Thanks Krysia

I guess it’s a case of glass half empty! Normally I put on at least 5lbs on holiday so that’s glass half full!

Need to be more positive!

Good luck with your goal.

Hello everyone, although I started a thread yesterday, everyone in here sounds so lovely and so similar in profile tonne (I’m 56, 14 stone and 5’2″) that I thought I’d pop in here each day too. I have the new recipe book and loved Thai Red Curry. All the recipes look really nice, fairly quick and easy. I’m going to use the 8-week meal plan as a basic structure, so that I am introduced to new things. As a Weight Watchers veteran I am used to taking my normal diet. And cutting out all the things I really like. Not a recipe for success. I want to learn a new way of eating.

Also I don’t think that I will stick to all the carb and calorie counting so by following Michael’s recommendations I hope that will all be done for me. I just have to stop adding in any little extras.

Good luck for today everyone. X

Hi Jan sorry to hear about your problems. Life’s a bitch sometimes! Glad you’re back in control of your eating because the last thing you need is to start feeling bad about/in yourself.

Come on over to 7 day reboot and hopefully it will give you something else to focus on!

I started yesterday too. Technically I’m not a new starter because I successfully followed the plan for 8 weeks earlier in the year and lost 4 kilos then. More than happy with that because I’m a short older lady and I lose weight very slowly. But I went travelling for 9 weeks, had the most amazing time, but came back with a few more kilos than I set out with. Seven, to be precise. : ( I had expected it though. I’d made up my mind to just enjoy my holiday and start again when I got home again because I’m not likely to get an opportunity to travel like this again in a hurry. So here I am, on track so far and looking forward to the next 8 weeks, even though I have three family birthdays coming up. In addition I have a teenage house guest who needs regular feeding, so meals aren’t quite as straight forwards as they were when I was on my own. But losing my extra weight, being able to buy nice clothes and hopefully coming off my Metformin altogether would make putting in the extra effort well worth while. Looking forward to checking in regularly and catching up with you all.

Thank you so much for taking the trouble to reply, Switzerland.

You have skewered the weaknesses in my thinking! I thought: 800 is really low, a bit more won’t matter. Maybe I can wean myself off carbs and avoid carb flu.

After I read your post, I went down to breakfast where four lovely yellow bananas winked at me.

Readers…I hid them in the cupboard! Went for Greek yoghurt and strawberries instead, with a few nuts.

The rice with curry I can leave alone, I think. Had cauliflower rice last night – as well as the brown real stuff – and it was good.

Milky coffee will be more difficult. I’m used to half and half- coffee and skimmed milk. As a first step I’ll switch to full fat, then I’ll need less of it.

So here goes for day 2 – miso soup with tofu, prawns, courgetti and butternut noodles for lunch.

More Thai curry, from yesterday, for dinner along with MMs chard recipe from new book.

I’m sitting on the train and really thirsty so I know what my next resolution must be…

All best to everyone as we take our early, baby steps on this new path.

X

Hi deb2105, double SNAP i also live in Aussie, NSW. How exciting for you to be looking forward to your wedding in Feb. You really must stick with this deb you want to look back on those wedding photos with delight. I have just come back from a couple of weeks in WA and it was the fat photos that have pushed me to get motivated. Photos dont lie, unless they are airbrushed and believe me my ones were not🤐. 5 months is a doable time line if you stay with the eating program. Nice for me too to have others in the same measurement range. Today is my 2nd day and it is harder today as i am feeling hungry i think it is emotional eating that is trying to get me today, it is my weekend and on my own . I feel it is time to load the dvd with some feel good movies.

Found the calculator brilliant, something to work to, thank you

Nettle – just seen photos of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge in today’s newspaper, and she is wearing. ……….. a RED dress! Just like you said 😃

KRYSIA youre seriously going into TWT…Tiny Waist Territory! X👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
VERANO Good luck with the reboot! Congrats on getting tot he halfway point of 24 weeks! Im just a week behind you finishing wk 11 today x
Good luck TIZZIE with weigh in tomozz..mine is due too but i only get weighed when i’ m at DDs first thing before i eat or drink..doubt that will happen tomozzz as she has guests staying !

