Love you to bits skinny and love your posts. I will be following the two of you – very best wishes.

Best of luck to you ladies, on your private challenge 🙂 Have fun! But back to the business of this one….How
is everyone feeling as we head towards the weekend? S-G, I’m glad that you found a replacement canvas for
your gazebo! I thought it might be difficult this time of year. That storm must have packed gale force winds!
Your pool must have been loaded with debris. I hope it’s usable by now 🙂

There are far too many new members to call by name, but I’m thinking about you all, so pop in when you can.
Good news inspires us, and slip ups teach us. We are one big inclusive family here, and everyone is welcome.

Have a marvelous weekend! I’m going to be mindful of “wine creep” 🙂

Allie

Afternoon all! Feeling less tired and achy today thank goodness. Weighed myself this morning though and had somehow managed to put on a lb! Despite being under 800 cals yesterday. Bit confusing but I’m blaming it on the scales, and assuming it’s just a blip! 😂

It’s really encouraging to hear that you’re feeling better, YM2be! Our bodies are unique mechanisms, and I’m
certain that yours is in a state of confusion at the new manner of eating that you are asking of it 🙂 There have
been numerous posts on how we lose fat, but in the event that you haven’t come across one of these yet…
basically what is happening physiologically is that as we lose fat from our fat cells, the fat is replaced with
water. Eventually the fat cells collapse, and fat and water are released. This is known as the “whoosh effect”.
When it happens, the scales can show a loss of 2-3 lbs. overnight. Hormonal changes, as well as “transit
issues”can cause a slight gain too. You’re doing great, don’t worry…It all comes right in the end 🙂
Have a great weekend!

Allie

Hello everyone, it is another glorious day here in the UK. As I mentioned in last weeks thread, I had a little blip last week, not in the eating, I stuck to that, but I got really itchy skin and a rash. I’m pretty certain it was keto rash, as it fitted the description perfectly. Thankfully mine was only very slight.I followed the advice I found, and am delighted to say it has cleared up & the abdominal itching has gone. I’m hoping it was a temporary issue, and have dropped my carbs back to around 20 again to see what happens. Link is here if it’s of interest to anyone. https://www.dietdoctor.com/keto-rash-people-itch-low-carb

I am back in my shorts again, and managed a 21 second plank today Skinnytobe 😄

I am loving this WOE, it makes me feel really happy. Has anyone else noticed that? It makes such a difference to my overall mood.

Goal for this week is to lose another 2lb, and maybe increase my plank to 22 seconds 😄

Have a great weekend everyone.

Lots of us have noticed this, Elle! It’s very much akin to a natural “high” 🙂 No food “contraband” can compete
with it, or at least that’s how I feel about it! It’s truly miraculous…Have a wonderful weekend!

Allie

Thanks for the link Ellem, this is new to me so it is good to learn. Keto rash – I will be better informed now.

Hellooooo Ellem,
Good to see you and what a good news about the rash disappearing. I hope you’re as good as new now. I’ve just about managed 40seconds of planking and it makes me feel very good. Next step for me will be to try it in front of the mirror to check my position is held correctly. I have also downloaded a squat app and so far am only looking at it 🤓.
I think once I complete the 30 day plank challenge I may also give that one a go.
All the best to you all
Skinny to be
xx

Thanks for the explanation alliecat, I’ll keep persevering! Maybe there will be a nice surprise on the scales tomorrow!

Alliecat, that’s it, yes, a natural high. It happened to me about two weeks in, and I suddenly noticed this bubble of happy feelings inside. Will it wear off, or could this be the new normal?

Skinnytobe, impressive 40 secs! 👏🏽 Ah yes, I’ve not been paying much attention to form.

