Hmm..fat cell memory! I hope it works.
I’ve taken up making my food and pointing out the range of “his” food that’s there, about 1 hour before a meal. Then a couple of times closer to food time. Sometimes works. 😉
This topic contains 7,131 replies, has 66 voices, and was last updated by fitfast 1 month, 2 weeks ago.
Hi everyone,
Day 6 and all is going OK. I won’t say well as I’m struggling a bit but I got on the scales and was cheered up by what I saw and am putting extra effort into getting through today.
The situation here gets worse by the minute and the advice is to act as if we have the virus ie stay at home and keep away from others but I’m unsure how much effect that will have on the hard of thinking.
I’m going nowhere for the time being apart from my weekend trips to the newsagent which is safe as he’s behind a huge screen and there’s rarely any other customers at the time of morning I’m usually there.
I can shop on-line if I need food or opt to go to the supermarket early in the morning and take advantage of the priority access my age brings should there be a queue.
I don’t mind going at 7.30am as it’s usually very quiet
It’s a very cold clear and sunny day which is nice as the winter sun is shining through the windows brightening everything up and it was noticeably lighter when I went out for my newspaper than this time last week.
Happy,
If you know who doesn’t like what you cook for him then he’ll need to shop and cook for himself.
If I were you I would have announced I was going to participate in Veganuary….
Take care everyone 🤪
Amazon,
I’m not surprised you’re struggling a bit, it’s a significant change on a daily basis. Great that you’re seeing results though.
I have fasted today, roast root vegetables for tea, but I have broken my fast with half a glass of white wine (needed some for xohs meal) and it’s gone straight to my head.
I did think about playing the veganuary card! But of course with us both working at home there would be no opportunity for me to sneak in yoghurt, milk, cheese, eggs, fish… and while I’d be happy with flexitarian January I couldn’t actually go vegan.
Happy,
I’ve also given up alcohol which is another reason why this week has been so tough after 2 weeks of a daily cocktail and/or a glass of wine but I knew continuing to drink wine wouldn’t be conducive to sticking to 800 calories every day and it won’t do me any harm.
I have no intention of dabbling with veganism as life without cheese would be dreadful and as hard as I’ve tried I cannot give up milk in tea and coffee.
I’m more than happy to occasionally eat vegan dishes but not as a way of life, I’ll stick to plant based with some fish and dairy and the occasional piece of meat once I’ve completed 8 weeks of BSD.
Talking of fish my on-line fishmonger is doing 20% off all next week so I’ve placed an order. The smoked salmon I ordered for Christmas was excellent as has been everything else I’ve tried and as all stock is included in the offer I’ve ordered some scallops 😁
I now drink oat milk in coffee, but a cup of tea needs cows milk. And while I could give up meat, you’d have to wrestle me to the ground and prize my fingers from cheese and yoghurt…
Your fishmonger sounds excellent! Another thing we don’t get in the sticks. I envy you so many things, but just for now during lockdown i wouldn’t change places…
A good fishmonger is hard to find in my part of London and the nearest is a 20 minute drive along a busy route and parking is so difficult it’s not worth the stress.
This place is based at Billingsgate Market and has in recent months extended it’s delivery area and from what they say on their website and in their emails demand is great which means everything is really fresh and it’s less expensive than Waitrose which is the only supermarket with a decent choice.
I wouldn’t have found them if they hadn’t advertised on the local website and it was a couple of months before I actually got round to buying anything.
I’m guessing their delivery service has kept them in business.
I tried oat milk in coffee but the jury is still out. I’ve bought some Oatly barista to try and if I don’t like it I’ll use it in Bechamel etc.
As we buy kefir now, instead of homemade, we have no need for milk. During the “silly” season, I’ve been buying a litre of milk every few weeks, when we have had potential visitors. Then the viral situation changes, and it sits there unused as the visitors either don’t come, or pop in very briefly to stand out the front. No coffee. 😏 I’m better off not buying the milk and offering them black. I have used it, at the end of its life, to make a couple of baked custards. We had forgotten how gorgeous they are with stewed fruit. 😉
Cheese has been the same. We had 2 small parties planned, which had to be cancelled, last minute, AFTER I’d bought the biscuits and cheese. I’m very gradually using the cheese…I no longer eat it as I used to…but the biscuits just sit in the cupboard.
