Like my dad (RIP) before me, both me and my boy are blessed with crazy tanning ability. Someone only has to mention the word sun and we go olive. My daughters are blond and blue eyed and not as lucky!

I remember one year I went darker than my hair and I’ve got dark brown hair (well it was, I’m a silver fox now and I’m only 39!)! If I remember correct I was about 14 and my parents were splitting up. I went to Malta for 2 weeks with my mum in the summer hols, came back for 2 weeks then went back to Malta again for another 2 weeks with my dad!

My hair went a sort of browny gingery colour and my skin was like teak.

Brilliant results captainlynne! We all start to shrink after we get to 35, so don’t worry about that. It sounds like seeing your results, is bringing others to the BSD, which can only be to the good.

So, Skinny Minny, keep up the good work and maybe you will get off that diabetic register in the end.

A tan, huh? *Looks down at burnt breasts*

My budgie smugglers are currently drying on the line as I’ve upped my swimming to every other day. I’m lucky enough to live really close to an outdoor swimming pool that has adult lane swimming every evening from 6.30. So not only am I getting fit, I’m topping up my tan too! Win win.

I can confirm that the muffin top is shrinking, and hoping that it will be all but gone in the next few weeks!

Haha, love it Janey, you being all smug and healthy at your sister!

Oh. My. Gaaaaaaaaawdddddddddd. Hello Chandler Tim. Shameless Janice from Friends impression there for you.

Of course we missed you. Glad your beers haven’t ruined your beach body 😉 I still haven’t surrendered to the wine, I’m a bit worried about it tbh. I’m already a hopeless drunk… I moider really badly. Best stay off it I think. For now anyway. Think it’s been about 9 weeks since I’ve had alcohol. I am partial to an ice cold Bud too Janey. Camping is going to be the big test for me, that normally involves at least 2 boxes of wine. At least.

I’m going to do the one Eps put up, but I’m going to do it in cupcake form (better portion control) and I’ll make half the ganache up and pipe it on in swirls. I like knowing exactly how much is in each portion, and if I have to be trusted to cut it into slices then, I’m in trouble. I’ll make mine tomorrow so I can pack one for the rugby on Saturday.

Saw nurse today for test results.

HbA1c now 5.2 (in April it was 5.5, down from 9.6 in December). Now well in ‘normal’ range 😃. Been told will not be taken off the diabetes register as “it could return at any time”. Grrrrr.

Blood pressure today 139/78. I’ve not taken BP meds for months and now they’ve been taken off ‘repeat’. Pulse and kidney function improved.

But ….. She checked my height, and I’m an inch shorter than I was 😱 Top of my healthy BMI is now 9st 7lbs. 😱

But ….. she’s recorded all my information to show the GP who is complaining about non-complient diabetics at the practice (and blaming the nurse!). She’s also telling patients about the BSD 😃.

And a different nurse (who took my blood last week) has started the BSD after she asked me how I’d lost so much weight 😃

Oh – and I’ve apparently got a new name – Skinny Minny 😳 A few people have started calling me that!

So a bit of a mixed morning, but really the only ‘bad’ bit was that – along with the rest of me – my height has shrunk 😱 so I shouldn’t complain 😃

I’m ten weeks in so the name of my topic is a bit out of date but, hey, it’s my thread and I love it.

I have just come back from a holiday in the UK. We travelled about a lot and lived mostly on salads (Marks and Spencer are the best), Greek yogurt, fruit, hummus and eggs. I informed all our friends about the diet so that they would not be offended when we didn’t eat their carbs. (Two of them went out and bought the book so that they can have a go) I usually weigh and log everything so it was a bit of a challenge to control portion sizes. We had a great holiday and I came back 1.75 pounds lighter and my husband lost 4.5 pounds. Official weigh in for week 11 is next Monday.

