Driving through the northern rivers canefields with the sun setting. Beautiful. We just broke our 3rd fast for the week with a little salami and cheese and water. Turns out ADF is easy to do.
Hope you are all cruising too. P ☺
This topic contains 11,643 replies, has 174 voices, and was last updated by Mr Data 4 months, 3 weeks ago.
Wow, ADF, P! That is commitment.
We had a stunning sunset here last night. Big orange/pink sun, with beautiful multicoloured sky and cloud formations, and amazingly sharp rays. I was on the motorway driving into it, cursing my luck as it would have been a great picture…I glanced in my rear view mirror as I passed a car, only to see the driver holding up a camera to his face, clearly similarly thinking it worth capturing. Hmm, what could possibly go wrong at 70mph in rush hour…
Well done Purple, Ive only done ADF once and felt a bit shaky on it,,don’t think I ate enough on the non FD. lost 1kg after my FD this week – unusually high but I’m not complaining😄 Off to Hawaii for 10 days, no scales, will see how I go but I seem to have holidays under control. Looking forward to some beautiful sunsets there. BTW does anyone know if I can freeze the kefir yoghurt I have in the fridge? It’s nearly full and seems a waste to throw it out.
Hi P – yes thanks: one small op done, one due next weds, one larger one under negotiation for later. Finally eating again, and weight now back up from the week before last’s all-time, bit worrying, low of 101lb (45.8 Kg). Not fasting at the moment, needless to say, and probably a good thing I hadn’t been doing the sugar challenge before the week-locked-in-the-loo began!! Keeping up my intake of Good Stuff, and supplementing with cake…sorry! Can’t wait to get sorted, and – never thought I’d say this – can’t wait to find I have to fast again!
How are you? Are you home now?
Hi there, lovely people 🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺
I’m sorry to have not let you know that I haven’t been doing the sugar free Lent for some time. I have no excuse but just couldn’t stick to it when we were celebrating the last 3 weeks of a friend’s life with him. We ate, drank and were merry until we weren’t any more. It was a good way to die, even though way too young.
Since then, a few other life events have meant that I have not fasted for some time. I trust that after Easter I will get back into my 5:2 normal way of life. 🎉🎉
I’ve been lurking on 5:2 with no intent. Other than to keep up with all your news. 😉😉. It is beautiful Autumn weather here and the trees are just beginning to change colour. By April it will be glorious. Happy Easter to you all.
Cheers, Bay 💐💐🌼🌼🌷🌷🌺🌺🌞🌞🌞🌞
Last one before the Autumn? Or can you go on camping into the winter?
We’ve had a couple of days of lovely sunshine, with the beginnings of real warmth – but warm/wet/wild returns tomorrow, we’re told. (Naturally, since it’s the first, 4 day, bank holiday of the year…). Had a lovely walk across London and back yesterday, with an interval for a brief but entertaining lunch with hermaj (our hermaj, not the one in Buck House. ) Fun to prove that a cybermate does exist in the flesh, as well as in the ether – and felt like meeting an old friend. When were cursing the technology (as I was earlier today, having to update software on two phones and two tablets, and respond to an e-message to the effect that ‘if you don’t update your Kindle NOW, it will DIE!’) it’s good to be reminded of the good things – like this group – which it also brings.
It sounds as if you’ve had far more important things going on than fasting, Bay. ‘A time for every activity under heaven’ – and although the time for your friend’s death was far too soon, the time for eating, drinking and just being with him was definitely right. Nourish yourself, physically, mentally and spiritually, and don’t rush back to fasting till you’re good and ready. Other stuff to do first; will be thinking of you.
Fast, it’s lovely to read that you and hermaj could catch up for lunch. We’ve just enjoyed 24 hours of glorious, gentle, steady rain that hopefully marks the end of a long, hot and dry summer (despite not being here for half of it, it seemed to last forever). How long did it take to walk across London and back?
Bay, we can all only hope for the kind of ending and send-off that you gave your dear friend. I hope the rest of the year will be better for you.
Hope everyone’s going well and enjoying the holiday weekend. I’m sticking to my Sunday fast because I find that simply declaring it a fast day gives me all the discipline I need to avoid temptation – and hence I will not be stuffing my face with any chocolate that might cross my path.
