Kerry Ann,

I’ve been going to the gym, usually several times a week for nearly 3 years.
I always exercise in a fasted state and have never had any issues with doing so. I do 45 minutes of cardio, some resistance work and some stretching and unless the pool is crowded I follow it up with a swim.
I’ve never had any issues and if you read Michael Mosley’s book he refers to the fact that research has shown women do well if they exercise in a fasted state and in fact do better than men.

Barata, your weekend sounds great 🙂

☺☺ Mr P got up early to watch our team in the soccer. Now the house smells of toast. He loves to indulge with 2 tiny slices of homemade sourdough on eating days. The aroma through the house is overwhelming….the crack cocaine of food 😑 The homemade sourdough doesn’t spike his bloodsugars.
Good luck with your OH and giving up carbs 😃😃😃P

The tent in the picture is the one we slept in – probably the most comfortable bed we have ever had! And the food was great. Fortunately it had no effect on the scales. We were lucky to see a kiwi scavenging on our night expedition, the first time we have seen one in the wild.

I think I must have looked at the score of the wrong game, P. OH’s Plan A is to find a commercial non-carb option, then we will look at Plan B (giving me more work…)

Hi everyone,

Where did the day go?

It has been a beautiful if cold day here today. Sunshine all the way but only 7C. I was out all morning and came home absolutely frozen. As it is a FD I was unable to get warm until I had something to eat, despite being busy all afternoon.

I’ve just had wild mushroom risotto which was filling, comforting, warming and delicious and I’m very pleased to have 4 more portions cooling before they are stashed in the freezer.

I have a busy week ahead and am hoping I can continue to stay on track. Every time I’m tempted I remind myself that the silly season is around the corner AND that I need to ensure I can get into all my clothes by the time I go on holiday.

Mentioning my holiday reminds me of a weird dream I had last night. I was going on holiday and on the way to the airport I had been surprised at how light my suitcase felt. When I arrived at my destination, I opened it and all it contained was my soap bag and a pair of trainers………. EEK!!!!!!

I agree. Is your dream, Amazon, the equivalent for adults of finding oneself in the playground just wearing a tee shirt?
Here it’s blizzard conditions and a lot of snow on the ground and road. We are off to Lucca tomorrow to look after the grandies. We are planning to go under the Alps and to Torino.
I just hope the road from here is passable. The road drops 250m in 3 km.
Fingers crossed.
xx Wiwi

Late spring Purple Gee it will be 40deg here today its 35deg now at 9am enjoy the cool day Summer is heading your way id assume… 🙂
RT

Aaaaagh!! 🙁

I lost my post before i hit submit…I went back to the previous page to look at Purple Veg’s post so I could reply….I had already typed a big reply to Amazon and now it’s goooooooone.

Okay so really quick….your post is great Purple veg. I completely agree about the eating times being habits. Sadly, I just explained to Amazon how my breakfast habit came to be…and now it’s all gone…..

Amazon, I always workout in a fasted state too. I have for many years. It’s the immediate afterwards where I usually eat because of years of training my body in a body builder style diet. In other words, never go longer than 2-3 hours and always eat within one hour of rising and with one hour of working out. The only rule I didn’t follow was the “within one hour of rising” I always work out first.

It’s a lot of brain washing I have to undo. And, my body does definitely need some time to adjust.

Fortunately i tend to eat a somewhat low carb diet naturally so I don’t generally have to deal with lots of blood sugar swings. Due to allergy induced gastritis I do fear hunger. But I have the allergy under control now so I can tolerate being hungry! That is an exciting development for me!

This weekend I did great with waiting until much later to eat my first meal. It’s definitely getting easier.

So…I think the long and short is conditioning, like purple veg says. I have to retrain my stomach and my brain both.

You guys/gals are an incredibly helpful and inspiring bunch!!! Thank you so much for your feedback.

I’m excited about having a fast day again tomorrow! Last week was not as stellar as week one and I don’t think I lost anything. If I did lose anything I probably undid that success over the weekend. We had two special dinners and I did overindulge. Throughout the day I was fine but at dinner times I went a little crazy.

Today has been an excellent controlled day though, so I’m feeling back on track!

Thanks again to everyone for the feed back and support. I really appreciate all of it!!!

