Hi Thin
Having read Jason Fung’s article, I can see that lack of sleep and stress both add weight.
Bay 🙂
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Hi Barata,
NOW I understand 🙂 I’m sure the ducks will relish anything that’s on offer. Here’s an idea. All those among us who are keeping or trying to keep off the carbs and what bay calls “white food” could, when tempted, put all the naughty stuff in a bag ready to throw to Hermaj’s ducks. I don’t think the waddling ones are overly bothered about putting on weight. Besides, some of them have families to feed. 🙂
Sorry, Hermaj, that’s a very bad idea! Refined carbs are the last thing you should feed any wildlife. As bad for them as it is for us!
Uneaten bread causes algal blooms and affects water quality, and attracts rats.
And bread doesn’t just make ducks fat, it causes malnutrition and damages their health.
You should feed your ducks corn, grains, oats, bird seed, worms, lettuce.
No bread, chips, biscuits or sugary food please. Not even for virtual ducks 🙂
Whoops! smacked wrist! Please forgive me, I’m a townee who knows little or nothing about poultry of any species. Maybe that’s why ducks can only waddle – being fed too many carbs by urban ignoramuses like me, although it’s years since I every did so.
BTW, London ducks are quite sensible, safety-conscious beings. It isn’t uncommon in this neck of the woods to see ducklings from the ponds in the local parks being led across a pedestrian crossing by their mum. And the traffic always stops for them
It occurs to me that there is a modest business opportunity here.
Some years back we visited a rare breeds park where visitors could buy little packets of feed suitable for all the resident animals and birds. Perhaps setting up a stall near a big urban lake or pond to sell similar goodies would prevent duck abuse while also letting them as likes feeding our feathered friends do so without causing unnecessary damage. I’m not volunteering. With my luck with the best will in the world I’d probably inadvertently include something lethal.
Interesting article you posted Purple. More incentive to keep the fasting lifestyle. 😀
I’ve made a conscious effort this week to keep off the “white stuff” – I don’t really have white stuff but my version of that is I have not snacked between meals and not eating so much fruit. Result is I’m very low in weight. A combination of strategies of what your article referred to Purple. I watched the MM 800/8 week program again yesterday and the only fruit he had on the table were berries. Think the message there is they are the preferred fruit. 🍉🍊🍌
Hi Carol
Another article in the morning papers about QUT study involving sugar addiction. Turns out that sugar consumption affects our dopamine levels, and produces an effect similar to cocaine and other drugs. And we need more for the same effect as time goes on. Who knew? She says rhetorically and sarcastically. OK So now its scientifically proven that sugar is addictive.
Cheers, Bay 🙂
I think I stole this from a fast diet cookbook, but it is a yum fast night dinner:
Scallops and Pancetta
Ingredients
2 paper-thin 8g slices of pancetta (70 cals)
85g scallops (three medium- sized ones) (75 cals)
50g sliced, washed leeks (30 cals)
80g snowpeas (62 cals)
Fronds from six sprigs of dill (1 cal)
30g wild rocket leaves and baby spinach (9 cals)
Total: 247 calories
• Cut the pancetta slices in half and cook in a non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat until the fat runs and the pancetta browns and crisps. Scoop out on to a plate and keep to one side.
• Cut each scallop into two discs and pat dry on kitchen paper. Cook in the pan with the pancetta fat for a couple of minutes on each side, until browned. Lift them on to the pancetta plate.
• Add the leeks to the pan and cook in the last of the scallop and pancetta juices until soft. Add the peas and cook, stirring, until the peas are hot through. Stir in most of the dill, then taste and season with pepper.
• Put the rocket/spinach in the middle of a plate and arrange the scallops around. Mound the leeks on top of the rocket and lay the pancetta pieces on top. Scatter with a few fronds of dill and eat straight away.
Bon Appétit P
That doesn’t surprise me Bay. I know 100% once I have something sugary I want more and all resolve just seems to fly out the window! The thought of no fruit in my diet distresses me and I’d say that’s because I’m addicted to the sugar rather than the fruit. Oh dear, it’s a minefield isn’t it? 😄
Lovely recipe thanks Purple, will put that in my file!
