Hi sabina, Michael mosley says the first 2 weeks are the hardest so hopefully you should find it easier soon 🙂

hey friends,
any idea of about how long the weak and feeble lasts? I am a massage therapist and work is physical, go to the gym 3x week as well. I hope I can cope on this plan. I tried Atkins years ago and found it too hard to work without the carbs! Any one have advise?
Sabina

Inquiring mind here. No bread, crackers etc but what are the thoughts on brown rice crackers? I know we can have brown rice. Are these a no-no as well?
Thanks.

Hi All,
We actually eat fairly well already. Butter not Marge. Olive oil for cooking & no pre-packaged salad dressings. I also frequently add pureed veg to thicken soups & casseroles instead of flour. We eat plenty of fruit, salads at least four times a week.
BUT. My husband is Italian and was brought up with the ”food=love” attitude. He expects bread, rice or pasta with every meal & feels neglected if he doesn’t get it. He is VERY active, being a bricklayer, but still has a “beer gut” despite the fact that we don’t drink alcohol at all.

All this means that even when I make a delicious healthy bolognaise with pureed lentils & carrot etc. it ends up being poured over an enormous plate of pasta! The kids have grown up with this (my youngest is 11) & now see it as normal, but they will adapt easier than he does. We have eight mouths to feed & have always bulked the meal out with carbs because they’re cheap. That will be my challenge.

However as I’ve just discovered, once you’re not in the blood sugar spiral you need so much less food overall that I believe it will balance out.

I’m serving up the cauliflower rice and replacing some of the pasta with spiralized zucchini. Smaller serves of potatoes have been easier, I’ve bulked up the other veg instead & nobody even noticed.

I think Bento Box lunches have solved the problem of sandwiches everyday for lunch. They actually prefer having a selection of fruit, veg, cheese, sliced meats (I’m doing an extra roast on Sundays & slicing it up for the week).
I have found one dessert alternative that so far everyone loves (we only have dessert about 3 times a week anyway).
I peel a couple of bananas and freeze them in a zip-lock bag where I also have frozen berries & any apples or pears that had started to look questionable in the fruit bowl. At dessert time I blend the bananas & whatever fruit I decide to use in a high speed blender with Greek style yogurt & just a drizzle of milk. You have to pulse it for a few minutes to get it smooth, but you end up with an almost ice-cream like substance. It has to be eaten straight away or the fruit starts to brown. BUT it’s delicious and there’s no added sugar. A little banana (two bananas between eight people) now & then can’t hurt & it really provides the creamy bulk the kids are looking for.

I haven’t discussed the changes with the kids although they know I am dieting, I’m just replacing things & so far there’ve been no objections (at least from the kids) . Hopefully it will just become a new kind of normal!

Found the mention- it was Curlygirl in the “I’m losing it” thread 🙂

The good news is that Xylitol and stevia aren’t artificial- Xlyltol from birch trees (and other sources) and stevia from a plant.
This link explains xylitol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylitol

Stevia seems to be more difficult to get in the UK, (the liquid one anyway) and the granulated version can often be bulked out with erythritol or even an artificial sweetener. Some people notice a bitter after taste with Stevia, but I’ve not noticed that, perhaps that’s just in drinks. Erythritol should also be fine, though I haven’t investigated that much, since I get on well with xylitol. It can cause some bowel “looseness” if you have a lot of it- perhaps a good thing on this diet!

Personally I don’t believe that salt levels are a problem as long as they are not eating a lot of processed food, which it doesn’t sounds will be the case with your children- so go for the marmite and nut butters!

WRT bread- I think wholemeal and wholegrain breads will be fine, the bread Michael refers to is likely to be the “brown” supermarket bread which is really white bread with colouring!

One post, not sure if it was on this thread or another, mentioned an 11 yr old who although eating healthy food wasn’t very active and wanted more food- from my own experience with one child doing exactly this, and my failure through ignorance to take action at the time so that he is now an overweight 29 yr old, I would really recommend doing what you can to get him moving more. I wish I had done that, and that I had been more proactive in limiting the unhealthy food. Copy of the book is on it’s way to him as we speak!

