Our favourite thread ! Thank you Verano, Allie, Sunny B and Birdy for keeping the thread going, providing advice and support as we begin or continue on the BSD path. Our friendly band of travellers are very welcoming so don’t hesitate to come and join us !

Looks like I am back. Will join you all tomorrow.

Hi Sunshine ! Hope all is well with you ! Looking forward to catching up !

Me too s-g! Time to address the ‘cruise creep’!

Good to see you, V !!

Thanks Wendy and I hope you are well recovered now.

gokiniruth – there seem to be a lot of folk having problems with their Fitbits; you’d think they’d make the software a bit more reliable. The two factory resets on Saturday night seem to have sorted it for now, but I dread having to do that every time it stops syncing! I can understand your fear of buzzing things; I think it’s an innate primative self preservation that makes a lot of sense! Even as a beekeeper I have moments when it’s difficult to remain calm if my bees are being grumpy or defensive.

FinFrance – welcome! Sounds like you’ve had a great start; I’m sure you’ll make more progress soon.

Niknak87 – welcome as well!

wendleg – you asked about my bees on the last thread. Well, I keep honeybees on my allotment; currently three full size hives and three nucleus hives (although strictly, one of the nucs now belongs to my elder son). I need to downsize as I have rather too many at present! I find them tremendously relaxing to watch and working them is very good for mindfullness; you have to be slow, calm and concentrate at all times (one of my hives is rather defensive at present, so a very good ‘teacher’ in this respect!). I take some honey from them if they have enough to spare, let my mum have wax and propolis as she wants for making hand cream or whatever potion she’s experimenting with at the time and am a member of my local Beekeeping Association, helping folk get involved with bees.

Birdy – glad you had a good time at the Rugby club and well done to your son for best improved, that’s awesome!

LollyT – welcome; never to late to join!

Today was the last day of my first week on this WoE, so tomorrow morning will be official weigh in and I’ll see how it’s gone. I do feel different in a lot of ways, so it’ll be interesting to see if that’s reflected in the scales at all. So far, I’m enjoying the food, enjoying learning to cook it and finding the lack of hunger a real freedom.

Hi again, thankyou for the welcome😊
What does WoE stand for?

Hi NikNak87 it stands for WAY OF EATING. We say WOE to save typing🤣.

Thank you BeeGirl and how lovely to have bees! I would like some but my lovely soppy dog would try to catch them and get stung!

Thanks for starting the new week Wendy and let’s hope for a good discard for all tomorrow. Birdy💞🦜

Argh! I’m sick of being in this rut! On again, off again, no commitment. I want to put more energy into seizing my life’s reins! Today, I created a calendar of the next 10 weeks. For the next two months and half I want to give my best shot at staying the course. Being depressed and stuck in this slump isn’t helping at all. I felt so much happier, healthier, and hopeful doing my best… Though I know I’m going to get down on myself and my circumstances sometimes, I’ll be depending on you all for support and to remind me of my own awesomeness. I’ll do my best to contribute something as well.
This morning’s weight : 168.6

Well Day 1 of yet another new week, new Tuesday and new start! My plan for this week is simply to weigh and record everything I eat and drink. So it really is back to basics for me after several weeks of holidays with ‘wine creep’ , ‘cruise creep’ and some ‘carbage’.
Amz don’t be too despondent. Have a look at the ‘Positive thoughts’ thread or ‘Where would you be today’ thread and read Californiagirl and SunnyB’s posts….. You don’t have to be ‘perfect’ for this to work so don’t be so hard on yourself.
So here we go again let’s make the first day of the new week a good one whatever your goal for the week is. I’m off to weigh my yogurt now!!

Birdy – yep, dogs do sometimes get over-interested in bees! There’s a great meme I’d share if I could – it’s a photo of a dog and a fly which is labelled ‘sky raisin’ and a bee which is labelled ‘halapeno sky raisin’! A lot of beekeepers deep benadryl on hand – not just for them, but for their dogs, if they haven’t learnt to stay away!

Amz – you’ve got a plan, that’s great. I think you’ll see great progress in that 10 weeks.

Verano – good idea to ‘back to basics’; sometimes it’s necessary!

So, first weigh in for me today. Lost 7.8lb so I’m down from 265.8 to 258, which is great. I’m pleased with it, but not getting over excited as I often see a big loss in the first week of an attempt at weight loss – what will show the difference with this WoE will be the results on week 3 or 4 onwards. Time will tell. Anyway, into Week 2 I go, quite content to keep going so far.

Have a good day everyone!

