Hi Lucia,

Well, I think the walk challenge is a fine idea! I’ve not been tracking my waking, but I have a tracker and will start wearing it tomorrow. We could see how far it is across the ‘pond’ , say from New York to Liverpool or Plymouth (?) and give it a go! Maybe we can start a thread for the walk?

cheers,
jeff

Ahh thank you all so much for your wonderful support. I have three daughters at home and they have busy lives, and they like their snacks so it’s really hard to get them out the house, but with all your tips, I will try and avoid them completely. Thank you all so much, it means so much to have people rooting for me!! 💐💐💐

Dr Mosley doesn’t suggest anywhere that you should add extra calories because you are exercising. However, there have been conversations on the forum about whether you need extra calories if you are doing endurance-length exercise. Probably the best advice is to aim for 800 and see how you feel on it. If you start to suffer with weakness, low blood sugar, feel like fainting then take extra calories at that time. How long do you have to cycle to burn that many calories?

My wife and I have had porridge for years, but rolled oats from our health food shop, 1 cup oats, 2 cups water, one cup semi skimmed milk, mixed together and done at half power for 10 minutes in the microwave. I have nothing else on it, which You get used to.
Am I right in thinking that this is ok?
On the BSDiet so now having bircher, which is great, filling and tastes better, but the info on porridge, everywhere is sketchy!

I only have this on a Saturday now as I usually go Montain Biking which is 25miles and 2000ft climbing coming down some steep bits….and I dont want to feel lightheaded coming down these!

Hi Lucia,

That sounds like a fabtastic shop today (‘fabtastic’ was actually a typo for fantastic, but I think it is a great description of your lovely attitude, so I have left it in). Your sense of humour and positivity shines through in your posts. I am really looking forward to following your journey on the BSD.

Hi Hashimoto.
Many thanks for your reply. Yep, I am feeling pretty smug with my shopping. I have a fresh food bowl now. I have mushrooms and feta, so I am going to do something with them tomorrow evening.
I have enjoyed reading your messages and threads, you are one of a few people that helped me take the first step.
X
Hi boog 23, don’t worry with not being able to help with you being the the USA?. Do you fancy a challenge?
Shall we walk towards each other and meet in the middle? I don’t know how long it will take but wouldn’t it be fun. We will have to look up how wide the ‘pond’ is. I am walking 6500 steps a day. Soon I will get to 10,000. If you are not a walker, you can always row the way, or use a cross country machine.
Does anyone else fancy a walk?
X
Hi scottgran. Yes, the bakery is my weakness too. Especially crispy crunchy bread. I don’t miss it so far. Do you fancy a walk over to boog 23, I wonder what size we will all be when we reach the middle meeting point , and more importantly, how healthy we will be.
Love Lucia xxxx

Breakfast: Greek yogurt and mixed berries

Lunch: Salad of lettuce, tomatoes, gherkins, olives, pickled jalapenos, celery, basil, hummous, mint, sour cream

Afternoon: A bowl of cauliflower, courgette and lentil soup with white and black pepper

Dinner: Tuna fishcakes, made with roasted cauliflower and celeriac, shallot, garlic, ginger, basil lemongrass and an egg, with courgette and broccoli and a garlic and chilli sauce

Snack: Half a Pink Lady Apple

Water, two coffees with milk

Calories: 810

Reading that back, I find it is quite amazing to get what is basically 4 meals and a snack for around 800 calories!

Hi Fred
You have done amazingly well in a short space of time. It sounds like some of that army determination is still with you. I wonder whether this diet can also reverse the need for drugs like warfarin? Best wishes for the rest of your journey.

Hi holoso if you can manage to stay away from any sweet stuff the most amazing thing happens – after a few days the flavours from food just explode in your mouth, everything tastes so much more intense. Don’t be surprised if you get withdrawal symptoms for a few days but it is well worth keeping going. We’re all rooting for you 🙂

Hi tree-peony

I think you can name the product on here, then we can search for it online to find out the rest of the nutritional information such as what sweeteners are in it etc. Thanks for posting.

