Day 16 UK CD

Yesterday segued into a NFD bc snacking, but most of my snacking was my newly-discovered wonderfood….lentil cakes! Like rice cakes but made of lentils so packed with protein & only 39 calories each… Topped with mashed avo, leaves & seeds – or peanut butter! – they are a truly satisfying crunch. And best of all I don’t wake up puffy the way I do with most carbs 🙂

DD came over yesterday PM with laptop bc WFH & struggling to keep focused. We took a room each & ploughed on in parallel – much more motivating than working alone. I’m rather daunted by how slow my brain is running with this ongoing cold and how much more there’s still to do 🙁

Practical things are going better – I prepped another batch of veggie chilli while skyping with friend so now feel well-stocked for easy food. Today I’m going to experiment with a loaf made with oats & vegan gk yogurt, with nuts, raisins cinnamon & seeds. I’ll have to be super disciplined not to eat it all but hoping that saying it here will give me that accountability 😀

I’ve just spent a distracted hour going through my wardrobe trying on clothes for a big service tomorrow. Been a bit more ruthless than previously and passing on dresses & skirts that are too big or no longer suit me. I never thought i would do that thing @flourbaby warns about,forgetting to try on smaller clothes and missing them out completely. But lo, 3 of my size 14 dresses are now hanging and have gone straight into the give away pile…. I’ve kept two to wear as oversize summer dresses.

Digging through the drawers I rediscovered a prized linen skirt from 1993, size 12…or whatever that was 26 years ago! Amazingly it actually Nearly Fitted… with only a tiny muffin top and an unsightly bulge underneath. But I’m happy to be a work in progress 🙂 So my fat suit must have been shrinking away during this plateau time bc I’ve lost 6 inches but don’t have lots of loose skin. The wonders of 5:2 never cease to amaze me 🙂

Rugby day – and usually one of my favourite days, but feeling more detached than usual. Maybe the sadness of NZ, the stormy weather or my fuggy, distracted head. I’ll enjoy rooting for Italy, Wales & Scotland (sorry Ireland – half of my dual heritage – but I’d love to see Wales win a Grand Slam). Going to do some gentle yoga & meditation before that match then continue with gentle pottering with the rugby on… nothing quite like pottering and clearing out to restore a sense of balance. Pottering, reading, rugby, listening to the birds & lots of sleep – what’s not to love?

Day 16 Wales FD(maybe)

@snowflake barely holding on myself, if I start eating, I won’t stop !!! Worst fast day ever thanks to after effects from too much alcohol.

Positive point, Wales are winning, sorry my Irish friends xx

Day 16 – Eastern WA USA – NFD

So appreciating the lovely sunshine and snow continuing to melt. I love the snow, but it’s nice to move toward spring.

@Fiftyand Fablulous – Welcome! What wonderful progress you’ve already made with this WOL.
@songbirdme – Congrats on your 5:2 anniversary! You keep inspiring those of us who are on the way to where you are.
@michelinme – How wonderful to shrink while on a plateau – 6 inches and not a lot of loose skin are amazing NSVs! Yes, definitely a shape-shifting time!

Okay need to check my list and head over to Trader Joe’s so I can make Keto friendly Shepherd’s Pie.

Praying for the folks in NZ! So sad! On a different note, here in the USA there was devastating weather in Nebraska resulting in destruction, heavy flooding with complete towns under water…

One foot in front of the other; we can do this!

Day 16 Ohio, US — FD(#64)

A good FD. During the last ten days with no FD’s, no exercise, and a lot of resting, two pounds have crept on. Hopefully with today’s start the two steps back are a prelude to five forward! There were a couple of bouts of Raynaud’s symptoms today and that has me wondering a little. This winter there have been more bouts of those symptoms and I chalked that up to the super cold weather. But now it’s warmed up to just above freezing, so I thought that the number of bouts would go down. I do get cold when I fast, but I’ve never connected fasting with Raynaud’s symptoms. Does anyone have some insight about this?

