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!!!

I am also in Australia and find using the app easy diet diary much easier than my fitness pal. It is much more accurate than mfp and has a camera that can scan the bar codes of many Australian products including Wollies and Coles own brand and Aldi products.
I find that about 100gm of cooked chicken breast is about the right size for me. That is about 160 calories and is probably enough protein for one meal.
I have eggs with large mushrooms that I buy in Aldi. Or I make a spinach omelette and have it with some avo.
I found the first week hard. I had headaches and felt generally unwell. I think some people call it carb flu. But I found that if I stay below 50gm of carb I now feel fine and strangely for me I have no cravings. I have just started weak week 3 and I have lost 4kg.Only 12 to go!
Good luck!

Hi Tamsyn,
No need for embarrassment, as plenty of us have plenty to lose!
I was also over the 100kg mark and have been following the 5:2 Med style and losing fairly steadily. I am 26 kg down with another 17.5 kg to go. But I just want to get rid of those kilos now so I have resolved to do the BSD eight week diet and this is also my first day on that.

With the chicken breasts here in NZ some are monstrous, so I cut those in half and freeze for later use. I think somewhere on this forum I may have see a comment about people not needing to eat more than 100g of meat every few days. Someone can correct me on that if I remember it wrongly.

With the variation in calories, it may be the marbling of fat in the meat varies or the cut may have more, such as a porterhouse vs fillet steak, so use them as a guide and just try to stay close to the 800 where possible.

Hi Tamsyn, Here are a couple of listings from the USDA database:

Beef, New Zealand, imported, rump centre, separable lean only, raw
100 grams=141
https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/7545?manu=&fgcd=

and

Beef, New Zealand, imported, rump centre, separable lean only, cooked, fast fried
100 grams=188
https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/7511?manu=&fgcd=

There are also listings for “lean and fat” which are slightly higher calories.

Some of the differences in the counts you found could be due to some being raw and some being cooked, but I don’t know where that 271 came from?? Good luck to you.

82.5 kg

So a slight gain of 0.5 kg, but considering I pretty much took a week off that’s OK.

Hi Matthew! Nice to see another person from the US on the site! Welcome and good wishes as you begin. I live in California and ran across the BSD book in London on the way to a ski holiday — that was February and I am on week 10. Although I have been cranky, hungry and sometimes so frustrated, I have lost almost eight inches from my waist in ten weeks. i have found I am most satisfied with real food — and for me the less carbohydrate the better (even below 20 grams per day). That might knock out the oatmeal but there are plenty of great things to substitute! I find myself wanting simple food, eggs, cheese, vegies, salad, meat — I use olives and a couple of nuts for snacks — I hope you enjoy the blog, it can be very supportive.

Wow paddy57 you are doing amazingly!!! That’s great!!

Day 9 today and down 12.8 lbs so far….

Thanks for all your inspiration!!
💜

Hi Jandz100,
How do you know about newbies?
Here’s my food for today and it’s a miracle because it was Mother’s Day and we went out to eat. !!

Cal 701. Carb 38
B nutrition shake – vega brand
L 2 eggs, 4 green olives, 1/2 T mayo, 1/2 tomato
Snack 1 oz cheese (to make it till dinner)
D asparagus, green beans, broccoli, 3 oz dried tofu, 1 T oyster sauce, inside only if two vegie dim sum

Thanks Izzy, just got home (we are in US Pacific time zone) and it was amazing!! Just went to a low key dim sum place and the day food wise and family wise went great!!
Hugs for a great day when you see this!

Hallelujah! I made it through Mother’s Day and even only ate 700 calories and 38 carbs for the day!

B nutrition shake vega
L 2 eggs, 4 green olives, 1/2 T mayo, 1/2 tomato
Snack 1 oz cheese (to make it till dinner)
D asparagus, green beans, broccoli, dried tofu, 1 T oyster sauce, inside only if two vegie dim sum

Yippee I made it and the kids made sure there were things I could eat!!!
💜💖🌷🌻

Just another quick question…

I’ve gotten onto myfitnesspal.com to track my calories and I intend to have a small piece of rump steak with a salad for lunch. A quick check under “rump steak” on the calorie chart shows multiple values for 100g of steak ranging from 119 calories to 271 calories. When you only have 800 to play with, that’s a big difference. How do you know what is the correct value?

