Why We Eat (Too Much) thread 6

[TheLeadbetterLife]

Whoops, we let thread 5 get away from us a bit there...

I'm going to boringly copy-paste the previous thread opener, because it's too hot to be imaginative.

Welcome to thread 6 of discussion, encouragement and advice inspired by the book Why We Eat (Too Much), by Dr Andrew Jenkinson.

The basic principles of this "diet" (it's not one in the traditional sense, as it's meant to be a permanent set of changes), are as follows:

Cut out ultra-processed food

Massively reduce sugar, carbs, refined flours and wheat

Eat a wide variety of vegetables, whole grains and fruit

Eat full fat dairy and other healthy fats like extra virgin olive oil

Improve the ratio of omega 3 to 6 by eating greens, fish, eggs and grass-fed meat, and cutting out ultra-refined seed oils

Important lifestyle changes include getting plenty of rest, relaxation and sleep, as well as taking a moderate amount of exercise (or more, if you like that sort of thing).

You don't need to count calories (in fact, you shouldn't), though it may help to count carbs or glycemic load, at least to begin with, until you get the hang of it.

Some of us share recipes by following each other on Copy Me That - www.copymethat.com/recipebox/the-leadbetter-life/6661160/

As well as the book mentioned in the title, the principles are similar to those espoused by the likes of Rangan Chatterjee, Robert Lustig, Tim Spector and Michael Mosley.

There are many successes on this thread, and the main thing is that we are aiming to make permanent, sustainable changes to adjust our weight set-points downwards.

Join us!

Almost certainly @Theelephantinthecastle , so many of the traits ring true for me, and explain basically everything I've struggled with my entire life. I am going to see a psychiatrist next month to discuss it.

I definitely take the path of least resistance to a dopamine hit (probably the reason I got overweight in the first place), which likely explains my inability to prioritise sensibly. Exercise gives me a massive dopamine hit, but it's much harder and takes more time than eating something delicious, or trying on new clothes, or rearranging the living room furniture (I've been known to do this in the middle of the night after a Pinterest binge).

In the meantime though, whether I have ADHD or not, the fact is my brain works in a certain way and I need to organise my life to cope better with it. I'm very down about this at the moment - I feel like my upper and lower brains are fighting each other, and I am paralysed by it. I get nothing done.

@TheLeadbetterLife a lot of that resonates with me. Good luck with the psychiatrist

In case it helps you, what works for me with exercise is to take it out of my control - I have a personal trainer who comes to my house. I obviously can cancel her but it is difficult to and I can't do it last minute. It's the only type of exercise that I have stuck with

Well this is why I am very down at the moment. I know that the best way for me to handle my brain is to outsource the things I struggle to do because they involve routine and are boring (e.g. cleaning, gardening, exercise). Obviously this costs money, but due to aforementioned struggles with routine, I find it very hard to do any job for more than a couple of years, and so building a career has been slow and difficult. I change jobs and even career trajectory quite frequently.

I am working on a new career that will hopefully work a lot better with my brain, and in fact use the way I think to its advantage. However I'm not making enough money at it yet to justify the outsourcing. So I'm stuck, because doing all the things that need doing every day overwhelms me to the point that I can't work effectively. I'm in a loop.

I think I'm going to remove myself from the situation over the next few weeks in order to work. Being at home is lovely, but it's just too distracting. I will do all the little things on my to-do list (laundry, cleaning, post office, call the builder etc) before working, because I can't concentrate on work knowing they need doing. Then I get to the end of the day and all I've done is little chores, which any normal person would have put off until after work. I just have to get out.

That does sound really hard, I hope you can make it out of the loop

@TheLeadbetterLife are you me?
I constantly check emails on my day off. It's like a compulsion. And I can't leave jobs that are nagging at me, I find most exercise boring and it's also the first thing to go when life gets in the way.

