Your in Brisbane, aren’t you Carol?
Good work on the painting Bay ?
This topic contains 11,627 replies, has 174 voices, and was last updated by hermajtomomi 7 months, 1 week ago.
Sorry to hear about the storm Happy. I hope your ‘ladies’ can swim. ?
We caught the edge of it in Liverpool and were soaked to the skin by driving rain walking our town. We have been lucky, as the car handles wet conditions very well. Many roads have had quite large ‘ponds’ on them.
Another forum catchup today with some girls…I do love this fasting network of like-minded folk.
Happy Monday morning /evening all. P
Hi P,
The girls can’t swim, but they can paddle in mud… And they do have an attentive ‘Dad’ who can be relied upon for rescue/ flood clear ups/ shovelling snow from in front of hen houses, etc!
Yes, take care on the roads, those unexpected puddles can be hazardous!
Enjoy your latest meet up. You’re like the Queen, with people turning out for her wherever she goes 🙂
I’m pleased to report that after a few days away I’m just below my upper limit. Considering we’re just post weekend, and I’ve been heavier recently, I’m pleased with that.
I’m back at work now, so just have to focus on controlling the ravening beast in the afternoons! And not to mention the sugar cravings… Cake 3 days in a row has definitely woken up that demon!
? You’ve done well with the self control Happy. I imagine dad was plying you with food all weekend.
I’m still going well, even with a fantastic pub pork roast yesterday… enough for a family of 4 but seriously too good to pass up ☺ It became lunch and dinner. Sun shining here today, so off to meet the girls. P
Hi Purple, glad you’re going well over there. I have managed two full FDs in Portugal so far and I am pleased to report a new PB yesterday of exactly 59kgs according to my travel scales. I have enjoyed some fabulous fish meals and famous custard pastries but also exercised a lot of mindful eating at other times. Wx has been kind to us, sunny and around 19/20C most days. I posted more than my fair share on the SH thread yesterday so will keep this brief. Have fun everyone.
Hi Thin
Sounds like a very successful trip..you can have your custard tart and eat it too! Well done on the PB!!
We had a great lunch and, later, tea in the Pump Room (think Jane Austen), with Hermaj and Smiffy in Bath today. Lots of chatter but Mr P did get a chance occasionally. They are both fine models for 5:2 🙂 P
Sounds as if everyone is having a fantastic holiday – so glad – and well done that you won’t be going home with weight to lose hanging over you. Happy, glad you are ok; just been watching the cleanup on C4 – what brave and resilient people!
Hermaj – didn’t realise you were in Bath. I’m just north of Bristol – fancy a get-together in the new year?
Ah, I didn’t think Bath had been mentioned…obviously not following carefully enough…
London in the spring could be good. I come up several times a year, for hospital treatment (NHNN, in Queen Square) – perhaps we could fit in lunch or coffee some time.
I lived in Stoke Newingtin – Green Lanes, opposite Finsbury Park – for a couple of years in the 60s. Lots of changes since then.
P, the rate you’re whizzing around, you too will be expert at the British train system! Where are you now?
In bed, Fast!
We are travelling by car, walking when we arrive. Buses sometimes. Haven’t been on a train at all this trip, yet. That will be our mode of choice in London. Bristol (and fasting)tomorrow, to check out Brunel for Mr P, then south. You can’t keep an Aussie in one place long when they’ve come so far! ? P
I’m in Hornsey N8, Fast, so Stoke Newington and Green Lanes are just up the road. I lived in Highbury in the 60s. A London meeting would be great. From here I can get up to the City or West End in half an hour or so.
I see NHNN is very close to Birkbeck where I did the MA, which I finished only a year ago, so I’m very familiar with that neck of the woods. The Brunswick Centre has lots of good places for lunch or coffee.
Hi Bay,
Yes, the four of us had a delightful day together, made even more delightful by beautiful surroundings and late autumn sunshine.
Homemade soups are real faster’s friends, it’s amazing how few calories they can contain and still be wonderfully filling. Sadly you can’t always say the same for fruit which often raise the calorie score quite drastically, so much so that apart from maybe a tangerine or a plum, all sorts of fruit are often saved for non-fast days.