Hi all,

My name is Tamsyn and it’s my first day on the 8 week blood sugar diet. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes a few months ago, but have been very cleverly burying my head in the sand ever since. I actually gained weight after the diagnosis! Foolish girl. So I bought the book yesterday after having seen it at the shops a few times, read the whole thing, and now here I am. I am (embarrassingly) severely overweight at 132kg (about 291lbs) and have all the health issues you’d expect to go along with that. The diabetes is new, but I suspect if I sort that out, all the rest will follow. So here I am.

Breakfast this morning was tricky, I found myself in a bit of a panic. I don’t usually eat breakfast, instead drinking cartons of iced coffee. And now you know how I got diabetes! Ha! But seriously, what do you do with an egg if not put it on a piece of toast?! I had an apple instead. I’m sure I’ll work it out.

One question about the recipies in the book – some call for ‘one chicken breast’. Yesterday I bought three chicken breasts from the supermarket and the total weight was 1.1kg (or 2.4lb), so 366g (0.8lb) each. That seems like a lot. (We must have particularly large chickens here in Australia!) Is there a more standardised weight measurement for how much skinless chicken breast should be used as a serving in the recipes?

I’ve enjoyed taking a poke through some of the forums this morning. Everyone seems very motivated and supportive. I’m looking forward to getting on top of this.

Hi anthony,

I’m interested in your shirataki noodles…..can you tell me a little more ? are they in the supermarket or specialty shop ? are they hard pasta or softer noodles in a different part than the hard ? or in an international aisle ? are you in the UK or elsewhere ? A lot of questions I know but would really appreciate if you can tell me. I really miss my pasta and noodles but have to face the fact, which I already suspected, that, although I love carbs, I just shouldn’t eat them any more. I love them but they don’t like me !
Regards jillyB

Week 2, down another 1.2 kg 🙂 very very happy with that, 4.2 in two weeks is astonishing really.

Expecting much slower losses from now on. I have largely nixed the shakes now, but the cold has hit with a vengeance, which makes me want warm meals! (5.2 degrees when I got up this morning. Brrrrrr. Reckon it was about 10 in the house!! Wish I could justify the $$$$& for heat!)

Onward and downward 🙂

Hi LucyAB,

I like to distribute my calories in these approximate amounts:

50 grams carbohydrate @ 4 calories per gram=200 calories
40 grams protein @ 4 calories per gram=160
48 grams fat @ 9 calories per gram=432
This adds up to 792 calories.

50 gr. carbs is my personal choice, and the 40 gr. of protein is what is recommended for women in the BSD book (50 gr. for men). Yeah, I’m a little obsessive about tracking…

Totally agree TrishDawn. on any other diet a deviation would mean weeks of effort to regain losses but I find on this eating plan its quicker to lose than gain. It is so inspiring to make me what to carry on rather than give in. I gave in to mothers day breakfast, skipped lunch, ate a healthy dinner but snuck in a few squares of choc and a small red wine. no weight gain! will be strict again from today.

I watched the segment on the Sunday Night show. They took three overweight Australians, two men and one woman, all diagnosed with diabetes or pre diabetes and will have them trialling three different diets.

One man will be using the paleo diet of low carb, healthy fat, the young woman will use the low glycemic diet and the third will be on the 800 calorie blood sugar diet. The show will be following their progress over the coming weeks, so not sure how long I’ll have to wait to find out how they fare.

It was sad on so many levels to see the woman’s young children crying as they got rid of all the high sugar, high glycemic foods. Biscuits, cordials, fruit juices. It’s going to be a tough challenge because their preferred meals were drive through take away, but hopefully they can all turn their lives around.

One thing I’ve noticed about my ups and downs with this diet is how small an amount of weight I gain when I lose the plot for a few days.

