Happy Now, I really don’t mind being trampled on and feel warm and fuzzy all over after reading your remarks. Agreed its totally thoughtless and its only the stiff upper lips that saves us.
Had a good chuckle over your para.
Cheers,
Tim.
This topic contains 11,642 replies, has 174 voices, and was last updated by Pollypenny 3 weeks, 4 days ago.
Hi Hermaj and Purple Veggie Eater, thank you for your kind comments – the best way to success is KEEP GOING! I felt a little deflated after my weight loss dropped off around Month 4, it seemed to be so little – but it was still going down, not up! Then it began to move more significantly again. I also think it was because I varied my meals more; as the fast is only 2 days a week I was merely repeating my recipes, but I think the body likes to be challenged so I now change the recipes more frequently!
Nicky and Purple Veggie Eater, about BP, it’s the bane of my life. No matter what I do it is sky high. It just doesn’t move from its ‘I should be dead’ levels. Yet I do everything I should be doing (and more!) and NONE of the things I shouldn’t. I guess it’s genetic. I steadfastly refuse to take medication as 10 years ago I had a bad reaction to BP meds: apart from weight gain, depression, swollen ankles, loss of energy and muscle power, I actually exhibited symptoms of having a heart attack whenever I tried to go upstairs (which I normally went up two at a time at speed!). After coming off them, I was back to my clear, energetic self. I’d be interested to hear other people’s experiences.
Purple, I thoroughly approve of your social-historical research into doughnutty things. I think you – and the rest of us – could be given special dispensation to enable us to take up similar research. After all food is recognised as a very good starting point for an exploration of how people lived at a particular time in a particular place.
Tim, I was a mite disturbed when you said you were glad that I was still with you all. I assume you meant that I hadn’t flounced off in a hissy fit following certain unpleasant occurences on another thread, rather than you thought I might have dropped off the twig overnight. 🙂
Your comments were very insightful. I could identify with all of the situations you mentioned, apart from the military. Quite what it is in the British psyche that drives us to belittle one another and, worse, belittle ourselves, I don’t really know.
I also don’t know quite why, as I matured and moved further and further away from disapproving parents, a school where I was warned I would come to a bad end, and horrible jobs wih horrible bosses – interspersed with a few that were quite the opposite – I started to attract genuine approval for all sorts of things. Much to my amazement. I couldn’t help but think: “is that me they are talking/writing about? Surely not.”
Happy, you are very naughty, but also very funny. You are quite right about those inconsiderate people who insist on saying encouraging things to us Brits. How dare they! 🙂
Nicky, great news on the BP. A demonstration that 5:2 isn’t only about weight loss. It’s also good that you have an enlightened doc.
Right, ladies and gents, I shall probably keep a rather lower profile in the next month or so as I get stuck into the dissertation. I will certainly lurk, though.
[QUOTE HappyNow]:Sorry you’re feeling a bit alone Bay. I don’t know whether…it’s due to the fact that the maintainers have nothing to report (yep, not put any weight back on yet…[End QUOTE]:) Even when chatting with other maintainers it does feel a bit dull to say, “Still maintaining” even if we are quietly thankful for it. Ironically, I think that some of us do this even if we know that if we regained there’s a good chance that self-inflicted shame would persuade us to slip away into a damaging solitude when we should be asking for help/support.
I also wonder how many of us don’t consider ourselves to be superstitious but we don’t want to draw attention to our success for fear that soon after we’d experience a surge of uncontrollable appetite or some *life* problem that would lead to a regain. In public.
I started IF in 2011. My HW was 168lbs. My CW is 108lbs for a BMI of <19. Nobody has ever commented on my 60lbs shift in weight. 🙂 (I swear that my DH only knows because he records our weights on a weekly basis.) The upside of this is that I have no public approbation to lose that might exacerbate any shame if I did regain any. (I’ve read heart-rending stories of women who felt such shame at regaining after successful losses that they felt that they could no longer meet friends or even attend the same hairdresser who’d been so supportive during the success of their weight loss journey. Thankfully, that’s not a problem that I’d have.)
