skip the apple and beetroot with beans soup, just worked it out at 39 carbs.

That is a question I have too. I have not been counting carbs as I have been following the menu plans and recipes in the book. I know they can be a bit out but today I had the beetroot and apple soup with white beans and a portion came out at 39 carbs which seems quite a lot considering I only have 11 left for the rest of the day. Fortunately, I had scrambled egg and mushroom (1 carb) for breakfast and will be having spiced duck breast with lentils, roasted red pepper and asparagus (23 carbs) which makes my total for the day 65, which is a lot lower than someone not on this diet. However, my calories are only 630 so will need to find something zero carb to top myself up to around 800. Start with 10gm very dark choc at 50 calories and 1 gram of carb. So I still have 120 calories to eat. Worked out I can have 30 grams of cheddar cheese for 120 calories and no carbs. So all good, but what a balancing act. I have a good carb counter but the carbs I have counted are total carbs.

As an afterthought I have just looked at the recipes in the book and it gives calories but not carbs, why not when we are counting both.

Glad things are going well so far Flowerpot. You seem to be very determined and that will take you a long way. Good start with avocado and ham. Make sure you drink plenty – it’s important both for feeling full and for hydration. Don’t worry if you struggle to keep to the 800cals in the first few days, it will come right eventually as your body adjusts.

Have you taken any measurements – waist for instance? Tracking it’s reduction can also be an encouragement when things get shaky. Some people have found that even if the scales aren’t giving favourable results, sometime the tape measure does.

Anyway, looking forward to reading your results soon.

Merci beaucoup SunnyB

We don’t have a freezer. We live off-grid and only have a modest solar set-up and a freezer would be impossible to run. Maybe a couple of years down the line when the mortgage is paid off and we can get a bigger power system… The day the mortgage is paid off will feel like winning the lottery!

Not sad at all sunshine-girl – we need to celebrate every little victory and getting to throw out big knickers and get your wedding ring on again are definitely worth celebrating.

My personal mini goal is to get to 9st 2lb and I have 3lb to go. Would love to achieve that by 14th Sept, but as I am a slow loser and have a couple of things happening between now and then, I have to be realistic and not expect it to happen until after we are back from Turkey early November.

Good luck to everyone striving for a mini goal – stick with it and you soon see results.

Snoop why don’t you freeze some melon – either in chunks/balls or puree it in small quantities? It would kill me to chuck anything that I’ve grown myself!

Well done, eternally and Ren. Interesting what you say Ren about coming off. The GI diet lot recommend doing a 12-week diet, having a bit of a break and then starting again rather than carrying straight on. No idea if that’s really a good idea or not. I guess so long as you don’t go mad during the ‘break’. Anyway, congratulations. Here’s hoping I can follow your lead and go a bit easier on the cals and carbs. Not easy at the moment, as it’s melon season here (I live in Spain). And as I’ve grown some, it doesn’t seem right chucking them out or giving them to the dogs, though that is what I ought to do. Certainly I’m eating less than I ordinarily would. I guess that’s a start.

the diet police ????

Thanks for all your replies it’s good to get encouragement.

Soup, take in a flask (or more modern appliance). I love the apple and beetroot and also the spanish chickpea with chorizo and spinach.

Even more spooky are the ones that are watching us that we DON’T know about !!!!

Another 3/4 lb since Friday, my weigh in is on Tuesday (as thread says) so will see what that brings. But very happy to be back on course.

For those that remember I have a mini goal of getting rid of my big pants (knickers). I have 3 pairs identical bought from Debs and, although they say size 12 they are in fact granny size 12 and go up past my waist. I was in England when I bought them staying with my daughter for 2 weeks so they went into her washing machine. Now she never sorts into light and dark and I think these brand new pants went in with a pair of little boys jeans and came out dingy (they were flesh coloured) dirty grey blue. Over the months the dye has been washing out but they are still off grey colour. I am wearing them today as I must try to wear them out before they end up in the bin. So that’s the story, not only are they big, they are dingy too.

I said I would throw them out at 11 st 7 lbs so I am 5 lbs away.

