Nicola the first part of the book is quite important as he tries to debunk the calories in/ calories out mantra that we have all lived by. I suppose it’s important to internalise that but I just found that he laboured the point a bit too much. I do think it may be important though, as he is basically saying that we should forget that way of thinking to reduce weight and concentrate on carbs, not just the amount but the type. I think that’s what he’s saying! So maybe worth dipping back into the first chapters.

Thanks JGwen!

Thanks Verano, I will try and have a proper read in the daylight 😊

This has been a great weekend – though not wonderful weathervwise.
I managed to
Sort out the horses field – building a high security area with the help of electric fencing to try and keep my youngster where she should be;
Sat on the said youngster complete with saddle and bridle for the first time – took about a dozen steps. She was very good!
Went for a lovely ride on Sunday

So my weekend was mostly spent with horses and all the better for it
MM

Sounds good MM. I’ve been a bit lax about posting my positives here lately but here goes….
1. Emptied and shredded three files this morning. So that’s the start of a spring clean that could take me right through the summer because I have such a huge mountain of old paperwork!
2. After a few days of warm sunshine and now a day of rain my apple tree is about to burst into flower.
3. Started planning an Autumn holiday. Always love planning trips away!
Hope everyone is still feeling positive.

Madmare, your Sunday sounds heavenly!

V., I haven’t been keeping up here the way I would like to, either! The first 4 week challenge I ever joined was one
that you hosted in the Fall. I was so impressed with your gracious and supportive posts, and always knew that I
would try to emulate you if the day ever came when I attempted to do the same. I’m a little overwhelmed by the
sheer volume on the “Swing Into” thread 🙂 Any advice would be most appreciated! (I think that the warm weather
that will be be seeing us all in fewer clothes soon must be the reason 🙂 )

Positive accomplishments for today: Washed 9 linear feet of windows, and finally got the window panels re-
installed. There is a green haze appearing on the trees, so surely Spring is on it’s way. But, late this year! The
planting boxes on the balcony are prepped for this season’s plantings, but I have a hard time believing today
that it will be mild enough in 3 weeks to do this!

I have a crazy idea about having the master bedroom painted a dark slate blue. Will try to “sell” this idea to
OH later this evening. Wish me luck!

Think positive, post positive, my friends 🙂 🙂 🙂

Allie my friend the only advice I can give is to add whatever you can whenever. Lots of people aren’t actually looking for a response just need to vent or ask for reassurance/ praise/ advice! But thank you for the compliment anyway, you give me too much praise!

All well deserved and earned, V.! And thank you for the advice!

Allie, re the 4 week thread, I’ve also had a turn or two at starting them up and I took the attitude that I take for family get-togethers … My place, you’re all welcome but it’s not my party, it’s our party and those who come have to help themselves and “muck in” with looking after each other. Allie, with all your wonderful responses I’ve been wondering how on earth you find the time to do anything else. Please, you’re not obligated, just do what you comfortably can. We’d hate you to burn out. Take care x

I’m off for a Nana nap after Dawn Service, will be back later with my positives.

Allie I’ve been in awe of your timely and comprehensive replies in the 4week thread my only concern would be that you might get burnt out!

I’ve never posted in this thread before but I’m feeling great today so:

Anzac Day ceremony was amazingly moving-and crowded! Fabulous to see so many of all ages coming along.
Said Anzac Day gives me a midweek day off which I so appreciate
My daughter’s wedding dress fitting went beautifully and she is a happy bride to be instead of the bridezilla threatening us a week ago.

Cheers all!

Allie – I absolutely agree with everything Verano, Marsie have said. I really value your contributions to this forum and would hate for you to burn yourself out.

Mariet – I am so pleased that you enjoyed Anzac day – it sounded like a fabulous day for everyone. So glad the bridal fitting went well and your daughter is no longer looking as though she will turn into bridezilla.

My post should have read – Allie – I absolutely agree with everything Verano, Marsie and Mariet said. I have a new tablet and the autocorrect keeps rewriting my posts – it’s really annoying.