I felt pretty anxious weighing myself this morning knowing I’d had a total blowout twice this past week as well as a Mother’s day breakfast yesterday. I did manage to pull myself together for the rest of the day, but I was really relieved to find I’d only put on 200 grams.

I was amazed, I was almost too scared to get on the scales. I know that a bit of self discipline will have that off in no time. Now I only have a family barbecue to negotiate on Wednesday, which shouldn’t be too hard. Saying no to a slice of delicious birthday cake might be beyond me though.

Hi LucyAB,
Well done with re-starting. You mention will-power in your post. This way of eating may prove that wrong. While being on my BSD journey I’ve discovered that what I thought was my lack of willpower was actually carb addiction – I’ve taken away the simple carbs and have not had any ‘willpower’ issues. I’m in Week 6 and feel well satiated. It’s a steep learning curve. Last week when I felt like chocolate I baked the Guilt Free Brownies (recipe in the book). Other times when I feel like chocolate I make a hot milk and cocoa drink (keeping within 800 cal – some days a little over, some a little under).

Something that I find helpful is mindfulness meditation and exercise (which you’re already doing). I walk. I vary my route so some days have more hills than others. You can find threads on exercise and mindfulness meditation towards the bottom of the forum page.

You mentioned grams of carbs. You may find it helpful to read Bill1954’s thread ‘This has to work for me’. You can find it by clicking on the Welcome to the BSD heading and scrolling down.

When you have time, try and read through the forums because there are many folk who discuss carb gram. It will give you a good overview.

Best wishes LucyAB and keep us all posted on your progress.

Hi Syb,
Thanks for taking the step and posting.The support on these forums is valuable. The simple carbs have a really strong pull on some of us, don’t they?
Have you tried some seeds and nuts with your yoghurt and fruit? I find that the crunch makes it seem more like breakfast.
You’ve had some positive results at the end of week one – well worth the effort.
I, too, am going to try the gram flour flat breads Cherrianne mentioned.

Inulin finally arrived yesterday. I ordered it just after watching the Angela Rippon programme – I thought it would never come!. I’ve got a blood test on Wednesday then going on holiday, so I’m not going to start using it until I come back. Have not found a definitive dose, so will experiment and let people know how I get on.

Day 78 weight 10st 1lb
Blood sugar 10.5

Was naughty and had two glasses of prosciutto on Saturday night. Felt great until 4.30 Sunday morning when I felt really rough. #oldenoughtoknowbetter.

Hi Lucia,
I love the cauliflower rice. Something I do differently is that I don’t microwave the cauliflower. I just blitz the florettes then fry them in the pan with some coconut oil (the amount of oil depends on my calories that day). I enjoy it being a bit crunchy. I eat raw cauliflower which may be a pre-requisite for preferring it cooked this way.

I’ve got the glo stix covered – they’re left over from New Years Eve. Thank goodness Hashimoto’s in charge of the food – she’s responsible enough to make sure it ‘complies’ with BSD guidelines. (I was so pleased that it wasn’t my job, being a 6 week ‘newbie’ I may have blown it!)

Natalie, can we have multi-coloured fairy lights please? Bill – plenty of Abba music please. Let’s have such a good time that captainlynne comes to the party rather than watching us on CCTV, that way Imogen can relax with us.

I’ve got to go and ‘glam up’. At least I have a 9 hour head start! (Volume fading)…..you are the dancing queen……..super trooper…….
lalalalala.

Hi Lucia, I had dandelion leaves, slightly boiled,

first time ever and as I have a garden full, I thought I would go on a garden forage. Was very nice and tasted like slightly bitter spinach. Definitely will have more of it.

Enjoy your clubhouse party. I think you should make it a 70’s themed do

Polly xxx

PS Cauliflower rice is really nice but does taste like cauliflower lol – I really like it in stir fried veg dishes:D

Hi, I’m similar – 9 off wk1, 3 off wk2, 0 off wk3 (and felt rubbish – bad cramps all week), 2 off wk4. I think the key for me is going to be doing more exercise – the first weeks I was losing from stopping eating rubbish snacks all the time, now I need to up the movement to keep losing! *Keep telling myself this when I don’t want to go out for a walk!! Maybe you need to set a few walking goals and see if it helps??

