I will be honest, I am struggling a bit to keep up and properly supporting the thread .SG …..HELP ! Glad you had some special family time .Don’t worry about the food truck choices , you will soon sort that .

Another week begins . I am just plodding on and adjusting according to what is going on . Fasting when I can

Yes we are a bit ‘thin on the ground’ but I always feel bad letting anyone down so as long as you want the weekly thread to continue, we will be here xx

Wendy and sunshine girl xxx

Thank you so much Wendy and SG for keeping this thread going. I love the June title, but I’m afraid I’ve been doing too much of the joyful, and not enough judicious!
I pay attention to the food I’m eating but it’s after dinner when I pop into the kitchen for cheese, dark choc etc – when I am already full. I really need to crack down on this habit! Where’s the wet lettuce leaves. 😀
I’ve got Tim Spector’s Food for Life from the library, so I need to read through that to get myself re-energised.
You’re going well Tulip. Very inspiring.
Your gardening exploits are amazing Articfox. Makes my hour or so of weeding look small, but I do enjoy getting it done. A rainy day tomorrow – it’s the start of our winter, so housework it is!
Merry.

Hi Wendy, sorry you are feeling the strain. I am going to be back on board 100% for the foreseeable so if you want me to take over and give you a break that’s fine with me.

I will say though that if people want the thread to continue, you know the old saying, use it or lose it. We will see how it goes for the next couple of weeks but I did feel like I had to jump in to prop it us last week. Without the 2 Wendy’s and Tulip it would have been a wash out but while people are still posting I will stay.

That said, I really need it right now. One week of eating absolute crap while trying not to has led to a 5.7lb increase. However, it has reminded me of something. Why do we give up carbs completely (almost) and that it because carbs drive hunger and it seems it can only be relieved by more carbs. That’s when it gets out of control. I have actually been snacking on bread and butter late at night. I don’t normally eat after 8pm but found myself with my head in the fridge at just before midnight last night. All that stops now.

Merrymelba, you must have posted while I was still typing. Great to see you. Hope we can all get back on the right track.

I know I wont suffer from carb flu or withdrawal but I am going to feel the hunger. My goal for June is to ditch the 5.7lbs I have gained, no carbs and no alcohol for the whole of June. That is my pledge.

Do come and join us, even if you are struggling. Even after all this time I still have my own struggles. Just keep on keeping on…

Sorry you’ve struggling Wendy. Sending hugs.
I’ve just been plateauing for the last few weeks, can’t get any weight to shift. So big effort this week the plan is 2 meals a day for 4 days this week and then only a very small 3rd meal for the other 3 meals so 🤞 this works. Fiance has booked us to take his parents to a grand buffet Sunday lunch on the 25th where the food is amazing so must be good until then.

Hello everyone & thank you for setting it up again Wendy & I hope this next week will be a better one for you!
I’m trying to be back on track again & hoping to lose seven pounds in June but it’s lunch at a friends house on Thursday & a bowls breakfast brunch on Saturday this weekend.
Let’s all just keep soldiering on & heaven knows when I will be able to fit in a fast but Hey Ho I will keep trying to at least get to my having lost two stone since last Christmas!
Margaret xx

Sorry for not posting last week. I was a bit overwhelmed with work and all the work needing to be done on the farm. I was falling way behind. I’m off work this week, so attempting to catch up.
Merry – I freqently feel that I’ve taken on too much, and so I envy your 1 hour of weeding. I did another 4 hours this morning and have only managed to get 1.5 50 ft beds done. So much more to go. We are so dry right now, so if you get enough rain to get tired of it, please send some my way!
I have at least managed to continue with my higher protein experiment and it seems to be going well. At the very least my carb cravings have dropped substantially. My legs do not seem to be swelling up as much in the heat either, although I have been able to go swimming in my parents pool so that could be helping as well.

I’m ok,folks ….it’s just that I seemed to have more free time when I was working ! It sounds mad but I suppose my hours were fixed ..?
I do feel guilty when I can’t support the thread as I would like to. I know though that we are all busy with stuff going on.
Thanks SG. I will definitely need you to take over when I disappear to Australia this autumn…woo hoo !