Sorry to have been absent for a while. Have been reading posts on email, but haven’t logged in for a few days now. Anyway, good to see lots of lovely positives being posted. Feel a little guilty to be basking in sunshine, when you are still waiting for spring, Allie and to be cheeky enough to post positives too. I will though!
1) Went to a local Veg Fest and sampled some interesting foods.
2) Bought a really pretty hand painted vase with a mountain and lake scene on it, to put a string of tiny LED lights in and it looks great.
3) OH is taking time out and hasn’t started any major DIY projects yet – only a matter of time though!

What wonderful advice and insights to open my eyes to today! Verano, Marsie, Mariet and Krysia, you’ve all restored
my perspective 🙂 The expectations I often have and load on myself can be unrealistic, and just another example of
the pitfalls of being a perfectionist. I need to be reminded of this from time to time, so I’m supremely grateful to
have such perceptive and caring friends here to restore my sensibilities. I love this community, so no “burn outs”
for me!!! I like to think of this thread as a “homepage”, and these posts today remind me once again of why that is
so 🙂 Marsie, your analogy to entertaining couldn’t have been more perfect, for husband and I have always done
a great deal of it until recently. I’m enchanted with the new ( to me) expression “muck in”! I’ll be using it the next time
the appropriate circumstance presents itself.
I’ll get my positives in order later in the morning, but for now….I just realized that the “matrimonial bed” (haha) can
accommodate 3 entities these days, instead of 2! I can now leave my laptop in bed with me (a good opportunity
to keep up with posts when I’m suppose to be sleeping but don’t) because 50% of me has gone missing!

Seek those positives, everyone 🙂 🙂 🙂

Gratefully,

Allie

Just found this thread and I love it 😊

I used to keep a little notebook where each day I would write down one thing I was grateful for and any ‘life improving ideas’ I had thought of that day. This thread has inspired me to start doing that again!

So today’s positive is that I am grateful that the company I work for is so flexible and accommodating to my health problems. They are really flexible with my hours and let me work from home whenever I need to.

Life improving idea is: I need to tidy and sort out my home office! It’s getting a little cluttered and it’s bad for my zen haha!

Hi SunnyB you just enjoy ‘basking’! No guilt necessary!

Hello Kirstily and welcome to the ‘feel good’ thread.

My three positives are ….
1. Booked the first part of our autumn trip.
2. Have not eaten anything ‘silly ‘ today.
3. Made a few arrangements over the next two weeks to meet up with family and friends, always good.

Hope Anzac Day was good, if that’s the right word, for all our Australian friends. There was also the usual commemoration here too.
Hope today has had lots of positives but if not there’s always tomorrow.

V., you’re always off to exotic locations! The best that we’ve managed in the past year is a 5 day trip to the beach,
which is only 4-5 hours from here! Sad 🙂 I always feel “held hostage” by o/h’s teaching schedule. However, you’ve
reminded me to make some reservations before the summer school semester gets into gear. If you don’t mind
revealing all, where are you off to this time around?

Allie you know we only get here once and as we get older time is less on our side. Many, many years ago we were invited to a wedding in Pakistan. We organised ourselves and girded our loins ….. then it was put off for several months. We were so geared up to taking our first trip to the ‘far, far east’ we reorganise ourselves and went anyway. Our first trip was to Hong Kong, Bali and Singapore. So began a love affair with Asia. That was in 1993.

We always said that putting life ‘on hold’ until retirement was a mistake and so it turned out to be very true for us. We travelled extensively for maybe 10 years and then we bought our little holiday home in the Canary Islands. A few years later I contracted sepsis and my mobility became compromised. Our apartment has been a g-d send as it is so convenient for me with my limited mobility.

My mobility now is so much improved since my hip surgery last September, that I just want to keep ‘doing ‘ while I can. Who knows what tomorrow holds?

So, sorry to go around the houses, but we are going to the Spanish mainland and taking a short 8 day cruise from Barcelona. I love cruising! But, we will add a week or so on before and maybe a few days after!

We have decided to SKI …. spend the kids inheritance !!!!!!!!!!!

SKI, I do love that, V.! We always encouraged my Mother to do the same! She didn’t begin traveling until the age of
50, several years after she had been widowed. It really enriched her life, and we are so happy that she was able
to have those experiences. I’m sure that your children feel the same way. Carpe diem!

Krysia, I know you have blood tests scheduled for tomorrow. I hope that they continue to be as positive as those
done last month. Share the results! We are all interested 🙂 Best,

Allie

I came across this poem the other day and wanted to share it on the forum. I got stressed the other day as a result of witnessing some bullying and back stabbing which would normally have sent me curling up in a chair with a blanket and a family size bar of chocolate, but this poem popped up at just the right time.

