People always suggest Maggie Beer the cook as me 😆 I wish I could cook like she does.

Nama, Good shopping. May I suggest that you have your own bra refitted? I was embarrassed to find that once the fitter had adjusted my own bras to the tightest clip and lifted the straps up a good 4 inches, then they were the right size for me. How mortifying, to recognise how much fat I had lost from my shoulders, back, underarms and trunk. 😳 I bought another pair from her to thank her for her trouble.

Cheers, Bay :).

Thanks for your tip Bay – I already adjusted everything to the max (or should I say min) but that was a few months ago, so decided it was time to get refitted. Stayed with my favourite Simone Perele but went down a full size – one black and one a gorgeous soft pink. Not that anyone will be seeing them mind you, just feels lovely to have nice undies on! Then a gorgeous jumper jumped onto my back, so all round a very pleasant morning!

Nicky Congratulations on your monthly loss, that is fantastic! You will get into those Levis sooner than you think!

Welcome Gowergirl and congrats on what you have achieved already. Fasting is a revelation isnt it? And since you commented, I think on-line ‘dating’ is great in the world we live in. Both my sons have met their (I sincerely hope) life partners on line, both really lovely girls who didn’t want to hang out in night clubs or bars to meet blokes! Like you, one of them is a social worker!

Jojo I dont think you have any need to fear any Hitler types bringing this thread down. In the 8 months I have been posting, there have been a couple of instances of nastiness from visitors. But the regular posters have quickly put the rude person in their place, gently but firmly. Problem solved. I think there are enough sensible and mature people in your merry band to withstand any unpleasantness. I think we are very welcoming and supportive towards newbies as well as to each other.

Cheers all xx

Jojo,

I’d never heard of the Hitler effect wrt forums.

Funny though, but last year, goings on on another thread did put in mind of Animal Farm and Napoleon… 🙂

Hi Gowergirl,

Your handle means nothing to me as an ( non-cricket fan)Aussie, interesting.

Congratulations on quittings cigs, I have never smoked but have seen many people struggle with them – I think nicotine is as addictive as heroin. And I now think heroin is as addictive as sugar! Sorry I cant suggest anything else for oral gratification, but strongly encourage you to give up any artificial sweetener, even apart from gut flora aspects. Aspartame does more than spoil gut bacteria, its not good for you at all. Chewing could be one of those habits you just need to go cold turkey on. Of course you could chew carrot sticks and celery all day, but thats not really getting to the root of the problem is it? Years ago my mother gave up cigarettes then got addicted to CocaCola – she drank so much of that she developed type 2 diabetes. Maybe we all need to come up with some strategies to help us relax and do things that we enjoy enough to distract ourselves from putting things in our mouth! We are such creatures of habit, but I am sure habits can be broken. I never would have believed I could break the habit of breakfast. I would still love it every day, but choose to only have it 2-3 times a week as its not worth the ‘cost’ of the calories. The longer I go without it, the less I miss it. Many of us would not have thought we could fast so successfully, but we can. Give yourself another challenge!

Hi Gowergirl,
I’m with Nama, cold turkey is the way.
Chewing gum is just a bad habit IMO and it doesn’t need to be replaced with something else. Stopping is like following 5:2 difficult at first but can be done if you want to.
When I gave up smoking I didn’t replace it with anything else I just stopped. It wasn’t easy but I was ready to give up so I succeeded.
Aspartame and many other artificial sweeteners are as unhealthy as sugar, some of the more so. I don’t buy anything that contains them and have gone back to regular tonic water as I would rather have sugar and the calories.

You can do it! 😛

I’m in the not weighing too often camp too, all the ups and downs of daily weighing drive me crazy!

Hi there

I noticed this morning that I clocked up my 100 th full fast day on Tuesday. I feel like it’s a significant milestone for my mind to register and celebrate. There have also been lots of semi fast days along the way. 😆

I’m with Jojo and Amazon and stay away from the kitchen as much as possible on fast days. And also keep as busy as I can, particularly on these cold and foggy days.

