Way to go CC!!! Many congratulations. Keep coming on here to inspire us all to greater things!! We can all do it!!
TC
XXXXXXXXXXX

WooHooooo Cathy 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Congratulations, I KNEW you could do it. Jumping up and down in excitement and waving my pink pompoms at you!! How fantastic to have my January buddy join me in maintenance 😄😄😄

See you on the maintenance thread – will be there waiting to give you a HUGE welcome 😄

Wow! Congratulations Cathy! I know how very hard you have worked for this, so happy for you :)👏👏👏💃💃💃🤸‍♂️🤸‍♂️🤸‍♂️🏆🏆🏆🥇🥇🥇

The dancing girls and backflip/handstand emoticons are because that is what I will be doing when I reach goal 😂

Hi all, well done CC you must be over the moon.

Managed to claw back 100 grams of my mini gain but that means a zero loss so far this week. Oh well, we just keep on keeping on…

Huge congratulations Cathy – best Christmas present ever!! 🙂

Thank you everyone for your kind words and for waving your Pom Pom’s, the dancing girls and the back flips. However, I know that this isn’t the end of BSD for me but the start of my new healthy low carb forever lifestyle. I’ve just bought a low carb vegetarian cookbook (Rose Elliott) for some inspiration going forwards.

Will of course be continuing with this challenge and hope to lose another pound before the end if possible.

The plateaux, the slow losing and the ups and downs are so worth it when you eventually see the number you want to on the scales and fit into the clothes you are aiming to wear. Please let my story inspire you if you’re struggling. Slow and steady but never giving up!

Welcome to the maintenance merry band CC, 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀 now you can just increase your calories gradually and you will give yourself some wiggle room while preparing your metabolism again for eating at or around your normal TDEE.

Clarinet Cathy – well done! I’ve been reading your posts for a while now and am so pleased for you!

Meanwhile – bugger – at the butchers I saw a black pudding Hallumi thing and had it for lunch. Felt so tired – well, now I know there’s oatmeal in it! I just thought blood and fat! Just glugged rest of single cream now, feel like a right pig 😱

Ho hum, done now, better tomorrow I hope

Oh well done CLARINET CATHY XXXX
Adding a marching band and lots of waving flags and some tumbling clowns to the PomPoms etc etc!
you must be feeling on top of the world,yr hard work has paid off 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
MIXNMATCH Disappointed no pics as yet 🙁
is our other pin up girl,CAPTAINLYNNE,still posting on here ? X

Congratulations CC! Through all the frustration and ups and downs, you stuck with the program and achieved your goal. What a marvelous achievement. 🙂

Woohoo, ClarinetCathy👏🎉👏🎉 Wonderful news, huge congratulations to you for your dedication to task which has brought the excellent result.

Keep popping in here though, won’t you? We do get a boost from hearing the stories of the maintainers.

Well done Cathy x Marilyn

Brilliant Cathy!

Morning all,

ClarinetCathy – 👏👏👏👏👏 Your post was such a lovely thing to read on a cold dark morning. Totally thrilled for you and very encouraged to keep on going.

Today +0.4lb ???

But body fat is definitely creeping downwards. My scales tell me I am just creeping under 30% which is marvellous. I have done lots of walking this week and so perhaps my little weight gains will result in awesome glutes? here’s hoping. I don’t have a weight goal as such (as a TOFI it is much more about body fat for me) so my ‘perfect’ number is 23%. Scales say I am now about 29.5 which is down from 38% in August. The last major loss for me was in 1999, with weight watchers when I got down to 124lb but body fat was still around 30%!

I am in total agreement with CC that the support on here will help you to get where you want to go. I had to go to a dinner last night and only ate compliant food. Last week I was really discouraged, and thought that BSD was going on the list of failed diets. The support here totally shifted my thinking.

Have a good day/afternoon/evening, wherever you are.