Let’s just do our best folks. The sun is shining here…life is good 😚😚

Hi Wendy and all, a thank you from me to you and SG for keeping this going. Life here has taken a sad turn, hence a long silence. I won’t go into details. But I need to get back on track for my own health, so will be rejoining you. Have a good week everyone. x

Hi everyone and a special welcome back to caronl – sorry you have been having difficulties, hope things are getting better for you.

Elle, it can seem pointless to post if all you are saying is the same old, same old and especially if it is not good news. I always know when there is something wrong with my friends when they dont get in touch for ages. That is the time to reach out. We think we are going to bring others down if we share our problems but people don’t absorb problems like that. It can help you get rid of it from your mind but also help others to feel the gratitude and share their caring for you. You dont have to tell anyone what is going on but we are a community and we can at least be there as a shoulder and a hug.

Arctic, you are always working so hard. I imagine you in the Canadian countryside in your farmers gear – are you actually a farmer or smallholder – you probably have to be hard at work. I have 2 very small veggie plots about 6ft x 6ft although one is taken up by some herbs that have got out of hand, I now have a bay tree rather than a bush. I am growing 12 tomato plants, 6 courgettes, several lettuces and I have a separate strawberry patch. But once the initial planting has been done I really just potter and prune and pick. I plant 6 courgettes every year because they come in trays of 6. Normally I lose 4 for various reasons, slugs, ants, moles, rabbits. However, this year they are rampant and I have just picked 4 medium ones today, one for lunch already. I wont be buying any cucumber or lettuce as the courgettes will be my greens for a while. I am also madly picking cherries (very small ones) in the hopes of getting hubby to make some cherry jam for his own use – not for me. I have to do a few each day as they are tiny and it is quite hot here now.

Wendy1947, you said at the start of your journey that you very often give up after a few weeks. Well you are still here and still with goals and motivated. I think you have settled into allowing yourself to have the occasional treat or meal out and not letting it ruin things for your diet as it might have in the past. Maybe I could aim for 7lbs with you and see how we get on.

My diet is going very well (only 2 days but….) I have gone right back to basics and making meals based on week 1 menu in the back of the MM BSD book. Sticking to 800 cals and 30g carbs – that is about as low as I can go on carbs – managing 33 today after calculating everything in advance. Had a swim on Tuesday, 30 mins but only managed 15 yesterday as a storm came over. I dont mind swimming in the rain but I do draw the line at lightening.

Well, I have gone on a bit. See you all tomorrow.

Well for better or worse I have just signed with the village gym to use their machines to strengthen my legs & hopefully tone me up as well. It’s for three months so I will see how I get on & I have booked an appointment next Tuesday to start using the machines with some guidance on how many reps etc 🤔
The sun is still shining here which is lovely & my runner beans & tomato plants seem to be doing well which is encouraging since I’m not green fingered.
I hope you are all having a good day! I will try to do a 24 hour fast on Friday starting on Thursday evening after our lunch with friends.
Margaret

Hi all, well done for signing up at the gym. Not my cup of tea but I do go sometimes with my daughter. Dont mind the walking machine but cant manage the high steppers or the ones that move like you are skiing.

I’m still doing well and tonight I will be nil by mouth from 8pm for blood tests tomorrow. The nurse is coming to the house. Discovered I can do this as I am classed as being at risk of falling down with hunger if I have to go to the lab. Only taken 18 years for them to realise, but I think it is a lot to do with my age. Swam for 30 mins yesterday.

Have forgotten to mention I bought some super hi tech scales which measure everything. Only thing is I have to remember to take my phone into the bathroom each morning. Not far to walk to get it.

Courgettes are starting to come in one big rush so I will be searching interesting recipes, not sure I like courgette soup. I could do some fritters but I am trying not to have snacks – maybe for lunch.

