Starting a long journey – ETJ

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Starting a long journey – ETJ

This topic contains 93 replies, has 17 voices, and was last updated by  Fuvvie 7 years, 9 months ago.

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  • AWW, I wish I were there to pat and hug your little lamb…

    It is so cute, but I don’t think the Mum would like that, lol! You have to appreciate the extreme cuteness from a couple of meters distance! If ever there was a breed of lamb to re-create Mary had a little lamb, it would be that one though. So small and pure white!

    Hi ETJ, I’ve just re-read your thread. I’m in awe of your hard work. You are a dynamoπŸ’‘πŸŽπŸ΄πŸπŸ“ Do you ever stop? Your weight loss has been enviable as well. Congratulations on leaving obesity behind. Enjoy the birthday. You are a legend.

    Hi ETJ – I’ll now keep up with your journey here! You are amazing!

    Hello,

    Fuvvie and Rocy65 – You are both doing great yourselves, but thanks for the support! πŸ™‚

    It has been over a week since I last posted, but I have been waiting for the last Coda challenge to finish before posting. I signed up to lose 5 pound in 3 weeks (what on earth was I thinking!) and….. lost 5.2 pounds! It was so hard. I was constantly thinking about it, did a couple back to back fasts etc. I am so sick of the push, push mindset. I am quite happy to take it a bit slower and stick with my alternate fasting and enjoying my eating days!

    Last week was my son’s birthday and we had all the family over. It was a really nice gathering and nice to have everyone on the farm. We finished off painting the red on the chook shed – got comments that it looks like a little house which was the idea πŸ™‚ It looks so sweet. It has an actual door and window which has a little window box on the front filled with pansies. We still have a bit of work left to do, such as finish the porch and finally build their huge yard as at the moment they are free ranging everywhere. We sit inside and Mickie our rooster will be sitting on our outdoor dining setting. Or you will go over to the shed to feed the animals and you will have a troop of chickens following you, trying to sneak food any chance they can get. They even make it up to the paddocks at the back where we feed the sheep their grain and try and find any that has been left behind.
    We also finished the fountain out the front, put the garden in. That was a lot of work, I still have to finish bricking it and graveling it, once we get some decent weather and I can poison any grass. It is so nice sitting in the study and looking out at the birds in the fountain (mainly magpies atm). It is nice thinking that in a few years when all the plants have grown, and have started flowering how pretty it is going to be. We brought all Australian natives and bird attracting plants as I really want bees in a few years time.
    I have decided not to enter the next challenge for September. I might begin the next one in October, but want a break from posting everyday. I really enjoy reading everyone’s stories and getting motivation from everyone, but just need a break. Hopefully I won’t regret it and will just keep on pushing along.

    Starting weight of 5:2: 92.5kg loss: 0.8kg Current weight: 72.2kg. Total loss: 20.3kg or 44.7 pounds. Since Dec: 25.3kgs or 55.7 pounds.

    Congratulations! I really like your inspiring posts about weight loss and your farm!

    Hi ETJ, I totally understand the feeling of push, push and do feel the pressure as well, but I’m still not down to your starting point, so have to try and keep up the momentum. It has gone cockeyed at the moment but feel confident I can get back on track. I love to hear how you’re going with all your advances on your property. It seems such a wholesome existence. Will keep dropping in. I’m enjoying a ginseng plus herbal tea right now in the sun. It is delightful. I’m sure you’re doing something very constructive. Enjoy your day.

    Fast Dutch Girl – Thank you πŸ™‚

    Fuvvie – Nice to hear from you πŸ™‚ I haven’t had a chance to read the forum since the challenge ended, so it’s nice to hear that you are feeling confident that you can get back on track. Remember – Most people when they go off the rails, go off it hard. If you are still around, it means your determination is paying off! Good job!

