Food for thought

Let me start by saying I am NOT a trained nutritionist, doctor or health professional , the following is based on my experiences alone and should be read as more of a diary extract that may give you some thoughts as to how you might achieve your goals.  If you really want to be sure seek professional help! Ok, caveat over let’s go…

I have never really been FAT per see but like 1 in 4 women in the UK my BMI (and this isn’t always the most accurate guide to fat but nonetheless) has dipped over and under the overweight mark since I hit my mid-20s.

In fact I would only have to look at a bar of chocolate and bang on went another few pounds. Christmas and winter in general was worse for me with the added temptations and opportunities to drink wine! I kept much of the problem at bay with a rigorous exercise regime including running marathons, triathlons and rowing up and down Bristol docks but no amount of exercise could shift the spare tyre around the middle and prevent the evening bloat I became to think was just part of me, growing up and being a woman (funny enough I soon learnt that rather than being good for your body too much cardio puts your body under stress which is bad for you – but how to exercise I feel is another post in the making so for now let’s stick to the food).  

Then along came baby number one and the issue was further compounded with less time, more stress, erratic eating patterns and of course just a flabbier and less toned appearance due to the inevitable stretching to accommodate a 10lb baby!

It seemed to me I had always been on a diet in some form or another.  I have tried weightwatchers, slimming world, detox diets, atkins, cabbage soup (ahem), paleo diet, the fasting diet and many others and with discipline all would shed a few llbs to dip me back into the normal BMI range and see me off on holiday or to get into that dress for the office party. None however tackled my association with food, that spare tyre or the bloating feeling which soon became obvious to the doctor was some form of IBS (the new buzz word for a poorly digestive system).

To be fair to some of the diets mentioned above some were far better than others at maintaining my weight.  In particular weightwatchers and slimming world worked and gave me a better understanding of the amount and types of food I was eating but they didn’t tackle the tummy issues, the cellulite and many other things that continued to plague me and in retrospect it is because they still enabled me to eat the rubbish – just less of it! So please if the following is too much for you do look at either of these two diets as a good way to lose weight.  What they won’t do is change your life forever!

Then about two years ago I started researching and learning more about nutrition with the able assistance and guidance of my friend and long-suffering food guru Jamie Richards. With his help I was able to see that not all food is created equal. In fact most that are created shouldn’t be considered food at all for the lack of nourishment and support they give the body. Finally I saw that if I wanted amazing results – not just a bit of a weight drop – I needed to rethink the way I looked at food, eating and nourishing my body.

Gradually over the next two years I started to experiment with food.  I kept a food diary and worked out quite quickly that the bloating was worse after eating starchy carbs particularly wheat, dairy products, refined sugars (cakes, sweets etc), alcohol (sorry but that one stays) and leafy green vegetables and some fruits, particularly the dry variety.

So I began to slowly eliminate these from my diet. It was tricky at first; particularly eating out or on the go but I persevered and saw some change in my body shape and general wellbeing. But I couldn’t stop the cravings for a nice bacon buttie or bar of chocolate and would ‘reward’ myself with said things after a hard workout or at the end of a stressful week. It seems laughable now that I used these things to ‘reward’ myself given the damage they were doing to my gut!

I kept going back and forward to see Jamie (who must have despaired of me so little attention was I paying to his advice) and would try anything new on the market that ‘claimed’ to reduce the bloat, burn fat fast etc (you’ve seen the adverts!)

Then baby number two came along and the diet well it went south along with my breasts : ) I piled on the llbs and once again my body was thrown into chemical disarray and I was back to constipation, spots, furry and bitten tongue and just general rubbishness (if that is a word, which my spellchecker assures me it is not!)

I gave birth just over a year ago. And what a year! So here’s what happened for me to finally see the light and eat right.

Firstly my husband to be was diagnosed with a dairy and wheat intolerance – so out went those. Secondly a friend of mine was diagnosed with bowl cancer (a chilling wake-up call to the sensitivities of the gut) and finally I saw myself in the mirror and hated what I saw – not just the baby fat but the sallow skin, the bloated belly,  the constipation dilemma, the general feeling of being out of balance. So I embarked on a new journey to really discover how to eat myself well.  You will notice I didn’t say lose weight – no I decided I knew how to do that, I had been doing that off and on for nearly a decade – no this time I decided to explore what food did to me and how I could structure my diet to feed my body properly. You can’t expect a car to run well on the wrong fuel yet I had been pushing my body across finish lines on the wrong fuel for years – no wonder the fuel tank (i.e. my stomach area) was knackered!

I’d like to say it started with an epiphany but it didn’t. I searched the inter-web and looked for eating patterns that fit what I already knew about my body.  Once I had the information I began, with solid and professional advice and support from Jamie, to devise my own way of structuring my eating (and I must apologise to my poor work colleagues who got all of this on a daily basis!) – how, when, why and lastly what.

