Paula you will have to post some of R’s Mr Pickles stories! 🙂

Way to go, justdoit!:)

Well, it might fall off as you walk but you would leave a fragrant smell in your wake 🙂

Hi toni, welcome to the forums! 🙂
The constant need to visit the toilet seemed to subside for me after 2 or 3 weeks! So it should get better soon and you will enjoy improved sleep 🙂

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Mr d’arcy.

💔💛💚💙💜💙💚💚💛💛💙💛❤️❤️💔💔❤️❤️💛💚💙💜💚❤️💗💖💞💕💖💘💞💗💛💙💙💙❣💕💝💝💓💓💓💙💛❤️💛💙💕💞
Oops.
Love Lucia
Xxx

Hi Hashimoto,
Sorry, I thought you were giving me a cold remedy.
To rub myself all over with parsley and lemon zest.

You know my brain isn’t wired the right way.

Ps, wouldn’t the parsley fall off me as I walk?

😀😀😀😀😬😬🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋
Love Lucia
Xxxx

In pride and prejudice
I love the expression,,,,,
I would have been a fantastic concert pianist, if only I could play the piano.

My version,,,,,
I would have been an excellent size 10 if I hadn’t been stuffing my face with junk.

So here we go again,
One note at a time….
I think, being on this path a month, I am able to play the kids tune ‘chopsticks ‘.

Keep practising, keep happy, oh and don’t forget to swoon over mr d’arcy.
Sigh….
Love luciaXxxxx

Parsley and lemon zest rub on some cod, Lucia.?
Xx

Sorry about the cold – I drink lemon, chilli and ginger when I have a cold! Slice of lemon, a piece of ginger root and a sliver of chilli in a mug, add hot water – very warming and comforting!

I’ve filled my kitchen window sill with parsley, basil, mint, coriander and chives (big ones from supermarket and they are still going strong 5 weeks later – it’s like an indoor greenhouse! I add a handful to everything I make, delicious!

Julkat, amazing bs results! 🙂

Can you all lean back away from the computer and phones please.

Government health warning……….

I have a cough and a cold.
I knew that when people in my office got it, only time would bring those pesky little bugs crawling over the wooden floors, up the chair leg and at me.

Oh well. Have got lemons with me today for a hot lemon drink.

One of those things.

Love lucia

Hi so I am announcing that it’s parsley day on Saturday. I will get some and try it with my meals.

How us everyone this morning?
I was so cold yesterday evening I had to put the fire on!
And regretted taking the electric blanket if the bed.
That’s the trouble with losing my blubber, nothing to keep me warm.😆😆😆😆😆
It was so icy this morning too.
Love Lucia
Xxxx

Hi chongolo, you have done well to reduce your Bmi so much.
Instead of pasatta have you thought of garlic and so.e cream cheese added to your courgetti?

Wow Fran84, that is just a brilliant result! 8kg in 4 weeks is smashing, I would be so happy with that. I have just begun, so yet to see what my body is going to do to me – it added 0.2 after day one, so I think i shall have to step away form the scales a bit.

I think your 12 week plan is a good one, I do wonder how 5:2 works in practice though. Congrats on the BMI! I remember doing that – it was a great feeling, the BMI number goes down much slower then the weight number, so a round figure there is something to be celebrated! Cheers, C

Hi Elma the team told captainlynne she could continue for a while after the 8 weeks and she has just finished week 18!! So don’t worry about a few more weeks before switching to 5:2 🙂

Hi Ladies, try eating as much iron rich food as you can, parsley was mentioned yesterday, put some on your savoury foods each day, rhubarb is coming into season in the Uk, it’s rich in vitamin C and iron, important as the body needs vit C to absorb iron. Watercress is also good 🙂
I’m trying to think of foods which are low calorie and fit into the diet, otherwise I would be saying a glass of prune juice every day 🙁

Thanks hashimoto – my main aim was to reduce my levels and the extra weight off was a secondary but with the big loss in week one I thought more would have come off again. But I am in no way giving up 😆

Hi LizB, I agree with you. It’s hard trying to manage with heavy blood loss. I’m prone to anaemia too so as well as being on iron tablets I need to ensure my diet is iron rich too as a lot of it is just lost.

Sue, your bs levels have dropped!!! RESULT!!!!! You will soon lose that 1.8 – it could be just water retention, so onward and up the revolution!!! 🙂

Hi Fran, Captainlynne has finished week 18 on the fast 800 as she wants to lose more weight so no reason for you not to do 12 weeks! Well done on your achievement so far – 8kg is a lot of weight to lose!!! 🙂

As you lose more weight and get more good health benefits your dad is going to get more interested – it will be fabulous if he joins you and loses his prediabetes status!

