I second Happy Fast. Take care mate xx
This topic contains 11,627 replies, has 174 voices, and was last updated by hermajtomomi 6 months, 3 weeks ago.
Dear Fast, your experience with your mother and her death echos what my mother went through up to her death in 2007. Odd, isn’t it, to be relieved [for all the right reasons] at one’s mother’s death, but that is a valid way to feel. Still leaves a hole in your life though. Good luck with executing the estate. happily we had a good lawyer for that and it went smoothly. Even dividing the household goods with my sister was easy. You will come out on the other end. Take care of your physical and mental health as you wend your way through the process.
Happy Fasting today.
Good morning to everyone on this wet Christmas Eve from Cumbria
Sitting at the lower end of my wriggle room too @pollypenny 💃 so ready for that Indian Feast out with friends tonight (tea and water only during the day saving all my calories for tonight!)
Sorry I have been a bit quiet recently but all good and still enjoying life here in Cumbria
Joyeux Noël et une très bonne année to all maintainers across the globe 🥂
“Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”
— Calvin Coolidge
Whether it’s Christmas, Hannukah, Diwali, Winter/summer Solstice or just the joy of life and gratitude for good things, family chaos, relaxing with old friends or making the most of solo time, have a happy time, everyone. (And if it’s Christmas, remember it’s not officially over till February!) 🤙🏼👋😱
Dear Maintaining friends, Christmas morning here, the bubbly is open, croissants and camembert warming, the weather warm and cloudy. There will be a simple repast with friends and family anticipated, with a neighbour coming this evening for a barbeque, and possibly our son’s (now ex!!) parents-in-law if their lunch with their daughter becomes too stressful for them.
Have a wonderful holiday, treasure your planet, and share the love. 🙂 🙂
Light rain and blessed relief from the heat here.
Oir Christmas Eve last night was spent at a street party with excited kids, santa and lollies last. A full on family ham fest organised for today. Such joy to share good family times with a wide range of ages in our ever increasing extended family. Everyone brings a food and liquid contribution and noone thinks about fasting today.☺ Thankfully I’m not hosting this year, so I will get a chance to chat with everyone.
Have a happy day and remember it can all be retrieved tomorrow. P
Definitely today’s FD will not happen! Fasting is likely to be on hold for the next two weeks, but we are in the zone where if a breakfast or lunch doesn’t happen, so be it!
We hosted the street yesterday evening for a barbeque, so good to be part of a community close to home.
Just waiting for step grandson to arise before we look under the tree. 🙂
Cruising into the 25th at middle of the wiggle, but that won’t stop me from enjoying Stollen for breakfast and Roast Beast with the Yorkshire Pudding and creamed onions tomorrow. Followed by Buche de Noel.
May all the Maintainers enjoy the season of love and joy. May you continue to maintain in the new year [after a decent interval to shed the weight beyond the wiggle]. I have enjoyed conversing with you in 2017 and look forward to more of the same in 2018.
-Molly
Oh deary me! Once again I’ve discovered that intermittent, lo-carb eating – which I love and find fairly easy to follow – can come back and bite you on the bum. I actively dislike most of the Christmas goodies and so far have even refrained from Stollen and panettone, which I love. It doesn’t take much in the way of carbs to rock my dietary boat. A homemade bread pudding based on four slices of multi-seed bread to be shared between two over two days.
Guess who couldn’t sleep for bloated tum and spent all Christmas Day in bed feeling sick as a pig and eating a tiny, wee cauliflower cheese made with lactose-free dairy. When I made an effort to get up and keep OH company, I found he was watching back-to-back “Carry On” movies on one of the most downmarket ITV channels, which sent me running for cover feeling even sicker.
Still, it’s not all bad news. Our real Christmas with family will be on the 28th. Plus another kilo has gone down the tubes, leaving me 4.5K short of a BMI for which no quack will ever be able to berate me for being overweight, alledgedly as a result of eating stuff I haven’t touched since God was in short trousers. And it’s a beautiful sunny day in Cambridge and the house is flooded with light. Yes, we finally made it on 1st December. We’re still surrounded by cardboard boxes but the place is gradually taking shape. About to change into walking shoes to explore a bit more of our semi-rural neighbourhood.
Enjoy what remains of Christmas all of you. And here’s to a happy, healthy 2018. XXX all round.
Happy Boxing Day; Feast of Stephen; Fast Day.
Glad the move is over, herma, and that your weight continues downward.
