My food intolerances are…

I saw Carole Batchelor today to get my food intolerances checked out, in advance of a talk she is giving to NetworkW, my ladies-only network based in Milton Keynes.

Carole reckons I’ve got a list of 5.

Gin – the ONLY drink I like, though I have p’raps 3 a year.
Cabbage – same ‘cos I’ve just stocked up on Chinese cabbage. Still, needs must!
E102 Tartrazine – I thought this had been banned, but I can’t find anything with this in it, not even suspects like fizzy drinks and sweets.
Lentils. Now those I do have from time to time, but infrequently.
Monosodium glutamate – AAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH! This calls for a radical rethink on my soy sauce and Chinese meals!

My birthday meal was easy!

On this food plan, going out for my birthday meal was easy!

We headed for Nando’s, where we shared olives for a starter.

My main meal was corn on the cob, and a quarter of grilled chicken. I pinched half a Portuguese roll from hubby to dip into his chicken livers – so tasty!

It’s amazing how easy this way of eating is, and I really enjoy it.

Birthday!

Upon my brithday, which is my sixth, how did I celebrate?

The family came in turn to honour me.

Riley @ 3 months might have felt that teething was the order of the day but – hey ho!

Main event! Going out for evening nosh and looking forward to it.

Full steam ahead!

Day 3 and new eating plan is gong well.

Bouyed by news that eating protein at breakfast cuts about 400 calories/day on average by lowering the hunger hormone.

I’m starting my day with two eggs and two slices of toast and it really does seem to make you feel less hungry for longer.

All the junk-calorie food items have been dumped.

And eating a meal cooked by someone not in the know about what I’m doing turned out well. I ate the Sunday roast and veg, stuck to a single potato, and avoided the Yorkshire pud, and thoroughly enjoyed it all.

Pretty much plain sailing so far – just a case of seeing the results!

Time to restart the journey.

After struggling so far this year due to my back op, it’s time to shift the weight I’ve gained while incapacitated. My physio says I can’t make an impact on the activity side, so the focus is going to be on food.

I’ve decided to go on a regime which is somewhat like Atkin’s, though not as restricted on carbs, because that’s the one that worked best for me in the past.

And the mental war has already kicked in. The word ‘diet’ has been banned, because the huge raft of negatives that go with it.

I’m starting tomorrow, because the 1st of May is an easy start date to remember.

And yes, I’ve been doing my pre-journey splurge. A sausage roll at the petrol station. Followed by an M&S Yum Yum – a whopping 650 calories! And I’ve been to the Chinese cash and carry to stock up on lots of goodies – including vast quantities of noodles that I won’t be eating from now on! Tonight is home-made paella, with chicken, chorizo, pork and prawns – with rice!!!

What’s Your Chronotype?

Robert E Thayer is Professor of Psychology at California State University.

In 1996 his book, “The Origin of Everyday Moods”, was published.

Mood is important because poor mood is linked to when our resolve fails – when we go off the tracks.

One of the factors in mood is circadian rhythm, the natural daily cycle of ups and downs.

If you want to find out if you are a morning person, an evening person or neither, a short chronotype test is here at The Chronotype Test.

For the average person, there is a daily low at about 4:30pm.

Since you are unique, it helps if you work out if you have your own daily low point.

In your success journal, note when your low point is or what your chronotype is.

Tomorrow LoLtrim will look at some easy ways to improve your mood at these natural low times, so making it easy to succeed!

How Fast Is Crash!

How fast are crash diets?

The short answer is they are pretty slow. And very stupid.

In 1998 a group of people in the UK with a lot of weight to shed volunteered for a 16 week study. Note volunteered – because that means they were highly committed to making things work.

One third of the volunteers went onto a regime that should only be done under medical supervision.

That third tried a novel approach. Just 800 calories per day. Compared with UK recommendations of 2,500 calories per day for men, and 2,000 calories per day for women. And all of it from milk and yoghurt. Nothing but milk and yoghurt!

Surprisingly, most of the volunteers stuck it out for the full 16 weeks. The researchers thought this was probably due to the novelty of the approach.

But how did it go? How fast is crash?

The crash result came out at just over one pound per week! It was just a little higher for those who managed to make it through the full 16 weeks.

Why? The simplicity bit worked. Just milk and yoghurt. Easy to do the mechanics. But why is crash SO slow?

Why doesn’t a starvation scheme work? The answer is simple. Your body is superbly designed to defeat starvation.

Your body has lots of mechanisms to make sure you survive famine. And others to put on weight again when a famine is over.

The study did not report on what happened to these volunteers after the research ended, but LoLtrim is fairly confident they were soon heavier than they were at the start of the study.

Crash is stupid because it activates all of the superb systems you have to avoid starvation. And those to restore your weight after the famine.

Milk and yoghurt only. Just 800 calories per day. Torture and starvation for what?

There has to be a better way! And there is!

