Hi everyone who recently posted that I haven’t spoken to yet. I’m looking forward to talking to everyone – those who are regular 4wkers, the new 4 wkers like myself and a special hello to CC W. I first did BSD last year, lost 3 stone and mainly enjoyed it. Most importantly, I found this forum invaluable with lots of people giving me encouragement and advice when I needed it most (which is why I’m back now!).

Gattina: Our stories are so similar bar the vegetarian part. I was also reticent about revealing my current weight but I know that several people here have started out at higher weights than I am today and are now celebrating the kind of success that I am aspiring to. I too had more than half my body weight to lose and as of today, I have exactly half my body weight to lose. Btw I’m not suggesting you reveal your weight – just saying that it’s not about where you start but what you hope to achieve 🙂

Hi
I’m brand new to BSD today, but thought a 4-week challenge would be a good thing to join, as I had decided to give myself 4 weeks to try this whole BSD thing out.
As a total newbie I’m not quite sure how I will take to the BSD – 800 calories seems so low and I’ve never eaten anything like that low before!
I’m 5′ 6″ and this morning I weighed 10st 12lbs (152lbs) which is almost my highest non-pregnancy weight. I’m much, much happier when I’m under 10 stone (under 140lbs) and that is where I want to get to (though not in the next 4 weeks – 5lb would be fab in 4 weeks).
Why am I trying the BSD? I need something more structured and disciplined as just eating ‘better’ hasn’t got me very far in the last year (i.e. it’s too vague so it’s easy to mess up). Plus although I am not diabetic (or pre-diabetic as far as I know) I am a massive carb addict. So this WILL be hard for me.
I’m also a vegetarian and I HATE eggs so the whole protein thing is tricky – any ideas for this much appreciated.
Thanks all.

I agree with pretty much everything the other Brits on here have said.

Theodora – I was one of its 1.5 million employees (for over 25 years) until a few years ago and am still a complete champion of the NHS and its underpinning philosophy. It would be fascinating to hear what your parents and son-in-law’s parents had to say about the NHS in its earlier days. As you say about your son-in-law and daughter-in-law , so many staff I worked with, and I would include non-medics as well as medics, worked far more hours than was good for them week in and week out because they were so committed to the NHS.

Allie – it’s interesting what you say about your neurological surgeon and how his colleagues were retiring because of ‘the odious government regulations imposed in a fast changing world’ – the NHS is definitely a political football – and just the sheer amount of change imposed by one government after another (or even one Health Minister after another) can be exhausting, and more importantly shifts focus away from service delivery while the changes are being implemented. So, its fascinating to hear that similar things happen in the USA – although maybe not surprising.

Anyway, off my soapbox now….

Hi all
I’d like to join. I’ve been lurking in the background for ages now and I’d like to jump in with this challenge. I did the BSD last year – a new year’s resolution – stuck to it rigidly for the full 8 weeks and lost 2 1/2 stones. I rewarded myself with treats when I came off it and spent the rest of the year ‘rewarding’ myself. So this year I’m back where I started – My first day was 1 January and this is week 4 for me. I was diagnosed with T2 diabetes a few years ago and I really don’t want to start taking medication so I’m losing the weight to manage my diabetes. I have a lot of weight to lose (half my body weight!) – and yes I am too embarrassed to write the figures down! I’ve been trying to stick to under 30g of carbs a day – but difficult to do. I’m vegetarian so I’m having to restrict many of my usual protein sources, like beans and lentils. I’m eating a lot of eggs and tofu at the moment 🙂
There is so much positivity here – I’m looking forward to joining you.
Good luck everyone

When it comes to the oil and oily foods you dont have to have loads. You can even put your olive oil in a spray although I use rapeseed oil for cooking as olive oil is too expensive but also doesn’t reach a high frying point. When I have avocado it look to see what hubby is having that day and he shares it with me. Nuts are of real benefit for cholesterol, especially walnuts, but just having half a dozen doesn’t do massive damage to your calories. Work it into your daily allowance and if on some days you go a bit over because of the oils, reign it in the next day to even it out. Just remember you are not being told to eat loads of fatty foods, you are being asked to replace bad fatty foods for the good ones. There is another part to this as because I no longer eat bread or potatoes which I had with margarine (chemical waste product) I now have butter but only use it now and then say for cooking scrambled eggs.

