thanks very much. good luck to you too.

I bought a book on Amazon called “The Essential Blood Sugar Diet Meals For One” which is a “Quick Start Guide” and it looks pretty good although I haven’t tried any of the recipes yet.
What I plan on doing is making the same food for my husband and son as I am having, but serving them rice, pasta, potato etc in addition to what I am having.
Good luck!

Hi Mixnmatch… hehe, yes I spotted it in the recipe book when I got home. I usually can’t resist the lure of bacon, sausages and black pudding so surprised myself! BUT next time…. 😉

have people found ways to economically cook for one while still having variety?

Hi All, i wonder if i could join in too. I am on day 2 seriously now. Had a few false starts last week. I have about 30 -40kgs to loose. Last night my bp was very high. I want get serious about my health. I have a gp this afternoon. I know WOE will help and im ready to commit.

Hi Candoit, I’m a Melbourne girl and well done you on losing 10kg last year. I’m not sure if I could survive with no food until 11am but it’s worth a try. I usually start setting my alarm to ‘school time’ the last week of the holidays to get my body clock back to work mode so it’s not too much of a shock to the system. It’s 10.15am now and I’ve been up for an hour and a half, doing some planning for the first 2 weeks back and then reading through the thread. Just having breakfast before I head to the gym.

Marion53, you made me laugh. I too do not want to be part of the ‘Starting January 2018 thread’!!!

For all those wine lovers out there, I discovered 2 things yesterday. After a serious chat with myself in the car about whether to turn left and buy wine or turn right and go home, I made the choice to buy wine. When I got home I had 2 big glasses of sparkling water and did not feel like the wine at all, however………because it was there, I drank it, with some help from my hubby. Chastised myself, beat myself up and then decided, stuff it, it was one hiccup, get a grip and move on woman. So the 2 things I discovered, sparkling water may be my savour to replace the craving for wine (just like you SueBlue), and the obvious, if it’s not in the house, I can’t drink it.

I’ve got 2 days until weigh in on Friday for the end of week 2 and if I’ve put on, so be it. There’s a bigger picture at stake here, my overall health and wellbeing which includes losing this 60kg of extra fat I’ve been carrying around for years, (54.1 left after week one). So I’m in it for the long haul knowing there will be hiccups along the way but as long as I don’t dwell on them, I’ll do just fine.

Keep on going everyone, love reading about your successes and learning from you all.

Full English breakfast is surprisingly BSD friendly, if I am at a hotel I usually choose it, without toast/hash browns of course.

Hi All,

How’s everyone getting on? I’m delighted to report that there’s no sign of the headaches anymore – whoohooo!! I had a difficult weekend as staying in a hotel and evening party followed by a lunch party BUT I managed to only have one glass of wine and avoid the many bread/cheese/garlic bread type bits that were on the buffet and Sunday starters… I even resisted the full English breakfast, Yorkshire puds and roast potatoes (virtuous eh?).

I’ve lost only about 5kgs but my shape is changing and I’m feeling more energised. Am doing more walks but restricted by my damaged ankles to do anything too strenuous but pleased that I’m doing way more than I did before this BSD so all good.

Enough about me… what about everyone else? How’re you finding it?

AnnaGoAnna

Buckwheat noodles generally have about 20g of carbs per 100g. It is unfortunate but noodles are almost all made of refined carbs. My favourite is Singapore noodles and I find I am glad when it’s time for the takeaway to close so I cannot order a huge portion. But I console myself with the thought, as Kate Moss said, nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. I want that feeling back please

Wise words Verano and woohoo Shadynook and Daisiesmum, double woohoo!!👏👏

Mixnmatch I have to offer congratulations. Well done. I do not think that you can carry a 50kg rucksack, but I am sure that you will not need to.

Mini goal, get back under 11 stone (70kg)

If I want to increase my fats, I usually try to have salads with avocado and oil & cider vinegar dressings, or I have mashed cauliflower with a little cream stirred in and a bit of butter on top.

Thanks all,

Depression shouts for the sugar and for the no think foods. Maybe need to take one battle at a time – still aiming for BSD principles but not beat myself up if depression self medication is a big pack of salty crisps. I know the seasonal effects of it will ease in a number of weeks, then can refocus.

