Hi everyone,
I had a big fall off the wagon yesterday. I had been doing so well, so I am disappointed in myself. However, it was precipitated by the guy I have been seeing long distance telling me on Sunday night that he is moving even further away – all the way across the country – so instead of a 5.5-6 hour drive he will be a 6 hour flight away. And then he told me that because he is moving he just doesn’t see our relationship going anywhere. This after saying when we first met that he wanted to move away from where he was and didn’t mind where he ended up but that my area looked nice if only he could find work here. I knew things were going wrong when I found him a job opening in his field that pays better than what he earns now and even comes with a pension. He wouldn’t even look at it, never mind apply. And then after that he was starting to pull away and not even text me anymore, so I called him out about it on Sunday and that is what he told me. So I didn’t eat or drink much of anything on Monday or Tuesday morning and I had to take my car into town for noon on Tuesday to get the tires changed and I was at the pharmacy while I was waiting and saw bags of crisps on special at the checkout and grabbed 2 and ate them on the drive home. I don’t even think it was comfort eating so much as it was just the fact that I was completely starving, as I had worked really hard on the farm on Saturday and Sunday and I often need a day or two after to catch up on my calories, so not eating Monday really threw me off. It certainly wasn’t comforting. Anyway, I talked to a friend yesterday evening who has known about my relationship since the beginning and that helped, so I then forced myself to get back on the wagon last night with a broccoli and lupini bean tray bake.
So I am hoping that I can keep going and stay focused now. I am just so sad. To make it worse, his family owns a soup company and I have several tins of it in my store cupboard as they are a fairly healthy option for a quick meal or when the power goes out in winter, but his last name is plastered across the label so I will see it every time I go to use one. And he was so good about encouraging me on the healthy eating and exercise front.
So sorry for venting here. My mind is just in turmoil from this!

Hi everyone. It seems to be quiet all around or maybe a new title might attract a new group trying to lose weight for Christmas. I will leave it up to you. (so a cop out from me 🙂 ) It is not as if we are selling anything or making a profit – unlike some – but it would be nice to attract more people.

Been back on plan for less than a week and have lost 1.5 kgs. Well within my goal for 4kgs for Xmas. Not much to say, doing TRE, the exercise is intermittent as yesterday it was too warm at 32 degrees. At least we are saving on heating bills.

Cleaner came in and did her job on Monday which has saved me a massive job as we have signed up with a new estate agent today. Had to reduce the price again as the market is terrible. That is it, no more reductions, especially as people will make a below asking price offer anyway. We dont need the money, have no mortgage to pay off and not having to buy another house as daughter is giving us one (on loan until we die) but we are not giving it away. Just want to get back to the UK.

Good evening!

S-g accountability is a wonderful thing. If I have taken away one thing away from the first 12 weeks of my course it’s been ‘accountability’ ….. to myself! I have filled in my food diary every one of those days, bar one or two, over 12 weeks, and it really feels like an achievement. I can look back and see which trends led to weight loss and which didn’t!

I’ve got back into a routine of meditating which I find really sets my day up ‘peacefully’. Mind you I do still get agitated and angry!

I can’t quite explain it but I just feel more ‘grounded’, more in ‘control’ and more balanced. For example if I put on a weight even a pound I just ‘take it on the chin’ and say tomorrow is another day!

At the end of the day I’m an ‘old’ woman and I’m really pleased that my overall health and my mental health are pretty good. OK my mobility isn’t but I’ve lived with that for nearly 20 years (the alternative wasn’t good!) No, I can’t wear a bikini, mind you I probably never really looked good in one anyway! No, I can’t ….. you know what I can’t think of anything that I could do that I ‘can’t’ that really alters my life!

Maybe that’s the answer…. acceptance of ourselves as we are. Unless of course there are real issues affected by weight etc. maybe we just have to practice a little ‘acceptance’ and stop chasing the ‘impossible dream’!

S-g yes quite happy to set up a new thread for the last three months of the year if anybody/everybody wants a new thread. Or just happy to carry on here? We don’t really have a ‘thriving’ community anymore but I’m quite happy to go with the flow!

Hi, just popping in to keep myself accountable and focused. Only for myself as I am not looking for plaudits. Although everyone on this site – not just this thread, are kind and welcoming. On that note have we still got felicity and cops around and do they want to jump in. It can seem intimidating when all you see are the same 4 or 5 names posting and we all seem to know what we are talking about. The reason for that is we are those who have been here a long time and know that this site keeps us motivated and accountable.

Had a couple of glasses of wine last night, which is okay as I didnt finish the bottle and didnt gain any weight. Although I am doing well I am not totally on the diet – that starts tomorrow. Just been easing myself back in. I have been doing TRE and strength training so been trying to establish some good habits – just like Verano said – it takes a while but then they stick.

Verano, any more thoughts about setting up and October to Christmas thread.

Hi all, still losing weight. Managed to get 85g protein so far today (that includes dinner tonight) so making improvements. If I had my boiled eggs at breakfast and then a proper lunch of say chicken or tuna salad I would be getting more but missing breakfast for TRE loses about 12g. Today I supplemented it with a Greek yoghurt with seeds and berries – added around 4g.

