I find it easier on a fast day to focus my meals on veggies & a bit of lean protein as they help me to feel fuller, longer. Carbs just make me hungry fast. Waiting as long as possible to eat is key as well. This is coming from someone who 18 months ago couldn't go more than a few hours without eating, otherwise I felt unwell & got really grumpy :-P Smoothies, fruit, etc. are very healthy, but much higher in calories than veggies. I use my non-fasting days to load up on those healthy foods. JMHO

If it's already spread on a sandwich you'll most likely be OK. If it's in a jar or other container, it's a liquid in my experience.

Check the weight limits as well. Here in NZ they weigh all carry-ons when you enter the departure area. Air NZ limits carry-ons to 7kgs, while Hawaiian Airlines has a higher (~15kg) limit. Also, some airlines have much stricter size limit for carry-ons. Just because your initial airline lets you on-board with those carry-ons doesn't mean they will be allowed with other airlines if you are flying with a variety of airlines. I flew internationally this past May/June & dd & I took a rolling carry-on + a tote (our personal item) each. We had no problems getting them on board as we were flying HA. WE wouldn't have been allowed both on Air NZ. We did each check another bigger rolling bag as well. The biggest problems we found with taking that much carry-on was that it really hurt our shoulders to lug the bags through the airports en-route. Our roller bags were the older 2 wheel style & our tote had a strap to fit over the pull handle. For the return trip we left the older bags at my dad's house & took a new 4-wheel spinner carry-on each. Even with our totes on top, these were a breeze to roll the many miles through the airports & getting them down the narrow isles on the plane was a breeze. My boys flew a fortnight after us & took a small rolling duffle or suitcase (carry-on size) each + a school-size backpack (their personal item). They had no problems en-route. HTH

I lost over 46 pounds in the past year. I am 48 years old. To be successful you need to look at a complete overhaul in your way of eating. No quick fix diet will work IMHO. I have yet to find time to add in exercise, so my weight loss is all due to changes I've made in my way of eating.

I've been following this WoE for the past 18 months as well & lost over 46 pounds (dropping from 168 lbs to 122 lbs.) When I began I would drink herbal tea until 1:00pm. I would have a low-cal cup-a-soup for lunch, an apple (cut up & dusted with cinnamon) at 4:00pm, & at 6:00pm a huge dinner salad with loads of veg, a bit of lean meat, & a sprinkle of cheese (but NO starches). I would have a small mandarin or a cup of grapes, etc. for dessert. After a week or so I found I wasn't hungry for the fruit, so I dropped that. Then I found if I moved dinner to 5:30pm I didn't need the apple mid-afternoon. Then I replaced my herbal tea with hot water with lemon & I didn't need the cup-a-soup. Now I have lots of hot water with lemon all day & a huge dinner salad at 5:30pm. This is most likely much less than the 500cal. allowed on fasting days, but you don't need to eat all 500cal. Some people do total water fasts & that's OK. I never count calories on my "eating" days, so over the week I would average over the 1200cal. Michael Mosley who wrote The Fast Diet is a doctor & he's explained the science behind this WoE in his book. This WoE isn't for everyone, but it is safe for otherwise healthy adults. The benefits far out way mere weight loss. I have found it to be the only weight loss plan that has worked with me & it's been effortless, as I have never felt deprived. The key to my success is I always tell myself that I can have what I crave on a fasting day tomorrow. It has helped me to kick my soda & carb addiction as well as relearn healthy portion sizing. It's very simple. Eat up to 500 calories on fasting days & up to 2000 calories on other days. Don't add is extra calories to make up for calories burnt through exercise. JMHO,

I follow 5:2, like Laura. At first I was making 2 meals on my fasting days, but everyone seemed to want a big dinner salad like mine, so now I make salad plates for everyone on those nights. Dh & ds#1 are tradesmen & ds#2 is an elite level hockey player, so they all need a lot more calories than I need. I add cold potatoes, more cheese, more meats, etc. to their plates. Sometimes the boys opt to put their salads into tortillas to make wraps. The boys also make milkshakes or smoothies to have with their meals. This adds the extra calories & protein they need. On my fasting days I don't eat breakfast or lunch, but they do. This is an easy way to cut calories without changing how I cook for the family. On my "eating" days I eat what everyone else is eating, but use a smaller plate to help control portion size. I, also, avoid snacking & that has helped to cut out unnecessary calories for me. Active teens do need more calories than middle age adults, but those calories are spread out throughout the day, not limited to what is eaten at dinner. My boys have good breakfasts & large healthy lunches. If they have salad plates for dinner a few nights a week, they will be fine. If they are still hungry, they have a snack before bed (usually a big bowl of porridge.) What helped me lose over 46 lbs in the past 18 months was no snacking, no sweets (except at VERY special occasions), no second helpings, salad for dinner every second night, use a smaller plate on "eating" days, no soda (don't drink your calories), drink tons of water. I haven't added in an exercise program yet, so my weight loss is purely due to changes I have made in what I eat. By following 5:2 I gradually made those 7 things habits without feeling deprived & now it's a way of life for me. I feel so much healthier at 122# than I did at 168#.

