Hi Everyone, firstly well done for all your efforts, successes and such lovely supportive advice for each other!
I am 59 and put on 1.5 stone before diagnosis of hypothyroid 6-7 years ago, on 75-100mg Levo……I found the whole Thyroid condition very complex and many of my symptoms have often been blamed or confused with the Menopause too! I don’t have lots of weight to lose at this stage but I’m only 5’2 tall with lots of belly fat around the middle and I watched my mum suffer lots with Type 2 at my age so am just trying to ward off the ‘hereditary diabetes’ if possible. I can feel my health slowly deteriorating, mainly muscle aches, weakness, joint problems, poor sleep, headaches etc.
Thanks to everyone for the many helpful tips p, especially regarding gluten.
Like someone else on this forum said – it’s really SOOoo hard to view ‘FAT’ as being OK!!! after keeping it out of our diets for 30 yrs, this one really worries me, how do we know it won’t be clogging up our arteries? But in these firts few days, I’ve been amazed to find I’ve lost 3lbs, maybe it’s just water at this stage but it’s encouraged me to keep going.
I wish everyone on this forum the very best of success with your individual goals, keep going, it’s great to be part of such a lovely group of people!! 🙂

Hello, I am wondering whether anyone else has felt that they are really warm having started the diet? Why could this be?

OMG! Now you can tell your kids that it pays to do chores around the house! 😉 No such luck in this Nintendo age!

I seem to have the same problem with everyone else that is a couch potato:

Sitting down for the last 3-4 hours before sleep watching TV. While staring at this flat TV, I get the munchies when not hungry.

How on earth do we as humans stop grazing like a sheep or goat?

OMG! I said human! I can’t say that nor forefathers or mankind at Princeton University now! LOL I guess I am now the LSEStud (London School of Economics).

http://nj1015.com/words-you-cant-use-at-princeton-mankind-manpower-forefathers-even-freshman/

Day 31
Friday 19 August 2016

Breakfast: None

Lunch: 11:00
4 Egg Spanish Omlette

Snack: 1:30
carrots and Hummus

Dinner: 6:00
Spare Rib
baked yam
Pea Soup

I hope not to do more snacking tonight as I always do. It gets hard when on the road elsewhere when you pass Dunkin Donuts and Junk food convenience stores. i guess you can say that they are not really that convenient!

Going to see the Philadelphia Philahrmonic this Weekend in Saratoga and Sweeney Todd at Glimmerglass Opera house. I like the cut throat scene in the barbers chairs and then throws his down the chute. So creepy and gory. Yet, entertaining! It is like Edward Scissorhands meet Freddy Kruger!

Day 30
Thursday August 18 2016

Breakfast : None

Lunch: 4 Egg Spanish Omlette

Snack: Around 4:30
1 cup Greek Yogurt with Bunch Of Blueberries

Dinner: 7:00
3 slices of meatloaf
1 bowl of Pea Soup
1 Baked Yam

I snacks on handful of strawberries while watching the Olympics. The Silver Medal for volleyball was tonight for womens. Saturday night is the gold.
I am doing better on not snacking too much at night before bed. I have a bad habit doing that. I know you do too!

ooh and almost forgot three bonuses for today. We all have big bath sheets we use for showers but as I was behind with the laundry I had to make do this morning with a normal sized bath towel… it’s big enough now to wrap around me 🙂

aaand i tried on an old jacket earlier and found it fits, it’s a lightweight black rain jacket and it is great for right now when it’s not cold but raining a lot. It’s a size 10 jacket but I remember it being oversized so more like a 12-14. Third bonus was I checked the pockets before chucking it in the washing machine and found £10! I think it’s at least 8 years since it last fitted so a long time that £10 has been hiding. I think it could be time to have another rummage and try on the clothes pile.

The only things I can successfully grow are weeds and chilli’s! even my herb’s on the windowsill have died 🙁 We had plenty rain here though lol

Well this morning I got into the loft and managed to make 7 key rings. I wanted to make 10 but made a few mistakes, but still 7 is good. Once I get to 10 I will try to sell them 🙂

I’m caught up with our laundry (all except my daughters) and got a few of my little jobs done. I made soup too. About to make some fish for dinner.

