Hi Ian – that’s amazing! 😊. Fab news.
SSB

Thank you SSB. That sounds interesting. I’ll do that. The good news is that I’ve lost 3kg in the 1st week 😊
Best wishes, Ian

Hi Ian, I’m no expert but if you take a look at Mark Sisson on Mark’s Daily Apple, he talks a lot about ‘chronic cardio’. As I understand it, after a certain level of exercise/heart rate, you no longer burn fat so he suggests moderating exercise levels. Mark was a marathon runner and iron-man competitor and his Primal way of living sits very well with the BSD.
Good luck with everything.
SSB

LOL. Those raspberries sound fabulous but I’m not a lover of macadamias but hey who knows. I’m not sure how low my oven goes because I’m away just now but there is a dough proving setting which I’m guessing is pretty low. Maybe we could have this conversation again when I’m back because I’d love to try the raspberries.

Good morning everybody’s enthusiasm is really rubbing off on me too. JackieM you sound as though you are in a really good place! JGwen do you want to share your inspirational book on the ‘Take a look at this thread ‘?

Yesterday my first positive…..
1. Sitting by the ocean breathing in the ‘smell’ of the sea.
2. Having some girlfriends here for cocktails and I had only a very small one. Mainly Cava with just a smidgeon of orange liqueur and a splash of mandarin juice. I know very sugary and to be honest one was more than enough!
3. Scales dropped slightly so after a week away I have put on less than half a pound. I don’t think it’s realistic for me to try and lose weight on holiday but remaining static is a bonus.

It’s been interesting to hear lots of people who are suffering extreme heat at the moment say they are gaining. It makes so much sense that heat would make us more dehydrated and I wonder if that’s why I always gain a few pounds on holiday but they disappear with 48 hours when I get back home. Anyway, hope everyone has another positive day.

Here’s some more evidence. I’ve posted it on another thread but this seems a good place too

SSB

https://youtu.be/Sgeh2w0j51w

It depends on what you’re dehydrating, V, but for herbs it’s below 100F. I have a dial so I turn it up just past 95F. Google tells me that’s 35C. Does your oven go that low? I dehydrated some blueberries and raspberries a couple of weeks ago and they were at 135F, which is a more manageable 57C. They both came out great, but the rapsberries were a revelation. Dry as a bone, crunch like chips, tart blast followed by intense concentrated raspberry flavor. Then it occurred to me to eat one dried raspberry with one dry-roasted macadamia nut and I can’t even describe the combination. Perfection in a bite. I went to some friends’ house for dinner that night and I actually a carried a baggie of the raspberries and macadamias with me and forced everyone to have one of each, popping both in their mouth at the same time. They’re used to my rapturous enthusiasms so they went along with it. They also recognized the greatness of the pairing. Or so they assured me while hustling me out the door. 😀

There have been various questions on these forums about IF. I found this video on a Keto site but it’s really good, short explanation of the benefits of IF.
SSB

https://youtu.be/Sgeh2w0j51w

Well here’s the short back story – no permanent damage and nothing that time, physio and exercising won’t sort out. 😁😁🎉🎉🌟🌟

And, while my spine shows signs of wear and tear consistent with my age, and sadly some otherwise unknown arthritis, no sign of osteoporosis. In fact, my GP, who is very thorough, didn’t think there was any real point in a bone density scan.

Yipee, because this also means she, and I, see no reason not to continue on with another round of Fast 800 to shoot for my healthy weight! The fat around my middle was a much bigger concern. And of course, the enormous challenge of keeping it off.

So i’ve just finished my last meal of Round 1 and tomorrow marks the final weigh-in and Day 1 of Round 2. I wonder what it will bring. 🤪

Esnecca we have ‘spoken’ about dehydrating food before and I wonder if you could just remind me of the temperature you use. My fan oven goes to a very low temperature and I could use that.

