Hi I’m new and just trying to work out what to eat, as I’m veggie. I haven’t bought the book so far, as I heard it was aimed at meat eaters. Is it still worth me getting it? I’d be really grateful if you can give me guidance on some questions I have :

I am aiming at 800 cals per day for 8 weeks, and cutting out white bread/rice/pasta/sugar/potatoes. Drinking lots of water.

I have a lot of weight to lose – it would be great if I could lose 2 pounds per week. I am very inactive, so will start with walking fast as possible.

Some here seem to be sticking to really low carb, but I’ve not been able to stick to that in past being veggie, I find it too boring and hard when you don’t really want to cook from scratch all the time. I understand Michael is not quite so strict re carbs? I realise it isn’t just about only having 800 cals, but also what types of food you eat.

Can I eat some carrot, grated in salad etc. I think mainly I have to stick to veg grown above ground.

Plus own museli with jumbo nuts/nuts/seeds (weighed out).

I like Pizza Express low cal salad dressing – is that OK?

I used to drink Robinsons lemon squash hot, I know it has sweeteners so should I avoid even tho it is low cal? I suppose it’s still giving me a taste for sweet things?

I have been having 1 slimfast ready shake per day, I find it so useful at work or when out. It has 220 cals and 21.6 carbs (18.30 sugar). I also have a high protein shake Diet Fuel, which is a lot lower in carbs but not so convenient.

I’m planning on getting protein from eggs/cottage cheese/cheese/pulses /shakes + occasionally quorn mince.

If one day I eat out and have some higher carb items but still under 800, I assume that might affect my weight loss?

One more question – I open a large tin of chick peas and don’t use many in a salad – what do you do with them? Freeze, make another dish, keep in fridge for a day or so.

If you can help at all, thanks very much.

Hi Barby

I can’t answer all your questions but I’ll have a go at a few of them. Your chickpeas will last a few days once open but also I make a courgette and chickpea soup with an onion, thats very nice.

I would advise against your squash, it does have a lot of sweeteners which aren’t good for us. Your carrot won’t really be a problem but try to go for veg grown above the ground rather than below – they tend to be starchier like potatoes, that said, no one ever really got fat eating carrots.

Salad dressing – go full fat everything. Yoghurt, mayonnaise, dressings, milk, butter. Going over 800 a day isn’t necessarily a problem, depends how many you do over and how many carbs you are having. People tend to aim for 50g of carbs a day.

Exercise – Dr Mosley was on the radio the other day and he said diet and exercise are like batman and robin. They make a good team but its batman (diet) who really does all the work. So get what exercise you can but its really the change to your diet that will make the biggest difference.