 Make a big deal of your meal

 So let’s start with the how:

I have a very demanding job and once I had really sat down and thought about it, kept a diary and looked at how I was eating I realised I wasn’t ‘eating’ at all! I was throwing food down my throat as quickly as possible because I had skipped a meal and was starving, had work to do and had to get back to typing, had to change a nappy, pick the eldest up from nursery, dash out etc. How could I expect my stomach and digestive system to do the job my teeth were supposed to do! No wonder I had so much ‘crap’ stuck in the system. Also how did I possibly taste anything – could that be why I ate chocolate until I felt sick because I wasn’t really savouring it? Add to this the wisdom from Jamie that stress raises cortisol levels which slows down the metabolism (or something like that – but it’s not good!)  and I knew I had to slow the eating down, take time out to eat (so not on the go, not at my desk, not when I was about to go out) and really chew and enjoy my food – look at it, smell like, taste it.  The result I ate less, and felt less stressed! Bingo – but it’s not just me, the hubbie tried it and he too noticed he was eating less, felt fuller quicker and enjoyed his food more. So this was a quite simple and easy change to implement but others would be harder.

Keep it regular

 

Now to do all of the above you have to plan when you eat to avoid needing to eat at the wrong moment and this takes me to the when. Having kept a food diary I noticed that I had to schedule my eating around my life if I was to avoid rushing it and feeling stressed. Easier said than done with two children and eating around work.  But what really liberated me in terms of my thinking was that I realised I was already planning meal times for my two little ones  – they didn’t just eat when they felt like it – they had meal times that were at a table, unhurried and with proper food . So if I could do it for them why not me?

The first meal to be properly scheduled in was breakfast, which I find the hardest meal of the day. Not because I am not hungry in the morning but because I automatically want to grab a muffin on the run. The problem was I normally got up, went to the gym and then into work which meant it was 9am before I could eat anything and that was sat at my desk, which is not ideal. Plus I would be so hungry I would grab whatever I could find! When I wasn’t at the gym I was normally sorting the kids out and therefore the same pattern occurred. Time to get organised!

Firstly I switched my tea for a cup of hot water, lemon and ginger.  I had been told about its merits for years and had tried it off and on but I was determined to make this a change for life so I stopped buying tea! It was hard at first as without the initial caffeine rush I wanted even more to grab for something sugary but I stuck at it and soon the thought of a hot, milky drink in the morning made me feel a bit queasy (BUT it did take at least 4 weeks to make the switch so please keep trying!)

Secondly I started planning my breakfasts as I do with the boys.  On the mornings I had the gym I grabbed a smoothie (sadly ready-made innocent one as I am just not that organised) first thing, enjoying the sweetness of the fruit to wake me up and then I’d be off to the gym knowing I had something inside me with the promise of more to come.  Then once at work rather than grab something on the way in I would have something stashed in my desk ready for me – something healthy and nutritious such as some rye bread and organic nut butter, home-made nutty cereal (recipe to follow) with fresh berries and alpro yogurt (dairy free) or even home-made fruit muffins made with rye or buckwheat (recipe to follow). Like I did with Teddles, the home-made items were made on the weekend whilst I was preparing baby food and other meals and put in a plastic container and taken to work ready to surprise me when I got in.

I then ate said breakfast whilst reading through the morning papers, checking emails or chatting – anything other than actually working so that I could really enjoy my food.

On days when I wasn’t dashing off I would have a cooked breakfast along with the boys.  Omelette (with rice milk), organic bacon on rye, smoked salmon and scrambled egg with asparagus; yes it was still hectic at home but if I could feed the boys I could feed myself and if it meant getting up the same time as I would for the gym it didn’t matter because not only did I have a nice hot breakfast inside me I got to spend a little longer with the kids before I headed out. So breakfast nailed.

And what did that do? Well it meant come 10:30am I was still suitably full that I didn’t feel the need to reach for a mid-morning pick me up.  And if I did it was a handful of nuts rather than a chocolate bar as I didn’t need the sugar rush (thanks to the lack of caffeine in the morning which meant I hadn’t buzzed and then slumped!)

Of course that then set me up for lunch at the proper time of between 12 and 1. Again as I do with the kids when I look after them I ensure whatever it is I have on in the day, whatever meetings I have planned I keep at least 30 mins between 12 and 1 to myself (or with the boys) so that I can eat something quietly and slowly as described above.

