Hello Squidge

My doctor was so blase about the diagnosis. He just said take these for the rest of your life and you will be OK. I had to go home and google it. So sorry you had a goitre, one of the worse things about hypo I suspect.

I think that is the story of my life “a bit of cake/chocoate/baileys/crackers/cheese/curry/pie/mash/pudding/chips won’t hurt”
Well we know that’s not true!! My new motto is “count everything”.

Squidge

Yes our posts keep crossing, I keep getting interrupted by calls from clients (don’t they realise I’m busy!!).

If I’m honest I blame the hypothyroidism for everything! I now have a new approach of taking responsbility for my body and what I eat.

Aaargh – work gets in the way of life, doesn’t it? Talking of which, I should probably do some.

Hi Squidge

Yes work is one of life’s problems, but it does distract me from eating – most of the time!

No weight loss today.

On the plus side, a bad day weight wise used to mean I’d gained a pound or two. No change is much better than that!

Good Morning Squidge

Sorry there has been no loss, but as you say no a gain!

I am pleased to say I have lost a 1lb this morning, so making a total of 11lb for my first week. I am delighted with my progress so far and hopefully will keep me motivated! Mr Pacman is weighing in tomorrow, I hope he has had a good loss or my life won’t be worth liiving.

I have friends coming on Saturday and I have decided to cook Mexican. They can have burritos with chicken, peppers, mushrooms etc made with tortillas and I will just have the chicken etc with a small dollop of sour cream and guacamole. Everyone’s driving so no booze, which is no bad thing.

Have a great day

Well done, Jules! That’s an impressive weight loss.

If you fancy it, you could use cos lettuce leaves in place of tortillas. Not quite the same, I know, but you do get the putting stuff in and wrapping them up aspect. I have that on the meal plan I’ve devised for us.

Drinking water with slices of lime, mint leaves and ice would at least look like mojitos.

Hi Squidge

What a great idea! In fact I could use that for a few things – thanks for the suggestion.

Ha ha – faking it, that sounds like a plan. Fakitos are on the menu!

Hi everyone, I’ve just registered today and started the 800 BSD on Monday this week. I live in Greece at the moment and I’m waiting for Amazon to deliver some books on calories, carbs and the BSD book, so I have been working on information gathered online and hope I’m doing it right! Weighed myself this morning & have lost 5lbs, so am rather pleased!
I have lots of recipes but have trouble getting some of the ingredients but made the cauliflower topped cottage pie last night & just had broccoli with mine, gave my husband a jacket potato.
Not felt hungry yet & don’t crave any bread or potatoes sonic seems to going ok so far.

Hi everyone, I’ve just registered today and started the 800 BSD on Monday this week. I live in Greece at the moment and I’m waiting for Amazon to deliver some books on calories, carbs and the BSD book, so I have been working on information gathered online and hope I’m doing it right! Weighed myself this morning & have lost 5lbs, so am rather pleased!
I have lots of recipes but have trouble getting some of the ingredients but made the cauliflower topped cottage pie last night & just had broccoli with mine, gave my husband a jacket potato.
Not felt hungry yet & don’t crave any bread or potatoes so it seems to going ok so far.

Hi Sandy13

That’s a great weight loss for just a few days. I’m also new to BSD, but found it OK so far and the people on the Forum have great tips and advice. I am just eating around 800 calories a day and keeping my carbs under 20g and trying to reach 10,000 steps a day.

Well done, Sandy – great start. You can’t be doing very much wrong with a result like that.

Another day with no weight loss. I suspect I’m eating a little more than I should be. I’m rather slapdash about the measuring and counting. Must make more effort! Having said that, if I was on a normal low fat calories controlled diet, half a stone in twelve days would seem quite fast weight loss, so I can’t be going too far wrong.

My waist is a little smaller! I’m getting much more used to the exercise too – I mean the idea of doing it. I’m still unfit! My recovering is a little quicker and I’m less achy in the mornings, so I’m slowly getting there.

