I’ve never been a fan of diets.
But something had to give when the weight piled on thanks to six years of online study, a largely sedentary job and (let's face it), a love of food.
We had some medical check ups prior to Christmas 2018 and neither of us had a particularly praiseworthy report card. We were both overweight, and the time had come to take some action. We have often been blessed that when major changes have had to happen in our lives, the timing has dovetailed so we are moving forwards together. I'm relieved that in a change like this that impacts diet, shopping and food prep, we're both on the same page.
We had some medical check ups prior to Christmas 2018 and neither of us had a particularly praiseworthy report card. We were both overweight, and the time had come to take some action. We have often been blessed that when major changes have had to happen in our lives, the timing has dovetailed so we are moving forwards together. I'm relieved that in a change like this that impacts diet, shopping and food prep, we're both on the same page.
So which way were we
going to go?
The obvious change needed to be less going in and that meant
portion control. The timing wasn’t ideal, leading into Christmas as a
traditional feasting time, but we just took it easy, and tried to stick to more
of the healthy stuff and less of the desserts, shortbreads and such.
As this was also a time away from work for us, it gave us a chance to look into this lifestyle change further. We had seen Dr Michael Mosely on television discussing his latest diet plan, The Fast 800. We read the book and in theory we liked its premise, but once I checked out the recipes I have to admit I became quite depressed. I love my food, and eating only 800 calories a day just didn’t seem achievable. However, looking at this plan and his previous books the Five Two Diet and The Clever Guts Diet, I started to look more holistically at dietary changes, and made those I felt were achievable to get started.
So, if you ask what diet we are following, I'd say it's more a combination of approaches. It's certainly lower in carbs (sadly – I LOVE my bread and potatoes) but hopefully once the weight is gone we can reintroduce some in a limited way. We are trying to eat a lot more vegetables, aiming for half of our plates. We are eating lots of baby spinach and kale as our salad bases, using a combo of olive oil, apple cider vinegar and Herbamare for dressing. I throw in whatever else I have on hand – cherry toms, carrot, zucchini, par-cooked broccoli, cooked sweet potato, avocado, pine nuts. We have upped tremendously our intake of grilled fish, tinned tuna and salmon, and anchovies.
This is just the start.
A change in diet alone won't do the trick, we know. A combination of things are needed to shift the weight and improve our health at the same time, and in coming posts I'll share what's working for us in terms of diet, exercise and lifestyle changes.
The song I am reminded of is Carry that Weight by The Beatles. I couldn't find a decent clip of The Beatles performing it, but when I googled I found plenty of versions out there, including some dodgy looking footage of Paul McCartney live in concert, a vocally impressive Jennifer Hudson, and a performance by Neil Diamond where all I could think of was how much I wanted to blot the sweat off his face. Distracting! Isn't Google a treasure trove?
Yes, we've been carrying that weight a long time. Let the shedding begin.
Tracey 🍏🍏
Yes, we've been carrying that weight a long time. Let the shedding begin.
Tracey 🍏🍏
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