allierainbow's 8 week diary

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posted by allierainbow
on 5 Dec 2016 at 16:42

Hello everyone!

I am starting the BSD today, determined to lose the excess weight that is pulling me down.

My start weight is 284.2lb – 20st 4.2lb – 128..9 kilos.

I need to get to around 174lb – 12st 6lb – 78.9 kilos to get to the top end of my healthy BMI.

My first big goal is to get to 244lb – 17st 6lb – 110.6 kilos, which will get me to a BMI of 35, so I need to lose 40.2lb.

I am going to see how far I get towards that goal with the first 8 weeks of the BSD.

I bought the BSD book and the recipe book off Amazon, and it is a diet made for me – it is all the foods I love, just cutting out the carbs. I think the problem I have had with weight gain is mainly down to snacking and portion size. I will be cutting out bread, rice and pasta altogether, but this should not be too big a problem as I have switched to veggies and salad as accompaniments already. A couple of years ago I lost almost 5 stone, but put almost all of it back on due to a year fraught with emotional stress.

All that emotional eating didn’t help with the stress, it just made it worse, so I think it is time to try a different way, and getting weight off fast will benefit my aching back.

I have had a good start today – lunch was a big salad of cucumber, a little red onion, grilled tomatoes, and a boiled egg and a slice of grilled black pudding, with a teaspoon of olive oil on the salad..

I am making sure I drink plenty of water and have a veggie curry on the cooker to go with some chicken breast for tea.

So far it has been easy, but I am sure some determination will be needed to break those bad habits.

Allie
posted by topcac
on 5 Dec 2016 at 16:58

Welcome Allie and congratulations on making this decision – I’m sure you will see results and, hopefully, very quickly for the sake of your back.

I’ve just finished week 12 so a few words of wisdom about the first few days. Well done on doing well on Day 1. It may get a little tough over the next few days and you may feel a bit rough with a headache, maybe lethargic, a bit dizzy and faint – this is commonly called carb flu – your body’s reaction to cutting right down on carbs – it will pass. Drink lots of water, add a little salt to your meals, take things a little easier on yourself and just ride through it. By the end of week 1 you’ll be feeling great and will have lost weight.

Plan, plan plan – I don’t know about you but if I don’t plan and just leave meals ‘to chance’ then I’m likely to stray off plan – so plan and shop all your meals in advance (I do a week in advance but you don’t have to go THAT far!)

You may hit a bit of a plateau in Week 2/3/4 (you may not!). Just push on through – it’s happened to so many people on here and is perfectly normal.

Read this forum a lot – it is full of wonderful affirming people in the same position as you (or have been) and they have wonderful advice – if you are wondering about a certain subject, chances are it’s been asked and answered somewhere on here – just go the search box. If not, ask it – you will get an answer.

Lastly, be prepared to buy a whole new wardrobe 🙂

Best of luck!!
posted by allierainbow
on 5 Dec 2016 at 17:59

Thank you for such a welcoming post Topcac!

I am already feeling better than I did yesterday when I disposed of the jelly beans I found in my coat pocket “safely” by eating them, along with a packet of cheddars and several cream crackers 🙁

What annoys me the most about that sort of behaviour is that I don’t even enjoy them while I am eating them!!

I am finished eating for today and just on water until bedtime, determined to get the first day over with and start again tomorrow.

Day 1 8WKBSD
Calories: 851
Carbs: 51.4

I think I did OK there, and will do a little better tomorrow.
posted by Jande9
on 5 Dec 2016 at 18:04

The first week is fun as you use up the glycogen stores in your liver and muscles. You can think of glycogen as glucose chemically combined with water, so it is heavy and as you use it up you will lose a lot of weight. I lost 8 pounds the first week but of course YMMV.
After the glycogen is gone you will start losing the fat, possibly at around 3 pounds a week, depending on how active you are. This is the real deal and is the best part as you know you are losing real fat which is what you want. You will find as the weeks pass it is easier to be active because your joints will have less weight on them and will feel more comfortable.
It is important to eat high quality protein so you preserve muscle mass.
I haven’t bothered too much with the recipes. I eat 2 eggs for breakfast and some greek yogurt or Skyr with a sprinkling of ground flax for lunch. That leaves me 500 calories for supper and snack, so I eat about 150 grams of meat and piles of veggies.
When the family decides to have a vegetarian supper with beans or lentils, I will often cook up half a skinless chicken breast for myself to ensure I have enough high quality protein.
Remember, you diet to lose weight and you exercise to improve health.
posted by allierainbow
on 5 Dec 2016 at 18:21

Thanks Jande9 for the info about the first week. That is more or less what I am expecting, although I suspect I will not lose as much as that on the first week.

