Hi LucyJane, congrats on your woosh, that’s fabulous, 3kg in 10 days I’d amazing, well done! Don’t know if I could drink more than 3 litres, I’m never off the loo as it is. Speaking of which, after yesterday’s carb fest (I put it all into myfitnesspal – 1700 cals and 160g carbs !!!!!) I took my dog for a long walk and nearly didn’t make it home in time for a number two 🙂 Funny the effect carbs have on you after a month of abstinence.

Today I feel as if I am in Groundhog Day.
Never saw the movie, but I have picked up the saying.
So today I am going to break out of the mound.
Had salad for breakfast, will have yoghurt and apple for lunch.

Anyone in the mood for changing it up a little?

Love Lucia
Xxxx

Cherrieanne I like what you did with the coconut flatbreads, I think I will try that. Thanks 🙂

I saw my GP this week and she was amazed at how well I’ve done in just a couple of weeks. Her husband had been to a talk Mosley gave and she was very open to info on the BSD. She looked at the book and took the details and says she’s going to discuss recommending it to her patients. She’s also getting copies for medical staff at the surgery so they can have a good look and read.
A success I think!

Hinhashimoto,

On the settee dozing with the tv.

Well last night around 11:30 I was with Michael Mosley in bed.
I watched an hour long you tube talk he did in Australia about women staying healthy and he talks a lot about 5:2 and blood sugar diets.
If you can, it is worth the watch.

You just go into you tube, type his name in. The photo or frozen frame is of Michael wearing a nice maroon shirt (looking handsome) with a big black screen behind him showing the name of the talk.
He mentions our website too.
Again, I suggest it is worth a look.
Sometimes, the written word doesn’t connect with me. A video will.

Love Lucia
Xxxx

I hate this predictive text.
Drives me potty as I spell the words correctly, then I move on to the next line . When I am not looking, just for naughtiness it swops one of my key words.
Brings a whole new meaning to this crazy bird.

Love Lucia
Xxx

This morning I have done my own version of yoga, but gently
The limp worm or cobra
The naughty puppy or downward dog
The kitten but with attitude. The cat
The toe nail sharpener or tree (I really have to use my toes to dig in to prevent a lot of wobble)
The deck chair. The chair
The broken floorboard. The plank.

Kept on falling out of the poses but I have got two yoga mats and three bath towels under me as a cushion.

Love Lucia
Xxxx

Lucia you are starting to see more results for your determination! 🙂

The last thing I let go of was yukky low fat yoghurt – that was so hard!

We will live long and prosper!

Xxx

Just to throw a little ray of sunshine into the mix, I finally stopped the Metformin over the weekend.
Latest readings, pre dinner last night, 4.6, 2 hours after eating, 7.1, and fasting this morning 6.6
That is from a previous long term T2D sufferer and if I can get those sort of results (following in the magnificent cherriannes footsteps) then everone can get the sugar levels down.
It may take a bit longer for some more than others but sugar and weight loss goals are achievable if you are prepared to stick to the plan. I am on week 11 by the way.

Oh and not only the waist on my trousers, but now the thigh area is not longer giving me the Vulcan death grip.

Live long and prosper.

Love Lucia
Xxxx

Morning gang,

Late last night I decided to get rid of my ‘just in case’ food.
I have got ride of the breakfast cereals.
I was only keeping them just in case I got hungry.
🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓
Don’t miss them at all.

What was the last thing you let go of?

Love Lucia xxxx

Go for dark chocolate (Example below is Tesco 85% Dark) The squares a quite big:-

Typical Values 100g contains Two squares (20g) contain
Energy 2421kJ (585kcal) 484kJ (117kcal)
Fat 47.0g 9.4g
Saturates 29.0g 5.8g
Carbohydrate 22.0g 4.4g
Sugars 15.0g 3.0g
Fibre 14.7g 2.9g
Protein 11.2g 2.2g
Salt 0.1g <0.01g

