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!

Breakfast has been alternating between egg muffins (egg, spinach, peppers and mushrooms with a handful of mozzarella and a tbsp of pesto, whizzed together and baked in a muffin tray for 20min).

Lunch has been fresh salad or lentil and bean salad with salmon or chicken.

Evening meals like shepherd's pie with cauliflower rice, creamed spinach with loads of cream! Creamy baked chicken thighs with pesto. That sort of thing. Snacking on cheese or brazil nuts (i know not great but i love them). I chuck flax and chia in everything, have full fat everything, and make sure everything is full of green veg whether that's kale or spinach or broccoli. It's been great! and all except the fresh salad has frozen well. I live away during the week so do my prep at weekends.

Had a massive T bone steak with a huge salad and baked potato last weekend.

Wow well done @Mrsmorton, that's a fab loss.

Ive stayed the same this week which is fine. But a couple of NSV still. Dh keeps commenting I've lost loads now, my naice running leggings from fabletics are comfortable enough to wear for doing the ponies if I'm not riding, more comfortable than jodphurs for pottering and they were a bit tight to wear all day before, and I saw my lovely cousin I haven't seen for about 6 weeks and she noticed straight away I had lost weight and my calves are very muscular with actual definition!

Yesterday was OK, missed lunch and never have breakfast. Had a hunk of cheese and pickles and a slice of ham about 5pm as was starving and had to ds to watersports til 7.30pm. Then jacket potato, tuna and cheese for dinner. Have found with enough butter and cheese you don't miss the mayo on a spud if you want tuna and usually have mayo.

Today will be our weekly takeaway, probably chinese as we've had indian the last couple of weeks. Am OK with that. Sunday will also be difficult as ds has a kayaking competition all day. Dh has said he will pick us naice turkish kebabs up for tea so can have the grilled chicken one. And might do a picnic and a boxed salad for me for in the day to avoid the naice cafe and cake and bacon butties.

Morning all, I haven't posted in ages as life has been manic! Getting kids back to school, I'm back to work, DH has ended up with a load of overtime recently, it's been crazy.

Anyhow, I have managed to have a quick flick through the various posts, well done on some great progress from lots of you!

I'm pleased to say that I have (just about) edged off the plateau I was on. I've had a slight drop in weight over the last few days which has taken me under 11 stones.

The last time I weighed this I was having to count every morsel I ate and really limit myself quite drastically. I did it with WW previously, then again a couple of years later logging everything on MFP, but both were so restrictive and needing constant measuring and counting, which meant they were (for me) unsustainable long term and I regained all the weight.

This time really feels different. I don't feel limited or restricted, I'm not faffing about with scales and counting points, I genuinely believe I can eat this way for the rest of my life.

Hello, you lovely people. I have desperately been trying to catch up before commenting and have finally read all your posts! Thank you for starting this discussion and all the helpful advice.

I’ve only just started the book, but a lot of it sounds similar to Jason Fung’s Obesity Code, which others have mentioned. As well as In Defence of Food (that author also talks about only eating things your grandparents would eat - though I suspect some of us might have to look to great-grandparents).

However, the Omega 6 aspect of this book is really interesting and gives more incentive to cut out processed food.

My DS was diagnosed with a wheat allergy years ago and I stopped eating it out of solidarity (also after reading Wheat Belly), but in the process have started eating a lot more processed food as GF baking is hard to master! Now looking at the ingredients, I’m horrified about what we have been eating!

I think this way of eating feels so liberating because I know deep down, this is how everyone should be eating, not just those of us with weight to lose.

Saying this will probably jinx it but I think I may have moved off my plateau. I have been weighing in 1lb lighter for a few days. (Yes I know you're not supposed to weigh yourself every day but I always have).

(I made pancakes for breakfast so it may not last 🤣)

@MrsBloatymcbloatface I just laughed out loud at your username, love it!! 😂😂😂

Awesome @Aria999!

What would you eat if you were hormonal and wanted a massive chocolate binge? Is there an acceptable sweet hit?

I do follow a diet like this naturally but I have terrible hormonal cravings for sugar. And, er, I love wine.

