Margaret, please don’t get too disheartened and for now just do what you can. For many it’s a really difficult time of year on the food front, but if you can just try to make the best choice you can at each meal, it’s good enough. Think there will be many of us looking to refocus and start afresh in the new year, so you’ll certainly not be alone.

Yes SG, I can certainly set up the thread for January and if anyone has a suggestion for it’s title, please let me know. Hope you have a wonderful time with your family.

Thank you SunnyB & I will make a Keto soup of prawns leeks & courgettes for lunch today then my husband & I will play bowls.😀
A new thread in January would be very helpful!! Thank you 👍⭐️
Margaret xx

Today is beginning of my third week. The second week was tougher than the first. I felt irritable at times. I attended a big holiday party for my husband’s work where they had incredible charcuterie platters as well as brisket and barbecued turkey. Although I only ate meat and cheese the increased calories threw the scale off for a few days, but it was fine. I’m still figuring out the right balance and amount to eat. I weigh everything and log it in the fatsecret app. My sleep is a bit odd—I’m waking up very early. I have a flexible schedule and often have trouble sleeping, so I generally get my deepest sleep in the mornings. Today I woke up at five for no reason whatsoever. A couple of good things—have not had a migraine since I started and have had more sustained consistent energy. I got a lot done this week. Lots of visitors coming for Christmas so it will be interesting seeing how this goes amidst a holiday crowd. Hope everyone here has some good times and safe travels during the festive season.

Very well done Sleekly you are doing brilliantly 👏👏
Margaret xx

Hi everyone, had a bit of a strange day. Went to the opthamologist appt with all my results and she didn’t know why I was there. It was a different girl from the one I saw before. She looked at my notes and said it was because I suffer from arterial blockage and cardiac insufficiency. Anyway after putting her straight it has been decided I dont have glaucoma and can stop using the drops. However, if I stop using the drops she wants to see me in 3 months and I have to have another field of vision test first. I think it is because it is a hospital opthamologist and she thought I had been referred because of the blockage in my carotid artery. Very difficult to explain it is not athersclerosis (or furred up arteries) and that the carotid problem was a freak of nature and a one off. Anyway, I will go back in 3 months to check if the glaucoma I dont have has returned ???????? I guess that is good news.

I have definitely decided to stop using my cleaner after she has caused us some problems today. We have a brand new oven and hob and also a new kitchen tap which she seems to have taken a scouring pad to and scratched the hell out of the hob and tap. Anyone know how to get rid of scratches on brushed stainless steel. Then I went into the bathroom where I put stuff in a washing up bowl to get it out of her way like my face creams, toothbrush holder etc. Just been to have a show and noticed the charger for the electric toothbrush is in the bowl in half an inch of water. I think I have also said she crashes about with the vaccuum cleaner and it is new and has a plastic front with lights to show up the dust and I am afraid of her breaking it.

Well thats that. Just got to get my hair done tomorrow and we are ready to go. Now just hoping our sitter doesn’t let us down.

Feeling wobbly today! Need some positivity. Back in early November I had a routine blood test and came back with an Hb1Ac of 89, quite shocked as no symptoms. Discussed with Dr as felt it. Would be an anomaly. Ordered the BSD books the same day, started the BSD 800 the next day. 5 weeks in and I have lost 5.7 kgs, weighing, tracking calories etc. repeat blood test last week, hoping I’d done enough to avoid meds. Saw Dr this morning and Hb1Ac now 70, so down but not enough. He’s prescribed Metformin a low dose to start as I am on BSD. He was happy I had taken steps on my own to reduce weight and he was positive, but I feel deflated with the diagnosis. Need to plough on, I won’t let this get the better of me and will try to reverse it. The only piece of the puzzle missing is exercise due to a recent back injury, so can’t wait to get more mobile again. Its weird because it’s the best I’ve felt in a long time!! Love reading the inspiring stories here. Happy Christmas all.

Hi Aqualady
I’m sure someone very knowledgeable on all things HbA1c will be along soon, but for what it’s worth I just wanted to say I think your progress is phenomenal. To make that shift in diet alone in 5 weeks is fabulous.
I also spotted old posts on this forum a user called Frog who back in 2016 went from highs of 116, and after 13 weeks on BSD got their levels to 38. They were also prescribed metformin for a while but managed to come off it. You may be able to search for their posts on here.
My point is though that I am sure it is possible, and I hope it offers you hope. It really does sound to me that if anyone can do it then you can – especially with such a fabulous start.

Hi everyone, well I am having another bad day but before that I would like to speak to Aqualady.

