Hi everyone,

Just thought I’d check in with a progress report on my first proper month of maintenance. Well, so far so good. My maintenance range for February turned out to be 133 to 136lbs so well below what I had originally set myself (135 to 139lbs). I’m very happy with this but of course the 60kg threshold is still my target so hopefully March will see me break through this.

I’m still fasting on Mondays and Thursdays but need to apply more discipline to stick to less than 500 calories so that’s my new goal for March.
I’m also jogging 5km on the gym treadmill twice a week in under 35 minutes so that’s surely helping as well. My monthly sessions with the personal trainer have gone off track a bit – hard for us to both find a suitable time – of course, I’m less disciplined about the exercise regime as a result but I’ll pick this up again in March!
Big thing for me mid-March is a blood test to check the cholesterol so hopefully it will have dropped since last November’s result based on all these positive changes I’ve been making. If not, then perhaps I’ll have to join those of you on the ‘ditch sugar brigade’ – keep you posted.

All the best,
Ellie.

Great work Ellie! Will be interested to hear about your blood results!

I found yesterday hard, too, Lichtie – perhaps it’s just the stage on the journey we’ve hit. I didn’t fall off the wagon quite as dramatically as you (but well done for leaving the jam toasts till today!) but I’ve made full use of Sunday freedom today.
Back to it for us both tomorrow – I shall be fasting, too. I’ll be thinking of you – we can do it together

Good work Bay.
I didn’t eat any cheese, my favourite food, for at least 6 months when I started, then gradually reintroduced Parmesan only. I now occasionally have a good blue and some feta. I have lost the desperate desire to eat cheese every day (and sometimes with every meal). I no longer buy bacon or ham and I always thought I could be a vegetarian, but for these products. I simply found other things to give me the flavour kick. Funny how tastes change.

I’m sure the occasional binge won’t destroy it Lichtle. In fact, like the guilt following a mistake of any kind, it simply reinforces the desire to not repeat. Classic negative reinforcement. 🙂 P

Thanks everyone, I had no idea about sugar in peanut butter. Oh well that explains it. FFS thanks for the sugar free peanut butter tip, but I won’t buy any in the near future. It still has a trillion calories

Hi All,

Well I joined you in fasting today, for the reset on appetite and to get that fasted feeling.

Luckily there were no nuts in the house (or so I thought!) so no mid afternoon temptation for me. Just discovered a bag of almonds in the larder cupboard, but I can hold out til tomorrow now 🙂

Hi Happy and Purple, seems to have been a good day for fasting for us. I had the best fast since the start of the challenge. No problem to fast for 24hrs and then only a couple of slices of ham and a (no fat) fried egg with raw carrots and a tomato. Not hungry right now and about to go to bed.

I feel redeemed. 🙂

Hi all. Interesting hearing from those of you doing extra fast days. I have lost 7kg in about 9 weeks. I have struggled with weight loss over the years and after 4 children, menopause and a very stressful job I ended up at 86 kilos which was a shock to me- I am 168cm tall. I also found I had outrageous blood pressure. This year I have been basically doing 2:1 fasting, so fasting every third day with the occasional alternate day fast if I need to swap days around. I seem to be getting used to fasting and finding it less difficult than at the beginning- although I have my moments! To achieve this fabulous weight loss I have been doing 30 mins of interval training 5 days a week and really having very few refined carbs. I am joining the forum as I still have 13 kilos to go.

Well done, LICHTLE. 🙄

Hi everyone – just catching up on what I missed yesterday. Apparently I was accidentally blocked from the site, but tech dept have now sorted it and I’m back in time to see how well everyone is doing. Well done to all!

Hi Lichtie – I’m trying to think what might be a good substitute for your toast, without cheating. Have you considered banana? I don’t eat them often, so haven’t done so since the sugar-fast started, but I reckon you could just about get away with them, if you hold the peanut butter! If you like marmite, I find that goes well with banana….the other tactic is the one you’ve already thought of: change to something completely different, like bacon and eggs, so that it’s a ‘new’ breakfast, not an inferiOr substitute one. I think you’re definitely onto something there!!
My breakfast today was the leftovers from last night’s dinner, when I realised halfway through that I’d had ‘eyes bigger than belly’ problem when making dinner (that seems to be happening increasingly frequently these days – I must take notice.). But it was a good breakfast: a mix of tuna in spring water, spring onion and grated raw carrot and beetroot. Nice, if a little unusual at that time of day – and lower calorie than my usual fruit, yoghurt and (sugar-free!) grapenuts, I’m surprised to discover. Must do it again,
I’m eating today, fasting tomorrow, weight stable for a week, despite ‘pudding Sunday’ and an invitation out for lunch

Well done you for yesterday! Keep going – I’m not expecting to get to easter not fancying sweet stuff at all, but if we can get there happy to keep it to once a week (and having discovered a way of coping with the mid-afternoon dip) it will be worth it!

Hi Fast, you have given me quite a few good ideas here.

1. Tuna: Whilst I don’t like fresh fish I do like tinned, smoked and pickled fish including tuna especially tuna salads with spring onions, tomatoes, peppers and cucumber. Must put it on my list. Thanks that is such a healthy protein.