We indulged in a lot of retail therapy. Our income (pensions) come from the UK and are paid in sterling so we got one pound for our pound. Not so if we spend our pounds at home where the exchange rate is terrible at the moment. Living in a hot country I spend nine months of the year in t-shirts so I bought loads of size 18’s (still a bit snug on me) and loads of 16’s (which don’t go anywhere near me……..yet). My husbands trousers were falling down and his shirts are a bit spacious so we bought him new ones and are having his existing trousers altered as well. Thank you UK for having sales.

Happy birthday for this weekend Janeycoughdrop!

Yay, Timmy the Chandler with his six pack (of beer!). You’ll be in those budgie smugglers yet! 😆 It’s been a challenge for me to turn down a cold Bud over the last few days.. But I managed! One white wine and soda slipped through..

Paleo choc cake looks Delish altho icing and filling is more than I can be bothered with! Nigella wins this time round I think. I told my sister I was baking a cake and she was all ‘I don’t eat refined sugar so no cake for me’. To which I replied, ‘neither do I. Or refined flour. This cake is legal!’ So now she’s all excited at the thought of a slice 😈

hurrah timmy is back i was wondering were you and your speedos had gotten too!!!!

I think this is the perfect diet for avoiding gluten! My brother has to avoid gluten because of his trigeminal neuralgia. So many of the meals that I’m now cooking are gluten free that I’m recommending loads of ideas to him!

Me too! Love my actifry but never thought of doing cauliflower in it. Great idea!

Hi Kando, my current exercise includes swimming and weights.

In both sessions I try to add in a part of HIIT. For the swims, I normally do a mile of front crawl followed by 5 sprint lengths absolutely flat out (i.e. 5 x 1 slow breast stroke length followed by 1 full tilt front crawl). Also, after my weights sessions, I do a mixture of sprints on either a running, rowing or cycling machine or the horrible leg cycle ones on the TRX.

If you’re out of practice I would suggest just starting off with a couple of minutes, and building up over the course of several weeks.

Thanks Timmy, makes perfect sense, might just walk a bit quicker for now and add the exercises the book advises at home. It’s a journey to get everything in place and a habit but I’m getting there!

Hi GrumpyT2, I was always under the belief that visceral fat was the hardest to shift, but I’ve been re-educated in this. Apparently the visceral fat, whist the most dangerous, is also the most transient and is always the first to come and go if we over eat/diet.

As Ziggy pointed out, it’s the subcutaneous fat around the middle that is the dreaded spare tyre, and the hardest to shift. Walking is a great fat shifter, so I’d keep that up. Make sure you don’t get caught in the myth that cardio (running, cycling etc) is a good fat shifter. It’s not. That’s not to say it’s not good for you. It’s great for your heart and cardiovascular system.

The most effective exercise to torch fat is a combination of HIIT, weights and sub 60% max heart rate “cardio” (walking being a perfect example).

That said, as the saying goes, abs are built in the gym and uncovered in the kitchen. And a rule of thumb is fat is shifted 75% by diet and 25% by exercise. So regardless of how much exercise you do, diet is the main key to getting rid of it! Keep up the good work, sounds like you’re well on your way.

Hi Ziggy, have to have another blood test at the end of August for HbA1c, my doctor was great and gave me 3 months to get things under control before having me take meds. Got another 7lbs to lose to hit her weight target, so all going in the right direction.
Kando – I was diagnosed in May after having a nasty appendix removed, so about 2 months, but did notice my BS go down consistently after 2 weeks – fingers crossed it stays that way 🙂 That’s a great drop after 1 day, won’t be long before they hit normal I’m sure, keep up the good work!

Got it in one, seems to work fine and fifty strips will be more than enough for the 8 weeks

hi
thank you for the support
and tips

lowenna – I agree it must be genetic as my dad who was never over weight – ever – and always very active
had high chol. and a triple heart bypass
my father-I-law was much bigger, nowhere near as active, ate far far more fats
and had much lower chol.

I need to decide how to go forward with the eating now
just not sure

Did you miss me? I’ve spent the last few days drowning in candle wax. Busy getting the big order in for “the palace”, hours of mindless trawling the internet for a presentation box supplier as the last one went bust and getting prepped for a big craft fair on Saturday.

