Hopeful.

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  • posted by daisychain
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    Hi all, I tried the BSD last year and loved it, but didn’t stick with it beyond two weeks. I’ve been trying to lose 2-3 stones for the last four years so my track record isn’t great!

    This time I feel hopeful and optimistic that I can stick with it, and maybe posting on here every now and again will help to keep me on track. I have 6 weeks before a holiday and no major plans until then. It would be great to lose a stone in that time and aim for the rest by the end of the year.

    Thanks for the many inspiring and encouraging posts on this forum which show that it can be done 🙂

  • posted by sunshine-girl
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    Hi there, welcome back to the plan. I think if you really set your mind to it and remember you have a short term goal time in place, you can really do it. A stone in 6 weeks is very do-able but you have to stick to it. During the first 8 weeks I was very strict with myself with the hope of reducing my blood glucose. In fact, I had 6 weeks to my next blood test – my BG went from 8.2 to 6.9. That for me was the clincher but also my BP, cholesterol and triglycerides had greatly improved. So it worked and I am hooked. My BG is now 5.4 and I am still determined to improve on that. You just have to keep on keeping on…

  • posted by daisychain
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    Thanks sunshine-girl. It’s great to hear about your early and continued success. I’m a big fan of the diet – just need to stick with it this time!

  • posted by didimarks
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    Hi daisychain,
    I’m also a returnee – having dabbled in many other things since (loads of fasting, low carb etc, but can’t stick to anything). Now the summer is getting scarily close and I’m still going around with a puffa jacket to hide under (was too hot today)!

    Starting again tomorrow with a lot of trepidation. My will power seems to fail me a lot at the moment (loads of emotional overeating)….but I feel more determined to succeed and I too am aiming for a good 6 week stint. I have 2 big family dos in the 4 weeks, but I will have to do damage limitation and back to it the next day. From experience I do best if I don’t eat until lunch time and then have ‘breakfast – berries and yogurt’ as a snack or pudding later before or after my main meal. So that is the plan.

    Nothing like a post to keep us accountable! Good luck and hopefully we can have a lot of success with this!

  • posted by daisychain
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    Hi didimarks, The good thing about doing this diet or similar before is that we know what works (and doesn’t work) for us. Your meal plan sounds great.

    I like to stick to the same breakfast every day so that I don’t have to think about it and find lunch quite easy, e.g. protein and salad dressed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The things I need to watch out for this time are avoiding snacking when I get in from work and getting back on track after a setback or change in routine.

    Good luck with your restart tomorrow!

  • posted by didimarks
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    Thank you! Yes snacking is my major problem.. Regardless of hunger. I’m sure we can do it this time! As you know- we know it works!

  • posted by LindaA
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    Hi daisychain
    Welcome back!
    Just be careful with the balsamic vinegar as it contains sugar and could set off your sugar/carb cravings. I replaced the balsamic with apple cider vinegar or lemon juice.
    Cheers
    Linda

  • posted by sunshine-girl
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    Hi all, just to reiterate what Linda says about balsamic vinegar. I live near a mill that makes its own vinegars from grapes (wine vinegar) and you can buy in lots of flavours, my favourite being pineapple. The mini bottle I bought had no info on it so when I went back to get it refilled I looked on the large bottle to find it was 65% carbs of which 60% was sugar. So much for that then. The chap tried to convince me that it was all natural and I asked if he could guarantee it would not cause my diabetes to worsen, he refused to answer that.

  • posted by daisychain
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    Hi LindaA and sunshine-girl, thanks for the info on balsamic vinegar. I usually add just 1tsp of balsamic vinegar to the dressing for flavour – if I’ve checked correctly it’s about 1.3g carbs so hopefully not too much of a dent on my 50g allowance.

    I hadn’t considered possible effects on cravings so I’ll keep an eye on that and experiment with some different dressings as well.
    Cheers

  • posted by daisychain
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    First day today and it went ok (so far!). I had a bit of a shock this morning when I did my weigh-in which was 4lbs more than I was expecting. It did make me reassess my goals and I’ve decided not to focus on losing a particular amount and just aim for a general downward trend.

