Hello everyone!

I started the 8 week blood sugar diet on Monday 22/01/18, having up and down days, have broken it slightly (fun size mars bar! and small snacks – not diet based) ahhh! The guilt is awful!

Not letting it get the better of me and carrying on with the programme. I have recently been taking Turmeric golden milk at night and Apple Cider Vinegar in the mornings for a jolt to the system. Even though i have had the odd naughty snack i’m doing my best to get myself out of the habitual comfort and boredom eating.

I do find i have more energy in the afternoon which i find really strange! I work in an office at a desk all day and the company have unlimited supply of chocolate, biscuits, fizzy drinks (IT’S TORTURE)

Today! I did well, everyone in my office have had pizza (20 boxes!) bought by the company! I raced out and bought myself a turkey subway salad with no dressing. Feeling somewhat victorious!

Been told that the less sugar you consume the less you crave it, even to the point where it can start tasting too sweet and revolting! (waiting for this day!)

Has anyone got any advice and if they have also been slightly naughty too? I am serious about doing this plan so i’m sticking with it.

Any advice would be really appreciative.

Hi Bonita and welcome
I’m a newbie to the forums as well, although I did the BSD last year and I’ve started again this year. This is a very friendly place and lots of help and advice so ask anything and post on any of the threads.

The chocolate, biscuits and fizzy drinks must be torture – it sounds like you’ll need a lot of will power. I find that planning my meals works for me – it means I know exactly what I will be eating that day and it stops me reaching out for snacks. Most people on the forum are counting carbs too – around 50g per day.

There is no point feeling guilty for eating something – if you’ve snacked then just move on. Forget about it and carry on as if you hadn’t. Maybe think about why you snacked, what were the triggers and try to put things in place to stop it happening again – if you were hungry then have some healthy snacks to hand, if they just happened to be there, then are there any strategies you can use to avoid them – difficult if they’re around all day!

There are people on this forum who have been doing this much longer than me and I’m sure will have lots of useful advice – I look forward to hearing your updates.

Is the Golden Milk made with actual milk or is it just a turmeric and water combination? Because milk is high in sugar (lactose and all that) and drinking it by the cupful is probably not a good idea. People who added just a few spoonfuls to their tea have found that when they added it all up, the milk really jacked up their daily carb counts. If it’s just a turmeric tea, then have at it without concern. I adore turmeric. I could eat it from the bag with a spoon, I swear. 😀

Okay here comes my by now trademark pep talk. Do not think of yourself or of carb-laden foods as “naughty.” Nor are they “treats,” “temptations,” “nice” or “lush.” Using this kind of terminology will only hold you back, keeping you yearning for stuff that a) is bad for you and b) isn’t really that great anyway. It’s just a habit and habits can be retrained. You have to actively break out of the pattern to do it, however, and I firmly believe that engaging in loud conversations with your brain, changing the way you think and talk about something, helps immensely in changing the way you do things. The BSD is a mental challenge first and foremost.

Consider this instead. When you got the hell out of Dodge City during the pizza extravaganza, you went to a place that has racks of bread, chips and about a billion other high-carb options. Instead of pining over what you couldn’t have, you got a BSD-friendly turkey salad and were relieved. That means you can do this thing, Bonita, even under pressure, even with your old way of eating lurking around every corner. You focused, you got out of the immediate danger and you made a positive choice for your health and future. That takes real mental fortitude and girl, you’ve got it. Remember that. Think of that when times get tough.

Good luck!

Thanks Gattina
Your advice has helped me feel a lot better today! Just going to power through. I read the book and they advised against snacking unless i really feel i need to. So I’ve just been having Breakfast, lunch and dinner. My problem has always been portion control. and junk food addiction. Senseless eating, i’m making more a point to eat dinner at a table as opposed to in front of the TV! Yeah today has been a new day and I’ve done well. So starting as i mean to go on! Thanks for the advice!