Up 1.2 pounds today, but still under my target, and yesterday ended up very carby, due to a ‘light lunch’ provided by my meeting hosts which had huge amounts of carbs in every item, I managed to snaffle one of the two! bottles of plain mineral water provided rather than one of the sweetener or fruit juice filled ones, but still ate quite a lot of the carbs as I was hungry. Tea ended up being just roast chicken though, so I did my best to moderate the damage. Today is a fast day, although I will probably IF to tea time and have some sea bass and vegetables as my one meal today, before going out tonight. If I drink later I don’t want it to be on an empty stomach.

HI EVERYONE.Im back from 10days in Queensland. My 65th birthday. Our 40th wedding anniversary and our youngest son’s wedding .Needless to say there was lot of eating and wine
we also entertained family from Singapore .weight wise I had a goal of 80 kg but 2days before I left I was 80.4kg which is my lowest.I was pleased that the wedding outfit was comfortable without the very constricting undergarments. and several people complemented me on my slimness.Its also given me an urge to be more aware of my appearance. I must admit that I had been lazy about hair , make up , nails, waxing etc etc.but now Im keen to maintain. Generally feeling fit and keen to push hard to 75kg .My weight on return was 82.4kg.So I have used this week to settle down to routine.I will start seriosly on tuesday weigh in.well done to all still on the journey
Massive well done to CC on reaching goal.Im inspired cheers

CC – I’ve only just seen your post – CONGRATULATIONS!! You must be walking on air! That is so inspiring! 🙂

Kazzee

Hi all, just another day and my weight is the same as it was on Tuesday. That usually happens to me, first a big loss and then nothing for a few days. It is now that I have to really stick with it, especially with the weekend on us.

I did 30 mins of Hip Hop Abs with the lovely Shaun T and tomorrow morning I will be walking again. Have a good day.

Fantastic news Cathy congratulations ! I’m so pleased for you. I’m going to join this November challenge now, even though I’m very late to the party. Lovely thread.

Seem to have settled into a routine now. Breakfast at 12-1, lunch at 4, and dinner around 7-8. So doing 16:8. Had a sneaky weigh in this morning and the scales are being kind but no reveal until Tuesday (just in case it all goes to pot).

And I think I may have found the reason behind my catastrophic tumble off the wagon – fasting. If I am really honest with myself, I’ve not been properly on plan since about April, hence the ballooning weight. It was around about the time that I was a) trying to get to sub 30 minute 5k runs and b) started fasting seriously. I don’t think it’s for me. I would do 24 hours of fasting then be starving all the next day, worry about having enough energy to run, panic and eat the wrong things, enjoy those things and eat more of them, forget all my good intentions and…well, you get the idea.

I’ve read about all the positive effects of fasting and I’d love to be a success with that but I’m sticking to three meals a day, and 16:8 where I can and see what happens. I really admire those of you that can fast for 48 hours but I don’t think I’m wired that way. I may start again, slowly, but for now – eating is the way forward.

Have a great weekend all, I have the usual plethora of temptation around with guests to stay and crap in the house – I will remain strong – I want to post a great result this week!!!

Onwards and downwards my challenge buddies
TC x

Hey there TC – sorry you have been through it a bit, but pleased you seem to have now got yourself into a good pattern of eating which suits your body. Like you, I don’t think fasting would suit me either (although I haven’t tried it in years). For me a two meal pattern seems to work best, with my first meal being between 12 & 2pm and then evening meal between 6 & 8pm. We all need to find a way to make this WOE work for us, to fit in with our lifestyle and suit our bodies – we’re all unique and what works great for one, doesn’t necessarily suit another.

If I’m honest, since getting back from holiday last week and struggling with pretty bad jet lag, I have been coasting on the BSD front and so haven’t made any impact on gaining back my wriggle room again. However, I’m intending to allow myself the rest of this week just sticking to the principles and then really take control again from Tuesday – properly nailing down the cals and carbs, so that I hopefully start to see some real results. Just need to get a battery for my kitchen scales and I’ll be ready to roll again!

