The Meridian almond nut butter is divine and so healthy. Unfortunately it is so moreish that I can no longer allow it into the house because one teaspoon is never enough, not are two, three or 4……….
So for me the nut butters do come with a health warning! Such a shame.

Good Morning Zoomers
Been a hectic week so sorry not to join earlier been reading the posts as and when I can.
this week I have not lost any weigt due to several social events but much to my suprise I have had a NSV!
A dress I bought last year was slightly too small and would gape around the bust area. It now fits and I can wear it I am so happy.

JGwen and KrysiaD I am really interested in the information that you have provided on L-carnatine. apart from using it myself I can see this could be of great benefit to my father who is starting to struggle with his memory. I will need to discuss this with my mother but thank you both very much.
I had never heard of this as a supplement ( though I know of carnatine from my past life as a biology student), it sounds as if this could be very powerful
Anyway joining this thread and going to KOKO
MM

Thanks Mrs T, 16:8 worked well for me so far today. I was hungry at 11am so had some hommus and veggies. Lucky I did as all my meetings ran late and I didn’t get to have lunch until almost 2pm, then I had dinner at 7pm. So now I’ll wait at least 16 hours before eating again.
I’m lucky that I don’t have a sweet tooth – one of my colleagues bought in a box of donuts but I was able to refuse easily. I do find a lot of foods taste “too sweet”. My vices are cheese, wine, nuts and chips!
Hope everyone else is going well 🙂

Hi… I don’t know more about this. But nut butter is also good for healthy. From butter get the proteins, fat, carbohydrate and vitamins. I am also using nut butter from Butternutcompany. Nut butter is good to eat.

metoo – I’ve just answered this exact same question to another post written by marxistfood ?!?.

Hi Marxistfood

You and your hubby do right to remain overjoyed – that is a great result!

Please don’t run scared because the BSD is clearly working for your hubby and it will continue to work for him as long, as you say, you both continue to do what you’ve been doing. Btw, well done you, too!

When I was diagnosed Type II last August I was prescribed Metformin (4 a day) and I was in a quandary about whether I should take it or not. (I’ve often experienced gastro-intestinal side effects with medication and having read about Metformin, wasn’t keen!).
I found it tricky because I didn’t want to take the Metformin, but I also knew I was now going to have an on-going relationship with my GP/GP practice – (hardly ever saw them before this) – and needed to think about that.

I also think Verano makes some very fair and valid points that are worth thinking about.

In the end, I decided not to take the medication – they’d delayed prescribing it and I’d started monitoring my bgls at home and could see the diet was working – my bgls were steadily coming down – and continued to come down. But I then had to manage the conversation with my diabetic nurse at my next Hba1c review meeting. (I’ve never seen my GP since my first diagnosis).

As sunshine-girl says earlier, Metformin doesn’t have a big effect on blood glucose so your hubby can reduce it safely on his own if his bgl numbers are going down as long as he does it slowly. He could cut it down by 1 maybe, monitor his bgls and if they continue to drop cut out the 2nd tablet. Or go back to GP at this point. It’s only your hubby who can decide in the end.
I’d say help your hubby get past any irritation about what’s happened and then rely on his own instincts about which way is the best way forward for him.

In the end, it’s all great news for him – whichever way he gets there, it’s clear he is going to get there, and that’s fantastic.

Marie xx
Of course, your GP sounds a bit of an arse to me talking about fad diets and is also responsible for your hubby getting 2 contradictory messages – which is completely unhelpful!!

