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!

I was hoping to stock up on door Dijon mustard when I went to the Uk last week but the shelves were empty there as they have been here in France for months!

Thank you so much! I really appreciate you taking the time!

Sam - No Dijon?

(If you're near aWaitrose they seem to have it online at least- Maille, Poupon and own brand. )

Oh just seen you're back! Ignore ( retires behind a stack of baked beans)

What do you add to salads for lunch? We used to add cheese, but I don't think I can eat mozzarella or feta every damn day. I baked some chickpea cutlets, with mashed carrot and peas, gluten free flour (to make it bit thicker- gluten free, because of husband) and eggs. It's nice,but I just don't want to eat same stuff over and over again. I sometimes add chicken. Can't add tuna, as I eat in the office and don't want my colleagues to hate me. Any ideas? 😅

@xogossipgirlxo what do you normally have in sandwiches? Maybe you could have some of the same things on salad.

@xogossipgirlxo I eat salads every day, at the moment mostly using veg from the garden, so beetroot, feta and chive salad, roast veg salad with goats cheese, tomato, onion and mozarella salad, salad niçoise (that's with tuna so doesn't help much), batavia lettuce with mackerel fillets: Not much help as most is with cheese but I rarely eat meat!

Didn't think tuna was particularly stinky!

Prawns?
Hard boiled eggs chopped with chives and home made mayonnaise
Cheddar, cubed with sweet tomatoes
Avocado ( just discovered this is unexpectedly delicious mashed with hard boiled egg, mayonnaise and thinly sliced celery)
Feta and roast beetroot
Blue cheese and walnuts
Roast chick thigh
Roast peppers and tomatoes - with olives maybe
Bean salad with summer tomatoes, red peppers, onion, sweetcorn, celery and dressing
A few baby new potatoes ( if you eat them) in mayonnaise, chopped chives

To liven a green salad up make some home made vinaigrette to take with you, or my rapid stand by, blue cheese dressing made with st augur spread ( no nasties) and yog/mayo

Mayonnaise :

www.copymethat.com/r/tATTDAITq/how-to-make-perfect-mayonnaise/

Do you mean white sauce - bechamel? Or actual cream? The easiest creamy sauce is literally just pouring some double cream into hot cooked pasta, adding black pepper and mixing it all around. You don't need very much so put it in slowly and mix until it looks right! I usually add grated parmesan (real parmesan or grano padano in a block, not the stuff that comes pre-grated that smells of feet).

Bechamel is easy but it takes a bit of time and constant stirring - don't leave it or it will burn/stick.

Microwave about 500 mls of whole milk in a jug until warm. In a small pan, melt a large knob of butter over a low heat. Add a tablespoon of flour and stir with a wooden spoon until you have something that looks like beige play-doh - depending on how much butter you used you might need to keep adding flour to dry out the butter. It gets to the right consistency really quickly so have the milk ready! Once it looks like play-doh pour in about a quarter of the milk and stir until that's been absorbed into the mix. Add more milk and stir again. At first it will look like paste, but keep adding the milk until it starts to look like the proper consistency for cheese sauce. If you haven't microwaved enough milk, just add cold - the warm milk just makes the whole process faster, it's not actually essential to warm it. Add salt and black pepper and that's bechamel done. To make it into cheese sauce add a handful of grated cheese at the end and stir until mixed in, and put in about a third of a teaspoon of mustard (any mustard, I usually use wholegrain) because it brings out the flavour of the cheese. Some people grate in a bit of nutmeg to be fancy, but I don't usually bother.

Thanks guys for the suggestions x

I don't know, tuna isn't too smelly for me, but I'm afraid someone will be oversensitive and will make big fuss out of it.On the other hand I work mostly with men and they heat up very stinky stuff, so maybe it's just me trying to be over the top while they don't care 😂I'll give it a go.

Okay- so if tuna is now on the menu, I like it with chopped up red pepper and celery and a tiny bit of salad onion. You could add a hard boiled egg and take some salad leaves and baby tomatoes and a dressing separately.

If time's an issue, snipping things up with scissors is easier and quicker than using a knife I find.

I made a really tasty blackberry sorbet yesterday - soften fruit over a low heat with a tiny amount of sugar added, and pass through sieve to remove bits, whip egg white, fold in, freeze half hour till slushy, stir, and re freeze. I can post exact amounts if anyone is interested.

Hope everyone is coping ok in the heat. I have a long car journey on Sunday ( blistering heat forecast) followed by four days away (rain and thunder forecast.) Typical!

Morning all.

Really tasty dinner last night - lamb koftas with courgetti , broccoli and wild rice.

Minced lamb, mixed with cumin, salt, coriander chilli flakes and chopped fresh parsley. Chill,overnight. Shape into flat ovals , brush with olive oil and griddle.

Off on my long drive this morning. Heavens will open tomorrow apparently. Packing waterproofs feels ludicrous but it would be stupid not to, given the forecast.

The Koftas sound great, I might put them on my plan for next week.

getting back into things here having made my lentil concoction and cooked some of my staples in coconut oil and added flaxseed to most of it.