Reduced stickers at the supermarkets – yes yes yes that is me, if it is such a bargain then… Though some are good. Last week I got a huge punnet of cherry tomatoes for 5p – yes for the price of a carrier bag! They had loads of them to clear. Tonight the co-op had packs of 3 leeks for 20p, I brought 3 of them! Have just made ‘Supermarket Sweep Soup’ with the various bargains…

Hi K8 Try and stick to the recipes in the book, both my husband and I only follow these recipes alternate between eggs, mushrooms and the shakes for breakfast and we have soups and salads for lunch for dinner everything has beans or legumes with it. We dont count carbs or fat we only follow the recipes. Just started week 4 and have losses between us of 9.5 kgs, so very pleased. Keep up the good work.

Right.. Here I am again.. I am totally sick of myself because this is the THIRD time I have had to lose this weight.. I was successful at 5:2 fasting diet about three years ago, maintained for a while , then put a load back on, so then I did BSD this time last year and nearly ( but not quite) lost it all again. I stayed pretty much ok until the late summer when it started creeping up after a summer of white wine and Bbqs .

But now I’ve put it all back on again (with 14lb of that only in the last couple of months!! ) .. I have a wardrobe of clothes that dont fit, and I am totally, utterly disgusted with myself because once again I need to lose at least two stone to get back to a reasonable weight (and ideally more) .. .

So I’m back again.. I do know what to do to lose the weight .. (mainly keep off the wine,) , I want to be slim. (Oh, more than anything) . I am lucky that I dont have prediabetes (yet), but I am 59, an apple shape and I hate all forms of exercise..

Ive re-read the book and have started again today .. am under 800 calories , and am posting to commit doing this until I have lost it all again.. 34lbs is the first goal (though 10 lbs more would be fabulous.. ) .

I read these posts last night and thought “I’m so glad I don’t have to lose as much as 50lb”. I’m aiming to lose 20kg but would need to lose 26kg to have a BMI of 25.
Then I realised this morning that 26kg is well over 50lb as each kilo is something like 2.2lbs! Doh!! 😂😂
Just as well I’ve started the BSD this week!

I think many of us slipped during the holidays. Isn’t is amazing how quickly you can gain weight! I have put on 10 lbs and ready to start again. I miss that feeling of being in control and feeling good about myself.

Great news, of course all our best non scale victories are to do with our health. 😀 I had an interesting one today, bought a new top (well new to me, from a charity shop) it was on a hanger marked as size 12, and I wore it today. It looked great, but was very tight about my biceps, I thought little about it, I know my biceps are quite big due to the strength training and badminton, but when I got home and checked the label it was uk size 6 😮 😊 I assume the sylph like former owner must have donated it when it stretched in the wash, as I don’t think I’m a size 6 candidate, ever!

Hi all! This thread is super relevant — it’s that sweet mix of motivation, logical intelligence and some other unknown quality that gets us into the BSD — which mix can be messed up by a lot of things, including holidays and just stepping back for a bit and even cookies on sale in the store!
I’m just six weeks from my one year mark so I am thinking a lot about how I have been able to stay on track for so long — first time EVER in my life that I lost the weight and kept it off — and I did the dumbest thing day before yesterday… Here it is:
My husband is out of town and it is cold right now in California and I have a cold and I was working in the garden too long and got really cold and got inside and decided to make chocolate chip cookies. I haven’t made cookies for almost a year (if I want a cookie I go out to have it at a coffee shop and turn it into a big deal) and so I made them, big ones, and ate four of them. I immediately felt just terrible, physically and mentally, but went to bed and woke up in the middle of the night feeling burpy and overfilled and wired. Sugar high, gone bad!
So I went downstairs, at 2 AM and threw the cookies all in the sink and covered them with water. Then I went back to bed.
The next day I just went back to what I KNOW is best, and today I feel fine.
But, note to self: you just can’t can’t can’t eat sugar anymore. And don’t waste all those good butter cubes in some cookies you are going to drown in the middle of the night!!😜

Wow, Janet, you have so many lovely events to look forward to this year …the travel, visiting your granddaughters and welcoming a new one (number 5 :-)) . I’d love a new baby in the family. It’s going to be an exciting Spring!
As far as the BSD is concerned motivation is really hard to find this time but then something happens and I remember why I’m doing this. At the moment I’m really appreciating fitting comfortably into my clothes.

It’s been a quiet day here. I haven’t got on top of the exercise..which will be my pit. I’d love to be sufficiently motivated to try the high intensity stuff but somehow it just doesn’t appeal.One day….

And today I think the peak was the weight loss I posted this morning. And maybe the good nights sleep last night.

Have a good day. I guess you’re probably starting your day as mine is finishing.

25 g is very low for carbs, what is your average fat percentage? I would personally have a few higher carb days if you are feeling nauseous, try just keeping it below 50 g for a week and see if you feel a bit better and more balanced. More fat can help increase weight loss and feelings of satiety, so if your percentage is too low that could be a problem. Make sure you are drinking enough water and add a little salt to your diet if you don’t already as electrolytes can be depleted by the low carb diet.