LTC rosemary is great frozen and thyme just falls of the stem so none of that tedious ‘picking’ , I have experimented with ‘soft’ herbs like mint and basil and they do keep their flavour but not their texture. I wash the herbs and dry very well with paper towel before freezing. Try it you have nothing to loose!

Morning all,

Not posted for a while as routine went to pot over the school holidays. Kids all back today so I’m back on it. Remarkably, only put on a couple of pounds over the holidays! Thrilled as was by no means a saint. I skipped breakfast each day which I assume helped. Hubby remarked that he saw me not totally clear my plate on a few occasions and even chose not to have pudding a couple of times as I was full. I WAS FULL! Before this WOE I never felt full. I was so metabolically broken that I always felt empty.

It is good to be back even if a little late.

Allie- I have just switched from Samsung to iPhone, have got hubby’s old iPhone 6s. I love it and don’t think I could go back. This is mainly because I have an iPad and a Mac and the integration is good, also the family sharing of apps works for us.

The Sixers are playing tonight too, Marsie, but in a different game thank goodness. Maybe we have a chance against the Hurricanes!

Mariet a daughter’s wedding would be a very exciting event. My daughter is only 13 atm so that won’t be for a while, but when it does happen I plan to play every tearjerker “daddy’s little girl getting married” song I can find to make my husband weep. Butterfly Kisses is a good one.

I breakfasted on overnight oats made with porridge oats or steel cut oats for about 15 years. Although it probably beat eating sugary cereals or stopping on my way to work for a doughnut or pastry, it did not prevent me from gaining weight and heading down the path toward diabetes. I had always heard growing up that oats were good for you, and when I started eating them they certainly did keep me full longer than the toast and jam I had been eating in the mornings. My diabetic grandmother was told to eat them to manage her diabetes. She did live to 92 but that was actually a bit young for the women in her family who routinely lived well into their 100’s and she was a bit out of it in her later years whereas I remember visting her mother in hospital before she died and she was still as sharp as a tack.
I stay fuller longer now by having a ‘porridge’ or ‘overnight oats’ made of chia and flax with full fat greek yogurt on top. If you think about it, it is the soluble fibre in oats that is the healthy part, and I now get that from chia and flax and forgo the extra carbs that come with oats. After eating oats as a staple for so long, I thought I would really miss them, but I don’t.

I didn’t step foot on a scale until week 4. I had dedicated too many years to avoiding all attempts at weighing myself to turn on a dime and start. I wish I’d just bit the bullet so I’d have accurate total loss figures instead of an estimate, but we have to do what we have to do in the moment to propel us forward.

Family support is an important element in success. Any chance you get the teens to go snack somewhere where you aren’t? My OH took his Friday night burgers and fries to the porch and ate outside, the dear. I’m sure they don’t mean anything by it, but it would be good for them to pay a little attention to your needs. It’s basic politeness, really, as well as showing a modicum of respect for a loving parent trying to reclaim her health.

Good luck!

LTC, you might consider investing in a really good dehydrator. With the amount and variety of cooking you do, I bet you’d get tons of use out of it. You will be amazed at the difference between freshly dehydrated herbs/spices and store-bought. The two bear no relation to each other whatsoever.

Inka, I’m so happy you’ve signed on for the great kelp noodle experiment too! I think it’s time for me repost my Shrimp Faux Mein recipe. When you’re in the mood for Chinese takeout, this guy will blow your mind. Phenomenal leftover too. Better the next day. It does cook in the dressing and get too soft by day 3, though, so you can’t make too gigantic a batch.

Shrimp Faux Mein

The all important softening trick: kelp noodles come out of the bag tangled up in a crunchy skein. Dump them out of the bag into a collander, rinse them and run you fingers through the clump to untangle it. Fill a large mixing bowl with warm water and add a tablespoon of baking soda. Swirl it with your hand until the baking soda is dissolved. Add the noodles and let them soak for 2 minutes until they relax. You can easily feel and see the difference. Dump them back in the colander and rinse again. Let them sit, draining until you’re ready for them.

