Thanks s-g I’ll take a look. I also need to read that chapter in the BSD book which I’m yet to do!

Allie glad there’s someone still here with me! I know Caron is as well. They say it takes 21days to make a new habit but apparently that’s only with something easy, like drinking a glass of water. Why do we all have so much of a problem doing it? More difficult habits like exercise can take much longer! Fingers crosssed you will get there but it may take longer than these 4 weeks. To be honest I’ve not really been conscious of how far I’m walking I just know that I can walk and stand for much longer than before my surgery. I’m never going to have the joy of ‘going for a walk’, for me it’s more a case of getting from A to B without as little trouble as possible! But hey it could be worse at least I can walk.

Hello, I am starting on Saturday 11th.
Read the entire book yesterday and will do a shopping list tomorrow.
I’m aiming for 6 weeks to start with, takes me until just before Christmas. I haven’t dared to weigh myself but have a class booked at the gym so will do it then on their special machine. Worried about feeling hungry /faint. I must remember to drink water. Luckily i’ve been going off tea and coffee at work anyway recently, prefering herbal tea/ water and the odd black coffee . I still like a milky coffee in the morning and often have hot milk before bed (especially with a bit of hot choc in it- however i can ditch that ok).
well good luck everyone. I shall make the most of what i eat today and tomorrow

I have tree nut allergies, which means any nut grown on a tree I cannot consume as it causes me to go into anaphylactic shock and having to use an epi-pen and head to the ER. So, alot of these recipes use walnuts and other tree nuts. Got any suggestion as to what I can substitute?

Hey, Allie – get a dog, or like me two – the bigger and bouncier the better, then you will have no choice but to walk (at least once a day, mine demand twice, or even three times some days!) regardless of weather. My three hours plus of walking every day, up hill and down dale, has certainly kept me far fitter over the years than my non-dog owning friends, even when I was carrying the extra weight.😜

Well done on all your additional exercise though, somehow I just don’t have the willpower to do that (or the time, frankly, after all my walking)

Verano, well done on dropping to 2 meals a day, I’m sure it will help. I have late breakfast (after dog walk) at 11am then go through to an early supper at 6pm, unless we are entertaining or dining out, in which case it is generally nearer 8pm. On the odd day I’m lunching out, I skip both breakfast and supper and stick to just the one meal. Works for me😊

Day four on the BSD

Weight 14:4
Blood sugar 6.7

OMG … this BSD does work with your blood sugar levels. On Sunday I was 22:5 fasting and drum roll…. this morning I was 6.7 that makes me happy 😃 maybe I will be able to reverses the diabetes.
I am doing this for my blood sugar – the weight will be a lovely bonus. This result is driving me forward and onwards.

Not too hungry today and I think energy level is increasing..but it was my first day back at work so I am on a high… I will crash later and hopefully have a good night 💤
Chicken with almond and basil for tea. Did the no carb Bircher for breakfast and hubby and I liked it a lot – my son, Markie boy not so keen on the Bircher . He had the blueberry and green tea shake. He likes that one.

How is everyone doing today?

Keep in touch
Welshannie x

Not all misos are created equal. Check the nutrion panel to see how many carbs per teaspoon are in the one you bought. That will determine how much of it you can use. I make a quick soup out of mine, similar to what SunnyB described only I use chicken broth instead of water. Once it’s heated, I stir the miso in until it dissolves and then I add some fresh greens, mainly sunflower shoots, pea shoots and broccoli sprouts. I like it thick with vegetation so use a solid half ounce of each of them in a single mug. It’s crowded at the beginning but you’ll soon slurp them up and you get to enjoy the change in texture as they cook a little in the heat of the soup.

