Hi All! This article on the dangers of belly fat is trending today, from the New York Times. I hope
that you will be able to access it 🙂

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/well/live/belly-fat-health-visceral-fat-waist-cancer.html

Hi everyone, hissy fit over and back on the strict plan after a couple of nights on the wine. I am known to have predictive dreams but I put them down to just reflecting what is going on in life. So, I dream someone has died but in real life they have been seriously ill so not a surprise that they died – a bit extreme example but you get what I mean, I dont believe I am psychic. Two nights ago I was dreaming that my daughter was crying that the bailiffs were coming as she had a County Court Judgement for £4500. I wanted to help her and, as I can jump in and out of dreams, tried to go back to sleep and continue to sort out the problem. Then hubby said, are you ever getting up so I told him about the dream. Last night I was on messenger and asked daughter if she wanted to chat, she said no she was busy but to let me know she has a CCJ against her name. This was a total surprise so my dream was not about something I would ever expect to happen. Turns out she got a parking ticket a year ago which she never received as they sent it to her old address. With court costs etc it has risen to £450. Dont know why I am tell you that but how spooky. My daughter has always said I was a witch in a previous life.

Dont know if you are interested V but there is a course starting with FutureLearn on 2nd July called Food as Medicine. Thought I might dip in a see what it is about.

Back to the diet. Obviously no loss over the last 2 days but no damage done. BG has dropped to 4.3 so time to reduce insulin again. Have a good day everyone.

One thing that I don’t get.

My wife and I considered these shakes at one stage.
Yes we had already had success on the 800 but I admit we were looking for an easy fix! 🙂

They have flavours like Cookies and Cream, Cherry Bakewell, Vanilla and Banana.

At a time when you need to be retraining yourself and your eating habits they sure do reinforce the idea that sweeties are best!!

Welcome BonChance,
It may help you to know that I started on this Way of Eating (WoE) mid October. I have lost 6stone so far by doing repeated rounds of keeping carbs very low, and aiming for 800 calories a day. – Unfortunately there is a lot of mis-information about diet and weight out there. People are made to feel guilty about over eating and becoming fat. However, the advice that we get fat just due to eating too many calories simply is not true.
I would recommend watching the podcasts by Jason Fung, which will explain that when we eat carbs our insulin levels rise which means that, even if we eat less calories than we burn, our body can not access our fat stores to make up the difference. But by keeping carbs low, you will keep your insulin low, which then enables your body to burn fat to make up the difference between calories eaten and calories burnt.
It isn’t easy initially breaking free from our “carb monster”, our bodies and our gut bacteria are used to an unhealthy diet, but after a while the cravings for carbs will ease/end. Those of us who have a lot of weight to loose have an advantage in that multiple rounds of the weeks of being low carb help us loose the desire for carbs once we move over to maintenance.
There are the pieces of advice I would give you.
The first is don’t just focus on the bathroom scales, but celebrate what is referred to on the forums as None Scale Victories. (NSV), sometimes the scales don’t change but measurements do. So take measurements, not just of your waist and hips, but legs, arms, and maybe take photos too so that you can see the progress you have made.
Break your journey into small steps, rather than just think about loosing 6 stone, break it into smaller steps that you can celebrate achieving, and maybe come up with some rewards for yourself for reaching a bigger step.
Finally one idea I have found helpful is working out a WHY for the weight loss. Talking in terms of wanting to loose 6 stone is quite abstract, but you think about the reason WHY you want to lose the weight, which could be that you have an activity that you really enjoy but weight prevents you from doing it, or a special event you want to look good for, – maybe you want to loose the weight so you can socialise locally again? Everyone’s WHY is personal to them but it is far more powerful motivator than the number on the bathroom scales.

I watched the programme last night – I usually record and watch when hubby has gone to bed. My hubby was sat at the back of the room and all he could hear was ‘well that’s a load of sh=t’ and ‘oh for gods sake what rubbish’. Never mind, we are getting there.

Hi Bon Chance, I hope you are getting the support you need here on this site and have had your questions answered. I do the 8 weeks then have some time off, not because I cant do it any more but it usually clashes with holidays, Xmas etc. The secret to keeping your weight down during the gaps is to never ever have starchy carbs. Bye bye to that homemade bread and the brown rice or buckwheat and pearl barley -they are all high in carbs. You might also have to forget about the glass of wine for the first 8 weeks at least (that’s the hardest for me too).

