Yep, Natalie, can empathise. After Caramelshortbreadgate I fell asleep on train home and almost missed my stop – felt revolting. How much better It would have been to eat 600 extra cals worth of cheese & grapes – would have enjoyed it loads more.

Your question is such an important one – do we need these ‘treat’ foods in our lives at all? Because they’re not treats, are they? For T2D’s like me, they merely hasten death. Harsh, but true.

MKx

Hi Everyone – week 5 weigh in for me today and I’m down 1.5kg this week, taking me to a total of 8.7kg down and I hit the 10% of body weight lost! Very excited to hit the 10% mark – next mini goal is the 10kg loss.

Very happy with the loss, especially as I had a calorie blow out yesterday with friends round for dinner. I made good choices and everything was BSD friendly, but I ate WAY more than usual and it was all yummy high fat goodness 🙂 Thanks to those who made catering suggestions. I went with a selection of mediterranean antipasto and a delicious lentil, pumpkin, beetroot & walnut salad which was a huge hit. I also avoided the crackers purchased for my guests – munching away on my celery / cucumber and carrot sticks with the dips. I also made sure to purge the house of any tempting leftovers, so back on plan today.

Good luck with weigh ins – hope everyone has great week 5 results 🙂

Western Hunger – That’s a great term with a lot of insight it sums up what a lot of the food industry is encouraging.

Funny how Ribera etc are reducing the sugar in drinks to avoid the sugar tax – it would have been nice if they had done it to look after the health of UK kids.

But we are also personally responsible for what we put in our mouths have been thinking a lot about this of late and how we can improve our health by diet and shouldn’t always rely on the doctor for a magic pill

Morning everyone thank goodness its not just me who overindulged! Had a couple of slices of home made fruit cake yesterday, stress related as my husband was in hospital having a ‘plate’ put in his shoulder! Friends I speak to seem to go the other way i.e. not eat, whereas as I seem to grab anything sugary/chocolate when under stress😒. Must do better today👍.
Some really interesting posts about ‘hunger’ and definately worth considering, thank you for adding a different perspective. Good choices today everyone👏

Great loss Lara! 8.7kg in 5 weeks is amazing. And 10%! Great milestone.

Ah Granny, don’t we envy those who turn away from food when stressed. Lucky are those who want to go and exercise instead. But on the bright side, I’m grateful I don’t turn to cigarettes, alcohol or drugs as many do when life gets stressful. I’m hoping a longer time on this diet will get me out of the habit of turning to food.

Speaking of which, I recommit to these last six weeks before Christmas. I’ve had a few bits and pieces and a couple of particularly bad days just in this past week, I seem to have relaxed a little too much. So, doesn’t matter I’m hosting a big family dinner tomorrow, I don’t need dessert or snacks just because I am serving them to others. I’m even trying to cut down on junk I serve to other people (I love them, why would I want them fat and/or sick) but this is a special occasion dinner so I’ve made dessert. Most of the food will be healthy.

You’re right MK, they are not really treats. Even Christmas, as I say I’ve been taking note of how I feel after eating non-Med foods, so I haven’t quite decided how far I will deviate from plan then. Maybe just a bit more food without eating junk. I don’t want to feel tired, sick and headachy on Christmas Day!

Angiebabe I have noticed how much hungrier I feel after eating sugar. It’s crazy.

Maharani – get a picture of your friend on your phone, and look at it every time you have a waver towards mindless eating.

Natalie, well done on sticking mostly to BSD thru the party, and only having one slice of cake.
The best thing about home made cake opposed to shop bought is that you see, weigh and calculate everything that goes into it – everything that you have spent however many weeks avoiding. With shop bought, you just wave a card at a terminal.
That and no trans fats!
Waitrose have started displaying the calories in different cakes at the cake counters – brave of them, bet it halves the impulse buys.
There are low carb recipes for cake in the recipe section here, and someone that used to post here a lot (Izzy, where are you? hope that you’re well) used to use a site called Elana’s Pantry https://elanaspantry.com
There again, if it’s a one off birthday treat for your child, rather than everyday…
Scary when I think back to the amount of cakes, pies and pastries my mum used to bake pretty much every weekend. She’d bake a batch of fairy cakes or eclairs, I’d eat them all, so she’d make another batch.
Thanks Mum!
I must admit, I have never ever tasted eclairs or lemon meringue as good as my Mums – and I have eaten a LOT of eclairs.

