The second day has gone well with my husband & I having a brunch after his blood tests of Yorkshire Provenders super broccoli soup, then some left over roasted med veg (from the recipe book) with four small falafel & some pulled ham
Supper has been the chickpea chilli recipe with some fresh broccoli. The recipe makes loads & because it has fresh chilli in it & has loads of veg you have no choice but to eat slowly. We both now feel stuffed so highly recommended if you are hungry.
So total calories including four coffees throughout the day was 827!
Onwards to day three for us.
Good luck October Starters👍👍👍🍀🍀🍀

Hey guys,

Some great posts on here! Thank you all for keeping me motivated.

Today was a bad day (Day 5). Decided to go for the Brunch and Dinner option and have had a massive headache since 2pm, just caved and took headache pills. I have drank over 2.5 litres of water already today and had a good amount of salt on brunch too. Maybe carb withdrawal that people on other threads are talking about??

Anyhow my meals today were:

Brunch: Poached egg and smoked salmon stack.
Dinner: Harissa chicken. (could sub chicken for tofu in this one, cook on higher temp if using to get harissa crust crunchy)
Snack later – 1 Granny Smith apple and 10g feta.

Both great meals and filling though too far apart!

Keep on keeping on guys!

Fairyface, I am so glad you posted a review of the Skinny Aubergine Lasagne, that caught my eye in the recipe book and now I can’t wait to try it next week! Thank you!

Hope your headache gets better soon ShellBrum you are three days ahead of us so good luck for the rest of the week.

Finding keeping the food content ok but not drinking as much as I should. Perhaps that explains the dark mood that came out of nowhere yesterday. Equilibrium appears to have been restored today. Tried the bolognaise this evening but rather liquidy for my taste, so will make my own version in future. On the whole a better experience than I was expecting.
Thanks Fairyface for the review, I will try that on Thursday

Ugh. The anticipated withdrawal headache has hit, sticking to the plan though… kinda. I am supplementing with the odd cashew, just until my body adjusts to the LowCal/LowCarb curveball I’ve thrown at it, lol. Better news is that my boss says I don’t have to stay late tonight! So home at a reasonable hour, lol. (I work 7am-6pm then commute home for an hour)

Question – does anyone know when the new cookbook is going o be available in Canada?

Great post StaceySmith! It has me thinking – why do I want to do this? Beyond the obvious……

I’m 43. Over weight, scratch that, obese (16st 8lbs). Diabetic. I already have problems with my legs and I worry about my sight. Good reasons. Valid reasons. But they aren’t the driving factor…

There are things I want to do that I’m not doing, that I’m saying no to because of my weight and my feelings around that. I want to travel. I want to be able to go where I want and no worry about fitting into seats, about my legs/knees being able to support me. I want to go on walking/hiking holidays because I love doing that. I don’t want my body to hold me back. I don’t want life to just happen to me.

I try to do things that are out of my comfort zone and when I do I usually have a blast, even though it was HARD.

So, my commitment to this process is this:

It will be HARD. I will feel DEFEATED. I will muck it up, repeatedly.

I am not perfect. I will forgive myself. I will cut myself some slack, because I am human.

I will realize that I am worth the work, I am worth the sacrifice, and I will come out the other side my own HERO.

Gods help anyone who gets in my way 😉

Thanks for sharing this journey. I appreciate all of you and your stories and suggestions will help more than you know.

Cheers,

Deb

Most welcome ShellBrum. I used small button mushrooms and sliced the aubergine thinly but like I said next time i will just cut it into chunks.

Another good day without feeling weak or overly tired. I am already slightly sick of eating eggs though!

I had two meals today:

– tuna steak wth cauliflower rice, avo, feta and tomatoes

– 3 fish fingers with baked beans and an omelette with veg (the rest of the family had their fish fingers on brioche buns and the bread smelt so amazing! It took all my will power not to take a bite!)

I also dug out the pedometer and am aiming for 10000 steps per day. That was easy yesterday with the school run but I had a sniffly little girl at home with me today so didn’t get out. I suppose I could have run up and down the stairs about 50 times but I think that would be The start of a desent into madness!