Hi Thin,
I hope you managed to avoid temptation yesterday and had a successful fast? I haven’t fasted, more of a re-feed weekend 🙂 The hot cross buns and homemade biscuits are gone now, and I definitely need a sugar-free and low carb day if not a fast!
Today is supposed to be dry here in the north, so I’m hoping to get some gardening done. It’s a slightly overwhelming time of year – I sit surrounded by seed packets, onion sets and chitting potatoes, with full propagators and seedlings germinating on windowsills, but vegetable beds not ready to receive anything yet (in need of digging, and the weather still more winter than spring). It all seems too much, and too disorderly, but I remind myself that it comes right most years! DON’T PANIC 🙂
Sorry Fast…I didn’t answer your earlier question. Easter is our only 4 day holiday, so, as the weather is still warm, but not hot, it is perfect for “shooting through”. You can camp all year round in most of Australia, but summer can be pretty hot in a tent. Winter is fabulous for sitting around the campfire. We Aussies are pretty much outdoor people 😊
Just had visitors for dinner…paella for mains and “drunken sponge ” and strawberries for dessert. Definitely not a low cal meal!!! I did use a few of my home grown veg, Happy, but Mr P reckons they are the world’s most expensive! Fasting tomorrow 😕 P
Yes thanks, all good Happy. Everyone was tucking into the most delicious looking mini cheesecakes I’ve ever seen while I enjoyed two herbal teas. My neighbour (who also does 6:1 but on a different day) was kind enough to send three little cheesecakes home with me. What an amazing system we have here. It took no effort of will whatsoever on my part and today I get to enjoy the spoils! Having the cheesecake treat meant I didn’t each much chocolate. How can anyone find this hard? Not only that but I’m back under 60kg so able to stick to one fast a week for at least a bit longer. Yippee!
Enjoy your gardening – I’m also taking advantage of a weather change to get out in the garden.
Hi All – Purple, I envy you your weather; Happy, I empathise re the veg; thin, I’m in awe of your discipline! Winter camping here would be miserable now – although I did it, and enjoyed it, in my teens. Our windowsills are less cluttered than usual, Happy, because DH wants to cut down the amount of veg we grow. It’s been an interesting exercise to sit down together and decide on the absolute essentials we can’t live without and aren’t prepared to buy; we’ve eventually settled on purple sprouting, runner beans, courgettes and tomatoes. (We don’t count the fruit as a) it’s non-negotiable and b) it more or less looks after itself – that’s rhubarb,maples,mplums, strawberries,nraspeberries, black currants – or the herbs. ) Fascinating reasoning and elimination processes! I’d love to hear what others would have gone for.
And no, i havent fasted for 3 weeks now – slow-roasted lamb shoulder yesterday,neither lots of extras, lots of cheese and lots of chocolate – but back to normal weight today,miso decided it’s time to return to the discipline of 6:1. Have just forgotten,many eaten a choc bunny’s ears – so off to the gym (which I also haven’t seen for 3,weeks) to work them off! Number 2 op on weds morning,miso exercise while I can.
Happy Easter,meveryone!
Fast 🙂
Ooh, tricky question…
I agree tomatoes are essential. Last year was poor, but generally we are eating our own into October/ November so well worth the effort.
Climbing peas and beans, good harvest, small footprint. Freeze well. Broadbeans.
Courgette (OH disagrees). Cucumber (the real thing!). Beetroot.
Actually, before I forget, there’s not just me and OH in this debate – the girls want salad leaves in summer, curly kale and chard for winter greens!
Beetroot – of course – and celeriac….oh dear….! I think we’d better think this out again…
You do realise you are mocking the afflicted?📱📱🖐🏻🖐🏻 Can’t think why my fingers are suddenly so much fatter than normal – must be all that chocolate…
Thin, you asked how long it takes to walk across London. It’s not right across, it has to be said – about 3.5 miles from station to hospital; takes me about 50-55 mins, and the same back – a little more if I have time to stand and stare. It’s an interesting walk – lots to look at – and ending the day with 17,500 steps on the Fitbit feels very good, as long as I don’t compensate by doubling my calorie intake. Hermaj and I were very good!
