It’s a pain the way our weight drops off the face so much, yet, I find, clings tenaciously to the middle 😑😑

Had a lovely meal, including chips and a dessert, before theatre – My Country:’a Work in Progress. Fantastic! Funny, moving and political. Highly recommended.

Will have a glass of wine now. 🍷

Happy does that mean, as a retiree, I can now drink every night, as it is good for me, or is every night a work night? 😑😑

We had 2 old ladies in our family. One drank “socially” all her life. The other was a teetotaller. They both liver to 97. I’m backing the drinkers. 🍷 P

I’ve been saying that I wish there was a thanks button ever since I started on the forum, Happy. In the early days, I had so much good advice from simcolev and bigbooty, in particular.

Well, I suffered from yesterday’s indulgence all night. Ingestion, coupled with sleeping in a spare bedroom as we’re waiting for the new bed to be delivered.

Re alcohol, none when we started 5:2, but went to the USA on holiday 10 weeks later and did have some – it would have been sad not to, eh? Then I would have a vodka and cream soda as my tipple. Once I hit target on 20th September I allowed myself the odd weekend wine and ice cream. Now, it’s more than ‘the odd’! 😋
Btw: My Country: a Work in Progress is on tour. Worth catching. I’ve thrown the flier away unfortunately.

Pol

Hi Carol
I doubt it went “off”, just excessively soured? 😣
You can rinse the grains in filtered water (no chlorine!) if you feel they need washing. My kefir is struggling this winter, (but who isn’t? 😉) so I am making 2 batches in less milk, 1/2 kefir quantity in each. It struggles when overwhelmed in super cold weather.
Have faith. They will survive. We are off to a lunch, in the city, to hear Dr M talk about gut health. I’ll keep you posted. P ☺

We had a lovely fish and veg lunch with hundreds of other Dr M fans today. He spoke enthusiastically about gut biomes and how we can aid our guts. He promoted eating a range of natural foods, including lots of fibre and particularly fermented foods to introduce the particular bacteria we individually might need to maintain health. He talked extensively about faeces and interesting research on the variety of bacteria found in different people’s waste and how we can change it. Great luncheon topic.
He felt that fasting regularly does change the gut population, eventually reducing our cravings for sweet carbie foods. This has been the experience of many of us, long term fasters. He puts it down to the change in gut bacteria. The bacteria that demand a sugar fix die out.
We bought a copy of his new book, The Clever Guts Diet. Yet to read it. P

Insight 8:30 tonight Carol 😊😊

Morning, all. I was a bit nervous about my weigh-in on Friday, the one I record on the ‘official ‘ chart, as we stayed up for the election results, eating French bread and cheese and drinking wine. Really socialist, I know! All fine, though: back up to 128lbs and below target.

Looks like we’ll be living through an interesting few months in the UK. So pleased to see the demise of the odious UKIP. Farage is raising his frog-like head again unfortunately.

Just been watching the Lions v Crusaders, thinking if you down there in the winter. Perhaps you’ll be pleased to know its blooming cold here!

Pol. 💁🏼

Hi Pol,

No worries about the French bread, cheese and wine. Perfectly socialist. I bet your average French lefty enjoys such treats on a regular basis.

Yes, things could get very interesting, not to say entertaining in a schadenfreude sort of way, as the Maybug continues to make a spectacle of herself. If only Jeremy Corbyn had hit his very impressive stride a wee bit sooner – for me he scored maxiumum brownie points when he managed to make Paxo look a bit of a twerp during the pre-election TV interview – but who knows which way things are going to go now we have a hung parliament? It was great the way he managed to rally all the young voters.

I was delighted to see that my great-nephew and his band-mates posted a message on their FB page urging their contemporaries to go out and vote, tactically where necessary. It was easy for us, having a very pro-European Labour MP. She skated home on an increased majority and our North London constituency showed a 79% turn-out.

Good afternoon, folks. All quiet here again.

Been under 9st again, but after wine group, with accompanying bread and cheese, last night I’m safely on 127lbs.

How’s everyone else?

Pol.

P, I’m not the only one, then! When I set out on the 5:2 journey I said 62kgs and I’d be happy, 60 and I’d be rapt, got down to 58.something for a couple of years, but am now bouncing around 60. So really mustn’t grumble… 🙂

I have bought myself a fitbit (belated birthday present, in spite of protests from OH that I didn’t need it), and on my first full day of wearing it am astonished that just pottering around the house and garden have netted me 5,400 steps by 1.30 pm! Presumably it’s reading correctly. It will be interesting to see the number on my commute on Monday. A previous pedometer disappointingly allowed me less than 5k for that hike, so perhaps the error was with that one.

Well done, Polly.

