Why We Eat (Too Much) Thread 3

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

We’ve chatted as much as we (used to) eat! New shiny thread for more support.

General principles:

No sugar
No wheat
No processed foods
Honourable mention to tipping the balance of omega 3 and 6, but that’s mostly achieved by doing the above.

Everything else is fair game!

Last night was the first night I deviated from this woe (nachos and beer for the football!) and I have had a dodgy, bloated stomach ever since. Feel rotten!
So am happy back on it today!

Things I've noticed so far (pre-nachos): I have stopped craving bread and pasta and sweet stuff already. My blood sugar is stable and twice this week I've forgotten to have lunch and it was proper hunger pangs that reminded me to eat something. That never happened before! Of course by then it was too late to have a meal because I never would have eaten dinner just a couple of hours later, so an apple and a bit of cheese or a homemade berry smoothie with milk was enough to tide me over.

I made cloud bread for the first time yesterday as I wanted something to put mackerel pate on.

It wasn't like bread but it was fine to eat and surprisingly the DCs liked it despite it feeling a bit like a washing up sponge.

Definitely no danger of over eating them like I would with bread though!

Is baking soda ok? I have a porridge bread recipe that I could use if it is.

Down 3.5 pounds. Delighted with the whole thing.

@NowYouListenToMeFella

Congrats on the 3.5 lbs! Great!

Evening everyone

Congratulations on the 3.5lbs! That's a cracking amount off.

I've had a good couple of days. Yesterday had some veg rice for lunch, then pulled beef and roast potatoes for dinner (had done pulled beef sarnies for guests to watch football). Then this morning I made a cooked breakfast to combat the hangover and then more beef, mashed potatoes and veg for dinner.

I do have a strawberry tart with fresh cream in the fridge I'm going to have later. Am really looking forward to it, it will be lush and worth every calorie.

I don't see why Baking Soda would be an issue. Even if it was you use so little of it, it's hardly going to affect your metabolism in the longer term.
3.5lb is wonderful.

@Aria999 yes I love cheese. I think maybe I have a hang up still of eating too much cheese, I need to forget that!!

Thanks all and thanks on the baking soda. Delighted I came across this thread and ordered the book. The 4 pillars arrived today so will get into that next week. Have lots of study to do after work this week.

@WeWantAMackerelNotASprat

😊 I have been privately thinking of this way of eating as the 'eat as much cheese as you want' plan.

I was amazed to lose some weight!

@Aria999 🤣🤣

[quote Aria999]@WeWantAMackerelNotASprat

😊 I have been privately thinking of this way of eating as the 'eat as much cheese as you want' plan.

I was amazed to lose some weight![/quote]
Me too. My fridge has never been so full of cheese.

I'm feeling a little bit disheartened today. I've stuck to plan and found it incredibly easy. I love food and always cook from scratch so found it easy to adapt to. I've not touched sugar , processed foods or wheat for a month now. I weigh myself regularly and I've put on 3 pounds since I started this way of eating. I feel great as I'm not on the snacking rollercoaster I was on. I rarely eat breakfast but mostly eat a makerel salad for lunch and then an evening meal. I know it says in the book you might gain some weight at the start. Why do I have to be the one who gains the weight ! I have about a stone and a half to shift and I'm heading in the wrong direction .

Sorry to hear that Collywobble. Maybe post an average days food for us to have a look at? Could it be hormonal or water retention maybe? Has your diet drastically changed?

@HighlandCowbag it could be hormonal as I have recently changed my HRT and had a mirena coil so I am adjusting to that. My diet hasn't drastically changed as I always have cooked from scratch and not eaten much bread . The real changes have been the introduction of cheese , full fat yoghurt and butter as these always felt naughty after years of slimming world and more carbs in potatoes and rice.

Yesterday was

Smoked salmon and cream cheese with a salad and a bowl of strawberries

Dinner cod loin , mashed potatoes and peas
Cherries and full fat yoghurt

Sunday I had a poached eggs , bacon and tomatoes, mushrooms with two pork chipolatas from Aldi ( 97 pork ) no wheat added

Mozzeralla and tomatoes drizzled in olive oil
Chicken breast in tomato and cream sauce with peppers and rice

Strawberries and cream

Saturday ham omelette and salad

Steak and salad with new potatoes
Strawberries and mango with Greek yoghurt

I'm drinking quite a few more coffees now that I wasn't before maybe that's something I could reduce.

After a meal I'll sometimes get a slice of Edam to avoid the sugar habit after a meal

I love this way to eat as I have absolutely no hunger or sweet cravings or even snack cravings so I'm keeping on it and hope it evens out

@collywobble it’s very likely hormone related by the sounds of it. If you’re eating well and enjoying the food stick with it and try not to get too stressed by the scales (easier said than done I know!). I haven’t weighed for a while and am waiting until after TOTM before I do as I’m currently feeling very bloated.

My Dr Chatterjee book has arrived so I’m looking forward to sitting in the garden with him after work later 😎

The food you’ve listed sounds lovely, but it did jump out at me that you said you’re eating more carbs. The book says we should be eating less carbs - reducing gradually to under 80g a day.

It’s really only a lowish carb Mediterranean diet plan. I think unless you were eating nothing but junk food and sweets before you’re unlikely to lose weight without cutting the carbs.

