Hi everyone ,
Starting this on Thursday as that way I will finish my 8 week stint just before a weekend away ! I have a couple of questions , can I eat cous cous or is this a no no ? Does anyone know of any online calorie counters /lists other than MFP which drives a luddite like myself scatty !

Many thanks

Clare

Well done Way of Life for getting back to it.

Toby101 – I try and imagine the hunger pangs are fat cells exploding. (Vivid imagination!)
A very slender aunt of mine (now still very slender and in her 90s) told me to make friends with my hunger – found that one hard….

Hi There
I’m very new to this- just starting on Thursday 12th Jan but I’m already 3.8kg down – no idea if this is a true loss or a fluke/water weight yet – time will tell!
I lost 2 stone last year through exercise alone but have piled it back on and am ideally looking to lose 4 stone in total. I’m 31, 5ft 9 and currently 15stone wearing size 12/14 clothes at the mo.
I’ve found the evenings so far a bit boring as used to snacking or a glass of wine! When food shopping I’ve found buying things like flowers or candles a nice treat instead of bad snacks. It’s a great way to treat yourself in a non calorific sense! Has anyone else got any tips or weight loss they’ve experienced early on?
X
Jess

Hi All

Day 17 and I’m holding at a total of about 7 pounds down since the start.

I’m struggling with the carb and fat balance. Feeling like I should be striving for less carbs and more fats, but the fats and eggs are making me nauseous. I’m bouncing between 800-1000 calories a day and around 25 grams of carbs. Maybe too low on the carbs?

Any suggestions from anyone, especially you more experienced BSD dieters, would be really appreciated.

Thanks much!

25 g is very low for carbs, what is your average fat percentage? I would personally have a few higher carb days if you are feeling nauseous, try just keeping it below 50 g for a week and see if you feel a bit better and more balanced. More fat can help increase weight loss and feelings of satiety, so if your percentage is too low that could be a problem. Make sure you are drinking enough water and add a little salt to your diet if you don’t already as electrolytes can be depleted by the low carb diet.

Hi K8 Try and stick to the recipes in the book, both my husband and I only follow these recipes alternate between eggs, mushrooms and the shakes for breakfast and we have soups and salads for lunch for dinner everything has beans or legumes with it. We dont count carbs or fat we only follow the recipes. Just started week 4 and have losses between us of 9.5 kgs, so very pleased. Keep up the good work.

If I want to increase my fats, I usually try to have salads with avocado and oil & cider vinegar dressings, or I have mashed cauliflower with a little cream stirred in and a bit of butter on top.

Hi Candoit, I’m a Melbourne girl and well done you on losing 10kg last year. I’m not sure if I could survive with no food until 11am but it’s worth a try. I usually start setting my alarm to ‘school time’ the last week of the holidays to get my body clock back to work mode so it’s not too much of a shock to the system. It’s 10.15am now and I’ve been up for an hour and a half, doing some planning for the first 2 weeks back and then reading through the thread. Just having breakfast before I head to the gym.

Marion53, you made me laugh. I too do not want to be part of the ‘Starting January 2018 thread’!!!

For all those wine lovers out there, I discovered 2 things yesterday. After a serious chat with myself in the car about whether to turn left and buy wine or turn right and go home, I made the choice to buy wine. When I got home I had 2 big glasses of sparkling water and did not feel like the wine at all, however………because it was there, I drank it, with some help from my hubby. Chastised myself, beat myself up and then decided, stuff it, it was one hiccup, get a grip and move on woman. So the 2 things I discovered, sparkling water may be my savour to replace the craving for wine (just like you SueBlue), and the obvious, if it’s not in the house, I can’t drink it.

I’ve got 2 days until weigh in on Friday for the end of week 2 and if I’ve put on, so be it. There’s a bigger picture at stake here, my overall health and wellbeing which includes losing this 60kg of extra fat I’ve been carrying around for years, (54.1 left after week one). So I’m in it for the long haul knowing there will be hiccups along the way but as long as I don’t dwell on them, I’ll do just fine.

Keep on going everyone, love reading about your successes and learning from you all.

Hi everyone checking in again. Lovely to hear about everyones journeys. Good luck to everyone.
discovered salad/lunch in a jar this week so have prepped a week worth of lunches with loads of fresh veggies. Has been so helpful.
Tried stuffed peppers for the first time too was delicious.
Had no loss most of last week which was week 3 for me then on sunday lost a pound and a half.
Have now hit the first stone lost milestone. Really happy as i have never been able to lose that much before becasue of the pcos.

