Well done Krysia. If you can maintain for 7 months you can probably do it forever.

Well home from holiday now and I think I have gained 1.4lbs since the start of this challenge. Really am confused doing two challenges at the same time and being on holiday…. not even sure what day it is today! Only thing I am sure of is that this is the last day of my first year of BSD and I feel so much better than when I started. I’ll post tomorrow on ‘My journey’ thread with my years results.

Hope everyone has had a good week.

Official weigh in today – I am a pound down from yesterday but a pound up from Friday. But the weekend was a disaster and I really need to get my head back in it. My goal is 9st but I have been 8st 11lbs this year.

Anyway, back on it from yesterday, trying to think positively and be mindful of everything that I eat and what I’m thinking about when I do. As an all or nothing comfort eater being unhappy at work doesn’t help! Hopefully it’s a temporary (and probably hormonal) thing.

Good luck to everyone weighing in today – one week of this challenge to go!

TC x

Seems there are some mixed results being reported this week, but lots of positivity in that everyone seems to be determined to stick with it and get some good results next week.

After a surprisingly good result at last week’s weigh-in and an up and down week, I can report a small loss of 0.2lb for the past week. This brings me to slightly less than 2lb to get back to target weight. It’s a slow process, but I’m getting there. Not sure it’ll happen for the end of the challenge though. For some reason though, I’m feeling a bit bloated and pudgy. This might be a bit of constipation – again! Will be looking to get that sorted over the next couple of days.

Hope there will be others reporting some good results this week – look forward to reading them. Here’s to an excellent end to the challenge for all of us – good luck everyone.

I very nearly did not post. I’m in a dangerous place, re my weight/health. I’m feeling very like the myriad times I’ve dropped off the regime I’d set myself and that’s where I am right now. I’m not settng in stone today’s weight but i am up more than a kg. Overeating and off piste.

I will take time tomorrow to do some naval gazing, sort out this head of mine. Good luck all.

Have a great holiday Butterlover

Am up 0.4 lb today. A little bit disappointed as I did a 24 hour fast on Friday/Saturday and a 16 hour fast on Sunday, the reason being that it was my son’s engagement meal on Sunday and when I looked at the menu there was only one vegetarian option for main course which happened to be cheese and onion pie but I had that with green beans only. I had Waldorf salad to start but did opt for creme brûlée for dessert! . I had one glass of champagne. I am really struggling to get below 144 lbs at the moment and have hit another dreaded plateau. I so want to get below 140 lbs. Anyway, now that there is a wedding on the horizon I have more of an incentive to keep chipping away. Am going to challenge myself to lose 2lb before next Tuesday! See you next Tuesday for the final weigh in of June to July.

My official weigh in today is distinctly birthday celebrations affected, and just out of my comfort zone again at 11 stone 0.6. Missed yesterday’s fast day as well, it was going well until I got home and found the birthday cake again 😊 Not badly over TDEE though, thanks to 16:8 fasting not leaving me so much time to over eat. Will do my planned second fast day on either Thursday or Friday, and then hopefully back on my new plan. Well done to everyone for keeping on keeping on.

Marsie sorry to hear that you are not in a good place right now 🙁 You are always so supportive of everyone else, so I think we all need to send you some support, and virtual hugs right now 🤗
I haven’t had good results either this week and am late to post this week. Am up 400g, or 0.88lb (actually that sounds better!). My excuse is that it was no.2 daughters birthday last Friday and instead of showing restraint, and only having 1 glass of champagne like Cathy did, I had 4 or 5. Which then led me into having a grilled chicken burger, instead of the grilled chicken & veggies I had planned during our meal out (I didn’t eat the chips though so showed some restraint). Then I had ice cream birthday cake. It didn’t stop there… the next day while out shopping I had Cinammon donuts with my coffee… oh dear! So it was no wonder then on Monday that my weight had gone up a whole 1.8kg from the week before! Some of that must have been fluid because my weight dropped again over the past few days. So where has this left me in terms of the challenge? Am actually at my original goal weight for the 4 weeks, but not the revised one.
Where is all this leading? Well I’m accepting that I CHOSE to eat those foods, I’ve accepted the consequences,
a gain this week, and now moving on.
Life happens, we are all human, there’ll be slip ups from time to time. Also it’s one thing to stick to the BSD for 8 weeks, but it gets a lot harder when it’s long term.
So please don’t be too hard on yourself Marsie! there are many of us in the same boat and all we can do is as you say, keep on keeping on x

Hi Marsie, sorry to hear you are struggling mentally, but my advice is if you are struggling to stick to a regime then change the regime. Give yourself a week or several weeks off 800 calories, maybe try 5:2 as it will help you keep that sense of control. Perhaps try to introduce 16:8 fasting as well just to mix things up. There are many variations of this way of eating that are still on a plan, and don’t give you that nagging feeling of failure when you can’t stick to them. My username was selected because of my habit of mixing things up including diets and ways of eating, and it does help keep things fresh. Good luck with your contemplation.

