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 7 months ago.

Viewing 50 posts - 2,951 through 3,000 (of 11,673 total)

← 1 … 59 60 61 … 234 →

bayleafoz

11:43 am
30 Jan 15
Permalink

hi Purple

I did enjoy the tennis, thank you. Also catching up with friends.

Hi Lichtle, Happy, Carol, Purple, FFS

Your discussions above re maintenance being harder than losing weight really resonate with me. I am thinking of joining the No sugar for Lent challenge.

I have a number of theories as to why Maintenance may be harder than full on 5:2 for some of us.

Is it because we are All or Nothing type personalities that we find 5:2 relatively easy to do?
When we reach goal weight, do we lose the sense of all or nothing?
Do we get such a kick from losing the weight when fasting, that we miss this when we are maintaining?
Do we need a goal to maintain our focus, eg, when weight loss is at goal, do we then go no sugar or carbs?
Is a vague goal of future health less of a stimulus than, eg, giving up sugar?
Is there always a little voice that says how easy it will be to fast, if I just give in and enjoy this treat?
Is there a sense of anticlimax when we reach our goals?

Is it all or none of them above? Discuss! 🙄

Life. You just gotta love it! Cheers, fellow MCers! Bay 😉

Purple Vegie Eater

11:55 am
30 Jan 15
Permalink

G’day Bay
You just wrote the post I’ve been too busy to write for days!!!
Absolutely. How do you keep motivated? How do you stay at “the ideal weight” when it is easier to keep losing weight or just gain again?
I’m definitely an ‘all or nothing’ personality 🙂
I tried 5:2 101 for nearly 3 weeks and got bored. Seemed pointless. Was discussing with OH last night doing 6:1. Mondays only. I guess it’s simply because I love reinventing the wheel. Experimenting. That’s why you girls are trying no sugar. Makes sense. Thanks. 🙂 Happy maintaining gang. P

FastFastSlow

12:24 pm
30 Jan 15
Permalink

All of the above, Bay, and yes, P, you’re spot on, too. Bay, you will be so welcome on the no-sugar Lent: it’s going to be hard, and we could do with maximum mutual support. Do come and join us!
Illustration: My week got easier yesterday, as the B12 kicked in (it always does- I’m one of these people who can’t metabolise it from food, so get injections every 10 weeks; always have to be reminded by DH that maybe the reason I feel rubbish is that I’m due a jab, and always amazed how fast it transforms life, the universe and everything – duh!!!). I did a really good fast yesterday. So what do I do? Left alone in the house, waiting for the gasman , I decide to sit and read, while finishing the toffees I got for Christmas (thought I’d already done so, but had forgotten I’d hidden them!)and drinking hot chocolate. Lovely!! But now on a sugar high which will probably crash spectacularly within the hour, and approx 600 calaories of pure sugar up!!! I did enjoy it, and refuse to whip myself, but I’m sure a lot of Bay’s thinking was in there – especially ‘I can sort it with one decent fast day…’ I do need that Lent challenge!

Carolannfud

2:41 pm
30 Jan 15
Permalink

Huh FFS a few toffees, that’s nothing ha ha – I just had a glass of wine, a pizza and 2 Krispy Kreme donuts at the airport! I’ve never eaten two Krispy Kreme donuts in my life before – I don’t even like them much! . All because I know I can rectify with a fast tomorrow! Supports your theory Bay. I agree with all your points. It’s like the challenge is no longer there. And that consistent weight loss was a reward for our good behaviour. Guess we just keep on maintaining as best we can. I must say I still look forward to my fast day.

FastFastSlow

4:19 pm
30 Jan 15
Permalink

Wow, CarolAnn, you definitely win that round! Wonder if I could manage a bowl of ice cream tonight??! (Btw, I’ve never eaten even one Krispy Kreme -scared they might be as good as they say!) Bay, you’ve unleashed some harsh truths here – but I’m sure you’re righg. There’s something about the knowledge that we can pull back the damage when we need to which is both liberating and empowering, but also a bit dangerous: it would be easy to get blasé, and to focus too closely on the weight, while forgetting there are other benefits to eating well. Including the dinner I’m planning for tonight, even with my indulgences I’m still within my TDEE, but probably 600 of those calories could have been better spent on some nutritious protein. (Oh dear – next reflection is how narrow is the tightrope between mindless slobbery and self-righteous over-earnestness and masochism – I’m not very good at the middle path of ‘enjoy it once in a while, but don’t make a habit…Right again, Bay!). 80%/20% rule, anyone?