Ive heard people saying the lose it app is good Claregetsthinner havent tried it myself. I use MFP as im used to it

Nice to hear from you granny
Mumofcrazynamedkids and TumTumP how are you progressing.
K8sgettingthin like the idea of imagining fat cells exploding

Also general question does anyone own a spiralizer? would you reccommend it or not? wondering if i should buy one.
Found a recipe for carb free pasta that i liked if you want to try
125g cream cheese
1/2 cup psylium husk
4 eggs
blend together until smooth. leave for ten minutes to thicken.
roll out like pasta using coconut flour to dust. make shapes you want and boil for a minut t to cook. Nice as a treat as high calorie.

link to video below.
http://realmealrevolution.com/real-meal-tv/carb-free-pasta

Has anyone bought the 8 week blood sugar diet recipe book and if so what do you think of it? I have only been following the recipes in the 8 week blood sugar diet book, which are brilliant but after 3 weeks am now looking for a bit more variety, I also dont eat red meat.

Hi Cyster I also asked the same question but didnt get a reply. I tried cutting up the zucchini with a potato peeler, too slushy, then just chopped up really thin strips with a very sharp knife. I think the zucchini was too big as again it was slushy and I didnt like the texture, I think its best to try with a fresh, hard zucchini then perhaps it wont be so watery and taste yucky. There are quite a few spiralisers on the market, I tried out a few at the local household store but they were hand operated. If you have good strong hands and wrists any of the 3 that I tried would be OK, but I dont so will have to go for an electric version. Kenwood do one which is $120 here in Australia, which is roughly 60 quid in the UK. Hope that helps.

Hi Ebs,

I have no experience of spiralisers…not that keen on cooked courgette but if you’re looking for information there is a search box up in the right hand corner. Type in spiraliser and you’ll see all the threads where it’s mentioned.
Angela

Hi Ebs just to say I bought the book and would really recommend it! I was a bit dubious about it as I tend to buy cookery books on a whim then never open them, but I use this every day! I don’t eat red meat either but most of the recipes in there don’t include it anyway (or if they do you can substitute quorn). There are some really good recipes in there and I’m discovering lots of new flavours, ingredients and combinations, and it also gives you a clear breakdown of calories/carbs/fats per portion. As a newbie it’s also helping me to get a gut feel (pardon the pun!) for calorie content and portion sizes so then makes it easier to concoct your own recipes.

Everything I’ve made from the book so far has been really delicious and it’s given me a positive spin on the diet ie looking forward to trying a new recipe each night rather than feeling restricted by what I can’t eat. The only disaster has been the hummus which broke my blender but I think that was probably user error 😉

I have a spiralizer! Mine is rather like a huge pencil sharpener, it’s not one with a stand. Does the job. Personally I use uncooked cougetti and the heat from the sauce cooks it enough for me.

I’m also considering the recipe book…

Today is day 3. Blood sugars are good, but I’m resisting the scales and the tapemeasure till day 7!

Hi ebs, yes i would highly recommend the recipe book, i’ve only had mine a week and am finding the recipes very filling and easy to do once you stock up on the cupboard essentials. I bought it on amazon for £7.99. The only thing i would say is that the nutritional value is not always correct, and other people have commented the same. So now when i use a recipe i put the individual ingredients into my app (fatsecret) so i can double check against the book. It is a bit of a pain but once the info is entered i can save it for future teference. Agree totally with dreamscometrue re portion content and trying new foods etc. Cyster – was thinking about wether to buy a spiraliser too then discovered that morrisons and tesco do spiralised veg and aldi now sell cauliflower rice! Really good to hear everyones story, keep up the good work guys and good choices today everyone.

Thanks Granny, Dreamscometrue and Angela have just put in an order for the recipe book, so looking forward to more variety in the diet.

Re spiralisers, I bought the OXO handheld spiraliser for courgetti (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ2ebcKl0fM). Then I thought I’d want to spiralise other veg and bought a more sophisticated (but not electric) spiraliser. In the end, I’ve still only done courgetti. And for that the OXO handheld is better: much finer results, so they cook better, and a lot less to wash up.

Good morning everyone,

CysterBSD800 and Ebs – Spiraliers…. I love mine and use is several times a week. Mine is not a sideways one though, They use one of those a lot on TV programme Sugar Free Farm and I notice it leaves the central core so you don’t get much from a carrot for example apart from a few shavings and the central core. Mine has the handle on top so that the spirals come out of the bottom and you change the grating part (choice of three). Sorry I can’t tell you the make as the name has worn off it, I got it from Amazon (tried going back through my history but it only goes back 6 months…) I decided that the pencil sharpener variety would be a bit difficult with harder veg and you can’t get a butternut squash in there!

