IF / ADF / 4:3 / 5:2 / 6:1 / 16:8 ~ Maintaining at a healthy weight ~ Chapter 4

[TalkinPeace]

This thread is for those of us who have been practicing IF (Intermittent Fasting) for quite a while and are now at, or nearing, their target healthy weight.
It's also for anyone who is doing it for the health benefits alone.

How do we experience fasts and balance a stable food intake while having little or no weight to lose?
How do we ensure that this WOL keeps us at the healthy weight long term rather than revert to yoyo games?
How do we ensure that we keep ourselves looking great rather than just thin?

Many of us have been maintaining at our original goal weight for many months, and others are joining all the time.
Obviously, the more the merrier!
It is also worth considering whether a second, leaner target might be achievable.

You'll find the first three maintenance threads and all the main 5:2 threads for posters practicing IF to lose weight here Fasting / 5:2 on the diet forum. We're currently on thread no. 35, but there is a new main thread every 2-3 weeks.

There are three other associated threads:
This one, which is an absolute goldmine of Tips and Links on how to practice IF, and the research behind it.

And here is a treasure trove of 5:2 recipes, mostly low calorie for fasting days, but there are also recipes for when you want to treat yourself. And, now we're maintaining, we'll need more of these!

Since I started the last Maintainers thread the importance of exercise has come to the fore, as part of our general health and to help weight loss. BigChocFrenzys thread is here

I'm sure you have already but thought I'd mention it - have you tried osteopathy B&W? Did wonders for my chronic SPD in pregnancy

Trying to honestly sound sympathetic here and not smug but I'm so sorry about the weather, jut sounds awful and soul destroying. A friend if mine said the other day there have been 5 dry days in 7weeks it seriously makes me reconsider my intention to ever move back to the UK

B&W see if you can get hold of a swiss ball to use as a chair : they are great for bad backs.

ATB
could you take a nice sunny pic and put it on your profile as then we might cheer up.

DH current stuck in a traffic jam on the M4 - that fizzy wine will be well chilled by the time he gets home
but at least I got the dead tyre replaced while he's been out

Thanks, TiP - if it happens again, I'll certainly consider it. My back. I'm happy to say is almost completely OK again. I played 2 hours of table tennis this afternoon and had no ill effects.

The only time I noticed it was after I'd been sitting in the easy chair for an hour, eating my dinner. When I got up there was a bit of back ache, but by the time I got to the kitchen, it had gone!

My son, GD1 and GS1 are currently battling congestion on the M25 - and the weather - on the way to see my daughter (and Oscar). They're staying there overnight then coming down here in the morning.

And I'm currently having a coffee and eating a square of Lindt's chilli choc - with my timer to hand. I time myself a minute between nibbles - this way, I'll have finished my coffee and chocolate at the same time. If I still have coffee left - I'll be reaching for more chocolate.

FD and I'm sooooooooo hungry.

It's only 10:30am, I'm at a kids birthday party and pizza will be served in an hour. Damn it!

ATB! You can have it tomorrow! Put it in a doggie bag!

steered clear - even managed not to snaffle some of DD's ice cream cake while feeding it to her.

12:55.....will have soup later on but it'll be a tough FD as I'm babysitting for a friend til gone midnight. boo

Well done, ATB! You'll feel good about yourself tomorrow!

Have our 8-year-old GS1 staying for half-term, so we've been keeping busy.

Today we've swum for an hour in the morning; in the afternoon and after dinner we've played table tennis - interspersed with periods on the swing in the kitchen.

About the table tennis - I made a 3/4 size table when the kids were young, 30odd years ago, and now I'm teaching my grandkids on there. However, today the decking was far too slippery, so we decamped to the dining room. There's just enough room, when the table's extended, to have a decent game - and, at 8-year-old, he's getting very good.

Tomorrow we've more swimming, TT, swinging - and, in the afternoon, the high ropes! Alfie wants me to come on the high ropes with him, but I've done it once, and I'm quite content with that!

