I also posted the news that I no longer have Type 2 Diabetes - or, at least, it's controlled and no longer has any impact on my life. Once you have it, it will always be there lurking, sadly, but my weight loss and general level of fitness has improved to the extent that that my bloods are now completely normal. I no longer need drugs to control it. My blood pressure is healthy too and my cholesterol levels are excellent. It's a wonderful feeling. I've been on a two year journey of discovery and it's still ongoing ... but I have taken back control of my health, both physically and mentally.
It was lovely to hear all of the positive comments - these things encourage you and keep you going. But I also had several people ask what diet I used and if I have a menu to follow.
To be honest, I don't follow any particular menu or plan. I have done in the past but always found that, once I left them, the weight went back on. So this time I didn't take any short cuts. I studied the science of food. I wanted to know what different foods do to my body so that I could develop eating habits that were enjoyable but also sustainable.
I found out a lot. And I've shared some of it on this blog. I've written about fats and about bad carbs and how they trick us into feeling hungry (see here). I've blogged about my relationship with meat - I still eat it but I'm more ethical and I eat a lot less (see here) . And I've also featured a few recipes which you can access via my Food and Recipes Page here.
The secret, I discovered, is knowing which foods are the most calorific and which have the bad carbs that make you crave more. If you can reduce those you're onto a winner. I also try to make the most of seasonal ingredients and I have a meat free day, or a couple of meat free days, every week. It saves a lot of money and it's made me a more adaptable and experimental cook. I'm not a vegetarian but I've read enough to know that the future is a plant-based diet. We can't go on the way we are - our taste for meat is ruining the planet for us and for the animals and plants we share it with. So why not get into the swing with some delicious veggie dishes?
Local eggs for local people from local farms - bantam, chicken, duck, goose and turkey
My aim - until I hit my goal - is to eat and drink fewer than 1500 calories per day. That said, if I go over, it's no big deal. The adult male body, on average, needs 2500kcals per day to function smoothly (and female bodies need around 2000kcals). If you eat fewer than that, your body turns to its 'reserve tank' - the energy locked up and stored in our adipose tissue. So it burns some of that fat to make up the deficit and you get slimmer and lighter. My 1500kcals target means that I lose, on average 1-4lbs per week. I've learned not to be disheartened if I only lose a pound - that's the same as two blocks of butter! That's pretty substantial, even if it doesn't sound a lot. Slow and steady wins the race.
So, here's what a typical week of food looks like at Colgan Towers. It changes every week; I've chosen a few recipes to give you some idea of variety.
Sunday
Breakfast - (Meat free) I'm not a great breakfast eater. I know they call it the most important meal of the day but I'm rarely hungry before about 11am so I tend to have a kind of brunch around that time. If I do wake up feeling peckish then I have a bowl of porridge. I make it with half semi-skimmed milk and half water. Or oat milk. I sweeten it with honey, maple syrup or homemade rosehip syrup. Or I use a stevia/monkfruit-based sweetener like Splenda (okay for diabetics). Sometimes I used a few psychological tricks learned from reading books on molecular gastronomy. One is to add a little vanilla or cinnamon. Both actual taste better but smell sweet and they trick the brain into thinking the porridge is sweeter than it actually is, so you need less syrup. Porridge is a good kickstart for the day as oats contain lots of good carbs that slowly release their energy, and the fibre stops you feeling hungry again too soon.
Lunch/Brunch - I like a Sunday roast. I rarely eat red meat these days due to serious concerns over the way it's farmed. So I tend to go for chicken. However, I get my chickens from local, small, free-range farms or I buy organic free range birds from my local Co Op. I pay a lot more - around £10-12 per bird - but I'd rather that than pay a fiver for an animal that's spent its short, miserable life crammed into a shed with tens of thousands of others without sunlight or grass and being fed a diet to accelerate its growth. That is the reality of cheap food, sadly. I'm lucky that I can afford a £10 chicken (as environmental campaigner and writer George Monbiot wisely says, the problem isn't that food is too cheap, it's that good food is too expensive for many purses) and I'm only feeding two people. But, that said, I offset the cost by eking a good few meals out of one bird - as you'll see. For the roast I eat about half a breast of white meat or one leg. Or a mix of the two. But I do pile up the plate with sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, swede and carrot, cabbage - whatever is good and, if buying locally, in season. I usually have a couple of roast parsnips too and a couple of roast potatoes, but no more than that as they are carb heavy. I might include a couple of small pigs in blankets as a treat. I have a splash of gravy made with the meat juices, but don't have the other carb-laden extras like Yorkshire puds, bread sauce or stuffing. If you do want the full indulgent treat, have a really light breakfast and snacky dinner. As long as you stay under your target limit for the day, you’ll be fine. A glass of wine? Fine. As long as it's just a glass. Oh, and whatever you do, don’t throw the chicken carcase away! Save the bones for stock.