Thanks FoFi,
I will move this over to that thread.
Cheers

https://thebloodsugardiet.com/forums/topic/lower-sugar-foods-for-kids-uk/

I put the UK in the title as I can find several products I am looking for (via google) in the USA but not so far in the UK. Anyone is welcome.

I often look at Forums>>All recent topics, rather than confine myself to Fast800.

Our team are great aren’t are they? Gone already. Thanks team!

Excellent, thanks capitano!

Hi quickfix, I don’t know if there is an aldi near you but if there is, by the tills you will find skinny packets of nuts and seeds (just 32p!!) for 153 calories and not many carbs. Could you always keep a packet in your pocket for a quick fix? Janet is right, give yourself a protein and fat hit. The little packets of nuts and seeds do the trick!

Day 3 is still very early, give it a couple of weeks and you should be feeling more energetic 🙂

Hi FiFiP

know what you’re saying about the formal dinners, as the wine is often very good, and I find does make it easier to chat, and the food is lovely. managed to get through one last night leaving the potato and half the carrots, and not worrying about whatever was in the
‘jus.’ Had the 3 little raspberries from the desert which felt like a real treat. one of the hardest things for me is leaving food – was one of those brought up to eat everything on the plate.
great to have a plan to deal with the slipping off. it will happen to all of us, and having a way to get back is a big help.

Great results Nic, well done. X

Noswaith dda Denise, you did well with your choices during meals out. Sounds like your body didn’t like the carby flatbread though!
I would step on the scales because it will give you valuable info – but everyone has their personal preferences on this matter.
It’s good that you know you can eat out with confidence.

Re wine: you and I are very cheap to take out lol I can only manage a small shot glass of wine now and even then it makes me tipsy. 🙂
Nos da and happy shopping 🙂

Janet – I’ve reported it too.

Hi omega, it’s not unusual to get withdrawal headaches in the first few days, I just took some paracetamol until it stopped. You should be almost through it now and then you can enjoy the benefits. I have just realised i haven’t had a migraine for weeks, fingers crossed 🙂

Hi FoFi,
Thanks for the tip at the buffet table.
I’m completely new to forums of any kind. Can you tell me how to find your other thread?
I’m in Australia (so probably sleeping while the rest of you chat).
Had to order the book online as I couldn’t find it in any local bookstores. Plan to order more copies and have them sent to my sisters ASAP.
Most of my kids are healthy weight & extremely active, but my youngest (at 11) is already putting on weight around his middle and doesn’t like to move too much. He eats the same as the others, but is always asking ‘may I have another …’. It feels so mean always saying NO. Hoping I can change his habits quickly.

Thanks Hashimoto.

I had steak and salad and refused a dessert whilst my husband devoured a sticky toffee pudding. We did have wine and I felt really drunk after half a glass! I also had a hangover this morning and didn’t like it one bit.

Today, we went for breakfast in a pub but I offloaded the toast, hash browns and sausage onto my husband. For tea I had Cajun chicken with a flatbread and salad…was the only thing on the menu that didn’t involve chips, pastry or potatoes!

I am now in bed with a stomach ache after the flatbread!

Should I get on the scales tomorrow to see what damage has been done, or wait a few days until it’s all out of my system?

Nos da (goodnight in Welsh) all, tomorrow is planning and shopping day! 👍

Remember that a lot of the numbers on these sites (myfitnesspal certainly) are crowd sourced. Someone just typed it in. And I have seen a few which have the wrong number. In one case I am sure that someone typed the number from half a pack (so 125g) as the 100g number. Another had serves three (no way does it serve 3 that is a fiction, but a rant for another time) and the person had halved the size rather than dividing by 3. In some other cases I think that they might have reduced the number of calories for the same product. The numbers you see look like someone has made the same mistake for Tesco v Sainsbury.

Or could some be the cooked weight and some be the raw weight?

Thanks Patsy. I just can’t get my head round what looks like ordinary roast chicken having been cooked in a sugar marinade.

