Obesity Code by Fung too.
I would like to run again but really need to seek professional advice about my foot problem before doing so, it is so easy just to put off both. Tempted to sign up for the gym again but I know just paying the money every week isn’t enough to make me go regularly, need to get my head around it and plan my schedule better. I intend to spend a lot less time on line next year!
Hi Annette, I’m also eating more than intended, I was actually craving some salad today. We have just come back from a funeral where I managed to avoid any cake afterwards, so counting that as a small victory. I will be going grocery shopping tomorrow so will stock up on veg/fruit etc and get a bit more healthy. My girls are talking about take out pizza tonight so perhaps that will be my grand finale to silly eating.
Hi everyone, hope you all had a lovely Christmas. I find it’s all quite an effort in the build up as I’m still ‘Father Christmas’. I then feel a bit of a slump after the big day. It was just the three of us for lunch, then 13 over for a buffet in the evening. Bit stressful getting the house straight after all the pressie opening. Anyway I don’t think as hostess I had time to eat much which was good! I think I’ve done okay, bit hard to tell on my manual scales, maybe up a bit, waist up a little bit. I usually end up eating chocolates for breakfast on Christmas day but I didn’t feel the pull to do it this year so put them away in the cupboard! I don’t love Christmas cake so haven’t had any of the one mother-in-law baked us. Also don’t love mince pies, mainly because they’re not home made as pastry is one thing I find a bit tricky! The things I enjoyed most were cheese with cranberry oat cakes and a pear, walnut and Roquefort salad. And roast potatoes obviously!
You’ve done so well Annette to manage two fasts and a run. You might find your weight goes back down by the 1st January as your body sorts through the last few days. I downloaded The Obesity Code. I started out understanding it well, but it’s getting a bit fuzzy now in the second half. Hope he’s going to sum up and give some practical advice. Every bit of info is useful to aid understanding.
Well done Annette on your festive success! I’ve finished The Obesity Code too. Fascinating stuff about having a ‘set weight’ too high caused by insulin resistance caused by too much refined food too often over a number of years. I’m sure that’s true as my husband goes up and down the same half stone. My sister was never successful until she tried the Whole 30 which quite drastically cuts cals and carbs so is in effect fasting. Fung says that when insulin is normal our bodies are a fine tuned machine and will adjust energy to match fuel. He also says that more than 7 hours sleep is desirable and low stress so advocates meditation. He reckons insulin needs to spike and rest hence no snacking.
The weight I’m at now is fine but it is about 9 pounds more than my twenties, so perhaps I’ve reached my older age set weight. According to Fung if I were to do some 24 hr fasts I could get my set weight lower. Then a case of eating cleaner and weight should maintain itself. The book has depressed me a bit about my husband as I can’t imagine him fasting. I’ll just have to drip feed him my knowledge. At least as a family we’ve kicked a few old sugar habits.
Happy New Year everyone.
Happy New Year!
I am back, back to 5:2 after having a break last week. A bit unplanned, but I enjoyed what I ate. I had a chance to observe how my eating habits of the past were influenced. All the chocolate during Christmas didn’t tempt me at all and my drink of choice was water (and not juice or any other sweet drinks or alcohol). Realised that it is relatively easy to eat low carb during festive meals (we had Raclette on Christmas and Fondue on New Year’s Eve), if you leave potatoes and bread aside.
Eating all the time really does make us hungry all the time. Fasting is a good useful tool to interrupt this urge for constant eating. As you guys already stated: it is connected to the insulin.
Positive surprise: My brother and his wife started 5:2 in the end of November after I told them about this WOE. They lost 4 kg each since they started!!! Of course they are happy about the results. They see it as a long term way of eating. So happy for them.
Lately I am wondering, if low carb is also good for children. I thought their eating is influenced by a healthy urge for what they need. My son (2) sometimes eats and sometimes just doesn’t eat. He seems to know what he needs. Sometimes he ignores chocolate and picks the apple, but also ignores the cheese or the ham and just eats bread with butter. His diet is very inconsistent, but carbs are a substantial part of it. He is rather to light than to heavy, so I do not worry about his weight, but I want him to learn healthy eating habits early on. (Also I am wondering, if what we consider to be healthy is still considered as healthy in 20-30 years. Since I do not know that I have to act on today’s knowledge)
I see there is an article in The Guardian about sugar today. Good to see more promotion in the press.
Keep up the good work team! 2017 is going to be great on this WOL!
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/02/the-case-against-sugar-gary-taubes-review-compelling-attack-diet-myths
Thanks for that article Iona. It actually pushes me further to the conclusion that refined sugar should also be a no-go for toddlers and carbs from pasta/rice/potatoes/bread have to be reduced/avoided. Mhm…need to research/think further on how to offer my son, my husband and myself a good diet.
Pasta is already only whole-grain (reduction in process)
Rice is served mixed with wild and brown rice (full change is in process),
potatoes (can’t see how to ban/fully avoid them…)and bread need to be reviewed carefully. (Bread should only be multi-grain for starters.)
All other sugar-products (where I am aware of) are to be limited.
You can see: There is still a lot of potential for improvement 😉
Good morning!
The yoghurts are already a while on my to-be-avoided-agenda. Also all these products specially designed for children. If it looks like it is made for children one needs to double check the content.
Interesting that you mention 3 meals as a guide line. For toddlers the recommendation is to serve 5 small meals. We offered that to our son when he was younger, but quickly stopped that because we felt that we constantly were occupied with food. At home we target 3 meals and fruits/veggies for in between, if we see he is hungry. In his day care they offer a fruit/veggie bowl as regular snack in the late morning. We feel for a small child this is a good way to go and try to avoid snacks like yoghurt (it is a meal) or salt sticks. However we are not too strict, since we are convinced that placing certain food under a taboo will not teach him to deal with these foods.
