Good morning

Theodora, oh well done. What is your secret? I’d love to know how you managed to lose weight on a boozy holiday 😉 I walk and walk but it doesn’t seem to have any impact on my weight…my legs are thinner though. Your walk sounds wonderful. I was hoping to do Hadrian’s trail this year but my fitness levels still aren’t great. Think I’ll have to join a gym!

Jmarie, I’m really liking the sound of your alternative valentine’s night. A lovely way to celebrate types of love other than the romantic. I hope your mother is doing well. Wonderful news about starting to lose the weekend weight. It’s heartening to see the scales go down and it motivates us to keep on.

I didn’t get the gastro thank goodness and the family is all bright eyed and bushy tailed again which is great as it’s the school hols. The February holidays are traditionally the ski holidays but in our corner it has been quite mild. There’s snow in the mountains behind us but I’ve heard it’s not good quality.

My peak for Wednesday was that I walked 8kms which was quite a big deal for me. I’ve been building up slowly, starting from the settee at practically 0 kms a day in January. The walk was flat and lovely, started by the sea then followed the river inland. I’ll do it again with my grandchildren. A find! My weight is down a little just 200g. And the violets are beginning to come out in my garden. Spring is on its way.

No pits at all….

Have a great day everyone.

Good luck with the eye exam Maharani kitten! I know how nerve wracking medical tests and exams can be, maybe. try a bit of mindfulness beforehand.

I have weighed this morning at 152.2 lb which is exactly bmi 27 for me, so I have new micro goals of getting into the 151s and bmi 26s. Hoping to do that by the end of this challenge!

2nd week in and I’m in the same place now. 1st week lost 9lb and then nothing for 3 days and this morning I’ve put on 1lb!

I’m doing around 800 caloried or less a day. Maybe I’m not drinking enough so I’ll try drinking more and see what happens. Trying to stay positive because I feel so much better.

Hello. So glad you started this thread SweetpeaHun.

Day 4 today. I’ve got to say it’s been tough going, but I’m determined to keep at it.

After starting day 1, my doctor told me i have high potassium levels and gave me a diet sheet as well as being borderline prediabetic; so I’ve been trying to adapt my meals. Foods to avoid include, but not limited to, legumes, avocado, tinned tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms arrrrgh! These are foods I usually eat plenty of. Been scouring the recipe board…

One of my coping strategies is to make each meal top notch delicious, so I look forward to the next meal and am less likely to dip the into the biscuit tin. It’s a challenge, but here goes!

Good luck this week everyone.

Fastfitness – I have just reported your post as it is advertising and not allowed on this site

When you are on the 800 your glycogen levels in your muscles and liver are already depleted. That is where the water loss the first week comes from, as glycogen is glucose combined with water. You don’t start burning fat until the glycogen is down.

Carbing up the night before will help to rebuild the levels of glycogen so you will have enough accessible energy to fuel your run.

Jan

Day 4. Also feeling much better. Feeling really full but was craving salt so ate some nobbys pork crackle which stupidly brought me up to 500 cals for the day. Just got dinner to go but should be able to do that easily for 300 calories..at least the nobbys stuff has no carbs..still not ideal. Naughty!
How’s everyone else travelling?

Some good losses and good news for many – inspiring stuff. Good and bad for me. 6lbs off (target is 7 by end of challenge so should make it) but blood sugars erratic and exercise regime still not established due to a bit of home and work stress, poor sleep and this wretched chest infection. No other explanation I can see as I’m doing nothing different. All this bs shenanigans seemed to start when I had my first hypo, quickly followed by another, about 3 weeks ago, one tablet of glicozide to blame I think. Hoping the coming of Spring will put a spring in my step and that next week’s first diabetic eye exam doesn’t throw up anything scary. A bit nervous, if honest. MKx

Day 4 today.. feeling much better. Just a little light headed… Not feeling hungry. Had omelette for breakfast… feeling lighter… How is everyone else going?

