Hi Bay and Purple, I found a copy of the MM Blood Sugar Diet today and had a quick flick through it. It reminded me of The Glucose Revolution. Do either of you have that? It’s actually out of date now but I’m just wondering do I really want to buy another ‘diet’ book. Wondered if either of you had any thoughts (or anyone else who may be familiar with the glucose revolution)?

The BSG does have examples,of 800 calorie meals but I can work that out myself anyway with My Fitness Pal.

Ditto, Carol and Purple. I looked at the sample pages of the BSD book in the Kindle store, and decided it wasn’t different enough from what we already know/are doing to justify cost, effort etc. If it were broke… But it ain’t, so why fix it?

Just finished a 24 hour water, coffee fast day. Had vegetable soup with some flakes of real Parmesan 😜😜

I’ve got more cookery books than most people have had hot dinners. I’m guessing somewhere in the hundreds, including a 24-book series entitled Cookery Around the World, which provided me with what amounted to a 4-year part-time job as I translated the whole lot from German. Also included are Mimi’s excellent Fast Diet Recipe Book and Fast Cook, on which the greasy fingermarks and gravy stains testify to their frequent use and my messiness.

Like Carol, Purple and Fast, I’m not tempted to buy any more recipe books. There are lots of 5:2-friendly recipes and recipe collections online and even those not directly related to this WOE offer nutritional information, which is what we all need.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/ is a great source. Among other things, you can choose which recipes to consider according to calorie content and/or various other criteria. I have a massive file of print-outs of fast-day main courses at less than 300 cals a throw – also covered with mucky fingerprints.

P.S. Well done, Bay. You’re a hero. 🙂

You really get down and dirty with your cooking, obviously Herm! 😉
I like to put into Google a list of ingredients I have in the fridge and see what ideas I get. I use Taste.com often as they work well. Another go-to is Hugh F-W’s 3 Good Things …some great, novel, food combinations. Keeping my low carb, full fat, leafy veg motto in mind, I have a massive bank of exciting eating sensations…an absolute must, as far as I’m concerned, to maintain, but still enjoy eating. I’m an incurable food lover. 😀 P

Funny really that we’re a bunch of foodies. I bet no one seeing us in the street now would stop and think ‘now there’s a lady that likes her food’…!

Hi Purple.
I use taste.com.au for exactly the same purpose. Ingredients in the fridge and how best to cook them. I am using the BSD book to keep the brain interested in the whole process. Same as my Fitbit. Fascinated to see that I sleep around the same amount no matter when I go to bed.

Finding the Fitbit is useful to prod me into 10,000 steps if I happen to have a slow day. Yesterday played 9 holes of golf while fasting, and managed over 15,000 steps for the whole day, including dog walk in early morning cool. ⛳️⛳️🐾🐾

It was 35 C yesterday and will be again today and tomorrow. I know this is our last hurrah of heat before we head into Autumn. Already we have leaves on the Mongolian pears changing into glorious colour on their edges, because we are so cool at night. I love Autumn best. Warm days, cool nights. Sometimes a variation of 20C degrees during the 5 am to 5 pm window. 🌞🌞🌞🌞😎😎😎😎☀️☀️☀️

Sending you lovely sunshine in the NH. Cheers, Bay 🌺🌺🌺

I do get down and dirty, P. I really need a cook’s labourer but if Hismaj starts clearing up after me – and putting away things I haven’t yet finished with -I tend to get very annoyed.

You and I are clearly singing from the same hymn sheet. Like you, I enter the ingredients that I have to hand and see what Google suggests. I’m partly motivated by being a waste-not-want-not war baby, i.e. I hate seeing stuff die from neglect in the fridge, so a meal might be built round a couple of tired but still edible veggies.

And thanks for reminding me of the name of taste.com.- from where I’m sitting its taste.com.au. I knew they was an Aussie site where I’ve often found good stuff, but couldn’t recall the name.

