The FastDay Forum

... currently listing on Amazon for £3.95+p&p

Great book too! Here's another website that sells second hand books and makes a donation to various charities including Oxfam, AgeUK, MacMillan Cancer Support, Woodland Trust from each sale.
http://www.greenmetropolis.com
Have personally used it several times to buy and sell books.

... currently listing on Amazon for £3.95+p&p

Thank goodness for one-click ordering. Thanks FatDog

Wednesday, day one-hundred and fifty-seven, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 111.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~108.25lbs); 0.6lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 28.7, w. 25.7, t. 30.8, h. 34.6 inches

Boingy... maybe yesterday's variations weren't so far off after all. Oh well.

Snots are finally on the retreat so returned to RC's plan "Day 11" and chucked in a couple of the arm exercises from other days as extras too. The crunch-with-leg-raises were nothing like as evil as expected, but the lift-your-butt-off-the-ground one revealed that I have *no* muscle strength in my right leg (the one with the metal & plastic knee), *at all*; that needs some serious working on.

Might work up that pasta dish recipe to see if I can squish it into a repair day. Confess that I'm struggling today. Grrrrr.

Pasta dish done - didn't quite come off as I was intending, but was delicious anyway. Ruined all my good efforts to make it a fine low-carb repair day by falling for *lots* (32g) of my 85% chocolate after dinner - not sure how / why that happened, but sadly it did, and (a) I'm still wanting something else to eat and (b) the chocolate has made me feel rather sick. Darn. Blown it. So, that will have to be a half-repair day today, and I'll try to fix things with a full repair day on Friday. At least I didn't attack the wine or excuse myself and have a hot toddy - but still a pretty sh*te showing for a repair effort. Must. Do. Better.

........ Calories 856.45 Carbs 31.65 Fat 59.01 Protein 43.70 Fibre 16.40

pancake pizzoccheri with crowdie & tomato sauce, a FatDog bottom of the fridge concoction
pancakes
gram flour, 352c/C55.9/F5.3/P20.1/Fi4.7/100g
......... 25g 88.00 13.98 1.33 5.03 1.18
soya flour, 424c/C16.0/F20.0/P39.0/Fi12.0/100g
......... 20g 84.80 3.20 4.00 7.80 2.40
linseed, brown, fresh ground, 534c/C1.5/F42.16/P18.29/Fi27.3/100g
......... 30g 160.20 0.45 12.65 5.49 8.19
eggs, brown, organic, 151c/C0.0/F11.2/P12.5/Fi0.0/100g
......... 63g 95.13 0.00 7.06 7.88 0.00
basil, dried leaf
......... 10ml 0.00
chilli flakes
......... two good pinches 0.00
garlic flakes
......... several good grinds 0.00
s&p 0.00
xanthan gum
......... 2ml 0.00
water
......... 250ml? no idea how much in the end 0.00
sunflower oil, 125c/C0/F13.8/P0/Fi0/15ml
......... 7.5ml 62.50 0.00 6.90 0.00 0.00
crowdie, c178/C3.1/F13.4/P12.0/Fi0.0/100g
......... 160g 284.80 4.96 21.44 19.20 0.00
tomato sauce
tomatoes, tinned, chopped, KTC, 19c/C3.0/F0.1/P1.1/Fi0.7/100g
......... 400g 76.00 12.00 0.40 4.40 2.80
puy lentils, Merchant Gourmet, tinned, 84c/C8.5/F2.8/P4.7/Fi3.1/100g
......... 204g 171.36 17.34 5.71 9.59 6.32
onion, red, co-op, fine sliced, 35c/C7.6/F0.2/P1.3/Fi1.4/100g
......... 50g 17.50 3.80 0.10 0.65 0.70
chilli, green, fine chopped, 40c/C9.5/F0.2/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 7g 2.80 0.67 0.01 0.14 0.11
garlic, fine chopped, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 7g 10.43 2.31 0.04 0.44 0.15
basil, fresh, torn, 23c/C2.35/F0.64/P3.15/Fi1.6/100g
......... 5g 1.15 0.12 0.03 0.16 0.08
s&p 0.00
total for pancake pizzoccheri with crowdie & tomato sauce 1054.67 58.82 59.66 60.76 21.92
FatDog's 1/3 portion of pancake pizzoccheri with crowdie & tomato sauce 351.56 19.61 19.89 20.25 7.31

That's just over a whole week gone by without my buying a single book! Maybe that's why I'm unwell

==================================

Thursday, low-carb day one-hundred and fifty-eight, feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 111.8lbs (analogue scales corrected ~108.5lbs); 0.4lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 28.7, w. 25.7, t. 30.8, h. 34.6 inches

Oh pish. Wrong direction guys, wrong direction. FatDog barks frantically, but the scales take *absolutely no notice*. Digitals reading 111.4 or 111.8, but more often the latter which I think I'll have to go with as the analogues look up a touch too. The digitals are doing the same to the OH but he's taking his lower reading. Sigh.

