Hello all!

After a fun weekend with my sister, I came crashing back to reality with a pile of laundry waiting and a jabbering husband with a list of “stuff” that required my attention. Sigh…… Work is busy today as we are working short-staffed. Thank goodness it is only for 1 day. That means no lunch break, but I have my protein shake ready to go when I decide to open my window. It is Noon and I’m not very hungry so far.

My sister and I didn’t adhere closely to our eating windows, but we have both noticed that since using this method, when we eat, we eat much less and don’t get hungry again for quite some time. YAY for appetite correction!

After the Holidays my carb and sugar restriction will begin. Sis and I are going on a Bermuda cruise in May and both have goals in mind for then. She has a pair of pants(pants of truth) that she wants to be able to fasten comfortably and I just want to lose at least 20 lbs. We’ll see how it goes.

Sherry that cleanse is something else! In order for me to do that, I’d have to be locked in a room and have whatever I’m allowed to have handed in to me at the appropriate time. Hats off to you for following that routine!

Working 5 days this week and 3 days next and then I’m off for Christmas Eve, Christmas day and of course, the weekend. Then back in for 4 days and then a day off for New Year’s. Once January starts, we have no holidays until the end of March(Good Friday).

Wishing you all a good week. Hugs all around!

I survived our big work party at the house! Somehow I’m even down to 168, which is just half a pound from my dec goal. I’m fasting today and Thursday so fingers crossed….my computer is out so I’m on my tablet and can’t type as well but I’ll try to get back on tomorrow!

Hi all
Seem to have not been posting for a while, sorry, I have been reading and keeping up with your efforts- so much better than mine.
I did two FD last week, tho think went a few cals over but am struggling on the other days to keep to TDEE.think the combo of Xmas and retirement are getting to me- am counting the days at work now and plan to get fitter in jan.
One of my Xmas gifts is a pair of walking shoes and one is a 3 day detox juice pack so my intentions are good. The juice thing is very expensive but got a deal on Black Friday for a one off. Might try Sherry’s cleanse after that, not sure what DH would make of that! Guess if I am retired I could manage to do two meal plans just for those few days.
MIL had medical problem at w/e so that was an unexpected trip and all food was bad. Work yest was hard and i ate cake, just hanging on really.
Glad you are all focused, just reading helps motivate me to join in again soon.

Pact to be kind to ourselves made! Shake on it!

😀

Bravo Elizabeth for doing well at the work party & being so near your December goal! Hard to do this time of year! I survived a food-laden gift wrapping party (our business collects & wraps gifts for needy elderly each Christmas) today. I just kept wrapping like a crazy person and stayed away from the goody table! Then I have two office parties, one for my northern office on Thursday and another a week from tomorrow at my local office! My plan of attack is to bring a healthy salad with protein of some sort and a sugar free dessert to share so that I have some safe, yummy options- I think my gals that work for me might even appreciate some healthier choices, who knows?

Salma, I did the cleanse for 1 week. It’s not hard once you do the (significant amount of) food prep in advance. I did the cleanse a little less than a week after our Thanksgiving holiday and didn’t weigh prior to starting since I was a little afraid to know the starting weight ( I know, stupid!). I was in the 125’s prior to Thanksgiving. I weighed 2 days after starting the cleanse and I was 126.0, so I’m guessing I lost some weight during that two days- maybe a pound? At the end of the week, I was down to 123.2. Right now, I’m 123.4 and I’ve been back to eating normally ( but again, I eat pretty cleanly) this week. So the net is about two pounds lost and maintained if you take out the holiday “fluff” gain! Being that I’m pretty close to my goal weight, I’m thrilled with that loss! Hope that helps!

Susie, best of luck if you do try the cleanse- your hubby could eat what you eat and just add on starch, etc. for him! Regardless, you WILL get it together once the holidays are over- don’tt be too hard on yourself right now!

I agree, all we can all do is try our best during the crazy holiday season! Just maintaining would be awesome!

Did pilates today after the gift wrapping party and then even managed to wrap a few of my own kids’ gifts so a pretty successful day all in all!