I do read all the posts. Someone asked for tips on not sabotaging. For me, I just don’t want another failed diet. So this has to work. I am sick of losing a pound or two, falling off the wagon and gaining it back. I want results and I want them fast!

We are past the half way mark of week 1. Keep at it folks xx

Hello Everyone
I went out and bought a weighing scales, such is my commitment to losing weight.
I might get around to unwrapping it next week for I never thought such a small and insignificant machine could scare me so much!!!
Seriously though, I haven’t had dinner because I will weigh myself in the morning-I am nervous.
One small step for most normal people but I feel threatened. I will now have to face up to reality and do something. This diet will have to last the full 8 weeks. I can’t give up and revert to behaving myself and being naughty at the same time.
What do you do when you have an occasion you have to go to?
Do you break out?
I have to travel away on a school excursion where we have a sleepover. There is a set menu which is child friendly, you know yourselves, pasta, chips, etc.
We also have a very special family dinner coming up too.
What advice would you give me?
My gut says just go with the flow, enjoy the craic and hop up on the wagon the day after.
But that’s difficult. Once a diet is broken, it’s hard to restart. Maybe my brand new shiny weighing scales can help me!!
How have you all coped?
Or am I being dramatic?
Cheers

HI HappyGirl

Good luck – don’t think about it as an 8 week diet, just a new way of eating

there are several threads on eating out, mostly focusing on chain restaurants – the search box is in the top right hand corner to find them`

The family dinner – are you cooking or someone else? If someone else, ask what the food will be – if carby, take some courgetti and zap them in the microwave to replace the carbs (and if you want to be even less trouble, they are pretty OK raw with most things)

school trip – pack a salad

I am really feeling the effect of carb/sugar withdrawal or something… Having made low cal fish and veg for dinner I caved in and had two small new potatoes. I had fried them in olive oil with shallots and garlic for my family – that’ll teach me! Looking forward to Day 3 tomorrow. Going to bed feeling very hungry and really can’t full up on any more water today.

Is it too late to join you? I’m kinda used to being a couple of steps behind!!

So hard today went out to lunch in Sydney for Good Food month lunch ( booked ages ago) I worked out everything I was going to eat and drink but succumbed to a glass of bubbles – got home and I just want to eat something, first time I have felt the need since I started this, probably because I’ve eaten more carbs today! Never mind back to normal tomorrow and I’ll just have to suffer ‘hunger/carb’ feelings this evening! But boy would I like another glass of and some chocolate – mm – sorry I will behave now, thank goodness we are all in this together!

Oh, and another thing, is anyone having trouble sleeping?

Oh Pat I feel for you. I haven’t faced any “occasions” yet but I will at the weekend. I think you did well and you are still on track by resuming tomorrow. I hope I will too. I think it may be best for me not to have a drink there at all! I really don’t want to spoil things cos I know how hard it would be for me to get back on track.
I’m not having problems sleeping by the way. 😊

Ruby you’ve made me hungry. I’m visualising those potatoes and onions and it’s not even 9 in the morning yet. I’ll take the dogs out and clear my mind. Have a great day. 😊

Day three for us & going to bed last night we both felt achy cold & shivery. I was worse when in the middle of the night I had stomach ache & felt as though I was going to start throwing up but after having hot & cold sweats didn’t! I suspect our very beany supper of Chilli Chickpeas didn’t suit us. This morning we are both still feeling chilly tired & slightly achy & for me my legs are really sore.
I suppose this might be the carb flu other people have written about?
For breakfast I think we will have yoghurt & berries to try to soothe our stomachs & for supper try salmon & some vegetables. We certainly don’t want a repeat of last night!

Hi Canidoit ( yes you can)

Thanks for your sympathy – really appreciated it – I agree staying away from ‘the demon drink’ must be the way for me to go, the food was amazing but more carbs than I have had since 1 October and I can honestly feel the difference, the yearning to snack is increasing as the evening goes on, I have just had two of the amazing chickpea crackers that Izzy on another board had recommended making, and I have GOT to stop eating now, lots of water and a mug of tea I think! ….ok I’ll go and get the water now.

