Hi Sandy13

I have a very sedentary job, which means I sit at a screen for over 9 hours a day. I how now started setting an alarm on my phone to get me up and moving around every hour and get some steps in!

Olive picking sounds more fun!

Hi JulesB,
I know what you mean about the weather, it keeps raining here. We should start olive picking but the rain is putting that on hold, which is a shame, as that’s good enough exercise. The first year we did it we just about stayed awake to eat dinner then we were in bed by 9pm!

I have got an exercise dvd but I’ve left it in the UK, I’ll have to get my son to dig it out & send it.

Hi Sandy13

I have started making a menu plan for the whole week and then go and do a big shop, so I have everything in and not tempted by visiting the shop more than once a week.

I am fairly limited on exercising, but trying to walks 10k steps a day and do a little lifting with dumbells. However it is pouring down today, so I will be pacing up and down inside!

Thank Allie, so eloquent and generous good wishes. I take them as a big virtual hug. In October 2016 I weighed in at 19 stone 4 pounds, having lost around 4 pounds before beginning this way of life. I have maintained a lot, but never gone back to the white carbs!

Kazz I wish I could admit to it being water, but alas, it is still here today. Despite a 24 hour fast yesterday! I just cannot get my head around it. Jovis has lost half a stone and doesn’t even know how (because I feed him healthy food lol). Sometimes it doesn’t seem fair. BUT…3 steps forward, two backwards….for me at least.

Lee, I feel your pain! What a busy day you have in front of you. Take care my friend and enjoy what you can.

Lots of love on my Birthday Eve.

Mary
xxxx

Thanks for the encouragement JulesB, I’m still waiting for my books but just keeping to what I know I like and counting cals/carbs. I write everything down and try to work out the next day or so in advance.

I’m ashamed to say I haven’t started exercising yet! Too cold to swim in the sea so will have to start walking, I guess.

I didn’t lose this morning either, I’m blaming it on the rain and hoping tomorrow will be better. It’s the end of the week weight that counts so maybe I shouldn’t weigh every day.
AMx

After only 2 weeks on the BSD my fasting blood glucose is down from 6.7 to 5 mmol/l. I’ve lost 3.6kg & my blood pressure is down from 140/90 to 120/75. I’m delighted. I’ve had to modify the BSD a bit to take account of the fact I run about 40 miles a week. I just have unsweetened porridge for breakfast.

Day 3. Good morning – a crushing loss of only 0.2kg this morning down to 75.7kg. However, given this is still going down and only just at the very beginning I am happy that it’s going in the right direction. I’ve kept to just under 800kcal each day, have drunk a lot of water and haven’t felt hungry. Even losing just 02.kg a day would shift a kilo a week. STAY POSITIVE! Have a great day everyone.

Thanks Victoria 😊

Hi runrascal. I know how you feel, that’s what happened to me over Christmas. I read comments from older hands here about how that goes with time and I’m looking forward to that. For now I know that I can’t allow myself any slack.

Well done on getting back on to the wagon so quickly

Hi Kazz I weigh daily but use Happy Scale app as it averages out the fluctuations – helps to stem the despair if you get a sudden biggy 😊

2 weeks in and 7 lbs down I “treated” myself to 20 gm of chocolate (fruit and nut). And triggered a massive sugar craving. By my old standards the ensuing binge was pretty moderate, but still came to around 2000 calories over my 800. If ever I needed proof of my sugar addiction this is it. I fasted yesterday with only a 500 calories meal in the evening, but the scales still punished me this morning with a 1.5 lb gain. On the plus side it has taught me a good lesson 😱

Well done Sandy13

I think more than anything a good weight loss says “I can do this” and certainly gives me the motivation to carry on.

Hi all, just finished my first week and have lost 7lbs! Not bad for an old biddy. Have several stones to go though.
I didn’t crave carbs at all and didn’t feel hungry, so really pleased with the week.

I know some of the loss will have been water but hope for another good week.

Well done everyone..

wow, thanks everyone, this is helpful. We do normally eat healthy most of the time in terms of lots of vegies, meat and tofu etc but we do have carbs with most meals – so noodles, pasta, flatbread, potatoes etc. So I will continue to keep up the carbs for him and ditch them for me. Seems strange though if carbs are bad for you, why would I give them to my kid? Everything in moderation, right! Anyway almost through day 1. Quite chuffed. Thanks again for your advice.

Hi everybody.

