Life never stands still!!

Just a few weeks ago I set a goal of losing 52lbs and that’s still my overall target, although I have lost 4.5lbs so far. I saw a hip surgeon last week and he has confirmed my suspicions and I really do need a replacement. Although there is no question that he will do it, he did mention that a lower BMI is always advantageous.

So I have now set another new goal but with a time limit! I hope to have surgery in early September, 17 weeks, and I’d like lose 30lbs by then. I’m really not sure if I can do this but I’ll give it a good shot. I have a holiday in 4 weeks so for the moment I’m just going to concentrate on that small chunk and see how far I can get.

I have always found in the past that ‘time limits’ just add pressure for me and that’s been destructive. I really will just have to keep on keeping on if I’m to reach my new goal!

Hope everyone else is doing well.

SUCCESS AT LAST!

Well I’ve just had my 6 month diabetic review and my HbA1c has fallen again to 33 (5.2). The real success is that my metformin has been reduced from 2000mg a day to 1000mg, with a blood test in three months with a view to stopping metformin altogether.

So I am half way to my original goal which was to ditch the metformin. All other blood tests good so both liver and kidneys looking good probably from all the extra water.

Whilst I’ve been struggling a little lately I now have renewed enthusiasm. This plan works!!!!!

You go girl Verano. What terrific news. Well done.

Huge huge congratulations Verano! I have been one of your fellow “travelers” on this road, but only dipping in now and then after I reached maintenance — but every time I check in, I see your thoughtful and continued posts and it is a great pleasure to get your latest report of success!!
You are a perfect example of what I keep trying to share with our fellow travelers — you don’t have to do this diet “perfectly” to achieve success. As you have noted many times, it is more accepting that this is a new way of eating and then just keeping on with the day to day of it that will finally make the goal (sorry, terrible run-on sentence)!
Your success is amazing and is an inspiration to all who have watched your journey. Congratulations!

Well done Verano, you seem to be paving the way to the goals I want to achieve – around 5.2 but with no meds – if I keep following you on our mini trials I’m sure I’ll get there too. You are my hero (ine).

Wow. Just WOW. Massive respect and applause directed your way verano. I’ve no doubt you will achieve your goal 🙂

Thanks everyone!

It’s so good to be able to post here with like minded people who understand, not only diabetes and it’s nasty face, but also the trials and tribulations of ditching carbs and losing weight.

Your are right Californiagirl bread rice etc just don’t feature in my diet anymore and I really don’t have any desire to eat them. I have certainly never been ‘perfect’ when it comes to following the plan, but then it’s not a race, and it’s working, so that’s fine by me. Each time I have a blood test and it’s ‘normal’ I feel just that little bit further away from amputated toes and all the other complications!!!

Yes S-g we will get there, it may take time, but the time will pass anyway, so we might as well make good use of it!!

The support here really keeps me going towards my final goal and maybe, one day, maintainance!

Well done Verano – you are indeed a good example of persistence and determination and I for one, look forward to your daily update.
X B

I’m glad you changed your lifestyle…I’m going through process…Day 14 tomorrow…Well Done!

Congratulations Verano, I hope your blood sugar results continue on and you can drop those meds!

After 300 grams going up down and sideways for about 6 days, I woke this morning with a loss of 1.3kgs! Hope it stays that way!

I don’t measure carbs, just follow the bsd principles and restrict calories. I was very strict for the first 8 weeks though. Michael Mosley’s book doesn’t tell you to count carbs and that’s good enough for me. I have lost 20kgs since end of january so this approach does work. I don’t think weetbix or toast have a part in this diet but that’s just me rigidly following the guidelines.

By the way, I am dumping my toaster today. I won;t use it again and if my guests want to toast they can use the grill on the oven!

Good work Verano and the best of luck to everyone on this journey. It gets easier as you go along.

Bigeater

Well done Verano you are an inspiration. You will be dancing down the ward when you have your new hip.

DAY 366 ….. My 1st BSD birthday and the start of a new year for me…….

Well, this has been an eventful year. I’m so pleased that I found the Blood Sugar Diet which I can only say has transformed my life.

Twelve months ago I was 53.6lbs heavier, my HbA1c was 6.4 and is now 5.2, my metformin has been reduced by 50% to 1000mg a day and my cholesterol has remained stable at around 4.5. Also those afternoon lethargic ‘naps’ have completely disappeared along with the carbs. I just feel so much healthier and look so much better.

As you will know from my posts my journey has been anything but smooth. My weight loss graph has gone up and down like the exchange rate! But nonetheless I have persevered and am now a true ‘non-carbaholic’. I no longer desire bread, potatoes, rice or pasta. I enjoy my BSD food and have even found a renewed love of vegetables. I’m no saint and do have a few foods for ‘crunch’ like oat cakes, the very occasional (now) digestive biscuit and the odd crisp here and there, but i do stick to the principles 99% of the time.