I also like to add a teaspoon of miso to certain salad dressings. I do a fermentation madness salad with an all-ferment dressing of miso dissolved in pickle juice with pureed kimchi. Sometimes I’ll add a couple of ml of olive oil if it needs emulsifying, but it’s not necessary. To that I add whatever salad leafies I have handy, more sprouts and shoots, and top it off with a serving each of garlic sauerkraut, kimchi and horseradish leek kraut. I figure that’s my gut biome seen to. 😀

Go Kazz on your 48 hours fasting! You have joined the big leagues — I would like to try to soldier through 36 hours but I will probably have to practice a bit. It will be interesting to see how much you lost and I remember Theodora said her longer fasts continued to have effects for a week or more. Let us know soon! And really good job!!!
Allie, your sister is as awful (and worse) than mine — what a cruel thing to do to toss you out of the house and during such a vulnerable time. I might have been sceptical that sisters could be that mean but I had my own “event” with my older sister when she rented a condo on Maui for a week and invited me to share with her two boys (ages 6 and 8) and my son (age 11).
When we showed up, they had arrived earlier and took all the beds (turned out there were 2 rooms only and three beds) so my son and I had to sleep on the living room couch (not a pullout — just cushions) and the cushions from the couch pulled out and put on the floor for me. We could have put the two little boys in the queen bed and she and I have a twin bed each and my son could have made-do on the couch (he was only 11) but she insisted her boys have “their own room”.
That sort of set the stage for the rest of our time together which lasted only two days — during which she almost ran the car off the road when her son opened the car door at 50 miles an hour and the other son threw a little creamer pot at her during dinner which hit her in the face and spattered all over everyone at the table.
Both of those would have been grounds for discipline in our family but she just roared on until she finally lost it with contorted rage and screaming over something else that she found to be mad at and ordered me out of the condo so I just packed up and left.
My son and I flew to Honolulu to visit the Pearl Harbor memorial, then we just flew home. At that time I didn’t have enough money to rebook my own condo so it was really cruel to my son as well.
Many many years later we have patched it up but there are always new “events” every time we get together so we never make any real progress and my other siblings are done with her.
You know, I am thinking that some of our weight issues could very well be connected to all this family chaos. Part of embracing the BSD is letting go some of those worst memories that just don’t serve us any more.
Kazz you are going to enjoy 1984 but it is a chilling read and much of what he writes about is well underway.
Mary — I’m with you — anyone who says “downsize” and give me your money to invest isn’t trustworthy.

Verano, I’m with you on the second half of this challenge, too. I’m
sure upping the water will work for you. I’m just the same, losing
track of which days I’ve been using my 5lb weights, doing multiple
sets of squats, leg lifts, etc. I keep meaning to get resistance bands,
so thanks for reminding me. I have an out of town friend who makes
it a priority to walk every single day, regardless of temperature or
precipitation. Usually at 6:00am! I know I would be a much more
disciplined person if I lived next door to her. Have you been able to
increase your distance without stopping this week?

Love,

Allie

Kazz, of course I remember your post about your alcoholic friend!
You went far beyond what any friend could be expected to do. I
felt so sorry for her son(s). It told me lots about you, though 🙂
I can’t wait to hear what you think of 1984. My husband teaches
a course on “Principles of Mgt” and he assigned this book as part
of his syllabus. When I asked him why, he told me about how mgrs.
can manipulate their employees by similar methods to those outlined
in the book. More of a large BEWARE, on his part.
Such techniques are currently being employed by the
mainstream media on a relentless, day to day to basis in the U.S.
to further the progressive agenda. There is much in there that
applies to every day life. I’m looking forward to hearing what
you think re “the memory hole”, etc!

I’ll be back…………………

Allie

Hi V, the Mindfulness course is a follow on from the first 4 weeks I did but it is also advertised as a stand alone. Worth looking at, I enjoyed the first one.

Hey Rebecca – if you need to take painkillers take some, nothing to be gained by suffering if you don’t need to. Make sure you are keeping your hydration well up, as this helps on all fronts and is very important in the body functioning at it’s optimum. I’d say try not to rely on shakes for all the same reasons mentioned before. Making your own is a much better option if you want to include shakes as part of your BSD plan. Could you maybe make a shake the night before, to take to work with you?
Hope the withdrawal doesn’t hit you too hard and you will soon be feeling clear and energised, in the meantime, be kind to yourself and rest as much as you are able – work and children allowing!
Best of luck with it all and shout if you need advice or encouragement, ‘cos there are lots of folks on the forum who will step up to offer support.

