The FastDay Forum

Thanks @jools7 am off to the freezer have one of those bags I can put some crushed ice into. I always have peas too but 1/2 a packet somewhere way back in my freezer. Such a drat thing but am scheduled to be at home and at the PC today in between reading so that is convenient.

Take care @gillymary Plenty ice and yes listen to your body, we've just got rid of our visitors for the night it feels like its been a very long day somehow I think an early night is called for and I'm fasting tomorrow with a pledge in the LENT tent I've said I'm giving up abortive fast days lol
a bit of a cheat I know but if I said chocolate I know I truthfully won't so I may as well choose something I actually have more of a chance of doing.

@Sue.Q yes roamed around the forum and I saw you on Lent thread. IMHO 16:8 too many days is a bit hard core so I think you have made a wise decision especially if famine effect still lurks. For lent I will keep the dates in mind for random acts of kindness, it is a lovely way to give and surprising consequences. Will see if I can relay some incidents as they evolve.

Well I am trussed up here with the ice bag on my hip, I knew when I had the heat on my hip last night was also thinking this ought be ice but was wanting comfort and too lazy to have to rig it up. The good sleep was a balm.

Hi again @gillymary, just another quick note because I know you asked my a few days ago what I cooked for dinner out of JO - I'm actually a huge 15 min meal fan - for me it's better than 30 min meals, since it's simpler, but also the recipes contain heaps more veges and a lot less sugar and just heaps of lovely fresh ingredients, and taste fantastic - so on Monday I had his San Fran quinoa salad - I always laugh because he says in that one "refer to the website to learn how to cut up a mango" - I don't think Aussies need that instruction! It was wonderful on Monday night, but it's not so good the next night unfortunately, since I live alone. So unless the kids are coming over to dinner, I'll do something else that keeps a bit better!

Running off again! Having one of those days!

I do keep looking at that book @jools7 it's tempting. I do like JO's cooking style. Hope you get time to cook up another nice dinner.

I haven't looked at Donna Hay yet, will as soon as I get a chance! Bedtime now, night night!

Hi fellow foursome feel like I can return to the land of the moving around more freely. The ice worked @jools7 but then I just had commitments and had to get on with it. Next time I am in Coles think I will just put myself out of my procrastination and buy JO as I love a good cook book.

Got Smitten Kitchen last Mothers Day totally carbolicious so I haven't touched it much, looking forward to cooking from Donna Hays Fresh and Light. Will let you know how it goes but it is a positive visual treat which I love in a cook book.

Yoohoo @Sue.Q how is it going, am due for a 16:8, maybe Sat might be the next best bet

@gillymary And @jools7 And @daydreamer21

Hi fasting buddies well yesterday's fast went very well indeed so have decided to put in one today making back2back and my 3 rd and final one of the week.
I also pledged that my future fasts will now become meat free this is because I've now learned that we get so much food for so few calories took me long enough but I got there in the end last night's meal was so filling and very tasty and from an old life long veggie hater I made courgette spaghetti with a vegetable and quorn bolognese sauce.
Tonight's meal for me will be cauliflower rice and vegetable and quorn " chicken" bhuna curry.
Watch this space but feeling very fat before tomorrow's
weigh-in that's strange after 3 f/days. Sue

@Sue.Q @jools7 @daydreamer21 fasting buddies morning

Oh Sue a plant based fasting menu saved the day for me initially on 5:2. Welcome to the land of veg, such lovely options. It is exciting for you I think and stick with @FatDog she is an inspiration for ideas. My preferred diet would be vegetarian and that would be all I would want to eat with addition of dairy and eggs but still welded to the quick protein hit red meat gives me and what has been a habit. I pretty much have given up chicken. Have a little turkey, lamb, steak and bit of fish. But really relish my veggie meals with salad and a couple of veggie mains.

love love my veggies and salad and fruit.

Hello, fasting foursome! @gillymary, @Sue.Q and @daydreamer21. Ooh, back-to-back, Sue, that's exciting, how's it going? Funny that "feeling fat" feeling, mine is sometimes more related to what my internal critic is up to than anything else. You know that voice that tells us we're never good enough etc etc? I do need to engage with it, answer back and question its motives and its style - often I need to lecture it, and tell it that it needs to be kinder if it wants me to listen. I don't know if that's the case for anyone else? Otherwise I find it just takes over my life without any recourse!

Interesting, gillymary, about food preferences - you don't like chicken? I'm really not fond of red meat, unless it's well-disguised as mince or sausages etc. - maybe comes from childhood, that standard "burnt chops with 3 veg" that we got served every night. But also it's partly ethical, and, maybe bizarrely, related to size - I just don't like thinking about large animals in abattoirs. My best friend lives in the country in northern New South Wales - when she was being treated for bad breast cancer last year when I was up there, I took over the job of slaughtering & dressing her (wonderfully spoilt, free-range) turkeys. It kind of kept me honest as far as food is concerned - although I obviously didn't enjoy it, I feel, well, they've had a pretty marvellous life, and their end is quick & humane, so I guess I feel happier about eating some animal like that. So I eat mostly fish, chicken & beans I guess! Hopefully free-range, don't know about the beans, lol! But I'm not as ethical as that all the time, I do eat some bacon, but I feel slightly guilty about that. But "chaq'un a son gout" as my French teacher used to say. I just discovered on the net that our local supermarkets are supposed to stock quorn products - I've never seen it there, but I'd like to give it a go.

