Ok so my road trip has hit a few bumps😫. It has been a bit of a pain this Easter weekend, it is now a two week long period! My doctors say I am to young to going through menopause but I don’t believe them and feel this is the beginning of the end! My mother had finished and was through th menopause by the time she hit 50! This I think is effecting me somewhat on this diet? Any of you other ladies find this? So I decided to take the magic little pill I have for holidays to give me a break, oh my mood swings and feeling down galore! I never noticed this before as I am always on holiday when I take them. So again I think it has effected my WOE this weekend (gosh I sound like I am making excuses!). I have been naughty and my body has craved rubbish, so I have had (over the whole weekend) 400mls of white wine! I had my eureka moment just Monday on knowing how bad alcohol is and what it does to this WOE but still, had it! I ate around six rich tea over two days too, with butter on top!! What an idiot! I have however sat and watched my O/H eat a entire Cadbury’s Easter egg(large) and not asked for any, I also avoided the crisps he was eating on Friday, so I just don’t get why I ate six biscuits I don’t even like! The reason I bought them was for my son and because I don’t like them🤬! So to get to the point I am going back into this today and I am going to drink loads of water, eat three meals within the plan and then I am hoping to fast for at least 36 hours! I have ordered Dr Fung’s book on fasting and I am gonna get my head back in the game. I feel a little bloated, and I have gained a 1lb! It is not a lot and it could be worse but to me a gain is bad! I need my house empty of my O/H🤣 so I can get myself back on track! I also got my OH to do my measurements yesterday and I have lost an inch or two in places but the majority has stayed the same. Ah well onwards and upwards as we go into a new week, by the 4th of May I will have discarded and lost and inch or two all over! Happy road tripping ladies and thank you Birdy 💞🦜

Birdy- don’t be too hard on yourself. I know that you are fairly new to the BSD way of eating. My advice would be to take smaller steps. When I started, I followed the advice in the book and cut out all refined carbs. I did 8 weeks and assessed how the plan was working for me and then I just kept on following the simple diet plan until I reached my goal. It took from January 2017 to November 2017. It was slow and steady but I think it’s more achievable long term if you don’t rush things. This way of eating has to be forever if we want to stay healthy. We will always have to deal with difficult social situations and make considered choices about our plan of action. Once in maintenance there can be a little give and take. I am now having to work hard to lose the weight I gained whilst away at the beginning of April! I didn’t even think about fasting until I was in maintenance. I wonder if you are putting too much pressure on yourself by doing everything all at once. Once piece of advice I would offer is that this way of eating does work but it isn’t as easy for some of us and we have to be patient. I love your enthusiasm for the BSD Birdy and I appreciate that you’re keen to reach your goal but don’t be too hard on yourself and try not to rush the process. You’re doing great- just keep on keeping on and you will see how the weight does come off.

Cathy you are probably right about me trying to do too much too quickly but I have always been a bit of a bull in a china shop!(I wonder if any of you have noticed 🤣🤣). I have got my meal plans on the go and I am going to stay away from the scales until next Sunday. I know a lot don’t use them but it is a habit and I like to weigh myself. This week I need to see if I am a three meal a day girl or just two and keep my water intake up. I think in my first week on this I had three and discarded the weight although I know it was mostly fluid. I have discarded a lot since I have started and that has given me the push to continue. I think we all pressure ourselves when trying to get fit an healthy. I am going to take what I have learnt and as you say build on it slowly. Who knew my emotions would be so up and down with I am doing this! Am I doing this right? All of the time🤣. Thanks Cathy 💞🦜

Hello, I’m hopping on board.
Birdy, I’m sorry that you’re having such a rollercoaster ride with your hormones.i’ve read That a drastic change in your diet and starting fasting can cause disruption to your oestrogen production. I article I read wasn’t very scientific but maybe if you google it you’ll come up with something.
Hope everything settles down soon

Birdy! Eating rich tea biscuits a classic example of “I’m eating something I dislike, because I’m not allowed to eat the (insert whatever you fancy)”.