4 oz shiitake or portobello mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
2 oz snow peas, sliced thinly lengthwise
2 oz broccoli, clover or alfalfa sprouts
2 oz pea shoots or sunflower shoots
1 cup of baby bok choy, julienned or sliced to your liking
2 cloves garlic (5 grams), minced
1 medium green onion (16 grams), white part minced and green tops chopped
1/2 lb medium or large cooked shrimp, peeled and deveined, then cut in half lengthwise
1 package (12 oz) kelp noodles
3 tsp toasted sesame oil
3 tblsp soy sauce
1 tblsp hot chili garlic sauce (I use Huy Fong brand which has no sugar, be sure to check the ingredients and nutrition panel before you buy any prepared sauces)
1 tsp dried ginger or 2 tsps fresh ginger, finely minced
1 tsp ginger juice (grate the ginger and squeeze it through a cheesecloth or paper towel into the dressing)
10 drops fish sauce (Red Boat is the only one I know of that is made properly without added sugars)
1/2 tsp brown miso

Combine soy sauce, two teaspoons of the toasted sesame oil, the chili garlic sauce, the ginger, the minced white part of the scallion, one of the minced cloves of garlic, the fish sauce and the miso in a small bowl. Whisk vigorously. Set aside. If you have a low carb thickener (I use a combination of guar and xantham gum which is instantly effective and has no taste whatsoever) add a half teaspoon of it and whisk. Let it sit for five minutes to thicken. This step is optional. I like it because the thicker sauce sticks well to the noodles and is more reminiscent of the texture of dressings you get in restaurants, but it tastes wonderful even without the thickening step.

Put the last teaspoon of sesame oil in a large pan, heat on medium and sautee the mushrooms. Lightly salt and pepper to help them release their juices. Once they’ve softened a little, add the snow peas and sautee for a couple of minutes. I like them still crunchy with a bit of that delicious raw peapod taste. If you prefer them softer, cook an extra minute or two. Add the garlic and sautee for a minute until fragrant. Add the bok choy and sautee until they begin to wilt but the ribs are still firm.

Add the shrimp. I often get them already boiled, but I’ve also used raw. You just have to cook them first and readd once you’ve sauteed the veggies. You only sautee them with the veg for a minute or so to heat them up.

Add the kelp noodles. Add the dressing. Add the sprouts and shoots. Mix everything together in the pan, being sure to distribute the dressing well throughout the noodles. I use one of those spaghetti claw things.The noodles will change color to the brownish red of the dressing wherever it’s mixed in thoroughly, it’s easy to tell when the sauce is well-distributed.

Serve topped with chopped green parts of the scallion.

This recipe works with any protein you’d like in place of the shrimp. I’ve made versions with chicken, thinly sliced flank steak, tempeh and crispy marinated tofu chunks.

Hello all, didnt manage to get online at all yesterday, so lots of catching up to do. Looks like some ups and downs but overall, positive. I’m feeling lethargic and bloated both yesterday and today, scales reflecting that. Thought i was doing OK with liquids but am consciously upping that today. Better hope we find a seat on an aisle when we go in to cricket this evening😉 (BBL, Natalie. The Scorchers are our team).

Another weigh-in tomorrow, another week gone, hope some weight goes with it. MFODAAT

So I have just returned victorious from the health food store with my first packet of kelp noodles!
LTC I’m also now stocked up with golden flaxseed and other mysterious and exciting ingedients…am also going to try and bake the psyllium and flaxseed bread just to see what happens..!

Verano, thanks for the tip. A bunch of fresh herbs now cost about what you spend on one serving of protien these days (unless you are getting lovely fish of course). I will be freezing my herbs going forward….no more hesitation about buying them only to use 1 tsp worth with no immediate plans for the rest. I bet that works great with rosemary as well. And the parsely and cilantro….those get used up anyway ( I add them to tossed salads if I have no other use for them before they go bad).