Hi Barby,
I am vegetarian and have completed the 8 week programme and now part way through week 10. I have lost on average just over 3lbs per week.
In terms of the book, I would not buy it for recipes and the menu section is impossible for a veggie to follow. However – I would recommend buying it so you understand the principles. I bought it without realising how few veggie recipes there were, but I use it regularly to look up what I should and should not do. I did have one of the 5:2 Recipe Books by MM and Mimi Spencer which has more veggie recipes, and I’ve adapted them. Having said that there are now a good number of tasty vegetarian recipes in the recipes tab on the website. Check the calorie and carb counts yourself for the portions you use as it does make a difference quite a difference.
I had followed a low GI plan a few years ago and found the Rose Elliot’s Low GI cooking to be useful. Others have used her Low Fat book (try searching for Rose Elliot in the search at the top and you will get the forum discussions around recipe books and ideas). I found the Newcastle University site a useful place to start for the first few weeks – ignore the shakes, but the soups were a great starter until I had got some planning and ideas of my own going. http://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/documents/StudyRecipes.pdf
I have the veg soup and have a variation pea soup – I use a lot of fresh mint (40-50 g not hard stalks) to the peas without the watercress and use 1 large bag (1000g) peas with a litre of veg stock) and blitz. I also add a tin of beans to my soups for protein. The rep pepper soup is also good, I add a tin of tomatoes and a tin of beans to it as well. Also, use your search engine and look for Rose Elliot’s chunky ratatouille. It is available on one of her websites. Make enough for 6-8 portions and I top with 15g parmesan. Again – freezes well.
I agree with your comment about it being hard to keep under 50g carbs. I don’t. Everyone is different and I find under 50g leaves me with cramps overnight. Also, the only way I can get to under 50g is to live on cheese and eggs! I have been targeting 60g and found that worked for me – I did a test today using a ketostix and I am definitely fat burning. Use the search at the top of website for ketostix if you want to know more about them.
What is important is to be consistent so you body does not move in and out of ketosis, so be consistent.
I started with Slimfast shakes and stopped after a week and a half as I was not losing the weight from my belly. Three of them a day plus soup or stir-fry – yes it was 800 cals, but 80g+ carbs and it is the carbs that are important. When I stopped them, and moved to my own food, the inches dropped away. I am down 2 dress sizes.
The hardest change to make (everyone will tell you the same) is to move to full fat dairy. I eventually did it in week 3. This is a very hard change to make, but once made – you never look back :-). Stop the ‘low carb’ stuff. I bought full fat greek yogurt and had it for breakfast with blueberries and seeds (60g yogurt, 30g blueberries, 3g linseeds, 3g sunflower seeds, 3g pumpkin seeds, 3 almonds chopped plus a good pinch cinnamon – mix). This keeps me full till lunchtime. I then have either scrambled eggs, feta cheese with a Portobello mushroom or more often one of the soups I have made. If you are working, I used to take them into the office frozen and microwave them for lunch.
A hardboiled egg or come cheese after that if you want. I normally have 350’ish cals left for the evening.
For dressings, I bought a couple of low cal ones to begin with then looked at the labels and realised the ‘normal’ ones were better for me and although the calories were higher, the carbs were not!
I drink black coffee, tea with milk (semi skimmed, not quite got myself onto FF milk yet), and fizzy bottled water from the fridge. I chop up lemons and limes into slices and freeze them. Take one out at a time and add the cold water – it have a lovely taste and refreshing. Try that instead of the Robinsons?
Chickpeas – throw into soup and freeze? Mix them up with tahini, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil and paprika to make humus and freeze portions. Count the calories as this is quite high, so smaller portions. Had some a couple of days ago with a lot of sliced veg and a dollop of FF yoghurt with chives for lunch. Avocados are also good if you make guacamole and freeze portions – again watch the cals!
A number of folks don’t bother about the calories, but plan using the carbs alone – this had worked very well for them. The great thing about this diet is the flexibility it gives you – just forget the bread, rice, potatoes and for now squashes – that for me was the hardest – I love squash and sweet potato soup :-(.
Whew – long post – if I missed anything you asked, let me know!
Good luck on the journey!

Thank you so much Janet and Orchid, you are very kind to take the time to give me so much information, it really helps. I’m going to paste it all in word, with good recipes I find. It’s especially good to hear of your great weight loss Orchid as a fellow veggie. I would be VERY happy with that.

I will have a go at making and freezing soups, and add the pulses – great idea. I have got the Tesco Healthy Living 3 bean & veg soup, it is 180 cals per tin and 30g (10g sugar). Is it the sugar part that’s important to count wit carbs?, When in a rush, I could add some extra low carb veg to this as a quick meal.

I think I must count cals also, otherwise I would eat far too much Cheddar cheese!

I will look at the recipes, I fancy making some lentil burgers, then freezing some.

I also love the idea of freezing lemon/lime slices. Thanks again x

I look at the total number of carbs, not just sugar and aim for under 50g per day. You have to wonder, why do they need to put sugar in soup?

Barby – it’s total carbs, not just sugar.

Janet – probably for the same reason it’s added to meat products and chicken is cooked in a sugar marinade😱