Hi everyone,
I am exhausted after a week off work and working out in the hot sun instead during our heat wave (35 C here today), but I have a small NSV to report. JGwen always talks about collar bones reappearing, etc. but for me it is my shin bones that have reappeared! My ankles are definitely looking skinnier too. I haven’t measured my waist, but I went for a swim at my parents place this afternoon and when I looked in the mirror my stomach area looked flatter and not so distended. I am only wearing my compression tights for as long as I can in the morning and then taking them off when it gets too hot, so to be getting less puffy during a heat wave while wearing my compression less is a major win. I have my next lymphatic drainage massage tomorrow, so we’ll see what the therapist has to say. She took very thorough measurements of my legs a few weeks ago (every 5 cm from top to bottom), so I’m motivated to keep going and see how much more I can shrink before she measures again in a couple of months.
Margaret, well done on joining the gym. I used to go frequently several years ago as I was in a bootcamp class that I really enjoyed. Not since moving though, as I moved to the farm during Covid and there is less opportunity in this rural area. I’ve been slowly getting stronger each year though just from farm chores, so I think that should count for something. I can walk a short distance while carrying a 50 lb hay bale in each hand, and that’s something I couldn’t do even when I was younger. In looking up Ted Naiman for his take on protein, I came across his video again about training muscle to failure. Very interesting and something I’ll keep in the back of my mind for winter.
S-g – I’m not sure what the definition of a smallholder is as it is not a term we use here, but I think I might fall into that category? I have 18 acres, but 4 of them are across a creek and up a cliff and completely inaccessible. The property has been very neglected and same with the creek and dyking system that holds it back, so a large portion of my 10 acre hayfield is too wet to get much off other than a very poor crop of hay. A local farmer cuts it and buys it from me to feed to his dry cows as my horses won’t touch it. I just had some good news last night though that work on the creek will commence in August, so with any luck my field will be drier and at less risk of flooding next year. The horses are on about an acre, but I run them out onto the hayfield once the hay is cut. I have over 2 acres in lawn that I would like to convert to something more productive in the future, and 1/3 of an acre is where I produce my cut flowers, veggies and garlic that are my main cash crops. Normally I have quite a lot of veggies for my personal use as well, but I’m a bit slow off the mark this year in that regard. So far I’ve had asparagus, spinach and a few strawberries. It’s probably just as well though. My neighbour planted out all her tomatoes and then she had to go away last weekend and the deer ate them all while she was gone. My parents normally put up loads of cherries off their trees every year, but we had such a severe winter that there will be next to nothing this year. Even the commercial cherry farmers have lots of damaged trees, so it will be a small crop overall. I am clearing an area of weeds (hopefully I will finish tomorrow) and I will plant squash and corgettes there into landscape fabric to keep the weeds down and to conserve moisture. We are so very dry this year and it is getting quite concerning. We were originally forecasted to get 15mm of rain over the weekend, but they’ve downgraded it to 1-3 mm. I nearly cried when I saw that!

Good morning everyone & S-G I didn’t say I liked going to the gym 😂 but will try to do it & keep on going because I apparently now have a stronger left leg from stepping forward on it to bowl that has made my bad right leg even weaker! It seems my bowling has not helped & with losing weight I’m increasingly looking as though my skin is too big for my body 🙁🙀so I don’t know if toning my muscles will help but I’m hopeful. My main enjoyable exercise was moving with music & dancercise which I can no longer do so have to resort to more static exercises🙁
I use quite a lot of courgettes in making ratatouille with tinned tomatoes & also baking/roasting the same mix of vegetables with cherry tomatoes, tossed in olive oil with more garlic & fresh fish can be added on top covered in pesto or garlic purée to cook for a further 15 minutes. I also often make the chunky courgette & leek soup with prawns from the Keto 800 book which is delicious very fast to make & low calorie 😀
Arcticfox you are so energetic & hardworking & it’s lovely you are noticing skinnier parts of yourself & you are a wonderful example of keeping on going 👏👏
I’ve just weighed myself after a very enjoyable catch up & lunch with friends yesterday & have gained 0.5 lb but hope fasting since 7-30pm last night until supper tonight will lose that & I will weigh on Saturday before playing in the bowls matches & “enjoying” the calorific cooked breakfast brunch! I’m off to play Mahjong this afternoon keeping my brain ticking over & have just received two books recommended to me called Sod 70! & Sod Sitting that I bought from Amazon which are helpful & amusing motivational lifestyle books😀
I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend & we have a heat health alert here in the south of a weekend with temperatures reaching 28-30c degrees so we will be getting our fans out!🌞🌞
Margaret xx