I’d be less worried about your actual calorie intake than the fact you are missing out on a lot of fibre, vitamins and minerals by not eating much veg. We often do lose our appetite when we are ill, don’t we? But this is precisely the time when we need to eat for nutrition to get over the illness. What you are eating sounds fine but I do think you should try to get some veggies in there. Coconut flour is also good for fibre as well as protein and a little bit is very filling – I made Bill’s flatbreads today. At the very least, take a supplement for the vitamins and minerals your immune system needs. I hope you get over the shingles quickly, its not a nice illness (if there is such a thing!)

Hi Holoso and welcome, you will find that your sugar cravings disappear quite quickly once you’re a few days into the diet.
The key is to make sure you have plenty of full fat food in your diet. It also helps to stay away from sweet tasting substitutes for the sugary stuff. Somehow even the artificial sweeteners seem to trigger the cravings.
Most forum members seem to stick to around 50g of carbs per day to lose weight and keep blood sugars stable.
Some kind of app or food tracker will help you stay on top of your intake.
All the best for success

I’m with you on the gluten free pasta. This one is sounding better and better though!

Is it possible for you to get things like the demon digestives out of the house? (I’m lucky because hubby and I are doing this together, but I know it’s not always possible if you have other people to cook for and feed as well.) I didn’t get bad sugar cravings, but from reading what other peope have said, I think you’re more likely to feel hungry if you give in to sugary carby stuff, and less likely to feel hungry if you snack on something with fat/protein – cheese, olives, piece of meat, full fat yogurt could help.
One digestive is not much in the grand scheme of things though, and you are heading in the right direction! Going to bed is a good way to get away from the kitchen.

I don’t think there is a carb level recommended in the book, but there are a few threads on here about it. I can’t remember the names, but if you try a search you’ll probably find them.

Good luck for tomorrow.

Missay I. Have not liked any gluten free pasta that I’ve bought but this has a very similar texture to normal pasta, it’s a bit thicker but smooth. I’m going to make a spicy sauce to go with mine tomorrow 🙂

Hi I did the NHS couch to 5 programme. You download the podcasts from their website and the music is OK (most of it anyway) and you are talked through it by a very lovely sounding woman called Laura (UK accent). She even anticipated when I got a stitch and soothed me past it. Helpful tips along the way. There are tonnes of couch to 5k programmes out there but I found this one excellent, manageable and what’s more did 600k last year. For an exercise-phobe such as I was that’s miraculous.

Hi

I travel a lot for work and trying to be prepared in foods I take for breakfast and lunch is at times proving tricky.
I read in the book that you can have a meal replacement shake for breakfast and lunch and then a meal in the evening.
What shakes does anyone use please? I want to make sure that I get the right thing, though I am not doing the diet to lower my blood sugars specifically. I am not diabetic nor pre diabetic.
I just need to lose weight, and finding it all so tasty!

Thanks
Chloe

Hi there,

Yes I did start today!! I have found the sugar craving very hard to handle and have given in to a digestive biscuit tonight. I am going to go to bed early to try and help not eat anything more. I am hoping it gets easier. What is the recommended carb level over the 800 calories?

Fantastic, Jeff, I will follow this thread to see how you are doing – and I know you will be doing great and see amazing changes in your health as well as your waistline! 🙂

Ah thanks Hashimoto. That sounds quite straightforward. I’m not sure why, but I expected it to be more complex and with a lot more ingredients than ‘standard’ pasta. Is it gritty to eat, like gluten free pastas often are? I am hoping not, as the chickpea pancakes/flatbread/pizza bases aren’t.

Breakfast: 1 220g Tin Baked Beans
mid morning snack : Long black coffee with full cream (cream not milk) the fat takes the edge off your appetite
Lunch:1 tin of chilli tuna, some olives and a tomato(very good for men worried about prostate a tomato a day)
Afternoon : a 1 inch square of cheese and some olives
Dinner: some grilled chicken and steamed brocolli

Thank you so much hashimoto. I posted a bit in a new thread under ‘Welcome to the BSD’. I will be posting often as I find you and so many other folks so inspiring and helpful [and I am sure I will have a boatload of questions 😉 ]
I am amazed at my positive attitude about doing the BSD and think in large part it’s due to the folks in these forums.

stay great!

jeff

Hi jeff, so pleased you have started your new way of living today! Really looking forward to hearing how things are going for you 🙂

Lucia well done on the Morrisons shop. I still have to look to the right at the gardening and kitchen stuff as it is across from the in store bakery! I bought a little plastic set of measuring spoons in Morrisons, shocking how little in a tablespoon. 79p well spent! I bought. “Bucket” of Desi whole milk yogurt set today, will let you know how it tastes. I am not fond of really thick yogurt,. I am also trying to walk a bit more and to really stride out as I normally amble about.

