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:

*********************************************************************************************************************

“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.

Allie, you have been holding out on us….lovely recipe! I had just saved another one for fish stew on my computer that was similar but lacked the extra herbs and seasonings yours has. I like yours better. Would simply add monkfish to your list of fish options. It holds up well and has a lobster like taste, and is easy on the pocketbook. You just have to peel the membrane (like silver skin) off it. For this I wonder if you could just leave it on. Worth a shot.

For a more rustic version, what would you think about hand crushing the tomatoes and leaving them a bit chunky?

Gosh that sounds good. Will have to bump the other recipe and put this on the “to do soon” list.

I am assuming with 2 lbs of combined fish and shellfish that this is intended to feed 6-8 ?

Post anywhere and everywhere you like, but this is probably the right place for where you are now 😀 I started in a very similar fashion, first with the traditional 5:2, then BSD style with 800 calories (1600 on non fast days), then 4:3, with the three 800 fast days non consecutive. Finally a month at 2:5 with only the weekends at 1600 before going for a full 8 weeks at 800 (my only round) that took me almost to target. Since then I have maintained, throwing in fast days when needed. If you have any questions or just need a cheerleader who knows what it is like, just call.

How’d you all get so wise?? xoxoxo!!!

Hey, Flick – I just caught your question about subsequent rounds…There
are sometimes opinions that surface on the forums suggesting that this
WOL shouldn’t be continue for more than 3 months at a time. I did 10
months without a break, principally because I didn’t even know that these
forums existed until I was thru to maintenance, and find myself, as of
today, 15 lbs. under target. I had absolutely no medical problems going
straight thru, but I kept a careful eye on my protein macros, and I’m feeling
relatively confident that I have no muscle wasting as a result. You cannot
expect to have no loose skin with a loss of 150lbs., and I do have some of
that, but it’s a small price to pay for feeling fantastic and getting my life
back. I’d be inclined to say “go for it” unless you are experiencing any
physical symptoms that you’re concerned about. Keep us posted 🙂

Allie

I think it’s hard for even close and supportive friends to watch their loved ones caught in a trap without eventually feeling frustrated or even a little judgmental about it. We all like to think we’d do things differently, that we have all kinds of control of our circumstances but in reality it may not work out that way at all, and next thing you know you wake up and 20 years of steadily increasing horror have turned you into someone you don’t recognize.

That’s how it was with me and my weight, and I was fortunate enough to have an endlessly loving and supportive partner, friends and family. The abyss doesn’t appear overnight, and by the time you realize how imprisoned you are, extrication seems impossible. The BSD completely restructured my body’s systems, my attitude, my determination and my understanding of myself.

That constant drumbeat of debilitation and self-abnegation, having to figure out paths through the maze of your husband’s pathologies just to have some semblance of a life is no longer holding you back. You’re already beginning to feel it, that much is clear Now trust it and you will discover your intellect, ability to research, open-mindedness, stamina and braveness will come to the fore. Liberation is anon, Dipgal!

Flick, personally I don’t think there is any problem whatsoever in doing rounds one after the other. I only had to do 2 rounds, but I did them back to back (lost 50lbs) but there are lots of people on the forum who have completed several rounds.

As far as bone density is concerned, now that I am out of that awful low fat mindset, I am eating far more dairy produce than ever, particularly as I have yoghurt for breakfast every day and it is also my go-to snack if and when I get the munchies.

We all have to find what is right for us, we are all different with varying lifestyles, and this way of eating has to fit in with that, otherwise it is unsustainable long-term.

Good luck to you on your continuing journey, you have done so well so far, I just know you will become one of the BSD forum stalwarts.

Thanks for your useful comments & suggestions. There is certainly a wealth of wisdom to be found on these forums & it’s great to feel part of a community as I embark on this adventure.

Thank you for your concern articfox. There has been formally run research into coconut feed with animals and the benefits with regard to gut ph. There has also been formal research into the changes of the gut bacteria following sugar in the diet for animals. As I am not a vet it wasn’t possible for me to test the blood sugar level changes which were occurring when coconut was added to diet of horses struggling with blood sugar levels, I could see the changes which occurred in the rate of growth of their hooves and the strength of the connection. Obviously its a bit difficult to work out from the amount which you feed a horse or a sheep, how much coconut a human would benefit from. to have the same effect, and what format, but I will be searching for formal research rather than depending on the word of people selling coconut products.

Esnecca, I’m sure you’re right. It is frustrating, which comes across in your eloquent comment. This confusing pro-carb propaganda has kept me in a state of uncertainty, frightened to take the low-carb leap in case I would be doing myself damage. When will it stop?

Porridge is fashionable amongst the young apparently, making lots of money for coffee shops etc. So that’s ok then.🙄

Hi Julia, I hear you too about the tedium and mental energy of entering food into a tracker. I am really not the personality that enjoys taking time out of my day to track and record everything. I use myfooddiary.com. It is a paid service (I use it because my sister does as well and we can trade recipes and their nutritional profiles back and forth and also because I’ve been using it from before MFP became a really functional and useful), but it has some features that I like. One is the ‘fridge’ function where you store all the foods you eat most frequently. There is a recipe function where you can enter in typical meals as well as recipes, and the best feature from my perspective is the ‘copy date’ function. If you have the same things to eat 2 days in a row, on the 2nd day you can just copy the day before. You can also copy individual meals. I for instance have the same breakfast most days (chia flax museli with berries and a bit of greek yogurt) so I never have to enter it in, I just copy it from the last day I had it. I can’t speak to whether or not MFP or FS have these features because I don’t use them, but many others on here use them and could likely tell you.