Where’s Milena these days? Milena, you’re supposed to be leading the Christmas charge on your steed after all! ??

Ok, back to the crazy making of wrapping gifts, packing for our trip to the mountains, and right this minute, getting all the kids to bed so I can do the aforementioned!

Good night all!

HI everybody and congrats on all. In a few minutes I have to go into a long meeting so just to touch base and say hello and what a great honor it is to be a part of this group.

Sherry so great of you to share this cleansing plan. I had a 2 month vegan one and it was tough. I am going back to 5:2 because my joints are acting up just like Salma’s.

I have redefined my “operating truth” in the past few months so next year is going to be a lot of changes for me work wise specially. I am so excited and just a bit panicky but good king of creative panicky.

Have been unable to wake up for weeks now. I used to get up before the clock at 6 am and even before that. Now I’m like a little child going “just 5 more minutes” to myself. I am truly suffering for not being able to wake up naturally after all these years. ANd I bet I would wake up 10 minutes later than the time I set my phone to go off. I am just miserable where I am and need to move on.

Got to go. Sorry for the rant but I just needed to get this out of my system.

Love ya all
m

Good morning midfiftiesers! ?
Sherry what a successful wrapping day, and good plans for negotiating the Christmas parties! And a trip to the mountains to look forward to! All power to you for these busy days, and then I hope you get some sort of break!

Salma that breakfast! Just delicious! I would love to be there!
it is interesting, and very hard for you, that those painful and exhausting symptoms have come back. I hope you can get a mirena ( I think that’s the name) or something to stop such heavy periods. And get back to full on fasting as soon you can, of course!

Makica it sounds like big things are happening to your work life. Scary, but I bet you are doing the best thing. all good wishes for you. I hope you can have big sleep on the weekend.

Nice sleep in for you Lori. I love slow mornings. In fact I can’t manage without them.
I am slowly getting the house back in order. But my desk! Everything ended up piled on it, and I need a big sorting out. Maybe today.
I hope you got your lunch break!

Fast day for me! I think it will be a nice one.

Having a really nice fast day. To kill an hour before soup I decided to try on a few clothes that were just a bit too small last time I tried.
They fit!
So I thought I would try the winter skirt I didn’t quite fit into last winter. Too big.
Tried all my winter skirts (4) and a pair of winter trousers, and a jacket. All too big. The skirts could be pulled off while done up.
They were lovely skirts, so I am a little bit sad. Maybe 1.3% sad.

98.7% ecstatic!

Hi Ladies,

Salma I am an insomniac that has problems falling asleep and then when I do I wake up at 2 am can’t go back to sleep until 6 am and then want to commit suicide when I have to get up at 7 am. My mother was the same. I just downloaded the app. One question did you stop taking the sleeping pills while you were doing the hypno thingy?

Cinque I am so happy and jealous at the same time that you are having nice slow days. Enjoy all of it.

Lori I am trying my best to get back into the groove / sticking to my window and fasting at least twice a week. Lets face it I feel better when I do. Now when I am full this feeling is so heavy if you understand what I am saying or if I am being clear. When my stomach is full I am slow and not very fun to be with.

So today I am closing my window at 6 pm and trying to stay below 500 cal.

See you all soon and hope Milena joins us too,
m

Lori love the “sleep phones” have to get me some. 🙂 and I promise to be kind to myself.

Love m

MM 😥, I feel so sad for what’s going on in your life right now! the holidays are tough enough without all of those circumstances you are dealing with! If you lived by me, you’d be at my house for Christmas Eve dinner! Are any of your friends available to get together during Christmas? If not, I say a nice nature walk in the snow then a
good bottle of wine and some wonderful old Christmas movies like White Christmas are in order!

Lori- do give us the name of the fuzzy headphones! I want some!

Congrats Cinque on loose skirts- what a joy! If you love them, you could always take them in at the tailor!

Makica- such a bummer re: the sleep issues. I’ve had them off & on since menopause- I was early-ish like Lori- 45. I drink Nighty night tea & take a Hyland homeopathic sleep remedy & it helps a bit. Salma told me to try her Paul McKenna CDs a while back and I need to do that. I think too that it’s your bad work environment getting to you! When you remedy that situation, I’m betting your sleep will improve!

