Marie yes wonderful memories of many years going in the surf with him. At 89 with vascular disease and low heart and lung capacity he’s not up to much now but his memories are sharper than mine! One of my all time favourite photos he’s teaching me to fly a kite on Surfers paradise beach at The Gold Coast in Queensland. Many other times he’d take me to northern Sydney beaches. His favouite was Freshwater, then Newport, Avalon, Palm Beach. For overseas members Palm Beach is where Home and Away tv show is filmed. Ok raving on again. Moorea is one of my favourite places.
I just love being on gear a reading everyone’s challenges and successes. Also, I love that people are posting across the world in sun in snow . Loving it all best wishes to everyone x❤️

Hi all, this is a desperate appeal to all you marvellous cooks who may see! I am making Chimmichurri for the first time and instead of the glorious accompaniment I was expecting I have a tasteless green sludge. Has anyone got a foolproof (me) recipe??

It’s for Boxing day so plenty of time

Mariet
*wipes sweat from brow and tries to stop hyperventilating *

Well I’m a couple of days early but I’m posting my end of challenge results today – delighted because I have lost the two pounds I wanted to lose this challenge and am weighing in at 8st 10 this morning.

Even though the opportunities for eating this month have been somewhat overwhelming at times, and I didn’t quite manage to break my long held association of eating chocolate while doing the Christmas gift wrapping… but at least this year it’s been a couple of pieces of dark chocolate rather than whole Lindt reindeers! I think any milk chocolate would make me feel terribly sick if I were to eat some now.

When I started this WOE in May my best friend started Slimming World. We’ve both lost several dress sizes since then and will be enjoying a skinny Christmas together this year – which does rather add to the merriness of it all 😉

I wish you all a very happy Christmas season and will see you on the next four week challenge xx

That moment when you realise just how much BSD has become a way of life … every year our family have a Christmas Eve party. My family are having cocktails, beer, party foods and chocolates – and I’m drinking a cup of tea and not eating as I don’t feel hungry.
I had planned to have a few drinks but just don’t feel like it – very rare for me!
It’s my first BSD Christmas and I wondered how I’d go – can’t believe I haven’t had a single mince pie yet!

registering my final weight for this challenge at 11 st 13 and half (whatever happened to the half symbol on keyboards). Anyway that is another quarter of a pound off – at least it is a loss. I think my total for the challenge is 2lbs. On 2nd Jan I am doing the full 8 weeks again, pretending it is the first time and hoping to replicate my original success.

Have a happy Christmas or holiday everyone: See you in the new year.

Mariet, did you use a food processor or blender? In my experience, chimichurri comes out best when you finely chop and mix the ingredients by hand. The sludge happens when you use appliances. My basic method is to combine 1 tblsp red wine vinegar, a minced hot pepper, the white parts of two green onions (also minced), two minced garlic cloves and a tsp of salt in a small mixing bowl. I let it sit for 10-20 minutes for the flavors to combine, then stir in finely chopped parsley, oregano and whatever other assorted herbs I happen to have around. The parlsey should predominate, though. Like a quarter cup of it vs. a few tablespoons of other herbs. Then I whisk in 2 tblsp of extra-virgin olive oil. I shouldn’t even call it whisking because I really just use a fork. If it seems too thick, thin it out with a small splash of chicken broth. Taste and adjust for salt, pepper and heat.

I love chimichurri. So versatile as a marinade, mixed with veggies or as a topping for chicken, steak and fish. Good luck!

Esnecca, thank you so much! I did use a food processor and very thoroughly at that. I have time later today and extra supplies so I’ll start again and fi it as you suggest.