@TheLeadbetterLife possibly I meant I was eating more carbs than previously as I was on a low carb diet previously so my body might be adjusting . I try and make sure I only have one meal a day with a carb and I'm very saited and will keep an eye on my carb intake just in case

@collywobble I lost three pounds but today am over starting weight so I feel your pain. I still think the woe is better as I am not craving junk and have given up Coke for two weeks now. Just hope it starts to go the other way soon!

@collywobble sorry to hear that. It's a bit of a leap of faith isn't it to start eating cheese and butter so you really feel you need results!

I hope it turns around soon.

I think I have reached my weight set point. Every few days I put on a couple of pounds, panic, don't actually change anything, and seem to bounce back down again anyway.

@collywobble what you have listed is almost exactly the same as the food that I'm eating. Can I check, how long have you been following this WoE and (only if you are happy sharing) what weight are you currently?

I know I hit a bit of a plateau for a few weeks last month when I stopped losing weight and even put on a few pounds, but I then started to lose again. I really couldn't identify any particular reason for the plateau.

Might you be nearing your weight set-point perhaps? I know you say you've another stone and a half to lose, but is that to get to a weight that is realistic and healthy? I know that others my height are around 2 stones lighter than me, but there is no way I could lose that amount and not look gaunt. For me a realistic and sustainable weight is around 1 stone less than I currently am (11 stones 3lbs).

@collywobble it looks pretty good on paper but just keep an eye on portion size and proportion. I've been using SWs guide of 1/3 of my plate veg when appropriate and I think my losses have been better when I've had more salad or veg in the week. Also don't eat cheese and butter for the sake of it, as part of a meal is fine but Dr J is against snacks and advocates 3 meals. If I was struggling with loss I'd make sure the first thing I was doing is ditching snacks and making sure I was eating breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'd include something like fruit and natural yog after a meal as part of the meal once a day.

Also mindful eating is really important as is sleep and stress levels. It's not a weight loss programme, it's a way to manage long term health. Part of that is weight management. But a healthy weight isn't necessarily the weight you want to be. I'd be happy with a bmi of 26/27 but you may already be at that point.

I've not been hungry at all today. Had a few olives and a few pieces of feta earlier. Then salmon, new potatoes and butter and peas and carrots for dinner with a bowl of homegrown raspberries and cream for afters.

Tomorrow won't be so good. Its dds 17th so takeaway for tea and we have birthday cake as well. Then out for a meal on friday. Be easy to say fuck it cos holiday on Saturday as well but have got stir fry for Thursday. And Saturday we will be driving 250 miles so taking a picnic rather than eat services food.

@Tiredandbored I'm now 12st 3 and I'm 5ft 8 . I've been doing this woe a month now and at the beginning went down to 11.13 from 12.2. I love the woe it's lovely not to constantly be thinking about food but I'd love to start seeing a bit of difference in my clothes and on the scales along the way.

Perhaps you have reached your current weight set point. I’m definitely at mine - weight loss has been stalled for well over a month, getting on for two months.

It’s maddening because I’m half a stone away from my goal weight. I’m going to switch things up a bit for a few weeks to try to increase my metabolism:

Much less dairy. I’m probably going to start by cutting it out altogether next week.

More protein and leafy greens.

Carbs under 50g per day for a week or two.

Smaller portion sizes. We’ve been letting them creep up.

Two days a week of a minimum 20 hour fast.

Change my exercise routine. I think I’ve been doing too much HIIT (apparently if you can do it a lot you’re not doing it right!). I’m going to do it twice a week and yoga every other day to build muscle.

We’ll see...

Some good advice re portion size and not snacking from @HighlandCowbag which may help you @collywobble.

One thing I've noticed is I've had to retrain my brain away from the notion of eating because that's what I do at certain times of the day. I used to have breakfast, morning coffee with biscuits, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner then a (fairly substantial!) evening snack. It took me a while to get out of the habit of eating so regularly and realising that I'm not actually hungry between meals and don't need to eat.

Now I have 3 meals with no snacks in between (except a cup of coffee) and in the evening I actually consciously think about whether I'm actually hungry - if so, I have some fruit and Greek yoghurt, if not then nothing.

I think you're at a similar stage to me - you only need to lose around 0.5 of a stone to get into the healthy BMI bracket. I'm slightly shorter than you, so need to lose another 5lbs or so to be in that bracket. I think my weight loss has slowed (haven't weighed myself for a week now, so not exactly sure!) as I get closer to that point, but am going to see where it settles before I consider whether I want to make any further changes.

I know I CAN lose another 1.5 stones (as I've done it in the past) but I know I most likely CAN'T maintain that weight easily, so I'd rather be a little bit heavier but able to stay steady without needing to focus on extreme diets.

I’m the same @Tiredandbored, in that I’m just about in the healthy weight bracket now (BMI-wise), but losing much more would not be sustainable for me. I like eating too much, so it would be a big lifestyle compromise.

Also, and this may sound very odd, but I quite like being big. I’m tall, have a large frame and have been overweight for more years than I haven’t. I’m not overweight now but I’m still big, and I think it suits me. As long as my BMI is comfortably under 25 and my waist size is less than half my height, I’m happy.