@purple, thanks for the link, will take time to watch it tonight. Oh, you have started me off again, I was totally into this whole bread making for many years and knew all about baker’s percentage and individual countries’ styles etc.

I will definitely start making larger quantities of vegetable soups again, never tried chilli as I am a baby when it comes to heat. DH has to cook two curries one for me and one form himself. I love vegetable soup pureed but have heard that leaving the vegetables whole, tricks the brain into thinking that we have eaten something more substantial. Will try out this weekend as I have loads to use up. Will look out for zero noodles, too.

Hi Lichtle, I read somewhere and have done this myself and agree with the suggestion that – eating food we need to chew satisfies more. All our food these days is very processed, soft and easy to eat without chewing and as a species we need to chew. I think that’s why we all of us on this site like our almonds and if I’m feeling hungry on a fast day I find an apple works wonders. If I make pea and ham i purée that because it ends up very thick and is filling but everything else I leave the veggies chopped but not puréed.

@carolannfud – thanks for that info. Had never thought about it that way, but yes, I do love nuts I always eat apples and other fruit(apart from fast days) and I love acoompanying veggies al dente.
@purple, your jaw problem sounds quite funny (I know it probably wasn’t at the time). I am astonished that one day not chewing made such a difference or did you do B2B fasting?

Yes, new technology is a marvellous thing. It makes being apart that little easier. It’s even more important with grand children who grow up so quickly.

I used to have a a thing were my jaw locked and I had to do some excercises, but haven’t had that problem for a long time. Dentist told me, that the jaw was the most complicated joint in the body and a lot of head aches were associated with this.

Hot stuff, Happy 🙂

Yes Bay
We miss Luvt and her recipes. I hate the way our mates disappear without a trace:(
Lovely sunny long weekend here. Hope yours is going well.
Cheers P

Gah, lots of things annoying me at present but I think that’s because I had a fall the other day and it’s difficult to cope with the pain in my back and hip. I’m trying to think of it as a rehearsal for the plausible post-surgery frustration and mobility limitations and an opportunity to practise some coping strategies. Yeah, it’s not always working to convince me but it’s a helpful way to think about it. 🙂

My weight’s dropped a bit but it’s still within reasonable bounds (not that that is clearly defined when it’s a proxy for body fat levels).

I hope other maintainers are flourishing.

@ssure, so sorry to hear about the fall raising your frustration levels a bit. I am confident that you will be coping very well with your planned (post)surgery. You seem to be a person very much informed and in control. Just knowing about the difficulties can make you better prepared. Although sometimes giving up control can be a very valuable lesson because it gives the people around you an opportunity to show what they are made of.

Years ago I was friends with a lovely lady of advanced years whose eyesight had started to fail. She said to me: “I have always been active and in charge and the one who organised everything and now I have to rely on other people for so much. This is a lesson I have to learn at this stage in my life and I am finding it extremely difficult.”

Try and make it a life lesson to be learned and mastered.

I am sorry but it does not seem as if the sun is coming out today anymore (although we had a glorious morning here in the east) . Lets hope you can make the sun rise within you. Or maybe DH can be your sun shine ;-).

@purple 🙂 sleep well. Glad to here there were never any accusations between the two of you. :-))

Ha ha, P! A familiar happening in our house, although rodents not birds are our cats favoured prey. More often than not The Oaf lets his new ‘pet’ go, and we dismantle the house to catch it (although luckily he kills rats before bringing them to me!).

Hi gang
Slept properly for the first time in days…I must have sensed the dead bird. Madam often brings in live lizards and the occasional little mouse and we do have chaos separating them, but she has never brought a bird in before. She is 9 and well fed.

Back pain is unbelievably debilitating, isn’t it? OH has had slipped discs in the past. One time, when the kids were young, I booked a beach holiday that we really couldn’t afford. He slipped a disc a week before! We had to find restaurants where he could stand (eg river dinner cruise) and he stood on the beach so long, people thought he was a lifesaver!

His back is good these days, thank goodness. Hope you are feeling better today ssure. P

Happy, we used to live on a farm. I’ll never forget the smell of dead mice and rats. This bird smelt more like urine. Very odd!
I had no use of my left hand for months
after an operation a couple of years ago. Very difficult especially at the shops trying to get change out of my purse. I had to explain to people why I was so slow. The chopped thumb at the moment reminds me of it.
Predicted 34 here today. The pool is uncovered and ready 😉 P

Oh poor you ss. What else could you do? Have you tried a TENS machine. I get enormous relief with mine. P

🙂 HappyNow, I laughed when I read about the mashed potatoes as I have positively vats of fruit marinading for Christmas Cakes and I need to drain them and start stirring them into batter so that I can bake them before the end of the month – but I can’t handle the draining and beating at present.