Esnecca – This reply was brilliant! Just what i needed to hear! I see what you mean about calling them naughty etc! Just force of habit i guess! The Golden Milk is just unsweetened Almond Milk, organic double strength turmeric, with pinches of cinnamon, paprika, black pepper, and a tiny bit of raw honey. then i heat up and drink. I suffer from acne and i’m 33! It’s gotten worse since Monday as i’m drinking more water than ever before. about 3 litres a day along with about 5 cups of green tea (no sugar). I may as well move my computer into the bathroom! ha

Yeah i didn’t even think of ordering a sandwich just wanted Salad! Ha that’s was a great pep talk! honestly thank you guys so very much! Given me a lot more food for thought (mind the pun) Thanks for the uplifting messages! You’re right I GOT THIS!! ha xx

Hi Bonita! Welcome to the BSD! I’m going to piggyback my comments on the absolutely dead-on comments made above by Esnecca — and give you the research on eating sugar and losing the cravings.
The research supports what we find out the long way here on the BSD, if you stop eating “sugars” (I’m putting it in quotes because sugar is table sugar (fructose and glucose)fruits (fructose) breads and flours and grains and potatoes and corn and peas (all starchy foods), milk (lactose), you will get control of your cravings and ultimately, lose the taste for sweet “treats”.
When I first read about this phenomenon, I did not believe it for an instant. I was a carb-slave, and I ate carbohydrate all day (well that is what the US food guidelines tell us) in every form, but especially sweets. I needed to lose about fifty pounds and I was getting fatter every single day (and in full despair).
I recommend VERY strongly that you buy a book called “Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It” by US author Gary Taubes. It is the perfect companion book to the BSD and it was the combination of the BSD and the Taubes book that finally clicked for me.
Taubes explains how eating carbohydrate (AKA sugar) in ALL its forms causes weight gain because it drives your production of insulin (your fat-storage hormone).
One doctor doing the research said it simply — “carbohydrate drives insulin drives fat” — it became my mantra.
When you cut your carbohydrate intake very low (and I cut it to 20 grams per day) your insulin levels plummet. When your insulin is low, you can mobilize the fat stores in your body.
Here’s the kicker — Taubes writes about how test subjects lose their desire for sugar, usually all at once, like overnight, or over a short period of time. This actually happened for me, and has stronger and stronger over the past year and a half of maintenance. You literally LOSE that sugar drive and from my experience, you just stop thinking about it.
It made me think that sugar might really be addictive, as many have postulated.
So losing the desire for sugar doesn’t happen immediately, but you will gain full control of your HUNGER cravings very quickly when you cut the carbs (because you are mobilizing your own fat stores).
You are off to a good start — don’t give in, give your desire for sugar a one-way ticket on the bus out of town. You are going to amaze yourself. Honestly, why didn’t anyone tell us this forty years ago? All those years struggling with weight issues… and the answer was so straight forward.
Our food/nutrition “authorities” have a lot to answer for.

Wow! California girl! I think i need to take some more time to read your thread thoroughly! It explains a hell of alot.
I basically eat basmati rice every day without fail. And copious amounts! its tough to cut out! I love it! Along with chocolate, crisps (chips – i think you call them!) i’m just trying to overhaul all my bad habits, its causing me so much grief, mentally and physically! Dont even start me on the fizzy pop i’d drink as well. This i’ve cut out completely!
Thanks for the tip on the book! I’ll look into it this afternoon!

Thank you so much!!!

Thank you, Californiagirl and Esnecca. My friends, you arrived to
explain all of this to Bonita before I did today. Hi Bonita, and
welcome to this wonderful forum! The 3 of us just happen to
be American, and we’ve all been in maintenance for months and
months. Kind of a co-incidence, because inspite of the size of
this country, there are very few of us 🙂 I agree 110% with the
advice given, and I don’t know who endorses the Taube book more,
Californiagirl( hi Julia) or myself. It’s “the Bible” as far as I’m concerned,
and changed the way I think about food forever. Well worth the
investment, 10 x over. I won’t take the time to repeat my story
here, because I’ve recently done so on either the Jan. 22 or Jan 24
newcomer thread.
Best of luck to you, Bonita. Go for it 🙂

allicat

Hi Allie and Bonita — yup, Allie (hi Allie!) is the other fanatical Gary Taubes fan — her experience is even more dramatic than mine, she is amazing, along with so many other BSD “graduates”!