As I read your post, Purple, I can still taste the small cube of St Agur which I’ve just enjoyed. It was the last piece in the packet and it seemed a pity to leave it languishing in the fridge…

Apart from a good, strong English Cheddar and some English and Welsh goat cheese I have to confess that I prefer Continental varieties, especially French and Italian, the odd Spanish one, like Manchego, and Swiss Appenzeller. I don’t like Dutch or most other Swiss cheeses at all. They taste of nothing and their rubbery texture is not very appealing.

I can’t imagine that Oz, with its generations of migrants coming from all over Europe and beyond, hasn’t managed to produce at least some interesting cheeses. Or is it that many of the incomers came from regions where the local cheese was boring?

Hi thin, we haven’t exchanged too many posts lately, but it’s good to see that we’re both alive, well and hopefully thriving.

Hermaj,

Except for strong goats cheese I think I might like them all! I was clearly born for high fat low carb 🙂

I used to THINK we had good cheeses, Herm. But the more I go to the UK, the better your cheeses are in comparison.
Just looked up umami flavours….they are clearly my weakness (along with a good wine). 😊🍷

How was the luncheon Purple? Did you have a chance to chat? Does Dr M suggest people switch to 5:2 once they’ve completed his 8 week blood sugar diet? I noted there were plants in the Insight audience who’d been selected due to their having been on the BSD for 3 weeks (or the other way round, perhaps). One recipient said he couldn’t wait to get off it but not much was said about what they could expect when they completed it or how they should maintain their new weight. We all know what they must do – but do they? I hope you had fun. I’d love to have that opportunity.

Hello folks.

‘Durrh moment’ of the week: here I am, on my weekend of ‘no wholegrains, no fruit and veg’ diet (ie nothing I would normally eat, everything I never normally touch – the liquid dynamite gets added in tomorrow) and appreciating afresh precisely why refined white carbs make people fat –

– it’s because they don’t keep you satisfied for more than 5 minutes – and there is nothing you can eat to fill a small hole which doesn’t have masses of calories!
Slight exaggeration, perhaps, but I am truly hungry (hungrier than on FDs!) and where I’d normally eat, say, an apple as a snack, a biscuit at twice the calories won’t stave off hunger for nearly as long. Tonight I shall cook chicken breasts (the ones i did yesterday using your recipe were brilliant, hermaj) – while OH will have his with yummy veg, I shall eat mine plain – and guess who will be hungry again before bedtime?! (I could have potatoes, white bread, white rice – all higher calorie/lower and shorter satiety , as well as less tasty, than veg.)

Nothing new under the sun. It’s in a good cause; it’s nothing any of us didn’t already know; I shall manage with eggs, fish, yogurt etc for lots of protein; it will all be over by Monday. But if I were less well informed, less well motivated (and prepared to be a bit hungry rather than eating many times my tdee in a day) and eating like this long-term, obesity would be not just likely but inevitable, I reckon. The temptation to return constantly to more and more food, which satisfies for so little time but ramps up so much consumption, would be enormous. No wonder it leads so often to ‘permanently filling one’s face’ syndrome!!

Ah well – grandmothers, eggs, sucking and all that – don’t all post in reply saying. ‘Surprise – who knew?!’ Yes, I knew – but the reminder which confirms the theory yet again is salutary!

Fast, I wonder are you preparing for colonoscopy as I have just done? I know what you mean about the white food! Surprising thing for me was no weight loss to speak of despite not eating much because I just couldn’t ‘stomach’ all that white food – must be the water adds weight. I had to fast for 30 hours and if I wasn’t such an experienced faster I think I would have really struggled with that. As it was by the last day at lunch time I was salivating every time I looked at any sort of food. And to get back to my whole grains and fruit after everything was done was just pure joy lol! 🌽🍓🍇🍆

Hope it all goes ok Fast. ☺

Fast,

My Dad had surgery for bowel cancer 6 years ago, and went through the unpleasant investigations in advance. So don’t worry that you’re upsetting us with details.

Re: diet. I don’t remember whether he had any restrictions. He did lose quite a bit of weight around surgery though, but then he could afford to! Mind you, he gained it back…but has since embarked on 5:2 lifestyle and is now a healthy weight!

I hope it goes without saying that I wish you well. You will let us know that you’re still alive though…?! 🙂

Fast,

If a blow by blow account helps you, don’t worry about us!

I can’t really offer much in respect of your worries…except that I’m sure you won’t undo 3 years of 5:2! As to DH’s cooking…good luck with that 🙂

So far the medical profession has kept away from my rear end, so I’ve no comparable experience…

However, anything involving hospitals freaks me out, dating from the time it took (or so I was told) 5 people to hold 4-year-old me down so that they could administer eyedrops, something I do for myself now and actually enjoy. So my heart goes out to you, Fast. Hope everything that precedes the op, the op itself, and the aftermath, including DH’s cooking, which may surprise you in the nicest possible way, will go perfectly.

