Thank you all-Janet.x.

It rook me 10 weeks to be able to accurately prepare all of my meals without the use of a scale or cup etc but I was near enough to succeed after about 4 weeks but I got very and probably too intense about weighing and measuring for a while once I had started to lose significantly without getting the hunger pangs. It could be that my food diary allowed me to become a bit too critical as it was based in a spreadsheet entered manually form labels, scales and Googling nutritional data for the missing bits. If I had to do it again i would try to be more relaxed about it all because if I reduce sugars in particular and replace them with proteins and good fat/oils I will lose weight if I keep the total calorie count down then so long as I drink plenty and fast for 14 hours or more the health benefits of repair mode kick in and I improve in all sorts of ways. Not everyone is s o fortunate to have a body that responds so easily to this regime but most of us do quite well. So do a bit of reading and weighing for yourself until you recognise what a healthy amount of your regular foods look ike and you will have cracked it once and for all. Good eating…

May seem silly question tally but I though the doc may have said well they are good reading BUT your on medication and that’s what we expect ????
Alanhypno ,great post by way

Hi all half way through my second week going great lost 6kg i am type2 my sugars were around 12 now a steady 3.8 to 4.3. I now have a fitbit charger hr and got fitbit aria scales totally recomend both great way to track everything the scales track bmi and body fat % all recorded to an app on your phone,hang in there everyone this works.

Cheers
Steve

Hi Misey
Hang on in there it takes time and our bodies are complex , if you are eating healthy and low calories and no bad carbs it will happen. Reading all the threads everyone is unique in their bsd journey(hate that word) .i have plateaued too it’s frustrating but just one hour one meal one day at a time. Measurements may change before the scales, clothes may change before the scales. Positive thoughts from me .

I use fitbit, I think you can use this even without a fitbit lol.

Good luck with the next 8 weeks 🙂

I’d recommend starting with Michael Mosely’s book, or at least reading the guidance on this site. There is a get started tab at the top.

find yourself a good app online for counting calories and carbs (myfitnesspal is good, I use fitbit, there are others)

cut out all junk food, and bread, potatoes, pasta, rice. Avoid starchy fruit like bananas and limit the other fruits as they all have sugar and carbs, a few berries with full fat yoghurt is ok.

Use full fat products where possible if you are having yoghurt etc as this makes you feel fuller.

Have a good browse of the recipe threads here and look elsewhere online for recipe ideas. If you like to bake I’d recommend trying some of the alternative flours available, Almond flour is amazing, and coconut flour is good as well.

A typical day for me is yoghurt and fruit for breakfast, then either soup or (homemade with almond flour) crackers with cheese and salad for lunch, and a fairly normal meal most nights just without the starchy carbs. Try courgetti, and cauliflower rice instead of pasta and rice.

The important thing about where and how to start really is to just get to the shops, buy what you will need for the next few days, get rid of the stuff in the house you know you need to avoid (if you can- I have people in the house who eat them) and then just do it. Don’t wait too long because once you get started you will regret waiting!

Read the forums, lots of motivational stuff in here.

Best of luck to you 🙂

I think ocassional snacks are ok, if you continue the way you are and consistently lose weight there is no need to change in my opinion. Perhaps it could be faster if you fasted longer periods, but if having to do that would make you give up, or make life miserable then I think a bit slower is ok.

I have snacks in the way you described, within the 800 calories and low carb. Not every day and not all day but sometimes. My losses are slower than many but I’m still likely to lose around 10% of my body weight by the 8 week end.

Most people here try to stick to less than 50g carbs, but the BSD officially gives no guidance to this only recommends cutting out the simple carbs and trying to manage complex ones better.

As for motivation I have my pile of smaller clothes that I want to get in to beside my bed. I browse things online and have a wishlist of things I might choose when I’m slimmer.

water is not naturally easy for me to drink, so I have two 750ml bottles. I try to empty one in the morning and one in the afternoon, then I drink plenty herbal tea so I know I’m always over 2 litres.

