Hi all, still at 72kgs and going out tonight. Think I might have taken this life is for living a bit too far 🙂 We have another night out on 31st for a Halloween quiz. In fairness we went most of August and all of September without going out, just happen to be having a few events all coming at once. After Halloween we have nothing until Christmas in the UK.

I have just sent back my vegetarian book as I was overwhelmed by the different ingredients like jacami which is from South America, making your own sushi using rice (as no no) and nori seaweed strips. It is even hard to get tofu here in France so I am not fannying around looking for things no-one has heard of. I think the problem was it was vegan and no recipes for eggs or dairy so a very limited choice. I think the interet is a good alternative and I already have recipes I can adjust. Like Thursday I am doing a recipe I found in Slimming World mag, skewers of halloumi, red peppers and mushrooms marinated in soya and lime, served with vegetable pakora (using 2 tablespoons of chickpea flour) on a bed of couscous with mixed veg. I will have to start planning like I did with the BSD to start with but once I have a few recipes I will just change them as I want i.e. kidney beans instead of black beans and so on.

We have also agreed that will will eat meat when hubby cooks on Tuesdays but will change him from Saturday to Friday when we always have fish which I am allowing – even though I don’t really like it much – it is for him. Then I can do veggie on Saturday and we will have whatever we want on Sunday. So more of a flexitarian diet than veggie but a lot less red meat and chicken. Sounds like a plan. Said I would start properly 1st November so just experimenting for now.

Had a fun night out at the quiz. The food was amazing although I was worried when the crisps and nibbles came out but then arrived bowls of hummous with carrot and cucumber sticks, baby tomatoes and cornichons. When the proper food came out it was sliced ham, proscusio, 2 cheeses and lots of salad. There was bread but I managed to say no. Hubby and I shared a bottle of rose wine.

Now back on with it and a fortnight to get to grips with things again before our next night out. Live is for living.

Today is the three-week mark for me. I’m feeling a little less elated than I thought I might because I have a rough cold and have been feeling queasy with it. It was a struggle last night to find anything I actually wanted to eat in order to keep the calories up. UP! Can’t say I’d get to the point where I was worried I couldn’t hit 800. I made myself a vanilla ice cream that is based on a carnivore recipe but I added a little erythritol and some vanilla, it did the job.

Highlights for me this week are that my blood sugar readings have been stable and I can fit into a denim skirt I haven’t been able to wear for ages and I was so pleased. It’s one of these skirts that are so easy to wear with anything and I love it.

My next challenge is that next week we are going away to stay with family for nearly a week. I have checked my hosts won’t be offended if I take my own food and am trying to prepare a list of things I can eat for the six days. So far I am thinking: a fat head pizza (should last me 2 days with salad), a chaffle-based quiche (another 2 days with salad), some chicken breasts and possibly a bag of skinny noodles or something like that.

Todays lunch is a sausage, bacon and poached egg. I’m looking forward to the sausage especially.

Well done JeannieP. The none weight related gains are as important as how much you lose as sometimes it shows in different ways. Good BG and a skirt that fits as great wins.

I am just keeping my head down and sticking to the plan, getting back down and then onward to my new goal.

Yesterday we were going to the dentist for our annual check ups and there were 2 great big corn harvesters stuck on the road so we couldn’t get past. Rang dentist and said we would be late, then 20 minutes later range and told her to cancel. She was okay about it and we can see her next week.

The farmers have a new ploy in annoying the whole country. Last year they turned all the town/village signs upside down. Now they have removed the signs and replaced them with the names of other towns/villages. Like a bunch of schoolboy pranksters.

Hubby has just been stung by a Asiatique Hornet. We have a nest of them in our shed and the association you contact asked him to let them know how big the nest is, what colour, how big the hornets are, approx how many and so on. So he opened the shed door and straight away they swarmed at him. Fortunately just one sting and we have been to the pharmacy for treatment. Just have to keep an eye on him in case he has an allergic shock then it is straight to the hospital. Knew he would find a way out of cooking tea 🙂

I will let you know if anything else exciting happens in our part of the countryside.

