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

Sunshine-girl, daughter could be very interested in the agency. She’s a maitre d’ a cruise line so has 2 months off in 6 and would like to do something other than kick her heels!
Thanks,
Maggie

Go for the brass ring, alliecat? Another 5 minutes on wikipedia – this time reading about 19th century carousels! Thank you for the diversion!

Thank you so much Allie! I will!

Violinist, I use the measure of 8oz for a glass of water, so 12 of those is 96 oz., yes! Some people shoot for
8/8oz and do just fine, but I did notice a difference in weight loss when I upped it to 12. You may be just
fine with 2 liters instead of 3, but I’m not at all patient, so went for the brass ring 🙂 It does take some practice,
I admit! Start as early in the day as you can, and try to down it all by 9:00pm, so you keep night time visits
to the bathroom to a minimum. The BSD is very flexible, and it’s quite possible that extreme measures won’t
be necessary for you! Our bodies are all different, and the only one that I’m an expert on is my own, as
insulin resistant as it is! I don’t think that most of us start out a 20g carbs, but discover, by trial and error,
what maximizes our losses. Early on, I was shocked to discover that a few glasses of wine on the weekend
added 1.5lbs to the scale, and the 2 times in 10 months I did this, it took an entire week to get rid of it!
Let us know how you get on!

That’s the trouble with being the cook, you only cook things you love to eat. When I still lived at home it was so easy to be as skinny thin like I was as my mum was a terrible cook. Her way with cauliflower was to cook it for half an hour in a pressure cooker. It looked beautiful on the plate, white & firm, you put your fork in it & it turned to mush. In fact everything was cooked in the pressure cooker & you knew the day of the week by the meal,exact same every week. Mondays were a highlight, cold leftover lamb from Sunday with hot brown gravy, boiled potatoes & her specialty cauliflower, a real rainbow on the plate 😀
I do cook extra & freeze or store till next day. I also have three dogs who can definitely help in a calorie controlled diet.

Ok, so let me review
Drink 101 ounces of water = 6 bottles x 16.9 Really?
Measure everything – Yup, I do this all the time
Carbs under 20 grams daily – yup
No alcohol – the hardest thing with hubby doing happy hour
Exercise – no problem at all

Thanks Allie! I do have hypothyroidism, but it is maintained with medication so should not be a problem.

How’s everyone getting on?

Still plugging along here, not having the greatest of weeks in terms of motivation and mood but keep on keeping on, eh?

I’m officially off work for the rest of the month but decided to get going on a work project looming in the horizon so that I can have more time for all the back to school stuff that will need doing in August. Desire for snacking was huge as soon as I sat down on the computer!
Must work on that.

Good day, all!

Violinist, I absolutely believe that you will have no difficulty in reaching your goals, if you’re motivated to
do so and really go for a strict version of the BSD. Things like hypothyroidism or steroids can slow one
down, but if you’re willing to down 3 liters of water/day, abstain from alcohol, and drop your carbs to <20g,
and weigh and measure your portions, a loss of a stone in 4 weeks is very doable. My losses were very
average, and in all the time I’ve been on these forums, I’ve seen similar over and over again. Everything
in moderation isn’t a concept I do well with, so it had to be all or nothing, no breaks, no “treats”, no cheats
for me. 🙂 I also hadn’t discovered these boards until I was already in maintenance! You have the great
good fortune to be here at the start of your journey, and there is so much experience here for you to draw
upon. (It seems that I always have to do things the hard way 🙂 ) Just trust in the process, it works!

Sunshine, I am sure you enjoyed that wine! I thought you made wine creep up, but I do understand it for sure!

You are hilarious skinny! I am one of 10 children, bless my 90 year old Mom. You will laugh about that years from now. I said YEars!

Today I have been busy sorting our a house sitter for our holiday and the end of September. So many people applied to do it and I have answered every email (9 in total). I could just press the decline button on each but I think that is rude so have had quite a task. The site I use is brilliant, if anyone is interested in either using a sitter or becoming one, get in touch and I will pass on the details. Anyway, we have chosen someone so that is a weight of our minds. Talking about weight, I have lost another quarter of a pound so technically I have 10lbs to lose by the end of this month. Dont think that is possible but I am still going in the right direction.

Enjoy the weekend and lovely weather if you are having it. Good luck to England. I dont watch football but will have it on in the background just to see how we are doing.