There’s a lot of really go losses out there, well done to you all.

I’m definitely on a plateau at the moment, having lost my Christmas extra quite quickly I haven’t moved since! That 6 days, so I think I’m due a whoosh some time soon. Sticking to 800/20 and believing it will work.

Non Scales Victories,
My blood sugar has tested between 4.2 and 5.6 since 2nd Jan, so I’m hoping that the doc will reduce my metformin prescription.
I had to go into the loft to get out some things for my amateur dramatic performance, and while I was there I tried on some summer trousers that I couldn’t get anywhere near when I put them away in October. Now they do up, tight and a bit bulgy when I sit down, but a wonderful felling to pull that zip up. I’ve brought them downstairs and will use them as a check as I get smaller. (Jeans aren’t any use as they are already loose, but I’m not buying new ones till I finish).

Hello Squidge

Good to see your weight loss continuing and that you can see light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. I have much further to go, I want to lose another 2.5 – 3 stone.

My mexican meal at the weekend went very well, and as you suggested we used lettuce to wrap our chicken whilst everyone else had tortillas and I didn’t feel deprived, although I do think that my appetite has subsided and I have lost that constant craving for food.

Have a great week

Hi Traceyanne, I hope you feel better soon and can get onboard properly.
At my biggest (that I would get on the scales for) I was 16st 10Lbs, that was 10 years ago and I lost 4 stone on Slimming World. It’s been a bit roller-coaster since then but I’ve managed to stay around 12st 10lbs for the last 5 years or so but never get much lower.
This diet makes so much sense to me, how carbs make you store fat, and I’m sure we’ll get to our targets. I was 12st 1lb yesterday, I haven’t been that low since my early 20s. My waist is stubbornly still 36.25″, all the inch loss was off my hips & legs, but that’s where I store fat & water!
Bit worried about tomorrow as I’m meeting a friend for lunch, I hope they have salad on the menu, not just sandwiches and jacked spuds!
Have a good day everyone x

Wow everybody you’re doing great! I’m still sort of doing the diet…..the illness is hanging in there. I’m probably still eating less than 800 cals a day because of it but that’s not going to hurt in the long run.
Legend2cv well done on the weight loss so far, a new grandson in March, that’s lovely, I’m sure you’ll be that skinny nana you are hoping for!!!! 🙂
So although I’m not eating the cals I should be, in my head I have officially started the diet. I took my weight and waist measurement and calculated my BMI. Not a pleasant read…so I’ve started at 16st 12lb with a waist measurement of 50 inches and a BMI of 39.2 shocking stuff! But……no more. I will turn this around and lose the weight, I need to for my self respect but also because I want to be around to see my children grow up!!!
I’m in it for the ride…..let’s make it a good one…..wooooo hoooo!!! 🙂

I lost 0.4 kg this week. I’m not very impressed with that, but I guess it’s better than a gain!

It’s often hard to know which entry to pick on the calorie counters. I make a nice chicken broth, with roasted bones and some veges, strain everything off and just drink the liquid. How many calories is that? MyFitnessPal offers a range from about 5 calories to about 150 a cup!

Grrrrr 🤬
Stuck to plan all week. Avoiding catered lunch at meetings (sandwiches) and my reward? A 3lb gain!
I’m hoping it’s a combination of Christmas payback, adrenal tumour hormones and my body getting back into the swing of things…😱

Got a day off today and thankfully no time to dwell or give in to temptation. Blood tests, hairdresser, lunch out (already selected the chicken, bacon and avocado salad), chiropractor and chiropodist. Will have to go back to work for a rest!

Happy Monday everyone!

L xx

Hi Nick unfortunately most of these carb/calorie counters are inaccurate some just more than others. I tend to add my own products if the counter seems too way out. There are also anomalies with foods such as lentils when it’s oftwn difficult to work out if they are counting dry or cooked weight. I use Fatsecret.co.uk only because it’s less cumbersome than myfitnesspal. They are all probably accurate enough for our purposes.

Interesting thread.

Hi there, according to me your body needs to have habit of having balanced. It might me a problem of change in diet which will take time.

Hi there, according to me yoga really helps to reduce weight.

Super results Kerryanne58. Are you continuing on Fast 800?

