So, this is the start of the new four week challenge, for those that would like to come along. I am annoyed with myself for doing no more than marking time during the last challenge and wasting the opportunity to drop a few more pounds, so this time round I am determined to really take control. That being the case, here is my plan:
1) Get back to basics and return to weighing, measuring and recorded EVERYTHING I consume at home and be more stringent when eating out.
2) Continue to overnight fast by at least 16hrs and wherever possible longer.
3) Set myself a firm mini-goal with a target weight and a time frame. (Think being woolly about it, has been one of the reasons I haven’t pushed hard enough to succeed.)
4) To move around more and do some sort of exercise EVERYDAY, no matter how little.

Hope that there will be plenty of people joining me on this four week challenge. To close, I bought a tiny little book in a charity shop today, called The Ways of Wisdom, which has a quote I thought I would share:
Tomorrow is the most important thing in life …. Comes into us at midnight, very clean, it’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday. – attributed to John Wayne.

So, let’s do it people! Let’s learn from our yesterdays and move on to tomorrow with positivity. We CAN do this!!!

Ok SunnyB I’m with you on this one …. may all our tomorrows be better than our todays!

I didn’t join the last 4 week challenge mainly because I was on other threads and it was all becoming a bit much. My last 9 weeks have been a bit of a washout and in fact my last 4 months have been less than brilliant with just a 6lb loss. I suppose the most important thing is that I’m still here and trying and haven’t given up and gained back all the weight I’ve lost in the last 12 months.

This summer seems to have been difficult for several of so let’s move forward.

So, my plan is
1 To eat more protein and fat and to eat fewer carbs.
2 To drink more water and no wine.
3 To vary my diet and not allow myself to end up in a rut eating the same things over and over.

I can’t set any goals because it is counterproductive for me. My plan is to just eat BSD friendly food and stay as close to 800/30 as I can get.

Let’s all look forward, we can’t change yesterday but we can learn from it as you say SunnyB.

Here’s to a good challenge for all.

Yes!! I’m in and ready for a new 4 week challenge!!
I’m aiming for an 8lb loss, 2lb a week (C’mon pod you can do it), but I’ll take more if it’s offered. I need to get into the 10st!!
Yesterday was the start of my 3rd 8 week block, and after a lot of reading and advice taken, I’ve decided to overnight fast, 18:6 hopefully, up my carbs and forget about keto!! I can easily stay under 30g carbs a day, I found it extremely difficult to stay at 20g or under!! I was really, really hungry!! Obviously hadn’t worked it out properly.. I’ll leave it until another time.
Still can do very little exercise because of my knee, waiting for an MRI scan, but I will get on my bike (literally)!!
I liked the quote Sunnyb, so here’s to us all, let’s move with gusto to tomorrow!!!

Hi, Verano, nice to see you! I can empathise with you, I can only manage one thread at a time!!!

I am ready for the next challenge too. I have lost 5 lbs this week and am back to my lowest weight after dillying (?) around with holiday excesses and losing and gaining the same five pounds.
My challenge is to lose 5 lbs, hopefully more, to at last get to the three stone off mark. I find skipping breakfast helps and also not being too obsessive about the numbers, oh, and to not drink so much red wine!
Keeping on keeping on one day at a time.
X B

Thanks for opening up this challenge SunnyB.

Well done, Busybee.

I’m the same with goals, Verano, I just seem to fight against them. Contrary. So, back to the book for inspiration, review the M Plan and just focus, damn it!!! Weigh, measure, record, drink water+++

“Let’s all look forward, we can’t change yesterday but we can learn from it as you say SunnyB.
Here’s to a good challenge for all.” I second that, Verano and SunnyB.

That’s a good loss BusyBee, well done. I’m a little envious, as I find if I’m not obsessive about the numbers nothing happens, other than going back and forth over the same pound or so on the scales. If you can achieve loss without counting though, all power to you. It’s great to see familiar names signing up and all with a renewed verve and vigour to meet the challenge with positivity.

