Hi,

Cherrianne , I didn’t realise you also live in Aus. I have been to that site before and have seen the flour around. I bought the beans from either Woolies or the green grocer to cook and they were horribly bitter. Someone said they have to be boiled and then kept in the pot for five days changing the water at least twice a day. Threw everything out. Was afraid the flour might be equally bitter. Let me know if you have tried.

As for the link you posted it’s the only way it shows to copy. Managed to get this http://irwinvalley.com.au/ Either link will open the site once copied and pasted into the browser.

Thanks Bill, I’ll give it a go
http://www.irwinvalley.com.au/?page_id=50

Cherianne, nothing clever about it.
Just post the whole link including the http://www. and the links automatically provided the wee images.

Hi Hashimoto, is today your last day of the 8 weeks? What’s your next step going to be?

Hi silver, by you have started well haven’t you ?
I’ve used baked beans a few times, especially with a flat mushroom and poached egg, without any bad effects. I do use the Heinz reduced sugar beans though.
That feel good factor is great isn’t it ? even after 5 weeks of this new lifestyle I’m still enjoying experimenting with food and eagerly anticipating my daily sugar readings and weekly weigh in
Best of luck on this incredible journey.
Shucks I started at 16 st 9 lb and now after 5 weeks 15 st 4 lb
there are a vast array of starting weights amongst the posters on here.
TBH losing 14 lb shouldn’t be a problem if you stick to the eating plan.

Hi all, discovered a different flour today in a European foods warehouse. It’s lupin flour, which is an ingredient in a bread we can buy here in Aus which has only 2.3g carb per slice. So it can be used for bread making and presumably other baked goods too.
Lupin flour has, per 100g:
Protein 39g
Carbohydrate 11.46
Dietary Fibre 31g
For the Aussies, it’s from a producer called Irwin Valley. They have a website so you can look it up.
Unfortunately, I can’t attach the site pics like Bill does, I am a bit technologically challenged!!
The web address is irwinvalley.com.au

Sounds like most people are doing so well. Plan to start next week but would love to know what everyone weighs when they say how much they have lost. I only want to loose 14lbs.

Hi cas, the initial part of the diet is 800 calories so in the first 8 weeks we do need to count them. However the emphasis is on cutting out simple carbs. To be honest I didn’t even notice the calorie column as i was more interested in cutting out simple carbs. I feel SO much better after 8 weeks of this diet I want to stick to the flours in the ‘excellent’ section of the chart for some time to come.
In the past I have used buckwheat flour for blinis, pancakes, crumbles and pastry (I’m gluten intolerant) and will do so again but I will get to my target weight first and experiment with staying on it for a few months first.

There has been so much to learn in the past 8 weeks and I am still learning and will be for months to come – but learning is fun, especially when it is accompanied by improved health. May the force be with us 😉

..and I am amazed at the results – Day 1 and 2 – the thought of sugar was hanging over me like a big gorilla, but his grip has lessened – I am amazed and I am down 2 kilos already – is this too fast? I am not complaining and what feel good is the element of control – anyone else having these feelings? Also I had a question – I planned to have the beans on mushrooms this morning for breakfast but there is sugar in shop bought beans and so I have decided not, as would this not kick start the addiction again? Any thoughts or indeed any other beans recipes ? Good luck and thank you

I’m very basic about this.
I don’t have anywhere near the appetite I used to have and I don’t eat large meals now, so I consider a serving to be the amount I can comfortably eat.
I have to stress that I don’t eat breakfast so I have those extra calories to play with over the other 2 meals but I’m fairly sure that some days I don’t get near 800 cals.

Best to have a word with your doctor although, personally, I’d be wanting to see low readings for a few weeks befor reducing meds.
I did cut out the Exanatide injections after a chat with my diabetes nurse and so far, no ill effects.

My understanding of the diet, in fact the base rule is to cut out simple carbs for the blood sugars.
This is helped with the fast weight loss caused by the 800 calorie regime but as far as I’m concerned, getting rid of the simple carbs from my diet is paramount.

My idea of a “serving” is 2 tablespoons.
My tea tonight is slow cooked stewing beef and veg of which the recommended portion for 360cals is a “serving”. Am I being greedy in my estimation? I can’t seem to find the equivalent quantity for a “serving” anywhere.

Yesterday’s:

B- porridge with blueberries
L – smoked salmon salad
D – Chicken with grilled vegetables

Today’s:

B – porridge with a half a pear
L – chicken and steamed vegetables
S – tiny ginger biscuit (gluten/sugar free) with tea. About 50 calories.
D – still deciding!

It’s such an enormous help, reading about all your successes. Thanks for all the postings.
I’ve just finished my first week, and I’m extremely happy with a 2.1 kilo drop. Nowhere near as much as a lot of you, but I’m older than most of you and only 5’1″ tall, so everything works a bit slower these days. I’ve never lost so much weight in one week, so this has given me a huge boost. I still have around 15 kilos to go, but I’ve made a start.

