Hi Carol

Agree with Purple’s suggestion to try a little something. What I now do, is to buy a high quality Danish pastry and eat about one third and OH eats the other two thirds. 😉 That satisfies me, since fasting has reduced my appetite for such things. That way I have no feeling of deprivation. The coffee shop bakery Daci and Daci near the wharf and Consitution Dock is a great place to have a mini indulgence. 😆

Cheers, Bay 🙂

Purple, take care not to inflame the foot 🙄

Oh P, I’m obviously a complete lightweight! I do promise I don’t eat smelly stuff on the train – no oranges, burgers, chips, pasties – just nuts, a banana, maybe some oat biscuits – and all in the cause of holding travel sickness (yes, yes, I know – most people grow out of it!) at bay. Hope I’m forgiven…

FFS, do you have a satnav? And similarly enjoy seeing how far you can push ‘her’ just to see if she will have a breakdown/ flounce off in a huff?!

And I’m with you on eating on the train. How righteous do you feel nibbling on fruit and nuts when all around you is burgers, chips, biscuits, chocolate, special brew.. 🙂

I’m sure the looks would be dirtier, P, if I threw up in your carriage! And compared with loud phone conversations aimed at impressing on the whole carriage the caller’s importance and indispensability, (or burgers eaten by someone whose hips were already so big they spilled from their own seat onto mine, as I endured last week) I still reckon a few discreetly-managed nuts are less than a hanging offence. We shall have to agree to stay a hemisphere apart on this one!!

Happy – no, I don’t have a sat nav – strictly a map-and-route-cards girl so far, though I’m sure I’m missing out somewhere along the line. I confess to being a bit of a control freak: being bullied by an inanimate object would probably end badly. I think I would probably have given up the app long before now, were it not for the fun of seeing its confusion and concern at what I eat on fast days!

Well I am one of those people who didn’t dare leave the house without at least some fruit or nuts, in case I broke down or the train was late! In my defence that was in the bad old carb heavy days, when I could get really shaky and feel sick.

One of my personal favourites for upsetting people in confined spaces is a nice garlicky hummus 🙂

Ditto Carol, re: the benefit of 5:2,

But how did we get brainwashed in the first place into believing we’d die if we were more than two hours from food?!

FFS, sounds like the train-eating is rebellion against school rules. Really? At your age??:? Do what you want and what makes you happy.

Must admit, at drinks and nibbles after work tonight, the chippies started to taste a bit gluggy and heavy. Would rather feed the worm farm than the loved ones, though. 🙂

What?! School uniforms at our age P? 🙂

Thanks, P – I was aware it was tongue in cheek – no offence taken at all. But the serious point is that we can all still learn from one another, and it has made me question why I lug a selection of snacks across London and back (London! I ask you! London, where every second building is a food outlet, if you needed one!) and what I imagine might happen if I don’t have them. It’s made me reflect -I’ve decided I think it goes back to a mixture of Girl Guides (‘be prepared’) and motherhood (hungry, fractious small people who don’t do fasting) – and that next time I shall go fasting. So thank you. )oh, and Guides and motherhood weren’t actually at the same time!)

So would you rather I burped next to you than ate?(!!!)? I guess that’s what the bloke behind me was doing last week – and I thought the 100 miles of belching and groaning was something to do with the strong smell of burger and beer emanating from his person…silly me! (Actually I moved in the end, rather than get puked on – and then arrived home feeling guilty, wondering if he was ill and I should have offered first aid…oh, can’t win! I should say I did steal a qick look and I think my first guess was the right one!) yes, I agrree, water is good – good compromise. (We Brits are supposed to be good at that. )

Sorry – had forgotten you would wake up to it!
Happy Valentine’s to you too…and all young (and old) lovers…

Happy now wrote ” What?! School uniforms at out ageP? ”

Oh yes please……the joy of youthful and old for that matter old fantasies 🙂

Cheers,
Tim.

Ha ha Tim and Purple!

Just a normal day for us Purple! We don’t usually make a big deal of it. Hot as hades here. 41 yesterday and 39 today. We’re just deciding if we will go and see a film today or not. Don’t even feel like getting ready though it’s so hot!

Am thinking your weather in February is slightly more conducive to romance than ours…!

Although the temperature did reach double figures… And we did take (some of) our clothes off… (the thermals 🙂 )

Ooo… no thermals! Now that’s romance.
I’m with Carol. Why not stay in bed or a romantic evening in front of a roaring fire? Poor Mr Grumpy. 😉 P

Hi Lichtle and FFS

Been thinking about the Lenten no sugar challenge. 😮 Have been eating sweets every non fast day 😥

It has raised a few questions for me, as I have a friend’s significant birthday to navigate.