What fantastic support! I had a good talk to myself and decided 2 weeks wasn’t long enough to be admitting defeat plus 2 people at work told me I was impatient and inconsistent!
Fantastic news Lucyjane! You must be thrilled! I’m sure my whoosh is just around the corner! If you can do it then I blooming well can 🙂
Again thanks to all who replied to Lucyjanes thread it has helped me so much too
Meredex x

Thanks Kathy!
So per 100g the carob has more fat, fewer carbs and less sugar, but probably not enough so to be a good substitute.
Sigh…

Re checking my calories thanks to advice on here,just had 1 rasher bacon one egg tomatoes mushroom few beans weighed in under 200 calories .
Weird it looked like. Sunday breakfast to me 🤔

Kia Ora NZers, another JAfa here! Day 2 feeling hopeful! Have tried many diets, am feeling strong that I can do this! Doing the 800 cals.

Hi Desperate,
Have you tried the ‘Australian Easy Diet Diary’? It’s for iPhones and iPads and really easy to use and it’s a free app. If you download it I can talk you through how to use it, but it’s fairly simple and you’ll probably work it out yourself.
I doubt your sesame seeds are to blame for the .5 gain. It’s probably the most common post for people in week two. So many have a little gain of one or two pounds( 1/2 – 1kg) or don’t lose weight at all. No idea why this happens but it soon resolves for most people.

Thanks for your feedback. It is good to know it is not uncommon to get stuck at this stage and I will try the Psyllium husk instead of bran. I am avoiding the scales until day 14 so I hope to see some change but I intend to stick with it either way.

Fortunately, as I have already posted on another thread, our GP heard the interview on Radio NZ between Simon Morton and Michael Mosley. Thus when I went to see him last week, he was very much in favor of the process. Later that day, I emailed our doctor the link to the Australian Insight TV documentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDEw561NFto

Showing that video to your GP should wipe their objections

Jim

Fifty fifty As my husband gas Cadbury’s the info is
100g
Fat 30.5g
Saturated 18.5g
Carbs 56.5g
Sugars 56g

Per 13.8g 3 chunks
Fat 4.2g
Saturated 2.6g
Carbs 7.8g
Sugars 7.7g

Hope you’re hat helps

Hi all. Does anyone know how carob stacks up against chocolate in terms of carbs, sugar and fat content?

Yesterday (week 3 day 2 of the Fast 800) in desperation I succumbed to a chocolate craving with a carob bar instead – the nutritional info on the pack (per 100g) was as follows:
Fat, total 43.6g
-saturated 27.2g
Carbohydrates 41.6g
-sugars 33.7g

Per 15g serving this was shown as:
Fat, total 6.5g
-saturated 4.1g
Carbohydrates 6.2g
-sugars 5.1g

I tried google to obtain comparable info for a cadbury’s milk chocolate bar, but without success. I don’t want to tempt myself by getting too close to an actual cadbury’s chocolate bar to find out!

Day 2 was really hard for me too, I was soooo hungry I was fantasising about food and then at about day 5 it went away. I am eating absolute sparrow portions now compared to my hearty meals pre diet and feeling incredibly satisfied, hell last night I even left some food on my plate!!! If I can do it you can too, the breastfeeding can’t help with the hunger but I promise it will get better.

What a team, thanks for all the ideas about where to source gram flour, now I know its chick pea or besan flour I know where I can get it . I love curry so some flat bread will be a welcome change. AND will definitely check out the recipes on the site….must admit I like simple best. Hashimoto’s egg, bacon and tomato is my style. I loved the scrambles egg with smoked salmon. I made it into an omelette and it was delicate and delicious and so easy.

Had a set back this morning on the scales, had put on .5 of a kilo, think I may have added too many sesame seeds to my salmon steak but even then was under 800 cals for the day. Am sure it will be off soon.

Hashimoto I think its dirt for ever now….

Cherrianne…I think I must be an app dud, tried the app that was recommended in MM’s book and found trying to work out calorie intake really slow and tedious. Only OK if you were eating brand name foods. I am just googling what cals in each food I am eating and keeping a diary. Slow but works of me.