Have a good w/e fellow challengers!

I weighed myself on Tuesday morning and I was down another 0.4kg, which meant I’ve lost 6.4kg or 14lbs (a whole stone!) since starting the last week of September. However, victory was short lived. I was away for 3 days for work and found myself in a really unhealthy food environment. I did a lot of walking and a couple of workouts in the hotel gym, and spent large amounts of time being hungry, but when I weighed myself this morning, I put on 1.4kg or 3lbs. While I’m glad the damage wasn’t greater than this, I am still struggling to see how that could happen. Even though I didn’t stick to 800 cal each day or even 1000 cal each day, and my carb intake was high, I feel that I didn’t go over my daily energy requirement, and yet the scales would suggest that I consumed an extra 3500 cal each day in order to put on that amount of weight, and there is no way that I did that. It took me more than 2 weeks to take off that 1.4kg, so even though I’m back on the program today, I’m really upset to have to be starting over to lose it once again, and I don’t think I’m going to make my goal for the month at this rate.

Arcticfox – as soon as you get back to BSD that 3lb will be gone! Weight loss is a strange science and I havent fathomed it out during my journey. One thing I have always found though is that after a holiday when I have put on a few pounds it has gone within a week. I put 7 lb on in June when I went to Turkey and was devastated but with hard work and determination it was gone in a week. When I went away in September I put on 3 lb and that too was gone quickly. Like you, I thought I’d made really good choices. I reckon that 3lb could be gone by Tuesdays weigh in if you stick to BSD. Don’t beat yourself up about possibly not achieving your goal for the month, just get back on BSD and you might be surprised.

Thanks so much for the encouragement Clarinet Cathy! I’m doing much better with my food choices today now that I’m back home and it is good to hear that the weight does come off quite quickly once you get back on track. I’ve got my meals planned out for today that will put me around 750cal and 50g of carbs, and I think I’ll do the same over the weekend and not weigh myself for a few days and see what happens. It has definitely been a big lesson about having a plan and being prepared when in less than optimal food environments and not just relying on sheer willpower to get me through.

I’m convinced carbs hang on to water and of course, this would show on the scales, so if your carbs have been higher over the three day period that might be a factor. Good hydration is vital, so if you have been in meetings and not drinking as much as usual, that might also show up as fluid retention. Now you are back to properly tracking you cals and carbs, you should find things right themselves quite rapidly, but if it takes a little longer than you might like, don’t get disheartened – it will happen.

I’ve also read about carbs holding water, so your gain is probably “water weight” Arctic fox. I’ve found that every time I eat “off plan” and have a higher carb intake this happens to me. However even when I’ve gained as much as 3kg it’s gone again within days once I eat according to plan again.

Welcome to the challenge Seasidenana – lovely to see you join us on here 🙂

Arcticfox, this article explains about carbs and water weight. I can’t remember where it was originally posted but I saved it as I found it interesting.
https://8fit.com/nutrition/glycogen-gluconeogenesis-and-water-weight/

To sue blue

Thanks for posting that link, very interesting reading, knowledge is power.

Hi ClarinetCathy
Just wanted to chime in with a big congratulations – brilliant news!
Marie x

Hi everyone, still at the same weight but happy to have already lost just over 3lbs which means I have 7lbs to go to reach my Christmas goal so will make an all out effort starting Monday but still being strict over the weekend. Today I have had a blueberry and green tea smoothie which was only around 75 calories then tuna and cream cheese dip with red pepper and celery around 170 calories and tonight I am having steak with a mushroom sauce and cauli mash – around 400 calories – so a total of 650 calories leaving space for a couple of glasses of wine.

