Hugs are magic, FFS, keep them coming 🙂 🙂

My daughter also ‘discovered’ intermittent fasting. She’s a grazer, eating when hungry and often not, especially after her marriage broke down and she moved in with us with baby. (He’s now serving a long sentence in an Irish jail, not likely ever to be allowed back into NZ. Took us all in with the gift of the gab.) She became very thin, but is now cooking for the new fellow in Sydney, eats healthily. We had a running battle – she was doing most of the cooking while living here, and put far too much salt in her dishes. She often would not eat what she had cooked. I’m too much a creature of habit (til 5:2)

Barata, I think I’d expect nothing less than running battles from mother and daughter living together 🙂 Glad to hear it’s working out for her now, sounds like you’ve all had a bit of a rough ride there.

When I got married I suspect people thought I wasn’t a very good wife! (I don’t see why I should be, given that we were both fulltime scientists but there you go!). Anyway, everyone else’s husbands got fat, while mine didn’t. Clearly I wasn’t ‘looking after him’ properly… Fast forward 20 odd years… He’s slim and healthy, the one’s that got fat have diabetes, high blood pressure, etc… Who was the better wife…?!

Good work, Pobster. You will get to your goal – and then set another, reach for another moon!

Interesting how all the thin words start with S: skinny, svelte, slender, slight, scrawny, slim, shapely, starved, and I know there are some I can’t think of just at the moment.

Of course you are the better wife, Happy. Keep them busy, mine had too much time for beer!

Hi Lichtle,

That’s a good point. I am one of three children. One is tall and narrow, wiry, very fit, but struggles to gain weight and doesn’t bulk up with exercise. The other is like me, shorter and bulkier, more readily putting on muscle…and unfortunately fat… and struggles to maintain a healthy weight.

Same parents, same upbringing, nature not nurture?

Happy, is your sister still the wiry one or has it changed with age? Are you the slim one now because you were always aware that you put on weight more easily? Sometimes young, wiry and slim people seem to find it harder to make the transition and realise that mindfulness is in order with age.
I think Purple and I are in that category. We go through a stage of putting on weight and are quite shocked and a bit helpless that things aren’t as easy as they once were and it takes a bit of time (sometimes a number of years of being overweight) before we admit that we have to adjust to a more restricted way of life.

Oh and hello to you @pobster30. Well done on your weight loss so far. Keep going, you will find lots of information on this site to help you reach your goal.

I never recognised I was getting fatter as I had never had to diet. Inherited my skinny dad’s genes. My eldest son has too. Unfortunately that all changed for me 🙁
My youngest was always a chubby little fella until 16, when he discovered girls, then veganism. He is incredibly thin now. Possibly too thin as he catches every bug going.
We are definitely the product of our genes and our environment, but have the power to overcome both.
Family coming to stay tomorrow, so a pretty hectic couple of weeks ahead.
‘Night all. P

And Pobster, another welcome! You have the best possible motivation : you’ll get there!

Up until the age of around 20 I was really skinny, in fact at school I got bullied by kids younger than me. I’m now just short of 21st, which may have been a response to getting bullied as I used to notice that the bigger I got the less people picked on me.

It’s probably due to all the 200g milk chocolate bars I have eaten after my tea on an evening though, quite often one every day, sometimes two, and buying a five pack of Double Deckers and not being able to just eat one. My mother was plump with the same chocolate addiction until she developed diabetes, which didn’t stop me.

My next door neighbour died of lung cancer brought on by smoking and her daughter kept on smoking. I used to think she was mad when the example was right in front of her nose, yet I kept eating chocolate even after my mother got diabetes through eating chocolate.

Now is the reckoning.

Stick with us Graham! We KNOW this wol is totally doable and life changing. All the best mate 🙂 Purple

Bay, how do you think you will get away with a fast on Sunday, watching the cricket? Might need something stronger than beer, too! Great the co-hosts have made the final. 🙂

My theory is that our image of ourselves is that which we grew up with. I will always think of myself as fat, as that was how I was when younger. (Hmmm, always? That might be a bit long 🙂 ). And women who were slim when young don’t seem to notice the weight increasing because that’s not their self-image.