    Well, almost a week gone and no loss. So annoying, as I have been so good this week even on my eating days. Well, one day last week we went to the movies to see Suicide Squad (which was fantastic!) and I had popcorn and maltesers, but besides that I have been good, lol!
    The past couple of days I have been going to my son’s riding teachers farm and she has been giving me horse riding lessons. My butt and legs are so sore, lol! I was so nervous when I first had to swing up on him. He isn’t a small horse at 16hh! But is super quiet. His only issue is he walks so slowly that he drags his feet and stumbles every so often. But I overcame it, got up and ended up riding by myself. It was nice hearing that I ride pretty well, as I have never had professional lessons. She made me at the end of the first lesson, get off and on and off and on, lol. Which would be fine if it wasn’t such a drop to get off. Today’s lesson went really well. My middle son who is learning to ride had a lesson on him as well. He did really well, but he has never been hurt so has zero fear. I remember being that way once upon a time, haha. I was pretty proud. She said that he is a natural, which he is. I rode after him and was a little nervous, but less so than yesterday. I am going again on Friday, so hopefully I will be fine again. You have to get back on that horse – it isn’t a saying for no reason! I know I am nervous because I was recently thrown and was thrown many times as a kid, but also I am afraid of heights, and he is high. I remember at recruit training in the RAAF – we had to go ab sailing down this very high straight wall. I was nervous – not too bad. I remember starting to walk up the stairs to get to the top and about a quarter of the way up my legs became so heavy, it felt like I had a bowling ball in my stomach and I could hardly move my legs. I was telling myself how stupid I was being, but I couldn’t help it. My legs felt like lead. One foot in front of the other I got up there somehow. I managed to get up there and get back down, even with the instructors pretending they were cutting the rope on me and pulling it from side to side. So scary. Anyhow, the heavy legs was how I felt. But you can’t let fear overcome you. You just have to keep going!

    Besides that this past week we have been relaxing for most of it. We had a bit of rain at the end of last week. We realized that our poddy calf wasn’t castrated properly, he must have had a testicle that hadn’t descended when we desexed him, so that had to be done. We also had to build a temporary fence for our sheep to be able to eat the knee high green grass behind the shed. They were pretty happy! Our very friendly sheep that we have named Betty is so tame. She is about 6 years old and she was one of Dad’s 5 that he gave me. She now eats out of our hand! Her lamb is really tame too, but she is so funny. She really looks at you and seems to understand what I am saying. The only problem is she wants to be with me all the time, so if she can escape, she does! I found out today that my riding instructor has a 16 year old sheep (which is crazy because the oldest I had heard of living for was 13!) So hopefully Betty will live that long too. She and the other 3 and their lambs are not going for meat!
    This week I hope will go well. It’s my eldest’s birthday on Wednesday, he is turning 12! He want’s a chill out day, so I am really looking forward to his birthday! lol. On the weekend we are visiting my parents with my other siblings and their kids and they are all going camping. I say they, because while I will enjoy the camp fire and camp dinner – I will much prefer to sleep in a bed! lol. So I will abandon ship. I have made a bet that I doubt the kids’ll last, and will be back up at the house at 9:30, lol! Especially since my brother is getting together some ghost stories to read to them, lol.

    I hope everyone had a great week and will enjoy the week ahead. Hopefully I can report a loss next week! Keep on keeping on!

    Hey ETJ,

    it is so good to read your story again and to follow your amazing weight loss. I have had a few bad month with overeating and having way way too many sweets. Not surprisingly I gained about 5 kg and feel awful looking in the mirror now.
    But: I started wearing my fitbit again and right now feel very motivated to get back on track. The first kg is down again and I really hope to keep losing during the next weeks and month.

    Starting weight: 95 kg. Current weight: 88.5 kg. Goal: 75 kg
    Have a great week!

    Shayley – Hello again. Nice to hear from you again πŸ™‚ I am sure you will smash it this time around!

    Well, another week gone. All of my non fast days this week involved party food….all day, haha. So not really surprisingly I have remained the same weight. I have really enjoyed myself though, lol. We had my eldests birthday, which went really well. He had a great birthday, said it was the best one ever, and although he says it every year, I think he keeps believing it! We had my nieces birthday which went really well. Plans had to change, as my parents farm flooded with the huge lot of rain that we had. We had a nervous day on her birthday because we had had a lot of rain ourselves, and I was worried we were going to flood as well. But we made the most of it, as we were over in Canberra anyways, and went out for lunch, went 10 pin bowling, went shopping and then went out to dinner. The kids had a great day with their cousins. We turned off the highway at around 10pmish and had hardly gone up it and there was water everywhere. You couldn’t see a road at all, so we thought, well can’t go this way have to go the long way. So drove the long way around. Thankfully, although one of the dips were full, we got through. By the next morning I had logged onto Facebook and both roads to our place were closed and are still closed today. Both bridges went under. Hopefully tomorrow the one going into town will be open as we need some groceries.
    Fathers Day on Sunday went ok. I cooked all day for hubby, he was having a relaxing day, then he decided to do the afternoon chores of feeding the animals with me. So I went walking down to the sheep paddock where they are giving birth – we have about 18 lambs at the moment – and there was a sheep down, having trouble birthing. So it took 2 hours to finally get the lamb out. It was way to big for her, and it’s elbows were in. It was fully stuck. She had been lambing for too long and was exhausted. Finally got the lamb out of her, thought it was dead, but it was alive. She couldn’t get the after birth out though, it must have adhered to the uterus. So eventually she died a horrible death. The lamb must have had internal damage as well, because it only survived a few hours as well. So much effort for nothing. But we did everything we could do. It’s a part of farming I suppose. Life and death. We haven’t had any problems with the others, and touch wood the rest of the lambing will go without complications.
    And that brings me to today. The sun is shining and it is a beautiful day. Kids have done their school work and have been playing outside all day. I have to go out now and do the afternoon chores.
    From this week on until my birthday, I am going to be a lot more careful on non fast days. I really want to be under 70 by my birthday – it has been the plan all year and I am not disappointing myself! Even if I need to do a few back to backs. Those kilo’s are coming off! lol.
    Anyway, be back with you next week to give my results!