One of our GPS dismissed the 800 diet as a fad supporting my husband we have been doing it anyway slowly cut out the glitz. Completley And Metformin down to one on morning and one evening.hubbie had lost over 35 11 bs and about 5 inches from his waist. It’s been a bit of a scary time with daily blood sugar’s going up and down with no obvious reason . although often the highest first thing before y breakfast..husband got a invitationfor a clinical assessment by a pharmacist surgery screening all type 2 patients .funded by a drug company .so expected to have to fight blooid posugar diet corner etc..he was surprisingly open to low carb low sugar but had never heard of the 800 Michael Mosley program. He had taken a Hb 1 c sample on arrival which although wasn’t from a vein said it was still almost as accurate. He said we should not have
reduced any of the meds let alone cut out th
e glitz.and could only stop drugs when HG levels dropped to 45 which is what he said we should be aiming for ( by the way husband’s was 95 at the start of the diet) we talked whilst we waited for the blood result special monity in front of him. He beamed leaned fioward shook my husband s hand and said thats amazyy congratulations your reading is 42 you should stop your meds !!!! .of course we know this is a way of life in terms of food and lifestyle we look forward to very carefully upping the calories y from 800 but staying on healthy ways of eating. We are overjoyed and feel a bit evangelical about recommending this program .there is a fly in the ointment 2 hrs later he rang to say that althy the docty was pleased with the result my husband should continue to take the two metformin for the next 2)3 months until a further hgb1 test can be done in 2)3 months to make sure the diabetes hadn’t restarted.we said all that will show is the next results are still drug assisted and that he intends to do home tests 3 times daily just to really keep an eye on what happens after going drug free .we are week 7 so thought about dropping the last of the meds slowly over next 2/ 3 weeks. what do we have to do to prove to cynics obsessed with just treating type 2 with drugs ..of course now we are worried about slowly stopping the Metformin y over the next few weeks. Is it dangerous As ever help support and advice please ( again )

Hi Nicola sometimes we just need a change and a bit of a shake up of our routine. I’m like you in that I find the fast weight losses demoralising sometimes, but to put things in perspective, those big losses are often people new to this way of eating or jumping back on the wagon after a lapse. I must admit to finding it harder and harder to stay on track since my blood sugar dropped into the ‘normal’ zone. Just staying away from the simple carbs, without ‘counting’ may be just what you need at the moment. You have had lots of upheaval in your life of late so be a little kind to yourself. Never say never, see you on the boards again soon!

JGwen – Am taking 500mg l-carnatine. Very interesting that you say you feel hot when you take more. When I started the l-carnatine I had to cut the Co-enzyme Q10 by half because I didn’t quite feel right. Couldn’t pin it down to anything specific but I felt much better on half a dose (I take the very bio-available version of it which works for me as the ordinary Q10 didn’t do anything – so it might mean that by adding the l-carnatine it made it much more potent, which didn’t feel good.)

Very interesting to read that you felt too hot if you took more l-carnatine. Up to this morning I hadn’t noticed if I felt hotter or not. But this morning – which is much cooler I did the early morning dog walk without a jacket and felt perfectly warm. Husband was concerned because I am the cold one and he is the warm one and he said it was cool enough for a jacket. Another dog walker said the same.

Thank you for the link – at the moment my new computer won’t play it so I need to look further at the settings.

Allie – I also find that if I have a coffee instead of a missed meal that I don’t feel at all hungry or miss the meal so it makes the 2 meals a day do-able for me. I must confess though that I add cream to mine which feels very wicked after all those years of low fat. I think the naughtiness of it helps also because I feel I am having a special treat and I don’t in the least bit feel deprived.

\by the way – my rings are now safe – so thank you for the info on adjusting ring size.

Hi all, I havent been in for a while so just wanted to pop in to say that I’ve decided to take some time away from the forum. I have been doing the Fast 800 for some time. It worked for me initially in terms of weight loss, but I just didn’t find it manageable in the long term. Calorie counting, for me, triggers some things that I’m better off without. I found that limiting the carbs, but not counting them worked for me, and not worrying about calories, but progress was a lot slower. I only have another 10 or so lbs to my target, and slow and steady is fine with me. I think that coming on here and seeing other people’s rapid weight loss has been disheartening for me, as I compare myself, and know I’m not losing nearly as fast.

So, I think the best plan for me is to carry on with low carb, keep up the exercise I’ve finally started, and keep on with the slow and steady weight loss. Thanks all for your support and helping me to get this far on my journey! Maybe see you again some time when I’ve reached my target 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻

Good morning, sorry to move away from sport, although I’m sad that Federa didn’t make it yesterday. Anyway, just wanted to say that the scales only showed a very minor rise after 6 days of eating well, but too much, especially cheese! So I now have a my goal. I have 7 weeks to lose 11lbs. I don’t normally set weight/time goals as I find them counter productive but needs must. So here I go with Day 1, back to two meals a day with no more meat but lots more chicken, fish and salad.

