4.8 to 5.2 is normal!! So please don’t beat yourself up about it not being good enough 🙂
Maybe you should see your doctor about reducing your meds now?

well done!

Welcome to all the new Aussies on here. We are going to be catching up in numbers to those in the UK soon. The book was released in the USA last week so we can expect to be a truly global BSD community soon.
The more the merrier. Let’s spread the word that here is a way of life that overcomes type two diabetes and that we are no longer sentenced to an uncertain future health wise. 🙂

This is my first post having joined today.
I bought the BSD book 4 weeks ago (it’s brilliant). 800 calories a day is too hard for me but I fast at least 12 hours overnight and again about 4 hours after breakfast. I am trying very low carbs – porridge for breakfast, a thin slice of home made rye & wholemeal bread with soup or cream cheese & smoked salmon for lunch but often no carbs at all mostly just fish based food.
I have lost ½ a stone in the 4 weeks so now only weigh 10st 6lb and have dropped 1 medication (linaglyptin) so it looks good although people are now telling me I look too thin.
Despite the above and regular exercise, bike rides, walks, badminton, I seem to have plateaued and my blood sugars are around 4.8 – 5.2 (I read twice weekly, Tuesday & Friday mornings). I’ve lost an inch from my chest but none from my waist.
Given I still take metformin & forxiga I was hoping for more success. So – is the real problem for me cortisol? I am prone to anxiety. Does anyone else have this problem – If so is there anything else I can do (I am going to try “Mindfulness”).

Also, – milk is not mentioned in the book – is it to be avoided?

Hi sianeyb,
Welcome to the forums and the BSD. You will certainly get lots of help and encouragement every step of the way from the lovely people on here.
You’ve made the big decision to start the BSD, so what you’ll find is that the first few days might be tough going ( not everyone does) but after that the button will most definitely switch to ‘on’.
You put the effort in for those early days, keep to 800 cals and low carbs without cheating, and your body will do the rest.
It sounds too easy but it’s true. Read some of the posts for inspiration and you’ll see lots of us posting the same things. Being able to refuse offers of cakes, ice cream, chocolate, pizza. It’s all there.
The secret is to keep your fluid intake up to 2-3l of non sugary drinks. Eat full fat products and include oils/ butter/ cheese to stop you getting hungry and to provide fuel for your body. Lots and lots of leafy salads and non starchy veg
will help to fill you up.
Good luck with it and stay in touch 🙂

Hi Sianeyb
Welcome to the bsd! Your story will be so very familiar to many of us already here, it certainly is to me. What I see running through what you have written is actually a truth which we are only just becoming aware of. I suspect the reason why you have found it so hard to keep weight off in the past is because of the presence of carbs in your diet. They are massively addictive, massively damaging to our bodies, especially if you are T2. Simply by cutting the carbs, you will find that your diet, your weight, your life will turn around. The on/off setting you talk about? Its actually the carbs that are in charge of that switch right now, not you. So it is not about you being weak-willed or any of that bad mindset stuff we berate ourselves with. The minute you decide to eat carb-free you take back control of that switch.

So don’t feel daunted; allow yourself to be excited at the thought of the new you. If you have had chance to read around the threads here you will know that it is working for us and it will for you to. Some simple rules to follow are 1) ditch the pasta, bread, rice, potatoes and keep carbs in other things as low as you can 2) increase your fat – butter, oils, fat in meats, cheese, yoghurt, milk (you will probably find that weird but you’ll soon get used to it 3) drink plenty of water, 2-3 litres.

Next time you feel like eating in secret (if there is a next time) come to the forums, read, write, tell us what’s on your mind, there is always someone here in real time who will be happy to listen. Even in the middle of the night.

Looking forward to reading about your progress over the coming weeks. I wish you every success!

Hi Auntylil
Happy Easter! I hope you are in good spirits and able to enjoy the weekend with your family. I think you might have had some treatment since we last spoke. I hope it went well and wasn’t too uncomfortable for you.