Hashimoto I missed your message about having the H metabolic condition. How fantastic that it has helped you, I will let my friend know. Hard work persuading a depressed 20 year old to do anything but she is a wonderful Mum and I know she will support him if he decides to give it a try.

How good to know that there is support post the 8 week mark; that bit worries me more than the 8 weeks. I know I can stick on it for 8 weeks but rest of my life is more challenging, especially when a yummy dessert is served up.

Over two weeks down, the hunger has largely disappeared though my stomach rumbles very loudly-often during meetings! I lost less weight week two as I expected- still over 6kg down in two weeks! I recently purchased a pair of jeans and they are too big already- not just need a belt too big, they are fall down to the ankles, give to the op shop too big! Feeling great 🙂

Hi Mary, Please see my post regarding this below. I had no weight loss after an initial 2 kilos in the first 3 days, and then finally this morning on day 10 a kilo overnight -in between nothing! So frustrating to see the scale stuck. I think part of my problem is I want a miracle with results overnight. I know I am also going to struggle to do the whole eight weeks because of social events:-( Keep going. I did drink extra water yesterday – that was the only thing I did differently. Gluck.

It’s fascinating reading other people’s experiences and I’m certainly not knocking what they are doing. I personally am eating more protein than the book suggests and probably lower carb than the book recipes because I don’t like pulses and beans or sweet potato – basically anything that is allowed. I am going to try cooking lentils again soon, my first try was a mushy disaster (unless they are supposed to be like that!). My meals are nearly all 50-100g meat plus a pile of vegetables (fat is also involved). I do have home-made yoghurt and fruit some mornings. I think everyone has to tweak for their personal taste, but if you tweak a lot you are not really doing the BSD as written.

I agree Eureka. It is working well for the majority. We aren’t part of a strictly controlled research group so we do need answers that we can live with in the long term, in the real world as you say.
For those of us trying to manage blood sugars without meds it might mean setting a carb limit. It is all individual and as has been said before, we are the pioneers. We are a very large, diverse group with all sorts of other medical issues aside from diabetes. Most of us are going to continue well past the initial 8 weeks so are truly breaking new ground here.

Hi Alan, the best readings to take are first thing in the morning before you eat or drink. This is the fasting reading.
Two hours after a meal should be when your blood sugar peaks after what you’ve eaten. This is called the post prandial reading.
Then just before bed.
Do a fasting reading daily, then a couple of times a week pick one of the other times and test again.
Record all your results with date and time to show your doctor or diabetes nurse. If you also record what you’ve eaten you will start to see which foods affect your blood sugar readings.
Maybe you could persuade your wife to do the BSD too, certainly sounds as if she needs assistance with her blood sugars. Unless she is very unwell at the moment, I wouldn’t consider such a high fasting reading to be a freak result. I’d say it was indicative of diabetes. Best to get it followed up and start on the BSD before complications arise.

I agree with Hashimoto there Lea. If you love to cook and are creative you can still come up with delicious food. School snacks don’t have to be sweet. Home made hummus and dips in little pots, with a zip lock bag of crudités or crackers. I make little cheese, carrot and zucchini muffins for my kids. Just eggs, milk, grated carrot, cheese and zucchini. Bake in cup size muffin tray and you can eat it yourself too. You do need to grease the tray well though. Some home made flap jacks using rolled oats, coconut and more butter, less golden syrup than traditional recipes are good too. Flour less cakes using almond meal. I also made the coconut flour flatbread recipe, added shredded coconut and some sultanas, baked in cake cases and they were popular with my kids too. Sometimes my attempts don’t turn out well, but my chickens eat the evidence lol 🙂

Hi Mary,
Sounds like you’ve hit the week two blues! The weight loss seems to stall or sometimes go up a pound or two around the second week. It is probably the most common concern posted on these forums. I think Karra holds the record for the longest time without weight loss, not really a record anyone is vying to beat lol. She has seen a daily loss since though.
Psyllium husk will probably be more beneficial than bran. 2 – 3 teaspoons in your morning shake will do the trick. Be aware you will need to drink the shake in one sitting though. The psyllium will make it gel if you try to save some for later. Flaxseed meal helps too and has other health benefits. Both should be available in supermarkets.
Hang in there, you’ll soon be seeing the scales move again.

