Well done Bill!

You are an inspiration to me and to anyone else who reads these boards. I know that your journey has motivated me to stick with it and get my own health back.

Thank you.

Deb

Hi Vicfish37, welcome to the forums.
That is a superb set of results you have there and helps to prove that age is no barrier to obtaining good health just by eating correctly.
Your statement “I truly feel this diet has changed my life and my way of life” rings so true for me and I know others. I can’t see myself ever going back to the way I was.
I remember years ago (when the OH decided she didn’t like the look of a meal she had never tried before) the Turkish chef said “You English eat with your eyes, not your mouths”
Perhaps it is time for us to eat with our eyes, ie using them to read food labels to see all the absolute rubbish we are being given as food.
Just 9 weeks in and I now have total disrespect for the food industry. These big companies recruit the brightest of the bright to work in research
They must have known for years how bad all those carbs were but “hey, it’s all about the bottom line, who cares about their health.”
Well, we do and we are about to do something about it. they had all better be aware.

Hi NewLife, I don’t think I could drink anymore water than what I am drinking. I struggle with the 2 litres a day. As for the building muscle, I can feel that my muscles are toning up, and can suck my belly in more than I could before, but it’s just not showing in the measurements, hope by the end of 2 weeks that it will. Am increasing the exercise even more today.

Oh Bill1954 I do so hope you’re right that it just suddenly kicks in and shows me that it’s working for me. Fingers crossed on that one.

hugs
Karra

Bought some Ketostix today from the chemist, I know it’s supposed to be done in the morning which I will do, but just had to have a go when got home from the shops, and it shows I’m not in ketosis. Will do a proper one tomorrow and see how it goes.

Weight in this morning at the end of week 3 and I am 1 stone down with 4 1/2 inches off my waist, hubby is 11 lbs down with similar inches lost.

Week 3 was really odd, I felt moody and depressed, had trouble getting off to sleep and dark dreams, after 2 fab weeks this was a shock. Not sure if it’s hormonal or what, which you would think at my age would be done and dusted but noooooo, Mother Nature has other plans for me at the ripe old age of 57!

Still fully motivated and looking forward, hubby has now bought shorts for our hols which are 6 inches too small in the waist, just wait till August when I will be in my jazzy capris and he will be in his shorts, socks and sandals are barred!

Brilliant achievement Bill! It just goes to show what damage sugar is causing to some folks. I have to admit I am now having a small piece of chocolate and maybe a few fruit sweets in the evening. I guess I should wean myself off totally but struggling to think of a replacement – I guess fruit maybe.

Anyhow great news on diabetes front,the main thing about sticking to the plan is the health benefits which you are seeing.

Stick with it, I’m trying to be good! Lost another kilo this week 😀 so that’s just over 24 pounds for me in 12 weeks. I actually feel it’s been much longer than that for some reason, probably the 4 weeks with hardly any weight loss.

Next thing is upping the exercise – not easy here in Bonnie Scotland where it is raining yet again. Still I won’t shrink (or maybe I will) if I get wet!

Keep up the good work, and updating us 😚

Patsy – yes that sounds practical.
I couldn’t resist a sneaky peak after my 4 warm up days and am minus 2lb which I’ll take as gospel,
and up 0.5% in fat! I then read that Takita machines [at the gym] depend on all sorts of variables, so I’ll stick to simple measures and get bloods done when NHS ‘allow’.

Hi cat girl
Thanks will hopefully get some tomorrow, will try Asda, then morrisons, Hope I get a result at one of them.
Christine

I have just rang my local Asda pharmacy and they stock the urine ketostickd, just double check if you ring up as I was told they had them for the meters, when I probed more and said surely that is for blood monitoring the assistant made more enquirers and told me they have both types, £5.50 a tub.

Hi janet1973
The choc eclair was delicious, a little sweet, however it satisfied my craving, so job done. Here’s to the next 22lbs loss.

Hi bill1954
Thank you so much bill, I never thought I would be here, however I stuck to my guns, even with a few wobbles I kept on keeping on, and as I said onwards and upwards, here’s to then next 22lbs.