Good mornings everyone. I’d like to join you if I may. I have been doing this WOE for 2 weeks now, having dabbled in the past. I’ve lost 8lbs, so I’m pleased. I know that it’s mainly water at this stage but it’s still very encouraging.

This is my first time on a forum like this. Can you please tell me about the protocol. Is it customary to acknowledge everyone who has posted on the thread each time you post?

Hi Puddy and welcome!

No particular protocol, don’t worry – I’ll sometimes reply to everyone if only a few people have posted since I was last on, but sometimes it’s been too busy and I don’t get a chance to read everything, so just drop by to say ‘hello’!

Just drop in when you feel like it, take support, give support, have fun and share your successes and challenges.
Good luck for the week ahead.

Morning all and welcome Puddy we all just swing by and chat, we sometimes speak specifically to individual people but our questions are usually put out here for anyone who can help. I agree with Beegirl you just need to drop by when you feel up to it or want to ask a question or you might have experience with what others are asking so you can give advice too. There are no hard and fast rules other than being non judgemental and just being yourself and being friendly. We are in the same boat and sometimes it is just good to use this as a sounding board. We have a lot of long BSDers on here and they are invaluable to us and gurus. Have fun with it and good luck on your journey. Birdy💞🦜

Hi Puddy,
It impressed me initially when I saw posts from some people who manage to respond to a long list of people/posts in one post. – I thought they must have a tremendous memory. 😉 Nope, Some people are really organised and sit with their word processor open, and build up a response to each post since they were last looking at that thread, then cut and paste their response into the reply to box.
Others of us reply to each post that we feel we have something we can add to the conversation.

Hi
I wasn’t sure about mentioning this as some one else on the forum said about how irritating it can be when people give you advice on how to deal with your depression. However, I thought it would be helpful to give a mid research project report on my experience with this weight training program because so many of us on the forum talk about turning to food for comfort.

For the benefit of the newcomers to the forum, I am a guinea pig on a research program being run by the local university where they are studying the effects of a weekly high intensity weight training session on women in their 50’s . The reason for the research is that there is an understanding that as we age our drop in general health starts after we start to loose muscle, so they want to see what changes occur to a woman’s body if they undertake a single weekly session of working to maximum capacity with 3 exercises. They did a full body assessment at the start, and will repeat the process at the end of 12 weeks of training which is about 4 weeks again.
However, there is one outcome I have already gained from the project that I thought it may be helpful to share. – When ever I encounter a situation where I am agitated by the actions of others I end up playing it over and over in my head until I am calm enough to be able to logically discuss the issue with the person. Until now its been the only way to respond to an issue without being angry or emotional to a level which would makes it hard to reach a resolution. – One ex did say that he had worked out how angry I was about a topic by the timescale between it happening and my saying I wanted to talk about it. – A couple of hours = irritated, a couple of days = this was serious, when it got into weeks = don’t repeat on pain of death. (He didn’t learn that weeks also meant don’t do something similar.)

I have found that if I go in to the gym when I am stressed out, the hard workout releases how stressed I feel and I can deal with the problem straight away. I would guess that working our major muscle groups with the maximum weight that we can manage 7 to 10 reps with with the aim of reaching the point where you just can not do another rep is draining the stress hormones in a way that lighter exercise doesn’t.

I thought I would share this in case it helps anyone who turns to food for comfort when they are feeling stressed. –

Hi BeeGirl,
I am just about to set up my first hives. I did the beginners training course with the local bee keeping club last year and have bought 2 hives which I need to assemble this week. – I have arranged to buy 2 Nucs from a local breeder who specialises in native bees rather than the club who have bees with all sorts of genetics.

Thanks as always JGwen for your support. I feel powerless to give ‘advice’ for lovely people struggling with depression and I really would not want to create too much ‘noise’ as Kirsten/Kafin once mentioned. I know Esnecca wrote a magnificent post about her expériences with depression a few weeks ago. Her insight fills me with awe.

I honestly cannot bear to hear people in distress. Amz please please consider asking Birdy for the neutral BSD email address. That way you can wing a message our way if you find yourself struggling and just want some distraction. Maybe it would take the pressure off a bit ….sharing rather than beating yourself up ?
You are totally awesome Amz !!!

ooh new thread each week? I like that. Makes it feel more manageable somehow. Yes I did regain after losing the 40 pounds. Gained back 10 after christmas and since then I lose a few pounds and gain back and it’s been going on all year. I’ve never given up on the BSD plan, but having such trouble with self control and depression. I know this WOE and exercising (running and hiit and yoga) help massively, but when you’re struggling knowing how to fix it isn’t enough. It’s like the solution is right in front of me, just waiting for me to grab it, but I don’t have the energy to lift my arm and grab it. You know? I have PCOS so when things are bad my hormones are all over the place and of course insulin resistance goes hand in hand with that. Right now things are very bad. So after reading your posts you’ve inspired me to kick things off again with a fast and try to gain some control back.