Marsie I agree with Mixnmatch.

Don’t be too hard on yourself. Take one day at a time. Maybe you could write down the reasons your started following this way of eating in the first place. Might just renew your enthusiasm.

I don’t believe that anybody can follow this WOE 24/7 religiously day after day. Also, I’m not certain that it’s a good thing to follow the same regime. Mix and match could be the name of the game!!! I do think that your body gets used to being fed the same day after day and just accepts it. I think you need to give it a kick start now and again and I think that eating more calories occasionally maybe the way to do it.

I started these 4 week challenges back in October last year because I just found 8 weeks too long but 4 was manageable. I think lots of people feel the same. When I’m really stuck or back from holiday I do a 7 day short, sharp, shock….. just 7 days… and that usually gets me back on track. But possibly one day at a time isn’t challenging enough because ‘there’s always tomorrow’ to start again.

Or, maybe you just need a complete break. Life is too short to keep beating yourself up for ‘failing’ maybe you should just change the goal posts and enjoy!

Morning all

I’m blue 🙁 yesterday I just said f**k it and had chocolate (the absolutely wrong kind) and so many roasted salted peanuts that even their low carb content couldn’t help me. It would appear that I am into self sabotage in the big way. I lost weight and stayed on plan beautifully for the first few months but am now in month 9 and am really struggling to do more than 1 good day at a time.

Still – back on it again today – have set a target that if I can remain on plan 100% until Friday then I will have a Mint Magnum and yes…I know that I shouldn’t reward myself with food but it’s actually the only thing that works because I don’t really give a stuff about massages, baths, manicures, blah blah blah. Food is the only thing that gives me any pleasure.

Sorry for the rant …that’s all

I don’t seem to be getting new posts. Boxes are ticked. Any suggestions?

Sorry you’re having a hard time Topcac but maybe now the ‘wedding’ incentive is no longer there your body is just saying ‘give me a break’ for a while. Congratulations by the way!

It’s my first BSD birthday today and so have been looking back over the last year. Strangely enough my last three months have been iffy. Did really well in the first 9 but only lost 1.4lbs in the last three months. That did include being on holiday for nearly 2/3rds of the time and I did lose/gain/lose/regain and am now losing again! I think sometimes we just get a bit stale and need a bit of a shake up. Don’t be too hard on yourself.

Sorry to read so many are struggling at the moment. No matter how much a gain is, you need to hang on to the bigger picture and overall trend and without exception, you have still made a huge difference when measured against your start point. Yes, it’s frustrating and demoralising when the scales don’t tell you what you’re hoping for, but that’s when you come to the forum and take strength from the group.

Marsie, forgive yourself for going off piste – we are all human and it’s not a crime to occasionally eat things not normally accepted on the BSD. All of us do this from time to time and yes, we might see an unpleasant result on the scales, but we all have the tools now, to be able to pull that back.

Cathy, 0.4lb is nothing in the scheme of things and I’m sure if you are focused for the rest of the week, you’ll be posting something positive next week. And SueBlue, life happens and we shouldn’t beat ourselves up for these one off transgressions. Why shouldn’t you have a few glasses of champagne to celebrate with your daughter? I’m sure it was fun …. and now you’ll be back to the regime and will be posting a positive result next time too.

Topcac, right place to have a rant and although you had a blip yesterday, you’re still with us and setting goals. Have the Mint Magnum and enjoy it! Then get back to the programme and report a something good on Tuesday.

We are all so much better equipped to take control of our eating and our weight now, than we were when we started on the BSD and deep down we all know we can do this. Accept you are human and will err, that life will happen and it will not always be able to observe all the BSD rules, but also know YOU have made a big change already and can continue to do that going forward. YOU have the POWER and YOU are STRONGER than you think – I KNOW, because you’ve PROVED it already….. all of you.

Oops! Forgot to post yesterday! No weight loss to report, but no gain either! Eaten a lot of cheese and nuts, had the serious munchies, but no carbs.
NSV. Haven’t resorted to tea and toast, even though I’ve been sorely tempted!
Sorry to read you are in the pits Marsie, be kind to yourself, you’re always so lovely to us all. Xxxx
Let’s all “Keep on keeping on” no matter what life throws at us!!