Thank you Igorasusual this is very helpful and encouraging. I didn’t realise how much I needed to hear all this positivity. This is the first diet plan (and I have attempted many…)that I have truly felt is not just doing me good in lots of ways , but that I can see myself continuing with long after. I already feel clearer headed, and more upbeat with so much more energy than I would have expected from so few calories.

My job is quite physical. I’m on my feet for 8 hours and am required to lift 25kg sacks around on occasion. As a woman this can be quite challenging at times, but what can I say i’m a bit of a cart horse. This is why I think that carbs have played such a massive part of my life and so much empty nutrition has passed my lips that I feel quite ashamed to admit it. This plan is giving me a new lease of life which is why i’m desperate not to fall off and get lost.

I appreciate your kind words and success with your own journey, and they shall spur me on…!!!
Cheers!

Hi

I’ve been here for 6 weeks and have just dropped down into the next group of 10lbs … I weigh in pounds.

My loss so far is just 11.6lbs but that makes me just 2.4lbs from my first stone …. so that’s my next mini goal. Hope to do that in the next week to 10 days

Then just another 1.8lbs to get me down into the next stone!!! Can’t believe I can do that because it’s so long since I was last there, but I know I can do it with this way of eating , and altogether it’s only 4.2lbs!!!!

May take a few weeks but hey it’s a goal that’s really achievable.

So now embarking on my 2.4lbs.

What’s your next mini goal

I don’t know about a pair of jeans I’d like to fit in to, more like a wardrobe full haha! I’m in this for the long haul as I just seem to have got bigger and bigger over the last 10 years but that does mean I have lots of clothes ready for when I can shrink back in to them. Mind you, I’m not sure I’ll even like the clothes from my 20s now! 🙂

I love all these reasons for names! What a lovely ice-breaker! Mine seems quite boring compared to some. I have played in a brass band for 40 years and my favourite march is Imperial Echoes. It was also my CB radio handle way back when they were popular!
I remember the song oldbluejeans! Have a pair of jeans in back of my wardrobe waiting for me to fit back into!!

great conversation going here. Apple – let us all know when we can call you Pip!!

I have a pair of old blue jeans that I love but haven’t worn for years because I can’t get them past my thighs but the username really comes from the song (can’t remember who sung it, it’s an oldie):

When I wake up in the mornin’ light
I pull on my jeans and I feel all right
I pull my blue jeans on
I pull my old blue jeans on

won’t mean anything to you youngsters on here but the rest of you will now be stuck with it in your heads – sorry 🙂

5 week weigh in on scales tomorrow. And its going to be BAD. I have not had a good week at all. Sadly.

Don’t worry Claire1005 It will be gone by Sunday, working on it and just had a 30 min swim so feeling gooooood

Oh no sunshine-girl, that’s bad news 🙁

Well done sunshine, another Cinderella moment looming I think! My aim was to get into size 14 jeans again.. And they’re on, with room to spare! I have another pair of JOTF but not in them yet.. Maybe incorrectly labelled because they only go halfway up my legs!!

I went to the travel agent and he gave me a good deal on one acre lots on Mars:

https://www.moonestates.com/product/buy-land-on-mars/

He told me that you have to BYOO: Bring your Own Oxygen!

Nothing like picking blueberries and rasberries for the year. Atleast getting them before the birds do! Strawberry picking is tougher though because you have to crawl on your hands and knees. There were no strawberries this year in NY because of the lacking of April Showers! 🙁 My freezer got packed to the wall just on berries.

The summer squash this year somehow got humongous! It is bigger than your forearm! How on earth did that happen? I must have the Green Thumb! YAY!

Have a FRUITful Day!

