Meat-free diet

[mint]

In a bid to lose the spare tyre, I tried going without meat for months on end.  Then, when the tyre didn't look like it was going to deflate, I also went without alcohol (now 26 days without anything stronger than Yorkshire tea).

I don't actually weigh myself (too depressing) but I always know from the fit of my clothes.  And I know, for a fact, that, if anything, the disappearing waist line is fast getting out of sight.

I have upped the activity and attending Keep-fit twice a week.

Has anybody gone on a meat-free diet AND put on weight? 

[Tancrède]

Oh come on SXVII  -  you know the answer to this one.  Was walking to Compostela a fattening experience ?

And why would anyone with two operative lower limbs want a télécommande ?    Throw away the telly and walk 12 km a day.

[mint]

Well, not that I'm making excuses but I don't actually watch much telly.  The remote was for the OH.

It's just that I can't understand why I'm getting fat!  Run up and downstairs all day long and plenty to do in the house and garden. 

The only difference from before is that I stopped eating meat because I am no longer that keen on the taste.  So, I was just wondering whether all the extra carbohydrates were the culprit.

Admittedly, I don't walk as much as I did in the other house but that's because the walks here are not so suitable for the dog, being roads all around.

I did walk 12 km on Saturday, as part of the Fête des Sports.

Anyway, I wondered how I lost all that weight on the Compostela as there were loads of greasy meat at practically every meal, not to mention all the restorative glasses of brandy I had!

Clearly, something has to change and, you know what, I now have some fantastic boots, left me by the Canadian friend who came to visit at Easter (the one I met in Astorga), so I will, for starters, walk to my French class on Tuesdays.  The class is approximately 6 km from my house.

[woolybanana]

Cut the carbs, totally if possible. Stick to white meat. Veggie soup at lunchtime, salad or fish or white meat in the evening. Snacks should be veggie type things. No salt, no sugar.

[Tancrède]

[quote user="sweet 17"]Anyway, I wondered how I lost all that weight on the Compostela as there were loads of greasy meat at practically every meal, not to mention all the restorative glasses of brandy I had![/quote]

You have really answered your own question, have you not ?   The commitment to the basic form of exercise for which the human body was designed (Mitochondrial Eve walking across the savannah, or wherever she did walk), does allow you to eat a plentiful, varied and occasionally greasy meal without having to embrace a 'diet'.  Anything over 40 mins a day is sufficient in most ordinary cases…

 

[HoneySuckleDreams]

cut the carbs.

No pasta, rice, spuds, bread, booze. Dead calories.

Meat isn't a problem as it's mostly protein. If you are building up muscle then meat's the badger...so to speak.. as well as excercise

 

[Tancrède]

[quote user="sweet 17"]I was just wondering whether all the extra carbohydrates were the culprit.[/quote]

I eat bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, drink like a fish.  I am not obese (though I am very aware that I could be very readily if I really wished).  I simply toddle along putting one leg in front of the other one.  It is interesting and it is fun.  I meet bizarre and most peculiar people, collect blackberries, walnuts, quinces, sloes, crab apples, medlars and wild pears, see wild boar and other wildlife, and discover unidentified Roman roads in the forest..

[quote user="sweet 17"]the walks here are not so suitable for the dog[/quote]

?

[quote user="sweet 17"]I did walk 12 km on Saturday, as part of the Fête des Sports.[/quote]

Do 12 km every day.  It really is not a lot as you now know.  Two hours.  Neighbours + Crossroads + Dysentery and you are there… 

[HoneySuckleDreams]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2040094/Hot-Pants-help-lose-2-dress-sizes-just-2-weeks.html

 

Just a thought

[idun]

A few years ago we were helping at a music festival and some of the musicians stayed with us. I didn't know them and in preparation for their arrival decided to make a meal without meat. One of the musicians didn't eat meat, so I had done the right thing.

Of the musicians the vegetarian was the biggest and had given up meat to lose weight,  and he had put it on and couldn't eat it any more as it gave him severe cramps.

