Good evening all,

Just one positive today;
We have just eaten the first home produced courgette and swede of the year! 🍠😄
😇

That sounds brilliant S-G. Enjoy your evenings!!

I had one of ‘those’ nights, where everything just keeps going round and round in your mind.. so I gave up on sleep and made a cup of tea at 5.30… I still didn’t eat until 12.30, but I am now running out of energy. Supper is in the oven, and I still have to water the veg garden! 🥱🥱🥱

I think, because I am tired, I am hungry, hungry, hungry! 😩 finding it difficult not to pick at the goodies in the fridge this afternoon. The cold chicken and sparkling water that I have indulged in, has not assuaged the urge, so I have come on the BSD site to prevent any more nibbles! 😜🤪

I hope you are all having a better day than I am! 😉

Another cool day and, at last, some rain, save me having to water all the plants.

Going out tonight to a quiz with meal. Just going to enjoy myself. And in the spirit of living life, I have book a restaurant table at a lovely hilltop bistrot for 14th July – you will know it as Bastille Day but in France it is la fete nationale. So instead of being at home and going outside to watch all the fireworks going off around us, we will be in the thick of it. Got a little complacent and not done it for years. Might be our last fete nationale if the house sells.

Thanks for your kind words Cathy. It’s been an awful few weeks but my stint in hospital has certainly given me a wake up call regarding looking after my health. The gall bladder removal will be done with keyhole surgery and I will be home the same day so I should be able to crack on with healthy eating without too much disruption🤞Dawn XX

Just catching up with the thread. Dawn you have had a very upsetting time. I’m so sorry. What a terrible shock it must have been for you to witness your mums horrific fall. I’m so glad she is doing well. I’m also sorry to hear you’ve had a rough time with pancreatitis. I hope you’re soon on the mend.
Yowser- you’ve also had a really tough few weeks with your ongoing sciatica and shingles. I hope you’re soon feeling better. Illness really does take its toll. You always manage to keep your sense of humour .glad you’ve given your carb monster the heave ho.
Heidi- well done on your continued weight loss. It’s great that you’re feeling and seeing the impact of how well you’ve done.
I am not making any progress! I’m very disappointed with myself. I am staying static. I’m hoping I can lose a few pounds before my holiday in five weeks. I’m aware that I will come back heavier and so I need to give myself some wiggle room as I don’t want to be back to square 1 on my return . It’s a constant struggle.
Let’s have a good week.

Thanks DAWN and HEIDI XX
HEIDI very well done on 7.2 kilos down,⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Good luck and happy healthy eating for the week ahead DAWN and everyone.
Im finding it very hard to resist temptations to cheer myself up at the moment,🙏for strength to be ‘ good’ this coming week,Ive chased my Carb Monster away and wont listen when she whispers in my ear !! I dont even know how she got aboard this ship 🤨XX
😈this is how her face looks!😈
XX

Thanks Heidi and well done on a brilliant 6 weeks, I find that really inspiring. My eating has been all over the place obviously, not being able to eat then eating the wrong things, but I am going to do a food plan tomorrow for the week and try my best to stick to it. Dawn XX

Good morning all!
SG, you make me laugh, but you are correct about feeling like you have a new love.
So I have posted all my menus in MFP and am ready for the week’s meals. That is half the battle.

Thank you S-G & very wise words 👍😀 & well done getting back on track.
Margaret xx

Hi all, just popping in to feel the love and positivity. My positives are

Daughter and grandson arrived in exactly 2 weeks today.
Booked a restaurant for lunch the day we go to Le Prison Infernale – a bit like Crystal Maze. A little camp site by the river and they do vegetarian for daughter.
Temperature down from 35 to 20 and feeling so fresh.
Lapse in diet didn’t do much harm so just 0.2kgs up.

Hi Margaret, so glad to hear you are AT LAST getting the op. Enjoy your short break and hope to see you running around soon. Bon chance.
I am over my small slip and have actually done very little harm (just gained 0.2kg). I was reading a magazine article about how it feels to be on a diet and here are a few thoughts.

