The FastDay Forum

Nice to see you coffee and congrats on doing a successful fast, don't beat yourself up about yesterday's non-starter. As Ieramul says you will get back into it and lose those few pounds in no time.
I've had quite a number of police checks done over the years as I have volunteered at many places. Unfortunately, they all needed their own done. I must have spent $60 or $70 ($10 each) on them over the years. No need to feel like a criminal It is just standard procedure and just think of the other people who've had theirs done. You can feel safe and know that your clients are safe from nasty predators as well.
Way to go Ieramul on completing your fast day. You are getting back into the routine.
I didn't go to work yesterday, my boss called to say he didn't need me after all. He said the roads were slippery and he didn't want me driving but I suspect he just didn't think it would be busy and he could handle it himself. I did go to my friend's for lunch to celebrate her birthday. I drove slowly all the way there and by the time I came home the snowplow had come to clear the roads so I made it home without a problem. I was very good in terms of eating. I had a small piece of quiche, some amazing squash and ginger soup, salad and only two small pieces of cake. I thought of having more cake but realized I didn't really care for them, one was VERY lemony and the other two sweet. That wouldn't have stopped me in the past as my brain would have convinced me that it wanted more because is it was a treat. Tiny bit of progress there. I was full the rest of the night and didn't eat until this morning. I lost another lb since Thursday! now the challenge is to keep it off before my next official weigh-in this coming Thursday. I may just reach and stay at my goal much sooner than I anticipated, or even lose more. I don't know why it is so much easier to lose the weight this time. Scratch that I KNOW part of the reason was all the junk and carbs I was eating on non-fast days. I am enjoying eating better! I just had a lovely breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast and a banana and I didn't have to cook it myself! I went to the free church breakfast across the street. We shall see what the rest of the day brings. I'm hoping I won't gorge myself tonight as I want to surprise Adam with a pancake breakfast tomorrow morning and I'd like to be hungry enough to eat it. I'm usually not hungry in the mornings except when I eat lightly at night. I haven't made pancakes in half a year and this will be a treat! I plan to only make six so I don't pig out on the leftovers the rest of the day as I've done in the past.
Did you manage a walk with Maisy today coffee? when you have off days do you still get out of the house for your walks? I guess you have to at least go outside for Maisy's sake.
Have an excellent day you two!! big hugs sent your way!

Steph you are on fire! Keep up your good food choices. as you said it is only our head that wants us to keep eating.

You are brave to drive in bad weather. I am such a coward once the road are a bit snowy or icy.
Have a lovely evening and I will be thinking of you with your pancakes tomorrow morning.

BIG HUG to both of you

Steph you are on fire! Keep up your good food choices. as you said it is only our head that wants us to keep eating.

You are brave to drive in bad weather. I am such a coward once the road are a bit snowy or icy.
Have a lovely evening and I will be thinking of you with your pancakes tomorrow morning.

BIG HUG to both of you

Oh Ieramul thanks so much for your kind words and that amazing clapping! You are so sweet.
I gained back half a pound overnight after eating carbs and lots of nuts yesterday, not a single vegetable! This morning I made pancakes and ate four small ones (not the big American style kind) and then covetously eyed Adam's hoping he would only eat three of his! I'm glad I only made a tiny batch of them and thanks to a tip from my mom went against the recipe and didn't put any sugar in them. I put some raspberries in mine and some chocolate chips in Adam's. I must admit I sneaked about 10 of the little chocolate morsels. I've eaten a banana as well and am now sipping tea trying to wait until my craving for more carbs dissipates. This always happens when I eat "bread" products. Wanting more and more of the stuff.
The whole day looms large ahead of me. It is only noon and I have nothing to do but read and watch tv, oh and knit. I started a scarf yesterday and it is going well, not a single mistake LOL. I may venture out into the cold for a little walk but at the moment have no desire to do so. Well, my cuppa is gone already so I must make another.
Enjoy the day ladies! Perhaps the weather is nicer there and you can get out of the house for a while.
Take care.