PrincetonianStud

Hi everyone I’m new to this but thought I’d say hello! I chose Apple as I am feeling quite round hence my starting the BSD 🙂 I saw what you said sunshine-girl about keeping names upbeat so now I can imagine losing a chunk from the Apple every week and fingers crossed I’ll be left with a skinny core 🙂

My name is Emily Williams so its EmWill

SUNSHINE GIRL! How interesting about yr DDs job!
Such a lovely combination,milk choccy and nuts…not that ive had any for ages * sob!* X

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn276/yowzer2008/1a809237170e6c890d43515a06ce7293_zpsu3aa9kmi.jpg

Claire1005 I know where your 2lbs went, it landed on my scales this morning. C’est la vie

The Coeliac Society of Australia Ingredient List by The Coeliac Society of Australia Inc https://appsto.re/au/Psr_w.i. Very useful!!

Hi All, can’t believe there is this great BSD chat forum AND there is a thread on Hashimoto’s Hypothyroidism and other under active thyroid issues. I have Coeliac disease, diagnosed in my 40s (am now 57); diagnosed with Hashi’s 4 months ago and have just tested positive for rheumatoid arthritis ugh!! I’m starting the 8 week diet tomorrow, in 8 hours, am feeling excited about the possibility of shifting the 20kg I’ve gained in just under 2 years (thank you Hashi’s). I’ve never been ion such a dramatic diet before; have read the book and done lots of prep. Hope I can handle the hunger surges ok.
I notice quite a few people are interested in eating gluten free… in which case you might find this app useful: “Australian Couliac” at

Hi fatnifty, my daughter is an almond and hazelnut buyer it is not a user name, so you can have it if you want. When you bite into your glass and a half with a nut in every bite, it is my daughter who has sourced and bought them for the chocolate company. Wash my mouth out, no milk chocolate allowed here, I prefer 75% dark.

Well done greenjanet, that feeling to get into something you have yearned to for ages. My first aim was to get into size 14 shorts that fit 2 years ago then didn’t last year. Well they fit this year. I wanted to get into a pair of white jeans (also fit 2 years ago) but couldn’t quite do up the zip, looked at the label and they are a 12. I also have THE dress, I bought it in a UK shop sale and they didn’t deliver to France so had it sent to my daughters for her to bring out 3 months later. By the time it arrived I had gained weight and it has sat in the wardrobe since then. That is my big goal, besides all the little goals on the way we are all doing so well.

Got on the scales this morning and I have gained 2lbs, so not a total disaster and I will be rid of that in 2 or 3 days. Blood glucose 110 (6.1) so needs a little watching.

Okay, so I am back on track today but had hurdles to jump. Typed up a menu plan for 3 days which will take me to my next shop on Monday. For breakfast I had the melon, spinach, almond milk shake with enough left over for tomorrow morning. I had lunch all planned out for all of us, forgot hubby has sushi on shopping day, Decided the boys could have burgers but they saw a man selling cajun food and tasted some spicy sausage thingie, Can we have some, can we have some please, dancing around the supermarket. So I bought two portions for the boys. I had already bought the burger buns pack of 6, so gave them a bun each to dip in the sausage sauce, leaving 4 buns and they can have burgers tonight. Blow me down, they wouldn’t eat the bl—dy stuff they had tasted, liked and begged me to buy. Anyway, I am not a soft touch so they got 00000 (nothing). So I have put the sausage concoction in a freezer tub which I will have at some other date (just sausage, tomatoes, onions etc).

Because they were having burgers for lunch I was having my own turkey and apricot burgers (MM recipe) with something or other, so that changed. Ended up having grilled hallumi with a couple of pieces of proscuitio ham, spinach and courgetti with yogurt and garlic dressing. It was delicious. Then they had strawberry flan, I am not a nana that makes them go without for not eating lunch, I don’t use food to threaten or punish. That is why I am here now, while they eat the cake. Phew, managed to get through 2 meals with no hitches.

Tonight they are going to have their burgers and I am going to have mine – calorie total 790. I can really understand why women (or men) with children find it difficult to lose weight. Too many left overs and I hate waste.