6 weeks in and I have lost 7kg and am down to 85kg, Since the Autumn and with my pre-diet changes the loss is nearer 13kg and the diet has helped me tremendously as I had stuck. 2 more weeks should get me down to around 80kg I’m then intending to keep on until I get to 75kg and the weight I was in the Army 30+ years ago when I could do the 1.5 mile runs in less than 10 mins, in boots, and before they took my knee apart. I don’t monitor my blood as I am not entitled to a monitor (my surgery won’t give them to Type 2’s) and I can ill afford the new test strips so will have to wait until July and my next HbA1c test.

What to do after? The med diet is looking good, I love the seafood bits of my diet, but too much greenery is playing havoc with INR and Warfarin dose. I will be counting the calories in myfitnesspal which has helped me enormously.

Hi Lucia:

I can’t help with the shopping unfortunately as I am in the U.S. But I found your description above so endearing I had to respond. This is a great effort you’ve made! Keep it up! I’ve been on the forums for a few days but today (Thursday) is my first day on BSD. The forums have been a great help and I want to congratulate you for asking for help here.

best of luck,
jeff

Hi lucia isn’t it good to feel so virtuous! Well done you! I particularly like fage yoghurt, it’s so thick and lusciously creamy !
Fantastic that you are fitting in more steps – you will be unrecognisable soon!
I am still surprised that I. Seem to miss half the aisles out these days!
Looking forward to your future posts 🙂

Hi team,
Just had a weird experience. Went to morrisons and stopped in the fruit, veg and salad section.
I didn’t zoom through to the confectionery!!! What have I done?
Fish, prawns, salad, celery, apples, chicken breasts. My trolley looked is if it belonged to someone healthy??😇
Looked for those 97% sausages but couldn’t see them.
I wanted some red peanuts. I could find sliced almonds, crushed almonds, halved almonds, but no peanuts. went to the baking section, no, went to the crisps section ( the bags were asking if they could come and play. NO!), I could find bags of chocolate covered peanuts and raisins. So got a small bag of unsalted pistachios.
Oh and I think I got full fat Greek yoghurt for breakfast tomorrow. If anyone can start me off with a brand name and if it is in tesco’s or Morrisons etc. until I know what I am looking for please.
No chocolate, no crisps, no cakes, no biscuits, boy have I done a 180 degree turnaround?
Ready for the weekend and starting to count the calories.
Oh, and I found my kitchen scales in the back of a cupboard. I have washed the dust off, so ready to go.
I am still walking trying to go a little further each time.
Please help with my shopping, keep it simple for me though.
Love Lucia xxxx

Bill

So good to know it’s not just me! Thanks for that. I’ve deliberately not taking my blood sugar levels for the last couple of days because it was stressing me out too much. Interestingly I have been doing some jogging since starting the diet but haven’t done it for the last week or so. I started again this morning. I’ll see if it makes a difference and let you know. Good to know it normal part of the process. I think it’s very important to stay positive and motivated so thanks for finding out about that.

I have some buckwheat flour, noodles, and pasta if you’d like some hashimoto…… ; )

Hi fifip, it’s page 113, I actually tried, without success, buying some buckwheat so it was a senior moment! 🙁

Hi missay, i more or less followed it, this is what i did :
Ingedients:
8 oz (100g) chickpea flour
2 eggs
Salt to taste

Equipment :
Greaseproof paper
Olive oil ( for hands and rolling pin)
Pan of boiling salted water

Method
Make a well in flour
Add eggs and mix to strong ‘dough’
Slightly oil hands and rolling pin
Form dough into ball

Roll out on to greaseproof paper until even but thin
Use a slightly oiled pizza wheel to cut into strips or rectangles
Once they are desired shape/size carefully peel off greaseproof paper and drop into a pan of hot salty water for 3 or 4 minutes. – i stirred once to make sure they weren’t sticking to the bottom of the pan

Hope that helps 🙂

Oops – just realised I was still on first page of the thread, and have replied to an older post, thinking it was for today. Oh well… brain fog from work today I suspect!

I am half way through week 3 and am really getting on well with the BSD. I struggle with veg but have managed to do pretty well until now.