Yummymummy 2b – well done for sticking with it. We are all different, but I’ll tell you my experience of starting this, in case any of it resonates.
Week 1, D1&2, awful headaches – “ok so I expected these”
D3 feeling a bit better, “Oo good, that wasnt too bad then”
D4 utter exhaustion, – “oh no, what is wrong with me? I cant even hold the hairdryer up to dry my hair. I think I may be dying! Maybe this WOE doesn’t suit me!”
D5 – “ok so maybe I wasnt dying.”
Sometime in Week 2: “what is this weird feeling in my tummy? Oh I think it might be happiness, wow that feels ace!”
Somewhere in week 3: “ooo that’s odd,, I think I may feel like exercising!”
Week 4: Well, this is week 4, and my OH has just got the tandem out for a ride round the lake tomorrow. I’ve not been on it for a couple of years. Might need a cushion! We got a tandem a few years ago because he is tall and fit, and I am short and not fit, so at least this way I could keep up with him.

Elle

Haha, Elle! It has been the new normal for me, for about 2 years now! Adjusting my carb levels was the way
out of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome…Ketosis is a miracle! How do we spread the word? One person at a time,
I think 🙂 Maybe we should start putting the message on bumper stickers? SOO HAPPY for you!!! KOKO….
See you on tues. weigh in!

Allie

Aww thanks Ellem it’s so helpful to hear about other people’s journeys. Enjoy the bike ride!
I am going to have to ask….what does KOKO mean??

I’m so sorry, YM2be! It’s an acronym coined and made famous by sunshine-girl. I means Keep On Keeping On!
🙂

Yes but I dont use the KOKO I usually say keep on keeping on… dont forget the 3 full stops for emphasis.

HI Everyone.At last I have a positive report.this morning Bgl is 4.7mmol.the best in ages.I did my first proper work out in the gym .Im working with an excersie physiologist and I actually felt good .On the down side ny weight is up to 84.1kg . Im trying a supplement called Forskolin its suposed to increase metabolism and act on stored fat.Im not convinced but Im giving it a try.I hope you are all focused on maximum effort during weekend temptations.Best wishes to you all Ko.Ko.

Good morning good people,
What a glorious day we’ve woken up to. Isn’t it a little too much of glorious or for too long?
Still better than constant rains though but it wouldn’t hurt if we had a bit of rain.
While it’s not raining I experienced a heavy rains, almost monsoon this morning. My little girl had a meltdown within 5 minutes after she woke up and was still going strong 30 minutes later. As you can imagine all thoughts were in my head how to ‘cheer’ myself up once she fell asleep from the exhaustion. I ended cheering myself up with a small avocado, 50seconds plank (that’s so blinking hard now) and clearing up a bit in the garden while still bearable temperatures. Also put a load into the washing machine and folded a pile of laundry to be put away all this
with two black coffees. In between some MM boks reading to not to sit and move so I think I have ‘managed’ the situation as best I could.
Hope your morning is less stressful 😉.
All the best for today, friends.
Skinny to be
xx

Butterlover,
What a good news on your Bgl! You are definitely doing so.ething good there, girl 👏👍 well done on your gym session, who knows the body holding and resisting the change but will let go on no time adjusted to the new routine.
All the best
Skinny to be
xx

Morning folks! It is 5:17 am here.
10 weeks until blood work
11 weeks to doc appointment for high triglycerides, cholesteral and possible high blood pressure
I promised 20 pounds off. 18 to go.
172 lbs this morning
No more fooling around

‘Morning, Violinist! Are you sleep disordered too, by any chance? I’m usually awake from 3:00am on. Makes
it difficult to do 2 meals a day! I noticed that your first mini meal is at 5:00am….so I’m curious 🙂 I only average
4 hrs a night of sleep. How about you? 18lbs in 11 weeks? Absolutely NO problem!

Allie

Morning! Weight still stuck at the same 🤔 but have just been to a spin class and feeling great for doing it!
Skinny I have young children – 8 and 4 – and it amazes me how long they can have a tantrum for! Well done for turning to black coffee rather than anything stronger!! 😂 Have a fab day everyone!

Morning All!

