Well done Milena another one to join our Wii action group. It will be interesting to see if this helps. A really good way of exercising when you can’t get out. I don’t mind a bit of rain, but the wind and rain together awful. Unless it it a thunderstorm strangely enough.

Hi Graham

It will be interesting to see what the changes you make do over a week. Bear in mind that as lovely as bacon is it has a high salt content. I have it once in a while but it isn’t recommended for me because of my blood pressure. I normally eat chicken and occasionally fish. Once in a while when I go out steak or beef burgers. This is something I don’t cook at home.

I didn’t know that I had high blood pressure until I started getting dizzy. It is one of those silent things that you don’t know you have got. I am looking forward to getting bloods done so I have something to compare with. I know cholesterol was between 5.5 and 6 and he just said to use diet to bring it down a little. This was a few years ago. Has anyone else had their bloods checked?

Hi Lori

Have a nice holiday. Maybe you can manage to do 6:1.

I had a recipe for pastry free quiche. I will see if I can find it.

Will be really good maybe in the nicer weather or for those of you who are having warm weather. Basics were cottage cheese the one with chives, eggs and a bachelors instant pasta at the bottom to form a base. Of course you could just boil wholewheat pasta. Personally I can’t taste the difference between white and wholewheat pasta.

Milena

I am sure you could get pom-poms on eBay…….

Applepie

Keep your wine and just add it in to your allowance. You have do have a little of what you fancy. Life would be too dull without it.

Keep up the good work All

Ginette

Hi firehorse

I love garlic and have it in lots of food. I don’t normally have dark chocolate although I remember bournville was always a treat for me. I have just bought Cadburys Dairy milk 2 x 120 gram bars. So that will last me 2 or 3 weeks. I might give it a go after that.

I must say Cadburys is my favourite although I also enjoy Lindt balls.

For now it is a fast day and chocolate is definetly not allowed.

Ginette

I forgot to say your blood pressure readings were good. I am sure the doctor is happy with that. I know they have moved the goalpost with cholesterol. It used to be below 5 and isn’t it below 4 now?

In France Doctors give patients a printout out with all of the information on. Shame they don’t do that here. My mother was French and went back to France to live for some years. The first thing her doctor did on a visit was weigh her and take bloodpressure. This was part of a routine visit, not because she was overweight because she wasn’t.

Ginette

First day of April and I’m struggling already!!

Started well, poured out milk and sugar, for my tea, 100ml milk, 3 teaspoons of sugar, 100 calories, written in food diary, then obviously polished my halo!

A couple of cuppas till 3, fancied a snack, small slice of bread, weighed, scraping of butter, weighed, 110 gram – polished halo while I enjoyed snack.

Rechecked TDEE, obviously I am going for lower than I actually weigh, and as 12 stone is just around the corner (ha ha) using that one, 1573/393 on fast day. As I thought, polished halo!

Then I worked out I now have 183 calories left – tried to eat halo!

Got out roast chicken, 40 grams weighed (rubbed off bite marks from halo, this just needs thought) actually measured 53 grams, so took off enough bits to get to exactly 40 grams (quick polish of halo) – then popped the excess piece of chicken straight into my mouth!

Now I have 27 grams of chicken on my plate – and I can tell you, its a scabby portion.

Next guacamole, 25 grams – carefully weighed out 25 grams, scrapped off excess to get to exactly 25 grams, and then proceeded to eat the excess!

Bloody halo has now fallen off!

17 grams of guacamole now on plate. I think cos I can’t actually see it!

2 very very thin slices of bread, 30 grams – so I reckon I have 210 calories, put half the milk back – now on target – halo has been dumped in the bin!

Can’t say I have ever eaten a chicken guacamole and brown bread sarnie ever before. But I am going to enjoy it, and there is enough milk for one cup of tea – two if I can ditch a spoonful of sugar for a splash of milk.

Can’t wait for bed.

