Good Morning!

Salma, I am so sorry for the loss of your friend. Relationships are so vital to our existence, but it is so hard when we lose someone special. Remember the good times.

Sherry!! Good to “see” you again! You are a traveling girl! Ah Hawaii…how I love it. Enjoy!

I had a VERY hungry day yesterday. I have to figure out a more hearty lunch as my protein shake was just not enough yesterday. I finally got things under control with some coconut oil in hot tea and then a spoon of natural Peanut butter.

I’ve decided to weigh in for my New Year’s restart tomorrow instead of on the 1st. Tomorrow night we’ll be either going out to eat or ordering in and I don’t want that bloat showing up on the scale for my weigh in! Silly, I know….oh the games we play.

Debbie…congrats on your first day! I think you will find that skipping breakfast and extending your overnight fast will be good for you. I really believe that forcing your body to burn stored fat by holding off on eating is a good thing.

I think I’m really trying to combine too many plans. I do the “eating window”, plus I’m trying to stay VERY low carb and now I’m thinking about adding in 2 500 calorie days. I’m driving myself crazy! Not really, but I may ease up on the carb restriction a bit. I still won’t eat “junk” carbs and added sugar, but may allow some others a few times a week. I need to pick a plan and stick to it for a few weeks to see if it works for me. I’m so impatient!!

I have been rambling….take care my friends and have a wonderful day!

Nothing new to report but just wanted to say thanks so much for all the encouragement and the links! I obviously didn’t read the website well enough!

You all seem to live such hectic, fun filled lives you put me to shame! I live in Brighton on the south coast of England. It’s been mostly dull and rainy and windy here. Not encouraging me to go out and walk to burn off my calories so I’ve dug out my old exercise bike that is usually used for hanging the laundry and joined a Charleston dance class.

I’m off to a party tomorrow night and plan for my next fast day on 2nd. HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!

Can I just ask how often you recommend weighing yourselves? I don’t want to overdo it!

Hi Everyone!

It is a hot day in Melbourne to finish the year. Lets hope that bushfire doesn’t gather speed.

Debbie, my contribution to the hectic fun filled lives on this thread was to nick up the street, before it got too hot, for milk and catfood! 😉

I do have that Community Food Cafe venture mentioned, but I have absolutely no oomph at the moment (chronic illness). Luckily it is the time of year to take a break, so I am. Hopefully I can get back into gear by the end of January. Everything starts again after Australia Day.

Lovely to read all of your goings on. It is clear that the Christmas festiveness doesn’t fit easily with 5:2 fasting. (Except for me! Here is a benefit of a boring life!) It will be nice to see everyone finish up the left overs, take down the decorations, and then get back into the lovely habit of 5:2.

Lori I bet you are so hungry because your brain is craving carbohydrates. Didn’t they teach you that in your nutrition course? It will be craving the best, complex, low GI, carbohydrates, so I hope you can give it some!

It is a fast day for me. I have a chicken tenderloin, maybe two, to have in my miso soup with some greens and a mushroom, and then some lovely fava bean soup for dinner.

Oh dear, I am having a coffee free day as I have forgotten to have one so far, and it is nearly midday. Just realised.:( The caffeine works extra well when I fast, but that makes for a sleepless night. I may have a caffeine withdrawal headache all afternoon, but hopefully I will sleep!
Well, caffeine free days are very good for me. Maybe I can have them more often.

Long post! But I have a cat story (I’m not that boring then, am I 🙂 )Miso the cat didn’t come in last night naughty girl. Woke up the flats with a fight at 4 am. I think she must have been winning, because while I managed to get her in side she cried until sunrise, when I let her out again. PLUS she vomited in the fruit bowl! Over the tomato and avocado! Gross! I wasn’t the least bit sorry for her (vomiting up fur among the half digested food: hairball control formula, ofcourse!) What a delight to clean up after her.
Not.

On that delightful note I will finish! Best wishes all!

PS Debbie, I don’t weigh myself regularly at all: when I had scales I found myself compulsively on them all the time, and they aren’t much use. Threw them away and jump on my daughters dodgy ones when I visit her, if I remember. Gauge how I am going by my clothes, and sometimes measuring my waist.

And if course Aiden Turner!!!!! Watching and then there were non tomorrow afternoon, heard he was topless again.

Simple things……….

Good Morning!

