Well, I changed my shopping list and came back with tonnes of veg (no lentils, bulgur, rice!). I got aubergines, onions, peppers, button mushrooms, courgettes etc…cooked them in light olive oil with some spices and himalayan salt, let it cool down then put it in containers in the fridge.

I made batch of quinoa (is that better than wheat, lentils, bulgur, rice etc.?), and put that in the fridge.

I made a big batch of cauliflower, broccoli and carrots, which I steamed, then put in the fridge.

I also chucked a bag of spinach, a whole parsley plant and a cucumber in a smoothie maker with coconut milk, poured it into glasses, and shoved that in the fridge.

The only problem I have now is that I need a bigger fridge because I’ve gone completely over top and the kids are utterly appalled (as kids tend to be!) by the sight of so much veg!

Just need to quit sugar now…

Good morning …. just 3 days of this 4 week challenge left! I’m not sure how many of us are still trying but lets make the last 3 days count!

I make Esnecca’s shakshuka which is almost a cross between both recipes. I use spinach as a base with mushrooms and whatever I have but I add my homemade tomato sauce, only maybe 2 ice cube size pieces, but it”s enough to give it a slightly tomatoey taste.

Well I did much better with water challenge yesterday but I am finding it difficult to get a ‘pint’ before meals, I just forget until it’s too late. How did you all get on yesterday?

I went back to three meals yesterday and I think that may be the best way for me. I have decided that 20g in two meals, although doable, doesn’t really suit me so I’m going back to my tried and trusted 30g in the hope that I can get back on track. On the plus side I’ve still managed to avoid the digestives but have succumbed to crisps once this week. I was saving my OH from himself!!!!

Anyway, hope you all have a good day today.

Wow Esnecca! I love this happened whilst you were eating more than enough!

You ultra BSD guys should write a book! So much knowledge and inspiration combined. Though I’m not sure people will ever believe it’s achievable unless they try it themselves.

Xxx

Oh, I go all out. None of that nibble on yogurt and sip on soup for me. I hit the luxury proteins like they owe me money. My favorite break fast is 4 or 5 oz (grass fed, pasture raised, locally sourced) filet mignon, butter basted with a clove a garlic and cooked until just medium rare. While the filet is resting, I chop the clove of garlic, all golden and buttery, and add it to a huge mound of spinach (5 oz raw) that I quickly steamed in a tsp of water in a large sautee pan. Once it’s wilted I dump out the water, add a 1/4 tsp of olive oil and sautee for a minute. I make a side salad of romaine, a green onion, a persian cucumber, sprouts, sunflower/pea/radish shoots with a gorgonzola dressing (6 ml olive oil, 3 ml red wine vinegar, 8 grams sharp gorgonzola, a tblsp of the above mentioned fake mayo, s&p to taste, all mashed together with a fork and thinned out with chicken stock until it’s tossable).

Then I eat like I haven’t eaten for days. Which I haven’t! I do take it very slowly making sure I’m consciously chewing a lot. That’s one of the reasons I like a tall cut of steak cooked medium rare because you have to really chew on it, you can’t just inhale it.

Maybe it’ll feel different for you when you cross the 4-day line. My maximum fast length has been 72 hours so I can’t speak to that personally. Your tummy might be too empty for such a rich meal. If so, I’d still focus on getting the best, most delicious ingredients and keep it simple. Maybe sushi grade yellowfin, sliced as thin as you can across the grain and served with avocado slices, clover sprouts, the green tops of scallions and a dressing of soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, garlic and the minced white part of the scallion. Or you could just play it by ear and see what looks good at the market. Pick whatever is the freshest and appeals to you the most and go to town.

Ensecca, that is why I love that salad….I can handle 1/4 of an apple and get my “fix” with only 8.5 net carbs.

I do have a question for you….when you have done your fasts, what strategy did you use to break the fast? Anything special? I am hoping a day of some vegetable soup and kefir would be fine (after only fasting 4 days). Two days post is Thanksgiving so that one is a bit more challenging. Hoping a bit of turkey and lot of veg….skip the low carb deserts …would work ok. If it is trickier than that, will need to scale back to a 3 day fast so I have more transition time.

The “break the fast” stuff seems a bit overblown to me as every time I have had the flu and quit eating for a day or two (or broth only for a day or two) starting to eat again just did not seem to be a big deal. Usually hit the yogurt hard then as well.

