Thin, I also have a great dislike of beetroot. Although the very small leaves that appear before the bulb forms, I like as a salad leaf. However I recently tried a coleslaw blend that I purchased from the supermarket that contained grated beetroot, carrot and broccoli stems. The beetroot didn’t bleed and it actually wasn’t a strong flavour. I actually liked this blend. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s probably just boiled, roasted or pickled beetroot that I can’t stand. And like you if the juice gets on something else I won’t eat that either.
Pickled beetroot featured strongly during summer when I was a child I was the only family member who hated it. It was so widely consumed that it was considered quite un-Australian to not like it. Clearly my taste buds have no nationality.

So glad to see so many familiar names on this thread! What a party.
For some reason, these past Fasr Days have not resulted in a weight loss — very odd.

Guess I should do a log-in of starting weight. Dec 1 : 107.6 pounds = 48.8 kg = 7.6 stones
There. I wrote it down.
When is the end-date?

Good morning Silly Season Challengers

Thin. Beetroot. I really really dislike it. I reckon it tastes like mud that puppy Maxx has been digging in and leaving a little present. UGH And Penguin, yes, beetroot on burgers is an Australian ‘thing’. WHY???? Congrats on yet another pound disappearing

I do an official weigh-in on Fridays so will report progress each week. I have a spreadsheet with some simple formulas that help me keep track and it is so encouraging to see the graph going down, albeit slowly

So FD for me and not so busy at work, unlike Tuesday where the day flew as we were flat-out and I had the best FD I’ve had in my 10 weeks of doing this WOE. Today will be a challenge but I know I can do it.

Have a great day/afternoon/evening depending where you are in the world

Thin, pickled beetroot slices on hamburgers is an Aussie tradition too (especially before we were invaded by the US chains that put dill pickles on everything). I made a hamburger seller make me a completely new burger once when he put beetroot on it despite me asking for it without. We had a debate about why taking the beetroot out wasn’t enough to fix the problem.

Minka, I’m joining you in a FD today.

I had planned to have all my NFDs as controlled days this week. So far I managed 2 and the other 2 were a very long way from controlled and involved too much of the wrong foods.

Penguin, hope that extra FD deals with any extra sneaky mince pies.

My FD has ended with a particularly delicious piece of grilled tandoori chicken & veg.
The next 2 days will be tricky. Tomorrow I have an afternoon tea to deal with and also family dinner (paella and baked cheesecake) on Sunday night.

Have lost a pound from yesterday’s Fast! Hooray.

Minka, I too find that food journaling [on my Fitbit site] works to rein in overeating on Slow Days.

Thin, when my ODH and I started Fasting 5.5 years ago, I didn’t have much to lose. But I joined in to keep Himself company and on track. He lost 45 pounds. I wanted to lose 2# and keep it off. I lost 5 and kept it off, which is the big victory for me. Over-all, from my peak non-pregnant weight to now, I have lost 26 pounds. AND KEPT IT OFF.

The weight I am today is my favorite weight, but I would be Fasting 4 days/week to keep it, so it is not my Target Weight. It is my Sleek Weight.

Have a good weekend, All — but be careful out there! Calories launch sneak attacks.

Well that didn’t work. It is Friday and I was subverted by the TGIFs – thank God it is Friday.; in my case that takes the form of a bottle of whisky. I am off to London Sunday morning to see my daughter and family, back Monday PM when life will get serious again.

Fatfingers, that is seriously impressive. Well done.

I’m still bouncing up and down. 61.2 yesterday and 59.5 this morning after yesterday’s FD. I think I may not be eating enough salt on some FDs. The day after both FD this week, my BP was too low. After eating some Vegemite on sourdough toast tonight I finally started feeling better. Miso soup on FDs would probably be a good thing.

I like beetroot, especially pickled or roasted, but it was only recently that I heard of putting it on a burger. I’ve seen recipes for vegan burgers that blend grated beetroot with various other ingredients, but not putting it on top. I don’t eat a lot of burgers, but it sounds good. The only thing that would keep me from doing it is that beets are so messy. I’m always dropping food on myself. Beet juice can be very difficult to wash out of fabrics.