Hi all, hope you are having a good day. Nurse came this morning so I have been waiting for my blood results before posting. All is normal except triglycerides, which do go up and down and I have been overdoing the alcohol during my 2 recent holidays so I am not worried. I am also seeing some problems with creatinine, uric acid and another one which are all to do with kidneys. Funnily enough it is something I was going to talk to Dr about as I am sure I have a bladder/urinary tract infection. Constantly going to the toilet to pee and not being able to do anything then needed to go straight after I have left the loo. At least all the diagnostics have been done so I think it is obvious. Seeing doctor on Wednesday.

As I was up early I had an early breakfast and went for a swim. Good job as it has rained all day and down to 23 degrees. Nice to feel cooler and to have some rain. We are forecast for storms over the weekend so they may well be heading to the UK as they usually follow the coast upwards – so you are now getting the hot weather we have had.

Nice some of you have NSV’s, slimmer ankles or better mobility.

Arctic, in the UK a smallholder is someone who has just a few acres or a field and grows enough veg etc to have a market stall and feed themselves. Usually the only livestock would be some chickens for eggs and/or a goat or two for milk. Sounds like you have a bit more. Me, I just has a small allotment i.e. a cottage garden just for home use.

Oh, just remembered. Still sticking to around 800 cals but today I had watermelon and cucumber salad for lunch and was shocked to see the amount I had was around 26g of carbs. It is less if I have gala melon – only 5g. So what is going on here, I thought it was just water.

Gosh a lot you are dealing with at the moment S-G I hope your Doctor is able to help!
I am pleased to be able to say I have shed 4.25lbs in weight which includes last weekends & my lunch out gain, so no doubt lots of fluid loss but also a little more fat as well from when I last weighed. It’s the short mat bowls competition this morning followed by a brunch when I will eat bacon, sausages, eggs & some baked beans that I’ve worked out to be about 700 calories but mainly protein apart from the beans which will all keep me going until a light supper this evening. So eating to my BMR calorie level today.
It’s already warming up here & we will go into town afterwards because I am returning some clothes I bought that are not flattering on me. I’ve also managed to book a hair appointment next week to have my hair cut back to jaw length to try to look smarter before our Yorkshire family gathering next weekend. Things feel more positive with me now & the sun is shining 😀🌞🌞
I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend!
Margaret xx

what a vibrant thread!
Maassive thank you to Wendy and SG for keeping it going.
Been a tough few days….. I am weighing 7lbs lighter still but have hit a plateau….however! I received some health news this week that was quite shocking – I mean, I knew there was a problem but not that bad- severe obstructive sleep apnoea….I have been referred for a trial of CPAP, but this is also another massive incentive to get my weight back down into normal BMI….
So, full speed ahead with this WOE.
My son (youngest child) had CAMHS assessment and lots of advice and a plan (he’s not been in school for most of the last term with mental health issues).
Daughter no.2 (middle child) is in the middle e of GCSEs and the anxiety has set off severe vomiting….as in hours and hours prior to each exam and yesterday she spent almost a third of one exam out in the corridor vomiting…..anti -emetics aren’t helping…… 🙁
Err…..good news?….we have lovely weather atm! Dry, so a lot of watering, but lovely to be out in the warm.
Thanks Merry, I have got to keep it going 😚
Lovely to hear everyones news and NSV…..wish I had morw time to reply to everyone.
Love to all,
Tulip xxxxxxx

Hi everyone, hope the sun is still shining where you are. Nice to have some rain yesterday and saved me having to water the fruit, veg and flowers.

Tulip, sounds as though you have a lot on your plate and things going on around you. I know it is not easy but try to stay strong, especially for daughter no.2. A difficult time for youngsters after the last few years they have had, it is good youngest son is getting help, a lot aren’t. Yes, we just have to keep on.

