I so agree with Caronl, curlfitgirl 🙂 Take this one day at a time, or one meal at a time, if necessary. Pre-planning
is key, and you will have that mastered in no time, and it will soon be as familiar to you as any other daily task.
Best wishes for your success!

Allie

Cheers, everyone! There are a lot of positive goals being recorded here. 🙂 Happy to see you back on the
forums, wendyq. Good luck, ladies! All the tools necessary for success are here, so ask lots of questions,
and GO FOR IT!

Allie

Fleur de sel is gorgeous, S-G! So much flavor! I’m glad that you are enjoying your courses. Food as Medicine
sounds great. Over time, I’ve come to think of all food in terms of it’s nutrient density, too, rather than whether
or not I “fancy it”, as you might say 🙂 I’m glad to get a new thread started tomorrow. Very happy that you will
be participating. I still have a little work to do to reverse “sundried tomato-gate”!

Kazz, the word “August” is a tough one for rhyme! Everything I come up with is imperfect…The best I have
to offer you is “Zoom Into August….4 Weeks to Bloom!” 🙂

Hi allie, if it is the genuine thing then it is okay, just that some is just salt dyed pink. Always check the label as there are some people trying to make money off the back of something that is good. You say about the trace elements, funnily enough processed salts has all the trace elements washed out, what a waste. I use a French salt called Fleur de sel Geurande, it is a weird shade of grey but you only need a tiny bit to get a big taste hit.

Oh and yes to another challenge. I am enjoying my 2 courses very much, especially the Food as Medicine course. It talks a lot of sense.

I need to lose 20 pounds as well,let’s think,when did I last weigh 150 pounds?24 years ago I weighed 147 pounds after my 3rd son was born,went to WW and said I’d like to lose half a stone,the leader said I was being unrealistic!Don’t know what happened after that but 150 pounds here I come,can’t wait to see you again!

Oh SG, I read earlier today on some thread (?) that you were advising against pink himalayan sea salt? I’ve
been using it for the trace elements, so I’m curious to know why it isn’t a good choice. It certainly is pricey!

Yes!

sunshine-girl, how wonderful to have a swim before you turn into bed! It must be so relaxing 🙂 I’ve never
witnessed the speaking in tongues…although I’ve heard of it. There is also some practice with handling
snakes too, but that is beyond the pale for me !
Elle, 13lbs in 4 weeks is marvelous! Carry On 🙂
YM2be, welcome to the “whoosh effect” Isn’t it wonderful???
Have a beautiful sunday, everyone! Shall we continue on with another weekly challenge?

Hi again Julie, I have just watched a video of Prof Taylor (the originator of this diet idea) and he says your blood glucose can drop in as little as 3 days, so do keep an eye on it.

To be exact, March 2010 I was 152. Today I am 172

In 2010 I was 152

Hi Julielyons19 – welcome to the site and the diet plan. You are in the right place to help with your diabetes or even putting it in remission depending on a lot of factors, like how long you have been diabetic, how well you stick with the plan and so on.

Your questions: are you able to check your blood glucose regularly. If so, do. I found my BG dropped very quickly from 190 or 10.5 on the other scale, to around 120 or 6.6. As it has only been 4 days I doubt it is your blood sugar dropping to seriously low levels but it is good to keep an eye on it. What you might be experiencing is simple lack of food or, some people experience carb withdrawal with can be similar. It should pass but I would say again, keep an eye on your BG. Over the next few weeks you might need to reduce your medication but I would say only if you do it very slowly and maybe have your doctor on board with this.

The salt – yes drinking lots of water makes you pee more thereby flush out the bodies salt supplies. Also, as the fat cell get smaller the fat is replaced by water and this then flushes the fat from your system. That is how the fat leaves the body, through the urine. If you are having a varied diet you shouldn’t need to replace salts as the body can make its own adjustments. However, because we are drinking so much more and peeing lots it can be helpful to have a small amount of salt on food. I am talking about a small pinch, not half a teaspoon. Think like wetting your finger and dipping the tip in some salt – no more than that. Another thing about salt, try to buy the best you can, the ordinary table salts are full of additional chemicals, mainly to stop it from clumping together plus it has been bleached to make it white. These are the things that are bad for us, not the salt itself. I buy real salt which has not been treated, you can tell from the colour, it should be grey to yellow, dont buy the pink stuff. Hope that helps, a bit too much information but there you go.

