Great summary Shalimar 🙂

Just to add, Gillvegas – would def recommend getting and reading the 8 week Blood Sugar book as it explains the science behind the programme which I think is really helpful.

other things to note:

NO reduced fat – get over all the reluctance to eat full fat and dairy, it is actually good for you. Fat doesn’t make you fat, although we’ve been told so for years. And fat in the diet – like in avocados, olive oil in dressings, full fat yoghurt, fills you up and keeps you satisfied.

(and the sinister thing is that 0 fat and Low Fat dairy actually has MORE SUGAR in so you want to avoid that if you can).

I would consider all refined carbs as forbidden just for convenience, so for your 8 weeks NO bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, sugar, pastry or anything with flour in, and try to reduce root vegetables as a whole. The reason is that these turn to sugar really quickly in your blood and make you hungry and crave more of them so if you can cut them out, you find you are less hungry and feel fuller.

Great advice to get an app like MyFitnessPal or FatSecret and then you can plan out your 800 calories through the day and understand how much your meals are in terms of nutrients. You soon get used to this. And absolutely right to weigh as you don’t realise how many calories you’re adding in with ‘too much’ in a portion, when you don’t really need it.

There is a SEARCH box top right and a lot of fab experience on this forum, so type in a few words to find threads where people have discussed problems/queries they’ve had.

Good morning everyone.
I’ve just registered and started the 8 week plan today.
For breakfast: Scrambled eggs,smoked salmon, avocado,watercress.
I probably won’t be sticking to 800 cals per day as I like tea and coffee with milk but I do like jasmine green tea for a change.
I’ve always liked water so that won’t be a trial.
Have aquafit at 12 so won’t be having lunch until late.
I’d like to lose 7Kg in 8wks that is 10% of my starting weight (11 st)
I think the recipes are delicious and just my sort of taste.
I’ve done my measurements and will be doing them again in 30days.

I think I ran low on sodium yesterday too. It got to 9pm and despite a portion of skinny chilli at 7pm, I felt lightheaded and lethargic. It’s a feeling I recognised from my days of 100+ mile bike rides and it’s not very nice.

I had 12 smoked almonds (including all the salt from the bottom of the bag) and I felt right as rain within minutes.

Hey Nedds mum!

Thank you 🙂 I also find weekends hard. I think work keeps me on the straight and narrow (providing I ignore the canteen!) but the freedom of the fridge at the weekend much harder to bypass! Pleased to hear you’ve lost a few pounds. I will do my official weigh in tomorrow and then prepare for week 2. Fingers crossed!

Hi All,
I’m a bit preoccupied with this at the moment – hopefully it will become more of a habit as time goes on.

Our official, agreed goals now are;
⎯ To lose weight: [me; 20kg (44lbs – omg that sounds like a LOT once I calculated your conversion!) from my heaviest. OH 8kg – I hope he’ll lose 10kg ;-}} ].
⎯ To get healthier: I want to get off BP medication and get my BG well into the normal range.
OH says 5 years ago his stats were fine so he doesn’t need to have them done again (yes I know,…….. and you know……. But at least he is willing, and even keen, to join me in the BSD and to lose his belly fat. I hope that will stave off most problems and eventually he’ll have to go to a GP (General Practitioner) for something and hopefully the routine tests will be done.
⎯ To get fitter: I agreed to go to Tai Chi with OH a few years ago so recently I used that to “convince” him to come with me to my pilates class. We walk our Kelpie dog (Australian sheep dog – black with blonde eyebrows, muzzle and paws “Dizzee”) 3Km most days (she does 2X that and the last bit includes a lot of ball throwing and fetching as well). We are now planning to walk up our local “mountain” 2X week and build to 3-4 times. Most other places in the world this would be called a hill or a knoll or something – Aus is pretty flat. We did it yesterday, sunny, rather than today, rainy, and my Fitbit tells me its equivalent to 81 flights of stairs and 7k steps. It still feels like I have done that! But we did make it. A few days to recover.
Hope everyone has had a good weekend (today was a public holiday here).
Keep strong.

