Hi nushi
I’m doing ok thank you, stuck faithfully to the diet and my meal plan but did stray this afternoon as I had one of my parents home made savoury pastries which would have taken me over my carb target, but considering how bad it could have been I’ve done ok. New week tomorrow, so let’s both keep going with lots of optimism and positivity for the brand new week!

Hi Frog, the thing about the cauli pizza is when I did a calculation it turn out to be around 400 cals – maybe I shouldn’t have eaten the whole thing!!!!!!! I have recently seen a recipe (I think in WW mag) for turkey pizza – you bash the turkey really thin then flash fry on both sides then top it with tom puree, cheese, veg – whatever you want and put it under the grill. My favourite is a quiche with no pastry but I finely line the flan dish with super thin parma ham and then add the eggs, cheese etc. Yum.

Momof2 I’m so sorry to hear that, I hope that you and the family are doing ok.
Sueblue some people are so inconsiderate and can be unkind, just surround yourself with those that love you and care about you, they’re the people that matter! Well done you for all you’ve achieved so far.
Today I’ve done ok, I stuck to my meal plans, but I did have one slip up where I just couldn’t resist one of my parents savoury pastries that they home cooked. They are just so yummy I had to have one. But I only had the one and I estimate probably about 250 calories so I didn’t blow it. Anyway tomorrow is Monday and the start of a new week so hopefully I’ll keep going onwards and upwards…just keep moving on from this…

Hello Fellow zoomers!

I start of with an apology for silence over the last several days. Sadly we were dealing with a bereavement in the family and all my energies were directed at supporting and coping.

If you will have me back, I would very much like to join in the challenge for July?

Looking forward to meeting a few new people and carrying on getting to know some from the June thread further.

I did make a successful one once – as you say, I think with egg in the base, but it was such a lot of faff, I ended up thinking I’d be just as happy with the topping and no base. I think I can go a few weeks without one! Other than that. all of the recipes in the Pioppi book look good – & BSD friendly.
I’m just did a ten mile walk – first time in ages I’ve walked anything like that far.
Unintentional; I got a bit lost, then made a diversion at the end to avoid walking on a madly busy main road. I was out for about four hours altogether.

JGwen – that is a lovely little podcast. I used to calculate carbs and insulin injections so carefully but my T2D just kept getting worse and worse. This does explain why that was the case and it is good to be reminded why this WOE works for me and how important it is to keep BS low so I never have to inject again.

ITV’s the fast fix. It was good that they set out clearly just how dangerous T2D is and how it is reversible. The worse bit was that they never once mentioned the importance of cutting down on the bad carbohydrates.

Hello All!
Chimptamer, as a long term poster on these threads, I find it increasingly
difficult to welcome all new members and also keep up with all the wonder-
ful friends that I’ve made here. Reading your post today, I just find it
necessary to pop in here and stand up and applaud you 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m so
impressed with the manner in which you’ve turned self knowledge,
i.e., being an all or nothing personality type (me, too!) into a positive
tool for success! My personal story appeared days ago on this thread
so I won’t repeat it now, other than to say that I’ve approached the
entire process much the same as you, and made the all or nothing
aspect of my personality into an asset, and not a liability, and it has
served me well…..no cheats, no “treats”, no exceptions 🙂 Congratulations!
I’m genuinely impressed…

Best,

Allie

Dear Mrs Thompson, I’m so sorry not to have checked in for so long. It’s been just the most crazy week workwise. I hope you are surviving and that the weekend hasn’t been too much of a nightmare? I’m definitely feeling less hungry and even when I do eat I’m happy with much less – are you finding the same? Also, other than feeling hungry, I’ve had no nasty side effects for a change – not feeling exhausted or headachy or anything. In fact I would say I am feeling generally calmer – which is weird! Jeans also definitely feeling looser (though moment of truth will be the weekly weigh-in tomorrow!). Hope all is going well for you.

Bambina G, why did you make a batch of cookies? Was it for the family. The cookies can be frozen or you can freeze the dough before you cook them. How long do they last in the fridge? For as long as you can resist them or the family eats them but they will start to go soft after a week or so but can be revived with a quick blast in the oven.