I also have a mini goal of getting my wedding ring back on after taking it off an infected swollen finger. I tried today and it is getting there so that too will be in another 5 lbs. So I should reach 2 mini goals on the same day. Yeah. (how sad am I)

Thanks Anti 🙂

That sounds like a very successful evening for you, that’s three big things avoided there! I have a social evening to organise, but it will probably have to be October now. My eldest son turns 21 at the end of September and he has also struck off – a) Freshers Week(end), b) the weekend before his birthday, c) the weekend AFTER his birthday as he’ll be at his father’s. I was going to do curry but I end up a) stressed and b) very drunk usually. My curry nights can have anything up to 20 – 25 in attendance and if it’s a big birthday there’ll be more. Buffet it is then, and I can keep an eye on the calories and carb counts of things. Make it as healthy as possible 😉 There’ll be more spelt and coconut sugar and almond flour in it than people realise hehe.

Congratulations Linda – hope that will be me some day 🙂
Well done Lucky – splendid!
So yesterday I was cooking for new friends. I made pastry hors d’oeuvres, stuffed chicken breasts with salad etc and raspberry pavlova. I did not eat pastry, bread or pavlova! Did drink several glasses of red wine though 🙁 In the grand scheme of things it will balance out I’m sure. Not expecting much of a result on the scales Monday morning but we’ll see. Hot here again today so I shall be crawling into a shady corner and snoozing this afternoon….

Throughout my time as a diabetic I have had intoleraces all over the place. Could not sit in hairdressers as the products in the atmosphere causes red dry skin as did the products used on me. My hairdresser gave me a seat in the mens section (less hairspray) by an open window and use gentle products. Problem lasted about 2 years then disappeared. Then I became intolerant to anything cow, milk, cheese, yoghurt etc. Constantly sat on the toilet, back end problem. Had to switch to soya milk and yoghurt and goat or sheeps cheese. My specialist said I had ‘diabetic stomach’ . Again, that lasted about 2 years. My last one was about 2 years ago when my hair started falling out. Not enough for anyone else to notice but so much more than should, shower plughole was always blocked. I could see it receding from my forehead. My hairdresser (different one) could see and gave me advice on supplements, diet, hair products to avoid etc all of no help. Then suddenly it started to grow back, it became more noticeable around my hairline where it looked like baby hair. A few months later it is as thick and unruly as ever and I will never complain about having too much hair again.

Diabetics go through lots of odd things and we try to rationalise or look at changes in our lifestyles to find a cause, so we can find a cure. Just think of it as a passing phase and take the recommended supplements but don’t ditch the diet, it is probably not the cause. In some cases it is just the fact you have lost weight and your body is readjusting.

I’m sort of waiting to see what goes wrong next but hope if my diabetes is under better control it won’t be able to mess my body up so much.

They are watching us, we are doing the research for them. I don’t mind. Spooky

Well done Linda on your great weight loss! I think Janey and Igor had some great advice for you there.

Morning everyone, bit of a funny day yesterday, including a funeral, a dental appointment, a hospital appointment, the ex husband and an extreme craving for something sweet last night. Mr Lucky managed to talk me down from sending him to Morrisons. I had a couple of scoops of Oppo instead.

This week’s weight loss is 2lbs down from last week, and considering I’m being relaxed now and I had a couple of treats this week (some Nigella Olive Oil chocolate cake, three small slices of homemade Spelt pizza and a couple of small slices of wholemeal Spelt bread with my salad). I still make sure my treats are ‘good’ treats in terms of what’s in them. This week saw the Jeans of the Future fitting at last. And because I’m so short on trousers/jeans at the moment, I am still wearing the size 20 jeans that were my first Jeans of the Future when I started. They were skinny jeans (never a good look in size 20 admittedly, but they were cheap). Last night I noticed that they were baggy. Baggy skinny jeans! There’s inches free in the legs and the bum is just… a big pocket of air! So the next pair of pants I manage to get into, the skinny jeans are the next to go! Never thought I would be so excited about getting rid of clothes!

Final rugby home match of the season today. Rain just started, promised it shocking up my end today.

And in Wales too.

*Drumroll and cymbal clash* Goodnight! You’ve been a terrible audience…

Well done KrysiaD!!!

I’m away tomorrow for three weeks and just hoping I can do the same as you. You did really well. Think if I keep reading these forums everyday then it might help to keep me on the straight and narrow.

I’ve had a real strange week this week. Since finishing my first 8 I seemed to have lost some impetuous. I was fine for the first few days and dropped down into the next stone but the last two days, although I’ve tried to be ‘good’ , I’m back up into the stone I’ve just left!!!!!!

