Needed to go to the Dr. in February. Turned out my registered doctor was away on a sabbatical. Anyway saw a new doctor. Having not been for a while he decided to update my data on the computer so took my blood pressure and weight etc. When entering it he said there must be a mistake as my new weight appeared to show I’d lost 121lbs.
I have a very stressful job that can have very odd and long hours coupled with lots of sitting. I’d got myself into a bad habit of snacking at my desk and then on the way home either getting ready meals from the supermarket or a pizza/kebab etc. Before long not surprisingly I started feeling terrible. I found it hard to sleep, any sort of exercise even walking started to become a problem. Weighing myself I was knocking on the door of 25 stone. Being quite tall I didn’t look hugely obese just very very heavy.
Realised something needed to be done ASAP otherwise.....!!!
Spent about 6 months calorie counting and eating diet food i.e. low fat options, Shake replacement meals and lots of salads etc which did help a bit but didn’t enjoy at all. Was at a normal weight friends and turned down some homemade Potato Dauphinois as it isn’t diet food. Thinking about it now it was a lightbulb moment.
I went on a ‘from scratch’ diet. Instead of breakfast bars or those microwave porridge sachets I did some overnight oats with bran and whole milk with a little honey & nuts. I swapped the cotton wool sliced supermarket bread for a local bakers sourdough. I used to be able to eat 8 slices before feeling full but the sourdough filled me up with just 2. I swapped out all the processed food for the ‘normal’ equivalents ie butter for Flora (margarine) cooked a pasta sauce rather than used a jar.
At first I thought I be spending forever in the kitchen but with a bit of planning I found it could actually be quicker. I saw that my food budget was substantially lower meaning that although my sourdough loaf cost £4 rather than £1.20 I’d save on not buying the pasta sauce or the porridge sachets and also eating less slices per sitting.
It took about a month to bed in the new way of eating.... note NOT diet but after that didn’t feel the need to snack as I wasn’t hungry between meals. Using fresh vegetable etc was a taste revelation.
Looking back now it seems odd that eating a made from scratch chicken breast with a cream and tarragon sauce with tagliatelle and baby spinach helped me lose weight when all those low fat ready meals/diet foods left me feeling hungry & miserable with little weight loss. Ironic as I did lose lots of pound unfortunately it was of the £ variety.
If anyone has Netflix I highly recommend the Michael Pollan documentary “In defence of food”
Good luck everyone!