Sorry to hear about your husband being stung by a hornet S-G that must have been a shock! And I hope he has recovered now? We had black hornets when I lived in the Middle East & I hated going out to hang up the washing never knowing if I was being dive bombed by a hornet or one of the black flying insects.
Well I still feel quite upset about my knee & waiting in limbo until I know how or when my surgery is to be done. I’ve had a sweet tooth attack & have gone off piste with an occasional shortcake biscuit or icecream & not surprisingly I have gained 1.5lbs. I tried most days to at least keep below my BMR calories & of course TRE & I also on BBCiplayer rewatched MMs original tv programme Eat Fast & Be Healthy I think it’s called. It was good to get back to basics & the premise of the original research.
Oh well onwards & hopefully downwards in weight next week.
Margaret xx

Hi everyone, hubby is okay, his arm is a bit red a sore but he has been treated with cortisone cream and antihistimines. I will have to telephone the hornet people tomorrow morning as they were closed on Friday.

Sorry to hear about your knee surgery Margaret, I thought you were going private.

Not happy with my weight going up and down. Only a couple of points on the kg scale but annoying. I have had 3 days totally vegetarian and yesterday only had 700 cals as there are hardly any in cauliflower and aubergine balti with cauliflower rice. 2 boiled eggs at breakfast and a readymade soup for lunch. I know it will come off eventually and hoping for a loss by Tuesdays weigh in.

Nothing to report

Good evening!
Well we are home from our travels and have arrived back, to what is now a cold, wet, blustery evening!

Pootle you are doing so really, really well. I too remember the days of ‘lettuce weighing’ but don’t worry they pass and you will still stay in control!

Margaret I know exactly where you are coming from …. you could sit down at a table/worktop to chop! It’s amazing how many ways you can find to avoid standing while you’re cooking, when you have too!

Julia I agree with you absolutely about seed oils but I do buy a rapeseed oil that is cold pressed which I think is ok, apart from the fact that when used to shallow fry it ‘spits’!

S-g glad hubby is ok. Just want to say as I read through this thread I was amazed at how well your BS came down just in one week. Makes me think that the peaks and troughs even out, into the ‘normal’ range, as long as they aren’t very high/low all the time. I also agree that cooking as much as possible from scratch avoids the UPFs and as you say the processed foods, liked canned tomatoes, are just fine.

So to my three weeks away two spent on a cruise. I’ve learned a few things. I don’t like chips. I never order chips but my OH does and I tried one or two …. I don’t like the taste. Tick!

I can have the odd pastry in the morning without having a raging need for carbs for the rest of the day. Tick!

Pasta, I had a few. Some nice, some just stodgy with one being ‘lovely’. I can live without pasta 99% of the time and will only eat a really really good one. Tick!

Bread. Yes I ate a bit, well a lot. BUT, it was mainly ‘artisan’ and really only the last four days in a hotel where choices were limited.

As for the rest I had a fresh orange juice which I don’t think I’ve had in the last 8 years and you know it was lovely! Doubt I’ll have another for maybe another 8 years but I did enjoy it.

Maybe that’s the secret…. have the ODD thing that you enjoy every couple of years or so. Don’t deprive yourself but only have a really carby food as a ‘real treat’ .

So tomorrow I’ll weigh and on Tuesday, my normal, weigh-in day I’ll start again for the last week of the month.

‘

thank you so much as always for the regular thread- I’m a bit off-piste with the healthy eating atm, hope to get my act together soon…love to all, Clare xxx

Hi all, stick with us Tulip, I too am off piste. Changing to veggie diet is not easy and I am sure I am making mistakes so my weight is up but I keep on keeping on… 🙂

I’m not sure if I would rather give up meat or carbs as very low carbs are the most important part of my diet and keeping BG down. Just about every recipe on veggie contains carbs I would rather avoid like rice or pasta, but also carbs I prefer not to introduce too much like lentils, chickpeas and beans. I know some people can get away with low carb and beans but it is my BG that I am more concerned with. My reasons for going veggie are nothing to do with the planet or saving baby lambs but the amount of inflammation it causes in the body. Yet I am advised to eat high protein and that is so hard even though there is protein in yogs and beans etc. I think I will stick to 2 or 3 days a week veggie, 2 fish and 2 meat (or chicken).

