What Does Everyone Do For Diet?

[Elsie1955]

I am going to start the Mediterranean diet, with some modifications because I need lower sodium. if you do it, please let me know how its going for you. I have to drop 50 pounds, most of which I gained back I got lazy.

[secondtry]

Maybe easier for you to avoid setting a 'destination' (ie lose 50 pounds) and in the future consider it a 'journey' that doesn't end, just getting a bit better each week.

[Elsie1955 in reply to secondtry]

thats a good point

[NLGA]

just make sure you have less carbs less meat more vegetables salads and other forms of protein from various beans /beans . On the Mediterranean diet watch the oil /dressing you use in salads as it’s full of carbs more than most things although good for you it doesn’t help to drop weight . I replaced a meal with a protein shake I find they are very good . If it’s man made don’t eat it is a good guide I think and eat less natural carbs and sugars

[Elsie1955 in reply to NLGA]

Im diabetic 2 so I have been cutting carbs anyway, going for whole grains more. I am thinking I would like to make my own salad dressings or order from Waldens or Vitacost where I can get sugar-free stuff. My problem with replacement meal shakes is the sugar or their use of asparatame.

[CDreamer]

Different people’s biology, goals and psychology produce different outcomes so, like the drugs, you cannot say that one diet or another will suit one person. I recently joined the Zoe programme and found the suggestions, not diet plan, based upon the testing was really helpful. For instance - my blood sugars remain quite stable, even after eating some carbs but I have difficulty clearing fats so whereas I used to follow low carb high fat diet, I now have modified so I take less.

Having lived on the Mediterranean coast I’ve always followed that type of eating plan but the interesting thing was that I found it was rich in salt. I have to take at least 6g of salt/day because I have very low BP - just one example where you do need to personalise your diet to your own requirements.

Basic rules:-

Avoid ALL ultra processed foods

Limit lightly processed foods

Eat very high quality, preferably organic, freshly prepared food - at least 80% of the time

80% plant based with loads of leafy veg

Eat your vegetables before carbs/protein/fat/ eg: fresh green salad with olive oil

Make your protein source mainly vegetable

Exercise after your meals - 15 min brisk walk for example

Limit cheese (I know this is almost unimaginable for most Americans) to about a matchbox size per week

I personally use a lot of spices and Indian based recipes and use spices as I would have used salt as my husband likes ‘tasty’ food and needs to limit salt intake.

I’ve found these 2 sites very helpful regarding recipes/meal planning

heartmdinstitute.com/diet-n... - better for education

thedoctorskitchen.com/ - better for recipes - absolutely delicious

[Auriculaire in reply to CDreamer]

This advice does not seem like a traditional Mediterranean diet where I would have thought that fish and cheese ( though goat's /sheep's cheese) would comprise more than 20% of calorie intake. Also when we first came to live here salad was always served after the main course before cheese both in restaurants (down south as well) and when we ate with French friends. Even veg were often served like this. Nowadays this custom has vanished in restaurants and if you get any veg at all they come with the main course but our friends still serve salad afterwards and when they eat with us never take any till they have finished their fish/ meat. What is the rationale for eating it first? Where does the match box piece of cheese a week come from? The Med area of France has many delicious regional cheeses and it's not just Americans who would find this advice unimaginable. I would suggest that most people living round the Med would too!

[CDreamer in reply to Auriculaire]

and the Zoe plan advised differently- based on the science rather than culture. The cheeses - depends on the cheese and your individual biology. Certainly the Mediterranean or Pan Mediterranean diet varies depending on location.

[Elsie1955 in reply to Auriculaire]

apparently cheese is very minor in the mediter. plan, at least from what I'm seeing. But what do you do for your diet?

[Auriculaire in reply to Elsie1955]

Cheeses in areas surrounding the Med are more traditionally made from sheep or goat milk as there is often no suitable land for cattle farming. The Greek feta cheese is probably the most well known example. I live in France where food is still very important and what counts is how it tastes. There is a great variety of regional dishes following traditional recipes .I do not believe in a specific diet and I certainly am not inclined to follow a plant based diet - I think it is just the latest dietary fad like low fat was in the 80s. Plus my husband would not tolerate it .On the whole I cook from scratch using mainly organic ingredients. My husband bakes our bread but it does not toast well so I still use shop bread if I want toast.! We grow some veg . But I find the Zoe advice that CDreamer outlines above over prescriptive and unrealistic. Does avoiding all highly processed food mean never eating chocolate? Or ice cream? To me there is a whiff of the puritanical in such advice. Occasional treats are part of life. I find the French attitude to food more congenial - more of the. "eat drink and be merry". What is more until fast food started creeping in here ( still not as prevalent as in the uK ) you never saw obese young people or children because the traditional way of eating ( main meal at lunchtime) was healthier. That is changing now .

