Hello and welcome! This forum continues the month by month journey that several of us have been making together, most recently in No Nonsense November. It’s for anyone at any stage of the BSD/Fast 800 journey who has some kind of goal that you are working towards. Your goals may be about weight loss or maintenance, other health-related measures, or anything related to our complex relationship with food and eating. Our aim in Diligent December is to try to keep pursuing those goals even throughout the festive season, and to use the forum to help each other along. If you would like to join us and be part of our ups and downs this month then please start posting: we would love to meet you!

Thanks for setting this up. Will be interesting to see how we all cope with the temptations over the holidays

Thanks for setting up the new thread DCT – just realised December starts tomorrow! Will start working out my goals for December – but think they’ll be all about tactics.
Jennie xx

Thank you DCT for staring our December thread. I will be diligent up until Christmas Eve and then plan to have a one week “BSD break”. This will be my third Christmas whilst following the BSD plan and I always allow myself a week off plan at Christmas. I won’t go mad but I do enjoy some Christmas nibbles and the odd glass of something nice.

My plan really never changes, I want to lose the weight I’ve gained and then will be able to begin to master the art of maintenance. I won’t do that in December but it would be lovely to lose 4lb or so before Christmas Eve. I am going to try my hardest to get to 145 lb by Christmas Eve. I’ve just checked my weight tracker and on Christmas Eve last year I weighed 137 lb and on 31st December I weighed 142 lb. Today I weighed 148 lb. In real terms I’ve put on 6lb this year. That’s not bad is it. My goal weight that I achieved in 2017 was 133 lb but I couldn’t maintain it. I stabilised at 138 so my goal is to get back to 138 lb next year.

My husband commented that it looked like I’d lost some weight which really cheered me up this morning. Also, I managed to squeeze into a pair of NYD jeans in size 4 this morning (American size!) so I am going to take that! JGwen has always said that scales are not always a true reflection of what is going on with our weight journey.

Sorry for the long post. To summarise my plan for Diligent December is to get to 145 lb by Christmas Eve.

Good luck to everyone for being diligent. We know that December has its challenges but from experience it doesn’t mean that we say goodbye to all the hard work we’ve put in over the year. This WOE is forever so even when we go off plan like me for a week off at Christmas we go back to BSD and carry on our journey to slimtown!

I was 127 on 1 November, so after 30 days of no nonsense I am 122, a loss of 5 lbs. My target was to lose 1 lb a week so I did achieve that, which I am sure was because I was on this forum. I will now continue with Diligent December. If I can achieve 1lb a week loss till 24 December I will be delighted. I am determined, committed, and will be consistent till then, so onward and downward I will go until then. I know it will be difficult but it is possible if I really want it and I do. Have a great lc day everyone.

Au Secours – that really is great going. It just shows your determination – love it!

My basic plan for December is to be the same weight at the end of December as I am now (9st), keep my bgls good throughout, maintain my current exercise routine and enjoy Christmas which is my favourite time of year. I’ll carefully plan my Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve meals and drink so I stay low carb (but likely with extra calories). I’ll have my Christmas Dinner with a few tweaks, and some of my favourite low carb meals on the other days. I’m also going to test out a few low carb Xmas-y recipes beforehand – woohoo!. But other than that I’ll be keeping things normal with maybe a few strategically placed reduced-calorie days and 24hr fasts to mitigate the odd Christmas night outs. Looking forward to it all!
Jennie xx

Although I’ve not posted very much in November I’ve followed all of your wise advice. I started November on a platue of 11st12 and knew I would have my challenges at the end of the month with celebrations of my 20th wedding anniversary and family dinner for American Thanksgiving (even though I’ve lived in Scotland for 25years!). I exercised more, introduced longer fasting and OMAD. This got me out of my slump and I got down 5lbs! I was able to enjoy the end of month celebrations and weighed in today 11st9! Delighted to be starting December exceeding my 2stone goal of 11st10!
So moving forward towards Christmas I will take all the advice from last months thread. Continue to experiment with extended fasting (EF), OMAD and take measurements so I can track body changes and not just weight. I want to be able to enjoy Christmas celebrations just as much as November’s.
Good luck everyone with all your goals and having a Diligent December.