Margaret, great that your weight is still coming down. I am still there chasing you but not quite 4.25. It is not so much I have a lot of things to deal with. I am hoping it is just a bladder infection. It is just that I have had my annual blood and urine works done and there are a lot of indicators to do with kidneys, bladder etc. This is why I have all these tests, diabetics are prone to kidney disease so my doctor keeps a close eye on thing. Just that some of the markers for kidney problems are showing but only little blips i.e. monocytes should not go above 0.80 and mine are 0.82 – so just a small anomaly. They are not showing worst case just small worries and if I can tell them I have been having bladder problems then I will get a dose of antibiotics. As I said they wont have to do a whole raft of blood tests to rule out serious kidney problems as they already have all the results.

Hoping to have a swim later but I have to tell myself I don’t have to exercise every day, it just seems a shame not to when the pool is there and the weather is good. Also, had the melon for lunch again but I have weighed it out so I can do a proper calculation. I dont think I had as much as I thought yesterday, I said 2 cups and hubby said it was more like one – he always uses cup measurements whereas I use scales. Talking of scales, loving my new Renpho scales and love watching the other numbers come down like BMI, body fat etc.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and keep on keeping on…

Another good day, more weight loss and other indicators coming down like BMI and body fat. Visceral fat is staying the same and so is my metabolic age, these are the things I really want to get down.

Daughter paid a fortunue to do the Zoey tests. They dont talk about calories but overall gut health. Apparently she has almost no good bacteria and trying to adjust her eating. Because of that, plus having the Yuka app to analyse the foods I have been buying, I have been looking carefully at things. For example, when I have finished the Actimel yoghurts I will never buy them again – too high in sugar and calories even though I only buy plain. I am happy that I can now get Skyr yoghurt here. Couldnt for a long time but only just looked again when I saw it on offer. It is twice the price of the Greek style yoghurt we buy but so much better for me. We keep on learning.

More sunshine, more swimming and more courgettes 🙂

Well done S-G for keeping on track 👏👏 I didn’t like to say anything before because I didn’t want to offend you but you have now discovered that Actimel is not worth all the hype. My husband & I use Kefir which is full of active helpful bacteria that is a pre-biotic feeding the good bacteria in the gut & helping them multiply so they can make use of the vegetables & pulses we eat & continue to multiply. We are able to get organic Kefir from our milkman which tastes like slightly sour natural yoghurt but has different bacteria in it. It’s also possible to buy live starter kefir to make your own.
My husband & I have a small glass each day about 100ml that seems enough to us. We have not had our gut bacteria analysed but really are going on what MM said in his Clever Guts Diet book.
Margaret

Hi everyone,
I watched the Zoe podcast last night where they were interviewing Chris van Tulleken about ultra-processed food. I’ve seen him on other things before and listened to his podcast with his brother Xand about trying to get Xand off ultra-processed food, but still I learned some new things. For instance, that most flavoured yogurts are considered to be ultra-processed. I normally just eat plain yogurt, but I had some flavoured yogurt in this week. It is from a company that I provided some start up funding to in a former job, so I like to buy it occassionally. I picked up the vanilla flavoured one thinking it was plain. After listening to the Zoe podcast I checked the ingredients, and it is of course processed, but not ultra-processed. The only flavourings are honey and vanilla bean. I was glad to see that! I suspected it would be good because the owner of the company is a microbiologist who is focused on getting the right mix of bacteria to get the creaminess without all the additives. It was a nice treat to have this week given how hard I’ve been working around the farm. Back to my office job tomorrow, so back to the plain Greek yogurt for me.
I’m inside having a late lunch after planting out 20 tomato plants, 9 pepper plants and 2 squash. I moved more than 20 wheelbarrows full of composted horse manure into this area of the garden yesterday, so that was pretty hard work. I covered it over with landscape fabric so I won’t have much weeding to do. Lots of space left for courgettes, cucumbers and melons, but I only started them inside yesterday.
Lunch today is a leftover prawn and cucumber salad with a creamy lime and dill dressing. I’m pleased with how it turned out. Not sure yet what I will have for dinner. But I have some volunteer lettuce in the garden that is wanting to bolt, so should use that up. I’ll have to see what I have in the freezer that could go with it.
Hope everyone has had a good day!