This podcast by Jason Fung as well as the common coverage, it fills in a lot of the little side elements, on cravings, and insulin resistance, and feeling full. I think it will also help any T2 trying to explain to medical people why they want to follow this WoE rather than taking insulin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXXGxoNFag4

The Dawn Phenomenon does not need early morning testing, just your usual pre-breakfast test. I do mine as soon as I get up, around 8am. If you do it very early you will get false high readings like testing too soon after a meal. It is like my evening readings, I have a snack in the afternoon as I can get a bit shaky so I have some nuts or a piece of chicken. If I test at 6pm my readings will be normal to high but if I leave it until my normal time of 7pm they will have gone down quite a bit as my snack needed more time to dissipate through the blood.
Okay, the theory is that as you are eating a very low calorie diet and probably not eating between dinner (say 8pm) and breakfast (say 7pm) your liver detects that there isn’t enough glucose in the blood and thinks you are starving – it thinks you might die before you wake – remember we are still prehistoric in our bodily functions. You are not going to die as there will be a meal waiting for you when you get up. Your liver doesn’t know this and in order to keep you alive it pumps glycogen into the blood – hence a high reading in the morning. You can either ignore it as it is a false reading but it is still glucose your body will have to deal with. In order to cheat or trick the liver into thinking you are having plenty to eat you should eat a small BSD friendly snack just before or an hour before bed – whichever is more comfortable for you and your digestion. This should stop the high morning readings and give you a more true reading. That basically is it. Try it and see, it doesn’t work for everyone but a very high percentage see an improvement. You might start getting very low readings – mine run at around 3.8 to 4.3 in the morning but I am about to eat so I dont worry.

I have been a type 2 diabetic for 18 years. I decided to do the blood sugar diet instead of go for weight loss surgery. I have been unable to lose weight in the past in a low calorie/low fat diet. I have been on the blood sugar diet for 8 weeks so far. I am doing well – I have lost 10kg – no longer taking my blood pressure tabs or short acting Insulin. But as recommended by my diabetic dietician, I have maintained a low dose of long acting insulin (20mg in the mornings) My blood sugar was still always elevated in a morning. I discovered I had Dawn Phenomena (by testing at early morning slots & reading info about this). I then started taking a low dose (10mg ) if long actibg insulin before bed to compensate for this problem. This has worked and I no longer get rises in the morning. All my blood sugar readings before meals and after for the past two weeks have been within normal range e.g 4-7. I want to stop taking insulin altogether but am worried that if I do my blood sugar levels will start to rise again! Would this be only a temporary rise til my body adjusted? What is the best way to do this? Is it better to just stop abruptly to allow my own resistance to kick in? Or do it gradually? Does anyone have similar experience and what did you do?

Oh SueBlue, people can be hurtful and unthinking, sometimes though they know exactly what they are saying and do it to make themselves feel better. Okay, we are big – we wouldn’t be on this site if we were slinky malinkys would we. You have a upper hand here as at least you have a good heart and are not a hurtful, nasty person with a small mind. Who is the winner here….

Well I am counting my blessings today. To hell with the weight just for one day (no I am not coming off diet). Today is Fathers Day and my daughter (MY daughter) sent my husband a card saying ‘Anyone man can be a father but it takes a real man to be a special Dad’. Bless her. She has always treated him as her dad for 36 year but she usually sends very sarcastic, jokey cards. I think this one was very much appreciated. Today is my grandsons 10th birthday and I love him to bits – along with his brother who is turning into a teenager both in age and temperament, bless. Today we are supposed to be having a big party with our near neighbours (about 30 people) which we hold at a mini roundabout at the end of our lane which is the end of a cul-de-sac. This has been cancelled because our friend, Serge, who lives right by there, is dying of terminal bowel cancer. It would be crass having a party outside his house and crass just to have a party at all. We are all sending out love and hugs.