On the subject of Original Rolled oats- just had my first bowl this morning after 10 weeks of 800BSD and it did not spike my BGL at all, in fact it dropped further then before the porridge 2 1/2 hours later. I think for myself, I dont like to have any more then one food per day of any dodgy carbs, and mostly not at all, until I know how it effects my BGL- and also have to consider Glyceamic load. I have been doing quite well to have less focus now on missing pasta and rice or bread for that matter.I compensated the sweetness by adding blackberries and seeds for texture and it was the kind of sweet that I can get to like . But, I will not be eating it every day at least in the short term.I have had no sugar cravings now for 7 weeks and find the natural sweetness of whole foods ( carrots, beetroots, capsicums) quite delicious and a reminder of my healthy diet from the family home growing up. Walking past the bakery and the smell of all the sweet pastries gives me a slight nauseous feeling- I wonder how I could have consumed the amount of sweet foods that I did.
Apart from the significant weight loss of 14 kg in 10 weeks, I have also had seismic shift in my attitude to food and a newfound respect for my bodies ability to process carbs and its amazing ability to suffer ill health for a prolonged period and to bounce back
with the healthy food plan for life.

Well done everyone who can report losses as we head towards another weigh day.

I have nothing to report, same old same old, except that the daily swings seem to be getting bigger, can be a difference of 1.5kg from one day to the next. I’m now eyeing my scales in case that’s where the problem lies. Not really worried or even annoyed any more, my clothing is not getting tighter and I know I’m eating well. It’ll show up sooner or later 🙂

Speaking of eating well, any BSDers who live in Sydney, I can thoroughly recommend The Picnic at Burwood. It’s a fantastic small restaurant inside Burwood Park; Mediterranean/Lebanese food. So fresh and tasty and they offer low carb versions of the items on the menu (naked burgers etc). I was very impressed.

My holiday is over, back at work today. So much to catch up on! I hope everyone’s having a good day.

As I’m “closing up shop” for the night, I’m just dropping by to wish
you a very happy birthday, Nonna Mary. I t must be a great relief
to both you and Jovis that he has secured permanent employment.
All good wishes that your 61st year will be filled with joy and good
health, for both you and those that you love. I don’t think that I ever
knew your starting point with respect to your weight, but 4 stone
in 15 months is an outstanding achievement. Onward and downward!
Many happy returns of the day 🙂

Allie

Hiya, Flick. I can’t allow the sun to set on this day without
congratulating you on the hard won victory of arriving at a healthy
BMI. I might have felt a seismic shift when you yelled “YES” into
the cosmos when your scales confirmed it!! Just my personal
opinion, but I think your thread should be required reading for all
newbies embarking on this WOL. Wear your bush pants with pride,
you’ve earned it! As to the fiber question that you’ve raised on another
thread, avocado, raspberries, chia seeds and raw cacao nibs are the
“go to” foods that I find the easiest to include as part of my diet. One
of the other staples is 8 oz of organic frozen leaf spinach, which
comes in at 7.2 gm of fiber. The U.S. guidelines specify 25gm of fiber
for women, for men, it’s 30-40gm. I’ve just recently read that for
women over 55, 21gm is acceptable.
I’m raising a full glass of sparkling water to you, Flick. You have so
“got this”! I’m looking forward to seeing where cycle 2 takes you!

Allie

Hi all
its late and i should really be hitting the pillow. But a quick statement “I DON’T TRUST FAT SECRET” . Finding too many stored ingredients on their database are incorrect to the labeling on the packaging, especially in the carb section!

Diet Doctors garlic bread and a shared baked Camembert with celery sticks for dinner tonight. it was delicious!!

My day started with a cup of coffee before changing and jumping on the spinning bike. 8km & 15 minutes later a quick wipe down and water before 2.2km jog on the treadmill.

Positive start and set me up for the rest of the day.

Hi Kelsbells
Firstly welcome and secondly as a single parent for most of last year i can understand the various angles this diet can cause issues.
Have a look at the web site Diet Doctor, i find it covers most recipes in a low carb version with sides and extras to maybe bulk your daughters diet while you keep your calories low. Look for things that keep in the fridge as next day snacks/treats for both of you?

Fill out your profile and keep posting, plenty of tried and tested users on this forum willing to support you.