Hello I’m a newbie too! I received my recipe book yesterday but waiting for the diet book but I thought I’d start anyway – there’s a 8 week diet programme in the back to kick me into touch and a list of necessary ingredients … so off to tesco I go!

Hello all, I have joined you quietly too. I started the BSD diet a few days before month end to adjust my stomach/ get through the carb detox (!) and then started the 800kcal on the 2nd when I felt ready to crank it up a notch. I am not diabetic but have insulin resistance (thanks to PCOS, endometriosis etc) so losing weight has been a major struggle for me in the past – but if I’m being honest it’s because I went on diets which had unrestricted pasta etc and I took advantage of it. Not this time! I am (controversially I know) now weighing myself every day because I want to understand how my body reacts to this. It’s risky on the motivational front I realise. I didn’t lose a single gram on just the low-carb BSB so started to get a bit disheartened, but am thrilled the scales are now moving since I started 800kcal. So far I am registering a loss of around almost a pound/ 300g a day, which is amazing and very motivational at the moment seeing as I have substantial amount of weight to lose (70lbs/30kg). I know it will slow down. I’m planning and tracking like a ninja (thanks to MyFitnessPal) and can’t quite believe a) how well I have adapted to 800kcal a day or b) that I am managing to stick to it! Early days yet but so far so good. I’m sick of fighting with myself every day over my weight and food, and determined to make long-term changes. Hope everyone else in the group is feeling equally strong!

Well done CarbAddict on getting started so well you are inspirational to me because I had a rough night last night. I’m hoping as you have found that I will see some weight loss & that as we get stuck in we will feel energised & well. Hope you have a good day.

First time I’ve posted. I need to ask do you all follow the diet as laid out in the BSD book or do you make up your own Mediterranean diet up to 800 calories per day or a combo of both?
Thanks

Hi Swann, for me it is a combo of both but because I love the recipes in the book I tend to use them quite a lot. When I started counting carbs seriously on a Reboot I discovered on day one that some foods have a lot more carbs than you would believe, such as apples so I have adjusted some of the recipes myself. Find yourself a good way of calculating the calories and carbs and give yourself a limit and try to keep to that.

We pretty much all do what we want.

I’m not a cook …. and my stove is broken anyway.

I just try and eat meat, fish, chicken, non-starchy vegetables, berries, full fat plain unsugared yogurt, some nuts and seeds, a bit of cheese, a little bacon, eggs, lentils, beans… I just count it up.
I can and do make soup with mainly vegetables …. and maybe add lentils, beans, meat. Make a big pot …. count up the calories and carbs and divide by number of plastic containers to get a number per serving.

Like most people i try and keep the carbs under 50, even though it’s not really in the book.

My weakness is cream in my coffee …… although i am expanding my fancy tea consumption.

We do what fits in with our life, work, family.

I don’t always make the 800 calories or 50 carbs …. but i am only a couple of weeks in ….. it’s a process that i hope to perfect.

You can google calories and carbs …. or use a site like MyFatSecret…… it’s probably never going to be exact because of thousands of brand names, types of preparation, etc.

My advice : Have some patience, don’t expect a ride without it’s ups and downs. Do the best you can …. and even when the scale doesn’t seem to move … enJOY fitting your clothes better!!

Hi Everyone, just starting day 4 and sticking to the 800 calls. Reading all your stories and experiences is keeping me focused. Finding the recipes easy to do and delicious.
Struggling with the water intake so having headaches and woke lightheaded this morning. I had a pear & a cup of tea followed by the spinach & raspberry shake which was lovely. Totally rallied after that and ready to face the day. My favourite so far is the crab cake but would have had double the amount. Going to do the veg curry and cauliflower rice this evening. I don’t eat meat so sticking to the fish & veggie options.
I have a wedding at the weekend so food & wine will be amazing & flowing. Determined not to sabotage myself even going so far as to bring my own food. I need to lose this weight more than I need cake & wine. I’ definitely feel I’m down a few pounds since I started so that will motivate me. I’m not looking for another wedding outfit feeling like a barrel in every dress I try on. 5’2″ height & 12 stone & 54 years is not a healthy profile. I know I can do this, we all can, can you imagine how we’ll feel at four weeks in??? & then 8 weeks. Keep it up everyone, I need you.