My week 3 loss is 1kg which takes me to 100.8kg and 11.7Kg so far.

Slightly up from my midweek low of 99.1Kg but it’s a loss nonetheless. I did wake feeling extremely bloated and hadn’t had a bowel movement for 2 days so this may explain the upward fluctuation.

Thanks Shalimar-on it

Wow! I just watched the insight sbs beating diabetes video with MM on you tube. If you haven’t watched it I would highly recommend you do. It also made me realize how corrupt diabetes australia is! I’ll post the link below.

https://youtu.be/hDEw561NFto

Hi Cpt Lynne
I’ve just checked out the skirt picture, it’s lovely, quite stunning really, people who have not seen you in a while must be suprised when they see you now. What a lovely colour too, it will never date in the fashion stakes. The line is great. As you say, once upon a time not so very long ago, considering the finer points of fashion didn’t take up a lot of space in my brain. It does now. I have to retry all sorts before I go out, not knowing what fits and what doesn’t. The OP SHOP box is bulging. I can do all of the blouses up with room to spare. They are no longer “goes-overs”….undone over a tee shirt was the look for years. If I wanted to I could peg great chunks together down the back like they do on shop window mannequins.

Why a pastel blue blouse for you mid week, by choice or different role that day?
N.

Thank you Igorasusual for highlighting the high sugar & calorie count of some fruit particularly mango & bananas! This is going to be the difficult thing for me substituting vegetables for fruit because I also like dried fruit in yoghurt but will have to go without for the next eight weeks. However I do like blueberries & strawberries so will have to retrain myself!

Numbers are a complicated relationship – this morning I weighed in at 88.0 kg, I knew I had not been good enough to be at almost 87 as I had hoped at start of the week, but 88 felt bad and yet 87.9 would have felt so much better, and mentally I would be thinking ‘almost 87’ despite it being almost as far away as 88. The same psychology behind the shops pricing things at £ x. 99p

Check this website … see the tabs at the top … Blood Sugar Diet ; Get Started ; FAQ

You CAN have anything …. you just have to count it … calories, carbs, etc.

Basically … NO or VERY VERY LITTLE OF high sugar tropical fruits (small amounts of berries is better), AVOID white foods, potatoes, breads of all colors, commercial cereals, yogurts with sugar/fruit (do eat full fat yogurt with your own added berries)

green and colorful vegetables over root vegetables
salad greens
soups made of vegetables, lentils, beans, meats

eat meat, fish, chicken, lentils, beans (count your calories, etc.)

Drink lots of water

small amounts of nuts, seeds, cheese (count them)
butter, eggs, bit of bacon

There is no list of forbidden foods … look at the guidelines, COUNT everything

If you spend your calories on refined carbs/sugars you won’t have any left to spend on healthy complex carbs etc.
Everybody likes different foods, different recipes, eating different amounts, at different times of day.

Just checking in. End of week 1 and I’ve lost 4lb. Thrilled to bits. Can honestly say I don’t feel hungry and I don’t crave any carbs. Start of week 2, hope its a good one xx

Hi Lynne and anyone else!

Today 3rd October I weighed in at 12.0.0! I did want to get to that magical 11 something but it wasn’t to be!

I have been really good all week, nothing has passed my lips that isn’t bsd, except yesterday I had a third of a small piece of a 50th wedding anniversary cake that a friend brought us, as we couldn’t get to the celebration. That was my downfall!

We are off now for a weeks rest, a bit of walking, swimming and bsd eating, with the odd treat here and there! I hope to return with only a few pounds put on, ready to go at it again with vigour!
Christine.

I want to start having read the book but am struggling with no ‘food list’. Either of you have one? I am same weight as you both and desperate to shift it.

By both books JulesG if you can afford them because it’s so useful to be able to use as a reference & the recipes are inspiring.