Have a good weekend everyone! Autumn weather has started here – love it! 🍂🍃
Evening/ morning maintainers,
After reading the latest from Jason Fung, I was inspired to do a 24 hour fast today. Previously, Fridays to Sundays have been off-limit for fasts, on the basis that I know I won’t consume less than 500 calories on those days.
Today, I ate nothing for 24 hours, but did have a glass of wine at 23 hours 🙂 I then had a ‘normal’ meal rather than a low cal meal, but didn’t overeat. It will be interesting to see the effect, if any, on the scales and in terms of hunger tomorrow and in the coming days.
Certainly, a 24 hour fast and a ‘normal’ meal are more readily accommodated in every day life (no more excuse not to fast because you’re eating out!), so it will be interesting to see if this works for me for maintenance.
Re: fruit. To be honest I eat very little these days, I’m more of a veg girl too! I find this a bit bizarre, because for years I’ve ‘break fast’ed on yoghurt, medjool dates and banana. But I’ve come to prefer flaked almonds and mixed seeds (filling and, as Bay says, feels ‘clean’), and haven’t eaten a date in weeks.
How is it that my food preferences and tastes keep evolving? I read somewhere else, a woman suggesting that no woman could live without chocolate daily. I might have agreed with that pre 5:2, but now? I don’t eat chocolate from one month to the next, and can’t have eaten chocolate more than perhaps 10 or so times in the last year.
Hi P,
Well the first result is 0.5kg lighter this morning, not bad following a pork chop in mustard sauce, with buttery mashed potato and leeks au gratin, and washed down with half a bottle of red wine.
It will be the effect, if any, on hunger that will be particularly interesting to me because I’ve just been sooo hungry recently after low cal fast days. I’m hoping my body won’t perceive yesterday as calorie restriction and try and make me eat it back 🙂
Thin, how are you doing now?
Lovely sunny morning here, looking forward to being out all day and warm hopefully!
Brilliant result Happy!
I’m now regretting opening my big mouth about a 24hour fast 😊 but aim to keep my word!
Will let you know how I go.
Yea, my tastes have changed too, but I I wouldn’t mind them changing a bit more!
I really find the weekends my downfall and Ive come to believe it’s the lack of structure to my weekend that contributes to the downfall. If we’re not socialising (which means an increase in calories anyway), I tend to just fluff around the house and eat at will. We have takeaway for tea which isn’t bad takeaway but sometimes opt for chips. Mainly I think it’s my attitude – it’s the weekend so all bets are off sort of thing.
Oh well, as long as I’m fasting and keeping weight in check it probably doesn’t matter that much. 😊
I think the weekend refeed is an essential part!
We have takeaways occasionally, but at half an hours drive from ‘civilization’ we’re a bit remote. However, tonight OH is cooking for us – steak and chips (proper chip pan chips, none of your low fat oven chips for us!). Tomorrow, I’m cooking curry, dhal and flatbread. So pretty much takeaway fare, albeit home-cooked.
I don’t think of the weekend as my downfall, it’s my treat!
Good luck with the 24 hour fast. I tried a few times before I managed it, getting to 20 hours…then 22… before finally succeeding.
P, you were up late! Sounds like you had a fun time though. Apparently we should all be doing more dancing, far better than gym workouts!
I’m just relaxing after a busy day with possibly a bit more digging over veg beds than will be good for my back.
Carol, I forgot to mention earlier, when I said I was having steak and chips for tea, that there would also be a fried egg and some white bread and butter (for a chip buttie 🙂 ). I’m hoping I’ve earned it…but maybe I’ve just been greedy!
Oh gosh Happy, a chip buttie! One of my all time favourites. Couldn’t tell you the last time I had one!