@ccco I take thyroid medication also and always take it with water. I also wait to take my multivitamin/mineral tablet until lunch. I find that I can eat higher fiber food later in the day (i.e. supper) and all goes well. I find that experimentation is a really good thing here. Hope this helps!

@michelinme Lentil cakes sound great! Do you make them yourself?

Have a great St. Patrick’s Day everyone!

Day 17, Melb Aust., CD
Day 16 NFD
Day 15 FD800

Stepped on the scales yesterday morning – 76.2 kg, the lowest I’ve been for several years, and that means I’ve now lost 10.2 kg. Danger – can’t rest on my laurels, as there’s still 22 kg to go.

@snowflake56, re cholesterol, my doctor is just very cautious; he may be thinking that the normal cholesterol result was a fluke. Another one in 3 months may convince him otherwise (can hope so, anyway! 🙂 )

@daffodil2010, Great that your ribcage is emerging; I’ve had the same feelings of “there it is at last!”.

@songbirdme, Congratulations on your weight loss anniversary – very encouraging for those of us along the trail.

@at, that includes you, too – you’re an inspiration to keep on keeping on and we’ll get there. You’re actually at about the weight I’m aiming for, so you stay there, and I’ll meet you there in several months time!!! 🙂

@michelinme, how satisfying to be able to clean out some of your wardrobe because the clothes are too big. Such a nice feeling.

Day 17 – Manchester, England – NFD
Day 16 – NFD

Yesterday I was incredibly hungover after a great night out on Friday. I was going to go to see friends to watch the rugby, but decided it was best to watch from the safety of my sofa, given how rough I was feeling! Well done to Wales – very well deserved Grand Slam win!

Today, I’m relaxing at home. My hubby is away and will probably get back at about 5am tomorrow morning. I’m considering getting a Chinese takeaway tonight which is something I would normally do when he’s away. I can’t decide whether to or not!

It’s wonderful hearing stories from those of you who have been on this WoL for a long time. It’s really motivating and proves that it works.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Day 17 Wales UK NFD

Happy St Patricks Day !!!

Managed to hold on to my fast yesterday with the help of Bovril and 10cal jelly, I have learnt yet again that I don’t want to over do drinkies. Could have gnawed the leg off a chair, even dreamt about food 🙁

Anyways still not quite up to par, but it is a lovely sunny day after 2 days of torrential rain, so me and woofit will be off for a long stroll when I can get my lazy butt moving.

Have a good day all xx

Day 17: Gloucestershire, UK: NFD

At last I’m starting to feel better! I slept much better than of late, only a couple of coughing fits and no blocked nose to suffocate me in the night. I went to church this morning (unusually for me I missed last Sunday and Ash Wednesday, as I felt so ill), couldn’t sing very well as my throat is husky and a bit sore from coughing, but otherwise getting back to normal.
One more day off and back to work on Tuesday. It’s my long weekend this week. Walking the dog twice a day and feeling less tired and worn out. DH also has the illness and is a few days behind me, but, thankfully, hasn’t had it so bad. It’s enough for him that he’s suffering with his back (spinal stenosis) and awaiting (he hopes) an operation. He’s seeing the consultant on Tuesday.

@rafiki44: You are probably finding that, because of your age, your shape has changed. A thickening of the waist, maybe. Certainly I found when I reached maintenance (for awhile) in 2016, my waist was about 5 inches bigger than it had been at that same weight 25 years previously. Good luck with those last few pounds…maybe some core strengthening exercises to whittle the waist?
@flourbaby: Don’t TOUCH Pringles! I’ve heard they’re one of the most addictive things out there…

Day 17 Belfast :☘️
Sitting in glorious  on this sunny St Patrick’s day. So much for the snow.
Congratulations to all the Welsh contingent on the fabulous 6 Nations win yesterday. Well deserved but gutted all the same.
Welcome @fiftyandfabulous.  Love your handle! Well done on your success so far.
@ccco I’m curious about what you should eat with thyroid meds. I take thyroxine but never came across any particular dos and don’ts. I do take it with water but didn’t know anything about dietary fibre.
@michelinme.- congratulations on that plateau re-shift. A reward for your hard work and perseverance for sure.
Glad you’re on the mend @ciren2

I indulged in a couple of gins and some wine last night. That was the first this month and in retrospect I’m sorry I blemished my record! Back on the wagon again.

