Hi Laksa,

I read your comments about perfect or f it, and could have been reading my own character, except in my case it was very tall rather than fat, and I had one critical parent who wanted me to do well and one who was jealous of everything I did. Like you it’s taken till now (63) to really recognise and live with it, not use it as an excuse for sabotage.

Retirement is wonderful, I’m really enjoying it and want this WOE to work for me so that the diabetes doesn’t curtail my fun.

Thanks for your post, it’s motivated me as well..

Sunshine girl . we are buying a campervan! but house sitting does sound good also .i have a friend who does this . on something called Trusted house sitters i think.. What is the website you use ?

Thanks everyone! Had a lovely, long walk this morning, with the happy thought that my fat cells were merely hanging on to water cheering me along the way. Went about twice as far as I intended because I got lost! 21K steps. Didn’t see a soul, but crossed paths with the roe deer three times and sent their white bums bobbing away. Now tucking into a nice, hydrating prawn pho soup.

SSB, brilliant idea to use halloumi as bacon, will definitely give that a go – free range bacon is so pricy and it gets round the nitrate/nitrate issue too.

Squidge, you are so right, consolidating these gains (10lb down) is a marvellous thing, not a bad day – and Flick and Inka, I shall embrace the whoosh fairy when she comes with a special celebratory yoga stretch!

Hi Theodora and Sunshine Girl,
It’s so frustrating- how many people will unwittingly follow the conventional ‘advice’ and then suffer years of yo-yo weight-loss, a feeling of failure and depression (as many of us have) simply because the authorities won’t update their thinking in line with research. IMO – Tom Kerridge needs a good slap!
SSB

I wholeheartedly agree with you all. In fact I watched Tom Kerridge last night and moaned the entire way through it, and o/h said “but, you have to admit, it’s obviously working” True – but ANY low cal diet will work while you are on it! We all know that, but we cannot spend our lives on a “weight loss diet” so a new way of eating HAS to become a way of life. How will this ever happen when he is encouraging people to have rice pudding, burgers in buns etc? This is why I have never used substitutes – I know there are low carb bread recipes etc out there, but frankly I wanted to wean myself off bread and other white carbs. I have succeeded in doing that and now will happily make a sandwich or a ploughman’s etc for o/h’s lunch and not even be tempted! I’ll just have the cheese and salad elements (or whatever the filling is for that day), it truly is not a problem. I don’t even have things like cauliflower rice – personally (and it IS a personal thing) I would rather eat my cauli raw and crunchy! Just love it, especially with a wonderful dip – guacamole, smoked fish pate etc.

BTW Tilly, on a point of interest, I embarked on this WOL purely for weight loss, and have managed that beyond my wildest dreams (now weigh 8st, BMI 20), and have kept it off, but I was never diabetic, pre-diabetic, or ever had any BG problems.

If you think the ‘authorities’ are not doing anything to improve our health then I have just dragged up an extract from a paper I read in 2016 by the Public Health Collaboration UK as follows:-

Public Health Collaboration on Healthy Eating Guidelines and Weight Loss for the United Kingdom. The site is phcuk.org, an official government site for public health.
Conclusion on page 24 said in 2008 “Evidence from this systematic review demonstrates that low-carbohydrate/high-protein diets are more effective at 6 months and are as effective, if not more, as low-fat diets in reducing weight and cardiovascular
disease risk up to 1 year. More evidence and longer-term studies are needed to assess the long-term cardiovascular benefits from the weight loss achieved using these diets.” That was in 2008
Finally, in February 2016 the fourth specific analysis was published in the British Journal of Nutrition finding that “Compared with subjects on low-fat diets, subjects on low-carbohydrate diets experienced significantly greater weight loss, greater triglycerides
reduction and greater increase in HDL-cholesterol after 6 months to 2 years of intervention.”
So between 2008 and 2016 the medical advice on nutrition has changed from thinking low carb might be a good idea to 2016 concluding it is a great idea. They go on to say that they are concerned that NICE are not taking up this advice and, in particular, still advocating high carb, low fat diets when it has been shown that low fat leads to fatter people. Apparently NICE are waiting for trial to end so phuk have carried out their own trials and their final final conclusion is:
In light of this scientific evidence the Public Health Collaboration recommends thatthe guidelines for weight loss in the UK should include an ad libitum low-carbohydrate-high-fat diet of real foods as an acceptable, effective and safe approach”

