No Carol – no mushrooms allowed. Bet you’re far from invisible!

Thanks for the reassurance re tum – I’m sure you’re right. Priority at the moment is to sort some supposedly dissolvable stitches which haven’t (easily done) and a newly leaky bladder, (which I was warned was a possibility and which I’m hoping is a temporary effect of shifting internal furniture but suspect might be a tad more complicated.) But the op does seem to have sorted the original problem – for which much thanks – even if it seems to have provoked a fresh one! Tum can look after itself once I can get back to pilates etc. And it’s not big enough to make me wish I’d kept the fat trousers, so can’t be too bad…

Pollypenny – the fact that you feel bloated is one more proof that 5:2 is working for you: your bodies have adjusted to finding a smaller intake normal. Rejoice in bloated, just this once – it’s telling you good news!

Hi Carol

Woohoo! It can be done, when you’ve had a lot of processed carbs recently. Particularly given your Olympic level pee. 😄😄😆😆 The effort is in maintaining the loss. No white foods on any day can do the trick.

Totally agree with everyone. 👗👗🌺🌺💃💃 We are NOT invisible and it’s really worth having attractive sexy clothes that make us feel good.

Cheers, Bay

It’s so simple…no white food… as long as that doesn’t then mean you can go crazy with chocolate flavouring! Just kidding. ..I don’t eat chocolate.
I’m in total agreement and know full well what a slippery slope white carbs are. So much easier to just eliminate them. 🙄 P

No white food?! Cauliflower…celeriac…fennel…turnip…butter beans…cannellini beans…?

And no pilates?! Sorry, Carol – thanks for the tip, but that’s as bad as ‘invisible’, for me.
This will get sorted, whatever it takes, and pilates is non-negotiable! ( I too found a problem post-hysterectomy in 2007 but it sorted itself with time; this time it’s worse – bigger op, so logical – and I was forewarned, but that doesn’t mean I’ll put up with it!)

And I love wholemeal pasta, P – can no longer eat pasta out as I’ve grown to loathe the slippery yuk-ness of the white versions. No accounting for tastes!

Well I’m cooking a big no no for dinner. ..egg and bacon pie (with leek and mushroom) to finally get the old, dried up puff pastry out of the freezer! Now THAT’S white food. Ah well! P

Nice to get a name check, P, although I’ve contributed precious little to the forum recently.
Invisibility. I’m afraid I suffer from the same, not particularly because I’m older than God, but because at 5ft 1in I am often overlooked – literally – and have to put up with witticisms like “didn’t see you down there, darlin'”. Do they not realise that being “down there” means that Hermaj’s fists are just at the right level to give these usually male clever clogs a good thump right “down there”?
I’ve recently thought about wearing hats more often, mainly to cover the bad hair I inherited from my mum. All my closest male blood rellies have inherited beautiful manes from my dad’s side of the family. Not me, I’m afraid. I already have a trilby which, when worn with shades, makes me look like one of the Blues Brothers, or at least their mum. While wandering around H&M recently I was sorely tempted by some cute little bowlers – Clockwork Orange, Cabaret, Magritte paintings spring to mind.
Count me in on Happy’s question re “white” foods. I also assumed that this applied mostly to white processed carbs but didn’t include naturally white veggies, excluding spuds, of course.
Finally, I’ve just started watching on my iPlayer a series entitled The Art of Australia being broadcast on Beeb 4 and focusing on art from the colonial period to the present day. I think it may have gone out in Oz two or three years ago. It coincides with a period I love – mid-19th-century to the mid to late 20th – and the work of artists I haven’t so far come across, so big treat in store.

So obviously the series comes highly recommended, P. I guess arriving Down Under and experiencing the different light, colours and vegetation,the new arrivals, must have felt rather like European artists did when they first found their way to the South of France, although they hadn’t had to travel quite so far.

Of course they are. They were also used to and no doubt appreciated the surroundings that so impressed incomers. What I meant was that artists from various parts of Europe – more northerly regions of France, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany., etc. – or other parts of the world, e.g. the USA – found themselves in natural surroundings very different to those they were accustomed to, very much in he same way as newcomers to Australia did. Obviously didn’t explain very well. Must be losing it. 🙁

Stir away, P, stir away! 🙂

Well done Polly 😊😊
As to tummy tightening 🙄 I haven’t found the solution yet.
Thursday fast has been really easy this week. I’ll cook a little barramundi and salad in about an hour. P

Carol, is your husband still on 5:2 while you’re maintaining? I can see a few difficulties if I relax a bit, as my husband still has a stone to lose.