Still no alcohol. I’m feeling a bit smug about that, especially as we have some nice drinks in the house.

Well the results are in and Mr Pacman had lost 12lb since the 4th Jan. He was very happy with that. I lost another 1lb this morning so making me a 12lb loss as well. I had thought he would lose more being a male, but apparently not. I have spoken to a few of my friends about this diet and thay have said it is a ridiculous way to lose weight, but the proof of the pudding is in the results. I have have tried so many diets over the years and have to say this has been the most successful in terms of weight loss and I haven’t really struggled – just the occasional craving for something sweet!

You are right Squidge, half a stone in 12 days is really good and glad to hear the exercise is getting easier. I have been lifting some weights as I am waiting for a knee operation and can’t do much normal exercising apart from walking. My arms are aching, but like you, think it is getting better.

Have a great weekend, I’m looking forward to my fakitos tomorrow!

Oooh, great results, both of you!

We’ve all been told for years that low fat food is the only sensible way to lose weight and anything else is faddy and because low fat diets are harder to stick to, we expect weight loss to be slow – it’s probably not surprising that this diet seems ‘wrong’ to some people.

Personally I think (and did before BSD) that guzzling lots of cakes, biscuits and fizzy drinks with ‘low fat’ printed on the label can’t be healthy. Any diet which is mostly fresh food must be better than that.

You are right Squidge.

We have all been indocrinated into thinking fat is bad, and therefore low fat is good. I’m sure in the ‘olden days’ before processed foods there wasn’t the same amount of overweight people and was this because they ate from the land and water – meat, poultry, fish, veg, dairy, nuts, berries?

I think so. Plus if people wanted a cake or whatever, they had to make it – they couldn’t buy unhealthy snacks everywhere they went.

Exactly, they made everything: butter, bread, cheese, puddings from fresh fruit. Wherever we go we are bombarded with unhealthy food, I know you don’t have to buy/eat it, and from now on I won’t be. This loss has really motivated me to change my eating habits for good.

Hi Jules & Squidge, as I’m probably a bit older than you two, i remember some lovely meals in the fifties. Mum was a good cook and we always had ‘pudding’ of some sort every day! But then we did a lot of games etc at school and spent evenings out in the street running or rollerskating so worked it off! I rarely have a dessert these days and do miss them.
I haven’t weighed myself again and will wait till Monday morning, when my first week is up.

But well done all

Hi all, I’ve also found some people think rapid weight loss is a problem, believing it is much harder to maintain than slow steady loss – body has time to adjust etc. If course the evidence tells us there is no difference. Weight loss, however achieved, is hard to maintain. As this way of eating, lovely fresh food, no processed carbs etc, becomes familiar, we at least start that challenge from a position of strength. Go us!

Hello Sandy13 and Flick

I”m a child of the 60’s, so probably similar meals and like you spent my childhood running wild, so weight wasn’t a problem until my 20s when I started cooking for myself!

Flick, you are completely right. I have had a couple of comments this week on how you should only lose 1lb a week, higher than that is not good for you, but I think that eating fresh food as advocated on the BSD is so much healthier than other plans. Adding to these annoyances is that the comments have come from someone who is severely obese, but thinks she is an expert on losing weight and how I am an “idiot” for doing the BSD.

I’m reminded of a time at work, when a slim healthy woman (in her 50s) used to bring in salads for lunch and ate nuts and cheese as snacks. She was constantly given unwanted dietary advice from very overweight men – ‘you shouldn’t eat cheese, you shouldn’t snack, you’ll get fat eating that much etc’. One day she snapped and said that if they said another word before they’d slimmed down to half her weight, she’d report them for harassment!

Squidge

Good for her! She was obviously a trail blazer for the BSD. I am now going to ignore the doubters and gloom merchants.

Well, I’ve tried most diets over the years & if it was WW or SW they always were pleased if you’d lost a pound or half! It was too slow & I think most people got disheartened.

The only thing I worry about now is the fact that my skin has little elasticity and I’ll be left with lots of baggy bits!? But apart from that I’m quite happy on BSD & if you are then ignore people’s comments, it’s only jealousy.

