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Hi gang
I love the concept of Mr Purple and Mr Rainbow meeting in the street some day 🙂
You do know that research has found happy married people put on weight? You can’t just blame your partners 😉
We are trying to buck the system and prove we can be a happy couple and remain slim.
I bought some winter clothes today for my o/s trip. Such fun to fit into anything I like and actually admit I look good in them. Definite overchoice. What a great problem.
Cheers all, P
Trouble is when only one of the two happily married people puts on all the weight and the other cannot put it on no matter what he eats!
On a more serious note though, I’m pushing Mr. Rainbow to get his blood tested to see if there’s something underlying that might be preventing him from maintaining a reasonable weight. I’m fully convinced he has a serious sugar addiction so lots to consider in devising a plan to increase his weight and keep mine stable.
Watch this space for a progress update.
All the best,
Ellie
Happy
I’ve just been reading all the posts now I’m home and I saw yours about eating less meat if OH is not home. In general, I cook meat with a meal for OH, and if I don’t feel like meat that day, I don’t put any on my plate. I have all the vegetables and sometimes a little Parmesan, olive oil and chili with them. I eat curries and choose to have mostly the vegetables, with maybe a little chicken or red meat. I eat fish at least 3 times a week. OH is used to me eating what I prefer. No fuss. I don’t draw his attention to what I’m eating or not eating. 😉 my five cents worth.
Cheers, Bay 🙂
Hi Lichtle and Fast
How’s the sugar free Lent going? I can’t thank you both enough for liberating me from my sugar addiction. I am so glad that you threw out the challenge. 🙄 And thanks a lot for your initial support and encouragement, also Happy and Purple. 😆
I’m back home after a lovely two week trip to NZ where we played golf almost every day and had a relaxing time. We visited friends and ate out most days. I had meals such as fish and chips and a glass of wine or a beer each evening. We generally had two meals a day, plus a small snack.
Because I was on the sugar free Lent, it was quite easy to resist so called treats, except one. NZ has the best icecream in the World, so I had to have a very small tub. 😉 While it was tasty, I have to report that icecream is one more food that I won’t miss in future.
My portion size was permanently resized in the first two months of IF last year. I was never hungry during the trip, and had one 24 hour fast day. In general I feel that I over ate during the last two weeks.
Cue excited Drum roll, I weighed in this morning at the same weight I was on the day we left for NZ. 😮
I never expected that.
Cheers all fellow fasters on this wonderful Monday. Bay 🙂
Hi Bay,
I must admit I do similar to you already, often cooking a vegetarian meal and then giving OH meat as a side dish! Bless him though, he often divides the meat on his plate so that I can have some… 🙂
I’m forming new habits, and it is still a work in progress, as I’m the one whose tastes have changed not his. And I must admit sometimes after a day at work it’s easier to cook one meal, that I know he’ll like, for both of us…
Bay, well done indeed:weighing the same at both ends of a holiday is an achievement indeed! What a finish to a good break!
I admit to a few moments of longing during the sugar fast – I have been grateful for the Sunday breaks. This obviously suits my particular psychology – which is presumably why 5:2 worked well for me in the first place. But it’s been good to realise that I actually feel better without sugar, and it’s been enlightening to realise when the ‘temptation points’ come, and that I’m much more of an emotional eater than I thought. I can watch that, now that I know , and will be quite happy to stick to sugar as a (small) occasional treat. I’m so glad it’s been good for you.
I had my lunch cooked for me by my middle son, on the narrow oat where he lives, today. Very proud of what good, healthy cooks all my kids have grown into being (after teenage flirtations with junk food!) I took full advantage of Mothering Sunday – chicken and chorizo with roasted veg, kale and corn on the cob, followed by a huge bowl of Apple and prune crumble with ice cream. (Only thing missing was the weather for sitting on the deck with a G & T!) But that was at 2.30, and now at 10.45 I’ve no urge to eat again yet – in the old days I’d have come home and cooked again, out of habit, domination by the clock, or just plain greed! Like many others on this site, DH and I often share what we would previously each have eaten alone: sometimes we reminisce and end up saying ‘no wonder we got fat!’
