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

Menu today:
B: scrambled egg, smoked salmon and a handful of raspberries
L: salad plate with grated carrot and zaatar salad, homemade hummus, tomato and basil salad with mozzarella, leaves, scoop of lentils and spinach & wholemeal pitta
D: homemade 3 bean chilli on a baked potato

I’ve lost just over a kilo despite having wine and gin several times this week at work social events. Now 4kg away from goal weight. I think I need to try and cut out booze but it’s hard now I’m being invited to stuff the whole time.
Menu for tomorrow:
B: Greek yoghurt, berries and nuts
L: roast chicken with homemade potato salad (no Mayo, the oil/lemon and herb sort), grilled asparagus and red chicory salad and courgette ribbons with pine nuts salad. Mixed berries and cream.
D: homemade tomato soup with a slice of German rye bread

God that lunch was gorgeous, hope you don’t mind me sharing.

New potatoes with a good blob of proper butter,
Poached salmon
Stir fried chard and an old fashioned heritage purple kale from the garden and a handful of broad beans thrown in.

Lemon juice on top.

Hello all, can I join you? Your meal choices look inspired I've just ordered the book. I've had good success with low carb before but still have to challenge my mindset that bread, etc is ' normal ' eating!

I've just done 3 weeks of weight watchers, methodically tracking food and filling up in fruit (which leaves me hungry..) I've lost nothing and I promise I followed meal plans to the letter. Sob!

Is anyone familiar with the Diet Doctor website? Is this approach similar?

Hi @averywittyusername I’m not familiar with diet doctor but a quick look it looks like keto. The book does say that keto needs real commitment to continue long term and you are likely to put it all back on, whereas what you want to do is reset your weight point. So don’t avoid carbs, just go for quality carbs. I do have potatoes regularly, we haven’t had much rice, simply because the accompanying sauces tend to be high sugar. The main rules are cook from scratch using proper ingredients, try and to get a good omega 3 to 6 mix so avoid vegetable oil (lots found in takeaways) and keep party food for parties.

[quote YoungBritishPissArtist]That Sugar Film
m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhwlyop7fKs[/quote]
Am just watching this now, how shocking!!

@Billybagpuss thank you for that concise summary! I am looking forward to making this my new normal. I know that I look and feel better when I follow low carb but I found I got fixated on avoiding carbs, and this approach seems more sustainable. I'm looking forward to scanning the back thread for more meal suggestions!

I had another little loss today so I’m 4.4kg lighter than when I started about a month ago.

B- Greek yoghurt with blueberries and sprinkling of sugar free granola
L- Scrambled egg, feta, rice cakes with philly
D - Stir fried veg and pork with rice, strawberries and cream

@RagzReturnsRebooted that is really reassuring! That professionals in the system are doing their own research and taking the initiative. I guess it will take a long time for the NHS to change their official guidelines.

Brunch today was leftover dinner from last night, which was lasagne made with fried potato slices instead of pasta.
Dinner is shepherd's pie.

Bad things in those are the vegetable oil DH used to fry the potatoes (I'm going to have to ditch the deep fryer, aren't I?! Or see if I can fill it with beef dripping/lard). Small amount of flour in the cheese sauce and gravy granules. Otherwise okay. It's going to take a while to swap out all our iffy ingredients.

Currently enjoying a vodka and soda, with sliced lemon and lime, in the shady garden as the thermometer on the kitchen window was reading 45° for the hour I was in there cooking.

Am about half way through the book and just wondering who to lend it to next, I think one of our GPs would read it. He's the one that recommends the 8 Week Blood Sugar Diet. He's also currently trying to lose weight!

I've been following this for a couple of weeks and still weigh exactly the same. I know I'm not supposed to focus on weight but it's a little disappointing. Anyone who has had success, was it immediate or did it take a while to see any change?

@DrinkReprehensibly

I've been following this for a couple of weeks and still weigh exactly the same. I know I'm not supposed to focus on weight but it's a little disappointing. Anyone who has had success, was it immediate or did it take a while to see any change?

Do you have much to lose? My initial thing was to give up sugar, and it dropped off to start with, then a new set of scales and a couple of weeks of entertaining stalled it but seem back on track, but I have a fair bit to lose and it’s not my primary focus, health is. Someone on another thread who didn’t have much to lose, gave up sugar lost half a stone quite quickly but then it stabilised.

More importantly how are you feeling in yourself, I’m feeling much clearer in my head, sleeping better, like a log actually and my body shape is changing quicker than the weight loss.

Thanks for the reply @Billybagpuss. I have quite a few stone to lose, at least 5. I have been a yo-yo dieter for many years, usually on diets based on low fat eating so I've possibly gone a bit mad with the green light for things like cheese, cream, butter and full milk. I think maybe calorie intake has possibly been a bit high. I think the novelty of full fat foods is wearing off now though so maybe I'll be able to eat better portions in the next couple of weeks and see if that starts things moving.