I have two girls aged 8 and 11. I also am super aware of never mentioning weight, diet etc and have explained that this is for my blood sugars and why it’s important.
I also feel a bit wrong as I give them white bread sandwiches in their school lunch! But now they re into sourdough, will choose that over the cardboard stuff, so all these little changes help give them the ‘ better’ carbs and as sunshine-girl says, their carb answer calorie intake should not be restricted. I limit my kids junk intake quite seriously so that the occasional lolly or chips is ok but not a daily or weekly choice. They rarely have sugary yoghurt or juice etc. but will happily now eat Greek yogurt and berries but I do bake with them and sneakily halve the sugar in the recipe etc. They are all ‘sometimes’ foods although I don’t stint on describing why sugar is unhealthy. I give them pasta potatoes etc and although they have always been good with eating vegetables they now love many of my bsd meals and things like mushroom roasted in butter and garlic ( check out Luvtocook’s awesome link on the good eats thread for low card sides) and sautéed spinach and will actually now request them as snacks!
I think if you put the focus on healthy choices and just keep giving them the bsd meal you are eating with their serve of carbs as JackieM and Natalie recommend, and let them try some of the delicious side dishes they will do great. I agree that watching us eat positively and enjoy the amazing food can only have a beneficial result.

Allie, thank you my friend, and I think you are so right. It is such fun (re)discovering ourselves 😊 Certainly never thought of myself as a butterfly before 😉

But I’m telling you, my girl, you’d better have invested in that smartphone by the time you get those skull print leggings so that you can share the full-on provocative effect with us, or…………..well I don’t know ‘or what’ but, give me time and I will think up a serious penance for you! 😉😜😚

Hello,
I have a 5 year old daughter, and we have been eating a BSD/M-plan diet since May last year. We all have the same meals and she has some added carbs. For example, we might have ham and scrambled eggs for breakfast, she’ll have toast with hers if she wants it. If we have yogurt and berries, she has granola sprinkled on hers. For dinner she’ll have some pasta or rice or roasted vegetables (lucky girl gets tiny roast potatoes in hers) or tortillas, whatever goes, along with hers. I keep bread and tortillas in the freezer. We have berries and cream or chocolate mousse for pudding. There are some sweets in the house, but they’re hers and O H and myself wouldn’t dream of eating her sweets!
My 5 year old loves hot smoked salmon, fillet steak, sea bass, chicken saltimboca, nearly all vegetables and especially roasted garlic. You may be surprised and these foods will appeal to yours too.I have every confidence that my child is well nourished and thriving. I think we all eat well. Our diet has no negative impact on her, I think is what I’m saying very long-windedly.
Good luck xx

Just checked out the organic section and was blown away to find kelp powder, black and yellow dried soybeans, gelatinized maca powder, moringa, hemp seeds, hemp protein powder and tons more all at the lowest prices I’ve ever seen. Louis, this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. 😀

Theo, I’m not sure we crazy ladies of the “Phoenixes” thread even know
what is “like us” any more. That’s the fun in finding out!! I’m willing to
provoke a bit with skull print leggings when they’re back in stock. I
TOLD you that dress was a stunner! Float on the air like a beautiful
butterfly when you wear it!

Allie

Aww- thanks guys.

Essie, your post made me quite tearful – in a good way obviously – I really hadn’t expected you to like it (because it’s so not like either of us!!). I knew you wouldn’t be unkind, but was half expecting you to be rather half-hearted in your praise. But what did I get? A full on essay of superlatives. Thank you so much – all of you. You have given me the confidence to step out of my comfort zone and flout this silly, feminine confection with pride. Thank you – can’t wait for an occasion which is up to the job now so that I can show it (and me) off!😉

But NOO, it will never replace my waterproofs and wellies😉

PS I am a HUGE hat fan myself, Essie, and need only the very shallowest of excuses to wear one, so the mere thought of your black velvet cloche is giving me SERIOUS hat envy 😉

Essie, you’re going to get a real kick out of their shipping box! When
I send food gifts to friends for Christmas, they really laugh out loud.
I don’t do green smoothies in the winter, but this site is a great source
for organic cracked cell chlorella powder, too. I used to spend entire
days looking through this site when I first discovered it in 2016.

Allie, omg, I just ordered them yesterday! I checked out nuts.com on your recommendation and went apeshit on the lowest carb nuts I could find — pecans, Brazils, sacha inchi and pili nuts. I also ordered some dried bilberries as they are remarkably low in sugars for a fruit. Looking forward to trying those in trail mix and fauxtmeal.