Sugar free gum helps me along as well.

well done on your 4lb loss 🙂

Tally that’s very interesting indeed
Cheers for that
I’ve used the Bauer app so have full list plus notes but came off meds altogether
Now in half dose 1000 daily but not other single pill whatever it’s called
It’s the after lunch reAding I want to reduce they range from 7 to 8.5 but may reduce now back on meds
Thanks Alan

Help pls where do u start …

did you take some measurements to compare? maybe worth starting to do that. However don’t be discouraged! 3 lb’s is actually still quite a lot of weight and it’s gone in the right direction 🙂

it’s taken me over 5 weeks to lose a stone, slower than most but I feel well and in control and for the first time in my life I feel like I can do this! and so can you.

Thanks Frog 🙂 I appreciate your help

What about fizzy water instead? I’ve got a water infuser bottle which I stuff with frozen fruit then fill with fizzy water, you get the fruity flavour without the carbs.

Hi tree-peony – thought I’d mention something which EdwinaB raised on a different topic – check out dietdoctor.com and google a guy called Jason Fung – really interesting – watch the video……………they’ve known about this type of eating in Sweden for years and have been promoting it – why are we so behind here??

Weighed in this morning, after seven days. Only three pounds lost and am gutted. I was sooooooo sure I had lost more, after following instructions carefully. Am going back to bed now to think about it and lick my wounds.😥😥😥🤔😡😡🍫🍫🍞🍞🍕🍕🍚🍹🍪

Thank you, good advice.

Hi Alan……………I just went through and checked mine. I’m not very good at keeping records so they’re a bit erratic I’m afraid!

Week 1 – fasting started at a fantastic 10 and then went down to 9 later that week
before dinner 8.8 then 2 hours after also 8.8
Week 2 – fasting 9.6 – didn’t record any others that week
Week 3 – fasting 6.6 2 hours after lunch 6.7
Week 4 – fasting 7.1
Week 5 – fasting 5.4
Week 6 – fasting 5.6 pre lunch 5.7 – post 5.4

I have had one reading at 4.9 before a meal otherwise mine have pretty much stabilised at 5.5 ish and they won’t seem to drop below that. I think it was Bill (or someone) who said don’t worry too much about the fasting ones as they are erratic, the ones to watch with interest are the difference between before a meal and 2 hours after as that’s showing how your body actually copes with food ie if there’s a massive difference and a spike still 2 hours after or not.

Don’t forget, with my readings above I was still taking my full metformin dose – get that fasting one of 10 then – the week before I started it was actually 10.6 – I remember that scared me!

Hi Sue1234,

What encouraging stats – all of them moving to where they were before your holiday. From these results it looks like you’re back on track. It’s not an easy thing to do, getting back into your routine after holidays. Well done.

Hi Lucia
How are you doing now? I was inspired by your will to change and interested to hear how it was going.
Gina

End of week 2 update.
Had my first really hungry day on Thursday … But still didn’t weaken. Hubby is doing exceptionally well, thinnest he’s been since I’ve known him. It’s soooo supportive him doing it too.
Keeping track on MyFitnessPal has helped and I’ve also been doing the headspace meditations. Have completely forgotten to test my BGLs ….but am not worried.
Looking forwards to week 3!

Hi
Firstly. Congratulations
I am only a fellow sufferer.
I would us this as an exclusion diet.
Gradually add back what you fancy. Test your b.s. After an hour and two hours. If OK then you might be able to tolerate that food. We are all different. Some people seem to reverse T2D and off they go on new healthy lifestyle with no probs. I have to be careful. BSDiet for me plus intermittent fasting. Root veg and pulses still cause rise in bs. I now have great GP who does full blood tests every three months. So although my td2 is reversed I keep up all the checks.
Any more info check out info on dietdoctor.com and Jason fung as well as this excellent sites.

Is it possible to reverse Insulin Resistance on the BSD? After 8 weeks on the diet my blood sugar is normal and I’ve lost 8kg. I’m worried that as soon as I reintroduce some carbs back into my meals the weight and blood sugar will go up again.