bayleafoz

7:58 pm
30 Jan 15
Permalink

Ha, love your posts, Carol and FFS

I really enjoy my Monday fast, so all is not doom and gloom. It’s the second Fast of the week that prompts the low thoughts. Maybe the body knows what it can get away with. 😉

Cheers, all. Bay 🙂

Carolannfud

11:14 pm
30 Jan 15
Permalink

Here’s the amazing thing though – hopped on the scales this morning with great trepidation! 59.1 which amazed me. My wriggle room set goal is 60. So it’s been two weeks of a reasonable amount of overeating and overdrinking with no official FD. What i did though was stay quite low in calories when I could. Obviously it was enough to keep me within my wriggle room. What I really noticed most though, was the fact my appetite is just not there anymore the way it was and if I decide I am going to have a low cal day, I can do it, the few hunger pains just don’t worry me anymore. But you’re right Bay, we all need to be careful we don’t start to miss out on the health benefits by overeating and them compensating with a FD. I think Michael should do a study on us!

FFS you are not missing anything not having tried a Krispy Kreme, believe me!

Purple Vegie Eater

11:25 pm
30 Jan 15
Permalink

Yes Carol, Dr M needs to do a study on us…his successful students!
BTW, congrats on the 59.1. I’m also low despite sabotaging both fasts this week.
Keep going gang. Great role models 🙂 P

FastFastSlow

8:08 am
31 Jan 15
Permalink

Me too! I’ve either got away with the toffees, or they’ll show up later if I think I can do it again! This war is psychological, I fear…
Congrats, everyone; have a good w/e.

Ellie Rainbow

11:09 am
1 Feb 15
Permalink

Hi everyone,

Just thought I’d pop in and share my experience of the first month of ‘maintenance’ with you all and I’m delighted that I’m not alone in trying to find the right balance of maintaining the weight loss but also getting some of the health benefits of IF.

In the almost 6 months since I started this journey I have lost 34 lbs (15kg), BMI has dropped from 30.1 to 24.3, waist to height ratio has dropped from 0.62 to 0.51 and 15 ins gone from waist/hips/bust/neck.
All in all this is a great result. At the start of January I weighed in at 140 lbs, today I’m 134 (just over 60kg). Why then am I not sure what to do next and it sounds like many of us are in the same boat?

I was travelling in Asia for work for 2 weeks in January and didn’t stick to 500 cals any day apart from flight days, but was sensible in my food choices and on average consumed two thirds of my TDEE for the most part every day. I also ate breakfast (egg white omelettes) but skipped lunch so no fasting benefits there.
Now I’m home I’m practicing 16:8 as best I can, not eating before lunch at 12 noon and then dinner no later than 8pm. I still have snacks (almonds, oranges, dark choc, wine at the weekend) as I fancy them but log everything into MyFitnessPal and that keeps me accountable.
I don’t feel 6:1 is for me and since Mon/Thur has become a routine I feel I should continue 5:2, but a quarter of TDEE (works out at 350) is not something I think I could do unless it were only once a week. I’ll have to give it some more thought. BUT, if what I’m doing right now is working then why change?

My mini-goal was to reach 135 lbs by 14 Feb and I’ve made it 2 weeks ahead of schedule so my new mini-goal will be to get under 60kg instead (to speak the same language as you southern hemispheres!). Outside of that as SAMM says, I’ll ‘keep on keeping on’ and work on the fitness and toning.

Look forward to all your further insights.

