Annie Many thanks for the exercise tips. I shall have a look at them all.

DCT Good to hear that the shingles pain is fading. But it still sounds very sore. Take care!

Yowzer the NSVs were ARCTICFOX’s. I loved the one about the chair. I have some bad memories of uncomfortable cafe chairs too! And one plastic chair which almost didn’t support my then weight! How absolutely fantastic to have moved from size 22 to size 12/14 in dress size. it is really inspiring. Today I reached the 2 stone mark so feeling pleased.

Have a good Wednesday. x

YOWZER how weird is that – The Shingles Twins! I may try the tissue tip, as every time I’ve tried to put on a bra it’s just too uncomfortable. So my standard attire over the past couple of weeks has been baggy summer top and no bra, teamed with loose fitting sweat pants. But I have a few things on the horizon where I will need to go out in public so probably need to find a few other clothing options!
I know what you mean about the night issues too. I sometimes experience a kind of fizzing feeling all over, and have also woken up several times absolutely drenched in sweat. Sorry, probably TMI!!
Anyway, go well and here’s hoping we’ll both be completely shingles-free soon. I hope you are also getting better in other ways? Thinking of your sciatica and shoulder issues. Hope all is much improved X

Thank you for setting up the thread Pootle. I don’t think Premier Inns do have a fridge in their usual rooms but there are some upgraded rooms that I think might? It certainly is worth asking & could your take a cool bag with you with ice packs that could last for a couple of days? I wonder if the restaurant attached to the Premier Inns might be prepared to refreeze your ice packs? I know it would be an unusual request but it wouldn’t cost them anything!
I had a final hospital check yesterday & my knee recovery seems to be on the usual projectory . I have been prescribed a med to help nerve pain to help me sleep & it worked brilliantly last night because I have been only sleeping one to three hours for the last two weeks so rather worried & exhausted not getting any much needed deep sleep. Apparently usual progress to walk normally can be six months so after Christmas for me but I feel better having a time frame. I have been given a couple more exercises & to discontinue some because my knee bend is very good but I must build thigh muscle strength after limping with a stick for three years. I was amused to learn I must also walk in my hall forwards then backwards which stops limping because it gradually confuses the brain because you can’t limp backwards! Who knew that 😀
Congratulations on your quiz win S-G 👏👏⭐️
Margaret xx

DCT! we are like twins! 😄My rash is in exactly the same place as yours! Across my boob and round the back. If i wear a lacy bra i have to put tissue in the cup so the lace doesnt rub against my boob…ouch! I’m so glad we havent got rash on face.
How lovely (tho inconvenient when youre poorly) to be making improvements to your home You will enjoy your new bathroom and kitchen worktops every day! XX
HEIDI I love your chair and shorts NSVs! I have lympho too,possibly a touchof lipo as well – fun isnt it!!!!!
Lovely to find you are losing in areas you didnt expect to.XX
ANNIE good to see you here. Thanks for the info,will look them up
Ship ahoy everyone! Have a good Wednesday XX
⭐️🤩⭐️🤩⭐️🤩⭐️🤩⭐️🤩⭐️🤩⭐️🤩⭐️🤩⭐️

Morning all! YOWZER and HEIDI thanks for your good wishes. I’m gradually getting better: the blisters have pretty much gone now and as of this morning the pain seems to finally be going away. I had the shingles in a very uncomfortable place – from the boob right round to the middle of the back – so lots of everyday movements and clothes choices were pretty limited. But I think I’ve turned the corner now. YOWZER I hope that yours goes completely very soon; it does bring you down doesn’t it. And HEIDI well done for all your loss over the last few weeks and months, you are doing really well!

I have builders in this week fitting a new upstairs bathroom, and today they are also replacing kitchen worktops. It’s all pretty chaotic, particularly as the shower in the ensuite then somehow caused a flood on Monday evening! The upside is that to have a shower on Tuesday I finally went back to the posh gym and it was great! I was a bit wary of going into the water but in the end did four gentle lengths before coming out for a nice long shower. I’m hoping to get back in the groove properly again over the next week or two.

Trying to catch up with posts. Someone said that September feels more like a new year than January and I really agree with that, probably because I’ve worked in education for the past 20 years. But it’s definitely time for (yet another!) reboot for me. I’ve really let things slide over the last couple of weeks but am puling myself up by the bootstraps and intend to lose a pound a week between now and Christmas. That should take me to around 138-140lb and I think I will then stick.

Hello to LACY and ANNIE and thanks for all the exercise tips. I intend to follow them up as I know it’s an important element for me in many ways. Lucy Wyndham Read was mentioned, and she is the creator of the 7 minute belly workout I’d mentioned sometime earlier on here. It does work if you do it regularly so I just need to remember to actually do it!! LACY well done on your loss and good luck with your doctor’s appointment – I hope she eats her words!!