In this situation knowing that I am not going to eat toast, I gave myself permission in advance to eat one square of the naughty chocolate that has hazelnuts and is 50% cocoa.

Umm do you think I’m weird substituting Chocolate instead of toast? 😙🤣 It works for me because the chocolate is so good, delicious and filling that one square is all I can eat. The toast might be the road to ruin!

What would work for you?

Those hormonal changes are a nightmare. Diet doctor has videos and promises that keto can help the hormonal ups and downs.

Slow and steady isn’t in your vocabulary! I get now why you are so motivated to try fasting. You want to get healthy and lose weight.

The 800 may be too harsh on your system if you are on menses constantly (or would be if not for the magic pill).

You can enjoy the absence of grain and starches and wine, and eat to satiety. That fat fast really will appeal to you I think. You may even find yourself naturally in fasting mode as I did. Or just eating what you want, and not caring what hubby is eating.

Hi Patricia and yes I am a bit of a sprinter but I am trying to hone my marathon skills. I do have natural breaks in my menses but this one has been particularly long and boring so the magic pill came out. This is not the answer I know that now as it made my hormones scatter all over the place and created Debbie downer! I am going to make an appointment to get my bloods tested to find out once and for all if I am in the early stages of menopause. I still can’t get my head around the fat fast, sorry I have read it but it doesn’t seem to compute somehow? I managed a 33 hr fast with no problem but that was just once. I am going to continue with the TRE 16-8 seems to work well and I am going to stick to 20g of carbs and see what this week brings. I always knew with the OH around I would be challenged so that is hurdle I will work on getting over.🤣. I have had no ill effects from dropping sugar/carbs and that is very lucky I think, so I am still in awe of this process and looking forward to an ongoing healthy lifestyle. I also noticed this morning that after having wine this weekend my broken veins are a lot more noticeable so that is reason in its self to stay away from the devil 👿 drink🤣. Thank you as always for your continuing support and listening to my up and down waffling’s. I think pistachio nuts would be my go to as I by them non roasted and then roast them in my oven to have a handful with Maldon sea salt. I need to buy some more as I have ran out. 💞🦜

Birdy, you don’t waffle, you warble! Pistachios sound like a good substitute, with the lime fizz.

The fat fast is better called the plan where you eat til you can’t bear to see another avocado, steak whatever. It’s like you are in an eating contest and you know there are 18 steaks left on your plate; you push it away after eating 2.

That is satiety. Understanding this in a visceral way can be very useful. It was the point at which I pushed away the chips (a former treat for Friday night) and found I didn’t want to eat for the next 40 hours. I had great chats, and I think my healing is boosted by the body not having to digest solid food for 2 days.

You choose a limited set of food for the fast because this is the way to get you to recognise satiety. It’s something that has been dulled by sugar for which there is no satiety hormone. Megan suggested bacon and eggs, salmon and olives.

Even if you wanted to stay on a high fat regimen, it would not be recommended for long as it’s too restrictive, missing the wide variety of vegetables and herbs you have in your food now.

Multivitamins are not a substitute for good food, so if you are deficient you need to do a blood test for whatever is relevant. Do you have a specialist gyne gp or nurse in the practice? It’s worth waiting longer for an opinion you can respect. The test for menopause is just one aspect.

Birdy – I’ve been a little bit naughty too, this weekend. I had an epic fail at our BBQ and ate a brownie my daughter made and had a small glass of beer. Your post has got me thinking and I’ve had an idea as I need to get us both back on the straight and narrow too.
Why don’t we help each other?
How about we set up a new topic called ‘the BSD Guardian Angels’ and starting tomorrow we can both post what we have eaten. We can be honest and if we mess up we can give one another a forfeit? We can do it for the next two weeks and post our results at the end.
What do you think???
Anyone else can join us- any taker?