Love from NeNe xx

Thanks sunshine-girl and shalimar, I guess I’ll start with the prescribed recipes and branch out from there.

I haven’t bought the book, mainly because I’m 95% vegan (with some fish) and so I have assumed that most of the recipes just won’t fit my needs. So I’m sticking to basic foods and then planning my own meals – but I like to cook so it’s not that hard for me (so far anyway!). What has been the eye-opener so far is the calories in some foods which I never thought about before – namely olive oil. I made a salad dressing for my lunch salad a few days ago and blew a quarter of my daily’s calorie allowance on the olive oil that went into it! Not sustainable…So I now work out my daily meals using MyFitnessPal in advance first thing in the morning to ensure no nasty surprises. Essentially I log my food for the day before I eat it. Yes, a bit of effort and time has to go into it, but for me I think it is the only way I will succeed.

Hi Butterfly moves. Pull up a chair:-)

Carb_Addict – Pre BSD I used to have extra-virgin olive oil on my salads too as its a good fat but like you I didn’t want to blow my calorie allowance on it. Last night I had a large salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, avocado with a small piece of ham and flavoured everything salt / pepper / coriander and apple cider vinegar – it was fabulous! I think its because the tomatoes were sweet, salt brings out the flavour in cucumber and the avocado are fat anyway.

I’m finding that if I season my food well and use herbs like coriander (cilantro), spring onions, garlic etc I get a big hit of flavour from my meal and forget that its a much smaller portion than I would’ve eaten in the past. Also like using vinegar and lemon juice as additional flavours too.

I’m 70/30 making my own meals / recipe book and trying to be diligent on weighing my ingredients for accurate calorie / carbs count using MyFitnessPal too.

Michael Mosley recommends having good fats in the diet such as olive oil, coconut oil, butter & whole milk Greek style yoghurt to cut out the rubbishy low fat processed stuff that has added sugar & starch. So CarbAddict the odd teaspoon of olive or other oils is recommended to increase satiety & apparently keep our brains & heart healthy. But I know it is higher calorie it’s really about trying to fit some into our diet.

Oh poor you Wendy1947 . I hope you are feeling better now. I haven’t felt anything different since starting diet apart from peeing gallons. I have probably got it to come. Keep your pecker up both of you. 😁

Thank you Canidoit 🙂 I’m at the moment sitting with a hot water bottle on my tum & have taken one Ibuprofen. Hoping it’s a slight blip & tomorrow with be better but sticking with👍👍

Thank you for the feedback GreenTea and Wendy1947. The inclusion of enough fat is a key success factor for sure. Today I cut down from 1.5 tbsp of oil to 1tbsp in my dressing with no hardship: the learning journey continues. I refuse to buy the processed ones with ‘zero calories’ just to save in this area: suspect they are ‘banned’ on the BSD anyway. My challenge as I progress will be to not get obsessed by the numbers. The world is not going to end, nor am I going to fail in my goals, over the calories in a measly 1tbsp of oil a day, especially when it has so many health benefits. Off for my mid-afternoon green tea ‘snack’ now. It’s a beautiful day here in Dubai. Hope the same with you!

Thanks again, Sarah.

Some great tips and posts here, It helps to know we are facing this challenge together.

I am on day 3 and for the most part it is going well for the most part, although I am finding I go to bed hungry, but feel fine in the mornings when I wake up, apart from this morning when I felt ravenous. I think it is down to doing some intense exercise last night called freeletics, which I am using to help stimulate my metabolism too.

Meal wise, I have been pretty disciplined thus far, but it is only day 3 right. However, the guys in the office have not been helping as today is the third consecutive day we have had cake brought in by someone and if there is one thing I love it is cake LOL But thankfully my resolve has held.