Crosie – congratulations on your 20th wedding anniversary and also on managing things so well in November with the family celebrations, a great weight loss and a goal more than achieved! I reckon you’ll have a great December too. xx

Thanks Jennie for your kind comment. With determination and motivation we can achieve our aims. Enjoy a great lc diligent Sunday. 😊

Jennie10 – thank you so much for your kind words and encouragement. I feel that with my success in November I can now be successful in the most trying month of the year!
Wishing you luck with a Diligent December!

Being Diligent and no nonsense is what we all need to be but I know myself how sometimes that still isn’t enough!!
I began this journey in March 2016 15.3 and in those years, with some winter relapses!! (Birthday, wedding Anniversary Christmas new year and the cold!!) I have never been below 12.3 and therefore always been obese!!
This whole year I have not relapsed I have stayed pretty steady and was determined the last 2 stone had to go. Nothing shifted how ever hard I tried. I stuck at it ( hubby lost 3 stone) I posted on here that I had come to terms I was never going to loose it!!
The 21st of November I weighed and had finally got below 12.3 and everyday since I have dropped weight!! I finished November 6.5lbs dropped!!
How? why? What has changed I really have no idea except I stuck at it and something within has changed? Improved insulin resistance? Low blood sugar? I have no idea but suddenly I am losing like a newbie!!
December, I want to do the same as I have been doing all year 1-2 meals (eating 2 if hungry) 20 -4 nothing after 6pm, lots of water, cut down on the coffee limiting milk to a minimum!! 10000 steps (60 minutes fast walking) daily!!
If I can loose another 7lbs before flying to Australia on Jan 2nd I will be a happy bunny!! Got in my sisters dress this week so measured and suddenly realised I had lost a lot but never noticed!!
We can do this, but would love to hear any ideas why others think this has suddenly happened!! Not that I am knocking it!!
Have a great low carb no sugar week everyone xx

Please keep me diligent this December or I’ll have totally messed up the last two months. I’ve only just returned to my mid October low point so more effort needed 😳😳🙄. Please may I join in so I can lose more than my hard earned cash this month 😁

Hello all, I’m in for another month too – thank you for setting this thread up DCT.

I’m like ClarinetCathy, I’m planning to have a little time off from Christmas Eve. I don’t want to go crazy, but I’m not going to beat myself up if I indulge a little more than is strictly good for me.

My goal for December – well until 24 December – is to discard a shade under 3.5 kg (a little under 8 pounds). This is probably ridiculously ambitious because it’s more than I’ve managed in the last few months; and I’m not giving myself a full month to do it; and there will be some pre-Christmas challenges from a food and wine perspective. But, hey, it’s good to have a goal, right? 😊

Denise Susan, that is wonderful news that you’ve been plugging away and finally seen such sensational results. Congratulations! I don’t know what’s happened with your body either, but it’s clearly something good. You may be right that after sticking with low carbs for so long you’ve finally managed to increase your body’s insulin sensitivity. Which is also good news for the rest of us – success stories bring hope!!

Good luck all, Elky

Welcome Annach! Good luck on your journey and I’m sure you will find this thread very helpful and encouraging! We’re all in this together … with all the highs and lows along the way! Here’s to a Deligent December

I would love to be diligent this December. Unfortunately the last few days of November have not been very disciplined! I may do a couple of Fast 800 days to try and reset along with some IF. I’m a bit nervous about going through all the carb withdrawal again or being unable to resist any offered sweet foods but need to remember why I’m doing this. So close to my goal, by about 9lb, so don’t want to go too far off track now. Definitely going to give myself a week off over Christmas and New Year but until then don’t want to pig it out!
If anyone has tips about how to keep at bsd over the festive period or words of wisdom, feel free to share haha x

Hi folks, I wrote a detailed post on the November thread on my decision, on weight training v fasting only for the website to loose it. (I think I have worked out why that happens sometime, in the period between starting to write the reply and hitting the submit button the system decided to time out on my being logged onto the site. So when I pressed submit it acted like it had worked, but it didn’t, and after I logged in again the system lost what I had written.)

