Just thought I would post here today, not just to bring it back to the top, but as there are over 6800 posts, which probably makes it the longest thread, it would be really, really sad for it to disappear!

So……🌳🌷🌿 My garden is blossoming! Apple blossom has been lush this year. My white lilac is in bloom. A red acer that I thought was dying because it didn’t lose all its leaves last winter is looking magnificent. So all looking really lovely.

🧺🧳📚 Washing and ironing all done. Clothes ready to be packed into their ‘pods’, toiletries, pills and make-up all gathered together so everything is ready to just pack.

👩🏻✂️🪮 Hair cut and coloured with ‘highlights’. So after pedicure tomorrow I’ll be ‘holiday’ ready!

If you have any positives, and I’m sure we all had at least one ‘positive’ today, please post. Let’s not let this thread disappear into the ‘ether’.

Hello. I just want to pop in to say this will probably be my last post for April. Packing tomorrow and travelling Sunday.

So, for me April, as with the rest of 2026, has been a time of down a bit, up a bit, but stayed much the same as I actually have for the last few years. The good news is my BS finger pricks are mainly in the 5’s with some jumps when I have a carby meal. In saying that last night we had a Thai meal and I had rice noodles for the first time in a long time and this morning my finger prick was 5.4! I do really believe that those of us with either T2 or ‘reversed’ T2 each have to find our own individual ‘flash’ foods. I’m sure we each have different reactions to the basic bread, rice, pasta and potatoes and I also think that what we eat with them makes a huge difference to our insulin responses. Just makes life even more complicated!

Anyway, I hope April has been ‘Amazing’ in many ways for everyone. Life is more than a number on a scale!

Maybe time to start thinking about May???

OK ‘The Husband’s Secret’ is on its way! Should be here tomorrow so I know have 8 paperbacks and my kindle ‘just in case’!
Will let you know what I think when I’ve read it.

Well said s-g!

Oh dear, I wish that I’d found this site before I wasted these ingredients. What a poor recipe this is. Instructions are vague ( doesnt specify whether the coconut oil is measured before or after melting and it DOES make a difference). It simply says “mix the ingredients together, ( do you chop the dates or not? do you blend the nibs or leave them whole? ) which would leave a plain batter with 6 whole dates and some chunky bits of cacao nibs in it, so not chocolatey at all. I blended it all together but the end result is dense and solid. Not remotely like a brownie and certainly not worth the effort or expense. This recipe cannot have been tested or baked by a half decent cook.

koin8 I dont know why you are telling US about the BSD, we have been doing this for years. Where have you been. You are way behind the curve.

Just jumping on quickly to say congratulations to CATHY! That’s so inspiring. I’ll definitely be aiming to follow your lead in May.

And that’s YOWZER for the wonderful words as always. Hope you’re doing better? X

CCATHY,just calling by to say a huge congrats and a thunderous applause!
UIve said it before and I’ll say it again,no one deserves this more than you! You have tried so hard and gone through so much.
Well done! Enjoy your holiday with the book club !XXX
Love to all and a happy weekend!XX sorry this is so short xx
“ May the dream of peace take flight across the world “

🐝 ¨*• ¸🌼¸¸ 💞🐝*•.¸🌼¨*•💞¸🌼¸¸ 🐝 ¨*• ¸🌼¸¸ 💞🐝*•.¸🌼¨*•💞¸🌼¸¸

Hello Everyone

I’ve been invigilating this week and am glad I have a day off today. I am off to Corfu next Friday 1st May and the weather is looking rainy! Oh well, it will be good fun with the book club girls. I weighed myself this morning and I was 141.8! I am down 2.2 lb this week. Next week is my last week of the online 12 week plan and so far I have lost 25.5 lb! It’s been an incredible weight loss. My legs look thin and my trousers are all baggy! I ordered some new sandals and the size 5 were too big so I’ve ordered a size 4. When I go away next week I will not be following the keto low carb plan but I intend to be sensible and as soon as I am home I will see what is in store for me on the plan. I have been so impressed with my weight loss and I am having my blood test for Hba1c on Tuesday so hopefully I’ve reversed my pre diabetes. The thing I have enjoyed about the keto WOE is that the hunger has gone. The higher fat meals are very satisfying and everything I eat is nutritious and I am hoping that my snacking and crisp days are over. I had an interesting conversation with my husband and said if I could treat myself to anything to eat after the 12 weeks what would I choose. It wouldn’t be crisps, it wouldn’t be cake or chocolate – I settled on a Gin & Tonic so on Thursday evening next week I am going to have a G&T. I’ve not had a drink since New Year.