I’m in on this one.I’ve maintained for over a month now,just going between a pound or 2 but need to lose again.I’ve started writing everything down again what I eat,stopped because it was a nuisance but realise that’s why I’m not losing.My hubby is proud of what I’ve achieved so far and especially that I haven’t put weight on for over a month but enough is enough.I’ve been sticking to the principles,find it quite easy now but I’m eating too much,not too much but enough to stall.Also I’ve found it difficult to exercise as my son hasn’t been sleeping very well so I can’t get up early to exercise and we have carers in the house all day so no privacy.I walk the dog a lot and have been working really hard in the garden which is better than nothing.No excuses and back to work,need to give myself a good kick.

Hi guys 😘
Fantastic to hear from you!
Toddy_67 I am pathetically pleased that my message has encouraged one person! Keep going, the time will pass and the goal will draw nearer. Be kind to yourself on the way though. It sounds like you have a similar weight loss goal to me. If so, you may find some similarities with these observations: the drop through the first 2 dress sizes seemed really slow, and then I plummeted through the next 2 dress sizes; most people didn’t comment on my weight loss until I has lost about 3 stone (I have in-laws living with me and across the road who have STILL never commented). It’s a shame because it’s the earliest weeks that are the most challenging and when you probably invest the most time and effort, so praise and reinforcement are invaluable then. But you might have to praise and encourage yourself or come here for it. You’re doing an amazing job so far!!!

I learnt not to worry about seeming boastful, and to tell/message my most loved ones when I reached each stone loss, and then they would do their ‘job’ and congratulate me. It does help it feel real and motivates a little. Best of luck.

Californiagirl, I hear what you’re saying about feeding the world. It worries me too. The powers that be, need to give that a lot of thought but they can’t start that discussion if their heads are still buried in the sand.

Alliecat, it’s strange to think I might have useful advice to offer when – in some ways – it feels like I only started this yesterday! How time flies.

Each time I’ve started the diet (a couple of years ago, and a month ago) I’ve had diarrhoea within the first two or three days – fist time I took immodium or similar, this time i let things take their course.
Worse the first time around – but largely the reason for not taking anything this time was that previously (and again this time) I veer towards being a bit constipated once the diarrhoea stage is over- I do find consuming enough fibre hard with BSD a bit of a challenge.
I don’t think its necessarily eating full fat specifically, but any major change in your food intake makes your body need to adjust a bit. I’ve not eaten low fat stuff in many years, and if you’re keeping to 800 calories the amount of fat you have is pretty limited anyway.
Three days does sound like a long time though – I’d take some immodium or similar non-branded medication.
Avoid rehydration sachets – loads of sugar in them, but do drink loads of water.

Thank you so much for this hint! A nice alternative – and will be especially helpful when our cold winter has passed!!!

Morning Florida Violinist,
My little girl woke up at 7am and started within 5minutes all the nonsense – I want to get dressed downstairs. I DON’T WANT to get dressed downstairs. Stay with me upstairs I don’t want to get dressed at all… – go figure. Then yelled upstairs, woke my husband who barely fell asleep after the unbareable hot night. Then came downstairs whinging how to stop the whinging and whining as she didn’t like herself whinging and whining.
How would you feel with it, V, you’re more experienced mama than I, raising 4? I am one of 4 children myself and the last one. My three older siblings haven’t given my parents the amount of grief combined as I did on my own. I suppose this is a payback and I shouldn’t complain 😜. I had it coming 😉.
Yummymummy2be I just wonder where is the abundance of annoying energy coming from 🤔. I was only glad half hour later she was asleep and slept for 90minutes. That gave me the chance to do something so I started attacking the kitchen cupboards and clearing out. I need to channel the energy that is creeping up on me somewhere and the cupboards seemened a good starting point.
Also we went fruit picking to stuff the freezer for later. Once the football is on itll be less busy in the kitchen for me to carry on with the cupboards.
Have fun, friends.
Skinny to be xx

Hello everyone, yes violinist I mindfully had a couple of glasses of wine and mindfully enjoyed them. Were you watching me?

Despite my wine creep (Violinist where does that come from) I have lost another quarter of a pound taking me to a total loss of 4lbs in 5 weeks, not very good but still off. BG is steady but not ready to reduce insulin again just yet. The storms have passed and the pool is warming up nicely so hope to have a swim later. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and good luck to England.

