Hi everyone, sorry for not posting in a while, been very busy with work! Hi to Vera in Finland, so nice to hear from you and well done on your 6lbs – and to Lio! I have tried really hard since the weekend but with some juggling around work, cooking for my family etc there has been some going over the 800 mark as I have let my diary slip but my weight has stayed unchanged thankfully so although I have gone over I have stayed low carb. So I am trying to take SunnyB’s advice and embrace the positives. I managed to have the energy for a couple of short 2 mile jogs too on Monday/Tuesday so I think that my energy must be picking up and my sleep seems to be improving – awake for a short time at 5am last night and the night before I slept until my alarm which I never normally do, usually awake several times a night! My uniform feels a little less tight too so another bonus. Another 10 hour day at work to face tomorrow so I must get my beauty sleep – back to the faithful no carb Bircher, medi platter and omelette for tomorrow’s menu, I have a liking for mushroom ones too Lio 😍
Take care all xx

Hi Zobo, I think everyone is busy right now – I know I am. I agree with SunnyB re: focusing on the positives. I’m focusing on how much better I feel. Like you, I’m sleeping so much better too – better than that, it’s a lot easier for me to get up too. I only hit the snooze button once or twice instead of the usual four or five that was the norm before BSD. It’s only been a week for me but I do feel a change in how my clothes fit and the scale tells me I’m down 9 lbs in that time. I’m trying to just eat two meals a day (lunch and dinner) and just have one cup of coffee with cream in the morning. It’s tough though – I wake up feeling good, but also feeling HUNGRY!! Hope that goes away soon. I’m drinking tons of water – actually had three litres yesterday based on reading LindaA’s advice. It helps with the hunger pangs but I find myself constantly looking at the clock to see if it’s lunch time yet. Mushroom omelettes are one of my favourites – I have those on the weekend with a little bacon and cheese mixed in – so yummy and satisfying. I’m jealous that you’re a jogger!! I’ve not yet begun to exercise but am planning to start this weekend.
Anyway, back to work for me.
Bye for now.

Hi everyone, nice to read everyone’s posts, it is really really helping me to think of you all doing the same thing as me, struggling, succeeding, and just getting on with it.

Vera, I’ve had an idea about lunch with your boss: if you know the restaurant, can you look up their lunch menu online and figure out in advance what you’ll have? That way you can actually plan your whole day. I agree that the conference will be a challenge, although I think you’re right that a decent hotel will be used to catering for people who want to eat healthily and there will be a range of good tasty food. I bet that you’re so used to knowing what to eat and how much, that you’ll be able to make up a delicious plateful and let your gaze sweep right past everything else. I also find that I eat more healthily when other people are watching! And hopefully the conference will be interesting so you won’t be bored and are thinking of food all the time 🙂

In general I have to agree that I am sleeping better (hadn’t even noticed! But I definitely am) and feeling really good about myself, walking tall, although Phreckles I am with you in that I feel hungry when I wake up and usually hungry when I go to bed, aaaagh! Don’t think my brain and stomach have adjusted yet. Great result though, with the scales and your clothes being so encouraging.

And I am also agreeing with Zobo and SunnyB’s idea of concentrating on the positives: I have a feeling that if we get gloomy, it could go along the lines of ‘well I’ve had one sausage roll/sticky bun/whatever, I might as well quit.’ Instead, it’s kinder and more productive to think yes, I had the sticky bun, but that’s where it stops, my body needs to be healthy, I want to reduce my risk of heart disease etc, and tomorrow is another chance to get back on that path.

Night night x

Just a short post to say well done Phreckles, amazing results and not just the weight, great that you are energised and can tell that your clothes are loosening! Good for you with sleep too Lio, like you two my hunger pangs seem to be hitting me more this week than the first week, my stomach is making strange noises as we speak haha. Plus not so keen on the constipation (sorry), was hoping 3 litres of water a day which I have most days would help with this but alas no, but this has been a problem of mine for many years so I will have to try some fybogel. Maybe this is why my scales are stuck, no gain but no loss either! Will keep going though!
Night night all xx 😘

Thanks for the lovely comments Zobo and Lio.
Zobo, oh boy!! Bathroom issues – I’ve been trying to avoid them by eating as much of the green leafy stuff as I can without growing long floppy ears and a fluffy tail!! It seems to be helping but I’m thinking (for me anyway) that since the actual amount of food has been greatly reduced, I probably just don’t need to “go” as often!!
Lio, I’m not finding I’m hungry going to bed – just when I wake up – thank goodness – that would be tough I think. Hope it passes and very soon.

Phreckles, I’m with you on this one. Had the same problems, and came to the same conclusions – less going in, less coming out 😉 In the past I had always been a once a day, regular as clockwork kind of girl!