CATHY so sorry about your dental issues and I hope you get them sorted soon. It’s such a complex area. Earlier this year I needed root canal treatment in an upper left tooth but only found out when she was investigating what turned out to be referred pain in another tooth. So I hope they take everything into consideration and get it fixed for you. Great news about your toe too. And good luck with your new push for the rest of the year. You can do this!!

ARCTICFOX well done for all the progress you are making. I loved your quote “you are just one consistent year away from changing your life completely”. Very inspiring. And, as you say, we can break that down further into smaller chunks. On this thread we still have 4 months to go so let’s see what we can change in that time!

Meanwhile, off to clear that kitchen . . . .

Hi Pootle,
I was in this situation once. I did have a fridge in the room, but made sure of it ahead of time. I took a chia and hemp seed mix to mix with the Greek yogurt, although if you know there will be milk available, you could just mix it with that. I also took the broccoli sandwich bread with me and that lasted me for the first 2 days, and after that, I fasted through breakfast. We had salad available at lunch, so I had that and supplemented with the Greek yogurt for protein. Also, I had nuts and olives with me for snacks or to bulk up meals. It wasn’t a physically hard work week, just sitting around tables in meetings, but it was challenging because the meeting organizers had put tons of hard candy and jars of jelly beans on each table. I’ve never been a big fan of those things, so not normally tempted by them, but very hard at first to see everyone grabbing handfuls of jelly beans regularly, then after a while, I just became disgusted by it. Best of luck with it. I’m sure you will manage brilliantly as you’ve come so far already.

Hi Pootle. The Premier Inn sounds a challenge! I find savoury egg muffins are good for journeys/overnight stays. Perhaps you could take a cool bag with you? Fingers crossed you have a fridge. X

Heidi another four exercise options from You Tube, depending on fitness levels. I do like Will too.

Yes2Next is a mother (84yrs old) and daughter channel. The daughter is the instructor and her mother does the exercises alongside her, mainly seated. It’s an engaging channel with varied exercises, including strength.

Improved Health is a lovely channel with an instructor that does not talk all the time and again is varied with walking, dancing and strength videos.

Lucy Wyndham-Reid is a walking/cardio channel mainly.

The Girl With The Pilates Mat s excellent and does varied “classes” for beginners and more advanced exercisers alike. She also caters for patients with osteoporosis, if this is a consideration.

I admit that I pay for You Tube as that way it is advertising-free. But for a long while I just fast forwarded where possible, or gritted my teeth and carried on when not.

Great news Pootle! What tastes better than a size 12/14 dress feels?!

So just one positive for me today ….. some friends we’ve not seen for ages popped in for a cup of tea today. Lovely catch up.
Out for lunch tomorrow so that will be part of tomorrow’s ‘positives’.
Have a good evening everyone.

Pootle that’s a difficult one. Ring the hotel and ask the question about a fridge. Then if there isn’t one it may be a bit of a struggle … but … maybe you can take some crispbreads, canned sardines, tuna, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, blueberries and a sharp knife! Not ideal but at least it might get you through some of the worst carb horrors. It might not be as bad as you’re anticipating and if the worst coned to worst and it is, then don’t just don’t give into the idea that ‘I’ve eaten one so might as well eat more’. Just eat as much as you need . You can get back on track as soon as you get home.

You are right Verano, if Sunny can we all can!

🫛🫛Beans have been so prolific I have been able to supply a lot of our neighbours… makes a good excuse to drop in for tea and chat!

I bought 3 large mats for the kitchen a few weeks ago, which smartened it up. So husband decided to buy some more for the hall and conservatory , so we are looking good!

A friend turned up with a brand new (without tags) size 12-14 dress which she had bought, removed tags then found it didn’t fit. I thought it would be too small, but it fitted perfectly!!! A huge change from the size 22 I was wearing in July 2024!! 😄😄😄

Sorry I have been absent for a while… needed to get my head in a better place!

I am beginning to worry about one working week (6 days) in September. I will be staying in a Premier Inn and starting at 6am on 3 days, not finishing until about 7pm. The other 3 days are slightly more civilised…with an 8am start. I know it is going to be difficult to continue to avoid bread, pasta, rice and potatoes as all food will be ‘grab, eat run’! I will take the first day’s packed lunch with me…broccoli bread with a bit of cheese and avocado with sardines, but what to do after….we are getting a ‘breakfast box’ each morning, which I know will be bread or croissant based. I really do not want to get sucked into the carb cycle again….the withdrawal is so difficult, but I also cannot go without food as it will be very long days and quite physical work. Does anyone know if Premier Inn have a fridge in the room? If so, I can take greek yoghurt, broccoli bread, cheese, avocados, cooked meats etc so I can snack on those rather than eating the carbs.
I have come this far, I really don’t want to mess it up now!
🤞
Hope we can all have a ‘spectacular September!”