I quite agree with having good stuff in the house. We’ve always got nuts, cheese, radishes and other things we can nibble without wrecking the diet. I’m just about to make some hummus and a plate of raw veggie strips to snack on while we watch the footie.

I’m enjoying the sunshine too. I’ve just been swimming in the sea! I’m a very poor swimmer, so just walk in a little and swim back to shore, so I don’t get out of my depth. The water wasn’t warm exactly, but not as cold as I thought it might be.

That made me smile JG! Think I too am part reptile. I have often commented that my need for sun and warmth must mean I’m cold blooded.

Has been super hot here in Turkey, with temps up to 40c in the shade on our sun terrace. Have had a couple of days when it’s been too hot to bask in the sun. Not complaining though, as we have to make the most of this before we head back middle of next week. Have started to pack and get things together to take home.

Hoping to catch up with friends tonight and have a nice meal out on Monday, so still good things to look forward to. Right now, I’m off to slap on some sunscreen and top up the tan. Have a great weekend everyone. Xx

I am sorry for being a bit quiet on the forums of late people. I am just loving and making the most of this nice weather which is making it so easy to get work done outside.
Had a few good but busy days, hay is now made and in the barn. It always feels good when that annual task is achieved and I don’t have to keep on monitoring the long range weather forecast and saying about every plans, subject to not making hay.
I have also taken advantage of the good weather to have a major clear out of feed room and outbuildings, piling everything in heaps in the yard, taken a couple of loads to the tip, and am coming to the end of the process of re-organising putting everything back into its new home.
It looks like the nice weather is going to be with us for a little longer, so have plans to get out into the fields with the tractor next week.
Sorry for those who don’t like the sunny weather, but I love it. Sometimes I do wonder if I have a slight genetic tendency towards being a bit of a reptile, – needing to spend time basking in warm weather to feel fully alive.

Sunshine, did you do mindful wine creep?

Morning butterlover! Glad to see you are progressing!

Allie, do you really think I can do this 18 pounds in 10 weeks if I am strict with the diet?

Morning All!

Allie, I actually fall asleep on the couch by 8pm, wake up and climb into bed and have had 8 hours by that early in the morning. So, ya, it is a long day and hard to skip my mini meal at 5 am, but I am actually working on it. I would like to get some more water down in early morning and do my coffee with breakfast at 8 am- for a start

Morning skinny and yummy. I had 4 kids under 5 years old back in the day. I remember them all waking up from a nap crying!!

Hi Woodduckie,
I have found soda water is a good compromise. I don’t like the taste of water unless I am really thirsty, but I can drink soda water and it doesn’t have any artificial sweetners in it like the flavoured waters which I used to drink before going on the BSD.

I would like to hit 150 again so I’ll join you. I am on holiday myself for a couple of week or more periods up to then, so may not be the fastest loser. Weigh in on Tuesday, to set starting weights and good luck everyone.

Morning! Weight still stuck at the same 🤔 but have just been to a spin class and feeling great for doing it!
Skinny I have young children – 8 and 4 – and it amazes me how long they can have a tantrum for! Well done for turning to black coffee rather than anything stronger!! 😂 Have a fab day everyone!

‘Morning, Violinist! Are you sleep disordered too, by any chance? I’m usually awake from 3:00am on. Makes
it difficult to do 2 meals a day! I noticed that your first mini meal is at 5:00am….so I’m curious 🙂 I only average
4 hrs a night of sleep. How about you? 18lbs in 11 weeks? Absolutely NO problem!

Allie

Thanks for the reply Squidge! My dad and I have never found drinking straight water easy. I havent had any other go-to drinks – other than a the glass of water with the lime or lemon juice. (Maybe its just been home water supplies . . . I dont know 🙂 . . .) Seems its always been just a tea or coffee with no sugar . . . or a glass of milk! and I long ago discarded any other sugars from my eating habits. No juices, soft drinks, or additive drinks either – cos Im a tea-totaller! Cakes, biscuits and lollies were always available . . . (I live semi rural – so a unopened packet in the cupboard in case someone dropped in for a visit could be out of date before they were opened!!!) – but if I had the munchies . . . I usually headed for some nuts or the (now dreaded) Ryvitas or Vitaweets with vegemite and a cuppa!!! Over the years, money Ive spent – then wasted on – fruit which was never finished being eaten Im sure could buy a car!!! So this high-sugar levels development has taken me completely by surprise! I feel like this is SO enlightening!!!! and results are just mindblowing!

