Hi all

This is my first day of my second attempt at this. I just read Bills posts from This Has To Work For Me, and I can identify with that sentiment. But what a great post, so inspiring to read the frustrations, the support and most importantly the results from persevering. So today I have weighed and measured, and my fasting glucose this morning is 12.2. Normally I would be alarmed by that and console myself with a big bar of chocolate ( and I wonder why I’m diabetic lol!), but today I’m just viewing it as a starting point. I’m re-reading the book as I forgotten what I’m supposed to actually do, but I know it all makes perfect sense. My husband stole my Fitbit a couple of months ago, but I don’t think he actually uses it, so I think I’ll steal it back, and since it’s such a beautiful day I feel a long walk in the sunshine coming on.
My eating plan for today:
B – frittata and mushrooms
L – quinoa chickpea and tomato salad ( 2 tbsp quinoa grains, halved cherry tomatoes, red pepper, chia seeds, small handful almonds and chickpeas with lime juice, chilli and hemp oil dressing)
D – baked salmon and mixed green salad
Plus lots of water and fruit tea for the cravings.

Motivation is high today, long may it continue 😀

Go for it! you know it makes sense and it will be worth it in all sorts of ways. Good luck

Hi Stephie63
Welcome back ( we’ll consider it a hol). The world’s your Lobster ( it’s bigger)! Get stuck in ☀️

Hi – we are in the same boat. Today was day 2 of my second attempt. I have re-read the BSD book, in which I have underlined the important parts to help me keep on track. I bought a Garmin watch which tracks my steps and I am over the 10,000 daily requirement. I don’t enjoy doing complicated recipes, so I just cook / make meals from scratch, simple being the key. I did the quiz on sugar dependency and my score was very high, plus I am not getting any younger! The e-newsletter is a good read and has a great couple of links. I am keeping a food / exercise diary and being brutally honest; yesterday 811 calories and today 805 calories. So my first and most challenging two days are done; should be able to get into day 3 with a small amount of confidence that this will not be as hard as I imagine 🙂 🙂 🙂 Good luck and keep posted us all on your progress.

Hi joy4life, glad I’m not the only one, so let’s show them we can do this!
Day 3 and it’s not so bad. Felt very hungry not long after breakfast, but I drank lots of water and it passed. I’ve noticed that I’m starting to feel jittery and shaky like my bs is too low, but I checked it and it’s 11.9 so I’m guessing it’s just carb withdrawal. I won’t give in, you can shake rattle and roll all you want, but you hear me bs, you WILL submit to my demands and return to normal! Will eat lunch when I’m actually hungry, not just because ‘it’s time’.

I started on 17 May as well – first attempt, although I did start a low sugar diet in January, but only kept to it for all of six weeks!
the good thing is that I only put back on 2 of the 5 kg that I lost, so not too bad!
When I read the BSD book, I analysed my food log from that six weeks, I calculated that on average just over half the calories came from food high in carbs, so 800 looks achievable.
Doing OK so far – bit hungryish now, but I didn’t have breakfast.
The BBC did an interesting program at the start of the year (I think it was “Trust Me, I’m a Doctor’) where they did some trials of people not eating breakfast, and not eating late at night, so effectively getting a longer daily fasting period – it debunked the ‘don’t skip breakfast myth’ – and seems to be working well for me so far – just as well because breakfast (pre BSD) nearly always involved toast!

Hi Frog,
I think the science is really starting to debunk some of the long held myths about eating, and about time too! There have been far too many ‘rules’ about what is good for you and what isn’t. I’m sure the ‘must eat breakfast’ one was put out by cereal manufacturers to sell more products!
It’s no coincidence that since the low fat, healthy whole grains diet advice came out the population has just got bigger and bigger with heart disease and diabetes going thru the roof. For 10,000 years humans ate a diet of real food, nothing processed, and it was fine. Then food manufacturers came along 50 years ago and changed almost everything we eat, and now we wonder why we have so many diet related problems. My new mantra is Just Eat Real Food! And I’m also trying to eat when I’m actually hungry, not just because the clock says it’s lunchtime, or even breakfast time – although most mornings I tend to wake up hungry anyway. Since starting bsd tho I’m finding I’m not hungry until much later in the morning so I’m just going with that. It might be more difficult to maintain that when I go back to work at the end of the month, but hopefully by then I’ll be well into this way of eating.

