After reaching, passing and re-defining my target a few months ago, today I reached my first BSD anniversary so decided to post on here as I move into my second BSD year.

It’s been an interesting, sometimes challenging year. Now the next year will also have challenges, just different ones. It won’t be working to lose weight, but to maintain the weight loss. People say that it can be harder to maintain than lose, because there is no goal to work towards. The reward of seeing the scales move downward has gone. All those who have experienced plateaus now that feeling.

But this is what it will be for the future. After losing 7.5 stone in the year, seeing the new me (or rather the me that was hidden inside that large shell) there is no way I can let my weight creep up again. Apart from anything else, I can’t afford to keep buying new clothes. All my large clothes have gone from my life as they’ve been outgrown, and replaced.

So, this is a new stage in my journey.

Happy Anniversary! And every best wish for your maintenance. The new you deserves to reap the benefits of your efforts.

My 1st Anniversary will be in mid-January. I think it’s fair to say that I have taken something of a sabbatical in recent weeks having given in to temptation a few times recently & have missed some of the regular exercising. The weight is holding its own though. With having Xmas and my birthday fairly close together this time of year has always been a bad time for stuffing myself.

So I am putting in writing here & now that my 1st anniversary (12th Jan) will be the official start of my BSD reboot – there I’ve said it. Get the distractions out of the way and start afresh.

Thanks RozyDozy

Looking forward to celebrating your anniversary soon (and your reboot).

Best wishes for Christmas and the new year (both calendar and BSD).

Christmas best wishes to you, too, Lynne. And for 2017, too.

Feeling quite good today – just did a full hour of swimming so that’s a few calories burned up!

Happy anniversary Captainlynne. You have achieved so much during your first year and provided inspiration to so many people – including me. So thank you for staying on this forum when so many other people reached their goals and just left.

It’s great that you are still here and your knowledge and expertise is available for us to tap into.

After Christmas I will be starting maintenance as my BMI is now 21 and probably can only afford to lose a couple more pounds (if at all) and will be learning from you how to deal with maintenance now there are no weight loss goals to work towards.

I am in the same boat as you as I cannot let my weight creep up. There is too much at stake health wise. Like you, all my larger clothes have gone and have been replaced and it would be a rather expensive exercise if I had to buy bigger clothes again. Also I just love being a smaller version of me.

So best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

Congratulations Captainlynne on your 1st anniversary on the BSD plan! Thank you for staying on the forums and sharing your experiences. It is so helpful to all of us! I look forward to reading your posts as you go through the maintenance stage. I will learn from you. You are a wonderful role model for me and I’m sure many others!

KrysiaD– you are doing so well. I always love reading your posts! You are such an inspiration!!!! It must feel so good to be at the maintenance stage. Keep posting!!!!

Merry or Happy Christmas season everyone. Looking forward to reading all your posts in the New Year 2017!

Thanks jmarie41. Where are you on your BSD journey?

Hi Captainlynee, I started the BSD on October 9th, 2016 and ended the 8 week–800 calorie BSD plan the first week of December. I’ve been following the BSD and just adding more calories, trying to practice the maintenance stage, and doing pretty good but still need some work. I plan to start another 8 week -800 calories BSD stent on January 1st and lose another 10 lbs. Then it’s maintenance for me. I’ve lost 19.5 lbs. and so far kept it off. So for sure I will be following you and KrysiaD and others who are in the maintenance stage and want to learn as much as I can from your experiences as I know this will be my hardest part. I don’t want to regain!
Happy holidays!!! Janet :–)

Hi Lynne
Well done with sticking at it and not only reaching but exceeding your goal weight.👏👏👏👏
I let my body continue to lose until it found its ideal weight and that seems to be around 56-57kg giving me a total loss in the vicinity of 33kg.
I’m sticking to the principles, no simple carbs – at all, no sugar and I’ve simply increased my fat consumption so I don’t keep losing. It’s so liberating to be able to eat butter and olive oil and sour cream and double cream and full fat Greek yogurt without gaining weight!
I wish I knew about this way of eating years ago!
Have a great day on Sunday and take it easy.
Cheers
Linda

Still at 8st 6lb today – a whole stone below my original goal weight.

