One week at a time beginning 20th APRIL 2021…

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  • posted by arcticfox
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    Hi everyone,
    I had a pretty active day today, even by normal weekend standards. I had 3 proper full meals for the first time in ages. I was getting hay delivered today, and I was initially planning to not eat breakfast and just operate on my fat stores for the morning, but I think the stress of the week was playing havoc with my blood sugar and as I was potting up some tomatoes while waiting for the hay to arrive, I started to feel quite low and shaky. So I did end up eating breakfast. Then I helped unload 3 ton of hay that came in 3 loads, but the guy delivering had brought lots of help, so I didn’t end up doing too much. I weeded and watered the garden in between loads. The delivery guy said ‘that is a huge garden. Not a large garden, a huge garden!’ That made me feel quite a bit better about my slow progress on it. He also complemented me on my paddocks and fencing which means a lot because he is a farmer himself but also used to build houses.
    I’ve been a plant murderer lately, but I finally realized what the issue is. I’ve been judging what to put out by looking at the weather forecast, but not realizing that I’m down in a bit of a frost pocket and my suspicion is that the overnight temperature is going down quite a bit lower than what the forecast for the area says. Because things like cauliflower and kale which should be surviving just fine now have succumbed. I likely need to get my own min-max thermometer so I know for sure what is happening.
    Anyway, after the hay delivery, my dad came over and we worked away on some of the fencing. I made us lunch in the middle of that which was burrito bowls with avocado, refried beans, salsa, cheese and a lot of shredded cabbage. Then I went and mucked out my horse and fed him. Final meal of the day was at my parents place because it was my mum’s birthday. I am exhausted! Just sitting here trying to get rehydrated with some electrolyte solution before bed. More of the same in store for tomorrow.
    Well done, s-g on your discard. You are on fire right now! I’m sure that I may have lost a kg or so today, but only from sweating so much. I am putting it back on as we speak!

  • posted by Workingfromthefridge
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    Sunshine Girl and Arctic Fox I love hearing about your lives in different parts of the world – so active! If I could post pictures of my day yesterday I would – a walk through bluebell woods. So beautiful here with the bluebells our and also the gorgeous Sakura cherry blossom – like pink Pom poms everywhere. Hopefulinoz my periods went the other way – almost semipermanent for a couple of months. It was a nightmare- more a perimenopausal problem though I think – and has been sorted by a coil. Such a relief! I couldn’t even do my half hour zoom yoga without having to rush to loo. Britta well done on the bbq – I met friend’s yesterday and not really good but bought and ate m and s snacks (mozzarella and tomato and prawns and artichokes and chicken pieces etc) rather than crisps so still stayed low carb. Off for another dog walk today – at least getting the steps in. Then roast chicken tonight. Yum

  • posted by Britta
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    Hopeful I know that some of the maintainers on here have like a ‘safety weight range’ (they call it something else I can’t remember), like a number that, if they hit it on the scales, makes them go back into 800 calories approach for a bit until back below the range.
    My period has also been a bit affected by dieting in the past. I’m mid forties though so like workingfromfridge says it could also be a perimenopause thing or maybe a combo.
    Well done sunshinegirl! Great week here as well and I won the battle with the BBQ yesterday. I have a good feeling about next week.

  • posted by Tulip1
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    Hi All,

    Just had a read around those set piunts being discussed- very interesting….I am definitely in the market for waiting it out and allowing some maintenance time as prolonged fasting is not for me- I like my 3 meals a day! However my natural eating pattern allows a 12 hr TRE pattern at least as I like dinner early. I think I may just be through a set point as been maintaining for weeks and now losing 1/2 lb per week again (not a lot for the BSD (I lost lots in a short time) but I am at normal weight range now- near the top- and trying to find a weight I am comfortable with, and playing around with general MM med style eating/ 5:2 kind of thing).
    RubyG, you made me giggle about the bra and the neighbours.
    Arctic fox, where do you live? It sounds amazing, and the way you manage it does too!!
    Love to all, T xxxx

  • posted by Tulip1
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    Oh, latest bra saga..
    The online fitting lady wants me to stuff a couple of socks into the cup with the smaller boob lol ….each day is a series of new hilarious pics…..basically when I say I am between an E to F cup, it’s that the left is an F and the right is an E so blimmin tricky to get the correct size…..I’m hoping that this is for working out a good bra for me and not a permanent solution 😂😂….
    SG how come you are thinking of leaving France? My MIL used to live in rural France (they retired there but have both passed away now)- she used to paint a lot but used the shaded veranda to do it.

