Hi girls and welcome new WOL&FA members. I am very busy with my kids visiting and work. Thanks Lori for you concern I am good now. Even going to my Pilates again. Trying my best to be on the track and to be kind to myself at the same time. Talk about conflicting motives! Need to meditate on that because being kind to oneself means taking care of our beautiful bodies! Right?

MM so happy you have a plan for the holidays. You can take a rain check and come when ever you can.

Salma dear I will never disappear, you can’t get rid of me that easy. LOL I am listening to the tapes and am getting some sleep. I think I am on my 4th day today. I need to find some Aniseed. We call it Anis I hope it is the same flora???? Imagine me drinking some tea that is like a speed pill at night. That would be fun!

Sherry hope you have snow there where ever you are. You can take mine too. Snow is great in the mountains and the country but terrible in the cities. Dirty and gray, sloshy and a nuisance.

Cinque I am sure it would be a totally crazy Christmas if we all got together but would rather do it on your side of the planet with the weather and all. I lived in Australia when I was a kid 8-10 in Sydney. My parents lived there 25 years in Melbourne too. My father was the Ausy Nationa Socceroo Team coach. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Arok so you can see I love the Down Under dearly.

Now I have to run and do some work.

Love ya all
m

Happy Birthday Milena you beautiful cat women!

Happy birthday, Milena!

Anybody fasting today? Milena, I was in the layby with you all last week but today looks good, then no fasting till after Christmas.

We’ve had one gray day after another. Kind of boring. Sherry, I hope you sleigh ride was just fabulous. We need more snow, just to spruce things up, but they’re not promising anything till next week.

Hope you lovely ladies are all having a great day.

MM

Hi

Susie, in the layby, munching diplomats – you have to have a Thorntons chocolate shop near you to know what they are, drinking champagne. Heck, I weigh less than I did last year, so result!

Makica, no one bought me a kitten. Half my Facebook friends are cat breeders, a lot of unfriending going on tonight. I read my post to hubby, he had a heart attack!!

Thanks for the birthday wishes, love y’all!!

With luck I’ll outlive him, even though he is younger than me, all the cats will sleep on his side of the bed, with the two German shepherds!!!

Milena I think that is appalling behavior! No kitten! Unacceptable. I wish I could send you one but I don’t think it would be happy being shipped like that from here to there and we don’t want a frustrated and traumatized kitten.

As for the hubby a little nitroglycerin under the tongue should do it. I think I will keep it handy when I bring in the next puppy home. That would make it 3 dogs and 3 people. One each. Right? That is the balance we all need! A pet to a family member.

So if I get a chance to be somewhere near by I shall kitten you gladly. Any special preferences in color, size, breed, character, sleeping habits…???

OK now to be serious for a second if I make it that long, I ma fasting today on bananas. Yes you read me right. Bananas. Don’t ask why because it is what it is. So this morning I did the math, how many bananas in 500 calories with the skin on and of. You would think that is a no brainier me being a banker and all… you know numbers… but it turned out to be a pretty heavy algorithm. Will advise when finished.

Cinque we are here for you. What ever you need and we can provide electronically I am sure all of us are glad to. It is a roller coaster, for all of us but for chronically ill specially. Be kind and caring to yourself.

Hi MM and Susie, Lori bravo for all that positive effort.

And Salma, our founder and emotional glue, loads of appreciation.

Love to all

M

Good Morning!

Feeling good this morning after a decent night’s sleep. Miss Kitty was outside last night(her choice) as it was quite warm. She is now in, has had breakfast and is sleeping on her perch. Happy girl.

I’m off for my last session of boot camp for the year. We are boxing, so it will be a fun workout. The office closes at 3 today for a party, so food will be in abundance. I’m looking forward to shrimp, cheese & meatballs. Hoping to stay away from the sweets. Tonight we are invited to a friends house for more food & drinks. Hmmmm….wonder if I’ll be able to fast tomorrow while sitting at home all day. I do have to make a trip to the grocery store at some point. It’ll just be nice to have a few days to do whatever I want, whenever I want. Practice for retirement!