I might have had the odd drink or 10 most evenings. Suns out guns out, can’t help myself! I’ve been strict with the eating part though, and been doing quite a bit of exercise. I’m pretty chuffed that my weight has stayed exactly the same for the last week (the amount of beer I’ve drunk!).

Still on course for a flat stomach by holiday!

That’s great news Igorasusual. I know what you mean about noticing other people. I do that all the time now : ]

Yup! 🙂 Eeeeeeeeek!

Oooo cupcake maybe small batch and just bit of melted chocolate for icing 👏👏👍

Just had my green smoothie and full to the brim now. Sun is burning through the clouds- beach here we come!

Maybe that’s it. I swear I only have to think about pastry and I’m done for. It must be psychological or something.

I would have a crack at this but I don’t think it would need quite so much frosting either, if it wasn’t being made as a ‘special’ cake? I’m sure a layer in the middle would suffice. The reviews look good too, what I always look for is what I call ‘normal’ people’s reviews. Those who don’t eat paleo, or low carb, or who don’t have intolerances. It’s those who can eat them, yet still say that the recipe is one of the nicest they’ve tried, that’s what I home in on. Not that I’m saying we’re not normal, of course…

It also works for cupcakes too…?

I had read Bill1954 about the BS problems he faced at the beginning with nighttime readings and fasting readings which tended to go up. So last night I tested 4 hours after eating and my BS 5.8 then tested this morning 12 hours later and 7.5.
Did walk over a mile again and although I got the claudication pain, I had walked further and it did not last as long and managed the walk 9 mins quicker so was well pleased.
Jumped on the scales again and lost another 0.7 kg so now down to 120.7 so under 19 st.

Does t it! Only for rare occasions I’d say💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽😳😫

Think I looked at Facebook and one of the cookery celeb ladies had put up a new blog post and then I read all the comments too😂

Maybe virtual carbs from googling cakes are pilling on as I sleep 😱😱

Hee hee😂😂

That cake looks AMAZING! It has frosting!

Hi there

Haven’t tried this – like sweet potato but have been swerving as root veg, and likely carb heavy.

The concept looks good and with a bit of fiddling with MyFitnessPal, I think that a slice of sweet potato would probably be c 50g (?), and therefore a ‘slice of sweet potato toast’ would be c 55cals, 13 carbs (of which 3g would be sugar).

That’s too many carbs in one go for me (I try and keep mine below 20g per day), and I think to have sweet potato toast with avocado too (often suggested), then the whole thing might be 20g of carbs in itself.

So depending on how many carbs you’re targeting, might be worth a try!

Keep us posted! 🙂

Why were you googling cakes at midnight…?

Well yeah! That’s better than some of the waffle Smartcoach comes out with or whatever the heck it’s called. If you’re on Twitter I think it can be done that way. I’m (at) luckygoldcat I’m too scared to connect it to Twitter yet in case it adds everyone on my list who has an UP. I’ve over 1000 followers (only actually know about 30 of them…) and it could get messy if I can’t pick and choose 🙂

Some days, I just ace it, and for me music is the key. Some days my ipod just amazes me, it churns out tune after tune that I love, and it keeps me going. I am proud of the fact that I pushed myself the last two days though, even though last night was cooler (in temperature), it was actually still very hot where the treadmill lives. I’ve just realised I’ve missed a bloody trick today, younger sons have appointments today in town at 10, one optician that hubby is doing and one opening bank account, which I have been saddled with. If I’d thought about it, I could have had a three mile walk into town with one of the children. I love that walk too, because it’s reasonably straight and completely flat.

I’m with you. Cooler is better for me too *thumbs up*

I think it’s just going to happen now and again, I had a shocker last week, didn’t I? Seven days literally for nothing, no weight loss and inch gain! And yes it could be muscle gain, it weighs more than fat, but it’s never any consolation on a scale, that – is it? 😉 Is it connected in any way to your cycle, maybe? At least we know on days/weeks like that, that what we’ve put into our sacred temples (!) has been all good, and it will remedy itself in time, at it’s own pace. That’s the annoying thing. It works at it’s own pace, not ours.

http://myheartbeets.com/paleo-chocolate-cake/

Morning all.

