I did well with Australia Day eating, not so well at my daughter’s sleep-over birthday party last night. A lot of potato chips and some m&ms. (I didn’t “sleep-over” except I live here, we had a lounge-room full of very giggly 13 year olds on air mattresses.)

When I start another round of BSD fast 800 on Tuesday I am going to give up chocolate for the duration, just because I don’t know if I can and I don’t want to be that reliant on any food! Come join my Easter Challenge thread if you want.

I’ve sure we’ve all noticed that they already have chocolate Easter Eggs on the shelves, in my supermarket they went up as soon as the Christmas stuff came down. Easter is now eleven weeks away. I was wondering this morning if I could go that long without chocolate, and it concerned me that I didn’t know if I could!

I am starting another round of strict 800 BSD on Tuesday (after Chinese New Year celebrations and my daughter’s 13th birthday). I am seriously thinking about doing it without chocolate. For some this might not seem like a big deal, like for me going without alcohol for eight weeks is not an issue and barely a change to my normal lifestyle, but it’s a big deal to me! And I know dark chocolate is allowed on the BSD. But I feel like it would be good to not be reliant on it!

I will cut out chocolate for ten and a half weeks until Easter, and ask my husband to give me flowers for Valentines Day instead. But if you wanted to wait until after Valentines Day that would still give you a full eight weeks chocolate-free.

Do you dare?

Hi Mixnmatch
Yes, roast the bones first with whatever fat and meat they have on them for about 1 hour at 200 deg c then transfer to a stock pot. Add 1 onion, a couple of sticks of celery, smashed cloves of garlic and some salt and peppercorns and some bay leaves. The recipe also said to add a cut up carrot, but I didn’t have one so left it out. I also added some tumeric only because I know it is good for me. Cover completely with water and just bring to a boil before turning it right down to low and gently simmer for 24 hours. Strain and put into containers for later. I freeze mine and get it out when I need it. I also picked off all the meat before throwing everything else out and it was yummy. Use whatever bones you have at hand and feel free to mix them all up. My first one was lamb bones and the leftover Christmas ham bone together.
Good luck
Linda

Thanks Mixnmatch, that will be my goal today! Good tip about the salt, too. Perhaps I’ll have a whoosh tomorrow!

I use a teaspoon of marmite in water when doing my fasts as liquid only. I keep meaning to get some bones and make some bone broth, but haven’t got round to it yet. Do you add salt and pepper? Are you allowed to put anything else in for flavourings?

Look for posts regarding something called the dawn phenomenon. It is essentially a good sign, as it means your liver is operating correctly and converting visceral fat into sugar to fuel your body. The fact that the later readings are low enough should mean you have nothing to worry about, but do search for the discussions by people far more knowledgeable than I am.

That’s probably water retention, particularly if you under hydrated during the day, the body gets a bit upset when it starts to get dehydrated and hangs on to whatever it can. Other possible causes are constipation or hormonal water retention, either time of the month or stress can also cause water retention. Just keep on keeping on, and up the water (maybe add a little salt as well).

Hi everyone, a bit of an odd setback, has anyone experienced something similar?
I fasted till 12pm yesterday then had an egg and a small amount of spinach and haloumi for lunch,
Dinner was teriyaki chicken, a bit of a larger portion than I normally would have had, a few sips of iced lemon tea ( to stop wine cravings!!) but thought I was pretty close to 800 cals for the day. Today I am 2kg or 4-ish pounds up from yesterday!! Devastated. All I can think of is that I didn’t have as much water yesterday…

Hi topcac
I ended up forgetting to take my bone broth to work and survived quite easily on passionfruit tea, water and a teaspoon of salt. Had a smaller than usual dinner last night which made it 48 hours of fasting and felt like I could still have gone on for more as I wasn’t that hungry but I was mindful of Jason Fung’s advice that if your ribs are showing then you shouldn’t do the really long fasts.
I weighed again this morning and was 56.3kg so I lost a total of 2kg, but I’m expecting a bit of that to go back on again.
Be careful with the cake, I heard Jimmy Moore say that he had a communion disc in church one day and he started feeling funny and had to break his fast early but he’d been going for 7 days by then.
Good luck, let us know how you go.
Cheers
Linda

Hi all. I’ve just started the BSD on Monday, so far have lost just over 3kgs. In October I had an HBA1C test and it was 47. Doc said I need to do something or get diabetes within a year. I was referred to the national programme for preventing diabetes and met a wellness coach in January who retested my HBA1C. It was 42. My issue now is that I got a glucose monitor and have been measuring my levels in the morning on waking. They are coming up really high, at levels considers full diabetes?????? I measured 2 hours after food and they show as in the normal range (not even the pre range). Has anyone else come across this. I have had a cold this week and stress at work, but sleep well. Look forward to hearing any comments.