I have been diagnosed with shingles and have been feeling pretty rough for the last week. I have kept under 800 calories and 50g carbs without a problem but am finding it really hard to eat any vegetables and fruit, other than raspberries with my yoghurt. I have been having scrambled eggs for breakfast, just cooked in a little butter, yoghurt and raspberries for lunch and then differing things for tea like a small can of chicken soup or tonight I had 3 slices of ham and a chunk of cheese (which I really enjoyed!).

I am keeping my water intake up but can’t do any exercise at the moment and only walk a bit at the best of times, I am not very fit though have been moving a lot more over the last 3 weeks. I am not diabetic but at 13st 2 (was 14st when I started), 5ft 4 with a round middle, I knew I needed to do something.

My worry is that the last three days I have struggled to get my calories up past around 600. I have had more than enough to eat today and don’t feel hungry at all. I have been falling asleep very early so not even got time to squeeze in a full fat snack before bed. Do you think this is OK or should I really be looking to hit 800 cals?

I still can’t believe I am on an eating plan that keeps me this full on less than 800 cals!

Hi Hashimoto – I have the BSugar book at home, not with me sorry. It doesn’t say buckwheat flour, it says buckwheat, cites it along with other products like chickpeas, lentils, pulses etc as a ‘healthy’ option, took it too literally obviously, as it didn’t mean flour, all about educating ones beleaguered palate away from things. Back at home Saturday PM, will get page number.

Yep, cooking from scratch is what I tend to do, and opening the vino with it too unfortunately… I can do water without any issue but husband is a problem on that front. What are these fruit water bottles I keep seeing come up in this site, can find people saying they will get one & pictures of them, but what are they for, or am I being dense?

With dinner I shall do soda with a squeeze of lime, but if the fruit water thingummys have another way of using berries/fruit without making a smoothie then I shall invest!

Incidentally, when I type in your name-tag, it comes up as Hash-too, hilarious, ROTFL!!!

Hi Carommartin,

I weigh/measure practically everything, or check it online or in either MFP or Sparkpeople. My first job when I get home from food shopping is to enter every new buy into the app in my favourites, so it’s easy to find again! I am concentrating on the calorie count, and the carb count seems to be taking care of itself! Like Hashimoto, I like experimenting with recipes, changing things around to suit what we fancy, (and what we have in the house!) I confess to sometimes ‘guestimating’ my milk in my tea/coffee, but it doesn’t seem to have caused any problems so far.

Bill .. so sorry to hear the worrying news about your daughter, its not a wonder your levels are all over the place. Keep positive loads of breast lumps turn out to be benign. Take care of yourself and your wife. X

Hi fifip – you will need to drop a trouser size after a few weeks of this diet 🙂

Bill’s post is also only showing a blank screen for me. Can anyone point the way to the pasta recipe please, as I rather fancy trying it out. I have googled and found several, but would like a tried and tested version if possible.
Thanks.

Hi fifip, chickpea and coconut flours do have some carbs but in a small percentage – much less than buckwheat flour.
Do you mind me asking which book you are reading? I can’t remember a mention of buckwheat flour in michael Mosley’s blood sugar diet BUT I may be having a senior moment lol
I think it isn’t traffic lighted because there is no commercial ready meal system attached to this diet, no doubt some big manufacturer will jump all over it at some point grrrr 🙁
The emphasis is on wholesome food freshly prepared and it sounds like you are a skillful cook
Best wishes on this journey 🙂

You’re welcome Jeff. I have always hated low fat yogurts with a passion, so full fat greek yogurt for breakfast is such good news for me!

Thank you hashimoto – guess my food caddy is going to do well out of this diet, chucked out all my rice noodles today, the couscous will follow and am debating the barley ! Thank you for the steer about buckwheat, it was a big yes on Sirt, I will be bringing some Sirt ideas into my Blood Sugar Diet, but not buckwheat evidently…..

Thank you for directing me to the recipes, I shall do the cod one tonight as have all the ingredients to hand and investigate chickpea flour flatbreads tomorrow.

Big tummy goodbye, roll on size 14 trousers!!!