Morning/evening all,

It’s grey and dull but a little warmer than yesterday.
FD went well so I’m doing it again today :biggrin:

It is only mid November and I’m already over all the Christmas ads on the TV. 90% are supermarket ads featuring tables groaning with enough food to feed 100 people, the centrepiece being a turkey that is so large it wouldn’t fit inside most ovens…….. I never used to notice but for some reason I’ve startd looking at what is on the table and thinking NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😆

I’ve obviously come much further on my journey than I thought 😎

Have a good one everybody 😜

I’ve made a cake and I’ll cook something special on the day but that’s it. No turkey, no stuffing or bread sauce, no Christmas pudding, no Stollen, no chocolate. There will be a few raw mince pies in the freezer (a tinful of cooked is too much of a temptation), a nice cheeseboard (no crackers) and of course some good wine and a G&T or two. That’ll do for me 😀

Once again, I’ve asked those who buy me a present not to get anything edible.

Now I’m off to polish my halo, I’ll be needing it 😉

Purple….interesting about the white carbs and stomach pains!

Today started out a FD. I was so excited about it that I forgot that today is my youngest sons birthday! The original plan was to feed the family leftovers but I really want to make him his choice of favorite birthday dinner and I’m not going to force myself to resist. There won’t be cake until Saturday for his party.

I will fast until dinner. And then make up my full FD tomorrow.

Our weather is crazy windy. It’s hard to do anything outside.

I will definitely be doing traditional Christmas dinner and baking cookies to decorate with the grand kids. I don’t think we’ll go crazy with baking this year but I do want them to have those memories.

And then we’ll do some cards!

Have a wonderful day everyone!!!

Excellent data RT. Thanks.
Watching the excitement re the Yes Vote on Marriage Equality. Lots of happiness around the country. ❤💘❤💘

I always recommend people enter “sedentary ” in the calculator to give yourself maximum benefit. RT couldn’t possibly be actually sedentary. …he’s up pacing the streets before dawn most days. ☺

Purple & Barata well played ladies I do not factor in the calories suggested burned through walking either to allow more calories in and I did get the sedentary tip from P as well as this gem.
“Remember that reserve of fat you have on your body already and realise you actually don’t need food, you just want it.”
Peace RT.

Morning/evening all,

I had a fabulous evening last night attending an event entitled “Wild Night Out”
It was hosted by Chris Packham, naturalist, photographer, TV presenter and conservationist, who has also written a fascinating autobiography and recently presented a programme about his life with Autism, AND Paul Goldstein, photographer, tour leader, conservationist.
They’ve known each other for over 20 years and co-led photography based trips to places such as Antarctica. Paul has spent many years in East Africa particularly Kenya, photographing wild life and travelled all over the world with his work but his all consuming passion is the tiger. He runds the London Marathon every year in a tiger costume and does lots of fund raising for other worthy causes.

They each presented a series of their own photographs with stories to go with them which was accompanied by interjections from whoever wasn’t presenting along with lots of witty banter and techy information about the photograph being shown.
At the end they showed a film about a charity in East Africa led by a Masaai woman who is trying to eradicate FGM and they are doing it by educating the young men. It is working well as the approach is not telling people why FGM is wrong but why ceasing such a (barbaric) practice is good.
They had an auction afterwards which included blown up framed photographs, signed books, binoculars and a couple of holidays. They raised over £30,000 😲
Unfortunately I didn’t have a spare £11,000 on me or I could have gone on a tailor made trip to India or Africa……………..

On arrival we were offered a glass of fizz and it would have been rude to say no 😉 so I’m fasting today instead. There was also wine at half time 😀
While I was waiting to go in I bumped into a friend who I’ve not seen for ages so we had a nice catch-up.

It was a fabulous evening and I only knew about it because it was organised by the company I travel with who sent me an email. I’m so pleased they did.

Have a good one everybody 😜

Amazon, i did want to say, that sounds like a really lovely evening!

RT,

Thanks, they are great.

I really like:

ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Morning all.
Thanks RT, the mind boggles!
I am just back from an early swim, first time in 2 weeks I did not feel like I needed an oxygen cylinder whilst swimming….the nasty bug my grandaughter gave me really was horrible! Makes one appreciate being well again!
Jo a while back you asked me if regular swimming affected my nails….funny you should ask that as I started taking a collagen supplement a couple of months ago for them as they have always been weak, too soon for any effect to be seen yet. I dont think swimming has made them any worse, its more harsh on my hair! Cant seem to find a cap that doesnt leak!
Fasting been a bit hit and miss this week but will start again properly on Monday…I have been coughing too much to focus on anything else!
At least our winter seems to be finally gone, fasting definitely much harder when its cold!

Hi Amazon,
My nails have been weak all my life, I just decided maybe I have been lowish on collagen all my life! Time will tell.