Just wanted to tell you the news about OH, who has Type 2, and has been following the BSD principles with me.

He didn’t really want to lose much weight, but hoped to lose some visceral fat (has had problems with liver, including 2 ablations) and ideally get off Metformin. So he has been doing more calories than 800 per day, but restricting carbs to 20-30g per day and avoiding all refined carbs, with his calories coming in in the range of 1500-1900 per day.

He has lost weight, moved from size 36 trousers to 34, and size XL shirts to M (major wardrobe adjustments!!), and enrolled his GP in supporting him by regular blood tests to judge how his blood sugar is going.

Previous blood sugar readings had been 9 – 9.5 and higher (one high reading nearly caused him to have a liver op postponed). Before a BS test in early May, he tried restricting carbs for a few days on a very unscientific basis, and got a result of 7 – 8. Improved, but still not as good as needed.

So he started 26th May on a better planned BSD inspired regime, and was tested at the end of June – he has just had all the results and a discussion with GP (delayed because of our holiday) when his blood sugar has gone down to 5.5 or non-diabetic levels, with the GP (not his usual one), having never heard of BSD but absolutely fascinated and asking for all the details, telling him that as far as she was concerned his results were normal and he could come off the 4 Metformin daily he was taking!

So effectively, 4 weeks of restricted carbs and no refined carbs – BSD principles – moved him from Type 2 to normal. 🙂

He’s obviously done several more weeks now, at mid-end July, and hopefully the Blood Sugar is even better. Another test scheduled in, and his surgery keen to see what his results are as this may help other Type 2 patients!

This is such great news, over and above the real health improvements he’s found, including much improved liveliness (never thought we would be sitting in the garden in the sun with our coffee together at 7.30am – he would previously have been dead to the world still in bed for several hours more).

Am hoping that this really does turn into a medical breakthrough and that advice will change to help more people – I am unable to go anywhere in public now without noticing many people who would really benefit from helpful advice about how to reduce their spare tyres…..

Aa JAney hope working from home goes well.. ☀️🌻🍉🍹😹👏🏻

Found you an alternative birthday cake at about 12 last night but did t post as you’d all be wondering why I was googling cakes at midnight..

Hee hee I’ll have to make up some Annoying comments so😝👏🏻😂👏 you go girlfriend etc 💪🏽😝😂
Walking is great as low impact, really easy and so good for your head, orders everything nicely🤓
I am going through a no losing few days but guess just keep it up and it ll happen. Have been keeping to the plan and doing loads of exercise but maybe gaining muscle? She says hopefully.. 🤔😎 or too hot!! Really, I think my body likes the cool, Celtic temperament (like the salt, v exclusive and fussy🤗🤗😂😂👏)

Thank you Eps 😀 I am absolutely made up!! And thank you so much for putting your boot up my backside this week! You’re definitely less annoying than ‘Were you just at a pep rally? Because your spirit ROCKS!’ LOL. It has to be the walking, well the book says as much, doesn’t it? Diet, water, walking.

I am really happy with it, I know others do heart rate and things like that but I’m not an exerciser, I don’t do anything else but walk, and that’s not likely to ever change now. I’m just not sporty, never have been. And I’m woefully uncoordinated. Let me know if you’d like to connect on it, I don’t want to be pushy, and it’s totally fine if you don’t want to. I’m chomping at the bit to be pitted against someone, I think that could be the key to making me work more! My friend who has a fitbit says she would be running up and down the stairs so as not to let her WW leader beat her in steps for the day!

Yeahhhhhhhhhh Janey! It’s hazy here, but the sun is really trying to break through. Nice and cool too. Not cold, like it has been. Who’d have thought a week ago I had to put the heating on when I woke! Enjoy your ‘work’ in the garden. Sparkling waiter for Janey, please! Wooop!

