Sorry forgot to say 125 calories per serving plus the milk or whatever you use. I also add a bit of xamthum gum powder to thicken it up more and four ice cubes. Absolutely delicious.

If you need any more info get back to me.

In your book, Michael, you mention that consuming 2 dates are the equivalent of eating 2 (or was it 3) pundits of strawberries. But I noticed in Sarah’s ‘Guilt-Free Chocolate Brownies’ recipe, in the same book, that it calls for 5 dates! Please can you advise whether this is correct and that either I can use these as a snack without going overboard. Thank you.

I have seen a lot of posts asking for meal replacement shakes and I can recommend Bulk Powders pure whey protein. You will be able to order this online. I have tried the Chocolate, banana and the berries and cream flavours and can recommend these flavours. I use milk to make up the shake and they taste very good. The whey powder has 2.5 g of fat, 3 g of carbohydrate and 22.5 g of protein per 30 gram serving. Try them and you will be impressed.

Thanks for the answers! Helen, sounds like we’re at pretty much the same starting point. End of day 2 for me now and I ‘went nuts’ and ate an apple at 4pm because I was really hungry! Know it will get better and trying to stop the weirder parts of my brain worry about the difference between 800 cals and 817! Had a day off gym today too, but will get back into that tomorrow. Have stocked up on ingredients and want to basically stick the the recipes in the book so that I don’t have to count any calories or think about food too much, in a positive or a negative way. How’s it going for you now, almost at the end of the first week?

Bill1954, thanks man, that made me laugh! Yes Bruce is my real name, and as someone living in Germany and outside my usual cultural reference point, its brilliant to hear from someone who would even think of such a thing. I have no idea where the belief came from, neither does my good friend in Sydney, Sheila, but it seems quite a popular one outside of Aus. I’ve only ever met two or three other Bruce’s in my whole life, so maybe its like the classic Aussie beer Fosters which no self respecting Aussie would touch so I’m told (I don’t drink beer at all, but Victoria Bitter is the way to go to fit in!!)

Ok, about to start preparing the salmon and spinach for dinner tonight, I had thought about white bean mash with that but seem to have used up my quota on the apple hahahaha 🙂 I’ll do a workout tomorrow morning which usually makes me less hungry and at least fills in a few hours where you don’t need enormous mental concentration, which means I’ll do the brunch / dinner combo over the weekend.

HI, yes unfortunately I ended up with horribly saggy wrinkles at the top of my legs after losing 10kg really slowly, I didn’t think it would have been this bad at only 47 but trying to focus on the health outcomes rather than appearance consequences. It stopped me going onto short term insulin, which means 3 or 4 extra injections a day. Be healthy and enjoy the weight loss!

I’m on Exante too. Just over two weeks and one stone down. I’m not prediabetic or diabetic so don’t know about the blood results.

My query however is: on page 129 of the book Michael recommends 600 cals in shakes, plus 200 cals in non-starchy veggies. This is like Exante’s Man Plan which I’m doing, where you can ‘spend’ the 200 cals on a high protein low carb meal. Now I reckon that 200 cals of veggies would be rather a lot of veggies! I have a chicken breast or small piece of fish. Would that make any difference? Would appreciate any opinions! TIA Louise

Hi captainlynne

Excellent news, very well done! Do hope you stay with this group as your experiences will continue to be invaluable
Keep us posted on your medical support. A lot of us don’t have that
Hope the stress levels come down & maybe you’ve found new strategies to cope.
Eureka

No I monitor pre bedtime and when I wake in the morning although I did notice the other day that at teatime, my level was showing 6.8
Previously when I was having a sandwich and a bag of crisps for lunch I was always between 4 and 5 at that time of day and low fat cottage cheese with celery and pepper dippers shouldn’t have raised it.
I prefer the theory that the diabetes is fighting back, coz if that what it wants, I’m well up for the battle 🙂

Cherrianne don’t worry, I’m in this for the long term.
Fancy calling Aliba slobs ROFLMAO
Sorry Aliba

Humus is available in a few flavours and in individual portions, it goes great with salad dippers. I’ve also enjoyed the Sardine dip and a mackeral salad at work. Cottage cheese is good too.
This morning I made a 2 egg mushroom and pepper omelette and took it to work to heat up … delicious.