AND please don’t come running to me if you are having problems keeping to 500 or even 600 (you know who you are Graham) calories to deal with on your fast day.

Moral of the story – I know – properly sort out food! I was going to do a stir fry but all the power steering fluid dropped out of the car this afternoon, so we didn’t go shopping for fresh veg.

And don’t put on halos at the beginning of the month!

so, Ginette, you are laughing at my distress????? I was looking for sympathy!

To think I’ve been doing this lark for 3 months, and it has taken to today to work out the calories in my drinks.

I’m beginning to wonder how I got this far!

Just had a cuppa and hallucinating about biscuits – McVities choc digestives no less. Haven’t had one of those this year, and I’m not getting any! But I could smell ’em!

Off to bed now, just 29 days to go, only pleased there is only 30 days in April! Another fast day on Friday, to make three this week. Probably 5:2 next week.

travel hopefully

Hi all. Will be doing two fast days back to back starting today (Thursday) using the ‘2 day diet’ philosophy, which is like doing Atkins for two days with a maximum of 1000 calories of protein only (which makes you feel full for longer), plus five days normal but keeping the calories below 2400 and trying to not eat too many carbs. I’m retired, live on my own and do bugger all during the day, what do I need carbs for!

Don’t know why you think I may have problems on my fast day Milena, Bacon & eggs for breakfast and steak & veg for tea. I’ll be perfectly happy with that.

It was a normal day today. I had porridge with honey for breakfast, about ten pieces of coconut for lunch and two scotch eggs with mayonnaise for tea with a large apple for pudding, 1400 calories. I could cut that down further by making the porridge with water instead of milk, may try that on Saturday.

Also spent ten minutes opening and throwing away some cake, oat biscuits and mint humbugs I had secreted away in the cupboard for emergencies.

Graham.

Hi Graham.

If it is only protein I think you can only have certain vegetables as they are carbs, good ones granted but a friend who started on the Atkins diet could only eat some vegetables not all. Maybe check this out to see which ones you are allowed.

I wish you luck. This is working fine for me so I think if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I imagine by the fact that you are trying something else you are struggling on the calorie allowance.

what you were eating for breakfast was a lot of carbs and they don’t fill you up for long. You get the sugar rush and then the hunger starts again. Try to incorporate less carb (bad ones) and more protein on your non diet days. You just need to change the way you think. You will get there. Be patient…..

I hope it works. You can only try it and see. If not go back to the 5:2 and stick to it. You don’t want that yo yo affect of weight loss and of emotions to knock you off track.

Hi Milena

I have porridge made with water when I have it. But I add a dash of milk and half a teaspoon of sugar. I don’t fancy poring it my drawers…..very uncomfortable!

Ginette

Hi all,
I have been hovering in the background for a while now reading what you have been saying, but have decided I would like to join in with the April quest if that’s ok.
I know a lot of you already from other forums, but for those of you who haven’t met me, I am 57, 5 ft 2 started 5 2 end of Jan after calorie counting for 4 weeks. I have lost 16 lbs and am nearly at my 10% weight loss.

I am registered disabled, I have arthritis in my hands, and spine and also other skeletal problems, the Dr’s assure me I will end up in a wheelchair but I assure them I will not as long as I can help it.
like ginette I am a wii enthusiast and I can step for 30 mins, and I do enjoy a good boxing session! Some days are better than others but ain’t that the same for everyone?
Looking forward to our April challenge although I have hot a visit to my mums to get through next week so not sure how I will do then!

Audrey

Hi Graham

I knew that vegetables were very limited. Sorry if I have burst your bubble a bit.

Hi Audrey

Nice to see you here.

Ginette

Hi all,
I have had a call to say my mum is not too well so am going to stay with her Sunday or monday for a while.

We are off to the caravan for a holiday soon, so I may not be back on forum for a while but am determined to stick to the 5 2.
Have a good easter, and I will be back in touch when I return from my travels,

Audrey

Hi Graham, where is the rule that some calories are better than others? Of course there will be one, so I passed on the magnum. Waiting in the post office, I did check out the calories in a McVities choc digestive, I was even dreaming of them last night – and 83 calories a biscuit is ok.

