I have bought the kindle version of the BSD and the 8 week recipe book. Really looking forward to seeing the results, but given my pantry is full of the Australian Diet rather than Mediterranean, getting a shopping list together is a nightmare.

I have looked through other posts and I’m not alone in this issue. I am wondering if anyone still has their week by week (1-8) shopping list that they could share with me. I haven’t seen any hyperlinks or email addresses in the forum yet, so not sure how someone might help me.

A lot has been put into the science and the variety of this diet. can I offer a few suggestions.
– An app for tablets (IOS / Android) with the 8 week meal plan with links to each recipe, so you don’t have to search the book to find each one. For the print version, give page numbers for recipes.
– a printable 8 week shopping list, separated into produce / deli / meat / pantry. Anything left in the pantry from previous weeks can be crossed off before shopping.

I expect there would be a lot of people like me that will be the only person in a household performing the 8 week BSD. I am therefore concerned that a lot of multi serve meals will either have me freezing lots or wasting persihable items that only appear in 1 meal in a week. Eg smoked fish pate – 1 fillet smoked trout weighs how much? I can only buy full fish (350g – 633 calories) which is enough for 4 serves, then I use 1 serve and the rest of the fish goes in the bin as I cannot snack on the rest due to calorie overload and the fish has a 3 day life once opened. Bolognese uses 470g mince (minimum buy 500g) and makes 6 serves, yet is only used in week 1 and week 8, so only 2 of 6 serves are used in 8 weeks if 5 serves were frozen in week 1. Not everything made in multi serves can be frozen.

I really want to give this a go and stick to the 8 week plan. To start substituting the same dinner 2 or 3 nights in a week would change my shopping list and likely upset the plans nutrients totals for the week. I dont mind the upfront stocking of my pantry cost, but I am concerned of the perishable waste (meat and fish are too expensive to throw out)

BTW, I live alone and work 5 days a week. so there is no one else here to eat the left overs.

I would love to hear from others how they have overcome the challenges in starting their 8W BSD and whether my concerns for food wastage are what others have experienced or how they have changed things.

After searching around the site, I have found the fast 800 subscription may be what I am looking for.

As an alternative, I don’t mind having the same meal 2-3 times a week – easy prep and less ingredients. If I took a multi vitamin daily, and reduced the number of recipes per week to 8-10, still following the 800cal, <50 carbs, >50 protein with meat dairy and recommended veggies in the mix (BSD recipes), regular exercise. Would this allow me to achieve the same goal without sticking strictly to the 8 week set menu.
I like the recipes and the concept. but the difficulty in making a weekly shopping list and using all the perishables I buy doesn’t look like it will work for me following the 8 week BSD plan and I expect the fast 800 may be the same.

I would love to hear someone’s comments, especially around the multivitamins fixing what is not a completely balance diet as set out.

Hi Tazzie, if you mean by subscription paying for someone to tell you what to eat then I can be pretty sure that no-one on this site does that. We all bought the books and just work from that. I see you have an app for the BSD, I still prefer to have a book to browse through and recipe books to sit down and read.

The things you are asking for like shopping lists, recipes, menus etc are not available on this site but that might be something you get from the paid version.

I know if you are struggling to know what to do so you actually stick to the diet can be quite difficult if you are not used to knowing what calories and carbs and in what foods. Use a calorie/carb counter just by putting the food into Google or register with something like MyFitnessPal. It should help you keep on track.

What you need to do is make things you would normally eat (as long as that isnt chips and chips and pies) then make the same but without the carbs. You can replace the carbs with grated cauliflower (to make rice) or courgetti to replace spaghetti. You mention bolognaise which serves 6. Divide the recipe by 3 and make 2 portions, eat one freeze the other. You say you can only buy 500g of mince, but that can be kept in the freezer. If you dont want to freeze as a solid block then portion it up. When I am making a mince dish or beef stew I use 100g per person of meat. Or make the Smoked fish pate – I think it was mackerel in my book – I hate smoked fish and mackerel. I use half a tin of tuna or salmon and mix with the cream cheese. The other half of the tuna/salmon can be used on a salad the next day or just eaten as a snack.