Thanks Michael! Isn’t it amazing when you check the original research and it says the opposite to what the reviewer claims! I’ve found that phenomenon before. Whatever sells papers.

1. My husband gave me an unsolicited compliment today as he watched me dressing, saying that the thin-ness was just radiating off me!
2. I did the grocery shopping and the checkout I chose happened to be opposite the chips aisle. All I saw was rows of brightly coloured plastic. Nothing that looked edible or appealing. (It was only yesterday that I ate some chips from a bowl, but at least I don’t find the packaging enticing now!)
3. Husband would normally be returning to work today after the Christmas close-down, but he’s taken extra holidays so he’s still home.

Allie, that recipe carries me away to a seafood paradise. It is gorgeous! I’m going to the fish market you told me about with my parents next weekend. The soup will be first thing on the agenda once I’ve scored all the necessary fishies. I think I’ll steal the saffron threads from my mom to avoid having to pay the exorbitant cost, or I may sub with a teaspoon of turmeric for color if not flavor. I’ll steal their home canned heirloom San Marzano Redorta tomatoes too. Of course I’ll cut the amount at least in half but given what a huge batch of soup this is, I can afford to add the real thing, as long as it’s the great garden produce version instead of the sad pink, watery supermarket version. Scallions and shallots in place of onion and leek, fennel stalk and bulb in place of carrots, white wine vinegar in place of white wine, any number of herbs. I love the idea of thyme which goes so well in savory stews. Also tarragon. There isn’t a single fish that doesn’t thrive paired with tarragon. Such an exciting project! I can’t wait to dive in. 🙂

I discovered that my blood glucose is in the pre-diabetic range on 2/1/18. I’m using the BSD to get this down & lose weight. I weighed 93.6kg with a BMI of 25.9. This thing is that I run about 40 miles a week. I find it hard to stick to 800 calories a day & still run. I’ve modified the BSD by having unsweetened porridge for breakfast but I’ve finished some races feeling quite faint. Any suggestions? Should I just add more complex carbs?
I plan to get my weight down to 79kg, to overcome, what I suspect is insulin resistance, then switch to the 5:2 diet, to maintain that weight.

1. Electric blanket combined with a nice fluffy sheet, so nice to return to if you have to make a trip to the loo during the night in this weather.

2. I can finally get into the new jeans I bought when I was trying to inspire myself on the last diet, (not saying that sitting down when wearing them would be comfortable) but I can finally do them up. 🙂

3. I picked up a very inspiring book at a charity stall yesterday.

LTC I buy fresh thyme and freeze it and it works really well. I think it’s better than the dried stuff in fact I freeze lots but of left over herbs and most work well if you cook with them as opposed to using as a garnish.

Hi I’m new to this forum but have been reading all the comments as I’m finding most days I need some encouragement!
I started the 800 cal blood sugar diet on Jan 1st. Got to say first week was a challenge as I have two teens who are always snacking but I proudly avoided my vices: hot salty chips (drool).
Thinking I need to buy some scales but at the moment just going on how my clothes feel. Wore some pants yesterday that I’ve been avoiding lately coz they’d got to tight so pretty happy with that.

Thanks Natalie, I am now the proud owner of two step ladders, one for downstairs, one for upstairs, so no excuses.

Dear Whoosh Fairy,

Tomorrow is a big day. It will mark the successful completion of 8 week BSD. You are warmly invited to join the celebration.

Cheers, Flick

Thanks for all the helpful replies to my original post. As Dr MM pointed out, the Sunday Times have been less than 100% accurate In reporting what he said. Hopefully a long-term study of his methods will occur in time. For now, the evidence of many people , who have found that the low-carb approach works for them is good enough for me. Thus, I will continue to pursue this dietary method also.

I really do not understand how all you hardy Antipodeans cope. Anything above mid 20s floors me!! I really hope things become more temperate for you all soon – likewise for our friends in the USA who are suffering from the other extreme!