It’s Christmas dawn here, I hope it’s a wonderful Christmas for all 🎄🎉🎼

Hi Milalin,
I am in total awe of you, I wish you everything that you wish for yourself and more. Your attitude is amazing and I always try to stay positive so in future I will attempt to emulate your take on life and continue to count my blessings, sometimes when life gets in the way I forget how lucky I really am. I will thank everyone again on this thread for being strong and helping to keep going although I am actually limping along at the moment and have had more carbs over the past few days than is good for me but I will KOKO, until the new challenge begins. Will there be a new thread on Jan 2, or do we stay on this one?
I don’t have any religion but believe that we humans don’t know enough to definitively state that there is nothing left when life ends, and I console myself with an idealised afterlife living in the Hundred Acre Wood made famous by Winnie-the-Pooh, but I only tell this to my very best friends who understand that I am usually quite emotional at this time of year, and quite a lot of the rest of the year as well. Thank you all for listening and may your God go with you.

Merry Christmas everyone! The orgy of present opening is over (until guests arrive), the turkey is in the oven, and I’m taking a quiet moment while the kids are playing with new gadgets.

Last night we were watching carols on TV, I had some chips and a Lindor ball. But you know what I enjoyed the most? A bite of the apple we put out for Rudolph! So fresh and crisp and healthy-tasting.

Hi everybody.just a few moments to my self on Christmas morning.Its 7am and Im about to start a frantic cook .I need to make a jelly , pavlova., chocalate mousse,stuff the turkey, glaze the ham prep the veg and wrap gifts before 11 am.
I was supposed to do most of it last night. But I had 2or 3 glasses of wine with the next doors who popped in with gifts .found myself to be very tipsy and I fell asleep watching carols on TV. I havent had any alcohol for several months and it really affected me. So my weight is 81.6Kg .its not tooo bad considering Ive eaten rubish this week.Ill enjoy today and back to routine tomorrow.MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all.

Finished setting up the barbecue for the turkey (cooking it indirect, on charcoal), will light it at about 2 for eating at 6 tonight 😁 lovely Mediterranean salad for lunch though. If we do start the next challenge on boxing day it may still be a bit quiet, but I think helps keep up the way of life vibe by having the challenges continuously renewing. I’d certainly be hopping on board straight away.

Happy Christmas (morning here) to all! Just a quick note:

Milalin, to complete your world wide picture, we have a beautiful
soft snow coming down in New England USA. Didn’t know we’d be having
a “white Christmas” until I awakened this morning! It’s lovely, particularly
because we don’t have do anything but light a fire. Enjoy your holiday!

SueBlue, what a wonderful effort you have made with your first BSD
Christmas! It’s very empowering, isn’t it? Congratulations! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Morning Everyone,

It is a beautiful big blue sky Boxing Day here and I’m still smiling from such a wonderful couple of days with my lovely family. We love Christmas. I’m finding as we all get a bit older it is a lot less stressful and I noticed the extra energy I have this year. I always host and always love it, but this year was even better.

Boxing Day for us is usually quiet, loll about, read new books, keep eating of course and catch up with friends. I usually plan to spend most of the day sitting down. This year I am up early to walk the dog and have friends coming over for dinner.

Boxing Day also marks completing my first monthly challenge and Week 6 of the first round of BSD. I stayed on track over the Christmas Eve/Christmas Day feasting, 16/8, carbs kept below 20, although calories yesterday tipped 950 cals of yum! I wonder if I will be hungry today? No alcohol and really didn’t miss it and no one commented.

So here are my results.

28/11. 74.1
26/12 70.1. Exactly 4 kgs (my target was 3kg) and tantalisingly close to getting below 70kgs!

End of 6 weeks I’ve lost 8.2kg. Very happy with that.

Well, I’m off for another cup of tea. Hope you are enjoying Christmas Day/Boxing Day.

Hooray, Flick! Averaging a weight loss of 3 lbs. a week for the past
6 wks is a very positive result! I love to see this kind of commitment.
You’re doing great, and should feel very proud of the work that you’ve
put in so far. Many congrats, you’ve earned them, and your goal is
very much in your sights for the new year. Congratulations!!!

Allie

Good morning, everyone, hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day with family and friends.

Flick, so well done you on your progress during this challenge, koko.