RC's "Day 12" - poor abs, that were an affy lot of crunches (two different types) and then "thighs", inner and outer: they'll all be telling me how cruel I am tomorrow.

No Gate books arrived in the post yet - howl. Not quite sure how I resisted Nigel Slater's "Eat" at work this afternoon (bargain at £5) as it is *gorgeous*, and has the odd delicious veggie script; maybe sense kicked in for once, as I doubt that I could use / modify one-in-fifteen of the recipes (it's *heavily* meat / fish).

Well, insanity struck on the way home from work: I was contemplating all sorts of lovely ideas involving frittatas, gratins and even chickpea curry, but ended up with... pizza. Yes, real pizza (okay, not really real, just a co-op four cheese deep-pan pizza, discounted to 90p) - not such a clever idea, with over 40% of calories coming from carbs and b*gger all nutrition, but boy did it scratch that itch. I didn't even get gut ache for once - sort of unfortunate in some respects as it's a helpful deterrent! Maybe the loads of watercress and rocket salad mitigated it a little?

With my target so near in sight (1.8lbs away today, 0.6lbs earlier this week) I think that I've been subconsciously viewing this week as a slackening off of my WoE (partly because I anticipated a bumpy landing anyway). I guess that I'll need to play about with things once I hit that target and should, maybe, relax about things a little more.

As many threads elsewhere re-iterate: no one should *ever* be beating themselves up with "failing" this WoE (5:2) - one of its beauties is that it is utterly flexible and thus there is *no failure*, *ever*.

Admittedly de-low-carbing is slightly less forgiving, but as I'm not planning, in any foreseeable life, on going back to the RDA for carbs (260 grams / day, methinks? I'll stick with my aim of 50g/day and not freak up to 75g/day - any more and I need a talking-to); except for blue-moon blowouts, carbs really aren't an issue. Saturday coming might be a case in point - free lunch is going to be hard to 'control' - I might just designate it as a Ferriss-blow-out-day and get back to 'strict' normal the rest of the week and be extra good on my Monday repair day

........ Calories 1845.68 Carbs 65.35 Fat 111.56 Protein 45.86 Fibre 14.41

Friday, day one-hundred and fifty-nine, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 111.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~108.5lbs); 0.2lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.7, w. 25.7, t. 30.8, h. 34.6 inches

Eeeevil scales-fairy flipping between readings of 111.6 and 112.0. Humbug. I'm going for the lower reading, mainly because the analogues haven't gone up to any obvious extent but also because going back to 8 stone would be exceedingly annoying.

And I'm cursing rather, as yesterday's excess was accidental rather than intentional - I thought I had calorie space for a creamy cocoa again (oooh, it is yum and so comforting) and only as I was 'closing the accounts' did I realise that I'd missed out the Hellman's mayo. Ooops.

RC's "Day 13" - 3x16 side leg raises (with weights) each leg: leggies no likey, howwwwwl, but it's burn not "bad" pain so keep at it. That and the shoulder exercises and I think that there'll be some complaining muscles tomorrow. Should probably have started with 1kg weights rather than the 2kg ones that I'm using, but the chaos in the back room means that I've no idea where the smaller ones are hiding.

Still no books. I'm beginning to wonder about our post - some strange sh*t going on at the depot methinks (our regular delivery posties are brilliant).

Bargain bonanza last night wasn't restricted to pizza and watercress: also acquired two lots of tenderstem stir-fry (which have "tonight's dinner" writ upon them) and a lovely lump of stilton. Then, when bestest neighbour appeared, he was clutching mixed veggies, fennel and swede - so that's Saturday night's dinner sorted. Food glorious food.

Slow-fingered FatDog - just spotted Nigel Slater's Tender volume I (veggies) on Amazon's Black Friday thingy and *missed getting it by seconds*. I know "what's for you won't go by you", but I'm still gubbed. Misery sniffles rather than cold ones today. And I've still to fully read the White Paper for tomorrow. Whimper.