Hiya,

Thanks SG 🙂

I did the Zoe thing back in January….my gut bacteria came out as really good/ excellent, so I was thrilled with that- I have Fage Total 5% live greek yog for brekkie and lots of plant diversity etc, plus I take a probiotic capsule twice a day (bio kult)……that was the good bit! My blood sugar responses were dreadful, not a surprise, as the reason I did this diet was to cure pre diabetes, which worked, but I was expecting that to be my weak spot…..what surprised me, not in a good way, was that my fat responses aren’t great either…..

So, it was pretty insightful.

Love to all xxxxx

Tulip – very interesting about your Zoe results. It isn’t available here yet, but I suspect that I’m in the same category as you. I know I have poor blood sugar control from my history of reactive hypoglycemia and that was confirmed by wearing a continuous glucose monitor for a month. I suspect that my fat response isn’t very good because of how poorly I started to feel when I was trying to really drop my carbs very low and increased fats, and I stopped losing weight as well. Moderately low carb seems to work better for me as I can consume more foods with lots of fibre.

Hi all,
RubyG still here, I have been travelling a lot with work recently, and still stuck at about the 12st7lb, ups and downs of a few pounds either side.
Picking up on a few themes – I had a look at the Zoe website as I’d love to know what my gut biome is doing, and my insulin response etc. but I am not £299 interested!
While travelling, I have had Greek yoghurt with seeds for breakfast every day, sometimes some smoked salmon or boiled eggs, from the usual hotel breakfast buffet. My first week, lunches were OK with some protein and a salad, suppers contained carbs in some way and at the end of the week I attended a family event where I ate all kinds of what would previously have been seen as special foods (cake, ice-cream) and the following day I felt awful! Serves me right, and I need to recall that awful feeling next time I am tempted.
My second week away, I avoided carbs at all but 1 meal (provided on site) and shopped at the local supermarket for fresh salad ingredients for lunch and supper for 2 days, which actually worked really well and I ended the week feeling much better.
This week I am back to 16:8 and low carbing, but also watching portion size and calories, as this is where I trip up – too much good food is still too much food.
I have been reading Dr Chris von Tulleken’s Ultra Processed book, and it is an interesting and engaging read, and although I aim to eat whole food most of the time, it has got me looking at the ingredients on those other items which I would normally buy in. There are some interesting topics in the book.
Re. fermented food and drink – I too make milk kefir at home and we have about 100ml each evening, it makes me feel virtuous if nothing else. I also make kimchi every so often, and this weekend past I made a batch of 5 jars which are currently at their very active bubbly stage so they will go in the fridge in a few days to slow them down. I would like to get into the habit of eating some kimchi every day, we shall see.
Re. the garden – it is neglected with all my travels, but I have had some asparagus and strawberries, no courgettes yet, and I haven’t checked on the broad beans but they were coming along nicely.
Have a good week all 🙂

Hi all, back for another day of interesting conversation.

RubyG, great to see you back, how is hubby doing. Margaret, I wouldnt have been offended. I use Actimel because I was fed up of paying £26 a month for the capsules and thought it might be a pleasant easy way to get the pre or pro biotics. However, I know they get killed off before they hit the gut and there are foods that can help, like Kimchi, Kombucha etc. Only problem is we cant get these things where we are and I am not sure about making my own as I am likely to poison myself. There is a health food store about 20 miles away so I do get some things from time to time when passing but even they dont have a good range of the gut healthy foods.

We can all make mistakes and the science is always changing, which is why a site like this is a good source of tried and tested personal recommendations.

Daughter paid the £299 and is now on a 3 month membership. She has a lot of gut problems and food intolerances. Her skin flares up red and raised just by putting on a jumper, she has terrible gut problems and as someone who likes to walk or run she is having to pump herself full of imodium before she can go out. Just hope the science of Zoe and the ongoing support will help her. I think she is going to go through all the tests again in 3 months to see if anything has improved. However, Dr Amil on Lorraine said if you cant afford to pay for Zoe just eat all the veg on your plate then the protein and hopefully you wont want to eat the carbs. In other words cut down or out of carbs.

I weighed in a 0.3kgs up this morning but with the help of my new scales was able to see that I have increased muscle mass and also bone density, so the old adage that muscle weighs more than fat is giving me hope. I am still doing well and will report total loss tomorrow on the new thread.

