JulesMaigret~ Hope your trip to the South of France goes well this coming week! What I’ve always enjoyed about staying in hotels in Europe is that the breakfast buffet often has delicious low carb foods such as salad, smoked salmon, sausage, cheese, nuts and so on. Okay so not always low calorie but at least low carb. Here in the states it seems there are always high carb foods such as cereal, pancakes, waffles, donuts, rolls, yogurt with sugary fruit and so on.

Natalie~ I’ll look forward to visiting Australia one of these days knowing I might fit into some of the clothes when I go shopping! Shopping is a very favorite pastime of mine! How fun to go swimming . . .and with the dog. . .! I keep forgetting it’s summer there. I hope your new pool gets finished soon. We have a pool and this coming summer are probably going to be renovating it. The grout is starting to fall apart! It’s a 15 year old pool and not sure why it would already need new grout. Maybe it’s because of the excessive summer heat in our area.

Angela~Sounds like you’ve gotten fairly used to fasting for 16 or so hours. During the work week, I get up at 3:30 am and leave the house at 4:30 am. I arrive at Starbuck’s at 5 am and have coffee with half and half. Recently before starting the BSD, I used to eat a breakfast sandwich and now I don’t eat anything.
I arrive at work at 6 am and usually eat something about 9:45 am- usually some fage yogurt or a piece of chicken (in between counseling appointments). Then I eat lunch around 11:45 am-vegetable chicken soup or salad with chicken (in between counseling appointments). I arrive home about 2:45 pm and that is when I am the most hungry and wanting to eat. This is when I want nuts or cheese and it is easy to over do it! Funny! I have tried to eat more at lunch to try to not be so hungry when I get home, but it hasn’t worked. I think it is just my time of the day where I want food. I find if I do my exercise at this time, it helps a lot! About 6:30 pm, I eat a small dinner–salad or vegetable and meat. I don’t often snack after dinner!
Years ago, when I was at my highest weight, I’d start the morning out with 2 chocolate old fashion donuts chased down with a diet coke . For lunch I’d eat some kind of fast food or if I was doing well, I’d have a Lean Cuisine frozen meal. Always drank a lot of diet coke with meals and in between meals.
Then of course there would be cookies or candy somewhere during the day, followed by a small dinner. I wasn’t very hungry by the end of the day. It is no wonder I weighed so much! I ate terribly!!! The only thing I was doing right was the exercise.
A couple years ago, I went for an entire year without having any cakes, pies, cookies, candy and so on (things with refined sugar). I didn’t lose any weight but I didn’t gain any weight either during that year. I also had spent some time following the paleo diet and had some weight loss success.
So I think those two ways of eating prepared me for knowing I’d be able to follow the BSD way of eating.
Angela, you sound like you are doing really well with both your diet and exercise. How long have you been following the BSD? I like your approach–not having to lose weight too quickly–seems to be working for you. And it seems like you are losing weight consistently! So nice.

You asked about our trip to the South of France–We took our kids on a 21 day trip (their first trip to Europe) when our oldest child–our daughter had graduated from college and our son was a 17 year old high school student. We flew into Paris and stayed a few days, then took the train to Marseille and rented a car. From there we drove up the coast of France and into Italy. We stayed at different places along the way. In Italy we stayed two nights in Cinque Terra and then drove to Florence. We took the train to Rome and returned to Florence. Then we took a train to Venice. From Venice we took an overnight train back to Paris and flew home from there. It was a great trip!

I am very tempted to delete almost everything I’d typed above as I have rambled on and it is most likely very boring for others to read, but I think I’ll just keep it there as it’s good for me to be able to look back and remember where I’ve been and where I am now.

Angela, sorry to hear your mum passed away! My dad died 6 years old and my mom has been alone since then. She is now 81 and slowing down and getting frail. Hopefully you will get a chance to get together with your siblings one day soon.

PEAK: I’ve started going through my closet and getting clothes that no longer fit ready to be taken to the donation station. It feels great to clear things out and keep only those things that truly fit.