We have our kefir every single day, but this must have been a particularly nasty lurgy that swept thru the whole family, even my son who rarely succumbs ended up with asthma..bub got off the lightest!
I would not be surprised if it was actually influenza, though none of us officially diagnosed! Perhaps we would have been even worse without the kefir!
I hope you survive Londons winter without any colds/flu, that will test the kefir theory!
Enjoy Kew, how gorgeous, I love autumn!

Kerry Ann, I started 5:2 in September 2013, as soon as we had come back from a European trip which was just after I had seen the original documentary here on NZ TV. I got to maintenance in about April 2015 and have been maintaining with 5:2 ever since. However, about a year ago the weight crept up by a couple of kgs, and has refused to drop. I have not changed anything, so am disappointed that the regime has not proved the ongoing miracle I was hoping for, and concerned that there might be yearly creep. In fact I am eating less carbs, and skipping more morning meals, than before. 🙁

I’m not unhappy with the current weight, but my expectations have been set! So I am looking at longer fasts, extending my Monday FD into Tuesday, and even Wednesday.

When my OH started 5:2 two years ago he made good progress, but that has stalled and reversed, even though for him also nothing in the diet has changed. Must be something in the air here. He is likely to have metabolic issues which will be part of the problem, does not believe in drinking water, and cannot be weaned off artificial sweeteners.

Great idea to start this one)

Where fore out thou Jojo and Happy?? Trust all is ok 💡
RT

Hi all,
Kerry Ann it sounds to me as if you are setting too many goals at once, then being cross with yourself for not meeting targets. Many of us following 5:2 successfully have made it a way of life and only attempt what is realistically ‘doable’ for us individually. Lots of us exercise but recognise that exercise is only for flexibility and ‘feel good’ factors, it wont have a significant impact on reaching your weightloss goal. If you really want to succeed with fasting, then focus on that for now – aim for one or two good fast days a week and dont stress about all the other stuff. Obviously you dont want to ‘undo’ all that good work on non fast days, but start slowly and let fasting become a habit before you try to completely reinvent yourself. It takes a while for your liver to adapt to switching to burning fat for energy, but persist and you will find it easier. You wont feel as hungry if you avoid carbs, thats a golden rule too.. When I started 3 years ago, the mere thought of exercise was enough to make me panic and I never, ever would have believed I could change my eating habits and food choices so radically. I simply focused on getting through each fast day. Then as the scales rewarded me, it was easy to push a bit harder – I even found an exercise to suit me (swimming) and shocked all my friends and family with my committment to it. I gave up breakfast as I realized I simply could not eat three meals a day and not gain weight. But if anyone had told me I would do all this I would have laughed at them. So be patient with yourself, one step at a time!

Purple that ‘pasta’ sounds yum. I have been meaning to try ‘toast’ made with thin lengthways slices of sweet potato, saw a video of it and it looks good. I have had to stop the bread creeping back into my diet again – I blame little grandaughter and her love of fruit toast! Thought of you when I got the mandolin out today – back to coleslaw season – look out fingers!!

Very warm and humid week in Melbourne, feels like Sydney weather at present! Back to the garden watering ritual. I enjoy this but the mosquitoes are such a pain on these hot nights, they feast on me, if only I was organized enough to water in the mornings!

Good Morning/Evening!

It is Monday morning 11:16 am. here. I know that some of you are already done with your day!

This weekend was lovely. We had my youngest son’s 15th birthday party on Saturday and dinner at my Dad’s on Sunday.

Today is a FD and doing well so far. Had a really wonderful, fun workout this morning!

Since Thanksgiving is Thursday and I have Friday off of work, I’ll do my second fast day on Wed.

Nama, I agree completely with your philosophy of focusing on one goal at a time. I am trying to do that. That was how I started out and then in the third week I got overly ambitious but now realize that I’m not ready to tackle any big dietary changes besides getting these two solid fast days in every week.

That is a tendency I have. I get excited and want to do more and more. I am taking your advice to heart though and really just focusing on fast days. I will know when it’s time to make another change. Right now the thing that gives me anxiety is the thought of counting calories on NFD. So, I’m not doing it. 🙂

Exercise is not a new goal for me though. I am a life long exerciser. I love to workout and have been getting up early to workout before I go to work for many years. The main reason I couldn’t get up more than once last week is because I’ve been staying up too late! Usually watching videos of ballet classes on my ipad!

I’m feeling headachey today but I don’t think it’s related to the fast day. I can’t even remember the last time I had a headache. This feels like a hormone related one.
And it feels like it’s going to be a doozey.

Hope all is well for all of you. 🙂