Verano, they say it takes quite a lot of doing things for them to become a habit but once it is set in place it is almost automatic. Every night I stand on one leg to brush my teeth – 30 seconds each leg and the toothbrush times it for me. Another habit I am forming is doing 15 mins Pilates before I get up. Obviously I have to get on top of the bedding. This morning I was dying for a wee but went back and did the exercises.

Margaret, 0.6lb is not even a wee. It will soon be gone. You say it is nice and warm where you are. We are having what we would call normal summer weather, it varies between 25 and 30 but it is not too hot, not after being in the 40s. Unfortunately, the nights have been around 10 degrees so the pool has dropped to 20 so it is too cold to swim. Never mind I will just have to continue with my other exercises.

Have a good weekend.

Good morning everyone & I have just weighed & have gained 0.6lb I am sure caused by lunch up in a London restaurant with friends on Thursday which was very enjoyable. I did try to compensate with an 800 calorie day yesterday that might have helped but not enough 🤔. Oh well I will have to be extra strict next week to get back on track.
My orthopaedic surgeon has now written to my GP surgery & I am seeing my GP on Friday to see if he can directly refer me back to him rather than having to go through another lengthy triaging process 🤞🤞
It is still lovely warm sunny weather here in Sussex & I hope you all have a lovely weekend 👍😀
Margaret xx
.

Good evening.
S-g great to hear you have re-employed your cleaner. Sometimes we just have to take a ‘view’ and often, as we get older, help with cleaning is not a luxury! Must have been lovely to have time just for you and your daughter instead of the whole family , although that was lovely too!
Not much going on here. Hopefully son will be home next week for a few days which is lovely …. what can I cook that he loves!!!
I have been surprised that I now indeed do have a new ‘habit’. I looked back in my ‘little black book’ and I’ve actually been logging my ‘30 a week’ for 14 weeks so I’m guessing that this really is a ‘habit’ now as I no longer give it any thought. Now I just have yo work on all the others! I think my next will be meditation as I’m managing most days so just need to be slightly more vigilant.
Hope you are all well. Have a good weekend.

Hi everyone,
Pootle, good to see you again! Sorry to hear of your cancer scare but good that you’ve managed to keep out of diabetic range.
My visit with the gp was good. He thinks the lesion is too small to be causing symptoms and that the one ‘polyp’ that they found in my gallbladder may in fact be a gallstone that was sitting up against the wall when they did the scan. So he has referred me to a surgeon and for the MRI to confirm. I have already heard from the surgeon’s office and I have an appointment for the 3rd week of October. So I am feeling a bit better about most things. The only thing is that he scolded me about the fatty liver and told me that it was because of being overweight. I said I know, and I have been trying really, really hard to lose it, and he said, ‘well hopefully this gives you more motivation’. What?!? Anyway, I had a counselling appointment right after where we walked around the lake outside the gp’s office, and she was furious that he got after me about my weight and said that they just don’t know what they are talking about as doctors get so little training in nutrition, whereas I have a minor from uni in animal nutrition and have now completed the human nutrition course (with 95%!) and that she knows that I am active and eat well.
Anyway, because I have so many restrictions now with the food allergies, intolerances and the fact that I have to eat low carb and low fat right now, I have put AI to work at doing my meal plans and keeping me on track. My counsellor approves of this as she says that with ADHD, meal planning and cooking tend to take up a huge amount of our executive functioning and that is why it is so hard. So far it is working. I am telling it that I want to follow Zoe principles of eating at least 30 plants a week, and that I need to follow the latest research for dealing with a fatty liver and insulin resistance while maintaining energy and muscle mass. I check in at the end of the day with it and log what I’ve eaten, and it gives me a score and tells me what to tweak for tomorrow and then gives me the plan for the next day based on what I have in my fridge and store cupboard. So it is working at the moment. Zoe isn’t available in Canada yet and even if it comes here, I expect it will be quite expensive, so this is my next best thing, I think.
Keep on keeping on, everyone!

Hi all, I am back with some motivation. I have already lost 0.5 kg or 1.102 lbs. Started my new routine of strength training with 20 mins of mainly arms. This morning I dared to look at the stats on my Renpho scales and it tells me I have excellent muscle mass. Doesnt feel like it. Anyway it was a starting point and I will register Renpho once a week to chart improvements. Daughter has shown me I can click on each specific area i.e. muscle mass and it will tell me what my results mean and what I need to do to improve. Always learning. I nearly registered with a food app that you point your camera at and it calculates. Costs €3.99 a month but AI warned me away from it as the calculations are just that, a calculation and the €3.99 is per month for a year so it takes your money in one go. It is still cheap but we all know we have the knowledge and skills to do most of the hard work ourselves and there are plenty of free resources to help us.

I have rebooked my cleaner and she will be doing a big clean including all windows on Monday then revert to a regular clean once a month. My house doesnt get dirty or even untidy but it doesnt take long for a fine layer of dust to appear or spiders webs (cleaner wont touch them). At least my whole house will be spotless for one day then I can just keep up with it a room at a time between cleans.

