A week late and posted elsewhere, but this was my diary thread so just a quick resume.
Started week 1 at 16 stone 9 pounds (typo on my original post said 16:5 but my diary noted at the scales is 16:9
Week 9 weigh in shows me at 14 stone 9 pounds ! a whole 2 stone gone.
FSB on day 1, 9.8 this morning 6.4
Pre meal readings into the 4’s This is after stopping the Exanatide injections and cutting the Metformin dose in half
Reclassified as pre diabetic based on blood tests taken just 4 weeks in.
Retinal blood vessels looking good with no sign of inflammation (Major unexpected bonus)
Cholesterol normal, sleeping much better and feeling better than I have for years.
Future intentions are to stay with the fast 800 until I hit my first weight target of 13.5 stones then the 5:2 to take me to 12 stones (Ishould be 11 stones to get out of the over weight category but to be honest that was the weight I was at when I was 18 and training 3 times a week and playing rugby on a Saturday so maybe a bit OTT for me at 62)
I have every intention of being totally med free by the time my next blood tests come around in September.

When I titled this thread, I was in that frame of mind, It HAD to work for me as nothing else was and I was on a very slippery slope so this really was the last chance saloon! I was sort of confident but not entirely until those week 1 results hit and then I knew I could do this.
With all the wonderful help and support I have had from all the brilliant folk on these forums (more than most due to personal issues) and the absolute good, common sense that floods out of Michaels book, I have managed to get where I am today knowing that my future is now in my own hands.
So “THIS HAS TO WORK FOR ME”
Did it ????
With a bullet it did 😀
I will spend the rest of my days grateful to Michael and Professor Taylor and I will recommend my new lifestyle to anyone who is prepared to listen.
I sincerely hope that everyone who embarks on this journey has as much or more success as I have had, and one last thing folks

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS.

Hi,
I have completed the 8 weeks 800 and lost 13.5kg, now no longer obese. I have just over 10kg to go so have stayed on the 800 for a couple more weeks.
I decided to up my exercise today as I am not longer worried about damaging my knees! I was able to do a 10 minute bike warm-up, run/walk (fartlek) on a treadmill 15 minutes prior to a session with weights October/November last year when I was a lot heavier. I have only been walking for 60 minutes (usually evenings) recently a couple of times a week, plus I do an hours pilates every week.
I have started jogging a number of times in my life so I know what I need to do to build up and have completed a 5k fun run plus 2 10k’s for charity a few years ago.
I got up and went straight out 7.30 this morning (no food or drink since 9pm yesterday), walked to a nearby park (6 football fields that are not used at that time of day – grass and paths that you can go round) then did jog/walk 100 paces each around the park and walked home as a cool down. Stretched start and finish. Comfortable, no breathlessness, legs fine. Haven’t yet managed to get Garmin loaded, so can’t see my heart-rate, but it beeps at me when I get into the dangerous range and it did not do that. It was about 2.4km in 25 mins 40% jog, 60% walk, so a very easy ‘run’.
I went up-stairs and started to feel queasy. As I got ready for the shower, I was a little light headed, as I was during the shower. When I came out I had to lie down for a few minutes as I was still dizzy (I never have dizzy turns normally). I got myself dressed, and back downstairs still not feeling great and had breakfast – full fat yogurt, blueberries and seeds plus a cup of cocoa, half milk.
Started to feel better, and now fine. Could not get a BP reading on my HR monitor – error only. Did get one an hour ago 109/70. It is a wrist one so liable to be low. Pulse when I was having breakfast was about 80 – fine given I had just exercised. Now 65.
I used to go out first thing with no breakfast or just and small glass of orange, and never had an issue, so I assume it is some thing to do with available sugars in my blood and if my body is needing energy it is fat converting which is slower or worse – using protein? Anyone any ideas? I assume I also need to eat something before I go out in future – will nuts work or are they also too slow release?
Sorry for the ramble…. any background that you can point me at will help! I did a search on MM’s book, but nothing came up.