I am pretty good at cooking low carb already, I just need to get back to it.

I tend to eat a lot of veg, a little fruit, mainly apples and blueberries, and good quality protein and full-fat dairy, with some olive oil.

I tend to stick to two meals a day, with a fast in the morning until lunch time, concentrating on fluid instead. That seems to work best for me in managing calories.
posted by Mixnmatch
on 5 Dec 2016 at 18:24

Hi allierainbow, I look forward to welcoming you to our 100 club clubhouse when you get to your target 😀 One thing you need to make sure you do is eat plenty of healthy fats, if like the rest of us you have been following low fat advice then beware as lower fat products often contain more sugar or starch. Full fat yoghurt, cottage cheese, butter, cream, avocado, olive oil etc. In moderation these will help keep you satiated so you don’t feel hungry on this diet. You may actually lose more weight than that on your first week, some people have lost over a stone.
posted by Mixnmatch
on 5 Dec 2016 at 18:27

Our posts crossed, good to see you are already on board with full fat.
posted by allierainbow
on 5 Dec 2016 at 18:38

Mixnmatch – I dream of losing that 100+ pounds!

I used to be skinny and I still have that as my self image even though I am more than twice the woman I used to be!!
posted by captainlynne
on 5 Dec 2016 at 20:41

Hi allierainbow

I never thought I would lose 100 pounds, but now I am a member in that clubhouse and look forward to seeing you there. (I’ve lost 103 pounds).
posted by allierainbow
on 5 Dec 2016 at 21:12

Lovely to meet you captainlynn !!

I lost 68.5 last time so I know I can do it. My concern is making sure my diet is good and I am eating enough fats and proteins as well as lots of veg.

I will need to do this over the next year to get the weight off so I am making sure my motivation is in place now and logging my food so I know what the nutrition is like.

How did you cope with doing the 8 weeks multiple times?
posted by captainlynne
on 5 Dec 2016 at 21:35

Good to meet you too allierainbow 😀

The fast results in my first 8 weeks were the incentive to go straight into the second eight weeks, and so it continued. Because my blood test results became so good I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardise them.

For me it was a double whammy – I needed to reduce blood sugars and lose weight. And quickly. So there was no way I was going to cheat. In the early days, when I was abroad, I thought I’d done ok but gained a couple of pounds. Then I realised I needed to watch my portion control. Now, when I’m away from home I either lose or maintain.

I feel great, better than in many years. Originally I was being monitored by my diabetes nurse, but I’m not 100% convinced she really gets what I’ve been doing.

They say ‘success breeds success’ so that could be why I stuck with it over a succession of 8-weeks. Or I’m just plain stubborn. Or stickatitability.

Hope this answers your question.

Anything else, please ask.
posted by Mixnmatch
on 5 Dec 2016 at 22:08

I did it quite differently from captainlynne, but much slower. I started in the 5:2 camp in early 2015 and gradually worked my way across to the full BSD 8 weeks only at the start of October 2016. I am currently standing on a loss of 106 pounds, all bar 28 of which happened this year.
posted by Jande9
on 6 Dec 2016 at 01:12

posted by allierainbow
on 5 Dec 2016 at 18:21
“I tend to stick to two meals a day, with a fast in the morning until lunch time, concentrating on fluid instead. That seems to work best for me in managing calories.”

That’s good so you are used to fasting. I have gotten to really like the feeling of emptyness and never feel hunger pangs. Snacking was just a habit, not a need, so a lot about this diet centers around reprogramming my habits.

I was on a version of the 5:2 but when I went on the 800 I started to eat eggs for breakfast because I always exercise in the mornings and I want that good protein to be available to avoid losing muscle mass.
posted by allierainbow
on 6 Dec 2016 at 07:51

OMG – I can’t believe it! I woke up this morning with the alarm for the first time in ages, buzzing with energy after a decent nights sleep, interrupted only by a middle of the night trip to the bathroom – lots of water yesterday.