Weekend here already as it has been a strange week with daughter going back on Wednesday. Have a great weekend.

Hi all, I am back. Daughter went home yesterday and we caught up on shopping and cleaning. I am going to re-employ my cleaner as I am finding keeping on top of it is not easy.

Daughter is a vegan and I did quite well to make her some meals, then we took her to the health food store where she bought tofu and seitan (whatever) and did some of her own cooking. The worst day was Sunday when we went to a beautiful chateau and they had a restaurant. Me not thinking it is patrimone weekend in France and all monuments are open at reduced pricing that things would be packed and the restaurant was ‘complet’ or in English FULL, next restaurant in village ‘complet’ and the next and the next. Eventually found a little bistro but they had a limited menu due to high demand and a vide grenier in the village – thats like a car boot sale with stalls and I was limited to either potato and bacon quiche or croque monsieur. Daughter did great as the owner was vegan and had lots of pates available, unfortunately it came with bread and that is not good for her stomach. We survived.

The spa was weird, we went into a sauna for 15 minutes to ‘open’ our pores then we were put in a large wooden bath with things floating in it (supposedly wine extracts). There was a plank across the bath between us with cold meats and cheeses for me and fruit and veg batons for D. With a large glass of wine each and a mini keg with a tap to top up our wine. We could have had too much to drink but at 11 am it was not the right time. An experience but wont be doing it again. Would rather pay for a decent massage or manicure.

All that is now finished and over the week I have gained 1.3kgs or 2.85lbs. Not too bad really as we were having wine most (every) evening. Back on the diet and doing TRE or IF, not sure which it is, nothing after 8pm and trying to go 16 hours. D has left me a routine of strength training that I have to do 3 times a week – she is really bossy and very much into weight training. She did the Ozempic (monjaro) route and lost around 16kgs but was worried about putting the weight back on now she is off it, or muscle loss so she is working very hard and expects me to do the same – at my age.

Wendy, great you are doing well with your weight at health checks. Also, a shame for cancelling your cruise. With us it was just a lot of money for 3 days in Vienna and not sure our 11 year old car would have made it.
Verana, sorry you had to cancel Portugal. We had worries about the airport problems for daughter coming but it all worked out in the end. Sounds like the course helped focus the mind. I have been watching videos by Bikman, Fung and a lady called Dr Mindy Peltz. Also FutureLearn have sent a new list of free courses that I am going to look at.

Seems strange that it is the end of the week with everything out of kilter but hope you all have a good weekend.

Good morning all,
Sorry I haven’t posted for some time, but I have been reading your posts via email.

I had a cancer scare earlier in the year, which has now been resolved. 🥳

My weight has crept back up 9lb to 10st 2lb but my fasting BS has been pretty good! However, I have been tempted a few times by the chocolate bars husband keeps in the cupboard as well as crusty bread and toast! Once in a while wasn’t a problem, but it has become too often, hence the weight gain and rise in BS.
So it is back to it! I am determined not to let the slide go as far as the 15 1/2 Stone of 2024 and to keep the diabetes at bay! But it is hard! 🥴
I still record my food intake as well as the fasting BS readings and occasional 2hours after food readings. (Only once been in the diabetic range in 6 months)
I find that being in pain (arthritis) has an impact on my self control and readings!
So pleased this forum exists!
You are all brilliant! 👏

CATHY I’m so sorry to read about your fall. How awful! But, like you, I’m so pleased that nothing was broken – it could have been so much worse 🙀. And I’m delighted that you don’t have to cancel your cruise. Hopefully you’ll be fully recovered by the time you go with no black eye in sight. Please take care of yourself over the next few days as a fall can leave you feeling very shaken and vulnerable. So give yourself plenty of tlc.

Hope everyone else is doing ok?

Good evening, well late afternoon!

Sorry I’ve not posted for a while. We should be sunning ourselves in Portugal now but plans change! A threatened cabin crew strike was enough to make us change plans. No fun in spending everyday waiting for the ‘doom’ email ‘your flight is cancelled’! Been there done that. No fun. So we decided to take the stress free route and not go!

So I definitely need positives:

🫑🍅🫒 Just in the last week of my 12 week course. Can’t believe it’s almost three months. Has it worked….. sort of. It’s made more more accountable. I don’t think my weight loss is any greater than it would have been on my own but my blood sugars have remained lower than they had been earlier this year.

🌴🌲🪵 Looking to redesign our from garden so just filled in lots of enquiry forms online. Will be interesting to see how many responses I get!

🍄‍🟫🧅🥕 First ‘winter’ casserole in the oven and oh! it smells lovely. I must admit I’m less ‘scared’ about carrots and parsnips than I used to be. In fact I had quite a carby day yesterday but when I tested this morning I was only 5.7 a definite positive!

Hope you all have some positives and I’m sorry if I’ve lost track with your ‘journeys’!