The good news is this mornings fasting bs is 9.6, down from 11’s and 12’s at the start, so something is definitely working!

Just posted the recipe of my lunch, creamy garlic mushrooms. Have to say it was yum! Would have been nice on toast, but hey ho. I think it would also be good as a topping for courgetti or cauliflower rice. Definitely one to keep

Sounds good, Stephie63! or you could try your garlic mushrooms on uncooked baby spinach – I had my breakfast eggs on that the other day and it was yum.

Hi, Just starting Day 6 of Wk1 – feeling good. I have increased my exercise levels; steps continue to be 10,000+ daily; have done 20mins of RT with a DVD a number of days; weeding the garden on others. I watched Dr.Moseley’s presentation to the Australians which you can see via the link on this website – some good information in there.
Breakfast today – apple (diced); cinnamon; 10g large seeds; 5g Chia Seed; 5g Flaxseed; Plain Soya Yoghurt 100g = 210 cals. Great idea to have eggs on spinach – wicked thanks.
Good ideas gleaned from BBC programme on Wednesday evening called “Loose weight for love”.
I will be interested when I check my stats (i.e. weight, BMI, HR, BP etc) on Sunday to see how far I have come in 7 days.
Food diary a MUST, gives me a “real” picture of my calories intake. Also variety important too. 800 calories is perfectly doable but you have to work at being clever at what and how much you eat!
Keep going everyone, we can do this AND maintain – for now one day at a time!
P.S. I have a wall calender in the kitchen and I am putting little cartoon stickers each day I keep on track, which is a visual aid too!

You know it’s brilliant to see folks buddying up to support each other like this.
The forums have always been a great source of support but you folks are taking it to the next level.
Big thumbs up to the attitudes being shown in this thread too.
Stephie your posts ring so many bells for me, when I was having the week 4 to 5 erratic readings, I used to tell my diabetes that it would never win and to start packing coz its leaving.
I may sound like a proper nutter but I was taught to stand up to bullies and diabetes is not going to bully me into an early grave.
Keep up the good work you lot I know that, together, you will all succeed this time

I am ready to start on Mon 23rd, so will be logging in to get some motivation if I find I am struggling. First saw this on Sunday Night on Ch 7 Sydney a couple of weeks ago, got the book yesterday and have read it,so will be clearing out my pantry and shopping tomorrow. Has anyone tried freezing some or parts of some of the recipes? I live alone so cooking 2-4 portions as in the book would be wasteful unless I can freeze them.

Hi Pippa

It’s a really good idea to have some meals ready in freezer, for when you need quick food, or to take to work.

I cook the cottage pie in the Recipes, I use Quorn instead of mince. I freeze a couple of portions with the cauli mash on top, so ready to go, and make extra Quorn mince frozen for others dishes. Sometimes just have it with stir fried courgettes/cabbage.

I also make and freeze soup. Good luck, sounds like you’ve made some good preparations, and these forums are so supportive x

Day 7, stats are looking good; 6.5lbs lost; plus loss on the key measurements of 1″. They say that weaning off sugar (carbs) is akin to giving up addiction to heroin – so this is tough. Mentally I feel good, like I have given myself more control over one aspect of my life and it’s all to the good. I don’t have the highs / lows off when I have shovelled in quantities of sugars i.e. wine. chocolate, potato wedges or bread (plus the weekly shop is cheaper!). When I eat a balanced plate of food it tastes really good plus the snacking has stopped too. I have taken up my crochet again whilst watching TV to stop the mindless munchies, in the evenings! My increase in exercise has also helped me, as I was always am promising myself and then generally don’t follow through!
My areas for improvement: reduce the portion sizes i.e. use a smaller dinner plate; up the water consumption to 2ltrs a day.
All in all a GREAT first week and so much easier than I anticipated it would be, to regress now would mean I have to go through wk 1 all over again; a bit like when you give up cigarettes – keep going everyone and thanks for taking the time to share experiences and tips 🙂

Im starting tomorrow too and ive got a couple of questions? Can you eat baked beans, bananas and quinoa? Also, any tips for snacking as I don’t like nuts?
Thanks in advance

End of week 1.

