I just want to say ‘hello’ to the BSD ‘friends’ I have been ‘travelling ‘ this road with for several years now.
As time goes on people disappear from the boards for a myriad of reasons …. because they have reached their goal, maintaining happily, failed to reach their goal and frightened to come back, still struggling to reach goal but need space from posting, or just moved on, to mention but a few reasons!
I, personally, would like to know how people are doing. Captain Lynne, Esnecca , sunshine-girl, Krysia, to name but a few, and all of whom have helped me no end ….. how are you all doing???????
Would be nice to catch up. No pressure to post just keep in touch with an update now and again.
Hope you are all well.

I share your sentiments, V.! I very much miss Esnecca, and Luvtcook, as well…Let’s hope that they and all
others will drop in, too! And of course, Theodora 🙂

Oh Allie! I just wrote down the first few people who came to mind but of course there are so many others ….. would just be lovely to hear from all our friends! I suppose as another year comes to an end we all like to catch up and see how everyone is doing.

Hi Verano and Allie! I’m still here but rarely posting. Still maintaining though sadly maintaining a little higher than I achieved back in February. Feeling good and keeping (mainly) to this WOE. And still so grateful that I found this forum and for all the support I’ve been given.

Mariet so good to hear from you. Maintaining is great even if it is a little over your ideal. I think it’s just good to remind ourselves just why we started this WOE in the first place every now and again …… in case we forget and go back to the ‘awful’ olden days’!

So very nice to hear your voice, Mariet! We’ve all been part of the same experience, so I share Verano’s
thoughts on the joy of hearing from you!

Allie

Lovely idea to reach out to those who used to be the life blood of the forum, V. Like you I often wonder how they are doing. Bill and Captain Lynn were great supports to me and I sure I’d have given up on the early days, without their encouragement and advice.

I am fairly new on here ( only started in September) but even as a newbie I have heard of Esnecca, Luvtocookand Krysia without them ever posting since I have been following the forums !

BSD legends indeed ….so I would also love to know how you are getting on !

SunnyB I didn’t ‘know’ Bill but drew great inspiration from Captainlynne. Would be good to hear from them!

Hi gang, I am still around and sometimes post. I am exactly where I was when I was posting more around June this year. My weight goes up on holidays and I work hard to get it back down again. Same applies to my BG although I manage my HbA1c around 5.9 but still with the help of insulin. I never give up and just keep on keeping on…

Hi s-g that sounds just like me! Problem this year is I’ve not managed to get one lot of holiday weight off for long enough before more has been added! This year isn’t going to end too well for me but hey we 2019 just around the corner!

I forget to mention Izzy, who was the initiator of the Positive Thoughts thread.. Izzy used to post frequently on various threads, but I haven’t ‘seen’ her around for a while either.

Good to see you still remaining determined and positive Verano. You are right, if you’re not exactly where you’d like to be at the end of the year, there is a nice shiny new fresh start waiting.

Ahh yes Izzy! She really was a great help to me too. And MaggieBath, who came back briefly a few months ago, but whose common sense and wisdom are sorely missed. Then there’s Frog! I loved her sense of humour. Ohh how many more are we missing????

Hi Verano
It was so nice to read your post in your new thread. I have been ‘missing’ from the forum for the last few weeks as I have been absolutely overwhelmed by new people wanting to start pilates – although l was very remiss not to keep in touch with my friends on this forum. Hopefully it looks as though things are calming down a little – so I will be back posting. I must admit that I have missed the forum

Am really pleased to report that I am still under 9 stone and keeping under 25g carbs and logging food on fatsecret. I don’t think that I could have coped with my horrendous workload if I had gone back to my bad old ways.eating sugar and carbs.

Hi Krysia pleased to hear all is well with you. I remember back in April when you ‘refocused’ and just look how well you are doing now. 2018 has certainly been your year. I dread to think what might have happened to me if I’d stopped reading the posts, probably be back to square one! Nice to catch-up!

I absolutely agree – I wouldn’t be in a very good place if I wasn’t reading the posts.