Hi Barby,
I think it depends if you have diabetes or not which you concentrate on. I had 25kg to lose, and had noticed my waist was disappearing, so probably carrying to much internal fat around my middle, I also want to get my BMI under 25 i.e. normal.
I bought a blood sugar monitor and discovered my fasting blood sugar was getting very close to being pre-diabetic so I wanted to get that down into ‘safer’ normal figures.
Those with diabetes try to get below 50g carbs a day as a way of reversing it; that puts the body into ketosis and fat burning mode. MM does not set any levels in the book other than 800 cals over a short time which mimics Prof Taylors work at Newcastle of giving the body a shock calorie reduction.
There are other books that Janet has recommended to look at about blood sugars and understanding them (Jenny Rhul, Low Carb Problems Solved, £3 on Kindle), plus the collective experience and knowledge of the group that advises the 50g.
There is a post from Janet from February (I think) that gives come carb ranges she found and 60-100 carbs per day give a steady consistent weight loss, 50g and under much faster.
Once I realised the mistakes I had made with the shakes, I settled on 60g as being the bottom end of the steady weight loss. It also fitted in with the veggie life-style better.
I will leave it to the forum experts who understanding diabetes better that I do to explain more of the 50g rational!
When planning the day I give the priority to the carb count, and I will vary a bit the calories. For example today I had 60g carbs and that was 690 calories. Had it been 50g carbs and 800 cals I would probably have had a milky drink at bedtime to up the carbs and not worried about the calories being higher.
If todays ketostix test was correct, I am burning fat on 60g carb per day. I will be measuring and monitoring that for a few weeks to see if this is a result of lower carbs Mon and Tues this week (giving me bad cramps overnight on Tuesday) or if on my ‘normal’ 60g a day I am definitely fat-burning.
One thing the Jenny Rhul book did say is that we all have a fat burning threshold that turns it on or off and it is important to find that and stay in that zone, if you move up and down your body gets very confused.
I discovered a number of years ago that I always lose weight when I cook my own food from scratch. Slow, steady weightloss – not at this speed! That has not stopped me resorting to processed foods especially when stressed, and for long periods and putting on weight – thus this diet! MM’s book goes into the different things that are added to our food – the things added to make them ‘taste’ good, increase shelf-life and sugars are one of them. We would not need them if we made the food ourselves, and soup takes so little time to make! I am back on the ‘cook everything yourself’ wagon – if you possibly can!
I have a quick simple salad with lunch – 5 cherry tomatoes, one spring onion and a chunk of cucumber (50-70g) all chopped up. It fits in a small lunchbox. I vary it with feta cheese if I need extra protein with no carbs or hard boiled egg, plus different dressings – from olive oil, or balsamic and also chilli dressing or harissa. It is important to keep the flavours of your food varied and strong as they stay in the memory for longer and helps with remembering what you ate.
Check the Tesco label – it may be saying 30g carbs of which 10g are sugars rather than 30g carbs plus 10g sugars. If it is the latter, then it is a 40g count. If it is tinned, I would keep it in the cupboard for emergencies and get onto your own soups as quickly as possible :-).
have fun – it has been and that was an unexpected bonus!

I’ve never read the jenny ruhl book as its only available on kindle. The 50g threshold comes from a website called dietdoctor.com which shares a lot of principles with the bsd but doesn’t count calories. It has a section for diabetics but its not aimed just at diabetics and I don’t have either condition myself.

Thanks all of you for explaining so well, sorry this is a totally new way for me. I’ve just downloaded the book, even if recipes not for me.

The Tesco label does say total 30 of which 10 are sugar, but I take your point, why any sugar!

I love Marigold Bouillon as a stock base for soup or a hot drink, best check it’s OK carb wise. If you are hungry a cup of this clear soup is very tasty and satisfying (get the low salt version)

I didn’t know the importance of having stable carb intake, thanks Orchid you’ve given me a lot of food for thought. It is so alien to me that you’d eat more in evening just to keep your carbs on same level. It is very tempting to try 50g as I would love a fast weight loss, at least at first. I’ll have to work out some figures, and decide if 50g is sustainable for me (probably not). Got a salad for lunch today with chick peas and cottage cheese. Have to get ready for work now, but thanks again for all your help.

Hi barby, I’m also a veggie, almost vegan. I’m just 5 days in so far and have lost 7lb. Having lost a lot of weight on another low carb diet in the past (when I was still eating fish and diary) I learned a few ways to survive as a non meat eater on very low carb. Eventually I gave that diet up because of awful constipation but this one allows double the grams of carbs which I get mostly from green veg, beans, lentils etc. I find the nutrition analysis on myfitnesspal is a good way of checking carbs. Just entering the brand and title will show you whether or not your favourite foods will work in this diet. I use quorn mince and chicken pieces in the meat recipes included in the book – which I have found very useful. I make up a bowl of salad topped with nuts, seeds, beans and homemade dressing (olive oil, cider vinegar, mustard) every lunch and I do include a small raw carrot as I love the crunch and sweetness. I reckon that cooking from scratch is the best way of getting more food for the 800 cals/50g carbs but not beating myself up if I go a bit over as I know that what I’m eating is still healthy and the weight is coming off. I hope that helps.

