Why We Eat (Too Much) Thread 2

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Shiny new thread to continue on with! I hope everyone keeps going.

For any newbies, this thread is based on a book by Dr Andrew Jenkinson. The main principles are to cut out sugar, wheat and ultra-processed foods, while eating fresh natural ingredients. It works!

Previous thread: thread 1

Morning, how is everyone doing today? New day, new start if we need it 💪

What meal plans does everyone have today? For me:
B - porridge
L - leftover salmon with roasted veg
D - baked potatoes

I have a tricky weekend ahead as we are invited to two BBQs, both of which will have loads of bread, carbs and desserts. I'm going to try to avoid the bread rolls and just have a plain burger with salad.

Will see what desserts there are and have decided I'll only take dessert if there's something really appealing so I'm not just eating for the sake of it. If there's something I'll really enjoy I'll allow myself a helping of it, but going to try to limit to one helping only. Hoping my willpower doesn't go up in a puff of smoke when I smell and see all the tasty food! 😣

Morning Tired.

I will have salad of some description for lunch then tea is up in the air. Said I didn't want takeaway but dh has scoured the menus and found a local place that does a snide of nandos chicken so will possibly give that a go.

Will have a little BBQ at some point this weekend but am finishing uni exams off so not inviting anyone over. And not sure what else we will be eating yet, usually have sunday dinner but have said not this weekend because uni work.

But I might relent and do one monday, just because it's easier than thinking of something else we will all eat and enjoy.

I’m having boiled egg, wild salmon and a fresh fig for breakfast.
Lunch will be left over tagine and salad.
Dinner - I’m thinking prawn and veg stirfry with cauliflower rice. Need to send DH for ingredients.

Ooooh tagine.... haven't made that for ages, I could maybe do that bh monday instead of a roast.

That programme was fascinating and horrifying at the same time. I can definitely relate to how addictive the UPF foods are - I feel so much hungrier when I them. My appetite naturally lowers when I don’t have them.
Generally, I’m having two meals a day most days - lunch and dinner - if I feel hungry when I wake up I have breakfast too. I’ve not felt the urge to snack at all.

Hi all, I haven’t read the book yet so can someone just quickly tell me if I’m allowed to eat fruit? Are fruits natural sugars still really bad?

@OhGodNotThisAgain

Hi all, I haven’t read the book yet so can someone just quickly tell me if I’m allowed to eat fruit? Are fruits natural sugars still really bad?

They’re ok but avoid fruit juice as it means eating 5 or 6 apples instead of just one. I’ve found an apple or an orange in the afternoon has distracted the irritating eat biscuits signal in my brain

Fruit is ok as you're getting the fibre when you eat the whole fruit as opposed to the sugar rush from having fruit juice. However the advice is to not have too much fruit but to try to increase veg intake instead.

Having also read up about insulin response etc I think fruit is best eaten as either part of a meal or as dessert after a meal so that it doesn't cause your insulin to spike between meals.

But it's certainly a better option than having a bag of crisps or slice of cake, so bear in mind it will also be determined by what changes you are making and what state you're at in this process ❤️❤️

@Tiredandbored - I'm an Irish Dancer. A very overweight and grey haired one. I love it, started because my DD did and I couldn't keep my feet still!

Today has not been so brilliant - my mum is coming tomorrow and I am in the middle of a house blitz. I've been on plan for the day but DH suggested a pizza and I caved. However I am fine with it in a sense because it isn't triggering a dive into the biscuit tin. And I was knackered and the idea of cooking made me want to cry!

Wow, Irish dancing is really intense! Loads of energy! The music is very catchy, that's for sure!

Hi. I've been away from the thread for a while a not caught up yet. I have bought a load of spinach I don't have plan for. We are going away so I need to use it for tomorrow lunch. Any ideas?

Not hugely exciting, but in an omelette perhaps?

@Love51 how about a vegetable curry or saag paneer?

My weight loss has slowed to a steady 1-1.5lbs a week, but I’m exercising a lot and toning up, not often hungry and rarely think about food anymore so I’m feeling really positive.

Morning all! My weekend of doom looms ahead - two BBQs, one of which is a birthday party. Please send any spare willpower you have my way...

@Love51 sauté it and stuff it in a chicken breast with mushrooms and boursin then Rose’s in the oven. Bloody lovely.

I’ve been away from the thread since Wednesday as I’ve been really busy. I enjoyed the snow but don’t feel I learnt much as I am well educated in nutrition these days! I was hoping it would help my husband not eat so much junk but so far, nah. Tbh, me neither. I self imposed that rule of being ‘on it’ for the wedding as a push to lose weight and put myself straight into restriction mode like a dummy and have been bingeing ever since.

The positive is I have no more junk food in the house (that I will eat), the kids snack box is nearly empty (mostly sweets now which are left over from a birthday, which thankfully they’ve never had regularly at home, that’s more when other dc hand them out for birthdays). We got through all of the crisps! All that’s left is two packs of cheddars. Amazing.

I’m really feeling all of the junk food, lots of gas, bloating and headaches. We have a bbq tomorrow but it’s at ours so I’m going to make my own burger as the shop bought ones are not GF and then it’s just salad, new potatoes which is plenty for lunch.