I’m very lucky with our seafood store as there are a lot of Asians in the region the quality and turnover is exceptional. Unfortunately it is within a large indoor shopping mall. I don’t ever risk going in there any more, so our seafood intake has dropped off massively. Even the farmers market is closed, mainly because of Christmas.
DearFasters
Cheese milk. I wish I didn’t like them.
Tomorrow we begin the MM 12 week 800. We are going on holiday too, to the South West of NZ.
My granddaughter has had her extreme tongue-tie snipped and she must be sore (not surprising) Unfortunately she is having to relearn to breast feed and finds it difficult (Mother too). They are going to continue trying and my daughter feeds the baby partially with a bottle after expressing milk. Thank you, Amazon for asking.
It’s interesting to hear about fish in the UK. I guess there will be more fish sold locally after the fishing agreement with the EU.There seems to be a few supply problems in fruit in London. My daughter was talking about shopping in Sainsbury’s the other day. She said there was no fresh fruit at all. I am trying to find a grower of oranges in Valencia to direct ship oranges to her in London.
Must get packing.
xx Wiwi
Hi everyone,
Wi,
Glad to hear your granddaughter has had her procedure. Hopefully time and your daughter’s perseverance will lead to success.
There are a few shortages of imported fruit and vegetables at the moment mostly due to issues caused by Brexit and it is a short term issue.
Having said that there is plenty of fruit to be found but with a new born baby and in the middle of a pandemic I suspect your daughter has neither the time or the inclination to trawl the shops searching for what she wants.
As for fish, one of the reasons touted for Brexit was to take back control of the UK fishing industry. It has not happened as the deal struck does not stop foreign vessels registered in the UK from taking huge numbers of fish and selling them in Europe and the added but apparently unexpected knock-on effect is many European customers are cancelling contracts with UK fishing due to delays at the border resulting in less than fresh fish arriving in Europe.
Once again an epic failure by the government and my only surprise is others didn’t realise this would happen.
I hope it means more people will buy fish and support the industry. There are lots of things fished here that are rarely seen in the shops as they all go directly to France and Spain eg langoustines.
The fish I buy mostly comes from Cornwall and I’m pleased to be supporting UK fishing albeit in a very small way.
Amazon, I laughed at your ‘hard of thinking’. So true!
Best of luck with the fasts and restricted eating plans, everyone. I have found Data Driven Fasting is working for me (yes, Happy, it does result in OMAD several times a week). This uses blood sugar levels to determine when or if I should eat a second (midday) meal. It is working, I am almost down to my lowest 5:2 weight, so pleased with the results.
And looking at the Covid effects world-wide, we are just so grateful to be here and safe. As long as the variants don’t get into the community we will be able to avoid restrictions.
Wishing your daughter and granddaughter good luck with the feeding, Wi. It’s a stressful time for you all. And do let me know when you want to visit, looking forward to catching up with you both.
P, BS is measured at waking and before meals for a few days initially. This determines my personal BS ‘trigger’. After that, I only need to take a test before my midday meal to see whether or not the reading is below trigger. Once it is, I can eat. If it doesn’t drop sufficiently it becomes a OMAD day. The readings indicate when there is still glucose circulating in my bloodstream and I am not yet accessing body fat for energy.
There is now an app as well as lots of reading material and support on the FB pages, and paired with Optimal Nutrition seems to work for lots of people. There are lots of ways of approaching the goals, but all use short-term IF, and eating better.
Our son has arrived from Wellington, and I could see him wanting to come permanently. So we need to seriously look at replacing the shed outside the back door with a sleepout appropriate as additional accommodation. Our three bedrooms are full with daughter and grandson. 🙂
That’s exciting news re your son, B! Lucky you have room to squeeze more in. 😉
The health control system you describe is what Mr P has been doing for the past 8 years and how he was able to reverse his insulin dependent Type 2 diabetes. He has been able to maintain good bs without any medication by testing on waking (a fasting test) every morning. If his bs is elevated, he doesn’t eat, either breakfast if only a little high, or an all day fast if higher. Needless to say his diet is low carb, high gi.
