Wendy, wow amazing weight loss and maintenance I’m inspired by your journey! So glad you got to see your boys before this pandemic. In 2018 I was volunteer teaching to update my teaching skills as took a career with the children. So job hunting(found a paid job last year, how 🙏 I am for that now), stress of care for in laws, they are doing well although FIL and my mum (she had covid) were unwell in hospital but all well and at home. Unfortunately, emotional eating, drinking and anxiety was terrible as at home due to trying again to help in laws, I didn’t take too kindly to being a stay at home mum again, home schooling my three and oh teaching remotely and well being/ crisis calls of families students i teach. I kept thinking and imagining everyone else is thriving, getting healthy, taking advantage of being at home. But I know the reality for most has been similar or if not worse than mine. I decided in the last few weeks of the summer term. I could not carry on destroying myself and so I am on the path of healing, renewing and replenishing! Caronl,
love those quotes! What’s your journey!

Wendy retirement very odd for you at this time, many students felt like this too, who would not return being in their finals. I’m glad you’re still in France i asked as remember there were issues post brexit. I hope you are enjoying your retirement, greatly deserved 👏

Lily , good weight loss! But get why weighing can be triggering and frustrating. You do you and that’s ok. But also celebrate this success.! Im in my garden with a candle lighted. Be gentle with yourself today 💖

Keep on keeping on. Have a lovely day wherever you are ☀️😎🧘‍♀️

Just to echo others in saying that it is lovely to see Amz back – and similarly sorry that the pandemic and lockdown have made things so much more stressful and difficult for you. Hope all is well with your daughter; she sounds such a sweetie from all that you said. I haven’t tracked back to the original posts, but I recall very clearly you talking about some photos from an event you had been at, which showed you how attractive you are despite what your head tries to tell you otherwise – I said then and worth repeating: get them out again! My scales have apparently been taken over by an evil poltergeist as I get 2 kgs differences from one day to the other (ie down one day then up the next). So I am going for JGwen’s belt test and just being alert to feeling slightly leaner. As usual tho, I think the sporran will be the last to respond. I didn’t watch all the MM programme yesterday, so missed the 0% thing but I was struck in the opening scenes by him talking of losing “belly fat”. I guess he meant visceral fat (and he might have clarified it later on) but alas it’s not even in his gift to focus on which flabby area will go first….

Just saying hello to stay on the thread (although quite late in the week 😊).
Am enjoying my last couple of days of holiday before going back to work on Monday. Have had 4 weeks off, and am amazed to say that I’ve managed to stay on weight, even loosing a little during this time. Am also very excited about getting “back to business” next week with full focus on food and fasting.
Great to see all the lovely messages on the thread. Strength and warm hugs to all that need it.

Hi all,
Welcome all new comers 😊
Hugs to you Lily, such a brave lady my heart goes out to u 😍
I’m giving up weighing too it messes with my head. As soon as a the scales say I’ve lost some weight , my brain then says “go on and eat something u shouldn’t”. and I do, then its back to square one.
The weather here is starting to warm up a bit and I tried on my dresses..😳 2 out of the 6 fit nicely the other 4 well.. I won’t go into it ..I’m not buying anymore to accommodate the gain in weight , so I’ve given myself some tough love and said I either do this properly or spend all spring and summer in two dresses..stay tuned😂😂😂.
A few years ago I did the belt thing and it’s amazing how great u feel as the belt tightens 😊think I’m going to go back to that way of measuring.
Sunny B I love those quotes😊 thank you for posting them.
Breakfast was a fried egg and mushrooms, with a small handful of walnuts while I waited for them to cook…
Lunch is going to be salad..
Dinner chicken stir fry.
As much fizzy water as I can possibly manage ..Stay safe, happy and healthy everyone
😊🖐️

hello all
another week almost down. Reiterate the welcomes -and Lily, my heart goes out to you also-You deserve a medal just for getting out of bed in the morning after such a loss.
Not much to report here-the mountain snow is slowly melting 🙁 I’ve been cleaning out cupboards (Spring here next month-though that often means more snow!!) and adding things to the too big pile which feels great. Think I’ll try to sell the best of them and use the $$ to get a few favourites altered
Not sure if we can get those MM shows here in Aus, but might look them up as I’m in need of inspiration

Wishing you all a brilliant weekend!