So no loss for my weigh in today but I do have all my life to keep trying.

Hey, I saw that Dr. Benjamin Bikman has a new book out and it is a COOKBOOK! It is titled, “How NOT To Get Sick” (the title is a riff on his first book, “Why We Get Sick”).
I am going to order one today and get some new recipes! As we all know, recipes are useful to keep us on track.
And if you google his podcasts, he has a fairly new one about seed oils and carbs. I haven’t watched it yet but seed oils are on my personal “bad foods” list so I will watch it today.

Ok, review of the Dr. Bikman seed oil podcast:
First, just in case you are not sure of what a seed oil is, it is a vegetable fat that comes from vegetable seeds — canola, rapeseed, corn, soy, safflower, sunflower, vegetable oil etc. It is a highly processed food and is usually heated, deodorised and refined in the factory and definitely is categorised as a UPF, or “ultra processed food”. If you look at a label of packaged food, it will almost certainly contain one of these fats.
There are of course, some seed oils that are expeller pressed but they are still refined and deodorised.
So, seed oils are bad for us because they become so quickly oxidised. I won’t bore you with his biochemical explanation of how that happens, but the take-away is that seed oils oxidise (they attach an oxygen molecule) and they become inflammatory bad actors in your arteries. This is how plaque forms in your arteries (and ultimately leads to heart attacks and stroke).
When the oxidised seed oil gets into the artery, it creates inflammation. The inflammation attracts the body’s own defence mechanism and your body sends cells to attack that inflammation. The cells that arrive “eat up” the oxidised fats and they get fluffy, or “foamy” because they are full of those seed fats.Then they are called “foam cells”.
Unfortunately these foam cells congregate and collect at the site of the inflammation in the artery. They call other cells and the foamy plaque that builds up is exactly what we do not want in our arteries.
This is the source of dangerous plaque in the artery.
So what CAN we eat? Saturated fats! They are actually GOOD for you. That is butter, olive oil, avocado oil and fats from animals, such as eggs, cheese, red meats and other meats. And especially good for you are omega-3 fats (think salmon, mackerel, sardines, flaxseed, Shia seeds, walnuts and dark leafy vegetables).
The podcast is easily found if you just Google Dr. Bikman and seed oils.

Julia sounds good!

I love salmon and sardines, in fact any fish, eggs and cheese too. Walnuts are my go to snack and I eat red meat a few times a week.

For me I do my very best to avoid ‘additives that aren’t in my cupboard’! I think I do pretty well.

I guess you can only measure your own health against your contemporaries. I’m coming up to my 77th birthday and I feel that my mental age is much younger. I eat really well avoiding additives wherever possible, I take supplements, I feel generally bright and ‘alive’ despite my mobility issues.

I think the best thing we can do for our bodies is ‘feed’ them the best real food we can.

Sunshine-girl it must be so difficult trying to eat the right amount of protein when you are excluding meat. Your plan sounds like a good one. I had just one thought. If you are eating three meals a day maybe you could add more protein rich dairy and/or eggs to the first two meals of the day. Then you could cut down on your main meal. That might allow you to have the lentils etc without being too carby. If you are a ‘two meal a day’ gal maybe you should add a third?

Hi all, weight is going back down. Verano, I am not so worried about getting enough protien as I have eggs most days and not cut out fish or dairy so yoghurts are allowed. It is more that I am eating TOO MANy beans, lentils, chickpeas, butternut squash etc for it to be compatible with a low carb diet. For example, Monday I had boiled eggs for breakfast, tuna salad at lunch and I followed a recipe for a traybake which was butternut squash and chickpea based in the evening, thats carbs on carbs. I am sure there are lots of other things I could make but I just dont have the knowledge and tried a book on the basics and, again, too many beans. Also I cannot do with messing with things like tofu or tempah and we cant get those easily or jackfruit or whatever else I would have to make. Beans or lentils once a week is about as much as I can tolerate before BG goes up. I think I will just go back to my normal diet because it works in terms of the number of carbs and also for weight loss and I can have a couple of veggie meals each week. Lesson learnt, if it works don’t change it.