Good morning all maintainers
FD 2/2 for this week now bitten the dust so reading your posts with café latte at hand.
Honjie, commiserations at your high BP despite best efforts. Of course there’s more to all of us than simply environment, which is the only bit we can influence.
I assume your GP tried the latest generation of BP medication? I have the angiotensin inhibitor type and it is usually very well tolerated. In addition to medication and (of course) losing weight, we stopped adding salt to anything, make our own bread and always buy the ‘no added salt’ version of anything canned or packaged. Sorry if I’m preaching to the converted 😉
Interesting about finding it hard to accept compliments – a part of the Australian psyche as well. Since someone years ago took me to task for being ‘ungracious’ (his words) in response to a compliment, I have tried to overcome it by saying ‘thank you, that’s very kind’.
Have a good day all!
Tim, I hope you’re warm and fuzzy all over in a good way?! And not just excessively hairy with heat stroke…
SSure, firstly congratulations on your weight loss and maintenance. Result!
I must admit there’s a part of me that thought I might hex my success if I advertised it. Which is I think why I didn’t tell anyone I was doing this until I was a few weeks in and 4kg down. At that point I had evidence this works and felt confident to mention it casually in passing…! Now I’ve passed my goal, and I feel and look great (well, cf me 8 months ago!) and I am telling people (to keep me accountable maybe?).
I have no fear of public humiliation though now (the opinion I fear most is my own!). Perhaps because I haven’t been a serial dieter and don’t have a history of yo-yo dieting and weight gain, so haven’t experienced, and learnt to fear, failure?
Hi Nicky,
A well deserved latte!
I’ll be doing a mini fast tomorrow to get over a few days of bank holiday excess. No latte for me …:(
On the subject of accepting compliments graciously, I’m working on recognising and acknowledging my strengths. So I’m thinking next time someone compliments me I could say ‘yes, I know’… or maybe not! I’ll just try and think it!
Hi SSure
I most definitely need public support to maintain, and make a point of asking for it when needed. Thanks, everyone 🙂
When I began 5:2 after the first two weeks, I announced to all my lovely supportive relatives that I was on 5:2. I lost 16 kg and three clothing sizes in 4 months and they cheered me on. Now some of my supporters are trying out the 5:2. I also ask for support on this thread when I’m feeling low. 🙂
We are all different. And we have all found a way to make this WOL work for us. All the best, Bay 🙂
Hi Happy, agree that the opinion I fear the most is my own 🙂
Thank you Nicky and Bay for your input; I am loath to take any medication as I don’t want to put my body out of balance – does that sound stupid? But I shall ask my doctor anyway, things will no doubt have moved on in ten years.
All your stories are very encouraging: SSure – a weight loss of 60lbs is an impressive loss – well done! But how come no-one noticed? Was it so gradual that it went unnoticed? If so, then that’s a very healthy way to lose weight. This is definitely an excellent regime to follow whether or not you are wanting to lose weight; it is a good exercise in self-determination as well as being a gentle way of detoxing. And non-fast days are by no means over-indulgent – anyone else find this?
Hi all
I’d love to add extensively to the BP discussion, but have borrowed a computer and will be thrown off soon…. Just to say I have been cutting down my Coversyl (only 1/2 a tablet a day now.)
Further to my social research on South Australian foods…
Today didn’t start well when OH packed up all the food in the car first thing and proudly announced it was a fast day. It wasn’t meant to be! I was very cross, but then remembered the Berliner bun tasting yesterday!
We skipped breakfast and ate absolutely beautiful Spencer Gulf mussels in chilli and tomato for lunch. Stunning and probably the best mussels ever. Well done SA!
Then we walked up the main street of this tiny town and found another bakery. I was pressured into trying the Kitchener bun they had on offer…for research only, mind you!
First, sorry Nicky, you were right. They are a doughnut mix and are deep fried. The Kitchener bun, unlike the Berliner, was really quite nice. Much lighter, filled with raspberry jam and fresh cream and a manageable size. We were forced to have a very long walk to compensate and will definitely fast tomorrow.
