Peaches and Cream

Today is the last day of food-freedom before the 8-weeks-of-solitude diet begins. I was going to use today as a preparation day; writing shopping lists, planning a week of dinners for me and separate dinners for the boys (husband and two children). However, in true summer-style we ended up going round to my inlaws's house to eat BBQ, drink copious amounts of alcohol and play in the hot tub. We had a great day but I have been left feeling a bit worse for wear this evening, and there is no plan in place.
I am just about able to throw together the Blueberry and Green Tea shake for breakfast for both Mum and I. Albeit substituting the blueberries for raspberries because that's all I have in the freezer (I've checked the calorie content of raspberries and blueberries and I'm pleased to say there's not much in them - 2 calories per hundred grams as is happens).
Tomorrow it begins then. With a shake for breakfast. And a headache and probably a very grumpy me.
Also, I broke my ice cream maker this evening by dropping it on the floor and Jamie Oliver's old fashioned peach ice cream turned into a disaster when I accidentally scrambled the eggs instead of making a thick and creamy custard. So the whole lot went in the bin - ice cream maker as well.
I hope I have more luck tomorrow and that this is not an omen for the next 8 weeks...
Off to have a few chocolate biscuits before the food-drought sets in.

Strength in Numbers

My mum has Type 2 Diabetes. My mum’s dad also had Type 2 Diabetes. It seems to run in our family.

My mum has been able to control her diabetes extraordinarily well over the last six years  with a balance of exercise (long walks and then moving up to jogging), diet (eating the right amounts of the wrong foods and a lot of the best foods for diabetics), medication (Metformin) and red wine (she found that this beverage could help lower her blood sugar – not sure if there’s any science here though!). Mum’s diabetes nurse says that she is one of her best patients. 

However, with the best will in the world, she is still living with diabetes daily and taking tablets where necessary.

Then my mum discovered an amazing book by Dr Michael Mosley called The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet: Lose Weight Fast and Reprogramme Your Body.

In this book Dr Mosley claims (and uses case studies to demonstrate) that diabetes can not only be prevented but also reversed. Mum couldn’t believe it at first but everything Dr Mosley wrote about, based on research, case studies and personal experience, made complete sense. Mum bought me the book. And then she bought a copy for my dad, who is already a massive Michael Mosley fan having been on the 5:2 diet for the last five years or more – and it has worked brilliantly on him. Mum also bought another five copies of the book and started handing them out to friends and family (some of whom have type 2 diabetes or are on the brink of developing it).

However, even after reading this book from cover to cover, twice, and preaching it to everyone she meets, mum has still not embarked on the 8-week Blood Sugar Diet in an effort to reverse her diabetes and stay off medication. FOREVER.

Dieting for Diabetes Begins… on Monday

Therefore, starting Monday, 1^st August 2016, I am going to embark on this diet alongside my mum in an attempt to encourage her through this willpower jungle. We live in a world of sugar and temptation but for eight weeks we are going to resist all temptation alongside one another. Giving each other support where necessary and calorie counting every pumpkin seed and salad leaf - TOGETHER. I could do with losing a few pounds too so it won’t hurt me. It might even prevent me from developing type 2 diabetes myself – who knows. I will be documenting our progress, daily, if I can, in a bid to further encourage us through to the end. Eight weeks may seem like a long time, but in comparison to one’s lifetime it is a blink of an eye. We CAN do this and I encourage anyone else who needs to lose weight for medical reasons to embark on this journey with us. After all, it’s strength in numbers isn’t it?!   

So… My food scale batteries are charged and ready to go… but first I am going to make some of Jamie Oliver’s old fashioned peach ice cream as my last deadly sweet treat for eight weeks…

Wish us luck.