Anyway. I really enjoyed the weight training program I was on earlier this year and want to continue. The county council run gym in the nearest town has a weight room, but the staff tend to spend time in the office, and only come out to wipe down machines and pick up rubbish. I realise that posture / position when using the gym is really important to ensure that you are forcing the chosen muscles to take the strain. The staff in the county gym don’t have the knowledge to assist me in devising a training program, I have tried that route in the past. Which is why I started looking for an alternative source of support.

From my reading I know that a body adapted to a high carb diet has less mitochondria per muscle cell than one adapted for fat burning. (The range is from 2 to 5.) There doesn’t appear to be much research on the best way of increasing the number. Obviously our bodies are constantly turning over cells, so over time our bodies will adapt to the change in diet, but it would seem logical to me that increasing muscle while eating keto would create new muscle cells designed to burn fat so speeding up the process.

This trainer was recommended by someone I met while working out in the gym on the weight training program, He is one of those people who train for the body building competitions. The competitions where people take up poses on a stage to demonstrate that they don’t have any fat between their skin and muscle structure. He not only trains other people but has competed himself in the past. So I thought he may have a range of knowledge on how to push the body into burning fat, and targeting the fat under the skin.

His program does include diet advice on following a low carb diet, but is higher in protein than I eat at present, and I think that could be a problem because of my needing to activate autophagy.

The reason I was thinking about joining his program now is because its the best time of year for me to fit in multiple journeys into town in a week. The dark nights limit the work I can do around the farm and with the horses. The program he recommends is 2 sessions a week working out with him, but other sessions as well. In March I will start lambing, and then the holiday business will be busier until next winter so multiple trips to the gym will not be practical.

I agree with others that the price of the training program would buy a lot of “rewards” for myself for fasting. Especially when you add in the cost of driving into town. I just didn’t want to do longer fasts. Especially at this time of year when I really want hot drinks.

I think I would be better off looking for a trainer who will assist me with advice on position, and the best exercise machines to use, and stick to using the county council run gym (which has a swimming pool and sauna). Then I can combine trips to the gym when fits in with my other commitments and it would be sustainable.

Hi JGwen,

I’m really pleased that your trainer is on board for this WOE. The natural body builders are phenomenal at fat stripping so I will be really interested to follow your progress.

And your concerns that you simply can’t face long fasts when it’s cold and dark make perfect sense – we must all find what works for us as individuals.

Good luck with it!

Cheers, Elky

Hi all, I’m in for another month – thanks for setting the thread up DCT.
My goal for this month is to lose 1.7kg – this will bring me down to the same weight I was this time last year. Then in. January I can work on getting down to my goal weight, which just didn’t happen this year!
I guess a 1.7kg gain for a whole year (just over 3lb) isn’t too bad, I would actually be happy with that if I was at or near goal, but I’m not! My year started out well but then a spate of illness, injuries, family and work problems happened (which I guess is just life happening!) and I gained instead of lost.
After reaching my highest weight (since starting BSD) in September, I’ve managed to discard 3.9kg, so will work on continuing this trend. I have an added incentive too – I was recently diagnosed with sleep apnoea and my specialist wanted me to start using a machine at night. I asked if I could try losing some more weight first, to see if that makes a difference to my quality of sleep, and he suggested I try to lose weight over the next 6 months and then come back for a review. So if I didn’t have enough incentive already, with my other health issues, I now have another one :).
What seems to be working for me is having 2 or 3 16:8 days, and keeping my steps up. The challenge during December for me (and I’m sure most of us!) is the increase in social occasions. Like Cathy, I plan to have a week or so off plan for Christmas/New Year.
It’s nice to see so many familiar names on here, and welcome to all of the newcomers. I think it’s great having such a range of experience on here 🙂

