The FastDay Forum

[carorees]

Hi @wildmissus

Re food addictions, have you thought of giving low carb a go and giving up sugar for (say) a month? That might kickstart you back into being able to fast. People who do low carb often add in 16:8 fasting naturally because of the changes to their appetite and carb cravings. Maybe approaching fasting from that direction might work for you? Once your body is in a better balance re carb cravings (you are not addicted to food, you are likely insulin resistant meaning that the high insulin levels caused by carb intake are stopping your body accessing your fat stores so making you hungry), you could try reintroducing some carbs. The thing is to see what level of carbs you can eat without causing problems. Everyone is different and so has to experiment. While fasting can reduce insulin resistance, if you are still struggling with cravings it could be that you need to take other steps.

I know that giving up carbs is a scary prospect, but could you manage it for 6 weeks? That could be enough to see real changes?

Just a thought....

[wildmissus]

Thank you @carorees, I agreed with you ....but I don't know how many times I have tried but I just can't seem to be able to do it. I feel so weak willed. As I mentioned before when I fast I reach a point where I am so hungry I just have to eat, different from the hunger I have normally experienced on a fast day. At that point I also start to feel unwell and very tired. I can see that this is the carb effect. The other thing I noticed today is that it is taking me a long time to notice that I am full up/stuffed - I ate my lunch today at about 2.30pm but it wasn't until about 5:30pm when everyone was asking when dinner would be that I thought 'you've got to be kidding I'm stuffed'. I think I'll need to spend some time rethinking my meals and start refocusing on eating and fasting for health. Any other tips will be very gratefully received.

Oh grrr and double grrr - just wrote a humongous post on here....and lost it due to using an invalid smilie. Then somehow eventually managed to retrieve it....and was so excited I forgot to delete the smilie before hitting "Submit".....now it is lost forever. So I am very cross. Because I had written loads. And now it's gone and there's no time to try to write it all again.....blow it.

Am such a twit.

[wildmissus]

Hey buddy, @Hazelnut20, long time no speak. Does that mean you are struggling or are you getting on fine?

I don't want to moan but not a lot has changed for me! Too busy, not enough hours in the day, unsuccessful fast days and non fast days but I am still trying to do something about that as I will not give up. I have been reading the Gillian Riley book and have realised that I have lost all sight of why I started fasting in the first place, ie. for the health benefits and I have allowed fasting to become just like any other diet. As I've said before the problem isn't the weight it is the over eating and I choose to over eat so I'm going to work on the psychological side of things.

On positive note my oldest daughter got the job in Sainsbos. She will be working 12 hours a week on the checkouts to start with which will fit in well with her new college course. Needless to say she is as high as a kite. I know how nervous she will be but it is a help that my sister in law also works on the checkouts.

Sorry to abandon you @wildmissus...but I have been struggling.

When I get a bit flat, I tend to withdraw...and eat. I got fed up with the monthlies skewing my weightloss...and lost heart a bit. In my case, I retain water twice a month, so there seems to be hardly any time when I am feeling "normal". This inflates my weight and although I know I shouldn't be a slave to the scales, it really upset me a couple of weeks ago, so like a weakling, I threw in the towel. And ate. And ate.....I really think that I am ruled by my hormones as my mood dips with alarming regularity through the month.

Today, I have taken myself in hand and am fasting. Nothing has touched my lips so far...other than fluids. It is now just gone 4pm and I am saying to myself "I can do it!" - which is good. Mind you, I am also lining foods up mentally...for me to eat tomorrow, tee hee!

Am very glad to hear your daughter got the job - big congrats! Will you coincide most of the time?

I noticed "The really rather wobbly tent"has been revived and I posted on it earlier....and have since been reminded that I was supposed to be seeking out strategies for the prevention of comfort eating! Maybe even read the Riley book that everyone talks about. As usual, I am all talk....and no memory. Things slip out of my head so quickly so I have forgotten to even buy the book. My problems haven't changed, but I just seem to drift from week to week, trying to make it through to the end without too much drama. In fact, in my book, just getting to the end of the week OK is a minor triumph. I'm not big on setting goals or making plans, if the truth be known, I am not happy with my life but I lack the impetus to do anything about it. When the going gets tough, I withdraw and eat.

So, buddy, bring me up to date with your world please! I will try to be on here much more often and attempt to support you much better than I have so far, but I feel like I am wading about in treacle right now. Not a good place for a wallower to be.......

Sending positive vibes your way & will look forward to hearing from you when you get a moment x

PS. Sorry to sound like a proper whinger......