I often wonder how Bill and captainlynne are getting on. I read every single post of theirs when I first came on the forum and they really helped

Great to see you are still keeping track of us BSDers, Krysia. Glad things are going okay for you. Hope we will be seeing more of you around the forum,now that things are settling a bit.

Sending my very best to you too, Krysia! I’ve missed our chats 🙂 I’m glad things are becoming a little less
hectic for you! It must be gratifying to see your business growing, however. I imagine the forum will
explode with new members in Jan., and we will need you then to inspire our diabetics. It’s too much for
V. alone 🙂 I hope O/H is doing well, too. Pop around when you can. I’m still on my quest to 24hr IF, but
I’m doing well.

Thank you, V. Your new threads are a gift to us all. xx

Lovely to see some familiar names popping in to say hello. What a lovely idea for a thread. I often think about Seasidenana – we shared a large part of our journey together.

Hi Verano, Hi everyone – hope that everyone is well!
I’m still around – I look at the boards occasionally, but don’t post often as I probably have lowish carbs now, but not ultra low carbs or calories and nor really BSD – AND I’ve stopped logging, counting, charting and analysing in an ever more complex spreadsheet.
I did BSD for a bit in the summer, then work got stressful and I drifted off it…………
I’m currently working with a psychotherapist focussed on weight loss, so I/we are looking at and trying to understand the reasons why I eat & my relationship with food/weight.
The talking aside, essentially it’s based on a novel approach of assessing whether you’re hungry before /during eating food – who’d have thunk it?!!
Seems to be working well so far – about six weeks in; sometimes its difficult and painful, (not to mention expensive) and weight loss is slowish compared to BSD, but in the right direction. My blood sugars had crept up again, as had my weight, but I’m planning to get another HbA1c when I’ve got to three months of sensible eating.

FROG HI! Lovely to hear from you. Sorry to hear about your blood sugars and weight creep but at least you are going in the right direction again. I think it’s very hard to repeat BSD successfully after losing track, certainly is for me! I must admit your ‘new’ approach sounds interesting and at least you aren’t obsessing over weighing logging etc. Anyway, good to hear from you and best of luck on your new journey.

Krysia, Allie is so right. Your story is one of the most amazing of coming back to health from such a very low starting point and with such a poor prognosis. You are an inspiration for anyone starting this WoE who has type 2 diabetes.

Allie, as usual my motives for starting this thread are purely selfish! Apart from really being interested in how everyone is doing I’m hoping that I can gain some inspiration back from everyone else’s journeys!

Cathy I don’t remember Seasidenana but there are so many who have disappeared. Maybe a few more will pop-in and say ‘hello’.

CC and Frog – how lovely to ‘see’ you guys are still around and that things are going okay for you both. Frog, you are doing what you need to do, so all power to you. For me it’s important the think before eating and it’s saved me a few times from mindlessly eating food I don’t need – and on analysis don’t really want either. Hope you get to your goal.

So lovely to ‘see’ so many of the ‘old faces’ posting here – good to know how everyone is doing – hope there will be others dropping by too.

Wow, how crazy…..must have heard my name mentionned floating thru the ether. Hey back to you Allie, Sunny, Verano et al. I am not dead, just went into reverse hibernation. Have kept off the 50 lbs I lost on BSD Oct – April but then was down another 10 lbs and then stalled…nothing was happening. So decided to give myself 6 weeks eating high fiber and resistant starch foods to see if that might help and/or reset things. Nadda. But when I tried going back on BSD mid/late summer I just could not manage it. What had been pretty easy in the fall last year (and through the winter) was such an uphill slog. Fasting…forget it. Couldn’t do it.

Read some stuff about some people being very “seasonal” with their weight loss….so planned to see if October was “magic” for me this year as it was last year. Had a couple medical setbacks in Oct (a 3 wk chronic fatigue bout and then a musuloskeletal “thing”)….blah blah blah. Back on BSD in ernest a week ago….and bingo…sailing along like old times. Maybe its seasonal, maybe I’m just a bit nuts…..but its easy again THANK GOD. So back to kefir daily at 11 am ….a bit or cheese at 3 and dinner at 5-6 ish. Have not weighed yet, not wanting to see what damage I had done until I had 7 days post Thanksgiving under my belt (or rather, NOT under my belt). So we shall see.

