Thanks for taking time to pop in Salma! I assumed you were busy with your new job.

MM…good to see you again! I love your “canary in a coal mine”! 😉 We have been cold, but not nearly as cold as you. Unlike you, I don’t find the cold exhilarating….I find it annoying! I want to be out walking the golf course, not bundling up like Nanook of the North!

Boot camp was tough this morning, but the hip is better. It was definitely a sore muscle thing and is improving..thank goodness. Of course, what we did this morning will not help the muscle soreness! Yikes!

Later!

Hello hello,
Lovely to have people back after the holidays. Sorry for the people coping with miserable cold. And too much drinking 😉 Thanks for the lovely feedback and cyber hug.

I forgot to answer Sherry’s question about whether there is anything hopeful on the horizon for CFS, and the answer is that they are finally doing more, better, properly funded research, but it goes in all directions (mitochondria, stealth viruses, auto immune issues and so many other possibilities). Have to be patient and let them work!

Plenty of sun here, the heat canary at my place is how liquid the coconut oil is!

Milena, I just love that this thread has its roots in Foodies Anonymous! Thanks Salma! I am so glad the Coq au Vin was so delicious, and I am very glad that you are giving yourself Sundays to eat for your pleasure. Very sensible!

I am getting ready to cook my first ever Chili con carne (after years of cooking ‘chili sans carne’ on account of being vegetarian). Mmm yum.

I hope your computer science candidate was a good one MM, and that your hip heals quickly Lori, and that Sherry can shunt all the kids off for sleep overs just for one night!

I’m going to do a Wednesday Fast this week since Thursday is full of eating out.

O and I bought the new gasket for my coffee maker. Silicone now so it will be much harder to melt! I’ve had three coffee free days which is good, and will have my coffee tomorrow as a special fast day present to myself.

Good Morning!

Taking an unplanned day off boot camp as I had a restless night. I went to bed early, as usual, but Miss Kitty decided she’d like to go out at 10PM. I got up and stayed up while she was out because it is very cold and I didn’t want her to have to be out all night. She came to the window in about 20 minutes and then we went back to bed. I had a lot of trouble getting back to sleep and decided then and there to change my alarm to a later time and forget about boot camp today. Tomorrow is another day.

I had a good fast day yesterday and after a week of low carb eating with fast days thrown in I have seen a number on the scale that I have not seen for years. I am down nearly 5 lbs in just over a week. This is amazing to me as I have been stuck at the same weight for so long. I’m hoping this new low holds until my official weigh in day on Friday.

Cinque…hope your chili was yummy. That sure sounds good. I’m making a new recipe tonight that involves sweet red peppers and roast beef with provolone cheese. I was going to make it last night, but just wasn’t feeling like cooking. Tonight it will be! I have to plan my lunch. I think I’ll have crab salad with some cheese “crackers”. I just make the crackers by putting a pile of shredded cheese in a silicone dish in the microwave for a minute or 2. They are quite good.

Well, time to get this day started. Hope you all have a good one!

Sherry

you do know that you are awesome!!!!

I know what you mean about being more self reliant when the other half is away! When he is around I have been known to wake him up at 3 am, just to tell him the computer won’t do what i want – if is isn’t there to wake up, I just sort it out myself – and I have become quite computer savvy over the years!

Car ALWAYS breaks down when he goes away, though I did impress him once when the cam belt came off! Managed to attract an RAC man – pretty good as I was in a car park off the main road, got him to enrol us (of course it was one of those time OH was deciding who to go with – hence no one!) and got him to take us to the garage – and the guys in the garage felt sorry for me and did the repair immediately! Though he did moan that I phoned him while he was driving for the credit card details – RAC wouldn’t take a debit card!

Tell me more about the detox – niece is having an engagement party in 3 weeks, so into overdrive – fast day went well, 450 calories, lovely chicken soup – doing a two day fast later in the week, and OH is now reneging on the fish and chips on Sunday – just cos I asked him to make some tartare sauce! No stamina!

