This topic contains 11,627 replies, has 174 voices, and was last updated by hermajtomomi 7 months ago.
Good posts. I’ve said before that I’d like a thanks button. I don’t think anyone would support abusing a person in the street, for whatever reason.
I put my mind to lose weight after my knee started to pain almost constantly, rather than after kneeling or running with the dog. If I’d carried on, I’d have probably joined OH with diabetes 2, costing the country again.
We had a very warm day on Friday and ODH said ‘Let’s go swimming.’ He never says that! So in the late afternoon, we went to the beach and got in the water and paddled around a bit. Latest we’ve been in the ocean. Nice. Watercress is lush in the stream on the beach. I harvested lots. A few wild mushrooms went into the freezer yesterday.
Fasting today, at least for breakfast. [Eggs in Sweet Potato Cups] Tonight have reservations at a swanky prix fixe Celebrity Chef restaurant near here. I’m determined NOT TO EAT until we get there. Last year when we went, I went up 3 pounds and took 2 weeks to get it off. Tomorrow we will have a FULL Fast Day, rest assured.
PVE: tel me more about your chili, ginger, celery, peanut fish dish. Sounds good! What do you grow in your garden?
Happy, glad you are getting the rain to fill the aquifer. Let it keep filling after your drought this summer.
last Thursday I made open-faced Bahn Mi for our Fast Dinner. ODH loved it.
We had neighbors for dinner yesterday, something I enjoy. ODH and I worked to clean/tidy the house and prep the Poulet Valle d’Auge main course. Served with ‘cidre’ — very good. Not too caloric.
The power of the media!
I can’t say I’ve noticed a lot of ‘fat shaming’ going on here but I have noticed there’s a young woman travelling the country with a one woman shown about loving your body or something similar. Of course she is quite curvy. She has been getting very positive responses from women.
I think an issue women face, maybe more so than men, but I may be wrong – is to be competitive about the way we look. As an old feminist it disappoints me that females still tend to tear each other down.
As promised, my fish recipe. Use any firm white fish.
And Herm is right…cashews, not peanuts.
Spicy Stir-fry Blue Eye Trevalla with Cashews
Ingredients:
350g blue-eye trevalla, cut into 3cm cubes
1 tbs vegetable oil
1 small knob ginger, peeled and finely sliced
4 stalks celery, sliced on the diagonal
4 green (spring) onions, cut into 4cm batons
2 long red chillies, cut into 1cm rounds, leave seeds in
¼ cup cashews (roasted or raw)
3 tbs chicken stock
Shreaded lettuce to serve
Marinade
1 ½ tsp shaoxing wine (Chinese rice wine) I improvise!
1 tsp vegetable oil 1 ½ tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp finely chopped ginger 1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp sugar
Method:
For the Marinade: Mix together marinade ingredients
Add the Blue Eye Trevalla and leave to marinate for 20 minutes
Heat a wok until just smoking and , when hot, add the ginger and stir fry for 10 seconds of until fragrant.
Add the fish with its marinade, spreading it evenly around the wok.
Cook undisturbed for 1 minute, allowing fish to start to brown, then stir-fry fish until it is lightly browned all over.
Add the celery, onions, chillies and cashews and stir-fry for 1 minute. Swirl in the stock and continue stir-frying until the fish is just cooked through and the sauce has thickened slightly. Transfer to a plate piled with shredded lettuce.
Enjoy. P
OOOO! That does sound yummy, PVE. Are the long red chilis hot/spicy or medium? I’m guessing hot + spicy from the title. Must ‘translate’ that into American-equivalent chilis.
On another topic, men are also conscious of how other men appear, especially about build. I’m told there are mirrors above some urinals for a reason….
Our dinner out was wonderful on Monday. We did eat a Fast Breakfast and then ‘nothing’ the rest of the day [i must have my glass of milk at noon]. The food was fabulous and so was the optional wine pairing, which we shared. Not too much damage showed on the scales the next day, but we did do a Fast Day. This does work.
Cool and rainy — the Equinoctical Rains?? 11 C. right now, lots of wind so the ocean is riled up. We will escape the lingering effects of Hurricane Florence, though I think Ccco was in its path. You OK, Ccco?
Made Watercress soup and watercress sauce last evening. looking forward to trying the soup, since it is from Jacques Pepin. Tomorrow’s dinner.