I have a bus pass. Before 9.30am on weekdays any journey only costs 50p. When/if the bus comes. Most places I need to get to are 4 or more miles away. My church is only 5 minutes walk – second shortest commute I’ve ever had!

Wot- the rowing gear?? Oh no- you mean the earphones! 🙂
I’ll check it out tomorrow- thanks again!
M

Mary, mine are just cheapies I bought in the sale at Argos! MKx

Im back on track all thanks to this forum. So encouraging thanks for sharing everyone. Have added 16:8 fasting in and its really helped me to stay on track will update weight results on sunday. Hopefully will see first loss after two weeks of no losses

I am saving money buying less petrol now! Even walking to church sometimes (about 2.7 miles) as the rest of the family have bus passes for school/work so no need to take the car really. Took me some getting used to at first.

Hi Julia

We’re nearly neighbours! I’m near Durham. Some days are very short here too.

Because of the bus service here I’ve realised sometimes it’s easier and less stressful to walk to some meetings. Even the possibility of walking to supermarket (bus back with shopping). That’s when I have the time spare to do that!

Even just walking round the village on Wednesday, with three different things in different places with walk home in between clocked up over 2 miles. Next Wednesday there will be four things, in different places with walk home in between! But that means I’ll collect more miles towards the target.

HI Krysia

Like you I worried that all this full fat would have an impact on my cholesterol so I got mine tested when I had my HBA1C done a couple of weeks ago and like you mine has gone down. It was 5.2 last July, 4.9 in September and now 4.7.

On 1000 calories a day I can convince myself that a ‘healthy’ proportion of full fat is OK, whether, when the time comes, I will feel the same on a maintenance level of 1600 a day, remains to be seen. Just need to keep the faith!

At least, the Doctor has now dropped the idea of Statins, so, as they say, ‘That’s all good, then’.

Wishing you a speedy recovery Verano xx

Easy, too, to make Parmesan crisps in the microwave

Hi Lynne
1000 miles going well for me but food less so recently with challenges at home (teenagers = occasional trouble!). It’s been my turn to mutter about eagles like you some weeks ago! Problem is I don’t have any health issues to help push me along the straight and narrow… but working hard at it this next four weeks.
It was you I heard about the 1000mile challenge from, hence wondering how it was going for you with your many commitments. I have found this week harder to fit it in as I hate being out in the dark and the days are still so short up in Edinburgh… more work stuff than usual so going for a long run tomorrow.

Hi Orchid, I just take the charcoal as a matter of course now, which I think is probably no bad thing, given that my diet has been changed considerably and I am still taking the inulin.

Hello sunshine-girl.

I was fasting 4.0 this morning, berries and yoghurt for breakfast, scrammbled egg for lunch. After lunch felt very odd, BS 3.4!. I have reduced insulin by two units morning and evening. 18/50. I only take one Gliclazide in the evening. Good news about your reductions over time, hope I do as well

Back to the BSD now, salmon and roast broccoli for dinner!

Cheers

Anniflower

Hi Julia.

Quieter days! What are they? LOL. Sometimes I feel like Worzel Gummdge, changing heads between very different tasks LOL. Some days it’s straight from one thing to another. On other days I have to try to fit in things like phone calls and paperwork as well as shopping and housework. Just had an Asda food delivery, which helps. But I do prefer to pick food myself. No time to do it next week though.

The 1000 mile challenge is going ok, thanks. Some days I walk more than others, depending on what I’m doing (and the weather!). But better weather is (hopefully) coming. Remind me – are you doing the 1000 miles? If so, how’s it going?

In a rare instance of seeing both sides, I reckon the answer is people should do what they feel comfortable with. I used to weigh everything because I genuinely had no appreciation of portion sizes. After 24 weeks, I rarely weigh anything now but fully understand why some people feel the need to.

