Hi there – back from holiday – drove down from Orkney Saturday and Sunday – so lower days activity for the legs although not for the concentration!
I have completed the marathon between 1 May and 8 May :-).
Steps – 1/5 – 6582, 2/5 – 6917, 3/5 – 7298, 4/5 – 13203, 5/5 – 9402, 6/5 – 9586, 7/5 – 4525, 8/5 – 5028. Total 62541. According to my Gamin Vivofit, says that 5028 steps are 3.5km, so that converts to 27 miles – yeh.
However – I have never calibrated my walking – it is relative activity and that will include small steps down hilly slopes and strides along streets as equal steps.
What I will now do is look at how long it should take me to walk a marathon at the local park and use a GPS monitor and measure the marathon as a special walk each day starting Wednesday – tomorrow it is poring with rain, so not a good day to start! Hopefully I can manage at least 4 miles a day on top of the normal days walking and get to my marathon in a week.
I will post progress.

Hi,
Can I ask, did you do anything different in week 9 than to did in 1 to 8?

Did you eye up in the diet or did you keep to the programme?

I am thinking of keeping it going week by week, see how I feel and how my body copes.

Thanks

Lucia
Xxxx

Hi Alan.
Personally I weigh everything …even yogurt and eggs. I like to know exactly how many calories and carbs are in everything I eat, and write it all down in a daily diary. That’s the only way it works for me. If I make up new recipes I write those in the back of my book to refer back to.
I am 3 days into my second week. I found the first week great. I wasn’t hungry at all and really enjoyed all the food I was able to eat. This week however I am having big cravings for wine and bread, and I am feeling hungry for some reason, yet I’m doing exactly what I was doing last week. Sticking to 800 calories/day, and 50g carbs or less.

Three weeks

25 pounds!!
3 inches lost from waist
fastings from mid 150’s to about 110

All,
You can tell me if this is a stupid question.

Why test BS levels first thing in the morning, surely it makes more sense to test before and after meals to see how your body deals with processing what you’ve just eaten?.

could you give me a link to the recipe please
thanks

Hi Alan
I weigh everything now, even dollops of yoghurt! I’m on week 3 and the first week lost 4.6kg, then only 0.9kg week 2, so it was a bit of a wake up call.
I’ll continue to do this until I’m steadily losing each week and I have my eye in!
Linda

Hi,
I just used coconut flour to make cheese scones, yummy if a bit dry. Might be good to mop up olive oil, or with butter on. ☺️

HELLO GonnaBeDazzling,

Thanks for the welcome… I actually don’t know what my body measurements are externally… but I did weigh once at the halfway mark and had gone from 97 to 88kg…. and I have not weighed since… Weight focus plays with my head!!

So maybe I will buy some scales today.

For me the motivation has been the BSL and decreasing medication. I have got rid of BP meds… Cholesterol Meds, Diabex was gone in the first week and now I have started decreasing my Metformin…

Went to a half dose a few weeks ago – but was too dishearten with the Fasting BSL… so after being reminded that long term diabetics may take longer to respond and may in fact have impeded Pancreatic function ( and my poor ol Eyelets of Langerhans must be worn out after 55 years of eating whatever and whenever I pleased) I went back to the original dose and only this morning decreased it by a quarter – as my Fasting bsl was back to acceptable…

Like you and many others my clothing that can be worn in public is – barely there… but I want to wait until I stabilise to a size before I purchase anything new… If I can I will wait to go shopping once I return to Oz…

You are so right… everything is more comfortable without carrying those extra Kg’s… Hubby said on this weekend – well – just think you are not carrying a backpack full of bricks around any more!!!!

Really think I will stick with the 800 BSD for a few more weeks and revert to the 5:2 but in reverse – like have the week end off… a little later – maybe mid June… and see where I end up….

Will see my Doc in July and surprise her…. in march she sent me to a Specialist endocrinologist as she thought my ability to manage BSL on oral meds was diminishing…. cant wait to surprise her…. (hopefully)…

It is so good to see so many peeps on here that have changed their lives for the healthier and happier…. well done to everyone…

Not so Fatty…

Hi Lostgirl – I hope the sun comes out soon in your house x

Welcome to the veterans club, not so Fatty!!! Told you that name wouldn’t fit for long he he 🙂

Congratulations to all those who’re doing well.

Just 1 lb off for me this week.