Goodmorning everyone! Jumbing on the December board too. I ‘ve been eating low carb, med style for a while now and managed to stay below 70kg for quite a while now. With the Christmas season approaching where sweets, chocolates and mulled wine are everywhere I go 😱, I decided to do for a stricter IF, low carb, low cal, no cheating for 3 weeks till Christmas. Looking forward to sharing my journey with you all!
Is there a board where I can post what I eat everyday to keep myself accountable? ❤️ Sugar-free Mimi

Hi JGwen, your post is interesting — I thought I would give you my 2 cents worth (ha ha for what it’s worth). As you know I really love to do exercises of all types and I’ve had a lot of trainers and coaches in the past (and even today). My sister, who also uses a trainer, calls it the 1% solution but I think it can be the solution for a lot more people — there is real value in using a trainer and doing things in a new way.
Trainers get you to think differently about movement and can bring new perspectives as well. And they are a social moment in the day, which can be especially nice on dark winter days.
If you are really not sure, why not try a month or two of training and see what you think? It sounds like it could be perfect for that after-the-dark-arrives until that lambing time.
And also, on the protein levels — I know we have different perspectives but I really do believe it was my greater protein intake that allowed me to build muscle while I was losing weight. The research does say that if you are low carb, protein doesn’t have the same neogenesis effects. I still aim for about .8 -1 gram protein per pound if I am doing hard workouts).
I worry a bit about protein intake for older people on this forum — it is absolutely critical to get adequate protein to support muscle as we age. It’s very hard to get it back once it is lost.
Finally, I’ve been reading about cycling low carb (cycling ketosis) which looks very promising. The theory being that all the “good stuff” happens in the refeeding stage — so cycling between ketosis and more carbs (not a lot and not carbage) might be a good way forward.
Actually, I sort of laughed when I wrote that because there is a lot of “cycling” going on, even for me, although I’m still mostly low carb and high vegetable and good levels of protein.
I definitely “cycled” on Thanksgiving! 😀

Addendum — exposure to cold temperatures/cold water also increases the number of mitochondria in your cells. The amount of mitochondria in your fat cells is what turns your fat from inactive white fat to metabolically active brown fat. So getting out in the cold is good!!

Hi – happy to have found this forum. I did 5/2 two years ago & found the support really helped me stay accountable. I’d like to lose some weight this month, but will be happy to stay mindful. I’ve developed quite the carb addiction lately and not only have gained 5 lbs of the 25 I had lost & maintained for 2 years, but have been feeling quite lousy. Junk food does that. So, I am committing to read each post this month & giving careful consideration to each. Thus controlling what I can – Conscious manifestation in all aspects of my life. Thanks!

I have been diligent today. Had some soup and yoghurt with raspberries for lunch. For my evening meal I had vegetable chilli with some quorn sausages and some grated cheese. It’s been so cold today I felt I needed something warming. Tomorrow it’s broccoli and Stilton soup for lunch and an omelette for evening meal. . My manager brought me in four eggs laid by her rescue hens so I am excited to try them tomorrow. I am feeling positive about trying to achieve 145 by Christmas Eve. I am going to weigh myself on Friday this week. I am going to fast on Thursday. It’s my day off and I am going to catch up with some housework in the morning and then am going to write my Christmas cards and wrap some Christmas presents in the afternoon so that will keep me busy. I may eat in the evening or maybe try to fast all day until Friday lunchtime. For whatever reason, I feel in the right frame of mind to commit 100% until Christmas Eve and hope hope hope that I see some results. I agree SueBlue that stress and cortisol levels have a massive impact on weight and I’ve been very stressed at work, still am but retiring in March is the light at the end of the tunnel.

California girl- it was freezing at work today so hopefully some white fat turned brown!

Good to see that I am in great company during Diligent December. Let’s see how much fat we can collectively lose before Christmas Day!