I read Dr.Michael’s book in the early new year. The contents were a revelation, providing me with a final decision to follow his low carb diet. A few personal details I am a 79 year old great grandfather shortly to enjoy my 80th birthday. .I have been suffering from type2 diabetes for around 30 years. My medicine includes 2×500 Metformin twice a day. high blood pressure tablets and at 16 stone, very overweight.
With the total support of my wife I started the diet on Fed 8th.Prior to starting we both did as much research on what we were doing.
We found an invaluable source of technical information in weightlossresource .co.uk Apart from providing a list of 22,000 commonly used foods (in the UK) the listing is also broken down into constituent parts. It also offers a computer programme to provide a meal by meal breakdown. A daily and weekly total is also added and separated into calories, fat, protein, and carbs. A calorie and nutritional profile is also provided.
After reading a number of journals I set myself a very very low 20 grams of carbs a day target. In the 8 weeks I recorded an average of 22.73 carbs a day.My average calorie intake was 723.I missed my carb target by a small amount but achieved a satisfactory daily calorie intake.Over the 8 weeks my Nutrition profile was 50.3% Fat,37.8% Protein and 11.9%Carbohydrate. The diet was a total success ,I have lost 20lbs in eight weeks. My FBS is now in now in the normal range between 4.8-5.2. My BP has also improved to around 127/80 I will see my GP shortly with all my stats and recent history in the belief that I will have a substantial reduction in my meds.
Throughout the past eight weeks I have dipped into this web site, reading through the forums, bowled over with people’s results and endless encouragement from such a great diverse group of people, all showing great concern and care for one another, it has been a great help keeping me from straying, I truly feel this diet has changed my life and my way of life. I shall continue to chase down my BMI, staying with 800 diet .
Thanks for listening, keep on going

😎 Thank you Bill, way to go, onwards & downwards, well happy with our progress!

Great stuff Christine glad to have you as a veteran.
22 pounds down is excellent and nice to see you’re going to be around for a while yet.
I have to sort of admit to being worried I couldn’t stick to what looks at first like a terrifying regime, I can’t believe I’m now blithely saying oh I’ll go another few weeks.
It really has become a way of life and I’m not sure I want to change at the moment.

Hello Bill, thank you so much for being there on these forums, you have set a really great example to all of us and are a font of helpful, considered advice.

Very well done with getting as far as you have & good luck with taking it to the next stage, I am with you on BMI by the way, designed by insurance companies in the USA (was it in the 1930’s) this is not a good way to motivate anyone, health matters too & your health achievements to date are brilliant, you really socked it to us, it did work for you!

Hello gefspacegirl – Substitutions are fine, I substitute to use up what’s lurking in the fridge all the time otherwise would need to buy a new fridge.

Try almond milk if you are not nut intolerant, coconut water (Waitrose’s is sweetened with stevia, not fructose)
– aubergine works well instead of mushrooms, you could use roasted cauli as a base for something instead of stuffing a red pepper . If you can’t directly substitute, then I would adapt the recipe like you already do, also have a look at the recipe section on this site, there are some amazing ideas there.

Yoghurt with chopped herbs, garlic, mustard, horseradish or black pepper in is quite nice and if you use different flavourings each time, you’ll get a bit of variation.

Youghurt mixed in with mayo or blue cheese or other creamy dressing would make a small spoonful go a bit further without adding many calories.

Yesterday was –

Brekkie – Full fat yoghurt, pear and coconut shreds.

Lunch – raw carrots and celery

Dinner – 3 Heck sausages cooked with peppers, tomato and onions. Served with purple sprouting and mange tout.

One of our favourite lunches was toasted muffins and poached eggs. Just had my eggs with smoked salmon instead today and it’s really yummy. Obviously not quite as cheap a meal as it was, but with Aldi salmon it’s not too expensive and is very nutritious. My husband had a muffin and a tiny bit of salmon with his eggs and really liked it, despite not usually liking fish.

Hi gefspacegirl
Welcome to the BSD forums. There is a ‘contact us’ at the bottom of the page, maybe the team that monitors that contact point can help you with you quest to contact the team who built the eating plan.

However, there is no need to stick rigidly to the meal plans in the book, so sensible substitutions can be made. Think most of us using the forum, are mixing and matching – some dishes from the book and some of our own design. The key points seem to be keeping to the 800 cals a day as closely as possible, keeping fluid intake up, making sure you have a good level of fat in your diet and keeping an eye on carbs – the idea is to get most of your calories from protein and fat.