    xxx

  • posted by sunshine-girl
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    Hi everyone, well the cover is off the pool and it will take me days to recuperate – was going to say recover but you might think I am putting it back on 🙂 – . Did some oil painting outside yesterday and, guess what, oils also dry out very quickly. It was 28 degrees yesterday and I was under a gazebo but still very hot. Also have the problem that I dont think there is enough of each colour in the kit. I have messaged the manufacturer to ask if I can buy separate. I have loads of tubes of oils but getting the right colour mix would be near impossible.

    So many questions – so – I did TRE last night and made 15 hours as we only have brunch (no breakfast) on a Sunday. Besides Sunday I always eat 3 meals a day and try to stay with 800 cals. At the times I have gone without I get very shakey. Yesterday morning I had not eaten from 8 pm and didnt feel hungry so waiting for lunch around 1pm. Had a no carb ploughman from the original book but by around 4pm I was shaking and had to have a snack. Being diabetic (sorry to keep mentioning it) it is better if I keep my BG at a steady level. Normally have breakfast at 10 am, lunch at around 1.30 pm and dinner at 7.30 pm so finished by 8. It doesnt work to have 2 large meals as it gives my BG a surge and it still drops, it doesnt stay high or level, it needs top ups.

    Finally, why am I thinking of leaving France. Some days I really dont want to. Like today seeing the pool open, and yesterday when it was 28 and I know it is around 16 in the UK. But then again, what about when we have 3 solid weeks of 35’s and even 40 degrees and you cant go out for a swim until evening or you would just frazzle. It is so hot you cant breathe. Then there is winter here. We are very rural and nothing is open, even without covid, we have around 3 or 4 restaurants we know we can rely on (maybe not anymore) but how often can you go out eating. Also, it is a tourist area so a lot of other things close down for the season. Then there is the language. I speak fairly good French but just imagine everything you want to do you have to be able to do it in a foreign language. Knowing the words for every eventuality, car breaking down, ringing to complain about something, ordering a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket, explaining something to the doctor. Especially if they reply with something you didnt expect or understand. It gets done but it is quite a lot to think about and can be stressful. Whereas in the UK you dont even have to think about it. Then there is family. We are missing them so much and the family has changed. My daughter and 2 boys has now morphed into daughter, finance, 2 boys and his 3 children. So 7 of them. It is not so easy for them all to come here to visit – cost of flights, blow up beds etc. I really dont mind but hubby would find it hard to cope with 5 kids in the house. Then if anything happens to us, they would have to come over and deal with all the French bureaucracy, tax laws, inheritance, selling our house and on and on and on. As we have found we have so many legal complications moving back to the UK but at least we speak French and are used to it. Best for all if we go back before we are too old to cope with such a big move and how lovely to be near our family.

    Sorry to blether on but I just wanted to get the questions out of the way. Really feel like a little drink tonight but will see how I feel later.

  • posted by florob85
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    Evening all, don’t you love it when you spend 4 hours cooking a new recipe that you’ve been looking forward to all week, only to pull it out of the oven and just think “that’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen in my life”?!

    Dinner could be late tonight as I scramble to find something else to eat!

    Lauren x

  • posted by RubyG
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    That sounds awful Lauren, I am intrigued to know what could go that wrong after so much effort.
    My minor disaster with last night’s supper was slow-cooked beef brisket (lovely) with a salad of sliced broccoli, cubes of some really nice creamy cheese, and pomegranate seeds (half a pomegranate between the 2 of us). I tracked the meal after we had eaten it, and I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that pomegranate seeds are quite carby, but I will remember that for next time.
    Back on the Asian style chicken broth for lunch today, with some smoked haddock in a cauli-rice kedgeree dish I think.

  • posted by HopefulinOz
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    Oh Lauren – that doesn’t sound good at all? What were you cooking? Mind you, I am impressed that you would spend 4 hours cooking anything (unless it was slow cooking on its own). About the only time I spend that long in the kitchen is at Christmas.

    Sunshine-girl – thanks for all of the great detail. I actually did my first proper TRE day today, from 7pm last night until 11am this morning, without any coffee (because I can’t drink it black). It was hard, I was literally counting down the minutes until I could have one, but I did find a herbal tea that I could sip on so that I at least had something warm in my hand.