Fast day tomorrow: chance to recover from DS’s generosity today! Funny to think that 15 years ago I started taking exercise knowing I needed to do it but hating it, and 2 years ago I started fasting, dreading it – now I find myself really looking forward to a fast day with a gym session or pilates class thrown in. Transformation indeed!!
Have a good week, everyone – I’ll think of anyone else who’s fasting tomorrow. (And happy St Patrick’s day to anyone celebrating on Tuesday!)
Hi everyone
Well done Bay, you seem to have your WOL and in particular NO SUGAR cracked and I am so pleased for you.
I am not there yet. In fact looking at your posts, I seem to be struggling the most. Like FFS, I am relieved when Sunday arrives and I can enjoy a treat. I wonder if this is also due to the fact there there is no other treat for me (apart from coffee), like a glass of alcohol or similar.
Having said that I also have to say that the sugar craving during the week is not quite as bad as I anticipated. There are days when it is no problem at all and days when it is really difficult (towards the end of the week). There seems to be a pattern that after a Sunday with a sugar treat, I look forward to the Monday fast and seem to be doing all right until Saturday. Maybe my brain says you have worked all week and been good – now is the weekend, you deserve a treat.
I need to stay positive and recognise that there are days when no-sugar is obviously very doable and remember this after lent. We definitely don’t need a sweet treat every day.
Lichtle, kind words, thank you.
Keep on keepin on! I cracked today and decided not to fast after lasting most of the day. I had the most wonderful indulgence of a beer and toasted GF multi grain and seed bread with butter and vegemite. So yummy! When I think of what my past indulgences would have been 😉
Cheers, all. I shall fast tomorrow instead. 🙄 Bay 🙂
Lichtle,
Don’t compare yourself with others. I’m in a different position to you. You seem able to eat a sugar treat, and then be normal again. I cannot eat a little sugar and then put the treat back on the shelf for the next six days.
After Lent, when I make a cake or pudding for visitors, I will give the remainder to them to take home. 😉
I always believed that sugar was Pure White and Deadly, and this last month has proven it for me. I have to treat sugar in the same way an alcoholic regards alcohol. It is better if I never willingly eat it.
Cheers, Bay 🙂
Well I thhink everyone is doing brilliantly: what an inspirational lot we are!
Just to say – I was wrong about the TV programme Happy mentioned : it’s not a repeat but a new series. ‘The Truth About Sugar’ C4 (I think, but may be bbc2) 9pm Thursday. Let’s think of one another as we’re all glued to it!
Bay, you are right, comparing is not healthy, especially since sugar addiction is as much mental as physical and we all have different reasons why we LOVE sugar. When I eat sugar, I binge – I can’t have just a little bit – but I don’t have to binge every day. If I commit (tell myself) to not eat sugar on a particular day – I can do it – no problem. It is when I give myself permission in the way of – go on you deserve a treat today, or today is Sunday, when all goes to pots. This makes Christmas, birthdays and Easter so difficult because they are extended periods of “permission” making re-commitment more difficult.
It won’t be any help to those of you seriously addicted to milk chocolate, but I do find I can stick to your mum’s regime, FatGraham (hello!) , by eating only very dark chocolate – and I do mean very dark – 90%. It may be because it’s so rich that eating more than 2 squares is actually quite difficult; or it might be because the sugar content is so low that it doesn’t feed the addiction. Either way, it works for me. Tip: if you try it, don’t crunch – just let it dissolve in your mouth. Hope that might help somebody…
Hi Graham and the rest of you. 🙂
As you know I’m not a big sugar eater, I can easily eat one piece and put it away in the cupboard for months. We have had chocolate in the fridge for over a year that someone left here. See it every time I open it, but have no interest in eating it. And it is/was quality chocolate.
The only time I do eat chocolate, I serve one piece on a tiny plate with a cup of black coffee and let it melt in my mouth as the coffee warms it. Like any food, valuing it by presenting well and sitting down to consume/enjoy reduces bingeing.
Full fast yesterday. Happy to skip breakfast this morning. It constantly staggers me how little food it requires to maintain my healthy weight. We must have saved a fortune in food over the last couple of years.