 

Now why is red meat so bad. We don't eat much red meat, but a very thin friend of ours says that she feels she needs red meat sometimes and I understand that, sometimes I just feel like I 'need' a steak or a good beef stew, pie or bourgignon. So what is the food crime in that? I really would like to know how it is supposed to be harming me. Incidentally I love lots of salt too, and butter. I'll say I am gourmande, still I did lose quite a lot of weight a couple of years ago and have kept it off.

 

Spare tyre S17? I reckon that they are very hard to get rid of, if not just about impossible after a certain age. Isn't that why dieters can end up needing a nip and tuck as the spare flesh,  without the fatty lining doesn't shrink back? Anyway, look at hellenistic statues of ladies, all young and all rounded bellies, I don't think that women are really meant to have flat bellies, although females in France at least, are changing in shape, from gynae to andro as they explained in something like Top Sante a few years ago.

 

[mint]

Yes, something's definitely got to change.

Hard with very few carbs.  I should know, I did Atkins and then South Beach.

I bake lovely bread and do like rice and pasta as well.  I did think that it would be enough just to give up alcohol and I expected it to be a difficult thing to do.  To my own surprise, it has been no big deal so far.

From the age of 50 until I came to France about 4 years ago, I had a personal trainer and then, when funds became low, I still kept on the gym membership.  Trained like the fellows, lots of weight lifting, bench presses etc and had a figure to envy.

Now, I feel like a slob, although I daresay, I am still not overweight.  Just firmly believe that spare tyres belong in car boots and not around my middle.

Your suggestions sound sensible, Wools.  So.....I start tomorrow![:D]

Poor long-suffering OH will just look on in bewilderment.  Still, he's used to my er...enthusiasms [:-))]

Edit:  Wools, what do you eat for breakfast?

 

[woolybanana]

banana and bran cereal - I am also diabetic remember

[idun]

So are you still losing weight on that very strict regime wooly?

 

 

[woolybanana]

I have stabilized and allowed myself a few luxuries but will go back to the strict diet very soon. When my Welsh friends go home as they are a bad influence!

[idun]

Why no salt? I understand with diabetees the no sugar thing.

We have been to two resto's recently and the food was undersalted. Ruined perfectly good food for me.

I hear lots of people say that they no longer salt their food whilst cooking, and anyone can add it later, but in fact it is not the same at all. I also wonder how much salt actually enters the food during the cooking process, especially boiling veg, as the water still tastes salty to me when the veg is out of the water and for me it improves the taste of the veg.

[britgirl]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

Yes, something's definitely got to change.

 

I bake lovely bread

 

[/quote]

Could wheat be a problem?[:-))]

 I used to have bread/toast every day. I tried a GI eating plan, avoiding wheat and although I didn't loose much weight I lost inches around my waist. As soon as I started to eat lots of bread I start to bloat again. [:(]

Anyone want to buy a breadmaker?

[Gardengirl]

Out at lunch a couple of weeks ago I was told by a friend, who became extremely gluten intolerant, that a number of top tennis players have gone in for a gluten-free diet (although not gluten-intolerant themselves apparently), and are thriving on it. She suddenly became ill, was rushed into hospital and now gets gluten-free bread and flour on the NHS, which is delivered to her house. Sometimes the prices have been left on by mistake, and she reckons the NHS pays many times the price it costs in the pharmacies.

Anyway, she is feeling very fit now, and reckons that one tennis chappie, who I think just won something important recently (forgive me, tennis fans - I don't know any of them!) has become super-fit since going on his gluten-free diet and others have followed.

Don't know if not eating gluten would help with your problem, Sweet, but with all this talk of carbohydrates, it came into my mind!

I'd also like to lose a little weight, mainly around the middle - but I love bread, cheese, pastry, wine .......... and I'm not very strong-willed! I do walk quite a bit, especially in France, always carry a pedometer now, (so I can feel good about kilometres/steps walked!) but it's not enough. The walking group is planning a 7km walk this afternoon, so that's extra today. I did read that not sleeping well can pile on the kilos - so maybe that's one of my excuses, too!