Pleased to hear it is working for you. Is OH joining you?
Cheers P
Barata,
That’s fantastic news that you’ve managed to shed those pesky kgs that you’d been struggling with. Is there a pattern in terms of what elevates your blood sugar and forces OMAD or do you respond differently to the same foods on different days?
I’ve fasted again today, seeing a bit of movement on the scales… just enough to motivate me to continue!! If only I could exert better portion control on non fast days I’d be laughing 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣
P, you are right, that it’s the same (or similar) process to MM’s! But this uses pre-meal levels rather than focussing on waking BS. I wish! about Mr B. No chance – he says he’s fine! 🙁
Happy, I haven’t studied my eating habits sufficiently to be able to identify culprits for raising the level during the daytime. That is part of the process that I would be delving deeper into if I had more to lose. I know sleep and stress can be factors, too, in raising levels. Oddly, my body fat % is all over the place according to my scales, from one moment to the next!
Ditto, Happy. 2 good 24 hour fasts a week, sensible eating otherwise, but my other current medical issue is too overwhelming for these measures to take effect for me at present
.
B, Mr P did multiple bs tests when he first began 5:2 in 2013, but finds the first thing one is the best guide, and, as we all know, breakfast is the easiest meal to skip.
The proportion, variety and type of vegetables he has eaten the day before has a major influence on his bs. Eating fish, less stress and significant regular exercise (long walks) also play a part. Sometimes it is higher for no apparent reason…he records everything…but it settles again with mindful eating and fasts. He still maintains 2 full fasts a week as well. What ain’t broke…
P
P,
I keep forgetting about the early effort you put in to reverse Mr P’s diabetes. With your help, he was practising data driven fasting before it was even a thing! If only you’d written that book, you’d be millionaires 😁
Non-fast day here. I have my food planned so I can hopefully practice not eating too much. I’m sure there’s a backbone in me somewhere!
Happy New Year, fasting friends! I’ve been a hopeless case for months, with little indulgences, as OH says ‘It was only …’. Portion sizes have grown too. And the thought of salads at the moment just doesn’t appeal.
Trouble is, I know my face could do with being filled out a bit, bu along with that, my gut gets filled out, too. This has led me to settle at 2lbs over. OH is expanding a lot!
I don’t know why, or how, the notify me tick disappears, so I’m way behind on all your news. Our news is – we don’t have any! Lockdown blues. 😏
Morning/evening all,
Considering I’m in lockdown and not doing very much the week has flown by. How can it be Friday already?
It’s a cold and frosty morning here in London which I much prefer to the 2 previous days of rain, rain, rain.
The BSD is going OK, I’m not feeling hungry although the inner demon telling me I need cake/bread/alcohol does appear from time to time attempting to hamper my progress. So far I’ve managed to cling to the side of the wagon albeit one handed on one occasion as I had a slice of Christmas cake in the other 😬
The good news is despite the cake the weight continues to drop and I’m really enjoying 800 calories which facilitates something light at lunchtime and a decent sized dinner.
Only another 6 and 1/2 weeks to go 😆
Polly,
In such times no news is good news. Good to hear from you.
Have a good weekend everybody 🤪
Amazon, recently I read a book called The Volunteer, about a Polish man who went into Auschwitz voluntarily. He write that ‘the days crawled by, but the weeks and months flew by’. Sums up lockdown, luckily we are not suffering like him.
Similar frosty morning here, might even manage a walk around the streets – again. Boring.
P, haggard faces don’t help do they. I haven’t got over grandson asking me why I look older than granddad! 😲😢
Well, I managed just one fast day, with discipline. Thankfully, I’ve not put on any more but stuck on 2lbs over top wriggle room. It’s so cold that I would have to force myself out for a walk – but we can’t drive to take exercise in Wales. Just walking the streets is boring. Husband is avoiding the scales completely and is expanding, this is in spite of apparently have smaller portions than I. There must be some hidden snacking going on somewhere.