That is why the medical profession is not interested – I am with them partly as this is so new it could turn out to be another fad but we know different. My doctor says I am saving the French health service around €150 a month as I have reduced the amount of medications and medical equipment required each month (normally around €300 per month for meds so cut by half). I said, imagine how much it could save if all of your diabetic patients were on this diet. His view is, wait and see.

Hi everyone, funnily enough Toby101 I ate less yesterday because I had such a late breakfast (slept in) I skipped lunch and then had my normal dinner and I gained quarter of a pound or 200 grams. Our bodies dont always do what we want them to do but I think it is true to say if you are used to 800 calories then your body gets used to it so add on a couple of 100 and you gain. That is why people who have done well on this plan then increase the calories slowly, slowly to go onto maintenance. It is a fact of life. I know my weight will drop again and hope it will be soon but do not get stressed about it.

Marie123 my final point on the subject of BGM – you are diabetic so the results you get are really significant in helping you know your own reactions to various foods – and you will know some people can eat something with no effect yet it will cause a real spike for others.

Laska, retirement was the best thing ever for me even though I thought I would go mad with boredom. However, I did retire to France with a pool and a large garden. I might have a suggestion for you when you retire if you want to travel. I can give you details of a house sitting site which allows you to travel, stay somewhere absolutely free (buy your own food) and all you have to do is get yourself there and look after the house as if it was your own and there might be pets involved but that is up to you. We have had people come and look after our house and they have been from Australia, New Zealand, England and our next one is from Amsterdam. Something to think about for the future.

Nice chatting to you all but I must go and make my tuna and cream cheese dip (sardines in the book but beurk….)

Toby,.. me also wondering, but I have… I’ve eaten maybe slightly over 800 some days but not much and definately not over 1000 and only one day was that anything higher carb, but yes a weight gain occurred (see above..’ Its got to be ‘body conspiring against me theory!!.. it can be nothing else!).. cant even be water weight,.am peeing for England!

Why ‘demotivated by now?’ One week I hear you say and you’ve lost 2lbs! Yes but my inner ‘,Unreasonable Superwoman’ is not satisfied with that is she? 😒 Unreasonable Superwoman is of course all things I am not!…….really shes Unrealistic superwoman a sort of cross between all the thing’s I tell myself I should be and some kind of beautiful celebrity with it all..
BTW.. I do know this is all total nuts (I have degrees and everything! Just no good sense of self ..(blame it on the parents!! )😁

I am genuinely curious as to why people on this diet are reporting weight gains because they eat a scone, or some crackers or whatever. Surely if you are still eating overall below your maintenance calorie level you should still be losing weight – even if not as fast?

The report was based on prof Taylor’s work but of course he used meal replacement shakes so he could more accurately measure what people were eating so the low-carb bit didn’t enter into it. To me though, it’s common sense – starchy carbs are very low nutrition and are really just cheap fillers so if you go very low calorie and still need all your nutrients, the carbs have to go – it’s just that no-one actually says that. I think it was MM, working from Prof Taylor’s work but wanting to make it doable for every day, who looked at cutting the low value carbs – hence this fab website.
I think the NHS, Public Health England and all the rest are just terrified of coming out and admitting that the low fat message of the last 4 decades might actually be wrong, even though many studies now have shown it to be failing.
SSB

Hi, Mariet! Something I can actually answer 🙂

1 stick = 1/2c = 8Tbs

I reckon that the dragons tail analogy is so good I reckon it does for all of us, re self sabotage eh? (Thanks again Esnecca ).