I have to agree with Toby on the 800 – it’s a catchy marketing number but I reckon that it cannot be a one size fits all “magic number”. However, if it works as a target for some people then that’s great. I eat between 900 and 1000 calories and BSD works for me (however I do keep below 50g of carbs).

hi Anniflower, I too have been having hypos 3.2 and 3.7 and today 3.6. My husband got in a panic and was force feeding me Cadburys Roses even though I felt fine, just needed to get my numbers up. I reduced my insulin by 1 unit but it only increased my morning reading, whereas it is my evening BG that are too low. Are you on any other meds. I take Glycizide which is notorious for causing hypos, so I have reduced in the past and tomorrow will reduce again. Insulin on its own does not make a great difference. If you are thinking 1 unit is not much, I have reduced from 38 units to 22 during the last 5 months.

Hi everyone, again, 2nd visit of the day. Krysia you have me mixed up with someone else (captainlynne or verano) as I know nothing about online medical records, I live in France so it is outside my knowledge. even though I am a bit of a know-it-all. 🙂

Just done my BG at normal evening time and it was 3.7, so I have had 3 consecutive days at 3.2, 3.6 and 3.7 so tomorrow morning I will be cutting a glycizide in half, reducing by 15mg to 45mg – hopefully that will stabilise things for me.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Trelawny, Sunshine Girl – Thank you!

Sunshine Girl – These suggestions are amazing – I finish work in 1/2 an hour so Im currently making a shopping list to comply with these meal plan suggestions! I will Update!

I may also take your advise and weigh tomorrow – Ill let you know the damage!

Thanks,
Libs x

Hi Libbyohno – welcome and congratulations on your fantastic loss of 13 lbs leaving you with just over 2 stone to reach your goal.

First of all, get on the scales tomorrow and see what damage you have done. You might be surprised and find it has been minimal, but at least you will know where you stand. I hope you are back on the plan tonight and not waiting until tomorrow, you know what they say about tomorrow. Secondly, a cheat with almonds would probably have had the same calories as cake, okay almonds are better for you and better in the carb measurement. Whats done is done, it is in the past, get weighed at move on.

Dont cut calories to 600, 800 is low enough for anyone. You could cut carbs to 20g or 30g but I found that it took so much thinking about, planning and searching for the ideal ratio that it did my brain in, 50g is a good number. What do you mean living on eggs and spinach, maybe that’s what I mean about not cutting calories or carbs, you are making the diet unpleasant for yourself.

Fortunately, I type and save all my menu plans so have a simple reference to them, assuming you have the book and the recipes to follow (the 8 week BSD book, not the new recipe book).
Okay B=breakfast, L=lunch and D=dinner. Calories per meal plus days total.
B- scrambled egg with cheese – 210, L- Nocarb Ploughmans – 290, Pork Stir Fry – 270 – Total 770 calories
B- spinach raspberry and almond milk smoothie – 90, L- Feta salad – 270, D- Harissa chicken – 420 Total 780 calories
B- Portobello toast with goats cheese and pine nuts – 150, L- tuna dip – 190, D- skinny chilli with cauli rice – 460 – Total 800 calories
My recipe for skinny chilli eliminated half the beans so I just used kidney beans (not black eyed beans as well) but added the cauli rice.

Hope that keeps you on track for the next 3 days whether you weigh yourself or not. Good luck and let us know how you do. Or as I always say, keep on keeping on…

Hi

Doing well, good blood sugars so reducing my basal insulin. Eurggh, not enough reduction-hypo this afternoon, first for months. Feel rather wrung out, and had to eat sugary stuff!

Back on track for this evening’s meal, and will reduce insulin this evening and tomorrow.

Hi Libbyohno, the last thing you do on this WOL is beat yourself up because of a slip, however small or large. Just get straight back on BSD, being watchful of your carbs. Keep under 50 if you can and you will soon lose the water gained by your ‘naughty but nice’ slip. That is all the scales will show, the water retained by your body because of the high carb and sugar intake. Follow the plan and you will soon be back on track, losing todays gain and more. Believe in it, it works.

Hello everybody- how are you all doing? How did you cope with your meal yesterday Laska? And are you all scooting and rowing?

Reporting on this last week- after Le Manoir, (sighs delightedly!) A couple of days where the scales wobbled a bit but have now continued the downward trend- 1.5lb down on the numbers of the morning of the event! And 10.7 lbs in the 3 1/2 weeks since starting the second BSD, so well pleased with that.