Carolann, I also find egg and/or tuna fast day lifesavers with a few salad leaves. Yes, do have a look at the Beeb. Also, you and anyone else who’s interested might like this one: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/low-calorie_recipes. There’s a link on the home page to intermittent dieting restricted recipes (i.e. 5:2)

Indeed Fast😊
A few years ago, when I retired, I spent ages typing out all my best recipes, and getting one of my sons to follow the instructions to test them out. He proved to be an excellent cook, and I sent a copy (digitally) to all the “kids”. I found it excellent when I was overseas, as my favourite recipes were right there on my tablet. Well worth passing on family favourites.
As to the filing cabinet and childrens’ toy cupboards….someone else can do that!!! P 😇

When I started 5:2, I planned out my fast days for 4 weeks in advance. I used a UK website – Good To Know. It has meals under 300 cals, meals under 200 cals, etc and I mixed and matched my and OH’s intake on an Excel spreadsheet. I still use my faves regularly, all sorted in files by cals ‘under 300 cals’; ‘under 200 cals’, etc. Just checked and it’s all still there. http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/538311/5-2-diet-meal-plans-what-to-eat-for-500-calorie-fast-days Scroll down the page.

I have another file entitled, ‘family meals’ which are the recipes I can use on a FD but that the whole family also like. Another contains FD meals suitable for self-catering accommodation while travelling.

I like the idea of preparing meals on FDs, spending time making tasty and nourishing recipes & learning not to lick the spoon and testing things. Only problem is that I often experience brain fog on fast days and find myself having to really concentrate hard before things sink in. Unfortunately, the theory that we are at our sharpest in a fasting state so that we can find food, remember how to get it, etc doesn’t apply to me.

Fantastic site Thin thank you! Didn’t realise there were so many low calorie delicious meals!

I’m going to have a good look and print some off.

🍗🍳🍲

Thanks hermaj and Thin. I am doing one of the dishes from the site for tea tonight. I will def try the chicken and bacon Thin. I also noticed your pork chop /steak recipe with apple. One of our favs is pork steak with a slice of apple either side held in place by a slice of prosciutto and then fry. We had pork steak last night but thought I’d keep it lean and not add the apple and prosciutto but with your recipe we can get the flavour of the apple without the prosciutto. Yay! I must say the apple and prosciutto keep the pork very moist.

I’m in bed starting to salivate about my breakfast! 😄

I think I wondered a few days ago whether my technoklutzery can get any worse. The answer is, it certainly can – and does. Especially, when for some reason, the system decides to ask me to log in when I firmly believed I already was.

Apart from being deluded, there was no way on earth I could remember my password. I tried various of the rude Spanish words I have taken to using as passwords, to no avail. When I asked to reset my password, I was – quite rightly – sent a scramble of letters, numbers and do-hickies which I assumed I could change to something more memorable. No chance. Second request, same result.

In the end the ever-patient JJ did me a baby version, i.e. she did most of the work for me and finally it all slotted into place. Sometimes I begin to understand why my Luddite brother wants nothing to do with IT – apart, that is, from constantly fiddling with his mobile.

Right, Whinging Pom routine over. Glad you are finding the links useful Carolann. It’s amazing, thin, how “normal” some fast day dishes can be. In other words, in many cases initially hesitant intermittent fasters like your OH must be genuinely amazed at the healthy, lo-cal nature of some of the grub they are tucking into. And with the introduction of stuff like Slim Rice and Zero Noodles, it’s possible to get really full-up for incredibly few calories. One of Mimi’s two books I mentioned – I think it’s the Fast Diet Cookbook – has a fabulous Chicken Putannesca of dinner-party standard that comes in well under 300 cals.

Good Carol, have fun with those. I like the pork/apple one too – smells delicious while you’re making it.

Bay, can you recommend that fitbit? Hope all’s going well for you.

I love that combo of flavours Purple, used a lot at our house; we have an excellent lime tree, lemongrass, mint and a good supply of chilli growing. While DD has been away, OH and I have enjoyed fish almost every night.

Keep cool. We have one more stinker predicted this week, 39C. I’m hoping that’s it but unlike the east, we can still endure those temperatures anytime throughout March.

Hermaj, thanks for posting those beeb low cal recipes. How do you know that JJ is a female? I hope you hadn’t written much when you discovered you were not logged in? That’s happened to me lots of times losing my entire diatribe in the process. After the swearing, I always put it down to being reminded not to ramble so much. Yet, here I am.