Final week of diabetic cookery class on Monday, we’re going to be making low carb cakes – some of the recipes are ones that I’ve found for here, so that will be interesting.

Am just remembering my old test for hunger … i used to tell myself if i didn’t want to eat an apple whole then i wasn’t really hungry. The test of course wasn’t for my favorite apple all cut up and cored. 🙂

Think my new test will be if i don’t want plain raw or steamed broccoli without anything else on it … then i am not really hungry.

Occasionally the body is hungry for a specific bit of nutrition that it is missing …. salt for instance …. but we could just put some salt on a veggie or have a cup of broth with salt in it …. not the packet of crisps our old habituated mind seems to cling too. And it may just be mental hunger …. but it does make our stomachs want it too!!

Takes a lot of time and energy to get healthier habits.

Just thinking out loud!!

HUGS to all.

Good morning Day 35, last day of week five. I am a happy girl this morning. Despite cake yesterday I lost a bit more weight, back down to my lowest before my Thursday binge. And only 0.2kg from a 5kg total loss which is a big milestone for me. Maybe if I’m very good today I will have an exciting official weigh-in tomorrow.

Plan for the day:
B: yoghurt and raspberries
L: modified Caesar salad
D: roast lamb and veges

Have a great day, everyone!

I am very proud of myself today. Despite a big family dinner and lots of temptations then and at other points during the day, I stuck to my plan. I didn’t weigh everything as I was too busy and also don’t like to be seen making a fuss. I had a bit too much meat and a little piece of potato, but no Doritos, garlic bread, dessert, after-dinner chocolates , cake or lollies. Estimated calories for the day 926, 41g carb.

While out shopping this morning I bought myself a charm for my Pandora bracelet. All my charms are “earned” by something health related over the past five years or so. I would set myself targets like going to the gym five days a week for a month (back when I was going to the gym), or achieving a certain distance in 30 minutes on the rowing machine. I always planned to get myself an extra special charm for every 5kg loss. I never ever managed to earn one of those! And I haven t quite yet. But I bought a lovely purple one today, confident I will get there very soon. It is waiting to go on the bracelet as soon as I finish earning it. I will break this curse of never getting to a whole 5kg loss!

Congratulations Natalie – that’s a lot of temptation avoided, well done! The smell of garlic bread alone would have had me salivating. Can’t wait to hear you’re wearing your new charm 🙂

Good morning Week Six! Unfortunately I gained 0.2 kg instead of losing 0.2, so no charm yet, but I know I will get there soon.

After the big weekend I am crushingly tired this morning. I haven’t had a cup of tea yet, hopefully that will help. My sister-in-law’s parents are here visiting from China and were over for dinner last night, they brought us some longevity tea but I don’t quite feel up to trying it yet! Maybe this afternoon. When we were over there I tried lots of teas, some were nice but the weight loss one was disgusting! I’ve never tasted manure-soaked stable straw, but that is sure what it smelled like. Maybe you lose weight because you’re too nauseated to eat after that.

Plan for today:
B: yoghurt with raspberries
L: rotisserie chicken and salad
D: taco salad

Wishing you lots of charms in your future Natalie.

YUP the odour of the weight loss tea may indeed be it’s special trick!!

What a fab idea, Natalie, hope your purple charm is soon gracing your arm and reminding you how far you’ve come.

