Yesterday (Tuesday) was my first day of BSD Med. It went very well and I stuck to my plan except for eating a bit more chickpea chili for dinner than I needed. This resulted from eating too little at lunch time as I was ravenous when I got home. I have learned something and all in all see this as a successful start. I am happy to say that the sugar and junk carbs are, so far, not calling out to me-but I want to be vigilant and narc on myself here if they do. I have today mapped out food-wise and all systems are ‘go’ (fingers crossed!)

wishing all a fantastic day
jeff

Lucia, Great news on your beginning today! I wish you the best! Isn’t the full fat yogurt the bomb! It’s gotta be yogurt the way nature intended. I like that you are planning out your meals for the day. It encourages me to do that as I find if I get the plan in my head as in: ‘this is what is going to happen’, I tend to stick with it and feel ok about it. On the flip side, if I imagine or plan to have a dessert type food, it’s really hard to not have it. My mother always said I had a one-track mind, I guess she was right. 🙂
X

Bill1954, Thank you for your support! I have read many of your posts, you have been an inspiration!

X

Hashimoto, Thank you so much! You are the best.

Yesterday was my first day BSD Med. It went very well and stuck to my plan except for eating a bit more chickpea chili for dinner than I needed. This resulted from eating too little at lunch time as I was ravenous when I got home. I have learned something and all in all see this as a successful start.

my best to all, Jeff

Frozen berries in Sainsburys basics range are much cheaper than other labels and vastly cheaper than buying fresh.
Red peppers also feature a lot. The roasted ones in a jar at Lidl are much cheaper than fresh and don’the go bad – jar lasts ages in fridge.
Perhaps if you let us know what sort of food you enjoy we can put our thinking caps on and come up with cheaper alternatives?
It would be a pity to stop now when it is clearly working for you!

Thank you, you’re all absolutely right, of course! I would really kick myself in 3 weeks if I hadn’t made a dent in my weight loss efforts now. Nat, you’re right, there’s never a perfect clear window. Good luck with your BSD for week 1!

Hi onamission once the headaches, lightheadedness etc go you will feel a million dollars and you will be thinking your friends are insane for not trying it – though they may change their minds when they see the changes in you 🙂

Yes I agree about being let down! I mentioned the study done at Newcastle Uni to my GP about 2 years ago. He basically poo-pooed it and told me I would always have diabetes and that it wouldn’t work. I’m due for an annual review in June so am hoping that I’ll have some good results to support my case!!

Thanks hashiomoto. It’s terrible! Lightheaded, dizzy, tired. On a plus note, just had beetroot falafel from the book for lunch and it was delicious. Just told friends about the diet and they think I’m insane!

I haven’t bought any special things in for this diet. I’ve adapted to what I normally use, e.g. fish, chips& peas for family but my tiny portion is minus the chips and batter!! I haven’t followed the recipes as they’re not the sort of food I’d normally eat. I’ve bought a lot more berries though, balanced out by not buying as much chocolate based stuff!! Aldi/Lidl are both a lot cheaper than the others too.

Hi onamission mine lasted for first 4 or 5 days 🙂

How long for?

Any ideas how long the headaches will
Last? This is not fun!

Hi, I am going to be travelling a bit over the next few weeks and I won’t be in control of meals as much as I would like. I am considering getting some meal replacement bars so that when others grab a sausage roll, bacon sandwich or plate of chips I will find it easier to resist.

Do you have any suggestions. One of my group has a nut allergy so I don’t want anything with nuts.

I won’t be eating that many of these and will have some normal meals each day so they don’t actually have to be proper meal replacement bars. I do need sealed products that I can leave in my bag or the glove box rather than home made things.

Some of the Atkins bars would seem to be okay, but all of them come stamped with a may contain nuts so I’d rather not.

Any suggestions?

I did, onamission, I just took paracetamol x

Inka, janet1973’s idea of mock mint julep is lovely,. Just a sprig of fresh mint or a mint teabag and slice of lime or splash of lime juice in sparkling water 🙂

Well FiFip at least you can have the cheese! I love fish cooked that way 🙂

hi all,hoping for some encouragement please . i started diet about 3 weeks ago but the weight is not falling off as i had hoped but i have lost 3 lbs and 2 inches off my waist to date. i have not been diagnosed as diabetic but due to menopause and being overweight i decided to help myself by doing the diet. i am struggling with a lack of certain hormones , weight gain, increased blood pressure and very heavy periods, so thought i would ask on here how other ladies are getting on. doctor is sending me for blood tests due to possibility of anaemia and to see gynae. i am determined to stick to the diet as i know it can only be good for me as i am about 3 stone overweight.i am drinking in excess of 2 litres of water daily. i have a physically demanding job and work from home(a farmer) but struggling to increase my exercise levels more due to the heavy blood loss i have on an almost constant basis ie 3 weeks in 4 isnt easy to live with!