Onward and shrinkward – I can’t remember who coined that word but it’s great! 🙂

Week 2 weigh in after my fantastic loss of 6.8 kgs in week one I am sssoooo disappointed to see I have put on 1.8 kgs 😢😢. But, my fasting BSG’s have fallen to 5.8. Here’s to better results next week ☺

Halfway there at week 4- I had to buy new scales so I am not sure if the old ones were inaccurate but my weight is the same as last week. Still, I feel like I have lost more which is the main thing I guess. Also I can feel it in more of my clothes. I have lost 8kg in four weeks. I would love to lose another 8kg in the next four weeks but really would be happy with 5 🙂 At this stage I plan to continue the 800 calories a day for a further 4 weeks taking me to 12, then I will switch to the 5:2. I am now trying to get my dad to get on board as he has pre-diabetes. I think he would find it much easier as he eats meat. Will keep suggesting it to him. Also my BMI is now under 40 🙂

I am now on my 9th week and feeling great the compliments have come thick from close friends and people I meet in the street. I have spoken to my Doc. about it and he has given me the go ahead to continue as my sugar levels are improving and I need to lose more weight and I am a 71 year old so anyone can do it. Good luck to everyone.

I do hope some others chime in – I am at the start, so its really comforting to read about people who made it to the end! Congratulations to you all!

Your points are so thought-provoking, RodB. The ‘uncomfortable fight about being virtuous’ hits home already, others are very invested in what you do/don’t eat because they project emotions onto themselves as a result. I know I do/did. Being on the other side more and more these last years has been interesting. My mother nearly had heart failure at me when I suggested low carb as an inflammation fighting diet a while ago, got really vehement. I will just not mention it – she does have type 2 diabetes, so I really want to broach this subject, but softly-softly is called for I think. i will lend her my book after I have got to grips with the recipes I like.

and yes, the darn scales having a direct trigger on the days mood is super tedious!

Silver, glad to hear you and others say your skin looks better! I could do with that as a side effect.

Tania, I suggest sticking around on these boards for support as you work out how to plan your diet going forward! you should be super-proud of yourself, and your resolve to keep on top of things 🙂

Have a look at skinnymixers.com.au – lots of recipes that will fit into 800 calories. The cauliflower soup with chicken is GREAT!!

I will be finishing my 8 weeks in 5 day’s time. I have so far lost 11.5kg and am back in the healthy weight range. I have lost weight previously on weight watchers and always (rather rapidly) put the weight back on. So I am feeling rather nervous about what happens next for me. I have been looking into the book The Every Other Day Diet by Dr Varady (she was featured in Micheal Mosleys BBC documentary) and it looks like I will follow that for a while to keep the weight away. If anyone has any experience with this I would love to hear as I fear I might go overboard on the feed days and start putting weight back on.
Congrats to everyone over the 8 week mark. You should be so proud !!!

Vital stats: BMI 37.4 (good gravy! 🙁 it was 50.3 two years back, and pictures imply more than that before. getting there I guess.) Def. not sharing my weight with the world, but I will share my losses and BMI changes (when they’re worth sharing). I am not diabetic, but was insulin resistant and diagnosed with PCOS in my 20’s. Currently my BP/Chol is fine, not had a GTT for about 5 years, but passed the last one. Strong family history of type 2 and also autoimmune diseases.

Tendency towards anaemia, so I have to watch my iron levels, currently ferritin is 68. I also have inflammation issues (need one more marker to rise enough to get a rheumatologist referral) so it will be interesting to see if this regime decreases my random joint pains (no visible swelling or damage/deformity – pain isn’t enough for a referral, you gotta LOOK like you have arthritis too! grr!).

Plan: two weeks of shakes and one cooked meal, to get past the craving phase without having to faff about in the kitchen too much. I know from past experiences that after two weeks I will be ready to kick shakes – but I may rotate in my favorite protein shake (not a VLCD though, so I can’t use it for most-of-my-meal replacement) for occasional breakfasts – it is convenient and not particularly sweet (unlike VLCD ones. ugh. I’m still carb addicted and think they’re sickly… )

Method: Weekly weight change. Plus minor updates/blog about how I’m going, what I ate, cries for help, requests for internet equivalent of a good slapping across the chops and a good shake.

yesterday went ok, shakes horrid, I had more coffee than I really should have, but also drank so much water and peppermint tea, so not concerned about fluid balances. headache showed up early evening. I made myself some panfried haloumi and added a quarter of a shredded cabbage which I sweated down in the pan with some water and butter, added a heap of cracked black pepper. I also had 30g of salted nuts.

