The Maintenance Chatbox… come and share your success with us!

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The Maintenance Chatbox… come and share your success with us!

This topic contains 11,627 replies, has 174 voices, and was last updated by  hermajtomomi 6 months ago.

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  • Well, every cloud DOES have a silver lining, Poll! Pity about the weather, but at least you aren’t exploding from overeating ๐Ÿ˜Š I hope you get some weather relief to enjoy some touring. P โ˜บ

    Hi Polly,

    Well done you! My memories of America were that it was INCREDIBLY easy to overeat, too much supersized and calorific food. It would be an interesting experiment to return now and see if I was at all tempted by the overabundance. But I have no intention of ever going to America again, so Iโ€™ll never know for sure….

    Nothing to report here. Itโ€™s still cold. We had more snow last weekend. I donโ€™t know when youโ€™re back, but itโ€™s apparently going to stay mostly cold for at least the next couple of weeks with the possibility of snow at Easter!

    Pol, my sister in Philly says they got 7-8″ but the ‘burbs got more from this storm. Hope it didn’t have too much of an impact on your city stay… We got a dusting this AM, nothing much.

    The maple sap is running! We tap about 4 of our trees every year. Have lots more to tap but if we make around 4 quarts its is enough. Fast Day today. Happily I have lost the recent few pounds and am back where I want to be. Two weeks ago, ODH said, ‘let’s have that nice fried shrimp recipe!’ so we did and I gained THREE POUNDS!! ugh. Then a lunch out and a dinner with friends made it difficult to drop the weight.
    All the Easter baking is done and in the freezer. Usually another couple comes over for Easter, bearing many bottles of sparkling wine. All of our collective children left the next at the same time, so we have shared Easter Ham for 17 years. But they are away this year, so our meal will be abbreviated and scaled down: in menu and calories. We’ll miss them, but we’ll still have some bubbles!

    Any of you ever been to the Azores? We plan to go in early May.

    Mmmm…tapping your own maple syprup, F-M? How wonderful. I’d never be able to keep my weight down if I had that ๐Ÿ˜Š๐Ÿ˜Š
    I’m curious about “Easter ham”? Christmas ham, yes, but Easter? The only Easter food traditions here are Hot Cross Buns and fish on Good Friday and Easter eggs on Sunday. I don’t imbibe in any of them these days.
    Traditionally, Easter is for going to the Agricultural Show (Sydney Royal Easter Show) and joining the millions of others heading out of Sydney to enjoy the long weekend, usually camping. It often rains at Easter (full moon), which makes camping even more fun! ๐Ÿค—๐Ÿค—๐Ÿ˜„ P

    Yes, ditto to Purple for what we usually do for Easter, except traditionally we also attend a race meet but seem to have outgrown that now our kids have all gone. I have my small packet of hot cross buns in the freezer. They are traditional Sunday morning breakfast, toasted of course! Have the Easter egg hunt then for the grandkids who will be with us this year.

    The worst thing about Easter is the crazy shopping that takes place the Thursday before, with everyone buying up big for their camping trips!
    ๐Ÿ‡๐Ÿฃ

    Yes Carol…The shopping, overlaid by the holiday traffic here, is mind boggling on the Thursday before Easter. We try to travel early Thursday or, as with this year, very late. Driving back into the city on Monday afternoon doesn’t bear thinking about. We take Tuesday off as well. ๐Ÿ™„
    Life in Australia revolves around our long weekends, and often cited as a reason why the Republic vote was lost…people didn’t want to lose the Queens Birthday holiday!!!! ๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿคฃ

    Yes, HAM for Easter; turkey for Thanksgiving; Roast Beef for Christmas. Do you have lamb for Easter? We enjoy lamb at random times of year — just roasted a leg a couple of weeks ago. We prepare a moussaka for Palm Sunday; a meatless pasta for Easter Wednesday; a simple soup for Maundy Thursday; Hot Cross Buns then fishcakes for Good Friday; and a pizza from Puglia [VERY simple — no tomato sauce] for Saturday. Then Babka for breakfast on Sunday, and a hunt for our Easter Baskets [who needs grand-kids?].
    So unusual to think of going out to races or Ag Shows or camping on Easter! If we’re lucky we can have drinks on the terrace on Easter, but this year will be a bit early. Still lots of snow on the ground, but who knows what weather a week will bring!
    Have a good weekend.