I’m in for this one. Plus I’m having to cut out dairy. :*(

I was actually set to break the 11 stone barrier between Christmas and the new years, as I went down to 11,1, but then all those only available once a year goodies needed finishing off . . . I wobbled a bit, but am now firmly back at 11,2, that I managed to get to just before Christmas, and it hasn’t taken any effort at all (since the seasonal yummies are all gone).

The dairy thing is a hell of a shock, even though, or perhaps especially because: I have had it my entire life, first symptom was as a baby, but it was considered an unimportant, normal consequence of cows milk . . . I wish it had been eczema . . . that link was found long enough ago, that it might have saved me a lifetime of other problems.

Back to the business of losing weight though, I want to be able to get on my bike by summer, and I have over 2 stone to get rid of to get to the middle of the healthy weight zone. Immediate target is to break the 11 stone barrier though.
I’m going to carry on with my current pattern of eating, but will calorie count with mfp, or too many small transgressions add up to not much weight loss.

Keeping away from dairy should reduce my protein need, so it should be easier to eat less overall. Clutching at straws I know but I have to find a positive spin to this. Cutting out carbs was easy compared to this. Cutting out carbs has visible, measurable benefits, but the benefits of cutting out dairy are so slow to manifest, plus I’ve been brainwashed into thinking of cheese, milk and especially yogurt as being good for me, full of important nutrients, plus I really love them, more than I ever loved even cakes.

Thankfully, I can drink/eat sheep’s milk, etc., but it’s *blinking* expensive, so they are going to be very rare treats. 🙁

1. Unloading the animal feed from the car and carrying it to the feed room.. The poultry feed comes in 20kg sacks, while the sheep nuts are in 25kg sacks. It is such an eye opener to realise that I have lost more than a sack of poultry feed and am heading towards the sheep nut weight.
2. Waterproofs. have so needed them over the last few days.
3. Have managed to dip in and out of carbs this week. I was on a hedge laying course over the weekend, which is hard physical work, and took advantage of the being offered a bread roll with the soup at lunch time both days. But it hasn’t lead to a craving for carbs yesterday or today when not being so active.
4. Watching channel 4 program about diets yesterday. – There was one person who was a diet to mimic fasting, only costs £200 for 5 days supplies of the packaged instant meals. Then there was the expensive contraption to mimic the energy burnt by shivering, that you wear as shorts in a centrally heated room. – Talk about having more money than sense.

BTW Also forgot to mention that my DiL’s own speciality at her GP practise is not diabetes, but Obstetrics and Sexual Health, but she and their Diabetes Specialist both advocate BSD, and apparently were doing so long before I had even heard of it! I only found that out when she was staying with us over Christmas. So well done them – word is getting through😊

JGwen that is just under 2lbs so not to be sniffed at. I lost 4 in week one, then only 1 in week 2 but 2.5 this week, so keep at it, it does happen.

Allie, my love, you say the NICEST things😊 Thank you.

I did wonder if I may get knocked down in flames regarding my championing the NHS but it is so nice to see so many Brits agreeing with me, and appreciating the service.

BTW, My father was an NHS doctor, too (and my mother a nurse), but I didn’t mention it because the NHS was a new and very different thing when he was practising. Same with my son-in-law’s parents, both NHS doctors, both now in their mid-80s, who tried their very hardest to discourage their 3 children to follow in their footsteps because of the stress involved. They failed miserably with 2 of them, who are both now NHS consultants. My SiL ignored their advice because, with a similar attitude to your doctor, Allie, he said “a doctor is not WHAT I want to be, it is WHO I want to be” and a damned fine one he is too!

