Louise Parker Method thread 2. All welcome

[HardRockOwl]

Precious thread is here ... Louise Parker method anyone? I know it's a bit old fashioned now .. http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weightlosss_chat/4517125-louise-parker-method-anyone-i-know-it-s-a-bit-old-fashioned-now

Just a place to chat about the method, the ups and downs and how it works etc.

I personally have just completed the first 6 week Transform phase and have lost 18 lbs. Not quite 'transformed' yet but on my way

Morning all! I’m still trundling along on plan with not much of excitement to report.

Plan today:
B: yoghurt with a spoon of hazelnut and cocoa butter (which has a tiny amount of agave in it but is delicious)
L: Thai beef salad
D: prawn and cashew stir fry (is a salad in the book but nicer with stir fry veg than with cucumber)
S: carrots and hummus, olives

Ive bought a second tub of GOOD vanilla paste after using the first one up in two weeks, so I might have to cut down cos it’s a fiver a pop.

@Hobbes8 wish I'd known about the £5 vanilla paste before I bought the £14 one I don't think I'll repurchase anyway it as just wasn't adding much for me

Food times for today ..

Smoothie bowl with oats, frozen berries, protein powder, almond milk topped with banana, pecans and coconut

Mexican hot chocolate

Last night's dinner... broccoli, feta, peanuts and avocado

Watermelon slices, little bit of mango and fresh pineapple, tablespoon of mixed nuts.

Not sure about dinner just yet!

My food for today is mostly the same as usual but I feel like recording it today!

B: Chocolate and raspberry bircher (my one true love)

S: houmous on ryvita and an apple

L: Three bean and feta salad

D: Pasta alle olive nere (tiny bowl!)

Might have a second snack later. I try to avoid it if I'm having pasta for dinner but sometimes I give in. But at least nowadays it's just a couple of oatcakes and nut butter rather than a mountain of jaffa cakes!

That smoothie bowl looks delectable.

Today for me:
B scrambled eggs on a slice of whole grain toast
S latte
L puy lentil, roasted pepper and goats cheese salad (leftovers)
S oatcake and a babybel
D salad containing chicken, pancetta, low fat mozzarella, boiled egg, tomato, cucumber, pomegranate and red peppers

@HardRockOwl FOURteen pounds?! FourTEEN pounds?!

faints

Oh good lord, I think I put too much cayenne (it was only a pinch!) in my first ever Mexican hot chocolate. But it was oddly delicious. Might leave it out next time though! I also made the lentil bake for the first time which was nice and plenty left for lunches.

I’ve not recorded my food here before but today I’ve had:
B: bircher with orange puree, seeds, berries and walnuts
S: apple/grapes
L: chicken salad (and some oatcakes and humous rather than waiting to have as a snack later)
D: lentil bake
hot choc

I resisted a big cookie at a work meeting!

Hello all, can I join in? I'm a bit of a thread-killer so have been watching and admiring all your progress and perseverance from afar, but now I'm taking the leap in! Prep week for me this week, slowly cutting out sugar and processed carbs and planning meals for next week, ready to start in earnest on Sunday 🙂

@Plainandsimple welcome! Sounds like you're planning well. Which of the books have you got?

Thankyou @HardRockOwl , I've lucked out with my local library and have the 6-week plan, lean for life and the lean for life cookbook on loan for the next three weeks 😊

Hi @Plainandsimple , that’s what I did, I borrowed from the library and then kept renewing till I decided to buy eventually! Good luck with the planning.

@TheWreathLady easy on the cayenne! 😀 I nearly blew my head off the first time but then, I'm a total wimp when it comes to anything vaguely spicy. So I add just a tiny pinch and it's enough for me.

@Plainandsimple ooh that's good then! It's ideal to have all 3 too, to maximise your pick of the meals and snacks. I'd also recommend any of the Roasting Tin books for further choice - all the recipes are pretty much on plan or can be tweaked to be

@Hobbes8 yeah. That's why I'm in no hurry to repurchase 😀 I might be tempted at a fiver but like I said, it just didn't add enough for me really

Started the day with a tropical fruit smoothie bowl - I know Louise says no tropical fruits but meh. Topped with kefir yogurt, strawberries and walnuts. Probably do the Mexican chocolate for a snack.

Not thought ahead to rest of my days food.. May peruse the books and select something and pop to the shops

I've got 1 more pound to lose before I can tick off my 'lose one and a half stone' goal. So I'm really trying to get that in the bag for Monday

@HardRockOwl to be honest the £5 pot was pretty small and only lasted a couple of weeks (having Bircher virtually every day) so it probably wasn't that different.