On a mission this sounds good and fun too! The thing is how will know we have done the forfeit🤣. I will be honest as I would only be kidding myself if I wasn’t. Ok so starting tomorrow we will write on here exactly what we eat during the day/night. Let’s go girl! We can do this! 💞🦜😝

I will be honest too!
I have just planned by meals. Yoghurt and raspberries for breakfast
Roasted Veg (tonight’s leftovers) and 4oz of chicken breast for lunch
Salmon fillet (poached) and salad for tea.
Baby bell for emergency break time snack (I don’t always have this but take it as it takes away the temptation of the office ‘treats’ tin.

I am lucky that there is no such treat tin, but really as I work for a supermarket my whole place of work is the treat tin🤣🤣. One good thing though I have to pay for the naughtiness so that also helps me with my will power😉😄😉😄

Lol – I don’t think I’d cope. I’ve set the forum up. Ready, steady…. go!

Patricia so I need to eat lots of steak and avo for what a day or days. Sorry still confused. I get the satiety bit but not the rest. Sorry Hun 💞🦜

Hello all friends!
Thank you JGwen for setting this up!❤️
So happy to be back on this kind and extremely supportive forum.
I have been away sins Jun 2018.
It was totally amazing loosing 18 kg last year with your help! Up 4 this winter, but lost 2 in mars.
First goal now is to get back to where I left. Then another 20 kg has to go. I know it’s perfectly possible as long as I stay here in good company with you. It will take the time as needed. As always, any weight loss every week, no matter how small, is a welcome victory. I start at 85,7 kg.
Really looking forward to be a part of this amazing group again.
Good luck to all of us!
Love
❤️
Buddhas Wife

Hi Birdy, the eating aspect of the fat fast seems to last as long as necessary. But perhaps others may have more to add.

Are you worried about gaining weight because eating to satiety will exceed the 800?

I feel that the hormonal shifts are significant. Just as a lactating mother needs to modify the 800 to make sure she isn’t doing herself damage, I would like you to get some experienced help to guide you. Does your GP support you in taking on this woe?

You have a plan to keep on at 800, 20g carbs. As always, keep a few nuts close by if you feel in need. Hope today goes well ❤️

Patricia you are an angel thank you. No I am not worried about the fat fast being more than 800 I want to try it but for the life of me I just don’t get it🤣🤣🤣. I am being either really stupid or ignorant 🤣🤣. I truly don’t get it Doh! My imbalances seem to show themselves more when I have been on the pill or taken the magic pill. I have had external and internal exams and everything is healthy according to them. I think I am just a little unlucky in that department😄🥴 I promise I have had no ill effects from being on this WOE my lovely and I will go to see a GP if I do. Like people have said to me over the last couple of days I want it all to happen now and that is just not the way of WOE😝. I am on marathon and that is my mantra at the moment. But I love that you are looking out for me Patricia1066 it really warms me cockles❤️ Thank you.💞🦜

Hi everyone
Hope you are all off to a great start! Love all the songs – Lovely Day was one of my other choices, and I really like Don Henley (old Eagles fan). I liked George Michael, but, and it’s a bit of a confession for an old rocker, this, what I really liked were the old WHAM songs – ‘Wake me up before you go-go’ and ‘Bad boys’. Anyway, I digress!

So I’ve been thinking about this road trip to summer and what I want to achieve (I do like a target!).

My last hba1c was in the normal range (36) and my daily bgls are fine. I’ve been in remission since September 2016 so, while that’s always my first priority, I feel that’s all good right now.

I’ve just got back into my healthy BMI, but only just (top of healthy BMI is 10st 2lb, I’m 10st 1lb) so I definitely want to lose more weight. But, personally, I don’t want to go too far down (think I look better at the higher end of my healthy BMI) so I’m going to aim to lose another 8lbs to reach 9st 7lbs. Then, I’ll review it.

