Thanks Allie I am cooking today so will try your recipe it sounds lovely. I have loads of basil. I was watching a programme on TV a few weeks ago about pot grown herbs bought from supermarkets etc. Apparently the secret of keeping them alive is to stand the pot in water and NOT water through the soil as this is how they are grown. It works!!! Hence basil growing so rapidly it’s taking over my kitchen!

Ending week 2 dead on original target weight, but still no headway on building that wriggle room again. Bad news – this morning I had to reject a pair of trousers because they were too tight. Hoping that is because I seem to be a bit bloated at the moment, but don’t have huge faith in that, all a bit depressing.

Anyway, I’m determined to get to where I want to be, so I’ll kick off a week 3 to give those of us who need somewhere to report in, a place to go. I know I certainly need it and I hope to see anyone else in a similar situation there too.

Week two, just 1lb down! Big weekend of family and parties, eating and drinking so pleased to have lost at all. Back on plan, keep at it people, see you on Week 3!

Allie ratatouille cooking away on the stove. Will let you know how it turns !

Morning all! Once I translate your recipe, I will try it too allie at. Have to look up what all that is. Zuchinni?

Zucchini is courgette, Violinist. Aubergine is eggplant. 🙂

Thanks Kazz!!!

Ok the verdict….. ratatouille is lovely! Really lovely! I think I over cooked the aubergine but overall it’s lovely … no delicious! I think it would be really good with baked/poached fish as well. Thank you Allie.

Got my HbA1c – really disappointed. Don’t know why it is so high. It was 44 – which is pre-diabetes. Have asked the diabetes nurse to ring me to talk about it. She will ring tomorrow morning.

Hi Krysia — I’m sorry this wasn’t what you wanted. Is it much higher than before? I know you’ve been very careful and focused.

Have just checked ,- it was 41 which is at the top end of normal. I know that when I was diagnosed it was 125 – so at least it is a lot lower than that. But I have worked so hard and not cheated once – so it is really disappointing.

I’m DELIGHTED that you enjoyed it, V.!
Violinist, your post made me laugh, because when I wrote the recipe, I changed “zucchini”
to courgette, and “eggplant” to aubergine, so UK friends would know what I was talking
about 🙂
Oh, Krysia…I’m sorry that you picked up a few points on your Hba1c! I hope other experts
here will have suggestions. The ultimate is to stay off insulin though..Let’s just hope that
this is a temporary anomaly, and not a trend. Does this result rule out changing diabetic
nurses? xx Thinking of you!

Krysia, it doesn’t sound that off from the previous test and is still pre-diabetic. I hope your nurse is helpful in setting your mind at ease. Perhaps you can retest in just a few weeks and check to see if it was just a one-off?

Krysia I’m not sure what to say to you.
Ok …. so you are still below the pre-diabetic level. You’re levels are so much lower than they were when you first started this way of life. I don’t think you are doing anything wrong. I’m sure that we are all affected by the different seasons, the weather and our mood. Don’t be too disappointed just look at how far you have come. Don’t stress too much about the minutia. Try to just look at the big picture …. remember where you have come from and how much you have achieved. You are doing brilliantly

That’s frustrating, Krysia. I hope the chat with the nurse is helpful.

Thank you Californiagirl, Allie, Verano and Ellem for your kind comments. I feel a lot better after reading your posts. You are all absolutely right – I have to look at the big picture. I am still off the insulin. When I started this WOE there was no way l could achieve a figure as low as this – even while injecting loads of insulin.

So – there is more work still to do and I am absolutely in the best place to do it with the help of all my friends on this forum.

Allie, I am enjoying learning “English” and did wonder why you were speaking another language!!

Haha, Violinist..It happens to me all the time 🙂 English english does creep into my everyday
speech more and more, and sometimes my husband looks at me with a quizzical expression
on his face….Recently I told him something he had done was “brilliant”, and he missed the
point entirely, fixating on the literal definition of that word…It will happen to you, too,
when you start hearing English expressions or slang, coming out of your own mouth!!! Lots
of fun, though 🙂

This morning weigh in – 8st 13.5lbs. Good result as it is a quarter of a pound drop this week. My aim was to slow down the weight loss – so am happy that it has.

The more I think about it the more weird my HbA1c test result is. 44 is an average of 7.3 but I have been logging after meal BS and the highest it has ever gone is 7.1 one hour after a meal – and only for a very short time. It does lurk around 6.5 for quite a while after a meal but it stays in the 5s for at least 8 hours a day.

I will carry on as I am because I cannot possibly be any stricter and will just think of the test as puzzling anomaly. We are off to walk dogs in a lovely little market town about 12 miles away where our very is – then a vet visit to pick up tick treatments and weigh dogs.

I am hoping to be able to speak to the lovely diabetes nurse today to see if she can shed any light on my result.

Hope everyone has a good weigh in day today.

Krysia I was interested in why your HbA1c might have been raised so I did a bit searching on the internet. Just check out cortisol levels and intermittent fasting. It seems possible that intermittent fasting can cause cortisol levels to rise and one of the effects of cortisol is to raise blood sugars. Ask your nurse when you speak to her.

Hi KrysiaD,
I know the HbA1c is an average over a period of time. So the question is how long a period of time is it over, against the period where your own measurements have been lower?

Hi Krysia – glad that you are feeling a little more positive today. Thought V’s research was interesting and actually shows that when looking at the behaviour of our bodies, perhaps it’s a mistake to look at things in isolation without factoring in all aspects. Hope that your chat with the nurse will help to put your mind at rest and help you to consolidate your forward plan.

Good morning from Florida! Stepped on the scale and am now in the 160’s! 169.6 dressed!