Hi thinatlast,
We haven’t “spoken” before but I’m delighted to come across a fellow Portugal enthusiast. 🙂 Beautiful country with lovely people and some spectacular cities, including Porto. Did you happen to catch this wonderful bookshop? http://www.localporto.com/bookstore-world-porto-lello-irmao/
Lots more images online. I must say, though, I’m rather disappointed to see that they have now started charging admission, which I think is a bit naughty. I would hope if you went in and actually bought something they would refund the money.
This cafe was a favourite haunt when we were there a few years back.
http://www.localporto.com/majestic-cafe-porto/
I did Portuguese as a subsidiary subject (to main subject Spanish) at uni and we were required to spend 6 weeks in Coimbra, another fine city which boasts one of the oldest universities in Europe. Well worth a visit.
OMGosh hermaj that book store is stunning! I’ll put that on my bucket list!
Well done bay for an excellent FD!
And also Well done thin on the PB!
Love hearing about your trip purple and such a great idea to be catching up with fellow 5:2’ers! Just a quick question – how do you recognise each other – flower in the lapel? ?
Hope your weather has returned to normal now happy.
On one of the other topics there is a link to a presentation by a Dr Fung about sugar and wheat – very interesting! Unfortunately a long video but can be skipped through a bit. Posted by simonluv (or,similar).
Wow Hermaj, that bookshop looks absolutely amazing. A slightly different experience to WHSmiths…!
Carol, yes, the weather is much calmer and the floods are subsiding. We were lucky though, on slightly higher ground not on a floodplain. Heartbreaking for the thousands of people who were flooded, and who won’t now be home for Christmas.
Well I’ve fasted today, and it seems to suit me now to avoid eating all day and have a slightly more generous evening meal. May do the same again tomorrow. Socialising begins to build from this weekend, so I really need to get my act together and get some strict low cal days and fasts in!
Hi all
Have to confess that I have started to fast twice this week and failed each time. Not taking it personally as it seems to be the wrong time of year for me to persevere. Too hot and I’m trying to do too much physical work. I feel better now I’ve been upfront. ????
Over the last few days, I have painted two coats of paint on all the picket fences, and have netted the apricot trees. As I was netting the large old tree, the cockatoo scouts flew by, and voiced their extreme annoyance at my impudence in netting off their fruit. ??. They will be part of the flock that had the running war with me last year. Cockies live long lives, over 30 years, and return to their eating trees each year. They have stripped the prunus trees on the nature strip along the street. Also my peach tree is so old and so big, that they will be the beneficiaries of the peaches. ?????
Now I’m going to make the mince pies that I couldn’t make the other day as the oven needed to be fixed. And I will eat one. Just to make sure they are fit for human consumption. ☕️☕️
Cheers, all. Bay
Sorry to hear you are struggling with fasts Bay, but maintainers know how to control themselves, so you are fine, I know.x
We don’t have fruit trees at home, but the cockies demolish (or boy prune) the gums and wattles to get seeds. Sometimes the street is almost impassable. Gotta love their style!
Fast, you are correct re recognising fasters in an obese crowd, but Happy is on the money…look at what they eat. Also look at people’s shopping trollies!
We fasted all day travelling yesterday but added a nice glass of red to the salmon and spinach omolettes.
Off to seek seafood and Cornish pasties..for cultural research ? P
Fast,
you shouldn’t tempt me with the idea of a rose between the teeth. I’m just daft enough to do exactly that!
Happy,
You’re spot on. The ones NOT carb-loading at lunchtime. Which, incidentally, is what I do all the time. For some strange reason a year or so ago the old bod decided it couldn’t handle carbs until evening and while still not losing the final 6 kilos or so (puts on Angry Bird face) I sure as hell haven’t put any back on, which is nothing short of miraculous. Glad you like the bookshop, it’s my kind of place.