The good news is that we had our first jabs yesterday: a phone call from tai chi teacher to say there were a number of no-shows in the big centre and if we could get there by 6.30 we could use them.
You’ve done well, not gaining weight, Polly!
We found, when we were restricted to walking around the district, how much we enjoyed getting to know different streets and the detail of gardens and architecture. I enjoyed the slow pace. I’ve missed it terribly in the last couple of months when I haven’t been able to walk, except on level, well paved surfaces. I’m just getting back to walking on uneven surfaces, with Mr P there to hang on to if I need.
We won’t be getting vaccinated until some time later in the year, if we are lucky. Meanwhile, our strong system of closed international borders (all must quarantine) and freely available testing and tracing has protected us. Can’t last forever though. The whole world needs to be vaccinated. This will take time!
Keep away from others, everyone. It is the only way to be safe. P
In the spring I did enjoy having a nose at the different gardens. Nothing much to see now, though. I’ve done a bit of housework as well as a tai chi zoom class today so that’s it. I’m still hungry all the time though. I think that hunger dragon has moved here to join our Welsh dragon.
Australia has done so well on covid protection. Our friends are still stuck there, though. Well, the exams have been passed and the new baby has arrived. Now they can tackle the problem of finding flights before having to quarantine in a hotel when they eventually get back.
For some reason I’m having to log in every flipping time.
Well I’ve been feeling thoroughly down through January and there didn’t seem to be much to look forward to. The government handling of the pandemic has been atrocious, but at least it looks as though the vaccine rollout is going well and the gamble on spacing between doses, at least for AZ, appears to be a good call. Who knows? Maybe we will have a summer to look forward to here!
I’ve been plugging away with fasting, for mostly no reward, but this week I have seen a sustained drop on the scales. 0.75kg in a month is hardly huge, but I’ll take it!
Good news that you’ve had your first jab Polly, sorry to hear you’re as fed up as I am!?
P, you’ll be so glad to be mobile again, it’s been a long old recovery from your ankle. No more falling over!!
Thanks Happy. No guarantees re the falling! 🤪
At least you are chipping away at the extra. Mine drops, then returns (I’m sure I could turn that into a joke, but I’m too tired 🤣)
Fingers crossed the vaccine roll-out speeds up, all around the world, before the wretched virus mutates into something that is immune to it.
We are all in this together. Stay strong. P
Hi everyone,
I’ve been struggling a bit to find any joy in the day to day of a winter lockdown but two weeks ago I did have a nice meet up with my niece and great nephews in the park on a cold, muddy and foggy morning. It was the day before the little one’s second birthday and a few days before mine so I had a gift for him and my niece gave me some beautiful flowers.
I hadn’t seen the boys for three months and it was lovely to spend some time with them. The 5 year old has adapted well to home schooling and is enjoying learning to read and the little one is training to be a comedian. His antics were hysterical and at one point I said to him “you’re just showing off now” and his response was “yes” 🤣
My friends who are my support bubble invited me to dinner on my birthday. It was a lovely evening, good company, good food, wine, a cake and more flowers 😁
Since then it’s been all downhill diet wise but I have lost a few lbs and I’m starting again tomorrow.
I’ve had my first Covid vaccination. I received a text message on Thursday morning inviting me to make an appointment and had it done on Thursday evening.
The vaccine roll out is going very well and everyone I know who has had their first vaccination has said how efficient the procedure is. I arrived early and was seen and on my way out of the door by 5.40pm which was the time of my appointment. Every one was friendly, helpful and cheerful and the impression was of a well oiled machine.
It was nice to be reminded how wonderful the NHS is not that I didn’t know already.
It is ridiculous how happy having a vaccination has made me feel 🤪
We felt the same, Amazon! For once I agreed with Matt Hancock – it was a palpable feeling of relief. Your little nephew is a star!
I’m just dreadful food wise at the moment, always hungry or wanting to eat out of boredom, can’t knit much because of aching wrists and I’m not coping with tinnitus at all. I wish my lovely therapist, Angela, was still available.