Hope your first day is going well and that you will soon be posting great results.

Got so much inspiration from reading what every one is eating so here’s my plan for today:

B: Greek Yogurt, Handful of Blueberries and a few crushed hazelnuts (223cal)
L: 4 Mushrooms stuffed with 28g goats cheese and 1 garlic clove with mixed salad leaves, dressing made from balsamic vinegar and lemon juice (272cal)
D: 2 Quorn Sausages, small roasted onion and carrot with low cal gravy found on ‘yummly’ (273cal)
S: light cheese triangle (25cal)

= 793cal

Mushrooms with Goats cheese and garlic was amazing! The best meal i have had so far on this plan and amazed that i can still fit in 28g of my favourite goats cheese in to the day at 110cal! 😀

Hi all
I am now on this thread as I finished my eight weeks with a final weigh in this morning, I have to confess that after all the visitors had left last night , we had 12 for dinner sat and 12 for lunch Sunday, then the local family stayed till 5ish, so after putting the house back to rights, we settled down and I had a coffee with cream and a chocolate eclair! However this morning I had lost another pound, mainly because I kept my carbs below 50g, anyway stop rambling christine. This morning I was 13.1! Yippee, I have lost 22lb, I intend to continue in this way until I reach a weight I am happy with, ideally I would like to lose in a few stages say half a stone then another until I feel comfy.
I think another 22lbs and I will be happy. So onwards and upwards.
Christine.

Janet, yes! “mind and body are finally in agreement with each other about what is good for me” – that’s the holy grail! Even after just two weeks I’m feeling more like that than ever in my life.

Todays menu:

B – yogurt, blueberries, raspberries and cacao topping
L – four gem lettuce leafs topped with hummus, two with smoked sprats and two with pork topping. (discovered the smoked sprats in Lidl today. They are delicious and only 173cal per 100g and 0.1carbs – approx. 6/7cals per fish)
D – oven fried lemon chicken and veggies.

Hi jpscloud
I couldn’t agree with you more about being able to control things much better now. I’ve been here nearly eight weeks now and its as though my mind and body are finally in agreement with each other about what is good for me. I am having a day off plan today, deliberately, but my mindset is completely different to how it used to be. There will always be times when I will make exceptions to the diet but I really think that is normal and realistic and Dr Mosley does it too! The difference now is that they really will be occasional treats without causing a binge meltdown. WW and slimming world used to tell us this is what ‘naturally slim people’ were able to do. I kind of get that now.

Thank you Bill

Hi there, I’m starting the BSD today and bought the book a week ago – I’ve been desperately trying to find a way to contact someone regards how to change up recipes due to food allergies and intolerances. I don’t tend to eat dairy – I get ill on cows milk, but eat eggs and hard cheese. I’m allergic to red peppers and mushrooms and in the first 2 days all of these feature. I’ve become very skilled at adapting recipes and substituting ingredients – but this is a rare health plan where no nutritional information is given other than the calories – I mean I can substitute a 100 calorie shake for a 100 calorie chocolate bar, but I doubt that would be part of the programme. Does anyone know how to reach the team that built this programme so I can get some proper nutritional info from them?

I would imagine that it might help if you mention that your doctor is happy to support you by prescribing the optifast. Then, in your position, I just might not mention how many more calories I was aiming for. If they ask you, ask them what they would recommend and sort of make noises that that’s what you’ll do. A bit cynical perhaps but them’s the times we live in!

Thanks for the tips and support already lindab and Bill1954. All the best on your journey with this and I look forward to hearing about your progress and sharing mine.
Cheers 🙂

🙂 No wonder you’re emotional Peanutbutty – how lovely to be able to help your friend like that.

I am managing my secret eating better this week – I am planning a “meal off” tonight, after I weigh in. Now… I know that’s a red flag normally – there’s a destructive pattern where people starve before weighing, then have a binge after weigh-in. That was me all last year, along with many others from Slimming world – we used to see each other in the supermarket after group, and do “dirty food confessions”! The thing is, I couldn’t then stop bingeing, and it would go on for several days, stalling any weight loss.

It is strange but I feel very much more in control now. I do still have my secret eating moments, but they are more planned and controlled than ever before, and they are getting less frequent. I hope by the end of my 8 weeks, I will be able to say I don’t feel the need to do it any more.