Thanks everyone for the supportive comments.
Welcome Lacy and thanks for the exercise suggestions. I belong to an online gym and am ashamed to say I rarely log on these days. Part of the reason is that my house is a shambles with the unfinished renovations and just general clutter everywhere. I need to have a good clear out before my surgery as it is just getting me down and will make moving about with a bad leg hard.
Anyway, I’m pleased to report that my bg was down to 5.0 this morning. So hopefully finally back on track.
I have a couple other NSVs to report too. I was at my counsellor’s office yesterday. I usually sit on the couch in the waiting room because the two chairs have wooden arms and when I’ve tried to sit in them before, my painful lipedema fat tissue was getting pushed up against the arms and it was so painful that it made me nauseous. But my hips have slimmed down a bit now along with my waist, so as an experiment, I sat in a chair, and guess what? I fit without hitting the arms now! Of course that led to a bit of overconfidence and I chose to sit in one of the big overstuffed armchairs in the actual office, and unfortunately I’m still too wide for that, but at least it is soft so it doesn’t hurt me. Anyway, that led me to try on a pair of Bermuda shorts when I got home that I’ve been using to measure my progress. I hadn’t tried them on for a couple of weeks as it was frustrating how tight they were around my legs and that fat didn’t seem to be budging, so I incorrectly assumed that it was all lipedema tissue and it wouldn’t be lost. But I was wrong! The legs are fitting much looser now.
So anyway, as much as I am pleased with the results, there is definitely a part of me that feels it is not deserved given how off-piste I’ve been this week. But I am trying to have some self-compassion and acknowledge that it was a hard week, so of course things haven’t gone to plan. It is always the 2-3 week mark where I am likely to fall off the wagon, and then the events over the last week just made things harder. But instead of using that as an excuse to chuck it in, I’m going to try to get back on with things and continue to make further progress. No excuses for me, Yowzer! A year does seem rather long, but 6 months may be more doable. I need those shorter term goals to keep me on track. My next goal is to get those Bermuda shorts fitting to the point where I could wear them in public. Still a bit tight through the bum for that!

Thank you for setting this up Pootle. Please shout out if you need help but I also totally forgot we had reached September.

Inevitable weight gain from booze at last nights quiz. Good news is we won, we were asked to join a team of 4 to make it 6 (most allowed) and we scored 28 out of 32. So one wrong in each of the 4 rounds. Prize is 6 bottles of wine so we got 2. They are red so they will be left for hubby to drink.

My main concern right now is getting my BG back down to my ‘normal’ of between 5.8 and 6.2 and I am being tested on Thursday morning when nurse comes to take my bloods. I will let you know my results as soon as I get them, then it is doctor next week.

Have a really spectacular September.

New page! DCT hope you are recovering fast from shingles and its not lingering XX .
It’s horrible isnt it! Look after yrself and let others spoil you! ☺️
I’ve still got the rash, but the pain is minimal,and I seem to have been left with a jolting,twitching,jumping sensation all over,which mainly happens at night. XX

Just popping in to thank LACY and YOWZER for the Will Harlow tip. I shall have a look.

Clarinet, so sorry to hear that the dentist couldn’t help yesterday. I hope you’re not feeling worse today from all the poking about. Take care.

DCT you are a bit quiet! I hope the shingles is fading rapidly.

ARCTICFOX Good luck with your eating plans this week.
X

Good to see others posting positives … well done on ditching the coffee cake Heidi, sometimes it pays just to be ruthless when dealing with temptation.

Feel there must be a positive or two to be found today, so here goes ….
🌼🌼 my sister and I have agreed a plan for this month, to ease Dad in to single living
🌼🌼 mum’s garden has delighted in the recent rain showers and looks lovely in this morning’s sunshine … lots of colour still out there, including fuschias, roses and even some late flowering daisies and early cyclamen.

Hope you have a positive or two and a spare minute to share them with us too.

Thanks for setting this thread up Pootle. Sorry you’ve been feeling down. I guess we all get spells like that. The good thing is that you are still maintaining well.

‘Spectacular’ would be a great way to describe September. I’d be happy with a ‘little progress’! I just don’t seem to be able get back into a ‘continuous’ routine. I feel like I’m on a see-saw at the moment and so actually going nowhere!

Anyway, hoping September turns out to be ‘Spectacular’ for everyone.

