Wow neohdiver, it took some guts to try that experiment of yours but it has paid off!! This diet never ceases to amaze me!! 🙂

Wow, funkydoo, two and a half inches of your waist in just 3 weeks is fabulous!! 🙂

Hi, ignore any yoghurts that say skimmed or no fat, or 2% fat etc, also most of the fruit yoghurts have hidden sugars added and or other sweeteners that you should not have. Most full fat do say that on them and the Greek yoghurt has a higher protein content than other yoghurts which is beneficial especially for veggies – it is also lovely :-). Adding berries is fine – blueberries or strawberries are not too high in cals and blueberries release the sugars slowly which does not cause spikes of insulin. A good pinch of cinnamon as well as some nuts to yoghurt is really good.

Catgirl I wish I could press a like button for that message to Janet!! 🙂

I know my son has had to offer real examples of going the extra mile etc when being interviewed for pharmacy jobs.

Dear Janet 1973,

Happy belated birthday. In relation to you wanting to work in elderly care, the fact that you are getting to the interview stage means you are doing something right. I retired last year from my job as a hospital matron after nearly 38 years in the NHS and have interviewed hundreds of people over the years, many of whom seemed over qualified for jobs such as healthcare assistants.

There is absolutely nothing wrong in your supporting statement asking them to see past your qualifications and to look at what is in your heart. Sometimes in life we get to a stage when a vocational role is more important because you have so much to give and so many transferable skills to offer. Your business as a dog groomer means you have customer care and communication skills, problem solving, time management, and maybe conflict resolution skills as not all customers and clients can be happy all of the time. Your skills with dogs mean you have to look for non verbal signs of distress, exactly the same as with elderly patients or clients. You need to ensure respect, dignity and compassion in your role. You obviously can work alone or as part of a team and can take instruction as well as delegate. And you would never take on any task without the appropriate training, these are all things we would look for.

Many areas now use value based questions so you need to think of real examples of situations where you have perhaps gone that extra mile for someone (a dog or client or friend), when you have demonstrated care or compassion, when you have had to challenge poor performance or attitude, it’s about what YOU did, not what you might do or what we may do.

I wish you the best of luck and I am happy to offer any help or suggestions, take care.

I’m now in week 8
Blood sugar as low as 5.4 after exercise down from 25+ in the morning . Now 9.5 in the morning
Exercise 3 times a week dancing and loving it
Weight loss 18 lbs
Blood pressure 135/75 down from 165/85
Calories average 900 per day
No INSULIN for 7 weeks……

I feel amazing my bmi is nearly normal my energy is boundless for the first time in 12 years I’d being diabetic (3years on insulin) and for all you beginners and non believers out there IT SOMETIMES IS HARD IT SOMETIMES IS DISHEARTENING BUT IT REALLY WORKS…ITS CHANGED MY LIFE COMPLETELY . I am going on a 2 week holiday soon and intend to walk a lot and keep of the sugar as I refuse to spoil all my hard work ….. can’t believe I’m actually saying all this 😀😀😀😀😀

hi thanks soooooo much for your very helpful comments i already feel better I have given myself a good talking to and i am ready to start back on the only eating plan that has worked for me i will let you know how i get on i am also re-reading a lot of the posts as there is a lot of very helpful suggestions this forum is brilliant keep up the good work everyone

Hi, Welcome on board!
I was puzzled when I first heard people talking about the Mediterranean diet a few years ago for a similar reason! What it is looking at is the amount of fresh foods – especially veg and fruit that all the countries around the Mediterranean. They eat very few processed foods. There is also a lot of olive oil, fish, beans and nuts. Meat, eggs and full fat products are eaten in small quantities. So – no it is not a diet full of pasta and pizza!
Oats, I made my own muesli to a similar recipe to yours and for the 8 weeks, all processed carbs are out, so no oats. Rolled oats ie, non processed, are ok in small amounts – but best left alone. I now use the seeds and nuts and add to full fat muesli and add berries to that an I find it as filling as my muesli was. 60g full fat Greek yogurt, 30g blueberries (or brambles/blackberries/strawberries), then add 3g each of linseeds, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds, 3 almonds chopped plus a good pinch of cinnamon.
http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/diet/mediterranean_diet.htm this is a good description of the principles..
good luck

Hi – if you have noticed some questions in the ‘Over the eight week line and after’ on ketostix – these are a product you can buy that tests urine and will show you if you are now fat-burning. Hashimoto or Bill will be better at explain the background! you get them from a number of the grocery stores in the pharmacy.