I think the diet has shown me that I can eat less and it doesn’t hurt. I can stop eating, and it doesn’t hurt. I can sleep on a nearly-empty stomach, and it doesn’t hurt… it might grumble a bit, but it’s completely bearable.

Far from hurting, it actually feels SO GOOD!! I am sure that I will be able to retrain my psychology to dislike the feeling I get after a binge, and prefer the feelings of slight hunger.

Mindful eating – I must work more on that. I still sometimes find myself scoffing away without thinking about it, but the much smaller portions I am having now do encourage me to make it last and enjoy every mouthful!

Posted by Maddy, Hi, I had a shock in the middle of last week , my weight loss till then was one stone at the end of week two. I weighed myself mid week, shock, put on 3 lbs. I thought back and no I hadn’t even cheated, I was very upset, so it was very reluctantly I weighed myself at the end of the third week to find I had lost two pounds. So don’t be downhearted it works out over time.

I am searching high and low for a very low carb bread to incorporate into a ’50g carbs a day’ eating lifestyle (not diet!). I see that Australia has Hermanbrot bread in their stores, which has 2.3g carbs per slice but it’s not sold here (UK). Has anyone tried the Atkins low carb bread mix? It’s available online, but expensive to buy with postage added on. I have a bread maker so am very happy to make my own if there is a recipe that is actually nice! (I have tried one before that ended up like a brick, and was totally inedible 😳)

Peanutbutty
Glad to have you back. You are clearly a very wonderful and loyal friend! I think your new attitude towards food is a very healthy one. The thing about secret eating is the calories still count and most of us would admit that it is actually a form of self-punishment not reward because there are so few benefits to come from it. I’ve certainly been there. But the rewards of just a few pounds lost are massive. I think you are going to have lots more emotional moments as you are now an Aunty but they will be great times and we will help you through anything else you need.

That’s exactly what I was worried about.

I’ve already decided, If I don’t get the support, I’ll go it alone, as I’m desperate to come off my 12 month battle with insulin.

Just got another two signatures in the petition 154 and 155.

Doing my best
Love Lucia
Xxxx

What a numptie!

lindab
you could just highlight the text in a recipe, copy it, and then paste into a notepad doc to save on your PC.

Christine, it is the chemist within morrisons that dells the ketostix. We’ll forgive you your eclair especially as it didn’t hinder things. I hope it was delicious!

Jump right in and do it!!!
If you can stick to the plan you should get the results you want to see (Mum too)
Read all the success stories on the forums, understand the hitches and pitfalls, use the recipe section, and don’t be afraid to ask questions, we all had to have day 1 ourselves.
Post your progress so we can celebrate with you or even offer the odd commiseration but never forget, you are not alone, there are many people on the path heading for the same destination and we all want to see you there with us.

Good luck ! I am also starting this diet today, having read it and thought it’s exactly the right approach for me and makes tons of sense.

My Mum died aged 67, loads of health problems but – in my opinion – the majority of them stemming from her problems with T2 diabetes over the years. It made everything either worse or just harder for her.

I’m overweight and having just turned 50 (around the age my Mum was diagnosed T2), realised I really REALLY need to do something if I’m to have a reasonable standard of health in the coming years.

I’ve had a look at some of the recipes on here – wish there was a way to save or bookmark them – and will definitely be trying them. Had a one-egg cheese omelette for lunch and got a chilli in the slow cooker for tea. Might try the flat breads recipe so I don’t miss the rice and/or chips that would normally accompany it in our house !

So they just tell me if my body is in blubber bashing mode?

It seems that if you keep your carbs down, that’s when bash mode kicks in

I don’t fancy using the sticks as I have enough to sort out in the bathroom and march at the same time so accidents are bound to happen.
Don’t want to leave puddles in the bathroom. ☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️😳😳😳😳😳😳

Love Lucia
Xxxx

Hi All,
Just joined site today. I’m in week 5 of the diet. If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative to products sold at Coles or Woolies try your local asian food shop. You can find Konjac noodles sold under lots of different names for a fraction of the price. I think last time I bought a packet it was only $1.50 and I’m pretty sure it last for more than 3 days.