Which makes somewhere over 2500 for the packet, and I couldn’t guarantee any being left. Not a binger, except for these. Put them back.

Have tried every variation of black tea and coffee, fruit teas, green teas etc etc. Just cant manage without milk and sugar. I have about ten cups a day, usually finish one, leave 4 half drunk, and 5 untouched. So I reckon I only have a heaped spoonful of sugar a day.

Hope your mum is on the mend soon Audrey, and enjoy your holiday.

Lori, hope your day is improving.

Ginette, had my porridge made with semi skimmed milk and water, salt and just a wee sprinkle of demerara sugar. Lovely breakfast.

And the double cream moat – gorgeous!!!!!!!!

Well, managed yesterday on 391 calories after I deducted the unused milk and sugar, I measured the milk with a 5ml medicine spoon and used the spoon to pour it back into the bottle. Two cals under!

Even with the cream, 1215 cals today, a fair bit under TDEE, and third fast of the week tomorrow.

Halo retrieved from the bin, will blummin’ break it if no loss this week!

Hi Graham

No you should be fine. I only eat them about twice a week now.

Bacon and eggs sounds lovely, can you have tomatoes and mushrooms as well?

Hi Milena

I find a the same problem with biscuits as you say especially chocolate digestives. I never thought of measuring it with that. Using water instead of milk, I just put the same amount of milk I would use in 5 cups and poured it into a measuring jug. Sometimes I go mad and have an extra cup……

Well done for retrieving the halo, it needs to stay there for a whole month.

Ginette

Hi all sorry not been touch mum’s been in hospital for back operation and my sister had a baby grandson who was born with only part of his bowel but I managed to lose a pound this week. Fast day today and doing quite well. Hope everyone has a good Easter

Hi all. Been happily tucking into my bacon and eggs for the last two mornings and having a half tin of tomatoes with it and thinking I was doing well, until I discovered that there are 2.5 teaspoons of sugar in each tin (4 tsp in a large can)! So they are going to the food bank next week along with about 60 Loyd Grossman Pasta Sauces that I stocked up on when they were on special offer (5.25 tsp), Baked Beans (2.5 tsp), Chilli Con Carne (2.5tsp) and those small tins of sweetcorn (3.75 tsp).

I also found that there are 3 teaspoons of sugar in a 440ml can of Guinness, but I don’t think the food bank would take them and to be totally honest I don’t think I can part with them (sentimental reasons).

Well, first official weigh in tomorrow, hope those tinned tomatoes haven’t scuppered it or I’ll not be happy.

Graham.

Hi Graham

Hold on to those tomatoes as there are very many benefits in them, more in cooked tomatoes than raw. It is to do with lycopene. I hope it has paid off for you.

Hi ladyfilosipher

Nice to see you here.

I saw this 4 minute YouTube clip from the one show. It shows man and woman doing different exercises to improve health. One (the man) does the HIT training and the woman does moderate training. Both three times a week. I can’t remember for how many weeks.

See the results. Of course this is good for health but does it tone up those wobbly bits?

Might be interesting for you to incorporate Graham. Any concerns ask your doctor.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F4S3-Jk0OCY

Ginette

Hi Graham

I don’t think the programme on sugar really answered the questions – a tin of tomatoes is a good example – there is naturally occurring sugar in tomatoes, this type of sugar didn’t count in the ‘experiment’ she did with the folks.

I suppose you need to check the tin – if its says tomatoes and sugar, there is sugar added in the process, if it doesn’t mention sugar, or fructose or any of the myriad names for sugar, its ok – you need to count as calories but not as sugar.

The british heart foundation does a diet which is not a kick of what you are doing, bacon and eggs for breakfast, meat or fish and salad for lunch, and meat or fish and veg in the evenings. They included tomatoes, tinned or fresh.