My main issue, I think, is keeping things up. While I’ve now lost most of my 2018 weight gain, I’ve not fully got back into the lifestyle changes I’d made in 2016/17, particularly the exercise/activity. I also re-gained the weight mainly because I stopped weighing food, and let my portion control slip back. Even now, this can be a bit slap dash at times. So, in order of priority, I’ve decided my targets for this road trip are:
• To weigh and record all my food and drink intake
• To establish a ‘liveable with’ activity and exercise routine.
• To lose 8lbs to reach 9st 7lbs, then review.

There, that feels better already.

Jennie10, another closet wham fan here. Club Tropicana – fun and sunshine there’s enough for everyone. I’m dancing as I type.
I’m looking to lose another 10-15 packs of butter and then get to a point where I can feel comfortable going on holiday without getting totally derailed. After last week’s excesses this is going to need some thought.

Jennie and skipping don’t even get me started on Wham! I loved them and I was devastated when my brother told me George was gay😢. I still wanted to marry him oh and Simon le Bon before him. Love me a bit of Duran Duran! Rio and save a prayer to name a few❤️😄💞🦜

All my guilty pleasures too birdy76

Patricia1066 I saw Jim will fix it and a girl had written to meet Simon le Bon and he rode in on a white horse to her school dressed as I knight and whisked her away! I wanted to scratch her eyes out as I thought it should have been me!🤣🤣. The crush was REAL! 🤣💞🦜

George Michael was gay? well that explains why we never managed to get together.

After a very austere Easter weekend I am thankfully still feeling determined to get back to my healthy weight. Listening to my colleagues this morning telling me what they had eaten and drank over Easter made me realise just how hard I am on myself but that is the way it has to be for somebody like me who wants to be a healthy weight and who puts on weight just looking at food!

Today I have had 1 egg and a small piece of cheese with salad and yoghurt with raspberries and cacao niblets to follow. For my evening meal I am having roasted cauliflower and two quorn sausages with broccoli. I’ll have some dark chocolate and a few Brazil nuts with a cup of coffee with cream after my meal…. mmmm can’t wait!

I am going to start doing the walking from home YouTube workouts and believe me I WILL get back to my healthy weight.

There used to be a saying when I went to weighwatchers many years ago that nothing tastes as good as feeling slim feels. I believe it! I don’t want my jeans to be skin tight and I don’t want to feel that I have ruined all my hard work so it’s strict rules for me now until my holiday. #133

There are many of us on here with similar goals for the next leg of our journey and it’s nice to know that we are all cheering each other on. Good luck everyone. It’s hard work but it is worth it when we feel good about ourselves and our clothes feel comfortable. Hoping to report a loss next week and am not getting on the scales until Sunday!

There were so many beautiful men in the charts when I was 16, David Essex, David Cassidy from the Partridge family; Adam Ant. The hairspray, carefully flicked back long hair, and that was just the men.

Ah David Essex. He was gorgeous.I went to see him in concert, only to find out the next morning he was staying in the hotel across the road from school. Needless to say we were straight over there making a nuisance of ourselves.

I can remember the upset on the school bus when someone had an article which said David Cassidy announced that he would never consider marrying someone x number of years younger than him. – There were two camps, those who’s birthday fell in the age range he would marry and those too young. As for the teasing for those who’s birthdays were just a few weeks on the wrong side of the line. 🙂 It never occurred to any of us that there were a lot more hurdles to cross than our age.

Ahhh David Cassidy- I loved him so much! Never saw him play live. I have a large black and white photograph of him above my desk as a treat! As a young teenager my bedroom was covered in posters of him. What a gorgeous looking young man he was. Also, I loved Axl Rose when he was young in the 80’s – He isn’t looking so hot these days, I am a big guns n roses fan. Seen them a fair few time but the years haven’t been too kind to Axl. Loved David Essex too! Saw him aged 13 with my best friend and my mum came too! Belle Vue Manchester. He was supported by The Real Thing! My dad made me a silver star necklace out of stainless steel like the one he always wore round his neck. I loved it. Happy memories of wonderful teenage years coming back! Love listening to Walking in the Rain by David Cassidy and Cherish and How Can I be Sure…………………. bliss.