Pod that would be a good title for the next 4 week challenge:
“July-August: keep on keeping on no matter what life throws at us” or something along those lines 🙂
I’ve been trying to think of words rhyming with August, but also think we need something positive.
I’m feeling more positive today, the weight I gained during my “off plan”
Weekend has dropped off after 3 days back on plan thank goodness.

And thanks for your positive words of encouragement Sunny B 🙂

Hello all, just a little midweek update.

I’ve managed to stay on the straight and narrow for two days now. I consider this a victory given my recent behaviour, especially in the face of a meal out last night where my colleagues both had steak mushroom and Guinness pie with fat chips, rounded off with sticky toffee pudding and cheesecake!

I had a minuscule portion of fish with flaked almonds and olives and a mouthful of mash and then a couple of tiny wedges of cheese and one cracker! It was a fancy pants restaurant so I was never going to leave stuffed but I was hungry when I finished but still avoided the fridge when I got home later. I also avoided alcohol and just had two large glasses of sparkling water.

I know it doesn’t sound much but in small ways it helped greatly to be able to do that because it made me feel like i might just be able to get back in control. I haven’t weighed since Tuesday and I’m not going to until next Tuesday. I have a tough weekend coming up, food wise, my new wife has already said it will be a write off but I refuse to believe that.

Have a great weekend fellow BSD-ers. See you on the other side with hopefully some more non scale victories 🙂

Well done topcac! A high mighty high five to you! You found that elusive, and sometimes, fleeting, willpower!
You can do it!
I find advoiding alcohol sooooo much easier than just having one. I seem completely unable to have just “the one”!
Unfortunately, like most things, I’m finding out I’m an all or nothing kinda girl!! ( not a girl now either, too old, booo!)

Have been coasting this week and ultimately paying for it, as I’m currently in at a pound up on last week’s results. I’m trying to counter that, by being mega good today and hoping to be able to report something better at the official challenge weigh-in tomorrow. Pathetically my main excuse for not keeping better control, is that the battery in my kitchen scales gave up and so I wasn’t able to weigh everything, as I normally would. Battery has been replaced now and I shall be weighing everything again from today.

Dangerously, this week is littered with social events, so I’m planning to really push out my fasting periods in between times and keep a really strict eye on what’s consumed on the non-social days. Friday has the potential to be a complete disaster though, as it will include a cream tea AND a curry out with friends – those will be the only two occasions I will be consuming cals and carbs that day though and I’ll have the w/e to compensate a bit.

So anyway, STILL not back at pre-holiday target weight after four weeks and VERY annoyed with myself, as I only had 4.5lb to lose. On the upside, I still have a couple of months to get to that – and with luck, below – so trying not to stress about it. I am frustrated with my own lack of application though, so am seeking a bit of a lecture from someone please – I need a kick up the bum and a bit of motivational rhetoric, if anyone can offer that I’d be really grateful.

Hope everyone else is having a good week and will be reporting good things tomorrow. Best of Luck people!

Don’t know if I can provide “inspirational rhetoric” but I can defo supply a quick, sharp kick up the bum!
What are you doing? You are usually so on top of it! At least you’ve got your scales back working now so no excuse! Be super careful today, and you never know! As for all your social events, take an egg and babybel and hide around the corner while everyone is eating! Lol! Not a serious suggestion! For the cream tea, forget about the scone and just enjoy the cream!
Ann x

Thanks Ann. The kick up the bum helped!

Having the kitchen scales working again, has guilted me into weighing everything today as I normally would. I’ve been super good so far and having just eaten dinner, I’m not feeling hungry so not planning to add to what I’ve had. Broke my fast today at 16.15 with a few grams of cheese – wanted to do longer, but I was feeling peckish and thought it safest to have a little something, in case I ended up stuffing myself later in desperation.

This evening I had chicken breast stuffed with 6g of St Agur and topped with two thin slices of chorizo and mixed veggies. Today’s total 357 cals and 9.5g carbs at present. If I desperately need anything else before 8pm, I’ll keep it sensible, but think I’ll manage without and top up with fluids instead.

Thanks for taking the time to post the kick up the bum and I hope we’ll both be posting something positive tomorrow.

Final weigh in on this challenge and I am a hair outside my comfort zone at 11:0.8 which is 3.8 pounds above my target, but I haven’t had a fast day since before my birthday and have been relatively unrestrained in eating so actually quite pleased with this, still off to join the seriously challenge now for a 7 day ‘reboot’ to get my head back in the game and try if I can get some autophagy going, with a 5 day fasting mimicking diet.

