Always keep warm on fast days, Amazon! It is just TOO hard to resist eating if you need to warm up. 😨😨

I’d forgotten you turn on central heating. We just turn on heating in one room if we are cold. We are eating party left overs! Very nice. P

Good question, Happy. For a start, you need to understand we don’t believe it ever gets cold here! Our houses are built to keep cool, which means they leak drafts! 🤣🤣 Very few people have central heating here as we don’t get really cold for long periods (or thought we didn’t pre climate change! It is currently 13 deg, has been pouring rain and cold two days in a row, after 31 deg on Friday!)
The heating in our house has evolved over the years. We have some small stand alone natural gas heaters that we rarely use, except to crank a room up a few degrees in the between seasons. We have 2 wood pellet heaters in our upstairs and downstairs loungerooms. We light whichever one is in the room we intend to be in. They burn offcut wood from the timber industry, pelletised. Incredibly efficient, with very little smoke. In recent years we added 2 single room air-conditioners to cope with the extremely hot days, and nights we have experienced in recent years. They can be very handy to warm a bedroom just before bed. We have ceiling fans in every room for cooling, and for circulating warm air produced by the fires or air-conditioning. Sounds complex, but it means if we are only in one room, like this evening, we only use the heating in that room.
We fasted today, and were SO cold we lit the fire. Quite a shock after swimming in the heat last week! P

All the best, Amazon 🤗🤗

B2B FDs nailed.
Tomorrow I’m aiming for a not overeating day.

Fingers crossed……

🤣🤣🤣🤪

Morning/evening all,

Happy,

Yesterday was good thanks.
I’ve found a fishmonger based at Billingsgate Market who does deliveries across my side of London. Everything is fresh and not previously frozen and they’ve a low minimum price for single people and small families. I had my second delivery yesterday which included prawns so I cooked them with garlic and chili and added them to some black rice along with parsley, cubed avocado and cherry tomatoes and it might become my favourite dinner as it was fast and easy to prepare and cook and delicious.

I’m fasting again today as I’m pleased with my progress and in the mood to continue in my quest to get back to the routine that guaranteed a 2lb loss every week (fingers crossed).

I’m very concerned over the lack of government action over both the pandemic and children living in poverty and hardship going hungry. What kind of country allows a section of the population to starve through no fault of their own whilst wasting billions on a track and trace system that is not fit for purpose.
The whole UK should be in lockdown and every day we continue as we are the more likely we’ll lose control of the virus.
I can’t decide if they are evil, stupid, in denial or a mixture of all three but the decision to appoint inept and inexperienced sycophants into Cabinet and Ministerial posts is destroying lives and livelihoods.

It’s wet and miserable here too which means another day of reading, watching tennis and avoiding entering the kitchen except to make tea or coffee.

Have a good one everybody 🤪

Yesterday was a fast day, as we had enjoyed a couple of relaxed days. Had a good night’s sleep last night – nine hours! I didn’t hear the clock chime once.

Great news – our daughter and grandson are back in the country, doing their 14 days managed isolation. All going well we can collect them then. They have been sent to Christchurch, and their hotel room is a tiny studio with two single beds. The exercise area would do a prison proud, but they are not complaining, just grateful to be back, and away from her horrible partner. They are being provided five meals a day, with the snacks, far more than they need, and she is set up to work from the room.

Glad to hear they are back in NZ, Barata. The 2 weeks will fly by, and they are safe in NZ.
Managed Isolation wasn’t a bad experience for me either. However if you are vulnerable or disturbed it could be. Difficult if you are a smoker too.
Nearly at the end of Monday fast. Not bad as I have been busy.
Just about to have a bit of salad.
xx
Wiwi

Good morning from Brazil

I am ready to go back to my routine back home.
My mother lives near downtown and I normally do whatever I need by foot. I love walking. Fasting was impossible however I had black coffee in the morning opening my eating window after noon to the horror of my mother a professional food pusher.
My entire family are obeying distancing and mask. The results of my second test as yesterday I am negative.
The same idiots running the UK must be relatives with the Brazilian and the US one.
I am flying back today and arriving in NY tomorrow morning elections day. All major Cities there are in high alert for disturbances. Aparentou Trump wants to declare victory tomorrow. He is a evil person 😈
I have no idea if I’ll be asked to quarantine myself. Obviously I should do just in case.
Good news – I will hire a personal trainer so I’ll be able to learn how to proper exercise. I don’t know how much cardio or weights one should do. The goal is not lose muscle mass, strength training. It will be totally online. He is a reputable professional with proper credential for the job.
Amazon what is chili? I am sure I’ve eaten but I never purchased. Are there several types?
Talk to you again when I arrive home 🍁
Have a nice successful week and be well ❤️

HCB, it is so hard fasting when surrounded by food pushers. I hope the trip home goes smoothly. You are living in dangerous times and a very dangerous place. Take care.

