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 🙂

This thread has been very helpful for me so I thought I’d contribute:

Yesterday:
B: Greek yoghurt (FF) with mixed seeds
L: I was on the road so I had to think outside the box a bit, I bought a bag of peanuts and ate about 50g I think (I’m one of the lucky ones who isn’t diabetic so I’m not counting as religiously as some of you) – surprisingly that kept me full.
D: Cheese salad – small square of cheddar grated over a mountain of salad leaves, toms and cucumber.

No chocolate and no pizza or crisps (what everyone else ate) AND I didn’t really feel tempted 😀

Happy Easter everyone.
Today I am going to avoid chocolate.
Have been invited to two Easter egg hunts with the little ones.
Wish me luck.

And, someone robbed an hour from my sleep last night. I have to go around altering all the clocks and watches. I am bound to miss one.

Happy happy, keep losing, keep going.

Love Lucia
Xxxx

Hi Moyjos,
I am Aussie too – just logged on even though I haven’t finished the book. Lovely to meet you.
I am not diabetic but I my BMI is over 35.

It is wonderful you are having results in such a short time. Congratulations.
I hope to ‘see you’ again soon.

Hi can anyone help me i have just read the BSD and are very excited to start but a have alot of allergies and intolerances eg:fruit,raw vegetables, all nuts except cashews ,gulten intolerant .thats the major ones .Can anyone help…

Hi inka you can work out your bmi with a calculation but I take the easy option and use an online bmi calcularor. Here in the uk I use the NHS one, you can probably get it in Australia if you google it. 🙂

I check mine like that with every slight weight loss and record it on an excel spreadsheet along with my weight, steps walked and calories eaten. I started filling the bmi columns in red (too high) then dull orange when my bmi began to get close to healthy and now green as I am now in the healthy range.
It makes an easy set of data to take to your doctor or diabetes nurse and colour coding it makes it easy to see results at a quick glance.

Keep up the good work Inka, you sound like you are very organized 🙂

Cherianne, thanks. There are IGAs around here and a number of healthfood stores. Good thinking, 99 :-), I will have a look tomorrow, and yes, it would be much better to be able to just buy one loaf of bread and one packet of noodles, in case I dont like it. Never thought to look in health food stores…. Let you know how I went … including me hopefully new weight tomorrow ….. 🙂

Hi Inka and Georgia Rose,
You may not need to order the bread online if you have a larger IGA/Foodland nearby. I am in SA and have found it in all the Foodlands I’ve looked in.
My brother is in country Victoria and his health food store will order it in for him.
There is a button called ‘where to buy’ just under the logo on the left side of the site. This should tell you where the nearest store to you is.
I usually buy mine from the reduced bread rack when it’s half price and have never had a problem with it. I put it straight in the freezer and use it straight from there. The slices don’t stick together when frozen so it’s ok to do this.
I’m going to try the pasta too when I get a chance. I’ve tried the Slendier no carb noodles but wasn’t impressed.

Quick question about the measurements used for the book’s recipes: measurements given in “ounces” do not specify whether that is weight or volume, for example, in the US edition, pg. 199, “Trout on Lime and Cilantro Crushed Peas”. I take “7 ounces trout fillets” to be 7 ounces by weight; however, the recipe also calls for “7 ounces frozen peas”. Seven ounces of peas by volume would be a bit more than 3/4 cup/6 ounces by volume, but 7 ounces of frozen peas by weight would likely be considerably more, thus lowering or, worse, bumping, the calorie value of each serving of the recipe. Also, in the breakfast recipes, there is a standard call for “5 ounces Greek yogurt” . Again, is that 5 ounces by volume (just over 1/2 cup) or 5 ounces by weight? Or, pg. 197, “Zucchini Ribbons with Shrimp”: “7 ounces shrimp” I take to be 7 ounces by weight, but “7 ounces canned cannellini beans, … ” would that be 7 ounces by weight, or by volume.
Or, since I will be cooking “real food”, does it matter … so long as I vet the volume/weight and its respective calorie count, ensuring that I do not exceed 800/day?

I realize this must sound a bit OCD, but it will help immensely in menu planning. I am a former chef, and would dearly love to both revise my current recipe repertoire and begin to develop new ones.

Thanks a million. Looking forward to hearing from all of you.