It sounds as though you are not used to cooking from scratch or at least not the recipes we use.

Why dont you give us a couple of day worth of what you are going to eat and we can suggest things to buy or how to cook for one person.

Good luck – it is pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

Tazzie, just remembered something. If I have a lot of leftover soft veg like peppers, courgette, mushrooms etc. I make myself a big omelette to use it up. I always do this the night before my weekly shop and I call it ‘clear out the fridge’. Hope that helps.

Hi Tazzie

Make a meal plan, and then write your shopping list from that! As sunshinegirl says, meat can all be portioned and frozen in advance, then you just get out what you need – I buy all my meat in bulk and just freeze individual portions – it’s a bit of work on delivery day but then my order lasts at least a month

Veg – stick to leafy green veg, all the brassicas last at least 10 days in the fridge, so broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi

Onions keep at least two weeks in a cool dark place

Peppers, yes they are going to go soft quick, but you can freeze them if your only going to use them in cooked dishes – or just buy frozen veg – it’s nonsense that it’s not as nutritious

I do this and live with my husband but he doesn’t eat the same foods as me – I just eat the same thing a few days running, or make sure I plan meals that all use the same ingredients – so I might do Cajun roasted chicken and Mediterranean veg one night, fajita salad the next, and ratatouille the next – different flavours but same ingredients.

Forgive me if I’m missing something but I don’t see the major issue here? It just takes planning

Lauren x

Thanks sunshine girl and Lauren. I think you have helped me the idea that it’s not essential to stick to the 8 week plan for every meal I am going to eat. That it’s the principal of max 800 calories, low carb and high protein.

I like cooking new recipes from scratch, but not 15 new ones every week. The more new recipes I try, my pantry will start filling with spices and other staples. So shopping will become easier. I used to cook daily when at home in a family of 4, but single life it’s easier cooking with minimal ingredients. It’s a lot of effort cooking with lots Ing for a small portion of 1 plate. The effort will be worth it, by freezing a few or 2 nights in a row.

Sadly my diet has consisted of hi carb pasta and rice with lots of snacks and many meals simply from freezer to air fryer or microwave.

I started cutting back to 800 cal yesterday with food in my fridge. I’ll make a meal plan and go from there.
Thanks Dave.
111kg today, here’s hoping for a slimmer me by Christmas.

Hi Tazzie
Good to see you have the books on Kindle. I like my kindle but prefer, for reading though the recipes and guidance, the F800 physical books which give me a better overall picture. Your Tassie libraries have all the books – free to borrow! And if you’re looking for recipe ideas for one person, the libraries have “Keto for One Cookbook”. This is American I think – but useful for ideas you can use for meals. As others have said, using your own ideas for food planning and recipes is probably the way to go.
I am single and shop in the supermarkets. Woolies for instance sell packs with 2 lamb steaks, or 2 rump steaks etc. I either have lamb two nights in a row (I grill it in the frypan) – or I freeze one for another time. Same with packs of chicken thighs etc. Use what you need for one meal (such as a stirfry or curry) and freeze the rest – or make a curry using all of it and then freeze in single serving size.
I also have salmon once or twice a week – and the supermarkets sell fresh salmon in 2 piece packs. And I make use of frozen prawns or scallops to – for a stirfry or salad.
Now summer is on the way salads are a good option. Supermarket bags of ready cut coleslaw mix or mixed salad leaves. Use half a pack today or the rest tomorrow. Skip the ones that come with the flavour sachets (full of sugar) and mix up your own french dressing. Add some prawns, or small tin of tuna, or smoked salmon, mussels, cold chicken etc.
I don’t eat breakfast, and usually eat around noon-1pm. Eggs are a great choice – poached, omlette, hardboiled, whatever!! With some mushrooms, fetta cheese, smoked salmon, etc. Main meal around 7 – 8 and then no meal until lunch time. I do have coffee in the morning, with milk – about 25ml per cup. I count that in my daily carbs.
To keep veggies fresh I try not to buy too much. A cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms, beans, brussell sprouts, asparagus etc.
And adding FLAVOUR will keep meals interesting – garlic, chilli, coriander, parsley, tahini, hommus, capers, mustard, etc are all your friends. Add red peppers from a jar to salads and casseroles.
🌻Also look at the Diet Doctor website for info on recipes, carb counts etc, There is no need to subscribe to anything. https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb
🌼🌼🌼Wendy – one of the wonderfully knowledgeable people on this site – posted this a couple of years back – and I find it inspiring and her *list* very spot-on. https://thebloodsugardiet.com/forums/topic/success-stories/#post-117307
Hope this is not too much! 😁😁😁
Cheers, Merry (who loves libraries)

