Thanks Angela that sounds like something I could get involved with, I will look it up. Getyourcarbon…. oats are yummy with the thick greek yoghurt too, and so filling! 🙂

Going well
Day 5 finished
I know I’ve lost weight around the middle
Day 3 I spent having a number one almost every 45-60 minutes but been a lot less since
My favourite is oats with natural yoghurt (the lowest sugar yoghurt there is on the shelves) with blueberries
Trying to be diplomatic here but my labido has disappeared for the moment lol
I feel a bit slower and occasionally really in need of carbs
However my wife and I are sticking to the 8 week plan and we’ve both lost weight around the middle
Will have main weigh in on Day 7

Hi granny and solange, the 1000 mile walk challenge is organised by Country Walks magazine, I think. I saw it mentioned on these fora by captain lynne and avila so i googled 1000 mile walk UK 2017 and it took me to the site livefortheoutdoors. Once you register, it’s free! you can sign up to the facebook page and meet such nice people a bit like here really, nice, like minded people with similar goals. Of course you aren’t obliged to walk a 1000 miles but it’s a good objective. I wear my tracker all day so it encourages me to clean my house!

Buffylover: what are boodles?

Hello Flash21……. ditto there. Get the lunch packed as soon as possible 🙂
Some other ideas are:
tuna mayo or tuna with cream!
tinned salmon with mayo
beetroot salad
50g hummus

note the lack of vegetables sticks but feel free to add them! I have to choose stuff that agrees with my digestive system……………

On a less organised day why not buy a subway salad.

I use tumeric in peanut satay sauce – paired with plenty of fat there!

Good luck Rosebery! Focus on the non-food-related pleasures.

Verano I am pre-diabetic (100% controllable by diet – normal numbers if I eat well, high numbers if I eat too many carbs) and have 25kg to lose…. no wait only 20kg to lose now! I don’t know if that is a lot or not; more than some, less than others. I can buy clothes in “normal” stores but they don’t necessarily look good on me. Self-esteem is a big reason for me to lose weight, but I think the biggest is my sleep apnoea which I hate. It is very dangerous, and it sucks to never feel properly rested.

Lunches are tricky at the moment as I have my two children home all day for another four weeks! Summer holidays. And they don’t eat the same things I’d been having. So far we’ve generally been eating different things! Dinner is ok, that is sorted, but I don’t really want to go to that much trouble for lunch.

I exercised today, dancing along to Xbox Kinect. Only managed 15 minutes, I remember when an hour was easy. Those were the days. My daughter danced with me and didn’t break a sweat, I had to go and have a cool shower!

Here is a question for all you English types, I wanted to try loose leaf tea instead of tea bags so my daughter gave me a cute little strainer for Christmas, a tiny rubber ducky with the tea strainer thing like a thimble hanging underneath. There was an awful lot of small tea particles in my cup, which I didn’t like at all, is that normal when you don’t use a tea bag or is it because my strainer is more cute than functional and I should try a real one?

Today’s menu – lunch tomato, cucumber, celery, onion, avocado, 5 olives and half a tin of sardines in lemon with lemon and oil dressing. Dinner salmon parcel and salad, to follow greek yogurt and 6 raspberries. Milk in coffee.
So easy when at work. I will get this eating structure under my belt so I follow it when spending time at home and in readiness for my retirement in a couple of years time!!

Hey Baristagirls! How the devil are you? 🙂

Yes, I am often too tired to bother but am trying to combat this by preparing the next day’s food as soon as I’ve unpacked and washed up my lunch box when I get in. Then it’s one job done and I don’t have to scrabble around for something when I realise I’ve fallen asleep on the sofa and really just want to go to bed! I like the salami and blue cheese combo.

Sumo – your salads sound delicious. I usually have good intentions with green leaves and other items but a lot of times by the time I get round to eating it they seem to have gone all limp and look particularly unappetising! Definitely agree that putting a bowl of salad on a plate looks like a lot of food!

Good morning, last check in while waiting to board a flight to our holiday and extensive buffets! Weight this morning exactly 11 stone, 13lb to go to get into the normal range for my height. Had to find a belt for my trousers this morning! Wish me luck for the next 11 days of trying to keep it together .