Welcome aboard,LACY,such a pretty name! X well done on being so close to goal 👍
CCATHY was thinking of you all day yesterday,I’m so sorry your dental problem wasnt resolved,thats so disappointing for you. Pain is so distracting,we just want it gone asap so we can get on with life
I am expecting your cat book to arrive today,looking forward to it.X
HEIDI I know how you feel,i’m so overwhelmed by so much online re exercises etc that I dont know what to do,we are spoilt for choice. I will defo look up Nancy Stanley. I like Will Harlow as he has a lot of advice for the over fifties on youtube,plus I bought his book,but its heavy,I find it hard to hold with my arthritic hands.X
FOXY,last year I did a 6 month version of your year version after reading something along the lines of ‘ In six months time will you still be making excuses or will you have made changes. It really resonated with me and I found somehow I could chase my Carb Monster away and stick to low carb for the whole six months. Felt so good at the end of it.
Love to you and your pusscat! Cats are such fun to have around and good company. Our cat is called Ziggy Stardust and we love him to pieces. We have also got two cats living in what we call “ cat central” in the garden and they are fun to watch. Theyre like an old married couple,he is very henpecked. We make them as warm and comfy amd well fed as possible,but Im worried about them being outdoors another winter. I want them to go to cat rescue and be rehomed,but other neighbours who enjoy them,dont want to lose them. I think thats selfish even though said neighbours do a lot to make life easier for them.
Hello to all and happy September,hope you remembered to say white rabbits yesterday and do pinch and punch!
Love Septemberi,it feels like NewYear to me,more than actualNew Year does,feels like time to start anew – I guess that comes from the school year starting now.XXXX
PS LACEY! Just noticed you are a Will Harlow fan too! 💕

🐝 ¨*• ¸🌼¸¸ 💞🐝*•.¸🌼¨*•💞¸🌼¸¸ 🐝 ¨*• ¸🌼¸¸ 💞🐝*•.¸🌼¨*•💞¸🌼¸¸ 🐝 ¨*• ¸🌼¸¸ 💞🐝*•.¸🌼¨*•💞¸🌼¸¸ 🐝 ¨*• ¸🌼¸¸

Hi all,
I’ve just spent a few days reading through this topic on the forum. I have to say you’re an inspirational bunch of people. Life has thrown so much at some of you, but you haven’t let it beat you – you’ve just picked yourselves up and carried on!
What prompted me to pop in and say hello was Heidi24’s request for exercise routine ideas. There’s an English specialist physio for over 50’s, Will Harlow, who has a youtube channel with exercise routines and information that I’ve found really useful, especially when first starting out. I’ve attached a link to a good video for starting out, but do explore his channel – there’s all different workouts, so you can have a rummage and see if anything suits you better! And he explains things really clearly too! I put together a basic strength-building exercise routine that suits me after watching several of his videos. And I like the idea that he’s actually a physio, rather than just some random person who might be doing things so wrong you end up straining something if you try to follow their instructions!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH0SY1cMONM
Anyway, I’ve been on the BSD now since the end of June, and I’m about a kilo away from my target weight. My GP refuses to do a blood review until October (she firmly believes that this won’t work, and thinks I need 4 months to try and “lose a bit of weight”) so I have no idea if I’ve moved out of the pre-diabetic range. I’m on the verge of stopping my BP meds as my diastolic is constantly in the 50s now, and that’s on 1/4 of the dose a day. I’m taking that as a positive sign!
So – lovely to meet you all!
Lacy XX

Thank you Pootle & sorry to hear you have been feeling down! August seems to have been a difficult month for many of us & hopefully things will improve in September 🤞🤞🍀
With very best wishes
Margaret xx

Hi everyone,
This week has been tough eating wise. My bg is still out of whack, so that is very frustrating. However, I am determined to get back on track. I am eating breakfast and lunch today and then will fast at least 24 hours, and will see how I feel at lunch tomorrow.
I just saw a meme that said ‘You are just one consistent year away from changing your life completely’ and that really struck me, so wanted to share it here. Where could I be in one year if I got this insulin resistance under control? I’ve already made some pretty good progress around clothes fitting better (or not even fitting anymore!), less brain fog, less pain, improved reflux and gastritis, and that is only in a few weeks. So, I need to get back to what I was doing, but maybe with some tweaks. I feel like doing 2 weeks of ADF followed by a week of eating regular meals, but low carb, followed by a week with a longer fast might be a doable pattern that will keep mixing things up so my body doesn’t get used to it, but we’ll see if I manage it!
Cathy, sorry to hear your issue wasn’t resolved at the dentist. I think my sister had something similar happen. They did a root canal and she was left in even more pain and it turned out to be a nerve thing. She is on medication for life now for it. Hopefully that isn’t what is up with you!
Heidi, amazing that you’ve managed to get down toward healthy BMI in 14 weeks, especially with all the stress you’ve had to deal with.
Yowzer, thanks for your wisdom about cats. My cat is Lyla and she is a fussy, fussy eater, although I can’t blame her because she has severe food allergies so has to be on a single dry food that is pretty boring and then I give her tinned human tuna for a little treat, but she gets bored of that too. So we are quite the pair now, me with my multiple allergies and sensitivities and her with her restricted diet. But we muddle along quite nicely together.

