Thanks for the support ladies you are helping me to keep going too 🙂

Glad it is going well for you Izzy. I was back to being really well behaved food wise but then ate stuff of my daughter’s which I shouldn’t have (having successfully avoided an ice cream when I bought her one – this would have been a less bad choice than her sweets which I succumbed to!). Although not diabetic this won’t help my weight loss this week. I have at least got sensible meals in the freezer and fridge so am slightly derailed rather than completely off the track. Helping to keep her on an emotionally even keel is enough to lower my resistance to the wrong stuff at the low moment. You folks are made of stronger stuff than I am. I really want to lose the rest of my weight though so am persevering. Once the maths exam is over on 12th May things should be much improved!

My cusique spiralizer arrived today but has gone straight back as although supposedly new it had courgette stains on instructions sheet and the pieces were out of their plastic bags which were also broken. New one coming tomorrow…

I’m not stronger, I just haven’t really had anything too stressful over the past two weeks don’t let a few little slips get you down! I haven’t slipped up here yet but I’ve fallen off various wagons many a time on past eating plans, the secret is to jump straight back on 🙂

That’s a shame about your spiralizer, hope you have better luck with tomorrows delivery.

I’m short on steps today but due to my blister on my foot I have hobbled all day, I might take the night off and chill as my daily average is above 10000 still anyway. I need to get good insoles for my walking boots to avoid more blisters lol.

Breakfast today was yoghurt and strawberries
lunch was cheese salad and a tablespoon of cranston pickle (I’d love to find a low carb cracker…my next mission)
dinner omelette

Also currently cooking salt and vinegar chickpeas, which is supposed to make a nice savoury snack for those of us who miss crisps. I’ll report back how they turn out later, just google ‘salt and vinegar chickpeas’ if you want them as my links don’t seem to appear when I post them 🙁

I agree about getting straight back up when falling down. That’s what’s helped me stick with this diet where in the past I failed. The rapid results make it worth sticking with (others I just found too demoralising as weight loss was slow). The support from you and others on these forums tells me that it’s worth persevering when I feel too low to tell myself. Thank you Izzy and all those who post here. You really are a big support.

This thread is sooo inspiring. I bought the book on bank holiday Monday and started today. Love your food diaries- so helpful. Keep going Izzy we’re all following in your trail.

aw thanks again you guys 🙂 I’m following in the trail of others I’m still new at this! I’m just surprised how naturally it seems to come given that I (used to) love my potatoes, bread and pasta but I’m really not missing them.

The salt and vinegar chick peas turned out nicely 🙂 and not difficult at all, totally recommend looking them up!

wasn’t someone on telly last week showing folks to stick tape ( micropore I think or similar ) and blisters don’t happen? I think it was the One Show.

Ah, aside from movies I don’t watch TV. I don’t often get blisters but we did walk about 8 miles lol. I was grateful to get home and into my squashy slippers tonight haha, but having had to pop to the shop after dinner my steps are up to 9350 so I’m not far off 10000 anyways. I’m hoping the discomfort eases off by tomorrow.

Hi Izzy I have heard people who blister on shorter than 8 mile walks say that Australian Blister Socks have solved the problem. They bought them over the net so perhaps you could google them 🙂

HI Izzy. Love the diary. I am a huge tea drinker too so the first thing I do in the morning is measure out 100mls of full fat milk (67cals) and use that for my teas all day. I find I use the tea between meals to ease my hunger so i am happy to give up those cals and I actually record them under “snacks” in my calorie counter. I usually can get 4 – 5 cups of tea from that 100mls and if i don’t use it all then thats a few cals Iess that day 🙂

I have just ordered the books and need to find a stress-free 8 weeks that I can plan for. I am not obviously overweight but 16 kg over on the scales (must be inner fats). I am a diagnosed Type II (was gestational with kids, and father is also Type II). Struggle with blood sugars – fasting sugars are always above 10 so have no idea what is going on. But I know carbs have never been good for me, and the only time I ever lost weight was on low carb diets. I also used to be quite fit but stopped exercising so much when I became a full-time student. Looking forward to getting fit again, and I have a Fitbit which I must use! This diary is inspirational, and I will take notes as I find most of the hard work initially is in organising the pantry so it is easier to stick to things. Thanks for all these notes. 🙂

Shaz don’t look for a stress free 8 weeks or you will not do it

Read the book, sort out some recipes, shop for what you need and just start .
It can only do you good 🙂
.