Hi Winston, that is a terrible disappointment for you! I can understand you being so upset. Please persevere though, even for just a couple more weeks. I see from your first post that the spike started in week 5, and you are one day into your final week. My high blood sugars lasted for a little over 3 weeks, I think Bill was also around the three week mark too. It is a scary time wondering if you are going to ever get through it. Like you, I dreaded the threat of meds to control my blood sugar. They really only treat the symptoms not the disease. Then slowly my fasting sugars came down until they are now consistently under 5.
So please don’t give in yet after all the effort you’ve put in. It’s worth pushing on, even if you have to do an extra week or two. Check your carb intake is low enough, 50g carbs a day is what achieved results for me. It would be awful if you dropped out without realising your goal, so keep posting and let us know how you’re doing.

Just been on a diabetes course and raised this diet and the dietician mentioned keto acidosis and also seemed to have made the same mix up. Basically she said the diet wasn’t a good idea for people on metformin or glucazid. What a disaster the course was. Although I did mention the diet loads.

Hi Lucia
Thanks, will have to have a look for them, maybe even take them on holiday with me! or is that being a bit too ‘anal’?

Hi Lucienne – I have hereditary eye problems, as Bill says please either go to your Doc or Optician for a check-up, it’s always best to nail anything like this fast to put your mind at rest.

Hi hashimoto
Snap, I wonder what else we have in common? Will have a look in morrisons for the ketostix things, any idea where they would be and what to look for ice colour of box etc?

Soup is our mainstay, you name it, I have made to for lunch, every single variant of permitted vegetable has been cooked & blended into an edible bowl of warmth, been a life-saver on cold days. Usually chuck a handful of pulses, barley or a can of cannellini beans in for good measure with lots of herbs.

I don’t weigh the veg, it’s whatever fits in the pan, goes. Not hugely scientific but I have lost 21lbs so far and my husband is touching the stone mark.

Well done Skywalker, 2 stone is to be congratulated!

Hi janet1973
confession time, yesterday evening when all the family left, we( husband) sat down with a coffee with cream and a chocolate eclair! I was still under 50g carbs when I had reckoned them up so guess what this morning I had still lost a pund, well pleased!

Hi SunnyB & Cherrianne. Thanks for the advice. Great ideas, will give them a try this week. 😀

My son is a pharmacist too, I just never thought to ask him, just ordered them from amazon. He looked a little disappointed when I showed him them as I could have got them through him! 🙁

Lucienne
I find the floaty dots in your visioin concerning.
Has your doc sent you for a diabetes eye check yet ?
I ask because those floaters, whilst normally nothing to worry about, can also be an indication of early retinopathy. Best to ask I think.

Hi Cherrianne,
Thanks for thinking of me… I have been great… had to look at the calendar today to see if it is week three or four… Yes the low carb choices here are amazing!!!! hahaha…. but we spent easter in Luxembourg and I actually learned to choose well from the menu’s…. Italian is easiest – of course not the pasta or pizza but their fish and salad choices are better.
Thanks for reminding me about tinned fish though will invest in some tonight… too far from the coast here to eat the real thing…. having grown up in King George Whiting country frozen fish does not cut it…
Anyway… yeah cannot weigh myself but clothes are getting baggy…
Fasting BSL is still hanging under 8 so, I am pretty happy – but waiting for the expected spike before I relax completely… would like to see it under 6 of course but realistically I have been diagnosed 16 years so feel I am doing amazingly well given that. Had to halve my BP profilactic med as was having dizzy spells but metformin remains unchanged for a while yet I reckon even though it is XR so will take longer to deplete my glucagon stores but don’t want to harm myself while trying to do good. Diamicron I have not taken since the day after I started this change… I have the app you recommend but had stopped using it in Germany.. will take a gander….
Thanks again chic..

Hi hashimoto
Thanks for the info, I should have asked daughter Emily , she is a pharmacist! However, (don’t tell her though!) She tends to talk down to me when I ask her leading questions! Like that. Will check Amazon.