    Hi ETJ. So sorry to hear about your sheep and lamb. That must have been heart breaking. I hope for you that you make your 70 kg goal. That’s my goal to but it’s a long way off. Bit by bit, we get there.

    Hey Fuvvie – It was heart breaking. You feel so helpless. Keep trucking along and you’ll get there! Hubby was the one who gave me the goal. When I started talking about weight loss back in December – you know, going through the whole “I really need to do something about my weight, I am just sick of it” thing that you go through many times, lol! He said, if you just stick to it, think, that by your birthday, you could be under 70 kilos. Imagine being 60 something kilo’s again. I just said no way. I said it is so much weight that it will take way longer than that! And that I didn’t want to get my hopes up, because I have tried so many times before to move weight and then gave up. I literally could not even fathom getting down that low, I had kind of accepted feeling fat and unfit.
    Today I weighed in at 71.8kg! Finally, the scale moved, haha. So a 0.4kg loss. It’s taken a few weeks, but finally got a move in the scales. Now to stick with it, keep thinking about calories on eating days. Which is about the only thing I can do, haha. I haven’t really thought about calories so far, but hubby and I are completely clueless as to how many calories are in things. Such as a bagel with cream cheese. Over 450 calories! Movie popcorn – a large has 550 calories – I only have a small, but still! The family sized bag of maltesers, has 1250 calories in the pack! A hot chocolate, has 220 calories. Anyway, it does put food in perspective, as I just think that it’s not worth it!

    Starting weight of 5:2: 92.5kg loss: 0.4kg Current weight: 71.8kg. Total loss: 20.7kg or 45.6 pounds. Since Dec: 25.7kgs or 56.6 pounds.

    Hello, another week gone!

    This has been one of those weeks. Super stressful and the next one isn’t going to be much better. We have had more flooding out here, enough to do damage to the bridge going into town and the other road out of here is flooded over. It was also enough to cause 5 trees in a row to fall down onto our fence line that goes to the road. The cows were the only one’s over that side, so they have been moved, but we have to get tree cutters out to cut any other branches and have to re-fence around 160 meters of fencing and drag the trees off the fence and remove it.
    The worst news is that our horse Jack has re-hurt his leg really badly. It was so swollen. The vet came out late on Saturday night and gave him something for pain relief, but just said that it isn’t going to get better and it is irresponsible of us to keep him as he is in agony. So our farrier is coming tomorrow to get him and you know where he is going. So horrible. I don’t even feel like going outside at the moment, so I am burying down like a hobbit and my husband is doing the chores because I can’t face looking at him. He is in fairy land at the moment and will be stoned the next week due to what the vet gave him, and he said it is the kindest thing we can do for him, but I am finding it extremely difficult, so am coping the best I can, which is to stay inside and hibernate.
    Weight wise, I have managed to lose 1.3kg this week! Pretty crazy and so good. It’s strange the weeks I do the least, it seems I lose the most weight. not always, but it’s more common than not. Hopefully in the next week or two I will manage to see 60 something on the scale. I am going to be a very happy lady that day!

    Starting weight of 5:2: 92.5kg loss: 1.3kg Current weight: 70.5kg. Total loss: 22kg or 48.5 pounds. Since Dec: 27kgs or 59.5 pounds.

    ETJ: So close to your goal. How wonderful that must feel.
    Your flooding has been intense. I was really pleased to get some rain as our tanks were less than half full. That’s awful news about Jack. No wonder you want to retreat from the world. Your OH is being very noble taking on your chores. They say old age isn’t for sissies, but neither is farming. The loss of a favourite pet is very grim. Warm hugs to you and yours.

    We went next door to look at the foals and they are just gorgeous. 5 of the grandchildren and 92 yr old MIL were there and all had a pat. They had a very difficult delivery of a large male foal yesterday and they are worried for the foal. Time will tell. The kids were besotted. Life is full of these small pleasures.

    Hi Fuvvie – I am so glad that things are going well for you. I can imagine how gorgeous the newborn foal would be. And I agree about enjoying the small pleasures in life. Life is far too short, we should enjoy it while we can!

