Hi Nonna Mary,

I’ve been thinking of you, also, over the last few days. I hope you have a lovely Christmas holiday and hope to see you in the New Year.

Come back when you’re ready, but come back.

Marie X

Esnecca, thanks for the heads up about the new Zeros…..sounds PERFECT. The only bad part is I just did a big order to Netrition and since they charge for shipping will have to wait until I need more stuff n such. I will certainly keep my eyes open for it at local markets. Wonder if Whole Foods might have it….have a foray planned there in a couple of days to get things not available elsewhere.

RE thickening sauces: I use xanthan in baking…acts a bit like gluten does in traditional baking to provide a bit of sponginess to things made with almond so they are not so crumbly . Never had much success with it to thicken liquids. I did recently buy some glucommanan for that reason but have not used it yet on anything…..so will await additional feedback from Allie as to how her experiment with it went (if I don’t try it first just for the heck of it).

Hear hear, Flick. You have nailed my feelings exactly.

Personally I couldn’t, and indeed wouldn’t want to jeopardise all that hard work just to satisfy social conventions. I’m afraid that, during my losing days, I was a total hard-liner and stuck to BSD800 to the letter.

Now, after 8 months in maintenence, I allow myself a little more flexibility and no longer count calories. I do, however, stick rigidly to low carbs – but believe me, that certainly doesn’t mean no treats. It’s just that my tastes have totally changed and my “treats” consist of wonderful, tasty, healthy food, yes with the odd glass of wine, but I know that I am lucky and can enjoy ONE glass and not crave more.

Obviously, Chazly1, it is your decision and only you know what will work for you. But please don’t jeopardise all your hard work, not to mention your health, for the sake of a few stodgy “treats” – they are not treats, they are drugs – and you have done so well in kicking the habit so far.

But we are all different and whatever you decide, I wish you every success and a very merry Christmas and, more to the point, a very healthy new year.

Hi Chazly1,

Wowsers, 2 stone (12.7 kgs) in four weeks! Great results!

I’m just starting Week 6 (7.2kg down) of my first round and I’m taking a pretty hard line on ‘breaks’, including alcohol (can’t quite believe it myself) I just can’t bear the idea of seeing the scales go up, spending more time double backing over efforts already made. Seems like such a waste of time and energy.

Worse still, for me, that first reason for loosening the reigns, would immediately give me permission to do it again. That first major event, say Christmas, or wedding, would quickly become ‘oh but it’s drinks or dinner with friends’ and then it would be ‘oh it’s Friday night’ and then ‘I don’t have time to prep dinner I’ll just have …..’. Next thing I know I’m having carb cravings, the weight is back on and I’m beating myself up for being a weak, pathetic loser.

After a couple of weeks, I don’t have carb or alcohol cravings – although I do still have the odd theoretical wistfulness, but these are more interesting than distressing. Thank heavens for getting to that place because it is not just about emotions, it is physical – carbs and alcohol trigger the dopamine system. We crave these things, not because we are slobs and idiots – we crave them because they work. They make us feel better at a molecular level. Like drug addicts, it is hard to learn our bodies can cope, we can feel fabulous, we can cope with pressures and stress without triggering the feel good chemicals with carbs/sugar alcohol. I’m taking a typical drug treatment approach and going for abstinence. I’m finding alcohol and carby snacks are just not a big issue for me at social gatherings now. Rather than deprived or missing out, I feel quite proud of myself for sticking to my guns. I know this is very unattractive, but sometimes I even feel a little smug 🤫

There are of course different views, and there are plenty of people doing it a slower, mixed approach. Hats off to everyone trying hard to take control of their health and wellbeing. Big hats off to people taking a mixed, flexible approach, I can’t think of anything harder, it takes such a long time, constant dealing with cravings and questionng why and whether they can do it, and I’m quite sure I couldn’t. I need success to fall back on.

Personally I found the discussion on the Lucia thread a little bit upsetting. Lucia’s post seemed to me to be like the pied piper calling all the children out of the safety of the village. I’m fine with people making decisions to be flexible if that helps them to keep going, but actively encouraging others to join them reminded me of a drunk at a recent dinner I was at, persistently pressuring me to join in and have a drink. Very uncool. I just felt sad for him, gave him a hug, thanked him for caring about whether I was having fun and reassured him I was and went back to enjoying the function.