Hooray starting today with my husband & we have just worked out how to monitor our visceral fat on our weight scales😀👍
My husband will also be making an appointment with his diabetic nurse so until then will treat days as fast days & not eat until supper but have coffee with some milk, Bovril & lots of water until our supper of smoked haddock & poached eggs. But will also have whole fat organic yoghurt & raspberries & blueberries for pudding. I’m so hoping this will lead to good weight losses & the reversal of my husbands Type2 diabetes!
Good luck everyone👍👍👍🍀🍀🍀🍀

Have been catching up with threads posted over the weekend and like to welcome pgates 😄😄😄. Looking forward to trying your smoothie/shake. Also, Verano’s sauce looks terrific and I cannot wait to make and try. Well done everyone, even people like me who go off the rails occasionally and get depressed.

Phew… weekend over, survived 2 meals out with family/friends and still managed to lose 1lb. Total weight loss at 4 1/2 weeks is 13lb. I have to do more exercising as I have not done much over the last 3 weeks and my OH has managed to lose 16lb over the same period.

The muscles at the back of my calves complained the day after (sunday) and then again this (monday)morning. Rest of me still feeling great though.

Morning Mixnmatch,
I am starting today as well and my starting weight this morning is 12st 10lb.

I think with the support of all on the forums here we should be more than OK with it, and when you read some of the success stories it really inspires you to get going.

If you can face it, I recommend taking some full length pics of yourself front, back and sides – that is what has really shocked me into action, and I can’t wait to compare them to my ‘finish’ pics at the end of the eight weeks and beyond.

Good luck with it all,

DAY 7 of 7

Well last day today!!

Yesterday:
Calories 806
Carbs 9.3!
Yes really was 9.3! I just had brunch and a Greek meal last night. Was going to have Greek salad with chicken kebab but ended up having tzatziki instead much lower in carbs! Enough calories left for 2 squares of 90% chocolate! I wouldn’t normally be that low in carbs it just happened after a very low carb/high protein breakfast. Not something I will do too often.

Anyway, lost another 1.8lbs bringing it to 8lbs in total!

Krysia I’m glad this challenge is helping you …… it’s doing wonders for me!!!

Sunny-girl I’d love my bloods to be 6.1 sounds great to me!

Panorama a tonight 8.30pm ‘Diabetes: The hidden killer’ … could be interesting!!!

P.S. Does anybody want to do another challenge tomorrow?

Wowowowowowow!
The end of day 2 and I’ve lost 2 kilos, and it was only the start of the second day that I got the scales!
A good start really encourages you to persevere, and I’ve also slept better than I have done in ages!

Well done AVILA and doggie! I admire runners as i havent run for years..not even to catch a bus.. I do that funny half run half walk ..nice young fella made the bus wait for me the other day! He was prob thinking Help the poor fat old lady! 😄😄😄 x

Hello all and good luck with your BSD journeys!

Just a quick thing Formeandyourmum – be very careful about fruit for snacks.

The BSD recommends limiting fruit because surprisingly it is very high in both calories and carbs because of the fructose which is of course sugar.

Berries are the best but even then if you check the calories and carbs on an app like MyFitnessPal or FatSecret you will see how the calories mount.

So plan fruit in carefully. Once you see an apple is 80 calories and 18 carbs you might want to “spend” this elsewhere. I always thought fruit “didn’t count” but it does if you have 800 calories and are trying to keep carbs at 50g per day or less. 😉

Onwards and downwards! 🙂

Thanks for the welcome Josie 53, Sandie and Yowzer49.
Tigs well done on your 1st week’s weight loss – hope to emulate you in a week’s time.
One thing that I really want out of this is to be able to buy a pair of ski pants that fit me round the waist but are NOT a metre too long! Has anyone else noticed that clothes always expand in all directions? The neck or length of the arms of a T-shirt or top are way too big by the time you have one that fits your chest or stomach? I haven’t been skiing in 5 years (I was really uncomfortable then) and I want to go.
We don’t have a particularly bad diet or lifestyle. I have been picky about our food for a lot of years – very little fast food (1X a month), lots of veg. But we do have our weaknesses (mine is chocolate and OH’s is crisps). Our main problem is portion control – we just eat too much and too much carbohydrate. We do move a reasonable amount, about 7-10K steps a day. The weight has just slowly, quietly increased while I was doing other things – working, bringing up my 2 sons, studying, getting a divorce – and I didn’t notice it.
No that’s not true I did notice, I was just too busy and I “didn’t have time”.
I’m hoping for the BSD to provide some relatively quick weight loss and especially to train us in portion control! I am pretty determined on this because the real goal is to stat alive and be healthy for a lot more years.
Last week I practiced drinking 2L of water a day, did the 5:2 and tried to keep portions down (not so successful with the last – sigh). OH finds drinking so much water a bit of a problem. I have planned a complete week’s menu, done the required shopping and we are ready to go.
Today is mine and OH’s BSD D-day!
Here goes!

