Ditto Judy. I was always thin. Ate anything I wanted, any time. Although, looking back, I never ate large portions, more grazing 🙂
Jayney, at my last job we had a huge morning tea every Friday for staff morale. It became a competition between all the good cooks.:lol: We got a new boss who brought it back to fortnightly. We were all furious! I am now totally in sync with her. We were all just pigging out 🙁 I could have eaten it all myself. No wonder I gained weight during that time.
Developed a thumping headache while fasting yesterday. Had a little to eat at 22 hours and a light dinner (large quantity of very low cal veg) and was fine. P

Hi Jayney
I would never sabotage a fast day once I’ve got to 20 hours on no food. 😆 I think, at my low weight, my body gets to a point when it needs something. I try to put it off so I can eat all my 350 odd cals with Mr P when he gets home, but with this very cold winter, it’s not always possible. I tried an hour long brisk walk, piano practice and playing Wii tennis (until I lost 🙁 ) It was only when I had about 50 cal of vege pattie, 1/2 tomato and lettuce that the headache improved. It doesn’t seem hydration related. I didn’t try a little salt. I should next time.
I have a long fast for cell repair, not weight, as I too am 2kg within my goal. P

Hi Judy
It’s complicated working out where your goal “wriggle room” sits, isn’t it? We have been discussing this dilemma for a long time on this thread.
I find by eating mostly lettuce with other veg and a little protein (hard boiled egg, 80 cal or fish, 100 cal) and lots of flavour from garlic, ginger, lime etc, I can feel really full and satisfied on 350 cals. Otherwise, if I ate more, it would seem a waste of all those hours not eating 😉
Bulk, not calories, is my approach. P

I’ll bet your hanging out for that warm trip. Soon now, Bay.
I’ll set myself a message for 3pm tomorrow to go down to the fence in the home paddock to have a go at the salt lick. Our donkeys used to love it 😉 P

I can’t do breakfast on fast days. I avoid all food as long as possible. As you say, Jayney, we find what works 😉 P

Yep. Ate them at 1pm. Then a cup of miso at 4. Can’t wait any longer….eating a couple of thin slices of cheese 🙂
I find the mind games fascinating. I can easily do long fasts on Mondays (24 hrs then 350 cals for next 12 hours) but I can’t convince myself that I still need 2 a week….probably because I don’t! Hence, little voices start niggling at lunchtime.
After 2 1/2 years, Monday is second nature, but all day Thursday just seems excessive. I HAVE been at goal weight for 17 months now.
How are the rest of you going? I’m sure winter folk struggle much more. P

It’s funny, even when you know all the food avoidance tricks, lack of need to fast wins! 😉

Hi Carol,

I couldn’t agree more! We’ve got the tools now and we know how to lose weight and how to maintain. And clearly we all feel the rewards are worth the effort. And actually, it’s not very much effort 🙂

Who would have thought I’d be saying I like a bit of low carb/ low cal/ calorie restriction… Not me 18 months ago as I was shovelling bread and pasta down!

Hey All,

I see what you mean Purple, but on maintenance, if you only need to fast one day, why try for more? That’s something I do to prepare when I know I have (an) upcoming event/events with food. It seems to work well for me to get my weight down as much as possible in preparation (less weight to drop afterward).

However, I don’t have events with food planned every week, so don’t need to do that preparation all the time.

Although, I think before the next job starts I should probably make an effort to get my weight down beforehand since I have no idea what will await regarding food. Besides, in a worst case scenario I’ll just be well below goal and can work my way back from there–not what the naturopath recommended–in fact exactly the OPPOSITE of his recommendation (fast after the event). However, this really seems to be working so far, and if it works, don’t fix it is my motto. What do you all think? Does anyone else try to get weight down in preparation for events with food?

Jayney

A wonderful supportive wife Purple!

Jayney, I fast pre and post big eating events – as you say pre fasting lessens the pain afterwards 🙂

Hey Purple,

I had no idea why you were fasting that extra day. Now that you’ve explained it I understand completely! Well done for standing by your man! Thanks for your metabolism insight as well.

Carol, I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who fasts before and after food-laden events! It will be interesting to see what happens as more of us on this forum weigh in (so to speak ;-).

Jayney

Hi Everyone
Good to hear you can all just fast one day. Im not that far into maintenance that I can do that yet- my weight is still too much up and down. I was doing a fast day yesterday but lost it after dinner. DH came home from an overnight trip with his work colleagues and carried in a bag of CCs and some crackers and I knew there was an avocado dip in the fridge 🙁 i just couldn’t resist as I was already feeling so hungry. Today is another day and hopefully ill stick to it as I was pretty disappointed with my weight this morning. Thats great that you support Mr P. Purple, My husband lost a lot of kgs doing the Dukan diet but he’s not at goal and not real interested in losing more. I try to support him but until he makes up his own mind to get back into it….