DCT I hope you have a wonderful holiday and I can recommend the Fast Keto when you get back. I will be continuing with the plan when I get back but once I get down to 138/140 I am going to start to learn how to maintain. I don’t really feel I want to get as low as I did in 2017. My size 12 clothes are now loose and I feel happy with my weight.

I will post my blood test results and my final 12 week keto plan weight loss next Thursday before I head off to Kassiopi. I hope everyone else has a good week and I hope you can all be inspired by my story. I feel like I have won the lottery as I’ve tried so hard for the last few years without any results and had set back after set back but kept trying and trying and suddenly this year things have changed and my weight has gone. I will be here to help, support and inspire everyone who has helped and inspired me over the years. I have been the tortoise in the race but I have almost reached the finish line!

Morning all. I can’t believe another week has flown by!

CATHY how are you doing this week? I’m inspired by your loss 👏

ARCTICFOX I hope your week has gone well on your new meds?

DAWN I’m in the same position as you in terms of not having lost as much so far as I wanted to, but much of that is of my own doing. I go away next Friday and really hope to be below 150 by then. I will restart on Monday 11th May and am probably going to switch to two meals a day Fast Keto to make a concerted effort to power through the next 10lb. My original goal for the end of 2026 was 138lb but I’d love to make it to that ever elusive long term target 133lb if I can. I feel confident that I can get there but know I need to boost my efforts for at least a short period of time.

Hope everyone else is doing ok? Do drop in and post if you get a chance.

Meanwhile, wishing everyone a wonderful weekend X

Well done Tulip you seem to have found the ‘eating pattern’ that suits you. I think maybe that’s the secret…. there isn’t ONE way, ONE diet, ONE theory we each have to find our own way.

I think the first step is to be really honest with ourselves as to why we want to follow this WOL.

Tackle high blood sugar, T2 diabetes, eat a healthy diet, lose weight, reduce/eliminate UPF’s. Or any combination of these.

Then we have to individually work out what works best for each of us. Some like fasting, some like really low carb, some like ‘slow and steady’. I think we all know that we have to stay low carb and ditch potatoes, bread, rice and pasta but after that ???.

The Husbands Secret is amazing

thanks

Welcome back SG and thank you for seeing us through April Verano 🙂

I’m still loving the Fast 800 and have lost a bit over a stone (from original total of 3 stone to goal)…the main thing for me is type of food and some kind of calorie defecit but I’m pretty flexible on it in terms of calories, plus mild TRE fast overnight (12 hours or so). Feeling good on this WOE and building various kinds of fitness- both of these things help me manage the considerable household stress with 2 of my 3 doing exams this year (GCSEs and A levels).

Love to all xxx

Hi everyone.

I’m still washing and ironing. I hate going away leaving either so I will probably have one last wash to do on Friday the that’s that for me.

I weighed this morning and I weigh exactly the same as I did when I started this years diary on December 30th! Not a brilliant start to the year but could be worse there could have been a gain! So I’ve decided to stop recording now and will start afresh when we get back home. I certainly won’t get down or depressed because of the number on the scale. Just have to accept that things are what they are and keep on……

Well done for keeping low Becca just carry on.
Hope everyone is doing well but if not tomorrow is another day!

Will do s-g!

I thought about re-reading The Husbands Secret but know I will quickly start thinking I know what comes next as I start to remember it. Then I looked at the price and it is €8.99 on Amazon so I will look for something else for now but do let me know what you think.

Hi all, the washing is all done and we are starting to put out the summer furniture. I have my head back in the game and looking forward to some good losses. For many of you starting out you will lose quicker than with most other diets but for us who have been doing this for years it gets hards to lose. For that reason I have set an attainable goal of 3kgs before my next doctors appointment in June. It is less than 1lb a week but that is okay as long as it is possible. In the long term (and we have no planned trips or anything) that could be 9kgs by December. I would be very happy with that.

Had a good day yesterday but hubby cooks on Tuesday so I have asked him to consider my diet. I think we are having lamb chops and a big plate of veg/

Keep on…..

Hi all, and welcome back Ms Sunshine! You were missed! But Verano has been doing a lovely job while you were gone.
I’ve been back on the low calories and very low carb for just over a week, and it’s going well, scale is going down at an encouraging pace. Truthfully I could not do this for life, and am looking forward to summer fruits coming into season in a few weeks, but will be continuing the very low carb and calories until after my annual physical exam and labs in 3 weeks. Then will ease up just a bit and move from 20 gm carb to probably 50 gm carb. Keeping calories around 1000, but will probably also move those to 1200 after the doctor’s.

