It’s good to know, Pol. 🙂
This topic contains 11,627 replies, has 174 voices, and was last updated by hermajtomomi 6 months, 3 weeks ago.
Nice to ‘hear’ herma’s ‘voice’ again after a long lapse. Yup, herma, you are one of us!
Well, PVE, there I go again: putting people in the wrong country. Our son & his wife visited NZ and Australia 2 years ago and enjoyed it. Some day my ODH will get up the whatever it takes to fly 20 hours to get there….
Good Fast Day so far. Tostada for breakfast, then Mussel Gratin for dinner. Long [3.5] mile walk in between which was lovely — through the woods and fields and along the shimmering bay. But Rats!! I changed the battery in my FitBit after the walk and now it says that I’ve only gone 1 mile today. GRRRRR.
Weight has been sneaking up on ODH lately, but today he declared “the first day of the rest of my life” and he decided to go back to his good habits. So far, pretty good!
Hermaj,
You may not quite be at your goal, but you’ve maintained what you have lost. Yay, maintainer!
I’m fasting today. Just a maintenance fast rather than an ‘I need to drop a bit’ fast. Last week’s disciplined fasts appear to have got everything working efficiently!
Beautiful autumnal misty morning here. I toyed with going for an early walk, but decided to wait til lunchtime in the interests of making more vitamin D.
Fasting, you’re another walker! It’s great exercise isn’t it. Mine counts as HIIT too I’m sure, my standard 3 miles takes me up a hill and back! No forests here, but long views to the mountains 😀
Let me know when you will be in Wellington, Carol 🙂
We will change our name within a generation or two, P. Then what will we be – Aotearorians? We are enjoying the storms of the Equinox at the moment. It will be pleasant (but 13 degrees) tomorrow, more storms gathering by the end of the week. What happened to the promise of Sydney’s heatwave coming our way?
My OH is also a maintainer, Hermaj, albeit many many kgs above my goal for him 🙁
We like walking, too, although OH does moan about mud.
He’s risking our maintenance at the moment with his cooking experiments. He made an amazing lasagne at the weekend, but he will not cut the amounts down. The temptation is to take a big portion – that was a main cause of our initial weight gain. A rather delicate compliment was needed – it’s delicious but don’t make it again.
Wales is often under a long white cloud, too! Damp today, but I do need to wash bedding. I wonder if we have similar weather at the solstice, Barata.
Pol.
We are big walkers too, but the food available when travelling more than makes up for the long tourist hikes! 😑😑
It’s all about balance, isn’t it? We find skipping breakfast easy and ensuring plenty of fish and veg in the diet while travelling, as well as at home, certainly helps with bloodsugar levels. P
Yes, I’d say the lasagne could perhaps be a weekend treat Polly (my OH’s speciality is a proper English roast, similarly too rich and heavy. At least it gives me a night off cooking duty!). Not every day, but occasionally it’s fine! And it will freeze you know 😀
Ha ha, P, yes! I love a walking holiday because I love proper long walks (anything less than 10km is short in my book!), but also you can eat more and still maintain 😀
Holidays not only offer great opportunities for long interesting places to walk, we are too busy to eat normal meals. Skipping breakfast means getting up and going while others are stuffing themselves with ‘all you shouldn’t eat’ breakfasts, so getting to see things without the crowds.
We often miss other meals too because, by the time we think to eat, places are shut! Enforced fasting! ☺☺☺
We often find that when we go to Europe we are too busy sight-seeing or trekking to think about lunch. That is why, in our pre-Fasting days, we always lost weight when we traveled. Didn’t see the cause and effect. Duh.
It does take a while to learn to prepare less. Same with empty-nesters: they still cook for a houseful even though there are only 2 at the table. Just as we learn to eat less on a Slow Day, we need to train our eyes not to be bigger than our stomachs. Or our recipes to be bigger than our dinner-eaters.