Dentist for me this morning. The dentist was very thorough but seems mystified about my symptoms. I had an x Ray and he said he can’t see any sign of infection in the bone. He has given me a prescription for Penicillin which I would prefer not to take and said he will see me in a week or so. He thinks it might be a nerve issue or a sinus issue! I hope the antibiotics do the trick whatever is going on. It’s been 4 weeks now and it’s getting me down. Was planning on a 100% restart today but it hadn’t happened! Hopefully tomorrow!
Well done to everyone who is toeing the line and seeing results- I’m incredibly envious . Keep strong to anyone like me who is struggling to behave!

The monthly thread moving into September 2025. Here to help new dieters, returners and anyone who needs support!

Sorry folks… I have been absent for a while, although I have been reading all your posts on my email. I have been very down, but have kept to the diet and my weight is steady.
I will set up a September thread…

“Spectacular September with the BSD”

Hope to see you all there!!

Yes if Sunny can, then we should all have a go.
1) Finally went to the dentist today for a check-up, and nothing needed doing. Brilliant.
2) Managed to throw away the coffee cake that has been calling from the fridge. I have had a very weak day today, but at least that limited the damage. Serves me right for feeling yesterday that I was more or less on top of things!
3) the rudbeckia just outside our window has been flowering for over a month. It is a beautiful splash of sunlight in the garden, and reminds me of the good friends who brought it as a present.

Pootle do you want to carry on with a September thread?

S-G selling your house is stressful & will kick up stress hormones that will affect weight as well as not sleeping well 🤔
Yes please Verano to a September thread & I know I have been rather absent but I have been reading the posts.
Onwards into September 👍
Margaret xx

Sunny good to see you finding some positives! Keep on keeping on……..

I’m shamed into finding positives. If Sunny can then we all can …..

🥗🌶️🍅 Relatives for lunch yesterday. It was a pleasure to eat with people on the same wave length of ‘low carb, no UPFs’.

🥗🍅🌶️ easy dinner tonight … last nights left overs with some more protein!

🍅🌶️🥗 Out for lunch on Wednesday although I’m not quite sure how ‘low carb, no UPF it will be!

Please find a positive or two to keep this thread going.

S-g please don’t stress. Down around a pound, up around a pound is just the body ‘doing its thing’! Sorry if I’m speaking out of turn here so forgive me, BUT maybe you are eating too few calories? I understand we need to stay low carb but 758 is almost ‘starvation’ in the long term. And my goodness we’ve been here ‘in the long term’, if not longer!!! Maybe you should have a rethink after all these years. Yes stay low carb but ……

OK. So without noticing we’ve slipped into Sepember!
Do we have a new thread?
Do we want a new thread?
Have I missed something?

Still no news on the house. I am disappointed with my weight as yesterday I had lost a pound and this morning it has jumped back up to half a pound. It is still down but I cant understand as my calorie count was 758 and then I had a few nuts. It is what it is and we are going out tonight but I will still weigh tomorrow.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Hi all. Thank you Yowzer and Clarinet for the thoughtful exchanges. And Arctic Fox I am amazed at your dedication and thoroughness in tackling your pre-diabetes.

I’m completing my 14th week of healthy eating, and am now 0.6 kilos from the generous BMI range allowed for over 60s. This feels good. I hesitate to say this, because I know how things can change very quickly…. but this time round the healthy eating feels like a gift to my body, not a battle. I have not counted anything since I started, except to ensure that I am eating enough protein and not going mad on nuts or fruit. And I have not excluded complex carbs such as pulses etc. I genuinely find that there is a natural limit to how much I can eat once rice, pasta, bread, sugar etc are out of the equation. (I recognise of course that I am not facing the challenge of pre-diabetes, as far as I know.)

This week I have been going down lots of rabbit holes on the Internet, but I keep coming back to the basics of healthy eating, movement, strength training and sleep. I am not doing too badly on the first two (thanks to the dog!), but the last two are non-existent or challenging. Does anyone have recommendations for exercise routines/strength training for beginners in their 60s? In my searches this week I have come across Dr Nancy Stanley, who seems a source of inspiration and empowerment. But there seem to be so many options on what to do that I can’t get started. Any suggestions?

Good luck to everyone this week. Particularly to Clarinet for the dentist tomorrow. x

Thank you SG, V and CC for your condolences and kind words. Thought I should find some positives to post, so ….

🌸🌸 my darling OH is visiting for the weekend
🌸🌸 pleasant lunch out with Dad yesterday and we took a trip down memory lane

That will do for now, but hopefully your weekend brings plenty of positives your way.

