Hi All – I’m back in the land of the living, after sleeping on and off since my last post : feeling better, but not yet trusting it to last. Thank you all for various comments and supportive noises – SSure, I was especially interested in your analysis as very often I find myself, in the middle of a migraine, craving chips or a fried-egg butty. Counter-intuitive when feeling nauseous, but it does seem to work, so perhaps it’s about balance of carbs and fat. (And yes, thank you for that reminder that I do know what to do – just need a bit of discipline!)

Catching up, I seems I’m not the only one to have had a rough weekend. Purple, so sorry about your gut-ache, and glad it passed quickly. Was it the result of a big meal straight after a fast, do you think? Is it a bit like a modified version of starting to eat after a ‘bug’ – (start slowly, with toast and marmite first, then fish fingers or stewed apple)….what do others find?

SSure and Happy, I feel for your bloat, and hope it deflates soon. Are you ever tempted to wish you were a horse or a cow – vets and farmers treat severe bloat by puncturing the stomach to let all the gas out in one glorious…..!

Perhaps a weekend like this can be a reminder of how glad we are to have discovered IF, and to get them less frequently….and SSure – as a newcomer I don’t know the backstory to your upcoming surgery, but I do know about the risk/benefit balancing dilemna, so my thoughts are with you. I’m sure that whatever it is, you’ll know when the time is right.

Hopefully I’m back on course now and can leave off the pink pills – and get rid of the consequent water retention – tomorrow. I refuse to weigh or measure until after the flood!

Hi FastFastSlow, glad to hear you’re on the mend. Very disciplined, going for the healthy fats! Sometimes though I don’t think it hurts to give in to the craving.

Bloat has subsided thanks! I think I just over ate on lentils… I guess there are worse things to binge on!

It was of course P that started it with her fermented veg though. Coincidence or the power of suggestion…? Maybe she ill-wished me for listing Christmas foods on her fast day!

Ssure, I’m glad to say I can’t rival you for bloating though! That sounds pretty extreme. My only similar experience was being pumped full of air for a gynae investigation a few years ago 🙂

Go Happy 😉 Your “weight in the bank” is eorking!
We’ve just done a second semifast in a row..fast all day then one tiny cooked duck breast between 2, sliced thinly, on a bed of shredded lettuce, fennel, carrot, orange segments, a splash of basalmic vinegar, pepper, salt and scattered with crushed pistachios. A lttle apple sauerkraut on the side. Very colourful! OH said it was like a wood fire (warms you twice) because it took so long to shell the nuts! It became a semi fast as we accompanied it with a small white wine. Yum 🙂 P

Ditto re the time difference., Happy. I’m often reading discussions about chocolate or delicious cakes when I’m hours away from eating! Incredible how easily the resolve can melt, even in experienced fasters. You’re right…it is fabulous how one can fill up with gorgeous, tasty low cal foods, isn’t it? The trick is to have a range of good ingredients available and use Mr Google for flavour ideas.
Keep strong! P

Hi MCs. Hope all are well 🙂
So pleased your headache has gone FFS. I find we often feel sick when we have a burp that needs to come up (morning sickness, migraines, fasting). Eating something like cheese, potato etc helps to settle the queasiness. If you can preempt this with a big glass of water or cuppa, and move around the burp comes up quickly. This is why exercise (eg brisk walking) early in a migraine can often reduce the pain and nausea.
Sorry. That rant sounds really garbled. It would take a whole PhD thesis to explain. I guess the crux of it is .. food can help, but so can drinking and movement. P

Hi Lyn
If you weigh every morning, you will realise how much variations always occur. Graph only the lowest each week 😉 P

Making my first breakfast in ages…poached egg on sourdough with parsley and smoked salmon AND a dob of sour cream. Luxury.
Gott go. Toast burning…

hi Lynnela-01 welcome and don’t worry about those two lbs they are natural weight fluctuations.
When I joined with two pounds to go I wondered if I should just accept my weight and not bee to strict on my (rather arbitrary) goal weight. However since then, I have reached goal weight and lost another two for wriggle room. Keep going and don’t worry, the scales will move in the right direction again soon.

And how good was that breakfast, Bay? So much more appreciated as a special treat! And I didn’t even miss my train!

We have had a guy swearing etc at the top of his voice on a phone in our carriage. He kept it up until he got off. It almost seemed like a Candid Camera situation to film our responses!!
Have a good Weds Bay an Carol. Sleep well UK pals
P

Well I’ve now got a few days off, and I’m afraid the ‘I’m on holiday’ mentality won out! OH opened a bottle of wine, and I couldn’t let him drink alone 🙂

On the subject of weight variation, I still weigh daily (and sometimes more than once) and I’m with Bay that this greater appreciation/ understanding of how my weight can vary through the month and daily has made me more relaxed about those variations. As P says, it’s the lowest reading each week that matters and not the variation, so long as the overall trend is downwards or stable.

