Sumo … so glad your wife has access to Hydro therapy toning tables.

3. Our pool is heated!!! Not that hot …. but definitely not icy. They even have noodles and large waist life belts so people can even have no impact pool exercises. There’s even a pool lift in/out.

My sister likes the classes although she is on the list for a knee replacement now.

I like the pool because i can join a class or go on my own.

My shoulder is getting better every day.

4. Hurray for Ex-Lax!! 🙂 🙂 🙂

1. Cold and rainy outside ; warm and comfy inside

2. French Vanilla Coffee and full fat cream

3. Figure skating season!! Skate Canada International this weekend. Looking good for the Canadians!! What’s not to love — beautiful music and costumes, beautiful skating programs with so many innovative tricks from skaters around the world. Skate Canada always has a full house in the audience so i think the skaters really enJOY skating for Canadian fans.

Next skate Canada is in Ottawa next time …. i think i will go and see it live!! Ottawa is not too expensive from here.

LOL … i appear to have taken over this thread!

Well despite a headache and still shoulder pain i am going to swing my mind to things i am grateful for.

1. Figure skating season has started on tv. I am particularly grateful for the dances of Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, and Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte.

2. Jon Kabat Zinn and his 9 attitudes video

3. Smell of chicken soup cooking … it will likely just be chicken, broth and a bok choy (a new ingrediant for me)

Ok my first post on this thread.
My 3 positive things
1. 31st October and a stunning sunny day and 17 degrees
2. My daughter has nailed daytime potty training, much easier and saves a fortune in nappies!
3. Had dinner at my mum and dads. No meal planning just meat and veg without the potato. It also meant by the time we got home I had missed the trick or treaters. Was dreading a knock at the door, and offering the assorted witches and warlocks brussel sprouts, cauliflower or blueberries 😀

Cleverblonde73 you could have wrapped your Brussels sprouts in old Ferraro Rocher gold wrappers and handed those out. To be extra tricky, actually dip them in chocolate first so they don’t realise until they actually bite.

Is it bad that i am wondering if you steam brussels sprouts, let them cool and then dip them … what would it taste like.
What about a chocolate fountain for veggies????

I definitely thinking steaming would work. Although I am not sure Monsieur ambassador would be too impressed with what we are suggesting about his Ferrero Rocher 😂

Have just found this thread, what a great idea.
My positive thoughts for today:
1. Finding this thread!! I was a bit down and blew out hugely today, like everything I could find!! Reading this has made me laugh and feel such gratitude for all your collective wisdom, humour and positivity, thank you everyone!!
2. Listening to my girls playing happily together
3. Our naughty new puppy
Xxx

My positive thoughts for today:
1: Glad our 14yr old grandson is still content to overnight with us. He was here last night and seemed happy enough to be here – didn’t whinge once about being bored.
2. Started planning for Christmas – have the menu sorted and making progress with the gifts.
3. Following having a leaky hot water tank replaced, have at last finished laundering all the linens to put back in the airing cupboard.

Thought it might be nice to resurrect this thread, which seems to have fallen by the wayside, but had previously been used to put some positivity out there. So here goes –

1) I now weigh less than I have in more 10yrs and feel fit and healthy
2) These days I have a flat stomach, which I don’t think I have ever had before
3) My husband recently told me he is proud of my achievement

Good idea, I like a bit of positivity 😀

1) I am fitter and healthier today than I have been for decades.
2) I am looking forward to a holiday in 4 1/2 weeks in (hopefully) sunny Cornwall
3) I was told at work today that I look amazing, this has happened a few times over the last few months, but I am still far from used to it. 😊

M&M if you are coming down to the west country, we have lots of green fields, it rains a lot?

We holiday down by the Lizard, @ Mullion must admit we have had a good amount of sunshine down there. If not sunny the rain will be warmer, and you a lesser target for the rain to hit.

1) Happy that at last my daughter seems to be in a loving relationship and building a life with someone who treats her well.
2) Only 7wks to our next trip to Turkey.
3) My grandson got home safely from his school ski trip.

So, having had a week or so feeling at odds and rather adrift – for no reason that I could actually pin down – it occurred to me that perhaps there is some mileage is kick-starting this Positive Thoughts Thread again. So, here’s a couple to start us off again.

‘Our lives are like the course of the sun. At the darkest moment there is the promise of daylight.’ (quote from The Times 24-12-1984)

To measure your progress, don’t get bogged down with the little things, remember to check the bigger picture.

Finally a personal one – feeling content with where I am with this WOE right now.