Would appreciate your advise.

Note to Allie: no worry about staying in touch. I need all the help I can get. And I truely look forward to hearing from all of you and reading your posts.

LuvTC

WooooHoooo Esnecca – and woweee! Couldn’t be happier for you – doing the happy dance in fact.😃😄😀

It IS a miracle – and long may it last. We’ve earned it, after all😄😃😀 And I just love the picture of you running around the house shouting Gooooooooaaaaaal 😄

Well done Jimnz – quite an achievement.

Hi arcticfox,
I ‘finished’ bsd last year and have kept most of the weight off, but with family issues giving a lot of stress, I’ve put on a bit. I’m not going back on BSD, but am now back on a Mediterranean diet and about to do a short period of 5:2 and then onto 6:1, with as many days in the week as possible eating between 8 and 9am and then before 5.30pm, leaving as long as possible for fasting.
I’ve been following the new MM book on your gut and the gut’s biom with interested especially since mine got blasted with 10 days, followed 2 weeks later by another 7 days general antibiotics in June. I am now working hard to get it back to a good balance and fasting is certainly a pat of that as well as a very wide range of fruit and veg.
The subject of the amount of protein and eating whole eggs both came up in the recipe book Dr Clare Bailey has just published – it is the best of the recipe books I have seen and had a lot of good veggie recipes in it, or easily adaptable ones.

‘Protein As protein cannot be stored, the average adult needs to eat around 45-60g of it a day. However, unless you are doing a very physical job or extreme amounts of exercise, more is not necessarily better. This is a moderate-protein diet, not a high-protein diet.

Bailey, Claire. The Clever Guts Diet Recipe Book: 150 delicious recipes to mend your gut and boost your health and wellbeing (Kindle Locations 113-116). Short Books. Kindle Edition.

BSD is also a moderate protein diet.
On eggs;
6. Eggs. Not so long ago we were warned not to eat more than a couple of eggs a week, yet it turns out that the fear of cholesterol in eggs was totally misplaced. Eggs are a superb source of protein, rich in vitamins and minerals.

Bailey, Claire. The Clever Guts Diet Recipe Book: 150 delicious recipes to mend your gut and boost your health and wellbeing (Kindle Locations 182-184). Short Books. Kindle Edition.

On the hemp products, I am not sure which country you live in. If it is the UK, the Sainsbury’s online has hemp powder, hemp oil, hemp seed and hemp ‘milk’. My local Sainsbury’s certainly had hemp powder available.
Hope the info is useful.
good luck

Luvtcook, Esnecca is right, as usual. Keep your focus, and you will soon leave
the odious “fat suit” behind with both of us Americans. Not to forget
californiagirl, either! We’ve got a pretty good track record so far 🙂 Anything
is possible with extra low carbing. Keep in touch!

I started this new way of life on 15 March 2016 – 87 weeks and 6 days ago.
Weight loss has been steady and has settled around 20 kg down.
HBA1C levels have dropped – at last reading- off the bottom of the Pre Diabetic scale. I had never got to the stage of being prescribed metformin or injected with insulin
Loss of neck circumference has totally stopped Obstructive Sleep Apnoea in its tracks. I no longer snore and the CPAP machine has been handed back to the local hospital that issued it in 2005.

I feel just great and intend staying with the current eating regime permanently – age is 77.

Jim

Apples are off the list for me, I’m afraid. Way too high in sugar for my <20 grams of carbs a day limit. I have eaten exactly one apple in the 13 months and that’s because it was a heritage breed developed by an aristocratic lady with a penchand for orchard work in the 17th century. Also because it weighed 50 grams so I figured I’d survive. I did survive and it was the best apple I’ve ever eaten. Great on its own as a rare treat. Never good enough to put in an otherwise sugar-free salad. 😉

Tomatoes I do eat on occasion, but I never cooked. I save up those sugars for a special occasion. They’re dedicated to making a Caprese with real mozzarella (buffalo milk or nothing), homegrown basil and a couple of ounces of freshly picked homegrown heirloom tomatoes dressed in the lightest drizzle (1/4 tsp) of kalamata olive oil and a sprinkle of alder smoked salt. When the tomatoes are in season, I’ll have that Caprese a couple of times a week. It’s paradise.