Beginning of the week again. So, September 1 means this is the beginning of 8 weeks and I have 10 weeks to blood work and 11 weeks to weigh in with doc who wants me at 150, 20 pounds less.

I WILL BE DOING THIS NOW!!

Morning Sunshine!
Any realtor on each coast can help you find just the right rental at just the right price. That is how we moved down here from New York. The shores on both sides are gorgeous!

Zinny, What detailed memory 😀. Mine,goes as far as me being 16 and at the beginning of the school year we had the same thing. I believe that was the last time….or was I 17? I don’t remember what colour my knickers were or what I wore that day but remember telling myself surounded by the skinnies that I should probably do something about it. There you go, 23 years later, 1 wedding,1 child and number of diets later I’m here….
🤓👍.
Let’s see who’s going to have the last laugh. Me or the flab that’s enveloping me 😉
Have a wonderful Sunday.
Skinny to be
Xx

Oh Violinist, how lovely to be in Florida. Although we are very lucky living in France with summer usually rearing up around late April early May and Autumn not arriving until late September early October. Unfortunately, this year had a very slow start with the temperatures getting anywhere near hot in the last 4 weeks. English are getting pretty much the same there which is quite unusual. At least my family will be used to the heat by the time they come here on holiday in 3 weeks time. We were hoping to visit Florida next year as daughter wants to rent a very large house and go as one big family – any ideas.

Hi Zoomers! How’s everyone fairing on this sweltering Sunday?
It’s time to come up with a name for the next four week challenge ending 7 August. All suggestions welcome.
Here’s mine – ZOOM INTO AUGUST WITH A FOCUSSED THRUST!
Am happy to set the next thread up unless anyone else wants to?
Ok, am off to melt in the garden! Enjoy your Sunday, friends.
Kazzeexx

4lb down this morning – at last! I think my body is panicking at the lack of food and desperately trying to keep hold of everything! But it won’t win!! 😂
We’ve been fruit picking this morning and I have been indulging in some raspberries and strawberries – but I think they are some of the better fruits for this WOE is that right? My favourite fruit is grapes – I can literally eat them by the punnet full – so I am having to work hard not to eat them!
Well done ellem 13lb in a month is great!
KOKO everyone!

Good late morning at 7 am here! Ellem, I am encouraged by your own numbers. I just can’t go back to the docs in 11 weeks without losing the weight I said I would, so here we go! I will be bisiting family in New York this next week, but I always do my own grocery shopping and make my breakfast and lunch. My sister, who I will be staying with, doesn’t cook much or eat at home.

Sunshine, being in Florida, I swim lengths every day for 30-60 minutes from April thru October. I have an exercise room with my elliptical, recumbent bike, and rower, and when it is cool in the morning or November thru March, I walk and bike outside.

Zinny, in America all over they have turned railway lines into walking paths. One is called the rail trail. There are hundreds in Florida!

Ok folks, going for my first coffee. Talk later. By the way, stepped on the scale and am down 2 pounds. Thanks for encouraging me.

Sunshine, in the catholic church here, they still believe that some people who are filled with the holy spirit, speak in tongues. Interesting.

Hi MaggieBath
I am also living in the UK but I have never heard of this system, could you elaborate it for me please.

Hi squidge
I wouldn’t know where to start on looking for a new doctor plus how would I know if any doctors are good enough to support this programme.

Hi CurlFitGirl and congratulations on Day1. Just take it one meal at a time and think about where you are heading not where you have come from. I find is very easy to beat yourself up about past mistakes! One of my big regrets is not having followed this way of eating earlier. I have just put on a size 12 Tshirt this morning – first time in 45 years…. 45 years of worrying about my weight, Slimming World, WeightWatchers…… You are coming to this way of eating as a relative spring chicken, so good for you!

There is a strong thread of perfectionism in your posts – and very familiar: last supper syndrome, “writing off” a day or a diet if there is a blip. So pleased that you have come back. One thought that helps me (picked up from a blog on SparkPeople and with apologies for repetition) is to think about an eating slip-up as a traffic offence. If you got a speeding ticket, would you think “what the hell” for the rest of the day?? Parking fine, jumping the lights etc? Obviously not. So why do we treat eating mistakes so differently? If you make a bad choice, just move on. Don’t write the day off, nor this way of eating. It is a life changer. Good luck!