Just seem to be in the doldrums at the moment. Hope it passes soon.

Hope you’re all doing well.

This will be my last post I promise. I thought I should mention that I also took a series of supplements during my diet program. While the jury is probably out on whether they help or not I wanted to ensure I was getting enough essential minerals and vitamins despite undertaking a VLCD program. My full blood test at the beginning and the end of the program showed a healthy balance of essential vitamins and minerals so the supplements may have helped. My liver and kidney function tests were also normal and my cholesterol count improved noticeably.

During my diet program I took 2000gm of Vitamin C; 1000 in the morning and the rest in the evening. I read research that suggests higher doses of Vitamin C can help control insulin levels. I took a quality multi-vitamin once a day, usually at lunch. I also took an iron supplement in the evening with my vitamin C. My doctor thought it would do me no harm to take this for 8 weeks and would ensure my iron levels remained stable despite eating much less meat; especially high calorie red meats.

As an aside, I was taking a sugar free version of Vitamin C that was sweetened with an artificial sweeter. As a result, this supplement ended up becoming another “sweet treat” during my day if sucked it slowly in between meals – but a treat without the calories. It ended up being a clever way to “reward” myself while actually doing something healthy.

Finally I took Fish Oil tablets twice a day to ensure I was getting plenty of good fatty acids in my diet. I also wanted to reduce the risk of gout which I suffer from by discouraging inflammation. As I said at the beginning of this comment, these supplements may not have been strictly necessary but I thought it best to err on the side of caution.

Morning all, hope you are all good? Here’s my totals for yesterday: cals 748, carbs 58.1, steps 10,000+. Another good day although bit high on carbs! This morning’s weigh in sees me down to 12 2.5 which in 5 days is a loss of 9.75! Really pleased as this is me back down to what I was before I fell off the BSD wagon. Maybe if you lose weight with BSD, when you come off your body will go back down again quickly! I like to think so as we are all human and life gets in the way sometimes! Anyway have a lovely weekend everyone!x

Great news – hardly dared look at the scales this morning after my holiday and all the full English breakfasts (which were probably nearly 800 calories each), strawberries and cream every day and rather a lot of cream in my coffee but I have only gained three-quarters of a pound. How amazing is that! Was going to chicken out of the weigh in because usually I have put on several pounds – the worst time was when we had a cottage near a super bakery that did wonderful bread – I put on 10lb in just one week.
It shows how addictive carbs and sugar are because usually after a holiday carb fest I struggle for weeks to get back to more healthy eating. Today I feel that I could only manage quite small amounts of BSD food. I spent some time yesterday inputting my favourite meals into fat secret and I am back on the fast 800. I read posts on this forum every day while on my hols – it really helped me to resist temptation, especially when a croissant started calling my name. It is so good to feel a part of such a supportive and knowledgeable group.

End of week one for me. Amazed to report 4lbs lost. I’ve never lost that in the first week of a diet – diets where I’ve had way less to eat. Made the bean burgers last night – they are really good. Also thought I’d share with any other veggies that the aubergine and lamb recipe and the skinny chilli recipe are both really good with puy lentils instead of meat and have fewer calories! My very carnivorous OH loved the chilli. Have a good weekend everyone.

Started in serious on Tuesday 30 September, starting weight 88.5 kg. Previous weigh-in 89.2 kg a few days before. Started trying to lose weight then before coming across the BSD on the Web. Sedentary lifestyle (desk work) but vegetable patch that needs tending. Self-employed, so work seven days a week. Ten-cm hiatus hernia (not diabetic or pre-diabetic but want to avoid surgery). No books yet, so making it up a bit as I go along by adapting own recipes and cutting down carbs, meaning I inevitably exceed 800 cal per day, but I wanted to get started anyway rather than waiting for postal delivery (BSD recipe book due out mid-September and both being delivered at the same time). Will have a couple of periods that will be challenges during the eight weeks, but will deal with those as they come.

Today’s figures:

87.6 kg
– 0.3 kg since yesterday
– 0.9 kg overall
waist 117 cm (lummy)

1069 cals
25 minutes gardening

Calorie limit exceeded in part due to a beer had after an argument, not as consolation but a conscious decision so as not to look stand-offish. Seemed quite important at the time…

Great!! And you’ve been away!
Almost there and what a fabulous achievement.

