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

[TalkinPeace]

This thread is for those of us who have been practicing IF (Intermittent Fasting) for quite a while ( it being nearly 2 years since the Michael Mosely TV programme aired ) 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 mix fasts and 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?

More and more 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 four maintenance threads and all the main 5:2 threads for posters practising IF to lose weight here Fasting / 5:2 on the diet forum. We're currently on thread no. 46, 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 even more to the fore, as part of our general health and to help weight loss. BigChocFrenzys thread is here

Hello all! I am missing you all, so thought I'd pop back in ..

SEdweller I am so sorry to hear about your redundancy .. , a postgrad course sounds great , (you in local govt too? We are facing redundancies gain , I want toleave in 3 years if I can when ill be 60, but if i'm out inthe next round of cuts this autumn, and nextyear at least they wil have to pay me my pension as well as redundancy ....)

So sugar , I do eat a bit of very very dark choc but like cats and TiP can usually take or leave sugar except and really that is what has that has done it for me on my weight regain .. i've lost a little bit since ive been onthe the 'backsliders' thread , but summer is always much harder for me (and it doesnt feel quite over yet as i have a holiday in France at end of sept ) .

But I have got back into 2 days a week fasting , and hoping to do 4:3 next week ( to make up fo rmy upcoming weekend away which curry wil be consumed ! so thaks for the good reminder about miso soup.. I love it and havent bought any for a while.. will dofor tomorrow FD now..

Tip may be coming over to a meeting in a couple of weeks if you fancy a Yo Sushi in West Quay with (plump) me.. ( Please can i come on the real sushi meet up though, Where are you going? Itsu? Somewhere better ?

((South)) I hope you manage to find something that suits you. I know if sounds trite but sometimes events like that can push you to doing something you wouldn't have tried otherwise...me being in France is due to a new mysogynist boss with whom I didn't get on at all when I restarted work following the birth of my daughter - he made me want to give up my (very good) job and try something else. I've had no regrets.
TIP enjoy the odd fall off the wagon, you can fast another day.
My normal drink is water (apart from tea, coffee, wine and beer), I don't like sodas, diet or otherwise thank goodness. I have a coke after a race sometimes as it is good to refuel the body but it is like medicine to me rather than a pleasure to drink.
BigChoc great idea NCOS and I'm sure that will help lose the excess easily as it is snacking and wine that have done the damage! Scales back to only 3lbs over target this morning rather than the shock of 6lbs on Monday.

South, we haven't "met" on here before, but just read your posts and wanted to say I'm sorry about your job.
As others say, hopefully it can be a positive new beginning eventually, but at the moment it must be very difficult.
What kind of postgrad course are you considering?

Laska
text me when you know a date and we'll have a natter
but yes, a proper meet once SouthEast knows if he's coming or going would be good.

Laska glad you are getting back into fasting again and I hope the weight continues to come off, despite your French holiday. Where are you going to? Enjoy your curry. We ate out in a French Indian resto at Fougères on Thursday, but not a patch on the UK Indian restaurants. The poppadums (sp?) were Sharwoods packet ones - and soft because they were obviously yesterday's or lunchtime's left overs.

Hi Anglaise , My friend lives mear Châteaulin inthe Finistère end of Brittany I love it there , especially the wild coast..

Illl have to get some more off for the fantastic seafood and cheese (not to mention the !

Southeast! For you. Take a little time to think about where you want to go/aim for. It is a golden opportunity for a new path or a slight change in direction. It's often a catalyst for people to do and make the career changes they have been meaning to do for years but have been to comfortable/scared to do. We are always here for advice.

I'm a very naughty girl and the No Crap September is off to a terrible start here . We are in Mauritius and I am eating the hotel out of business. Delicious Indian Ocean style curries, pancakes with choc every single morning (along with waffles with more choc and omelette ). Fish at lunch (and more pancakes for afternoon tea). And enormous meals at dinner. I am going to be the size of a house if we don't get home soon.
BA seriously need some extra fuel and an extra engine for the return journey or it will not take off.

My only real exercise is snorkelling way out by the edge of the barrier reef twice a day for an hour each time. In freezing cold (18c) water without a wetsuit (I'm hard ). Sadly that will not be enough to make up for what I have been shovelling in my gob.

Not sure what came over me other than an urge to gorge. They serve so much seafood and curries here it's very hard to say no. And I've got no idea why I need pancakes twice a day but I suddenly do.

