Hi it’s my first day to. Some of the guys and gals that have been on the plan longer than me can answer your questions. I have arthritic hips and this causes pains in my legs and back, I find that even a little exercise keeps me from going stiff but I couldn’t do a 22 mile walk. I did a 10k walk once and It ruined me. So what I do and I’m sure this will make you laugh. I stick my ear phones in, put my music on and dance like it’s diva night and the local. I also do the less glamourous housework routine with the vacuum. I look forward to hearing more about you’re journey.

Chongolo, lots of us ‘BSD veterans’ can testify to the fact that cutting out simple carbs clears the brain fog – even if you didn’t know you had it you quickly realise your thinking and concentration becomes so much better 🙂

Hi Izzypeach, I am well aware of what can happen with T2 complications. So a big well done to you for not burying your head in the sand but doing something which will probably reverse your diabetes.

You are absolutely right when you say we tell a lie to ourselves with ‘I can’t live without….’ Of course we can!! And really and truly eating the old way is not worth your life.

Jabbygirl, there are lOTS of things you can easily have instead of sandwiches for work:

1. Frittata – it can be made the evening before and kept in the fridge. There is a recipe in the book but you can ring your own changes, add bacon instead of chickpeas or some cheese sprinkled on top before placing the pan under the grill.
2. Dips and crudite – there are five dip recipes in the book and make a lovely packed lunch. Or ring the changes and add some chopped spring onion and a teaspoon of curry powder to a mix of cream cheese and yoghurt.
3. Salad – a few leaves and salad veg of your choice with any of the following: tinned tuna or salmon, smoked salmon or other smoked fish, chicken, egg, ham, bean, cheese or any combination!
4. Homemade coleslaw – prepare your carrot, onion and cabbage. Keep it in a sealed bag or container then each day mix some plain full fat yoghurt ( I add mustard too) into the amount of slaw you are having for lunch, then mix in the ingredients of your choice – walnuts, cheese, apple, celery, chicken etc.
5. Soups – make up home made soups during your weekend and heat and place in flask to take to work – or in a container if you have access to a microwave.
6. No carb ploughmans the recipe is in the book.
7. Full fat yoghurt with a twist of seeds and berries to add at work.
8. Half an avocado and a boiled egg just sprinkle some lemon juice or vinegar on the avocado to prevent it turning brown.
9. Medi platter – the recipe is in the book
10. Lettuce cups – there are three recipes in the book, they can easily be put into a container for work.
11. Cottage cheese – add your own favourites from the typical BSD foods – a bit of diced smoked salmon and cucumber is tasty. There are more ideas in the book.
12. Ham rolls – not that kind of roll! Spread some cream cheese on some ham and roll it up in a large lettuce leaf!
13. Nuts and apple – if you are in a hurry grab a handful of nuts ( watch the calories) and an apple. Or a small piece of cheese and an apple.
14. Courgette bhaji – just as nice cold. The recipe is on the website.
15. Chickpea flour flat breads – the recipe is on the website, eat with your choice of food – treat it as a wrap.
16. Red pepper rolls – Posted by Alibaba – (1 red pepper halved and filled with hummus, fresh coriander, cucumber, feta, a sprinkle of mixed seeds, black pepper & a squeeze of lemon juice)
17. Coconut flatbreads – nice with some yoghurt and berries ( see website for recipe)

Hope this helps! 🙂 This diet works and you really don’t need bread for a nice lunch.

If you make the chickpea flour flatbreads for wraps make plenty and freeze them in layers (greaseproof paper between each bread)
As Izzypeach says that bread is not worth your life – and that is what we are talking about here. 8 weeks is nothing; you won’t believe how quickly it goes or how much better you will feel in yourself on this diet.

