I pour over some boiling water and leave then for 20 seconds, warms them through but does not make them too soggy.

Hi Cherry8, I think it needs a pretty strong blender to turn it into butter. Have read recipes before that show all the stages and it seems to go to powder first and then eventually release the oils and turn into butter 😀 Not sure my blender would be up for it but maybe if you turn it off and on a few times during the whole process so it doesn’t wreck the motor! Think this link has photos of the stages, hope it works out next tome👏🤗😝
http://www.greenkitchenstories.com/homemade-nut-seed-butter/

ALMOND BUTTER?

I made this the other day, toasted the almonds as instructed in the recipe, blitzed and ended up with toasted almond powder. Is this supposed to be a paste i.e. Like a thick butter? Any ideas or tips please.

Have just discovered Babaganush oooo it’s so delicious and really easy. 2 medium aubergines put under the grill until the skin is charred, and then mixed in blender (only the flesh, not the black skins) with juice of one lemon, 2 tablespoons of Tahini (sesame paste) and 1 or 2 cloves of garlic and optional honey (half teaspoon tho I didn’t bother) sooooo delicious with tomatoes or celery or peppers! I put in 2 cloves of garlic and it’s pretty garlic so maybe ones enough..

Worked out at just under 50 calories (4g carbs) if the above recipe was for 6 people, so not massive helping but it’s perfect for dipping stuff into😝👍

Hi, ooo no spiralised courgettes are really tasty – I know what you mean that kind of soft courgettes when cooked can be a bit wet but spiralised raw ones are nice and crisp and are tasty raw with bolognese or chilli and soooo delicious with things like mushrooms, garlic, and some bacon👏👏👍 They don’t really taste like pasta but it’s a good substitute even if anot different. They are probably better raw or just warmed if you don’t like slimy stuff. Hope you get to try out soon😀

Thanks Bubbles. I had porridge and felt loads better but still couldn’t manage to keep under 1000 calories. Today I am not trembling and have had lengths of time not thinking about food.
I found protein pots in a “healthy” takeaway place. Such a relief to find something to eat while out that was not a sandwich and nice and also interesting not to be craving cakes while there. I could look at them and not feel like was missing out. Although strawberry and custard French pastries took quite a lot of willpower in the market today

Thing is, if you go back to eating how you were before, your weight and any health issues will go back to how they were before.

(You won’t need to stick to 800 calories long term though. That’s just to lose the weight. Once you have, you’ll need to consume at least double that to maintain a healthy weight)

Thanks that is reassurring

Hi
I managed to stick to the 800 calorie diet for 9 days back in January but subsequently failed and have struggled to get my head back in it !
I have decided to kick start by using meal replacement shakes for a week or two and then depending on how I am getting on I may consider staying on this.
My question is if anyone else has used meal replacement shakes and if they have which ones ?
I have the 8 week blood sugar diet book and in there it recommends any ‘commercial diet shakes’. Looking at the ingredients on the ones I have bought the first ingredient is fructose which the book says is really bad. I’m wondering if I should continue with the ones I have or switch to another brand ?

Sassie,

It’s 80% about the food & 20% the exercise. As long as you are doing some exercise and trying to increase it a bit at a time then it will help, but its not the thing that will make you lose the weight, its about what you put in your body. The exercise is about not losing muscle and strength only.

I’ve been using it on and off for 5 months, no problems & I would prefer it than stuffing a cake in my mouth. Its all about what works for you.

Breakfast – camomile tea (fasting 16hrs)
Lunch – cheese and tomato sandwich ….replaced the bread for romaine lettuce !!! 8 walnuts
Dinner – Angus beef thin steak 100g cooked with butter with broccoli stems and green beans
I track my food nutrition and canaries in my fitness app
Xx

Hi I am disabled and unable to do all the walking, sit ups etc (can do gentle swimming). Has anyone else got the same problem? Have you been able to lose, I assume at a slower rate?

