That was before my hot cross bun and biscuit fest 🙂

Hi Thin
I was asleep when your post arrived. We were up at 5am to fly to SA, so pretty tired after a lovely afternoon tea cuppa and natter with a 5:2 mate (Nicky). I had a huge chicken breast with baby carrots, green beans and broccoli and crispy little baked spuds, all covered in a yummy honey and macadamia sauce. Delicious. But enough for 4 people my size. 😯 And the view of the sun setting over St Vincents Gulf was fabulous. So reminiscent of Perth! Didn’t sleep all night. I’m getting too old for these early trips, I guess? P

Fastfastshow, I agree absolutely with you about food quality and I know that you can maintain it on a very low budget as I too have had to do. I think it takes a bit if thought but my mother had taught me a few wartime food tricks which helped. For many years we braised meat when we had it rather than roasting it as you could add so many different veg and the flavours are often better than the roast cuts, as well as cheaper. And yes, all the things you mention. I usually had a stock pot and have done that again of late after reading about the advantages of bone broth when dieting (Dr Michael Eades’ blog on Protein Power). My fast days last week were chicken broth made with herbs and garlic with the chicken carcass. Heat a bowlful then beat an egg and drop it in, mixing it through so it cooks in thin threads. Really sustaining and both days I didn’t go over on my fast day, whereas I have been known to at other times😔

Thins toast, I so agree about looking after the animals properly. I’m sure your daughter has lots of dismaying information about this. In the UK there are some good regulations but still some slip round it. One of the things about organic food is that there are high welfare standards, eg about the number of animals on a farm per acre.

Hi Apricot, I just thought you were ‘toasting’ me for making an effort to try and buy responsibly where animals were concerned. I love broths with a whispy egg stirred through. It’s odd that I happened to mention about the self-regulation of the free range egg industry and then, the very next day, government announcements were made about changes to attempt to better regulate it. Are they reading our posts? 😆 (Has anyone seen the UK programme called, “Hunted”? I really hope that GP manages to outsmart the authorities!)

Purple, I love the sound of that dinner. Funny about the hairdresser sign – it’s always more humorous when the person peddling the product or service can’t spell it. Is that NickyF in Adelaide? Please give her my regards. I did spot her name on another thread and briefly re-established contact but I mustn’t commit to any other threads or I will never leave my laptop, being the rambling person that I am.

Happy how did your fast go? Hi to everyone else – is everyone back to normal after the chocolate holiday?

It’s taken me decades to realise that Purple. Of course, exercise is always better than sitting on the couch but it works a treat in maintenance. This is why my walking buddy of 16 years who attends all sorts of exercise classes when we’re not walking, some of which leave her sore and nauseated, still weighs in the high 90s. No doubt she’s fitter and stronger than I, but I’d rather be where I am health wise.

I miss NickyF on the SH thread. And Bay, I hope you’re in a good place.

I’m dividing my time today between the garden and cooking for tomorrow’s fast – the latter sounds funny, doesn’t it?

Morning fellow maintainers!

Thin, my fast wasn’t the lowest cal fast I’ve done, and my week has generally been a hungry one 🙁 I blame a few stresses and lack of sleep. But it’s nearly exactly two years since I reached my goal, so I’m reasonably relaxed about it.

Interesting to read your comments about regulation of the poultry industry. Our government in it’s wisdom (not!) is repealing official guidance on welfare standards and moving to “industry-led guidance”, What could possibly go wrong?! I’d like to write some welfare standards for the government 🙂

P, I agree entirely re: exercise for maintenance. And the exercise is much more enjoyable now I’m slim and don’t have rolls and lumps of flab moving, apparently randomly, in different directions from my direction of travel!

Hi P,

I can’t remember the exact date, but it was before my birthday so just about now! I did then lose a further 4kg, so I’m not at the anniversary of my current weight for a few weeks yet though.