Thanks Magpie, you have done really well losing 7 pounds in 5 days, you must be so pleased! It’s really encouraging to find other veggies are having good losses too. This weekend I’ll go through the book and buy necessary ingredients, and have a go at some cooking/freezing.

I stupidly didn’t weigh myself at the beginning, I was so down about myself I couldn’t face it. I did this morning though, now on my 5th day. So I will never know what I started at, but never mind, I am on the way down.

I feel much more hopeful now, thanks to all the support here. I have used MFP before, so will start that again thanks. Lets hope we’re both posting great results in 8 weeks.

Hi again barby,

I’m really pleased with my loss so far, thanks. I nearly didn’t weigh myself – totally understand where you’re coming from. How about having my 7? 😉

MFP is useful but they tell you off for the low calorie count and won’t let you post your food diary until you up the calorie count. I also made the mistake of introducing myself as a newbie and got all sorts of finger wagging – some quite unpleasant – so I just use it for the food diary and weight loss tracker. I like to have friendly support as it is very motivational and makes me accountable! There is an 8 week BSD forum on there but it’s not very active.

Yes, here’s to great results in 8 weeks’ time!

Hello again, I have more questions please?

What do you drink when socialising in the pub? I don’t go that often. I used to enjoy a bitter shandy but I know that’s out.

Diet coke not good re sweeteners. I assume to have soda with a dash of lime. Is the only option fizzy water with lemon or lime slice?

Also, I’m trying to find a hot drink I like. I do have black coffee, but not all the time. I don’t like tea.

I am trying hot water with lemon slices.

I was wondering about getting some PLJ pure lemon juice, or even one of the Jif lemons, for when I run out of fresh lemons.

Also I just found a recipe for chick pea fritters which sounds nice, when I get some chickpea flour.

1 cup chickpea flour
1 cup water
Chopped half onion
Chopped inch of ginger
Half tsp cumin
Pinch chilli
Mix ingredients to smooth paste. Leave to stand and then fry as for small pancakes.

Thanks

Hi Barby,
The easiest thing when out is sparkling water and ask for it with a slice of lemon. I would avoid the low cal drinks as they have ‘alternative’ sweeteners in them that are probably adding to our problems. Soda water would be fine with lemon.
For tea – I found the rooibos tea was a strong enough taste (no milk) to replace normal tea. Also I like lemon and ginger tea – again it had a strong taste. If you don’t like ‘teas’ in general then I need to do a bit more thinking 🙂

If you don’t like tea then hot water with lemon is a good choice, and also nice with lime for a change. A tip I’ve found useful is to slice lemons and limes and store them in the freezer. When you want a cup of tea just take a slice out, pop it in a mug, and pour on boiling water as you normally would. This means I always have some handy, and don’t end up with shrivelled / mouldy half eaten lemons in my fridge!

This plan definitely works fine if you’re vegetarian (I’m not technically a veggie anymore but haven’t eaten any meat or fish since starting). I haven’t based my meals on recipes in the book but instead apply the principles to foods that I enjoy, and as you mentioned find that cooking everything from scratch is definitely the best way to get the most enjoyment and nutrition out of your daily allowance. This is day 13 for me and on my mid-week scales check I had lost exactly 1 stone in 10 days 🙂 so stick with it, this really works!

Thanks everyone. Wow Lauren, that is such a fantastic result, you must be so happy and feel so different! Really well done.:)

I am just doing an supermarket order online, and am getting lemons and limes to slice and freeze.

It is taking me ages to decide what to order, as before I didn’t cook much, and ate badly. I’m reading all the labels, and checking the recipes here for ingredients. Getting some frozen berries and cherries too, for my yogurts.

I have been trying to do this all week, but haven’t been doing it properly, as I had all low fat stuff in house. Now ordered full fat cottage cheese, mayo butter etc.

I may dollop some full fat cream cheese/greek yoghurt/cream into a curry or bolognaise, is that OK? seems really sinful.

Also is it OK to cook with Rapeseed oil, as I have some? Or just olive oil.