Snap re the clothes, the charity shop is doing very well from me. Some tops I really Love and are too big, but just can’t get rid of them until I have found a replacement. Trousers and skirts are a different matter (I have even sewn one pair, so they don’t fall down), can’t find anything in brown at the moment!!! Love the weight loss HATE shopping.

I did it for 3 months (not a Angel on all days), I’m now 5 months on and love the recipes so I still use them (I’m still losing weight, slowly). My taste buds have changed and my favourite bought carrot cake, that I treated myself to last week – went in the bin after the first couple of mouth fulls (the sugar/taste was horrible) never to be seen in the house again. It all about tweaking and adding more recipes you like to your list

Really everything changes you won’t want to go back to old ways – its all about changing what you want to eat, not just cutting the calories. It a body re-programme.

Thanks BSD I may well give that a try in the last couple of weeks! Delighted as I was to be trying and “fitting” size 12 trousers I would like them to be less snug 😂 But it has prompted me to go through my wardrobe and try everything on. Resulting in a large pile of clothes for charity…. Amazing how I saw that clothes I thought were not too bad are in fact way too big 🤗

A month on and I have lost another 7lbs, without following the diet strictly. 2 stone in total and will probably aim to lose another 7lbs on the 5:2 diet now. I love the recipes and know I can maintain this way of Life easily, now need to get into the HIT exercise.

It’s not a “Diet” but a way of Life 🙂

GillyD – I just came back from a holiday and had put 4lb on, so did the 500 calorie a day for 2 days and lost it. Might be worth a try if you are struggling before you go on holiday.

Its my first week too Fatnurse. – have you tried having oats or quinoa for breakfast? Not all carbs are bad – when you say no carbs do you eat oats, pot barley, lentils, beans? You need them to keep you going. I also eat yoghurt, seeds and small amounts of brown rice. Hope you feel better soon. X

70lbs to go here too, that will still leave me overweight in the eyes of the medical profession but I know if I go beyond that excess skin is really going to knock my confidence so I’ll stick where I am comfortable and hopefully with the new low carb diet I’ll keep diabetes at bay.

Hi keeptrying,🙋

So great to hear that you are living up to your tag name… 3lbs loss is still 3lbs loss, so good news I believe that we all find our way to what works for us best… and as you are losing weight and still on the BSD…managing ok and not stressing over calories… whatever you are doing is working for you!!

Imogen🌻

Oh, rocky, very rocky! I’m such an emotional eater. OH to emergency this afternoon. First, hopefully last, TIA. While he was driving us on the freeway, so 100kph, took quite some doing from passenger seat to get us safely stopped. Luckily, he was coming good, so able to assist more, and I decided it would be quicker for me to drive him to hospital than wait for ambulance. Worked out ok but what did I do when I’d finally left him on the ward (hours later) and drove home? Ate and ate AND ATE!!

Tomorrow will be better…….

So I have 3 weeks until my holiday and 5lbs to lose to reach my target for the holiday (11 stone). Today I decided to try on a pair of size 12 skinny jeans….. To my utter surprise I could get them on and do them up!! I looked like a bag of spanners but you know a SIZE 12 bag of spanners!!! Bought a couple of tops in size 12 too…. Not done that in a number of years 🤗🤗

So in the Sunday times today…
( free to read in Costa)
The eight week blood sugar diet by Michael Mosely, number of weeks in top ten…. 21

There are two other numbers
3845 (154,855)

Must be number of books sold

Proud of you all buying the book, hope you are all starting the diet today.

I have just had a fantastic salad.
Beetroot, radish, mustard and cress, lettuce, pickles, tiny bit of sweetcorn, carrot again just a little, peppers, onions, toms etc.

Love luica
Xx

Hi Igorasusual,
Thanks for the encouraging words, I will keep going. Not finding it difficult at all and really enjoying the food and a general sense of well being. I am in for the long haul as have set a long term target to loose the 70lb I have somehow managed to acquire.

