I'm a bit like you Madmeg, been referred to diabetes prevention which meant that I had to weigh myself, and oh dear, I'd crept up into the obese category. I know following an accident during lockdown I'd overeaten as was told I needed to eat plenty to help healing, so I did ad suspect my weight was higher, but once that healed I didn't overeat, in general, lots of things that I don't eat, I don't have sugar in drinks, I have either sodastream and sugar free squash as cold drinks, can't remember when I last drank alcohol, didn't even over Christmas, I did at a wedding a few months ago but that was all, I don't eat cream, or christmas cake or puddings, I was using butter on things like crumpets if I had one, and I guess some ice cream in the summer, but I don't go overboard
With the prediabetes scare and my high blood pressure and cholesterol news I have changed what I eat a lot to try and get the weight down and tackle the high blood sugar. This is what is working for me atm, I'm mostly on my own so it is a lot easier
I've really been watching the carbs I eat, and have been making sure that I have protein with any carbs, and minimal actual sugar. I had a couple of little cakes over the Christmas period that was all. Many more veggies, which is hard for me, as I don't like a lot of the green leafy ones, have been hiding ones I'm not keen on in homemade veggie soup. Also chopped up small in stir fries, made with minimal oil, and some sauce for carbs, with chunks of some sort of protein. I've a cheap soup maker I got from facebook market place, the blender doesn't work but I have a hand blender, I tend to make up enough for a couple of days, I can vary the taste by maybe having some bits of ham one day in it, another day with a scattering of cheese or nutritional yeast
Minimal fruit juice, as that is so sugary, one small helping is ok but so tempting, even though fruit is sugary I have some fruit as one of the 5 a day after a meal as pudding. Only plain yoghurt, no ready flavoured yoghurt. I have got some sugar free sweetener which I will use when the rhubarb starts coming through. I have got some pea pasta and some other non wheat pasta, have had one meal of that and it was good, less carb than wheat pasta
I was impressed by Roy Taylor's newcastle diet for reversing or preventing diabetes, and did like the idea of dropping a lot rapidly, but it is very low calorie, so although calories are out of fashion atm, I'm doing it just to shift some weight reasonably fast. His idea is that it can be easier to have a v ery low-calorie diet for a few weeks to shift a lot of weight rapidly, and then transition to a diet that keeps the weight off. than lose the same amount over several months. I am having a dinnertime meal replacement shake most days, not having bread atm, it means dinnertimes are a bit easier, so only have to think about one evening meal. I might do a few very low=calorie days, I guess this would be 5 - 2 fasting, and if I'm going to a meal with someone maybe, have been invited out for an afternoon tea in a few weeks, will have the rest of the day very low calorie and maybe the day afterwards, depending on what I've eaten. Getting from just turned overweight down to just at the limit of a healthy bmi will be tough, but have lost at least just over a stone so far, probably more as didn't have scales to start with. Unfortunately have only seemed to have lost weight on my face so far, but it's a start, hopefully the extra exercise I'm dong will help shift it from my stomach
The prevention programme talks a lot about the eatwell portion plate which is about a healthy balance of foods on your plate and less than you were eating before
Even when I was at my youngest and slimmest adult weight I couldn't maintain much less than just under overweight, when I did it was on a silly diet and always put it on again even with eating moderately and doing a lot of exercise, I'll do my best, maybe measure my height so I can make sure I'm using the right height.
If you know you are bmi 30 or above and have diabetes or high blood pressure you can be referred by a pharmacist onto a free nhs weight loss programme, if you think you might be at risk of being prediabetic you can assess your risk and self refer yourself onto the prevention programme here preventing-diabetes.co.uk/Know-your-risk-dtc/
the optician saw a bleed at the back of my eye and referred me to the doc, which led to the bad news, and the referral to the programme, I didn't know I had any problems at all, and it scared me to death, thinking my sight might be affected
I'm doing it for my health but if I look better with less weight that will be a bonus
worth a chat with your GP...