Enjoy what remains of this Sunday everyone

Second post:

@at: Haircut 💇‍♀️ and color turned out fabulous!😊😊😊

Day 17 – UK – F800

Fantastic Yoga Workshop today – feeling very chilled and relaxed this evening 🙏 We even had sunshine for some of the day and sat outside for a light late lunch before a relaxing afternoon ending with a fabulous Yoga Nidra session!

Hope all our Irish friends had a wonderful St Patrick’s Day and did not celebrate too much 😉

Off to an early bed time tonight 😴 after that Yoga Nidra

Day 17 – Japan – WFD (#22 in 2019)

So far a very good start. I ran this morning so I’m already over 10k steps today and it is only about 10am. While I’ll probably be feeling it a bit tonight, I run better fasted than after I’ve eaten. I’m also over 1300 calories burned so far so I’m trying to burn off my stored glycogen and get some fat burned!

My efforts moving towards doing a planche have stalled a bit. I’m not able to lift my legs high enough yet. I can do a tuck on stand on bars but it isn’t high enough to do off the floor yet. So I have a lot of work to do. There is something called a crow stand where the knees go into the armpits and the arms are straight. That might be my next goal. The frog stand is pretty easy now. Still this might take more than a year to achieve. Wish I had done this in my teens when I was more flexible!

Day 18 – Melbourne AUS – FD

Had an incredibly indulgent weekend, way too much carby food, and alcohol, but the wedding was absolutely perfect, and it was a fantastic weekend filled with friends, love and laughter. So sad for it to follow on from the tragedy in NZ.

Still struggling to get back into the mindset, my overall diet isn’t as clean, and haven’t been training as much as I was before (still trying to find a new gym/routine since moving offices to another part of Melbourne).

@snowflake56 yes I do eat red meat, though a doctor once described that because I suffer from IBS, my digestive system may not be as good as absorbing some nutrients, including iron. So going to up the red meat, supplement with some extra iron, hopefully that helps!
@songbirdme happy anniversary! What an inspiration, and we’re lucky to have your guidance and support here!
@at fantastic work on the reset! I’m going to have to do a bit of a shake-up myself – I’m not sure I’m quite ready for multiple b2b’s, but I’ve started by overhauling the food I have on FD’s to see if that helps shift the current rut.
@ciren2 hope you are through the worst of it, great to hear your boss has been understanding about it (as they should be!) rest up.
@mapti I get terrible Raynaud’s, especially in my hands. Melbourne isn’t particularly cold either! I pretty much wear my jacket at my desk all day on FD’s to combat the extra cold. Haven’t thought about how the fasting affects it, but I’ve noticed no change.
@betsylee congratulations on the new low! You should be very proud of your achievement to date.
@michelinme I’m a terrible bread eater when fatigued.
@lorky35 sounds like similar conversations with my husband lol!

Pocket List Day 18:
@gretta

Day 18 Wales FD

Quick post ,out all day for work.

Pocket List Day 18:
@gretta
@russetfox

Day 18 – England – NFD

Just a quick check in to say hi because I’m dashing to get my hair did. I’ll come back later to read all of your lovely posts.

Have a great day!

Day 18-FD-Atlanta, Ga.-USA

Down 3 pounds so far this month. 5 lbs off my goal weight. So we’ll see if I make it. Have a great day everyone! FD for me. gonna have a low cal snack, and then a sensible dinner. Gonna stick to 600 cals today.