What an amusing post Fast. I’m surprised that you didn’t include the albeit not likely potential for them to get the two ends mixed up in your list of concerns. All the best with it all. These days we leave the flying to OH and the driving to me because I’m much better at it and I understand how a roundabout works.

Hermaj, continue to stay away from hospitals if you want to keep well. Are you OK Carol?

Happy, Purple – thanks for the info on BSD maintenance strategies. I don’t have any plans to try it as I’m more than happy with 5:2 and if it ain’t broke….. I was just curious because I have two friends who were both scared into losing substantial amounts of weight when first diagnosed with diabetes and promptly gained it all back and then some. We all know ‘diets’ don’t work long-term so I wondered about the value of another “8 week diet”.

I’m enjoying a lovely day of fasting today following two rather substantial breakfasts this week. OH won’t share a ‘big breakfast’ so I was forced to eat two of everything when one would do. Please don’t write in to say I could have just left the other half because I just can’t do waste (brainwashed from childhood). Fortunately this happens very infrequently nowadays plus I had almost no dinner on both days. Still learning.

Enjoy the weekend everyone, what lovely autumn days we’re having here in the west.

Funnily enough, a group of cyclists were talking loudly at the next table about portion sizes. One of their mates apparently owns a restaurant and claims that 30% of food served on plates is returned uneaten. When asked why he didn’t just serve less, the reply was that he couldn’t compete if he did that and besides, customers were paying for it so he didn’t care.

We don’t do it often, and usually only when out kayaking, but all the restaurants we frequent are more than happy to let DD and I share a breakfast. I like that, you can taste a little of everything at a reasonable price (we’re typically paying $30 for a cooked breakfast with coffee in Perth by the way).

Hi Thin

Luckily OH will share a meal or a breakfast. We also share a pizza. In the bad old days we would eat one each.

Otherwise, we ask the wait staff if they do half size breakfasts. Many cafes will. Today for lunch we shared a breakfast meal that was Moroccan spices, chickpeas, tomato, aubergine, chilli, feta cheese, egg. Delicious. A slice of grain sourdough came with it.

You nailed it. Diets don’t work in the long run. To succeed in keeping the weight off, we have to believe and accept that 5:2 is our new way of life. We have to learn portion control and understand that we have been eating too much for most of our later years.

No one can do 800 calories a day for 8 weeks or practise 5:2 intermittent fasting for 12 months, and then go back to eating what they did before, without dire consequences. Not if we want to stay slim.

Still very hot here. In the miDst of a week of over 30 C temperatures. 😎😎🌞🌞☀️☀️☀️😎

Cheers, Bay 😎😎🌺🌺

Hi Bay, nice to hear from you – how’s it all going? Purple, we have a standard paddle route that we enjoy that takes about 2 hours to reach the breakfast cafe. We rarely see anyone along the way, sometimes pass one or two other kayakers and an abundance of birds. It is so peaceful and hard to believe you’re so close to the city. Then another couple of hours back and breakfast is sort of justified.

Without having read the BSB book, and I know you have Bay, I guess what I’m getting at is that we already have a winner here with 5:2. Adherents know that this is a change for life. By its very nature, none of us need feel deprived and most of us have noticed a natural adjustment in portion size and changed eating desires (some, like me, are still a work in progress). By contrast, an 8 week 800 calorie per day programme doesn’t seem sustainable on any level. Those poor devils can’t be expected to stick to that plan for life surely? Is it designed as some sort of kick-start precursor to 5:2?

I remember we had discussions before the publication of the updated 5:2 book. We were disappointed that the original book had so little on maintenance, and hoped the omission would be rectified.

As it turns out, those of us who are maintaining already know the ‘secret’, at it’s most basic ‘eat less’! We’ve accepted that we can’t revert to the old eating habits (quantity, quality) that made us fat in the first place. We know that if we want to overeat we will have to pay for it by eating less before or after. We accept that we can’t have ‘treats’ every day, and some things we like very much (sugar and bread!) need to contribute a smaller proportion of our diet. We are constantly mindful about portion sizes and choices. We weigh up the pros and cons – will that slice of cake really be nice enough to make it worth giving up lunch for? We monitor our weight, and face the truth of our choices head on. We remind ourselves regularly that it is far far better to watch what we eat and be a healthy weight than to be a glutton and have the unhealthy waist measurement to prove it.

I can see the benefits of the BSD, if you are heavy/ diabetic or pre-, in quickly shedding lbs and reducing BS, but it might not be long enough to embed healthy new habits for maintenance. Those of us who lost weight more gradually on 5:2 had longer for our preferences to alter naturally, and had to make changes around fasting to make it work for us long-term, and perhaps the increased flexibility of 5:2 is better in that respect than the comparative rigidity of the 8 week BSD?