I’m all about freezing: making a batch of something, eating some now, freezing the rest for later in serving sized portions. Talk about a night off from cooking duty! Sauces, soups, meals, breakfast baked goods: all in the freezer for another day.
Yesterday’s Fast was successful in getting me back to my Target. ODH lost 1.5 pounds. Good. Today, since we plan to go out to dinner tonight, will be a day of no snacking and the usual tiny mid-day nosh, and lots of water.
P, tnx for the geographical placement so the names will go with the correct countries. Curious: does anyone still use the term ANZAC? What is that new word you used: Aotearorians ?
Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand. It means the Land of the Long White Cloud. That is how you see NZ from out at sea on your canoe (waka ..NZ Maori/vaka…Cook Island Maori) This is how Polynesians found land.
ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) is the name of our combined troops sent off to be slaughtered for “the Motherland” (Great Britain). ANZAC Day, 25th April, commemorates the landing of these troups at Gallipoli in 1915. It is a very solemn day in both our countries.
I too have a freezer full of extra cooked food. It certainly reduces the temptation to “grab something quickly” when a healthy homecooked meal just needs defrosting. ☺ P
Yes, I’ve got a freezer full too. If it’s a recipe I like, I’ll make the ‘serves 4’ and freeze a double or singles. Particularly useful to have ‘ready meals’ in the freezer for when OH is on his own.
F_me, I only consider it a night off cooking duty if someone else has prepared it! If I cooked it, and I’m reheating it (and preparing some fresh veg/salad on the side), then it is NOT a night off for me! It might be less effort than first time round, but it’s still my creation and my effort…
On the subject of food, I came across a review study which suggests that there is insufficient evidence to recommend consumption of whole grains to reduce the risk of heart disease, or lower blood cholesterol or BP. Yeay for white bread…without the guilt!
Ur…white bread 😣
I went into 4 “bakeries” on our travels today to try to get 2 good wholemeal bread rolls to make a nice picnic lunch. I wasn’t eating and by the last place (still no luck…”bakeries” apparently don’t bake bread rolls) I was salivating so much, I was tempted to grab a white loaf and pull the innards out, squeeze the white muck into a ball and stuff it in my mouth. Good grief, what the smell of bread will do to a fasting woman!!! 😑😑
Well if you prefer the taste of wholegrain, fine, but for years we’ve been told we should be eating wholegrain to keep our hearts healthy.
As someone that doesn’t eat much bread at all now (and will always prefer a white baguette!), I had begun to wonder if I was compromising my health by not eating more wholegrains. So it’s reassuring to know that wholegrains aren’t actually ‘heart healthy’!
I agree though, not all white bread is created equal…
Oh the thought of you stuffing all that bread into your mouth did make me laugh Purple! 🍞😄
I was a lover of white bread but have gone over to the other side now and only eat bread made from non wheat flour and the standard can be a bit hit and miss! The bread can still be quite white depending on what flour it’s made from.
I’ve finally found one I like, brown grainy not white, but it costs $9.50 a loaf!
But there’s still nothing as good as fresh white bread butter and Vegemite when you’re after some comfort food! 😊
My grandfather used to tell his grandchildren and the others around the table, ‘Eat bread!” No doubt his thrifty way of preventing them from eating more expensive foods.
These days [since retirement!] I make sourdough breads about once a week in some form. Stocking the freezer! The Blue Zone book, which looks at societies around the world known for longevity and what is in their diet, recommends sourdough bread of any sort. Since I’ve baked for years, it is no big deal to bake with sourdough. Even with that, I don’t eat much bread. Now the sourdough is not for sandwiches, we buy a commercial whole-grain, 70-calories/slice product which is good for that. But the sourdough makes great French Toast for Sundays!
BTW, that one study doesn’t wipe out all the other pro-whole grain research. Lots of good fiber…
Happy, I get what you are saying about whether or not you had to cook the meal. Still it is a lot easier to get it from the freezer now and again. I really relish the days that my ODH cooks dinner: often Friday and Sunday.
