Crazy here, but good! Hey, what fun holidays banner. My kitties are preening here!

So @mamainthekitchen yes final flavored water is fantastic! Lots of people don’t cook with the fennel stalks and greens at the top, I have found. Well they can put those stalks and leaves into water and put it in the refrigerator. A few hours later there is a very fresh slightly licorice taste to the water!

@Meghan509 simply super on the weight-loss, if I forgot to mention it last week! You are doing so well, and what a long-term inspiration you are! I’m envious of your vacation, as it has been a long time since we have managed one. Finances have been ridiculously tight for a couple years, and well they will be marginally better this year thanks to my job, I don’t think we’ll have enough to actually go on a vacation this year. But since we live in a very warm climate, I think I would not be headed south personally anyway! I would like to do winter vacation – somewhere with lots of snow. The Chicago in me still peaks out even if I’m a Texan now.

Jk: I was glad to see you got out of jury duty, but I oddly enough I have always wanted to be on a jury. I almost never get called to even show up though. My husband has had 3 to 6 jury duty callings (no Juries though) since we’ve lived in this house. I had one and it was canceled the night before.

@RBXChas Have I ever asked how old your children are? And do you do Christmas at home, or do you all head out somewhere?

So a couple things on my front. I am doing light exercycle as I type this. Light in this case being speed 10 or 11 mph and resistance 8. When I started exercising this year I could do that speed easily enough but the resistance at 3 to 5 began to really work r me. I find it crazy that resistance eight feels like no resistance at all, now.

I have been kind of bad last weekend and this weekend, although in this case bad this weekend is still within my calorie goal. It just contain a lot of leftover Halloween treats I happened to find this weekend. Boy did I have a sweet tooth this weekend, unusual for me. Still my weight is maybe half a pound down from the beginning of December, and December’s goal is to only weigh less on the last Day of the month than I did on the first day of the month. So I’m doing fine, but I do have guilt pangs. My new motto, however, is never to days in a row. So by that motto I am still doing just fine. I’m going to try to focus mentally on that!

Yes, happy Hanukkah!!

I’m hosting Christmas dinner here too! It will be for eight adults and three teenagers. Meat (Ham or Roast) roasted tomato and basil soup and potatoes (twice baked or garlic mashed) are all of my husband responsibility. This year it will be a roast. I’m going to do a red fruit salad in a watermelon bowl, fudge and sugar cookies, maybe gingerbread cookies, homemade Frappuccinos and probably my coleslaw so that I have something healthy to gnaw on while others overdo on the goodies.

Our tradition is getting irritated with the brother-in-law! He insists every year on bringing two full sheet pan size muffin tins with his grandmothers recipe rolls. These have to be kept warm and cat free, somewhere in our house (small, cold and cat plentiful house) until our oven is free. Then each set of rolls has to be cooked separately because our oven is too small to house both pans at the same time. These roles are not even good. And brother-in-law is always up in arms over where we have decided to let the role said and when he can get them into the oven. There are always at least 20 left over, which I end up throwing out.

Oh, the other tradition is stressing out my husband! Really, he loves to cook but something about the Christmas dinner cooking send him over the top. I think it’s because we have guests and they all need to come into the kitchen to get their drink or put their fruit salad in the refrigerator, which never has enough room, etc. Our small galley kitchen just doesn’t accommodate a cook plus assorted others very well. And my husband stress level goes through the roof! Every year I try to help with this, become a gatekeeper not letting people into the kitchen etc. but it is always a big deal.

Have I posted a picture of our kitchen? Beautiful mid century galley kitchen with a 1950s Okeefe and Merritt stove. Perfect kitchen for two people. Not the best kitchen for eight adults and three children. Minimal counter space which all the guests who bring a dish think they can use, but the cook NEEDS. Chaos ensues.

