Going a bit mad with the alliteration, folks ! 😉

Here we are at the beginning of May with longer , warmer, sunny days ( hopefully anyway !)

It’s a time of renewal and starting over , especially if we need time to take stock and get back on track, looking forward to upcoming holidays and the summer !

Thinking ahead to special events , guests arriving or just wanting to feel energised and fitter !

So one week at a time throughout May, we can do this !

Please continue the journey with us

Wendy and sunshine-girl
Sunny is still in Turkey xx

Thank you Wendy & sunshine-girl for continuing the tread. Your words are appreciated & inspiring because I really do need to get back on track in May & work hard to keep focused on meal planning & what I’m eating.
Good luck everyone for continuing success in May.
Margaret xx

Thank you Wendy for the new thread. I am so grateful to have this community as part of my weight loss and improved health journey.

JGwen, thank you very much for your response re my question about outdated nutritional advice. I think you are very right, if you don’t speak up, how will things ever change? I just don’t want to get anyone’s back up. I suppose I need to think about this carefully!

Not a good day for me feeling very sore & depressed probably due to the grey overcast sky. Only two ginger & lemon teas plus water so far since 7-0pm last night & a beef stir fry supper planned for 6-30pm this evening so a 23.5 hour fast today. I’m going to my pain clinic exercise class now & it’s the dentist this afternoon for a filling & I’m rather needle phobic so I can’t wait for this day to be over. I’ve felt forced to take some prescription Co-Dydramol so also not very happy about this! Roll on tomorrow!
Margaret

Hi all, dont worry Margaret, as a wise man once said, this too will pass. Tomorrow will be here soon enough. Although I must say I am a bit fed up of medical appointments and haven’t the headspace to phone for an appointment with my dentist. She will think we have moved back to the UK as the last time we saw her our house was up for sale. Had a follow-up doppler this morning. Good news is I called at the pharmacy and they let me have another inhaler so I can breath again and get out into the garden to plant around 70 geraniums.

Happysnap, when you say get peoples backs up I think you are referring to the medical profession. You will learn to just nod and smile, we can’t teach everyone but more and more medical people are coming round to our way of thinking. When someone has had a belief for many years like fat is bad, low fat is good, then you are trying to undo years of learning and no one likes to be told they might just have got it wrong. Nod and smile.

Day 2, stuck to 800 yesterday but when I was making my salad for lunch today I remembered I had not counted the coleslaw – cant have missed too many cals but glad I cut out the square of dark chocolate which gave a bit of leeway.

Today, one large mushroom grilled with a poached egg, tuna salad for lunch and hubby will be doing chicken sausages with beans and yet another egg for dinner. The beans are a bit carby and calorific for me but I have made allowance with my other choices. What can I say, if I tell him he will just tell me to do it myself.

It is starting to get hotter here – 24 today and 28 tomorrow. I think we are all in for a hot year so don’t be jealous, in fact it can get too hot as you will (UK people) remember from last year. I might just have my first swim of the season tomorrow and try out my new waterproof earbuds.

Happysnap, just gone back and read what JGwen said to you about telling the medics what we are doing. I totally agree with her that someone needs to make a stand. However, I have been doing it for the past 7 years, telling my doctor about my diet and he is the one who now nods and smiles at me. I am okay with that as I haven’t been able to demonstrate to him the big cure I once hoped for, i.e. no longer diabetic. Over the years other problems have cropped up and it gets harder and harder to stay well. Not to be down about it, I truly believe that this diet has saved me from all sorts of complications like heart and kidney problems, sight loss and even amputation so I don’t care whether my doctor thinks I am a bit mad I will just carry on with what is working for me. For now I keep my diabetes numbers low and have drastically reduced the amount of medication I need. That to me is success. You have managed to ditch the pre-diabetes state and hopefully will continue with this way of eating to prevent future events.