Jan so sorry about your double whammy of bad news xx v pleased for you that you havent regained much
We ‘re all here on the back of the bus with hugs for you xx

This is all very reassuring, I knew we were to eat full fat dairy products etc but it was just a bit of a shock….

Has anyone else found that many of the recipes in the BSD book (not the cookbook – not got that yet) are totally inaccurate in terms of calorie count? It’s happened a few times where I’ve put the exact ingredients into MyFitnessPal trying to ensure they are validated ingredients or scanning the barcode and got to a totally different calorie number to the book. One example just today was for the Beetroot Falafel…. without the yoghurt and rocket…. it came to 90 cals more than stated in the book! I find this worrying as it makes it harder to plan. Anyone else had this experience?

Verano, you have done amazingly well as you have been away for that time. Before BSD I was on holiday and there was a wonderful local bakery nearby. I managed to put on a stunningly huge 10lb in that week.

Well done Mixnmatch – isn’t it a wonderful feeling to be well on the way to size 12 jeans – they will be looser in no time.

Marie – congratulations for getting back ‘on the wagon’. I have been a slow loser also – mostly because I wasn’t weighing food and was underestimating hugely what I was eating. At the moment I have defeated the ‘carb monster’ but I know it is still lurking out there. So good luck with your goals and your fight with the ‘carb monster’.

My mini goal is to lose 2 1/2lbs which will take me to 10 stone 3 1/2lbs which will be a two stone loss since 1st May. I am determined to get rid of all my visceral fat – every last ounce.

So, end of week four for me this morning. Of the 1.2 kg I put on at my parents’, I’ve lost 900 g. I’m very pleased with that but more so with the idea that I can step off the wagon and get back on without struggling too much (though I did wake up feeling hungry at 4.00 am this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep).

This morning’s figures:
84.5 kg
-0.4 kg
Overall change -4.0 kg

So an average of a kilo a week. It was getting on for 1.5 kg till I went away, when I gained rather than losing. With any luck, I’ll speed up again a bit. I had set myself a mini goal of 83.5 kg by the end of the month. Looking a bit unlikely now, but never mind.

Yesterday’s food and exercise
776 cals
46 net carbs
Short walk with the dogs and an hour and 15 minutes gardening.

Thanks for the congratulations, guys. We’ve been living together for 35 years, so not much will change except legally. Even so, I’m looking forward to it. It’s a very informal do. Somewhat speculatively, I tried on a skirt yesterday that I thought might go with a blouse and cardigan my mum gave me. Amazingly, the skirt fitted me: the last time I put it on was maybe twelve years ago, and it didn’t fit me properly then. So that was good news all round.

Hi all
I’m still here, it’s just on Friday, we had two lots of totally separate bad news, one serious potential recurring illness, with one person and serious domestic abuse, to another ,within our extended family, unfortunately the abuser is a tactical arms officer for the met !!! So obviously no talk of coercive control laws a bit of a waste of time there ! and we love the person who’s being abused very much, so it’s very distressing.To have two separate bits of bad news in one day sent me into overdrive a bit. But eating the way I was eating hasn’t improved anything, obviously, so I’ve weighed in and back into control mode, as it’s the only thing I can control at the moment. Surprisingly have put on very little.
We have a lot to do as a family as we now need to rejig the bedroom formation, so lots and lots to do, but so glad you guys are here, as I definitely must not go back to the level of illness I had before this BSD plan. I am going to need my wellbeing even more now.
Yes Verano I will join you on the reboot bus. You know now it’s colder, thinking about eating my strawbs and fage in a mo now it’s colder is not so appetising, think I will let them warm up a bit first.
How are all you guys doing, I haven’t had the time to go through all the emails. Are we all plodding on sitting in the back seat of the bus.🚌🚌🚌

Hi Debs

A new book has just been published here in the UK – The 8-week Blood Sugar Diet Recipe Book by Dr Clare Bailey with Dr Sarah Schenker.

Sorry, but I don’t know if it’s available yet outside the UK.