Rise

Don’t get angry
or enraged
or insulted.
Rise above the bullshit.
Flick your light back on,
and shine it brighter than ever,
and fall so deeply in love
with your own life
that anyone who tried to wrong you
becomes a laughable, ridiculous, distant memory.

Glad you could find something positive in bad situation and that you have a thread like this to share.

JGwen, thank you for posting that, something has arisen here which has had me seething all day. The advice in your poem is very timely and just might keep me from giving someone ‘both barrels’ – can’t guarantee it though!

Allie – last blood test October and I wasn’t very happy as the HB1aC was higher. Will get the results of today’s next Thursday when I see the diabetes Nurse – so fingers crossed it will be lower. If it is I will be doing the happy dance. I will post the numbers next Thursday whether they are good or bad. Although I might have thrown my new Kindle fire out of the window by then as the predictive text is driving me mad. My old Kindle didn’t keep rewriting my posts like this one does.

Have set up my new incubator with a batch of duck eggs. – Always an exciting time wondering what percentage will hatch.
After dropping my chainsaw in for a service yesterday I started to think about treating myself to some safety trousers. (Don’t worry, I don’t use the chainsaw in settings where I need the trousers at present, but I do have some work that needs doing that I could do if I had the right safety gear.). – They only make chain saw trousers in male sizes, and I really didn’t want to have to discuss my vital statistics to work out which size would fit with the cute guy who runs the chainsaw business before. 🙂

JGwen you had me worried there. Please do not start a sentence with “After dropping my chainsaw….”!

I’ve been away a few days so positive thoughts from the last few days:
1) Huge progress with our indoor painting. The staircase is finished. Now the doors…
2) The joys of a short break away – it was lovely to have a holiday in our home country for a change. Though I kept thinking I should launch into French in restaurants etc!
3) Despite relaxing a bit carb-wise (I won’t go into gruesome details!), I am still below my 73kg target weight.

Good afternoon. It’s cold and miserable here today but I still have some positives

1. My apple tree has a few blossoms and just one sunny day will see it burst into bloom.
2. My nails have been very badly ridged for the last few months but today they are healthy enough again to have them polished, so lovely manicure this morning.
3. I have prepared my new journal this morning for my May 1st restart. I will draw a line under my losses/gains so far and start afresh, as though I have just found BSD, next Tuesday.

Jillie how long do duck eggs usually take to hatch? We will all wait with baited breath for your news . Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Hi all, posting some positives to try to balance the negativity in my head…
1) My puppy was given the thumbs up today, after her operation last week. The vet said her wound has healed quicker than any she’s ever seen 😎
2) I binged at lunch time due to aforementioned negativity. I only had BSD friendly food though so 15g total carb, not such a binge after all!
3) We’re away with friends this weekend and I’ve pre-planned the meals I’ll have, so fingers crossed I’ll stay on plan 🤞🏻

Hi JGwen,
duck eggs in the incubator – can’t wait to hear the good news that they all hatch – ducklings are so cute. I’m hoping at least one of my hens will go broody so I can buy in some fertilised eggs to put under her (don’t have a cockerel) as now the rat problem is sorted I can hopefully have some chicks this year.
1) It’s been a good week for me on the catching up with friends front – out Tues lunchtime, Weds, Thurs and Friday night.
2) OH came along to the village quiz last night with me, and we won!
3) My new cherry shrub ‘Porthos’ arrived in the post this morning, so now I have an excuse to go out and shop for a lovely large terracotta pot so it can live on the patio.

Well today had been a far brighter day in many ways. The sun is shining but it’s still very cold. But I have had a positive day so far…
1. I wrote down a list of foods that I ate in the early days of BSD that I’d forgotten about so that when I get into a rut foodwise I can just consult my journal.
2. I made two pans of soup in readiness for my new start next Tuesday. I’d forgotten how often I use to have soup for lunch.
3. I’m grateful for Fatsecret. Today I was able to check back over my time here and see what I was eating in the good times, and the bad, and very enlightening it is too!

Enjoy the weekend.

Hi all, I hope everyone has had an opportunity to get out into the sunshine today!