This is now my new way of eating, although after 12 months it’s not that new. So for the coming year ….. well this looks like being a momentous one for me. Hip surgery looming, new granddaughter almost ready to appear, big birthday to celebrate towards the end of the year to name but a few.

So that just leaves my goals for the coming year. I’d like to lose another 50lbs then I can join the 100 Club with a little to spare. I’d like to get rid of my remaining daily metformin tablet which will make me medication free, a great achievement at my age! I’d like to remain as healthy as I feel at the moment and better if possible.

Thanks to all my fellow travellers on this journey for helping me travel so far. The support of these groups has been invaluable to me and I hope it will continue to be so. So ‘once more unto the breach’ or in sunshine-girl’s words we have to just ‘keep on keeping on …..

Happy Anniversary VERANO well done you. Great feeling this new life. Talk about KCACO…keeping calm and carrying on…you CAN do another year. It is so well worth it. I still have to stop and count the months of “freedom” (16)
and be so grateful. It can work, it does work but also needs some work….

Aren’t we lucky we ended up here?
Nettle

Verano,
Happy BSD Birthday and congratulations on your achievements…i am a lurker and very infrequent poster but I always read your posts and you have helped me immeasurably. All best wishes for year 2 and…keep on keeping on, never bloody give up (thanks Bloke41) and all the rest!
towanda57

Hi Verano! Wow, a year on BSD — a true milestone! I have enjoyed reading your calm and intelligent posts all year and I wish you continued success as the next year unfolds. Sounds like you have big events, “big” birthday and a granddaughter on the way — just think, you spent the last twelve months preparing for them and you will greet them in a healthy happy body — such great blessings!
Julia

Happy BSD birthday Verano! You’ll be joining us in the 100 clubhouse sooner than you think. Keep on keeping on, and never forget the progress you have already made.

Verano – happy BSD birthday. What a great achievement to be able to call yourself a true ‘non-carboholic’. I always enjoy reading your posts – you have been a real inspiration to me on this BSD journey. As Nettle said – aren’t we lucky we ended up here.

Thanks for your birthday wishes. I’m so pleased I’ve been able to be of help to others along the way but it’s also a two-way street and I’ve had great help from you.

I went out for a Greek meal to celebrate last night and as a good BSD’er had no starter just chicken kebab with tzatsiki and some salad. No wine but, at home, a small portion of fruit salad with a scant tablespoon of ice cream …. well it was my birthday!

It’s always great to hear from the ‘ long term maintainers’ you always help renew my enthusiasm. So here’s to year 2 and more success! Thanks to you all.

Have just caught up with this Verano. Congratulations on your considerable achievements thus far, and look forward to your continued success as time goes on. Your participation on the various threads of this forum is highly valued.

Thank you and good wishes xx Marilyn

Thanks Marsie! As you know struggling a bit at the moment but still keeping on keeping on……

Hi Verano – sorry you’re struggling at the moment. Note – ‘at the moment.’ I think we go through phases of being strong then struggling a bit. I am trying to keep this in my head, motivated by you, I have to say, not that long ago. I’m in a good place right now- far from perfect, but I’m accepting of this.
Your story is very motivating, more so than those who ‘whoosh’ from A- Z. Of course, I’m happy for them, but I personally find stories of lower losses more encouraging. I lost almost 7 stones in 15 months in 2012 – it didn’t last and I put it all back on again. Lost a fair bit last year and regained a lot of it. So, I am a ‘tortoise’ now and happy about it. I hope the loss to permanent this way.
Best Wishes and keep going.
Everhopefuldumpty

Hi Verano.
I think aiming to loose weight long term on this plan is as difficult for peeps like me returning to the plan. I can see from your posts how fed up you are at the mo, one thing that has helped me is to look at the food I feel I am being denied, and really look at what is does to my body. For myself when I eat refined carbs, I feel toxic, exhausted beyond belief, and after a while my symptoms of S.L.E. return, which mean I don’t function. But I think for myself i just feel I am missing out on the ‘fun’, a bit like if you are home alone on a Saturday evening when all around you are socialising etc, left feeling a bit lonely and sorry for yourself.
So when I’m feeling determined I take time to really look at these things, so when I am feeling deflated like at the mo, because week one has been a very slow small loss, I check my mind, and it helps to prop me up.
We know from working long term on this plan that loss of control and unplanned eating is nothing to do with hunger, perhaps just a sense of missing out. So I ask myself what am I missing, it does work sometimes, but I have to stop myself to give my mind long enough to think these things through 😅😅😅
Just a suggestion, when we try so hard, for so long we loose sight sometimes of what’s really happening. But whatever happens we are all rowing the boat together.
Keep on keeping on. 🙋Jan

Dumptynm glad you’re in a good place at the moment and thank you so much for bringing this topic back up. I have re-read my very first post and in fact have read through the whole thread again.