I learned that haloumi is definitely not something you want more than 30g of (I had to have 60g to make up calories – even the dog wouldn’t eat the bits I couldn’t manage). Cabbage was lovely though, one of my fave veg sweated down in a pan with butter, salt and pepper (don’t add salt if there’s haloumi around – glad I remembered not to!)

went ok. sneaky look at scales showed weight had gone up, my fault for looking. I must restrain myself for a few days. I am a cyclical loser – not much one week, good loss the next type. Its a bit demoralising. Must just carry on. Might measure waist tonight to help.

so far today a coffee (I have no sweetener and a dollop of milk, try to only have three a day. before you faint, that’s me cutting down…) a big glass of water with a berocca (fizzy vitamin) and a shake. Tonight i am going to experiment with a vegetable spiral thing and a zucchini for dinner. Protein will be cottage cheese on the side. I might add some tomato passata to the zucchini. Be VERY careful of tomato/pasta sauces, most have sugar added! passata in the bottles is usually just tomatoes and citric acid, always read the label!

I am doing this as the final push to get down to an acceptable weight – I want to get out of the obese into overweight category, that is my goal. 20kg will do it. I have learned that carb craving builds up if you let it, so am accepting the fact that the med style of eating will be the way going forward, sadly for me and my devotion to toast. I shall have to find some other means of transporting peanut butter into my gob 😛 (when I have the calories for it, not right now, caveat) Lets get this over with! Quietly determined but not ‘pumped’ and enthused. I know this is hard work, and I also know most of my battlefield is in my head.

Hi Peggy,
What I did in the first week was make a massive pot of minestrone soup which was only 250 cal for a big bowl – there is a recipe on this website. That way whenever I was hungry I had something filling and healthy at hand!. You can do this. Think how proud you will be when that first 5 kilos has gone – I am on week 4 day 3 and have lost 4 -5 kilos so I am pretty happy with that. Take care. Lucyjane

Thanks Hashimoto. I haven’t really got into mindfulness but agree it might be time to do so. The other motivator for me (given no scales) is taking a photo at start of each week. Believe me this has stopped family in their tracks. I am significantly smaller. In fact, dropped from dress size 22 down to 16-18. I am soooo impressed with this diet.

KatieB – I think you have to have confidence that the significant weight loss is likely having the desired effect.
I’m guessing you are already noticing many improvements in body and soul?
I am also 3 weeks in – just hit the 1 stone mark and my Dr is aware of BSD, but not in favour of measuring fasting blood sugar because of its variability it seems. There are also financial considerations.
After my prescribed chat with the practice nurse, and sparking her interest in BSD, we agreed a retest after the 8 weeks, rather than their standard of 3 months for HbA1c, on the basis that there should be a notable difference. And if not I’ll have lost a ton of weight and be feeling hugely better anyway.
I bought a Tanita weighing/body fat machine for more insight into what was happening to my body and it’s doing the support. You could buy a blood sugar testing kit off Amazon – it’s what will inform and motivate you, I guess in terms of monitoring and priorities.

All power to you Julkat – great results – be pleased with yourself – what a great motivator (you and your results) – imagine where your blood sugars will end up!

For me it’s full fat natural youghurt, coconut flour and coconut oil.

Ten days ago my blood sugars were between 15 and 18. After only ten days my sugars are averaging at 8.6! What a result, so pleased with myself 😃

Thanks Skywalker, I realise that 10 Kgs is not that much compared to some – but of course sometimes that’s the hardest to lose.
I reckon my diet was rather unusually good before – I love vegetables and healthy foods – but the wine was, I think, the main obstacle.
I noticed yesterday that I had a sense of unusually wonderful well-being! Although I still have remnants of my cold I have a lift in energy and ideas. I am a creative person and like to cook interesting and varied dishes – I also like to sew, and paint sometimes, so the positive direction in which I’m going can fuel my pursuits.
My husband is also on this journey – he in fact started it with cutting back the alcohol – and then we happened upon ‘That Sugar Film’ the other day and that is also a good motivator and reminder of the physiological/ psychological effects of ‘sugar’ – my husbands’ mistress!! ha ha.
Yes, there are more constructive ways to spend time instead of in front of the box – night time weariness does kick in though.
I’ll have to work on that.

Two timed sessions now:
28 minutes
and
30 minutes.