Hi JCH187
That is great 13lb, you must be pleased, I am weighing twice a week on Sat and Tues so I am hoping to have lost a bit by Tuesday. Next weeks eating plan is all worked out and I will be extra careful on measurements while cooking and hope to do better. I’m wondering if the extra veg is making a difference, I know it did on the Atkins.
Just made the beetroot felafel for lunch, very delish, fish stew tonight.

Yippee yippee yippee!! You lost 10% of your weight!! Congratulations on reaching your first goal!! So exciting!!
💕💕💕💕💕
Hope you enjoy your tortillas and your brittle on Tuesday when you celebrate!
I am so happy for you!
🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

well I have managed to stick to it this week – although I must clearly be taking in a lot more calories than others as I never have any spectacular weight loss
but 3lb down today – although since I put 2 back on last week, it is actually only 1lb – but anyway it takes me below another target

Clematis76 is right – if you have been dieting for some time you won’t have the big water loss. The good thing is that when you do drop a pound or ten, you will know it is fat! I have been on so many diets and have found that some times I don’t lose much or maybe nothing for a week or two then suddenly have a big drop.Have you monitored any weight fluctuations around your “cycle” ?

It seems to be a common thing that men seem to lose weight faster than women. Most diets I have seen always give men a bigger calorie allowance. Does your husband work out as much as you, or maybe more? Does he have a more active job than you? So many factors that could impact.

Despite this disappointment, and while it is a wonderful thing that you are doing it together, don’t compare your journey to his. I think you have done an amazing job to have lost 2.5 stone and to have kept going for all this time. You are very likely to be a long term success because you have made a big lifestyle change and stuck to it through thick and thin for a long period of time. You should congratulate yourself on the amazing success you have already achieved. Five days on a new regime when you have been reducing for so long is a huge expectation – you can’t beat yourself up after so little time. I am sure I will see a post here very soon with a new drop in weight and look forward to congratulating you! Hang in there! xx

Is it sad that I got excited to see “Cauli Rice” in Asda? I hate making it as I seem to make an unholy mess, so seeing it already blitzed for me and all I have to do is bake it was a good thing! I have been trying to plan for a static caravan holiday and found there are plenty of new ready to nuke packets of brown rice with quinoa. My hubby and I will be sharing with daughter and grandchildren who will be eating the things we cant and I want to make it quick and easy to sort out our meals and resist temptation under our noses. So the rice packs, canned beans and lentils, salad leaves packs, fruit, boiled eggs, yoghurt, seeds, nuts and lean meat are going to be easy to prepare meals and snacks if things get tough.

Why did we decide to start this 2 weeks before a holiday? Well it is a lifestyle change (we are both type 2) so we will have to take holidays and celebrations in our stride, though it would have been more of a challenge if it was a few days before Xmas!

Sounds like you’ve been putting on muscle with all that fantastic exercise 🙂 Well done.

Hi Purlysu,
I think that most people who have huge losses the first week are people coming straight from unhealthy, hi carb, processed food diets etc. That means that most of that huge loss at first is water as you ditch the carbs. If you’re already eating low carb then you won’t lose the same at first. Having said that your body will adjust and the weight will start to come off. Lots of people on this diet ( including me) lose in fits and starts. I too have 4 stone to lose (6 originally!). I lost 7lbs the first week (water) then 1lbs then nothing for 5 days, 3lb then nothing for a week then 1lb a day over 4days etc… Fits and starts!! Give it time it WILL come off eventually. X

Hi – spiralised courgettes can be eaten raw, with some dressing and seasoning, or boil them for a couple of minutes. Regarding slimy courgettes – never experienced them! I usually roast them with aubergines, sweet potatoes, red peppers, garlic, seasoning, herbs and a measured spoon of olive oil. The other brilliant way to use them if you don’t like the taste is to grate it into bolognese, chilli, cottage pie and curries. My hubby hates them and doesn’t have a clue that they are in his favourite chilli! They they bulk up meat dishes without calories and carbs. You can do the same with carrots and spinach – I always have frozen spinach and frozen onions in the freezer.