Lori – brilliant loss – it does seem out fat REALLY hangs around, glad you got rid of so much!

Salma, hope you lasted – though does chocolate count as a problem? – never knew, thought all the calories in chocolate were cancelled out by the fact it is amazing and essential to life!!

Cinque, hope the chilli went well, did you know you can add chocolate?

(Its a good job there is no chocolate in the house, otherwise my 450 calories could have gone south!!)

I add a tin of baked beans, makes it go further and thickens it well. Love the stuff!

Have a great day tomorrow – today Cinque!!!!

Hi to everyone else!!!

Salma there was some cosmic thing happening, even I went chocolate mad. Luckily I seem to have had very little in consequences from it. I hope it is the same for you.

Milena, my Chili Con Carne recipe was very basic and fine, but not outstanding. I had black beans in it. No chocolate.
I did badly with accompaniments. I made rice and cooked it with some coconut milk (that needed using up) but it didn’t go well with the beans (yummy without them though, can’t wait til my fast day is over and I can have some more). Plus I have heaps of chinese cabbage and carrots and I have been making fabulous Asian salads. I decided to have the shredded cabbage and carrot and make a yoghurt dressing, but its flavours clashed too. (Or am I coming down with something?). Foodies Anonymous fail.

Give it all to God Sherry? Poor God! 😉
Still, it is always good to let go of stresses that aren’t any use to us.

Cheers for your luxurious day Lori, and may Miss Kitty give you a break tonight. I bet the rest day is good for your hip. Have fun with the auditors at work!

Hello everyone else! Best wishes for a good day!
Fast Day here, but somehow I am managing to fit in a second pot of coffee. Bliss. After three days without coffee I am finding Fast Day no deprivation AT ALL! 🙂

Lori! Down 5?? Amazing, well done.
I am down a little this week- just 1 but am still pleased after my heavy w/e.
Sherry- I only did 2 days juice then decided to keep the third day supply till the next week and now am doing juicy FD every week. I make the two days worth of juice on a Monday am and keep it all in the fridge till I need it, I have 3 juices thru the day then a veg soup small portion for dinner. If I am really hungry I eat a carrot or other veg and maybe a couple of dates. I don’t know the exact calories of all that but don’t think it can be much over the 500 – did mail the juice people and they suggested adding up the coals for all the ingredients but as I discard all the pulp I don’t think that is very accurate. I do enjoy my juicy ‘mini detox’ days, probably best to do them back to back but depends what is happening on the days. Susie

Hi Makica,
Things do sound very stressed and difficult. I hope you can make time to look after yourself. You are important! Sending best wishes. Thanks for popping in and letting us know how you are.

Susie,
I love fresh juices! My favourite used to be carrot and apple, with maybe a bit of orange added in. Enjoy your juicy detox days!

Lori,
I am drinking my morning coffee as we speak. I think I am like those heroin users who go through withdrawal just for the delight of being able to start again. Omg it is wonderful.
But I know from decades of experience that I am best with a couple of coffee free days a week. That way I never get to the point of having those dreadful headaches and that flat dull feeling. This time I was thrust into it when I melted the gasket in my coffee maker (stove top machine, that I accidentally put back on the flame after emptying it).
In spite of having only 2 coffee free days in the last year, I didn’t get too dreadful a headache, but that made me decide to ride out three days. On the second day I bought a block of dark chocolate! And ate it! That’s the sort of dreadful thing that happens if I go without coffee!
So next time I say I haven’t eaten sugar for 5 years you can come on and call me a liar!
The third day was fine.
But having coffee again is MARVELOUS!

I also had a great fast day yesterday. As I got near to having my early afternoon miso soup I realised I wasn’t really hungry enough for it, and so waited til the evening. I hope it is my new fast day routine as I must have had less than 300 calories. It felt like a proper fasting day and I am feeling good this morning.