Morning! (Well, it is here)
Evening! (To those in the South!)
Well, after what has been a challenging few weeks, I managed to remove my target weight!
Removed 4lb this week, that’s 9lb total for the 4 week challenge. I checked my bmi last night and it was 28.5, out of obese and into overweight.. I don’t check it often, so I was really pleased to see it out of the 30’s.
Next challenge will be to move out of the 11 st and into 10 st.
But I’m gonna celebrate this success before I start getting ahead of myself. I’m on track to be at target weight, 10st, by my October holiday.
It’s been a really tough few weeks, but at long last I am feeling a little better! Phew! Thanks for all the lovely messages of support, I really appreciated them, and a couple of them I kept on my email and read many times a day, in fact they are highlighted!, I really needed to feel strong 🏋🏼‍♀️ and they really, really helped 💕
I also kept repeating over and over in my head the AA Milne quote from the Winnie the Pooh books. It helped me to keep hanging on! I’ll type it out here for those of you who don’t know it,

Christopher Robin to Pooh,
“Promise me you’ll always remember:
You’re braver than you believe,
And stronger than you seem,
And smarter than you think”
AA Milne

Have a great day everyone💕💕💕
Ann

Down 2.2 pounds this week. seems like I’ve been up and down the same 2 lb for a while now so this week I am upping my game and am determined to be less than 140 lb by next week. Am looking forward to moving forward and drawing a line under this challenge. Hope everyone has had a good challenge this time and if not, like me, let’s move on and keep chipping those pounds away.

So another challenge over! I’m down 3.6lbs this week and 2.2lbs overall. This actually means nothing! I started the challenge while on holiday and am still just over my pre-holiday weight by 0.2lbs. So truthfully just standing still.

Like you SunnyB I need a kick up the bum as well. I think that after 12 months of this WOE I’m just bored. I need to sit down with my journal and seriously re-evaluate my current regime, where I’m going and where I want to be.

Hope everybody else has had a good week and a good challenge overall.

Well done Mixnmatch and Pod and ClarinetCathy. Yesterday was my 7 months on maintenance. I am at the top of my maintenance weight and would like to drop a couple of pounds to be at the bottom of my maintenance weight.

I was on track to lose half a pound this week but my nemesis was a jar of meridian almond butter. Instead of eating an occasional spoonful as a snack I consumed the whole jar in just under 2 days!! How shocking. This is the second time that has happened. I will stick to peanut butter which I don’t have the same problem with and buy the almond butter as a special treat at Christmas.

What was interesting though was that once the jar was finished there was no crazy urge to rush out and buy another jar – nor did it set off an eating binge which is what would have happened if I had eaten the bad carbs.

I feel almost too ashamed to post, I didn’t even weigh this week or last week, I have been straying far from eating the BSD way.
Whilst this is an utter failure I will try again with the next challenge and try and pluck up the courage to weigh tomorrow.

Verano – you have done well maintaining your weight. When I was in the weight loss stage of the BSD I spent more time maintaining weight than actually losing weight. Although I was often fed up with this I think it really helped me in maintenance because I had had so many maintenance stints on the weight loss journey.

Just think how far you have come – a real achievement.

Baristagirls – I am sure that there is no-one on this forum who hasn’t done exactly what you have done. It is only a failure if you don’t try again.

Pod – I do love your Christopher Robin quote.

Well I didn’t make it through the whole 8 weeks of the 800 cal BSD because by week 6 I was getting a bit fed up, very busy, away from home a lot and had quite a few social events … seems to have been a common theme amongst us this challenge!

But rather than go completely off the rails I made a decision to apply the principles of the mediterranean diet without counting any calories and everything felt a lot more manageable that way. Crucially I didn’t feel deprived. Well, apart from a little bit sorry for myself at the birthday party where the most enticing chocolate and guinness cake with a huge frosted topping took pride of place on the table… but I had two helpings of fruit and cream instead of even a sliver of that… I am quite fearful that even a taste of it would have sent me back to all of my former ways…

So despite eating a fair few ‘extra’ chunks of cheddar here and there and quite some ‘fry-up’ breakfasts, I’m pleased to have lost four pounds overall this challenge. I said I wanted to be ‘somewhere in the 9’s’ at the end of the challenge and have just scraped in this morning with 9 stone 13lbs and 3/4…. hardly there I know and yet so nice to see that number 9!!