Have a batch of low carb “rolls” in the oven as we speak…..will post recipe if anyone desires. They are a bit of an improvement over the ones I posted from The Diet Doctor (Fung) last spring but a bit fussier with more ingredients (have some yeast in them and do rise a bit….fluffier).

Hope everyone is well and life is good for you all. Will try to catch up on posts, but Allie was the first person I wanted to check in with. Missed you My Dear.

XOXO from LTC

Welcome back LTC. Good to hear from you, and that you are hitting your stride again.

Good to ‘see’ you again LTC!
I’m also finding it difficult to get back into my BSD stride. I wonder if the first time round is easier in as much as you feel so good when you first give up the ‘white stuff’ that you are on the crest is a wave. In subsequent rounds, when you are not really eating ‘bad’ carbs but too much of the good stuff, it’s much harder to reign in again. Or maybe the motivation just isn’t as strong.
Anyway, good to hear you maintained pretty well and are back on track again.
All recipes eagerly awaited!

Hi everyone

that sounds a very sensible theory Verano – even when not following BSD I’d got very good at having meals with no carbs, or having complex carbs, but the cakes, biscuits and puddings had definitely crept back in!

I ‘ve recently discovered a very nice 85% dark chocolate from Aldi – it comes in packs of 5 x 25g bars, which I find lots easier than just having a few squares of a big bar.
Another (less useful) discovery a few weeks ago was a “no-sugar linseed and cashew muffin mix” from Sainsbury. There was a reason why they’d reduced it from nearly £5 to 20p!!! The mix needed 5 eggs, so I reduced it all down and made one-egg sized batches. Three batches in, and they’ve improved a bit, but not so much that you’d think “Wow, cake” I’m very reluctant to throw it away, but trying to work out what to do with it.

Hi Frog
I’m with you on the Aldi 85%.
I also found a 95% one in LIDL …it seems to be on the Christmas specials shelf and it’s good. I can only manage one square .That hits the spot. Another of my favourites is Lindt 90%. Very good with an espresso coffee.
I am afraid I would have left the muffin mix on the shelf 😉

I agree Verano :the 2nd round of BSD is different. For me weight loss is slower but I am determined to keep going and bread and cakes are definitely not a temptation.
I will keep going and I have to log and track still.
Stay motivated V ! No pudding is worth feeling down and despondent in January ! It’ s only a pud .
I have heard you are the supplier of fab recipes on here Luvtcook ! Your advice and experience will be invaluable xx

And still more of the old faces coming to say Hello!! Good to have you back LuvToCook and great that you have found a way to make BSD work for you again. Hope we will be seeing you out and about on the various threads.

I’ll try the Lidl one if they have it – apparently they are quite good for herbs and spices – I was cooking yesterday, and discovered I have no rosemary, no thyme, three tubs of allspice.
The muffin mix must be good for something – it’s full of very healthy ingredients!

Merry Christmas to Us! An early gift…Luvtcook is back 🙂 🙂 🙂 Have we missed you! You’ve done spectacularly
maintaining your losses, my friend, and I’m so happy that you’re feeling back in the groove again. What am I suppose
to do without my preferred dance partner? My husband is a poor substitute 2 left feet, and what he does with his
arms very nearly resembles a seizure disorder! I’ve been dancing solo for too long 🙂 Sorry about another 3 week
trip to non functionality with Chronic Fatigue…I can’t help wondering if it is late stage disseminated Lyme that isn’t
being picked up the blood testing? I’m sure that you already know that tests don’t confirm the one has Lyme, just
that you’ve been exposed to it by titers showing in blood tests. My eyes will be watching for you, so hope to see
you posting regularly again, very soon.

Allie

Lots of love back to you all. I will probably be a bit sporadic but will try and check in weekly or so. Will see if I can find some tempting BSD compliant recipes for you all with the holidays lurking up ahead.

