happy 2018 to all.
Last night was beautiful. After a pot luck up the road, we came down the hill to our house for the traditional [since 2001] Fireballs. The snow was glowing in the light of the full moon. When viewed through the trees, the lingering ice from before Christmas sparkled in the moonlight. The fireballs made their comforting ‘woosh’ as they swirled around, collecting the evil humors, then to be discarded in the snow. And it was cold! -2 F at midnight.

But oh my! stepping on the scales was a reality check, more likely because the 16:8 window was smashed — eating and drinking went on from 2130 on Sunday until 0230 on Monday. But today is the first day of the rest of my life and I know that the new weight will disappear soon.

Our sons were a little dismissive of our Fasting, based on comments made over Christmas. #1 said there was no need for it as sensible portions could make anyone slim. [this is a man who has never dieted in his life and Hoovered up cookies and cakes as if there were no tomorrow] #2 said we talked too much about how much we weighed [we compare notes at breakfast and then drop the subject] and that it is not sensible to weigh every day. [he has hereditary high cholesterol, which he controls via diet and exercise] ODH and I are undeterred.

On to the gender wars. Happily my ODH and I have the same taste in films. We both love Sci-Fi [annual ritual of taking the ‘boys’ to the Christmas-tide Star Wars or LOTR movies] and any film with Colin Firth, even Pride and Prejudice. On the weekend, he watches lots of American football and basketball, and sometimes I’ll watch a little football too. Oddly, I was the one who watched every episode of Breaking Bad — he said it was too violent. And I’m the one who doesn’t like violence!

As to the naysayers, we all know what works for us and we have the sense to continue it. My friend with type 2 diabetes was all set to go on Michael’s Blood Sugar diet, but her GP said not to. Argggh!

Happy January 1st. Keep on Maintaining.

One thing that is very clear from meta studies Harvard did is that no matter what the diet, results where 2x greater if the participants were in a support group in person or online. So no endorsement of weight watchers, just confirmation that if you are compliant to a diet that reduces calories you will lose fat.

Group support is important!

5:2 certainly works well to control calories and for fat loss and it may even have some health benefits beyond fat loss. Water fasting certainly does.

When you eat (or don’t eat), what you eat and how much you eat are all important for fat loss and good health

BTW I never meant to suggest that men and women can’t like the same movies, art, foods etc or excell at the same things. But rather that the way we process information in our brains is quite different from each other and this leads to pretty accurate generalizations such as men are innately better at spatial things like reading maps and women are much better at following multiple conversations and gleaning information from body language. There is a ton of solid science behind this.

One of the first things I do with the guys I coach is tell them if you want to understand what she is really saying you must realize that the non verbal cues like facial expression, eye contact, body position and vocal tone carry more information than the words! You must pay attention and keep your mouth shut for a bit! LOL Most women do this naturally, most men have to work hard at it!

I think it’s tragic that the texting generation is becoming so bad at really communicating. There is no nuance in txt

Sorry – this may work as a generalisation, but it still always comes down to ‘which man, which woman?’ It only works insofar as it also works to say men are bigger, stronger, taller, heavier – we all know that may be so statistically, but not individually. Disregard that, and you’re into ‘men are from mars, women from venus’ pop territory – which is not somewhere any serious psychologist will go!

Starting the new year at my all time low of 160.4 lbs at 5′ 10″. This is 79.6 lbs less than my peak weight.

Typical breakfast for me is 3 scrambled pastured eggs with onion, garlic and lots of spinach sauteed in gee with some grated Spanish goat cheese.

Lunch salad with lots of olive oil dressing, avocado and 4 oz pastured chicken

Dinner, fish or shellfish, fried cauliflower “rice” with veggies. one glass of wine

I do not eat grains, pulses or dairy from cows. I only eat nightshades or fruit when it is local and in season

Hi Greg and Jenni and thank you for your comments. Your explanation of how you use the 5:2 way of life to suit your health and life style is exactly the way many other posters do it. one of the important factors of the 5:2 is its flexibility and how it easily fits in to each individuals lifestyle, social and health commitments.
Good Luck.