Hope everyone is having a good week in body and mind! Remember to be kind to yourselves!

Becca

S-g thank you. I know exactly what you mean about the ‘dread multi book deal’!

Actually I did watch the ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ series, although can’t remember where it was broadcast, and my goodness it was odd!

Anyway I will take your advice and try ‘The Husbands Secret’ . Thank you.

Verano, when Liane started her writing career she was brilliant. That was when she wrote 3 Wishes then The Husbands Secret. Then came the dread multi book deal and she started to churn them out. Her worst books are What Alice Forgot and Nine Perfect Strangers. The Hypnotists Love Story is intriguing but predictable. If they are cheap then it could be a good introduction. Still say The Husbands Secret is the best book I have ever read.

Well done Cathy! Must feel good to be down below 145 again!
I’ve been down for the count the last couple of days with this cold, unfortunately. It has been a struggle to make sure I am drinking enough fluids, so I did go a bit off plan and bought some zero sugar root beer and some pudding cups. I will need to dilute the root beer going forward, and I don’t think I will be able to finish the pudding cups as they are just too sweet and I can taste the chemicals in them. They have helped to soothe my throat but I definitely will not be buying them when I’m healthy. Good to know that my tastes have changed so much in 6 weeks.
DCT, I tried the modified chia bircher and the texture was nice but my taste was still a bit distorted so I will have to try it again and report back. I also tried the cauliflower oven chips that I bought last weekend and even with not being able to taste them properly, I know I will not be buying them again. The texture alone was pretty disgusting.
I had the phone appointment with my doctor yesterday and he agreed that the signs were positive for a stimulant working but that I might not be on the right drug yet, so I am now going to be trying a different one. I picked it up at the pharmacy today when I went in for some more tissues. I go back to work on Monday so it will be interesting to see the difference it makes in a work context.

S-g hi just looked at Amazon and they have a set of four Liane Moriaty which includes The Last Anniversry, What Alice Forgot and The Hypnotists Love Story. Just wondering if it’s worth buying the four?

Please try The Husbands Secret, I promise you will finish it in a few days. I also forget what a book was about, but the same with films. They all seem to run into each other.

Thanks Margaret, we live just 50 miles from Bordeaux so give us a wave. It was just a holiday, nothing to get upset about, there will be others. Norway is a beautiful country which is why we went back for the 3rd time. Picked the wrong time of year and chose to go on the outer edge all the way up to the Arctic Circle. Didnt even get to see the Northern Lights but I have seen them before. I think we might try a river cruise but the Rhone or Danube.

Not really back on the diet now until Monday as I havent had time to do a proper shop or got my head around it. Will try to sit down and write a menu tomorrow.

Enjoy the weekend.

Hi everyone,
Cathy I’m just popping in to say well done on your brilliant weight loss using the 12 week online plan! You have achieved what I was hoping to. It’s my week 12 this coming week and I’ve messed around too much so won’t have lost anything near what you have but hopefully I will still be lighter than when I started. I will be continuing with the plan at the end of the 12 weeks. Hope everyone has a nice weekend. Dawn XX

Happy Anniversary S-G & I am so sorry to hear that your holiday didn’t go to plan & wasn’t as enjoyable as you had been hoping . Welcome back & when we visited Oslo on a summer Baltic cruise it poured with rain & the train trip we went on we could see nothing because of the driving rain. However the weather in Denmark & mostly thereafter was fairly good but I probably wouldn’t go on another sea cruise because I get seasick although we are going from Bordeaux in June on a river cruise through wine country & that I can cope with.😀
I will weigh tomorrow & post my results.
Margaret xx