The rower arrived this week, and I have just spent a happy hour putting it together – and then filling the water reservoir- which was a bit of a bit of a challenge since there were no instructions on how to use the siphon thingy! So tomorrow I shall don the rowing kit and lifejacket and give it a go. I have been wondering how you coped with earphones and the laptop, MK, but have just reread your post and see that it is WIRELESS earphones you use! Back on to Amazon- again! Thanks so much for the ideas and great insights.

Onward!

So sorry to read your children are not well Happygirl & perfectly understandable that following a diet is the last thing on your mind! Hope everyone is soon feeling much better.
Margaret xxx

Hi All!

I am in week three, currently at a 13lb Loss (out of a target of 45 lbs to loose) and have been getting on with this 800 cal low carb life easily and happily until LAST NIGHT!

It is my bosses birthday today and as I am the office’s designated cake baker, last night I baked a beauty of a cake (three layer carrot cake with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting PLUS muffins with left over cake batter – in case you were wondering, Ha)

1. In between baking and decorating this masterpiece I didn’t make and dinner, so I snaffled a muffin with about 2 tablespoons of leftover frosting.
2. Today at work when a slice of cake was offered/forced on me I took it, the only redeeming quality of this story is that I only ate 1/2 of it – ridden with food guilt – before quietly dispatching it to bin land.
3. We are a small team in my office (3 people) so to ‘celebrate’ the birthday the Boss got a TAKEAWAY for lunch. Thai to be exact.
4. I have eaten 3 large vegetable spring rolls and 2 Satay Sticks.

As you can imagine if I get on the scales tomorrow morning I’m going to be mortified. So like a true adult I am going to avoid this problem and give myself THREE DAYS (Until Monday) to do some damage control.

NOW, you lovely lot can help me please!

I NEED your best meal ideas/meal combinations to aid my three day quest. What worked best for you? Did you for one week only eat eggs and spinach? Did you reduce your Carb intake from 50g – 30g say? Cut the calories from 800 – 600?

Eternal gratitude in advance from me, who is in panic mode.

Thank you!
Libs x

ps. how annoying is it that when you cheat you REALLY cheat? Why couldn’t I have cheated by eating too many almonds one day or something. Why cake?!

Thanks SunnyB,
I made two changes last week at the same time – one was adding hemp powder to soups (totally new to me) for extra protein, the other was making the turmeric late that is on this site – presumably from MM as he mentioned it in a radio broadcast I listened to. That added in turmeric, almond milk and coconut milk to the ‘new foods’ as well. I have had all three in the past – maybe not quite as much in one go, but I never had a problem with them; thus the assumption it was the hemp.
I have not had any of them since Wednesday and still suffering a bit so I thought I’d ask in case others had that experience.

Have you had to keep on taking the charcoal – or has your body adjusted?

As Toby says quite rightly – the laws of physics says that you have to lose weight on this plan. I would really recommend you up your water – in any form – as much as you can. When I plateaued (and almost all of us do at some point) I doubled my water intake for 2 days (only) and dropped 2lbs overnight which never came back.

Search for the ‘whoosh’ effect – or google it – it’s an actual thing 🙂

Good luck

You are very welcome Happygirl. I have just read your children are not at all well. Hope
they are up and about very soon.
I am sure when the children are well you will soon get back on track. Its so hard trying to think about yourself when
the family are ill. Try not to loose heart.x

Hi Verano, as with all above, good to hear from you wishing you well and home soon.

Thank you! Your advice is very helpful. I am going try your idea of drawing the glasses. Am going to set a goal also.
Many thanks for your thoughts.

Hi I agree with the others..done 2 wks 5 days so far and my weight has dropped, increased and been on a plateau for a few days. Total loss is now 4.5kgs. Someone here recommended taking your measurements when the scale is not doing as you want. So I did. 6cms less around the waist already and 5 weeks to go…you just have to keep plodding along and look to the future…good luck..

Thanks folks, and I hope you feel much better soon, Shy.

Today has been better so far. We’ll see what tonight brings. No headache really for me which is a blessing.

Trelawny – a minus is always a win. Well done.

Sunshine-girl – I followed your advice and got online access to all my medical records. I know you told us about this months ago – but my surgery has only just started doing this.

