4 weeks in and it’s coming up to party season, I was a big drinker but after a slap by the doctor I started the BSD, I’m gonna be honest after the first week of cravings it has been very satisfying, and I’ve found it quite easy and once In the zone that’s it. My food has been so varied and still eating some great homemade currys and fish meals I’ve lost two stone. Tomorrow I’m back to the doctors to check my “close to type 2” but I’m hoping I can keep this mindset with party time coming up, some say a break can kick start it again but ?

Hi Chazly1, excellent results to date – well done.

By all means take a bit of a break over the festive season, but try to stick to the BSD principles, so only have carbs in moderation – eat and drink mindfully. I would suggest setting yourself a limit for the alcohol and try to stick with it, having sparkling water in between drinks. Be cautious with things like beer and mixers that can be very carb heavy and try to avoid ‘nibbles’ as it’s easy to load up on these and swallow down a whole heap of carbs without really thinking about it.

Relax and enjoy your festive season, try to keep it high protein, full fat, low carb and you should be just fine. Just get straight back to the BSD proper after the festive season and any pounds gained should disappear again pretty rapidly.

Best of luck for good results at the doctors tomorrow and for continued success.

There is some discussion about this in recent days on the 2017 Lucia thread with a couple of points of view if you want to have a look.

Don’t do it. You’re only halfway through the program and even if you don’t put on too much weight, the biology of sugar metabolism makes popping on and off the wagon extremely difficult because eating those carbs again will reset you back to how you were that first week: hungry and desperately craving more carbs. It won’t bring you any pleasure, especially since you’ve responded so well the BSD already and are currently detoxed from the carbs. It’s a trap lying in wait for you, only you know it’s there and so can avoid it.

If you think you’ll be bummed that you can’t eat something specific, make something of your own to take its place. Yogurt and blueberries for dessert, say, or if you want to get a little fancier, chia pudding made with coconut milk and unsweetened coconut flakes. Check Luvtcook’s recipes in the recipe section for some cool low-carb bread options.

Fair warning: I am immoderate on this topic. I was hyperobese, sick and constantly exhausted from taking 10 steps from the couch to the bathroom. I lost 200 pounds over the past year and a half and it has been the greatest accomplishment of my life. The BSD saved not just my health, but has given me a quality of life that I did not think possible. Others weren’t in so extreme a situation and milder approaches worked for them. I went hardcore and have zero regrets. This is for life, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Not one step backwards.

Wow! Well done you. I would say don’t do it. My husbands uncle was diagnosed with T2 about 5 years ago, controlled it with diet and lost loads of weight. Then the diabetes nurse told him he didn’t need to be so strict and he started on the ‘treats’ and now has a massive belly again and all his old problems. I just think it can be a bit difficult to recapture the mindset and your body will be fighting the carb addiction again too. So I am going eat more but keep it as low carb as I usually do.

I absolutely agree with everyone who says ‘don’t do it’.

For me the sugary carby stuff is not a treat – Fage yoghurt and blueberries, stilton cheese, various nuts, smoked mackerel, avocados, 85% and 99% dark chocolate etc. etc. are far more delicious foods and I will be enjoying them over Christmas – secure in the knowledge that they won’t derail my maintenance nor my enjoyment of having all my family around me over Christmas nor will they harm my health nor bring back the diabetic retinopathy and macular oedema or numb feet.

We all have to find a way to make this way of eating work for our lifestyles and bodies. I have taken a more relaxed approach than some, allowing myself ‘breaks’ from the strict 800/20 BSD regime from time to time and while it has taken me longer to get to my end goal, having periods of sticking to the BSD principles whilst not being strict on all aspects of what is consumed, has taught me how to successfully maintain.

Hear hear SunnyB – go you! You make me feel I can ‘have my cake and eat it’. Thank for showing me my maintenance will not only be possible but allow me to join in the celebrations from time to time! Hope to join you at some point in 2018! A big year for a lot of us.

Hi Chazly1,

Wowsers, 2 stone (12.7 kgs) in four weeks! Great results!

I’m just starting Week 6 (7.2kg down) of my first round and I’m taking a pretty hard line on ‘breaks’, including alcohol (can’t quite believe it myself) I just can’t bear the idea of seeing the scales go up, spending more time double backing over efforts already made. Seems like such a waste of time and energy.

Worse still, for me, that first reason for loosening the reigns, would immediately give me permission to do it again. That first major event, say Christmas, or wedding, would quickly become ‘oh but it’s drinks or dinner with friends’ and then it would be ‘oh it’s Friday night’ and then ‘I don’t have time to prep dinner I’ll just have …..’. Next thing I know I’m having carb cravings, the weight is back on and I’m beating myself up for being a weak, pathetic loser.

After a couple of weeks, I don’t have carb or alcohol cravings – although I do still have the odd theoretical wistfulness, but these are more interesting than distressing. Thank heavens for getting to that place because it is not just about emotions, it is physical – carbs and alcohol trigger the dopamine system. We crave these things, not because we are slobs and idiots – we crave them because they work. They make us feel better at a molecular level. Like drug addicts, it is hard to learn our bodies can cope, we can feel fabulous, we can cope with pressures and stress without triggering the feel good chemicals with carbs/sugar alcohol. I’m taking a typical drug treatment approach and going for abstinence. I’m finding alcohol and carby snacks are just not a big issue for me at social gatherings now. Rather than deprived or missing out, I feel quite proud of myself for sticking to my guns. I know this is very unattractive, but sometimes I even feel a little smug 🤫

There are of course different views, and there are plenty of people doing it a slower, mixed approach. Hats off to everyone trying hard to take control of their health and wellbeing. Big hats off to people taking a mixed, flexible approach, I can’t think of anything harder, it takes such a long time, constant dealing with cravings and questionng why and whether they can do it, and I’m quite sure I couldn’t. I need success to fall back on.