Oh did anyone hear MM on radio 2 about the benefits of daily use of turmeric as an excellent anti-inflammatory & cancer preventive? Best used with some fat to activate it & black pepper to enhance it so had it with scrambled egg yesterday & butter. I wonder how it goes with porridge? Orange porridge anyone😂😂

Morning all,

Day 3 for me and the aches and pains are starting…!! Have a sore neck this morning and my tummy is quite bloated (sorry) but I can feel my body making changes inside which I know is good….

I have overnight oats for breakfast today for a change and left over ragu with boodles for lunch. Dinner tonight is a really low calorie chicken and veg curry.

Day 3… Bring it on!!!

Hope you are all ok today :o)

Great progress Trelawny! Glad to hear aches and pains are receding. I need to get into that groove as I am aching alllll over 🙁 I mean, I have a terrible back problem which is causing a lot of it but at the moment even my fingers and toes seem to hurt! Good luck with your walking challenge.

Hi Granny, me too, would like to have a focus like that. Look forward to hearing from Angela!

Day 5 & feeling very tired & slow with a “windy” uncooperative gut! This is no doubt due to much reduced food & veg intake because of using up Christmas left overs that are not really recommended BSD food or enough fluids despite peeing for Britain. I have to take the car for a service & just want to stay in bed & go back to sleep!!
Oh well I should make porridge for breakfast & add hemp seeds for roughage. Today we will do a proper food shop & buy lots of veggies & have stuffed big mushrooms for supper.
Well done Sarah with your weight loss & I also love pesto! Also welcome back to some “old” starters restarting & good luck.
It will feel so good when this first week has been got through & accomplished because it’s a bit of a trial this morning😿😿
Margaret xx

Day four, and noticed some minor changes in my body shape again. T-shirts being a little loser round the belly and something that isn’t mentioned in the books. My teeth feel clean all day!!
Although falling to sleep still takes me a while, I am sleeping a lot deeper and not waking up during the night which is something that doesn’t happen very often for me.

Today I decided to have chopped apple with my Greek Yogurt, while tucking into my breakfast.
I added the foods in myfitnesspal app. The Apple has 19g of carbs in it. Oh well lesson learnt but as my carb count for the last few days has been sitting between 20-30 carbs overall. Im not to worried.

Avila – I bought the clothes in the first place to hide the rolls of fat and they must have hidden the weight loss also. Other people on this forum have commented before that they have lost a stone but no one has noticed – I wonder if the baggy hide all clothes are the culprit.

I often get a cauliflower cheese to put in the oven and sometimes Asda/Sainsbury’s do a fajita ready meal with chicken and peppers and a seasoning and I have that but without the wraps. Although not ready meals as such, another easy thing to do (in probably the same time it would take to heat one up) is to get some prawns or chicken breast chunks (from the deli aisle) and warm them through in a frying pan with some oil and either simple herbs and spices, flavoured full fat soft cheese, or peanut butter (with a splash of milk or cream and some chilli to make a bit of sauce) and then serve with salad or cauli rice or courgetti etc. Very quick and easy!

You’ve motivated me Angela! Where can i find out info about the 1000 mile walk? I too am lazy but want to see a difference quickly, as you can see impatient too, lol

Oh Pat you are having the same day I did the day before yesterday. But it doesn;t have to be about tomorrow – you can pull it in right now. Remember the ‘just because you drop your phone doesn’t mean you have to go on and completely smash it up’ philosophy?

Meanwhile I just discovered the best BSD comfort food meal so far! ‘Pasta’ and pesto! One bag of ‘Slim Pasta – Penne’ and a third of a jar of Filippo Berio classic pesto: 2 minutes on the hob and hey presto, a delicious pig out at only 177 kcals and 2gs of carbs. (Okay so 15g of fat but we can ignore that for now.)

Now, if I was being REALLY piggy I’d even have two bags of the pasta with the same amount of pesto (which was enough). At 24 calories only per bag of pasta and zero carbs, it would be a portion for 2 and still only 200 calories and 2gs of carbs. Perfect for a saintly pig-out and feels very naughty indeed. Perfect for the crappy stressful week I am having here!

Morning all

Trelawny, that’s a stonking weight loss for 2 days – well done you! Tigs, although having a three day headache is never nice (!) take comfort from the fact that you’ve only got it because it’s all the yucky carbs leaving your system. That thought (and usually two nurofen) helps me a little 🙂

Hey jo – I imagine you felt a bit yucky but the great thing is that you’ve drawn a line under it and today is a new day – Yay!!