4lbs off, lost 2″ from my waist, 1.5 from my hips and my jeans are falling down lol. FBS 9.8 this morning.

Joyforlife: well done on reaching the end of week one! 6.5lbs off is fantastic, and like you I haven’t found it too difficult to stick to either. I’ve stopped snacking for the most part, just an occasional blip when my will power was low or the cravings high, but they’ve largely been healthy snacks of berries or nuts, so I think that’s ok. I also crochet in the evenings, I find it so relaxing, plus I have a lot of orders for blankets to get through from people I work with. I could do with giving up work and crocheting full time!

Pippa62 and awfulauntie: welcome to bsd, you’ll find lots of inspiration and support in the forums. Anything you want to know, there is always someone with advice which I’ve found so helpful in this first week. And yes it’s a good idea to freeze your leftover portions, I’m currently cooking for two (well one and a half really, I have to adapt the recipes for hubby as he’s not on board with this yet) so any leftovers either get frozen or I eat them the next day. Keep posting your progress, we all love to see how everyone is doing.

Awfulauntie: as far as I can tell there aren’t too many restrictions on what you can eat, but be mindful of the carbs. The basis of this plan is that it’s low carb and both bananas and baked beans are fairly high in carbs and sugar, so personally I’d give them a miss for now. Quinoa on the other hand is high in protein so I think that would be OK. Most of us on here use my fitness pal app to record what we eat, and that also gives you a breakdown of the nutrient content, I aim for around 60g of carbs daily. Also the book has quite a few recipes in it, so although I’ve not been following them to the letter, it gives a good idea of the kind of things you can base your meals on. As far as snacking is concerned, I think it’s a good idea (for me anyway) to try and reduce my snack habit, and I’m trying to only eat when I’m actually hungry. Not as easy as it sounds as I’m so ingrained to eat because the clock says it’s lunchtime or whatever, but I’m sure if I persevere with it I can reset my eating cues. That said, I have had the occasional snack and again there are recipes in the book, the guilt free muffins are ok – not like a real muffin in texture, but not at all bad. There are also recipes on this site that members have posted that you could use. Soups, hummus and carrots, berries with full fat yogurt, ham and cheese, etc all are low in carbs, just remember to keep a tally of your calories and carb intake.
And don’t be too hard on yourself, we are all still learning how to eat this way and the odd slip up is inevitable, just be kind to yourself, pick up where you left off and carry on!

Bill: it’s pma, positive mental attitude. That’s basically the difference between winners and losers, and it works! Diabetes will NOT get the better of me, the only reason I’m where I am is because I’ve allowed it to happen. I’m taking back control and kicking those eratic bs readings into touch! It’s such a liberating feeling, and the inspiration from everyone is keeping me motivated. Together we will do this!

Ooh, I’ve stirred myself up into a frenzy of positiveness lol. ( or is it just ketosis euphoria?) I think a long walk while the weather is nice will help to burn off some of this energy. See you later!

I think this is the first time in my life this has happened to me. I burned more calories than I’ve eaten! After a 2 hour hike this morning I then spent a couple of hours gardening, which was mainly removing turf and shovelling gravel. According to MFP that’s around 1100 calories burned, I only ate 852. Should I be eating more?

Hi Stephie, I personally don’t even note how many calories that I have burnt through exercise; I look at it that I am improving my MR, lowering blood pressure, toning and increasing muscle etc. With the BSD we have given the medical evidence that 800 calories a day for 8wks is the guide. But I think that if you personally feel that due to the increased exercise, then increasing food intake accordingly so you don’t feel excessively tired. You are own best teacher to listen to your body and mind. Hope that is of help 🙂 🙂 🙂

Thanks Barby, I have frozen a few meals in the 1st weeks plan so hoping they taste OK 2nd time around! 1st week wasn’t too hard and lost 3.3 kg so happy with that. I find I spend a lot more time on meal prep so hoping freezing some helps with time management on my busy days!

Well my weight is starting to go down again, after a bit of a blip, but my FBS is going up! I think I must still be eating too many carbs, currently aiming for 65g a day. What does everyone else do? Is 65 too high?