So, as you will see, our family has plenty of experience of NHS, from both viewpoints. There are bound to be problems, particularly when you realise that the NHS is the fifth biggest employer in the world, employing in excess of 1.5 MILLION across the UK – no wonder it is underfunded! Last year, it’s budget was in excess of £124 BILLION for England alone!! How can our small island’s taxes keep up?

Hi Everyone,

Loss for this week is only 0.9kg. Was hoping for more especially as the previous week was a stall week.

If things don’t improve this week I will start researching 16:8 or 17:7 intermittent fasting to add to the mix. – My inner butterfly wants me to reach a point it can emerge when its time to put away the winter woollies.

Hi all,
After a disappointing no show of my willpower since the beginning of the year, I’m up for this challenge.(I have previously lost 1 stone with the BSD but have regained most of it ) I weighed in at 11 stone this am but haven’t faced the dreaded tape measure yet!!. .I’m aiming hopefully to be in the 9 stones by mid May for a wedding and have various dates in between to aim for. So this is the 1st step…I want to lose 6lb by the end of this 4 weeks.I will probably only weigh in once a week as I get too disheartened, I will however be putting my food scales to proper use. I also plan to take up swimming again I just have to not look in any mirrors while wearing swimming costume and just bite the bullet..Haven’t been in the pool for over 2 years!

GOOD LUCK ALL

Even finding the Nutrition and Wellbeing course a bit hard-going (boring??) now, though still plodding on – and it IS feeling like a plod!! even though it is much better than the Science of Nutrition course.

So I decided to do a course totally unrelated to food and plumped for The American South from colonial times to the present day, and am finding it far more stimulating and actually feel I am learning something new. The American South is somewhere that I have always found fascinating, and have visited on a few occasions (though not enough) The course itself is well presented, but also provides links to lots of peripheral reading which I am thoroughly enjoying. Also, lots of the other people on the course (many who live in the American South) seem to be really well informed so making for good, informative discussions, unlike the nutrition courses. BTW – who knew that The American South officially includes the states of Maryland and Delaware? Well, you Americans, maybe, but certainly not me!!

Hi all,

Can I join in? I’m a newbie, day 3 for me. My goals for the next 4 weeks will be to settle into this way of eating, stick to it 100% & hopefully be able to fit into one of my nice (UK size 16) dresses for a valentine’s day trip to the theatre.

I am not weighing myself at the moment as I have actually found it demotivating for me when trying to lose weight before. Hope it’s ok that I won’t have numbers to report.

Onwards & downwards everyone!

hello everyone, feeling very happy today. Lost 2.5lbs this week, making a total of 7.5lbs. This means I have only 2.5lbs to go to my 8 week goal of 10lbs. I know I am not a fast loser but put it partly down to the insulin which I have reduced from 29 units to 26 and watching my BG settle nicely at 5.0. Had a nice reminder this morning, I went to the diabetic specialist opticians and he asked my what my last HbA1c was and I said 6.0 – he said great because it was 8.2 last time I saw you. I am supposed to see him annually but he is so busy it has been around 19 months and that is just before I started on this plan. I told him it was because I had really bad advice from a nutritionist who put me on 300g of carbs daily. Can you believe that, looking at what we do here, no wonder my bloods results went to pot.

Still doing dry January and hoping to keep to it, just 9 more evening to go. Have a good week everyone. Keep on keeping on…

Well done Victoria, great work sticking to the plan in testing circumstances.
Toby great work and it looks like the cheating is being contained with losses like that.
Caronl that is brilliant! I’m a long way off my target BMI. you will have lots of wiggle room by the end of Feb.

keep up the hard work guys 😉

Very best wishes for your visit to the Doctor LeeLee. Please let us know how you get on?

Marie123, how lovely that you are near your target weight. I don’t like to think about how much I have left to lose. In fact I haven’t set many targets as I am always disappointed by this weird and wonderful body of mine.