Judy, my dear, we do Know You! If you hitch your wagon to our star,
it’s only a matter of time before you no longer think of this marvelous
forum as one of virtual friendship, but will feel like you’ve known us
all for a lifetime 🙂 What we may not have been able to do individually,
we have accomplished together, and you certainly have friends here
who are “all in” to help you achieve your goals. We have a lot of fun
in the process, no matter where we are in this journey called “life”!
Full speed ahead…

xoxo
Allie

Thanks again to you, too Esnecca! It’s funny how being given validity of my trauma from people who don’t really “know” me is so powerful and helpful! I have only a few cousins as “family” and they live several hours away. I have some great friends who were with me through the daily traumas (and couldn’t believe I stayed with him through it all), so they rarely are supportive of what I went through in general. I feel like I was intertwined and connected to my late husband and the trauma – like it was who I was. Now, as I try to pry myself alway from that identity it helps to hear a kind word, even if it’s virtual..

Thanks to everyone and ((hugs))!

Judy

Hi Dipgal,

Good luck with the BSD! I’m not in the U.S. but I am in this thing with you and wishing you well. It seems as though planning in advance what you’ll eat is a big help for a lot of people – it’s something I’ve not done before, but I’m starting to get the hang of it.

Thank you for the kind words and pep-talk California Girl! Yes, I read Gary Taubes’ book about 5 years ago.. Hopefully, it’s on my kindle so that I can read it again.. Keto/very low carb makes me a bit nervous because I’ve read that it messes with our metabolism if done for a long time… I am going to stay LC (<50), but not VLC – with the hopes the addition of fasting will keep my metabolism working.

Congrats on your weight loss and happiness! You’re a role model indeed!

Judy

Dipgal, I think you’re going to find the BSD dovetails perfectly with your goal of renewal and rebuilding of your physical and emotional well-being. You have been through the kind of wringer that saps the will and whittles away at your self-esteem until it feels that there is no way forward, only a yawning chasm in front of you as far as the eye can see. I’m so glad you posted here and told us a bit about yourself. It’s an important step in breaking with such a long period of trauma and ugliness so that you can focus on you and your goals.

I hope as you go through the process you’ll find things easier than you expected them to be, and maybe even inspire a revival of your culinary gifts, be it with dips or anything else. Then you can post your new recipes in the Low Carb Cooking thread so we can all steal from you shamelessly. 😀

Hi Allie! Happy New Year!! Christmas family ski trip was a success and very good snow in Montana — only downside was we were expecting the boyfriend to ask the daughter to marry and that did not happen, which left daughter very upset.
These kinds of things make me tired!!
I’m planting some new fruit trees today to lift my spirits — a new cultivar called a Plucherry which is a Zeiger development of a plum/cherry cross. Will be fun to try!

I’ve been posting over the last couple of days in the BSD800 area.. I think this is where I should be instead. At this point, I don’t see myself being able to do 800c every single day. I am trying for 3 – 4 times a week, and LC Med all days. I’m on my third day.. yesterday was a low calorie day – and it was just fine. Maybe in future weeks I can give extended 800c days a go once I feel a bit better with hunger levels.

I tried the original 5:2 when it was new a few years ago. The 500c days made me miserable. I couldn’t get myself to “enjoy” the fasting days like others said they could. Like the MANY other diets I’ve tried, I considered myself a failure. The increase to 800 calories makes it so much more doable for someone like me.. and shouldn’t be a problem as far as rate of weight loss goes – at least for me, because I have LOTS to lose!

Now – all the options with combining the programs and mixing it up, so as not to feel totally deprived, is a brilliant idea! I feel there’s hope! And, I do desperately need to drop a significant amount of weight. I don’t really have blood sugar issues YET, but I certainly have all the other nasties that come with being 100+ overweight at the age of 61.

I would be rather wary of the ‘research’ on health benefits of coconut and really check into who funded the study. My understanding is that most of it has been funded by the coconut industry as a marketing ploy. I worked for a while with a group that was trying to increase consumption of domestically grown agricultural products, and coconut was held up as an example of “this is how we can get people to buy more of our products through clever marketing without having to do any credible research to back up our claims”. Not saying it doesn’t have health benefits, but just that there likely hasn’t been much credible research done on it yet and we need to keep a critical mind.

Evening All. Well done Chewsnoo, I have clocked in at a 7lbs weight loss for week one as well. Managed a 2.6 mile walk today in the bitter wind. I too need to up my step count too, going to fall short of 10k today by 900.
You will be well toned Squidge and the weight will come off.
I hope to settle back into my walking routine when it dries up a bit. I am walking every day but it’s so wet and muddy we are just doing short walks where we know it’s dry.
Here’s to week 2.