    This week has ended finally. Jack is in a better place, I hope. The poor fellow. The racing industry really is a horrible one. There is very few that survive more than a few years and those that do the majority are passed around their whole life. The one’s with injuries all end up meeting the same fate. And it is all for what?

    It was really cold today with super strong winds. I was contacted today by the lady I brought our pony off as she has started working on a goat farm and has gotten really attached to one of the poddy kids that she is raring and asked if we would take it as she didn’t want him going for meat. So of course I said we would πŸ™‚ Apparently a lot of the babies end with the same fate. Getting brought by zoo’s to be fed to the big cats! I never knew that. I had never thought about what they got fed. I know they need to eat, but didn’t know it was baby goats. She is coming over on Wednesday and we’ll have a BBQ and she wants to see Silver. She said her kids are really excited about seeing him again. He is such a sweetheart pony.

    This week I haven’t had a weight loss. Only 2 and a half weeks until my birthday, so I really need to hurry and lose that extra half a kilo by it to get to my birthday goal! I have noticed though, that I will have a decent loss week followed by a stalling week, so nothing new.

    Anyway, have a good week anyone reading this!

    Hi ETJ et al, I have just read thru all of your posts and I am feeling really positive about making this change to my life today. Well done on your weight loss – what an inspiration you are πŸ™‚ I have a massive way to go weighing in at a hefty 100kgs but no matter how long it takes I will not be this weight again! Here’s to my first week πŸ™‚

    Hi ETJ, When I took the kids to an Aquapark yesterday, ( the human kind), we saw some kids (the animal kind) in cages ready to be put into a pen that was being constructed. They were so cute. The chap filled a bucket with stones to rattle so they would think it was food and follow him. Half a kilo in 2 and a half weeks is doable. Good luck and I hope you have a wonderful birthday if I miss out on the actual day.
    Must stop looking up everyone on the whole thread and get to the vacuuming. I mean it this time. Bye for now.

    Grapey = Congrats on starting. I started in December weighing almost 100 kilo’s and am now around 70, so just keep on keeping on and the weight will come off. I think going as fast as you can at the start is a good way of going about it, while you have the motivation! good luck and let me know how your first week has gone πŸ™‚

    Fuvvie – Yes, I use buckets around the farm to get the animals to follow me. Always does the trick. I find you don’t need dogs, they just cause the animals to feel stressed. I find reading the threads is a great time buster. Haven’t been on much lately, tonight I am starving, so thought I’d read up on everyone else πŸ™‚

    Hello. I am really struggling this week. The motivation to lose the half a kilo by my birthday went out the window on Tuesday when I weighed myself and was back up to 71.8! Oh my god! That was so hard to lose. I am not doing anything differently. The weight just does not want to budge under 70. So I am going to start some green coffee tablets over the next week to see if that boosts weight loss. I’ll let you know how I go when I weigh in on Tuesday next week πŸ™‚

    I hope everyone else is having an easier week than me!!

    Hello,

    Another week gone. Only a 200 gram loss this week. I hate this plateau . Been stuck within these last 2 kilos for over a month! But, just need to keep plodding. Still got a week and a half until my birthday. Only 400 grams to go to be under 70.
    I have been fasting so much lately I am getting sick of it. We have been really busy and my days keep getting out of wack with how busy we are – school holidays I suppose – I won’t fast when we have people visiting etc, so trying to work around it. The last few days I have only eaten lunch – due to not being able to have full eating days or full fast days, I figure one meal a day saves me getting off track. I have been super hungry at dinner time every day though and finding it hard to get through. I really need to get back into my rhythm of full eating on eating days and then having a fast day. It makes the fast days not as bad knowing you can eat the next day.
    Tomorrow we are going to the movies in Canberra, so it is an eating day and then I can start back on my alternate fasting. I hope, lol! I have tried everything to break this plateau, back to back fasting etc. Hardly been eating at all and I just can’t break through. So annoying. I just need to get back to what I was happy doing, cause it really isn’t worth it.

    Starting weight of 5:2: 92.5kg loss: 0.2kg Current weight: 70.3kg. Total loss: 22.2kg or 48.9 pounds. Since Dec: 27.2kgs or 59.9 pounds.

    Hi ETJ,
    so annoying to be stuck on this plateau. Especially when you’re that close to your goal. I seem to be stuck on one, too. The first weeks back on IF went amazing with a loss of almost 1kg per week! Now I haven’t lost anything for two weeks even though I haven’t changed my routine. I’m still happy though and feel very determined to reach my goal sometime this winter or next spring.
    Your weight loss is fantastic and you can be very proud. Hope you’ll lose those last few grams before your birthday.
    Btw I love to read those stories about your animals (even if some are really heartbreaking). Makes me imagine living on a farm in Australia which seems really exciting seen from my small town life in Switzerland. πŸ˜ƒ

    Hi ETJ – just popping in to say hello. Oh you are so close to your goal – really rooting for you. You have done so well, an inspiration for anyone thinking about 5:2.