Shout out if you need more help, there is always someone here who will listen.

MarianneA, Sunny and Nonna Mary thanks SO MUCH for all the great advise. So glad you gals saw the post amid the flood of new folks posting. Sunny, had not considered the milk going bad before the grains took….duh. I have no probablem dumping the lot and giving my new babies a fresh but smaller batch. I thought I was giving them ample food and never considered the milk would simply turn faster than they could take hold.

Agian, thanks so much for the great advise. Such a wealth of knowledge on this forum.

And Allie…no have not had Bulgarian yogurt. How is that different from the Greek? If you recommend it, I will definately seek it out.

Love to you all. LTC

And a research document “Fat: the new health paradigm” published by Credit Suisse. When an investment bank says this is the way to go you can believe it!

Hi and welcome Bon Chance
First thing you need to know is that it is NOT your fault you are fat – none of us are to blame.
Take some time to watch Robert Lustig on YouTube “The Hacking of the American Mind” and “Killing for Profit” at the European Parliament.
Take those on board, you’ll be shocked and angry and feel a lot better about yourself and, if you’re like me, feel ready to make a change knowing that it will work.
Be kind to yourself
Maggie

BonChance

Welcome to you. I was very touched reading your post, You are about to embark on a life changing journey. This way of eating will change how you look and feel about yourself and actually it isn’t difficult once you start. I went to slimming world and Weightwatchers for years and never lost more than a few pounds. I started BSD in January 2017 and lost 42 lb. There are many lovely people on here who have lost a lot more, kept it off and are very supportive with their advice. The main principles are to stay low carb so no bread, pasta, rice potatoes, cakes, biscuits etc. once you get used to eating full fat yoghurt, eggs cheese, cream in your coffee you won’t believe how the weight comes off, forget everything you thought you knew about dieting and follow the principles of this way of eating and you will see the weight disappear. I am a strict vegetarian and managed to lose my weight. I was a slow loser so it took me longer than some fellow BSDers , I did 8 weeks then 8 weeks more, then 8 weeks more etc. I broke the journey into segments. I lost 17.5 lb in my first 8 weeks and I couldn’t believe it. I wrote down in a journal what I ate and weighed myself each week and watched the chart go down. This is the start of your BSD journey. Take it slowly and don’t compare your weight losses to others, once you get to goal it doesn’t matter how long it took. This way of eating really does work. There is a wealth of information on here so have a good look on the site.

Thank you for being so honest and sharing your rather sad and touching story with us all and here’s to the start of your new life! You won’t believe how much confidence you will have and how good you will feel in a few weeks time. I can’t wait for that nasty man at the supermarket to see the new you.

Cathy

Hi BonChance

That feels like something you have wanted to get of your chest for a long time, well done you.
This will work if you really want to do it for you, not your mum, or you dads attitutes before he died, or the old crowd , but wonderful you.

I’m just starting out this week and have bought two books one is about the diet and has. 4 week meal plan and recipes and I also bought another recipe book which has an 8 week plan in it. I’m just going to follow those so I don’t need to tot up the calories on my own. If there is anything I hate (tomatoes 🤮🤮🤮🤮) I just change the recipie slightly. It’s easy to follow and I’m feeling a little hungry but I’m not craving my usual crisps.

😊

Hi Maggiebath, I know what you mean about BMI being a blunt tool, but as I know I’m not a rugby playing athlete… I guess it’s all fat! My scales tell me a fat% and that tells me I’m not in the best place to be. Knowledge is power though. Good luck with your journey.