Get out your maps….we will be driving across the Nullarbor Plain for the next few days. Right around the bottom of the Great Australian Bight. The weather is superb, and the scenery is spectacular. The ocean crashes against the amazing cliffs.
Happy fasting all Thursday fasters. No service on my network. Will report on any more taste tastings if I can. Cheers. P
Reaching my original goal weight was an odd experience. I’d looked forward to it for so long and was looking forward to my sense of achievement – but, I had my BodPod evaluation at that point and that meant that I was so appalled by the results that I didn’t experience a sense of relief or any desire to celebrate.
I also read a very sober, different look at the realities of maintenance. Debra Sapp-Yarwood is >10 years in maintenance and enrolled on the National Weight Control Registry. Reading her blog entries for the year she documented her experience was a major reality check: http://justmaintaining.com
I know that some people have found her account of successful maintenance and just what it involved to be quite dispiriting but I find it helpful. So, it’s heightened my sensitivity to whether my appetite will come roaring back or what I might need to do to maintain if my exercise levels drop (and, this is about to happen, I need surgery on both shoulders and knees and the rehab is likely to be lengthy and intensive – it will also involve a lot of rest so will hugely reduce my TDEE).
In the future, as, presumably, more and more IF weight-reduced people go into long-term maintenance, it will be interesting to see if the IF experience is different to those that currently dominate the registry.
Hi SSure, you raise an interesting point and one which I have been pondering quite a bit of late. I went to the link you provided and read some of what Debra had to say. She is right, most dieters eventually fail/relapse because the change is too hard to maintain. This is such a complex issue!
I am fortunate in that I am naturally tall and slim. However, when I hit 50 a few things changed and all of a sudden weight gain became an issue. when you have been a person who can eat what they want, exercise moderately and not gain weight to suddenly be watching what you eat all the time, and see that changing image in the mirror is very confronting! I have a nutrition background so I understand completely the link between energy in and energy out. So once this weight gain became a problem I embarked on a regime trying to even up that balance, and started taking thyroxine to boost my under active thyroid. I also went and saw a doctor/naturopath who advised me to cut out wheat and dairy from my diet and see what impact that had. Once I did that finally some weight loss started to occur. I didn’t do anything very clever, just tried to maintain that energy in/energy out ratio. I did that successfully for a number of years. My weight would fluctuate by a kg or two, but it was a full-time job maintaining that. Then something went wrong! My mother died and I don’t know if that was the trigger but all of a sudden I couldn’t be bothered anymore! I started to put on weight gradually, I tried to lose it, but unsuccessfully. I just wasn’t motivated enough other than to have a half hearted attempt at losing weight. This went on for about 2 years and then I saw the dr MM documentary and a seed was sown. I still didn’t act on it until probably 8 months after I had seen the doco. I started 5:2 in May, I have lost more than the 7kgs I set as my goal weight and there is no way I want to go back to the old me. However, how do I maintain that? I honestly think it must come down to personal resolve and personal pride. As a society we are bombarded with an over abundance of food. Eating and drinking together is so much a part of our social culture you really can’t avoid it unless you are prepared to be in a state of constant vigilance or never socialise! . 5:2 is not a diet, it is a way of life and it is up to us wether we stick to it or not. I do have my days now when I think ‘can I really be bothered fasting today! Will it make that much difference?”. The answer always is – of course it makes a difference. The minute you start to let things slide again you’re back on that slippery slope. I don’t know what the answer is to maintaining. I wonder about the value of support groups and wether they are helpful in maintaining. Long term behaviour change relies on a reward for changing the behaviour and is our new appearance and renewed health enough of a reward to keep us all going? I hope so! Interested in all your thoughts!
Hi Carol and SSure
I am interested in your thoughts on maintaining. I will read the link. I found it easy to lose the weight and now need to keep myself motivated to maintain.
