This week I've lost a couple of lbs but I am still playing catch up from the last week's shameful gain. However, for the first time in many years I'm in the 17s. I have been following Steve M's 80:20 rule. Which is really about eating healthy stuff for 80% of the time and allowing 20% for junk/ what I fancy eating. He has even suggested that giving up the junk completely is dangerous. Making the healthy choices is a little challenging but generally viewing things in this simple way is very useful. Following the 80:20 rule is being in control of food. I think last week I got the percentages round the wrong way and there is no hiding from that when it happens.
I like the idea of having this sensible outlook on food. I have tried diet clubs in the past and although I lost the weight would always put on what I'd lost and more in the end. There is clearly something wrong with the 'diet' model. When I say that I've tried diet clubs that is a bit of an understatement. I think I joined one well known diet club four or five times. Each time I'd go to a new location and of course each time I'd weigh more than I had the previous time! The people running the groups varied enormously in their ability to motivate me through the week or even to hold my attention for the meetings. Helpful recipes for 'ok' courgette cake are all well and good but at the end of the day I wouldn't usually make a courgette cake so it ends up being a gimmick. There is always a sense of relief when these diet clubs finish or usually my interest and motivation dwindles after months of calorie counting, food logging and effort. The truth is that having lost over 3 stone now it doesnt feel as if it's been that much 'effort' more just discipline and choice. So, far better in my opinion to stick to a positive mindset and sensible eating as a way of life rather than starting a diet enthused only to fail a couple of months later.
The straight and narrow for me is lots of soup, salad and portion control microwave meals. Any soup is great. Cuppa soup, tinned soup or home made soup. If I feel I've eaten a bit too much in the day or over the week then soup can often tip things in my favour for weigh in.
I heard this week that someone who I haven't seen in a long time has managed to lose 6 stone. I said in my last blog that I didn't find other people's weight loss stories helpful but I did find this news inspiring. I feel genuinely happy for her as this is a huge achievement. I heard that eating lots of leaves (salad) was involved which isn't a bad thing. I often have to balance my dinners with salad. Half a plate of 'food' to half salad.
Salad: I have always found salad hard work. I don't really like the typical 'salad' so I really try to make salad interesting. I was vegan for 9 years so I do consider myself something of an expert on salads, especially when ordering them out. As a vegan, more often than not, the only vegan option on a menu would be salad (no dressing) and chips. My own choice of course to be a vegan but that didn't make it any easier to order a meal and then the feeling of disappointment and annoyance when presented with some limp, dull lettuce leaves, a couple of slices of tomato and red onion if I was lucky! The UK (in my experience) has a particularly poor salad imagination. I've been pleasantly surprised during more adventurous travels at the effort some chefs have put into making a vegan salad.
Whilst staying at the Holiday Inn in Helsinki, (Finland) I made my usual order of side salad and chips. The most amazing salad with sculpted cucumber arrived. It was delicious and a delight to eat. It was most unexpected and welcome.
On a Nile cruise I was taken aback by the effort and consideration that they went to every day to ensure we had a good vegan dinner. They even brought the bag of pasta to our table for us to check that the ingredients were ok. Every night they would prepare something wonderful for us. Our food was always different to everyone else and their care was very much appreciated. One night there was an Egyptian buffet for the evening meal and there was no need for us to have a special meal prepared, it was pretty much all vegan kosher. Beautiful salads with orange and beet root, houmous... It was wonderful to my vegan palate and while other people were a bit wary of the 'new' food we tucked right in. Fresh and delicious.
One of my favourite salads to order out now that I am no longer vegan, is the Salad Niçoise. This was all good until I went to Italy and had the most incredible (authentic) Salad Niçoise at Gusto Leo in Florence. In case you don't know this salad has tomatoes, tuna, hard-boiled eggs, olives, anchovies and usually capers too. Delicious! As with anything, once you've had the real thing anything substandard will be a disappointment and I would say that when it comes to salads I'm particularly hard to please in restaurants.
During a road trip across America (by which time I had downgraded from Vegan to Vegetarian) I found salad items hard to acquire as I travelled up from the South. The best I could do in one supermarket was some onions in a fridge but by the time I'd reached California the fresh salad produce was amazing.
That's not to say the UK supermarkets don't make an effort! Morrisons dry ice salad counter for example, although it looks as though not everyone was impressed with the Yorkshire Post reporting that "The head of Morrisons has denied allegations that ... critics have said core customers don't want gimmicks such as vegetables swathed in dry ice or exotic produce ...". Well I quite enjoyed the dry ice. I thought it was exciting.
I observed that Americans are far more assertive ordering food and won't put up with anything wrong. Sitting at dinner in San Francisco we overheard two men discussing the salad they'd been served. On receiving their food they exclaimed loudly (pretty much to the whole restaurant) "this isn't ranch!!! this is more like blue cheese!". We had to laugh at their outrage over a salad dressing but on the other hand, why not!? It wasn't what they'd been expecting from the salads and that was the end of the story.
Because of these wonderful experiences around the world it really does show people up when they serve up a no thought salad and charge a small fortune for the privilege. So as the summer temperatures reach a high in the UK this week, here's to some tasty, colourful and thoughtful salads :) and no excuses from any establishments I might dine in, this week I'll be expecting nothing but the best!
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