Thank you Blackspot for answering so comprehensively. I guess one answer might be to train diabetic nurses to manage patients more closely to handle the diet.
Vulcan you’re sounding a lot more positive 🙂
My new all singing, all dancing scales have arrived which sync with my Fitbit and tell me amazing things, though not my visceral fat; as I’m a typical apple I have to assume there’s a lot of it😐
I’m discovering what a blunt instrument BMI is; mine is 23.2 but my body fat is 34.1% so I’ve calculated that I’ve got 14 lbs to lose which will take me down to 20.6, well down the healthy range. Obviously I don’t accept them as gospel but I am inclined to believe them. I also know that in the dim and distant past it wasn’t until I was 5lbs less than that that an actual waist appeared.
Anyway it’s interesting bringing a new and relevant metric in.
Happy zooming all
Maggie

I’m with you on that Vulcan463 maximum gain for the minimum time of self denial! Have a great weekend!
I’m cooking a lot of pulled pork for my mums birthday do on Saturday so might also be enjoying the day…

Well here I am, in a place I thought I would never be. 19 stone and no idea why. Fat, ugly, overwhelmed, full of self loathing, no self esteem and lost. I have an old life where I weighed around 13 stone and a current life where I weigh 19stone. I am nearly 6ft tall. I do my best to make sure I don’t bump into people from my old life to such an extent that I don’t go out locally if I can help it. I bumped into an old friend coming out of the supermarket the other day and stood there as he scanned me slowly up and down. The look of disgust on his face when his eyes finally met mine is a memory that will never leave me, he literally couldnt complete his sentence.
I have good friends, people who do not judge and who value me but the horror of bumping into the old crowd is turning me into a recluse.
I’ve got lots of unhelpful thought patterns about being overweight – my father heaped scorn on my mum pretty much all the time, her being overweight added justification to his scorn in his mind. To him how can anyone with any self respect or self control let them self get so fat.
She had the last laugh though because he died (was diabetic)of a massive heart attack at 60! Mum is doing well though has always battled with weight. He was not a nice man. No love lost.
I guess my parents are good examples of the fat on the inside and fat on the outside principle. In a way I guess the fat on the outside ones are the lucky ones. I have inherited my mums ‘fat on the outside’ but all of my fathers thought processes about being fat which results in a fairly big dose of self loathing.

The other big elephant in the room (aside from me haha) is my marriage. Three years after getting married he had an affair for over a year. So stupid of me not to have noticed. I was in the midst of post pregnancy recovery and young children and nightmarish sleep deprivation that went on for five years due to various reasons with our eldest.
I have worked really hard on myself to stay in the marriage and remove feelings of hatred, suspicion, rage, etc. I felt it so unfair that I did nothing wrong yet was kept lying awake at night for years while he slept peacefully with no qualms whatsoever. I have replaced hate and rage with an appreciation of his better qualities and feel empowered to say out loud when I think he is wrong. It’s not a loving marriage, we work well as a team. He is having other affairs. I am trying to live my life as I would wish to – regardless of my marriage.

I have had super success with Atkins in the past but not so much in recent years. I can’t stomach all that meat.
Recently I was ill and didn’t eat for a week, all I could cope with was an apple a day, sometimes not even that. I lost a stone in a week but that went back on within a month.
I have to loose 6 stone that’s 84lb is it even possible?
I don’t understand how the whole 8 week thing works. Do you just carry on till you get to your weight target?? Clearly it’s going to take more than 8 weeks 🙂
How important is the restricting calorie and counting calorie? I honestly can’t imagine myself being any good / motivated to do that.
I cut out coffee last year ( I was only ever a one cup a day girl) because I only liked it with full cream. The cream / milk make me feel unwell so I generally avoid them. I bloat up massively on bread and get hiccups / burning /choking sensation though sometimes I don’t. This leads me to think it’s all in my mind and once or twice a week I’ll have a few slices of homemade bread as toast or a sandwich. I am rapidly going off the taste of potatoes and try and cook with rice (brown) or buckwheat or pearl barley. I do crave sugar and probably have something sweet after evening meal with the family. I don’t buy biscuits or sweet treats as part of my regular shop but still manage to find a cake or similar for dinner. If there was a packet of biscuits in the cupboard I would eat them all. I crave something sweet after a meal. I don’t drink fizzy pop but do have a glass or red wine most nights.
I have no idea why I have told all this story – I realised a year or so ago that I was using past events as a “poor me” excuse for being fat.
I’ve never told anyone this little story of my mundane troubles. Sorry that be a bore and I realise how lucky I am and that others have much worse experiences.
Thank you.

Yeah, I too was unimpressed with last night’s effort.
The participants are being locked away in that house so it would be so easy to serve them 800cals worth of nice healthy food.