Wow, spenloven that will spur you on through the complexities of your new diet!! 🙂

Thanks Magpie, hope it all works out 🙂

Hi spendloven have you thought of FF yoghurt with berries and nuts/seeds or ground flax? An easy no cook breakfast!! 🙂

MerryMary, Switzerland and Desperate, such a good start to your BSD journey! You will be feeling so inspired 🙂 keep posting, it makes everyone feel good.
Judith thanks for your kind words.
Lea, just jump straight into the BSD way of life, as Bill often advises ‘don’t over think it’. Just follow the plan, shout out for help and advice, someone will be there to help. Keep reading and posting. You will motivate yourself and others. If we can do it, diverse bunch that we are, anyone can! Just watch those kilos disappear 🙂

Hi notsofatty,
Haven’t heard from you for a while, I was wondering how you were doing. Germany isn’t renowned for it’s low carb cuisine so I was concerned you might be struggling.
As far as your protein goes, are you eating dairy at all? That will go some way to increase your protein count. If you have a smoothie for breakfast you could add a legume based protein powder to it. The whey based ones are higher in carbs.
Half a cup of cooked lentils are 7.1g protein for 81 cals. 1/4 cup of Tofu stir fried is 11.3g for 119 cals.
Half a cup of tinned cannelini beans will give 5.8g protein for 69 cals. Great added to a salad or mashed to a paste with some sage and lime juice to use as a filler in celery.
I can’t remember if you are vegetarian but if not:
Tinned fish 50g of sardines in oil = 8.5g protein for 81cals, 50g tuna in spring water = 11.9g protein for 50 cals. Two large boiled eggs = 13g protein for 140 cals.
If you have an iPhone or iPad, you could download the Australian easy diet diary. Scroll through the list of foods and check out the protein levels and choose some low cal options.
Hope this has helped.

Bill I think you are truly inspirational. 👍🏼

Hi Winston, I hear you but 10% of body weight is significant, a good 10k time I could only dream of, a personal best, slightly lower BP? I don’t suppose that you carb load before a run or anything but maybe its time for a medical second opinion. In his book there were some tricky cases and one who was in fact type 1 if I recall. I am lucky in that I am not type 1 or 2 and have other challenges. I will be interested to see how you get on but as for not recommending a way to lose 10% body ms and set a best 10k run time – surely you must be feeling very depressed after your linked success. I hope others can be more help with their personal Type 2 experiences. All the best..

Hello everyone – Husband & I are mainlining vegetables, we boost the dinners in particular with the veggies & anything left over goes into soup. We are eating lots of soup for lunch, it’s filling, tasty, transportable and uses up stuff in my groaning fridge.

We add a few legumes pulses to the soups and then use the remainder in the meal plans for the evening meals.

I totally agree with the other posters, relinquishing simple carbs has made me think outside the box for meals and I am going full pelt at adapting any family-favourite recipes. Lunch today will be homemade minestrone, minus the pasta. Tomorrow I am going to use that Gwyneth Paltrow Black Bean soup recipe from the Mail on Sunday magazine, adapted to exclude the tortilla strip garnish, yoghurt instead of sour cream as I only have yoghurt in the fridge . What I haven’t got in my cupboard, I stuff in something else instead, I am what my husband calls a ‘confident cook’ but do empathise with people who are less at ease in the kitchen, my motto is just to try, take adaptations slowly, use your favourite ingredients to flavour meals, introducing new ones slowly if they are off your radar.

Anything goes within the food guidelines, try it & see!

Wow well done Leanne what a fantastic first week result! I second what the others say, I reserve some calories for an evening snack – I made some caraway seed pancakes with coconut flour and one of those is really filling with a hot drink, other snacks might be a few redskin peanuts with a little piece of very strong cheese like parmesan or gruyere.

Congrats again on a very successful first week.

thank you Right on top x

Sunnyb, thats great, by the time you are there you will have loads to catch up on! Send us lots of stories of Turkey while you are out there. It will be the closest I get to a foreign holiday this year so it will be nice to enjoy yours vicariously! Until then, one last push!

Good on you Spirit, sometimes other people can shine a light on us that makes us see things differently. Sounds like you’ve had a ‘lightbulb moment’ and that will strengthen your resolve and add to your ‘why’. Well done.

Well done on the weight loss!!