Day 18 London UK, FD800

Two days without posting, though I was scanning the posts. Kept thinking I’d have the time to write a proper post rather than just checking in. 🙁

Yesterday was an NFD and I have now gained 0.8 lbs – the fat percentage says it’s fat, but my measurements are fine. Possibilities: I’m REALLY sensitive to carbs, since I had three slices of toast (one with butter with breakfast, two with hummus at night. No other white carbs – it was a lentil and beef stew without any rice or potatoes for lunch, and almond pancakes plus toast-and-hummus for supper.

Alternative – I ate too much too late at night. Sundays I generally finish work at 7:30, so I think in future I should consider pre-cooking something so I can just heat it up. Quite possibly I need to plan at least an evening meal for an NFD, and cook it in advance.

I also missed off the RCAF exercises on the NFD (I fell asleep), but did them this morning. So generally speaking, the Sunday NFD did not go that well – but I’ll see how things are at the end of the week, when I’ll have done another six FD800.

@snowflake56 – I should probably have made it clearer that my ‘shift pattern’ is a bit split, with two days on pm starts and three days at 9.30 am to about 7.30 pm. So yes, it was a super-busy day, what with a 9.30 am start and having to have an email conversation with a volunteer at 10pm – but that was only a couple of hours later than usual.

Oh, yes, those ‘the spreadsheet has vanished from the cloud!’ moments. Such fun – not. 😈 Finding the backup must have been a great moment. 🙂

@fiftyandfabulous – joining in with the welcome. Glad you’ve found something that works for you. Especially when your skinny jeans are now too big! 🙂

@michelinme – quite a few people from round here have had that wretched cold virus that lingers – it does seem like ‘the beast that would not die’ when you’re in the middle of it, but it goes away eventually. With water – I’ve been trying warm water, made by mixing cold and boiled water, sometimes with a dash of salt added.

Congratulations on getting back into those older, smaller clothes! I have a day off today, so I might try some clothes sorting.

@ccco @matpi and @debster251 – my thyroid medication routine relies on the fact that I usually wake up in the early hours of the morning needing to go to the loo! So I’ve developed a habit of putting a glass of water and my medication on the bedside table, and then taking the tablets as I come back to bed. I did try taking it properly in the morning, but it was a pain – the alternative to coffee is tea, and I take that with soya milk; so it was basically get up, take medication, grumble around for an hour or so before I could have any caffeine or eat any breakfast. On the (sadly now rather rare) nights when I sleep through, I can manage this, but as a daily routine it was awful. I don’t mind not eating for an hour or so after waking, but I want my caffeine! 😀

Foods: coffee is a definite no-no for at least half an hour surrounding the medication and preferably an hour. Soya can impede digestion for some people. The NHS website https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/levothyroxine/ doesn’t mention fibre, but it does suggest avoiding calcium rich foods until four hours after medicating.

@lorky35 – I had acid reflux. Fasting as such hasn’t helped – what has helped is the 12:12 eating pattern suggested in the latest Fast800 book. It means I’m now following the ‘don’t eat 3 to 4 hours before bedtime’ rule. Losing weight is also supposed to help, but following the bedtime rule brought immediate benefits.

@rafiki44 – people do naturally gain weight as they get older; after the menopause women also tend to shift from a ‘pear’ to an ‘apple’ shape. It’s hormones (or the lack of them), but exercise might help. Sometimes a ‘fat belly’ is really ‘weak stomach muscles’ letting your internal organs bulge out a bit.

@daffodil2010 – glad you found shamrocks for your Dad and that he enjoyed his St Pats.

@ciren2 and @flourbaby – Ah. Pringles. They are the work of the devil. Fortunately, being gluten and dairy free means I can’t eat the blasted things any more. 😉

Day 18. FD. Finally.
I’m back from Germany. Just loved it. Ate too much of their amazing bread. My skirt is a bit tight…!
Joining today’s picket list.

Pocket List Day 18
@gretta
@russetfox
@betsylee FD800
@snowflake
@therealwil78
@flourbaby FD800
@bluesqeak FD 800
@borealis
@emma-taylor.

