Sorry that should say my brother had low cholesterol – 3.4

Had a busy day. Non sleeping toddler still non sleeping so I drive around for an hr in an attempt to make him sleep but no! However my spiraliser arrived today so I cooked 1kg! Of pasta for our foreign students and me and hubby had courgetti with bacon and tomato sauce yum. I had a tiny portion but sufficently full. They very studiously picked out very tiny bit of veg, I host aprox 60 spanish, french, Italian and German students a yr and haven’t met one that actually eats veg.

I am feeling much better today, more energy, less heavy and much more positive.

Oooo lovely Janey, hope you have loads fun. And tasty cake 👏🏻👏🏻😻

Hi

I have high cholesterol despite eating relatively healthily. My brother who is obese and eats badly has high cholesterol.

My tutor at college has been a middle distance runner since she was 8 and eats very healthily but her cholesterol is highe than mine. New research I understand is showing the link between cholesterol and heart problems etc is not there. (My father had a heart attack and his cholesterol was 3).

It could also be your good cholesterol that’s gone up xx

Security should be aware of me anyway with the amount of veg in one basket 😂😂😂

Hahaha, I have such a mental image of you now Eps!

My birthday is Saturday.. Yippee! Off down to the Isle of Wight on Friday evening to see the family (that’s where I’m originally from) then my OH is taking me for a trip to Brighton overnight on Sunday. So a long weekend for me! I’m trying the nigella cake on Friday. Fingers crossed!

Oooo you should make crumble 👏👏👏 I never have calories left over..

If it’s all in your head, then yes. But if you’re actually muttering to yourself, trust me… 😉 Security will be aware of you *nods*

Noooo it’s all in my head👏🏻👏🏻😂😂

And I know people are thinking who’s that hottie 😝💋💋💋😳😂👏🏻

Can you have shredded wheat for breakfast? It says no sugar but is this still classed as a carb?

Yes, I suppose they are a bit. Not as much texture as cauli. Ooooh yes you’ve got a nice trip away haven’t you? What day is your birthday? I’ve been looking at the Nigella cake and I’m thinking about giving it a go for this weekend. Had my tea but still feeling a bit peckish, for a wonder. But I’ve only had my tea today so a fair few calories left to play with.

I’m sure anything would crisp if left in the oven long enough 😉

So, you’re walking around a supermarket, looking sad and talking to yourself… riiiiiiiiiiiiiight 😉

Thanks Cy

All very helpful. I thought of being this hungry for the rest of my life is the thing that is putting me off. May be I’m being too strict. The thought of not being able to join in anything anymore or have cake on Saturday – a treat I love is making me feel low.

Though I felt quite superior in the supermarket tonight with my lettuce leaf when the lady in front bought 6 large iced donuts!! 🙂

Fab strategy. Please share any more tips. This has helped a lot.

Ooo no, not sure I’d like broccoli rice but I guess will try! I like cauliflower rice baked in the oven because it’s crispy then, not sure broccoli would crisp would it? Ooo a new one👏🏻👏🏻

Hee hee your poor husband, I am him 😂😂👏🏻👏🏻 but talking to myself😹

Would broccoli rice work? Aren’t the florets a bit ‘woolly’ for that? I can see that the stems would be OK! Ocado delivery due tomorrow morning. Restocked up on the BSD basics and some healthy stuff! My sis has an allotment and had promised me a narrow load of veg when I visit her down on the IW at the weekend 👍🏼

Just gotta cobble together something for tea tonight…. 🙄

hi
just to say welcome
and I also avoid gluten and all grains

and this is the perfect diet to do that on as they contain loads of carbs that we should be avoiding anyway

so personally I think it could suit you really well

we concentrate on vegetables, proteins, and a few fruits

What a good idea with cauliflower. Plan to try this for sure😀

That’s brilliant! 🙂 Like three little angels sat on your shoulder haha. Come on Eps, you KNOW you can make chocolate mousse now out of avocado so… no excuse! Shopping with hubby now, his eyes light up, I look at packaging, shake my head sadly and he stalks off ahead sulking.

It was ok… reminded me a little bit of peanut butter? I had it with celery sticks. I will try a plain one next time.

Speaking of broccoli, I saw something on some site, I think it was Vogue, and I think it was those smug sisters and their ‘smart swaps’. Obviously the cauli rice came up but it also said broccoli rice! That’s the first time I’ve seen broccoli rice mentioned anywhere? I’d imagine that could be a bit less offensive than cauli, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, is it? Have you heard of it before?

