You have all seemed to forget my song:

Tubthumping by Chumbawamba –
I get knocked down, but I get up again
You are never gonna keep me down. Keep on keeping on…. singing and dancing.

Well here I am back in France folks ! What a welcome 😉 I took 3 flights from Cairns to Paris without incident ,even with an impending cyclone which was dodged , arrived back in Paris after the last 14 hour flight to queue up for nearly 2 hours at passport control at Charles de Gaulle !!!!! Only 2 counters open for the masses of people arriving .One poor elderly chap had a ‘malaise’ in the queue .

Anyway I got my official taxi from the airport, bypassing the shady characters lurking ,waiting to pounce on unsuspecting tourists offering “taxis” to finally settle . I am staying with my younger son and his partner, .It’s lovely to see them and to readjust gently .

Then I got an email informing me my train back to the SW on Saturday had been cancellled !! I could rebook for Sunday but my seat could not be guaranteed . Sounds like I would have been in the bike shed .Soooo I have (fingers crossed) booked for Monday morning .Fortunately my son is able to accompany me to lift my heavy case onto the train ..phew

Bienvenue en France !!! I do hope they get their act together in time for the Olympic Games !

Leaving my beautiful grandson was difficult and emotional but I have the summer to look forward to and in the meantime I have to be content with photos and video calls .

I am not really feeling the festive season yet .I think I just need to have a quiet time with hubby who understood I needed more time with my first grandchild and has been patiently waiting for my return . I will probably amble gently up to the end of this year and then get my act together big time from January .

SG, sorry to hear about your ongoing symptims and even though health care is very good in France you do have to be persistent at times .You are a strong woman, don’t be daunted by the language barrier .Yes it’s technical stuff but you can prepare , write down the terms you need for your appointment and all your questions .I will gladly help if you want to check anything with me .

Just a thought too …I communicate with Ukrainian friends via the Google Translate app on my phone .You can either type in what you want to say or speak into the microphone option .It has always worked well .The important thing is to insist, get your message across so you feel heard . Let us know how you get on .

I have a weekend in Paris ! I am going to a Christmas market with plants this midday and no doubt lots of walking to find my favourite Australian cafés for decent coffee 😉

Take care everyone .Be careful of putting too much pressure on yourselves. Ok there will be a few excesses but we do have to enjoy life . Health before anything .

Wendy xx

Welcome back Wendy & have a lovely time in Paris seeing your son & recovering from such a long flight & Happy Christmas! I’m very pleased that in May my husband & I with a couple of friends, that we previously went on holiday with in New Zealand & Australia a few years ago, are booked with us on a Seine river cruise that we are all looking forward to. I might even be able to use some of the French that I am busy trying to learn on DuoLingo which is an American site with a few word & grammar differences but very well set up.
S-g a thought just occurred to me that I don’t know if it does apply to you but some of your symptoms sound like Long Covid? if you have had that? apparently even a mild case can result in Long Covid. Anyway I have fingers crossed for you on Monday.
With seasons greetings & very best wishes to everyone
Margaret xx

Hi everyone, I am feeling quite chuffed with myself as I have held strong and still sticking with the plan. Weight loss so far is 6.75lb so hoping for 7lbs by Monday. I know I said 10lbs at the start of this but to lose half a stone in 10 weeks for someone who is constantly on a diet so my body doesn’t see much difference when I go strict, is quite good going.

Today I missed breakfast so had a 17 hour TRE window with lunch of no carb ploughmans. Hubby is cooking tonight and he is doing a savoury mince which will be mince, onions, carrots, canned tomatoes and gravy, so nothing to worry about. I might need a snack later this afternoon but I have half a chicken in the fridge that needs eating before we go away.

Wendy, great you are back in France and with family. Not long now and you will be with your lovely hubby. I have come up with a few phrases which I will put here as easier to type than on Whatapp. Hope others don’t mind or you can ignore from now.

il n’y a eu aucune amélioration de ma santé – I have seen no improvement in my health
j’ai les mêmes symptômes qu’avant – I have the same symptoms as before
Cela n’a rien à voir avec ma respiration, je n’ai ni énergie, ni endurance, et je suis tout le temps totalement épuisé. – It is nothing to do with my breathing, I have no energy, no stamina and I am totally exhausted all of the time.
Parfois, je ne peux pas m’habiller, prendre une douche ou me coiffer sans me reposer -sometimes I cant get dressed, take a shower or brush my hair without having to rest.
Parfois, je suis tellement épuisé que je vomis. – sometimes I am so exhausted I vomit.
C’est tous les jours, toute la journée, pas d’essoufflement. – this is every day all day, not just bouts of breathlessness.
J’ai l’impression d’avoir vieilli de 10 ans au cours des 2 dernières années. – I feel as though I have aged 10 years in the last 2 years.