Let’s do it folks!

SunnyB, I do vaguely count calories but don’t worry if I end up eating a little more than 800, and let the carb count take care of itself my not eating the white stuff. I’m sure when I have lost more weight ( still two and a half stone to go) I will need to be more careful.
We can and will do it!
X B

Hello everyone- I am in on this challenge too and after last month’s disappointing 0.6 lb loss I am hopeful for a much better loss in the next four weeks!! I have been stuck for two months at the same weight and am going to stick to the 800 calories with intermittent fasting and am going to increase my walking for the next four weeks to try and get the scales moving. Tomorrow when I get home from work I am going to go for a long walk. I have been on the BSD for 30 weeks now and am becoming tired of hovering around the 142 lb mark. I really do want to lose another 7lb which will get me to a BMI of 25. If I could lose 3lb this challenge I would be happy with that. Tomorrow I am going to do 16:8 and have planned my lunch and evening meal. Coffee and water for breakfast tomorrow.. I am determined to post only positive comments on this next challenge too! Good luck everybody- we are all determined to smash the Spring/Fall challenge.

Goodness Cathy I could just copy and paste the first part of your post and it would be my story! I too have been doing this for 30 weeks, my weight has pretty much stayed the same for 2 months, well I lose and then put back on again, over and over. And I only lost 0.6lb in the last challenge. But that’s where our similarities end, as my BMI is still 31, trying to get to 29 at the moment so I’ll only be Overweight rather than Obese. I like your idea of only being positive in this thread, so I’m going to post something positive each time too.
One thing I realised this week is that BSD really has become a way of life
for me. I was out on the weekend and had lunch with my husband. I ordered a small serve of chicken schnitzel and vegetables (not quite on plan, but close!). Anyway even though the serving was “small” it was still more than I’d usually eat and I felt really, really full afterwards, like I couldn’t fit another moth full in. Anyway I realised that I never usually feel like this nowadays, whereas pre-BSD it was a regular occurrence. So even though I’m not losing as much or as fast as I’d like to, my eating habits have definitely changed for the better 🙂

Thanks for starting a new challenge, SunnyB. Please count me in too.

Lots of positivity and good personal challenges posted so far. My personal challenge remains the same as last month, i.e.to continue maintaining, despite having open house at Hotel Theodora. Really is beginning to feel like Hotel California – you can check out, but you can’t ever leave!!!!

If I can end this challenge within sight of my comfort zone, I will be – err not happy exactly, but at least content 😉

Already, on the last day of the previous challenge, I have had 2 glasses of white wine and 3 of red – really embarrassed admitting that – but, even worse, I had my first piece of bread (albeit from a local artisan baker) since January. In my defence, I cooked moules mariniere for our guests, and how on earth can one be expected to not mop up the delicious juices with a piece of quality, old fashioned locally baked bread?

So, my goal is to maintain, drink only moderately, and no more delicious bread (or at the very least, only occasionally and very mindfully )

Good luck everyone, whatever your goal is this month, together we can do this.😊

Morning all and thanks for starting the thread SunnyB.

I’ve done OK over the last 4 weeks but it’s really only been re-losing what I had lost already and then put on again. I haven’t lost any ‘new’ pounds since January!!! So this challenge is to lose a pound a week (again) which will still only take me to 3.5lbs from any ‘new weight lost’ but it’s a start!. This week I am eating out 4 times as we have work visitors that need to be entertained but I am choosing wisely and concentrating on all the things I CAN eat rather than bemoaning the fact that there are loads of things I can’t eat. However, seeing a hot crispy bucket of sweet potato fries at the restaurant last night was nearly my undoing 🙂

Add to that a weekend camping, a Bank holiday and our work 50th anniversary celebrations and ‘challenge’ will be an understatement!!