Thin I have a Misfit Shine. Similar to Fitbit, but much prettier and has a battery, so no recharging. Mr P stops moving at all when his Fitbit is on charge!
Like Bay, we aim for a minimum of 10,000, often get more, but with this hot weather, hunkering down in my nice, naturally cooled house, I barely make 5000.
33 here now, but a beautiful seabreeze has started. Excellent..we are sailing on the harbour tonight. P

Hi Fast
I’ll hit the 10000 by the time I get home, but on Monday, I had to go for a long walk in the evening as, despite mowing LOTS of lawns and heavy duty weeding and clipping for most of the morning, I’d only clicked up 2500. In the heat, I KNOW I’d burnt lots of cals. Very annoying! P

Crazy! (The tracker, not you, herm)😁

Which is why I feel guilty about “not doing the right thing”, P.

Obviously 10K steps or more is the optimum. I would say that although it might not reduce your size, 10K-plus steps and the calories burned achieving them will compensate for any surplus calories consumed – e.g. on holiday. On recent trips, I confess to have sometimes overdone things but still returned home with minimal weight gain, sometimes even none at all.

I was just wondering whether the 3 X 30 minutes a week is perhaps bad advice, although for someone very unfit it seems like a good goal to aim for at the beginning.

Thanks for the update, Happy.

Quite by coincidence I was about to post another update, this time on the Hermaj-Halifax debacle that occurred last week. Phone call this afternoon from a very pleasant person from customer services at head office, apologising for the whole incident – being told I couldn’t withdraw a cheque on an account in my name without photo-ID, the refusal based on totally false information. The offenders will be put on the corporate naughty step until they learn to get their facts straight.

As compensation, they’ve paid me 50 quid for distress and inconvenience caused. I guess I could have asked for more if I’d thought on my feet, but I was only really expecting an apology.

Ha, Fast, what more reward could the poor so and so want than to be rewarded with Hermaj in full flow?! Priceless 🙂

Don’t. Think. They’d. Dare x

Hermaj

No guilt, but strong advice from MM. 👯👯💃💃🐾🐾⛳️⛳️

Re Government guidelines, they are always the absolute minimum needed to get someone of their butt and moving. If you read the MM research collation, it shows we should get up and walk around the desk etc every hour without fail. I’ve never forgotten the sludgy blood MM had when he was sedentary.

For health we need to aim for 10,000 steps a day. The 5x 30 minutes exercise is the absolute minimum to stay alive and keep our muscles working etc. 🐾🐾💐💐

Just in case I’m making you mad as, I’m not succeeding in losing any weight. I am fasting twice a week, losing weight, and then nibbling it back on non fast days. 😎😎

It’s going to be 38 C today the last of the heatwave, haha! Tomorrow will be 31 C and the weather man is trying to sell it as a cooler day. I’m not complaining as I love the warmth and the sunshine. ☀️☀️☀️☀️🌞🌞🌞🌞😎😎😎😎💐. Sending some to the NH.

Cheers, Bay 🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

Bay!

I had one of those ‘nibbling it back’ non-fast days today too! Nothing unhealthy, just too much grazing. Very frustrating 🙁 I wish I knew what I was craving so I could just eat it and be done!!

I don’t envy you your temperatures, I’d settle for 20c and think it was a heatwave! Cold here again today, top temp 6 and even though it was sunny the ice didn’t melt from the lanes.

Morning all and thanks for the input on the fitbit thingy. I need to get one. Purple, is the battery option preferable to the re-chargeable IYHO? I agree Bay, those recommendations are generally absolute minimums designed to encourage people who would otherwise do nothing to do something. Remember that most people don’t exercise at all.

I walk 5km a day as an absolute minimum, sometimes further or do it twice. We like to also paddle our kayaks & ride our bikes but we always walk to the shops or library and, when driving, park at the far end of car parks, etc. OH uses his bike as transport wherever possible. When I’m walking by myself I incorporate HIT. So we consider ourselves fairly active yet my walking buddy (now 96kgs) has a fitbit & says that our 5km walk doesn’t clock up 10,000 steps. We all tend to think we’re more active than we actually are.

Hermaj, don’t feel guilty about anything. Everyone does what they can. It’s harder to get motivated when it’s drizzling and the nature of your work makes you sedentary. I sometimes spend long periods on the laptop when I’m working and I have taken to standing up at the kitchen bench. Apart from anything else, it feels much better.

Bay, that’s lovely that you’ve been able to celebrate your friends’ life in style. I hope things get easier for you all soon. 😆

No idea how hot it is ….predicted high 30s, (apparently it’s 39) I’m in an old train carriage with no aircon OR opening windows!!! Cripes!!!
Thin, I gave my Fitbit to Mr P because I MUCH prefer my Misfit 😆 P