My positives today……………

1) My son joined us for Sunday lunch today – I hadn’t seen him since before Christmas because he had opted out of the big family Christmas in favour of skiing with his friends. So lovely to see him and catch up on his news.

2) My lovely granddaughter (who trains at The Royal Ballet School) turned up today with mountains of silk chiffon to ask me to make her half a dozen new ballet training skirts……”because you are sooo clever, grandma, and you can do ANYTHING!” Oh, the faith of youth!

3) We awoke to bright sunshine and a really hard frost so CLEAN DOGS – can’t remember when that last happened. Sun shone all day too.😁

Condolences Grannyvee, look after yourself. And lovely post Esnecca x

Hey Allie, it sounds like it is time to take gaining some weight as seriously and with the same care and cleverness as you applied to weight loss. Maybe you are burning more calories in the cold weather, so maybe eat iver your TDEE for a bit? Mind you a trip to the doctor is probably a sound idea.

Oh dear, Flick, that sounds really painful. I do hope it is resolved soon.

Stalls happen (falls too for that matter😉) and all you can do is ride them out – you have done so very well, and I’m sure that the scales will start plummeting down again soon, you are due a visit from the Whoosh Fairy, I think. x

Allie, my friend, I really do feel for you. As you know, I have been where you are now (and may be again one day, who knows?) and you have worried about and supported me. It is a really difficult balance – we have all worked so hard to reduce our weight, are desperate not to allow the pounds to creep back on, and also find our appetite has shrunk. I don’t tend to count calories much any more, keeping carbs low, but eat to satiety on BSD friendly foods. But sometimes I consciously have to eat when I really don’t feel the need in order to keep my weight steady now – and that is a bit of a conundrum too, as I (and I am sure you) really do not want to teach my body that it needs more food than it does (which is what made us overweight in the first place). But SURELY there must be a balance somewhere?

And, of course, the danger lies in seeing the low weight as the new “normal”. My target was 8st 7lbs, something I never thought I would manage (I started with a target of nearer 10st) but once I dropped into the 7s, I started thinking of 8st being my new “normal” and 7st 7lbs as my “wriggle room” figure, and I am still fighting with myself to accept that this is actually too low for me, and 8st must be my lowest weight. But it is hard, particularly when our bodies seem to have a mind of their own.

Please be careful – you may find that you are needing more fats atm because it is sooooooo cold in New England at the moment, although I hear you may reach a balmy minus 10 tomorrow? Hopefully, you are just using up far too many calories just to keep warm and, please God, things will even themselves out when the weather improves. Please keep us in the loop, my friend, we worry about you. xoxox

Ouch Flick! That sounds painful. I hope you heal up soon.

JackieM and VictoriaM lovely to meet you!

SueBlue we adults didn’t even go in the swimming pool yesterday (the kids did) it was just too hot to go outside! I could feel the hair on my arms crisping. We had visitors for lunch and the children ate outside (undercover – their choice, there was room inside but they were wet from swimming which kept them a bit cooler I guess) and when I collected the plates etc the metal cutlery was almost too hot to touch! They weren’t even in direct sun, in the shade, but still got uncomfortably hot. Very glad it will be normal hot not stupidly hot today.

Thank you, Theo, my friend! I think I’ve been having a bit of an anxiety
attack after this morning’s weigh in. A normal BMI for my height is
159.5. I set my target at 150lbs. This coincidentally is the figure
that my internist recommended as well. I’ve been holding steady at
138 lbs., supposedly an ideal weight for me. Now I see 135lbs on
the scale. And I haven’t been teetotalling either 🙂 🙂 🙂 Weight loss
was easy compared to this! Tomorrow will be a better day. I used
to dread the scale…now I do again! So glad that I’m not alone with
this 🙂

Have a good evening!

Allie

Hi Allie — you might need to eat more and more carbs too. I worry that this is the flip side of weight loss — now we get too comfortable with the low carb and low calorie and it just goes too low.
To fatten up African women for marriage, they eat sugar (molasses) and milk and grains — maybe a bit of all (in any form) for a few weeks to find some balance? (All are powerful insulin activators).

