Thanks Odette C, We all on here are so different and yet have so much in common at the same time. The act of”Mediterraneanizing” for me is more about adopting a new and self-enforced active lifestyle that is fueled by substitutes refined (bad) carbs and added refined sugars with quality protein and some more oils/polyunsaturated fats. I had a bit of a worry today when I made lunch without using the scales, but I’m confident that the 10 weeks training in the principles will guide me to eating more and safer calories and thus prevent a slide into a risk of under/over-nourishment. I bought an olive oil spray that is a great aid to making salads from Dunelm. I also bought some measuring cups that I do not need to use now I am familiar with quantities & weights v calories in the foods that I eat. If we accept that added sugars are in everything and only millimeters and milliseconds away from us, our subconscious will take over – it’s a bit like what is called in Human Factors “environmental capture” like when we drive home in auto-mode and don’t remember the journey – it just happened? Having good genes helps and I think mine are basically OK. I know now that can easily go back to the Fast800 for a while if the 5:2 does not work for me or I need to again after a holiday for example or a long sail where fresh food is not easy to come by. I reckon if I calorie count when away from home and be sensible it will do the job. Back soon…

Cherrieanne, these are lovely. I am making another pot of the Creamy Cauliflower Soup from the recipe pages – and thought these would be nice on top. So I dry fried (lightly toasted) the sunflower seeds (10g) and added 1tsp tamati sauce – they are scrumptious :-). I then tried it again with pumpkin seeds, this time I sprayed a little oil in the pan first then repeated as above. They work as well – now some crunch for my soup.
thank-you!

Only 1 lb loss this week. Thought it might be worse though as I put weight on for two days running.

Haven’t been weighing stuff or counting calories and am obviously being a bit too generous with portion sizes. I’ll have a word with myself!

Hello – I’m on week 3 day 1 and would just like to express my appreciation for this regime and also the helpful advice I’ve seen on the forums for the past couple of weeks. I’m T2, diagnosed 2 years ago and managed to get off insulin within a couple of months by following a very low carb way of eating. I love to do research and found the LCHF community to be very helpful in my journey towards normalcy. Unfortunately, I took the HF part of LCHF a little too literally and over the past 2 years had regained about 15lb of the 30 I managed to drop. Following the 800 way of eating for the past 2 weeks has been incredibly easy and I’ve so far lost 9lb. But even more important for me, I’ve seen a significant drop in my fbs. Down to 100 this morning, which is the lowest it’s been for quite some time. Anyway, just wanted to add my ongoing story to those that i’ve already read here and on Facebook. It isn’t difficult, it can be incorporated into a busy life and it DOES yield results! My mantra always used to be Onward and Upward but I’m thinking of changing it to Onward and Downward!

Hi Nella,
LIke Cherrieanne, I have completed the 8 weeks and now 3 weeks onwards. It is harder as pulses which provide a lot of vegetarian protein are high in carbs, so getting a very low carb (under 50) means you have a lot of eggs and cheese!
It is doable, but needs a bit more readjustment than I expected when I read ‘eat lots of veg’ :-). As a veggie, that should have been easy!
There is a cauliflower rice for sale in most major supermarkets, I was not too impressed, but others have found it to be good. The other product is ‘barenaked’ rice. I think this is what Cherrieanne is referring to. I have a packet, but not yet used it. I am more likely to try it in the 5:2 phase as I am full enough when I make a stir-fry without needing any extras.
Good luck and just ask when you need help. There are quite a few veggies around!

Re travel insurance – you can always walk into a high street insurance broker and ask them to get you quotes. Sure they get a commission out of it from the underwriter, so you might not get quite as cheap as going direct, but they earn it by knowing which companies are the best for varying problem – it’s their job.

It’s also up to them to handle the negotiations and do the paperwork.

Worth a try.

John

Hi Nella,
Welcome to the forum. The BSD is just the best remedy for diabetes 🙂
I’m vego too and completed the 8 weeks with no problems. Have your usual foods but substitute something else for the carbs. Cauli mash instead of potato, no carb noodles or ‘rice’, I forget the brand name used in the UK but it’s made of Konjac root. Frittata instead of quiche. Try the gram flour flatbreads with curry instead of naan bread or rice. Soup and fried haloumi instead of bread or croutons. You could come up with heaps of ideas once you start thinking of low carb but filling foods.
There are also quite a few veggie recipes on this site you could try.
Keep in touch, there are quite a few vegetarians on here who can help out. Some diabetic, others wanting weight loss to prevent diabetes.

Christine,

That’s a splendid result – you must have worked hard to be so good whilst such temptations were all around.

Onwards & Downwards.