No worries Cinque…I’m not easily offended. You are right, my nutrition course does recommend most of the calories in ones diet to come from carbs, I just don’t happen to subscribe to that theory. I have been cutting rather hard and will adjust based on how I feel. Just to avoid the “junk” carbs…that is the key!

Official weigh in shows me down 1 pound since November 20. What I see in the mirror and what the number on the scale says do not agree at all. My eyes tell me that I should weigh less. Guess I’m seeing what I want to see? Oh well…I have my re-start number now and can proceed.

I started my nutrition course final yesterday. WOW! I spent 2 hours and only answered 85 of the 240 questions. It is quite tough. It is remembering all those enzymes etc and what part they play in digestion that has been the worst so far. I’m not sure I’ll pass the test to be honest. I have to score 85% or better to pass, so we’ll see. I’m quite sure I won’t finish it today, as I do have some actual work to do! 😉 It’s ok as I wanted my certificate to be dated 2016…if I pass, that is!

Our office closes at 3 today, and I’ll run out and get us some shrimp and some chicken wings for the husband. I cannot eat a wing and it grosses me out to even prepare them for him. I am a chicken snob. Boneless, skinless chicken breast is the only thing I’ll eat. I do love chicken liver though……how weird am I?

Such interesting cat vomit stories this morning. LOL! Luckily, my cat very seldom has that issue, but through the years, I’ve “encountered” it with my various cats. Oh the joys of pet ownership!

Well, time to get my day going. I will pop in this evening and check on you all. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Makica

2016 will be marvelous for us all, especially for you!!!! I feel it in my old bones!

x

Happy New Year!!!

I had quite a day yesterday. I ended up fasting until nearly 2 o’clock! I was working on my final exam and just couldn’t get stopped. I still have about 15 questions to do next week.

I made up for the fast later in the day with shrimp, pizza, a cookie and then an ice cream treat! OY! I’m counting it as my refeed day of the week. I’m hoping I can stick to a reasonable eating window today and stay away from the treats!

A nice, leisurely day off work today and no plans for the weekend either. I’m so looking forward to getting back to my boot camp routine on Monday morning. After all these days off, I’m quite sure I’ll have some very sore muscles. Prepare yourselves for lots of whining and complaining from me! 😉

Wishing you all a happy & healthy 2016!

(((Hugs)))

Good afternoon ladies! Sitting here at the beach under semi cloudy skies watching the kids snorkel & make sand castles. Hubby is sitting next to me researching stand up paddle boards, as we want to get a his (larger) and hers (smaller) ones for 2016! Our condo out here is right across the street from a lovely beach with a coral protected bay that’s calm & perfect for paddling. Have any of you ever tried stand up paddle boarding? It’s a great core workout- good for my bad back!

Had a nice New Years Eve- went out for pizza & frozen yogurt and then sat on the beach and watched the fireworks go off at midnight. The kids were dead tired on the walk back home!

Spent a good part of the morning dealing with the furniture co. that we purchased a couch from last summer and it was just finally delivered (out here it takes at least 3 mo’s to get furniture from the mainland shipped over (ahhh… Life on the rock!) & to make things worse, the idiot sales guy forgot to place our order initially, making it even longer😖!). The sales guy ended up ordered the wrong piece for the sectional and there’s feathers that poke through & stab you whenever you sit on it ( we didn’t order feather/down filled- we thought we were getting foam!). Anyhow, after waiting soooo long, we told them to just come pick up the awful thing & refund our $ which because of all the screw ups they thankfully agreed!

Yay Makica! I’m really hoping your smart family can cure me of my fat!😊 I’m wondering what percentage of those of us that are chubby have the bad gut bacteria & can be helped by that?

Cinque, can you please come live with me for a while a organize my home & cook me wonderful food ? 😉

I’m having a tough time getting back on the clean eating wagon! Too many eating out opportunities & junk food laying around. I know tomorrow is the official start to “being good” but I’d hoped I’d get a jump on it today.

Lori, best of luck passing your test! What exactly did you say you wanted to do with your certificate when you retire? Btw, I try too stick to no more than 15-20 carbs per meal & try to make lunch very low carb- a salad w/protein usually.

Talk to you all later!

Makica, I’m sooo excited for your probiotic! Thank you for the offer to send us all some when available! I can’t wait to give it a try! Again, wishing you all the success possible on this venture!😊 And yes, there’s lots of pretty flowers here in Hawaii but not so much in the big city of Honoluku where I am… You have to get out on the country/jungle/rainier side of this island to see them. The island of Kauai, known as the “garden island ” is the most well known for beautiful foliage. What island did you visit when you were here?