Well my buddies, it is 8:45 p.m. and I have to confess I have eaten terribly today. I actually had a bout of low blood sugar at a time when I didn't think I was hungry. It came on in a flash so I ate some strawberries and maple syrup to stop the shakes. Then Adam and I started on the chicken pot pie preparations. It was an hour before supper was ready and I think because I had it in my head that my sugar was still low (which I'm sure it wasn't) I could eat more, and then even after that was out of my head I kept right on eating after my supper of two large pieces of the pot pie and what did I eat? crackers! OMG so many of the little suckers, and a few little chocolate chips, half a single serve tin of peaches - which I couldn't finish as they were just too sweet. But gawd! those evil crackers! I think I have stopped now, I really should as my gut is bloated and uncomfortable. Thank god it is a fast day tomorrow, I need to restart my WOE again. I even asked Adam for chips, but he had already finished them
I've been too wimpy to want to brave the cold so I've been stuck inside all day contributing to my desire to eat. Hopefully, the weekend has been kind to you both.
'Night gals.

Hi girls, sorry, to hear about your struggle yesterday. Steph. I really feel for you. I believe that not going out is a bit contributer to eating. When we go for a walk we feel better emotionally, feel warmer and are away from food temptations. It is such an effort sometimes when the weather is bad to force ourselves to go outside leaving our cosy den but once outside it is well worth it.

I had a lovely day yesterday walking with my rambler's group for about 5 miles followed by a lovely pub lunch. The weather was out of this world, with beautiful sunshine and blue skies. The downside was that the ground was so wet and soggy, that we really struggled sometimes not to have our boots completely submerged. But nonetheless it was wonderful for the soul. I even took some pictures of bunches of daffodils. I couldn't believe my eyes. If I can I will upload them later.

I still have some chocolates from Christmas lying around and whilst I am not exactly binging, they always push me over my TDEE on non fast days and therefore cancel out some of my fasting efforts. On Saturday I really did go way over my TDEE and yesterday by a bit, so this morning when I weighed myself I had just slipped outside my maintenance range by 200g even though last week I thought I had planted myself in the middle again. Well this is the start of a new week and the opportunity to do things better. Isn't it amazing that we always have this chance to get it right this time.

Steph, it seems we will be fasting together today, so good luck to us and if you, coffee, are able to join us just shout yeyyyyy.
Big Hug

Hi girls, here are my daffodils - are they not amazing?

Wow Ieramul! Daffodils in January!!!! How astonishing. Your walk sounded lovely despite the mud. It is around the freezing mark here today and all the snow is melting. The roads are clear today so I may take advantage and go to the store to buy a birthday present for my grandson who is turning 7 next week. I also have a book to exchange at Coles. My brother sent me two books - The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins discussing evolution, a fantastic read I am about half way through it, and The Book Thief which I have already read, also an excellent book. I have no idea which book I will exchange it for. I usually borrow all my books from the library, I am so cheap I don't want to pay for a book that I will only read once and then set on the shelf.
So far my fast is going well. After pigging out last night I am not in the least bit hungry. It is 1 p.m. and I am cooking some chicken stock from Saturdays roast chicken. I used some of the chicken for chicken pot pie last night. I am so pleased that Adam helped prepare supper without complaint. He didn't want to peel the potatoes, though. He has a hard time with them but he did peel one. Then he cleaned the chicken from the carcass. All in all a good lesson for him. I wonder what we will make next Sunday.
I think I will get back to my reading now while the stock cooks and I wait for my prescription to be delivered.
You are exercising great strength with your chocolates Ieramul. I would have eaten them all in one go! How is your fast going? those 200 grams will disappear quickly. and coffee I've been thinking of you. Hope you are doing well and that hubby hasn't been too demanding.
Stay well!

Hi buddies, I'm not doing too well lately, I just keep eating, I'm not a bit hungry but still keep stuffing food into my mouth. Each morning I wake up intending to fast and then mess up.
I'm glad that you are both doing better than me, even though you have both gone over your TDEE recently at least you have managed to get back to sensible eating.

The daffs are beautiful Ieramul, we were lucky enough to have a couple of daffodils in flower on new year's day, the first time that's happened - we don't usually see them until the end of February! I found some snowdrops in flower too yesterday, one clump by the front gate and a few more just opening on the stone hedge. So cheerful. We have a camellia in flower too, J.C. Williams (pale pink single flowers), always early and flowering long before Christmas. I trimmed it right back last year and didn't expect it to see many flowers this winter so that's a bonus.

Have a good evening/afternoon.

OMG I can't believe you have flowers blooming. Here everything is covered in snow and we won't see snowdrops until late March or early April!
Good to hear from you coffee. Sorry to hear you are struggling with your eating. It is only 7:30 p.m. and I have eaten my 500 calorie allowance already. I feel very hungry or is it just that I want to eat out of habit? either way tonight will be difficult. I have the kettle on and have some knitting to keep my hands busy.
Too late now to go out to Walmart and Coles. The temperature has dropped dramatically and all the roads will have spots of ice I suspect. Tomorrow we go to Gisela's for lunch. Hopefully the roads will be clear. I'm glad I am fasting today so I can enjoy the lunch tomorrow.
Have a good day ladies. Coffee I will be thinking of you, I know how hard it is to resist the temptation to eat and eat even when not hungry.