All the best to Peggy, Izzypeach, jabbygirl and scroll up to read what our wise captainlynne says about carbs. She is absolutely correct. Janet, Bill and I all had a nasty carb experience last week. A crumpet for Janet , small chapatti for Bill and a GF brownie for me and I am still suffering the after effects. Once you cut them out of your diet you will not believe how much better you feel. 🙂

Chongolo in your ivory tower, you won’t believe the advice I’ve been given. I was given about 12 leaflets, 2 books and 3 diet plans, not including the diet plan on the diabetes uk website and everything is conflicting and everything just feels wrong. After doing so much research and reading what people write about how they control blood sugar spikes, I’m thinking why are you eating bread if your blood sugar spikes, is it really because your doctor has told you to. it’s like fighting Darth Maul. So personally for me I needed to take matters into my own hands and was saved years of terrible advice by Dr Mosleys book. Yes one of the books I was given said type 2’s can have 10 portions of carbs.

Hi Peggy
Day one today for me. Feeling anxious and trying to get my head around planning my meals etc. Have breakfast and lunch at work due to time that I start. That might be the most difficult thing for me. Trying to find some meals I can get ready quickly and easily to take with me. Love all types of bread so will find it hard cutting it out for 8 weeks as used to having sandwiches at lunchtime. I really need to stick with this as I have been diagnosed as pre-diabetic . Have been overweight all of my adult life and also as a child. Tried so many diets in the past .Need all the help I can get!

Very pleased to have found this way of eating, am hoping it’s the answer to my weight issues and addiction to sugar/carbs.! I don’t have diabetes but I cannot carry on with my current eating and constant weight gain. Am excited but a bit scared and so pleased there is a forum for support, any help or tips appreciated.

I had a diagnosis ( although am not 100% convinced) of CFS/ME shortly after my daughter was born 3 years ago. I have days of extreme exhaustion but on the whole am coping ok ( much better when I’m off sugar) I feel so much better when I can do exercise and I’m desperate to get my strength up ( have back/hip issues so cannot do a lot iof certain exercise) so.. I have signed up for a 22 mile walk in July in aid of Macmillan and I am concerned that 800 calories a day on the BSD will not be adequate.. I realise it’s a flexible way of eating and I’ll probably need to up my intake on ‘big walk days’ but I’d be really interested if any of you exercise on this plan and how you feel?

Day 1 great so far, I can easily Ditch breakfast and plan on having just lunch and dinner.. Now to drink water!

this reminds me very much of a diet I did several years ago – called the ‘SCARSDALE MEDICAL DIET’
which was basically very low carbs as in cutting out bread/potatoes/rice/pasta
I lost around 2 stone in 2 months, and I was way lighter than I am now!!
I was also not hungry all the time

so why does my stupid head – and mouth!! – always sabotage the ‘good’ ways of eating?

thanks for the advice
I will take a look at the book in the shops

Had a coconut flour pancake disaster this morning, they tasted so eggy, I used the recipe in the book for no carb waffles, it was not nice. This pancake recipe looks amazing and am definitely going to try it. what calorie count do you think it would be izzy.

Hi Peggy,

I am an emotional binge eater and have been all my life. It isn’t a good place to be (especially when I eat for every emotion, when I’m happy its cake and chocolate, when I’m sad its ice cream….you get the idea). My Dad died in 2009 from complications, due to type 2, I’m not ready to share the details plus it may scare some of you and I’m not an alarmist BUT what helped me was when I was diagnosed with type 2. I was so frightened of going through what my Dad went through it completely stopped me in my tracks. All of a sudden and it really was overnight, I just couldn’t eat anything without really weighing up the cost first. I haven’t even had an alcoholic beverage and being a weekend binge drinker that was shocking to me. I have lost a stone in weight in 2 months from fear. But what I have proven to myself and you will find this too, is that thinking you can’t live without something is a lie you tell yourself. I have mourned for my chocolate bar but to me now I’m type 2 (hopefully in 8 weeks I won’t be) the binge just isn’t worth my life. We will stick to this peggy and we will both come out the other end of it saying, I don’t know why I made such a fuss…LOL! We can do it girl!!!

it seems to have blanked out the link I posted 🙁 Oh well.

Hi chongolongo I’m jealous that you can spare a whole room for your stuff! I’ll have to make do with my corner but it’s ok really! Sounds like you are doing great.

