Countdown to Easter

[ItRainsItPours]

All welcome!

Supportive thread for setting goals including self care and fasting, and chat in between.

You can definitely get back there @loveyouradvice ! Your dancing sounds so fun.

Thank you @Clearingaspace ... I can ... and I think dancing will help me - it makes me feel so in touch with my body, and it's utterly joyful feeling all that it can do....

@ItRainsItPours I realise we're post Easter... I think we're gearing up for a Countdown to June thread? How about we all post our commitments on it, reflecting now on what they might be - what we want to achieve, realistically and kindly nurturing ourselves in this journey to healthier, slimmer bodies and a more enjoyable life.

I'm happy to set up the new thread later this week if no one else wants to - I'm not quite sure of our group etiquette??

Yes we didn’t manage to fill the countdown to Easter thread did we 😀 Feel free to set up a new thread, I feel a bit too fasting fraud at the moment.
I am successfully reducing my stomach acid medication. Have slowly dropped form 40ml per day to 10ml so just one more reduction to go. Then I might be able to start trying to fast again and see if the stomach pain stays away. At the moment I am having to eat breakfast first thing and supper last thing. It’s a pain as I lost 4 stone last year using a short eating window each day and eating first thing just makes me crave food all day.
Being honest if the weight loss drugs were cheaper I would be trying them. I am also cautious of doing it without medical supervision but there seems to be lots of people on them now so I guess they are mostly safe. From reading the odd thread I think they just stop all the food noise so you go about your day not thinking about eating. This can lead to some people getting ill as they forget to eat or drink enough fluids. With how much I think about food now I find that hard to imagine.
I am just happy that my weight seems fairly stable at the moment, it would be so easy to regain the weight I lost last year.
People who are thinking about fast800 is that an odd day here and there or a week or longer in one go? I am wondering whether 5/2 is good for weight loss but I think that is even less than 800 calories which would be hard.

@loveyouradvice we must have been typing at exactly the same time earlier! Really lovely to imagine you dancing - I used to work near Cecil Sharpe House and never once went along - what a twit! It's exactly the sort of thing I would have loved.

Ah Stealth, you're such a trooper: even in your low mood you're here sharing information, thank you. While I know that these strong strong feelings will pass, you have my respect and sympathy for having to endure them right now.

@ItRainsItPours Being able to plan a nutritious low calorie day, not thinking about food between meals and stick to for a long period of time it is the dream isn’t it. Definitely the appeal of mounjaro for me. Imagine how much headspace it would free up.

That’s so hard @StealthilyEmbraceTheSilkyBeans . Why is food so flipping complicated

i have no real reason I am aware of but I got weepy thinking I should likely cut out toast cake and ice cream forever. I think glucose but also that pleasure point with the right fat and sugar combo is part of my problem certain foods trigger something in me which just makes me want to keep eating them. I wouldn’t say I binge exactly but I overeat sometimes.

@StealthilyEmbraceTheSilkyBeans do you have any suggestions for reading about WLI? I do agree but apparently the side effects of mounjaro are mostly the same with any quick weightloss. I am reading a book about Glp-1 on kindle unlimited by Lyle McDonald I am not sure of his qualifications but it is interesting. 2 interesting things so far - vlcd like fast 800 achieve better results than going on mounjaro with a standard diet plan. Also, intensive exercise during and after maintains the glp-1 losses effectively whereas it does come back if stopped suddenly without exercising. Both of those things do make me think it MUST be possible to use old school methods to lose weight. On the flip side mounjaro is unique in that it has better weightloss for women than men and apparently works well for women on hrt (although it stops oral progesterone working I have read elsewhere). I haven’t been able to lose and carry on losing to a healthy weight in at least 10 years, but have probably been on a diet that whole time - I do seem to need help.

thanks for letting me mull this over everyone x

Thanks so much @StealthilyEmbraceTheSilkyBeans i will give this a listen.

Oh @StealthilyEmbraceTheSilkyBeans how was day 1 of fmd?

That sounds so very very painful @StealthilyEmbraceTheSilkyBeans . Might I ask very gently, if you are sure that FMD is right for you? Treating yourself with love and care after all you've been through feels so very important. As is truly celebrating and relishing how you have revolutionised your health by lifestyle changes in the last year - utterly inspiring and amazing.

I so get that weight is your final hurdle - and I am confident you will achieve this too.

How does Day 2 of FMD feel now?

I have a few more hurdles - and I feel that weight is one of the early ones. Once I have that sorted again, and have rediscovered how to eat and maintain, I feel I can move onto other challenges: integrating gentle exercise, especially strength training (and the joy of dance!), will be my next.

I love the concept of having the power to revolutionise our own health and want to see how far this can take me, with my own auto-immune condition.

I too would not try Mountjaro, but that is because I believe that finding IF has been my own "secret pill" which has totally changed the way I look at food and my relationship to it.