One other little victory over the week end, went to a family party where my mother-in-law, bless her, always commented on my size, the first thing she said was, you are losing weight? Yes, I did lose a stone as part of my BSD preparation, so that the food intake was not a total shock, so since she last saw me it has been 2.5 stone
They had Bread and Butter and Cold meats & cheese separate so you could make your own, just had the meat and cheese.

thank you, sounds like a plan

I ve only lost half a pound in the last twelve days,which surprised me as ive been sticking to the plan like a stamp to a letter. Day 83 and about halfway thru my 24 week plan,but its ok,once i got over the unwelcome surprise,,i’ m into clothes that didnt fit even last week,ive had to put some clothes in the charity shop bag,so i’ m just reflecting on my non scale victories til next weigh in ..just writing this here to encourage anyone down in the dumps coz the scales arent being their friend just now! X
Well done SUMO! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 thats fab! And you have a lovely DIL! I agree re pesky carbs..its a shock how many in some innocent seeming fruits and veg! Always check xx
Welcome MAGIC BROCCOLI…great name! Good luck with BSD! Let us know how youre getting on x

ANGIEBABE A masssive celebration..that over three pounds a week lost ! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Celebrate every little victory,weight AND non scale triumphs! You should be very proud of yrself ..youve done really weel..i bet youre getting lots of admiring comments! X

Yes Miss Ziggy I have whilst doing 5:2 & as others have mentioned you need to include more salt in your diet whilst drinking lots more water. Try a cup of Bovril as a hot drink. My husband & I are starting BSD today so I will be keeping to having a cup of Bovril today.
Good luck & I hope your leg cramps go away!

End of week 3 now 23s 8lb a loss of 1.5stones in 3 weeks, all I have to do is keep an eye on the carbs, the calories seem to be OK but those pesky carbs keep hiding in food when you least expect them.
My Daughter-in-law, knowing I am on the BSD made me a Pear Crumble, uumm I thought, I saved all my carbs for the day and had a small portion, for my evening meal, Oh yum, just checked on my Fitness Pall and not as bad as I thought, I ended up Under Carbs and Calories for the day, bonus.
It was made with fresh fruit, no added sugar and a very thin crumble with no added sugar.

MOrning! FROG i left message re Otto Lenghi yesterday, but it just vanished..was just saying,i dont know much about chefs and recipes,but by coincidence,my DD was talking yesterday about OL and saying how he always uses a ton of ingredients…
good thinking making a five min stir fry,they are always so simple and so delicious.(perhaps i posted elsewhere by mistake!)
1960 yeh i agree,he sounds like a type of pasta to me! 😄
weekends can be very tricky..saturdays and sundays just seem like they should always be treat days..i was in the park yesterday pm thinking how i wd love an oldfashioned high tea with sandwiches and cakes and jelly and cream! But i want to be slimmer and healthier even more! I didnt gain,but i only lost half a pound in the last two weeks,which is a bit measly seeing as havent veeered from 800 cals/ 50 carbs,but these things happen. The body does its own thing! Good luck with reboot,show the medical folk youre doing the right thing! X

Great idea!!! Keep on truckin’.

It’s so nice for the dogs to help out by taking you out for a walk!!

Check out all the pulldown/click tabs on the website … esp. Blood Sugar Diet, Get Started, etc.