The flatbread recipe is in the “Recipes” section of this website. It’s on screen 10 or thereabouts.

John

Judith,

It sure is.

Mind you, I don’t think I’ll try the trunks I bought to “Wow” them at the beach at Monte Carlo back in the long-lost distant days when I used to go there for a Reinsurance gathering. (I always wondered if it would have been so well attended had it been held in Frinton.)

BTW – any response from the team on your Forum re-jigging suggestions?

🙂

John

Hi all,
Whoppeee, just got on the scales, after a 1pm bedtime last night after our return from Tenerife, and I am 13.1.6.
That is brilliant, even if do say so myself! Only 1lb 6 oz gain, that’s even after having two or three ice creams, and on our last night meal I had a tiramisu!
I did do lots of walking also swam, plus two sessions of Aquarobics!
Judith, can you please let me have the flatbread recipe? I would like to try them, I’m not that keen on the cauliflower rice.
Now have to trawl through all the post, 90% of which will be thrown!
Christine

Hi Hashimoto, have you tried Explorer Insurance? They were by far the lowest when I used them last year, in spite of asthma. Jules x

B: cheese, cucumber, tomato, tea. (Shopping day so I didn’t have a lot of choice of proteins in the morning)
L: rotisserie chicken thigh, salad.
Snack: watermelon, tea.
D: bolognaise on zoodles (zucchini strips).
798 cals, 28 g carbs

Hi Toofastblack, could you do the pancakes out of gram or coconut flour? You could eat it as a brunch maybe, with cream or yoghurt and berries. That would keep your son happy. Use one of the flatbreads recipes on this site perhaps. 🙂

Janet, thank you also for replying. I’m enjoying reading all the posts and learning lots of tips. Laughing at some too
Feel better already 🙂
X

I’ll check that as well, thanks 🙂

Hi Bill
Thank you so much
I’m sitting here surrounded by recipes and planning the next week…feeling positive and your words are encouraging
Thanks again x

Thanks for reply re high morning but what’s pre meal readings I’ve been doing it two hours after a meal
Thanks Alan

Hi Rhiannon and welcome to a whole new lifestyle.
Tell you what, if I say, in 2 weeks time, if you stick to the plan, you won’t be wanting chocolate, would you believe me?
No?
Lot’s of others didn’t either, but the fact is, once you dstop easting carbs and get them cleansed from your body, you don’t crave or even want them.
Give yourself a fortnight and see how good you feel then.
Best of luck on your journey

You did 🙂
But someone else did too.

Oh I didn’t realise that. Thought I had invented it lol 🙂
I enjoy the crunchy saltiness though so probably wouldn’t grind it.

Alan the morning readings will be erratic due to the dawn phenomonen which won’t be combated in a week.
Your body will need a chance to repair itself and get rid of all the glucoze stored in your organs before that happens.
If I were you. I’d concentrate on your pre dinner readings and see how they go.
Fasting readings can drive you insane if you let them.

One last thing Judith, check all other policies you have – house and contents etc. You are likely to be covered under them for say £1000 for valuables you take out the house, and possibly money theft. You don’t need that on your holiday insurance, you can’t claim off of both policies so you will be paying twice!
🙂

Hi David, great results
I’m with the girls on this one, with those results you can just keep what you’re doing.
If the weight loss slows or the sugar readings rise, you have a 30g daily carb buffer that you can reduce.

You can either use international mmol/l (millimoles per litre) or times by 18 to get the American version mg/dL (milligrams per decilitre). 150 in mg/dL would be 8.3 in Australian money. In the prediabetic range.

HI Judith,
At least you will get a baseline to compare others from. Hope it works – also sometimes you get a reduction if you have some other insurance with a company! I got a 15% reduction when I took my 2 weeks UK holiday insurance cover through LV as I had car insurance with them. That was by far the best quote for me.

Hi Cherrianne I will follow Orchid’s advice and speak to a real person!! 🙂

Staysure will charge me £463.36 🙁

Hi, yes I meant tamari (it used to be known as dark soy). Cut the tofu/tempeh into bite sized pieces and bake at gas 5 or 6.

If you do that with sunflower and sesame seeds (fry with tamari) then grind, it’s a great seasoning. Has a name but I can’t remember it.

