At what point does it go from being a slow learner to actually, no, not learning at all?! 🙂

Sorry to hear you think it will take 3 fasts to mitigate one cheesecake Lichtle. I think rather than do 3 in one week, I’d be tempted to spread them and just be more spartan on non-fast days. 4:3 does indeed seem like a high price to pay!

So now might not be the best time to admit that I won’t be fasting this week. Think I must naturally be achieving a calorie deficit at least on some days and, without processed carbs and sugar and with a few good fasts in the last few weeks, More active too, now the days are longer if not warmer! So I’m at quite a low weight this week. Fasting for health benefits will have to wait, as I don’t want to dip below 58.

I’ve had a couple of days of meetings, with food provided. Depressingly bread and pastry based. Tasty, I admit, but all beige!

Funny watching some people’s reaction to cake at the buffet. They dived in greedily and put a cake (or two!) on their plate before savories, terrified that the cake might all be gone and they’d be forced to eat fruit or go without?! Lots of talk too of the horror of meetings where no cake is provided! The very idea!

There is something really strange happening to people when there is “free stuff” to be had. The fear of missing out is quite deep. Having made the comparison with alcohol earlier, I can’t get my head round people’s reaction when there are free drinks. At work, when I organise promotional items like poloshirts it is the MD who needs one every week. Same goes with branded items like memory sticks or pens. You would think they were all students on grants.

Had an excellent 24 hr fast today finished with a few vegetables and low cal dip followed by an apple for desert. On top of that, I attended my first yoga class and thoroughly enjoyed it. Will be aching tomorrow but what fun. Originally i wanted to join a Pilates class but I couldn’t find one that met straight after work. I live a little out of the way and don’t fancy driving all the way back into town for a class once I get home after work. I will definitely keep this up.

Lichtle, well done on the yoga and the fast. I’m with Happy in that I only do two fasts in any one week, and I can rely on that and generally moderate eating to rebalance my system. Bay 😉

Hi Bay,

Interesting news re: grain consumption. I did see a report which suggested that it was whole grains and not cakes and pastries that Aussies were eating less of?!

I also read that the current dietary advice (Aus) is to eat 6 portions of grains a day? I can’t get my head round how I could eat 6 portions a day and still have the room (or calorie allowance) to eat much else!

Lichtle, good work on the fasting. Do you think the cheesecake helped focus your mind this week? …Could be the way forward to ensure we all keep motivation for fasting twice a week!

Hi All,

Lichtle. So have you got a whopping great treat lined up this weekend? 🙂

I must admit I’m probably going to do some baking. I need to put some weight on! I haven’t fasted this week, but this morning am only 58kg.

I don’t think I’ve eaten less than normal, and I certainly haven’t been more active (it’s too cold agsin!)

I don’t know if I should be worried or not?

I’ve got a three day weekend now so will make a valiant attempt to overeat and see where I am on Tuesday1

Happy

You are really lucky. As soon as I look at sweet things the weight goes back on. However, fasting tomorrow to lose the kg I just put on by over indulging. 😉

Cheers, Bay 🙂

You have made me laugh!

Just revised my plan, now the aim is to get to 56kg, on my birthday, a few days before Christmas.

Only problem is it will be my 59th, if it happens I will certainly feel like running around in a bikini.

On the other hand, it would almost certainly scare the neighbours!!!!

Ok, you’re on- Ill work out how to post photos and Ill post a pic of me in a bikini.

Thankfully plenty of time to learn photoshop!!!!

Sounds good to me – a girl does need an occasional cake day.

. I’ve just made some ‘healthy sweeties’ (!!!) – which are going straight into the freezer for surprise-visitor days – which I’m sure would do the trick: equal amounts of dates, ground almonds and chopped pecans, whizzed with a little water, some vanilla extract and some cinnamon and ginger, packed into a baking tray, decorated with flaked almonds and set in the fridge. Enough nuts for you? (Sorry, no cheese!)
I should say I’ve also made a nut roast (bit of a theme developing here!) , baked beetroot for a beet and lentil risotto, and prepared a cauliflower for roasting whole on Monday – very scrummy and surprisingly few calories. So not all wicked stuff! Today has been mainly eggs and spinach – not a FD, but balancing last night’s monthly meal out when I actually scoffed 3 courses – unheard of these days, but I was actually very hungry, chose sensibly and thoroughly enjoyed it. (DH, on the other hand, in some sort of regression to childhood or farming days, managed to choose the heaviest, most calorific option at every course and spent the night groaning that his tum hurt! Poor love – he claims it was because he’s out of practice, and wants to go back to being a ‘happy fatty’. But he’s actually had a miserable day, so is now vowing to eat more mindfully again in future. That’s better!)