A lot of folk say they find Courgette slimy etc. I toss it in a little melted butter for a couple of mins or less and it’s fine. Otherwise as another person mentioned, the heat of the sauce is probably enough. Or, if for instance making meatballs with tomato sauce, you can put the courgette in the sauce and heat it for a few mins.

Thank you to all who commented on the recipe book as I too have been considering it.

Me again

Spiralizers

Do be careful of the blades – I have lacerated my finger once – once was enough! (I hope). Now treat it with a lot of respect.

Hello……………………….. Sorry, realise this is getting boring, but this is the link to the spiralizer I have (on Amazon) in case you need to see what I’m rambling on about.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lurch-Spiralo-Vegetable-Spiralizer-Green/dp/B002USUAH8/ref=sr_1_77?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1484737946&sr=1-77&keywords=spiralizer+machine

Thanks Toby101 – I love this idea and am going to try that tomorrow 🙂

Still here and end of week 2. Another 2 lbs lost so that is 6 lbs in 2 weeks. Good I reckon as had already been doing 5:2 Fast Diet. Some great losses going on so congratulations to all.

Hi all, and thanks for asking after me Cyster, I’m good, but left my phone at home yesterday. So no opportunity to update.

This week going well, have only lost 1 pound since Monday, but after the 8 pounds last week I guess that’s not surprising, I *still* haven’t upped the exercise much, but I am out tonight, which will involve more walking than usual and I don’t have the children this weekend so hopefully I can take myself off on some lovely long walks as I won’t have a hangove 😁

Have persuaded my friend at work to start it, she made a half hearted attempt last week, bit is fully onboard this week and has lost 4 pounds already, so that’s great, we are rather boring everyone though hee hee 😂.

I have bought spiralised courgette and butternut squash from morrisons. 2 packs for 1.50 and easier for me than making my own!

Loving hearing all your great results! So motivating! Go team January!

Thanks everyone for your replies re spiralizers have bought a cheap hand held one for now which I will probably only use for the courgetti. I sneaked in a weigh in this morning and much to my horror have put on 0.3 of a kilo, wont be doing that again in a hurry, will stick to weighing myself once a week.

I just ordered a spiralizer in my ocado shop. It also chips and slices. It was £10 marked down from £25. Haven’t used courgetti before. the slim water noodles I’ve been using are quite expensive if not on offer, so courgetti will be a healthier, cheaper alternative i hope. I’ve alsordered some more ingredients to try more of the dishes from the book. I’ve been coasting along with my own recipes but lately with the cold found myself eating spoons of peoanut butter. Think I need to make a batch of low cal soup for cold and hungry moments.

I love spiralised courgette, I fry it in a little olive oil and have with a variety of pasta sauces. I’ve also done carrot (which I mix with courgette sometimes for two-colour “pasta”), and potato (um… for the kids…) but can’t think of anything else to put in there. Any ideas?

Hi everyone

Hope everyone is going ok :o)

I love my spiraliser and use it quite a lot, but also sometimes after work when I’m lazy i do buy shop bought boodles! They go better with a ragu than the courgetti does, I think the flavours work better together and its more solid like spaghetti.

The recipe book is fabulous – I have used it a lot, last night we had the Hungarian Goulash which was gorgeous, we have also had the fish pie, the cottage pie, the lentil salads, the big mushrooms with feta…..

Week 3 going well, teetering on 10lbs lost, I’m only a few lbs away from my stone, a new stone bracket and a new dress size and have 29 days to go until my hols…. got to keep going!! We can do this..

Happy Friday Eve everybody xx

Much love,
Rebecca xx

This thread is really helping me getting to grips with this new way of eating. Thank you all!
I’ve just done my one week weigh in and lost 5.5lb and 2 inches off my waist. I’m thrilled with this and finding it fairly easy to stick to. There has obviously been the odd moment, but as a total chocoholic I am amazed that I haven’t really struggled as much as I thought I would.
I’m logging everything I eat on the Fitbit app and I think the discipline of writing everything down and trying to up my daily steps is really helping.
Continued success to all the January starters!

