Just an update, and possibly a warning in light of a report in today’s MoS that Michael is conducting a trial around fish oils.

My recent INR test, my 8 weekly on Thursday, showed that my INR level had shot up to 3.6 from 2.2 in August, that was up from the 2.1 for the last few tests. The only difference in my diet are the Cod liver oil with vitamin D capsules I have been taking for the last couple of months.

If Michael reads this blog I would be interested to know his opinion.

Hope you all don’t mind me joining this thread although i will actually be starting/rebooting the plan on Tuesday the 11th …. it is Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.
I’m 67, a woman, from Canada. I’m at about 240 pounds … i’m guessing because i’ve been sick with sinus/colc stuff so i haven’t been for a weigh in at my gym club.

I am restarting …. because i hardly ever got under both the 800 calorie count and less than 50 carbs …. and to sick to exercise. I just need a fresh start.

Breakfast ideas : tiny amount of chopped ham and onion plus eggs makes a nice denver omelette. Can also add a couple of small tomatoes and/or some sliced of cucumber to fill the plate

Flax …. if you buy whole flax (less likely to go rancid) i keep a separate coffee grinder just to chop them up enough to chip the flax seeds open …. so they provide some fibre … because whole flax seeds just go right through!!

Snacks and or lunches …. a wide variety of chopped/sliced veg. in plastic dish …. love sugar snap peas, small tomatoes, slices of cucumber, green beans, even a couple of sliced carrots … anything you like … i keep it handy when i’ve got the munchies …. it’s also a nice lunch with a bit of cheese

This is a lovely supportive group and so many good results reported already! Good luck guys! Onwards and downwards xx!

SHALIMAR X get well soon x its soooo miserable having a cold….and Happy Thanksgiving! Sorry you had to miss family dinner.
Good luck with yr reboot x
SUNSHINEGIRL welcome back to the uk! Yr outfit sounds such fun! Have a fab time and well done,you WILL get under 74 kgxx
BLUEMOON wishing you all the luck in the world x!
Hi VERANO well done on getting back onto yr minigoals after yr hols x
FITMYJEANS!hope you find youve achieved yr mini goal tomozz ! and talking of jeans..well done on thaoe size 12 s again MIX!
KRYSIA its a shame about yr leather coat,but you can no longer wear it for the best of reasons! 👍🏻
CECILY congrats on yr loss and best of luck with yr next mini goal! X

I know! I have never had that kind of loss before. I’ve lost every week. It’s working out about 1 pound every 3 days now which is still great for me.

Hi Rosie

Yes, I do but more so over the course of a week so daily it varies from about 750-850. Although in the first week or so I found I wasn’t hungry but now I need everyone one.

What works for me is to do a weekly menu so an example for me is

B’fast – feta, green pepper and spring onion omelette with a grilled tomato
Or scrambled eggs, grilled tomato, black pudding (lower calorie version from Bury)
Or porridge with half skimmed milk, half water – I love porridge but have it on lower carb days as it is quite night in carbs

Lunch – salad with chicken and coleslaw or avocado and prawns or salmon
Or courgette, pea and watercress Home-made soup with chicken or gammon on top
Or vegetable soup with chicken breast cooked in it

Dinner
Veg or salad plus chicken, fish or filled mushrooms

Snacks
1 piece of fruit or berries and faje yoghurt and ground nuts

Basically

Eggs for breakfast and salad or soup plus protein for lunch and veg or salad with protein for dinner and ‘a little something of whatever I fancy’ for a snack.

Planning helps enormously with making good choices. I mostly log my food on a calorie counting app in advance so if carbs/cals are getting a bit too high too quickly then I choose a lower carb dinner and snack.

It is very straightforward and you’ll see that after a few days. You don’t have to be perfect.

Elaine

My mini goal is to reboot my 800 calories BSD plan on Tuesday. I want to also reboot my exercise plan by going to Yoga Aquabics Class on Tuesday.

The reason for Tuesday is that this is Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada. I missed family diner because i’m still coughing and sneezing and using up boxes and boxes of kleenex …. need another kleenex sale soon.

So …. today is the first day i had non healthy food … kettle corn … and nachos.

I did go to grocery store and bought chicken and cauliflower so i can get back on plan on Tuesday.

Christel/aka shalimar

Thanks. I’m inspired!

