Hi MARIET,NOKIE,DCT and everyone XXX
ARCTIC,well done on your ongoing detective work sorting out what you can have and cant have. X
CCATHY I’m so disappointed for you about the cataract op. What does the vitrectomy entail?X
I’m full of admiration for you guys who can do long fasts..I think the longest Ive done is 20:4 and when I think,Ive been a faster since about 2014,I should have done better by now.
To all of us now in the wintry season,the bus is toasty warm and dry,so stay aboard,its the best place to be!
Soon be time for us to sing a few Christmassy songs as we bowl over hills and dales,admiring all the sparkly Xmas trees we see along the way!
I love this Audrey Hepburn quote…
💕⭐️💕⭐️💕⭐️ “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says “I’m possible!” Isnt that fab! X 💕⭐️💕⭐️💕

“IRRESISTABLE: WHY WE CAN’T STOP EATING” with Chris van Tulleken, BBC2 this evening. or on catch-up now.

I have just watched this on catch-up and I promise this is a program that you NEED to watch!

Hello all, just a quick update from me.
My mother in law passed away peacefully at the end of last week.
The last 2 months have been very hard as her health declined. She was almost 90 and had a good life. It’s a relief that she is finally free of Alzheimers and dementia to be honest, we essentially lost her 2 years ago…
So for now I’ll sit down quietly at the back of the bus but I’ll certainly be right up the front on the next one!

SUEBLUE its very hard when you lose someone twice – firstly when they get dementia,then again when they pass.
Its a happy release though isnt it when they had very poor quality of life. My sister died recently after being bedbound for over a year. No longer able to do the things she loved,so she was ready to go
Hard for us left behind though 💕. Sending love to you and your family xx

Hello SueBlue
Sending love and sympathy to you and your family at this sad time. Your mother in law is now at peace. I know you’ve had a difficult year. Take time to reflect and heal.
Yowser- sending love and sympathy to you- so sorry to read you recently lost your sister. Lots of love to you.

Hello sue blue
Sorry to hear your sad news but she is at peace now I wish all your family love and sympathy
Also yowzer I send my love to you on the loss of your sister
I 🙏 pray you will both will take time to heal
Sending love and 🤗 hugs
Nokie x💞🙏

Thanks Ladies,i appreciate it xxxx

Yowzer and SueBlue sorry to hear of your losses xx

SUEBLUE I’m so sorry to hear about your MIL. I know things had been difficult for all of you for some time. Try and take time now to look after yourself, though I know there will be yet more of our dreaded “sadmin” to do. But take things easy when you can, be kind to yourself, and build in some little treats now and again, such as a bit of pampering or a trip out somewhere. You need time to adjust and regroup and I’m sure we’ll all be here in some other thread when you’re ready to rejoin fully again.

Sending love and hugs to you SUE, and also to YOWZER. I didn’t know your sister had died and am so sorry to hear that. I remember you being concerned about her some time ago. Such sad news. As you say, she is free now, but it will take you time to come to terms with her loss. I hope that you are ok YOWZER, you are always so positive and encouraging to all of us on here, and I know we are all thinking of you with fondness right now. And it’s especially inspiring that you have achieved such amazing weight loss with all that’s been going on in the background.

A quick hello to everyone else too. CATHY and MIXnMATCH how are the fasts going? MIXnMATCH it’s great to hear you’re at your lowest weight since restarting this WoE. And CATHY I hope you get some positive answers from your ophthalmology appointment next week. NOKIE any progress on the move? You also mentioned family stuff going on and I hope that things are improving there. ARCTICFOX I hope you are coping well with the cold and dark, and also that you are adjusting to the findings on your elimination diet. You sound really determined and are doing so much to make progress and move forward.

VERANO thanks for the heads up on that BBC programme. I will catch up with it over the next couple of days.

Still almost a month to go before Christmas so here’s hoping that we can all make some progress towards where we want to be. My weight loss has stalled which is totally understandable as I’ve been giving priority to these fitness challenges I’ve been doing. The main one has finished now – and yes I am in possession of that shiny medal! I’m feeling well and maybe even a bit fitter, but will turn attention back to the numbers now. I’d still like to shed around 4lb before Christmas but need to review my eating which has slipped into more carbs than usual. Will report back in due course!