2lbs off for me this morning (inching nearer to target) – managed to avoid the headache yesterday but it’s back again – day 3 of my 2017 restart

I am always too tired to bother with a fancy packed lunch when I get home from work and keep it as easy as possible. Today is salami slices, yoghurt and blue cheese. Other days can include cream cheese peanut butter dip, soup, babybels, nuts etc

I have had that – people commenting about my continued loss even when I was actually creeping up, but had changed to slimmer style of clothes rather than the baggy hide all look. It shows how much what we wear affects the perceived weight…

Hello all – I love coffee (hence the username for my mum and I 🙂 ) – I guess everyone has to find what works for them. When I do 800cal, I have one latte a day (full cream, contrary to old mindsets) and it’s so tasty and filling. It is basically a good enough breakfast and well worth the 106cal! whilst I follow the plan but don’t count calories, I have 2 (she typed, whilst sipping her second latte 🙂 ) and it’s never had any detrimental effects to staying on plan. Quite the opposite.

Morning all
Day 3 for me. Yesterday I admit to a craving for hot buttered toast but resisted! I am holding out hope for this working to get me over my plateau. Over a year on 5:2 with the odd lapse has seen off 14 lbs. Here’s to another 14 fingers crossed. have all the food ready. The only problem I have is making dinners that I can bulk up with carbs for my underweight husband!! I am planning on adding pasta, rice, pots etc to his.
Thank heavens I am already into 5:2. It really does help. Good luck to all, we are on a journey together. x

Crashed and burnt – the cake won today, feel bad… never mind tomorrow’s another day.

I would like to try the liquid blood sugar diet, even for the the 1st two weeks. Has anyone else started this way. What shakes are you using? Slim fast ? I know the initial trial with Prof taylor was done this way. Thank you 😊

I love my coffee too much to give it up, it is like air to me. I have about 3/4 white coffees a day and the odd cuppaccino when I visit waitrose or fill up with petrol. If it means my weight loss is a tad slower then so be it, but who knows how I will feel about it when I am 30kg lighter. 🙂

Noel

Hi all, I also started on the 2nd of Jan. This is my 2nd go at it and hopefully this time I can get over the initial hump. I enjoy the food, I enjoy the feeling that not eating rubbish gives me, such as not bloating and sugar spikes/drops etc. Instead I have a clearer mind, sleep better and feel more comfortable in my tight trousers.

I tried this for about 6 weeks last year Aug/Sep -lost 6/7kg – but got a bit fed up with all the faffing with cooking and cleaning up and having excess ingredients building up. That might more because of the type of person I am than anything else. This time I intend to stick with it as long as possible, hopefully until the end of Feb at the very least and then long after that. Have already lost 2kg and it is not even 1 week yet. I realise most of it is water but it is a good morale boost.

Anyway, I believe it will help to have somebody else to make the journey with. Look forward to having much success with all of you.

Noel

Welcome Rose88 Voyager, Kandefloss, Julygirl and good morning to all the BSD january family, the level of commitment here is really inspiring for me..this is my go-to place when my motivation slips and the fridge beckons!

I joined up for the 1000 mile walk and have been chugging my way round the park. The first 8 weeks I dixn’t add in exercise…becauae basically I’m lazy, but this time round with just some walking, I’m really noticing a difference. And I’ve printed out some of their posters and put them round the kitchen to remind me if I forget!

Have a great day everyone. Angela x

Thank you for the replies and advice
I’m very keen to see what the results are of this diet both short and long term as an very keen to do what I can to halt or reverse this

Well done Verano – you are definitely an inspiration. Daisiesmum – doesn’t it feel good typing the word ‘slender’.

We are all doing so well – and you are right Verano that it is a way of life not a short term fix. So we are bound to have ups and downs along the way.

Went back to work yesterday and everyone was so shocked by the huge weight loss I have had over Christmas. I explained that I was the same weight as before but was wearing smaller clothes. I must admit my size 10 trousers and tops do look very different from what I was wearing before Christmas but I didn’t want to buy any more new clothes until I got to target. I actually must have looked really ridiculous in my old stuff before Christmas.