I have my blood test for my HbA1c this morning so this is the moment of truth. I stopped taking metformin 11 months ago and was fine when I had my last test in November but I have put on some weight since then and am just hoping it hasn’t affected my blood sugar. No time to have a ‘good spell’ to help me, so I will get to know the brutal truth, warts and all, on Monday morning! Whatever the results I will be sticking with BSD more closely than of late. For the moment I just need to take one day at a time!

The Croatians deserved to win, not England to lose. Croatians were really very strong in the second half and a lot of time some of the players had a direct clear path to the goal post. They did deserve to win.
English team deserved to win too, but because they couldn’t break the fortune to hit the net, they showed a fantastic sportsmanship and confirmed the new manager is exactly what the team needed. And the nation too, as it was mentioned by Kazz. Gareth Southgate did a fantastic job for this country.

Allie – and they deserved it, I’m sad to say. It got me to the point I had two squares of 90% Lindt chocs at 10.30pm. Had to bite into something. It was a revelation how something, that doesn’t have an impact on my day to day life, can affect and cause a stress and subsequently makes me to reach for something.
To an extend it was a good experience as I was now more aware of it…
Good morning all,
Skinny to be
xx

Hi orgally,

Congratulations on the brilliant weight loss. You must be pretty pleased with that.

About the blood sugars, I started BSD at the beginning of August 2017 when I was diagnosed Type II. My Hba1c on diagnosis was 106 (11.8%). According to this diagram from diabetes.co.uk https://www.diabetes.co.uk/what-is-hba1c.html
that is equivalent to a blood glucose (mmol/l) reading of 16.2. (I also just used a conversion calculator on the site).

3 weeks after starting the BSD I got a blood glucose monitor and started monitoring my blood sugars systematically every day. At that point I’d lost 12lbs. My initial blood glucose readings were already mostly 7s, some 8’s. This would be equivalent to an Hba1c of between 53 – 70. So similar to what sunshine-girl is saying my experience is that my blood sugars fell quickly.

While the daily bgl readings don’t guarantee you’ll get the equivalent Hba1c when you next get it tested at the GP practice (Hba1c is a different test using a 3-month average) I personally found this diagram really helpful to get a general idea of where things were at as my blood sugar levels continued to drop.

Do let us know how you get on.
Marie xx

N.b. – you need to scroll down the page to reach the diagram – HbA1c as an indicator of blood glucose control
Also, I’m assuming you’re in the UK?

90% Lindt chocs is meant two squares not full chocs looool

Good morning ladies,
What a sad thing England losing to Croatia but Croatia earned their victory. It was nerve wrecking and I really realised how easy stress (oh yes, that football made me stressed, not that really care for ⚽️ in general, only big competitions when I watch) can blow all the good intentions. I had two 90% Lindt chocs that, I think it was Verano, was recommended. It made realised, now that I’m more food focused, how easy it was for me to reach for something. And not just something and that’s it, but repeatedly. I hope the experience will equip me better how to deal with the situations in the near and distant future.

How are you all doing, girls?

Wendy, I started researching raspberry plants and it may happen I’ll have one planted in the corner of my garden for the little one. Now just to make the decision which type. Thank you

Here’s to a good day ahead and hopefully a better one than yesterday

All the best
Skinny to be
xx

Good luck sueblue, hope this morning goes well and you get back into the routine of it easily.
last night I actually dreamt I ate a large, gorgeous, iced cupcake with a packet of party ring biscuits…felt relieved when I woke up and realised i hadn’t actually..it had felt so real…the icing was so thick and swirly I could stick the party ring biscuits into it to give some crunch. Clearly I have a way to go before carbs and sugar lose their grip on me, but I hope with more time the desire will reduce…but I think I’m so severely addicted each day will be a challenge…I’ve never eaten anything and thought “that’s too sweet ” like my friends and family have.
Anyway wishing you all success and positivity for today…let’s KOKO!

Well done Squidge! You can look forward to some serious shopping! I am really pleased that after only 6 weeks of cutting out sugar and simple carbs I have shed 1 stone. Also no sugar cravings, feeling that I could eat everything in sight. Call it vanity, but actually I am enjoying the comments, was never seriously overweight but felt frumpy, actually looking forward to my health check!

Thanks JGwen! I’ll need to sit down properly one evening and go through some of the links on here xx

Allie – Croatia beat us 2-1 in extra time. We were 1-0 ahead from 10 minutes in. We’re out. BUT we did SO SO well! And although it’s disappointing, we got to the semi finals and behaved and played with respect and so, that team managed to restore faith and hope to a nation! 🙂

Who won the semi-finals tonight, skinny?