Now, at almost the end of my first 8 weeks, my new normal appears to be once every 3 – 4 days. I am happy settling for that, as I never feel bloated or constipated, and I believe that normal is what is normal for YOU, not normal for the population at large. So, unless you are actually uncomfortable, just allow your body to adapt to a new normal.

One of the few people I have told about the BSD referred to it as my “crazy diet” today. It came as a surprise because she’s usually a big Michael Moseley fan. I think it only stops seeming weird once you’ve read the book, and since I’m not going to be making anyone do that, I’ll stick to my plan of just not telling anyone.

Good for you – there are none so blind as they who will not see
Mike

I’ve told hubby and close friends about the BSD though I’m not saying exactly how many calories a day I’m eating because I’m quite sure they’d squawk about that. As for everyone at work I just say “oh that looks good but I can’t have any – I’ve given up sugar for lent.” I got that from some here so whomever it was – thank you! (I’m going to have to start writing down the names of the people whose ideas I steal). Then, when lent is over, I’ll just say that going without sugar made me feel so good, I’m just going to keep at it for a while longer. Anyway, what I eat is nobody’s business!
Today was dreadful as far as work temptations go: Four different kinds of coffee cake (one is raspberry – my fave) just outside the door of my office. Then, in the break room (where I have to go to refill my water bottle) is a big box of donuts. Then, to top it off, I saw someone eating a breakfast sandwich made with sausage and cheese, and instead of an English muffin, it had a WAFFLE, and the break room was filled with the smell of maple syrup. Too difficult!! Right now, I’m eating my salad and savoring the flavors and trying to ignore what’s lurking outside my door.

Hi Phreckles
When I see other people eating ‘carbage’ or I smell sugary foods, I now automatically think to myself “I wonder if they know the damage they are doing to their body”. I generally feel quite smug that I know the secret to losing weight and getting and staying healthy and don’t at all feel like I want to cave in and eat some.
It’s funny how the mind shifts perspectives as 12 months ago I would have been the one hunting down the ‘bad’ food wanting some too!
When I’m out at a restaurant I always ask the wait staff to leave off the potatoes or rice or whatever and just give me the protein with green veg with extra butter. I’ve never had anyone refuse me.
On occasion I’ve even sat there and not eaten as there was no good choices. No one else cares what you do, especially when they can see you losing weight and the proof is in the pudding so to speak. No one can force you to eat the wrong food except you!
Cheers
Linda

Hi Phreckles, it’s me doing the Lent thing, and I am totally going to steal your strategy once Lent is over and I start to increase the calories but not the sugar. And Linda, I am also stealing the word carbage 😊

And Phreckles, your work-cake-waffle situation is hard! Like you, my desk is very near the snack spot, where people leave treats they’ve brought back from holiday etc, but luckily no sausages or maple syrup!

Thanks Lio 😀 and I have to say – the giving up sugar for Lent thing is working – someone actually called me a “good Catholic” yesterday!! When I told hubby about it he guffawed out loud!!! Not sure if I should be insulted or not 😉
Linda, since the carbage – GREAT word btw – is so close to my office, I can see who the frequent visitors are – the majority of them are quite heavy and one is diabetic. That used to be me, but no longer. The skinny people just stop once or so, or in most cases, don’t stop at all.

Useful observation re the people eating the carbage!

Phreckles – very interesting comment about the frequent visitors to the carbage. Pre-BSD that would have been me. Now I am one of the skinny ones who don’t stop at all. An almost miraculous transformation – which I still find really amazing.

Inspiring, Krysia! How long did your transformation take?

My predictive text has gone into overdrive – I love that it chose carnage instead of carbage – although carbage is a wonderful description of the bad carbs.

Thanks guys
Would love to take credit for the word ‘carbage’ but I actually stole it off Jimmy Moore the ‘Liviin La Vida Low Carb’ podcast (low carb high fat) podcast guy.
I download his podcasts and listen to him on my walks. I really helps me keep on track.
Cheers
Linda

Thanks for the tip, just subscribed to the podcast

Lio – the transformation took from 1st May to 10th December to lose almost 3 stone. I started really slowly and didn’t lose a lot because I was so rubbish at guessing the weight of the food I was eating but on 1st September I started weighing my food and entering it onto fat secret and the weight just dropped off. Have maintained at around 9st 7lbs since then which is the lowest I have been since I was 18.

Huge respect for your determination, Krysia, and now that I have clicked on your name/profile I see that you have reversed your type 2 diabetes which must be the best feeling, congratulations indeed x

Lio – it is the best feeling. I have also reversed the retinopathy – so no more eye injections and my right foot doesn’t feel numb anymore. I think the fact that diabetes was really wrecking havoc on my body has helped me keep to the BSD. Also finally admitting to myself that I am a carb and sugar addict has been helpful.