Having said that, I love shakshuka! I make it often, just not with tomatoes. I use greens, all kinds of different ones depending on what’s in the fridge. Last week I made it on a bed of chickory and spinach sauteed with a garlic clove and two pepperoncini. My OH devoured it so quickly his fork formed an elliptical blur from plate to mouth like a Looney Tunes character. 😀

Sunshine girl I understand your frustration! Like Cathy, I am a slow loser. I was looking at the weight loss graph/record app I use yesterday, in the month view and in the last 3 months I’ve lost a total of 1lb (looking at the montly average weight). This is because I lose then gain, lose then gain etc. I agree it IS hard to keep on keeping on when you don’t see the results you expect.
I find that I’ll have a big loss one week (a whoosh), and I record what is a “new low” for me. Then my weigh starts creeping back up again and it will take at least a month for me to see the “new low”‘on the scales again. It’s like it takes that long for my body to accept that is my weight now! Then the whole cycle repeats itself. For some reason, this latest cycle has taken almost 2 months, as last week I was finally back down to the low weight I achieved for my birthday back in September.
I have cut down on drinking wine over the last few weeks but I can’t see it has made much of a difference yet to be honest.
As Cathy said, she is proof that this WOE does work in the end, so we both have to keep plodding along! It certainly is a test of our resilience 🙂

Esnecca, yes the hemp hearts are the same thing as hemp seeds (the kernel if you will, but all the stuff sold has the casing removed).

So glad you are enjoying the recipes. They are ones that I enjoy that others have developed and posted somewhere. I need to put a spinach and apple salad that is an Ellie Krieger one that I made for the first time this week and LOVED. Another simple combination of a few ingredients that really bring the best out in each other. Another is Shakshuka….a tomato and red pepper stew of sorts with some spice that you poach a couple of eggs on top of. Soooooo good and BSD friendly. My son accuses me of being the Library of Congress of recipes….my computer’s reason for being is to save recipes. Love sharing them, but have no photos to add since none aremy saved ones jpeg format etc. Oh well. Leaves more to the imagination I guess.

What a lovely compliment, Verano, especially coming from someone who has accomplished a feat that multiple medical practitioners told you was impossible. Thank you kindly. I swear I wasn’t like this for two solid decades or else I wouldn’t have needed to shed dozens of dress sizes in the first place. 😀

Thank you Luvtcook but at this point in time he seems quite happy to just go with no carbs! So won’t substitute just yet. I haven’t started to restrict calories yet but he does seem to be taking the whole thing on board. Taking it slowly at the moment so we will just have to see!

Thank you all so much. 🙂

Allie, I wasn’t even trying! It’s the reverse diet thing. I went from losing maybe one or two pounds a month after my anniversary to losing 8 pounds since late September. Building the calories back up but keeping the carbs low flips a metabolic switch, that’s for sure. Bring on the cheese and peanut butter!

CC, it knocked the wind out of me, for sure, but in a great way. I really didn’t expected to get below 125 as my body seemed reluctant to lose the last few, and I was totally fine with it. That’s why I shifted to maintenance anyway despite not having reached that ultimate high school weight goal. Then I got hit with the same reverse diet miracle that hit MnM, Theodora and alliecat.

Thank you, Luvtcook! Just another thing you have to look forward to. Soon that fat suit will be falling off you without you even having to unzip it.

Kazz, Grain Brain is the Perlmutter book, isn’t it? We will all be looking
forward to your book reviews. What I’ve been thinking about is the fact
that 80% of the grain that is produced today is genetically modified! Our
ancestors never ate this stuff. Why would we want to?
Enjoy your program – Talk to you soon 🙂

Esnecca, all I can say is WOW.

I use salad plates for everything now. I haven’t used the dinner plates from my china set in a year. Salad forks have replaced dinner forks too. 😀

Are hemp hearts the same thing as hemp seeds, Luvtcook? I’m really digging your recipes, btw. For a while there it seemed the recipe section was filled with really high carb wheat and grain-filled foods that were just portioned down to make it possible for BSDers with a high daily carb limit to ingest a tiny morsel of, which to my view defeats the whole purpose of cleaving to such a restricted WoE. Also, I think we may be the only two people on the forum who eat broccoli rabe, or at least who have written about them. I am obsessed with them!