Hi everyone,
I only managed to fast for about 22 hours yesterday and then got too hungry and had a handful of nuts, and then had dinner quite late as I was late home. I suppose it isn’t too surprising given that my cortisol and other counter-regulatory hormones were still probably quite elevated, so even though I had a low carb dinner the night before, my body was still not in a place where I could do a longer fast. Lesson learned. I will be spending the weekend eating but very low carb to see if I can be ready to do a 36 hour fast again on the weekend. Bg was 6.3 this morning after that late dinner that included some strawberries for dessert. I got the strawberries from a farmer friend over the other side of the valley. We haven’t seen each other since spring, so it was nice to have a good chat, and I think I really need some normal social interactions for a bit to counteract the family nonsense.
Anyway, on my coffee break right now and haven’t eaten yet today, so I’m going to have some healthy food now!

Thanks CCaTHY and best of luck!
Will buy that book and same for my daughter,it sounds fab! X

Yowser
Everything you’ve said is exactly how I am feeling and it’s time to be honest with myself. I am 64 and have health issues I have no control over – I feel like a ticking time bomb at times and it’s now the right time to learn to be more like your other half and be comfortable with who I am and accept that I am good enough. I will get my holiday weight off and stay mindful of portions, daily walks, healthy eating. You are very inspiring Yowser and I am looking forward to acceptance and maintenance in 2026.
A few years ago I bought a book called How to live like your cat by Stephane Garnier- it’s a lovely book – here are a selection of chapter titles
Your cat is free
Your cat accepts itself as it is.
Your cat is beautiful and knows it
Your cat brims with self confidence
Live like a cat
Your cat thinks about itself first – think about yourself and your well-being . look after yourself. nobody will do it better or do more for you than yourself. (The hardcover book which I have is only £3.58 on Amazon at the moment)
So it’s time for me to take stock. I will enjoy the rest of the cruise and see what I can do to chip away the excess and then 2026 will be my year of maintenance and well-being without beating myself up and battling. Thank you for sharing your experience Yowser. Great minds think alike. I hope you are soon feeling tip top and can enjoy the rest of the cruise as we sail together for the next four months.

Hi CCATHY,wouldnt it be great if we could only be comfortable in our own skin?
So many of us arent,including me. My other half is though,and although sometimes I look at him and think he is maddeningly smug – he really isnt!
He never worries about weight but stays slim,he is naturally active,always moving,he is comfortable in any company because he isnt self conscious or thinking anyone is better than himself. He knows he is good enough,and of course,he is,and so are we,though we beat ourselves up thinking we’re not!
It all makes for a more contented life if only we could get that fact straight in our heads!
I think deciding that in 2026 you will be more accepting of your body is a very healthy move. Different if you have a lot to lose to become more well,but you dont have much to lose anyway,and will have lost a little or a lot of that come 2026.
I made same decision at start of 2025. I’m 75,its ridiculous really worrying about a few pounds here and there at this age. Its been an interesting year, so far,one of the worst Ive had illness wise,but Ive realised a few things about myself.
For one,I know how to eat too little or too much,after all the years of yoyo dieting,but I find it hard to just eat normally.
Another thing,Ive realised that yes I use food to soothe myself,but its the actual buying of comfort food and putting it in the fridge and cupboards that cheers me up,rather than when I eat it. Thats usually a let down,somehow I just feel disappointed and regretful.
Realising those things have made having a maintenance year do-able as the year has progressed.
As long as i can fit into my clothes and can move around comfortably,all I really need to remember is what constitutes a normal portion,rather than too little or too much on my plate,and to remind myself that the so called ‘treat’ isnt suvch a big deal after all.
I think you will find,as you go on your maintenance year in four months time,that thoughts may come to light that you didnt realise before,and they may be helpful insights.
Hope Monday goes ok at the dentist. I havent been able to go for dental check ups this last year as sciatica has meant i cant get on my dentists chair. They dont seem to have any way of catering for people with mobility issues! I just hope they dont take me off their books as its so hard to get a new dentist these days.
PS Sorry for going on so long! I’m just thinking now of your Monty and our cat Ziggy. Cats never seem to have a problem with low self esteem do they! They are effortlessly beautiful and they know it! We need to be more cat! Xx

Hi Yowser
Thank you for your kind words. I do feel lighter now I don’t have to face the op at the moment! Didn’t realise how much is was weighing me down. I’m at the dentist on Monday. Full blown dental abscess (yet again) whilst on holiday. I took some salt with me to do saltwater rinses. It’s definitely healing but still sensitive and there is a hole in my gum probably where it drained! I was so angry with the dental therapist who told me there was nothing wrong before my holiday because I KNEW something was brewing!
Been a good week for me, managed to get home from Southampton despite the train strike on Saturday , car passed it’s MOT, operation postponed, back to healthy eating. Now I want to see the scales moving in the right direction over the next few months. I only want to lose 1 stone. I reckon losing any more won’t be manageable at maintenance. I am trying to be realistic. I know I have difficulty losing weight. I’ve been struggling now for many years so I’m going to relax, believe in the process albeit slow and try to achieve a happy medium of being sensible, realistic and seeing some results. Even if, by December I haven’t achieved my desired goal then I am drawing a line under my constant struggle to be a weight I can’t achieve and will aim to stay where I am and not put on any more. Enough has to be enough. This isn’t me throwing in the towel but realising I have to accept who I am instead of trying to be who I can’t be. I don’t want to waste any more years beating myself up. I am working on acceptance and being good enough. I don’t know why I’ve never felt good enough.