Back to the weight, I am back to my Tuesday weight of 3.5lbs so no actual weight loss this week, but the week is not yet over. See you all tomorrow. Keep on keeping on…

Hi everyone, some interesting discussions going on today and yesterday. V. my doctor has me on statins because of the diabetes, my previous doctor prescribed because Total chol was around 8.2 (first diagnoses at 11.0) and historically my triglycerides have been very high too – so a combination of the three (diab, high chol and high tri) puts me very much in the risk area. Although not sure if statins actually reduce the risk since I have become cynical of any drug therapy as other than to boost the coffers of big pharma. Anyway, I am hoping this experiment without them proves I can keep my numbers down without it. I must say I had reduced from 60mg to 20mg, we will see how it goes.

Frog, I couldn’t get cauli pizza until I got the base right. Now I mix riced cauli with one egg and herbs, pepper etc. Flatten it out onto a proper pizza tray with a layer of greaseproof paper, cook for 10 mins quite high, turn it over peeling the paper off, cook again for another 10 mins. It might start to blacken at the edges but this adds to the flavour but it makes it firmer and eliminates the cauliflowery taste.

Carolthomas, I also have a cork in my fruit bowl as it absorbs the moisture – one downside is that dry fruit like passionfruit, dry out very quickly. The little packs you get in new handbags are also good for cramps and fruit – the ones that say ‘dont eat me’ – it is silica. People must think we are made but we have whole in the shell walnuts all over the house – the gas they give off repels spiders. Seems to work. Funnily without the statins I had terrible cramps last night plus the restless legs and I was freezing cold. Hubby said it was a cold night but it is June for goodness sake.

My weight is back to Tuesday’s level of a 3.5lb loss so not really on track for 2lbs this week but still keeping on….

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.
I had a bit of a wake up call /reality check today. I was out with my family and we called into a cafe for coffee. The tables were really close together and so I had to ask the person behind me to move their chair in a bit so I could sit down. I ordered coffee and noticed one of my daughters looked upset. When asked what was wrong she said that she didn’t like what the lady behind us had said – apparently she’d told her friend to move his chair “as the big lady needs to sit down” – the big lady being me of course.
Now the funny thing is that I don’t see myself as big. Since losing 13kg on BSD I don’t feel big. But in reality I suppose I am as I’m still about 3kg away from being overweight (I’m in the obese range for BMI), I’m a size 16-18, and 5ft 9 so could hardly be described as petite. So another reminder of why I need to keep
Going with this WOE.
By the way I do feel that the other lady was rude to say that, it’s not something I would do!

Hi all,
So I am on day 14 today… 11lbs down, 2lbs to tip into the next stone bracket and 4lbs to my target, which I now want to pass, 15 days until I fly out on holiday. The swimsuit fits but it could look better…!!

I have been alcohol free the whole of the time… I promised myself a gin when I got to 10lbs lost which was yesterday… I had several sloshes last night in the end… interestingly my sleep was sooooo different! Saturday morning I woke at 7.30, nice and fresh and felt rested. This morning I didn’t surface till around 9 and that was still a wrench and also with a banging headache! Goes to show how alcohol really does affect your sleep, even just a couple over an evening. We have some bubbles for Father’s Day this afternoon which I will partake in but will then not touch alcohol until my holiday now… even then I want to limit it…

I have surprised myself how easily I have been able to leave the wine. I was polishing off easily a bottle and a half a night… I have had no cravings for wine, just a craving for “a drink”… once I get past that dreaded witching hour – I am happy to settle with a cup of tea. From someone that was bordering alcoholism I’m so pleased with myself… also pleased that after the drink last night I know I don’t want to have any more tonight…. is that some kind of alcohol breakthrough? Feels like it in my mind in a weird way… who knows!!!

Here’s to the cheers over a peppermint tea!!! (Would be my fave rose lemonade tea but Sainsbury’s have stopped selling so need to order online!)

Hope you are all doing ok…!! Such a positive thread with people doing so well and encouraging each other…!!

Rebecca xxx

Hello Day 3 for me today and so far so good.
Frog my OH found rhubarb yesterday and it’s sitting in front of me now stewed with apple and ginger. I find the tartness lovely but think my guests may need it a little sweeter! It’s amazing how tastebuds and ideas about food change over time. Not sure I fancy vegetable water but who knows!