I am still up a lb and would usually be feeling pretty demotivated by now because I know I do have a tendency to be an ‘instant results or I am a miserable failure/my body is conspiring against me/what’s the point i am just destined to be fat’ person (yes all this for one miserable pound going the wrong way!)

i have an really well – developed over-‘perfection or f*** it ‘ personality, i know.. its taken me 60 years to actually really recognise this so its pretty ingrained in to me by now! I stop myself from doing so much (especially in competitive things) because i never feel good enough. i am really not a ‘joiner in’ for the same reasons I think.. i reckon its a a hangover from the ‘fat girl last to be picked school sports/ critical parents thing .. (parents still critical sadly , i just live with it . )

I really should have got over this by now .! …. Anyway self-sabotage and Me ..we are such old ‘friends’..i have lost this weight twice before . each time when Ive got down to 10st -10st 7 last time – i just went back to my old ways and here I am again..
. ..
I am about to have a huge lifestyle change – retiring from work soon and i want to travel.. .. i really need to stop this sabotaging this time..

Anyway typing this has made me motivated for today.. at least .. !

We’ll said verano!

Hi Zolou, I’m sorry tohear your scales aren’t cooperating, my exciting weight loss has come to a screeching halt too, it has taken me all week to lose almost a kilo. Still not there!
BUT I keep chanting to myself as I step forlornly off the scales ( who was it that called it ‘the saddest step’?!!) WEIGHT LOSS IS NOT LINEAR!! which is another great bsd battlecry that others have posted before! It never fails to comfort me, just keep it in the back of your mind…and best of luck. I agree with Flick and SSB, the whoosh fairy comes when you least expect it!

Martymonster I think that is the crux of the matter …. you need to change eating habits. Neither WW nor SW or all such similar diets do that, which has led to , most of us here, spending many, many years yo-yoing. I think most of us have gone from one diet to another only to end up heavier than before. This WOE is a revelation but it also takes a lot of willpower to make it a permanent change. I think it becomes easier when your taste buds change and you no longer ‘crave’ carbs.

Unfortunately there is no money to be made by the dieting industry if they allow us to lose weight permanently. So why would they help us to change our eating habits? The only organisation to ‘make money’ by permanent weight loss are the NHS who save by treating fewer people with diabetes and it’s baggage, and other weight related problems!

Interesting discussion! I’ve been defeated by a ‘stick’ of butter. How much is that?

Saltyseabird; oh no not again. Where is prof Roy Taylor? Why isn’t his voice louder or his platform bigger? It’s still up to us then to show others by example that it can be done. I’m not diabetic but feel completely evangelical about this way of eating on behalf of all the others who are and have had and are having fab success with it. Captain lynne Esnecca, Theodora, alliecat, kazzee, nonna Mary, sunshine girl, verano and apologies to anyone I’ve missed – you know who you are. And if the amazing canada liz is still out there please come back when you’re ready were all linking arms waiting to get in your kitchen for a cup of tea! 😊😉Good luck on the onward journey ladies. I’m up half a pound on yesterday, but could be the hot cross bun I sneaked yesterday 😜😟my own worst enemy!

Hi Esnecca,

Just catching up on yesterday’s posts. I love your dragon analogy. My dirty little motel secret is sneaking chocolate bars when no one is looking. It could turn in to 5 minutes of binging on a whole bag of mini chocolates (which are in fact 90% cheap sugar) which they sell for £1.

I am NOT that person any more!

Well done, Sandy – great start. You can’t be doing very much wrong with a result like that.

Hi Tillybud, yes I saw that and thought ‘yey! They’re catching up’ …but… it only emphasises very low calorie, not low carb. I worry that people will cut their calories but keep all the rubbish carbs, fail miserably because they’re hungry all the time and then say it doesn’t work.
SSB

Hi Sandy13

That’s a great weight loss for just a few days. I’m also new to BSD, but found it OK so far and the people on the Forum have great tips and advice. I am just eating around 800 calories a day and keeping my carbs under 20g and trying to reach 10,000 steps a day.