Hi

So Day 1 of 7

Well I’ve put on 2.6lbs while I’ve been away. Interestingly while I was in a hotel I lost weight probably because I was walking more …. know the answer then!!!!

My fasting blood sugar this morning was 7.5 !!! That’s the highest it’s been since I started random fasting tests a month ago. I had 4 squares of dark chocolate last night …. to finish it off !!!! That may have something to do with the result !

I’ve worked out my carbs for the day and they come in at 25g so no leeway really. Our flight looks to be on time so hopefully no hiccups there.

Good luck to you all will check in tomorrow.

Weigh in today 3/4lb down from last Tuesday – now 10 stone 6lb. Really happy with that because when I measured my waist it is now 29 1/2 inches and last Tuesday it was 31 inches (this is with the measure pulled tight). So a lot of good things going on with my visceral fat.

Hi Frog

Yes I often make cauliflower rice but the cauliflowers here are iffy! Really looking forward to getting back to decent vegetables especially to cougetti puttanesca !

Korean beef is adapted from a Waitrose recipe for Korean Pork. It’s quite high calorie but carbs are only 19g which could be reduced by putting less brown sugar in. It’s also quite spicy but you can put less chilli bean sauce in to make it milder. I’ve tried it with chicken but it didn’t take on the flavours the same as beef. It’s nice for a ‘treat’ meal occasionally.

I made the chicken biryani with thighs instead of breasts and had with broccoli and raita, really enjoyed it and the leftovers the next day were even better! Also enjoyed the bacon, broccoli and cheese fry up.
The celeriac and apple soup …. meh …… a little bland. But I’ve got TONS of it now, so I’ll pep it up with some chilli and blue cheese.
Overall though, enjoying the recipes.

Hi Igorasusul
I think your husbands doctor is spot on. For me – diabetes in remission is actually what it is. I know if I think my diabetes is reversed I could be tempted in the future to go back to my bad old ways and think that I can eat all the sugary starchy carbs that caused my diabetes in the first place.

But ‘in remission’ will get me into the mind set that as long as I keep to the healthy BSD guidelines I will be diabetes free. So from now on my diabetes hasn’t gone away it is ‘in remission’.

Good for you Izzy, hope the lad feels better today.
Keep on keeping on.

Hi Switzerland, thankyou, I’m about to wake him up so I will see how he is but yesterday aside from the rash he was normal so thankfully nothing too much, fingers crossed he wakes up happy.

I have a meeting to attend this morning so I’m hoping I can go but of course if he is unwell then he comes first.

Assuming I can go to work I will be on ‘bacon roll avoidance’ duty, I’ve had a strawberry shake so my tummy is full. I have soup for lunch and I’m doing pork steaks for dinner later. My weight this morning hovered just above 11st, so I’m hopeful to be back in the 10’s soon.

I know that it seems weird but I still feel empowered by BSD. I’ve had this period of nonsense where I’ve eaten stuff I shouldn’t and been off track – but the most my weight has varied is by 4 lb’s up. Any other diet I would have been on my way back up to gaining much more by now.

Yay for BSD and the new habits I have, because even going off track doesn’t take me so far off track as before 🙂

I’m a new starter too. Made the mistake of taking 25g of nuts as a snack to work. Then found out how many calories that is (169!!) but couldn’t stop eating them. Backed off for dinner, so went over 800 by 50 cals. Won’t make that mistake again 🙂

Day 2 is going well though.

Another starter here. I was going to commence the 5:2 but after buying the kindle 800 book, looking at recipes and deciding I need a good kick start I’ve opted for the 800 diet.
I’ve ordered some ketostix online also- hoping that gives me a measurement ( and motivation ) as well as using the myfitness pal app.
I’m on operation Christmas dress as my first goal- new dress a bit tight and I reuse to go up a size.

End of week 12 …. half way through this 8 week challenge and I’m 2.6lbs up over all !!

Holiday over today so now for a 7 day reboot . Will definitely be reporting better results next Tuesday.

Hope you’ve all done better than me over the last 4 weeks …. can only get better!

Hi just checking in on my last mini goal ….. to lose one pound a week for the last 4 weeks.

Didn’t make it put on 2.6lbs.