How tall are you, purple and Barata? I’m only 5’3″, so my bmi is not particularly low at 22.3. I’m happy though. On the F-plan, twenty years ago, I found that I could not stop losing weight and ended up scrawny. Weighing every other day allows me to monitor things better. OH and I shared a slice of chocolate cake with a coffee yesterday- nothing to write home about though.

I love the idea that a Fitbit clocks up arm movements. My pedometer used to clock up loads off steps when I took trousers down in the loo! It did make me more conscious of need to move, though and I think I marched around the classroom!

Oh, purple, I so want a thanks or a laugh button! 😀👏👏. I was in secondary, so no playground duty, just long corridors – but no running, of course! Ultimate sin! 😱

Ditto Carol. 10 or 8 or size Small. It’s so easy to find nice clothes ☺
What staggers me is how little food it takes to maintain 58-59kg. No wonder we, and most of the population, end up too heavy. Real food quantities, as well as real food, seems to be a lost concept.

We are going to a show tonight. It is at tables, but I don’t think there is food. The old me would have worried about what we would do for dinner. The new me? It doesn’t matter if we don’t eat anything! (Actually we’ll have a bowl of soup before we go…) P

Hi All,

Interesting reading very similar journeys to mine! I said I’d be happy with 63kg, but the loss didn’t stop until I got to 60kg. I have seen 58 (and v occasionally 57) on the scales, but have settled in the low to mid 59s, size 8 – 10.

It’s a lovely day here too. No running for me, but I will get out for a walk later (my 6km circuit clocks up about 7500 steps… I’ve counted them 😊).

AT, I’m off to see a physiotherapist next week to try and fix my back. It’s much better than it was 2 months ago, but not right. I’m also looking at the high fells but daren’t risk it… ☹️

Oh, no, P. It sounds as though my fitbit will be over-stating my moves. Drat. And because it only displays in thousand-step increments (anyone know how to change this setting?) it is difficult to judge exactly what it is recording.

Polly, I used to be 5’7″, but like P there has doubtless been some shrinkage. BMI of 21 with the current weight. I eat morning breakfast twice a week, on the working days that I’m not fasting. Apart from that I am happy to be on two meals a day on NFDs.

Dinner out last night, a little wine and two courses – and the scales show a 2kg increase this morning! I know it will go again, so no stressing.

I hope the physiotherapist can put her (his) finger on the remedy, Happy.

Thanks for asking AT, I’ve only just spotted your question. I’ve kept a low profile on the forum until such time as I could offer something other than a mega-whinge.

I currently have every single crossable part of my anatomy crossed that this time it might, just might, NOT go belly up. We have what seem to be sensible and committed buyers – a couple of first-timers who apparently made an offer way back when. It was almost certainly one of a flurry that got overridden when someone came up with the asking price. Since then they’ve been quietly waiting in the wings to see what happened.

Meanwhile we have found and had an offer accepted on lovely house with a beautiful garden on the north side of Cambridge, only 20 minutes by fairly frequent bus to the city centre. The vendors, whom we’ve met twice, seem like decent people who won’t suddenly start throwing their toys out of the pram and making unreasonable demands. However, no chickens will be counted until contracts are exchanged.

We were in Cambridge yesterday, having acted as roadies for my great-nephew who with his punk rock band were playing a gig there. Between dropping him off at the venue to carry out all the necessary sound checks and returning to see them perform we went for a long wander round the city. It felt like the sort of place we would go to on a city break – except we are (gremlins permitting) actually going to live there. :).

Altogether a great day out, catching up and chatting with favourite family members, all of whom live close to Cambridge, and watching the boys on stage. They were most impressive and attracted a large and enthusiastic audience, mostly teens and twenties and a few old crusties like us. Having heard several recordings, plus a couple of live interviews on local radio stations with studio performances, they really are rather good (I would say that, wouldn’t I?), composing all their own their own music and very literate and meaningful lyrics.

Finally, although not sticking religiously to 5:2, thanks to a combination of 24-hour fasting and sticking to windows of 16-8 or 17-6, and having gone right off the carbs, 3.5 kilos have gone the way of all flesh, so to speak, in a matter of weeks. Still a way to go – like another 5 or 6 kilos – but for me a BMI of 27.68, i.e. close to 27.5 which I understand was once acceptable before the goalposts were moved to 25, is nothing short of miraculous, even though it’s taken forever.

Oh-oh, Happy, does that mean that the easy days don’t last? My appetite is much less than it was, still not eating until 1ish and usually bran flakes or porridge and a banana.

Crossing fingers now for you, herm. Well done on the weight front. Lovely turn of phrase from you, as usual

Pol. 💁🏼

Fingers crossed for you here too, Hermaj, that this time…! And well done on the dropping kgs.