Thank you Theodora. How wise our parents were!
K8

Calories are per serving, so that recipe for 2 is 370 calories per person.

Olives maybe? Or berries or some apple instead of sweeter fruit? What about skinny popcorn?

Today was day three for me too and I found it much easier than yesterday. Thought I wasn’t eating enough protein so upped it today and seems to have worked! (2 eggs for breakfast, ham, cottage cheese and salad for lunch, pork veggie stirfry from the book for dinner). Even managed more snacks today – a passionfruit and some raspberries! Hoping tomorrow goes ok…!

Excited to not feel uncomfortable in some of my clothes too!! Xx

topcac that is a cracking effort! Hopefully the chocolates were worth the splurge.

My theory is that an occasional splurge like that gives the system a jolt and I have found on numerous occasions that two or three days later I can have a whoosh, providing I stay well on track in between. Who knows, it could be the tonic you needed.

He says, having snaffled 4 heavily butter-iced cupcakes during his daughters 2nd birthday celebration!

My approach is to weigh the next day, despite the remorse I’ll likely feel. I toyed with the idea of skipping weighing but for me I need to connect the event with the scales to take some accountability. I’m already up 3lb since my weekly weigh before this event occurred.

Onwards and downwards to all the ultimate goal seekers!

Hi

Just need help understanding the calories in the bsd recipe book. If the recipe is for 2 people are the calories given in the book for each person’s portion or are they combined for the serving of 2. In which case do I need to half the given calories to know what the intake for one person would be? Say a recipe for 2 states 370 calories is this number for each person or would i need to half this so it would be 185 calories per person?

I would really appreciate some light being shade on this

Thank you

Today is my official weigh in day. I’m down one pound since last week. Was lower during the weekend (weirdly) but today is what counts. Now 11st 1 which was my target for the 4 week challenge. So delighted with that. If I can push on to another pound by next week that would be fabulous too. Thanks all for the inspiration. I’ll be in the next 4 week challenge too. Thanks for organising. Love reading all the stories. It really keeps me motivated.

Never mind, topcac. They say if a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well – guess that applies to having a splurge on calories…
Hope your backside isn’t feeling too sore from your self-administered kicking!

Hey all – day 3 and I feel good- my down fall is fruit!

Breakfast I am sticking with yoghurt and berries- it’s handy to eat at work and fills me up so no snacking

Lunch today I had my own salad of rocket , cherry tomatoes, pickled onions and fresh mozzarella – was yummy- I realise toms are high in carbs but I love these too

Dinner having cod with pak choi and green beans with lemon juice and basil

Snacks- I’ve had 2 clementines and a chunk of cheese

With 3 cups of coffee total calories for today is 937 carbs are a 70g this is purely because I ate those 2 clementines which is 20g carbs

I am struggling with not earring fruit the most of knowing what to smack on- I’m allergic to most nuts so can’t snack on them- any help with snacks when I need a pick my up- usually I want something else extra at lunch

Over the past two yeas gained two stone ( on top of my other extra 4 stone) when I had to take Prednisolone for PMR. The dose has gradually been reduced and now I am down to one mg daily and hope to need none soon. I have lost just over two stone, albeit very slowly, since October and laterly seem to have lost a little more as the steroids have reduced.
Slowly, slowly I’m sure the lbs will come off.
X B

Thank you both for telling me about your journey so far. It’s encouraging to hear that progress CAN be made even if it is a little slower. I feel a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel!! I’ll keep you posted as to how it goes. Good luck to both of you.

Actually, I find it very possible to overeat in the carb department on 800 cals. If like me you try to come in at 25g carbs per day, it can be quite challenging. There are carbs hiding in almost all foods and when you start adding them up, it is surprising how they mount. For this reason I personally only rarely have lentils these days and in very, small portions when I do. Correct, lentil don’t contain the simple carbs we are trying to banish, but they still contain carbs and even these have to be counted.