Hi all, thanks for setting up this thread DCT☺️..I have just got back from spending time with my grandchildren and although I was mostly good and ate properly, a few carbs managed to sneak in. I weighed myself and have discarded 500g so all is not lost. I am now getting back into slashing the carbs and fasting.
My hubby leaves on Friday to move to another state and I’ll be joining him in a few months after our house sells, so there will be no bad stuff kept in the house at all. Hopefully, no not hopefully, I WILL BE a lot lighter and feeling great by the time I see him again 😁.
Have a great day/night wherever u may be ☺️❤️

Hi everyone,
I haven’t posted for a couple of months, but I have still been working away. I joined an exercise program to increase my strength and balance and it has been helping, although I have still not lost any weight or inches. Not gained any more though either. I went back in for blood work though as I have been still feeling very fatigued, and my gp sent me for a battery of tests including thyroid, HbA1c, cholesterol and iron and b12 levels. Everything came back normal with the exception that my HDL was a bit low and my iron levels were extremely low. The low HDL may be a result of the low iron, so I’m not too worried and it will be interesting to see if it goes up by fixing the iron problem. Anyway, given that my iron levels continue to drop in spite of some moderate supplementation, we are now pulling out the big guns (ferrous sulphate instead of ferrous gluconate and a much larger dose). I have to take 75 tablets in the next 30-45 days depending on how big a dose my gut can handle!!! I think this will be an uncomfortable month, but hopefully worth it in the long run. I really hope that the low iron is the reason behind my inability to shed any weight and that this new regime will resolve it.
My focus on gut health over the last few months with eating lots of variety in my veggies appears to have paid off. I previously had elevated LDL cholesterol which always seems to cause gp’s angst (one even threated to put me on statins before giving me a chance to try to lower it with diet!), so it is nice that it has fallen back into normal range. Big relief that my HbA1C is normal and that my thyroid continues to be normal as well (strong family history of t2 diabetes and thyroid disease).
I had been hoping to get back into ADF for December, but I’m not sure I will handle it very well at the moment, so maybe I will leave it until the new year. It has also suddenly turned quite cold and bone-chilling damp here (2cm of slushy white stuff on the ground when I got up this morning), and I always find it difficult to fast in this weather. So I think my goal for the month will be to carry on with eating my veggies and fibre and to try to have as long an overnight fasting period as I can.
Good luck to everyone with your goals this month!

I’m so pleased to hear from you, Arctic Fox – I stopped posting for a number of reasons but continue to follow along and keep going. I will fade back into the background now but I just wanted to say how glad I am that nothing bad had happened to you xx

Thanks for the welcome back, Kafin. I’m glad that you are still around and plugging along as well. I think busy, tired and frustrated sums up the reasons I stopped posting, but December can be a trying month in many ways, so thought I would pop back on for a bit anyway.

I am not so active on the monthly thread but I just wanted to pop in and say that like Kafin I was relieved to see articfox back with us .I had been worrying about your absence, articfox. .You haven’t had an easy time and I hope the iron meds will help you to feel less fatigued. Getting good results elsewhere is definitely great news. I hope the month goes well for you xx

Hi all,
It’s lovely to see more people joining this thread and how everyone is determined to be diligent in December, and welcome to SCS and Sugar-free x

Well, I wasn’t too diligent on Sunday. Having posted on here about how I was going to plan things, I dashed out to a friend’s afternoon celebration without eating anything first so was hungry by the time they started bringing the food out – anyway, I thought about Crosie and Au Secours’ posts which I’d been reading that morning – and that kept me away from the table. I left early, came home and had a boiled egg – and I know I’m hungry when I enjoy one of those! So, thanks to both.

californiagirl – nice to hear from you – as a woman in her early 60s, I share your perspective on levels of protein. I’ve never been much of a red meat eater and had probably had steak twice in my life before I started BSD. Anyway, when I first started the BSD (and exercise) I suddenly found myself craving steak all the time – it was most odd. So, it made sense when I later read the same research which suggests that older people are likely to need higher levels of protein etc. Not saying everyone needs to eat red meat of course, just that recommended levels of protein for the general population may not necessarily apply as we age.
Also, good to know getting out in the cold is good – it’ll help motivate me to do just that over the next months!

