I’ve been lurking all week but waited for my first weigh in before starting a thread as I wanted to see if the BSD was going to work for me!

I think it does as I lost 9.2 lbs 😀

I’m female, 31, start weight 12st 13.8lbs and aiming for a loss of 33lbs (a lot, I know but who said we can’t aim high?! Plus MM advocates it in the book 😊) I would be happy to see a 2st loss though.
Start BMI of 29.5 (only just in the overweight category, so almost obese) and my waist measured 36” 😱 I’m aiming for a 28” waist but would be more than happy with 29/30” in reality.

I go away to Cyprus at the very end of the 8 weeks and this is the biggest I have been in a very very long time so I have to do something about it. I was less than 12st straight after giving birth to my 3rd child almost 4 years ago! I got comfortable in a new relationship, I’ve been experiencing a lot of stress at work and more or less stopped exercising, hence I have put almost 2st on in a year.

I have done 5:2 in the past, but not med-style eating, with great success however I was a lot lighter to begin with and my waist a lot smaller so I’ve decided to give the BSD a go.

I’m thinking of this as my little project, my new hobby, and I have the added motivation of my upcoming holiday. Also, I have PCOS which I think plays a part in my apple shape and I want to get my waist to a healthy size so I can be confident that I don’t have too much visceral fat. I am not on anti-depressants but I do suffer from low moods and this is almost certainly linked to my eating habits, when I’m eating rubbish I feel rubbish! I want to feel good and able to take on anything! I also want my skin to look better, I did 7 weeks of no sugar at the end of 2016 and my skin looked really good.

I’m going to try to update this diary daily with my food for the day and approximate calories. I track on MFP. I will put the total amount of carbs where they are available (which is not always as I’ll ‘quick add’ the calories on MFP when cooking a chilli for example after I’ve calculated the calories for the whole dish and divided into portions, and I always round the number). I didn’t consider how many carbs I should aim for until about Wednesday when I read 50g is a good number so I’m going for that for now.

Week 1 stats:
Weight – 12st 4.6 (loss of 9.2lbs so 23.8 to go)
Waist – 34” (loss of 2” so 6 to go)

I have exercised on 6 of the 7 days although it will be 5 days a week going forward. I intended on doing Insanity max 30 but I tried it on day 2 and it was just too much on so little calories so I’m going to do Joe Wicks first dvd which is 7 progressively harder levels of HIIT and I will do each level 5 times. I completed level 1 in week 1. I’m not sure if it will have enough resistance training in it to build muscle but I will see how I go for a few weeks.

I tried to stick to the 800 calories but it was often near 900. I split my calories over 2 meals at 12pm and 8pm so get some good periods of fasting in. I have drank 4 litres of water a day plus 3 black coffees with no sugar or sweeteners.

I have also been taking a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar mixed with water before each meal as I’ve read it’s good for belly fat and I have loads so it’s worth a try! I also find it suppressed my appetite a bit so I’ll carry on with that for now!

I’m taking a multi vitamin every day along with calcium and vitamin D and CLA capsules, again for belly fat (can you tell I have a lot of belly fat). The CLA will be used up within a couple of weeks and if I don’t think it’s made a big difference I won’t bother buying it again.

I’ll list my food, water and exercise and note how I felt on each day below for the whole first week, then I’ll do a separate entry for day 1 of week 2 either tonight or tomorrow morning. Thank you if anyone has read this far, I can’t wait to get to know you all and get slimmer and healthier soon!

Week 1 day 1
Lunch – Nothing
Dinner – Huge portion of chilli with no rice
Water – 4 litres
Exercise – None
Calories – 600
Carbs – Unknown

This was leftovers from the freezer day! I was actually going to do the 5:2 plan again but read up more on the BSD that evening and decided to give that a go instead. I can’t be sure if calories but it was 5% fat mince and lost of veg so I’m pretty sure it was not over 600.

Week 1 day 2
Lunch – Scrambled eggs, spring onions and ham followed by full fat natural yoghurt with sunflower seeds and almonds
Dinner – Peri Peri Chicken with roast peppers, red onions and carrots
Water – 3 litres
Exercise – Insanity Max 30
Calories – 812
Carbs – 57g

You can see that my carbs are over 50g here but I wasn’t aware I should be keeping them around that mark.
I did a food shop at Tesco, winging it, bought the BSD book and recipe book and read both cover to cover that evening.
As I said above I did the insanity work out and I somehow managed it but I felt sick afterwards, it pushes me too hard for such little calories and I’ll dread doing the workouts which means that I won’t do them. I opted to continue with the Joe Wicks one instead which starts at 15 minute HIIT sessions.

