Hi Thin,

I’m in! Hoping lots more come in and join the Silly Season Challenge

This year has been an Annus Horribulus with a decades worth of personal challenges coming thick and fast all in 1 yr. You know how life goes. I had reached my goal weight of 62kgs (136lbs, or 9stone 10lbs) in November 2016. Today I’m 65.3kgs (144lbs, or 10stone 4lbs) after a year of battling stress eating, battling to keep doing my FDs, sometimes all I could do was get to 3pm. So – the damage for a very stress filled year has been 3. 3 kgs (8lbs). Looking forward to a better year in 2018, and obviously I don’t want to put any on between now and 1st January. This will be my 3rd Christmas on 5:2. Due to ME/CFS I am unable to exercise but I encourage everyone to commit more to you exercise programme and don’t give it up during this busy time.

Let’s go!😀

Thin, I hesitated at first as I dont want to fail!!! But I then gave myself a kick in the butt and said “what do you have to loose? ……myself answered FAT/WEIGHT/NOTHING No matter what it will do me some good”

So I am going to commit to loosing 1kg before January 1st (or more).

And Merryme, here’s hoping it is a better year to you!!

I am in too!!!

HOW DO YOU POST THOSE SMILEY FACES ON HERE?????????

Hi thin,

Count me in! I pledge to lose 4 pounds this month! Thanks for creating this group! I was able to fast through the holidays before, so I know it’s doable. I’ve fallen off the wagon this year due to not believing I could make fasting a way of life. I had a good fast day today, and plan on 2 fast days a week (500-600 calories) on Fast Days.

Looking forward to hear everyone’s progress!

This is going to be tricky. My daughter and her OH gave me an early Christmas present (they will be away at Christmas). It is an Advent Calendar on the side of a box. Starting today, every day I open a door and take out a bottle of craft beer. Every bottle will be different so there will a daily puzzle of “how many calories in this one”. I had intended to try for, as nearly as possible, a low alcohol run up to Christmas, so already we are on Plan B. The second Christmas Challenge is to prevent this becoming a habit – that is more beer than I would normally drink. The third Christmas Challenge is lose some weight this month!

First FD of December done – not a1/4 of my TDEE, but coming in at 520cals. I’m OK with that little extra. I’m not out of the woods yet, stress-wise, but my blood pressure is beginning to go back to normal this week, after some good news.

Chritmas lunch tomorrow with members of medical support group. Focus is not on food but on working out how to get through the Silly Season unscathed energy wise. No breakfast for me tomorrow.
Merry

I’ll join you if I may.

I intend to weigh less on January 1st than I do today. I am aiming for a 3-4lb loss.
I have a few social functions in the next couple of weeks and I’ve already planned my FD around them. Fortunately none of them are buffets or in someone’s home so there is less chance of over-eating.

Good luck everyone 🙂

Stay – I though I had a difficult week of food challenges, but yours sound worse, 3 challenging days in a row – although given you’ve lost weight after the first challenge I’d say you are handling it well.

I didn’t make very good choices for dinner at the craft fair last night, but there wern’t really any good foods to choose from. My cousin and I bought a bowl of tabouli with felafel, 2 samosas and a paper cone of salt and pepper squid and shared. Apart from the the tabouli salad it was all deep fried – not things I’d normally choose.

I’m doing a FD today. As I count my week as Sun-Sat, this will make 3 for this week, but I have challenging food days on Monday and Wednesday and would like to squeeze a FD in on Tuesday, so I think a FD will work better today rather than my usual Sunday.

Hi thin,

I am English and I am a Londoner. I’ve converted to kilos for cooking and shopping but not for weighing myself for some unknown reason 😆

I have been on doing 5:2 for a long time and on this forum for about 3 years but after (eventually)losing 68lbs with another 16 to go I lost the plot completely (life gets in the way sometimes) and have been going round in circles for far too long and my weight has been slowly creeping up. I think (hope) I’m finally back on track as I’ve managed to lose 5lbs and I thought I would join you for a month and see if it helps keep me on the straight and narrow.
I am very good at giving advice but not always good at applying it to myself!