There’s something very special about white baguette, Happy. The only problem is that it goes stale, dry and hard within hours, which is why French bakers, including supermarket in-house bakeries, bake several times a day.
fasting, your grandad and his “Eat bread” reminds me of my mother who used to complain vociferously to friends and family that “she (i.e. me) won’t eat bread”. Had she meant that I should eat bread, which was cheap, rather than meat and veg, which was more expensive, I would have taken her point. What she meant, though, was that I should eat bread IN ADDITION to the gigantic portions of meat and veg she shoveled down our throats. Thankfully, I continued to disobey, otherwise I would have turned into a full-grown hippo instead of a baby one. Mother DOESN’T always know best. 🙁
PS The hippo has long since disappeared into the distance. Only a little under 10 pounds to go before I am officially not overweight. 🙂
F_me, sorry, I should have posted the link to the review I mentioned:
http://www.cochrane.org/CD005051/VASC_whole-grain-cereals-cardiovascular-disease
And see also
So it isn’t just one study, it’s a systematic review of evidence, and it concludes
“There is insufficient evidence from randomised controlled trials to date to recommend consumption of whole grain diets to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, or lower blood cholesterol, or blood pressure.”
So wholegrain products that market themselves as ‘heart healthy’ appear to be deliberately misleading in order to gain competitive advantage…
I wasn’t commenting on any other perceived benefits of whole grains, but it’s interesting that you refer to “all the other pro-whole grain research” (but with no references 😀). Without a systematic review, who’s to say that any other pro-whole grain research is any more reliable!
Ever the scientist Happy ☺ Always quote multiple studies.
Carol, I didn’t eat it, or even buy it, probably because I didn’t have any Vegemite 😑😑😑 Mmm…white bread, butter and Veg…food of the gods.
Hi Big B. I prefer salt for a lift. I take my sugars in the wine glass ☺
Fasting, I bake sourdough every week at home too, but when travelling it’s hard. We eat very little bread, so any we eat must be of top quality. We actually had some with a tasting platter last night (nominally an entre, but it was our complete meal). It was a stunning dark crunchy baguette. Well worth the sugar hit. ☺☺ P
Happy, you are so right: I did not cite any studies. As a former science teacher, I have committed a real sin against science with that one. I was thinking of whole grains benefitting the gut flora and their fiber boost, rather than their effect on the heart. Sorry. I was confused. next time I spout off, I’ll give references. BTW, Was your use of “F_me” an abbreviation or an epithet?
And speaking of wine, Barata, today we enjoyed a lovely Pinot Noir from Central Otago, ‘Quartz Reef’. We had it with a charcuterie assortment, chutneys, mustards, apple, and a sourdough baguette.
So there you go, Pol and Purple: the bread and the wine you have been discussing!
Herma, keep on disobeying mother. You will reach your goal.
The little messenger inside my iPad tells me that tomorrow will be a Fast Day. As if I’d forget!
F_me (abbreviation; ‘Fast’ is already taken by FastFastSlow, and I can’t be typing full names everytime with one finger!),
I was being slightly tongue in cheek about providing references, but you were very quick to both discount what you assumed were the results of just one study and promote ‘other’ benefits of wholegrains. I wasn’t attacking anyone’s right to eat wholegrains just pointing out that their benefits have been overstated. It isn’t necessarily a (heart at least!) healthier choice.
So you’re another ex-teacher? What age were your students? And was it general science or a particular subject?
Happy, I taught Earth Science. In 2 school districts, I taught High Schoolers [9th grade], while in one district it was 8th graders. I also taught Biology for 10th grade. What/whom did you teach?
I was jesting about your abbreviation of my handle: it looked so funny to be addressed as ‘F-me’.
Will look into the science of whole grains for my edification. We are into whole grains now for my ODH’s digestive system health. I guess they are good for me too, even though they found a large polyp last colonoscopy.