Ohhh Nuts...@hazelnut20you sound just like me!
I could have wriiten the above word for word..except for the bit about monthlies as i am an old girl now
Big hugs... If nothing else,youve made me feel better! I have the chimp paradox and another book,cant remember title..and have read a chapter from each...
Even a slap with a wet fish isnt enough for us but ya know..when we're goodwe're very very good!

Hi @Hazelnut sending you a big hug. It's lovely to see you back and thanks for sharing your honest life post and the many challenges on your plate. While it all seems so overwhelming, with too many issues to address, I see you are clearly thinking and feeling through how you feel and why you do. Many of my friends have experienced the hormonal sea shore, it whips you up and then deposits one on the painful shingles.
I'm not sure this will help you - and you certainly don't need to answer! My Q to you is what are the 2 most important things you wish to engage with, that would make you immediately happy or you feel you can safely achieve over the next year? As I know very well, too many goals and issues is a tough journey. Take it easy my friend, we are all on a gentle and learning journey, there is no rush.
Love Lizx

[wildmissus]

Hi buddy, @Hazelnut20, I missed you, although I've not been around much myself.

Re the monthlys and when life gets on top of you - that is when we should really be eating well, not so much for the weight loss but for health. Eating healthily will help balance out the hormones and keep our moods from dropping. Why is it that we know this but find it so difficult to do???

How did your fast go? And have you got on the scales yet? Try not to worry too much about the numbers. I believe that our intention to eat more healthy will get us there in the end. I know I have put on weight as you have but neither of us are back where we started and that can only be a good thing.

My daughter started her new job this morning, sort of, the first two days are induction days, she was very nervous. Her hours don't really coincide with mine but we only live a 20 minute walk away.

I have read the Gillian Riley book and like it, so unlike what I usually do - read the book, like it, and forget all about it - I am going through it again like I am studying for an exam so that I sit down and do the practical work she suggests. I am hoping that will help me to remember to do the things she suggests.

I'm not getting on so great. I've got stuff going on in my life so the food thing always takes a back seat but that annoys me because whether our lives are going well or not so well we still need to eat so why can't we just eat healthily most of the time! I am not going to give up - last night I remembered that I have not had a cold since I started fasting. Quite a few people I know have come down with summer colds and have felt miserable but not me so that in itself is an excellent reason to keep fasting. I recently hurt my back and it is not until you health takes a hit that you appreciate being fit and healthy so I am focusing on eating well for health rather than weight loss.

You never whinge, you write what many of us think and do it in such a constructive non-whinging way.

Hello dear buddy!

It's high time we resurrected this thread......so here it is! This is the place for the good, the bad....and the downright ugly trials and tribulations of IF and more to the point.....life.

Please let me know how you are and how things have been for you this week. Did you get all my messages recently?

This week has been half term and it seems to have flown by in a flurry of cooking! Did a small catering job yesterday - a grown up birthday tea where the brief was all things dainty & pretty....and chocolatey. Talk about temptation! I made chocolate cupcakes, chocolate mini meringues with chocolate whipped cream to sandwich and chocolate melt in the mouth biscuits sandwiched with more of the chocolate cream. Never licked so much as a beater either......grrrrrr! To balance things, we also had some very lovely fruit skewers....and dishes of strawberries....with clotted cream. Yesterday was so busy that I didn't even manage my lunchtime yoghurt & strawberries as I didn't even have the time to weigh & crush the strawbs & weigh the yoghurt! Some days are just like that....Went through til teatime on just tea & coffee - lots of it!

Off to a barbecue later. Planning on eating chicken & homemade coleslaw and a carrot salad.....the having my yog & strawbs for pudding (which I have frozen so it feels like a proper treat!). So, no lunch for me today - suspect the kettle will be overworked at my house today!

Well, that's enough for now from me. I do hope your week has gone well @wildmissus & I hope you have a lovely weekend xxx

[wildmissus]

@Hazelnut20, I was just catching up with your posts on the challenge and this pops up. I had forgotten we had this.

Well what can I say. You are on fire. Wow, I am so impressed with how you are getting on, you really are in a good place especially with all the catering jobs you have done recently.

This week I fasted on Sunday and Thursday and for the first time in a long time they were successful fasts of one meal of 500-700cals. Well chuffed with that. In a way it was like starting for the first time. I was hungry, all I could think of was food but there was always tomorrow. I weigh daily and my official weekly weigh in is Friday and I lost 3lbs this week. Well chuffed. I currently weigh 12st 9lb.

I am feeling a bit sorry for myself - TOM. Last night I woke at 4am in pain and shaking because of the pain and that was with medication. Hopefully all that carry on will stop soon, I'm 49. At least I'm beginning to feel a bit better now but still tired.