And re. an extended fast: it is now 2:30 pm my time. No food since 7:00 pm last night and NO HUNGER. NADDA. And a very upbeat mood (can you tell. Right).

Will see how tomorrow and onward go, but I am very hopeful. The BSD has been a real shake up for me. Gone is my prior OCD dependence of 3 square meals and a snack before bed (and maybe 2 more snacks thru the day). The clock ruled my stomach before….would panic if dinner an hour late (OMG….I might STARVE to death). Gone is the rigid notion of what breakfast had to look like….or, “must have largest meal at night”. All out the window. I am now eating like a rational person and with my brain not with my eyes. Plate does not have to be covered rim to rim with food, no bare china poking thru ever to be seen. Gone. Done. Forever I hope.

Hi Paloma, add me to the list of people with a family history of T2. I don’t have diabetes but I am insulin resistant so without strict blood sugar control I put on weight that’s impossible to shift. When I discovered the BSD, everything finally clicked and the weight dropped with startling ease. Like SunnyB said, a lot of us have done the BSD for far longer than 8 weeks. I did an unmodified extremely rigorous version of the Fast 800 without breaks for over a year and lost something in the neighborhood of 200 pouds.

I’m on maintenance now and slowly building up my caloric intake while still strictly regulating my carb intake, keeping to 20 grams or less a day. That’s how I intend to live for the rest of my life and I have zero regrets about it. Everyone else around me can enjoy their potatoes, bread and pasta and the ensuing range of stomach upsets, bloating, exhaustion and inexplicable swelling of body parts. I’ll stick with cheese, high quality meats, fish, nuts, seeds, the lowest carb veggies and the ensuing clear-mindedness, stamina, glowing skin and endless energy.

Dr. Fung’s Complete Guide to Fasting is a great resource for anyone interesting in introucing one or more versions of fasting into their lives. I’ve done 5 extended fasts now and absolutely love them. That feeling you get on the second day is one of the greatest natural highs a human can experience. Even though I’m at goal, I’m going to continue to do one extended fast (72 hours) a month to keep my insulin levels nice and low and for the sheer joy of it.

Allie, hey girl, you are MY inspiration. I feel very privileged to be part of this group of sharers. Such a lovely lovely bunch of women. You all have aged into “fine wine”.

Luvtcook, Mary – I admire you both so much for being able to get your heads
around the concept of an extended fast! My best is about 17-18 hours.
I am always “all ears” to hear what knowledge everyone has picked up from
Jason Fung and other sources on the cellular benefits of being able to
accomplish this. Please continue to share your experiences.
Luvtcook, getting rid of the “fat suit” is a humbling experience. I still
can’t quite believe it, but I know that all thing are possible with this WOE.
I’m ready to begin weekly soup production, so I have an eagle out for
your posts in the recipe section. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Allie

Verano, I just posted my favorite low carb bread recipe for you (Manna From Heaven). It requires buying some hemp hearts but I PROMISE you it is worth it. Your husband will love this bread. Its 183 calories a wedge but delicious and very filling. That and a bowl of soup and he will be full. And it toasts magnificently. Also high in fiber. The hemp hearts are a great secret weapon in low carb….added to cauli rice they bulk it up. Can be added to ground beef instead of bread crumps to make meatloaf or stuffed peppers, stuffed cabbage rolls. Great stuff. I am a big fan (can you tell …duh).

Nonna Mary….isn’t the info just amazing? I haven’t ever been so optimistic that I can finally unzip the fat suit I have been the prisoner of for 17 years and BE ME AGAIN!

Hi my lovelies.

Sorry for the radio silence today. Got totally absorbed in Grain Brain! The damage gluten can cause to your brain causing all sorts of neurological illnesses is staggering! Surely if it was true, why is there no campaign worldwide to make everyone aware that they are pretty much condemning themselves to appalling, ill health and misery? Is it because it would be an economic disaster? It’s terrifying!

Well I bit the bullet and climbed on the scales. A final gain of 4 lb. Sorry guys to disappoint you but, I am still very much in the zone and I know I can undo this blip over the next week. Going to try to stick to 20 g carbs max and make myself drink lots of water! I relaxed a little and had a very nice week holiday. But I’m ready now for the last stretch to Xmas, a clear run and well ready!