Are we allowed fruit during Lent? What about alcohol? Do we have any leeway moments during the 40 days and 40 nights?

Fasting today, and looking forward to it. Playing golf this morning, then housework this afternoon. Keeping busy and drinking lots of water. Happy fasting, all. 😉

Cheers, Bay 🙄

Hi bay – Milena’s right: Sunday is always a feast day, so you can take it off if you want – though some find it easier just to keep going. And by the same token, I reckon you should have a special dispensation for the feast of a friend’s special birthday; perhaps we should each have one ‘joker’ to play during the 6 weeks?! It ends at dusk on the Saturday before Easter Day.
Lichtie and I have decided fruit is permissible – just added sugar (sweets, biscuits, cakes etc) off limits. But you must do what’s right for you – were not setting rules! I shall probably drop alcohol too – don’t know about Lichtie – but to be honest I drink so little it won’t be difficult. Sweets will be far worse!
So – keep eating the sweets till Tuesday; the aim is to clear the cupboards of temptation before we begin!
Hope that helps. Ffs

I found that out last year, cut out booze from day one of Lent, the following week cut out chocolate, still no booze, added something else every week to the list, on the 40th day realised I still had a week to go! Devastated – lost 2.5 kilos after all that effort.

Lost 5.5 kilos in 6 weeks with 5:2, Ive cut out loads but, because nothing is actually given up, its been much easier. Good luck – Ive a trip to Denmark right in the middle of Lent, giving up Easter eggs instead.

Hi FFS,

So Lent is actually more of a 6:1 than 40 (ish?!) days straight?

It occurs to me that ‘allowing’ yourself the ‘forbidden’ thing once a week is likely to be harder than eschewing it completely. So I guess if you’re religious, you go 6:1, but if you want to break a habit you go 7:0?

Well now, Happy

You have posed me a real challenge. 😮 What would be hard for me to do? What would be best for my health? What am I struggling with re sugar?

Background for others. I am a very happy maintainer. I have been on 5:2 for 13 months. I lost 15 kg last year and have kept it off for over seven months. I lost three dress sizes.

I am fasting either 5:2 or 6:1 to maintain. If I eat processed foods or sweets, I gain a little weight. Then I fast and the weight drops off.

I happen to think that sugar plays a role in dementia, weight gain, and other hormonal health issues. I thought that taking up the sugar free Lent challenge issued by Lichtle and FFS might be a way to break my love of sweet things. It would certainly ensure that I reduced my intake of sugar.

I thought I would have bloods done at the end of the challenge to see the impact. 🙄

Thinking about it over the last few days, I was getting worried about failing, by trying to give up absolutely all sugar for such a long time. If I use the 5:2 principle of putting it off day by day, that may do the trick. 😉

FFS, the notion of 6:1 feels easy compared to permanent prohibition. I will ponder my options over the next couple of days. I have to work out my real goal for this challenge. Thanks for putting it out there.

Cheers, Bay 🙂

Hi, Happy, Milena, Bay, Carol – and anyone else who’s listening!

That’s just about it, on all counts – though (to be pernickety I’d probably say it’s 1:6, rather than 6:1!). Bay, your reasons for wanting to ditch sugar are precisely mine, and this just seems a good way to do it – 6 weeks, and a bit of extra motive. And I’d make less of the distinction between the ‘health’ and the ‘religious’: in spiritual terms I think mind, body and spirit are intertwined, and if our bodies are indeed ‘temples of the Holy Spirit’, as Christians believe, we are called to try to break habits which abuse or damage them. Fasting was a spiritual exercise long before it was medically understood. Of course that doesn’t exclude anyone, of whatever faith or none!

Yes, Happy, I think I might find it easier to go whole hog and go 0:7, which I shall try to do – but it is a comfort to know those Sundays are there if I need them – surely the principle of 5:2 (‘I can have it tomorrow…’) and why it has worked for me. So we shall see….

Either way it’s scary – especially with you lot watching! (Sorry, correction – not watching, but cheering us on!)

It always is, Carol. P

Hi sorry for the absence, lots going at home at the moment. Great to read the conversations of the last few days.

FFS, Bay, Carol and anyone else who is joining the lenten challenge, I am now very ready to start. These last two weeks, I have not been able to do proper fasts, possibly in anticipation of lent. I have had such an unhealthy diet that I have decided to start my challenge today as I am fasting today and there is no reason for me to have one more “sweet day” tomorrow.
I am hoping for a 0 cal fast day today with all the resolution I am feeling right now. ;-))

I agree with FFS, how we manage the lenten challenge and what else we give up or take up is up to us. I intend to allow for fruit but there is no particular food that I feel I should give up and I hardly ever drink alcohol. At the moment I am trying to go without the Sunday exemption and see how I go.

Good luck everyone!!!

Thanks, Purple 🙄