Well done all you guys on here! Week 2 kicks off tomorrow…wishing you all a smooth and easy week ahead x
MIX i congratulated you elsewhere but i have to do it again here.. You are a 🌟🌟🌟🌟 x
RANDAM isnt it weird? That an apple becomes a weekend treat! Same here! 😉 X and how fab! 7 lb down! Thats 14 packs of butter x
Get well soon MAJOR MUMMY! X
YORKLASS well done on yr first week under yr belt and on all the exercise! X perhaps you need more full fat/ protein if youre hungry plus using up a lot of cals with all that exercise!
VICTORIR Good luck with yr weigh in x
Well done SEASHELL! KEID! ADELSKI! PRIMADAWN! CARA! APATCH!👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
MEFTL I am just like you.. I always want to chuck all the halloumi in the pan! I love it! Its low in carb but quite hi cal.
good luck STACIB and MAURICEM best of luck with losing that tum..nearly 14 weeks and my v substantial tum is far far smaller now! Makes a big difference to how i look! And trouser buttons and zips that always popped open now stay firmly closed! 😄

I’ve been doing 800-900 most days with the odd meal out and 50 carbs or just under. At first I weighed and measured really carefully and now I feel more confident at guessing portion sizes. I’ve had one week plateau but then followed that by a week of careful eating. One week recently I lost more but that was due to pulling a ligament and being in a lot of pain and I think that shocked my system. Until then I was walking daily but only 30 mins and fairly slowly.

I think I’m an example of what happens if you keep plodding on with the BSD it just adds up eventually into something more significant. Also I have a lot to lose about 8st and I’m just passed the halfway mark. It hasn’t always been easy and for some reason I struggled weeks 9-11 but now I’m in the zone and although I definitely take one day at a time I feel for the first time in my life I might just do it.

It’s the forum that’s kept me going and I have learnt so much about my own behaviour over the weeks. My advice would be not to overthink it just keep going one day at a time. Good luck.

Rosieha …. have you read the 8 week Blood Sugar diet book?
The book actually should give you a pretty good idea of what this is all about ….. then you can really know if this does apply to your situation …. and how it applies to your personal situation …. and how and which of the diet plans will work best for you.

We can describe what we do …. but what we do may not be best for you.

Thank you 😀

Hi all, I am new too. LianieUK, do you eat all your suggest in 800 c a day. I am finding it
All a but hard but wondering if I am looking at it too deeply and i should simplify everything ?

The above is a great source of videos and readings! I want to take the entire course … and am preparing to do it …. but the videos and readings are great without taking the whole thing.

thank you all for the positive words and encouragement xxx it has really helped me to get through this week. and it does feel as though it’s getting gradually easier…

Major Mummy – it’s tough going on this thing with a sore throat etc…I had a head cold for most of this week and slept poorly, it was a slog and I really had to resist the carbs too…but i got there 🙂

Btw, I had the thai red curry for dinner tonight with cauliflower “rice”. It was only amazing!

I got my bike fixed today and went cycling (for the first time in 2 years). What is happening to me!! Though, I am partly rejoicing that it’s well into October now and the weather here in Dublin is still well and truly in the double digits…

Hi rosieha
there are several threads on max carbs – but the book doesn’t actually set a max limit (put “Max carbs” in the search box at the top right hand corner of the page to find them) most people here seem to aim for 30 or 50, or find that if you have 800 calories and no refined carbs, they sort of end up being that anyway.

The point of cutting out refined carbs for the 8 weeks is more that that period of time helps you break any addiction to carbs and or sugar that you may have.
If you only have 14lb to lose, that may not be an issue for you, but many people here will attest that you can have a perfectly healthy diet for a prolonged period of time that doesn’t include bread, pasta, rice potaoes et al.

If you are counting carbs, then you will be restricting sugar as well – if you look at food labels, they will state:
Carbohydrate xx.x
of which sugars yy.y

Have you looked at using an online calorie counter, such as FatSecret UK or MyFitnessPal? as well as calories they will track all the major nutrients.

If you had the 8 week Blood Sugar diet book …. buy it or borrow from the library, even interlibrary load …. your questions are addressed …. it’s really difficult to type out everything here, after looking it up.

It really is NOT the Atkins diet …. yes you can eat meat, fish, eggs etc. but you are also supposed to eat non starchy vegetables, greens, lentils, beans, berries …. full fat yogurt … and small quantities (weigh, or measure and look it up) of other fruits, vegetables, etc.