Mexican flavoured tomatoes (usually has onion, bell peppers, cumin, etc. added for flavour)

Here in NZ my local school follow this timetable: Primary School (NE-Y6, age 5-10) 9:00 school day begins 10:30-11:00 morning tea break 12:30-1:30 lunch 3:00 dismissal Intermediate School (Y7 & Y8, ages 11-12) 8:45 roll call 10:05-10:30 Interval 12:50-1:45 lunch 3:00 dismissal HighSchool (Y9-Y13, ages 13-18) 8:45 roll call 11:00-11:30 Interval 1:30-2:20 lunch 3:20 dismissal Some school times vary a bit, but all levels have a short morning break outside & about an hour for lunch outside. All students are outside for all break times unless it is pouring rain. Lunches are usually brought from home. Most intermediate & high schools have canteens (like snack bars) that sell mostly junk foods IMHO, but as that food is usually quite expensive for what you get, most students bring food from home. Cooked school lunches have never existed as far as I'm aware. The school year runs from the last week in January - mid December. It is split up into four terms of roughly 10 weeks each, with 2 weeks break between terms & 6 weeks summer holidays (mid-December/January). Primary/intermediate schools have 195 days/year & high schools have 190 days/year. The exact beginning/ending date may vary from school to school by as much as a week, but the between term holidays are the same throughout the country. When dd was in Primary school she had little homework other than reading at home a book brought from school or studying for the weekly spelling test. The intermediate school assigns little, if any, homework. Ds#2 has been in PS since Y9 & up until this year I think he might have had a dozen days he brought home homework. With the long lunch hour, ds#2 usually could finish any work not completed in class. This year in Y12 he's had to work a bit harder & usually has 2-3 hours of homework a week. One thing that I found different from what I knew growing up in the States was that during exams (in Y11-Y13) the students only needed to come to school for their exam times. All studying was done at home. This means ds#2 has 8 days in August when he is home a lot & he has no classes the last 6 weeks of the school year, & only has to go to school for his exams. Only 3 of his classes have external exams, so in reality his summer holidays start early November. Sports & music are run mostly in clubs, not associated with schools. Any that are part of the school usually have practices/meetings during interval/lunch breaks.

Fried Cabbage & Ground Beef 1 pound ground beef (I browned a kg earlier in the week & saved half for tonight's meal) 1 tsp olive oil (I used sunflower oil I had on hand) 1/2 small onion, diced (I used a whole medium onion) 1 large carrot, shredded 2 cloves garlic (I used 2 tsp minced garlic) 1 head cabbage, shredded 1/2 cup water 2 Tbsp Worcestershire 2 Tbsp sweet chill sauce 1/4 tsp garlic salt salt & pepper Brown beef & remove to a bowl, set aside. In the same large pan add oil & cook onion, carrot, & garlic until onions start to soften. Add cabbage, water, sauces, & garlic salt. Cover & cook until water is gone & cabbage is soft. (add more water if necessary as you want the cabbage to be thoroughly cooked) Stir in the browned beef & heat through. Chili-con-carne 1 pound ground beef, browned 1 large onion, chopped 2 cans Mexican tomatoes 2 cans Kidney beans (rinsed) 1 can Corn Taco or Chili seasoning (omit if you prefer mild chili) Dump ingredients in a crock pot & cook on low 6-8 hours or dump into a pot & simmer 30 minutes. Serve over rice or tortilla chips. Use to fill tortillas for burittos or as part of taco salads. Top with cheese.