Hi everyone so as it says above I just started on Thursday and I’m finding the hunger part ok it’s manageable and to be honest it’s fine !
I am type 2 diabetic and I take 1000mg of metformin a day. I wondered if anyone else experienced dizziness when they first started and also if anyone could answer a question I have about salt intake ? I read that because we drink so much water we are losing salt what’s the best way to replenish it ?
Thanks in advance
Julie

Oh Allie, I used the word tip yesterday in my instructions to house sitters as we had one who obviously was putting the garden waste our for binmen (garbage collector). Maybe is should clarify it as we have just had some people from Texas looking after our cats. The tip is a big communal rubbish collection area that accepts all the stuff the binmen wont take. Speaking in tongues – imagine you are at a happy clappy church, like a gospel type and people get very stirred up and excited, they suddenly believe that god has entered their bodies and they start talking what is in effect rubbish (back to the tip). People believe they are speaking lots of different languages and call it speaking in tongues. Not sure if you really wanted to know all that but there you go.

Had a lovely swim last night around 10pm, just nice to cool down. I will be having another in half an hour when my brunch has settled. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

@theblackspot Thank you for the reminder about gazpacho. I love it, but it had somehow fallen off the radar. I know what I am having for lunch!

Well done Ellen. How fabulous to have a tandem! I’ve not been on a bike for ages but I think I’ll have to get it out from the garage and have a go. Next two weekends are booked but the next weekend I’m free I think I’ll have a go on one of the cycle paths near here. There’s one that’s on an old railway line so no traffic and fairly level, so that’s the one for me !
Good luck to us all
Black spit that’s for the recipient I think I’ll give that one a go!

I can remember being at school for the school medical, and having to be weighed along with everyone else. Standing there in my vest and blue knickers. That’s when I weighed 150 lbs. Fast forward to recent years and I made it back to 150. Of course one strays from the path of righteousness and the scales go spinning forward ,
Well since 21 st May this year I’m on a mission to get back so I’ll be weighing in on Tuesday. It does not matter if it’s a lot of weight or a small amount, it gets harder to lose the weight the lower you go for me. It’s great we are all aiming for the same goal. Really enjoying reading everyone’s stories.
Beautiful day here in Pembrokeshire, we shall eat breakfast outside again today.
I’m having big mushrooms with goats cheese and he will be having the full English along with the mushrooms.
Last night the dreaded prosecco ice cream made an appearance thanks to neighbour calling round, I just ate the strawberries with one teaspoon of the ice cream just to say I’d had some. I have asked her not to bring it again! I made sure she took it home with her too.
Keep cool folks, weigh in Tuesday let’s do it.

Mixnmatch, sorry I missed your post. Yes, well come. The more of us the merrier and a lot more giggle and knowledge shared.
I think all of us here havent seen 150lb on the scales for years if not decades. I think it’s just about the bloody time for us to see it and acquaint again 😉👍
Skinny to be xx

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4501/quick-gazpacho-
If anyone wants it…

That’s the one alliecat… Wet toast…
However, my lunches have been very refreshing and fairly low carb.
I’m making a recipe off the BBC website easy gazpacho.
Thinned out with some ice cubes and some finely chopped onion and small cubes of Curcumber it’s great in this UK heat!

Morning everyone, Sunday is my weigh day and I’m another 2lb down. 13lb lost in four weeks., and very happy about it.

We did the bike ride yesterday, with a group of friends, 12 miles round the lake, all on the flat. It’s wasnt too strenuous on the back of the tandem, I have a feeling my husband does most of the work. But then a friend’s little girl got tired, so she went on the back of the tandem for a bit and I rode her tiny bike with no gears. Now that did make my legs burn!

Violinist – you sound very determined, and with that mindset you can do this. I find water helps a lot, I drink 2.5-3 litres a day.
Skinny – I was impressed with your BSG-friendly response to your stressful morning 👍🏻😄
YM2b – i bet your spin class was a whole lot more strenuous than my gentle cycle.
Allie – that’s really interesting that it can get someone out of CFS
Sunshine – I hope you enjoyed your swim yesterday
Butterlover – great bsl results! 👍🏻
Caronl – yes I had to google the brass ring too. I love the differences in language, it makes it so interesting.

My weigh day is a Sunday, and I’m delighted to report another 2lb loss. So 13lb in four weeks. Amazing!