Jeez Allie – I’ve just read your post with my mouth hanging open in total disbelief. It’s upsetting just for me to read that your sister did that to you, even worse when you were beside yourself with worry, so you must have been in total shock to be on the receiving end. I should imagine you would be on auto pilot at that time and only think about getting back to the hospital and stay there, close to hubby. I’m so grateful he pulled through. Did you ever get the photo back? Have you got others? The closest I’ve come to that sort of irrational bonkers behaviour was from my ex friend who became an alcoholic.

Well, fancy that, I didn’t realise you had a “PA” string to your very creative bow! I’m not sure how I cope to be honest sometimes – Autumn and Spring are the busiest times, and when it goes crazy and I’m being bombarded, it can be overwhelming. Fortunately, we all have peaks and troughs so there is always someone able to help me out and likewise, I do the same. We look after each other as in our team, the 4 of us have worked together for years! I actually wanted to be a hairdresser! 🙂

We had book club today – the next book is George Orwell’s 1984… theme was “cult classics”. I suggested Valley of the Dolls by Jaqueline Susanne – read it 35 years ago (superb read), alas, it was not picked! I’ve never read 1984 although it always was on my list ….

Ok, best get back to it, bye for now and see you tomorrow.

Kazzeeexxx

Hey Angela06 – you can make a very simple soup, simply by putting a generous teaspoon of paste in a cup and adding hot water. If you want to make something more complex, you could get some dried seaweed online and crumble some into the soup, or make a soup in a pan adding finely chopped spring onion as well – cook just long enough to soften the onion.

I tried making kimchi, but wasn’t over impressed with the results, might have been something I didn’t do right, although I have tried buying kimchi as well and wasn’t too keen on that either – prefer sauerkraut. I do make kefir, which is something you can make at home, once you have some grains – you can get these online. Once you have them, they keep going and going – I always have more than I need! You can also make live yogurts, although again you need to have a starter culture for that as well.

Hope your kimchi is successful and that you enjoy the miso. I used to drink a lot of miso, but cut back as it’s a little high in carbs, so only have it occasionally these days.

Keep us posted on how you get on.

Thank you for your reply sunshine girl, that’s sounds a pleasant combination perhaps something I could try on a weekend, I am only just becoming acquainted with seeds, the children aren’t kean. On day 1 I was surprised how tasty everything seemed with the last of a sugar drenched day, felt very little hungry although craving were heavy the first evening. Dr Mosley in his book presents light meal replacements shakes as a option whilst get to know the 800 plan and keeping to the calorie intake. I share your reserve about quality of meal replacement . I plans to use shakes whilst I am at work in the first couple of weeks for breakfast, soups/salads (or what other recipes I can find) for lunch , followed by a freshly prepared dinner. Day 2 , I have a niggle headache to I think the withdrawals have commenced, any tips? Rebecca

Oh Kazzi, 48 hours? I’m speechless! Not nice to tease us with the
results on the scale, however 🙂 I’m very impatient for Sat. to arrive
when you reveal all. If you forget, I’ll be out looking for you!
Thank you for your thoughtful words about Mother. I’d like to
believe that she knows, too. I certainly felt her presence when
OH was in the hospital in March. The hospital and Drs we choose
to use are 1 1/2 hrs from home, so I made the very poor decision
to stay at crazy sister’s house, just 10 min. away. I brought my
favorite picture of Mother with me to give me strength, and set it
on my night table. Day 13 into the hospitalization my sister threw
me out of the house, and locked me out of my room. All my clothing
was thrown in a wrinkled heap outside my door, and when I was
able to get back in (thanks to her husband) I found that she had
stripped my bed and confiscated my photograph. What was my
crime, you may ask? “Disrupted her life by waking the dog at
3:30am” when I got up to get some fresh air to try and manage a
panic attack. Have you ever seen anyone in the midst of a full
out narcissistic rage? Imagine someone with arms akimbo, face
contorted, screeching what a selfish bitch you are. My definition
of toxic and bat shit crazy 🙂 Probably a good case study for the
psychiatric journals under “Narcissistic Personality Disorder”
as well. Well, I wasn’t planning on divulging this episode of what
happened while O/H was literally fighting for his life on 2 separate
occasions during a 3 wk hospitalization, but it’s what we do here,
isn’t it? 🙂 I spent the next 9 days sleeping in a chair in the Cardiac
Care Unit, no shower, no clean clothes, no sleep, no wine, etc.
Thank you lots for telling us all about your profession. In terms
of responsibilities, it doesn’t sound too much different than my
being a PA for a group of surgeons, wearing 10 hats at one time,
feet never touching the ground all day long. However, that was
30 years ago and I was much younger then! My hat is off to you
for being able to keep up the pace. Doing this for 48 hours without
any food is a marvel.
Next week when you’re off I hope you will share all that you’ve
been learning about autophagy and cell replacement. I’m so glad
that I reminded you to get your books out of the Amazon cart!