It IS a big favourite with us. The strong flavours and mix of textures work really well. I find lots of people, who don’t like fish, love it.
Re the chillies, FM, the longer they are, the milder they are, I find. They should not be too hot as you are eating them virtually raw. It’s a fine balance between hot enough for flavour and burning hot 😵
Light rain overnight, so my seedlings will be delighted.
Thursday fast day today. Cheers P
Hi, everyone. My second anniversary of hitting target today! The friend who inspired me, newly retired, is calling this morning with instructions test it’s ‘a paned’ only ( coffee or tea) as she’s back on 5:2!
OH has realised that he need to be more disciplined. Thinking about continual advice to eat a Mediterranean diet he pointed out the the French and Italian never eat breakfast. It’s a quick coffee, then lunch ad their main meal. We still see recommendations for the Mediterranean diet with the extra that ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day’.
Pol.
PVE, tnx for clarification about chilis. I am a real neophyte about them. Will try your recipe!
Pol, happy anniversary! Good job maintaining. Glad your OH is getting more intentful about eating.
My ODH is back to exercising and walking daily and feels much better, some relief from his various ailments. This is good. His weight is also where he wants it [not the same as what I want for him, but I won’t die on that 8 pound hill.] My weight is back to ‘normal’ after our big feed on Monday.
Fasting today: Cheese Omelette + melon at breakfast. Beef Stirfry tonight.
2 days of rain have brought out the wild mushrooms. Marinated mushrooms are in our future!
Carolann, I’m with you — women should support each other! But then maybe the fat-shamers think they are ‘helping’ by ‘encouraging’ others to lose weight? Nope. Too optimistic.
Happy Fast day!
Morning, all. I seem to have hit a wobble at the moment. Visited friend on Monday – she’d made a cake! Out for lunch, only ate half, had a leisurely stroll and ice cream later. Nothing else all day, but a pound over top wriggle room the next day.
I’m under make, but only just, having gone from being under bottom wriggle room to having to be very careful again. Grrrr! 😝.
Going to walk down town now. Brisk pace and back up that damn hill should help.
Pol
Good luck to you, Pol. Of course I know you can do it.
Taking advantage of a windy-rainy day to defrost the freezer and inventory it. Always good to know what you’ve got! Our ‘summer vacation’ is winding down and I’m putting aside things to pack up to return to New Hampshire. Eating left-overs is the order of the week, so we can pare down the odds and ends in the ‘fridge. I did make marinated mushrooms the other day: Christmas gifts.
There was the 1st frost for our neighbors on Monday night — very early for local farmers. But no frost at our house [too close to ocean]. Apples in the hedgerows, still blue berries in the meadow. Still!
Have a fine Wednesday.
Polly I’m with you! I had a disastrous week – 500g over top wriggle room on my FD. The highest I’ve been for at least 3 years. And all because I indulged myself over a couple of weeks, gradually going higher until I reached my pinnacle Monday! 🙄😁
I’ve shifted quite a bit of it but sitting at my first wriggle room weight. I should be doing another FD today to get on top of it but haven’t. Will need to do one next week though.
You paint a pretty picture fastingme of the weather and hedgerows! 😊
Morning, all. It’s ironic that someone started a thread about maintenance being harder after two years, which I scorned! Anyway, back to just above lower wriggle room today. Did a bit of walking, well only to town and back, carrying two pots of marmite which seemed very heavy. Do hills count more than walking in the flat? 😉🤔
Another irony, we seem to have a number of vouchers for 2 for 1 main meals or a free bottle of wine. I do love Prezzo’s light range.
Fasting, frost has been mentioned on weather forecasts, but we’ve not had any yet. The weather is varying even more than normal, with terrible winds last week, then back to 20 degrees yesterday.
Pol. 🙋🏼
Of course, walking uphill, carrying weights is extra credit points, Poll!
I’m right at the end of a fast day and extremely hungry. 23 hours down. HEAPS of black coffee and water and wearing my snow jacket to try to warm up. And that’s on a 17 deg day!!!
I’m heavier than I should be, so determined to make every fast day really count.