Motivation for maintaining comes from a number of sources. Partly it is about enjoying my new shape and new clothes. Partly it is about the friendships built online and feeling supported. Partly it is about keeping this new healthy WOL going and being a role model for much younger family members. Partly it is about self respect and wanting to help others get to their goals. No doubt I will think of more reasons once I sign off.
See how I go. Bay 🙂
Hi SSure
I have read some of Debra’s blog and find it quite depressing. I won’t read any more.
We are all different. 🙂 My need is to be supported by fellow maintainers who are happy to say how they are doing it. And who skite about their successes with 5:2 and offer recipes to assist us all. And lots of lovely reminiscences. 🙂
Cheers, Bay 🙂
Hi Folks..
Carolann what a very pertinent post about maintenance.. As a relatively new “maintainer” I am hoping that the knowledge and experience of IF I did for weight loss will help me be “strategic” in my eating from now on.
On a personal level I really really like the ethical non consumption / spiritual side of fasting.. I ALWAYS feel a sense of wellbeing after a fast day. Which is a kind of motivation in itself.
Also essentially I feel so good now that I am both leaner and fitter.. I feel as I did in my 30s and am delighted to be able to wear the wardrobe I kept from that era …
which kind of leads on to Anglo Anti compliment angst (AACA).. People (family, friends and colleagues) have all complimented me.. and just becasue I feel so much better in myself I have felt able to accept the compliments.. which is kind of weird as it seems I am best able to accept compliments when I ALREADY feel good about whatever the compliment relates too.. compliment me on a task I have completed without me acknowledging to myself first that it was a job well done and I will brush of the compliment with truely english apblomb… Which is a bit sad as essentially it means I have approve of me before anyone else does otherwise I completely disregard it.. I have to believe the compliment is justified.
Yes, the biggest barrier to weight loss and then maintenance thereof is always the mind! If we can keep control of that we are OK.
Iwillbe12st, if I have interpreted the meaning of your words correctly you are saying you can’t accept a compliment that you don’t agree with. Have you considered that when you don’t accept a compliment from someone else as valid that it actually is making that person small? I am Happy to accept any compliment I can get because in my experience there are not a real lot of people who feel comfortable enough or who are generous enough to compliment freely, so when I get one I accept it in the spirit in which it was offered. I try and give compliments also. I think we can focus too much on the negative and prefer to spread a bit more positivity around when I can. Just saying….:)
It’s obviously good grace to accept a compliment and not insult your complimenter. Whether or not you agree with what they say!
Iwi’s post has made me think though. Perhaps the compliment is easier to accept if it is reinforcing one of your internal beliefs instead of opposing. If you don’t feel positive about yourself, you often look for things to confirm that view and don’t want it challenged.
How it’s received can also depend on who is paying you the compliment and how it is said. A senior manager reviewed some of my work and said I had a good grasp of the subject. I was actually quite affronted as I know for a fact that he knows nothing about the subject that I was writing on! Now if he’d said I don’t know much about this, but your report is well written and informative and your position is well reasoned and justified, then I could have accepted that better!
Hi Honjie sorry so long to comment but no internet. You ask about BP/ Heart problems. I have had two heart attacks, survived both much to some peoples disappointment :-), have major kidney problems and am type 2 Diabetic with high BP. Was on 23 tablets a day now down to 13 and on much reduced strengths.
BP pills , the 5 at the moment are Ace inhibitors, Beta Blockers, Calcium- channels blockers Alpha blockers and Angiotensin- receptor blockers. These keep my BP under control and it has taken nearly 3 years of trial and error to get to this stage .
My gorgeous dietician would not let me stray from the straight and narrow, I called her” Madame Lash “, and really believe that she was the major factor in me being where I am today.
This is not to in anyway discount the wonderful medical fraternity especially my GP and all the specialists. Medication enabled me to keep going, diet and exercise turned me around.
I hate taking all the pills but otherwise its feet first out the door.
HappyNow, fuzzy all over is right, I have to shave for the Heart monitor strap to be able to get a
reading. No waxing for me thank you 🙂
Tim.