Minka, glad you’re joining the challenge. Your goal sounds like a good one.

Thin, hope your restaurant meal doesn’t result in too much food eaten.

What great fun it is to read all the comments: witty, serious, droll, sincere. And I will keep my opinion about beetroot and Brussel sprouts to myself.

I know it is early days, so to speak, though the daily weighing is already kicking in and serving as inspiration. For the first time in months I weighed less this morning than I did yesterday morning when I broke my fast. That heartens me to continue following this SS commitment strategy! Granted, it was only 200 grams less, though I’ve usually been a half kilogram + up when I’ve weighed two mornings and further after a FD.

Thin, I trust that today’s FD has already taken you back to where you feel best being. Your description of the food served at the restaurant sounded like art work on a plate. Tee, hee, I’m dying to read what the dessert was that you shared with OH!! That dessert was probably something I would have enjoyed devouring too and doing so is in the spirit of this thread! We can celebrate the season with delicious food and end up not needing to make a New Year’s Resolution!

Also Thin, it was also a delight reading about your and OH’s gift to the birthday boy and how practical is sounds to be; that it will be used to restore something, though I wasn’t sure what a ‘morgan’ actually is, so I googled it and came up with this definition, which I realized probably isn’t the correct type of ‘morgan’… “a horse of a light thickset breed developed in New England.” So, then I realized it is probably a car or motorcyle, so searched down that track and yes! I found it is a car! Wow! What a car that will be when restored, given this definition… “The Morgan Motor Company is a family-owned British motor car manufacturer that was founded in 1910 by Henry Frederick Stanley Morgan. Morgan is based in Malvern Link, an area of Malvern, Worcestershire, and employs 177 people.” Special because of its sounding of being originally from a boutique car manufacturer!

Yes, I too admit that I can be very hard on myself, so I appreciate your care in reminding me how unnecessary doing this actually is. It is true that I’m maintaining quite wonderfully in many respects. I find FDs almost ‘second nature’ and feel devoted for life. FDS feel like a lifeline at times.

LJ, yes there is peace in me knowing that I’ve reached my TDEE again for today and I have to chuckle because as I reflect on this I realize there is some part of me that is at ease because I know I will not starve! I know that this sounds ridiculous really and I can’t say why I would even fear starving, though when I feel the peace of why I’m at ease knowing my TDEE, that’s what comes up! I didn’t have parents who told me stories about only getting bread and drippings either during the depression or about starving kids in Africa so I can’t say this is what is there! Maybe it’s just what some call the ‘lizard brain’ being activated in me that feels fear in not knowing what the TDEE really looks like?

I also wanted to add LJ, that the chicken paella sounds delicious and your chocolate mousse in wine glass sounds divine! A good chocolate mousse is one of my favorite desserts because it is usually made gluten free so is one I usually can enjoy and I’m a chocolate fan for sure! I’d be scoffing up everything you described and asking to take home left overs!

It’s 10:26 pm here in New South Wales, Australia and I’m already into the start of my FD which is officially a Monday FD, ending on Tuesday morning! It will be quite a physically active day so I’m going to rely on some calories from my Ribose powder.

Fasting_me, are you really trying to convince us that the Two Fat Ladies had LOW FAT hot dogs in their recipe???? 😉
But what a quick tasty recipe that would be for us beetroot lovers.

Cheers to all the Silly Season Challengers.

I’m another making sure I have my five serves of veggies a day. I realised, even with my healthy food focus, I often don’t get all 5 in. I’m being creative with veg at breakfast time (except on fast days).

Cheers everyone. The silly season is getting sillier by the day, and still a way to go!

Good morning all

I’ve loved reading your posts and glad everyone seems to be doing well, or if there have been glitches everyone is quickly getting back on track. I’ve had an up and down 3-4 days due to social events and I gave in to the urge to graze nearly all day yesterday. Scales are being nasty, I am 87.7 so have gained of course. It feels a long way to my challenge weight of 86 right now. It’s my birthday today so we are having family over tonight and OH and I have prepared an Indian feast…I cooked a Goan pork curry which is tomato based and OH has done a whole tandoori chicken. I will make naan bread and we will have a big salad to go with it all. If I can avoid the naan the rest isn’t terribly high calorie. Either way, tomorrow’s FD will be very much required!

