I started on Monday, after stumbling upon the BSD book almost by accident. It seems too good to be true. I am so seriously overweight and at risk of major adverse health diagnoses that I have to do this. Day 3 and other than thinking about food every single waking moment it hasn’t been too bad. I suspect I am probably more 1000 than 800 at the moment, but who cares? This is a huge improvement for me! I am allowing myself this week to do the best that I can, to gradually start moving and then I will build in serious exercise next week. Who would have thought that I could sustain something like this for 3 days? Only 53 more to go – and then we will re-calibrate. Can’t wait to meet the new me.

Well I found the first 2 weeks hard but I started to see when I ate and that was aching tv, studying, or just for something to do. I then changed my thinking and said every time I wanted to eat something outside the recommended foods – no that will put my sugar up and threaten my health. No the food is not worth the health risk. This made it easier and now I think twice about my choices. I have gone on this diet because I do not want to be diabetic.

Now 10 weeks later it is easy. I refuse to weight anything, I just eat much smaller because I weight and checked in first 2 weeks and not after that. I had to make it real and I don’t weight my food normally, just much smaller.

All the best with bsd, it really does work. Thanks dr Michael, I am so greatful you where in Australia around the time my BGL was 24.4mmol in March this year.

Good to meet you gettingthere. I wonder what I will be like in 2 weeks. I t s the sustainability of it all which is daunting.

Hello and well done on getting started. I’m 3 days in to my 5th week and really seeing a difference already. I too am seriously overweight, need to increase my exercise but struggling with that so concentrating on the diet and just trying to move more every day. My first couple of weeks I wasn’t really following the diet properly as I hadn’t read the book but still lost 11lbs by the end of week 2, loss did slow a little after that and after 4 weeks have lost 14lbs but have definitely lost inches.
I’ve managed to lose this amount before on other diets but the physical change has never been so noticeable, my clothes are hanging better and I feel much trimmer – even if this is psychological it’s a great boost.
It took me a couple of weeks to get the message about including full fat dairy in my diet – this makes such a difference and feels like such a treat – strawberries & thick cream who’d have guessed you could eat that on a diet!
Good luck
Jules

Hi Ms Bloody Minded, I too have loads to lose, I need to lose half my body weight. Probably over half if I checked properly. Day 4 and I’ve lost 10lbs already. And I’ve lost at least an inch from every measurement I’ve taken (apart from my left calf). Stick at it, it’s worth it! Apart from leading up to lunch and tea, I’m not feeling hungry, I’m not snacking between meals. I’m even waking up and not wanting my breakfast for a couple of hours. Really enjoying what I’m eating too, don’t feel deprived at all, and believe me, I could probably clear over 3000 calories some days, if not more. You’ll have great support here 🙂 All the best.

Well. 4 days and the scales show that I am 2 kilos lighter. Water I know, but it is so motivating to be in a lower bracket. What have I learnt so far. That sometimes in life there are no second chances and that time is now for me. Also, that I am not an orphan and there is so much support and advice in these forums. Thank you all for your words of encouragement and sharing a little of your story.
I am not a breakfast eater, so I am trying to eat lunch at 12 noon (my lunch break is usually 1pm) and am getting dinner started as soon as I walk in the door. Super organised today and could take leftovers from the stifry fry I had last night. I had to go the shops after work and had some time to kill until I could collect my daughter. I was pleasantly surprised that the Lamb salad at Sumo Salad is 1340 kilojoules (and that’s the large one!) and the bonus was the little shots of soup, which were only 350 kilojoules. I completely avoided all carbs of course. At home now and a small bowl of luscious Greek yogurt with a few berries. Late night snacking has been my down fall, but not on this diet. How did I not know that plain yogurt could be so delicious?

Dear MsBloodyMinded, I’m following you and gaining encouragement from your posts. I’ve been feeling really low- and frustrated with no weight loss in 3 weeks- but that’s all down to my own fault- I do so well in the day and then after Tea, I get SO HUNGRY I could eat a horse and get driven by carb cravings to the kids ice cream/ biscuits or peanut butter! Aaaaargh! I’m a victim of my carb cravings in the evening and am desperate to crack this thing. Just gotta be bloody minded like you.