See you later, my sweet 🙂

Allie
xoxoxo

Whatever it is/was Allie it worked and more amazing is that you were following BSD and didn’t know it! Today I am going to do my best to stay at 20g. I hadn’t realised but since I started the refocus thread I’ve stopped eating breakfast and I no longer miss it. So today I’ve only had chilli prawns, watercress and a tablespoon of Hellmans salad cream which altogether are just under 4g. First problem is that I have homemade Thai chicken curry for dinner tonight. I have no idea how many carbs are in it. I have that with sliced asparagus and broccoli so I’m just hoping that I’ll stay within 20g. I know there are about 6g per 100ml of coconut milk so I should be ok.

If I manage without anything else, apart from water, I should stay within 800/20. Jus interesting to see how hungry I’ll be???

Thank you Theodora for all your waving … it keeps me smiling while keep you fit!

Caron thanks for raising a glass something I’m stopping from today unless it contains water!!!

I have just realised that during this challenge I have actually stopped having breakfast which makes my overnight fast much longer. Hopefully there will be rewards over the coming weeks.

Today I am aiming to stay at 20g of carbs. No breakfast and lunch of chilli prawns, watercress and a tablespoon of Hellmans salad cream, my latest craze, and altogether less than 4g! So who knows maybe I can do it if I really try hard. I’m going to pop over to the 20g thread for some inspiration from Allie and Esnecca’s posts. Will report back on my carb progress tomorrow.

Hi Tasberry – welcome to the forum.
Sadly, not all calories are equal and even foods that fall in to the ‘healthy’ bracket and relatively low in calories can be surprisingly high in carbs. So, it’s not always as simple as counting the calories, you really do need to look at the carbs as well. Hopefully once you start to do that, you will see the weight start to fall. Try to aim at around 50g carbs per day and you should see good results quickly.
Best of luck and shout if you need any pointers, lots of lovely folks on the forum will be happy to off advice and encouragement.

Hello, I’ve been reading more and more about the importance of gut health and am thinking of introducing some fermented food into our diet. So I bought some miso, white the packet says but it looks more ochre to me. Trouble is I don’t really know what to do with it! Please can someone point me inthe direction of a soup recipe without any exotic ingredients? I live in France and round here pak choi is about as exotic as we get (without a drive)

I’m also interested in making kimchi…there’s an easy recipe on the BBC good food page which I’m going to try. As I’ve always avoided preserving food for fear of botulism, this is really going to take me out of my comfort zone!!

I would love any suggestions, pointers or favourite recipes (easy ones) that anyone would like to share. I know there are a few fermentation fans on these boards 😉

Really pleased for you, Lynchic, well done on your achievement todate. For those of us able to stick with this WOE through the tough times, it is completely life changing.
Enjoy getting rid of those baggy clothes and remember when you are shopping for your new wardrobe, that you no longer need to buy loose garments to cover a multitude of sins – something I am still trying to get used to myself. However, I ordered myself a jumpsuit today, something I never thought I’d even consider before I started the BSD.
You’ll soon be able to report hitting your target and I hope you won’t need to wait too long for that day to come around. Best of luck to you!

Hi, Verano! I don’t really know if willpower was involved, maybe
just willful stubbornness 🙂 Two months in I hit an 18 day plateau
(on 50gm of carbs) so something drastic was called for. I actually
didn’t discover these forums until very recently, so I just did my
own research, only to find out that I’d been doing BSD Fast 800 all
along! How crazy is that? Unfortunately, mainstream medicine
here in the States is woefully ignorant of the Newcastle studies
or MM, for that matter. It’s up to Californiagirl and Esnecca and
me to spread the word! 🙂
See you later over on the Refocus thread………

Allie

Hi Yowser
Sorry you have had this medical set back, frustrating for you to have to re-evaluate your eating patterns again, having made such good progress to date. Still, as others have already told you, 20g carbs a day is doable and that is the level I have use for most of the time I have been on the BSD. The menu advice Esnecca gave is spot on and more or less what I eat myself.