Full fat Greek yogurt should have 220 calories per cup. Not sure about regular yogurt, since I buy it far less frequently.

I add 3 Tbsp sunflower seeds (or fewer depending on my eating plan for the day), 20 grams of pomegranate kernels, and .5 – 1 tsp of cinnamon to 5 oz of full-fat Greek yogurt..

Kate_ls, that would be some impressive night out to add 1kg! Probably just some natural variation along with water gain. I actually put on nearly 2.5kg in my 10 days, but about 1.5kg fell off in the first two days of the restart – just like it did at the original start. I put that down to glycogen, plus extra food passing through.

Hi Alan

Until someone more expert replies, I’d just say avoid anything that says Low Fat or 0% Fat, and also any fruit yogurts.

Originally I thought Greek Yogurt was best, but noticed there was a 0% fat version of that too.

You’re right they don’t say full fat – it’s a minefield trying to choose!,

Glad you’re enjoying the blueberries, and hope you get some more answers soon.

Really pleased with another Inch off my waist (40inches to 37.5 inches in 3 weeks) and 6lb off in total though I have yoyo’d in last two weeks with holiday and work commitments making planning meals harder. I’m one of those who isn’t losing lbs in vast quantities but seeing a huge change in my shape, particularly waist measurements as above. So be encouraged!

Bruno you’ll do it!!! 5 lbs and you are at that weight beginning 16 st. I was lucky that this book appeared at the time I was piling weight on for no apparent reason, others were less fortunate. I’m pretty sure, the way my weight was going pre BSD diet, that I would have had an awful lot more to lose! 🙂

Just Me – a brilliant start to your BSD way of life and you are over the toughest week! 🙂

Hi BobSmith, good decision to get the book on your kindle! Don’t worry about your cholesterol as I think you will find, like others, that it comes down on this diet! the only thing which concerned my GP was the fact I was eating full fat. I get my cholesterol checked next Tuesday and I expect there to be an improvement 🙂

Lucia we called it twosie balls – or however such a daft word is spelt!!!

Yeah, Lucia we could defo play it!! 🙂

Olliej, what janet and FiFiP say!!! You could always eat like Bill1954, he sticks to the principles of eating full fat, no starchy carbs, tries to keep carbs below 50g and keeps an eye on portion size without counting calories. Perhaps you would find that easier?
I love what fifip says about your body being a temple not a warehouse!!!

Starchy carbs are what got us all into this mess in the first place!!!

You did it tough for 8 whole weeks, so doing it Bill’s way should be a doddle!!! 🙂

Hi Janice, I’m sticking with the principles of the fast 800, it’s so much easier than 5:2. Some days I eat around 800 other days anything up to 1300. Obviously my weight loss has slowed down but I am still slowly losing., but I don’t need to lose more than another 5lbs.
I don’t exercise enough either but once the weather is warmer no doubt I will be doing a lot of gardening!!! 🙂

Ah, I live in Teesside, perhaps we should meet up sometime when you visit Saltburn! 🙂

Hi captainlynne

Chin up, chest out, shoulders back, stomach IN Atten-shun! Saluting General Lynne
Eureka

Ha ha, no, I have lived in Rotherham for nearly 20 years now. My family are all still there and I have a holiday business in Saltburn so I visit quite regularly.

Daft question but what’s full fat yoghurt ,I looked all over Tesco couldn’t see name full fat so got natural plain tub for a pound it’s massive too
I stuck blueberries in small bowl of it delicious but is it bad !!
Cheers Alan

Omg Janet, so did we! Do you still live on teesside? 🙂

Hi EIMary
BONZA!
From an unwhinging Pom
Eureka

So here I am, nine weeks in. (I did an extra week to compensate for Easter excesses. ) I have lost almost 2 stone and I feel good. I still don’t exercise enough but as the weather improves I am to increase that. The thing is, I am finding it difficult to move on. I don’t know how long to stick with 800 and what to add if I decide to go 5:2. Any ideas?