A handful … how big are your hands? …. your can buy a cheap scale … or some small measuring spoons … and look up the carbs and calories of the item … on the internet … on MyFat Secret … or numerous other sites.

The diet is planned mainly to try and reverse diabetes or avert diabetes.

If you don’t have much to loose … and that blood sugar reading isn’t that bad … you may reach your goals before the 8 weeks are up …… you can also do a 5:2 plan ….. read the information on the site …. see top line of this site … Blood Sugar Diet, Get Started, Get Active …. FAQ, etc.

As for things like a “handful”… which are not precise … use what seems reasonable to you … and weigh and measure … and look up that amount.

If you are confused … you most likely to need to read the book.

And ….. when you reach your goal ….. it probably is not advisable to add calories from simple carbs of potatoes, breads and such. Sure … you can add some … but wouldn’t it be better to add carbs and calories from mostly healthy sources????

Carbs counts include sugar.

HI Jan, hope that everything goes well tomorrow.
I’m well and still losing – bit of a wonky day yesterday eating wise – temporary blip. And as I posted (I think on another thread), even though it felt I’d eaten loads, it was only around 1,000 calories.

I found this source on the Mindfulness forum and thought I’d post it on our thread for newbies like me who may not have seen it. Just FYI. http://palousemindfulness.com/

Welcome Busybee.

Thank you all for you replies. I am not pre or diabetc, but my latest health check was a fasting BG of 5. So ,as in my late 60s, I want to address this and loose a stone I need to. However, in practise, I am finding the diet a little hard to understand. I get the 800cals or 5600 over a week, I understand 50 g of carbs daily, but can’t do it and often have 70 to 80g, but should I count sugar?, does it matter if I go to 1000 c at times.Where some of the recipes say ‘ a handful of nuts’ what’s that? . I come from an age where fat was banned so am finding it hard to add. Also, what is different about this diet apart from the 800 c to the Atkins diet where people started to have heart problems I believe. I understand abt processed carbs and white foods, but when I loose that 14 Pounds and BG down a bit, do I need to introduce a bit of bead or pasta etc into my diet or do you eat more of what I eat now.Surely we need some carbs , not going mad of course, in our diet? Sorry about this but I am very Confused.

Yeh JAN on three types bp med,not high doses, but maybe too much now, if my bp has gone down with my weight loss
Yesterday may be just one of those things that happen once and never happen again
Thinking of your no 2 son and lighting a candle now for his appt tomoz and for a happy resolution to his health probs..will light another candle for a good resolution to the other concern too xxx
I hope this bad time passes very soon and your worries are lifted x

BillingeBabe…This Texan just learned that a lost stone equals 14 pounds. So how many pounds are in a lost post? Lol 🙂

Hi Frog and Loopylou – the BSD really does change things, it seems that we can’t eat as much as we did pre-BSD even if we fall off the wagon. Well done on declining the profiteroles Loopylou. In another life I adored profiteroles.

Frog – I have felt really well on coming off insulin apart from the first 3 weeks where my body went into hypo alert every time I dropped below 5.5. Which was quite a lot of the time. That has all calmed down now and all hypo alerts have switched off. My own insulin stops me spiking higher than 6.6/7.0 in that first hour after a meal whereas I often went up to 8 or 9 in that first hour when I was injecting insulin at meal times. So the BSD is really doing a great job getting rid of the visceral fat and helping my liver and pancreas to work. It is not working perfectly yet but I have high hopes it will keep improving as I lose weight.

Hopefully the Hba1c will be fairly close to the normal range.

Hi Yowser
Are you on b.p. Meds

LainieUK…so if a stone equals 14 pounds, you own a three pound weekly loss! That’s incredible and so encouraging to me. “Bunkum” indeed…well said.

Hi Frog.

How are things, kind of you to ask, well no 2 son has an appt at guys tomorrow, so hopefully we will get confirmation of what’s happening, the other problem is still v concerning, but hey everything feels better with a lovely BSD day doesn’t it. So I have committed again on veranos thread. How are you doing. Are you on her thread doing the carb challenge.
🙃🙃🙃

Thanks Frog. I think it will be tough to begin with as I have to learn what’s what but reading through others posts it seems planning and prepping are the key. Off to have a herb tea 😊

You Dazzle, Sazzle50!