I can tell I’m getting closer to where I want to be though as the shorts which I could barely do up at the end of last summer now fit comfortably and so do the summer dresses which were far too tight.

Wondering what calories in foods actually look like
For instance full fat yoghurt three big dollop spoons worth ? Big desert spoon
Normal rasher bacon ?
Large egg
Or should I stick my yoghurt on scales
Alan going weirder

Stick with it. My weight loss stalled in Week 3 and I continued on BSD 800 and went on to lose in Weeks 4 and 5. Stay with it, make sure you drink 2-3 litres water/day and that you’re consuming enough healthy fats and staying low carb (wow, lots to think about). Best wishes.

Love how passionate you are sounding from your bandwagon.

The trouble is there is so much of the icky stuff tied up into foodstuffs (money) and the sugar lobby are very powerful especially in the States. As the UK seems to follow the worst of the things that come from there and not the best – then that may be some of the problem.

Big pharma also wants to push the expensive tablets onto the ‘sick’ and keep us thinking we need it. I really don’t like taking any tablets as I’ve always been a believer in the power of self-healing, probably cos I’ve never been ill for any long periods of time. Glandular fever only got me for 3 weeks when I know others have had it for months.

Hope that your book comes soon and helps sort the reflux out

Polly x

I hardly feel eligible to post in this section, as I have yet to do even a week on bsd

however, in hours of googling all sorts, I came across this chart which I thought might interest you, although it is probably on here somewhere already

https://ggiswheatfree.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/so-many-flours-so-little-cupboard-space-how-gluten-free-flours-compare-for-carbs-and-protein-content/

I guess what I found particularly alarming, as a consumer of gf bread/pasta – was the complete lack of fibre and protein in the flours they use for these products
I mean it is even worse than wheat on that front, and as bad or worse for carbs!!

I have made the coconut flour flatbreads and they are tasty, and I think I will now (since I have loads of it left) attempt some other coconut flour recipes

any favourite suggestions gratefully received – so long as they don’t have lots of other ‘tricksy’ ingredients that are expensive or hard to find!!

Yay, GillyD, me too. I’m about a stone down but still have about 3 to lose and possibly more. The lack of hunger helps. The whole rewarding with food or drink is a weird thing, isn’t it? Hope you are doing a different self reward thing instead.

well done to everyone else too
Polly x

Hello Not So Fatty, welcome!

It’s so good that dozens of us are loving this way of eating. How are you doing? Would you like to tell us what changes your first 8 weeks have made for you?

I’m still throwing out clothes – my wardrobe & drawers have never been so empty!
And gardening is so much more comfortable now I’m bendier!

well I am not one to weigh every day – well actually I was, until those overseeing my ‘binge eating disorder’ restricted me to once a week
this is much better as you don’t get obsessed by it daily, and reactive to whatever you see which of course varies all the time
HOWEVER
I did just have a sneak look, simply because I have been spending far more than ‘pennies’ on the loo!!!!
so it has even gone down half a pound since yesterday
insane!!
now
do I check each day, or wait until next Sunday, like a good girl? hmmmm

just had berries and yog for breakfast,

annoyingly my stupid throat issues have flared up a bit again, so I am not happy about that
also my tummy has been giving twinges which may be because I have stopped taking my PPi

why is nothing ever straightforward

still waiting for the ‘anti reflux’ book to arrive
goodness I am spending so much money on food books at the moment

hi, californiagirl – yes I totally agree, that Gary Taubes book is really brilliant – I am actually reading it ALL through

I get a bit tangled up at times, but in essence it is simple – carbs/sugars are bad for us and the people that knew this have either ignored it or lied to us or both

the NHS is in a financial crisis – as is medicine the world over it seems
WELL – imagine how much could be saved if THIS way of life is adopted, even by some

goodness I need to get off this bandwagon, as I am not even sticking to it myself yet

I just feel so angry that we have been so totally indoctrinated by people in power!!

Sorry GillyD
I called you Halfway to Paradise! Silly me!!! Sorry.
Cheers
Linda

Hi…. I am knocking politely at the door…..

Just looked at the calendar… started March 13… so thats me at the end of eight weeks… wow… never supposed when I started what seemed like an insurmountable climb to the eight week mark that I would actually loose track of what week I was in… Love my life eating like this has set me freeeeeeeee..

MAY I PLEASE COME IN????

NOT QUITE SO FATTY….