What a miserable episode for you Neohdiver. Sounds more like a Fawlty Towers farce than the way to run a diagnostic screening service! Unbelievable ineptitude adding to an already worrisome time 🙁
Hope you get better service this time round.

Aah light dawns finally. I didn’t get it either, read and reread and finally saw it. Good sense leaped in ( leptin) and saved you. Lol. 🙂

Alan,

If you really intend to follow the fast 800 diet, it is critical to weigh/measure everything . . . especially calorie dense foods (like nuts and olive oil on your Subway salad). It doesn’t take much to double (or more) the calories allotted for the day.

Not everyone intends to stick to 800 calories a day, but if you do – accurate measurement of your food is critical. Most people are incredibly bad at estimating quantities.

Freudian slip Judith? 🙂

Hi Patsy,
Apparently the only one that doesn’t affect the cravings and blood sugar is Stevia. Some people can detect an aftertaste so better to use smaller amounts if you need to.
Sugar is an addictive habit though, and if you start having unsweetened drinks etc. you soon find that many foods have a naturally sweet taste. Your taste buds become accustomed to much less sugar.

Hi judith
Thank god for mr Pilates – I believe he developed his techniques with wounded soldiers after WW1. It’s a fantastic system.
Penny

Thanks!

Had a frustrating medical day – and the appointment will be tomorrow (I hope). My initial screening was 3 weeks ago. The entity didn’t send out the post-screening follow-up letter, as promised. I waited the maximum days they had given, and then called them. Their first response was, “it takes 7-10 days.” I informed them it had been longer than 10 days. Next they insisted they had sent it out – and transferred me to someone else who would take my information and send me another copy. Ok. I could have missed it. My spouse gets the mail and recognizing important documents and getting them into my hands is not a strong suit.

10 minutes later, I get a call from my spouse who has gotten a mysterious call from someone who insisted I needed to call back right away (but won’t say why). When I called back, I was told I needed a follow-up diagnostic mammogram & an ultrasound. In the course of the conversation, they revealed that they had had a lot of people who hadn’t gotten their post-visit letters. . . red flags start going off (my suspicion is that it was all of us who got call-backs, which would be a different letter than the regular one).

We set up an appointment for today – longer than I really wanted to wait, given the delay that waiting for the MIA letter already caused.

As I’m backing out of the driveway to go to work, having pushed the button to close the garage door, my spouse comes running out under the half-closed door risking a solid bop on the head. They are on the phone. They wanted to check about my appointment for tomorrow and make sure I was bringing my doctor’s order. Aside from the date screw-up, this is the first I’d heard about needing a doctor’s order. (I don’t need referrals under my health care plan, so it had not occurred to me that I had to go find a doctor to write an order for the diagnostic test the screening entity informed me I needed and had set up with themselves. Apparently that tidbit was in the letter they never sent.

That was their last chance. Any entity that makes so many administrative screw-ups is not one I really want to trust with important health matters. If it is cancer, I’ll be heading north to one of the most recognized facilities in the country (the one that did my mother’s second mastectomy – for her second (new, not metastasized) breast cancer – like I said. Strong family history.). I had planned to get past the rule-out stage before making the trek north – mostly because I don’t want to worry my mother by asking her to remind me of her surgeon’s name until I know I may need one. I now have an appointment up north for next Wednesday. If the entity I’m abandoning manages to squeeze an order out of my primary care doc, I’ll have the diagnostic tests tomorrow then get copies of them to take north (and sneak a peak to get an early peek at what’s in them). If not, I’ll have done next week in conjunction with my appointment. Either way I’ll be finding a different screening entity for next year.

Sigh . . . I didn’t need the added stress of dealing with bungling idiots on top of waiting a month to rule out (or diagnose) cancer. Sheesh..