@Plainandsimple Welcome! Three weeks is probably plenty to get the hang of what is and isn’t on plan and get a few favourite salad dressings and snacks under your belt. The books bang on about all the other pillars - living well and such, and there’s exercises, but I prefer YouTube videos for that. The books are often in charity shops or second hand online shops as well.

This sounds right up my alley. But I currently have sciatica and can't walk 10k, I can't really walk more than 5 mins without a flare up. I could manage swimming 3x a week. Do you think I could do it but not eat the snacks to keep the calories lower?

@SnowWhitesSM Personally I think the beauty of it is not having to think about calories at all, and living a sustainable way of eating, and I think you might feel deprived if you did that, so if I were you I'd stick to all the meals and snacks and I think you'd still see results. The exercise pillar is really mostly about being more active generally throughout the day and trying to become an active person. I'm not managing the 10k steps every day and I still lost over 7lb in the first two weeks! But I am trying to move more throughout the day as much as possible, dancing with my kids and walking as much as much as I can, and I've started doing sessions on the exercise bike in the evening.

A step out of the circle today as my 4yo DD asked for a chocolate muffin as a treat after swimming and then took one bite and declared she didn't like it and didn't want any more! Aaargh. It was delicious though and I only had half of it as heroically gave the other half to DH...

@SnowWhitesSM I've not really done any exercise in the two weeks since I started, in fact there have been a few days where i haven't even left the house! I am breastfeeding though so that probably uses up some calories. I have lost 8lbs in two weeks eating three meals and two snacks a day so you might be fine.

@HardRockOwl I didn't realise you're not meant to have tropical fruits, I had a mango and coconut smoothie this morning!

Today:
B smoothie as above
S latte
L goats cheese and lentil salad for the third day on the trot (yawn)
S oatcake and piece of cheddar
D will be Shoryu ramen kit ... probably not massively on plan but I'll go easy on the noodles.

@SnowWhitesSM I think you would be absolutely fine with a little bit of swimming and sticking to the plan. I wouldn’t recommend dropping the snacks as you will be hungry and it’s not about keeping calories low. If you think about it, a keto diet is very high in calories yet weight is still lost. Just give it a go for a couple of weeks and see how you get on.

Thanks for all the welcomes, and I'm so relieved not to have killed the thread! I've been eating mostly on plan this week to see how it goes - breakfasts and lunches are fine (although I can't believe the three-bean salad is a recipe for one serving - its huge! And I am not one of life's delicate eaters), morning snack is ok (apple & peanut butter most days), but yet to sort out afternoon snack, and the dinners are going to be a struggle to fit in with family meals (an assortment of intolerances, dislikes & digestive issues) so I think I may end up cooking one meal for me and another for everyone else, but that's ok, putting me first (which pillar is that?🙂) is worth the extra effort. Then there's the exercise....!

Thanks for the welcome!

I can't really move more around the house. I'm on very relaxed gp orders. So I can potter but not exert myself. Before this I walked 10k a day and worked out 2x a week.

I will give it a go and see what happens in the first few weeks and then see whether to cut snacks or not.

I did know that tropical fruit is full of sugar so that's probably why it's to be avoided.

I'm 11.11 this morning. Want to be 11 so just under a stone to lose. Did eat carrot cake for lunch 😋 so will work out what to eat this week and do a food shop. What is oatbran? Is it porridge oats?

@SnowWhitesSM I very rarely do the steps. Probably done about 2000 today! However I swim 5 times a week at least so never think about steps

Don't cut out snacks etc though. Just stick to the plan as it's sustainable and not worth veering off trying to do your own version and do your swimming as and when you can.

Like I said, I've not done the book exercise or the steps and I've lost almost one and a half stone in 7 weeks

@florianfortescue yes, mangoes and pineapples etc are not really on plan. However I eat them just not regularly .. once a week maybe? Sometimes you just have to adapt things a little or you'd go mad

Oat bran is different from oats - you can get it from health food shops, or the brand Mornflake do one that you can get in supermarkets

@Plainandsimple welcome! The dinners can be tricky but she suggests making her recipes and then just adding potatoes or rice or whatever for your family, and keeping to the protein-based main bit for yourself. However, I find even this too restrictive so I just try to keep my dinner portions as "dainty" as possible and avoid carbs in them myself where I can! I do quite often have homemade pasta though, which is forbidden by Louise, but I now have only a tiny bowl of it (about a third of what I used to have!) with a salad.