Hi VERANO! ! Thats lovely- you’re looking in the mirror and seeing yrself fresher and younger looking! 👍🏻
Isn’t it nice when we have little non scale victories!
Last week someone said to me,havent you got lovely skin!
And today somebody said,your make up looks really nice

I guess it must be all the good fats…and all the water we’re drinking!
My fingernails have become very strong and shiny too,except both thumbnails which are ridged 😼😼😼 xx

Just to let you know my OH had exactly the same experience! He went back and had another blood test. Results came back …it’s the lab not getting it right not the GP that’s at faulty

Hiya – Go girl!! Sounds like a good start well done. I’m aiming for 800 cals since last Tues – had BBC for grandsons birthday so little blip at the weekend but still didn’t only went up to 1,350 cals (which is pretty amazing for me at a bbq😀) I’ve concentrated on cals initially but now trying make sure I’m looking at what sugars too. I found the book really useful and think this blogging should be a great help too. 1st weigh in tom so will let you know how it goes.
Is it middle of belly supposed to measure? Xx

Soooo glad that I’m not the only one cleaning the house today Lucky…though did get out for an afternoon coffee at a nearby cafe, sat outside as cracking view of the Cumbrian hills -watched while my friend ate her way through a huge slab of millionaires shortbread –
I drank water and felt smug😄

Lucia… Sorry to read that your trip away was cut short…it must have been scorching if you?OH? chose to go home early.

Hope you feel more ‘colourful’ tomorrow, though I am quite fond of moths ( nighttime butterflies), they have a subtle beauty!

Sending hugs🌻

Hi Frog – was a good day, fab weather and my dogs enjoyed it too. Not much I can do about teaching egg catching skills 🙂 Hope your day was good too.

Lucky, I have to agree with you, the egg boiler has and is a permanent fixture too. Out of every kitchen appliance it gets used the most.

Yowser49, sounds like you had a great day out.

Avila, 16,000 steps is awesome, so don’t fret.

Inspired by Gavin’s epic hike I set out with Dog to find a distant location via footpaths through the woods. But disappointed to get home on only 16k steps, thought it would be the 20k. But still about 7 miles with ups and downs, was impressed that not feeling so tired as expected at the end. Carrying a whole stone less might just have something to do with that 🙂

This is day 1 of week 5 and 7kg down. Plus blood pressure in lower end of normal range whilst taking meds alt days – showing ready to reduce dose. (and that was with a week of wobbles and sugar/carb binge).

The Dog does make 5k steps a day part of basic life before anything else, Since getting my steps counted I have been committed to 10k, and now considering an ongoing aim of 15k a day.

Now just need to conquer my attraction to red wine…

I’m now at the end of my first 8 weeks and over the last week or so I have felt that my skin is looking ‘better’ . Brighter, less wrinkly, fresher. Thought maybe it’s my imagination but was reading Liz Earle’s ‘6 weeks to better skin’ in the Daily Mail and she’s talking about ‘good fats’ olive oil, avocado, fullfat milk!!!

Maybe it’s not my imagination!

How’s your skin been on this eating plan?

Happy Bank Hol,gang!xx
Just got back from west kirby beach..glorious weather but too hot for me!
V good at lunchtime…lovely menu in caff we went to and fab cakes but i just had roast ham and salad
My Beau had falafel and hummus wraps and the most crispy fat golden chips! And i didnt even pinch one!
The waitress commented on my restraint! I was rewarded later coz my trousers felt very loose when we walked round afterwards 😛😛😛😛 xx

If it makes you feel better Lucky, I kept light bulbs in my bread bin. Until I threw it out. I keep bread in the microwave. Obviously.

Good luck with that you LOSER!!! 😎

After the debacle with my not getting my HbA1c results – not even my BG level, I have decided to leave my GPs practice of 20+ years standing, through frustration and a lot of dissatisfaction.

So, I may have to embark on this diet or the 5:2. 4:3 to get ready for another HbA1c.

Was good doing the diet along with you – you kept my eye on the ball.

Krosie

can I suggest you look at my thread “not too much to lose but…” (can’t remember the whole title, but if you look me up in the search box you’ll find it)

This goes through all the things I did when the weight loss didn’t seem to be happening,and I hope it might be useful to you.

I ended up losing more than 15% of my body weight, or 20+ lbs and over-achieved my initial 9 stone target, to get to 8 stone 10lbs.

Hope that helps. 🙂

Hi,
I feel more like a brown moth today, rather than a peacock butterfly.

Yes, I am being very human.

I have ups and downs.

But I don’t have all that blubber I started with in the spring.

Thank you for your strength and kindness.

Please keep sending mental hugs.