At first I thought they were going the shake route to target the portion of the population who don’t really cook.
For them the BSD might be a bit overwhelming. However as already mentioned they didn’t really sell the shakes did they? Especially the presenter almost retching when she tried one. That put paid to any thoughts I had that any serious thought had been put into how best to get the message out.

I felt so sorry for the people in the house. We were eating Lamb Steak with Feta, mint sauce, steamed broadbeans and grilled peppers at the time. I wanted to break into the house and cook for them!!

I do find it hilarious that this and The Truth about Carbs are both presented by people from Michael Mosley’s Trust Me I’m a Doctor and they both act like low carb is the new discovery of the age!

That’s great news Marie, a real breakthrough. Should be the end of negativity in the surgery, though doubtless it will take time and pressure from patients for it to disseminate.
I’m afraid I was mega unimpressed by last night’s ITV programme; there was only one positive moment, when they were given their results.
It milked the participants humiliations; dipping into the plunge tank, topless men, you’ve got the fattiest liver; fat bloke eating a triple mac and fries. It was really exploitative – go on, cry, you’re so fat you’re going to die.
Anyone’s takeaway would be that it’s their fault for being out of control and eating uncontrollably. Why weren’t they told it wasn’t their fault they were fat, surely that’s the most important message they need to hear?
Instead they were punished by being locked away in a joyless building, far from home and made to eat disgusting food.
ITV should be ashamed of themselves. It was of no help to anyone wanting to turn their lives around because no one should limit themselves to 800 calories without medical supervision. What cr*p.
Rant over 🤯
Maggie

Ooh, all that and you’re still a Happy Kangaroo!
Best wishes that it all continues to go well for you. But what a wonderful achievement losing so much weight and compressing the medics. That must have been wonderful to see their cynicism to acceptance. In the UK 51% of NHS staff are overweight- if it’s the same in Oz I’ll bet there’s some going home and downloading the BSD book!
Take good care of yourself x
Maggie

Welcome to the community VINAYRALETTA
This community discusses the Blood Sugar Diet. We don’t comment on other diets.
You’re welcome to discuss how to work with the BSD as a veggie, there are very experienced members who can give you some excellent guidance.
Maggie

Hi LTC, SunnyB, Alliecat, MarianneA, and everyone else. I can’t add anything to the above. It is all good advice.

I have been on holiday and just left my grains in a load of milk. Then took some out to make some new this week. It only took 24 hours in my kitchen as it is quite warm here.

One thing though…I do use tap water to wash my stuff…even the grains…mainly because I forget. They don’t seem to have suffered at all. And I just use Kilner (Glass) jars anyway as they are easier.

Hope it helps.

Nonna Mary
xxx

Verano – I do hope so

On a more positive note, I’ve just been reading on diabetes.co.uk that approval has been given for GP’s to prescribe the diabetes.co.uk 10 week online low carb programme to people with Type II Diabetes, which is really good news. Here’s the link to the news item.
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/news/2018/jun/low-carb-program-achieves-qismet-approval-to-be-recommended-by-the-nhs-94355134.html

I did the Low Carb programme last year when it was free, but I think they’ve since introduced a charge – not sure how much. It’s a week by week self-education programme focused on low carb (can’t remember how low). David Unwin, the Southport GP who has been successfully running a low carb programme for his Type II patients (and reducing the Practice’s drugs budget!) was involved in developing the programme.

To be honest, I’d already found the BSD, this forum and the diabetes.co.uk forums which were much more powerful tools for me personally – maybe that meant I didn’t engage as much with the Low Carb programme? – but anything that becomes part of the NHS system is a great step forward and good news for everyone!!

Thanks for the words of encouragement blackspot. Yup what you said is what I figured. I’m fortunate insofar as at the moment (!) I only have to loose weight for me and not for any specific medical reason. Seeing the boys and having a fun time with them is far more important than a rigid inflexible routine.

Determined to get the weight down though and the only reason I’ve tried to go hardcore is that it fits the way my brain processes goals best – ie short term maximum gain.

Anyway an hours swim is on the menu today!

That’s a good checklist to remember…rather than acting on that initial impulse, to stop and take a minute to ask those questions…I’m going to try and add that to my thought process.
Going to try and have a short walk this morning…it’s started raining…typical UK

Good morning Zoomers!