Breadandwine you sound like you're such a fantastic grandfather! Engaged, active, enthused. Your grandchildren are very lucky.

Thank you, Bssh! Although my wife and I consider ourselves the lucky ones.

We only see our grandkids about once every half term, so we make the most of it when they come down.

Addendum to the above list:
I forgot to add breadmaking tomorrow morning. When asked what sort of bread Alfie wanted to make, he answered - as he has for the past few times - 'Shapes!' then checked if we had any food colouring.

Some of you may remember the umbilical cord he made out of bread dough last year - when his auntie was pregnant with Oscar!

I'm sitting here waiting for a call from my son to go and pick him up. He's been out with a few of his old mates and I said I'd taxi for him.

And I'm currently wondering whether to make a chocolate 'cake in a mug' to feast on tonight. We don't generally have a pudding after our roast on a Sunday, 'cause we want to start Monday's fast as early as poss. Then again, with family down, these plans may well change.

Decision made - I'm doubling up the recipe, so it's a bit of an experiment!

Breadandwine. Wow. You're certainly entertaining you DGC!!

You don't want to "borrow" another two, do you?

Can't sleep. Heads spinning with stuff. Not ideal. Ugh. Hate insomnia.

Before I had the DC, I can honestly say I had never suffered from insomnia of any kind. I do now. Hideous.

Oh well back to drinking buttermint tea and watching Nordic Noir dramas from ITunes.

MrsF seems like we're insomnia twins too. My DD has always been an excellent sleep-through-the-night sleeper but still, in the last year or two I've suffered insomnia and constant tossing and turning like never before. I can't put it down to her really, more age and health-related concerns. But I yearn for a good night's sleep.

MrsF!

Well I didn't get much sleep at all - went to bed at 3.30 (after following a gazillion links on Twitter! ) and woke at 8 unable to go back to sleep.

So I came down for a mug of cocoa - and was joined by my grandson about 8.30.

Now we've done the breadmaking (soda bread chocolate rolls and a small loaf), and we've had a game of TT. Now ready to go back for a further couple of hours. (Hopefully!)

I've been a bit insomniac of late too. I've taken to practising my Tae Kwon Do moves and patterns in my head - it doesn't get me back to sleep but it has improved my techniques and helped me learn all the moves. It's quite meditational too but with enough to think about that it stops my brain flitting around.

Not really that helpful to those not starting out in a martial art though...

Woken up with a stinker of another cold this morning though :(

I wish you'd been my grandpa B&W, mine were dull as arse as kids - don't remember doing anything with them at all apart from shopping. And god forbid the house was untidied in any way at all. Very odd now I think about it.

^^

Alternatives, for a SAHM with small DCs:

• stationary bike with motivational spinning music
• skipping rope, can be very HIIT. 15 mins is knackering to start.
• many 20-min DVDs around, e.g. JM , Billy Blanks TaeBo
• the fat-burning blasts in the Mosely Fast Fitness book only take a few mins per session. See 52 Exercise thread for exerpts and recommended routines.

I'm sure you'll soon be on track again

BCF is so right - I skip on the days I don't run and 15 mins is so tiring. Make sure you get a good rope though, a boxer's training one is best. With the cheap ones you spend too much time untangling the bloody thing.
I did another 10k today and did my worst time ever, 47 mins. It is definitely an incentive to lose the 2kgs I've put on. It isn't a shameful time by any means, I was the 7th woman out of the 80 who ran, but with all the training I've been doing it is really disappointing not to improve.

ooh, have eaten and drunk too much this weekend (plus ca change) but had a lovely morning in the garden and will have a mellow half term

TBH, MrsF, I'm not sure who gets the most out of it - our grandchildren or us!

Have to say, three is very rewarding, but hard work - just one at a time is sheer pleasure!

This morning I was woken about 8.30 by an odd repetitive squeaking noise…only after a couple of minutes did I realise that Alfie was on the swing in the kitchen underneath the bedroom. He's just tall enough now to stand on the stool and stretch up to connect it.