V., (can I call you “V”?) Wow, what a productive day you’ve had! I love the idea of a fresh notebook to kick off
your reboot on Tuesday. 🙂 Breaking things down into 1 week blocks of time seems to be really working for you,
along with many others 🙂 I haven’t been able to get off the launchpad today! No energy…I think I’m shedding the
Lyme virus again, because I’ve had a few days where I’ve had trouble managing my pain levels. Ah yes, the wine!
I’m confident in my ability to eat a healthy diet, but “wine creep” is something I need to remain vigilant about. If
an unexpected lb. or 2 appears on the scales, “wine creep” is always the cause 🙂 We forge ahead though, don’t
we?
Have a great evening!

Allie

Love the term ‘wine creep’, Allie! It is something I am certainly trying to keep under control at the moment, but it’s not going so well. Sorry to read your pain levels are causing you problems. Hope you will have them sorted soon.
Planning to have a very ‘frugal’ week diet-wise from tomorrow, as I need to get closer to my usual pattern of eating and pull down the carbs again too. Am conscious that although the clothes still fit, a pound or two has probably been gained. Need to take control again now, before things spiral.
Anyway, a few positives for today:
1) friend coming for brunch today
2) spoke to parents and they had a fabulous time in India.
3) weather still unbelievably good, washing dries in about an hour!

Great thread! Love the term wine creep, sounds all too familiar.

My positive thought for the day is that I’m so grateful for having discovered mindfulness. I must admit to being very sceptical at first but after 2 weeks with the headspace app, wow, mind blown.

Hi Allie yes you can, ‘V’ is just fine! Sorry to hear about your pain. There is nothing worse that constant pain so I hope you manage to get your levels under control soon.
‘Wine Creep’ oh! what a great expression Allie. I think that will become a staple like ‘keep on keeping on………’. Has anybody heard from sunshine-girl? I left a post for her a few days ago but not heard anything.
SunnyB hope you are still enjoying your trip. I’m sure you must be. Can I ask where your parents went to in India? We ‘dipped our toes’ into India in Mumbai on our last trip but we really didn’t enjoy the experience. We also went to Sri Lanka, Colombo, which was an altogether better experience, although in essence they should have been similar. I would like to go back again and tour, but just need to find the right places to visit.
Will be back later with my positives for today …… must keep ‘Wine Creep’ in the forefront of my mind………………..

Haha, everyone! I rather enjoyed coining the term “wine creep”. By all means, appropriate it and use it at will 🙂 Glad
it also made you smile.

Back with positive thoughts after I get some coffee “onboard”!

Allie

RE the eggs in the incubator. Chicken eggs normally take 21 days, and duck eggs are about 28 days but with this incubator I can have mixed batches. – I don’t know how successful this batch of eggs will be, I bought them ready to set up my old incubator but then it developed a fault (turned out Amazon had sold me a second hand unit as a new unit, so the manufacturers wouldn’t honour the warrenty – I had to get the faulty unit returned to me and then send it back to Amazon for a refund and buy a new unit). You get the best success rates of eggs if they are stored for less than 14 days so unless these eggs were all laid the day before I bought them, its not going to be a successful hatch.
I have a mixture of eggs from a breed of chickens which lay green eggs, and two types of duck eggs in the incubator at present. But I will candle them (look at them in a dark place with a bright light behind them so you can see if a chick is developing) at the end of this week and buy replacements for any not developing. The one advantage with my new incubator is that you can have eggs at different stages in it.

Well my three positives for today are …..
1. Lunch out with daughter and grandsons. Always a treat.
2. Saw lots of spring lambs, the first I’ve seen this year.
3. The cherry tree a few doors away from me is in full blossom. It must be around 60 years old and it has the most magnificent ‘unbrella’ shape. It truly is a sight to behold.
Hope you are all having a good weekend.

My positives for today:
-I had so many opportunities this weekend to sabotage this weekend and I didn’t take them 🙂
-A friend started BSD a couple of weeks ago and is making great progress. So I now have an offline buddy!
-I had a lovely weekend away with friends which has pulled me out of my bad mood 🙌🏻

Great day today –
1) picked the first of my rhubarb from the garden – yum!
2) collected a shallow stone trough yesterday that I had I bought off ebay for £10 – watched gardeners world on catch up last night and monty was planting up the self same trough with thyme – inspired for my trough now.
3) spent all day in the garden digging with a friendly robin hopping about at my feet picking up the worms etc for it’s young

Jjust squeaking in at the end of the U.K. day! Sunny how wonderful that your parents still enjoy traveling! India
is a complex and fascinating place. I’ve always had an interest in exploring the northern mountainous regions,
but I don’t know how I”d feel about traveling by train thru the old raj territory. I’ve done some indian cooking, and
I find this region the most interesting.