    We simply don’t have the food traditions here. Bbqs any time of the year are our main contribution to world gastronomy ๐Ÿ˜Š
    Australia was “riding on the sheep’s back” during the 50s when I was little. Consequently there was a LOT of cheap lamb around. We ate lamb chops every night, roast lamb or beef for Sunday lunch. Rarely chicken and never turkey. Dead boring cuisine until the post war immigrants introduced us to the delights of the Mediterranean, then post Vietnam war we started eating a wide variety of Asian dishes. Now we have middle Eastern food from more recent immigration. My English grandmother would not recognize much of the food Aussies eat today. ๐Ÿ˜‰
    As we eat mainly fish or other seafood, chicken, lamb, beef or pork rarely get a look in and turkey is still never on the menu, but duck or ‘roo pop in occassionally. ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿ–๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ๐Ÿค๐Ÿฆ๐Ÿก๐Ÿฆ€๐ŸŒ๐Ÿฆ†๐Ÿฆ†๐ŸŠ
    We should eat rabbit, fox and pigeons to get rid of them ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿคฃ

    We made it to philly! Hotel fine and itโ€™s OH’s 75th birthday, so a free drink! Hop on, hop off bus booked for tomorrow for orientation, but only one full day really.

    I have a souvenir cold from grandson 2 after yesterday’s school closed day and am exhausted. I donโ€™t know how grandparents do it day after day!

    Iโ€™ve realised why Iโ€™ve lost weight – no carbs! I just eat differently in the USA for some reason. The only Easter food tradition we have is hot cross buns on Good Friday. We also decorated eggs and had to have a boiled egg for breakfast before the chocolate eggs could be opened.

    Pol. ๐Ÿ™‹๐Ÿผ

    How are you avoiding the carbs over there Poll? I had great trouble in the US, so we mostly self catered. Mind you, one interesting “self catering house” we rented in Mystic, Conn., had a space where a stove should be, but no stove, no microwave and no washing facilities. At least it had a fridge. I’m used to fridges, microwaves and washing even in basic motels here.
    Enjoy your touring of Philly and happy 75th to OH ๐Ÿ˜Š๐Ÿ˜Š

    I just hate their bread – so Sweet! Weโ€™ve been so busy with the boys and stuck in because if snow that weโ€™ve not been lured into eating out.

    I have actually lost some boobs, it seems! ๐Ÿคจ. Bra very baggy!

    How embarrassing๐Ÿ˜‰๐Ÿ˜‰
    Btw…nice to have you ‘up’ during our daytime. ๐Ÿ˜Š

    That’s one of the reasons Americans are so overweight — lots of sweet bread. One restaurant where I worked put out baskets of standard dinner rolls as well as sweet rolls. Guess which ones went back to the kitchen untouched? You are right to avoid the bread, Pol. Have fun in the City of Brotherly Love. Happy Birthday to OH. Is he losing weight too?

    PVE, that’s a weird story about the so-called ‘self-catering’ house! We like that type of accommodation too. One place in Germany had a full kitchen, but no salt or pepper. How does that work for cooking — do you bring it with you? At least it had bed linens: several places in Germany said you had to bring your own.

    We had good results from our Fast yesterday. ODH lost 3#! I’m nicely below my Target. Dinner out tonight as we go into the city for eye appointments. Had my biannual blood work done this week as well as the biannual bone density scan. Hoping for good results after focusing on Calcium and exercise during past year.