Man in a white suit and mask came and killed the hornets. He took ages vacuuming the shed inside and out. Then he brought out what looked like about 3 paper carrier bags glued together and that was the nest. I was almost a cubed metre in size. We are not allowed in the shed for 3 days and have to report any further sightings.

Have a good rest of the week.

Hi Verano,
Good to hear that you were already watching seeds oils! I post in case readers haven’t yet heard of what I have come across — I know that the “regulars” here are already aware of most of the research out there.
I know what you mean when you say we can only measure ourselves against our own age group — I am actually horrified by how many of my close friends and acquaintences (sp??) are falling by the wayside and giving up exercise.
And Sunshinegirl, your hornet story is scary!! It sounds like it was big! Those things are bad news so I am very glad you were able to get rid of the nest.

Hi – I haven’t been on here for ages but thought I’d post this for the optimistic October. Particularly as SG helped me out when I was feeling a bit low a while back.
I started the BSD after an HbA1c result of 46 back in April. I haven’t been weighing so I’ve no idea how much weight I’ve lost but I’m down 3 trouser sizes! I’ve had my ups and downs – particularly when my finger prick levels had gone through the roof after a holiday – but back in September my latest HbA1c came back at 34 which blew me away. I’m still going and loving the fact that I’m not weighing so I don’t get disheartened if I have a day or 2 off plan, I just get back on it knowing in the long term it won’t have wrecked anything.

Julia I think we all know of people who are quite happy to carry on with their ‘heads in the sand’ because it’s so much easier than actually changing your lifestyle where possible.

That why I wonder about the new ‘fat jabs’. What will the long term results be? How many side effects will wreck some aspects of health? How healthy is it to continue eating what you have always eaten but less of it if it’s junk? Why invade your body with unknown/unnecessary ‘drugs’? Too many unanswered questions for me!

In fact I was reading an article about Botox and fillers a few days ago. Young women in the 30’s and 40’s are needing full face lifts because of over use of fillers since their teens! The fillers don’t automatically dissolve as was ‘promised’ and they are left with sagging skin and odd shaped lips, cheeks etc.

As you may have guessed I only used medication when absolutely necessary!

S-g I see exactly where you’re coming from. Pulses are so high in carbs. I tend to use them to bulk out meat. I make a bolognese with 500g minced grass fed steak and use lots of vegetables and add a pouch (200g) of lentils at the end. I usually get 8-10 portions out of that which means at best 50g of steak plus and 20g of lentils. Beluga lentils seem to be the least carby. Cooking that way means I’m cutting down on meat without adding too many carbs. I also add pre cooked lentils, pouch or tin, to meat balls, meatloaf and cottage pie. I occasionally add butter beans or chickpeas to a soup to thicken it if it’s too ‘watery’ but that’s not very often.
As you say if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!

Glad you hornets are sorted out. Fingers crossed they have been totally eliminated.

Good work Big O! And glad to see you are still here posting.
I don’t weigh either — it just messes with my brain. I go by energy levels and how my clothes fit.

Hi everyone. Big O, I am so glad I helped you get over a small hump in the road. Keep with us and you cant go wrong.

Weight has shifted down again and I can announce I am under that 72kg mark now at 71.8kg. Going to keep that going over the next few days before we go to our quiz night. Decided to dress up for Halloween, I have a long black dress which I am going to decorate with spiders and cobwebs (and whatever else I can find) from the local pound shop.

As the weather is pretty murky I might get round to painting our very old desk – one with a pull down flap for writing on. If I had my way it would be in the junk pile but hubby has had it for about 50 years. Anyway it is going to be a chalky blue and will blend in better with the decoration in our bureau (little office).

Have a good weekend and don’t forget to put the clocks back if you are in Europe.