Thanks, FFS. I do feel I was wonderful (polishing halo). The number of times I kept my mouth shut when I would have liked to have said something, welcoming the parade of men through the house and then saying goodbye to them, being a second mum to grandson, doing ALL the reading to him, taking him to football and swimming and the playground because she wouldn’t. Don’t get me started… So happy for her now, and the new guy’s lovely. When I ended a message to her with “love to the boys”, and she passed it on he got soppy, so grateful we are so welcoming. Don’t think he has much support etc from his family, but how can we not love a guy who makes her so happy?

Interesting history, FFS, and it must be a most familiar story. At least we have had the 5:2 epiphany!

Great going, Graham. We can all put our pasts behind us and learn better habits.

Size 8, Happy? Happy indeed. Now the rest of you needs to catch up 🙂 And it will, given time and a bit of toning exercise. I think I am satisfied with size 10, but may not have stopped yet…

@carolann my heart goes out to you but please don’t despair, try to remember how you have managed to overcome your previous obstacles and that you will do so again. It may mean seeing the doctor about the depression, because it causes you to give in/up, lose motivation and that is the last thing you want to experience.

It is hard when you see yourself restricting and wondering how much more you have to do to just stand still. We are all here for you. There is a bunch of of wonderfully supportive ladies here on this forum, so please if you can, tell us and we will try and help you in whatever limited capacity we can. Take care

Thanks Lichtle, I am going back to doctor again next week.

Sorry Carol. I have houseguests and missed your post. I do hope between you and your doctor you can stabilize things to once again take control of your life. We are here for you. P 🙂

Hi Carol,

So sorry to hear you’re struggling at the moment. And no need to apologize!

I’ve just been reading a bit about menopause/ perimenopause, because I’m pretty ignorant but can’t ignore the fact that at soon to be 46 it might not be long away!

Apologies, as I don’t whether you had already been through the menopause, but the symptoms you describe (thyroid, weight gain, feelings of despair, depression) appear fairly common and do resolve with time (and medication for the thyroid…).

Hoprfully it will be some comfort that there are ladies here who have been through it and come out the other side and are back sylph-like again. So this should just be a temporary blip for you rather than a slippery slope.

It does sound as though you may need to hassle your doctor to get the support you need. If you can get the thyroid dose right and stabilize your weight, then hopefully you will feel a bit better having gained control of at least one thing.

I’m not sure I’m going to be a lot of help (it’s outside my experience…for now!), but I’m here, as are we all, if you need us.

Carol ann, my deepest sympathies to add to the rest. As a definitely post-menopausal woman, who had a hysterectomy in 2007 (at age 62) all I can add to the good advice already given is that it does take a while to regain balance after it, so don’t despair, please. I didn’t lose my ovaries, but actually they’d already gone into retirement, so I guess the result is similar – except that your body has effectively been shocked into overnight menopause. This, plus an existing thyroid problem, is quite enough to cause weight gain and depression – but shouldn’t be beyond you and your Dr to sort together. There is light at the end, honest! Please don’t be afraid to nag your Dr: you will regain the progress you’ve made, and more. It just takes time, patience – and the knowledge to know when to wait and when to jump up and down! As others have said, please use us to support you as much as we can – that’s what this forum is for.

Biscuits?!! Lichtie!! Wouldn’t this challenge be boring if it were easy-peasy and none of us ever fell off the wagon? Sometimes what our bodies need short-term -NOW! – differs from what they need long-term – this was designed as an exercise in learning about our addictions and lessening them, not working miracles in 6 weeks. From your ‘too sweet’ verdict it sounds as if you’re realising your tastes have changed, which is brilliant – so perhaps you could ‘re-frame’ what you see as lack of willpower as a valuable affirmation of progress.