Personally I found the discussion on the Lucia thread a little bit upsetting. Lucia’s post seemed to me to be like the pied piper calling all the children out of the safety of the village. I’m fine with people making decisions to be flexible if that helps them to keep going, but actively encouraging others to join them reminded me of a drunk at a recent dinner I was at, persistently pressuring me to join in and have a drink. Very uncool. I just felt sad for him, gave him a hug, thanked him for caring about whether I was having fun and reassured him I was and went back to enjoying the function.

We are all different, and this is me. All my warm wishes to you Chazly1, it is not easy, it is a challenging time of year. Good luck!

Hear hear, Flick. You have nailed my feelings exactly.

Personally I couldn’t, and indeed wouldn’t want to jeopardise all that hard work just to satisfy social conventions. I’m afraid that, during my losing days, I was a total hard-liner and stuck to BSD800 to the letter.

Now, after 8 months in maintenence, I allow myself a little more flexibility and no longer count calories. I do, however, stick rigidly to low carbs – but believe me, that certainly doesn’t mean no treats. It’s just that my tastes have totally changed and my “treats” consist of wonderful, tasty, healthy food, yes with the odd glass of wine, but I know that I am lucky and can enjoy ONE glass and not crave more.

Obviously, Chazly1, it is your decision and only you know what will work for you. But please don’t jeopardise all your hard work, not to mention your health, for the sake of a few stodgy “treats” – they are not treats, they are drugs – and you have done so well in kicking the habit so far.

But we are all different and whatever you decide, I wish you every success and a very merry Christmas and, more to the point, a very healthy new year.

Cheers every body for your comments it’s great to have so much input, I must admit I have no cravings for either alcohol or carbs as I’ve managed to keep such a vairied diet, and I really enjoy cooking admittedly when I used to cook it would always be my signal to open a bottle of wine, but now it dosent cross my mind.
I think I know the way I shall deal with this and keep in the zone, as it’s suppriseing just what you can fit into 800 calories.
We shall meet in the new year for updates.
Have a great christmas everyone and a slimmer healthier new year
Chazly1

Thank you, Chazly1, for posing the question about the holiday next week. It’s given
us all, maintainers and those still on the journey, an opportunity to think in terms of
“mindfulness” as we establish a plan for dealing with Christmas! Half of this WOL is
the planning. I find myself not making any changes from the decisions that I made
last year when I’d already lost 90lbs, but had another 50 to go. My tastes have changed,
so this doesn’t represent a challenge for me. Maintenance has been more daunting
than weight loss however, and I won’t be completely comfortable with it until I have
a full year behind me. Whatever you decide to do, have a plan and don’t deviate from
it! 🙂

Flick, you are going about this with the same attitude that I did, a take no prisoners
approach. It’s all or nothing for me, and I knew that meant leaving the cork in the
wine bottle for 10 straight Fast800 months. You are doing what makes sense to
you, and I’m looking forward to you reaching your goal. A little red lipstick along
the way is a happy thing, and I encourage you to do more of the same 🙂 It’s great
to see you coming out to play on the “Phoenix” thread as well. It’s never too soon
to start celebrating the victories! If we don’t have enough of our own, there is always
someone else having one of those moments that we can share! 2018 is just around
the corner. Let’s be the best that we can be in the upcoming year 🙂 🙂 🙂

I’m grateful to know you all,

Allie

I love reading all the different thoughts on this, although rather unhelpfully I tend to agree with everyone even when they contradict each other! My first round of BSD 800 was started on a December 28. Although I was keen to begin a week or two before that as soon as I read the book, I felt that starting just before Christmas was setting myself up for failure. I didn’t want that much temptation when I wasn’t yet in a routine, or to just have gotten over carb flu then break the diet ‘just this once’ and have to go through carb and sugar cravings all over again! And as Flick says, when you break the rules once, it’s a bit easier the next time and so on. Apparently it’s the same with murder, according to Agatha Christie.

So despite kind-of wanting to start now, I am again waiting until a time I’ll have a relatively clear run ie after Christmas and using this time to prepare, and maintain what I’ve already lost. But those of you already in the midst of losing nasty yellow visceral fat, you have to decide for yourself what you can do that won’t derail you. Are you someone who can take a day off a diet then get straight back into it (is anyone here like that, I wonder? Or are we all examples of the ones who can’t?). Will you be ok allowing more calories, but only BSD-friendly treats like nuts, cheese and meat? A day of unrestricted cheese-eating could be pretty special! No weighing every crumb! Or are you in the zone and just need to stick to 800 cals as usual? Look at your past track-record and ‘know thyself’.

Yes this is a very interesting question and I have to agree with Natalie …. I tend to agree with everyone even when the contradict each other!

I think it’s a very much ‘horses for courses’ answer. Some people have to be ‘rigid’ in their approach whilst others are more relaxed. If you need to be rigid fine. I think when you have eaten this way for long enough your taste buds change and you really don’t have any desire for the ‘stodgy/simple carbs’ so it is no dilemma. BUT early on I think it’s quite ‘dangerous’ to experiment with so called ‘treats’. They aren’t ‘treats’ at all, as has been said, they are ‘poison’ and put you back to square one.

Keep your goals at the forefront of your mind, you have done so well so far don’t blow it all and put yourself back to square one. Enjoy the festivities but within BSD guidelines and try and log a ‘guestimate’ of what you are plan on eating in the mornings before you eat and that may just stop you having that so called ‘treat’!