Hello everyone
Welcome back to the group shoegirl and good luck with your fast 800. When I did my 12 week fast 800 reset in February this year I made sure to stick 100% to the programme until I achieved my goal. Now I am at goal I allow myself to have days off for events such as birthdays, festivities, holidays and then get straight back on again. We have to live our lives and we have to navigate social events. I am able to do all or nothing. I also think with the fast 800 we can adapt it around social events by perhaps fasting around the event.
ArcticFox- lovely to hear from you but sorry to read about your worrying liver lesion. Hopefully the scan will clarify the issue and it won’t be anything serious. Keep us posted.
DCT- glad to see you are close to your weekly target this week and make sure your scales are in the optimum weighing position!
I had a fall this week- my ankle gave way and twisted as I was going out the back door with a cup of tea for my husband who was chain sawing some trees in our garden! I fell head first out of the back door and landed face down on the concrete patio! I’ve now got a sprained ankle and a beautiful black eye! I ache all over and have had to cancel choir and Oxfam this week whilst I recuperate. I am so so lucky not to have broken anything more than the mug! It’s two weeks to my cruise! I have osteoporosis so how I’ve not broken a bone is a miracle! I haven’t weighed this week but when I can stand on the scales I’ll see how I’m doing. To be honest, I’m just so glad I haven’t had to cancel my cruise.
Hope everyone is having a better week and let’s see how well we can do over the next three months before we come to the end of this thread. We’ve got this!

SHOEGIRL welcome back! Good luck on your next round. You will probably recognise many of the names on here who are keeping going with varying degrees of success!

Your question raises a dilemma we all regularly face, and I’ll just give you my views – others may disagree and/or have much better ideas 😉. I think a lot of it depends on your willpower and personal discipline too. But I see it as two choices for days like these. Either stay on plan as best you can. Most eating environments have reasonably healthy choices available. So even if you can’t be 100% Fast 800, you can at least stick to proteins, veg, fruit etc as much as you can and stay reasonably on track. The other option is to press Pause and go completely off piste for the occasion, eating whatever you would like. Bottom line is it’s only one day, so it will set you back a bit but not have a major impact. However (this is where the discipline comes in!) . . . I find that if I do go off piste for a day it can then take me a while to get back on track again which then can start to have a major impact. So I think it all depends on how well you think you would be at getting straight back on Fast800 the day after!

ARCTICFOX lovely to hear from you and I hope your GP appointment goes well tomorrow and that your fatty liver is the least complicated it can be. I’m sure going back on Fast 800 will help and it sounds like you are getting back on track. Well done with the exercise too, and the farm. Busy times for you, but keep in touch so we know how you’re doing X

DAWN how is your week going? I hope that things are calming down for you and that you are managing to get back into meal planning and exercise etc. My meal planning has not been as meticulous as last week as it’s been one of those weeks with lots happening. But I’ve had a slight loss so far so hope to get close to my weekly target this week 🤞. Though having said that, I realise how fickle the scales are. I experimented the other morning moving them to different locations on the bathroom floor and got three different readings! So I’m keeping them firmly in the same place now and even if the numbers are inaccurate, as long as they are relevant to each other that’t the main thing!

Hope everyone else is having a good week? Do drop by to say hello! X

Hi all. I was part of this group a few years ago and did the Fast 800 with some success. I just started my first week (this time around!) of Fast 800 yesterday. I have a few things coming up that I’m wondering how to work my way around – mainly social lunches, and a birthday dinner for my father-in-law. What tips does anyone have for eating at events when you don’t know what the food will be?
arcticfox2 – I’m sorry to hear that you have some health issues, you sound like such a positive strong person in your post. Hang in there!

Hi everyone,
It has been a while since I posted, but I have been trying to pop in and read every now and then.
DCT – glad to see that you were able to get your lip fixed and hope it has healed well
Yowzer – good to hear from you but sorry you’ve been having a tough time.
Good to see everyone motivated and trying on the Fast 800. It looks like I will be joining you as I just discovered that I have a fatty liver, so need to do something about that. It was discovered on an ultrasound where we were looking for gallstones. A work colleague suggested that my stomach symptoms actually sounded similar to what she had when she had gallstones, so I kept track of what I was eating and sure enough, after a fatty meal, even healthy fats like salmon, I would get the pain. But I got the report back today and it turns out that I do not have gallstones, but rather a mass on my liver. Might be a complex cyst, might be a tumour. We don’t know yet. The radiologist has recommended an MRI. I see my gp on Thurs.
Luckily, even though my summer has been a mixed bag as far as staying on track with this WOE, I have been getting back on track this past week. I have even started doing some run/walking again. Meals have been good. Usually Greek yogurt with hemp and pumpkin seeds and raspberry chia jam for breakfasts and lupini beans with roasted broccoli or bean and greens salads, with the odd bit of fish. Handfuls of nuts and plums off my tree for snacks. I would love to get down to 800 cal again for a couple of weeks, but it will likely have to wait as I am finishing up some hard work on the farm still and I do not want to be low energy. So I’m doing the best I can for now.