Am a bit nervous about weighing today. It’s been a really stressful couple of weeks at work, culminating in a weekend conference in London this last 2 days, I’ve worked 13 long days of the last 14. This weekend, food choices weren’t easy as the food available was one choice only for everyone, tricky. I’d asked for gluten free as this guaranteed me no bread, and that worked out reasonably OK. I never make a big fuss about ‘being on a diet’, but when you avoid puds, particularly amongst a group of women, isn’t it weird how they will do everything to persuade you to try ‘just one, just a little.bit’. I didn’t, but….

So I’ve not had as much control, have been a bit ‘clogged up’, haven’t been able to drink as much water as I like to, and only lost a little last week. The 28lbs by Christmas target has become a bit of a talisman and if the chances of hitting it start to diminish week by week I’m afraid I’ll be derailed. Ohhhhh dear. Maybe I should be really, really good and weigh next week instead?? MK x

Morning 10/10 ers.
I told am bouncing 1 pesky lb up and down but have managed to lose 2 pounds this week and 1 inch off waist and hips. However , total loss for the five weeks is still 1 stone and 1 pound and two inches off the hips and waist.
Although I am delighted and still very motivated, I know I will not meet my target of two stone off in the 8 weeks, so now just want to see the number start with 15 and hopefully a few more pounds before my big birthday.
Now to week 6!
X B

I am sure you will be wearing yourcharm very soon Natalie😊. MK it sounds like you’ve had amazing willpower, and yes I agree women are their own worst enemies in encouraging others to ‘just one little piece….’😳. Busy bee keep positive👍. Start of week 3 for me as had restart after my holidays, lost 0.5kg this week which is small compared to some of the lossss on this site, but I am looking on the bright side that it is a loss👍. People bringing chocolate goodies to my sick husband did not help but all that should be avoided this week. Good choices today everyone😍

I bit the bullet and weighed. Almost (not quite) 4lbs off. So I’m saying 3lbs, and saving the extra ounces for next week.
Am completely astonished as I didn’t feel as though I’d lost any, indeed I was feeling so blobby and tired I was sure I’d gained. So that makes 20lbs , 3 weeks to go, 8lbs to lose, then another stone after Christmas to sort my BMI. Then eating like this for the rest of my life knowing I have reversed my diabetes and gained health, and hopefully years of healthy life.

Still too fat round the middle, which has only been a problem since I started T2d meds, but bum and thighs are loads better, arms and boobs shrinking more slowly. This disparity makes me look a bit ‘egg on legs’ though, which isn’t a good look. Am going to row, walk and swim more this week, and try to find an exercise to whittle me some sort of a waist.
Fasting blood sugar has now settled at 3.8 most mornings, which is too low, so will speak to doc this week about reducing Metformin to one tablet a day. Yaaaaayyyyyy! I would never have believed that I could reduce my blood glucose readings so far in five weeks.

If I was in charge of the NHS, I’d be sending people off to blood sugar diet & exercise camp for a month to show people they can heal themselves. Got to be cheaper than years of meds or bariatric surgery… Hang on…is that a business plan in the making????

Keep going! – this works !! MK x

I forgot to mention this morning that my loss for the week was 1.1kg which I’m very happy with (the 0.2 gain was just since yesterday). I seem to alternate a good week with a plateau week, I guess I can get used to that. And 4.6 kg in 5 weeks is slower than a lot of other people but it’s better than I’ve done on any other diet. As long as the weight keeps going down regularly and I keep feeling healthier, it’s all good! Granny, a loss is a loss!

Today I ate 899 calories and 43g carbs. I had a tiny slip when I was throwing away the last of the chocolate birthday cake and a little bit of frosting made its way into my mouth. I still haven’t completely lost my taste for sugar, I thought it was yum and it was lucky the cake was mixed in with rubbish!

MK 3lbs is great! and reducing the metformin sounds like a great idea. I wouldn’t worry if you don’t make your target by Christmas, you’ll get there.

Hi Natalie, MK, Granny & Busybee – congrats on your losses this week, great news!

I’m feeling really tired the last few days and energy is low. I felt a bit like this in week 1, so not sure if my body is just tired from working so hard? I’m looking tired too. Anyone else feeling it? It’s strange because last week I was quite energised and inspired to get more walking in each day. Today just wanted to lie on the couch when I got home.