Hi Frog

I agree with you … yes .. you do pay your money and take your choice …. BUT. I had an email from dietdoctor , free!, which told me about Michael Mosley’s interview on Jeremy Vine and also a link to the Australian episode of Insight which also featured him.

‘Admin’ have asked for people’s stories for a Daily Mail article which is fine. But, maybe they could also inform US when there is a broadcast due, which I’m sure would be of interest to all of us. Not too much to ask surely.

Hello Cptlynne

Wow wow wow. Huge bouquet of your favourite flowers…please imagine. Amazing and exceptional in your role as leader here. I thank you.
Nettle NZ.

I forgot one of the most important aids and that is these fora. I find reading about everyone else victories and crises inspiring and there is always some advise and chivvying along to be had. Couldn’t have done it without all the contributors here.

Wow Lynne, I’m so excited for you! How inspirational you are! 40% of your body weight. Stunning!

Not much to add to the excellent description from AMGSyd, but my two pennies worth:

I have reactive hypoglycaemia, rather than diabetes, but still therefore needed to stabilise my blood sugars. I found I could maintain my weight with 5:2 and had done so for a couple of years, but really wanted to get to a healthy BMI, as mine was 30. I toyed with the idea of this shakes thing for 8 weeks, but I love my food, so when I found this plan I thought I would give it a go. To my delight, I found it easy to do after the first few days and did not feel hungry. Rapid weight loss followed and this is a great motivator to stay on track. After 8 weeks I had lost sufficient to have a BMI of 24.8 and started to replace the 800 cals a day with normal eating on the 5 days, but with no refined carbohydrates and 800 calories for two days a week. I have lost a further couple of pounds, unintentionally, and eaten well. My weight loss has been from 13 stone 2 lbs to 10 stone 11lbs.

What works for me is:
Three meals a day and no snacks
Not trying to replace bread, cakes, sugar etc with low carb alternatives. They don’t taste the same to me and only prolong the misery of abstinence! I’m fine without now and don’t miss them.
I drink 8 pints of fluid a day and have quite a lot of salt on my food
I plan meals and shop accordingly, so I never have to stand before a fridge and think ” what can I have?” Which usually leads to bad choices on my part.
I try to do 10k steps a day and I’ve started doing the exercises from the BSD book each morning.

What works is a very individual thing. I feel so much better with a stable blood sugar and I have much more energy now. Maintenance is the hardest part of any behavioural change, but I feel I am getting there.

Loss of 2 pounds this week. Total loss now 90 pounds – meaning I’ve lost 40% of my starting body weight.

Only 1 pound to lose until Imreach my target weight of 9st 7lb, and top of my healthy BMI.

Two pounds off this week. Total loss now 90 pounds. Only 1 more pound to lose 😃

Another mini target down! Today I’ve lost 40% of my starting body weight.

This weeks loss of 2 pounds brings total loss to 90 pounds 😃

Only 1 pound to go to reach target weight!!!!!

Thanks for the encouragement. I wasn’t expecting a plateau quite this early. When I’ve tried diets in the past I usually lose nearer to 2 stone before I hit the plateau. If I drink much more water they may declare a hosepipe ban in our area. But I’ve taken steps to try to sort out the constipation problem. I’m not quite ready yet to give up on my dream to be slim, fit and media free.

Thankyou SunnyB for the lovely welcome aboard.
My last meal was at 3am (edamame beans). I was hungry as I drove home from work at 7am and thought of snacking before going to bed. Thanks to joining this forum and your encouraging welcome, I felt accountable to do the right thing (that is not to fail before I really even get going!) I woke at 2pm and wasn’t hungry and thats my first proof that the hunger pains pass. Its 11 hours since my last meal. Have now eaten a small meal of some avocado and ham and a cup of tea and I feel pleasantly full.
Starting stats:
Female
Height – 165cm
Weight – 82kgs
Age – 51

Welcome to carb flu. 🙁

Horrible, isn’t it. As your body changes the carb monster tries to hang on and gives you various symptoms, sometimes headaches, tiredness, constipation., hunger pangs…..

But the good news is that it swiftly passes!

Please please please hang on – if necessary just day by day. It is common to get weight plateaus – just search (top right) for threads where people have worked through these to great success.

This isn’t a diet, it changes rhe way your body works and does it differently for everyone. Be kind to your body, and let it do its work.

Can you keep persisting but treat yourself in other ways that don’t involve eating like a luxurious bath or whatever suits you.