PIT: The Christmas decorations are still in the dining room waiting to be wrapped in bubble wrap and put away. This will be my goal for the weekend. We have Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday so I don’t have to go back to work until Tuesday! Yay!

Good for you. I know that feeling, signed on with a new doctor, sent me for full blood works, came back he said ‘why didn’t you say you were diabetic’, me ‘but I’m not’, him ‘oh yes you are’. Yes, I cried. I was started on metformin with no discussion of diet or exercise, BG way too high at 11.2, must take meds. 6 months later after constant diarrhea, doctor ‘think you should take insulin it bypasses the stomach and is so easy to take’. Sat with the needle pen in my hand, frozen for nearly an hour before I had the courage to do my first jab and I cried, not because of the pain, because of the reality of the illness, now it is second nature but I still cry because of the futility. 11 years later 4 stone heavier and blood glucose getting worse so here I am. Don’t go down that route.

They still pedal the same bottom like, lifestyle changes but have no idea what, exercise (do be careful you might drop down in a coma) diet (eat lots of carbs or you might drop down in a coma), end of life problems, heart disease, stroke, gangrene, blindness, caused by not enough exercise and too many carbs, vicious circle. Fortunately we have changed the prognosis (projected outcomes) of diabetes and it is not a life sentence any more. Even if it is we have only found a way of limiting the problems relating to it and can reduce the amount of medication upon medication we take.

About the label. I hate being told – you are a diabetic – I read somewhere that when you have a heart attack they don’t say ‘oh I hear you are a cardiac’, on a lighter note, when you are diagnosed with haemarrhoids they don’t say ‘oh by the way you are a haemarrhoid’. No I am not a diabetic, I am a person with diabetes….. But not for much longer.

At a routine check for blood pressure, I casually asked if I can be tested for diabetes (my dad was stg 2). Why? I was asked, well I nod off after dinner quite easily and as my thyroid meds have been checked and are ok, I wondered why. (It can’t just be the boring to programs surely?)
Yes, you can have a HbA1c test done now, – fine thanks.
Fast forward 2 weeks, BP still a bit high and I receive a letter asking me to make a 30 min diabetic appt with the nurse.
Fast forward another 2 weeks (first available appt). ‘Hello, so how long have you been a diabetic?’ I am asked, ‘about 10 seconds’ is my shocked reply. (Tears from eyes at suprise). Well my results put me dead on the line, 6.5 per cent and 48mmol , so now I am labelled a diabetic
I noticed the nurse had a copy of Dr Mosley’s book, ‘have you read that’ I asked ‘not all, just started it’ well I’ve read it twice. Enter harassed GP who I’ve never seen before, ‘oh, you’ve had a shock, we can get you on metformin, starting with one the two tablets’ vague mentions of lifestyle changes etc. I asked what would you do?, ‘take the tablets’ was the reply, ‘it will protect your heart and help with END of LIFE condition’ ‘ We can give you blood pressure tablets too’ -thanks for that.
Exit surgery- more tears, then ANGER! I don’t want to be a diabetic. (FYI I am 10.7lbs 5’5 tall bmi 24.5 maybe a TOFI?)
I collect my tablets, go home and read Michaels book again, I decided I believe in him and his research etc I already take statins, thyroid meds so really don’t want to add BP and metformin to that. (Incidentally I read metformin can interfere with thyroid meds)
So, I told them I am giving this blood sugar diet a good try, I am 2 weeks in, blood pressure coming down a bit and I am going to stick to this. After being told by the nurse ‘you will always be a diabetic now’, I would like when I am allowed a retest after 3months that it is good news. If not I will take those ****** tablets but I’m not going to let them label me, not without a fight!
Am I doing the right thing? Watch this space.