For the past few weeks I have been dragging myself up around 9-11am, so tired I couldn’t function properly, and spending the day in a fog. This feels like the clouds have parted and I am able to see clearly for the first time this year.

I have also had two episodes this year of colds that wouldn’t go away for months at a time – this morning I can breathe clearly, my nose not bunged up for the first time since the beginning of September. I have wondered if this was carb related before as when I am eating lots of carbs I seem to be permanently bunged up.

I can’t believe the difference the low carb makes. I am shocked! Nice drop this morning, but more importantly, I feel so much lighter. The stomach has gone down an inch already!! I am reeling. I am remembering this feeling from a couple of years ago when I was successfully losing weight, and was eating low carb by accident rather than design.
posted by Inka13
on 6 Dec 2016 at 08:11

Hi Allierainbow,
Just wanted to say welcome and well done so far!! It’s amazing how the bsd affects unexpected areas of our lives!
Sleep is just so important and so easily lost!
It sounds like you are doing really well on what you’re eating, I’ve banged on about this before but for an amazing, filling soup that gives you enough for 4 or 5 days the roasted broccoli and cheddar soup in the recipe part ofvthe site is really delicious.I just cooked it again using kale as a few other bsders have suggested and that’s great too. It’s so handy to gave some meals ready to go in the fridge to avoid temptation when it feels too hard to plan..
Good luck going forward, you won’t know yourself! I look forward to hearing your progress.
Inka xx
posted by allierainbow
on 6 Dec 2016 at 08:13

In the excitement of realising I had come out of my months of brain fog, I forgot to mention that I weighed myself this morning and I am down 1.8lb – not just that, I feel so much less bloated and a lot lighter. I am looking forward to a Christmas spent feeling healthy, not stodged.
posted by JulesMaigret
on 6 Dec 2016 at 12:12

Hi Allierainbow,

I’ve probably posted this before but my sleep has improved remarkably and it’s one of the things I believe has most improved the way I feel. I came back from the US this weekend and have had no jet-lag as I slept like a top over Sat/Sun and my body just seems to have got itself back into sync overnight.

Definitely a NSV that’s of value to me!
posted by allierainbow
on 6 Dec 2016 at 12:24

Lovely to meet more of you on the forum, and thank you for posting Inka13 and JulesMaigret.

I will have to try the roasted broccoli and cheddar soup – I need to look for some more recipes as I tend to improvise with lots of veggies.

My tip for feeling full is to cook a mainly veggie dish, add some protein, and then see where I can add a few more sneaky veg, such as grilled tomatoes and mushrooms, stir-fried courgette, or a quick salad.

My hot salads are great in cold weather – make a big bowl of salad, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers etc, then pour over some hot veggie soup and add some healthy protein – lots of different textures and colours, and really good to eat, and the best thing not as cold as a salad if the weather is bad.

I switched to using salad instead of rice and bread a long time ago when eating in Indian restaurants – far less stodgy and a far better taste. Another favourite is to go for a sizzler dish of prawns or chicken, with a big side salad.
posted by allierainbow
on 7 Dec 2016 at 11:12

What a terrible day yesterday! Has anyone got any tips on how to get through the first few days apart from iron willpower?

Somehow I slipped up in the late afternoon and threw myself headfirst into a packet of chocolate biscuits. I found myself wanting to eat all the time although I wasn’t really hungry. Part of the problem was getting up so early due to good quality sleep and then feeling like I had too long left in the day and too few calories to stretch.

However, I will draw a line under that and do better today.

I have got some peppermint tea bags to keep the drink calories low, as I used too many on tea over the last couple of days, leading to the mini crisis on Tuesday with hardly any calories for my evening meal. I also had a snack in the afternoon which used up too many calories and then I opened the cupboard to get a teabag and the biscuits were there, winking at me suggestively.

Plan for today – lots of veggies, peppermint tea and water, mindful eating and some exercise, and keeping busy so I am not wandering into the kitchen looking in the cupboards.