I’ve just ordered sacha inchi – Inca peanuts to try. Another superfood!
When the fiber is subtracted from the total carbs, net carbs = zero. High in
protein, as well.

https://nuts.com/nuts/peanuts/sacha-inchi.html

I also have a girl (13, who likes baking) and a boy (11) so I’m not sure if JackieM really wrote that last post or I did…

I also usually just modify regular meals to leave out carbs for myself. But I’ve been worried for a while about passing on my body issues to my daughter, as my mother did to me. She is active and slender at the moment. She asked for a Fitbit for Christmas to count steps and so on, but she also tracks food with it which I wasn’t really expecting and it worries me a bit. If she eats over the calorie limit she’ll walk around the lounge room to ‘earn’ more. Not bad in itself, but I don’t feel like she should be thinking about this stuff at all. She’s clearly copying me. I’m careful never to body shame myself in front of her, but she knows I’m trying to lose weight and get healthier. It’s a tricky balance, to be open and honest without putting too much focus on it.

Yes willowy is exactly the word!

Jackie my understanding of the difference in UK chocolate is that they don’t use the original fat (cocoa butter) from the nib, it’s replaced with cheap vegetable oil or something. I saw an article saying that about Cadbury years ago. I was so horrified that I contacted the company, they reassured me that they aren’t allowed to do that in Australia.

In the US, white chocolate must have at least 20% cocoa butter (no cocoa solids) (and can have up to 55% sugar btw) but I don’t know if that applies in the UK, it may have no acquaintance with the cocoa plant at all yet still be called ‘chocolate’!

💪

That chart has been my nut bible since I started the BSD. I still check the nutritional panel at the shops, though, because there are interesting deviations. Tamari almonds, for example, are lower in carbs than regular almonds. Just a gram’s difference, but I’ll take that gram with gratitude. Earller today I discovered that Spanish peanuts (tiny red-skinned versions of the usual peanut) are higher in fiber and therefore have only 1 net gram carbs per oz. Regular peanuts have 3 or 4. Did I clear that bin out like a Hoover? Yes I certainly did. They don’t have as strong a peanutty taste as the standard variety and there’s a bit of a raw taste to them too, so I’m going to do a nifty trick where I soak them in salt water overnight, toss them in assorted spices and dehydrate them to jazz them up a little. They made amazing peanut butter, though, just as they were. I added smoked salt and it drew out all the peanutty goodness inside of them.

The brand and quality makes an even bigger difference in the 100%, Jackie. I’ve tried a number of them, and even the very high end French brand I paid an arm and a leg for was gritty and unpleasant in texture. Ghirardelli is by far the best of the ones I’ve sampled. It is so beautifully creamy and rich. Totally different from the nibs with their high-fiber crunch.

Even there, though, brand and sourcing makes a huge difference. Of the three brands of nibs (I forgot I had three, not two, because the two most recent buys far eclipsed the original raw organic from my local coop) currently lurking in my cabinet, the one that is highest in fiber (zero net carbs because of it) is the most delicious. Not coincidentally, they’re the most expensive. I get them from a single-source small-batch maker in Missouri with exceptional fair trade practices. The nibs have the crunch and verve you’d expect, but they also have this remarkable note of butteriness that made me do a double-take when I first sampled it. I thought for sure they’d added something — milk or sugar — to get that miraculous combination, but nope. Pure unadulterated 100% cacao nibs. The difference is they searched high and low for the best ones and found them at a family farm in Tanzania. The big makers don’t give a damn about seeking out these treasures.

Squidge, do a small sample pudding, 15 grams of ground chia whisked into 2 oz liquid (unsweetnened vanilla almond milk or coconut milk or cream are my favorites). Let it sit for 5 minutes to gel up and give it a try. If it doesn’t work for you, you won’t have wasted the ingredients.

Flick, you grind your nibs in a mortar and pestle?! That is so boss.

Wow Theo! You look wonderful! It’s a very pretty dress and makes you look willowy and free! I think you could wear it day or night during our rare summer! Dress it up or down depending on the occasion. Team it with a floppy sun hat perhaps or a fascinator for a wedding even. A pretty light stole across your back and. hooked loosely over the crook of your arms. It’s just lovely!

On this chocolate theme, my husband asked me to stop buying 70% as he was eating ‘too much of it’ and he ‘can’t eat much of the 90%’.

Where has all my 90% chocolate gone this week then? WHERE? And who said he could have ANY of it anyway?

Outraged! He smirked like a naughty schoolboy when I confronted him. Looks like I will have to raise my % just to protect my chocolate stash!

For me 100% takes like plasticine. Can’t manage it yet. Keep trying every month or so though.