Sunny I agree. We so often do look at facts in isolation which is why we need doctors who are more aware of the way our bodies behave, interact and react.
Well another week of standing still for me. I am playing games with a pound or so …. now I see you, now I don’t! Maybe it’s time for me to banish the scales but after a lifetime of daily weighing I’m not sure I can resist the temptation. Must admit it is just getting harder and harder. I started a new journal last week and fortunately it’s spiral bound. I think I will take out the last page and start again today on Week 3. Hope the new week is a good one for all of us.

Hi Verano – the problem is that very extensive home testing didn’t show an increase in blood sugars – in fact it showed a drop. I tested fasting and after meal blood sugars and they were all good, and lower than they were before the last test. So IF improved BS which is why I was so shocked. The only thing I did wonder was – has IF caused the red blood cells to live longer. If it has – longer living red cells have longer to absorb the BS and will give a higher Hb1aC. The shorter the red blood cells live – the lower the Hb1Ac. So someone with very short living cells will have a falsely low HbA1c.

JGwen BS went lower as soon as I started IF 3 months ago. So a real puzzle. All sorts of wild imaginings went through my head such as – my results got mixed up with someone elses, the test equipment went wrong, my blood sample overheated in the van transporting it to the test centre……

My DN rang this morning. She is very happy with my HbA1c which she says is only slightly up from last time. I have to stop stressing out about it and it needs absolutely no medication. So good to hear that I don’t need to get the insulin out of the fridge and start injecting.

So I will keep on keeping on as I am now – and will stop stressing out.

Hi KrysiaD So pleased to hear that your DN could put your worries to rest. Have a good day!

Really pleased you are feeling more positive after the chat with your DN. Hopefully she has given you some perspective and you can move on from the original disappointment with the test result. Do come and join us on Week 3 and keep on keeping on.

Nice job Krysia!!

Krysia, I’m so pleased that the DN was able to set your mind at rest. The more I read, the more I realise how complex our bodies are.
Violinist, great news on being in the 160s 👏🏽, well done you. It’s such a psychological boost isn’t it!
Verano, your comment on your spiral binder made me laugh – great one 😄

Thank you Verano!

Krysia I would just listen to your nurse! It appears that a red blood cell lives for around 120 days which is closer to 4 months than 3. Maybe you just hadn’t got rid of all your old cells when you had your test. The important thing is your nurse is happy, you be happy too!

Hi Krysia
You may find this article interesting depending on your interest in maths.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4887310/

Basically, there hasn’t been any research into the impacts of different life styles on the lifespan of red blood cells, but using a small sample of “healthy” people they discovered that 95% of the red blood cells live around 120 days, and it takes around 150 days to get to 0 on the graphs whichever of the three methods used to assess lifespan.

Allie, I know what you mean about our good friends’ language here. As a 16 year old I spent a year in Australia as an exchange student and could not believe the words I brought home!

What a boost, Violinist, getting into the 160’s! Great news 🙂 I always weigh in with clothes
off. I need every advantage that I can get….Consequently, when I’m in the Dr.’s office, I’m
always jolted by being a few lbs. more. I even take my shoes off!!! My cousin always takes
his wallet out of his pocket! As human beings, we are all rather clownish, aren’t we?

Hi Allie, I just started weighing with clothes after my March doc visit that put me at 174, when at home I was 171. I don’t want that shock again. Without clothes I was 168, but don’t document it. She wants me at 154 in 7 weeks. Not sure that is possible now. but not giving up

Violinist, isn’t that about 15lbs. in 7 weeks? You can do it! It will require being strict with
the carb counting and weighing and measuring, as well as abstaining from alcohol, though.
Eye on the prize, girl 🙂 You have the power to see it through! And if you falter, you have us
to be the wind beneath your wings!!!

Yes, Allie, it is 15 pounds in 7 weeks and I knew you were going to say that it is possible. Man, I used to find it so easy to be disciplined. I am encouraged going from 173 to 169 since reading MM’s book and meeting you guys. I agree it will have to be 800 calories and no alcohol, which is very difficult. I do measure everything already, so that is a plus. I wonder how many of you lost 15 pounds in 7 weeks?

Oh no, Violinist! Do I sound like a zealot? (I have been called that before 🙂 ) I only say
it because there was nothing spectacular about my rate of weight loss, quite “average” at
14lbs. a month. I was too disabled to do any exercise when I began, and I had that as a
negative, too! On only 2 occasions over 10 months did I make a decision to drink wine
on holidays, and each time I GAINED, and it took an entire week to get rid of it. I lost
2 whole weeks of progress! I know that you have a specific goal of 154lbs. by next
meeting with your Dr., and I genuinely believe you can achieve it if you stay at 800cal.,
very low carbs, no alcohol, and 2-3 liters of water/day. You really can get there by
planning ahead so you always have BSD friendly food in the refrig., and just take it 1
day at a time. Seven weeks can pass very quickly, particularly if you spend some of
it chatting away on the forums 🙂 It does make such a difference in staying focused!
I believe in you, Violinist!

No, Allie, you sound very supportive! Love t!!! The more I hear of all of your experiences and that of others, the more encouraged I am!

Thank you for the link JGwen. Have read it in my break (relaxing with coffee and cream at a lovely pub/tests across the road from where I work. Very interesting info – but rather surprising that there had been no research into the lifespan of red blood cells.

Thank you all for your supportive comments. My head is back in the right place and I have got things back into perspective again.

Violinist – congratulations on reaching 169.5 dressed. Good luck for your journey down to 154 – tourism definitely do it.

Gill33UK – you did so well to lose a lb with all that socialising going on.

Krysia, what do you mean? “tourism definitely do ot”

Oh no Violinist – auto correct had gone into overdrive. I wrote good luck for your journey down to 154 – you will definitely do it.