[paolina in reply to Auriculaire]

The British seem to be going back to roots more, I noticed on my last visit that the children's menus contained more "proper food" and most of them were having child portions rather than nuggets & fries type of food. Personally although I enjoy "foreign" food I feel a lot better on "Meat & 2/3 veg plus potatoes which never seemed to count as a veg!" like in the old days! Also most Italian dishes contain cheese.

[Elsie1955 in reply to CDreamer]

that sounds easy enough to do too!

[Sixtyslidogirl]

I have tried loads of diets and the best one I have come across is Noom, if you don’t mind paying. It is really about changing your whole mindset, and approach to food and exercise which I have found really helpful. Mediterranean diet fits right into it. I have lost quite a bit and at the moment am keeping it off.

[Elsie1955 in reply to Sixtyslidogirl]

thank you! I may see if noom is affordable for us!

[BobD Volunteer]

Diets don't work but life style does.

[Ppiman]

My wife's late aunt was famous locally for the extraordinary popularity of a diet club she ran and still people talk well of her ideas. She was convinced that crash and weird diets were all useless over time, almost always failing. Her method was to eat what you usually do, but to eat rather less of it each day. She used to say that it was a slower but more comfortable and certain way to lose weight and, most importantly, a way that lasted for life. Calories taken in must be less than calories burned was her mantra, or weight will never decrease. She was also utterly convinced that people whose weight failed to decrease were deceiving themselves about what they ate!

Steve

[Auriculaire in reply to Ppiman]

Calories in/ calories burned has long been discredited by metabolism scientists. It is too simplistic and does not look at the type of food being consumed.

[Ppiman in reply to Auriculaire]

Yes, when I wrote it, I almost qualified it but didn’t. I’m very aware of the research on nutrition, calories, carbohydrates and so on, but unless we discredit Mayer’s law of conservation of energy, it seems to me to be a good rule of thumb for any particular individual, anyway. By this I mean that, for that individual, consuming fewer calories than they use each day is the only way for them to lose weight. If their weight is stable on their current food intake, then the only way to reduce their weight is by reducing their food / calorie intake. I appreciate that in specific individual cases, issues such as water retention and hormonal or endocrine aspects, especially thyroid, can affect this.

Reducing processed carbohydrates might do an even better job but then we are into the opposite of what my wife’s aunt found - that keeping the foods you eat the same was the key to a long term, effective weight loss programme. The evidence is that almost all diets fail in the long term because people don’t stick to them. Her method has benefits over these in my view and in her long experience of helping people lose weight. Slow but sure was one of her sayings.

Steve

[irene75359]

My late mother didn't have a weight problem but she was pleasantly rounded. She went to her GP and asked if she needed to lose weight and he measured her height, stood her on his scales and said no, you don't have a problem but if you want to lose a bit eat a little less. She wanted to keep it simple so cut her breakfast by one slice of toast (she used to have porridge and two slices of toast and marmalade). Over the next eighteen months she lost 14lbs, never went back to two slices of toast and never regained the weight. What was interesting is that she was so laid back about everything, for a long time she didn't even have scales in the house and found out the extent of her weight loss by another chance weigh-in.

[MarkS in reply to irene75359]

That's a very good way of doing it. I wanted to lose 2 kg to ease the load on my legs as I get older. I reduced the bread I have with my salad at lunch from 3 to 2 slices and achieved the 2kg loss in about 6m. And I never felt hungry. I've now resumed the 3 slices and my weight is stable.

[Ppiman in reply to irene75359]

It makes such sense. Your late mum sounds rather special to me. My wife’s aunt was, too (and, indeed my wife’s mother - it’s rare to have a really excellent mother in law, but I had one! She kept her weight down by just the method your mum used. 😉).