Hello again fellow 4-weekers. How are you all diddling?
Still have a little snow here in parts and it’s as chilly as a snowman’s …. nose! On the plus side, freezy cold weather encourages faster walking so that is good.
I have managed to lose 4lbs this week and am now back to my pre-Christmas weight. So, for the last two weeks I have managed to lose more weight than my cat. He beat me in the first week of Jan. I’m on a roll now – 2:1 to me, cat!
So onwards and upwards (emotion-wise) and forward and downwards (weight wise).
Have a great day everyone. X

Lost another quarter of a pound. No I dont weigh myself in quarters, I’m not that sad, I use kilos so 0.4 is about quarter of a pound. So I have lost 4.25 lbs since 2 Wednesdays ago with a goal of losing 4.5, drat, nearly there.

Everything else is fine, in fact everything is wonderful. I am feeling much better and had a bit of a pamper this morning, shower, hair wash, epilated my legs and bikini in time for swimming next week. Won €7.20 on the Euro Lottery, just received a tax refund from the French authorities of €600, just moved my UK tax allowance to my husband saving £17 per month. Im not money orientated but living on a pension, every little helps and it just all seemed to happen today. Not only that but the sun is shining although it is still cold here in France (12 degrees) we are set for -9 next week but no snow forecast, too cold to snow. Never did understand that.

Have a good day everyone and a good weekend.

Hi Toby, the way I understand it, if you are not diabetic (but pre) you don’t have to worry about going low as the effect it has on you is not the same, just like a non diabetic going high for a few hours after eating a great big yummy chocolate cake (sorry got carried away there). Your body deals with it naturally. What might happen is that you save yourself from becoming diabetic by keeping it generally low. If you feel it has gone too low just have a snack of something healthy. What is happening with you is natural and the only bad effect is you could faint but basically it is because you are hungry (5 hours is a long gap). I know I should look at which topic area you are posting in i.e. BSD, Fast800, 5:2 etc. If you are doing the full BSD maybe it is not necessary to be quite so strict and you could do the Mediterranean or the 5:2 just to keep your BG in check.

Pre-diabetes is a warning that you should change your way of eating, it is not a diabetes diagnosis. You are so lucky to have had it flagged before real problems occur. Good luck.

Thank you for that donnyman, I seem to be ignorant of any more than 3 so can you enlighten me as to what they are. I do know about Insulin Dependent or Mellitus or Type 1 so you could call that 2 types, Diabetes Type 2 is Mellitus but can also be MODY (mature onset) or LADA (latent immune diabetes) but they are still technically Type 2 just start at different times with possibly slightly different causes and Type 3 which comes about from brain damage but, again, technically it is still Type 2 just caused by something different. So that being the case you are probably right but they are still 1, 2 and Gestational with variations.

Maybe I should have said their are 3 MAIN types of diabetes.

No worries…I just assumed it ws my computer!

It was a stressful morning! Sorry for the panic, we could have turned off SSL and the warning would have gone away but the traffic wouldn’t have been encrypted. So we opted to keep everything safe and encrypted and ride out the warning.

Thanks for understanding. 😊

There are more than 3 types of diabetes!

One of the reason for starting this diet is that I was told I had pre-diabetic blood sugar levels.

Almost two weeks in I have tested myself and am at 60 mg/dl. After not eating for 5 hours.

Obviously I am pleased with drop in blood sugar but should I be concerned this is now too low (I understand normal range starts at 70)?

Me, me, me!

I love it! Sea bream for lunch.

Sorry, I’ll get my coat……

Flax seeds, chia seeds and walnuts are higher in omega 3 than salmon or mackerel. Who needs fish.