Hashimoto, thanks for the tip I will look for those socks 🙂

Stacey welcome to BSD, you are doing well counting your milk like that, I mostly drink herbal teas now so that I don’t need milk/sugar!

Shaz, Hashimoto is right. Don’t wait just do what you need to be organised and start. If you wait for those ‘golden’ eight weeks you will never get started and always look back and wish you had. Good luck to you all!

Today has gone well again, my blister is more manageable lol and I’ve done over 10000 steps.

I had yoghurt and raspberries for breakfast

salt and vinegar chickpeas and some chicken at lunch

diced steak with gravy and veg for dinner, which I am yet to eat but it is sitting waiting for me. My husband has dished it up for me as I had to go to a meeting and he has put potato on there so once I am ready to have it I’ll sweep that straight off into the food bin so I won’t be tempted to eat it!

so I was good last night and that mashed potato went straight in the food bin 🙂

Todays menu…

I’ve had coconut pancakes and raspberries for breakfast

I have cheese, cherry tomatoes and cranston pickle for lunch

Dinner will be roast chicken with salad

I have a portion of salt and vinegar chickpeas to nibble.

I appear to have hit the dreaded plateaux … I weighed today out of curiosity and I haven’t lost any weight since last friday 🙁

However I have read of so many of you having the same so I refuse to be discouraged. I am tightening up my controls however to ensure I am staying true to the rules. Can you eat too little? I’m often under 700 cals, and I’m going to try to bring down my carbs a little bit more too.

Hey Izzy

Have saved your diary to favourites, what an inspiration you are! Love the foodie ideas, I’m going to try the mini quiches this weekend – where did you find the silicone quiche cups by the way?

The crustless scotch eggs sound tasty too, do you make them the traditional way with sausage meat?

I found a curried chicken recipe which is quite dry and might work well with lettuce wraps or as a pepper filler, so I’ll put that on the recipe board later.

Massive congratulations on your weight loss so far!!

Thankyou 🙂

I posted the scotch egg recipe on the recipe board, but I used pork loin steaks which I put in the blender with bacon and seasoning. So it kind of is sausage meat but without all the crap they add to sausages!

Good luck with your journey 😊

Hi Izzy,
Can you tell me where to find the salt and crispy garbanzo bean recipe you have made?
Thanks so much! On last day of my first week and reading all your posts has really helped me! 💜

Izzy hang in there! Your body is probably adjusting to losing a lot of water initially! Good job throwing out the potatoes💖
Yes you can eat too few calories which is why he says to eat 800 to ensure you get enough nutrition.
Stick with it! You are an inspiration to many…
🌷

Do you mean the salt and vinegar chickpeas? Previously when I’ve posted links they seem to blank out but I will try it!

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2015/03/crunchy-salt-vinegar-chickpeas-recipe/

I really enjoyed them 🙂

I’ve changed my evening menu from salad to oven baked courgette, pepper, tomato and onion, drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with crushed garlic and chilli salt alongside my chicken. I’m really looking forward to eating it in about 5 mins!

Well I went out tonight to vote in our election, and walked the long way home as I’m low on steps. I still am a bit under my target but I’m feeling pretty tired tonight and suddenly, inexplicably a bit low. Hubby keeps asking if I’m ok bless him. I think I’m just tired. Interestingly tonight is the first time I’ve really wanted chocolate, and I may also be pre-menstrual. Those pesky hormones.