Hubby is still doing well re. BP readings and no longer pre-diabetic, and that is why we continue to follow this WOE.
However, as many of us have discovered/are discovering, maintaining the weight loss is really difficult, it creeps back on almost without noticing it and is so much harder to shift than the first time. Saying that, we have both gained less than a stone since our lowest (I know, that is still far too much) but the blood results are healthy, so I’ll take that for now.
The family event we went to, we were surrounded by carbage, we avoided the worst offenders of pastry and sandwiches, but I was speaking to a family friend, about my age or a few years older (so 50’s), and she poured out to me how unhealthy she was feeling, first she was pre-diabetic, then T2 diabetic and now diabetic T2 on Metformin and she has no willpower to stop eating sugar. I didn’t know what to say, as we both were eating ice-creams! But in the UK it seems to be almost inevitable and accepted by both patients and the NHS. It made me feel sad and powerless.
S-G I hope your daughter gets the info she needs from the Zoe studies, I just couldn’t justify the outlay to satisfy my curiosity. I am trying to be more mindful of eating, and if I don’t feel hungry then I shouldn’t eat, just because it is a certain time of the day. Saying that, I am ravenous this afternoon and looking forward to a piece of salmon with beansprouts and oyster mushrooms and some soy sauce and chilli for supper later.

Hi everyone
Hi Merry ! Joyful is good sometimes for sure but I understand certain habits are hard to break. My problem is cooking tasty morsels for family, guests visiting etc and that causing me to veer off track. I have to fast to get back on track or I can get into dangerous territory .
I respect Tim Spector’s views and have read his books.There is also a Zoe podcast .SG, I have never consider paying for the Zoe tests but I reckon I would trust them. I just have a keto mojo meter which measures blood sugar and ketones.That was not cheap though !

Caronl, good to see you back with us and so sorry you have been struggling with difficult times . I hope we can help you to focus on your health .Please look after yourself.
Tulip/Clare ,my goodness that is a lot to deal with ! Hubby was diagnosed with sleep apnea soon after he arrived in France and has the dreaded darth vader mask but I think without that he would have had serious cardiac issues so it is worth persevering .So sorry two of your children are struggling . Honestly there is so much pressure on kids with exams etc and it is tough . Just do your best and look after yourself too . Like SG you are really on the ball with health markers etc .Knowledge is power !

RubyG I too have learned my lesson and I know that eating c**p makes me feel c**p . I remember lying on my mat in my yoga class and just feeling heavy and bloated after a meal the previous day in which flour , bread etc featured heavily. These were food gifts contributed by friends but they really made me feel yuk. I think we are pretty careful here not buying processed foods .Well I say that but hubby cannot resist his crisps ! I buy several varieties of fermented veg here when I run out of time to make my own . SG I can give you details of an online bio shop you could try if you can’t get kimchi, kombucha, kefir locally.20 miles is a long way to find a supplier .
Articfox I think you are amazing with your efforts and determination ! You work so hard ! Our veg garden is very modest .Lots of leaf beet and chard, potatoes, courgettes and of course tomatoes.I am lucky to have an organic farm stall up the road and I love their lettuces and green beans . There is no way I could take on your tasks , and you have a fulltime job too !!

Margaret , well done for never giving up.You are always mindful of prioritizing your health and getting back on track after excesses . You would struggle here as the temperatures you mentioned are standard here in France and can frequently exceed 30 degrees !

I have a couple of busy weeks with visitors ( my son and his partner on his way to the Pyrenees , then hubby’s son, daughter in law and grand daughter arrive ) .I had totally forgotten that we had booked to go to Paris for a few days at the end of the month too ! I had to rebook because our previous trip got cancelled because of rail strikes .
Love to Elle-Mae ! You know what to do , no worries , you will soon be showing results again .Crikey, not sure I could be trusted with a grand buffet Sunday lunch but I am sure it will be a lovely treat .

Right , signing off now but will be back shortly to set up the new thread .I just want to say a massive thank you to SG for keeping this thread going and motivating everyone !! You are a star, Denise !!!

RubyG I do like your word carbage 😂 & I’m sure I’m going to find lots of that to negotiate at my upcoming family weekend in Yorkshire starting next Friday🤔🙁
Margaret