I’ve always had a glass of warm milk before bed (old person stuff, I know) calms me and keeps me going till the morning. Something to digest

Thank you all for those encouraging comments. I shall happily continue with the coffee and cream and consider myself on a fast!
Janice

It’s weird at first not having a serving of potatoes, rice, pasta etc. with a meal, but amazing how quickly you get used to it. I find that I have adjusted by having two different kinds of vegetables with the protein serving, so there is variety in the meal and it’s interesting to eat. I also use some of my calorie allowance on butter for the veggies and that makes them very tasty.

Good luck to all new starters! Hope you have a good first day.

i would agree that i wished to see lower blood levels but not necessarily remarkable ! They are all done as soon as i get up. True i ran yesterday and posted a fast 10k time …last week i posted a personal best at that distance. I said before that i was pleased with my running results and had put this down to loss of weight and adjustment to the diet. The spikes of such magnitudes are hard to comprehend…is 8 weeks not enough? if not, how long? i am not prepared to go on indefinately only to see more of the same. Its the hope that kills in the end.I have 6 days left and i will see then how i feel. Right now i am gutted.

My son and husband suffer with eczema and diet/dehydration play a big part. I’ve found that 2tbsp of coconut oil in a hot bath and a handful of Himalayan pink sea salt (Asda £3 a massive bag) works a treat, a couple of times a week helps sooth and hydrate.

Hi All,
Shopping in Woolworths SA today I found a type of potato called ‘Spud Lite’. It says it’s 25% fewer carbs than other potatoes ( is not GMO), and has 8.9g carbs and 208kj or 50 cals per 100g. So a smallish 100g potato wouldn’t blow the carb budget if you ate it with other low carb foods and didn’t exceed the allowance you’ve set yourself. I allow 50-55g carbs a day to keep my blood sugars in the non diabetic range.
It’s grown by Zerella Farms in SA, who supply Woolies with other veg ( pretty sure I’ve seen their name on carrots). Hopefully Woolies or Safeway in other states will have them 🙂

Thanks for the advice. I hardly cooked so the expense is the things I didn’t have in the cupboard, defiantly going to check put Aldi though! I’d like to stick to the book as much as possible to give everything a try as my palette is rather inexperienced. I’m a bit of a simple cook being just meat, veg and a potato or chips or just a tin of soup. I’m a big cereal eater though and love a snack in the evening. So strange having just meat and veg and actually having to cook a breakfast…. Hubby isn’t liking it at all lols!

Hello, Well, where to begin and how? I do not go to any gym but I cycle and have a Treadmill at home, I use a heart rate monitor, XL spreadsheet for calculating meal total s of calories and sugar, and weigh quite regularly now. Initially my waist size dropped noticeably almost immediately. I do weigh food items and some days I have spare calories more than others. I averaged 845 per day and less than 30 gms sugar/day – read the labels you will be surprised. We all know to eat fewer things full of sugar and other carbs but we previously did not do it.

I finished 8 weeks yesterday 2 stones lighter. I only eat foods that I have always eaten but in bigger quantities of veg etc I have lost the bread, sweets and milk, no longer crave sweet stuff and do not get hungry very often.

Good luck, hoping this adds o the sum of knowledge you will be sharing on here

Lost 5lbs in my first day!! So pleased

Hi All,
The post is called ‘low carb foods in Australia’ and is in this forum. If no one posts on a thread it moves down the list each time, so you may have to scroll down a bit to find it. I’ll post something in a minute and see if I can move it up a bit.
Welcome to all you new Aussie BSDers. We are very fortunate here that we have access to products through the NDSS, that folks in the UK have to pay much more for. From reading the posts I have discovered that unless their GP’s practice will supply them they have to pay for glucose test strips! Most of us wouldn’t have even had to pay for our meters.
We also have fabulous low carb bread, read the other thread to find out. Plus today I found another staple food with 25% less carbs… A little cliff hanger to get you looking for that post lol 🙂

Hi all,

I love to drink fizzy water but most days I need a hit of sweetness and so I opt for no sugar drinks such as Coke Zero. Are sugar free drinks a suitable drink (apart from any other non sugar related potential risks) for people looking to maintain weight lost during the diet phase?

152 signatures!!!