Salma, yes I know when I’ve made poorer food choices, my back hurts more. Thank God, it’s getting better between eating better, pilates, the cold laser treatments ( now completed), and weekly chiropractor visits. The cleanse would definitely help your inflammation levels.

Another crazy day today- 8:30 at kids’ school for twins’ presentation of Christmas around the world, then on to hair appointment, back to school for the Around the World Christmas feast then on to one of our offices 45 minutes drive north for their Christmas party then back at 4:30 for my pilates appointment! Then made dinner and now need to pack for mountains! Aaaahhh! I’m exhausted! I will be offline for a few days now, but best of luck to all while I’m away!

Love you gals!

Sherry

Hi all- I am with the menopausal sleep issues , I can get to sleep fine but wake somewhere between 2-4 most days. If its 2 generally go back off after about an hour of tossing and turning but if its 4, that’s it. Am hoping when I get my act together with healthy eating and 2 proper FD in jan when I am retired- eek only 3 more working days next week! – then things might improve as my stress levels go down.
I am looking forward to having more time and plan to walk a bit each day as well as plan my eating better. I would love to get into some skirts I have that I have never worn- bought on trips away or given as Xmas gifts and been too tight by the end of the trip or festivities.
Am finding the last few days at work difficult so not able to concentrate on eating well at all- too much sweet stuff doing the rounds and on weds next week they are doing a lunch for me.
Think I will need a cleanse in Jan!

Good Morning my friends!

The earphones can be found at sleepphones.com or possibly on Amazon as well. I’m on my 2nd pair as my cleaning lady sucked up my first pair into her sweeper! I had thrown them on the floor in the middle of the night and forgot to pick them up in the morning. Oops!

I did pretty well with my eating yesterday. Stayed within my window, but did eat a few of those darn cookies again! They are gone now, so no more temptation sitting on my kitchen table.

Dressed and ready for boot camp this morning. Day 4 for the week. YAY! Next week I’ll have to do 3 days in a row as they’re closed from Dec 24 thru Jan 2. I think it’s nice that they give their staff off over the festive season, but some of the clients get upset and angry that they have to miss their workouts. They do provide 5 at home workouts to all of us, but I choose to give my body a break and be lazy. 😉

Hoping for a quiet day at work. Inventory entries are done and booked and all the bosses are out today. Woohoo! I may start my final exam online for my nutrition course. It is 240 questions, but I don’t have to finish it in 1 sitting. We’ll see if I’m feeling it or not.

As I was reading about all of dealing with inflammation, I remembered reading a post on FB about “Golden Milk” as a drink to combat inflammation. It uses organic turmeric, ginger, cardamom & cinnamon mixed into whatever “milk” you like to use. Almond, soy or whatever. It warm drink and I wrote down the recipe and ordered the spices as I think it sounds very nice for a cold winter’s night. If anyone is interested in the specifics of the recipe, let me know and I’ll post it. It is quite easy.

MM…I feel bad that you will be alone for the Holiday. I hope you can enjoy a bit of it anyway. It’s a hard time of year for all the different drama this life can bring. Will be thinking of you.

Hugs to all and I’ll check back in on you all later. ((Hugs))

Hi
Lori- I might like golden milk, if you could post details? Thanks
MM sorry about your Mum ailing- it’s the age we are, just as our kids settle into independence then we have elderly parents to sort out. We had MIL in hospital last week, she lives 3 hours drive away. She seems ok now but at 85 guess more is to come for her.
Am having toes painted ready for Xmas!

Salma- it’s approach not aporia! Darn phone & fat fingers! 😁

Hello to you all. I have been reading through your posts and would love to join in if I may?

I started out my dieting career as a 53kg 16 year old who thought she was overweight. I have managed to yo-yo diet my way to 81kg. I am only 160cm (5ft 3inches) so it is not a good look.

I live in a beautiful area of Australia called The Gippsland Lakes. I love to bake which is a major downfall when it comes to the usual diets. My most recent failure was Paleo – no grains allowed so how could I bake bread? I know there is more to life than bread but really, never ever being able to bake again just saddened me so much.