I made myself go back on to 5:2 from 6:1 because of my recent non fast day indulgences in sugars and carbs. 😥 i am now almost back below 60 kg, a weight I reached in August 2014. Below 60 kg gives me a BMI with a 22 and seems to be where my body naturally wants to be.

I am one of the happy people who fluctuate 1-2 kg (2.2 – 4.4 lbs) each week during maintenance. It is way easier to keep my weight under long term control without processed carbs and sugars in the diet.

I weigh every day just to see what foods have impact and which ones are good for me. I enter the best weight of the week on the Fast Tracker on this website. I am used to seeing the regular small upswings so they don’t distress me. Weighing each day enables me to immediately do something about the weight gain. Constant vigilance, I think of it.

Cheers all, Bay 🙂

Thanks, Nama

The sun has come out after a foggy start to the day, and it is glorious. Temperatures don’t matter, when the sun is out and not a whisper of a breeze. It is 10 C and I am a happy faster given the warmth of the sun. 😆 Hope your day goes well.

Cheers, Bay

Hi Sarah

Absolutely NOT. Agghh! 😮 No way have I fasted 100 times all day without food. By full fast days I mean keeping between 300 and 400 calories for 36 hours. Plain and simple 5:2 fasting as described in Michael Mosley’s book. Drinking lots of water. I may experiment now a year later with no food days, but not then, when I was losing weight.

In the first 7 weeks on 5:2 I lost 8 kgs while having three tiny meals a day. It was important to me to have a small amount of protein at each meal. For example, a poached egg and spinach for breakfast plus a black coffee. No grains. Then homemade vegetable soup, or tuna salad without dressing for lunch. Lots of water. Then lean chicken or fish with loads of greens for dinner. NO nibbles at all. I regained a genuine appetite and learnt to distinguish between real hunger and not.

I don’t eat bland food. Most of mine is flavoured with chili, lemon, herbs, quality olive oil, salt and pepper. My soups all have garlic, fresh ginger and chill flakes in them.

I had NO white foods or sugars for that first 7 weeks. I think that processed carbs are as bad for us as sugars are. I had one glass of alcohol on 3 days of the week. I don’t drink a lot.

What I needed to hit on the head was my habit of nibbling, plus my liking for sweet stuff. Hope that makes it more understandable how the 8 kg were lost so quickly. I am definitely an all or nothing kind of person 😆 I just completed a totally sugar free Lent to see if I could 😉

After the first 7 weeks, i eased up a little and had slightly more to drink, and ate blue cheese, yogurt, and the occasional slice of seed bread. Began to eat yogurt, chia and berries for dessert.

Cheers, Bay 🙂

Hi again Bay

Dont apologise! Your thorough posts are very helpful for those still trying to get to maintenance! You and the other successful maintainers are proof to those of us (still struggling at times) that it is worth it!

Carbs ARE as bad as sugars because they are actually just a complex form of sugar, they get broken down into sugars in our bodies, so no difference really in my opinion.

We went out for lunch today – I had a lamb wrap which was lovely, but I didnt resist the side of fries! Never mind, I fast tomorrow.. And should I also admit we are having home made chicken schnitzel for dinner? With those yum Panko breadcrumbs – I better have mainly coleslaw! Spoiling my son and his girl with their favourite meals before they move out – isnt that an original excuse! Back to flattening the chicken…

Nama

That’s why this a WOL and not a never ending diet. So that you can relax and enjoy being with the special people in your life at the best time for them. Go girl, go! Nurturing is what life is about.

Bay 🙂

Morning/evening all.

