I have had one successful attempt at adopting the the Fast 800. In October 2016, I managed to lose about 13 pounds in 4 weeks in before gradually returning to previous bad habits and regaining all the weight at a rate of about 1 pound per week before plateauing a 93kg (205 pounds).

What I struggle with is bridging the gap between knowing and doing. I perennially study the research of the impact diet & body composition on blood sugar and diabetes risks due to a family history of Type II diabetes and all its related complications – but I struggle to translate the knowledge into a consistent set of behaviours.

So I am going to have another go at the Fast 800 to kick start the changes I need to make to restore a healthy weight (and waistline) and reduce my risk of type II diabetes – and I hope to lean on the experience, knowledge and support of all of you who have successfully made the leap from knowing to doing. With a family holiday coming up in 10 days time it is probably not the ideal time to start but I have made an art form of procrastination and can always find reasons to put it off – so let’s just jump in and deal with the holiday as a challenge.

I would like to lose between 10 – 12kg (20-25 pounds) which at 5’11” would put me at a healthy weight.

Would be interested to hear from others on how you ditched self sabotaging habits such as processed carb snacking, evening wines, late night TV snacking etc etc.

Hey Trev — in the beginning, I found that it was very important to remove myself from “triggers”.
That meant that I had to change a lot of my habits so I could get control of them. For instance, I had trouble around 5 pm — very hungry but still about 2 hours to dinner — so I started going out at 4:45 pm with a list of errands and mail to drop at the post office and a shirt that needs to go to the tailor etc. (if I needed groceries, I got those last).
And, if I didn’t have errands, I went to a shop to try on some clothes or find a scarf or ANYTHING to keep me busy through my danger period.
i stopped watching TV because it was “snack time” AND there were so many commercials for food! So instead I would read or talk on the phone with a friend or lots of times, just go to bed.
I didn’t go out to meals with friends for a couple of months except only very rarely. Instead I met them for coffee or a hike or a dog walk. Eating out was just too tempting.
I didn’t go into any bars or wineries because that was always downhill. Wine always led to more wine and food!
I always ate at a place where I knew I could find BSD friendly food and I organized my day and work around that location. New food places were challenging.
I had NO non-BSD food in the house and I just made my husband eat what I ate, and he lost a lot of weight! I cannot have tempting food around without eating it (even in the freezer).
I fasted as many hours as I could before eating. That always slowed down my trigger responses and I really learned what true hunger was.
I didn’t get mad at myself and eat even more when I “blew” the diet. That’s usually a trigger to stuff my face but I just started again the next day and reminded myself that even a little bit less food is better than my old habits.
I had to watch myself and see where my personal triggers were — after hard exercise (I cut back to an easy workout), when I was mad at my sister (stopped talking to her for a bit, she is difficult), after a stressful drive home through traffic (I got audio books and listened to them to keep me calm) — I have a LOT of triggers!! Ha ha!
But here is the silver lining — a year and a half later I am still at target and I now see my friends, watch TV, have some wine, talk to my sister daily — so life comes back in its fullest form!
I feel that my restrictions were absolutely necessary for me to get a handle on my weight and they paid off wonderfully.
It took me a couple of months to learn how to do this BSD well — so good for you to just start, sort out your holiday as you go and just look for triggers that set off your old patterns, then substitute your own alternative. You’re going to amaze yourself — I have been so happy with this way of living and eating.
Best wishes!

Hi Trev, who says we have ditched the negative behaviours, we are only human. But seriously, take on board all that Californiagirl has said but also some simple things like being super organised with your food, always have a BSD friendly snack available for those time of snack attack or even actual hunger. Drink lots of water instead of wine (oh that I could do that myself) failing that, have 2 glasses of water before you reach for the wine then if you still want wine, have it, then another 2 glasses of water.

You will slip up, we all do, but the important thing is to get straight back to it. There is no ‘tomorrow’ or ‘after the weekend’ excuses here. You get straight back on it.

Hey Trev – well done on your decision to take action now and not wait for ‘the right time’, as that rarely comes around.

The advice from Californiagirl and sunshine-girl is all good solid stuff and as you are no a stranger to the BSD, you will hopefully be back in the swing of things in no time. Remember to keep the good fats high, to help with keeping hunger at bay and of course, good hydration is essential.

If you know you are going to need an evening snack, save some calories for this and make sure you have a stock of BSD friendly options. For instance, I make little almond crackers that come in at about 22cals each and have a couple with a little cream cheese if I desperately need something, or a table spoon of yogurt with a few berries. Maybe try sparkling water with a twist of lime and a sprig of mint instead of wine.

When and if you slip up, don’t waste time beating yourself up and allow negative thoughts to multiply in your head, as this is not productive and will make it more likely that things will slide badly into complete sabotage. We all transgress and find ourselves eating or drinking the wrong things from time to time, We need to remember it’s never the end of the world and all we have to do is get right back to the BSD straight away. We are in this for the long haul because this is a way of life for us now, so we need to accept there will be slips and blips and that we are NOT failing as long as we refocus and get ourselves back on track.