Sandy13

I also think that SW encouraged you to eat more than you need to, and not necessarily healthy food either.

I have that concern too. If (or should that be when?) I have lost the weight I want to, will my now huge belly hang like an elephants ear?
I will have to tuck it into my big knickers!

Thanks for the laugh Jules, but that’s where I keep my nipples!!

Haha Sandy13 that made me really laugh!

Big knickers – what would we do without them!

Absolutely, we all need big knickers – the greyer the better

I’ve been reading up on the saggy skin issue. Apparently it doesn’t happen to everyone, so maybe we’ll be lucky? Toning exercises and strength training are supposed to help – I can imagine they would. Also a healthy diet, low in sugar and high in vitamins, minerals and protein and drinking plenty of water is a good idea … hmm, that sounds familiar.

The only thing that goes against the BSD is the suggestion that weight should be lost slowly, especially if there’s a lot to loose. That’s to allow the skin to ‘adjust’. To me that suggests that faster weight loss might result in some sagginess to start with, but if we keep eating well and exercising, it will start to adjust and improve.

Hi all

I think there are several factors with people opposing rapid weight loss.

From a commercial viewpoint, anyone selling dietary advice will benefit from slow loss as you will be paying them for longer.

From a friends/family point of view, firstly they’ve listened to all the comments about rapid loss being bad for you and worry, secondly, you do change appearance rapidly and can look thinner around your face. People take time to adjust to the fact that you look different as they traditionally think of a thinner face as being “ill” and again they worry.

Bottom line though it’s up to us and our bodies.

Hi Squidge,

Our posts crossed. I think you are right about saggy skin, it does take time to catch up, and this adds to “helpful” people saying we’d be better with slow loss!

At least saggy skin is underneath my clothing, although not reached that stage yet. You are probably right that some exercise is good for the sagginess and we always have big knickers to fall back on. Although I suspect that as we move closer to our target, the weight loss will slow down anyway. I expect to look like Wonder Woman by the summer.

Hi Victoria, I do agree with what you say and, thinking about the rapid weight loss, people who have gastric bands fitted must lose weight even quicker than we might on this diet

Can I just add people are critical of fast weight loss because it’s always more comfortable to have a fat friend. Losing weight rapidly is a big change for them as well as us, and lots of people do not take change well. When I was overweight (before my recent surge into obesity, so like ALL MY LIFE) i was always a bit sad when I lost a fat friend and a thin one emerged from her shell. People see themselves reflected in you and compare, and suddenly they can’t say ‘at least I’m thinner than ….’

Of course most people are basically nice, so they get over it, but I do think it’s still there and one of the reasons why they find rapid, noticeable change difficult.

I don’t want to be the ‘fat friend’ any longer.

Nope, nor me. 😁 lucky we found BSD!

Currently I am the “friend who is not quite as fat as she used to be, but is still fat” – aiming for “skinny mate”

JackieM, you’re a very wise person. I’ve told no-one at home, in UK, that I have started this diet, except a friend I’ve had for 60+ years, who has always been overweight. I have been trying to interest her in the BSD but she thought it was only for diabetics!
I plan to go back in April/May to see all the family & hope I’m a lot thinner by then!?

One time I lost weight (to get married maybe) and my best ever friend (now of 30yesrs standing) was properly enthusiastic but then kind of muttered ‘but you’re thinner than me …. ‘ (which had never happened before.)

Last time I saw her, about a month ago, I bitchily noticed she had put quite a lot on round the tum. If I was still fat this would have pleased me in the secret depths of my not so very kind heart. As it was I just slightly worried about her health.

Another very good friend has found my weight loss v hard, because she has health issues she didn’t want to face up to and cos we used to enjoy saying ‘s*d it’ and havingbthe cake together. Even now she’s losing she’s not doing it the BSD way, which says something about our friendship dynamic and nothing about the BSD!