Due to our dinner yesterday, even though it was a “Linner” [late lunch/early dinner. gives a smaller eating window], I gained weight. So today will be a very “pure” Fast Day.
Ricotta/Herb Scramble with applesauce [homemade, unsweetened], fruit smoothie, blackish coffee. Then Chicken with Kashmiri sauce and vegetables for dinner.
What are you eating today?
I’m similarly having linner today! Went down to the office at short notice, nothing suitable for a packed lunch, and am out this evening so squeezing in a quick meal. I’m still eating my way through a courgette (zucchini) mountain, so it’s courgette and feta fritters with beetroot, cucumber, tomatoes, spinach (and possibly some sweetcorn before that goes over) and a bit of smoked mackerel. Which I reckon brings today’s food bill in at under £1 😀
I’m not one of the teachers here, although I have lectured undergraduates and U3A classes on a variety of environmental topics. I’m always in awe of people who taught/ teach children. That’s the stuff of nightmares for me!
Sorry to hear about the polyp. Are you having it removed? There’s a history of colon cancer in my family, which I’d really really like to avoid! Fingers crossed for fasting and a flexitarian diet 🤞
Apologies for absence: I’ve been ‘lurking’ unsociably- reading, nodding sagely, saying nowt. This is to say I have just aught up with herm for a quick coffee in London between appointment and train home, and can absolutely vouch for the fact that she is truly a Maintainer, with not a hint of hippo. A testament to perseverance!
F_me (sorry, you’re stuck with that, I fear) I’m the reason! But welcome!
I like the name, linner! We often do that. Now i want your meal, happy! I’ve just had a Greek salad with hummus at poetry group -‘good timing for National Poetry Day, even though accidental. It’ll be an omelette tonight, though.
Happy, teaching teenagers is such a buzz. They’re not the monsters portrayed in the media. I miss the job, but not the weight of marking.
F-me, that’s quite a name! 🤔
Hi Fast
So glad you and Hermaj caught up. She’s certainly no hippo (it’s all in her imagination). I’ll bet you two had a great chinwag ☺☺
Teaching little people is a great joy. I was often their first teacher, and as such, could mould them to my methods. I like teaching independence from day one ☺ The problem with teaching is the pressure from politicians (we are easy game), parents and the press. Leave us to do our job and we will. The stress and the rewards are enormous.
F-me….my idea of a pure fast is no food. Yours sounds like a normal low eating day, or have I misunderstood?
Regarding grains. I always believed they were good for bowel health, but I get very constipated eating even relatively small quantities of bread these days, so, as someone with bowel cancer in the family (but clear colonoscopy results), I stick to vegetables or the occassional ancient grain sprinkled over a salad to increase my ‘transit time’ 🙄🙄
P
Yes, as always, I thoroughly enjoyed the quick coffee with Fast. So much common ground, so much to talk about.
I was intending to head straight home but decided to go the long way round to the Tube and get a bit closer to my 10K steps, so I headed for Oxford Circus via Marks & Spencer. I came out deeply depressed. Now that the hippo has ridden away into the sunset and I’m much more free to experiment, M&S seem to be aiming at the blue rinse-pensioner perm brigade – old biddy fabrics, old biddy styles and my biggest bugbear – pastels!
I’m also an ex-teacher – of Modern Languages. However, trying to teach French and Spanish to off-duty football hooligans at a North London comprehensive equidistant between Arsenal and Spurs was not a lot of fun, especially when some colleagues in other departments took the view that learning foreign languages was a waste of time and the Mod Lang Dept a waste of space. Also, I confess I had the wrong attitude for teaching – too much of an iconoclast. I hated being a figure of authority (not easy when you’re 5’1″ and the nastier brats call you “The Smurf”). Some of them seemed to like me, though.
