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!

@JeffVaderneedsatray

I love your tadaa moment too!

My go to mid afternoon snack is mature cheddar cheese with slices of apple (eaten together like an open sandwich).

Sooo good, just enough natural sugar to hit the spot and the cheese makes it substantial enough that I don't need too many seconds.

@Aria999 I LOVE cheese and apple together! I cut up cubes of cheese and have a bite of apple and a cube of cheese. Yum!

I have just eaten pastry..........
We are trying to get our kids to eat more widely and one of them chose pie for tonight. In keeping with the spirit of the meal (we all try everything) I ate the pastry. I now feel slightly sick.......

Apple without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze - or so my husband says 🙂

I do agree everyone should read it, though I try not to be an evangelical bore about these things.

Listening to myself at the moment I do feel i sound like I've become the newest acolyte of a whacky niche religion.

'Good news people, read the good book, your eating sins are forgiven, welcome to food heaven'

😂😂😂

🤣🤣🤣

😂😂😂
I've sent my mum a copy of the book, and my husband is going to read it too. Maybe we'll all get matching robes and meet to talk about it on Sundays or something

@Aria999

I do agree everyone should read it, though I try not to be an evangelical bore about these things.

Listening to myself at the moment I do feel i sound like I've become the newest acolyte of a whacky niche religion.

'Good news people, read the good book, your eating sins are forgiven, welcome to food heaven'

😂😂😂

Definitely - I had an argument with 6yo DS about Petit Filous. He said they were healthy (and he wanted to eat something unhealthy), and I said they were full of sugar. Then I paused and remembered that I used to tell him that yoghurts were healthy, until about 10 weeks ago. It’s also DH’s fault for buying them, as he has clearly not noticed that I’ve been making the kids eat Greek yoghurt with honey instead. I do need to properly overhaul the kids’ food and find better alternatives to a lot of things, though!

I’ve had a good day today.

B: small tomato and mozzarella salad, plus oatcake medley involving cheese and salami.
D: Baked sweet potato, tuna mayo, grated cheese, cherry tomatoes (the fridge froze my bag of salad into mush, grr!)

This makes up for yesterday when I had a takeaway Indian wrap consisting of garlic naan wrapped around curried chicken, salad and garlic mayo. I’m not sorry. It was amazing, and the naan was freshly made. My general compliance has been a bit patchy over the last fortnight - tired, count down to a week off, kitchen frequently a bombsite. My stamina for home cooking is directly correlated to the cleanliness (or otherwise) of the kitchen. I’m about to have a week off and will be away with my mum, and she’ll be cooking a lot. She’s a foodie and everything will be good quality, no sunflower oil or cheap rolls, but there will be a lot of booze. Really I should have maintained standards this week, but I never seem to be able to stick to things the week before a holiday.

I've been pretty infrequent round these parts, though I've lurked since the first thread. Just dropping in to say hi to everyone and thanks for all the delicious food ideas and cheery chat. I'm giving this a proper go again, having come to the end of a particularly hellish period of work.

I bloody love it! There are so many lovely things to eat and as I like cooking and live mainly on my own, I am looking forward to hopefully looking healthier as well as feeling more energetic.

My success today was a sort of mexican black beans thing I made from scratch: soaked beans, then simmered with onion, garlic, chilli, a bit of lard, herbs, dried coriander, rind of a lime. I ate it with brown rice, feta and watercress.

Not v low carb, or even particularly mexican by the time I got it in a bowl, but all legit.

@TooExtraImmatureCheddar

Booze is basically ok isn't it? (From a plan point of view anyway!)

I love tomato and mozzarella salad 😊

I had a bad day a couple days ago (sandwich for lunch and pizza for dinner) and weighed in 2lbs heavier the next day. That's half my weight loss so far! Surely it can't be that fast can it?

Anyway I was really trying to see this as a few tweaks and not a diet but it has pushed me into being a little more careful for now...

Hi @Benvolio that sounds amazing! Mmmm

@TammyTwoSwanson

😂😂😂 I've sent my mum a copy of the book, and my husband is going to read it too. Maybe we'll all get matching robes and meet to talk about it on Sundays or something

Now that’s an idea. If we get this web chat with dr jenkinson we should suggest that he includes a silk robe with every copy of the book.

Morning All

Today is Picnic Day- there will be a wicker basket, plaid rug and thermos flasks, for this is Yorkshire, and I am realistic.

Courgette tortilla prepped and ready to go. I've also got some. (Whispers) chocolate dipped strawberries as a ... palate cleanser

My friend is bringing cheese, ham, smoked fish and some bready things for herself.