We are all different, and this is me. All my warm wishes to you Chazly1, it is not easy, it is a challenging time of year. Good luck!

Sweet! You’ll get a nice little bonus boost of fiber out of the deal as well as magical thickening powers. The first time I used the konjac to thicken chili I stared in awe as the cup of chicken stock I whisked it into turned into an aspic in half a minute. It literally set in seconds. I’ve never had powdered Jello work that fast. In fact, the last time I made Jello, which would have been when I was a kid, I’m pretty sure it never set at all and we had to dump it down the sink. 😀

Hi Lucia, thanks for the invitation to come out and play – but no thanks. After 5 weeks BSD I’ve got those carb and alcohol cravings pretty much under control and want to keep benefiting from that.

I’ll work out introducing flexibility when I get to my target. I’m a third of the way there so hopefully it will only take another 12 or so weeks of concentration. Yippee – keep your fingers crossed for me.

Nonna Mary – If you are reading this – wishing you a fabulous festive season and the best 2018. This is our year! So exciting! And while I’m here, same goes to greenjanet, amazingshrinkingwoman and captainlynne and anybody else who used to post – thinking of you all.

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Okay, you 2 geniuses, I’m going to take this onboard, too!

Arcticfox, you can make a creamy dressing using mayonnaise, creme fraiche, cream cheese or yogurt. My standard mix these days is 4 ml high quality extra virgin oil (kalamata, to be precise, because it has a very lovely strong olivey flavor that stands out), 2 ml vinegar, pickle juice, kimchi juice or lemon juice, depending on the kind of salad, then a tablespoon of the creamy white stuff. I make a quasi-mayo out of silken tofu that works a treat because it’s a bit of a blank canvas and is rock-bottom in terms of calories and carbs. Cream cheese works great, but you need to add more liquid because it’s very thick for a dressing. I add hemp milk or chicken stock. You could also use mustard. It will add creaminess, but might be a little more acidic than you’re looking for at the moment.

Y’all need to get your hands on some xantham or guar gum or konjac/glucomannan powder. There’s no reason you can’t thicken anything you like. The no-carb gums work far better than flour or cornstarch, in my opinion, because you don’t have to take an intermediate step like creating a roux or a slurry. Konjac works better if you separate out some of the liquid and whisk it in for 10 seconds, but that’s just because it’s so insanely fast-acting that you can’t distribute it quickly enough in a big chunky sauce before it starts clumping.

If you can’t find it in a shop near you, Bob’s Red Mill carries both xantham and guar (https://www.bobsredmill.com/shop/baking-aids.html) and Netrition has the konjac (https://www2.netrition.com/konjac_glucomannan_powder.html ).

Which reminds me, LTC, I might have to make that amazing kimchi dish you posted in the phoenix thread using my latest find instead of kelp noodles. Zeroodles has a new type of konjac noodle with oat fiber added and it is PHENOMENAL. The fiber gives it a full-on ramen texture and taste. It doesn’t even have that fishy smell that freaks some people out so much when it comes out of the bag. (The smell doesn’t bother me in the least. I don’t know why people get so hung up on that. It goes away as soon as you prep them.) My local Stop & Shop carries it, believe it or not. You can get it on Netrition too, among other places: https://www2.netrition.com/zeroodle-premium-shirataki-oat-fiber.html

A very happy holiday to you, too, Dumpty! I’m looking forward to a happy and healthy
new year for ALL of us. 2018, here we come! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Best,

Alle

I’m unfortunately up 300g from my lowest weight that I recorded during the week. I think I have realized where some extra carbs were sneaking in though. I haven’t been diligent enough with the calorie counting or eating enough above ground veg, either. I didn’t really fancy a lot of cold veg, and haven’t been cooking much, so it has gone by the wayside. As has salad generally, I think because of the colder weather, but I realized yesterday that salad with a creamy dressing would be okay. For some reason, it was just a vinagrette dressing that wasn’t appealing on cold days. Anyway, I did manage to buy some salad greens yesterday and will be having them later with a creamy dressing. I’m not sure I’m going to make my goal weight for this challenge, but maybe by the end of December? Being off work is allowing me to catch up on my sleep and to go to they gym again, but it has also knocked me out of my routine a bit. I think I need to spend a few days really measuring and counting everything I eat and see if I can kickstart some weight loss again.