Hey there yummy! If I can do it so can you my dear! Just take it in stages . . . and believe in yourself being worth the effort. I guarantee youre a loving lady who does for everyone else . . . but yourself. With a family to organise I can appreciate it will be a juggling act to not feed yourself what they like . . . but allow yourself to say thats OK!!! I was fortunate enough to have been following a good eating habit – low/no sugar foods, low-fat everything . . . no junk food – only to discover higher carbs in most of those things!!! So for me . . . it was as simple as no rolled oats breakfasts, no bread (for now, but I have found an 85% less carb bread which I might try after the next tests! ‘cos I REALLY miss my toast!!!) – no crispbreads, or crackers for lunch or snacks with cheese/tomato etc., . . . no dry soup-mixes in my homemade soups . . . and pasta to bulk out my winter hotpot meals, and no potatoes which I rarely ate anyways. I have found these few small adjustments worked and my 3 x daily readings have halved in just under three weeks. Im a lazy basic cook, but now “gifting” myself with gourmet meals!!! Breakfast was a small fillet of pork, mushroom, tomato, leek cooked in a pan like a hash! (If you have children to get off to school . . . cook it the night before and reheat in the morning maybe?) Dinner last night was a portion of salmon steak – (I dont like fish but this was a frozen portion in a plastic pouch which I cooked in microwave!!!) . . . accompanied by mixed lettuce leaves, sundried tomatoes in olive oil, baby beets cut into four pieces, leek rings, and greek yogurt dressing with cracked black pepper! We all need rewards . . . to attain our goals . . . my reward was a 7 reading this morning! And another reward in such a short time is Im not hungry anymore – looking for a cracker and vegemite an hour before dinner . . . Things Ive not been able to enjoy previously are now palatable. The greek natural yogurt for instance is now tasting sweeter . . . I can only imagine thats because the sugar-desire in my system isnt being fed anymore – (by the hidden mischief maker “carbs”.) Good luck with your endeavours and if you fall off the wagon one day . . . get right back on the next . . . because you are worth it!!! Go for it! There are plenty of readers and conteibutors here to support you!

Saw the surgeon on Wednesday and had my gall bladder out on Fri (6/7), home now feeling sore but ok.
I asked my surgeon what I should eat and his reply was’eat whatever you want but if it makes you sick, don’t eat it!’
So, I had a coffee this morning and felt crampy afterwards, so I am going to give it a miss for a few days and have green tea with lemon to see how that goes. Also had 2 poached eggs but don t think it was them.
Any advice is really welcome.

Thank you for sharing Mixnmatch 🙂 Im still anxious about the possibility of prescribed meds after my endocrinologist and Immunologist appointments. I know everyone is different, but would any contributors be happy to share (some of their) (self monitoring) readings so I can better gauge where I (might be) at? Mine are currently around 7 or 8 in the morning and 8 or 9 before bed. Thats a HUGE drop of (almost) halving in just three weeks. And Id like perspectives and/or facts on whether or not some folks have a naturally higher level than what is deemed “normal” desired ranges. Advance thanks. 🙂

I can see it’s difficult for you when you’re both working those hours. Easier for me as my husband is retired & I work at home with livestock.
I’ve never eaten breakfast. We have lunch around one after I’ve seen to all the animals & outside jobs & dinner around six so all my meals are in that short window. I try to resist snacking in the evening but that’s hard, I’ve never had much won’t power & my husband isn’t on a diet so he’s no help with his peanuts, beer or single malt, so I try to at least keep it to a few nuts, Greek yoghurt or a baby bell cheese instead of the crisps I used to eat.
I don’t use a bottle for water, just a pint glass.

Thank you!

I think I’ll probably just have to prep my dinners ready for when I come home!

But I definitely want to eat earlier if I can!

The late eating definitely makes a difference blood sugar wise, I think the best plan is to try eating earlier, fasting later, although I know how difficult this can be while work dictates our hours. I try at the moment to keep to one or two meals a day, and not eating later than 8pm but can’t always manage it.

Ah, beer….liquid bread, blackspot 🙂 Enough carbs to sink a ship!

Stick a slice of lemon or lime in it as well and it will make it more palatable still. It has almost literally been my saviour over the last 2 years plus.

I will be absolutely chuffed to weigh 150 pounds by 1st September,it’ll take some doing but I’m up for the challenge.That’ll be the least I’ve weighed for years and much closer to my goal weight.My son is disabled and goes through phases of not sleeping for weeks then he sleeps better.This week he started to sleep,thank goodness,it has been wonderful.His room is quite cool but the heat does affect him.I haven’t heard about using a wet towel like that before,sounds like a good idea.Good luck everyone.

