After looking at and trying different 'diets' my conclusion can be simply summed up ............. Good old fashioned, plain, 'balance' .......... EVERYTHING has its place in a balanced diet & in LIVING ........... There is so much nutritional info available it's not difficult to find general balance of foodstuffs. I have quit sugar, and for me personally that means no biscuits, cakes, sugar on my weetabix etc. 'as a rule' , if I do have chocolate, on the odd occasion, I'm not going to lose the plot, overall I will still be in sugar deficit...... and getting in to the habit of checking nutrutional content of foods...... The mantra I'm trying to drum in to myself is this 'if it's not sustainable for life it needs to either be revised & tried again, or if not dropped' ..... A change of diet has been a shock to my system I've no doubt, and I try hard to be on the 'alert' for either bad habits trying to sneak in when I'm bored, low etc. or the old self sabotage striking. I've only been attempting this change for roughly a month and my hope is my body will come to see my diet as normal. After 50 years of unhealthy and problematic food issues can I achieve it ???? I don't know, but I'm trying ! A huge help is menu planning and bulk cooking of home made soups, casseroles etc...
Anyone have thoughts on this ?
To everyone struggling, chin up, you're really not alone with your weight struggle! 🙂
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Trierisme
1st 7lbs
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Sounds like an excellent life-plan - its the old saying "everything in moderation" and this is where tracking your calorie intake works because it reminds you when to stop, and encourages you to spread your food over the day in a balanced and healthy way. Another thing is that one of the advantages of getting to be over 50 is that your body can become more settled without the hormonal ups and downs of our younger selves - at least that has been my experience.
Yes I agree ! The menu planning is fabulous for planning 'balanced' food intake, both nutritionally and time wise throughout the day.......... I do have the luxury of time as I don't work, but it honestly doesn't take long to plan a weeks food intake, again though where I'm lucky is my husband does his own food as he's a weirdly fussy vegetarian, so I don't have the issue of possibly cooking for a family as such; ( male squeaker , my lovely son is in Oz) you know, one member will eat this, another one won't eat that, how you'd manage the would be far more fiddly and a pain the usual !
Keep in touch and let us know how you're getting on, and any tips you can share; I'm never to proud or shy to learn from other people 🙂
Thank you 'concerned' , I always enjoy your posts.....
Dietician recently told me a good portion guide, which you may already be aware of. A closed fist is your amount of carbohydrate, an open palm, the amount of protein, and cupped hands, fruit and vegetables......per meal..... I watch my carbs too, I eat them, but they're greatly reduced, well, compared to the vast amounts I used to eat. Stomach has 'deflated' quite quickly in just a month, great for my diabetes...... I go for my db review in May, please god changes Ive made will keep me from metformin, we shall see !
I have always said everything in moderation. I struggle with the bits you can't have so by having a small piece of chocolate for doing well I don't feel so guilty. I have always struggled with diets at the moment it's what to snack on!
I think your post is extremely well written and contains a lot of sensible advice. I definitely concur that eating a well balanced healthy eating plan is the way forward, and I also agree that menu planning, and bulk cooking of homemade soups, casseroles etc is really beneficial.
I'm planning on cooking a bulk batch of a new soup I've not tried before - I'm going to do some carrot & bean soup with some pot barley in it, and I'm intrigued as to how it will taste as I've not done that before. I don't have a recipe, I'm just going to put the ingredients together and see how it turns out.
Please do share any of your ideas for soups or casseroles that you've found particularly tasty - as I would love to hear ones you particularly enjoy.
I also think you've done incredibly well to cut out sugar - it does turn up in so many things - especially sauces - I try to make my own now whenever I can.
Your points about self-sabotage are really spot-on, it's good to be on the alert for those times that we might sense a hint of self-sabotage. It's been great that a few people have posted about that issue recently, as it is a relevant factor.
Some excellent observations there and you are right it should be easy to select what suits you from the wealth of information available on foods these days. Cutting sugar out as much as you can is going to help a lot and your body will thank you for it. Good guidance too from the dietician regarding portion sizes etc, i think we all know what to do to get our weight down but it is keeping the momentum/ motivation going to continue for life which is what makes this forum great. Good advice and support when needed and nobody is judging you, good luck and keep it going John
Great post, I agree totally 😊 I have a very similar story, and like you, have all but eliminated processed sugar from my diet, it just wasn't worth the calories!! I am now 7 months in, over 2 stone off, and, MAJOR plus for me, managed not to go off plan too much at Christmas or a recent fortnight a holiday 😊Good luck, looking forward to following your journey 😊
Losing weight has been such a slog and I could easily have put on 3 or 4 lbs in the two weeks that would take me at least a month to lose so I did some reading on here and decided to enjoy my holiday but that food was not going to be the focus. We were self catering which helped, but even without that I ate fruit and salads which are sooo yummy in Portugal 😊 Fish several times, but still had steak/pizza/chips and the odd dessert, but was careful with the portion size, luckily there were lots of volunteers in our group to help me with this!!! Hubby and I usually "shared" a lunch sandwich and chips. And lots (and lots) of walking, sightseeing and dancing. Had a brilliant holiday, wore all my new slimmer clothes, including fitted tops and trousers 😊😊
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