I'm doing ok-ish eating wise. I made sausage rolls today for the family and couldn't resist one but most of the time I'm having more veg, less carbs, cutting out as much wheat as possible. Man though that stuff is in everything! I found some falafel mix in lidl that's gluten free. Processed yes, but look too bad and was tasty cooked in air fryer. It's sorted lunch for a few days. I've been a bit under the weather, possibly fighting a virus. That's when you teach for comfort.

Not stepped on scales but I notice less bloat and that my clothes aren't tight at end of day.

Dinner is sausage and butter bean casserole. Currently in slow cooker. Probably do some frozen cabbage to serve with it.

Keep up the good work all. Small stumbles don't need to become huge accidents we can't return from.

@TheLeadbetterLife that does sound really frustrating ☹️

It is frustrating, but when I type it out like that it just seems ridiculous. I mean, come on. Yet I've had this problem as long as I can remember.

So after the sausage roll(s) 😳 yesterday, I had a belly as hard as a rock and looked 7 months pregnant! I suspect that's good evidence I should stay off the wheat. It could have been the tvp type stuff in the veggie sosmix I used though. Always a puzzle to figure out what we react to...

I hear you, @TheLeadbetterLife . My quirks are not the same but similarly frustrating. I can keep to a routine but it is very easily disrupted then everything goes to pot. And knowing exactly how I tick, having been around this circle many many times, really doesn't seem to help.

I'm just the other side of an extremely bad patch. One task I had been stressing about, losing sleep over, and putting off for many weeks, anticipating all sorts of issues, took literally five minutes yesterday. It's insane.

I always outsource as much as I can afford also. Fortunately I find cooking relaxing which helps with getting back on this plan. Otherwise I would still be the size of a house.

The wheel will turn, eventually, but it's epically rubbish when you're stuck there. Sympathies.

@Words it must be nice to have that out the way!

When I am avoiding something and I really need to stop, I make a To Do list in the order of what I would prefer to do first.

Then I start at the bottom.

Wow, impressive discipline! How do you stop yourself cheating your own system and reversing the list?

Lol I guess because I only do it when I know I need to sort myself out!

Making the list in the first place would be the hurdle for me

Continue to feel so much better. Beginning to struggle with the smaller portion sizes ( although I always eat when I am hungry as long as it's in my 'eating window' - just trying to rein in a lifelong bad habit of mindless over eating.)

I've managed to keep on track in spite of a couple of emotional setbacks - losing out last week on an offer on my dream home being one of them. The top shelf ECS (emergency chocolate stash ) remained intact, miraculously.

Weight loss is slowing again, inevitably. Looking back over time on my Fitbit record, think I might have reached an old set point. Sigh. It so wish I hadn't put this extra weight back on again in the first place. I was so close to my goal before life got super stressful.

Anyway, I will take my own advice and keep on keeping on. The other massive benefits of eating this way - feeling of wellbeing and energy, better sleep, mental clarity, greater emotional stability- are worth it in themselves.

How is everyone else doing?

@Words I'm sure you'll get back to your old set point, you've had a lot to deal with! It's always easier to lose weight in the summer, too:
I haven't posted for ages and probably shouldn't as my view on eating has changed a little over the past 6 months since I've been doing weight training and listening to new science on nutrition, such as why sugar isn't the reason we are so overweight now, carbs have been unfairly villified and there is a place for calorie counting even if it isn't an exact science (I know, I know): Blame Layne Norton, TheFitnessChef and Chris van Tulleken for his book Ultra Processed People: (which is very good) and talks about studies which have debunked the whole Gary Taubs theory on sugar/carbs being the work of the devil:
I'm still weight training 4 times a week and now running 4 times a week, it's been a revelation and although I've gone up to a BMI of 20 I have increased muscle mass and running has improved so much too: I'm still following this WOE in so much as I eat mainly whole food, but I'm not worried about eating sugar/carbs from time to time or even artificially sweetened products occassionally 😱

I do strength training sam - as well as cardio - just got back to it- and I have noticed my need ( rather than a craving) for carbs is increasing somewhat, so I won't deny myself the odd spud! Ditto the occasional sugary treat.

Nothing would induce me to start calorie counting though- I am not a numbers person at all, and when I have attempted to in the past, it seems to drain all the joy from eating for me. I think that's why I like the plan so much!