    So sorry to hear about Jack – I remember when I had to make that decision for my first horse. He couldn’t get up if he lay down without help and I knew it was not fair on him. It broke my heart and I hope he understood I was doing it because I loved him. The vet came and put him down while he was lying down and I was lucky enough to be able at that time to bury him by the oak tree at the top of our field along with our other family pets – 6 dogs, a cat, 2 budgies, and a rescued bantam chicken called Hoppy (for obvious reasons).

    Fingers crossed for you but remember it is just a number on the scale look at the bigger picture and how far you have come x

    Hello, another week gone.

    Shaylee – Oh thank you. I hope you are going well πŸ™‚ It is very hard to stick with this when you aren’t losing weight, i have found no rhyme or reason as to when I lose weight. I can have a week where i have had lots of snacks on eating days and some of those are weeks i have lost the most. You would think eating as few of calories as possible is the secret, but it isn’t. I still haven’t found the secret – but I’ll just keep on plodding πŸ™‚

    Coda – Nice to hear from you πŸ™‚ I hope all is well with you! It’s horrible losing animals. I try and think of it from the point of view that we give them the best life while we can and while it is sad for us when they leave, you have to focus on what a good life they have had. They were fed the best, kept warm, had affection, it’s more than most get on this earth.

    So this week I hit my birthday goal!!! Well, today I hit it actually. I am 69.8kg. My birthday is at the end of the week, so made it just in time. I ended up back to back fasting over the weekend to get there. I was sick with the flu all week – hardly making it out of my chair, and ended up eating 3 days in a row this week! Not 3 meals a day, but mostly 2. I just couldn’t last a fast due to the flu. So I fasted successfully on Saturday and thought I’d continue it on Sunday. All good and woke up this morning to finally seeing 60 something on the scale. I must say that it feels very good! Now to keep plodding along and lose the next 9.8 kilos to get to my end goal!

    Starting weight of 5:2: 92.5kg loss: 0.5kg Current weight: 69.8kg. Total loss: 22.7kg or 50 pounds. Since Dec: 27.7kgs or 61 pounds.

    Hi ETJ, thanks for your words of encouragement and for continuing your posts – they are very inspirational. I am so pleased for you that you met your b’day goal (but not the reason why – flu is awful. Belated Happy Birthday wishes from me. Well as planned I started my first fast day on 26SEP and 5 fast days later (Mondays and Wednesdays) each week, I have lost 10 lbs/4.5 kgs – which is rather a lot πŸ™‚ I guess most of it is fluid but in any case I can feel the difference. The fast days are not as hard as I thought they were going to be, drinking water and hot drinks of Bovril keep me going. It’s true what you say about being more susceptible to the cold though – I am normally a warm beast but have had to wear a pashmina whilst sitting at my desk. Hope you have a great week.

    Hello ETJ. Looks as though I missed your birthday. Still, I hope you had a lovely day and congratulations on achieving your goal weight. πŸΎπŸŽ‰πŸ’
    Hope you are well and truly over the flu.
    You have done so well. I can’t wait for those 30 extra kilos I still have to lose to be gone. Then I will be at your weight. Do you think in 10 months time I could be there?
    How;s the farm going? No new animal stories to tell? You could write a novel about your farm.

    Hello, almost forgot to post this week!

    Grapey – 4.5kg is a lot! Congrats. I bet that feels good to be gotten rid of! I find a heat pack at my feet in bed helps a lot to get to sleep quickly when I am cold.

    Fuvvie – I can’t say how long it will take you to lose the weight. It’s definitely a marathon not a sprint! (A sprint would be wonderful though!) I’m alternate fasting and I was losing quite well until I hit around 72kg and now it isn’t much at all. I can’t eat any less every other day and I’m really not eating much on my eating days to be honest. I am not planning on long term living on salads, so am just going to keep doing what I have been πŸ™‚

    No loss this week. My birthday went well. We had a busy weekend marking lambs, we had 30 all up. I have also started re-energising the front gate entrance. All looking good so far. We have shearing in another week, and our pony knocked down all the inside stalls in our stable to get to the honeybee (A mixed feed) that he loves, so we have brought steel to replace them and hopefully it will be pony proof, lol! Such a pain. I have also been mowing and mowing some more, it is looking really pretty out here, it actually felt like spring today! It is only past mid October… I have been asked by my beautician to come in tomorrow to be used as a makeup model… that should be interesting, lol! I hope I don’t come out looking like a clown!

