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!

I've just posted in that thread, most critical of it haven't read the book.

I love this woe. I feel much more in tune with my body, my knee pain has mostly gone, my 💩 is mostly regular and healthy and I have the occasional off day and don't feel too bad. I've just had a lemon danish, was lush, absolutely full of sugar and wheat but lush anyway. And don't feel guilty because it's one bit of a healthy week.

They seem to be missing the main point which is that Jenkinson says diets do not work in the long-term and often end up with people gaining weight - this is why the diet industry is making so much money, people keep coming back again and again!

If there is a WoE which allows people to eat well, avoid being hungry and not have to count and weigh every morsel but still lose weight the majority of diet programmes will be redundant.

Thanks for the support all. Feel better today. I think it's just the stress I am under at the moment, making me a bit doomy. Yes it may be a plateau/ set point. Yes, it's only a poo. ( anyone else only ever weigh naked, first thing, and post poo if at all possible? )

I still have a stone plus to go to healthy BMI. And even if we decide that BMI is tosh, I know in my heart I genuinely have further to go. It's been easy so far. The last few laps will be tougher I think.

Welcome to all the newbies- so good to have as many different experiences as possible.

Some people enjoy numbers and weighing food and counting. Others find joining groups and weight loss clubs helpful. I am very much not one of those people! This is why this approach works for me. Plus it chimes in with my enjoyment of cooking and food.

I re read the second half of the book yesterday. I know he encourages us not to weigh ourselves, but that is the one thing I can't bring myself to abandon.

My next phase is to gradually reduce carbs ( I need to establish what 150g looks like in potato terms for a start) and be sensible about portions and seconds.

I'm fortunate in that bread and pasta, on the whole, don't call to me. Chocolate does though, these days. It used not to, but since I largely gave up alcohol, I seem to have gained a sweet tooth, which makes sense I guess, given that alcohol is largely sugar.

So in my ongoing quest to expand my veg repertoire I bought an aubergine. Now.. I think I don't like aubergine, but I also thought I didn't like sweet potatoes! I do, it turns out.

Any recommendations for my aubergine 🍆? The simplest thing to do is to cube/ slice and roast it in olive oil. I have tried that several times with courgettes and really didn't enjoy them. They go all mushy and horrid. I prefer them raw and grated or turned into a frittata.

I have leftover lamb( it was soooo good) and feta, and r and y peppers, and olives and various cheeses. So - moussaka? I guess I could freeze the remaining portions but I do tend to find that portions of frozen home made however tasty, loses its appeal somehow and can languish in there for years...and now I wfh, I am (blissfully) not under as much pressure of time as I used to be.

I don't want to mess about trying to char it on the burners as I have seen cheffy people do on the telly.
I might set fire to the kitchen.

Google for a baked aubergine recipe, have seen some done with layers of aubergine, tomato sauce and cheese on top. Or my local indian does an aubergine side dish with curry sauce and aubergine. I used to make a gorgeous jamie oliver pasta dish with aubergines, basically again a tomato base sauce, aubergine and melting cheese. Could serve it with courgetti or maybe sliced new potatoes and then bake again.

Here's that graph again of my weight loss and previous dieting attempts, absolutely corrorborating Jenkinson's theory.

Also my losses from January. I just need to stick at it and be patient.

I'm going to follow the Felicity Cloake moussaka recipe in the Guardian. She basically tries out all the variations of a classic recipe and decides what works best.

I will report back!

Please do! Aubergine is a vegetable I rarely eat as I'm never quite sure what to do with it! 😂

Morning all, I'm jumping back on after a month of 'fuck it all, it's the holidays' eating. We've just been away for a week and eating out pretty much every day. I feel awful, sluggish and bloated and actually really craving a big plate of vegetables! Had to buy size 18 jeans for the holiday, which is the biggest I've ever been. I'm not going up another size. Will re-read the book and catch up on the thread (from page 2 of this one!) to get me back in the mindset. DH is joining me, he actually stuck to it longer than I did before having a holiday break as he noticed his itchy ankles went when he gave up wheat.

Sounds like many of you are doing really well following this WOE. So pleased to see the thread still going.

I agree @HighlandCowbag aubergine baked with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese on top is lovely.

Apologies if this is a repeat of stuff you've already done to death, but I'm interested in knowing your top breakfast tips - especially ones that don't involve either porridge or yoghurt, both of which I hate.

Patti hope this attaches. I got the chilli jam at Aldi. Last year I had a clear out of all my Joe Wicks recipe books as I hardly used them - I regret this now! I'm a fan of lower carb but quick recipes. I ignore his dedication to coconut oil though.

I mostly just eat yoghurt for breakfast.

Occasionally crispy bacon and avocado with black pepper and lemon juice..

You could do various things with eggs (I can't personally face eggs at breakfast time).

Or you could do a German style cured meat and cheese and pickles type thing.

I’m having aubergine for dinner today. I make a version of papoutsakia:

slice the aubergine in half, drizzle with olive oil and bake for 30 mins.
Top the slices with layers of sauce - I’ve got pork ragu, and will top that with a layer of bechamel, then grated cheese.
Back in the oven and bake until it’s all heated through and bubbling like a lasagne.