JGwen, I hear you about not being satisfied with how much size you’ve lost even though you’ve lost weight. I wasn’t too pleased in my first 8 weeks either. I hardly lost anything off my waist, but I did lose it off my wrists, which was really annoying as I have very thin wrists anyway and it just made them look even more out of proportion. I did also lose some off my calves which was good as my boots fit better. Things are starting to shift a bit now even though I’m not losing much weight at the moment. I’ve lost a some off my waist and hips, so my clothes are finally fitting much better.
What made my horse so sick is still a bit of a mystery. He tested positive for EHV-5, which can provoke some respiratory symptoms and complications, but luckily he didn’t have much in the way of symptoms and we ultrasounded his lungs to check that it hadn’t caused any polyps and they were clean, so that was a relief. He also had a bacterial infection but we were never able to pinpoint exactly what it was. He didn’t respond to the first round of antibiotics, but did respond to a cocktail of them on the second round. The most distressing for me was dealing with his legs swelling up – almost up to his stifles on the hinds – and having some of the serum leak through his skin when it couldn’t get out through his lymph system. I was icing or cold hosing and wrapping his legs all the way up twice every day. Anyway, they have come back down and he seems to be holding steady at the moment. I’m still keeping a close eye on him. I had to put my older horse down in June and this is my new youngster that I’m now bringing on.
I agree that the horses can be motivating in this journey. I put on a lot of weight stressing about my previous horse last year, and I’ve had to decide that I need to look after myself a bit better so that I can be there for them. Also the jodhpur issue. I have always been at the larger end of the sizes, and was starting to run out of options with all the extra weight. I’m looking forward to buying myself some new ones once I get the last 1/2 of this weight off. My other motivating factor is my saddle. It is a dressage saddle that I picked up 2nd hand that has extra long flaps and adjustable stirrup bars to accommodate my freakishly long thighs, and it is fitting my horse really well right now, but the seat is only 17″. It works okay right now, I can just squeeze my bum into it, but it would be so much better with another 10kg gone!

😆 You’ve got me pegged and how, sister. That looks fantastic! I’ll meet you half way and cut out 3/5ths of the butter. 😉 I read the recipe thread, just fyi. I read most threads, as a matter of fact, because I use the “All recent topics” view.

Of course it helps, Luv! Your insights always do. I’ll be reporting back to you
after the holiday. Thanks so much! What would we do without you here?

This a crazy time of year, so I’m wishing you joy and peace over the holiday, and that it
continues into 2018 and your accomplishing all the goals you have for yourself. I plan
to be by your side, to celebrate them with you!

Merry Christmas, my friend 🙂

Allie

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Hear hear SunnyB – go you! You make me feel I can ‘have my cake and eat it’. Thank for showing me my maintenance will not only be possible but allow me to join in the celebrations from time to time! Hope to join you at some point in 2018! A big year for a lot of us.

Quite interesting, Dumpty – Do you have some as yet unrevealed qualifications for
diagnosing psychiatric disorders?

Esnecca, just got the JAN issue of Bon Appetit in the mail today and opened to see a recipe for Kimichi Udon with Scallions. First thought ….must share with Escnecca (who will substitute something like kelp noodles for the udon and ditch 3/4 of the butter called for). Anyway, thought you might enjoy. They are singing your song.

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/kimchi-udon-with-scallions

Allie, sorry to leave you hanging…..been baking gifts over the last couple of days and then just ran out of gas and crashed. Love the baking part….its the cleaning up after that gets ya in the end. Ugh.

Re leave out the cream: more Fontina wont do the trick as the cream cheese is the creamy sauce part (since no flour to thicken as folks normally would ) vs the cheesy filling part.