The high you get when you first start is like being in love. Everything is wonderful and you are so optimistic for the future. But love has its ups and downs. Sometimes you are soaring the heights and then you plummet down. Gains and losses are a part of everyones life and it can be very emotional. Your love is for yourself and how proud you feel when the scale show a loss. When there is a gain we fall out of love with ourselves, feel let down by ourselves and want to end it (the diet that is). Always remember the good feelings over the bad and try to stay in love with yourselves.

Nice thing today is that it is about 15 degrees cooler and we even had a splash of rain, so feeling more energetic. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Dawn and Yowser, so sorry to hear of the challenges you are facing. Dawn it must have been horrendous to see your mother fall like that. And then pancreatitis on top of that. Wishing you both a full recovery. And Yowser I am so sorry to hear that you are still suffering with shingles, sciatica and shoulder pain. That sounds like a nightmare trinity. I do hope you get to enjoy some of the holdiay. x

Arcticfox keep on keeping on, indeed. Glad to hear that you feel back on course, and wishing you a good week and the weeds a very bad one!

I am back on track after a few days in the UK, helping my very elderly parents during the heatwave. It is now 6 weeks since I started the health campaign. I have lost a further 0.5 kg so am now down 7.2 kilos. I can really see and feel a difference, which is great motivation. So I am pressing on. I still get the occasional craving for Haagen Daas, but have been able to resist so far. Mostly because I know that one teaspoon will never be enough…..

All the best to our group, and have a lovely or improving week!

Thank you Pootle & I really must get back on track having let my calories & carbs increase so much that I was worried the hospital might refuse my surgery with me having gained weight since I saw my surgeon last October. The waiting has been stressful & I have been eating too much that is easy than to always prepare from scratch because standing chopping veg etc & cooking has been difficult. Oh well best feet forward now & eating & drinking low carb for next week.
Keep on going everyone this way of eating is worth it to become healthier particularly also avoiding highly processed food!
I will post again after my op & at least I will have a private room & a tv despite now being an NHS patient to keep me amused but taking my French books, kindle & knitting with me so that I am not too bored 😀
Margaret xx

Hi Margaret,
Yes you have found the continuation of the monthly (June) thread.
Good luck for your op next Saturday. 🤞🙏that all goes well and you make a swift recovery.

S-G so sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. Unsurprising that you needed to toast her memory! But great to hear you are getting back on track!

Violinist, I do agree that having goals is very important. I also find that having a record of ‘everything’ to look back on makes me realise how far I have come, which makes me determined not to fail now!!
Hope you are all doing well today.
Xxx

Hello S-G, Verano & Pootle and I am hoping that I have found the continuing threads from June? Sorry I haven’t posted recently. I am now having my knee replacement op next Saturday after getting a cancellation. I hope you are all doing well?
Margaret

Thank you Yowzer and I’m so sorry to hear you still aren’t great bless you, you’ve really been through the mill🙁 Sending you lots of hugs and hope you have a cosy Sunday. Dawn XX

Oh gosh DAWN you and your poor Mum,im so sorry for you both. Thank goodness yr mum was ok though,that could have been horrific – although the shock of it was no doubt horrific. Sending lots of love to you both and so sorry youve been going through a lot ofpain as well,Dawn xx Seems a lot of us going through stuff recently,this ship isnt bring us much good luck so far. Dont worry, One of these fine days we’ll all be in the ship disco dancing the night away,all our ailments forgotten 🙏🩷🤞🏻💜👍⭐️XXXX
Can you believe though,we are now over halfway through the year? I actually got an email the other day,” its beginning to look a lot like Christmas! “ I could hardly believe my eyes!
FOXY,very interested to hear more about your EMDR,my niece is having great results with it xxx
Hello to everyone else,have read but havent the energy to reply to all..,still feeling rubbishy with shingles,sciatica and a sore shoulder.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a good week ahead! XXXX
🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶 🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶 🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️