Speaking of angry birds, I enjoyed your cockatoo story, Bay. It would be great if you did make it to Portugal one day. Neither I nor Him Indoors would have to be dragged kicking and screaming to Porto to continue our short but sweet conversation in Hampstead earlier this year. Maybe in this delightful place, not far from the bookshop: http://www.localporto.com/majestic-cafe-porto/
Purple,
Salmon and spinach – isn’t it great when good, healthy stuff is also delicious! Hope you find some nice Cornish pasties, in the interests of cultural research, of course. 🙂 Like fish and chips, they vary enormously in quality. Maybe if you happen to find a shop or stall run by a family who have been making pasties for generations, you’ll get the real deal. Have one for me, too!
Hi P!
Well I’ve cruised through two fasts this week, but gnawed a table leg yesterday on the day after a fast…
No idea what’s going on. I can easily fast for 23 hours and then eat a small meal. But the day after… I’m really struggling with the urge to eat, and not overeat, particularly mid afternoon.
Other than move my fast days to the weekend (or do ADF!) I’m not sure what I can do… Ah well, tomorrow is another day….
Hermaj,
I’d been wondering where you’d got to weightwise, because I know you’ve been on a long plateau, so thanks for the update…without me having to ask 🙂
And I’m still on it, Happy,
As well as doing 5:2 I quite instinctively observe somewhere between 16/8 and 15/9, simply because I can’t face food until early afternoon on a normal day. It has been suggested by one or two good friends whose view I respect – not members of the medical profession I might add – that maybe I have reached my natural weight and probably won’t lose much more.
The facts seem to bear this out. I’ve never been seriously ill, even escaping most of the childhood illnesses – I didn’t get chickenpox until I was 14 when I caught it off a kid in the Sunday School class I taught – hey don’t roll on the floor slapping your thighs I really DID teach Sunday School, but that was before I discovered boys…
I’ve never been hospitalised, never suffered an injury worse than a sprained ankle, all my vital signs are well within the acceptable range, and despite two diabetic parents my blood glucose levels are normal. Despite dental phobia – now cured by having finally found a dentist who provides sedation – I still have most of my teeth.
Even when I joined a health club while living in Switzerland and was not too far from an acceptable weight, the charming coach told me I would never be thin. I was “mollig” – a not-uncomplimentary term which translates as “well-rounded”. Of course, I’ll keep on trying, but I may have to be content with staying roughly the same weight ad infinitum. At least I don’t look too bad and no longer frighten the living daylights out of myself when I look in the mirror. And best of all, I haven’t regained any of it 🙂
Hi Hermaj,
A few themes get chewed over repeatedly, one being the issue of target weight/ natural weight.
I guess if one is a healthy weight, reasonably happy with how clothes fit, waist +/- half height, able to see/reach feet and carry out normal day to day life, then your in a minority these days and can’t really complain!
You’re clearly a successful maintainer. I’m not sure why you didn’t join us sooner 🙂
Hermaj, you sound lovely! I always thought ‘mollig’ was a beautiful word – one if those which sounds exactly like what it signifies. What a compliment!
Cruisin, P, yes – but cruisin very carefully, so as to have wiggle room for you-know-what. Out for lunch today, and having seen the menu already, there will be no breakfast and it will either be doggie bags at the end or a very abstemious weekend to follow.
How much of your holiday left?
First…Hermaj looks wonderful folks! She is positively glowing. ? Definitely a successful maintainer. I’m glad you’ve joined us at last.
Sorry you are a bit rocky Happy, but you really don’t need to worry either. ..’willowy’, I’d describe you. ?
Well done Carol, keep sailing with the wind!
Fast, you are experienced enough to have excellent self control too. ?
We are nearly half way through our journey. Plenty more time to try to avoid the carb based offerings tempting us at every turn! Just as well most of our accommodation has a kitchen for at least one home cooked meal a day. ?
Cheers P
Hi Carolann,
Technically I’m still borderline obese, BMI 29, but it was pushing 35 when I started, not helped by being stuffed full of steroids to treat polymyalgia (aches in multiple muscles) which disappeared with in a week or so. I would have accepted having to take them for 6 months or so, but the doc kept me on the buggers for 2 1/2 years. Quite apart from giving me a big moon face and little piggy eyes and piling on the kilos, they screwed up my immune system so that I wound up with shingles – the closest I ever got to being really ill. Fortunately, it was confined to my face, not pretty – especially cleverly coordinated with the big slobber-chops – but far less painful and incapacitating than having it on the body.
