Oh, I love that story, Carol! And very much agree that we couldn’t have afforded take-aways, anyway. Maybe fish and chips occasionally!

OH enjoyed his birthday white bait, not whiting, yesterday. My meal was dreadful. A reasonable starter, then vegetable lasagna with fewer vegetables than a cheap ready meal from Tesco. We won’t be going there again. It’s a real fur coat, no knickers sort of place, with its library and drawing room, complete with chandeliers!

Well, I’d better stop sobbing in my dressing gown and get the place ready for book group.

Pol. 💁🏼

Carol, I mean a place with pretensions and not the basics. Btw: I was slobbing not sobbing in my dressing gown. 😁

So glad you weren’t sobbing, Pol. Slobbing definitely allowed (as is sobbing when necessary, but good that it wasn’t, this time)!

Sounds wonderful AT: long may you enjoy it!

I’m realising that the other thing we often (choose to) forget as we get slimmer is that we need fewer calories just to stay alive – i.e., TDEE drops drastically. For example, I too have done aerobics today, walking to class and back, and walked again this afternoon to shop. Fitbit says I’ve done 13,000 steps, walked 5.5 miles, been up and down stairs 21 times, and actively exercised for 114 minutes. Yet I’ve burned only 1300 calories – and even on days when I’m more active, I rarely get above 1700. (So much for NHS advice that 2000 is about right for a normal woman!)

This is all basic stuff to 5:2 maintainers – grannies….eggs…etc. But easily forgotten! There was a time when I probably could have burned 2000 calls just by sitting and breathing: the flip side of being slim is that’s no longer true.

Pilates tonight – but first, where’s that cuppa and newspaper…? (No biscuit – it’s fast day!)

Re: TDEE. I checked out what sedentary (which I am unfortunately this week due to first having a cold and then putting my bleeping back out again) allows me. A measly 1500 calories!! Apologies P, I know it’s higher than yours, but I am taller… 😊 But really, it isn’t much is it?! So yes, I’m doing a Polly too, and sobbing in my dressing gown 😀

Get better soon, Happy – if only for another couple of hundred calls a day!

Hardly dare say it, but I’m another 1lb down today, after a sort of tiny bit cheaty FD yesterday. Shan’t get smug, but it’s a relief to see movement again, after a ‘stuck’ period. What interests me is that the renewal of change and effectiveness seems to be coinciding quite closely with my emergence from my spell of low mood. Apart from the obvious (less activity, bad choices when depressed, aka comfort eating, aka face-stuffing)s there a correlation between low mood and slower than usual metabolism? Too many variables to be sure (see above, plus of course the effect might actually go in the other direction,- a vicious spiral) but if so – let the sobbing do its stuff,then off with those dressing gowns and dry the eyes, people!

Thanks for the ‘no knickers’ explanation. I love the saying, will use it in future. See how many people know what I’m talking about! 😊

Pleased to hear you are on the move downwards Fast, sorry to hear you’re still in stagnation Purple!

After dropping on Wednesday, we went out for dinner for our anniversary and it all came back and hasn’t moved since! One piece of cake, no cream, made with almond meal and the tiniest little bit of flour, 2 glasses of wine is enough to do it it seems! Oh and a few chips 😄. My husband ordered them and of course I had to help him eat them!

I’m with you and the mindless eating Fast. I think my recent ‘no loss’ phase is to do with the fact I’ve started ‘picking’ again, from boredom etc.

I think ur mood can affect our metabolism, especially if you’re a comfort eater like I am.

Polly I thought you were sobbing in your dressing gown too – another lovely phrase!

Hi Carol,

When I bought mine I received roughly 1 teaspoon of grains, enough for 250ml of milk. It’s been a few weeks now, and mine have increased, so I’m making 300ml and have given excess grains to the hens. Mine is not yoghurt-thick, more a yoghurt drink.

If you haven’t got many grains, then you will have to be mean! But if you could spare a tsp of grains then she could get started.

On an unrelated note, after a good fast yesterday I’m 0.7kg up today!! I’m assuming it’s water and will go, but really!

1 tbs is plenty Carol. Share the love 😊😊

I’m not contributing much lately – two large jobs to finish before we disappear to Spain in less than two weeks time, plus my share in the Haggis Gap admin and quite a busy social life.
Just popping by to say, without glorying in others’ misfortune, how comforted I am by the fact that I’m not the only one on whom the scales play all sorts of dirty tricks. It even happens to the most successful maintainers.
Thanks for the good wishes, Barata. The answer is yes, so far, so good. Even so, after all our dealings with dodgy domestic architecture the pessimist in me wonders if some surveyor is going to find that the house in Haggis Gap is built of gingerbread, or even worse, cheese! But as a friend remarked yesterday, that’s OK as long as it’s not Gruyere. 🙂

Ditto Fast. My pattern sounds the same. We must be normal!!! 😊😊
Carol, I always do my kefir for 24 hours. Also, having only 1 tbs of grains seems to be preferable to more. You should be taking some grains out at least once a week at this time of year.

