Not sure if this link will work, but I hope it does. Happy St Patrick’s Day to all you Celts.

https://www.jacquielawson.com/sendcard/preview?cont=1&hdn=0&fldCard=3179183&path=105741&pmode=init

Hismaj is of Irish descent with a typically Irish name and surname. His dad was a Yorkshireman. We think a 19th-century ancestor from County Mayo came over to Yorkshire to earn a few bob harvesting potatoes and never went home.

PS: one of the couples who viewed the flat last night – returnees from last time around – have offered us our asking price, thereby giving us some wriggle room should their surveyor find anything dodgy, as s/he well might. Let’s hope they aren’t going to disappear like the previous potential buyers.

Thank you all for your good wishes.

Too busy concentrating on keeping everything crossed (plus the odd prayer, as you’d expect – nothing like hedging your bets) to write a proper post! Thinking of you, herm.

And once again we’ve neglected to organise Paddys day at Cheltenham – just up the road!! Next year, for sure!

Good morning from a very wet Cumbria – after a great start to the week here, it has been raining a lot since Friday…..

OH madly went out with his local running club for a training run this morning – just got back very wet and muddy – said it was rather windy up top but he seems to have enjoyed himself.

Hope the house sale/buy goes through this time @hermajtomomi – great news that you loved the last house Haggis Gap (great name) it seems to tick off all your boxes – I used to love going to Cambridge and the villages around when I lived in Suffolk – I would highly recommend visiting “Midsummer House” a brilliant restaurant for a special occasion – no airs or graces for a 2 Michelin Star place and they cater really well for vegetarians – my OH is pescatarian and they adapted the menu for him with no fuss.

Talking about food…….
Had a mother daughter night out on Thursday – started with cocktails before dinner – we had a great time!!
Then went to wine tasting night around a 3 course menu on Friday – a wine master matched 2 wines with each course, a conventional one and more unusual wine – excellent evening. He was very “normal” and an interesting speaker without lecturing us about wine!
Saturday was not much better – home but it was a Rugby fest – with some surprising results…….OH was keen for one of my fish/veg curries so today I was really keen for a FD to reset buttons as a busy social calendar again next week…..

Sounds like those of Irish descent enjoyed themselves and had a bit more to celebrate than St Patrick’s Day, with Ireland winning at the Rugby – My Irish friend from Suffolk was beside herself…..we were madly texting during the match……she had to leave the room towards the end as it was too much to bear she said…LOL. I have no particular allegiance as still go for Australia when they are playing – so was happy to support Ireland!

Off to the ballet this afternoon – “The Bolshoi presents a triptych of works by three masters of modern and contemporary choreography. The company performs The Cage by choreographer Jerome Robbins, a master of visualizing and translating music to movement. Together with Harald Lander’s homage to classical ballet in Études and Alexei Ratmansky’s colorful folklore-inspired Russian Seasons.” A very different offering from them – should be interesting……

Hope everyone is keeping well and enjoying life.

Hi P – I grew up and lived in Melbourne from around 13y.o until 22y.o – married an Australian!! took a year off to travel around Europe and never went back – settled in the UK……..but my heart still lies with Australia in all sporting matters especially cricket and Rugby!!! I’m going back in March next year for a visit and to attend (one of) my niece’s wedding!

We had a lot of rain here too since Friday – the fells around here are saturated and the rivers are all very full. Yet the beginning of last week was gorgeous sunshine and warmish – very spring like!

I like your logic about the effect of drinking water……..LOL – sadly not – I failed at my FD today but it was a CD, another CD tomorrow as out for a meal with an old friend. So definitely will need a water FD on Tuesday!!!!

Controlled Day – It’s what I call a day when I’m not managing to achieve a FD but eating well below TDEE for a NFD – somewhere in between……..😉

I couldn’t figure out what CD meant either but it’s a great term!

Good idea going out Purple! I’m struggling today and don’t know why as it was a very restrained weekend.

Every FD is different and only another 15 minutes to go lol!

Not happy Jan!

I did a 23 hr fast yesterday, with a 342 calorie meal at tea time. This morning I was 500g above what I was yesterday morning! I’ve never ever fasted and not lost weight before, let alone put it on!!!

Don’t understand it. I bought new scales recently because my old ones were giving inconsistent readings, but I’ve no reason to doubt the new scales.

Oh well, see what tomorrow brings 😞

Happy fasting all!

That is certainly weird! All of us experiencing the same predicament!

I know I shouldn’t place such store in the numbers but it’s disappointing not to get a result for your effort.

Sounds nice. I had left over cabbage my husband makes. Sounds weird but it’s actually a quite nice. His parents are Polish and the cabbage is a fav from his childhood. It has bacon and onion in it and it’s cooked in water until very soft and then thickened a little bit. Sort of a cross between soup and stew lol

So much similarity in food amongst the different cultures! 😊

One of my favourites MIL makes is pierogi. They are a boiled dumpLing filled with either sweet or savoury and then lightly browned off.

They have similar in Germany, Hungary and Latvia. Possibly other places too that I don’t know about. 😄

Hi, carol and P. Looks like a club developing: in the last week I’ve had two really good FDs, and each time woken exactly the same (upper end of range) weight the next day. Obviously the Empire striking back, and maybe says something about my NFDs, but discouraging…Let me know if you suss it!

Good morning, girls! That is very annoying for you, Carol. I’m just trying to stabilise, having lost too much last week I had too many carbs on Sunday and yesterday so put 2 lbs back on.

OH is still using avoidance tactics, but he said he wants to cook something from Mimi’s book today. It’s his birthday tomorrow and he has the choice of where to eat. It’ll be whiting, followed by gammon, no doubt in a place I’m not keen on.