Like you LindaA I decided to carry on for a while. Partly to give myself some wriggle room, but partly to see where my weight stabilised.

Now I’m just over half way in my healthy BMI and am happy with that. I’d not want to lose much more – definitely not to go lower than 8 stone. Even at 8st 6lb I’m at my lowest ever adult weight.

I’ve certainly got wriggle room now!

Now I’m getting used to the new weight and dress size I can think about new clothes (after my York trip on Thursday).

A very happy and healthy Christmas to everyone.

Hi Lynne

Sorry to hear you’ve not been too well. Speedy recovery and Happy Christmas.

Enjoy your shopping trip you truly deserve it!

Thanks Verano

Not a shopping trip next week. Colour analysis, makeup colours and lesson, then style analysis. All in one busy day. Plus the travelling, an hour each way.

Shopping will come later, once I’ve got my head round everything

A good preparation for the new year!

Captainlynne – sorry to hear you are unwell – hope you feel better very soon.

Your colour and style analysis and makeup colours and lesson sounds really exciting. You will come back with some fantastic ideas for shopping.

Get well soon Captainlynne. I am so looking forward to hearing your update on your Colour analysis etc.

Thanks everyone. I’ll report back after the York trip – either Friday or Saturday, will need time to recover!

KrysiaD – either shopping or dressmaking, or both!

Shame we won’t be able to see you after your new makeover. Hope you enjoy every moment Lynne. Merry Christmas x

Don’t know if I’ll be able to get a photo on Thursday, after the makeup. Still unsure what I’ll be wearing – jeggings or pencil skirt. Probably the jeggings, because I’ve been told to dress comfortably. Also depends on the weather.

Sounds very exciting! Really looking forward to hearing how it all went.

Hope you’re fully recovered now.

Hi Verano *waves*

Thanks – feeling a little better, not quite there yet. But a few days enforced rest are helping. I don’t drive, and there are no buses out of the village until Wednesday. That, combined with few local facilities and the bad weather mean I’ll probably not go out until Wednesday (if then!).

Will report back 😀👋🏻

Happy new year everyone.

Happy to report that weight is stable at 8st 7lb, give or take a pound either way. *happy dance*

I’ve also been walking more. So far this year I’ve walked 15.8 miles towards the 1,000 mile challenge.

Result of HbA1c back today. It was 5.1 (32 in new money, but I still use the old unit of measurement).

To put that into context, here’s how it’s changed on the BSD.

December ’15 (immediately before starting the BSD) 9.6
January ’16 (don’t ask – a sneaky test!) 8.7
April ’16 it was 5.5
July ’16 it was 5.2
Jan ’17 it is 5.1. And that is after a few months of maintaining, eating more nuts and dairy.

Can’t help wondering what the diabetes nurse will have to say about it, she who blows hot and cold. (Not the one who did the blood test). She who said the BSD was not sustainable. Who said I’ll have to stay on the diabetes register, the go won’t take me off it. Mmmm ….. could be an interesting conversation or two in the future!

I may, just may, go for the diabetes review in the summer and have those conversations then. A whole year of evidence. But after that – probably not. Why waste my time, their time, and their resources? Ho hum!

Brilliant news, Lynne. I’d go for that final review in the summer if it were me – with a view to educating them! Brilliant use of resources – she might just have realised by then that BSD works, and is sustainable!
Julia

My thoughts exactly Julia 😀

Happy to report that I’m still maintaining around 8st 7lbs, and have been since 17th December.

Today (Saturday is official weighing day) weight is 8st 6lb. During the week, however, the scales showed numbers I can’t remember seeing in my adult life. I dropped to 8st 5lb and 8st 4lb!