Salma, so glad your New Years trip went well (other than the snowy roads!). It sounded fun! Now we are all back to the plan of eating better & less!

Lori, I never heard of that good luck New Years meal? I’ve heard of black eyed peas in the South being eaten in the new year for good luck. Is yours a Gernan custom? Either way it sounds good! How nice that you’re cooking some for your hubby’s cousin and that you guys help her out! Don’t be jealous Lori! Just come out for a visit!

We’re heading over to another furniture place on the west side of the island (wish us luck finding that couch!)& then to lunch & the beach. Aloha !🌴☀️🏄🏽

Good Morning!

Sunny, but cold day today. We are to have very cold temperatures the next few nights, so trying to come to grips with that. It will be VERY cold when I set out for boot camp the next 2-3 days.

I have my 2nd load of laundry spinning and it’s only 8:30AM! We were up very early as we went to bed around 9 last night. It’s a good thing we are both morning people! We are going to go out and do a little shopping in a couple hours. We need a new microwave as ours is nearly 30 years old! It still works, but it is only a matter of time before it conks out. I need a small, counter top model and they are sometimes hard to find. I have limited space and must measure to be sure it will fit. After shopping, we’re going out for a nice lunch and then home to watch football the rest of the day. I’m going to make ham & string beans for dinner tonight, so that will be nice and low calorie for me.

I’m determined to fast until lunch today and am beginning 5:2 tomorrow. I will 500 calorie fast on Mondays and Thursdays and use the window method the other days, but not count calories. Sugar/carbs will also be kept fairly low, as I think that is important for health. I know you all must be sick of all my plans….I’m on a plan for a day or 2 and then off on something else. Please forgive me for that and I will try to be more consistent. I don’t want to put you all off!

I hope you’ve enjoyed your weekend and are ready for the first week of the new year. Let’s make it a good one!

Yes, new microwave purchased and in place. I have lost some precious counter space, but will have to adjust.

Nice lunch out with DH. Dinner simmering on the stove now.

I’m ready to resume a normal routine. The holidays are lovely, but I’m ready for real life. Boot camp and work, that is my life! 😉

Hugs to all!

I’m with you Salma! Fasting Monday and Thursday with eating windows. I’ll be thinking of you as you start your new job. You’ll be fine…. Chin up!

Hugs!

Good Morning!

Salma…thinking of you on your first day at the new job. I’ll be anxious to see a post from you letting us know how things went.

Ready for a solid 500 calorie day today. But first…a return to boot camp!! I may die. 😉 My body will say “Oh no….here we go again” LOL! I think I’ll be ready for bed WAY early tonight. It’s supposed to get quite cold tonight and my nice warm bed will beckon. Plus, I’ll be totally exhausted from boot camp and a busy day at work.

Time to get 2016 started! Let’s go!!

Hi ladies, and a very happy new year, now that we are into it!

Fairs went well, so I have lots of money to shopping with on Friday in Denmark – such fun! Of course, there will be nothing to buy!

Was quite proud that I ate nothing all day on all three fairs, without even thinking about food, even though we had snack and – dear me – mcvities chocolate digestives!!! Came home with the packet unopened. Came home to an additional house guest, friend of son has left home, dunno for how long, but his dad took money out of his bank account to gamble – and his most bothered about finding gas and electricity money for his dad for the week, breaks my heart! I told him to stay as long as he likes – though we may have to move the office into the kitchen if he is here very long! My son stayed in on New Year’s eve as he is saving for a new computer – he was only about thirty pounds short last week, was hoping to order it this week – I suspect the order my be delayed for a few weeks – makes me proud!

Salma, thinking of you – hope the new job goes well, doesn’t time fly? It sounded like you were going to have a long break! Let us know how you get on! 18 kilos is just plain doable! That’s 3lb a month in old money, remember Pareto’s law – do 20 percent like the devil is on your tail – watching every morsel, doing an extra ten minutes walk – even an odd liquid day – and the rest will take care of itself!

And we are all behind you – desperately trying to keep up!

Resolution for me this year is to not just feel tired reading your posts Lori, but to get active enough to feel knackered before I start reading!

Sherry, have a good rest cos you and the rest of us will all be pushing our founder! Hope its warm enough for a bit of swimming!

Everyone else, get stuck in, will be quite good this week – though its lasagne tomorrow and probably Wednesday – special request from son, and I ain’t making it for the lads and not eating it myself.