I guess that’s a fairly consistent point to compare with later.

Thanks for your post, Silver! Look forward to learn how you keep going.

How do you feel?
* up and down, largely dependent on what the scales say, lol – I know shouldn’t be so dependent, but I’ve got so far to go, I can’t be complacent for a minute;
* suspicious and wary about everything that passes my mouth (I used to be completely relaxed-and-comfortable and could never understand the Food Police around me who turned every social situation involving food & drink into a uncomfortable fight over who was the most virtuous);
* slowly getting over my anger at the medical establishment, Big Food and Big Pharma for having tricked me for so long with their lies and deception (that anger too will pass, lol!);
* rarely feel hungry, have lost most my response to the usual triggers (sight/sound/smell of food).

Plan of Action (in order of importance)
* keep in touch with Forums (esp. valuable when weight seems to be plateauing).
* lose another 20kg to get to BMI 25
* keep negotiating meal-by-meal with my non-diet partner, esp. since food & drink are integral to the ‘social contract’ which keeps the relationship going;
* keep up the measuring (what gets measured, gets achieved!) – daily fasting blood sugars and weight, plus a timetable of targets/actuals as a I go;
* keep up the water intake, despite waking throughout the night;
* Keeping Busy has been wonderful in taking myself out of the mealtime routine – getting into The Zone is my form of Mindfulness;
* maintain avoiding social situations involving food & drink – that way compromise lies!
* since exercise only affects weight loss by about 15% or so, I’m just concentrating on keep up my routine of 10K steps a day

Further goals?
* losing another 20kg/40lbs at the rate of 1kg/2lbs per week – not overly confident about how this will be achieved since I’ve eliminated 99% of food & drink causing harm. I jump those hurdles when I get to them;
* BMI 25, achievable by 1 Sept if I keep losing 1kg/2lbs per week.
* once BMI 25 is achieved, (1) I can seriously consider dropping the diabetes medication (already half what it was) since I’ve got hard evidence (daily readings) in front of me; will keep relying on annual blood tests for feedback on cholesterol and blood pressure; (2) will need some additional strength fitness training; (3) can focus more on daily blood pressure readings than blood sugar (weight and FBGL is enough measuring for the moment).

I haven’t read all the replies yet, but in case this hasn’t been covered in the answers, I believe that Dr. M allows 800 calories, because those of us with blood sugar issues suffer greatly from excessive hunger, and for a lot of us the 500 cals just do not cut it.

I have done 5:2 in the past with Dr. M’s original recommendations of 500 cals per fasting day. Yes, it worked and I lost 7 lbs. that month, but I do admit that the 500 calorie days were extremely hard for me, and also, doing them any two days a week didn’t work for me. As time went on, I conveniently forgot about my second fasting day of the week! So this time around I’m doing two consecutive days a week, to get them over with, and also I know that allowing myself 800 cals vs. 500 will make a world of difference for me.

I’m starting tomorrow and plan on posting here often. I really enjoyed the The 8 Week Blood Sugar Diet book. Loads of great tips!

Glad to meet you all!

I have noticed also, that even though I eat very little at 800 calories a day, I sometimes are just not hungry. I live with it because of the benefits but I would like to understand what is happening.

Poached eggs.
I still find the whites very blah and their texture is …not pleasant, but I make sure each mouthful has yolk. Yolk is great.

I am in the last of eight weeks. My weight is now at 71 kgs. That is 8 kgs lower than eight weeks ago. I have dropped one of my three diabetic medications. That happened at day 3. I have also reduced my statins medication by half. My Hba1c is 6.5, down from 7.1 four months ago. My blood sugar readings have been consistently around 5-8 m/litre daily over the 7 weeks. Previously they could be between 9 and 13 at any time. I am now wondering what do I do to stay on these results… Probably the 5/2 Mosley diet. Any thoughts welcomed. I expect that when I have another Hba1c reading in a month or so that my doctor will reduce or eliminate all medications including blood pressure (I believe this may be the most difficult one) but it is the statins and diabetic medications I really want to eliminate. I know that keeping the low carbs is the clue. Last night for the first time I went to a birthday dinner, ate late with lots of carbs and a sweet wine… Sugar today before breakfast… 11.4.. Back on track
now… That is the good thing.

hi , im in your sector as well , not much weight loss , 1 lb a day i started off on great , but suddenly stopped after day 8 th i thought i was doing something wrong and its been up and down since , got a bicycle and the sugar has come right down to 4.5 afternoon and 5.5 in the morning , have you tried anything different ?