It seems we will be eating less and less as we get older. 🤔🤨😐 P
Me too..(to misappropriate a phrase..)! Not so much weight – still just about within acceptable, though at the top end – but a definite ‘tummy creep, waistline thickening, flabbiness’ and loss of hard-won flatness. I blame two cake-type celebrations within a fortnight (wedding anniversary and birthday) but it’s probably more to do with days out on our recent staycation, and the more permissive atmosphere that went with them. I also think I’ve been less vigilant since my GP gave me a lecture a few months back about the ‘dangers of being underweight as one gets older’: at the time I dismissed it as irrelevant, but I’ve noticed a relaxation in my attitude to snacks and portion sizes since then, which, frankly, has done me no good! Back to routine, and some extra fast days to get back on top before winter. We can do this, friends -;how good to know we’re doing it together!
FFS, Interesting how someone else’s ” permission” can seduce us to relax our ways. 😄
Sadly, I’d say you (and the rest of us) know more than your doctor about weight. 😊
Yes, I’m very glad we’re all in this together! Have a good weekend all!
(Purple, it’s bloody freezing here too 😬) enjoy breaking your fast!
It was actually more than ‘permission’, Carol: a real blast of ‘if you come in here with a chest infection you’ll have no resources to fight it’, combined with an attempt to make me see the dietician to discuss supplementary feeding, which put the wind up me big time. This despite my reassuring her that a) mybweight has now been steady for 3 years and I’m not losing any, and b) this has always been my normal weight: it was the fat middle-aged years which were the aberration. I suspect I hit a wrong note, and roused her concern, when I reacted to her initial comments that I’d lost weight since she last saw me with a facetious statement that ‘It burns a lot of calories to twitch and shake this much’: nice of her to be concerned, but badly expressed, disrespectful of my knowledge of my own body to persist against my declining (which she called ‘refusing’) the dietician appointment. Needless to say, she herself is a tad roly poly – but this is a fight I don’t want to have. I suspect that every time I’ve been tempted to a snack, or an over large portion, I’ve reacted to that possibility andgone with it. Well, it stops here!
Well I fasted yesterday, broken with a Tuscan bean soup. The recipe was missold to me, by a paper, as ‘best ever’, which it clearly wasn’t. But anyway, it was a suitably nutritious, filling and low calorie meal for a fast day!
Pol, re: maintenance being harder after two years. I don’t think that’s universally true, and for those that it is I expect the reasons will be many and various! For me, the first six months of maintenance were very easy. It was summer, and I continued to be very strict on non-fast days (portion sizes, processed carbs, added sugar). As I slowly realised that the weight loss was sticking, I took a more relaxed approach and then I was no longer strictly maintaining the weight loss but continually gaining and losing the same 2lbs (1kg). ‘Banned’ foods crept back in, portion sizes crept back up, fast day meals were perhaps not so low cal/ low carb as they had been. Complacency had crept in!
There have been times when I’ve been bobbing around at/ above top weight and annoyingly can’t seem to get away from it, other times it’s been a breeze to maintain. I would need several threads… Weight maintenance is harder when the weather gets colder… when it’s Christmas/NY…. when I slip back into eating ‘treats’ regularly… when I’m less active but still eat as much… when I’m sleep-deprived… !
On the subject of weather! We have had a couple of light frosts already, and several nights dipping down to near freezing. I have lit the fire a few times in the last week – and then been pushed out by the stampede of cats! I have pointed out that they are wearing fur coats, while I’m bald pretty much all over. I think their argument is that this means they need to sit closer to feel the benefit, if they sat as far away as me the heat wouldn’t penetrate to their skin…
Hi Fast,
Your experience of ‘declining’ vs ‘refusing’ treatment reminds me of an experience I had with a vet practice many years ago. They were treating my cat aggressively with steroids for a condition. Unfortunately he became quite ill as a result with what we suspected was diabetes and we stopped the steroids instantly. Although our diagnosis was confirmed by tests, and we started treatment for T2 (which we reversed), the vet continued to be unhappy that we had stopped the steroids against her advice (despite the fact they brought on the diabetes!) and wrote in her notes ‘owners WILL NOT treat’ ! Some professionals really don’t like having their authority questioned 😀 It reminds me of a joke I read recently ‘What’s the difference between God and a Doctor? God doesn’t think he’s a Doctor’.
Such fun to read everyone’s wise and wonderful comments!
