I am about to start the BSD…..right after Christmas! Have read the 8-week blood sugar diet and am browsing the recipe book. Reading all the info on this forum is very encouraging so hope I can stick to this. I am a type 2 diabetic, am approx. 2 stone overweight and have high triglycerides and cholesterol. Clearly I have some work to do. In my favour, I do enjoy working out and attend the gym 2-3 times weekly. Will likely be looking for some support in the upcoming weeks.

The problem I have with the two types of people theories is that it’s purely a psychological analysis and presumes our biologies are all the same blank canvas in the background. People who have blood sugar issues cannot lose weight if they keep eat carbs, even “treats” every once in a while will trigger the BG spike, the insulin release and the fat retention, plus all the reignited cravings. That can only be defeated one way: by breaking the cycle. Feeding it over and over again with cheat days and treats makes it a constant battle, a really hard one which most people lose. It’s also self-reinforcing. Maybe the type of person who is so carb-addicted that they binge at the mere thought of a low-carb diet is so hungry for them precisely because they’re stuck in an insulin spike cycle. There’s also the gut biome issue. Feed the deleterious sugar-craving microorganisms and you will continue to crave sugar. Feed the good flora and fauna with live cultures and pre/probiotics and your cravings will do a 180 degree flip towards the tart, tangy and sour. The types of people thing doesn’t account for biological realities that play a very important role in how we relate to different foods.

Anyway, don’t be sad, Natalie! There are still cake options, even for low-carbers. Check out Luvtcook’s fantastic low-carb baking recipes. She’s been experimenting with the flourless and sugarless bakecraft arts for years and has it down to science. I made a coconut cream pie with a toasted almond meal crust for a holiday event this weekend and it came out pretty darn great. Even my father, who is as far from a low-carber as you can imagine, loved it. 🙂

I’m still weighing and measuring too — two years into BSD. I never made any of the recipes either, just cobbled together the foods that I liked into meals I liked.
Here I go again, Benns, but I recommend you get a copy of Gary Taubes book “Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It” — it will clarify WHY carbs matter and help you plan/aim for a very low daily carbohydrate intake. In combination with the BSD, it changed my life.

I think the point Esnecca makes is really valuable for all BSD’rs.
Over the last two years of following a BSD diet, now in maintenance, I have come to look at the foods we like to call “treats” or “cheats” as only troublemakers — they aren’t a treat, they are stealth agents and they create and perpetuate a cascade of inflammation and high blood sugar leading to metabolic dysfunction and permanent high-insulin states in the body.
If you are diabetic or pre-diabetic or “just” fat, eating carbohydrate turns on, and keeps on, your insulin pump. When your insulin is high, you literally cannot break down fat for fuel. It “locks away” your fat and you are actually starving on a cellular level.
In addition, fats are critical for hundreds of biological activities in your body and brain and when you are eating carbohydrates, you are not allowing fats to fuel all those important processes.
So we would benefit from a different mind-set: why do we need to have carbohydrate to enjoy our holidays?
It’s an odd thing we do in our society, glorifying sweet stuff that actually just creates long term damage to our bodies.
If you decide to eat some sweet stuff, limit yourself to a few bites and jump back on the BSD wagon the very next meal.

I did my own thing too, Benns. Never followed a single recipe from either of the books. I love to cook so I adapted old favorites to BSD principles and as I got increasingly comfortable with it introduced new ingredients and fun experiments. Every morsel was weighed and counted, though, because I discovered on the first day that my estimates and ballpark figures were off by miles. It’s been a year and a half and I still measure and count to ensure my carb numbers never rise again. I’m insulin resistant and I know from hard experience that carbs of any kind will lead to snowballing weight gain. It’s actually a good sign that while your losses have stalled, you haven’t put pounds back on. I bet your body will respond very well to a stricter carb-counting regime.

Good luck!

Just a quick check in, was wondering how things are going with you, Theo. Hope you are okay and that the family thing is at least on the way to being resolved.

Hope everyone else is okay too. This time of year is packed with temptations and stresses, so hope you are all coping with successfully maintaining and still managing to enjoy this festive time. We have had a few hectic days with family, so a family meal at home, a meal out, a take away and a few cocktails too, but managing to maintain with 4lb wriggle room at the moment. Seem to have the Christmas prep under control at the moment and not stressing too much about things still needing to be done, which is an unusual state of affairs for me at this point in the year.