With being veggie, I’m guessing you are looking for ways of accessing protein, so perhaps use tofu, paneer and if you eat them, eggs too. Hope you manage to find a way to make it work for you.

I have never used the recipes, but like SunnyB says, there are so many options out there provided you avoid the white stuff, limit your carbs (apart from anything else the fat and protein are what stop you getting hungry on this diet), and try to avoid processed food. I certainly never get bored of my own recipes and have really come to love my lunchtime salads, even in the winter. I generally have yoghurt and berries for breakfast when I have it but I often skip it for a 16:8 intermittent fast. Tea can be almost anything provided you follow those simple rules.

Manniman – interesting question which made me look back at my BSD journey.

Originally I didn’t follow the 800. Kept carbs low but calories higher. I lost a stone from May to July but blood sugars didn’t drop. Weight loss stalled over July/August. Got really fed up so on 1st September started the 800 properly. The weight dropped off at an awesome speed. Blood sugars dropped to normal by the end of the first week and I came off insulin. I had to increase calories after 5 weeks because I had lost nearly another 2 stone and my BMI was 21.

My results don’t reinforce the energy-equation view because I lost so much more weight than I should have from the calories I cut out from my diet and I did wonder how that could have happened – but in the end I decided I didn’t care and just enjoyed the weight loss and improved health. So hopefully someone with much more knowledge than I have can answer your question.

Hi Openwaterswimmer – welcome aboard! The important thing is to avoid simple carbs, so bin things like potatoes, break, cakes, pasta, rice, biscuits – basically anything sugar loaded or heavy on cereals. Lots of us on here have never used the recipes, but apply the BSD principles to the meals we create ourselves. This means keeping carbs low – so lots of leafy and above ground veggies, avoiding below ground veg as they are higher in carbs (especially potatoes); include fats in your meals, so olive oil, nuts, seeds, butter, cream, full fat yogurt etc; include proteins in the menu; keep well hydrated and record everything consumed and it’s best to track calories and carbs. Make friends with herbs and spices, to help to ring the changes and make meals more interesting.

Personally, I have a small simple breakfast, often skip lunch but if I have one it will be something like a very small salad with some protein and then I’ll have a main course in the evening consisting of a portion of meat or fish with veggies. Keeping it simple – especially in the early days – is the best way to go.

I’m sure others will respond with lots of other ideas and advise for you. Hope to read positive results from you soon – good luck!

Thank you, Sunshine-girl. Very interesting thread!

Day 17

Didn’t post yesterday as it was a family member’s funeral and a stressful day all round. Managed to avoid all non ‘allowed’ foods by not eating all day bar an Atkins shake and may have overcompensated on my Valentine’s meal afterwards. However, I think it came in for the day as under 1000 cals all in all and only ate allowed foods. Still put 1.2 lb on overnight but that may be because although I did 13,000 steps, none were from brisk walking so didn’t really exercise per se.

Anyway I hope everyone is ok and your weigh-ins went well.

K8, as you say, 126lbs is a lot of weight to shift, but others on here show it can be done, so good luck.

And you mentioning a small step in the right direction reminded me of one of my darling dad’s favourite catch phrases – haven’t thought about it in years, but it is a good one, I think – as children, whenever we were having to try to do something we thought was too difficult, he always told us just to start anyway, because “the smallest step in the right direction could turn out to be the biggest step you ever take in your life” – not a bad adage to live by, and very appropriate for BSDers I think. 🙂 Well done Dad – been gone for 18 years now, but his good advice lives on 🙂

Best of luck Toby and I agree, it would be nice to hear how you are getting on from time to time

I am one of those here for the long haul as I have nearly nine stone (126lb more to shift (that’s a very long term plan of course). We just have remember that any loss is a, sometimes, very small step in the right direction, but it’s still a step closer than we would have if we weren’t following this WOE.

I am deferring any thoughts of maintenance for when I am a lot closer. I have never reached a stage where I have needed to maintain before so that’ll be a new experience.

I find you all very motivating – great support on here, many thanks.