I've followed the Budget Bytes blog for years & have found every recipe I've tried from there to be a great success. We've always lived on one low income, but at least up until 4 years ago it was steady. Four years ago dh was made redundant & since then our income is not steady at all. Just a few weeks ago I had already decided that I had no choice but to limit the $$ I allowed myself weekly to food to $$/each day teaching I had that week. My relief (substitute) teacher pay is our only income & it varies from week to week from $0 during the holidays to $1000 if I get a full week's work. I've set myself a goal of spending no more than 25% of what I made the week before on groceries (food, cleaners, etc.) Food is NOT cheap here in NZ. Menu planning & portion control has become essential to come anywhere near succeeding. I'm trying to put a bit aside, either in the pantry or freezer, for our no-income weeks, & this has not been easy. The internet is a great source of tasty, frugal meals, that are easy & filling enough to satisfy the 3 males I feed currently. They have all learned to ask before eating any left-overs as I may have been depending on those left-overs for meals later in the week. Here's what I cooked tonight. It was quick, easy, & tasty. Fried Cabbage & Ground Beef 1 pound ground beef (I browned a kg earlier in the week & saved half for tonight's meal) 1 tsp olive oil (I used sunflower oil I had on hand) 1/2 small onion, diced (I used a whole medium onion) 1 large carrot, shredded 2 cloves garlic (I used 2 tsp minced garlic) 1 head cabbage, shredded 1/2 cup water 2 Tbsp Worcestershire 2 Tbsp sweet chill sauce 1/4 tsp garlic salt salt & pepper Brown beef & remove to a bowl, set aside. In the same large pan add oil & cook onion, carrot, & garlic until onions start to soften. Add cabbage, water, sauces, & garlic salt. Cover & cook until water is gone & cabbage is soft. (add more water if necessary as you want the cabbage to be thoroughly cooked) Stir in the browned beef & heat through. This was enough to fill up dh, myself & my 2 boys. It's not fancy, but is tasty & filling. As cabbage is dirt cheap here at the moment, it's a good way to make use of seasonal veggies & keep to the budget without filling up on too many white carbs. What are some of your favourite frugal meals that use real foods, not mixes?

It's early spring here & we need to get our gardens in order & planted. Our freezer is full, but not well stocked as it's mainly frozen peaches, plums, tomatoes, etc that need using up or odd & ends that would be best in the soup pot. My pantry is in OK shape, so between that & the freezer we could eat for 1-2 months, if we weren't fussy about variety. We have camping gear, so could cook on our gas ring or BBQ. When our garden is producing we would be supplied with plenty of vegetables & we have quite a few fruit trees in the yard that give us fruit almost year round. We could go fishing or collect shellfish if we ran out of other proteins as the beach is only a couple miles walk at the most. Dh has suggested keeping a few hens for eggs & a couple sheep for meat, but that has not happened yet. We have a wood stove that heats our hot water + a solar panel on the roof for hot water boost as well. We could collect water off the roof if necessary most of the year, but the last few summers our area has been hit with drought, so if that happened we would struggle w/o water. We aren't preppers, but have lived in 3rd world countries, so being prepared in case of natural disaster is important to us. Floods & storms have caused problems the past few months & droughts the past few summers. We normally don't lose power, but our power isn't really secure as there is only one line from Auckland up to our province. If that ever got cut, the whole province would be without power for quite a while.

I do recline when flying (except during meal times & take-off/landings) as the majority of my flights have been 6-14 hrs. Any shorter flights were connecting with the long-haul flights. Over the past couple decades I've noticed that the seats have slowly been moved closer together. I am not tall (just under 5 ft.) but on my last flight even I found that my knees almost touched the seat in front of me. The tray table in most planes slides forward a bit, making it possible to hold a drink even with the seat in front of you reclined. You wouldn't be able to use a large laptop with the seat in front of you reclined, but I would never consider asking the person in front of me to sit upright for 14 hrs just so I could use my laptop. I consider the space my seat takes up when it is reclined to be part of what I am allotted in my ticket. I flew AKL-HNL-JFK on Hawaiian Airlines a couple months ago. Passengers were not allowed to change seats. I believe recent pricing of seats has different seats in economy at different prices & flight attendants are not allowed to move people now. I have always booked our seats together, checked that we are still together when reconfirming, & again when we book in at the airport. This has helped me to avoid having my family spread out throughout the plane. 14 hour flights are hard enough without that added stress. JMHO

Northland roads leave much to be desired, but our beautiful beaches make up for it. I drove Whangarei to Kaitaia on Monday & it is windy ;-)

You could look at taking the train from Auckland-Wellington, spend the night in Wellington, then take the ferry to the South Island & train to Christchurch. It's a beautiful trip & would take 2 days, but you could fly CHCH-AKL after your South Island time. The South Island is beautiful & I've heard the hiking is out of this world, but 2 weeks doesn't really leave you enough time to do the longer tramps, like the Milford Track. There are a couple bus/boat trips out of Te Anau that are well worth the cost. I live in Northland, so am partial to the beauty we have up North as well.

My July goal was to lose what I gained in my month holiday in America. I've met my goal & am now just under where I was early May before my holiday. I began back on the 5:2 eating plan when I returned, fasting 2 days a week, when I returned home mid-June. My August goal is to lose another 7 lbs & to begin mild exercise 3-4 days a week.