Dinner/Tea/Supper - I'm usually still too full from lunch for another main meal so I usually have something small and light. Cheese and crackers with a little pickled beetroot maybe. Or a soup (but watch the bread!).
Monday
Breakfast - (Meat Free) If I don't feel like porridge I'll have a toasted slice of sourdough with butter (not margarine as many contain trans fats and, anyway, butter tastes better) and marmalade. Sourdough, incidentally, contains fewer bad carbs than many other kinds of bread as many of the sugars are removed during fermentation. Oh, and wholemeal or granary bread has more calories than white bread but hasn't had all of the vitamins, minerals and fibre stripped out by processing. So it leaves you feeling satisfied for longer as the carbs are released slowly and there's no 'sugar rush' like you get with white bread. Consequently you don't feel hungry again so soon.
Lunch - (Meat free) One large slice of sourdough cut in half and toasted. Spread with mashed avocado. Crumble some bits of goats cheese on top (around 20g) and a few slices of sweet cherry tomato (or some sliced red chillies if you’re feeling spicy). If you don’t like goats cheese, substitute a couple of poached eggs instead. Or make a Turkish labneh, a yoghurt-based soft cheese. Simply add half a teaspoon of salt to 500g of full fat plain yoghurt, tip onto a tea towel or muslin and hang it over a bowl. The whey will separate and drip out leaving behind a creamy spreadable cheese in just a few hours. It’s particularly delicious if you mix some chopped chives or garlic into it. Recipe here.
Dinner - (Meat free) A bean or vegetable chilli (Serves two). Chop an onion and fry with a teaspoon of smoked paprika and another of cumin. Add a grated or crushed clove of garlic and chilli powder to taste (we don’t all like it hot). Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, a small squirt of tomato puree and a small squirt of tomato ketchup. Add a splash of water to loosen it all up and stir in a vegetable stock cube. Now add whatever veg you want. I usually use carrots, celery and cauliflower because they keep a little bit of crunch. Or, instead, add a tin of kidney beans or butter beans or, as I sometimes do, a tin of baked beans with the sauce drained off (you can use that lovely sweet sauce for another meal – waste not want not!). Serve with cauliflower rice (grated fresh cauliflower steamed for a minute or so - remarkably like rice in taste and mouthfeel but very low in calories) or a salad and grate a little cheddar or parmesan on the top. Or serve it as a kind of taco wrapped in a large iceberg lettuce leaf. Or take a tortilla wrap and drape it over a ball of tin foil and bake it to create a taco 'bowl'. If you spread your sourdough more thinly at lunchtime, you can keep half an avocado back to mash and add to your taco. And why not have a dollop of sour cream if you want it? A tablespoon is only 23kcal. Just keep tab of your calorie count for the day (I keep a Food Diary). You may find you can have two dollops.
Tuesday
Breakfast – Two poached or fried eggs, two rashers of smoked bacon, or a slice of black pudding, and a grilled or fried tomato. Yum. But no toast.
Lunch – (Meat Free) Missing a pizza? You can try this instead (Serves one). Get a big Portobello mushroom. Wipe it clean with a damp tea towel or kitchen roll but don’t wash the mushroom under the tap as it will soak up the water. Or you can peel off the outer skin if you want to. Remove the stalk and chop finely. Mix the chopped stalk with a teaspoon of tomato puree, a few drops of olive oil, a crushed or grated clove of garlic, and a sprinkle of oregano – fresh or dried. Fill the upturned mushroom with the herby tomato/stalk mix. Then cover with some slices of mozzarella, slices of cherry tomato and a couple of fresh basil leaves. Pop it under the grill until the cheese is bubbling and going brown. At this point the mushroom will be cooked too but will still be firm.
Dinner - A grilled tuna steak, or salmon baked in the oven at 180C for around 15 mins (or even quicker in an air fryer). Boil a few new potatoes. Meanwhile, steam or simmer some broccoli and some frozen peas. Drain when cooked and then add a few fresh mint leaves (or a teaspoon of dried mint) and a dollop of butter and blitz up the green veg into a puree. Posh, healthy ‘fish and chips’ and mushy peas. I sometime do roast potatoes with this for a change. Or use warmed leftover roasties. Or have your fish with roasted cherry tomatoes, spring onions and tenderstem broccoli. Punch up the flavour with some soy sauce, cracked black pepper and sesame seeds. Yum!
