Thank you, OiMadam, Yowser49, Verano, KrysiaD. A few tears here for the love and support sent my way. It really does help.

As with others on this sleigh, thanks Verano for getting us started.

Christmas wishes and love xxx

Thanks all for the company and for helping me cling on the ride. I am aiming to stay with it as long as possible as my experience last Christmas when I fell off the Atkins diet and gained a further two stones taking me to well over 14. The carb and sugar monsters certainly got me then, right up to end of September when prediabetic and eye problem diagnosis coincided with the bsd newspaper article. Am now down to 12 stones and really do not want to risk those monsters getting at me again! Good luck to all. Merry Christmas and safe travels to those out and about. Happy New Year and I look forward to joining the bsd maintenance crew in the spring. Linda. x

Marsie – you have done so well at this most difficult time and I do agree with Verano that you need to be kind to yourself over Christmas.

LinD49 – I am so glad you posted your experience last Christmas of falling off the Atkins diet. It was a timely reminder to me not to risk letting the carb monster out of its cage at Christmas. I am in awe of anyone who can eat starchy sugary carbs and then get straight back on the wagon. Unfortunately I have proved over and over again that I am not one of those people and like you – once I let it out of its cage it rampages around for months before I can get control again.

JMarie – I have a bit of loose skin also. Not surprising for a 68 year old serial yo yo dieter. As long as I don’t wear sleeveless tops it is well hidden. I agree that the health benefits far outweigh any loose skin. When I was overweight I couldn’t wear sleeveless tops anyway.

Christmas wishes and love to everyone.

AMAZING!

Well I think most of our fellow travellers have posted now ….. 70% of us who boarded the sleigh are still here… some sitting comfortably on the front row, some in the middle and some hanging on tightly to the back. Importantly, we’re all here !!!!!

We have all done so well to stay this particular course at a fraught time of the year. There is no reason, apart from ourselves, to blow this now. But if we do there’ll be a new challenge next Tuesday !!

Huge pat on the back everyone. Happy Holidays. Happy and healthy New Year. 2017 will be our year!!

Verano hope you have a lovely Christmas and am looking forward to the new challenge next Tuesday. In the meantime I am hitching a ride on the bah humbug wagon.

Thanks Krysia same to you. See you next week!

Well – certainly going out on a high – normally weigh in on Mondays and Thursdays so today was my last weigh in before Christmas and…..drum roll please….lost 1.5lbs!!! So I’m now below my target weight, at 9st 1lb – I DID IT!!! WOO HOO!!!!!!!

Fantastic, Topcac. Congratulations.

Likewise, thanks Verano and others here for keeping us all on the straight and narrow sleigh.

My last weigh today sees me 36lbs lighter than on my start date of 10 October, which is frankly pretty much a Christmas miracle in my book and not a place I expected to be.

Blood sugar down to normal levels on just one third of the medication prescribed in the summer, GP delighted and on track with BSD after initial scepticism. He now says although he appreciates it’s not for everyone, he was wrong to suggest I wouldn’t be able to manage it. I have had few positive interactions with my GP since being diagnosed with T2 , it’s been a lot of stick and not much carrot, so his congratulations on taking control were a boost.

Frankly it still doesn’t seem right that I was on a low carb diet for 6 years, exercised, BMI of 26-27 – which isn’t that excessive for a 5”10 woman – but blood sugar shot up in just a few weeks. In darker moments I worry that it’s something more serious going on, but it seems that either genetics or my tubby life up to age 42 have put me in this place.

Both GP and I are still cautious about me being able to keep it up long term, but let’s get to maintenance level (still 20 lbs away) and see how that pans out.

For the moment I can rejoice in a more healthy body and wear my sparkly Christmas tights with pride!

Have a happy, healthy holiday everyone! MKx

So well done, Topcac and MaharaniKitten. Congratulations.

Lost a total of six pounds while riding on this sleigh
Most Decembers ive put on about six pounds already,before we even get to Christmas Day
Hopping off the sleigh and over to Bah humbug thread now…Be there or be square as we said in the sixties!
many thanks to our trusty reindeer and to all the lovely chums lhere! Big hugs all round!xxx
If i dont see you thru the week,i’ll see you thru the window! Enjoy the festive fun everyone X

Well done Topcac, what a great pressie you have given yourself. Happy Christmas.

Well done topcac and maharani kitten, superb results !
So sorry to hear of your loss Marsie. This will be such a difficult time for you.