Is there anything I should change, cut out or add that you can think of. Shame I no longer have Excel where I could copy this and print so I am just going to have to write it all out. Obviously there are lots of words I know and can manage, it is getting across that asthma shouldn’t be like this. She will put me in a chamber and test my lung capacity so she will see if it is better than last time or not. Sorry to be a nuisance.

Going to sign off now and sit and write this all out. Have a great weekend and keeeeeeep dancing.

Managed to block and copy and print it off.

SG …here you go
(Apologies to everyone)

Il n’y a eu aucune amélioration de ma santé – I have seen no improvement in my health
This is fine

j’ai les mêmes symptômes qu’avant – I have the same symptoms as before…ok

Cela n’a rien à voir avec ma respiration, je n’ai ni énergie, ni endurance, et je suis tout le temps totalement épuisé. – It is nothing to do with my breathing, I have no energy, no stamina and I am totally exhausted all of the time

This is ok too

Parfois, je ne peux pas m’habiller, prendre une douche ou me coiffer sans DEVOIR me reposer -sometimes I cant get dressed, take a shower or brush my hair without having to rest

Extra word added to express “having to”

Parfois, je suis tellement épuisé que je vomis. – sometimes I am so exhausted I vomit.
Ok

C’est tous les jours, toute la journée, pas SEULEMENT DES PERIODES d’essoufflement. – this is every day all day, not just bouts of breathlessness.
Extra words here

J’ai l’impression d’avoir vieilli de 10 ans au cours des 2 dernières années. – I feel as though I have aged 10 years in the last 2 years.
This is ok

All the best SG. Did this sitting at a café in central Paris with my son. Don’t hesitate if you need any more help xx

Fingers crossed for you on Monday s-g & actually reading more French is enjoyable for me & good practice now & I am impressed by yours & Wendys fluency.
I weighed this morning & have lost the two pounds I gained a couple of weeks ago so so far staying at my two stone lost point. However a couple of nights spent in London from Monday staying with our son, daughter in law & granddaughters eating more carby food will change that so I will try & fast when we get back until Christmas Eve when we are going with our youngest son to dinner in our local Inn. My energy will be reserved for getting back on track after Boxing Day & then charging into the new year to try to finally get to my goal weight!!
Very well done s-g on your continued weight loss👏👏
Good luck everyone 🍀🍀
Margaret xx

Welcome back Wendy!
Yes very difficult leaving family especially when it’s so far away. But you have had two very precious months with your family, now you’re with your other son and soon will be ‘home’ again. Parting is such sweet sorrow and not long now until next summer!

Well done Margaret in losing the 2lbs again.

S-g keeping on keeping on …….. is paying off! Hope all goes well, on Monday.

Nothing much to report here. I must have applied to become a member of Insulin IQ because I got an email today saying ‘come and join us’, so I did! I’ve started reading the site and whilst I’m not really learning anything new I do like Ben Bickman and I’m being ‘reminded’ of exactly how I came to be here in the first place! Very interesting.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Thanks Wendy, I have written it out and will just hand it to her. Job done, then she can ask me any questions which I am sure I will be able to understand and answer.

Glad you are enjoying the French Margaret.

Hi all, well still at 6.75lbs and going to give up for now. I have been dashing round getting ready for our sitters, cooking them a meal, cleaning and making up their room, packing etc. Then I have doctors tomorrow plus hubby has invited a builder to come and look at out office ceiling which is not falling down, just a bit of black mould so why it needs to be tomorrow afternoon I don’t know.

Anyway, I am going to have a vodka and tonic and relax this evening. Although I know I will be jumping up and down all evening as I remember things to go in the case or little jobs not yet done so it won’t be much of a relax.

This is probably my last post until we get back on 31st December so I will wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year. Lots of love and hugs to you all.

Good luck tomorrow & have a wonderful holiday s-g & Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year.
Love Margaret xx

Hope tomorrow goes well and you get some answers, SG. Best wishes to you too, for a wonderful festive season, hope you have some lovely family time. We’ll all be here in the new year, to take control and tackle our excesses, meanwhile relax and enjoy.