Decided that I'd achieve at least one useful thing today, and took the cardboard collection (growing alarmingly, along with the book collection) around to the re-cycle bin. Unfortunately, my favourite frock-shop is on the way back (it's only just around the corner but I try to go in there as infrequently as possible, so as to avoid temptation). Beautiful red frock with black roses - size eight - and I so want it (£85). Another lovely turquoise and black wool-mix shift dress - size 12 (mis-sized, I think, it's the same physical size of a size 10 same frock in a different material) - and want that too (£45). And turquoise jersey full skirted frock - size 12, ditto - oops, got (but it was 'only' £20, reduced from £75) with intention of just wearing-it-about-the-house-to-feel-good. But instead of being delighted when I arrived home, I was *horribly* miserable - somehow I wasn't "worth enough" to allow myself to get the others (limited finances notwithstanding). Get. A. Bleeping. Grip.

Dinner was tenderstem stir-fry - nothing exciting there, but I've at least had a good part of my five-a-day! Oh, and it ended up being a third-of-a-repair day, more woe for my WoE.

........ Calories 1109.98 Carbs 36.98 Fat 63.37 Protein 39.36 Fibre 16.56

Fatdog. Add that Nigel Slater "Tender" book to your Christmas list. It's a thing of beauty.

Saturday, day one-hundred and sixty, weekend feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 112.0lbs (analogue scales corrected ~108.75lbs); 0.4lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 28.7, w. 25.7, t. 30.8, h. 34.6 inches

Report for the end of week Edit: 32 should be 31 on 4.5 : 2.5 - weight gain 1.2lbs this week (total loss 34.0lbs), and a slither or two off all the measurements.

That's a weight gain even with a "theoretical" deficit in calorie intake against TDEE, albeit only a very small deficit at 1635. V&P vary-fairy? Eeeevil scales-fairy? Too many carbs? Or genuine gain due to too many calories, meaning my guestimate TDEE is wrong (at last)?

Not a scoobie. And today's Ferriss-binge ain't going to help, but what fun! Not a measure in sight. Ate ad libitum. Even bread (rolls at lunch and a wee bit flatbread with dinner). And lemon meringue tart. And biscuits (actually, only the one). Milk in coffee! Plus usual nuts and 85% chocolate! And vino.

........ Calories unknown - guestimate, between 2000 and 2500?

Did a lovely veggie bake involving cream and stilton, plus swede rosti to go with it (and flatbread as well, as we ended up with 7 for dinner). Can't really do the recipe as I didn't measure anything! About 2kg mixed carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, fennel, and onions (chopped into small bite sized pieces or fine slices as appropriate), 300ml extra thick cream, and 225g of stilton, plus 15ml balsamic vinegar (veggies doused in this before coating with cream - bestest neighbour's idea and it worked very well, though I used 3x the amount he suggested), several grinds of garlic flakes and pinches of chilli flakes and the usual s&p. Grated swede was just drizzled with about 15ml coconut oil and liberally sprinkled with s&p. Thoroughly enjoyed by all (and it wasn't the wine - there were two non-drinkers).

==================================

Sunday, day one-hundred and sixty-one, weekend feed day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 113.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~110.25lbs); 1.4lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 28.7, w. 25.7, t. 30.8, h. 34.6 inches

And somehow the Ferriss-binge extended itself into a second day. *Embarassed giggle*. Nothing like as reckless as Saturday's intake and I started the day with good intentions - measuring stuff as usual. But I threw restraint to the wind in the early evening and gave up the measures and abandoned low-carbing again, when I had the remains of the flatbread toasted and slathered with cream cheese, quorn, and mustard, along with green leafy salad, for my dinner.

........ Calories unknown - guestimate, no more than 2000?

Gay abandon sometimes a necessity

Found the xanthan gum so now to use it. Also found some golden yellow flaxseeds which I also brought, is there much difference from the brown flaxseeds as intend to try to make your rolls. The food at your house sounding positively luscious ... Lucky neighbour, also luckyFatDog for such a gift bringer. The Stilton dish sounded like a thing of wonder

All the best with the scales. Don't you need to go back and buy the dress you wanted!

I've been using golden linseeds for the past few weeks @gillymary and they seem to produce highly similar results. That said, I think there is a difference when the golden ones are used in linseed crackers - can't quite put my finger on it but I definitely prefer the golden ones for crackers.