I am also trying Ozempic which I think ties in to the hormonal control of appetite as discussed in the book. Hoping that will help me stick to the plan.

I’ve been very organised today and prepared lots of food for the week. I’ve started doing some much more intense workouts using weights, in an attempt to build muscle and increase my metabolism.

I’ve made a tortilla to eat after workouts, as well as a tray of Chinese chicken wings and a pork cheek stew. Also the usual yoghurt, mayonnaise and muesli that I do every week.

I really want to lose a couple more kilos of fat, but I think last year I lost too much muscle at the same time. I’m trying to be organised about weight training and eating more protein, to see if I can avoid that this time.

Slinks back onto thread. Weighed this morning and am up. No surprise there. Have the food shop done and back on this woe this morning. I'll have to cut out the post swim 99 and all the rest of the rubbish. Have a festival in three weeks so I'm aiming to have a few pounds off.

Well done everyone on the weight loss and sticking to it.

Hi everyone, this is an interesting thread. It's prompted me to order the book from the library and it should be available in two weeks.

I'm about 4st overweight and feel as if I have tried - and failed- at everything! Is it possible that this could work for me?

I wondered if anyone here has found bread particularly troublesome before starting this WOE? I have been wondering if it is responsible for my strong cravings, ie if it triggers overeating.

Also, what do you tend to eat for lunch in the autumn/winter on this plan? In summer I love salads but once October comes I would normally have a sandwich, perhaps with some soup. If I do start to follow this woe I suppose I could just have soup but not sure how filling ot would be! I WFH so do have about 45 minutes to prepare and eat my lunch.

Welcome @MamanCherry !

Can't say whether or not it will definitely work for you, but if you've repeatedly tried and failed at dieting I'm sure the book will resonate.

Bread was absolutely my bête noir. I dropped 5kg within a month when I cut it out. And yes, it does make you hungrier, because of the glucose rollercoaster it puts you on. Jenkinson has a lot to say about bread and wheat-based foods in general (in short, get rid).

Good hot lunches would be things like omelettes, leftovers from dinner, crustless quiche. Soup is good, and you could put lentils or beans in it to make it more filling. I'm sure others will have some ideas.

I sometimes make a soda bread in my slow cooker using whole grain spelt flour and oats, which is delicious, but I have to be careful because I will binge things like that. If you're more disciplined, you could experiment with ancient grains or flour alternatives. We sometimes make bhajis for dinner, using gram flour - you don't need much flour and can use onion, courgette, spinach or even fish (like pollock) as the main ingredient. They make good leftovers.

Boringly, I have the same lunch every day, year round, because if I have to think of what to make for more than one meal a day I get overwhelmed. So I have cold stuff that I can prepare ahead on a Sunday (I WFH as well, but I couldn't cope with cooking at lunchtime).

Soup with a lot of cheese grated into it is both filling and delicious.

I have a COVID like illness at the moment (testing negative but don't entirely believe it).

I have mostly lost my sense of taste.

Airplane food yesterday was depressing. I couldn't actually taste the food, only the salt and additives.

(DH said maybe that was all it actually tasted of, which is definitely possible).

Thank you both for your replies.

Bread though. I love it and just now can't imagine not eating it. I have slipped into a very sandwich-y lifestyle over the years so will need to do some meal planning instead of just grabbing a sandwich. I already prepare most of our maiin meals - not sandwiches- but need to sort out breakfast and lunch.

I'm going to spend some time reading the previous threads to prepare myself in advance for .when the book comes available.

Also slinking back into thread. Distinctly up - have been mostly off wagon since my holiday at the start of July. I did a strict two-meals-and-no-snacks yesterday to make myself focus and I swear my waist has reappeared in one day! That's not strictly speaking in the spirit of this thread but I just kept eating with a lighter approach so I thought a couple of days strictness couldn't hurt, just to try to get myself back into the swing of it. Now that it's bucketing with rain it weirdly feels easier to diet - when it's boiling hot I just want to eat all the ice creams and drink all the lovely gins with loads of ice.

Aria, hope you feel better soon! Is that you home again?

@MamanCherry I'm worse in the school holidays for bread. During term time I roast veg, have it with quinoa or mixed beans, come the holidays I'm having paninis 🤣.

Term time breakfast is often nothing with full fat yogurt and cherries when I get a chance but at the weekend it's poached eggs on toast. Holidays means I fancy eggs on toast every day!

Due to gaining a stone in 3 weeks though I am now cutting back! Have a picnic today but have had no bread for breakfast, I will have a roll for lunch though due up ease.

You don’t have to give up bread forever @MamanCherry , I haven’t given up anything permanently (except UPFs, and even then I will make an occasional exception).

bread for me is now in a category with things like birthday cake - a rare treat.

I don’t miss pasta at all, and never ate much rice before anyway, so I only have that when we go out for curry. Same with potatoes - they’re going out food.

if I had the discipline, I would keep a sliced loaf of really good bread in the freezer and have soldiers with boiled eggs on a Sunday, but sadly I’m a glutton. I wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about that bread until it was gone.