Will do….and don’t plan on changing a thing. I don’t buy a lot of fresh thyme because I just can use it fast enought. The cilantro and parsley I burn through. And the dried thyme works pretty well in most stuff. But now that I am thinking about it the one thing I do buy fresh for is steamed clams in white wine (love lots of garlic and lots of fresh thyme in that). Your recipe would certainly spending the money on even if half of the thyme went to waste. I moved to an apt building that gives me a south facing balcony and have big plants for herb pots for this summer.

As for changes…not a one. Sounds great just the way it is. My birthday is next month (oh yay…another year older! Beats the alternative as they say). Sounds like a perfect dish for dinner. Always do lunch out a favorite French resturants and do dinner at home. This sounds like just the thing.

PS: I used to not see a lot of monkfish here as well…but voila….my new favorite grocer is the Korean one 30 min away where I can get kabocha squash, seaweed for Esnecca’s salad, and the best and widest variety fish market I have seen around here. Love it. But none of the grocers have everything on my standard list so I do a rotation ….no way around it.

Allie, you have me worried too.

Can you keep your carbs at 25 and up your calories? How many calories are you eating now? Averaging up to 1800 yet?

Theoretically you should not gain weight with the extra calories if your carbs (and proteins) are low enough not to stimulate insulin. Your body is simply incapable of putting on weight without something stimulating the insulin (the lesson from the Type 1 diabetics).

You need to be drizzling some olive oil on veggies and eating more madadamias. With a glass of wine.

We can’t afford to lose you love….gotta fix this.

Thanks so much for the responses Theodora and Alliecat, I feel very lucky to be able to draw and n your experiences.

I am nursing a back injury. A shelf I was stupidly standing on to reach up to a very high shelf collapsed and sent me crashing, spine first, into a wooden bed frame. It has been excruciating, especially after lifting or carrying or after periods of static load – eg standing at the kitchen bench prepping food or sitting etc. Anyway, off to discuss x-ray results with my excellent GP today. The radiologist report says there is no evidence of wedge fractures, thank the lord!, but there is moderate loss of disc height at two lumbar joints. The x-ray also shows small osteophytes (thoracic and lumbar) This has given me pause for thought about bone health. I am however very confident my diet is bone friendly – I also eat yoghurt everyday, cheese, loads of leafy greens, nuts and seeds and sunshine is certainly not lacking! I’ll be pleased to see the GP. I’ve also made a preemptory appointment with my physio later today.

Anyway, mostly though I just hate medical stuff. I have a great doctor and we have an excellent health system here, but I like to keep a good safe distance from it all.

My plan is to continue in. I’m in a good rhythm, still enjoying all the good food and have great energy levels. I’ve been IF 16/8 but have saved more serious intermittent fasting patterns and more serious exercise big guns to roll out if the weight loss slows down to despressing rates.

Speaking of which, with just today to go to complete the first 8 weeks, my dear old body has been hanging grimly on to 67.9kg for FIVE DAYS! Enough already

I agree Sunny B I’m enjoying reading all of the positivity on here.
My three positives for today are:
1. First day back at work after a 2 week break – I’m prepared food wise as I made today’s breakfast, lunch & dinner yesterday, no excuses not to stray from BSD!
2. I’m wearing a lovely new dress I bought in the sales. I have been trying not to buy new clothes until I get down to my goal size, but it is nice to have something new to wear on my first day back 🙂
3. Today is predicted to be cooler, 38 deg centigrade. Yesterday was a bit much with Sydney recording its hottest day since 1939. It reached 47.3 in the outer western suburbs! Tad too warm for me!
And just realised I have a 4th today – when I weighed myself this morning I was almost back to my pre-Christmas weight. I’ve been able to lose 2.8kg over the past week 🙂

Exactly. That would be valid “extra points credit” if the diets worked in the long run. But if a diet that you do just peachy keen on for a while comes to a ginding halt in spite of your best efforts and then lowers your metabolism…..only to cause you to repeat, stall, repeat, stall….all the time raising your starting point higher and higher; wouldn’t any sane person conclude that diet is a failure?