On the upside, managed to squeeze myself into a skirt I haven’t been able to wear in about 6 years! I can see the hollows forming under my ribcage and the belly fat is becoming more defined and localised if that makes sense? Even though I still have lots to lose my belly looks so much flatter now, no bloat in sight 🙂 Can almost see my collar bones too!

Onwards and downwards everyone!

Hello Lara,
what week are you on? I experienced the same. I think I became quite anaemic as I have a poor digestive system which doesn’t absorb vitamins and minerals very easily, and I was consuming more calcium than usual, which can reduce iron absorption

Hi Baristagirls – I’ve just finished week 5. I’ve never had issues with anaemia and Im eating loads of iron rich foods but I’ll keep an eye on that if I don’t start feeling better soon.

Good idea, just keep an eye on it……. I felt pretty rubbish for most of the eight weeks trying to kill a severe carb and candida problem so can fully sympathise 🙂

Interesting piece in the Sunday papers saying two thirds of women have an undiagnosed iron deficiency, worst in menopausal women. Supplements take at least three months to show a difference. I might pop in and get a few months’ supply, track the results. MK x

Hi MK
next time you get your HbA1c done, ask your GP if they will add checking your iron levels done at the same time. They usually do for me when I ask, although they have been normal for the last five years or so.

I am slightly paranoid about my iron levels, as they dropped extremely low a few years back – interestingly I went to the GPs because I thought II was depressed (couldn’t concentrate, no energy to do anything/interest in doing anything, given the chance could stay under the duvet 24/7) – when the results came back, GP said cheerfully that she was surprised I was still standing. When finally iron levels finally resolved, I did wonder if anaemia had been the cause of similar problems a few years before, when I was treated with anti-depressants.
I found that plant based supplements weren’t strong enough, and I didn’t tolerate some tablets well – I think it was ferrous sulphate that I couldn’t take, and I ended up on ferrous gluconate – there was talk of injections at some point, but I didn’t need those in the end.

If you’re eating meat and lots of veg on BSD, and you have no underlying medical problems. you shouldn’t need a supplement.
One thing that helps with iron absorption is citric acid – so lemon in/with your food, or to drink while you are eating.
Caffeine hinders absorption, so avoid drinks with caffeine with your meals, and ideally half an hour before & after eating.

just checking in …. Finally i got to the gym again. Easy aquabics moving my sore shoulder and neck a bit. Also had to get some mouse traps at the mall where my gym is. Yikes.

Healthy food in the fridge. Had 2 small chicken drumsticks for breakfast. Cheese omelette with bacon, no toast, no potatoes for lunch out. Had some 90 % chocolate …. so little sugar in them they don’t taste like i want the whole bar. Have some veggie soup or salad for supper.

And after a whole month of one illness after another, no gym, just moping about i only gained 1 pound!! My gut feels so yukky though … i thought for sure i had gained 10 pounds!!

Time to get moving on the weight loss front again!!

HUGS to all.

Thanks for that comprehensive advice, Frog.
Didn’t know about the citrus aiding absorption. Will look into it some more before pitching off into supplements.
A year ago I had a near-death experience due to a poorly diagnosed pulmonary embolism after a routine op – hence on blood thinner for life, and often wonder if that has effect on tiredness and coldness. MK x

Shalimar I’m glad you are able to get back into exercise and get your shoulder moving a bit again. Hopefully it will be all improvements from here.

Lara I’m really tired and low energy too, I haven’t really exercised at all during BSD (also just finished week five). I don’t really think my body likes low-carb much, although I’m hoping that will change. I think when I’ve lost some more weight I will add back in more healthy carbs. But this is the only way I can lose weight so I’m prepared to feel a bit lacklustre.

