I F - 5:2 - 4:3 - Maintaining the healthy weight

[TalkinPeace2]

This thread is for those who have been doing IF for quite a while and are now at or nearing their target healthy weight.

How do we experience fasts and balance a stable food intake while having little or no weight to lose?

How to we ensure that this WOE does keep us at the healthy weight long term rather than revert to yoyo games?

I have now been at the same weight for a month. I'm happy with that. I'm also still enjoying the 24 hour fasts because of the clear mindedness I get during them.

How about you?

I can officially join you on the maintainer thread now. I hit target this morning.

ffvery well done and welcome

Morning all, well at the end of last week 3 successful Fasts seemed a long way off, but less than a week later and 3 Fasts under my belt as it were so well pleased.

Congrats FF, hitting the target is always a brilliant day. In some ways that's where the hard work starts and the test as to whether a diet or WOE is sustainable. There's one thing I know for sure though that all the skills, tricks and knowledge we've all learnt on this WOE on the 'way down' come in very handy when we get to a healthy place. And although there'll always be 'wobbles' along the way, long term health is really achievable here .

Well done on getting back on the wagon (as I had to) ATB, good luck next week and like others said to me..... after a couple of good Fasts it all gets a lot easier . I think mindset is everything with this, when I was finding it hard I was unwittingly focusing on how hard it would be and all the things I was depriving myself off, when I focused on all the positives and how good I would feel, suddenly it all became so much easier.

Lentil and Potato curry and red wine sounds pretty good B&W, you don't deliver to East London do you....all the curry houses round here are pretty poor

Have a great day all

Brilliant ff well done

It's sort of weird trying not to lose weight - I'm bouncing around 9.2 - 9.7 and would like a lower bounce range 9 - 9.4 though the 9.7 i Know is not 'real' weight but water retention after a carb fest. Nice to have guilt free carb fests too. Working in London today - not sure if I can resist the lovely food I'm sure to see - will play it by ear on the fasting front - and relax

Well done, FF! You must be on top of the world!

Be aware, though, that, IME, there's no such thing as a steady weight - I'm sure you know this. I vary between 9.1 and 9.4 - not that I weigh myself all that often. I go more on how much belt I can pull through after the last notch.

And I'm sure our ancestor's weight must have bounced around much more than ours does - all that feast and famine stuff!

But enjoy the moment. Are you one of the lucky ones who feels high when fasting? If so, why not celebrate with a good long fast? Then break it with a champagne supper or similar!

Well done FF and officially welcome !

B&W I was thinking of you this morning....how is your dd doing? I'm pretty serious about baking and cooking (actually, most of us are, on this thread, aren't we? :) ) and a vegetarian (ok, I'm not, but I keep kosher and the price of kosher meat, and the complications around eating and cooking it, mean that we are pescetarian (no shellfish)/vegetarian at least 6 days a week and always when not at home....) and was thinking how much I would love to join one of your classes one day....

TheCyclist....East London???? Surely you've got the whole of Brick Lane and all the amazing curries around there??? Hmmm...I reckon you're another one angling for some of B&Ws amazing home cooking.... :)

Still got the stinking cold, but oddly enough ended up doing a 26 hour fast with no problems at all yesterday....I've got so used to it now, it really doesn't register most of the time :) I'm a bit stuck around 9.7/9.8, which is below initial target but not quite at 'perfect', but fairly relaxed about is, as I suspect I will drop the last 2-3lbs eventually. Have my first AF for 3 months, so that's probably affecting water retention anyway.

Laska enjoy the BM - I'm desperate to get to the Pompeii exhibition but have no-one to go with (dh would, but he really isn't that interested!)...and huge congratulations on the baby naming :) How wonderful :) :)

Hi Filly, yeah unfortunately most of those are just dine-ins last time I looked and none would deliver round here . Round this way 3 or 4 delivery places'll open a month and then be closed 6 months later after losing all their custom through poor food sold as cheaply as possible....and spending a fortune sticking menus through your letter box every 5 mins.

Whereas I'm sure B&Ws Lentil and Potato curry is of a much higher calibre

SO - we have B&W's lentil and potato curry and we have Laska's aubergine chickpea and spinach curry...

but which is best???? There's only one way to find out...........FIIIIGGHHTT!!!!!!!

CURRY OFF!!!! Well I'm back in the UK in September, you have until then to brush up on your skills

Successful fast alert, yay! yesterday was ok - I made it easy on myself by having a ready meal and a banana, no room for going over or cheating. Juice cleansing next Mon-Weds then back on 4:3, determined to get to size 8 by my 30th in a month.

Well done ff, brilliant news!

....well if you need a judge . But not on Sunday Tuesday or Thursday

Well I held out all day - mainly because I worked through lunch so I could leave early. Decided to treat myself to a proper pretzel from the shop I pass every time I work in that office. I love proper pretzels. Treat time.