You did really well Theodora to have a holiday and lose weight!!

Sounds like you’re having a really good day sunshine-girl. Maybe somebody has finally cut the string on that yo-yo!!

It is called ‘my Relationship with Alcohol’ either scroll through the threads or type it into the search box at the top of the page

PS As Verano says, good title choice, and thank you so much for organising both this current challenge, and the new one (when it comes)

I will spend the remaining few days of this challenge thinking about what I would like to achieve in the next. Thanks again.

P.S. good choice of title !

Hi Marsie

Our seasons also ‘officially’ change at the beginning of the month but the celestial equinox is March 20th and it fits bettter with what we need!!

JanneB, I was in my 2nd week – lost 8lbs in my first week, then nothing. I am neither diabetic, nor pre-diabetic so have no idea about sugar levels, sorry.

I have now lost just over 16lbs (7.2kg) in 4 weeks and 2 days which, if one takes into account a 12 day plateau followed by a 10 day holiday, isn’t too bad going.

Good luck, and hang in there.

Will be hopping onto that challenge as soon as you open it, Marsie, thank you.

By the end of that challenge, I will have completed 9 weeks of BSD and should hopefully be fast (or not so fast) approaching my target of losing 28lbs. Of course, by then I might become even more ambitious and aim for another stone, let’s see how it’s going when the new challenge opens.

The end of the challenge will miss the Equinox – Spring here, Autumn down under, by just one day otherwise you could have added Equinox into your title 😉

Thanks for the advice!
Theodora, in what week were you when you hit the plateau? And did it effect your sugar levels?

JanneB, when I hit my mini-plateau (12 days with no weight loss, so didn’t seem that “mini” to me 🙁 ) various people on here advised me to increase both my water and my healthy fat consumption. I now drink approx. 2.5 litres of plain tap water, on top of my other drinks – tea, coffee etc , which I have always taken without milk or sugar, so drink as much as I like – generally about 5 – 6 mugs of tea (which I like very weak) and 1 or 2 cups of coffee (which I take very strong) which probably constitutes up to another 2 litres of liquid. I increased my good fats to almost half of my daily intake – for example, today my 800 calorie intake breaks down as 45% fat, 40% protein, and 15% carbs.

Anyway, once I did this, within a couple of days, the Whoosh Fairy paid a visit and I dropped 3.5lbs literally overnight! 🙂 That was 2 weeks ago, and since then I have dropped about 2lbs per week – not huge, but steady and am prepared that the same may happen again.

I hope this helps, and that you get a visit from the Whoosh Fairy soon.

You’ll probably think it an odd thing, but our seasons officially change on the 1st of the appropriate month eg 1st March, June, September, December. I’ve always understood it to have been dictated by the British who oversaw the public servants in the colonies and it has stuck. Interestingly, the Indigenous lore here recognises 6 seasons which makes a great deal of sense.

So anyway, in a few days, look for : CHALLENGE FOR THE CHANGING SEASONS: 4 WEEKS UNTIL 21st MARCH

MaryR, can you post a link to the thread, please?

I would aim to keep it between 2-3 ltrs at least, it’s definitely key for me keeping off weight, perhaps others could advise.

Well March 21st is the first day of spring here and the first day of autumn with you so maybe we could have a ‘seasonal’ title?

About 2 litres a day, maybe. Mostly tapwater, green tea and some coffea. No sugar.
Come to think of it, maybe a little less the last few days.

Hello JanneB
How much water are you drinking?

Hi Verano,

OK, will do, I’ll set it up for later in our week so we can move smoothly over once we’ve weighed in on Tues 21st.

The next 4th Tuesday will be March 21st. Does anyone have a suggestion for a title?

Hi
Does the book/programme offer a list of the correct foods as I find I am not keen on most of the recipes .

Marsie

I’m amazed you can find any restaurants that will serve you more than once!!!!

Could you possibly expand on your ‘Thai seasoned risotto’ a little please. I love Thai food.