Hee hee was just in the supermarket and was thinking about all you BSDers 😹 Was like you were all there: No…put down that chocolate mouse, so not worth it… Ham? Great..but omg have they dipped it in sugar coating? ooo broccoli on special- grab it!!

Anyway funny. Was also wondering how you got on with the hummus Lucky? Deliciousness??

You are right of course, I have had a couple of days up around 1200cals, so I really shouldn’t be surprised things are not happening. Although some people seem to achieve weight loss with just keeping carbs in check, I have to accept I am not one of them and get on with the task of keeping the calories in check.

I am two days into my week, so I have plenty of time to sort things out for success by next Monday morning’s weekly weigh in and I need to bring a more positive attitude.

Thanks for the common sense and straight talking Ziggy. Have been booking flights this afternoon, so have plenty to look forward to and be positive about and I’m determined weigh less by the time we go away in eight weeks.

Hang in there. It’s only the first few days and your brain is probably in overdrive thinking about how you’re going to cope on a ‘diet’. My advise is to distract yourself – drink a glass of water or go for a walk. Try not to think of this as a diet but a change in lifestyle. And also take things step by step. Think about getting through the next few hours rather then the next 8 weeks. Look at weight loss transformations on Instagram to keep you focused & inspired too!

Failing that, I find a small piece of hard cheese helps (the size of half an index finger), or half a boiled egg. You can buy small potions from most supermarkets. I’m lucky enough to have a staff canteen so i normally have a small soup with fizzy water or small side salad with grilled chicken or fish. This keeps me full for 3-4 hours. And if I’m really struggling, I’ll have 4 (just 4!) unsalted cashew nuts to take the edge off the hunger with a glass of water.

I also don’t have much time to cook, so if I haven’t prepared anything at home, I’ll buy a small side salad and some calamari from Marks and Spencers or Pret a Manger have some great breadless, low cal salads. (sorry if Pret or M&S means nothing too you if you’re based outside of the UK). You can also get Greek and natural yogurts in small pots, so again, another portable option.

Other than that, I tend to cook on a Sunday night and divide everything up into small tupperwear boxes for packed lunches. I freeze extra portions.

Hope this helps!

So I am on day 3 of the diet and I am so hungry. I have been trying to follow the diet in the book. Like most diet books it seems to assume you are at home all day with nothing to do but cook.

I am struggling to find things to eat especially at lunchtime that don’t involve carbs, I think I am omletted out!. I am not a big eater normally but this is making me want to eat more 🙁

How have other people found it, does it get better. At the moment it is just making me feel hungry and miserable.

I love skyr, or yeo valley organic with honey, naughty but nice.

Looking at Amazon it may be the Codefree Bllood Glucose Monitor which comes with 50 strips and a finger pricking unit. (Other Blood Glucose Monitors are available). Very good price. A few members in a forum for diabetics I belong to try it out and found it to be inaccurate, and looking at the one start reviews on Amazon,so did quite a few other people.

Hey KeepTrying — that is hard news when you have been doing a great job — but don’t despair — first of all, your blood sugars are good, so that is victory number 1. Second of all, you’ve lost a lot of weight, victory number 2. If the higher cholesterol is genetic, nothing you do diet-wise (as your doctor stated) will make a difference so stick with the plan — it is keeping your sugar levels in check and resulting in weight loss — both really important in the cholesterol/weight/sugar connection. There is some new research that cholesterol might not be the biggest bogey-man in the room anyway. I recommend Dr. Perlmutter’s book “Grain Brain” which explores the VALUE of cholesterol in protecting your brain cells — especially as you age. At least you will be less panicked and it is good reading about carbs (he focuses a lot on gluten but his suggestions follow the BSD). Don’t quit!! Let us know how you are doing going forward.

Nah, I’m just hungry…

..at the waiter?? 😮

Low-fat/non-fat products are loaded with sugar/carbs to make up the volume. Eat Fage/Total full-fat Greek yoghurt, fills you up, is natural + tastes like a dream!! Yum yum!

My stomach is growling…

Hi Jan & Ziggy,

Thanks for the replies, you’re absolutely right, visceral maybe wasn’t the right fat, although I’d love to think that was disappearing too. Exercise it is then, more aerobic I’m thinking, been walking plenty but nothing too strenuous, guess it’s time to up my game. On the plus side, I may still have the spare tyre from hell but my blood sugars are brilliant (down from 15 on diagnosis to 5-6), I can live with that :).

Rachel

Hi all,

I’m new to the BSD, read the book as recommended by my mother and it all looks swell. However, I am worried about following the BSD whilst being unable to eat gluten – I got diagnosed as borderline coeliac a year ago and struggle to follow diets if they look like like avoiding gluten and wheat would be a problem.
Would it be a good idea to start the BSD despite this do you think?