Hi Polly,

I’ve been eagerly awaiting Y Ddraig Goch. I see it’s arrived finally 😀 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

My first fast of the new year, not needed for weight control, but necessary to put a full stop on the festive season!

Welcome to Greg & Jenni. You two know what you are doing and how to make it work.

So far, down a pound from yesterday, and that wasn’t even a Fast Day. Today’s Fast began with my scaled-down version of Dutch Babies. My ODH sometimes makes us lovely huge ones on Sundays, but I vowed to shoehorn it into a Fast Day. ODH asked if this were the ‘fetal version’ of Dutch Babies. cute. Another new recipe tonight: a salt cod fish stew from St Kitts.

Pol, So you made me go to YouTube for ‘Y Ddraig Goch’ and how to pronounce it.

diver dog, good for you on your new low for the new year. Keep up the good work.
Happy, yes — Fasting makes a good end to weeks of a little too much. I so enjoy eating when I’m hungry.

It is amazing how each of us approaches food differently, but we each got there via Fasting.

New all time low 159.4 lbs with no fast day (FD’s are 0 cal for me) yet this month. Eliminating toxic foods is making a huge difference for me.

I’m wondering what you mean by toxic foods diver Dog?

It’s an interesting point you raise. I remember years ago pre 5:2 I was trying to lose some weight but had plateaued. I was seeing a naturopath for some reason I can’t recall and she suggested removing foods I was intolerant to, which I did and the weight started to drop off again.

Of course since 5:2 I’ve realised that dropping the white flour was possibly the reason the weight started falling again but I’ve always found the relationship between food intolerances and weight intriguing.

Thanks for the explanation diverdog, very interesting and food for thought.

I don’t eat a lot of grain products, but I do know about it if I eat too much.

I haven’t tried eliminating dairy. I drink very little milk, but love cheese and natural yoghurt, and have started drinking kefir for my gut. I’m not much of a meat eater, and I would struggle without cheese.

I do get cravings, but for yoghurt, cheese and nuts, never carbs or sugar. I had thought this was a good sign, but perhaps any repeated cravings for the same specific food stuffs indicate a gut out of balance.

I wanted something that would work sustainably, would not be too complex, and would not be a ‘diet’. My problem was an Hba1c of 48 (marginal T2 diabetes) and I didn’t want a formal diagnosis (which needs two blood tests to confirm).

So I did 12 weeks of 5:2 (Mon and Weds) with no food and just a few cups of coffee or Bovril. I found this much less difficult than counting calories, fiddling about with micromeals and tempting myself with things I had decided to avoid. In extremis on a few occasions I found a sliver of strong cheese or an apple solved the problem.

A month after stopping the 5:2 my Hba1c is now 45, still high but not a diagnosis of T2. I had lost about 5 1/2 kg (from 92.5 to 87) and my BMI is now under 25. I also don’t need a pee during the night as I often had done (5 1/2 kg of fat removed must have made more room for my bladder!). Trousers are now too big, however!

For maintenance I decided to skip breakfast. My usual bowl of cereal turned out to be 400 kcal, long term avoidance of which is equivalent to about a 6:1, and with extended fasting every night to lunchtime.

So far, all good: sustainable; no counting calories, no other change to food habits. And no additional exercise. I am retired but active (sports coach, diy, garden, rowing) but not keen on working out and don’t believe that exercise makes much contribution to weight loss (though it does make some and is a good idea for other reasons). I do do the occasional high intensity ergo when I run a gym session for juniors, and sometimes join in with their circuits, but not enough to make a difference to weight.

So if you are struggling, be aware it can work, and can be as simple as you like to do! Just do it!