Thank you Peapod. Appreciated.

Hi all

Well done topcac, maharani and yowzer. So glad you’ve all done so well.

I have a minor victory. I am back from holiday and have lost, yes lost, 1.5lbs!!! Must be the first time ever I’ve been away and lost weight! So all good here as well!

Will post the new thread ‘4 Week Fix’ later today but in the meantime have a great Christmas everyone!

Verano that’s great news.

I haven’t managed to shift that pesky 0.4lbs, but bodies are funny things! I am celebrating the amazing victories, incredible improvements in my health, the new found way of eating, a new lease of life, high energy, clear mind and baggy trousers!

I’m doing a variety of family visits over Christmas and will not be in charge of what is served (only what passes my lips) so am a bit nervous.

Well done fellow sleigh mates, it’s been a great, valuable, fun, informative, life changing ride. I will never forget or regret!

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Well done Verano – a fantastic achievement. You must be doing the happy dance now.

Yes!!! So happy I have capitalised on my happiness and started the new thread for next week!!!! ‘4 WEEK FIX’ hoping to see everyone over there in the next week or so.

Well done VERANO!

The end of my 8 weeks is today and I’m pleased to report that I’ve lost 22.6 lbs.

Going to just be sensible over the festive period and try to stay the same (or almost!) and then going to get back on a second 8 week stretch on January 1st.

Amazing to say I’m actually not bothered about the chocolate, mince pies etc that usually punctuate Christmas as half-hourly intervals! Just looking forward to turkey and lots of fresh vegetables!

Happy Christmas everyone! xxx

well done Verano, I too am losing despite eating out. Took the boys to the panto to see John Barrowman in Dick Whittington and then went for an Italian meal, I had minestrone soup that didn’t contain pasta, followed by veal with cream and mushroom sauce, it came with roasted potatoes but I left them and ordered a giant salad, no dessert. Got weighed this morning and I am down 2lbs. My daughter has given up trying so had one day eating courgettii and meat salad and today was on the pork pie but I stuck with it. it is just my normal way to eat now.

Will see you on the next 4 week challenge in the New Year: Have a good one and keep on keeping on……

I’ve been eating some non-BSD treats leading up to Christmas, but nowhere near as much as usual. I bought our favourite lemon tarts when shopping yesterday. I had one a couple of weeks ago and it made me feel sick. So this time I looked at them and thought “I really don’t want that” so I didn’t eat it! Sometimes in the past I would have eaten it even if I didn’t really want it, isn’t that crazy! And last night I was icing gingerbread reindeer and had one bite to check they were ok, didn’t want any more so left the rest of the poor thing with his back legs gone. I still love non-sweet things like roast potato and Cheezles but anything with sugar just seems sickly and horrible. It’s progress.

CarolH
That’s a really good loss for your 8 weeks and really good news that you feel differently about the chocolate and mince pies etc. since you have been on the BSD.

It looks like we have really changed how we think about food and as Sunshine-girl said in her post – this is just our normal way to eat now.

Am just back from my after dinner walk – no herd of Santas thundering past tonight. We are lucky here in East Anglia as we seem to have missed the severe gales in other parts of the Country. Hope everyone is ok tonight.

Well done CarolH that’s a great loss.

Sunshine-girl isn’t it so nice to eat something ‘creamy’ without guilt. I had peppered steak last night and enjoyed the cream sauce far more than I ever would a potato now!! Funny how we’ve both started to lose now the challenge is over! Just have to go with the flow no point in analysing it!

Natalie I think lots of us just lose the taste for ‘sugar’ but must admit I will try some roast potatoes tomorrow…. if my head lets me! As Krysia says BSD is our ‘normal’ way of eating now.

Now I’m off to write a menu for lunch tomorrow, know its a bit late in the day, but need to find out what I’ve forgotten to buy!

Wow, wow and thrice WOW I’VE EXCEEDED MY GOAL! Weighed in this morning at 125.2lbs!!! That puts me below my goal of 126lbs for this 8 weeks. It was a completely unexpected surprise. A fantastic early Christmas present! Woo hoo!

Well done everyone on your losses, determination, dedication and support.

Happy Christmas to all!

Daisysmum -WELL DONE!!!

KRYSIAD & VERANO – thank you x. I agree, I feel BSD is my new normal way of eating. Much of the time I don’t even feel I’m on a diet at all.

Well done everyone. Wishing you all a very happy and healthy Christmas.