Monday 3:00 pm

Happy New Year everyone! It’s great to see the losses or at least not many big gains over the SSC. Thin, it has been a great idea having this challenge over the indigent eating season with all of its temptations. Thank you for doing this each year.

Cinque, it’s good to hear that the new frig/freezer arrived on time and that you’re happy with it. I hate spending money on appliances, but it sure is nice to have them beware working the way they should, especially when the old one was having problems. You should have lots of fresh veggies for soups and other dishes to save in the freezer part.

I didn’t weigh myself this morning but I was 60.2 yesterday, two days after my Friday FD. This morning I woke up around 4am feeling strange, took my BP and it was very high. I have an emergency BP med that usually brings it down within an hour or so, so took it and it worked. But I and DH and DS were really concerned. I was relieved when it went down. To make matters worse, I received a letter last week, the day before Christmas, that my primary care doctor had left the practice. This was the doctor I switched to several months ago that I really really liked. There is another doctor in the practice that they’ve scheduled me with for next week who will take over. But he’s a young guy with only 2 years of practice. All my records are there so I guess I’ll see him and hope that he’s a good match. It’s hard to find good doctors around here that are accepting new patients.

I see that Dr. M has come out with a new book, The Fast 800, which isn’t available here yet. I’m a little curious to read it but from what I hear in the previews, it sounds more like another low calorie diet than the 5:2. The 5:2 has worked so well for me over the past year and 8 months, that I can’t imagine wanting to change it. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Happy New Year,

The end of our challenge is in sight. I started a few days in so I’ll keep posting here til the very end. My challenge is one I will keep going, but it was so useful to do a daily check in to record and analyse.

Yesterday I ate 6 serves of vegetables/fruits. So it is several days since I managed 5 and 2. But I feel like I am doing well because my diet has become so veggie based, and I didn’t eat extra serves of non-veggies (except a pork dumpling I snaffled from my daughter’s meal).

Another 5 veg 2 fruits handy fact sheet: https://livelighter.com.au/Top-Tips/Go-For-2-Fruit-and-5-Veg

Thin, Freezing grated ginger is brilliant! I either do it in thumb size blocks or (more commonly) in a thin sheet that I can then break bits off.

And cream! Fasting_me, I use cream in cooking, and only in a few recipes (stews, curries, sauces), so it works best to have it in one or two tbsp portions in the freezer and it goes great for my sort of cooking. I do imagine it wouldn’t do so well to thaw and have with pudding etc.

Merry, you completed the challenge very nicely. Sending more good wishes.

Nice work Minka. And yes, babysitting was very special.

Fasting_me, I wouldn’t count it a bad message if slow motility is affecting your scales. It is just one of things! Hooray that it will sort itself out, and you can weigh again. The long view is always the most important, even at the pointy end of the SSC!
That’s if you managed to behave yourself last night after all 😉 😉 😉

Cali, I’m so sorry to hear about your BP scare. Fingers crossed your new doctor is just lovely and up with all the latest research and the better training about respecting patients that they have now.
I do know the feeling though, my doctor is older than me and I am so worried about her retiring. I just want her to keep on being my excellent doctor for the rest of my life.

Off to think about all the veggies I can cram into today’s meals. Best wishes all.

Cinque – I love the colour coded pictures of fruit and veg in that fact sheet – so pretty and appealing. Useful too as there is often similarity in the vitamins and minerals based on colour – so eating a range of colours means a wider range of vitamins and minerals.

Good morning,
I did get my 7 veggies/fruit in yesterday. And yes they were a lovely rainbow, including zucchini flowers and zucchini, green beans, pumpkin, warrigal greens, chives, thyme, lettuce leaves, celery, onion, carrot, garlic, strawberries, red and green capsicum, sweet potato, potato, in all different proportions, and letting the starchy ones count as one.

I’m fasting today, so I’ll end the challenge here.

I’ve learnt that I have to really think about what I eat to make sure I get the count in, and that thinking has meant I have made better choices about what I cook and what I eat.

The amount of protein, dairy and grains I serve have got a bit smaller to make more room on my plate for vegetables and this has been an improvement that has made me feel physically better.

My best tips are to have a big stir fry of mixed vegetables a couple of times a week, and a veggie based soup on hand.

Thanks SSC, you’ve been a big help. See you next time!

Cali, what an awful scare! Young doctors can be good, as they are up on all the latest. Keep an open mind. I’m with you on any tweeks to 5:2, even if they come from Dr. MM himself. Stick with what works. Watching Outlander, eh? ODH and I are now on Book 7, and enjoy discussing the latest developments at breakfast.