Anyway, cut to the chase, my naturopath suggested 5:2 as she feels that it might help ease my menopause issues and get me feeling a whole lot better. This along with the expected weight loss would be a wonderful thing. So here I am, 1 fast day down and feeling ok. My husband (who is almost the exact right weight for his height) is along for the ride as we read that it helps ward of dementia and a variety of other aging nasties.

Good Morning!

Hi Katy! Welcome to our little group! How nice that you have your husband along for the ride. It will certainly make it easier not to have to watch him eat a big meal on a fast day. Good luck!

Slept in until 5:30 this morning. Actually, I was awake for awhile and just enjoying my warm “nest”. I heard the cat jump down from the bed at 5:30, so I knew that was my sign to get up. 😉

The husband and I are going to go out and face the crowds to do a bit of last minute Christmas shopping this morning. Then it’s out for lunch. Tonight we have a Christmas party to go to at an Italian restaurant that has really good food. Something tells me that I’ll be overdoing it a bit today.

I wish I had all the spices I need to make the Golden Milk that I gave the recipe for yesterday. A cold day just sounds like the perfect time for that warm drink.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Hello all.

Welcome, Katy. Like you, I am 5’3″. There are several of us who are small women with not a lot of places to hide those extra pounds. And like your husband, I’m also doing this mostly for health reasons. I have high cholesterol and can’t/won’t take statins.

Makica, Sherry, Cinque you guys are so sweet! Thank you so much for the kind thoughts in invites after my rant about Christmas. It’s not really all that bad. I’ll be making Christmas dinner with two of my colleagues and their husbands. So I won’t be alone. It’s just that you want to spend Christmas with those you love the most. And, Makica and Sherry, I’m going to bank those offers and come visit you both some day.

Lori, you continue to amaze me with your discipline. Today you “slept in” till 5:30 while my “dog alarm” didn’t go off till 8:15! It’s too cold for long walks with them and they know it so stay happily curled up in their cushy beds. I’ll have to put in a session at the treadmill desk in order to get some exercise. But the sun is shining for the first time in weeks on our new snow, so it is lovely to look outside. Sherry, I hope you get lots of snow in the mountains. Where do you go?

Salma, I would love some of your favorite recipes. I love Mediterranean food!

Today the part of teaching I like the least–grading. Sigh.

Love to all. Milena, are you out there?

MM

Hello everyone! 🌟
Welcome Katylee! I’m in Melbourne and just survived the nasty hot night. Hope you did too! Bring on the cool change!

Congratulations on your December challenge Elizabeth, 👑
MinnMiss I hope you can think of some humorous comments while grading, I know it is a tedious job, so I hope it goes quickly.

Susie, ruby red is fabulous!

Fast day for me. My favourite day.
I am going to visit a friend for her birthday today just when it is hottest, but at least my car has air conditioning! We are both going to dress up! I don’t need to worry about food because she has so many food intolerances that we just keep it to a cuppa.

Best wishes to all of you for a good day, or a good night! 🌏🌜🌍🌝🌎🌛🌏

Hi MM and Carolinacatz. Thank you for the welcome.

I have been amazed and impressed by the welcoming nature of this forum. I am only a few days into the program but I hope it will become my lifestyle. Thank you to you all.

Ugh! Had roast chicken for dinner which was good but then couldn’t seem to resist the creme brûlée which wasn’t so good of me!

More snow play on the schedule today , maybe to include snow mobiles! My girlfriends want to get a steam today at the spa at some point. Tonight is the sleigh ride! I don’t know who’s more excited, me or the kids!

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

Actually, I have had a busy day! You know how some days you just go from one thing to another in the house? Always something to do. Went and bought wrapping paper etc and got all the gifts wrapped. Did 3 loads of laundry & washed our bedding and remade the bed. Did other misc stuff around the house and finally sat down at 2PM. The cat is happy as she has been waiting for me to sit down so she could lay on my lap. 😉

Hope you’re all enjoying your day. I’m happy to have gotten so much accomplished on a Sunday!