Hi Bill
Not a sugar morsel has passed my lips since Monday – although my lips have been smacking together at the thought of a lolly or piece of bread!
Yes sugar free lollies will do it as they contain a compound which ‘has a laxative effect if taken in large doses’ so a bag or two might just constitute large doses.
Certainly not overdoing the fruit (quite a scarce commodity) and have been missing the meat part of food.
I guess I’ll continue and see how it goes, although this morning didn’t start off well either 🙁

cheers
Libby

Hope it gets results.

I like sweet foods, but I don’t want everything I eat to taste sweet. I rarely buy ready made (savoury) sauces, partly because so many taste far too sweet.

Irena
We don’t like spammers on these forums. We get rid of them. I have reported your post. It will be dealt with tomorrow.

That’s great going.

It’s reassuring to know that an occasional indulgence needn’t mean we don’t get good results.

Wise words Ali 😃

Well done.

Fantastic! Well done.

Great results. Well done.

Hi FoFi.

I live alone so it’s not an issue for me normally. But my twin 8-year old granddaughters visit for holidays. Fortunately they don’t eat many sweets anyway, but eat cereal, bread, pizza etc. I did notice the adverse effect a Subway kids meal had on them – they were hyper, nearly running round the walls. They’ll be visiting me soon and I’m hoping they’ll eat more low-carb food while they’re here. At least it’s a start!

Well done.

Love to be a fly on the wall at that appointment stingle 😃

Thanks Patsy really enjoying doing this. Xx

Thanks Bill, I didn’t notice it in the book and I’ve been trolling the website to double check, was just concerned I might not eat enough calories.

Well said aly 🙂

Hi CurlyGirl,

I know what you mean about events and food. However, last week I think I cracked it (for lunch buffets at least). I took a high protein meal replacement bar and as everyone was queuing for the buffet I went and ‘made a phone call’ and ate my bar. I was able to stay reasonably far from the food for most of lunch time. I did ate a small cube of Brie as I was passing the pudding table later on. But I wasn’t hungry and no one noticed.

I am interested in your thoughts on carbs for the rest of the family. I am just concentrating on reducing sugar for now. If I can improve their palate so they need food less sweet that will be a success. I have a thread on this elsewhere on this forum. (Started after Bill’s post above.)

Well done! I am jealous of your 30lb loss! You are so right about preparation – you have the right mindset. Long may it continue.

I had a week of catastrophic eating and put on 4 lbs. I have been back on track three days now and have lost the 4lbs. Put it behind you and move on. It is a big change to eating habits and it can be hard. This is a lifestyle choice so just keep going. Well done for admitting to it and getting back on board.

Wow thast an amazing set of results well done and great inspiration to so many others.

Lucia wow sweet 16 size blouse! How could that naughty easter bunny tempt you now? No no no to going back to size 18 blouse!!!! 🙂

I’ve been a BSDer for several weeks – and every so often I’m still getting a headache/hangover feeling. It’s not always food related, sometimes a stressful day at work triggers things. However, the most recent episode followed what had been my best week on this diet – after achieving my first milestone (of losing a stone) I started to feel lethargic & headachey, felt hungry & thirsty and finally gave in to my vice of choice (a bag of salt & vinegar crisps). Now I’m feeling better and have found new reserves of energy (and my garden & allotment are benefiting as a result). I think it is just my body reacting to the weight loss and it goes into panic mode (I experience a slight rise in my weight and then a plateau) before the weight starts to come off again.
So for those of you still in the early stages of the BSD, don’t despair, it is something we all have to deal with but you do get through it. It’s not all plain sailing but next time you feel grotty you are better able to cope. And you will feel better/more energetic more times than you feel lousy. Keeping well hydrated is so important, as GrumptoGlam has pointed out.
Good luck everyone.
Rose

Hi Sabina
Welcome to the group looking forward to hearing your results at the end of week one.

You are doing a brilliant job Fofi. Its all a learning curve isn’t it? I’m sure you will make many discoveries over the coming weeks that will help you achieve what you want for your family. I think it must be very difficult to try to be healthy when your kids’ friends are maybe getting all sorts of bad stuff. Nor do you want to turn your own kids into ocd health freaks. The very fact that you care is enough. If more parents understood the dangers we’d be doing a lot better against childhood obesity.

