Louise Parker method anyone? I know it's a bit old fashioned now ..

[HardRockOwl]

But I've decided to give it a go

The food is the sort of stuff I like to eat although I'll have to make some substitutes as I'm a vegetarian. But I love Bircher, porridge, all her snacks and salads etc

I'm starting tomorrow and wondered if anyone had some advice regarding the method or stories

Thanks!

I use a fair bit of tofu, but I only like it crispy. I’ve not had to do much subbing yet as this is my 3rd day doing this. I think lentils are allowed but I don’t think I’ve seen it mentioned anywhere.

I had a busy day today, which included a lunch out. I chose a superfood salad and a herbal tea, which was mostly in the circle, although I’m not sure if quinoa is allowed at this stage (it was actually while googling to find out that I found the link to the cookbook. I already have a copy but thought it would be useful to others. Glad it is useful to you @Pumpkin2901 ).
B: oat bran pancakes with raspberries and Greek yoghurt (not low-fat though, must buy this)
D: a salmon dish that DH is making (on plan as long as I skip the rice) with artichoke and asparagus dish taken from a salmon recipe in the book
S: 2 oatcakes and cashew nut butter, 1 dark chocolate (still working my way through my Mother’s Day chocs)

I haven’t done any exercise today and am unlikely to make my 10k step count.

Reading the books, I’m wondering if I should treat this week as a prep week and make Monday my first official day. I guess I’ll see what the scales say on Monday.

@Topazpearlagain ooh amazing. That's a great find

@Lostmyunicorn hello and welcome. Yep I'm veggie but I've found it fine so far. There's plenty of choose tbh but I can't lie, I'd like to see a totally plant based book which - don't quote me - I think Louise is working towards

I don't mind tofu but like @EssexLioness says, it has to be flavoured and crispy or at least properly cooked!

Had the peanut & tofu stir fry - I can confirm it tasted better than it looks! Made a few tweaks and left out the bean sprouts as I can't bear them. But it was very nice.

Todays food times

Strawberry & vanilla smoothie

Ryvita with almond butter and banana

Mozzarella, tomato & hummus

Portion of mixed nuts + fresh mango

Peanut + tofu stir fry

@Topazpearlagain I'm almost certain quinoa is absolutely fine at this stage. I use it as a swap for lentils as don't like them much so I think it's fine.

Can I join?

I did WW last year after two b2b GD pregnancies and lost 2 stone but 16 weeks of building work and takeaways I've put a good chunk back on. I'm really struggling with WW this year for some reason and need something new to work with. I have been following you for a while. Went to Amazon to look up LP and found I'd bought the book in 2016 but not followed through.

So I'm thinking to meal plan in advance for a week? I'm reading this over a glass of Shiraz which isn't great but thinking to start Monday, I've no real dietary restrictions but am impressed with how you all seem to be adapting. Does anyone do the porridge recipes as overnight? Is oat bran much different to porridge?

She seems to switch between skimmed and semi skimmed too, does that matter?

Your menu today looks amazing @HardRockOwl

@Topazpearlagain that book link DOES work! That'll be so useful to people on this thread who don't have the book yet.

@RinklyRomaine it's the law to plan your new diet whilst stuffing your face so I wouldn't worry about your wine 😅

Semi skinned milk or skimmed is fine and pretty much interchangeable. I use oat milk as it's nice and creamy. I also switch between low fat Greek yogurt and full fat - it honestly doesn't seem to make a huge difference unless you're scoffing gallons of the stuff

I do overnight oats a lot. Sorry BIRCHER! Posher than overnight oats! I put in a tablespoon of porridge oats and a tablespoon of oat bran + chia seeds to 'firm it up' a bit overnight. The oat bran is sort of like a very finely milled powered and I find it more substantial mixed with oats

It's so so much easier than counting points or syns or calories and it's also filling

@Topazpearlagain thank you for the book link. Really useful!

Hi @RinklyRomaine, I lost really well with WW through lockdown but couldn’t get on with their new plan at all. I drink lots of water anyway and eat loads of veg so I didn’t like the fact I got extra points for already formed good habits. I really like this plan so hope you get on well with it too. I don’t do overnight oats as I can’t stand the texture. Oat bran has more fibre and is better for us than porridge oats.

Had another good day today. All on plan, though I had a bit more bread than I intended this evening - not too bad, but not exactly the dainty portion that Louise advocates!

Jumped on the scales this morning for a sneaky peak and lost 1lb in my first two days which is unheard of for me! So something is working. Still not hungry at all which surprises me.

@indiesearcher it was quite tasty! Although I'm not sure if mango is on plan? Ah well, I'm sure I've seen it mentioned in a book somewhere and if a banana is on plan, mango surely is?

@EssexLioness that sounds like a positive little sneaky weigh in. Think what you'll see after a week! And it's quite amazing how you just don't feel hungry.

What bread are you eating? I've not seen much mention of bread although last week I had some rye bread and some wholemeal rolls.

I'm going to have a look at some on plan sweet treats - I'd like a hot chocolate and I'm sure I've seen one somewhere

That's very useful, thank you. I often have (powdered) peanut butter banana overnight oats anyway, which sort of seems to fit the bill. It looks like the snacks are what will make a difference to me - this isn't dissimilar to the GD diet in many ways and I did really well with that.

@EssexLioness agreed! I just seem to use it as an excuse to chug chocolate because I've eaten loads of veg. I also can't make up my mind between potatoes or dairy or grains and so struggle. I was better when potatoes were forbidden!

@HardRockOwl I used a wholemeal baguette that we already had in. Not sure it would be exactly on plan but figured wholemeal couldn’t be too bad.

I usually make my own wholemeal, sods bread with seeds/ nuts which I’m sure would be better but I like to do minimal cooking when it’s just me eating, so I didn’t fancy making bread

• soda bread, not sods! 😆

I like the sound of sods bread EssexLioness!

I couldn’t believe it when I found that link is freely available. It’s downloadable as a pdf, which might be worth doing in case the link stops working!

@Topazpearlagain thanks so much for that link! Much appreciated

Mango would be fine I reckon - I'm moderation. It's full of fibre.

I think I pulled it back today despite being in a room full of cakes, crisps and pastries all day...

Breakfast, plain oats and milk

Snack, plain oatcakes and apple

Lunch, small cheese salad sandwich in wholemeal

Dinner, 'higgidy' souffle bites (spinach/egg things). And a pot of vanilla quark.

Snack: oatcakes and peanut butter with thin sliced banana.

Probably not entirely on plan but best I could find at the service station!

Are all fruit and veg (except potatoes) allowed?

I haven't seen sweet potato...

I haven't seen much in the way of any of the carby veg like sweet potatoes, sweetcorn.

I've seen a lot of good vanilla paste and oat bran though 😜

There's not a hint of pasta to be seen anywhere and very little in the way of bread - a few bits.

@EssexLioness there seems to be a limited amount of recipes containing tropical fruits, but not loads. However I've been eating whatever fruit I fancy tbh. Mainly strawberries, raspberries, watermelon, the odd banana

I think I'll have a hot chocolate as a snack tomorrow. It's in the lean for life book and it's ...

Cocoa powder
Milk (I'll use oat)
Vanilla paste
Stevia

I can lose the Stevia as don't need it but I think I'll try it tomorrow

@indiesearcher you did really well considering the pickings were a service station!