to wonder how the hell she stays so slim??

[SequinsAndSparkles]

My BIL is engaged to a spanish woman, and we spent the weekend at MIL's, all of us together.

She is very slim, I'd guess a size 6/8. Her skin is glowing and she is stunning, yet her diet perplexes me?

On the first morning, we were all having breakfast, MIL made a fry up for everyone, but I am on a diet so I had special K and some toast. SIL prepared her own breakfast (they are currently staying at MILs while they have some work done on their house), and she had some kind of cheese, can't remember what she said it was, about 10 olives and a slice of ham! Yet she said that my breakfast of Special K and toast was stodgy and apparently English women have 'very strange ideas about nutrition'.

For lunch, she had a chicken salad, but it involved lots of extra virgin olive oil, all over the peppers and a big dollop of salsa. And then for dinner she had chicken smeared in pesto, with green beans in salt, more salsa and a slice of cheese.

How is she so slim??

I didn't have a particuarly healthy weekend in the end, we ended up having a takeaway on the Saturday evening, and SIL wouldn't eat any of it, she wasn't rude, she politely declined but I just find it hypocrytical that she eats all this fatty stuff and made the comment about England having strange ideas about nutrition when I was eating Special K and toast!!

Just have to report that since Tuesday I have been doing protein and salads for lunch and dinner (porridge for breakfast) and I am 2 pounds down like BillCompton Still my usual alcohol consumption too, so i am really pleased. I was also going heavy on 'salads' I like- such as tuna nicoise, chicken caesar, greek salad with feta and hummus. I feel pretty happy about it.

Thanks Sequins, this thread may have really changed my life. :)

To those saying no one in Britain eats decent fresh fruit and veg, I'd just like to mention that the country is covered in allotments, all of which have waiting lists of years, so plenty of people actually growing their own food there. And that's not including people who have a veg plot at the bottom of the garden. And we have farm shops, farmers markets etc where you can buy fresh seasonal produce. Some people have fresh stuff delivered to their houses in veg boxes.

Do any other countries have land set aside in their cities for ordinary people to grow food? (genuine question)

I dont think they necessarily have to

I don't suppose we really have to with all the other options, but there does seem to be a big demand for it here, which can only be a good thing. It shows lots of people are interested in what they eat and not all existing on junk food!

Although I spend a lot of time growing and eating things off my allotment but it doesn't stop me eating the sweets and cakes as well . I just have to hope that digging the potato patch makes up for it!

This early answer on the thread is right "She is slim because her diet is excellent. Good fats, lots of protein, few shitty carbs.Low fat diets make you fat. White carbs make you fat. Cereal is shit in a box."

I weigh what I did as a teenager in my late 40s and I eat lots of healthy proteins and veg and brown tice. British women seem to think ridiculous foods like Special K are good foods. They are just taken in my advertising.

Special K isn't good for you - you may as well eat polystyrene tbh - but it is very low in fat, like most cereals (though pretty much devoid of nutrition). I agree it's marketing. Olive oil and good fats are what your skin needs to stay glowing.

Yes I despair of many a diet thread on here and the myths some women have about weight health and what are "good foods".

I don't think that people have a clue about a healthy diet for adults or DCs! I think that I would like to be a nutritionist.

We have a whole thread where people won't let a DC have sugar on a weetabix and won't even keep it in the house for visitors and yet buy cakes, full of goodness knows what. They think that tinned ravioli has less sugar than a spoonful on cereal and is perfectly healthy as long as it is served with broccoli. They get all upset if granny brings sweets. None of it is important if they have a healthy diet most of the time and plenty of exercise. A healthy diet for a DC is not a healthy diet for an adult woman who is trying to lose weight.

The Mediterranean diet is know to be the healthiest even with olive oil( we are supposed to eat some fat!)SIL diet seems fine to me. I love cereal in the morning but it isn't especially healthy and it isn't slimming.
It is no surprise to me that SIL is slim.

She is following the main rule-keep off processed food-start from scratch with the raw ingredients.

apparently English women have 'very strange ideas about nutrition'

She was certainly right there!

Copy her diet-I'm sure the weight would drop off-even with the olive oil.

Its s pretty cool job exotic

I think there is such a need for it. I am convinced that there is so much information out there that people have lost the plot! I do feel sorry for all the DCs who are put on 'prison rations'. A thread will start up soon about Easter eggs and 'how dare people buy my DC one when they much prefer a carrot!
(I also suspect that there are adults who put their DCs on diets they couldn't manage themselves)

It doesnt pay very well Im afraid

I wish I could eat her diet. For some reason if I don't eat about a third of my diet in carbs, I get that low blood sugar feeling where you go light headed, shaky, nauseous and weak. What I try to do instead is aim for carbs that are as natural as possible, whole oats, brown rice and potatoes, rather than bread and pasta. I load up on as many vegetables as I can, and I eat a small portion of protein with lunch and dinner, plenty of oily fish and chicken, with nuts and pulses too. And I have roughly 1-2 portions of healthy oils a day too.

I don't think everyone has a totally terrible diet in the UK, though ours could be better I suppose.

Unfortunately all the jobs that appear interesting to me don't pay well!

Yes. You just need to read the ingredients which in the case of Weatabix includes sugar. Products without ingredients tend to be the ones best for you.

Ditch the diet ideas and ask SIL to write a meal plan for you-I bet you lose weight and enjoy it too!
On a Mediterranean diet they stay slim, enjoy food and don't stress out when their DC is given a mini mars bar by a birthday DC at school!
(those that don't include lots of pasta at every meal).

I am so surprised that there are still people out there who are shocked at a low-carb, high protein diet yields weight-loss.

Have they been living under a rock, I mean how long has been Atkins been around?!

Olessaty - potatoes have an incredibly high GI, especially if baked hit your bloodstream as fast as cake. Brown rice is also a very highly processed carb, wild rice is preferable. Your carb are not as friendly as you think.

Does that point about brown rice count for short grain as well, AP?
I was advised by a nutritionist to switch to this, and my family actually prefer it to white.
< Disclaimer: I have no under fives and am not subjecting my DCs to muesli-belt malnutrition >

I have found if I eat several portions in a week I start to feel fantastic and full of energy. I think it's supposed to take a long time to go through your system so soaks up toxins in your intestines. Or something < hazy memory >.

yes LITR I did realise

Well I eat brown basmati rice mixed with wild rice, but the point is amounts. I think meals should be a handful of protein, handful of the carb and a handful of veg and yet some people pile on portions which are about 4x what they need. In the US we'd order a meal for one and it would fee three on room service in the hotel. We seem to have lost sight of normal portions.

finding this thread very interesting, and now have craving for an omelette! that's tomorrow's brekkie sorted!