Hope that everyone has a positive week in some way. And do keep posting so that we can help each other along. X

Hi everyone,

I’m so sorry to hear about your mother-in-law Sueblue and also your sister Yowzer, and send my condolences.I also have sad news as my lovely father-in-law passed away last week.The nurse at his care home thought he didn’t seem like himself and called for an ambulance and he never got back to the care home but passed away in hospital six days later.I can totally understand what you mean Sueblue about feeling you have started losing someone much earlier, my F-i-l had catastrophic brain bleeds 20 months ago after a fall in the garden and he was never the same. We went through a similar thing with my Dad a few years back when he passed away after years of dementia.You feel a sense of relief that they are now at peace but it’s still not easy.I’m sending everyone big hugs and, like you Sueblue, will sit quietly at the back of the bus until our next trip.
Dawn XX

Ah no,more sad news. We are going through it at the moment arent we 🫤 Thinking of you DAWN and the family xx
Very very well done DCT on getting that medal.Thunderous applause and lots of cheers resounding round the bus xxxxx 👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️👍👍

Hi Dawn
Sending you lots of love Dawn. Sad that many of our friends are going through difficult times. Take care and we will see you on the next bus. it’s been a rocky ride.

DAWN just want to say hello and that I’m sorry to hear your sad news. Your family has been through a lot recently and I hope you’re ok. Look after yourself and just sit tight until you’re ready to pick things up again.

And thanks YOWZER for the cheers re my medal. The virtual fitness challenges I do are only a small personal goal, but they get me up and out, and I do love the feeling of achievement. I now just need to apply that same sense of motivation to my WoE!

On which point, everyone have a think about where we go from here in terms of this thread? We had discussed setting up a longer term thread that was more to do with maintenance rather than short term challenges. But I sense many of us on here still want/need to keep going in terms of weight loss. So perhaps the answer is that we set up a new single multipurpose thread to run throughout the whole of 2025? There will be some who are happy to maintain and drop in now and then to keep in touch, some who are actively pursuing a particular goal at any given time, and others who want to get back on board but are currently resting for whatever reason. Maybe that would tick all the boxes and give us a supportive environment when we need it but without feeling pressured if we need to step back.

Anyway, let me know your thoughts. And I hope that the rest of the week goes as well as it can for each of you, whatever is happening in your life at the moment.

Lots of love, DCT X

Dawn, Yowser and Sueblue, I am so sorry you’re going all through this. It’s very hard for all of you and sitting quietly at the back of the bus sounds very reasonable.
I have not just stalled, I’ve gone backwards and gained 3kg so whatever the consensus is, I will be here for the next bus. I’m thinking of you all and hoping you are able to find peace.
I have two more weeks to work then I am retiring. I’m anxious because I don’t feel I’ve been able to train my successor properly and also I’m worried I don’t have enough money (although looking logically I do) and really worried that being home more I’ll just eat more 🙄
Those who are retired might be able to give me some advice.
Thinking of you all.

Hi everyone,
Thank you all so much for your kind words, they mean a lot.It’s the funeral tomorrow which will be difficult for all of the family but we will get through it together and look after each other.I will try to,post again next week.Love to all.
Dawn XX

We’ll be thinking of you and the family tomorrow DAWN 🙏💕xx worst time of year to lose a loved one xx

Thoughts and prayers 🙏are with you tomorrow Dawn also all your family xx💞🙏
Lv nokie x

MARIET please try not to worry about your successor once youve left. As my great niece says,NMP..not my problem..and its really not your problem once youve gone. I know you’ll have done your best for the person taking over.
It can take a little while,but just give yourself time to settle into your retirement and hopefully you will find how pleasant it can be.
I love it! I find that I have time to enjoy the seasons more and the different things that each season brings.
Its so nice to have breathing space,to be able to arrange your day to suit yourself,to choose if you want to be busy today or to take it easy,go out or stay in. See friends more,read more,catch up on films and tv you didnt have time or energy to watch before,enjoy pottering in the garden or the house for hours. Go to bed late as youre no longer a slave to the alarm clock,or get up early and have a leisurely peaceful first hour or so,instead of rushing out to work. Take an afternoon nap if you feel like one.
Yeh I do think it can be really hard to stick to eating plans when youre home all the time,but tbh,that was difficult at work too. For me anyway,the stresses of my job often made me eat more,and it always seemed to be somebodys birthday and cakes being passed around,drinks down the pub,staff meals out,and “leaving do’s”,biscuits and chocolates in the staff kitchen,and so on.
At least at home,if youve managed not to buy goodies,you dont have to look at them in your fridge!😄
I wish you a lovely long and happy and rewarding retirement! X ⭐️💕🌼⭐️ Im sure you deserve it XX

Thank you so much everybody for your very kind words x it’s truly appreciated.