Re: free range. I am always surprised when I look at ours by how many you can fit into a small space! But ours do have a very generous space allowance…when they’re not all stood at the gate waiting for me! In industry the standards vary between meat and egg layers, between 13 – 9 birds/ m sq, but with additional continuous access to a vegetated outdoor run (although to be honest, in large systems many birds may not go out…). Organic is better, but doesn’t come cheap of course! And the average consumer is so used to chicken being stupidly cheap…

Sounds fun AND delicious Bay. Just crossing the Bridge in a train with a STUNNING sunset!!!P

On Friday 28 August 2014, exactly 28 weeks after beginning 5:2 in January 2014, I reached my lowest weight. I had lost 17 kg and 3 clothing sizes in 28 weeks, embracing intermittent fasting as a way of life. I also banned all white foods during this time.

That’s when I went looking for support to maintain. It’s been great to have your company along the way. 🌺🌺🌺😉💃😉😉💃💃🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞😎😎💐💐🌺🌺⛳️⛳️🐾🐾🐾🎉🎉🎉🎉🌺🌺🌺🌺

Hey Purple, welcome to Adelaide! We just got back from Hawaii a couple of days ago. Fantastic time, thoroughly recommend it if you like sun and beach. No worries maintaining below trigger point, due in part to a reaction to some dodgy food and 12 hours of V&D! Oh well, it all helps! 😄 My sons and DIL’s did the cooking and it was either meat or fish with salad so very easy to maintain weight. We had Easter eggs but mainly for the kids, ate 1or 2 small ones I think.

I was thinking I am coming up to my 2 year anniversary of 5:2 on 25/4 but have no idea when I actually met goal weight. Think it was about Xmas time that year.

MM has been on radio and on SBS TV here just recently talking about the 800/8week program. I’m not interested, perfectly happy with what I’m doing but it’s really good listening to him. Has given me some renewed incentive and understanding of why it’s important to keep doing this for my health.

Hi Carol
Welcome home. Pity about your weight maintenance system, but I’m pleased it didn’t upset the holiday 😕 Kefir is amazing stuff. It seems happy to suffer neglect. My cat eats the excess “grains” and loves it.
I’m sorry I missed you in Adelaide. ..I thought you were still away…we were only there for just over 24 hours.

You obviously started 5:2 on Anzac Day. We started the day (and one year) before, straight after Dr M’s doco was on tv. He IS inspiring. We attended his talk on the sugar diet in Sydney recently, but as 5:2 suits us, we won’t be switching over either. The most interesting thing I gleaned was that the body starts pumping out insulin as soon as it tastes sweetness, even if it is an ‘artificial’ sweentner (including Stevia). As fluctuations/spikes of insulin/blood sugar are to be avoided by everyone in order to maintain a healthy body, any sweetness must be consumed in moderation. I think we intuitively knew this. I’ll never understand why people turn to things like Stevia instead of just adjusting their tastes/menu instead.

We saw The Last Waltz Revisited last night at the Opera House. It is a show where a bunch of older Aussie rock icons (mainly the Rockwiz Orkestra) re-enact the last concert of The Band. It was terrific, but there were a couple of signs of the aging performers. ..one had to have the lyrics placed on the floor on a large sheet in front of him and another was having trouble connecting the lead into his guitar. A woman in the audience said loudly “He doesn’t have his glasses on!” The performer nodded. 😯
A lovely night. Balmy and always a wonderful view of the harbour and Bridge as you exit from the upper levels of the Opera House.
Have a great Sunday/Saturday night. P

Hi Thin, just stayed on the main one. There were 6adults and 2 small children so a bit hard for moving around too much, but saw some amazing sights!

Yes Thin, Hawaii. We rented a house at Kailua Beach which to my limited knowledge of the geography is the other side of the island to Waikiki. All very very pretty.