Dear Mars. Hope you had a better day today. Confucius says it doesn’t matter how slow you go, so long as you don’t stop! You haven’t put on any weight, so that’s a good thing right? For me the key is to have a plan and be organised. I don’t eat breakfast so I’m able to look forward to my Greek yogurt and berries after dinner. It’s like my determination has re-programmed my brain. I have a huge bottle of Mt Franklin mineral water that I keep on the kitchen bench whilst cooking and that stops me nibbling. It’s also a great substitute for the inevitable glass of white wine whilst cooking that I have become so used to. Yes, I thought about having one for all of 2 seconds tonight, but I have found that if I just hold out for a few minutes the craving passes. The greater struggle for me was to not have lemon butter sauce with fish tonight and to by pass the potato. I am trying to chunk it down by concentrating on the next meal and keeping myself busy. It’s only been five days but I feel fantastic. We’re in this together, so let’s keep going.

Yesterday I did not travel in the direction I wanted to. Started off well enough with the mushroom, poached egg and smoked salmon stack for brunch and made a resolution that it would see me through lunch as well. In amongst all the chauffeuring of my daughter we had to stop for her to have lunch and of course she selected our usual – Dome Cafe. I thought of having a herbal tea, but by this time it was 1.30pm. I selected their gluten free chicken and veg soup – hold the toast and the croutons. Unfortunately I didn’t notice until I had nearly consumed the entire bowl that it contained diced potato. Probably less than 1/2 a cup, but I mentally whipped myself. OK that’s it for me I thought. No dinner. I ended up making oven baked chicken breasts with vegetables and of course it was a packet of 4 so I had to have my share right? At least I didn’t select the largest one for myself. The cauliflower in the fridge needed to be used up so I whipped up some cauli mash too. Absolutely amazed that OH and #1 son ate it without question! I gave myself a very generous helping of veges – perhaps a little too generous, but It’s hard to break that mould of using things up rather than having to bin leftovers later. I was probably trying to fill myself up a bit too. Do you ever find that the more you eat the more you want to eat? Well that was me yesterday. Come 9.30pm I was desperate for my usual evening bowl of yogurt. Can’t hurt right?! I had carefully selected several large tubs of Mundella Greek yogurt at IGA during the week which needed to used up. Thought I was doing the right thing supporting a VERY local company. Avoided the non-fat version and thought it was the full fat version that went into my trolley. Didn’t read the label very well did I? I licked the spoon before it went into the sink and got the biggest sugar hit! Close inspection revealed that it was the vanilla version and contained 13g of sugar!!!! BUT like an idiot, I didn’t pull myself back. I wanted my yogurt entitlement, so I had it. With berries and 10 hazelnuts as per usual. This morning I was nearly 1/2 kilo heavier on those scales. The GOLD for me is this. I resisted the temptation to have my usual Saturday night tipple or two and I did not say “stuff it” to the diet the way I habitually have. I have resolved to pay more attention to the carbs in veges too. I can’t just ignore them the way Weight Watchers encourages you to. Today I am back on the bike and so far today it’s just been the stack for lunch and it will be nothing more until a light dinner. The fitbit came out of hiding today and is clamped to my wrist. So I will follow through on my commitment to start walking. The street I live on is circular (3.5 kms) so once I start I have to keep going. Monday is my official weigh in day, so maybe not the big loss that I was hoping for, but I will just build on the good work that I have already done.

Hi Ms Bloody Minded
sounds like you were trying to make the right choices! I guess weekend days are harder because they are out of the normal routine!
Personally, I found it quite easy to skip breakfast or have brunch at the start, but now that I am into this way of eating I find that skipping a meal is the most common way to lead to slip ups (brunch as you did, or if I’m not hungry in the evening and skip a planned meal, I get the munchies at around midnight).
Tomorrow’s weight is just a number – and maybe even though the week one loss won’t be as much as you’d initially anticipated, it’ll give you scope to avoid the week two plateau that quite a lot of people seem to experience.
good luck with week two

Morning Ms Bloody Minded
I agree with Frog, you were trying hard to do right, sometimes life has other ideas and trips us up. At least you owned your mistakes rather than making excuses or pretending you didn’t. I used to be terrible, once I started eating of a day, it kickstarted something in me and I didn’t stop grazing then, between meals, meals, after meals, so I would hold off eating as long as I could. Now I eat when I’m hungry, and as I’m an early riser (around 5 am), I’ve been surprised to see that my body hasn’t wanted my yogurt and fruit until around 10am. Good luck for your weigh in tomorrow, and just remember, you haven’t done anything that can’t be undone in a few days of. Be kind to yourself 🙂

Thanks for the pep talk Frog and Lucky Maneki. I have eaten a 1000 times better this week than I usually do. So proud of me really.