Frog I’m often low in iron even though I eat a high-meat diet. I also don’t absorb B12 well and have to take tablets, and Vitamin D as well. I’ve just realised I can’t remember the last time I took the tablets… yes I can, I wasn’t allowed to take them for two weeks leading up to my op which was four weeks ago so I put them away… so I haven’t taken them for six weeks! Whoops. Thanks for reminding me. Maybe my tiredness has nothing to do with low-carb!

It’s the start of Tuesday, day 37, here in Oz. I have nowhere to go today (plenty of work at home) so I can devote myself to increasing my water intake without stressing that I’ll have to rush to the bathroom every 10 mins.

B: yoghurt and strawberries
L: Asian shredded chicken salad with peanut sauce
D: pepper beef with cauliflower “rice”

Hope that’s the solution Natalie – good luck.
Well done on not gaining Shalimar – glad you’re feeling well enough to get back to the gym.
BSD does seem to be amazing for not putting the weight back on when you don’t exactly stop – but ease off so a greater or lesser degree.

Hi MK – No worries – if you’re taking warfarin, you should get your bloods checked before you start taking any supplements though, rather than self prescribing just in case.
I took Warfarin for a few months, and was surprised at how many things it interacted with; I was working in a hospital at the time, so was being encouraged to have a flu jab, checked with the warfarin clinic nurse & she said not to.

If you have other health issues, all the more reason why your GP should be happy to check your iron levels if it’s something that you are concerned about – although if you have a heavy bleed because of the warfarin, you probably have a higher propensity to have anaemia.

Also, when the medical team were assessing the plan for my warfarin as an operation approached, the consultant asked why I was taking it & how long, etc – and then decided that I should have been taken off of it several months earlier.
I only had DVT rather than PE, but I just took a quick look at the NHS web advice for PE, it states “Treatment with warfarin will usually be recommended for at least three months, although some people need to take it for longer than this. Occasionally, warfarin may need to be taken for the rest of your life.” http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/pulmonary-embolism/Pages/Treatment.aspx
– so did they definitely say you’d need it for life, or is it worth checking if you can come off of it now?

Hi Frog. I don’t take warfarin,, I take one of the new blood thinners, riveroxoban, which works differently. This was my second PE after a surgical intervention so am on it for life now. Side effects include weight gain (of course they do *sigh*) – too much to hope for meds whose side effects include weight loss and – oh, I dunno, more youthful looking skin?? Lol. Will ask doc about iron. Oddly. Given that my t2d diagnosis came in spite if absolutely no other symptoms, I’ve read that the drug I’m on can spike blood sugars. My GP says this is rubbish but…I wonder..

Hi MK
Good luck – when I had problems, it was warfarin or… warfarin
and the drug they use at first by injection, they said would take a couple of days to work, but took a couple of weeks – my stomach was so sore, and black and blue all over – ghastly (and there was a lot more ‘all over’ to be bruised back then). And it was only the final couple of days when someone said “oh, we could inject into you arm instead” – which didn’t hurt at all.
There’s a system for reporting side effects (yellow card scheme) – I was convinced that my DVT was the result of being left on blood clotting medication for too long , as was the emergency GP I first saw about the DVT, but my GP refused to acknowledge it was a direct side effect – possible because she’d over-prescribed!? There was some research on it (in NZ I think), and I gave up in the end – on double checking the name of the scheme, they appear to have an app where you can self report side effects now.

Good luck with it all – but I would be careful about taking any supplements without checking first.

I’m ashamed to admit I had KFC for dinner tonight. This afternoon I was hungry, craving, rebellious and lazy all rolled into one. No reason for it, no excuse. I just ate it. Even the stone-cold chips. And was still hungry afterwards.

Hi Natalie, Don’t dwell on the dreaded KFC or beat yourself up about it. None of us are perfect and a blip here and there when we have chosen the healthy path is way better than I am sure everyone’s eating habits prior to BSD.
Back on one of my mini plateaus now since Sunday, so now pushing on through!
Have a good day

Oh well – tomorrow is another day – just don’t dive into anything else before you go to bed!
And remember that you will start feeling better when your iron tablets kick in!