As for coke and fizzy drink. Never have them. Can't stand the way coke makes my mouth feel. Coated. Immediately even after the first sip. Yuck. Blurgh. I used to drink diluted (with fizzy water) fruit juice but it's rare now. Sometimes with a meal in a restaurant as I don't drink much alcohol so I prefer that.

DC are loving the holiday. They are having a ball. DHs sandcastle building skills are coming along. He has been getting competitive with other dad's along the resort beach and there are these whole cities everyday with excited DC watching egging their dads on. It's very funny.

We will be back next week and I shall be reporting back to you all how many stones I've managed to gain (and you can all kick my a*$e) And be back doing 5:2 again.

On another note. I seriously need some of those special celeb skin shrinking treatments for my stomach! Everyone has them apparently. I was talking to a lady from Dubai today who has a 2YO and impressive stomach with taut skin. She has had something like it done. She said hers sagged worse that mine. So coming home to google that! If any of you have had this magic stuff done, don't hold out on me, tell me where and how much.

MrsF Fresh fish, pancakes, choc, beaches

competitive dad sand castling : love it

MrsF Enjoy your hols. We don't do guilt !

That's the whole point of 5:2 isn't it? To enjoy an indulgent holiday and know you can set it to rights upon your return....enjoy, sounds amazing!

FD failed epically yesterday after attack of evening munchies, pretty sure TOTM is round the corner.

Got sworn in as a Court Appointed Special Advocate today (volunteer role working with children in dependency court due to neglect or abuse), they laid on a lovely Italian lunch but stuck to just spaghetti and marinara sauce and even avoided the cake - so NSS is still on even if I am otherwise in gorge mode!

Sorry DM link and a bad one at that!!
www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2745407/Amy-Willerton-works-curves-cleavage-heavy-white-bikini-girlie-getaway-Mauritius.html

These ladies were being photographed on the beach here and are staying at our hotel.
The big Mauritian lad in the bottom photo is Chris who takes me out snorkelling.


Obv they are not eating as many pancakes as I am.....

Back home soon. Don't be surprised if you read about a BA flight not making it off the runway or ditching in the Indian Ocean after takeoff due to lardy passenger (me).....

MrsF
Hope the camera sharks did not ruing your bit of the holiday ...
and as for the seat allocations ...
www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/03/qantas-flight-struggles-to-take-off-as-child-passengers-tip-balance

TIP . No I did duck behind stuff a couple of times on the beach to avoid the paps following the entourage of bikini models but it hasn't ruined anything. I just didn't want to be in any snaps. Esp if destined for the DM. I'd be a pariah on MN if that happened.

And as for the flights.... They're gonna struggle! Not just because I've eaten way way waaaaaaay too much and probably am 3 stone heavier than I was 10 days ago but it's blowing a gale now. Lovely warm sunny weather (28c) but 35mile an hour winds.
So not sure whether we will be leaving or not.

There are many positives to the wind. It doesn't feel too hot, the French moan and stay in their rooms (yay) and absolutely no mozzies at all! My first ever tropical holiday without at single bite or repellent. Nice.

DC have loved it here. For anyone else thinking of going, I recommend it. And it's circa 1/3 of price of our May time maldives jaunt. In fact you'd struggle to get 2 weeks in the Greek Islands during summer in a 4 or 5 star for what we are paying for a top end 5 star out here. Only downside is the 12 hour flight. That said with the assistance of IPads, magazines and good old Phenergan, it's a breeze.
Food is fab which is great as long as you don't mind the weight gain. Mauritians cannot feed you enough.

Well reality and london looms so I will "see" y'all back there shortly.

Oh and TIP. Sadly BA won't be "nose heavy" as the Guardian article mentioned. Unfortunately we are not up the front of the bus but in economy at the rear. So it's the arse end of the plane which will be scraping against the ground.

Oh the sacrifices I have had to make for the DC . Maths is simple. 2 x business class tickets = 4 x economy class tickets. I do hope they realise the hard ships parents must endure.....

Both kids in school - proper fasting re-starts :-)

Indeed! Both mine at school today.

I gained (drumroll) a total of 3kg which is 6.6lbs!!

Having a "warm up" mini fast today. Should come in around 900cals.

Serious FDtomorrow though.

After 2 weeks of gorging I am seriously hungry.

Oh well never mind. It will pass.

At least I brought back some lovely Maurician vanilla tea which is a treat to drink.