I have just watched a video by a nutritionist which helped me understand overeating (which I rarely do now). She talked about white carbs and processed food creating pleasure sensations stimulating the production of dopamine which makes us want more of that feeling hence desire to eat more. Then she explained that creation of more insulin (the fat magnet) cut off the production of ghrelin which decreases appetite and then cuts out the leptin which tells us when we are full. I guess a lot of you already know about these processes but it just put into perspective what it is that bad carbs actually do to our bodies, giving a scientific explanation why this diet actually works and why we can survive on 800 calories. We lose the desire for those trigger foods because we have cut down the dopamine and insulin. If you are interested her book is called If I Am So Smart Why Cant I Lose Weight. Not promoting it, just a similar study as the Gary Taubes book – this one is American and I didn’t check out the price.

Hope you are all having a good weekend. I walked to the market this morning and bought a new foundation (face cream) in Yves Rocher and received free gift of hand cream, winter berry shower gel and a body scrubber (washer). I then bought some gold earrings which in the UK are called sleepers and in France they are called creoles. Now I dont work I rarely wear earrings and the holes have been healing up so I want something I can wear daily and to sleep in. Oh and I bought some spinach then realised it was organic hence the outrageous price. Hey ho. Keep on keeping on….

Morning all,

today +0.7lb 😞

Have been slowly gaining for 5 days now and not sure why. Be interesting to see if I have any loss to post tomorrow.

The gains haven’t been huge and possibly TOTM although this WOE has knocked my cycle out of whack so never know where I am any more.

I am walking a little more and so hopefully there is muscle gain. Body fat isn’t rising so I guess that metabolically, things are still going in the right direction.

x

Hi everyone, I dont know what went wrong over the weekend but I am nearly 2lbs up on yesterdays weight which is nearly the 3.25 lbs back on. The only thing I can think of is that I had 2 cans of Pepsi Max which I had bought in for my grandsons and as they are not visiting again until next Summer thought I would get rid of them by drinking them. I know how bloated they made me feel and I know artificial sweeteners can make you gain weight so I wont be doing that again – I dont even like it much.

Anyway, today is another day and I will see how it goes before weigh in tomorrow. Today I had yog and passionfruit for breakfast, chicken salad for lunch and making a BDS skinny chilli with cauli rice tonight.

62.9kg today, down 100g. Watched everyone else eat Bakewell tart and snarled at my husband when he suggested using MY cream to pour on it. Back away from the cream! 😂😂 I also nearly cried when I realised my daughter used all the flaked almonds so there were none for my yoghurt. Luckily I found some walnuts, but was still a bit put out!

Still, we had a good roast and I had loads of Brussel Sprouts and chestnuts and crackling, so overall the food was good yesterday.

JackieM – I had to smile when I read your post. No-one is allowed near my cream nor my flaked almonds for my yoghurt either. Nor my stilton, Tesco Finest smoked mackerel, avocados, Lindt 90%…………..

Clarinet Cathy, belated congratulations to you! What a wonderful achievement, I am so happy for you.

300g down for this week, it’s slowed down so much now though my slightly relaxed approach to weekends may have something to do with that. But 300g off is way better than 300g on 🙂 I would need to lose 600g next week to reach my goal both for this challenge and completely, that will make 50lb gone in total. Going on my record that’s not so likely! But, if not next week, maybe the week after. I have a pact with myself that I’m not going on holidays for Christmas until I’m 2 kg below for some wiggle room so I’d better get cracking 🙂

Morning,

Start weight: 136.5lb
7th Nov: 133.2 lb (-3.3)
Today : 132.7lb (-0.5lb)

Total = -3.8lb

So, only a half pound loss for me this week. This weight loss malarkey is quite mystifying. Last week I overindulged 4/7 days and had my biggest loss since starting the BSD. This week, back on track and only half a pound. Not discouraged though as TOTM and possibly last week’s food caught up with me this week.

Well done Mariet, you are so very close, 50lb off, that’s epic. Keep going, hoping the next week (or 2) bring you that magic number on the scales).