Hi Barby, either Rapeseed or Olive oil are fine for this. Longer term, you may want to have a look at the Trust me I’m a Doctor website as MM did a test that showed Olive Oil is better for the cardiovascular system of all the oils (it was part of looking at what in the Med Diet makes it good for us). I had expected Rapeseed Oil to be the same as Olive Oil, as had he! I am currently finishing off my Rapeseed Oil and when done I will replace it with Olive Oil :-).
For full fat whatever in the curry – no reason why not so long as it keeps the meal within the range of carbs you want for that meal.
Full fat Greek yogurt was such a revelation – it will make your next week so much easier!
BTW Full Fat Feta cheese is a good standby to have in – crumple on top of soups or just for a mouthful of something with strong taste or in a salad – no carbs at all.
Have fun with the new shopping list!

I only use olive oil for salads or cooking in the oven. For frying I use linseed oil or butter, olive oil degrades at high temperatures

Hi all this is a great post as I’m veggie too and concerned about the menu plans. Does anyone use quorn as soya and I don’t mix! I love skaes with a protein supplement to. Will these work? Also are any of you prediabetic or near prediabetic? Or are you none of those and simply need to lose weight as you want to not get to that point? I am so totally exhausted every day by the amount of weight I carry, probably need to lose at least 3 stone, I’d be happy with that and have tried evey diet going including the 5:2 but got so bored with it and it petered out. I am hoping this short sharp body shock will help reset everything. I am concerned that this is aimed at those who are prediabetic and have type 2 rather than those of us who are heading that way and want to change. I want to plan my start and so am researching and your thoughts on this would be plus ketosis what the deal, should I order the ketostix and how does that work? Thanks in advance from a slightly scared veggie, apologies for questions 🙂

Hi Pinklady51,
I was watching MM’s recent series in January and bought the book – like you I had already tried the 5:2 and found I my lifestyle at the time was too unpredictable (travel and hotels) to manage the two days now fasting regularly so I stopped it intending to make go back to it.
I was not diabetic, had a BMI of 33 and 25kg overweight (pretty much 4 stone). I decided to test my blood sugars and discovered I was very close to being pre-diabetic. That was a shock and spurred me on to make sure I did not get any worse, although I was wary of the low calorie approach and could I keep to it. From the info it looked like I could get my blood sugar reading down in a couple of weeks, and I intended to move onto the 5:2 as soon as it was away from the pre-diabetic range and take the slower approach.
My blood sugars dropped enough to move to the 5:2 within 3 weeks, by then I realised – this was not hard, I was not hungry (I used shakes the first couple of weeks – mistake – it was simple, but I snacked (cherry tomatoes, carrots and almonds) more than once I went onto real food). Having lost 5kg in 3 weeks, I decided to keep on this for the eight and see how it went. I lost 12kg (26lbs) in the 8 weeks and 2 weeks on am now 14kg (30lbs) down, 2 dress sizes lower and I stopped being classified as obese after 5 weeks.
The ketostix are a way of checking if you are burning fat. I only got them last week. I started with good scales, a tape- measure and I did buy a blood sugar meter. I also already had a wrist blood pressure monitor and my scales measure fat% as well as a few other things. If you are worried about being pre-diabetic then either go the surgery and get measured, or buy one. I found it useful to have it as initially I took readings daily to see how it progressed and I could adjust my foods accordingly.
All you really need is a pair of accurate scales and a measuring tape. The scales will show weight loss and there are lots programmes online to convert to BMI if that is useful for you (see NHS website for one). The measuring tape will show you where the weight is coming off from . This is important. Take your waist and belly (2 in below waist) measurements as well as hips and bust. Arms and thighs as well if you want. What you are looking for is that the belly fat that is around the liver and pancreas is reducing. I spotted that I was losing more from my hips than waist in the first couple of weeks and started monitoring carbs, as all I was looking at was the 800 cals. Once I lowered the carbs to 60g a day, the fat around my waist and belly shifted.
Measure everything and record. Good kitchen scales that measure digitally are a must. Either through and app, spreadsheet or on paper, measure your calories and carbs daily – some people use carbs only and don’t worry about calories. you need to see what works for you (see my other post on that).
I weight myself daily and initially recorded it daily along with my waist. I then moved to recording it twice a week and now on once a week. I still step on the scales daily to motivate! Most of the grocery stores who deliver now have the product details on line as well, so you can plan from that if need be.
Sorry this is a bit long – hope that it helps.