Amazon, I have taken up turning my abundance of home grown chillies into garlic chilli oil. I keep it in the fridge to add to my food for extra taste. Very handy when living with someone who can’t eat chillies or garlic.
I ended up with 17,000 steps by bedtime last night, not because I was trying, but in order to distract from food. It was successful! We have had 10 days of rain, with little opportunity for long walks and too much sitting inside, so I took the opportunity to get some steps up yesterday when it was only cloudy. I was only caught once in a shower. 🙂🙂

A, it works really well combining finely chopped chilli and garlic in olive oli. I add a dash on top of meals…cooked or salad.
I hope you are ok with your new restrictions. Let’s hope it works. P

I can’t sleep. I have been so obsessed by the US elections. I wish Biden would declare so I can sleep instead of looking at ballot results every hour.
If I can’t sleep I can’t fast.
All so agonizing and I’m not even American.
Xx

If you are a Kiwi wanting to come home – and why wouldn’t you! – you will do your two weeks’ isolation over Christmas. Demand is so high. Just so happy that daughter and grandson are already in the country, having been early in getting accommodation vouchers. I just want to wrap my arms around them!

Wi, Biden will get there, the states are just being so careful to make sure their counting cannot be challenged successfully. Interesting that Republicans are now distancing themselves from the Orange Abhorrence! We here in Kiwiland are not as closely aligned with the US as the Aussies are, P.

We have had some good rain over the last few days. We are always wary of the risk of another drought like the last year’s, but so far so good. Mosquitos are back on the wing. I treated all the (many!) bromeliads with vinegar and dish detergent a week or so ago, and that seemed to deal with them, but probably the rain has washed out my solution so I need to repeat the dose after the current weather system.

With the Nutrient Optimiser regime that I am currently following (Data Driven Fasting) where you don’t eat until your blood sugar level has dropped below the pre-set trigger level, I find I am only eating OMAD. Doesn’t make me happy, but I am dropping weight, only two kgs to go til I hit my lowest on 5:2, so will continue until I hit that goal.

Stay strong, all you fellow 5:2ers, especially those in the NH who face further lockdowns and winter 🙁

HCB,

We all share your joy in the election of Joe Biden and some of us are wishing that in due course something similar will happen for us.

Fasting has not been going well this week but I’ve not been overeating so no damage done. Hopefully it’s (yet another ) minor blip on my extremely long and complicated journey to goal.

I am absolutely not in the right headspace for lockdown 2 and I’ll need to dig deep to get through it. I am counting my blessings every day which helps me focus on the bigger picture but just as I was getting used to going out for a drink and a plate of food in the company of friends it’s been stopped again.

It could be much worse as I could have easily been one of those who has lost a loved one to Covid, or lost my job or home. Even worse I could still be working on the front line……

As I said, I’m counting my blessings.

Have a good week everyone 🤪

Morning Amazon,

Sorry to hear your back has been troubling you again, I know how debilitating it can be at the best of times, let alone lockdown: the sequel (part 1).

Mine has been good recently, it’s my head that hasn’t! My perimenopausal hormones have played havoc with me over the last few weeks, and a lot of work pressure hasn’t helped, on top of covid and politics here and abroad (BoJo and Trump both attempting to seize and control power by undemocratic means…)…

as a result, fasting and non-fast day eating have been a bit erratic. I’m holding steady, but not managing to lose anything. I had a really good nonfood fast day earlier in the week and I’m hoping to complete another fast today (although the xOH is cooking tonight, so god knows how many calories there will be in that, can’t not eat at least some though at the risk of him having another narcissist tantrum…🤣).

I really need to get my act together. Wish me luck!

Backs are such tricky things, aren’t they, Amazon? I hope yours eases soon.
I risked mine today while moving and lifting very heavy bags of soil to top up a veg bed. My back was screaming at me afterwards. As the weather was quite hot, I lay on a noodle in the pool and moved around gently. Fabulous and seems to have worked.
Thursday fast day over now, with only a tiny hiccup when family called in for a late swim. Just seemed rude not too. 😇 It is so warm, we have just been for a 3km walk at 9pm…25 deg! At last a bit of spring before summer starts.
Good luck with your various forms of 5:2 girls. 🙂P

Amazon,

I bought some wool a couple of weeks ago, but it would service 3 patterns that I have (courtesy of Rowan’s free pattern library) and I can’t decide which!