Mixnmatch way to go, that’s an awesome accomplishment. I can only hope to get as far myself. I weigh in tomorrow for the week mark and will attempt to work in some additional exercise this week. Concentrated more on the food aspects l last week and still seemed to work out.

Hi Loopulou – Had a few things I shouldn’t yesterday, but the amazing thing was that when I logged them, it was still all around 1000 calories, which is pretty low and half the general RDA! (and a fraction of what I’d have eaten pre BSD, even without cake treats, chocolate….)

Don’t worry about the forthcoming HbA1c Krysia, I’m sure it will be fine.
Have you been feeling well since you stopped taking insulin?

Hi Bluemoon – good luck, hope it goes well

If you think about how long it’s taken to accumulate your extra weight, 8 weeks is tiny in proportion – and once you get used to no carb eating, and feeling better because of the weight that you’ve lost, BSD really isn’t a hardship.
Lots of us have done it for longer – and it is a life changing way of eating, and an end to the never ending cycle of diet-lose weight-go back to eating crap- put weight on again-diet-lose weight-go back to eating crap- put weight on again-diet-lose weight-go back to eating crap- put weight on again-diet………

Greenjanet – good luck on your re-boot tomorrow. I am sure you will do really well now you are back ‘on the wagon’.

Sorry Sunshine-girl – I miss-read your post on another thread that your husband was 4.0 two hours after breakfast. It will be really interesting to see what he is two hours after his tea and toast.

Your readings are actually not that far off from truly normal as per Dr Christiansen and are well within the NICE guidelines.

My Hba1c is due on the 25th October and it will be 7 weeks without insulin so I am veering between absolutely terrified at getting the results and being quite optimistic that they will be better than the 50 I was in March. Still – it will keep me on the straight and narrow until then.

I posted this morning but that seems to have gone into the ether too.
Yesterday’s meal with friends was lovely but I was unable to stop at the 2 glasses of wine I had allowed myself. I Stopped counting how many glasses I had. Feeling a little hung over this morning and put on one and a quarter pounds. (Hoping it was eating late and the vino). Erring on the side of overestimation I think I had about 1500 cals but only 37g carb. On the plus side I declined the profiteroles.
Have been ultra good today carbs 26, calories 650. Hope the scales will reward me in the morning.

Iknow FROG! Plus it has to be with any gp,not necessarily the one you want to see. I have an appt early Nov with the GP who knows me best.she is really good so its always at least 3 week wait to guarantee seeing her.
In my younger days,you just came in the morning or afternoon you needed to see a doc,and sat in the waiting room for yr turn.might as well go back to that really coz with the appt system you go in on time for yr slot,but never get in on time anyways! My last appt i saw the doc an hour after the appt time …not cpomplaining tho,just grateful we stil have an NHS..not sure how much longer we will have
Good idea re seeing a pharmacist! BOots is just over the road so can ask in there if they can give me a reading if the doc cant see me x

Hiiiii JAN x how are things with you ?x
yesterday i had what i think may have been vertigo..worst day I ve had in a long time..every time i stood up everything whizzed round and went black as if i was going to faint,but i didnt..imagine the damage to the floor if i hit the deck?!
My balance was totally off kilter.And no i hadnt even had a drink!
I’ m used to always being a little bit dizzy and disorientated but this was a total nightmare.
Not sure if i have an ear infection or if my BP has gone low,or if its something BSD related

i have deffo got a pain in my pinny and my frock’s not well tho! 😄 And dont leave me in charge of driving the bus whatever you do! 😄

Right I am recommitting here so going public, hehe nothing else to eat this eve and rekicking myself tomorrow, with a 800/40 day. I’m indulging in a bit of la strictly now, so will organize a weeks menu later.

Da da ddddd da da strictly tune. Yep she’s gone a bit bonkers. 😾😻🤖

So interested to see several of you mentioning cheese. I’m a cheese addict and, despite keeping within my calorie and carb targets, I have not shifted at all on days when I eat cheese… actually that could be dairy generally. Anyone else find this?