As for feeling more clear headed, yes, but I can’t say 100% what is to blame. I was ill at the beginning of the year and ended up on anti-depressant medication and iron tablets. It was awful I was in bed by 8 every night, no energy and I really did feel detached from reality walking around in my own little haze. I didn’t realise how foggy it was until I started to feel better. I’ve been feeling increasingly better over the last couple of months I would say, but I definitely feel that this way of eating is helping.

In the last couple of weeks I would say I’ve seen my energy increase, I’ve been up later at night. I see an enthusiasm in myself that I haven’t seen in a while. Long may it continue!

Hi Chongolola

Many of us are saying the same about thinking more clearly and even better concentration. We talk about the ‘carb fog’ – just one way those nasty carbs made us ill.

Hi GonnaBeDazzling

As hashimoto says, that happened to me. My family hadn’t seen me since before I started this and I’d lost 3 stones when they saw me next. Not a word. When I mentioned it, ‘oh, I thought you’d lost weight’. My son is diabetic like me, but still follows the official line.

People I work with didn’t comment until quite recently. And only one or two comment even now. Last night someone actually said that I was looking good, and looking younger😃

I was at a residential conference last week. My boss, who hadn’t seen me since January, said I ‘was wasting away’ – his wife asked for details of the book. Some other folk who hadn’t seen me since January or earlier were looking, but not commenting.

I agree with hashimoto that people sometimes worry that we are ill and so don’t comment. Indeed someone recently asked if my weight loss was deliberate.

Even some health care professionals are expressing doubts about the sustainability of this. But we are realising this is a new way of life (carb-free) for many of us. Our nearest and dearest may also have doubts – especially if we have regained lost weight in the past.

Although lack of comments can be disheartening and/or upsetting remember that you are doing it for you, nobody else. You’re the one feeling the health benefits. One day the comments will come. Until then just hang in there. You’re doing great.

Yoda was very wise – you got this! (love the reference, sitting here in my vader tee-shirt after exercising right now… light sabre duel anyone?)

Wow, 10 portions of carbs?? that is medical advice for T2 diabetics? gosh!! (My mum has it, I have avoided it thus far, so i have no experience of that rabbit hole) that seems like such a lot, quite concerning when you look at the results of this diet so far for T2’s and their glucose control. I do wonder how long it will take for this to filter through?

Good luck Izzypeach, you’ll do great – its not too onerous at all, I say from my lofty ‘first week down’ tower heheh.
🙂

Hi Tracey.

I think most of us felt some moments of panic at the thought of 800 calories a day before we began. The reality is that it’s surprising how much good food you can eat within that 800 calories when you remove the carbs.

Another thing we’ve realised is how adversely the carbs were affecting us. Not only were they addictive, but making us poorly. When we’ve eaten carbs we want to eat more and more and more. Removing the carbs, eating full fat and drinking lots of water keeps us feeling full much longer.

This is a new way of life for many of us. Welcome to the family.

hello all!
I had a great week one weigh in of -3kg, and I’ve just come back from a pilates session at the physio after work, so I feel really good! I didn’t get a ‘zonked and blugh tired’ feeling this afternoon at work either, so I think I might be settling in a bit. I plan on mixing some tuna with some coconut flour and stuff to make a patty with some salad for tea – experiment one. I have backup yoghurt and strawberries if it all goes wrong though.

relaxing with a cuppa before the attempt though. Yay for Wales, what a beautiful part of the Uk that is! so many castles as well, I spent a week there a few years ago and soaked up the countryside – I expect it can get a bit gray and dreary after a while though, but its easier to walk on colder weather I think, so you have that going for you! Lucky!

Your creative corner sounds lovely, Izzy – I have a sewing room which is my version, I like to quilt and sew, I love bright colours and modern prints and applique and just mucking about with colour. VERY therapeutic – I don’t get in there as much as I could as I’m also a fool doing a degree part time as well as working fulltime – so I usually have uni work to do.

overall, today I feel good, and really starting to feel my head clear, which seems to be a symptom of cutting out processed simple carbs – wheat/sugar fog? anyone else notice this? 🙂 have a lovely day!