Good luck and hope you enjoy more meals with these handy, healthy bulker uppers! 🙂

ask her if it looks like you have no energy?

You can’t do anything to change her mind but if you thrive on the plan it might make her think twice and look into it again.

haha I still haven’t made my food plan but I have been busy. I’ve made two batches of crackers as I didn’t make any last week and missed them. I’ve made a batch of these…https://elanaspantry.com/paleo-tortilla-chips/ and a half batch of this…https://elanaspantry.com/cinnamon-pecan-brittle/

The tortilla chips are for tonights dinner.

The pecan brittle is a small treat to celebrate my 8 week graduation on Tuesday 🙂

I’ve worked out the calories and portions and I can’t afford more than 1/4 of the brittle lol but it will be a nice celebratory thing.

I’ve had some of the chicken and lentil soup I made the other day for lunch, and we’re having chilli for dinner (with tortilla’s so excited!!)

Any ideas I had about eating the other portions of tortillas over the next few days is out the window as my husband likes them and wants to have what I don’t eat with his chilli but in some ways that’s fine. Having them once in a while is probably for the best.

Now I need to go sort out the mess I made :/

I’m just over the 3 week line and as Izzy says you do get to a point where you have your favourite foods, know the calories and it becomes easier. I still weigh things but it’s so automatic I don’t even think about it now.

Hi. My husband and I started the 800 calorie per diet on Tuesday last week – just over 5 days ago. My husband has lost 4lbs, and I have lost nothing. I have been religious about keeping to 800 calories and my husband has treated wine as if it were water. In addition, I have had five exercise sessions; one hour long with a personal trainer, two HIIT sessions on a bike and two 40 minute sessions as prescribed by my trainer.

I am very disappointed not to have lost anything. I am at least four stone overweight and have been changing my diet/exercise regime for a year and a half, during which I have lost almost 2.5 stone. We have been following a low carb regime for all that time. We were previously following the High Fat, Low Carb diet by Zana Morris, but were getting tired of it, and the weight loss was slowing; we thought a change of diet might help the body restart the weight loss process. Clearly it has worked for my husband, but not for me.

Has this happened to anyone else? The forum is full of successful weight loss, but perhaps for some people it didn’t start as easily. I am prepared to keep going, but wondered if anyone else had experienced the same.

So there’s lots to threads mentioning courgettes and spiralisers. I’ve always found courgettes sloppy and a bit slimy. Excuse my ignorance but does using a spiraliser stop that happening and if I were to invest in one how do you cook it?!

Oh, and regarding the spandex.

What you get up to in your own home, is up to you.

But wear it with a smile😀
Love lucia
Xxx

Hi gang,
I have been wandering around other people’s bloggs and was amazed.

Can I do this.
Can I survive on 800 calories
I can’t cope with the change
Will I ever wear spandex again…

If you read the beginning of my Blog you will see that I thought the change from a carboholic/calorholic/chocoholic couch potato to a bds800 person was too big for me.

So my preparation week, I cut out the snacks, and ate three normal meals with carbs and didn’t count the calories.

My first week on the diet, I just counted the calories.

Then I counted the carbs too.

It wasn’t easy at the beginning, I will not lie to you, I had to ask myself if I wanted a size 12 or the cake and a heartattack. Yes, I was a drama queen. This question was asked every time I put anything in my mouth.

I went a little weird on it, I was asking myself how many calories in toothpaste, but then realised I always washed my mouth out I never ate it. ( there is a rude expression here but I am not going there)

Gradually you can measure by eye the portions,
Gradually you learn to get off the settee and move around
Gradually you realise that the telly is not real life, it is not your real life.
When you walk outside the front door or back door, ther is actual fresh air out there, there are birdies screaming their heads off, there is the beautiful paintbox of colours in all the flowers. The many shades of green. The smell of the flowers or the neighbours cooking (you have to move quickly away from that so you don’t get hungry)
Gradually, you start to go out, met people, chat, laugh and enjoy life.