Only a week to go to the main event – have a good time everyone!

Just dropped in to have a quick read and see how everyone is getting on with the challenge. Congrats to all of you posting scale and non-scale victories. It’s tough sticking with it this time of year and so gaining any positive on the BSD front is a big plus.

Well done everyone and to those not so successful, don’t give up, it will happen for you too.

Doing your own thing is fine, many of us do that, but you still have to account for the calories and carbs, especially if you are still trying to lose weight and not just maintain. Only thing I would add to the excellent advice above, is make sure you are keeping hydration up. This is something that often slips and is essential for maintaining the body functioning at optimum, but even more so when you are looking to lose weight.

Best of luck to you, I’m sure you can get back to losing successfully, just keep an eye on those sneaky carbs.

Kazz, never thought about earlobes getting chubby, but see no reason why they wouldn’t be effected by weight gain along with every other part of the body. Exciting that you will be able to wear those special earrings at Christmas.

Natalie, you’re sounding even more organised than me and I’m just a bit envious you’ve managed to clear out the freezers too! I was planning to do that too, but was stymied by an Aga that refused to work correctly, meaning instead of being able to cook up stuff from the freezer, I had to buy in microwave meals. Hoping to impact on the freezers this week.

1) Lovely meal out with OH yesterday.
2) Going to finish the present wrapping today – hooray!
3) Back to full wriggle room today, with 4lb to spare.

Looking forward to reading lots more positive posts. Have a good week everyone.

I always choose to be 26. Youthful without being childish.

SurreyMaggie and veerle, those are great results. Isn’t it a relief when the scales start moving again. And improving bmi is so encouraging.

After a seven day stall I woke on Saturday to a .9kg loss overnight. I was stunned.

Well done managing so well while away with work veerle. I’m finding that challenging situations get easier each time. I’ve been away on the weekend, no real trouble sticking to my plan although as I wasn’t snacking was always ready for lunch or dinner earlier than the group of friends I was with. They didn’t mind.

Weigh in tomorrow, I almost expect another stall.

Good morning and thank you all for your good wishes and kind words. Again today I have just one positive. Yesterday I celebrated with my family and friends and had a lovely party. I do feel as though I have achieved a great deal on BSD but it really is now just a case of keeping on keeping on ….

Tomorrow I’ll be back with three positives to add to the thread. BTW Busybee I think you’re right about a change in outlook, but I really don’t like a number starting with 7 so I think from today I’m going back to 60 something, especially as I’m still 18 in my head!!!

Well done Maggie, 8kg over 4 weeks !

I achieved 0.5kg this week. And the total loss over the 4 weeks is 6kg, which feels good. Not entirely sure how much I actually weigh now, as I started off with old-fashioned bathroom scales, then after 2 weeks realised I had digital scales in the cupboard that needed a new battery, but they showed my weight to be 1.5kg higher than the bathroom scales (help!). I’ll need a 3rd one to check which one to believe 😉 The bathroom scales definitely show 6kg down and I now monitor daily with the digital scales.

I dont feel it’s been hard at all so far. Seeing the change in my face and body is definitely worth it.

Many congratulations on all your achievements Verano and enjoy your birthday. You were one of the first people I read about when I joined this forum, and I have watched your ups and downs which often matched mine, and now we both seem to be in a good place. Perhaps being 70 (or in my case just 71) has changed our outlook? Who knows?
X B

Thank you very much for all the replies to my post, it has made me realise I have not been following the BSD as accurately as I should be and need to follow some of the very helpful advice given.
When I started I did follow the diet in the book to the letter but found quite a few of the recipes disappointing so did my own thing and thought if I was losing weight then it was okay, but I now realise I need to do more.

Well, anyway, I’ve never stuck to a diet in my life so please don’t take my advice! Listen to someone who has been successful.

Now I’m sad. No cake, ever again.

I agree mindset is extremely important! And the subject of cheat days or whatever you want to call them is a very important topic, I think. And I can’t promise that what I think right now is what I’ll believe tomorrow, or in a year. But right now, some thoughts:

It has been argued that there are two personality types when it comes to sticking to something like a way of eating. Those who do really well by cutting out all forbidden foods, and those who panic if faced by the thought of deprivation and start bingeing and who would do better if they allowed themselves regular small treats. And maybe this is the same person before and after they get used to the new regime. If the thought of deprivation makes you abandon the woe altogether, wouldn’t a slower imperfect approach be better than giving up because you can’t face no more cake ever?