Cold chips do sound disgusting, I have to admit!
A couple of weeks ago I had chip shop chips (it was cold and wet, and I hadn’t had time to eat lunch, so at 6pm on my soggy way home…..)
I knew I would eat whatever was in the packet, so made myself ask the guy to stop loading chips on at about half a portion (still loads, the give you ginormous portions).
AND – I didn’t have any tomato ketchup on them!

Thanks for the kind words Cleverblonde73 and Frog. I need to find that balance between forgiving myself so I can move on, and telling myself it’s ok which may lead to it happening again! I think I’ve been really tired, dopey tired, for a few days which makes it hard to stick to the plan. I’ll remember to take my vitamin tablets again today. Oh well, moving on.

Today’s plan:
B: bacon and cucumber
L: cauliflower soup
D: chicken quesadillas (just the filling for me, no wrap)

Note to dwell, Natalie, but useful to reflect on ehxactly what was going on in your head as you walked in, purchased your booty and ate it, perhaps. Rebellion is an interesting description. MKx

MK I guess I sometimes just get sick of following the rules! No matter how good they are for me. At the time when I was still wavering, I deliberately told the kids we were having KFC, so after that I couldn’t back out! I’m back to normal today.

Have a good day Natalie
I can see the benefits that would come from doing BSD with a partner, have just replied to the lady that has lost five stone, but it must be doubly hard with the pester power of children, and the temptation of sweet stuff about for them.

I’m currently reading a book about Psychological approaches to obesity – some really interesting insights into why we overeat, and rebel.
I have the second day of a two day course on transactional analysis on Friday; it was that that inspired me to get the book, although the course isn’t specifically around weight issues.

That sounds fascinating Frog. Gretchen Rubins has done some study on habit forming and puts people into four groups: obligers (respond to external accountability), upholders (respond to both internal and external accountability), questioners (who have to be satisfied why they should do something), and rebels. I did the quiz and was a rebel – which I immediately rebelled against! I’m such a law-abiding citizen. I think sometimes I have to trick myself into doing things because I don’t like “should” or “must” or “never”. But I’m getting there.

I hope everyone is having a great week.

Hi Natalie, just catching up on posts. Just a thought, are you getting enough salt in your diet? For me the best thing about KFC chips (yes, even cold) is that “chicken” salt they use. Maybe your body needed a salt boost if your water intake is really high?

And sometimes our cave men ancestors had fasting times …. and sometimes they had feast times with friends and family.

Good morning everyone. Lara I think I get plenty of salt and I’m definitely not drinking as much as I’d like (I manage 2L most days including tea). If I increase water I will add more salt, but I already put it on a lot of my food. Love salty much more than sweet!

Shalimar not quite sure what your comment is in reference to, but you are right about feast and famine. Only (many) modern humans have food security. I saw a TV show (Body Hack) where an Australian spent a week or two living with a traditional African tribe. They were certainly all slender, but what struck me was how horrible their cooking was! They often didn’t have enough to eat, little but bland starchy roots for days. Hunters brought back food twice. A couple of little rodents, which were prepared by having most of the fur plucked off then cut up and boiled all together with all body parts including innards. And the bits of furry skin not very well plucked. Just boiled meat with no seasoning that I saw. Everyone got a tiny bit. Then the hunters caught a baboon. They put the whole thing on the fire, and removed the blackened skin and hair after cooking. From the “Clan of the Cave Bear” books I’d been led to believe tribal societies were skilled cooks, using a wide variety of foods and various herbs and seasonings etc, but not this tribe! Yuck. They did also find honey once and stuffed themselves with it.

I am definitely struggling a bit this week, I think because I’m so tired. Don’t know what is going on there, I seem like I’m sleeping enough. Could be my sleep apnoea I guess. I moved cities a year ago and I should probably follow up finding a sleep doctor here and having a check up. I’m hoping weight loss will help, I don’t know why I would be getting worse! But being so tired makes me want to turn to food for energy. Apart from the other night, I’m sticking to Med principles but not worrying too much if I go a little over calories (still under 1000). Speaking of the KFC incident, my weight didn’t change the following morning but it went up today by quite a bit. I’ve noticed that before, that the effect can come a couple of days later.