Hello Wendy, SG,Margaret and all.
Week4 for me and I have reached the typical plateau. Historically I have always found this week the hardest as the scales tend to go up and down, no matter what I do. Am trying to remember that consistency is key and ignore the scales and focus on increased exercise. Yesterday I did a big walk to get my steps up. I have invested in an Apple Watch and you get Apple fitness as a free trial, so am doing the HIIT and strength workouts. They are only 30 mins and I can do them in the comfort of my own home. I am trying to think that my focus should be on my health, getting fitter and not the pounds. Still it is hard not to be disheartened. Hunger wise, my body has definitely adjusted to eating fewer calories, which is a reminder of how little we need to eat and how greedy I can be. Am doing all I can to stay focused this week and stay on plan, rather than grabbing for the crisps and sausage sandwiches for comfort.

Hi
I posted on the old one
All is well sun is shining. No stress
I have lost weight BUT it’s only a number
More interested in eating healthy
Ham salad yesterday
I have low GI bread but not wanting it as much. I am noticing less snacks – as I was doing it out of boredom or habit
Regards
Lucia

Hello everyone & it’s a better day for me today with another fast overnight from 7-pm to eating tomato soup at 1-0pm so another 18 hours fasting. I stood on my scales this morning & it looks as though I have lost some weight so I’m feeling quite hopeful today that I’m back on track😀 The sun is shining here in West Sussex today & we may have blue tits nesting in our new nest box 🤞🤞
I hope you are all having a good day!
Margaret xx

Hi

Hope everyone is having a good day, BSD-wise! I think I have found my groove with this plan, I feel like I know what i’m doing. Lets hope for big weight losses and non-scale victories going forward!

I have noticed the last couple of weeks that I have so much more energy- I can’t believe how much I am getting done in a day! I’m also feeling a lot less overwhelmed with my day-to-day life and i’m wondering if this is because of the lack of sugar in my diet? I am assuming so but would be interested in hearing your experiences or thoughts.

Another question I have, which I’ve not yet come across in the dozens of books i’ve read on the topic, is when does insulin resistance “go away” so to speak? How would I know? Is this something that can be measured? I’d be very curious to know about this!

Hi all , glad you are feeling better Margaret, sunshine makes everything better. Happysnap, I am diabetic and have no idea about insulin resistance or even what it is. I am sure I had it explained at some time but I would say if you are no longer pre-diabetic you have found it. I am still diabetic and my body still cannot utilize insulin properly although I am sure it is doing a better job than it used to due to the reduction in insulin injections. Anyone else know the answer.

Day 3 and some weight loss. I have been doing this diet for coming up to 7 years and after my first 8 week round of BSD any other attempts have not been perfectly measured and calculated and if I felt I needed it I would have a snack like some chicken breast or a piece of ham. This time I am trying to go back to basics and I had forgotten how bloody hard it is. Not feeling hungry, it is the planning and working it all out. Thinking I am well within 800 cals and then logging it to find I am over. Fortunately, I have been logging before eating so have been able to adjust before I make a mistake. I must have had super will-power back then just as you all have when you start. So I can appreciate how difficult it is. Maybe I should go back and read my blog and reproduce the menus I had then.

You are all stars and I hope whatever you are doing is working for you. Just keep on keeping on…

Sunshine-girl you sound as though you are doing really well 👏👏I also log the calories in my food before I eat it so I know where I am. I am not diabetic or pre-diabetic so allow myself some carbs & supper tonight is teriyaki salmon fillet with flageolet beans & steamed spinach with some strawberries & blueberries for pud but staying at 800 daily calories ! Insulin resistance is mentioned in MM’s Keto diet book & in Jason Fungs books & I think it declines after a month of good fasts but depends how long we have been obese which already indicates a high level of existing insulin resistance because of internal fat being stored particularly around the middle of the body ie apple shaped bodies but pear shaped bodies tend to hold more external fat on thighs & bottoms like me.
You are right about the sunshine which always has an energising effect on me.😀🌞
Margaret xx

Hi Happysnap. regarding your question on IR.