    I hadn’t prepared any particular lunch so had some cheese and cherry tomatoes which was absolutely fine. Dinner was some left-over chicken and salad. I went for a walk after lunch but still nowhere near 10,000 steps. Have to find more ways to fit in the activity!

    Didimarks – I hope your first day went well.

  • posted by Hess1977
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    1st day here too. Equally, found it not too bad. My big weakness is in between meals snacks. On other diets these were measurable by points/system etc however the BSD doesn’t seem to advise on them. 2 questions: 1. Are there any recommendations for quick/easy snack’s? 2. Are they allowed ?
    Good luck with the diet

  • posted by JulesMaigret
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    Snacks can fit in as long as you count the calories (and the carbs)
    I believe some people use a few nuts or a spoonful of peanut butter (or even just a cup of tea), but I tend to just avoid them in principle as I suspect in my case that they would be a slippery slope.

  • posted by vimtogirl
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    I’ve discovered Cathedral City do little individual portions of cheese, bag of 5 are £1 in Asda at the moment. each portion is 50 calories, no carbs. Yes they are small, 20grams each I think, but if nibbled, they are great. I try to fit in 1 of these along with 1 square of Lindt 90% chocolate into my calories and carbs most days, then I feel like i’m having a treat.

  • posted by daisychain
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    Hi Hess – I’m glad your first day went ok too. I had a quick look in the BSD recipe book – there’s a section called Quick Lunches and Smart Snacks. The advice seems to be to avoid snacks for best results, but that it is better to have something to take the edge of hunger than to reach for the toast!

    JulesMaigret and vimtogirl have good suggestions – I’ve bought a bag of mini babybel cheese, probably similar in size to the Cathedral City portions vimtogirl recommends. The book also suggests hummus with crunchy veg or apple with cheese.

  • posted by LindaA
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    Hi daisychain
    Are you eating enough fat? It seems like you’re getting your protein and carbs, but not a lot of fat. You should be around 50-60g fat per day and around the same of protein. Don’t be afraid of fat, you need it to be satiated.

    Are you weighing and measuring your carbs? Start with a max of 50g per day and lower it if you are not losing weight and increase your fat, not protein. Some salad items are high in carbs, particularly carrots.
    Cheers
    Linda

  • posted by daisychain
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    3lbs down this morning! I’m taking that with a pinch of salt as I had a very indulgent weekend and it was probably three of the four unexpected pounds. Still good though.

    LindaA, many thanks for taking the time to provide some tips and potential hurdles along the way. I had 40g fat yesterday, prob from cheese and I forgot to say that the chicken was in a creamy sauce. I think my plan today would have been a bit light in fat though so I’ve added some oil (and vinegar!) to my lunch and was going to have poached eggs on grilled mushroom for dinner so perhaps I’ll fry the mushrooms in butter.

  • posted by daisychain
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    Hi All, just a quick post as Friday is my normal weigh-in day. The scales show 6.5lbs down from Monday! (That includes the four mystery pounds I gained between Friday and Monday though so I’m not sure what to use as my start weight.) Anyway, the main thing is some weight has been lost 🙂 the tricky thing now is to stick with it for the next 5 weeks.

  • posted by Falldown7times
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    Well done! I think Alcoholics Anonymous or similar say one day at a time, not even think about the whole 5 weeks 🙂. Anyway just keep swimming 🐠. Well that’s how I’m trying to think of it.

  • posted by daisychain
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    Thanks Falldown7times – your advice is timely as I had a bit of a blip last night involving wine which resulted in a toast craving this morning (and 1lb gain on the scales). Never mind – just keep swimming! Good luck to you too.

  • posted by daisychain
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    Hi all, just a quick update to say at the end of six weeks I’m 9lbs down from the start weight – not quite the stone I was hoping for but I went wayward for a week then settled into more of a 4:3 pattern than full-time BSD so I’m happy with that. I also took up running again which I’ve found very helpful.

    I’m going to reassess in a week’s time and decide whether to stick with 4:3 or be more disciplined and go for the Fast 800 plan. My BMI went from 30.3 to 28.7 so there’s still a long way to go: 20lbs to the top of healthy BMI and 30lbs to happy weight.

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