Hi Natalie ….. feast and famine was from one of the videos i’ve been watching on obesity and diets. And your mini KFC feast reminded me of it.

Just watched another one called Fat Head (had to give my credit card number to a site so i could view it online …. mind you i had the local library’s dvd and hadn’t watched it). Anyway it was kind of long but funny so that it seemed short … it started out as refuting Morgan Spurlock’s Supersize me …. but it explained stuff about the metabolic syndrome, cholesterol, why there really is no scientific evidence that cholesterol or natural fat causes heart disease, why all those recommended carbs actually stopper up the fat burning system, why processed fats are so bad for the body …. etc. etc. Feel crammed full of good information.

Hello all. Did OK yesterday despite feeling really sorry for myself with first cold of the season. Started to think that poorly old me. ‘deserved’ a couple of slices of toast thick with butter and couldn’t get it out of my head all day! Now snuffling away and unable to sleep…..still soooo tired and soooo cold on this plan. MK x

Hi Natalie- Re the KFC incident and salt. You mentioned that you were feeling tired, maybe salt in KFC was the culprit?

I had found what I thought would be a perfect week end lunch. (During the week I cut up a lot of salad things and add some grilled chicken to it so that suits the program just fine.) I found a hot and sour soup mix, which amounted to 90 calories plus the calories for an egg to be added so the whole thing was under 200. Tasted nice and was filling. Yippee I thought. Until I got on the scale, that is. For a couple days I had actually gained a pound even though the calories/carbs were ok. My work friend said it had to be the sodium in the packet soup. I drank extra water for a couple days and the weight went plus some more.

Prior to the soup incident, I had been eating only home made, fresh items. The outside food sources like KFC or the packets contain stuff of sabotage. That is my lesson learned. I don’t know what will happen when I have to go out for dinner over the holidays but will cross that bridge when I get there. I think if I stick to basic unadulterated fare, I’ll be ok.

Tapatch im sure real fresh food is better for me in every way!

Interesting observations tapatch, I too like the taste of salt and have been a little too lenient with it since starting the BSD, reminder to myself to get back to good habits🤔. Had a sneaky mid week weigh this morning and was hugely disappointed, maybe its the salt thing, lets hope I dont make bad choices today! Have a good day everyone.

Stuck stuck stuck again this week! I will not panic. I think I haven’t been drinking enough water, so today that is my mission, as well as keeping on the BSD meal track. Yoghurt and berries for breakfast. Have a good day everyone

I didn’t check in this morning (mid-afternoon now) I think for the first time. I’m really struggling, have been all week. Just so tired. Nothing to do with the diet (days when I’ve eaten more calories/carbs haven’t helped) but it’s so hard to be good when your body is desperate for energy from somewhere. Today was particularly bad – you don’t want to know what I ate! Part of me wants to give up and just start again after Christmas or something, but I know that by then I will probably have put on all the weight I’ve lost. Already creeping back up day by day. I’ll keep fighting.

I am sorry you are feeling so yucky Natalie. HUGS

HUGS and more HUGS natalie, please dont give up, you have been an inspiration to us all on this blog😊. I’m sure the feeling will pass, just stick with it and focus on how the BSD made you feel good and in control of your health problems. Good luck tiday everyone👍

Thanks Shalimar and Granny. I had a “day off” today and I feel mentally better for it. I had a nice lunch and dinner that weren’t exactly BSD friendly (but otherwise not too bad), quite a lot of yummy extra fruit, a little chocolate and… well, ok, I had a chocolate eclair. Which I really enjoyed. I’m not promoting going off plan but I kind of feel refreshed and I’m hoping to have a decent night’s sleep and a weekend sleep-in and be ready to get back on board tomorrow. I didn’t weigh anything but when I guesstimate I think I’m still well under 2000 calories and 100 carbs. So it’s not really so bad.