S-g there’s an interesting chapter in the Pioppi Diet book about cholesterol. I can’t summarise the whole chapter but basically (copied from the book)

1.Cholesterol is one of the most vital molecules in the body; without it, we would die.
2. If you’re over sixty years old, high LDL cholesterol is not associated with cardiovascular disease and is inversely associated with mortality from any cause.
3. 75 per cent of people admitted with a heart attack have normal total and LDL cholesterol, but 66 per cent have metabolic syndrome.
4. The triglyceride to HDL ratio is a much better predictor of heart-attack risk than total cholesterol or LDL cholesterol.
5. If you haven’t had a heart attack, and you don’t suffer with heart disease, taking a cholesterol-lowering statin pill will not prolong your life by one day.

The next chapter “The Root Cause of Heart Disease: Insulin Resistance and Inflammation”, starts with this quote:
‘I think the condition we’re dealing with that encompasses all these diseases –heart disease, high blood pressure, dementia and even cancer –is insulin resistance.’ –Professor Timothy Noakes

Interesting reading and I’m sure there’s a lot of research out there on the effects of statins …… are you there JGwen????? Insulin resistance seems to have a lot to answer for.

As a rough guide, food will keep as long as the most perishable ingredient – although cooked foods do tend to stay edible a bit longer than uncooked ones. I’ve not made the flapjacks, so don’t recall the ingredients, but if they’d all be safe in an airtight container for a couple of weeks, then so should the flapjacks.

As for freezing, just about anything can be safely frozen and eaten later, but the texture might be spoiled. Most cooked dishes eg chilli, sauces for courgetti spaghetti would be fine – but the accompanying veg should be cooked fresh, as it would turn to mush.

If the differences in calorie counts vary only slightly, I’d just stick to whicever method you find easiest to use. As long as you average out at around 800 per day, it’s fine.

When I started, I made big batches of some meals in the book, calculating the total calories for the whole lot (which was easy as many items had the calorie counts on the tins and packs.). I then worked out how many portions it would need to be divided into to give me around 350 calories each, split it up and froze it in individual lots. I then knew I could eat one, with a little salad or steamed veg and not be over 400 calories.

I’m maintaining now, so am eating more – but I still do this, with slightly more generous portions.

I’m just posting a mini-goal – my 5:2 hasn’t gone well this week, more like 7:0! So although I’ve tried to stay low-carb and have certainly avoided all the refined carbs etc, I’ve drunk too much wine and not got enough steps and my blood sugar reading this morning was the highest it’s been in weeks 🙁 So I’m going to try to do 5 days of 800kc/20g from tomorrow and see if that helps. I was having a break from Fast800 but think I need a boost. My number one WHY when starting this WoE was to reduce my blood sugars and that’s the one that is proving the hardest. There are so many factors to it, I guess. But I need to keep on keeping on and I will get there. I thought if I committed to it here, it would help me – now off to plan the menus and order groceries!

Have a good day, Zoomers!
Caro
x

Hi sunshine-girl,

Just popping in to mention that carrying a cork in a pocket can help with cramp. Yes, I know it sounds mad – my acupuncturist told me about it and I have one in my pillow case and try to carry one around if I have pockets. my nighttime cramps only come back if I forget the daytime cork for too long. Just a thought!

Caro
x

Just dashing off a quick post this morning because we are out for a lovely days walking in Thetford forest today.

Have had a difficult week with no computer – but nothing like the problems that Sunshine-girl has had with the hack into Facebook. It has been difficult though trying to run my little business with just a tablet and a phone when all my data was on my broken Computer.

Computer is now repaired with all the data retrieved. I should really be catching up with the admin today but I am going to leave it all to next week and am going for my lovely walk in the forest.

Marxistfood – really good advice from Mariet. Bill1954’s thread ‘this has to work for me ‘ really helped me when I first started on the BSD in 2016. If you search also for ”dawn phenomenon ‘ you will find info about it on other threads. Mariet is absolutely right – the numbers will settle back down.