Hope some of you will join in to properly revive this thread.

Great bump, Sunny. 🙂

1) My high school uniform blazer fits me with room to spare. I bought it when I was 14.
2) The sun is out and it makes me happy. It’s still cold, but bright sunlight warms everything up, including me. Hit me with your best shot, Vitamin D.
3) Off to walk to the organic market where I plan to buy a bunch of bulk teas and experiment making my own herbal blends for Christmas gifts. When my guy comes home I’m going to have a little tasting bar set up with shots of each brew for us to sample and critique. I’m so looking forward to it. Alternatreat!

SunnyB, just wondering. …could any of your malaise be do to “no more dragons to slay, no more good fights to wage”? Now that you have succeeded, no more diet to do.

I know that this BSD has absolutely CONSUMED ME. Whether it is planning meals, plugging in ingredients into a program to calculate calories/carbs/protient….trying on clothes that almost fit last week but not quite, weighing myself for the 5th time that day to make sure it REALLY is true and the loss is still there. And I am frankly getting a bit of a rush seeing the scales go down. They always say maintenance is so much harder than dieting becuase there are no bells ringing anymore, no fireworks in your mind celebrating each half pound lost.

Do you need to find a new mission? Esnecca is has discovered shopping and boots. Others are taking big vacations. Gotta find something that is fun. A new skill to hone? A new language to learn? Have you considered learning to play the bassoon (ugh)? This forum is fabulous, but could you find a likeminded GP and found a live support group in your area and meet in real life locally to help those that think they could never do this, that it is just too hard and beyond even consideration?

Good luck sweetie…how something rings your bell. You deserve to be happy and able to enjoy all you have done.

Esnecca….cannot believe you still have a high school blazer. I think I set fire to mine the day I graduated. Maybe your wasn’t madatory attire the way mine was.

I love this idea – Middle of Week 4 and I am almost completely consumed by this transformation effort – even when I am busy doing the many things I seem to get done with this new level of energy, part of my brain is still ticking over BSD matters. I’m going to focus on non scale positives –

1. After a very cold and wet start to summer, the sun isn’t finally shining here and I felt lovely and warm drinking my coffee out on the deck
2. My house is positively sparkling with all the pre-Christmas spruce up I am getting done
3. My dog, a large mini schnauzer, is washed, smells lovely and is super soft and fluffy.

Off the take him for a long walk in the sunshine.

This evening I found myself singing “If loving you is wrong, I don’t wanna be right” to my newly-discovered traditional Bulgarian yogurt with live cultures. Loudly too! And I meant every word. 😆

SunnyB I think we all get into a rut at times, especially if we have been here for a while. I love the idea of not getting bogged down with the minutiae of life and BSD but rather we should be looking at the bigger picture and we need to look towards the positive.

Today I have just watched the sun come up over a small mountain and am looking down towards the Atlantic in the far distance …. what’s not to like!
Smile (I am) and the world smiles with you ……

Really pleased reviving this thread has resonated with so many and it’s heart warming to read the positives people are finding in their little corner of the world.

Yes, thinking about it Luvtcook, you could well be right about the root of my recent malaise. The BSD has been all consuming and now I’m managing to maintain without the constant counting and recording – I just weigh daily and have a lean day if I think it’s needed. I keep a check with ketosticks too, and if there’s nothing at all registering, I’ll make a point of pushing down the carbs. So at the moment, that is all I’m doing to stay below target and I think you’re right, I haven’t got that goal and focus of losing now, so I probably do need to look for something else to put my energy into. None of this has been helped by the post-holiday blues, having recently had a fabulous break in Singapore and The Maldives, however, we have another vacation to plan for the spring – driving from UK to Turkey again – which we will be concentrating on post Christmas.

To contribute to the positive thread for today:
1. Meeting my parents for lunch today, as we won’t get to see them for Christmas this year. Will be lovely to catch up with them in person.
2. Am wearing a dress I haven’t worn in sometime and it looks fab!

Looking forward to reading more positives from you all.

My positives for today
1) Had a good Christmas night out last night – focused on the company not the food.
2) This morning the sun is shining, there is a blue sky and the air is crisp and cold – for me, a perfect winter’s day. I’ve just opened all the windows to let it into the house.
3) This afternoon I’m going out with my husband for a long walk up the coast. I’ve really started to enjoy walking. My husband has been a walker all his life and now I get real pleasure from going on walks with him.

I love this, here goes:

I can fit into my daughters size 8 skinny jeans – only tight around the ankles (for her too though!)