Dark chocolate isn't too bad @PrincessofPeeves. Or some natural yoghurt, sweetened with honey and some raspberries or whatever fruit you have in.

I do have a pudding once a week tho, and have still been losing.

Thank you @Tiredandbored can you believe the name was already taken? Had to add the Mrs to get it 😂

@PrincessofPeeves I love wine too.

Wine actually doesn't count as sugar on this plan as the body processes alcohol calories differently. Treats it as poison so that's ok then

You may get stomach bloat from wine or fall off the wagon because of munchies but the wine itself is free.

I have been eating one half spoonful of sugar along with a bigger snack such as cheese when I get a sugar craving. It basically seems to work.

@Aria999 "Wine actually doesn't count as sugar on this plan"

You had me at this. Was ever a more beautiful sentence written?

Talking of cheese, I randomly had some 80s-style cheese and pineapple yesterday and it did the trick!

@PrincessofPeeves I LOVE cheese an pineapple, that is a great snack!

My personal trainer says just to eat a tiny bit of what it is I want when I have a massive craving - she says if you go low sugar/low fat versions, it makes people more likely to overeat or just end up eating the thing anyway afterwards so best just to stop the craving by having what you want once in a while.

[quote Tinselandlights]@PrincessofPeeves I LOVE cheese an pineapple, that is a great snack!

My personal trainer says just to eat a tiny bit of what it is I want when I have a massive craving - she says if you go low sugar/low fat versions, it makes people more likely to overeat or just end up eating the thing anyway afterwards so best just to stop the craving by having what you want once in a while. [/quote]
I've always thought this. When you look around you tend to see it's larger people eating low fat etc whereas slimmer people have full fat stuff - I realise it's a huge generalisation! I never buy low unless by mistake

I've always gone full fat since reading about insulin resistant related to PCOS.

This might be a stupid question: but I'm confused if meats like chorizo and Parma ham are out because they're processed or if they slip through through because they're not akin to eg turkey twizzlers?

@PrincessofPeeves it's not a stupid question, I am a little unclear on it too. The book doesn't go into very much detail (I think at least partly because he wants you to make some of these decisions for yourself).

Personally I am still eating plenty of bacon and occasional chorizo (never liked the latter really but DH cooks with it sometimes).

@PrincessofPeeves it's something I've been wondering too. I know pork doesn't have a great omega ratio because of the way it's farmed so I'm trying to reduce it for that reason but still have bacon and chorizo for breakfasts on weekends.

@PrincessofPeeves processed meats have other health risks because of nitrates, but strictly speaking they’re not the same as the ultra processed foods he’s talking about. They’re also a part of traditional food cultures, so something our grannies (or in the case of chorizo, someone else’s granny) would have had.

I think there were a few comments on the previous threads about wheat-free bread alternatives…I made this buckwheat soda bread yesterday and it was pretty good. Still very carb heavy, but looking at the nutritional information, buckwheat has a lot more protein and a little more fibre than my other GF flours.

www.dovesfarm.co.uk/recipes/buckwheat-soda-bread

Is anyone steering clear of cold-pressed rapeseed oil? My DH uses it in cooking loads because of the high smoke point and health benefits but I wonder if it comes under the seed oil umbrella? My bottle says it's rich in Omega 3, but it has twice as much Omega 6 too.

I'm a bit confused over oils too so I've been sticking with butter or olive oil for cooking.

Has anyone tried Lidl's Rye Sourdough bread. It's delicious, hits the toast spot and -from the limited info I can find online - seems to be better as rye flour rather than wheat. Limiting myself to weekends only.

@Tinselandlights

Is anyone steering clear of cold-pressed rapeseed oil? My DH uses it in cooking loads because of the high smoke point and health benefits but I wonder if it comes under the seed oil umbrella? My bottle says it's rich in Omega 3, but it has twice as much Omega 6 too.

I thought this was the oil we were meant to use 🤔

I thought it was butter or olive oil. There was a discussion of rapeseed on an earlier thread. I think the verdict was it's ok if it's cold pressed.

We use canola oil for high temperature cooking which is kind of ok rather than great based on the tables.