RT, 😂😂😂 😳😳😳

Purple, in the study of one, we are all so different. I sleep like a log after a fast day, except for the trips to the loo in the night. If I eat sweet things, I stay awake at night. Do you think the metabolism between those who like sweet things and those who don’t is at play here? I lost 1.5 kg yesterday eating a few almonds and a couple of broccoli pieces and lots of water. Just need to repeat twice next week, and I will be at my desired weight again. 6:1 only works for me for a while. Then I need to reinstate a very serious 5:2 for a few weeks, with lots of water, and eating no carbs (except steamed and raw vegetables) 😉😉.

I’m always an advocate of full fat foods. A bit of protein and lots of steamed and raw vegetables.

Cheers, Bay ☕️☕️

Well done, Jo.

I’ve just seen that you’ve been doing 5 days fasting on water and not much else. 😳😳 Wow! I wouldn’t be able to do it. Also I wouldn’t be able to go without weighing myself each morning, as part of the experiment. I would be curious to know how bumpy the weight loss was during those days. Myself as science experiment fasting 101. 🙄🙄

Cheers, Bay 🌺🌺🌺

Morning/evening all,

I rarely get up more than once during the night for a loo trip regardless of whether it is a FD or not. Maybe some of you are overdoing the water?

When I posted last night the last post visible was Happy’s but when I looked this morning, two others had appeared. It seems they take quite a few minutes to show up.

Very funny RT 😆😆😆 Thanks for the weekly giggle 🙂

I have managed one food free FD but I can’t say I enjoyed it and although the health and weight loss benefits are attractive, I’m not sure I want to attempt it.
I really admire those of you that are able to do several days food free. I know I could do it but it would make me truely miserable so I would need to get myself into the right frame of mind.

I looked at the weather forecast for Rome and it is 10°C warmer than London, something I’m really looking forward to.
I went a few years ago and loved it. The only place I wasn’t impressed with was the Vatican City. Had we not been squashed in like sardines amongst hundreds of very noisy and mostly selfish tourists it might have been more enjoyable. At the time I just wanted to get out of the crush and into the fresh air. There are a couple of museums I didn’t have time for so they are top of my list, but we only have a couple of days for sightseeing so need to be very organised in order to see what we want and not be rushing around. Having said that we are staying near the Spanish Steps so will be able to see many sights on our evening stroll the day we arrive. We can walk our legs off for two days and then spend the next two sitting in the sun watching tennis. It is the first time I’ve been to a clay court tournament and also the first overseas tournament so it is very exciting for this tennis fan.

And I’ll still have my trip to Cornwall in June and a day at Wimbledon to look forward to when I get home 👍

I’m not going to the gym this morning but am hoping to get a walk to Kew into my schedule.

Have a great weekend everybody 😜

Hi Amazon,

Last Summer we stayed a week in Rome. It was fabulous. We got up each day at 6 am and one day we walked along the river and into St Peters at 7.30 am. There were only 3 other people there. Have fun. We had breakfast around 9.30 each day. After seeing the Spanish steps and other places relatively free of tourists.

Cheers, Bay 😳😳

Thanks RT for the laughs.

Well done, Jo. Good psychology!

Enjoy Rome, Amazon. We are in France for the next month, the next trip there being in 5 weeks.

We have been in Provence with NZ friends- not as warm as I would have liked, and it was snowing where we live in the mountains, last Monday. We visited all the aqueducts, Roman theatres, “les plus beaux villages de France” in a 50km radius of Avignon. Very nice. We were staying just across the river opposite le Pont d’Avignon on the biggest fluvial island in Europe. Lovely places to walk beside the river with the lights of Avignon. And yes, we drank wine! Rosé in fact!!

I haven’t been shirking really, but it’s good to be home again to really get back to the BSD. However to rekickstart, I am on a 24 hour fast with miso soup tonight. I am doing a course on composing music in the style of Mozart, which is so fascinating that eating would be an unwanted interruption. So I won’t notice the lack of food.
I won’t sleep tonight so I will write my magnum opus entitled ‘Reflections on An Empty Stomach” in 4 parts for mixed Choir. Haha- gurgle, gurgle in D minor!