Well done Wendy!
Yes I know it’s odd but after 10 years low carb I can’t just ‘eat bread’!!! I so look forward to my bagel once a week on a Sunday morning that having one during the week would lessen that pleasure!
Enjoy your pub lunch and yes pick wisely, but as time goes on, we have to balance the ‘pleasure’ of a good meal out with the ‘consequences’. Sometimes the ‘pleasure of a good meal’ wins!

Verano a treat once a week sounds very disciplined 👏👏😂
I have just weighed & am very pleased to find that I have lost 2.5lbs so writing everything in my food diary is really helping. I have a long way to go & losing some weight next week is my current challenge! My husband & I will be meeting up with our family tomorrow & helping our granddaughters pick & gather apples from an orchard in Kent where the family have rented a tree. I had never heard of this thing 🤔 We will then have a pub lunch where I will have to choose food wisely 😀 & it will be lovely seeing them all.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Margaret xx

Good news Wendy!
Onwards and upwards.
Strangely enough I’m no longer a bread lover. I freeze the bread/bagels as soon as they’re cold and my treat is one bagel a week!

Posts reported

Hi everyone,
Cathy it sounds as though your week is going a bit like mine🙁 For the last few days I haven’t stuck to the food plan and even ended up getting a takeaway last night! I’m not going to weigh myself tomorrow but, as DCT suggests, try to have a decent few days and hopefully that will get me back on track. DCT well done for getting lots of exercise in this week, that was my plan but I haven’t started it yet! Dawn X

CATHY sorry to hear you’re having a bad week. And it could be for any or all of the reasons you suggest. I’d say just do your best for the next couple of days and start afresh Monday. And maybe consider a different meal plan if you’re fed up with the one you’re on? Sometimes our bodies seem to need a change.

I’ve had a weird week too. I’m following the 4:3 transition plan and, apart from a couple of instances of drinking wine when I hadn’t intended to, have stuck to it. The recipes are really nice and I’m feeling good. But have put on a pound! Based on past experience- eg of 5:2 earlier this year – I’d anticipated losing 1lb per week. And this would take me nicely through to a 12lb loss by early December. But no …. The opposite has happened 🙀

Anyway, I’m actually feeling good. Enjoying the recipes and I’ve been doing lots of exercise this week. At times I think I’m looking a bit firmer and trimmer but currently have no measurements or clothes victories to back that up. So I plan to keep with the 4:3 for another week but if there’s still no weight coming off I’ll try the Very Fast Keto for a couple of weeks.

Hope everyone else is doing ok? And wishing you all a happy weekend X

Hello & good news from me on the health front at least with my GP confirming all was well with my blood test results & also given the all clear with my eye check at the opticians. I need new reading glasses & am having new lens fitted into my previous frames which should be ready in ten days. I am back recording all my calories which is rather sobering but trying to return to two meal TRE days & fasting after 7-0pm. I must confess that last week chocolate temptation won out on some days & I am trying to resist this & just have a square of dark chocolate.
Oh well I will weigh on Saturday to see if I have managed to lose any weight this week.
S-G how wonderful that you were able to flabbergast your Doctor ⭐️👏👏
Verano I haven’t attempted to make bread for a long time & did have a bread machine but felt the results were rather disappointing. It’s brilliant that you are making Sour Dough bread & bagels but with the added temptation of having it there to eat 😀. It’s great to hear that your cataract post-op check was good 👍
Onwards we all go then hopefully having a positive rest of the week 🤞🤞
Margaret xx

Hello everyone
I hope everyone is doing better than me! I can’t get into the swing of things! Really struggling this week! I started off really well and stuck to Monday and then since then I’ve been really not keeping on track! I’m on my own this week, probably feeling a bit sorry for myself, can’t motivate myself to do anything and feeling a bit meh! I’m not happy with myself at all. I wonder if it is because I’m going away soon and I know I’m going to be putting weight on? I wonder if I am just tired of food rules. I am feeling very tired and lethargic so maybe I’m fighting something off. It’s normal to have good and bad days I suppose. I need to get a grip! Hope you’re all having a good week. I’m not having a good week at all. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

Your spa day sounds wonderful SG … I’m sure you and your daughter will have a good time.
V, it feels good to start getting packing sorted doesn’t it? Sure you’ll have a great time.

Not sure why I haven’t posted positives for awhile, it isn’t fir the lack of positives though. Here are a few to prove it …
🌹🌹 enjoying my roses, like to get out in the garden at some point every day to spent a few moments smelling them … 🌹🌹 ordered a few more roses … ooops! 🤭
🌸❄️ have been prepping the garden for winter as we will be away when frosts start
🧺🧺🧳 laundry almost up to date and packing started

Keep the thread going folks … we need your positives please.

Hello Elias, not sure what your interest is for – personal, research etc. But for what it is worth my story goes back 21 years when I was first diagnosed with T2.

Back then there was no talk of remission or cure or anything other than conventional medicines to help and we would be on that path for the rest of our lives with our morbidity chances worsening year on year. I cant tell you how many hours of videos I have watched telling me how they could cure me and I just had to pay $1000’s to buy their secret cure only found on a remote Indian Ocean island that they natives make with their bare feet………. Blah blah blah. I can tell you how many times I have burst into tears when I got to the end of such a video – wasted another hour of my life for snake oil.