However, onwards and downwards everyone – sending lots of positive vibes. May all your troubles be small and your willpower large 🙂

Great to see so many on board with this challenge and lots of sound personal challenges being posted. It’s good that people are determined to post positive comments, but please don’t feel you can’t vent if you need to, so that we can give the support and encouragement that keeps us all going.

I feel I’ve made a good start and it felt really empowering to be weighing, measuring and recording everything consumed again, coming out under on both cals and carbs yesterday. After just one day I’m feeling so much more in control and positive that I can achieve my goal. This evening is going to be a blip, as we have an unexpected social evening eating out, but I am committed to keeping alcohol consumption small and food choices BSD friendly. Being under on cals and carbs yesterday, extending my fasting window to 18hrs today and plan to keep my first meal minimal, should all help offset this evening – hopefully. Anyway, I’m pleased this is happening at the beginning of the challenge week, as it gives me plenty of time to get back firmly on track before the first weigh-in.

Okay, finally a thought for today – Life is filled with certain obligations and responsibilities, but none more basic, primal, or important than the responsibilities we have to ourselves. Erin Brockovich from ‘Take It From Me’

The positivity on this thread is very powerful! I am just having a black coffee and have not eaten anything since 6.30 pm last night. I’ve got two boiled eggs and spinach for my lunch. I am having veg chilli for my tea tonight. I am going to diptest my urine at work before lunch to see if I am in ketosis (I work in General Practice). I will be burning fat this challenge! Haven’t felt this positive since about week 3 of BSD and this is week 30! Thank you for the positive vibes everyone- they’re working!

I agree this positivity is infectious. I am hungry, probably carb withdrawal, and sitting here thinking what can I eat that will do the least damage but after logging into this thread I’m just going to have 1/2 lt of water instead!!

Have a good day.

Hello all, late at night again after busy day. Started with 300g loss, 64.5g. Something to be going on with.

I’m taking part in a study of the beneficial, or not, effect of laser therapy on early stage macula degeneration. Today was the end of the initial 3 years and I’ve been asked to continue for another 2 years of monitoring only. It is entirely voluntary, and not really onerous, just an extremely thorough eye examination with those horrid drops, every 6 months. It is a “masked” study, with one group receiving the laser treatment, and second group only mock laser/very bright light beam. So I don’t know whether I’m on the A or B team, but have the bonus of the most searching eye testing for free, and the offer of treatment if something untoward shows up. Not onerous but tiring.
This 3.5hr session started at noon, so brunch, then afternoon tea when OH came to drive me home. Late dinner after open night at 9yo grandson’s school, which turned out to be a rather distressing experience as we discovered the extent to which he had fallen behind this year, with no previous notice being given to his parents, either one of whom was there every day to drop off or pick up. Very angry on behalf of this poor little boy. He looked so helpless and sad. Many questions to be answered.

Anyway, 875/49 which is not so bad for such a disrupted day. Go well, everyone.

I’ve just made some flaxseed crackers to eat with cheese or hummus for my lunch tomorrow- I don’t know the carb count but they’re really lovely and so easy. 1 cup ground flax seed, 2 tbsp chia seeds, half a cup of water, half tsp salt, 2-3 tsp dried herbs and spices (optional)- I used thyme, basil and chilli flakes and a little garlic salt.

Preheat the oven to 190- prepare a large baking tray by lining with baking paper
Combine all the dry ingredients into a mixing bow,
Slowly add the water and mash it into the ingredients so your “dough” forms
Scoop the mixture out onto your baking tray and with a fork press and smooth the mixture out so it is less than 5mm thick. Get it nice and even and thin to ensure crunchy crackers.
Use a sharp knife to score the dough along desired cracker shapes to ensure you can break them into nice tidy pieces
Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes.
Allow to cool completely then break into crackers
Store in an airtight container for two weeks.