Ok have been away for the best part of the time so being realistic I’ve probably done quite well not to put on more!

So next set of mini goals are ….
1. To lose the 2.6lbs
2. Lose 3.5lbs to drop into next stone.

Bit of deja vu going on here !!!!!!

Hope you are all reaching your goals

Hi lifeafter50,
SNAP – we have practically the same profile, only I am 7 kg heavier 🙁
I work from home, so often Im lurking in the kitchen, but not today!
I started today – 27.9.16 and have been very good thus far.
Somehow i feel this is going to work for me, and I hope it does for you also.

cheers, debs

Hi Deb & BSD friends
I don’t bother with the recipes. I just sort out the ones I cook regularly & adjust the calorie count by measuring out the oil, if needed, and weighing the ingredients. And Mr BB gets brown rice, potatoes, or chips very occasionally if he makes them. Last night we had sausages, steamed pointed cabbage & gravy made with a shallot sweated in teaspoon of olive oil, a teaspoon of floor & oxo cube stock. I had 60 g of peas and he made himself some chips. Mine came out at 398 calories – his ??
Tonight spiced prawns a la Delia with spinach for me.
Doesn’t always work though – my usual Spanish omelet calorie counted at 1000 for us both!
Hit a wall last night & went to bed at 9pm. Spent yesterday with my garden designer friend buying bulbs & plants at a wholesale nursery. Actually quite hard work sorting -and lifting £500 of plants and getting them into the car. Planting out today – might need a bigger breakfast than usual to see me through. Have a good day those in the northern hemisphere and sleep well those in the southern.

I have the recipe book and will be swapping a few meals for alternatives as there are some things I don’t like…such as eggs!!
As long as you eat foods that are allowed and keep to around 800 calories you should be ok

Hello, middle of the day here in Perth W’n Australia, springtime, but cold (by our standards) and raining.
This morning on the scales = 64.3kg. 64kg = my next mini goal.
A good eating day yesterday, and a good start today.
Hope everyone is going ok today with this WOE (Way Of Eating).

kitty you will be fine, just keep calm and keep the banana a little smaller and in your calories as everyone has said . I would also suggest no coffee after mid-day if you can do it. If you look at the research the caffeine hit lasts a long time. I could not give up my coffee but never after noon.

I also put the other half of the nana in the fridge for later. It does not look good, but will last a few days.

Good luck

Hi Billingebabe & everyone
I live in Australia and we are going to be married in scotland when we visit the UK next feb! i havent told my partner what i am doing as i want it to be a surprise – see how long it takes him to notice 😉

7lbs is quite an achievement in 1 week – congratulations – i am truly inspired by that!

thank you for responding to my post. i have bought the 8 week blood sugar diet book and am wondering if there are other books available as well?

cheers, debs

Hi Melinky,
I’m not a coffee drinker but am a tea with milk drinker, a lot of teas with a lot of milk! I’ve found that cutting down gradually works best for me rather than cold turkey. I was drinking it more out of habit than anything and now find I appreciate the 2 cups a day more than before. Good luck.

I forgot….

Today:

782 calories
26 carbs

Arthurconandoyle, very thoughtful and encouraging post! Wish I had more time to chat on all the ideas you and the others bring up.

Snoop congratulations on the upcoming nuptials…hope you are happy and blessed for a lifetime : )

Angiebabe, your post was really helpful…im giving lots of thought to it. I seem to struggle with casting a long term vision for eating that I like and can live with for health reasons and just liking it in general. I’m happy with this diet, but I struggle with stress eating and then just maintaining a balance in treats. I seem to need to focus very hard on the diet in order to succeed, and if I’m not paying attention, my habits aren’t what they need to be to allow me to autopilot. I’m thinking about habit training a good bit and very interested in coming to a peaceful compromise with myself on food. Sometimes I just wish it were as simple as abstaining (as in alcoholism) but of course we must eat! I have a friend who has never struggled with weight problems, but once she found that she had gestational diabetes, she gave up sugar and breads forever. She’s doing great and has lost her sweet tooth, but I seem to start and stop. Anyhow, I am just going to work on today and right now and pray for wisdom in the weeks to come.