Hi Orchid
not an authorative reply, cherrianne will do better, but, that sounded a lot like a hypo to me.
If you have cleared out your liver to the point where there is little sugar in storage, that may have caused it.
It may be an idea to have breakfast pre exercise now if you aren’t testing your blood.

Hi all,

I have been away for a while as I had the honour of being birth partner to my bereaved friend – a very emotional time and eating schedules have somewhat gone out of the window with first the labour and now the support/ solidarity shifts. Both mum and beautiful baby boy now doing well and back at home – if only we could attach photos to threads?!

I have been doing this plan on and off during that period – some days sticking to the plan, other times going round to cook lasagne for friend or sharing a coffee and apricot pastry with her. The main thing I have been trying to crack is the “secret eating” that jpscloud refers to. I have been telling myself that I can eat whatever want as long as I eat in front of other people; if I am eating my myself then I have to stick to the plan.

That has seemed to work to some extent on the sugar cravings (not even an Easter egg for me!) although obviously I have still been having some carbs. Now that things are a bit more settled with friend and baby I want to go back to the plan full time so that hopefully, by the end of the 8 weeks I will be able to answer more “nos” than “yesses” to the carb addiction questions (currently all yesses).

I have been keeping in touch reading the forums and must confess I actually shed a tear or two reading some of the threads here – whether it’s the support people are offering each other, or the progress they are reporting – Bill going to pre-diabetic?! AMAZING! (Having said that, I did cry the other day at the mere sight of a man walking a dog, so may still be a bit emotional in general!)

Hope everyone is well and wishing you all a peaceful week of mindful and determined eating x

Today I began the BSD. I hadn’t intended to buy another diet book but I read the first few pages and was drawn in. I think this one makes a lot of sense. My mother is T2 and I am about 15 kgs over weight. This time I have a good feeling that this diet is the one for me. I am also motivated to change right now as my mum has just come out of hospital and I don’t want my health problems to escalate as hers have done. She is nearly 70 and almost 50kgs overweight. I am seriously worried about her and would like to have her around for many more years to come. She has given up on trying to change. Perhaps if I can have success, she may also be tempted to try it.

Any ideas or help you can offer along the way will be greatly appreciated.

FiFiP
21 pounds down is nothing to sniff at either, give yourself, and hubbie, a big pat on the back.

hashimoto – thanks for the suggestion to keep it separate. I do have a database I track everything in (actually two, since I’m too lazy to carry the food data into the BG data). The stats from the BG database maxes out my doctor’s tolerance for data 🙂

I definitely did a lot of research. My family attracts medical unicorns, so I’ve gotten in the habit of doing enough research so that I stay a step or two ahead of the doctors (in the narrow area of the medical issue) . (Medical unicorns: The advice to new medical professionals – when you hear hoofbeats, look for a horse – rather than a zebra. Our family repeatedly stymies doctors, since usually what shows up is actually a zebras (uncommon diseases), and occasionally a unicorn (e.g. one on the rare diseases database – that has no treatment and no cure – for that one I had to tell the doctor what tests to run, at the time he believed there was still nothing serious wrong). Diabetes is the (uncommon for us) horse – as is my Hashimoto’s disease and Vitamin D1 deficiency, but research habits die hard.

Bill – I looked through some of your thread. Definitely attracted a lot of posts!

Thank you for all your comments. Is there a way of replying to individual posts? I am so looking forward to getting these first two weeks over.

Well, it’s been so informative so far on this forum and I believe I’m getting it right at present. Just counting calories seems to be easiest. I’ve found this the best program and with quick results. 5 kgs in 17 days ! Very motivating. Is anyone adding exercise and if you have, are you adding calories to the daily 800 to make up for the shortfall and maintaining weight loss? Thanks again

After seeing the mixed responses from professionals I have to say it will be a bit of a lottery.
Some are giving out dire warnings, others are totally supportive, it depends on the individual until we get some proper guidelines in place.

Perhaps someone should have told her that the diet can negate the need for metformin & gliclazide?
I despair at the medical profession at times.

Discussed the diet with my GP last week, I told him that I would prefer to do the 8 weeks with the diet shakes, he’s happy to provide me with Optifast during the eight weeks, but will not prescribe it until I’ve seen a dietitian.

I just hope it’s not too long before I can see one!

I was just wondering if a dietitian will have any opposition to doing the 800 cal. diet.