Spoiler Alert : This post contains more tedious diet bore stuff. Feel free to move on if you don’t require this in your life.
I had a lightbulb moment this morning as I was lugging a large 10kg bag of dog food from the clutches of the DPD man to our utility room.
It suddenly dawned on me that as I heaved this heavy bag onto the bench that less than three months ago, and for many years before that, I’d been carrying this exact additional weight around 24 hours a day – UNDER MY SKIN!
I could feel the additional strain it was placing on my hips and knees just standing still so heaven knew what sort of damage it was inflicting when I was attempting to walk up hills or even jog. My hip replacement surgeon had advised me to “keep weight under control” in a very low-key way after my April operation but I had no idea how much of an impact such a brutal additional weight was making. I had never really felt that I was overweight and my cunning ruse of buying bigger and loose fitting clothes had helped to disguise my appearance – most people referred to me not as “that fat old bastard” but as “that scruffy old bastard”. It was well known in family circles that I could consume a single Battenburg in one sitting but that was before I knew I was taking in 75% of the average adult daily calorie requirement in one go.
Here are a few things that I’ve learnt in the last 3 months:
- The 8 Week Blood Sugar Diet is ace, and you don’t have to go hard-core at it with 800 calories a day – I’ve been consuming around 1200 and had very fast results which I’m now levelling off before I become wizened 🙂
- I’ve given up most potatoes, bread, pasta, cake, sweets, rice and alcohol. Before you stop reading in total disgust muttering “life wouldn’t be worth living” I can honestly say that I don’t really feel I’ve been on a diet. The Mediterranean Diet (sans Pizza & Pasta obs) is a way of life and I’ve sneaked back some breakfast soda bread and the occasional glass of red wine. Shares in “Twix” have, however, dipped alarmingly. Summer meals have mostly been served on a bed of runner beans and Winter meals will have an accompaniment of oven roasted vegetables, whilst we’ve kept on with fresh fruit for desert with Greek yoghurt and home-made Granola. Michael Mosely’s GP wife has produced a terrific book of recipes which is well worth buying.
- “Fad” diets of any type, including I would say the 5-2 diet, are all doomed because they reach an end point at which they can only go into reverse. The low-carb Blood Sugar Approach is based around a diet that is perfectly sustainable as a way of life. The amazing thing is big carbohydrate and high-GI foods actually instil a craving as they are digested, just like a cigarette lays down the seeds of the yearning for a follow up.
- Why don’t the NHS adopt the low-carb diet and promote it more actively? I don’t know, perhaps the large drug Companies and Sugar Food producers have too much influence.