I don’t want to get into too much detail about what I have for lunch as we can cover that off in the ‘what’ to eat bit but I did have some rules to help me get through the day.  Firstly, I make sure whatever it is has lots of healthy protein – meat, fish, eggs, nuts etc. Protein helps you to keep fuller for longer and that’s what I needed to stretch out the afternoon.  I also make sure I don’t eat fruit without some nuts or seeds to accompany it to avoid the sugar ups and downs of 3pm (but more on that later). Finally I made it look nice.  I get loads of compliments at work about my meals – not because they are necessarily anything special but because I presented them as if I was serving them to someone special – and I guess I was, ME!  So I take care with presentation, add herbs to garnish and generally keep it as bright and colourful and therefore appealing as possible. Soon I was making lunch for everyone in the office : )

With a nice (not too sugary) lunch in the bag I can normally last until I get home to eat again, carrying a handful of nuts with me just in case (with a little bit of dark chocolate for a real treat).  It meant however by the time I got home at 6:30 I was hungry – so dinner switched from 8pm to 6:30pm and I got to eat dinner with the boys!  What’s more eating early meant that by the time I went to bed I felt a bit peckish but not full and bloated and this meant a better night’s sleep (children allowing) and waking up really hungry ready to face a planned out and scheduled in breakfast and the process starts again. Above anything else I truly believe getting this pattern right has made me lose weight.  I am eating like a child in terms of planned, regular and sustained food (rather than messy walls and general sulking) and this gives me the energy to get through to the next meal without a slump in sugar levels. Sugar levels are an interesting one, which I will talk about a bit later (from personal experience not with any professional advice).  I finally have my eating habits on track (mostly – some days throw you a curve ball such as hospital visits with little ones etc but in general I have it sorted) and this has certainly reduced the bloat at night and given me meal times back with the family as an added bonus. Suddenly all of the diet gurus and their insistence of a good breakfast make sense – it really does set you up for the day.

This schedule won’t work for everyone as people work different shifts, stay at home with the kids and various other possibilities. From personal experience however I would say sit and think about your average day and work out what schedule fits you and try and structure proper eating times – after all eating is fundamental to survival so why do we give the time to do it such little respect.  I was discussing this with my hairdresser today and he said; “I have such bad eating habits but between the dog and work I just don’t have time to eat something properly and grab whatever I can, when I can.” I suspect most people feel like this.  Then no more than 10 mins later he regaled me with the story of his addiction to spray tans – he has one every day! So he can find time for that but not to eat  – I felt pointing that out might  be a little rude but it did make me chuckle.

Don’t cry for me…

So why you might ask did I ask myself why I ate – isn’t that obvious, because I am hungry.  But am I? Or am I thirsty, bored, tired, sad, lonely, happy or a mix of emotions. If you are like me and have been off and on diets for years you will be familiar with the term emotional eating or comfort eating and we all do it to some degree (even now I find myself doing it).  The bag of crisps in front of the telly because you’re bored and they are there, the tub of ice-cream after an argument, the shared plate of chips with friends even though you’ve already had dinner! It’s easy to do and the opportunities to do it are vast, whether you’re at home or at work.  So I set about writing down how I felt before I ate anything outside of the regulated meal schedule – and this included drinking alcohol.  Quite quickly I saw a pattern of what I was eating to satisfy what emotional need. Wine made me relax, chocolate happy, sweets less tired, crisps or biscuits less bored.  Ok so how do you get around this. Here’s what I did (but this doesn’t mean it will work for you).

• I’m stressed, I need to relax – a bath, a walk, a foot massage, reading to the boys
• I’m sad, I want to be happy – a funny film , a cuddle, a run, looking at baby pictures
• I’m tired, I need a pick me up – a walk, a cup of herbal tea, fresh air, a cool shower
• I’m bored – read a book, write a shopping list, organise Goob’s room

You notice I didn’t even reach for healthy food – because to me that was still making the link between these emotions and food of any sort.  I wanted to eat when I was hungry and enjoy wine and chocolate because I had the room not because of the emotions.  This all sounds very virtuous but as I said at the beginning I still do it, mainly when I am socialising and mainly with wine! But I am more aware of it now and I think that has really helped cut my drinking down from almost every day to only when I am socialising or out for a meal etc. So this is one to watch for me and I am sure it will get easier over time.

Food not fodder (borrowed from Jamie’s own website)

So now the important bit – the what to eat!  I could tell you the minutiae of my meals over the last six months but I will stick to a list of things I avoided, combined or added to my menu and that seemed to work for me both in terms of capturing my love for food and losing the spare tire and bloat.  Hubby said to me last night, “you’ve actually got a six-pack haven’t you” – happy days! My BMI is now 20 and my body fat 20% – this is a very healthy weight and my tummy thanks me daily by staying flat and giving me regular toilet trips and a nice clean, healthy system (hopefully to be supported by a trip to the colonic clinic – but this is another post!)

So here it is (and this will be to most of you nothing new but let me tell you for me it really worked – I know actually worked!) I should also say this is not attributed to anyone other than my own experience and shouldn’t be seen as a professional diet plan (covering my ass yet again!)