It took me two years to lose 14 kilos and I’ve been on a plateau ever since (OK I’ve lost another a kilo or so in past 6 months). Technically, my weight is unhealthy but as you can see I am not. I’m older than God, but am still in good shape, physically and mentally – still doing a mind-bending job and I managed to get a Master’s degree last year. I must be doing something right. Purple – a lady who tells it like it is – was able to have a very close look at me a few days ago and you see her verdict above.
BTW the medical profession, no doubt encouraged by Big Pharma – have already moved the BMI goal posts once in recent years. BMI 27.5 used to indicate a good, acceptable weight. Then it went down to 25. That way, a lot of people who thought they were a healthy weight found themselves classified as fatties and stuffed with sweeties by the quacks “just in case” which no doubt thrilled the pharmaceutical industry to bits. Sorry, I’m inclined to be cynical. I now avoid doctors as much as I possibly can.
As I said before, I will keep on following 5:2 in the knowledge I might not lose much more, or any at all, but will still be doing my general health a lot of good. The amazing thing is that I’ve not regained an ounce, which until now was unheard of. In my 20s while travelling in southern Europe in high summer I gained 6 kilos in 4 days. It was too darned hot to eat very much at all and the others with me either lost or stayed the same. No doubt my problem was fluid retention. A weekend with the Ma-in-law usually resulted in a 3-kilo gain which would take 6 or more months to lose – added to which I’d had a miserable time, the good lady is slightly to the right of Genghis Khan. After a while, I would find excuses, e.g. fabricated work deadlines, to stay a home.
In answer to Happy, I choose my clothes with care to make sure I look pretty good in them. It’s a case of being aware of current style, but editing it carefully and making sure to disguise the wobbly bits that even a lot of sylph-like women still have. I can see my feet AND touch them. I spend much of the day bending down to pick up stuff I’ve dropped or knocked over and sent hurtling to the floor. Big dictionaries falling off the desk can scare the pants off you, they make a hell of a racket as they hit the deck. The posh word is dyspraxia, the not so posh ones are dead clumsy, ham-fisted etc. Nowadays, kids get help, I used to get a clip round the ear. Fat lot of good that did. 🙁
Very interesting reading hermaj. My initial response is that medication has the ability to send our metabolism off the rails and maybe the long term use of those steroids had had a negative effect and it may take quite a while to rectify that. Seems you are on the right track though – a significant weight loss until,plateauing and then a much slower weight loss, but still losing. Weight loss and weight are just numbers. What’s more important is your physical and mental health. You say you are physically and mentally healthy and I think that’s the most important issue.
Keep on doing what you have been I’d say. Best of luck! ?
Hi Carolann,
Thanks for your sympathetic response. There were, in fact, two long plateaux in those two years. I forgot to mention. It was in the midst of the steroid period, before 5:2 had even been heard of, that my other half and I married after 24 years of “living in sin”. Fortunately, it was a very low-key affair, just us and two friends who were our witnesses. I was the ugliest bride on the planet, wearing a baggy size 20 top, which when you are 1.55 tall is obscene. I deleted all the wedding photos. The one surviving piccy is on the M-i-l’s sideboard. It’s as if she gets some perverse pleasure from seeing me in that state.
What tends to get forgotten is that 5:2 was not initially designed as a weight-loss programme, but as a way of treating diabetes, increasing lifespan et al. Weight loss was an unexpected but very welcome side effect. Just for fun, I did one of those longevity quizzes online a couple of days ago. I answered as honestly as I could. If these things are to be believed, I’m gonna be around annoying everybody until I’m 99. 🙂
Fast – thanks for your kind words. Do I take it you are a German speaker? An alternative to “mollig” is “zaftig”, which is also used in Yiddish and regarded as a compliment. A dear Jewish friend uses it to describe me – and herself. The literal translation is “juicy”.