Hopefully you will be able to make the adjustments necessary and have success with improving your leg situation – best of luck!

Luvtcook – You’re up early today!! I’m an early riser too, but not
by choice. I’ve got an alarm clock built into my head that sounds
off between 3:30 – 4:00am each morning, whether I like it or not!
The coffee maker goes on, and I start the day finding out what
happened here overnight, coffee mug in hand. I’ve never used
artificial sweeteners so I have nothing to offer on that front.
A lot of us find that our tastes change eating this way though,
and the desire for sugar no longer has any appeal. The uniquely
american holiday of Thanksgiving is almost upon us, so time to
get a few strategies in place for the holiday! Have you given it
any thought yet? And are you responsible for the meal this year?
By the way, I don’t think age affects results with this WOE. I’m
a newly minted 69 yr old. I think you’re going to do great. You’re
well on your way because you’ve already found us maintainers! 🙂

Have a wonderful day!

Allie

Thanks to everyone for your support and congratulations. Your comments made me feel quite emotional. To reverse my diabetes is such a big deal for me and MM says we need to lose 10% of our body weight for it to succeed. When I get to 8st 11lbs I will have done it, so only a couple more pounds to go. I will have lost a stone and, although it doesn’t sound a lot, when I only weighed 9st 11 lbs to start with, but looked fat, it makes sense. I have a very small frame and was 7st 10lbs for years, back in my 20s. I wish… lol. Thanks again to you all.x

Thanks all for your comments on the artificial sweeteners. Even when I bake with them, I give half of what I make to my son (who is also a low carber) and would eat my stash very judiciously. I never felt it impacted me but MM is pretty down on them and there is a lot of speculation in the press as to whether they actually cause weight gain, so I thought I would check in with all of you. When the glorious day arrives that I have hit goal, I think I would do as your do Theodora, use regular sugar and eat sweetened things sparinly. I will forever use almond flour and flax seed to replace the flour, but hope to give up the artificial sweetners and simply have such things far less often.

Well done to you AngS. Give yourself a huge pat on the back. Another milestone for you with the end in sight.

Not really, never use them but I do make my own using spinach, berries, yoghurt or almond milk adding fibre with some chia, pumpkin, linseed or sunflower seeds. Only good to replace breakfast so I eat normal for every other meal. I know some people have tried shakes but most of the ones bought in the chemist are full of either chemicals or hidden sugars. Also, it is not easy to maintain an eating plan that doesn’t allow you to eat. People miss having real food. Hopefully someone else will come on to help you.

Yowser, this was a great idea for a thread. Thanks for starting it.
I don’t think the MMosley book provided any guidance with regard
to carb levels, though the prevailing wisdom here seems to be 50 gms.
Most keto diets, although a little different, seem to recommend 20
to reach ketosis, burning your own fat as your primary fuel source.
The accepted wisdom on reaching this state is that it takes 3-14 days,
sometimes 3 weeks in stubborn cases. I achieved it @ 10 days,
and the limitless energy that came with it was very noticeable.
As a long time suffer of CFS, it was miraculous. Some manage this
on 50gm of carbs, but I wasn’t one of them! 🙂

Best of luck,

Allie

Huge congratulations Cathy – best Christmas present ever!! 🙂

Hi all, well done CC you must be over the moon.

Managed to claw back 100 grams of my mini gain but that means a zero loss so far this week. Oh well, we just keep on keeping on…

The dancing girls and backflip/handstand emoticons are because that is what I will be doing when I reach goal 😂

Wow! Congratulations Cathy! I know how very hard you have worked for this, so happy for you :)👏👏👏💃💃💃🤸‍♂️🤸‍♂️🤸‍♂️🏆🏆🏆🥇🥇🥇

WooHooooo Cathy 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Congratulations, I KNEW you could do it. Jumping up and down in excitement and waving my pink pompoms at you!! How fantastic to have my January buddy join me in maintenance 😄😄😄

See you on the maintenance thread – will be there waiting to give you a HUGE welcome 😄

Sorry, not much help on the sweeteners, I have never used any. I don’t have a sweet tooth anyway, but on the rare occasion I have anything sweet it’s just woth normal sugar, on the basis that
a) it tastes better
b) I’d rather eat a tiny mouthful of something good, than a big mouthful of something with a funny taste

However, I do realise that I’m lucky inasmuch as I have no cravings whatsoever for sweet things so don’t feel in the least deprived.