Purple, when a Fast Day arrives, I consume 600 calories of high quality food. On the Slow Days, I eat up to 1450 calories, which is my TDEE. Many of you are no-food Fasters, but I do the 600-cal calorie restriction. Have you tried Green Smoothies for the constipation? So good for the gut flora.
Herm, I also majored in French. Once in a while got to teach a bit of it. It is easier to teach the willing.
Happy, your foods-readily-available sound wonderful, as does the courgette/feta meal. The polyp was removed as part of the colonoscopy procedure. Benign, but now I’m on a 3-year rotation instead of 5-yr. My father had some polyps removed too, but there is no history of colon cancer in the family.
fasting_me, I didn’t tell the whole story. It wasn’t all gloom and doom.
A uni friend of mine had been teacher in charge of Spanish at a very good private sector girls’ school while waiting to get funding for her PhD. When the money came through, she encouraged me to have another crack at teaching and apply for her job, which I duly did, and was invited to join the school. As a lady of the left, I wasn’t altogether comfortable working with privileged kids, who, I am told, can be just as evil as the football hooligans.
I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. The kids were great and the staff were all kind and very supportive – not always the case at the previous place. I was able to salve my political conscience by arguing that at least I was doing what the state had paid for me to do, i.e. teach rather than being a policeman trying to stop trainee psychopaths jumping out of windows.
Part of my brief was to teach beginners’ Latin. I would mug up the night before and teach with the zeal of the newly-converted (I had been very good at Latin at school) and I was also able to take on some French classes.
I considered staying but the urge to try my luck as a freelance translator was too strong. A good decision. I’m still doing it and loving it 30+ years on. At which point, I’d better get back to work on the current project.
Herma. Freelance translator? Oh what fun! I never would have dreamed of that line of work. clever you. The girls’ school does sound like a lovely change from your previous ‘incarceration.’
The sun is coming out now, after a day and night of rain driven by very strong winds. The winds are still with us. Temps have dropped 10 degrees C., so it feels like Autumn.
Was naughty yesterday: ate pie for dessert [donated by a good friend], then had cookie and brownie at a game night with other friends. And spent the day on computer tracking down some ancestors: so no exercise. Must remedy that today. Two meals today and lots of walking [i hope].
Our 3-month stay at the summer house is drawing to a close. Have to use up some foods which means getting creative about Fast and Slow Days.
Anyone else see the report that ‘skipping breakfast is bad of you’? Published research from the University of California, it claims that missing breakfast can lead to thickening of the arteries, strike etc.
It does go on to admit that breakfast skipping could be part of a bad dietary life-style, such as grabbing a Mars Bar at 11 o’clock, though.
No mention of who sponsored the research. Any guesses? Kellogg?
Hi Polly,
Well Kellogg weren’t directly involved, but the funding is complicated!
It’s a funny study, because only 3% of 4000 participants were breakfast skippers, and they were mostly men, current smokers, mostly on a diet. They ate most of their calories at lunch, consumed more energy, protein and cholesterol, less fruit, less fibre, drank more alcohol and more sugar sweetened beverages. Hmm, so people who smoke, drink too much, have a poor diet, and don’t eat breakfast are more at risk!
This is old, but interesting review of breakfast vs none
https://www.nhs.uk/news/food-and-diet/breakfast-not-the-most-important-meal-of-the-day/
Interesting breakfast discussion…it’s 7:30am here 😊
Our study of 2, over 4 1/2 years, and an ‘older’ age group (none of this average age 36 rubbish), indicates that skipping breakfast is an easy way to reduce total daily food intake, reduces bloodsugar (and does not cause erratic readings in the afternoon) and encourages, and allows, more time more for active morning persuits. One of the participants in this study, however, CAN get very ‘hangry’ if she is told she will be getting a breakfast and finds the OTHER participant has decided they should skip it or delay because of changes of plans, so the 10:30 bunch becomes 2pm 😑
So much of eating and hunger is mind play, isn’t it?