Hi Taniavic, I know what you mean. I was out for lunch with a friend last week and I ordered the full English breakfast without the toast. My friend whispered you forgot to ask for the fat reduced version!! She follows SW. She was really surprised when I said this diet is the opposite of slimming world and you are supposed to eat fat. She ordered the book!!! I had lost over 2 and a half stones since she had last seen me.
It took me 2 weeks to get around to ditching skimmed milk and low fat yoghurts. Boy have we been brain washed!! 🙂

Hi Janice, I know purists would say don’t drink anything with a splash of milk or cream in that 16 hours but I would be demented without my morning coffee – so I still have it! I don’t think I am alone in that either!! 🙂

Saw Bill and Janet’s responses after posting So am editing. I knew I wasn’t alone!!!

Chris, don’t worry, it’s going to be variable. I’ve lost 8lb, 2lb, 2lb in my first 3 weeks. We’re all different 🙂

Sunnyb those are good results, don’t knock ’em!! You might even reach your goal of a stone by Friday!! 🙂

Hi Alexginda, you can choose to eat well but sensibly on your anniversary. How about a lovely steak with butter/mustard sauce or peppercorn sauce and a side of veg? Plus a glass of wine/champers? It’s a special occasion! 🙂

Newlife, those goals and rewards are a good idea!! 🙂

Yesterday:
B: not hungry, skipped
L: 2 chicken thighs and masses of veg – carrot, broccoli, peas, sweetcorn – with butter 🙂
D: not hungry, 2 dessert spoons of cottage cheese

Today:
B: FF yoghurt, mixed berries, mixed seeds
L: smoked salmon salad
D: 2 chicken thighs, cucumber, tomatoes, red pepper, red onion, maybe mayo

Gotta use up those chicken thighs, getting bored…

Hi Grandma48
I’m a vet this coming Friday so I hope you don’t mind me jumping in a little early. I agree with bill, your calories in your coffee won’t add up to much so you will still have gone a long time with only a tiny number of calories which is what we aim for with the fast. My fast is from 7 at night until maybe as late as 2 in the afternoon. I’m not recommending that to anyone, you understand, its only that I can manage it because I have a costa latte with full fat milk and it fills me up for a good while.

9.8 starting to mid 6 now
We all get the dawn phemomonen to a greater or lesser extent, I messaged the team about it and was told not to worry as it’s a natural thing.

Hello – starting my 56 days today! I’m a pretty well controlled Type 2 and am hoping to be able to come off Metformin. Does anyone here suffer from Dawn Phenomenon and if so, have you noticed any improvement in this?

Hi Grandma48
thanks for all the nice comments in the past BTW
To me fasting is no food. I wouldn’t dream of dropping my morning coffee, in fact I’d fight to keep it, and it doesn’t seem to be causing me any harm.
Start cutting out everything you enjoy and you’ll give up is my motto. A little of what you fancy can be good.

Thanks for your kind words everyone, I’m so glad they mean something. I also just wanted to tell you about a recent (before I was aware of the bsd) time I was out with 3 friends (of the 4 of us, 3 are overweight). The order for everyone’s coffees was 3 skinny cappuccinos and 1 regular (full fat) cappuccino. It seems a little ironic at the time and almost laughable that it was the slim friend who ordered the full fat….now it could make me cry, echoing my thoughts in my first post about the anxiety of eating foods in their natural state, and fallacy of the current weight loss industry.

Hi Chris, you won’t see a consistent daily loss but it will sort itself out over the course of the week and you can expect to weigh less each week.
There is a plateau that many people hit around the week 2/3 mark as the body adjusts to a much different way of eating.
Many people only eat two meals a day so skipping lunch shouldn’t be an issue. The only thing I would consider tweaking is you mention semi skim milk and cutting the fat off the pork. On the BSD you are encouraged to use full fat products and you can eat fatty meat and oily fish. Fat will help stop you feeling hungry and will help with changing your metabolism from carb burning for energy to fat burning.
Keep an eye on your portion sizes, especially porridge, and make sure you keep your fluid intake up to 2-3l per day.
You are off to a great start so don’t lose hope, you will start losing again soon 🙂