As an alternative , you could use heavy cream and cook down a bit to thicken, or do without the creamy sauce altogether and just add some wine and broth to the drippings to deglaze the pan after you take the chicken out…reduce by half, then add a pat of soft butter and swirl around, and pour over the chicken.

Hope that helps.

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We all have to find a way to make this way of eating work for our lifestyles and bodies. I have taken a more relaxed approach than some, allowing myself ‘breaks’ from the strict 800/20 BSD regime from time to time and while it has taken me longer to get to my end goal, having periods of sticking to the BSD principles whilst not being strict on all aspects of what is consumed, has taught me how to successfully maintain.

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I absolutely agree with everyone who says ‘don’t do it’.

For me the sugary carby stuff is not a treat – Fage yoghurt and blueberries, stilton cheese, various nuts, smoked mackerel, avocados, 85% and 99% dark chocolate etc. etc. are far more delicious foods and I will be enjoying them over Christmas – secure in the knowledge that they won’t derail my maintenance nor my enjoyment of having all my family around me over Christmas nor will they harm my health nor bring back the diabetic retinopathy and macular oedema or numb feet.

My main positive today is seeing my daughter again – she’s studying in New York and home for Christmas. Not entirely plain sailing, as they cancelled her flight yesterday with 12 hours notice! They said they’d try and book her something else, hopefully for same day, but no promises….so we took the decision to buy a separate flight for her with another airline (the original airline agreed to give a full refund). So…she arrived this morning. Her first reaction on seeing the new me was to say “You’ve bought a new coat!”. (True, after loosing over 3 stone, I’ve had to buy a complete new wardrobe!). She then did question whether I’d lost weight! (To be fair, bundled up in a winter coat and a thick woolly scarf – it was freezing early this morning – she had a point in that it wasn’t immediately obvious! However, she says she is very proud of me, and she’s coming round to the idea of our BSD Christmas. Ok, so we’ve promised we’ll make stuffing for her and her friend (a girl she used to work with, who’s from Hong Kong and was facing Christmas on her own) For the stuffing I use Bergen’s soya and linseed bread, onion and sage so it’s quite low GI – though I shalln’t eat any in any case. We’ll also do roast parsnips for them, but for the rest of it…they’ll have what we have, because at the end of the day, it’s delicious – and healthy food. Her one request is a mince pie, as they don’t have them in New York! So the two girls can eat a box over the holiday….and that’s it! The friend is a health “freak” anyway as my daughter put it, so she’s delighted to have a low-carb Christmas! On with the jigsaws – one of our best traditions. 1000 pieces, just hard enough to challenge, but not so infuriating that everyone gets cross! We dip in and out over the period, leaving it on a big board and it’s very relaxing! (We buy three for the whole period just in case one gets done too quickly!).

Final positive thought, my weight is still creeping down – another half pound today. I shall need a second new wardrobe at this rate!
Liz

Lillyrose – you cannot do better than follow the advice of SunnyB, Esnecca and Alliecat. Do read their past posts – they are full of such good advice.

The side effects of the bariatric surgery sound horrific – actually worse than horrific – so well done for starting the BSD.

S-g happy hols. Think you must have left France now so just to wish a great time here in the UK, Happy Christmas and I hope 2018 brings with it all you wish for. Thank you for being ‘by my side’ for all this time, your moral support had been invaluable

Safe trip Busybee and enjoy!

If I may join in, I was ‘thin’ last Christmas although still a couple of pounds above my target as many of you know, having finished my 8 weeks on 28th November 2016. I controlled my eating last December, wary of waking the carb monster again, but I had ‘a few’ roast potatoes, ‘a bit’ of stuffing, baked my first ever Christmas cake, and ate some (in fact finished it off finally in March, after reaching my target at the beginning of February), made rum butter (a Cumbrian thing, sugar, butter and rum, eaten on toast, crackers, mince pies or with the Christmas pud) chose cream instead of sugary custard, and generally had the best Christmas I remember, never eating until I was stuffed or felt unwell, both elements I had previously suffered from. In terms of my overall WOE trajectory this was an important test that I wouldn’t just fall apart and go back to how it was before, it worked! This year so far I am indulging a little more in the run up, and have experienced a few cravings, but I have the tools to make them go away again. Even if I let go totally, and eat unwisely I know now that turning it round is never more than a strict 8 weeks away (in fact 4 also seems to slay the monster). This is from the perspective of a maintainer of course. It does take ‘practice’ at the flexible variants of the WOL to find one you can work with, but I am happy with mine.