Hello everyone
Weigh in this morning and I was 144lb! I am the lightest I’ve been since June 2019. I lost 1.2 lb this week. Two more weeks on the 12 week 800 calorie keto plan to do and then hopefully a five day holiday to Corfu. When I come back I’ll change plan but I don’t really know what happens then. I plan to keep paying for the online subscription for a few months to keep me on track and to learn how to maintain. I will be happy to maintain at about 140 lb. I am 65 in June. I do not want to go too low with my BMI. Currently it is 27 and I am happy with that as an older woman with confirmed osteoporosis, I think a bit of fat on my bones will be protective.
To answer your question DCT our book club (8 of us) like to go way together for three nights or so once or twice an year and we decided we all needed some sunshine so we picked Kassiopi. We are staying in a beautiful villa for four nights. At Christmas we went to Buxton for a couple of nights and last year we went to Harrogate. We are a mix of ages and most of the group are social workers ( like to party hard). My sister in law introduced me to the book club about 10 years ago ; it was her and her social worker colleagues who had recently started the book club and they were so lovely and welcoming to me. I was having a really difficult time at that time being bullied at work and subsequently I introduced a colleague from the hospital where we worked at together and the rest is history, me and Liz are the pensioners! We won’t allow anyone else to join because we are frightened that our wonderful dynamic will change. We all get on so well and I remember when we went to Harrogate I didn’t realise I had shingles but felt really unwell but still laughed so much I thought I had broken a rib! We will do a lot of laughing. We have chosen our latest book club book and it’s set in Italy, not Corfu. We are going to read The Home Made God. I am the book club swot and keep all the scores etc but my sister in law in particular isn’t really a reader! It really should be a wine club!
DCT – I can thoroughly recommend the 800 keto way of eating. As I am vegetarian I follow the veggie plan and I’ve enjoyed the lovely food. Check out the plan online and maybe try it for a couple of weeks. It really works and you know how difficult I’ve found losing weight over the last few years. I recently read a book by Professor Taylor called Life without Diabetes as I wanted to read how to reduce my blood glucose level as I was diagnosed with prediabetes and I found it really interesting and he suggests doing a three month intensive weight loss campaign using low calorie to reverse the numbers. It’s an interesting and informative book and that as well as the online plan really have inspired me and I’ll be interested to see my result at the end of April.
Have a lovely weekend everyone and please do come on and let us know how you are getting on.

.

S-g sorry to hear about your trauma.

I must admit my reading is probably a bit shallow. I only tend to read when I’m on holiday when I can devour book after book. I read John Grisham, Jeffrey Archer, although I’m bored with him now. I have read most of Marian Keyes but I’m past her now. Recently I’ve started reading Clair Douglas and I did read The Girl on The Train although I’m not really into psychological thrillers. In saying that I’m starting to enjoy them more.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus is worth a read. Another interesting book, List of Suspicious Things, by Jennie Godfrey, is about the Yorkshire Ripper murders but from children’s perspective at that time and may also be worth reading.

I must admit I have gone back to reading ‘books’ in paper form rather than using my kindle now. I only use my kindle if I run out of reading. I find ‘paper books’, especially on cruises, always act as a talking point! Can be good!

My problem is that as soon as I finish a book I tend to forget what it was about… maybe it’s an age thing!!!

Happy Anniversary s-g hope you had a lovely day.

Oh dear so sorry to hear about your trip s-g. At least you knew the best way to weather a storm …. with champagne! You may have been unlucky with the weather but I think in that part of the world it’s just a case of good luck. We went to the Fjords in June a couple of years ago and at the last minute I threw a sundress into the case, just in case! We had amazing weather and I needed the sundress! I watched a video of the same cruise the following August and the weather was horrendous! Funny part of the world but the inside fjords are amazing.

Hope everyone is doing well. Another weekend is upon us and this one will be a challenge for me. We have a Thai meal out tonight and I must admit I struggle with Thai in restaurants. When I cook Thai myself it’s so much easier to make it lower carb but it’s not always so easy when eating it out. I tend not to have a starter but even so it’s a struggle!

Two weeks to go to the end of the month … let’s make them count!

Hi DCT, yes that sounds like the same recipe that I found. I am not eating oats at the moment as I’m trying to stay lower carb than that, so that is why I said I will adapt the recipe, but I think I can still get the same flavour profile with coconut and hemp seed.

ARCTICFOX that’s interesting about the Bircher. I checked the recipe and it’s apparently adapted from the 8 week Blood Sugar Diet book. Basically for this version you need to combine oats, chia seeds, coconut milk and water. Leave overnight in fridge. Before eating add passion fruit, berries and hazelnuts.

Hope you enjoy your version of it. And I’m really glad the counselling is going well too X