Hi all, RubyG and hubby still here (well, I am still lurking).
Hubby had his blood tests last week, not got the results yet but hoping they’re still acceptable. 3 years on and his BP is still good, we’re eating low carb at home and occasionally will wander off the path if we go out for a meal, which is not more than once a month-ish. His weight has crept up a bit, but not significantly, and mine seems to have settle at 12st 5lb-ish, with no portion weighing and not a lot of standing on the scales either. Life has been throwing more than the expected amount of challenges at us the past few months, so I’ve not been active on here (tend to withdraw into ourselves and hunker down), but I do still try to check in every week and keep myself motivated.
I took hubby with me to the supermarkets yesterday to do the last of the Christmas food shopping – mostly the fresh veg, dairy, some booze, some stuff for baking, and he was shocked at the quantity of crap being sold, as well as the prices!
“Christmas” feasting for us will be about a week, with a house-guest and a family get-together, but I am more able to draw a line under it and get back on the wagon – I hope 😉

The blood results are in – HbA1c = 34 🙂 that’s more than 3 years after the pre-diabetic result, so good affirmation, as if we needed it, that this WOE does work and we need to keep at it. Also good results on the liver function tests, which were a bit iffy in 2019 and 2020, but now all perfectly “normal”. Also a normal urine ACR test, which shows his kidneys are OK, and urea and electrolytes all OK too, except for a slightly decreased creatinine (which could be due to the normal ageing process apparently). Cholesterol is a bit high (as was mine at the last test), so will look again at ways of reducing this. I have started re-introducing pulses in our diet maybe once a week at most, and may add in some porridge oats again.

So for those starting out trying to control fatty liver, pre-diabetes etc. – keep going!

I know there is a lot more mention of fasting on here now, not just 5:2 or 16:8 TRE, but anything 24hours or more – just to say, hubby has never fasted a day in his life, and won’t, but is still managing his blood markers in the normal range and eating well.

Last night we had a chipotle chilli and tamarind beef stir-fry with some shredded Chinese leaf cabbage, leeks, and a sliced carrot.

Ruby, excellent news on the lastest results, as you say, validation that this WOE really does make a huge difference. As long as we can make a long term commitment to do our best with our food choices, positive results will be achieved.

You are right, whilst several of us are now using fasting as an additional tool, this is by no means a must. Fasting is not for everyone, but that doesn’t mean you won’t see good results without it. I’ve only quite recently started experimented with fasting myself, but had already achieved my goal weight ages ago, just following the BSD (and gained back some when life got in the way!). No-one should feel any pressure to fast. We each need to find a way to make this WOE work longterm for us, adjusted to mesh with our own personal life style.

Finally Ruby, that stir fry sounds amazing!

SG, hope yesterday went well.

Signing off now until next week.
Started December with great determination buuuuut …. anyway not anything left to say apart from
‘Happy Christmas’ and for those who don’t celebrate have a lovely ‘Long Weekend’.
See you next week with an ‘eye’ towards the new year!
Enjoy!

Bonjour everyone !

Well,I am finally back home .I got my rescheduled train on Monday morning from Paris .All ok, until we got to Bordeaux and were at a standstill for three and a half hours !!! Sad really as there had been a fatality, a motorcyclist had been hit by a goods train on a level crossing .So I got home much later than expected but totally out of our control .

We were expecting a quiet Christmas but we have been invited by my ‘daughter in law’s ‘ family for a Christmas Day meal .Now I don’t know if you know how the French celebrate Christmas but it will be a gargantuan affair of sea food,oysters, foie gras, poultry, cheese and the traditional Christmas log .So I am pacing myself for that, fasting and doing OMAD since I got back .
It will be nice to chat about Australia and of course share photos of my beautiful grandson with his French family !

So apart from Christmas day and New Years eve when we are planning a meal with friends I am back to my usual low carb routine .

I have also received my copy of Jason Fung’s The Diabetes Code Journal which is a 12 week programme with a page a day tracker following low carb eating and intermediate fasting . I like a journal and it gives me regular accountability .

Realistically I will probably begin on 1st January whenwe can have a new thread .