    I don’t think I mentioned, but on the 2nd, we were out with the goats and I noticed my little dog running with another rabbit baby in her mouth. She dropped it and ran back and grabbed another. Anyway, we ended up finding 3 all up, around 10 days old because their ears were still closed, but their eyes were open (we also found her mother and siblings…but we were too late with those). We got them a little cage and a little bed and brought some rabbit food etc. We lost 2 in the first few days, but one has survived. The boys named her Britney, and she is the sweetest little thing. No one I know wants her, so I guess we are stuck with her. The boys love her to bits. I have told them that she may die, but she keeps defying the odds. As long as the rabbit killing virus’s don’t get her and we can keep her safe from all predators, hopefully she will survive! I told the boys, her odds aren’t good, but we will try!

    Hi ETJ, It’s a week since your post. Just wondering how that little bunny is getting on. You must be getting into the shearing now. Busy busy busy. I’m not surprised you are not eating much. Glad your birthday went well. Your pony sounds like a handful. . Time has got away. Must go and get the boys.

    Hey Fuvvie – Sry, long time no post, I try and make sure I post weekly, but have had a very busy start to this week. I got your email sent to me by 5:2 and have sent you an email. Look forward to hearing from you and I hope you are well πŸ™‚

    At the start of this week the older boys and I went and stayed at the Jamayla zoo in Canberra in the giraffe treehouses. It was amazing. I have had many yearly memberships to the zoo and have went many times but this was a completely different experience. We got to feed the giraffes, meercats, emu’s, elands and rhino’s. They brought the lions up at dinner time and fed them meat and talked to us about them. We went on two tours with the zookeepers and they were so informative about everything in the zoo. It was really an amazing experience. We really enjoyed ourselves.
    Besides that we have finished shearing. It went really well. We had re-fenced all in there in heavy duty steal, so we can also use it as horse stables and all of that has turned out really well. All of the animals are going really well. We went for a drive in the buggy yesterday around the big dam paddock and passed a ewe giving birth to a new lamb! She’s a big late in lambing, but better late than never!
    Today we went to the local markets and they boys participated in the gumboot throwing competition, egg and spoon races, sack races and I also participated in the 3 legged race etc, it was heaps of fun. Next weekend we are spending a few days in Sydney and are going to watch Dynamo the magician. Really excited about this. He is incredible and pure magic. We will also try and fit in the aquarium as we are staying right next to it and try and visit lunar park as I have never been there.
    No weight loss, but I took it easy this week, as I haven’t been feeling well. Will get back into it next week, until the weekend.

    Hi ETJ congratulations on making your goal for your birthday. Well done, your family must be so proud of you. X

    That zoo trip sounds amazing ETJ. What an experience for your sons. I haven’t heard of anything like that before. The gumboot throwing comp sounds as though it would have been a lot of fun. Beware of putting ones’ shoulder out of joint . Not a problem for the kids but old shoulders could get carried away by the momentum.
    Only a week away till I’m travelling. We should be around Tamworth at this time of the day. So looking forward to it.
    Enjoy your time in Sydney. I get anxious watching magicians. I think I’m always scared something is going to go wrong. Crazy, no??

    Hi ETJ

    At the bottom of your posts you say “Total loss: 22.7kg or 50 pounds. Since Dec: 27.7kgs or 61 pounds.”

    I’m not sure if I’m being daft but I don’t understand !? Why the two different sets of numbers. Apologies if you’ve explained it before somewhere.

    Rob.

    Hi Rob – I put 2 sets, cause I had lost weight before starting 5:2. I kind of don’t want to mislead people thinking I lost it all on 5:2. I should probably just convert it all into one number? So I started 5:2 in March, but started to lose weight from December.

    Coda – Hello πŸ™‚ I hope all is well with you!

    Fuvvie – Yes, I have been watching Dynamo for a long time on Youtube. I’ll let you know how it goes πŸ™‚ And the zoo experience was incredible. Def highly recommend it if you are in Canberra. Hubby and I had a go at the gumboot throwing as well. I thought I’d done well until my 12 year old beat me, haha! My first go I must have been late in letting go and it went skyward and almost fell on our heads, lol.

    Ah, makes sense now, thanks.

    Hello,

    Gosh the weeks go fast! The lovely Fuvvie and her friend made it out to my farm and I got to meet her! Thank you for the visit πŸ™‚

    For the past few months I have been getting a bad pain in my upper stomach, I have brought it up in this blog. Well, it turns out I have gallstones. I finally brought it up to Mum a week ago and she said it sounds like gall. So I finally made an appointment to the Dr, who ordered bloods and an ultrasound which I had today. I have 5-6 8mm gall stones and my gallbladder was very inflamed and the walls of it are thickened? I will find out more tomorrow, too much Dr speak for me! I had an attack a couple of days ago and my shoulder is still sore from it, but I feel ok. So I am seeing the Dr tomorrow afternoon and I will probably have to get it out. Fasting can cause gallstones, I also have family history with Mum and other family members also needing it removed, but it is something that I wasn’t even aware of.