Thanks for the breakfast idea, DCT. I looked it up and only found a chia breakfast bircher that uses oats and passionfruit. I have come down with a wee bit of a cold (my first virus of any kind since Jan 2020, can you believe it?!). Nothing serious, but I was at a local fruit and veg market yesterday as my throat was getting sore and got a watermelon and saw they had a deal on passionfruit, so I picked up 2 thinking it would add some novelty (and crunch!) to my Greek yogurt. So I think I could modify the chia bircher by eliminating the oats, adding some hemp seeds and shredded coconut and greek yogurt in place of the oats and coconut milk (haven’t got any in at the moment). I’ll let you know how it goes. And I hope you are able to get that tooth removed from your lip soon!
In spite of not feeling terribly well, I went to my counselling appointment today. We were doing walk and talk again around a local park near her office so I figured that was better for not spreading my virus around compared to face to face inside her office and I just asked her to go a bit slower than normal. It went well. We spent a lot of time talking about my horrible pottery session on Sat and how I had realized that the feelings coming up and the urge to binge are tied to rejection sensitivity which may be from the ADHD but also could easily be from the CPTSD. My counsellor said to make sure that I tell my doctor that the meds are having a big impact on preventing me from binge eating. She is going on holiday for a couple of weeks and I said that it was good timing because I am getting busier on the farm so wanted to take a bit of a break anyway. I’m feeling so much better within myself than I was at the beginning of the year in any case, and she was commenting on how well I’m doing with the self-care and that even when I’m having an upsetting day like on Saturday that I am able to bounce back from it more quickly than I would have.
Anyway, I’m pretty tired now so have decided it will be an easy day with plenty of rest. I am on the couch under my electric blanket at the moment and the cat is keeping me company. I will have to go outside later to deal with the horses, but they are finally out on pasture so the chores are easier at least. Hope everyone is doing well!

Thank you Verano, I didnt mention my holiday because it was a disaster from the get go. Arrived at the hotel to discover there had been a serious delay of the ship arriving (a medical emergency so they had to go to Portugal), 5 hours late getting on. The delays continued, we had 2 hurricaines and a medical emergency, all of which meant we either didnt reach port or had our tours cancelled. At one point they announced a fire on board and forgot to say it was a training session. Had to strap ourselves into our beds to stop us from being thrown out in the storms. Bugger that, I stayed up sat on the settee and held on to the arm with one hand and my champagne with the other.

Last time we go to Norway in what is still their winter although I should say we did choose to go up to the Arctic Circle but if you visit the Fjords they are wonderful and inland.

Not quite back on the diet although I have been good, just getting peckish late at night and having cheese on Ryvita. On top of that it is our wedding anniversary today so we have opened one of the bottles of champagne we were given on the ship. Tomorrow night we are out for a meal at our favourite restaurant, so I guess the diet starts on Monday.

My number one recommendation is The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriaty. Usually I can work out who done it in a few chapters but this has so many twists and turns it left me breathless at the end.

My second recommendation is The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. It sounds morbid as the story is told by the girl who has been murdered and comes back to clear her boyfriends name and warn her young sister about the man next door. Sounds morbid and as a survivor or abuse I should have hated it but it was told with such humour and honesty I finished it in 3 sittings. Yes I cried but I laughed at the same time.

My thing is psychological thrillers like books by Nicci French or Tess Gerriton but I have now been reading Angela Marsens, a frosty detective in a Birmingham nick and the murders she solves. When you get to know her back story you will understand why she is so cold and standoffish.

Hope that gives you something to get your teeth into but if you like La La Land books you wont like these – do read Liane Moriaty.

ARCTICFOX it sounds as if you’re really getting to grips with your medication and its impact, and I hope you have a productive discussion with your doctor tomorrow. Your forthcoming veg crop sounds amazing. Fresh veg always taste so much better than shop bought.

Just checking in quickly to recommend a lovely breakfast I had today – coconut chia Bircher. Very filling and tasty, and only 228 calories. I assume the recipe is online or in one of the books but if not let me know and I can put it on here.

Have a great day everyone xx

Hi everyone,
I’ve just reached week 6 on eating very low carb. I was on the ADHD meds for just over a week, but have come off them for now until I talk to my doctor on Friday as they started giving me extremely vivid nightmares, suggesting that the raised dopamine was interfering with my REM sleep. I was doing better with eating more to a schedule and that eliminated the headaches. Interestingly, I think a big benefit of doing low carb and being on the meds at the same time was that the low carb mostly took away any urge to binge on carbs, unless I had a very disappointing day like on Saturday at pottery, but then I think it was the meds that gave me the ability to slow down my impulses and to think of other ways I could comfort myself. So I’d like to talk to my doctor and maybe try a different medication. Not ready to give up yet. Interestingly, the drug I am on is approved to treat binge eating as well as ADHD, and I can see why it works. I wasn’t having to look to food to get a dopamine hit when the drug was raising it for me.
Out in the garden, I have radishes and snap peas coming up now. I planted out some brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower plants yesterday. They will take a while, but something to look forward to. Not many of the local farms around me grow broccoli and cauliflower, probably because it gets hot so quickly, and so many people still buy into the myth that we can’t plant anything out until late May. I will have to protect them as we will be down below freezing again tonight. Once I have my own veggies producing, it will be so much easier to keep eating low carb. I only have spinach right now, and while it is nice to have something fresh at this time of year, it is getting a bit monotonous.

