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!!

framey

Come and join the low carbers thread. Lots of lovely recipes and support here

I have found it surprisingly easy, even in winter to low carb.

But I am pretty free with the veg all round so that helps.

igivein what if it is chocolate cake or brownies??

Peanut butter is moderation is good for you - a high protein, high fat snack which keeps you full for ages. With apples or celery I'm sure it's fine on the calorie count too.

But you MUST buy a palm oil free version! I think Waitrose sells one.

HedgeSaprrow you are totally right, the Italians are exceptional in their ability to consume carbs via pasta. I was with an Italian guy for years, I once stayed with his family for an extended period of time. After a month of eaing pasta every day for at least one meal, the day came when it made me sick to look at my dinner plate. Post consumption of said meal, I promptly excused myself and went to the bathroom where I proceeded to puke it all back up . My body couldn't take it anymore! It still makes me look at pasta in a funny way.

tawdryhepburn (great name, btw!), what about boiled eggs for breakfast? Will take you only 5 minutes to do those.

Scrambled egg is even quicker.

Re your packed lunch - buy yourself an insulated lunch box and some small ice-packs, then you can take whatever you need - salad stuff, cold meats/chicken, hard boiled eggs, etc.

When i eat like that I am slimmer.In fact this has inspired me to cut the carbs again. Have only ever been really slim and glowy looking on a low carb diet.Special k and toast is bulky and fattening

tawdry, for breakfast only 3-4 minutes to boil an egg, with a slice of wholewheat toast (no butter - why do people think you need butter?)...or you could do a smoothie - I favour one banana, a generous handful of strawberries and a small pot of natural yoghurt whizzed together. At the weekend I made a sort of stewed fruit concoction from a weightwatchers recipe book - has a mulled wine kick to it with the added spices. It took some time but it keeps in the fridge for reheating and has made 4 breakfasts in total

Lunch - you could take home made soup in a flask, a tupperware container of salad with tuna / chicken etc or perhaps vegetables crudites with a mini pot of houmous....

I get the rush, rush, rush in a hurry thing but imo a healthy diet takes a bit of forethought, planning and a little bit of time

DP is half Italian. I put on a stone in 3 weeks last year in Italy due partly to the daily pasta and 3 bottles of prosecco per night

ha! Perfect low-carb diet!

Works for many people really well. And she's right about 'stodge'.

Gosh, this thread has exploded!

Yes, so apparently I was wrong

I have chucked away the Special K! I don't even like it. I am not in a massive rush to lose weight, I'm a size 12 so not too big, but it's interesting reading the posts here and it seems SIL is right. God dammit!

I have to admit, I am excited at the fact that I might be slimmer if I eat the way she does, as her food always looks delicious!

I am embarrassed at my apparently poor knowledge of what is healthy!

Any of you in SW London and looking for a personal trainer by any chance? (shameless self-plug)

Francagoestohollywood: sorry, but that is not the Mediterranean diet that people I know who actually live in Spain, Southern France, Italy etc eat. They eat much more meat and fish - daily at least, eat large amounts of cheese and carbohydrates are eaten in only moderate amounts - bread is an accompaniment to meals, not the main event and pasta/polenta are hardly Mediterranean (they are from North Italy) and tend to only be eaten as a starter rather than the main event. They eat very large amounts of cooked vegetables and salads, often with cheese.

In my experience, the diet eaten by many people in that region is much lower in carbs and higher in protein than the diet eaten by most people in the UK.

Also, your comment about chicken is inflammatory nonsense and suggests you have been reading too many US websites - hormone treatment and non-therapeutic antibiotic treatment of livestock has been illegal in the EU for over a decade.

This is a brill thread. i am a stone my pre-preg weight and desperate to lose that and another stone again.

I was doing weetabix and fruit for breakfast, vegetable soup and bread for lunch then massive pig out for dinner.

This has made me completely change my thinking- and it also sounds ever so much more delicious.

Hmmm. I feel all enthusiastic.

I was on very strict atkins diet a few years ago, and lost 35 pounds in 6 months. No extra exercise, other than walking to tube and back. It did take a while to get used to - no rice, potatoes, or pasta in the beginning, but eventually it became habit.

And I never felt hungry like I did on low fat diets.

The mediterranean diet is just a modified low-carb diet. Even their dishes that have rice have lots of vegetables and fish in them.

And yes, the english stodgy diet is not the best in the world, I don't think anyone would disagree.

Anyone as old as me (46)? and remember Nimble bread? That was back in the old days when you couldn't really get low-fat stuff and you had to eat 'diet' bread .

And an old friend of mine who is in her late 50s now will always launch any diet with a steak and salad. No spuds or bread. Perfect Atkins food.

But there were low-calorie sugar substitutes. I borrowed my dad's copy of Flanders and Swann 'At the drop of another hat' recently and on there there is a song about diets that mentions cutting out carbohydrate. It's only since the 70s that we've become fixated on cutting out fat and majoring on starch.

My wife is Spanish and is also a size 6/8 and eats a lot more than the British women on my side of the family who order salads and starters as mains in restaurants etc. My wife finds the eating habits of British women to be strange, it is probably down to 20 odd years of marketing lies as someone else said. They are trying to do the same in Spain now, hopefully it wont catch on.

Btw, the Spanish diet isnt purely a med diet. There is a huge amount of variability and a lot of stews in the winter as half of Spain is actually as cold, if not colder than Britain in winter. Spaniards dont eat much pasta, and only a little rice, but they eat lots of pulses, salads, seafood, fish and meat. Pork is a staple, but it is good quality pork like expensive jamon that contains good fats, just like olive oil does.

Anyway, the point is my wife doesnt have to think about what to eat because it is engrained into her family culture. Women in Britain have it very hard as there are so many commercial forces fighting for your attention. Unfortunately marketing has overtaken tradition it seems :(

Cone on over the to low-carb diet thread all of you

You rarely feel hungry on a low carb diet. It really changes the way you think about food.

Can I have a link to this thread you speak of Ormirian?

For the poster who was unable to give up her morning toast, it might help to be much fussier about the bread you buy - ideally from an actual baker (no, not Greggs) and 100% wholemeal. I've been laps

[oops, accidentally hit "post"] I've been lapsing and buying yummy white recently for the family, but this thread might have prompted me back onto the hard stuff.

NB that ham and cheese for breakfast every day is probably not a perfect choice for long term health, but it won't make you fat.

Err..... link? Erm..yes......I'll try

Hogsback, I am Italian and therefore I have a slight idea of what should constitute a Mediterranean diet and what we eat on a daily basis. I know for instance that my family consumes more red meat than it should be ideal.

I posted a link with the ideal Mediterranean food pyramid earlier in the thread.

Pasta is not a Northern Italy product, but a southern/central Italian one. When my parents were growing up after ww2 in northern Italy they had very little pasta, but lots of rice and polenta.

I don't read US websites, but I follow the advice of my children's paediatricians. Chickens - at least here in Italy - are loaded with crap.

Here!