Hi everyone and thanks Articfox for bumping this thread. I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything since last week, it’s been a bit of an awful time, much of it spent at hospital. My mum and I were at a shopping centre last week and had just stepped onto an escalator. I always go in front of her to break any potential falls, she’s never had one but it’s just something I’m in the habit of doing, and somehow she missed her footing and fell (past me) head first all the way down the escalator, banging her head and shoulder and side and back and virtually everything. The security guard in the store ran across and turned the escalator off before she reached the bottom and a nurse and first aiders arrived and store staff too and everyone was lovely. We spent most of the day in A& E and she eventually had a full body scan in the evening. Amazingly, after all of that she hadn’t broken anything which we are all so grateful for and was allowed home. The experience was a shock for her at 90 not surprisingly. She’s doing very well but is still very bruised and sore. Then on Saturday I started to get bad back pain which then also moved to my abdomen and I assumed it was a kidney stone again but it was still there by Wednesday morning and I hadn’t really been able to sleep or do much at all waiting for the stone to pass and the pain to go. My husband ended up taking me to A&E (I couldn’t believe we were there again in such a short space of time!) They gave me pain relief intravenously then they did a CT scan of my kidneys, no stones were visible but the radiologist then said he though it could be pancreatitis so they did another scan for that and my pancreas was inflamed and I have stones in my gall bladder which they think have caused it (as I don’t drink alcohol which can often be the cause) they sent me to another hospital a few miles away which specialises in pancreatitis and I was there until yesterday evening. They gave me morphine regularly for the first two days which kept the pain at bay and I was on a drip for fluids. I also had a uti so they gave me antibiotics for that. The pain completely stopped by 10am yesterday and I’ve needed no more pain relief since then. They allowed me home and I will be going in as an out patient within the month to have my gall bladder removed as the consultant doesn’t want to leave it any longer than that but if I had stayed in hospital waiting for an operation I could have been waiting a while if emergencies were coming in needing to be done straight away. It’s all been a bit of a shock but some patients on the ward were in a lot worse state than me so I feel lucky to be home so quickly.
Catching up on posts I know a lot of people are going through difficult times at the minute and I’m sending lots of love your way. Dawn XX

Hi everyone,
Just a quick update and to help bump this thread to the top again.
I worked through the issues with my therapist and we’re back on track again. I asked her about doing EMDR for my eating and food issues and she says it is very effective for that, so we’ve booked a session in a couple of weeks to work on that. In the meantime, she has asked me to track any negative thoughts that I have about food and eating. I’ll keep you updated as to how it goes.
Anyway, I’m going back out to the garden to tackle more weeds. It suddenly struck me yesterday that I can use my new hedge trimmer to cut down the tallest ones. So I’m going to try that. They are over my head now they are so tall!
Hope everyone is keeping on keeping on.

Good morning, Sunshine-girl and all!
I have learned, as you have, just don’t give up! I use the word STRIVE and GOALS. I am always working toward a goal and if ever reach them, I immediately make more goals. You can see in my profile, if you click on my name, that I have documented my goals since 2018, when I stumbled on to this website. And not just weight and blood work numbers.
As you can see, I have played the violin for 60 years and just last year I started taking cello lessons and don’t sound too bad! I even started a small orchestra!

That is what I like about you guys, you continue on and when you fall you get up and dust yourself off!

Just popped in to say hi to Violinist – so glad we were of help. Hi to Char10tte to. You are very welcome.

Not wanting to bring things down but I really blew the diet last night. My daughters friend (who became mine too) died yesterday and my daughter was having a glass of wine in her honour. I said I was going to be strong but she said – you know what S would say, enjoy life, you don’t know how long you have – so I had a few glasses of wine to say cheers to her. She was 54 and discovered pancreatic cancer in February. But now back on with the diet before our night out on Monday.

I will be back to normal soon – if I ever was normal. 🙂

Thanks Pootle, this forum is really helpful and appreciate it. Will keep up with successes (and any slips)! X

Hi Charlotte,
Good to meet you. It is never too late!! Hope your journey goes well. There are inspirational people on here, and we are all around to encourage each other! Hope to hear how you are doing!
Xx

Pootle …. just had to drop by to say how envious I am of all your pickled walnuts …. I adore them too! How wonderful to be able to produce your own. Hope your hand is fully healed soon.

While I’m here, I should add a couple of positives myself ….
🌸🌸 currently in France and getting to spend time with a friend of many years standing.
🌸🌸 mum is still getting on with life, 3mths into a 3 to 6 month life expectancy diagnosis. She’s an amazing positive life force and such an inspiration.