Did someone mention hot cross buns?? Hot cross buns and pickled beetroot = not a very good combination. 🥴

I just had a call from a neighbour – would I like to come to a christmas afternoon tea? Just what I need, another christmas food event!

Reading this thread is becoming one of the highlights of my day! I read some quips and quotes to my ODH and he laughed out loud.

Cinque, well no, the Two Fat Ladies did not use low-fat hot dogs [kielbasa, perhaps?] but the remainder of the recipe is their’s, altho I added the white beans for more protein [swapped out from their potatoes]. Anyhow, we like it a lot. Do you not eat breakfast on FD? You mentioned that you don’t eat veg in a FD breakfast.

thin, was that a Sticky Toffee Pudding? I love that!! My ODH and I usually share a dessert when we dine out. LOVED the shark feeding image. Yeah, I guess the Health for the Holidays challenge is championing the eating of breakfast. Which we know is not de rigeur. But since lots of office workers idea of breakfast is a large sugary-whipped cream coffee and a doughnut from the break room, perhaps promoting breakfast at home is a good idea.

Happy birthday, Anzac! What a sumptuous feast you have prepared — and you’re right: it is low in calories. I love a good naan. Mine work out at 88 calories each, so once in a while I can fit one into a Fast meal. Have a great time. You’ll get back on track.

Quacka, you are doing well at hotel meal choices. And without too many holiday eat-a-thons planned, you should be where you want to be at the end. Lucky you. We have been invited out for Saturday dinner [a couple who has cut out all sugar for the month of December], and are scheduled for a tea-time with other friends on Friday. Tomorrow we drive to the Distant Hospital for an appointment which we enliven by eating Linner in that town. No hurry-up meals when we get home, plus the earlier meal time means more of a 16:8 pattern. Hmm…3 meals out this week. Uh-oh.

LJoyce, I don’t eat much rice either — seems a waste of calories. Your Poached/Roasted Chicken sounds remarkable. Yes! Hot Cross Buns! In the States they are only at Easter, do other countries eat them at Christmas, too? I prepare a large amount of dough in early Lent, freeze the un-cooked balls of dough, and bring them out for Friday breakfasts. Works well.

Cali, speaking of Hot Cross Buns, try this: [do not add beet relish! 🙁 ]

Hot Cross Pancakes http://joythebaker.com/2013/03/hot-cross-pancakes/

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 cup dried currants
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
1 teaspoon fresh orange zest
butter and oil for cooking
pure maple syrup for serving
For Cream Cheese Cross:
4 ounces (1/2 cup) cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2/3 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk or heavy cream
In a small bowl whisk together butter, buttermilk, egg,  and vanilla extract.  Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.  Add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients.  Stir to combine.  It’s ok if the mixture is a bit lumpy.  Add the currants and fruit zest and stir to combine.  Allow mixture to sit for 5 minutes while the griddle heats.
Preheat oven to 150 degrees F.   Place a oven-proof plate in the oven.  This is where the pancakes will stay warm while the entire batch is cooked.
Heat a griddle (or nonstick skillet) over medium heat.  Add about a teaspoon of butter and a splash of vegetable oil.  Heat until fat is hot.  Spoon 2 tablespoons of batter onto the griddle for each pancake.  Fry until golden brown on each side, flipping once.  Place cooked pancakes on the warm plate in the oven and cover with a clean towel.  Place a bit more oil or butter in the pan after each batch of pancakes are cooked.
To make the cream cheese mixture, stir together the three ingredients in a small bowl.  Place in a pastry bag with a medium round tip.  If you don’t have a pastry bag, a ziplock freezer bag with the corner tip cut off is a good substitute.
Top stack of pancakes with cream cheese cross.  Serve warm with maple syrup.