Juliet and Shazza, you ladies are on the right track. Those first few days are the tough ones. So much to learn and unlearn. All while your body is kicking and screaming ‘ I want carbs’ like a tantrum prone toddler. Don’t give in though, stay strong and it will pass. It gets better very quickly.
Soon you’ll be on the other side of it and giving advice to other new starters. Letting them know that the cravings melt away along with the kilos 🙂

Penny I don’t know if prunes would have been enough! I can eat any amount of prunes with no obvious affect. I know what you mean – it was taking an hour to get onto the bed at night and even longer to get off it in the morning. It took two types of prescription only laxatives to recover from one dose of opiates. I dread it happening that badly again because the pain was sheer hell.
Guess it’s why we both keep up with pilates 🙂

Hi Alan,
Hashimoto says Aldi sell small bags of seeds and nuts in low cal serves near the checkouts. Think she said 39p ea. Or you could weigh out a 30g serve and store in zip lock bags. Keep some hard boiled eggs in the fridge. Easy to boil half a dozen at a time, then they are cold and ready to eat when you get the urge to snack. I also used to weigh out individual portions of cheese(20g), strawberries(50g) and 6 cherry tomatoes all in individual reusable bags. If you are going out you can just grab a bag to take. Some celery with the hollow filled with hummus or cream or cottage cheese is good. I add dried onion and chives to a pot of cottage cheese and stir it through to give it a nice flavour.

PS Polly,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Hi Polly,
In the book is a link to info for health professionals, page 118. If you can, download and print off the info for your consultant. At the very least copy down the link. The better informed your consultant is, the more likely it is you’ll get good advice.
I think you would get approval to go ahead, anything to counteract the effect of steroids on appetite and blood sugars is surely a good thing. 🙂

Hi all,
I’ve been reading all the great stories and results on the forums for a couple of weks and have decided to share my story with you. I love the encouragement and support you give one another.

I’m a 60 year old Australin male, I started the BSD on 4/4/2016 and I’m amazed at my results so far.
I watched Michael Mosely on the Australian tv show (Insight) and then did my own research and decided to give it a go. I bought the book and my wife decided to join me as she wanted to lose some weight as well.
I was diagnosed Type 2 in Sept 2007 at age 52 and put on metformin (diabex xr) then diamicron and byetta as well as coversyl and vitorin. I never questioned why I needed these increasing number of meds because doctors kept telling me it was progressive and would inevitably lead to insulin. I have been having 2 byetta injections and 5 pills for many years now and always thought they were the only reason my hbA1c and cholesterol were always good (tested evey 6 months). I was considered “well controlled” but that was only because of all the meds I was taking.

I started the BSD with a fasting BGL of 13.2mmol/l, weight of 92.7 kg and waist of 120 cms.
As well as the diet I started walking 10K steps/day and doing the HIT Michael recommends in the book.
The next day my fasting BGL was 6.0 and it steadily dropped all last week with recordings as low as 4.7. My weight reduced by 3.9kg and my waist by 2cm. I know a lot of that loss will be fluid but I was very encouraged.

At the end of that first week I visited my doctor to review my latest test results which he said were again excellent and congratulated me on being “well controlled”. I showed him my results from the first week of BSD told him I wanted to continue the 800 calorie/day BSD and he was not too happy. He was scornful of the claim that diabetes could be reversed and said that it was impossible to return insulin production and action to normal levels in a person with type 2 because the beta cells in the pancreas had died. He said losing fat from the pancreas would have no effect but general weight loss may allow me to temporarily reduce the amount of medication I was taking. Eventually I would end up on insulin and that was irreversible and inevitable, all I could do was delay it.
I was a bit deflated but told him I wanted to try anyway. I wanted his advice about reducing my meds to avoid a hypo and he said if I really wanted to I could stop them as long as I monitored my BGLs at least 4 times per day.