I have done so much this morning I can sit for a while and then only have 2 easy chores left to do

After 10 years of living here we finally found a pair of bedroom lampshades we both liked and have replaced the old ones

I had the yummiest lunch – fried spinach, courgette, mushroom: and cheese. With some home made mackerel pate on the side,

That’s supremely wonderful, Jackie! Your daughter had best keep a close eye on her closet,
I sense more things may start disappearing…What fun to have a youthful wardrobe to
experiment with 🙂 🙂 🙂

Ha Alliecat she’s 13 and 5’8, the lucky bugger, and most of her stuff is jeans, trainers and hoodies. And so largely safe from me (except the jeans!)

I hope your daughter enjoys her height, Jackie. I wasn’t all that happy with mine until I
was 13-14 years old. (5’7″). I was always put in the back row for school pictures! There
are a lot of advantages to being above average height and being shaped like a coat
hanger, though. Basically, no clothing is off limits! 🙂 🙂 :). Here’s hoping she outgrows
the hoodie and trainer stage soon!

Hey, I have a huge collection of hoodies and trainers and love them all (although most of the hoodies are jacket or gilet style rather than the traditional badged hooded sweatshirt) my favourite Weird Fish macaroni hooded jacket was my birthday present from my OH this year and is something I had always promised I would get ‘one day’ when I lost the weight.

Positives today, it snowed! It is the weekend, and tomorrow is the local artisan market to poke around and carols in the park with or without the mulled wine and hot mince pies.

Had a very unexpected surprise today. Found my latest watch bought several years ago (link bracelete style) was too big on my wrist. Just for giggles decided to try on an old favorite that I had to quit wearing some 8-10 yrs ago because it was too tight.

If fit! It is my favorite watch and so very please to be able to wear it again. So funny to think you are losing weight in your wrist. And I would have thought I would have to go lower to wear it, but there you are. So glad to see you again Old Friend.

Going to start trying on old shoes one of these days and see if ones that got a little too snug over the span of my weight gain are now also fitting better. Its like Christmas for free.

Luvtcook I had a similar experience with a watch. Just over two years ago my OH bought me a lovely watch but it was too small and he had to take it back and have two extra links fitted. Now …. it’s positively loose! I must admit I never thought about wrists losing weight either.

So my three positives from yesterday …..
1. I ‘stopped’ after eating 30g of cheese.
2. I finally disposed of a pair of trousers that were in danger of ending up around my ankles.
3. I walked around a supermarket without having to sit down once. Unheard of for many years before my hip surgery three months ago.

Have a good day!

Great thread!

1- Going to get my hair cut, and will ask for a more geometric short bob style now my face is slimmer and I don’t want to ‘hide’
2- Will write all my Xmas cards this weekend and wrap presents with Nat King Cole playing
3- Make more seed crackers
4- Enjoy the icy sparkling world outside – even the wheelie bin looks attractive!

😁

Amazing isn’t it, the things which we had had to sideline, that suddenly fit us again? For me it was rings – wedding and engagement in particular. OH would periodically make comment about me never wearing them and then when I had the courage to tell him it was a case of ‘couldn’t’ rather than ‘choosing not to’, he’d occasionally suggest getting them made larger. I always resisted though, convinced one day I’d be able to wear them in their original size. Still doesn’t seem real that that actually happened though!

Positive thoughts for the day:

1) Christmas gift shopping has finally been completed and now I just need to get all the wrapping done.
2) Wriggle room is slowly increasing without any real effort.
3) Tonight is cocktail night and this week it’s going to be Passion Fruit Martinis.

All the NSV today are really putting some pep in my step, so thank you, everyone, for
posting! I remember reading some advice here quite some time ago, which was to
avoid buying new shoes if you had significant weight to lose. I only appreciated how
true that was when I ordered several pairs of boots and shoes 10 days ago. Everything
has to go back because I’m walking out of them..One complete shoe size! How crazy
is that?
Sunny, I’ve felt “undressed” without my rings for over a decade. I’d conveniently forgotten
that I had had them resized to a US 5 1/2 at the age of 50, after a short lived albeit successful
weight loss. I had to lose 120lbs. to get them back on comfortably, which occurred late
last March. Quite the emotional event, being able to wear them at long last.
Verano, I’m the most excited for you, however. Being able to get through a grocery shop
without having to sit down is a remarkable achievement! I’m so happy for you!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone 🙂

Allie

1 – Xmas tree up and looks fab

2 – panic at lunch in pub then inspired request for Brie and bacon sandwich without the bread but extra salad resulted in delightful lunch

3 – great morning walk in crisp frosty air with added sunshine

Thanks Allie. Believe me it was a huge achievement and hopefully just the first of many.