That sounds like beautiful Boxing Day weather for you. We’re also blue sky, expecting about 26° today (33° yesterday) and as the “Fremantle Doctor” i.e the southwesterly sea breeze is in already for our coastal suburb, we’ll have a fairly mild day. The MCG Boxing Day test is on tv for OH and radio for me and we’ll go into the WACA mid-afternoon for a 20/20 match.

My weigh-in showed 62.5kg this morning. So, that means I’m •5kg gained for this challenge and certainly have not lost the 2kg I’d nominated. A very up and down month, a lot of socialising, of course, as for us all, given the time of year. I’ve made valiant attempts to stick to first principles without weighing and measuring, but will re-think this now the bulk of pre-organised socialising is over.

Thanks everyone for your company here, hope there will be many positive results to admire. See you over on the next challenge.

Thanks Alliecat. The support here is so important to stickng with it. I can hardly believe the results so far. I fgure I’ve got a good few months ahead of me to reach my target and I’m looking forapward to staying in touch with you into the new year. Your Christmas by the fire sounded wonderful!

Marsie, that sounds like a perfect Boxing Day to me. Such a minor gain over a very challenging month. I have no doubt that and your target loss will just melt off in the coming weeks. Thanks again for setting these monthly challenges. See you over at the January thread.

I’m with you Marsie, with a 600g gain for the month. So now planning on getting to my final goal next challenge 😊

It’s a cool and cloudy Boxing Day in Sydney and I’m off for a two day house party up the coast on the lake. I’m really looking forward to relaxing in a hammock under the trees, in between a little kayaking and chatting with friends. We’ve been doing thus for years and years, used to be with our kids , now some of the kids bring their own. Originally about 10 people, now more than 70 attend.

See you all on the new challenge!

It’s early Boxing Day morning here (nobody else awake yet – bliss). I’m just popping on briefly to report my final weigh-in. I’ve lost 7lbs in total on the Busy, Busy challenge. I’m now 10st – hurrah ! However, if I’d reported this time yesterday I would have been 9st 13, so have put on 1lb….. . But generally very happy with the weight loss. Having the Challenges and report-ins really help me to keep focussed and accountable.

Flick – well done, you’re doing brilliantly, just powering through every week – and having such a good time at the same time – as some of my lovely Australian friends have said to me – go girl! (Nobody’s ever said that to me in my life before – love it)

Marsie and Mariet – I’m with Flick – that’s such a tiny gain for you both in such a tricky month – Mariet, I’ll be on that sideline next Challenge to give a loud cheer…..

Jim47 – you’ve probably seen Marsie’s set up the next challenge 2018 A HAPPY NEW YEAR; MEETING GOALS WITH GREAT GOOD CHEER: 4 WKS ENDING 23 JAN starting today – we’ll all be there with you to kick start into a great 2018

Allie – fireside and snow – what could be better x

Off to sign in to new thread – then time for a nice cup of tea…with milk – my Boxing Day treat !

Good morning/ evening everyone. Hope yesterday was good and today is relaxing. Sounds like Boxing Day over in Australia has started well.

I’m sorry I’ve not posted much on this thread but I lost track of all the new people very early on as I was away. Despite all the odds I’ve actually lost 2.2lbs or exactly 1kg on this challenge! I’m happy with that. Well done to all the losers, those who have stayed within touching distance of their starting weight and the maintainers. A new year just around the corner and new goals. Looking forward to it all.

Happy Boxing Day everyone. Reporting in on last day of this challenge. My goal was 6 lbs off and although part way through I’d lost 4lbs, I’ve regained 3lbs due to Christmas, oops. Only to be expected really though and I’m actually delighted as I’d normally have eaten a lot worse and gained a lot more. Still ended with a 1lb loss so a win in my book! Am feeling enthusiastic so off to track down the next challenge now.

I’ve only been back here for a week or so (I think?) and I’m still easing back into it with plenty of indulgences over Christmas – so I’m very happy to say that I’ve maintained my weight. This morning I was the same as Monday last week: 75.8 kg. Which is also the same as I was four weeks ago. I refuse to experience ‘calendar regret’ (if I’d started then, think where I could be now…) so I’m going to be genuinely happy I’ve maintained and not gained.