At the weekend I have a hen do so it’s a terrible time to be faced with all those challenges. The main problems will be Friday night takeaway (I need to plan in advance what low carb options I can find! any ideas??) Saturday they are making fajitas so I can eat it without the wrap. And then lots of drinks, so I guess I should avoid drinking really, right? And then Sunday the mother of all temptations… afternoon tea at Harvey Nichols. A huge stand full of delicious carby temptation. 🙁 What to do?? Any advice would be hugely appreciated, thank you so much.

Looking forward to getting to know you all 🙂 You seem like a great bunch! JQwen I wish we could see photos of your hives! What a wonderful thing to be involved in xx

Hi Lolly T I can’t see how you can realistically navigate the hen do minefield and Harvey Nicks afternoon tea serenely as you start out again.

I would just suggest doing your best to stay low carb in the Week leading up to the celebration and then begin in earnest after the hen do . You are going to struggle resisting the carbs unless you have an iron will and are many months of being very low carb so your palate has really adapted to no sugar etc and you can happily reject them.
You know what works as you say you have remained on the BSD plan and have had tremendous success in the past. You can do it again. You also have to enjoy your celebration. Only you know how strong you can be when faced with certain foods.
Look up Esnecca in the search bar . She has overcome PCOS and has had ASTOUNDING weight discard . There is invaluable advice to be gleaned from her insight and experience.
All the best LollyT ….remember it’s about your long term health.

Hiya,
I’m so tired today, some neighbours were having a domestic and kept waking me up hearing them.
Interestingly enough though, I mostly just feel it in my eyes, before this diet I would have been dying, brain fog, yawning, not wanting to move or talk to people, but I’m doing ok.

Thankyou Birdy, I just could not work it out myself. 😂

Lolly- I have a similar issue coming up next week, going out with friends and will probably only have off-plan options available there.
I’m currently thinking I will just call it a one-off treat and stay on-plan either side. If I can get my head to refocus that way I’m hoping that will bode well for the eventual maintenance. Ie a treat is a treat because it’s not having it all the time.

Hello all. Lovely sunny day again in London. Allie, you had asked what people are growing in their garden. I am just planting out a new (small) bed. White and purpley-blue; so: White old English rose (which has been stuck in the pot I bought it in two years ago, so hope it takes…), white dianthus, blue scabious; blue ornamental sage; white clematis (ditto pot-bound….), and white nemesia and white/mauvey (who knows? came in a mixed pack) lobelia round the edges. My very established blush pink old English rose is a vision – covered in buds and some open flowers – it is a repeat flowering variety and just keeps giving! All good and positive thoughts to all. But don’t forget to send some nagging my way!

Hi everyone, glad to be back, it is so good to get home. After 3 weeks away, 2 on a cruise, I am rather pleased to say I have only gained 3lbs. After all the sumptuous meals and cocktails etc and trying new things in so many different countries, I dont think that is bad going. I partly put it down to swimming every day on board ship, no matter what the weather, even in some snow near Russia.

Like Verano I am going back to basics, although the only carbs I had on holiday was the occasional dark rye bread roll (about 3 in 3 weeks), so I never really come off the plan but then again I dont normally have 3 course meals every night. Anyway, I have family arriving and just realised it is in 9 days. My goal is to be 4lbs lighter by the time they arrive. We are opening our swimming pool today but the water will be too cold to go in just yet. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a weekend dip.

Have a good week everyone.

JGwen – that’s great that you’re getting your hives set up this season. I took the beginner’s course in 2017 and got my own bees last year after learning in the training apiary for a year. I was given a small swarm by an association member, bought in a colony, then made two splits and went into winter with two hives and two nucs. I currently have three hives and three nucs, having given away one colony to the association – never seem to have enough equipment! I’m very interested in native bees – have joined BIBBA, ordered two queens from a well known breeder in Ireland to give me some nice genetics to start queen breeding from and am going on a queen breeding course this summer. I did have a Carniolan queen over winter, that headed one of my splits when I needed a queen at short notice late in the season – once was enough; she’s gone to live in the association apiary; her enthusiams for making little bees and wanting to swarm was more than I have time to handle! Very calm, beautiful bees, but hard to keep in a box! Anyway, must keep my bee blather for Facebook groups and relevant forums – I’m awful once I get going – sorry!

sunshine-girl – three weeks away and only a 3lb gain is amazing; I’d be over the moon with that! I’m fine when I’m on plan, but I find it so hard to get back to it after going off piste for any time – it’ll be interesting if that’s different with this WoE. I have five days away from home in early June that I need to work out how to handle so I hope I can do half as well as you!

