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

Thanks, @TheLeadbetterLife
I'll check them out 🙂

Thanks @badlydrawncat for the Ottolenghi recommendations. I’ve been meaning to buy one of his books for a while

rubbish day here

Started well with exercise, but then the group went for the customary McMuffin-type thing. I fully intended to leave the bread but forgot. Back at home, all hell broke loose all morning. DH made lunch, cheese toasties (he forgot), and I just could not be arsed to make something else. Also had [mumblemumble] Cokes.

There's definitely a correlation between the eating and the fact that I've been totally unable to concentrate on work and achieved nothing all day. Maybe they both come from the fact that I stayed up way too late last night finishing the work I hadn't done because I couldn't concentrate yesterday.

[quote BrightShark]@BirdsandBeesmakinghay

The recommended dietary guidelines are:

1. Cut out all ultra processed food from your diet. You can find UPF definition online.
2. Avoid sugar. This is basically achieved by not eating UPFs (also no sugar in coffee).
3. Avoid eating wheat/ highly processed grains, so bread and pasta are out. All other carbs are fine to eat in any quantity you want to feel full (eg potatoes, rice, veg).
4. Stop using poly fats, so all form of vegetable/ seed oils. Use olive oil/ avocado oil/ cold pressed rapeseed oil.
5. Following on from above, eat full fat butter / yoghurt/ milk/ cream. Avoid anything labelled low fat as it will be a UPF.
6. Eat anything else you want but try to minimise Omega 6 intake and maximise omega 3 intake.

You’ve probably guessed by now that it’s not a diet book as such. It’s more a scientific explanation of how appetite and weight loss works, which will help empower you to make the changes needed for sustainable weight management. Definitely read the book, but take your time as it’s pretty heavy going. He does write in an accessible way, but it’s still a science book![/quote]
Thank you. That sounds like my diet already really apart from drinking semi skimmed milk, 5 percent Greek yogurt and eating bread occasionally. It’s hard to believe this is all you need to do to lose weight!
I will read the book.

The book also recommends reducing stress, getting more sleep and doing more exercise, specifically to build muscle.

Also the book says to get carbs below about 80g per day ideally, so it’s not the case that you can eat any amount of non-wheat carbs.

It’s pretty much just a relatively low carb, anti inflammatory diet plan, with an emphasis on natural whole foods and reducing omega 6.

That’s a great explanation of the main points of this WOE 😊

Well, my son got his degree results yesterday so I celebrated hard last night.
Woke up this morning feeling rough and CRAVING chocolate!! So went straight to the kitchen and found some!! Urghhh annoyed with myself now but need to shift this hangover as I’ve got a meeting at midday that I need to be alert for!!

Also slightly hungover here, but luckily got 2 chicken legs left from last night so if I get a bacon buttie urge can have one of them with some salad.

Got funeral this afternoon so probably off plan later, I can't see a funeral buffet being conducive to the woe. Won't eat a lot there tho, will just pick to be polite. Will probably have some kind of takeaway tonight, and booked for an Indian restaurant tomorrow night. Which I know they cook with ghee so should be ok if I avoid the nan bread. Have had a positive week foodwise tho so not too worried about today. Normally on a diet I'd be saying 'well I can't do anything about this afternoon so may as well have a bacon buttie this morning'. But am saying 'eat something on plan before you go, eat a bit, have the takeaway tonight, back on it tomorrow'.

It’s almost as if this WOE has empowered us isn’t it?!
I normally feel that way anyway..slightly off the boil this morning though..back on it now tho!!
Hope funeral goes ok

Quiet day at home today, nothing calling except my work which is sewing in my 'skyloft'. It's my attic but it's a big, warm, airy and light room that looks out over fields and up to a wood.

Breakfast will be my weekday standard of FF Greek yoghurt, and some fruit, today it's the last of the blueberries and a cappuchino. I don't eat breakfast until late so don't need much for lunch. I'll probably have a baby bel, an apple and chomp my way through some baby plum tomatoes (I leave them in a small dish in the kitchen and eat them like fruit). Dinner is going to be the dreaded porcini ravioli. They're only dreaded because they're pasta but they need to be eaten. So mushroom ravioli with a few mushrooms fried in ghee and a dollop of sun dried tomato pesto with a small salad of rockett, toms, onion and artichoke.

Will be thinking of you @ HighlandCowbag

I think this is empowering because it basically says minimise carbs, maximise good oils and fats, try to sort out the omegas etc rather than you shouldn't, can't, only eat... It assumes people are adults rather than being a prescriptive hard rule based way of eating.

This recipe for Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken has just popped into my inbox from fast800. Out looks lovely and is totally good for us too.
thefast800.com/prosciutto-wrapped-chicken/?utm_source=The+Fast+800+Newsletter&utm_campaign=a4b4cbd9cf-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_06__5waysbellyfat-news&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6187d22b9c-a4b4cbd9cf-156293285

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

Todays food:

B - Weetabix and whole milk (using up the last of them, not "on plan" I know!)