Wednesday
Breakfast – (Meat free) As a third alternative to toast or porridge, try a chocolate granola. Throw 4 tablespoons of coconut oil into a pan with a tablespoon of cocoa powder and a tablespoon of maple syrup or runny honey. Now add a pinch of salt, 200g of porridge oats and around 100g of mixed chopped nuts. Stir it together so it’s all covered. Now take it off the heat and grate in 100g of dark chocolate and stir until melted. Alternatively, you can add a tablespoon of raisins. Transfer it to a baking tray covered in baking/greaseproof paper and pat the mixture down flat. Bake for 15 minutes at 150C. Let it cool. Store it in an airtight container and enjoy a daily portion of around 40g with some ice cold milk of your choice.
Lunch – Remember that roast chicken on Sunday? Pick off all the remaining usable meat and store it in an airtight box - we'll be using it this evening. Meanwhile, break up the carcase and cover with water in a saucepan. Add a few stock vegetables (traditionally an onion, a carrot and a stick of celery), bring to the boil and then simmer for around 45mins. Drain into a second saucepan and you now have a delicious chicken stock. Cube some potatoes, carrots and whatever other veg you fancy and simmer in the stock until cooked but still firm. While that’s going on, pick any chicken still left on the bones – you’ll be amazed at how much there is. Thicken your soup with some cornflour and then add the chicken. Season to taste and voila! A hearty soup that cost virtually nothing – and that Sunday chicken has given you another extra meal. You can freeze any left over or unused stock in old drinks bottles or ice cube trays.
Alternatively, use some of the cold chicken from Sunday's roast in a salad. Or mix some cubes of cooked chicken with a good dollop of mayo, a teaspoon of mango chutney and another of curry powder and make Coronation chicken. Have it with a salad or in a wrap. The possibilities are endless for low carb tasty lunches.
Dinner - I do like a curry. So here’s a great recipe for a tasty low carb creamy ‘fakeaway’ (Serves two). And it's a great way to use up any left over meat from the Sunday Roast. It's only 300kcals and it takes less time to cook than the average wait time for a delivery.
If today is a veggie day, add some part-cooked veg. My favourite is a butternut squash and cashew nut curry. Recipe also here.
Thursday
Breakfast – (Meat Free) If you fancy a lighter breakfast why not have a good 100g dollop of full fat Greek yoghurt and stir in some of your favourite fruits and nuts? I like a few (10g) crushed walnuts and a drizzle of honey or maple syrup. Or try blueberries (100g) or strawberries with toasted almonds (10g). Add some seeds too. It all adds to flavour and mouthfeel. Plus it’s extra fibre, proteins, Omega-3 oils, antioxidants and other minerals and vitamins. If I've had a richly savoury meal and fancy a sweet pudding after, I have a small portion of yoghurt, nuts and honey/syrup.
Lunch – (Meat Free) Toast a large slice of sourdough. Slice three chestnut mushrooms and fry in a little butter. Now get a good handful of young spinach and add it to the pan. When it’s all wilted down, spread the mushroom and spinach mix on the toast and poach an egg to pop on top. Duck eggs are particularly tasty with this. Oh, and if you can identify ramsons (also known as wild garlic) in the spring, a mix of them and spinach is delicious. You can also substitute young nettle leaves for spinach – last year I used nettles and ramsons together and it was delicious - and completely free! Plus, nettles are very rich in vitamins A and C, iron, potassium, manganese and calcium. They are a bugger to pick of course, so wear gloves. However, the stinging hairs dissolve during cooking.
Dinner - Spicy chicken and bean stew (Serves two). Chop and fry an onion in a saucepan. Add some chopped chorizo for flavour and colour. Add a teaspoon of cumin and chilli to taste (dried or fresh). Now throw in a tin of chopped tomatoes, a squirt of tomato puree and a squirt of ketchup (or you can add the juice you strained off the baked beans earlier in the week for sweetness instead). Chop some chicken – one large breast is easily enough for two people though it tastes much richer if you cook it with chicken thighs on the bone (and much cheaper than breast meat). Or you could use any leftover cold chicken. Add the meat to your pan. Add some water if it’s a bit too thick. Taste and season accordingly. Once the chicken is cooked through, drain a tin of cooked butterbeans or chickpeas and add them to the stew and cook for another five minutes. Very hearty and very tasty. If you want a veggie version leave out the chicken and chorizo and add smoked paprika and chilli along with the other spices.
Breakfast – (Meat Free) You can, of course, repeat any of the breakfasts you had earlier in the week. Or mix them up a bit. Or make yourself a two egg omelette containing a couple of mushrooms and a handful of grated strong cheddar. Serve with a drizzle of sweet chilli sauce or ketchup – but only a drizzle. Or have a kipper! I love kippers. But that wouldn't be meat free of course.
Lunch – Chicken and smoked bacon salad (serves two). Slice up a chicken breast (raw or left-over cold) into thin slices and fry in a pan with two similarly sliced rashers of smoked bacon (the bacon provides the cooking oil). Serve warm with a big salad of your choice. Just be careful of the calories in any add-ons like coleslaw, potato salad, salad dressings etc.