Tim, You have us in stitches!
We are sitting in a daggy motel in the middle of the Nullarbor eating all the fruit and veg in sight before the WA quarantine! We are supposed to be fasting, but you have to do what you have to do!
Your description of shaving and monitors had some very lude comments from the male half of this group!!! 🙂
Have seen whales frolicking with their calves below us at the Head of Bight (big bit out of the Australian mainland on the bottom for our UK mates)Absolute magic.
Save your pounds and visit Aust. You’ll never see anything like it “over there”.
Off for a walk on the Plain. PVE
Hi Purple, are you staying in Nullarbor? You’re right, daggy motel but fantastic scenery. We were there last year on Her Maj’s birthday public holiday weekend and had light aircraft flight out over the Bight, seing lots of mother whales lolling in the shallow waters with their calves and males doing spectacular breeches to attract attention. Now whales sure know about fasting, apparently they only eat krill in the Antarctic so don’t eat at all until they return from their journey north, which takes about 6 months, and the mothers are feeding their calves as well!
When you get to WA take a few minutes to detour to the ruins of the telegraph station just over the border – name escapes me, can’t be old age surely? 🙂
Sleep tight everyone from ‘down south’.
Hi Nicky,for one horrible moment I thought you were referring to Yours Truly, not the other Hermaj, the one who lives at Buck House. Maybe I should make my birthday a public holiday in the UK:).
What a wonderful experience, watching whales from a great height or from dry land. I resisted whale-watching in New England on our first trip to the USA. I’m not very good on boats. 🙁
PVE, does “daggy” mean the same as the Engish “grotty” or “grungy”, i.e. rather scruffy and possibly a bit insanitary?
Hi Hermaj
Purple will have her own variation on daggy. However, I take it to mean not sophisticated, a bit too casual. Scruffy and worn but not insanitary. People can say ” you’re a bit of a dag ” affectionately. Meaning that you could smarten up in many ways, including dress, language and behaviour.
Ain’t language grand? Bay 🙂
Happy and Carol .. re accepting compliments with grace.. yes absolutely.. but it is quite easy for me to accept externally but quite another to accept a compliment “internally” if as Happy put it, it doesn’t reinforce my internal belief.. it’s so easy to reason a compliment away to yourself..
Picking up from p28…. sorry was away with work for a couple of days..so hopelessly behind with this thread.. recipe for the stuffed chicken thighs..
Start with the deboned / filleted thighs.. turn so that what was the inside of the thigh flesh is facing up ..stick a small clove of garlic in the centre.. dollop pesto in and then sprinkle with crushed / roughly chopped pistachios.. roll up and pin with cocktail sticks.. whack in the oven until cooked.. this isn’t a cal restriction type recipe as with the nuts and oil in the pesto it tends to be quite an energy dense feed.. for the lentil mush.. cook the lentils until just done. drain add some oil, stock, chopped onion, celery (fennel is good too) and some sun dried tomatoes.. splash in some red wine.. bring to the boil, cook the alcohol off and then simmer.. you can add the cooked thighs in at this point.
The chicken thighs are lovely cold too and good for picnics as easy finger food.
For those wanting to know how and what pulses to cook Rose Elliot’s “bean book” is excellent.
One word and off you all go! I LOVE it!
The word daggy has changed enormously in my lifetime. It would be what my mum also called “frumpy”, no style, needing a refurbishment, old fashioned in a bad way, beige, crummy, of a low standard. More recently I have been called “a dag” as a jolly friendly jibe. I found it insulting, but it was said with affection and a smile. OH says it has nothing to do with sheep excrement!!