On week 3 (Day 19) of the diet – good results so far lost 20 lbs – been feeling pretty good but since yesterday I have some nausea & headache. Going to up my water intake over the weekend to see what happens……

Have made these muffins twice, first time they fell apart and was more like crumble mixture. After reading an article about sugar free cakes, it advised to use more water to make the consistency better. A tablespoon at a time. Tried it and boy it works. You have to keep them in the fridge as coconut flour looses its moisture.

Don’t worry Lesley, I didn’t like the peanut butter dip but my OH loved it – just personal taste. Good luck on your start – I’m on 2nd week and not found it difficult at all but do need to plan what we’re eating.

Hi everyone
Quick update as of today Friday I have lost 5lbs and 2 inches from my waist, saw my gp yesterday and she was very encouraging with further review and blood tests in 4 months. What I have done though is bought a Fitbit and although I know not 100% accurate it has shown me that if I eat 2000 calories a day I will put weight on , I am only using on average 1800 calories a day and that is doing at least 10000 steps per day so even when I have reached my target weight loss I will have to keep the calories below the recommended daily amount as my gp said I am 5ft 2in 61 and have hypothyroidism so important to look at what I actually need to maintain and keep healthy. Still feeling very positive and finding it easy to keep motivated , looking forward to furter weight loss

Hi
I have been on the diet since last Sunday and food diary is so important , also I have a Fitbit which shows I only use 1800 calories a day and I’m fairly active but have underactive thyroid so if old calculation of you need to save 3000 calories to lose one pound of weight I am only losing a pound every 3 days but I have lost 5 so far and 2 inches off my waist, keep going we over 60s can do it!

Oops, didn’t check my auto correct, didn’t mean to call Aliba ‘slobs’. My apologies.

Hi Bill, you are doing really well so far. It might be worth looking at the dawn phenomen previously mentioned so that you can understand what is happening to you. I used to suffer from it and it is so disheartening to go to bed with a blood sugar under 6, knowing you haven’t eaten for hours, and wake up with a high fasting reading. So I typed in ‘low BGL at night but high fasting BGL’ into google and found out about the dawn phenomenon. Now I eat a 20g slice of cheese and 150ml full fat milk at bedtime, both included in my daily count, and it doesn’t happen anymore. I also think you aren’t eating enough, as slobs suggested. The book makes it clear you need fat, and you do need to eat regularly. Keep trying, diabetes won’t win if you follow the diet properly. It will take all of us a while to get it right because we are having to change our thinking about what is the ‘right’ food for diabetics, as well as changing our bad habits.

You know what guys ?? that is the kind of support that really helps so thanks so much for that.
Yeah I was feeling a bit glum this morning but I’m not going to let this beat me.
The way I see it, no matter how much sugar is stored in my liver and pancreas, as long as I’m not putting the wrong things in to my body, there has to come a point where that stored sugar runs out. That shouldnt be too long I hope and I’m looking forward to seeing what the scales say tomorrow.
Aliba, you very well may be right, I’ll look at what I’m eating over the weekend and try to up the fat intake a little (fresh cream cakes here I come ……NOT) 😀

Hi Bill,

Just wanted to chip in with a bit of support as this must be really frustrating. The way I would look at it is, we have basically got fois gras inside us. As long as we stick with the diet, we reverse that a bit more each day, and that can only be a good thing for our health. It may take a while to show up on the readings, but every day we do this is a day we scrape fat out from around our internal organs rather than deposit it back in. The readings will catch up soon!

If you balance out your weightloss/ blood sugar decrease over the time since you started the diet, it is still really impressive – so maybe try to think it terms of overall decrease rather than recent plateau? Having said that, I’m sure things will start to go down again soon – it’s not physically possible for us to keep on eating this few calories and not lose weight so it will come soon!!