Hello fellow 800’s,
Whilst trying some clothes on today when shopping, I looked in the mirror and wondered to myself how I would know if I was in fat burning mode. It made me chuckle to myself! But how do you know if this is happening and what can you do to make it happen?

Awesome Lynne 🙂

Hello to all,

I’m new to this and not yet embarked on a programme – so far I’m thinking about my options and how I can make changes. I have a few questions about foods:

1. I get that the Mediterranean diet is meant to be healthy. HOWEVER…..Italians eat loads of pasta and pizza as well as cakes for breakfast! And those we are meant to avoid. I’m baffled and confused, especially about the pasta. Can anyone enlighten me?

2. I normally eat a breakfast of my own muesli: it’s rolled oats, with mixed seeds and nuts. No sugar, no dried fruit, just semi skimmed milk. Is that to be avoided too? Are ordinary rolled oats OK to have or need they be the jumbo type?

Any advice and thoughts welcome, please 😀

Hi olliej, sorry to hear you’re going through a tough time.

But you did low carb for 8 weeks, that’s a huge achievement and if you’ve done it once you can do it again! Tomorrow is a new day and you CAN do it.

We called it toosies in Teesside

Judith, what you said for the newbies thread sounds good to me. We’ll see what bill says.

Hi Toofastblack. I was used to going to the pub a couple times a week, but have refrained apart from one occasion when i went completely overboard! I had two vodkas at home last night, and to be honest before the plan i had a high tolerance to booze, whereas last night it was my limit. So that has got to be a good thing. The social aspect is whats bothering me, hopefully in a couple of weeks time i will have seen more results and will be able to go see my friends and have the odd one and thats it to just soda like you yourself. Bound to get ribbing from them but to be expected i suppose. At present its too much of a craving. Good luck 😀

Hi FoFi. Good luck with the rest of the plan, after my slip up with copious amounts of guiness i put on 1kg! Shocking after just one evening of excess

Hi orchid. I know what you mean by the need for something naughty after a drink. thats definitely a massive part of the decision to allow or not allow booze. Good luck to you

😀

Hello OllieJ – as Janet says, you have shown great determination + focus, you did it for 8 weeks!

What many of us are now coming to terms with is that the Med principles are a way of life, not a short-term diet fix.

Simple Carbs are poison, or, we could say an occasional treat, for weekends or high days and holidays.

Chuck out the bad foods you have bought, stock up on Med classics, get a good repertoire of recipes under your belt and perhaps look at 5:2. A more relaxed week with a couple of days tightening the ‘food belt’?

Hubby has been BSDing with me and we have decided that sugar loaded foods, white pasta, spuds and white rice are toxins, extreme but it helps us when faced with temptation.

Your body is a temple, not a warehouse, treat it well and give it respect!!

Cherrianne, I don’t do any other forums either. I dislike facebook as there are always pictures I don’t want to see with no warning. I think this site is much more productive.

Pork chop egg and veg. Mmmmmmmmmm
Just an apple for beakfAst.
Great I don’t have to overstuff myself.

How you doing Bill?
Hashimoto love the song. When you were little did you play with two balls against the wall. Understand and overs and bouncys. We could do it to that

Love luciaxxxx

I only use olive oil for salads or cooking in the oven. For frying I use linseed oil or butter, olive oil degrades at high temperatures

I use the free version of myfitnesspal website and app. The numbers are mainly crowd sourced so not always accurate. And also shops change the sizes and amount of sugar in things.

The app seems better for new products with a bar code as I can scan it with my phone, and it also searches well through my previous additions. The defaults tend to be US, but most supermarket products I have scanned have worked well. The website and app are linked.

Oooo that’s great news, thank you. That means I can spend my birthday money. I do like buying new gadgets!

Hi olliej
You know can always come here for help and support. You did brilliantly well to maintain the programme for 8 weeks. Your next challenge is to get your head around the fact that you can never go back to your old eating patterns. The carbs have to stay gone for good. But you’ve learned how to do that, you just need to make it a lifestyle rather than a diet. You can do that!