I have just come back from the hairdressers and that always lifts me. So between the two I realise that I have always gone through periods of beating myself up because I’m not perfect … who is? Anyway the upshot is that I have reaffirmed my reasons for being here. My glass has to be half full so I have lost 20% of my original starting weight, bar a smidgeon, and have lost nearly a stone in the last 5 months. Not a staggering amount but a loss! Im still here eating no bread, pasta, rice or potatoes even though I am eating too much of the good stuff.

Jan, welcome back, and thank you. I think you are so right about loosing sight of what’s really going on. I think I’d like to turn your words on their head and ask …what do these foods do to enhance my life? Nothing!!!!

Guess we just have to try and keep our perspective on life and, as you say, keep on keeping on ….

I have found that just not THINKING so much about the diet can really help when I am just tired of following it very carefully — I take a mental break from it by not logging, not counting, not even thinking about it really and just follow a typical eating pattern from a regular dieting day (I am sure you have developed a “typical” day which works for you) which more or less keeps me on track but takes the pressure of THINKING about it off my mind for a bit. I also try to do some outdoor activity that is just for fun, not for EXERCISE — like gardening or bird watching —
The constant focus of the BSD is very intense and the calorie/carb counting can get demanding — even on maintenance I need some time to just “be”.
I always feel better after these mini-mental-breaks and it helps me refocus. I have found they sort themselves out and don’t result in weight gain, sometimes even a loss!
The kinds of weight losses we go through are very big changes for our minds and bodies — we have to give it all time to sink in. We are changing habits of fifty years.
I am so impressed by all of the people on this thread staying the course, even imperfectly, because there is no effort without error or imperfection. We are human and that means we are body and spirit living in this food-crazy world and just being here is a huge victory.

I agree with Californiagirl that the diet can get overwhelming at times. If I plan ahead I don’t have to think so much about it and it’s so helpful to log on here if I have a few minutes for a little extra moral boost.

This week, my calories started to increase, so It occurred to me that I can skip dinner and not fade away (it’s so ingrained in my routine) so the last couple of days I’ve done that as I’ve had a late slightly larger lunch.

I’m also 2 pounds away from being in the 100s again, so that been helpful to stay on track as I want to make it to that first goal. I know now that I’m so sensitive to grains and particularly flour that if I have any at all, the next day is much harder and I get cravings.

Thanks both of you. I think you’re right ‘overthinking’ can be a problem. Think I’ll take your advice Californiagirl and stop counting and logging and probably posting for a few days. I was away on holiday for 4 weeks with very little weighing etc, came home and did a strict 5 days to lose my holiday gain and now I’m in the doldrums. A break may do the trick.

Just wanted to update my ‘Journey So Far’ …. it’s OFFICIAL …. I’M DRUG FREE!!!

After three months of a half dose of metformin, 1000mg, my HbA1c is 34, just one point higher than when I was on 2000mg. My diabetic nurse is amazed, she can’t believe how good my diabetes control is. She expected my HbA1c to be much higher!

So, no more pills, and a blood test in three months. I have reached my main goal. BUT now the hard work really does start to stay well controlled and remain drug free. I feel like a ‘maintainer’ now. I still have weight to lose but I feel renewed and refreshed and as though a huge burden has been lifted from my shoulders. I know that this is now my only WOE and I know too that I will lose more weight because I will be eating low carb. No going back!

P.S. I was diagnosed with T2 over 5 years ago and was taking the highest dose of metformin with talk of adding another medication. Now I’m ‘normal’ so I hope this gives some hope to those who aren’t newly diagnosed, the ones for whom BSD is suppose to be most successful.

Well done Verano! I have followed your journey for a while now and so admire your ongoing commitment in spite of the ups and downs of dealing with blood sugar levels and losing weight.
X B

Verano, I am so thrilled for you. Well done. It is so exciting when we have normal HbA1c readings. To know our bodies are no longer being slowly harmed by diabetes is exhilarating. Enjoy.