I know this is totally off topic for ‘The BSD’ but I love to read and always enjoy book recommendations, well most of the time.

My daughter recommended ‘Butter’ by Asako Yuzuki. Usually her recommendations are great but I have to say this one was meeeh!

I would really love to hear of any ‘good reads’ and will be quite happy to add some of my own even if they are a few years old.

Sunshine-girl… welcome home! Hope you had a wonderful cruise and your little gain was really just that …. little!

When it comes to a ‘thread’ I’ve enjoyed doing the April thread because it’s been so long since I last did one and I fully understand how you are ‘all threaded out’ s-g. I would love somebody to pick up the June thread, it’s not that difficult and as s-g says ‘you got onto this site with a question’? However, if nobody wants to jump onboard then I’ll take the June thread. I’ll probably need to jump strictly back onto the wagon after my trip away next month. I hope I gain only as much as you s-g!

So, it’s the middle of the month already and as I type we have a hail storm, April, showers but hail???

Anyway, we are half way through this month and I hope everyone is reaching their own goals. If you are, great and maybe make them a bit tougher. If not maybe reassess. Are they attainable? Are they really achievable? We have to be realistic in our goals. You don’t put weight on in a week, so in reality we have to adjust our expectations, especially as we get older…. a 21 year old body reacts a little differently to a body aged 31, 51, 71 or even 81.

I have said so many times, particularly for those of us with T2, that this ‘Way of Eating’ is for life. I think we maybe each have to prioritise our goals.

What is your main ‘objective’? Lower blood sugar. lose weight? both? Just be generally more healthy?

At the end of the day I think we just have “ … to thine own self be true…”
Have a good evening.

Thank you Verano for setting up this thread. I have to agree that the 3 month thread didnt work for me either. I did so well in the first couple of weeks that I slackened off after that. My reasoning was that I was absolutely fed up with having to set up these threads with no help from anyone. First I abandoned the weekly one and we to monthly. I know it is only once a month having to think of a title, say a few words and then keep it going by welcoming old and new and keeping people motivated. I have had enough. I like Veranos idea that we share it out and I am happy to take on the May thread but would ask that someone else kindly volunteer for June. Before you say you dont know how to do it then think back to how you got onto this site. Most of you started by starting a new thread with your own particular question. Was it so difficult.

I am back from 3 weeks away on a cruise and then with my daughter. My total weight gain is 3.5lbs so I am well chuffed with myself for that. My BG has been in the high 100’s and hit 200 a couple of times but is quickly coming down to normal and was 125 this morning. I did a search to see about damage and if it is short-term and also you know the reason there is no need to panic.

I am thinking about my new goals and want to do 1kg per month. That will get me under my pre-holiday weight by the time I see the doctor for my 3 monthly check up. Have a good week and keep on……..

Hi Newbie, I would like to say that keeping under 50g is so difficult. After 10 years I have only managed it for a few days at a time before I have to sacrifice calories then I am not eating enough. Just by cutting out the main white carbs you are doing great. I was told not to eat carrots or apples or blueberries. I say, I am diabetic and this diet it for life so if I cant have the occasional treat or even basic veg then there is something wrong with the diet. We do the best we can. 50g is very low so dont feel you have to get any way lower than that.

CATHY and BECCA thanks for your good wishes. Yes it’s the most bizarre thing! The lip took a long time to heal, but as it did I’d been noticing a hard lump just underneath it. I initially assumed it was scar tissue, but feeling both sides I began to suspect it was the broken tooth. Thought I was probably just being fanciful but it then started to feel a bit swollen and tender so I did an e-consult with the doctor (like you Becca, I assumed it would be them) and they said to go to my dentist. I was a bit worried I’d end up being fobbed off and passed to and fro between them but she was lovely and did an X-ray and there it was! Though she said she personally didn’t feel confident to remove it. The antibiotics seem to have done their job so far, as it feels ok again, but I now have to wait to be contacted about what happens next!

Becca I’m so glad you had a wonderful time. What a beautiful place to visit. And lots of happy memories I’m sure. And hopefully the weight regain will begin to come off again.

Cathy thanks for the advice re antibiotics.Some of the weight gain seems to have come off this morning and I finish the course today, so here’s hoping it was just a blip and I can get back on track. I was hoping for 148 by the end of this month but am now back at 152 so we’ll see. I’m not too concerned as there is a gradual ongoing loss, but what I may do is switch to the Fast Keto programme for a few weeks in May when I’m back from my Devon break, just to boost things up a bit.