I should add I love them both to bits

Ps: I do kind of, now I’m not overweight or obese anymore, and due to a twice a week weight training workout (of a few years standing), look a bit like Wonderwoman. Well, without the boobs, hair or face. But lean. And nothing wobbles (not even boobs 😫) . Now I just need a magic lasso

I do also have a squidgy tum and saggy under chin bit where fat used to be. But I’m 48, and feeling good so a bit of skins OK. Also, a while ago some of the maintainers (Esnecca was one I think) were talking about how skin tightens up a over time. I think Alliecat called it autophagy?

I do have some epically wobbly areas (upper arms, belly, thighs) which was very much to be expected given that I had 200 lbs to lose. They have changed over time. My ab regimen seems to have had a positive effect on my waist and belly in that the toned muscle sort of sucks the looser bits in. My proverbial bingo wings are now completely empty, so much so that you can clearly see my triceps because the extra skin is so flat it’s practically two-dimensional.

I’m still pretty self-conscious. It looks weird, I cannot tell a lie. The good news is you can’t see any of this when I’m dressed and the only person who has to see me nekkid is endlessly enthusiastic about it, bless his heart.

Jackie, autophagy is one of the advantages of fasting. It’s when the body consumes its own moribund and decrepit cells because you’re not feeding it anything else for a while. This speeds up the process of cell replacement and can have a positive effect on skin quality, firmness, etc.

Jackie, your body is forced into autophagy during fasting, one of it’s biggest benefits as far as I’m concerned. Autophagy, I believe, literally means to eat oneself!

My skin has certainly tightened. I have only a single chin these days, with no saggy skin left, I no longer have batwing arms and, come the summer, will certainly be going sleeveless (assuming we HAVE a summer warm enough of course😝). I certainly don’t have “saggy skin” on my tum, it’s just a bit wrinkly (above belly button, not below) but nowhere near as much as it was when I entered maintenance, so I have high hopes that this will all tighten too. I’m 20 years older than you, but I agree, what’s a bit of saggy skin / few wrinkles compared to all that excess blubber we used to carry around. Like you, I feel fantastic.

I might have to be brave and try some fasting! Any idea how long at a time we have to go without food for it to do any good?

In his original 5:2 days MM said auto phage kicked in after 17 hrs. I think Jason Fung advocates longer before it kicks in.

Yikes! Can I count time asleep in that?

Even so, dinner at 7 means I can’t eat until after midday the following day. I won’t be doing that very often!

Squidge, the longest I have fasted for to date (nothing but water) is 56 hours. Trust me, it gets easier 😉 and yes, of course that includes sleep time. These days I positively enjoy fasting but don’t do it very often because I am already half a stone below target (8st ) and it involves too much weight loss, for me anyway.

PS the first 24 hours is the hardest, after that the hunger tends to dissipate and I feel as though I could continue indefinitely – though not everyone takes to it. If you want to give it a go, start eating 16:8 which is what I do most days. When you think you can spend 8 hours of that in bed, it’s really not that hard.

I could try skipping breakfast on some days and might be able to manage the 17 hours without food, but I’d have to have tea (with milk). Would it still be worth fasting in that case? I realise it will cut my calorie intake, which is good as I am overweight, but would I gain any other benefits?

Is this stuff covered in MM’s 5.2 book?

I was diagnosed yesterday after the results of a 2nd blood test 2 weeks apart. I’d completely cut out carbs after the phone call to repeat the blood test, fearing this outcome. Dr said the 2nd blood was ‘remarkably’ lower so that was good. I cried throughout the appointment with the realisation that my life had changed forever. To top it all I’m full of cold, bad chest, feeling rotten. I don’t sleep well – anyone else suffer like that? Dr said I might be dehydrated but I wee so much at night?? Bought a nice water filter bottle and hey! Not as much weeing last night. Also low in sodium causing headaches. He recommended a tsp salt in water. Urghh. So, sorry for misery but will bounce back and approach this with vigour!
I’m very confused by all the numbers, abbreviations etc – how can I get to grips with it?