And another issue is the type and amount of ‘treat’. I don’t care much for alcohol so have no trouble avoiding it. And I have no intention of filling up on cheap junk. But roast potato with my turkey and veges – yes, definitely. And some dessert that I will make myself. And I am planning that ahead of time without feeling like it will be a disaster.

Hi Benns, I suspect your carb counts are too high. I second Allie’s point about how important measuring, weighing and calculating are. Until you do that thoroughly and accurately, you won’t know how many carbs a day you’ve been eating. Vegetables, pulses, legumes are not carb-free. There are plenty that are packed with carbs, including, as it happens, tomatoes, chickpeas, and fruits of any color. I checked the Heinz tomato soup stats and one of that stuff has a whopping 27 grams of carbs, 20 of them from sugar. That’s extremely high, and little wonder because tomatoes are fruits and are high in sugar, plus those Heinz finks add even more. There’s sugar and cornflour on the ingredient list.

I wouldn’t be surprised if your carb counts were closer to 100 gr a day than 20. Snag a food logging app like MyFitnessPal or Fat Secret and start looking up ingredients and portion sizes before you eat. Plan ahead. Sort out your real numbers. Most of all, drop the sugar, even natural sugars like from tomatoes, as far down as humanly possible. Your pancreas will thank you. 😉

Sure, and in fact being mired in self-loathing after falling off the wagon is extremely damaging psychologically and counterproductive to weight loss goals. But it’s not after the fact. Christmas is a week away. Why create a narrative well in advance to make youself feel better for a disaster that hasn’t happened? At a certain point doesn’t that just become a self-fulfulling prophecy? Why not plan a joyous and vibrant celebration where you can feel great the whole time? If things don’t go according to plan, you deal with it when it happens, but shouldn’t the baseline be to aim for success?

I think it’s so worthwhile to make a real effort to reframe the definition of “treat,” to use your WOE as a shield and staff to give you strength, not to assume days, weeks beforehand that you will succumb to old habits at the first sight of a pie and accept it with a fatalistic sigh. We romanticize these foods and give them power over us for no reason. I mean, let’s face it, there is some pretty terrible traditional Christmas fare. That fruitcake with the half walnuts on top that my parents used to get from a catalogue every year? I shudder to recall. I’d take a pile of roasted chicken over that any day.

Besides Natalie, as you know, I wasn’t thin last Christmas. Or the Christmas before that. Or the one before that one. Ibid going back to 1994 at least. I am very familiar with what it takes to remain in agonizing stasis for a few decades. Mindset matters. Maybe more than anything else.

Esnecca we know you are… strict… in your application of dieting rules. Sometimes I agree, other times I think a little of what you fancy won’t hurt. But you are thin and I am not, so I can’t argue that from a position of strength. But can we agree that, being human, we (some of us) make mistakes and that we should be gentle and forgiving to ourself after the fact – without that implying that we give ourselves permission before the fact?

This approach is not for me. All the more power to y’all if it helps, but it just reads like a deliberate plan to destroy your progress and lock you into a constantly repeating cycle of carb binges interrupted by attempts to get back on the BSD rather than just doing the BSD period. Christmas is not a sorcerer that takes over your body and forces you to eat terribly. There is nothing inherent in the holiday, and nothing inherent in you, that makes such an ugly fate inevitable. Why not plan for success instead of rationalizing a failure that hasn’t happened yet?

Hi Lucia, lovely to ‘see’ you again. You are always one of my favourites to read. And yes, let us gently draw a veil of the 24 hours of Christmas, or the 12 days of Christmas if needed. Forgive yourself any mistakes. Progress not perfection, as has been said by someone or other. To err is human, to really stuff things up requires a computer. And don’t forget, Murphy’s Law – anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Cole’s Law – thinly sliced cabbage. Am I taking nonsense?

Busybee, what a eo derful christmas NCV. Such a great motivator and Natalie, congrats on the loss. You will be heading into Christmas in a great place. Sueblue, lordie the heat is something else isn’t it!