Husband needs food but not much, so off to make Champignons à la grecque which is mushrooms in tomato and white wine with lots of garlic and fresh coriander. It’s one of my favourite French dishes, so I hope he doesn’t eat it all. It’s even better the next day. He’s working so will do this relunctantly.

happy fasting
xx Wiwi

Actually when I read about the problems of drinking water at nights, my piece of music should be in P major!

Like the gurgle oratorio, Tangatawiwi! Perhaps B Flat is a better key? At least for the tummy zone!

Ooooweeee! Haha! What a witty lot. 😜😜

Well done Jo. I am 28 hours into my fast, but had a few almonds last night to enable sleep.

Yes, The Obesity Code is interesting,Purple, though I have stopped reading it as the Course on Music Composition has taken over my life. Thanks for the input Waterloo Gurgle Oratorio in 5/2 time and in B flat major. Thanks for all that input, Purple Jo and Apricot. I guess the most likely outcome is that I will never quite do it or else settle for a mere 8 bars of music. The music , my daily 7K walks (We have 42 m between the highest and lowest points of our village), and 40 mins on the treadmill. My daughter tells me the gym lingo for what I do is “Hills”. Riding the exercycle is spinning. I don’t do that as we have lovely places to cycle here when the weather is good.
It’s going to snow again today, so being inside is a pleasure

The champignons à la grecque are sitting there gathering flavour for the break- fast around 3 or 4pm today. I put shallots and the loveliest Italian organic passata in to them as well, but not much liquid.

Off to work, happy fasting. Enjoy the weekend.
XX Wiwi

Morning/evening all,

It is a lovely sunny morning with some cloud. The good news is the the cold, biting wind has dropped so it feels much more than the 2 degrees warmer the thermometer shows.
I’m off to Richmond park later and hoping the forecast rain showers stay away until at least 5pm so we get a good long walk.

My B2B fasts on Th/F went well so I’m feeling much happier today.
I’m still 2lbs off my lowest but I know I’ll get there soon and destination goal will be in sight.
If I can do it before I go to Rome next weekend I’ll be thrilled but it’ll be difficult as I’m entertaining tomorrow and Monday. I have picked a seasonal menu with lots of veggies including English asparagus and a mixture of berries including English strawberries, but Jersey Royals will be putting in an appearance along with English spring lamb. Any leftovers will be turned into FD dinners and frozen.
I have a recipe for a flourless chocolate cake that has a layer of berries inside and is also decorated with them. It’ll do both days with no leftovers which will be very helpful.

I love gin and tonic too but I don’t drink it often. I’ve decided that I’ll continue with slimline tonic as it is less calories and probably (I know the jury is still out) less bad for me than the sugar laden version, but I’m not going to stress over it.

Jo, you’ve done really well so you must convince yourself that your 5 day fast was the start of the final part of your journey and not a result, almost like revison and now it is time to sit the exam. You know you can do it. Like you, I look forward to summer foods as it is so easy to put together delicious, satisfying and healthy salads.

I think The Obesity Code is probably the best book I’ve read in a very long time. Jason Fung has hit the nail on the head and we now need the medical establishment, dieticians etc. and the food industry to sit up and take notice of what he and many before him have been saying about the destructive relationship that goes on inside our bodies between too much sugar and as a consequence, too much insulin. I am so pleased to know that fasting appears to be the final piece in the jigsaw. Everyone needs to know.

For those of you in the UK, have a lovely BH weekend. Everyone else, have a good one too 😜

Gin and a half a lime with a splash of seltzer? Sort of a gimlet

I thought you were talking about a dessert! P 😄

Healthcoach, Jason Fung writes that Stevia is no better than plain sugar or any other sweetener. They all raise insulin in the exact same manner.

Hi everyone,

I’m home from a lovely day out with my best friend. We went to Richmond Park and walked and walked and walked. Both of us have sore feet and tired legs. When I checked my pedometer it said 20000! There is a garden in the middle of the park called the Isabella plantation. I can’t remember why it is called that but I do know that it is famous for its rhodedendrons. It was stunning, so many shrubs of varying sizes and colours in full bloom along with a lovely heather garden and numerous other flower bed plus lots of grass under the trees that was full of bluebells.
In the main park we saw lots of red deer and the stags are all in the process of growing new antlers which are covered in velvet.