Allie, sorry to hear your plans have fallen through. Shame but better to dodge the illness me thinks. Go on and treat yourself to some new gear, you certainly deserve it! That pencil skirt sounds very classy, especially with some pretty nylons!

Mary, you do that, you’ve had a harrowing week and you deserve a break. I hope the sudocreme gives you a bit of relief. It does dry out the skin. My routine is to remove my makeup with aqueous cream and a tissue. Then I wet a flannel with warm water and gently wash my face. Never use soap. Then apply more aqueous and once soaked in, I apply the sudo. In the mornings, I do the same again with acqueous and flannel, then apply Astal moisturiser, then my makeup. I don’t bother with make up at weekends. I never used to be able to go bare faced, not even to open the door to the postman!

Good to see our other friends dropping by.

Allie, I owe you an email, but right now Strictly Come Dancing has started so will catch up tomorrow.

Lots of love and enjoy your evening my wonderful friends.

Kazzzeee xxxx

Hi and welcome PINKCLARE …good luck! XX
I wont add any more suggestions as ESNECCA has given such excellent ones as usual
I cant wait to try that custardy treat ESNECCA! I LOVE anything comfortingly custardy!😋
You have the most delicious ideas ! X

Thank you Luvtcook. I just watched the video! I have been 24 hour fasting for a while, but obviously need to ramp it up a bit more.

Thank you for sharing.

Nonna Mary
xxx

Thanks VERANO for the encouragement X
Im having the extra three grams over today and tomorrow! Overall it will work out 20g a day
Who thought an extra 3 grams could cause such joy! 😄
.
I dont mind if i dont lose more weight just now…i could still afford to lose some i hasten to add, but i dont want the surviving clothes i have to get any bigger on me just yet,coz i cant afford to buy more… i wd just like to see if 20 g helps the oedema in my ankles and knees as studies suggest it does… tho am baffled as to how it can help the lymphatic system start working properly🤔
You will deffo get there,V,social scene permitting..its hard as we are now in the party season! But youre an oldtimer on this forum and long committed to the low carb lifestyle! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
XXXXX

Mary, what a wonderful friend you are, not only here but in terms of your
“real life” relationships as well. I really hope that your “bestie” will embrace
this way of eating, and it never hurts to be a role model for her. Husbands
are always another story!!! I was called “the food Nazi” around here
(affectionately, of course 🙂 ) for a good 9 months. I almost fell over in a
dead faint during jim’s hospitalization when he said that the food they
delivered to his room was inetible, (sp?) and he couldn’t wait til we got
home so he could eat “my food”. No more grimaces, etc.! Is your Sat.
night dancing challenge almost over? Unfortunately Doc Martin has
begun reruns of the season. I’m thinking of having our first wood burning fire
tonight in the fireplace, instead. Going to hunt down some old newspaper,
I’ve already found a cache of hard wood logs out on the porch. Enjoy
your evening, everyone!!

Allie
xoxoxo

Bravo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You are one remarkable women and I have great admiration for you!

Esnecca, how wonderful for you! I have not worn a dress in over 15 years (my bottom so much bigger proportionately than my top, separates always work better. Slack and tunics have become my uniform).

I dream of the day I can buy a pair of petty tall leather boots to wear with a skirt. My calves are just too big to do that now. But I know that day will come.

I hope you dance the night away and make your OH so very proud to have a glam goddess on his arm!

FFBB…I didn’t know BP tablets could have an effect. I had the Psoriasis before I took the tablets though. But I would be interested to know which type your mother took? Kazz and I take the same ones …Losartan…and they have lots of side effects (don’t they all?). Be careful crossing that road, but enjoy your lovely Red coat.

Allie…shame about the weekend, BUT…spend the money on the clothes. If you are anything like me you have lived in baggy “comfortable” clothes for years! You deserve to feel good and dressing up can do that. That skirt sounds lovely. When eating at my daughters on Sunday, I wore a dress that I haven’t worn for ages. Jovis commented that it was longer than before, because my stomach wasn’t lifting it up. It was hanging on me and I used to stretch it…I felt very good. I haven’t lost the weight I gained last weekend and don’t think I will this week. I am going to relax tonight and begin again tomorrow or Monday.