Thanks for the clarification captain lynne. Ohhhhh BST. Have a good sleep.

Hi Lucia,
My head is in good place…although I may not be the best judge of that…good day today Plenty of walking, then some gardening, and sitting in sunshine looking at the hills.😊

Not hungry at breakfast so skipped (not literally, though maybe next time)
Lunch was stir fry cabbage, spring onion, garlic, with chicken – followed by some strawberries with a spoonful of cream as not able to eat yogurt.
Dinner small low carb ploughmans. All delicious , it’s amazing how much I am enjoying food on the BSD!

Glad you’re having a happy day too!
Guess you don’t need me to tell you about cauliflower rice ?😄

Hi Syb,
Well done on facing up to the need to do something about the diabetes! It is such a huge shock to be diagnosed (2&1/2yrs for me), and an even bigger shake up to your eating habits. So hanging out with the BSD crowd is a good move cos you’ll get lots of support and advice. 🙂
Try the gram flour flatbread recipe on this site. You can use it as a wrap instead of sandwiches.
All the best… It’s a steep learning curve but the outlook from the top is so worth it.

So gang, I shall try the cauliflower rice this week.

Is anyone trying anything for the first time, this week?

I would be interested if you are experimenting with food now we are all professional BS800 ists.

Love Lucia
Xxxx

Today went well and I did drink more water, however did notice myself having the odd nibble of the kids food. MUsT stop that NOW, before a nibble turns into a nobble turns into a gobble!

Thanks for the heads up Natalie. I watched it and made hubby watch it with me. He needs to lose his belly, but professes to not being able to give up his beer and scotch!
I enjoyed it and hopefully the message will rub off on him. He had a heart attack 6 years ago and had a stent inserted and was told to lose weight and change his diet, but now he just says the operation and the cholesterol lowering drugs and the blood pressure lowering drugs have ‘fixed’ him😚
I’ve series linked it on Foxtel IQ so I don’t miss an episode. It will be interesting to see which participant comes out on top! I’m rooting for Dr M!

Has anyone looked at the harcombe diet at all? I’m sort of interested in it because it also takes into account other food intolerances and starts with quite a strict 5 days of only certain foods and then I think you start re-introducing them gradually.

Am a bit annoyed with their site as you have to pay to use the forum there 🙁

Glad you are having a better day, keeptrying.

Polly x

Hi Lucia
I cooked the cauliflower rice last night for the (non dieting) family to have with bbq’d steak and veges. I followed the recipe on this website, although I only used half a cauliflower and it was great. Even my size 8, 23 year old daughter loved it and said she will make it next time.
Cheers
Linda

Hi Keeptrying — I was so very glad to see you mention the book by Gary Taubes — ‘Why we Get Fat and What To Do About It’. It is an excellent book on how our current food choices (pushed by our own government, sadly) are all wrong and how we can fix it. He also wrote a fantastic, bigger-picture book called ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’ — it came out about five years ago and it is absolutely worth the rather long read. Both books changed my entire understanding of food and my relationship to it. I hear your personal struggle in your posts and I have much empathy for you. I recommend following up on Gary Taubes diet suggestions at the back of his book (it comes out of research at Duke University in North Carolina, USA — absolutely reputable). His suggestions are a perfect “fit” with the BSD. I have been using both ideas to craft my own workable plan. I am sure you can find a path that works for you. Don’t despair — you are probably just on the edge of getting it right.

Hi Bill
I thought that Michael said in the book that the comment about the body ‘going into starvation mode’ if the calorie intake was low was an old wives tale, based on outdated research?

I’m not recommending operating at less than 800 calories per day on a regular basis, but for example today – where I had a good balanced breakfast, and a light lunch, but because i was working in the garden and getting very hot, I drank water rather than eat dinner, thereby achieving calorie count of about 600 odd – is ok from time to time.

I’ve not got too much to lose, and felt that today – with potentially 18 hours fasting now before breakfast tomorrow – might even kick start a bit of weight loss.