Hi peeps! Can you believe we are almost two thirds of the way through our cruise?! Time flies.
FOXY,you are such a busy bee,like HEIDI said! Sorry about the row at your parents house,its a shock to the system when something blows up unexpectedly,when all you wanted to do was cut some flowers.Well done on all your wins at the fair! Loved reading about your NSV X
Hi CCATHY,I admire how you cope and stay upbeat and positive no matter what the world throws at you. There are some very strong women on this thread. I agree with you about the weightloss jabs. I know people who have lost lots of weight and are looking very good. Its tempting but I dont think its for me,. Plus its expensive! how is your toothache now?X
Have a good weekend everyone,see you up on deck! And remember …persistence and progress is what matters,not perfection! XX
🐝 ¨*• ¸🌼¸¸ 💞🐝*•.¸🌼¨*•💞¸🌼¸ 🐝 ¨*• ¸🌼¸¸ 💞🐝*•.¸🌼¨*•💞¸🌼¸

Hi Sunny so sorry.
Sending condolences to you and your family.
Take care of yourselves.
Sending lots of warm hugs.

Cathy – yes, 5.4 is in the normal range, so you are doing well! Anything 5.5 – 6.9 is considered pre-diabetic.
Mine was 5.5 this morning, so still a little elevated, but coming down gradually. I am fasting again today, so that should take care of it. I had a very low carb dinner last night of garlic-chili noodles with broccoli and the noodles were konjac noodles, but I did have a serving of gluten-free veggie pakoras at the fair yesterday. I have been missing Indian food thanks to not being able to have tomatoes, which really limits options, especially for takeaways rather than homemade, so it was nice to have something. I had them instead of the ice cream I was planning as I hadn’t eaten any breakfast before I went and didn’t want something sugary to start the day off as that would really spike my glucose if I didn’t have it with anything else. So, I’m ok with the 5.5 reading today. I will get back on track and it should resolve. At least I know that the elevated numbers are due to stress and not due to anything I did wrong nutritionally. Just need to lose a bit more weight and waist circumference to get my metabolic flexibility back to where it should be.
Bit of a weird NSV today. I have been wearing shorts at home recently and linen wide leg trousers for work that have a drawstring waist, but yesterday I chose to wear some capris that had been a bit snug at the beginning of the summer. I was in a hurry to change and get out the door to the fair, so just pulled them on without thinking, and then had to spend my time at the fair trying to subtly keep pulling them up as I was in danger of them slipping down over my hips! I don’t weigh myself, so I don’t know how much weight I’ve lost, but clearly a lot of inches have gone by the wayside now. I need to find a belt for them! I suspect it will be an issue when I go back to wearing jeans in the fall too. I just got new jeans in the spring and now they will be too big. But I suppose I could always find a tailor and have them taken in, as I know I can’t let myself go back up to that weight or I will end up diabetic.

Hi Sunny, condolences and big hugs.

Hi everyone, no news on house or weight, but BG was right down this morning (66 or 3.6) even though I reduced insulin. Wonder if it is too soon for Yerba Mate tea or maybe it made me not bother about snack or feeling hungry. Time will tell.

Had a chat with hubby and he has agreed to keep out of the way in future. This was unusual as it was a different agent and she asked is to stay close by to answer any questions. Trouble was they wanted to know about the pool and once he went and told them he seemed to just hang about and mansplain everything. Yes things are different in France but if someone is coming to live here or have a holiday home they can find things out for themselves rather than have it all explained to them. Also, he does tend to be Mr Negative, he always sees the downside before the good in something.

Hopefully, there will be more viewings and I will do the talking.

Hello
I feel like the Sword of Damocles has been removed. I didn’t t realise how stressed I was feeling about the proposed foot surgery. All things considered I am pleased it’s being deferred- maybe the risk outweighs the benefit for me especially with the ongoing Schwannoma issues being monitored at Christie Hospital.
Had hot raspberries on cold Greek Yoghurt this morning for breakfast and it’s so delicious. Am determined to use the next four months to help me shed whatever I can. My fasting blood glucose was 5.4 ( is that good ArcticFox?) I am pre diabetic so need to be mindful of keeping sugar/carbs out of my diet. I reversed the numbers last year but they crept up again this year. Nurse advised repeat blood test in one year but I figure if I can lose some excess weight and work on reducing carbs I can reverse the numbers again. My HbA1c was 43. I think normal in UK is 41 and below.
I feel like I’ve been given a get out of jail free card now the op is not going ahead and I feel positive that with some effort I can get back into the 140s to start my maintenance next year. I’m going to be using all the tools I have so a mixture of low carb, fasting, calorie counting, walking and healthy nutritious food only. Looking to making more soups over the autumn/winter.
I am envious of all the people who seem to be losing weight so easily with the injectables but it’s not a route I am prepared to risk as I am averse to medication and it’s side effects. It has felt tempting at times though!