Just been listening to a piece on Radio 4 PM programme (for those not in UK it is a news/features one), interview with Robert Lustig who is a US professor of paediatric endocrinology at UCSF; he was saying very much what the BSD says re sugar/insulin reaction/not every calorie is the same etc – then someone from Public Health England came on, to my mind she was really quite weak, basically saying the jury is still out and no difference between calorie counting and lowcarb (or any other type of diet). Robert Lustig quoted a study; for 6 months, one group of people was put on “normal eating” with full sugar fizzy drink, one on normal diet with low sugar fizz; one on normal food with milk; and the last with water. First group put on 10kgs; second 1.5; milk, stayed the same, and water, lost 1.5kg. Interesting and he obviously has strong feelings about the food industry!

Duckie – thanks for your post about your beloved bear, Ralph. I love the thought of him sitting on your bed!
I got up at 4am this morning and made pikelets. And ate them. I was awake all night, finally getting to sleep around 6:30 this morning and I was sad and lonely and miserable and couldn’t stop thinking about having something soothing. So after fighting with myself, I just had enough and made them. And loved them. This would be the point where I would not weigh myself like normal and tell myself that I’ll weigh after I’ve had a couple of days to get rid of any gains and then fall off the wagon. So I decided to stick with my routine, weigh myself and not freak out. I went up 1.8lbs but for a change I’m not beating myself up, I know it will come off and I’m not sorry. I did something for myself that I needed at the time but I changed my behavior afterwards. So today, I feel no issues with getting back on track. Hope everyone has a lovely day.

Hi Kafin. No noise from me. But just to say, Esnecca posted a recipe for low carb fluffy pancakes a little while ago, with lupin flour. Amazon UK is out of stock of the brand she mentioned, but maybe available in the US. Do look back and find the recipe. It sounded delicious! Thinking of you Kafin, and hope Albert in fine ratting fettle. x

Thanks, sixturkeys – I used gluten-free flour and they were a little odd but still good! I’ll look for the recipe.
I hope I didn’t offend anybody with my “noise” comment. I do appreciate comments, insights etc and I understand the desire people have to want to make things better for those they care about. It’s incredibly hard to watch someone you love or care about, be in pain and I suspect it’s also hard to hear it on these forums. So please know, I appreciate all of you and the time you have taken with my issues/problems and I feel a part of this community which has become another source of support for me. So when I say “noise”, I liken it to when you’re following something like this WOE and a good friend is following something else and having great results and touting the benefits of their plan and you start to doubt and it all gets overwhelming and noisy in your head so it becomes hard to stick to what you believed in at the beginning. I am learning to block some of the noise from well-meaning people (and that includes my mother, who loves me but does not understand) while appreciating that there is nothing but love behind their motives.

Kafin, of course no “offence” re “noise”. You know we are supporting you. And you support us!

Hello all
Just to offload my story…
Overweight all my life (except maybe for a small stint in Year 10??) to varying degrees. Well after birth of children I find myself at around 120 kilos,168 cm and then pushing 50.
I have been diagnosed with PCOS since trying to have babies. I urged doctors to prescribe me metformin after two miscarriages and it did the trick! It also allowed me to lose weight until i got lazy and stopped taking it.
So I am Pushing 50 and feel like crap so I start on Metformin again and take up runnning. A year later Im about 28 kilos lighter and quite fit! (yay). Then I hit 52 and pile on 7 kilos over winter (and menopause sets in..grrr).
So now at 53 I find myself at 96.4 kilos, and in the obese BMI while still being able to run 10km and swim 2km.
So drastic action is required!!!
I had previously been a fan of the 5:2 being on a cheats version of it during the previous weigh loss phase (lucky I was a runner).
So last Monday week I declared it…the 800 detox was on!
Day one and two little sleep with lots of teeth grinding..very sore jaw the next day. Lots of headaches. I felt sick. The thought of any allowable food eg fish, made my stomach turn. I tried poached eggs and mushrooms, but all of a sudden oh so slimy.
So i settled on full fat yoghurt and raspberries to get me through those early days.
Despite feeling ghastly the weight began to pile off immediately. I thought it just fluid but by the end of week one I am 4.6 kilos lighter and still losing today (day 8). My clothes feel easier already too.
I bought keto sticks today and im defintely in ketosis. I have a feeling my breath is very ordinary, I woke this morning and thought the dog has pissed somewhere, but I think it was me:(
Now I do feel like I have a mild cold and I need a nana nap most days. My night time sleep has improved and I wee ALL the time. (like i reckon four times as much as before). I think I can stick this out for 8 weeks though I will allow myself to eat if I go out for tea (will try and low carb though).
I dont really crave anything. I thought I would crave wine but I dont.
My inner mantra is “I dont want it, I dont need it”. Its working and it is getting easier.
I feel very virtuous 🙂
I’m thinking I will back off the metformin very soon, and start running again (too overwheming last week).