I weigh in tomorrow but wanted to check in to log how thrilled I am to report that I made it through my weekend away with dive friends completely on plan! Even as I shuddered with cold after a 60 minute dive in about 15C water, I found it quite easy to pass on the jelly snakes. Happily chose BSD options at the catered picnic lunch and even managed to enjoy meals out at cafes and pubs and sunset/verandah drinks without alcohol. I passed on the champagne and delicious looking gin and tonics, happily, I repeat happily, sipping tea. One friend did find it a bit awkward but I did not, despite a bit of pressing and questioning.

So that’s me safely through a couple of particularly challenging social events this silly season. Now if I could just get started on present wrapping all woukd be right with the world.🙃

Hello, Benns. There is a whole community of maintainers here that would be more
than happy to try to figure out why you have hit a stall in your weight loss after
2 months of successful BSD. What are your daily averages for carbs and cals?
Do you weigh and measure everything? There is a paucity of information in your
history of “replies created”. Happy to make suggestions if you would add to your
personal history!

Best,

Allie

Hi gang,

So can we all make a promise to ourselves?

That if we go weird for 24 hours over christmas , with say, booze, food, sweets, laziness etc.
That we can fogive ourselves and put it down to
A. An r in the month
B. The moon phase
C, planets out of wack
D. The shampoo we used
E, standing on a crack in the pavement
F. A black cat went within 500 miles of us

And we all meet back here on boxing day.
We can call boxing day…. balance day
Or putting things back in wack day.

And we ignore 24 hours.

Nothing to see here, move along please…..

Love lucia
Xxxx

I would try switching to 2 meals a day, extend your overnight fast if you can to lunchtime and then eat your first meal, or if it suits you better just breakfast and dinner. It sounds like you may have reached the point where your intake calories are balanced by your TDEE so you have stopped losing. Failing that try a strict logging period, weigh everything and stick to 800 a day, that should be enough for anyone to lose weight.

Amazing progress Jimmy! Well done.

My positives for this morning:

1. The tree and other decorations are up, I’ve finished my Christmas present shopping, just last minute food items to get. I’ve ordered the turkey. I host Christmas lunch for about 16, but everyone brings something so it’s not just me. Everything is under control.

2. I cleared out the freezer, threw out anything dubious and we ate non-dubious things over a couple of meals. Now lots of space in there, and no freezer-burned wandering pepperoni slices or loose peas.

3. Sitting with a morning cup of tea reading the BSD forums!

Flick I loved that message from Garmin, sleep is something I struggle with so that would make me tear up too!

SunnyB I’ve been making my own yoghurt since I was given an Easiyo thermos thing last Christmas. So much easier than I expected. And I buy the Easiyo packets (Greek unsweetened) but just use a little bit mixed with milk powder, so much cheaper. There are enough yoghurt cultures (I call them yoghurt babies) in the sachet to divide it into at least six portions. And keep the rest in the freezer.

Verano happy birthday! I’ve been watching your progress for at least a year now, sometimes it seemed like you wanted to give up but you’ve done so amazingly well! 63 lbs and no meds! What a wonderful present to yourself. Congratulations.

Kazz I’ve never heard of chubby earlobes! Well done slimming them down.

Sorry for the long post 😁

Natalie I’m amazing myself lol. Last night I came close to opening the mince pies, I had the Carols by Candlelight on the tv and was wrapping presents. But then I thought if I open the pack I’ll need to buy another one for Christmas as they could go stale (we have temps of 42 & 43 deg centigrade here this week!). Also if the pack was opened I’d be tempted to eat the whole lot of them! And I remind myself that I made a promise not to have one till Christmas Eve 🙂
Well done on your weight loss this week 🙂 it is so hard this time of the year. I’ve been struggling over the past few weeks, as I’ve had a few social things on and although I try and stick to BSD principles my calorie intake has been higher (although still less than 1200-1300). I’ve been trying to balance it out by sticking strictly to plan on days where I have no lunches or evenings out.
Today I have a work lunch but I know there is going to be chicken and salad so not too worried, I also have a lunch with friends tomorrow. After that there’s nothing till Christmas Eve so I’m hoping to lose a little bit more between now and Christmas Day. My Christmas goal is still 1.8kg away so not sure I’ll get there, but I’ll try!

I weigh on Monday morning (well actually every day but Monday is official) and this week I am down 400g! I am super-happy with that considering the time of year and that I haven’t been anywhere close to perfect. I had gained just over a kilogram since ending my course of Duromine five weeks ago and to be honest I would have been happy maintaining at that point over Christmas – but a loss is way better!