Interesting conversations gping on here 🙂
Many years ago when sugar free sweets first appeared I bought a packet of mints and ate them during the course of a day.They gave me terrible diarrhoea. Happy I’m thinking of your MiL and her IBS.
I used to suffer from it and when it was first diagnosed I gave up gluten ie bread wheat flour cakes etc, citrus fruit, alcohol and dairy and gradually introduced foods after a period of abstinence.
My diet was never particularly unhealthy but it improved when this happened, and fired up my interest in what was in food, so although overweight it was from eating far too much good food and not junk.
I had a bad day yesterday and admit to some comfort eating which meant a slice of cake over my TDEE. I so want to get back on track this week, so some hard work is in order in the next few days. I am not going to beat myself up over it as grief is something that we have to work through, but I shall continue to work as hard as I can to reach goal, and try not to use food as comfort.
Gum chewers, think about the fact that you are doing 5:2 because you want a slim, fit and healthy body, and then remind yourself tht gum has nutritional value whatsoever. In my experience the chewing makes me hungry as the action itself initiates the digestive process in the mouth and leads my stomach to think that food is on the way.
It is a lovely day today, and I’m meeting a friend for coffee. Wish me luck reaisting the patisserie products.

Have a good day/evening everyone

hi Amazon, our posts crossed.

Like you I became overweight due to the combination of too much food and menopause, not lots of junk.

I hope you enjoy coffee with your friend. If you’re having a hard time (not surprising with what you’ve had to deal with recently) just do what you can, ‘what’s doable’ to quote SAMM. n xxx

Hello all

Well, this enforced rest is certainly enabling me to keep up with things on the thread! My body might feel like a wrung out flannel but at least my brain seems to be in reasonable working order.

Bay – you have every reason to shout about your success. It’s absolutely brilliant and you are such an inspiration. What wise words from Purple – don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognise – I love that! Fortunately I do cook everything from scratch and in fact include some ‘good things’ that she would never have used, or probably recognised, such as Mediterranean veg, basil and coriander, and olive oil, which she would only have put in her ears!

Amazon – I had the same problem with sugar-free mints when they first appeared. They sounded great, but oh dear! I think it was sorbitol that was used in them. I’m lucky in that I don’t have a particularly sweet tooth and haven’t had sugar in tea and coffee since I first started ‘dieting’ at the tender age of 15. If only I knew then what I know now!

Well done Nicky! What a great feeling it is when clothes get too big – especially those which were too tight to start with. I’m wearing a pair of fleecy PJs that I couldn’t do up a year ago. Now, OH could probably get into them as well! They are a bit like a comfort blanket while I am feeling so unwell.

I became overweight for the same reasons as you, though not sure about the menopause, but also as a result of a very bad nightly wine habit. I love cooking and had a ferocious appetite, which can still occasionally surface. I always said I was the healthiest fatty around! (Apart from the wine….)!

Jojo – just read your post. How funny that you have said more or less the same as me about dieting when we were younger. I’m glad things are looking better all round and you have your pain relatively under control. Go out and enjoy yourself – but don’t overdo it! I love the motto ‘fill your heart, not your stomach’. Classic!

Hi to everyone else – have a good day/night

Smiffy x

Hi all,

I hope you start to feel better soon Smiffy – picturing you as a wrung out flannel – mmm, you would look very thin!

I will join the ranks of “first diet at 16”! We probably programmed our bodies then! I also quit sugar in tea and coffee cold turkey then, as advised by a friend who said I would not enjoy it for a few weeks, but then try a cup with a lot of sugar – yuk! Never again. Just shows our tastes can be changed. It amuses me when people cut back to 1/4 teasp, why not just try without?

I also get the gurgles in my tummy if I have sorbitol – sounds like you are spot on about your MIL Happy. Maybe her son could convince her?

Gowergirl its my son who is marrying the social worker in October! She is gorgeous. She has taken a while to grow into social work, she is still only 28 and I think its way above a young persons life experience. But she now works in Aged Care Assessment and is enjoying that. She is a real softie but is learning to step back a bit!

I agree re working and fasting, I also have great respect for those that manage both! Though of course the sooner the better!!

Thanks Nama – I hadn’t looked at it that way! Haha. I couldn’t face breakfast again so it looks like another very low-cal day, if not a true fast, which I did on Tuesday. Only 845 calories yesterday, so I am turning this to my advantage.

You are so right about programming our bodies to diet at a young age. So stupid – anything over 9 st (126 lbs or 57k) was considered ‘fat’!