Happy days MCs. P
Hi Graham, Welcome to the thread.
Fast, I also find I can only eat one square of 90% chocolate.
Am fasting today. Woke up exactly the same weight as yesterday, after giving up my Monday fast to enjoy a beer and a slice of seed toast. 😉
Seriously thought the scales may have misfired, so put on extra clothes to see. Haha! They’re digital. Of course they’re working. As is maintenance for me. I’m fasting today for the health aspect, not the weight loss.
Purple, hope you enjoy your new clothes for the trip. Sorry I forget where you posted about your trip. NZ was very relaxing and beautiful as ever.
Cheers, Bay 🙂
Hi Purple, yes, it takes a while to realise that we don’t need all that much food to survive and you are so right it does save quite a bit of money.
Hello FatGraham. tell us more about your fasting journey.
FFS: I have tried the high coco content chocolate and I am not keen. I had some dark chocolate in my fridge intending to eat 2 squares only, but felt it was such a waste of perfectly valuable calories albeit not too many and it is now sitting in my fridge like Purple’s. Will try and use it for baking (whenever that may be).
Evening all!
I fully intended to fast today, and it was going really well until about 1pm… I wasn’t even hungry but succumbed to the coconut cake that I had frozen at Christmas and ‘found’ while taking stock of freezer contents yesterday…
There was no rescuing the fast after that. Just as well I was doing it for health and not weight management 🙂
So anyway, I’m hereby making a public commitment to fast tomorrow instead…!
Greetings to all from Ireland on St Patrick’s Day.
No holiday today unfortunately, the joys of working for a U.S. multinational.
On a positive note, keeping busy helps resist any food temptation – weight has crept back up over the 60kg threshold since the weekend so must take action, no prizes for knowing what to do!
Cheers,
Ellie
Hi everybody. I’m 53 years of age, 5′ 9″ tall and weigh just short of 21 stones. I recently retired from my job as a car dealership driver and moved to the lake district so I could ‘do the Wainwrights’, though I have been here eight months and not done one yet.
I retired early because I was getting hip and knee pain, which I thought was caused by the driving, though the doctor says it is the early onset of arthritis due to my weight which my hips and knees can’t cope with.
Around Christmas I was looking round BBC iPlayer and came upon the Horizon Fast Diet programme, which I watched and then bought the books. I also bought the ADF book too.
I decided to do the 5:2 starting in January but after 2 weeks gave it up because not only had I not lost any weight, I had actually gained 2 pounds. Two weeks ago I decided to have another go, but this time to also do some calorie counting to see if that would shed any light on the 2lbs gain. It turned out that on my fast day I was eating about 1000 calories with a full English and an average non fast day was getting through over 3000 calories, mainly with a tube of Pringles every day.
So I started the ADF properly yesterday, though Wednesday and Friday will be the test to see how long I last before going onto 5:2. I was going to have the 600 calories broken up into three meals (intended to have a nice bit of salmon steak for tea) but then decided I wanted to see if I could go all day without eating anything at all, but I was really looking forward to breakfast this morning.
Even though on the ADF I can apparently eat whatever I want on a ‘feast day’, I’m still going to calorie count for the first few weeks to make sure I don’t eat too much and I’ll probably choose that day to go for little walks through the forest or along the beach to build up the leg muscles and get fit again.
Funny thing is, I woke up this morning not feeling hungry at all and it’s past 10.30am so I’m still fasting. I may leave it till lunchtime and have that salmon steak instead of bothering with breakfast.
Hi Graham,
If you go to the forum source page then body – science of intermittent fasting, you’ll find a thread started by Michael Mosley ‘Does intermittent fasting lead to muscle breakdown and protein deficiency?’. That should answer your question better than any of us could!
Re: Wainwrights. There are some smaller walks, but I wouldn’t worry about them just yet! You’ll enjoy them far more once you’ve lost a bit of weight. I lost 2 stone last year (from 11st5 to 9st3 ish) and that’s made a massive difference to hill walking (less pressure on knees and joints both going up and coming down, improved aerobic function, and better balance).
