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

I agree @RagzReturnsRebooted, deep-fried chips are definitely better than oven-cooked! I have compromised by only doing deep-fried chips on special days (e.g. birthdays). Not perfect, but better than having them every week.

I’m just starting with no wheat while I wait for the book to arrive (which will be longer than expected as my credit card was used fraudulently and was cancelled, which then meant my book order was cancelled...). I’m going to keep my morning OJ for now because I’ve noticed that if I cut that I eat far worse, but will try to minimize sugar (much easier to avoid if not eating wheat anyway).

Made a nice eggs/fried potatoes/salsa brunch for Father’s Day and will probably have salmon, potatoes, asparagus and salad for tea.

I love the idea of counting the number of fruit and veg over a week and will start doing that.

Jeff, two of mine are autistic too but in food terms are relatively easy as long as nothing on the plate is touching and the food combination is acceptable. I added some berries to the brunch plates. It was as if I was expecting them to eat pencil shavings or something equally random

Not sure what to do about the coke habit yet though! There’s still some in the house from a Costco shop.

@Throughtheday the thought of berries on a savoury plate makes me feel a bit sweaty, I'm with your DCs!

I also don't like things touching on the plate but I'm not as bad as I used to be. I'll eat almost anything as long as they don't touch!

Haha CornedBeef, I thought it would look fancy and restaurant-like but they didn’t agree . Plus my DH is Canadian so they actually eat berries with savoury things all the time. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say they eat bacon and sausages with sweet things (waffles and maple syrup etc).

@Throughtheday I did manage to eat pancakes with maple syrup and bacon on a trip to New York. It was slightly stressful but I enjoyed it. That's not going to feature in my diet any time soon with this WOE though.

Your description of them reacting as if it was pencil shavings did make me laugh!

My niece also has very strong feelings about food mixing, she is autistic but as far as I know I'm not although I do wonder sometimes.

Well, I think today’s diet goes to show good food is the best.

Yesterday friends 50 birthday, afternoon of party nibbles and wine, I didn’t eat loads, avoided sugar but didn’t really eat much to be honest. We did have sausage bacon and melon for breakfast.
Weight last night, up 3lb, this morning down 2lb (yes I know I shouldn’t obsess over the scales.)

Today, usual breakfast, ham roll for lunch, orange for snack big roast chicken dinner, loads and loads of veg.
Weight tonight only up 0.5lb straight after eating.

I'm paying a lot more attention to ingredient lists.

The only chocolate I've eaten this week is Green and Black's 70% dark chocolate - (Cocoa Mass, Cane Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Vanilla Extract.) I had ice cream earlier, Haagen-Dazs Vanilla - (Fresh Cream (39%), Condensed Skimmed Milk, Sugar, Egg Yolk, Vanilla Extract.) If I'm going to indulge in treats that contain sugar I'll stick to higher quality products that only have 4/5 ingredients.

I'm surrounded by friends/workmates on low cal diets who think Snack-a-Jacks and Fibre One bars are a good snack option I've tried recommended the BBC show, "What are We Feeding Our Kids" and talking about UPFs and how not all calories are equal, I've now given up!

It certainly makes you swerve away from the traditional low cal diet - that’s for sure.
How long it’ll take for the rest of the population to catch up, lord only knows…!

Agree in terms of the low cal snacks being a dodgy option. I tried talking to my mum about the programme ‘What Are We Feeding Our Kids’ too. She blanked me and went all vacant! She eats lots of crappy snacks and says ‘but they’re low fat/calorie!!’ She also uses a type of margarine for the same reason!

We went out for Father’s Day last night. Our local pub has a new pizza oven. Everyone was trying them so I thought I should. Wow!! Regret!! I was awake until 3am with tummy pains. I won’t be rushing for wheat again anytime soon!!

Today breakfast is porridge with berries and a touch of honey.
Lunch is home made veg soup. I can get away with it as it’s raining today!!
Dinner will be green veg stir fry.

Plenty of boiled water today too I think!

Yep I’ve had the same realisation after ‘that other thread’ At least it’s made me realise I should stay quiet in real life. I don’t plan to talk to anyone about it outside my immediate family.

The level of anger in that thread, for daring to suggest calorie counting doesn’t work for a lot of people- and there’s scientific evidence to explain why - was just weird. I think the current levels of overweight/obese adults (>60%) proves that our current guidelines and diet is the problem.

Clearly it’s going to take a long time for people to cotton on that it’s the modern processed diet and eating out so frequently that is the root cause of our obesity crisis. Not fat.

My successes yesterday were turning down a sandwich from my mum and making myself a little salad from what she had in my fridge. I remembered how my body responded to wheat on Friday and it was easy to refuse.

*her fridge! Posting quickly while supervising kid’s breakfast!

I've had a much better weekend than the week, mainly thanks to my gorgeous friend bringing me a huge box of salads for dinner friday and lunches sat/sun. Had that yesterday for lunch, then roast beef and all the trimmings apart from the Yorkshire puds. Slight cock up last night, said to dh 'oooo I really want some of that chocolate cheesecake, sigh'. He thought I actually did so went and got me a slice, then looked sad when I said I didn't actually want it, I just wanted it. So I ate it anyway.

Scales still show a half a lb loss tho, despite a boozy week and not really being 100% on plan. I will definitely take that.

Morning all!

Glad to hear your weekend wasn't as bad, HighlandCowbag, love the sound of the friend who came round with salads!