Verano, every day spent with family is a jewel. How old are your grandchildren?

Brava, Nicki, for not giving in to temptation! It does get easier with time, doesn’t it? 🙂

Treelady, you’ve just described the most perfect day! A trough filled with herbs.. 🙂 Perfect for meditation and
releasing stress.

I discovered earlier today that a full blast of summer temps are due to arrive here on tuesday. I spent the
afternoon unearthing warm weather clothing from the depths of my closet, and sent a good portion through
the washer. I’m now “ready”, and feel positive and productive that this has been accomplished, if somewhat
frantic in its execution!

Enjoy your evening,

Allie

I realised today that I must be getting a bit more relaxed with this way of eating. When I got showered and changed to go out in the middle of the day I didn’t jump on the scales to see if there had been any change since the morning 🙂
Had our first practical training session with the bee hives today run by the local bee keeping club. The rain kept off so we could open up a couple of the hives. The big positive for me was that one of the standard bee keeping suits the club has available for use by novices on the course fitted.

G’day All,

Very much relieved that people are still keeping this thread alive and that I can comment on it and have it still be relevant!

With that in mind, here are my 3 positives.
1) My working day is so nearly over I can see the finish line in my sights.
2) My OH is at home with some delicious veggie burgers and veg for dinner – we celebrated our paper (first) wedding anniversary yesterday and I am eternally grateful for them being in my life.
3) I am another day closer to going back home to the UK to see the family at Christmas, for the first time in what will be three years since I moved out to NZ and this is keeping me enthused about this diet.

Reading your positives and your stories are overwhelmingly inspirational, I’ve loved them and keep them coming.

– Tru

1) The garden has had a good soaking and is now in sunbathe mode.
2} Got into the 71. x kgs today. I genuinely can’t remember when I last saw that number – I think somewhere in 1982.
3) Had a lovely lunch with our elder son. Feeling blessed.

Have a lovely day everyone.

Good afternoon. Didn’t have the best of days yesterday but today I do have three positives…..
1. Finally made my broccoli and stilton soup.
2. Also have a huge pan of chicken broth bubbling away on the hob.
3. Didn’t get around to trying Kass’s seed crackers yet but have all the ingredients lined up for tomorrow. So my number 3 is that I started my new journal this morning and I don’t want to see any plus signs ruining my pristine new page. I promise to stick to the plan!
Hope it’s a good day for everyone.

You’ve been so productive with soup making in the past few days, Verano! I’m sure that we would all like to
stop in at your soup kitchen. Do you have any secrets for making a seasonal asparagus one in your repertoire?
We only have about a 6 wk window for the local offerings, so we like to include asparagus in the menu when
it’s in season. Great for prebiotics, too! A new page and a brand new month, V. Water woman here, to remind
you to keep bending an elbow 🙂

Caron, 1982??? That is what I call a major positive!

Trulose, so happy to see you here! Like you, I travel in a circle of gratitude each day. This thread inspires me
too, and I’m so grateful to SunnyB for reviving it 🙂

The sun is about to cross over to our balconey, so I’m going to resettle myself outside with a good book,
and commune with my terra cotta pot filled with johnny jump-ups (miniature pansies). Getting some vitamin
D will be my positive for today! Winter was so slow to blow out of New England this year, snow til the bitter
end! Birds are chirping, and several bright red cardinals are sailing about 🙂

Hope everyone has had a blessed day!