A bit late for July 1st but giving things a go – better late than never and all that! Tried many years ago, now really need to get serious to lose some weight and improve health factors.

I love your crazy!!! I also weigh myself every morning and have documented my intake since 2013, when I had digestive issues. It became a habit. I use My fitness pal website. Wine and chocolate together are a rare treat for me too!

Hi I had 800 cal 50g carb/day for two months. (The BSD. )Then I increased calories slightly but kept to 50g carb (more or less) Weighing every ingredient…calculating it all out very carefully. I am lucky that I have a very supportive husband, who dieted with me! I use a lot of recipes from the Fast 800 and BSD cookbooks but adapted them, as I don’t like spiced food. Also adapted recipes I have used for years. Using a tool on the internet to calculate the calories and carbs. I have slipped from time to time, and have succumbed to hot buttered toast on more than one occasion!! 😂
I weigh myself every morning… if I don’t, I ‘think’ I can get away with eating ‘treats’ every day. If I think a treat has put 1/2 lb on, I am strict the next day!
But, having said that, I do have treats… chocolate is a huge weakness!! 🫣🙄 I drink a lot of sparkling water, and have told the doctor that I will never give up good, strong coffee!!!☕️☕️ I have a bean to cup filter machine, and have far too many cups in a day!! 🤪 and a little bit crazy! 😂🤣🤪

Wow, I just love your story! Are you doing the 800/day program?

I think, like so many, I didn’t want the medication that came with a diabetes diagnosis. So when the GP told me I had moved from pre-diabetes to full blown, I was looking for ‘a way out’! I had piled weight on due to incorrect treatment for another problem which was mis diagnosed .
It was hard to accept at first and I have to acknowledge that without Verano and Sunshine Girl’s support, advice and encouragement I might have given up and gone back to GP for metformin. As it happens, I enjoy the food… I don’t drink alcohol often (about 3 times a year… one glass of fizz) so I lost the weight and (with a blip) am in diabetic remission.
These forum threads keep me motivated… and reasonably on track, so I keep it up!
So all in all I think I have got into the swing, but I know I will fall off from time to time!!

Hi Heidi, Great positives!

For today:
1. Picked a bowl of walnuts from the extremely laden tree and started the pickling process. Pricked them all over..6 days in brine stirred daily, will then change brine and leave for 3 more days. Dry out for 3 days then pickle!! A bit of a performance as they won’t be ready to eat for 12 months, but I do love pickled walnuts and I usually do enough to last several years!! 🥜🌰
2. Positive zoom meeting this afternoon with someone I will be working with next month. 😁🤝
3. Hand is feeling a bit better… at least the pain has eased a lot! 👍🤞
I hope you have all had some positives in your life today!

You sound like it did not take you long to get into the swing of things here!

Hi Violinist, great to meet you.
I am a relative newbie.. (July 2024), but am a dedicated convert!!
Hope all goes well with your 8 week plan and I look forward to hearing all your news!

A very good morning from Florida!
As I head towards another 8 weeks before my blood work, I thought I would stop in here and report in for a while. I started here in 2018 at almost 175 pounds at 64 years old. I am now 150 at 69 years old (5’4”). You can see my struggles and progress in my profile.
I remember Verano and Sunshine girl as my mentors. You are both so inspirational!
My nutritional goals are to keep carbs below 60, sugar at 10 grams, and fiber above 20 grams. No alcohol – I love my Manhattans and wine for next 8 weeks.
Thanks for starting this thread, Pootle. I hope to check in every morning with my progress.

Good morning all,
I really think having a positive attitude to losing the weight is essential for success. S-G having your scales congratulating you must be a huge boost!!

I see what you are saying about ‘ideal’ weight for height. I am only just into the recommended body mass index but if I lose more I would look emaciated! And if I weigh with clothes on I am just outside the ‘ideal’!

So I will continue the low carb lifestyle to keep the diabetes in remission and try to avoid putting any weight on.
Hope you are all doing ok .