Today is my official weigh in and I weighed 15 stone 5 pounds. A loss of 5 pounds. Now I don’t know if I have really lost that amount. A few weeks ago at my GPs I weighed 15:8 (fully clothed). On my scales I was 15:12. I bought new scales and lo and behold have “lost” 5 pounds. I AM CLAIMING IT! I would like very much to weigh under 15 stone by the end of February. Fingers crossed, but don’t hold your breath.

I do hope everyone is well and battling the extremes of weather we seem to have on this forum. Happy days everyone.

Love
Nonna Mary
xxx

Morning Candlelight,
I can imagine how excited that 2lb made you feel, who cares if it’s water!! How are you feeling?
Great question on the fibre, I’m already noticing that I’m going to need extra. Thanks Jackie for the advice on that!
So, day 3 for me & the headache is gone! I’m feeling a little lacking in energy but had cleared my week of anything too strenuous. I’m only eating two meals a day as I’m not a breakfast person. So lunch is spinach with left over veggie chilli (an adapted Jamie Oliver recipe) & sour cream.
Hope everyone has a good day! Keep drinking that water!

I am joining in ! I joined the last challenge then set about sabotaging myself! Yesterday I literally rammed stuff in my mouth … who knows why?? Today I am ready I have a hotel booked for valentines , I have a beautiful black dress size 10 that I bought and fitted into in November . I will be wearing it for that weekend away…. and I will also buy and wear some nice underwear. Bring on the challenge . I like Articfox’s rules so will follow them. I am on coffee today to try and cut all sugar from my diet and get back on the straight and narrow as the minute I eat even scrambled eggs I want something sweet.

Hi, I would like to join in this challenge. I have been a lurker for a long time. I’m doing my own version of bsd, higher on the calories but following the principles and adding in IF. So far I have lost 50 lbs (from March last year) and I am ready for a big push as I have another 70 to go. Great to see JulesMaigret, Bloke41 and many other oldtimers still KOKO and i look forward to joining you. Thanks for constantly encouraging us so supportively and for setting this challenge up Marsie ,
atb all

Hallo all on the reboot challenge. Many congrats to Clare, Laska, toby101, and Victoria M on your losses today.

My goal on 2 January was “My start weight for this reboot is 83.1 kilos (down 7.4 from my start under the 4 week October 2017 challenge and a wobble at Christmas). My goal is a healthy BMI (79 kilos) by end Feb. A bit of wriggle room would be nice, but probably not realistic!”

Today I am 79.4 kilos – I have had to stick an extra page on my weight loss graph (very high tech!) since I thought I wouldn’t reach the 79s until middle of Feb. 1 kilo off this week and within shouting distance of my BMI. Really pleased. This week I really will dust off the exercise DVD….

Very best wishes to all as we head towards halfway on the challenge!

Today has started badly. I didn’t sleep well and my alarm woke me up from the middle of a deep sleep. Then I stepped on the scales and was 2lb up from yesterday (can’t figure out why as was very good yesterday). So my starting weight for the challenge is 222.4lbs. I want to be at 210lbs by the end of the challenge which now means I have 12lbs to lose in these 4 weeks. That’s nearly a stone! One day at a time… I’ll get there.

Today continued badly – I dropped my yoghurt pot when I was packing up my work bag and it exploded on the floor and all over my trousers. So that made me late and I missed my train. The next train was delayed and as I was waiting for it I realised that I hadn’t managed to get the yogurt out of my trousers at all.

And then my train was diverted to a different London terminus so this delayed me even more.

However no good starting with negatives. I have had a Pret Egg and Spinach pot for breakfast instead of the yoghurt and I’ve already made a good crack at the water and steps (up to 6000 already). Things can only get better right?

Allie I can only reiterate all that Theo has said. We also have several GPs in our family and one indeed has retired early purely from the stess and strain. My GP practice is excellent and one of the few which does not operate an appointment system. The good thing is that you get to see a doctor the day you need to, providing you arrive by a certain time, but you have to ‘queue’, a very British pastime! The doctors, however, have to see all the patients and to be honest sometimes they are just frazzled.