Hi girls, flowers in January is very unusual but we have had an unusually warm January. In the last week we have had between +10 and +12degrees Celcius. Normally the temperatures at this time of year should be around 2-4 degrees and occasionally dipping into minus degrees. The problem with such early blooming is that we could easily get another frost before March and then everything freezes and if the fruits or vegetables bloom the crop will spoil. So whilst it is lovely to look at it might be bad for the plants once the temperatures drop again.

Coffee, have you considered an 800 or even 1000 cal fast just to get back into it? Instead of saying: "Oh I have eaten now - that's it - fast day over" think "I have had 400 or 500 so now I will only eat 400 - 500 for the rest of the day. It would mean you stay under TDEE, which is always good and also get you psychologically into restriction. Eventually your mind will realise that it won't be able to sabotage you any more.

We need to get it into our head that any time we can stay under TDEE by a few hundred kcals is great not just 500cal.

Steph, I hope you held out last night and can enjoy your lunch at Gisela's with pride.

My fast went OK yesterday but I am not quite sure how much I had. 100kcals went into eating an apple and a satsuma at 4pm and then when I got home I had two fried eggs, a plate full of peas, a carrot (raw) and some lettuce which needed eating but with a small amount of olive oil dressing. I am not sure how many calories were in the oil for frying and in the dressing, but the eggs and the vegetables can't have been more than 300kcals. So I probably just went over by a about 100 kcals.

I was thinking last night if I should do 3 fast days (Monday/Wednesday/Friday) and eat a bit of fruit late afternoon followed by a filling 600kcal meal at 6pm. Since fasting until 2pm is not a problem for me I think I will try this method. It would feel less like fasting and if nothing else it would keep me off the sugar and any unhealthy stuff three days a week. I would swap two rather difficult days for three much less difficult ones. I tend to revert back to three days frequently as it seems to keep my sugar snacking more under control.

Trial and error I suppose is the order of this WOL. Eventually we will fall into a system that works totally.
Take care. BIG HUG

Very sensible advice Ieramul and sometimes I think of doing that but when I mess up I do it properly.
I think I will try to follow your advice though to get back into fasting, if I don't intend to stick to 500 calories when I wake up it might not seem so daunting. Good luck with your new plan I hope it works well for you.

Cornwall is one of the mildest parts of the UK so we are more likely to get flowers blooming before others. When we moved to this house hubby agreed that I could have free reign in the garden - although he always cut the grass while he was still able to. I tried to plant it so that we have some colour all year round, and we do, although the garden is very scruffy from October to March - but I can always find a little flower hiding under the dead stems and leaves if I look hard enough.

It makes me feel cold just thinking of all that snow Steph, I know it looks lovely but I hate to be cold. The temperature here is dropping fast and there is snow forecast for much of the UK, I'm not sure if we will have any here though.

I've been reading a few of the recent posts here and noticed that you said that you have to pay for police checks Steph, I don't have to pay, at least I hope not as nothing was said about it. Wednesday again tomorrow, the days pass so quickly it doesn't feel like a week, I won't know until tomorrow if I will be going to the age UK coffee morning until I see how hubby is coping.

Take care buddies

Good for you Ieramul for succeeding in your fast. I did well last night and resisted the crackers! yeah for small wins LOL. Not so good today as I must have eaten thousands of calorie. Borscht, turkey, squash, stuffing, homemade raspberry jello and vanilla cream - yum! Linzer torte, cookies, meringues -- and that was just for lunch at Gisela's! then when I came home I just kept eating, even now I am munching on a peanut butter granola bar. Crazy. The thing is I was so full from lunch, my belly so bloated and uncomfortable but I still ate all evening, those darn crackers for instance and a big bowl of bbq chips/crisps! My stomach will complain all night and probably tomorrow as well.

I am determined to eat better tomorrow. My son has a dentist appointment first thing and then he needs some blood drawn. In the afternoon I see Marion, my elderly lady. I plan on not eating until I get home from visiting her around 4. I already have the rice and vegetables cooked for a stirfry and will cut up and marinate the tofu before I leave. No excuse then not to eat healthy! I will forgo the treats offered if there is a social get together at the seniors' residence as there was last week. I resisted the ice cream sandwiches last week so I can resist again if need be .