I’ve been good and didn’t nip in to the shop for chocolate whilst I was out, which previously I absolutely would have done and then eaten it before I got home too. Small triumph but I’m still pleased that I am proving to myself every day that I can do this.

For now I’m going to have an early night and hope that tomorrow I am back to my usual self.

MMM to salt and vinegar chickpeas, will have to try them, bought a huge back of chickpea flour this afternoon and have been out walking today too.

I discovered local hand made vegan chocolate which was expensive but I got a little block as I’m spending less on food at the moment. It was sweetened with agave but not by much and is very dark, I seem to prefer more bitter tastes as I’m getting older.

Also got some sauerkraut as I’ve read fermented foods are really good for increasing the good gut bacteria which in turn will be good for digestion! We are lucky to have this tiny little shop that sells all sort of otherwise hard to get foods.

Well done for passing up on the chocolate though. I can now go down the aisles of gross stuff and not even feel interested in buying any of it. So yay for that!

That shop sounds great I would have to travel to find that. I haven’t been able to find chickpea flour yet either but I have coconut flour.

I’ve had my official mid-week weigh in and… drum roll please…. I’m down by…. an impressive….0.5 lbs lol. At least it’s moved a little and it’s in the right direction. Half way through week 3 🙂

So TMI alert, I think I was constipated… I’ve had to go twice this morning lol. Apologies for sharing such matters but I think it may have contributed to my slower loss as well as my mood yesterday.

Today I’m feeling more normal, but I recognise that this is little to do with the diet. I’ve been clawing my way back to mental health over the last 18 months after my husbands depression almost cost us our marriage, leading to my own depression. We are both much better now, but I’m not quite 100% yet. Proud of my husband though as he has really turned his around.

I’m low on steps today, and water, but it’s only 11am. There is time to catch up. I’ll take the small one out for a walk soon and that will help a bit. I’m attempting to make cauliflower and cannellini soup from the recipes on here for lunch so hopefully that will turn out nice. I’ve also made pancake batter with coconut flour and put some in fridge and some in freezer, as an experiment to see if they still turn out ok. The recipe did say you could freeze the made pancakes but I like to have them fresh out of the pan and still warm to eat 🙂 Need to buy more chickpeas too and make more salt and vinegar ones as I think they are going to be something I can pacify myself with when the urge for junk interferes with my calm.

Todays food looks like this…

Breakfast yoghurt and strawberries

lunch soup

dinner courgetti bolognaise

I didn’t answer lisas nanny about the silicon cups, I just picked them up in tesco 🙂

I can confirm that the recipe for creamy cauli and canelini bean soup is yummy. So can my son who enjoyed his bowlful, I was jealous of his slice of bread he had with it tho lol

Chickpea flour has lots of different names, hashimoto has put all the different ones on another thread which was really helpful. Still had to make sure by reading the ingredients though lol, it can be called gram, Bengal gram, garbanzo or garbanzo bean and sometimes known as Egyptian pea, ceci, cece or chana, or Kabuli chana (nicked definitions from wiki)

Mine was 2kg for £3.85 so have to make lots of things with it now. I still have lots of coconut flour from when I was trying to eat healthily. Gonna give my dried dates away to a friend today too as they were in these ‘healthy’ recipes that I was using before finding this diet.

So far today breakfast was a Granny Smiths with some Fage yogurt and pumpkin seeds. Not sure about lunch but dinner is chicken in (probably bad chipotle and cola sauce but it was only 20p in Sainsbury’s yesterday and have only added a little bit) and stir fry veg with homegrown beansprouts!

Plateau has been left behind as long as it doesn’t go back to 13 st again 😀

Hey Izzy,

Well good thing you are figuring out what caused the slowdown…. 🙂 I am still having the other problem off and on…..
Gotta a ton of work to get done today so wishing you a great day!!

Stay on it!! We can do it!!