I’m getting used to looking for size 10 on clothing rails, rather than the size 24 I used to need. My wardrobe is still quite empty (minimalist?) but more colourful. After so long wearing ‘comfortable’ clothes – trousers with elasticated waists, I found jeans and jeggings as well as being back in tailored trousers for work (midweek). Alas, my jeans and trousers are now too big and the last pair will soon be on their way to a charity shop, leaving me with one pair of jeggings. I’m finding it really difficult to find trousers/jeans that fit well so have decided to go back in to skirts!

I regularly visit the charity shops in Durham – sometimes I find something, other times nothing. But it’s a great way for me to try new things. Yesterday I bought several items of clothing, but a skirt and top will go back. Shame, I like them – just not on me. Yes, I could have tried them on in the shop, but don’t like doing that! Now I have a number of skirts and tops. Perhaps I should try harder to find a dress or two?

Hopefully the weather will soon be better and I can wear shoes instead of boots again. And I only own black shoes. So shoe shopping as well.

Well, it’s now 22 weeks since I reached my original target weight of 9st 7lb – although I missed that and hit 9st 6lb.

Today I weigh 8st 5lb. That’s a lot of wriggle room!

I think I’m officially revising my target weight to 8st 7lb, planning in some of that famous wriggle roomthe bottom of my healthy BMI is 7 stone😱 so perhaps staying between 8st and 8st 7lbs! The alternative of Smart BMI gives lowest healthy weight at 5′ 1″ and 66 years to be 7st 7lbs, so 8st to 8st 7lbs should be ok.

Don’t want to lose much, though, otherwise my new (to me) clothes won’t fit!

Another skirt I’ve just bought has to go back to a charity shop! It fits perfectly. Problem is, I think you’d call it a “wiggle skirt”. Live it. Can walk,in it. Just can’t get on a bus or train in it! And I do need to be able to do that. So, with regret, it has to go. Oh, well, we live and learn. Perhaps if it had been shorter it would have been ok, but it has a kind of ‘fishtail ‘ at the back so can’t be shortened.

And another pound gone!

Still working to maintain but not stressing if a few more pounds go. Just not too many.

I’m in similar boat Lynne, I have been maintaining since 17th Jan and despite eating what feels like more than enough food and feeling as if I must have blown it, I’m actually finding my weight is still creeping slightly downwards. I’ll be okay for another 6lbs or so, but I don’t look good skinny (I did it once about 100 years ago). I can’t imagine eating more food – I’ll have to add more nuts and cheese if it comes to that!

WHAT A WONDERFUL PROBLEM TO HAVE! Ha ha 🙂

captainlynne, thank you for posting for the past year and a bit – you have answered so many of my questions in your journey and given me inspiration.

I am a serial relapser, and was off the wagon for most of the past year. I stopped posting, and gave up. I’m back for another go now, and so, so happy to see your (and others’) success.

I am particularly worried about regain, as I’ve been a yo-yo dieter for many years, but always regaining and more besides. I just made myself laugh out loud there because I am almost back up to my heaviest weight ever, and only just restarted the 8 week programme, and there I am worrying about regaining weight I haven’t even lost yet!!

The one encouraging thing I have observed though, after falling off the BSD wagon, is that this is the only way of eating that didn’t result in a higher gain than before when I stopped doing it. It’s a very good sign that means it’s just possible this way of eating could be a better route to keeping weight off than all the others I’ve tried.

Hello jpscloud,
I sometimes make the spelt/rye bread from the recipe book which was based on a recipe you posted. Sorry to hear you fell off the wagon but nice to see you back in the saddle having another go.
I hope you didn’t see the programme on Channel4 recently about slimmers who regain weight – the experts were saying it was pretty much inevitable (something to do with the body being wired to claw back fat lost), which I thought was somewhat negative, give us some hope, please. Those who had managed to keep the weight off had kept their foot on the pedal – one by changing his career to that of a personal trainer. And there was Rosemary Conley who built a whole business round weight loss – she’s still looking good. Somewhat extreme examples but the point seemed to be that we have to keep the momentum going to avoid regain, no slipping back to the old ways.