Hi all, I started BSD today and thought I would keep a log of how it goes.
I’m 48, 5ft 5in and currently weigh 16st 2lb 😳
I only heard about this diet earlier this week when I bumped into a friend I hadn’t seen for a while and he’d lost a whopping 3st in 8 weeks! How? BSD! So here I am 😊
I thought 8 weeks sounded a long time so I’m going to look at it in days and just take it one at a time.
So my stats for day one are cals 750 carbs 12g
I’ve prepped lunch for the week, breakfast for tomorrow and dinner for 2 nights.
Looking forward to the week ahead x

Happy Monday! starting weight for the week is 128 Yeeha, 1.8 down from last week. So stoked with that. Looks like I’m one of those people who take off a kilo, then stall for a week or two then take off another kilo. Oh well at least its coming off. A couple people at work have noticed a change, so thats all good. Being home for the next two weeks will be interesting, fingers crossed.
Willmac, thanks so much for your support! Really appreciate it, and yep, know what you mean about some carbs not feeling right. Its all trial and error.
Onwards and downwards!!
KJ

Thank you for your kind words Carb Addict.
I am trying to stay motivated and I haven’t given in yet.
We will fight the fight for the next 7 weeks anyway.
The weight has to come off at some stage. I hope😃
At least I haven’t put it on.

Ah ha
This is where you all are, wondered where you had all gone . Ooh dear, I fell of the back of the bus, and my carb monster dragged me of to a party with yowsers carb monster she was sulking because Yowser wouldn’t partake, of any carby food so the 3 of us eat it all. 😱😱😱😱😱😱 ooh I really miss that virtuous feeling you have when not partaking of the rubbish refined carbs. So I’m glued to this thread now. 😬😬😬

Hi Jan
How are you?
I haven’t seen post from you in a while, but that could be me logging in at odd times.
Hope life is getting more settled – although the things you mentioned a couple of weeks ago both sounded as if they were going to be long term things to deal with.

Hi Yowser luvvy

Only just seen your post, you were about to faint weren’t you, have you found out what caused it, and how are you now.
Love jan

My GP practice is the same with the 8 o’clock thing – it seems like the most bonkers method ever. If you don’t do the 8am thing, its about a three week wait. Face to face appointment would be better, as they can check your BP there.
If not successful getting an appointment tomorrow, do you have a local pharmacy with a BP machine? A conversation with the pharmacist could be helpful as a substitute.

Wow angiebabe, that is an amazing result. Have you been on 800 calories for the 19 weeks or mixed and matched`?

Krysia, they were my results, not my husbands. We haven’t done his yet. So mine at 6.6 are not quite there yet. I will let you know hubbies, will probably have to measure pre lunch as he is sure to tuck into his toast and marmalade before I get up, so forget to do it. I will let you know our results.

Thanks FROG,thats a really good point. You have to ring at eight a.m. to try to get an appt. for Tomoz…so it depends if when i get thru, there’s still appts left!…you ahve to keep pressing redial coz its always so busy!..if not ,I might be able to at least get a phone consultation after surgery. X

Miss Ziggy I feel exactly the same! Somehow the weekend doesn’t feel right not having any wine at all. I also have an open bottle of Rioja that is left over from last weekend when we had family to lunch. I’m hoping it will “keep” for eight weeks so I can have a glass when our eight weeks is completed. My husband & I will also have our joint birthday celebrations coming up in November so not having a glass of something then would not feel at all OK!🙁

Hi Yowzer
Do ask about your blood pressure & meds if you see your GP tomorrow – your GP should make the connection and check it, but do ask about it if they don’t – there’s no point waiting for the 24 hour test if it can be checked now.
When my blood pressure went haywire a few years ago, I did get lots of dizzy spells and migraines, but i was having problems with all sorts of side effects from meds. A bit like the “old lady that swallowed a fly” nursery rhyme
Hope it goes well

I had to buy new pants yesterday, and worn them today. Nothing exciting, just a multi pack from M&S, but not the Bridget Jones “big pants” style. All the old ones kept falling down, including the “little” ones that I found a few weeks ago – it somehow feels more of an achievement than smaller proper clothes 🙂

I wouldn’t worry about the MFP cholesterol Krysia – it will be high with the egg yolks, but that won’t translate directly into your personal cholesterol results. Someone posted here recently with vastly improved cholesterol readings, and their nurse/GP had said it was because they’d cut out all of the trans fats from cakes/biscuits etc, even though their diet was relatively high fat.

Thank you Frog for the info. I was getting worried that I had somehow blocked myself from the forum. I typed the post to Sunshine-girl girl 4 times.