Hi Stuart
My husband and I are heading towards our 5th year on 5:2. He was an insulin dependant T2 diabetic when we started. After a year, we had both lost around 60kg, combined, down to our healthy weights (59 and 70 kg). He was free of all insulin injections, and after another few months, off any diabetic drugs.
We have maintained this ever since with regular 24 hour no food fasts, limited white carbs or processed food, plenty of fish,full fat diary and leafy veg. He tests his blood sugars every day and, if slightly elevated, skips breakfast.
We replaced our complete wardrobes twice in the year we lost the weight and naturally started moving more. We usually do 10 000 steps a day, for the great feel we get from moving our healthy bodies. I agree Fast, we need to move to retain our body health as we age and Mr P also finds it does help his BS.

We didn’t fast for a fortnight over Christmas but did skip many meals. No weight gains, despite travel. Yesterday was our first Monday fast for a while. It’s a good feeling to be back on the normal system. P

Oooh, Barata — give up dairy?!?! I couldn’t/wouldn’t do that. I love my glass of skimmed milk and ounce of cheddar as lunch. But of course if it is what you need, then you do it.

Yesterday was a 1/2 Fast: normal Fast Breakfast, then Fasting until dinner which was a pot-luck with the Bell Choir ladies. Lots of good food, but I was careful to take little portions. Scale this am couldn’t make up its mind: either up 0.4 or down 0.3 pounds!

There has been a bit of a thaw here: temperatures around 1 C. today! Hasn’t been that warm since before Christmas, regularly being more like -16 C. Been wearing the Long Johns, top and bottom. Keeps me warmer, but makes me feel fat. Which should help me to eat less, but you know how that is.
Is it REALLY that hot in Sydney??? Food grief!

Wow, Purple, that’s hot! But this is abnormal, is it not? Or is it your new normal? We will have our usual ‘January thaw’ by the end of this week, with temps between 5 and 10 deg. Celcius. Should be interesting what with 8″ of ice on the eaves and 15″ of snow on the ground. We’re eating warming foods while you are putting shrimp on the barbie. Weather is so remarkable.

fasting, you are probably right, and I will run out of purpose regarding dairy. I have a daily milk kefir, once my scoby has stopped sulking after being in the freezer while we were away. And when I think of how little grain I am eating now (up to two whole slices of bread a week!), restriction in that department won’t achieve much. I’ll make my next batch of muesli with no wheat, just rolled oats, seeds and nuts, and see if that helps. Stay warm. 🙂

Full fat dairy, caffine and alcohol for me! None of this whimpy watery stuff! 😉😉

Absolutely ☺

The reason for the skimmed milk is 2-fold. Years ago my ODH’s MD told him to go low-fat to reduce the risk of diabetes which ran in the family. So we went to low-fat milk and blend-cream [10% fat] for the coffee. The other reason is that when ODH was a teen, he developed a sensitivity to milk protein and had to pour cream on his breakfast cereal. He didn’t like that and was happy when he lost the sensitivity and could go back to milk. So skimmed was as far from cream that we cold get!
We never gave up cheese though, especially because ODH couldn’t eat that during the sensitivity and missed it. So, full-fat cheese for us and skimmed milk too! And yes, PVE, we do drink wine every day.

Thanks for the comments on my post. Nice to get feedback! And yes, I do appreciate the need to build some muscle mass, to maintain BMR and not get feeble in old age. My father-in-law died last year at almost 90 due I think to infirmity caused by a gammy knee. Had he been more mobile I think he would have wasted less and had a couple of more years.

I find this whole subject very interesting as it seems to be bringing a little science into what is mainly a non-evidence-based marketing topic. Fat is bad? buy low-fat this and that. Sugar is bad? Buy sugar-free etc. For a subject that is based on reducing what you eat, possibly substantially, it generates a remarkable number of recipe books!

I think underneath it all is a fundamental truth – by mimicking what our ancestors did when they were between mammoths, i.e. regularly fasting for a while, we let the body go into maintenance mode. The evidence of Michael’s work and this site clearly shows the benefits. It seems that the rest of the world is waking up to what seems now to be a fact – that T2 diabetes is reversible. Which could have a big impact on health care.