    Still no resolution regarding my TTOTM – and none of the side affects anymore either. It simply seems to have just skipped a month. I don’t mind that much as my baby days are well and truly behind me, but I do hope that it doesn’t highlight any further concerns. I think I will see what happens over the next month, and if need be, head to the doctor. It may have nothing to do with this WOE, and actually be indicative of peri-menopause – my mother went through a full menopause at 45, believe it or not, so entirely possible that I have also started that process.

    On the weight loss side of things, my body seems to be going through a period of adjusting, as the scales have barely moved over the past week despite completely staying within my 20g net carbs, 55g protein, 800 calories and the rest coming from healthy fats. Ho hum….. frustrating, but I know that it is just part of the journey and to keep on keeping on.

    I hope you have all had a good start to the new week.
    Donna x

  • posted by florob85
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    Donna and Ruby, it was the Hairy Bikers (Donna are they known in Australia?!) Calabrian Ribs – I’d fudged the recipe a bit to make it BSD friendly but not excessively and it looked delicious in the book and on the TV. Let me tell you, I followed the cooking method to the letter and slow cooked it on low for 3 hours (1 hour was making all the faff and marinade etc) and it in NO WAY resembled how it should have looked! I was supposed to griddle it after to crisp up but oh what a grey slimy gelatinous mess it was, no amount of griddling was going to fix that! What’s telling is we left it on the stove to cool and forgot to throw it away last night, the cats broke into the kitchen in the night and had rummaged through the bin and found some broccoli scraps and an empty pouch of cat food. The ribs, which were sitting on the stove not covered – completely untouched by felines 😹

    Lauren x

  • posted by Goforgoal
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    Hi all,
    Hope you are well and have had a cracking week 🙂 Posting late. Got made redundant, so mind occupied by a lot of other things atm.
    Week 6 results: Saturday weigh-in 104.6kg Loss this week: -0.4kg Total loss: -7.4kg
    Chipping away at it slowly.
    See ya later in next week’s thread x
    🙂

  • posted by sunshine-girl
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    Managed to get through the weekend without any damage. I set my goal at 1.5 kgs eventually and that is where I am today. Tomorrow is weigh day so anything else will be a bonus. Back on TRE for another week, no goals set as yet.

    Lauren, it is demoralising to spend so much time working on something for it to go wrong. I usually find these cheffy meals never come out like theirs. I was very pleased when James Martin admitted that when he does his TV shows he has ‘an army of home economists’ in the back room doing all the hard work. You need to whittle it down to something manageable in the real world. I did pulled pork yesterday and I read a few recipes and then did what I thought was easiest. The rub was crushed garlic, brown sauce, worcester sauce, quarter teaspoon of stevia, cumin and paprika with a bit of rapeseed oil. Rub in while the pork sat in a double layer of foil, sealed it all up after putting in about 50 mls water and left it for 3 hours on 130C. Then I opened up the foil and cooked for a further hour at 140C. Left it to sit to cool, hubby shredded the meat while I used the juices in the bottom of the foil to reduce to a sauce and poured that over. Sounds like a lot of work but it was only making the rub then reducing the sauce. The rest of the time I did nothing and just got on with the garden stuff. I served it with a green salad and a few cherry toms.

    Pool cover off and now topping up the water – takes about a day. Needs a good vacuum out to get rid of the sahara sand, dead leaves and fished out a few dead toads/frogs. Trying not to do too much today as my back is killing me and we both need a day off. Got on with some more painting yesterday – and hopefully later today – and the paint goes a lot further when I am in the cool of the house, so might manage without buying more paint.

    Have a great week everyone.

  • posted by peanutbutty
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    Hi all, me again – I think last post was back in September?!

    I was hoping to lose 10k between then and December.

    But that was before lockdown 2 .. and 3…and associated stresses of partner needing to get new job due to Covid redundancies (successful thankfully, but gosh I really feel for people on the job market at the moment), then needing to find somewhere else to live, coupled with massive stress and overwork in my own job and worrying for family (all now recovered/ vaccinated, feeling so grateful).

    In the end I put nothing on and even lost 1 kilo .. not bad in the circs especially with my history of stress eating! but that still leaves the other 9.