But I’m seriously going to have to increase my calories today, but really not hungry – may be trying V’s dark chocolate trick after all😉. Another half pound gone overnight and I really do not want to lose any more! 😱 Now whoever thought I’d ever be saying that this time last year?!! Maybe I should have had that glass of red last evening after all😉🍷

Good for you Verano! I’m just back from my daily dog walk – the only other exercise today will be lots of housework. But it still stops me sitting down! Very best wishes for the coming week. I am drinking a glass of water in your honour!

Hi Panda
No I didn’t get your message, get a bit lost running around on here and just accidentally saw this post. I had loved reading your bits, and said to Marie hoped you are alright as you hadn’t been active so it seemed, for awhile. Marie alerted me to your post then. Your humour is cheering and you are after all just down the road ( me in NSW). 😀☺️ Daunting start so it seemed and now you have kicked butt, literally and figuratively!! 👍👍 Hope you are not wasting away😬😏 I am only 2 weeks in and have overdone calories today and just slightly yesterday – have felt so godam hungry. And I thought when I started I was already used to not eating much. More fool me – could kill for a nasty carb!!!! Just need to relax and regroup. I so want to be a success story. Keep all the good going – you must be over the moon
Donna🙋

I don’t often make sweet things these days, but when I do, I use a combination of inulin and a small amount of honey or maple syrup. Yes, this does push the carbs up a bit, but I’m yet to find an ‘alternative’ sweetener that I can tolerate the taste of and as I can’t tolerate very sweet things these days anyway, the slight increase in carbs from the very small amount of honey or maple syrup used, is easily factored into my allowance.

I often make savoury almond crackers, which I flavour with various herbs, spices or extracts and find these much more enjoyable than sweet biscuits these days.

Hope you find a solution to your low carb cookie conundrum that works for you, Luvtcook.

Way to go CC!!! Many congratulations. Keep coming on here to inspire us all to greater things!! We can all do it!!
TC
XXXXXXXXXXX

HUGE CONGRATULATION, Cathy, I’m so pleased for you and you have managed to hit goal in what I would consider a relatively short time frame too. You are no doubt floating on a cloud right now and feeling justifiably proud. Well done on hanging in there and achieving your target weight.

There is now a thread for those of us in maintenance, so hopefully we will be seeing you on there, as you build in that wriggle room and start to settle into maintaining for a healthy, happy life.

Big hugs to you!

Got some fantastic news to share…
🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
Starting weight
8.1.17 = 175 lb
9.11.17 = 132.8 lb

AT LONG LAST I HAVE ACHIEVED MY GOAL!!!!

43 lb gone – BMI 25 !!!!

This has been an incredible journey! I couldn’t have done it without the support of the many friends I’ve met on here! Thank you to everyone for your advice and support over the last 10
months!. I am absolutely delighted this morning to have eventually reached my goal weight.

My plan now is to get me some wiggle room before the Christmas festivities start. I am aiming for 3lb.

This is the beginning of the rest of my life at a healthy and happy weight!

I hope that my story encourages all the slow losers that with a lot of determination and support from the friends on here, it can be done and it doesn’t matter how long it takes!

Cathy

Hi All

End of week 5 today and, as predicted, a sharp 5.2 pound rise following a week off. I try to think that this just mirrors the very sharp drop in week one. Neither makes sense at a simple level. I have not taken in 18000+ extra calories in one week! (Honest!) Back on track today and should be able to maintain this for the next 2 weeks at least. There should be a sharp drop over the next few days then a steady slide downwards…

Superb effort AngS! I look forward to the day when I have finally lost your present body weight!

Keep it up every one!