Stunning sunset over the river as we sat eating in an open air restaurant last night. Amazing sunrise over the ocean as I lie in bed now. Beach running and swimming over the last couple of days has lifted my spirits no end after all the rain we’ve had.
Cheers P 🌞

Just watching Jim al Khalili on TV, demonstrating/lecturing about gravity. He’s just said that gravity is stronger in wet weather: perhaps that’s to blame for your gains, P….

Apparently the difference between at sea level and at the summit of Britain’s highest mountain is approx .4 of a gram. I guess your scales just aren’t up to that level of sensitivity – or your house isn’t that tall…

…and also to get closer to the equator: the bulge in the earth’s shape = more distance from core. Fascinating!

Okay Purple, I shall do as you say with the grains. Do I need to give them to the dog ie I don’t use them again for more kefir? (I don’t need any more).

Fast, your loss pattern is the same as what mine is recently.

I think MM should be doing some research on us as we are all long term (?) maintainers and maybe there’s something going on???

Re your yoghurt Barata – is the sugar required to start the fermenting process? I enjoy one sq of dark chocolate on NFD too sometimes. I often get a taste for something sweet after dinner and find that does it for me. I read somewhere if you have a craving for something but don’t want to eat it to go and clean your teeth, gets rid of craving. I’ve tried it and it works. Probably sugar in the toothpaste – and I’m not joking! 😜

I’ve always used the teeth cleaning trick. I think it gives a finality to eating. 😆
I’m sure they are already looking at what we are doing. The walls have ears.

Freeze some grains in case something happens to yours, then the dog or compost. I even put some in my sourdough. I think it helped the rise. P

Will do Purple!

Night Fast (I’m having breakfast) 😊

Good morning, folks. Envying beach runs, PVE.

We’re off to Liverpool today to see the Blake/Tracy Eminent exhibition at last. Now that’s a combination. We would previously have gone to a lovely Spanish restaurant for their three tapas and a drink offer. I don’t think I can eat three tapas now and OH won’t either.

After the lovey Spring weather on Monday, we’re back to heavy showers. So the Tate and shops necessary. May well visit the Liverpool museum again. There’s always something new to see.

Lost that 2 lbs. general downward path. I don’t want to lose more though. The odd Aldi small chocolate bar and glass of wine are necessary.

Pol. 😳

Well I’ve done another 24 hour fast today. Yesterday, my post-fast day, was not a good day! I clicked my back out (but did manage to click it back in), and was hormonal, so after a healthy lunch of smoked salmon and salad I set about eating a packet of oat cakes (7) with butter and marmite, then thought b*gger it I might as well eat the last two corn cakes (the plan being to not buy any more for a while!), and then I ‘found’ two coconut cookies in the freezer… To be fair, I did then eat very little for the rest of the day…so probably came in under TDEE…but still ☹️ Not my finest hour, and definitely not under the banner ‘no snacking’!

Sounds like a really fun day, Happy! Those dragged hormones again: menopause does bring some blessings – eventually, once the Sturm und Drang abates! And it does all sound really healthy… just perhaps not all at once…? I don’t think you need worry about the ‘nonsnacking’ regime: that sounds more like a (lovely!) banquet. (But if that’s the closest you get to abandonment to hedonism, I reckon there’s still some margin for practice!). And it sounds as if you thoroughly made amends today – well done! We all know the hardest part of falling off the wagon is finding the will and energy to climb back on. ‘B*gger it, I might as well eat the freezer, too’ is just so easy – until an hour later!

Ah….the wisdom of the “elderly” 😁😁😁😂😂

A nuisance with your back doing that Happy!

I hear you re the ‘b*gger it’ attitude! I’m 2 days past FD and already over trigger point even though been eating healthy, assume it’s portion control.

Was planning on just having a coffee this morning but then saw this rather nice looking carrot and walnut cake and yes bu**er it,,ordered and ate it and wasn’t even that enjoyable – a bit dry.

Think if I want to stay below trigger I’m going to have to go to 2 FDs. Do I really want to? 🙄

Understand now Barata! 😊

Fast, I think OH has fallen off the wagon. He’s complacent about losing 3st, but makes bad choices now. The key is that he rarely weighs, but goes by clothes. For me, seeing the weight decrease on my chart was great.

We liked the exhibition yesterday. But the link with Tracey Emin and Blake was tenuous. Her bed and few doodle smack of emperor’s new clothes, in comparison to that wonderful poet and artist, Blake. We managed to do the top floor of the Liverpool Museum, too. Very good. Cronked knee for me after so much walking, though.

Thanks Happy
Today we are copping the edge of the ex tropical cyclone that hit Queensland. Very heavy rain and wind. Unfortunately we had to go into the city and managed to get drenched. The window keak is ok, nut water is dripping in throigh the new flue in the roof. 😑😑
Further north in our state, rivers are flooding. What a change from sitting on the beach on Monday and Tuesday. You are right Bay. We need to live for the moment. P ☺

Congratulations Herm & Himindoors!!!
I’m no fan of Tracy and her unmade bed either. Chagall, on the other hand 😊😊😊
Off to bed listening to the rain on the roof. P zzzz