Starting the Newcastle Diet...

[MrsWooster]

Started yesterday after breakfast at 105.2kg. I've got a hba1c test today to track it.
So far so Good! Im using exante products as meal replacement and the almond vanilla shake was ok- quite marzipan y. The veg stir fry mixed with the laksa soup mix would have been OK if I'd added a LOT more garlic, chili and ginger. This morning's cherry berry shake was properly nasty- like thick old skool cough mixture. Live and learn.
Any hot tips, companions, advice are welcome.
Wish me luck.

Yes, penny the Newcastle research was what kicked off the whole thing really. I decided to put this in the Diabetes forum because I am trying to frame this, for the kids and for me, as a medical intervention to reverse the diabetes. Annoyingly, I still haven't found my blood testing kit so the only tangible monitor / measure is weight. According to the research, however, the initial week before I started cocking about should restore blood sugar levels pretty well. The rest of the time and weight loss is about resolving the fat around the pancreas and, hopefully, restoring the function of appropriate insulin production. The science beyond that is far above my paygrade; I don't know if I don't / didn't produce enough insulin or whether my cells are resistant to it and, if so, will this still help? I will just have to ait and see. My plan is to go onto the MM blood sugar diet with real food to maintain the weight and glucose levels after this is over, probably using the 5:2 pattern but it won't be this vlcd, meal replacement crash diet - though the disappointing weights recently scarcely justify the title.
Today: Vanilla shake cereal with seeds - the better to clear out that meat residue... and green salad for lunch. Definitely hungry now so will have a shake for 'tea'.

DH did the diet - after 8 weeks he reversed diabetes - so it works! He was a bit hungry at the end - but still on the diet and we both love the food (particularly chia seeds - who knew!!) - good luck - it is worth it!

Well, it sounds like you're going well. Keep going

Hurray! Thanks, both of you. I can't sleep because my stomach is rumbling so something MUST be happening...

101.4kg. Mystified; meal replacement shake breakfast, green salad lunch, meal replacement shake for tea. Shakes are 200 calories each, salad must be bugger all apart from a dessertspoon of balsamic vinegar and oil dressing and dried tom's, roasted peppers etc. If that added up to 200 I'd be surprised...
I suppose, thinking about it, that that's a 1000 calorie deficit on the day so the super dramatic weight losses of the first days aren't going to happen and, perhaps, 4 kilo per week is a leeeetle unlikely. I hate logic.

Just lost a long post. Annoying.
99kg on the nose. Ignore all the sensible stuff above; this Is the Real Thing!! I am starting a new religion dedicated to linseeds.
Allowing for the euphoria, it's actually quite reassuring that I can overindulge and still pull things back into line relatively easily. It bodes well for afterwards, when I am maintaining a healthy bmi. In a lifetime of being overweight, it's always seemed like all or nothing: binge v ryvita and cottage cheese. It is very reassuring to think I can have a normal healthy Mediterranean type diet, using 5:2 to keep the weight off if necessary, and still be always be to indulge and pull back afterwards to compensate.
I really am trying to remember that this is about blood sugar not just weight not really, I'm going to be THIN!!. I wonder if the newly restored insulin function will be able to cope with the odd knickerblocker glory and secrete the glucose away as it is supposed to in a 'normal' person or whether it will always be compromised - once a diabetic, always a bit diabetic? More book learnin' to be done.

also, my body shape is changing - duh uh. Not as I'd expect though. When I've lost weight inthe past it has gone from the edges in: thin arms, legs, face, rotund body. Much like the baby in the Roald Dahl story 'Royal Jelly' that turns into a bee. This time it has definitely gone from the middle as well; I can feel the nobble on the bottom of my sternum (who knew there was one?) and the upper belly is now concavely shelfy whereas before my boobs sat firmly on it. I sound lush.

98.8kg I made the deeply pleasing discovery that McDonald's grilled chicken salad, Inc balsamic dressing, is under 200 calories, meaning that I didn't have to sit there like a victorian orphan with its nose pressed against a toyshop window while the dc enjoyed their treat. It has got chicken in, obviously, but I justified it via the low carb mantra... Breakfasted royally on a vanilla coffee shake which is genuinely quite nice - like a carton type iced coffee. A large portion of yesterday's veg soup gave me violent stomach ache. Either it was gently filling with botulism in the fridge or my stomach is shrinking a bit.

I looked up healthy bmi at 5'11 and it is just over 80kg. That would mean a 25 kg loss... 5.5 so far in 18 days. Hmm. If I hadn't lapsed from the path of righteousness last weekend, I might have reached 7 or 8kg - a third of the weight in a third of the time but it is bound to slow a bit. Well, it is what it is.

Still got stomach ache, even after the royal breakfast. Will try and be very conservative today.

Shake breakfast, with some chopped nuts and seeds; botulism soup for lunch and a shake for tea. Still gripy stomach... can't see why it would start now. After the dreadful excesses of last weekend, possibly, but I've been very dull for the last couple of days. Mint tea is making things gurgle a bit. I suppose I've been lucky and skipped all the predicted side effects up until now...

98.5kg or that's my best guess; scales said 98, which seemed low, then 98.8 which seemed high then 98.6.... so I took a goldilocksesque view of the whole thing. Stomach ache is still around although it's easier. Shake-with-nuts-and-seeds-as-cereal this morning, tomato and basil soup for lunch. Not, I hasten to add, the unspeakable exante version, but a very naice waitrose version- a snip at 130 calories. Am currently having a spoonful of Tilda savoury rice stolen from the dc's very mouths. It's not as nice as I expected - which is more often true than I expect, which gives me hope that I will eventually be able to eat a healthy diet AND choose treats wisely: the antithesis of binge eating. Will have a shake for tea.
Back to work tomorrow, after a complex 8 weeks off. Let's hope I don't lose the run of myself and eat my uncertain bodyweight in snickers.