I’m just here to say hi and hope everyone is having a good day, really. I’m doing a stint of 5:2 currently but trying to stay low carb all the time – it really does get easier with time. I ask myself whether it’s really worth it before I allow myself a small slide and am amazed to find that I’m starting to say “no” more often. Is it worth potentially spiking my sugars? Is it worth derailing my weightloss efforts? Is it worth risking my newly achieved much lower blood pressure? Those are the questions I try to ask myself rather than just agreeing that “I want it”. Seeing that written down in black and white is making me wonder why on earth I ever say yes!

Right, I’m limping off to try and get some steps, as my fasting blood sugars were higher than I’d like – I’ve had a bad back since Sunday and as a result my steps have plummeted 🙁

Keep on keeping on, everyone!
Caro
x

Hi Happykangaroo, sorry to hear about your injuries, I am glad to hear of your success on weight loss.

Marie I’m just hoping that at the end of tonight’s program they will say something on the lines of …… of course we used the liquid diet because it was easier to standardise the results BUT in fact it’s far better and more sustainable to eat 800 calories of ‘real’ food. Let’s wait and see!

DAY 3 of 7, week 9. Yes we really are in the ninth week of our ‘One Week Challenge ‘s’!
Welcome back Tully and Skinny to be . Glad you had good holidays. Tully I think if you get straight back on track the moment you get home it’s easier to lose any holiday pounds. It usually works for me too. Skinny to be I’m so pleased you have come to terms with the ‘skirt’ and have found new inspiration from it.

Thanks for the link s-g I will take a look at that over the weekend. What a mess you have been in. You would never imagine how much of a problem it would be if your account is hacked. But on the happy side the ‘dishy’ doctor was delighted with you! So now you just have to take your own advice and keep on keeping on…….

Buddhas wife I have been here for almost two years now. My anniversary is July 5th but sunshine-girl has her 2nd anniversary before me. I can’t believe I’ve been eating this way now for so long. It really has become a lifestyle change and definitely one for the better.

I’ve not heard of that oil Butterlover. I used to resort to tablets but since I stopped taking co-codamol I no longer have problems. I’m sure there are some threads on here that will give you advice to help.

So I have started to reign in my holiday way of eating this morning. Just one last lunch date today then back on track. Certainly for me at the moment the buzz words are consciousness, care and consistency with food. Hopefully by this time next week life will be completely back to normal. Have a great day!

So watched the first episode of ITV’s ‘The Fast Fix: Diabetes’ programme last night and I was so disappointed. I know people on here were concerned beforehand but I watched it with an open mind. It was based on the joint Newcastle/Glasgow research study (i.e. Roy Taylor’s Newcastle diet) where people are given 800 cals liquid diet for 8 weeks and I thought any publicity for a way people could put their Type II diabetes in remission would be positive. Now I have my doubts about that.

The programme was gimmicky, kept emphasising how difficult it was to stick to, how awful the ‘product’ was – it even had one of the presenters retching when she tried one of the sachets of food. How on earth is that going to encourage people to try to put their Type II diabetes in remission. No mention of alternative food-based ways of achieving the same results (including but not just BSD).

Like the BBC programme, there were some good results achieved in people’s health markers, which is always good to see, but personally I thought this was irresponsible TV reporting. Any chances tonight’s programme is better, do you think?

Morning all!
Vulcan glad you had a better day yesterday…I was exhausted just reading all the activity you did! Well done you! And sueblue you must have barely sat down yesterday with all that walking! Good job 👍🏻
Thanks dreamscometrue…Ive got fingers crossed that by next week I’ll feel better…I can’t live the rest of my life feeling so tired! But I’m not giving in like I have before… I know I’ve got to stick to this and it will eventually get easier. Thank you everyone for all your encouragement, I can’t tell you what a difference a forum like this makes. To see us all going on our respective journeys together is lovely, I really enjoy reading how everybody is doing.
Let’s keep it up…Day 4 for me!

HappyKangaroo, you are so positive. You have had so much thrown at you! I’m glad you’re sticking through this and 12kg loss is absolutely amazing. Keep going my friend 🙂 You’re an inspiration for me to stick on the wagon, if you can do it while ill, then I can do it while well!