A quarter of a pound lost this week. Am happy because it is still going downwards and lucky because I bought roasted salted nuts and hickory smoked nuts for husband – but ate them all myself. So cannot complain about a small loss. Not sure why they are so irresistible.

All roasted nuts and nut butters will have to stay on the supermarket shelves and only bought for a special treat at Christmas.

mariet, you’re nearly there- 50 lb is awesome!

My scales have been up and down again this week. Lowest 133.0 (goal). Today 134.2 which is 0.2 down from last Tuesday. I too had a little roasted nut fest yesterday KrysiaD. I also had a Baileys with ice last night and was shocked at how sweet it was so that is now off my Christmas list! Apart from yesterday I’ve been extra good this week as I wanted to consolidate my goal weight but as I’ve said many times during my journey weight loss is not an easy science to fathom. I’ve done more walking this week and I think I’ve probably eaten a little less than usual trying to get slightly under goal towards my 3 lb buffer but hey ho the scales are up slightly. It is my weight loss pattern and it takes me a few weeks consolidate and move down again.

Looking forward to reading the posts today- I cannot concentrate at work on a Tuesday when the posts start coming in. Half way into this challenge so we can all achieve our November goal if we keep focused. Let’s try and do our best in November before the start of the Christmas festivities begin to challenge us in December!

Hello. 3lbs off for me this week taking me to 16.12 and into the 16s for the first time in a decade. I did my first 48 hr fast last week which helped I think. Good luck to all with your weigh ins.

Kazzii

Back to slightly over target, but due to a frantic week at work I had no badminton at all last week and was too tired to ramp up my walking like I usually do at weekends. Yesterday’s attempt at a fast day fizzled as well, although mostly with BSD friendly food. Hopefully this week will be back to my normal routine, before my big party next Saturday, I almost have everything ready now. I checked online for the rest of the week for the Daily Mail piece, but they didn’t use my case study. Since they were using the short term diet theme to get people into party dress shape that is very understandable, as apart from the 26 pounds in 8 weeks for my 800 a day part there was nothing short term about my weight loss. So today’s weigh in is 10 stone 12.6. Will carry on trying to be good and not drinking until Saturday, after which I will probably go back to 5:2 with Monday being a full fast.

A whole lb off for me this week – 9st 0 & 3/8, very excited as so close to being in the 8’s!
My end goal was always 8st 12 but now that I’m nearly there I’m wondering whether to move the goalpost slightly further.
When I set the target I thought it was so unlikely that I would ever be this weight again (my starting weight in May was 11st 4).
Being this weight feels brilliant and I love what this WOE has done for me.

Keep the faith Mokovex, it works! I ignore mini gains if I see them during the week because I know the overall weight trend is downwards.

Congratulations Clarinet Cathy! A fantastic achievement & you must feel great! X

ClarinetCathy congratulations on reaching goal. It’s such an inspiration to know it can happen. Good luck with maintenance.

MaisieM, Kazz, Krysia and Molovex..well done on your losses. We’re getting there!

Verano, I empathise with you. I’m very up and down too, I think it’s probably the amount of cheese I scoff. I was stuck losing the same kilo over and over, dieter’s nightmare. However I have managed to lose 1kg since starting this challenge. Slow but a kilo off is a kilo off.

Mixnmatch…I’m gutted we won’t get to see your photo. Did you get to keep the clothes?

Good luck for next week.

I lost 1/2 kg yesterday. How?!?! No idea. Was not calorie counting.

Ate about 11.30am – left over pork roast, cream in coffee, 1/2 teaspoon apple sauce, then about 3.30 Brie and celery, then 4 squares 90% chocolate (single origin, delicious!) then cauliflower and green beans with butter and grated cheddar cheese and lots of salt and pepper.

Walked the dog before eating and went to Pilates as well.

I have no wisdom to offer on how I lost weight, though obviously delighted. New weight 62.2kg.