    As said on a previous post I do find it hard to get under 50g carbs and eat healthily as a vegetarian with history of low iron, so try to stick to 100g absolute max. Total respect to those veggies who manage <50g, I did just about scrape by a few years back when I lost 15 kilo but have since decided that for the last 10k, the cons currently outweigh the pros for me at least. So I’m avoiding starchy food carbs (pasta, rice, bread etc) but not restricting fruit, veg (other than potatoes) or pulses.

    I’m on my third day since I knuckled down properly again (no afternoon biccy sob sob) and sweet bejesus but my head hurts!!

    Count me in for next week’s thread please. And best wishes to you all – hoping the last few months have been as kind as possible.

  • posted by Tulip1
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    SG- totally understandable reasons for moving! To be honest I did not enjoy holidays with my MIL in rural France- a hamlet- not that I don’t like France per se, I absolutely love it, the language, the food etc etc, but coupled with staying with my in laws (quite a trial) and the not terribly exciting countryside however with reams of massive barking dogs on all the properties in the hamlet and surrounding hamlets (I have a phobia), I was silently relieved at not having to continue the at least every 2 years if not every year obligatory ‘holiday’ there when MIL passed away (God rest her soul)…..I didn’t bank on equally difficult SIL taking it on as her holiday home (she’s a teacher so has loads of school hol leave)….sigh, the obligation continues….with our very limited leave during school hols I actually want to spend time as just our nuclear family, plus sometimes with my parents, and at least one bit by the sea as we are land-locked here and that bit of France is too.

    Sorry for the mini rant, it’s a sore, stressful subject!! And I don’t mean to sound unkind, but soooo much criticism from in laws on the way I do things too, so it isn’t relaxing with them at all.

    My diet…..well, 1 lb off over the last 2 weeks which is ok at this stage for me, happy with that, but generally overdid it this weekend witb carbs….combination of what I and hubby cooked and there were leftovers of both….must try harder.

    Love to all and welcome to newcomers and returners.

    Tulip xxx.

  • posted by florob85
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    Goforgoal so sorry to hear your news, be kind to yourself!

    Ha s-g I normally don’t try new recipes, not least because Craig is an extremely fussy eater (both that he’d admit it) and you have to introduce new things to him veeeeeryyyyy slowly! But we both saw it on TV the other day and thought oh that looks yum! I’ve tried a few Hairy Bikers recipes and they’ve generally been nice, this one not so much!! Your pulled pork sounds nice, I might give that a go, I don’t mind spending time in the kitchen if it’s worth it, I actually quite like cooking but man that was bad last night.

    Glad you got your pool sorted, dead frogs sounds grim ☹️ – I can do live frogs no problem, my cats at my mums used to bring them home all the time, dead ones not so much!

    Welcome back peanutbutty!

    Tulip oh I feel your pain with in-laws, mine are “challenging” shall we say! Fortunately we don’t go on holiday with them but there have been things said about me that have been a) completely wrong, and b) just insulting. And my future SIL is insane, she’s your best pal one minute then slagging you off the next, we met her in London (she lives there) for a drink after we’d been out one day, nice as pie, at one point she asked if we wanted to stay for another and Craig looked at me to see if that was ok (where we live there’s not many trains back so he knew I’d planned it carefully). Thought nothing of it. Next thing I know she’s been talking about how controlling I am and how he had to ask me for permission for a drink! Madness!

    Playing it safe for dinner tonight, chicken stuffed with garlic and herb phili and wrapped in Serrano ham! Planted all my veg seeds yesterday and was most disappointed not even one had grown this morning 😞 – maybe I need to adjust my expectations?!

    L xx

  • posted by Britta
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    At least your seeds might eventually germinate where you are Lauren, whereas the ones I stupidly put in at the weekend in the north of England because I just couldn’t wait, will no doubt die when winter starts again here next week! 😀
    I’ve lost 2 kg this week and feel like I am slowly winning the battle with the carb cravings, so I’m thinking one more week of the same – bsd diet, 3 meals a day, TRE – and then begin the calorie counting again week after next.

  • posted by wendleg
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    Hi everyone !
    I stupidly did not think to check why I wasn’t getting notifications from the thread so I am afraid I just let you chatter away amongst yourselves and I am very behind with the posts .

    So I can only just slope off and set up the new thread pretty damn quick and get caught up !!!

    Sorry

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