In the good old days when I was young and skinny and still in primary school there was a shop near the school that sold chip butties. I think I was allowed to buy my lunch one day a week and I always bought a chip buttie (they were done in a bread roll and chips would be spilling out the sides) and a Kitchener bun – do you all know Kitchener buns? My god, talk about bad for you but I LOVED it! The hot chips melted the butter….drool….drool…..
And thanks for the pep talk – Ive been beating myself up over what I’ve been eating on weekends. It’s not really pig out food but just more of it I guess. it’s about refeeding . .
Ha ha Carol.
Never had an “official ” chip buttie, but probably shoved potato chips in a sandwich as a kid. Hiwever, I was introduced to Kitchener buns by my 5:2 Adelaide mate when we drove across the Nullarbor about 18 months ago. In the interests of gastronomic travel research I also attempted a Berliner bun. Marvellous for the hips!!! 😉
I meant to add…enjoy your Sunday gourmet day Carol, then 24 fast Monday. 😆😆 Remember this IS a feast and famine way of living. Just as we evolved to do.
I think dancing reels and polkas fits in nicely with this wol, too!!! 😉 P
PS, Happy. Yes, SO unlike me to be up so late, after rising and getting on the road at 5 am and up again now. I’ll crash this afternoon at home. Zzzz P
Oh, I didn’t realise kitcheners were South Australian Purple. I love Berliners too BTW.
Yes, took yours and Happys advice re refeeding and had chia seeds and yoghurt followed by a boiled egg and a piece of rye toast for brekkie. Haven’t eaten that much for ages at breakfast. Can’t remember the last time I had toast! 🍞
PS just read an article online that says dancing is much better for us than the gym. Certainly more enjoyable – to me anyway!
Happy Sunday everyone!
Think you’re right about the ceilidh Purple!
I have an Aussie friend living in London married to a guy with Scottish ancestry and they have a family holiday home in ardfern, up near Mull of Kintyre (sp?). When there she always goes to a ceilidh. I’d love to go to one, sounds so exciting when she talks about them. Of course, she always has to buy a new dress for the occasion!
I’m Ok thanks for asking Happy, panic over. I gained between 200 and 600 gms every day this week since my Sunday fast until yesterday when it started turning around again. I won’t pretend I have no idea why that should be; I’d been giving in to sugar cravings plus having more alcohol than I would normally. What was alarming though was how long it took me to turn it around once I hit my trigger weight of 61kgs and did something about it.
Thanks for your support Bay – I read that about stress and sleep deprivation in the article. After 25 years of sleep deprivation, I should be the size of a bus. It is a form of torture!
While you’re all living it up with lovely breakfasts and chip butties, I’m fasting today so hopefully will be back on track next week. Spanish Fideos for dinner tonight, 142 cals.
All the best with the 24 hour fast Carol; it strikes me that this would be more manageable in many ways. But I’m a creature of habit.
Hi to everyone else. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Hi Thin
Glad you’ve turned the weight back around. It IS considerably harder at our weight to cut back a bit because the number of calories we are “playing with” are so much less.
The whole point of this wol is to kick habits of old. Believe me, I NEVER imagined I could go 24 hours without food, but it really becomes a new, healthier habit and the evidence is showing a longer fast is more beneficial (that does mean NO calories so you need to learn to drink black (weak?) tea or coffee if you want a warm drink.)
Sorry about the food talk on your fast day. I had to put up with driving all the way home (2 hours) and doing food shopping AND cooking before I got mine at 12.30.And I had planned an equotic breakfast near where we stayed overnight. 😯 And my fast day is tomorrow. Hadn’t even had a cuppa.
I do get cross with non 5:2 folk, and I’ve spent the weekend with them, claiming they get “shaky” if they haven’t had (insert any meal or snack you can think of). I’d love to point out that it is simply their body trying to trick them into more “quick fix” food because it is too lazy to access its copious fat stores!
Have a happy fasting Sunday.
Cheers P
Hi Purple, I was asking here the other day which method was considered more beneficial from a fasting perspective. I’m pretty sure, having reached 22 hours with two A&C milk coffees that I could stretch to 24 hours without the coffee. I can’t do black coffee. What about herbal teas? – I suppose not since they do contain calories. It’s just hunger after all, it comes and goes, we get over it.