Great start voyager, soooo encouraging😊. Day 4 for me and as everyone says lots of water, weigh and record and stick to this forum for motivation, we can all do it 2017 is our year💪🏻!

Slept like a log, only up once for the loo!! Have lost 5lbs of the Christmas excess so very pleased. Only 990 miles of the challenge left. AND aches and pains improving already.
Amazing what ailments water retention causes or aggravates. Aching arms, legs, pains in chest – all vastly improved in just 2 days. Have a good low carb day everyone xx

Gained 9 3/4lbs during Christmas madness!! Back on it 2 days, lost 5lbs very happy. 1,000 mile challenge is now 990 mile challenge. Back on it. Have a good low carb day everyone.

Hi there Timeto change, I drink 5/6 mugs of tea per day with a splash of milk and so far it hasn’t impeded my progress, 12.2kgs down since the end of October but I’m not diabetic and milk does contain sugar But as long as you’re losing, I wouldn’t worry.

Hi

My 6 month BSD anniversary today and my goal was to have lost 3.5lbs in the last 10 days but have only managed 1.6lb. Never mind its a loss and so back to the drawing board for me !

My next goal is really small just 1.5lbs to drop into the next stone. A week maybe???

Hope you are all getting closer to your goals.

Verano, WOW, what an inspiration, thanks for that.
Thank you too for your previous psost I measured my waist and it’s the smallest it’s ever been, only once before in my life have I ever been that slender around the middle! Now I’m properly back in the groove my weight is going in the right direction, though still slightly above my Christmas Eve weigh-in – I must have taken celebrating my weight loss to a level never before seen :O

Tigs and Jo, you are doing well. At the risk of sounding trite, you only fail if you give up completely. We are in a learning process and it can take time. I speak as a recovering carbo-holic. On those binge sprees I could eat a small mountain of bread, biscuits, cake, more cake, more bread, chocolate, you get the picture.Once, many years ago, I attended a youth group Pot Luck dinner where almost everyone brought only a fancy dessert and being all young people we ate and ate til we were fit to explode, the next day however we literally had hangovers as if we had been boozing (we hadn’t). That was where I learned my first sugar lesson 🙂 Did it make any difference? Not really, it is only now that I feel so much better without it that I have finally cottoned on!

Have a great day everyone!

DAY 3 …. WEEK 2

Good morning/evening

Today is my 6 month anniversary of BSD. Looking back it’s been far better than I had imagined it would be. Better in that this is a new way of eating for life for me, I have diabetes, and not a ‘diet’, which always seems like a short term ‘fix’ before you go back to ‘normal’ eating. This is my new ‘normality’ and whilst I’ve had low moments and difficult times, that’s real life and I’d have had them anyway but probably used food to get through them.

I have managed to fit BSD into my life rather than the other way around. I have had holidays, weekends away in hotels and meals out, including Indian, Thai and Chinese. I’ve managed, for most of the time, to find ‘friendly’ food. I’ve discovered that nobody is really interested in what I eat so I’m quite happy to have food without simple carbs wherever I am.

To be honest I have really lost the ‘taste’ for bread, rice, potatoes and pasta. I can take or leave cakes and biscuits so tend to leave them now! My only weaknesses are Lindt chocolate and red wine. So in the past 6 months I have lost 2 stone and dropped 5.5 ” from my waist. Not huge numbers I hear you cry but also no deprivation to get to this point and I’ve slotted BSD into my life.

I still have a lot to lose and hope to lose a similar amount in the next six months. The tortoise and the hare spring to mind and so for me it’s slow and steady but still enjoying my life as I go.

Hope you are all have a good day.

Chubbs1975
I started the BSD to stop the retinopathy getting worse. I had read research that it is the after meal spikes that cause the retinopathy so I was quite hopeful that the BSD would help me do this. Of course it did much more because it reversed the retinopathy completely and the diabetes is in remission.

To keep the after meal spikes to an absolute minimum I keep the net carbs to 30g or under. I am more and more convinced that I have had undiagnosed diabetes for a long time before I was diagnosed in 2012. By then my pancreas was so damaged that I had to go straight onto insulin both at night and after all my meals and snacks as my blood sugars were absolutely sky high. If someone hasn’t had diabetes very long they probably would be fine with higher good carbs.