I do have private healthcare but as Theo has said in an emergency it’s useless. If you need emergency care then you have to use the NHS initially. Private care is fine for ‘elective’ surgery such as a hip or knee replacement or for cancer care if you have really comprehensive cover. I think we have an excellent healthcare system but it’s absolutely straining again the seams for far too many reasons to go into here. I also agree with Theo that without immigrants into this country our NHS Could not function.

There has been talk of paying a nominal fee to see a GP and that may be a good idea to cut down on time wasters, but on the other hand, some serious illnesses could go undiagnosed. One thing I have noticed over the last couple of years, is that if you have an upcoming hospital outpatient appointment, you get a text reminder and also a warning of the cost to the NHS if you fail to attend without cancelling the appointment. That may help to save some waste.

Thank you Jackie M. It is quite a learning curve, but thanks to helpful friendly people they are making it easier.
Thank you

Morning everyone.

2lbs loss this week which I’m pleased with. I had hoped for 3, but if it settles down to regular 2 I’ll be happy.

Two NSV this week. Went out for a meal with friends (first on on strict BSD) and stuck to the plan, AND had a lovely meal and didn’t feel deprived thanks to advice from you guys.

Secondly have spent 3 days in dressing rooms and back stage for our am dram production surrounded by chocolate, cakes and sweets, with “kind” people telling me I’ll soon work it off on stage, and not eaten a single carb. Only 5 more to go.

Well done Clare, Laska and Toby. Laska leave that arrrrgh! Weight far behind.

Everyone seems really motivated! I’m starting this challenge at 72.9 kg and I want to be down in the overweight range of BMI rather than obese, that seems to be 71 kg at my height, only 1.9 kg away! Any more than that is a bonus. So that is my weight loss goal. But I’m not totally in control of my weight, only of my behaviours, so I’ll focus on those.

Hi all

Great to read of everyone’s successes, and the support offered to those that temporarily stumble.

Weekly report – 1.5kg down this week – 3 weeks in down from 101.6 to 94.7: 6.9kg in total: over a stone!

Very happy with that as I am afraid there has been some cheating, particularly with wine although have been ploughing through C25k and NHS fitness and flexibility programme which I think is helping

Well done Laska. Great result 🙂

Candlelight – chia seeds and flax seeds, li seeds etc a bit of a high fibre revelation, don’t need much, relatively low carb. Have fixed me up nicely!

Just a quick pop in to record my week 3 results of a 4lb loss which I am thrilled with after a very slow start..

That makes 8.5 pound off my Arrrrgh! Weight..
(Im now counting that rather than my ‘official’ start weight if 1.5 lbs down a few days later because, yes I lost that also !! )

Weighing and measuring, weighing and measuring.. thats going to be my mantra from now on ..Ive certainly realised something about portion sizes!..
Back later to catch up and hopefully congratulate you all.. 🙂

Good on you, Izzy. You’ll do it xx

I joined up but didn’t mention my goals.

Having done BSD before and fallen into my old wicked ways, this time I’m being much more gentle with myself. Creating a new way of life with the side effect of lower weight and better health rather than focussing on getting my weight down faster.

As such I’m not counting calories, just eating BSD friendly food (at least 80% of time allowing ocassional deviations) and keeping my step count at 10k or more/day. As such I’m setting little targets knowing I can smash them. I’m not in a place where I can cope with failing at the moment so it’s important for me to keep this gentle.

So, all that explained, my targets for the 4 week challenge are to lose 4lb’s and keep my step average up.

Hi MamaTri

I’m 5′ 2″ and I weighed 200lbs (14 stone 4lbs) at my heaviest. I couldn’t think about the total amount I had to lose; it just seemed too big a number. So, I didn’t think about it. I focused on setting small targets that meant something to me and that were achievable. Reaching those targets then helped motivate me to set the next target. That might be a helpful way to go.

Also, there’s a new 4-week challenge starting today where everybody sets a target for the next 4 weeks and then support each other in reaching it. It’s full of people at different stages of BSD, including new people. It’s called KEEPING CARBS AT BAY OVER VALENTINE’S DAY”. If you think that might be helpful to you, you’re welcome to join in. You too Candlelight and YSYG.