Have a good week )

Enjoy your week.

Oh Happy, you have no idea of the psychological effect of being a wartime / immediately postwar baby! Of course he could have left some, – it’s one of the things I have at last learned to do – but when you’ve spent your early years being exhorted to finish every scrap its a really hard habit to break – and he hasn’t! (And, to be fair, if you opt for fried whitebait, followed by wild boar burger with cheese, a fried egg and a mountain of chips, and finish with chocolate brownie and ice cream, washed down with 2 pints of Guinness, perhaps you deserve a sore stomach!!) I suspect guys are perhaps less evolved than we are at appreciating light food – or just plain greedy!

I (she says, smugly) toyed with some smoked chicken, roast cod with pea risotto, and a lemon and lime
posset. Far too girly for a Real Man! (And still fairly hefty on the calories, so not all that smug, actually!)

Hi Happy, Fast and Lichtle

I’ve fallen for the dread sugar trick again, and believed that I could have just one square of dark chocolate, or a small helping of sweets, or even take it or leave it. Wrong. Whenever I start on dessert, I just want more. 😉

Am now on a 24 hour water fast, trying to din it into my brain that all forms of sugar have a diabolical effect on my system. 😆

Enjoy your treats. Mine will have to be something else that I have yet to work out. Brazil nuts are great. An occasional glass of wine is ok. Looking forward to Advent already. Hehe!

Cheers, Bay 🙂

My sentiments precisely, Happy!

Bay, so sorry about the sugar. As agreed earlier this week, it’s becoming clear that we each have our own individual enemy! But at least we’re each learning what it is – and that when its that dangerous, total abstention is the only way forward. That must be a painful prospect, but your self-knowledge is impressive.

Lichtle – well done!

Hi Bay, I don’t know what to say. Unfortunately it does appear that you are at the furthest end of the addicted to sugar spectrum. I know I have the same response, a bit of sugar leaves me wanting more. But I’m lucky that I can just stop at ‘a bit’ if I want.

As the others say, knowledge is power. And you know what to do to gain control. Going completely added sugar free would not be an easy choice though, much like an alcoholic/ smoker/ drug addict… But if you choose to, it will get easier with time. And you will find other foods become treats.

My ‘eating up’ weekend continues! It’s raining here, and OH is bored, so has decided to cook us a roast dinner later (and he doesn’t do low cal!). While foraging at the shops, a packet of sausages apparently ‘fell’ into his basket, and he has just presented me with a sausage sandwich… I think I can confidently predict that I will be heavy enough next week to do at least one fast day 🙂

Hi All,

Sorry for not posting yesterday. I’m sure 1 May is a bank holiday for many on this list. There are no bank holidays here in the US, and it isn’t that sort of holiday for us, but on 1st May here in Seattle there were a number of anti-capitalist protests such that though I would normally work at the office on Fridays, I was given temporary reprieve and allowed to work from home. Also, in my faith, 1 May is a holiday, so this weekend has been full of one celebration or another (including another later today). To say I’ve been busy is an understatement.

I like chocolate too. There is a local company to me that produces dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free, and most importantly sugar-free chocolate bars. I have just ordered a bunch, but haven’t yet gotten to the point where I’ll be incorporating them in my diet (please read on to find out why). However, if I lived in the UK I would undoubtedly be eating one of these products:
http://www.sugarlessco.com/our-products/stevia-chocolate.html

Stevia isn’t sugar, but it fills the bill for me–all of the taste, none of the junk.