So when I heard about a Professor in the UK – Prof Roy Taylor from Newcastle University. This was around 11 years ago and he discovered that if his obesity patients had gastic surgery and lost a lot of weight a by-product was reversal of diabetic symptoms. From this I read everything I could online and came across Dr Michael Mosely (the founder of this site) and the rest is history. It didnt take much convincing to follow his 800 calorie low carb diet as my morning BG fell from 210 to around 150 in the first week. Then down to around 110 at which point I was scared I was going to die or something bad was going to happen. I found this site and was one of the founder members along with several people who are still around today. We were told we were crazy, our brains would shrivel and die, it was not sustainable – say that again, not sustainable when I have been on it more or less for nearly 11 years. So many objectors.

From this new beginning and finding more and more advocates of low cal, low carb on the internet, this is where I find my information and tent to follow people I trust like Ben Bikman, Jason Fung and the late Sarah Hallberg who starts her TedTalk with Dont Listen to your Doctor if you have diabetes.. I find them on YouTube along with lectures by The CEO depending who he is talking to.

Also, on this site is a wealth of experience and we are all learning and teaching each other all the time. I also have regular check ups with my doctor but he still doesnt accept my diet but for some reason knows it works. I recently had a bad HbA1c result after a 3 week holiday splurge and 3 months later I have gone from7.5 to 6.6. He sees it works but still doesnt believe in the theory of remission or cure.

I now keep hearing about insulin resistence and noticed a particular number on my blood test. This time I turned to A1 and went through all my numbers and it told me the Glyceime is actually my insulin resistence number and, considering I inject insulin was expected to be much higher than it actually is.

I will continue researching but I know where I will not be going. I spoke to a lady promising a free consultation on Zoom – her name is Valerie Lopez. She wanted to contact to me before the consultation and we had a WhatsApp chat. 3 reasons I cancelled free consultation. 1. it cost €2500 to take her full course, 2. she asked my why at my age was I even bothered and then 3. when I said I wouldnt be doing her course she asked my if money was more important than my health. I dont do well with hard sell. So if you are selling something I am out.

Thats about it.

Hi, adding to the positives.

Picked daughter up from airport this morning – we have lots of things planned.
She is vegan so we will be eating lots of healthy meals.
Prepped an edaname crunchy salad last night – enough to last us both around 3 lunches but we stink of garlic :). Check out website called Avocado Skillet.
Going for a spa tomorrow morning – something different – sauna first then soak in a wine vat, not in wine but wine extracts, includes a glass of wine and a chacuterie platter.

Will try to report in more often.

Great to have you back all refreshed and motivated. Good luck with the final push to your goal.

Hello! So, the walking holiday was wonderful. Although it was my holiday and so. Had nice meals and wine in the evenings I mostly fasted in the day until late afternoon. I came back feeling great but not feeling that I’d actually lost any more weight. I have just now returned to Fast 800 to shift the final bit of weight (I’ve probably put a small amount back in the last few weeks.) but I needed a reset as I had hit a plateau. I’m looking forward to this final push!

Wow!
We are getting really short on ‘positives’!
Maybe sometimes we just have to dig deeper to find one positive or few or maybe we don’t realise just how ‘positive’ some of the things are that we take for granted….

So yes, my children, 👶👶, well actually grown ups now , have really taken hold of life and run with it. Great success in totally different ways but then, they were totally different children!

🥯🍞🥯 today I baked …. well … ok … could have been better, but edible!

🧺🧳🛩️ getting ready to jet off next week! I hate this week before! But I guess it’s worth it to not have to ask “what shall we have for dinner tonight” !

Hope you have some positives too!

Great news s-g!. Your doctor was right to be ‘flabbergasted’. Enjoy your time with your daughter.

Went for my follow up eye consultation today. All looking good after the surgery nothing out of order. Apparently the lenses are different to each other with one adjusting for long sight and the other for short sight! Anyway I can see without lenses but my only problem is wanting to take my ‘lenses’ out each night! I guess after 30 years plus of wearing them it will take a while to form a new habit!

How do you make new ‘habits’ into just part of everyday life? I have my little black book into which, each week, I write down my daily habits….. take pills, drink water etc. etc. etc. and I tick them off as I do them. I just have to look at it several times a day to remind me! iguess I’m just not very good at ‘change’.

Well my sourdough experiments are in the ‘cooler’, literally at the moment. I’ve had two attempts which were actually not bad. Now I’ve just fed my ‘starter’ and it’s going into the fridge for the next three weeks. I’ve found a new ‘baker’ so hopefully my next bake will be even better. My bagels are up and down like a yo-yo. My next to last batch were the best ever and they were probably the 5th but my last batch, before today, were inedible, just bin fodder! Today’s were good but a bit too chewy more like NY bagels. So I now have yet another recipe! Trying again tomorrow! Thank goodness for freezers! Oh and my friend AI!

