How do you stick to BSD?

[pitpot]

I've watched the threads and have been amazed and inspired by all the success stories. You are all incredible!
So I do the classic Monday thing - wake up eager - ready and excited to start. It all goes well to start with - the right foods, a bit of exercise. I feel good, hungry, but in a good, positive way. Then I get to Wednesday or Thursday if I'm lucky and I may be a pound or two down and I feel pretty pleased with myself. And then something happens.... I have a massive bag of popcorn or two glasses of wine or one of the kids Easter eggs. And then that's it - week over. The weekend descends into a vat of wine and bread and kettle chips. I feel like crap and then Sunday comes around again, I'm back to square one - I read the threads, flick through the book again, get inspired and start again on Monday. Again and again. I've been doing this for months, I'm not kidding. Since January!
This time last year I did about 5 weeks of BSD (not super strict) but enough to loose a stone and a half and for the first time in 20 years I was in the mid 9sts and felt amazing. It's all crept on again and I've been trying to stick to it for 5 months but I just can't crack it. I keep messages by it up for myself. Why? I need to get through ore than 3 days. So I guess the advice I need is how do you stick to it? How you say no to the crisps? How do you ignore the hunger or boredom? What do you do in restaurants or at the pub or the party? Or a weekend away? Please help last more than 72 hours. Please!

I've just accepted that I don't have the will power to do full-time dieting and that's why I love 5:2. I fast Tuesdays and Thursdays, eat sensibly on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (till the evening) and then more or less do what I want from Friday evening. I find this satisfying and easy to maintain long term. I'd lose more weight if I dieted at the weekend but I'd never stick to it, and this way I do continue to lose weight in a really sustainable and largely enjoyable way, with very little guilt.

I'm currently 6 weeks in to the BSD and have been pretty strict. I think the strictness helps - week 1 was hell but after that it's been fairly easy and I'm shocked by how I don't really feel that hungry. When previously I'd be scrounging cake by 10:30am.

So for me the answer is being strict. If you are strict, you are keeping your insulin levels low, the cravings aren't there, everything is happy. If you aren't strict, effectively you are doing week 1 over and over again and that is fucking miserable as your insulin levels beg you to eat a packet of crisps.

Reading Fat Chance by Robert Lustig explains the science why your insulin and leptin keep dragging you back down. It isn't your fault (which is why I loved the book - he is really clear, it has nothing to do with your lack of will power) it's the way your body is designed when you are insulin resistant.

So basically you need to break out of week 1 or just decide to do 5:2. 5:2 really didn't work for me at all, I binged like crazy on the other days. I love that with BSD I have completely reset my whole hormonal system.

At restaurants I have starter as a main, steak or fish with veg and leave the potatoes, no bread, cheese as dessert or no dessert. Feel happy leaving half on the plate if the portion was too big. Working out so far.

You wrote And then something happens. Do you mean life event? Emotional eating? Can you identify the trigger?

I did strict BSD for 12 weeks. I managed it by telling myself it was a medical treatment, that it wouldn't be easy but would fix a health problem (ie being overweight). I also bought myself lots of little treats in the first couple of weeks as non-food treats. Like Hulder says, though, it was much easier than I'd thought - if you cut right back on carbs, you genuinely don't feel hungry.

Thank you all. I think firstly, that the strictness suits me - I need the absolute black and white approach. The clarity, harshness and rigidity are perfect. Boundaries and rules are my success and are certainly why this worked last year. Any leeway and I'm buggered.
Last year when it was going well I almost wore it as a badge of honour - saying no to the bread and scraping my kids crap oven chips into the bin instead of my mouth for the first time in years felt brilliant. I relished the whole thing, I became sort of superior because finally I'd won. I was actually in control, and of course I wasn't fat for the first time in a decade. So that's a good point to remind myself of - once I got into it, the strict approach was clearly for me.
Which brings me to second bit of your advice - Hildy - getting beyond the first week. I can do 3 days but then it collapses. So if I could get beyond that end of the week/weekend bit then, as you say, the hormones would level and my insulin would no longer be there forcing crisps into me. I'm half way through the Lustig book and I've read lots of Dr Briffa ones. I listen to Jason Fung podcasts and the Low carb ones so I'm well read and well listened! That all helps. But I think you've nailed it.... it's doing the first week, then you're rolling. But why I can't get past 3 days... I don't know the answer to that to be honest. Probably just because it's near the weekend and I mini celebrate the fact that I don't have to go to work etc. I don't know, that sounds a bit simplistic! I don't know...? I hope it's not because of anything more complex. Hormones and insulin I reckon.
But thanks so much, those two tips may well be what I needed to look at. Cheers!

It might be easier to get into ketosis through low carb eating without calorie restriction first. Give that a week or so, then when you've adapted, switch over to BSD if that suits you.

Yup rabbit, that's true. Getting the carbs out before I get calorie counting may get over the first week shock.
This weekend I have nothing planned so maybe starting on a Friday (like right now!) instead of a Monday would get me through to next weekend and beyond the mid week wine and crisp craving moments. Insulin will be well on its way to being to being in control. Who knows?
Anyway, today I begin again...

I'm at the end of week 2 of BSD and also struggling with cravings. Interestingly I'm not craving biscuits and pizza (both of which I was eating way too much of before) but dreaming of wholefoods like porridge, rye bread, fruit and quinoa and veg salads. I'm partly finding this so hard because the allowed foods feel so heavy - the thought of another egg makes me feel a bit sick... Thinking of switching back to 5:2 and sticking to a diet with lots of veg and complex carbs and healthy fats with meat or fish just a couple of times a week at most (the type of recipes from the Honestly Healthy and Deliciously Ella books).