Dawn and Yowzer, sorry to hear of the losses of your father in law and sister x we had my MIL’s funeral on Wednesday, it was a lovely, intimate service. Hope your Father in laws went well Dawn x

Mariet – all the best on your retirement! How exciting 🙂 I’m currently transitioning to retirement, I work 2 days a week and will hopefully be able to retire next year.

Well it’s the 1st December and I realised I still have at least 4 weeks to try and make some sort of difference to my health and wellbeing this year. My goal is to lose 2kg by NYE. It’s achievable I think. I mainly just want to get back into healthy habits, like eating properly and walking regularly, both of which went out the window recently.

So here’s to a successful December for us al 🙂

Two steps forward, one step back for me I’m afraid. Just as my last long fast finished I got word that mum had been hospitalised. Turned out to be a heart attack / ongoing valve problem and she will need an operation. The complication was she was in a motel about 4 hours away when taken ill and taken to a local hospital. My sister and I drove up, booked into the same motel and were actually waiting for her in the cardiology ward when she got there. My sister then drove mums car the rest of the way down. I stayed until mum was ready for discharge and drove her home. The problem was my second planned fast of the week didn’t happen and, although I stayed pretty focussed, ‘normal’ take away food isn’t terribly low carb. The end result is I am back up to where I was pre-long fast. This week I will get back on track! At least mum now knows the problem and what can be done about it. Todays job is signing her up with a GP around here as she has recently moved.

MIXMATCH I’m so impressed by you managing long fasts! Well done.
Life sure gets in the way though sometimes doesnt it. Its frustrating that youre back to pre-long fast weight,but at least your mum is now sorted. Do you know when she’ll go in for her op?
Was so sorry to hear about your Mum,that must have been such a shock for you and your sister
Must have been comforting for her though,to arrive at the hospital and find you both there waiting for her.
I’m not surprised with all that was going on and being in hospital environment as well there werent many lowcarb choices.
Look after yourself,its a busy and stressful time for you at the moment,so be sure to take care of yourself and get some rest whenever you can. I hope you found a GP for Mum XX

Hi everyone

SUE I’m so glad your MiL’s funeral went as well as it could, and DAWN I hope it was the same for your FiL too. MIXNMATCH I’m sorry to hear about your Mum and hope that she can soon get the treatment she needs.

It really seems as if this year has been a tough one for all of us on this thread. We’ve had health issues, lost family members, pets, had other family stresses including home moves/changes, and also work pressures. And of course we lost our dear Michael too.

So I say a big WELL DONE to each and every one of us for sticking with it and doing our best – amongst everything else – to make the effort to look after our health, weight and fitness. Even if you (like me) have not achieved quite all you’d hoped, the fact you’re reading this shows that you’re still in the zone and will be able to move forward as circumstances allow.

MARIET, it’s so exciting about your retirement! I can understand your reservations and concerns but hope you will take heart from YOWZER’s inspiring words. Thanks YOWZER for sharing how you have found yours : you sound settled and happy in this phase of your life. I’ve been in a kind of phased retirement for the last 5 years, though have actually ended up working far more than intended since originally taking early retirement from a full time teaching job in 2019. All a very long story but basically I have the opportunity to retire fully next April as I will (finally!) get my state pension then. I may still do a bit of freelance work as a top up, but I will be mainly “done” from that point. The only thing is that I need to give formal notice in the next 10 days to be able to go in April and, me being me, I’m all of a dither. In my heart I want to go and YOWZER you painted a picture very much of the way I want my life to be. It’s just I’ve always been very driven by work – financial security, career success, identity etc etc – and part of me wants to cling onto that by my fingernails until I really can’t. Watch this space!!

Hope you all have a good week in amongst life’s twists and turns, and that each one of us experiences some positive and happy moments X

