Hello there,

I was wondering if I could join in with you here? You seem to have a nice little chat going, and supporting each other!?
You have done very well so far PC!

I started an adaptation of 5/2 in 2017. In the September of that year I weighed in at 83kilos and a BMI of 29.5, so I was on the cusp of the obese range. I was 52, looked younger and had had enough of wobbling around the place and people giving up their seats for me on transport and letting me queue jump in the supermarket as I looked pregnant! ( I had an early menopause!!!) I DID have a huge belly but still. I also had no chin and had to wear shorts in the summer under dresses because of thigh rubbing and I had had enough.

I started 28th September 2017 by calorie counting as it was the only way I knew to lose weight and then I stumbled on this site a few weeks later. I did 16:8, skipping breakfast and sometimes lunch and sticking to an average of 1500 calories a day, while eating more or less what I wanted at the weekend. If I ate something high in calories like home made pizza, which I love, I would go swimming for an hour on that day and walk for 30m and save my calories until the evening. This kind of juggling and lifestyle change really worked for me. On fast days I’d be around 800 calories which I saved up for my evening meal.
By the December of that year I’d already gone from a size 16 to a size 12!

Then I noticed one boob was bigger and harder than the other, had a mammogram and got diagnosed with breast cancer. They started me on chemo straightaway and 3 weeks later I had lost all my hair ( well I got it shaved to avoid the distress of picking it off floors and pillows everyday, and had to buy a wig)

I just couldn’t FACE being fat AND bald, so I continued on my 16:8 regime and settled into an average loss of a kilo a week and by July 2019 I was down to 58 kilos and wore a bikini on the beach for the first time in years! Would’ve been perfect if I hadn’t have had to wear a wig as well due to being bald!
I gradually stopped my “exercise” regime which was walking everywhere and as much as possible and swimming 3 days a week and July this year I had gone up to 64 kilos. Nothing TOO dramatic but it goes straight on my midriff ( the joys of menopause hey?)

I felt a bit flabby and had gone up from a size 8 to a size 10 but was relatively happy with that.
Except this summer my mother in law started being snidey with me, she said, and I quote ” I have a Burberry mac and since you are big like me you can have it” ( she is size 18!!!) Obviously it was way to big for me, but that made me think a bit. She also explained to me that I couldn’t possibly be a size 10 as I’d noticeably put on weight and it must be because English sizes are different. ( She is French)
She annoyed me so much that I decided to get back on my 16:8 and do something about it!

That was on August 18th and I’m down from 64 kilos to 62.2!!!
I’ve been walking twice a week for the last 3 weeks and go swimming for an hour 3 times a week and it is starting to pay off as the scales are moving slowly down.
My mother in law is coming to stay the weekend of the 21st and I am determined to lose another kilo before then and wear the most figure hugging clothes that I can get away with that weekend just to make my point! ( Normally we get on well but it obviously annoyed her when I lost weight, as she is getting larger and larger!) She’ll be eating very low calorie while here!

Today is a fast day. Have only had a coffee with milk for breakfast and am saving my calories for a healthy meal tonight, home made pumpkin soup (home grown as well!), to which I added tomatoes, a can of butter beans, potato, garlic and onions. I’ll sprinkle a few crushed toasted hazelnuts from garden on it, have garden tomato salad, no dressing, lots of fruit and no bread and butter. Going swimming at 6pm, and am hoping to see scales shift down tomorrow morning.

Will shut up now, don’t want to bore you all. Must add that I am currently in remission, seeing surgeon about my reconstruction surgery on Oct 14th, and I have hair again! Since I will be going under the knife again sometime this Winter I really need to get back in shape.
It has been a difficult year, but things are getting better!!!

Lillmar, I’m a bit late, but welcome. When my daughter had breast cancer my grandchildren got all excited about wigs — available in colours I would not have dreamt of. My own cancer could be solved with surgery, no chemo, but it took a few months to regain my original fitness levels. It sounds as though you are well on track. The only thing to do with a MIL like your’s is to smile sweetly in the interests of marital harmony and ignore her. Being a mere bloke I have no idea what a size 10 looks like, but it sounds a lot less than an 18. Have fun on the 21st.

Penguinchick. I also follow and post on a few other threads. I usually drop in on them from time to time and catch up with what is going on without always adding anything.