Ellie

Purple Vegie Eater

11:36 am
1 Feb 15
Permalink

Hi Ellie
Welcome to the unchartered waters of maintenance. I think you are right..if it’s working don’t change it.
Some of us just need change to create a new challenge. ..obviously competitive, even if it’s just self competition. Probably healthy as it keeps you on your toes. Complacency is what landed me, over many years, with excess kilos, so I am determined never to take my health for granted again.
Being in maintenance is a great place to be. Lots of opportunity to experiment. All the best with your continued journey. Purple 🙂

Ellie Rainbow

11:42 am
1 Feb 15
Permalink

Hi Purple,

‘Complacency’ is the dreaded word and something that I want to avoid. Having successfully lost weight with WW many years ago I put it all back on since it wasn’t a sustainable WOL for me. I love IF as a WOL so intend to make it work whether it’s 5:2 or 6:1 or something else. For me, daily weighing will ensure the lbs/kgs don’t creep back on.

Many thanks,
Ellie

Purple Vegie Eater

11:55 am
1 Feb 15
Permalink

Just jumped on the scales before bed, late Sunday night, and know why I still fast on Mondays 🙁 Bad Purple
Night all!

HappyNow

12:13 pm
1 Feb 15
Permalink

Well really P! Not sure what you’d expect the scales to say, unless you’d eaten nothing all day!

Ellie, I’m a daily weigher also. I had thought once I’d reached goal that I would stop or at least relax the weighing frequency, but actually studies seem to show that those who closely monitor are more likely to keep the weight off. So the scales stay.

I must admit to being a bit disappointed that there wasn’t more help with maintenance strategies in the revised book, but then I guess it is aimed at weight loss…!

zuzan

2:34 pm
1 Feb 15
Permalink

Hi everyone

Have been ferociously busy.. and still am.. have started a module of a MSc for CPD .. been to visit friends over in Aberdeenshire and have work going on to the house… as well as job and horse… so am a little stretched so please forgive my abscense..

As to Maintenance being harder than full on loosing it.. mmm I dunno .. I am absolutely PETRIFIED of putting the weight back on so although it is a negative motivator it is holding me to my healthy eating / IF and exercise routines.. I guess the upside / Positive motivator is continued good health and enjoying my wardrobe and fitness .. I had a general check up a week or so ago and had normal blood pressure etc and a healthy (I hope) pulse rate of 42 .. gave blood the week before with no untoward effects and am keeping all the bugs that are circulating at bay.. touch wood.. whilst still having a super Burns Night Binge.. 2 helpings of Haggis (the first one I have actually liked) and 2 helpings of pudding 😀 without putting anything on.. and still managing to kick the refined carbs for the rest of the week.

So off to do yet more de-sawdusting of the house and try and get some reading in for the CPD module..

MTA I have found a Pilates instructor in Inverness and have an assessment session this week.. so that’ll be another thing to juggle.. slot into my timetable.. keep busy and active everyone 🙂

Purple Vegie Eater

8:25 pm
1 Feb 15
Permalink

Hi zuzan. You do have a lot on your plate (not literally)!
I’ll have to get you to do something for me….if you want something done, ask a busy person. 😉
You are so right. The up side is wearing all the smaller clothes, knowing you look good and knowing yiur health has improved.
No Happy, I didn’t even eat much. Just normal fluctuations, but a glad little voice is saying this morning, ‘See you have to fast to stay small. No excuses when you are at the top of your wriggle room.’ Gives me the incentive to fast.
Really crazy lady!! Cheers Maintenance Mates, P

Purple Vegie Eater

9:06 pm
1 Feb 15
Permalink

I know you posted a week ago, Tim, but I was on a boat and couldn’t reply. I absolutely loved your line “the shadow of the diet”. Such a great way of exoressing what happens to our eating habits with 5:2. Hope you are still sailing well mate. Purple 🙂

Carolannfud

10:07 pm
1 Feb 15
Permalink

It sounds to me reading through the posts that all of us are still afraid this weight loss is a temporary situation.I know many of us on here didn’t have weight issues until menopause, which means before that we were eating and exercising in such a way that calories in equalled calories out. I think many of us now have regained that equilibrium but don’t trust it! Your post in particular Ellie Rainbow suggests you have reduced your intake considerably even though not always sticking to two true FD’s. I think if that’s working, keep doing it. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it right? It seems we have all worked out a variation of 5:2 which is working for us. We are all individuals and one size isn’t going to fit all (joke)! I think our biggest dilemma now is how we adjust the variation of 5:2 we have developed to ensure we still get the health benefits of fasting. And this is why I think we need more research into wether the benefits of fasting are in fact due entirely to fasting or are they due more to weight loss. Which is why I say again it would be so useful if Michael or someone else were to do a study with a group of maintainers. And maybe we’re just making this all more difficult than it needs to be! Whatever pattern of 5:2 we use, it works. We have all changed our attitude to food, we all eat less, we all eat more mindfully and for me I’m pretty happy with that!