Hello to everyone else – travel hopefully …………….

Sherry dear I so dream of beaming over there from this snow and ice rain. Sorry for both your couches girls, yes Sherry you will get grownup one in a while, and Salma hard on the butt is good for the spine. No more slouching young lady!

Cinque hope you got your list done and feel much better.

Milena we shall push our founder and ourselves, I am to be pushed, hard, I am where I started months ago. Back at the beginning Just letting go for a month, my body is a traitor! And I am being so loving to this quisling.

Respect for the sons strategy Milena.

Lori go girl I am right behind you and Salma. My first serious milestone is 13 kilo. And I think I will stop there. That is a little over a kilo a month. Totally doable. And when the pill kicks in I will be saved!

Knowing that I am repeating myself I have to say that I feel best and work best when half hungry. When stuffed feel miserable. I think I am going for a dry month too.

Love ya all,
Fast day it is…

m

Hi again! Great day of beach walking & giant wave watching! Eating was pretty good-protein drink & apple this late morn , salad w/Mexican chicken & avocado for lunch & a couple handfuls of mixed nuts over the course of the day.

Got brave & texted wellness coach to prepare her before our meeting tomorrow for my recent screwy eating/weight gain dilemma. She suggested we concentrate on mindfulness meditation to get my head straight- something you probably know well Makica as our resident expert on all things meditative!😉
I am so with you Makica on the craziness of how months of weight loss work can be undone & so difficult to remedy/get off! The pill cannot come soon enough! A question for you/your daughter: will taking natural parasite cleansing supplements like oregano & grapefruit extracts or cats claw harm the new bacteria from the pill? And yes, would love for all you snowed-in girls to be able to beam on over for some warm sunshine !☀️

Milena, your post must have come through while I was typing mine & I didn’t see it- great job with your eating while at the fairs! Yes, we all need to kick it into high gear for the new year!

And Salma I too hope your first day at the new job went great! I agree- seems like yesterday you were taking your 3 months off & here it’s time to start that new job already!

Will try to touch bases tomorrow after my meeting, hopefully with some advice we can all use? Good night!😘💤

Hello, Lots of lovely posts full of interesting things!

I have had another slow day. I tried to tackle my list but just immobilised myself. So I gave myself anther healing day and just pottered around which ended up being more productive. I added more things to the list! But it might be next week before I can attack the things on it.

Milena I am so glad the fairs went well. So glad you did some easy fasting, and so glad you are able to give shelter to that young man. blessings on your house.

Sherry I hope your appt with the wellness person goes well, and if she gets at all patronising I hope you wrap your cloak of deep motherhood around yourself and just cock an eyebrow at her!
Hopefully she will concentrate instead on useful tips and good tools for managing a full-on life.
And ooh! I’d love to see those waves!

Fingers crossed your couch comes super quick, it sounds wonderful! Turquoise on brown is gorgeous!

PS If I came over to organise you I would just tell you to plan ahead, and you would snarl and say you didn’t have time! Then we would laugh and go and watch the waves.

Makica I am so glad you have your comfy, healthy bed and chair.
btw I love doing appraisals! I make sure they give the staff a chance to talk about what they really need, and that they lead to better job descriptions and a better workplace. I am lucky to be involved in little community organisations (on the management board, or as the boss before I got ill) so I guess that makes a difference.

Back to the furniture!
Finding that furniture that suits our health and our happiness is a good analogy for our eating patterns and everything else in our lifestyle – and life. After all, we are in our life 24 hours a day! (Or we should be! 😉 )

Salma that is a lovely piece re Happiness vs pleasure. Ofcourse, my name is Joy so I know all about these things naturally!
Just joking, I have had my share of misery, but I am pretty happy these days, (and plenty of pleasure too).
Cheers for your new job. I hope you enjoy licking the place into shape and have the old dinosaurs eating out of the palm of your hand, if possible.

Susie, how is your friend who had the big heart attack? I do hope he is okay.
Let’s none of us have that! Lovely healthy people living life to the full: that will be us mid fiftiesish folk!

I get shocking headaches if I don’t have my coffee(s) and feel so flat and lifeless. But then I sleep better and, if I can wait a couple of days, the headache goes and the next time I have a coffee I feel wonderful!
I am best if I have a couple of caffeine-free days a week. Then I don’t get the headaches and flatness. But I think I only managed two the whole of last year.
It would be good if I made my fast days caffeine free. I will try. (I might take a bit of lead up time).
I adore my coffee and avidly read all the research that shows its benefits! And I am such a coffee snob that if I can’t have a good, real coffee I will go without. But this is Melbourne, it is hard to be too far from a good coffee!