We had a lovely snowy morning yesterday — a picture-perfect White Christmas. Spent the day together as a family, going out only for a walk, lots of time in front of the fireplace, great meals. Won’t even talk about what the scales say this morning! Breakfast: Apple-Bacon Baked Eggs with pears. Dinner: Antipasto Vegetable Platter with crispy little fish. That should redress some wrongs.
Such fun to read of your menus and family doings and neighborhood gatherings.
Hi all, nice to hear everyone has had an enjoyable Christmas, with plenty of feasting!
I fasted yesterday. Thought it was necessary after eating 2 serves of dessert Xmas night 😳
It all started for us Xmas Eve when we had about 20 people over for the traditional Xmas eve drinks get-together, the hosting of which is shared by 4 couples taking turn about – our turn this year. So plenty of beautiful food – cheese, mince tarts, all sorts of pastry etc. I didn’t over indulge but certainly partook, mainly of the cheese, no pastries for me.
Xmas day started well with croissants and brioche for breakfast, prawn cocktail entree, roast turkey and veg for lunch. All too full for dessert which was fine as I made up for that later lol!
Yesterday I was slightly less than half way into my one kg of wriggle room and felt pretty darn bad and happy to fast. However, I did struggle – all that sugar has its impact, but happy to say all gone this morning, back to normal. Low eating today I think as we are out again tonight to the home of some German friends where we are having a traditional German dinner. Not sure what it entails but don’t think it will be low cal lol
Hermaj, so pleased to read you are in your new abode, congratulations!
Great to hear that you’ve made it to Cambridge, especially after all the problems selling your place, Herm.
We’ve had traditional food, with roast too many potatoes for my unused tum, probably more alcohol than was good for me. I’m ready to fast now if only to give my digestion a rest! Houseful yesterday, so looking forward to peace after I’ve cleared all their break stuff, changed the beds, washed their towels etc!
Might go yo this afternoon.
Pol. 🎄🎄🎄
Hermaj,
What a great Christmas present for you! This Christmas, and many to come, in your new home in Cambridge! I’m thrilled for you both.
Well I’m back home now after 6 days away visiting family and friends. I have eaten and drunk more than normal, but (at least part unconsciously!) offset that by skipping breakfast and apparently making healthier choices than I would have pre 5:2. I know this because the scales tell me I’m still in my maintenance range 😀😀😀
After a lot of dull damp days the sun is shining. It’s cold and crisp and the mountains are a gleaming white majestic backdrop to Cumbria today. A bite of lunch then a proper winter walk, and back home to the wood burner and a movie for me 😀
Enjoy your day/ evening, whatever you’re up to.
fasting, Carolann, Pol and, last but not least, Happy.
Thank you all for your good wishes.
Yet another bonus of the new place – the garden looks wonderful in the snow and the path is dotted with moggy paw-prints. Once we are properly settled in, we shall hopefully get some felines of our own.
I have the house to myself today as OH goes to visit his mama. I’ll spend at least some of the time pre-preparing the lamb tagine I’m planning to feed my favourite family members, the ex of my mad nephew and her two sons, tomorrow.
For now, though, I’ll be catching up on BBC iPlayer, all the programmes I don’t watch with Himself as he only likes stuff with mindless violence, car chases or explosions or dreadfully unfunny 60s and 70s comedies.
Well! That WAS a Fast Day yesterday. My ODH lost one kg and I lost most of a pound, so we are back in safe territory. Hooray for Fast Days! After everyone ate the Fast Breakfast which I served yesterday, the Boys went quietly into the kitchen and returned with slices of CoffeeCake and Stollen to augment the menu for themselves. At dinner, I served a delicious Antipasto Platter, but the Boys’ had baguette on their plates. Everyone agreed that it was a satisfying meal. So easy to Fast in a family context.
COLD here today: -16 C. But a beautiful sunny day. Must go prep the Chinese Roast Pork…
Happy Day to you each.
Due to a technical hitch, for which please read I inadvertently closed the tab while I looked something up, I didn’t send my response to Happy and Pol.
We are far from alone in failing to share our OH’s dubious taste in films and entertainment in general. A translator friend and colleague tells me that, like both of us, many of our female colleagues, all intelligent, cultured women, have a Him Indoors whose idea of fun consists of car chases, explosions and all sorts of mindless violence. Not so sure whether all or any of these gentlemen share my MOG’s (Miserable Old Git’s)taste for crass comedy from a bygone era.