Enjoy your days off Happy…good practice for when you are really old and retired like some of us 😉 P

Hi Purple, Would have been at the cricket if had my druthers. Australia played entertaining cricket. Was already committed to having fun elsewhere. 😉 Bay

SSure – celery soup! (If you can stand long enough to make it – otherwise just plain celery. ) drains fluid like nothing else – so be prepared to run…good luck!

Well P, what can I say? You suggested my day off could be practice for when I am really old and retired. Does not knowing what day it is count? (it must be Saturday, I’m not working… 🙂 )

Hi Ssure, I haven’t got any words of wisdom I’m afraid, although I agree with you wrt to the possible link to relative inactivity. Now I’m not carrying such a lot of blubber round my middle, any bloat or water retention is far more obvious though.

Hi P,

Wow, 56.6. Seems like you’re on the move downwards again?

I’m 58.6 today, so comfortably under my 60kg upper limit. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m comfortably in size 8 clothes though, I’d think the scales were lying! Do you get used to being slim, or is it always a nice surprise on a daily basis?!

Well I know it’s Friday tomorrow, as I have an eye test in the afternoon! I think I will need a new prescription… 🙁 Too much time spent on the forum on my phone… 🙂

Hi H
Well done. Good maintainance!
Every day I am thrilled with my smaller size. Especially now it is summer I can hang around in swimmers without having to cover up! Buying size 8 is brilliant, isn’t it? I even happily wear older clothes that hang on me because I only look thinner in them 😉
All the best with your eye test. Get some trendy new glasses. P

Morning all (evening to S hemisphere friends) –
I know what you mean about constantly resetting targets – I don’t think I’d have achieved my weight loss without. When I started, the thought of losing 4 stone would have been just too discouraging: I told myself I was aiming to get (from just over 12 stone) to 10. When I got there I readjusted to 9.5, then 9, then I started to wonder if I could actually do 8.5 – it became a challenge, just to see if I could do it. I seem to have stabilised at between 8.2 and 8.4, size 8, and am extremely happy – would never have done it if I’d stared a 4atone loss full in the face. But Lichtie has asked an important question. My BMI is now hovering around what’s classed as minimum healthy weight (I’m 5ft 6.5ins) and I know that while I’m happy here, I mustn’t be tempted to lose more – but my competitive side (with myself!) has been awoken (and there’s still a little soft babies-roll round my belly!) and the vigilance needed now is as much about controlling the urge to lose more – to ‘see if I can’ – as it is about not putting back on. I do want to give myself 2-3 lbs wriggle room for Christmas, but thanks, Lichtie, for reminding me that it shouldn’t become a permanent new target.
Enjoy your day, all – or sleep well.

I think the only bad news I have is that no matter how thin we get or how much abs workouts you do within normal parameters, older women just seem to have a little pot tummy. As we age we also slowly shrink, so our posture changes too.

I’m not using age as an excuse, but the same weight, or even less, at 63 is never going to be the same shape as 23.
I’m not chasing a magical low. I’m just enjoying this way of life and the weight is still moving.

We went to a buffet party this evening. I relatively pigged out on the delicious fare, but I know it was nothing compared to how much others were taking. I was savoring the fabulous range by having just a little of everything. We walked away from the food to talk rather than standing over it, mindlessly grabbing more.

A pleasant evening followed by a lovely swim in the pool with the lights on. The cool breeze is now blowing in my wide open windows, dropping the house temperature for another hot day tomorrow. Magic way to end a hot day.

Don’t worry too much about losing too much weight. If you are making healthy fresh, homemade foods, you’ll want to eat when you need it. P

Hello Maintenance Chatters,

I am very very close to my goal weight and hope to join your chat box in January after my holidays.

I’m not sure yet whether I’ll continue 5:2 or switch to 6:1 but I’m expecting to maintain in a range that’s under 139 lbs (140 would be a trigger that I need to take action). My question is what should that range be? 3 lbs, 5 lbs etc. and would appreciate the experience of your success strategies.

Many thanks,
Ellie

Thanks @happynow,
Delighted to have come so far in just a few months. I’ve lost 26 lbs in 15 weeks, on target to shed 2 more in the coming weeks, and perhaps up to 6 lbs more based on your thoughts regarding a maintenance range.

I’m in my late 40s and since starting 5:2 in August I’ve changed my breakfast habit to just a cup of tea with low fat milk and a probiotic yogurt (instead of porridge), typically have a light lunch of say soup (in the past a sandwich so have almost completely cut out bread), and then a balanced dinner in the evening.
On fast days I tend to have tea and yogurt for breakfast, skip lunch, snack on almonds and raisins in small quantities and then have a dinner of soup or an omelette. I drink a lot of water and regular tea with low fat milk from my allowance.

