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!

Presuming tea/coffee with a bit of semi skimmed milk is ok? As well as lots of water?

My books are arriving on Thursday! 🤞
I think I’ll just start it properly the very next day after the books arrive!

@indiesearcher funnily enough I was just reading about that in the Lean for life book. And yep, absolutely fine to drink tea

@NatriumChloride yay! Not long now

Well done on the 7lbs @HardRockOwl! That’s amazing and frankly inspiring!

I stepped out of the circle with half a bag of jelly sweets at work, but then I hoovered my bedroom floor tonight (living well pillar thing) so not all bad

I was just reading about an offer that the Parker a practice ran 6 months ago.

A 12 week programme with a few phone calls from Louise plus then mapping you out your plan and then a dietician calling twice a week.

£12,400!

Now I'm not shy about throwing money at things (story of my life!) but blimey! The meals will be the same as what is in the books. Just how finely can they be tuned to a person?

@Sutra you'll have burnt off those jelly sweets no problem!!

Yesterday morning I was in such a rush for work I had to put half my breakfast in the bin, (helpful for slimming, perhaps I should only eat half of everything…) but then the sweets happened and there may have been a fancy biscuit one of the kids gave me with a cup of tea. It would have been churlish to say no….

Today I’d love to say I’m all pom poms and on plan but I only had 6 hours sleep and really need 8 and feel rubbish so I’m going for survival.
B Yogurt and fruit
S Apple and nut butter
L Salad
T Either roasted veg or chickpea curry

And obviously avoiding sweets and biscuits….. and need a mid afternoon snack. God I’m tired

@Sutra I feel your pain, last night was not so much a step out of the circle for me as running fast for the land of snacking and leaving the circle for dust. Help me get back on plan today guys, lost all motivation yesterday 😥 Today however I'm looking at a lovely grilled fish and veg recipe, I'll probably make a picking type plate for my other meal (so not a salad but a ton of veg sticks, hard boiled eggs, things like that.) Breakfast smoothie of some description.

Hello everyone, I like the sound of this, but like all my good intentions, I start some new plan out of desperation, last about 10 days and then fall of the wagon in spectacular fashion.

I would like this to work, and am looking to order the books. In the meantime, as the online info seems scarce, can I please ask a few basic questions?

I normally have bircher every morning, but use full fat Greek yogurt, skimmed milk, oats, chopped apple, walnuts and a few sultanas. Are any of those ingredients off limits? I suspect I need to drop the sultanas and switch to 0% Greek yogurt.

Are all carbs off limits? Is wholemeal bread allowed? And for fats, are butter, cheese and olive oil ok?

Any advice welcome. I have the worst biscuit / chocolate / sweets / crisps / processed crap habit imaginable. I really need to find a healthy and sustainable way of eating that works.

TIA .

fall off the wagon

@HardRockOwl blimey that is a crazy amount of money! 😲

@ElvenDreamer you can do it, today is a new day.

@D1TT0, yes wholemeal bread, cheese and oil allowed. I’m pretty sure butter is ok too but I’m new so maybe someone else will confirm.

Day 1 for me today. Looking forward to it. I enjoyed yesterdays foods, even though I was only half on plan. Never had oat cakes and peanut butter before - very tasty.

Ditto. Welcome!

In the first 6 week 'transform phase' I'd say your breakfast is pretty much on plan. Like you say, the sultanas wouldn't be. The full fat Greek yogurt is absolutely fine, it's generally what I have - well, Total 5% - and I lost 7lbs in 5 days. If I have 0% I have to flavour it - which is where the vanilla paste comes in I suppose!

There are carbs on the plan. I spent a lot of lunches last week eating a whole meal roll filled with (vegetarian) bacon. You can also have pitta breads, oat cakes, crispbreads...

On the 'banned for now' list appears to be ..

Sugar - so no honey or maple syrup
Pasta - there's no pasta in any recipes
Potatoes - I've not spotted a potato yet!

