Hello All, I started this diet in September and got great benefits in terms of lowering the blood sugar and losing weight too. However, I am losing motivation and need some help from you guys. I am trying to follow the weekly menu but shopping for the ingredients is bothersome. Plus a lot of things are going waste. I got some sour cream last week for one meal and it went bad the week after! Things like spinach and other herbs wilt quickly too. Each day there are different meals in the plan so I can’t even repeat the dishes. So, do you guys follow the recommended 4 week plan? If so then do you shop weekly/biweekly? The book hasn’t got corresponding page numbers for the meals listed in the menu either so I have to spend endless time first of all locating the recipe and then writing a shopping list. My work life is very busy and there are times when I have started eating things I shouldn’t for the sake of convenience. Any input will be appreciated. I don’t want to lose the good results that I saw last month….but the weight is piling up again and so is the sugar.

Hello kkumar, and welcome to the forum! If you enjoy the menus, you can certainly carry on with them,
but I’ve been BSDing for 28 months, and I’ve never followed them. I’ve just adapted my own recipes, and
many of us have had great success doing the same. This lifestyle is very flexible 🙂 One of the most
valuable changes I made was to have my groceries delivered each week. It does involve pre-planning, but
certainly takes less time than the amount spent going to the market! It’s surprising how quickly one loses
interest in the “bad stuff” when there are no unfriendly options in the house 🙂 For career women, batch
cooking for the week ( over the weekend) is the key, and makes life so much easier…none of that grabbing
junk when one is too tired to cook! I’m certain others will be along with their suggestions, tips and tricks, too.
I weighed and measured everything, and kept a careful count of my calories and carbs. I hate waste too, so
I understand where you are coming from! Just shout if you need any help, and one of us will come running.
Very best of luck to you!

Allie

Thank you so much Allie for your reply. Very helpful.

Hi kkumar,
I started on this Way of Eating over a year ago. – As a vegetarian it was never possible for me to follow the menu program in the book. The principles behind the diet are low carb, moderate protein and make up the balance of calories from healthy fats. – You will be just as successful in meeting your goals following those guidelines as following the menu plans.

I installed the free app fatsecret on my mobile phone. – Initially I just cut out all the “big white” carbs from my diet. – Bread, rice, sugar, pasta, root veg etc. Then by entering everything I planned to eat into the app I could use it to monitor and gradually reduce levels of carbs as I adjusted to eating this way for the rest of my life.

Hi kkumar
My experience was exactly the same as yours. I followed the recipe plan in the book for a few weeks then gave up as I found I had all sorts of ingredients go to waste. I also started producing my own meals minus the carbs e.g. meat or fish with above ground veg, egg dishes, soups and salads etc. I kept it as simple as I could while I was (and now am again) losing weight. I batch cooked and froze pre-weighed portions, I used my slow cooker to make things so they’d be ready when I came home on an evening etc. In winter (so for me now) I make big pots of soup at the weekend which really help me (I do some in the pressure cooker so they’re quick). There’s a recent thread on here with some good soups and also some in the recipe section. Dietdoctor.com has got some great recipes too. But mostly on midweek evenings I take something previously prepared out of the freezer or keep it very simple and quick.

I agree about the recipe section being frustrating. I hate writing in books but I ended up writing in the page numbers where I could find each of the meals listed on the 4 week plan – well, at least for the first 2 weeks of the plan, then I gave up! (Mind you, the meals I did make from it were very tasty).

Thank you for sharing your experiences with me. I will just follow the guideline from the book rather than cooking every meal from the weekly menus. Good luck to all of you on this fantastic journey.

I use some recipes from the book, and use the basic principles for others. Whenenver I can, I make a large batch and freeze into individual portions (well double portions as there are two of us, but exactly enough for one meal). That saves waste and is convenient but as Allie hinted there’s another advantage.

The times I was most likely to eat loads of carbs was when I was in a rush, or feeling too lazy to cook. I’d walk up the shop and buy a pizza (and garlic bread and ice cream). That was easy, but grabbing one of my homemade ready meals is even easier, so that’s what I now do.

The chilli works well for this, I also make lots of curry and what I call hotpots, which are chicken with a selection of vegetables, cooked in a sauce made from chopped tomatoes or leeks and whichever herbs and spices I fancy. To that I add chickpeas, butterbeans, blackeyed beans or similar.

I also make soup with any leftover veg, and freeze that if we don’t eat it all.

Morning Kkumar,

Lots of sound and salient advice from plenty of folk there – I’ll be keeping some of that in mind myself! I know motivation can be hard to maintain, but I have found that routine and a little variation in what I eat helps me more than anything – also not beating myself up if I have a not-so-good-day is paramount to any success that I may have. My typical daily routine involves skipping breakfast, gym at lunchtime, having either a soup/shake of up to 200 calories for lunch (batch cooking soup at the weekend helps, but even having a Covent Garden or the like on hand for those lazy tired days is good for me). I then aim to have a dinner of around 600 calories. I find either a massive plate of mixed salad or steamed veggies, (lots of greens in there, not too many root veggies), combined with a variety of good fats and protein (Mackerel/Tuna/Salmon/Chicken/Tofu/Beans/Chickpeas/Nuts/Seeds/Eggs) usually does the trick. Planning meals in advance is very helpful. It reduces the risk of deviation, but also it’s helps to visualise a nice dinner after a hard days work!

I’ve also found avoiding bread and pasta helps me out massively. As soon as I reintroduce either of those back into the mix I end up feeling hungry very quickly again, but a few days after I stop eating them my hunger pangs trouble me no more! So, in a nutshell, what works for me is; batch cooking, having a few convenience foods on hand (tinned tuna/soups etc), drinking the odd protein shake for lunch (I blend them with a handful of kale/spinach for extra nutrients), avoiding bread/pasta, avoiding sugar, and lastly weighing in and checkin’ yourself out in the mirror. You gotta keep tabs on that progress and remind yourself, I’m doing this to live a longer and healthier life!

The first day is the hardest, but with every day you complete it gets easier. Good luck.

Thank you all once again for your replies – it’s so nice to see such helpful people in the forum. I have taken on board your ideas and can see success around the corner once again! Best wishes in your journey.

That’s excellent to hear Kkumar, we’ll drag one another across the line for sure! Keep us posted!