Welcome back, it is always nice to hear someone who has successfully lost the weight and kept it off. I’m glad you have showed the NHS dietician just what is possible and hope you make it to 30 in the future 😀

My next mini-goal to work towards is the 50 kg loss. 1.2 pounds to go for that one as at this morning. That is an important one for me, because I have always said that when I get there I will fill a rucksack with that weight and when I am maintaining, if I put on more than half a stone, I will pick up the rucksack and carry it around to remind myself where I came from, and that I never want to go back there again. I carried 25 kg of bird seed to the car for mum over Christmas which was quite heavy so I think this should definitely help my future motivation. 😊

Well done on-a-mission! I, too, had a practice nurse haranguing me about her diabetes clinic. They earn huge amounts of money for doling out bad advice. Eat carbs to raise your BG, consume increasing doses of drugs to counteract this, experience galloping progression of your illness. On the other hand, you could control your own destiny. I find it amazing that low/no carbs and weight loss have such a beneficial effect. BSD came along at just the right time for me.

Hi All

Day 17 and I’m holding at a total of about 7 pounds down since the start.

I’m struggling with the carb and fat balance. Feeling like I should be striving for less carbs and more fats, but the fats and eggs are making me nauseous. I’m bouncing between 800-1000 calories a day and around 25 grams of carbs. Maybe too low on the carbs?

Any suggestions from anyone, especially you more experienced BSD dieters, would be really appreciated.

Thanks much!

Before you proceed with this plan, you need to be mindful of what exactly you’re going to be eating. Have you checked the nutritional information on the package? How many carbs per serving size? Are they made from 100% buckwheat flour or a mixture with wheat flour? Do you have blood sugar issues (insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, diabetes)? Because even the pure buckwheat noodles have a high glycemic load.

Topcac, sad to say but I think it’s the wine!! Last week I had five days without any and lost 4 pounds, over the birthday weekend I had some ( ok, quite a lot!) and gained 4 pounds!! I know it will go quite quickly, it can’t be weight per se but even a glass seems to show up hugely in the scales 😩

so its now Jan 2017 and i am now maintaining weight at 56kg… starting weight was 71.4kg …may 2016.
Achieved goal weight July 201 so diet did work but i found it incredibly hard without much support from family who continued to eat “normal food”.
However, they all wish they were as thin as aim now ..they watched me loose weight and drop does sizes literally in front of their eyes… from a size 16 to size 8. All friends and family from around the world are now doing the diet! which makes my maintaining goal weigh much easier.

To all those out there struggling with the shall i eat the question? just try to go without..it’ worth it but if you slip up don’t beat yourself up. just stat again on the next meal. I find testing and food logging helps me keep on track. Im lucky that my doctor has helped bu agreeing to me having HBa1C tests every 3 months for first year. Diagnosed in May 2016 hba1c was 128!! yep that’s right 128!!
by July 2016 (after 8 weeks) was down to 56…by Sept 2016 was 33!! totally reversed T2d. latest test December 2016 it crept back up to 38 but i think thats because I’m no longer weighing food or following recipes but still following the diet on 1600 calories instead of 800.
my plan going forward is to drop my carbs to below 100g/day and keep an eye on my sugars. I still do 18000 steps a day plus yoga/ resistance training and dog walking to help keep sugar under control. Keep fingers crossed that next HBa1c is little lower … my personal target is to be 30. (although originally told by NHS dietician that it will never go below 68..)

will keep you updated,

i found what look like some good recipies a couple of soba noodle soups so will try and post if good

HI everyone! Sorry about your carb blow out Way of Life – these things happen! And you’re straight back in the saddle, well done! I had a bit of an incident, shall we say, with red wine and peanuts (hey, at least nuts were low carb high protein!) on Friday night, which has set me back a bit but otherwise doing ok. Have lost 9.5lb in all (4 before starting).

Hi Verano *waves*

Good to hear from you.

It’s easy to forget how bad the carbs make us feel! So many on here have reported how bad they feel if they do eat carbs now. One of my incentives is my blood tests. That, and being determined to prove to my medical professionals that this plan both works and is sustainable.

After all these months the carbs have lost their appeal fortunately.

There’s nothing wrong in slipping occasionally, but we need to learn from those mistakes and try not to repeat them.

Hope this is a better week. Oh, and if you are a lurker, so am I these days. Life is manic and I have very little time but check posts when I can, and respond when I think Imhave something to contribute. Oh, and post myself if si have something to say.