Interestingly, I’ve just had a similar (but not as wicked as biscuits, of course!) experience. Since we started the challenge I’ve avoided the breakfast granola I used to eat – it’s not one of the sugary ones – originally chosen to be wholegrain, low in sugar and calories – but I thought it would be a bit cheaty to eat it as it does have a fair bit of dried fruit. Dinner tonight was roast cauliflower, which left DH feeling in need of dessert, which he fixed: raspberries from the freezer, low fat creme fraiche – and a small sprinkle of granola! I decided his feelings were more important than my Challenge – and it was a very small sprinkle! – so I ate it. I found it cloyingly sweet, which I certainly hadn’t expected. So maybe this Challenge is doing more for us than we realise? I caught myself this afternoon thinking ‘only 10 more days’, (which I don’t think is quite the spirit of the thing!) so while it would be wonderful to find I really don’t fancy an Easter egg, I’ll settle for a smaller, or less sweet one, and making it last!

Come on, Girls: one last heave – we’re nearly there!! Sunday off in 36 hours’ time, then just one more week, and I think we might surprise ourselves!!

In the reputed words of Queen Elizabeth 1, (well, almost!) ‘we have quite forgot the biscuits’.

Good advice Happy.
Incredible, the chocolate bombardment in the shops at this time of the year 😉 P

@happy, I look forward to be able to say: “disgustingly sweet” :-).

Thanks for the words of encouragement everyone. I am not going to give up. I will see the doctor next week, fast as normal, think I’ll go back to two days instead of my maintenance one day. I just couldn’t bear all the work of the past 12 months to go to waste!

Lichtle re biscuits – I dont k ow how it’s happened but I have lost a lot of my sweet tooth cravings. For example, if I was out and saw cake I would almost start drooling :)! If I had coffee with someone I would ALWAYS have cake. Recently I have found I am not attracted to sweet things in the same way and my brain is having a very hard time comprehending that! Eating sweet things has been a habit for so many years that when I don’t feel the craving now it’s like my brain is saying to me ‘that can’t be right, you always have the sweet things’, and it’s really disconcerting. Sometimes I do have something small, just because that is what I (traditionally) would always do! So crazy! Trying to break a habit is very challenging especially when you are being sabotaged by your own brain lol!

Hi Lichtle and Fast

I am not trying to be holier than thou over this sugar free challenge. I am very worried that in the future I will reach for the sweet stuff every time I’m under stress. Pattern of the past. And then I will find myself addicted all over again. 😉 better to have no sweet stuff at all than to go back there again. It’s not about weight. I’m still the same weight as I’ve been for 8 months. It’s about the health aspect, dementia, cholesterol etc.

Cheers, Bay 🙂

I don’t know what is happening here it has only posted the beginning of my post and would not let me edit it.

I was saying. No worries St Bay we love to hear how great you feel and I am sure you could go through withdrawels all over again.

Hi everyone
Its very encouraging to read all your maintenance posts.
I have been 5:2ing since July last year. This is my second attempt at the 5:2 after a accident 5 months earlier brought my first attempt to a shattering end. So I have a bit of experience there about coming off the 5: without a maintenance plan. On my first 5:2 diet (before the accident) I dropped 8 kilos. After the accident I chose to come off the diet because the pain killers made life far too difficult to fast as well (I broke a lot of bones and had extensive nerve damage). So low and behold within 5 months I put 6 kilos straight back on again and was well on my way to start weight 96 of kilos.
So I can assure you coming off the diet without a plan is not a good idea.
Anyway, I as I said above since July I have been 5:2ing and got back down to 83 kilos. There has been a plateau along the way but some how I managed to push through it with lots of exercise.
I have now decided this week to go on the maintenance diet as the 5:2 was getting very hard and I found myself over compensating on my 5 days and topping up too much.
What I have decided to do is go on a 6:1 and also be much more vigilant about what i eat on my 6 days. I hope this will stop me trying to compensate. I have also found some new information that has convinced me to drop back my bread intake and be more carb conscious. Basically the plan is to improve my diet on my non fast days (or be more careful) and then fast on one of the weekend days depending on whats on.
Please wish me well as I enter this new territory. I will check in here more often and share how i go.
Keep up the good work folks!

Great news, Carol and hopefully when you see the doctor, he will have some treatments or advise for you.

Jujum, hello and good luck to you from me. It is always good to re-assess where have difficulties and try different tactics. No week on 5:2 are ever the same for me and I am still experimenting, too.