At any rate, by rights this past week should have been my first week of maintenance, but between attending a movie last Sunday (and sharing popcorn with a friend), attending an all-day conference Wednesday (breakfast, lunch, and mid-morning/mid-afternoon snacks included–otherwise known as how to gain a kilo in a day), and then festivities due to the aforementioned holiday ever since Friday including today, my weight has really yo-yoed.

After Sunday’s popcorn I wasn’t even up a pound, so fasted on Monday (back to goal or so by Tuesday). The morning of Wednesday’s conference I was actually .8 pounds BELOW goal, so the kilo gain put me at just under a pound and a half over goal. I fasted on Thursday and went UP by nearly half a pound the next day, though yesterday was back to .1 pound above goal.

I strength trained yesterday to make up for not doing so last Thursday. Last night I ran in to a buddy I hadn’t seen in years at a show I was recording. After the show we went to breakfast (at 1:30 am or so–I can’t remember the last time I ate so late–it’s been years). After all that I am only about half a kilo/1.1 pounds above goal this morning. True, there is another event later today, but I’m about to strength train again today (to keep to my usual schedule–I normally strength train on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays). Hopefully that will help.

At any rate, due to being more than a pound above weight and ensuing food later today, I’ve decided to increase my water intake by eight ounces (back to pre-maintenance level). I’ll be doing another >200 calorie fast day tomorrow and HIT workout after work.

If only it was all over after the weekend, but Tuesday is Cinquo de Mayo, and a celebration at work also involving food–necessitating another >200 calorie fast day and Tabata class on Wednesday. However, I do think I’m beginning to get the hang of this, and really enjoy the flexibility. When you consider I’ve been going off plan every other day or two for what will ultimately turn out to be the better part of a week and a half, I’m thrilled, and hope to be back at goal weight by the end of this week (even if I end up throwing in another fast day).

I hope I haven’t bored you all to tears.

Jayney

Thanks Happy,

I appreciate the reality check. Of course I won’t gain that much fat overnight, and honestly, in some respects, I’m surprised it isn’t more. However, you’re absolutely right that I now have strategies for dealing with times when I go off plan (one of which is PLANNING when to go off plan ;-).

I think in the past, if I went off plan (even if I planned to do so), even though I would immediately get back on track, whatever I gained from going off would tend to remain a deficit (that would only grow larger the next time I went off, etc.). Now I have a way around it (though in my case that tends to involve fasting AND HIT/HIIT exercise).

I also meant to mention that as part of my maintenance I’m going from exercising six times weekly down to four. Last week it would have helped if I could have added another HIT day or two, but the week was so packed I had to leave it at four. However, I will add one more HIT exercise day tomorrow (that will make it five times this week). I completely agree though, that if I can’t splurge when I’m on maintenance, when can I?

Many thanks once again for your support.

Jayney

Thanks Happy. That was an absolutely brilliant post! A great overview of maintenance.

Jayney, I do much the same as Happy. My upper limit is also 60kg and I fluctuate anywhere between 55.8 to (this weekend 🙁 )59.8. Like Happy, I don’t count calories, (because of her, I’m also a big nut and date fan), but “smooth out” my calorie intake. It is a fine line between gaining weight and losing too much. I guess that is what we call “maintenance”. 🙂

We had a super high carb weekend, but tempered it with skipping breakfasts and other meals and fasting today. But gosh that pizza, that ginger and cinnamon cake, that yum cha were all great. 🙂 Hey, it was raining here all weekend too. No real harm done and lots of enjoyment. The main negative spinoff I find from carbs is the bloating that I rarely get on my normal very low carb diet.

Thanks for mentioning Cinco de Mayo. I LOVE a good excuse for a celebration and I need one tomorrow. I Googled it. Celebrating the defeat of the French by the Mexicans back in 1862 sounds like an excellent idea. 🙂 Today is Star Wars Day “May the Fourth be with you”. 😆

I’ll be in Seattle in a couple of weeks, Jayney, I’ll have to look out for any other local celebrations.