When my friend came around last week, she noticed I had lost a little weight and I told her how. I bought, both the recipe book and the 8 week blood sugar diet and left them inside her porch today. She phoned me and was so pleased. She is going to read them over the next few weeks. Like I said, even if she doesn’t follow the WOL she can still use the recipes. Her husband has arthritis and carries a hell of a lot of weight around his gut. I am hoping she will be able to persuade him to join her, but I don’t think he will. He enjoys his indulgences too much.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!!

Love from
Nonna Mary
xxx

I did it in stages, V. Every time I got to the point where I could no longer keep my pants up, I went through my closet and dresser and filled a box to donate to Goodwill. I found it very helpful in keeping me looking forward and not stuck in the sad billowing black polyesters of my past. I would buy exactly two pieces every 4 sizes or so I went down: a pair of black pants and a pair of sweats. The shirts I could work with for as long as it took, but your bottoms really do have to at least kind of fit. The last major purge was in September and it made way for the lovely new clothes I snagged at the Labor Day sales. Now I’ve added a ton of winter clothes to the mix so the few big sweaters that managed to survive my ruthless purges have gone to Goodwill too.

To all…..just watched several Jason Fung MD videos with great data from a number of research studies that show basal metabolic rate does indeeed go UP for fasters (studies he looked at did alternative day fasting) where as the poor schlemiels that did the old fashioned calorie restriction diet saw their metabolism fall.

More good news….those fasting saw their hunger hormone (grelin) drop over time, whereas (you guessed it) old calorie restriction dieters saw their hunger hormone steadily increase with weight loss. His point: calorie restriction is truely a recipe for failure. Fasting data is a plus in every column. AND….the rate of weight loss is the same for men and women who are at the same weight. And there was no plateau for those who stuck to the regimen (over the long haul….I am sure there were many stretches where nothing showed on the scale only to fall off the following week, etc).

And for those who might ever want to try it, if you do a multiple day fast, the rate of weight loss actully goes up from Day 1 up to Day 4 and then starts to gently slide/taper off. I had started a 3 day fast this morning and now have talked myself into seeing if I can extend it to 4 days. Will let you all know how it goes.

For any wanting to watch the video, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iatPAjf5I_Y

I feel like I have been given the secret password to unlock the treasure room. The treasure if free for the taking.

Thank you! I have been so busy today I didn’t get to either the mayo or the tuna! Only got to the ironing and following on from another thread, I keep washing, ironing and wearing these far too baggy clothes ….. why? When did you start to get rid of your ‘bigger’ clothes. Was it early of late on into your weight loss?

My favorite way of using chia is to grind it up in my spice grinder and it to coconut, hemp or almond milk (all unsweetened, of course). A quarter cup of chia to a cup of liquid is the usual proportion. Let it sit on the counter for 5 minutes and it’ll thicken all on its own into a pudding. Absolutely delicious. For a big treat, try it with coconut cream. It’s high in fat and therefore calories so you can eat much of it on the 800 cals, but the carbs are virtually nil and the rich, custardy mouthfeel feels like an indulgence of the highest order.

Other sources of fiber without a carb hit are flaxseed crackers, lupini beans, rapini/broccoli rabe, spinach and sprouts (just the kind from low carb veg like broccoli, alfalfa, clover, etc., not the kind from beans). I eat at least two items from this list every day.

Hi,

I’m a newbie and have been reading through this thread. I am trying to do the 20g carb challenge but am struggling to get enough fibre. Are any of you able to share some of your meal plans on what you have been eating? I have added chia seeds in the last couple of days but can’t say I love them.

Thanks everyone and keep up the good work.

Clare x

I have recently become an expert in insane online shopping sprees and I strongly encourage you to BUY IT ALL. But if you can, wait until Friday-Monday because that thousand dollars could be cut in half come Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

I bought my first dress in 20 years a few weeks ago. Because my thighs are weird, as my cat keeps reminding me, the dress is midi length which is very much on trend anyway and looks great with a pair of hot pumps or tall boots and ankle boots. I also bought a gorgeous skirt at White House Black Market that is festive but conservative (it’s black with gold jacquard embroidery and wide box pleats) so I can look good on my OH’s arm when we schmooze with his new employers at the office Christmas shindig. They both fit like a glove and make me feel like a teenager dressing up for the big dance.