Wow! Well done you. I would say don’t do it. My husbands uncle was diagnosed with T2 about 5 years ago, controlled it with diet and lost loads of weight. Then the diabetes nurse told him he didn’t need to be so strict and he started on the ‘treats’ and now has a massive belly again and all his old problems. I just think it can be a bit difficult to recapture the mindset and your body will be fighting the carb addiction again too. So I am going eat more but keep it as low carb as I usually do.

Hey Natalie,

Responding to you ‘how to break the cycle’. I think Lucia’s Lego analogy is great, and I cheat the 800 calorie thing all the time but I don’t cheat the carbs. So my treats are cream and 90% chocolate (sometimes together, with flaked chocolate and almonds) or roasted almonds or butter on cauliflower or roast beef with cream cheese and horseradish or melted cheese on a plate straight from the microwave (dirty food!)

Before August I definitely had a carb problem, an addiction, and now I do not yearn for any of it (and lost 16kg on the way). But I do also agree with Esnecca that my problem was only going to go away if I stopped bread and cake and all that forever. I mourned onions for quite a long time, though I don’t ban them entirely anymore. It is sad. But being size 10 isn’t sad, and neither is not falling asleep after meals. Or not having to worry about diabetes and it’s horrid friends. You are right about it all being in the head, a lot of it, but insulin resistance is also in the body, which is why a firm word with the head can help!

I wonder if mourning the cake (insert food item here), accepting its in the past, (though it was fun at the time) is the best way to let it go? Like a bad-for-you boyfriend? Thinking aloud here!

Lucia – I love your posts, they are invariably uplifting and lyrical. Hope it’s ok to jump on this one xx

I agree with Ensecca. To me, the idea that you are “treating” yourself with something sweet or alcoholic, or generally carb-infused is non-sensical. Sure, I don’t think anyone should beat themselves up over what they do – big guilt trips aren’t going to resolve anything – but effectively, you’re not treating yourself, you’re damaging yourself! Maybe if you have no issues connected with Type 2, and are following the diet purely to reduce weight with no other reference than the weight loss for its own sake, I guess it doesn’t much matter (or you can “pretend” it doesn’t matter.

I was diagnosed in September with Type 2. My fasting glucose was 8.6 and Hb1ac 64 – not exceedingly high compared with many on initial diagnosis. Because I had high cholesterol and triglycerides, I was tested regularly, so it’s not that the disease had gone on for years undiagnosed, and as I started the BSD immediately, I thought when I went for the retinopathy examination, there was no way I would already have damage to my eyes. But I was wrong. I already do have mild retinopathy. Still, I said to the guy who tested me, my glucose levels are now normal (fasting glucose 4.1 and Hb1ac 32) so I don’t really need to bother any more do I? Well, he said, I know what you say, and that you are eating low carb etc, but you might not always do that, and you might slip up sometimes – and if you do, your glucose levels spike (and spikes in the glucose levels as I’m sure we all know, come when you do eat the odd biscuit, the slice of Christmas cake, the roast potatoes…) it is these spikes that cause the damage, so yes, you should go on testing.

Given that, I can no more think of “cheating” at Christmas than I would poke myself in the eye with a needle – and in effect the risks are not dissimilar. So our Christmas is on plan. Will we eat a bit more than normal? Yes. Will we eat things we shouldn’t/wouldn’t normally because they’re high/bad carb? NO! A starter of parma ham, mozzarella, strawberries on a bed of rocket with balsamic dressing (one of our favourites before the diet, and perfectly on plan), roast chicken, with 90% meat mini sausages, braised red cabbage, roast celeriac, green veg (not yet decided which). Dessert, berries (raspberries/strawberries/bluberries, with full fat yogurt and a few flaked almonds or a grating of dark chocolate. Now, what’s not to enjoy in all of that? No damage, and no guilt. It’s a fry up for brunch on Boxing day (eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, celeriac rosti, and then a steak with celery and pepper caponata for supper (someone posted the recipe for this on this website – it’s delcious!). And some blue cheese in celery “boats” afterwards. OH, and Jamie Oliver’s fantastic asian fishcakes (salmon with lemon grass, fresh ginger and coriander – the recipe is online) for Christmas eve (we’ve fallen in love with these, they’re so delicious!).