Signed in on new thread already, but coming here to ‘confess’ with a warts and all weigh in. To put it into perspective I am just 1 pound up on where I was at this point last year, after having a similarly un-BSD Christmas. My main Christmas present was some Wi-Fi body composition scales so these results are on different scales to all my previous measurements and so I won’t be announcing a full challenge result.

My weight today is 11 stone 11.5, which is a stone up on my target. Pleasingly my body fat reading on my new scales is 29.2%, I say pleasingly, because that is in the normal healthy range whereas my old Salter scales insisted even at target weight that I was still 34% fat, when the Boditrax scan had me at 21.5% or close to ‘underfat’ for a non athlete. Muscle mass is 67.2% and my hydration on waking was 49.9%. Bone mass was 3.5%, hopefully that won’t change too much 😁

I expect the fat percentage is still reading high as without the hand electrodes it cannot detect the fact that I can still see my ribs as my fat level on my top half is far lower than it is on my legs and thighs, as a ‘pear shape’ body type. I will organise a Boditrax update in the new year and get some direct comparisons with my new scales, but in the meantime I am still committed to staying slim and healthy, and hope that 2018 is just as good a year as 2017 was. See you over on the new thread.

Just half a pound up on yesterday morning, not bad for Xmas – so total loss for this challenge is I think 1.5 lbs. I wont be joining the next challenge as I am not back until New Years Day and will be doing a full 8 weeks starting from scratch.

Happy New Year everyone. Thank you for your support on the past years challenges:

Happy Boxing Day to all. Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas…..without too much damage to THE QUEST. Overall, I am very pleased with how things went. A glass of wine for dinner and one of champagne for brunch on Xmas Day and a BSD friendly fruit cup were the only things not “on plan”….and a few small pieces of sushi Xmas Eve. So BSD stict compliance begins anew. Have not weighed myself today….will wait until my official day on SUN to see if any damage, but do not expect to have lost any over this week, but also do not expect to have gained. So fingers crosses. In any event, have gotten back on track.

Am curious about any specific food that those in UK and Australia do for New Years Day. In US the South does black eyed peas, and in the North those with some German ancetry do saurkraut. My family is Scotch/ Irish/ Welsh ancestry but somehow we picked up the saurkraut “thing” having grown up in Pennsylvania with so much of the Pennsylvania Dutch (ie really Deutch) customs shared across the state. So it will be saurkaut and roast pork for me for New Years Day….with some lovely Cauliflower Mash to round it out.

Hoping the 2018 will be a better year across the globe than 2017 was. Politically 2017 was a bit of a mess, and too many natural and man made tragedies to even count. Hope we are all blessed with a more tranquil year. Nowhere to go but up on that count.

LTC – So nice to see you out and about today! It gives me a chance to
wish you a Happy New Year 🙂
It sounds like you did great over the holiday. Like you, my only non
BSD friendly indulges were prosecco related on Christmas Day, more
than 1 glass. Usually that makes me retain fluid, so I won’t plan
on weighing until after I’ve had a few days of mainlining water!
Your comments about Pa. customs re pork/sauerkraut sparked a
memory for me. The first New Years I spent with my inlaws I was
served the same thing. I was told it supposedly brought good luck
for the year ahead. I think it would please o/h immensely if I was
to surprise him with it….Or course I’ll be looking forward to what
you’ll be posting on the food thread about how you plan to prepare
it. I’ll have to see if it can be scaled down for the 2 of us. What
part of the state are you from? O/h grew up in very tiny town east
of Pittsburgh, with a lot of people of German, Welsh, Italian and
Polish descent. It was a real culture shock the first time I visited
there, coming from the “gold coast” of coastal CT!

I’d also love to hear about the culinary traditions from other parts
of the world. I’m looking forward to joining all of you that plan on
moving to the new thread tomorrow 🙂

Allie

Late to party! Sorry. Pleased to report I broke the 60kg barrier finally and am 59.6kg.