Hi Verano, never doubted you would do it, such determination even with the odd digestive biscuit. I have been quite good but a small warning for myself, I allowed myself some chips as when my meal arrived it was just a piece of duck and I would have gone hungry. Next day my BG was 7.5, the highest it has been in 13 months. Next day it was still high and I increased insulin to 24 units and now today (4 days later) I have got it down to 5.6. I cant just blame the chips as the same day we visited a prune farm and were trying samples of prunes in Armagnac, chocolate coated prunes and prunes filled with crème de pruneaux. Then we went to a chocolate factory where is sampled some dark chocolate, when I bit into it, it was filled with caramel cream. These were only small sample tastings but a dire warning to me. I know it will take a week or so to get my BG back to where they were, especially as I want to reduce the insulin again but having HbA1c test in 2 weeks so probably cocked it up. Lesson learnt. My daughter says, go on mum it wont kill you. I have to remember it will eventually so no more.

Thank you! I must admit I didn’t realise that I would feel so happy. Or maybe I just hadn’t realised how awful having diabetes was making me feel. The relief of knowing that the complications are far less likely to be a problem for me now, is enormous, as long as I stay in control. I know that I’m only in remission.

Sunshine-girl we are only human and I don’t know if many people could resist all those wonderful prune combinations! The only combination that could be even nicer for me would be chocolate covered Armagnac prunes with maybe a shot of Armagnac on the side!!!

You say this is the highest your BG had been for 13 months, before you started, but it has been coming down really well and will continue to do so. We all have blips but it’s the keeping on that counts! We all tend to look at our failings but forget our huge successes.

At least we are still here, and still trying, and that in itself is a wonderful testament to our commitment to be healthy. I still have weight to lose and need to stay in control so won’t be going anywhere soon. We will both get there …. I know we will.

All hail the conquering Verano! You’ve got diabetes on the run, metformin eating Ben & Jerry’s by the pint in a futile attempt to get over your break-up and your seen-it-all nurse in a state of shock. What a way to cap a year and a half of hard work on your part. Do you have some non-food reward planned to celebrate your great accomplishment?

LOL!!! Thank you Esnecca actually today I cooked!! I used to have courgetti puttanesca in the early weight losing days, so today I made a huge pan of my tomato sauce base, all carb and calorie counted! I’m raring to go again. Now in phase 2 …. lose more weight and keep BG in check!

Feeling very positive and very thankful for having so any wonderful ‘travellers’ helping me along the way. You never know I may even join the 100 club one day!

Hi Verano

I’m new to the Forum (recently diagnosed T2) but wanted to add my congratulations – that’s fantastic news.
Your (and others) success is really motivating for people like me just starting out.
Marie

Verano – ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!!!!!!!! Huge congrats.

Marie it seems that the sooner you start eating low carb after diagnosis the sooner you stabilise your BS in the normal level. Don’t know if you are taking medication but either way I would ask for 3 months to see if you can control your diabetes with diet alone. Some doctors are on board and others think this way of eating is just not feasible. There are lots of us on this website who have diabetes but are now in remission so it can be done. It is a lifelong commitment to this way of eating, as far as we know at the moment. The most important thing is that if you can get good control of your blood sugars you are so much more less likely to end up, with any of the nasty consequences of T2.

THANKS JULIA! I’m floating on air at the moment!

Absolutely brilliant news, Verano, but I never doubted you would do it! I am sure that the next phase will also be successful and look forward to welcoming you to the 100 club in time. You have all the time in the world now you have beaten the blood sugar monster.

Thank you MnM just keep the chair warm for me I’m on my way!!! Just can’t tell you quite how good it feels just to be back in control. But then you know been there done that and still keeping on…..

Verano, just wanted to add my congratulations. Absolutely b****y brilliant, what a role model you are. Well done – so very happy for you.🎉🎊🎉

Thank you Theodora, still walking on air ….. hope to come back to earth very soon and get back on plan properly!

So brilliant Verano – you worked really hard for this result and you totally deserve it. The look on that ‘seen-it-all nurse’ (Esnecca’s apt words) would have been good to see. But all credit goes to you – you’re the one that persevered and this is all your own success. Fantabulous!

Thanks Dumptynomore. Unfortunately the consultation was by phone so I never got to see her face!!! I could tell from her voice though how shocked she was, so much so that I asked her if she had expected the result to be much higher, to which she replied ‘yes’. I suppose when I think about she would expect it to be a lot higher because the ‘tablets’ were ‘controlling’ my blood sugar. Only we know better!!!

When you see her, you could go into the nitty gritty of EXACTLY how hard you have worked. Credit where credit is due, Verano. Take it!
I’ll be honest – you’re success has got me all fired up too – just makes everything so worthwhile! Going to try and remember this feeling , when I hit my low’s – thanks

Glad to be of some help!

You’re always a help Verano – you know I think very highly of you. Even when you’re going through a rough patch yourself you have a knack of keeping everybody positive. Let’s see this through to the end.