How can we compete with 14 men, Polly? Still, it sets up a decider next week 🙂 Somehow I doubt if SBW will start the next game.

Well done, Hermaj. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🌺🌺🌺🌺
Fingers crossed for both house deals.

It is much harder to fast in cold weather. We have just hit zero at 9.30 am and with full sun ☀️☀️☀️
It will get to 13 C today and we will play some golf.

I am fasting today to get a jump on next week. Each week I am still only managing 6:1. By fasting Sunday I am hoping to fast Wednesday. And get back in the 5:2 wagon.

As usual, Purple is right. The first two years of maintenance were the easiest. I am 3.5 years into this WOL and the last 18 months have been a struggle not to put too much weight back on. Not as focused as I was on not snacking. 😂😂 Meals are no problem, my appetite is way reduced. However, nibbles are another thing! Habits of a lifetime.

Cheers all, Bay 🌺🌺🌺🌺

It’s been so unusually quiet on here I was beginning to think I’d been locked out but too busy to come on and check!

Hermaj, amazing news on both counts. Everything crossed for you also re house and on the weight front have to say how much I admire your tenacity and perseverance! Who knows what or where you will end up, as Purple says we are living organisms and as long as you are content that is all that matters. As far as those goalposts go – one size doesn’t fit all but that is how they are presented.

I echo views expressed re maintenance being easier in the early days and for me think it’s down to portion creep, nibbling and a few ‘naughty’ treats! Initially when on maintenance my FD starting weight was regularly under 59kg which is why I reset a new target of 59 from 60 which gave me wriggle room. however, I now find my FD starting weight is regularly over 59 and sometimes as high as 60. So overall I guess I am regularly 0.5 kg heavier now than in early maintenance days. No big deal but I do monitor because I don’t want it to get above 60.

Happy, like you I have had those crazy weeks where all of a sudden I am way above target and for no obvious reason. I have found it just sorts itself out, who knows how or why.

On that note, I have had this interesting (to me) occurrence twice now.
I still have a bad attitude to food. I still reward myself with food, I still find my little voice saying ‘you deserve that’. I’ve also noticed I often resort to ‘bad’ food when I’m stressed.
Ive just come back from visiting my son and family. No scales and no FD and not the amount of exercise I used to get previously when I visited also (in the form of pram pushing).

We had a family drama while I was there and I threw caution to the wind and ate all and everything wrong ie for wrong substitute carbohydrate, chocolate, wine. When I got home I was under 60 which totally amazed me for a start. Couldn’t wait to do my FD and the next day weighed, and here comes the interesting bit, and was 57.8! I can recall this happening once before about 2 years ago when I got back from Canada, had been dining heavily on all the wrong stuff and the day after FD had dropped to 57.7 and that figure never been seen again. I’ve slowly crept up through the week and am 59.3 today, pre FD (and still indulging in carbs because I’m still stressed).

I recall you saying at some time Purple there can be a significant weight loss after CHO loading and assume this is what happened to me both times. I just find thismost interesting and maybe MM needs to do some research into this.

Long winded story I know and apologise in advance if it’s boring lol

Yes, the kefir all started with you Purple! I wouldn’t be without it now and am sharing the grains around! 😄

Thanks for that, you experts! There is definitely portion creep and OH is back to using his old dishes, without calorie counting, but swearing that ingredients are smaller. He made aubergine parmigiana yesterday – so- called small dish, but enough for four.

He rewards himself with a can of beer when he’s done hard gardening, so there is some beer belly back.

Barata, Sonny Bill was mad to do that, but I think a red card was harsh. Vinipola was lucky to get away with yellow – the gut gave away 5 penalties before that final dive! Looking forward to next week, though.

Pol 🙋🏼

Thanks, everyone, for your good wishes. Of course, I’m mightily pleased with the loss of 3.5 kilos, but I should point out that three of them are those gained in the space of 4 weeks back in January when I tried out 24-hour fasting combined with the BSD which is rather more relaxed about fat content. I did no more than follow recipes from the excellent BSD cookbook but it seems I have to go easy on fats, even the good ones, as well as carbs, if the weight isn’t going to creep back on. And of course I know about low-fat-but-loads-of-sugar bad guys.

Being lactose-intolerant, I was delighted to find that Arla, the main suppliers of lactose-free dairy products in these parts, have recently introduced l-f butter – the real thing minus the lactose that tastes delicious and works perfectly in cooking – in addition to their l-f milk, mature cheddar and single cream, all of which have made life easier at Hermaj HQ. Gone are the days when lactose-intolerant peeps were branded spoilt, up-themselves yuppies who should pull themselves together 🙂