Love Lucia
Xxxx

Hi Frog

Don’t know if you are using the app or the PC version but they are slightly different. In ‘Diet Calender’ in the app version you can see you daily average calories each month BUT in the pc version you can also get the average daily number of carbs each month!!!! That should give you something to pay around with !!!!

Hello! I have just started today, back from my holidays and all is going ok so far ha! Planning on following the 4 week menu plan and see where I am in 4 weeks. Also about to check out fatsecret as the “cups” measurement on mfp drives me nuts too!

Worried about my weekend night shifts coming up…. thats usually a sugar and carb field day!

They were awesome! A kitchen gadget that won’t sit in the cupboard gathering dust! I’ve cleaned the kitchen today and it has it’s own spot now on the worktop as it will be getting used that regularly to warrant it. I got rid of the bread bin to make room for it 🙂 The bread bin which never ever had bread in it; nuts, sweets, chocolate, biscuits, but never bread.

I have done some heavy duty cleaning today Gavin, and only did downstairs, upstairs tomorrow. Yay. Can you sense the excitement in my voice? I’m ready for bed now to be honest.

Did them myself today Frog and brought them through to him 😉 Lesson learned.

Oh – and forgot, some posters have said that if you drop a lot below 800 consistently, it doesn’t really help.

well I guess you can’t blame dropping them on the super-duper new gadget – only OH!

Hi Gavin
Lucky needs a husband that doesn’t drop the eggs on the floor!
Have you had a good day with the dogs?

Hi Krosie
sorry that you’re a bit underwhelmed – I had a long plateau from about day five for over a week, then I focused on drinking lots more and exercise and it started moving – although it looks as if you are pretty active.
Even if you’ve not lost a huge amount of weight, have you noticed clothes getting looser – a lot of people posting here experience that.

The other thing with exercise is that muscle is denser than fat (so can contribute to the not being lighter, but getting leaner) – although that is less likely to be the issue if you;re focusing on cardio.

Hi Verano
it’s a million times easier to use – I’ve entered today’s food, and a haven’t found anything like the wild variations that I do in MFP.
Great to know its all UK nutrition data, so don’t need to worry about net or total carbs – and as you say, tons easier to find the item and enter the quantity in the measure you want to use, rather find the item, then realise the one you’ve chosen is only in the dreaded “cups”

Today I had cheese and tomato for breakfast (odd I know, but deliciously runny cheese, and I’d forgotten to put it back in the fridge last night
Lunch was steak with courgette, spinach and carrot
– feeling quite full!

It is normal for the loss to stall at week 2 but, as long as you are following it, you will lose weight. We all seem to get a plateau at some point, for me it was week 3. Plus 5lbs is good, plus that extra llb, I have only lost 8 lbs in 8 weeks but I concentrate on all the good it has done for my blood glucose levels, cholesterol and other things. You are doing it for weight loss so are expecting more but your body will be shedding visceral fat (i.e. around the liver and pancreas) so whether you want to or not you are going to improve your health.

On the subject of exercise, the only way exercise can slow weight loss is if you are thinking you can eat more because you have exercised, or because you deserve it or feel you need more. If you seriously have not added anything extra don’t worry, the weight loss will happen. This is a tough diet but worth it in the end.

Hi, I’m new to the forum. I am doing the plan for weight loss. I’m not diabetic, but am concerned I will be heading that direction of I don’t get my weight under control. I have just completed week 2 on the 8week BSD. The first week went well. I followed the plan so carefully and lost about 5lbs. Then the next week just stalled. I followed the plan, if anything I was eating less than 800cals a day and I lost 1lb for the week. I know a loss is a loss but I had hoped for more based on all I have been reading. And all Ihaven’t been eating. I have also started back at the gym and have been reading conflicting advice on how to approach excercise. I just thought the more the merrier. I’m going 3 times a week and doing high intensity cardio. I’ve read that this can actually stall weight loss as it can trigger a stress hormoe that slows down your metabolism. I’d welcome some advise here.
I thought now would be a good time to join this forum as I’m feeling very low about my results so far.

Hi Frog

I like it mainly because of the options you have for various weights and measures. I found MFP too difficult. Just couldn’t get to grips with it.

Try it and see. It’s also great for checking out the recipes in the book. Just pop the ingredients into the cook book and out come the carb and calories etc

Hey Lucky, your eggs should be a breeze 😉 if you need any tips give me a shout 🙂 and sounds like you’re cleaning a castle or two.