I’m sure before people lose weight they don’t realise how uncomfortable their ‘fat’ life is. Similarly, just two weeks before my surgery, I actually thought I was ok and didn’t really need the op. It’s only when you ‘arrive’ in your new body or state of health that you actually realise how bad things were before. We are all so very good at fooling ourselves into thinking things are ‘fine’ when in reality they are a mess. Fortunately we have all come through and are now enjoying our ‘new’ lives/selves.

BTW Allie forgot to say that my walking wasn’t unaided! It never will be but nonetheless a great improvement.

So for yesterday….
1. I started a new jigsaw puzzle … one way to control snacking!
2. I am part way through reading The Clever Guts Diet and its very interesting.
3. Indian meal out but stayed BSD friendly.

Good morning! Woke up to 7 inches of snow and it’s still falling here in the
Midlands. So glad I’m on a.day’s leave tmrw! Went to a family annual gathering last night. Pizza and chips/fries, mince pies, cookies, chocolates and a garage full of booze to help ourselves to. None of it appealed to me glad to say! I took a bottle of soda water and lime cordial. I did have 4 red wine spritzers but it was 2/3 soda to an inch of wine in a long glass. That is remarkable for me, particularly because we’ve all been friends for 40 odd years and great food and booze buddies with zero restraint when we get together! I left at 10pm despite encouragement to sleep over! I know my limits now!

A NSV last night – I was able to sit on the floor in my friends lounge by the log fire and scoot around on my bum talking to different people, then was able to rise fairly easily! I was always a floor sitter, cross legged, but haven’t been able to do it for at least 25 years as too big to either gracefully sit down or rise from the floor without an embarrassing spectacle!

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

Kazzeexx

Hey Kazz, sounds like you had a great evening and did amazingly well in the face of temptation whilst doing so. You must be chuffed with that new NSV – justifiably so.

My Aga is unhappy at the moment and not behaving well, so isn’t holding enough heat for me to cook on. This means I’m having to cook using my duel microwave/grill – not ideal. This evening think we are going to have an Indian take-away though – BSD friendly as far as possible of course.

For the positives today:
1. Weight stable and so still 3lb under target.
2. Another batch of present wrapping done.
3. Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are endless.~ Quote from Mother Teresa

My positive for today is also about a ring that I haven’t been able to wear for years.

My husband bought me a really lovely ring as an early birthday present when we were down in Cornwall one summer – must be easily 10 years ago, probably more. It just fit then. Ironically, I remember the conversation about it with the shop owner. I told him not to worry about the snug fit as I’d just lost 2 stone with WW’s, was going to lose more and had no intention of putting the weight back on, ever. You can guess the rest……

I tried it on a few weeks ago. It fit but was just a bit tight. Tried it on this morning and it fits perfectly. I’m definitely going to wear it on Christmas Day as a surprise for my husband.

That’s fantastic, Marie! We’re having fun, aren’t we? 🙂

Allie
Yes, I’ve just been enjoying myself browsing through the jewellery on the link to the etsy.com site – nice!
Marie x

Excellent, Marie 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m delighted that the link actually worked! My track record
has been less than stellar of late. A real techno-dunce, I’m afraid. Have fun!

How wonderful about your ring Marie! Double wonderful because it will remind you of your husband’s affection…..and a wonderful badge to mark your weight loss.

I can’t say I am angry….maybe annoyed?….that medicine got it so wrong about weight loss and we kept digging ourselves in deeper and deeper with repeated “last diet forever” endevours, only to gain it all back and then some in spite of best efforts.

I have spend the last 27 year both hungry all the time and embarassed about my weight gain. If you have never watched any of Dr. Jason Fung’s videos, watch this one title THE CALORIE DECEPTION

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F5o0a4p_3U.

He oversees a diabetes weight loss program the puts patients on an alternate day fasting schedule similar to the one advocated by Dr. Krista Vereday (highlighted in M Mosely’s Horizon program on 5:2).

The point he makes is the medicine knew the advise to cut calories and increase activiey had a 98% failure rate, yet they continued to advocate it. And when patients actually doing the diet continued to see their base metabolic rate drop and regain the weight on a level even below what should have been maintenance for them, they blamed the patient for somehow failing the do the program “correctly”.

Its nice that he and the Moselys of the world appreciate the frustration we all have been dealing with.