Purple Vegie Eater

10:21 pm
1 Feb 15
Permalink

Thanks Carol
Wise words 😉 P

FastFastSlow

10:56 pm
1 Feb 15
Permalink

The voice of sanity: thank you, CarolAnn! You’re right – there’s still a little voice on bad days which whispers that one slip and it will all go back on again – (and another, on really bad days, that asks seductively what was so awful about being an overweight couch potato, anyway…it was so much easier…)
I suspect that what most of us need is actually the confidence and self esteem to realise just what we’ve achieved; that it took real discipline and commitment; and that we’ve now changed so much that we shan’t go back to the disordered eating which caused the problems in the first place: the change is set for life and we are able to control it. ( I’ll know I really believe it when I finally give away the last of the too-big ‘kept-in-case’ clothes.- and stop catastrophising – yes, still – about being institutionalised and not free to follow my my preferred WOE – force-fed refined carbs, too much sugar and too many calories and not enough veg, with fasting treated as an eating disorder, unable to exercise and inflating by the day!) Obviously not quite there yet – but at least I know where I want to be headed….

HappyNow

10:56 pm
1 Feb 15
Permalink

Oh Carol,

So basically you’re saying that we’re overthinking this whole thing?! You may be right!

I am practicing intermittent fasting, and I have been and am maintaining my weight.

The health benefits from any one IF protocol are currently nebulous at best. And 5:2 is a weight loss diet first and foremost… not a manual for long life and good health.

So what you’re saying really is shut up and do what works for you… 🙂

Carolannfud

11:09 pm
1 Feb 15
Permalink

Ha ha good one Happy, so eloquently put!

FFS, think about how you actually felt when you were eating and doing what you liked. I bet there were times when you felt sick from all the food and I’d also bet that now immediately prior to a fast day you are looking forward to it. What 5:2 has done for me is really highlight the ‘sick’ attitude I had towards food. And it’s still a bit sick I don’t mind saying! And BTW FFS, throw away those big clothes! You won’t be needing them ever again!

HappyNow

11:46 pm
1 Feb 15
Permalink

FFS, on the subject of what was so bad about the good old days…

I buy cat litter in 10kg bags, and wild bird food and chicken feed in 13.75kg (just about what I’ve lost) sacks. So on a weekly basis I get a reminder of what I’ve lost. I wouldn’t want to carry even the 10kg bag very far. I puff and blow and can feel the extra pressure on my joints.

So if you get the urge to lie on the sofa and eat biscuits, go to the pet store first and carry a sack of petfood round for a while. If there’s stairs, all the better, try and climb them! And then ask yourself if it really was easier being overweight. Biscuit anybody…?

Purple Vegie Eater

12:26 am
2 Feb 15
Permalink

Thanks for that reminder H. I used to think in packets of butter. Mind boggling what we used to carry around! P

bayleafoz

3:26 am
2 Feb 15
Permalink

Hi Carol and Happy

I shall confine all future wobbles to this thread. A wobble shared is less likely to turn into a wheelie 😥 and a splatter on the roadside of IF. 😉

I had no weight issues until I passed 50 and then my portion size was too much, plus I ate the wrong foods for my body. I appreciate that not everyone reacts to sugar and processed carbs, as I do. However, enough people are reporting they do, to keep on publicising this as a possibility in weight gain. Also a factor in mood swings for some people. 🙄 Say it ain’t so!

I don’t have any fear of regaining weight. Just very cross that I appear to react so badly to processed carbs, even homemade and gluten free. 😮

Am 19 hours into a complete fast and enjoying my Monday fast very much. Will not eat for another 4 hours.