Thank you so much Orchid. That was really helpful advice. I am going to look carefully at the kinds of foods I’ll be eating. Is there a definitive list of thos e recommended vegetables/fruits etc that one can have? I have seen for example butternut squash spaghetti which would be great to replace pasta. There are of course other things like cauliflower rice which one can use too. I really like the idea of going full fat again, trying to convince people that it’s ok to do that is hard going. I had known about full fate for a while but had avoided yogurts and most cheeses because that’s what we were all told! I am going to order the blood sugar monitor and ketostix. Is there information with the ketostix to explain what the fat burning range is?

For the ketostix, the darker a pink colour it is the better! It varies during the day, Hashimoto has found for her it is highest in the morning, so she now tests once a day. If have found the same. I am mid-range colour mornings, and paler at night.
Squashes were one thing the book advised to avoid in the 8 week stage. The veg above the ground and better than those below ground (root veg and they tend to have more sugars) but carrots were allowed. I will try to extract a list of the veg’s from the book later today. Cauliflower rice is fine. I did buy some premade and would not get too excited about it, but if you make your own it may be better – certainly if you can get a good texture to is.
good luck with the journey – it has been a fun experience – strange way to talk about a food plan :-)!

Thanks again. Maybe it’ll have to be courgette pasta instead! I have been talking to a friend today to try and convince her to try this. I have been thinking for the last few months that I needed something like a sharp shock to reset everything. A quick way so I wouldn’t get bored etc. so this is looking more likely. I am going to pick a date and start 😄

By the way which MM documentary did you see? I’d like to track it down and watch as I found the 5:2 one useful

Here is a list taken from MM’s book of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods.
No to :
• bread, pasta, potatoes, rice. Be wary of “brown” alternatives: the extra fibre can be negligible. Brown rice is OK, but some wholemeal breads have added sugar.
• most breakfast cereals: they are usually full of sugar, even the ones that contain bran. Oats are good as long as they are not the instant sort.
• Avoid margarine and use butter instead
• Treat root vegetables with caution – potatoes, parsnips, swedes/turnips are high in starch.
• Sweet tropical fruits such as mango, pineapple, melon, dates and bananas are full of sugar.

Yes to:
• Quinoa, bulgur (cracked wheat), whole rye, whole-grain barley, wild rice and buckwheat.
• Legumes, such as lentils and kidney beans.
• Full-fat yoghurt – add berries, (blackberries, strawberries or blueberries), for flavour; and or a sprinkling of nuts
• Breakfast/brunch – eggs: boiled, poached, scrambled or as an omelette. Add smoked salmon, mushrooms and a sprinkle of chilli for a change.
• Snacks -nuts are a great source of protein and fibre. No to salted or sweetened!
• Healthy fats and oils plus oily fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel). Add a splash of olive oil to vegetables, improves taste and the absorption of vitamins. Use olive, rapeseed or coconut oil for cooking.
• Butter and cheese in moderation is fine.
• High-quality proteins: oily fish, prawns, chicken, turkey, pork, beef, eggs, soya, edamame beans, Quorn, and hummus.
• Processed meats (bacon, salami, sausages) no more than a couple of times a week.
• Leafy green vegetables like broccoli, spinach, cabbage, lettuce, kale, chard, cauliflower, plus carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers are rich in vitamin C and fibre and very low in sugar and starch.
• Sweet fruits: berries, apples or pears are fine in moderation.
• Add sauces and flavouring – lemon, butter or olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, chilli, gravy.
• Alcohol – no more than one to two units a day on average (a small glass of wine or shot of spirits is 1.5 units) and cut back on beer – it’s carb rich.
From: Dr Michael Mosley’s “The 8-week blood sugar diet”
Hope it helps.

Hi pinklady51,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04j9gny/clips is the link to the Trust me I’m a Doctor series and there are a lot of clips in it you can look at now. I am not sure if he covered the specifics of this in the last series or if there were sections on eg fats that were relevant etc. It is nice to be able to go back an peruse them.

Go for it Pinklady51, I look forward to see you posting your starting weights and weekly losses soon! As I said, this has been a fun journey – it is always great to feel you are achieving goals.

Veggie Burgers/ Sausages. Has anyone tried a ready made supermarket burger or sausage they can recommend please? Or possibly other ready meals?

