Blood sugar diet thread 10

[thenewaveragebear1983]

New thread for the Blood Sugar dieters

Link to our old thread;

Blood sugar diet thread 9 www.mumsnet.com/Talk/fasting_diet/3143559-blood-sugar-diet-thread-9

Flamin don't stress too much! What meals do you eat now that you can adapt?

You could pick one meal to have a shake and 2 normal meals?

Closing the kitchen tonight at 826 calories and 36 gr carbs. Had chicken with parmesan, lemon, and baby spinach for dinner, and because I'd had a very light lunch, I had enough calories for a lovely, if small, glass of wine. Watermelon for dessert, then had a little room left so some blueberries with ricotta. Yum.

Last two days have been insane at work, so haven't made it to the gym since Wed. Will try to go tomorrow, esp as I have some new podcasts downloaded to listen to.

Happy weekend everyone!

Ah flamin, it can seem overwhelming. Until you start it’s hard to see how it can work, and also what works for you. Could you strip it down to basically meat+cheese+salad x 2 meals? In a nutshell, that’s basically what I eat, I’ve never really done the book recipes except as one-off dishes. Maybe have more elaborate dishes on your days off, and begin batch cooking and portioning up so by week 3 you have a few easy meals to grab from the freezer?

I’m doing more of a maintenance/5:2/ higher calories strategy this time and it is working, although it is slower- but then I’ve been doing this yonks and have only about 10lbs to go. If you’re just starting out or have more to lose then you’d get quicker results than me.

Hi Yumyum,

Thanks for replying.

I've only just finished the book and was hoping to start tomorrow so been trying to prepare all day. I've postponed until Monday now because my next two shift are nightshifts and I'm just not organised enough.

I've had a good look over the book again and I've found some things I could make the night before and bring to work the next day to have cold for lunch. Bear posted a good homemade shake yesterday which I could have in the mornings. I could probably pick some really simple meal from the 'supper' menu to have in the evening when I get home so there's still hope. I'd be happy to eat the same thing every work day. I've resigned myself to picking three meals on work days and I can experiment with other items on the menus on my days off to hopefully build up a fuller list of things I can eat at work.

I just feel a little deflated because I was so ready to get this weight off and feel better and my job is causing problems. A little voice in my head just sang "excuses, excuses, excuses"

I've been queen of excuses for about 20 years where food is concerned and it's like having a battle with myself. Both 'me's' want to win!

I think Bear also suggested picnic lunches which would be great but I still haven't gotten (or is it got) my head around the 'values' of carbs v fats v proteins per meal etc so I don't know how to vary it and be sure I have the right ratio. I swear I read the whole book but don't remember it saying that and I feel utterly stupid for not 'getting it'.

Jaysus, another rant. I'm so sorry. It's not all that bad at all. I may be spitting the dummy a little!

Thanks Bear and bloody well done! Only 10lbs to go, that's fantastic, go you!

I would do two meals a day no bother. I don't mind eating cold. I was thinking salad, maybe bulgar wheat and chicken or salmon. I'd eat that cold no problem and I'd eat it everyday if I knew it was 'right' and had the correct macros. I could prepare it the night before or even 2 days in advance as I'm sure it would keep in the fridge. Any left over calories for the day I'd save for emergencies if I got a late run or was too busy to eat the lunch. I could just have a few almonds handy or something to tide me over.

As long as I keep the sugar to almost nothing I'm good right? Someone else suggest unsweetened almond milk (thank you) so I'm switching to that instead of skimmed milk.

Honestly to start with just try and stick to 800 cals per day. Don’t worry too much about carbs and protein ratios. Now be sensible, 3 Marsbars probably comes in around 800 cals and if you had that everyday you would soon feel and look terrible. Avoid bread, rice, potatoes and pasta and obviously sweet things.

Don’t worry too much. Some days you might not be able to follow it. Just do your best, learn as you go and see how you feel in a week.

Actually Bear, I've just had another look at your opening post on this thread and it makes more sense to me than the book.