@Words I wouldn't go back to calorie counting either, I try and eat 100g of protein a day but that's it, life is too short to worry about exact calories and macros: But I think that it's possible to over eat on things like 'good' fats, I know I did with almonds and cashews, for example; so diets which say you can eat as much 'good' fat and protein as you want are misleading:

@samthebordercollie

I had a wobble about this but actually when I looked at it again the mechanism jenkinson suggests for how sugar is bad is not (I think anyway!) the same as the Gary taubes one.

Gary taubes was expecting a much faster impact of sugar reduction.

I don't think the experiments which were done on his theory have much relevance to what jenkinson says (the slow loss people were experiencing on low carb, similar to that people saw on the calorie controlled diet, is entirely compatible with what jenkinson says on this subject.

It does some like he has succumbed to some popular myths about paleo diets though!

I don't know if he's just expressing the same set of ideas in a different way.

I cut jenkinson a lot of slack though because for me his method has been little short of a miracle.

Yes there is a lot of common sense in what he says. It's interesting to see the developments in nutritional science over the years and there are more and more new studies which prove or disprove previous theories of what we should be eating.

How’s everyone doing? I'm just wondering if anyone has managed to get out of the habit of weighing themselves regularly? This way of eating is definitely working for me and I am losing weight (I have a lot to lose!). I just know that when the weigh loss slows, I will find weighing myself difficult. I have a history of binge eating disorder so I really have to be careful to not fixate on the numbers too much. Eventually I would love to throw out the scales as the book suggests, but don't feel ready yet. I'm thinking of aiming for a monthly weigh in until I feel ready to take that step. Would love to hear how others deal with weighing and keeping motivated when weight loss stops or slows down. I’m hoping the fact that this way of eating has really helped with my mood, reduced my junk food cravings and has started to improve my general health (reduced reflux-yay!) will be motivation enough, but it is something I worry about.

@manicmom I am happy it's working for you!

I still have something approaching latent body dysmorphia, and an unhealthy obsession with mirrors, but I reached a point on the scales that I was content with a long time ago (I'm now 6lb lighter than that); so weighing myself each morning just makes me happy! It also makes me feel in control. I get to try out different food related behaviors and see what moves the scales up and what doesn't.

That doesn't really answer your question except that I don't think throwing away the scales is right for everyone.

I know that @TheLeadbetterLife ditched the scales a while ago and may have a better reply!

Well done @manicmom! The first thing I noticed was no acid reflux, and the menopausal hot sweats, brain fog and palpitations gradually disappeared too. They come back if I stray off course.

Re weighing- as an emotional eater, my weight fluctuates so when I know I have some to lose and it's likely to come off fairly steadily, albeit with a few plateaux at set points, I weigh regularly ( daily at the moment) . It keeps me motivated and is an indication of what works and what doesn't in terms of portion sizes, ( too big or occasionally not big enough) carb intake and treats.

At the start, with over four stones to lose, I weighed weekly. I do understand the rationale of not weighing but can't quite bring myself to go there. The fit of my clothes is another indication! ( too snug for my liking currently.)

Over time I think we learn what suits us as individuals, temperamentally and biologically. There are of course many ways of losing weight, but this is the only method I have found that makes sense, really works, promotes good health, is hugely enjoyable ( so it's easy to return to when the wheels come off) and sustainable in the long term.

Thanks @Aria999 and @Words 😀

I feel I'm obsessing about the scales too much at the moment. Think I'll try and aim for weekly weighing and then down to monthly when more weight has come off. I've been on so many shitty restrictive diets in the past that I still can't quite get my head around the fact that I can eat nice food and be satisfied, and still lose weight!

I know @manicmom. It's great isn't it! Do whatever feels best re the scales.

I think I cut back a little too much as weight loss stalled, but has now picked up again when I started eating a little more, including a sneaky square of dark choc after dinner. It's probably necessary as I am increasing my exercise too. Getting the balance right isn't easy for me, but it always works in the end.