It’s odd how difficult the simplest things become, isn’t it. 🙂

Hi Carol
I always go up and down between 57.5 and 60 every week. I’ve been in this range for 6 months. That’s what maintenance is. Have you reached your wriggle room goal? ie a range of weights which put you squarely into the healthy range?
Of course you can enjoy the wine and cheese. Just choose quality over quantity 😉 I do. I also still fast twice a week. Will do forever. Cheers P

Hi Carol,

I know exactly what you’re going through!

My weight does exactly the same thing, 1.5 – 2 kg heavier immediately after the weekend and then drops back. I assume most of that is water weight/ food in transit rather than fat gain and loss. But it looks scary on the scales!

And I know that fear of seeing my ‘weigh in’ weight for the first time greater than it has been for weeks or months, and worrying that I am on a slippery slope (and might wake up the following week having instantly gained all my weight back…!?).

I’ve been maintaining at/ slightly under 60kg for 4 months now. I weigh myself most days, and get strict/ relax a bit accordingly. Some weeks I have to work harder than others to bring it down again, but the general trend is stable.

And it was PVE who held my hand during early maintenance and reassured me I was normal and could do it it. She was right!

I’m sure you’ll be fine.

Soil and wet leaves?! What happened to a billion degrees in the shade, melting in the pool?

Great news on continued maintenance though!

I had to check the label on the new skirt I bought (and compare it’s waist band against existing skirts). It just seemed too comfortable to be a size 8…. It is!

And just ordered a new coat (blue velvet from White Stuff), in a size 10 (thinking of layering under it). Just hoping it isn’t too big! I’ve got a feeing it’s going to get expensive, being slim and actually caring about my appearance….

Carolannfud,

Like PVE, HN et al, I keep a weight range in maintenance, 105-110lbs (48-50kg) and I fluctuate within that, depending on whether I’ve some DOMs for physical activity, water retention from taking NSAIDs/eating salty food etc.

I’ve been maintaining for some time and still 4:3 but that’s to allow me to eat more generously on non-fast days (low TDEE).

Hi everybody and @carolannfud. I am exactly where you are. I reached my target weight but forgot that this was after a fast day as I was too happy to want to admit this. Now I need to get real and give myself some “wriggle room”, too (like this description) ie lose a couple more pounds to account for Monday weigh-ins (following two relative indulgent days) I want my goal weight to be the maximum not the minimum.

Since maintaining, I have been doing 5:2 and although it is great to have only two fasting days instead of 3, I am now experimenting with going back to 4:3 like Ssure. Being small I have been doing only 350kcals on FDs which is next to nothing, but if I did 3 fasting days I could fast at maybe 500kcals like everybody else on Monday and Friday and do a third, more relaxed fasting day on Wednesday at maybe 800kcals which would amount to a decently filling meal at the end of that day. This routine during the week may suit me, enabling me to relax totally at the weekend regarding calories. It’s my first week and I look forward to see how it works out.

I like experimenting with maintaining and not getting disappointed when the scales haven’t moved downwards on a Monday, though.

Yes, Ssure what is a DOM? 🙂

Hi maintaining mates.

Purple, just been outside to look at the moon. As you say, allegedly blood red but as they say in the classics, ‘a blind man would be glad to see it’.

Happy birthday for tomorrow – is it time to sing the old Beatles song ‘When I get older, losing my hair …. when I’m 64’ – is my arithmetic correct?

Lichtle – Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness 🙂 Whether that’s from a heavy session in the garden/gym or a nasty fall 🙂

LIchtle – DOMS is a bit more than that, it can be severe enough to make people think they’ve pulled a muscle but realising it’s DOMS from intense exertion, unusual levels of activity, or an ancillary strain from a fall is supposed to reassure them that the pain will pass. It’s normally accompanied by some swelling/fluid retention as the muscle repairs the micro-tears.

“I have lost 17lbs over the last 2 years and whilst I appreciate that my weight fluctuated a bit in that time due to not fasting during the cold weather, (maybe 6-8lbs) nobody seemed to have noticed my weight loss other than DH (and I believe he only noticed because he saw me fasting)”

🙂 I’ve shed >60lbs and, similarly, not a single comment (even without the uptick/fluctuation you mention). And, likewise, I think DH only knows because he records our weekly weigh-ins.

Contrariwise with me, I think because I have a wattle/double chin no matter what my size, I think the facial fullness means that people somehow don’t notice the rest but I don’t know. However, this may be why no one has told me that I look tired/thin/old/scrawny or other unhelpful descriptors 🙂 (And this is a major upside of nobody noticing/commenting on the loss.)

L and S, you have both done well. Ssure we have lost the same amount and people certainly notice my scrawny face. I have to point out the flat rear! I guess the important thing is how YOU feel. I am more than happy to have a thin face and wrinkly skin to feel so light and energetic. Maybe you two are much younger and your skin is more elastic than mine. P

Yes @purple, it’s all about how we feel about ourself; improved health, fitness and general well being are more important than a few wrinkles.

H, I’m wearing a lovely red coral necklace today for that very reason. 😉 P