Week 1 day 3
Lunch – Peri Peri Chicken, spinach, watercress and rocket salad, Tesco spiced tomato quinoa
Dinner – Chicken pasta sauce with Oomi noodles
Water – 4 litres
Exercise – Joe Wicks level 1 day 1
Calories – 853
Carbs – 37g without counting my chicken and sauce with dinner (chicken, chopped toms, veg and spices)

Oh my…I discovered Oomi noodles from the fresh stir fry section in Tesco! They have 201 calories, 11g of fat, 6.1g of carbs (you can google them for the full nutritional info). They are made from fish protein and felt just like real egg noodles. I’m going to have these once a week as they are quite expensive at £2.50 for 2 servings!
I enjoyed my workout and felt good after it as opposed to sick. I think I was feeling really good this day, no cravings or anything.

Week 1 day 4
Lunch – Scrambled eggs with ham, mushrooms, spring onions and cheese
Dinner – Chicken curry with roasted carrots
Water – 3 litres
Exercise – Joe Wicks level 1 day 2
Calories – 833
Carbs – Unknown due to curry but must have been low as it’s only at 2g without the curry taken into account

I was still feeling quite good here but really missed rice and wraps with my curry so ordered some chickpea flour from Amazon for future wraps, and read about cauliflower rice.

Week 1 day 5
Lunch – Peri Peri Chicken, spinach, watercress and rocket salad, Tesco spiced tomato quinoa
Dinner – Young’s Florentine fish with roasted cauliflower and broccoli followed by full fat natural yoghurt with chia seeds and almonds
Water – 3.5 litres
Exercise – Joe Wicks level 1 day 3
Calories – 837
Carbs – 50g on the dot!

The fish was delicious with a very cheesy sauce which complemented the roast vegetables beautifully and only 183 calories and 3.6g of carbs.

Week 1 day 6
Lunch – The other half of the Young’s Florentine fish with roasted cauliflower and broccoli followed by full fat natural yoghurt with sunflower seeds and almonds
Dinner – Chilli with cauliflower rice and a little cheese
Water – 4 litres
Exercise – Joe Wicks level 1 day 4
Calories – 863
Carbs – 20g without taking into account my chilli so hopefully below 50g in total

I seriously struggled today. I had massive sugar and carb cravings. I was so close to burying my face into one of the kids Easter eggs, I think I did a little cry at one point. I had a glass of water with the apply cider vinegar and then had a hot bath followed by coffee then I did my workout and the cravings went! I had a good 4-5 hours of them before that though! I stayed in the house all day which didn’t help. I decided to weigh in on Sunday morning to give me some motivation because I was scared I’d crack and scoff loads the following day with it being Easter.

Week 1 day 7
Lunch – Peri Peri Chicken, spinach, watercress and rocket salad, Tesco spiced tomato quinoa
Dinner – Peri peri chicken with avocado and roasted peppers with a little garlic mayonnaise in an egg wrap
Water – 4.5 litres
Exercise – Joe Wicks level 1 day 5
Calories – 845
Carbs – 47g

Dinner on Sunday night was delicious! I made a very thin egg omelette and used it as a wrap! I ate it with a knife and fork and it honestly filled me up well. I drank extra water because of the cravings the day before but I didn’t have much temptation because I had jumped on the scales and discovered that I had lost 7.8 in 6 days! I was pee’ing loads yesterday and last night which would explain the additional 1.4lbs lost by this morning taking me to 9.2lbs total lost in the week.

My goals for week 2 are:
Keep up the exercise and complete 5 days of level 2 of the Joe Wicks dvd
Carry on drinking 3-4 litres of water and no more than 3 coffees, and the apple cider vinegar
Carry on eating 2 meals at 12pm and 8pm where possible
Stick to as close to 800 calories and 50g of carbs as possible
Have a go at the mindfulness exercises

I am aiming high and would love another inch off my waist and 5.8lbs lost. I have no social things coming up so won’t be drinking or tempted by food however I am working down south on Sunday and will have PMT so we’ll see. I’m going to try my best 😊

I think I will weigh daily to prevent what happened on a Saturday. If I feel like my mood is affected if my weight is erratic then I’ll go back to weekly. It’s all a bit experimental 😂

I hope everyone has an excellent week!

Well done on an excellent first week! I’m on holiday in Cornwall at the moment but plan to start this diet on 9th April. I want to lose 2 stones so look forward to sharing our journeys:-) good luck for the coming week

Thank you DebOFlo…I am off to St Ives in August! Hope you are having a lovely time and yes, I’ll enjoy reading about your progress.

We’re in a lovely cottage near Bodmin but the weather hasn’t been great which means lots of relaxing indoors but too much drinking and snacking! Actually looking forward to the 9th and getting back in control!