Cheers, Bay 🙂

Purple Vegie Eater

4:33 am
2 Feb 15
Permalink

We can do it Bay. I figure 3 more hours…outside to sweep gum nuts 🙁 P

Carolannfud

4:54 am
2 Feb 15
Permalink

Well done Bay, I went 19 hours and would love to have a banana right now but hanging out til 6.45pm and tea! Ah, guess it’s a glass of water! 🙁

Purple Vegie Eater

4:57 am
2 Feb 15
Permalink

I just checked my Misfit Shine and I’ve burnt 1115 cals today already. That’s all gain. 🙂
Green mango salad and trout for dinner. Mmmmm… P

bayleafoz

5:14 am
2 Feb 15
Permalink

Hi Purple

What is a Misfit Shine? Haha! Your trout Dinner sounds wonderful. I’m not hungry yet. Enjoying my food free day. 😉

Cheers, Bay

Purple Vegie Eater

5:22 am
2 Feb 15
Permalink

Hi Bay
No, I’m not hungry at all. It is getting easier and easier to not eat all day.
OH took possession of my activity monitor (Fitbit) months ago. It is great for him. I bought myself a new one a couple of weeks ago, but this, the Shine, is more like a piece of jewelry and doubles as a watch. You can get good looking watch bands for it and a very pretty pendant. It also has a clip to wear. So you look less like a jock wearing it. 🙂
Keep up the excellent work on your fast, mate. I’ll see you at the other end. 😉 P

bayleafoz

10:23 am
2 Feb 15
Permalink

Hi Purple

I fasted 23 hours and ate all my calories for dinner, stir fry chicken and veg. Feeling good.

Cheers, Bay 🙂

Purple Vegie Eater

10:42 am
2 Feb 15
Permalink

Excellent Bay. Me too, except I discovered, last minute, that I had barramundi not trout and the rain had cooled the air, so a veg chilli stir ‘fry’ and barra. A handful of blueberries, teasp yogurt for dessert.
A good fast day. 🙂 P

Gary Lowis

11:52 am
2 Feb 15
Permalink

Hi all 5:2 fasters,just finished my second week and lost another 2lb, that’s 4 in total. Found the fast days more difficult the second week, but stuck with it and hope it’ll become easier next time and I’ll be able to motivate myself knowing I’ve done it before so can do it again.
I’m what’s classed as a constant craver, and need to re-train my brain to change from focusing on what and when am I going to eat next, to accepting that all I need is 3 goods meals a day and an occasional treat. I feel I’m starting to make progress, but know I’ve still got a long way to go.
Posting once a week on the forum helps me to maintain motivation and by reading posts, I’m picking up tips, so thank you guys and good luck to all.

Purple Vegie Eater

9:11 pm
2 Feb 15
Permalink

Welcome Gary. You’ve started well. It does get easier and, as a constant craver myself, I know fasting teaches you that you can survive long hours without food. Excellent lesson 🙂 All the best PVE

Carolannfud

9:19 pm
2 Feb 15
Permalink

Amazing Bay, well done!

Gary, we are all in the same boat. Keep touching base becuase that will help you maintain motivation. Best of luck. It does get much easier with time!

HappyNow

9:29 pm
2 Feb 15
Permalink

Hi Bay and P,

Good work on the fasting.

I failed I’m afraid… It was -6 here first thing, and hasn’t got above freezing all day. Not conducive to fasting. I held out til lunch (17 hours) and spicy butternut squash soup, fully intending to go through til teatime and some chicken and veg. Nope, not a chance. Was cold and tired this afternoon and the only thing that kept me warm and awake was the repeated walk to the nut cupboard… 🙂

Oh well, still in maintenance range so no need to panic…just yet!

Am heading off for a really early night in the hopes I can at least shake off the tiredness. Will try again tomorrow.

Have a great day!

Purple Vegie Eater

9:31 pm
2 Feb 15
Permalink

Had an excellent 24 hour fast yesterday, small fast dinner, and still not hungry this morning. I am back in the lower weight range and realise it is SO much easier to fast when you have a goal.
Happy days MCs P 🙂

ps
Our posts crossed. I can well imagine how hard it must be fasting in the freezing temps you are experiencing Happy! It is hardly “failing”!!!

Carolannfud

9:36 pm
2 Feb 15
Permalink

Tomorrow is another d ay Happy!

bayleafoz

9:50 pm
2 Feb 15
Permalink

Happy

Think positively. You snacked on nuts, a very healthy choice. 😉

Unlike Purple, I woke up feeling hungry. Have eaten nuts, prunes and strawberries thus morning, plus eggs. Not exactly a small meal. However, it is very nutritious food.