And then of course just the obvious stuff like sweets and crisps etc

If you read back through the thread you'll see that in a total snack monster and I usually scoff all day and can't actually eat meals because I'm too full of cake and crisps. But I've found this relatively painless so far ... I think I'm eating loads? 3 meals and 2 snacks each day means I'm not hungry - I make one snack quite substantial ... so oat cakes with nut butter or a slice of rye bread with banana and cashews for example

Honestly give it a go. Lots of support here

Come on - you can do this! Put tomorrow behind you and plan in two substantial snacks to keep you fuller today

@Sutra sounds like you limited the damage yesterday! When I fall off the wagon, I don't mess around with a single biscuit ... I have the whole packet and then need half a pot of ice cream on top.

Thank you for the welcome and advice @EssexLioness and @HardRockOwl.

My meals are generally decent, it's just the constant snacking on crap. And I do love white carbs.

I'm doing a supermarket shop later. Oatcakes and nut butter on the list, that will have to replace mid morning and mid afternoon biscuits and cake.

Will ease into things today and start in earnest tomorrow .

Need to go and do some shopping I think - story of my life right now!

I've had a bircher this morning, orange, hazelnut and cinnamon, topped with strawberries. Snack was strawberries (had 6 left that needed eating up!) drizzled in balsamic with 6 walnut halves.

I think lunch is going to be a mozzarella ball, beef tomato and basil

That Bircher sounds really tasty @HardRockOwl.

I had a banana for breakfast, plus coffee with oat milk.

Lunch was homemade seitan steak (meat substitute), with roasted cauliflower, tomatoes and mixed peppers. My husband works 3 long days so when he isn’t at work we eat our main meal at lunchtime.

I didn’t have a snack this morning cos I was busy with work and wasn’t really that hungry. I like that I have 2 snacks for later if I need them.

Dinner will be protein oat smoothie, with oatcakes and peanut butter (or if I need my second snack I will have the oatcakes separately). Mid afternoon snack will be soya yoghurt with blueberries and walnuts/ mixed seeds.

It’s nice not to be weighing and calorie counting. I downloaded the LP app so I just have to take a photo of each meal/ snack.

Thank you for the pick-me-up @EssexLioness and @HardRockOwl. Had a little prep session and there is a batch of avocado and strawberry smoothie in the fridge now, one of which I had today. Planning some nut butter on oat cakes in a minute to keep me going until tea. Onwards and upwards!

Those using the app, how does it work/what does it actually do?

@EssexLioness Please please tell me which app this is?! Is it the Parker Practice? Because you need an invite code to join! 😩

So EBay have told me my 6 week program book will arrive tomorrow! I’m super excited but am going to try to do a shop late tonight in preparation for it.

Reading the above, I guess some staples will be:
Oats
Oat bran
Yoghurt (can someone please confirm if this has to be 0%?)
Frozen berries
GOOD vanilla paste 😂
Green vegetables in general?
Oatcakes
Nut butters

…. Anything else?

@NatriumChloride it’s called Lean for Life. It is free and no code or anything needed. Has lots of the info from the book in and for the food diary I just take a photo of each meal/ snack and add it straight to the app.

@EssexLioness
Thanks for replying. I just googled it and tried clicking on the link but it says the app isn’t available for my region/country? 😢

Oh that’s a shame @NatriumChloride. There’s another app I used years ago called See How You Eat. Doesn’t have the info on but you can take photos of what you eat each day, if that is helpful for you.

I think the app might only be available on Apple. At least that was the case when I downloaded it.
I have been mostly in the circle today but I did have a biscuit this morning at a friend’s.
B: porridge with berries and pine nuts
L: 2 egg omelette with various veg
D: will be sausage with spinach and bean smash
S: biscuit, tiny piece of chocolate and almond flourless cake (out of circle but it was the last piece left and needed using up)

I’ll shop tomorrow so will stock up on oatcakes etc then.
Now I need to get back to reading the book.

@NatriumChloride yeah don't forget that GOOD vanilla paste now!

I've eaten a lot of the following the past week, it may not be useful to you as I'm vegetarian but all have created meals for me and are all on plan ..

Roasted veg - I'm bloody lazy and buy a tray of it but any veg you can roast

Feta, mozzarella + goats cheeses

Salad veg

Fruit

Ricotta cheese

Ryvitas

Wholemeal rolls + bacon if you fancy a bacon roll

Tahini paste + limes + wine vinegar - I've used this as the base of salad dressings

Walnuts, hazelnuts

Large orange