Allie, I actually fall asleep on the couch by 8pm, wake up and climb into bed and have had 8 hours by that early in the morning. So, ya, it is a long day and hard to skip my mini meal at 5 am, but I am actually working on it. I would like to get some more water down in early morning and do my coffee with breakfast at 8 am- for a start

Morning skinny and yummy. I had 4 kids under 5 years old back in the day. I remember them all waking up from a nap crying!!

Morning butterlover! Glad to see you are progressing!

Allie, do you really think I can do this 18 pounds in 10 weeks if I am strict with the diet?

Sunshine, did you do mindful wine creep?

Hello everyone, yes violinist I mindfully had a couple of glasses of wine and mindfully enjoyed them. Were you watching me?

Despite my wine creep (Violinist where does that come from) I have lost another quarter of a pound taking me to a total loss of 4lbs in 5 weeks, not very good but still off. BG is steady but not ready to reduce insulin again just yet. The storms have passed and the pool is warming up nicely so hope to have a swim later. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and good luck to England.

Morning Florida Violinist,
My little girl woke up at 7am and started within 5minutes all the nonsense – I want to get dressed downstairs. I DON’T WANT to get dressed downstairs. Stay with me upstairs I don’t want to get dressed at all… – go figure. Then yelled upstairs, woke my husband who barely fell asleep after the unbareable hot night. Then came downstairs whinging how to stop the whinging and whining as she didn’t like herself whinging and whining.
How would you feel with it, V, you’re more experienced mama than I, raising 4? I am one of 4 children myself and the last one. My three older siblings haven’t given my parents the amount of grief combined as I did on my own. I suppose this is a payback and I shouldn’t complain 😜. I had it coming 😉.
Yummymummy2be I just wonder where is the abundance of annoying energy coming from 🤔. I was only glad half hour later she was asleep and slept for 90minutes. That gave me the chance to do something so I started attacking the kitchen cupboards and clearing out. I need to channel the energy that is creeping up on me somewhere and the cupboards seemened a good starting point.
Also we went fruit picking to stuff the freezer for later. Once the football is on itll be less busy in the kitchen for me to carry on with the cupboards.
Have fun, friends.
Skinny to be xx

You are hilarious skinny! I am one of 10 children, bless my 90 year old Mom. You will laugh about that years from now. I said YEars!

Sunshine, I am sure you enjoyed that wine! I thought you made wine creep up, but I do understand it for sure!

Good day, all!

Violinist, I absolutely believe that you will have no difficulty in reaching your goals, if you’re motivated to
do so and really go for a strict version of the BSD. Things like hypothyroidism or steroids can slow one
down, but if you’re willing to down 3 liters of water/day, abstain from alcohol, and drop your carbs to <20g,
and weigh and measure your portions, a loss of a stone in 4 weeks is very doable. My losses were very
average, and in all the time I’ve been on these forums, I’ve seen similar over and over again. Everything
in moderation isn’t a concept I do well with, so it had to be all or nothing, no breaks, no “treats”, no cheats
for me. 🙂 I also hadn’t discovered these boards until I was already in maintenance! You have the great
good fortune to be here at the start of your journey, and there is so much experience here for you to draw
upon. (It seems that I always have to do things the hard way 🙂 ) Just trust in the process, it works!

Thanks Allie! I do have hypothyroidism, but it is maintained with medication so should not be a problem.

Ok, so let me review
Drink 101 ounces of water = 6 bottles x 16.9 Really?
Measure everything – Yup, I do this all the time
Carbs under 20 grams daily – yup
No alcohol – the hardest thing with hubby doing happy hour
Exercise – no problem at all

Violinist, I use the measure of 8oz for a glass of water, so 12 of those is 96 oz., yes! Some people shoot for
8/8oz and do just fine, but I did notice a difference in weight loss when I upped it to 12. You may be just
fine with 2 liters instead of 3, but I’m not at all patient, so went for the brass ring 🙂 It does take some practice,
I admit! Start as early in the day as you can, and try to down it all by 9:00pm, so you keep night time visits
to the bathroom to a minimum. The BSD is very flexible, and it’s quite possible that extreme measures won’t
be necessary for you! Our bodies are all different, and the only one that I’m an expert on is my own, as
insulin resistant as it is! I don’t think that most of us start out a 20g carbs, but discover, by trial and error,
what maximizes our losses. Early on, I was shocked to discover that a few glasses of wine on the weekend
added 1.5lbs to the scale, and the 2 times in 10 months I did this, it took an entire week to get rid of it!
Let us know how you get on!