Remember that the normal level of sugar in our blood is equal to 2 teaspoons of sugar dissolved into the litres of blood. An extra 0.75 of a teaspoon of sugar is the level of blood sugar at which would you would be diagnosed as being a T2. So you can see how rapid and fine the bodies reaction in releasing Insulin has to be in response to meals

Our bodies try really hard to protect us from the damage sugar can do, and increases the amount of insulin to try to force cells to accept sugar out of the blood even when they do not want to. In time our body is so clogged up with stored sugar that Insulin doesn’t just raise at the time of the meal and drop down after a couple of hours, but stays raised for hours after each meal. Eventually your body becomes so full of sugar that it just can’t generate enough insulin to force the body to store any more sugar.

Insulin drops down in a curve after a meal, how long after the meal and how steep that curve is and how long it takes for insulin levels to be low enough for your body to burn fat depends on your level of insulin resistance. Reversing IR involves giving your body periods of time where insulin is so low that your cells are not being forced to store sugar and you have used up the stored sugar and are in fat burning mode. In general, it takes 50 hours from the start of a fast for insulin to drop down to its lowest background level and I recently saw a video by a doctor who made the point that he thinks in the worst case scenario of IR people need to do 3 day fasts to get Insulin levels low.

A different way of looking at is that, pre covid when I was eating low carb, if I went over 27g of carb in a day it would knock me out of ketosis and it would take 2 days of sticking to less than 20g of carb to get back into ketosis. Which just shows how insulin resistant I was.

One sign of Ir is skin tags, when those fall off you are no longer IR.

Maybe this article from Dr Fung will help in understanding IR.

https://blog.thefastingmethod.com/new-paradigm-insulin-resistance-t2d/

Hi all, JGwen I will certainly look at the article by Dr Fung. It is hard for me to reach either ketosis or IR as I am artificially pumping up my insulin levels daily. Which is why it is so important, through low carbing, to get my injection amounts right down. I was using 7 units before I went into hospital and with the terrible diet for 4 days (bread, potatoes, jam, croissant, hardly a vegetable in sight) I had to put it back up to around 26 units. What with the holiday etc I am down to 18 units and will continue my daily battle. Also with diabetes I am unable to fast, I can go around 18 to 20 hours but no long fasts.

I looked at my old blog and I certainly was determined to improve my diabetes and to a certain extend lose weight, one went with the other. I think I will be having a few days of 80 cal smoothies for breakfast and extra low carbs. Rather that following what I ate on the blog I will make my menus from the BSD book, as I did before so it will be pretty much the same. Tomorrow it will be melon, blueberry, spinach and coconut water smoothie.

This morning BG 78 so reducing insulin to 17 units tonight. Weight is down nearly 2lbs since Monday and just have to behave myself over the weekend.

If you are celebrating the coronation over the weekend and a party is planned then try and take your own BSD or Fast800 friendly foods to make sure you dont get tempted by all the pies and rolls. I am not celebrating or raising a glass so I hope to stick to the plan. Have a good weekend whatever you are doing.

Hi
Wonderful news – I feel hungry !!!
Usually I am grazing all the time so I never feel hungry.
I welcome the feeling.

I must ask please, these long fasts for days – what do you drink ? I am not ready for this – I am just curious.

No stress
Moving more
Regards
Lucia

Hello Lucia when I fast I usually drink water & lemon & ginger tea & I sometimes add cider vinegar to my water because I like the taste.
Well done for not snacking 👍
Margaret

Hi Lucia,
Personally I drink soda water, or sparkling water with a slice of lemon or lime, or black coffee with a pinch of salt, if I have to take medication I have a coffee with double cream. Herbal teams. Even use gravy granules to make very thin gravy to which I add salt.

Good morning everyone & I’ve just weighed a day early have lost 3.75 lbs in weight & am pleased to say I’ve reached my first goal since Christmas of getting below 12 stone albeit by four ounces. I’m also now just in the overweight rather than obese category BMI 29.7 & my next goal is to lose seven pounds by the end of May.
I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend!
Margaret

Hi all
Still losing a tiny bit of weight but not hung up on it.
Hubby had at lunch time a huge family trifle – I automatically wanted ice cream a large tub of it. But somehow my brain started to work. I said don’t have it for 15 more mins and I busied myself with reading – half an hour went past! So another 15 mins etc etc until 6pm and I had ham salad and didn’t eat after that.
Yes I know it’s only one tub of ice cream about 1000 calories but I turned my brain around !!!
Bit by bit
In a good mood no stress
Walked a bit further today.
Keep happy
Regards
Lucia