I’ve realised Verano and Clarinet Cathy that maintaining is a massive achievement in itself, so please don’t take that as an excuse to be mean to yourself – it isn’t! Krysia you are a shining example to us!

Baristagirls I find that when I’m feeling like that I avoid the scales… but I don’t think that works out well for me. Best to face up to it which is what you are doing, hop back on tomorrow, and continue in any way you think is manageable, with much self compassion! In your ‘self talk’ imagine you are advising a dear friend xx

Final challenge weigh in for me sees me 4.5lbs heavier than when I started!!! This has to stop. I have maintained from last week but the 4lbs that I wanted to lost at the beginning of the challenge has become 4.5 on….not good enough.

On the plus side, I haven’t put on any from last week, I DID get married and have a honeymoon in that time and I didn’t eat the Mint Magnum….the weekend was a disaster – it would appear that my new wife was right (grrrr) but with two picnics, two BBQs and a cream tea, it was never going to be brilliant.

So – moving on….new 4 weeker starting today? Did we decide on a title – my suggestion is ‘August Rush…to lower BS and lose weight’.

Any other ideas?

Krysia,I had exactly the same problem with the almond butter,it was so delicious!I’m sticking to peanut butter as well as it hasn’t got the same temptation.

Firstly, well done to all of you who have posted another lose this week, no matter how small. Commiserations to everyone struggling or unhappy with their results. Don’t allow that to derail you, stick with the regime and it will come right again.

Baristagirls, it’s important to reject the negative thinking and the word ‘failure’ from your mind set in connection with BSD. My advise is to get back to basics. It’s so easy to let things slide a bit and when that starts to feel comfortable, not to remember to pull things back. I’ve been doing that myself and have just started to get back to weighing and measuring everything consumed, keeping a strict check on cals and carbs. You’ll be surprised how quickly you see the pounds dropping again. Think positively, because you know you can do this and will be successful again.

I can report a loss of 0.8lb for this week. Not huge, but it’s much better than where I was yesterday – which makes me think yesterday’s reading was burdened with some water retention. Anyway, assuming I can believe today’s reading, I’m now 1lb away from target weight again. Little worried as this week promises a lot of social events, all featuring eating. I do however, have a plan to minimise the impact, so am hoping things won’t get too out of hand.

Pod – just love that Christopher Robin quote and I shall be copying that somewhere for future reference.

Looking forward to the next challenge. I’m finding the challenges really help to keep me focused and on track.

Hi Topcac
I had “July-August: keep on keeping on no matter what life throws at us” after a line in someone’s post – will have to look back and see who said that (am on phone at the moment).
So how about “August rush – keeping on no matter what life throws at us?

Or maybe July to August – Putting Your Health First

A long-winded title with a bit of everybody’s ideas!!
We will “Keep on Keeping” on in July andAugust
No matter what life throws at us!!

I’m not precious about my idea lol – let’s try to keep it to less than an essay –

‘Keep on keeping on in July and August’ seems fine to me

Anyone else?

I don’t mind… being an English literature freak I quite like a good rhyme like there usually is, so looked back for inspiration, what about “Keep on Going be it Shine or Snowing” 4 week challenge ending 8th August?

Hello all on this thread. I haven’t been on for a few days, thought I needed a bit of head-clearing. Thanks for your support at the time.
I have finished this challenge heavier by .7kg (700gms sounds so much less, lol) and know it could have been so much worse but I clearly did not follow my own reminder: BE AWARE -AVOID THE THOUGHTLESS HAND TO MOUTH.

Well done to those who have prospered this month and commiserations to those keeping me company. Let’s all achieve our next goals, next challenge.

Lots of ideas for new challenge theme, I vote for Baristagirls’ suggestion “Keep on Going be it Shine or Snowing” 4 week challenge ending 8th August. I too enjoy a good rhyme. I say set it up for us, please, Baristagirls.

I’m not too good at heading things up but I’ll do it for you Marsie….. as I so nearly typed where’s Marsie when you need her, on the above post! 🙂

Yeah! I’m in for “keep it going be it shine or snowing” it’s got a good ring to it.
Mind you , if it blinkin’ snows in August I’ll know who to blame!
And it’s raining crazy here today, hope you haven’t turned the weather gods against us!
Nice to see you back Marsie 😁

Ann x

Just realised I hadn’t put my final week update in. I had a small gain this week (300g) which means at the end of the challenge I have lost a total of 1.6kg, and am 300g above my 4 week challenge goal weight. Ordinarily this would be ok BUT (and there’s always a but), I had actually gone under my goal in week 2.
So on to the next 4 week challenge!
Good luck everyone 🙂