I believe olive oil provides good cholesterol but what about full fat milk, yogurt and butter etc? The doctor says I need to get from 5.7 to 5.0 cholesterol. It is down from 6.5 last year so healthy choices are making a difference. Should I only be eating olive oil and fish fats is the question?

Thanks Janet!
I wouldn’t say I enjoy salads… but I’m sure once my tastes adjust away from the extraordinary amounts of sugar I am eating now I will enjoy them alot more.

Thank you for the advice.. written my plan for one week with peanut butter dips and no carb ploughmans,then once I am in the swing of it I shall get adventurous with salad!

It is so great having my parents being such a fabulous support, hopefully i will see as good results as they are! Xx

Hi Bill, are you monitoring sugar levels after every meal? There may something causing a spike for you that you didn’t expect?

Sometimes you will lose inches before you see a weight loss and the diary helps to keep track of anything that unconsciously sneaks in. You have the will power to do this – you are going to be fine!

Hi Lesley
Welcome on board!
For lunch I would suggest perhaps just keep things simple. Try to keep it to two or three hundred cals. If you enjoy salad, have loads of salad veggies and a weighed piece of chicken, tuna, salmon, egg or beans/lentils. A little bit of oil-based dressing which you can make yourself with some herbs and you’re done.

Whilst taking medication for high blood pressure I have been advised not to eat grapefruit or drink grapefruit juice, would this rule out the grapefruit and manchego salad featured in the recipe section, could I substitute other citrus?

Oh really? I was excited to try to peanut butter dip! Hopefully I will enjoy it ha ha.
I didn’t really want to take soup – when I was doing low fat I just packed sandwiches and fruit and off I went, the microwave is super rubbish and I would be waiting 10 minutes of the break for it to heat up!
I will have a look through and see what else they might be, looking forward to trying the pepper with feta on my days off and things.

Thanks!

Thanks Bernie, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head – the psychological stuff really makes a difference. If you haven’t found it yet, there is a great thread on here about catastrophes which I think you would enjoy. I have done every diet under the sun over the years but have only just started this one and have never tried giving up carbs (my best friends!). I hope so much that it changes my way of weight loss forever and that I get the results other people are getting.

The lettuce cups are lovely, particularly the chicken, celery and apple. I couldn’t get on with the peanut butter dip at all.

Tried the beetroot and cannellini bean soup but wasn’t too fond of that either so I have been making minestrone soup (recipe on site) and taking it – it really fills me up. I am going to try some of the other soups that have been listed in the recipe section as they look lovely.

Have a scroll through some of the forum posts as there are some great suggestions by other posters as to what they enjoy eating.

Thnak you and I am determined to keep going! I do my own cooking and using recipes from the book, and drinking lots of water too. Haven’t done a waist measurment and will do that and keep food diary to see if that does the trick and maybe few more days will see results.

I think I’m starting to go the same route. I don’t get weighed again until tomorrow but my Sugar levels have went up again despite me sticking religiously to the diet.
I’m not going to give up but it is disappointing.

Hi!
I am overweight and definatley heading towards diabetes, getting married in July, weigh in at a hefty 17 stone 8 lbs at the moment – 100% addicted to sugar – will happily skip meals and eat a pack of sweets or chocolate. My parents have had massive success already and are on their 3rd week on this diet.
(My dad has shrunk!!)

They are going to support me with evening meals which is fabulous, my question is – what lunches do people take with them to work?
I eat lunch at work 5 days a week – and although I have access to a microwave I prefer something I can grab out of the fridge and not draw loads of attention to what I am eating.

So far the best ones from the book seem to be – peanut butter dip, no carb ploughmans and the lettuce cup. Does anyone have any other reciepe ideas that would work for me?

Thanks for your advice!

Thanks Janet – thanks for all the encouraging suggestions.
I am definitely going to try and moderate my eating on all of the days and definitely going to make low carb choices where I can.

It is this psychological battle with dieting that I have struggled with for years i.e you eat something ‘bad’ and think you’ve blown the whole diet – logically I know that isn’t the case and I really want to work on the beating myself up if things go slightly astray. I really want this diet to be a lifelong change to the way I view food.

