Hi all,

My name is Tamsyn and it’s my first day on the 8 week blood sugar diet. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes a few months ago, but have been very cleverly burying my head in the sand ever since. I actually gained weight after the diagnosis! Foolish girl. So I bought the book yesterday after having seen it at the shops a few times, read the whole thing, and now here I am. I am (embarrassingly) severely overweight at 132kg (about 291lbs) and have all the health issues you’d expect to go along with that. The diabetes is new, but I suspect if I sort that out, all the rest will follow. So here I am.

Breakfast this morning was tricky, I found myself in a bit of a panic. I don’t usually eat breakfast, instead drinking cartons of iced coffee. And now you know how I got diabetes! Ha! But seriously, what do you do with an egg if not put it on a piece of toast?! I had an apple instead. I’m sure I’ll work it out.

One question about the recipies in the book – some call for ‘one chicken breast’. Yesterday I bought three chicken breasts from the supermarket and the total weight was 1.1kg (or 2.4lb), so 366g (0.8lb) each. That seems like a lot. (We must have particularly large chickens here in Australia!) Is there a more standardised weight measurement for how much skinless chicken breast should be used as a serving in the recipes?

I’ve enjoyed taking a poke through some of the forums this morning. Everyone seems very motivated and supportive. I’m looking forward to getting on top of this.

Just another quick question…

I’ve gotten onto myfitnesspal.com to track my calories and I intend to have a small piece of rump steak with a salad for lunch. A quick check under “rump steak” on the calorie chart shows multiple values for 100g of steak ranging from 119 calories to 271 calories. When you only have 800 to play with, that’s a big difference. How do you know what is the correct value?

Hi Tamsyn, Here are a couple of listings from the USDA database:

Beef, New Zealand, imported, rump centre, separable lean only, raw
100 grams=141
https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/7545?manu=&fgcd=

and

Beef, New Zealand, imported, rump centre, separable lean only, cooked, fast fried
100 grams=188
https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/7511?manu=&fgcd=

There are also listings for “lean and fat” which are slightly higher calories.

Some of the differences in the counts you found could be due to some being raw and some being cooked, but I don’t know where that 271 came from?? Good luck to you.

Hi Tamsyn,
No need for embarrassment, as plenty of us have plenty to lose!
I was also over the 100kg mark and have been following the 5:2 Med style and losing fairly steadily. I am 26 kg down with another 17.5 kg to go. But I just want to get rid of those kilos now so I have resolved to do the BSD eight week diet and this is also my first day on that.

With the chicken breasts here in NZ some are monstrous, so I cut those in half and freeze for later use. I think somewhere on this forum I may have see a comment about people not needing to eat more than 100g of meat every few days. Someone can correct me on that if I remember it wrongly.

With the variation in calories, it may be the marbling of fat in the meat varies or the cut may have more, such as a porterhouse vs fillet steak, so use them as a guide and just try to stay close to the 800 where possible.

I am also in Australia and find using the app easy diet diary much easier than my fitness pal. It is much more accurate than mfp and has a camera that can scan the bar codes of many Australian products including Wollies and Coles own brand and Aldi products.
I find that about 100gm of cooked chicken breast is about the right size for me. That is about 160 calories and is probably enough protein for one meal.
I have eggs with large mushrooms that I buy in Aldi. Or I make a spinach omelette and have it with some avo.
I found the first week hard. I had headaches and felt generally unwell. I think some people call it carb flu. But I found that if I stay below 50gm of carb I now feel fine and strangely for me I have no cravings. I have just started weak week 3 and I have lost 4kg.Only 12 to go!
Good luck!