Hi everyone thanks for the recommendations will look into the suggestions.
i really like recipe book has some lovely ideas and recipes. helps to give meal ideas. i do double check the nutrition info though

I agree about how logging everything helps, it also stops me from snacking, as whenever i think I might have a couple of brazil nuts, or macadamias when I am feeling peckish/bored/emotional i then think about logging them and how much that reduces my available calories for the day, it FORCES me to stop and be mindful and think about what I really want to spend my daily allowance of calories on and often I either think, yes I am really hungry, or no, I would rather save my calories for something else.

I definitely *need* to think more about what I shove in my face!

That made me chuckle ebs😂, i did exact same thing ystday with sneak weigh in……will not be doing it again! Its the things you dont think have any carbs or are supposed to be ‘healthy’ that cause havoc eg i had a chai latte and then when i logged it later in the day found out it had a whopping 24g carbs AND it wasnt even that nice! Hope it doesnt distort my weigh in tomorrow. Well done cathym, great 1st week loss.

Thanks All for the carb advice. I upped mine over the last few days and feel much better! Love the notes regarding the spiralizer. Gotta get one of those!
Keep up the great work everyone! The stories and ups and downs are all so encouraging!!!

Hi Mumofcrazykids
If I think I’m hungry I drink a glass of water – a pint- and wait 20minutes. If after 20 minutes I’m still hungry I drink another pint of water and wait another 20minutes. Only after that will I eat if still hungry. The first 20 makes the boredom eating craving stop, second makes it clear if I am actually properly hungry. I’m managing to go beyond noon most days and 2-3pm some. This also adds in 16:8 fasting, another great technique for improving health and blood sugars etc ( plus hopefully weight loss!) I will just say that s couple of days I came in at 600 cals because I hadn’t been that hungry and didn’t want to eat for eatings sake. The next day I woke ravenous and only lasted till 10. Nite to self to hit 800!

Day 20 and feels like the weight is falling off.
I’ve lost 6.3kg just about a stone

Hunger nowhere near as bad as first 12 days
Haven’t used a recipe from the book but will do soon as my own recipes have come to an end of their usefulness in terms of excitement lol

I don’t eat meat which I’m sure helps

My wife is doing really well losing nearly 5kg

Stick with it, it truly works

I love my oats, blueberries, cacao powder and almond milk for breakfast

Low salt chicken noodle soup with 5 big sticks of celery and onion homemade soup for dinner with small handful of nuts keeps me from 6pm to bed with peppermint tea and fizzy water with lemon

Roast carrots and broccoli are always nice and I had a small tuna steak on spinach yesterday which marinated in ginger and a little soy sauce was a true rippa

I actually plan to have a day off on Australia Day next Thursday and go crazy on 1800 calories but not too many carbs as beer is nearly sugar free lol

Can’t wait

Read the book and 800 is 800

I’m so excited and just had to share – I weighed myself this morning and I’ve lost 2.2 kg (4.8lbs) in just 5 days 🙂
I know a lot of this is probably water, but to put it into perspective, all of the other diets I’ve been on in the last few years, including ones led by a dietician, have resulted in a 1kg PER MONTH loss.
This has really spurred me on. Today is day 6 so still early days yet, but I truly feel that this is a diet I can stick to.
The advice from other users here has been invaluable, I read the latest posts first thing every morning.
What has helped me the most is planning my food in advance. Each evening I plan the next days food and enter it all into My Fitness Pal.
Yesterday I had a ‘slip up’ of sorts, it was a colleagues birthday and there was cake. I cut myself the tiniest piece and then ate it really slowly. I then just tweaked my dinner calories to accommodate it.
In the past I would have had a normal slice, then thought “bugger it I’ve blown my diet now so I may as well eat whatever I want today and start again tomorrow”.
I’m not advocating going over 800 or anything, but to be honest this week I have gone over by 50-100 on 2 days and I’ve STILL lost weight so very happy 🙂
I suppose though that 850 calories, although 50 over budget, is still a LOT less than the 1500-2000 cals a day I was eating.
I bought the BSD recipe book yesterday, so excited to try all the meals. This morning I had the porridge with coconut oil and cinnamon – lovely, tasty and satisfying 🙂
Good luck to everyone else 🙂

I had a really good start to the day yesterday sticking to the diet for breakfast and lunch, however by the evening the hunger pangs started, after 2 pints of fizzy water I was still hungry and got stuck into blueberries and yogurt, then an apple, all I can say is thank god there was nothing else in the house to eat. As it was garbage day I had gone through the cupboards and chucked out biscuits and heaps of other carb filled goodies, which were hidden on the top shelf at the back of the pantry. My problem is I get the munchies in the evening around 8.00 pm when I sit down to watch the TV. Back on the diet this morning, scrambled eggs on tomato.