I think they add sugar into heinz tomato soup, it is so much sweeter that some other tomato soups.

Welcome ladyfilosopher

my hubby is going along with me, though he only had about 4 kilos to lose and is down 3, though rethinking another 2 or 3 now. My heart aches for him!

Ginette

fat programme interesting, did a bit of reading about burning fat with the HIIT. Good reading and I think I know the science, just don’t ask me to explain it – was out today doing 30 seconds of brisk walking and 2 minutes of steady walking. Wore me out. Tomorrow its a minute of brisk walking and a minute steady, expect to lose at least 3 stone by the end of the week! Or at the very least I hope to get to the 81.5 kilos I got to a couple of weeks ago.

Passing the local gym every day, will be joining Salma and the other gym bunnies next month, with a bit of luck and an shrinking body.

I’ve always thought butter was better than anything else they have come up with – except margarine makes lighter cakes (know the science of that too but couldn’t explain it well) was happy with dense cakes until I gave them up.

Aldi have some scales in for £12.99 which measure bodyweight. After my miserable time with the posh weight everything scales we inherited (weighed everyone correctly but me, 5 lbs heavier – obviously a gremlin kept jumping on it when I did – or was it a ghost???) still using the £5 simple scales from tesco – though tricky to read.

hope all are well

You are correct Milena, the tin of tomatoes says that the contents are: tomatoes (65%), concentrated tomato juice, acidity regulator (citric acid). So any sugar in them must be natural. I also strain the tomatoes before I put them on the plate so I’m only eating a bit of the juice, therefore perhaps I’m only eating maybe 1 teaspoon of fructose instead of the two I thought I was and as Ginette says they are good for me.

I’m wondering whether the 2.5 teaspoons of added sugar is that bad regarding the chilli con carni and the baked beans. I strain the beans and don’t eat the sauce, which I assume most of the added sugar is. According to that YouTube video that Jayegirl posted I should only eat 9 teaspoons of sugar a day or less, so even with the tomatoes and an evening meal of chilli con carne & rice the total is only about 5 teaspoons. If I had a can of Guinness as well, that would push it up to 8 teaspoons (with a daily total of 1500 calories, well short of the 2400 I’m allowed.

Or am I just trying to find a way of sneakily adding Guinness to my diet?

Hi ladyfilosipher

Yes I thought it was interesting. There is an iOS app called seconds that you can add how many seconds high intensity and then how many seconds low intensity. Also how many repeats you would like at once.

I am sure they also probably have it as an android app. I downloaded three and the others were preset so opted for this one. Today I can’t get up without aching and certainly won’t be doing any exercise. This is the after effect of yesterday’s biggest loser.

Graham

Here is a link about tomatoes there are many more you just need to google are cooked tomatoes good for me.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1388927/Cooked-tomatoes-good-statins-battling-cholesterol.html

Guinness in moderation is good if it lifts you spirits and makes you feel better. As long as you count it in with the calories I would imagine that’s fine.

We need to have a bit of what we fancy. I have just read that 4 eggs a week cheese (I would imagine in moderation) and yoghurt have been found to reduce the likelihood of diabetes by 25% hard to know what to believe, but even if it did by 10% that would be good.

Cheese omelettes for me next week then. I eat yoghurts anyway.

Hi Milena

It it really hard exercising to that intensity. I hope it helps. I am going to give it a go…..after recovery of course.

I did laugh at the people on the program looking at nutritional information. I have done this many times myself, if you go to France on holiday it is really difficult as lots of packets don’t have information on them.

I have a friend who is vegan and it is a nightmare for him, he takes food with him.

Hi Salma

A break I think is also good. Just see if you can restrict weight gain. Think of us as imps looking over your shoulder……

Enjoy your break and don’t make yourself miserable.

Ginette

Good morning everybody.