Hey Amerella!
I’m OK, but also struggling to keep motivated. My results are good, but I keep eating over the 800kc… Mainly the right stuff, apart from the beer… Back to work tomorrow so things should be easier!

Hi, Caron! You DID make me laugh! I have to use google regularly too, to figure out British references, and
especially the slang. Some things translate cross culturally, and some things don’t 🙂 Recently I read about
a trip to the tip, and I had no idea what that meant?! I do enjoy the challenge, though! More and more of
your idioms are creeping into my everyday speech….Recently I remarked to my husband that something he
had done was “bloody brilliant”, and he looked at me like I had recently returned from Mars! He though I
was “speaking in tongues”. Any idea what that refers to??? 🙂 🙂 🙂

Allie

Wendyq,
Fantastic, the more the merrier. Weigh in day Tuesday morning and eyes looking to the distance for 1st September and countdown to 150lb.
Is it too hot for your son not sleeping well at night? I can confirm the last two nights were too much even for me. What I did was to get the towel wet and pinned it to the curtain in front of the open window. By morning it was almost dry but kept the room of my little girl at a reasonable temperature and our bedroom almost the same. Maybe I need to get the bigger towel up tonight to make it cooler.
Well, let’s hope the next few days and nights are more bearable and our challenge fun and interesting.
Skinny to be
Xx

Thank you so much sunshine-girl. She’s out right now but I’ll tell her when I see her.
Maggie

Wow – thanks for all the replies guys and gals!
In terms of fitness – I’m actually not that unfit in the “I could go for a run without doing myself a mischief” kind of way… I could clearly be fitter – and that is definitely my aim! For me it’s a mental thing too… My wife will tell me to go out and I’ll just kind of grunt at her… But she won’t take no for an answer – so I’m lucky in that sense! I then find I hate it to start with and then find I really enjoy myself! I am definitely my own worst enemy!!

I really enjoy cooking – I can never do it within the times provided by the recipe(!) but I have fun. My wife is vegetarian, so I eat vegetarian at home too – although I’m definitely going back on meat to make full use of the recipes – so I’m quite handy with a vegetable rice and 1 cal spray – i just need to change my mindset and think about the carbs!!

Does anybody have any suggestions as to what recipes work well being frozen??

Are there any hard and fast rules about when to eat.. what times?? Breakfast is pretty simple for me, as is lunch – but dinner becomes quite tricky. We normally feed the kids (I don’t come home until 6pm most nights and my wife – who works part time comes home after 7.30pm 3 nights a week) first and then after bedtime, we’ll eat our meal. So often we can’t be bothered and will just see whats left in the freezer. Do I need to be eating earlier? Is 8,9,10pm too late to eat?? I deffo know the answer!!

Might also sound like a daft question – but what kind of bottles do people use for water? I’ve seen the ones that have times on them… any good? Or gimmicky!?

Thanks again!

I think that sums up why I’ve stopped faffing around with courgetti and cauliflower rice Airenwen
I’d rather have some crunch and texture in my veg (not to mention more of the vitamins left)
I used to make them them all the time when I started the diet a couple of years ago – now I’d much rather have fish, meat or whatever with healthy steamed vegetables than something chopped or spiralled into miniscule pieces and overcooked just to that it gives the appearance of looking like rice, pasta or whatever.
I do have the luxury of eating at work a lot, where we have a healthy eating ethos and an excellent chef.

Maggie, if you send me your daughters email address to mine at piscinegirl@gmail.com, I will send her the link to the site. The reason to do it through me is she will get a 20% discount on her first years membership. I dont know what it is for sitters but for me as a pet owner it was £100 less 20% i.e. £80. We saved that the first time we used a sitter as it would have cost us nearly €200 in the cattery for a week. They are called TrustedHouseSitters.com so she can have a look before signing up and if she has any questions she can contact me direct for a chat. She will probably have to look after pets but she can choose cats, dogs, rabbits etc or sometimes it is just a house sit. There is no obligation even after I have contacted them.

So i have just had a salad.
Huh you say
Wow i say

Lettuce
toms
sliced raw mushrooms
Celery
Onion
Spring onion
Sweetcorn
Beetroot
Cucumber
Radish
Grated carrot
Cabbage
Watecress
Spinach.

Wow

Love Lucia
Xxxx