Thanks 🙂

Just as good! No carbs, and lots of protein!!!

I misread that and thought you’d wrote ‘sparkling waiter’ 🙂

Give me Spanish or Greek heat any day over this! Preferably with a cocktail or cold beer!! Or sparkling water, for BSD purposes… 🙁

Be wary of which non fat or low fat yogurts you choose, some are thin, runny and taste of saccharin, really nasty.

Calm down dear, calm down. When you say over the top on calories, how much over the top? They can make for weight gain. I can feel your frustration, but just keep going, stick to <800 carbs and you will reach your stone lost (another one!!!).

Positive vibes winging your way, SunnyB. Be Sunny like your name!

Hi Marsie, thank you very much 🙂 Yes, I think it is, and here we are many, many posts later! Taking it in baby steps, whatever else I manage to lose between now and the wedding is a bonus, but even if I didn’t lose another pound I’d still be at least 28lbs lighter than I was 6 weeks ago! And guaranteed I’d have put on a fair few more in the interim! I know I have a lot further to go than September though, this is going to be long term, well… this way of eating is hopefully going to be forever (with an occasional treat chucked in if and when I feel like it).

Yes, I’ve heard a lot of people say that, I’ve never been abroad so I can’t comment, but I’m not a heat lover. So when I say that these foreign countries wouldn’t do for me on holiday, people tell me it’s a different kind of heat ‘over there’ than we have here. So I can well believe that you did feel sweatier over here! The thing is, there’s no warning for it over here, it’s all or nothing. My husband is from Lancashire and he’s been living here (Wales) since 2001 🙂 I think he hasn’t lost much of his accent but when we go to his family and I hear other people speaking, it’s amazing how broad they are in comparison to him. And I also find he slips right back into a broad dialect too, when amongst his own kind 😉

Oh it’s helping me immensely, I love the banter. You’ve got to have a laugh, haven’t you? Makes it so much easier when you’re facing a daunting task. And losing another 6 or 7 stone IS daunting! But I’ll get there pound by pound 😀

When I dissolve mine in water it doesn’t thicken up, but then I just down it all in one go straight after mixing. Must put some in a glass and leave it to see what happens.

Am I the only person on the forum who doesn’t take yoghurt? Well I tool my first one last week, but it was non fat, and people on the forum are taking them for the fat content. The other 3 non fat yuohurts in the pack are still in the fridge!

Amazing stuff isn’t it? And so versatile too. I’m absolutely sold on it and make sure I have cauli in the fridge all the time now. Try blitzing it with some fresh herbs too – delicious!

Well, Lucky Maneki, I think this is the second time I’ve said congratulations to you for a milestone moment. Heartiest congratulations and good wishes for further losses before the date you’ve set. I think you will look great, you have such a wonderful attitude.

Before I visited GB for the first time a friend who still has her Lancastershire accent, despite being in Australia for more than 50 years (come to think of it, my dear old Nana who came out here after WW1 aged 30, died at 99 still as broad as could be), this is a terrible sentence, lol, I’ll start again. English born friend said I’d notice the heat more in GB than here in Perth and I think she is right. Felt sweatier at 25 degrees celsius in London, than 30 degrees at home…..who’d guess?

Good luck again, am enjoying the joshing between friends on your page, it seems to help along the way so thanks all :):)

I am gutted
I have lost weight – since January
my blood sugars (not diabetic) are apparently great

and my cholesterol
has gone up

I just sat and cried

I don’t know what to do
I don’t know if I should ditch the ff yog and cheese
I don’t know If I should eat less eggs
or start eating oat cereal again

dr says if it is genetic there is little I can do

I feel so knocked by this and my head is spinning again because I had sort of settled right down to eating certain things and now I just don’t know

I’m at screaming pitch with frustration and all because I seem to have lost the plot on this whole thing.

I had been just one pound away from achieving a stone lost and since then, I have seen only increases, so that I am now 2.6lb away from that achievement.

Whilst I confess that I have had a few days over the top on calories, the carbs have been consistently under 50g everyday, however, I am seeing daily weight increases and am really struggling to get my head together again and get myself back to loosing rather that gaining. Finding it really hard to find motivation right now and feel like it’s all falling apart.

Sorry, whinge over! I know what I need to do – reign it all in and get back to basics and start thinking positively as well.