Coffee I hope you've managed to go out with the ladies today/my tomorrow . It must make the world of difference to be able to have some time with other women.

Today was definitely cold -22 C or -30 with the wind chill. It was bright and sunny, though, and reminded me of my childhood. We had long, cold winters where I was raised. The school had indoor recess so they watched a children's movie. I started yawning profusely and closed my eyes for a minute when I heard the teacher next to me say, "and what do you think about that?". I opened my eyes and asked her to repeat her question. She and the other teacher laughed and said, Oh! she's sleeping! Tomorrow it is supposed to warm up to near 0. It will feel positively balmy, especially if there is no wind. One year we had a very warm March and all the magnolias, daffodils, tulips, crocuses and fruit trees bloomed, but then there was a killing frost. Many of the fruit trees didn't bear fruit that year. Apples became very expensive because they had to be imported. So warm weather can cause problems for sure.

Time for bed, and particularly to brush my teeth to stop myself from eating even more. I sit here thinking, what else can I eat before bed? Nutty.
Enjoy the day ladies!

Hi Buddies, I am thinking what we could do to motivate each other. Hmmm.... If you have any ideas, then let's hear them.

Thanks to you two I have continued fasting after Christmas, so I suppose I am relatively motivated for the first time in 3 years (although I do tend to sabotage myself on non-fast days) But on the whole I don't struggle with the actual fasting days. Together with Steph, I just need to sort out the eating days.

Oh Steph, what can I say... I am curious if we eat more on non fast days because of our fasts or if we would eat that much 7 days a week without the discipline of fasting? Why don't our minds and bodies remember that fasting the day before was quite hard and that by overeating we undo all the good work.

Coffee, don't be hard on yourself, the weather has been quite cold and rainy and a bit depressing in the past few days. However, despite the forecast for snow this morning, we didn't get any here in the south east (phew) and it turned out to be a glorious day with blue skies and sunshine. I hope your weather is the same and that you managed to get out and about and meet up with your age concern group. You will feel better I am sure.

My weight is again/still at the top end of my maintenance range and today is a fast day for me. Are you fasting, too Steph?
It is almost 1pm and I am doing fine - I had coffee and 1 cup of low cal hot chocolate of 40 cals. I hope to sail through this afternoon and then have a small meal in the evening.
Take care - enjoy the (not so cold) weather BIG HUG

Good evening/morning my buddies,
Ieramul I know that I was eating crazily every day in the fall before I started the fasting so I know at least partly it is a carry over from that time. I haven't relearned proper eating habits. A little bit is because I say that I can eat anything on feast days. Always seems to trip me up. Although tonight it hasn't been too bad. I had my stir-fry in the afternoon which was very low in calories, then an apple. I did take three little wafer cookies from the coffee room at the senior's residence. I wasn't feeling well while I was there so thinking it might be my blood sugar tanking again I ate one. I ate the other two after my meal. I have to confess I just ate a few hundred calories worth of chips again but much less than last night and I have actually stopped! Now I will wait until I get hungry to have another low calorie meal. I will stay below my TDEE. I am trying to decide what I will have to eat after work tomorrow. I feel like buying something there. Right now my craving is for a big roast beef sandwich . Friday I fast again and I am looking forward to it. I like the way I must wait before meals and recognize when I am hungry. Perhaps with time I will become accustomed to doing so even on non-fast days. That is my hope!
Today was colder than I expected. My car wouldn't start this morning, well, it started then died so Adam and I had to walk to the dentist, about a 15 minute walk. My legs were burning and tingling with the cold! I should have worn my longjohns but didn't think of doing so, I was just so intent on getting to the appointment on time. My son went through the procedure without holding my hand. A huge deal! I am so proud of how he is handling all these dental appointments - he has four cavities! Just a couple of years ago he was terrified of the dentist and cried uncontrollably when he had a filling done. He is maturing before my eyes in leaps and bounds. He shook from head to toe at the new patient exam in December and after 3 appointments he is calm in the dentist chair. It is amazing. Next week he gets his wisdom teeth pulled and thankfully he will be put to sleep for the procedure. That promises to be a tough day, though. He doesn't come out of anesthesia very happy, he flails and yells. But, perhaps he will surprise me.
Back to my tv show, The Book of Negroes. I believe the series is being shown in England as well. Do you know it?
Have a good day ladies. How did your fast go today Ieramul?