Hi Frog , high five 🙂

Been thinking about the books I read growing up, esp as Swallows and Amazons hasbeen made into afilm! Haven”t seen it yet. Was talking about books with my son this weekend! Harry Potter helped him become a reader. It was Orwell’s Animal Farm which really started him off! I’ve just reread TheLion The Witch and the Wardrobe – plan to reread the other books in the Narnia series. Agree that often books we’d enjoyed do not often stand thetest oftime. I enjoy reading booksby Michael Morpurgo, think he appeals to readers of all ages. Has anyone read Love Nina? (Nina Stibbe) It was recently turned into aTV series. I didnt think it was quite as good as the book. I like short stories, currently reading Best British short stories, 2016. Good way todiscover newwriters?

theone, glad you are feeling better and hope the treatment is successful. Is there no end to the ails this diet can improve. You were given half good advise. Your blood sugar can spike during the night due to the body not detecting any food for several hours the liver pumps glycogen into the body (sugar). To counter that you should have a little snack before bed. My nutritionist told me to have a bowl of cereal so we have both been given bad advice. Now I have a slice of ham, a bit of chicken, or tuna on a ryvita. Not sure if the ryvita is allowed but it is once in a blue moon.

Frog – they are forming part of a BSD friendly ‘fry up’ for tea. Will update later 😉

Ihave just found the site and this topic. Great idea to have abook club. Nurse Bean I’d like to recommend Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth for a holiday read. It’san historical novel. Not Follett’susual genre and in my opinion, brilliantly researched and written. Do look it up.

sounds lovely Avila
No dog, and not much sun here!

HI Izzy – enjoy your week off! Sounds like a very busy start to it.
Thought it was odd that your son had gone to the childminder today, but then remembered I think you’re in Scotland, aren’t you?

Hi Lucky
Hassle free, irritation free eggs today?

glad to hear that your feeling so much better theone

That should have read 99% sure it wasn’t cancer !

A lovely long dog walk in bank holiday sun – 3 hours and about 8 miles based on steps…. And didn’t feel as hard work as would expect, though still having a nice sit down now!

Week 5 day one – raw weigh in first thing was 92.3 kg

Many thanks for all the positive feedback and support . Two years ago I was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer (this should have been picked up in a mamogram 4 years earlier but the system setup for early detection failed me). In the beginning I was told they were 99% sure it was cancer . Surgery lymph nodes removed and radiotherapy . Getting out of bed was a struggle blood sugars all over the place . I was sent off to a diabetic educator who told me to eat 6 rice crackers before bed to help with fasting BS :/ ……….. I do listen to my GP and Physcian but question and research everything myself . Now today is the first day in a very long time that I have energy . I have achieved so much today that I finally feel better than I have in years . So thank you MM and to you all for your kindness and support in fighting not only diabetes but the negative Nellie ‘s…. x

Haha Igor, I wish I had so little housework to do that I could oblige you! I’ve just sat down now for the first time since my morning coffee, as my heel has just started off, but downstairs is clean…

…ish 😉

Hello Antigone, glad you’re feeling a lot less tender by now. I did mine once at the age of 15 on a fairground ride. Ye Gods it was painful for a long, long time after. I’ve put many things off the last few years, including leaving the house unless I really really have to (food shopping). Don’t visit friends or family or anything, they tend to come to me. That’s just the low level stuff, if I dug deep, who knows what I’d come to realise!

Welcome back Orinoco, hope you had a nice holiday and well done on the great weightloss too!

Well done Gavin 🙂 You’ve done great!

My next mini goal is to reach 11 stone 7 lbs, that will be 5 lbs from now and I can throw away my big knickers. I then want to lose a total of 3kg on my second round of BSD plus I want my HBA1c to 6.0 at my next lab test in November (10 weeks away). It is already down to 6.6 from 8.2 so hoping to continue to improve health wise.

Doing it that way worked well for me EO – if it’s not the right amount you’ll soon notice!
Don’t forget to estimate any drinks away from home too.
I work as an interim, so have phases of working then take a break – when I start a new assignment I always forget to switch to smaller bottles of milk (until I’ve made a cup of tea and have globs of yogurty milk plop into it from the bottle).

Hi all have been off line for a bit but still be reading your posts on email – Imp98, I feel for you – I have been grumpy and depressed since I weighed myself on Thursday to discover I had gained a kilo – despite sticking to plan. It has left me very down, even though I am now really starting to see my clothes much looser or too big, but it is really hard to pick yourself up from a negative result. I decided I am not going to weigh myself until I feel strong enough to deal with the numbers.

I hope you all have a good week and take heart from the fact that despite the scale, if you are following any of the BSD plans you are making yourself stronger and healthier than you were a week ago. The health benefits are the most important result, not the numbers on the scale.

Each day on the plan is a success – you are changing your lives for the better, one day at a time!

Thanks so much for the gold stars 🙂

Hi Verano
I’ve had a bit of a play with fatsecret – it looks a lot better than MFP – I think that I’m going to switch over
Also, I hadn’t realised that there’s a UK and a US site – my sign up a few years ago was on the US site, but I can log in to the UK one too.