Bye for now

Hi everyone, not a great start to the new week for me on a personal level, but not too bad on the food front so far. I had a very hard day at work, including an end of day dust up over email with a colleague who did something I had previously told him not to which has resulted in shoddy work that I will have to fix tomorrow. I was not very diplomatic in my email as I was exhausted and fed up at the end of the day, so will have to deal with the fallout from that as well. Then my horse was acting up due to the weather being cooler and rainy. Came home to find that the boiler is on the fritz and there is no hot water in my building, so had to boil some large pots of water so that I could get clean and wash my hair.
Even before I got home, I was so tempted to stop by the supermarket for a quick meal. It really has become a bad habit that when I feel run down and tired so on my way home I feel I need to find a quick way to nourish myself. However, this time I knew if I went in I would come out with ice cream and chocolate and found some resolve deep down and came home via another route. I ended up having BSD friendly food that I already had at home for my evening meal. It was a win, but I didn’t get full and am still hungry, but too late to eat anything more this evening.
The ice cream and chocolate thing is quite interesting to me. I think there is something behind it. I was in a very bad situation for 6 months in my early 20’s where I was working at a very hard job physically on a farm and living there too and wasn’t able to control my own food and the environment was quite abusive. I was being starved of both nutrients and calories. The only time I could access food that I wanted was on my days off when I could leave the farm, and these were few and far between. I would eat ice cream all the time when I was off, and I would buy lots of chocolate to take back with me as I could hide it and use it to sustain me. Unfortunately that is when I started binging on chocolate because I was so deficient in energy that once I started eating it, I couldn’t stop. Towards the end, the nutrient deficiencies started to affect my ability to taste food as well and I really didn’t want to eat anything unless it was sweet. I lost at least 2.5 stone over the 6 months and weighed less than 10 stone, which is very little for my larger frame, verging on an underweight BMI. So it is interesting to me that I will crave these foods when I’m under stress, tired and feeling low. I also think that this period of starvation in my life is why I can have a hard time getting into the mindset of having to cut calories.
Anyway, sorry for the longer post. I feel like I’m learning alot this time round about what is driving me to certain behaviours. I think this perspective will help in the long run because instead of beating myself up for being greedy and lacking in willpower when I feel like buying the wrong foods, I can realize that I am really trying to be good to myself, and I can take a kinder view and just think about what foods might do a better job of nourishing me, and point this out to my starvation brain.

Hello Everyone,

Had to post a second time 🙂
Firstly, THANK YOU, all your support and guidance. After a two week “stick” I was getting a little disheartened BUT I persevered with it and used some of your advice. I had a couple of really strict days with low carbs and calories and “whoosh”….just as you wise people had predicted. Lost a kilo (not a lot I know, but to me that’s going in the right direction) overnight 🙂 Real spring in my step this morning.
Hope everyone has a good week and keep up the excellent work.

Thank god for the measuring tape.
After a weekend of wine tasting and a few meals out with family I knew I would have put on a bit of water weight for sure.
Scales told that story, but my trend of 1cm off everywhere each week continues.
5 weeks in and i can tell you that 5-6cm extra when you told it against your tum looks like a lot! So glad i took my partners advice and went for cm rather than inches.
Progress towards size too small wedding dress continues and tonight I try a weight lifting class. Fully prepared for increased muscle weight and hoping for overall fat loss 🙂
7 weeks to go and a lifetime!
How is everyone getting on with the NSVs?

Morning,
I just remembered we have a bake sale at work today- eek!

Kafin, it’s great that you changed your mindset and behaviour in that moment, so many diets are ruined or given up because the person feels guilty about having one wrong thing (I have done this many times). Hopefully that will set you up for success even after you finish this diet.

(Sorry, I’m not ignoring the rest of you, I’ve just run out of time)
Fin France- I consider a kilo quite a lot to lose overnight so well done for sticking to it.