First you are lucky your doctor recognises that your BG WILL go down and has not insisted you go high on the meds. As it starts to work I think he will take you off the Metformin. When I was first diagnosed my HbA1c was 14.2% or 129 at the rate you are measuring. I was put on Metformin, Glycazide and another and it did nothing. I knew nothing about diabetic diets except the rubbish the doctors used to spout (and some still do). Told to eat carbs at every meal so my BG wouldn’t drop too low. Yet, they wanted it lowered. This went on for years until I found this diet. The day I started I was having readings of around 190 – doesn’t matter that it is in decilitres – just know it is twice what it should be at around 80 to 120. By this time I was injecting insulin because the oral meds went straight through me and was injecting 40 units a day. After a week on the diet I was down to about 135 but I cant remember what my official HbA1c was, just know it went down and down. You might want to read excerpts from my blog – type in the search engine at the top of the page 5 Years of BSD – A Blog of Memories. I outlines what my fear were. I didnt lose as much weight as you as insulin makes you store glucose as fat. But I was 79kgs then and 71kgs now.

The measurements I used were my daily at home blood tests so are quite different from the 3 monthly blood test done and tested in the laboratory. I think my first one after starting the diet was around 80 – so like you still too high. I now run at around 5.8 to 6.2. I am still on insulin but a much lower amount at 14 or 15 units.

Just be reassured that real results only show in your HbA1c and that shows the state of your BG over a 3 month period (blood cells replace themselves about ever 12 weeks). You have made a great start and I am sure it will be even lower in 3 months. As you are newly diagnosed i.e. under 2 years, you have every chance to get rid of the diagnosis completely. Stick with it.

Hope that helps.

Aqualady, please don’t be downhearted, you have made an excellent start and whilst your Dr might have stepped in more hastily than you’d have liked, he also spoke positively, so try to hold on to that.

I have no doubt that if you continue as you have been, your blood results will improve and you will be able to come off metformine. Don’t panic about the exercise, give yourself time to recover first and then take things gently.

Just read my blog and found my results. Started BSD on 8.1 and at the end of about 8 weeks down to 6.6. And I think I lost about 13lbs.

Well here is my bad day news. Woke up at 5am and couldn’t get back to sleep so I got out of bed at 6 and put the TV on. Noticed I had a message on the Housesitter site. Sitter cannot get a flight due to so many cancellations (from the USA). I think I had a premonition or maybe I just always worry about something going wrong. Final outcome is that a neighbour is going to come and feed the babies so at least we can go. Toby cat is dying and we wanted someone who would be with him a lot of the time but neighbour is a nice man and used to old animals. I could really do with a drink!!!!! Still, been to the hairdresser and my hair looks nice 🙂

Oh dear! S-g life throws all sorts of curved balls but at least you can still go. I think we may be ‘brothers from a different mother’! We also had a Toby who was unfortunately knocked over by a car but he had made the cat in the corner house pregnant so we got his daughter Sammy. Sammy got pregnant and we ended up with her son Blackie who was completely black apart from one white smidge on one of his eyes. They both lived to the ripe old ages of 17 & 19! Always sad when you lose a pet but we still have the memories. Also, I had my hair done today! Just go away and enjoy!

Aqualady just pat yourself on the back! You are doing really well. I lost around 6.5 kg in my first 8 weeks so don’t be disappointed.

I had been diagnosed for five years and had been on the highest dose of metformin for quite a while when I discovered the BSD. My HbA1c was never really high probably around 7 and with metformin it came down to 6.2ish. Metformin only lowers your BS by around 10%.

Anyway after I started here in mid 2016 my BS came down into the 5’s after 3 months. Because this was all relatively new then, my metformin dose was lowered over a period of about 6 months and then I became drug free and have stayed like that ever since.

This way of eating does work. Although weight loss is important, weight loss per se doesn’t keep T2 in remission. Low carb is the real secret. I don’t count anymore but I’d think a guideline would be 50-100g of carbs per day once you are in remission. But then each body differs and you have to work out your own threshold. That’s not to say you can never have a roast potato or a chocolate mousse or a piece of toast ever again, of course you can but just not altogether in the same meal or three times a day!

Five weeks of low carb isn’t long enough to bring your HbA1c down to its new ‘low carb’ level. As sunshine-girl says the red blood cells only renew every 8-12 weeks so your next test should show much better results. Quoting sunshine-girl again, just keep on keeping on …..

Thank you so much, Margaret!

Aqualady, it sounds like you’re doing GREAT. I’m sorry you had to start on the Metformin but your results are still really good! If you keep going you’ll get there!

S-G I’m glad you can still go on your trip!

I hope you have a wonderful time away S-G !!
Margaret xx