The Nullarbor Roadhouse Motel is a bare concrete block building. It has never had any paint inside or out, so is just concrete…more like a shed…not a trendy modern use of concrete blocks! It has a little fridge sitting in what could have been an outside toilet shape and an aircon on that wall. The bathroom light was dodgy, so we had to leave it on all night. The curtains are falling off the hooks and outside the window is the wide open spaces with the highway passing. The tv (yes it has one) is smaller than OH’s laptop screen. One chair, one kettle. That’s it. We weren’t allowed to cook in here, so wandered across the carpark to some campers and used our gas burner to whip up a smoked Kingfish veg and shiritake noodle dish. Washed up in a tiny bowl. Harder than camping as it was illegal. Remember, this is in the middle of the Nullarbor (no trees) Plain huge distances from anything, so no local shop AND the WA quarantine are going to confiscate all our fresh food today. Ah, traveling is such fun. I LOVE the challenge.
So, in brief, daggy is really not a recommendation for accommodation. AND it is not cheap. Just the only thing around. Off to hit the road again. Will check out the telegraph station at Eucla. P 🙂
Hi dear maintainers, I have been reading this thread with great interest today simply because I had hoped that by now I could/would join you privileged crowd. I am 2-3 lbs off my target weight, but I don’t seem to be able to shift it. Is this a plateau or have I reached my healthy limit at BMI 20.1? Am I being unreasonable to want the weight of my youth?
I figure that since I am not losing weight on my current regime/WOE whatever I am doing right now is my maintenance WOE. If I want to lose the last 3 lbs I need to be more drastic which I am reluctant
to do at the moment.
At 53 and 5ft 3 my TDEE is only around 1313 sedentary but since I do a fair bit of walking I can up this figure to just under 1500. Three meals a day is not really working any more in the long run so 5:2 and two meals a day is the future for me.
Whilst writing here I have come to the decision that I should forget about those last 3 lbs and instead concentrate on maintaining my weight (be happy with what i have got). I wonder if I have been trying too hard (if there is such a thing). Hopefully the last few pounds come off in time without too much effort and if not – so be it.
Hi Lichtle,
Congratulations on reaching a healthy weight.
Are you happy with your current weight? If you didn’t have a target number in mind, would you think you’d achieved your goal? How did you set your target? Is it just based on what you used to weigh (so a little bit arbitrary really!)?
I would say at 3lbs off your ideal you’re probably pretty much at goal, so agree you could stop stressing, focus on maintaining and see what happens. I know a couple of us have continued to creep downwards weightwise while maintaining so who knows!
My original goal was 140lbs (63ish kg), which I reached and surpassed in May. I’m now a bit under 60kg, and I’m using that figure as my target/upper limit for maintenance. It’s probably a bit anal, but I think I need a nice round number to work with! And I can’t do it by clothes fit alone, by the time waist bands are getting tight I’ve gained 7lbs all over…
I agree with Happy, Litchle. I have 60kg as my nice rounded upper limit, but am slowly going down without trying. 27-28 at present. The trousers of truth system doesn’t necessarily speak the complete truth 🙂
Three meals a day seems to be too much for me most days, so 2 fast days and a couple of other 2 meal days a week allows for indulgence when I want to.
Interesting how much less I want to eat and the more sensible choices I make after having been on this WOE for a while. Even travelling, I pack healthy food and prefer to picnic (even with a glass of wine) rather than buy stodge at roadside “cafes”. (A very loose term in the wilds of Australia.) Getting up early and not bothering with breakfast seems our preferred travelling style this trip.
Cheers from the WA border. PVE
Hi Lichtie,
First of all well done on your achievement! Just remember that:
a) The last few pounds will have been there for longest and will therefore take the longest to shift;
b) Muscle weighs more than fat – if you are an active person and walk regularly, this will probably account for the discrepancy between your weight now and the weight you are trying to return to.
c) As long as you keep up with the 5:2, you can’t possibly go wrong. There are so many other benefits, as you no doubt know!
As time moves on, I am interested – nay, FASCinated! – by what the future will bring as I continue this regime. For ‘ladies of a certain age’ it is no mean feat to have regained our youthful bodies/state, it is a message of hope to all those women who feel they have to concede their looks/health/weight to old age. There is hope – AND WE ARE THE PROOF!!
Stay positive and good luck!