Hi all,
So pleasing to see such good news for everyone (apart from Judith, get well soon). I yoyo’d +1/-1 for week 3 but eventually lost 1/2lb by the end so -9.5lb overall, then I plateaued for 5 days and was starting to despair a bit about week 4 but have then lost 2lb overnight on wed and another 1lb down this morning so now -12.5lb 🙂
I hope it stays that way and hoping I can sneak of another 0.5lb before the end of the week!!
Ps CaptainLynne I bet you hardly recognised yourself in your new uniform!

Hi Ignorasusual

Well done to your OH – he has done really well to come down from those figures and to be able to come off metformin as well must be wonderful. I have a horrible taste in my mouth most of the time and I blame the metformin for it.

My take on the dawn effect is this – in the morning your liver releases glucose and your body releases insulin to deal with it. In people without diabetes this results in a normal range fasting result. For me as a diabetic – I feel a high reading shows that my liver is releasing the stored glucose, but I feel a lower reading shows that my insulin is starting to work to process it properly- wishful thinking?!

I live very close to a pub that serves excellent meals with generous portions at a very reasonable price, when my visitors come they expect to go there, and I don’t mind because it means that we can all catch up while someone else is cooking. I have only been once since I started this and I pigged out, but I didn’t enjoy it.

Day 180 Weight 9st 7lbs
Blood Sugar: 9.2

Did a fair amount of gentle gardening to try to get moving.

Day 181 Weight 9st 6lbs
Blood Sugar 7.8

Antibiotics are still making me feel tired, but I will finish the course Sunday morning, so I hope to start to feel better then.

Ahhh igorasusual

You’re a darling for those comments, didn’t you say you are in fashion, what sort, it’s very interesting times at the mo, buying and selling I have run a dress agency since 2007, so I get the worlds labels in, but never worn any out of Xile before, but I always prefer the quirky lagenlook style.
As my mum always said I always wanted to be irritatingly different, but I like the unstructured styles, but I must admit as my shape is changing, I may have to re think that. But putting that dress on today has given me an enormous boost. I just wish my sister who started this plan a week after me had stuck to it, as she is the mother of the bride, and I know she will out of desperation end up with an awful what I call mobster outfit, and it will make her very unhappy. But as much as I love her and willed her on I couldn’t make her stick to it, it comes from our guts well it does for me. Mind you my ill health was an enormous driver. Anyway hope you have a happy day.
🙋

Last post makes me want my username to be almondbuyer !
I’m facinated by usernames too yowzer. Just a handful of letters, yet often expand to become a novella .

Wouldn’t get very good odds on people guessing my reasons at William Hill I suspect !

Weighed this morning and another 2lb has gone overnight so that’s 6lbs lost by day 5! I tested my blood sugars too and they’re down from 6.7 on Monday morning to 5.2 today. Very pleased! 😊

Hi Langerhans

I have mobility difficulties and so walking is very difficult for me too. You’re right not to beat yourself up about something that is out of your control.

I am into week 7 but have not been as vigilant as many. I average 1000 cals and 75 to 100 carbs a day but have still lost 12lbs. Ok, so not a huge loss but a loss none the less. I’m sure that exercise would have helped me to lose more but that’s not really to be! But I do feel very much better than I did at the start of this plan and am really not hungry at all anymore. I think it takes a week or so to adjust to low carbs.

Glad to hear somebody else is using Fatsecret. Most people use my fitness pal but I just couldn’t get used to it. I think Fatsecret is more flexible when it comes to altering the weight of a food.

I find it really odd that the ‘medical profession’ hasn’t taken low carbs on board for diabetics. The ‘science’ seems to make so much sense. I have a very progressive practice, so am really interested to see what they say when I go for my next check up in October. I’m hoping to have lost 10% of my body weight by then …. and I have a lot to lose!!!!!

Keep journaling !

Fabulous five days, Kereru! How about a non-alcoholic reward? A jar of coconut oil (excellent for all sorts of things as well as BSD!) Well done!