Nic2385 – what brilliant results, you must been really excited to have made such huge headway in such a short period. Hope you keep posting to encourage others wanting to make positive change for themselves too.

Welcome to the forum – hope you will enjoy posting and sharing your progress.
I use nutricheck.co.uk and stick with it, unless there is calorie and carb info on the packaging (none of a butcher bought steak of course) but in most cases on nutricheck, it has a general value as well as values for food purchased from a specific store. Think you just need to select the calorie checker that you are comfortable with and use it exclusively for foods that don’t have the nutritional values on the packaging.
Don’t panic too much about being dead on 800 per day. There will be days you are a bit over and others when you are a bit under – over the course of the eight weeks, it will balance itself out.
Good luck and hope to see you posting some positive results soon.

I’m feeling pretty weak too and a tad grumpy. Sometimes go slightly over calories but weighing 240lb and walking dog for hour every day I am still feeling hungry a week in although have lost 11lbs. Thrilled with weight loss of course but am wishing I could get to the not feeling hungry stage.

Captain Lynne,
Are you trying to kill me?
I was happy to be able to touch my toes, but between you and cat girl, well really 😅
Having a bit of time off, found the energy to sort the bedroom.
Clean out the spare bedroom wardrobe.
Bleach the kitchen, sort cupboards , etc
Move the furniture around in the lounge
Tomorrow I hope to do the dining room.
Then I went for a walk, did shopping and then guess what?
I got three blouses from Bon marche in size 16. Sweet sixteen . Not 20 , not 18. Yipppeeeeee

Hope you are all doing well.
Love Lucia
Xxxx

Thank you for the information on Xylitol, I am nervous about feeding them strange sweeteners. My normal policy is (for them not myself sadly) smaller or less frequent portions rather than artificial sweeteners (or low fat). (My definition of artificial sweetener is not necessarily consistent with anything else.)

I agree that ‘treats’ are out of control, one difficulty is that when everyone else is getting so many how do I make sure that I don’t seem to be so much a tyrant that they then go off the rails. (I don’t mind being a tyrant if it works out well.) I do know a couple of people who took the low sugar thing too far (too far = further than me) and it didn’t end well. The children have such easy access to sweet shops, vending machines and friends with similar access if they feel deprived they can overreact at a later date.

I think that teeth are okay at the moment as treats tend to be consumed with meals as are any sweetened drinks.

We just made ‘Strawberry yoghurt’ this evening, but it was more of a drink. 100g Greek yoghurt, 100g strawberries blended hard and I would happily drink that again. In fact I will once I am at an intermittent fasting stage. The kids weren’t impressed so I added 5g sugar. Next time I will add 4g and see how low I can go. I am in no rush to get this right I have several years of errors to correct.

I need to revisit the bread aisle. I haven’t eaten any for over 7 weeks, but once I return to eating it now and again I will need to make sure our bread is okay. The reason I asked about low sugar bread is that in the book Michael states that some brown breads have extra sugar to make the taste more palatable.

And then as we switch away from honey or jam on toast to Marmite we hit the too much salt problem which is probably a problem for a different website!

Cat girl,
I dare not put a lap dancing pole in the house, it may be too much for oh.
Firemen, in uniform. Mmmmmmmmm,m
Sorry went off on a tangent………
Love Lucia
Xxxx

Hi spirit,
Just keep to the eating programme the two weeks will soon fly by.
I am hoping that the Easter bunny hops past my door this year.
I don’t need the temptation. I am doing small tests that I can control, but a stack of Easter eggs may be too great

Love Lucia
Xxxx

Today I reached 5 weeks on the diet. I have kept to 800 calories everyday bar three when I popped over by no more than 300 calories (each alocohol related). I am now 30lbs lighter anbd have lost 4 inches off my waist. Three days ago my BMI dropped off the obese scale. I am now jogging again, have good energy levels and feel terrific.

My determination and confidence to continue has been fed by the fast results and not rushing into the diet. This lifestyle change really needs forethought and preparation, as much mental as in planning a new recipe set.

To any new or potential dieters the message is this, if I can do it anyone can. Good luck.

Nic