Coconut rice and a pot of coffee for breakfast. lovely.

Best wishes all on your day! Or evening! Or night!

Sherry… MFP is My Fitness Pal website where you can enter food etc. When you enter your food, you can look at a report that shows your macros, which are the percentages of carbs, fat & protein in the food you entered.

Oh man…. I ate too much for dinner. No carbs, but too much meat. Blech!

Almost time for bed. See you tomorrow!

Good Morning!

Oh my Milena…..a kidney bean eating cat?? That’s a new one. I once had a cat that loved peas and would always beg at the table when we were having them for dinner. 😉

A fast day for me and here it is 11AM and I’m holding strong. I’m going to have some beef bouillon around noon and try to hold off on my light lunch till 1 or so. Dinner will be very light as well and I’m saving enough calories for a 150 calorie smoothie this evening. I should be safely within my 500 calories.

Day 3 of boot camp in for the week, day 4 coming up tomorrow. I’m a tired girl till the end of the week, but it’s a good feeling to have accomplished the workouts.

Work is slow again and I haven’t heard a peep out of the auditor today. He’s leaving tomorrow, so I think he’s through with me! YAY!

Off to find something to get into. Have a great day everyone!

Hi Girls!

And to think they say cats are carnivores! Yours are more on the omnivore side of the fence! Btw, Milena, what is Monkey Blood? All I have to add is a shi Tzu who used to beg for bell pepper strips and baby carrots! A healthy pooch that one!

Well, I’ve got two home sick today, the 15 year old was barfing all night and one of the 9 year old twin girls had a slight fever and sore throat (yesterday). The twin is the diabetic one and their blood sugar levels always go whacko when they’re sick, so even though she feels pretty good today, she’s my shadow so I can monitor her, following me out to coffee, pedicures (spoiled! but mom needed one so whatchya goin to do?), and my pilates appointment. Made her go to bed after lunch just to make sure she’s good for school tomorrow.

Not much else going on here…eating healthy, doing my exercise and trying to stay sane!

Hey, have any of you ever done one of those genetic testing kits? You spit in a tube and it tells you what regions of the world your genes are from (by %) and what maladies you might be predisposed towards. I got one called 23 & Me which is FDA approved and highly rated. I’m a bit afraid to do it and get the results (what if they’re really scary!?) but on the flip side, I may be able to then do something now to ward it off. My wellness coach advised I do this in advance of meeting with a naturopath in March so that she has the results.
Anyhow, should be interesting!

Ok, toodles for now!

Sherry

Good morning everyone,
I need to be quick because friends might arrive any time.

Monkey’s blood is a very different thing here! It was the red disinfectant that used to be put on grazes and cuts: Mercurachrome: https://www.youtube.com/embed/Jy5cZ-IO0Eg?feature=player_detailpage

Not good on icecream!

Sherry! Crazy kid times! I hope the vomitting is over, and the sugar blood levels calm down. And that your son does wonderfully in The Lion King! There is nothing like seeing your little one up on the stage. Such pride and terror!
Well, you know that when they are grown and flown, it will be times like this that get more and more nostalgic!

Makica I am sure you are keeping up with everything related to fecal matter 😉 but sharing this just in case http://www.sbs.com.au/topics/science/humans/article/2016/01/12/scientists-are-testing-whether-freeze-dried-faecal-pills-could-treat-obesity

Milena I bet you are right re the stewing steak. I’ll experiment til I get it right. What a cheeky cat you had! I can just imagine it picking off the top half of the beans.

Sherry my sister plans to get that DNA testing done, so we are all excited to see the results. Fascinating stuff!

Will go, I think I see my friends car. Three kids! Fun times ahead.

Best wishes fasting or not fasting!

Hiya all!!

Today is my first anniversary on the 5:2 forums!!! Yay – bet you are all a bit bored with me!