That fee certainly sounds amazingly steep and especially when the book, forum and website is really all you need. Consider sugars and carbs as one entity and aim for no more than 50g per day. I cannot comment to the gram count for protein and fat, as I don’t keep a check on these – just cals and carbs. Sure someone out there will be able to offer an insight on these though.

Good luck with it all Kando – looking forward to hearing your results soon.

So back from my morning missions and so far so good. I caught sight of myself in a full lenght mirror and it gave me a fright and a tonne of willpower haha. I will be doing some cooking this afternoon so I have a fridge full of easy stuff to eat. Thanks for everyones support, it has really helped.

Thanks Ziggy, I mix mine into my morning Gk Yoghurt, berries + seeds, that way I don’t notice the sweetness so much.

It’s like glue isn’t it!?

Hello Tokyo 🙂 Thank you my dear, I was doing a sweaty but happy dance in the bathroom! Couldn’t believe it because a sneaky weigh last night before bed (always gives me an inkling of if I’ve lost or not for the next day, don’t judge me, it usually works… 😉 ) had me at 100.7kg. This morning I was 99.7 kg so I must have sweat a lot last night! It was shocking, but I slept through a massive thunderstorm until 5 am, then I closed my window as I could hear the rain hitting things in my bedroom, and went back to sleep until 8 (missed the alarm again!)
I have a jar of that sauce Tokyo, picked it up in B&Ms a while back and not had a chance to use it yet. Let me know what it’s like.
I reckon you’ll be fine you know, and remember, an official weigh day is a self imposed thing too! You might be the same on the weigh day, but a kilo down by the next day! Used to happen to me all the time in WW. Nothing on the day of class, but the next morning, I’d be down something stupid like 3lbs and I’d be hopping mad. Our bodies will lose it when they like, not when we want them to lol

Hi robin_dj

Which model of blood sugar monitor did you go for?

well huge congrats lucky !!! how good is that i bet you jumped off the scales kg is the way to go !!!
my weigh in is usually thurs but putting it to fri with the weekend been a bit of a downer so fingers crossed but wont be surprised if this week it a non mover pop pickers!!!( sound ot top of pops music!!)
i rate all these “celeb cooks” as dreadful really i like stealing bits and bobs from them and their books !!!
not as hot today but last night was awful!!! ended up sleeping downstairs and even then too hot
quick tea tonight cauliflower and paneer cheese cooked in a loyd Grossman mint and curry sayce not much sugar in it !! with the lucky wraps with added fresh mint yep get me paltrow has bugger all on me i tell you !!!!!!!

Yes, I use lean mince Eps, and to be completely honest with you, it’s only in the last couple of months I’ve started using beef mince again. Remember the horse meat scandal? Well, for a long, long time before this broke, whenever I used beef mince, maybe once a week for a chilli or spag bol or lasagne, the smell of it cooking made me feel ill. It was disgusting. It didn’t matter if I dry fried it, or boiled it, it was awful. And I never bought cheap mince either, one thing I won’t compromise on is meat, I’d sooner have less of it and bulk it out with plenty of mushrooms onions and peppers. Always went for the premium one. So I gave up and went over to pork mince after a friend raved about it. We’re all used to it now, and I think it’s tastier anyway. Then the scandal broke and I’ve always thought… could that have been it? How did it go from smelling nice to disgusting all of a sudden? At the end of the day, it’s steak frying, how can that smell awful? The only thing that doesn’t really do with pork is shepherds pie or beefburgers (obvs!) everything else works a treat. But I am partial to a nice lentil bolegnese, if only I could find the bloody recipe for it! It was just as good as a meat one. If not better.

I had a friend (the keyword is had, as she was a nasty toxic piece of work and I set her free in 2008!) who was – so said she – diabetic, gluten intolerant, lactose intolerant. She was vegetarian, not because of ethical reasons, but because she ‘didn’t like the texture of meat’. I’m sure there was one more intolerant in there too. I say ‘so said she’ because she was so vain about her looks, it wouldn’t surprise me if she imposed these restrictions on herself to keep her figure. Caught her out a few times where she said she’d eaten such a thing. Plus she was a liar and a complete headcase. I remember her calling up to order a takeaway one day, an Indian, and she asked for – no word of a lie – ‘Vegetables, stir fried in their own juices’. How hubby and I kept a straight face is beyond me. What WAS the point of that??? Paying for THAT??? That’s not a takeaway? She could have gone to Tesco and whipped that up for herself in 3 minutes for about a quid! She was a bloody nightmare to cook for. But I did, every time. A two course meal every time.

You think that’s what did it for the others? The Lentils? I love lentils. Lentil soup, mmmmmm.