This is the book , on Amazon

The Diabetes Code Journal: The Official Workbook for Reversing Type 2 Diabetes Through Healthy Eating and Fasting Flexibound – 19 Oct. 2023
by Dr. Jason Fung (Author)

For now I will just wish you all a very Happy Festive Season, Happy Christmas, Happy New Year !

Enjoy yourselves whatever you are doing, whether alone or with family . No pressure, this is a special time and guilt has no place .
We can regroup and reassess in January with our renewed goals and targets .

Lots of love to everyone
Wendy xx

Happy Christmas everyone & hope you all have an enjoyable festive period.🎅🏻🍷🎁🍾🌲Joyeux Noël
Love Margaret xx

Have purchased the Dr Jason journal, Wendy so shall be joining you in January on my quest to get back to target again. Meanwhile, will be enjoying the festive season, hopefully without completely losing the plot! As our Christmas is now looking much quieter than it could have been, it should be easier to keep control 🙂🤞🏻.

It’s unlikely I will post on this thread over the best week, so best wishes to everyone for the very best of Christmases. Hope your brings you all the joy and good times you could desire.

Happy Christmas and New Year everyone….thank you to SG, Wendleg and SunnyB for keeping us going with the thread and everyone else contributing….I am aiming to get right back on track in the New Year….but for now, rolling right into Christmas like a snowball going down a hill, gaining extra snow on the way 😉….
Love and hugs to all
xxxxxxxxxx

I would like to add to everyone’s good wishes for you all to have a very happy & special Christmas & festivities. 🎁🍷🍾
It’s a time to relax & enjoy ourselves & to review where we are in the New Year.😀👍
Love Margaret xx

Tulip … your rolling snowball gathering snow as it goes, really made me smile! It’s likely we will all get to January 1st with a pound or two extra, but we’ll soon sort those out, so don’t stress …. it’s time to allow ourselves a little leeway and just enjoy life!

Wendy, glad you are home safe and sound. i just had the Jason Fung book delivered, only took 1 day in the UK with Prime. I didn’t think you had diabetes or is it the logging and diet you are interested in. Anyway, I will be doing a 12 week stint when we get back.

I will report back on my lung doctor appt when we get back but suffice to say she is very happy with me and says I need to speak to my cardio, but again says if I have an appt in July not to worry. Think I am going to make a effort to increase my exercise and try to build some stamina.

Merry Christmas to you all.

No,SG I am not diabetic . I just liked the idea of a journal to log foods, results etc as an accountability tool. The book itself has quite a simple daily page format which I like and it assumes knowledge of the Diabetes Code which we all have .
I do check my blood sugar and ketones with my Keto Mojo monitor so I log all that too. I like the idea of a 12 week programme too which fits in with our BSD which we can reboot in January.
Enjoy your break . Glad you had good feed back. I hope you can relax and be reassured. Celebrate with a couple of vodkas and put the dieting on hold ( in moderation 😉) so you can enjoy a few well deserved treats !
I will pop in on the thread now and again but in the meantime Happy Christmas,Happy Holidays everyone xx

Hi all, hope you all had a lovely Christmas Day. I bought the 12 week logging book to keep track of my progress next year. However, I thought I already knew most of what is to be known about diabetes and discovered 2 new things in the first couple of pages of the introduction. So, that has made me think he has a lot more to teach me so I have also ordered The Diabetes Code which will keep me going for a few weeks along with the logging.

Happy New Year to you all. See you soon (on line)

Denise

Hello.
Hope everyone is having a happy Christmas.

We had lunch here yesterday for just 8 but that was ‘hard work’ but very pleasurable! Today has been a winding down day and left overs and time to think!

So can I please ask about the 12 week journal. Do you think it would be worth using if there were weeks were you needed to ‘go off plan’ and not report?

I’d love to join you all in keeping the journal but we have 4 weeks away from the end of January. Just wondering what those of you who have the journal think. Is it possible to take weeks out and ‘rejoin’ the plan or not? No point in me buying it if it has to be a straight 12 weeks.

In the meantime enjoy the rest of Christmas!

Greetings all ! I hope you are all well and enjoying the season.If you are on your own or struggling or feel like a chat , pop in on here and of us will pick up the thread, xx Christmas is not always an easy time .

Well Christmas Day was a veritable French feast with foie gras, langoustines, oysters, stuffed guinea fowl, hasselback potatoes , yule log and chocolates !! It was delicious and I ate everything guilt free because it was a special day catching up with my ‘French family’
and it was all lovely .
We don”t have any other social events until New Years Eve when we are cooking a meal for 6 .So I am just chilling and doing my diamond painting which is a photograph of me and my grandson ! It’s certainly a good anti-snacking tool !!