Hi thin, and everyone else. I confirm what Fast says. We were both very good. Something I’ve discovered that militates against face-stuffing. Eat with like-minded mates with whom you have loads to talk about. Interesting conversation takes your mind off your plate so that you eat considerably more slowly and may indeed find you’ve had enough when there’s still quite a lot left. I’ve noticed it happening more and more. The parents would be horrified!
Re terrible typing. I’m one of the world’s worst typists and give thanks every day for the invention of the word processor and the spellchecker. Before that I must have been Tippex’s best customer. When I saw the word “miso” I didn’t for one moment think it was a typo. I was taken back to my misspent youth when miso, the soybean spread resembling Marmite mixed with mud, which, slathered onto interesting bread from the hippy health-food shop, was a delicious cure for the munchies.
I confess I’ve been into the hot-cross buns big time. After all when Him Indoors bakes his own, it would be churlish not to show appreciation. However, there have been no Easter eggs nor simnel cake (all that marzipan, yuck!) and overall intake has been (relatively) modest. Anyway, I deserve it! I’ve worked bloody hard over the last few weeks, even some of the time over the holiday weekend clearing the decks as it looks like there may be another big assignment on the way. Poor old soul has to build up her strength somehow. 🙂 I’m not about to complain though – well, not much anyway.
Happy, I was intending to buy a pack of M&S luxury buns, and might still do so, especially after the Grauniad placed them top of the list of the 10 best supermarket buns. I was delighted to see that Lidl buns came in 3rd. If they are anywhere as good as their £1.99 Stollen, I can quite see why.
My snooty brother refuses to have anything to do with Lidl, Aldi or even Tesco’s. Only Waitrose is posh enough for His Lordship, although he will tolerate M&S and at a pinch Sainsbury’s. In fact, he is afraid that that the proximity of a newly opened Lidl up the road from his house has reduced the value of his property. Tosser, or what? 🙂
Hear, hear!
– waving of order papers, etc etc….!
Front paws and bum just gone…and a couple of spoonsful of the sausage and lentil casserole I’ve just taken from the slow cooker. I’m out of practice at this fasting lark – shall have to try again tomorrow. Moral: keep the rhythm going, people, even if you let the calorie count slide up a bit. It’s harder to start again than it is to keep at it!
Oi! I’m with your brother on this one, Happy! I LOVE Waitrose…bought the BEST salmon steak ever at the Esher store. Unbelievably expensive, but SO good. I’ll do Sainsburys and M & S, but as I boycott Aldi here, I’d avoid them “over there” too. They are sending suppliers to the wall. Worse than our Coles and Woolies.
I’ve also been seen in Co-op stores, but they vary hugely from place to place.
I absolutely hate Asda, except for the fact that they have toilets. Very hard to find when driving on your main roads😉
I figure, if we eat so little now, it must be the very best and, hopefully, ethically sourced. This, of course, doesn’t necessarily mean the most expensive.
I’m also in agreement with you Thin and Herm with eating in company. It is so easy to talk and have great conversations when you aren’t busy eating!!!
Regarding veg growing, Fast…I’ve basically given up anything that needs tending. We are away from home too often ☺ I have lots of herbs and chillies and the occassional plant that pops up out of the compost. Tomatoes are just too much work…if the heat doesn’t get them, the bugs, possums or brush turkeys will. 😯 My kefir and sourdough keep me busy.
Tuesday fast…must clean the house. Cheers all. P
Not my brother, P! Hermaj’s…
I’m a good northern girl, Booths all the way… (Except for the M&S hot cross buns 🙂 ) Our nearest Waitrose is 45 miles away, so not an option for us…
One of the reasons I won’t shop at Tesco is because I know what absolute sh*ts they are to their suppliers (although obviously they’re not alone in this!).
I’m guessing Hermaj’s brother isn’t so concerned with the ethical credentials of his supermarket though!?
I’m not knocking Waitrose, although I sometimes think they are a bit pricier than they need be, although the quality is always good. Asda I can’t comment on.There isn’t one for miles around.