So hope everyone is well.

Reported

SUNSHINE GIRL that sounds good and I’ll give it a try sometime soon.

I have to say I’m really enjoying being back on the online plan and having meal suggestions to follow. There’s always a little bit of surprise and anticipation when I see what’s coming up next – a bit like choosing something from a restaurant menu except you have to cook it yourself 😀

Today’s breakfast was baked berry oats which was delicious. Then for lunch it’s mixed bean miso chicken salad and for dinner steamed ginger fish. Tbh I feel like I’m eating a lot more than usual but it comes in at around 1000 calories and well balanced other macros too. Will keep you posted!

I’ve been looking through different resources about blood sugar, diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes, and I’ve noticed that the quality and level of detail can vary quite a bit.

When you’re trying to understand a new approach, what do you normally use to check the information? Do you prefer research papers, doctor or dietitian guidance, established health websites, books, or discussions with other people following the same approach?

I’ve also been comparing how different online resources present and organize research. I came across CollegeEssay.org while looking at examples of longer research based writing, which made me think about how much clear structure matters when trying to understand a complicated topic. I wouldn’t use it as a source for health advice, but the way information is organized can still be useful to consider.

I’m particularly interested in how people here separate useful information from general advice online. Are there any resources you regularly return to when you want to understand the reasoning behind a particular diet or lifestyle change?

Would be interested to hear what sources others here have found useful.

Dreams, I make something similar using lentils and I replace the pasta with aubergine which I have pre-cooked. The left over aubergine gets overcooked to make crisps.

CATHY I’m sorry the cauliflower bites didn’t work out! I remember a while ago creating something dreadful. I think it was some kind of fish cake. But tonight I struck lucky! I made low carb lasagne which was delicious. The recipe is based on beef mince but I don’t eat red meat so used chicken mince instead. I think it would also work well with soya or tofu mince. Anyway, the mince is mixed with onion, tomato and spinach, then topped with strips of courgette and ricotta cheese topping instead of lasagna and bechamel sauce. It tasted great and was very filling. Highly recommended!

Hope everyone has a good day tomorrow X

Hi all, trip to doctors today. He was totally flabbergasted with my results and wanted to know what I have done. I did say that the 7.5 was the unusual part but that I have been strict on my plan since the last test. Everything else okay, BP 110/70 pulse 65. He looked at my heart readings from the cardiologist and was pleased with them. I told him I was still getting cramps and he has given me permission to just stop the meds for a couple of days and see if it settles. Also said I should drink Vichy water – how can you tell he is French without me saying he is French 🙂

Daughter arrives on Wednesday and I havent even started with the house clean never mind the pre-cooking. She will just have to chip in. One other thing – youngest grandson went off to university today. I think daughter had a little cry.

The cauliflower bites were awful! Won’t be making them again! Tomorrow is going to be mushroom stroganoff! Hope you’ve all had a good day. I listened to the meditation today which I enjoyed and walked for half an hour on my walking pad. Another day tomorrow! Keep going everyone!

Hello everyone
Ive planned my two meals today using the fast 800 online programme. I am back doing 800 keto for the next four weeks. I’ve not weighed myself this morning as i don’t want to see what the scales say. I know I have put on a few pounds. I’ve decided to do the plan for four weeks and then weigh and hopefully see a nice surprise on 8th October when I will prepare for my two week cruise. Good luck to everyone who is back on the fast 800. We’ve got this. Today it’s cottage cheese and apple for lunch and evening is cauliflower bites and salad. Not made them before so something new to try. Trying to mix things up a bit every day.

Again my post disappeared!
Just wondering if anybody would like a last ‘quarter’ thread, October through December?

Last post reported

That’s great news s-g. Your bloods are looking really good. I’d be really interested to see what AI comes up with as a solution for insulin resistance when you are insulin dependant! Enjoy your time with your daughter next week.

We are off to Portugal the week after next for 12 days. I would be quite happy not to have to wash/iron/pack but I guess everything has a price…. not always financial! We have a cruise booked for November, fingers crossed for the weather. I’ll be taking a ‘pharmacy’ full of the necessary medication ‘just in case’. I think this year might just be our ‘last hurrah’ as it’s physically becoming more difficult. In saying that I said the same last year but we’ve still managed a few trips!

Margaret so sorry to hear of your woes. I too am having my post op cataract check-up next week. Should have been at beginning of the month but I had to cancel. Sorry to hear your eye is still sore. Do you use any drops normally? I started using drops about 18 months or so ago. I had no idea but I apparently have ‘dry eyes’ they do help. I’m sure you’ll get some help at your check-up. Sorry to hear about your knee but let’s just hope you won’t have such a long wait this time. Good news I guess is that your last surgery was so complex but the next one should be more straight forward.