They are only looking at the short term….missing the big picture entirely.

Obviously nobody is talking to the diabetologists that have ever growing waiting rooms packed with patients failing on their diets.

It’s interesting that the two they ranked last was because they were hard to follow. Not because they didn’t have health benefits. Too hard so don’t bother trying? That’s the life advice they are promoting? Let’s just take the easiest route then and have McD every meal!

Hey, Allie – 15lbs under target is WAY too much (unless your target was very conservative?) Are you doing anything differently? Were you particularly strict over Christmas perhaps, to avoid putting on pounds, and have not relaxed afterwards? Or taking more exercise? Or maybe not eating up to TDEE?

I do think that o/h is right, and that if you continue to lose or, indeed, cannot recoup a few pounds, maybe you should make an appt and have a physical? Certainly cannot do any harm and may set your and his (and come to mention it, my) mind at rest.

I’m doing ok – think all that sudden drop before Christmas was caused by stress and I am now back up to 7lbs under target, which I am pretty happy with. But I agree with you, who in a million years would have ever thought we would be worrying about being too skinny?

PS If it’s any consolation, my BMI is even lower than yours, at 20 (was as low as 19 before Christmas), but I don’t have loose skin (or at least much) to take into consideration. Maybe it’s time to have a glass or two of wine?😝

Monday morning here in Sydney, which is my official weigh in day. 74.0 kg, that’s a 1.4 kg loss this week. Very happy with that. Now just 5 more kg to get down to my wedding weight. I wonder if I would fit into my dress then? I’m probably a different shape. I’m more an apple now than an hourglass!

Theo, HELP! I’ve lost another 3 lbs since Christmas, down to a BMI of
21.22. The last time I was at this weight I was in my 30’s, and at least
10 lbs of it is loose skin now. Maybe I should schedule a physical?.
Who would ever of thought that being too skinny would ever be a problem!
O/H keeps shaking his head, and tells me THIS is a PROBLEM….Time to
start weighing and measuring everything again, so I’m completely
accurate on what I’m consuming each day.This doesn’t feel good.
I’m 15 lbs under target!
How are you doing with your weight?

xoxo
Allie

Hi Smith, I’ve just recently posted a similar query myself. My fasting blood sugars are ranging from 7.2 to 8.7 . This mornings was 8.7but then literally ‘re testing after no more than 30 minutes after going downstairs and emptying the dishwasher and feeding the children it had dropped to 6.7. I had a little cheese and some but at around 10 as advised by fellow posters but I’m not sure it helped, early days still mind. My post meal bloods are within normal range which is fantastic so maybe I’m just expecting everything to improve quicker than it can and being too impatient. Let me know if you have any tips or advice. My husband said Apple cider
would help????? Haven’t gone there yet! Thanks M.G.T

Argh, what a week, have seen such weird movement on the scales. I had a couple of carb encounters over the last few days, tiny compared to my past way of eating, an icecream cone, one small slice of italian pizza and a few chips from the packet that my husband insists on eating if we watch tv at night! I find one carb leads to another with horrifying speed but sometimes on holiday it’s so easy to go down the path of least resistance. I usually pull my head in quickly but just that amount will lead to the scales registering a 2.5 kilo gain overnight!! Obviously hanging onto water like a demon but it takes at least 3 days to get back to my previous weight, which then stalls!
Am cutting out alcohol this week as that’s the one thing I haven’t managed to completely step away from after Christmas 😔
So gained 2.5kg, lost 2.5 this week!
Luckily with renewed enthusiasm for trying out new recipes I’m feeling like I’m getting back on track! must start weighing and measuring though as I have always been hopeless at that!