Anywhere away from work is a great holiday to me whatever the weather! 😂
Enjoy the rest of the week, I will look out for your progress thread if you are starting one.

Welcome both! An excellent start Avocado2 and it’s great to make yourself accountable by posting progress and results. Could I recommend that you both join the four week challenges? The current on has ‘April Fool’ in the title and even though it’s part way through, I know you would still be welcome. These challenges are populated by people at differing stages along the BSD journey and they have a mine of advice and knowledge to share. They will also applaud good results and celebrate with you, or commiserate and support when things don’t go so well. It was definitely sharing in these challenges that got me to my end goal. Best of luck to you both for achieving your goals.

Thank you sunnyB I might pop over to the other thread today.

Week 2 Day 1
Lunch – Peri peri chicken with roast peppers and avocado in an egg wrap with a little garlic mayonnaise
Dinner – Chicken curry and cauliflower rice
Supper – Almonds and cheddar cheese
Water – 3 litres
Exercise – None
Calories – Unknown
Carbs – Unknown

Yesterday went so well even with it being bank holiday Monday. No cravings for chocolate. I enjoyed my lunch so much. I took the kids to the aquarium and museum and saw some family.
However I can to making my dinner and after warming the curry in the microwave I realisednisld frozen it without cooking peppers and mushrooms so it was literally chicken, onion and sauce. My portion looked tiny without the veg to bulk it out but I was too hungry to wait! I was on 834 calories.
Anyway I got into bed and after an hour I still couldn’t sleep, I was desperate to put a pizza in the oven or make some toast and have some Easter egg! I told myself I can have them if I try some fat first so I had a handful of almonds and some chunks of strong cheddar cheese. It still didn’t help me to sleep 😩 so I went down for another helping of almonds and cheese and a small glass of water and it finally worked!
I woke up this morning and I was so glad that I didn’t eat junk even if I did go over on calories and probably carbs.
I weighed in this morning and had lost another pound too which I wasn’t expecting following no exercise yesterday and the extra food, so that was a nice surprise.
Today I’m going to plan my meals for the rest of the week and have a declutter downstairs, then maybe go for a walk with the kids later on.

Week 2 Day 2
Lunch – Scrambled eggs on asparagus with spring onions, ham and cheese
Dinner – Chicken curry and cauliflower rice
Water – 4 litres
Exercise – Joe Wicks level 2 day 1
Calories – 742
Carbs – 31

I counted the carbs in the curry so my carbs for yesterday are accurate I think. I was under my daily calories and not that hungry to be honest which was nice. I went for a walk with the kids and started level 2 of my dvd which was quite a step up from level 1 but I loved it.
I jumped on the scales this morning and my weight had stayed the same but I was a big bunged up.
I’ve looked over my food diary for today and I’m at 57g carbs and just over 1000 calories so there may be a gain tomorrow which I need to be prepared for. I’ve tried to jiggle things about but I’m low on food right now so haven’t been able to. I will make up for it tomorrow though.

Avocado, your lunch post from yesteray has inspired me. The scambled eggs on asparagus sounds wonderful. Googled it and saw a variation with some Borsin cheese in the eggs, which is perfect as I have some in the frig I need to use before it goes bad. What a wonderful easy lunch idea.

I bet it would also be good with just sauteed leeks in the eggs and maybe a pinch of turmeric for the color and the antioxidants.

Thanks!

It was really nice luvtcook, I roasted the asparagus to intensify the flavour. I’m having it again tomorrow, or for dinner this evening to try and lower today’s calories and carbs, I’ll see how I feel! I’m glad I inspired you!

Thank you, too, Avocado! Fresh local asparagus is just coming into season for us in the States, and we more or less
overdose on it during the short season. You tweaked my memory for roasting it, a great technique, so I’m happy
to be reminded….I’ll have to delve into my memory, and see what else might be suitable to post on the “Good Eats”
thread. True harbinger of Spring! Boursin, ymm 🙂

Allie

You’re welcome Allie, I will look out for that thread!

Week 2 Day 3
Lunch – Chicken curry and cauliflower rice
Dinner – Scrambled eggs on asparagus with ham, cheese and spring onions
Water – 4.5 litres
Exercise – Joe Wicks level 2 day 2
Cals – I think around 950 – 1000
Carbs – Hopefully below 50!