As a PS: I loooovvveee Pilates. Just found a good teacher again after a hiatus. It’s so good, we do it in an old church, great for mind and body. I also have a PT twice a week, though recently events have conspired against me, so more like once a week. We do compound/core/weights. Then I walk the dog as well, but he’s only a puppy, so I try not to exhaust him! I definitely lose weight slower when on full exercise regime, but figure I put on muscle, which burns fat, so I try to be patient.

I found the thing I had most of when I started this was time – that I used to fill with food, so now I get stuff done to get out the habit of snacking. Boring stuff like laundry or nice stuff like gardening, posting here or reading the paper! Though with puppy a lot of previously empty time is filled with standing in garden waiting for him to wee! This week I’ve tidied up and thrown out old scarves/gloves etc and the shoe cupboard (room!) – as the kids feet keep on growing!

Last time I lost weight (hypnosis) I played candy crush instead of eating, and knitted a lot once that got boring. Teeny tiny Xmas decorations …. completely lost urge for that now though.

Good morning V. Pleased to hear you are still refocusing.

As far as increasing your exercise is concerned, a little bird told me that pompom waving is great for batwings, especially if they’re shocking pink – err the pompoms, not the batwings 😉😄😉

Keep up the good work

Cheerleader Theo🔮🔮

That’s brilliant, AngS ! I can feel your elation. I still have 9 lbs to go until my weight starts with an 11 stones, which will be the first time since my marriage in 1972. Boy, do I look forward eagerly to that day !

Keep it up !

Macloud

Great news, Lynchick. So pleased for you – I think this WOE has changed all our lives. Congratulations on being almost at goal 👍

Success! 8st.13.8lbs! First time my weight has started with an 8 for years. As I’m only 5 feet tall, my ideal weight is 8st 7lbs… Now to get rid of my tummy! Have booked into an ab attack class tomorrow before my Young at Heart mixed activity class (for more mature people at the gym).

AnnieW is right. The muscles repair themselves on rest days, so a mixture of fitness activities is best.

Hi JackieM – I have also changed from double to single cream . I agree – not as nice as double, but much much lower in calories. I will keep double as a special treat for Christmas.

Marsie – it is a great feeling to have no regrets about your dinner selections. I have also noticed how much like enjoy what I am eating when I go out to dinner. Am feeling very envious about your dinner on a veranda overlooking Geograph bay and the Sunset.

Marie123 – I love Pilates also. I started doing it in 1998 to help me recover from years of back pain and then trained to teach it. I still have some of my clients from 2001 – when I first started running my classes. We are all getting older together and Pilates helps us stay young and active.

My biggest problem is that Pilates is so popular and I teach 6 days and 5 evenings a week. Probably at almost 70 I should slow down a little – but I find it really hard to turn people away. I am trying to start being more disciplined and pass people on to other teachers so I can at least have a relaxing break with a cup of coffee.

Topcac – I love your mum’s saying. It is so true. It is the same if you maintain for a week instead of losing – you can count one pound lost for the pound you didn’t put on.

Angela 06 – MFP or fatsecret really do help to keep track of what we eat. A good idea to go back to logging what you eat.

Well done to everyone for keeping on keeping on. It’s great to read everyone’s posts.

Allie that has taken an amazing amount of willpower. Now I know why my journey has/is so long and bumpy …. I need to be far, far stronger in my resolve!

Good morning.

We ( or at least I !!) are now in the second half of this challenge. I have certainly increased my water intake on the days I’m home so I feel that I have become refocused in that way. Now I need to tackle my exercising. I tend to use my weights and bands one day and then forget for a few days so I need to get into a better routine. Must get rid of the bingo wings!

So for the second half of this challenge I will exercise everyday … it’s only two weeks, and I’m sure I can do that, and hopefully it will have become a habit by November 22nd … or at least I will be on my way to making it a habit.

Have a good day.

Morning all, 63.4kg today, down 200g.

First ate at 11am, 2 tablespoons yoghurt and 7 walnuts.

Lunch – pulled ham, mixed leaves and 1teaspoon mayo.

Dinner – left over cauliflower cheese.

Snacks – coffee with single cream (not as nice as double) couple of glues cream over and above that, 2 pieces 90% chocolate.

Lots of black coffee, not enough water. Thirsty this morning.

No real exercise, bit of walking.