Hi Tamsyn
Welcome to the family! You’ve made a brave move and we’re all proud of you😄 I’m in Australia too and I downloaded a free app called East Diet Diary. I’ve found this very easy to use and it seems accurate. I’m lucky that I’m not diabetic, but there are a lot on this forum that are, so I’m sure if you have any questions relating to that someone will be able to help.
Be careful of apples, they have quite a high carb value and you need to restrict yourself to no more than 50/day. My brekky this morning was a 2 egg omelette with garlic, mushroom and some cheddar cheese. Took 5 mins to make and kept me going till 1.30pm when I remembered I should eat lunch. Make sure you drink at least 2-3 litres of water per day (a lot of mine comes from herbal teas) and don’t be afraid of fats. Eat full fat everything! Also, read the nutritional value of everything you buy as you will be surprised of the carb values that are hidden inside packets and cans. When something calls for 1 chicken breast, I always weigh it and and everything else I use and enter them in the app separately. Within a few weeks, You’ll figure out roughly what you’re doing and won’t have to do it so often. I’m on week 2 day 6 and have lost 5.5kg, stick to it and know this is your best chance for a healthy you!!!

Hi Tamsyn,
Welcome to the BSD.
Can’t help with the meat question as I am vego, but for breakfast you could have full fat natural yoghurt, the Mythos brand from IGA or Jalna are the most creamy tasting and not sour. I have 100g with 50g strawberries or 30g blueberry or raspberry. Sometimes on the weekend I will fry up 2 mushrooms, a tomato, 2 eggs and 50g haloumi. It’s very filling.
There is a bread called Herman Brot that is low carb and ok on the BSD. Bit pricy at $6.50 for a small loaf but worth it for an occasional piece of toast with soup or a sandwich. In SA it’s sold in IGA, in Vic you can order it through health food stores. They have a list of suppliers on their website.
On this site are recipes for coconut flour flatbreads, good with cream cheese and strawberries, and gram flour flatbreads ( chick pea/ besan flour in Aus) which can be eaten with scrambled eggs, curry instead of naan bread and rice, or used as a wrap.
Stick with the BSD and you have every chance of getting on top of the diabetes. 🙂

I make the recipe (using whatever size item I have), track the macronutrients (to make sure I’m hitting the protein target & not exceeding the calorie cap and – (because it isn’t part of the diet) limiting my carbs to the quantity my body tolerates), weigh the prepared item, then divide it into servings the size of the calorie count in the book.

Any recipe that uses handfuls, or 1 [insert veggie, fruit, meat, etc. here] is not going to have accurate calorie counts. So if calories matter to you (and they should if you want to follow the diet as it was designed), you will have to weigh and track independently of what the recipe suggests the calorie count is.

Wow, thanks so much everyone for your kind and helpful advice. I will try the Easy Diet Diary as a couple of you mentioned, as I’ve tried to use MFP before and found it confusing (with the multitude of differing entries for the same item). And, with that, I will track my own calories of evertything I use. I had a feeling around 100g of meat/protein was about right, an entire chicken breast on 800 calories a day was definitely too good to be true. 🙂 I remembered reading in the book to steer clear of bananas but that apples were okay, but I guess only in small amounts. I’ve tried many things in the past. I’m struggling a little to get my head around this, but it does seem fairly simple, so perhaps I’m just making it difficult on myself! My brain doesn’t work as well when I’m hungry! 🙂

Thanks again, everyone. Great to hear about your fantastic results. And those of you who are a few weeks in have given me hope that I can last the distance, too.

Hi all,

So I’ve survived day two with only the minor hiccup of a small piece of chocolate brownie. I regret it, but won’t let it ruin the whole plan as I would have done in the past. Tiny brownie? The week is ruined! I quit! May as well eat the whole plateful! Ha! I won’t lie, I was tempted.

Yesterday, day one, was wretched! I was so hungry and so tired and just generally hating life. Today was a bit better. Had a giant plate of salad for dinner and just a small piece of steak. Last week would have been the opposite, so I’m grateful for small victories. Perhaps I will survive this afterall. Yesterday I wasn’t so sure!

It’s coming to the end of day four and I’m down 2.5kg (5.5lbs). I am happy, but if I’m honest, still waiting for the wheels to fall off! Surely it can’t acually be working! 🙂

So I’m looking at a can of beetroot and wondering if it would be okay to have some with my salad tonight. I’m thinking “6g of sugar, that’s probably a bit much…” when it dawns on me that this time last week I was having ten times that much. FOR BREAKFAST! And then again a couple more times during the day. Bloody hell! How things change.