But Lucia, we are not all like you, how can we do it?

You have to want it.
Then you WILL find a way.
Maybe start to cut the carbs in all your lunches, then in all your breakfasts.
I thought I would not survive without cereals for breakfast, but I am here to tell the tale you can survive and thrive on a healthier breakfast.

Maybe count the calories of one meal a day, say your lunches, just have 300 calories max.
Then spread this to your other meals and then aim for 800 cals.
What will happen if you go over 800 calories?
Are you kicked off this website NO!
Are you going to get a knock at the door NO!
Are we going to shout at you and tut at you NOQ!
We will all say, phew! We did that too!

But I don’t thing I can survive on 800 calories….
We’ll have a good look at captain Lynn, she is in her 24th week… And she is still live.
It hasn’t affected her brain, as she still blogs, she isn’t as weak as a kitten as she can still use her fingers to type.
If you do read her blog she has enjoyed her holiday to Italy more so this time, without the weight, as she can get to more places, enjoy more things. Please search for her blogs.

So just for today, you next meal, just one meal, have 300 calories and cut the carbs, bet you can do it.

You will earn so much from it, it makes you happier, or in my case madder.

So, if I ask you , or challenge you to it, or bet you, Will you give it a go just to humour me?

Thanks

Love luica
Xxxx

My BF bought the book and then spoke to her practice nurse about the BSD. The nurse told her it was only for diabetics and people needing to lose a lot of weight for an operation. She said we all needed carbs for our energy. I tried to argue the point with her but because someone medical had said it she won’t entertain it now. She said I must be running on empty and have no energy now…

My food shop is now cheaper and quicker as there’s a third of the shop I never go into now!

you will get lots of support here. You may also find you don’t want to binge as much once your carb cravings fade which is normally within the first week. Jump in it isn’t as hard as you think.

and if you do have a blip just jump right back in as soon as possible. If you do a search on ‘binge’ I’m sure someone started a diary a while back, and bing eater was in the title.

lots of us here who have done it, secret eating etc as well.

Beverly,

Great to see you back! I had wondered how you were doing. I like that you aren’t beating yourself up. You’ve heard that saying: It’s not the number of times you fall, it’s the number you get yourself back up and try again. I salute you!

I agree with SarahDawn, Tibetan, and barby. They’re giving great advice. I don’t always have the best of days with the diet but by tracking my calories, using the Fitbit, and reading the success stories and struggles on this forum, I get back on track. I’m keeping my eye on the prize: Good Health.

Wishing you, Sarahdawn, Tibetan, barby, and all continued success! (And me too!)

Best, EvaZ

Ha ha Frog! Amos, my Saluki Lurcher, gives me a withering look if my stomach rumbles. And that’s another consequence, the dogs have given up hoping for leftovers; I eat everything on my plate now! It’s too precious to share.

I understand all about the diet, have read the book and my GP is supportive, but I do get depressed and then I binge eat!! I want to get my type 2 diabetes under control and my blood pressure down.

I’m not hungry, but my stomach just made a very loud rumbling noise.
Every time it happens my cats ears go up and she looks wide eyed and incredibly startled!

Hi Dogsbody – is trying to spread your food across the day working better for you?

When I started I found I could skip breakfast occasionally without problems.
I’m now I’m finding this a bit harder, and finding I’m hungry if I have a very light breakfast (poached egg and asparagus was lovely though!) – I’m now aiming for breakfast to be around 200, and it’s often my carbiest meal of the day.

unintended consequence – Bissell’s nurse passed out in shock !

a few weeks in and you won’t need to think about it as much you will know the meals you enjoy that work for the numbers. Try to stick it out for a month – this is what he recommends in the book. After week 4 take a look at how you are doing and decide if this version is right for you. If you don’t feel at ease with it by then perhaps you could change to 5:2 or just general BSD way of life. I was well into the swing of things by week 4 hopefully you will be as well 🙂