Minka, the Challenge is from my health insurance group, which covers teachers and municipal workers.It lasts 4 weeks. I sure hope the lessons learned will stick. Do the ‘minions’ actually have fun at the Bosses’ BBQ fete? Those can either be a chore or a treat. Write it all down! When I’m tracking my calories on the FitBit app and I dine out, I just type in “Dine at ______ Restaurant: 800 calories.” Just a wild guess of course.

Today is a Fast Day and I’m coming in to it at a very low weight. I’ll be curious to see what it does to my weight tomorrow. There is a point below which I don’t want to go. We had “Breton-inspired Baked Eggs’ this morning. They contained artichoke, curry powder, tomato, and cottage cheese. Tonight’s dinner will be a salad with BEETROOTS, Walnut, and Bleu Cheese. Another favorite.

Good morning all

Thanks for the birthday wishes 🙂 I had a lovely time. My naan sadly didn’t work out very well but it was all eaten (including by me) so it couldn’t have been too bad. My pork curry was really nice and hubby’s tandoori chicken delicious.

After two weekends and mid-weeks packed with social events my weight has blown out and I am 87.9 today. However that is all behind me and my FD today and Thursday will hopefully see quick reversals.

Thin, I had a big laugh at your description of ‘sharing’ with your OH. Mine is the same! You have to shove it in quickly to get any at all. You should see him with a bag of salt and vinegar chips…between he and Maxx I’m lucky to get one chip.

I’m going to struggle during the holidays too Quacka but determined to counter with exercise and plenty of controlled days. I’m not sure I will be able to do FD’s while at home for 2 weeks but I’ll see what happens

That recipe sounds amazing fasting_me

I hope your work Christmas BBQ is great Minka.

Cinque, I totally agree that it feels like the silly season is going to be sillier than normal. So glad for this challenge therefore.

LJ – drat those friendly neighbours! Better than the alternative though

cali, I am trying to imagine hot cross buns + beetroot without gagging! UGH.

Have a great day all

Thin, I’m sure I can be restrained at the afternoon tea on Friday – unfortunately it was meant to be a FD! However, I have just found out I am not needed for babysitting on Thursday, so I can fast then instead.
Thin, if your daughter is asking “what does he eat” questions for a lab, the answer should probably be anything he can get hold of – food, shoes, balls…

Fastingme, I’m not a big pancake fan, but for easter bun pancakes I think I’d make an exception. Just reading the list of flavour ingredients had me drooling.
On the issue of hot cross bun availability here – is is meant to be only easter here too, but the supermarkets like to get the most sales they can and the hot cross buns usually start appearing in January – usually at the front of the store where you almost have to trip over them to get in. It gets a lot of people riled up (including Thin), but they must sell enough of them to make it worthwhile. Most of the supermarket offerings are poor quality so I don’t have a lot of trouble waiting until closer to easter time and buying them from my favourite bakery (which only starts offering them a fortnight before easter).

Anzac, I didn’t mean to sound like a grumbler, I am very glad to have friendly neighbours. I am also a “plan ahead” person who panics when best laid plans get thrown out the window. I’m sure I can manage it without going overboard.
If you want an alternative recipe for naan I’m happy to share the one I use. Although it’s definitely never as good as those cooked in a tandoor oven.

Minka, I remember the event you described – it was actually my birthday supper at a cafe that just serves desserts (and their own hand made chocolates). Most people ordered a tastings platter so there was an explosion of sugar on offer. I was practicing mindful eating and realised how the pleasure faded if you took your time to savour every mouthful slowly. Thanks for reminding me of that. Mindful eating is something I know how to do, but I often still don’t do it – why is that???

Time for my FD lunch – my second pot of tea for the day.
I managed to avoid eating the raw shortbread dough (or the cooked shortbread) – actually I don’t usually find that much of a challenge these days thankfully.

Fastingme, your insurance group challenge sounds really good and fun, especially if others are joining in at work. Is everyone at work taking up the challenge? The work BBQ in which the supervisors prepared all the food for us was very good and lots of fun. I do have to chuckle though because one of my superiors always takes what I say to literally and seriously when I’m actually joking! So if there was an awkward moment, it was that one!