Thanks Polly, I was looking on amazon I can pick up a pack online easily so I will do that soon. The pancakes help me along but I would love to make crackers. I do have a recipe I’ve found for coconut ones so I will try soon. Yay to passing plateau’s! Hope mine goes too!

I’m ever hopeful happy life that my scales will move tomorrow but if not I’m sure they will one day soon 🙂

I’ve had a nice afternoon with my son, we walked along to the park at the other side of the village, played there, then there is a nice walk between fields that takes us to the opposite side of the village where there is another park and we played there too, then walked home again. I’m up to 8500 steps so getting 10000 today will now be easy enough.

added a cup of milk and a teaspoon of cocoa powder to my day for a hot choc. I just felt like something soothing 🙂

night all

Oh that sounds good!! All of you recommended protein shakes for my upcoming trip so I tried a chocolate one by VEGA (vegan and gluten free with low carbs) this morning and it was delicious!! The developer is an avid main stream athlete and it has tons of nutrition in it as well!
I will use them every day for breakfast on my trip and you just mix them with water?’

That sounds great happylife! My husband uses some shakes but his are high calories. He has an oat shake every day that is 800 calories by itself lol. He needs the carbs and calories though. He trains a lot and is very lean, he has never been able to gain fat his body just works too fast. Jealous? Me? Yup lol.

I’m yet to decide on the days menu… hmmm

so it’s day 19 in the Izzy BSD house. almost 3 weeks in and can’t believe it has passed so quickly!

mostly chilling just now but it looks a nice day again so we’ll probably head off to the park again soon and get my steps up. Aside from that it will be a dull day… catching up on Laundry. Although I do have a couple of flat pack cabinets to assemble so I may get that done later, as well as making more salt and vinegar chickpeas.

Tomorrow I am going to make a batch of scotch eggs and attempt to make crackers with coconut flour 🙂

Todays foooooood.

Breakfast was going to be pancakes but my decent frying pan was in the dishwasher and I tried to use my other (not non-stick) one and lets just say it ended badly. Yoghurt and raspberries saved the day. Pancakes tomorrow because the kids want them too!

Lunch (I posted the recipe) was an experiment, that my husband enjoyed too. Halved peppers filled with bacon, spring onion, egg and cheese, baked in the oven. they were nice, bit pricey in the calories at 390 per portion but it will be ok. Would be good for those who eat twice a day.

Dinner, needing a lowish calorie choice I’m going to do pork stir fry.

Love your menu posting as you give great hints on what might and might not work!
Wishing you a great day!

Argggghhh, to the joyfulness that is salt n vinegar chickpeas, they are just too, too nice.

Have been having a bit of a munchy day today. At least they are better than some other things I could munch on. Might post the recipe on here and put we both recommend them. Maybe the vinegar makes them digest slightly differently though that may just be wishful thinking hah.

The peppers you made sound lovely. My other food today was BLT with the B and T in the L and then wilted dandelion leaves from the garden, chicken wings (not great from iceland) and jalapeno coleslaw. It doesn’t really sound a lot but there were lots of calories (specially with the chickpeas)

Am finding stir-fries are lovely and nutritious and have been sprouting my own beansprouts. Really easy and takes about a week

Polly x

lol I had just replied to you on the other thread where you mentioned the chickpeas. I use a 400g can, and make 3 portions so I can control the munchies. Each portion is around 100 calories and 12.8g carbs. I haven’t posted the recipe because it mentions to take care with copyright and only post your own recipes, that’s why I posted the link rather than just the recipe on this thread too. I doubt it would be a problem but I overthink these things lol.

I’ve never tried dandelion leaves, do they taste nice? love the idea of jalapeno coleslaw too, we grow our own chillis, which reminds me… I have some jalapeno seeds and should plant one! Currently have pepperonici, apache and hungarian hot wax growing on my windowsill. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been able to effectively grow and keep alive after buying a kit a few years ago lol. I’ve even killed off cacti.