SueBlue – your walk sounds lovely. My daughter and family lived for many years near Manly Dam and then Beacon Hill and I so enjoyed walking around the harbour and the botanical gardens when we visited.

Marie123 – that’s exactly where I was when I hit my target weight and came off the insulin.
Although I stayed in the forum I actually was at serious risk of slipping back. I didn’t want to lose more weight and wasn’t clear in my head exactly what I should be doing.

It wasn’t until JGwen posted about the WHY being so important that I really thought about why I was doing the BSD. Of course it wasn’t about the lovely UK size 8 and 10 clothes and looking in the mirror and seeing that slender person – my WHY was to stay off the insulin and avoid the diabetes complications. That re-energised me and I had a real reason to join in the challenges – and of course the weight I had regained just dropped off effortlessly.

I love reading the posts on this forum – it’s so lovely to read about how you all are overcoming you challenges and your progress to a healthier life.

Hi Vulcan463, brunch with the boys… Full English, but no toast or fried bread. And if you’re cooking in make sue the sausage is above 88% meat and not less than 50%(Richmonds… Bleugh!). It could be an 800 kc day, just on breakfast. Salad and Gin for dinner you would still be under your TDEE…
Keeping your body burning fat for energy, rather than giving it the chance to go back to carbs is beneficial. As ketogenesis, turning fats into useable energy, is where you are now.
Enjoy that fry up!
(Alternative point if view… It’s only 8 weeks this stage of the diet/lifestyle. So if one big breakfast and some Gin is worth more than the chance to drop a load of weight quickly and go on to having a regular Gin on a maintaince low carb lifestyle in a couple of weeks time…. I lost 30lbs in the 8 weeks I did this strictly back in 2016. And afterwards stayed stable for 12 months before creating back up the scales after adding in bread cards and trips to france/spain filled with pate on BREAD and croissants…)
sorry for the long post.
And more power to your arm in taking hold of your own health.

Is a veg diet plan can https://www.merrchant.com/daily/2/diet-plans/ lead to weight gain/loss???

Hi Maggiebath sorry for the delay. I didn’t stop yesterday and work turned into a 13.5 hour shift. So last night I just crashed!
No, I’m not aware of Dr’s getting new CPD on nutrition. But as more evidence comes in bodies like NICE who use Clinicial evidence to promote best practice will change the treatment advice.
Below is a link to the NICE site for clinicians with the advice NHS Dr’s & nurses are told to give us at the minute… It’s still not good. The fear of people dying from Hypos due to anti diabetic medicine is my guess on why carbs are pushed in that framework, as hypos can kill or lead to brain damaging seizures that are life changing. So when weighed against managed decline… They aren’t sharing ‘our’message yet.
https://cks.nice.org.uk/diabetes-type-2#!scenariorecommendation:3

Morning!

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement SueBlue and Dreamscometrue.

Much better yesterday – for a start no headache!! Managed to get my hour of phys in. I’m lucky enough to have a career that expects you to do exercise and so lunchtime sessions are fully encouraged. We had an hour of 4 v 4 basketball, football, deck hockey and netball with a rugby ball. First goal wins the losers carry out 5 exercises each for upper body, abs and lower body. In an old gym with a glass roof it certainly makes you sweat!
Kept to around the 800cals mark, give or take, again avoiding all the nasty white carbs completely.

Off to see what today brings whilst resisting the urge to keep checking to see if I’ve lost anything!

Have a good day peeps

Hi LTC – I personally think the homemade kefir tastes far superior to the commercial stuff you can buy, so I hope you enjoy producing your own.

i think the reason glass containers are advocated, is that there is a line of thought that the acids in the kefir, may leech chemicals from the plastics. I have no idea if this actually happens, but admit I fermented in glass only – even when I was bringing grains with me on the road trip to Turkey.

Grains can take a little while to settle when they have been on transit, but I think this is getting used to a new environment, as much as anything. It may be thar your first couple of fermentations are not very palatable, but don’t be discouraged, just discard, put the grains in fresh milk and begin again, it will come right. I think you might have been a little ambitious with the amount of milk to grains, which could mean the milk turns before the grains finish fermenting. If this happens, wash the grains thoroughly with bottled water and start from scratch using less milk. Again this may mean they need a bit more time to settle into good production. It is better to ferment smaller batches to begin with, until the grains are established and growing.