Celebrating with a 48 hour liquid fast going into a 500 calorie feast – maybe less cos its chicken soup – at 7pm, so that’l be three fasts so far this week!

If only I was so good at this all of the time!

But still 42 lbs down, a whole 3 stone, though got to 52 lbs and did a huge slide down over December! My analogy of snakes and ladders is a good one – that was a bloody long snake!

But I am still here and so are you all – nearly at the first anniversay of this thread Salma – thanks to you for starting it! And I am likely to be around for months, more likely, years to come – without this forum I would likely be heavier than the 14 and a half stone I was this time last year! Just imagine, if we can do this, the hardest thing in the world, imagine what we could do to the world if we got around the table at the UN??????????

“Little do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.”

Happy Fastiversary Milena!! This place is so empty when you don’t post! Congrats on a great weight loss and I look forward to celebrating with you when you reach goal!

Hugs!

Hi ladies,

I too want to wish a happy Fast Anniversary to Salma (our group originator) and Milena who started soon after! Despite the “snakeyness of your weight loss, you’ve done well and have a great attitude, Milena! I bet the difference in photos from this time last year to now is amazing to see! Like I said prior, normally this time of the year, I’d (and I’m sure you/most of us) would be up in weight, so YAY for us!

Salma, are you out there? Can’t remember…maybe you are on business travel this week?

Cinque, hope you had a lovely day with your friends! I’ll be interested to hear how your sister’s DNA testing goes if you’re willing to share!

Lori, hoping you don’t get totally snowed in and if you do, hoping you have all the necessities on hand to survive through it! 🙂 I heard on the news yesterday that there were aps/online places you could go to find someone to “hunker” down with during the impending snow storm if you were lonely (not that you need that, but thought it was hilarious)!

Eveyln, hello and congrats on your weight loss. It may be slow, but at least it keeps moving downward, sometimes in a snakes and ladders pattern, as Milena has stated! Keep up the good work!

Down in weight by 0.4 lbs today, so a success, especially since I’ve recently come off the cleanse and fully expected to gain a little! I’m wearing skinny jeans today and it feels good! 🙂

Fairly boring day around here. One formerly sick kid back in school, the older one still at home. Made a huge batch of healthy breakfast cookies (see Jane’s Healthy Kitchen website if you want that recipe-yummy-Cinque, you especially might like this one!) for quick on-the-go breakfasts. I think I’m going to also do as you’ve done, Lori, and make some egg and bacon muffins for breakfasts during the week since I have a hard time getting something healthy in me before I run out the door!

Sleep tight all (good morning to Cinque)!

Good morning everyone,
The snow in the NE of USA is top of our news this morning so I am wondering how deep your snow is now Lori!
Hope you are safe and comfortable. And that it is not the continuation of the mind numbingly boring things that happen to you!!!!

Hi Evelyn. Welcome here. Best wishes for a great time on 5:2 ahead. I agree with what you say about being kind to yourself. I find that 5:2 works because I can make it a sustainable part of life. I don’t ever feel deprived because I always know I can have what I want later.

I think I have missed saying HAPPY FASTIVERSARY THREAD! on the right day, because I was spat out of 5:2 yesterday evening when I was just about to write and had to get a new password. Waited til this morning and so missed the party!

Cheers to you all and thanks for being such a lovely bunch of mid fiftiesish women. It is great spending time with you all!
Milena, I hope your next throw of the dice lands you at the start of a long ladder! The longest one!

Sherry I’ll let you know about the DNA testing (so far my sister has just said she plans to do it).
I looked up the healthy breakfast cookies, and you are right that it is just the sort of recipe I love to hear about. It reminded me of Jamie Olivers recipe for breakfast muffins that I plan to try: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/sweet-potato-muffins/

No cookies of muffins for me today: It is FAST DAY and I am excited about my new regime of no food (just cuppas) until evening.

Hoping I might also clean my desk today (hours of filing, I fear!). Wish me luck!