[Théière]

[quote user="britgirl"][quote user="sweet 17"]

Yes, something's definitely got to change.

I bake lovely bread

 

[/quote]

Could wheat be a problem?[:-))]

 I used to have bread/toast every day. I tried a GI eating plan, avoiding wheat and although I didn't loose much weight I lost inches around my waist. As soon as I started to eat lots of bread I start to bloat again. [:(]

Anyone want to buy a breadmaker?

[/quote]

That certainly seems to be true for a lot of people, don't forget muscle is 5 times denser than fat so you may weigh the same/more but in inches you could be a lot slimmer. Cutting down on sugar gives your body a chance to re set the insulin levels so after a couple of months you'll need less sugar to get the same sweetness effect and things like Mars and Snickers for example are insipidly sweet.

[woolybanana]

I am also beginning to feel that eating light in the evenings can help weight loss but can't prove it.

[Quillan]

[quote user="woolybanana"]I am also beginning to feel that eating light in the evenings can help weight loss but can't prove it.[/quote]

What type of light Wooly, wall light, outside light, table light and what wattage? [;-)]

[woolybanana]

Finished cleaning the loos yet, Q?

Try and ultra light![6]

[britgirl]

There is a saying that you should 'eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper'. presumably this is because not only is it easier to digest, but also  gives you the energy you need.

I have to admit that as I've gotten older I find it more difficult to digest a heavy meal after about 8pm.[:(]

 

[mint]

[quote user="britgirl"]

Could wheat be a problem?[:-))]

 I used to have bread/toast every day. I tried a GI eating plan, avoiding wheat and although I didn't loose much weight I lost inches around my waist. As soon as I started to eat lots of bread I start to bloat again. [:(]

Anyone want to buy a breadmaker?

[/quote]

I'm sure there's something in that, britgirl.  Especially as, when I had my "sensitivities" done (for adjustment of asthma drugs), the results show some wheat intolerance.

GG, the tennis player's name is Djokovich and he's won 3 of this year's 4 majors!

Anyway, I have started this morning.  Just back after an hour's walk with the dog and I reckon it was about 5k, certainly not less.

For breakfast, I had a yoghurt with a handful of muesli (can't go too drastic [:(]) and I'd cooked some hardboiled eggs for those hungry moments, so I had one of those.

I gave up eating the main meal in the evening months ago, it's always lunch nowadays.  Today, I shall have a very small steak fried (with just enough oil to grease the pan) with onions and some ceps (neighbour gave me a HUGE bocaux....ah, does that have an "x" in the singular?) and some tomatoes and perhaps a small handful of rice.

It's not that I am overweight; in fact, I have never allowed myself to go over the weight range for my age and frame size but I find the spare tyre completely horrible and dispiriting.

Hey, britgirl, hope you come soon for a bite to eat and we'll both keep off the bread, eh?[:D]

And to the person (sorry can't remember who; it's a page or two back![:-))]) who mentioned it, I know about body density from my weight training days.  Within 5 months of engaging a personal trainer, I'd lost 7 inches off my waist and 5 inches off my hips, so I know that does work.  It's the reason why I don't bother weighing; you always know when you are flabby from the fit of your clothes![+o(]

Edit:  just remembered, the singular of bocaux has got to be bocal, right?  Where does the brain go when it goes walkabout?[8-)]

[pachapapa]

a HUGE bocaux....ah, does that have an "x" in the singular

No its like a horse.

[mint]

Thanks, Pacha, as you see, I managed to work it out for myself when the brain clicked back into place![:)]

Sometimes, I just seem to lose it completely and then, out of nowhere, I get it again....weird....

[Frecossais]

Try a hula hoop for exercise. I think your "middle-age spread" isn't down to diet, so exercising your waist should help. (Says she who hates exercising, and definitely needs to lose weight.)