I am on week 2 of the diet and haven’t faltered at all and feel really great on it and am losing weight which is my main goal – your encouraging comments have made all the difference to how I was viewing this holiday.

Thank you Janet1973! The moderation approach makes sense and the fact that there are no forbidden fruits is god news. See how it works out 🙂

Hi EIM

You are right, there are recipes that seem to contain forbidden foods but they are all limited to quite small amounts and would only appear two or three times across the week. I think the menu plans aim to give a wide variety of foods and nutrients but still in moderation.

Hi I am just about to embark on the Fast 800. Having read through the outline of the diet, I see nuts and seeds are encouraged to help you feel full and get vital nutrients.

I am allergic to hazelnuts and some other nuts with husks on and cannot eat seeds due to a digestive problem. Will I compromise my health if I leave these two elements out? Are there any alternatives?

Thats amazing Tuesday, very well done! If you have any tips for keeping hunger at bay, we’d love you to share them. Keep up the good work!

Hi Swabybrown
I’d say try not to despair, there can be all sorts of reasons for not losing weight and everyone is different. Are you keeping a food diary? Is there anything you are not writing down? Have you done a waist measurement and has that changed at all? Are you clothes feeling any looser? Do you do your own cooking? Do you have an underactive thyroid? How much water are you drinking and do you drink anything else? Are you eating plenty of protein and some fat? Lots of questions, the answer could be in there somewhere or maybe not. You may have to give it a few more days before you start seeing results.

Keep going for this next week and keep us up to date with your progress.

Hi Bernie
I hope you have a lovely time while you are away. I’m curious though, you said you are booked into restaurants for two days so what about the other three days? You may have decided to just let the diet go for the five days which is fine but if you want to try to limit the damage, there are some things you could do. You could stick to 800 cals the other three days. It may well be enough to balance out the other days and you could still lose weight. Only have one course in the restaurants or if its not possible, choose low carb or leave the carbs – the restaurants might customise your dishes if you ask. Keep an eye on your alcohol intake (if you drink alcohol), it not only adds calories but reduces will power too. Avoid any bread if they offer it. Don’t starve yourself before you go thinking it will help with the calorie count as you are more likely to be like a kid in a sweet shop and eat everything!

Of course, its only five days and we should make the most of holidays as we don’t get enough of them. Decide beforehand whether you are going to be semi-dieting or not at all and don’t beat yourself up while you are away. Its a chance to re-charge your batteries ready for a big push when you get back. Enjoy!

Hey all,

Newbie here. Been on this diet for 5 days now and feeling pretty good. Need some advice though. I am overweight but have never had blood sugar issues to date.

I got a Blood Sugar Monitor from my chemist yesterday and tried it yesterday 2 hours after lunch. It was a very reassuring 5.8 and my wife was a happy 4.9. Although very relieved we decided to monitor it for a few days to see if there were spikes.

Imagine our surprise this morning when, after a 13 hour fast I tested 8.2 and my wife tested 10.2. Are these ranges possible?
I’m using a FreeStyle Optium Neo, is this reliable?

It looks like I am not allowed to attached the link so you have to take my word for it.

If you don’t mind making the bread yourself, I can recommend a genius recipe which works delicious and is super healthy at the same time. I found the original in the book YumUniverse by Heather Crosby then slightly adapted it depending on what ingredients I had available at the time:
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 cup rolled oats (certified gluten free in necessary)
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 sunflower seeds
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup chickpea flour (Besan works well, available in the Indian section of a known supermarket)
1/2 cup poppy seeds
1/2 cup ground flax seeds
1 tsp salt
2 tbs coconut or olive oil
2 cups water

Method:
Preheat the oven to 325F, prepare two baking sheets. Place the sesame seeds, oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and almonds and toast them on the oven for up to 10min. Transfer to a large bowl.

Add all remaining ingredients, mix well, cover and let sit 10-12 hrs – best overnight.

When ready, preheat the oven to 325F, line a loaf baking tin with parchment paper allowing the top edge of the paper to exceed the edge of the tin by an inch. so you can lift it easily out later.