I follow 16:8 on non FDs and I only eat dinner on FDs. Occasionally I have a food free FD but it is far too cold for that right now as if I get cold I can’t get warm without eating now I am merely overweight rather than obese and no longer have an inbuilt insulation layer.

I am going out for the day and will be visiting a German style Christmas market. I am planning to indulge in some of the food on offer but won’t be eating anything else today. I am going with my naturally slim friend who rarely over indulges and I always aim to eat no more than her so I should be OK.

I stuck to my FD yesterday with difficultly. It was unexpectedly cold and wet here which seemed to accelerate my appetite.

I ended up having a spinach beef and pine nut salad for dinner, with a handful of strawberries and a hot almond milk drink for afternoon tea. I think that would have taken me close to 500cals, but I gave into the desire for another hot almond milk in the evening, which I suspect took me over 500.
For those of you who don’t know me, I no longer count calories on any day as I usually eat from a small range of meals on FDs and I know they are all well under 500. The salad was not one of my usual FD meals and I know pine nuts have an outrageous number of calories.

I’m glad I stuck with it instead of abandoning the FD as I was tempted to do. I have lunch out tomorrow and an afternoon tea on Wednesday, so getting a FD in yesterday was quite important. I’m also planning a FD on Tuesday.

Jj – I think working with the TDEE for your goal weight is wise. It gives you time to learn what the food and calories that you’ll need at goal look like. Having already adjusted to this before getting to goal I think makes it easier to maintain when you get there.

Hope you all have a good Sunday, fasting or otherwise.

Day3 report. An act of sabotage yesterday. OH made her first batch of Christmas mince pies, then left them to cool in full view in an unattended kitchen. In spite of that, and the advent beer, I’m down one pound.

I know that their reactions are about them but what surprised me was who acted in which way ie people who have always seemed so happy and relaxed in their own skin displaying anxieties/feelings I didn’t know existed.

I have no intention of ever being the fat one again.

Day three and a half. Today’s Advent Calendar door has given me a bottle of “Sticky Toffee Pudding Ale”. It is the colour of a sticky toffee pudding and tastes like one whilst still being recognisably a beer. The world is getting weird.

Those mince pies didn’t get frozen fast enough but I did get some exercise – been baby sitting a neighbour’s collie dog.

I am in. I did two water only days per week for a year. I lost 40 pounds and have not been able to bring myself to fast since then. I landed in the hospital with high blood pressure and a heart arrhythmia. It is the wake up call I needed.

I have to take pills that require food twice per day. I think the 500 calorie fasting days will give me enough food to take the pills. I am hoping that if I lose enough weight that I will be able to give up many of the pills I am taking. I have fasted through Christmas before. I can do it again. I don’t want to. I have to. I really have to.

Wish me luck as I wish all of you healthy happy holidays!

Starting weight 273 lbs or 124 kilos.

I’m trying to psyche myself up for the FD tomorrow! I had a successful one last Thursday, but was super cold all night! I tend to skip breakfast on FDs and have a protein bar for lunch, sparkling water and a protein centered meal for dinner.

My plan is to get into a good book tomorrow evening to distract me, any suggestions? Now that I’m working full-time again, it’ll be easier to keep busy. I’ll check in with the group tomorrow.

Check-in after a weekend that started out with one Christmas thing to attend and ended up more.

The main one was a bring a plate function so OH and I took a large plate of watermelon (summer here in Australia), a small bowl of macadamias, and a tiny, tiny bowl of candied ginger. We know that others take plates of the usual Christmas fare so try to take something that’s not.

I am gluten and grain intolerant, but can have a little with some consequences. I really love grain foods but, I have a form of food intolerance where the symptoms/reactions include an addictive component that goes for 5 days. If I eat any, not only do I get swelling and inflammation , but for the 5 days of withdrawal I have very intense cravings for them. (All tested with a dietician, not in my head). There are a number of foods that cause this addictive reaction to the intolerance. If I eat any one of them, the reaction will include addictive cravings to All of them. So, I know if I eat any I’m in for a battle. Celebrations are an extra challenge for me.