LoLtrim works the way your body and your mind works.

And that’s the point. You can do crash diets as you like. 800 calories on milk and yoghurt, PLUS MEDICAL SUPERVISION. And for what?

Or LoLtrim. Get trim, stray trim. Easy, smart and free!

What are you putting in your success journal today?

Coming up next is a little piece of fun. It happens to be fun, but LoLtrim will show you how to use it to your advantage. Let’s find out your chronotype!

Who is in charge?

You are engaged in a battle against powerful forces.

In the boardrooms of fast food chains, supermarket chains and home delivery chains they are working really, really hard to extract more cash from you. In the main, this means they are trying to get you to consume more.

They have armies of experts working for them and millions of dollars to fund their campaign.

And they have all the tricks in the book – to get you to consume more.

Fast food chains are not simply child-friendly but positively child-attracting. Because the kids can then act as leverage on you.

Supermarket chains trot out irresistible offers. Buy one get one free or even buy one get two free.

With food delivery chains it’s bundling. Buy the whopper-size pizza and get free soft drink and ice cream.

With restaurants it’s eat-all-you-can. You’ve paid for it so tuck in.

The point is there is a vast army of people who report to shareholders on how much they have extracted from you. Not how trim you are, but how much money they got you to part with. They aren’t paid to care about whether you are trim. They are paid to get you to consume more.

The question is – who is in charge? It is either you or it is them.

LoLtrim will supply many more magic methods along the road, but you already have all you need to take charge.

You have decided your rocket fuel level, the level at which you pay respect. And you know your calostat – 10 cals/day equates to 1lb/year.

You already have the core tool set to make critical decisions.

So the question is – who is in charge? You or them? Put the answer in your success journal.

Today’s decision is pure psychology. It’s about realising that you are going to win.

Tomorrow we’ll consider – how fast is crash?

What is your Calostat?

Your calostat is an amazingly powerful way to make decisions affecting how trim you are.

It is based on the fact that one pound of fat equates to about 3,500 calories. Fudging the maths only slightly, 10 calories/day equates to one pound of fat per year.

That’s your calostat. 10 calories/day comes to one pound of fat per year. Pop that into your success journal.

Now 10 calories is about one fifth of a teaspoon of oil, about a quarter of a teaspoon of butter or margarine, less than a sixth of an apple, and less than a tenth of what your cornflake makers think you should have for breakfast. In other words it’s tiny, tiny, tiny!

Two astonishing facts become clear from this.

First, for your body to keep constant weight over the course of a year it’s balancing mechanism must be superb.

Second, and more importantly, getting trim and staying trim can be done by making a set of small and easy changes. That’s the smart and easy way to do it. That’s how to do it for the rest of your life. That’s LoLtrim, a Lifetime of Life trim!

Tomorrow is Decision Day. Who is in charge of your destiny?

Respect Your Rocket Fuels!

LoLtrim doesn’t do calorie counting.  It is a lot easier, and a lot smarter, to select your rocket fuel level, and respect your personal rocket fuels.

Every food has a calorie density.  Those with a high calorie density deserve to be treated with respect.  It really is that easy.

The following figures are all in kcal/100g.  Forget kcal/100g for a moment – all you need to know is that the result has to be between 0 (water) and 900 (pure oil).

Here are 20 common foods to help you choose your personal rocket fuel level.

Tinned tomato – 16
Orange juice – 42
Baked beans – 73
Banana – 89
Avocado – 160
Egg, whole, fried – 196
White bread – 234
Chocolate fudge brownie ice cream – 250
Pepperoni pizza – 270
Chicken, skinless, oven cooked – 293
Spaghetti – 350
Rice – 360
Boiled potato – 365
Cornflakes – 379
Sugar – 387
Cheddar cheese – 410
Bacon, fried – 533
Peanuts – 600
Margarine – 634
Sunflower oil – 899

Calorie density can be an eye opener.  Pizza and ice cream below skinless chicken?  Cornflakes nearly on a par with sugar?

All you have to do is pick your rocket fuel level and handle with respect those foods that you count as rocket fuel.

UK food labels make this easy because one of the figures near the top is the number of kcals in 100g.

US food labels take just a little more thought.  There is a calorie count and a serving size in grams (g).  Divide the calorie count by the serving size in g, and multiply the result by 100.

Sometimes labels for fluids are in ml instead of g.  Just treat these as though the ml figure and the g figure are the same.  Don’t worry about the error in this – it isn’t big enough to make a real difference, so do it the easy way.

The US Department of Agriculture database has thousands and thousands of foods already worked out in kcal/100g.  That’s how we got about half of the figures above.

The USDA data is at http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

Put your rocket fuel level in your success journal.  It’s just a figure between 0 and 900, and for foods on and above that level – respect! Do you want to note the USDA link?

Tomorrow, LoLtrim will give you another amazingly easy, amazingly smart, amazing powerful idea – your calostat!