I'm not feeling particularly any different if I'm honest. Just slightly more stressed about what to eat. I find food planning hard. I have been looking for a good lowish carb cookery book but so many seem to have strange "fakeaways" and replacements for ordinary food e.g. low carb bread or low carb pasta. One of the things I hated about slimming world was everyone's focus on low fat fake versions of normal food and the low carb cook books are the same. I just need to learn how to cook proper, healthy food and enjoy doing it I think.

I need to go back to basics and learn how to cook basic meals. I've had gousto boxes since the beginning of the pandemic so have lost all ability to good plan!

My diet has been quite simple really,

Breakfast hasn’t changed I have a Waitrose fruit muesli, the only sugars are from the dried fruit, then I’ll have fresh fruit and completely natural yoghurt.

Lunch we usually cook, so homemade lasagne does 2 days, as does shepherds pie other weeks, roast dinner (usually new potatoes)2 days worth fish one day, then we sometimes have sausages and jacket potato with baked beans for a treat day. Always with loads of veg and the don’t double carb rule of course. Occasionally I’ll do pizza but again homemade from scratch.

Tea, is always quite small, sandwiches some days, salad others, I don’t like dressing so that helps, cheese and biscuits and an apple is a very easy one.

The biggest difference is what I drink. Only water, tea, and wine or cider at weekends.

If I need a snack often a cuppa will do but now a piece of fruit works but by god did I crave biscuits to start with.

@DrinkReprehensibly if it helps, here is my meal plan for dinners. It’s on a fortnight rotation and whole family eats/ enjoys it.

Lunch is usually a variation on salad (with protein) or eggs with vegetables. Breakfast usually yoghurt with fruit. Snacks are fruit/ veg/ rice cakes w philly, apple & cheese combo.

(The first recipe doesn’t actually contain coconut- I got confused because it’s so tasty! The kids particularly love this one).

DH has lost 3lbs in 3 days, but he's gone from a quite high wheat diet to a wheat free one. So having a large (5 large eggs!) omelette for lunch (no breakfast) and then a home cooked dinner with either potato or just veg. We had bolgonese the other day and DH and I had stir fried broccoli with it instead of spaghetti, as we were out of courgette for courgetti.
I make a big batch of baked ratatouille (recipe from the low carb bootcamp board) and freeze in portions then take it to work to heat up for lunch.
Dinners we've had included chicken curry and rice, jacket potatoes and tuna and salad, lasagane made with potatoes (but we both prefer it made with grilled aubergine).

Barbecue tomorrow, so I'll probably go and get some salad potatoes and make a side dish with those to make up for no bread. Do some veggie skewers to go with it.

I'm finding this a lot easier than low carb, which works well but is much harder to stick to and requires a LOT more thought.

Thanks so much. That's really helpful. I think I've been eating too much of the bad stuff I've been deprived of for so long and I need to get moving a bit more too.

@Ifyoubelieveyouwill ooh thanks for sharing those, will take notes!

See I just called it bad stuff and it's not bad any more! It's a big mindset change isn't it!

Ps. we make our own oven chips. Just cut into batons lightly coat with olive oil and cook on a 200 degree fan oven.

I will add, the low carb bootcamp board has several recipe threads and most of the recipes would be suitable for this WOE, so worth looking there.

@DrinkReprehensibly

See I just called it bad stuff and it's not bad any more! It's a big mindset change isn't it!

Absolutely. I did the same when I first went low carb, gorging myself on all the high fat stuff jsut because I could. It wears off.

It will take a while for your appetite to readjust as well. I would have been eating much more often at the start because that was what I had been used to doing, whereas now I'm not feeling hungry as often.

I've had to adapt my mindset to realise I don't need to eat just because it's 11am and I was used to having tea and biscuits then, or because I've got the kids settled in bed and I used to have a slice of toast and bar of chocolate.

It's taken me a while to become more aware of having a lower appetite and only eating when I'm actually hungry, which is much less often than it used to be.

Yesterday started off well

Breakfast- porridge with blueberries, made with whole milk
Lunch- left over shredded chicken chilli
Dinner- pizza hut takeaway..... with a cookie for dessert.

I feel no remorse 😂 It will be interesting to see if I'm any hungrier today though!

Today's plan:
B- porridge W/ blueberries
L- ???
D- grilled chicken tikka with salad and some potatoes
If I'm peckish in the evening, I've been having a bowl of frozen (and defrosted) cherries with Greek yogurt and a square of 70% dark choc. So good!

@Ifyoubelieveyouwill thanks for sharing those meal plans! Wow, you're organised, I now want to do the same. It's just me here (with DD visiting for a couple of days) so no excuses. I watched the video, very entertaining and so enlightening.