Quacka, I admire your commitment to a stint of B2B. For the reasons you said is why I tend not to eat breakfast. Today I prepared for my evening BBQ that way. I did have a 1/4 black sapote for morning tea and then salad for lunch and nothing else until the BBQ at 6 pm and those longer time spans between eating today helped me feel more prepared for the BBQ.

LJ I was thinking more about your comment about how deep the starvation fear runs in us as humans and I realized that this is exactly why at least one friend said she wasn’t able to do 5:2. She tried it a couple of times for a day each and never lasted even 12 hours because she feared she would starve. Others have also expressed their fear of being hungry on a FD and so have said ‘I could never do that’. Even when I explain that the hunger comes and goes in waves, it doesn’t seem to register, again, maybe because for some even though the hunger comes and goes, the fear around it might not? …By the way, I applaud you for baking on a FD! I can’t imagine doing that because the aroma would compel me to take bites. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve baked cookies and then eaten half the batch within a couple of hours of them coming out of the oven partly because the aroma wafting around the house calls me back again and again and I love the cookies I bake so much, I usually don’t eat just one at a time! I admire your resolve LJ.

After yesterday’s FD I’m well down at the lower end of my goal weight wiggle room envelope which felt really rewarding when I saw the number on the scale this morning. To honour this I wore a favorite form fitting dress to work and I got s few compliments too, which was wonderful. I feel good when I’m within this lower end of wiggle room because some of the clothes I really like wearing most, fit the best.

The BBQ started out very easy. I chose two chicken skewers and selected a couple of salads to have with them. The salads were made by the supervisors and I had the zucchini noodle salad (you know those strings of zucchini shaped like noodles?) and another salad of parsley and other greens chopped with feta crumble, fresh pomegranate seeds mixed with a bit of brown rice. I also had one wholegrain Sakata cracker with some pesto dip, Camembert and tasty cheese slices and 3 raw cashew halves! Up until this point I felt perfectly fine and satiated. I’m a loose follower of high fat/low carb cuisine so all of the above was in alignment with that, except maybe the Sakata cracker, though I was fine with having eaten just the one and proud of myself that I didn’t morph into a kind of ‘zombie’ mode that I can slip into. This is where I munch on chip after chip, cracker after cracker or whatever it may be just because the food is there looks tasty and sometimes just because I can! I did keep in mind that I would be writing everything I eat, all down in my diary which did help keep me alert and with a bit of care in my selections!

When dessert was brought out, I did admire the chocolate log and were I not gluten free, I would have definitely indulged. It looked delicious! The Pavlova was gluten free, though I happily related that I find Pavlova too sweet. I explained it tastes to me like eating spoons of sugar with a bit of egg white mixed in. The supervisor sitting near me said chimed in that that’s pretty much all Pavlova actually is! So was easy to pass on that, though I told the other supervisor who made the Pavlova that the Pav decorations looked very pretty! At that point I thought I was home free, happy that I didn’t have to eat any dessert and then a higher up boss said, ‘Yes, but there’s a gluten free cake in the kitchen that so and so made. We didn’t bring it out because there’s plenty here with the chocolate log and Pav and we’re saving the gluten free cake for office staff morning tea tomorrow, but since you are gluten free, go ahead and enjoy a piece!’ How could I refuse the higher up boss, especially since she was making an exclusive exception for me? She even went so far as to want me to have a piece to give her a report on how it tastes so she will know before the morning teat tomorrow! I went ahead and complied and ate a piece of what tasted like an almond flour syrupy sweet cake with a rose petal icing. It was delicious though I was conscious that I ate it at the pace of everyone else around merrily shoveling food down, which was a bit too fast for me to really take in the cake’s nuances. I did report to the supervisor that it was delicious though! LJ, maybe the peer influence is partly why we are less mindful when eating, at least at social gatherings?