Esnecca – I love your posts when you talk like this. It reminds me of drinking Guinness – so full of iron, and fortifying – it definitely helps me. But more than anything, what an absolutely incredible achievement!

How exciting Clare – a real triumph! Natalie – ditto everyone else – so pleased you are pro actively moving forward. I Have a bit of catching up on posts to do…..

Hi Everyone, lovely to see so much energy here already.

Starting at 61.9kg. Aiming to be in the 59s. Sounds easy but finding it hard to let go of some carby nonsenses we call “treats”. Give me another name for them …..

I am wearing a pair of size 10 stretchy Capris, thought at first it would be a nice NSV but they have really served to remind me how much fat I’m carrying around my middle … they’ve squished up a very uncomfortable muffin top above the waistband. Is that graphic enough? Very unedifying! This should be motivation enough to, once and for all, dump the carby _______!

Good wishes to everyone for this coming 4 weeks, may we meet all our goals.
I will be Moving Forward One Day At A Time (MFODAAT) 💜

Nice one, Essie. Thank you. Does it require cufflinks? Your father must have been one slim and very dapper gentlemen 😊 Can just imagine him floating around up there, smiling, thumbs up and saying “That’s my girl!”😉 He would just LOVE the way you have taken control and transformed yourself into a slender, healthy fashionista!!

Has the jacket still not arrived? 😢

Another 4week challenge ending, I find myself marking the passing of time by these 4 weeks instead of the end of months. 😊

Some challenges have not been successes for me but this one I can report a small loss, even if it is a “lost again”. I’m certainly good at recycling these kilos. Frustrating though.
Starting weight (boxing day) 62.5kg
Week 1 (02 Jan) 63.0kg
Week 2 (09 Jan) 62.1kg
Week 3 (16 Jan) 62.3kg
Week 4 (23 Jan) 61.9kg = 600gms loss
So, it is a loss but only this amount because I didn’t meet my behavioral goals which I need to think about for the next challenge. See you there.

Natalie, Flick, marie123, Mokovex, Mixnmatch, well done on your results this time around. Losses and milestones to cherish.

Mariet, arcticfox, it’s hard, isn’t it, when expectations don’t meet the effort put in. Don’t let it throw you. Mariet, I think the last few kgs are the hardest. The body just seems to cling on to them. arcticfox, it’s hard to imagine how that fast didn’t have a different result.

There was a discussion some time ago on another thread when someone quoted 8 days, I think, for the scales to react. But, I don’t know, we all seem to want to relate what we did yesterday to what the scales say today when really it could be yesterday’s yesterday (as my g/daughter used to say as a 4yo) and several yesterdays before that. Shows the value, perhaps, of concentrating one day at a time on the menu and weekly/monthly on the numbers.

Thanks, everyone, for your company. Always stimulating and supporting.
MFODAAT

Morning Folks,
Well I am a serial weigher and am over the moon on day I have lost 2lb, yes I know mainly water, but impressed.
Also aware I may go up as well as down, but will keep a weekly tally.
Need to shop today, not looking forward to it. Any advise on high fibre foods beside veg, missing my bran flakes.
Thank you 🙃

Good Morning. How are the scales treating everyone today?
I’m very happy with my 3lb loss this week and that also makes it 1 stone in total. That’s 1 down 4 to go! and for the first time actually feels achievable. 🙂
Hope everyone has a great day and I look forward to reading your successes this week.

Hello everyone

I’d like to sign up, too. I think of the 4-week challenges as my base on the BSD forum now, although I do enjoy going out visiting other threads.

I’ve given my final report-in on the Good Cheer challenge. I’m now 9 stone 11lb (62.1 kgs) and at the very top of my healthy BMI range (one of my goals when I set out on BSD in August) so I’m starting this Valentine’s Challenge very happy.