Fatdog, if you don't reach your target weight soon, I will have no nails left to chew, the ups and downs are such a roller coaster. Every day I log on here and PRAY, yes, I PRAY you have got there. That said, I am enjoying your journey so in a way it will be a little bit sad for the rest of us when you do get there, and you will get there. Are you going to publish all this in a book? It would look good in those hard covers,

Ballerina x

I'm the same @Ballerina,got the pompoms, tickertape, champagne on ice all ready to celebrate @FatDog'starget weight. Put us out of our misery soon please! x Seriously FD, you're doing brilliantly and all kudos for you to battling on despite the niggling setbacks.

Thanks @Ballerina and @callyanna - you probably don't want to look at my tracker just now then. The weekend's double Ferriss-binge carbocalypse is having its revenge and, I suspect, will continue to do so for the next few days. At this rate I'll be joining the Christmas club for 2014!

Good to know about the crackers as I used the brown but keen to make more so will do thanks

Hi FatDog. Well this is proving to be quite a denoument! I'm joining the others to say I do hope you get there soon. However your Ferris double binge probably did you the world of good and will give you impetus to carry on. You are like a saint normally, so no matter if you hit the goal a few weeks later than planned.

Besides I want to hear what your new book treat will be (and maybe some clothes too)

Monday, low-carb day one-hundred and sixty-two, repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 114.4lbs (analogue scales corrected ~111.25lbs); 1.0lbs gain
... t.measures - ub. 28.7, w. 25.7, t. 30.8, h. 34.6 inches

Report at the end-of-week 23 of low-carb : total low-carb weight loss 23.4lbs, and last week 3.8lbs weight gain. Oh dear. That's what a Ferriss-binge weekend does for one's diet... Though only 2.4lbs of the gain was over the weekend (mainly water retention because of the high carbs, I suspect) - for some strange reason I gained last week anyway, with a 112.0lbs weigh-in on Saturday morning. I'll only start freaking if it keeps going up for the rest of the week...

Back on the straight and narrow today. Nary a hint of ketone production yet, according to ketostix, so sadly not a fat-burning FatDog just now. Oh, and the snots are back, just to enhance my joy.

Will be going out to celebrate the VBF's birthday on Wednesday, so am wondering if I can manage two repair days back-to-back, plus a half on Wednesday - might help recover the weekend's indulgences a little more swiftly too. That might be the plan.

"The Gate Easy Vegetarian Cookbook" arrived - would have been in immaculate condition if the eejits had wrapped it in more than just a black plastic bag, as it is, the corners and spine are all dinted. Shame. Still the recipes are all readable, and it's better than having a soggy bottom-half from a puddle of unknown substance(s), like its poor sister book, "The Gate" (story upthread)!

Going to have another shot at gobi musallam http://www.korasoi.com/blog/2013/03/gobi-musallam tonight, as the bestest neighbour brought round a splendid bargain cauliflower on Saturday, and I'm all for cauliflower worship.

That was a very unintentional excess - well, sort of. Should have had a quarter, not a third, portion of the gobi musallam (which bestest neighbour says was definitely in my top ten), but worse than that, I seem to have lost my restraint when it comes to chocolate these days. Methinks I need to give myself a good talking to. Especially when I have a deficit deficit of a guestimated 1100 calories to start the week. And still not a hint of a ketone.