Hi Lucy,
That is great to hear! I am sure that the 6lb will go quickly now the temptations are out of the house!
🤞for you and cheering you on!
Look forward to your holiday with a ‘new’ you!
Xxx

Thank you all, you’ve been so kind. So all the chocolate and cake has gone… all visitors have been force fed upon arrival and I have obviously eaten it too. But its gone and I’ve weighed….not as bad as could have been. 6lbs off my lowest weight so give or take uts about half stone. Holiday on 30 Sept so approx 11 weeks to sort it all out and get down as much as possible.
The 6lbs weight gain is odd though its all gone to my middle. My tummy wasn’t this bad 2 and half stone ago I don’t think.
May cancel my yearly bloods and put them back a couple weeks. I’m not sure I could deal with any more hassle at the moment. Will see how I feel .
You’ve all been so kind and I really appreciate it. Hope youre all doing well. Xx

Lucy, you might find that the recent lapse in diet and weight gain wont have too much impact on your results as they are a look at a 3 month period. Depends on how long you have been off plan. When I got back from the cruise and had to go straight into a test, I knew I was going to be in a bad situation. I was, and if I had seen my usual doctor he would have understood, just I got to see an interr and he basically told me off for my results and asking why did I have to eat so much. Felt like slapping him as my ‘too much’ is never the same as eating bread and desserts but still having things I wouldn’t normally. I tried to do my best by taking meats and fruits to the cabin for shaky times but what are you supposed to do when you are having lunch in a pizzeria in Rome. It is a blip in my life and so is yours and doesn’t define you or your future dieting plans.

BTW happy birthday for the 1st.

Hi all, I guess I am in the never going to be thin category – mainly because I am only 4’11”. Last time I got to anywhere near my idea weight of about 7 stones my head looked like a lollipop on a stick 🙂

Nice surprise this morning. Every now and then my Renpho scales tell me ‘its time to weigh’ which is when it makes a formal record. Sometimes I know I have not done well so I ignore it. This morning I decided to weigh in officially and there were poppers and bangers and a big congratulations. Apparently I told it I wanted to lose a certain amount by Christmas and I have succeeded in losing 20% of that goal. Nice incentive to keep on keeping on…

Now looking for a house-sitter for our September trip to the UK so spending time in front of the computer – at least it keeps me out of the heat – not too bad 28 degrees today but quite muggy.

Hi everyone. Good to see lots of posts here. Three positives from me:
1) my planned UK visit to see/check on my 96 year old parents turned out to be very well timed. I could be with them through the heat wave. Felt very appreciated!
2) I made an online order for some summer tops to go to the UK address. They were all precisely as advertised and very nice. Nothing to send back. That was a nice treat.
3) I only put on 300 grams in the Saturday – Wednesday break. That’s a definite win. I didn’t succumb to Pimm’s, trifle, etc etc. The hot weather helped I have to say!

Hoping you are all having a good day.

“I am over 45 and have now made it a routine to walk 4 kilometers daily and do yoga for half an hour. It keeps my day healthy. I also try to jog for 1 kilometer.”

Annie sometimes we just have to face facts!!!
Anyway for the moment I’m just keeping on keeping on …..

Lucy just give yourself a ‘big hug’.
Tomorrow is another day.
One day at a time.
When the time is right for you you will get back on track …. in the meantime no guilt just heal yourself.
Take care.

Verano thanks for your “I’m never going to be ‘thin’, never have been, never will be!” I need to accept that too.
I’ve managed to gain 3kgsover the last 3 months – putting some of that down to the very hot weather as it’s also been really humid. But that is 3 too many, some gained whilst trying, loosely, to lose🤪. It stops here now!!! Just heard stepson is not coming to dinner tonight which is a shame but means that the one “very naughty” pudding/dessert a week that we have when he eats with us won’t be eaten tonight so that’s a positive!
Just looking to see where this month takes me weight-wise as we don’t have any real distractions or plans this month…… so far although we can be impulsive as in Monday’s 4hour trip to the coast because it was cooler there than at home.