You can buy peeled quails’ eggs in Waitrose

Hi Candoit
Good for you on the no-drinking alcohol front. A lovely glass of red is what I am missing most.
On the BSD and exercise front hope the following is useful:
I am into a second stint of BSD800 and last year lost loads while continuing to run (albeit I’m not very fast).
I am 2 weeks in this time round and have done 50 miles this year, a mix of walks and runs. 10k run yesterday morning before breakfast no problem. This year 5 kilos lost so far. So it works with exercise – but works faster if keeping carbs below or around 50g per day. My body has clearly learned to burn fat not carbs, yours might take a little while to adapt to burning fat. Lowering the carbs means more room for protein and fat.
All the best!
Julia

As usual it depends on your actual build and lifestyle. I don’t have the link to hand but Google the keto calculator by Martin Ankerl and input your height, weight and activity status. Then the 50 grams into the carbs. It will give you a min and max level for protein next, select something near the lower end but not the minimum, 800 calories isn’t a lot, finally input whatever fat target brings the total for the day to 800 calories. It is a good idea to redo this every couple of weeks on this diet as your weight will probably change quite fast compared to a conventional low carb diet. My 800 figures at the start were 50g carbs 68g protein and about 35g fat if I remember correctly.

Zinnia, quails eggs are a bugger to peel so take care but they do give it something special. Just found another recipe make a meatball mix (mince, sautéed onion and garlic, egg, tomato puree and any spices you want) put into a cake or muffin tray, top with some tomato sauce of your choice and bake in oven for 20 mins. I think the beauty of these recipes is that they are so simple and things we cook all the time but when you make them miniature they are so cute for picnics or party nibbles. A change from sausage rolls and meat pies and crisps.

I hear ya Dreamscometrue!
I am also a teacher that doesn’t have diabetes but similar bad habits. Teaching is so draining mentally that the bottle was an easy and quick release.
I am following the 800 6 days and giving myself 1 1500 day. Not touching booze though as I was worried it was too much a part of my life. I am aiming for addiction free of all crap.
We start back after the summer holidays in two weeks and I have a year 11 and 12 heavy load. I really need to be on my game.
I have now done 2 alcohol free week but only 1 BSD week.
I lost 3 kilos fairly quickly but not much since.
I am thinking it may be because I have added a gruelling exercise plan every second day but really not sure.
Does anyone know anything about exercise and weight lose?

Hello:-)
Have a lovely day with your friends Carb_Addict.
Wendy 1947 Hope the scales are your friends on weigh day.
Lovely to see you Miss Ziggy.

News from me…..rather a stressful week and will be pleased to see the back of the next week or two:-(

Right, weigh day for me today.

1.10.16 – 114.2
7.1.17 – 100.2
14.1.17 – 98.9

Delighted to say I am now in the Obese and not the Very Obsese BMI.

One very happy bunny Fairyface.
Oh and I have a top on that has looked awful when I last tried it on.

Correction: He has made a spreadsheet. We write down on the meal planner…….
Sorry for the bad grammar.:-/

Hey Tubbypooch,

I know it can be difficult to juggle but at the end of the day we, as parents, make the fussy kids. I created two who are now old enough to get their own ( 19&22), but my 11 year old eats everything I eat including the cauliflower rice. He just either has more or adds extras such as a slice of bread or extra nuts and seeds.
Letting them eat foods that made us fat isn’t such a great idea, and potentially will lead them to be unhappy about their health in the future.
One in all in I say.
Clear the cupboards of processed crap, make snacks such as falafels and omelette slice which is ready to go and dig the heals in.
My sons favourite snack at the moment is yogurt berry pudding.
– layer a small bowl with frozen berries
– sprinkle with LSA
– layer with plain, Greek yogurt
– sprinkle with pumpkin and flaxseed
– cover and leave in fridge for a day or two
Measure your own out and make sure the gremlins know not to touch yours. The berry juice seeps through and the LSA and absorbs the moisture making it pudding like in texture.

Good luck👍

I want to put in my 5 cents about the book Wheat Belly. The whole book is about how evil wheat is, wheat causes everything from diabetes to wrinkles, wheat is special because of the way it’s been bred and modified… then right at the end he tells you to cut out all carbs and restrict yourself to half a strawberry (literally). So it seemed like a sudden turn around from “evil wheat the special carb” to “all carbs are evil” just snuck in at the end. At the time I felt cheated because after a huge book telling me I only had to stop eating wheat to be healthy, he hid the real advice (avoid all carbs) at the back and it suddenly wasn’t so easy.