Growergirl – you are doing really well. Everyone is allowed to have a good time – don’t look on it as a sin! I had a bit of a hangover myself on Monday as a result of a really good evening cooking for friends, and there is no way I will compromise on those occasions. Even at this age! The wonderful thing about this WOL is that it is all balanced out and we don’t feel as if we are depriving ourselves, which is the main reason other diets fail in the end. We each live our lives differently but 5:2 is the common thread that works for our individual lifestyles.

I can sympathise with your problems of comfort eating as a social worker. I have a dear friend who was the same. The emotional strains of the job plus internal politics really took their toll and she took a lot of time off with stress before eventually retiring in her late 50s. She went on 5:2 after seeing how successful I found it, and I believe she is doing well. Good luck with your progress x

Smiffy dont worry about not eating much, I have had your share today! Seriously considering doing Jojo’s alternate day fasting …. all or nothing! I went downhill after the fries with lunch, some peanut butter (for Amazon) b/w lunch and the chicken schnitzel, even just finished with a small bowl of icecream (for Weemam.) Fast Days are a relief without the temptation! All that virtue early in the week has vanished…but I am not panicking as I know its just one day.

We just watched the quirkiest movie and it made me think of you all in the Northern Hemisphere. It was an oldie, at least 15 yrs old, Hugh Grant looking very young. He was an Englishman in Wales, charting a map of the local ‘hill’ that the Welsh insisted was actually a mountain. They deviously detained Hugh whilst they added 20feet of soil to the top of the hill so it would qualify as a mountain. Very quirky, very amusing and implied antagonism between the English and the Welsh. Reminded me of the Sydney/Melbourne rivalry!

Husband now watching Eurovision so I have retired to bed, not in the mood for all that craziness! Actually feel yuk after the icecream – maybe thats a good sign? Night all x

Jojo, I can hardly believe it myself, but knowing that the increase is so small makes getting back into the routine easier. Having said that, a change of plan from going to visit a friend for coffee turned into meeting in town, having coffee out and eating cake, so today’s FD has been rescheduled for Saturday as I’m out socialising tomorrow.
The jeans have really made me happy as my others have been consigned to the charity shop for someone with larger waist and hips than me…….
Do we have a smug grin smiley?

Morning all. Well I’m definitely having to rest now. Went into the city Wed evening with a friend as we were going to a meeting, We were walking towards the venue when I tripped on the uneven paving and went tip over apex and came crashing down with my left arm underneath and a bounce of my head on the pavement. An ambulance was called and I ended up in the RAH with some lovely drugs so x-rays could be taken. I have a break in my humerous ?sp? near the shoulder. Saw my own doctor yesterday who referred me to an orthopedic surgeon who I also saw yesterday who sent me for a CT scan, also done yesterday, and am waiting to hear if I will be having an operation tonight. Pain is mainly under control as long as I either don’t move or move very slowly.

I haven’t been on laptop since then but have been using the tablet & phone to FB when I can.

Chat more later 🙂

Thanks Amazon. I’ll be reading but not posting more than once or twice a day while I’m healing asat the mo it’s very uncomfortable.

Oh AO how awful for you. I’m sure you will get sorted out very efficiently there. Wishing you a speedy recovery xx

Jojo, I totally agree. I’m afraid I get a bit soap-boxy about people sapping the NHS of money and staff through problems which are self-imposed. A close friend of ours has a drug addict son who has had thousands and thousands of public money spent on him over the years with counselling, rehab and psychiatric help, not to mention ‘disability’ benefit, but he hasn’t wanted to help himself so it is all a huge waste, and the way it is going our dear friend will be in an early grave. All this, yet some poor elderly soul who has spent their life working and contributing to society can be left on a trolly in a hospital corridor for hours without proper attention. I may have put this rather simplistically but I feel so strongly about it. My own aunt was in a wheelchair and on an oxygen cylinder for years because of damage to her lungs from years of smoking, but did she stop? Did she hell! Makes my blood boil. …..

Oh Dear, Aussie Oma, I hope your pain is managed and you are recovered soon!

Amazon, awesome job on the new jeans!!