Thank you so much Allie! I will!

Go for the brass ring, alliecat? Another 5 minutes on wikipedia – this time reading about 19th century carousels! Thank you for the diversion!

Hi, Caron! You DID make me laugh! I have to use google regularly too, to figure out British references, and
especially the slang. Some things translate cross culturally, and some things don’t 🙂 Recently I read about
a trip to the tip, and I had no idea what that meant?! I do enjoy the challenge, though! More and more of
your idioms are creeping into my everyday speech….Recently I remarked to my husband that something he
had done was “bloody brilliant”, and he looked at me like I had recently returned from Mars! He though I
was “speaking in tongues”. Any idea what that refers to??? 🙂 🙂 🙂

Allie

Morning everyone, Sunday is my weigh day and I’m another 2lb down. 13lb lost in four weeks., and very happy about it.

We did the bike ride yesterday, with a group of friends, 12 miles round the lake, all on the flat. It’s wasnt too strenuous on the back of the tandem, I have a feeling my husband does most of the work. But then a friend’s little girl got tired, so she went on the back of the tandem for a bit and I rode her tiny bike with no gears. Now that did make my legs burn!

Violinist – you sound very determined, and with that mindset you can do this. I find water helps a lot, I drink 2.5-3 litres a day.
Skinny – I was impressed with your BSG-friendly response to your stressful morning 👍🏻😄
YM2b – i bet your spin class was a whole lot more strenuous than my gentle cycle.
Allie – that’s really interesting that it can get someone out of CFS
Sunshine – I hope you enjoyed your swim yesterday
Butterlover – great bsl results! 👍🏻
Caronl – yes I had to google the brass ring too. I love the differences in language, it makes it so interesting.

Well done Ellen. How fabulous to have a tandem! I’ve not been on a bike for ages but I think I’ll have to get it out from the garage and have a go. Next two weekends are booked but the next weekend I’m free I think I’ll have a go on one of the cycle paths near here. There’s one that’s on an old railway line so no traffic and fairly level, so that’s the one for me !
Good luck to us all
Black spit that’s for the recipient I think I’ll give that one a go!

Oh Allie, I used the word tip yesterday in my instructions to house sitters as we had one who obviously was putting the garden waste our for binmen (garbage collector). Maybe is should clarify it as we have just had some people from Texas looking after our cats. The tip is a big communal rubbish collection area that accepts all the stuff the binmen wont take. Speaking in tongues – imagine you are at a happy clappy church, like a gospel type and people get very stirred up and excited, they suddenly believe that god has entered their bodies and they start talking what is in effect rubbish (back to the tip). People believe they are speaking lots of different languages and call it speaking in tongues. Not sure if you really wanted to know all that but there you go.

Had a lovely swim last night around 10pm, just nice to cool down. I will be having another in half an hour when my brunch has settled. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Good late morning at 7 am here! Ellem, I am encouraged by your own numbers. I just can’t go back to the docs in 11 weeks without losing the weight I said I would, so here we go! I will be bisiting family in New York this next week, but I always do my own grocery shopping and make my breakfast and lunch. My sister, who I will be staying with, doesn’t cook much or eat at home.

Sunshine, being in Florida, I swim lengths every day for 30-60 minutes from April thru October. I have an exercise room with my elliptical, recumbent bike, and rower, and when it is cool in the morning or November thru March, I walk and bike outside.

Zinny, in America all over they have turned railway lines into walking paths. One is called the rail trail. There are hundreds in Florida!

Ok folks, going for my first coffee. Talk later. By the way, stepped on the scale and am down 2 pounds. Thanks for encouraging me.