On Monday 11/4/2016 I braced myslef and with some trepidation I stopped taking ALL of my medications. I figured the worst that could happen would be a hyper incident in which case I could take some medication to reduce my BGL and admitvthatvthe doctor was right after all.
I tested fasting BGLs and 2 hours after meals and I can’t believe what I’m seeing.
Apart from my post breakfast test all of my other results throughout the day and overnight have been in the non diabetic range with some as low as 5.0.
I’m having an Optifast shake for breakfast which has a lot of sugar so I think that may be the reason for a higher post breakfast result (8.0).

My weight has dropped to 87.7kg and I’m sure my waistline will reduce but for me it is more about switching my natural insulin performance back on.
I know it’s early days but I’m really encouraged that there may be a way out of what I saw as an inevitable cycle of more and stronger control drugs leading to insulin. I understand I will always be diabetic but I feel I may be able to think, act, eat and live like a non diabetic person without the need for any drugs or medication.

I hope this has not been too long-winded but I’m excited and encouraged by the other experiences I’ve read about on the forum and wanted to share my story so far. I’ll keep updating this with further results if you want me to.

Cheers

David

Hi Sooziesuzy, Iwannagetfit, jimnz and Mama03! Does that make at least half a dozen Kiwi on here?

Sooziesuzy: well done to you. Not bad for the first week! I am finding the cheese sometimes too tempting…

Mama03: yes re: the pomegranates. I have been eating a lot of pak choi in the last month chopped fairly finely and made into a salad. Livening it up with different things for variation, like apple, capsicum, chilli, spring onion, blue cheese, almonds, pinenuts, pistachio, feta… and sometimes turning it into a coleslaw with some Greek yoghurt or sugarless mayonnaise and chopped parsley or mint.

booboombum: Haha yes, that dog might not be much of a help, more a hindrance. (My elderly cat is much the same: I have to run away at the start of the walk or he tries to follow slowly and then I end up having a short and slow walk.)

Jimnz: Congrats on the weight loss. Yes, I discovered the pita pit salad without the pita , and was glad to find something I could eat when I was in a mall (aaargh) and hungry. It was very satisfying too. Great idea to make up stir fries in meal sized containers. They would be handy to take for a meal on the move and sound tasty too.
I have made a few of the zucchini muffins, with some modifications, (I had fresh chilli and spring onion to add) and frozen them for quick lunches too.
My zucchini are pretty much finished in the garden now though so they will have to last.

Anyone else planning or planting their winter veggies yet? The prices for cauli have made me feel a bit more enthused about growing some. I have got as far as buying the seeds, but have yet to rip out the seeding summer veg and of course, the weeds…

Hi Judith
I would have taken anything to stop that pain! I couldn’t move a muscle- literally!
In case you ever have to take them, the trick is to eat a prune every time you have a pill. You get constipated because the opiates paralyse the peristalsis in your gut. With the prunes, when you stop the pills and peristalsis starts again, you don’t have a problem! ☺️
Penny

Thank you Patsy 👍

And whoosh… This morning I won the battle with the scales and was a full kilo down. Funny how they get stuck for days and then bam! The only thing I did differently was drink 4 litres of water. Pick am on day 10 of the diet and that is now three kilos. Hoping for another one by Sunday and that will be four, which is I think 8 pounds. I have stayed below 30 grm carbs and eaten 50 grams fat each day. Jules, this diet would be too painful for me if I was eating carbs as i would be hungry all the time. Stick with it. That is going to be the hardest thing for me.

Yep, between 2 to 3 litres daily. Don’t we need the type of fibre we get from grains as well as fruit and vegie fibre? This is what I put it down to. Besides the bran, I’m having no grains or rice. thanks for replying. 🙂

Hi Iwannagetfit,
You’ve hit what I call the week two blues!
Many people hit a plateau or have a little gain in week 2, not sure why it happens but it seems to be a fairly common phenomenon. It will come off again soon. Someone else posted that fat cells don’t disappear but as they empty of fat, they refill with water initially. This might explain the weight gain/ plateau.
Eventually the water drains away and you experience the ‘whoosh’ effect and a sudden drop of a few pounds.
Haven’t researched that theory myself but it sounds plausible.

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