Hi, I’ve started chewing gum at night when I want something sweet! Only thing it’s done for me is give me a sore jaw and bloated belly! But I haven’t had anything sweet for 3 weeks now, seem to have overcome my habit and can now walk down confectionary and biscuit aisles without a care!

Hi Lucia,
Here’s some of the things I’ve been eating:
Eggs (boiled, scrambled, poached, omelette, frittata)
Natural yoghurt sprinkled with cinnamon, seeds, nuts and berries.
Cream of cauliflower soup.
Salads dressed with olive oil and lemon juice and I add a serving of the following (salmon, egg, cheese, ham or avocado).Sometimes I add some chickpeas or lentils.
No carb ploughman’s lunch.
Apple/mandarin (remember our seasons are opposite to yours).
Zucchini (courgette) spirals with carbonara sauce.
Chicken thigh fillets marinated in olive oil and lemon juice with low carb hot vegetables.
Atlantic salmon/basa fillets/barramundi fillets/scotch fillet and salad.
And occasionally when I really need a chocolate fix – 85% cocoa dark chocolate(no, Lucia not 85% of a chocolate bar, lol)/guilt free chocolate brownies/small cup of hot chocolate made with cocoa.
Enjoy your bank holiday long week-end…you can practice your tap dancing.

evening all 🙂

Well I’ve exhausted myself out on that walk with my friend, done over 27000 steps today, food ended up not that high at 870, and my pickled eggs that I pickled a couple of weeks ago are great! I managed to spill half a jar of vinegar though and the kitchen stank of it haha.

Time to sleep, my hips hurt tonight so I hope they settle down.

Hi Cherrianne,
Have fun in Perth with Judith. You know we expect a full report (travel guide style) of BSDing it in Perth!
Reno’s certainly are time/money consuming and of course when it hasn’t rained for months – down it comes.
At least by eating low carb med style you have the energy to deal with it all.
Have fun and say hi to Judith for me.

Tallyhoo that’s is fantastic and a great encouragement to everyone on here
I’m having trouble getting my bs down even tho I’ve dropped over two stone in six weeks so it gives me a push to continue .
Wondered how your bs progressed during first six weeks ?
Great stuff Alan

Thanks skywalker. I have been working out carbs with pen and paper as I have struggled with my fitness pal diary on line. I don’t have a goal weight as bmi now 20, not all my food is packaged food and som etimes want to calculate carbs in tablespoons, useful for calculatinng in friends houses. Frankly I need aMFP mentor ….am wonderimg whether anyone knows how to get it to do tbsps of generic foodstuffs without a goal weight??? As my metabolism has not yet tripped but now successfully controlled I anticipate counting carbs forever. Tofa

Hi! Here is the link to the recipe keeptrying mentioned:
http://inpursuitofmore.com/2012/11/12/recipe-authentic-italian-chickpea-flat-bread/

It looks great! Have a good weekend.

Tallyhoo take a bow that is fantastic news well done

Yes Lucia I tried tap dancing but fell into the basin.

Following up from my first post on this topic……….

Had my appointment with the doc today following up on diabetic check during the week. He was absolutely delighted with the results (see first post of this topic) and I told him I’d dropped half of my metformin. He said that’s fine – then I said I wanted to drop all my metformin. He said ok – don’t have a problem with that BUT I want you to redo these blood tests in 4 months – I said that’s fine! Bearing in mind that this is an average of the last 3 months and I’d been doing the diet for 4 months when I had these tests – I’m quietly confident that they’ll be good. He did say not to be surprised if they go up a bit but that I was not to check them – he said if it goes up to 7.8 or something – doesn’t matter as long as it keeps coming down to 5.5/5.7 but not to keep doing it and get paranoid – interesting! He also said that at 6.2 I had ‘taken myself out of diabetes’!!!!! His words. He said at 6.5-7.5 they do advise people they may want to consider medication and at 7.6 they say you have to but at 6.2 – you’re not in the diabetic range!!! Wow Wow Wow