Verano , hope you are enjoying the rest after your Christmas lunch . I want to explain about the Diabetes Code Journal .

First of all, for anyone wondering, it is NOT necessary to buy the journal to contribute to the next thread .It’s a tool , very much like a diary to log foods, any fasting periods,blood glucose ,exercise,targets etc .It also asks us to reflect on successes, what could be improved etc .
It is designed to accompany the Diabetes Code and assumes knowledge of the basic principles which we have .
It costs £10.85 whenI last checked but to be honest V, you could just have a diary if you were concerned about the 4 week break ??

I like the idea of the 12 weeks being logged in a notebook because I am a bit old school and like to write things down.I don’t find apps work that well for me . A nice day a page diary would work too .

I don’t think it has to be a straight 12 weeks if that is not possible. .That is going to depend on each of us, what we are doing, as realistically there are bound tp be ‘off days’ for celebrations, holidays etc and that’s ok . We just do our best to complete the 12 weeks without too many wobbles which totally throw us off course . I know my triggers and I am sure that’s true for all of us .

I will set up a new thread in a few days which will be a monthly format again and we can work on 12 weeks to start with if that’s ok with everyone ?
In the meantime , whatever you are doing, find time for yourselves and stay well xx

Wendy xx

Wendy sounds like a wonderful Christmas lunch with the company being as good as the food …. always a good combination.

Thank you for your explanation of the journal. I can see that other journal/diary formats would be just as well. I just thought that maybe a more ‘formal’ journal might make a change.

I’m coming to the end of a 3 year ‘weight only’ journal so thought it would be a perfect opportunity to try something new. In fact I did buy myself a ‘week to view’ diary to use more or less as a weight journal so I may just see how that goes at first.

I must admit that this Christmas I’ve found that I’ve more or less lost any sweet tooth I might have had, so that has to be good news for 2024. Now I just have to deal with the savoury! I love cheese, hard and strong was my go to but I’ve now discovered Brie and am not sure if that’s good or bad! Anyway, I think my main goal over the coming months will be to control the savoury. I know what works for me just have to ‘do it’!.

Hello & I have just shocked myself back to normality by weighing myself & am horrified 🙀however I will weigh myself on my usual day on Saturday to start my reduction campaign for next year. I already have an online journal to record my daily food intake because I kept my subscription going to an online slimming club but follow this low carb WOE etc . I would like to join a twelve week recording period in the New Year with you all if that is ok ? But won’t buy the journal & already have Jason Fungs books.
My Christmas period has been enjoyable with my youngest son still here helping to eat some of the calorific Christmas leftovers but also back working from yesterday because he is an IT development programmer & brought his IT equipment with him.
I am so pleased the Christmas food hype & over indulgence period is over because we have no party plans for New Years Eve. I by mistake duplicated my profiteroles, brandy butter & brandy cream order that I am now avoiding & for supper today will make a Turkey stir fry with lots of veg served with either brown basmati rice or bulgar wheat. My pack of profiteroles says I can’t freeze them? Is that because they will go soggy if defrosted & the cream separate ?
Oh well I’m trying to get back on track today & not eating until lunch🤔
I hope you are all coping well with « betwitxtness »👍
Love Margaret xx

Hello everyone, we arrived back home yesterday and had my first weigh in this morning. I am very pleased to have only gained 2lbs and certainly ready to start the New Year with the new logging book by Jason Fung as set up by Wendleg. See you all next year and and very happy New Year to you all.

Happy New Year S-G & good going only gaining two pounds. I have gained more than that so raring to get going losing that & much more next year.
A Happy & hopefully much more peaceful & healthy New Year to everyone 🤞🤞
Margaret xx

New thread is up, folks !

JANUARY 2024 : TWELVE WEEK RESET ONE WEEK, ONE MONTH AT A TIME TO END MARCH 2024

Looking forward to seeing you all .No guilty regrets, Christmas and New Year are festive celebrations for most of us and soecial times and that’s good .
Time to look ahead and focus on the coming months , setting new targets and focusing on our health after seasonal excesses !

Looking forward to establishing good, consistent habits together !

Thank you Wendy for continuing this thread & see you in 2024!
Margaret xx