I was too young to see him live, but had posters all across the bedroom wall. I will confess as well, Alan from Bay City Rollers. pure teenage lust.

The first band I got to see was AC/DC.

I only recently see one of my 80’s favs and that was Rick Ashley! He was really good! I don’t really know most of the ones you have mentioned but I do know who David Essex is🤣🤣. Oh and of course axel rose. 💞🦜

What about David Bowie, Queen, Steely Dan, The Who, Lynyrd Skynyrd?
The stuff I still listen to.
But Bay City Rollers the tartan and white flares – wait till birdy googles it!

Queen I love and so does my son. Ha! I googled the tartan and white flares! Blimey🤣🤣🤣🤣. Only liked a few songs by Bowie. I am a 80’s and 90’s girl buy age and do love them but I have a wide scope of all different genres. I love love love music. I love the way a single song can transport you to a point in your life and you can remember it in all its glory or cringe at it 🤣🤣

Folks, I’m loving this hilarious discussion about handsome rock stars. You guys, I love you all. I often read the posts but never feel I have very much to offer, and I keep failing.
I failed miserably on the last road trip and…. overall gained weight. I would like to try and join this road trip and start out with three basic rules against the things that keep tripping me up.
No crisps, no chocolate, no alcohol.
They are not treats and when I get stressed, they do not do me good.
That is what I must tell myself!

Jordan, a good mantra. maybe its something we should all say three times when we’re stressed.

Anyway, enough talk of these crusty old blokes who have not aged as well as us. I used to have the hots for Jonny Depp( clearly he does not follow the WOE) but feel i could do better now, especially when i can wear my JOTF. can any of you recommend the latest lovely young thing since I’m a bit out of touch?

Jason mamoma I think that is how you spell his name🤣. He is aqua man. There is also Ryan gosling, Ryan Reynolds, and the one I feel has stood the time since the 80’s is Robert Downey Jr. There are loads oh and Zach efron too.

Jason Momoa will always be Ronan Dex, Stargate Atlantis to me. Mmm!

Ooh Patricia I never watched that so I may have to look it up and have a look if he is on it🤣 💞🦜

Birdy you will have a blast! Total comfort viewing, and there are 5 seasons if you like it.
My favourite character has to be awkward Dr McKay. Jason doesn’t turn up until a few episodes in.

Patricia I am looking for it now🤣. We have Netflix and amazon prime video! We do love our shows🤣. Watching the third series of the Good Fight at the mo as relaxing after getting wet walking the dogs and dreading nightshift tonight😢

The good fight is a very current affairs. I wish we had something like that on TV here

Weather is turning cold

Patricia the good fight is on more4

Hi this is a call out to Scottishgal. Are you ok hun? We miss you😢. Birdy🦜💞

Hi all, I’m jumping aboard and joining the road trip 🙂
As many of you know, the last one was a bit disastrous for me with lots of health and personal challenges. My broken shoulder is healing well though and I’m ready for a re-boot.
I haven’t weighed myself for a few weeks. I had lost about 3kg between Jan and early April, but since then I’ve had a family trip away for a week and of course Easter and Anzac Day where I went off the rails food and drink wise.
I’m paying for eating hot cross buns and toast – I have really bad joint pain at the moment, my fault for eating wheat, it definitely causes inflammation for me.
So time to get serious again. I’m restarting properly on Monday, but have been eating mainly on plan over the past few days, just not limiting calories.
I loved all the talk on here about pop stars – I was a massive David Essex fan between the ages of 11-18. The first concert I ever went to was David Essex when I was 13 🙂 before that I had a crush on Donny Osmond! Years later i was thrilled to meet Donny at one of his concerts here in Australia and I thought “if my younger self could see me now!”.