I don’t know how cold it gets in Adelaide in winter, but I would be grateful for any tips about comfort food when it’s cold. I love custard and it could be my downfall!

How long did did our husband have diabetes, PVE? My other half has been on metaformin for years. I doubt a reversal will be possible.

That is brilliant. I will tell my husband. We can be hopeful, then. That’s very encouraging, PVE.

Pol x

My husband doesn’t do 5:2 Polly.

Purple, I always mention your husbands medications success when extolling the virtues of 5:2 to others lol!

Cold weather I eat a lot of soup Polly.

Found a great snack/toast substitute – thin slices of sweet potato, I toast and then zap,in microwave for 20 seconds then back in the toaster. Should now be nicely brown and al dente.,if it’s not just toast again. Add topping of your choice and voilà !

I’ve just posted, but it’s disappeared!

Yesterday, I read of another man who has reversed diabetes 2 by weight loss and exercise. There’s hope for my husband. He looks good anyway. Bought new trousers in Debenhams sale yesterday – too big! Have to take them back.

I’m in Australia Polly. 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺

As are Purple and Bay. Think that’s all of us down under!

Thanks Purple, I was sure there was another antipodean! Haven’t heard from Barata for a while.

Carol,

Thanks for the tip about toasting sweet potato. I’ll definitely try that…although I had to read it twice before I realised you hadn’t gone mad!

Thin is another down under maintainer isn’t she?

Of course Thin! 😄 🇦🇺

Yes, the sweet potato sounds a bit random Happy but works well. Did I say to leave the skin on?

Does anyone have a problem with going out of control on the weekend? This seems to be a problem for me these days. I weighed in quite light after my FD last week so thought I would eat a bit of bread over the weekend so I didn’t lose quite so much fasting. Well 3scones, a few chocolates, sausage in a piece of bread, a pudding made in a mug, choc covered orange slices later……..

It’s totally out of control and part of it I put down to lack of structure over the weekend. My regular routine isn’t happening and I just seem to let loose! I don’t even enjoy it. But just have this mental block about stopping it.

My inner child days I want this and I’m having it! Stamp foot!!

Any words of wisdom greatly appreciated because I think this behaviour defeats the purpose of 5:2. 😊

Oh yes, same sausage as me Purple, you must have been at Bunnings too! 😊
Yes, will admit the feasting makes it so easy to fast today. I actually look forward to it.

Would just prefer a little more moderation in my behaviour.

We’re aren’t having a good weekend either! OH painted the kitchen ceiling and a quick white primer over the walls, so no access to cook, really. We went out for dinner, well very late lunch st 5.30, three courses for £12.95 in a lovely place. Neither of us finished the main. And we had chosen carefully.

Have to eat out again tonight, but will fast tomorrow .

Yes, we’re all guilty, Carol – I had a birthday this w/e and used it as an excuse for the most incredible indulgence, in stuff I claim never to eat! – but as long as it’s not so far out of hand every single w/e, I think P is right: it’s about feast and famine. I do know what you mean – I’m sure we’ve all heard 5:2 caricatured as ‘starve one day, eat like a pig the next: how is that healthy eating?’ – and I agree that’s not the spirit of 5:2. I hope we’ve reassured you, between us, but if you’re really concerned, could you perhaps shorten the w/e at one end or both? I find (birthdays apart!) that making feast day 1 day, rather than letting the w/e expand to 3 or even 4, limits the damage I can do. Just a thought…

Like you, I’m fasting today! Have a good one.

You hit the nail on the head Happy. I get so disappointed I am not exercising that iron will 100% of the time! And you’re right, in the old days they would have been quite normal days for me!

Happy birthday Fast, hope you had a lovely day! 🎂 And Thankyou, I do feel reassured!

Your usual words of wisdom have done the trick, Thankyou ladies!

As PVE said feast and famine, feast and famine!

I’m not derailing maintenance so no real harm done, just mindless eating really which I used to do all the time pre 5:2!

Happy birthday, Fast. 🎉🎉🎉🍷🍷🍷👗👗💃💃💃. Hope it was fun. Bay.