I will also make some crudites to go in the fridge to nibble on if I get desperate.
posted by Baristagirls
on 7 Dec 2016 at 11:51

Hello Allierainbow, I don’t know how it works for everyone, but what if you cleared out all the foods not very compatible with this diet? Then if they’re not there and you eat…… you’ll at least be overeating on healthier things 🙂
Keep going…..
posted by allierainbow
on 7 Dec 2016 at 12:26

Thanks Baristagirls – I think I will have to do that – I don;t even like chocolate biscuits, I think I am seduced by the idea of them bbut they are not even great to eat – I prefer a bowl of salad or a bit of peanut butter. I think I need to prepare a bit more – time for some more veggie shopping today and prepare some soup for the fridge in advance so I have something low calorie to snack on if I get desperate.

However, I didn’t get to this size by being disciplined about food so it is a learning curve after nearly two years off the wagon.

I started losing weight again this January after a year of slipping back, having lost almost 5 stone the year before. A close family bereavement sent me right off the rails though and I put most of the 40 pounds I lost until April back on.

What is frustrating, but hopeful, is that I genuinely love the food on the Med style eating plan, as that is what I would choose to eat given free rein. Years of watching adverts promoting junk has programmed me to think I want that food even when I don’t like it as I am eating it.

I think I need to concentrate on getting my head in the right place, and on cooking some of the recipes in the book and on the website, without stressing about “depriving” myself, which I never feel like I am doing on this sort of food anyway.

Probably a large part of the problem too is the calorie restriction, when I have clearly not been restricting much over the last few months as I put 40 pounds back on in around 4-5 months (weight relatively stable for the last couple of months).

Onwards with the rest of the day!!
posted by Esnecca
on 7 Dec 2016 at 14:30

I still find myself standing in front of the fridge or opening cabinets on occasion, even though I aim to eat full meals more than snacks. The trick for me is to have something quick and BSD-friendly to grab in those moments. In the fridge it’s olives. In the cabinet it’s roasted spiced pumpkin seeds (aka pepitas). A snack of five Kalamatas is 45 calories, 1 gram net carb, 1 gram fiber. Pepitas are higher in calories, so I usually weigh out half an ounce (86 calories, 0 gram net carb, 2 grams fiber). They both taste great and are good for you. Something like that can take the edge off one of those random foraging impulses without pushing you out of parameters.
posted by allierainbow
on 7 Dec 2016 at 15:27

Thanks Esnecca – I love olives – I will; have to get some in for emergencies.

I had a look on The World’s Healthiest Foods website (brilliant source of nutritional information) and checked out pumpkin seeds:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=82

it looks like they may have benefits around insulin regulation.

Although I am not diabetic and as far as I now not pre-diabetic or Type 2, my weight is mainly carried around my middle, making me look like a kidney bean on a stick, so I am keen to include foods that may help with regulating insulin.
posted by allierainbow
on 7 Dec 2016 at 15:29

Lovely lunch today: salmon, green beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, some cheese sauce ,and chilli flakes and black pepper. I am drinking peppermint tea and water today to stay off the caffeine and cut the calories.
posted by Jande9
on 7 Dec 2016 at 18:21

My worst time for snack cravings is the evenings. I have countered that by saving up most of my calorie allowance for suppertime. I have a nice filling meal with lots of protein and vegetables, many of them sauteed, so it keeps me full for many hours. I then top up with 6 (exactly) raw almonds, about half way through the evening. So my breakfast is 150 cals, my lunch is 150 cals, and supper is about 400 cals, with a snack of 50 cals. I leave about a 50 cals cushion to compensate for the inaccuracy of the measurements.
The funny thing is, I feel I am eating more volume wise than I was before but because of the no sugar/starch rule and no seconds at supper the calorie count is a lot less.
Once you are past the week 1 glycogen burning stage and into the following fat burning stage you will settle into a routine that you can live with comfortably.
posted by Inka13
on 8 Dec 2016 at 02:04

Allierainbow I did the same thing with a baguette the other day, deliberately put it in my trolley, came home and slathered half of with butter and peanut butter! Ridiculous! Didn’t even taste that great, but I got control of myself, threw the rest in the bin and had a tiny dinner.
Next time I will just have some peanut butter on a spoon too! But usually I find as soon as I feel overwhelmingly hungry/ carby if I have a big glass of water I feel so full that it takes the edge off. If it doesn’t work I have another glass! Then I just feel ill 😬
Planning is definitely the only way to go. I bought some baba ganujh dip ,that’s a great standby too.
Hope today is going well for you. Onward and downward!
posted by allierainbow
on 8 Dec 2016 at 08:13

Thanks Jande9 and Inka13 – I will try the water thing Inka13, and I need to look at timing of meals Jande9.