Agree, there’s not much point trying to convince people who don’t wish to be convinced. They see how we look and how we feel and the ease with which we handle this WOL (well, most of the time). They come up with excuses because they don’t want to change anything.
One of my neighbours is pre-diabetic. Her GP has advised against 5:2 in case she passes out! I did put her on to Jason Fung though and she’s following a low carb diet at least. Meanwhile, at age 70, she works herself silly at the gym and remains overweight, especially around the belly. Some of these GPs need to better educate themselves, fortunately mine is a huge fan of fasting and very supportive.
Thin, our GP always says how impressed he is with what we’ve ‘managed’ but shys away from actively promoting fasting (esecially for diabetics ), so I have ordered 2 copies of Jason Fung’s book. One is for him. Unless the medical fraternity stops promoting fear to diabetics, we can’t hope for much turn around. You are so lucky to have a convert GP. 😊
Pleased to hear you d turned the corner Thin. Maybe the extra sugar was the culprit? Who knows, as long as it’s corrected itself.
Dam, so only black tea tomorrow as well!!
Thin, I drink herbal tea with gay abandon thinking there’s no calories in it but I guess you’re right, if they’ve made the tea with fruit. I usually drink camomile.
Please don’t all shout at me at once – I haven’t (yet) read Jason Fung, andthe only times I’ve fasted completely for 24 hours have been when my gut has clearly been pleading for a rest, so I’m speaking from a position of ignorance. But is total absence of calories vital, or are we perhaps losing a tiny bit of perspective once we start fretting about whether there are any in herbal tea?? Just a thought – and meant in a genuine spirit of enquiry, not sarcasm!
Happy Sunday, NH-ers; have a good week at work, SH dwellers…
I guess, Fast, I approach fasts from two perspectives.
1. If I’m putting in the effort to do it, I might as well not spoil it with something small that can easily be avoided. Therefore, no cals at all (mind you, I don’t really like herbal tea, so that discussion is irrelevant to me)
And 2, if I weaken at all, I am likely to give up. I’m pretty much an all or nothing girl. 😆
It does make sense to not include any cals at all if you want your body to be able to heal itself in a fasting state. I recommend reading Jason Fung’s blog. Easy reading. Short topics. Explains issues with understandable analogies.
As we say often. Whatever works for the individual. It must be doable, long term, and be part of one’s own life style.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend MCs. P
If the aim of the fast is to lower insulin and go into autophagy, then avoiding things that raise blood sugar and insulin is obviously important.
I have almond milk in coffee on a fast day. It’s lower calorie than cow’s milk, and a diabetic on another thread said it didn’t raise their blood sugar. I don’t think there would be enough calories in fruit tea to spike blood sugar either!
And there I was, thinking that an intake of a maximum of 60 cal – in the form of semi-skimmed milk in four teas and one cup of decaf coffee (with rather more s-s milk) over a period of 18-20 hours might count as a fast. Wrong again, it seems, like last week’s duck debacle. 🙁
Unfortunately, I can’t stand black coffee or tea or most herbals, but can just about handle the occasional mint tea and genuinely enjoy redbush but not without a dash of milk. Camomile tea I can take with honey for medicinal purposes – without the honey it makes me feel sicker than when I started and, believe it or not, I don’t like water unless it fizzes and even then I can only take it in tiny amounts.
Maybe I’m not so terribly wrong and it’s a case of what works for the individual.
I was thinking of Goya’s painting of Saturn eating his son. Enough to put anyone off their feed.
http://eeweems.com/goya/saturn.html
Definitely Dali, though, and maybe Picasso too.
Autophagy is a continuous process. Calorie restriction however does up regulate the process when cells are placed under stress. Cells less adapted to performing in a low glucose environment undergo autophagy before those that perform well in such an environment. Hence by regularly fasting new cells that are produced are better at utilising ketone bodies. Over time fasting produces a body that is fat adapted.
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2:24 am
7 Apr 16