Hope everyone has an enjoyable (and healthy!) time!
Liz

Thanks Allie! A very Merry Christmas to you too!
I hope your culinary adventures turn out really yummy holiday fare and it is a warm and happy time for you. Yes, I am going skiing in Montana with all the children and grandchildren — should be fun and exhausting in equal parts! I got some new skis and I’m looking forward to trying them out — we don’t have much snow here in California yet so I haven’t had a chance to test them.
Happy New Year and best wishes for a wonderful year in 2018!🍾

Safe trip, Busybee! Enjoy every moment with your family 🙂 🙂 🙂 I didn’t hear of
any challenging winter weather on tap for the next few days, so you should be safe
with that. See you in 2018, and Merry Christmas!

Allie

Hello to all you BSD Elves.

Over this week I have gained two pounds but have maintained my three stone off. We have had visitors, a party and a couple of lunches which included lots of booze but ate low carb food. I hope to continue this way of coping over the festive period.

This is my last post on this challenge as tonight we go to Manchester Airport ready to fly out to NJ tomorrow morning to see our son, ( whose birthday is on Christmas Day), his lovely American wife and our darling grandchildren. Skype is fine but does not give you cuddles!

Thanks to you all for your support, advice and fun over the past months and I hope you all have a lovely low carb Christmas and a very happy new year. I will ‘see’ you in 2018.

KOKOODAAT
X B

Hi Julia (Californiagirl). Just want to wish you a joyous holiday! 🙂 🙂 🙂
I hope that your son will be able to spend part of it with you! As ever, I’ll
be watching for your posts in the New Year. Is skiing in your future over
Christmas? I’d love to be able to sneak in a quick trip to Vermont, but alas, I’ve
left it all to the last moment. Going to try one of Luvtcook’s recipes here at home…
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Allie

Allie is tall, Lilyrose, so her starting BMI was lower than ours but she lost just short of 150 lbs on the BSD. Whether you need some recipe ideas or an empathetic ear, you’ve got a support network of people who have been where you are and are more than happy to help you achieve your goals.

The great thing about the BSD is that it works so many different ways — stick with it long enough, (strictly or somewhat loosely) (with or without cake) and it can transform our lives.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! Have a wonderful and successful BSD new year in 2018, however you conceive that to be.

Hi Heather/Lilyrose! I’m elated to see your post today, and hear that you and your
husband are embarking on this way of life. I find that very exciting! All the positive
support and advice that you might need are available to you in our community here.
I’m one of those who had a great deal of weight to lose also, with a starting BMI of
44. Today, 17 months later, it is 21.46. All things are possible with the BSD, and
it is wonderful that your husband will be supporting you on this journey. I lost 147lbs.
and hubby lost 45lbs.
I’m really looking forward to reading your posts and following your progress. 2018
will be a transformative and life changing year for you. Welcome!

Allie

Interesting choice of words, Dumpy, “foisting our opinions on someone else”. And
here I thought we were exchanging experiences! Perhaps this isn’t the right thread
for it. Best of luck to you all, may your holidays be filled with love and support from
people that care for you and are invested in your health and welfare.

Allie

Thank you so much for the support Esnecca and Sunny B

Lilyrose, when I started the BSD in August of last year I weighed over 300lb and at 5’2″, had a BMI of at least 55. Today I weigh 117lb and have a BMI of 21. Bariatric surgery was also recommended to me by doctors who simply did not believe it was possible for me to lose the weight any other way, but I love to eat, I love to cook and I refused categorically to slice and dice my digestive system into some revenant freak that can no longer function even remotely the way it’s supposed to. And that’s the best case scenario. Let’s not even get into the complications which are almost certain to occur and are uniformly horrific.