SO I have introduced myself in thread from here to eternity. I started today after much planning and measuring. Unfortunately my first breakfast ended up nicely BUT……I made the no carb waffles, I don’t have a waffle iron so made pancakes. I doubled the recipe cos my fella wants to loosely do the diet with me. It tasted like a dry omelette, eeeewwwwww! so I just ate the yogurt and blueberries. Only thing is I don’t know whether I have had enough calories. we shall see. Being a chef I think I can dabble a bit and see what I can make with the coconut flour, but I doubt i’ll be making them again. TIPS will be most appreciated.

Hi Tracey, welcome to the forums and the BSD way of life – because it does become a way of life!!!

Don’t be terrified, you are doing all the right things to prepare yourself and although 800 calories sounds very little once you cut out the starchy carbs you don’t feel as hungry. You can get three decent meals out of that 800 – or a very decent 2 meals as some people do!

You will have read that Michael Mosley says the first two weeks are the hardest, that was true for me because I didn’t eat dairy fat for the first two weeks. Decades of ‘eat low fat’ scared me into avoiding it but once I started eating full fat yoghurt (what a revelation) for breakfast with some berries I was fine.

This is the best thing you could do for yourself as you come from a family of diabetics. You will avoid diabetes by following this diet. When your diabetic family members see the impact on you they may well decide to try it for themselves – and who knows what that could lead to in terms of their health. So I see you as the pioneer for your family 🙂

Just remember to eat full fat dairy, olive oil, nuts etc for healthy fats
Drink 2 to 3 litres of water each day (as plain, sparkling or herbal teas for variety)
Keep away from all starchy carbs ( potatoes, bread, rice, pasta, parsnips)

Good luck 🙂

LOL! Light sabres at the ready. Thank you

Hi GonnaBe dazzling, captainlynne went through exactly the same thing!! Don’t be disheartened. People don’t respond in an appropriate way for lots of reasons – sometimes they are scared to ask in case you are ill. The rather odd sounding ‘Is it working then?’ could be just man speak for ‘tell me more but I don’t want to ask ….’

Have you chucked out clothes which don’t fit and worn new well fitting ones instead? Sometimes our older clothes still bear our pre diet shapes and can hide the true results of the diet.

Whatever the cause of their lack of appropriate reaction don’t despair as they WILL notice next time you see them! If not just tell them all about it, including how much weight you have lost.

I know Lynne will really empathise with you over this as it happened to her at work as well as with family who hadn’t seen her for a long time…. they are certainly noticing now though 🙂

Hi Peggy,

I’m just about to start the BSD plan and am in the process of clearing out my cupboards of all the temptations stored there. I have the BSD book and reading through it all and I am terrified as well. The biggest fear being failure(!) due to my desperation to lose weight – coming from a family riddled with diabetes. So, just thought I would pass on my wishes and hope you achieve what you are aiming for!

Thanks for your explanation and good wishes, hashimoto.

Anyone missing pancakes? I just made these…

http://www.nourishingdays.com/2010/07/fluffy-coconut-flour-pancakes/

they turned out nice, about 150 cals and 11.5g carbs for a quarter of the whole recipe.

This is my last day of week two, can’t believe that puts me 1/4 through the 8 weeks, although I will probably keep doing it for longer, I still have plenty to lose.

How is everyone doing today?

Thanks Bill. Grateful for the explanation. I have started a blog about my experiences undertaking the BSD – would you like the link or shall I post on this site too? I’m just in the final stages of preparation for the diet and should be starting Wednesday.

Thanks Patsy. Will do.

http://www.nourishingdays.com/2010/07/fluffy-coconut-flour-pancakes/

Those are fab 🙂 I’ve found a nice new breakfast! It says in the recipe you can freeze them, so I’m going to make another batch later as the kids are pinching them as fast as I’m cooking them. They take longer to cook than normal pancakes but they turn out nicely and I had some with mashed raspberries 🙂 I may alternate these for my breakfast with my normal yoghurt every second day.

Hello Peggy

I too have been a binge eater most of my life, now I count myself as an ex-binge eater. Like you, food filled in all the gaps in the day, as well as being a source of distraction to avoid doing jobs I didn’t fancy – and I can procrastinate for England!