Well, we’ve been very busy here – I say we, I mean Judith, aka hashimoto, she has managed to get a petition started to lobby the government about this crackpot idea it has got to ‘help’ people with diabetes and pre-diabetes by giving them lifestyle advice still based on the high carb, low fat mumbo jumbo. We are asking them to look at this diet and the results we are all getting as a much better plan of action and a much better use of their money.

I know you are involved with a few other forums and groups. I was wondering if you could sign the petition and circulate the link?

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/125704

The weather here in South Yorkshire is sunny but cool and windy. I lost my seedling lettuces yesterday because my mini greenhouse blew over. Gutted. Hopefully you are getting out with your lovely dogs for some gentle but chilly walks.

Take care and let us know how things are when you are ready.

Having spent most of my adult life on diets I was diagnosed with Type 2 almost 2 years ago. I am an intelligent, hard working mother of 2 grown up sons who thankfully are tall and slim like their father. All my life I have been battling my weight and my eating (the bad stuff is done away from everyone else) is out of control and something I know I shouldn’t be doing yet I cannot seem to control.
I have a few medical issues appearing and lack of sleep due to pains in my lower legs and feet is causing huge issues as I have to sleep on my own . I now need to take control. I can lose weight, I have done many of them but pile it all back on. I feel there is a switch in my brain that needs to be switched to “on” for me to be successful at any diet unfortunately, it is at the “off ” setting currently.
I have bought the book, read the theory and now going to put it into practice. I hope to be able to rely on you all for support and I am happy to help and share where possible should I be able to get myself in gear !
Good luck everyone and its now or never for me :-/

Hey Lachlan, thanks for answering. I was hoping all was well with you. I didn’t think I was ever going to get through that stage of high levels. So glad it passed. It will happen for you too.
I really think you are right about the carb levels. I have dropped a few kilos trying to get my blood sugars down, and I was light to start off with. My personal fat threshold must be fairly low I think. If I keep to 50g carb or less per day, whatever my calorie intake might be, I can keep my blood sugars in the non diabetic range. If it is the reverse, and I eat more than 50g carbs but my cals stay around 800 or less, then my blood sugars go up.
I’m assuming I’ve drained the excess sugar from my liver now, because I don’t have any surprise high readings.
Keep posting and let us know your progress. Hopefully it will be good news soon.

Hi Jpscloud,
I don’t think you came across as being lonely. I didn’t read it that way. What concerned me was the sense of shame about the secret eating. No one should feel like that about themselves. I really hope that the guilt has shrivelled up and died now you’ve brought it out into the open.
You are obviously a resourceful and loving carer to your elderly parents, and you also work and are mostly succeeding with a low cal/ low carb diet. All credit to you for managing all that. Can’t wait to see the new you emerge once you realise that what you are achieving is actually pretty amazing and you are going to beat the secret eating. 🙂

Hi
I am an Australian as well. I am on week 3 and have lost 3kg this week was tough with
Easter but I stuck to it
Look forward to reading your results

Thank you RozyDozy! My relationship with food is not rational, so I know I have to factor in lapses. My favourite saying at the moment is that a lapse does not have to become a relapse – I can’t remember who should get the credit for that but I suspect I read it in the Fast 800 book or on here.

Thanks Hashimoto… life is very busy just now but I am lucky as my parents are my great friends and although dad is now severely disabled and bed/wheelchair bound, mum is incredibly active for an eighty-odd year old, and values her independence so she manages most daily things well. I just look after some of the heavier work for them and help with gardening and so on.

Thanks to you too Fatty – hope you are doing well.

I’m feeling very strong just now, I think I have lost around 5lbs since starting the diet just over a week ago, but will weigh in at slimming world tomorrow, provided they are doing the group on bank holiday… they usually do. I want to keep going there as I like the support from the group and the BSD is similar to slimming world’s SP plan without the calorie counting. It’s also a good independent weigh in so I can’t delude myself with my own scales!