    Hi gang
    Jason Fungโ€™s latest blog on weight maintenance is well with reading (Controlling the Body Set Weight โ€“ Intensive Dietary Management)
    Itโ€™s always good to reinforce our WOL with facts. P

    Funny Purle, I just saw I had the JF email and thought before I share that link with theMaintenance crew I’ll just check to see if anyone’s beaten me to it! ๐Ÿ˜‚

    I’m just about to read it.

    Blood work turned out well. All is fine, with my Chol/HDL ratio = 4.4 Anyone else finding that the triglycerides are going up with age?

    Who is Jason Fung and why is everyone talking about his ideas?

    Hi, I never have any sort of testing, so have no idea about cholesterol, BP or anything else. Generally very healthy and definitely more energetic since losing the weight. But -horrible cold at the moment! A souvenir from grandson 2!

    Fastingme, my under standing is that it’s normal for cholesterol reading to rise with age. I’ve always had low cholesterol but not a good ratio between HDL and LDL until 5:2. That is something that has pleased me most about 5:2, the ratio has changed for the first time ever to where it should be. ๐Ÿ˜Š

    Dr Jason Fung wrote the book The Obesity Code. He is a supporter of fasting and provides a lot of information into the relation between insulin and weight gain. Definitely worth a read.

    Don’t eat too many googie eggs people! ๐Ÿฃ๐Ÿ‡

    Googie eggs?

    Polly, you canโ€™t feel cholesterol so it could be really high even if your weight is low. Iโ€™m about 59 kg or 129 pounds and if I didnโ€™t take statin drugs my cholesterol would be very high. Iโ€™m not totally convinced of the advantages of low cholesterol if a person is in good shape, but I do think blood pressure is a good thing to keep track of and to keep under control, especially as we get older.

    A childhood word for hard boiled eggs, Happy. I think the chocolate version are more risky ๐Ÿ˜‰
    I couldn’t believe the wall to wall chocolates at the supermarket yesterday. I couldn’t wait to get out of there with my small trolley of fish and veg. P

    ccco USA: I am glad to see that so many people on this post are talking about cholesterol and blood pressure. I found also that cholesterol goes up with age, as does blood pressure. I am looking forward to having this WOL keep my healthy and those numbers low!

    We are leapfrogging Carol!
    I take medication for hypertension…my bp lowered initially on weight loss, but rose again. Not worth the risk.
    I used to have low cholesterol. My latest blood test indicated a slight rise in LDLs, but a higher rise in HDLs. Always worth watching.
    Interestingly my Vit D rose after I started 5:2…I put it down to more long walks in the sunlight…even with a hat and long sleeves. P

    Thanks P! Iโ€™m not going to be eating any chocolate eggs this Easter, but I will be making some hot cross buns ๐Ÿ˜Š

    Iโ€™m thinking that Iโ€™ll refuse a cholesterol test next time Iโ€™m offered. Whatever it is the likelihood is that theyโ€™ll try and put me on statins. Big pharma wonโ€™t be happy until the whole population is medicated. From what Iโ€™ve read it seems that a higher cholesterol level is actually protective in older women in any case….

    Purple Veg and HappyNow: Good to read your posts. I won’t take statins either! I took them for awhile and they caused considerable damage from which I am still not recovered. I am no longer on them and haven’t been since last September. Interestingly enough, they didn’t change my cholesterol numbers, just caused damage. I agree! There are way too many medications out there people are using! We need to find better ways!

    Hi ccco,

    My OH is on statins at the moment, even at low doses he has joint aches and muscle pain. The research apparently shows that there are no side effects from statins though, so it must all be in his head ๐Ÿ˜€

    Mr P stopped taking statins last year after he did research on the damage they cause. P

    HappyNow: If you google online you will find a long list of side effects and I had a lot of them. I collapsed on the golf course after I swung my club because my leg muscles in my calves were so week. When I got up with help, I couldn’t walk without help and couldn’t play the rest of the game. I tried to play tennis but my legs were so weak and in so much pain, I couldn’t hold myself up. Then, I finally go a very rare side effect. My brain was affected and even though I am no longer on statins, I am not healing from that problem. My doctor says I have brain damage. This is very very rare and am sorry it had to happen to me. I remember going into my bedroom and suddenly I didn’t know where I was. Off the statins, I am not that bad but I still have problems.