We also beg to differ on literature. Fair enough, he likes sci-fi, I don’t. The only genre on which we more or less agree are police proceedurals. But everything he reads must be humorous – including sci-fi and who-dunnits.
The classics are a definite no-no. For example, Jane Austen is “too girlie” and humourless. Grossly unfair. Having thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful 1995 TV adaptation, I was even more delighted when I reread the book to find that all the killer one-liners came from Jane herself and not the adapter.
Wishing all you magnificent Maintainers Happy New Year. I share Molly’s hope that 2018 will be a good one. 🙂
Hello all! I’m a 67 YO man from Las Vegas NV and I’ve had long term success with weight management. For 17 years I’ve kept off >40 lbs, most of the time >55 LBS and now I’m down 77lbs, 163.0 on NFD’s @ 5’10”.
I had a very successful December and support from the “silly season” and “December” groups was very helpful. Accountability and group support are very powerful tools.
I was attracted to fasting and 5:2 more for the health benefits than weight control. For me fat loss is a side benefit. I’ve tried many “diets” over 17 years and the net-net was that if I ate less calories than I burned I lost fat! Of course some ways of eating are more effective and healthy than others.
I’ve done the standard 5:2 diet and it works for fat loss, but my goal is optimum health. I like to self experiment and I tried B2B water fast days in December and it was pretty easy to do and really accelerated fat loss. I also noticed that my joint discomfort abated in only 2 and 1/2 days of fasting.
I’m going to try and limit toxins by following the plant paradox diet and continue my B2B WFD’s in January.
My big challenge will be the one week Caribbean cruise I have scheduled in January.
Good morning, all, and welcome to diverdog. I’m pleased that the last day of the year sees me a pound and a quarter under top wriggle room. My portion sizes have definitely crept up, as has my inability to stop eating when I’ve had enough! If it’s delicious I finish it! 🤨. The only good bit that I won’t take anything else.
Yes, herm, my OH won’t dream of reading a ‘women’s’ classic. However, he’s downloaded Treasure Island and Beowulf to his Kindle, he likes stupid adventures set in the Roman Empire. He does like Shakespeare in performance and loves opera, though, so not a complete twit. Mind you, he should be running the government, as he always knows the answer to any problem!
Looking forward to a happy healthy 2018 and wishing the same for all my IF friends!
Pol. 🥂🏴
Interesting conversation about what men and women read. I think it is an extension of how our brains work. Women seem to be concerned about how something makes them feel and men just want to know exactly what happened.
I’m a part time life coach and I’m always counseling men to be aware that women live in their emotional brains and if you want to communicate with them better, you need to be aware of how you feel and tell them.
I always use examples to illustrate how we think differently. I have a race car and when men ask me about it their questions are, how fast does it go and how many horsepower is it? Women ask what color is it and are you afraid when you drive it?
We are different and that’s a good thing.
Well I’m certainly not making gender based sweeping generalisations. I can only comment based on OH. He likes action movies and rewinds the particularly violent fight scenes. That’s not at all annoying or worrying 😀. He likes sci-fi too…but only if it’s action (He didn’t watch Ex Machina because ‘nothing was happening’…).
I like action films too, but I’m not a one trick pony!
Anyway, he’s away for a few days so I’m working my way through the many many things I’ve recorded but couldn’t watch until he was away! He’s pleased about that, esp if I delete as I go because apparently 250 GB of free storage is not enough….
So, on a different subject, I’m pleased to report absolutely NO damage on the scales from the festive season 😇 Next weekend will be four years fasting. THAT Xmas and NY is forever etched in my brain as the flabby greedy festive season when I ate everything and hated myself for it. With hindsight it was clearly just a massive carb loading pre-fast!
I’m not staying up til midnight tonight. I’m going to bed with a good book. Most evenings spent with friends don’t end until the early hours, but for some reason we peak too soon on NYE and it’s then just a chore staying up! And I’ve seen fireworks countless times and I don’t particularly care for them. And if I’m having trouble dropping off I’ll count backwards 😀
Whatever you’re doing fasting friends, here’s to a happy healthy new year.
Congratulations on your 4 year anniversary. It really has become a new way of life, hasn’t it?
We have been away in the bush with family and as I had to bring and cook everything, it has been easy to control the food, especially with grandkids who eat everything as soon as I make it! I get the crumbs ☺☺☺ P
Purple veggie eater, I could chat for hours on relationships but I don’t think this is a good forum to do that. I’ll leave it at opposites certainly do attract, they are called masculine and feminine.