It is early days at present but I think this is very manageable as a diet, as long as I can keep my eye on the end goal and not have any super stressful situations present themselves in the next 8 weeks ( I am an emotional eater) Just need to maybe look at stratergies for managing my evening hunger, that doesnt involve me eating my dinner really late, or a big intake of water meaning night toilet visits increase, welcome any advice.

Stay strong all and remember it is only 8 weeks 🙂

Cheers
H

HealthyH I know it sounds odd but a teaspoonful of coconut oil or a small glass of milk stops a hungry feeling going to bed. When I first started 5:2 fast days that were below 800 calories I found that worked helping me get to sleep.

thanks for the tip Wendy appreciate it, will give it a go, just need to leave the calories off my other meals then 🙂

Thanks for the welcome Fairyface! Had a good first day, let’s see where it all leads…

Good Morning all!

Uneventful day so far, I have been moving more, mainly because my boss has lots of visitors for me to fetch from reception. LOL.
Well done all! Keep sticking and soldering on! It’s not easy, but it’s worth it!

For those of you having trouble sleeping… I find that if I save a few calories for just before bed it helps keep the BS fairly stable overnight. I usually have some Plain Greek Yogurt with some sunflower seeds thrown in for crunch (I can’t do fruit). It also makes the Dawn Effect* less noticeable.

Carb_Addict – I’m in awe of the people who can weigh in every day. I can’t because it boggs me down in numbers and tracking my food does that enough. I don’t want to give the Chimp more to play with. Goodonya! Don’t feel bad about pre-logging either – I do that for the entire week, and then adjust as necessary.

Swann – I follow a modified version, but still within the 800 cals. I have major food allergies (nuts, most raw fruit/veg) so I have to modify. It’s easy for me to though, as I’ve been modifying my food my whole life, lol.

Keep ON Keeping ON!

Cheers,
Deb

*Dawn Effect – a holdover from our ancient ancestors. It’s a BS spike at 4/5am that wakes up the body for the day, i.e. gives you energy to get up.

Deb the dawn effect is most interesting thank you for that info. My husband had a raised BS this morning of 7 & that explains it. Well done sticking with it & your extra exercise😀
Third day has been bearable but still feeling cold & a bit achy.
I will be preparing our supper soon of baked salmon fillet with a teaspoon of pesto on it & cauliflower rice cooked with some spiralized courgette.
Breakfast was natural Greek yoghurt with a few blueberries & pine nuts & a left over banana ( still using up some fruit we had)
Lunch was a mushroom omelette & a small apple & throughout the day two coffees & lots of water. Total 801 calories.
Well done everyone getting through another day👍👍👍👍

Thanks to everyone for sharing! Changing habits is not easy – but you are inspiring!

Had a sore throat when I woke up on October 1 – but I was determined to not let anything stop this 8 weeks! Day 4 was super hard because I woke up several times for coughing attacks and did not sleep much the night before. By the afternoon – I felt HORRIBLE. I decided to eat 1 cup pistachios (w/shells) as a boost so I could get off the sofa and make dinner – but – hamburger meat was spoiled! Went to the local hamburger joint and got a burger ‘protein style’. (meat, tomato, grilled onion wrapped in lettuce)

I feel much better this morning! It seems that special occasions wrapped around food occur ALL of the time!

A couple of things I’ve noticed: I do get super hungry before each meal, but I do not feel like a ravenous addict! Very excited about that. Every meal so far – I feel really great right after I eat it. That is wonderful too – no bloating!

Day 4 meals:
Breakfast: 2 eggs, 1/2 grilled onion
Lunch: meatloaf, romaine salad with olive oil
Dinner: 2 oz meat, slice tomato, lettuce, 1 cup pistachios (with shells)

Apologies for mentioning the fried potatoes. <Smacks myself on the hand> – what was I thinking?!!!!