But don’t give up – you will get through this to success! Those pesky carbs are hanging on but you can kick them into touch.

Drink even more water – that will help with the constipation.

Good luck 🙂

Great weight losses everyone. I have a lot to loose and lost 11lbs in my first week (weigh in Monday) but don’t seem to be losing anything this week – getting bit frustrated because have fought the urge of the take-away and being really good. Has this happened to anyone else?

Last week was my first week on the diet and I lost 10 1/2 lbs. I weighed myself this morning and so far this week (Monday is my weigh day) and I have lost a further 1/4 lb.
In the early hours of the morning this morning I was contemplating giving up. Not because I’m hungry. I have no energy I’m not losing any weight and I am uncomfortably constipated. Right now this diet doesn’t seem worth it.

My doctor did not know about the Newcastle diet – so I changed to another doctor working at the same clinic. He also didn’t know about the diet but was willing to read up on it. The Newcastle research is powerful stuff and it’s a crime that doctors aren’t more informed. People also need to hear that this diet works and after the first week or so it’s actually not that hard to maintain. Your body gets use to fewer calories and don’t feel like you’re starving if you can get your meal plan working for your body’s genetic make-up and food/taste preferences.

In the end I actually created my own program by reading all of the research papers in detail and looking for reliable data online before I even found this site or read the Blood Sugar Diet book. I was four weeks into my “real food” eating plan before I came across this site. It was reassuring to discover that I was doing the right thing by trying a diet using real food rather than Optifast. Up to that point I was trusting my own research, experimenting and assessing the risks as I went along.

I’ve also found one of those online calculators that told what my recommended daily calorie intake should be now for someone who’s lost 18% of their body weight. It stuff like this that you need to do the research on as part your transition to normal eating.

Sorry wanted to add, you are all right. The docs do know about the success of VLCD. They must think it is too hard for us, unless the life threatening situation is immediate, not longer term. Surgeons have used it for quite a while.

ps I am too old to run! But I do think this diet teaches us how to eat like a thinner person, especially as we are eating real delicious food.

Fascinating all. I am going to put my penny worth in. I have eaten ‘really well’ for a long time. Almost never cake, never biscuits or sweets, and heaps of veg and fruit ( and wine!) I never well almost never ate white bread, even ate wholemeal pasta. No junk food at all. But if I tried to diet I was starving hungry immediately. Plenty to lose as my BMI was about 34

Never lost an ounce till a year ago when I lost about 10 pounds in a month on a good shakes/soup and low carb meal diet. For personal reasons I stopped and did nothing more until June this year when I read MM’s articles and ordered the book. And started trawling through the forums.

I am not diabetic, or as far as I know, pre-diabetic but my BP and cholesterol were too high. I am on a BP med, and I am supposed to be on statin but they make me sick. I am going to keep doing this until I can tell docs I should be off BP med and do not need statins .

My GP is fairly laid back, never volunteers much. Just says yes it is very hard to lose weight, when I would suggest that I should lose some.

Janey you did well with your ex-partner. A few years ago an enormous friend had to have major and delicate op on his kidney and surgeon insisted on dramatic weight loss before the surgery. He was diabetic also and his partner also very big but not diabetic went on the VLCD with him for support. You won’t be surprised to know that his diabetic symptoms disappeared completely. The operation was a success and the pair are now about 50 and 40 kg lighter than they were.

I would think it logical that if we lose a significant amount of weight the number of calories needed to maintain that lower weight must be less. Surely this is just scientific fact. There are plenty of website calculators that will tell you how many calories you need to maintain 120 pounds as opposed to 150. If , no sorry when, I reach my target I know my calories will have to be 350 or 400 fewer than I ate to maintain a bmi of 34. Or I could eat the same number as before and run several miles a day!

Ok – one more hint! I found it helpful to cut my food into small pieces during meals (if this made sense for food I was eating). Eating smaller bite sizes; then pausing for 10-15 seconds after swallowing before taking another mouthful helped me feel like I was eating a larger meal and gave my stomach more time to signal it was getting fed.

In other words, I trialled techniques that encouraged me to eat each meal slower and make each meal feel like it was going a little further. I’d also wait 15 minutes at the end of dinner before I has my sweet treat (fruit or yoghurt) so that my stomach felt fuller for longer after each meal time. I guess you’re getting the picture that I trialled every trick in the book during this diet to make my meals interesting, increase portion size without adding calories and leave me feeling fuller after every meal.