I’ve never tried sprouting my own sprouts either… I feel a new project coming on!

Ooh, talking my language!!!chillies, food of the gods!

Have you grown poblano chillies? I. Grow them rather than sweet peppers. Same size with just a hint of spice EXCEPT sometimes unexpectedly and inexplicably you get a hot one. Or part of one is hot.

I used to play chilli russian roulette with slices to dip in my hummus at school lunch times. 🙂 oh and each plant grows more fruits than sweet peppers :).

ahhh we absolutely speak the same language! I often refer to our dinners as chilli roulette because you can never tell haha. Put in two one day and it’s too spicy, next day different two and it’s fine lol

I haven’t tried poblano chilli’s though. The pepperonici ones are milder and just a hint of spice. used to like that with cheese on toast (sighs wistfully) I still add them to lots that I cook with. Only have apaches at the moment as I’ve harvested and eaten all the others but I know more will grow soon 🙂

We love our chilli’s and when I grow them from seed I get so excited as they grow hahaha

Poblano rellenos de quesa. You have got to grow some poblano Izzy so you can make the south american cheese stuffed poblano peppers. I make loads and freeze the extras. It fits in with BSD diet too!
A good game of chilli roulette can be played with them!
AND they are even better than cheesy chilli on toast 🙂

Oh Hashimoto can you please provide your recipe! I love poblano a and that sounds delicious!!
😀

Hi happylife, a fellow poblano lover!!! I’m in bed now but will post the recipe tomorrow!!! 🙂

MMMM to all the chilli stuff, try to eat that and garlic as much as I can. I did make the mistake a while back though, of cooking with pickled chillis. Nearly took my head off. Once burnt, twice shy.

I’ve grown very small sweet peppers before but not tried growing chilli.

All I do for sprouting mung beans is soak them overnight, then next day put them in a clean glass jar with a cover – I use a lid from a larger jar that just sits on top. Put them in a dark place and rinse them twice a day. Worked better for me that way than growing them in the light. Anyway I should sleep.

Posting other people’s recipes is ok I think as long as you give the source site? I’d have thought that would benefit wherever the recipe was from and get new people to go look at it too

Hi Izzy
You may be interested in this recipe for crackers. I haven’t tried them yet, nor used the basic recipe for the pizza base – but will! The website is http://www.ditchthecarbs.com. I tried the cauliflower pizza base last night – good except after baking it for a bit I grilled the top, flipped it and grilled the bottom to make it more crispy. Delicious.
Jussi

Jussi55 thanks so much for the ditch the carbs site! I am totally new to this and their recipes look great!
🌷

Hope you find it useful Happylife. It’s good to find some inspiration went you tire of the usual meals which are easy to prepare but become a bit ho hum. I am inclined to stick to the same meals but am finding now I’m keen to do a bit of exploring, particularly as this will be the basis of eating for …. Well, for ever!

Thanks Jussi! that website looks great, I’ve seen a reference to cauli pizza but haven’t tried it yet, could be on the menu soon tho!

I agree with the idea of trying to explore it will make the long term changes much more do-able. My husband is the kind of person who would eat bland chicken, brocolli and sweet potato every day, several times per day, just because he knows it’s what his body needs. He has that sort of discipline and motivation (he is trying to get bigger whilst I’m trying to get smaller) but even he appreciates when I cook him up portions of chicken cooked different ways to change up his meals for him. If he cooks them himself it’s just plain lol. I am often to be found batch cooking chicken in various forms and separating it into tubs for him (with rice/sweet potato/pasta) and me (without the carby stuff)

Now I used to have a graze account (they post out healthy snacks weekly/monthly/whatever you ask for) so I’ve cancelled it now as I wasn’t eaten them but I have some sitting left over. I realised I had a ‘protein’ strawberry yoghurt topper, so being drawn in my the promise of it being ‘protein’ and low calorie, I used it this morning before checking. Mistaken Izzy (gives self a slap)

it did have protein, 3.8g of the stuff. It also had 17g of carbs. 17!!! *&%$ so my breakfast had an epic 26.8g carbs including the yoghurt. So be wary of things that promote themselves as ‘protein’ because actually… that’s not great.