I find it fun, myself, my family was so much more formal about holiday dinners - but certainly chaotic. The only thing I would change is my brother-in-law. He is always a pain in the butt about everything and the (everything from scratch) rolls really suck. And he says he’s going to bring a pecan pie and some sort of chocolate dessert. Not that we will need any more desserts. And I will have to find room in our refrigerator for them as soon as he arrives or he will pout and wine and pester. Really you think this 45-year-old man was closer to 13 the way he acts. He has two lovely young women for daughters however.

Oh, I guess the mulled wine is a tradition, too. But I’m not sure anyone ever drinks it. I always do it because it gives the house such a fresh festive smell. And I always have a taste. But mulled wine smells so much better than mulled wine tastes in my opinion.

Christmas carols in the background and board games or conversation. If it is cold out, a nice fire in the fireplace. We don’t have a tv in the living or dining room combo so I think this is the only day of the year that my sister-in-law and her family don’t have a constant TV on accompaniment.

Way TMI,? I’ll stop now, lol

@Meghan509 great news, great timing etc. you’ll be happy in all the holiday photos this year I think!

I’m a bit irritated- no December weight loss and if I’m doing my math right (now that I know about the weekly tab on the nutrition page) it is because I seem to have a TDEE at less than 1300 calories a day. So 5:2 and 1500 on non fast days is practically MAINTENANCE and only if I were not looking to lose more (as TDEE will go down as I lose more weight). Very depressing but I’m trying to just ignore this for December and stay steady - not gain for sure. I’m gonna have to come up with a new plan (stop dieting at top end of normal BMI I think) and get used to 5:2 for my remaining days.

More later

@jknight001 I’m short, but not that short, 5’3.75 to be exact. The TDEE seems exceptionally low to me too.

But post menopause I packed on 40+lb in 3 years and can’t say anything else in my life changed much. And I’m losing a ridiculously low amount of weight a month ( better when I switched to 5:2 but slowing down at an extreme rate since end of October).

My average net ( which includes very conservative exercise calories but 0 calories for the average 15,000 steps) cals a day since April are coming in under 1000 yet I’m losing ( except for the month of October) less than .75 a week,

I don’t have an extreme dieting or yo-yo weight background. My blood work this year came back normal on thyroid. And I AM losing, but at a snail’s pace and on tiny net calories. I ran my Apple Watch numbers to be sure (movement and exercise calculated differently) and yeah - it suggests similar.

I was very happy in October, felt better in 5:2 but then the constant hunger has returned since beginning of December. . I can squelch the hunger for maybe an hour or two if I have a big meal (big being 600 calories or more including 30 to 40 g of protein and a potato serving ( prob 200 g of baked potato w/o butter) but I’ll be hungry again a couple hours later.

Christmas treats are getting more and more difficult to pass up or indulge in moderately ( I’ve been allowing myself a treat 2 or 3 times a week of about 150 to 250 cals) because I am SO hungry!

I get it, I’m dieting so I’m miserable and hungry. But maintaining looks pretty lousy from a number perspective too.

Sorry, just kvetching- nothing anyone can do so I’ll just have to figure this out. 5:2 will give me a few calories to play with on the Five days, but not nearly what I hoped and probably not near what it looked like it might in October and I’m just going to have to deal.

@ryenday I am so sorry for your struggle. It is hard enough to restrict calorie intake, but is doubley painful if it is combined with a slow weightloss. I think the focus of Edward Munch's painting "The Scream" was that very concept. OK, I made that last part up but I have been in your shoes and it is hard.

On the plus side is that you are doing everything you need to do - sticking to the 5:2 plan, exercising, getting yourself checked out by the doctor, etc. Could or be .75/week is what your body does?

One thing I did wonder is if your treats could be leading to your hunger? If they are sugary you will have a blood sugar spike followed by a drop that could lead to hunger. Snacks that are high in protein and complex carbohydrates will help stave off hunger, although I suspect you might already know thst.

@ryenday I have found that weight loss makes my power surges so much worse! I am pretty sure it is because fat stores estrogen, and when that fat is used up, the estrogen is released. The good news is, if you are having problems, that means you are burning fat! Just my two cents.