My bro isn’t bright enough to refuse to use a shop for ethical reasons, it’s sheer working-class nouveau-riche snobbery. OK, so I’m also a working-class nouveau, but my snobbery is more directed at the brainless. I’ve had more trouble with thickies than any other section of the population.
I think in the main where you choose to shop is governed by what’s nearest and most convenient. In our case, it’s between Sainsbury’s – one large-ish and walkable and one superstore 10 minutes by car, smallish Waitrose and an M&S Simply Food within walking distance. We also have some rather wonderful multi-ethnic shops close by, great for veg which is often considerably cheaper and better quality than the supermarkets, as are the more “exotic” ingredients. Lidl I find good for stuff other places round here just don’t sell. I guess I’m a bit lazy when it comes to considering which shops are ethically acceptable, although I never, ever bought South African produce during the apartheid era.
Buying sustainable, ethical foods is a minefield. I just try to keep aware, read labels, eat in season, local foods when possible and avoid the imported foods when we produce the same here. Garlic from China, oranges from the US, wine from anywhere else are just a few examples.
We basically only have the “big 2” supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths. Aldi play a more minor role and research shows they are the worst of the 3 at destroying producers by their purchasing systems. We also have IGAs (independent grocers) who vary enormously. Sometimes have hard to get things, but the prices are often ridiculous and the “fresh” food often isn’t due to lack of turnover. Your 65 million, in a compact area, results in much more competition than our 24 mill over an enormous land mass I’m afraid. P
My favourite place to shop for FRESH food and great variety is Abu Dhabi. Loads of choice, everything labelled with country of origin and all at reasonable prices. I always feel ripped off when shopping in Perth and, until I saw your post Purple, I was greatly looking forward to the arrival of Aldi in the west for a bit of competition.
Now, how can a Southern Californian grower land a Haas (yep, that’s how they spell it in Cal even though the first farmer to grow one was Mr Hass!) avocado in a Perth store for $2.50 but a WA grower’s Hass avocado costs $4? Growing avocados requires a LOT of water but there’s no water in S. Cal either so that’s no excuse.
On another related note which will amuse you Hermaj, I have now bought a black marker pen to carry in my handbag for making corrections when out and about. I just cannot let spelling errors go – they totally distract me from what I’m supposed to be reading. The last straw was the local greengrocer’s sign, “Roleystone Growen Hass Avocadoes”. Bad enough to add an ‘e’ when speaking words like ‘shown’, ‘grown’ and ‘known’ but please don’t start spelling them that way! Not to mention ‘avocados’. And ‘haas’. OK, so they know how to spell Roleystone.
Let’s hope there are no errors in this post. Sounds like a great walk through London ladies.
It’s all to do with government subsidies to allow them to break into foreign markets. This is why signing free trade agreements with countries like the US and China was madness for Australian growers. We will end up with not being capable of feeding ourselves as farmers are driven off their land. They can’t survive on the prices they are offered. Buy local and pay a fair price for the long term good of our country.
(Steps down from the soapbox)
P … just had my fast dinner 😆
Hi P — so many things to think about: I’ve always avoided imported fruit and veg if local were available ( air miles, planet etc, plus sheer pleasure of eating something which hasn’t taken for ever to get to the shops ), Someone did point out that with some varieties the air miles did less damage than the artificial heat / water needed to grow them here.- but that doesn’t negate the effects on our farmers, and the prospect that when they have all been forced into farming holiday cottages and solar panels instead of food, we shall be unable to feed ourselves as a country. ..Now I stick to seasonal (polytunnel ok, artificial heat, not, and anyway there’s huge pleasure in pigging on something for a few weeks, then waving it goodbye until next year), local (air miles, AND farmers), fresh and unprocessed (our own health) and avoid certain regimes whose human rights records are dire, and certain supermarkets at whose hands some of my friends and parishioners have suffered as suppliers. One friend,on a similar income to mine, shops almost entirely at one supermarket and thinks I’m mad to spend what I do on food; ‘does it taste good, and is it cheap?’ are her criteria – she’s a good cook, so mostly it does. I can’t judge her choices – she’s entitled to them, and my way is a bit more expensive (though actually not much,, if I stick to seasonal and unprocessed, and choose high quality cheap ingredients over low quality expensive ones); it’s time consuming and sometimes makes my brain hurt — but it gets easier with practice (think a good list, and the flexibility to ditch it!) and I do believe ‘you get what you pay for’ applies to so much more than just the quality of the goods themselves ..