Hi Everyone
Looked at this thread….. Carolg/ Purplepenguin/ Lauren the three latest posts……congratulations to them and of course everyone else.
Weigh in day Week 14 and nearly 2 stone lost…….just that pesky pound to remove. Then another stone to go before I reach my healthy weight.
Feel healthier already.
Weight down, Blood sugar level down and Blood pressure down…….what’s not to like???

Keep on track. Best of luck to all BSD followers everywhere.

Hi GillyD, (fellow lurker) Great to hear your story so far. I am not there yet, but looking forward to it. I have a holiday ahead too, it is great motivation. Good to hear that you are feeling so good after four weeks.

Well done Halfway to Paradise. It’s a great feeling isn’t it, when you realise the reality isn’t as scary as the thought of it. Please keep posting and let us know how you go!
Linda

Hi All, Keep at it! Do more, drink more water, record everything that passes your lips. Don’t give up, push throught it. You have had a fantastic weight loss so far, don’t stop now.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I will try some seeds and nuts on the yoghurt and see if it helps. And I’ll take a look at the flatbread and the other carb recipes.

I had a fasting blood sugar of 7 this morning. So motivating!

End of week 12.
Lost 2 lb this week for a grand total of 2 stone 12 lbs.
Yesterday I thought I was going to make the 3 stone mark as only 0.25lb to go – but no ended up a 1.25lb heavier.
I should know better as am used to these ups and downs by now. Well there is always next week 🙂

Snap Lauren I also lost 3.5 lbs this week a bit farther on than you as this is the beginning of week two second time around but so echo what you said. I get nervous on those scales but its been down every week and I am so so thrilled by the fact that I will have gone down three jeans sizes by next week as my present ones are falling off so a belt has been invested in. Steady as we go this is soooo exciting!! 🙂

Hello everyone! I have also been “lurking” on the forums and reading with great interest and admiration about people’s experiences on the BSD… I have now decided to take the plunge and say hi properly 🤗 I have just finished week 4 and have lost 13 lbs so far.. I was a bit disappointed this week to only lose 1lb but still it was a loss ! I am not diabetic but was possibly edging towards it, not so much because I am addicted to carbs but because I had fallen into the trap of ” rewarding” myself with wine after stressful days at work… That and moving to a more sedentary job with more travel (sitting down and longer hours) meant the weight I had lost a few years before piled on…. So I thought I’d try this as the 5:2 didn’t really work for me ( it’s all or nothing with me !) and what a difference!!! Even just cutting what carb I did eat means my digestion is better, I don’t feel so bone achingly tired and I have lost weight! So I am looking forwar to the next 4 weeks as I need to lose at least another stone for the holiday of a lifetime we have coming in July 👍🤗 Good luck to everyone else who is/ has embarked on this way of eating as I really think it works. Have a lovely day all x

Well done Revenanto….you deserve to be smug…great results. Best wishes to you.

Oh hip was before dog attack!!!

It’s all going on at this house. I’m ill dogs are ill.

It never rains but it pours

Excellent job 🙂 I hope your friends have admitted they were wrong!!

You deserve to be smug, and very proud of yourself – good luck with the next 8 weeks!

Well, I’ve made it, despite all the warnings from well meaning friends that I would die/ go into starvation mode/damage my liver/kidneys/heart etc. and lose all sense of humour and become a social pariah! I haven’t felt so good in thirty years. My ankles and feet have stopped being swollen, I haven’t had an alcoholic drink in 57 days and I’ve started walking every morning.
My weight has dropped from 23 stone 12lbs to 21 stone 1lb (39lbs) .

I’m starting my second eight week stint today in the certain knowledge that
1. it isn’t impossible, and in fact it is much easier than I could ever have imagined, and
2. this regime really seems to work for me!

Thank you to the many people who wrote and answered my questions. Every single piece of support is important and really helps.
I’m off to the over eight week section now, and hope to see you all there too soon. I know this is just the start for me, but at last I know that the journey is at least possible, after decades of despair and camera avoidance.

Sorry if I sound a bit smug….but I am!
Good luck and best wishes to you all

R

Just stepped on the scales and was very happy to see another 3.5 lbs gone 🙂 only 1 more little lb needs to come off and I’ll hit the 2 stone mark!