They’re really nice and suitable for gluten free, vegan, vegetarian – makes approximately 16 crackers

Dear All,

Sheepishly joining you all for the push to September. I got within 0.2lb of my goal weight and have since been on super-sabotage mode. I can’t explain what has got into me and am wracked with guilt and anger over my lack of control.
There has been temptation around the house as we have had a couple of family celebrations over the weekend and I was given carb loaded thank you gifts. I opened everything and shared it round but since then have been hoovering up the left overs, washed down with too much wine.
Like Theodora I haven’t had any bread or rice since January. I just lost the plot, ate some rice and then couldn’t hold back on the nuts, cheese and chocolate. It’s taken three days to put the brakes on.
This has happened to me in the past when I have lost weight, I overeat and it all goes back on again. I am going back to logging every mouthful to keep the carb urges in check.
What makes the carb switch flick – I thought I’d cracked it this time?

Positive thought to you all,
Lippy

Hi LippyLipid – don’t panic about the transgression, in all likelihood, I doubt you will see as much damage to your weight as you might fear. Just get right back to it and I’m sure you will soon be at target weight.

I’m not sure the carb monster is ever slain, the best most of us can hope for is that it is locked up in solitary confinement. It is eating the carbs that unlocks to door though, which is why we need to control our carb consumption. You can shove your carb monster back into it’s confinement by again withdrawing access to carbs.

Keep us posted on how you get one and best of luck with getting to target weight during this challenge.

The technical answer to our sticking carb ‘on switch’ seems to be a form of hyperinsulinemia, which causes the cravings for more carbs after eating some of them. Essentially the amount of insulin pumped into the bloodstream when you eat the white stuff is way too high for the amount you have eaten and so once the glucose from the white stuff has been dealt with, the body starts crying out for more, of course all it does if you give in to it is keep piling it into your fat cells. It actually helped me quite a lot when I realised that this was the cause, as I can now recognise and (mostly) ignore the cravings or keep them at bay with BSD friendly food until, I assume the insulin levels lower again, and the cravings go away again.

Hi all, can I join you please? Reading everyone’s posts helps me stay motivated!
I’m away from home for this whole challenge, three weeks of which are in France.
So my hope is to maintain and not go above 9st 8lbs… and to stay away from the pain au chocolats and croissants! 😳

I’ll be joining in again, target is to go into the second six months of my maintenance without tracking my food on Crono, except on fast days. I will also cut down the weighing of myself, although I still aim to weigh several times a week. Weight yesterday after one fast day after my holiday was back to target at 10st 11.2 so happy with that. Now to see if I can stay there with less checking, planning and tracking, so my new healthier habits are being tested properly. So drinking alcohol is only Friday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays/special occasions. White stuff, if any, within a one hour period, and once a day only, and one to two fast days a week depending on weight cues.

Good to have you on board MnM. It sounds like you have a very sound plan for your maintenance. Keep us posted on how it goes, as many of us are approaching the point of maintenance with a little trepidation, so any information or advice will be very valuable.

Two discoveries in Tesco this morning. first one was whilst looking in the freezer section, for frozen mash for OH, when I spied frozen avocado halves (£3 for 7 halves totalling 500g). Then further on, looking in the baking section for maple syrup for the grandchildren, I notice a product from Linwoods – Milled flaxseed, almonds, brazil nuts, walnuts & co-enzyme Q10 (£5 for 360g with 559 cals and 5.6g carbs per 100g). And yes I bought both.

The avocado because I like them but rarely use more than a half at a time, which often results in me throwing away half if I use a fresh one. The milled flax and nuts, I have already used along with almond flour, chopped herbs, good twist of salt and eggs, to make some thin crackers, as my stock was getting low. Have tried them of course and they are yummy with a good crunch. Figured the additional fibre in them could only be a good thing.

I like your “on switch” explanation, MnM. That makes perfect sense. And I love the sound of your new plan.