I can totally do it. I think I've just spent so long panicking about how unstable my work is that I got a sudden rush of shit to the brain! and let it spill out here

Thanks Belinda, that makes total sense.

Would love to see the posts if I came back all delighted with my mars bar day and stuck to 800cals!

You can totally do it.

I’ve just had steak, with mushrooms that I sautéed (fried!) in butter, then mixed with a spoon of mascarpone and a blob of garlic purée. Was lovely! I’m having a ‘day off’ today, still nothing too bad despite Dh and dd having dominoes pizza, but not calorie counting today.

Yum, that sounds fabulous!

Thanks for the advice and encouragement

Flamin it sounds like you have loads of ideas - you are totally right the main thing is to avoid sugar, eat healthily and like Belinda said keep to approximately 800 cals. You really don't need to worry that much about ratios if you are doing those things. I think the only reasons ratios came up before was because you were looking at protein shakes before rather than meal replacement shakes and 3 of those a day would have given you unusually high protein as a percentage of your calories.

Maybe get all the bits in for one of Bears shakes and make it up on sunday evening and put in the fridge ready for Monday morning, enter the cals in on My fitness pal. If you wanted to do some prep over the weekend you could enter the foods you mentioned for lunch and dinner under Monday by skipping ahead on the calendar too so you can see how big your portions can be. Just focus on the 800 - 900 calorie range and ignore macros (unless you have opted for mars bars ). Another get ahead thing would be if you do a supermarket shop this weekend barcode scan the stuff onto my fitness pal as you unpack so it all appears on your recent items under my fitness pal.

Are you in England, if so boots meal deals (at the big branches anyway) can be quite handy for emergency lunch if you stick with eggs, veg or olive pots for the snack and a salad (non pasta one) for the main and water for the drink. They all have calories in big on the front. You could even get a healthy option type ready meal from the supermarket for dinner just to keep day 1 easy while you get in the swing of things. They are good for emergencies but not as filling as a home prepared meal.

So for me
breakfast - nearly always fried egg and bagged greens, coffee and tea with normal milk, lunch salad if at work - sometimes a gluten free wrap with veg and bit of chicken, dinner if I am eating earlier than everyone else might be mackerel and fried up veg (which my family thinks is gross!) I also like lidls bagged nuts and seeds in the blue packet for emergencies - these are 150 cals and portioned out ( they are at the checkout bit)

Hope it all goes well!

Just returned from Indian meal night out. Decided to drive so wouldn't be tempted to drink (a first for me as ALWAYS drink heaps), had one gin and diet tonic, had big fat tandoori prawns that came with a salad (never had tandoori before and will always have now as gorgeous). No rice, no naan. One popadom with the raita & onion stuff. Plus 2 diet tonics. Had a blast and feeling very pleased as pretty sure that’s all relatively low cal . Don’t feel at all hungry or that I missed out!! 😊

Just to add I drank lots of water today (another first as hate plain water) but it’s been fizzy. Was a bit worried that that may not be healthy but after reading various bits of research it turns out it’s fine and for some people the bubbles help them feel fuller!! Happy days!

@flaminYon it’s already been mentioned up thread by Bear I think. ‘MyFitnessPal’ app will give you the ratios/nutrients etc. You can input your food as ideas and then tweak accordingly. I’ve just got the free app and have been faffing with it today but it seems pretty good. Albeit it’s on ounces rather than grams at the mo as I can’t find a conversion button.

Morning all. So had yesterday as something of a day off, although actually ate completely on plan, just rather a lot! Had 2 glasses of prosecco. Discovered Asda do little individual bags of pork scratchings as multipacks in their crisps aisle, and in their 3 for £3 promo- so like the classy girl I am I drank prosecco and ate scratchings as my Friday night treat.

Weekends are a bit of a danger zone for me and I really want to try to rein myself in this week, to protect my weight loss from the week, plus because really it’s quite unnecessary to overeat simply because it’s Saturday and it’s a bad habit I’ve got into. I’m running this morning with my friend, then will try to stick to what I do on weekdays- so lunchtime shake and evening meal (which will be some sort of chicken casserole type affair). In principle it should be easy enough, but having Dh and the dc around does make it more difficult so let’s just watch this space......