Have a good day all.

Day 18, Germany, FD
Heyyyy! I’m on a good fd so far!
Reading the F800 book and with my last week’s experience I decided to integrate TRE in my daily routine. Probably it won’t be 16:8 every day, but I will be aiming to long streches of no food. I really feel that it is good for my body, for my mind, for my digestion and for my reflux problems (that I also often have).
In terms of calories I decided that I will count them on FDs and that everthing up to 800 cals is fine but I’ll try to aim for 500.

Joining today’s picket list.

Pocket List Day 18
@gretta
@russetfox
@betsylee FD800
@snowflake
@therealwil78
@flourbaby FD800
@bluesqeak FD 800
@borealis
@emma-taylor
@miraclelou

Wish you all a wonderful day!

Day 18: Gloucestershire, UK: NFD:
This was supposed to be my last day recovering at home before returning to work after being off sick since last Tuesday.
WAS…
At 6.30am I was rudely awoken by the phone…the boss left a message pleading for me to “help him out” as another colleague had phoned in sick, making two off.
Well, what could I do? We’re a small delivery office, less than 20 staff. I’m more or less recovered, even having spent a large part of the night awake coughing.
I went in.
So have worked my day off this week earning 6 hours overtime….more importantly, my health held out (hopefully)! There was only some light rain. The mail wasn’t too heavy and there are no advertising leaflets to prep and deliver this week.

Remember everyone…NO PRINGLES!

Day 18 UK FD

Yesterday was solid – a little white rice with butterbean stew for lunch, clementine for pudding, teatime 2 slices homemade fruit & nut bread with friend-made plum jam, almond milk yogurt with nuts, apple & cacao then kitchen was closed. I love Sunday teatime eating[- makes me feel like a child again 🙂

Woke feeling better after long soak in epsom salt & essential oil bath while watching a gentle film, earlier night and good sleep – yay!

Managed to do some yoga & meditation before visiting PA arrived, then ploughed thru getting project work organised. We now have a list, a plan and some prioriities for the next couple of days, as well as getting some small things done. I’m beginning to feel more …that sense of lots to do but it’s a managed load rather than swamped, drowning, overwhelmed, chaotic… Much easier to have good boundaries when it’s all known & named 🙂

So instead of my usual “plough on while you can before it takes over” I have one task to tackle tonight and then shutting up shop. Looking forward to a wind down evening of supper, my Lent book reading and catching up with my mother before bath & an early night. Yay for balance!

We prepped lunch earlier & i’ve saved mine for supper so just a quick reheat to do…Today’s menu is the high-protein vegan chilli with cauliflower and peas (400 calories) leaving me FD wiggle room if I fancy a fruit /yogurt pudding. Just 0.5 pot yogurt left to eat and then I’ll make my own… Life is looking up and it’s only Monday 😀

@betsylee yes, the FD reset button is one of the best things about this WOL. That and the fact it IS a Way of Life, not a short-term fix 🙂
@snowflake sorry to hear about the spreadsheet problems – and well done for fixing them!!
@bluesqueak thanks! I felt better once I realised it’s the same thing on repeat, just flaring up when i’m out & about, rather than a series of bugs. There is something rather wonderful about wearing old faves… Not so much fun when trying clothes on and finding it’s allbaggy & shapeless. But I’m Delighted to have an old PA with me this week who now makes a living as a costume & dress designer… We’re going to have a clothes-resizing/-rescuing conversation tomorrow:)
@borealis great plan, well done! I made batches of 2 x veg curry last month, and 2 x vegan chilli this month (one mostly veg, the other high protein). FDs have become a real doddle. Also now my most productive days bc fasting energy boost and not spending much time on food prep

Pocket List Day 18
@gretta
@russetfox
@betsylee FD800
@snowflake
@therealwil78
@flourbaby FD800
@bluesqeak FD 800
@borealis
@emma-taylor
@miraclelou
@ann1239
@michelinme