Amazon,

Good job there were so many hostelries with local ales to give you a break from all that history and culture! You’d have been fair worn out with all that walking otherwise…

Jo,

Restarting your kefir from frozen will be like starting for the first time, i.e. it will take a few batches until the grains settle again. Good to hear that they survived the freezer though.

Emel,

Talking of restarts, good work! Now you just need to keep some momentum going (ahem, enough said, Jo!!).

Well it’s a scorching 25 or so degrees here. I’m wilting! Looking forward to cooling off with a glass of red wine in the garden this evening 😀

Fasting-wise, just the one required for maintenance this week. A couple of weeks of two 24 hour fasts seem to have got me back on track. And I think summer, and increased activity, and less comfort food, definitely make loss/maintenance easier for me.

I’ve got another long gardening weekend planned. Just peas and swede to sow outside now; kale, sprouting broccoli, leeks, Brussels sprouts and chard to plant out; successional sowing of salad leaves; the last few jalapeño and Thai chillies to pot up, together with some herbs; then on to the herbaceous borders! Perhaps I should start offering gardening breaks to city dwellers…. 😀

We were watching your progress in Hull, Amazon, and wishing we were following you… Sounds like you had a great time 🙂

Thanks for the update on the kefir, Jo. I will need instructions when I get it. Good luck to your daughter with her application. If she needs a local to put a good word in for her, let me know.

The kilogram lost the previous week had bounced back, so it looks as though I will need to take more concerted action. However, I am still more than happy with where I am, and the great news, I have now had eight good sleeps in a row 🙂 🙂

We had dinner last night with Wiwi and her OH and friends, lovely social time thanks Wi. Sorry to leave you with the washing up.

Dull drizzly late autumn day here, 14 degrees, so inside work I think.

Hi Fast Trackers
Hello World (You All know Who You ARE) 😉
I made a crockpot of chicken broth actually I call it chicken stock but broth seems the in word I cooked it right out for 24 hours and will be very much looking forward to all the miracles that should happen as a direct result 😉 Having an extra fast this week M_W_F with the above mentioned broth the menu of choice. I have some friends staying for the upcoming weekend and a birthday tea at the local hotel where we take advantage of tight arse Tuesday 😆 2 for one meal deal paying for the most expensive of the two.
10245 steps in the bank so.
Lets get our fast on People.

“It’s is easier to avoid eating than to stop eating once started”
Peace RT

Hi Nama
4 deg and sunny here this morning. I’m up, in hat and ski jacket, as I’m on grandma duty early.
I’m totally with you on your eating regime. It seems to be a good maintenance procedure. Allows for little indulgences and regular resets.
I fasted yesterday and am happy to skip breakfast this morning….as long as I’m warm 😉😉
I bought a large ham hock, cheap, last week and made a huge pot of veg and ham soup. 1/2 gone. 1/2 in the freezer. 😊
Keep warm southern hemisphere folk. P

Hello,
No kidding Nama it is a struggle! I strongly believe that switch on/off it’s not really the problem. Yes! Some days are easier than other but NFD are filled with traps. I haven’t given up yet. Consistency also plays a big role I am not obeying.

We are experiencing a very wet and cold spring. I bought some salad seeds but I am concerned they will rot. It’s my first time doing this any way and for fun as well.
The have some flowers pot done but they are not directly outside.

I’ve been saving all my veggie scraps in the freezer and last week I made for the first time broth. Of course I’d rather have bone or chicken broth … I’ll get there someday when I find some good carcases 👍

Stay cool or warm whenever you are💋

HCB, whenever you have any form of meat that includes bones, save and freeze them until you have enough for a boil-up. Lamb, beef, chicken, pork, they are all good. Then cook them all day with onion, celery, carrot, bay leaves and herbs, cool, strain and freeze in portions for the basis of casseroles, soups etc.

Those two dratted kilograms are sticking around, so I am now planning three FDs a week. B*&^%$r them! So disappointing. 🙁

We are having quite a mild autumn, not too much wind at the moment. Winter strikes gently tomorrow.

Kia kaha, Jo.

Hi everyone,

I fasted yesterday rather than today as I’m going out later but I’m fasting until then.

High levels of LDL type B (small and dense)increase risk of heart disease and it is linked to carbs (no surprise there) The whole thing about reducing fats other than transfats has been disproved but those that have been telling us so for years are reluctant to admit that previous “evidence” was incorrect. And don’t get me started on the egg nonsense as many years ago, probably when I was a child there was an advert on TV with the slogan “go to work on an egg” When eggs were labelled Devil’s spawn everyone started eating cereal and we all know where that led…..
There are numerous recent studies that indicate dairy foods such as cheese, yoghurt etc in moderation do not raise cholesterol and I find it very frustrating that “experts” are still spouting the same old nonsense including too low dietary fat allowances.

Jo, you need to find out more about your cholesterol level ie is it diet related or familial. If it is familial you’ll need to take statins. I speak from experience as I stopped taking them for 4 months after losing 68lbs and then had a blood test to discover it had risen from 8.4 to 8.7.

Purple, we’d all like to do it quickly but some of us can’t 😕 so we just keep on trying.