5:2 has worked well for me so I’m thinking it makes sense to continue on Mondays and Thursdays – I genuinely feel I won’t lose much more but there’s only one way to find out 😉

Thanks again,
Ellie

Hi everyone! It’s my first time over here on maintenance, I’ve lost 7.5 lbs. in a month on 5:2. I was at a good weight when I started (134.5), but I felt bloated and my weight was around 140 lbs. for the last 4 years. I was yo-yo dieting, and that really took a toll on my emotional well-being.

I am now 127! I feel great. I am 5’4″ and 36 years old (mom to 2 kids). I would love to be at 125, that’s my ultimate goal (to stay around or slightly under). I have heard of people doing 6:1 or a modified 5:2. Any advice would be appreciated! I have not been counting calories on non-fast days. I am pretty active (enjoy exercise) and I do like to eat healthy. I also like to have the occasional carb, treat & wine!!

I look forward to getting to know everyone and continuing this way of life. I wouldn’t have made it through one week without the forum. I love the support here! Thanks, happy Friday!

Hi to you too, Emilyashen – didn’t mean to ignore you! The trouble with submitting a longish post is that several more come in in the time it takes to type it and press ‘submit’ and then it risks making people feel unloved. Not intentional – welcome!

Well done, Carol. Very hot and dry here for another two days, then fingers crossed, it may rain. 😆

Welcome newbies. To answer the question, Ellie, I am 68 and my goal weight was 60 kg. You can see from my last two posts that I have to continue with 5:2 to maintain that weight. What I love about 5:2 is the shape I now have.

In the beginning, I didn’t look fat and began this WOL for health reasons. To my amazement, I have dropped 3 sizes in clothing and everyone comments favourably. I think at least half the fat that I lost was in and around the internal organs. I now have a waist.

For health reasons, sugars and starchy foods, and processed foods are rare treats. For health reasons I have two alcohol free days a week.

Cheers, Bay 🙂

Hi Emilyashen – a very warm welcome from me, too. I have only been maintaining for two months so I am still experimenting and a little cautious trying to find my sensible weight. I have gone from 4:3 to 5:2. Since joining the maintenance crowd I have lost 3lbs which is about 1lb below my arbitrary goal weight.

I wonder if there is something like “set weight” a natural weight our bodies don’t want to go below.

Fastfastslow you hit the nail on the head. I seem to be competing with my younger self. My BMI last Monday was 19.1 two lbs more than my lowest since my mid twenties when I lived in Africa with no sugar or comfort food. For some reason I have always thought that was “my weight” (I am fine boned) Now that I am there I thought that was it…. but there is a veeery small voice in me which wants to see what happens…
So I have set myself a lower and upper limit, a 4lb weight range.
The future will tell if this range is too narrow, too low or sustainable.

Good morning/evening Maintenance Mates!
Welcome to “the zone” emily and ellie. Congratulations on discovering the benefits of this wonderful wol. We are all just mucking around (experimenting) with how to maintain/continue dropping/keep healthy. I think it will be a lifelong pursuit, but at least we know how to do it, don’t we? 😆

For me, I see maintenance as eating with awareness. Every time I go to put something in my mouth, a little voice in my head does a quick calculation and decides if this is a wise decision. Do I really need it? Am I hungry or eating for some other reason? Will I actually really enjoy eating this? Will I regret eating it? All this takes milliseconds now and has become second nature for me.

As to fasting, after doing it for about 20 months now, I like the rhythm of Monday/ Thursday as my fast/low days. I don’t have alcohol, sugar or white carbs ever on these days. I tend to not have breakfast and seem to choose vegetarian or even vegan foods. I am not overly strict caloriewise any more, but usually have at least an 18 hour fast and then something very light (salad).

On other days I apply the “little voice” technique. It seems I am very conscious of the big picture and adjust my eating quite naturally to incorporate social occasions and to ensure I eat a wide range of healthy food.

I love my new shape and clothes, so have no intention of giving them up 😉 I work within a range of weights. Used to be 58-60kg, but is heading down to 56-58 now. I know I love food too much to ever get “too light”.

Bay, you had me rolling around the deck in my swimmers laughing!! Great image! I can just see the bra fitting lady heaping disdain on you. You need Trinny and Suzannah to give you the once over, clearly. Me, I only wear bras to give the poor old pancakes some shape under my clothes….I need the padding ;(

Now, enough of this “some of the older ladies” (Happy) and “shrinking as we age is related to the atrophy of deep muscles” (zuzan) talk! As a wizened little old lady who can run fast, lift heavy weights and outsmart many of the young folk…..Hurrumph 🙁 Just kidding…I’d better get back in the pool for some more laps and deep core muscle work. Have a happy weekend all. P