Morning everyone

Once again, thanks for the lovely welcome—got a little bit teary about how kind you all are. Got through yesterday relatively unscathed—a couple of tricky moments but on the whole it was ok. It’s so often the case that the run up to special days is worse than the actual day.

BSD-wise, also doing well. Day 3 today already and so far it’s been great but I’m not going to get too complacent because it’s the weekend and I always find those a bit trickier—not because I have plans, more that I don’t have plans! My son Sam’s been away this week staying with his girlfriend and meeting up with uni friends in Cambridge for the first time since lockdown. It’s been weird because I’ve got used to having him home—he ended up leaving uni in a hurry at the end of March when Boris first said we all needed to stay at home. Not quite how he or I imagined his final year to end, neither could either of us have predicted that the job market would be so dire at the beginning of this calendar year. He’s applying for just about anything. Locally, supermarkets are getting 200+ applications for shelf-stacking jobs let alone anything better paid and he’s already starting to lose heart from the number of rejections he’s had. 🙁 If he could even get as far as an interview, that would be something.

Anyway, at least he’s having some well-earned fun this weekend.

My Fast800 shakes arrived yesterday so I tried one just now. Erm… not sure how often I’ll be wasting precious calories on them! I tried a strawberry one but it was so bitty and grainy, even though I blended it with ice.. I can still feel the bits at the back of my throat! Kind of expected better somehow. I get that there’s no nasties in there but it needs to go down a bit more easily than that… 🤢

Hope everyone else is doing well today. 🙂

Lily, so pleased yesterday was not as bad as feared. As you say, the anticipation us often worse that the event itself. Hope your weekend will go well, but if you’re struggling at any point, come and vent one here before eating any nasties. If nothing else, it might give you time to re-evaluate.
Sure your son will enjoy his w/e break with friends, giving him a breather from the job search situation. Unfortunately the whole covid thing has impacted pretty much everywhere, including the job market, but fingers crossed something good will happen for him soon.

Have a good BSD w/e everyone.

Hi all,
I don’t know why but I still haven’t tuned into MM. I have found weight programmes triggering before but I will try and watch it this weekend.

Sixturkeys, I would love to do the belt test but over the last decade I have no belt clothes 🙈
Hope to change that soon. Let us know how you get on? Waitaminute, good meal plan, definitely helps to plan ahead. I’m doing that more these days. Have a few days in Central London, but will be sticking to BSD plan! 🤞🤞👗👗 in no time!

Lily, glad the day went as well as it could. Enjoy your no plan day! I’m sorry to hear about your sons situation. So many in this boat especially due to covid. There was a really interesting article on BBC about the generation of children who faced job hunting during the recession after the Bank crisis. It gave some hope but appreciate that these are hard times for many. I am a teacher and helping students with their uni statements and some have said what’s the point? But hope and positivity is so important for us and the younger generation. I hope he finds something but in the time being sounds like he is enjoying life with his girlfriend and friends, great he has you and his social network, crucial at a time like this!

Sounds like your original plan of BSD food is better than the shakes! Well done on day 3! I had a gnawing feeling not in my belly but almost in my chest not a pain more a hungry sensation? at bedtime first one in my BSD 11 day streak but managed to ignore it! I’ve lost another 1lbs so 7lbs weight loss in 11 days feels good but not going to celebrate with food! Starting to see how excessive food and drink dominates my life!

Hi EC 👋 Olive 1 hope you enjoyed the break and well done 👏 on losing whilst you have been away! I’m on my summer holidays for 6 weeks so hoping to BSD all the way through and have a established BSD foundation starting the new academic year!

SunnyB have a lovely BSD weekend 😊 too.
Have a great one everyone 😀

Hi all-

reporting in from yesterday’s weigh/ measure, total loss on the diet so far 23.5 lbs and 7″ off my waist- started June 3rd…thanks squillions for all your support, that’s just over half what I need to get to the top of normal BMI for my height! Dieting mojo back 🤞

(altho had some wine last night, but I planned for it- catching up w friends I’ve not seen since before lockdown ☺☺☺)…..

xx

Can I join in? I started on the 8th August. I tried years ago but didn’t do it properly. Now I’m focused and have the tools to nail the 800 a day.