"one salted please" (£3 each!!)
"it's 2 for £5"
"oh, yes please "

Then she drops the pretzel in a liquid before sprinkling salt on it. I leave the shop, heading for the tube with a warm bag of pretzels - take my first bite and the liquid turns out to be a melted butter like stuff so the bloody things are squishy and oily. Yuk yuk yuk.
I had thoughts of offloading them onto some poor unsuspecting homeless person - but none in sight.

Yes I ate them I was hungry once I had that first salty bite. On the plus side I can forever happily walk past that shop knowing that I'm missing nothing. I've got some butter bean and squash curry waiting for me at home which will fulfil the need or something that actually tastes nice!

fillybuster ill go with you. PM me. I'm looking for someone to go to Bowie with me as DH not bothered .. . only a few tickets left in August now.

Just popping in while im waiting for my BM tickets to print off , Turkey l schnitzel in the oven (with lemon garlic matzo meal ..taught to me by a Jewish friend and utterly brilliant .. def not for a fast day though)

2 already .oops its not 7pm yet..

Yep cyclistist now i've done the three days again this week i',m feeing really good also

Mmm curry.. Anyone up for a Brick lane curry I'm on

and as for a fight YUP c'mon B&W give us the recipe!

oh yes catrus how about joining the 'curry off'?@ have you the the recipe for the butter bean and squash curry ?

and well done FF!
that's it im off now...

I'm afraid i don't really do recipes laska - I'm a "what can i do with what I have in?" kind of cook

This one worked well - picked up a very nice squash which I roasted along with some halved new potatoes. While they were in the oven I fried the curry spices in coconut oil - cumin, fenugreek, nutmeg, mustard seed, garlic, added a tin of chopped tomatoes a tin of butter beans and some coconut cream. Add chilli to taste and a dash of garam masala and a teaspoon of tuneric. Throw some previously fried onions into the sauce then pour it over the roasted veg, stir well, out back in oven until rice is ready :-)

Like most curries the longer the flavours have to infuse the better it tastes - so tonight was even nicer than last night.

Using coconut oil to fry the onions and spices has really improved my curries - it has a higher flash point than many veg oils and gives a lovely flavour. I've moved away from commercial curry powders and pastes and now use the individual ingredients. The downside is that each curry can taste quite distinctive depending on the Spice blend - which is also the upside.

Ooh where's TiP? New thread needed!

LOL! Great stuff, guys!

Let me assure you, there'll be plenty of curry to go round - enough for everyone!

This is so good, I made it again yesterday (you know those meals where, as you're coming to the end, you eat slower and slower to make it last longer? With this meal, that feeling kicked in right from the first taste!) and quite fancied a pie for a change. I've made lentil and potato pasties before, but this is my first go with a pie (yeast-risen pastry, of course!).

I've put a link to the curry recipe on the recipe thread, so you can all have a go. I'm not so sure it'll be any better than an East London curry, but at least you'll know what's in it!

And I need to try Laska's curry sometime. Actually, you guys would be the best people to judge - just make them both over the next week or so and come back and tell us all about it!

But I've been preoccupied with higher things than curries today! Thank you for asking about my daughter, Filly, - and you couldn't have picked a better day to ask!

We've been holding off getting too excited about the baby until the 20 week scan - which was today!

To cut a long story short, the baby is very healthy, fits every parameter they measured, perfectly - because of her history, they measured everything - and the sonographer (?) said that the baby was very active, "You've got a very happy baby there," she said

My wife and I think it's going to be a boy, since at an earlier scan (12 weeks), the sonographer had told them she could tell them the sex of the baby if they wished to know. They don't, ATM, but they came away today with an envelope containing the info if ever they change their mind.

Tonight we received a copy of the scan showing the baby - giving the thumbs up sign!

So, great excitement in the family - my wife wanted to rush out and buy something, as did the other grandmother! They're putting their heads together to decide who buys what. It's the other GM's first grandchild, so my wife is generously allowing her to buy the pram - or is it the cot? Something like that.

We've already given my daughter a hard-backed copy of 'The Hungry Caterpillar'!

TMI? Sorry for hijacking the thread, but you did ask, Filly!

BTW, make the most of having the most gorgeous grandson in the world, Laska - you'll only have that title until late August!

TIP or B&W Please could one of you do a new thread?.. I would but I'm just off out for the day?

(actually Anyone can do one. but please can we have the links to B&Ws hints and tips and the recipe thread also

Sorry not trying to be the boss of anyone here .. i would do it if I wasnt just off to catch the boat
, see you soon on Maintainers2.

Congrats B&W ill bask a bit longer in having TMGGITW (Marcus naming ceremony tomorrow) , and MAY consider reluctantly handing over the crown

This thread has come to the end of its working life, sorry to say!

But, off with the old and on with the new.

Here's our new meeting place, folks! Come and join us over there! New members more than welcome!

I'd planned to set up a new thread when I got back from lots of family visits this week but luckily it's been done for me!

Am REALLY looking forward to fasting next week - feel decidedly podge !

would have posted last night from my Sisters house but as I'm going to be an auntie again got distracted

and the weather is just so rubbish

when CAN we start to plan low calorie salads

rather than having to rely on Laska and B&W's amazing warming curries and soups!