Thanks Judith,

Feels good to be in the veterans club and thanks everyone for all the help and encouragement I have received. 🙂

That sounds a great idea and thank you to those making it happen 🙂

I use an app on my PC that I have had for a while – Fitness Assistant (x3msoftware). It has a lot of pre-programmed foods – so standard things like carrots, onions etc are already in there. There are also processed foods, but mainly American brands. I put in the ones I buy in the UK myself – it is a pain to begin with, but you soon have your regular shopping list in there. It also holds weight and any training etc.
Others use apps on their phones – they would have to give you the details as I have not explored them as what I have works for me.
It would also be very easy to set up a spreadsheet with the foods you use regularly. The supermarkets who do online shopping are now keeping the food information along with the food. You don’t need to be logged on or use the online shopper, just type in the product and you will get the carbs and calories under the description. you can certainly do that quickly for one of your days last week to get an idea of what you had and then plan the future according to what you find.
Hopefully some others can advise on the phone apps.

help!!!!!!!! finished my eight weeks about three weeks ago felt really good blood readings were really good but now I am starting to undo all my good work with mindless eating lots of carbs sugar etc why? need to go back to square one – tomorrow will be a new start ( i hope) just need some ideas of how to pick it up again any little grain of encouragement would be greatly appreciated just feeling sorry and (annoyed) for myself thanks in anticipation

I am near the end of week 2 and the weight lose is 6lbs. I have now brought a BS monitor as I have been told by my GP that I don’t have to monitor my BS as I am on Metformin.

First reading yesterday about an hour before I had dinner (under 800 calls and under 50g of carbs for the day). Reading was 6.0, did a reading 2 hours after dinner 7.3, reading when I got up this morning 8.2.

Two days ago I halved my Metformin and do not feel any different.

As I have never monitored previously I will do from now on.

I started on Wednesday .so far so good .
I shall be interested in your results .

Hi Izmoll1,
I would ease my medical concerns first before actually starting the diet. Try to get as much professional advice as you can be it from pharmacists, other doctors & nurses. I know what you mean about not much comment from your doctor because mine is the same way.

After all that’s said I would start by just cutting down on carbs & increasing greens. I don’t weigh spinach, kale, cucumbers, sprouts, lettuce, broccolli, cauliflower & pile them on my plate. Unfortunately my tummy can only digest so much fiber, with my wild rice & quinoa, so I have to process/blend my veggies for easy digestion. All the best to you.

Like nuts but are high in calories soooo I got bowl peanuts in their shells they’re a pain to eat but makes you eat em slower and as they’re dry I’ve got a pint of water
Nutritious snack and the fluids too wow and only my first day,this is so easy
Ha yeh not really .

thanks for replying Orchid, do you work out the carbs on a particular website or on an app?

Well… I did it… I halved my morning metformin… and my pre praedials are lower than ever… WT???…. I am wondering if Metformin actually does anything to my body at all… I get no side effects…. maybe I have just been swallowing money all these years for nothing. My endo told me a good walk does as much good as a metformin… – so If i drop four tablets – is that FOUR additional good walk s a day.. already cover about 12km on average… hmmmm will be interesting to see what happens next! Week five starting…

Hi LolaF,
It depends on what the carbs are for your 900-1000 calories. If they are 60g or lower for the day, you are probably ok. A number of folks on the 800 plan do not count calories at all, but watch portion size and count carbs only – they aim for 50g per day and are losing weight and comfortable.
Initially I allowed myself snacks – carrots or cherry tomatoes or nuts. However, I weight that lot one day and realised how many calories I was consuming extra! After that I budgeted for ‘snacks’ in my plan for the day – I allowed 50cals and stuck to nuts or cherry tomatoes.
The first week was the hardest for me, after that is gets easier. For your meals, if having checked the cars, you find that they are too high – check your plate size. I now have a smaller plate, so it controls portion size and if that is full – I now feel full. Also – are you still using low-fat products? If so, take a deep breath and ask for full fat next time. it keeps you full for longer.
I used to be a snacker, but that went about week 4 – about the same time as I moved to fullfat products.
good luck and keep on the journey.

I’m trying to follow the principles of the BSD – which generally include more carbs than I have been eating – in particular carb families (pulses being one of them). Their “no-carb” foods all contain a fair amount of carbs – they are just what the author considers friendly carbs. In the past, my body has not treated them as friendly carbs. I’m cautiously optimistic that the combination of 800 nutrient-rich calories and 16:8 IF is changing that!

Last night’s experiment was a complete success. I actually was still awake at hour 3, post eating. My BG was back down to 5.17, and this morning it is 4.33.