Jayney,

On the subject of fasting my weight down in advance of food-laden events… Not really!

I did go into last Christmas a bit lighter, but the initial low weight was inadvertent, and I just decided to maintain that pre-Xmas.

I will eat lighter meals around a meal out, just balancing out overall calorie consumption (although it’s guess work as I don’t count calories). But I’m not into fasting to be a lb lighter so I can eat an extra 3000 calories at the weekend. I don’t want to be a binger. Over-eating was the cause of my flab, so why would I want to practice those bad habits again?!

In any case, I’m much more discerning now. If I find myself at a food-laden event, it’s actually pretty rare for there to be enough that appeals to such a degree that I want to overeat. Mostly I walk up and down going nope nope nope….! I could waste away if I’d fasted in advance 🙂

And if there is a lot of food I’d like, well I sample it in smaller quantities. And some things I accept I can’t have – life is not an all you can eat buffet where I have to pile my plate high and eat everything! There are choices and compromises to be made. When I’ve had a sufficiency I need to stop eating (even if there are yet more delights I haven’t tried).

And also, it occurred to me a long while ago that intermittent fasting could lend itself to eating disorders quite easily. I don’t want to be a control freak (in all aspects of my life 🙂 ) So I’m not going to count calories, and I’m not going to rigidly control my eating, and I’m not going to starve myself so I can binge. Well not consciously anyway 🙂

Judy,

Was the avocado dip etc worth doing another fast day for? Hope it’s going well today!

Sorry Jayney,

I obviously misunderstood you slightly! When you referred to events with food, I thought you were talking about having a blowout rather than it just being normal life. The joy of non-verbal communication 🙂

My particular exercise regime might not involve aerials, but I run and cycle. I don’t think it really matters whether you’re flipping over or pushing up a hill, I agree any extra weight is an unnecessary load!

I am controlling my weight quite closely. But we’re just coming to it from slightly different angles I think.

But then I have been in maintenance for 15 months now, so we’re at slightly different points in the journey. I definitely wasn’t this relaxed about it when I reached my goal!

And as you’ll have spotted, I’m not a planner! My Dad has always been, but the end result now in later life is that things that go off plan are outside his comfort zone and really stress and unsettle him. It drives him mad, but the rest of us have opted for spontaneity! Although you might call it poorly planned chaos…?!

Don’t overtink it Carol. Stick to that yoga.
I think this gives an appreciation of eating disorders, but is really mimicking how humans have always eaten….feast and famine. We evolved to eat this way. Embrace it! 😉 P

Hey Happy, glad we’ve got that sorted! I agree that it isn’t an eating disorder as long as an ideal weight (possibly confirmed by a third party such as a medical professional) is maintained. Carol, I’m glad you see my point about a little extra weight being able to really throw things off sometimes. Purple I’m with you 100%. When our ancestors lived in caves they couldn’t go to the grocery store and have three square meals a day. When there was food, everyone ate. When there wasn’t, they were busy hunting it down/growing it–and fasting.

I have a question for you travelers on this list. I’ve recently seen some travel scales like this one:

https://www.newlinescale.com/shopexd.asp?id=328

Do any of you use something like this? I’m thinking about this because many of the jobs I’m looking at require travel and I don’t want everything to go to hell if I need to be gone for a while (I’ve heard some of you travelers complain of this). Do you think this would be helpful?

If I go that route though, I’m almost inclined to use this scale instead:

http://www.quickmedical.com/a-d-medical-digital-bathroom-scale-uc-322.html

The reason why is that a) it’s made by the same company that makes the scale I’ve been using for the last four years, b) it’s reasonably accurate, and c) I could replace my current scale with the one above and use one scale at home and for travel. I think having one scale would help the consistency and accuracy of measurements. Even though the scale above isn’t really marketed as a travel scale, it’s about the same size as some of the other “travel scales.” I called the manufacturer, and the representative checked and said that as long as it’s packed appropriately (i.e. in the middle of the suitcase with lots of clothes around it, etc.) it should stand up to travel well. If I got this scale I’d probably get a laptop/tablet case for it as well though, so that would help.

At any rate, what do you think of this? Is this something you’d do when traveling?

Jayney

Hi all, I’m really interested in the talk about travel scales as we are off tomorrow for 4 weeks to Thailand and Cambodia. We’ve gone on 2 months holidays for the last 3 years and the year before that we did a month in Africa and I always put on about 5kg 🙁 it’s probably the alcohol- a wine or 2 with dinner and lunch and a 4 o’clock cocktail. My hubby and I are traveling on our own this time so I’m determined to be good. When I get back home I’ll def look into some smaller scales for traveling!!