I giggled at the thought of our matching robes. We should have a virtual eat-too-much feast and wear them!

There is a serious point though isn't there. I am naturally wary of anything ridiculously extreme - it can feel a little cult-like, even when people are absolutely acting with the best of intentions.

I think the point is to find something that is realistic and sustainable for each of us - which could well be slightly different in each case.

I am hoping I will be able to maintain my ongoing weight loss and still have a small amount of chocolate too, for example, but suspect there will need to be a fair bit of experimentation to find my own 'sweet spot' with it all. And that's fine- I am in no huge hurry really.

No one will ever stick to a rigid eating plan permanently- there will always be lapses. Life would be a bit joyless that way. And the more pragmatic we are about that the better chance of success I think.

Most importantly of all, food and eating well is such a pleasure - witness the number of enthusiastic cooks on these threads.

Blimey that was a bit of an essay! Have a lovely day everyone.

Morning everyone

Would love a robe and multiple copies of the book to hand out. Suspect it falls mostly on deaf ears though which is fine. I'm still very chonky, tho less chonky than a couple of months ago, I suspect more people will listen when I am all waif like and skinny limbed.

Yesterday was good, despite some drama going off in the background. Mackerel salad for lunch then jacket potato with cheese and butter for tea. Wasn't that hungy yesterday, didn't have lunch until 2pm.

Today is trickier as its International Takeaway Day in the Highland household. Salad for lunch. I really don't want shitty Takeaway, but dh and dd will and I feel like the fun police not joining in. Hopefully we will decide on some kind of kebab/pizza place that does a grilled chicken or lamb offering.

Tomorrow we are hosting a few friends to watch the football. Am doing a little party buffet type thing. Going to use up some beige stuff I have left over in the freezer from Christmas (looks OK still) but also make sandwiches and traditional buffet stuff. Have loads of eggs from our hens so making a quiche and a tortilla as well, some salads, and a continental platter thing with olives and parma ham and stuff so plenty for me (and health conscious friend) to avoid the bread and processed stuff!

I'm going to hold off ordering my robe until I've dropped another size thanks

I agree with @Words about this plan being flexible and everyone can find what works best for them. For me, I'm focusing on reducing wheat and sugar, but I haven't cut them out entirely. I allow myself very occasional wheat-based meals (partly because they are favourites of my kids and I'm not starting making two different meals for us) and I allow myself dessert if I'm having a meal out or a little bit of chocolate after my dinner in the evening. I have cut out veg oils and started eating more fish, but haven't worked about the omega balance beyond that.

I'm still losing weight doing it like this and it makes it sustainable for me as I don't feel deprived.

I've lost 24lbs so far. Ideally I would love to lose at least another 7-10lbs, as that gets me well down in the normal BMI category, but I've been there in the past and haven't been able to maintain. I'm hoping I can do it, but even if I have to accept a slightly higher set point I'm ok with that as I know I can maintain this WoE long-term and will be much healthier compared to yo-yoing up and down (with gradually more up than down) the way I had been doing for years.

Good Morning Everyone,

Due to my health scare I've had to cut out caffeine and excess salt. I've cut out wheat and sugar after reading this book - so why am I not skinny yet? 😂

I've had a huge clear out of my social media - unfollowed the Slimming World people on Instagram (there were lots, I started out on SW two years ago) because it's all the wrong foods for this plan.

I've also unfollowed my keto groups on FB - they were mostly celebrations of UPF Franken-food made to suppress a craving and I don't want that in my life. I've found the Fast 800 groups closely align with this WOE so I've kept them.

I can't seem to find much supporting this apart from on Mumsnet - had anyone seen anything on FB or Instagram?

PS - have also gifted the book to a friend!

My weight loss has stalled for 2 weeks. I’m ok with it, slowly slowly catch a monkey and al that.

In fact Dr J warns about. It will take months to lose significant amounts of weight or up to 20kg. It is slow but sustainable weight loss.

Previously I wouldn’t be happy with this- I’d want the pounds to drop quickly. But I have the illustrated graph of the female dieter from the book in mind. That’s basically what happened to me. Lost loads crash dieting, put it all back on and more. So I’m resisting the urge to reduce portion sizes and will stick with this.

Well yesterday was a mixed bag for me.

I bought a few new clothes (linen trousers and shorts) and was delighted to find that not only have a dropped a dress size, but that it's not even marginal. I'm properly, comfortably a 42 in one shop, with loose-fitting clothes, but still

Food-wise, yesterday was an absolute car crash though. I started okay while I was out, snacking on some all-meat sausages that I found at the deli counter. But I may have had ice cream after that. And a pretzel (this is our weekly treat after the supermarket shop).