Hi Marsie

I was really hoping you would continue! I think it helps lots of us to have a specific thread to focus on so it would be a shame not to carry on. Maybe you’ll reconsider I’ve done quite a few now and this thread has been great. I wish I could have contributed more but such is life.

Sorry about the rather imprecise topic heading but I couldn’t think of anything more direct or pithy.

I have a problem in understanding the relationship between obesity, diet and health as set out in Michael’s book and here on the web and I’d be interested to learn how other people have approached this question: if obesity is generally a consequence of eating too much carbohydrate (and particularly of sugar), it’s not clear to me why a marked reduction in consumption (about 800 calories) should bring about weight-loss — and particularly, fat-loss. Why is the ‘quality’ of the diet best reversed by the ‘quantity’ of the diet?

Gary Taubes, who has recently written about weight-loss and specifically the deleterious nature of sugar, challenges the view that a “calories-in equals calories-out” approach makes any sense as far as understanding obesity is concerned. Many other commentators have said the same thing. But, I wonder, doesn’t the 800-calories a day solution help to reinforce this energy-equation view? From the point of view of diabetes reversal, what would be the consequence of a “normal” high-quality diet (say, 2,000 calories a day) that had the same amount of carbohydrates as the 800-calorie regime?

Please understand that I’m not challenging the underlying argument of the BSD — there is enough evidence, both anecdotal and scientific, on the web-site to substantiate it. But I wonder if other people still don’t find some questions hanging in the air.
Best wishes,

Norfolkgal~ Congratulations on the wonderful weight loss! That must feel so great to reach your target weight goal. :–)
Sorry to hear about your eye infection. Those are miserable!

Theodora~Your walking holiday sounded like a great trip! I love the fact that you enjoyed yourself, spent time with your dear friends, and lost a good amount of weight. Impressive!

K8sgettingthin~So nice that your blood pressure was normal at the doctor! That is terrific!!!!!

Angela~You are a brave woman to get rid of all foods but the vegetables and condiments! I can just picture you grazing on radishes :–)
I hope your energy returns quickly! Must feel strange after all the walks you’ve been taking. So nice that your weight continues to drop.
Did you manage to avoid the stomach bug? It is going around here and I’m hoping to dodge it. A woman that I work closely with has it and is on day 12. She returned to work but still has to run to the bathroom constantly! Yikes!!!!

PEAK: “Gal”entine’s Day turned out great! We had to eat at the bar because there was no room left in the restaurant, but it was fun to catch up. We were just happy to have a seat! There were so many people celebrating at all the restaurants and the parking lots were packed. I got home about 8 pm and went straight to bed because I knew I had to get up early for work.
In spite of going out for dinner and not having time to do any formal exercise yesterday, I managed to lose half a pound. So hopefully the gained weight from the weekend fun continues to come off.

PIT: Missed seeing my husband on Valentine’s Day!

Mmm, liking the look of many of the recipes on here.

SueBlue (love the moniker), I’m also shellfish allergic and OH has Coeliac Disease and lactose intolerance. When we eat out as a family we make waitpersons blanch as added to our needs, one son has adult onset T1D, one sister is intolerant to anything that has worn a feather, other sister, despite obesity, has so many “can’ts” its almost impossible and her son has serious nut allergies. Catering for weddings, parties, etc is interesting…. lol.

Anyway, food: last night I made a “Thai seasoned risotto”, talk about mixing cultures, delicious flavours, lots of good veg dropped in. I kept aside a portion of veg and sauce to put onto my cauliflower rice while OH had actual rice. Added smoked Tasmanian trout at the last moment. Delicious.

While lentils are high carb they are not the junk carbs we really need to completely eliminate such as sugars and white flour. At 800 calories it seems hard to imagine it being possible to overeat in the carb department. In the original study done with shakes people had success and there is a lot of bad stuff in those shakes. In eight weeks when you are looking fantastic and on increased calories in a maintenance phase the counting of carbs would seem more important.