Ffs, I KNEW I shouldn’t have logged on the forum! Your nut and date thing sounds yum. Great idea first thing in the morning on a fast day. Ah well. 😉

Hi Bay, Lichtle and Carol too. Keep up the healthy lifestyle MCs. Purple

Hi Purple! 🙂

Hi Purple
Good to see your post 😉

Happy, great post, says it all. 😆

Jayney

You will find your own method of maintenance. I move between 60-62 kg on a weekly basis. Occasionally, when I have a carb free week, or two, I can get under 60 kg. And that feels amazing.

When celebrating, most of us find we can control things by not eating meals leading up to the events, and going easy on the day following an event. The sooner you hit the pause button, the greater the control.

Cheers, Bay 🙂

Feeling better after yesterday’s 22/2 water fast day that was brought on by overindulging in sugar carbs. 😳

Thanks Happy, PVE, and Carol,

I appreciate what you’re saying. Have any of you been having refeeding days? The naturopath suggested that I use different TDEEs based on whether or not I’m exercising, fasting, or refeeding. What he has suggested is to take the TDEEs based on somewhat active, active, and very active, and use them for working at a desk, exercising, and refeeding, respectively. He has suggested refeeding two days weekly and fasting one day. However, I think reversing those might work better. I’m going to look into having a Vo2 Max test done. If it’s not exorbitantly expensive (he’s said that it is) I’m hoping that in addition to telling me how to exercise most efficiently, it can take the guesswork out of when to fast, when to refeed, and how many days to do each.

http://www.vo2maxtesting.net/whatis.html

In the meantime, I’ll do what you’re doing: trial and error. However, I also wanted to say that this past week has pretty much been the first time I’ve splurged since February. Yes, it has been a week of weight yo-yoing, but it also hasn’t been the end of the world. Weight fluctuates. I get it. At the same time, I feel better than I have in years, and the aerials are easier than they’ve ever been, because I weighed considerably more than I do now when I started doing aerial work, and that went up significantly before I started working on reducing. It’s nice to be at the point where my weight is pretty much where it’s supposed to be so I can fly more easily–finally! That’s been my motivation for getting the weight off this whole time.

Thanks for all your thoughts, suggestions, and support. Please know you have mine in return.

Jayney

Sorry Bay,

This was from another forum I’m on here (Mid Fifties – Just starting and hoping to lose weight (yet again)?!).

Refeed.

Increase your calories (re-feed) for a full day periodically (once a week or so if you are heavy, twice a week if you are already lean), to restimulate metabolism. On the higher calorie day, take your calories to maintenance or even 10, 15, 20% above maintenance and add the extra calories in the form of carbs (carb cycling). The leaner you get, and the longer you’ve been on reduced calories, the more important the re-feeds will be.

However, I guess if you’re unaware of it, you haven’t been doing it, so that kind of answers my question. I’m afraid to start doing it myself (especially after this past weekend–I’m now three pounds over goal–ugh!). However, once a week might be OK.

Jayney

Sounds to me like refeeding is what I do on the weekend!

On the contrary, Jayney, I’ve been doing this as part of the natural way of life. I would rather not change a natural pattern of eating into a formal routine. 😉

I don’t count calories ever, on my non fast days. I weigh myself every morning, and if I’m trending upwards, I have a low carb day. I fast once a week for the health benefits. I never willingly have a high carb day. If I am at a celebration, then I eat whatever is being dished up in small amounts. Portion size makes this a very manageable way of living.

When I have a higher carb day, then I try to eat way less the next day. Or eat less the day before, if I know it’s coming up. Hope that answers your query.

Cheers, Bay 🙂

PS of course I over indulge in sugars, and then go sugar free for some time to make up for this. : lol: This way of life means famines and feasts in proportion. Alarm bells go off when the variation is 2 kg in weight.

Haha! Happy. 😆

😳 I posted this already on the wrong thread. What I want to say is an Amazon rolling on the floor laughing emoticon.

Cheers, Bay 🙂

Good thing you are diverting me, Happy. 😉

Only the dog is around me in my revolting sugar withdrawing mood! Dogs are so forgiving and so optimistic that you will take them for another walk! 😆

Meanwhile the Devil keeps on tempting me to just have a little sweet. What harm can that do? Only another 2 days to go until the spell is broken. 😮 I’m pretending that it’s like the beginning of 5:2. Just one day at a time!

Cheers, Bay 🙂