98.6kg. Despite a big poo... Meh.

I am achieving a level of zen calm until I freak out again about something so will just carry on. SHake cereal for breakfast, will have a shake and a carrot for lunch and perhaps stirfry for tea. Stomach is still a bit gripy so probably ought to send down some more fibre and bulk to clear things out. I usually drink a lot more when I am at work so that should help too.

98.2kg.
Water is the key. This shouldn't be quite such a surprise, since all the writing about the diet stresses drinking at least 3 litres per day... Stomach ache has gone, more or less, and Things are moving more. Shakey breakfast cereal, without the nuts but with the seeds, will have left over stirfry for dinner and shake for tea so I can go to bed early; work and a vlcd are a challenging combo.
I have been creeping up a touch: chopped nuts in cereal shake, the odd two or three peanuts for a snack. It is astonishingly easy but I looked up calories in nuts and 200 calories is... EIGHT WALNUTS! 8 bloody nuts! 28 peanuts, same-ish in almonds. This process is not nearly as bad as I was expecting but if I fuck it up with such silly, small and relatively unrewarding diversions, it will be a crime.

97.8kg
my gods, I'm tired. Other than that, I am feeling fine! Upping the water has resolved all lingering problems. I was going to say apart from the craving for chocolate but that is actually just a knee jerk reaction; I am hungry, off and on, but I keep having to remind my self that is normal. Years of disordered eating mean I have no real experience of hunger and appropriate response to it. There was, as there often is, a cake in the office yesterday and, of course, I thought I ought to eat lots some but when I looked, I remembered that it is just cake - nice but not luscious. Just a normal, cheap chocolate cake. The game's not worth the candle. If and when I genuinely crave something luscious, I will have a square of G&B and melt it on my tongue. That IS worth it. I have promised myself that I will join Hotel Chocolat or similar and, every 8 weeks, a box of about 30 top end chocs full of booze will materialise and I can enjoy them over the weeks with the respect their extortionate price demands.

97.6kg
Yesterday had shake for breakfast and lunch, with two carrots then stir fry for tea. Late afternoon I got a cramps stomach ache again, despite lots of water. I wonder if the sheer smallness of the shakes is part of THAT? Maybe a bulkier meal in the middle of the day keeps things moving and full a bit more? Experiment time.

A supermarket doughnut, with jam and icing sugar. I was so sure it would be classified as luscious... too doughy, too sweet. Lovely but didn't hit the mark. Bad doughnut or changing taste??

99.7kg
Stasis. I wonder if the body just does these plateaux or if it could be because I wasnt mobile yesterday? On a course so only did 1900 steps. Almost certainly nothing to do with the doughnut or the two small pieces of the kids' inside-out pizza, oh no...

Argh. Not 99!
97.7kg
My guilt is projecting.

Hello MrsW - well done. Dream of 100% hotel chocolate - no sugar!! Also the James Wong 'how to eat better' is good - pictures wonderful - recipes amazing!

Hi Eve my chocolat days will come! I hope that general low carb healthy mediterranean type eating will maintain the loss when I finish. It might have to go on a bit longer than I planned at the current loss rate; Prof Taylor seems to indicate that 15kg is the sort of loss that makes the reversal of diabetes likely and I am aiming for more like 25. Today is 97.4kg so "only" about 8kg so far. I need to keep optimistic as it is starting to drag a bit. It is four weeks on Wednesday, I think, since I started so 1.4kg in the last week. Actually, it doesn't seem so bad when I write it like that!

Yesterday was shake your cereal, salad with sundried toms nadir roasted peppers for dinner and veg soup for tea. A mini tesco millionaires shortbread broke my spirit mid afternoon and then I couldn't hold off the kids' sandwich crusts... it is a poor do when I am picking crusts; I need to arrange a distraction for myself when it is the traditional leftover-scavenge part of the day - maybe cup of tea, some olives... the crusts gave me stomach ache anyway so something needs to be done.

Hunger is clearly affecting my proof reading skills.

DH was very hungry by the end - but he did get over the tiredness. We have stuck to a low carb healthy Mediterranean diet since DH finished his 8 weeks (800 calories a day - which think is for men!) and I have to say we do love it (started with the MM 8 week blood sugar recipe book - not a bad book for ideas - and have adapted quite a few as we get more adventurous! DH is going for the results of his blood test this week to (hopefully) confirm T2 diabetes has not returned! DH does crave bread and cake - but I have found a recipe for healthy no wheat or yeast 'bread' and a banana 'cake' with no sugar (apart from the bananas and a dollop of molasses that is)!! - so far so good - but lets see what the results come back with!! Keep going it is worth it.

Thanks - I hope your DH's results are good. How long since he finished the diet..?

97.3kg
Meh. Shakey cereal, green salad etc, McDonald's chicken salad, then cocoa. I worked out that 100ml of milk could be watered down and made into cocoa, which is v low carb. Good plan as I / am suffering wth the Colds. Except I had 2, so probably another 200 cals. Oh well

We'll know on Thursday! He started January 1st and was very very strict for the whole 8 weeks - except for the odd day when he didn't care if he went over 800 cals!! Followed the Mosley recipes mostly (but read up on the Newcastle diet research as well before starting). Pretty much completely sticking to the Mediterranean diet all the time now (without calorie restriction since). He only has an occasional fast day - but not 5:2. No refined sugar of any kind and only limited fruit sugar - though very occasional glass of (red) wine! All fresh ingredients - v. low carbs and nothing processed etc. A lot of prep but am used to it now and it gets easier!! starting to do a lot more exercise as well - but its now just routine - so it will be a big knock if the diabetes has returned - I'll let you know!