Good luck Cathy with your HbA1c test. You really deserve to see some much improved results. And then it will be your trip to Corfu which sounds lovely. I was going to ask, is it purely a social trip or is it based on a particular book you’ve read? I think travelling to the location of a book is quite a thing now (I’m sure it has a proper name but can’t think of it!). Anyway, enjoy! And I hope you find some good hair options when you get back.

Hello also to everyone else reading this and I hope you’re all ok and having a good week.

Dreams, how awful to learn about the piece of broken tooth in your lip! I hope the surgical fix is sooner rather than later. Am a bit surprised that your lip would be considered dental surgery..? Anyway, I do hope you get things all fixed up and can put it all behind you.

Oh, and yes, I did do the Arizona trip already with my daughter and granddaughter and had a lovely time, thank you. Gained some weight, though, and am now back to low carb/low calorie to get it off and continue moving downward.

Cathy, very smart of you to plan your A1c test for before your trip, especially since you have been SO disciplined! I wish I had done my test before my trip. Instead I’m having it in 4 weeks, so it will be impacted by the carb-fest on my trip. I didn’t realize the test would be coming up that soon.

Also smart of you to decide to stay off the scales when you get home. It was very demoralizing (but not surprising) for me. On the other hand, was a good motivator. It’s hard getting back on low carb when you’ve been away from it, but I’m a few days in now, so those first few days are behind me.

I can see now more of the big picture of your hair appointment gone wrong. Didn’t realize it was such a hugely expensive process. But you seem to have made peace with what happened, and that’s probably for the best, for your own well-being. Will be interested to hear if you do go check out the wig shop. I have extremely thin hair myself, as did my mom, and she got into wearing wigs later in life, so perhaps now it’s my turn to look into it.

DCT- I can’t get over the tooth being embedded in your lip! I hope you get an oral surgeon as good as the one I had last week and don’t have to wait too long. How on earth did you find out it was there- can you feel it? Sorry that you had an unexplained 2lb shock this morning- thats rubbish! Whenever I am prescribed antibiotics I always buy BioKult from Amazon and they help my gut biome. I always take them when I travel too. Antibiotics always mess with my microbiome and I always get thrush. I really try to avoid them but my dentist prescribed them when he didn’t know what my dental issue was many months ago. Hopefully you’ll be feeling better very soon and those extra pounds will be gone for good!
After my hair disaster on Friday I calmed down after I got home. I was devastated as my new system isnt due to be replaced for 18 months. I have accepted that a mistake was made and in the big scheme of things it’s not really important. Worse things are happening in the world. Because of my alopecia I’ve been wearing a hair system for 15 years and I always say, things can’t really go wrong because I can always get a new system but it’s £1500 a time and the maintenance is expensive. I am considering wigs for the future and may have a mooch to a wig shop in Manchester for a chat after my holiday.
With regard to whether I’ve noticed the weight loss, I can see my wrists are tiny and my hands are slim and clothes are looser and I can see my legs are slimmer too. I’m more excited to see if my HbA1c is normal and I’ve got my blood test booked in for a few days before I go away!! Wise move!!!
I’ve already decided that when I get back from Corfu I am not going to get on the scales. I’ll go straight back to keto and weigh myself after a month. No point in striking myself with a second arrow! I am hoping I will eat healthy food in Corfu and I plan to stay sugar free. I don’t think my pancreas would cope with sugar now!
Have a good week everyone .

YOWZER lovely to hear from you and thanks so much for the positive thought. It can be easy to fritter away time or spend it in a negative frame of mind whereas we should really be grateful for every minute and put it to good use – even if that means taking time to care for ourselves and rest and relax. I’m very good at being busy for busy’s sake, if that makes sense!

CATHY very well done for your ongoing loss. That’s fantastic! Are you noticing changes to your body and clothes as well as on the scales? I’m so pleased for you. Also good to hear your tooth is now gone. And I hope you get your new hair system sorted quickly.

ARCTICFOX well done for staying on track despite a disappointing weekend. It’s so easy to turn to eating or drinking all the wrong things when we feel fed up or frustrated, even though that then exacerbates the negative mood!

BECCA I’ve lost track : have you been on your holiday yet or is that still to come? Either way, I hope you have/had a wonderful time!