Hope everyone else is ok and doing better than I am!

Sorry to hear you've been finding things a bit tough @Tinkling. I think I share a bit of a similar mindset to you in being very all or nothing. I'm too strict and then something knocks me off course and then I overeat all of the things that I've been avoiding and undo all of my good work. Wish I could offer some wise words of advice. Sounds like you have a plan for the rest of the weekend to get back on track. Hope you enjoy the BBQ and have a nice weekend.

Afternoon everyone

Had far too much to drink last night, lots of cocktails and all sorts so felt a bit blurgh this morning. Did enjoy the fake nandos I had tho, was lemon chicken breast. Had a handful of chips with it which norty but so much better than a usual friday night a month or so ago.

Had mackerel, cherry tomatoes and scrambled eggs for brunch and am roasting a chicken later to have with salad and new potatoes. Picked some cold pressed rapeseed oil and going to make mayonnaise again and hope its nicer than the previous attempt 😁.

Tinkling am sorry you are struggling. I was thinking today about how long I can sustain this woe and pondering in the programme from Thursday. I need to lose weight, about 2 stone more but I think once that has gone I will reintroduce either bread or pasta once or twice a week and see how I get on. Have a breadmaker so will possibly make my own bread and try and find some high quality organic type pasta.

Telling myself this has given me a reason to carry on this way for now. I can't see myself eating and enjoying anything ultra processed like chicken nuggets and will stick to what I have been eating mainly but will add a few things just to make it tolerable long term.

I’ve lost my way with this. I usually try to follow intuitive eating methodology and this really jars with Dr J’s guidance but I am completely on board with the science and his advice. We had afternoon tea yesterday (so bread, pastry and cake!) and I woke in the night with a sore bloated stomach so the wheat/sugar definitely needs to go. I’m just tired of thinking about it all at the moment.

I’ve got a week off work with lots of days out & social eating planned so am just going to take a break from the whole thing and stop fretting over rule breaking. But I’ll also take some time to plan out some meals for the week after as I’d definitely got stuck in a bit of a boring rut. I’m also going to get DH on board as I’m seriously concerned about his recent weight gain and potential health problems arising from how he eats. I’ve been following 16:8 which I’ll carry on with too as this reduces the temptation for evening recreational eating. Dr J makes it sounds really simple but for me the reality of stopping eating wheat & sugar is actually a difficult step and I need to do a bit more preparation and planning to get back into it.

If you are finding it overwhelming doing both at once OhMy, why not pick one and do that first then build up? In the book he does say start with making things from scratch rather than going for all it at once. So maybe concentrate on homecooking or low processed stuff. It's such a drastic change and needs to be maintainable going forwards.

Gorgeous day here. Having a bbq later. Am going to make my own chicken shish kebabs and a huge salad. I also have some left over roast chicken and salad from yesterday so going to have that for lunch so I am not starving later and tempted by crisps and dip which I adore and will be putting out. Will be drinking too which is always dangerous but it would be rude not to.

That’s a good idea, I think I could tackle wheat & heavily processed food first then add in sugar once I’ve managed that perhaps 🤔

I need to improve my cooking skills too!

BBQ 1 done! I didn't have any bread rolls, took the meat on it's own. Filled my plate with salads, a couple of which did have mayo or oil dressing, but I'm not going to get too worried about that.

Did have a small helping of dessert, but no birthday cake, buns or biscuits.

First hurdle over, still have BBQ 2 to come! 🙈🙈

How is everyone getting on today?

www-irishtimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/fitness/is-bmi-good-for-your-health-1.4576824?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a6&mode=amp&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16223911373151&csi=1&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Flife-and-style%2Fhealth-family%2Ffitness%2Fis-bmi-good-for-your-health-1.4576824%3Fmode%3Damp%23amp_tf%3DFrom%2520%25251%2524s%26aoh%3D16223911373151%26csi%3D1%26referrer%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com

Interesting article about the weaknesses of using BMI as a measure of weight/health. Really like what is said near the end about 'best weight'. I think this is relevant to me as I need to lose another stone to be at the top end of normal weight BMI, but I don't think this is a realistic target that I will be able to maintain longer-term.

I suspect my 'best weight' may be around 7lbs over that, but am still planning to follow this WoE and see where my weight settles naturally.

We have a friend staying for the weekend, ended up drinking way too much last night and feeling crap for much of today, sigh!
DH has made roast chicken with a huge asparagus and fennel salad and roasted new potatoes.
Think I’ll stay off booze this week until Sat next week when we are going to a tapas place with friends.

@Tiredandbored that's a very interesting article. I have no faith at all in Ancel Keys, who was responsible for all the low fat diets in the 1970s onwards, for which he falsified a lot of his research. In fact sugar is the big culprit.
BMI is very variable. I am best at a lower BMI (under 20) even though I'm very sporty I look really chunky over that. I'm very straight up and down with a small skeleton. For someone with different proportions a BMI of 25 would be fine. Waist height ratio or waist hip ratio is a much better ration for defining good or bad health.
Discovered that using up uneaten cold vegetables make lovely salads. Broccoli, tomatoes, chick peas, flax seeds, cherry tomatoes and a nice homemade olive oil/balsamic vinegar dressing is delicious.