So yesterday morning I was at 108.4 pounds. After a Fast Breakfast and a Linner of 4 oysters and 1 cup of salad and a nap, I weighed 108.0 at 9:00 pm. Barely ate anything at the pot luck [salad, some water chestnuts — one with bacon– no booze, some cucumber sandwiches] or at my dessert [some cheese, some grapes, one little glass of Bubbly]. And this A.M. I weighed 108.3. Grrrr. Counted all my calories today and stayed below my TDEE. Will do so tomorrow too. No Fast Day until Thursday. fingers crossed.

Thin, the egg is officially called ‘Onsen Tamago’ and here is a website describing it: https://norecipes.com/onsen-tamago-hot-spring-egg What is described sound way more complicated than what our son did. He says this:
bring 1 liter of water to a boil. Take it off the heat and add 200 ml cold tap water. Add 4 eggs, putting them into the water with a slotted spoon. Cover and let sit for 17 minutes. Take the eggs out and set aside for 5 minutes. Then he put them in the fridge overnight for the next morning’s breakfast, but he says you could eat them right away.
As for my extra weight [which is in fact only 8/10 of a pound, but annoying], I hope you are right.

Cinque, your veggie-eating is an inspiration. I’m hard-pressed to get 5 in, but I keep working at it. On New Year’s Day, we always eat sauerkraut and sausage for dinner. ODH likes potatoes with that. Today I added what surely was a serving of collard greens to the cabbage/kraut in hopes of getting my “5”. ODH was perplexed but accepting. He did get his mashed as well, but I don’t call potatoes a veg.

Penguin, if you ended up not gaining, then that is a victory in itself! Well done. how far from the 9# loss are you? When I buy fresh ginger, it always goes into the freezer since I read that is the best way to preserve it.

LJ, yes! Let the colors be your guide to vegetables!

Minka, I too will miss this exchange of ideas with this delightful bunch of international people. Thank you, Thin, for getting us going. But don’t give up on protein just to get your veggies in. Protein is very important as we age.

Last night we had 1″ of snow, and then rain on top of that. Mild today, but cold tonight. I hope some of you will still be on this Thread tomorrow, as we compare weights. Happy Fasting in 2019.

Penguin, I’m not at all surprised that cold weather and a slow day with less to keep you busy = more food. Although we don’t have the same level of cold here, my appetite is always higher in colder weather.

Well done Thin – it’s always good to meet your goal no matter how finely.

Minka, losing 1.3kg over December is exceptionally well done. I agree that having company and support with these challenges makes a big difference.

I didn’t weigh again today as I ended my SSC on 31st December and reported then. I just popped back to read about everyone else’s final reckoning. I hope it’s pleasant surprises all round.

Well, it looks like I’m the last one to report with my early timezone. I didn’t meet my goal of getting into the 58’s and staying there. My weight was 59.7 this morning, almost the same as thin’s. She and I always seem to be within a kg or two of each other. My weight on this day last year was 58.4, just a few days after I met my overall 5:2 goal, so 1.3 kg up from that. On Dec 1 this year I weighed 60.4, so 700 grams down from there. Considering all the sugar, fat and carbs consumed over the month, my FD’s rescued me and prove that this WOL does work, and it works and it works without a lot of deprivation. 2 days per week is no big deal, and has become a habit I don’t even think much about. So, although I didn’t meet my goal, I consider the SSC a success. Being 800 grams over the 58’s isn’t too bad. I will aim for that this month.

Penguin, our temps have gotten down near freezing at night, but not as cold as yours during the day. The raspberry vodka sounds like an attractive anti-freeze. 😁 Even if it doesn’t make you warmer, at least you won’t care about being cold.

Congrats to thin and thank you again for setting up this challenge. Minka, congrats to you as well for surpassing your goal. Cinque, your goal of getting in all your fruit and vegetables was a great one. It made me think about what I was eating and to include more of them, replacing some of the empty carbs. LJ, congrats to you and Intesha too, especially considering all the baking you did and controlling the amount of sweets you consumed. It would have been easy for me to have plowed through all those beautiful cookies and cakes without a second thought.

FM, your loss may have been small, but it was still a loss.

Quacka, managing to maintain around the same weight this time of year is no small feat. Onward and downward for this next year!

Penguin, I think flavoring vodka is probably frowned upon here too, although I remember some sort of recipe from the 60’s or 70 where it was combined with instant coffee and sugar to make something akin to Kalua. It never sounded like something that I wanted to try when one could buy perfectly good Kalua.

I’m cold again today. I think even a pound of fat helps to insulate. 😀 It’s been aroun 5 – 10c today and OS and I are fighting the thermostat wars, with him not wanting to turn it above 20c. Open floor plans and high ceilings are not conducive to cozy rooms. All of the heat is up near the ceiling in the entryway. 🤨

Well done on your final SSC weight FastingMe. It’s great that you are staring the new year at a weight you are so happy with.