Why We Eat (Too Much) Thread 4

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Hi to all regulars and lurkers!

Here's the 4th thread, based on the ideas in Dr Andrew Jenkinson's book. We've seen some amazing losses on these threads, and the benefits for me can be summed up as 'no counting, no starving'.
We don't count calories, and if we're hungry we eat. We're focused on quality.

General eating principles:

No sugar
No wheat (which reduces unhealthy carbs)
No ultra processed foods, and in particular no processed/ultra refined oils
Honourable mention to tipping the balance of omega 3 and 6, but that’s mostly achieved by doing the above.

His principles also include trying to sleep more and reduce stress, and take regular (moderate) exercise.

If any of this sounds promising, please feel free to ask questions and come and join in!

Re butter, Lidl do a really good Cornish butter with sea salt. Bought following a recommendation elsewhere on here. It's lovely, and butter freezes fine.

I used to have Lurpak spreadable but that's a no no on account of the veg oil.

May I hop on? I've read the book and it makes a great deal of sense, but I need to go back to the bit about How To Do It. I am sort of helped by the fact that I an intolerant to wheat and yeast anyway, so everyone is happier if I avoid them. It is less good that I am also intolerant to avocado, fresh berries except raspberries and blackberries, honey, bananas, some raw veg (onion, garlic, courgette) and eggs. Apart from that, food is really easy for me!

I am hoping this new approach will allow me to actually eat things without tying myself in a knot.

The last two weeks I have been laid up on bedrest following foot surgery but have been practising pre-making meals that fit the paradigm so people can just grab them for me.

Breakfast is usually oats, greek yoghurt, chia seeds, cinnamon and fruit.

Lunch has been a salad of kale, beetroot and baby leaf salad from Tesco, celery, tomatoes, roasted pepper and sweet potato and a rotation of protein - tuna, chick peas, cheese, ham, cold chicken, mackerel, sardines etc. It seems to be hard to find mackerel NOT in tomato sauce.

Dinners at the moment are ready meals as DH is working full time as well as running after me, running the house and shepherding various teens and a tween through their lives. Clearly that's not ideal and I'm hoping to get onto batch prepping dinners soon too. Does anyone else do that?

Hoping this finally works, I've seen a loss of two pounds despite not being able to move!

I wish I could eat flaxseed, but it gives me horrible stomach pains! As does quinoa, for some reason!

I would love to batch prep dinners but the best I can do is double bolognese or a batch of Ratatouille. We seem to need so much food for the 5 of us that I don't have big enough pans for batch cooking!

Lidl do a Mackerel in oil, but it's probably sunflower oil so not sure that's okay either.

I can't bear fishy fish so I don't eat it but DH used to. Then he stopped and now I have a mackerel mountain in the pantry (OK, cupboard under the stairs, but I use it as a pantry).

Apple and cheese for breakfast, Ratatouille for lunch, DH has made his amazing chili for dinner but won't let me eat it on its own because it has to last so I'm having it with frozen cauliflower cheese that needs using as I didn't fancy a big plate of rice, I may have a small portion on the side. Lots of soured cream too (love that stuff).

Yesterday was oats, seeds and Greek yogurt with half a banana and cinnamon for breakfast.
A slice of lightly toasted Rye bread with cheese for lunch (DH wanted to try this, he's not sure but I was surprised that I quite like the flavour).
Roasted baby potatoes and egg muffin things (like a quiche but no pastry) with chorizo, onion and cheese, served with peas.

@lazylinguist

I wish I could eat flaxseed, but it gives me horrible stomach pains! As does quinoa, for some reason!

Ground almonds do that for me. Weirdly I'm fine with whole ones. Inulin can do it if I have too much after not having any for a while. I guess that's the gut effects of it but no idea why the almonds do it.

Apparently quinoa has a high level of something called saponins in the coating of the grain, which is indigestible. It needs a lot of washing for anyone to eat it, but some people still can't tolerate it!

I made this for dinner tonight, it was lush!

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chicken-supreme

I just used the teaspoon of flour to thicken as it was so little but tbh it would probably have been fine without.

That looks amazing, @PattiRandall!

@lazylinguist

I wish I could eat flaxseed, but it gives me horrible stomach pains! As does quinoa, for some reason!

Flax seeds need dosing. Just a teaspoon to start with and then gradually increase to a tablespoon per day. If you can bear it their benefits are worth the pain!

I get this tinned mackerel in Tesco @IWillWashTheGreenWillow

www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/258574760?sc_cmp=ppcGHS+-+Grocery+-+Repeat+&+DSPX_Shopping+GSC_Actives_Tesco+Brand_All+ProductsFood+Cupboard_ShoppingPRODUCT_GROUP258574760*&ds_rl=1116016&gclid=CjwKCAjw95yJBhAgEiwAmRrutDy3TGOfAJBaDxAT3QjtCoJuzgalD4r7YflpjtsDjFgIUz-C6ua6dRoClygQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Oh, I didn't know there was a new thread, I've been posting on the old one. Oh well.

That mustardy oniony creamy garlicky bacony sauce in the chicken recipe would brighten up leftovers too ( takes notes, roast chicken planned on Sunday)

Interesting about the quinoa. I seem ok with the flaxseed, but flour in the béchamel sauce I made earlier this week ( recipe called for 60g, not just the odd tablespoon) after a time without... ooof. Very nasty, and innards still not quite settled. Thought I had got away with trying it a second time, but no.