Nice to see you back posting arcticfox, and to hear from you, Kafin

I’m going back to housework now – yuck
Jennie xx

Hi Jennie, I am glad that my post helped you to be diligent on Sunday and kept you away from the table.
I had a very encouraging nsv this morning. I had a first rdv with à physio because of a little problem with balance and much to my surprise she said “oh well we don’t have to worry about your weight as you are nice and slim”. I was flabbergasted but delighted. Having no nonsense and being diligent is better than indulging In sugary carbs. I wish you another good Diligent Day. 👍🌝

I really like the name of this thread. Last night, as I was trying so hard to not eat as has been a habit for over 6 mos, my mantra was “diligent, diligent”. Happy to report – got my through. Like it a lot. Thanks!

Hi ArticFox, glad to see you back on the forum. – A few months ago I posted a link to a podcast by a doctor on why iron deficiency can block weight loss on the Take a Look at this thread. You might find it interesting.

————

I am sorry I seem to have confused a couple of people. I set out my thought process on why I had considered signing up to a 3 month training weight training program and why I had decided against it. Maybe my doubts on the decision I had made was coming through? My decision is to be strict on fasting periods, starting this week no coffee with cream outside of my eating window. Also I am trying to move my eating window earlier in the day, so I don’t have anything after 8pm this week. Each week between now and Christmas my eating window will be smaller. I am going to put the money I would have spent on the training program towards “rewards” as I stick to fasting periods.

JGwen
You are our resident guru when it comes to scientific knowledge regarding all things weight loss. You have spent a lot of time researching and are always so generous with your knowledge. Your plan sounds perfect and I will be interested to see how you do. Like you, I like to mix things up. Because we have been doing BSD for as long as we have I think our bodies have become adapted to a low carb way of life. I like that you are going to treat yourself to rewards. A few weeks ago I tried doing something different every day, fasting, 16:8. OMAD, etc etc and it felt good to have a change.

Hello Kafin – good to see you’re still on the sidelines. I’m still plodding and hope you are too 🐢

I had an omelette with salad this evening with two of the rescue hens eggs. Delicious. For lunch I had broccoli and Stilton soup and yoghurt. Hoping for a loss of at least 1lb by Friday. I want to be in the 147s by then.

Feeling as diligent as can be!

Hi All!
I’m definitely up for a diligent December, thanks for starting this thread DCT! I’ve been on the 800/TRE since October and have lost 7kg, which is great! I turn 50 (!!!!!) in about 2 weeks so I’ll continue until Christmas, then relax this woe a little. Looking forward to wearing something special that actually fits to celebrate my big day!! Good luck to everyone!

ArcticFox, I’m another one who is so pleased to see you’re still here and OK – enthusiastic waving from Down Under 😊 I will be thinking of you over the next month or so and hoping that the massive iron supplementation isn’t too gruesome for you.

JGwen I’m so sorry, I carefully reread your original post and now I see that I did indeed get the wrong end of the stick. Sorry! As you know I have a bias towards fasting (because if autophagy doesn’t do something magical for me then I’m terrified I’ll wind up looking like a shar pei LOL), so I will be really interested to hear how this works out for you.

Hello to everyone else too.

Cheers, Elky

Thanks Wendy, Jennie, JGwen and Elky for the kind words.
JGwen, yes I remembered that you had posted the video and I watched it again a few days ago. It is a good one. I’m starting out by taking the tablets every second day as he recommends to help increase absorption and mitgate gut symptoms. As the dose increases though, I will have to move to everyday though just to fit them all in.

Am being as diligent as can be and this morning when I had a sneaky peek at the scales I weighed 146.6. Not been in the 146 s since July so am feeling very positive that I can achieve my Christmas target of 145 or less! I am fasting today. Might not be able to fast until tomorrow as I am out of practice but if I last til 6.30 pm then that will be a 24 hour fast and I will be happy with that. It’s going to be difficult this weekend as I have three nights out planned so my strategy is going to be a combination of fasting and one meal a day. Hopefully
I can pull back any damage from the weekend next week by being extra diligent Monday to Friday.

Keep strong everyone, just say no to the sugary poison that will be offered to us over the next few weeks!

Congratulations ClarinetCathy! KOKO….