Another iffy day yesterday – but I am working out the reasons it is not working.

Good lunch = yes
Snack in the afternoon = probably not a good idea
Good Tea = yes, but with issue of now over calories
Peppermint tea and water all day = yes

Off the rails after tea – mainly because the calories were around 680 after the snack.

This resulted in around 1000 at tea time then a don’t matter attitude in the evening, where I ate some carbs even though I wasn’t really hungry – felt hungry after tea but an hour later I wasn’t but ate the now planned naughties anyway. A bit of self-sabotage going on there – need to work on the motivation.

That tells me that I may need to use the strategies of:

keeping more calories for the evening meal
banning snacks for now
distracting myself with something for an hour after food in the evening until I feel full
beware of mood swings! this is a real problem at the moment, I need some positive thinking in the evening!! The carbs are probably the problem here – carbs great at just under 50 at tea time then afterwards the perverse urge to eat rubbish, then a mood swing downwards leading to not enough sleep as rather angst-ridden last night- slightly tongue in cheek this morning, but actually rather low last night with a negative attitude, which is not really me.

Other than the evening issue it is going really well – I just need to sort that out and I will be fine. I think part of me thinks 800 calories is not enough and panics in the evening, so I will also read a bit more on the forum for success stories and see how other people have managed their first few days/couple of weeks.
posted by allierainbow
on 8 Dec 2016 at 19:15

I am feeling so much better tonight after a good day with the food.

Brunch: salmon, carrot and swede mash, red pepper, little gem lettuce, cottage cheese.
Tea: salmon, tomato, cucumber and yellow pepper salad, home-made veggie curry with cauliflower, courgette, leeks and tomatoes, and a little cottage cheese.

I am at 926 cals and 58.6 carbs so a lot better than the last couple of days, and happily not hungry at all, just hungry towards tea time and this evening there is no need or desire for a snack.

I am relieved to have had a good day after the double blip this week.

Onwards – having stocked up on a lot of lovely veggies and a couple of chickens to roast tomorrow and then use the bones to make stock for some lovely soup at the weekend.
posted by Mixnmatch
on 8 Dec 2016 at 20:29

I am delighted to hear it. It does take some trial and error before we each hit upon the best way to meet the 800 a day challenge, and that can be different on different days. Just be prepared to forgive yourself and keep on keeping on if you try something and it doesn’t quite work out. Once any residual carb cravings have gone and your body has adjusted to the diet such problems will be a rarity.
posted by allierainbow
on 9 Dec 2016 at 12:27

Frustratingly yesterday was a great day until the evening, when I got twinges of cramp in the top of my foot. I suspect that is to do with electrolyte imbalance, as I don’t add salt to my food and don’t eat much food that is processed when I am not eating rubbish.

I made up an oral rehydration drink, yuk! and then had a small banana mashed up in some full-fat greek yoghurt with some milled linseed sprinkled on the top. It was delicious but then I strayed towards the cream crackers and had some with butter and cheese and a little sea salt.

I am not going to worry about it. Most of the time I am finding it no problem to stick to the BSD, and the issues are always in the evening, so I really just need to make sure I have strategies to sort that out.

There are still crampy twinges going on so I will make sure I drink more water today as I think that was lower yesterday than it should have been due to going out shopping for several hours.

In good new – I dropped a lot of weight yesterday and I am now under 20 stone!!!
posted by Jande9
on 11 Dec 2016 at 22:40

Dr. Mosley suggests extra salt, to help with all the water. I feel the need for a lot more salt than normal to feel satisfied, but I don’t have a blood pressure or water retention problem so I have that option.

There is no way to avoid feeling hunger when you want to burn fat. I found that if I eat carbs at all, it leads to a strong hunger spike an hour or so later, so I avoid carbs as much as possible until supper, and then eat only slow burn carbs, like from lentils, beans etc.

I know this sounds perverse, but I like the empty feeling of fasting, and I sometimes forget to eat anything until supper. I need to consciously remember to eat my breakfast eggs around 11 and my afternoon Greek yogurt and bran around 3 because I am not feeling the normal daily rhythm of eating.