Had good intentions for dinner - pollock meunière and green beans - but a friend unexpectedly invited us out, so it actually became a plate of cockles in garlic and white wine, followed by a huge steak, plus a glass of beer and several glasses of wine. And a shot of medronho (local firewater). And bread to mop up the cockles. And chips with the steak.

I'll be making up for it today, but christ.

I wore my new linen shorts to the restaurant though.

Just to add, I think that’s why non weight victories on this woe are so important to keep you motivated. I’ve been thinking about these this morning...

• I feel lighter and have more of a spring in my step (i expect due to inflammation going)

• 4 colleagues this past week said how great I look. Including my boss (female) who said what have you done, you look fantastic? They said I was glowing. Still WFH on MS Teams, so I’m guessing it’s not the weight loss (only lost 5kg) but the lack of bloating/ water retention due to sugar abstinence that is showing in my face. Also the glow might be due to swapping processed low fat options for full fat? I can see it too, I look less dry/ liney and a few years younger. If you google ‘sugar face’ this is a thing!

• 2 close family members who have seen me said my stomach is flatter and less bloated (it’s still large). I feel it’s easier to pull my stomach in, there’s definitely less fat and water pushing it out.

• I’m not experiencing cravings. I can peruse the supermarket shelves and ignore all the sugary, UPF products.

Oh, and to top it all off, Lidl has brought back their Speciale chocolate range, which had disappeared for a few months. Do you get those ones in the UK?

There's a 34% milk chocolate with hazelnuts which is just unbelievably good. Everything that Cadbury's Whole Nut should be but isn't. It's not particularly processed and doesn't contain any dodgy oils, but it's far too much sugar of course.

I didn't buy one, but I'm going to have to allow it back into my life at some point.

NSVs (non-scale victories) are really good motivation, aren't they BrightShark! This week I noticed my wedding and engagement rings were looser (would prefer to lose weight from my hips rather than my fingers, but hey-ho!) and I wore a pair of jeans that were always somewhat 'snug' meaning I had to be shoe-horned into them and I zipped them up easily!

Good morning,
Excited to be joining this thread. I've been following this WoE for 3.5 weeks and I've lost just over 1kg. I was a bit disappointed at my weight loss then remembered I'd been though 3 bars of dark chocolate, numerous treats at other people's homes, plus alcohol pretty much every night - eek. I did try on a pair of jeans that wouldn't zip up 4 weeks ago and with a bit if rejigging of my internal organs, I got the zip closed (no change in exercise). Further to my lax following of the recommendations, I had a massive alcohol blow out last weekend followed by a cinema visit involving Percy Pigs and sweetened popcorn. Interestingly, after 48hrs I was fully recovered from my hangover, whereas I would usually be in a pit of self-loathing and bingeing for a week. There have been definite improvements in my mood and appetite. I'm going to do dry July and cut out the 'extras' and will see what the scales say at the end of the month. It would be great to be able to wear the jeans and breathe. Lovely to 'meet' you all and looking forward to being part of the thread x

Well, back in April I went for my first open water swim in ages, my wetsuit was custom made 1 1/2 stone ago. It was a challenge getting it on and I probably burnt more energy doing that than the actual swim.

I went again at the weekend, and I honestly now think its too big. DH is not going to be impressed, its current cost is probably about £40 an outing. I will make more use of it over summer, but I think I may need a new one before winter sets in. I may even be able to buy a normal off the peg, maybe even second hand one, trust me, this is huge I searched and searched for ages, and apparently wetsuit companies don't make them for short fat ladies and I really didn't want a mans one.

I think it's definitely important to be realistic about things and not feel we have to stick to the perfect way of eating 100% of the time. That way will just lead to restriction and an all or nothing mentality.
I've just read in the book that in general the Italians have a 13% western diet (compared to 50% in the UK or 75% in the states). That seems to leave space for the odd bar of chocolate (green and blacks seems to not have veg oil in it), pasta or home made brownies with the kids! The impression I'm getting is that the normal, every day regular food should be unprocessed, but this shouldn't stop the occasional treat or dinner in a restaurant.

I'm wondering about quality of the meat though. Surely grain fed beef will be full of omega 6? Is this something we need to consider?

@TammyTwoSwanson yep agreed- I think the Italians have got it about right. Not sure whether you are in the UK or not, but we don’t really have grain fed beef here like in the US. Chickens yes, but of beef is grass fed and topped up in winter with non grain foods. Lamb is predominantly grass fed.