    Oh ccco, I do hope the damage reverses. P ๐Ÿ˜

    Purple Vegie Eater: Thanks for reminding me of Jason Fung’s maintenance blog. I was looking for that.

    Purple Vegie Eater: I am still hoping. I prefer this WOL over that any day!

    Hi ccco,

    Apologies! I was being facetious, not suggesting that your adverse reaction wasn’t real. We both did a lot of reading when OH was prescribed them last year and reached the conclusion that the ‘benefits’ weren’t worth the risks. He is on them while waiting for a heart procedure, as there is some evidence of antiinflammatory effects not related to cholesterol lowering, but he won’t stay on them for life. His side effects are mild compared to your horrendous experience.

    My comment about the research refers to a widely reported (in the UK at least, e.g. https://www.nhs.uk/news/medication/statins-side-effects-have-been-overstated-says-study/) study last year which claimed statin side effects were down to the nocebo effect – people who know they’re on statins expect side effects and it is the expectation of harm, and not the drug itself, that causes the effects. The implication being that thousands of people are dying needlessly due to fear of non-existent side effects putting them off taking the wonder pills. The study was funded by drug companies, and five of the eight authors have received funding from companies that manufacture statins… Hmm, not sure how they thought that would convince anyone already sceptical of big pharma’s evil influence, or indeed anyone like you who knows firsthand the damage they can do.

    Mr P’s concern was that statins may impede the regeneration of cells, thus undoing the very reason he fasts! P

    Well these are a couple of interesting and quick reads

    https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/drmalcolmkendrick.org/2015/10/27/how-much-longer-will-you-live-if-you-take-a-statin/amp/

    https://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/11/01/statins-statistics-and-saving-lives

    I can’t for the life of me understand, when the benefits are so minimal, how the whole medical profession has been brainwashed into prescribing statins.

    Anyway P, I guess we should get back on topic, this being a fasting forum, and not a cholesterol forum… Wouldn’t want the forum police paying us a visit ๐Ÿ˜€

    Hi, everyone. Itโ€™s interesting that our American posters are more specific about health and medication, it seems. In the UK, thereโ€™s no system of regular health checks unless you already have an issue. OH sees the practice nurse every six months and the GP if thereโ€™s an issue as he has Type 2 diabetes.

    I saw my GP about this lump/cyst on my ankle and hip pain some time ago. She checked BP, fine. Other that that I had a cholesterol check once on the advice of my audiologist when my tinnitus changed to pulsating. All fine.

    There is no way in this world that I am taking statins! And that was before your story, ccco!

    Pol. ๐Ÿ™‹๐Ÿผ

    It’s taken the statins debate to prise me out of my quiet corner. I haven’t posted for months, not for any sinister reason but a combination of moving house (it takes forever to get straight, does it not?),family stuff with a variety of complications, not to mention a shed-load of interesting and sometimes urgent work, about which I’m not about to complain.

    My heart goes out to ccco, my side effects were never as bad. The nasty little critters seem to have messed up the life of a very active sportsperson. I was prescribed statins in my early 60s and was told I would have to stay of them for the rest of my life “just in case”. This was the same quack who kept me on steroids for 2 1/2 years when the problem they were intended to deal with was solved within weeks, having started to ease within days. Staying on the sweeties for, say, six months, fair enough, but 2 1/2 years with horrendous weight gain, shingles, and post-herpetic neuralgia – I don’t think so!