That is really interesting articfox. Ice cream and choc have been your “friends” for so long they are invested with massive comfort qualities. You are coming to realise this which is a massive step forward. You can discover nourishing foods now your aim is to be good to yourself but wow…it’s incredible how food has so much emotional power tied up with past experiences . Well done for making good choices and I hope you have a better day at work.today xx

That’s pretty fantast1c sunsh1ne! A 3lb ga1n aboard sh1p 1s small 1ndeed. 1 can p1ck that up 1n a s1ngle week on hol1day
when w1ne creep 1s the 1ssue. You d1d great! Glad to see you back w1th us…. 1’m w1sh1ng you warm weather 1n
France, to get your pool up to a comfortable temperature.

Everyone else, you’re fac1ng your challenges w1th sp1r1t and strength. 1 salute you all! No one says th1s 1s easy,
but so 1nf1n1tely worth 1t 1n the end 🙂 🙂 🙂 1t’s a marathon always, and not a spr1nt!. We do 1t one day at a t1me,
and then we suddenly f1nd ourselves 1n the “prom1sed land” of ma1ntenance, surrounded by others who have
made 1t there w1th us, and deep and ab1d1ng fr1endsh1ps have been made along the way 🙂

Hi Greenbean ! You are doing well ! That’s great that you are thinking long term !
NikNak, I hope you walked away from the bake sale 😉 . You really don’t need that carbage 😉 Hope you are sleeping better.
A kilo is a great discard Fin France ( I’m in the Toulouse region by the way !) Keep going !
Bargearse….(that’s harsh ?) That’s a positive start . Weight discard in menopause is completely possible. Sounds like you had a few adverse reactions as you began low carb eating but good on you for persevering . Cravings definitely do ease as you have already seen
I am not qualified to comment on the PCOS and metformin but hopefully one of our experienced members will pop in to advise . It has been mentioned recently by Lolly T. Esnecca is the person to look out for re PCOS
By the way your dentist can measure and fit you up with a mouth guard if teeth grinding continues to be a problem ?
How are you doing Lolly ? Where have you gone, Puddy ? Bee Girl ? I love that you and JGwen have a shared interest !
Where has gokiniruth gone ?
Still gardening Turkeys ? At least you have to put your ciggies out to do that 😉 Told you I would nag !!
SG, lovely weather in France right now ! Are you back in your home routine now ?
Kirsten your honour, you fabulous person ..shout out any time !
Thinking of Patricia1066 having a fab time in Sardinia !
Verano, it has been a week since my op so still a bit sore but on the mend, thank you xx
Amz, don’t forget to check back in with us ! Always here xx
Thinking of Birdy on her night shift . Allie , we love you, with or without a fully working keyboard  JGwen’s idea is a good one..getting a plug in keyboard you can drown at will 😉
I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone. Sending you masses of love and support.

I had zero cakes! They looked nice, but I had no desire for them.
Sleep is back in track, neighbours have shut up for now. My sleep quality seems to be improving too.
I told the people at work today that I’m on a calorie controlled Keto diet. That way they are aware I’m restricting but I can avoid too many questions as they are used to me eating low carb. Have any of you had much explaining to the people around you?

I forgot to mention my NSV for today, I have a pair of jeans that the zip had started falling down throughout the day as they were fitting a bit too tight, and today the zip stayed up all day.

I have found I’m getting impatient as I have found loads of new recipes I want to try but I have to wait until I’ve been shopping and then I can only try one a day. It’s good though as I won’t feel bored eating for awhile.

N1knak, so much of be1ng successful at th1s l1festyle 1s advance plann1ng. Would 1t be poss1ble for you batch cook on
the weekends and freeze 1nd1v1dal port1ons? When you bu1ld up a good collect1on of a var1ety of entrees 1n the
freezer and add others on the weekend, 1t becomes much eas1er to menu plan for the week. Very best to you on
your journey 🙂

All1e

Hiya Lolly and bargearsebegone, I’m a fervent evangelist for the BSD way of eating as a treatment for PCOS. I was diagnosed when I was 20 and none of the half-baked hormone treatments (bc, prolactin) and dietary advise (whole grains up the yinyang) did a damn thing to arrest my steady weight gain and increasing illness. I was 43 when I started the BSD in August 2016. I don’t know what I weighed then because I avoided scales for years, but I know it was at least 320 lb. I’m 5’2″, so yeah, I was a wreck. By October 2017 I had lost more than 200 lbs and was far fitter than I’d ever been even when I was slim and on the volleyball team in high school. All the PCOS symptoms went away with the pounds.