They are facinating. The one thing I have worried about is because I have gone quite low in carbs because of the diabetes my fat intake is fairly high. Also, I really bought into all that stuff about saturated fat increases the cholesterol. So was really pleased to see that in November 2016 after 5 months of highish fat (especially dairy) and low carb my total cholesterol was 4.8. Actually over the last four years it has hovered around 4.9.

What was really interesting though was when I was diagnosed with diabetes in 2012 it was 6.2. For about 6 months before diagnosis I had huge cravings for carbs and fruit juice so was having loads. I had been at that time staying quite low on saturated fat. So it very much confirms that it is the carbs that are the problem with cholesterol.

thanks Jules, spelling used to be my strength but now I have 3 languages in my head I get confused. Last week had to write formal how are you and wrote common ça va instead of comment.

Every little lost, is a step towards the goal, so embrace it and celebrate! It is definitely a positive and who knows, it could be the forerunner of a much better loss next time.

Have a good w/e.

Hey Orchid – I had a gas issue when I started to take inulin for extra fibre and effectively counteracted this, by taking charcoal capsules – could be worth a try? Remember our bodies are changing on the BSD, so it could be that something you previously eat without any reaction, is also causing a bit of an issue. Either way, some charcoal might help.

Hi Duchey – we are all different and our bodies react differently to a new eating regime. Some of us lose much more slowly than others – me included – even on 800cals and carbs under 50g a day. I consider 1.5lb lost in a week a good result, but I am currently 21lb lighter than when I started out almost a year ago. During that time I have had two extended periods maintaining, so it could have been more. I still have 7lb to go.

It is important not to regard the achievement of others, as you failure. Your body is doing what it should and any loss is a positive to be celebrated. Sometimes body measurements shrink, without any discernible change on the scales. Good hydration is important and this is something I struggle with too. I draw five little cups and five little glasses on my kitchen notice board each morning and cross them through as I drink them. I make myself drink a glass of water, whenever I am in the kitchen and it is surprising how quickly the count goes down. Perhaps you could do something similar.

Be assure the BSD does work, you just need to stick with it and you too will see positive results. Try setting a mini-goal to work towards, as this helps you to stay focused and gives a sense of achievement when you get there – perhaps getting to your first half stone lost could be your first goal. There is a forum thread on here for mini goal, might be good to check it out.

Good luck with getting off the flat line soon – it will happen. Let us know how you get on.

Thank you Toby! Guess I need to be patient, definitely sticking to the 800 calories, had a couple of days where I felt awful but that seems to have passed. The difference in how I am eating has made me realise how poor my diet was even though I didn’t eat junk food, so hopefully you are right and the weight will go eventually! Good work losing 18 pounds that’s fantastic! Does it make you feel better in yourself?

TOBY101 Thanks! i had totally forgotten about Kale crisps, and I love them, yay, happy little BSD’er this weekend!

I can only say that the journey is not smooth but flat lines than nose dives then flat lines again. Most people who have a dramatic weight loss in first week do not actually lose that much fat but mostly water – perhaps you had less water to lose? I have lost 18 pounds in almost 4 weeks but flat-lined for about 6 days in week 3 (although ironically it was in this period that I first noticed real changes in my body shape) before it started coming off again. If you are eating significantly below your maintenance level the weight will eventually go – it is a guaranteed law of nature!

Thanks for the tip about kale crisps, Toby, they sound great, when I next buy kale, I will give them a go. Do they keep and stay crisp for a day or two, or do they need to be eaten straight away? Do you think they would work with other leafy veg? Maybe I need to experiment 🙂

I do make parmesan crisp sometimes, and they are very tasty and really easy – just finely grated parmesan, sprinkle into little piles on a baking lined baking sheet (or use a small former or pastry cutter if you prefer neater edges, just fill, then move on to the next one – but don’t press the parmesan down), and bake for a few minutes – about 190C – 200C. Watch them though as once they have melted and bubbled they turn brown very quickly. Yummy:-) I’ve never tried keeping them though, because they are so good, they tend to disappear instantly in this house, but I think they would be fine for a day or two if kept in an airtight container.

I am on day ten, and sticking religiously to th 800 calories a day, feeling down as lost three pound in first week but seemed to have stayed same weight since day five, it’s difficult when others are saying they lost nearly a stone in first couple of weeks! I struggle to drink two litres of water a day, usually only one and a bit, trying to increase that! Anyone else struggling?