Hi Tazzie
Here is a link to a planning spreadsheet I made
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hHKRxFxlaPTlz30zvAZwi-nZ-1CpQ8CZ/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=117962190858152686418&rtpof=true&sd=true
Which will show you the calories and carbs as you plan your meals. Feel free to use it.
I cook either for my self or for 2 and don’t find wastage of food a problem, just cut the recipe amounts if for 4 then cut in half and have twice a week. I prefer my own meal planning as don’t always like some of the planned meals.
Good luck 😄

That’s a very useful spreadsheet! Thank you for sharing Elle-Mae.

Thanks for your help and ideas. I am taking your advice in making a meal plan that works for me. I am also putting some planning into it.
Elle-Mae showed a good planner. I thought I would take it to the next level. I like spreadsheets and I have a few weeks before I start my new job. I was bored today and did this spreadsheet after my 10km walk. (luckily as I have the kindle version, I was able to copy all the recipe names 🙂

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qu19xv521v4eae9pgo3x2/BSD-Meal-Planner.xlsx?dl=0&rlkey=fu9oacc8fbasvm5t9c7p46wff
It has drop downs for the recipes and calculates the Macros as listed in the book ( nothing is locked, so only use the yellow cells or you may mess up the formulas)
There is also a page number listed after the recipe and the (calories) so you can use the left / over calculator to work out if you have enough calories left while picking the 2nd or 3rd recipe.
I have populated the first tab (not my meal plan, still working on that) to check it works. Each meal is set to drop down meals for that kind of meal (say Lunch). I noticed that some meals have a second component so they fall into the side option and there is an option for treats.

What’s interesting is I can see I am not getting enough fibre in my sample plan (approx 30g per day), but then I never was when I was eating processed carbs either.

I would love to know if people think if this was worth the effort or just another thing to make it harder.

It’s a work in progress, so I will probably update a newer version later.
Cheers Taz

That is great Tazzie, except I dont recognise any of the meals. Maybe the Oz version on BSD is different from the British version. I love a visual of my meals, weight loss, exercise etc plus being diabetic I also log every day BG numbers, weight, units of insulin. I also love a plan to work towards with a graphs showing progress. So no I dont think you are wasting your time.

As for the fibre, now is the chance to eat all those leafy green veg that are full of fibre rather than relying on things like wholegrain grains. I only count calories and carbs – thats enough for me to worry about along with blood sugar and insulin. I dont want my life to be any more complicated.

Hi Tazzie, the fibre is impossible – trust me I’ve tried, it’s not possible to be very low carb and get 30g fibre a day without supplementing – everything that is high in fibre also contains carbs (pulses, green veg, fruit, etc), or it tips you over calories wise (avocado etc) – I now have stopped obsessing over fibre and like sunshine girl says just eat as much leafy green veg as I can, and I supplement whatever I can with Inulin powder – I was driving myself nuts trying to balance the macros and actually making myself ill so I just had to stop

L