Well, LippyLipid, come join the s-s (super-sabotage) club with me and we’ll together fight those carb monsters, again, for me at least.

I sometimes like to visualise and today, I was tempted to stop for a sandwich while I was out (which I did do one day last week). I was inspired by the sports equipment shop near my car to imagine me scooping up the carb monsters in the sandwich bar and stuffing them into a punching bag. As I drove home I imagined lots more of the monsters being shoved into that punching bag, and at various times during the day I visualised me punching that bag with gusto and making those monsters scream. Lordy, that’s childish, but it got me through a couple of sticky moments, gave me time to get to the water bottle instead of the carbs. Well, I’ve said it before, I’ve always been a drama queen………:)

Another small loss on scales this morning. I don’t mind how small so long as I can see at the end of the week that the awful upward trend has been reversed. 730/45 for today.

“Night all. Keep well.

I use the Linwoods mix for lots of things, it is great in porridge for a lower carb higher fibre tasty bulk addition, add to smoothies and protein shakes also as a fibre filled thickener, and stirred into yoghurt with cinnamon or cocoa powder/nibs for a ‘dessert’ I haven’t actually tried baking with them, but then I don’t bake very often.

Hi
I would love to join as well. Am trying to reduce before my next birthday am about 3weeks in and have lost 10lbs but have had 2 blips already ! I would like to lose 2 lbs a week

Welcome aboard on the challenge, Lessmuffintop. Sounds like you have made a solid start. Blips are part of life, the secret is not to panic and to get straight back to the BSD asap. You goal sounds doable and hopefully you will get where you want to be in time for your birthday – please keep us posted.

Dear All,

Marsie, thanks for the invitation to curb my Super-Saboteur tendencies in the S-S Club to battle the Carb Monster. Visualising the sticky demons is a brilliant idea, a bit like the virtual Pokemon my (adult!) kids were addicted to catching on their mobile phones. I’m joining you, although I’m more a Robin than a Batman, especially this week where my efforts have been too Hit’n’Miss rather than “Kerpow”.

I have purged the house of temptation (sounds good, but it involved eating crisps and chocolate until I shouted at myself and tipped the junk into the food waste).

Welcome Lessmuffintop, if you feel a blip coming imagine all of us on this Forum waiting to sing you Happy Birthday with bubbles and streamers! Let the sound of us cheering block out the voice telling you to succumb.

I buy my Linwoods supplements from Costco. I don’t know if any of you are Costco shoppers, it is a wholesale shop for members and offers both really healthy foods and also the other carb-laden extreme, in bulk quantities. I have a large extended family and regularly shop there using a pre-written Shopping List (I’ve never gone off-piste from BSD principles at Costco, somehow seeing huge packs of carby-rubbish is easier to avoid). When I get home I split up the bulk packs, if it is perishable food, using my FoodSaver vacuum bagger.

I know this week’s weigh-in won’t be good for me as I’m battling to get back to BSD-way of eating. The towel is not being thrown in and I am now helping Wonder-Woman Marsie thump her punchbag full of Carb Monsters.
Until Tuesday fellow Carb-fighters….

Hi everyone I would like to join this nearly 4 week challenge (for me). Like many others I have consistently lost and gained and lost and am still slightly over where I was 6 weeks ago. I have had a few horror weeks and other “good” weeks but want to get more consistent. I currently weigh 82.6kg and want to get to under 80kg by 8 September. Haven’t been there since my teens and I am now in my 50s so would like to know how it feels. I am going to get strict with food again and check this blog daily for motivation. So many amazing people who keep going and set such aspiring examples. Thank you SunnyB for getting me started.

Welcome along poodlefrenzy – It sounds like many of us, you know how to do it, you know you can do it, it’s just a case of really applying yourself for achieve it. Life has a habit of conspiring and throwing too many temptations our way, but I think your personal goal sounds very doable, so it’s time to focus and get serious – weigh, measure and record everything consumed and try to have some distraction tactics in reserve, for when those temptations come your way.