Hi Judy,

Hope you have a great holiday, it should be amazing! Have you been before?

Good luck with maintenance. You might find opportunities to fast, or skip odd meals, eat a bit less than previously, make sensible food choices.

If all else fails though, at least you know you’ll be able to fast off any weight gain when you get home

Jayney,

I can’t help with travel scales I’m afraid. P is the expert on that.

Hi All,

Purple I was looking at the Petit Mignon scales as well, but I thought they only measured kilograms, and I’d like one that measures pounds as well, and ideally to the 1/10th of a pound (like my scale at home). That’s why I was considering the slightly larger one that I could use at home and on trips. However, I’ve just looked at the Petit Mignon scale again and confirmed that it only measures kilograms. Oh well. You answered my larger question really, that you do use travel scales and they help. I think I’ll have to get one before my next trip (whenever that is ;-). Many thanks.

Isn’t the whole point of scales to have a general feel that you are maintaining within a goal weight no matter what units are used? I’m perfectly capable of converting kg/stones/pounds and knowing if I have gained weight. Human bodies do vary considerable amounts within their healthy range. It is the general trends that we watch. P

Hi Lichtle,

I’d been wondering what you and Fast were up to, good to hear from you.

Re: being a kilo up, it is hard to stress about it when you’ve been maintaining for a while, particularly if you’re still within a healthy weight range. But I think you’re right to address it before it becomes a slippery slope!

I have the opposite problem at the moment, trying to gain weight! I think last week’s stomach bug effectively resulted in a 3 day fast (I’d fasted on Wednesday, bug hit on Thursday, didn’t eat til Friday evening). Despite eating well all week, including cake more days than not, I’m still running light. Quite incredible. I was always someone who gained weight just looking at cake previously…

Judy, like purple says you intuitively know what to do now re eating and fasting. I think you’ll be lea saintly surprised at how little (if any) you put on! Have a lovely holiday! We’re off to Canada nas USA again n in a few weeks. Didn’t put weight on when we were there last time despite the NY cheesecake!

hello Happy – fret not, I’m still here – just not had a lot to report – weight stable, not a lot happening – so I’ve just been contentedly reading other people’s posts, rather than boring you with my non- events, or my new Fitbit toy! It sounds as if your bug has done a pretty thorough job on you: I hope you’re feeling properly better. (As oposed to ‘proper poorly’ ) now.

Lichtle – welcome back. Glad the holiday was good – and you know that extra kg will go, once you get back in routine. Isn’t it good to have fast friends who will hold you to it?! You’ll see that in your absence there has been an interesting discussion about ‘wriggle room’ and the benefits of otherwise of fasting before the event, to allow for some indulgence during holidays etc. exactly what I seem to remember most of us doing the week before Christmas last year (and in Lent, except we called that a sugar challenge – and by the way, I could do with another of those. Weight is fine, but the sugar habit is gradually cfeeping – which means it’s using calories which could be better spent on more nutritious stuff. )

All of you who are off on your hols: enjoy! I hardly dare leave the house at the moment, as every time I look away from the garden for more than an hour or two, another courgette sneakily turns into a giant marrow. If we went away we might come back to a Sleeping Beauty-type hedge made entirely of ratatouille……..

Hi Lichtle

Thanks for your good wishes. We are off on Thursday and I am so looking forward to some hot sunshine. I really admire all of you who cope with long cold Winters and continue to fast.

I travel with very low weight baggage so manage my food intake by the size of my waist line. If I am really anxious I would take a tape measure. Right now I can do it from how much pudge is around my waist. 😉

Fast, I will join you on the next sugar free challenge. My sugar intake creeps up the farther we go from each sugar free challenge.

Judy, in Thailand I would eat only Asian food, minus the rice and minus any grain product they offer. In the middle of my weight loss last year, we went to China for three weeks and I remained steady even though I had a beer every night. Otherwise just enjoy and lose the weight when you get home.

Cheers, all. Bay 🙂

Busy bees!
Welcome back L. You’ll be back into your stride soon.
Happy travels Bay, Carol and Judy. Just avoid too many carbs, all of you.
I, too, am finding as soon as sugars creep back into the diet, the slippery slope starts. And I’m not generally a sweet tooth 🙁
Love the typos this morning. Carol’s “lea saintly” and Happy’s “narrow”. Fabulous!
Sunny weather here, so lots of opportunity to get the garden ready for spring, which appears to be just around the corner now.
I’m convinced my extra kg at the moment is for winter and your lower weight, Happy, is summer weight. 🙂 After all, I need to keep warm and you need to look good in that bikini, out chasing the hens or working in the polytunnel 😉 P