Honjie
Further to my Aust education of my UK mates…(Happy, iwb and hermaj and any lurkers. I’m pretty sure Bay, Nicky, Carol know about it)
When crossing the southern part of our continent you can partake of the world’s longest golf links…1365km long (that’s just a bit shorter than the distance from Lands End to John O’Groats). It starts on the eastern side of the Nullarbor Plain at Ceduna and ends in the goldfields at Kalgoorlie. The 18 holes are at various roadhouses and small villages along the route and allow long distance travellers to get some exercise. We have no golf clubs with us, but have walked quite a few of the holes for fun. They are in very rough, arid country with artificial grass to tee off and around the hole. Fun! P 🙂
Thank you HappyNow, Purple Vegie Eater and Honjie for your encouragement and kind words. If I am honest I am quite happy with my weight now and discovered last night that I could live with my weight even if I didn’t lose any more. I don’t know what made me choose/get so focused on this particular “target weight” – probably a bit of HappyNow and Purple Vegie Eater’s “round figure” element. But really it is arbitary once you hit the mid BMI region. I suppose I realised that I could not quite get to the weight of my twenties but maybe my thirties? anyhow today I feel a lot better and instead of feeling slightly disappointed that I haven’t lost any weight this morning I felt great that I had not put on any weight. Heeyyyy that’s a whole new outlook. I understand/get “HappyNow” :-)) Lets proof the statistics wrong, ladies of a certain age – WE CAN KEEP OUR WEIGHT DOWN!!!
True Honjie, it’s only the beginning and I look forward to see if my shape changes at all as with HappyNow. I am trying to eat less processed carbs and above all sugar. These are my two downfalls. But I have noticed that on fast days I can easily abstain from sugar and carbs, so I just need to exercise the same discipline on non-fast days…..now, since my brain/psyche seems to quite happily accept/respond to the rules on fast days, maybe I could trick my brain by adding a third “special day” like 18:6 or 20:4 with a healthy all-you-can-eat meal at the end of the day but NO carbs/sugar.
Mmmm lots to experiment. I can’t say I will never eat carbs again – I love it too much – but having these rules and knowing there are days when it is OK should make me stick to it – hopefully.
I agree with everyone else Litchie, stay on 5:2 and see what happens. You will probably find more weight will be lost, just a little more slowly. Re where the weight goes from: don’t know if you’ve noticed but when we gain weight we put it on in a particular order. For example, I am pear shaped so the first place I notice weight is around the hips, stomach, upper thighs. Conversely, when I lose weight those areas are the last ones to lose the weight. Although I’m happy with my weight now I am still a pear shape and that will never change. I’m learning to love it! I’m 64 and have a squishy Nana tummy. I remember the feel of my nanas soft shape when I was hugging her as a kid and hope my grandchildren feel the same when I hug them! Some things in life we earn! 🙂 Carol
Oooh yes, – those luvverly carbs!! I am a bread fan, I find it very hard to give up bread, but sugar generally takes a back seat in my diet now, unless I am indulging in a bar of chocolate! But that’s not an everyday thing. I think ‘balance’ is the key. If you’ve not had a pet weakness for a while, then by all means go ahead and indulge – why not?
Hi Purple, Bay, Happy,
I’m begining to think that all these threads should carry a government health warning. Start reading and, worse, posting, and you could be here all day. So many things to talk about and learn. And there’s me supposed to be writing my dissertation. At least I’ve now written over 1,000 words – only 14,000 to go. But I’m going to have to ration my 5:2 time. 🙁
There should definitely be a UK-Australian English Dictionary. On Word for Windows, the word-processing software I use, there is the choice of English – UK, US, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Caribbean, etc – to which the spellchecker will adhere. There is a noticeable different in spellings between UK ad US. Sometimes, translators are specificaly requested by clients to use one or the other. Depends where the book or article is hoping to sell. But it doesn’t say a thing about usage, e.g. if I were to type “aubergine” into a US English text, it wouldn’t come back and tell me it should be “egg plant” or that “coriander” should be “cilantro”. Which way does Australian or NZ English lean in terms of spelling and terminology, to the UK or the US or a bit of each?