Well done, Jan! Bet the frock looks lovely, and so great to be able to get in it and feel you look good (and OH agreeing!)

Know the sort of thing that Out of Xile do in terms of tight fitting top and then draped skirt – you will be looking sensational!

🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Well done ! fab loss, you must be so pleased. I love reading how well relatively new starters have done. Really helpful to hear. And NO to the wine !

Hello Mo. Good luck and keep posting!, Like me I have no doubt you have done numerous diets before. I am starting this on September 1st as just had an operation and been told to wait. I will, however, follow your progress with interest and do lots of reading in the meantime. Don’t like cooking much so a whole new ballgame. Have a good day, tipping it down with rain here in Oxford! S x

Hi frog, Yes I do seem a bit hyper at the minute haha, not sure it’s breakfast though just that it feels like life is good just now and I’m very grateful. I’m not so much excited about the laundry it’self – more having the time to get it done and the prospect of an empty basket (for 5 mins until my daughter fills it up again lol)

Hi Yowzer, always busy haha, I will definitely do one or the other or both with my book. I don’t really want to be famous though but it would be nice if it did well enough for me to make a reasonable living 🙂 I like a quiet life really!

Today is full of awesomeness, my son is at nursery and was so happy to be there no issues at all at him going in. Today is his first session without a parent staying but he wasn’t bothered at all! The walk to there and back has given me 3400 steps, so Fridays should be better than before for step counts now too. I’ve had my morning shake and I’ve made a cuppa and now I’m heading off to my Den so as not to waste this precious time! He’ll need picked up at 12 so the morning will soon pass.

Last night we had lemon chicken with oven roasted courgette, tomato, asparagus and onion. Hubby had rice. It was nice but I added too much lemon (I used 2 lemons and 3 chicken breasts, next time I think 1 lemon will do) It had a nice kick with the chilli flakes.

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/32690/lemon-butterfly-chicken.aspx?o_is=LV

Yeahhhhh morning all you beautiful peeps.

Hope it’s going well. Lucky I’ve been really wiped this week except Wednesday, when I was so full of beans couldn’t switch of, so strange.

Joy of joys tried on my smallest outfit for the frightfully posh darling wedding I am going to on 3 Sep and its Fffffffffitting wey hey showed OH and he looked at me agog as he could see I had a figure appearing, the dress is couture from my dress agency that I run, so not a couturier price, and I have kept it and coveted it for 4 years in the hope and it Fffffffits, ooh it’s so lovely it’s by Out of Xile a very different sort of designer, it’s very figure hugging at the top and sweeps away to a partly tiered skirt, in navy. So I am sorted my biggest outfit and my next down are now not needed, and the OH approves bless him he says very little but he did look at me in a shocked way, he hasn’t seen a figure from me for 9 years and that was only a brief 6 months then I went back to ms blobby.

But anyway j.b. Is vibrating me got to move, happy day everyone, and well done on all your losses and smaller clothes and restrained eating when on hol yeahhhhhh loving this plan and love you guys.🙋🙋🙋

Gosh thanks everyone you are all so kind – here’s hoping!,
Jill

I was on a VLCD and told the same thing as Izzy. Sounds plausible. A good haicut will make you ferl better while your body sorts itself out.
Well done on your fantastic weight loss!

Well done Barnett – great advice Trev also, I totally agree.

As a veteran (24lbs down or more than 15%of starting weight lost) I can confirm that weight loss isn’t steady and you need to keep your nerve.

Check the measurements – my OH didn’t want/need to lose much weight and has dropped about half a stone – but has gone down a couple of trouser sizes and shirt sizes too, and belt notches very much adjusted too. (Blood sugar now normal and off Metformin also 🙂 )

It seems that the visceral fat goes first, so you may notice waist size dropping whilst weight stays the same.

If you are tempted by the bread, just say that you will do the BSD one day at a time and hang on in there!

Keep checking in here – lots of experience and support.