Busybee congrats on looking fabulous in your new dress! Sandy47 well done on your weight loss, and SueBlue you amaze me – treats in the house and you haven’t opened the packet! Awesome willpower.

We had family over last night for the usual Sunday dinner, I roasted a couple of chickens and I served the lemony pan juices without any flour added, it was delicious. Just runnier. That’s actually what I used to do before I got married and learned to make gravy “properly”. Maybe at Christmas (and other Sunday dinners) I’ll reserve a bit for myself before I add the flour, I think the family still prefer it thicker and I don’t feel like I’m poisoning them with such a tiny bit. But EVERYONE will be getting healthier food from 1st Jan! Mounds of unhealthy food shouldn’t be how I show my love.

JGwen, What a lovey idea for a gift for your step in mum 🙂
I rarely eat bread nowadays, but when I do I make some porridge bread, it’s relatively cheap as it uses oats, and freezes well.
http://www.anewu.ie/porridge-bread-recipe/
This recipe is also nice and only uses 3 tablespoons of almond flour and one egg – I have it in place of an English muffin
http://insidekellyskitchen.com/recipe/90-second-almond-bread

Ingredients like almond flour and chia seeds are not cheap but I find they last ages (especially the seeds) as I only use a tablespoon or 2 when making different recipes. I’ve also seen recipes for bread substitutes which use chickpea flour, that’s much more affordable than almond flour, I’ll see if I can find the recipe.
Failing that, I notice that in the shops now they sell low carb bread. Perhaps she could try that?
As for Xmas day, I plan to eat as i usually do – just less quantity! I can’t eat nearly as much as I used to anyway. We always have a fairly healthy meal – roast pork loin and turkey breast with lots of steamed and roasted veg (drizzled with olive oil).
I bought myself a mini gluten free Xmas pudding for dessert so that I can control my portion size. I also bought some Mr Kipling Christmas cake slices. They are indivually wrapped and are about 120 calories I think. Mince pies are my downfall so
I’ve only bought one pack this year and am waiting to open it on Christmas Eve, when I’ll only have one (usually by now I’d be having one a day!).
I make my own sausage rolls, so I’ve bought some gluten-free frozen pastry to try. Not exactly on plan but I want to avoid wheat still as it causes joint pain and inflammation for me. I did read a post on Facebook where someone made sausage rolls and use Fathead pizza dough for the pastry.
I did think of substituting celeriac for roast potatoes, but I have so much else going on on the day it’s just easier for me to stick with potatoes but only have one (I’ll be cooking lunch for 10).
The biggest problem for me is going to be alcohol – we usually start the day with champagne & juice, have wine with lunch and cocktails in the afternoon/evening, so I’m going to have to show some restraint there!

Veiled – what about a slow cooker? Soups, stews, chilli? 10 mins in the morning to bung ingredients in the cooker and it’s cooked by the time you get home. Stir and serve!

Hello, I am just over 2 months in to trying to control my type 2 with diet and have got down to a Hbac1 of 7.5 and I have lost 11kilos.
I avoid all the obvious chocolate, cakes, biscuits and sweets and have given up pasta, rice, potatoes and bread (except occasionally)
I am at a loss as to what to do next as my weight has stabilised.
I have full fat greek yoghurt and defrosted red fruits for breakfast every day, and lunch is huumus, salad or a tin of Heinz tomato soup (no bread) and in the evening I have a normal meal with the family but no potatoes, rice, pasta, sometimes substituting courgette for pasta.
I was wondering if making a veg soup and eating it for a few days at lunch and dinner ? what does everybody think ? does anyone have a good tasty recipe that meets the BSD criteria ?

Well done everyone who is losing weight in this difficult month. Sunshine-girl, I’m sure that 1lb will come off with a couple of days of lower calorie eating. I’m amazed that I managed to lose the full 1.8kg that I put on in my blow out week in just 5 days. In fact, today I am down a further 100g and at a new low of 81.6kg. Hoping I can maintain it or better it for Tuesday’s weigh in. Hoping I can still lose another 1.6kg by the end of the challenge to make my goal.

JGwen, I also live alone and am vegetarian. I was meant to go home and see my family this year and was wondering how I was going to negotiate all the Christmas baking, etc., but I ended up cancelling due to my horse being sick and not knowing how long his recovery might take. I am quite sad about this, as I had to miss last year as well and I was looking forward to going this year, but it does give me much more control over my food over the holidays. I still haven’t decided on a Christmas meal; I think it will be on plan but maybe schedule it as a higher calorie day and put some extra effort into cooking something nice.