We retired to one of numerous local hostelries for dinner and vino. Tried a new place on Kew Green and it was excellent so has been promoted to our new favourite place 😉

My feet are very grateful to be out of my walking shoes and in my comfy slippers.
I’ll sleep well tonight 🙂

Good Morning all,
Off for brunch with a friend soon, an early morning read and I am already fascinated by your description of the Richmond Gardens Amazon! So I asked Mr Google and he told me:

“In the 17th century, this area in the south west corner of Richmond Park was known as The Sleyt. This is the name usually used for boggy ground or an open space between woods or banks.

By 1771, it is shown on maps as Isabella Slade . Isabella may have been the wife or daughter of a member of staff. But it is more likely to be a corruption of the word isabel, which was used as far back as the 15th century to mean dingy or greyish yellow – the colour of the soil in this part of the park.

In 1831, Lord Sidmouth, the park deputy ranger, fenced off 17ha (42 acres) of the Isabella Slade . He planted oak, beech and sweet chestnut trees as a crop for timber and gave the area the name it has today.

The present garden of clearings, ponds and streams was established from the 1950s onwards. It is largely the work of George Thomson, the park superintendent from 1951-1971. Along with his head gardener, Wally Miller, he removed Rhododendron ponticum from large areas and replaced it with other rhododendron species. They established evergreen Kurume Azaleas around the Still Pond and planted other exotic shrub and tree species.

The main stream through the garden from Broomfield Gate was dug in 1960 and the plantation was enlarged to include Peg’s Pond.

More recently, in 1989, a wild stream was dug in the northern section and this has now been colonized by ferns, water plantains and brook lime. The Bog Garden was reconstructed in 2000.”

Now I want to visit! I have several big Kurume Azaleas at Jamieson, though I am sure they are tiny compared to the Richmond ones. Sorry to all the non-gardeners, a bit off track this morning! Its a glorious, sunny day so hopefully I will be home in time to get some work done in my own garden this afternoon! Football not on Free to Air TV so I may even have a radio on, much to husband’s horror! Thinking it will be eggs benedict for brunch so some exercise will be required! Have a lovely day all.

Well done, Jo.

We also are having rain over night and later today. The dark grey clouds are scudding across the sky, contrasting with the Reds, yellows, orange, Crimson Autimn leaves. This is my favourite season. A huge weather front is moving at great speed from West to East.

Thank goodness for the trees and bushes. Loved all the talk of rhododendrons and azaleas, of which we have a few.

Cheers, Bay

Excellent to hear of your continued success Nicky. You must be so pleased. 😊
I too really hang out for that FD ‘meal’, no matter how small.
We had good soaking overnight rain, so hopefully the azaleas will be happy. Our autumn colours have been disappointing this year as it was too warm. Not like your gorgeous Adelaide Hills show. Beautiful sunshine now, but cool enough for a jumper and lunch of homemade Cullen Skink. 😊 P

Mmm..Cunningham’s skink….an Aussie version of the traditional Scottish dish? Not quite so tasty. 😉

Amazon,

We have guests this weekend, so our house got a spring clean on Friday! They said we needn’t have bothered, as they come for the company not to check for dust, but it’s the impetus I need to tackle housework I’m afraid!

I spent most of yesterday cooking, and stayed up far too late, ate and drank too much 🙂 Just lying in bed with a cuppa. I can hear OH preparing a full English breakfast. I’m not normally hungry in the mornings, but I’m starting to salivate…

Jo,

As you know, I’m now maintaining and wouldn’t want to lose half a stone, but reading about how great you feel (after, but also towards the end of, your fast) makes me quite envious of you! I would need to let myself gain a few lbs first, but I think at some point I should at least try an extended fast for the health benefits.

Anyway, best get up! I can hear egg, sausage, bacon, mushrooms and tomatoes calling 🙂