I have really been getting into exercise like never before and enjoying it. I go to the gym twice a week. I have a machine called a Total Crunch at home which I use for 10 mins six mornings a week, I hula hoop for 10 mins in the evening and there is a running club at work which I'm thinking of going to. The run every Tuesday but they go out for an hour, I don't think I could do that especially as I have allergy and exercise related asthma but I really want to get fit. I'm also averaging about 14,000 steps a day.

We are going to Corfu on 29th July which is part of my motivation to lose weight. The last time we went abroad was two years ago and was when I was at my lowest weight of 11st. It isn't so much the vanity part of being slimmer it is more a matter of how good I felt inside. My body doesn't ache so much when it is lighter and I had more energy. I want that back. I know you remember how you felt when you were wearing your pretty dress at your daughters graduation. It is silly that we allow ourselves to put on weight and feel bad. It is so much easier to put the weight on than to lose it.

Your enthusiasm is infectious and is really motivating me. I'm off out now to do some jobs in the garden while the sun is shining. Enjoy your barbecue and we'll speak soon.

Good to see this resurrected! x

[wildmissus]

I've just been reading back through this thread which you started just over a year ago @Hazelnut20. We aren't the only one's who keep coming back - shout out to @CandiceMarie, @nursebean and @tracieknits. How are you girls getting on?

Youngest daughters hair has grown over the last year, she can get it into a wee pony tail with the help of some kirby grips. She has just finished her National 5's (equivalent to GCSEs) and has started her Highers. Oldest daughter still works part time in Sainsbury's supporting herself at college. She is doing professional cookery and is having a ball. She was recently part of an event where she was chosen to cook with some top chefs who visited the college, one of the was Jamies Scott winner of Masterchef 2014. I still work at Sainsbury's but have moved over to the clothing department working 20 hours a week doing different shifts and I love it.

I tried on my bikinis for my hols the other day and they fit, then I looked at the body in the bikinis and it wasn't nice. It didn't help that I was wearing black socks!

I forgot to tell you what my plan is. I intend to do traditional 5:2, fasting from about 8pm until mid afternoon when I will have my 500 cals and then not eat again until 8 or 9 am the following morning. On Sunday's and Thursday's I work 5pm -9pm so these will be my fast days. The other five days I intend to eat three meals a day without any snacking. My 'normal' days are slowly improving but now that I am more focussed I hope they will rapidly improve and I hope to lose a steady 2lb a week. Today I've kind of pigged out partly because I can and partly because of hormones. I'm still buying too many treats when I do my food shop on a Friday but not as many as I used to. Tomorrow I will get the slow cooker going and make a beef stew which I will have with a pile of broccoli at about 4pm

[Tracieknits]

That's a great plan, @Wildmissus I'm glad to hear you like your new job and the daughters are doing so well.

I'm doing well - I'm back to 53 pounds down today, which is a huge relief. Headed in the right direction, finally. The weight watchers and fasting seems to be working very well for me -- I'm doing eating windows, as well as light eating days. I'm reducing my carbs drastically, but still allowing myself a bit of a treat most nights. Sometimes it's just a single dove dark chocolate ("promises" they call them in the US, about 60 calories) with a cup of decaf espresso at night. Sometimes its a very small, measured scoop of dark chocolate ice cream. I find I need the structure of recording my points or calories.

We *still* have my husband's family in town. His parents were supposed to leave tomorrow, but they started making noises like they might not leave tomorrow. Tonight I have to tell them "look, we love you but we don't have any time to see you next week." It's Aidan's last full week of classes for the school year, then he has some final exams (nothing as important as the GCSEs, just yearly exams) the following week.

I'm wondering what a realistic weight loss is before my Paris trip. I'm hoping I can lose a whole dress size. That would be nice My 16s are starting to be loose, so I'm wondering if there's any chance of squeezing into 12s in late August.

Hello dear buddy!

From reading your posts, I think it's safe to say that you are also completely on fire! Am so pleased and very proud of you, @wildmissus! 6 packs of butter completely blitzed off that body...in just a week! More exercise being done than I can shake a stick at! Your activity level would put most people to shame. I tell you something though, your laughter muscles would get a proper workout if you had to watch me trying to hula hoop! Respect to you!

I'm so sorry to hear you have been in such pain lately though. It must've been horrible to be woken up with the pain - that's really awful. Don't men get an easy time of it compared to us women? You really have my sympathies. Are you on strong painkillers for it?