I like the idea of a golf course measuring the same as the distance between Lands End and John O’Groats. Purple’s description of the landscape reminds me of a question I need to ask about Oz. Snakes!!
I have, shall we say, “issues” with the slithery things. If one comes up on TV I’m straight behind the sofa – Maggie Thatcher used to have the same effect – 🙂 unless Himself spots it first and warns me to close my eyes. I won’t go into the reptile house at the zoo. If someone offered me 5 grand to translate a book about serpentine creatures I would turn it down flat.
I would love one day to visit your beautiful country, although to see it all could take anything up to a year. So the choice would be – for me at least, wuss that I am – where are there the fewest snakes? I know about some of your famous spiders and while I would exercise due care to keep out of their way, I wouldn’t be having nightmares about funnel-webs etc. I’m also aware that sweet cuddly koalas can be vicious litle buggers, so I would keep my distance. But if I spotted a snake, you wouldn’t see my backside for dust.
Hi Hermaj
We spell like the Brits and we adopt various words from the Yanks as we choose. We had a lot of Italian migrants in the first half of the 20 th century and they have influenced some of our food words.
We say eggplant ( not aubergine) and coriander ( not cilantro) and capsicum (not bell peppers) and zucchini ( not courgettes). It seems to me that Brits tend to use the French version of words for food.
A quick response. Keep on writing 🙂
Cheers, Bay 🙂
Hi Hermaj
Most Australians have never seen a snake in the bush ! Only at the zoo. :). Yes, they are there. But rarely in cities, except way out in new suburbs. I spent many years walking in the bush on the weekends, and I’ve only seen maybe a dozen snakes in total. You really have to try hard to see a snake in the bush.
Cheers, Bay 🙂
Hi iwillbe, sorry to see you go. If it’s any comfort, the offending and offensive post has been taken down (did you complain, as you had every right to?) and the poster has apologised.
I know whereof I speak, I was on the receiving end of some pretty awful stuff this time last week and I’m still not sure why. And the one who was after me never apologised. Clearly I AM the Spawn of Satan! 🙂
Do consider hanging around on this thread. It’s lots of fun and so far, I’ve never heard/seen an unkind word spoken here. If anyone upsets you again – I’d bet money it won’t be on this topic – report it asap.
Iwi,
I hope you see this.
I’m sorry to see you go. But understand why. I was on that thread and said nothing, in large part because of my recent experience of being (my perception) ‘bullied’ for having an opinion. It certainly put me off posting on other threads for a while and made me realise that certain other people were watching me. I did consider leaving the forum, but I have nothing to be ashamed of. So I stayed.
I have enjoyed your company for the relatively short time we have both been here. And have just downloaded Rose Elliott’s book on your recommendation!
I hope with time that you can come back and update us on you and ‘The Pony’.
Take care. Stay strong.
Hi Hermaj,
We’ve never actually touched on this. But I think I was the reason for your problems on the LOACA thread. Several LOACAs arrived here as a result, and I didn’t know whether they knew they were joining a thread where Lucifer himself resided.
You’ve been really friendly, but I didn’t know whether other former LOACAs would be similarly receptive to my posts. So apologies to other LOACAs if I have seemed at all standoffish. For a while I didn’t know how to be me.
You must be logged in to reply.
We pay tribute to our dear friend and colleague, Dr. Michael Mosley. Michael was an integral part of our lives, […]
Michael is touring Australia this September! Here's a link to dates and tickets. Hope to see you there.
Michael Mosley gives an update for 2019, current research in the field and announces a tour starting in February.
in Welcome to The Fast Diet and Exercise forums • updated 5 hours, 31 minutes ago by Merryapple
in Weight loss • updated 7 hours, 24 minutes ago by Brads27
in Welcome to The Fast Diet and Exercise forums • updated 9 hours, 25 minutes ago by Cinque
8:45 am
26 Aug 14