Well this post is long enough! Bye for now!

On the road to Kailua. We’re checking out handmade Balinese dining sets & hitting the beautiful beach there before my family drops me off at the wellness appointment at 4. It’s unexpectedly raining here today so don’t know what type of weather to expect on the Windward side of the island when we get there! The great/crazy thing about rain here is its here one minute, gone the next!

Salma, congrats for getting through your first day on the new job and with s great attitude to boot!😃 Yes, I think it’s good to set expectations of what you need to get your job done/be comfortable up front! I’m guessing you’re the new manager of a group of people? It’s always an interesting dance- the getting to know/learn to work with each other! I know you’ll do awesome!

Thank you Cinque & Lori for the good wishes for my wellness visit today! I’m sure it will go fine-it’s funny because she and I both have strong personalities and can easily take what the other is saying (at least by text) wrongly- then we re-group, laugh about it & move on

Lori are you getting in some good fiber like a salad at least on those fast days to help with the “transit”? I find that’s key for me on fast days since I’m not eating much!

Pausing to check out beautiful waterfall coming off the jungly hillside! So pretty! Btw, Lori- hubby just commented while looking at the jungle that when you play golf out here near the jungle & your ball goes in it just disappears w/out a sound!

Susie, not only are you probably experiencing caffeine withdrawals, but also the effects of detoxing all the crud out of your body in general! It will pass in a few days! Like Salma said, drink tons of water!

Ok girls, will check back in later 😘!

Hi all

fry up this morning for me and the boys – 4 of them today – did mine last, managed to smash an egg after doing 8 perfect ones, left most of it, first and last fry up of the year!

Got an aching throat, used to be sign of tonsillitus(sp?) when I was younger, but had them out in my mid twenties! (Must have looked young, was put on the kiddies ward, and the staff nurse tried to stop me watching telly after 7.30!!! And the kids were eating crisps the day after surgery – I fell like death -it really was one of those times that you think your throat has been cut – cos that’s actually what they do!)

Makica – looking for help – I used to sell office chairs for a living so fairly au fait with those, but interested in your zero gravity armchairs, I have a broken coccyx – done when they pulled the bairn out of me, he was stuck around the huge fibroid that had kept him company for months. Had physio fora year, they said it would take at least 6 months to heal, but were moving the timescales each month, I’m not quite so hopeful now that it will ever heal as he is 21 in July!

Office chairs and standard chairs are a no-no – and nowadays even the settee is quite uncomfortable. Any suggestions?

Hi all- done 2 of the 3 juice days and have decided to put the third day on hold and use it as a fast day next week when I get back to usual routine 5:2. Quite enjoyed the 2 days but thought it was enough and after joining Slimming World yesterday also was keen to get back to real food esp fresh veg and salads- I always crave those after a holiday period.
Cinque- our friend is doing ok, has had various tests and is to have a dual pacemaker / defibrillator fitted on Friday and possibly discharged home on sat! Think that is a bit hopeful as he has not stepped out of bed yet but maybe they will get him going this week, thanks for asking.
Having mushroom and broccoli omelette for breakfast, yum, then shopping to restock.
Susie

It was me Sherry! I’ll go looking for roasted soy beans!

Glad to hear about your friend Susie. All the best to him.
Enjoy that salad!

Good Morning!

Oooh…I love soy beans but try to stay away from all things soy as I’ve read that those of us with thyroid issues should not have it too often.

We are very cold again this morning, but I stayed in bed till nearly 5:30! Miss Kitty is loving staying in bed since we have our electric mattress pad on. She sleeps on top of all the blankets at the foot of the bed, but I guess the heat radiates up to her and she is quite content. I’m enjoying my morning off from boot camp.

6 month dental check-up and cleaning this afternoon. Not looking forward to it. It always just seems to take SO long and be so annoying to have someone rooting around in your mouth. Blech!

I enjoyed my eating day yesterday. I went out for a soup and sandwich lunch and then we had leftover pork & sauerkraut for dinner. I did have a run in with the peanut butter jar after dinner that wasn’t necessary, but there it is. Another eating day today(sans peanut butter) and then a fast day on Thursday.

Have a great day!