Hi Trev, welcome aboard. The experts say that we need about six months to ’embed’ new habits so I would suggest planning a six month period now. You probably don’t need to lose enough that you will need to be on 800 all of the time, so my advice would be to plan something similar to what I did. I did 800 for 8 weeks which got me to within two pounds of my target (then Christmas intervened, I suggest you miss out that step.) In January I then lost that final 2 pounds plus my Christmas excess, and in February started increasing my calories gradually. I increased them by 50 calories a day, which didn’t stop me losing another few pounds, until I got to my TDEE and then worked out a maintenance plan I thought I could stick to. Since I wasn’t a diabetic I have kept Saturday as an ‘anything’ day for indulging in anything that takes my fancy. Monday is usually a fast day (800 to 1000) and the rest I try to stick to reasonably low carb med style (my carbs are quite high compared to many here), with alcohol only on weekends and holidays. I will be keeping this under control, logging and weighing at least until November to get six months ‘maintenance’ to hopefully reset a few bad habits that I have so far retained 😊.

Hi I’m new too having started 8 days ago with amazing results. I did the 5:2 diet in 2015 and got to my goal weight and then broke my leg and put it all back on. I’m hoping the 8 week diet and then the Mediterranean maintenance will work as I have struggled trying to do only 500 a day. Started missing meals altogether and then binged undoing everything I had nearly achieved. It seemed simple to start again but then I snack every evening – goodness knows why. Although doesn’t help being married to someone who never puts on weight and snacks.

I found Trev’s last paragraph very interesting!
Best wishes Derma,

Hi All, Thanks for the great advice.

Californiagirl , Sunshine-girl, SunnyB & Derma

Thank you for your support and advice.

I like the idea of unpacking the “triggers” that precede the bad habits and the situations that cause sabotaging behaviours. I am sure most of my bad habits have nothing to do with hunger. Generally I am very busy throughout the workday and I don’t seem to slip into bad habits (a part from too much sitting), but in the evening is when most of my well established “routines” come out to play. A glass of wine as reward for a hard days work, some carb snacking while preparing dinner (generally a healthy dinner but more carb dominant in winter), more carb snacks and perhaps another wine after dinner whilst mindlessly watching some TV.

Whilst not officially diagnosed I would think I am likely insulin resistant (given my father as type 2 and my mother and sister have both been IR diagnosed) so all that evening carb loading is a killer.

I like everyone’s thoughts on distracting/substituting during these known trigger points. Sparking water for wine is a great idea, BSD friendly snacks (clearly i need to check out the recipe suggestions).

Californiagirl – I also share your habit of “rewarding” myself or giving myself permission to indulge on days when I have worked out – I suspect the good work from the exercise is more than undone by the reward I allow myself afterwards. As a result I am reasonably fit despite being 10kg over a healthy weight. Out of interest, did you have to moderate your exercise (intensity/duration) while doing fast800?

The advice to jump back on the horse after a slip up (and not indulging in negative self talk) will be key for me I think. I tend to have an all or nothing approach to things and a perfectionist tendency which does create some challenges and a self critical mindset.

Sorry to bombard with so many random questions, but I am keen to get all the tips and tricks for “doing” so that I can and move from knowing to doing.

BTW A good first day. Marginally over 800cal but well within the carb limit and very few symptoms of sugar/carb/calorie withdrawal so far (fingers crossed it continues but I suspect that is unlikely)

Thanks again for all your thoughts and advice.

Glad you had a good first day, which will help you to keep focused and you’ll keep going. The forum is here for mutual support and advise, so don’t feel bad about asking questions, or indeed offloading when you are struggling and frustrated with how things are going and need help to stay strong and not give into negative thinking. This is certainly something I have struggled with before and have found the support here invaluable in keeping focused and staying with the BSD.

You know you can do this, because you already proved you can, what you need to crack is being able to sustain the change in the way of eating, once you have reached your goal and hopefully with the support on the forum, you will be able to make that transition from weight lose to maintenance when the time comes.

Best of luck for an easy slide back into the BSD life and shout when you need advise or support, someone will respond for sure.

Wow the weekends are tough to stay on course. After a good Saturday (good calorie and carb control together with 1km swim and 10km run), Sunday went a bit pear shaped whilst eating out with the family. Not a complete derail given I’d been well behaved until that point of the day but certainly too much wine and food would have pushed me beyond the calorie and carb target.

But as everyone has suggested I am not going to beat myself up but instead just jump back on the horse and go again today.

Interested to see what week one weigh in produces on Thursday morning, hopefully it is a good positive reinforcement.

You will probably find little damage has been done by your transgression yesterday, Trev. And with your weekly weigh in being on Thursday, you have plenty of time to put in some good days anyway – I’m sure you will be reporting a positive result on Thursday. Just refocus and keep on keeping on.