Morning folks! It is 5:17 am here.
10 weeks until blood work
11 weeks to doc appointment for high triglycerides, cholesteral and possible high blood pressure
I promised 20 pounds off. 18 to go.
172 lbs this morning
No more fooling around

Interesting, I have, in keeping with my name, been mixing it up this week, with a few OMAD days and a water fast of 42 hours. Dropped 6 pounds in 4 days, and feel great. I credit having always done this sort of mixing things up with the fact that my BMR does seem to have reset itself so I can eat 2000 calories a day as an average provided I am keeping up my activity levels. I also used the reverse diet (gradually increasing what you eat from a low restriction such as 800 calories to more than your calculated TDEE by for example adding an extra 150 calories a week or so) which speeds up the metabolism, so at the end I was eating well over 2000 calories a day and not gaining weight so the slow down in BMR if experienced need not be considered a permanent situation.

Hi Tom, and welcome to the forum. Your starting weight is one pound lower than mine, but I lack your height so my starting BMI was 42, stage 3 obese. I am now over 18 months into maintaining my new shape (Although not my target weight, once the glycogen stores got filled again when I restarted eating some but less carbs than I used to, I put on nearly a stone) and a few new bad habits have led to another half a stone of gain which is currently a work in progress. You mention wanting to get fitter again, my advice would be to start some exercise at once, even before you start the diet properly, not pushing yourself too hard but building up gradually what you do, as muscle is an excellent aid to weight loss, so the more you have, the easier it is. Strength training is particularly important. Good luck and I hope you enjoy the success so many on here have. I just wish I could persuade my OH to have a proper go. He lost two stone just eating what I was eating but could really do with tackling the midriff area.

Hi All,

I noticed that some people were talking about one meal a day and how it can lower the Basal Metabolic Rate and this concerned me, as this is basically how I live. So I have spent some time researching this. I came up with the following….

“Is fasting every single day counterproductive?
I’m seeing a lot of conflicting information on appropriate fasting frequency. Generally speaking, is fasting, for say, 16 to 20 hours everyday a bad idea?

Sylvie

There are no right or wrong answers. The term ‘break-fast’ as the meal that breaks your fast implies that fasting should be done every day, as you cannot break a fast if you did not fast. Up to the 1970s, people would have a 12-14 hour fast every day. If you finish dinner by 6 pm and ate breakfast a 8 am, that is a 14 hour fasting period done every day.

That may have helped maintain weight in a healthy range, but what if you want/need to lose weight? Extending this fasting period may be beneficial. You can then extend this to 16, 18, 20 hours or whatever suits you. Find what works for you in your lifestyle (job, family etc.) and your body (bodies respond differently)

If you do, for example, one meal a day (OMAD) or a roughly 23 hour fast daily, you may do very well. In that case, continue. On the other hand, we see many people start to stall at a weight higher than they like. In that case, it is good to shake things up a little, to keep your body from adapting too much to this. Try alternating longer and shorter fasts, for example.

Dr. Jason Fung”

So it seems OMAD works for some and not others. Hope this helps. All information is gratefully received by me so please keep posting.

Take care peoples.

Nonna Mary
xxxx

Butterlover,
What a good news on your Bgl! You are definitely doing so.ething good there, girl 👏👍 well done on your gym session, who knows the body holding and resisting the change but will let go on no time adjusted to the new routine.
All the best
Skinny to be
xx

Good morning good people,
What a glorious day we’ve woken up to. Isn’t it a little too much of glorious or for too long?
Still better than constant rains though but it wouldn’t hurt if we had a bit of rain.
While it’s not raining I experienced a heavy rains, almost monsoon this morning. My little girl had a meltdown within 5 minutes after she woke up and was still going strong 30 minutes later. As you can imagine all thoughts were in my head how to ‘cheer’ myself up once she fell asleep from the exhaustion. I ended cheering myself up with a small avocado, 50seconds plank (that’s so blinking hard now) and clearing up a bit in the garden while still bearable temperatures. Also put a load into the washing machine and folded a pile of laundry to be put away all this
with two black coffees. In between some MM boks reading to not to sit and move so I think I have ‘managed’ the situation as best I could.
Hope your morning is less stressful 😉.
All the best for today, friends.
Skinny to be
xx

I’m feeling really pleased with myself – the only things in my wardrobe which didn’t fit are TOO BIG! They’re now in a bag ready to go down the charity shop, as I won’t be needing them ever again.