10 degrees = Cold and rainy here today. This was the day that we were to ‘do in’ the meat birds, but the weather has given them a reprieve until tomorrow. So instead, we went out to breakfast at a new place for us. Rather nice, despite the huge portions of skillet-fried potatoes, but the ‘Western Sandwich’ was good.
Happily, after yesterday’s Fast, we were both down a pound. For some reason, Fast Days have been very easy lately. Even ODH has cut down on ‘lunch snacks’ on Fast and Slow Days. Sorry all of you are having the munchies. Good thing you won’t be here on Oct 17 when Canada legalizes Pot… ha-ha.
I specifically asked my MD if older people should carry a little extra weight. She said, “Why would you want to do that?” I’m with her, to co-opt another phrase. Happily my MD does not think she is God. She is all in favor of exercise. I’ve been trying to remember to do my 7-Minute Workout every day [which usually fails to happen] and to walk my 5 miles. Today’s rain won’t help in that regard.
Working hard to use up/preserve for storage all the fresh food in the house, yet still have something to eat next week! A real juggling act. Can’t take fresh fruit/veg over the border.
Have a great weekend.
Hi, all. Beautiful day here. We’ve been to Chester on the bus, using bus pass of course. I needed to use my Debenhams gift card as I’m concerned that it might go to the wall. We did find ourselves in Carluccio’s for the free bottle of wine. Will eat nothing else today. That’s fairly easy, as we ate about 3.30 for the first time. Any Lang’s can be dealt with by a slug of water.
Weather forecast is for below average during the next week. It was hit this week. No wonder we Brits always talk about the weather.
Well we had 33 yesterday and today’s top will be 19. The other day we barely rose above 13. Weather is a constant topic here too! It is SO hard to work out what to wear!
I start off in 3 layers and end up stripping off. I put on wooly socks and boots in the morning, then end up with sweaty feet.
I need to cook up a big batch of veg soup today. We have used up my stock in the freezer, thinking hot weather was close! Too early, obviously! I’m so pleased Mr P loves my soup. Healthy, tasty and an easy quick meal. P
Goodness, PVE, 33 to 13? That’s some swing! But I guess it does that in Spring in New Hampshire too. But then we get to tap the maple trees! Lovely soup sounds splendid. Will have to make some after our return. Found a Jacques Pepin recipe for sausage/cabbage soup which looks great and even with the potatoes it has low calories! ODH liked the Watercress Soup the other night.
After yesterday’s breakfast out, I was never hungry again! Couldn’t even think of forcing myself to eat my Calcium [1 oz cheese + Green Milk at lunch]. Nothing but water until dinner which was mussels in curry sauce. Even with the wine and cake for dessert, my weight remained steady. Weird. Must eat today.
Off to dress and kill chickens.
Happy Saturday.
I’m ticking over just under top wriggle room this week, not sure why, but suspect portion sizes have crept up. OH, the chef, has probably stopped weighing stuff. We’ve had Mimi’s chick pea curry twice and her tagine.
OH has problems. His weight is definitely creeping up and he hasn’t even been to a rugby game yet! First one today, away in Caernarfon. This means lunch in The Black Boy, too. 🤨. He has been gorging on figs, do they haven’t helped.
5 years for you, Barata! Well done. You must have been one of the first taking it up. Daughter did it, but did not maintain. I think this site, including the chart and the support of the forum, is crucial.
Absolutely! Every time I get bored/complacent/smug/busy and lapse on the forum, I start to creep upwards – as well as missing all you guys, of course! (But I never quite go away – I’m always lurking, somewhere…). So thank you, all of you – and good thoughts to all who are currently having a heavier time than usual – including all those reluctant OHs!
It’s a bit like a secular form of religious confession – much harder to contemplate telling another human bean, especially face to face, about ones sins, than to confess to an unseen deity – even if you believe that deity is all-knowing anyway! I find the MFP app has a similar effect. Sad, but if it works – and look at the fun and friendships we get from it, too.
Happy weekend, everyone!
What a busy week of eating we’ve had! It is the end of our summer trip to PEI, Canada, so we’ve had several social occasions.
Sunday, ‘afternoon tea’ with neighbors. No supper needed after that.
Monday, after a Fast breakfast, we drove to the Western part of the island to sight-see. Had lunch at a cute little restaurant [unusual for a FAST day!]. I had Korean BBQ beef with kimchee. It was just meat and vegetables, thank goodness, and delicious. Took some home. Then we went to a famous local ice cream shop and did what came naturally. Delicious.