Hi Sueblue, welcome back. That injury takes a lot of strength from you, so go easy on yourself. If necessary, go through your cupboards, looking for the carbs that give you trouble; biscuits, buns and bread, whatever.

Toss them in the bin.
It’s therapeutic, I wish I could do it every time I indulge; but the packet is empty! 😀

Good luck with the road trip, let’s take our time.

Weighed myself this morning and am 1.6 lb lighter than last Sunday. It’s a loss but my word, I’ve worked hard to lose that! Three packets of lard gone though so that is definitely a step in the right direction. Wish it came off as quickly as it goes on. I recently uploaded a game on my iPad that I used to play many years ago and actually I deleted it rather quickly because it seemed that no matter how hard I tried, I could never win and it was very, very frustrating. I felt a bit like that when I stepped on the scales this morning. I was expecting a better reward for my effort – Weird, I know! Six weeks to my holiday to Turkey so enough time to see a difference. I want my clothes to feel comfortable and for me to feel that I’ve done my very best too. I am off to London next weekend to see my son over the Bank Holiday so won’t be able to weigh on Sunday. I will weigh on Friday. Each little packet of lard I lose makes a difference to how I look and feel.

Plan for this week- same old, same old. Keep on chipping away at the excess pounds. . Failure is NOT an option.
Hope everyone is sticking to what works for them. Looking forward to reading how everyone has done this week.

cc three packs of lard is a great discard. Think about how much physical space they would take up.
Got rid of the Easter gain and lost 5 packs of butter this week. A 24 hour fast really helped.
I’m only 700g from my target so hope to get there for Friday. I’m spending the weekend in Paris with friends. I will be having the odd glass so I expect I’ll be back to chasing the target on Monday.
I now realise that losing the weight is only half the story.

Thanks Patricia – I did end up throwing out the remaining hot cross buns 🙂
I feel very much in control today. Weighed myself this morning and I have put on 2kg over the last 3 weeks or so. So now I’m back to needing to lose 20kg to get to my target weight.
I’m just going to focus on a few kilos at a time though.
The last few weeks haven’t been all bad. I joined in a challenge to walk 250,000 steps in april and I achieved that today, with a couple of days to spare 🙂
Last night I made some egg and bacon muffins to have for breakfast today, then before I went to work this morning I put a chicken and lentil curry on in the slow cooker. Lunch was hummus and veggie sticks. 820 calories with a couple of cups of tea – so far so good!
Cathy – well done on your weight loss so far – your determination and will to succeed is inspiring. Hope my fellow road trippers are
Travelling well so far 🙂

Morning sueblue well done on getting did of hot cross buns and organising today! You have got this and we have got you. This road trip is a long one and I am sure your 20kg will be well on its way to disappearing along the way. You go girl, me and the others are your cheerleaders and the Pom poms are a shaking😊.

I haven’t set a target as yet because I was just waiting and seeing but I think a target now would be good. So I am thinking I would like to discard another stone by the end of my first 8 weeks which will take me to May 26th. Good luck everyone I am routing for us all. 💞🦜

Hi everyone, yes I’d like to join too (on behalf of hubby too)… We’re new to BSD, so a road trip sounds like a great way to help 😊… Thanks

Hi YorkshirePippin,
Welcome to the forum, its a very supportive atmosphere here.

There are a wide range of people on the forum, from newcomers to people who have hit their targets and have been maintaining their loss for a couple of years. If you need any help shout out and someone will be along sooner or later to answer.

Hello and welcome YorkshireP. So glad you have decided to join us. I am going to point out what JGwen pointed out and also say that the one thread that really helped me in the beginning was ONE WEEK AT A TIME. It starts every Tuesday (although I started a day early this week🤣). Don’t forget as well as the threads you will see daily there are loads more and you can find answers to lots of questions in them. Just put a keyword in the top right search bar and they will pop up. We wish you and your hubby all luck on this journey and don’t worry we have your back 💞🦜. Birdy