Thanks for that Ruth, I’ll check further as your experience is really interesting.
I know that a concern is that I have had over 4 lung infections in the last 12 months – but they were all before I was put on azithromycin – talking to a real person may make a big difference as there are just tick boxes on the online sites. Also I could send them the peak flow charts to show the improvement in my asthma. late onset asthma is more uncontrollable so is a big issue with regards to risk assessment.
With cancer in remission they would not expect a mid-flight emergency but with my asthma, allergies, bronchiectasis, lung infection history they will be concerned that I could have a mid flight medical emergency, especially with air that is just recirculated for hours.
Still, I will follow your advice and see what I can get. I’d rather spend that money on holiday clothes/nice meals out than on insurance! 🙂

Judith I just seen you are having travel insurance prloblems.
We always use Staysure, they cover lots of medical issues as standard

Hi Izzy and welcome.
You could use this thread to record your losses but there is also a weight loss thread. Some people just blog on their own thread and we jump in with support or congratulations. 🙂
There is another thread for PCOS sufferers you might like to read too.

Bill, I’m actually really nervous about it! I had always planned on going when I retired – then I had to retire early because of health issues and until the BSD diet I simply wasn’t well enough to contemplate it. Sadly my wonderful uncle (out in Oz) is terminally ill so I can’t wait any longer. 🙁
Last time I went out was 28 years ago and it knocked the stuffing out of me. I’m not stopping over anywhere this time, just a few hours in Dubai for the connecting flight, so it really will feel like forever!
Can’t wait to see my family out there so that is the silver lining! I’m also going to meet up with Cherrianne which is wonderful 🙂

Waves from Australia.

Hi Judith,
Sorry about your travel insurance problems. Don’t the insurance companies realise there’s a reciprocal agreement between Britain and Aus? You will get treated here if you have the paperwork done before you leave England.
Here was me worrying you’d get 3 winters in a row if you came over soon, that’s the least of your troubles! Ridiculous amounts of money they are asking. 🙁

Respect Judith
I’m no lover of aeroplanes, I can handle the annual holiday flights although the one to Mexico was tedious, but no way could I sit on a plane all the way to Oz, I don’t thinkI could survive that intact.

Wow David those results are pretty awesome. 🙂
I agree with orchid, if you are seeing those changes to your blood sugars and are losing weight I wouldn’t worry about lowering your carbs by too much.
Maybe check your portion sizes if your sugar levels start to rise over the next few weeks or so. Or lower your carbs by 5g per meal. A few of us experienced a blood sugar spike around week 4, that took a couple of weeks to settle down.
I had to stick to 50g purely because I seem to be very carb sensitive. I also didn’t need to lose any weight as I was already at the lower end of my weight range. So reducing carbs was the only thing I could change.
Your fasting and post meal levels are perfect, both in the non diabetic range already. Keep this up and you’ll be achieving bSD legend status by the end of the 8 weeks lol!!

Hi Hashimoto,
I had an issue two years ago with my house and contents insurance. My provider had changed the company providing their insurance cover and sent me a new policy. Fortunately I read the new policy and did not just accept it as I had made no changes. My home is listed and the previous policy had not asked about that. Suddenly there was a clause saying the building was NOT listed. When I advised them it was they double the price.
It was only days before the insurance ran out, so I started looking from new insurance and every quote I could get via the internet companies did not include listed buildings.
I found a website that ‘specialised’ in difficult to insure properties and put in the details on line. It was still much more than I wanted to pay, and I was worried if this site was trustworthy. I called Which? to ask advise on the company and if they could recommend any providers specialising in listed buildings. They pointed me to the British Insurance Brokers Association for independent advise. I called them and they put me onto a specialist broker. The broker I spoke to was fantastic. He went through a series of questions, and has access to policies you don’t get via the internet providers, but also knew the things that could reduce the price that many standard policies throw into the price – eg cover for my bike, extra £10 a month. It is 20 year old and I could replace it for less than the insurance cover!
End result, it was cheaper than my initial quote that had assumed my house was not listed, and the policy was still with a recognised provider.
If you have an unusual set of conditions that won’t fit ‘standard’ policies, I would advise you talk to a broker. I saved over £300.
https://www.biba.org.uk/find-insurance/
good luck
Ruth

Haha Janet.
Google know everything!!
Penny

Help does anyone know the measurements my nurse uses to measure my blood sugar
It’s neither those on the meter they are all around 150 whatever that means ????
And what’s the equivalent in way we do it ???
Alan

Blushingida, who said you fell off the wagon?! I think you mean your trial run of a week came to an end and it was successful – you found exactly how hard it is going to be and now you will be prepared and ready. Steel yourself, now for the real thing!
Two points: be prepared for what you described, the recognised reaction called ‘catastrophic thinking’. You might succumb to a cake or chocolate so then immediately think that it’s over and scoff three more. It isn’t over, it’s just a blip so leave it at one cake or piece of chocolate and keep on track.
Second: IT IS HARD!!! Well done indeed for making the decision in the first place!