Had a much better day. Posting here really helped me through some temptations today and to work harder at conforming to the plan.

I am just overwhelmed by everyone’s encouragement today. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and truthful but kind words! Really…thank you all so much.

Best to you all.

Hi just thinking of getting started tommrow.can I eat anything on plan at anytime?

I used to get Hypos with metaformin , I was on a low GI diet not this one but I used to have some almonds and cheese it did help 🙂

Hi everyone , I have just been going through the recipes in the book and have noticed that there is quite a high content in salt within the foods chosen . As I have had a kidney transplant 14yrs ago I am always trying to keep my sugar and salt content not to high, I was wondering if there are other foods that I can substitute those foods with ?
example ..bacon, halloumi , feta , etc.
are these foods in the guidelines of our daily salt intake ?
Thank you
Bron

Hi. Started today. Planning not to have anything other than a cup of tea for breakfasts, salad or soup for lunches and a small low carb portion of what I make for my family for dinner. Not intending to weigh myself for a while because that would be super depressing and more importantly, demotivating, and the fit of my clothes will tell me whether the weight is going or not.

Not sure if you have tried Magnesium it helps with sleep / migraines and toilet 🙂 I use it and have no problems for sleep relaxes me 🙂

Hi ‘the angelwithin’,
Welcome to the forums and the BSD way of life. You’ll notice over the next days and weeks that you get used to this way of eating. As you know part of it is cutting down on starchy carbs.
This is just a word of warning….by sneaking in carbs you delay the inevitable carb withdrawal and also delay weight loss. If you can be strict with yourself at first you’ll give your satiety hormones time to regulate, you’ll not get hungry and you’ll be feeling great. You must believe me that you’ll get to a point where you don’t consider starchy carbs anymore.
So…….there’s not a lot you can do about being in your fifties (me too) but you can eliminate the ‘fat, fed up and fatigue’ from the initial description in your thread.
Oh, the other thing that may be helpful – there are people on the forums that don’t own scales and weigh themselves at the local chemist/health centre and also if you can’t weigh yourself if you have a tape measure you can do this whole BSD just measuring your waist – the measuring often shows weight shifting around (and the reduction in visceral fat) rather than a decrease on the scales (especially if you add in exercise).
I hope this has been helpful and I wish you and Poppetini and keavney21 the very best of journeys.

Day 1 is in the books. Poached egg for breakfast, no carb ploughman’s lunch and chicken stir fry with coconut milk and lime for dinner. I only managed a few bites of dinner – really didn’t care for it. Calories for the day came to 770. The struggle was mostly a mental one. The idea of heading to an island without a grocery store sounds like heaven!

Hi Izzy,
It’s good news that your son doesn’t have scarlet fever. However, you still have a sick little boy. Look after him and yourself.
I hope he recovers quickly.

I started today too.

I’m 5’5 and weighed in at exactly 15st this morning :S

I suspect I’m probably prediabetic – but don’t know for sure. However my blood pressure has gone through the roof – and that’s why I’m here!

My calories for today came in at 754 – and didn’t find that too much of a struggle. Have made lunch ready to take to work with me tomorrow – just need to plan for dinner tomorrow night!

I’m excited to see how we all get on!

If your snacking thru the day, it sounds as if eating a substantial breakfast – say 200 calories, would set you up for the day better, and probably mean that you’d be less tempted to snack during the day
600 calories left for supper if you’re not having rice potatoes or pasta can actually give you varied options

Remember no bread with the breakfast egg(s)
I tend to have poached egg – but with mushrooms, asparagus or avocado, sometimes tomato – and either a slice of bacon or small portion of smoked salmon.

As Izzy says, we’re all different, but from what you’ve written about snacking mid morning and then through the afternoon, it doesn’t seem to point towards a one meal strategy being ideal for you.
I think quite a lot of people posting here do just have two meals – I’m probably about 50/50 between 3 meals or having just brunch and supper – depends on when I get up, what I’m doing that day…..

Had the quiche in a dish today, it was easy to make, needed a longer cooking time, an extra 5 min or so but tasted just like a normal quiche, so we’ll be having the other half for lunch tmrw.

