High Fat-Low Carb eating

We did not follow a book and did not cut out coffee. We have stuck with home-made muesli with full fat yoghurt for breakfast (and egg and bacon on Sunday) with one small slice home-made spelt bread as toast with butter. Lunch is home-made soup or salad (smoked salmon, tuna, chicken, ham etc with avocado, leaves, toms and anything else carb-free that comes to hand. Two pieces of fruit each. Dinner is low-carb, but we use things like chickpeas, new potatoes, pearl barley where necessary about three times a week in very small quantities (less than 50g each). This week we have had roast chicken with roast veg, cold chicken with aubergine parmigiana, baked vegetables with eggs, roast turbot with chicory, chicken curry with courgettes. Tonight is moussaka with mozzarella to avoid a flour based béchamel. A couple of glasses of dry wine, three or four times a week.
On this diet we have lost about 1lb a week over a year. We have had two puddings, one Christmas day and one anniversary. No cake or biscuits at all.
I am now in maintenance mode and have increased portion size slightly, but I can honestly say that it is not a diet on which I feel hungry. It is a way of life now and we enjoy it.
I hope this helps. We do love cooking though and I think living in France makes it easier. We never set foot in the patisserie.

Correct Anya. I dont eat much fruit anyway to be honest as the acid makes my teeth ache, but I shall have to cut out bananas for a while. I like bananas as really filling........and inside a crusty roll.......Off to Sainsburys now to buy a few pots of full fat yoghurt to have with raspberries, a few avocados and salad stuff. And eggs.

For breakfast

And sugar Gill, don't forget added sugar. I'm limiting fruit to one sensible serving per day (today it was raspberries with double cream).

I read and enjoyed the India Knight book; very funny and I liked the fact that they have been there and eaten the scone. They are not skinny food fascists and are understanding of cravings. But.....I cannot and will not give up caffeine as I could see no good reason in the book for doing so. Coffee is my one vice ( apart from fattening food, obviously), I don't smoke, hardly drink alcohol, just the odd glass when out for dinner, and I take my coffee black. I love a good pot of coffee, fresh ground and have read that the process involved in de-caffeinating coffee and tea is quite toxic, rather like people eating low fat petroleum by-products masquerading as butter like spread, rather than have the real thing. So, shall cut out bread, pasta, rice, vegetables grown below ground ( higher carb content) and see how I get on.

Did you have to get your glasses out to find the eggs?!

Read the book and as I progressed through it I started to think 'WTF'

It is very draconian. And it's not healthy if you are constipated and have to take some pill to counteract it.

So I'm doing my own version which is working as I've lost 4lbs since Monday, don't feel hungry, have plenty of energy and sleep well.

But you have to like cooking at least one meal a day. And I'm not going decaf either.

I'm finding the Hairy Bikers Love Food and Loose Weight (something like that) very useful and I'm just taking any carbs out of their recipes or substituting something else eg their Chicken Jalfrezi, leave out the teaspoon of sugar, reduce sauce to thicken and add a spoon of ground almonds. It was delicious and filling.

The Low Carb Gourmet has some good recipes too.

No carbs for lunch. Today for example 3 quail eggs in smoked salmon

We're just breaking through the 'carb withdrawl' barrier and feeling better for it. I don't get hungry about three hours after a meal any more and I feel full with a smaller sized portion.

DD has nabbed the book so I'll have a look when she's finished reading it.

I took your advice and bought the 'idiot proof' diet. I'm a bit bemused. It seems so all or nothing. The list of supplements is worrying. It all seems so counter intuitive. Also I don't like cooking. I heat things up but can't stand faffing about with pans - heresy I know! I think I'll try an amalgamation of low carb/no sugar and see how I get on. DH doesn't want to do it which is a complication.

Clipper Organic is the best instant decaff coffee I've tried so far. You can get it in Waitrose and Sainsbobs.

Ariadne I know someone who is vegetarian and has lost a great deal of weight on the Harcombe diet. She had to diet for the sake of her health. She eats lots of eggs.

The bit with these diets I would find difficult is the 'no caffeine'. I don't consume vast quantities of the stuff but I do like my two large cups of filter coffee each morning. What is so wrong with caffeine?

Don't know Mamie but I think it's just for the first two weeks. I've bought some decaffeinated ground coffee for the percolater and it tastes OK and some rooisbush tea which I used to like anyway.

Although I'm not starting till Monday (mum's day dinner tomorrow) I though there was no harm in cutting down the caffeine and drinking more water from today.

Why can't you have caffeine? I know over on the Mumsnet low-carb bootcamp some people cut out milk for a bit because of the sugars, but caffeine?

as an so I'm

PS have also ordered The Low Carb Goirmet by Karen somebody as it's said to have lots of good recipes too.

I've downloaded the rest of the book. It looks doable as an going to start on Monday.

I'll issue apologies in advance as it says you can get a bit grumpy (caffeine and carb withdrawal) in the first week.

Just off to shops to buy some double cream and chromium tablets!

Good idea, Gill

I have ordered the book today as well merlot hoping to get DH to join me, do you want to compare notes and give a bit of mutual support?

I may be wrong but I have to say that my impression from the Mumsnet threads is that vegetarians find it difficult to do.

Aaggghhhh ubiquitous apostrophe! B****y iPad.

So - as a vegetarian - no meat, no fish, limited dairy (bit of cheese now and then for protein) where would I go with this regime? DS2 and DDiL follow a much stricter form of this diet, and we have discussed it at length, but I can't really see how I could make it work without being bored rigid? (Actually they reject gluten, which limit's their carb intake.

Yes, I know, it's my choice! Just interested...

I've ordered the book from Amazon. I was going to download it but DD has decided to join us on the diet so we'll be able to share it.

I downloaded a 'sample' of their book Idiot Proof Diet and meant to read it all.

Even without diet advice it's a laugh a minute. The first page has a side-on photo of the two of them back to back entitled 'Eggs on Legs'

Nerys Thomas Brahas ?