One bright light, the Six Nations starts today, so we will have a rugby weekend. Not too hopeful about our chances against Ireland tomorrow. Oh, how I wish we could be in the Millennium Stadium. There’s nothing like it.
Polly,
I had a conversation with my best friend a couple of weeks ago which went along the lines of us both being prepared to travel any distance at any time of day or night in order to be vaccinated.
My great nephews are such a joy.
I have rather lost interest in rugby and can’t summon up any enthusiasm to watch the Six Nations.
I have a new addiction which is live safari game drives on youtube twice every day from different locations in South Africa.
Watching them is keeping me sane.
Amazon,
Belated many happy returns! It’s great that you got to celebrate it with friends and see your great nephews too. I think we all need a boost at the moment.
I’m not surprised you were happy to get the vaccine, not only does it protect you but it’s also tangible evidence of progress out of this mess. I’m last in line of the ‘vulnerable’ groups as an over 50, but hopefully by May…
Our family are very rugby-oriented OH has been chairman at all levels in our club. I wish there had been a women’s game when I was young, too.
Happy, daughter will be 50 at the end of April. We’re hoping she scrapes in! God knows when the American branch will get it. Son had covid before Christmas so he should have immunity for a good few months.
Happy birthday, Amazon. I’m glad you managed to spend it with the family.
I have one little grandchild as my regular catchup person. She, too, is an absolute character. They really are our sanity point, aren’t they? The older school aged grandies are too busy and the others inaccessible with border closures, sadly. When I analyse our social contacts over a week, we have rarely met up with anyone, but this one and her parents, and only get to cuddle the littlie. 😐
Your virtual African safaris sound great. I must have a look. This would be a safe way for me to go there! 🙂
Lucky you to get vaccinated already. I’m pleased the system is running smoothly. Noone has been vaccinated in Australia yet, and, being under 70, I’m not even near the top of the list. Funnily enough, I seem to now be catergorised as “young”. Strange, as news reports always talk about the “elderly” with anyone in their 6os!!!
I continue on with 2 fasts and lots of varied veg other days. Just bought Nigella’s new book and am discovering ways with anchovies. Love variety! 🙂🙂 P
Hi Purple,
I am thrilled to have been vaccinated already and I’ll be even happier when I see people in countries such as Africa benefitting.
If you want to look at the youtube safaris search for wild earth.
I love them and they can be watched live or any time that suits. I’m up early watching as I’m in training for the AO 😉
I have Nigella’s book and her fear free fish stew is wonderful. I am also a fan of her sandwich loaf. I’ve not tried many of the other recipes yet but am planning on doing so soon.
I have a list of recipes I want to try and I’m considering another vegetarian Lent.
I’m finding I need to ensure dinner is interesting and different or I have trouble staying on the wagon 🤪
Oh, complacency and comfort eating will be the ruination of me, not forgetting OH and his sneaky snacks.
I’ve just heard the Marsh family doing their spoof on Total Eclipse of the Heart – Third Lockdown – so apt and funny.
I had my porridge and banana at 1pm, the OH said the crumpets shoukd be eaten, do I want one? I had two, then a whole pizza for dinner! Then my Saturday ice cream treat. Oh, dear!
Great game between Scotland and England yesterday. Great win for Scotland. I’m sure it’s no surprise that we Celts stick together. We will have a hard one against Ireland today.
Polly, my Sunday involved no food until 1:30, when I had 1/2 a homemade chicken & veg pizza, with lots of fresh garden herbs. We have a pizza oven outside, so I cooked, wearing swimmers, between dips. The weather was stunning. Later, the grandies came around…a rare treat..and we had fun together in the pool, inventing swimming styles, and giggling a lot! 🙂🙂 We felt almost normal.
Monday fast in the morning…g’night. P
Hi everyone,
Friday already 😲
This week is going OK. I’ve stuck to LCHF and to 800 every day but one so I think I can call this week a success.
Keeping occupied has helped and between watching wildlife and tennis I’ve not been bored once the only problem arising when I found an opened bag of almonds in the back of the cupboard while looking for something else and I had to check if they were still edible 😆
Have a good weekend everybody 🤪
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