Let’s lurk together 😀

OK so here we go, to me, the best Non Scale Victories of all…

I have done the first 8 weeks and then on and off so totalled 3 months altogether. Now three months have passed I have just had the results from my GP of the blood tests which were last taken 10th Oct 2016

(I’ve lost 2 stone and 9 pounds)

So HbA1c has gone from a very alarming 54 to a diabetes free 34!!

Cholesterol from 6.5 to 5.3

Chance of heart attack/stroke % 2.2% can’t remember what it was before.

Fasting blood glucose from 9 to 6

Still got weight to lose and want to brings sugars lower but I am DELIGHTED with these results. 🙂

On-a-Mission – I was mis-diagnosed about 2007 (they performed the glucose tolerance test incorrectly) and it was only picked up a year later! But I was (correctly) diagnosed in 2009. I have had many interesting conversations about both Metformin and statins. I did try statins under pressure but quickly stopped them. But always refused Metformin.

Best wishes.

I have two teaspoons of cream in my morning coffee. That’s all the breakfast I need, tend to eat lunch around 1 and dinner by 6.

Wow! Shadynook amazing results! It’s great to see people getting the BSD message BEFORE taking meds.. the truth is spreading; viva la revolution!

VERANO, I agree about being hard on ourselves this is LIFE, not prison. A piece of cheesecake or whatever is not the end of the world, even a slight increase in weight is not that big of a deal in the big picture, so long as we keep the faith and don’t think we’ve failed completely and give up. We are all in the process of learning a whole new relationship with food and it takes time and practice. Stick with it, it will pay off in the end.

I had a fantastic visit with with my Doctor, she has reduced my blood pressure meds by 50% with a review to reduce further in two months, woo hoo! Dr slightly increased my thyroid meds which I’m happy with, it was reduced a few months ago and I haven’t felt “right” since. I have a thyroid condition which cannot be controlled by diet but IS affected by it – I have recently learned that gluten is not recommended with an auto immune thyroid disease so a diet excluding refined carbs is excellent! I have to have an extensive set of blood tests in six weeks. I will use the interim as a time to increase my general fitness. In other words: stop THINKING about exercising and actually DO it!

I returned home to my celebration meal of pork belly and stir fried veg, 90% lindt chocolate and a glass of prosseco! (Celebrating ain’t wot it used to be!)

Take heart everyone, we’ll all get there in the end.

Sounds like you’re doing well Sal. Don’t worry about being a bit over, it will all balance out over the weeks. One small comment, watch the intake of tomatoes, onions and root veggies inc. carrots, as they are higher in carbs than you might think. No need to cut them out completely, but treat them with caution. You’ve made a great start though, so keep going and let us know your results when you weigh-in.

Yes sunshine-girl we can be stupid, knowingly ‘sabotaging’ ourselves but hey that just makes us ‘human’ !!’m

Good to hear you BG is still good and that’s what it’s all about really.

Just for accountability, my next mini-goal is the get to the 9st mark. To achieve this, I need to consolidate a loss of a further 3.8lb and I’d like to achieve that by mid Feb. It feels doable but as I’m a slow loser, this might be more difficult than it sounds. If I can achieve this the plan is to try to shift a few more pounds before April – fingers crossed.

Great that you are taking control again and being so positive. Really like the 7 points – sure they could be useful to many of us and I for one, will be making a note of them. Stay strong and keep going. Chances are, you might not notice any issue when you weigh-in at the end of your week. Good Luck!

Confessions – have been much too sedentary today and have gone 71cals over the 800. Have been well under on the carbs at 15g, so I’m hoping that will be enough to keep things on track. Will do my best to do better tomorrow!

Bloke41 I have heard that drinking cider vinegar can also prevent the dawn phenomenon in diabetics and should really trying it instead of having an actual snack. However, I live near a vinegar factory (a very small artisan one not sarsons) where they make lots of wine vinegars with different flavour. I love the blackcurrant flavour and really love pineapple vinegar. You can do a tour where they tell you it is all made from grapes with nothing artificial. So, after starting this diet, I thought something is not right there so when I was next in the boutique buying wine gifts for English friends I looked on the labels of some of these vinegars and they are between 37% and 60% carb mainly made up of sugars. I took the guy to task but he denied there were any sugars so I pointed to the label and he had no answer. My answer was that I didn’t buy anything for myself.

Back to the apple cider vinegar, yes this is pure vinegar but I also looked on my Vinaigre de Moderna (Balsamic) and that contains sugars in the form of caramel, so just be label wary, not all vinegars are pure and carb free.