Good choices Lucia
Today I am baking for fiancé’s parents 50th wedding anniversary. Normally I would lick the spatula, bowl scrapings etc. I haven’t touched any! So far 😜

Hi all
Medication knocking me sideways so looking after myself
Proud that there is no sweets chocolate cake biscuits to graze on .
Been for a walk- moving more
Keeping calm
Regards
Lucia

Hi all, I am down 2lbs so far. I had the smoothie for breakfast which was a total of 80 calories but made a dent in that with avocado and bacon salad, still around 850 cals.

Have you heard of the app Yuka. It is free and it reads bar codes. Just done a check on my Actimel and it came out red, red, red for everything, calories, sugar, and said it was not a good choice, so will not buy it again and go back to my plain Greek yoghurts and add some fruit. At least now I can check it in the supermarket before I buy. It uses actual main macros but you can also see at a glance and it uses the traffic light system.

Spent the morning watching the Coronation. Not a royalist but it is an historic occasion so had to be watched. Still trying to plant out my pots although hubby is digging foundations for the gazebo and we only have one trowel so didnt get too much done. It is also very warm and muggy at 27 degrees but we are expecting thunder storms later. At least my new plants and veg will get a watering.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and keep on keeping on…

Hi everyone,
A quick check-in.
S-g I was out planting too in the rain this morning as I wanted to get a row finished before the soil got too wet. I started yesterday but strong winds came up and I had dust blowing in my eyes, so I quit for a bit and mowed the lawn. I’m glad I finished the lawn because it is too wet this morning to mow it. I estimate that we’ve had around 12 mm overnight, which is a lot all at once for here. The horse paddock is a lake and they are staying in their shelter.
Unfortunately the warm weather last week followed by the rain now means that we are under flood watch. My neighbour and I sandbagged a low portion of the dyke yesterday morning in preparation so we’ve really done all we can and it’s just a matter of waiting and hoping now.
So, I’m going a bit easy on myself with regard to quantity of food and just eating to satisfy my hunger rather than trying to push it as I am burning a lot of calories. I made a broccoli and lentil baking sheet meal last night and there is some left for today, so at least that is healthy. I harvested some more asparagus this morning, so will make a crustless quiche later. My spinach is ready to harvest too, so that will be very nice. I have only had a little frozen spinach all winter as it was so expensive and fresh was very poor quality for an exhorbitant price.

hello….hope everyone’s ok…
Still ongoing child stresses, trying to squeeze everything in with work too, hence, frankly, I am not eating well……but, I am doing some exercise and also have spent some time gardening, which is a tonic…..
keep trying to restart eating better….breakfast goes well, but after that..errr
Anyhow, love to all,
Tulip xxx

A relaxed eating weekend because of our son staying for the Coronation weekend & drinking wine & having carby nibbles croissant & bread. However I will quickly get back on track tomorrow & vow never to go back above 12 stone! If I lose another 4 ounces I will have lost 1 stone 7 lbs since Christmas. So it’s getting back on track & fasting next week. My pain clinic exercises course has now finished & I have to build those exercises into my daily routine. My physio has referred me onto a local gym that has a special three month wellness programme sponsored by local government with a personal trainer at much reduced cost that I will try out.
I hope you are all having an enjoyable weekend
Margaret xx

Hi JGwen

Thank you so much for your clear response regarding my IR question. The link was super helpful too! so I think I need to watch for those skin tags to drop off, no sign of that so far. I suppose I need a long fast for that, trying to do a 24 hour one today, lets see how it goes. I’ve cooked up a big pot of broth, which I’ve frozen into portion containers to warm up when needed. I’m daunted by the thought of a 50 hour fast, but will try increase the amount of hours incrementally.