I changed dinner this evening and will have spaghetti bolognaise tomorrow instead. In any event I got stressed after my first day back at work in a week, and coming home to a messy house so gobbled some almonds and cheese. Quite mindlessly but at least it was BSD friendly and I don’t think I’ve gone over on carbs because it was at 31g without the almonds and cheese. It’s just a shame I went over on calories but it’s bettet than writing the day off and eating whatever I wanted, which is what I really wanted to do, but I did my dvd instead.
I’m off to bed soon and hope tomorrow is a better day 😊

Week 2 Day 4
Lunch – Peri peri chicken and almonds
Dinner – Bolognaise and Oomi noodles
Water – 2 litres
Exercise – None
Cals – 948 (see below)
Carbs – 39

I think I have been mis-sold lean minced beef, the bolognaise I’ve just had was not nice but I ate it because I was starving, it just felt fattier so I’m growing the other portion in the bin. I therefore think my calories, which were already over the 800, are more than 948. I hope I don’t see a gain tomorrow because of this ☹️
I’ve also only drank 2 litres of water today because I went on a hike with the kids and just sipped at a bottle because I really didn’t want to have to go to the toilet out in the hills.
I feel a bit sluggish and bunged up, I definitely need to up my water lots tomorrow and take what May on the scales in the morning.
On the plus side the hike was good exercise and I did my grocery shop around 2 shops which was a work out in itself too 😂

I forgot to add, I lost another 0.8lbs this morning 😊

Week 2 Day 5
Lunch – spinach and rocket with peri peri chicken and Tesco spicy quinoa
Dinner – Asparagus with scrambled eggs, cheese and ham
Water – 5 litres
Exercise – Joe Wicks level 2 day 3
Calories – 724
Carbs – 34g
Bit of a boring day food wise today but I do enjoy these meals and I know they are well within my carbs and calories. I had a small gain this morning of 0.4lbs which could be due to the mince last night which really bloated me, or the lack of water, or it could be due to PMT as my period is due Monday. If I’ve not lost anything tomorrow, or even gained after such a good day today then it is definitely hormone related. Even if I stick to the BSD 100% I might not see any steady movements down for another week ☹️ At least I would know why though.
I’ve had quite a rough day at work today and got home and did not feel like exercising or cooking healthy food. I made myself get my workout clothes on and came and sat on the sofa. I promised myself that if I did the warm up I could stop and eat as much crap as I wanted. Well guess what… I finished the entire workout and the urge to binge disappeared 😊 I’m very proud of myself for that.
Off to bed soon ready for a new day tomorrow!

Week 2 Day 6
Lunch – Asparagus and scrambled eggs with spring onions, mushrooms, ham and cheese
Dinner – Spinach and rocket with Tesco spiced quinoa and peri peri chicken, a spoon of coleslaw
Water – 5 litres
Exercise – Joe Wicks level 2 day 4
Calories – 791
Carbs – 36

Today has been a good day, got lots of decluttering done at home and all the beds changed along with some other cleaning.
I have not had too many cravings despite all of the Easter chocolate lingering on.
I’ve planned all of my meals for the next week and made some peri peri chicken and cauliflower rice which is all in tubs and prepped for the week.
I’m on the road for work tomorrow so have packed a chicken salad and will take some yoghurt and nuts/seeds. I have a meal messy to bung in the microwave when I’m home (leftover chilli which I had frozen). I just hope I had enough energy to do my workout when I get back or I won’t have managed my 5 workouts this week. Fingers crossed. If I’ve got the energy that I’ve had today then I should be able to!
I got on the scales this morning and had lost 0.8lbs so that’s 11.2lbs in total now over 10 days. I would absolutely love to reach a stone lost by Monday morning but we’ll see! I’m still feeling a bit bloated but I’m staying positive and tomorrow’s weigh in will tell a lot.
My Ketostix came today and I could see that I was in moderate ketosis 😊
Hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday evening 😊

Week 2 Day 7
Lunch – Yoghurt, seeds and nuts, peri peri chicken, salad, spring onions, peppers and coleslaw
Dinner – Chilli and cauliflower rice with cheese
Water – 3.5 litres
Exercise – Joe Wicks level 2 day 5
Calories – Around 1000 approx
Carbs – Unknown

Today has been a good day despite the numbers above. I have completely guessed my calories for the freezer chilli but I would guess I’m at 1000-ish. I have no idea about carbs but the ketostix in the morning will let me know if I’ve had too many. It was quite dark this morning so I was definitely in ketosis then. It will be interesting to see.
I was disappointed to see that I’d gained half a pound this morning but I knew I hadn’t eaten enough to gain that so it must be water retention.
I’m going to weigh in tomorrow but will take some measurements and pictures and compare them to my start date 2 weeks ago and hopefully that will show a nice change even if I have a disappointing weigh in!
I am loving this cauliflower rice, it’s just fantastic and much quicker than cooking brown rice!
Here’s ready for a new week!