Hello & I know that I have not posted much recently but keeping an eye on this thread. I weighed this morning and have lost 2lbs. and pleased I am losing some weight again. I try to be strict keeping around 800-900 low carb calories during the week & up to my BMR calories around 1300 now on Saturday & Sunday. If I couldn’t relax a little over the weekend & have a glass of wine & perhaps a small icecream I would go off piste entirely but know I am not diabetic so can be a little more relaxed. Otherwise I stick to a strict two meals a day only eating at lunchtime around 1-0pm & this last week had one 24 hour fast day. So a sort of reverse 2:5 which I can mostly stick to long term. I am still in limbo not having a surgery date for my knee replacement & increasingly in pain since my left knee is now joining in!.🙁
My husband & I are looking forward to going with neighbours to see Aled Jones at our local theatre tonight & will watch our recording of Strictly Come Dancing Halloween night when we get home 😀
I hope you gave all had a good week.
Margaret

Hi all, happy Sunday. Hope you enjoyed your theatre night Margaret. Great news on the 2lbs.

Weight down again so feeling very optimistic. Just been painting the desk and it is half done. Can’t finish until it dries as I have to shut the dropdown part to get to the rest of it. Looking good.

Nothing much for the week ahead, except shopping for halloween stuff and then going to the quiz night. The meal will be easy to cope with, just have to avoid the bread and keep the wine down. Don’t want to spoil what I have achieved but again, don’t want to be worrying on one of our few nights out. Then nothing until Christmas but might fit in a meal at our favourite restaurant at the end of November.

Have a good week.

Thank you S-G & it was enjoyable seeing Aled Jones who with film clips showed & explained how he was discovered aged twelve with his extraordinary singing voice, his fast rise to stardom & then having to deal with his voice breaking & deepening aged sixteen. I had forgotten that he appeared on The Masked Singer as a large traffic cone & also on Strictly but now is most known as a presenter on Songs of Praise & Classic fm that I listen to every day 😀. He came across as modest, funny & likeable much as he seemed to be as a twelve year which was amazing that he kept his feet so firmly on the ground.
I am fasting today after my more relaxed weekend & have still not had a letter from my surgeon confirming my diagnosis & I am hobbling around with my left knee joining in now or it probably is that I am now much more aware of how bad my right knee is having been given my diagnosis 🤔
I suppose it’s even more important now to try to lose as much weight as I can to take pressure off my knees but it is difficult & I know I am being self protective & more sedentary.
However well done everyone keeping on track & this is the healthiest way to eat👍
Margaret xx

Hi all, weight still steady which is always a bonus after a weekend although no alcohol was partaken of 🙂

Spent the afternoon sewing about 20 ants (should have been spiders but bought ants) and 5 bats onto my bolero style cardi and a purple and black lace witches hat. No time for exercising, that’s my excuse – tomorrow is another day.

Really looking forward to our night out on Thursday. Have a good week.

Hi everyone !

The wanderer returns !! Well I have been back for a couple of weeks ( trip to the UK ) but just adjusting and getting my routine established . I actually enjoy being back in my space with access to my local farm veg .Like you SG I have vegans and vegetarians in my family so I am used to some very delicious dishes with pulses, grains etc .I try not to get too anxious about the carbs as they are not a daily addition and I accept that eating less meat is good for us .

I have seen tofu in LIDL in France and they definitely have it in Grand Frais . It is a vehicle for flavours, ginger ,soy and my niece cooks it really well . There are lots of really good recipe sites on the net .I like BOSH , also Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, Deliciously Ella ..Madhur Jaffrey and Rukmini Iyer (lots of traybakes) are good too .

I have started doing pilates classes twice a week with our local physiotherapists and enjoying that now that our aquagym season has ended .

No, I wouldn’t touch Ozempic .I don’t take any medications at all and hate the idea of unknown long term damage . I will admit to having my eyebrows microbladed though !! That was last week and I am very happy to have eyebrows after overplucking in the eighties !!
Sorry Margaret to hear of your knee issues .Hubby has had two knee replacements .It’s not a luxury, the pain relief is immense . I hope you can cope with an inevitable long wait.

Thanks SG for keeping the thread going and all the very best to new contributors and a big hello to Julia ( Californiagirl !!)

Wendy xx

Welcome back Wendy!

I have just read the article below about the research into ‘obesity’ drugs and I just had to post the following:

“More pharmaceutical companies are jumping into the research pipeline, and the GLP-1 era is going to be like the era of statins,” said Andres Acosta, MD, associate professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic and principal investigator of Mayo’s Precision Medicine for Obesity Laboratory in Rochester.”