Hi misssay,

Thank you for your support and feedback. Thank you for the info on the full fat yogurt-I am glad to hear this as I don’t much like the low fat at all. This is a great example of what this forum is for!

best wishes,
jeff

Hi FiFip, welcome to the forums, you are in the right place for support, as you are right, there are loads of lovely, kind people on these forums.
You will find the recipe for the chickpea flour flat breads on this website. Scrolll to the top of the page and click on the recipes tab, you will need to go through a few pages as there are quite a few recipes posted.
To do this diet properly you will need to forget about the delicious buckwheat flour as it is higher carb than coconut or chickpea flour.
It sounds as if you have already had some great successes on the sirt diet. You will find the blood sugar diet effectively burns fat from your middle if you stick to it’s principles.
I look forward to reading your further success 🙂

Hi Mosleyfan – I have been on the Sirt diet since mid Jan – 10 days in I had lost just over 1lb…….grrr……everyone else on a forum I was watching lost at least 5lbs a week, but slowly my body caught up and I have lost 1st. Can no longer accommodate green-slime juice though & want to do a diet with my hubby, so the Blood Sugar Diet looks perfect for us and seems to have lots of good support, great recipes & a wide range of followers. Onwards & upwards, or should I say downwards!!!!

Hi Holoso,

Welcome to the forum. Did you start today? If so, how did your day go?

Hi Jeff,

You’re absolutely right – this is a very supportive forum. Well done on your first day, Just one thing – no need to have the fat free yogurt – full fat dairy is recommended in the book, and the fat helps to fill you up too. A lot of fat free stuff has sugar and/or thickeners added to make up for the loss of volume by taking the fat out. This quite probably isn’t the case if it is just natural plain yogurt you are having, and to be honest I have semi skimmed milk by choice instead of full fat in my tea and coffee, because I find full fat ruins the taste of the drink for me. I have been enjoying full fat greek yogurt though! I thought I’d just mention it, in case you think you ‘should’ have fat free yogurt.

Best of luck.

Hi all – I am a newbie on the diet & the site. I have just bought some buckwheat flour, it has carbs as does chick-pea flour so I am confused about some points raised in this posting. Chick peas also have carbs, but much less, so am assuming it’s the concentration/sheer volume of chick peas in the flour that boosts the carb level. Buckwheat is mentioned in the book as a suitable foodstuff, so am now all over the place! What would be.

A good idea might be for this diet to have a traffic light system (oops, I know…) of green, amber & red foods, perhaps buckwheat is amber?

I just know that hubby ( has similar weight/mid-life fat issues to me) especially will falter unless I can. Find something that is a bit like bread, I will try tamznlaws recipe above though, the one for a ‘heavy bread’ sounds a great idea.

M&S do a good line in beetroot crisps, could find nothing negative on the pack & I make kale crisps, I alternate the flavours with chilli flakes & Parmesan – very tasty & nutritious.

Yes, I know I could make my own, but I have just had the most delicious salted caramel ice cream. Low calorie , less than 40 per scoop, low carb, 5g. Available in a high street store. Not sure if I can name brands on here, but it was on Dragons Den a few weeks ago. They also do vanilla and mint chocolate.

Hello lovely people, this forum has restored my faith in human kindness, what an amazing bunch of people you all are! I have lost 1st on the Sirt diet but have had it up to my eyeballs with green slime, the smell is what does for me, not the taste. It took me longer than anyone on the forum I was on, to lose 1st, 6 weeks, but hey it’s a good start & I have bought down my blood pressure to normal levels for the 1st time in an age. However I know I absolutely MUST shift my gut-bucket as must my husband, we both like more than a drop of the laughing juice & are carrying far too much around our middles. This forum has been very enlightening and I need to find the recipe (as opposed to the method) for the chick-pea flat breads, perhaps I have missed it in the book, found the scones & have found a buckwheat pancake recipe online, as if we can have an egg on something that resembles toast at weekends I think this will help us stick with it. I wanted to start the 8 weeks properly on Tuesday, but the fates have conspired against me, but despite having to travel I have kept the calories to under 1,000 and relinquished refined carbs (have more or less given them up since mid Jan). We are not into much sweet stuff or pasta, but am fast learning that this is only the tip of the iceberg and will be swapping spuds & gnocchi for alternatives, guess buckwheat will become a staple, along with celeriac in small portions. Am fascinated at all the butter bean options – yummy, works for me and will investigate flour alternatives. Will post again when I have started properly. Good luck & big hugs to you all.