Hi Lynne

I’d forgotten just how addictive carbs are. I had half of a bagel over the weekend and not only did it make me grumpy but I was ‘ravenous’ within in an hour! I suppose we all forget how we used to nod off in the afternoons!

Glad to see you’re still doing well …. I do read the posts sometimes but don’t always respond . Does that make me a ‘lurker’.

Keep well.

Hi There
I’m very new to this- just starting on Thursday 12th Jan but I’m already 3.8kg down – no idea if this is a true loss or a fluke/water weight yet – time will tell!
I lost 2 stone last year through exercise alone but have piled it back on and am ideally looking to lose 4 stone in total. I’m 31, 5ft 9 and currently 15stone wearing size 12/14 clothes at the mo.
I’ve found the evenings so far a bit boring as used to snacking or a glass of wine! When food shopping I’ve found buying things like flowers or candles a nice treat instead of bad snacks. It’s a great way to treat yourself in a non calorific sense! Has anyone else got any tips or weight loss they’ve experienced early on?
X
Jess

topcac, how rude of your scales to tell you that you’d gained after building you up for a loss!

Keep up with the determination to get there and we’ll done for all of the activity.

If you’re finding you gain again soon, despite activity and following plan, it might be time to try a longer duration and lower intensity activity for a slow burn. Just something to try as an option as it may shock your body into getting rid of some fat cells.

If you have increased your vegetable and/or fibre intake you could just be suffering from trapped wind. I am not one to go running to the doctor with minor problems but only you know how serious this is to you and just how worried you are or is it just a niggle.

Well done Shadynook, you have saved yourself a lot of heartache but do keep it up, don’t let the demon T2 creep up.

Verano we are all human but sometimes we can be just stupid. I had lost 4.25 lbs but decided to relax over the weekend and immediately regained 2 lbs. I am doing my weigh in on Wednesday as that was my day after my holiday, it gives me a days leeway. Since Sunday I have lost 1 lb and hope tomorrow to be lower but why oh why do we do it. Maybe I was complacent in thinking hey I’ve done 4.25 in just over a week I don’t need any more off just yet but not thinking about putting it back on. I will say it again LESSON LEARNT…… Hopefully.

On a better note by BG is still around 4.2 to 4.7 so a am happy with that. I have not been doing any exercise as I have been full of cold, having now recovered I start by swimming tomorrow and possibly again on Friday or aerobics if I don’t get to the swim.

We do keep on keeping on… so should be proud of ourselves.

NLR2407

Have you tried Total (fage) full fat Greek yogurt? I’m not a fan of yogurt either but this one tastes like cream!! I have it with berries and a few walnuts, 10g, most mornings.

Awesome results Shadynook and well done on being so committed and sticking with it! It must feel fantastic to have reversed the diabetes let alone do a couple of stone lighter!

And to all of us posting on this thread, through thick and thin, Happy days, the results are so worth it! Keep the faith xx

Reading through the posts today I feel that we are so hard on ourselves sometimes.

We are human! We have good days and not so good ones, but if, on balance, we are moving in the right direction then that’s ‘success’.

Maybe we need to cut a bit of slack now and again and not beat ourselves up for the odd misdemeanour.

Well done Shadynook, no medication for you then! Brilliant. I think it’s great if you can start this plan as soon as diagnosed. Unfortunately not everyone had/has access to it.

Guess we just have to keep on keeping on ….

Hello everyone,
I relate to so much of what has been written on this thread. Lost my mojo for a while and am having a bit of difficulty getting back on track post-Xmas. A cold hasn’t helped but things are slowly getting back to normal so I’m hoping that I will get back into the BSD routine to reach my ultimate target after a few months of stagnation and, more recently, weight gain.

I took my foot off the pedal around Sept last year – instead of ploughing on to my target I relaxed when my clothes were fitting nice & comfortable again. For me, buying a whole new wardrobe wasn’t an incentive – I was quite happy just to buy a new belt so a couple of pairs of the baggier trousers were still wearable. With the benefit of hindsight I should have continued and then when the Xmas gains came along they wouldn’t have bothered me so much.

I had a a rule last year – avoid temptation once: in the shop, i.e. don’t buy the “naughties” in the first place. Worked fine – but I have realised that while I can resist things at full price, I am a sucker for a reduced price. Now I am having to retrain myself that “bargains” are a false economy because I have a tendency to eat the evidence to get it out of the house! The rule has been supplemented with another: nothing from the remaindered shelf unless it fits in with the BSD.

Good luck all.