Great losses recorded here, well done all. I went off plan quite a bit over the weekend but I’m recommitting now and will weigh in to assess the damage in a couple of hours. Managed to get back into the swing easily so hoping to finish out my week 4 strong (only doing 4 weeks to start, then 5 day holiday)
A bit worried I messed up with my weekend splurge, broke all the rules sadly

lucpet, oops, my bad (as my children say) – it’s iPhone only -sorry about that.

Good on you buffy045, recognizing our weaker times is half the battle, then avoiding the situation altogether. Baking is my danger time, so not that I do that much, but at least I know it now.
Thanks pmshrink, coz there isn’t much mention of snacks. all good.

Hi all, thank you very much for your experiences. I like the idea of putting fat into foods as already (half-way through day 4) I’m planning food carefully to get the most for every mouthful. But I notice that I want to take fats out of a meal and replace with more veg. For instance, I planned for dinner tonight to have 2 teasp sesame oil (90 cals) with steamed vegies. If I take out 1 tsp of oil , I can have: 100 gr cauliflower (25) + 100 gr squash (16). So- are there guidelines about how much fat we should be including in our 800?

I couldn’t find the android version of the calorie app any other aussie suggestions

I am not vegan as I eat eggs but I do not eat meat or dairy products. My question is to do with protein substitutes such as Tempeh, Tofu, chick peas, quinoa etc and I use unsweetened coconut yoghurt and oat milk. Is anyone in a similar situation and do the alternatives I’ve noted work OK?

Just played it. Tried again now from the posted link and it played straightaway on my PC.

It’s already gone, but the article is worth a read.

Brunch Poached egg and slice of lean bacon. 150 calls
Mid afternoon small lamb meatballs on spinach. 220 calls
Supper 2 Beetroot falafel creme fraiche. 200 calories
Kale, raspberry and beetroot smoothie. 30 calories

Just 600 calories which is low but I am not hungry at all so not going to worry.

On the first of March 2016 SBS TV ( a free to air TV channel in Australia) interviewed live Michael Mosley re his 8-week blood sugar diet. There was also interviews by direct telecast from UK with Prof. Roy Taylor. I thought I post the link here as it was quite informative and revealing. I don’t know how long SBS keeps this material on their web site for viewing., so be quick if you are interested. http://www.sbs.com.au/news/insight/tvepisode/beating-diabetes

That’s a great chart Hashimoto. My understanding of this diet is not counting carbs BUT Calories. The calories for Buckwheat seems fairly low. As long as we exclude sugars and refined flour and food it should be OK.

Had my package inclusive of the Pure Gluten delivered before 8.00am I only ordered yesterday about 2.00pm. Not bad service!!

Hi Gail
I have soya milk that doesn’t contain sugar. It’s not the calories so much as the pure sugar carbs that are a problem.
At the moment I’ve got Waitrose unsweetened but there are others. Provamel for example. This one has 0.8g carbs per 100 ml of which 0.1g is sugars.
Provamel also make natural, coconut, and almond soya yogurts without sugar.
– beware Alpro, even the natural has sugar.
Hope it helps
Penny

OB – sounds great!
Penny

Hi franash
You can have snacks. Popular ones are hard boiled eggs, home made soup, a small piece of cheese and so on.
Good luck with the diet
Penny

Hi, when should you start reducing medication? I have been seeing readings of 5.6 – 6.0 for a few days now. I am on metformin and gliclazide.
I need to know when and if I should start reducing meds.
Thanks.

Heck is a brand. One of their sausages is 97% meat. Tesco sell them and they also sell other brands of sausages which are about 97% meat.

Hi Anthmart
Maybe the diet can’t accommodate that type of excercise, unless the fact that you’re already fat burning after a few days makes a difference.
If it doesn’t then the answer must be excercise less intensively for the 8 weeks. If you have health problems it’s worth it.
Penny

Hi. I am new today. Exercise and weight loss have been of interest to me for a long time and it seems difficult to get good answers about this area.
I am a competitive, as in racing road cyclist. Anyone who does this knows that large amounts of sugars are needed to race. How can the demands of hard training and racing be incorporated into this way of eating or any way for that matter. I am already on a carb restricted sort of lifestyle now for over a year.
The particular problem faced by athletes going all out is that they burn through all of the stored glycogen in their muscles in around an hour to an hour and a half and the only way to keep going is to shovel in a load of sugary stuff. Really just like a stream train. If you don’t give the body a high octane sugar sort of hit, it just starts to shut down on you. You have to either drop back on the effort to access fat as a fuel or your body starts to cannibalize muscle in an attempt to supply more glycogen. But in reality you just, “hit the wall” as it’s called. Your body cannot produce the fuel needed, on demand, for continued high intensity effort.
Can a diet like the BSD be followed but allow for the needs of high intensity exercise.
I fear that many athletes end up burning muscle when their glycogen stores are depleted. In this case you lose weight, but it’s muscle more than fat. Not a good result unless you are too bulky in the muscle department.