Just browsing the BBC’S news website and noticed headlines for the Daily Express today. “Drug free way to fight diabetes” 4 month plan to reverse type 2 diabetes! Well, well well. Maybe the NHS is catching up. Hope so everyone X

Hi everyone, I’ve just registered today and started the 800 BSD on Monday this week. I live in Greece at the moment and I’m waiting for Amazon to deliver some books on calories, carbs and the BSD book, so I have been working on information gathered online and hope I’m doing it right! Weighed myself this morning & have lost 5lbs, so am rather pleased!
I have lots of recipes but have trouble getting some of the ingredients but made the cauliflower topped cottage pie last night & just had broccoli with mine, gave my husband a jacket potato.
Not felt hungry yet & don’t crave any bread or potatoes so it seems to going ok so far.

Hi everyone, I’ve just registered today and started the 800 BSD on Monday this week. I live in Greece at the moment and I’m waiting for Amazon to deliver some books on calories, carbs and the BSD book, so I have been working on information gathered online and hope I’m doing it right! Weighed myself this morning & have lost 5lbs, so am rather pleased!
I have lots of recipes but have trouble getting some of the ingredients but made the cauliflower topped cottage pie last night & just had broccoli with mine, gave my husband a jacket potato.
Not felt hungry yet & don’t crave any bread or potatoes sonic seems to going ok so far.

What I was trying to say – and said very badly – is that if she does have success on this diet which doesn’t really change eating habits, or cull the desire for sugary treats and then heads off on a cruise where bad food is aplenty I don’t fancy her chances.

I say this as someone who got down to their ideal weight for their wedding on WW points and then eat all around me in Paris for a week.

I realise my main contribution to this forum has been moaning about this show. It’s only because I have had ‘success’ with WW which is a very similar mindset only to put it all back on again. I’m not diabetic and I’m lucky to be close to my ideal weight but I’ve been see-sawing for years with the high point gradually getting higher until I was properly overweight.

The BSD has been a revelation as I’ve managed to nearly loose it all and more importantly keep it off. That’s why I’m annoyed with this show. I feel like it’s leading people down the same frustrating road I was on, by someone who should know better!

Hi,

My struggle with US recipes is measuring by volume. I can manage dry goods by volume and have a set of cups but never worked out how to do half a cup of butter. Now I have a converter easily available on my iPad and use my trusty scales instead.

No apologies necessary and in fact many cruisers do force feed themselves!

Hi Squidge

What a great idea! In fact I could use that for a few things – thanks for the suggestion.

Ha ha – faking it, that sounds like a plan. Fakitos are on the menu!

Wow Esnecca that Macademia nut recipe sounds so lovely. I’m storing all these cooking and recipe ideas up for when I move up from 800 calories. No room for much experimenting at the moment. Having said that I bought some almond butter the other day (it was organic from a farmers market and cheaper than I could make. When I talked to the maker about it she said she works with almonds all the time and uses the broken or slightly dented ones for the butter rather than waste them).

I find that the butter is much more satisfying than the equivalent nuts for the calories if I’m desperate for a little hit of a “treat”, so I imagine that your recipe will be even better. But I don’t trust myself yet to have “treats” available ready made, easier to have a total prohibition for now. I made some sugar free almond biscuits when friends came round the other day, and ate more than I needed because they were OK carb wise.

Well done, Jules! That’s an impressive weight loss.

If you fancy it, you could use cos lettuce leaves in place of tortillas. Not quite the same, I know, but you do get the putting stuff in and wrapping them up aspect. I have that on the meal plan I’ve devised for us.

Drinking water with slices of lime, mint leaves and ice would at least look like mojitos.

I do apologise Verano. I didn’t mean to disparage all cruise goers and I realise my trough imagery was completely insensitive, especially on a weight loss forum.

Zolou, I just posted elsewhere that a bad day, when it comes to weight used to mean a gain of a pound or two – staying the same is much better than that.

SSB, I believe you’re right that we keep the same number of fat cells, they just get bigger or smaller.

I can understand you wanting to keep one treat. If you’re not having any other sugar, hopefully the coffee will seem really sweet and you’ll be able to gradually reduce the amount of sugar you have in it, yet still feel it’s a treat.

I wouldn’t be able to stick to this diet if tea was banned. I have mine with milk, but no sugar (luckily I don’t like it in tea). I know there’s natural sugar in milk, but there are also nutrients, so I’m not feeling guilty over that.

Good Morning Squidge

Sorry there has been no loss, but as you say no a gain!