I also asked about my cholesterol result which – drum roll please – is down to 3.5 – now I checked the other day and normal is 4 – 6 and he was dead impressed with that too. I said I now wanted to come off the statin for cholesterol which he was less in favour of as he said they are a great drug regardless of diabetes – great preventative for strokes and heart attacks – I still said, no I wanna come off! So he said fine – we’ll check that also in 4 months time – fantastic

He also said – wait for it – don’t lose too much weight!! Ha ha ha ha ha – never EVER expected anyone to say those words to me – lovely jubbly

I came home and had a ceremonial dumping of the medication in the bin………………what a day!!

So………….believe it everyone – and spread the word

Yesterday day 96 weight 10st
Blood sugar 8.6

3 month bloods taken 11/05/2016. 57
Bloods before I started 11/02/2016 52. (was on gliclazide as well as Metformin)

Today Day 97 weight 9st 13lb
Blood sugar 8.2

can a tech person please remove the link from my post above – as when I click on it now it seems to go to some weird server page that is giving out my ip address

the recipe is for authentic chickpea flatbread and is on the ‘inpersuitofmore.com’ website

Oh Keeptrying I also meant to say thank you for the chickpea recipe – my friend is mauritian & makes this snack i think is call dhal puri , the mainstay of it is like a chickpea pancake – I am wondering how close to that it may taste !!
anyone got any ideas with regards calories with that recipe !

Hi keeptrying,
Thats a good name you picked there – it is a case of keep trying – don’t beat yourself up & sharing how you feel is important in this process – I am sure people who haven’t posted have read yours and understand how you are feeling.
I am only day two & i am realising from these posts I have so much to learn !!!
but we are lucky as there seems to be lots of lovely people prepared to share their knowledge.
In Micahel Mosleys book – he says that he wrote three positive things that had happened or he had seen that day etc at the end of each day – he used the example of seeing a nice sunset, or being complimented etc
That has kind of stuck with me because we know there are going to be days that completely suck for whatever reason – so if we can identify ANYTHING in that day that has made a smile, laugh appreciate the world around us etc then that is light in the dark.
But whatever you do keep trying keep talking to us & keep trying ! you’ve done two weeks !! That seems a very long way away to me right now yikes!!

Hi keeptrying,

Thanks for the chickpea bread recipe link…looks delicious… and I really miss bread with my soup…may try these tomorrow!

Cooking and colouring in books (for grown ups naturally) both help keep my mind occupied…

Let me know how you get on with these,

Imogen🌻

Don’t feel too guilty but don’t be surprised if your body says “Wow, thanks for that I am going to store that as fat immediately as it has been in short supply lately.” We all deserve occasional treats but they show up in the numbers, feelings and emotions before very long. I have just had some strawberries and ice cream that was a bit of a liberty too!

PS I don’t know why exactly and it is not that relevant to this thread but, I am reminded of a little chemistry experiment from school in about 1965 when we proved carbohydrate was bound up in sugar, by burning some until it went black. We noted the formula was C12H22O11 and how the hydrate portion i.e the H and O converted to water/steam H2O and left just the cinder like Carbon residue C. So that is why I knew something about Carbo-Hydrates from an early age. It was about 4 years later when I found out how they converted to fats, when I was in sixth form studying Organic Chemistry having dropped Biology. Funny what comes back to you…

Hi Switzerland and other Aussies,
Have been snowed under with house renovations for the past month. High stress time with mess and building materials everywhere and nothing in the right place!
No chance of smelling smoke from burn offs here. It has been so wet, the season broke early and we’ve had torrential downpours. Delayed the start of work on our house and consistently holding up proceedings. Still, we are only on tank water so at least our water supply is getting a boost. 😀
Blood sugar levels have remained in the non diabetic range though apart from one slightly over, after a meal higher in carbs than I thought. I’ve been popping in and reading the posts now and again and reading about everyone’s progress.
Off to Perth in a couple of hours to meet up with Hashimoto and see what that city has to offer BSDers. At least I’ll escape the plaster dust for a few days lol.