Yes, to get a fizzier product, cover with a tight lid during fermentation, but as you say, ensure there is some space for the gases. When you have more grains, you can also add a few to your finished product before storing in the fridge and these will continue to ferment but at a slower rate, however it will also increase the fizz element. You can either sift these out later, or just eat/drink them.

It is not necessary to ferment in the dark, as long as the fermentation container isn’t in full sun light. I normally ferment my kefir out in the open in my kitchen in a little nook near the Aga, where it is nice and warm. You can suspend production by putting the grains in a large quantity of milk and putting it in the fridge. They can last for many weeks unattended this way.

I have found the easiest and quickest was of extracting grains from product, is to use a nylon sieve, such as you’d use to sieve flour. Tip the lot straight out, catching the whey if you want to use it, or discarding it if not and then mixing the remaining contents around with a wooden spoon, until all the product has been recovered and the grains remain. Takes all of a few mins and this method is less messy than some.

Hope some of that helps. Best of luck with it and please shout if you have any problems and I try to help if I can.

Morning everyone!

MrsThompson your energy will return – I reckon after about a week on this diet. I remember a head fuzz for the first few days. Plenty of sleep and rest, maybe curl up watch a comfort movie or read a good book or have a long bath: anything to settle your body and mind. You will then find the energy starts to increase and you feel even better than before. Good luck!

Vulcan don’t give up – this diet really is worth persevering, even as you say if you adapt it to your particular needs and circumstances.

My digital scales have now arrived and things are not as bad as I feared. With my old analogue ones I had been down at 136/137lb for quite a while but had crept up to 140lb after a series of special events and too much food and wine. The ones in the gym though showed around 146/147lb so I was horrified. It had taken me so long to get below 9 stone (140lb) and I had been there for a long time so was not happy. Anyway I finally bit the bullet and got proper scales instead of “best guess where the line is settling” ones, and I’m just over 142lb. So my short term aim is to get properly back under 140lb and into the 9’s ASAP and ideally I’d like to be at 136/137lb before my holiday in 4 weeks; so by the end of this challenge. Wish me luck!

A bit like MixnMatch I have begun wandering from the low carb path without too much disaster so far but do now want to move forward again: so it’s time to rein it in a bit. If I can succeed I’d like to ultimately get down to around 130lb but that’s for a future challenge!

Keep zooming everyone X

Oh HappyKangaroo am so sorry to hear about your accident! I thought it was odd we hadn’t heard from you for a while. What a terrible thing to happen and I’m so glad that you’re beginning to make a recovery – and you’re even upbeat enough to type upside down 😉

Your weight loss is phenomenal! 2 stone in 6 weeks is amazing. Very well done! We’ll do the happy dance on your behalf 🙂

Even more amazing is the fact your blood sugars are normal again. I’m sure we’re all looking forward to hearing what your charming doctor has to say about that – particularly now you have the hospital staff on side.

Sending you every good wish for a complete recovery.

And hello to everyone else on this thread and hope you are going well?

30th APRIL – today, confirmed weight loss is 12.6 kilos. 27.72 lbs, just shy of two stone. haha I can now look that doctor in the eye and say I did it. Non fasting blood sugar 5.2. If I could do a happy dance, I would!!! And I walked for the first time last night, things are looking good!!

Oh HappyKangaroo I don’t know what to say apart from I am so so very sorry to hear about your accident. I wish you a speedy recovery.

In other news WOW and WOW 12 kgs that is amazing, and great job with your blood sugar levels – you must feel very happy as so you should.

Sending you a big (and gentle) mental hug xo

Any tips or advise ?

Nam Prik Shrimp

This is a great treatment for shrimp (prawns) and can be added to any greens based salad, or
flopped on cellophane noodles or a substitute. The pivotal ingredient is sambal oelek, an Indonesian
chili paste. I’ve checked on UK sites, and it’s available to you on a number of sites, and might be
available to you in specialty stores in your area as well.

Marinade:
1/2 c distilled white vinegar
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 c olive oil
1 green + 1 red serrano chili, slivered
1/2tsp red chili flakes
1 tbs sambal oelek red chili paste (substitute: sriracha)

Soak bamboo skewers in water for 30 min.
Peel and devein jumbo shrimp.