I’m so happy for you that you picked up Dr. Mosley’s book and that it clicked for you the way it did for me. I too started out cutting all white carbs — flour, rice, grains, cereal, sugar, potatoes, other root vegetables — then added more high carb foods to the no-fly list (pulses, most onions, most legumes). I lost a few pounds, but it wasn’t until I started the BSD and began to measure, weigh and count calories and carbs that the weight began to melt off of me. My body’s response made it crystal clear that the BSD was the key to lockbox of weight loss and good health for me.

You can 100% do this. Use this moment of clarity to propel you forward. Don’t look back. No melancholy musings about things you can’t eat anymore. They were just dragging you down into the abyss. This is your liberation day and you will never for one second regret having committed fully to the BSD.

Good luck!

Don’t do it. You’re only halfway through the program and even if you don’t put on too much weight, the biology of sugar metabolism makes popping on and off the wagon extremely difficult because eating those carbs again will reset you back to how you were that first week: hungry and desperately craving more carbs. It won’t bring you any pleasure, especially since you’ve responded so well the BSD already and are currently detoxed from the carbs. It’s a trap lying in wait for you, only you know it’s there and so can avoid it.

If you think you’ll be bummed that you can’t eat something specific, make something of your own to take its place. Yogurt and blueberries for dessert, say, or if you want to get a little fancier, chia pudding made with coconut milk and unsweetened coconut flakes. Check Luvtcook’s recipes in the recipe section for some cool low-carb bread options.

Fair warning: I am immoderate on this topic. I was hyperobese, sick and constantly exhausted from taking 10 steps from the couch to the bathroom. I lost 200 pounds over the past year and a half and it has been the greatest accomplishment of my life. The BSD saved not just my health, but has given me a quality of life that I did not think possible. Others weren’t in so extreme a situation and milder approaches worked for them. I went hardcore and have zero regrets. This is for life, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Not one step backwards.

Big hug to you Lilyrose – well done on taking the decision to change you life for the better, by revolutionising your way of eating, rather than invasive surgery. You’re in the right place here for support and encouragement and I can recommend joining the four week challenges, which makes an eight week stint feel much more manageable.

It’s a good move to start preparing now, by clearing the cupboards of carbs and starting to limit your carb intake too. That’s easy enough to do, by cutting out the obvious carbs, like bread, cakes, biscuits, rice, pasta, potatoes etc. Now is a good time to start taking a look at hydration too and start to ramp that up as well. Making this change should be easier with the two of you on the same regime, as it will mean you won’t need to keep any non-BSD foods around at all, considerably limiting temptation.

Don’t think in terms of no carbs, as that is unrealistic, think in terms of reduced/limited carbs. Most people will lose very well at 50g carbs a day and sometimes higher, although there are some of us who find it necessary to push lower to nearer the 20g mark, but make a start first, see how you get on and look to adjust your intake later on as you progress.

Make good use of the forum, use the Search box in the top right hand corner, to search for specific topics. Use the forum to vent when things aren’t going well, to ask for advice and to celebrate your successes. The lovely folks here will offer advice, support and encouragement in spades and join in the celebrations too. Best of luck to you both and I hope you will soon be seeing encouraging results.

Hi my name is Heather, I’m 58 and yesterday I went to attend a bariatric clinic. I was told about my BMI and what would happen to me if I had bariatric surgery. I knew about the 60 ml pouch the small amounts of food. But did not realise all the effects, things like dumping syndrome, that if you even take 1 sip of a food, your body could reject it and you could be really ill and need to lay down even in the middle of town. That some foods like some fibrous proteins, nuts and seeds. You can never eat again. That the change of social lifestyle can effect relationships, friendships, going shopping, days out etc. I knew it wasn’t an easy way out, but it truly felt like a very bad thing to do to yourself unless no other option is open to you.
When I got home last night I could not sleep, thinking that I couldn’t Cope with the surgery and to accept that my life will be shortened and I will just have to make the best of it.
I picked up The Blood Sugar diet which I bought on Saturday and started reading. I can’t believe it, at last an answer, I could never understand why everything I ate on a low fat, controlled carb diet didn’t work, I felt that I was a complete failure and that surgery was my only option. I have always felt that whatever I eat just gets laid down as fat and now I know why. I WANT TO HEAL MYSELF, I am going to my son and he’s family for Christmas, so I will start in the first week of January, but I will start cutting down on carbs straight away and sorting through my larder to get rid of unwanted carbs like rice and pasta. I have already reduced portion sizes and I often don’t finish plates of food these days, so small meals will not feel too bad, but I think no carbs will be a bit of a struggle, but one I feel I can achieve. Good news my husband has said he will join me that’s got to make it easier.