Hi everyone, I’ve decided to join in th challenge once again. I went completely off track during the last one and GAINED almost 2kg instead of losing 2kg as I had wanted! My own fault – I thought being on leave from work would make sticking to BSD easier but it was the opposite unfortunately. Then last week I realised it was halfway through the year – meaning I now only have 6 months if I want to keep to my personal challenge of losing 18kg in 2018. I just haven’t been able to get back into the groove so to speak since Christmas, and my weight has repeatedly gone up and down by the same few kilos.
So line in the sand moment for me! My challenge for the next 4 weeks is to go back to basics and get back on plan, and hopefully reverse my recent gain. I’m going to try 16:8 this week, so no breakfast for me this morning, just a cup of tea. I just hope my stomach doesn’t start growling when I’m in meetings this morning!

Pass me a CAAAAAKKKKEEEEE
thank God I don’t have any but it wouldn’t be safe after the English defeat in Russia losing to Croatia.
⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️

I’m worried the football semi-finals will blow my BSD diet tonight. What a stress and drama!

I don’t do football either, only world cup and am very much liking how far have England gone. They deserve to go all the way but at the moment…it’s a heart stopping situation after another… penalties still a possibility. As I said it may blow my diet.
It just shows how stress affects us… but I cannot stop watching now.
Are your pugs having rehearsals of Snow Lake too? 😄xx

…style and family values. Very likeable 😉

Well it’s nice to see a guy with style .😎

Not often, just to international. Not a football fan I’m afraid: England inevitably disappoint. I’ll invest my energies in something more likely to succeed like teaching the pugs ballet,🐶🐶
Maggie

Krysia, thank you too, for detailing your 2 month intermittent fasting journey. It gives me confidence
that I can continue with it too. It’s only taken me 2 years to attempt it! I’m usually awake by 3:00am
(not by choice) and have first cup of coffee (black) at 6:00am. I’ve just discovered that if I have it
iced, with some unsweetened almond milk in it, I can easily make it to 1:00 – 2:00pm without getting
the growling stomach. Hot and black, that isn’t the case! I’m trying for 5 days of 18/6, and 2 days
of 16/8, and hope to see the same improvements in my skin that you have. It’s great to have a
specific goal to work toward. Very much appreciated!

Allie

Maggie, Gareth Southgate….☺

As stressful as it is to watch, there is a Brazilian family who moved in recently further down the road. I jyst wasas in the garden watering the plants and heard them shouting…’Come on, England’.
How very sweet. I just hope the result will not blow my BSD diet 😬.
xx

Hi, Marie! I don’t know if I’ve ever read your story in it’s entirety, so thank you for sharing it today.
I never tire of hearing about such accomplishments 🙂 How clever of you to sneak off for an
unscheduled holiday too! Delighted that you enjoyed it.

Allie

Hi, I understand how you feel about your fears for keeping the weight off long term, given the statistics on the number of people on a diet at any one time there must be lots of people who have gone through the yo yo dieting experiences in the past.
I think the best way forward to calm your fears is to gather more research into why this WoE works. Follow a number of links on the take a look at this thread into different sources of the latest research into how insulin controls fat stores.
Knowledge is power 🙂

1:1 is bad enough but we go to penalties….

I’m glad you had a wonderful day and mostly enjoyed it, Maggie. It the wasn’t good that would be a wasted time, wouldn’t it 🙂.
How often you go ‘cricketing’ ?

I’m just watching the football and am yelling at the telly…and ready to get a sore throat from the screaming…
Xxx

Family time is the most precious time, S-G. What a destination France must be for all of them!
Don’t forget to keep up with your laps in the pool, though 🙂 Lucky lady!!! A swim before bed would
be heaven to me…Very happy for you to have this luxury at your disposal…Enjoy!

An excellent view thank you Skinny 🤩

Thanks for your reply Marie you have done so well and great to see you are maintaining without too much difficulty. I am on my second 8 week cycle and am going to do what you did and keep going back to back until goal. I too am trying to get adventurous with food as I tend to have similar menus so need to try more things. I hope your 4lbs does not stay on to long!!Catherine
😀

Maggie,
Aaaahh, that’s the rules of cricket ?
That I could easily understand – looooool.
Then your burn is easily understood. Not wanting to leave and ‘observe’ the players is well worth the burns. I hope you had a good view 😀xx

Thanks kazzee have checked out the maintenance forum…not there yet though, got this final push to get there! kOKO!