Hi Judith and Lucia, how I’d love to come for a spring walk in the woods with you. I haven’t seen wild violets or wood anemones, cuckoo pint or lady smock for years. I even get nostalgic watching TV shows where they drive along a country road lined with cow parsley or rosebay willow herb.
Today I took my children and dog to the beach to run off some of their chocolate induced hyperactivity. We stayed on to watch the sunset and saw the Mother and baby dolphin that my Mum and brother were swimming with last week. It was magical, watching the sun set and the dolphins play. We live in a world full of glorious things that we only see when we take the time to go out and find them. So glad you’re finding them Lucia, and thanks to both of you for sharing the joy around.

Hi Jilly, not sure if you meant my post but I didn’t count the calories for my brunch precisely – I reckoned about 400 calories, erring on the side of caution so it was perhaps slightly less.

I’m curious now! Let’s see… my brunch contained:

Gram flour is 356 calories per 100g so 25g would be about 90 calories.
The eggs I buy are all sizes so I usually count 80 calories per egg for an average.
Linda McCartney sausages are 127 calories for two.
Tomatoes are around 22 calories each and I had two = 44 calories.
A teaspoon of butter is about 5g, 36 calories

That makes 377 so I wasn’t far off guesstimating 400 calories.

I can’t be precise about my home made rye bread – I count 150 calories per (thin) slice as it is really dense. It doesn’t make my blood sugar spike, so I am very lucky with that.

So today’s food:

B 100g Greek yoghurt with 150g raspberries – about 170 calories

L (planned): 1/3 pot hummus with celery and carrot sticks – about 200 calories

D (planned): 2 chicken chargrills (using up freezer stocks) with green salad – 310 calories

Snacks (planned) – 300g strawberries – 100 calories, 4 squares of chocologic dark – 58 calories

Total 838 calories planned. I may also try some spicy gram flour coated prawns (thanks for the recipe Bill!), for a further 200 calories, as a treat for Easter Sunday!

Hi Sue,
I too get the occasional bout of constipation which can lead to a bad head. Like you, I prefer to avoid laxatives. For me, I think it may be eating a bit too much protein and not enough veggies. Upping my intake of fluids (a peppermint tea, perhaps) & fruit/veg certainly seems to help. I would also suggest upping your activity levels if possible – that seems to help for me. Maybe it’s keeping your body temperature up (so muscles are relaxed?) or just being vertical (gravity will eventually take over?)… But the “download” will eventually happen. I find while I have a headache I might be prone to pigging out on something so it’s a blessed relief when I return to normality.
Anyway, good luck! Take care,
Rose

You’ve really got your teeth into this one Lynne.
Go make him as uncomfortable as you can, more supermarket officials should be getting this treatment, after all, if this way of eating ever becomes mainstream, it will be them who have to adapt to survive.

Hi aquatex, welcome to the forums. When you have come to terms with all these measures can we hope to see some of your recipes posted to the website? 🙂

Great campaign Lynne! Go girl, go 🙂

Hi dearbecks, welcome to the forums. Great advice there from lynne and bill. I’m going to look forward to your future posts about your improving health! 🙂

I took the sneaky photos yesterday, ready to email in response.

Three poultry products, and this is what the labels say:

Sliced roast chicken
British chicken roasted in a sugar marinade

Whole roast chicken
Roasted in a sugar marinade

Roast sliced chicken breast
Succulent skinless chicken breast gently cooked with brown sugar and carefully sliced for the finest flavour and texture.

But their response stated ‘not marinated in sugar’!😳

How many people would just see chicken, think it’s healthy and buy it without checking? I know I used to.

I’ll email back tomorrow.

Not perfect Lucia, nobody is, but you have become a shining light on the forums because of your attitude, perseverance, and brilliant sense of humour. I always look forward to your posts.
Above all else, given how nervous you were at first you are having great success and there will be loads of people following your journey so your experiences, good and bad, are all going to help others.
Long may it continue.