On another note…we went to “the only Wesh Bar in the southern hemisphere” last night to hear a Celtic music jam session. A lot of fun. It is held in a converted old public toilet facility in Wellington NZ. I recommend it. P
Da iawn, PVE, I bet there was plenty of hwyl, there! 🍺🍺🍺
A year long study in Wales shows the same results re breakfast. Over 65 and 70 year olds do well on two meals a day, albeit on a sample of 2. We’re just used to it now. OH is still at a stop though, I don’t see him cheating and he’s actually taking small portions than I. It’s got to be the his insistence on a sandwich at lunch time, which is our breaking of fast. We buy a small wholemeal loaf, but it’s still bread.
Anyone got any tips on sleeping? I’m sleeping badly at the moment, in spite of all the usual avoiding of technology, winding down etc? I’ve taken an antihistamine a few times but don’t want to do that regularly.
Pol.
Tincture of Motherwort [Leonuris cardiac] works for me: 10-15 drops in 8+oz water daily. Happily I have Motherwort plants growing wild in my garden, so I have a big supply and can make the Tincture as needed..
Catnip tea works well too: the same leaves that make felines act tipsy have a sedative effect on people. That might be more readily available. Just brew it.
Hope that helps, Pol.
Interesting blog from Dr J today! https://idmprogram.com/eat-fast-break-fast/
When we lived in England briefly I was impressed by the number of families who made lunch their main meal of the day. Made plenty of sense to me. Not so easy to manage unless you had a lot of control over your working hours but seems to be something that was followed in parts of Europe too with the big lunches followed by a siesta etc,
Hi Carol
Yes. It was interesting. As he points out, insulin levels vary, depending when in the day we eat. But he also notes that for social reasons most of us, including him, have to eat in the evening.
I find, if left to my natural flow, I would eat at 11:30-12 and again at 5:45-6:30. Logically I should have the larger meal as the earlier one.
Then there is also the issue of including ups and downs (feasts and famine) to ensure metabolic rate doesn’t drop as a result of daily calorie restriction.
So much research to back up our wol. P 😊
Oh, I had a flipping feast of the loveliest chips ever yesterday! Consequent gain on scales, of course. It’s been an odd week. On Monday, I was just under my bottom wriggle room, the dreaded 8 appearing! Today, thanks to the chips, I imagine, I’m just half a pound under my top wriggle room!
It was U3A Grumpies and my ‘light lunch’ of three bean wrap. It should come with sweet potato fries, but the place doesn’t do them well, so I asked for chips instead. They were crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy inside. Heavenly! And I ate the lot!
That was at lunchtime, so just fruit and cereal later. A careful weekend needed! And lesson learned.
Pol 😳
Oh Polly we all love a feed of chips now and then – or at least I do! 😄
When I was pregnant with my first son I craved hot chips with vinegar (never, ever eat vinegar usually). Just finished reading that book Fast was reading about how we learn to eat. Research (theirs) says babies remember in utero tastes. My eldest has really salty taste, loves potato chips (the cold, sliced ones in a packet not the hot variety, don’t know what they’re called OS – maybe crisps?) Coincidence???
In France and Italy the main caloric intake is at mid-day. Our word ‘supper’, an evening meal, comes from the French ‘souper’ meaning to eat soup in the evening. If we all ate like that, we might be slimmer. Except that if I ate a large meal at noon, I’d not want an evening meal at all. THAT might be the best idea!
Crisps! Get thee behind me, Satan!
Well, we are back home after our summer sojourn to the Maritimes. And whadaya know: suddenly I am losing weight again! No particular reason that I can identify, but I’ll take it!
Fast Day today, first one this week. Moussaka ScrOmelette and strawberries for breakfast. Crab cakes and baby beets with their greens for dinner. Yum and Yum.
Should be a frost tonight: our first. Just harvested the last rhubarb, which never is good this late. Picked up apples for 2 hours today for cider, drying, and pies. Happy Friday, everyone.
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