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Hi Guys, Thanks for the suggestions on substitutions for my step in mum, especially to help with her love of Bread. I was really surprised that the authors of the book on low carb bread had included so many recipes which involve expensive ingredients and produce bread that is still in the range of 9 to 12 grams of carb per slice. That doesn’t appear to be that different to low carb bread available from supermarkets. I am going to try out myself some of the recipes you recommend and search out other ones.

Its difficult when you live a distance away, and yours is just one voice in the many people including NHS staff who are all recommending different diets. As I find recipes that I enjoy I can then put together a small parcel with a copy of the recipe and ingredients so she can try for herself.

Hi Articfox, – I was going to ask how your horse is doing, and what the problem was. My favourite Christmas lunch is a cheese sandwich and bottle of beer carried in the saddle bags to a quiet spot on a long ride out. Will not be happening this year, my old boy that I spent so many days out exploring the country is no longer here, but I do have a young successor who I am starting ground work with. I am really lucky, I made the decision to drop out of the rat race, focus on quality of life rather than bank balance so that I could have my horses living at home (somehow when you have your own land the number of horses ends up increasing) . Its hard at times, and there are many occasions when I wish I could go back to the old type of work, but then I can count my blessings and walk out to my horses at any time during the day. They are a great motivator on this journey, (as are the silly designers of jodhpurs who think that no one other than a stick insect needs clothes to ride in.)

I hope you enjoy your Christmas with your horse.

This weeks loss is 2.1kg, which takes me after 9 weeks up to 0.7kg short of the half way mark in my targetted weight loss. Looking in the mirror though it isn’t going to plan. I can see that I am loosing weight from my face to my feet, but after loosing 17kg my clothes are simply more comfortable, rather than dropping a dress size. So I think my targets are going to change over time.

I know that there have been discussions on different parts of the forums about Christmas, and breaks and treats. I just thought I would share my 2p worth. For me I have spent decades trying to control my weight by counting calories, but because I am a vegetarian my diet tended to be higher on carbs, so it was a battle I couldn’t win. Now I understand more about how my body works, and I want to put that information to play for the rest of my life, but that doesn’t mean that I want to develop into having a fear of meeting with friends or taking part in celebrations because I am worried about eating an unhealthy meal occasionally.

A few years ago heavy snow fall before Christmas meant that my drive was not passible. I had parked the car at the bottom of the drive so I could head into town to buy supplies, but anything bought had to be put in a rucksack and carried across two fields, one so steep and thanks to the sheet ice I needed my hands free to hold the fencing to help me make it up to the level area. It was hugely liberating. So many people were stressing out pushing around supermarket trolleys which were heaped with food. I was free to wander around buying what I fancied for a specific meal, but the restraint that anything I bought had to be something I wanted enough to make it worth the journey carrying it back up to the house. At the end of the shop I had a layer of goods in the bottom of the trolley and didn’t end up with a cupboard full of things I was still eating up months later. I am going to apply the same mindset to Christmas, I am not going to limit relaxing the diet to just 24 hours, because there are traditions for Christmas Eve and Boxing Day that are important to me, but at the same time it will be in moderation. Rather than buying a selection of drinks that I am still working my way through months later, it will be one bottle of white wine. I will have a Christmas pudding, but just a small one, that is one portion.. And the money I save will be added to the pot for a new wardrobe once I am down to my target dress size.

There is some discussion about this in recent days on the 2017 Lucia thread with a couple of points of view if you want to have a look.