Well done, Napangardi. Habits are a hard thing to change. At nibbly functions, I just take the salami or cheese without the crackers. Perhaps you will have similar options.

Paula, Ah this is bizarre! heh yes, I see a few photos of Mr Pickles adventures.

Hi Meredex, you’re absolutely not alone in this. I’ve only lost 8 lbs and I’m in week 6. I lost in weeks 1, 3 and 5, the other two weeks I maintained or put on a bit. I also know I’ve been doing it correctly, use myfitnesspal, count cals, carbs, fats, protein religiously, bought ketosticks in week 4 and was in ketosis and still am. Like you I was very despondent and frustrated in week 4 with exactly the same loss as you but have decided since that doesn’t matter how slowly it comes off as I love eating this way and feel fabulous on it. I intend to keep on going long after the 8 week point so will get the weight loss I want, it will just take longer than for most on here. My best loss since week one was actually week 5 – 2.6 lbs off – so please don’t give up, its good for you in so many other ways. Our journeys are so similar that, like me, you may feel completely differently by week 6. Stick with it, I’m cheering you on! Jules x

Hi Paula and co. Well day three coming up. I am feeling good. To be quite honest I would normally have cheated by now but I am just taking it moment by moment… Am still on holidays so next week more of a challenge. I am enjoying sparkling water and bought a kilo of lemons so that will be my night drink. Habits are the issue for me along with emotional stress anyway, will experiment with a few dishes this week. I am weighing daily and am losing. Water I know bit it still motivates. I have three events in the next fortnight so am going to work out how to manage. I will be the driver for our local food and wine festival! Perhaps no one will notice I am not eating!

What’s the one or more than one food you have had on the BSD which you thought you would never like in a million years but is now one of your faves. I have two. FF yoghurt and Olive Oil. Never liked them before but can’t do without them now.

Really struggling at the minute as I have no appetite, think I’m too tired from working 7 weeks of overtime.

Yesterday:

L – sausage & lentils
D – chicken, asparagus, broccoli & courgetti stir fry (didn’t eat it all)

Today:

B – full fat yogurt & berries
L – left over stir fry (again didn’t eat it all)
D – last of stir fry, 3 slices pastrami, 2 slices ham
S – full fat yogurt & seeds

According to myfitness pal I’ve had about 500 cals yesterday and about 600 today 😳

Hi Scott
So funny that our ordinary words sound exotic to you. I think ‘vest’ and ‘pants’ is the funniest difference – over here they’re underwear.
Re feeling starving – you must get more fats inside you! Olive oil and butter. Then you won’t be hungry.
Good luck
Penny

Hi Silver
I have done the 8 weeks without any dairy. I am dairy intolerant.
I use soya milk and yogurt. ( shockingly a lot of ‘natural’ soya products have sugar, but some don’t)
My plan is to continue- I ve done a few more weeks now, til I get down to the right weight. 10 lbs to go. Then like Hashimoto I’ll increase cals a bit and see what happens.
Penny

Hi Hashimoto – Good to hear that your asthma has improved since you have been doing the BSD. Yes I have seen some improvement anecdotally in patients. Given that insulin resistance is associated with raised inflammatory markers, you would expect a reduction as blood sugars improve and the insulin resistance settles.

Hi Peggy,
I binge eat too. I think about food every few minutes. Part of it is seeking comfort, part for distraction from things I don’t want to deal with, part carb driven hunger, part the lovely sensory experience of those textures and tastes, and part is a side effect of my medication, and some is probably just a deeply ingrained habit! Plus I enjoy the creative part of baking and the satisfaction of doing it well, and only have two people to feed with it all.
With all that pushing me to eat, I found the restriction of the 5:2 “starve” days made me very aware of the many, many times each day I felt driven to eat, and this awareness helps, because, the drive isn’t from hunger. It is a very strong “I want” that having strict restrictions means you learn to deal with.
I can’t ignore it, but I have learned I do not need to satisfy it. I learned I can get through a day of it, and feel fine.

You will learn this too. Find distractions. Find things to do that don’t involve food. Eat slowly and savour what you can eat. Tell yourself that was the food you needed, and find something else that fulfils the other hunger. Find lots of other things to do, so you don’t get bored with one. Do you have anything you wished you could do? Sign up for a course in it. Read a book, go for a walk, pull out weeds, dust the top shelves. Anything but eating.

You can do it.
For me awareness was the key.

One minute at a time. One hour at a time. One day at a time.
I have lost 24.5 kg.It has taken me a long time, and has had quite a few long plateaus, but it is still happening. 18.5 kg more to go.