Have a lot to report on from my last week (hope this won’t be a too long post! sorry in advance if it is).
On Wednesday my little boy fell and hurt his leg, and I spent five hours in A & E waiting to be seen. Thankfully its not broken, just sprained- but the entire time I was there, I only drank water. Now might not sound like such a big deal, but first of all, I hadn’t eaten my dinner which I had painstakingly prepared but left behind in my haste to get out, so I was bloody starving. More importantly, my husband had packed in cookies and cupcakes (bless him!!) but I wasn’t even tempted. Got home too exhausted to eat at 1am so I just went to bed and left my meal for the next evening. Victory #1 for sugar-addict like me!

On Thursday I had a small medical procedure planned. I was told to report at the hospital for 2pm, got there and they said they are running late so I will need to wait an hour or so. I had brought a nice lettuce and chickpea salad with hard boiled eggs etc in my cooler for afterwards (had to fast beforehand) but was chugging lots of water. Anyway the wait ended up being over 5 hours (!!) and I was absolutely starving but felt in control of myself- probably for the first time in my life. Normally waiting in a hospital would be carte-blanche to eat whatever I like, but not this time! Had my lovely salad whilst waiting for discharge, and came home to a perfect meal that was waiting for me from the previous evenings drama. Victory #2 for sugar addict me!!

Friday morning I was feeling great, so went to my Weight Management Session at the gym. This week we were focusing on nutrition and I knew the information was old-school and rubbish, but decided (as per your advice, Margaret!) to keep my head down and mouth shut. So I was listening to the instructor go on about how carbs give us energy, and how diets that restrict carbs just don’t work, and how people who are carb restricted have no energy, and I just couldn’t control myself! I blurted out, “sorry to contradict you, but since I’ve gone off carbs, I have way more energy than ever!” So we got into a bit of a group debate about that and I think I may have upset her. But the crazy thing is she knows a lot of this stuff anyway! She was mentioning insulin resistance and insulin responses to foods, why sweeteners have the same effect as sugar on insulin levels- etc, so after the class I apologized to her and told her I don’t mean to cause any trouble, but asked if she’d be interested in taking up a bet- read MM’s and Jason Fungs books and then see. She said she’ll think about it….

And for the cherry on top, I lost 3kg last week!!!! I’ve never in my life lost such a big amount, no matter what diet I tried- and I know its because i am a sugar addict, and as long as I am having even a tiny bit of sugar in my diet, I cannot get my blood sugars and insulin levels- and subsequently my weight, down. This is probably the longest time I have spent on any diet and can honestly say I am LOVING IT!!

Thanks for all the support and apologies again for super long post!!!
Have a lovely Sunday everyone and enjoy your Bank Holiday!

Happy Sunday everyone,

Happysnap, enjoyed reading your adventures and your trials with food. Good for you in resisting, I guess those skin tags will be a thing of the past. Well done on the 3kgs, it is a great incentive to keep going.

Tulip, one day at a time, you are still here so still winning.

Margaret, worth trying out with a personal trainer. Hope you enjoyed your weekend with your son.

Arctic, I am more fair weather gardening. Did some more planting of geraniums. I have some lettuce plugs I have not put out yet and will do that later today with the geraniums, I like to mix veg and flowers.

Lucia, hope you are feeling better, take care.

I have been continuing with my Futurelearn course and it has been very interesting. I filled in a daily food waste chart and so far, in a week, I have only thrown away half a cherry tomato that had gone bad, but I still ate the other half. Interesting facts about best before and use by dates. There is no legal requirement so no actual regulations but the dates are put there to protect the retailer from being sued if anyone got ill or against complaints of things not being as good as they should. However, these dates help with stock control and gives them an idea of how old the food is but here are some facts. A best before date can still be used up to 10 days after the date on the pack. Use by dates are for perishables like meat, fish, cheese etc but produce can still be safely used up to 5 days after the date. There is also the case of common sense and sensory testing ie if it looks and smells okay you can still eat it. 50% of all food waste occurs in the home some of which is just binned because of these dates. In the UK that is around 9 million tons of food dumped either because it didnt look pretty, it wasnt stored properly or people relied on package dates.

Lesson over for today.