Happynow, your OH sounds like about 80% of the guys I know! LOL
I’m recovering from a wicked cold. I’m rarely sick and I don’t like it at all! At least the body aches, headaches, and chills are gone. I still feel malise and my nose is running like a faucet!
December was very kind to me as I lost more than 5lbs to my all time low of 161.4 lbs @ 5′ 10″. The last two days have been NFD’s but if I ate 800 cals it was a lot. I don’t have any appetite and actually forced myself to eat a bit
Hi to all posters and I hope that the new year will be successful for you all. As a believer in 5:2 way of life I now keep a weather eye on the comments made by posters and sometimes, like now post with some info that may be of interest.
A recent article in “The Sunday Times”, an up market broad sheet newspaper published in the UK published a negative article about Michael and the 5:2 diet. A couple of quotes I picked out show this. “Intermittent dieting is being touted as the answer to diet problems….but there is no evidence to show it helps achieve weight loss lasting years or even months”. (Dr Catherine Hankey, nutrition researcher Glasgow University). A second comment…”People who diet alone are generally only about a kilo lighter a year later….in our studies people who went to a weight – loss group were 5kg lighter after two years”. (Susan Jebb, Professor of diet and population health, Oxford University). The article ignored proven internal health benefits of the Fast Diet and also seems to be unaware of the impact the forum and the support that posters give each other in following this way of life has on those who follow the Fast Diet.
Good luck and best wishes to you all out there.
I wasn’t intending to make gender-based sweeping generalisations either. Sorry if it seemed that way. It’s just comforting to know that mine isn’t an unusual experience, and it is isn’t simply a case of me lacking humour or imagination.
The same differences in taste can occur between people of the same gender, like I don’t do soaps whereas many of my female friends do. And I don’t give a monkey’s about “Strictly”.
And unless it’s athletics, a particularly interesting Wimbledon match, or very occasionally Formula 1, or a replay of Gareth Davies’s famous 1973 try against the All Blacks, I find sport excruciatingly boring.
Could be I’m scoring an own goal with these confessions and proving that it’s me who’s the sad weirdo. 🙂
Happy New Year, everyone.
Couscous, long time no see. How nice to meet you again on this thread.
Thanks for drawing our attention to this ill-informed twaddle from scientists who clearly haven’t checked all available sources of information on intermittent fasting. For instance, did it occur to any of them to take a look at this very forum?
For what it’s worth, as one who’s battled to lose weight during a long life as a fatty, 5:2 is the only way of eating (notice I didn’t say “diet”) that has worked for me. Admittedly progress has been super-slow, e.g. one year I lost only 1.5 kilos. However, 5:2 combined with variations thereof, such as 24-hour fasting, after coming up for 5 years in February, I have lost 20+% of my starting weight, and I’m within about 4 kilos of a BMI that no medic can grumble at.
Most importantly, I haven’t regained weight and the odd blip of 1 or 2 kilos has fairly quickly been dealt with. I’m also off all medication and, following my last regular eye test, my previous prescription was found to be too strong – almost certainly another 5:2 spin-off.
And the nay-sayers only have to scroll through the forum to find a vast number people with much more spectacular success stories.
Hi hermajtomomi, thank you for your reply and congratulations on your efforts and success with your way of life. Said article irritated me because not only does it belittle people like yourself and all the posters on this forum but it ignores the important work that Michael and others have done to try to help people with their health and weight. They have also ignored the important research carried out by Valta Longo et al who helped inspire Michael with the 5:2 way of life.
Good luck to you.
Couscous,
Thanks for that. I hadn’t seen it. It’s funny how threatened by fasting the medical establishment (with their failing ‘eat less, move more’ mantra, and unhealthy carb-loaded Eatwell Plate) appear to feel!
I know a GP with a morbidly obese wife. Even after reading the 5:2 book he wouldn’t let her do 5:2 because ‘it’s not healthy not to eat’. Hmm, like being obese with no realistic chance of losing weight is…
As someone who spent most of 45 years being overweight, and who lost 13-14kg in early 2014 by 5:2 alone, and who has maintained that loss +/- 1kg ever since by IF… well all I can say is Hankey and Jebb clearly don’t know everything 😀
Happy New Year to all on The Maintenance Chatbox
I’m still lurking – I contribute mainly on the monthly challenges but to do read the posts on here too – I am now entering my 2nd year of maintenance weighing in at 53kg/116.8lbs – 2kg below my original target weight 💃 This has been my 2nd festive season without gaining weight and I have not felt deprived at all – what a wonderful WOL!