Morning challenge buddies. Pleased to report another 1.75lbs off this week, making 3.5lbs in total for this challenge. STILL not as fast as I would like it (there’s just no pleasing some people) but am trying to be content that I seem to have got my eating habits under control again.
Had a challenging weekend with lots of non-BSD friendly food but managed to get away with just eating a little too much of the BSD friendly stuff and a couple of (shot) glasses of port. Scales weren’t as low as they were on Friday but still showing the loss.

Next challenge: Four days in London at the weekend. Now, I’m a London girl, born and bred so going to my hometown as a tourist is never easy – my plan is to walk, a lot and only eat two meals per day, and try to make them as BSD friendly as possible, and drinks only one night – but we’re off to the theatre that night so it won’t be a long ‘sesh’!.
Lovely to see so many people wearing their positive pants at the moment, good luck with those who have not weighed in yet, we’re all rooting for you!
TC

Up, down, up, down, up …400g up this morning over last week’s late weigh-in i.e. 63.4kg. My non BSD tastes were few and bite sized, so blitzing hard to fathom but plugging on.

As usual, I’m full of admiration for those who are showing real results, including the maintainers👏👏👏

Onwards, my lovelies, day at a time …..

Like you CC, I love to read all the Tuesday posts, to see how everyone is getting along. Great to see so many positive results being posted this week. Remember even a small loss is still a loss and anything in the right direction is a plus, so well done regardless of how much you have lost.

On this time last week, I can report a 0.8lb loss – a bonus as over the week it was heading up rather than down. Think the reason for this was that I had been coasting, rather than consuming mindfully – that and some cocktails! Was also really suffering from jetlag – took me the best past of a whole week to recover properly this time. Anyway, all excuses aside, I’m thankful that at no point did I go over my target weight and that I am now once again building in some wriggle room, albeit quite slowly.

Plan for this week, is to eat mindfully. I continue to weigh daily, so if I see things sneaking up again, I will throw in a couple of really stringent. As I’m in maintenance, I’m trying not to weigh and measure everything consumed. I want to learn to maintain without that restriction, but if I find things creeping up, I will have a couple of days on strict 800/20 and weigh and measure to make sure I have a few limited days.

Anyway, my commiserations to those who have had to see the scales heading in the wrong direction this week, but don’t let that dishearten and derail you. Stick with it and things will come right.

We still have plenty of time left on this challenge, people, so let’s dig deep and make the time left count. Best of luck everyone.

Well done to all who have posted losses this week, no matter how small. A loss is a loss after all.

I am away atm staying with friends, with no access to scales, but after a rather indulgent meal last evening, accompanied by rather a lot of wine, I am feeling fat this morning. Not overly concerned though as my weight had dropped too low (11lbs below target, at 7st 10lbs – 49.1kg) – want to maintain, not lose. I came down to breakfast this morning intending having nothing but coffee, only to find my lovely hostess ( great friend of nearly 50 years standing) had bought in yoghurt and berries especially for me 😀 Would have been churlish to refuse, so I tucked in (mindfully) whilst everyone else ate cream, full English, followed by home made croissants and Danish!! Wasn’t even tempted😜

Talking of eating mindfully, I read an article in this morning’s paper about Japanese research……..

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/11/13/gobbling-food-increases-risk-obesity-heart-attack-stroke-study/amp/

Nothing we hadn’t sussed out ourselves, but nice to have it confirmed.

Have a good day everyone.

Oops, just noticed that predictive text said “cream” when I actually typed “cereal” to start everyone else’s breakfast!!

Hi, Theodora, what a considerate friend you have! We only have
one couple that goes to that much trouble for us, although they
both think we are somewhat mad. Maybe not so much anymore
however…..Who can argue with results?! You’re getting into
dangerous territory with me (13lbs. under target). We will just
have to try harder. I’m just about to add that cream to my coffee!
Enjoy your time away,

Allie