However for me the biggest achievement is that I’ve been on this journey for 6 weeks in a row. I can’t remember the last time I stuck to a ‘diet’ for that long – I’m one of those people who would be doing well, then fall off the wagon, binge, and decide that I needed to start a fresh the following Monday. There were some weeks where it would all go wrong on a Monday evening, and my perfectionist brain would write off the whole week (typical catastrophic thinking) and so I would eat whatever I wanted that week, and struggle even harder to get back on track the following Monday. I became so focused on my average weekly weight loss over the course of the diet, and that if I had a bad week I had to start again as that would drag it down, that I completely lost track of the bigger picture and the fact that life does not reset to day 1 every time you decide to start again next week! Life just keeps going in the background, and as you can imagine this was a very destructive downward spiral!! Actually to the point where I haven’t even tried to lose weight for a few years, and had pretty much written off any chances of ever being at a healthy weight.

When I started the BSD I told myself that all I had to do was attempt the plan for 8 weeks, with no expectations of how much I had to lose or how rigidly I had to adhere to the guidelines. I just had to try my best, and learn to pick myself up and keep going when I hit bumps in the road (I found posting my start date and weekly updates in my profile kept me accountable, even if nobody else actually looks at it, so I would recommend doing that). Six weeks in I can’t tell you how liberating this has been for me and, as usually is the case, when you switch your mind off it’s obsession with when you’re next going to ‘fail’ it’s actually much easier to focus and just get on with things… This is the rest of our lives, so one ‘bad’ meal / day / week are insignificant. If we’re a bit nicer to ourselves and keep slowly going in the right direction we’ll get there soon enough 🙂 and in a much happier state than if we constantly beat ourselves up about our ‘failings’!

Hi,
For those of you who are not ready to do the complete diet, and are reading crazy people’s blogs and are too shy, or to embarrassed to blog, shall we do something together?

Just for this week, lets try and do two things.
A. Not eat after your evening meal. So don’t snack whilst you are watching the telly. No tea and toast at 9pm.
No going to the fridge and grazing. Don’t say I just finish off this piece of pie.

B. Just for this week, eat no sweets, no chocolate no E numbers, no junk to put in your trunk!

This way, after a week, we can then swop the foods you eat, then the week after that reduce your calories.
Don’t ask me about carbs , as they are sneaky little monsters.

So in a fortnight , you can feel as if you want to join the diet completely.

My pledge?
I promise to stop eating after my evening meal. To stop eating sweets, chocolate E numbers and junk in between meals.
You up for it?
Just work on today, tomorrow is not here yet.

Let’s do it together. Blog me and let me know how you have fot on.
If you slip up and have say, a sweet, Acknowledge that is is not doing you any good. Draw a line under it and carry on. I don’t say…start again… I say carry on.

The slip ups will be less and less, but they do happen. Read my blogs, I too have slipped up often, but I am here after 8 weeks WANTING to Cary on with this.

Love Lucia
Xxxx

For the May Marathon challenge have managed to walk enough steps to do a Marathon in 7 days. That includes all my steps on the Fitbit not just walking outside. To work out the specific walking outside bit is going to be tricky so not sure how I am going to separate the difference yet.
Anyway this challenge is certainly making me up my exercise. Have only had 2 days when I have been under 10,000 steps so far.
Would have walked much less normally.
Eureka… your recipe sounds delicious…..you chose a great day for the BBQ.

A big welcome to all new starters! You have all made the right decision, this diet really improves your health as well as causing weight loss. There are lots of friendly people on these forums who can offer support and advice.

Good luck to each and everyone of you 🙂

Wow, thanks so much everyone for your kind and helpful advice. I will try the Easy Diet Diary as a couple of you mentioned, as I’ve tried to use MFP before and found it confusing (with the multitude of differing entries for the same item). And, with that, I will track my own calories of evertything I use. I had a feeling around 100g of meat/protein was about right, an entire chicken breast on 800 calories a day was definitely too good to be true. 🙂 I remembered reading in the book to steer clear of bananas but that apples were okay, but I guess only in small amounts. I’ve tried many things in the past. I’m struggling a little to get my head around this, but it does seem fairly simple, so perhaps I’m just making it difficult on myself! My brain doesn’t work as well when I’m hungry! 🙂

Thanks again, everyone. Great to hear about your fantastic results. And those of you who are a few weeks in have given me hope that I can last the distance, too.

Hi lynne, looking at weather forecasts I doubt that I will be swimming *sob sob*. I’ve also wrenched my shoulder reaching something from the kitchen cupboard 3 days ago and just typing is very painful so I won’t be posting very much.