Ladies, don’t know if any of you saw a recent ranking of BEST DIETS “by health experts”. See below copied and pasted from news release. I completely agree with your outrage at the glib way “experts” toss around opinions as if it was actual data based knowledge. Ensecca, as you have said, so much of what has been treated as medical fact was just someone’s conjecture that over time was treated as the bedrock foundation of weight management. Gary Taube was a groundbreaking science writer for the New York Times who assembled actual research on diet, weight gain, the effects of excess carbs and insulin. Data is comging out from the sources M Mosely cited in his book, and the work of Drs. Valter Longo, Krita Varaday, and Roy Taylor among others. Yet it seems to be making no impact on the wider population, let alone the broader media, evidenced by garbage such as this. You can’t even say these diets are good for people who don’t tons of weight to lose, because we all started there and ended up where we are…..trying to lose 50, 60, 90, 100 lbs.

Who are the “experts” that are picking diets and based on what knowledge? More accumaled wisdom that is based on nothing?

They like the DASH diet for it’s traditional low fat, whole carbs, fruit, etc….all the stuff that has been putting most of us in a downward spiral most of our lives.

And the cite the Medeterranian Diet as #2…but like it “beacause it is high in fruit” They have been brainwashed by the fruit industry. Yes the stuff tastes wonderful. It has to be that way to make birds and small animals eat it and spread the seeds. But it has no unique vitamins, minerals, fiber or antioxidants that cannot be found in much lower carb vegetables. I love the stuff, but it has been trying to kill me for decades.

Here’s what they say:

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“U.S. News enlisted the help of a panel of food and health experts to rank 40 diets on a variety of measures, like how easy it is to follow, the diet’s ability to help a person lose weight in the short and long term, safety and more. The company then converted the expert’s rankings into scores that allowed them to determine the top diets. Beyond best overall diet, the experts also ranked the best diets for weight loss, healthy eating and more”.

“The lowest ranking diets were the Keto Diet and the Dukan Diet, which tied for last place. People who follow the Keto Diet slash carbs and fill up on fats in order to help the body enter of state of “ketosis,” where the body breaks down fat. The Dukan Diet is a rule-heavy plan that goes in stages, including a phase of eating a lot of protein. The experts rated both diets as hard to follow”.

Here’s what U.S. News calls the best diet plans for 2018:

#1: DASH Diet

The DASH diet was designed to help people lower their high blood pressure, and it’s characterized by a mix of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and low-fat dairy. People on this diet are told to avoid saturated fat, sugary beverages, sweets, full-fat dairy and some oils—and to eat less salt overall.

#1: Mediterranean Diet

The diet gets its name from the eating habits of people living in Mediterranean countries and has been linked to better health and longevity. The Mediterranean Diet meal plan is high in fruits and vegetables, as well as healthy fatty foods like fish, nuts and olive oil.

The rest of the nonsence can be found here, although I would skip it….will just elevate your blood pressure.
http://time.com/5085711/best-diets-for-2018/

Luv, monkfish would be great for the lobster notes, but not easy to find
where I am. I’m with you on squishing the tomatoes by hand. I think I
kept them chunky the last time I made it. Why dirty the food processor?
Because of the cost of ingredients, I save this recipe for a holiday lunch. To
the best of my recollection, I think it makes 7 servings. I’ll be very
interested to see what changes you might make if you try it!! Fresh thyme?
I’m happy to hear that it interests you 🙂 🙂 🙂 It’s very forgiving, and you can
certainly make a smaller pot by adjusting things, and you can always thin
it with extra clam juice, if necessary. Please report back if you give it
a try!

Allie

Judy, you just gained a sizable family who have been there and done that…have not all had the exactly the trauma that you have been though, but certainly understand it. We all have lost our way over the years and for the first time are starting to again recognize the person emerging from the fog.

We are largely women on this formum so I hope the wonderful guys also on it will excuse me….but we are a powerful band of sisters. There are a lot of strong and caring women here and it really is a privilege to get to know them. So glad you have joined us.