Fortunately, the 1st function was a medical support group Xmas gathering where many people have gluten problems so most of the food was gluten free, which was lovely. There was a salmon mousse which was nice and healthy and healthy, but came with wheat crackers. As I got tireder (ME/CFS) I had some with the wheat crackers forgetting there were some veggie sticks on a plate not too far away I could have used instead. Those few crackers set me up for a fall later in the day when we were invited out on the fly, where some Christmas food was also offered and all of it wheat/sugar/chocolate based. The chocolate and sugar I can usually get past if I don’t want it, but the wheat was harder, especially that I was now in reaction time with the craving thing happening. So, instead of refusing it, I ate. Not heaps but enough to give me more of a problem and bring on fluid retention. Wrong move. I should have taken some of the watermelon and nuts with us so that I had something healthy to eat.

So, my weight is up 1kg in 2 days as I start my FD today. And I’m aching a bit. My goal is to come out of Christmas at a stable weight but I really want to not go into Christmas proper at 65k-66kgs. I have a little grandchild’s birthday before Christmas as well, so I need to learn from this and strategise for any impromptu things with other people, especially when I know the people are “feeders”.

Merry

Lj – Have you ever made gluten free shortbread? I’ve been thinking about having a go at making some. I had some on Saturday but the sugar in it was a bit too much a bit crunchy. I just wan’t to make a very small quantity for Christmas Day and Boxing Day. The commercial ones are also very high in sugar, and often commercial GF stuff has heaps of palm oil, which is nasty stuff.

Merry, I haven’t made gluten free shortbread, but it’s a recipe that should adapt very well to it, as it has no rising agent and contains rice flour already.

My family recipe is 3oz caster sugar, 8oz butter, 13oz plain flour, 2 oz rice flour or cornflour. (1oz = 30g – this is my Nana’s recipe so I always make it her way using ounces) The butter needs to be very soft but not melted (if its not soft enough it won’t absorb all that flour). Cream it really well with the sugar then work the flour in gradually – I use an electric mixer. Roll it out on kitchen paper to 8-10mm thickness and cut into fingers or any shapes you like. Carefully place onto a tray and refrigerate for 15 minutes before baking. Bake in a 155C oven for 30 minutes. The low temperature means they will cook completely without browning. (If you want a quicker option, place the dough onto a long piece of plastic wrap and roll into a sausage shape with a 3-4cm diameter. Roll it up tightly in the plastic and refrigerate until very firm. Unroll the plastic, slice into discs that are 8-10mm thick and place on a baking tray and bake. This is much quicker than rolling out dough and cutting shapes.) This isn’t a very sweet shortbread, most modern shortbread recipes have contain a higher proportion of sugar. My Nana would have made this with salted butter but I use unsalted butter (usually cultured unsalted butter). I wouldn’t consider using margarine or oil, although coconut oil may make a nice coconut flavoured shortbread.

Because shortbread is meant to be dense and not rise I think gluten free flours would work well. You could try it with all rice four or simply follow my recipe and replace the plain flour with a commercial gluten free flour.

This year I made 4 versions of the basic dough:
– Plain – The original, my Nana’s shortbread.
– Orange cashew – I added orange zest and chopped cashew nuts (raw nuts as they toast while baking). I also replaced 2oz of the flour with 2oz finely minced rolled oats.
– Vanilla almond – I replaced 1 oz of the rice flour with vanilla custard powder and also added vanilla bean paste and I rolled the sausage of dough in flaked almonds so that each round will have a ring of almonds around the edge once I slice and bake it.
– Chocolate walnut – I replaced 1oz of flour with dark Dutch cacao powder. I added chopped walnuts. I also had to double the sugar to 6oz to counteract the bitterness of the cocoa.

Because the dough has no eggs it keeps for a long time if well wrapped – basically it has the same fridge life as butter. It can also be frozen, although the butter content means it won’t be much firmer than if kept in the fridge.

Good luck, I hope you find a gluten free flour that works. I have high hopes that this is one substitution that should work well.

Good afternoon Silly Seasoners,

I am happy to answer Thin’s question with a yes.