Hi Lucy, I’m sorry you are feeling so low. I’ve been struggling a bit recently too (and that’s after being on this way of eating for many years) it happens, often for no particular reason except a bit of “body/mind rebellion” but you have good cause. So, as Pootle says do be kind to yourself and don’t add any guilt about losing your way on the eating front to the load you are carrying right now.
You can find your way back and re-booking your cancelled holiday is a great idea and incentive.
I know what you mean about being seemingly ungrateful about giving away birthday chocolate and cakes (in the past I’ve “scoffed” the lot in one or two sittings just to get them out of the way). Could you perhaps donate some to your local food bank? That way someone else gets to celebrate your birthday, even if they don’t know it. And not now, but before Christmas or your next birthday perhaps make casual comments about how you don’t find such things appealing anymore and love nice toiletries, or anything else you enjoy, instead? Maybe your friends will hear you and it also gives them a gift idea. I did that and now it’s actually true.
Wrap up any food related feelings of shame/failure in left over birthday paper and throw it in the bin where it belongs. Also, this very hot weather we are having can also cause us to retain fluids and swell up and weigh a bit heavier, it was spoken about on this site a long time ago.
I hope you did have a nice birthday.
Best wishes to you

Hi Lucy,
As I said, be kind to yourself!
I am not surprised that the diet has fallen by the wayside, but it is great that you are climbing back on board and you will soon see results!
I think the weight recently put back on will come off more easily than it did the first time round!
I know what you mean about feeling ’free’, I believe we would all agree that having to think about what we are eating all the time can get very tiresome! But I also know that the guilt that follows a slip up is very destructive!
Part of my motivation is finding something I can reward myself with when I have stuck to the ’plan’! (In my case, a super, low carb meal out, but as my fav fish restaurant has closed…now another new hat! 😂)
Many happy returns for yesterday…
🤞🤞 and all positive vibes coming from me to you!
Take care.

Hi Pootle. So sorry been absent. Have had a lot to deal with, my dad’s funeral and having to cope without him, seems a cliche but I miss him so much. My parents were married for 60 years and were together 3 years more than that so understandably my mum is heartbroken. So much to sort out admin wise too .
I’m ashamed to say the wheels came off completely which is partly why I haven’t messaged. I’ve put on half a stone, probably more now. It’s my birthday today so have had lots more goodies and alcohol etc. I’ve loved being free so to speak and eating what I want but now I just feel foul and fat again. More worrying is my yearly blood tests ar eon the 9th…and that’s not going to be good either.
I don’t know how it all went so wrong but it did and I have to regroup . New beginnings…but have lots of chocolate and cakes in the fridge which aren’t going to go in a day or two. Maybe I will have to give them away but that doesn’t feel righ4 for those who bought them for me . I’ve probs gained 3/4 stone now and I have let myself down.
I actually want to get back to it. Have rebooted a holiday that got cancelled due to my dad’s death for 30 Sept…so want to be right back on track and slim by then.
Hope everyone is doing well. . … or at least better than me.
I don’t know how I can focus wirh all this stuff in the house. But I really have to. Xx

Hi Lucy,
Just posting to let you know that I am thinking of you.
Take care and be kind to yourself.
Xxxxx

Great to have you both posting!
S-G a loss is a loss! Enjoy eating out with the family, I hope the weather is cooler for you!
Verano, wishing you well in your efforts to get a buffer before your holiday in 4 weeks time.
I am just keeping on keeping on! 🤞🤞

Hello!
July 1st!
New month!
New start!
New mid-year diary!
Here we go again!

I’m away 4 weeks today so just wanting a little ‘buffer’ before we go. Having spent many, many, many years ‘obsessing’ about ‘weight’ I’ve sort of come to the conclusion that I just need to ‘relax’. I’m never going to be ‘thin’, never have been, never will be!

Despite my weight I’m pretty healthy so just want to keep going that way.

Love the interaction on these threads. They really are inspiring. I just need to keep posting to get inspiration and inspire if I can.

Promise to post …. promise!

Have a good July.

Another month to make a new start. Didn’t make my 1kg for June, just over half but I always say, aim for the moon and you might just land in the stars. So I am 1.65kgs down now. Still going to make every effort but know there will be a lot of meals out and temptations when family arrive. I have already booked 3 restaurants over the week. Luckily I will be doing most of the cooking the rest of the time. Grandson is a healthy eater, daughter is a vegan so will be getting beans with everything and I will just live on salads in the hot weather.

Come and join us and tell us about your weight loss/healthly lifestyle journey. All welcome.