I am feeling pretty rough today and I am not sure why. I feel as if I am not eating enough but that may just be carb/sugar withdrawal. I am hungry, have stomach ache and feel sick. I have tried to manage this with small meals:

Breakfast: porridge with raspberries (200)
Snack: one boiled egg (not sure)
Lunch: humnmus and carrot sticks (not sure)
Dinner: gammon steak with red cabbage (420)
Milk (100)

I am probably blowing my calories today but I think I need to do this until I feel a bit better. I’m still staying away from hard carbs, tho’.
I have to meet a friend for lunch tomorrow and another for dinner. I am determined not to blow it! I am committed to reporting back to keep me good!

Hi all,

Just two more days left of this first week.

Another two-meal day for me:

-11am chargrilled king prawns with green veg “couscous”, feta, tomatoes and pine nuts

-6pm. Veggie sausages with beans and cheese

I had way too much caffeine today as v little sleep last night due to small child in and out of my bed last night!

Early night for me

Xx

Hi everyone,
WEll I have been on this diet for almost a week and I am surprised at the strange effect this has had on my body. I started out with severe headaches followed by constant *peeing*! Weird aches and pains throughout my body and leg cramps. Oh and tiredness. The tiredness has now ended and I am feeling a little more energetic. One good side effect has been the lack of hunger. I was worried about feeling hungry at 10:30 at work and was worried about what to eat but I haven’t been hungry. Considering I eat my yogurt and and berries at 6 am I think it’s all good. Will this lack of hunger continue or with my body normalize as time goes on?

ZIggy🙂

Great day today with no headaches thankfully and lots of energy… maybe I’m over the carbs??

Today I ate:

Breakfast: Middle Eastern (cottage cheese with cucumber, tomatoes, smoked paprika – odd for breakfast but lovely and fresh tasting)
Lunch: Warm halloumi salad – a complete winner.
Dinner: Spicy chicken with lentils – again absolutely gorgeous and quick as I used tinned lentils.

I am so enjoying getting out of the food rut I was in and cooking with enthusiasm again!

Loving all of your posts. You are all an inspiration to me!

Ruby – eggs are only around 70 cal. per, hummus is around 120 cal for 57g, and 52 cal for 1 cup chopped carrots, so you’re doing better than you think! Especially as they are all “good” choices! Don’t be too hard on yourself, change doesn’t happen overnight 🙂

Deb

Evening all,

Thought I’d be ok today but when I went out shopping, I felt tired and my joints were sore. Came home hungry so had some blueberries to tide me over til dinner. Have been sleeping well tho.

Today’s meals:
Breakfast – scrambled eggs with tomatoes – made with 4g of butter!
Lunch – grilled mackerel with a green salad
Dinner – chicken & peppers in lettuce cups with a side of cucumbers – tasty like a fajita but without the tortilla, guacamole, salsa and sour cream haha.

Lettuce and cucumbers are my new best friends. Nite 🙂

Hi All

So after my first week the carb brain fog which I tend to suffer from has disappeared. I also have not suffered insomnia which I do suffer from and my sleeping pattern is how it should be. I also am not experiencing afternoon slump.

The best bit I have lost 7lb! Or in metric 3kg which I am very happy about and although a percentage is water I can feel the good effects already.

I went out for dinner last night and had steak and salad with no dressing and it was delicious. One definite thing I am noticing is that food is much tastier! Previously I have had chip, lashing of mayonnaise and ketchup but I didn’t need it.

So heres to week two!

🙂

That’s great, Meeshe42! What a great loss for one week. I am on Day 3, and it’s going well. I already can sleep better. I too have had insomnia and used to stay up till the wee hours of the morning and EAT! I hope to have a decent weight loss by the end of my first week. But I already feel better with less carbs in my body!

Day 7 today , I have managed a week !has been ok ,on a postive note I have lost 6 lbs really impressed feel motivated to continue .
Had a planned day out today so knew it would be difficult did really well no carbs then ended the day with crisps and chocolate .!, enjoyed them but will just move on and learn I can’t do moderation,don’t buy chocolate !, looking forward to week 2 .

Great job, Elisabeth45!