Here’s the crux of the matter that no doctor told me ever: PCOS is a disease of insulin overproduction. That’s its starting point, not some random byproduct. The rest of the mess — androgen overproduction, anovulatory cycles, even the follicular arrest that causes the actual polycystic ovaries — is a result of the hyperinsulinemia. Over time it leads to insulin resistance which eventually leads to uncontrollable blood glucose levels which leads to T2D.

That’s why Metformin worked for you, bargearsebegone, because it lowered your basal insulin level and stopped it from triggering the terrible pregnancy complications you’d experienced before. The good news is you don’t have to take Metformin with all its gross side-effects to drop your insulin production. You just have to drop your carbs. The 800 calories are key to knocking out weight and getting some of your health stats under control, but carb count matters even more for people like us.

My advice to you and Lolly is to count everything. Make your kitchen scale your new best friend. Leave it on the counter, weigh everything, enter the info into an app like MyFitnessPal or Fat Secret and make sure your carbs stay below 50 grams a day. Plan what you’ll eat before you eat it. I keep carbs below 20 grams a day even now that I’ve been in maintenance for a year and a half. All of the carb-heavy foods — bread, pasta, pizza, rice, potatoes — were off the menu immediately, of course, but so are the so-called healthy carbs — beans, steel-cut oats — or higher sugar veg like tomatoes and beets. Be ruthless. Test everything. Believe nothing but your body because your brain makes up a lot of bullshit. (What’s a birthday without cake? All my friends are drinking and I don’t want to be a buzzkill. That cookie will make me happy. I can run it off/fast it off/start over again tomorrow.)

When you are fully adapted to burning fat instead of burning carbs, you will have all the energy in the world, but even before that point you will have corrected the key dysfunction that has plagued your body for decades: high insulin levels. Low carbs = low insulin. That’s all there is to it.

Good luck, ladies!

Allie- I do like to do that but my small freezer is currently completely full so I need to work through some food before I can fit other things in.
Doesn’t stop me planning though, I know what I’m having for the next 5 days at least.

That’s really interesting about the PCOS, I don’t have it myself but I do have 2 family members that do and I may pass that info on, get them to look into this aswell.

Hi everyone, just a flying visit. It’s been a hectic week, work schedule all over the place and I’m shattered. But I’ve managed to keep on track throughout all the crazyness.

Had a quick read through the posts – thanks for the shout out Wendleg – sorry I don’t have time to reply to everyone but I’m hoping to be able to give more in the next few days. I love the positive vibes though, it really helps me to see other people who had the same problems I do eg PCOS – who have managed to succeed with this WOE, lose weight and keep it off. It gives me hope!

A really positive thing today, I went to see my sister – she didn’t know I had embarked on this new WOE but I explained to her what I was doing and she was really supportive. She then said to me, don’t look in the fridge because I bought you something but you can’t eat it now, but her OH would happily eat it instead – naturally I was curious so I ignored her advice and I immediately went to look in the fridge, there sat a custard slice, my most favourite of bakery treats, pure temptation…but I looked at that treat now with my newly trained BSD eyes and saw it for what it really was and quite easily turned away and closed the door. I thanked my sister for her kindness and I said why don’t we go out for lunch instead. We went out and I had a grilled chicken breast with a simple salad and some mayo and it was lovely and tasty and I was more than satisfied.

This taught me a great lesson…that I AM CAPABLE OF THAT KIND OF WILLPOWER. Over the past week – my first week – I have stuck to plan and lost 10lbs, but in the back of my mind there has been a little voice saying “yes, but for how long? You’re weak, you won’t be able to resist going back to your old ways”. Well today I told that voice to get lost, I hope today to be the first of many occasions where I choose my health first!

Gok1n1ruth, nurture that vo1ce, unt1l 1t becomes YOUR vo1ce 🙂 F1rst week results are always spectacular, as your
body 1s releas1ng the flu1d retent1on from the cessat1on of carbs. 1t 1s mot1vat1onal, though. The real work
beg1ns 1n week 2, so arm yourself w1th a countertop scale and measure your port1ons. Have you s1gned on for
an app to count calor1es and carbs? Gett1ng your macros 1n l1ne makes th1s ent1re process so much eas1er…We
all have t1ps to al1gn us w1th the pred1cate of low carb, moderate prote1n and h1gh (healthy) fat. Just shout out
1f you have any quest1ons or concerns. There 1s a large commun1ty of exper1enced BSDers here and we cross
many t1me zones. One of us 1s always out and about, and very happy to help. 🙂 Keep do1ng what you have been
do1ng, and you w1ll f1nd a new you! 1t’s all a wonderful adventure just wa1t1ng there for you to embrace. Very
best to you! Keep post1ng 🙂

All1e

gokiniruth – very well done resisting that custard slice; they’re one of my favourites too.