I have sone very unseasonal flowers in the garden too, yes even in the north 🤣 And a greenhouse full of jalapeno and pimento peppers still. They were slow to ripen in the summer and are cropping well.The leaves are nearly all off the trees now though, so there’s no pretending winter isn’t on it’s way.

Ah P, 25 degrees and the pool! Now that is the life.

Yesterday’s fast went well, the day not eating was easy (why do I fail some days?!) and the meal was a vegetarian cottage pie that came in at roughly 500 calories per serving.

I keep reminding myself that there is still enough of the year left to shed a couple of pesky kilos…if only I could consistently apply myself to fasting and mindful eating… On that note, xOH was skinny in his youth (he was a natural intermittent faster, who had no respect for the larger among us) but has piled on the pounds during lockdown. It will annoy him no end if I can lose weight and be slim (as a narcissist, he’s offended by my having a separate identity and a will and success of my own) so there’s some motivation for me right there 🤣

Morning/evening all,

Happy,

I still have chillies on the plants and they are there because I can’t decide what to do with them. I need to make a decision which will probably be chucking them into the freezer…..

It is a mystery to all of us why some FDs are plain sailing and others are not. All I know is I have no intention of giving in as I was not happy being obese and have no desire to repeat the experience.

As for the knitting, since I lost weight I feel the cold so much more and have been thinking a shawl would be wonderfully cosy on a cold evening.

FD 3 here I come.

I am making Shakshouka today. It is one of the most comforting delicious and filling dishes and if one ignores the copious amounts of oil specified in many recipes and forgoes the bread recommended to mop up the juices it works well on a FD.

Have a good weekend everyone 🤪

Yum Amazon.
I love shakshouka. What veges are you putting in, Amazon?
Yes I agree about the oil. Just enough to stop the ingredients from sticking.
At present I have a love affair with smoked paprika which I add abundantly to cooked food including shakshouka.
Good fast today. Lovely garden salad. All from my garden and I am happy to have a productive garden here.
It’s not really summer-like yet in this part of NZ. It will be much better up Barata’s way,
I have finished the crocheted shawl for the new baby due at Christmas in London.
I am knitting a beanie now with left over wool. I am sad that I will not see this baby for quite a few months ( or as I don’t want to admit maybe years)
I wish the family could come back to NZ.
xx

Purple,

I bought a recipe book (Jerusalem) full of Middle Eastern recipes and Shakshouka immediately caught my eye and was the first recipe I tried.
The first time I met up with Wiwi we went to a Levantine restaurant and she said it was one of her favourite dishes.

Wiwi

My recipe says contents depend on season. Always tomatoes with aubergines in spring, peppers in summer and potatoes in winter. I’ve used all three as I have lots of peppers and some lovely baby aubergines and as I’ve not tried it with potatoes before I thought I’d add some.
I like to cook it in advance then reheat and add the eggs as I think it tastes even better when the flavours have had time to get to know each other.

I have a huge panful and the whole lot without eggs is less than 500 calories.
Guess what I’ll be having for brunch tomorrow 😁

It’s tough not seeing the family and in particular the little ones as they grow and change so quickly.
I saw my great nephews not long before the current lockdown and hopefully we’ll be able to meet up in early December.

Barata,

How lovely to be reunited with your daughter and grandson.

Shakshouka freezes well so you can make some for yourself and stash some away in the freezer.

As for pork belly, I’m considering it for my Christmas dinner.

My FD has gone one G&T over my calorie limit but I’m happy with that.

Thanks, folks. And you will be happy with extra G&T, Amazon 🙂

Not sure where the day has gone but here I am at 4.42pm on a wet Saturday looking out at the dark. This is the time of year I used to hate when I was working as I would travel to and from work every day in the darkness.
It is a reminder that colder weather and even shorter days are not far away.

Purple, your egg dish sounds very tasty I shall have to try it at some point.

Dish of the day at Chez Amazon is kedgeree 😁 and there might be some 🍷

🤪

I microwaved the smoked haddock. It took 2 mins 30 seconds and there was no lingering odour.

You could slice the zucchini in half lengthwise and put them on the BBQ along with some other veggies for a griddled veggie salad which would go well with fish, meat or even some Halloumi cheese.