I decided to make OH and 18YO home made pizza for dinner. OH was driving to Townsville so wanted his for lunch before he left. I precut all the toppings.
Red, green and yellow capsicum diced, onion, pineapple, mushrooms, olives ham and cabanossi. Oh had salami, cabanossi and all the vegies on his. We used a pita bread type pizza base that I bought at Coles which turned out really nice when cooked as it was not heavy and it was crispy. OH could not eat all of his so took half of it to Townsville with him to have for dinner last night.
18YO and her boyfriend shared one together.
Mine was mainly vegetarian with just a bit of ham on it. I did not eat it all either and two pieces really filled my up. 18YO’s boyfriend took the rest home to his place so he did not have to cook tonight.

This morning’s weigh in was 77.1kg so I was really pleased.

Today however we went to lunch at Japanese noodle shop. I am so full!!!!
I had their new option on the menu, light base soup with noodles and cabbage, black mushrooms, bean sprouts, shallots and spinach. The owner came up and asked me what I thought of the new dish. Told her it was wonderful and just perfect for my healthy eating. Dont think I will need any dinner tonight.

Feeling good about December!!!!! 😆

Day 4 sitrep. Weight unchanged. Today will be a FD, but not a total fast, I will permit myself something light about 6pm because thereafter I have to drive 150 miles into London.

I am guessing there were somewhere between 150-200 calories in the Sticky Toffee Pudding Ale. None today because of the driving.

I find the easiest way to get the butter and flour mixed is to rub it in with my fingers in the same way as when making pastry, then add the sugar and it should all come together easily. I add the sugar last because I don’t like the feel of it when I’m rubbing in the butter.
Or you could use a food processor which will take seconds! 🙂

Hello everyone,

I’m mostly through my fast day, it’s been a busy one & that’s helped. Of course, I heard the sabotaging voice in my head telling me I wasn’t going to make it through. Why is this voice so convincing at times??!!

Thin, you are right, the protein bar (190 cal) is a bit of a crutch. I have always eaten them for lunch on fast days. It’s sort of a tradition / break from making a real lunch. Perhaps I’ll try hard boiled eggs for lunch on Thursday. I’m planning on having smoked salmon on fiber crackers for dinner. I had a kombucha after work today (70 calorie drink).

I’ve been a little cold, but the Midwest is enjoying its last day in the 50s today. The rest of the week looks like it’ll be below freezing.

My ultimate goal is to lose 7-10 pounds before my big birthday in June. I’d like to lose some this month, but to be honest, coming out of the silly season without weight gain will be okay with me.

Good night from the U.S.

FD for me today, my first for this week. I need to counteract lunch out yesterday and also prepare for an afternoon tea event tomorrow.

I’ll follow the usual plan of just eating dinner and having a small piece of fruit mid afternoon in needed. I have a tiny lamb steak (about 70g) left over from last night’s dinner (lamb steak, mung bean dahl & kasha buckwheat). Tonight I’ll steam green beans and carrot and team them with the lamb and some fresh cherry tomatoes.

As usual I have allocated some calories to milk so that I can have cups of tea when I want throughout the day. So far I’ve had one pot of my favourite morning tea blend. Always my favourite way to start the day. If I can have my cups of tea on FDs I rarely feel deprived. It’s a simple thing, but makes a lot of difference to me.
When I started 5:2 one bit of advice I received was not to drink calories. I really tried to find calorie free drinks but it didn’t go well and I realised it was one bit of advice that didn’t fit me. I came accept that I was actually prepared to sacrifice food for cups of tea with milk. Once I got to a point where I no longer felt the need to eat either breakfast or lunch on FDs, it was actually quite easy to have the cups of tea and not go over 500 cal and I only had to construct one meal from those calories.

Have a good day everyone.

Day 5. In London. Got here late, slept late. Everyone at work or school, so I am alone in the house with the sick grand daughter, two dogs, three cats and several guinea pigs. To be strictly honest, the guinea pigs are not in the house. I couldn’t find the scales until I was fully dressed and went looking for a coffee. Scales are in the kitchen. No idea what I weigh.