My new weight goal is to get to 9 stone initially, then see how things stand. I’ve still got quite a lot of fat around my waist/belly so I’ll see what my waist measurement is, visceral fat levels etc when I reach 9 stone.

For this challenge my weight mini-targets are to:

Lose 4lb to reach 9½ stone (not really sure about this – ½ stones never really motivate me)
Lose 7lbs to reach 9st 4lbs which means a 5 stone total (including pre-BSD) weight loss

However, like Mokovex, my main goal now is to embed this way of eating and living so that it’s sustainable long-term. For me that’s about broadening out what I eat, trying new foods (and learning to cook them!) as well as keeping up the increased physical activity. But, that’ll definitely take me across a fair few 4 week challenges!

Welcome to anyone joining for the first time. I’m looking forward to the next 4 weeks with everyone.

Hi, I am on day 2, weighed myself this morning and was amazed I had lost 2lb in a day, yes I know it is mainly water, but the scales are going backwards instead of forwards.
If something sweet is your thing go to recipes and look under highest Rated there is a peanut butter fudge recipe
Good luck

I have noticed it sometimes changes after a shower, and certainly seems to be lower the few times I have weighed in later in the day. I think it is over reading actually compared to more accurate methods, but on Friday I got an out of the blue 26% and don’t think it has increased by 7% in four days, so as you say, better to just look at a trend.

MnM my fat % changes a lot morning to evening. My personal trainer says it depends how hydrated I am, as the water in my body has something to do with how it reads the fat. So I am higher %in morning after sleep than at night After day drinking. So it goes down as weight goes up in evening.

I don’t know if that’s your experience too? Be interested to find out as I never quite feel I can rely on the % apart from noting a downward trend over time.

I try to weigh daily, but count a weekly weight for a trend, which I find is helped by joining one of the challenge threads. My original weigh in day was Sunday but I switched to Tuesday to match the challenge weigh in days. Weigh daily if you want to but remember that a gain or stall could occur, and doesn’t mean it has stopped working, just keep on keeping on and it will definitely work.

Thanks Mixnmatch you and everyone here are so generous and honest about the struggle to achieve optimum health.
Best wishes to you and everyone for more success in the new challenge. I love the 4 week length. I signed up to the 8 week too but this one has become ‘home’ for me.
I can’t thank you all enough, so much positive energy I’m sucking up!

Mokovex, well done! I’m hoping I’ll be able to keep up with everyone’s posts in the next challenge although I might be a few days late starting. I’m loving the positivity here . Thanks again x

So my starting weight is 11 stone 8.9 pounds, and my scales are reporting up to 33% body fat this morning, in the middle of a long low carb and protein fast. I did have a bulletproof coffee, and a little milk in some tea yesterday, but otherwise ate nothing, and will continue that to around 2:00 this afternoon. Probably around 40 hours and 5g carb in total. I have to eat something then as I have two hours of badminton tonight but I can’t eat late or I won’t be able to run around. After a badminton day my muscle reads higher and my body fat lower usually so it will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings.

Thanks Marie123 and congratulations on your WL so far, fantastic!

Morning all!

I shall add to the great shoe debate. I too have dropped 1-2 shoe sizes. Used to be a Uk 7, now 5.5 or 6 and my slip on shoes definitely fall off my feet these days. Shape wise, it’s been different too. For the first time I have lost off my stomach. I suspect I had a beer/bread belly which really only went when I took up this way of eating (no matter how much I lost other times) I also have a distinct “re-rounding” since Christmas bad behaviour. Definitely a bread/chocolate baby!

Have had a raging appetite too. Been really struggling to stick to plan, especially when off work which tells me it’s head hunger, not real hunger. Which I find very hard to beat!!

Mary, I hope you are feeling better. So much going round. This is d day week for me. Off to GP this morning to get results of blood tests and endocrinologist tomorrow. Very hopeful that I might get some answers! Then flying to Tobago on Saturday. Will have to stay away from the rice and peas and all that lovely tropical fruit. Not forgetting the rum punch 🤣🤣

Will update you all later

L x