The other truth is, I think, that you can actually eat anything you like as long as you get all the essentials and don’t eat too much (long term average). But, interestingly, as we are focussed on getting more interest out of less food, we are trying new tastes and enjoying it more and generally eating better.

I have come to this knowledge now in my sixties. I should have known it long ago – maybe from 35 when my metabolism changed and I started, very slowly, to gain weight. There is a big communication challenge.

On the subject of cheese, I was given a cheese-making kit by Santa. Four litres of full fat, non-homogenised milk, a spoon of citric acid, and a simple short process gets you a delicious lump of paneer, slightly different processes for other soft cheeses. So easy.

Good morning, all. Did my first 24 hour fast yesterday with no problem. Pity it was spoiled by OH cooking as if he’s feeding the 5000 and loading our plates! Lost the vast amount of 4oz! We’ve got his brother here, so some little excuse. But I’m a bit fed up of excuses! I’m sitting at top of wriggle room and he’s looking rotund! No chance if him reversing his DB2 like your husband, PVE.

I agree with Stuart that we need to get more interest from less food. We found that using Mimi’s recipes we did that. I can’t wait to get back to routine!

Pol. 💁🏼

Fasting, we never have breakfast now. We realised soon on that we were eating by the clock rather than need. Didn’t someone post that it was Kellogg’s that came up with the idea of breakfast as the most important meal? It was a slogan more than anything. I suppose it depends on what one’s day’s work is going to be.

Pol

Fasting_me,

Michael Mosley discussed breakfast vs no breakfast here:

https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/food-thought-fast-day-need-breakfast/

There was quite a lot written in the UK press recently about a study that reported poor health outcomes associated with skipping breakfast. The Guardian reporting was far less sensational than other papers, noting that it’s not necessarily cause and effect:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/oct/02/most-important-meal-of-the-day-skipping-breakfast-may-be-linked-to-poor-heart-health

I think your OH is correct in so far as ‘break fast’ is the most important meal of the day, but who said (except for Mr Kellogg) that break fast = breakfast = eating first thing in the morning?!

Thanks Happy. Excellent article.
My take is that meals are highly ritualised and social. As the least social meal, early break -fast is the easiest to skip or push out until later in the day.
By getting up and getting busy (as most of our ancestors did in on farms) we are utilising the longer fast, reducing morning carb overload that often leads to hunger throughout the day and naturally eating less.
I have long followed Happy’s suggestion. We had strawberry galletes for lunch yesterday. 😊😊
Have a happy weekend everyone. P 😊

Thank you, all, for your suggestions and articles. There is a very fine book called The History of the English Breakfast. It talks about eating habits from medieval times on. It seems that in monastery life, all you go were 2 meals and the 1st one was not early in the morning. Then it seemed sinful in outside life not to live like the monks, so ordinary people ate only 2 meals too. Maybe cost was an issue too… Anyhow the Proper English/Scottish didn’t take hold until the 1800s. and then there is Kellogg. Oh that man and his propaganda!!
I emailed my ODH the Guardian article and some others. No comment yet.
Happy, that article was so interesting. I’ll send that to ODH just for fun, not to rub it in.

Still trying to budge those 2.5 pounds from holidays. Grrrr.

It’s amazing really how breakfast has become accepted not only as the norm, but almost as if it was written on a tablet of stone!

When I first gave up on traditional breakfast (30 years ago now, but over the age of 18 when I was finally allowed to have a say over my life choices..,!), my Dad was seriously worried that I was anorexic!

It’s probably lucky I wasn’t born 50 years earlier or I’d have been shipped off to bedlam for refusing a hearty breakfast!

Fasting_me, if your OH is anything like mine, nothing more will be said on the subject, and he won’t even admit to reading the articles, but you’ll be ‘allowed’ to skip breakfast without comment in future… 😀