I am pleased to say I have lost a 1lb this morning, so making a total of 11lb for my first week. I am delighted with my progress so far and hopefully will keep me motivated! Mr Pacman is weighing in tomorrow, I hope he has had a good loss or my life won’t be worth liiving.

I have friends coming on Saturday and I have decided to cook Mexican. They can have burritos with chicken, peppers, mushrooms etc made with tortillas and I will just have the chicken etc with a small dollop of sour cream and guacamole. Everyone’s driving so no booze, which is no bad thing.

Have a great day

No weight loss today.

On the plus side, a bad day weight wise used to mean I’d gained a pound or two. No change is much better than that!

Good morning. Flick what a great way to make something positive out of a negative!

My positives are getting harder to find just at the moment but here goes anyway….
1. Made a sort of ‘bubble & squeak’ with some left over mashed cauliflower and it was very nice.
2. Watched ‘Girlfriends’ and quite enjoyed that, although I didn’t enjoy Tom Kerridge!
3. Said ‘NO’ to a meal out, when normally I would have agreed, even knowing the food woudn’t be BSD friendly.

Hope you all have a positive day.

Hang in there Zolou, the scales will move with a lovely woosh as described by Saltyseabird. Or if like me, a woosh-ish. Batten down the hatches and stay with the plan.

Martymonster I have cruised and you aren’t ‘force fed’ and there are healthy options so weight gain isn’t inevitable. In fact I’ve even lost weight on a cruise!

The problem I see with the program is that it’s more of the same …. low fat, keep eating what you always eat but less, have treats etc etc. And I suppose for the majority of people who don’t have diabetes this may work. Although, it seems that many people do regain weight in the long term because they go back to ‘normal eating’. As they say ‘ if you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got’!

In some ways having diabetes makes it easier to stay in control. The science shows that low carb healthy fat eating can reverse T2 . But if you want to keep your diabetes at bay, and all the nasties that come with it, you have to make a life choice and keep eating this way.

I’m afraid I can no longer watch these programs because they actually annoy me now.

Joy of joys, just got up and forced myself onto the scales – 9st 13.8!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m in heaven, welcome back my friend and I promise never to treat you the way I did before again. Third time lucky. Thanks so much for the advice and encouragement you wonderful people.

Marie 123 life is full of trial and error and I see a good discussion as very positive in giving people food for thought. The two foods you mention are both high carb so a carb calculator might have been a less ‘painful’ way of discovering that they would be likely to cause blood sugar spikes in, probably, the majority of people. I guess at the end of the day it’s ‘horses for courses’.

Hi Alliecat, I’ve been in two minds whether your message was for me or JulesB who is a newbie but since she isn’t on this thread and your message comes soon after mine and mentions self sabotage I don’t want to ignore it in case it was meant for me, JulesP, sorry if I’ve got it wrong. There are least 4 Jules’ on the forum now so could get even more confusing.
The fear of success rather than failure is a fascinating idea. I’m going to search back and see if I can find the previous posts you refer to, I’d love to read what has been discussed, see if I can get more insight. Apologies again if your reply was meant for the other Jules.

Hi Zolou, I loooooove halloumi – and it’s so versatile. Have you had it as ‘bacon’ with eggs and mushrooms?
Yes, I’m still on track – my only ‘vice’ now is my one daily cup of really good coffee – I am struggling to give up the sugar in it (the only sugar I have). I belong to a Facebook keto group and have had all sorts of advice about giving up the sugar and reducing the dairy but part of me thinks this is one daily treat and I don’t know if I want to give it up – I’m quite sure if I really wanted to, I could train myself to drink it plain and black.
I was reading somewhere that when you first start this low-carb stuff, your emptying fat cell retain water ‘just in case’ they’re needed for fat again (as I understand it, you don’t ever lose fat cells, they just get smaller). Eventually, they release the water and you get the ‘whoosh’ effect. I’m sure this way over simplified but it sounds plausible.
Keep going – you can do this!
SSB

Hi Zolou, I’ve scared myself so much tickling the dragon’s tail (I love that expression Esnecca, have been thinking about it all night and am lying in bed researching it now!) that I probably won’t be risking any more unknown treats until I get to maintenance. Amazing that I’ve longed to be in the 9’s for most of my adult life yet scuppered it within days both times I made it, our minds are strange and fragile things. I know there are some cracker recipes on here which will be very low carb and no doubt delicious and which I should have made instead of getting shop bought, that will teach me to be lazy.