Good morning and it’s Fathers Day here in the UK so I’m sure there will be some celebrations.

We are having lunch here so I can control what we eat! Chilled soup, followed by roast chicken with salad or mashed garlic cauliflower and green beans. For dessert stewed rhubarb, apple and ginger with Greek yogurt and strawberries. Then a cheese board. I know this sounds like a lot but I won’t eat too much and it will be my only meal of the day!

Hope you enjoyed the salmon Allie and I will post my soups on the Summer Salads thread tomorrow. I made a green vegetable medley for my salmon but roasted vegetables sound lovely so I will try that. I guess that sea bass fillets or even cod would also be good on vegetables. The gazpacho just adds an extra dimension.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone. Three days of this week still left to take a step towards the goals.

Hi wendyq and welcome back! It sounds like you’ve been doing really well. Why not set yourself a mini target for the rest of this 4 week challenge? Wouldn’t it be great if you could shed those 5 pounds by then? I’m aiming to lose around the same (ideally 7lb!) by Friday 13th July – when I go on holiday – so why not try that and let’s compare notes as we go?

What seems to work for a lot of people is shaking things up a bit and changing your normal pattern, just to kick start things again. For for some it may be doing a 24 hours fast, others trying 16:8 (or even 8:16) as a new daily pattern, others just a case of getting the book out again and going back to basics. Also varying your exercise programme as you mentioned. Well I’m aiming to try all of those things in rotation so will keep you posted!

Good luck everyone X

Hi Marxistfood, I’m not diabetic but I’ve been on these forums for 18months and have seen similar posts from many people. From what i have read previously this is not uncommon. BSL will come down if I you persevere- search high bsl, in particular a thread started by Bill1956 (I might have that name wrong) called This Has To Work For Me, because Bill had exactly the same experience but after a little time the readings came down again. It must be scary to see the higher figures but from what I’ve observed from other diabetic posters, if you keep going the numbers will stabilise again at good levels. Let us know how things go for you.

Well done BlackSpot sounds like you did brilliantly 👍🏻
New day today…day 7…when I get to the end of the day it will be the end of my first week…I’ve lasted longer than I ever thought I would!

That’s a great result, Anna. I hope that your knee replacement rehab is going well. I’m of
an age where several of my contemporaries have undergone the same procedure, so I
can sympathize. I wasn’t diabetic either, but highly insulin resistant. Carb counting was
the answer for me, but it’s not necessary for everyone. Very best wishes for your recovery!

When I first did the diet I took the recipes shown in the Daily Mail, and then bought the book. I never counted carbs , just followed the recipes and lost nearly 3 stone. I didn’t take any notice of the carb count or the calorie count. I was doing it for weight loss though, not diabetes control. Michael never suggested any upper carb limit from what I remember, and it still worked for me. I am back doing the diet again after a knee op and gaining a stone, trying to keep to the diet principles , not necessarily counting carbs , just using what I call ‘good carbs’ as used in the recipes , eg no bread pasta rice sugary things or processed carbs, keeping within the 800 etc.

Hello everyone,
I haven’t been on here for a while but need to be.I’ve been maintaining instead of losing these last few weeks and need to be motivated again.I’m glad I haven’t put any weight on despite going away for a couple of weekends and having my sister stay for a few days so that’s something.I’ve become addicted to 70% or above dark chocolate!My hubby and me love it but I need to stop eating it,can’t stop at one square.My WOE is rubbing off on my hubby.For Father’s Day he requested lasagne without lasagne sheets so I made it with sweet potato,also meat free,used green lentils.For pudding I’ve frozen some bananas and will attempt to make banana ice cream tomorrow which is basically frozen bananas processed with whatever flavouring you want,I’m going to use peanut butter.I know we shouldn’t have bananas but it’s better than cake I think,will just have a bit.Despite maintaining(sounds better than stalling)I’ve had many comments about losing weight and how good I look so that’s inspiring.However I’m still in the obese category and need to lose 5 pounds before I’m just overweight and still have just over 2 stone to lose to reach my goal.Please inspire me and help me!I need to get back into exercise again as well,not just walking the dog a lot and doing gardening.No one is coming for the next few weeks and we’re not going away so should be able to stay on track.

