Oh, yo will have to tell us a bit about that; I too am avoiding stodge
(And The Practice Nurse is very pleased with me).
Assuming it was my post you meant..... sorry this is a bit of a screed........
..... all of my father's family developed t2 diabetes in their early 50's. I had put a lot of weight on and had all the signs of metabolic syndrome....... was the right age...........
There's a whole background I won't go into including recent significant weight gain, but I decided to go back down the low carb route.
There's much more info out there about healthy low carb these days, my favourite is the Sarah Flowers "eating to beat T2 diabetes" cookbook (
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eating-Bea...705832394&sprefix=sarah+flowers,aps,78&sr=8-6)
I based my eating plan on that. It's what I would term a "real food" low carb- so no artificial sweeteners. I'm also highly lactose intolerant these days which creates other limitations.
Basic plan is only 2 meals a day and NO SNACKS AT ALL. One meal mid-morning, the other in the early evening. Not quite intermittent fasting (I did that initially but if I fast too long I get gut issues when I do eat) but minimum 12 hours after evening meal before any further calorific intake. Plenty of greens- pak choi, chinese cabbages, baby spinach, broccoli etc, and choosing nutrient rich foods such as good quality free-range eggs, UK-grown chia seeds (from Hodemedods), good quality meats (organic if possible), organic butter, proper traditional cheese (hard cheese only). I also make my own yoghurt from local milk (I use lactase enzyme to split the lactase, then ferment for 48 hours then strain). A controlled amount of berries- rasps, strawbs (the frozen aisle is your friend). Brazil nuts are good- 3 or 4 nuts a day only though. Also a few squares of 90% dark chocolate each day.
I always have at least 2 eggs a day (2 or 3 eggs scrambled with chia seed and add Vit D/K2 oil to the mix is a good breakfast). If away and maybe food might be difficult to get, I hard-boil 2 or 3 eggs and leave them in the shell to take with me. That will get me through a full day away working, with no temptation to eat the biscuits around me in client offices or buy junk from a service station.
Whilst the foods sound more expensive- they are- I eat a lot less in quantity, and NO SNACKS so overall the cost is less.
I don't specifically count carbs, but I do limit berries, nuts and the dark chocolate. Works out at around 20g net carbs a day. I can fine-tune my fibre intake using the chia seeds and greens so my gut works happily.
I have a couple of rules though: absolutely no snacks of any type between meals. If I think I'm hungry I ask myself: could I eat a hard-boiled egg? If the answer is no, then I'm not actually hungry, I just
think I am. Perhaps I'm thirsty- so try a glass of water or herbal tea. That was how I got out of the snacking/constant grazing habit and in turn got the overall food intake down.
Alcohol: whilst limiting to dry wine means I don't gain weight from it, I don't lose weight either if having alcohol, so I have to minimise alcohol intake to the occasional glass of dry wine (sparkling wine in 250mL cans is a good option for occasional drink).
Current status: lost at least 6 inches from all over and dropped 3-4 dress sizes so far in a year. That's a decent sustainable rate. Need at least another year to get to a healthy size, but feeling much better. Experience tells me that once the body food system is retrained and a healthy size reached, an amount of pulses and occasional whole oats can be tolerated in a miantenance eating plan- but quantities of them and food in general needs remain small, and sugary things must remain off the menu as I find them too addictive to only have a small amount.
Overall: I guess that I have peasant genes from the north of England, evolved to live on pastoral products and survive famines.
This is not an easy option as you need to make clear rules for yourself and stick to them. And do so long enough to totally change habits and metabolism. For me, that's a minimum of 2 years.
I cannot say whether this would work for anyone else; it is what works for me, done in a way which works for me. But if this is of interest, the Sarah Flowers cookbook I mention is a great place to start. She's UK based and is a medical practitioner working for the NHS, so has a UK focus and level of credibility.
GC