Julesmaigret please don’t leave the thread, I for one, as a total newbie to this WOE appreciate your informed input, as others obviously do too. And I agree all are entitled to their opinions. Sometimes strong feelings and opinions can lead to things getting a little heated, but it would be a shame for anyone to leave a thread where their input is valued.

Mocnk

I can fit into mainstream clothes in Australia (14-16) but I visited a shopping mall in China and everything was so tiny. I didn’t even attempt to try anything on. And I had an acupuncturist here, a Chinese Australian, who thought I should lose 20kg back when I thought I only needed to lose 10. Australia is similar to US and U.K. in what is a “normal” size and it’s very different to a lot of the rest of the world!

Peak: a swim in our neighbour’s pool – with their dog.
Pit: still waiting on our own pool to be finished. And waiting, and waiting.

Hello,

I am new to this site and getting prepared for starting the BSD on Monday. I have used MFP for many years and looking to use this for monitoring intake on the BSD.

Can anyone tell me how i need to break down the following?

Carbohydrates 50 g
Fat ???
Protein ???

Thanks for your help,

🙂

I second Angela06’s remark, JM. I’ve learned a lot from your contributions and am glad you will be continuing to post.

Hi Julezmaigret, Sophia Antipolis is about 15 minutes from me…don’t know if you’ve been before. It’s a business park, albeit a fairly attractive one. Best eating choices are probably in Valbonne or Mougins if you’re hiring a car.

I’ve always appreciated your input, JulesMaigret, and will be pleased to meet you on other threads.

Emmbee. My husband has done something like this.
He has done an spreadsheet with the page number, cal. and carbs, and ingredients. He has also printed a meal planner. Very basic but it works for us. We right down on the meal planner what we are going to have in pencil and then we look at the ingredients to make a shopping list. Depending on ‘use by dates’ on the food we buy we then just rearrange the meal planner.
Its so useful to use.

Hi everyone

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you but a huge thank you for your suggestions. Have had a practice run with quiches and muffins and they have turned out beautifully will try the scotch eggs next, think I will try it with the quail eggs.

TrixieS thanks so much for sharing your story. It is helpful to hear that, like me, you have sorted most of your adult life and this this is the only one you have stuck to. You are doing so well! And that it is working without doing the fasting is fantastic as well. As you say, just like WayOfLife above, it’s the “feeling so good” we need to focus on. That’s where I need to change my mindset I think.

I do already feel good in some respects – much better in the head, clearer.

Will definitely check out that other poster you mentioned – sounds v. interesting. I’m a sucker for a bit of diet data! Thanks very much indeed.

Hi con7, there is no easy answer to that one. Some people have stopped taking the Metformin with or without Dr approval, based on their own blood sugar tracking. Others have continued for a while, but usually had to come off it in the end. I have seen mentioned that the Metformin instructions themselves say it shouldn’t be used on diets of less than 1000 calories a day. The safest thing to do would be to discuss it with your doctor. Hopefully someone with personal experience can help you, or it may be worth reading some of the older threads, such as Bill’s ‘This has to work for me’ thread and Captainlynne’s story. You can find threads talking about Metformin by putting Metformin into the search box above.

Way of Life thank you! “Feeling lighter and brighter does it for me” should be a new mantra. I am trying to step away from the scales and your words will ring in my ears. Good luck to you too – sounds like you are doing brilliantly! Hang on in there… will you ever weigh yourself??

I am still here and still at it. I must say I agree with Dreamscometrue and am easing up for the weekend. Must say also as a veteran of 5:2 my appetite has shrunk over the last year and no way could I eat the quantity I did prior to that.
So many interesting posts. Congratulations to all losers. My weigh in is Wednesday, 2 weeks of this!! 1 stone left to go!!

G’day,

Good point, though I didn’t plan on including instructions – I thought more a meal planner with the recipe names, page numbers, ingredients, cal counter and shopping list generator.