Thanks bill. I must be a proper carb/sugar addict as it’s awful! Proves how much I need this eating plan I guess!

onamission
lots of folk have, it is a carb withdrawal symptom and goes away in a couple of days or so
Most just use paracetamol to help. At least it proves that you are doing things right.

Hi Mad Medic
well,the meat, poultry, fish, and veg shouldn’t be any more expensive than if you were eating the old way. Greek yoghurt and packs of frozen berries are cheap at Aldi, I think the most expensive extra I have bought was the coconut flour. Coconut oil is cheap at Aldi too
Gram flour isn’t expensive, there shouldn’t be a huge difference in your weekly budget saying as you aren’t buying bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, alcohol etc.
Your weight loss is brilliant, don’t spoil it because of the price of the food.

Help! I’m on day three and have had hideous headaches every day! I’m drinking plenty. Did anyone else have this? I feel like my brain is shrinking!

Inka how about a spritzer ? Just a drop of wine topped up with soda water

Crikey, thank you Hashimoto, I can see that I am going to have to become a carb sleuth! Cheese is food from heaven, love the stuff, this with wine is my weakness, but to lose my tummy I will just have to get on with it and control my weaknesses.

Have reduced wine intake by the lake-load since mid December, down from 7 days a week (oops…..) to 2, but can see that for 8 weeks the wine is going to be a distant memory

Cooked the Med Cod dish last night from the Recipe Forum, was sooooo easy & very tasty. Hubby liked it too. Result.

hello Denise
I started two days ago, lost one pound yesterday and delighted to see I’d lost a second one this morning….. and I had a slice of seeded bread yesterday, also must confess I’ve not given up coffee but I do drink it black and no sugar. I have been very hungry! I am drinking lots of plain water, always have and enjoying the fact I can purchase products with fat in, great! I was getting concerned about my rather high intake of sweet things of late and thought I would miss them but apart from feeling rather heady this morning (but feeling a lot better since breakfast and I’m sure the coffee has helped!) I’ve been okay. It is the hunger that is so difficult, I would normally eat a lot, always have and had a good metabolism but am aware I should take more care as the years creep up and I’ve been feeling rather tired all the time, so hence changing my eating habits!

Fage’s Total full fat Geek yogurt for me!

Hi FiFip, you got me wondering…. so I googled….

100g of buckwheat = 72g carbs

100g baked beans = 22g carbs

And fat is good!! 🙂 And I have learned something new 🙂

I don’t know how available it is outside Wales, but Llaeth y Llan’s natural yoghurt is the best tasting one I’ve found. It’s almost sweet tasting, despite no added sugar!

Hello All – Bill I am a newbie, but have been reading your posts, best of luck with everything that is going on in your life, your determination to stick with it despite everything conspiring against you is a lesson to us all.

I am confused.

Baked beans and cheese = good
Buckwheat = bad

I can see that we can include buckwheat after the 8 week initial diet as it is mentioned in the book & on the Med Diet part of this website, but can’t reconcile the carbs in buckwheat with the sugar in a can/portion of baked beans. I stopped eating BBeenz a while back because they got too sweet but hubby loves them so they will feature as they are included in the diet.

Any thoughts on this please fellow posters?

I did a c25k in late 2014, and it really ignighted a love of running for me! I haven’t been able to do much in the last year because of a foot injury (and the NHS is taking forever to help me sort it) and I miss running terribly. But, I just picked some orthotics today, so fingers crossed this is the beginning of the end of my foot problem!

Thanks Hashimoto. OK, since I dont like spirits or wiskey, it will be mineral water for me tomorrow night. I am not a big drinker anyway, so wont be a problem for me. My friends however, always buy wine by the bottle when they go out … and will try to fill up everyone’s glass all the time…. I will beat them to it and keep my glass full of mineral water …. :-). Let you know how I went …

How absolutely amazing for you Bob! The sad thing is, you weren’t being a fool; you listened to your doctor and humbly accepted that you needed to change. You even committed to that change and did everything they told you to do. You deserved to get good results from that effort. But it is the medics who have let us down by sending us off in completely the wrong direction. Thank goodness you found Saint Dr Mosley before you lost all faith and motivation to lose weight. Now you can look forward to a much more fulfilled lifestyle, well done!

Great Nat – a good start with a luscious breakfast 🙂

Hi Denise

I understand the full fat bit which is great, it’s like going back to a natural diet…. I also understand by using the shakes you are keeping the calories down so will loose weight but for those who are diabetic doesn’t the sugar in the shakes affect them?