Received my copy of the book this week (3/22) from my AmazonUS pre-order, and devoured it (not literally). Am now going through a slow, detailed read, and feel increasingly heartened and “up to the task” of planning and carrying out this “real food” 800. Have also been busy reading suggested articles and web sites from the book, as well as building a reading program and locating the articles listed in the Notes section at the end of the book.

Thanks for this ….

Hi Cherrianne,
thanks for the tip with the Herman Brot… I found it and once the online ordering is up and running again ( not available over Easter until 30/03), I will order the bread and some pasta! Just a question: Have you ordered online and if yes, does tge bread still taste good after a day or so? To make it worthwhile, I might have to buy in bulk, but I am worried about it getting mouldy. Normal bread does it here in a few days. … and I only have a small freezer part… Not a fan of frozen foods! Any advise on this?

Thanks, Time4Change… no problem about your rant… I tend to do that too. You are right, no use to “change” things without adjusting your attitude and mindset…. Your comments brought things into perspective again :-).

It is really encouraging that so many of you still get to where you want to be, even after falling of the wagon…. and the best thing about this group is, that Infeel that everyone genuinely shares in everyone’s success! I really like the congratulary responses from everyone to anyone here, even if it is “only” a small loss. For me, ANY loss, means I am getting closer to a fitter and healthier new me… Is there an easy way to calculate the BMI? Have not really determined mine…. I know that I am in the obese range…. maybe its time to monitor the progress there as well…. Would love to see me in the healthy range, probably for the first time, since before having my children and thats 35 years ago! Thanks again all! See, Time4Change, you are really not the only one with “longer” posts. Love reading from you all 🙂 So grwat to be able to ctalk to you all no matter where you are in the world…

bill1954
liked the sound of your breakfast and lunch , could you be a bit more specific about quantities and perhaps calorie content ?

your breakfast and lunch sound good…..could you be more specific about amounts and calories ? I am just starting out and am new to all this.

Janet I didn’t see any problem with your post, it is a really good suggestion. Sometimes so much is going round in my head that I miss the obvious solution – that’s where you all come in with some common sense.

Day 35 end of week five – so much has happened in such a short time.
Weight 10st 6lbs
Blood sugar 9.2 ( not sure if a blip or it’s finally coming down).

Downside I am constipated. I haven’t “been” since Wednesday so am going to take a laxative to get things going and then going to add more veg and fruit and fluid to my diet. I kept thinking I would just “go” that is why I haven’t done anything about it sooner. I will keep a closer eye on this in future – I don’t use laxatives lightly – but have a sore tummy and a bad headache so it’s now time to act. 🚾

Hope everyone is still doing well and keeping going 😂😂😂

Hi janet1973,
We didn’t get wet or too cold as it happens, as it was a bit wet and windy we lit the fire just outside the door of the church, then everything was transferred inside the church, it was still a long service, started at 6.30pm we were home just on 9pm 5 mins from the church! Still all that standing, sitting and kneeling must have done wonders to my weight surely?
Tomorrows a new day and as it happens my meal is lamb and pine nuts meatballs with Moroccan salad, while the family have roast lamb with all the trimmings, then I have to do something with plums? again for the rest of the family, so that’s more standing to prepare these meals! I’m a Martyr to my family haha!

I read the full fat tip in the book but struggled to get my head considering double calories on the likes of Greek yoghurt etc. However, I have done my 3 day of full fat today (wk 4 of BSD) and feel so much better! The hunger, cravings etc really do subside whith the increase of fat. I have full fat Greek yoghurt, coconut oil in my scrabbled egg, anchovies in olive oil and a teaspoon of butter in a low carb microwave cake in a cup ( almond flour, egg, butter, cacao, desiccated coconut).

Get into good fats all. X

Hi guys

I’m still here and touched you are thinking of me. Thank you. Had a bit of a mixed few days. Blood sugar went down then went up again and then went up again! Started to get worried again so got in touch with the team who assure me that it is most likely a bump as many people report fluctuations even at this stage – I just finished week 8 today and was hoping to be celebrating but not quite yet it seems. My weight is below 9 stone now so think I’m might move over to not counting calories but still keeping those carbohydrates way down. Just been watching and researching the work of Dr Sarah Hallberg (USA) who seems to mirror everything the blood sugar diet advocates though talks more about importance of not eating carbohydrates and not being scared to eat fat instead.