Milena…sorry no one gave you a kitty for your birthday. 🙁 How was the champagne?

Ok…time for me to run. Have a wonderful day everyone!

Merry Christmas to everyone 😀 love and blessing

Marijana

Merry Christmas! 🎄🎉🎁🎉🎄
It’s just ending here. Skyped my darlings, rested all day and then watched ‘Shirley Valentine’ with a friend. What a lovely film it is!

Very hot windy day, and there are worrying fires. Cool change is on its way.
Mozzies have got inside. Grrr.

Cheers to you all.

What a feast Milena, and two kittens to come! 🐱🐱

It’s Boxing Day morning, it’s been raining for hours, my garden is happy, but the big fire near Lorne is still frightening.

Dear ladies it sounds we all had a great day and stuffed ourselves silly with unbelievable food and a lot of good alcohol. I hope no regrets. Well just a little over here as I felt stuffed and very uncomfortable last night. We went out to a fancy restaurant because it is/was also my husband BD. The 2 youngest were with us. It was real fun.

Milena you are amazing. No way I could muster up the energy to do all that. I am a sad case of a big talent gone to waste. I can cook, really cook but I don’t like to cook. I hope you still like me after this confession. I like to be fed. Not create it. Women with a HUGE flaw.

Salma, the cake sound yummy! Like super hick yummy.

Cirque your Christmas sounds great ending with a nice movie with a friend. Hope those fires are out.

I am on a no carbs morning…hope it turns into a no carbs day. Depends on my middle daughter. She is a master villain in that sense. She comes here from Switzerland to first on all the good food so you can’t resist on joining her. My little food nemesis.

It is a beautiful sunny day. I am planning to binge watch Downton Abbey the whole 6th season.

Love ya all,
m

Hi all and a happy Boxing Day, St. Stephen’s Day, Zweite Weinachtsen, etc. Like the carol about Wenceslas, an overnight storm has left the snow “deep and crisp and even.” The dogs and I are snowed in till a plow arrives, which will probably mean all day. A good day to send my Christmas cards (I always do them after Christmas since the academic schedule leaves so little time before). And, Makica, I’m with you on a no carb morning. Might be all day if I can’t get out to tonight’s party.

Lori, like you, I had a quiet day till about 3. I took the dogs for a walk around noon and was amazed at the silence–not a single car or motor, just the sounds of distant birds calling to one another and the wind soughing in the pines. True peace on earth.

Surprisingly, I managed two fast days last week. This coming week could be more of a challenge, but I’m hoping to go on now with a steady vanilla 5:2. Yesterday could have been worse. Had a lovely dinner of beef roast, Spanish veggie salad, creamed spinach, and potatoes au gratin, preceded by mushroom pate and crab stuffed peppers. I was saved from total piggishness by the fact that I was driving, so only 2 glasses of wine and no cognac and because one of my friends substituted fruit cake for the promised Bouche de Noel and I hate fruitcake. By focusing on the roast and the salad I hope to have stayed at least within sighting distance of my TDEE.

Milena, your feast sounded wonderful. And sorry for no kitties under the tree. They will come to you at the right time.

Cinque, I pray the fires stay far away and that some much needed rain comes soon to put them out. Sherry, I hope you’re still having a lovely time in the snow. The dogs and I will be heading out into about 6″ of new snow soon.

Hugs for all,
MM

Hi Debbie, welcome. We are all here with the same goal to lose weight so we can be healthier. Some mental some physical. I am joking of course but that was not too far from the truth.

All the girls here are super supportive and great people, just great. I hope you stay here and on your journey to a better slender you.

MM that walk with the dogs really sounds nice. No snow here. Unusually hot for this time of the year. We have successfully made the planet bonkers with the weather. There are bad flu rains in the north of UK again. I hope Milena is OK.