Just dropping by with apologies for absence. The translation project that became known as the Pig’s Ear was finally completed on the Thursday before Good Friday, i.e. went down to the wire as the sloppy author continued to get several facts wrong in almost every sentence and sadly it’s part of the conscientious translator’s job to clear up such messes. Result, Hermaj in a small, quivering heap, finding sheer exhaustion difficult to separate from encroaching depression. The idea of toddling down to the day centre for a nice cup of tea and a game of bingo seemed appealing – for all of 10 minutes.

I’ve come to the conclusion that, like the body of a mature, experienced athlete who can still turn in excellent performances, the aging brain can still do a good job and deliver on time but it takes somewhat longer to recover, which I eventually did by Easter Monday, thanks to the usual therapeutic routine of sleeping as much and eating as little as possible. Which meant, of course, I had room for two of M&S’s wonderful luxury hot cross buns, sold off at half price after Easter.

And then, would you believe, another major book project turned up, German this time. I’m working with the same two colleagues who, although considerably younger, felt equally sick and tired after the Pig’s Ear, so it wasn’t just me. This time, though, while the subject is tough – early history of photography – representing the client (a major art museum on the USA), we have an understanding and helpful managing editor who appreciates the problems of translation and an author, an academic historian, who knows what he’s doing, and – most importantly – a sensible deadline.

I’ve even managed to get a few more ducks in a row for the Glasgow Tenement House book and have the wherewithal to write a complete chapter to add to the intro. However, the day job has to take priority, at least until I get the hang of things. Why do academic authors have to write such long and convoluted sentences? 🙁

Lovely to hear from you, P. All I can say is that the world is a much better place since the Pig’s Ear finally bit the dust.
The weight project is the same old same old. It’s a bit like a Wimbledon final – eyes going from left to right watching the the ball bouncing, or in this case the needle on the dial of the scales swinging, between a kilo lost and a kilo regained. I’m a maintainer whether I like it or not. What is good is that on fast days I now have no problem with living on cups of tea at 5 cal a throw and and perhaps one decaf coffee with 100 mls of semi-skimmed (40 cal), so saving most of my 500 until evening when I really want to eat. It also means I’m fasting for an extended period.
As a mature rocker, you’ll be among those who will appreciate the following. Email from lovely great-nephew who turned 17 last week, telling me about his big birthday present, bought with his own savings, topped up by Christmas and birthday money from rellies – a Fender Stratocaster, the Rolls Royce of guitars. Silly, sentimental old auntie dissolved into tears, not sure why. Maybe it was the idea of our kid, who is a damn good guitarist, following in the footsteps of so many of the famous ones past and present. He has no illusions about becoming a rock star – science is his thing – , but it must be so satisfying to know you are a good musician, like several others in the family, not including me, sadly, but I’m a mean music-lover. 🙂

I think our lad started learning the guitar at age 12, a bit well before the hormones kicked in. Now he has the skill to REALLY express all the hormonal stuff. Does Mr P still play?

Evening all – good to see the forum coming back to life after the Easter break. Here’s hoping the choc-fest hasn’t done too much damage to anyone. We have one choc-bunny left – he’s waiting to be collected by a god-grandchild, and I have to remind myself regularly that he has her name on his collar and is not to be eaten …

Thanks, P and Carolann, for your enquiries about my health. Truth is, I don’t want to bore you as much as I’m boring myself with it at the moment – but briefly, I think I’m 2/3rds of the way through: 2 smallish procedures down (2nd one done last Wednesday), one larger one still under discussion but just hoping they’ll get on with it ASAP, rather than mess around trying to avoid it and then end up with it anyway. I’m impatient, and ideally would have liked it all sorted in one big go – haven’t got time to hang around, nibbling round the edges! (But our local TV news tonight is highlighting the case of a man whose lifesaving cancer surgery has now been cancelled 5 times, so I guess I should ‘possess my soul in patience’, and count my blessings. ) Success or otherwise of this week’s episode won’t be certain for a while: it’s been a bit sore, but I’m beginning to get back to normal – though seem to have spent an awful lot of time sitting around. That lovely walk across London 2 weeks ago was the last real exercise I had. I’ve regained the extra weight I lost so fast and traumatically, without putting on any more, which is good – now bang in the middle of my wiggle room. So, thank you for caring – and watch this space!