Tuesday, neighbors who are good cooks and enthusiastic eaters invited us for dinner. Oysters, roast chicken, blueberry clafoutis for dessert, lots of wine and digestifs.
Wednesday, since our favorite restaurant was closing for the season, we went to dine there with dear US friends. As usual, I had my 2 appetizers and shared dessert with ODH.
Thursday, we Fasted! All in all, the weight stayed down. how strange is that!
Have you been following the kerfuffle over the Walmart ad for “Fat women’s bathing suits”? long discussion of that on a radio show yesterday. Some fat women are insulted, others embrace the term. I’m all for feeling good in your own skin and having a strong self-image, but might they now feel that much better about themselves if they were slimmer? look at actress Melissa McCarthy, who made a career out of being fat. She is happier now, many pounds lost. Does ‘feeling fat and fit’ really mean ‘fat and don’t know how to change so i’ll live with it’?
Packing the car today in advance of Monday departure. Cleaning the house, too.
Dawn French, a British comedian, was the same as Melissa McCarthy, fast. She’s been slim for a good few years, now too. Sounds a if you’ve eaten well. Two starters and a dessert is a good idea. One of my friends has a starter and dessert. She’s like a rake, but very active with horses.
I’m relieved to find I’m not alone with the wobbles now. I’ve been a housework fiend with OH away and rewarded myself with a Hershey bar that I bought in Philadelphia airport last summer – yes, 2017! It was a secret and I have another which I bought in March.
Beautiful Autumn day here. Blue sky and golden leaves whirling from trees.
Well I seem to have gone back to my ‘normal’ weight although weighing in heavier at the start of FD. Last weeks fast was so difficult! Almost came online for a whinge! 😊
Haven’t had a really difficult FD for quite a while. I’m determined I will do tomorrow’s fast with a totally different perspective – see how it goes.
BTW – I’ve been eating a lot of rubbish ☹️
Fastingme, I can’t believe how much you are able to eat and still stay within wriggle room – good luck to you!
Hi all, I’m newish to maintenance (reached in mid August) and have since stayed within a 2kg range I set myself. However I am struggling with balancing how much I to eat. I swing from well under 500 cals to then having a few days where I eat whatever I want. I did stop calorie counting but that was a very dangerous game for me! I’m relaxed when I’m away but for day to day life, I like a plan and miss the structured approach I had when I was losing weight. I am trying to set myself some rules.
I’m going to ask what I’m sure is a simple question to others…I noticed some of you have been in maintenance for years. And my apologies as I’m sure you have had this question before:
Once you’ve reached goal weight and are trying to maintain it, how does one work out how many calories the allowance for that is? Is it simply TDEE? And do you still do 500 calories on fast days to still get the health benefit of fasting? Which must mean we need to increase the TDEE amount? I’m sure this is a numbers game…my mind tends to go blank as soon as it registers that. I’d love to hear what you have found works for you.
Hi Beedoo,
Welcome to the Maintenance gang!
As we often discuss, this is a lifelong commitment. A journey, not a destination!
My husband and I have been practising 5:2 for 5 1/2 years now. We were very strict for the first year, counting calories every day and omitting simple carbs from our diet. We also weighed ourselves every day. We developed an Excel spreadsheet of foods, with calories per 100 gm listed. It was a very handy reminder. I used the 5:2 recipe books to develop new food habits. We learnt how to fast for 24 hours, followed by a 350-500 cal, low carb meal, followed by another 12-17 hours. We learnt how to avoid snacking.
He lost 30kg. I lost 28. He reversed his insulin dependent Type 2 diabetes, completely off drugs since. He does a blood sugar test every morning and keeps records.
Today, we still try to fast twice a week and always weigh every morning. I don’t count calories any more … I know which foods will raise our blood sugars, and limit them. We avoid processed food and eat mainly leafy veg, a small portion of protein and full fat yoghurt and kefir.
In recent times we have been a fair bit slacker (lots of travel and human nature🤔). The result is always a steady creep up again.
The skill is to walk the tightrope between being completely over monitoring every single mouthful and throwing caution to the wind. That’s why we have this 5:2 thread. The support of all the other lovely Maintenance folk is immeasurable!
All the best. PVE
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11 Sep 18