Well done Cassandra021 that’s amazing in one week.

I have now measured out 200ml of milk to use in my tea and added 100 calories to the daily count. Don’t know why I didn’t think of that before.

Now sitting with a large bowl of Prawn Pho. I just can’t believe how tasty the recipes are. This is my 2nd really good meal from the book today. I don’t normally ‘do’ breakfast, but with an almost empty nest I seem to have more time, so enjoying preparing the food.

I highly recommend the Pho – it’s so good.

Yay my week off has begun! Had a gentle morning as my son didn’t wake too early, had his breakfast then took him along to the childminder – stayed for a cup of tea and a catch up as she is one of my besties. Finally walked back home about 1100 lol and made my morning shake. THEN I did some work. I removed my built in oven and replaced the oven and grill elements (it’s about time as it’s been broken for months) then fitted it all back in and tested it (working woohoo) Then moved on to the two toilets as I had two new toilet seats waiting to be fitted. So cleaned both toilets, replaced both seats and all looking good. Then I felt super hungry so I had me some greek yoghurt, then some soup. A pretty productive few hours! I’m heading out soon to go to hobbycraft in town which will be much more fun and even better I’m going alone, usually I have my daughter to fend off buying half the store lol.

Right then, time for a herbal tea and then escape to the shop. Hobbycraft is the only shopping I actually like! Oh and I might pick up a hairdye as my colour has faded.

Roast chicken for dinner later.

Hope you don’t mind me joining, I started last Monday so this is the first day of my second week. I even managed to cut my coffee habit down from 6 cups a day to 1, just to save the calories! I had a dull headache for 3 days but otherwise, no light headedness and more importantly, almost never hungry. So excited to have lost 6 lbs in my first week and 2 inches off my waist. Good luck anyone in week 1, push through to day 4 and it will be plain sailing

Sorry for any confusion, I meant I am roughly 5 foot 2, I found the numbers Captain Lynn mentioned made sense to me. I started at 14 stone 2 months ago on a 1200 diet with running 3 times a week and I was managing around 1 lb off a week but it was torture. I started last Monday and lost 5 lbs this week bringing me down to 13 stone 3lbs. I am hoping to have breast reduction surgery but have to be in the normal BMI to be eligible, that means getting down to 10 stone 6! Loving the programme so far, haven’t been hungry and have even managed to kick the coffee habit, down from 6 cups a day to1 in the morning

🙂 🙂 🙂

Thank you Sunshine-girl, great post

Hi, I’m a newbie, starting today . I’m inspired by the fantastic weight losses that are being posted!

Theone, Next time you see your diabetic educator (now there’s a misnomer) show her a page printed from the Public Health Collaboration on Healthy Eating Guidelines and Weight Loss for the United Kingdom. The site is phcuk.org, an official government site for public health.
Conclusion on page 24 said in 2008 “Evidence from this systematic review demonstrates that low-carbohydrate/high-protein diets are more effective at 6 months and are as effective, if not more, as low-fat diets in reducing weight and cardiovascular
disease risk up to 1 year. More evidence and longer-term studies are needed to assessthe long-term cardiovascular benefits from the weight loss achieved using these diets.” That was in 2008
Finally, in February 2016 the fourth specific analysis was published in the British Journal of Nutrition finding that “Compared with subjects on low-fat diets, subjects on low-carbohydrate diets experienced significantly greater weight loss, greater triglycerides
reduction and greater increase in HDL-cholesterol after 6 months to 2 years of intervention.”

So between 2008 and 2016 the medical advice on nutrition has changed from thinking low carb might be a good idea to 2016 concluding it is a great idea. They go on to say that they are concerned that NICE are not taking up this advice and, in particular, still advocating high carb, low fat diets when it has been shown that low fat leads to fatter people. Apparently NICE are waiting for trial to end so phuk have carried out their own trials and their final final conclusion is:

In light of this scientific evidence the Public Health Collaboration recommends thatthe guidelines for weight loss in the UK should include an ad libitum low-carbohydrate-high-fat diet of real foods as an acceptable, effective and safe approach,

Sorry if that goes on a bit but it is quoted verbatim and I did not want to chop it about or be misleading. Print off the last few pages, give them to your educator and show her where to stick her advice. (Sorry, getting cross now, need a lie down)

Hi, I’m starting today. I followed BSD for 2 weeks in July and it was surprisingly easy and the meals were tasty, but then holidays and life got in the way so I’m back at it. I use MFP to log what I eat and I’m hoping to get into better eating habits by following this.

That’s a thought Sunshine Girl
I haven’t exactly stopped BSD, but have got a lot more lax – I’m still losing weight, but much more slowly.
Maybe it’s time to get back to basics again!