I go for a walk after every meal as even a 10 minute walk helps the insulin to work better and more quickly after you have eaten. I am more insulin resistant after breakfast and this really well to keep my blood sugars low at that time.

So BSD and exercise are a very powerful combination and as you have already sorted the exercise I think that you will do very well on the BSD.

Hails
I absolutely agree with Cmawp’s post. I love my coffee also but had to change to black coffee – or coffee with a teaspoon of cream (two teaspoons now I am on maintenance). I ditched the milk because it is quite carby. Also skinny milk isn’t truly BSD and they may find that coffee really does taste better without it.

I drink 2 Nespressos a day and 3 instant coffees and this hasn’t stopped me losing nearly 3 stone in weight. In fact it has really helped because I love coffee so much every cup of coffee is a special treat and I am happy to drink coffee when everyone else is tucking into a desert when we go out for a meal.

I do drink plenty of water because of the worry about dehydration but was very interested to read the research that Jenni flagged up. There is quite a lot of research lately showing the health benefits of coffee so it is much less a guilty pleasure.

Voyager: sounds like you’re off to a great start! Congrats on your weight loss.

Btw, there’s an article in the Daily Mail today linking the Med’ diet to a lower incidence of dementia in older age: click on this web link or cut and paste it into your web browser to know more!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4087966/Mediterranean-diets-help-stop-older-brains-shrinking.html

Good morning all.

We all fall down indeed. But this is a marathon not a sprint. Changing lifelong habits is super hard, especially when food has been become a coping tool and not the fuel it’s supposed to be.

That said, I’m a kilo (2.2lbs) down in three days since my re-start, even with the Disaster of Day Two. Feeling physically bit better already despite averaging under three hours of sleep each night this week due to too much being on my mind (which is the next thing to resolve in the coming days). Increasingly tired but am ploughing on.

Have reverted to my original 2016 tactic of drinking Diet Coke as a ‘snack’ to help get me through the sweet cravings of the early days. Yes I know it’s a bunch of caffeinated chemicals but I’ll be weaning myself off it again gradually. I figure it’s a better short term option in this tough period than actual food, BSD-compliant or otherwise, which I have less control over in those weak, tired ‘hangry’ moments!

Have a good day everyone. I’m off to tuck into a measured portion of sugar-free soya yoghurt and blueberries 🙂
Sarah x

Ha ha JulesMaigret — yeah, perhaps that was a bit overstated!!😜 Plenty of “brain-dead” moments in my life or as someone here posted, it must be “stupid o’clock” — so obviously it is REALLY IMPORTANT to eat right LOL. Thanks for reality check!!

You are doing well with your blood sugar sunshine-girl! That’s very impressive how much your blood sugar has come down over the past 7 months. Wow! I’ve noticed that on the days I have even a little bit of chocolate, or something similar, my fasting blood sugar will be higher the next morning. Seeing that keeps reminding me how refined sugars are just like poison to my body! Even knowing this though doesn’t keep me from sometimes giving in and having it. I just want to work hard on learning to eat low carb most of the time so I can occasionally have a treat now and then.

Hope your day went well Angela06!

PEAK: Weighed in and am now down 2.5 lbs. since January 1st. Only half a pound more to lose to get the 3 lb. holiday weight gain off!

PIT: I took most of the inside Christmas decorations down today; everything but the Christmas tree. I think it’s going to take me a few days to get it all put away. I love decorating for Christmas but the putting up and taking down is a big job!

Good for you Timetochange, getting back into the groove. I wouldn’t worry about too much tea (or coffee) as if that is what gets you through, then all good. I personally have loads of both and love it. Just have to count the milk in your daily tally.

The ABC.net.au health and wellbeing fact buster site debunks the idea that tea or coffee will significantly have a diuretic or dehydration effect. It includes Aus and U.K. Research.

Yes we are!

On a positive note, I have bought up books recommended in recent posts – Jason Fung The Complete Guide to Fasting (which I will do to maintain eventually and already do a day now and then on BSD) and Gary Taubes latest – The Case Against Sugar. I already have Fung’s The Obesity Code, Lustig’s Fat Chance and Michael Mosley’s books. All encouraging to read in weak moments and just anyway, as confirms we are in the right space with BSD and IF if doing that too.