I’m sure you’ll have success with weight loss now you’ve got a better handle on your eating habits and calorie consumption. It’s a bit of a shocker though when you finally face up to how much you were overeating!
Hi everyone. @graham, you are doing the right thing to become more mindful of what you are eating on non-fast days. It is entirely possible to cancel out a fast by overeating by over 1000 cals especially with junk food.
The great thing about this WOL is, that we naturally realise (as Happy mentioned) how much unnecessary food we used to eat not because we are hungry but out of habit and “because it is there”. Changing our food habits is the best thing we can do for our health. Good luck to you.
@gremilob, congratulations for joining this WOL too. You can split the calories of course but some people feel more hungry after a very small meal. However you have to work out what is best for you – it is definitely a trial and error game. Even all the maintainers here still experiment – it means it never gets boring.
The most important advise I can give to a newbie is that it is totally normal that some fasts are easy and others are not and not to get discouraged if on some days you eat a little over. There is always another Monday and Thursday to try again. We are not machines and fasts have much to do how we feel in ourselves. Perseverance, perseverance, perseverance.
After a bit of a strange week and a wobble at the weekend, I am happy to report that I had an excellent fast day yesterday and after breaking my fast at midday today with a couple of apples, I had a linseed roll with a bit of soft cheese, a couple of handful of mixed nuts and a punnet of strawberries at 1pm and a very small (though calorific) supper of Thai Curry and a banana for desert and I am totally full and feel NO SUGAR CRAVING!!!
Well, wouldn’t it be nice if the rest of lent stayed like this.
Hi Lichtle, Well done.
Lovely fast day yesterday. Today I can report that I am down below 60 kg for the first time since the Christmas carbs and sugar period. 😉 And I have lost one cm each from the waist and the hips, also gained during Christmas. One more big tick for the sugar free Lent. I am so enjoying being free of wanting sweets. Thanks to you and Fast.
Hi Graham
I support the advice you’re getting from Happy and Lichtle. Please measure yourself all over. The best part of this WOL is losing size around the waist, arms, legs, shoulders, waist, hips, chest. Through last year I reduced 3 clothing sizes. And it feels GOOD.
Cheers, all. Bay 🙂
No such thing as a wobble for maintenance folks, L 🙂 Just another day. It is fabulous to be at this part of the journey, as we all know how to keep ourselves healthy. Real life is meant to include enjoyment. 😆
I decided I wanted to enjoy Paddy’s Day yesterday, so no breakfast, thin veg soup for lunch, popped Dublin coddle in the oven and headed off for a few wines and 1/2 small packet of chips (crisps) at a nearby Irish bar. The music was fabulous. Then walked home to our lovely coddle. No weight increase for either of us this morning and good bs for Mr P. You CAN keep healthy and have fun. It just requires thinking about total intake…over a day, and a week.
All the best with your journeys, Graham and Gremilob. P
Hi Lichtle, Good to hear you aren’t necessarily missing sugar! Sounds like you’re forming new habits?
Bay, Congrats on dipping below 60kg again! And great that you’ve taken so well to being sugar free.
Having said I would fast today, I have. Nearer 600 than 500 cals (as a result of finding a cold Cumberland chipolata in the fridge mid afternoon 🙂 ), but good enough for maintenance.
I still don’t know what makes some fast days so easy while some are sooo hard, but today was easy (maybe it was the coconut cake yesterday… 🙂 )
Hi Happy 🙂
Well done on staying the distance. It really IS odd how much easier some fds are. I often find, like yesterday, that it is really easy to eat very little the day after a good fast as well.
I am, however, staggered how little food it requires to keep me at this healthy weight. As a young woman, I weighed a couple of kilos less and ate absolutely everything I wanted. Didn’t put on any weight until I hit my 40s. Memories….P
@Bay, congratulations!!! Phantastc results on both measurements and weight. Best thing about it is that you seem confident that you are done with sugar addiction.