• Cut out wheat – I could go into how bad it is for you etc etc but I won’t, I will just say for me and the hubby it made us feel and look crap so it went.  It was replaced with non-gluten varieties such as rye for bread and lentils or spelt for pasta
• Cut out dairy – or at least cut down – there are loads of alternatives on the market which are equally yummy and you can even make your own ice cream out of coconut milk!  Dairy was another bloater nightmare for me but occasionally I do have the odd bit of real cheese because ultimately we are all human. The best swap for me was milk to dark chocolate.
• Cut out anything with ingredients that just don’t sound like real food or where sugar or salt is in the first three ingredients (sugar is anything ending in -ose). This meant no longer visiting the aisles where packaged food was kept, to me this no longer looked or smelt like food (the smell of bread now is chemical and nasty yuk!)– It was man-made crap.  I read in one article, if your Nan wouldn’t add it to her cooking why should it be on a label.  The worst culprit was so called diet foods – absolutely packed with sugar substitutes of no real value so they were ditched! You see it’s not about the calories it’s about the nutrients those calories can give you and therefore the less likely you are to crave more food shortly after to fulfil that nutrient deficiency.  If I want cakes and biscuits (which the boys definitely need) I make them myself so I know what’s gone into it – this includes my own breakfast cereal which I will post the recipe to soon. If I can do this (and I am a real foodie) and the boys can do this (as young children) it must be something that can be done
• Cut out salt or at least added salt, it’s a bloater and so bad for you. Use fish and bacon to add salty flavours to meals instead
• Cut down on the caffeine – I was never a big tea drinker but caffeine just perpetuates the up/down feeling which then has you craving for another one and so the cycle continues – cut out or cut down and if you’re like me you soon forget about it!  Drink green tea as a substitute and go for the caffeine version if you just can’t kick the buzz. Green tea is a mighty anti-oxidant, one of many I have discovered and I think it takes pretty good
• If you can’t give up the booze (which I can’t) try cutting down to only weekends and choose healthier alternatives.  James Duigan’s Clean and Lean book has some suggestions including clear spirits and organic wine, the market for which is growing in the UK and I may cover this at some point being an organic wine drinker myself. The one I really have to avoid is beer or lager – the bubbles are just bad news for me on the bloating side.
• For me I can’t eat dried fruit – end of. It bloats me but it may not for others
• Drink loads of water – if you think you drink enough, drink more anyway! I don’t think I need to go into this as we’ve all had the lectures but I found the more water I drank the less hungry I felt – bonus!
• This is a weird one – never eat fruit alone.  I found once I had cut out the crap fruit was acting as my sugar buzz and making me swing from one sugar buzz to the next.  Combine it with some nuts or other protein and voila no sugar buzz but something sweet nonetheless
• Try to eat organic as much as you can.  I don’t bother with veg but since swapping cheap meat to organic I have really noticed the difference in flavour, texture and general fullness and what’s more it doesn’t contain nasty chemicals and steroids
• Eat one meal a week that really makes you happy – whatever it is.  But take time to enjoy it and see it for what it is: a treat (so no guilty feelings please)!  Mine is homemade chocolate cake with peanut butter icing (recipe to follow). 
• If you eat something bad get straight back on it at the next meal – you don’t have to wait until Monday to start again, it was just a blip – we’re all human
• No bubbles  for me– I cut out all drinks with bubbles, even fizzy water as the bubbles caused gas and that added to the bloat
• Leafy green veg is a problem for me when eaten with red meat – so I don’t combine the two
• I stopped counting calories, looking at fat content etc and just ate what my body told me it wanted (but healthy versions). If it wanted chocolate I went for dark, if it wanted a cake I made one but using rye flour and manuka honey to sweeten it – simples!

And that’s it (that’s it I hear you say, that’s huge!) – and yes it is huge and a lot, and I discovered what worked and didn’t work for me slowly, through trial and error. Over time each little change added to one big change to my waist line and my general wellbeing. As I say I lost 4 stone in 6 months and not once did I skip a meal, go hungry or change my exercising regime – in fact if anything I did less exercise!

As I keep banging on about I am not a nutritionist, this is all from personal experience and research I have done along the way. For proper nutritional advice seek professional help. But I do think we are a good barometer for what works and if you don’t feel right, you don’t like the way you look then perhaps something isn’t right. And for me it wasn’t so I changed it.  Maybe this all seems a little drastic and too much but if you found any of this interesting then maybe you could make a small change and that small change will be enough.

I have a lot of thanks to give to Jamie and I found a lot of yummy recipes and ideas from James Duigan’s Clean and Lean diet and recipe book.

Hope this has given you some food for thought….

 Namaste