Whoop whoop for getting into those bikinis too! July 29th is ages away - if you keep going like you're going determination-wise, the next 8 weeks could be phenomenal for you! You've made such a good start and should rightly feel very proud of yourself. We all know it's constantly about choices - do I eat that treat, or don't I? Is it worth it, or isn't it? The simple fact though is that only you can decide what you're eating - nobody else forces it down your neck. Where you are now and where you are going to get to by July 29th....is totally up to you. It's the same for me, as it is for everybody else on here. I can tell you I'd much rather be eating Maltesers and chocolate Brazil nuts every night....but my failure to eat them in moderation is why I am currently obese. So I've made the decision to ditch the carbs, forego the chocolate and believe you me, it is a mental challenge every day to stick to it. No question.

I am so glad you have the holiday to focus on....because it means we have the next 8 weeks to play with! Do you like the idea of seeing how far you can get in the next 8 weeks? 8 weeks sounds like ages to have to get through, but it really isn't. I started the 8 Week Blood Sugar Diet 4 weeks ago & I've no idea where the past 4 weeks have gone! It felt so daunting on Day 1 - how would I ever get through the first day, never mind the first week....and then another....and another...and another! But here I am, about to weigh in tomorrow for my week 4 results and to start week 5!

Success also breeds success...so with the flying start you've made...and the fact that the bikinis fit (even if you don't yet like the way you look in them) plus the fact that you are exercising so very consistently and frequently right now......I really think we can harness all of this and build on what you've achieved! What do you say, buddy??

It was great to read about the plans you have made as to when to eat etc. That shows a serious level of commitment to 5:2 and I honestly think that such planning is vital. Having the wrong food in the house is a recipe for disaster....and when you want to eat, you want to eat.....not wait while you have a think about what to eat, then prepare it and finally, eat it! I've been eating loads of broccoli since starting the BSD....and would you believe I now get a bit twitchy if there's no broccoli in the fridge for tea! Don't want to be tempted/forced to eat a potato instead....so I make sure I always have green trees in the fridge! It's all about the planning....

Well, buddy, I'll be with you every step of the way and so will the rest of the forum....an unbeatable combination IMHO!

Great to have some company on this thread too! 53lbs lost is the stuff of my dreams @tracieknits - keep up the good work! I'm very conscious that the forum is so quiet these days, so it's lovely to have anyone drop by on here. We are all fighting ourselves on a daily basis - well, at least that's how it feels for me, anyway, so it's great to have support from fellow returners who understand just how it is...the good, the bad and the downright ugly as I like to call it!

Well, I'd better stop blathering on now. I do hope your shift went well today, buddy. I'll look forward to hearing how today went when you get a mo.

Cheery bye xxx

[wildmissus]

Wow @Hazelnut20, your support and encouragement is out of this world. You are making me want to 'do this'. I'm a little different from you in that when I decide to do something I know it won't be good enough so I am destined to fail but you have me believing that I can lose a stone over the next eight weeks. Did you watch any of the Lose Weight for Love programmes, it is all about getting people to believe they can do things. So, yes, I'm up for 'giein' it laldy' as they say up here, for the next eight weeks and beyond. To give it laldy means to do something with great gusto.

Recently I have been blaming the menopause for not being able to lose weight but that has just been an excuse. I know it can be harder to lose weight at this time but not impossible. I've decided not to join the running club at present but I'm going to increase my efforts at the gym so I intend getting on the treadmill and sweating a bit. I forgot to mention that I also do a pilates class on a Wednesday as well. I am finding that the more exercise I do the more I want to do.

I had quite a lazy day today. I started reading a book called While My Eyes Were Closed on Thursday and I just had to keep reading it so I sat in the garden and finished it this afternoon. I got the slow cooker out this morning and filled it with beef, onions, green peppers, tinned tomatoes, red wine, stock and potatoes and turned it on. At 4pm I had a portion without the potatoes but with a large portion of steamed broccoli, nom, nom, nom...and that completed my fast day food. I had a busy shift at work, it's quite a physical job but very satisfying when you can step back and look at all the new clothes you have just put out. When I got home I decided to have a diet Pepsi, not as good as having big glass of water but at least it wasn't food and OH was sitting next to me with a cuppa and the packet of digestives!

Also forgot to mention that I have the BSD book which I read when it first came out and then forgot all about so I think I'll read it again. My go to breakfast is Total greek yohurt (full fat), berries, chopped nut and sunflower seeds so if I can give up the mindless eating of snacks and incorporate a few more low carb meals during the week then I will boost my weight loss.

I can't wait to hear what your scales tell you tomorrow, you've got me all excited.