The mixture will be very firm. Transfer it to the baking tin and using a wet spoon, a spatula or even year hands, press the mixture into the loaf tin.

Bake for 30 minutes, remove from the oven. Lift the loaf out and onto a baking tray. Now, flip the bread over tucking in the 0.5 inch of paper on each side underneath. Bake for another 45 min. Allow to cool and enjoy. This is incredible.

I have found yet another version of the same bread on a different blog – just have a look at the photos:
http://ohsheglows.com/2014/11/12/heathers-toasted-super-seed-power-bread-from-yum-universe-vegan-gf/

Hi Jennie
Is that NZ as in New Zealand? Welcome to the forums, Auntylil and I have both just joined this week too. I’m sure you’ll find these forums great fun.

I’m a total pepsi addict so one of my biggest challenges is switching to something sweetener -free. So I have been drinking fizzy water with cherry and apple tea bags, which remind me a bit of cherry coke and apple and cinnamon which smell like Christmas! I have to say it is more the smell than the taste that counts as I find all herbal/fruit teas don’t taste as strong or as sweet as they smell. But I have surprised myself that I have been able to enjoy them just fine. Mint and chai are my other favourites but I haven’t tried them cold or fizzy yet.

How are things going for you? What brought you to the blood sugar diet?

I’m away for 5 days in Cornwall at the end of Feb – not looking forward to going off the 800 cals but can’t see that I will be able to do this easily as we’re booked into fancy restaurants for two of the 5 days. Going to try and limit the carbs all the same and will be doing loads of walking so just hoping the weight gain won’t be huge – will be back on the diet as soon as we’re back.

Sounds like the tide is turning.
Let us know how you get on. I’m away at the Lemon festival in Menton this weekend and hoping I don’t succumb to the pastries!

I have been on the BSD for only 5 days and already lost 6 lbs . This is the best way of eating for me . Only been hungry once. I am going to keep this up . Can’t wait to see what 8 weeks will bring !

I’ve just finished reading the book but got a bit confused when I got to the recipe section. Michael advises to limit the tropical fruits whilst berries, pears and apples are fine. However, the very first breakfast recipes include fruit such as mango, melon, passion fruit and raisins… Can someone clarify please as I do love my fruit.Thank you 🙂

Well I made the muffins last week and popped them in the freezer ready for yesterdays day conference where I knew the lunch would be sandwiches, samosas crisps etc… I can’t say they were moist like a blueberry muffin, they were much more crumbly – but they weren’t too bad – not sure if freezing them released more moisture from the courgette and apple.

Hi Suzie
I’ve plateaued from the start! I’m on day 12. So far lost 2.5 lbs, one inch off waist despite doing 1000s of steps every day., and sticking to the diet. My sisters the same. It’s strange. But I am sleeping better and feeling better so I’m carrying on with fingers crossed.
Good luck
Penny

Thanks Nettyrim.
If your body behaves like mine (and everybody is different?) than you will notice a marked change in your blood pressure if you follow the diet. There is no doubt the foods suggested in the diet have a marked effect looking at the numerous reactions to change of diet. I think the other comments elsewhere on gut bacteria are illuminating and my stomach rumbles told me something was going on!

I was on 5mg Linisipril and after the first significant change in blood pressure reduced my dosage to 1/2 pill ie. 2.5mg. When the BP readings continued to stay low (I also felt a little giddy from time to time) I felt it was worth trying without and have felt better for a week now.
I monitor my BP regularly anyway (3-4 times per week) and my readings have dropped from 130/70 on the 5mg dosage to 108/68 on none.
Let us know how you get on with the Glicazide.

Has anyone else had this happen? Am active lady over 60 go to the gym and need to loss 16lbs, bought the book and started the 800 cals and no carbs diet Monday and really stuck to it but no results?Jumped on the scales expecting great things and disappointed lost zero, nothing! Am dreaming of carbs and missing bread like crazy but don’t feel hungary and found first 3 days really hard and thought it will all be worth it. Wonder as I am not a diabetic or if anyone else expereinced this.