I would buy the 8 week diet book …. excellent to reread for inspiration … and to look up things … keeps you reminded about why and how the BSD diet works, etc.
I would buy the recipe book … when it comes out in paperback (just a few months away in Canada). There are lots of recipes here on the site and the BSD 8 week book to get started on.

Wow Angiebabe, hardly a ‘mini’ celebration! That’s a fantastic loss! You must be so chuffed! 😀👍😀

So it’s the end of week 18 and 56lbs lost in total so that’s 4 stone in old money so mini celebration. Another 6 lbs and I will be halfway there. Have to stop wishing the weeks away,!

Hi, I am starting today have basic information from this site and the articles in the Daily Mail last week. I want to buy a book but am not sure which would be the best, the “8 week diet book by Michael Mosley or the Recipe book by his wife, what would you recommend?

Good to see you back Izzy, I’ve been wondering how you were. Great that you haven’t put on any weight in your absence and that you are hanging on in there. Look forward to seeing how you go.
Best regards Bissell

Thanks Jenni from the block!
The low bsl’s are enough to keep me going! I think organisation is the key and to make time to exercise. It’s easy for me at the moment as it’s school holidays and my son is with his dad for a week. We’ll see how next week goes!

Check out the GET STARTED tab …. above

Other AVOID FOODS : high sugar fruits … mango, pineapple, banana, juice, pasta (small amounts used in recipes). Check out the RECIPES tab here

You can eat : small amounts of nuts and seeds, berries (add to high fat yogurt), apple, pear, small amounts of cheese (check the carbs and calories … i found a very low carb goats cheese). eggs, small amounts of bacon, a little chopped ham and onion to make an omelette, Salads, Green and colored vegetables, chicken, fish, meat, avocado

MY SIMPLE MEAL PLAN

Good breakfast idea is : eggs in some format (i like making a scrambled egg with a bit of chopped ham and onion)

Snacks … berries with high fat plain no sugar yogurt, nuts and seeds, lower sugar fruit, sliced cucumber

Lunches : salads, vegetables, meats, canned tuna or canned salmon, soups made with vegetables, meat of some kind, etc.

Supper : meat with vegetables or salads or soups or combination

I don’t cook …. so i usually make a big batch of soup … any and all vegetables … lentils/and or/ beans and/or chicken or other meat …. can make all sorts of combinations

I am starting the Fast 800 today for 56 days, and while this is not too different to the diet I have been following, must admit to being a little nervous.

I have just had a weekend ‘off diet’ on a trip to Cornwall, and my starting weight this morning is 12st 11lb.

I will only be tracking whole pounds. Will post some measurements tonight, but my goal for this program is to get the waist/height ratio closer to 0.5, and my body fat percentage well below 40%. I would like to lose another two stone before Christmas, to see if I can reach my healthy weight, and get me well on my way to my ultimate goal.

Hi Sunshine-girl – yes 6.1 is really good and shows you are well on the way to normal blood sugars.

Yesterday net carbs 30.28 calories 795 – I didn’t have the square of dark chocolate yesterday or I would have been a bit over but today I can have 2 squares as part of my lunch. I will be sitting in the hairdressers then so will take a little flask of Kefir and that will be lovely.

Today have lost another half pound – this reboot has really helped me keep on track. Yesterday I had a lovely time sorting out things that are really too big and packing them up for the animal charity shop. Usually I put them in a storage box ready for when the weight comes back – but this time is different – they are already in the bin bags ready to go.

The end of week one : weight down 11lbs -BMI 38.4 , waist 2.5 inches smaller and for the last couple of days full of energy . I have been quite surprised at the tastiness of the recipes and haven’t paticularly felt hungry. I have , though, had trouble sleeping and experienced frequent ocular migraines….hoping things get back to normal soon! My hubby who has type 2 has lost 10 lbs and his Sugar levels have reduced to an average of 6.2 …amazing in just a week . How are you all doing ?

Morning, back again. I’ve not really been well – again, and haven’t really stuck to the rules but on another positive note -again (lot’s of agains) I weigh the same so it’s not too bad.

I’m thinking of trying to change a few things… not made decisions as yet but I’ll check in later.