No worries Margaret – I was an aged-care nurse for many years, now retired, so have some experience with the havoc antibiotics can wreak on a system weakened somewhat after major surgery. I just hope the probiotics are helpful. Kefir and Greek yoghurt are both very good for the gut biome so I’d still keep taking them too.
And thank you! I was getting so down about the weight not shifting, even though I was sticking religiously to my diet. I think I wouldn’t have felt so hard-done-by if I’d cheated a bit, you know? Anyway, fingers crossed my weight keeps going in the right direction!
Take care of yourself,
Lacy xx

Thank you Lacy its very kind of you to do some research for me I am very touched & grateful 😍
My husband & I have a daily Kefir which is a pre-biotic of live good bacteria but of course that will be not much use whilst I’m taking antibiotics but I am still having it & organic natural Greek yoghurt. I will have a look for Optibac Travel Abroad.
Thank you very much & well done getting back to losing weight again 👏👏
Margaret xx

Hi all,
S-G – you could have been describing my OH! And honestly, I think that’s why house agents usually insist that the owners are not in the house when they’re holding a viewing over here! Fingers’ crossed that they just regard him as refreshingly honest and make an offer because of it (stranger things have happened!)

Margaret – you’re really going through the wringer at the moment! Apart from trying fermented foods, I think the other thing S-G was thinking of was Probiotics. There are specific ones that are very helpful for treating antibiotic-related diarrhoea. I had a look online for UK products and Optibac Travel Abroad has the 2 specific strains that are recommended. (Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG & Saccharomyces boulardii). If they don’t seem to be working you might try one containing Lactobacillus casei, which is helpful if the diarrhoea is caused by an overgrowth of a specific nasty bug (clostridium difficile). Optibac One Week Flat contains that one, but I’m sure there are lots of other brands that you could look at. Don’t know if they’d help or not, but it can’t hurt to give them a try.

After more than a fortnight of almost no weight loss I decided a bit of shock-therapy was needed. So I did a 36 hour fast, which worked brilliantly. Dropped a kilo, half of which went straight back on again of course, but I’ve lost that too within a day or so and am steadily losing weight again. I’ve done IF in the past so knew how to go about it safely, but it was still very hard. Fasting while on a severely restricted diet is a completely different experience to fasting while eating ‘normally’. But it kicked me off the plateau, which was the aim!

Anyhoo, take care everyone,
Lacy xx

Hi everyone,
Feeling a bit better about things at the moment. Yesterday was quite tough trying to get through work, and I didn’t feel much like anything to eat until the end of the day when I was quite hungry. But didn’t feel much like preparing anything, so had some chickpea salad and rice dolmades out of tins, so quite a bit higher carb than I have been eating but I went for a walk after to try to blunt the spike. I was at 5.7 mmol/L this morning, so still in prediabetic range after my upset and now a higher carb meal on top of it, but at least it was a few points lower than yesterday.
I met my dad and younger sister at the fair today and they are still speaking to me at least. My dad always likes to pretend that conflict has never happened, so that is pretty normal, but my sister asked if she could come to the pottery studio with me on Saturday, and I didn’t know if she would as the family conflict always really upsets her. They told me that my older sister is going home today, which was earlier than she had planned, but I don’t know if that was her decision or if they asked her to go, and I’m not asking!
In some nicer news – my hardneck garlic won best in show! It was an extremely competitive category with over 20 entries, so very pleased about that. I picked up a couple of firsts and seconds in the floral division as well. My dad was the real winner though. He has struggled with his entries the past several years, but his garden did really well this year and he won several best in shows in the fruits and vegetables. So I was pretty happy for him and he was pretty pleased as well.
Anyway, back to the healthy eating and trying to get my bg down again. I got my surgery date yesterday and it will be October 20th, so now I have a target to work towards.
Cathy, I suppose that is good news about your toe and not needing surgery, and glad you can just concentrate on you now.
Hope everyone else is doing well!

Hi Sunny
Thinking of you and sending you lots of love at this difficult time. How comforting to know your lovely mum is no longer suffering.

Have wanted to drop by, but felt reluctant in case doing so ‘trashed the vibe’. However I’ll simply state my positive as, ‘Mum’s suffering is now at an end’. Consequently, I’ll try to post here more frequently, now that my time is not focused on her care and wellbeing.