Hi K
Welcome to the forum. I’m sure the diet will help your health.
Penny

Well day 1 over, not hungry trying to drink water which i keep forgetting. heading to bed to avoid picking as this is my danger time.
No food upstairs so best place for me. Thanks so much for all the tips regarding food. also hearing others doing well makes it
seem easier to get on with.

Hi caramba
I had that moment too. Wonderful feeling.
Penny

Hi Mandy
Another fat source is nuts and seeds. Today I ate fat from lamb, olive oil, flax seed, walnuts, Provamel soya- almond yogurt ( no sugar)
Total 34 g, 49% of calories.
Penny

Heinz (in the UK) do a reduced sugar and salt version – 50% less sugar and 25% less salt. We have them all the time and no visiting child has ever noticed. I prefer them side by side to regular beans (I prefer home made ones even more). 1/2 tin is 139 kcal, 20.5g Carbo, including 4.7g sugar. To compare with above that is 67kcals per 100g and 9.9% carbohydrate. They do contain Steviol.

Hello can you tell me what a Heck sausage is please?

Can anyone tell me if soya milk sweetened is okay to have with my tea, or is there lots of calories in that? I try to drink 2 litres of water a day and as the weather is so cold of late, I have a herbal tea, but I miss the usual cup of tea with soya milk in it.
Also it is really interesting to read what you are all eating, got some ideas from you all thank you.

Hi yes i have some weight to lose ,i have decided to try the 800 calories see how i get on with the exercise if it doesn’t suit then will go for 5.2 thanks

Thanks Penny – have found it hard today but have managed to stick to the diet. Just need to be determined 😀

A handy site http://www.calorie-charts.net/legumes/1748 says canned baked beans are 1/5 carbs and about 100 cals/100 grams. 1 cup 265 cals unsalted beans. About 20 g of sugar (in the yummy sauce, of course) per cup according to http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/legumes-and-legume-products/7698/2
Hubby loves baked beans for breakie, so may have to start making our own.
BTW, interesting article at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-126977/Secret-sugar-shock.html

Now that I am over the anxiety of what would happen when I increased my calories I am going to follow it for another couple of weeks (like captainlynne) as I would like to shed a few more pounds. If there are friends round for dinner or I go out for lunch I might have a bit more food – but no carbs. I hate carbs now!! Can’t believe how good I feel without them. 🙂

I love warm milk, I usually have it every night before bed – but only had it once since starting this diet. Tonight I am going to indulge!!! Thanks for the tip. Might even sprinkle a bit of nutmeg in it – 🙂

Thanks that’s so encouraging to hear I feel very excited, just gonna take it day by day. Wow eight weeks fantastic are you continuing or stopping there?

Ha ha Penny, that made me chuckle!!! 🙂

Hi purplepenguin there are a few of us on this site who have hypothyroidism. Today I had an appointment with my remedial massage lady – I hadn’t seen her for 6 or 7 weeks – and even with my winter coat and scarf on she noticed I had lost a lot of weight. She was surprised at how well I am – she has known me for a long time – and is going to be recommending this diet to other clients. I feel as if my body has been kick started, booted up, reprogrammed or whatever other analogy you can think of to describe the fact that I feel like a new woman and that the clock has been turned back by a decade. Yesterday I experimented with 1500 calories to see what would happen and the scales showed my weight as remaining the same. Unbelievable!!! I was gaining weight daily before this diet no matter how much or how little I ate.
Stick with this diet even if you feel a bit hungry or light headed the first few days – it soon passes and hunger pangs take a back seat. You won’t regret it. You’ll be dancing and bouncing with the rest of us.
I reach the 8 week mark tomorrow. Can’t believe how quickly the time has passed. 🙂

Hi ChannelK – thank you for the encouragement. You are right, losing inches does help to keep one motivated and also that on just 800 calories a day, one can’t help but lose weight, even if it doesn’t happen as quickly as hoped. It is helpful knowing that I’m not the only person encountering these issues and that others have found the same stumbling blocks.

Sorry, can’t help with the bread thing, as I rarely ate bread so don’t really miss it. I made some of the cheesy coconut flour scones, which I found to be quite pleasant, but they do have a definite coconut flavour. If I discover any possible bread substitutes, I’ll post it here for you.

Meanwhile I will continue to be careful to log everything I consume and that way I’m sure the pounds will drop at some point. As you say, one day at a time – and to be honest, I can’t believe that I’m into week three already!

Hi Trishart,
I found that I felt heady for just over a week altogether. I’m on my fourth week now & all is fine. It will go away – one of the things for him to remember is that he still needs to get enough fat for energy & drink lots of water. Good luck – hope all goes well xx