I had an unexpected gain of almost 2lb this morning which was disappointing. But then I had a thought. I’m on antibiotics at the moment and I Googled it and found that they can cause weight gain due to messing with your gut microbiome. Things like probiotics and fermented food can help so I’ll look out for those when I go shopping today, and the antibiotics are only for a couple more days so hopefully any effect will be short lived anyway 🤞 (btw it turns out that after my fall in NYC the broken tooth is still embedded in my lip! It has become slightly infected so the antibiotics are to deal with that. I’m being referred to a dental surgeon to remove it. Will keep you posted . . . )

Hope that everyone has a good week. Here’s to more losses 🙂. I’ll report back at the end of the week X

Oh wow, Newbie, I read your list and while you are on a pretty good track, the blueberries jumped out at me right away. You are consuming 12-15g of carbs in blueberries alone. As Verano says, if you can stick to blackberries, raspberries and strawberries which have less than half the carbs, that is a good tweak for now. If you do that and cut the portion of fruit in your yogurt by half and add a few nuts and some seeds like hemp or pumpkin (bonus, these are also very high in magnesium and diabetics often have a magnesium deficiency and it is a super important nutrient for glucose metabolism), you will improve the composition of your breakfast by a lot. Of course it is much better to be eating fruit than sweets and bread, so if you need them for now until you manage to change your tastes, that is fine. I’ve had to ditch the blueberries too. I thought I was doing a healthy thing by eating them as a dessert, but they were spiking my blood sugar a lot. I’m down to one portion of fruit per day. Maybe try snacking on some low carb veggies like bell peppers and cucumbers in addition or add a high fibre, high protein item with them? I like lupini beans for this. I toast them in the oven with a bit of salt and 3 tbsp of nutritional yeast. The nutritional yeast is great for adding in B vitamins that you might be missing from cutting your grains back, and is a good source of iron as well. I get the lupini beans from a local Mediterranean shop, so if you have an Italian or Greek shop nearby, you may have luck finding them there. I looked it up and it seems Tesco may have them too. They are cheaper dried, but they are quite hard to prepare (they have to soak in constant changes of water for weeks on end to get all the bitterness out) so I just go with the pre-cooked ones.
You’re already doing well to get your carbs under 100g. Keep it up! This is a learning process and you can’t be expected to know it all at once. I still get shocked by some things. I had to stop eating imitation crab. I thought it was just pollock soaked in crab brine, but I was getting it at the fish counter in the supermarket so it wasn’t labelled and I didn’t know that was what was spiking me until I saw the reading on the cgm after eating it in nori wraps with avocado and cucumber (so I knew it had to be the only thing that could have caused the spike). I looked into it and realized that they also add loads of sugar to the brine. So we all get tripped up now and then.

Wow, carbs before I started the BSD were up to 250 (on a bad day) so I’ve cut them down to under 100g I’m happy, will see if the tweaks above help too

Hi Verano, I use my fitness pal to log all my food as I’ve used it for years and found it quite reliable so far. I didnt realise blueberries were so high, I shall keep them for my breakfast and cut them out for my afternoon fruit and stick to strawberries thank you for the info. In all fairness this batch of granola has some oats in which I shall omit next time round and keep it to nuts and seeds. I will have a go with the bulgar wheat and keep to a low portion to ring the changes with cauliflower rice. Thank you for the advice, im intrigued by what my carb intake was prior to this so shall go back through MFP and have a look. Have a good day all

Thank you Yowser for your thought for Monday morning. What a wonderful, inspiring post.
I am feeling so much better since the tooth has been extracted. No earache and no gum ache. There.does not appear to be any involvement with the sinus and everything seems intact! Phew! I’ve been very lucky and so thankful to the wonderful Oral Surgeon who was so kind. Am so grateful for his expertise.
I still can’t believe how well I am doing to lose 22 lb in the last few weeks – I am the lightest weight I’ve been since June 2019! This morning I was 144.2 lb. All those years of getting absolutely nowhere! The difference has been sticking rigidly to 800 calories and doing keto and NOT CHEATING ONCE! I am lucky to have a superpower of willpower! I’ve eaten fresh food for the last 10 weeks whilst doing the online plan. I can’t eat nuts and seeds for two weeks til things start to heal up in my mouth and I’m missing them. I’ve had no crisps, chocolate, chips, cakes, biscuits, bread, crackers. Not even a crumb or a rogue chip that fell off my husband’s plate! I really hope my HbA1c reflects my effort at the end of April. I’ll keep going til the end of April then take a few days off for my book club holiday to Corfu and then get straight back to basics. My plan is to enjoy holidays, festivities etc and then in between eat keto and be mindful. Let’s see what happens. I know maintenance will be hard.
Have a good week everyone. We’ve got this. I think we really have!

BTW Arcticfox I made a variation of your yogurt dressing and it’s lovely. Gone are my mayo days!