Hi Impecho,
I’m glad my journalling is helping. You need to start when you are ready, but I’m sure you won’t regret it and will see changes very quickly.
As a nurse, I know that we’re bound by the slow-turning cogs of guidance and policy. I work with long-stay patients, several of whom are developing Type 2. I KNOW how to stop it, but am stuck with the dietician’s sheets and handing out Metformin like Smarties. I’m hoping if I lose enough weight through BSD I can convince the bosses to let me do a presentation on it.
Looking forward to your posts. x

Trev_ thank you so much that is exactly what I needed to hear. I am really enjoying this approach to eating and although each day brings its own challenges, I feel my will is strong! I was starting to waver a bit until I read your post. So thank you again and good luck with your own journey. Have measured too. Didn’t think to do that at the beginning so another little gem.
cheers!

Thanks both and I will look for Dr Berg right now!
Jill

Ah, Lucia – lovely about the ‘TMI’ I remember breast–fed babies did not have smelly poo till they started eating other stuff. Messy but not smelly!

Years ago I did a vlcd, and was told by the counsellor that during the low calorie stage our hair often stops shedding and replenishing at it’s normal rate as the nutrition is diverted to ‘important’ body things. Then – as you have done- when we step up our calories and more nutrients are available for the bodies secondary things like hair the body then tries to catch up by losing the hair and replenishing faster. It’s more noticeable in people with long hair for sure, but can be noticed on anyone. The same happened after both my pregnancies. I lost a noticeable amount of hair, but it did come back and it was never so thin that others would notice.

I don’t know 100% if this reason is true, but it does *sound* true, and certainly my hair did shed and come back.

There is a Dr Eric Berg on you tube who has made a series of videos on health/ vitamins etc and how different aspects of the body are affected. I am sure I saw something on hair.

I’m not sure how legitimate the guy is but he has some interesting stuff to say about Drs treating symptoms individually rather than linking stuff together and looking for the underlying cause. I was looking at the adrenal stuff and it made sense to me. He had a practical approach to addressing it that wasn’t just about drugs but about how to reduce stress improve sleep support the adrenal system lose weight exercise very gently etc

Makes an interesting watch.

Minnie, I have not yet found an Aqua class but it is on my list of things to do. OH is 83 and while very fit needs a fair bit of attention Sciatica is playing up because I have been doing a lot of gardening – yard work really, but it is not unbearable. The quack said I could come back sooner or later – 3 or 4 months – if I wanted the op, so I am hoping that I will be a lot lighter. Or at least a bit!

You can post anywhere, and if you tick the box below you will get lots of emails. You don’t have to tick the box, just go and check the threads, or start one. If you read Frog’s posts she is very active – think she works off her social life. She is quite inspirational as are many others on here.I think you have to go out, you must keep your life going, just keep vigilant

I must get a new step counter. I have a very low tech one somewhere!

The end of my 8 weeks is Monday, so will report on the weigh in thread – and keep going.
Onwards and downwards. Thanks for your kind thoughts

Morning everyone! Firstly, sorry – yesterday I’d typed a reply to everyone in the box, got sidetracked and when I flaked out stupidly early and put computer off, noticed I’d not hit post on it.

Today is daft weigh day, from Sunday to Friday as I’m away in a bit. I am 96.7kg, so that’s 2 kg gone this week so only 0.7kg to go now to get to pre camping weight. Away at 9 hopefully if we’re packed and showered in time.

Jan, I haven’t been walking much myself, definitely not been feeling myself this week, really tired. Slept for over 9 hours last night, straight through. Didn’t even finish the rugby, and if I hadn’t set my alarm for 7, I think I’d have slept longer too. I’m wiped out. Doubt I’ll get much in before the end either, this weather is grim and I’ll probably be housebound there! Chained to the kitchen lol.

Never followed Bake Off, never seen the appeal in it.

Well done on the clothes Yowzer, keep at it Tokyo, you’ll be feeling fine in a few more days, Janey – there are much MUCH worse things to have eaten last night than a carvery 😉

Hopefully check in with you all tonight, all being well! Have a good day! 🙂