I'm fasting today too, this is my third fast for the week. I just felt completely lousy this morning, figured I might as well fast, and it's worked, I feel better now. Maybe I'm coming down with something? Due for a HIIT today too, but I'll see how I feel.

Love to all!

Oh spooky @jools7 my dad used to say "chaq'un a son gout" but I had no idea how to spell it and was only wondering about that yesterday as I wanted to say it in a post, don't you just love serendipitous synchronicity. So it does mean 'to each his own'

Like turkey due to its being a brilliant protein and possibility of more likely to free range. I don't eat chicken as I watched some show where the chickens had such a hard time won't go into it but suffice to say cured me of chicken eating. Sure about ethical issues be any animal or fowl or fish flesh but the whole thing about eating something which has to die for us to me is fraught but energy wise if I don't have a good protein fix I am extremely fatigued. Prefer plant fruits and beans but still need the extra hit of animal protein every few days. It gets tricky with intolerances.such as wheat so my balance is a little bit of everything.

Oh the old internal critic, strange tapes those. One of mine is silenced since I dropped my weight and am back to my younger weight. Much happier. Prefer to do affirmations then it is positive talk. Do find I talk out loud to my self more these days, have to watch that especially in the supermarket. I have discovered a frequent refrain is 'you can do this!' My DH even said he has heard me say it. As you can see I have had a few hurdles and learning curves this past 18months

Well I am going to put my feet up this weekend and just chill out ...might just dive into my new cook yeh got the JO one. No pressure might resort to forum a bit so bare with me my fasting foursome @Sue.Q where is our other buddy AWOL @daydreamer21.

@gillymary@jools7@daydreamer21
Shock horror I've just come down stairs after my weekly weigh in thinking I'd lost best part of kg logged in here to find after 3 fastdays all other days 18:6 I've actually
gained 150grams!!! What's going on here? If this a plateau would I be just stuck or what? *Plan* B
I'm going to do a 3 day healthy refeed and weigh again on Monday maybe that will tell me something,
I know I should practice what I preach and sit it out this is so demoralising have just checked my records and 11weeks ago was my lowest and since then I've been juggling the same kilo.
Any advice fasting buddies or anyone out there?
Sue.

How I hear you @Sue.Q I have been banging on about plateau until blue in the face. So don't think I am your best advisor. I have completely pulled back to 6:1 but am maintaining so that's a bonus. You still have a distance to your goal as you have stated so maybe just a short break was not enough for your body to get out of starvation mode. Maybe @Carorees or some others forumites can give you some tips and some of their wisdom.

I never underestimate 16:8 as being a significant fast so maybe you don't need to fast as much but really do your 5:2 as you did the past few months. Somehow from my own experience ramping up the fasting just didn't work for me. Are you eating your TDEE on non fast days maybe time for a blow out or two. What do you think @jools7

Yes @gillymary I blow every Fri-Sun like clockwork. Lol
Caroline did tell me a few weeks ago to sit it out and eat healthy food which I am just thought if I weigh in on Mon and IF there's a loss does this tell me something. Sue

good morning, lovely ladies, @sue.q, @gillymary and @daydreamer21 (wow, hope moogie develops a short cut for that with her new software soon!!)

well, I have been on a bit of a plateau myself for the last 3 weeks but mine is more related to having mini-binges on my feeding days, and emotional issues and busy at work - always a bad combination. And I crashed out of my fast last night, fell into your trap I think Sue, so had a good run till 6 pm, then had some miso soup that wasn't very nice, and then just ate things until I ran out - cashews, cheese & egg sandwiches, milk, god know what else really. Just had a tantie!

But actually, even though I have a long way to go like you, Sue, I am grateful that my weight is stable at the moment with what's going on: for one thing, it gives me a chance to get used to identifying myself as weighing that much less than I was, if that makes any sense. I do find that sometimes my brain takes a while to catch up to my body, or my change of identity, so a little pause to readjust is actually quite welcome, otherwise I feel like something out of "air crash investigation" (one of my favourite shows!). I know why it's happening, it's because I am procrastinating about some paperwork to do with my BASes (I'm sure you know about those, gillymary, and for others - they're horrible 3 monthly tax things) I have already paid a fair bit in fines, so they are very overdue, but I am HOPING I can hold myself enough to get around to them over this weekend and into next week. It really has escalated.

I don't really know what to say about other people's plateaus, they can be so multifactorial, and unless I have the lowdown on all of what's happening for you, including stress and sleep!, it's hard for me to get to the root of it all. Sue, for instance, I don't really know what your relationship is to moving your body, or that "e" word? I know that what you eat is said to be more important, but for me, I couldn't eat healthily except for the fact that I exercise, it's my bottom line. Having said that, I've had such a crazy week that exercise has gone by the board a fair bit, I really NEED to have a ride today, and I'm overdue also for some HIIT. But I reckon a ride is much better for my mood and coping strategies in general. So that's my first priority.

Gillymary, how's your hip feeling? Hope things are settling down for you? How wild about the french expression, sounds like a good synchronicity! It maybe speaks to our connection - I believe, anyway.

Anyway, everyone, hope you have a good weekend!