Going to have the cod with chorizo on roasted veg tomorrow night, so will report back as to its success.

I am enjoying the new recipes very much, looking forward to Tom Kerridge’s diet/cook book out in January, be interesting to see what he did to lose so much weight so quickly as he gave up the booze and the white carbs as far as i can tell from interviews he’s given.

AFTER DAY 12

Weight 72.8 kg
Walking 10,000 steps.

AmyA – Welcome 😊

Tabletalk: you’d be wrong about not being inspiring, actually. Real life is out there for all of us. We will ALL have times when we struggle to stay on the BSD. You give us a great role model of NOT allowing lapses to scupper the whole project. We can all think to ourselves “Well, Tabletalk coped with this kind of situation without giving up , so I can too.”

Angiebabe – well said. I loved your sentiments and the word “catastrophise “!

Snoop – CONGRATULATIONS on your coming wedding. Sorry about your parents. For what it’s worth, I think you did the kind thing. You were kind to let your mum be her nurturing self, and allowing her to do something special for you. And you were kind to yourself by having some cake etc but not going totally overboard. Kindness is often underrated, but really important. I think you did really well with your compromises.

Bloke41 – my godmother is Italian, so I have some idea what awaits you when you go to your family. She never pushes food on me, she doesn’t need to! It’s there, it’s delicious… What can I say?😉 One trick that I use is to keep some food on your plate, so when more is offered you say” It’s delicious but I’m still going with this lot!” Hopefully, then they move on to asking someone else if they want more.

How to deal with success is an interesting question. Thinking about it and my own past experiences, I wonder whether it is a form of self -sabotage or is it simply that when you get close to the goal, the problem doesn’t seem like a big one any more, so you relax the discipline that it took you to get there? Will reflect on this … It’s a really good point to bring up.

Agree with Izzy … you can plan your meals the way you want BUT if you are eating simple high carb foods during the day you have to make a plan for healthy snacking.
Small serving of nuts/seeds. Veggies and low cal/carb dip. Low sugar foods. By all means microwave an egg or 2 in the morning.
Maybe you could make extra at your evening meal …. and have a container of left over healthy food to eat the next day.

Today is better for me too. Had a Denver sandwich, egg ham onion … but only ate 1/4 piece of the bread. Then had 3 small chicken drumsticks. I may have a bit of chicken broth with cauliflower and spinach later. Should be okay on calories and carbs!!

Battersea Park walk … sounds like a lovely day!

I do have the 8 week blood sugar diet book coming on Wednesday (right now i have the library book). I ordered the Fast Life book by Michael Mosley too …. but more for the pictures and exercise advice.

8-Week Blood Sugar Diet Cookbook by Clare Bailey and Sarah Schenker … i will get this when it is cheaper … the Canada one isn’t due out until December.

I did get a whole lot of diabetic cookbooks a while back … i was trying to find ones that were a) simple and b) didn’t use cottage cheese or diet sweeteners in the recipies. Just got Vegetarian low-carb diet by Rose Elliot for the recipes.

For pictures and what seem like great recipes i like The Ultimate diabetes cookbook by Diabetic Living (400 recipies). For less recipes but whole food ones … The New Diabetes Cookbook, 100 mouthwatering seasonal whole-food recipes by Kate Gardner. I find browsing through cookbooks relaxing.

I look at amazon.ca …. but if they’re expensive i buy them off the used book lists at amazon … i also check the public library.

You can also “search” the recipes here … put in chicken, eggs, whatever and see what’s available that looks good.

I’m limited right now by 3 things … i never really learned how to cook, no stove and only a teeny fridge. Lots of money being spent on necessary home repairs … so major appliances are broken and have been for a while. I may go for it this fall … really miss having a freezer. And everyone tells me that roasting vegetables is VERY tasty and easy to do!!

I to look through the cookbooks for recipes with easy preparation with ingredients that are easy to get.Sometimes you can get the special ingredient but how many times are you going to use it.

I still haven’t gotten on board with mindfullness and meditation ….. maybe that will help with sleep.