Please keep us posted and best of luck for hitting that target.

Hi – am joining this challenge also. Hadn’t been able to weigh myself for a week as daughter and family were using the bathroom with the scales in. They went home yesterday so today weighed myself and was exactly the same as the previous Saturday.

Was really pleased with that because I stuck to the BSD while they were here and didn’t weigh anything just ate to appetite. Pleased also because on the 10th it was my 8th month on maintenance. Everyone was comfort eating except me. I actually preferred to eat BSD.

I have had too much cream in my coffee and much too much meridian crunchy almond butter on some days.

Husband still on morphine but is in a bit less pain. He is getting around more easily but does overdo it a bit – I have been nagging him about it.

Hi I did post a couple of days ago just to say sorry I’ve not posted much just been a bit preoccupied. The post seems to be lost in the ether! I am still here and still working towards a good result at the end of four weeks.

Krysia hope your husband doesn’t overdo it because it will just hinder not help his recovery. Take it from one who knows!!!

Interesting that you actually prefer to eat BSD friendly given the choice. I’m sure that after a certain length of time it is just so much nicer and becomes second nature. We were away overnight on Thursday and I had a tiny piece of bread with olive oil and balsamic which I enjoyed for itself. I didn’t feel as though I’d been missing out on bread or felt the need to eat more, it was just a little taste and it felt ‘normal’ , no guilt because it was a refined carb. I think once you get to the point we’re you can take or leave foods you have cracked it. MM doesn’t say you can never eat bread etc again. I just make sure now that if I am having something carby I really savour it. Fortunately I can have one square of chocolate without needing to eat the whole bar so maybe that helps when eating the odd ‘carb laden food’.

Well just one more day before weigh in and I have my fingers crossed for a reasonable loss. Hope everyone else is gaving a good first week.

Verano – would you like to come over and tell him that. He might listen to you!!!

You are right that eating the BSD friendly foods has become second nature. I am fortunate also that I can have one square of the 90% chocolate without having the whole bar.

I was also very lucky that when I ate some lemon pie after a year without wheat or sugar I was violently sick an hour later and bought it up undigested (sorry to post this at breakfast time). So as well as a carb addiction I probably had some sort of intolerance to wheat because a lot digestive problems stopped immediately when I started the BSD. I haven’t been very keen to repeat the experience.

Instead of the deserts everyone else had – I had 2 pieces of the 90% spread with crunchy meridian almond butter. Very very delicious with a cup of Nespresso coffee.

Good luck with your weigh in tomorrow.

Krysia I think when it comes to illness etc. some men think they just have to brazen their way through and be ‘strong’. Problem with hip surgery it’s so easy to undo the good work by doing too much too quickly. It’s not a broken arm that will heal in a cast it needs to stabalise, and the last thing he needs to do is dislocate it in the first three months, because it will then be more prone to dislocate in the future. Patience and following the physio’s instructions is the name of the game then he’ll never know he has a hip replacement.

Not sure my weigh in tomorrow is going to be that great after too much cheese and wine yesterday! Will make a really concerted effort today and drink plenty of water. I cling on to the success of maintainers like you when times get rough because I know it can be done. I know that I won’t put back on the weight I’ve lost so far but I just need to lose some more. A friend who was here yesterday is a ‘Weight Watcher’ and I’ve seen her go down and up, and down and up many times over the last few years. I really don’t want to do that I just want a healthy diet. This is definitely a better way to eat.

I love 90% but not sure I could have it with almond butter although I do sometimes have almonds with my chocolate! I had some dairy milk a few weeks ago, when I was just mindlessly eating, and it was just awful, it used to be my favourite! My how our taste buds change.

Hope everyone has a good day today. See you all tomorrow no matter what the number on the scales is!

