I'm not a religious person, don't go in for faddy diets, take supplements or make New Year resolutions. However, next week sees the start of Lent and still carrying a few extra pounds since Christmas, I might give up something for my health's sake. Although I like chocolate, I rarely eat it.
Husband is thinking of giving up cheese as he is not getting on with statins and wants to stop them. I think I might do the same. I eat a very varied diet, so is there anything else that I could give up instead that would help me lose a few pounds and help with AF? NB I am not going to cut out whole foods groups or starting taking supplements.
What would you give up?
Written by
Mrspat
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Have you thought of giving up sugar? If you start to read labels you are likely to be shocked by the amount of sugar added to foods.
I managed to lose weight by cutting out as much added sugar as possible. I didn't alter my fruit intake although fruit can be high in sugar - it's not ADDED.
But a word of warning, the change of diet sent my INR spiralling downwards.
Ever since I discovered Bacoglide I have been having AGA toasted cheese and ham sandwich for lunch. May have to give them up. LOL. Eggs were always supposed to be stopped during lent- hence pancake day and they are high in cholesterol. Alcohol of course, very fattening.
Ah yes alcohol. Gave it up for about 4 months just before and just after my heart operation in 2012. Lost a good deal of weight but was never sure if the two were connected. I would find it difficult to give up altogether. I only eat one egg per week.
It is a non stick synthetic sheet cut into the size of an AGA hot plate. Use it on the simmering plate. You just crack and egg onto it and fry it with no fat, make drop scones or toast sandwiches. All rather moorish!
Bob
Hi,
My advise would be to eat smaller amounts of the healthy nutritious foods that you know are good for you...and to eat your food a little more slowly so that you enjoy each mouthful of food...Chewing each mouthful of food for twice as long as you normally do in that way you will satiate your taste buds located at the back of your tongue...
Remember you are not a child now and when you was a child you was probably told to "EAT UP" but you have no need to now.Just leave the left over food on your plate.....and surely little by little you will see all the unnecessary fatty tissue just disappear as you will be reducing your weight naturally and eventually you will reach your target weight which you will easily maintain..
A lot of sense here but eating slowly and leaving food on my plate wouldn't come naturally. Smaller portions to start with seems a better alternative. I'm not generally a snacker.
Biscuits, Mrspat! They have little to offer nutritionally, unless they are peanut cookies or almond biscuits, and they are full of things like sugar, salt and butter that do us little good. But I can't give them up as I already almost never eat them!
Add cakes in as well if you like. I watch Bake Off with great pleasure (there's a celebrity one this week on UK TV which I will be watching) but most of the things they make are Not Good For YOU.
A 40 day abstinence is spot on - long enough to hurt, short enough to be achievable and make you feel good.
Like you, I seldom eat biscuits unless someone has bought them and put them in front of me. Ditto cakes. I like cookery programmes. Quite odd really - my grandfather and great grandfather were both chefs and both seem to have died from heart-related problems. I didn't inherit their skills, my sisters did and don't have heart problems.
Well, butter perhaps, if biscuits will have little impact. I find no butter means no potato and not much bread, unless it's spread with peanut butter or banana or on its own.
Rarely eat proper butter, only Flora. And I don't like butter on potato or toast. Don't want to do without dairy altogether as I think calcium is important. Sorry Rellim, didn't mean to get you to manage my diet! we finished up the cheese in the fridge today and I am not buying any more for the foreseeable future.
I was once told that the abdominal pain etc I was having might be due to gallstones. My doctor said he would book me for a scan and while I was waiting I thought it would be a good idea to go on a low fat diet even though I was very slim anyway. I began to look at the fat content of foods and was totally shocked by some, sausages being one of the worst! As it turned out there was not a gallstone to be seen but the pain had gone and so had half a stone.
Bit off the subject I realise but as I still have digestive trouble sometimes I was thinking of trying the famous Paleo Diet. Then it occurred to me that since then man had added to the diet, grains for example, and probably those in the group who could not cope with them would have died (natural selection) so you could be cutting out foods that were OK for you. Perhaps one could start with the PD and add to it.......
and fat generally is ok, ditch the Flora, there is absolutely no evidence that butter is bad for hearts, I t is the carbs and added sugar that do the damage both health wise and weight wise but it is the proportions of veg and fruit in your diet which is the decider, 75% is optimal.
Eating less, smaller plates and eat slower all great advise, cut alcohol if you imbibe, but not completely. Essentially read labels and avoid anything with corn starch or maize starch in, this is included in some yogurts as well as ready made sauces, as well as anything with added sugar.
Have the odd treat.
Look up the BBC food site to work out if you are a Feaster, Emotional Eater or Grazer. There are specific recipe ideas for each. I am a Feaster and found following the prescribed high fibre low GI, carbs and higher protein worked for me, I lost 8 lbs since Christmas.
By the way, a piece on Radio 4 this morning confirming we can all go back to eating butter, but need to ditch the carbs.
As far as diet and weight loss is concerned there are only two gurus that I pay attention to. The first I came across is Dr Michael Moseley and his 5,2 diet. I was diagnosed as diabetic (although I was a bit in denial) After a few months using his approach my diabetic symptoms have gone completely (I have a record of two years of blood tests which will support this) and I have lost around 20 lbs in weight. My second guru I came across him a view months ago is Dr Jason Fung, Google will find him. He has produced some six lectures on the subject addressing dietary issues in some detail. He is not after your money so you don't have to sign up for anything, he just gives you his sound advice and opinion all backed up with referenced research. I found him a bit of an eye opener! The six lectures come under the heading the Aetiology of Obesity. Nothing on AF, although there is some recent research (from an Australian team) which has linked a reduction in AF symptomatology as a direct result of weight loss. So a bit of hope there for a lot of us I suspect, again Google will find it, the team director is called Sanders.
Don't give anything up and try a brisk walk BEFORE breakfast.
You really need an incentive, I was lucky as I got a blood clot in the leg in 2001 after a 5hr car journey without a break, not picked up by the GP and to keep my leg well it's two daily walks of over half a mile ever since.
After being marginally obese, my weight is right down, I never go on the scales (used to go on every day) and the consultant can't believe how well my leg has come back.
OR buy the best quality food you can find, you eat less of it as the body is satisfied quicker e.g. raw chocolate.
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