Combine marinade and mix well. Add shrimp, and marinate 30-35 min. at room temp., or longer
if you dare (I usually do 1 hour 🙂 )

Oil outdoor grill or a ridged grill pan. Thread shrimp onto skewers, and cook over high heat
2-3 min. per side, basting after the first turn. Use any Asian inspired ingredients for a salad, and
let your imagination take flight. Enjoy

Hi LTC! Glad to see some activity here.
I culture my kefir in glass, then store it in plastic. I don’t believe it makes a bit of difference which you use. Just be sure you don’t use antibacterial soap to clean your utensils, containers, or your hands, and if you rinse them, use non-chlorinated (or filtered) water.
I started with about 1 tbsp. of grains to 2 cups of milk at most, and I’ve continued that way. Sometimes just 1 cup of milk. And my kefir is always very tart! So it will take you longer. It’s trial and error at first–just check it and see how it’s come out after two or three or more days, but I’m just guessing as to the time.
Mine turns out slightly bubbly sometimes, but I don’t think that’s a great thing. I cover it with a paper coffee filter secured with an elastic band. Once it’s strained, I store it in the refrigerator.
Have fun, and let us know how it turns out!

LTC, I haven’t undertaken this process…I hope Sunny sees your post, too! Just wanted to say hello!
Have you tried Bulgarian yogurt? Thank god for Whole Foods 🙂

Mariet, what a joyful time for you and your family! Much happiness to all of you. Precious moments
to share 🙂

Today is day 4 of week 1, ohh the headache just had a couple of panadol to help.
Good news though, down 2.1kgs already and this is the motivation that I need to restart me on this journey.
BGL’s all over the place but I think it is my body saying ‘whats happening?’
Love reading all the progress reports, keep them coming 😙

Since this thread has become somewhat dormant, hoping a few kefir makers actually see it.

Have been making my own sauerkraut for a couple years now, but buying my kefir ready made as was not sure I wanted to babysit something so much. So finally took the plunge and bought some grains that arrived today and have transfered them to their first bottle of milk.

After reading instructions in the net, says to only use glass bottles to make the kefir.

Being a lazy gal always looking for the easier way…..wondered why glass? Would it not be possible to simply buy a fresh bottle of milk (in a plastic bottle) and add the kefir grains to that rather than transfering to glass jars?

My big purchase was only 1 teaspoon of grains which now has a full 12 oz of milk to swim in so I imaging it will take 48 or so for the grains to get over their 2 day jouney in the mail and wake up….and start growing in all that milk.

Have put the milk with kefir in a dark cubbard with a cheese cloth over the top secured with a rubber band. Prefer the fizzier kefir, so if I am reading earlier comments correctly, putting a tight fitting lid that traps the carbination will give a fizzier drink? I assume you need to leave adequate head space. Will try that once I am sure the kefir grains have been activated and are thriving.

Recommendations and or comfirnation that I am doing this correctly would be most appreciated (hoping Sunny or Mary sees this post).

Thanks. LTC

Vulcan my husband used to have 2 spoonfuls of sugar in his coffee for years, but now has it without any sugar or sweeteners, I never thought I’d see the day!
Hope everyone is going well so far. I had a very active day yesterday, walking over 26,000 steps. We went to the Vivid light festival in Sydney, it was lovely walking around the harbour and botanic gardens, although my feet are sore this morning!

Hi All.great to see so many joining the group.I had a day off yesterday as I did not sleep well on monday night .I just couldn’t settle. Im blaming it on Mct oil. Ive been having 2 tespoons each morning to solve.” transit” issues.It is effective and its suposed to speed up metabalism to help with weight loss but I think it kept me awake.Has anybody else used mct oil? It’s a medium chain tryglyceride made from coconut oil. Anyway a day of rest and free eating leaves me at 83.1Kg so the slow slide down continues.Have a great day. Cheers to you all

I’m feeling great today so thought I would post some positives.

We have sunny weather after a week of rain.
I’m enjoying a weeks holiday after the stresses of my daughter’s wedding.
My son and daughter in law have announced they are having a baby in January, first grandchild for both families.

Life is very good.