Allie

At the risk of grossing everyone out, my fav soup here in Turkey is kella pacha or in English, sheep’s head soup. That was my brunch today, delicious with a little garlic, lemon juice and a few chilli flakes.
Love the sound of your pots of pansies, Allie. I’m looking for a rose for the balcony here, which I will take home to UK with me at the end of our stay. Haven’t found one A) that is nice and compact or B) that is scented and has lots of buds, so the search goes on. Have bought a chilli plant and a small leaf basil though, as well as an orchid!
Positives for today:
1) OH started one of the tiling jobs today with only minimal swearing involved. It’s looking really good – very pleased with it.
2) Met a really friendly and chatty Norwegian guy in a cafe this afternoon and we all three discussed driving out to Turkey and compared notes on our fav local places.
3) Trying to keep tighter control this week and be much more on BSD plan, so far it’s going okay. I know it’s only day two, but better than nothing!

The chili plant sounds like fun, Sunny! I’ve recently received a phalaenopsis, but I’m uncertain about the watering
instructions…The attached tag says to put 3 ice cubes on the soil 1 x week, but how does that take into account
the differing temperature levels or humidity? Do you happen to know if the soil should dry out between waterings,
or should it remain moist at all times?
You gave me a laugh describing your husband’s mutterings while doing your tile work 🙂 I recently suggested
that I wished to transform the master bedroom from pale grey to slate blue…I expected this idea to go over like
a lead balloon, which of course it did! What I hadn’t expected was this observation that “Why do all your projects
involve ME having to DO something?” Whoops, guilty as charged…I think a little more negotiating must take
place…hmmm
Enjoy 🙂 🙂 🙂 Oh, the sheep’s head soup is something I CAN imagine!

SunnyB, that soup sounds great to see you through the week….geddit? lol

How is the Kefir doing?

Stay well.

Nonna Mary
xxx

Apologies V, forgot to respond to your question regarding: India. My folks did an escorted tour with Great Railway Journeys. Think they flew into New Delhi then train to Jaipur, Agra and a couple of other places, including a tiger safari at one of the national parks. They said it was wonderful and although there were a couple of glitches, they loved it.

Nonna, the kefir is going great. Have saved the whey the last couple of days and this morning I have set up a batch of fermented eggs and one of radish. They have radish here like the salad radish we get in the UK, but huge, getting on for tennis ball size. So I have sliced a couple up thin, salted them and left them to sweat a while and then transferred them and the resulting brine to a jar, along with about 80ml of whey to help the fermamting process along. Excited to see what the results will be.

Quick positives for today:
1) OH is advancing the tiling project as I type – no swearing yet! Allie, he always says to me that I am ideas and planning and he is procurement and execution. That’s not to say there isn’t some occasional resistance though!
2) Trip to the market this morning and the fridge is now full of lovely local produce.
3) Almost sunbathing time – only get out there in the afternoons, otherwise I’d be a crisp!

Hi folks,
My first positive for today is that I have done it, this morning the scales finally read my initial target weight. – Thats 36kg (79.2lb) less than my start point. – I know that probably as soon as I have a drink it will go up again. But I think seeing that reading once is grounds for a celebration.

My second positive is that when I thought about adding something to the food shop this week to celebrate I thought in turns of something high fat, rather than carby.

My third positive, is that I have already decided on my next target. When I moved to this area my first appointment with the GP included them recording my weight, and that is the target I initially set myself. – But that’s still a generous Rubens style body shape, rather than slim. So my next stepping stone target for which I will plan to have a big reward for myself is another 8 kg weight loss.

JGwen, that is FANTASTIC news! Many congratulations. It sounds like your food choices are coming naturally which would mean to me you truly are converted and it’s second nature! Bravo, JGwen. Very pleased for you indeed. “claps claps”. 🙂

Now I just need to get cracking myself. I have stuck to my re-start from Saturday but have struggled to leave my desk enough times to get warm water and lemon slice. I’m going to set an alarm for every 30 mins to get up and move around and get water!
I have a lot of posts to catch up…..
My postives are:
1 – feeling back in control after “maintaining” this year so far, and much happier
2 – after getting soaked at the train station this morning with only a hooded coat, no room in the shelter, the weather is clearing, the temps are rising and we are promised a nice long weekend! 🙂
3 – just got back from our restaurant, having heated my lunch in the micro and not been tempted by the mouthwatering array of stuff on offer. In particular, I managed to ignore the “Mediterranean hash brown, poached hens egg and nicoise salad” or the “toasted ham and cheese sandwich” – 3 golden slices of bread, not just 2. HELLO, MY NAME IS KAREN AND I’M A BREADAHOLIC……
Wishing you all a wonderful day/evening.
Kazzeexxx