Lol, LippyLipid, it’s a hard act to keep up, had a few air-swings over a very social weekend. The next two weekends are going to be just as busy, if not more so, which means punching bag front and centre this week to have my thought processes BSD aware.

KrysiaD, I do hope your husband will listen to you. Three years ago now both my younger son 45, and then, a few weeks later, OH 77, had hip replacements. Both followed the surgeon’s and physios’ instructions to the letter and both had excellent results. OH is 80 in a couple of months and you would never know he’d had an operation, in comparison to a friend of the same vintage who was too impatient, pushed the exercises, ignored his wife and the surgeon and now has an awkward gait, seems to “throw” his leg a little. So, nag away, KrysiaD.

OMG, was just at the fridge for the bottle of sparkling water, eyes lit upon the bottle of lemon, lime and bitters remaining from when I bought it for a particular visitor who drinks it but didn’t. Thought “oh, that would be nice for a change!”, luckily looked at the nutrition panel….330ml bottle….567kj/136cal & 33.2g carbs = all sugar. That’s what? 8 and a bit tspns of sugar? Holy moly. Even having one third of it over ice is more sugar than I’m willing to drink these days. That has just ensured I won’t be ordering it when I’m out. I’d be better off having a glass of champers! 🙂

Thought I should post something, as the w/e was an odd one BSD-wise. We had two events, one Saturday, one Sunday.

The one I was most concerned about was the Saturday one, but as it happened this was the one that proved easiest to navigate. It was a Sausage and Cider Festival, so I was thinking there probably wouldn’t be much available without a bun and cider is pretty carby. Anyway, ended up with a beef kebab without the pitta bread and a little extra salad, one small glass of prosecco and one small cocktail. Potential pitfall averted and scales looked fine yesterday morning.

Yesterday afternoon was a picnic at a friend’s vineyard and I made a butterbean ‘hummus’ and some almond and cheese crackers to take with us. Anyway, three glasses of white wine, too much picking at the buffet and too little water, resulted in a sizeable bounce back on the scales this morning. So, I am being extra careful to day and am already ahead on fluids to get hydration back up. I am fairly confident of being able to post a loss tomorrow, but it might not be as much as I had ben hoping, given the results over the last week.

Wish me luck on the scales tomorrow! Best of luck to everyone else striving for a lose making week.

Posting an early result because I won’t be weighing in tomorrow. Unfortunately it would seem that although I did my very best with all the meals out and work party last week, I have not managed to lose anything and have gained half a pound. It could have been a lot worse so I will take that and set off on another week with a lot less entertaining and a lot more concentrating on eating on plan.

I do feel blue though 🙁 I was so positive that I had avoided everything that could derail me but the odd mashed up potato in my fishcakes and hidden carbs has obviously had its effect so it looks like I can not stray at all from this way of eating if I hope to maintain at some stage (another 9lbs from now)

Good luck to everyone weighing in tomorrow – I look forward to some amazing losses and will live vicariously through you all!

Half a pound is nothing, it could simply be the physical contents of your digestive system compared to last time you weighed in, or hormonal differences causing water retention. There is a good reason why on maintenance I have a six pound ‘comfort zone’ because my daily variance due to these factors can easily be over a pound, just from day to day. Just keep on keeping on and try not to worry about such a tiny increase.

MnM is right TC, half a pound is not here or there, but I appreciate it can be disheartening to see any rise, especially if you have been doing your level best to keep things under control. Actually, if you were weigh tomorrow instead, it might be a half pound loss rather than gain. Anyway, keep with it ‘cos you know it makes sense and that it will work in the long run and I’m sure you will be posting something much more positive at next week’s weigh-in.

Marsie and Verano – very good advice. Had very strong words with husband this evening and I think at last he realises that he must follow the guidelines from the hospital to the letter or he will have problems.