Soapbox, as you say! But now that we’re all so very good at feeding ourselves and our families for wellness, together we can be a huge force for extending that wellness beyond our own extended circles.
And I’ve hidden the rest of the chocolate bunny….
I so agree about farming support, fair prices etc. farm workers seem to be paid poorly across the world, resulting in an inexorable move off the land, especially for smaller farmers. I’ve just returned from Vietnam and the same was true there – low paid farmers, their children going to college and moving permanently to cities. Who will farm in 50 years time? What will be food quality? I’ll join you on the soapbox! My brother farms in France and similar issues there. So increasingly I pay a little more and buy from local smaller producers. But I have a friend on a very low budget who would say “Nice if you can afford it”.
Hi Apricot – good to have your comments. Sorry if I sounded like an over-privileged yummy-mummy whom your friend would consider knew nothing of her real life -, can I just add that we’ve always lived on a ground-floor level budget?. (And no, I don’t mean the relative ‘oh dear, we can only afford one holiday this year’ kind – we are a bit better off now, but still have to watch the pennies fairly carefully, and when our children were young our income from 3 jobs between us was still below UK welfare benefit levels so I promise I know what I’m talking about, and I really empathise with your friend’s struggles. I have definitely been there – and am not so far distant from there, even now! ) My solution, as I hinted, was still to shop using the same principles, but for cheaper foods – pulses and beans, rather than meat, (cheaper cuts when we did buy meat) ‘wonky’ fruit and veg, pasta, rice (wholemeal – more expensive but you use less to fill you up and it does nourish – the refined white stuff is money down the drain) etc etc.- and lots of study, to find out how to combine those cheaper foods to get healthy levels of nutrition – more complicated than ‘meat and two veg’, and demanding much more skill. I realise than even this is complex – cheaper cuts need longer cooking, which = more fuel, etc – and I’m appalled at how many of our food bank clients have no real cooking facilities in their homes – often a m/wave at best – so I don’t underestimate the difficulties (or play ‘blame the victim’) but tinned chickpeas, tomatoes and lentils, for example, are ready- cooked, nourishing and above all cheap. I’m really proud of what my kids learned to rustle up from a wrinkled tomato, an onion, a handful of pasta and a couple of ounces of hard cheese from the back of the fridge! Which is not to say it’s easy, or acceptable, that such inequality of incomes means it has to be so hard – just that shopping and eating thoughtfully isn’t only for the rich. It’s just – like every other damn thing! – more effort for the poor…
Selling vast tracts of Australian land to the Chinese is absurd and short-sighted. Other reasons that we’re paying far too much for our food in Australia are probably not considered suitable for discussion on these pages.
In the USA, some farmers are eligible for government subsidies but I believe this applies primarily to those growing crops like rice, corn, wheat and soybeans. I don’t believe subsidies are available for most US fruit and vegetable growers but I can tell you with absolute certainty that Californian avocado growers don’t receive government subsidies. Interestingly, most of America’s high domestic off-season demand for avocados is satisfied by Chile.
In our family, we’re constantly being educated about farming practices by our vet student daughter. I find I’m increasingly motivated to pay a bit extra to give an animal a chance at a reasonable life than to support general inefficiencies in farming practice for the sake of it. I’m happy to pay a bit more to support local producers but I don’t want to be gouged. Many of our practices are self-regulated. For example, just because a carton of eggs states ‘free range’, it doesn’t mean that it is actually so. We must rely of the integrity of the industry. A friend insists that ‘Tasmanian salmon’ rarely is – instead, he claims, it mostly comes from farms in the Mekong.
One often overlooked area that I’m quite proud of is that we do not waste food in our household. I don’t mean by this that I still feel compelled to finish everything on my plate – but that we only purchase what we need. I’m often stunned by what friends discard. Anyway, it’s a mine field out there but we all do what we feel is right based on the limited knowledge we have. All the best to the Thursday fasters with all this talk of food!
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7:22 am
18 Mar 16