I probably sound incredibly disciplined. If truth be told I’m not a person who enjoys a regimented lifestyle at all. However, I decided to go the “full Monty” for eight weeks and really stick at it. My rationale was that if I was going to undertake such a tough diet program I wanted to do it once and get the best result so that I never had to go there again. Otherwise, it was just going to be a miserable experience that wouldn’t really change a thing.

I’m glad I stuck with the discipline and made myself do things like the weekly diet plan spreadsheet as the results speak for themselves. I still cannot believe I reversed ten years of crappy diet, eating habits and health risks in one condensed ten week period (7 on the diet, 3 on a transition diet). IMHO it was worth every hard won moment when I held my ground and refused to let myself wavier when temptation presented itself.

Hi Christine, yes I am famous in my family for reading everything and never losing weight, but all the stuff I have read over the years has gone in and along with the great forum of all you lovely lot I have lost!. Four more pounds and my husband has said he will listen to my advice!

R(::

One more thing I forgot to add. I told everyone what I was doing. I found this a great discipline for keeping myself honest and on track. It’s harder to abandon a diet plan like this when everyone keeps asking you how its going. Family and friends also went out of their way to offer “diet friendly” menus for family occasions and social gatherings.

I also shared a summary of the Newcastle research paper with them so that they could see I wasn’t doing a fad diet but was participating in a scientifically tested weight loss/blood sugar correcting program. The funny thing is that now family and friends are noticing programs on TV and stories in the news about the program and they copy me on all of this.

My mother in particular was impressed by the research and encouraged that I’d opted for a proper eating program rather than substituting meals for Optifast. To be honest I couldn’t have done the “drink a milkshake” thing (I’m lactose intolerant) and hated the thought of abandoning food altogether. Besides how can you learn about sensible portion control and healthy eating by drinking a shake?

Another great hint. Cauliflower is actually a rather tasty food if you roast it; or mix it in with other vegetables in a salad. I’d stopped eating this vegetable years ago and now I wonder why I did.

Thank you for all that info…sounds a lot of what I am doing…so glad to hear you are doing so well in your transitioning period…so encouraging! A big WOO HOO to you…what a wonderful post…thanks again

I managed my diet program in highly structured way. I prepared a spreadsheet on which I recorded a weekly menu with calories for every food item (plus a protein calculation to ensure I was eating at least 67-70gm of protein daily); a weekly diary and a progress table for recording and charting my weight and BMI. I officially weighed myself before b/fast every Sunday morning and recorded this weight. Once I began my three week transition program back to normal eating I changed to weighing myself after b/fast so that I had a better sense of my “average” weight with a normal gut full of food.

The spreadsheet took a bit of time on a Sunday morning to prepare but it really kept me focused on the program and helped me work out creative substitutes to keep meals interesting and varied. it also kept me honest and it made it easier to make last minute changes to the diet plan as the week unfolded as I could immediately work out how to shuffle my eating plan if my day got busy or social events cropped up. After the first couple of weeks I also had a two week eating plan that I could start to cut and paste daily menus from to make it easier to build the next week’s menu.

I discovered several interesting things as I went through this program. First, drink lots of fluids regularly. This stops hungry pains and constipation. It also increased the rate at which I lost weight. Second, weigh everything and be kind to yourself if you have to exceed your calories on the odd occasion. I had family gathering to attend and international vacation scheduled during my diet. I tried to keep as close to the eating plan as I could but there were days when my calorie count hit 1000. However, I noticed that the rate at which I was losing weight didn’t seem to be affected by the occasional calorie boost. If anything this seemed to encourage more rather than less fat burning. Third, winter set in halfway through my diet and I noticed I was getting hungry again. After a week of this I suddenly realised that the colder weather was making me burn more calories. I added 50-75 calories daily to my eating plan and the hunger disappeared again. In other words, listen to your body. The extra calories were being burned by colder temperatures and I avoided a situation that might have tempted me to abandon my diet plan. Fourth, throw out all of your high calorie pantry items and replace them with lower calorie alternatives (or don’t replace them at all!) After three months I cannot recall what was in the pantry before I started and not having any reminders of the old eating habits has made it easier to stay on track.