I have been doing lots of painting, which I will get up on my blog soon for you guys to see 🙂

Gotta get going (Monday Monday aaargh)

Everyone does it differently. check out calories and carbohydrate counts on the internet … you can also check them at MyFatSecret site. You can also check proteins, etc. Most people try to keep carbs under approx. 50. And they avoid simple carbs … white foods like potatoes, rice, breads, cereals, refined foods in general, even go easy on root vegetables.

Just check the TABS at the top of this website … . the FAQ, the Blood Sugar Diet.

The Blood Sugar Diet is based on eating a low carbohydrate Mediterranean style diet. This contains few refined, starchy carbohydrates (because these convert rapidly to sugar in your blood), lots of green and coloured vegetables, plenty of protein and, you may be pleased to hear, it also includes moderate amounts of healthy fats such as olive oil and even some dairy products such as full fat unsweetened yoghurt to keep you feeling full for longer.””

The BSD book isn’t a calorie counter/carb counter except for the recipes.

Heya Ganga!
Room for one more not so little one??!

Just found you, registered and need help and support to do this please! I love starting stuff and am not so hot on finishing anything!

In my early 40s and as my mum died of kidney failure thru diabetic, so thought it was about time I pulled my finger out and did something before waiting to be diagnosed and then making life changes!

Starting from today – have the book but not finished it yet

Brekkie is boiled eggs, fruit for snacks and butternut squash soup for lunch at work – dinner will be chicken and steam veg – without tonnes of garlic bread or loads of potatoes like we normally have!

I Have a Instapot pressure cooker and a slow cooker so no excuse not to plan ahead and get myself organised – which I’ll start from tonight and get the family involved too,

Not checked my bsl so will try and get to the chemist goat to get it done- can you still go to lloyds and get it done free?

Thanks everyone and good luck to us all!!

Planning is key.

Cleaning out your cupboards is key.

It is far to easy to slip up if there are simple carbs etc. in the house.

If i wasnt retired i would also bring BSD foods to work … if there is a staff room even better.

Age 50 is practically young. 67 myself!! 🙂

Morning everyone!!

Hope Lucky and Gavin are ok – missing their chats

I Was doing better, then hit the weekend….

Re booting myself today as seeing Dietician on Weds and need her to not only understand this way of eating is best for me but to show her I CAN actually sustain doing it , otherwise I may as well sack it…if she or any other medical professionals see me jumping in and out I know they will lol

weight increase of 1.7kg NOT GOOD
Decided to give the actual meal plan at back of his book a try and see if that will spur me on….was struggling to plan ( believe it or not ) and will tweak where neccessary

Frog, had to laugh at myself as didn’t know what food a Ottolenghi was, and saw its a cook!!

Sorry you had a gain Yowzer but press on forward and downwards, it and more will come off!!

IDEAS FOR HOW TO HANDLE BEING SICK ON BSD???

Do far i’ve only had sickness where i just go to bed …. Don’t really feel like eating anything … and if i do … i don’t have ANY simple carbs in the house. If i eat … i eat stuff with no preparation … slice up some cucumber …. add Miracle Whip mayonnaise on a can of tuna or salmon.

I had to go out and get coffee cream and throat lozenges and i was tempted by crisps/chips … but i looked at the carb/cal counts and decided not too!! Bought some deli chicken instead.

As for craving salad … i went on a trip to Toronto a few years back …. and i was so craving the green … i found East Side Marios who has unlimited salads …. i spent 3 of my trip there … just scarfing down salads by the ton.

I had a spoon of honey in tea once. With my sore throat right now … i’m drinking coffee with heavy cream … just keeping my throat coated.

Swimming would be great …. i personally am not that good at it … i never like to put my face in the water!! My breat stroke is really funny because my right leg just will not kick properly!!

Swimming is also great because you can do that high intensity stuff.

Aquabics is great for me …. because i have eroded discs in my back and foot and knee problems …. and aquabics can be low or even zero impact. And if i keep going to classes i will eventually be fit enough to do high intensity / interval stuff.