Tomorrow is the start of week three and I am having a wobble! I am not T2 but, following a basic blood test strip that just worked on colours, I was bordering on prediabetic. Weighed in at 14st and now down to 13st 4lb which is a weight I haven’t seen in st least 2 years. I am absolutely amazed by this way of eating (I am not going to call it a diet as it brings to mind a chocolate mini roll when I have had enough of the diet!). I was already feeling too big around my middle when my eyesight started to blur very slightly. I started to google it and came across the symptoms of T2 and ultimately this book. I downloaded immediately, read in one afternoon and knew I had to make a change. It took me a week or so to get my head around it as it is so removed from how I was eating. I was the person who got hungry on every diet I ever tried and felt sick by 10.30am. Biscuits were my absolute downfall and a chocoholic to add to the mix. Eggs for breakfast? No way! I couldn’t imagine how anyone could stomach that. What a difference two weeks can make! I read somewhere on here that one way of doing it is to accept that the diet you have is not working and rather than try to amend your usual routine, accept that things need to change. Boy, was that person right for me! We have two ‘tween’ children and I changed our morning routine right around to enable me to get up and instead of eat breakfast straight away, do all the other morning things and eat breakfast calmly at the end, by which time I can face eggs, and I love them! I am absolutely blown away by the fact that 2 eggs (cooked with a little butter) can fill me up until lunchtime without hunger pangs. Taking time to make fresh lunches from the book is something I never thought would happen but then I realised that it’s only 10 minutes. Getting up half an hour earlier has made a difference to everyone’s lives in this house and the children now sit with me for a YouTube 5 minute meditation before we leave the house, we leave in a cloud of calm, the complete opposite of 2 weeks ago.

Sorry, didn’t mean to waffle, that just started to flow as I typed! What I am really saying is that if I can do it, anyone can!

My problem is this. Our wonderful children have invited my parents to afternoon tea tomorrow and have planned a bake fest! They are really good bakers and have planned cheese and plain scones, brownies and Victoria sponge and are so proud and excited to have us all around a family table for the celebration. They know that I am ‘cutting down on my junk food’ and the effects have affected them as well as they are eating much better (10yr old cereal freak ate eggs for breakfast before school yesterday!). So, what to do? One side of me is saying stop stressing, I can get them to make the cheese scones with wholemeal flour and use less sugar in the sweet ones and maybe only have half a scone and top with butter for the savoury and cream on the sweet? And just have a sliver of brownie or cake? I know that I am committed to 800, I have been using myfitnesspal and it has been so easy over the last 2 weeks, with no worry about continuing. I don’t want to hurt their feelings by saying no thank you but I seem to be obsessing about eating sugar and carbs when I have completely avoided them. Any advice/thoughts would be appreciated.

I really didn’t mean for this post to go on for so long! I love reading this forum at the end of the day. You have all given me so much support and advice from afar.

Thanks for listening 🙂

Hi Teej, good news about everything you have been achieving. I am so impressed!!! What a dilemma! Perhaps you could get your tweenies to make some coconut flat breads (posted by Bill1954) but leave out the salt so you can have them with cream and strawberries on top as your nod to afternoon tea? The gluten free flat breads (posted by Ingenue) are delicious – get your tweenies to make a batch each but with different flavours/spices in them. Then you can have them as sandwiches or wraps. Best of all your kids will have a new baking skill to show off to their grandparents!!! If they make enough you could have some to store in your freezer!!! 🙂

Firstly Teej, congratulations on the weight loss. I too can’t believe how eggs can fill me up……before, I used to eat something like branflakes or porridge (when I ate breakfast at all) and was hungry by mid morning, which I could never understand. Now, when I feel like eating breakfast (not really much of a morning eater), I’ll have a couple of boiled or poached or scrambled eggs and don’t feel hungry until lunchtime. Amazing!

Anyway, with regard to your kids’ afternoon tea for their grandparents (what lovely kids you have!) and your worries about what to eat and hurting their feelings if you don’t….does it really matter if you do go off piste for that one meal? My thoughts are that this way of eating (I don’t mean staying on 800 cals, but the general principles of that, 5:2 or the Mediterranean diet) is going to be a lifetime thing, so having a very occasional ‘off piste’ meal isn’t going to hurt. Just get straight back into it with your next meal. It’s not ONE ‘wrong’ meal that’s going to do the damage, it’s having them continually, don’t you think? I would say go ahead and have a scone and brownie and piece of cake (best not have too many though! lol) and then carry on with the diet immediately after. Well, that’s what I would do anyway. I am finding that this way of eating (I don’t want to call it a diet, it’s far too enjoyable) is a lot less stressful than previous rigid diets I’ve been on.

Hi Teej
As you are so highly motivated at the moment, my advice would be not to eat the things your children are going to bake but to make some flatbreads, as already suggested here, some pancakes and/or the muffins that are on the website here and/or the brownies from the book. Of course, any of the family could help you in eating them. I think it will be good for your mental strength to know that you can avoid the other stuff when it is right in front of you and at the moment, you are feeling so strong that you can do it easily. Save indulging in that stuff for another time.

The flat breads idea sounds great to me too, that way you can still eat something your kids have made for you and enjoy it rather than feeling guilty/ pressured into eating something that you would rather not. Mind you, it really sounds like you have got this and if yu did have a bite it would not derail you from your long term plan…😀

Thank you all for your support x I will have a look at the flatbreads recipe and see if I can lay my hands on the ingredients. I also think that I have to allow myself to deviate once on the 5:2 but the change in my attitude needs to be one of having something extra as a balance and not a reason to go haywire for one meal, or to feel like I have fallen off the wagon and go back to the old ways. I think I am going to have half of each scone and then have some yoghurt and fruit. That way I am not too far off but still get to taste their wares! The funny thing is, I don’t crave the brownie or cake. I am still getting used to not having cravings for things which feels most weird.

As a side note, went into a coffee shop this morning and instead of having a cake or croissant because I missed breakfast, I had a citrus fruit pot! My tween had a milky drink and declined a cake, times they are a changing!

Thanks again for listening 🙂

I made it through! I had half of each scone, a sliver of brownie and cut a fairy cake in half and only just went over my 800 as kept the rest of the day low. I have proved to myself that this is a new way of life and the whole thing doesn’t go off track for one meal. Even better, the cake tasted really sweet and I didn’t feel like I wanted more. So, back to the new normal tomorrow!

Thanks for listening.

Hi Teej. Have just seen this set of postings. Proud of you!! 🙂

Well done Teej, you made it.
We have to be a bit realistic when it comes to family celebrations but you have proved (PUN INTENDED) that you can have your cake and eat it
Back on the plan now and no harm done hopefully.

Teej, amazing!!! Well done!! I actually don’t think you needed the advice, cos you got it all sorted on your own … however, getting those lovely tweenies of yours to start baking healthy flatbreads for you is an excellent idea! In fact, if you can get them to ask me to tea, I’m more than happy to join you in judging their wares!!! 🙂 x