Ebs – I’ve had hunger pangs a few evenings this week. A hot drink helped (coffee one night & fruit tea the other). Would soup help? I made up some veggie soup, blended it and put into containers. If I add some more water to it I can drink it from a mug and it’s only about 30 cals. I was hungry on the way home from work earlier in the week (to the point where I felt sick) and 3 almonds helped there (sounds weird I know!). Otherwise could you cut up some veggies (celery, capsicum etc) and munch on those?

Thanks SueBlue will make a batch of soup and keep it in the freezer, fruit tea sounds good, will also try the almonds, the evenings are the hardest, have taken up knitting to keep occupied and try not to think about food.

Hi Ebs,

the veggie sticks are a good idea or I treat myself to a square of 85% chocolate with a cup of tea. (I love tea and chocolate). My particular weak point is around 4.30pm and I find having something relatively harmless helps a lot or just doing something completely different until the moment passes. And it will pass because at 8pm it’s unlikely to be hunger unless you don’t eat in the evening.

Good luck, Ebs. And to all of us who have moments of weakness.

After losing a stone in the first two weeks seem to have flatlined this week, which is a bit disappointing. On the other hand, having lost barely nothing off the belly despite the loss in the first two weeks have lost 3 inches off the belly this week! Weird.

The dreaded plateau for me this week 😒……but reading this thread is very encouraging to see that most people seem to hit it at some point! SO not giving up as still lost 3.5kg since 2nd Jan and definately feel better and clothes looser. Will try the soup idea SueBlu, good luck everyone.

Plateau are very common on the BSD. The good news is, if you stick with it, it WILL come right. If you find it lasting for a couple of weeks or more, check your carb intake (if you aren’t already). This was my problem and I found pushing them below 50g a day, upping my fat intake and drinking more, got things moving again.

Hope things will soon be moving in the right direction for you – look forward to reading some positive results soon.

Happy Friday all! Don’t know about the rest of you, but a Friday presents a bit more of a challenge when on a strict diet, I am usually looking forward to a few glass of wine or some gin and tonics and organising something sociable. But after I have delivered my kids to their father in Manchester for the weekend (I’m on the Wirral near Liverpool) I will either be using my reserved calories (500) for a nice meal or I may have a couple of wines with a friend.

But this weekend I am not going to do the unlimited calories low carb that I did last weekend. If I drink, it will be within the 800, so I can then see what the result is. I know I will find it easier to stick to the diet if I know I can do this!

Wish me plenty of willpower please peeps!

Another pound loss today, so 11 pounds in 11 days whoop whoop!

Good luck, Mumofcrazynamedkids! Great that you are planning ahead. 11 pounds in eleven days is really something to celebrate!

Thanks sunnyb 😊 Wow mocnk 11 in 11 is amazing, enjoy your wine!

Another good remedy for untimely hunger pangs is chicken broth. It’s very low in calories and has virtually no carbs but still feels like a meal when you’re sipping a hot mug of it. Grate a dusting of parmesan on top and it’s heavenly. Just be careful to check the label when you buy the broth. Almost all of the brands, even the fancier organic ones, have added sugar. I’ve found Halal and Kosher versions to be the only reliably unsugared broths.

If you chuck a few chicken wings in a saucepan you soon have low cost, carb free chicken stock. Boneless chicken thighs with frozen leeks also make a good start for soup. I usually add some lentils, but cauliflower thickens it up too. I also add hot chilli sauce.

Much of the time overcoming hunger pangs is a question of mind over matter, but sometimes it’s very, very hard. I tell myself it’s mouth hunger, not real hunger.

A chicken carcass in a slow cooker with some discarded veggie stems and peels makes an easy stock too, although not a fast one. That’s where the premade broth comes in handy. Since the BSD, I haven’t roasted any whole chickens so I haven’t made any stock. I’ve never made it with chicken parts that had actual meat on them, just the boney leftovers.

I, too, have used bones to make stock, but find I prefer stock from raw meat/bones to that from cooked chicken. I just use a couple of chicken thighs instead of a stock cube, and it all blends in once it’s cooked. My go to soup these days is frozen leeks plus chicken joints or frozen lamb leg steaks, with lentils. I like pearl barley too, but need to look at the calorie and carb value before adding too much.