[beach_bum]

step 1 …see a registered dietitian.

Everyone is different.

Age, gender, health factors such as diabetes, kidney issues, fatty liver etc, are all issues the dietitian will need to know to personalize your diet.

And be aware that not all protein shakes/meal replacements are not created equally, but they will tell you that.

My wife lost 60 lbs after seeing, and being coached by a dietitian, and it has stayed off. She tried “Dr. Google” , fad diets, “you gotta try this” from family and friends…make an appointment and do it the safe and smart way.

[Snowgirl65]

The Mediterranean Diet is one of the best. But my preferred method is to count calories the old-fashioned way. Find a good calorie-counting book (or check food calories online) and get a small food scale. I lose weight quickly when I keep my intake under 1200 calories a day, with about 1580 to maintain my preferred weight. I go above some days and then compensate the rest of the week. I lost 23 lbs. this way and my weight has stayed consistent with a normal BMI for my age.

[hyperchill]

Take a look at Dr. Michael Greger's books and videos. His stuff is Plant Based - Whole Foods...my husband has been on it for about 3-4 weeks and feels much better, has a lot more energy despite the blood thinners that cause him great joint pain and lethargy. I'm eating this way too and dropped 5lbs in 3 weeks - had not seen under 150 for 30 years til now....it's a big change for us, never thought we'd go without meat or fish but I have never felt this good in my life. And I find the focus is not so much what you can't have - but that everything you put in your body is a whole food/plant based. We don't feel deprived. I don't feel like it's about losing weight but about gaining health and for the first time in years I'm actually losing weight. Take a look at his website: Nutritionfacts.org His books are How Not To Die, How Not To Diet, with accompanying cookbooks. There are also myriad online food websites with recipes and the food is delicious. I look for plant based , no oil, vegan and find tons of possibilities. We didn't start out jumping in with both feet - are transitioning over - but we both feel so good that we're converts. We saw my husband's cardio-physiologist last week and he said he doesn't think he needs a 2nd ablation after all. Soon we'll see about getting off the blood thinners....I wish you the best.

[Elsie1955]

Thanks everyone, I wasn't as much looking for advice as to find out what you all eat. Do you eat more proteins? Maybe shoot out there what you have for breakfast, lunch and dinner in a day? Just to give me some ideas. I'm already basically sugarfree and low sodium.

[Sixtyslidogirl]

I have a variation of this breakfast most days

40g oats, 1 tsp chia seeds, 1 cup skimmed milk. Cooked in microwave

Then top with two tablespoons of stewed fruit of some kind plus a tablespoon of almond butter.

it really keeps me going.

For lunch today, I had two slices of wholemeal toast (no butter), half an avocado smashed on top and two poached eggs on top.

For dinner I had potato rosti that I had made with ratatouille and fruit salad. Probably should have had more ratatouille and less rosti. Tomorrow is another day..

Rosti and ratatouille

[Elsie1955 in reply to Sixtyslidogirl]

that sounds quite livable! Thank you for sharing and it looks great!

[Elsie1955]

Today I hit the market about bought the veggies for the week. We're going to go mainly plant based with some goat/feta cheeses only, fish 2x a week and chicken 1x a week. I also found that going to a middle eastern market got me bigger containers of EVOO and avocado oils. Butter begone!!!! Bacon fat condemned!!!

[Sixtyslidogirl]

sounds good. Filling up on veg is a great way to go.

[Elsie1955]

So here's what I've had today.

Brekky (something I never have liked was eating in the morning but I will learn to I reckon):

Radish fries with a very small amount of Canadian bacon (rinsed) and 1 egg + extra white, in avocado oil, 1 small pear, a slice of multigrain toast with 1/4 of an avocado spread

Lunch is a Mediterranean plate (see photo) with cucumber, feta cheese (1 oz), kalamata olives (5) baby tomatoes (5) humus, 1 sweet pickled pepper, homemade red pepper sauce, bell pepper strips, 1/2 cup seasoned (no salt) quinoa, and 1/2 whole wheat pita. All drizzled with a little olive oil.

Mediterranean plate

[Elsie1955]

oh I forgot to mention the carrots!

[Elsie1955]

Tonights' dinner was chicken tuscan soup with multigrain bread

tuscan soup