Yesterday I ate too much. I had porridge and fruit, a green smoothie mid morning, salad and omelette for lunch and a pork chop and veg for dinner, with a couple of squares of dark chocolate for pudding. All on plan bar the choc. Just too much of it. As usual. I am stressed, tired, and a bit bored at the moment. Lethal combination.

It's fishy Friday today, so I am having sea trout for dinner , and some kind of salad for lunch.

Oh thought it was quiet yesterday, placemarking for a catch up!

Morning everyone, it's nearly the weekend 🎉🎉

Menu plans for today in the tiredandbored house are porridge, omelette and pan-fried cod. Have some berries and kefir yoghurt in the fridge for a snack.

Aim for today is to only eat if I'm actually hungry and not to overeat. Sometimes my portions are too big for my appetite, but I eat it all anyway...
because it's there...
because it's healthy...
because it's on-plan...
because that's what I've always done...
because I don't like waste...
because that's how much I used to eat...
because I'm greedy...
because

I need to get out of that habit and start eating in accordance with my new reduced appetite level, not my previous eat everything within a 20m radius appetite level.

So, today, I'm going to do it the Japanese way and eat until I'm 80% full, then stop. After 20 mins or so if I'm actually still hungry I'll have a little more.

I hereby promise to all the WWETM (thread 4!!!) participants if I overeat today I will immediately go and don my marigolds and scrub my oven, which is the chore I most hate and have been putting off doing for ages.

Hello tired . I do all that too!
I will give your plan a go today also.
My incentive is that tomorrow is scales day ( I know, I know...)

The scales don't scare me as much as my oven

Great plan @Tiredandbored

I really dislike lunch as a meal, dislike salad, sandwiches are boring (not that they're allowed) soup meh, there's just nothing that I ever get excited about eating for lunch. So I use the incentive of leftovers as a way to make sure I stop eating when I'm full. So I have half a chicken breast and a load of nice bacony sauce left over for my lunch today because I stopped eating when I had had enough last night. Win win!

That's a really good system @PattiRandall. Now I have fewer people to feed here, I might be able to do the same.

So I've stuck to the plan, more or less.

No breakfast.

Lunch:Salad leaves with chopped hard boiled egg and a slice of chopped grilled bacon, vinaigrette, two home made oatcakes and a spoonful of home made cream cheese. Small portions ( for me)

Dinner: sea trout cooked in a bag with butter and lemon juice. Made a surprisingly tasty sauce by adding capers, white wine and a little cream to the cooking juices and heating through. Served with spinach and roast kale.

Pud if still hungry shortly will be yoghurt and blueberries.

Then there will be a small amount of nice chocolate ( a really really good chocolate place has just opened in my town, oh no) as I gawp at celeb master chef later.

No oven-cleaning here today...as yet! Though this is the time of day that I'm at greatest risk of boredom-eating.

I'm not hungry, but I have some lovely fruit and yoghurt I could enjoy right now. I don't need it, it's just habit and boredom making me want it!

Need. To. Focus. On. My. Greasy. Oven.

I have some lovely rose crisp dark chocolate. But it's just habit and boredom making me want it right now.

Must .focus.on.healthy. BMI.

We can do this tired

Well, tonight we went to an outdoor DH work party at a park.

I ate a homemade chocolate chip cookie (yum) and a shop bought apple donut bite (looked wonderful but was actually disgusting).

It continues to amaze me about this woe how much I actively dislike processed food when I am doing it.

Hurrah - 1.5 pounds off this week.

Great news, especially as I go on holiday next Friday. There will be a lot of walking but also seven of the ten days will be restaurant eating.

Aria I know exactly what you mean. Processed food tastes horrible to me too after months on fresh food. Yet I fell into the habit of eating more and more of the stuff, through laziness and habit.

Cooking from scratch really need not take very long, just a bit of planning ahead. It's so easy for me to slip back though - they make it that way.

I'm off into the hills shortly so it will be cheese and oatcakes, with a couple of dates for emergency rations.

Afternoon all. Or is it evening? Anyway...
Today was breakfast of oats, seeds, yogurt and few dried currants (same again today) as it's easy to take to work. Doesn't keep me full for long though, despite being FF Greek yogurt. I always find oats make me hungry, despite all the hype about them being slow release energy. I'm going to get some of the expensive, fancy whole ones rather than the cheap bags of rolled oats. I seem to remember them being better.
Yesterday breakfast was apple and cheese again. Love that so much, couldn't have apples on low carb so that's one big plus of this WOE.
Lunch today was lightly toasted Rye bread, buttered and sandwiched with cheese and peanut butter. Yesterday was Ratatouille again, I need to make another one for next week.
Dinner yesterday was DH's chili on baked potatoes (I didn't actually need one and a half, they just looked small. So I probably over ate as I was very full after) with soured cream and cheese. Tonight it's meatballs in sauce baked with mozzarella and served on courgetti. DH will be doing the courgetti making as he loves playing with the 'food lathe'.

DS2 made shortbread which is currently cooling in the kitchen and the house smells amazing. I'm tempted, as it's homemade, but probably should stay clear.

Weighing tomorrow morning, after eating well for a week. Hoping for some encouraging news, though I know it isn't all about that.