L - Home-made potato salad using creme fraiche as a dressing, spinach, tomatoes and some grated cheese

D - Salmon, wholegrain rice and broccoli

S - Some full far greek yoghurt and a nectarine

@LifestyleReset
L - Home-made potato salad using creme fraiche as a dressing, spinach, tomatoes and some grated cheese
That sounds lovely, I'll be stealing that recipe.

[quote badlydrawncat]@LifestyleReset
L - Home-made potato salad using creme fraiche as a dressing, spinach, tomatoes and some grated cheese
That sounds lovely, I'll be stealing that recipe.[/quote]
It was literally a chopped spring onion, 2 tbsp of creme fraiche, last nights leftover potatoes and some salt and pepper. I was going to add chives but had run out. Very tasty and filling.

Afternoon all, had a little blip this morning as someone had brought homemade shortbread into work and I had some with my morning coffee. However lunch was 100% on plan as had a mackerel salad with beetroot and range of salad vegetables. Dinner is roast chicken with new potatoes, so all good there.

Have dropped another couple of lbs weight as well, which feels remarkable when I consider how much I'm eating and how satisfied I feel. Completely at odds to every other time I've been dieting when it has been such a slog and every single morsel I ate needing counted or weighed.

Hello ladies, i am 6.5 weeks into this way of eating i thought id give an update. I am 49 yr old woman, 2 stone overweight, vegan and life long sugar and chocoholic. Many many months of unsuccessful diets

Took me till about week 3 to get in my groove and cut out bread, chocolate and biscuits. I am to my utter surprise totally off sugar and for the first time in my life have no chocolate cravings. I can have junk in the house and not eat or crave it, its life changing. It does take some thought and some planning but i am finding it ok. Lost nothing at first but in past two weeks i have lost 3lbs i hope i am going in the right direction. Love reading this thread. Xx

I had frittata for tea so I think that's on plan, I used olive oil to cook the potatoes in and used frozen spinach. I then had a rocket salad on the side with balsamic and olive oil.

Is balsamic on plan?

Is balsamic on plan?
Kind of...
I had this discussion with someone from the USA on a low carb group some time ago. Some balsamics have sugar and or caramel added for flavouring. But real balsamic is just vinegar that's been aged in a cask, 'balsamic favouring comes from the wood it's been stored in - so it's a natural and unprocessed product.
I can tell you that the balsamic I'm using now and I bought from Waitrose is fine. I've had natural balsamic from Tesco before now too.

Really interesting about the balsamic. Mine is fine (should be as it’s quite dear from an Italian deli but it’s lovely and lasts ages).

Welcome @Coconut80 and well done. I’m sure you’ll have bigger losses in the coming weeks, but beating the chocolate cravings is a huge achievement!

I found this EVOO humous in the coop. Got quite excited but it’s only 5%. Rest seems to be rapeseed... that’s not ok is it (see pic).

Sorry but life’s too short to make my own humous. I’ll just go without if I have to. But thought it might be good for bbqs with crudités instead of crisps etc.

Hummus is a doddle to make if you have a food processor and buy tinned chickpeas though. It’s the work of seconds.

Maybe I should give it a try @TheLeadbetterLife what exactly are the ingredients for most basic version?

I use olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and sesame oil (as I can't get tahini where I live). It doesn't take much sesame oil to give the right flavour, but you could always leave it out if it's a seed oil too far.

A little bit of salt to taste and that's it. I usually add a bit of water to make it smoother.

This blog has a recipe and some variations, though I don't know why they add the ingredients separately. I just bung them all in.

www.inspiredtaste.net/15938/easy-and-smooth-hummus-recipe/

I don't really bother with a recipe anymore, I just make it up based on what flavours I feel like having more of (garlic, lemon, herbs etc).

Oh, and chickpeas, obv!

I've never actually added oil of.any kind to mine. I just use chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, salt and water. I cook up a bag of chickpeas, portion them and freeze them to use whenever I need them.

Hello everyone

I've lost 45 pounds so far on my own version of this ( since last October). I cook everything from scratch now and I gave up alcohol completely. Feel incomparably better.

I do find I now have a sweet tooth so chocolate and puddings which never appealed before really ( home made crumbles and the like ) are slipping in, slice of cake with coffee when out etc, and predictably weight loss has stalled/ slowed right down to less than a pound a week on average. I hit a horrible plateau for a while but going back to the gym in April has helped re start things albeit slowly

I've tried to compensate for the sweeties since then by intensifying my exercise programme but now I've over done things and hurt my back and hip.

Any advice about how to ditch the sweet stuff at this point?

An average day would go like this:

Black coffee, lots ( Can't eat first thing- only time of day I find food slightly repellent)
Green juice mid morning
Salad/protein lunch, sometimes sourdough toast with it
Protein veg, potatoes or other carbs for dinner - then something sweet for pudding AND squares ( plural) of nice chocolate or other treat in the evening

I probably need to cut my portion sizes too. Am doing the small plate thing but find it very easy to justify seconds- I live alone too. Have huge freezer and freeze leftovers, but something especially nice is hard to resist.

My problem is I love food !

Help!