Lori, glad you aren’t snowed under. But even the blizzard is being boring to you! What is this? Boot camp or boredom! Lucky you have us interesting people to give life meaning!!!! 😉 😉 😉

Keep warm your snowed in ladies – very warm here for January. Hi of 13 tomorrow, mid 50s – might not seem hot for some of you, but we have whole summers colder than that!

Take care in the snow!

Oh dear… Now I’m boring all of you with all my talk of boot camp and being bored! I’ll try to have something more interesting to say before posting again.

Cinque, forgot to ask, did you happen to check out Jane’s bio/story on the website for the healthy breakfast cookie recipe? I think you’d find it really interesting!

Hi all.

Sherry, I had the same problem as you. Got sent to the main page and couldn’t even find this group. Somehow, being logged on and then clicking on the second rather than the first link in one of the e-mails finally got me here. Do hope the play is going/has gone well for your son and that everyone is finally healthy.

Welcome GinN. I hope this second time works well for you. I haven’t been weighing myself at all. I feel like I should, but have just been going by how my clothes fit. I’m not losing much right now. I seem to only fit in one day a week. At least that’s maintenance and I don’t think I gained over the holidays.

Makica, Facebook tells me it’s your birthday. I hope you have a lovely way to celebrate.

Lori, how much snow did you end up with? We’re getting snow tomorrow, but it look like only 3-4″. I’ve been impressed with your losses and am trying to cut way down on sugar and carbs. Like Milena, I took a chocolate dessert in the cafeteria last week, took one bite and left the rest. It seemed ridiculously sweet and unappealing.

Cinque, so sorry to hear it’s CFS you have. And how wonderful that you seem to remain so calm and upbeat in all your posts. I’m afraid I’m not above a good whine now and then.

Good luck to all fasters tomorrow. I’ll be fasting too.

MM

Happy Birthday Makica! I hope it has been a great day!

Hi MM, does that mean you have CFS too. It certainly makes for a lot of whining, but I try to keep myself nice on here! 😉
Luckily there are some good things in life, in spite of it.

I do love how our tastes change on 5:2. So long as I don’t accidentally start reversing it all by eating crap, it just gets better and better.

Ha Milena!
I avoid emails too. I have my favourites marked and if I am being businesslike I go to my profile page and click favourites and go through them that way. If I am a bit bored I go through recent posts and get a glimpse of all the conversations happening!

Today I have a few things I need to do, but I am just making excuses instead. Feel a bit groggy (and I have already had my coffee 🙁 )

I’ll go and empty the dishwasher now it has finished. That will make me feel productive!

Hi all
had some chuckles catching up on the posts tonight and also felt inspired by the stories of your successes. Here is one I found today on our local news provider in NZ:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/motivate-me/76212140/nil-by-mouth-29kg-lost-through-fasting

I weigh myself everyday at the moment to assist my motivation but the one I record is on day 5 of my cycle cos i have worked out that is my lightest day 😊😊😊😊

Been pretty busy but finding the flexibility of choosing fast days really works for me.
Bring on February!

Good Morning!

Another Monday……how do the weekends fly by so quickly? I stayed true to my low carb plan all weekend and the scale continues to tick downward. In 7 weeks we’re heading to Florida for a week and I’d like to be at least 10 lbs down by then. Then 8 weeks after that, my sister and I head to Bermuda! So many things to look forward to.

Sherry…sounds like you had a lovely day with the kids. Oh my…and having to wash dishes by hand! Oh the humanity! 😉 I don’t have a dishwasher, so washing by hand is an every day occurrence here. With just the 2 of us, it really isn’t much of a problem.

Makica..hope your birthday was wonderful. We sure so miss you around here.

MM…we ended up with 8 or 9 inches of snow. My sister, 2 hrs southeast of us got 28 inches! Just 25 miles north of us got nothing! I hope we don’t get anymore snow….I’ve seen enough to last me a lifetime.

Time to get the day started. Have a good one!