Lori your plan sounds great. I was thinking about 2 classic fast days on Monday and Wednesday.

And forgot to tell you all I started learning Spanish a few days ago. There is a great free app Duolingo. It’s fun and keeps the German that tidies up my house during the night so I don’t know where stuff is far away. I am not a fan of his, nobody is. Alzheimers is not fun.

Only watched one episode of Downton Abbey. Had lunch with my Swiss daughter. Fish luckily. But then we went for the cakes. Blasphemy.

See you all soon,
m

Good morning lovelies, 🐣🐣🐣🐣

Hi Lori, enjoy your lovely lazy day.

Welcome Debbie, isn’t it hard what menopause does to us! I really hope you find 5:2 suits you well. The best thing about it is how sustainable it is. That depends a bit on what your life is like, but I am so glad it fits in well to mine. I’m losing over a kilo a month, and that is without exercising at all ( I have a chronic illness that is exacerbated by exercise) .
But it would be wonderful to get walking again, I hope the new shoes allow you to. Arthritis is such a nasty pain.

MinMiss so glad you had a great feast, and some beautiful snow. I hope the plough has come, and that you have had some lovely card writing time.
Kind weather here, rain and cool, and the fires are not as dangerous. Over a hundred houses lost, so it was a dreadful Christmas for so many. But the authorities are praising everyone for how well the evacuations went, with people helping each other and being generous on the one road out of the danger.

Makica I must get back to my Italian on duolingo! It is really good. But I keep getting sidetracked and have to start from the beginning again.
But who is this German you talk about?
Lovely to have time with your Swiss daughter!

Fast day for me today. A nice meditative day I hope.

Hi Debbie

just wrote a long post to you – lost it!

Basically it said stick with us, its a winding road but we will all get there!!!!

Good Morning!

Cinque! You always seem to have great fast days! I admire you so. The key is in the planning and you always seem to have something yummy planned. Good for you!

Got up about 6:15 this morning. That is sleeping in for me! I have laundry to do today and I’m not sure what else I’ll get in to. I think we’re going to go to our son’s for a wee Christmas exchange sometime this afternoon. I need to get moving today as yesterday(and the previous 2 days)I was planted in this chair. When I take a break, I really take a break! 😉

Makica…good luck with the Spanish. I really want to learn Spanish too and have used Duolingo in the past. Maybe I’ll pick it up again in the New Year. I do it at work when I’m bored….which is often! But…only 10 more months of office boredom!! YAY! Anyway, about the Spanish, our daughter is a high school Spanish teacher and her husband is Dominican, so they speak Spanish a lot. It always amazes me how she can switch from English to Spanish within the same sentence! Love it!

Milena…no worries about the gain. The new year is coming and we will get down to business. I so look forward to the journey with all of you.

Have good days!

Good morning,
I also slept well! Realised that my delightful tradition, of coffee on Fast Day afternoons, could be the reason why I sleep so badly after a Fast Day. Sigh. I was right. Back to morning coffees.
I do mostly have lovely Fast Days, thanks Lori. There is a lot to complain about with a chronic illness that keeps me from doing so much, but I think my quiet life does make for easier Fast Days. I can see how hard they can be for those of you who have a lot of stressful work and socialising and family responsibilities on top.

Lori I am so glad you had a couple of completely restful days. They are important too!

Makica, I am so slow sometimes. That particular German gives Germans a bad name!
Hooray for your wonderful Fast Day.
The fire news is still good, but it is burning in the Otways where it is very steep and rough and the vegetation is thick, so all fingers are crossed it doesn’t become a danger again.

Best wishes to you all for a lovely day, or evening, or night!

Enjoy that coffee Lori ☕️
And best wishes for a good day on your regime!

I saw some footage of a drive through those dreadful fires your way. Hope they get under control.