Not giving up yet. Still very determined. Btw well done Bill and Cherianne. Excellent results! I’m jealous!

Good of you to all be thinking of me. It’s very appreciated.
Lachlan

So yesterday marked the end of week two. I dropped 2kg. Which makes 8kg in total thus far. I’d love to average that for the remaining six weeks, but even one a week for the net six would be fantastic. I set myself a target of 16.2kg (to achieve a nice round number). But I’d take 14.

Half way there. End of week 4 and hubby and I have lost eight kgs! My bloods are in the fives now! (Started with a scarey 17!)
Thanks so much Cherrianne, Bill, hashimoto, Shadow, and all for your encouraging examples and words. I feel at my elderly grandma age like I am starting a new life!
Easter will be no problem. We are into coloured eggs not chocolate.And lovely sockeye salmon, although paleo son has bought a huge free range, organic, happy in the service (HA) leg of ham. So good that he is into no carbs too.
(I have asked local greengrocer/deli to see if they can get the Herman Brot bread, Cherrianne (?). Hubby does like his toast in the morning.)
The neuropathy in the toes will take the longest to begin healing, but I am now hopeful.
So Happy Easter all! A time of rebirth!

Michael:

The book has indeed hit the store shelves here. I picked mine up at Barnes and Noble last week. I have been reading and posting on the forum for a couple of weeks. I have cleaned out my pantry and fridge and have started out with the Mediterranean plan. I like the foods quite well and feel great. I am eating most meals from recipes on the website and in two weeks have lost 7 lbs. I am reading the book now and will begin to transition into the 8 week 800 cal. diet. I have found it useful to begin slowly in this fashion to ease into the full BSD program. The forum and it’s members, who are all wonderfully supportive, have been a great help, and especially handy in the period before I had the book.

thank you for your work and for the website Michael. I am sure the book will be a great success here in the U.S. as word gets out!

cheers,
jeff

Thanks Janet and Trees.

Trees, Happy birthday for Monday. What works for me when eating out? If possible check out the menu options beforehand so you can work out low-carb choices.
Despite what we were taught while growing up, it is ok to leave food on the plate. If a meal arrives with carbs on it, it us ok to leave them. (On holiday the meal came with bread and dumplings, they stayed on the plate. At a set meal earlier this year the Yorkshire pudding stayed on the plate and was used to bury mashed potato under!). If bread is left on the table, make sure it isn’t near you. Avoid dessert!

If you let us know where you’ll be eating out, we may be able yo be more specific.

Hello jpscloud, you sound a lot like me – liking solitude and similar eating pattern problems. A while ago I found a quiz (I think it was on the BBC’s iWonder pages) about what type of eater you are – it seems I am 50% constant craver, 40% emotional eater & 10% feaster. Able to control the eating when with others, but once I was on my own I could hit the fridge and no-one else would know about it! My fridge magnet “fridge pickers wear bigger knickers” did nothing to stop me. Before I started this diet I acquired another fridge magnet – this time it said: “It’s hard to feel as fit as a fiddle when you are shaped like a cello.” That one seems more motivational. My constant craving is relatively under control since being on this diet (admittedly, there have been a couple of bags of crisps and a few custard creams consumed). I haven’t calorie-counted, I’ve preferred to keep an eye on my portions and just cut out the “extras” and try to eat the foods recommended on this diet. Just remember that no-one is a saint and the odd lapse isn’t going to be the end of the world. The important thing is that you regain control and put those food gremlins firmly in their place – you rule, they don’t!
Good luck, and take care,
Rose

Bill I am totally in agreement with Cherianne. I believe you reap what you sow, and you sow encouragement, advice and help and in return you have reaped our loving thanks.
Janice

Well done captainlynne — I have just completed week 10 and lost 2lbs this week total of 2stone 3lbs and feeling fine. It will be interesting to see how we all survive our first Easter with out chocolate not that I have any cravings for it– but it’s also my birthday on Monday so eating out. do you have any tips on navigating menus when eating out?

So far so good. I’ve avoided all chocolate and when everyone had pizza I had cheese salad. Go me!

Not two weeks yet and I found myself tripping over my trousers and I never did do! What an incentive to keep going. Am not a diabetic but am doing this to get healthy. Keep going kids! 👏👏😀