    Besides that we had a great long weekend in Sydney for the Dynamo show. He is crazy magic. We went to Manly beach… the kids decided to run into the water and play in the sand while wearing jeans, so it meant we had to buy them new shorts to come back on the ferry with, lol. They had so much fun! We also went to the aquarium, took a lot of public transport which is one of the things I love about Sydney. We have barely any public transport here. Our motel was smack on Darling Harbor, so that was nice. It was a lovely weekend away, but I did miss the farm πŸ™‚

    Mum and Dad came down for a visit as it was my youngests birthday. Dad jumped on the mower, as I only mowed a week and a half ago, but it is that time of year and the grass grows before your eyes.

    Anyway, I hope all are well πŸ™‚ Will chat next week!

    Hi ETJ, it was lovely visiting you at the farm. Really beautiful part of the world and I was so impressed with what you have done. So sorry to hear about the gall stones. Can’t you just have them blasted into smithereens? Otherwise fat will always be a problem without the gall bladder won’t it? I’m no expert, just asking the question. We had a great drive, deciding to go through Canberra and spent the night in Cooma, before travelling down through the Monaro hwy to Cann River and on through Lakes Entrance Yarram and down to Phillip Island. Got here just after 5pm. Good run. Going into Mt Eliza to my sister’s place tomorrow. Good luck with the gall bladder. Give my regards to OH and the boys.

    Fuvvie – So glad that your trip went well. I was hoping that you would have an uneventful trip as not long after you left we had a storm. Was the views on the way down worth the drive?
    Thanks for the questions. I will add them to the list I have for the Dr tomorrow. I really don’t know much about it. They scared me a bit today as they were deciding whether to hospitalize me or not as it was really inflamed. Apparently it can even rupture. It’s funny, because it was one of those times when someone looks at you and says you don’t look well and you think “no, I feel ok” and then the more you think about it the more you go “well, I don’t think I feel well now”, lol. I did have a bit of a google and after having the gall bladder removed if you eat fat you get diarrhea. I also read that having an inflamed gallbladder can cause constipation – so all my problems I have been having could all be related.
    Take care on your trip and I hope you have a great time!

    A quick update. I saw the Dr today who has fast tracked me into a surgeon on Monday morning. No idea of the wait to actually have the surgery done, should know more after my consult on Monday. Turns out though that I had googled and it said it is day surgery, but the Dr said it is 2-3 days in hospital which sucks massively. I have a friend who is a nurse up at the hospital and she said the same.
    On the plus side, today my cat Cleo left me in charge of her kittens for an hour while she went outside. They are 3 weeks old today and are just starting to walk around. They played for a bit and then went to sleep on my lap which was so sweet. I don’t know whether I have brought them up on this blog? She had 2 kittens, both with blue eyes, one is a tabby coloured and one is black and white. I sat up all night with her when she had them, as she was meowing and wouldn’t stop moving, but when I went in there she calmed right down. I had to give her plenty of back rubs. I kept thinking she was close but she had the first one at 7am, so it was a long night. I ended up holding one of her legs and my middle son had come in about half an hour before that, so I got him to wake up my hubby, so the three of us got to witness it. The second one was born about an hour after the first. She has literally been the best Mum ever. She hugs them, you are allowed to pick them up and give them a bit of a cuddle, but them she makes this noise and stares straight at you, telling you to put them down. A few days ago we tried moving them into the loungeroom, and she was trying to pick them up to take them back, but she couldn’t figure out how to pick them up. They were abandoned at a truck stop and my brother found them when they were only about 5 weeks old themselves. Poor little things. We took her and her sister to get desexed and found out that Cleo was pregnant, so decided to let her have the kittens. So we got her sister Lilly desexed and Cleo and the kittens Caesar and Max will have to get done when the kittens get to be around 12 weeks old, as we don’t want to make the mistake of leaving it too long again!
    Take care all πŸ™‚