You could layer any old combination of things.

It’s one of our staple meals, like lasagne without the pasta.

For breakfast I often have eggs - huevo rancheros with grated cheese and avocado, Indian scrambled eggs, plain scrambled eggs (usually followed by yogurt and berries). I'm batch cooking and freezing ranchero sauce today. Today's brunch was banana pancakes with yoghurt and raspberries (I often have cream instead).

I sometimes have a "power shake" from the Always Hungry book but it's not on plan - it contains fruit, peanut butter and whey powder (processed) but it's filling.

I just don't eat breakfast, it isn't an essential meal for me

I don't always eat breakfast either.

I did today though when I got back from my walk - a poached egg and some prosciutto. I can never face food until I've been up at least a couple of hours.

Unfortunately this is the only time of day when this happens!

OMG that moussaka is amazing. Felicity Cloake's recipe in the Guardian, folks.

It turns out I like aubergine after all

Slicing the aubergine into 1cm lengths, and brushing with oil before baking in oven produces a very delicious crispy result, with no need to salt in order to remove excess moisture.

Served with fresh peas and fresh bobbity beans.

Much appreciated @SleepWoof, looks lush thanks!

Going to check out the Felicity Cloake moussaka too.

I'm not a massive fan of breakfast either - I tend to have brunch at about 11. Omelettes, scrambled eggs, fry up or oatcakes and cheese are probably my go-to things (I buy olive oil oatcakes from Tesco). Either that or I have a bit of ham and cheese and sliced tomatoes as a sort of Turkish breakfast. I also have porridge sometimes and Greek yoghurt occasionally, but I'd rather have yoghurt for pudding if I want some, so I try to keep it for that.

Hello, can I join?

I am still reading the book right now - I'm planning to start making changes when the kids go back to school in a couple of weeks. It makes a lot of sense to me. I do worry that I won't be able to sustain the healthy eating, as I've lost weight on similar "diets" before and then slipped back into my pasta and bread-eating ways, but I am willing to give it a go and really try and break the wheat addiction this time instead of just white knuckling for 5 months and then going off the wagon.

I really like that he is realistic in the sense that he doesn't pretend you're going to be feeling better from day 1, and that he tries to adjust your expectations as regards weight loss. There's a story in the book about an obese woman who wanted to be 9 stone after gastric sleeve surgery, after a life of being overweight, and when I think back on it, I was about a size 14 for my 20s and 30s and I was never satisfied with that because I wanted to look thinner, but I was healthy and my weight never stopped me doing anything. Now I'm a size 18 and it really is preventing me from doing things in my life. I was doing a DIY job yesterday that I last did pre-lockdown and I was aware of how much harder it is to get down on my hands and knees now. And it's only a matter of time before I start down the path to diabetes. So it's high time.

I wanted to ask a question : how are you all with caffeine, and caffeinated fizzy drinks? I don't know if part 3 of the book mentions them, but I am an absolute diet coke addict, and I can't imagine it's doing me any good in terms of the sweeteners and what they do to your blood sugar, but then how do I get non-sweet caffeine? Or should I knock that off as well? When my kids were babies I stopped drinking caffeine (I suffered from insomnia - from lack of sleep, ironically enough) and I think I was a lot healthier then generally. I suppose if I'm going to be having sugar withdrawal headaches I might as well chuck caffeine out at the same time...

@TammyTwoSwanson

Thanks so much for your honest replies!

I haven't got to the stress part of the book, but I know from my own academic research (I'm a mature student) that stress and trauma contribute to weight gain via a number of mechanisms. If anyone wants any further reading on how to tackle this, from a non-food-related pov, let me know!

I'm reading the audiobook btw... Whoever is reading it has the lowest, loveliest voice!

I don't know if anyone responded to this upthread but I would be really interested in those further reading recommendations!

Burn by Pontzer is complementary to this and definitely worth a listen. Explains really well why the "eat less move more" dullards who pop up on weight loss threads are very very wrong when it comes to losing weight.

Welcome @Anycrispsleft, nice to have you join us. I'm quite looking forward to the kids going back to school as the routine makes it easier to plan meals and not have as many treat events like chips and ice cream.

I have concerns about the artificial sweeteners in drinks like diet Coke. I read Tim Spector's book called Sweet Poison which looked at sugar but also talked about sweeteners and there are issues regarding how the body recognises them and the impact they can have on hunger.

However if a diet Coke helps prevent you mainlining chocolate and sweets then it's a matter of balance, so it will be entirely up to you and what you know will work for you.

Hi @Anycrispsleft!

Surely non-sweet caffeine is… coffee? Or tea. Coffee has a lot of other health benefits too.

Though for the sleep/stress part of all this it’s important to not take too much caffeine, and probably not in the afternoon either. Apparently caffeine stays in the system for 10-12 hours.

I just have a black coffee in the morning, though I’m hoping if I can start sleeping better I won’t need that as much as i currently do.

Hi @Anycrispsleft !

I am a black coffee drinker. I can't recall if the book specifically says much about sweeteners but I was left with the impression they are a bad idea. Hopefully someone will give you more specific advice!