Sunshine, in the catholic church here, they still believe that some people who are filled with the holy spirit, speak in tongues. Interesting.

4lb down this morning – at last! I think my body is panicking at the lack of food and desperately trying to keep hold of everything! But it won’t win!! 😂
We’ve been fruit picking this morning and I have been indulging in some raspberries and strawberries – but I think they are some of the better fruits for this WOE is that right? My favourite fruit is grapes – I can literally eat them by the punnet full – so I am having to work hard not to eat them!
Well done ellem 13lb in a month is great!
KOKO everyone!

Oh Violinist, how lovely to be in Florida. Although we are very lucky living in France with summer usually rearing up around late April early May and Autumn not arriving until late September early October. Unfortunately, this year had a very slow start with the temperatures getting anywhere near hot in the last 4 weeks. English are getting pretty much the same there which is quite unusual. At least my family will be used to the heat by the time they come here on holiday in 3 weeks time. We were hoping to visit Florida next year as daughter wants to rent a very large house and go as one big family – any ideas.

Morning Sunshine!
Any realtor on each coast can help you find just the right rental at just the right price. That is how we moved down here from New York. The shores on both sides are gorgeous!

sunshine-girl, how wonderful to have a swim before you turn into bed! It must be so relaxing 🙂 I’ve never
witnessed the speaking in tongues…although I’ve heard of it. There is also some practice with handling
snakes too, but that is beyond the pale for me !
Elle, 13lbs in 4 weeks is marvelous! Carry On 🙂
YM2be, welcome to the “whoosh effect” Isn’t it wonderful???
Have a beautiful sunday, everyone! Shall we continue on with another weekly challenge?

Yes!

Oh SG, I read earlier today on some thread (?) that you were advising against pink himalayan sea salt? I’ve
been using it for the trace elements, so I’m curious to know why it isn’t a good choice. It certainly is pricey!

Hi allie, if it is the genuine thing then it is okay, just that some is just salt dyed pink. Always check the label as there are some people trying to make money off the back of something that is good. You say about the trace elements, funnily enough processed salts has all the trace elements washed out, what a waste. I use a French salt called Fleur de sel Geurande, it is a weird shade of grey but you only need a tiny bit to get a big taste hit.

Oh and yes to another challenge. I am enjoying my 2 courses very much, especially the Food as Medicine course. It talks a lot of sense.

Fleur de sel is gorgeous, S-G! So much flavor! I’m glad that you are enjoying your courses. Food as Medicine
sounds great. Over time, I’ve come to think of all food in terms of it’s nutrient density, too, rather than whether
or not I “fancy it”, as you might say 🙂 I’m glad to get a new thread started tomorrow. Very happy that you will
be participating. I still have a little work to do to reverse “sundried tomato-gate”!

Good morning all,
Last day of the week before the weigh in. Hope you had a lovely weekend and are looking forward to the glorious warm/hot week ahead of us.
Wishing you all the best and if you fancy an additional challenge for next few weeks please join us also on ‘The BIG chase to 150lb’.
Weigh in day tomorrow and we aim to go all the way to 1st September to see who can get or how many of us can get there.
Lots of love,
Skinny to be
xx

Re: the salt issue – I use Celtic Sea Salt which is a rather horrible shade of grey. I used some of my daughter’s low sodium salt stuff and was shocked at how salty it tasted. When I looked at the labels the Celtic salt was actually lower in sodium than the low sodium salt – which was very interesting.

Morning, everyone! I’ll have the new challenge up by the end of the day 🙂
That IS interesting, Krysia! There are so many “finishing” salts available today…I know that Celtic Sea Salt is
a very good one. I remember that Esnecca used one that was smoked, but I keep forgetting to look for it!
I must have it bookmarked, if only I could find it 🙂 Was it maldone? I mostly use pink himalayan sea salt.
I never use iodized table salt anymore..it tastes wretched to me now…

I like Halen Mon. It’s a small Welsh company, who harvest by hand, rather than using machinery.
https://www.halenmon.com/about-us/