Lori, Just heard on the news that your state, PA, got the third highest snow fall in the blizzard! Have you shoveled out yet?

Hubby coming home today (late). So excited both for him and the dishwasher to be fixed! 😉

Haven’t weighed in a few days. Feeling a tad tubby. Thinking I’ve been eating too many of those nut filled breakfast cookies I made and getting “nut gut”. They’re probably better as a 2-3 days a week as opposed to daily breakfast! Gotta get going on making those egg/bacon muffins for grab-n-go.

Yes, Lori, I am officially whining about dishes! See, we all whine! Ahem, yes doing dishes for two is nothing like doing dishes for 6, especially when they’re little piggies and seem to use more glasses daily than any human in their right mind would need! How great that you have all those tropical get-aways to look forward to and motivate you to lose the weight! Rooting for you!

Cinque, glad I could entertain you 😉 & yes, I was thinking the same thing! Little spoiled things that have never washed a whole sink of dishes but now are learning! Good life skills!

Welcome Jilly and SusieA! Yes, Susie, we can relate. Even harder to do when you have an active social calendar! Sometimes I just have to buckle down and avoid social engagements the best I can for a couple of weeks until I can build some momentum in losing a few pounds which increases my resolve to keep going! Don’t know if this is possible for you, but it works for me! Best of luck to you both. This is a supportive crowd to hang out with! 🙂

Ok, off to get some make-up on so as not to scare my substitute pilates lady (regular instructor is off teaching at a retreat on some island off of Spain- poor him!). And before you say it, yes, I am one of those people that put make-up on before they go to the gym!

Love you guys! Have a great day!

Sherry

Evening everybody – morning Cinque, you are sounding good!! Can you come and do my filing?

Welcome to all our new folk!!

Well, was supposed to be fast day today, and after all that pulled port and red wine yesterday, a good idea, but not to be.

For today is the 25th, and Burns night!!

So, my men donned their kilts to go hunting for Haggis! Usually it is bloody cold, frosty or snowing and blowing a gale, often all of these. Today though is blustery and warm, though quite windy, mid fifties, 13% for the metric minded.

So off we went, the normal danger of catching nether regions on frozen heather not a worry, but by ‘eck there was a lot of ‘braveheart’ style bottoms on show, and frankly not just the bottoms, having seen a great deal of the future of scotland – I do worry about the Scots! Of course it is true that there are no breeks under the kilts (knickers to the Sassenachs!!)

Anyway, Haggis hunting! Not sure how many of you have seen them, but they inhabit the Munros – the name the Scots give to mountains – though why they are not content with ‘mountain’ is beyond me, but the Scots are not a contented nation!

It is said that both Nichola Sturgeon and Alec Salmond have Haggis ancestry – they have many of the same traits – faces only their mothers could love, Nichola is short and of course has the traditional Haggis hair – and both have a hatred of the English! (The Haggis has always hated the English, not only have they always laughed at them, but the English Bard is much better known, and – frankly, a much better writer than the Scottish Bard!)

But – for absolute confirmation, check out Nicky when she is trotting around in her high heels, of course the heels do nothing to disguise her lack of height, but they enphasise her short leg – watch her stumble. Alec drinks to excess in order to disguise his gait, he would have us believe that he is drunk – and often he is – but he falls over a lot due to the short leg!! Really! And who hates the English more (Alec actually had an English girlfriend once, she did it for a bet!)

Anyway, normally they are difficult to catch, having the advantage of the short leg when scooting around the mountains, but today we were literally falling over them as they lay sunbathing in the heather! No sun, but the heat had them fooled.

Almost fell over one, which would have been a shock – I did mention they were ugly? The noise when they woke up as they were chucked into the sack was awful!

Of course they are such a delicacy. So good we only have them once a year!!!

With mash and neeps (turnips) and with a whisky sauce. Except I do a brandy sauce, that whisky is terrible stuff!