week 4 tomorrow fairly certain im doing 800 cals (my wife cooks and supervisors and has joined me in support) early on got some 6.- 6.5 readings. now they are 9.- 9.5 I do at least 10,000 steps have lost almost 2 inch from my waist and have lost 1st 4llbs did have a week with a sore neck and on pain killers neck buts that’s gone now
. a typical menu is
Breakfast strawberries (6 ish blueberries 12 ish) a large dessert spoonful of quark
lunch 2 egg omelette with mushrooms and green salad
;dinner homemade chicken curry with 8 0z chicken a portion of the konjak rice (30 cals no carb)
occasional 9pm 1 low dough base 39 cals 2.1 carb with lettuce and onion
water water water !!
tea x 4 with drop of skimmed milk
and if im really hungry I cut up an apple to eat throughout the day
just wonder if im ever going to get my sugar levels back down
many thanks (again)

I’m other news, at the party my plan mainly worked. Ate salad & pulled pork. Drank mainly soda water & a few wine spiritzers had a tiny sliver of cake but compared to a normal party I was the prince of self control!
Back to work tomorrow, salad box packed & ready to go.
Good luck tomorrow everyone.

Mrs Thompson, I feel your cake pain.
TOH was baked up a storm for mums birthday & fathers day, but one of the cakes kept going wrong or not being good enough…
So multiple bakes, multiple bowels of cake mix, unwanted cakes just hanging around!!! 😮
In the end I was strong. The chooks got very lucky, and I’m hoping for some brilliant eggs.
But the lingering cake smell…

Hiya, V.! I’m doing great, thank you for asking 🙂 I’m shamelessly appropriating your salmon
and vegetable dish for this night’s dinner, and have already grilled a tray of courgette, eggplant,
red peppers, red onion quarters and a few roma tomatoes for later this evening, to be served
as a bed for wild salmon. They look beautiful! Weather here has turned decidedly hot 33C,
so your soup production sounds enticing too. Would mint be more pleasing to your o/h
instead of dill? I hope that you will share your collection of summer favorites on either
LTC’s Good Eats or my Full Course Summer Salads threads. Summer always finds a tub
of gazpacho in our refrigerator, too! A few more weeks before good tomatoes begin to
arrive…Your repertoire sounds intriguing, so please share 🙂 I love cold soups and salads
in the warmer months, because I can’t face a plate of hot food at night. Water glass up
up up V! I’ve gotten lax with this too, so now have cucumber spears floating along in
it. Have a wonderful evening!
xx
Allie
Allie

Hi Sunshine Girl – I had a look for more rhubarb in a couple of supermarkets today – no luck! Lots of cherries about though
I’d never heard of soap being good for cramp – just googled it, how weird! Hope stopping the statins is helpful.
Verano – I’ve started drinking the water (when its cold) that I’ve steamed vegetables in, as some of the minerals will have leached out – I haven’t had any I didn’t like so far, and this mornings water from breakfast (asparagus and boiled egg) is really nice.
Not to mention the rhubarby juice from yesterday – that’s always amazing.
I tried one of the dark chocolate and raspberry protein bars that I bought online the other day – It wasn’t overly sweet, but stopped cravings, & I didn’t want lunch. It was pleasant-ish, but a bit messy because the raspberry had leaked out from the chocolate covering. Not something I’d eat regularly, but definitely an OK standby when you think you may not be close to a sensible low carb option when you’re out.

I am 11 weeks alcohol-free under my belt today ! Feel pretty smug actually, hubby still imbibes but recently had to have a medical due to age and needing a lorry drivers licence. I (privately) asked the doctor to help as I believe he drinks too much (as I did). He now has an appt. for bloods shortly. We shall see how that pans out. I am hopeful that we can support each other in leading a healthier lifestyle in the very near future. He is only slightly overweight but I believe that his liver may be suffering. I am not expecting the Dr. to divulge information to me (patient confidentiality) but hope that the true detail will come direct from hubby. We did tend to egg each other on and now I am abstaining it does seem to have had the effect of some reduction in his consumption of alcohol. I also emptied the house of alcohol, (I was not popular!) it is now outside in a covered area and is a deterrent as it is not so easily at hand.