Yaaay that’s a Friday feeling, in a Thursday! It must be the walking. Which makes me think I really need to up the exercise. I guess that I could now find more time to walk in the evenings of my boy is away for a few weeks. I’ve also been trying to find a yoga or Pilates class that i can get to, either in my lunch hour or in the evening. Local leisure centre seems to be doing its best to thwart this effort by refusing to accept my membership number.. I feel a challenge coming on!

It’s hot and sunny again. Best get the sarong on and hit the garden with my laptop!

Wahooooo! Wow that’s a great week and it’s not even over!! Brilliant lucky 👏👏👏👏 the walking is the key I think, it works so well💪🏽☀️💃🏻☀️

I have an up2 too, it’s great!

Sorry! Fell asleep! Ok, this is the one I have https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jawbone-UP2-Fitness-Tracker-Black/dp/B00QL1GZL0 I’m not endorsing it as being brilliant or better than any other one out there, which it probably isn’t… my friend swears by her Fitbit, I prefer the price on this one. You can input your food, scan your groceries, something I never use it for. Input your activity, or it detects when you’ve been active and asks if you want to input it, works out your calories burned for the day, tracks your steps, you can log your weight and it tells you how close you are to your goal. It monitors your sleep, breaks it down into deep sleep/light sleep. Does an awful lot more than I use it for, to be fair. And you can link up with friends by inputting their emails (I think) and compete with them for steps etc. Cheap, cheerful (as long as you buy it from Amazon and not PC world or anywhere! Where they are still £80!).

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Well ladies. Well. My gast is well and truly flabbered. My timbers are suitably shivered. This is where I wish I could change the font size because today, the scales showed 99.0 kg! Yes indeedy my little chickpea munchers! Another loss of 0.7 kg, which already gives me very, very close to 4lb off for the week, and I don’t weigh officially for another two days! The curse has been broken! Another mini goal is marked off my massive goals list – my BMI is now under 40 – 39.8 from my starting BMI of 45.1! Whilst not wanting to get too far ahead of myself, what you said yesterday, Janey, that I could lose another 2 stone before the wedding, well – yes, if I can still pull in weight losses of 4lb a week at this stage of the plan! And I have to say, the only change I have made this week is walking. I know I haven’t pulled in great step counts over the whole of the week, some days it’s only been 6000, but when you think that of late, it could be as low as 2000 a day, it’s a vast improvement! That’s given me incentive to really push myself now! More salads! More water! More walking! I can do this!

Tokyo, the rugby top still looked a bit like I’d sprayed it on. To my shame it’s actually an XXXL not an XXL – but in my defence it’s one of these rigid tops with zero give in the fabric. And it’s a very small sizing because hubby was an XXL before he started this and even his is still tight on him after losing nearly 2 stone.

Happy, happy, happy! 😀

What it says in the title.

Welcome to BSD, lots of lovely people who love to help so shout if you need anything 🙂

Good Morning Mr Stud! Glad you have enjoyed my diary and I definitely recommend keeping one of your own as I’m sure it has helped me along and it’s nice to look back and see how far I’ve come 🙂

We watched some Game of Thrones yesterday evening gradually catching up with those who have seen it.

It was a struggle to get up again this morning, clearly I’m just not built for early! However this is the end of my working week so 3 mornings where I only need to get up when my son does which is early enough.

I’ve had a blueberry almond milk shake with 1/4 banana – nice combination although you do get bits of blueberry skin which may put some off. Lunch is soup, dinner is going to be fish.

Gradually bits of the craft stuff I ordered have been arriving, so I might go up tonight and attempt to make something or maybe paint.

Fo now I got to go 🙁

Feeling tired today as I felt so full of energy yesterday I didn’t get to sleep until midnight.

Beach trip today with friends yay. I will be road testing my new wetsuit so lots of swimming and running after wayward children.

I will leave breakfast to as late as possible and have a green smoothie just before I leave. Probably cauli rice and spanish mush for dinner. I try to avoid lunch but I have Greek yog and blueberries in.