For myself I believe that 3 meals are more than enough. Snacking in between encourages more snacking and it is all additional food that is not needed by our bodies. During the week I mostly manage to not snack, the weekends are harder though.
Smaller portions of rice/pasta/bread are on my mind, but my OH is not very supportive in this matter. If I cook less pasta, he will complain and bring bread to the table.
How do you substitute the sandwiches your son takes to work? Today I cut my son apple and capsicum for his breakfast in day care (his actual breakfast is still a bottle of milk).
Well done, fasting 24 hours with only tea.
Had my fast day yesterday with soup for lunch and soup for dinner. Still trying to get my head around a water fast in order to achieve the full fasting effect. Yesterday I got a bit emotional/angry/impatient in the evening and I felt it was due to hunger (had a chicken soup with 188 kcal at 13:00 and another tomato/beef soup with 224 kcal at 20:00). Thus I am reluctant to a water fast, but I know it is sth I can get used to. My OH woud say that there is anyway not much difference between water and soup.
Tried my husbands kettle bells for exercising and I enjoyed it. Plan is to make it a regular little exercise of 5 min per day to strengthen my core. Also need to increase the length of my runs (currently 4k) in order to join my work mates for their weekly 10k run. Have to make use of all these people around me being so motivated from their new year’s resolutions. Even if it does not last I can benefit temporarily.
Today is my fast-day. Stopped eating at 7 pm yesterday. I might just try to fast till 7 pm tonight and then have my 500 kcal. I have nothing to lose (just weight).
Your soup recipe contains sticks of celery. Do you think I can substitute it with knobs of celery? We usually cook soups ourselves. Only at work I sometimes use tinned soup. I like making broccoli soup: boil the broccoli in little amount of water with seasoning as you like. I also add some ginger, garlic and sometimes onion. In the end I blend it and depending on how many calories I plan to consume I add milk or cream or nothing.
Very good of you to question yourself. It is smart and should be done by everyone, but unfortunately my brain only pictures the point in time of eating and not the time afterwards. I guess the consequence of buying/eating in that moment doesn’t seem to be that big. Very short-sighted and stupid of me.
Another interesting article from The Guardian about sugar
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jan/05/is-sugar-worlds-most-popular-drug
Long article, but worth reading it. I thought eating sugar in moderation is the way to go, but as Taubes writes: We don’t know how much is too much. (It almost relates to what I wrote earlier. When buying or eating certain food, we are not aware of the full consequences.)
This sugar issue gives me so much to think and admittedly I feel a bit helpless on how to deal with it.
If I don’t know how much sugar is too much, I have no idea what measures to take against. You might say: no sugar at all or as little as possible. Meaning for me: changing my entire eating habits without knowing, if we are exaggerating or still doing too little. (In my opinion a weak argument to change a lot) Assuming we all believe that sugar is negative, how do you deal with it? Daily struggle? Keep in mind: There is sugar in everything offered outside of our home: eating out, meals in day care, meals at other people’s houses. You might be able to cook a lot/ everything yourself, but you probably do not want to deny yourself the social setting of food. Brings me to my original thought: everything in moderation (since you can’t avoid it fully). Just what is moderation, when you do not know how much is too much?
Sally, the latest thinking is so opposite to past advice. Personally I’m just trying to avoid sugar on drip feed, like in my tea! Trying to eat more natural fats like eggs to feel full, full fat yoghurt etc. I’m still eating bread, potatoes, pasta but less of a portion. I think it’s the highly processed foods and sugary drinks to really cut back on.
I have an 8 year old and there’s no way pasta or potatoes will be restricted. Like your son he’s on the skinny side. I think he definitely needs the calories. He eats a good range. As you said I’ve often noticed his hunger varies day to day, he knows naturally when to eat. We’ve never had fizzy drinks at home. I think the advice to give young children juice may be wrong. He does eat biscuits etc, I’m just trying to be a bit more mindful.
I’ll have a read of that article. Perhaps just the knowledge is power, check labels when out and make the best choice.
Lately I feel like I am checking labels all the time. I try to use as a guideline what Annette once said, it was sth like: don’t buy products where sugar is listed amongst the first ingredients. (Hope I don’t quote you wrong) It is annoying to see that there is sugar in peanut butter or tinned soup. However sugar is omnipresent in my home: ketchup, juice, sugar pure (for baking) and so on. Apart from juice (without added sugar) we don’t have any sweet drinks at home. Juice we reduce currently by adding more and more water to it. (Interesting that my son does not want to drink it without enough water…) Cinderella, I think I have the same approach as you have with your son. Annette, I followed you and reduced my baking. I bake less often and with reduced sugar (nobody realises the difference anyway).
I have lost only 4 kg from August to December, but lost a dress size and lots of cm. People, even the ones I see every day, now ask me, if I lost a lot of weight. (LOL: No.) I feel as if I haven’t changed a lot in my diet, I am still overeating on my nonfast days. I see a lot to change/improve in my diet and I want to lose more – so much that I feel good in bikinis (I know this is an unspecific goal, because I feel different every day, but I have an idea what it means for me). My weight loss is just about me feeling better in my body, but changing my diet is for health.
Completed my first 24 hour fast yesterday (7 pm to 7pm). Didn’t feel hard at all. In the afternoon I felt a headache coming, so I had some broth. In the evening I had a 400 kcal dinner (felt like a rich dinner, since I usually have 250 kcal dinner on a fast day). This morning I had breakfast at 7:30 am and I was super hungry, so I had 400 kcal. (I have been skipping breakfast most of December). From now to Tuesday: normal eating.
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16 Dec 16