Keep on keeping on! It is very hard to fast when you’re cold and tired. I am happy that I slept 8 hours after yesterday’s fast.

Cheers, Bay 🙂

Barata

7:36 am
3 Feb 15
Permalink

Nothing like a good sleep to put the smile on, Bay. After waking up at 2.30 yesterday morning, last night (after a FD) was long and solid – as long as it can be when the alarm goes off and it’s another work day!

It’s difficult to decide whether to skip breakfast on a NF working day or not – I do so enjoy the muesli with blueberries, kiwifruit and nectarine with assorted seeds, cinnamon, and now I have discovered Greek yoghurt (I know, slow learner). Tastes like such an indulgence, but of course good for me.

Wow – NZ has got 369 for 5 against Pakistan. Looks like we might take the series 2 – 0 just leading up to the World Cup. Unfortunately Australia has also been playing very well. Will be lots of fun – first match in Christchurch (poor old Christchurch, well under way with the post-earthquake re-bulld) in just over a week.

Beautiful full moon out there tonight.

Welcome, Gary.

Cheers, B

HappyNow

9:09 am
3 Feb 15
Permalink

Thanks everyone.

No harm done, still managed to lose 0.7kg (the weekend’s carb water weight…).

So, on to another few low carb feeling lean days… Before next weekend when I will again ‘treat’ myself with some of those refined carbs (they just leave me feeling so good 🙂 )

Barata, I don’t ever break my fast before perhaps 11am (and stretch it on fast days). But I do like my ‘breakfast’ (usually natural yoghurt and fruit, or porridge). So I still have that, just late. On a non fast day, lunch is then correspondingly late, and I think lighter.

Purple Vegie Eater

9:44 am
3 Feb 15
Permalink

Actually, my morning post disappeared. ..all the talk of nuts…I walked into the kitchen to unload the dishwasher and found salted cashews crying out to be eaten. How could I not?
These days I don’t confine certain foods to certain eating times. Such freedom! Nuts at 10. Egg, bacon and corn mini frittata at 10.30. Half a cake and coffee at 12. A hard boiled egg and lettuce at 4. Tiny steak, mushrooms, carrot, zucchini, onion and …wait for it…homemade chips…at 7.15. Followed by a tiny rice pudding and blueberries. Washed down with a stunning sparkling Merlot bought on our recent trip. How’s that for a maintainers non fast day?
In my defence, OH will be away for the rest of the week so we needed a proper meal. Tasty, but not large.
I do love being able to go OTT some days. P :).

Purple Vegie Eater

10:56 pm
3 Feb 15
Permalink

Hi gang
As a young woman, last century, I always wondered why they put zippers in dresses, as I could always just slip in, head first.
I just realised, I’m back there again! 🙂 P

Lichtle

12:28 pm
4 Feb 15
Permalink

I have been thinking how much our perception of food quantity has changed since 5:2. When I read of fasting folk “binging” and “pigging out” I wonder if this simply reflects our new refined or re-calibrated eating system. After a fast day, eating three meals feels like indulgence. I am sure we feel fuller quicker and if we eat beyond that point (easily done) we feel like “a pig”.
My perception of what is a “lot of food” has certainly changed.

FastFastSlow

1:08 pm
4 Feb 15
Permalink

Hi Lichtie (and all) – yes, I agree. I had a hospital appointment in London yesterday – early start, train either way, 3 mile walk in each direction to and from hospital, nasty procedure to get psyched up about – you get the picture – and grazed almost constantly, except during the walks, ending up with a chicken and salad baguette on the train and a plate of scrambled eggs when I got home. (And quite a lot of chocolate – Lent is still 2 weeks away!) felt really stuffed, and went to bed looking forward to FD today – but calorie total, according to the Fitness Pal app: 1250 (well within TDEE of 1400) and weight 1lb down this morning. Obviously ‘stuffed’ is relative!