That is another good point Ms Bloody Minded. This ‘diet’ can be looked at three ways. Probably more than three, but from my perspective (as I don’t have any connected health problems, thankfully) you’ve got; a) what the scales show. b) what the tape measure/waistbands of your clothes show. And c) what YOU know you’ve put in your body over the course of the week. And like me, it looks like the answer to that question is ‘Better than I put in it in the past’. It’s all good 🙂 Hope your weigh in went well 🙂

I’ve lost 2 kilos, but I’ve gained a new lease on life! Feeling the happiest and most motivated that I’ve felt in a long time. Would have loved to have been 2.5kg lighter, but I’ll take that number thank you very much! I have had a shake for breakfast and lunch the last couple of days (quite easy to manage at work) and a hot smoked salmon salad for dinner last night.Tonight whilst everyone else is having lasagna I shall be enjoying another salad – with either some egg or a chicken fillet. I found some miso soup sachets in Coles today that are only 20 calories per serve, so I will have one of them too. A good little find to take to work to carry me through those long afternoons. Still hovering at 7000 steps, but I have a walk planned at lunchtime tomorrow and will continue to build the exercise into my days. Go me!

Hi MsBM, Lucky and I already chat a lot, and I can reiterate that you’re doing all the right things! This isn’t a quick fix, its a change in the way you eat longterm and you’ll always have days where it doesn’t all go to plan. Just the fact that you’re eating better is a big step forward and as those carbs leave your system you will feel healthier AND less hungry. Take it from a lifelong purveyor of cake that snacking CAN become a thing of the past! I’m in week 7 and can’t believe how much my eating habits have changed for the better, although I have also NOT been a saint (in case you think I’m smug!). There has been a couple of glasses of (red) wine along the way, and a small glitch involving a day of McDonalds and a cupcake.. BUT.. you just get back on the wagon!

Hi there Janeycoughdrop. You are so right – it has taken me 20 years to get this way so I need to manage my expectations. If anyone out there is flirting with the idea of doing this – go for it. I have been analysing what has changed in me and it was reading Michael’s book before I started the diet. With every other diet I have been on there has not been that re-education or that science behind it. I think it makes such a huge difference on a cognitive level to your behaviour when you understand why something is necessary.
Seven weeks is so awesome Janeycoughdrop – and I love your honesty.

Huge well done Ms Bloody Minded, 2 kg is a fab weight loss. We’re at the start of a long journey, you are spot on in that it’s a re-education, and like learning anything, some times we don’t always pull in a 100% mark. Sometimes we have to get things wrong in order to get them right. I was in a foul mood this morning but some lovely ladies like Janey have put me back on the straight and narrow (promise, no chocolate today Janey 😉 ). Onwards it is!

Aw, now I feel like a guru, which I’m really not! I’m just a bit further down the carb reduction path than you two!!

Day 12 – who would have thought?! Had a sneaky weigh in this morning and weight is still going down so I am very happy with that. I am now recording all of my food on MFP and it really helps to be able to quickly identify the carb content of food. I had 3 brazil nuts yesterday, but at 200 calories I won’t be doing that again. Really proud of how I have committed to this new way of eating and most days I am below 800. I have not binged a single time and have only enjoyed a single glass of red wine. I am walking more and feel wonderful that I walked up the Terrace yesterday when ordinarily I would have caught the bus. Even put my hand up at work to do a job that was a bit of a walk away, whereas before I would have tried to weazel out of it for fear that my knees would not have stood up to it. I am definitely more present in the moment. I have not been perfect, but I have made progress.

Haha! Missed that one, Guru Janey… oh that’s it now, lady…

Well done Ms Bloody Minded, you’re doing brilliantly. I know you know that yourself, but it’s nice to hear others confirm it for you. Glad to hear the scales are still heading in the right direction for you, mine are too after a teeny tiny blip this week when I put a pound on and completely lost the plot (but then lost three pounds the next day and felt like a bit of a tube). I’m only a day ahead of you 🙂

I do need to walk more though. Baby steps!

There’s actually a saying, isn’t there? ‘Strive for progress, not perfection’. Sounds appropriate 🙂