2. Banana as subsitute for jam: It is definitely something to bear in mind when I get desparate, especially on dark sunflower seed bread.

I agree, I don’t think I will lose my sweet tooth either – I just want to tame it to one or two days a week after Easter. I think the same mental restriction (or better allowance) tactics will apply as for 5:2: “Whilst you can’t have it today you can on Sunday and Wednesday (for example)” We will call it the 2:5 sugar diet ;-). Hang on let me patent this. 🙂 (has probably already been done)

I will also fast tomorrow. I have to go to London on Sunday for a trade show until Tuesday, so I play it by ear when to fast next. At these events we usually clutch paper cups of coffee all day with not much time for proper food, so it may be ideal for fasting.

My weight is now down by 800g since the start of lent. If I can lose the same amount again, by the end of it, I shall sit comfortably at the bottom of my maintenance range as I was at the beginning of December.

Hi Lichtle

I am having a poached egg for breakfast, and tuna and salad or other fish at lunch or dinner. I am no longer snacking at all, since I am having no sugar and very few grains. My indulgence has turned out to be a glass of wine.

Keep up the good work, fellow sugar free fasters. 😉 Bay

Lichtle, I’ve just remembered a story I heard on the radio last week, which you might enjoy. Not wishing to remind you of the Great Peanut Butter Binge – which is over, gone, finished – this one might make you feel better. ‘Woman’s Hour’ did a phone-in prog about weight, and one woman told a story of (I think) a friend (though it might have been her) attacking a very large jar of chocolate and hazelnut spread with a spoon, and soon realising to her horror that she’d finished the jar. Apparently her OH nagged her constantly to lose weight, so – terrified that he would find the empty jar – she went out and bought another (equally large. ) Then she realised she would have to eat the new jar down to the level the old one had been before she started. You can guess the rest: 10 minutes later she’d finished the new jar, too.
She assured the presenter the story was true. I reckon you and the peanut butter got off lightly – and if that story doesn’t work as aversion therapy for sweet things, we have a bigger problem than we thought! It makes me slightly nauseous just re-telling it!

Think I took that as read, Happy!

You know Fast, that woman was me, or she could have been.

I have done the very same thing not just once. I had to replace the far because children would accuse me of hypocracy. in my case the jar disappeared for a day, so I only ate about half a jar a day.

My peanut butter episode was a direct result of not being able to attack the hazlenut spread due to challenge (I don’t usually eat peanut butter) and when you told me that it contained sugar my immediate thought was that I might as well have had the chocolate spread. ☺️

Hi Bay, I would love to have such a nice substitute, but to DH’ great sadness, despite coming from a wine growing area I don’t drink much, or if I do it has to be medium to sweet wine.

Brave sharing, Lictle – thank you! Your honesty – with yourself as well as us – is impressive.
Carol is right about the cinnamon, and not just because it tastes so good. It helps to regulate blood-sugar levels. I sometimes put half a teaspoonful in my coffee. One bit of good news: did you read the report that drinking coffee (in moderation!) regulates insulin production and sugar levels?

Hi fellow sugar free fasters 😮

So far managing not to eat sugar while on holidays in beautiful NZ. Just the odd glass of wine and one piece of fruit a day. Walking and playing golf. Mainly eating two meals a day, and drinking lots of water.

I was thinking about the difference from now to a year ago. Then I would have been worrying where my next meal was coming from. 😯 Now I just embrace the hunger and think, I don’t really need to eat until dinner. Just drink some water. My total lunch today was a small piece of avocado and a piece of haloumi. Plus lots of water.

Hope you’re all going well.
Cheers, Bay 😉

Hi Lichtle,

A recent study reports that drinking 3 – 5 cups of coffee daily keeps your arteries clearer. I can’t copy a link I’M afraid, but if you Google ‘coffee arteries cleaner’ you should find it.

Hi Carol,

I think there are plenty of health benefits of tea, green, white, black, dtc. Not sure where the weight of evidence tea vs coffee is though….

I’m afraid I have a ‘la la la’ filter for fantastic holidays Bay 🙂 … Ooh, melting here, 8 degrees… 🙂

FFS, 15 degrees… I’d be out scantily clad!

Seriously, Happy (and anyone else who fancies joining in) -the one disadvantage to this weight loss business is that I’ve lost my insulation layer and feel the cold much more than I used to. (On the other hand, I enjoyed last summer hugely, when I’ve hated hot weather for years. ) DH reckons I’m turning into a reptile.

Hi all you cold animals. My feeling the cold goes with Reynaud’s disease, when fingers and toes lose their blood supply and go white and numb. And if I am not careful I get frost bites. In the winter I am totally preoccupied with keeping my extremities warm with hot water bottles, electric blankets, lamb skin insoles …you name it because somehow turning the heating up is not enough.

…and you won’t hear a moan from me unless temperatures reach mid thirties in the summer (nearly never in this country)

FFS,

Why didn’t you think of that?

Because you don’t have a man’s brain? And for that, on balance, I think you should be grateful… 🙂