Hello everyone

We have had a really difficult few months on this thread. I am sorry to read everyone’s sad news lately and I hope that 2025 is going to be kinder to us all. When we set off on the 100 day challenge we were all so positive and optimistic but life seems to have thrown us off. Like DCT said, we are all still here and doing our best. Mariet- I hope you’ll enjoy your retirement. Mine coincided with lockdown in March 2020 and then I got a little job at the vaccination centre which I loved. I loved what Yowser said about retirement and I echo how lovely it is to be free to please myself. I’ve not made any weight loss progress as I have been struggling with medical news. I have been feeling very sorry for myself. My MRI scans have shown progression of the tumour sizes and also the report says they are more prominent. Got an appt at Christie to discuss the report in January. I am getting more symptoms so I knew there would be a change. What I thought was an out patient appointment on Monday at the Eye Clinic turned out to be a theatre slot for my vitrectomy and epiretinal membrane peel operation! Can you imagine our shock! Anyway, after a consultation with the specialist I had it done. I now have an air bubble in my left eye so can’t see out of it at present. This should dissipate as the eye heals. Went back for a pressure check yesterday and am back for review on Monday. All my plans pre Christmas have had to be cancelled. Can’t drive for at least a fortnight and so my hair appointment has been cancelled as have various lunch dates with friends. It is the perfect plot twist! I weighed myself this morning and I weighed 156 lb. I am exactly the same as I have been since September after my holiday. I have been feeling quite down this last week. Things seem to be two steps forward and three back. I hoped I would be near to achieving my goal and could stop battling for weight loss and enjoy maintaining. Maybe I need to have a think about things whilst I am out of action and learn to accept that this is me. I’ve got an appt with orthopaedics in two weeks to plan for my big toe fusion operations. I am going to be out of action quite a lot in 2025. I think each toe takes about four months recovery time!
I will continue to try my best but it’s looks like I will be battling along with you all for the foreseeable future.

CATHY good to hear from you but so sorry you are going through so much at the moment. What a shock about your unexpected op! But I guess at least it’s done now and you are already starting to progress through the recovery period – even though as you say it has scuppered various plans. I really hope that your Christie’s appointment results in a positive way forward to treat these tumours, and also that the toe operations can dovetail in with everything else that is going on and get things sorted whilst causing the minimum disruption.

You have every right to feel sorry for yourself but – as we all know on here – you are an incredibly positive and resilient person and always make the best of every situation. Even though you’ve had so many tough situations to deal with. I’m sure I speak for everyone on here in admiring your determination and staying power, and also the way that you are so encouraging towards others in the midst of your own issues.

I for one am really glad you’re here and enjoy our interactions on these threads. And just want to remind you how far you have come. If I remember rightly, even though you are currently heavier than you want to be, you are still around 20lb lighter than when you started this WoE which is a real achievement. And you are now aware of the best things to eat and what works for you. So I know that you will lose more weight again when your body is ready to do so.

But perhaps now is a more reflective time to be gentle on yourself, and be content with baby steps rather than dramatic leaps. You referred to self-acceptance and I think that’s really important, not in a frustrated sense that your weight loss is slower than desired, but in all these other positive ways that I’ve just mentioned. You are who you are and that deserves not just acceptance but also celebration, even though times are tough.

Sorry I’m beginning to ramble! But just to reinforce what I said in a previous post that I think we all need to give ourselves a big cheer for still caring enough about our health and weight to do our best to stick with this WoE through thick and thin (literally!). Well done everyone, and, as someone once said on here, Keep On Keeping On!

Thanks for your lovely kind words DCT. You are quite right I started this WOE at 175 lbs back in 2017. Today I am 155 lb. I am proud that I’ve battled to keep my weight down for the last 7 years. When I am feeling better I have no doubt that I will get back to where I want to be in the 140’s. I am slowly recovering from the eye surgery. My eyesight in the left eye will take a bit of time to return but hopefully I will have some improvement in my eyesight. I had a pars plana vitrectomy and epiretinal membrane peel. Not for the squeamish! It was an incredible operation and I saw it all from the inside of my eye. Respect to my surgeon. I am usually a very positive person but just recently I’ve felt quite overwhelmed with what life has thrown at me over the years. A friend said my capacity cup has overflowed and it has. I’ve had had a lot of health issues this year but I have so much to be thankful for and I will dust myself down and face the future with renewed positivity. This forum and the friends I’ve made here are an important part of my life. We have all had a difficult year- it’s life!
Let’s keep on keeping on and doing our best. Tomorrow is another day. Onwards and downwards. Here’s to happier times ahead. Let’s make the best of every single day. Yowser will have some inspiring quotes for us all I am sure. They are always such wise words. I am not giving up. I am taking care of myself and accepting that things don’t always go to plan.
Have a good week everyone.

Can’t stop,but wanted to share a lovely thing ive just read. And a lovely pic but dont think we can do that on here?
Anyhoo,it says,”One step at a time said the moon…and be proud of every one” …
a good mantra for us for 2025!
The picture is of a fox trotting along under a full moon.
CCATHY just a quckie,you shd be proud of every step this year,you have dealt bravely with so much this year and you can still smile and be positive 🩷💜 youre a real trouper! 🤞🏻xxx