June '9 - was meant to start the sugar-free diet but kept postponing it. You know the kind of thing. I'll wait til after this visitor, this party, this festival, this big day out...
July '9 - got bored of preparing for the diet, and realised I would have to do it, regardless of special events. Psyched up by eating 'farewell foods' - last vanilla custard, last tin of rice pudding, last chocolate, etc. Planned my meals, shopping lists. Put all the forbidden foods into a big box. A friend of mine calls it 'The Naughty Box' - I don't open it unless to get out the coffee and biscuits for visitors.
July 22 - started the anti-candida diet.
August '9 - Weighed myself. Reduction: 7kg or 1 stone one and a half pounds. Over three months, this is about a pound a week. My clothes fit me better, and I've probably dropped a size; I can wear the jeans I bought five years ago. And all this without exercising.
September '9 - by the end of September, I had lost a further 2lb. It's bound to level out. My aim is to lose another stone by next May; I'm sure if I stick to the restrictive diet and indulge in some exercise as well, I should be able to manage that. And keep the weight the same from then on.
The 'diet' I'm on restricts the foods I eat: I don't restrict how much I eat. Well, I do, in that I try to keep to 1600 calories a day, the right amount for my gender and age bracket. Which is a bummer. What I mean is, if I'm hungry, I eat more; if I'm not so hungry, I make sure I eat to match that feeling. The opportunity for snacking is reduced; the snacks I allow are celery, hummous, oatcakes, tahini paste, butter, almonds (not supposed to eat too many of these). At meals, however, I eat as much as I want. I measure out the meat or fish, and the rice, but when I'm hungry, I just cook more rice, or porage oats if it's breakfast time. Vegetables I let myself have unlimited access to. Eating more at meals helps me to cut down on snacks. When I have a day out, I eat a very big breakfast; this cuts down on wanting to buy chocolate, etc. Nowadays, I find myself really looking forward to the evening meal; my 'treat eating' is to make this meal as interesting and luxurious as possible, and I put a lot of time into preparing it with care. On days when I don't have time, I have to be very careful, as it means I'll start craving for the instant sugar-high fixes that modern life provides so easily. Fortunately, I don't live within walking distance of any shops, so taking the car out for a midnight sugar-fest just doesn't happen.
And that's it! That's how I lost over a stone in weight over four months, without any exercise, and without going hungry or depriving myself of good food.
Enjoy,
Derwen Hen
FEATURE THIS
This week I have mostly been thinking about eating ... Crispy Duck Rissotto.
RECIPE OF THE WEEK
Fish curry
(I invented this for that timeless reason: the fish I'd defrosted slightly too early didn't smell off, but didn't exactly smell good.)
Sunflower seed oil
White fish
Garam Masala
Garlic, 3 cloves
Celery - chopped fine
Saute all ingredients in the oil, ensuring spices evenly distributed among pieces of fish.
Add stock (fish stock is good - disgustingly, just boil up the head, tail and spine of the fish for a couple of hours, with a cinnamon stick. Or whatever flavour you want it to have. Allspice is good.) and simmer for twenty minutes.
When the curry is 'dry' - all liquid boiled away but before it starts sticking to the pan - add goat's yoghurt and warm through without boiling again.
Serve with turmeric rice,
chopped dill and vegetables to taste (I ate spinach).
Once again, it tasted a thousand times better than the photo looks...
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