Tomorrow my best friend is going in to hospital for an operation. I’m worried as last time they tried it was not successful . To say the least. She had to be resuscitated and came within a hair’s breadth of having her hand amputated. There is no choice as her dialysis has stopped working properly.

So sorry folks I won’t be around too much but I will be thinking of you all.

aw that’s nice your kids thought about the food, glad you had a nice time and well done for staying on track!

I make the recipe (using whatever size item I have), track the macronutrients (to make sure I’m hitting the protein target & not exceeding the calorie cap and – (because it isn’t part of the diet) limiting my carbs to the quantity my body tolerates), weigh the prepared item, then divide it into servings the size of the calorie count in the book.

Any recipe that uses handfuls, or 1 [insert veggie, fruit, meat, etc. here] is not going to have accurate calorie counts. So if calories matter to you (and they should if you want to follow the diet as it was designed), you will have to weigh and track independently of what the recipe suggests the calorie count is.

I think what it is is that I have been on diets before WW, Rosemary conley and have never exercised and still lost weight with a calorie restriction of 1500 calories. Here I am restricted to 800 and nothing. I know there is no starvation mode and as I am 245 llbs it’s not like I am near my goal and my basal metabolic rate is still high due to my weight. Plus walking may burn off a few more calories but not 3500 for 1llb. Plus I am walking more and swimming. Never happened to me before.

Thanks Linda! I’m going to keep your words in my head today xx

Hello Meggy61, I have a rebounder in my lounge room, I jump on that while watching TV, have a sip of water at the ad breaks and keep jogging through the TV shows, seems to work for me, and helps keep up to the 10k steps .

cheers,
Beth

Hi Cat
You can do it, we know you can! You can be proud of yourself for doing this and wanting to be fit and healthy not just yourself but for your kids as well!
Keep it up!
Linda

Hi Chongololo or is it Chongolo? It’s spelt both ways!
Excellent achievement, keep it up😀Perhaps the cold weather will be an excuse to do more exercise in the mornings before you go to work!
Linda

Woken up very early this morning by the youngest. Days like this are hard as I’ve got more hours to get through and I’m tired.
Going to have to work hard to stay on track today….day four. X

Hi happy life, lots of people have posted on various threads to say they are starting the BSD today…it’s also a Monday, the day most people say they’ll start a diet.

Hi Tamsyn,
Welcome to the BSD.
Can’t help with the meat question as I am vego, but for breakfast you could have full fat natural yoghurt, the Mythos brand from IGA or Jalna are the most creamy tasting and not sour. I have 100g with 50g strawberries or 30g blueberry or raspberry. Sometimes on the weekend I will fry up 2 mushrooms, a tomato, 2 eggs and 50g haloumi. It’s very filling.
There is a bread called Herman Brot that is low carb and ok on the BSD. Bit pricy at $6.50 for a small loaf but worth it for an occasional piece of toast with soup or a sandwich. In SA it’s sold in IGA, in Vic you can order it through health food stores. They have a list of suppliers on their website.
On this site are recipes for coconut flour flatbreads, good with cream cheese and strawberries, and gram flour flatbreads ( chick pea/ besan flour in Aus) which can be eaten with scrambled eggs, curry instead of naan bread and rice, or used as a wrap.
Stick with the BSD and you have every chance of getting on top of the diabetes. 🙂

Hi Tamsyn
Welcome to the family! You’ve made a brave move and we’re all proud of you😄 I’m in Australia too and I downloaded a free app called East Diet Diary. I’ve found this very easy to use and it seems accurate. I’m lucky that I’m not diabetic, but there are a lot on this forum that are, so I’m sure if you have any questions relating to that someone will be able to help.
Be careful of apples, they have quite a high carb value and you need to restrict yourself to no more than 50/day. My brekky this morning was a 2 egg omelette with garlic, mushroom and some cheddar cheese. Took 5 mins to make and kept me going till 1.30pm when I remembered I should eat lunch. Make sure you drink at least 2-3 litres of water per day (a lot of mine comes from herbal teas) and don’t be afraid of fats. Eat full fat everything! Also, read the nutritional value of everything you buy as you will be surprised of the carb values that are hidden inside packets and cans. When something calls for 1 chicken breast, I always weigh it and and everything else I use and enter them in the app separately. Within a few weeks, You’ll figure out roughly what you’re doing and won’t have to do it so often. I’m on week 2 day 6 and have lost 5.5kg, stick to it and know this is your best chance for a healthy you!!!