LTC

Frog I’m so pleased to hear I’m not the only ‘old timer’ who is having problems renewing the enthusiasm for this WOL. Maybe that’s just it, it has become a way of life and everybody needs a change now and again but how do you mix up low carb eating! My creep back are cheese, nuts, 90% chocolate and crisps! Why? Who knows! I think I am guilty of boredom eating!
Wendleg not sure how long you have been LCHF but after well over 2 years it really does get boring! Bread, cakes and puddings hold no attraction for me either it’s the other ‘snacking’ that‘s my downfall, at the moment and I don’t even enjoy it really! I have started eating more fruit as well only because I’ve missed it like mad. I don’t have a great deal maybe three apples a week but oh I enjoy them so much with yogurt and walnuts!
Lidl are great for dried herbs and black peppercorns and Aldi are also good for peppercorns. A year or so ago I bought a large Himalayan salt grinder in Lidl in Spain which was really reasonable but I’m not sure if they have them here. Maybe being so close to Christmas they will stock them.
It’s so good to hear from some of the ‘blasts from the past’. Stay with us!

Hi LtC, good to hear from you again. – Yes please do share the results of your experiments with low carb bread. I would like to have low carb bread fresh out of the oven with lots of butter and cream cheese on Christmas Day morning for breakfast, but my attempts at bread making when I was in school cookery classes were more along the line of brick making. – In fact I suspect the lumps that came out of the oven were denser than the average brick.

Hi guys! I made some zero carb mini cheesecakes yesterday and as my fella devoured them like the insatiable human maw he is, bless his heart, I thought “I should post these on Luvtcook’s recipe thread.” That’s when it struck me how long it’s been since I checked in here. LTC, alliecat, Verano, Krysia, SunnyB, sunshine-girl, Frog, it’s so great to see your words again and know you’re doing well.

All is well here too, I’m glad to report. My weight is stable at 120-130 lb. When I trip the 130 boundary, I deploy the Fast800 for as long as necessary (4-5 weeks did the trick). The first time I went back to 800 a day it took me three or four days to get fully into the measuring groove, but after that I fell into the pattern smoothly. It’s like spending a month with an old friend a couple of times a year.

I still do an extended fast quarterly just because I love it so. (I see you there, wendleg!) My average extended is now four days (96 hours). My new record is 10 days, but that was a fluke because I had a back injury and was laid out flat for 6 of those days with zero desire to sit up to eat. 😀

Not a morsel of sugar, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, root veg or any of that jazz has crossed my lips. I am relieved to say that this WoE is fully integrated into who I am. Even when I’m not counting calories, I eat exactly the same foods. Carbs are over for me, period.

In conclusion (and I know you knew this was coming), not one step backward! 🙂

Hi everyone – it went through my head to post here the other day – the Dodgy Diabetic Cookery Class rides again!
It’s another cookery class at the same centre with a different chef – and about half of the people went to the class in 2016.
Recipes are a bit more sensible – but this week I stayed on becasue there was no assistant, so I helped wash up. The chef, who I know well from other classes, handed me a package of chocolate profiteroles and one of madelaines that had been made in another class to take home.
Odd.

Oh wow, Esnecca ! I feel like I am meeting a celebrity 😉 😉 Please excuse my exhuberance but I have heard so much about you and I have been hoping that you would one day check back in !! Your straight talking is legendary !
Allie , Sunny, Verano ,Kazz, Sunshinegirl will be so pleased to see you again.
Have you been following our weekly thread ?
After everything I had heard about your resilience and determination I had no doubt you would still be maintaining. I love your attitude . I am an all or nothing gal here too and I said to Allie recently I would have loved to share the fasting experience with you.
I hope you will stay with us Esnecca .

Hi girls!!!! Good to ‘see’ you both.
Waiting for the new recipes please Frog.
Esnecca so good to hear you are still ‘keeping the faith’.
I started this thread a while back because I wonder what happened to some of the stalwarts so it really is good to hear from you both. Stay in touch please.

