I really don’t like this topic title, but here goes…
It’s after Christmas, I put on weight, now what do I do?
There are people who go on strict diets to lose weight quickly, and those who aim to eat ‘more healthily’ with the loss of weight a welcome side effect. I have done both and I am still overweight.
What annoys me most about the whole subject is that I know what to do, and moreover, I give advice to my patients about their diets. Advice that I don’t consistently follow myself.
The reason that I am still overweight is that I;
1] Eat refined processed foods more often than I should – I’m talking here about cream crackers/croissants/chips/biscuits/bagels etc, not microwave meals…
2] Eat too much, full stop. I really enjoy my food and even when I eat fresh nutritious food, I usually like second helpings
OK, so I’m not ‘morbidly obese’ but I have a rounded tum and as we all ought to know by now, this is a risk factor for insulin resistance and diabetes 2. I have members of my family with diabetes 2 coming out of my ears so I have no excuse not to be warned or to take care – it’s in the genes…
Much as I hate new years resolutions [I don’t/can’t keep them] the turn of a new decade seems a good a place as any to actually practice what I preach. As my kids have nearly all left home I have no excuse to buy bagels for ‘them’. The one remaining son still living at home says he doesn’t want me to buy him bread, so I won’t be in the position of having to eat the fresh crusty rolls from Lidl’s that he has left in the bread box.
The one somewhat controversial thing that I have discovered about myself is that I function better and am more alert in the mornings if I don’t eat breakfast, but have a sort of brunch at 11.00. This longish period of fasting [my evening meal is at 5.30] is condemned by some but championed by the likes of Dr Jason Fung where he explains the effect on the hormonal system of intermittent fasting and the lowering of the production of insulin which is the fat-storage hormone.
When I walk through my home town I see lots of overweight people, and I mean lots. Perhaps we are just so overwhelmed by the abundance and availability of food that it is almost impossible for some of us not to eat too much.
My new rules are, therefore:
- Have smaller helpings and don’t accept seconds
- Give up bread and all white flour goods
- Don’t eat between meals
And I am not calling them New Year’s Resolutions, because I won’t keep them. But hopefully, I will have reduced my risk of diabetes by March and also my rounded tum….