Our grocery cost are HIGH! I buy mostly store brands & make as much as I can from scratch. I'm feeding 4 (5 if dd is home) with the only food issue being my lactose intolerance. Dh & ds#1 are trades men & ds#2 is an extremely active athlete, so they go through a lot of food. I find that menu planning (lunches & dinners) is essential to keeping our costs as low as possible. I aim to use produce that is in season & look for the reduced meat packs. I have never used low fat meat/dairy options as I find that fat is important in helping us to feel full longer. Sometimes my s-i-l drops off a box of veggies & I rework my menu to make best use of the gift. This week's offering has 3 LARGE cabbages, so we're eating cabbage daily. My boys aren't thrilled, but know better than to complain :-P Cooking ethnic foods does help to keep cost lower, allow for GF/DF meals, & makes simple foods taste special. My aim is to lower our food cost to ~$1000/month from the $1200-1500 it's been costing us these past few months. I'm trying to "shop" my pantry / freezer first, then buying only what I need to supplement that. We do eat meat-free 1-2 days a week & have soup &/or left-overs another 1-2 days a week. I try to cook a bigger roast on sundays & this gives us the base of 3-4 meals (roast dinner, stir fry, dinner salad plates, soup, etc.) HTH

Ds#2 uses a 1 liter Sistema box for his lunch box. Some days I use silicone cupcake liners to separate items as in a bento box. If I fill the box full, there is enough food to fill him up. On busy days he takes a 0.5 liter box as well for before / after sports. Ds#1 takes leftovers most days in his Sistema box.

Fasting days for me = hot water with a slice of lemon all day + a huge dinner salad (lettuce, carrots, bell pepper, tomato, onion, a couple hard - boiled eggs, some lean meat, a tny bit if grated cheese, & a drizzle of dressing. I am well satisfied after eating this. I didn't start out fasting until my evening meal, but gradually worked toward that over a couple months. I have done a couple water only fasts, but not intentionally. The great thing about intermittent fasting is that you never feel deprived as you can have what you crave "tomorrow."

I turn 48 next month & I've been doing intermittent fasting for over a year. I have lost almost 50 lbs & dropped from a size 16 jeans to a size 4 jeans. I stick to the allowed 500 cal or less on my fasting days & never eat carb or sugar on fasting days. On my non - fasting days I eat what I want & don't restrict calories, but have found that I naturally want less. I have taken a break from fasting as I am in the States on holiday. I plan to return to intermittent fasting when I return home as it works for me.

We up graded our tech a couple months back. After many months of research we chose an iMac to replace our 10 year old Dell xp desktop. It has been a small learning curve for us, but Winows 8 would have been as well. We needed something that had a good chance of lasting a decade or more in working condition. The school where I work uses all macs & has some desktops almost 20 years old still being used daily. I didn't choose an iPad for my tablet as I wanted to be able to add extra memory & be able to read flash drives. I chose the new Samsung 8.4 Tab Pro. Dd wanted to stick with Windows & chose the Asus 11.6 Transformer Book. Both of us are happy with ourchoices. The only issue we have come across is when dd made a movie on the iMac in iMovie & is now finding that it won't play on her Asus. Any ideas how to fix that? She was using photos & videos taken on her GoPro.

I use a whiteboard marker to label plastic containers. This washes off easily. Put duvets / comforters on old pillow cases & store in your hotwater cupboard. The pillow case allows them to breathe & not get musty.

We use TSA locks on the main zip & cable ties on all other zips. I've never had a lock cut off traveling internationally. All valuables go in our carryons.

I've lived on an atoll in the Marshall Islands, in Fiji, & now New Zealand. We were in the islands when dd & ds#1 were little, but moved to NZ when dd was 6 & ready for school. Dh is a NZer, so we really aren't ex-pats here, but as I am American, I'm not really a local. I've found people friendly & accepting (for the most part) in all 3 countries, but I never expect or pretend to be a local. My dc are mostly NZer in behaviour as they have spent most of their growing up years here, but when dd went away to uni her circle of friends were made up of bi-cultural or recent immigrant teens. It will be interesting to see what my dc think of their "other" country when we travel to VT this month. WE HSed for a decade here in NZ, but as our plan was always for our dc to do any tertiary study here in NZ our path might not apply to others. Ds#2 decided to go to PS for high school & we have been happy with his decision.

Yes we all have both US & NZ passports. :-D

I'm looking for tips on traveling (i.e. flying, getting thru customs/immigrations, etc.) how those things have changed. I'm beginning to make my packing lists & don't want to forget anything or bring unnecessary items. We will be visiting family in VT for a wedding & will spend the remaining time catching up with friends & family in the area, shopping, & maybe doing a bit of hiking if winter ever leaves the area :-P . From past trips I know that the month flies by. Dd does want to visit Woods Hole, MA to see a ship that will be down this way the end of the year. As the ship arrives in port the same weekend that my boys arrive in VT from NZ, life is already looking to be very complicated. Does anyone know of any budget accommodation in Woods Hole, MA if dd ends up taking a bus down?