As for me. I’m still experimenting with both bagels and sourdough. I have actually found an old, but unused, bread knife that actually will cut through a sourdough crust to make toaster friendly slices. I don’t actually eat it but it’s become a ‘challenge’ and I won’t be beaten. In saying that I made bagels yesterday, probably my 6th or 7th batch, and instead of getting better they were an absolute disaster! I’ll be able to salvage something by just using the crispy tops and disposing of the ‘soggy bottoms’!!! It’s a learning curve and I will bake the ‘perfect’ sourdough and bagel one day soon!

Talking about food we expect family for lunch tomorrow and I’ve just made my first pan of soup this season. Lentil. It seems a bit thin but it may just thicken up as it cools. Feeling very ‘autumnal’! In fact I’ve also just ordered a replacement pan for a very large deep sauté pan that is/was non-stick but I don’t trust it anymore. I have no idea how old it is but I use it to bulk cook chilli and bolognese so now we will be cooking on ceramic!

I’m noticing how much darker it is in the mornings. I’m a very early riser about 6am but it’s so dark now my circadian rhythm is sending me back to sleep until closer to 7. The days seem so much shorter when I get up an hour later!

So Margaret hope all does well with your various appointments. S-g enjoy your time with your daughter. Sunny enjoy your upcoming trip if I don’t post before you go.

As s-g says if you are a newbie or ‘reader’ ‘out there’ and need so help just drop a line here.

Have a good week.

Sounds like a good plan DCT, being organised is definitely a huge part of whether or not I have a decent week! Dawn X

YOWZER it’s so lovely to hear from you. Have been wondering how you are. I’m so sorry you’ve been in hospital though, and now rehab, and really hope you continue to improve and feel better each day X

Good to read so many other posts too. Like you DAWN I’m having a quiet day and have been sorting out menus and shopping lists for next week. I’m going to start off with the 4:3 transition programme, 3 meals a day as I often go to the gym in the morning so need a bit of energy, otherwise would skip breakfast and just do 2 meals a day. So I’ll do a big shop tomorrow then should be good to go as from Monday 🤞

Thank you Dawn, Sue and DCT for your inspiration. Monday is my four week cruise countdown. I am going to do the fast 800 keto for four weeks. No faffing. Things have been slipping in my routine – feeling sorry for myself, making excuses, you know how it goes! Well Monday is back to basics. One month – 28 days. I’ll weigh in on Monday and knuckle down. Was going to start today but Monday feels better psychologically for me. I can think and plan. Here we go again…. We’ve got this! Over 100 days til the 2027 thread-what can we achieve before moving on?

Yowser- I think about you a lot. You are and have always been such a positive influence on us all. I am sorry to read that you’ve been in hospital and I hope that you are making a good recovery. It’s lovely to see your post and I wish you well. Sending you a virtual hug.

Morning everyone & I am not too good at the moment with a return of vertigo & I just weighed & gained another pound. The past week I have just been eating what was easy to prepare because I am rather wobbly & resting a lot & feeling very can’t be bothered. I have had a blood test because I want to check if I am pre-diabetic & have a GP phone call next week plus an opticians cataract post-op check & I think my vertigo isn’t helped by reading with old glasses & my eye is still sore. I also had an annual surgery knee check & was surprised to learn that my right knee op was a much more complex one usually done as a revision op for failed knee replacement because my knee was so unstable. I have a spike into my femur plus a bone graft which at least explains why I am still recovering more normal knee function that can take another year which is a relief to learn because I thought I was being a real wimp. My left knee will need surgery & very kindly my surgeon is writing to my GP to try to push for immediate referral back having already triaged me! The NHS waiting list for triage is a year with a further year wait for surgery & my surgeons NHS list wait at my private hospital is only six months 🤔
S-G we have also cancelled our expensive Douro river cruise next year so you are not alone trying to be financially careful! At the moment everything does feel rather miserable for me. Hopefully after speaking with my GP & optician I might have better news. Sorry to be a moaning Minnie today.
Keep on going everyone
Margaret xx

Hi Sue,
That’s a great start, like you I think I’m usually automatically cooking and eating healthy meals after doing this for so long which is good to know. It’s just all of the extra (usually sweet) rubbish I have on top of that which has caused me problems. Since first doing the Fast800 plan, I think in 2018/19, I never feel hungry, I’m not sure if it reset something, so I find time restricted eating is how I usually would eat anyway which definitely helps. I’m looking forward to starting the online workouts again, though the side plank may be beyond me! Will definitely increase my walking, I would be very happy to achieve 7000 steps per day:) Sounds like a lovely day where you are, it’s a cool rainy day here so I will have a mainly cosy day and take some time to look at the online food plan for next week. Dawn X

Dawn reading the first part of your post
I can completely identify ) I was able to shed just under 5lb this week, despite not following the plan 💯
I probably stuck to the plan about 50% of the time, but in saying that I did eat much smaller portions this week, and most of the meals I make now are BSD/Fast 800 ‘friendly’ anyway, as I have been following this WOE for so long now. I’ve also walked an average of 7k steps each day, and I’ve followed the online workouts too – the one with the side plank was a challenge, but I did the workaround and that helped!
It’s been a beautiful spring day here today, and I’ve spent the day catching up with washing and housework so going to relax a bit now – have a good weekend all 🙂