TC, totally agree with MnM and SunnyB. Half a pound is just normal variance. Case in point – I didn’t sleep well last night and got up to make myself a cuppa at 4am. Whilst waiting for the kettle to boil, went to the loo, and as the scales were there, I hopped on them – goodness knows why!! Anyway I was shocked to find that for the very first time since reaching target, I had gone OVER goal weight by a whole pound!!!! Went back to bed with my cuppa, but the scale incident did not exactly improve my sleep for what was left of the night! Anyhow, got up this morning and weighed myself at my normal time of 7.30am (I’m a daily weigher) and lo and behold, I was 2lbs UNDER goal weight! In 3.5 hours there was a change of 3 whole pounds!!

I will report in tomorrow, and hoping I may have even more wriggle room by then ready for the next onslaught at Hotel Theodora, but won’t be holding my breath on that one – and I certainly won’t be doing any more 4am weigh-ins😉

Krysia, really pleased to hear that o/h has seen sense and has decided to follow doctor’s orders. Hope he recovers quickly.

Good morning all. Or at least I hope it is for all the weigh-ins.

64.1kg this morning for me. Very social weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, mostly focused but a few slips, so a half kilo down is absolutely ok i.e. the upward trend has been stopped.

KrysiaD, so glad your stern words to your OH have had an effect x

Scales seem to have some magical, magnetic quality, Theodora, that just attract our fuzzy 4am brains and all it does is scare us fully awake😯😴

The others are right topcac. Take heart.

Another up and down week for me- got to my lowest recorded weight last Thursday of 138 lb and today I am 140.2 so a loss of 1.4 lb for me since this time last week. Thursday is always my lowest day for some reason. Am happy with a loss this week! My enthusiasm for achieving my goal is still strong. I bought a lovely dress from the charity shop at weekend and I tried it on when I got home and looked fabulous in it! The dress cost me £1! I am almost at the end of my fourth consecutive 8 weeks on BSD. Will probably need another 8 weeks to achieve my healthy BMI goal of 25 .

Marsie, you are so right, but in future I will do my utmost to resist their magical magnetic quality at 4am😉

Weighed at normal time this morning, our official weigh in day, and I’m pleased and relieved to report that the scales have moved down another pound overnight (exceedingly active day yesterday and no alcohol😜) and so I now have a full 3lbs wriggle room back.😁

Well done CC. Great loss this week – and what a bargain your dress was. We all love a bargain, don’t we?

Hope everyone else is doing okay one week in?

Good morning everyone

Just 1lb down for me this week. It should have been more but I too had a sociable weekend! Well done to all the losers and just keep on to all those who stay the same this week.

Hope week 2 is good for us all.

Great to see so many losses being reported! I too can report a loss although it’s just 1.4lb. Not as much as it should have been as I had seen better on the scales during the week, but I’ll take it. Especially as this means that I’m now a smidge under original goal weight, so on my way to building a bit of wriggle room.

We go camping with the grandchildren on Thursday through to Sunday, so this week might get a bit dodgy, as I will be trying to stick to the BSD principles but won’t be able to keep close track on what I’m consuming. I’m hoping increased activity will offset some of it and that I can pull things back a bit next Monday, so that next week’s result doesn’t reverse this week’s and leave me back at square one. Still have today and tomorrow to keep close track and hopefully drop a little more before we go away – it all helps doesn’t it?

Well done everyone who has been able to report a loss this week and commiserations with those who can’t. It’s tough when you’ve made the effort and still can’t report a loss, but stick in there, it will happen. Best of luck to absolutely everyone, have a good week and hope to read lots more positive results next week too.

Thanks all for giving me the sage advice that I knew in my head but the rest of me was taking its time catching up. I know half a pound isn’t much so I am looking forward and, finally after hurting my back a few weeks ago, went back to the gym this morning. Took it easy but back seemed to hold up OK and felt much better for it. Have a camping weekend coming up too but have already planned BSD friendly food so I think I will actually manage a whole week to plan – roll on next weigh day!