HappyNow

1:11 pm
4 Feb 15
Permalink

P, funny you should mention zippers. I bought a summer dress in the sales (size 8 🙂 ), on the assumption that things will warm up enough to wear it..! When I tried it on it was a bit snug getting it past my shoulders… When I took it off I found there was a side zip…

Lichtle, I couldn’t agree more. I’m now a mini me, with proportionally smaller appetite and perception of what constitutes a lot of food. But it’s also quality/ food choices, not just quantity. So my most recent feeling-too-full episodes involved almonds and corn cakes…! Not a biscuit or cake in sight.

Lichtle

2:28 pm
4 Feb 15
Permalink

FastFastSlow ;-)) Indeed, Lent is only two weeks away. We certainly do seem to have similar issues with regards to food. The only quantity issue I have is quantities of sugar – without it I would not have a problem staying under TDEE even on eating days.

Happy, you are very lucky not to be tempted by the sweet stuff.

I always envied people who were not bothered by sweet food until I discovered that some have an issue with crips, nuts and crackers kind of food instead. But I still think that sugar addiction is worse.

FastFastSlow

2:39 pm
4 Feb 15
Permalink

Lichtie, I don’t know how old you are, but my excuse is that I was a 1945 baby and sweets were rationed until I was 6 or 7, and thereafter used as rewards in my family. Which actually throws into question my ‘no sweeties’ policy when my children were small! We compromised on ‘chocolate after dinner on Sunday’s’, which is (more or less!) still my default position – poor kids, brought up in a sort of permanent Lent! – but I’d be really interested in others’ views: does early deprivation lead to later over-indulgence, or does it (as I thought at the time) educate the appetite and incline it toward the healthy? (I have to say, neither of my sons has a sweet tooth, but my daughter does have to watch it. Chance, or gender bias?)

Purple Vegie Eater

8:21 pm
4 Feb 15
Permalink

Interesting musings to wake up to, MCs.
I also had very few treats of any sort as a littlie, FFS, and yet I don’t have a sweet tooth, don’t crave chocolate or sugar. Put a bowl of salted nuts in front of me, however….

My dad loved making “cookups” in the morning of bacon, vegetables and eggs. He was raised on a dairy, so would have eaten after milking. I have always adored cooked breakfasts and wonder if it is more to do with the lovely times dad and I had quietly together while the rest of the family were still in bed. He’d sing songs, recite poetry, dance me around the kitchen (I still do that too) and relay oral history to me. All this was a bit like cultural transmission.

You commented about the connection I have with the UK, ffs. Almost all Australians came from somewhere else in the last 228 years. We have close historical ties with our roots. This is what dad was instilling in those peaceful times over breakfasts. No wonder I like savoury food!

None of my kids has an excessive sweet tooth, and yet their father does. Watch the two of us eating a meal…I gobble my main course up ravenously, he pushes the vegetables around the plate as if they are poison (He does eat them eventually), but put dessert in front of him and it is gone almost before I pick up the spoon. I savour mine and often hand it over for him to finish. Vive la difference!

I utterly agree, Lichtle, three “meals” seems like an extravagance these days. What in the past would have been a pre-dinner snack is now a complete meal. It is an eye opener when I see the amount others eat now. I also know how to push the plate away as soon as I am satiated. In more recent years I could have kept on going.

Poured all night here, but the sun is up and it looks like a sparkling day. A slight nip in the air is indicating summer is coming to an end.

Cheers all P

Carolannfud

8:31 pm
4 Feb 15
Permalink

Interesting – savoury v sweet. I was brought up by an Aussie/Irish/Englisg mum who gave us cake every day in our school lunchbox, dessert every night after tea, she had biscuits or cake every day for morning and afternoon tea. I come from a family of good cooks who liked to bake. There was an abundance of sweet things in our diets. I ate it all and enjoyed it but when I got older and was making my own food choices, if I was choosing a snack I would go for something savoury. However, somewhere along the line that taste converted to sweet and that addiction has been so hard to shake. I sort of followed the same diet I had with my sons. One had a sweet tooth and one didn’t. The one who didn’t has a weight issue and loves things like nuts, chips (crisps) etc. the other one doesn’t have a sweet tooth anymore and his diet is better but it’s because he’s got a partner who’s always watching her weight so they eat very healthy. Who knows really what our food choices are driven by! What drives others choices?