Have a great day all.

Konjac noodles? I haven’t tried them, they don’t look very appealing. I have zoodles (zucchini strips) with pasta, quinoa or cauliflower rice with Asian dishes (or just a little bit of rice), lettuce leaves instead of tortillas in Mexican food. I haven’t found a substitute for fresh warm bread slathered in butter yet…

Current Day 20/07/16

Week 2
Day 4

BMI: 28.4
Weight: 17 Stone 8 Pound (111Kg)

Hi Figment, I don’t use Myfitnesspal but most of those apps you can create a “meal” and then you only have to enter all the ingredients once, after that you just type “my cauliflower rice” or whatever you called the meal and it logs the whole thing. Have a look around the app and see if it has that. Or maybe you can copy a previous meal across in a click or two instead of entering again. I use CalorieKing (in Australia) and I can create meals and copy meals, saves a lot of time – assuming I make it more or less the same way each time.

Just found this post yeah! Well since I started my first 8 weeks in April, ive lost 6 kgs, i’ve become fairly ‘relaxed” on the BSD recipes. But am still watching what I eat mostly, and am pleased to say the weight has stayed off. This is my first consistent weight loss ever!
I’m almost half way through 4 1/2 months of full time work – which is soooo sedentary, unfortunately my exercise is not happening.
My GP has started me on metformin, and was very pleased I had lost weight. So encouragement is good. Looking to get started again slowly and surely back on the BSD a bit more religiously. But I’m pleased so far my choices are going ok. I will look out for more posts. I tried the noodles that start with K, they didn’t tickle my fancy – its hard to have a substitute some times. Am totally loving hummus. stay well everyone. cheers

Take it easy on yourself. It took many weeks of Ben and Jerry and Krispy Kreme to gain all this weight. It also takes time and efffort to lose it also.

I have a secret to better food cravings control:

A glass of water with lemon before your coffee.

A teaspoon of coconut oil before your coffee (Or in it as I crazily do)

A second teaspoon of coconut oil in afternoon.

Miraculously it cuts your cravings with lots of good fat.

Hi Figment – dumping the scales is a tough one. I did the sneaky weigh in this morning too and I’m down 2.5kg exactly from my starting point which is actually pretty good from a motivational point of view even if logic told me it’s mostly water weight etc etc etc … We’ve been eating mostly poached eggs and avocado for breakfast with a little lemon and cracked pepper and some paprika and they’ve been delicious. If I could work out a way to prepare them the night before that’d improve them too because it’s not fun preparing them at 5.45 in the morning. Last night we had beef kofta with a cucumber/capsicum/red onion/tomato salsa and it was pretty fab. We are both still craving bread so last night we shared one slice between the two of us for ‘dessert’. I’m thinking I might have to try the recipe for ‘cloud bread’ that I’ve found on the internet and see if that’s a better low carb alternative. Still struggling with my coffee a bit. I like it milky and often and it’s been difficult to change that. Headache all week which I’m not sure is attributable to the caffeine or carb withdrawal. It didn’t improve after the half a slice of bread though so … probably caffeine. Trying to soldier on through it but after 4 days it’s a struggle. Biggest win this week was that partner’s fasting BSL this morning was 6.5. He was very nonchalant about it but I know he’s pleased. He’s also lost 3kg and he hasn’t seemed to struggle with the eating changes much at all. He is already doing 2 sessions a week with a personal trainer but we are going to see if a bit more walking helps too. The thing I notice is that we’re both looking more ‘bright eyed’ and clear skinned than a week ago. Not that we were spotty or anything just … I don’t know, less florid? Hard to explain. We feel better and that’s a good thing.

No answer for your question on the app. I loaded the app when I got my phone two years ago but never used it so a lot of my settings are still default and I haven’t worked out how to change them yet. I think there is quite a good support network online for the app but I haven’t really looked into that yet either.

Anyway, well done for your progress so far and thank you for sharing your journey!

Annais