After a diligent week I have discarded 1 lb which is my target, 1lb a week. If I keep doing what I am doing, which I intend to do, I should be able to discard another 2lbs before Christmas, which would be a brilliant Christmas present for me. Being diligent with no nonsense certainly brings results. Have a great lc weekend everyone. 😊

Not my usual Saturday weigh in good news! Not only have I not lost anything, but I’ve gained the small weight loss (about 350g) from last week!! Is that usual? I thought I might plateau, but not gain!! I can’t think of anything I’ve done wrong eating wise as I’ve been really strict. I’ve had a heavy cold and so my exercise routine has been off, could it be that?? Only a week until my birthday and I really wanted to drop a little more weight. I might try a couple of 800 days plus some 16:8 and see what happens. 🤞

Hi ShoeGirl, using the scales to measure progress is not productive. Our weight tends to fluctuate by up to 2kg at any time. – Some of the reasons for fluctuation are that each liter of water we drink weighs 1kg. We should be aiming to drink 2 liters a day. Additionally it depends on how bulky our meals have been over the previous couple of days. 800 calories worth of celery in our digestive system is going to weigh far more than 800 calories of cheese.

Additional you mention you are full of cold. When our bodies are fighting an infection there is inflammation which involves fluid retention so that’s a further weight gain.

The best way to measure progress is using a tape measure, or photographs, or how you feel. if you really want to record weight changes its best to record trends over a period of time rather than expect the scale to move on a daily basis.

Thanks JGwen, that is great information and really helps me to keep things in perspective! I measure my waist & stomach once a week as well as my weekly weigh in. Although I’d gained 350g, I’d lost 2cm from my stomach this week. This completely reinforces what you said, JGwen. I’ll refocus in a positive way and try not to get too hung up on the numbers. Lovely to have this support!

Good morning all and I hope you are all well? Some great posts! I have been way off of plan since I stopped smoking and have gained a stone in weight😱😱. But the real bad news is that because of things out of my control I have been smoking again for the last week and a half!! I have begun to put things into place to get off of them again and life has calmed down again so fingers crossed 🤞. Apparently it is not uncommon to have a lapse! But all the advise is to keep trying and that is what I am doing. There have been some definite benefits from packing up and one of them was the money, but the best one was not being out of breath when walking up hills with my dogs! I know the weight discard has a lot to do with it too so I need to keep it off. I was 18 stone when I started my journey and when I went skiing March this year I could not do my own ski boots up!! I know that when we go back in February even with the stone I have put back on, I WILL be able to them up and for me that is a massive thing! I would however like to be back to at least 14-2 so a 12 lb discard is needed!!

JGwen I am starting out with a trainer from Monday! I have booked 3 sessions at a cost of £150 so I am going to get my monies worth out of him! I have had a health MOT with him which included cholesterol and blood sugar testing and both are in perfect order, thankfully 😅. Christmas can be a trying time for us all! It is not just the temptation but also the expense!! So my fingers are crossed for us all. I am also about to start a fat fast as I need to get my carb addiction back under control. Apparently I can still discard whilst doing it.

Good luck lovely people on all of your goals and I will try to keep posting! Love Birdy 💞🦜

Good morning Birdy and welcome back! Good to hear from you again. I’m sure with your determination and the help of your trainer – and us lot! – you will soon start losing again, and also be able to give up smoking again. Good luck!

JGwen thanks for all the information you give us, it really helps. I tend to be a slave to the scales even though I know that my weight does fluctuate on a daily basis for all sorts of reasons. I am going to start measuring as of today: for some reason it’s something I have never done so I can only guess whether or not any changes are happening physically. So I will get out the tape measure as soon as I finish this post! Shoegirl I’m glad that this is helpful to you as well.

Cathy belated congratulations that you are finally seeing some loss. I’m really pleased for you as I know how frustrated you have been. But you are so focused and determined to keep at it and I’m so pleased you are seeing results. Similarly with you DeniseSusan – how inspiring to read about your recent amazing loss after so long! Our bodies are so intricate, no matter how well or not we understand the science behind weight loss it does still often seem to happen according to its own agenda.