After that ramble….must get back to a positive thought. The good news is …they did figure it out while we all have a change to regain some lost years of our lives, and even extend our lives significantly with this WOE. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

Marie….enjoy your ring!!!! You have 10 years to catch up on.

You are so right about the medical profession failing to get on board with low cal/low carb/full fat way of eating. It’s so frustrating that thousands upon thousands of people are still being given flawed dietary advice, leaving them doomed to fail.

I guess all we can do, is try in our own small way to spread the word. Took me awhile to feel comfortable talking to others face to face about the BSD, but now I promote it when ever I get the opportunity.

So, my positive for today is to encourage an old friend to give the BSD a try. Hopefully she will.

And a thought for today ‘It’s never too late to be what you might have been.’ Quote from George Eliot’s Middlemarch. Think that’s what we’re all striving for.

Adding to that SunnyB … it’s never too late to be what you want to be!

I’m finding it a bit of a struggle to find three positives but…
1. My weight has stayed stable for the three weeks I’ve been away, never managed that before.
2. I have almost finished my present buying.
3. I have finished The Clever Guts book and would definitely recommend it as a good read but not necessarily as a diet unless you have an issue.

Good morning friends.

Well my plans disappeared for yesterday on my day’s leave all because of the snow! Sunday evening I ended up with a full house of 6 friends who got stranded here due to the snow and last minute train cancellations. Fortunately they’d eaten well before arriving! As a single person and doing BSD, I just don’t have loads of food hanging around any more. Plenty in the freezer. And no bread of course, which would have been a godsend for them! Fortunately, I’d made a load of seed crackers and had got some cheeses in and pickles for Xmas. Went down a storm, the crackers, and they left yesterday afternoon with the recipe. I promoted the bsd WOL! We ended up having one of the most enjoyable evenings in a long time. Isn’t that often the way? unplanned and impromptu!

SunnyB – I’d be interested to know what you selected as your bsd friendly Indian meal? Always looking for ideas.

Marie, that’s so lovely about your ring! I have a couple more NSVs…..

1- bath sheet size towel now meets when wrapped around and doesn’t gape at the front!
2- have had to move my car seat forward a notch so I can reach the pedals! Hurrah!

Allie – I’ll respond to your email shortly.
LTC – thanks for the link. I agree with all you and SunnyB say and of course JF. I have to be careful not to become a bore though when talking about it to anyone that asks!

Kazzeexx

Well done, Verano! KOKO ……

Kazz when I eat Indian out I tend to have chicken tandoori or tikka either just with salad or with saag bhaji. Unlike onion bhaji the spinach is cooked like a thick sauce. If I’m feeling really decadent I have chana marsala which is spicy chickpeas but it is very carby. The good thing is that we no longer have to fear the oil although we should be careful of the calories so Indian food out is a treat for me now!

Thanks Verano. Saag bhaji wasn’t something I was aware of so I’ll add that to my list. Last month I went out for an Indian meal and had skewers with tandoori fish and prawns which I thought/hoped was a good choice. I also had a starter of sheikh kebabs but not entirely sure what that is made up of, minced lamb and spices I guess. Would that be considered processed I wonder?

Following blood test results last week (Bb1ac 32, Fasting glucose 4.1, Cholsesterol 3.3 and triglycerides 1.6) just seen GP, and I’m coming off the cholesterol meds, and statins, and providing my blood pressure stays stable (it’s come down quite a lot) over the next three months, I’ll be off the blood pressure meds too! She’s also happy to repeat full tests in 3 months, and if levels as they are now, will write “Diabetes resolved” in my notes! So no need to declare it on insurance forms – great for the foreign trips I’m hoping to take in a year or so when I’ve retired!

Also spoke with her about the hostile reception I got from the practice diabetes nurse, and suggested that she really should be informed about the BSD, and that they should be suggesting it to all their Type 2’s. At least giving them the option – if they then don’t want to/can’t follow it, fine…but at least they will have made a properly informed choice. GP promised to speak to both the diabetes nurses, AND her fellow GP who is the diabetes coordinator for the practice. Like others on here, I try to promote the BSD whenever I can!

On a more personal note, my daughter, who’s studying in the US, will be home a week today for Christmas – and I haven’t told her about my weight loss, so I’m looking forward to her reaction (I’ve lost 3 stone and 2 dress sizes!).

Eliza52, that is FANTASTIC news! I am very very pleased for you about your results! Very impressed how you are spreading the word! Your daughter will be overjoyed and very proud of you! What a wonderful Xmas present!

Kazzee