    After continuous cramps and scream-out-loud muscle spasms, which I discovered were common side-effects of statins, she suggested I come off them for two weeks to see what happened. The answer was nothing. The cramps continued. However, after four weeks they had eased very considerably and now they only occur mildly and intermittently. To be on the safe side, I’ve kept away from the doc ever since, apart from checking on a harmless ganglion in my left hand and getting a hearing test organised.

    With our NHS in financial meltdown, is it not stupid and illogical to hand out drugs to people over a certain age “just in case”, when patients of all ages are deprived of treatment they genuinely need?

    Rant over. Back to work.:)

    Hi, herm. Good to hear from you. Glad youโ€™re happily busy.

    Pol. ๐Ÿ™‹๐Ÿผ

    Pollypenny: Understood!

    HappyNow, I don’t understand, either, but we live in the age of drugs. We are to understand we should take a drug for everything!

    HappyNow: I am sure from what you said that your husband really needs them. The UK article is incredible. When I went on the statin, I didn’t even know they had side effects let alone what they were!! So much for the placebo effect!! LOL

    Hermajtomomi: I was glad to see your post. At least we both understand.

    HappyNow, thanks for those two links. Very informative. So we are supposed to take statins for no real good reason with the only real outcome of lowering our quality of life with side effects. We should see more articles like the ones you shared here. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Very interesting articles, Happy. Thanks. There won’t be any statins in the B household!

    Ccco, there is another thread on this forum that posts links to science articles.

    So you have successfully moved, Hermaj ๐Ÿ™‚ – I trust everything is up to your expectations. I found moving was a great way to get rid of expired products, both in the kitchen and medicine cabinet. Not that the medicine cabinet holds much. We haven’t moved for twelve years now, its the longest we have ever been in one place!

    Updating on my two stubborn kilograms – no progress, but I am going to do a four-day fast next week. This is more for the health benefits than weight, but I’m ever optimistic.

    Sorry, Ccco, I’m preaching to the converted. You have already been on that thread ๐Ÿ™‚

    G’day Herm ๐Ÿ˜Š I didn’t think anyone could keep you in the corner! ๐Ÿ˜‰๐Ÿ˜‰๐Ÿ˜‰
    So glad the move went well and you are still getting enough work to keep “him” in stale bread and water. We’ve missed you, mate. P

    Enjoy that kitchen Barata. Plenty of pain for the gain.P

    Herm! Before you wedge yourself back into your quiet corner… Howโ€™s the new home? Are you enjoying Cambridge? Any signs of furry feet yet….?

    Such interesting posts to read about health…. why are we USA-ers more likely to have our blood work done than those in the Commonwealth/UK? My ODH is on statins for cholesterol — would love to get him off them or at least a lower dose. Dr threatened me with statins years ago, but I lost 10 pounds and solved that. Giving meds, it seems to me, is the quick and dirty way of doing business. They should give counsel and create programs to promote weight loss and healthy diet. NO ONE gives that advice.
    But then there is ‘heredity high cholesterol’ which one of our sons has as did both my parents. He is taking the diet and exercise route.

    Herma + ccco: your stories are a cautionary tale for all of us.

    For Fasting today: Bleu Cheese Scramble in the morning; Lentil/Vegetable Stew in the evening.

    Good morning, all. Iโ€™m back to my safe 126 lbs! I think eating Fishermanโ€™s Friends constantly for my cold has contributed! Yesterday was the first time I enjoyed a meal – OH made a beautiful aubergine parmigiana and enough for today, too. Pre IF, weโ€™d have wolfed the lot!

    Fasting-me, Iโ€™d speculate that the difference in health care is down to your medics being able to charge for ever. Son and daughter-in-law both make a very good living from big pharma, although son is not directly involved.

    My god, I agree so much about the doling out of pills rather than giving advice on weight loss. My parents used to complain about our GP, a friend, for not spelling things out to OH as his weight soared once he stopped working shifts.

    Barata, Iโ€™m puzzled about your extra kilograms: you know the ideas behind IF inside out and have given great advice to others. Iโ€™m sure youโ€™ll crack it soon, though.

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