Carbs were such a part of life, I never thought about them separately from food in total, but they clearly had a far more profound effect than just being another source of food. On most days now, I just don’t think about food between meals, a fact I continue to be astonished about, given my decades’ long history of doing the opposite!

As Patsy and Eureka have said, carbs seem to make us hungry. Cut them out, and enjoy other foods in the right proportion, as in the BSD, and the body is satisfied.

I am just starting week 12, and plan to carry on until I have lost another 2 stone – I have lost 3 stone to date – and it feels perfectly doable. I don’t long for rice, bread, biscuits etc. and there is ¾ of a bar of dark chocolate in my cupboard which hasn’t been touched since I started the BSD. I don’t even go and look at it!

So good luck with your journey – think how you will enjoy your clothes becoming too big, and finding you have more energy as you get lighter.

Keep posting!

How’s it going now, Peggy?

Hello Folks

I went to see some family yesterday who I haven’t seen for a while. I had hoped that someone would notice I am now 3 stone lighter, but no–one said a thing!

After I had politely declined dessert, saying to my brother that I was on a low calorie low carb eating plan, he looked full at me and said: Is it working then? !!

Well done Jean and Fiona.

3 lb loss for me this week. I’m losing more slowly than a lot of people (average 2 lb a week) but it’s going down and I feel fine and will be happy to continue with this eating plan until I reach my ideal weight, so I’m not worried.

Sorry Judith but nothing on programme about sugar. Strangely it was the research they’d done about food suitable for vegetarians that made me contact them. Lateral thinking LOL. They were saying that many foods people think are suitable for vegetarians in fact contain ingredients derived from animal/fish sources. Also advice about eating out for vegetarians as many chefs get it wrong.

It just made the connection in my little grey cells – the similarity with what they were talking about and what we are trying to do.

It was still an interesting programme though.

Hi Fiona. I’ve not done any extra exercise while on the BSD so my results are down to what I’m eating – or rather, not eating! I walk when I can, but prefer to have a reason to do it rather than just for the sake of it. Hopefully we’ll get some better weather soon which may get me walking more.

Good luck Collie!
I have found weighing daily helped me to keep on track: if my weight loss was good I didn’t want to derail it by eating too much. If it weight loss was static I made sure I stuck to the guide lines to keep it on track! But that’s just me!!! 🙂 though I think Dr Mosley says it’s best to weigh several times a week

Welcome to the veterans club Leeanne. See you on the other thread that Bill mentioned 😃

Hi psychicbiscuit,
I don’t do anything but stay off bread, pasta, potatoes and rice. Everything just falls into place then. It is probably easier than 5:2 in that respect.

Bill1954 didn’t count calories just stuck to low carbs and watched his portion size. He did count carbs though! However if you cut out all starchy carbs you may not have to count too carefully. 🙂

It might be an idea to read Bill’s ‘this has to work for me’ blog. 🙂

Hi Peggy
Binge eater here too. I’m starting today. Doing the 800 . I am undecided wether to weigh daily so will think about this. Almost frightened by food if that makes sense. However 50g or less of carbs is a clear marker. Good luck , one step.

Thanks Hashimoto. I was hoping that I didn’t have to monitor carbs accumulation, GI value and calories on my non-fast days 😩. If that’s the case I think I’ll need to stick to a meal plan for all days including the non-fast days. Just wish one app would do all those things as I’ve got a busy life and don’t want to end up giving up. I did Atkins about 13 years ago and it worked but can’t remember having to track calories.

Thanks Collie!!! Some of us have posted on to social media accounts too just to get the info out to lots of people 🙂

Hi Sentinel. Great results. As hashimoto says, we must be BSD twins😃 I started 19th December and to date have lost 50 pounds with another 35 approximately to still lose. Wasn’t on diabetes meds but my fasting bloods are now down from 10.9 to normal non-diabetic levels. My acid reflux has also disappeared.

Good to hear success from the other side of the pond. Keep it up and let us know your progress.