I am too cautious to call my little victories “habit changing” but at the same time I am glad to experience that I have more control over my sugar addiction than I thought. Every day I manage without sugar serves as a confirmation that I have (some) control at least most of the time
I am just one pound off my pre Christmas weight and two pounds off my lowest for 18 years which I had reached at the beginning of last December. I want to reach that weight again before Easter with the intention that It won’t be undone by Easter chocolates.
Purple, I also eat so much less than when I was younger. I basically have cut down the equivalen of breakfast. i used to eat at least 400 cals for breakfast – now it is never more than two meals + fruit.
Hi Lichtle
I wish. 😉 What I am confident about is that sugar is an addictive substance for me. So that means forever more, I have to take one day at a time. If I have a sweet treat, I have to pay the price of withdrawal the next day. Ever vigilant. Never two days in a row. 😮
I was listening to a researcher on ABC radio yesterday who says that some 10-15% of Australians have an addictive response to sugar. It gives us a dopamine hit = the pleasure centre. I maintain that my sugar addiction is physical and follows classic addictive response and withdrawal patterns.
It’s up to me to maintain my mostly sugar free status long past Lent. If not, I know what to do. 🙄 Just nobody talk to me while I’m in withdrawal. 😳
Cheers, all and thanks for your support. Bay 🙂
Oo! I’ve fled to this thread to take my mind off what I’ve just done. I’ve packed up the chocolates in the fridge to go to a dinner party this evening. The smell of dark chocolate was to die for. 😮 I haven’t had any chocolate for four weeks and a day. Who’s counting?
Salmon and greens at the party, and a glass of wine. But no dessert. Great opportunity to give away some chocolates. OH who is skinny as, and with a great sweet tooth, announced he was reducing his sugar intake. 😉 Well knock me down with a feather!
Great to have support along the way. 😆
Cheers, Bay
@Bay, was this some herculean exercise? How did you manage to keep chocolates in the fridge… you could smell??? I would have had to buy them on the way to the party, or just get flowers and wine.
Well done for sticking to salmon and greens. I am particularly pleased to hear you are getting support from DH.
Hi P,
Can’t help with that I’m afraid. I think there have been a few technical gremlins recently though.
Just watched an interesting programme on BBC2 ‘Eat to live forever With Giles Coren’ The presenter spent a week each on calorie restriction (with optimal nutrition), paleo, and fruitarian.
I must admit the food that appealed most was CR, although they looked to be having the least fun! Interesting that everyone on each diet felt great, and the common theme was the absence of refined carbs…
@purple, my “notify me to follow-up replies via e-mail” seems to untick itself as well. I thought initially it was due to getting rid of cookies on my computer.
Thanks for alerting us, @happy. The title sounds similar to Michael Moseley’s original Horizon programme. I must watch this on iplayer (after the “Sugar-is-evil” progamme tonight).
I am fasting today – not sure how well it will go. I have had a very good week so far and have eaten mainily fruit, yoghurt and nuts and a bit of meat yesterday, so feeling very good right now. I seem to be able to fast particularly well after a splurgy day and I am not sure if this is psychological or if the body just needs to get its equilibrium back. After a healthy and slightly restricted day, fasting seems to be harder (maybe harder to justify once maintaining?)
If I can sutstain the sugar abstinence, I will try and go to only one fast on Monday and be more mindful for the rest of the week.
Hi L
No, I am still subscribed, it just takes hours and hours to get the notifications, and some of them don’t come through at all. This has only started yesterday:(
I’m right at the end of a very good fast today. Off to bed soon. I agree, I think I fast more successfully if I have had more the day before and feel a little guilty. We had our St Pats dinner Tuesday and a bbq last night that was a little more than usual, so this light weight maintainer felt she needed a good fast. When I’m tempted to eat on days like this, I remember I’m doing these fasts for health benefits, not weight loss, and seem happier to abstain. And tomorrow is another day…
Cheers P
Hi Lichtle,
I agree the idea of fasting after a splurge day seems easier than if you are already calorie restricting/ semi-fasting.
Odd though, because on the day after a fast I am not particularly hungry and sometimes have to force myself not to calorie restrict again. So if it would be easy to fast again after a fast day, why would it not be easy to fast after a semi-fast day? All in the mind…?
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10:29 am
15 Mar 15