The FastDay Forum

Good morning fasting buddies. I'm up and at em, well up and drinking black coffee and reading the forum
A bit windy here but otherwise a nice winters day. Lots of snow peas to pick so I guess that's dinner tonight.
Have a great day everyone.

Here's the weather forecast for today:
"Partly cloudy. Scattered showers, mainly during the afternoon and evening. Snow falls down to around 600 metres by the evening. Possible hail. The chance of thunderstorms from the late morning. Winds NW 30 to 45 km/h turning W 25 to 40 km/h in the middle of the day. Top of 12 deg C."

My forecast:
"Fasting followed by 500 cal dinner. Good book, digital radio, many recorded shows on the PVR, knitting, cat on knee."

I think the forecast for Tas is much the same Chook. It's cold; it's raining in squalls. I slept in. But here I am having my first cup of black coffee for the day, going through my collection of Delicious Magazines, making an eating plan for the week. Today it's baby carrot salad with roasted lemon dressing. It's from this July edition. Sounds good, and I have the baby carrots. I planted carrot seed during the election and then forgot about them until last week when I noticed that they weren't doing too badly. I tried to thin them, but they've grown too close and I ended up picking bunches of baby carrots. Jeolous of snow peas, WIneoclock, but baby carrots will have to do.

@Sallyo our snow peas are doing really well but our broad beans aren't beaning. Any idea why the flowers aren't growing pods?? Enjoy your baby carrots, we had workers here yesterday and one of them managed to step straight on our carrot patch, not even sure why he was walking through garden it might be squashed carrots for us.

I'm with you all today...no real plan for my fast - I brought some homemade yoghurt and strawberries for lunch/afternoon tea...I'll hoe into them if I get too sluggish during the day. Dinner might be fish and veg...or chicken and veg stir-fry...unless my Mr has got motivated and made one of his big pots of veggie soup...yum!

I'm jealous to read of your gardening successes, Sallyo & Wineoclock...my zucchini failed to set any fruit and the brassicas got mauled before they even got started. My only guess on flowers not setting could be a lack of pollinators (I had the zucchini in a greenhouse) or perhaps weather...not sure. I've got a pile of rocket, I guess, and the eggplants are still holding on, but I'm not sure I'll get anything from them before we move house...I guess the next tenants get to enjoy them instead!

Keep strong today, everyone, and may the fast be with you!

@wineoclock, @PeonyBlue, broad beans not producing, zucchini not making zuccs - problems with pollination, I'd say. With us, broad beans often flower for quite a while before they start to set beans. It could be too cold? Too wet? Not enough bees? Just give it another few weeks. If they are flowering the beans won't be far away.

As for zuccs in a green house in Queensland climate - you could try hand pollinating. You see the male flowers and the female flowers with the unformed baby fruit behind the flower? Just take a paint brush and transfer some pollen from the male to the female. My OH used to call it 'having sex with the zucchini.' We don't need to do it but we did do it with pumpkins.

As for my carrot salad, Delicious Magazine takes great pride in being 'seasonal' but it calls for a cup of mint and a cup of coriander. I suppose mint and coriander might by in leaf up where you are and baby carrots - but here, the mint and the coriander is a summer phenomenon. I'll just have to substitute parsley which grows like a weed in our garden.

Thanks @Sallyo, seems to be quite a few bees around at the moment so fingers crossed. I've got coriander here and it's doing much better than it does in summer so next time I'll plant more for winter.

Hey y'all,

I'm in but not best pleased about it :/ I'm starving already and craving stodgy carbs. Dinner won't be until 8/9PM tonight either as I am at work and then have college.

I'll try my best to do it though so I can relax at the weekend!

The hunger just isn't passing at the moment though and I can't stop thinking about food.

Any tips?

Lil

I am cold cold cold cold cold. Drinking lots of tea. Wow, I whinge about the cold a lot in winter! It's worse on fast days, but I really don't like the temperature getting below 20. Come back summer, please.

Can you get out for a walk LilSmiler? That normally helps me. Or a cuppa, star jumps, anything away from the desk to break the cycle? Hang in there - picture yourself eating something lovely tomorrow, feeling good about yourself.

It actually helps me to do something around food. Plan menus, make stock, cook dried beans, preparing for the day when I can eat again. When I get TOO hungry, it's better to be out of the kitchen - going for a walk as suggested by KataMac, but in the morning, until about 4pm, I like to potter in the kitchen. Where in Queensland are you KataMac? I can't believe it's cold there. It's 9 degrees outside at the moment. It's cold. I'm keeping warm in the house where it's21.5.

Thanks @Sallyo - at the time I suggested to my Mr that he play honey bee with the zucchini (he's the one who gets to be at home all day while I'm at work) but I'm not sure he ever got around to doing it. Ah well, too late now. We'll have to work out what we do for a veggie patch at the new place.

I'm debating about breaking into my yoghurt and berries for a late lunch - the smell of my work colleague's lunch is hanging around, and I think it's making me think I feel a bit "spacey". It's funny - does anyone else find that they rarely feel "stomach" hunger, but find that it manifests more in the head - ie feeling a bit fuzzy minded, a bit "off". Does it mean that after three months, I'm still not efficiently switching to producing ketones once my glycogen stores are used up?

Thanks for the suggestions, although I'm at work so drinking lots of tea and coffee and chewing endlessly on gum!!

Not eating for another 6 hours is not the best thought..!!

Lil

It's my usual fast day today and I am really hoping I manage it.
We are off to Plymouth (1.5 hours each way) for a 4 hour preop for my daughters orthopaedic surgery.
I would like to say for definite that I'll stick to my black coffee until this evening. But being a realist, I know I might postpone it until tomorrow. I should've thought ahead and done it yesterday No biggie! I'll just do tomorrow if it gets too much.

Good morning fasters, it's a wonderful summers day - and I am dashing to work ..... see you later

My fast day is almost over and I have eaten half of my dinner, a big green salad left to eat.
I managed to have a very lean day until now, I'm happy with that. The weather here is quite cold, down to 7oC. I know in the Northern Hemisphere that's not all that cold, but with an antarctic wind; that's plenty cold enough for me.
Have a great fast day everyone.