Your leek soup sounds delicious!
Since adding nuts was the only thing I did differently last week, I guess my body doesn’t like them. Too bad.
Forgot to mention - I finally broke through my plateau. I hit a new low weight for me in early June, & hit it a few more times through June & July, but just could not get any lower. Finally, this morning I blasted past it by a full pound! I know not to read too much into this one measurement, but it sure feels good!
Great news! I too hoping to break through my plateau on the weekend and just ignore week day fluctuations.
Eating only in an 8 hour window works fine for a lot of people. I don’t eat breakfast, though sometimes I have a coffee (with some calories) and then nothing til lunch and I don’t eat after dinner, so my window is basically noon-8pm occ with one coffee at 9am. Not a strict window but close. This method (16:8) works well for people who like a big dinner or skip bfast. The other intermittent fasting method mentioned (5:2) also works well for a lot of people. imo there’s no reason to bash anyone’s method if it works and is not proven to be unhealthy.
I lost 15 pounds restricting myself to 12 hours. I may try to cut it down to 10 or 11 but 8 wouldn’t work for me.
Bookworm skip the trail mix and just go for the almonds and walnuts which are really good for you. Many “experts” recommend about a shot glass every other day of these nuts. For butter, you just pop them in a mini or full size food processor and spin away. Almonds take much longer to puree. I add honey to my walnut butter.
The trail mix is almost all nuts, a few raisins, and a token amount of M&Ms. Truly, less M&Ms than in a small package. Mostly almonds, macadamia a, no,peanuts. It seemed so healthy, but…
I did state that “if it works for you” go for it, but I have a hard time understanding the logic - not to mention the misery (for me and many I know) of spending so much waking time not being able to eat food!
For those of you who skip breakfast - or who don’t eat after 5pm or so …how is your morning/evening activity level??? When do you exercise?
I have to eat something in the morning, but I really can’t eat anything for a couple hours after i wake up so I bring a banana or a yogurt to work and eat when I’m settled in. I like having a “big” meal around the noon hour then a snack in mid-afternoon and then a small dinner around 6:30. After that i’m not hungry anymore except once in a great, great while when I get really hungry around 9:30 pm. I don’t know why that happens every couple months, but it does.
I tried low carb for the first time so I could lose these 10 lbs that have crept up on me in the last 4 yrs. I got terrible and frightening restless leg syndrome for the first time in my life on the 3rd night on the diet. It was awful. Got up, ate some crackers and it went way. low carb is not for me. 
I get up, have lots of water, my delicious coffee and go right to my Barre3 workout. Then a protein heavy lunch, something snacky in the afternoon, a big dinner. I’m working on those last two pounds and shooting for 1600 cal/day.
I’m fine in the morning. I’m sure there are those that can’t exercise if they don’t eat, but I seem to be fine. If I was going to do HIIT in the morning I’d have something more substantial, but if I’m not doing intense cardio, I’m fine with very little. There is (as usual lol) some controversy and some evidence supporting ‘hungry workouts’ .
" Got up, ate some crackers and it went way. low carb is not for me. "
Bet those crackers had a load of salt, and that’s what usually takes care of cramps. Plus, walking to the kitchen to get to the crackers provided the much needed stretch.
My morning is similar to @jaylynn – morning coffee with a splash of a protein drink (less than 50 calories) then off to some kind of workout most days. I’ve been kicking it up a notch lately and stamina is not a problem. Lunch around 11, a few little protein snacks through the day and dinner 6ish. I don’t stay up late and haven’t eaten/snacked late for years so this is what works for me. And lots of water all day. I think that’s hugely important on many different fronts health/diet wise.
Speaking of snacking @DrGoogle, if I don’t portion out nuts I’ll go totally overboard. I do try to keep a variety of easy to grab healthy snacks available.
Our insurance requires biometric screening, which I had done today. Happy to finally be in the healthy weight range and it’s likely I’ll be taken off high blood pressure meds when I have my physical next month (was almost too low today). I’m interested to see the blood sugar and cholesterol numbers. Both had been creeping up over the years and I’m hopeful to see them back well within normal range.
Yay @aMacMom! I do love saving all of my calories for a big ol’ dinner. And that big dinner helps me not snack late at night.
After this year of fitness, I got rid of hypertension meds (though to be honest it was a borderline call to start them), and my lipids improved a lot-- I got my HDL way up and my TG way down. I wanted to check again at my last physical, but my internist wouldn’t order them bc I’d just had them done 6 months ago and she knew I only wanted her to check so I could compete with myself lol. In fact she said that I probably didn’t need labs done for several years since I’m so solidly in the healthy range and I was super bummed. I work in the same clinic (I’m a pediatrician) so I could have whined and she would have caved but I didn’t. You’ll all be happy I didn’t waste healthcare dollars 
I just throw in a few nuts, about 5-10 nuts and trail mixed of yogurt covered raisin that my husband got from Sprouts. So it’s not a lot but it’s enough that I won’t be hungry.
In the morning I’m not hungry if I’m at home, at most I have tea and a piece of gluten free bead and hazelnut spread.
When I go to work, I have a banana and a yogurt, then off to lunch at 11:00ish. So I’m not a big breakfast eater like my husband, he has the whole works, egg and sausage or bacon, muesli with homegrown strawberries and two pieces of toast with marmalade. And he is slim or close to skinny. No fat anywhere.
True confession of the day… I think I have to stop buying ice cream, period. At least the kind I like to eat. I used to be able to control myself, but lately it feels like crack.
1214 i cannot have ice cream in my house. I will sit with a spoon and eat right out of the container…and repeat and repeat.
I had some ice cream today because it was hot. Small container, very tiny. I don’t eat ice cream when it’s cold.
yes, typically no ice cream in the house. I actually do not like it but do enjoy a Talente Gelato on occassion.
But late at night, if there is vanilla ice cream, I will eat it like a robot. It is weird. I only buy brands such as Haggen Dass that I find too sweet for H.
Met with my very young and fit trainer today. I could do every thing he asked me to do. He could not get down and up with the crossed ankels though! ( I go down but not up without a knee). He asked me to do a plank --suggested 10 seconds (?) I did an easy 30 seconds and (remember when the CC folks were doing the Plank challange?) have done a 3 minutes at a time. He said he has never lasted that long. so yea for me but he has a flat tummy and I do not… :((
He told me I would/could lose 10lbs in 2 months training with him 3 times a week for $1400.
But then I can get liposection for $3000 and lay around recovering :x
Fascinating information about the 8, 10 or 12h food plan. Never knew it was a ‘thing’. I’ve always joked that my stomach wakes up hours after the rest of me. I can’t eat until lunch time and then have dinner. Periodically a snack in between but generally not. So, I most often eat all my food within a 7-8h window (12-8 or 11-7). Also, I’m with whoever said upthread that they sleep better on a more empty stomach. That’s how I am too so I really don’t like to have a late dinner. Never knew the odd way my body wants food was helping me not gain.