On the fizzy water front, I am quite happy with S’market brands, I do feel that the expensive brands are a bit of a rip off, but each to their own. If I do use cordials (sugar free) I tend to add PLJ as well, as I prefer a sharper more refreshing drink.

I am enjoying reading these personal experiences and they really do help when you feel de-motivated. Keep up the good work peeps !

Thanks for your comments Zinny.
I hope you’re somewhere nice and warm, to be swimming every day.
It must be harder when abroad because of those temptations you would only get when you’re there – I think I’d feel justified to have a couple of lapses!
I must say yoghurt was a definite no-no for me but now I so look forward to Greek unsweetened yogurt with berries and nuts – I try to eat mindfully, taking my time, savouring every piece and it’s gorgeous.
Good luck when you get home, I’m sure you’ll smash this diet and get the results you deserve.

Hi greenjanet, that’s great about the 5lbs! A pleasant surprise 👍🏻
I’ve spent the afternoon baking two almond, banana and fruit cakes for my husband and dad and so the house smells amazing and fruity and cakey…I’m so glad I joined this forum because if I hadn’t I would have dived in and undone my good work, but I’m determined not to, I feel like I’ve come so far (although it’s only day 6) for me I’m doing better than I ever expected. So I need to stick with it and not crack, because if I crack I’ll binge on all things carbs…not going there again. This isn’t always easy, but I got to enjoy the most lovely cheese this afternoon which is one of my food joys, so I shall focus on that as well as the most lovely fish for lunch. Just wish the house would stop smelling of banana cake 😫

Many thanks for your responses, most helpful. It’s not my first time on a VLC so I’m really hoping I can stick to this and establish some new habits.
Day Four and I’m feeling ok, if somewhat cold. I’m following the recipe book but finding the calorie counts somewhat different from my fitnesspal and fitday.com so feeling a little confused. Hopefully the discrepancies are minor and I’ll keep to the calorie count each day.

Thanks again

Good afternoon. Glad to ‘see’ a few more friends posting! Nicola I just have to agree with Allie, by the way how are you Allie?, don’t be too hard on yourself. Moving home is stressful but home and country together is really tough.

I decided to cook today. I made cold pepper soup, similar to gazpacho, adapted from a Jun Tanaka recipe. It really is lovely but we had a mixed response to my chilled cucumber and avocado soup from the Pioppi Diet book. I love it OH hates it! Could just be the dill. Next time I might use a different herb. I am a huge fan of cold soups and will make the courgette soup and have that chilled.

We had a lovely lunch earlier in the week. Unusual ….. cold gazpacho, cold mixed cooked summer vegetables in the center of the dish and hot poached salmon on top of the vegetables. It was really light and very nice. I was trying to reproduce that with a cucumber and avocado base. But hey, I now have both so no problem really.

Never be made to feel insecure by other people. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Who are these people anyway? At least, eating this way, we are all beautiful inside! Enjoy the rest of the weekend

A very warm welcome to you, toddy67! The BSD has a lot of flexibility built into it, and
there are myriad of ways to do it successfully, as well as a great deal of wisdom, knowledge
and experience here on the forums. We love to share our experiences, so please just shout
out if you have any questions or concerns, and one of us will be along to help, support or
commiserate 🙂 How are you feeling on day 4? Very best wishes to you on setting out on
an amazing journey! I DOES change lives 🙂

Allie

I’m new to this site and can’t tell you how good I feel knowing that I’m not the only person who regularly downs far too much wine – in my case, my husband and I buy red wine boxes and refill our glasses to our hearts’ content – except that I now have high blood pressure and presumably a not very content heart! It’s easy to lose count of how much you’ve drunk this way, but we’ve recently started decanting the wine into a bottle, and that is hardly ever enough between us.
Like others on here, I love the whole thing of drinking wine. I’ve given up drinking for periods of time, usually about six weeks, and find this quite easy but once I start back on the vino I’m quickly back to four glasses a night. We do manage one alcohol-free day a week, which is a bit of a triumph vis a vis the old man, but he’s almost certainly not going to agree to do any more and I’d find it really hard to stop drinking if he’s still topping up his glass. Help!