Good luck with your 12 hour shift…. I drink my coffee black and sugar free so have decided to still have my couple of cups in the morning and if I’m struggling during the evening for food I have a decaff. Both have few cals.

Hi Susieb – everything SunnyB says!!!! Just do it, in three weeks time you won’t have the hunger pangs so will find it easier when you are on your hols – and your clothes will fit better!!! If you don’t start now you will only have even more weight to shift when you get back from your hols, how depressing would that be?
Just start! 🙂

Hi Mad medic

Well done on your weight loss, you are doing really well. Personally, I am not using the recipes much as I find there are too many things in them I either don’t like or flavourings I’m not prepared to buy in case I only use them once. I have also stopped counting calories and am now counting carbs so the amounts of food don’t matter too much. Meat and fish don’t have carbs so the amount to eat is the amount I need to feel full. All I have done really is take the meals I have always enjoyed and made them low carb. So now, for example, I have (veggie) sausages and cauli mash instead of potato mash. I have scrambled eggs with butter for lunch – again no carbs in either. I fast for sixteen hours every day without feeling the slightest bit hungry and only eat between 12 and 8. I have around 50 carbs a day. I have also found that I have stopped buying bread, potatoes, pasta, coke etc so I can now buy coconut flour, gram flour, etc. These things cost the same – my gram flour from asda was £1.20 for a huge bag. I’d say don’t drop the principle of the low carb diet – you know it works better than any other, are you really going to give up on this opportunity? Just find ways to make it work within your lifestyle and preferences. Best wishes.

Hi Nat, it really does become easier and you learn what you can have and stay in the diet. If you are going to a restaurant could you look at their menu in advance so you can select without the pressure and do not be afraid to give the chef specific instructions about what you want. If you are eating at a friends that could be more difficult, lol 🙂

Hi Inka, I have had a very small glass of wine on 2 occasions in the last 8 weeks though Michael Mosley’s advice is to avoid it if you can! He suggests if you really, really need a drink try a spirit which I guess if it was whiskey you could add plenty of water! The thing to watch out for is alcohol can make you feel hungrier and then you eat more than you should, which is a double whammy!! 🙂

I agree, trying to find an 8 week window with nothing in the diary is impossible. I am hoping that after the first week, where I have cleared my diary, I will be feeling the benefits and not want to ruin the results when out and about. Fingers crossed.

I hope everyone else starting today is successful and those that are already into the program continue with their amazing work.

N

Hi MadMedic, I don’t know where you live to be able to give shopping advice but if you have an Aldi anywhere near you their yoghurt, cream cheese, cottage cheese and free range eggs are really cheap. They also do 250g packets of milled flax seed for under £2 (the same is £6 in Sainsbury’s). If there is an Asian supermarket near you the besan (gram/chickpea) flour should be relatively cheap.
Aldi also do cheaper frozen packs of chicken breast fillets. Their bacon is a good price too.
Try to make a lot of your meals based on the cheaper ingredients such as frittatas, omelettes, cottage cheese, cheese and salad. Soups can be very cheap – I look to see what veg is on Aldi’s super 6 and base my soups on it. You can add a dollop of yoghurt or cream to your soups to add fat and protein. Other supermarkets also do a similar thing to Aldi with fortnightly cheap veg range.
If you have a freezer I would make the multi portion foods and store some, it makes life easier.
The besan flour can be used to make flat breads ( recipe on website) and bhajis. I posted a courgette bhaji recipe on this website but you can substitute the courgette with onion ( I often do) because the protein is in the chickpea flour. In fact I often make them with any odds or ends of veg I have.
Tins of sardines are relatively cheap and can be mixed with cream cheese for a dip – likewise , if you are in the UK celery is cheap at the moment.
I’ll give this some thought and see what ideas I can come up with. You certainly won’t be the only person with this problem!!!
Keep with the diet though as you are doing wonderfully on it!!! 🙂

Just one other thing: I am going out for dinner tomorrow…. this might be a challenge, but I will be able to handle it…. can anyone tell me if it is OK to have a glass of winw with dinner, or should I cut it out? I thought alcohol is high in cabs, so not sure if it is OK ….

How very odd indeed! Just when we think we’re getting a handle on it….

Hi Lizzie
Its funny but my experience has been that I haven’t missed the carbs at all even though they were 80% of what I ate before. I have found that swapping ordinary milk for soya milk has meant I don’t need any sweeteners – another big vice of mine. Other people swap milk for full fat cream. If you find you have calories to spare, try using them on fats like butter, coconut oil or olive oil rather than carbs. They will satisfy you more and are actually good for your weight loss. Keep up the good work!