I agree that what we learn on the way are gains that we keep forever and (eventually….) make us much more content 🙂

RT, I hope you watched the last of the ABC series, “You Can’t Ask That”, which has just aired tonight. They asked questions of half a dozen people who were all over 100. Totally inspiring to see how incredibly well some people “age”. P

Morning RT…
You’d better run….☃⛄⛇

Hi Fast Trackers and Hello World (You All know Who You ARE) 😉

How does Moses make tea? Hebrews it.
� Venison for dinner again? Oh deer!
� A cartoonist was found dead in his home. Details are sketchy.
� I used to be a banker, but then I lost interest.
� Haunted French pancakes give me the cr�pes.
� England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool.
� I tried to catch some fog, but I mist.
� They told me I had type-A blood, but it was a Typo.
� I changed my iPod’s name to Titanic. It’s syncing now.
� Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.
� I know a guy who’s addicted to brake fluid, but he says he can stop any time.
� I stayed up all night to see where the sun went, and then it dawned on me.
� This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I’d never met herbivore.
� When chemists die, they barium.
� I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. I just can’t put it down.
� I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words.
� Why were the Indians here first? They had reservations.
� I didn’t like my beard at first. Then it grew on me.
� Did you hear about the cross-eyed teacher who lost her job because she couldn’t control her pupils?
� When you get a bladder infection, urine trouble.
� Broken pencils are pointless.
� What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary? A thesaurus.
� I dropped out of communism class because of lousy Marx.
� All the toilets in New York’s police stations have been stolen. The police have nothing to go on.
� I got a job at a bakery because I kneaded dough.
� Velcro – what a rip off!
� Don’t worry about old age; it doesn’t last.

Have A Happy Weekend All You beautiful Losers 😆
Peace RT

Morning/evening all,

Thanks RT 🤣

Another lovely day here, and I’m going out with my niece and great nephew 😎

Have a good weekend everyone 😜

Barata, each time I start my kefir again, after a holiday in the freezer, I use a smaller quantity of milk. Often splitting it between 2 jars. Gradually build up. With our current very chilly weather it needs to be in less milk. During the summer, it can “breed” on much more milk. The thickness also depends on good creamy milk and squeezing as much as possible out of the grains when sieving.P 😊

I sieve them every day, even if I am doing a startup. They reactivate quicker getting fresh milk and a bit of a stir, rather than leaving them longer. 1 tbs in 200ml is a good ratio to start with. Funnily enough they don’t like being overcrowded either. Discard excess grains regularly. Sleep well B. P

The water kefir is in a corner of the pantry, but the milk is sitting on the bench (no sunlight) and seems quite happy. But I will try it in with the water, see if there is any difference. There’s not been any increase in the number of grains yet, but the grains themselves are clumping together and the bulk has grown a little. The result is not very thick after straining, but quite palatable.

So sorry to hear about your neck, Jo. Definitely some changes in technique and position in the offing. I hope it comes right quickly.

Morning/evening all,

I got up in a good mood then heard the news. I am deeply saddened and concerned at yet another group of radicalised young men going on a killing spree and willingly offering themselves up in the mistaken belief that they are doing it for their god and will go to paradise for killing innocent people out enjoying themselves on a warm Saturday night.

What next?

We attended a literary lunch today where Dr M was promoting his latest book, The Clever Gut Diet.
He actively promoted losing weight quickly in order to keep it off long term, eating full fat unsweetened yoghurt (your gut bacteria loves it) and eating a very wide range of fibre filled and fermented foods to promote your gut bacteria. There was much discussion about faeces and how individual our gut bacteria is, and needs to be. It is a fascinating area and really indicates how far we are moving away from relying on traditional Western medicine, which often destroys our natural gut flora, and towards eating our way to health instead.
As usual, he is making big waves within the medical fraternity, but someone needs to.
Keep up the good work, Dr M! P

Hi Amazon….feels like snow here! ⛄☃
Dr M was saying it was one of the big myths about losing weight that has been busted. Traditionally people were told to lose weight gradually, but the evidence shows losing it quickly effects the long term maintenance of the loss. 800 calorie fasting twice a week is very different to a small reduction of food every day. Daily Calorie Restriction, we all know, is not a long term, sustainable health alternative.
His 800 calorie 8 week diet was only ever meant to be short term…..8 weeks and then revert to 5:2. P

Jo,

Did you mis-read my post?

800 calories on 2 days per week is not a quick weight loss regime. We already know that for women 500 calories on FDs leads to a loss of around 1lb per week and an extra 600 calories per week would slow it down.
800 calories EVERY day would be considered quick.

Purple,

Thanks for explaining what Dr M said, I only saw a post on Twitter that was a single sentence plus your earlier post.

I am actually thinking about trying 800 calories LCHF every day for a few weeks because I’m going nowhere fast weight loss wise at the moment and maybe a complete change of habit will help. I don’t have any social arrangements that involve eating out in the next few weeks so it is a good time to give it a go for 3 or 4 weeks, and this time of year is great for new season vegetables and berries, particularly English strawberries so I would have a huge variety of low calorie fruit and veg to choose from.

Looking out of the window reminds me of when I arrived in Monteverde (Costa Rica) and the rain appeared to be falling in sheets 😲☔☔☔☔

Why not just eat cruciferous veggies? You really cant beat mother nature.