When I came down we had a good hour's TT practice before breakfast - now he's making bread ('Shapes!') just a foot or so to my left.

Taunton museum and a cream cake or somesuch this afternoon. Which suits, 'cos it's a miserable rainy day, ATM! (Outside, that is! )

Have a good day, everyone!

Update on the breadmaking: The 'shapes' now contain chocolate - so 'shapes au chocolat'!

Oh, with food colouring!

Oh to be able to wake up as late as 8.30 a.m. . My 5 year old is our 7 a.m. alarm clock every single day, no matter what time she goes to bed. Oh well, my time will come. Then, no doubt, I'll be complaining she can't get out of bed before 2 p.m. .

Fasting today, but I'm not well. nothing specific just feel awful. I've got a million and one things to do, but can't summon up the energy or motivation for anything. I don't have a temperature but I am achy and shivery. I just had a banana to see if it was fasting making me feel worse (no reason it should after all this time) but I didn't enjoy it at all and I now feel worse not better.

On the plus side I checked out the body frame links on the other thread, and I am large framed (which I knew from the wrist thing, but have now confirmed it with elbow measurement) which means that my ideal weight is 65.3kg, which I am very happy with as I am currently 65.7kg. I was thinking of going lower, but my body seems to like this weight, and my clothes all fit so I think I'll stay.

Funny how I can manage to post on MN but I'm too ill to do anything else.

Sorry you feel crap FF but good news about body frame and weight! All about settling on what right for each individual

B&W that sounds lovely. My parents have agreed to have my DC for 3 nights when they're next over (DH and I having our first overnight without DC for 2.5yrs!!) but it us pretty full on even for my spritely parents who are in their mid 50's. Te sad thing about not livin in the same country is they can't really have just one DC at a time - though when DS starts school I might do a UK trip just with DD

FD here and it's a holiday so I got to lie in til 10am thanks to DH. That was after being up and down to DD between 2am and 6am though. I would KILL for consistent wake ups at 7am

I have a dreadful cold, my nose is like a tap,my head is full of snot and to top it all and the scales have gone seriously the wrong way again.

.... Quite frankly i'm feeling really crap fat well over 50 and pretty much a 5:2 failiure right now . (but i do realise that perhaps i'm not in the best position to post right now feeling so poorly) .

I cant get the body frame calculator to work for me
can any one do a 5.5 3.5 elbow for me ?

I have really small hands and wrists and my body frame always seems wrong on the old method .
thanks

also still v slow internet..anyone else? is it mumsnet ?

((((Laska))))
hope the flooding's not been to bad near you. This weather is just a bummer for willpower.
Is it worth just doing 16:8 for a month to get habits back in line and tehn do a fast when the sun comes out

have you seen the bollards thread on aibu by the way - is all happening in Ryde in a spectacular manner

No flooding, though there was some over the weekend around Yarmouth and a bit of the undercliff at St Lawrence has slipped quite dramatically , but neither near me .

re bollards .. Ryde is it? thought it might be Cowes.. PM me where if you know .. Have not read it all but I was going to look it up .

Yes quite frankly , I just seem to want to eat potato and other carbs right now and I seem to have completely lost it so since christmas .. i was pushing 10.4 when we met , but its quite a bit more now. (scarily more .. I'm not saying .. it had to be a blip this morning its just not possible to put on that amount of weight in one weekend . )

but I know its no good beating myself up s especially when not feeling too good. but I may rejoin the other thread when i've got over this cold . i've 4 months (to the s day!) to my holiday .. I was 10st when i went last year and feeling good .. i want some of that back .

I cant afford any new summer clothes : am trying to get credit card debt free before my hol and also trying not to buy any more clothes this year if I can help it . (BTW good spread sheets and advice on the money threads there . I have mine on 0% and its nothing like some of the people on that thread . )

Oh my sore nose ! I must have blown it 1000 times today.. basalm tissues only work so far...

rub lipsyl onto the skin round your nose to protect it ...

you know the mental side of fasting ...
re read the recipes thread to see if that inspires you
newcomers still rave about your aubergine curry !