Signed .🙋🏻

I’ll try and watch the programme on catch up Lynne. Was it todays programme? 🙂

Thank you one and all , I am new to forums such as this and to be honest usually avoid them, but I am struck by the considered and thoughtful replies . One day at a time is my mantra. Just off to walk the dogs ,it’s led again .xxx

Just been watching Rip Off Britain Food and have sent off a message to them about the sugar added to meat and poultry products! Let’s see if they reply!!! Be interesting if they decide to investigate. It might help if others in the UK contact them about it.

Petition
NHS to encourage the treatment of type 2 diabetes with a low carbohydrate diet.

Professor Taylor has shown that Type 2 diabetes can be reversed using a low carbohydrate, low calorie diet. The NHS has announced it is rolling out a programme to give pre-diabetics lifestyle help. There is no mention of the blood sugar diet which pre-diabetics and diabetics should be following.

▼More details

The programme will cost £7 million pounds to run. The dietary advice will be the same as that currently being followed. We have a diabetes epidemic so the old advice is not working.
Dr Maureen Baker, of the Royal College of GPs, welcomed the scheme but she warned “The long-term behaviour changes we need to see is hard to inspire”. However, there are forums for the Blood Sugar Diet which offer the support and inspiration needed which will also ease the burden on GP surgeries.

The link: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/125704

When you sign you can click on the facebook, email and twitter icons and really start to get the news out there, and help change lives! You can add your own personal stories on your social media accounts and the petition site also gives the name of your local MP so you can contact them as well.

Hi psychicbiscuit, it may be easier to cut out starchy carbs and increase your calories on non-fast days to the normal amount for a man/woman of your age/ height etc. That way you can have plenty of healthy med style foods and continue losing weight and improving your health.
Calorieking is a useful tool for checking calories and carbs – but if you are in the UK you need to deduct the fibre content from the carb content.

You will automatically be on a low GI if you basically follow the fast 800 diet with the full amount of calories – easy to do when you can have full fat yoghurt, cheeses, nuts, avocado’s etc. In fact a whole medium avocado has about 227 calories so have it with bacon, tomato and lettuce and you’re laughing!!
🙂

Thanks, hashimoto. It’s not that vigorous. But I live on an island in Hong Kong where we have to walk or cycle everywhere in the village. BTW, does anyone have any medical literature or other info on the liver glucose flushes? I’d like to show it to my specialist.

Hi Athorn, the book was being published in America in March so you should be able to get it now. Otherwise just go on line for conversions from imperial to the American system. You should be able to download something.

Professor Taylor says vigorous exercise is not necessary while on 800 calories, in fact he says you should leave it until you increase your calories. However, if you are used to that amount of exercise just see how you go as you won’t be actually increasing what you already do, and many on the BSD have continued with their normal exercise regime. You may get a bit light headed and have a blood pressure drop.

There is a thread about ‘What exercise are you doing?’ – that may help you more than I can as I have only continued with a few pilates exercises and walking.

Make sure you eat fats from full fat dairy, olive oil, nuts and seeds etc. It helps you feel fuller.

All the best 🙂 and keep posting!

I’d find this a lot harder I think without meat, but I’m sure it is still do-able. eggs would be a staple I expect, along with salad and cheese, I’d probably check out things like quorn products and see if they would hold up to being eaten cold.

You can definitely do it 🙂

Hi tobebien, welcome to the forums,

Follow Bill’s advice. This diet is based on the 11 years of clinical work performed by Professor Taylor. He didn’t just pull 800 calories out of the air. There is scientific work behind it being 800 calories for all – that way you get the body’s requirements for vitamins, minerals and proteins met whether you are 4’10” or 7’10”.

Starvation mode will damage you rather than heal you.

Wishing you lots of success on your 8 week BSD journey! 🙂

Fantastic news Leeanne! Like you I saw that article in the Saturday mail. No diet had worked for me so this was last chance saloon! I had already cut my calorie intake very radically on New Years day with very little result – I was still eating starchy carbs!

I would love to see the look on your GPs face!!
In their defence they dole out advice which is never taken up by a lot of people so not surprising that they can become sceptical. Of course the GP may not have heard of this diet so may have thought it was another ‘fad diet’. You are going to prove him/her wrong and may be instrumental in the Gp recommending this to other diabetics 🙂