When I arrived home I told Mr M about eating the sugary cake and my fear of it sparking cravings and about an hour later Mr M surprises me with a gift he said he specially bought for me. Mr M rarely surprises me with gifts out of the blue. I think the last one was last decade! However, on this night of nights, when I’d not long before finished a piece of sugary cake I really didn’t want, Mr M presents me with a gift of a box of dark chocolate truffles!?!? The serving size of 3 truffles tallies up to be a whopping 6 teaspoons or 24 grams of sugar. My research has taught me that consuming any amount of sugar over 5 grams generates a blood sugar spike. When I mentioned this to Mr M, he replied by saying that at least it’s less than in a bottle of Coke! Who drinks Coke in our house? Why is that relevant, I thought to myself? Anyway, how could I refuse this gift he specially picked out for me? I know he didn’t buy it just so he could have some, since he prefers milk chocolate. So, I decided to open and try one right then and there and he trotted off to the kitchen to make us each a cup of tea. I picked out the truffle I thought would be least sweet for starters; coffee flavoured. I offered Mr M to share the box with me and he picked out one of the sweetest of the selection, a caramel truffle and I was glad one of those really sweet ones was already gone! As my truffle sat on my plate I was daunted by it. I really didn’t want it, though what to do, as I said, I very much appreciated Mr M picking out something for me. Anyway, I looked at the truffle while my tea cooled and then bit only a skerrick off and let it slowly melt in my mouth. Then I set the chocolate back onto the plate and left it till all the chocolate flavour was completely out of my realm of senses. I then bit another tiny sliver off and continued in this way for the next hour. At times the partly eaten truffle sat for 10 minutes or more in between bites. This felt like it gave my blood sugar a break from too severe of a spike. Even the two teaspoons of sugar that would have been in the one truffle feels like it would have wreaked havoc especially after the other dessert of the syrupy tasting cake which I’m sure had far more than 2 teaspoons in the one slice. I really don’t want a second and a third truffle as the box suggests as a serving size!

After the amount of sugar I’ve had this eve, I often experience a ‘fall out’ of sorts and in the past the only thing that I find effective at ending the fall out is a FD. My next FD isn’t scheduled until Friday, so I’ll see if I experience ‘fall out’ responses of a swelling of sweet cravings, insatiable hunger, mindless zombie eating mode. Like some aren’t good at ‘handling their liquor’ I’m not good at ‘handling my sugar’! So we’ll see what tomorrow brings both on the scales and in the diary! One thing I’ve already said is that I will only eat one item maximum from the Dark Chocolate selection box per day and that I will have this with Mr M over a cup of tea. Hopefully he will always join me in choosing one with the tea which means I only have to consume 5 more truffles to get through the box.over the next 5 days. …Five more obstacles on the obstacle course to get through! It’s now been over an hour since I finished the truffle and I already feel the sugar loving gut microbes crying out for more!

Hello again SS Challengers! I’ll attempt to keep this short as I’ve taken up so much of this page already!

Hi Cinque, What a great SS challenge option! You and FM are inspiring me to think of a future SS challenge option for next year. If I’ve continued to practice my current SS challenge into the New Year and until next Christmas when Thin hosts the next one, the vege challenge would be perfect! Cinque, I think I would get more pleasure out of stomping on the chocolates, than eating them! Of course Mr M would be crestfallen and I do suppose I would miss sitting down with a cuppa to share a treat together, even though he’d finished his before the first skerrick had even dissolved in my mouth!

Also Cinque, the info in that link you posted makes sense and when I look back, can see the truth of it in my own life and I was never very good at New Years Resolutions, so is why my weight generally climbed year after year, especially once I was health challenged and couldn’t exercise.

Sugar episode fallout: The good news is this morning’s weigh in was only 200 grams heavier than yesterday’s morning after FD reading so I’m going to say that there has been no fall out in that regard and count this as a SS Season Challenge success! It is your experiences, support and the ideas and strategies I reap from this thread that encouraged me on. Thank you. So far the only ‘fall out’ is that I’m definitely more tired than usual this morning which reminds me of what you described Thin with regard to feeling ‘toxic’ after consuming sugar. Cravings will erupt or not after I start eating any food for the day, so I can’t say for now whether there will be any of those sharks in the water to contend with!