Hi Tallyho, you have joined captainlynne and myself with the ditching of ‘fat’clothes 🙂

toofastblack, Bill is right, visualise all those blocks of lard. Even better on your next trip to the supermarket put 8kg of lard in your trolley, that’s 17.6 lbs. That would make 35 half pound blocks of lard!!! If you see it for real you will be stunned at how much fat you have lost. Perhaps we should all do that!! 🙂

Hi Dearbecks and welcome to your new life.
Great advice from Lynne, I would add check out the recipe section for meal ideas, there ard some great ideas in there, a lot of them now from forum posters.
Don’t be afraid to use herbs and spices to liven things up, and above all, enjoy the next 8 weeks, it’s going to be amazing.

Hi Lynne, I’m doing the same, no way I will let myself get that big again now I’ve found this diet/way of eating. I’ve still got two sizes in the wardrobe too!! I kept them in the hope that one day I could wear them again.

I bought two lovely pairs of trousers about 11 years ago, one week later I couldn’t get into them, so they have never been worn! I’d love to think the day will come when I can get into them. If the fashion has changed, well I really don’t care.

As the big clothes are being ditched I am regaining wardrobe space so that is a second bonus!!!! 🙂

Toofastblack, numbers tend to mean less as you progress, but, picture that 8kg as packets of lard and you will see that is a massive amount to lose. You should be very proud of yourself, you’re on track to where you want to be.
Doesn’t really matter if it takes a few extra weeks when it’s the rest of your life at stake does it ?
Looking forward to seeing you get to the finishing line as a very happy BSD’er

Hi Lynne, happy easter to you too. I realised I was causing concern to the waiters when I left all those carbs on the plate, the assumption was that I didn’t like the meal and I usually ended up explaining why I hadn’t eaten certain foods. I decided it was just easier to explain while I was ordering. I have been surprised how nice people have been about it. One even asked the name of the diet!! Another way of spreading the word! 🙂

Hi leelye, I too am very gluten intolerant, you will already have had to negotiate a lot of changes in your diet so I am sure you will manage this too.

Cashews are a good nut to eat, so don’t worry about the ones you can’t tolerate.

Re raw veg, I think making and freezing portions of soup will be a good idea for you. A low carb, low calorie soup could be followed by a few nuts. I don’t know whether you can eat any kind of pulse or bean but you could always make a large pan of soup and add a can of beans to it before whizzing with a stick blender. If you tolerate cheese it is always a tasty addition to most soups.
Hi Ju, it sounds as if you have similar problems to Leelye, if you can eat nuts I wouldn’t worry about eggs and dairy. What about avocado? if you can eat that it is full of healthy fats. Add plenty of olive oil to salads. I have a recipe in a Rose Elliot book for a simple soup made from onions and yellow split peas – after cooking you add a good drizzle of olive oil and mild raw onion to the bowl. If you can eat split peas I will post you the recipe.

Wishing you success, 🙂

Great minds and all that, Judith 😃

Welcome to Americans joint the BSD global family 😃

Happy Easter Georgiarose and Judith.

Here’s another grandma starting a new life (at 65!).

Judith – I must try that at the residential conference coming up in April. Breakfast and lunch are buffet style, but evening meal is pre-ordered and table-service. Must say I’d not thought about doing that, normally just take the meal as it comes and leave the carbs on the plate. Thanks for the tip 😃

Enjoy those meatballs Christi. What did you decide to do with the plums?

Judith – so glad I’d kept my old uniforms as I grew out of them – gone down 2 sizes in blouses and have another 2 sizes in the wardrobe before I need to get new sizes!

This time it’s different – as clothes get too big I’m disposing of them. Because I’ll not need them again, will I? If something can be altered, I’ll do that for a while. But most going to charity shops or in the bin. 😃

Thanks Janet, it was as much Lynnes idea, we both thought of it the same day but she spurred me into action! 🙂

Hi jillyb, beany and moyjos, welcome to the forums!

Quite a few of your fellow Aussies are on these forums!

Personally, Moyjos, I have found this far fast 800 much easier to do than the 5:2 and for similar reasons. We will look forward to the three of you posting regularly so we can celebrate your progress! 🙂

Leelye, it isn’t hard to substitute things you can eat..if you can’t eat raw veggies then eat cooked ones.