Yee-haa! Jump up and down, wave your knickers in the air!!

I’m off the plateau! After two days of feeling generally yuck and under the weather and eating only what I could bear to, like a slice of toast and a cup of soup once a day, I’m 3lbs (1.5kg) lighter! Sorry about all the exclamation marks.

I’m talking imperial rather than metric, since Sir, being typically British, has set our alternative scales (double-checked to make sure they are exactly the same as our other set) to stones and lbs. Even though I’m feeling somewhat better, I shall continue to be extra careful over the next few weeks to lessen the chances of regaining.

Thinking about the BSD, I’m with Purple, thin and Bay, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Certainly worth a go for absolute beginners, but not really for those of us for whom 5:2 has worked – OK, not as fast as some of us would like, but it’s a way of eating, not a diet in the traditional sense of the word. Also, from past experience, I’ve found very restrictive diets have a nasty way of coming back and biting you on the bum.

Back in the 80s I did a thing called the Rotation Diet which rotated between a couple of days on 600 cals, a couple more on 900 cal and a couple more on 1200 cal (can’t remember exactly how many days at each level but they added up to seven). Of course it worked initially BUT even the author admitted that for some dieters, especially women (including guess who), 1200 cal sometimes proved too much after a time and they ended up regaining the lost weight. I still occasionally use some of the recipes which fit nicely into 5:2.

thin, you’re so right about keeping away from hospitals, although one day it might be inevitable to give in. I had a very similar conversation with a dear male buddy last weekend. If you don’t want to grow old, stay away from the docs – and he’s married to a recently retired district nurse, who, oddly enough, tends to agree.

From 50-ish onwards, they start shovelling pills down your throat, “just in case”. I had nasty experiences with steroids and statins and coming off the beastly things had a very positive effect on my general health – the big fat moon face and hippo-like body and the scream-out-loud muscle pains immediately began to disappear. Of course, 5:2 must have helped, at least with the hippo syndrome.

I’m now weaning myself off the BP meds and am down to the very low dose twice weekly, but the BP measured at home two or three times a week is pretty healthy –
although the medics would have us believe that 120-125 over 65-70 – which is about my average but day to day it’s often lower, like 118/60 – is pre-diabetic.

Bay, once again you describe a fabulous menu consisting of all my kind of food. The only difference would be that I couldn’t handle it for breakfast, nor possibly for lunch, but it would be a dinner made in heaven.

Wow, her, well done!! Sorry it took feeling ill – and without being a wet blanket, don’t be depressed if a tiny bit goes back on when you feel better and start eating properly – but it’s a fantastic kickstart / springboard to work from. And if anyone deserves it, for perseverance and sheer stubbornness, you do!

Best of luck with everything Fast! Thinking of you!

Yes, I’m fine thanks Thin – made it through the other side and boy did I enjoy the ham salad sandwich and dry scone afterwards! 🍪

Hermaj, so pleased you have got off your plateau! Well done!

Definitely intended as a compliment, H!

Well done Silva. I guess we are the lucky ones…we found a system that works for us. Let’s hope the BSD can also offer a path to health for even more lucky people. The movement towards healthier lifestyles is unstoppable! ! 😊 P

I wonder if Dr M sits down with a frothy coffee after a fast day and reads these posts. I hope so. There’s so much to learn from everyone here. We are the lucky ones – but we also deserve a collective pat on the back because not everyone can do this.

All the best for today Fast. Glad you’ve come out the other side Carol and well done Hermaj – enough weight lost to use as a motivational springboard.

Hermaj, I lived in the USA for many years. My dad came to visit one year and, astonished by the amount of food offered and consumed, made an entire video solely of people’s enormous rear ends. Many were clothed in lycra, the wearing of which my OH says is a privilege not a right. One particularly perverse section was filmed outside Hershey’s chocolate factory with caustic un-PC voice-overs from my dad. Nowadays of course, this problem is by no means limited to the USA. But it certainly started there if the doco, ‘The Men Who Made Us Fat’ is to be believed.

To be fair though, it’s a vast country, I’ve lived in several states and found that people’s attitudes, diets and lifestyles do vary considerably from state to state. I had an amusing experience once when returning to the deep south after starting a new life in California and having taken up jogging. Drivers would slow down to ask me if I was running from the law or whether I needed help. No-one had ever seen anyone just running for pure exercise before.

That should say SHIRITAKI! Oops 😳

Mmm..lime, dill and yoghurt..yum!

I’m struggling through learning a Moszkowski on the piano to stop thinking of food. The coffee is nearly cool enough…🍵

It looked like a black coffee, but ended up green on the site!!!
🍵 Still green. Weird!