Cheers,
🌼

There are dreadful weather things happening all over the world ( how I wish we’d done the big changes twenty years ago).
I have the same feeling of thankfulness that I am living in a very safe place. ( the fires are several hours drive away from Melbourne )

It is morning here now. I’ve been particularly crook the last week, but I think I am well enough today to meet with my friend for a coffee and food shopping. We go to the huge veggie shop, that will be full of lovely summer veggies, and the shop over the road from it, with nuts and grains and spices etc.

I hope your day went well Lori! Is your fuzzy head clearing?
I hope you got through your boring job with lots of hot drinks and duolingo. Aren’t you wasted there!

Hello everyone else! Getting ready for a new year! What will we be like by the time it finishes?
I am finding it full of promise.
🌎🌍🌏🌎🌍

Best wishes for your day. I’m not fasting, but hope to eat lightly and well. We’ll see! 🌽🌶🍆🍅🍞🍳🍲🍜

Hi Lori and Cinque. I’m hanging around my office too today with not too much to do. Grades were due this morning and I’m waiting for the last student to turn in her essay. She’s had one problem after another this morning and is way overdue. Am I too cynical if I think that she is probably frantically typing as I write?

Cinque, you are right. There has been such dreadful weather with the floods in England, fires in CA and where you are, tornadoes in Texas, water bubbling out of the ground in Miami (that’s a weird one). I do wish we had listened to the scientists (and Jimmy Carter in his sweater!) way back when. I fear it may be too late to not have major problems in the years ahead.

Ah well, for now we are all safe. I’m not fasting today but have it on the schedule for tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it after so much Christmas fare.

MM

Good Morning!

Makica…glad to hear that your company is coming along. Please remind me again what will be your focus? Selling products, providing services? I’m having a brain fog this morning.

Too low in calories yesterday, so woke up VERY hungry this morning. Instead of fasting until Noon, I had a big scoop of coconut oil in my 2nd cup of coffee this morning. That breaks the fast, but hopefully not the fat burning.

Yet another rainy, dreary day. At least it isn’t too terribly cold, so we didn’t have any freezing pavements to deal with this morning. No complaints from me after seeing what so many are dealing with in terms of weather.

I must find something to occupy my mind today. This may be the day when I log on and take my final exam for the “Nutrition & Wellness Consultant” certificate. I must reread my notes and skim thru the text again as it is all about nutrients, vitamins, minerals etc. Only 240 questions! ACK!!

Hugs to you all across the miles!

Oh yum what wonderful food Milena! You may not be overeating tonight, but you will enjoy every mouthful!
I’m going to make a yummy mince and basil sauce today.

Wow those daffodils are early. Crazy times. I agree with your comments Makica and MinMiss. Poor dear world. 🌎🌍🌏

I hope the last girl got her work in! I bet there was a lot of frantic typing going on! Wow, I remember frantically finishing an essay….. on a typewriter!

Lori I hope you are on to the famous 240 questions. Do you have to do them all in one session? I hope there is lots of multiple choice!

You aren’t forgetful, unless I am even more forgetful. I think Makica has been very careful not to talk about her new company until it is all in place. But I am very excited and hope we find out soon what it is all about.
Best wishes Makica in sorting out all those legalities.

I am still having the slowest days I can, and it is just what I need. I am gradually starting to get on top of things, hooray for new days.
Time for another cup of tea.
PS fast day tomorrow. All organised! 😊

Hi Selma – so sorry to hear of the loss of your friend. At least you got to speak to him.

Well thank you all for your kind comments. I had my first fast day today. I’ve been having funny tummy problems for a while so I hope that this will help. Maybe my problems are just overeating!

I’m reading the book and it’s going well. I didn’t realise you can just choose when to eat. My friend did this diet a while ago and said you have to eat morning and evening and nothing in between. Only just realised that’s not true. I’m not a morning person and don’t like eating breakfast so managed to get all 500 cals into the afternoon/ evening. Actually ate a lot this eve – veg curry that was very filling but stayed within the calories.