I will be cheering you all on in your efforts. See you in August :):):) (that’s the only emoji I know how to do).

Thanks Allie xx

Skinny, you don’t know what you’re missing – 22 fit young men! England lost but it was a good match and pretty exciting 😁
Maggie

The 5:2 seems to be a strategy that some use, Mrs T. I’ve never tried it myself though. I can be so
easily pulled off track, and don’t really comprehend what “normal” eating would look like! I’ve just
found it easier over 14 months of maintenance to continue with the same basic plan. My body
recognizes 35g of carbs as my trigger point, and when I get careless, the scales let me know in no
uncertain terms, that that is the case! We all have the tools to bring it all back into alignment though,
so don’t worry 🙂

Sunshine,
It appears the atmospherical waves and the rest of universe was creating the ‘perfect storm’ which swept us all. We both understand each other’s point.

What I suggest is this (this is the conversation exchange with my 4-year old girl after any of her storms)
– I want to be your friend (My little girl)
– but I don’t want you to want to be my friend (me)
– why not (My little girl)
– because you already ARE my friend (me)
(A big hug)

Sunshine, if you take a holidays from here, enjoy it. I’ll miss your input your encouragement on my journey to 150. I want to promise you, next when we see I want you to be impressed when I report I’m 150 😀. Don’t stay too long. Looking forward to seeing you….preferably tomorrow 😀or soon after.
Sending all my love,
Skinny to be
xx

Hello Sunshine-girl
Thank you so much for your response. I haven’t checked blood sugar at all during the past two weeks but will do so now. I just wasn’t sure how quickly it would respond and didn’t want to be disappointed by testing too early.

Got family arriving on 30th for 2 weeks. Not much of a holiday for me as I do all the catering but I just love it anyway.

Wise and considered words, californiagirl and Verano! Sunshine, have a wonderful holiday! Where
are you off to this year? We do really look after our own, don’t we? That notion is very much in
keeping with how passionately I feel about this community, too 🙂

Before I take a brief break from the site just want to say, I answered this the other day and told someone that it would be quite slow (i.e. a couple of weeks) although I noticed a response immediately, it still took several weeks to get right down. The real answer from an interview by Prof Roy Taylor is, if you are sticking to the diet strictly then you should start to see results with 3 or 4 days. Still, if you are thinking of coming off or adjusting meds please do it slowly, slowly and hopefully with the backing of your doctor. Also, can you measure your daily bloods so you can see how you are going and keep an eye in case you go very low.

Skinny can I repeat, it was not you but several posts and a trend towards giving bad advice and yours just happened to be just above my comments about having reported a trend. Obviously it hit a nerve with you and you have reacted even though I didn’t report you. It wasn’t even about the water issue on its own, it was mainly about a growing trend for giving people with diabetes poor advice from people who are not diabetic and didn’t take this into consideration when giving their advice. If it is just a general view or a personal observation about any aspect of dieting or exercise or whatever that is none of my business. I gave an example of someone telling a diabetic it was okay to exercise on an empty stomach and to ignore any feelings of illness as they could work their way through it. That was the main thrust of my reporting. Not you, not specifically the water, not anyone in particular. Just a trend that has become noticeable.

I have been on this site and I have never reported any one person in particular. We have all reported the scams and the advertising and the fake sites – we look after our own here. But I have not reported anyone, just a general concern. So as for me lurking around and reporting people that would never happen. I would like to be around to give advice to people with diabetes who are struggling either with the condition or with how the diet works.

For now I will leave and let allie get on with running this thread. I will be back after the summer holiday and, dont worry Verano, I am never stopping doing the diet – my health depends on it.

Well saw my DN who was quite positive and seeing my bg results for past week come down out of double figures she’s fine with the woe. Whoop whoop

Hiwever, I have realised that although am eating via the principle of the diet I have been “picking” throughout the day or evening , here and there so it might be a small taste of butter or piece cheese and even an apple! Consequently my weight loss is slower than should be – hence- am restarting again!

Have just enjoyed the Skinny Cottage pie out of the recipe book – totally lush!!