Have a great weekend everyone and good luck with the ongoing due diligence X

Birdy please don’t give up. You are not a failure. I stopped smoking for six months then started again! Child problem! Your time is obviously not quite right but you will get there and will succeed…. just not yet. Please don’t beat yourself up. The important thing is to never stop giving up on giving up …. you will make it …. promise …. just not this time!

DCT thank you for welcome back and your continued support. I really am glad I stumbled across this forum and I am going to try and keep up with joining in, as it really does help to keep me going in the right direction.

V thank you so so much. I am never going to give up and trying to give up and I know I will get there. Just don’t know when😂. I think what with the stress and trying to do it all at once I was going to fail. I am trying not to beat myself up but my boy was so disappointed with me! I felt awful. But I did assure him that I will keep trying❤️ I think I need to concentrate on one thing at a time! I find that I do one thing when trying to do another and one goes by the way side! So I am keeping the smoking to a minimum by not doing it where and when I used to so I don’t build a full in habit again whilst still trying to get rid of it altogether ! I don’t smoke when my son is home and I don’t smoke when at work or at rugby. In fact at the moment I only really smoke when I am out and have had a couple of sherbets. The cost is going to be bad if I don’t keep it to a minimum!! I will
KOKO. Love Birdy 💞🦜

Great to read your determination birdy. You always take your goals very seriously, with a peppering of humour 😀
I’m being diligent with exercise, and my thighs are calling out to me “You’re killing us” .

As far as food goes, I have not been good. I feel bloated after bread for two days, and I’ll take a break from it. The weight isn’t the problem, I just know bread isn’t a good food now and I’m looking for a non cereal hot breakfast. Other than a full English!

Good to see everyone doing well.
Birdy – I’ve never been a smoker, but the mantra from some of my friends who have been and quit is that it is harder to quit than crack. As always, falling off the wagon is not failure and what is important is that you get back on. I think I even saw some research once that suggested that smokers who are trying to quit simply get better at it each time they try, until they can eventually stop altogether.

I managed to do a 22 hour fast yesterday. I didn’t eat breakfast and I was able to stay busy as I’m painting my flat, including the kitchen, so it was easy to skip lunch as well. Then I went out for dinner with a friend. That meal was not really on plan, but I figure that I burned well over 1000 calories doing the painting on top of creating the calorie deficit by not eating. The timing worked well as I then had food in my stomach for when I had to take my iron tablets. The gradual ramping up of the dose is going well with only a bit of gut discomfort so far. It is still early days, but I did have one day this week where I was walking up a hill with some work colleagues on our lunch break and I actually felt like it was just a bit easier to keep up. Imagine what I’ll be like in 8 weeks if this actually works. Maybe they’ll be struggling to keep up with me! Fingers crossed that this does work and that it is the key to getting through my weight stall.

Thank you Patricia for your continued confidence in me😂❤️ Artic fox I do hope that is true as I am determined to become a long standing non smoker. I am looking after a poorly baby today who has had a reaction to his MMR and it would not be fair for him to have to go to play group bless him. So I will have my hands full today and no smoking at all around him which will be good. I have never smoked in front of kids before and I am not about to start now. Hope you guys are doing ok I am going back to OMAD for a couple of days now. Loads of water needed😂😂

Hi Birdy, If someone else came to the forum and said that they had succeeded for a period of time eating low carb and then fell off the wagon you would be one of the first in the line to urge them to dust themselves off and climb back on. – Just treat yourself with the same respect.

I had an interesting experience yesterday. I decided to make a list of each meal over Christmas and decide what I wanted to eat. I am going to step off the wagon from Christmas eve evening, until the day after boxing day. – It occurred to me that if I just go down the shops I would be likely to think, Ohh, I fancy that, and I haven’t had this for so long, so come home with a Christmas feast that goes into the new year. So I decided to menu plan. – Interestingly having listed the meals I would like to have (just 2 meals a day) I am already looking at the list thinking that sounds unpleasantly bloating with a shed load of carbs and doesn’t sound as attractive as I thought it would have.

So to newcomers, thinking about the festive season I just wanted to say, don’t worry about it, over time your taste will change even when it comes down to meals that are family traditions so are ingrained in your thinking.