Hi Hermaj – good to hear from you. Shall we say I used to be a German speaker? Most of it has now deserted me through lack of practice, though I’m sure it would come back, given the opportunity, and odd bits surface from time to time. ‘Mollig’ was a lovely reminder! These days I work to retain my French (belong to a French book group, as well as an English one – just finished Camus ‘La Peste’, and for a Christmas treat are moving on to Asterix et les Normands! ) and have s smattering of Spanish (was a good GCSEs two years ago, but disappearing fast) in order to keep up with sons, who live in southern Spain. The only bit of German which frequently goes through my head now is ‘die Luft ist kühl und es dunkelt / und ruhig fließ der Rhein; / die Gipfeln des Bergen funkelt / im Abendsonnenschein’. Not a fat lot of use!!
I’m sorry about the polymyalgia: I know it’s absolutely miserable. And steroids, while helping the condition, just compound the misery. You’ve clearly had a very rough time – and survived with grace, humour (and healthy cynicism!) intact! I understand the dyspraxia, too, as I have a grandson (now 27) who’s affected. And the reason for my visits to NHNN is that I have generalised Dystonia -henceforth referred to as The Embuggerance! In tribute to Terry Pratchett, whose own Embuggerance was so much worse. Like you, I was dismissed/rubbished as a clumsy kid – never managed to catch a ball/ ride a bike/ knit, though the major symptoms didn’t hit until my 40s – but the good result was that I took refuge in books. Interestingly, I’ve been told that although they’re not aware of a definite connection between dyspraxia and Dystonia, it would be a good idea to keep a close eye on Grandson. At least if he starts to show major symptoms he might get a diagnosis in less than the 10 years it took me!
And I don’t believe you’re older than God – another war / just postwar baby? Too old even to count as a Boomer!!
Hi Fast,
Just a very quick response for the moment. The day job often continues into the weekend and I’ve got a French project that never seems to end but which has to be done, dusted and delivered by the end of the coming week. I have mentioned, I think, that the day job is as a freelance translator, specialising in arts and media.
One of the great joys of the forum is the discovery that you share so much with fellow posters, quite apart from our common desire to lose a kilo or three and live healthily to a ripe old age. Your post has ticked so many boxes, it deserves a nice, unhurried reply. 🙂
Hermaj and Fast, I had to look up the meaning of dyspraxia and dystonia. Neither condition sounds particularly nice! Definitely a cross to bear.
I’m I pressed by your linguistic skills! Particularly French book club Fast – very impressive.
Living on an island as we do there’s never been the emphasis on learning nor the opportunity to practice a second language as there is in England. In my day at school it was German or French which was fairly useless IMO. No opportunity to use the skill in real life. By the time my sons went to school it was Italian and Chinese. No idea what languages the kids are learning these days.
I do envy those who have second (and third and fourth!) languages, I think it is an amazing skill to have!
Well not sure what is going on……
The last three Monday’s when I have weighed prior to beginning FD I have been over my upper limit.
My trigger point is 60kg and for the past year have always been in the 58’s and 59’s with very little conscious effort.
When I got back from OS holidays I was about 500g less than trigger point and fully expected now that I was home and back to normal eating patterns etc I would go back to the weight I had been. I didn’t have scales with me while away so no idea how much my weight was fluctuating.
However as I said the past three Monday’s I have been 60.5, 61 and today 60.7. And I can’t explain why! My diet has returned to normal. The only change has been the walking. We walked a lot while we were away which I am sure helped counteract the extra eating. . But I wasn’t doing heaps of walking before we went away so can’t understand why the weight gain now.
Something else – may be relevent, may not – I have been experiencing a lot of abdo and back pain for the past 4 weeks and doctor has diagnosed diverticulitis. No testing carried out, just his theory. I’ve been on antibiotics for a week and the pain is lessening.
Once I do my FD the weight drops rapidly. I haven’t been weighing every day for months now as I didn’t need to so don’t know when the weight starts to creep back on. But just very annoying this has just suddenly come out of the blue!
Happy I scrolled back through your posts but with no success looking for a post where I think you mentioned a similar thing happening?
ugh!!! So frustrated!!
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8:09 am
6 Dec 15