Three coffees then tai chi again. Interesting that your husband teaches it, Herm. 10 years ago I couldn’t find a class, now there’s a number of them in the area. I love our teacher, a down to earth, great guy. We are his Ninja Nanas!

Pol. 🙋🏼

I was cooking for 6! As each one grew up and left home we just ate more, I guess.
Part of it these days is also complacency. Eg Mr P bought the fish for tonight. He bought enough for 2 meals! In the past we would have somply eaten it all.
Have a good birthday dinner with your OH Poll. It IS his day 😊😊

All the best Herm. For the life of me, I can’t understand why the UK has such a dodgy property sales system. Over here, you exchange contracts, the purchaser pays a 10% deposit, held in trust, and it settles in about 6 weeks. If you default you lose the deposit. Pretty big incentive!
I have a good feeling about Haggis Gap…remember my pics of ‘wild haggis’ cowering in the corners of fields in Scotland I put on FB? 😉😉😉

Goodness me I started yesterday so well but meeting up with an old friend yesterday evening was great fun but totally disastrous in way too much food and especially wine……..
Woke up this morning to see snow on top of the fells then went for a good walk this morning with my usual group to clear the cobwebs – we had glorious sunshine, heavy hail then overcast and then more sunshine – I thought Spring had started yesterday!!

Hoping for a good FD today – Only water and tea with a dash of skimmed milk so far today – yoga class this evening then a planned 400cal supper of mixed seafood with onions, garlic, fresh oregano, tomatoes, red peppers and some spinach tossed in at the end – OH has brown rice or pasta added to bulk his up.

Another yoga class planned for tomorrow morning and hoping to carry on fasting for as long as possible tomorrow…….

Adding to all the talk about weights – I was at my lowest weight on 11/3 (53.8kg/118.6lbs) well below my maintainance weight but have not dared to weigh myself since – too many social outings involving a fair bit of food and lots of wine; but will brave the scales tomorrow morning!! I had done an extra FD before that last weigh in as I knew what might be in store on the food/wine front…….so fingers crossed

@hermajtomomi – fingers and toes all crossed for you – IT WILL HAPPEN!
@fastfastslow – no OH does not need to know…….LOL but he might read about it……..

“Live a happy and positive life”

Greetings all,

Hermaj, great news on buying/ selling houses progress! I’ve got everything crossed for you.

The news on a slightly more generous fast day allowance doesn’t affect me, since I suspect that quite a few of mine come in nearer 600 (or…ahem…700) anyway 😊

AT, yes we’ve got a small blast of winter back! I had a hairy journey down the motorway this morning, narrowly avoiding mishap – several vehicles had spun off on ice. I gather spring comes back at the weekend though 😀

I’ve fasted today, hoping to kill a cold as well as maintain my weight…

Always keep ’em in the dark Fast 😉😉
Keep warm and safe folk. My girl sent me snaps of the snow. She is thrilled! 😊 ❄❄

Still the same this morning Carol. I’ve basically been thus weight for weeks, with the very occassional up or down, but not 1kg lighter, where I’d be happier. NFD overeating has to be my issue. I’ve reintroduced foods I was avoiding completely for a while (floyr based) and will have to be more mindful.

We’ve had weeks of rain, with a couple of barely raining, but overcast and humid days. Last night the gutters blocked and water came in the loungeroom. I’ve spent the morning trying to reach (very high) to reduce the load. Probably excellent stretching exercise 😑😑

I might pull out some of the food lists I ate 4 years ago when losing weight. Can’t hurt.
P

You are welcome to our rain! P 🌦🌧🌨🌩🌪

😥😥🌩🌨🌪🌫☂☔☈⛈🌡

I second Fast’s words about complaining about heat! Blooming freezing rain here! I also agree with portion creep. OH made Mimi’s lentil tikka Marsala yesterday, but his weighing was random, shall we say. I ate a largish portion and felt uncomfortable, then had three boxes to freeze.

OH is 74 today, old man. We’re going to the cinema then for a meal with a couple of friends. Nothing fancy, but he can have whiting, which he loves.

Sorry about your leaks, PVE.

Pol 🙋🏼

At least this afternoons torrential downpour didn’t get inside. The work this morning paid off. My dear old house has some pretty wonky windows. They are great in dry weather ☺☺☺

Go for it, Happy – as long as the comfort food is healthy and the book sustains you — call it a destress day (we all know stress is bad for the waistline…)

Reading back my last post, a ‘duh’ moment: might the problem have been less the swapped FDs, more the social engagements? Many were at home, with my own cooking, but probably larger (less ‘mean’ looking!) portions; some were away matches, and although I tried to make good choices, it’s possible the odd refined carb slipped in…

I’d been wondering whether the surgeon had slipped some fat-gaining microbes into my gut; perhaps, all along, it wlas actually what I was slipping into the other end…

Hi Happy -yes, that could be it, though I did fill up on extra pre/pro-biotics, too. It could just have coincided with my low mood (less active, bad food choices) or possibly even that my gut is now working ore efficiently. But truthfully I strongly suspect portion creep – no excuses!

One bit of advice I was given after my first baby – if you’ve been too busy to do anything else, lay the table. Then at least it looks as if food is on its way! Have a lovely day

Lol – but….there’s a voice inside me screaming at that man…words like ‘share’, ‘two parents’, ‘housework’, ‘cooking’ ‘patronising’. etc. I guess we took for granted then stuff which would outrage us now! One of my memories is of hearing a suggestion at a similar group that ‘Dad’ could perhaps bring home a takeaway a couple of times a week. At the time that was so far removed from our budget that we could no more do it than fly! Taught me valuable lessons about checking assumptions and engaging brain before opening mouth..,