Lunch is now going to be eggs!

Dinner was going to be chicken curry, but the sauce I use is a slimming world recipe made with blended veg and I’m not sure if it will be too much carbs. I might just accept that my total carbs will be higher than normal today. It will be several hours before I eat again anyway.

I don’t usually weigh every day, normally just twice a week, however having had a short plateau I decided to weigh every day to satisfy my curiosity. It’s been going down a little again every day and I’m now down 2 lb’s on last weeks weigh in. If I can regularly lose 2/week I will be very pleased and it is still 48 hours to my official weigh in (at the end of week 3 and start of week 4 woohoo) I keep saying this but I just can’t believe how quickly this is passing, or how easy it has been. I have seldom struggled with cravings and it’s been manageable. My fear of the cravings has been much bigger than the cravings themselves. I find that a lot in life generally lol… the fear of a thing is more than the actual thing turns out to be. Mostly.

Those who read here will know I was going to have pancakes for breakfast… However my daughter had a friend for a sleepover and there is my son who is a bucket and eats everything. Having promised them pancakes and being too lazy to make more today I’m saving the batter for when they get up and I’ll just give it to them. I will make more tho. I still haven’t made my scotch eggs but maybe tonight will be a cooking night once the little one is in bed. I enjoy cooking but it isn’t always easy to fit it in, and I don’t like the clearing up after! I did make some chick peas yesterday but my daughter has nabbed some of those as well! Do you see a pattern emerging? haha it’s actually great because my daughter has been a pain for going off ‘good’ food and only wanting crap. If I can substitute some of the rubbish food with these types of things then that helps her too. I doubt I would have got her into eating chickpeas other than the fact these are flavoured with salt and vinegar… and it’s mostly the vinegar I don’t add much salt.

I’ve ordered pablano chilli seeds 🙂 I’ll dig out my windowledge propogator and plant some of those and some jalapeno. I’ve also ordered a big jar and pickling spices because I’ve got it into my head I want to make pickled eggs. Googled it and it looks pretty easy… famous last words lol. I can make lots at once but it takes two weeks to be ready and then keeps for up to 6 months (they will never last that long here they will be munched) Something different to bring to work for lunch.

I’m excited! How sad am I? lol

Izzy great job on the 2 lbs!!! I now have to google Scotch eggs as I have no idea what they are. That is art of the fun of being in this group with others from around the world!! I had to look up courgettes last week because so many talked about them. Eggplant to us here it seems.
Good luck with the poblano seeds! I love poblanos and someone told me their spice depends how much sun they or while growing but I am br sure that’s accurate.
Have a great day albeit watching carbs. How many carbs a day to you keep to typically? I have been at 50 or less so fat. And no cravings at all ever so that works for me.

Happylife, courgette is zucchini! Aubergine is eggplant.

Hi HappyLife
Courgettes are green marrows & Zucchini is its other name.
I’ve just spiralized & then riced mine by pulsing it in my food processor. I’ve also done that to carrots & beetroot. I’ll mix them all together raw & put a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice salt & black pepper on them. You can also add tomatoes & tinned sweet corn ( or bbq the sweet corn first & then add).
And you could mash an avocado & add two dessert spoons of sour cream, ground salt & black pepper & serve that as a side dish or dip.
Eggplant is also called Aubergine, it’s the deep purple one you know. I’m just about to cut that into long slices, oil it & slap it on the bbq. Yum yum I’m off for dinner bbq style. Enjoy

Thanks ladies!! I woke up at 3am so my brains not awake enough yet to remember which is which – always learning something new! Yeah!