No magic bullet, but a magic headcold that has wiped my appetite and made eating a bit of a chore has certainly helped!

Christmas here with lots of goodies. No calorie counting, low carb only (based on foods I know are good) and lots of showers to try and clear sinuses. Am sitting in bathroom now in fact! Cold means I don’t fancy cream or chocolate, which combined with a lot of walking explains it.

Happy NewYear all, onwards with THE QUEST (I love that whoever said it, am saddling my sturdy steed as we speak) x

Hi everyone, great to see so many good results and positivity. JackieM, headcold or no, it’s great that you’ve managed to break 60kg! Flick and Marie123, you are inspiring me to try harder in the next challenge. And well done everyone who managed to maintain or even lose a little.
Thanks everyone for the congrats and encouragement after my last post (I’m still catching up on all the posts!). After a few days offline though, I am back and reporting in with some mixed results. I managed a fast day on Friday, so as a result, my weight was down another 900g on Saturday morning to 80.6kg. However, I went to my sister’s place for afternoon tea and supper on Saturday. She normally has some savory things as well as sweet out for tea, so I didn’t really think to take anything as I thought I would be ok, but it was a huge spread of all sweet stuff and even though I had a large breakfast to break my fast, I had also been to the gym and was really quite hungry. I tried to just stick with an orange and a cup of tea, but eventually she wore me down and I had some shortbread and a chocolate truffle, and that was all it took to get me to lay into the sweet things. I did better at supper as we went out and we chose a mediteranean restaurant, so I was able to make good choices, but the damage was done. I didn’t put back on all that I had lost by the next day as I weighed in at 81.2kg, but it showed up the following day as I weighed in at 81.5kg even after another fast day on Christmas eve.
However, I am also considering the possibility that my scales are on the fritz (possibly they need new batteries?), as they are giving me readings all over the map this morning. The first was 81.6kg which seemed reasonable given the previous day’s reading and as I had eaten a fair amount of food (BSD friendly) on Christmas day. But I weighed myself 2 more times after just rushing around and doing some housework, but not eating or drinking anything, and the readings were 81.9kg and 82.4kg. If I keep gaining around 0.5kg every hour, I will be back up to my starting weight by the end of the day! So anyway, I’m not reporting a final weigh in for this challenge yet. I will pick up some new batteries when I go out later and see if that makes a difference for tomorrow. In any case, I will not be able to blame the scales!

Hi s-g hope you are enjoying your stay in the UK. I would love to join you on a straight 8 weeks. I started 4 week challenges about 15 months or more ago I suppose as a softer option. Now, like you, I need to get back to business and a straight 8 is called for. So count me in for Jan 2nd!

Chestnuts 28g carbs per 100g, yikes! And ooops! Lucky they’ve gone then. Potatoesxonly have 17g!

Morning all, I have posted in the new thread already and realised I didint do a final one here. My final weigh in shows a 700g gain for the week. Although it’s a gain I’m quite pleased as I have been “off plan” for much of that time! It’s funny though as although I’ve been eating and drinking more than usual, it’s still far less than I normally would at this time of the year. I finally broke my mince pie fast on Christmas Day – and was totally underwhelmed! I think next year I won’t bother to have one at all. I still love Christmas pudding but have had small portions with some cream, and in place of a meal (had some for tea last night). Christmas Day wasn’t too bad as I was cooking and had loads of roast veg along with the turkey and pork.
LTC you asked about New Yesrs Day traditions – I’m in Australia (but was born in U.K.) and not aware of any particular ones here. Our family has one though – roast turkey! We have a simpler version of the Christmas Day roast. Then we won’t have another roast for months, until maybe Easter or something as it’s summer time.
A lot of my friends have barbecues, and seafood is popular too (I’m allergic to shellfish though so we never do that).
Anyway, well done to all of the losers, and everyone else (like me) who tried but didn’t quite get there with our goals – the main thing is we are still here and working towards them!
See you in the New Year thread 🙂