    Hello,

    The weeks are just flying by. I’m not following 5:2 at the moment as my doctor told me to eat small meals throughout the day to try and prevent having an attack. I can’t have any meat or meat related products, cheese, milk, eggs etc. My weight has remained steady for the past two weeks, but I am pretty sick of the same foods. I didn’t realise how much of my diet consisted of meat related products. I would be a very bad vegan, lol. My surgeon told me that I have about a 3 month wait to get in for surgery, unless I have an attack in the mean time, which means I have to go to emergency. Really do not want to do this, so I am being very careful. He said I can have an attack even just living off lettuce, but I really hate drama and would prefer to just wait the 3 months and get it out on a set date.
    I will continue posting though when I remember, lol. Hopefully I will get in shortly and can get back on track. This week we were really busy. We have been doing heaps of fencing, I have been busy mowing everywhere, as it really needed it, my brother and family came on the weekend to visit and see the kittens. Our farrier came out on Friday and did the horses and donkeys hooves and did some chiro on our pony and mini horse.
    This week we are going to Canberra for a day, we are going to re-fence the back yard as it isn’t very attractive πŸ™‚ and hopefully we can finish that this week so I can start weed spraying next week. I should have already started it, as November is the month – but we have been busy and we are going to Sydney again next month and need a secure yard for the dogs.
    I hope everyone is doing well πŸ™‚ Update next week!

    Hi ETJ,
    I am spending a good part of my morning catching up on all my favourite threads. I’ll be looking to see how the surgery thing shapes up. It’s sad that you have to go through this when you have been so diligent and successful. I can picture clearly your work on the fences and the mowing. I have you all in my minds eye. the kittens must be growing to quite a size now. They are very cute. Please give Dilly a pat for me.

    We ended up having a great trip. It was very tiring. That thunder storm was really hard to drive through. Could hardly see through the windscreen. The drive down the Monaro highway to end in Cann River was totally worth it. It was a delightful drive and very picturesque. I kept taking little videos and sending them to OH in Thailand. We were really impressed by all the enormous roses we saw in bloom in the towns on the way, and my sister’s garden was an absolutely glorious display. We drove back up the Newell Highway and visited the Dubbo Zoo.We didn’t stay there overnight, but moved on to Moree. We stopped at Forbes the night before and were able to visit the Dish in the morning near Parkes. That was really worthwhile as well.

    Weight going down again now. I’m feeling a real buzz and very positive about moving on and losing weight. Maybe indulging in melting moments and a real cream bun has got rid of those torturing feelings of Missing out, when I found that whilst they are enjoyable, they don’t live up to the promise of the be all and end all. The increase on the scales was quite devastating too, so now they are moving downwards again (admittedly over old territory trying to get down to where I was 2 months ago) I’m feeling much happier. No food gives me that same buzz as seeing the lower numbers on the scales.

    I don’t envy you the weed spraying. Our property has a lot of weeds on it at present, but I’m hoping that vigilant mowing will eventually overcome them. I’m too scared of poisoning myself with spray.

    Looking forward to hearing how things are progressing. πŸ™‹πŸ»

    Hello,

    Fuvvie – Congrats on your weight loss. Enjoy that wonderful feeling. I wish it just steadily came off. That would be nice!
    Your holiday sounds like my life, lol. Our honeymoon was spent at Dubbo zoo, haha. 13 years ago now. We hadn’t even thought about a honeymoon and the day after our wedding Mum and Dad convinced us to do something, so we got in the car and drove there. I came from Forbes originally, lol. So you can see what I mean about you took a tour of my life, lol! It’s funny. Even though I am constantly surrounded by animals, every single holiday we have we go to zoo’s or wildlife sanctuary’s, visit pet shops, etc.

    This week has been so busy. I drove the boys out to my parents and they spent a few days out there. I helped Mum out as she wanted to have a garage sale at my brothers place so we did that which was massive. We took the kids to the 1903 circus at the Canberra theater. That was amazing. All the animals are going well. Everything is still fairly green out here, dams are all full. I am finishing up school this week with the kids, so that we can then enjoy our Christmas break. It has been such a busy term, that I am looking forward to having a bit of a break.
    I haven’t had a gall attack until tonight. I am currently getting some pain and my shoulder is throbbing, really hoping that it is going to settle down. I am only eating 2 meals a day, which feels plenty. I am feeling stuffed all day from that. Weight is steady, which I am happy about. Bland food, is bland food. My surgery is booked in for early February.

    After reading this boring post I hope anyone reading it has a good week! lol.

    Hi ETJ, Merry Christmas to you and your family. I hope 2017 sees you putting your gall bladder probs behind you. I also imagine your animals continue to keep you busy. Warm regards to your family.

    Hi ETJ. I hope your health is staying strong on your bland diet. February is not far off. I think about you often and was looking at my photos today, remembering my trip. You are really in a lovely spot. Big hugs xx

    Hi ETJ, I enjoyed reading your thread. You have been such a legend and inspiration with your huge weightloss.
    Wishing you all the best with your operation. I am thinking of you and looking forward to your return.

    It’s the 15th of February and I guess you have had your surgery by now. Good luck, ETJ.

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