Well done everyone and thanks for your motivation. Started the day this morning by dancing around the living room, having weighed in at next number down – 10st 13 3/4! That was my original goal for end of this 4 week target, so am obviously ecstatic. It’s the end of week 8 for me this week and am going to continue what I’m doing until my goal of 50 pound loss in total. 28 pounds to go! It doesn’t feel like such a mountain to climb now, but am committing to joining the 4 week target groups on here, as I’m finding this forum so helpful. Feeling really good and looking forward to Christmas, as I know that I will stay on track. I’m not worried any more about being ‘tempted’ as am in a good place in my head (for now!). I feel like nothing tastes as good as seeing those numbers on the scales falling. I’m already looking forward to starting the new year and getting on with life (incorporating this WOE), which is so unlike me as I usually hate new year, it has always made me sad. Think I’m a bit too sentimental for my own good!

Hope everyone’s had/having a great weekend, KOKO xx

Hello to our own Santa’s Elves
Last night we went to a Christmas party along with our daughter and boyfriend and met up with many of our friends and old school friends of the children. The dress code was Party frocks and I wore the knee length dress I bought when we were on holiday in Malaga in October. Then it looked like a very lumpy sauce in a very tight skin but Hubby encouraged me to buy it. I am a stone less than I as then and also my body has changed shape.
It fitted perfectly and felt really good. There were so many compliments and comments about how I looked and that I looked so much younger than my 71 years. It was a real NSV and I so enjoyed the moment.
Will report in on Tuesday before we head off to NJ to see the family.
X B

SunnyB – well done on keeping your stress levels down!

I have a positive….. my earlobes are thinner! I’ve always had chubby earlobes, much to my embarrassment, but some dangly earrings I’ve never worn because the stud part wasn’t long enough, now fits! So I will be sporting my marcosite teardrop earrings at the Xmas party. They were a 50th bday prez. Chuffed to bits!

Kazzee xx

Weight up about 1lb after our big blow out meal yesterday and BG up a smidge at 5.8. Well compensate by not eating so much over the next 2 days. Keep on keeping on….

Happy birthday V and many more years of health and happiness.

Verano- Awesome achievement! Many congratulations indeed from me! I’m thrilled for you!

Well done AncientWeaver for breaking through your 11.3 barrier! 👏👏👏

Hi Guys

I plan to make a ‘jus’ rather than a traditional flour gravy. Esnecca or LuvTC recommended adding a knob of butter to pan juices and a glug of vermouth, let it reduce a bit. You could either increase quantities for however many people you are serving or do the traditional gravy for everyone else and reserve some juices so you can make jus for yourself.

JGwen – it wasn’t until I read The Obesity Code by Jason Fung that the low carb healthy fat way clicked with me. Understanding the effect of refined carbs inside our bodies was a lightbulb moment. I was/am a total bread junkie. And to be truthful, the odd slice or roll has slipped in over the 4 months I’ve been doing this but I keep trying. In order to regain a healthy body, brain, and mobility I thought it worth trying. After just 2 days, I felt better in myself. I could walk faster and breathe better. I’m fortunate I don’t have diabetes but I do have other issues that are improving. There’s plenty of info on the internet about refined carb effects on the body. Perhaps you could show your step mum? For me at least, this is the only way for long term better health. I keep my food choices fairly simple as I am on a budget. Apologies if I sound preachy, but I just totally believe in this WOE.

I hope everyone is having or has had a good weekend?
Another 1 lb off for me. 16.4 now. 30 lbs lost so far, 70 lbs to go!

Kazzee xxx

Verano, happy birthday wishes to you and congratulations, achieving all those goals takes such courage and determination!

Just keeping up with an update.

End week 7. Bigger losses than expected considering I’ve averaged over 900 this week.

Total weight loss is down from 92kg to 79kg. 13kg!! (28.6lbs)

🙂

Well, done, veerle, for your restraint and for the mindset that made you recoil at others’ excessive consumption!