Hi orchid it’s a one off trip to australia, so chronic late onset asthma combined with bronchiectasis and multiple allergies is an issue esp on a long haul flight. Also got other medical problems, I was a bit shocked at how many when I had to list them. You just get on with life, I see myself as fit and healthy but obviously risk assessments don’t know me!!!
I’ll just have to bite the bullet or not go! And I’m definitely going! 🙂

Hi David, congratulations! If you are losing at this rate, do you need to get your carbs down lower? I have been losing at around 60g per day and am in fat burning mode.
I suspect with your exercise, and the evidence of weight loss and BS results you are already fat-burning.
The only way to get the carbs down is to record everything you eat and stop all pasta, rice, bread, beer, cakes etc and eat more fat in place of the carbs. Full fat yogurts and milk help, as do cheese. Also, if you are buying shop made foods, look carefully at the labels, they hide carbs in the strangest places! Lynn has an example of a whole chicken for sale covered in a sugar glaze.
Happy to help identify some foods to avoid if you give me some idea of the foods you normally eat.

Me too! The timing wasn’t really good, but I didn’t want to wait. I lost three kilos in two weeks, but then came Easter, two family birthdays, lunches out, a high tea. It felt as if people were trying to force feed me but it wasn’t sabotage, no one knew I was on this diet, it was just coincidence.
Things went a bit to pot over the next five weeks, although I kept trying to get back on my diet, and did the yo yo thing with the scales. I did manage to drop another kilo overall though, which is more than I would have without the diet.
I’ve decided to put all of that behind me and start the 8 weeks again from today. I’ve proven to myself that I can stick to it, and that it works. Only one more birthday dinner in May, so I should be able to make a fair go of it. Just put it behind you Blushingida, and start the 8 weeks again if you want to. I’m not going to be at goal in 8 weeks so am looking to extending the diet beyond that anyway. You’ll get lots of support and helpful advice here.
Good luck

Hawks, stick with it, we know plateaus are common even on this diet. I’ve read about the many times in the forums and mine lasted a week before I lost 4 and a half pounds last week. Go through your checklist, are you keeping a diary, getting enough water, fat and protein, cutting back on carbs and sweeteners. Can you get more exercise? Just one change can be enough to kick things off again

Hi Hashimoto, I can’t find the beginning of your thread on holiday insurance :-(. Is this a one off trip and within Europe and for how long? There should be better deals than that, I am surprised Saga is so high, they have a reputation for being fair!
Have you tried the Post Office? They were the only ones that would cover my brother who was in remission with cancer at a sensible price.

Penny, Google will know where you put your instructions?? 😉

Hi – we tend to forget that if food was scarce or of low quality and low nutritional value we would not have the option. We know that active adults require around 2000+ calories per day to stay at a constant weight depending on diet and exercise. We have the luxury of deliberately reducing our food intake in order to burn off our fat reserves. If BMI is still above 25 then would expect to have more fat to burn. If the health benefits are triggered by fasting then where is the problem if the remaining diet is balanced? I have done 10 weeks to get to the Normal range with BMI 26.2 but over that period I have changed my eating style and should no longer need to count the calories and sugar that got me here. We all knew “Eat less and move more” was the answer but we didn’t do it properly.

Hi Hashimoto, mosquitos and midgies just love me, and I always get bitten and they take ages to go. In the summer I head indoors in the evening and I close doors etc at dusk keep them out of the house! Before I go to bed I do a mozzie patrol with a rolled up newspaper and if I see one, I won’t go to bed till it is eliminated. If I have missed one, or one found the open bedroom window (have to have one window open) and I hear it, I wake up. That’s it – I wont sleep again till I have got it!
I can remember a holiday on the west coast of Scotland as a kid, my brother even got them in his hair (he is blood type AB), I was less badly effected, but still well nibbled and am blood type O.
There was a report on who attracts mosquitos on Spring Watch last year and one presenter was a ‘high’ attracter, one medium and one they ignored. I can’t remember the logic, it was not blood type but there is a genetic component that can be inherited.
My anti midgie cream is in my bag for my holiday to Orkney in 2 12 days, it should be too early for them, but if there is one awake there, it will find me :-).

You are a complete star Hashimoto always encouraging us all and yes very excited about test⭐️

Morning Hashimoto, thanks for reply. Did a bit of research on sources of Inulin and natural sources include asparagus, garlic, leeks, onion and wild yams amongst other veg – only fruit mentioned was bananas. So, can conclude that it’s all the flatulence inducing grub that does the trick. This could be bad news for me as this morning I have bitten the bullet – or should say swallowed the rocket and had some psyllium husks (in water with a water chaser) first thing and then about 6 gms of Inulin in some kefir (fermented milk) a couple of hours later. Have Pilates class booked for this afternoon……….could be interesting.