All this talk of trips to Hawaii is inducing longing for sunshine – proper, warm sunshine. Much as I appreciate having worldwide cybermates, there are disadvantages to hanging around with you SH lot…But I’m glad for you all really – and our turn will come!

Gosh – all those posts, falling over one another to rush in,min the time it took to type mine! Makes it look as if I ignored them all – sorry! – but actually they weren’t there when I pressed ‘send’! I do love it when the inbox suddenly fills up like that…

Keep the music conversation going,mplease,mans I’ll hope to contribute to it tomorrow. Too knackered for now, so off to bed.

To be continued….

Fast

Glad to hear you’re getting treated, and hope it speedily comes to a good conclusion. Life’s too short to have to sit around waiting too long.

Fasting today, and planning family trip to the Big Island of Hawaii in the middle of our Winter in July.

Cheers, Bay 🌺🌺🌺🌺

Hi Bay,

Your menu is remarkably close to mine, although I’m not that wild about nuts. For the sake of domestic harmony, I have to have the odd slice, i.e. three or four thin slices a week, of hubby’s excellent home-baked bread. Fortunately, the slices are quite small. It took him – old Iron Guts who can eat pretty well anything – ages to accept that it wasn’t a case of “wouldn’t” eat carbs until evening because of some whim of mine, but “couldn’t” if I wanted to avoid feeling bloated and generally yucky.

At least this time I’m battling not to put back the kilo I lost earlier this year after months and months on the plateau. It could be so much worse. I could have regained multiple kilos as happened in the past. The old bod seems to believe that it is no longer fat and flabby, just a tad bonnier than it might be.

Thanks, P. 🙂

Hi Barata,

It might seem above and beyond and it does depend what you are translating. Very occasionally I’ve had to translate a report from a red-top paper (do you use that expression in NZ, meaning a downmarket tabloid?) about someone allegedly doing or saying something scandalous. In that case, you are merely translating and therefore passing on what the paper says, whether true or not. Also, a translation of this kind is usually for internal reference only, e.g. a report about the chief executive of some prestigious organisation being done for speeding, money-laundering, peddling porn, or whatever.

For books it’s different. You are working on a “serious” factual text so you are expected to do your very best to make sure it’s accurate. This is a lot easier than it used to be thanks to good old Google, and I don’t just mean looking stuff up in Wikipedia although that’s usually OK for very basic info. It’s also about paranoia. If facts are wrong in a translated book, who do you think carries the can? Right first time, the poor old translator. 🙁 One good thing, it develops your research skills. When I went back to uni these stood me in very good stead and it was as a direct result of this that the Glasgow book came about.

What can you offer in the way of duck food? I know there are strong connections between NZ and Scotland. Is that what you mean? If so, I’d love to hear more.

P, I was wondering whether Barata was picking up on my comment that I had managed to get a few more ducks in a row for the Glasgow Tenement book. As she’s writing from NZ where there are strong Scottish connections – as there are in Oz – I thought she might mean she had some useful info or ideas. Or maybe I totally missed the point. It has been known. 🙂

Evening/ morning all,

I’ve had a busy couple of days then find the thread’a been quite busy in my absence. Typical!

Fast, pleased to hear you’re going on OK and back to your healthy weight. Good to know sometimes that we can gain as well as lose!

Carol, I’m not doing the BSD and I’m not listening to Dr M re: coffee. La la la, can’t hear him… I have a strong milky coffee every morning, on a fast day made with almond milk. Filling and low calorie. I suspect we’re a bit different from people with blood sugar issues/ pre-diabetes in any case?

PS no idea about the duck reference either lol! Hope Barata comes back to explain. 😄