Sorry I haven’t been by for a bit – I only work Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week, but they’re long days so don’t get much chance to read or respond on those days unfortunately.

I’ve pre-ordered the new Fast 800 Recipe Book that’s coming out next month, so I’m looking forward to seeing that. Any excuse to buy books!

My best move so far on this WoE has actually been sorting my breakfast for work days. I have one of the Fast 800 chocolate shakes (usually have eggs when I’m at home but can’t cook them at work!). It helps massively as it keeps me away from all the other unhealthy options I would usually go for – instant porridge, croissant, McDonalds etc. I’ve found I look forward to these three shake breakfasts a week and think of them as quite a treat!

I should really go to the allotment today as I have loads of digging to get done so I can plant all the stuff in the greenhouse, plus it’s good exercise. But I confess that I fancy a more lazy day; I have some olive wood in the workshop that was supposed to have been turned into a table last year so might do some tidying and then treat myself to a couple of hours playing with wood I think.

Have a good day everyone!

Bit of a stressful day for me today as expected. I was planning to have my iron supplement when I got into work and then have breakfast on my break at 10:30am in order to avoid any issues with absorption, but in dealing with all the issues that came up yesterday I suddenly realized it was 11:30 and I hadn’t had my iron supplement, breakfast or any fluids to drink. Rectified that with a big glass of water with my iron supplement and then had breakfast for lunch at 12:30. Never ate my packed lunch as breakfast was a pretty filling egg dish with spinach and feta cheese. Came home and nourished myself with a kale salad and kefir. So an unplanned 16 hour fast and only 2 meals for me today, and interestingly I am less hungry today with only 2 meals than I was yesterday with 3.
Thanks for the good thoughts Wendleg. Today was tough, but as I was expecting it I think I handled it better than yesterday. I had hot water when I got home too! I had a real ‘friend’ contact me this evening. She is a former flatmate who moved across the country who is coming for an interview at my workplace. She asked if I wanted to go out for dinner and a catch up tomorrow, so that will be nice. I’ll try to stick to plan for the dinner and it will be nice to see someone other than people at work or the yard where I keep my horse for a change.
Gokiniruth – well done on avoiding the custard slice. They are one of my favourites. I also avoided them this weekend when I was doing my grocery shopping. I saw them in the supermarket and convinced myself that they would not be as nice as ones from a proper bakery and was able to walk away. Of course the one proper bakery in my are that makes delicious custard slices is a place that I avoid these days as there is nothing to eat there that is on plan, so problem solved!

Good morning a quick hi and well done to you all. Sorry to those of you that have had few stumbles and your daily grind has got you down, but today is a new day and we are all here to see each other through. Duckie what a great post you put up yesterday, very thought provoking. Wendleg thank you for the shout out. All1e 1 see your keyboard 1s st1ll buggered, hope your lovely hubby can get it sorted soon. JGwen I wish I had been in your other shoulder when you met the village gossip! I am sure you gave her some juicy jealous gossip to pass on!🤣. I have people like her at work and I love nothing more than giving them something to talk about. I bet you looked amazing in your shorts. To all the newbies you have fitted in so well and your involvement is lovely thank you. Keep posting as your help as everyone’s is invaluable and we love your enthusiasm. 🤗😊❤️ BeeGirl I think I am going to book a bee keeping course when I get back from my hols in August. I would love to add some more bees 🐝 to my little part of the world! They are so important to our survival! Keep up the good work hun. I have discarded 2lbs and am very happy as it is going in the right direction. I am off to bed now but I hope you all have a lovely day in the sun. Love and hugs Birdy💞🦜

Hi there all from down under. Tasmania, Australia. I have had great success on this diet in the past and am now eager to regain control of my diet. I am proud to say that the majority of my 10kgs I lost while on the diet has stayed off but my blood sugars have crept back up and my doctor is threatening me with medication which I would rather avoid of possible. I know I can get my sugars down I just have to take the leap and get organized. For me that is the biggest challenge. To think ahead and be prepared. I am making changes already in small ways but intend to start eating the BSD way come this Monday as work calls me away over the weekend. I think I will start with the meatballs for dinner as this is one of my favorite recipes. Being part of this forum was such an integral part of my success last time so I hope you will welcome me into this thread even though I will be a bit of a late starter.