If I felt I had nothing that works for me, I know I would be trying it and crossing my fingers that I was one of the lucky ones with few side effects... and I would be enjoying the fact that it seems to have benefits too, like reducing dementia risk and a couple of others. Good luck with the decision@Clearingaspace - I'll look forward to hearing what you decide.

@HarpQuartet How is Hello Fresh going? That is SUCH a good idea and one I may take if I feel it would help in a couple of weeks. Are you feeling a wee bit better?

@ItRainsItPours You have had such a challenging time with these anti acid meds... And keeping the 4 stone off is SUCH an achievement, truly impressive. Fast800 is 800 calories a day for up to 12 weeks - and its worth getting the paperback on eBay if you are interested - It did feel quite hard core and I only felt able to do it as I decided it was THE MOST IMPORTANT thing in my life for those 3 months, and I had the incentive of wanting to look good at a college reunion with people I hadn't seen for 40 years! Unexpectedly I was asked to give the speech just a few weeks beforehand, so truly felt great in my "new body" talking to a room full of mainly men, many of whom were looking decidedly the worse for wear (we were the first year of women).

@ItRainsItPours I would be delighted to set up the new thread - probably on 1 May if not before - it will definitely happen. And please know that you are not a charlatan - you are someone who used IF to lose 4 stone last year which is UTTERLY phenomenal, and even more phenomenal is maintaining your weight loss with all the medical challenges.

And what are people's self-care goals for the week?

I'm recommitting to my previous ones which work well when they work! If I manage them all this week, it will feel like a powerful step in the right direction...

• My teeth care is improving but I have NOT yet made friends with the water flosser...it lurks ominously in the corner of the bathroom ..but I have used it a couple of times since making this commitment
• I need to remember - when I do it, My Tai Chi is pure joy - just 10 minutes a day and I love how my body and brain feel after it
• Rebuilding from current 5-6,000 a day to 8-11,000 ... and including some brisk walking, and in hommage to Michael Mosley some walking backwards
• Strength training, a modest start... there are a couple of exercises I'm doing fairly regularly (stepping up and down on my stairs and vertical press ups against the wall) and I'm going to add in the ones Chat GPT suggested ... just 10 minutes most days is my goal, not necessarily in a block, just as and when

Bizarrely I am gently excited by the strength training - I love the idea of beginning to sculpt my rather aged saggy body... I love the image of @StealthilyEmbraceTheSilkyBeans wielding a chain saw as her DD and friend looked on, and admiring young hunks in the gym... this will power me forward. As will the image of my 92 year old mother in law still using an axe to cut logs up for her wood burner... much to the family's horror (and admiration)

Congrats to the stubborn bugger @StealthilyEmbraceTheSilkyBeans ... One of the post its I had on my bathroom mirror over christmas was "I can do hard things" ... I can, just not too many of them at the same time!!

How's Day 3 looking? Hopefully getting a bit easier??

Love that ADHD tip - my DD has ADHD and is grappling with how to manage - I'll explore this with her... Like you, she has a fab sense of humour...

Walking backwards - I love this, as much because it makes me laugh when I do it, as for the Just one thing Michael Mosley benefit ...He suggests that every walk you do, you aim to walk a chunk of it backwards at the same speed... you use different muscles - which I really notice as soon as I start walking backwards. Best to aim for a flat easy bit of the walk - I ended up on my bum walking backwards in some Provencal hills!!

More water is always a good idea @StealthilyEmbraceTheSilkyBeans - prompted by your post I'm off to drink a glass now....

How's everyone else's day looking?

I'm "back on it" - weighing 9lbs more than 3 weeks ago, I want to act fast in getting it off again... thankfully this week rather less demanding so hopefully will make a good start.

The plan:

• Today eating 500 calories in a 1 hour window (and will aim to do this weekly for a bit)
• Other days aiming for 800-1200 calories in a 4-8hour window
• Probably supping with friends on Friday - we're cooking - so HAVE A PLAN before they arrive

Hello!

glad fmd is going ok @StealthilyEmbraceTheSilkyBeans

your plan definitely sounds hardcore @loveyouradvice - but that means you can get the 9lbs off quickly and then hopefully get back to normal!

I have spent some time calculating things, apparently my current tdee is approx 2180 - this is because I cover enough steps for lightly active (10,000 generally) and I am also carrying quite a good supply of chub! I use chronometer app and put the weightloss goal to the max 2lb a week and apparently this means my deficit is just under 1200. I am trying to stay low/moderate carbs though and have been in such a grump today. Dh has reminded me people always feel a bit rough the first couple of days; normally I hate him making comments about weight loss but actually he is right and it’s ok to be headachey for a day or so I guess.

Thanks @StealthilyEmbraceTheSilkyBeans I will hopefully add in fasting a bit more too soon. Step 1 is not to cave on the calories and actually stick to it for more than a week!

Us grumpy women are good at buggering on!!

Congrats @Clearingaspace for powering through those first days, knowing that it gets easier as one gets back into the rhythm and the hunger/feeling deprived pangs dampen down ... this is what I need to keep reminding myself too!

And yes, summer trousers for the first time today! Hurrah!!