Yesterday I was quite ridiculously hungry and I don't really know why. 95% of my food was completely on-plan, and the other 5% was a homemade brownie - I couldn't resist the smell! But even before then I just ate and ate and ate - oeufs en cocotte with double cream and smoked salmon and asparagus, an M&S hot smoked salmon and potato salad (not completely additive free but not awful either, and it was better than the McDs everyone else had), a nectarine, lumps of cheese, then steak, broccoli, asparagus and blue cheese, mushroom and cream sauce, then the brownie with whipped cream and raspberries. I haven't eaten that much in weeks, and my period isn't due or anything like that either. Maybe my body just wanted to indulge. I'm 2lbs up this morning but hopefully it will be gone again by tomorrow.

I hope you don’t still feel bad about the other thread @BrightShark it was a very interesting read, and there was only one idiot on there.

@Billybagpuss no I don’t feel bad, most people were pleasant and it was interesting. It’s just made me realise I should keep quiet in real life, as my views/ experiences (corroborated by science) seem to be at odds with the consensus.

Hi everyone, I just fell down the rabbit hole that is your threads and have spent the past few days reading everyone’s journey.
I am 37 5”5 and currently 10 stone 9lbs
Up until last year I was that person that could eat absolutely anything and never put on weight so had a horrific diet full of so much sugar but then over the past year that changed and I slowly put on weight until I was 11stone 6lbs.
On the 30th match this year I decided enough was enough and that I needed to change so joined the no specific diet weight loss thread and downloaded MFP and have been counting calories since then. I am currently 11lb down and going strong even after a couple of blips but what I have realised is that although I am calorie counting my diet now is quite similar to what you are doing as I was looking for a lasting change rather than a crash diet.
I am coeliac and have under active thyroid so already didn’t eat wheat but when I started dieting I slowly cut out sugar and now find that I don’t actually find it very enjoyable, I had some chocolate buttons as a weekend treat yesterday and rather than enjoying them I found them sickly and they gave me terrible wind for the rest of the evening 😳
I used to think nothing to eating a whole pack of cakes when on break at work but would feel so hungry and shaky every couple of hours which was clearly a sugar addiction.
My diet now is either porridge or granola with banana for breakfast, I have always used full fat milk. Lunch is either a gluten free ham salad roll or if at home maybe chicken or fish with veg and a home cooked meal for tea with plenty of veg. When at work I also have either melon or berries with yogurt on my break. I normally only use evoo anyway and tend to go for full fat dairy anyway.
Other than the weight loss the biggest change I have noticed is how full I can now feel, I can go hours without food and a ham salad roll for lunch used to have me reaching for cake/choc/biscuits after an hour whereas now I hardly ever snack.
Being gluten free the junk food is normally much more sugary anyway to make up for the missing gluten.
I see a lot of you have made amendments to keep it sustainable to your way of life and I am the same in that when working I don’t see myself not eating a gluten free bread roll but I very much like the ideas you are following and will keep an interested eye on the thread.
I am still calorie counting but for me it’s never been about a strict weight loss and more about a significant life change so I don’t think when I stop that I will slip back into my old ways of eating. I am looking to drop another 9lbs and then assess, see how I feel and take it from there
I don’t think I will post frequently as I am very busy with work, uni and family but might pop in and out and follow everyone’s journey x

Gosh, apologies for the long post 😬

Welcome @Wejustdontknow nice to have you reading along! I’d recommend reading the book. It’s not a diet plan and there’s very little about what to eat. But the science behind appetite and weight management is really interesting and I think very empowering to change your eating habits.

It sounds like you are on a great path though and doing well without it.

Thank you @BrightShark I will have a look for it and will try to fit it in, I currently have 5 books on my uni summer reading list in preparation for next year that I haven’t even picked up yet 😬 I must try and be more organised
I was determined this would be my only ‘diet’ so was really want it to be a lifestyle change rather than a crash diet and I am on the go so much that I couldn’t survive if I tried to really cut down on food. I am eating 3 meals a day plus sometimes 1-2 snacks and still consistently losing at least 1lb a week. I’m actually a little worried how much I might have to eat to maintain once I’m happy with my weight but I think once I get back to what I used to be I might find that weight loss naturally slows, must read the book to understand the set weight point part though

I find it really interesting to think about the guidance and how it’s changed. I’m 43. We ate very traditionally when I was growing up. Never had pasta or rice unless I went to someone else’s house, so it was potatoes veg and meat every day. Always ate full fat milk, and cream on my cereal. I did have one bag of crisps or penguin with my packed lunch, but often had school dinners. I ate enormous amounts and was as thin as a rake until I changed my diet after DC3. Convenience, time, environment... now my diet is very North American and I am obese 🤔

Welcome, wejustdontknow

I’m intrigued by the students on the thread (considering it myself). What are you studying? And how about you, highlandcowbag (great name)?

Had some salsa left over from the Father’s Day brunch, so breakfast this morning was easy and cheery.

@Throughtheday I am doing a history degree, just finished my first year. I always wanted to be a teacher but after college spent a couple of years living life then had ds1 at 22 so was quite young and have spent the past 15 years working jobs that I don’t mind but we’re not a passion. I decided to just go for it so left my steady, not bad paid job just over a year ago and I’m currently working 30 hours a week in the local shop, I do the hours over 3 days and start at 5am so it fits well around so’s job and the kids school and gives me plenty of time for study. I couldn’t afford not to work whilst doing it so I am doing it full time through the open university. It’s hard going during term time but definitely the best decision I have made recently. Once I’ve fishies my degree I will quit my current job to do a pgce and will be qualified by the time I’m 40 so later in life but still plenty of working years left.
If you haven’t studied at university level before you can claim student finance for the fees if needed. The open university has a lot of free taster courses you could look at to see if anything takes your fancy

Lunches are a real struggle as I just don't feel full enough. Is quinoa a no no? I usually have cous cous but of course that's wheat.