I am pleased to report a “whoosh”, finally, as this morning I appear to have lost 600g since Friday, bringing me down by 1.1kg for the week, with a total loss since 19 November of 8 kg. Even better, my BMI now shows me as “merely” overweight. I am SO relieved! I would just like to lose some flab from my hips and thighs now, as my waist is shrinking faster than them and I look like a bundle tied up tightly in the middle. No chance of wearing a dress for Christmas, I’m afraid.
Maggie

Some amazing weight loss being reported here and my hat comes off to all of you. Verano, a special congratulations to you, for your weight loss, being free of meds and for hitting 70 in way better health than pre-BSD. Very happy birthday to you.

My positive today is probably not as inspiring as these weight loss ones, as it is just one of Christmas prep. This morning I’ve made two sorts of stuffing, cranberry sauce, brandy butter and pretend bread sauce. I love bread sauce, so have tweaked the recipe and instead of using bread crumbs to thicken the sauce, I used almond flour. That way, you still get all the flavours but at a lower carb count. Food-wise, I think that is the sum total of the advance prep I need to do, so quite pleased to have it all sorted. Now I just need to concentrate on finishing the gift wrapping tomorrow and that’s me sorted until the final shop on 23rd and the event itself.

Decided this morning, to go out for lunch today and as luck would have it, one of our favourite local restaurants had a table free. Looking forward to a relaxed meal with OH and catching up on news as things have been hectic with family coming and going over the last few days and it sort of feels like we have hardly had time to touch base.

Hope you’re all having a good weekend.

Thanks for your replies and all the advice and information – makes perfect sense and has answered the worries I had. I’ll be making an appointment with my GP!

Thanks again

Jo

8 pints of Guinness sorts it out.

I was thinking about substitutions from a couple of angles. I have come to the end of the first 8 weeks. I have never been a one for big cooked meals, and being a vegetarian tends to colour my views about eating at Christmas, and I have the flexibility of living on my own. I was wondering how many people think its just one day, and they don’t want to be so prescriptive that they stick to 800 cals every day of the year and how many people make low carb versions so that they can continue with traditions?

My step in mum (not a blood or legal relative but my term for a lady who has been like a mother to me for most of my life) is suffering from a number of health problems which are made quite severe by being heavily overweight and particularly by fat around the waist restricting her breathing. She has decided that she wants to loose weight but felt low carb wasn’t for her because she loves bread too much. I decided to buy one of the low carb bread recipe books and buy some of the different flours needed for her to encourage her to experiment. When I opened the book I was shocked by some of the suggestions, the first page it fell open at suggested 12 eggs as the start point for a loaf of bread. For someone on a UK pension, funding the ingredients long term would be difficult, if you could get them. (The local health food store doesn’t stock anything more than organic and artisan flours.) So I was wondering if I should scrap that plan. Thanks for the suggestions on substitutes Luvtcook, You have given me an idea, maybe recipes for individual rolls would be a better solution.

For me, one of the delights of Christmas is the freedom to curl up by the log fire after dark with a good book, a glass or two of something to sip and a box of chocolates and know that I have the freedom to switch off my phones so will not be disturbed. I was weighing up a smaller box of normal chocs or trying to combine being more indulgent by making some low carb chocolates.

Hello Jo19

I agree with Verano that you definitely DO need to see the GP. It seems quite likely that they may diagnose diabetes, though you need to find out if it is Type 1 or Type 2. This diet is not for Type 1 (though a low carb regime can be helpful with that too I believe). If it IS type 2, whether you get a hostile reception to the idea of the BSD depends very much on your individual GP and diabetes nurse (you’ll be referred to see her too). My GP was fine – not knowledgable about the diet, but fine with my decision to reverse it with diet initially (again, if your levels are considered very high, you may need to start with meds but should be able to come off them before too long). The nurse however was very antagonistic, had never heard of the BSD (and her attitude made plain she had no intention of finding out about what she seemed to consider some crackpot idea (the dangers of ignorance!) She urged me to follow NHS advice re diet, which includes filling a third of your plate with carbs (bread, pasta, rice etc). No wonder people get worse! Thousands now HAVE ignored this advice and have put their diabetes in complete remission. They are now med free, a healthy weight, and often (as in my case too) have been able to stop other meds for cholesterol, high blood pressure etc.

The diet is much easier to stick to than you may imagine, and for many of us it is now a way of eating (WOE) that we have embraced for life. If you don’t continue with the low carbs, you will gain the weight again, and your glucose levels will go up again and you will have all the inherent risks of diabetes, which are not insignificant. So, join us! Loads of support here and on other sites. You CAN do it!