Thanks Hashimoto, i am going over to Europe soon and I will take the book. I can go through the important parts with them and translate it. Hopefully, i will be the proof and they can see for themselves that it works… They only know me as I am now…. fat…. and if they can see my success first hand, it wont be hard to get them to follow the diet …. 🙂 and yes, I will tell my family… I have started so many other diets that they stopped believing me, but this time, I am confident that I can follow this through. and show them too…:-) thanks for everyone’s encouragement and advice. It really helps.

Hi Natasha, this diet is a flipping miracle, I quite agree. A pound a day is wonderful! 🙂

Hi Inka I guess the easiest thing is to tell your family!! Or use the ‘no’ word like Bill said. I have googled the book in other languages for a non English speaking diabetic Italian with no success. It will come in other languages sooner or later. I guess you are going to have to send your family a long email explaining this diet and translate some recipes into German.
It’s amazing how quickly people notice you looking healthier!
I had quite a few headaches during the first week on the diet but they are now a thing of the past!
Hope the weekend goes well and what lovely places you have lived in – I’m quite green!!! 🙂

I am currently unemployed as is my wife and we have both been on the 800cal diet for 10 days so far. The meals are generally fantastic and tasty but boy do they cost a fortune! There is so much waste! We are having to repeat meals in order to use up expensive ingredients which is making the diet boring. I have lost 14lb in 10 days and my wife 6lb but we are finding it hard to pay for the ingredients. Does anyone also find this? Are there any low cost options? Can we please see more recipes of 1 0r 2 servings rather than the 4-6 which is common? We may have to come off this diet purely because of cost which is a pity because of the great weight loss. Help! On another note, PLEASE can recipes include accurate quantities instead of things like, ‘ a piece of Haddock’. Guessing is no good!

Hi Hashimoto – thanks for the encouragement. It does get to be bit of a struggle when there is no obvious progress being made, but I know sticking with it is the best way forward and I really want to see it through. Helps to have some support and kind words though!

Maybe my story may inspire some of you who might be struggling. I was diagnosed T2 on 5th Jan this year with an HBa1C reading of 50. I was given a prescription for Metformin and Statins and told to go on a low fat diet and try to lose some weight with a review in March. I was 130kg (20st 6lbs) and 62 yrs old. To say I was despondent and confused was an under statement. I took the Doc at her word, and went on a “diet”, baked potato not chips. Brown rice not white. Wholemeal pasta not white. Yes I lost a few pounds but the diet was bland.Then Dr Moseley went on about the 800cal diet in the Mail. I was hooked and realized what a fool I’d been. I started the diet on 25th Jan and lost 7lbs in the first week. I have got 3 days to go until end of week 7 and have so far on this diet have lost 33lbs (15kg). I have eaten some of the best food ever using the recipes from the book and adapting some of them. (I don’t like Quinoa any more) I was sceptical about yoghurt and berries for breakfast but it is one of my favourites now. Anyway I went for my review to the Docs after a blood test last week and my HBa1c is now 40. Cholesterol is normal. BP is 122/75. I mentioned a blood test monitor and the nurse gave me a brand new Nexus saying that they don’t normally give them to T2’s but I have shown that it would be useful for me. If your struggling, keep at it because this diet does reverse diabetes. I have another 5 stone to lose yet, so I will be hanging around for a while.

Hi SunnyB the scales will show a drop in weight when you least expect it!!! And a pound lost is far better than nothing at all! I thought weight loss would slow very quickly but after 8 weeks I still lose weight in fits and starts. Keep with it!! You’re doing brill! 🙂

Thanks, Bill, good tip. I have bought nuts and other allowed foods… and you are right: A simple NO, is really all that is required… A work colleauge ask me today what I was doing and that I looked different somehow… Slimmer in the face and around my shoulders, he said …. 🙂 … I only said, that I was looking after myself and have stopped eating sugar and carbohydrate laden foods, and told him to check the BSD website out…. this is already one other person now…. Like many of you already mentioned…. this will snowball and hopefully lead to a lot more healthy people everywhere…. I heard about this book by accident on one of our news channels. They mentioned briefly it and talked about Michael Mosely’s documentaries…. This got me interested and here I am 🙂

Well Janet 1973, we have followed Michael Moseleys recipes more or less, but have the odd cup of coffee or tea with, in my case 1/2 spoon sugar which is half sugar/half sweetener and milk. I have to say the first few days were just awful & depressing as I love all the things we can’t have on this diet, Bread, Potatoes, Pasta. As my calories were very low one day I had vegetable curry with a tablespoon of basmati rice (delicious) Cutting out these carbs seems to be getting easier & easier so we are trying to do the whole 8 weeks. We haven’t lost much percentage of our weight, so I do really find it truly amazing just one week knocking out those carbs brings blood sugars almost normal.