HaHaa, Essie! At long last…your old friends are doing cartwheels at the sight of your name. It’s been almost a year,
my friend! I’m sorry to hear about your back injury, but I refer to you here from time to time, and I never had one moment
of doubt that you’d never be taking one step backward. Will be catching up with you later, but for today, this old cat
is delighted to see you! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Hi Esnecca- so lovely to see you back. You were very inspiring when I joined the forum in January 2017. I have often thought about you and wondered whether you were checking in to the forum. I like that you have given yourself a 10lb tolerance and have maintained for the last twelve months. Lots of names you will remember still posting because we are all still following the BSD lifestyle and maintaining and/or working hard to keep/get the weight off.

Frog, it never ceases to amaze me how many sugar pimps are out there. My theory is they think they’re rescuing you, like you’re in prison and they’re smuggling you a metal file baked in a cake when in fact they’re slamming the cell door shut and triple locking it.

wendleg, I read the most recent posts on the weekly thread today. I’ll catch up and post so we can share fasting stories.

Verano, thank you for starting this thread. It was so inviting I had to dive in.

alliecat, my injury was squat-induced. I went down too low and my body decided to give me a very pointed reminder that I’m 46, not 26. I healed quickly, thankfully, and am none the worse for wear, although it does twinge a bit when it gets cold. We’re in the wrong part of the country for that kind of thing. 😉

CC, it’s so nice to hear you again. I realized last spring when I looked at a few pictures of my taken at a family event that as much as I loved the fit of my clothes when I was under 120 lb, my face looked terrible. Deep lines between nose and mouth, furrowed brow, pleated cheeks whenever I smiled. My happy medium of face to body is in the 120s so that’s where I aim to stay.

Welcome back Esnecca!! You have been missed! Sounds like you are happily settled somewhere near Allie and “keeping on keeping on” (as SG says).

Thanks, Cg. It’s nice to see you keeping on keeping on yourself! We are indeed happily settled and living the new normal. Amazing how “normal” can be so spectacular after decades of it being drudgery.

You know Kazz is visiting Allie this October. You should make your way east and join the BSD party. 😀

And I’m still keeping on… Nice to hear so many ‘old’ friends are still around.

Omg — I would LOVE to join you all! I’m in the middle of a life changing event — I told Allie but now I’ll share it online — my husband accepted a job in Bristol England and we are moving there in a week.
My life has been upside down, which is why I have been a terrible poster here — but if you all are doing a BSD party in the fall, let me know the date and I will try to drop by and meet you all!
SunnyB, I know you live near Bristol, so when you get back from lovely-sounding Turkey, let me know and I will come give some California “sunshine” to your oleander (they are huge giant flowering monsters in California!)

Hi soontobeex-CaliforniaGirl

I think this is where you start to hear from many of the UK people how far away from Bristol they are, especially as Bristol is at the junction of 2 motorways. – I am just over 2 hours down the Welsh side of the M4 from Bristol. – And there isn’t a toll to cross the Bridge into Wales anymore. – Bet you will be off down the shop for a road atlas as soon as you get off your flight.

Also remember that research program I am on, they still have space for the people who just want to be on the 3 monthly health assessment which includes a body composition test. 🙂 And its nearby.

Wow, Cg. What an exciting (and nerve-wracking, I’m sure!) time for you. Are you going to change your handle to Californiagirlabroad? CaliforniagirlinBristol? You’re going to be close to so many more BSDers. Meetups must happen, and then you can bring a bunch of the UK folks with you to CT in October. I’ve got a big ol’ house perfect for throwing the giant party with only BSD food that we’ve dreamed about.

How exciting CG! Bristol is a great location – lots of lovely places to visit within the immediate radius (Bath is really beautiful and v close) and as JGwen said, well placed to access the motorway network for further exploring. Are you going to be living in the city or looking outside? I would be frantic at the thought of packing up to relocate down the road in a week’s time, let alone across one continent and one ocean. Hope the move goes well!

Bristol! How lovely, California Girl. I lived in Bath for 5 years and absolutely love the area. Very best wishes for a smooth house move!

Happy moving CG! I hope you enjoy living in the UK. I’m guessing it’s a temporary move?

Wow that is defiinitely going to be life-changing CaliforniaGirl ! To go from California to Jane Austen country ..it will be amazing !
I have very fond memories of school trips to the Bristol /Bath area .Lovely ! It has all happened so quickly !
Wishing you the very best for the move and your new life in Blighty !!