I do the batch cooking and freezing for any suitable meals. It’s great to have healthy, portion controlled ready meals in the freezer for when I’m short of time, or don’t feel like cooking (especially as previously that was always an excuse for pizza).

WoodDuckie – drinking water isn’t hard, you just need to get into the habit. I had to make an effort myself to start with, as I was so used to only drinking other things – which very often contained sugar in some form and usually made me want ‘a little something’ to go with them. Is it any wonder I was overweight when everytime I felt thirsty I’d drink juice or a shake and have a snack?

Don’t allow yourself to eat anything, ever, anywhere until you’ve gulped down a whole glass of water (or sipped nicely if you’re out). You’ll soon get used to it. You don’t need to disguise the taste either, as it doesn’t really have one. You might find keeping a jug of plain water in the fridge helps, although personally I prefer cool straight from the tap to chilled.

Thank you for those explanations and hints re drinking water . . . I find that SO HARD to do . . . and keep a glass of water on the sink as a reminder to at least have a few mouthfuls . .. everytime I go to or by the kitchen for something/anything 🙂 Ive even add lemon or lime juice to it to make it more palatable 🙁 but its tough for me . . . always has been.

HI Everyone.At last I have a positive report.this morning Bgl is 4.7mmol.the best in ages.I did my first proper work out in the gym .Im working with an excersie physiologist and I actually felt good .On the down side ny weight is up to 84.1kg . Im trying a supplement called Forskolin its suposed to increase metabolism and act on stored fat.Im not convinced but Im giving it a try.I hope you are all focused on maximum effort during weekend temptations.Best wishes to you all Ko.Ko.

Thank you for sharing sunshine-girl . . . this communication has made me feel SO MUCH BETTER!!! Someone with the exact same story but with different readings!!! (The bathroom visits after starting one of the pills was so horrendous they will never be forgotten. Nor will the depression, constant crying, lack of appetite and wanting to hide/die with two others!!! only leaving insulin as the last resort.) – Since starting the 8 week “diet” which Im calling my new eating regime!!! Ive “discarded” good old fashioned rolled oats – couldnt believe the tests following that small change. No bread of course, ate little potato of any kind or pumpkin anyways – but no more . . . my home made pea and ham, chicken and vege soups – GONE! Why? The split peas and dry soup mix! AMAZINGLY HIGH READINGS AFTER THOSE!!!! And I always had that in the winter – make a batch, and then just heat and eat when desired. My Ryvita and Vitaweet biscuits . . .? (afternoon snack with vegemite or lunch some days with cheese and tomato/cold meat (whatever) – GONE. Unbelievable readings after them. They have no sugar and no fat! BUT NO GOOD TO ME!!! Finger prick readings still higher than “they” would like . . . but then consistently single digits after (2-3 weeks) is an unbelievable difference – and shows GREAT promise for me. It is just like magic. Sincere and grateful thank you’s to a few people who are responsible for opening doors and revealing possibility ideas.

Hi Squidge,

Thanks for that, it all sounds good to me…I get your thoughts on the fruit, and will see how it goes. I must say though that I’ve seemingly lost my desire for muesli and milk right now, it must be the spirit of Dr Mosley taking over…eggs are my go to choice right now!

I’ll certainly be making a batch up when I return from my holibobs though…my top tip for this diet is to have the things in the house/fridge that you can actually eat…for myself it makes the whole process much easier, less likely to falter!

Cheers,

Red

Thank you for all your words of encouragement!

I’m happy I’ve picked a date – I always seem to find deadlines useful.

How do you folks manage the cooking?? Do some of the meals lend themselves to batch cooking and freezing or is it best, if batch cooking to consume the remainder the next day?!

What a lovely bunch of people you are!

Thanks for your words of encouragement!

It’s probably sensible to delay starting properly if you know it will be particularly difficult over the next week.

Good luck.

Is it possible for you to transfer to another doctor, who’d be more helpful?

So glad I found this!! I’m on day 5 and on day 3 and 4 I had this awfully in the evening, it was like acid shooting out of me 😬 at least now I know it’s related to the diet, fingers crossed it’s gone!