Hi Benns
I was wondering what you decided to do in the end and how you are getting on with it? I would do both swimming and yoga as both offer different benefits. I also find Yoga helps me in ways other than just physical leaving me feeling less stressed, more balanced and less likely to overeat for comfort.

We are all different though

Morning all

Today + 0.7lb, this isn’t too disappointing or even that surprising as yesterday’s low felt like rather an artificial one as I really just hadn’t eaten enough for a couple of days. Still happy with my progress.

Marsie, so sorry yesterday took a turn for the worse in terms of chocolate. I guess this is when keep on keeping on really bites. Thinking good thoughts for you today.

Busy bee, hoping your refocus is going well.

x

Where everyone gone? SSB, how did it go for you after your fasts – did you manage to keep on track? How is everyone feeling?

I’ve had no losses for two days and I’m feeling limp, but at the same time I don’t have any urge to stray from the plan, so I’ll just stick with it. Two week review tomorrow, looking forward to seeing how much I’ve lost round the middle as I haven’t measured since the beginning.

Had the warm halloumi salad yesterday, very tasty.

Hi Natalie, glad you are feeling better, thanks for reporting in to let us know 🙂

Jules, thank you for sharing your cautionary tale! I wonder if you’d have any more luck with the treats in the BSD recipe book.

That sounds like a plan, LTC. Clearly the water content is the big issue. It seems like a pretty loose recipe just at a glance. I wonder if adding a whisper of something like flaxseed meal would help firm it up. Maybe replace the coconut flour with something that doesn’t suck up water like nobody’s business? Then again, konjac is already a gelatinizing miracle so you’d think it would take care of those issues.

I secured more and better macadamias today. Much fresher and crisper. I’m going to make a new batch of the butter and then use it as the filling of itty bitty sandwich cookies. The outer pieces will be the simple cacao butter, soy milk powder and vanilla powder again only spread ultra-thin on a silicone mat and frozen solid. I’ll break off wafer-thin pieces, spread the macadamia raspberry butter on them and top them with another piece of the thin choc.

Let the mad science continue!

Marinara in the sense of tomato sauce is a reference to it having been the preferred sauce of sailors in the Bay of Naples. Immigrants from the area carried the coinage with them to the US and the name stuck even though in Italy as a whole it’s not commonly used to describe tomato sauce (the simple “sugo” or “al pomodoro” are far more widespread). Carbonara has a similar origin as a dish named after the people who popularized it (coal burners, ie, poor people) rather than the ingredients (eggs, pancetta).

In the US, cilantro is the leaf and coriander the seed of the same plant. I’m very glad it’s a distinction we make lexically because I quite like coriander and I abhor cilantro.

Jello is a brand name that has entered the lexicon as a general word for day-glo colored, fake flavored, aggressively over-sweetened gelatin molds typically served in hospitals, to our eternal national shame. Jelly is fruit that has been cooked down, strained and gelatinized with natural pectin to create a smooth spread for toast. Jam is different because it isn’t strained. There are still fruit chunks in there.

Well my pet peeve (not used on this forum that I’ve seen) is when people from the US call a sauce ‘marinara’ when they mean tomato and there is no seafood present. Marine means the sea!

But a quick scan of the cooking thread got me beets (beetroot), cilantro (coriander), skillet (frying pan?) and ground beef (beef mince). They are all pretty obvious though, I couldn’t find one I didn’t know.

There’s also jello (jelly) and jelly (our jam) which I’m unlikely to see here.

The whole onion family is a weird one, shallots mean the non-bulb green onions in my particular state NSW but not elsewhere in Australia I believe. Eschallots are the little brown skin ones. Green onions are young bulbs with the stem still attached. Step over the border and it’s all different.