Hi
Only ten pounds lost so far. What? Ten pounds in a week or so that’s two bags of spuds or five bags of sugar.
. How?
Did I stop eating ?
No I did baby steps…
I first stopped the chocolate and sweets.
Then the cakes biscuits and bread. Then reduced how much I ate- instead of three meals and snacks- two meals. A tiny bit of extra walking or going up and down stairs. All achievable without stress or calculations or weighing food. Just common sense stuff.
Can’t wait for phase two – here I come
Regards
Lucia

Hi Hapysnap,
It sounds like you have made a lot of progress in the last week, well done. When we eat a high carb diet our bodies have to store water to help process the carbs. When you cut down the carbs that water is released, hence the large weigh loss at the start for each of us – It will feel good reducing the amount of weight you are carrying, but its also good to remember that the rapid weight loss will slow down once the water release ends and that a rapid weight gain will happen if you go back to a carb fueled way of eating

Dr Fung’s often quoted estimate is that for a 24 hour water fast you are likely to use 0.5 lb of fat.

The other issue to remember so that you do not get too downhearted when you don’t see progress on the scales is that high insulin levels blocks your bodies ability to heal. – When you keep insulin low your body can build stronger bones and muscles. There will be a period at some point where this means that you will discard inches but the scales will not show a change or may even go up. Monitoring progress by the scales alone isn’t a good idea, take as many measurements as you can now, so you can use that to monitor progress. (Some of us discarded a shoe size, before we discarded a dress size.)

Well done in starting a conversation within the health group. –

Hi everyone
I think I am just about getting back to a normal routine . Hubby was discharged from the physio clinic this weekend so my day is no longer taken up driving to visit him.I just have to take him to his physio appointments locally as he has been prescribed 15 more sessions, two a week .He can’t drive yet .

No Coronation celebrations here although we did watch it on TV .

I have been reading Tim Spector’s latest book called ” Food for Life” . He is clear and talks a lot of sense and he seemed to be the most reliable source of COVID info during the pandemic .

Interestingly too I have been listening to podcasts and one intriguing one was with Dr Rangan Chatterjee ( Feel Better Live More) and his guest Jessie Inchauspe . The episode is # 358 How to control your blood sugar, cut cravings and get your energy back .

Her advice which she says is science based is to have a vinegar drink just before eating and also to change the order of foods consumed in a meal

So …. The impact of blood sugar is lessened if you eat veg first ( fibre creating a protective layer and preventing rapid absorption of sugar), then protein and fats and finally any starches or suger, ie carbs . Fascinating.
Here are the links

https://drchatterjee.com/how-to-control-your-blood-sugar-cut-cravings-and-get-your-energy-back-with-jessie-inchauspe/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB9p4GnMg98&list=PLwAWbIQiqJ0D2gn5UJBPSOzvLROyqSl7f

I will be back later to set up the new thread !

Hi all, Wendleg, great to hear you and hubby are starting to get your lives back to some sort of normality. Know exactly how it feels to be completely discombobulated (did you like that word). I will look at those links.

Nothing much to report. Weight still the same but I know it would be a different story if I had given in to the wine over the weekend. I guess those in the UK are enjoying the extra holiday. Here in France it is Victory Day and also a holiday. I think most of the shops will be open but we are just relaxing after lots of garden work for me and foundation digging for hubby. All the flowers and veg are now in. I was short of 2 flowers in 2 pots so I have put in lettuce:)

Everyone seems to be very motivated so keep it up. Tomorrow will be my official weigh in so I hope I have dropped a smidge more.

Wendy so pleased to hear hubby is now on his last lap of physio. Life will get back to normal!
Just wanted to thank you for the reminder about ‘Feel Better Live More’. I downloaded it to my kindle ages ago but had forgotten all about it!
Another great guy to look at is Aseem Malhotra.
I subscribe to their weekly newsletters which often have useful information.
Another Tuesday tomorrow!
Not sure where I am at the moment.
Well done to all those who are hitting or exceeding their targets.
And as s-g says …. to those who are struggling …. just keep on keeping on …….

I am about to set up the new thread,folks !