I’m off to Australia on 14/1 for my niece’s wedding but until then I’m challenging myself with a “Dry January” and also restarting my plank challenge with a vengeance – I started this back in August but recently apart from planks done in my Pilates and Yoga classes I have not done any; so back to a daily 5min variation – if anyone is interested this is what I’m starting with:-
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqqN1sEDXrIKXe16tZ5Yanw
I’m out with OH for a hike before the rain starts again!!!!
I’m hear to second, or third, Couscous’ dismissal of that research! I’ve maintained my weight loss fairly painlessly since November 2016. The key point of Michael Mosley’s work for me was that we don’t need to eat by the clock. So it’s been 16:8 since and I can mostly eat what I want, bearing in mind that I don’t want a pile of chips or tin of Quality Street anymore.
Strangely, Michael’s new programme has a trailing talking about eating any carbs for breakfast. We only do breakfast if staying in an hotel and its included.
Re generalisations on gender, as I said OH loves action movies and novels, but as a classical music bore, he’s hardly a philistine! We watched La Boheme from Covent Garden, which we’d recorded, last night. Blissful!
Have a wonderful time in Australia, AT.
Pol.
Two very eloquent responses, Couscous and Happy.
I bet a whole lot of people with lifelong weight problems have remained overweight or obese precisely because they have followed the advice of smug, we-know-best medics, some young enough to know better, which simply hasn’t worked. Happy’s GP acquaintance with the porky wife is a perfect example.
As far as my own success is concerned, I’m convinced it’s the fasting that has made the difference. I turned to 24-hour fasting at a time of extreme stress, i.e. I couldn’t face food. Gradually I found I rather liked living on nothing but fluids all day. Not only were the kilos slipping gently away, I could eat more or less what I liked within reason in the evening, which is when I’m actually hungry.
Hi all -Happy new year to all xx
Pol – did MM’s trail recommend that any carbs eaten should be at breakfast, or the reverse? I’m interested especially because neuro has recommended that I decrease my (already low and always complex) carbs even further, while increasing fats – ie ketogenic eating\a la Volek and Phinney. It would be good to know if there’s an optimal time to eat those minimal carbs I do consume. I do do breakfast, though as late as poss, to benefit from 16:8, and mainly to get my gut moving in the morning, but it’s normally yoghurt and berries. Carb cravings used to hit me mid afternoon, until a trainer at the gym (treated myself to 6 1-1 sessions two years ago. -£p well spent in terms of motivation) suggested more protein at lunch. Sorted!
Can I join in?
I suspect part of the problem is the huge loss of income for all of those dieting companies, they would all go bankrupt! My dear friend who has been morbidly obese for most of her life and has done every diet known to man, has lost 5 stone and 4 dress sizes by ditching rice/pasta/potatoes and bread on a daily basis and started fasting. I was telling her about Lustig and Fung and she finds it really easy to do, despite regularly going out to eat and go on holiday. My son, who has been overweight for the past 15 years and has Aspergers(very rigid about what he will eat) has been losing weight over the past couple of years when I encouraged him to avoid rice/pasta/potatoes and to ditch the cereal bars and orange juice(swop them for actual fruit instead). He has sandwiches for his packed lunch, but has swopped cereal for breakfast for an omelette on the days that he works, or a bacon roll when he isn’t. He lives on his own and cooks meat and vegetables for his dinner. He refuses to stand on the scales or to allow me to measure his waist, but he is several stone lighter, has stopped waddling and snoring, but most of all can tuck his shirt in and there is no overhang of belly. He looks good and seems so much happier. I suspect that another year of eating this way will continue to trim him all over.
Many thanks for the comments. Now that I am getting warmed up so to speak and thinking of ways to eat on my non fast days an old saying came to mind. Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Queen, Supper like a Pauper. Not that I mean to pig out at any of these times but think about the day before you fast. Have a main meal at breakfast, a light lunch and a “breakfast” type meal (less than 300 cals) for your last meal of the evening. Start your “Fast day” the following morning. Would this produce a more effective weight loss?. By working through your pre fast day you burn more calories off your “main meal” breakfast and then your last “Lite” evening meal means your body is not working as hard to burn excess calories as you sleep. I have not thought out the construction of the meals, ie protein, carbs, fibre content etc and I try to keep meal construction simple but have any posters tried this approach? I would be interested in your feed back.
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Michael is touring Australia this September! Here's a link to dates and tickets. Hope to see you there.
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10 Dec 17