Been back for 24hours now. DC are struggling to make it through dinner after a day at school.
Early bed tonight.
Need to pick up the guinea pigs from the piggie hotel. Hope they've had a nice time making new friends.

Another reason for avoiding processed food and sweet crap. There is just too much food around for Food Standards Officer to monitor ingredients.
They caught this one by chance and extra vigilance: SweetDyeCancer but some crap is never discovered.

Bigchoc!! That's grim. Utterly utterly grim.

Sadly it's not just what we eat. Many of those posh and lovely cosmetics and body washes/lotions and shampoos have terrible ingredients. Much worse than parabens or silicones. Things like DEA and TEA both have cancer links.

My favourite whipping horse has to be Phenoxylethanol. It's in flipping everything. And is bad for skin and hair. As any alcohol or alcohol derivative can cause cancer. Continually applying products, shampoo conditioner body wash body lotion face cream followed by makeup which is laden with the stuff will assist the process of cell mutation. (see alcoholic mouth wash. My dentist says it should be prescription only for 7 days max use as it causes mouth cancer)

Oops, thanks for alcohol info, MrsF So it doesn't just affect us via internal consumption.
I swish with Listerine 2 x daily Next shop will be alcohol-free version

Sadly not just drinking wine.

There are plenty of dentists and oncologists who are campaigning for alcohol mouthwash to be prescription based.

Alcoholics don't just die of liver failure. Mouth and throat cancers are common.

Apparently the effect of alcoholic mouthwash is worse if you smoke and then also more likely to use it a lot.

The links between alcohol preservers (phenoxylethanol etc) and skin cancers have yet to be fully explored.
Because phenoxylethanol is a relatively new preservative which became popular when the public demanded products without parabens (which also cause cancer on skin when exposed to UV light).

I use oils instead of body lotion. Pure ones ie pure organic almond oil. On wet skin. Super fast and without preservatives.
The only soap I use on my body is Castile soaps which are without preservatives.

I do struggle to find many brands if shampoo and conditioner which are silicone, paraben TEA DEA and phenoxylethanol free.
So far the only ones (which don't leave your hair like straw!) are the Green People ones. Quite costly I suppose but then again still cheaper than things like Bumble and Bumble, Ojon, Keratese.

I started investigating all this about 10 years ago when I became allergic to biological washing powder and fabric conditioners.

Prior to that I had been a product junkie. Infact I used to read labels and choose the products with the longest list of posh sounding ingredients on the basis it would be more "beautifying and anti aging" what a moron!!

I can't use regular foundation either these days. They all contain silicones such as diemethecone. They give me a terrible painful rash.
Besides who want to smother their face or body in something which is only two ingredients (solvent and vinegar) away from being bathroom sealant (mastic). Yuck.

Still a couple of kgs over target weight but not fasting with 39km trail race on Sunday. I probably won't be able to walk on Monday as apparently the course is extremely difficult, lots of Very Steep Hills . The aim is to finish!
Good luck to all of you fasting - it is certainly easier to do when kids are at school and you get back into a routine.
Very interesting about Pheoxylethanot Mrs F - going to check out the products I use.

Welcome back MrsF - don't worry, I'm sure those 6lbs will drop off quite quickly. I reckon you may have gotten away with it...must be all that snorkelling and ducking out of sight! The holiday sounds lovely...

SED TiP and anyone else: I really feel that we are long overdue our London sushi lunch. Even if its a work day, as long as its an NFD, we should be able to squeeze an hour or so in, right? SED - I know you're really close by to me, so how about it?

I'm still 6-7bs over target weight, and not doing too well on FDs at the moment, but trying to work out whether my target weight is actually the right one, iyswim. I suspect I'm actually 'only' 3-4lbs over a maintainable weight, but it's not going to drop off on its own as its been sitting there for a month now.

Need to get my head around this one. Several failed FDs (completely unlike me) and lots of days like today where I don't eat anything at all all day (great) then devour a mahoosive bag of nachos whilst on MN at 6pm Oops. And going out for dinner with dh tonight, so can't cc anyway (which is why i suspect my subconscious of going 'sod it' and pointing me at the nachos...)

I can do a London sushi lunch too:-) work up there a couple of days a week! mind you - they usually ARE fast days but I guess I could make an exception . my pattern is a FD when working in london office then if working late will have a Yo Shushi at the station before getting train home - saves me from pigging out once I get back.

sounds good to me ....
I can pick my work days so will let those with tighter timetables pick a day (so long as its in term time)