I’m not aware of any New Year food traditions in Australia, although of course a lot of immigrants would have brought their own. Maybe as SueBlue suggested a BBQ on New Year’s Day? I’m sure my Chinese sister-in-law has many food traditions like long noodles to promote long life, but she celebrates New Year in February.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas. Have found it difficult keeping up with posts as such a busy time, but just need to complete on here before joining you all on the new year thread. My goal was to lose 6 lbs and get to under 11st, which I happily managed to reach a week before Christmas, but am disappointed to have put 2lb on over the festive period. Never mind, it’s back to being strict and getting back on track tomorrow. I’m back at work so should be really easy to get back into BSD routine, I tend to eat the same kind of stuff on workdays and find it easier to be organised with my evening meals. See you all on the next thread x

Allie….Happy New Year back to you. I grew up probably not far from your OH (for me midway between Altoona and Johnstown….both brothers now live on either side of PGH). I love the old immigrant neighborhoods of PA. Weddings in the small town I grew up in were a crazy mishmash of beloved foods from Poles, and Italians, and Hungarians. And of course Pennsylvania Dutch. Perogis next to lasagna, next to Italian cookies and Hungarian nut rolls. Nobody’s traditions were left out.

For our pork and saurkraut….nothing fancy. Small pork roast or even tenderloin nestled atop a bed of saurkraut and baked until pork done. May do pork tenderloin as it is so BSD friendly….sear it first to brown on one side and then finish in slow oven atop the kraut. Maybe a bit sauteed onion stirred into the kraut with a bit of white wine (or vermouth if no wine open….so vermouth it will be ). And the faux mashed “potatoes” (cauli mash) on the side.

Congrats to JackieM on breaking thru 60kg. Well done…..at least your head cold came with a silver lining. I’ll take a weight loss anyway I can get it.

While it would seem odd to have sunny warm weather for Xmas, having BBQ in Australia for New Years sounds like heaven….especially with the cold snap we are getting right now. I had to smile a bit while watching the Call the Midwife Xmas Special last night….the core of the plot were the problems that Londoners were facing with 2 feet of snow and temperature 5-7 degrees below freezing. I am sure that is a hardship when you are not used to it. For the upper half of the US in winter, that is life from Nov through March (although 2016 was MUCH milder than that for a change). So its “hunker down time” for the US for the next couple of weeks. Those of you Down Under, enjoy your lovely weather. We all are a bit jealous.

Hi everyone I’m a bit late with my update but here it is before I join you all for the next challenge.
Firstly Allie I love the image of your white Christmas. How wonderful. We were blessed with a bit cooler day after some really hot ones. Christmas for me this year was a very stressful family situation so I was dreading it. Things didn’t go completely to plan but Christmas Day was better than I expected. However, a bit of stress but eating certainly crept in, oh, extra nuts and cheese n soy crackers! I did ‘go to town’ at the buffet in terms of quantity but I stuck to my bsd principles and drank soda water n lemon and loaded my plate with oysters and prawns before a selection of hot meats and cherries and berries plus pineapple! Boxing Day I had 1 glass of moscato and found it too sweet. Don’t think I’ll be tempted at New Year. More stress snacking nuts/ cheese and extra berries/ cherries creeping in so no surprise I finally weighed myself today( I’ve been away and couldn’t) and 102.3 so up a little over this week but I started at 106.8. So not my lowest but 4.5 kg in total for the month and lots of other health benefits already. Back on track from today. Congratulations to everyone. I’ve only just had a chance to read all of your reports and I’m reading so many fantastic
results!

I’m very late with my final weigh-in. I had a really strange week where my weight blipped up to 83.6kg overnight (maybe a delayed result of my Christmas higher calorie and carbs?), but after a few days it has gone back down to 81.2. So I didn’t meet my target of 80kg for this challenge, but still recorded a loss of 1.5kg. Thanks to everyone who provided support and suggestions for quick and easy BSD meals to help keep me going when life got busy and stressful. I’m doing much better with ensuring that I get my veggies and no longer resorting to frozen pizza and ready meals, so that is a big improvement over this time last year.
Looking forward to the next challenge!