Been really hard with so much food still laying around. Christmas cake, chocolate etc and me trying to ignore it!

No idea what TDEE is Makica hope you’ll enlighten me! Never heard of duolingo either so thanks for that.

Can’t believe what we’re doing to our beautiful planet either. Dreadful the way that we think we can treat it as we will but we expect it to behave. In someways I’m pleased that it’s fighting back. We need a kick up the backside.

Am planning my second fast day on sunday. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again for the support.

Salma, condolences on the loss of your friend. It is sad times when a dear soul is gone from our lives.

I enjoyed the TED talk. Hooray for good relationships.

Hi Debbie,
Congratulations on your first Fast Day on 5:2!
On this page: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/how-many-calories-on-a-non-fast-day/ there is a calculator for your TDEE and BMR. For many here is is really useful. I worked mine out and then forgot about it. I stick to 500cal on Fast days and eating as sensibly as I can on the other days, and it works so well I don’t worry about all the calculations.

The best thing about 5:2 is how it can fit into so many different lives! You can sort out what days you Fast – spaced out or together, what times you eat, what foods you eat, whether you fast on busy days or quiet days, combine it with exercise or paleo or anything else.
Just 500 calories or less, two days a week.
No wonder it works so well for so many of us!

Salma

“Although I know
My body is a thing of no tomorrow
Yet I am cast in grief
In the remaining twilight of my day
For him already taken by the dark.”

Hi ladies!

The past week or so has been absolutely crazy & I apologize for not getting a word in sooner! Tried my best to read through the last week’s posts but as usual, too much going on in that time to comment on all! I have been so off the grid that I just learned about the fires in my home state of CA from Lori & MM on these posts!

Our snow adventure was wonderful but tiring- about 8 hours drive each way with LA traffic taken into account! The sleigh ride in the evening snow was awesome but cold & wet! I ate badly on the trip and it just kind of continued as I cane home and baked/cooked for an army of about 30 guests for Christmas Eve: brined turkey, ham on the bar b, mashed potatoes, gravy, fresh cranberry sauce, salad, appetizers, pistachio cake, spiced sugar cookies, gingerbread men & women ( I’m an equal opportunity baker 😉!), etc, etc! The ginger people are my specialty- my niece even asked me to bake them for her upcoming June wedding!

We left for Hawaii on that 26th and I’m sitting out by the pool now SHIVERING in the night air as my kids swim! It’s a very cool January here in Oahu.

Anyhow, feeling super tubby and need to get it under control quickly or it will become permanent weight gain! Amazing how quickly it comes on and how slow to take off! I was supposed to meet today with my wellness coach out here but postponed till a week from now since I’m feeling a little under the weather & I want to get a few lbs off before I see her 😖!

Makica, yay for you & your daughters re: your new business venture! It had to do with the gut bacteria & the obese, right?

Hi, good luck & welcome to Debbie!

Milena, happy belated bday! You know I was hoping for kitties under the tree for you! Hoping it still happens for you in the new year!

Salma, so sorry for the loss of your dear friend! I am glad you at least had the chance to speak to him one last time.

Cinque, I’m praying healing thoughts for you in the new year! Praying for your budding cafe business venture too 😊!

Hi to MM, Lori, Susie & any other gals I’ve missed!

Does anyone have any big plans for New Years Eve? We will probably go out to eat and then wander around Waikiki with the kids and people watch and check out all the firework displays ( Hawaii’s heavily Asian based population loves their fireworks!). Anyhow, it’s nice because we don’t have to drive anywhere- driving with all the drunk drivers on New Yerars Eve always freaks me out!

A merry belated Christmas & happiest of New Years wishes to all of you sweethearts! So glad to have found you all in 2015 & to continue with you into 2016!

Sherry