For so many years I have just thought I have no willpower and couldn’t understand how someone could have just one piece of chocolate and put the bar away. I would have the whole bar and then have to buy another and another. It wasn’t a chocolate addiction – it was the sugar – because I have one or two pieces of Lindt 90% and that is the most I can eat in a day.

So as long as I keep off the sugar, potatoes rice and pasta I have no cravings for them. The consultant I saw at my last annual diabetes check confirmed that I can’t go back on them and even fruit will be too much for my pancreas because it has been damaged by all the high blood sugars and unfortunate food choices I have made in the past.

I am more hopeful and feel that by keeping carbs low and following the BSD – I am allowing my liver and pancreas to recover function and regenerate. So they are effectively in ‘intensive care’ at the moment. How long this will take and how much they can improve is anyone’s guess. My hope is that I will be able to eat more carbs in the future – but they will be BSD friendly carbs and I can never go back to the bad carbs.

But just to have my pancreas working and not having to inject insulin is so good – so I am enjoying this for now and am happy to restrict carbs for however long it takes.

Very inspiring stuff KrysiaD you have done amazingly well. Needing some motivation as I have come to the end of the second week and have only lost 1lb. That’s with three 2 and a half mile runs last week. I know you tend to lose more initially but to slow off that much is a tad disappointing, maybe not being as careful on a few days when I didn’t write down what I ate or put it into fitness pal I must have gone over the 800 but I was still conscious of staying low carb and ate foods solely from the book. Never mind, I suppose averaging 11lb over 2 weeks is still pretty good, the first 10lb was what I had put on over 2 weeks of being ‘past caring’ before I started – I had reached a point of thinking I was always going to be this big and having a ongoing injustice attitude which I am trying to get over now. So next week I resolve to go back to putting everything into fitness pal and being extra careful. Hope everyone has a good week. 😀

Thank you for sharing your story, Krysia, this diet has totally transformed your life and that is humbling and inspiring. I don’t have a blood sugar problem but I am a sugar and bad-carb junkie, and knowing how badly your pancreas was damaged by similar food choices in the past is a lesson for me.

Zobo, that is really hard, to be plugging away for what feels like only a small reward. I have a theory that because the first weight loss is a lot of water, I’m guessing that the body needs to regain some of that water, and so that 1lb actually represents 2 or more lb of fat lost (not well explained, but I mean the body might have lost fat, and regained water, so the weight loss isn’t looking as dramatic). Anyway, your attitude of seeing this as the weight loss of a fortnight is surely the way to go: Whatever motivates us the most. Your body will be loving you for being so active.

Hi Lio – it is great that you have started the BSD now. Following the principles will ensure that you never get diabetes. I only wish this knowledge had been around years ago – although I am so grateful that a client recommended MMs book when she did because I feel quite optimistic about my future now.

Zobo – actually 11lbs over 2 weeks is good and you have lost much more that I did when I started.

Initially I started the BSD to improve my health and never thought I would lose much weight. So I really do understand what it feels like to think you will always be really big. When I look in the mirror now I can hardly believe that I look so slender.

Krysia, I’ve been very busy all weekend and have been itching to find time to read about your story – will do that today, hopefully. I just wanted to share a little – actually HUGE success I had this weekend. I had to go to a family party yesterday – these gatherings are usually carb and sugar laden affairs so I knew in advance what to expect. However, they asked me to bring what they call, “my signature sandwiches” these are those tiny little triangular, crust-less tea sandwiches that you all know about – however, they’re a big deal here in the US and everybody loves them when I make them for my annual Christmas Tea (another sugar/carb laden affair that will need to change a bit this year). Anyway, I purchased three loaves of premium white bread at my local bread bakery and proceeded to make egg-salad and tuna-salad sandwiches. I thought it was going to be nearly impossible to stop myself from eating them. But it wasn’t – I had a T of the egg-salad and tuna-salad before I started and then told myself I was cutting up tiny little toxic triangles. It worked – I didn’t eat a bite – though, more than once, I had to stop my hand from automatically wandering to my mouth with a piece of crust!!
Then, at the party, I ate lots of broccoli and cherry tomatoes and a few baby carrots. I drank water, tea and 1 cup of coffee. The only thing missing was protein, so, next time I go to one of these things, I’m bringing turkey/cheese/hummus roll-ups.
Zobo, I think Lio is probably spot on – you lost a lot the first week and you’ve confused your body – it’ll figure things out and you’ll start losing again – did you measure at the start? You could be losing inches – Linda A says it’s possible to not lose weight but still to lose inches. Check it out!!
Oops – work just picked up again – gotta go!

Bravo Phreckles 😊

Well done Phreckles – what a good idea to think of them as tiny little toxic triangles. It certainly worked and you made such good food choices.