But none of the people who had experienced massive weight regain had followed the BSD. Like you, I think the BSD offers an excellent prospect of actually being able to keep the weight off long-term. The occasional going AWOL won’t make too much difference so long as you keep on the right road (a bit like stopping at motorway services on a long journey, you have your break then you rejoin the motorway).
Anyway, I wish you well on your restart – hope you achieve your target.

Hi Rozy, thanks and it’s good to “see” you again! I hope the bread turns out ok… I was disappointed to see they had adjusted my recipe to include honey – I would never add sugar in any form to bread now, it doesn’t need it to rise (honestly, it doesn’t). My recipe is for a very dense bread anyway, highly filling and satisfying… the honey is a huge mistake in my view. Try it without honey, I bet it turns out tasting just as good!

I DID see that programme! I agree it was a bit of a downer, but I was already aware that regain is inevitable for all but around 5% of people who lose a significant amount of weight. I also agree the BSD might offer a straw of hope to clutch at, and it’s the only “diet” or should I say way of eating that I feel comfortable to return to.

Hi jpscloud

In the past (before BSD) I would take forever to lose weight, only once getting anywhere near I am now. At that time I weighed 8st 7lb because I was so stressed out I couldn’t eat. And my face showed it. I say I could use a photo taken at the time to scare naughty children! But the weight returned, with interest, in the blink of an eye.

Now I’m under 8st 7lb. Feeling great. Face not gaunt. And the weight is staying off. Yes, it fluctuates slightly. But I weigh daily and so can monitor it. This has to be the longest I have maintained weight loss in my lifetime history of dieting. But, of course, this is not a diet. This is a new way of eating, a new way of life.

I’m keeping a close eye on carbs, keeping them low, but not worrying too much about calories. That seems to be doing the trick. I was concerned about how I would maintain, and spent a lot of time thinking about what I would do if and when I reached that point. So far, so good.

Hope it goes well for you. Please keep posting about your BSD journey.

Thanks captainlynne, very interesting that with previous weight loss you appeared gaunt, but not with this way of eating at the same weight – whichever way you look at it the BSD seems to be the way to health.

I have such a lot to lose (10 stone wouldn’t see me too thin) and would love to be as successful as you and others posting here. I may not walk a straight path to health, but I hope by keeping on trying I will make significant improvements. Today I didn’t manage to resist a roll while I was out at lunch, but I’m back home very late and no time for dinner as I’m having 3 month fasting blood test in the morning. Feeling good, though.

Thanks for your encouragement, I am going to stick around on the forums even if I fall off the wagon this time, I think it really will help me.

Hi again, jpscloud,
Thanks for the tip re the bread. I couldn’t figure out what the honey added to the recipe either – next time I make your recipe I intend lobbing some dried tomatoes into the mix.
To make you feel better about the roll you had, I succumbed to a coffee & walnut cake yesterday – not just a slice, pretty much the whole cake! I’d been feeling rough on Monday – a headache had a vicelike grip on my brain and I felt ravenous no matter what I ate or drank. But when I went swimming I felt it was less arduous than the week before – maybe I needed a bit of sugar to fuel the swimming – but today I’m feeling good. The recuperative powers of coffee/walnut (one of the world’s great flavour combos IMHO)…
Anyway, I think I have to class that blip as my stop at the motorway services, now I’d better get back on track!

You’ve got the desire – don’t get disheartened by any setbacks. If this was easy no-one would be overweight. It’s great that captainlynne keeps posting with her advice & encouragement. I don’t always follow my own advice but posting helps keep me honest.
Good luck with your efforts.

Thanks Rozydozy! Terrible day today – feeling very off, very low mood and upset stomach (I think due to taking metformin on an empty stomach, after fasting for too long because I missed dinner last night and had a FBS test this morning).

So today was a carb fest write-off, and I’d normally slink away from the forums feeling like a failure, but I’m not doing that any more – I need to stick around and dust myself off every time.