The Linda Mc Cartney Rosemary & Red Onion sausages are 132 cals for 2 and 6.3 carbs. I would love to have a fry up, with eggs and sausage and tomatoe. I could also chop the them up and have in a stir fry.

I know it is best to cook everything from scratch, but If I am to stick with this regime, I know that in truth I will not last doing this long term. I need to find some ready made things I can grab and cook sometimes, not just omlettes all the time.

I am trawling the supermarkets to look at their own too. I am not mad on the quorn ones, I prefer something that doesn’t try and taste like meat, but more veg and pulses.

I have also found the Cauldron falafels which are 134 cals for 2 and 12.5 carb for 2. These would be lovely cold with a salad.

There must be a huge market for healthy veggie food that is low carb and low salt, in the UK.

Finally, hello Pinklady 🙂 nice to have another veggie aboard, good luck, and hope you have some great losses.

Hi Barby, Like you, I generally prefer to stay away from these foods, but I have tried two different sausages. I used them in a vegetable stew – so lots of veg and sausages cut up in the stew. It made 4 portions so I must have been 2 sausages per portion.
The ones from Cauldron worked well and added flavour and texture to the stew. I will use them again. The ones from VegiDeli were no so successful – they went into ‘sausages with red cabbage’ and were ok, not memorable. They were much higher calorie as well. Maybe they would have been better just grilled.
I have bought some mushroom & garlic veggi-burgers (Dragonfly) 19 carbs 292 cals per burger. It was a bit of an impulse buy – I wanted some thing to have in the fridge for days I had little in the freezer or came home very hungry and needed to get some food going fast. I may try them at the weekend, I certainly need to plan the whole days food around that one item as it is high for the amount of space it takes up on the plate!
Beware of some of these products – sausages and pates often have potato as the base!
I will be interested in your thoughts about any of the others you try.

Thanks Orchid. Tonight I got the Linda McCartney frozen sausages from Lidl at £1.25 for 6 – they have 141 cals and 6.9 g carbs for 2. They kept their shape well and I could also do them with a big heap of allowed veg and gravy.

I fried them, with a 2 eggs omlette and some tomatoes, they were quite tasty, better than the quorn, I will buy them again unless I find something better. I’d like to try the red onion ones if I can find them.

I’ll try the Cauldron ones next. The Dragonfly range look interesting, but as you say, really too high in carbs. Ocado seem to have a good range of veggie ready meals but don’t deliver to me annoyingly.

I’ll report back if I find anything else.

Hi all. Blood sugar monitor arrived today. Date is set in diary to start next Monday so we are busy preparing this week. I had a look at the yogurt shelves and was bamboozled by which ones to have! I have avoided them for years as most of them seem to have gelatine in them. Which ones are people using?

Which grains are peeps using? I like couscous, giant couscous etc but maybe these won’t work. Also what salads are peeps doing for lunches? I work in one well known coffee shop and another independent coffee shop so not many chances to have a quick lunch. I find that salads work best rather than picking bits so wondered what kind of things people are doing. Sounds awful but is anyone using prepared soups like the super greens from m&s? I love this one and frankly when you’re exhausted this seems like a good option 🙂

I am going to take measurements this week and finally weight, blood sugars on monday morning day one 🙂

Hi Pinklady51,
Grains are out I am afraid – and the only thing I miss is barley for soup! For your M&S Soup – check the carb content of it and make sure there are not a lot of sugars in it and that it will not blow your calorie count. I have been making my own soup and a pan of soup makes 4-5 portions. One for today, rest for the freezer – about 400ml each. When I worked in London, I used to take one out of the freezer before I left for work and it would have slightly defrosted by lunch (so no mess in my bag). 20mins in the microwave and I had a plate of hot soup which filled me.
Yoghurt – all full fat versions. TOTAL Fage Greek yoghurt is a favourite on the forum, add your own berries to it. Not sure if it is veggie friendly. I use either Yeo Greek style or Rachel’s Greek style, both suitable for veggies, and add berries, seeds and a pinch of cinnamon for breakfast.
For lunch, I stick to tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions, red pepper al chopped up and add either hard-boiled egg, humus or feta cheese to it with a dressing. I find that plus soup works a treat. I vary the quantities and the dressings so it is never quite the same each day. Again, for travelling it is easy to carry in a plastic lunch box.
look forward to your future posts.