Bet ‘Big Pharma’ is rubbing its grubby little hands together in glee! WOW! Another ‘statin revolution’!

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/anti-obesity-medications-show-whole-body-promise-more-come-2024a1000jmp?ecd=mkm_ret_241029_mscpmrk_MOB_all_etid6952355&uac=285347SG&impID=6952355

Welcome back Wendy, hope you are rearing to go. Just being back in France makes me feel better as I find everything in the UK too much, too much on your plate, too much potatoes, chips, carbs in general. Also, in winter I still eat a salad most days and my daughter never has salad in, except now she does for me.

Verano, I am still on my 3lb per month project and, although I didn’t quite make it last month, I start afresh each month (on the 8th) and so far this time I have done 1lb, slowly, slowly and a night out but still feeling optimistic. What I have to face is going out on Thursday and accepting I will have a few glasses of wine. Then the challenge is not to let it slip into the weekend. After Thursday I am immediately back on track.

Finished decorating my jacket and hat and now to finish painting the desk. It is taking a couple of days as I have to let it dry completely before I try to close the flap, don’t want it sticking shut. So today I will close it up and do the drawers and lower doors.

Hubby is cooking tonight and I really do let him off. This week I have suggested he warm me up some leftover chicken balti and then mix it in with a veggie balti to make a full size meal. Then he doesn’t even take it out of the freezer. I asked if he even considered he would have to and he said no, not really thought about it. The whole point of him cooking twice a week is so I don’t have to think about it as I find the organising the biggest chore, the actual cooking is easy, but he still relys on me to do his thinking for him. I am going to have to stop babying him. Have a good week.

S-g you’ve made me think about timescale. I decided on a week at a time because I’ve just 7 weeks to my birthday and thought that would be a good 1st goal. I could have a longer goal, our next planned trip April 25, which would fit well with a monthly goal. My biggest fear would be that I might think ok so I’ve got 4 weeks and be a bit lax until maybe the last week of the month! Maybe I’m just not in the right ‘headspace’!

Verano, as you can see from my post, I didn’t make my Sept/Oct goal but that is gone and finished. So I don’t let past failings hold me back, I use them to spur me on. 7 weeks is half a stone. Give it a try, if you don’t make your goal in any week there is always another. The biggest failing would be to say I have 7 weeks so I wont bother this week. Get on it and just do what you can.

I set my six month goal to coincide with my birthday on 7th Feb but I still have short-term hopefuls like Christmas, also hurdles like Christmas when I expect to have a bit of a set back but that wont stop me. So far I am heading for 7lbs when I should have achieved 9lbs but 7lbs is 7lbs so I keep on keeping on…

Also, our cruise is around the same time as yours – ours is 13th April, so after my bithday goal I will be on a cruise goal with 2 more months to reach it if I don’t quite make my birthday goal. Yes it is a mindset and you might not feel like your head is in it. One week is a short time to stick with it and week one leads into week 2. Go for it. Im dragging you along with me.

Yes, I know I am bossy.

Thank you s-g! I’m hanging onto your coattails as you fly through the sky!

Still under the 72kg mark but out tonight but will be rearing to go tomorrow wanting to hit 71kg by my October/November goal.

Hello everyone.
It’s November!!!
I hate the winter but such is life! Spring is on its way!

So I’m assuming there will be a new November thread. I for one need a new start. I ended October with just less than 1lb increase despite being away for three weeks so I count that as a win. But we are now in November …
If we carry on how about :
It might be ‘No’ …vember but there’s ‘No’ stopping us now!
November November let’s all Remember why we’re here!
Nutritious November: let’s enjoy lots of low carb soups
Just my thoughts

Yes please to a new November thread? I lost a pound in weight last week so pleased after a calorie rollercoaster week.
Margaret x

I will set up the November thread !

Thank you Wendy👍
Margaret xx

Oh my goodness, I was so busy with October events, quiz etc that I completely forgot it was now November. I will look for your thread Wendy, sorry I was absent.