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!!

Ninah - it's usually the mixer that's the problem, not the gin. Hence the lime juice and soda (can't bear diet drinks/slimline tonic or anything with aspartame in it - see earlier discussion on processed/chemical rubbish).

Alcohol itself is not high in carbohydrate. So if you drink sugar-free mixers with plain spirits you are OK. Obviously beer and wine are higher as are all kinds of sweet drinks like malibu and their hideous like. Buuuut alcohol can act as an alternative fuel to carbohydrate - the body will burn it before it looks for other fuel. However it won't knock you out of ketosis like a slice of cake might do.

So best to stick to mixers and low-cal mixers or dry white wine.

Needs to be mentioned here that drinking more than a little alcohol on this diet gets you very drunk and very very ill... As I was reminded on Friday...

Spirits are not high in carbs - and as an added bonus because your blood won't be filled with sugar you'll be trollied on 2. Cheap and healthy - a winning combination!

Those of you that eat greek yoghurt, is full fat ok? In a small amount naturally! I have been eating it with berries and nuts for breakfast, maybe I shouldn't eat it everyday or switch to fat free, which is boggin

decided to look up the carb content in different alcoholic drinks

Poise - Greek yoghurt is the best of all the yoghurts because it also has a high protein content which is very important for feeling "full". Low-fat yoghurt is awful, it's full of chemicals and it can cause an insulin spike due to the way it's digested. Greek yoghurt is the way forward, nuts and berries are fab - just go easy on the honey. :)

Don't get fooled with the greek style yogurt, they are not any different than natural yogurt. Total is very tasty and the nearest I have been able to find in the supermarket or health store. If anyone can point me in the direction of a better greek yogurt please do and let me know where to get it!

like this

opposed to this style

this is the natural yogurt - more protein in it than the greek sytle they produce which is odd how have they mucked it up?

I would have thought that any greek yogurt would be better than total tbh!

Total is Greek yoghurt though!

yes "total" is greek yogurt opposed to greek style yogurt which I am not sure what it is?

Yes, it´s greek yogurt, but utterly revolting imo.

Why so? I think it's lovely!

I found it bitter/sour.

Been lurking but love love loving this thread!

Please can all you svelt low carb ladies ladies onlion cointreau xenia et al post more of your meal ideas. Think I'm gonna start to get really fed up with salad, eggs and feta and I'd really love more recipes that I can try. I can't eat fish but everything else i'll happily eat I'm so desperate to lose this excess weight and ginormous tummy

Right, am I doing it right?
Today so far I have eaten:
A banana
Two slices havarti cheese
Six almonds
Rocket salad with a slice of organic chicken, half an avocado, two cherry tomatoes, a dollop of salsa and two baby beets. Oh and a drizzle of olive oil.

God that seems a lot...and my waitrose bill was this morning!

Is that it? Why "half an avocado"? They don't keep you know, whack it all on the plate. Two cherry tomatoes? Are they going to be made extinct?

The whole point of this is to eat WELL, which means stop faffing with weighing this and measuring that. Start enjoying food.

Oh god, I sound like a julia roberts film. :(

Thing is, alpine, I've done this sort of diet before, and I basically turn into pacman if I don't keep an eye on amounts. I don't need much of an excuse to binge...and avocadoes are very fattening, aren't they?

Is that not enough then?

Yes, avocados are absolutely teeming with fat - good fats, and a billion other wonderfully good things. This isn't about low-fat though. It's not a very generous portion you've been eating. (IMO)

tawdry - are you aiming to low carb? If so, then your menu (whilst it sounds lovely!) is actually quite high in carbs, especially with the inclusion of the banana and beets.

I buy the tesco greek style fat free one. Also low in carbs, and half the price of the total 0% one. But I do stick to one a day though.

tawdry low carbers certainly don't ever eat bananas, if they eat fruit would be berries. Also beets (and other root veggies high carb).

Tsk at bananas and beets!

diddl, total bitter and sour, can I ask compared to what other yogurt. I love total but only buy it occasionaly as trying to make a pot last 10 days is difficult