Hi Trinity,
Thanks for that – i kind of assumed that so long as you didn’t go over the 800 it would be ok – well i will bow to the experts & see how i go hopefully the body will adjust soon to the new way of doing things.
If you get any more useful advice i would appreciate it if you would let me know.
Thanks
Sal

Yes, the Daily recommended Allowance for Carbohydrate is 300 mg/ day or 30 mg. While this is strictly a Total Carbs figure anywhere near is acceptable as we are encouraged to eat lots of different foods and there are sugars, hidden sugars and renamed ingredients all designed to confuse us. The sugar lobby may be even more powerful than the oil lobby in my opinion. Just look at the way the news UK media twisted last week’s story about good fats and did all that talking and gesturing about healthy diet without even mentioning the evil and addictive properties of sugars.

Hi butterlover,
You sound very similar to me – I am pre diabetic also, I am going to start doing my bel but have never done them before so any advice on when to do them would be great.
Have emailed my GP to ask for his support – he is usually pretty forward thinking so I think I should be ok.
I know I am only on the second day but I have to say I do feel lighter !!
Will enjoy being on this journey with you all.
Sal

Hi Smith, i’ve just asked the same question because i have been taking healthy snacks recording them as part of my 800 cals per day. I have received one response so far which suggested that snacking is not a good idea and i have to change the way i think about food.

I do understand the importance of detaching yourself from food when counting the calories over the next 8 weeks; because if you snack, food is always on your mind so i do see the value of being disciplined about when you eat.

It’s a difficult one to answer but i guess it’s one to monitor when you weigh yourself regularly.

Trinity1814

Hi Deetia52,
i am on day 2 as well – i am feeling quite lightheaded today.
I got the fast diet recipe book by mimi spencer as well as the main bsd book – that has some of her recipes in – has been a godsend actually – there are more meals & calorie options to choose from.
I too would be interested i an answer to your bulgar wheat & cows cpus query.
Reading other posts really does help – i am just trying to find as many recipes as possible at the moment.
One question i have is can you spread your calories out through the day – rather than just three meals a day?
Good luck Dee

Hi Skywalker, thank you for your post, most insightful as i was under the impression that as long as i stick to the 800 cals per day, maintaining a mediterranean style diet i would be okay. I have significantly reduced my carb intake and only eat naturally sourced carbs found within certain fruits and veg and keep my protein intake high consuming white meats, lentils, oily fish, mixed nuts & seeds, kidney beans and chickpeas and so far no processed foods and i use rapeseed oil to flavour food and cook with. I will take on board your advice with gratitude and modify my mindset to eat slightly more calories at meal times rather than including snacks.

I know the issue of diet drinks is controversial so if i have any, it will be only as a treat every so often.

Just one more point; when reference is made to low carbs; is there a definitive amount in grams? I understand which carbs to avoid but i don’t know how many to include on the BSD.

Hope the above makes sense.

Thank you.

Trinity1814

Oh , I am going to have a go at tap dancing.

I have walked around my home saying… Shuffle shuffle hip kick. Etc
I am trying not to fall over my own feet.

Any one else had a go?

Love Lucia
Xxxx

Hi just on day 2, was feeling good but now I feel bloated. If I count my calories is it ok to have wholegrain rice, think that’s why I feel bloated maybe. I am waiting for my book from Amazon cos they sold out and I just have it on my kindle – finding it difficult to flick backwards and forwards. I think i’ll be better when the book comes on Wednesday. I read somewhere it’s ok to have bulgar wheat, what about cous cous?
I’ve made an appointment to see my GP next week. Hope she will be supportive.
I’m loving reading the posts, they make me feel I’m not struggling on my own
Dee x

I usually have a few glasses of Sauvignon Blanc on a Friday evening, but I have stuck to bsd for six solid days now, and am weighing in tomorrow…….so I think I deserve a couple of cheeky vodka and slimline tonics.fingers crossed I don’t blow it tonight.😉

Snooooooooze.😄