Well, it seems as if the 5:2 works after all. To recap, last Saturday I found that I weighed 21st 1lb, an increase of 3lbs over the previous week which made me almost give up. Then I started again, kept well below my TDEE for non fast days, went for a brisk 5 mile walk, did the Atkins diet for my two fast days back to back and I haven’t had alcohol for three days. I weighed myself this morning and the result is…drum roll please…20st 4lbs. A loss of 11lbs.

Okay, I imagine a lot of that will be fluid and some will be because I’m weighing myself before breakfast directly after a two day fast, but I would think there are a few pounds of fat gone too.

A good victory anyway, which will encourage me to keep going.

Graham.

Graham, congrats on the weight loss glad you persevered.

I am off to my mums now everybody, will be in touch when I get back in a couple of weeks hopefully.

Been on scales have lost my first 10%.

Audrey

Hi Graham
You seem to be doing great with the diet. My progress is slow but steady. Incidentally I have porridge for breakfast too but I make it with water and just pour 1/3 cup (American measure) milk on top and some stevia. I didn’t like stevia at first but am getting quite used to it now: the other night I had some plain pure cocoa powder (cacao puro in Spanish) with a bit of stevia and that was better than an Easter egg for me. I like black chocolate and it’s quite healthy. I want to do 3 diet days next week, not sure if I could do 2 days diet back to back but maybe that could be another goal in the future.

Hi Graham

What a fantastic boost. Yes keeping within TDEE really is needed for weight loss. We have to shift those bad habits and keep calculating our new TDEE as this changes as we lose weigh. You will find that losing 11lbs will alter yours.

This is the key. We will get used to it. A bid round of applause is coming from us to you, we are all so pleased.

Lori

You sound perky filling your round of golf. I have only played the Wii version I play PGA tour the masters. I can try all the courses around the world. It has passed many an hour. I have update from the older version of Tiger Woods PSA games.

Hi Salma

No calories aren’t all the same a piece of cake is digested far more quickly than for example chicken. It takes energy to digest foods and requires far more to digest protein than carbohydrate sugars being in that category. This is why protein diets work better than carbohydrate diets.

I am not a nutritionist but very interested in these things. I am thinking I would like to do a course to learn more. Any suggestions on courses run in England?

Hi Audrey

Well on on your 10%. Not sure if you will get this, but just wanted to say how pleased I am for you.

Mark

I use Stevia as well on porridge and other things. I saw a program on it and have used it since. Has anybody tried to grow it?

Annette

What book are you reading? Sounds an interesting read.

Ginette

Hi Janeyw

Well done on your new Job. Thanks for the Info on Stevia

Just found this on Amazon in case anybody is interested. There are many different flavours this is the first one I found.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stur®-goodness-Green-Flavour-Single/dp/B00N1XW6WI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1428171245&sr=8-2&keywords=stevia+drink

Ginette

Well done with the job Janey, so pleased for you!!

Well done with the loss Graham. Really pleased for you!

Ive been really good, watched calories, walked briskly, ate well. Under 1200 on non fast days, good job the weeks not over, good job I dont take any notice of increases. Cos if I did I would have noted the 2kg increase and I might have given up this weekend! So not checking scales for a week and doing another 4:3 next week.

No chocolate eggs, and no roast dinners.

On the bright side – must say it was hard to find a bright side- finally thinking of ditching the size 20 jeans I started with. OH and son refusing to let me out in them. Must agree I look like a hobo in them.

Im now into 18s, and find I can put these on and take them off without unfastening the button and zip.

Unfortunately still too much water on the knee and on the thighs to get into anything smaller.

Thanks Milena,

Well done on getting into your jeans without unfastening the button and zip! At this point, I’m doing that with most of my clothes. I will need to go shopping soon, but I’m so close to my first goal I don’t dare get anything until after I get there.

Ginette, did you check with discoverstevia.com about the water drops? They ship internationally. Just curious.

Many thanks one and all for your support, and please know you have mine in return–in spades!

Jayney