I am working with quite a few prohibitions too and it hasn’t been hard…you just work from what you can have, find recipes that fit, stick within the guidelines. If there is a recipe you like and it includes stuff you can’t eat leave it out.Thats what I am doing.

You can do it. There are apps on most mobile phones or as downloads that show you calorie counts and carb counts too…they make a huge difference.

Start from what you can do/can eat and work from there.

Hi Beany.

Welcome to the forums.

Hope we’ll soon be reading your posts.

Welcome to the forums Mollytop, I’m sorry you had that response from your GP. It is early days and a lot will not have heard of it. Follow the diet, shout for support or advice, there are lots of lovely friendly people ready to help. Keep a record of your weight, BMI, measurements (with a tape) and show them to hour GP on your next visit – and every visit after! I find it useful to create an excel spreadsheet which I update every day, then you can just print it off every time you visit.
Keep posting so we can hear all about your progress! 🙂

Hi aquatex

Welcome to the global BSD family 😃

Not thought about that before, but I automatically take ‘ounces’ to be weight, not volume. For liquids (fluid ounces) it would be volume. I’m in the UK, but I think the same would apply in the US.

Great result Toofastblack. 😃

Hi penny, looking forward to hearing about India when you have managed to warm up!! 🙂

Great news Munchkinsnan 😃

My trousers keep slipping down and my skirts have mysteriously got longer😃😱

Hi Dearbecks

Welcome to the BSD family.

First, clear your kitchen of carbs and all the foods not allowed on the plan. Forget all you’ve learned about dieting in the past. Use full-fat goods and milk. Drink plenty of water.

There’s usually someone on here to give advice and/or support. Check out all the posts on the forums. If you have a question, please ask.

And let us know how you and your husband progress with this. We love to hear the stories.

Hi Trees, I have got to the point where I say it straight when ordering – ‘I can’t eat any carbs so ..’ I would like my curry serving without any rice or breads, my steak serving without any chips etc. I haven’t had a single negative reaction. Usually it is ‘can I get you something different to go with it?’, side salad, veg etc. I have always managed to find something I can have and reject the carbs.

Have a great birthday on Monday and Happy Easter 🙂

Hi jpscloud, looking after elderly parents is so demanding even though it is done with love. No wonder you need some time on your own to recharge your batteries! It could also be one of the reasons for the ‘secret eating’ . Well done for following this diet with all that going on in your life.

Hope you have a great Easter weekend 🙂

Georgiarose, at 63 I know exactly what you mean about starting a new life at a grandma age.

Readings dropping from a scary 17 to 5 is wonderful, you must be so happy. Congratulations to you and hubby on your weight loss so far 🙂

Christi isn’t it marvellous to be able to get into old clothes (usually hardly ever worn) it’s like being given a whole new wardrobe while not having to spend any money – I know, Bill, I’m a tight wad but I’m from Yorkshire so I can’t help it!!! 🙂

Newlife, I’m so happy you weren’t tempted – it’s a wonderful freedom when that happens isn’t it? 🙂

There is a dark rye bread in the low carb section of the Elana’s pantry website plus a few other breads. I haven’t yet tried any of them though.

Sending strength and support to everyone that’s struggling. X

Thanks christi and thanks to everyone I haven’t mentioned 🙂

Hi lucia, you have shared being a couch potato before this diet and have very rapidly built up to 6000 steps and managed 16,827 steps in a single day. That is inspirational for others starting out on building up their steps.

You show it can be done by anyone with some motivation and determination.
Your 16,827 steps was quickly followed by resisting temptation and sharing how.

Nobody is perfect – but you had a perfect moment or two in regards to that chicken!!!

The sun is shining and the woods and hills are beckoning me, are you coming lucia? We can admire the buds breaking, collect wild garlic and search among the leaf litter for shy wood anemones. The dog violets and celandines are already lighting the way in glorious colours 🙂