Thought I’d better jump in before this week’s thread is closed off. 😊
We’ve had our first week of Stage 4 lockdown in Melbourne – and hi to Shoegirl and other Melbournites. Luckily there were bits of sunshine over the weekend, so I enjoyed my walks (1 hour outside exercise a day with 1 other person). And today is sunny, so some gardening. Keeping postive 🌺🌻🌼🥭🥭- stage 4 hasn’t made much difference to me – was already stood down from work and keeping at home.
Maintaining TRE 16:8 probably 6 days a week, and sticking to good fresh foods. Made a delicious mushroom, eggplant and harissa sauce last week, and I’m going to add that to some slow cooked lamb shanks for tonight.
Good to see so many new people on board!!! We haven’t had MM’s new show here – and can”t watch it even with my VPN – but it seems to have inspired many 💛💛💛

Welcome Luella, of course jump in! You sound very motivated, and I wish you well on the journey. Wendy or Sunny will be launching the new weekly thread tomorrow, and will list all those who contribute and read messages here. We are a mix of starters, maintainers, re-starters, and in-betweeners, all on a journey to better health. If you have any questions do shout. In the meantime, wishing you success, and see you on next week’s thread too, I hope.

Hey all, apologies for being quiet, not felt like I’ve had much to say. Anyhoo…. quick update from me, still keeping on, having good days pumped full of energy and other days feeling a little flat. But happy to report a 2lb drop on the scales on Saturday – feels like the first time in a while and I’m now only 2lbs from the next stone bracket and what was an aspirational target at the outset – i had hoped to be there at the end of July but was struggling for a few weeks to keep the calories low so was effectively maintaining. I know know how to maintain which is useful and I know how hard i have to work to see a useful drop. If i can muster the motivation to be super good i could maybe, just maybe hit target by saturday!! IF it takes longer, it takes longer. I plan to have a few weeks not counting calories and maintaining at the end of August (my birthday) and then focus again through September to then have an easier time through october (anniversary and hubby’s birthday). I like to have a plan. haha!!

Hope you all have a good monday

WindyJulz- can I ask how you maintain? Interested for the future- and anyone else who is in maintenance? Thanks.

Day 3. I’m trying not to eat until at least 11am each day as then I can have 3 meals over a shorter period of time which suits me. Finding it a bit harder this morning so posting here!! Does anyone else try and fast in the mornings? Any top tips?

Tulip – IT was a bit of an inadvertent maintenance phase – I wanted to be discarding but i let too many calories in. So basically I stuck to BSD friendly foods but tended to have a few extras – so things like regular yogurt and berries after a meal, some weekend puddings like basked apples and cream, oversized portions of cheese, some nuts or dark choc as snax. This more relaxed approach stalled the discard but didnt cause any increase. And to be honest, this is tot
I like big portions so know i need to be extra rigorous if i want to keep discarding…….back on it for a while now.

Hi everyone.I spent ages first thing this morning typing a post for ‘positive thoughts’ thread and it disappeared when I pressed submit🙁 Never mind,will try to type it up again later.Have shopping in for the week so am going to try to spend some time today doing a meal plan for every day as I find it helpful.Lily I think I will join you in trying to next weigh myself on 7th Sept as the scales sometimes have a bit too much power over my moods.I will try to use my clothes as a gauge instead.Maybe I should put the scales in the loft to make them easier to resist!Hope everyone has a good day.Dawn

Tulip, Maintenance = keep carbs low and increase calories.

Think of it this way, at present you are keeping carbs and calories low so that your body can access the calories you overate previously and stored as body fat. – When you have your body fat levels down to the level you want, you just need to give your body the extra fat it needs from your diet. – So melted butter over the veg, extra cream in the sauce.

Hi everyone …. as Wendy is very busy today, she asked me to set up the new thread for next week, which I have just done ….. ONE WEEK AT AT A TIME BEGINNING 11TH AUGUST.

Wendy will post a list of contributors on the new thread, as soon as time permits, but meanwhile if you have been part of this or any previous weekly thread, please join us on the new one for the week ahead. As ways, we hope to see lots of you during the coming week and to sharing experience and ideas, advice and support.