I got very good at reading food labels and identifying substitute products or brands that allowed me to either have larger portions of the same food or use the calories saved to add another tasty item to my weekly diet plan. For example, I found a whole grain bread that had 8 calories fewer per slice. This meant I could increase the amount of avocado or yeast spread I put on my toast; or let me grate some hard cheese over my scrambled eggs. Some types of fish have less calories than others. Choosing the lowest calorie fish (with a reasonably high protein count) let me increase the weight of steamed vegetables I could have with it. I soon learnt that I could fill a plate with the right sort of vegetables and end up with a large volume of tasty food on the plate with surprisingly few calories.

I also discovered lots of low calories meal ideas that stopped my food feeling bland or monotonous. For example, I starting roasting capsicum and asparagus at dinner time for a tasty addition to the plate (coated with sprayed oil to keep the calories down). I found a very low fat Feta cheese that I could add to salads to give them a salty/savoury favour burst (and increase my protein count). I swapped real balsamic vinegar for a diet dressing version – same flavour but less calories (or more spoonfuls for the same calorie count making for a moister salad).

I found that a cooked breakfast with 2x eggs (removed one yolk and kept one) made a tasty omelet or scrambled eggs. I also tried to keep 60-100 calories aside for a sweet treat most days. This might be a small piece of fruit or a diet yoghurt. It was just something that made me feel like I was still enjoying fun foods.

I used lots of spices and herbs to keep the flavours interesting. For example, I added fresh parsley to salads; finely diced red onion to scrambled eggs, chopped chilli to salad dressings, dill or cilantro to canned tuna, lemon pepper to grilled fish and so on. I also bought a Cajun spice mix that I would sprinkle on fish and chicken before oven grilling.

My plan was to average 750 calories a day as defined by the food labels on products I bought (or calories counts I found online). I chose this number as I thought I’d probably be eating more than this given the food labels are average counts and the calories in fresh items can vary. I learnt a lot about portion control and just how much food you really need to avoid feeling hungry.

IMHO the transition period at the end of your diet is as important as the diet itself based on what little data I could find. If I understand the research correctly it helps reset your metabolism and helps maintain a discipline of healthy eating (and portion control with each meal). I struggled to find any good data/plans online for managing this transition but I was convinced that it couldn’t be good for you to shift from 750 calories to 1800 in a few days. As a result I ate an average of 950 calories in the first transition week; then increased this to 1150 by the end of the second week and then to 1500 by the end of the third week before returning to a normal 1800-2000 (for a male of my height/weight) in the fourth week.

Since I stopped the diet I have maintained the practice of avoiding all white carbs (white bread, pasta, potatoes etc); especially at dinner time. This seems to be not only keeping the weight off but may also be helping me continue to lose a few more pounds. I weighted myself before b/fast today (76.3kg). I was shocked to see my weight at a new low since I began this whole process. Five months ago I was almost 95 kgs (and this was down from a peak of +100kg last year).

Morning.
Well after seeing off what turned out to be a rather stressful and emotional week and got rid of period i am back to report in for day 1 of week 3.
Only lost 300g last week. Not surprised or disappointed actually. Just glad it was a downward trend. Fell off the wagon a fair bit if the truth be told. Other half has gone back to work so can get back to my routine.
Another thing i noticed was that my usual comfort foods did not satisfy me the way they used to. In fact they would leave me feeling a bit yuck.
So after two weeks on BSD i have lost 2.8kg.
JMG – your commit to exercise is to be commended. Only in my dreams. ……

Glad to hear it arrived safely and you like it Frog! you are welcome and thanks again for being my first customer 🙂

There is a bid on one of the keyrings I listed on ebay as well so hopefully one way and another I will be able to sell a few. I’m still enjoying making things anyway. I finished varnishing the coaster set and I’m really pleased with how they turned out but I haven’t photographed them yet to post on my blog. I don’t think I will try to sell them though I have a friend who has recently moved and I think she would like them so it can be her housewarming gift.

I have also made two choker necklaces with coloured chain, a decorative bead and a skull bead, with ribbon at the back for adjustable fastening. For myself and my friend to wear to The Rocky Horror Picture show next week, I will be customising our matching tops over the next week as well, I’m so enjoying the process – not just making but thinking about making stuff, thinking about what might work and trying bits out, experimenting.

Sleepy time for Izzy, night all !

Thanks 54andfatnomore. I’ll start adding my blurb tomorrow. Need to find a tape measure – a challenge in itself!