Hi Chrysalis,

We can do this one day at a time. I love the food as it is what I tend to eat anyway but clearly I am way over 800 calories 😱 I will weigh everything from day 1 as I know for me when I guess my quantities increase daily depending on my mood 😂

Hi – I’m also a teacher and share all of your pitfall times of the day and staff room temptations! Good luck – I hope it all goes well.

Hi Angela

Got the dates and location yesterday – early March and in Sophia Antipolis, near Nice, so I’m hoping that the weather will be better. Looking to stick to BSD principles and planning on going down the fish and salad route.

Spent a week in Montpelier once n May and it was extremely windy and rained every day, so I always treat the idea of “good news it’ll be in the South of France” with a huge pinch of fleur de sel.

Getyourcarbon, I agree this is when it gets though!

I’m having friends over for pizza and boardgames tonight and have decided to ease up on my restriction for one night…and one night only. So hopefully back on track again tomorrow. I’m determined to stay on this diet for a few more weeks!

Hi I started the BSD on Monday. I have stuck to it religiously and unbelievably have lost 7lbs! I have at least 2 stone to lose, but ideally would like to lose 2.5 – 3 stone. Will do for 8 weeks and see where I am. I can’t believe how tasty the food is and funnily, that I haven’t really craved the carbs. Good luck everyone!

Hi I’m starting diet Mon I’m just a bit worried about the metformin do I still take it or do I have to ask my doctor to come off it . I take 2 twice a day and a statin

My last word on this matter.

To answer Lexy’s question.

I have been on the BSD seriously since September, when I joined this site. Since then I have lost 73lbs, reversed the symptoms of my fatty liver, reduced my BP into normal and nudged cholesterol into normal. I have over 260 posts, which even the most cursory check would confirm have been invariably positive and supportive. As a lifelong non-dieter, I have learnt a massive amount from the contributors on here who have followed the diet successfully and am hoping to contribute my own experiences to help others.

I have a particular opinion on the process that new therapies should follow before being introduced to the wider public, which I believe I have explained in a dispassionate way. Others may differ in their opinion and they’re very welcome to.

I also believe that these are public fora and the strength of them is the variety of situations and opinions people have and the way they are met with a uniformly positive, non-judgmental and respectful response from the members. When you’ve been around a bit longer you may appreciate that.

My last contribution to this thread.

See you elsewhere on the site.

Leshaz.. I have just downloaded CarbCalculator app. Not flashy but seems to have a good range of info.

Morning- I’m starting today! Have low carbed before but hoping this is going to be less painful. It certainly worked…

I have just downloaded the CarbCalculator app. It’s not flashy, but seems to have a good range of information.

Flax seeds it is then-thanks:)

Thank you – good idea:)

Hello- just starting this morning so placemarking this thread- I’ll be back when I’ve read the book (arriving shortly!)

Morning all, well I was invited to friends for Friday night dinner last night. They had made fish pie, but I said that I was saving my calories for 2 small wines, but they insisted on making me a separate ramekin of fish pie without the mash, and just a small handful of green beans and broccoli. This meant I went to 1450 calories including the 450ml white wine, but weigh in today after 5 full days was another pound down, so 8 pounds in 5 days. I am happy with this. Challenge is going to be sticking to it with the kids over the weekend and I have family coming for pancake brunch tomorrow 😱. Happy weekend all x

Mocnk

Had breakfast out with friends, got stuck into a mouthful of what I thought was vegetable frittata only to find it was full of potato, so my daughter ate it and I stuck to the black coffee with a dash of milk. So I had brunch instead which was the Mexican Hash, delicious. Dinner will be steak for my daughter and hubby as I dont eat red meat, cant stand the taste, so its salmon for me. The bag of dark chocolate Maltesers are still sitting in the wardrobe, untouched, 18 days into the diet and my fat belly is slowly fading away, this diet is amazing, after 46 years of dieting, I have never found a diet with such quick results and no hunger pangs. Keep up the good work everyone and think positive, we can do it.