Dinner - Friday is seafood day. One of my favourites is smoked haddock with puy lentils (serves two). Fry a finely chopped onion in a little oil. Add some grated or crushed garlic and a sprinkle of dried rosemary. Use a potato peeler to make some ribbons of fresh carrot and add them to the pan. Add some chopped celery too (if you like celery). Give it all a good stir and then add some vegetable or chicken stock (fish stock is even better) until everything is covered and poaching nicely. Throw in your lentils – I’ve found that the pre-cooked sachets of puy lentils work best but you can use tinned, or even soak your own dried lentils overnight the day before. Let that all warm through and reduce. Now remove the skin from your smoked haddock (around 220g) and place on top of the lentils. Cover the pan for a minute or two. The haddock cooks very quickly. Give it a final stir but not too hard as the cooked fish will break up and you want some nice meaty chunks. Season to taste and serve! You can also use puy lentils to make a delicious curried dhal - I don't have a hotplate to make a decent dosa, so I eat mine with some torn-up wraps and a dollop of mango chutney.
Saturday
Breakfast – (Meat Free) Two soft boiled eggs and toasty soldiers. Or, if you don’t want the bread, substitute with blanched sticks of asparagus. Delicious!
Lunch – (Meat Free) Making a delicious and filling soup means that you don’t need the bread to accompany it. Soup can also be made the night before and taken to work hot in a flask or heated in a microwave. One of my favourites is a hearty and warming butternut squash and peanut butter soup. The recipe is here. Another (Meat Free) favourite is Stilton and Broccoli soup. Chop up an onion and fry in a pan with some oil until soft. Then add a chopped whole head of broccoli and cover with water. Add a veg stock cube. Once the broccoli is tender but still firm, blitz up the soup with a blender until smooth. Then add grated Stilton cheese to taste (I add lots) and stir it in as it melts. One head of broccoli will make two good bowls of soup. You can also make cauliflower soup, carrot soup, celery soup, pumpkin soup, parsnip soup ... be adventurous!
Dinner - Prawn stir-fry (Serves two). Fry a chopped onion in coconut oil (for extra flavour) or vegetable oil. Grate a clove of garlic and some fresh ginger into the mix. Throw in a few (unsalted) roasted peanuts or cashews if you like too. Add a bag of readymade stir-fry veg. Or just finely chop any left over veg you have. Add some beansprouts too. Give it a liberal sprinkling of soy sauce and a good squirt of hoi-sin sauce. If you want some heat, add some sliced red chillies. Let it all wilt down and then throw in 150g of cooked and peeled prawns and let them warm through. Serve with cauliflower rice. You can add some desiccated coconut to the rice before steaming for extra flavour. If you want to bulk the meal out, add some big chunks of chestnut mushroom or courgette. Or, if you have enough calories left, add some egg noodles.
Puddings are always problematic as the best British puds are nearly always carb-heavy. But if you count your calories, you can treat yourself occasionally. I have a Bramley apple tree so I made crumbles and custard. I made apple sorbets. I made apple pies using filo pastry for a crispy shell (much less fat and fewer carbs than sweet shortcrust). Or have fruit and yoghurt. And, yes, have a chocolate bar if you really want one. One thing I've learned from years of failed diets is that if you put foods off-limits, you martyr them. You give them extra importance. And so you crave them more.
Booze is a tricky thing too. Again, the more you have, the more your brain will crave it. There's no magic bullet - you have to cut back if you want to lose weight. The bad carbs in booze are known as 'hidden calories' for a reason ... I just had to constantly ask myself the question, 'What do I want more? Another couple of pints, or to live a little longer?'
No contest.
So don't ban ANY food. Just regard them as occasional treats rather than daily staples. Trust me, you'll enjoy them more. Would Christmas be so brilliant if everyday was Christmas? Of course not. Besides which, if you substantially reduce your bad carbs, your brain's dopamine receptors will reset and you won't have the cravings (read this). I used to eat chocolate all the time. I honestly haven't thought about it until now but I haven't had a single piece of it in twelve days. I don't miss it at all.
So there you go. A long blogpost but it could have been ten times longer as I have so many recipes in my head. But I hope this shows that losing weight doesn't have to be about salads and doing without. You can have delicious, indulgent food ... as long as you stay under your target limit for the day. If you overdo it one day - like if you get invited out to a meal or a function - enjoy the treats but claw some calories back the following days. It all balances out over a week.
Eat what you like but count the calories.
Think of the naughty stuff as treats not staples.
Don't ban food or drink - moderation not prohibition!
And enjoy losing weight.
It's made an enormous difference to my life. I hope it does for you too.
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