In conclusion, Allie, treat yourself! How much have spent on clothes in the past 17 years? I’m guessing pennies. After all your hard work, now’s the time to invest in looking as great as you feel. 🙂

WOW Esnecca – Awesome! Congratulations on your fantastic achievement. It must have stunned you this morning to see such a low figure. Amazing news.

Good grief, Esnecca, you’ve actually done it!!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn’t be happier for
you 🙂 🙂 🙂 Enough, now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The scale told me I weighed 120.6 lbs this morning. I stared at it for a solid minute to make sure I wasn’t seeing things or still asleep. I ate 3 oz of cheese yesterday! And 15 grams of peanut butter! I expected the scale to go in the other direction. I still can’t quite believe it. When I’m a little less stunned, I might have to run around the house yelling “GOOOOOOOOOOOOAL” like a Spanish football commentator.

Thank you Verano, I have a smile on my face and feel so much less guilty
at the moment! 🙂 🙂 🙂 I wear a lot of black too, and a cold shoulder top
DOES detract from the bingo wings! I’ve been eying a pencil skirt with a
black lace overlay for the party season. Now I’m just going to go for it!
Black suede pumps, etc. Your a bad influence, but thanks so much! I’m
not sure o/h will be as pleased about it as I am, but he will just have to
adjust to the new/old me! 🙂

Hi Allie

Just sat down after doing a mountain of ironing before we go away next week. I hate to leave any washing/ironing before we go. But I can identify with the clothes problems!

Why not have a dress ? I don’t wear dresses because I have loads of scars but otherwise I would and you absolutely should! Go on be a devil!

I have disposed of so many clothes many still with labels on. Too small when I bought them but thinking ‘ I will lose weight’ and now that I have they are too big!

If you are buying online you can always return unwanted items so go on spoil yourself and have a day of trying on and twirling and deciding which clothes really suit you the best. I have had loads of stuff over the last few weeks trying to find a party outfit. Most of it but not all, has gone back but I have chosen, sorry, a black cold shoulder strapped top which hides the ‘bingo wings’ but still looks quite dressy for my party. I know it’s still black but it just seems appropriate at the moment.

Sorry your weekend has been spoilt but there’s still time to spoil yourself!

That’s great, Verano! I have indeed posted it before and I didn’t want to search for it either, which is why I forgot an ingredient: 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard. Gives a little zazz. Enjoy your tuna salad. You can throw caution to the wind with this mayo and make your tuna as creamy as you want. There are so few things you can do that with on the Fast 800.

Hi Both – the BSD is very much sustainable over the long term. There are lots of us on the forum who have been with the BSD for a year, 18 months and 2yrs. Some have reached target weight and are moving into maintenance and some are still on their journey. We are all unique and will lose at different rates, even if we have similar amounts to lose. Keeping low carb is key, so religiously tracking both calories and carbs is important and of course, keeping an eye on the all aspects of your progress is important too, as not all achievements are on the scales, so check your measurements and be conscious of health improvements too.

Best of luck Paloma and you too arcticfox. Make good use of the forum for advice and support and please join in on other threads, including the four week challenges, as these break up the eight weeks stints and makes them feel more manageable.

Kazzi ?

Hi, everyone! My weekend plans to spend it with my cousin and his wife seem
to have fallen by the wayside. Bronchitis has invaded their home, so here we
shall stay. Instead, I’ve been filling my online shopping cart at jjill, a U.S. Co.
that has clothing that caters to “women of a certain age”, yet plenty of style
for me. So far, I’ve loaded $1100 US dollars of merchandise into my cart,
which is ridiculous, so I’ve got to start winnowing down! I haven’t had a dress
or skirt on for a decade and a half. Should I risk it????????? I don’t want to
go crazy here. Where do I think I’m going to go anyway? I over bought in
the Spring, and am embarrassed to admit that several garments still have the
tags on them. Don’t want to do that again. Hmm, what to do…I’m no good
at decision making.

I hope everyone is having an enjoyable weekend. Let’s “talk Christmas”!
What sort of festivities do you all have planned?

Love to all my sweet sisters,

Allie

Yes of course she has …. I was hoping she might post her story too. I think it’s good for us to remind each other, and ourselves, every so often, of just how far we have come with our health. We need to be proud of our achievements because we have done ourselves really proud and we are still …. keeping on …..