PutTheChocEggDown, I am vegetarian and dont eat eggs or fish either. It's completely do-able.

My diet was very very carb heavy. It took me a while to get used to adding goos fats as the way to satiety.
Here is some stuff that I have discovered as a vegetarian on this diet.. You might find some useful.

Avocadoes, ground almonds, cheese, Natural pea protein ( add this to dishes) , coconut chunks, healthy oils ( coconut oil , sesame oil, olive oil), miso paste, buillion powder, protein shake powder ( whey), nice salad dressings, clotted cream, double cream, butter. Lots of spices and herbs

That was meant to be good fats, not goos fats

Thanks Phyllis and Refurb that's really helpful. I think this could work!

My only concern is that as it's a VLCD is it going to screw my metabolism? And as soon as I eat a slice of bread again is my weight going to shoot back up? I've done enough diets before to have probably fucked my metabolism already 😔

And Refurb what does a typical day look like for you food wise? I like eggs but wouldn't want to eat more than 6 or 7 a week - I would worry about cholesterol.

Put it’s not technically a v lcd, as such because we have 800 - I think the v low cal diets have 500? It’s just semantics, obviously, but if it helps to consider this a low calorie but not very low. It’s amazing how much you can get for your 800 cals. I don’t tell anyone about the calorie count, because when they see the food: full fat, cheese, nuts, avocado etc ‘fattening foods’ they don’t realise it’s a low calorie diet. People give this weird sympathetic face like you’re starving yourself, despite eating loads, if you mention 800 cals!

Thanks Bear. Have you lost much weight eating this way? And how long has it taken? Also keen to know if lots of people put it back on as soon as they start eating more than 800 cals a day.

I have had a reasonably long BSD journey- started April 2016 at 13st3 and did a 100% strict, zero sugar, zero alcohol 8 weeks and lost about 21lb. I struggled with maintenance, and life got in the way a bit, and over the next 15 or so months I lost, gained, relapsed, restarted and generally found it difficult. I pretty much decided in December last year that my next round was my last round, and that I owed it to myself to give it one last proper shot. So 1st Jan 2018 I weighed in at 12.6- and I’m now just a fraction of a gram under 11stone I’m still claiming the 10’s

I’d like to lose another 10lb to 1stone but appreciate this is not guaranteed as I would actually be quite skinny if I was 10.3-10.5 and that may not be achievable or sustainable.

I compare and contrast my current way to things like slimming world/ww etc. I have never, ever managed to sustain weightloss on those plans, they are expensive, and to me they just suck all the enjoyment out of food. After the initial first 8 weeks or so on this plan you need to add more calories because it’s not sustainable but provided i stick to those key principles (ie. extra cals come from fat and protein and not carbs) then I continue to lose 1-2 lb a week, which I never did at SW. This really has become a lifestyle change for me now, so while my weight loss is slower Than in the first detox phase, I still lose or maintain consistently over time, and still have the things I like.

I should add re: 800 cals and weight gain when you increase cals. It really does depend on your tdee, and I’m lucky because I’m 5’7 and therefore have a reasonably high tdee of 1800. This does mean I can get away with eating more calories and especially if I keep the carbs low. I know this isn’t as easy for some others on here who are 5’0 and need less. You’ll gradually get to know what works for you though, plus what you need. I desperately tried this week to do 800 calorie days and I think I managed one- it’s just too low for me. I’m finding my happy medium of about 1000 perfect- low enough to mean I still must weigh and measure and monitor what I eat, but high enough that I don’t feel my stomach digesting itself!

And bear in mind, we all have rubbish days weeks, months, seasons..... where we don’t follow it properly, or where it just doesn’t happen how we want it to.

What’s tdee please?

I think total daily energy expenditure (or something!) but basically the amount of calories you burn in a day based on your weight, age, activity levels