Hi Californiagirl,
I am glad you are enjoying them. He has a facebook group and does post links to new research that he finds interesting, chips in with answers to some peoples questions as well as letting people know about new online interviews and videos of presentations he makes. I find it quite a useful addition.

Hi green Janet if I lived closer I would be there like a shot . Nothing like a bit of manual labour to get the pounds off !

You are so right. I just wish that sometimes people would not try and
Push food onto you. I’m away at the moment and I don’t know all of the people particularly well but I could scream sometimes . They are always
skinny things! Anyway my scales in my room are a reminder and whoever thought that yogurt with a spoonful of
ice cream would kid them that it’s a big
Ice cream dessert!
Down we go ! Or stay the same !

Hi researchers! I love this space and I want to say “thank you” to whoever it was who recommended watching/ listening to Dr. Bikman’s podcasts — I have found them INCREDIBLY helpful — as good as Gary Taubes book “Why We Get Fat” and a fantastic understanding of mitochondria, ketones and insulin.
I highly recommend them — excellent for long drives because you won’t want to stop listening.

Hi Nixi — I am glad that Allie sent you over to this thread, and it is good to hear my post was helpful. It’s not an easy thing to write about.
I am now almost exactly two years into maintenance (I lost about four stone in 2016) so I have some long term perspectives on the BSD and the changes it has wrought in my life.
I’m still following the principles of the BSD, still very low carb except for an odd pizza once a month or so, and still limiting wine.
The sleep thing will get better and better as you move away from alcohol and just keep looking for alternatives — Badoit water is perfect — I am a serious drinker of Gerolsteiner sparkling water (also not too bubbly). It might take a few months to develop a new sleep architecture, but don’t worry, it will come.
I still do whatever I need to do to come up with alternatives to the easy-wine-route and I know that I will probably always have to do that in a conscious way because I was so programmed to that way of thinking.
The really good news is that wine is going to “fade” as you move forward — it is going to be less and less of a siren call and over time, it isn’t even going to taste as good or make you feel good — at two years I have reached the point where it actually tastes “too high alcohol” (especially those big red wines like Shiraz).
I’m a very private person too — so respect your limits and post as much or as little as you wish and feel comfortable with. I find it is sometimes too “noisy” and I just read one or two threads to keep up on everyone — I try to post when I feel like it can be useful.
It is helpful, as you battle wine, to keep your anxiety levels as low as possible — sometimes it is anxiety-provoking for me to be too involved with the forums — so be aware that can be an issue too.
Best wishes Nixi. You sound aware and strong — I think you’re already half way there.

Hi Toddy-67, there are no rules unless you count the usual ettiquete of not being rude, insulting, trolling etc and no advertising. We are an easy going bunch and rarely have disagreements. In 2 years I have only known 2 people be offensive and 2 people take offence – although I didn’t think any was meant.
Your question about portion sizes is one that can be helped if you are following recipes and it depends if you are doing the Fast800 so looking for v.l. calories. For example, I would use around 80g of mince for my own portion and would pad it out with things like the mushrooms, canned tomatoes and chuck in a red pepper. Also about 100g of courgette per person. As a rule of thumb I allow 80 to 100g of meat or chicken. I know the recipes can be unhelpful only talking in vague terms, like a medium chicken breast, a matchbox size of cheese and so on but you will get the hang of it. As for the 20g of carbs, I am afraid I cannot do it as it takes my calories down too low. I stick around 50g but never eat anything starchy like the usual culprits – rice or pasta (not even white or wholemeal), no bread, potatoes, cereal, anything made with flour and so on.
Good luck and keep the questions coming if you need to – there is always someone here to help – we are all on the same journey.

Other people make dieting very difficult!