........ Calories 802.20 Carbs 32.46 Fat 62.13 Protein 26.07 Fibre 12.15

gobi musallam, adapted from http: //www.korasoi.com/blog/2013/03/gobi-musallam
cauliflower, tesco, 38c/C3.0/F0.9/P3.6/Fi1.8/100g
......... 526g 199.88 15.78 4.73 18.94 9.47
turmeric, dried ground
......... 10ml 0.00
butter, lurpak spreadable, 720c/C0.6/F80.0/P0.5/Fi0/100g
......... 26g 187.20 0.16 20.80 0.13 0.00
cherry tomatoes, 20c/C3.1/F0.3/P0.7/F1.0/100g
......... 177g 35.40 5.49 0.53 1.24 1.77
tomato puree, 410c/C18.1/F0/P4.8/Fi2.5/100g
......... 15ml 61.50 2.72 0.00 0.72 0.38
coconut milk, 197c/C2.81/F21.33/P2.02/Fi0/100ml
......... 400ml 788.00 11.24 85.32 8.08 0.00
peas, 95c/C11.3/F1.5/P6.9/Fi5.1/100g
......... 159g 151.05 17.97 2.39 10.97 8.11
onion, tesco 'sweet', rough chop, 25c/C4.4/F0.2/P0.8/Fi1.3/100g
......... 132g 33.00 5.81 0.26 1.06 1.72
chilli, green, rough chopped, 40c/C9.5/F0.2/P2.0/Fi1.5/100g
......... 21g 8.40 2.00 0.04 0.42 0.32
cashew nuts, raw, 553c/C26.89/F43.85/P18.22/Fi3.3/100g
......... 25g 138.25 6.72 10.96 4.56 0.83
garlic, rough chopped, 149c/C33.06/F0.5/P6.36/Fi2.1/100g
......... 9g 13.41 2.98 0.05 0.57 0.19
ginger, rough chopped, 90c/C17.8/F0.8/P1.8/Fi2.0/100g
......... 8g 7.20 1.42 0.06 0.14 0.16
ginger, dried ground
......... 2.5ml 0.00
cinnamon, dried ground
......... 5ml 0.00
cloves
......... 2 of 0.00
nutmeg, dried ground
......... 2.5ml 0.00
cardamom, seeds
......... from 8 pods 0.00
salt
......... several good pinches 0.00
butter, lurpak spreadable, 720c/C0.6/F80.0/P0.5/Fi0/100g
......... 15g 108.00 0.09 12.00 0.08 0.00
total for gobi musallam 1731.29 72.36 137.15 46.89 22.93
FatDog's 1/3 portion of gobi musallam 577.10 24.12 45.72 15.63 7.64

Method: 1. ping cauliflower in lidded dish for 4 minutes, then rub hot cauliflower with salt, turmeric and softened butter and roast (cover with foil) for 25mins @175C; 2. bung all ingredients from onions to salt in food processor and blitz to smooth paste, add a little coconut milk if needed; 3. melt butter in a non-stick pan *, add paste and cook until light golden brown; 4. blitz tomatoes, tomato puree and a little coconut milk; 5. now add this and the rest of the coconut milk to the paste and simmer for a few minutes; 6. add the cauliflower and baste with sauce, cover with lid and cook for about 5 minutes; 7. remove lid and cook for further 10 minutes with the lid off, basting regularly, add the peas half way through; 8. garnish with desiccated coconut (I forgot) and serve with yoghurt

* non-stick is not optional, it sticks...

==================================

Tuesday, low-carb day one-hundred and sixty-three, feed extra-repair day

Weigh-in at start of day wt. 113.6lbs (analogue scales corrected ~110.75lbs); 0.8lbs loss
... t.measures - ub. 28.7, w. 25.7, t. 30.8, h. 34.6 inches

Phew, that's the right direction. Still going to aim for a repair day today (and a half-repair tomorrow) to make sure that dinner out with for the VBF's birthday is not constrained! Might be tricky this evening as long-standing friend of OH is coming by late afternoon with some random academic, so it could be a long evening. FatDog will do her best.

And, reflecting the "will do her best" sentiment, I got back onto RC's program - "Day 14", weird crunches that I didn't quite get and those butt-lifts that are great for the left leg but go nowhere for the right! Oh, and I'm back into fat-burning mode, as far as one can determine from ketostix, reading the lowest hint of ketones at 0.5 mmol/L.

Dinner: Jerusalem artichokes, rosemary and a wee bit kale from a friend's allotment, mini cabbage and clotted cream from neighbour, bargain taleggio cheese... Hmm. Want to do a single-dish thingy that can be prep'd ahead of time for dinner so I can join in the crak, thus I'm thinking an adulteration of the borlotti bean stew with a "sunchoke gratin" on the top; we shall see.

Not put to the test after all - 'twas a flying visit and no victuals beyond a cup of lemon and ginger tea were required. Bit disappointed, I was rather looking forwards to trying that concoction - the ingredients *might* last 'til Thursday so I could have a stab at it then. Now need a thoroughly gratifying something for tonight, as normally this would not be a repair night. Think faux-pizza might do it? Pancakes with Dunsyre Blue cheese (freegan), quorn ham and cherry tomatoes.

Thoroughly enjoyed that, but too much chocolate. Again. And almonds, because they're good for one. Not the best repair ever, but it will do.

........ Calories 637.42 Carbs 21.13 Fat 44.86 Protein 33.65 Fibre 11.09