Authors: Anita Scott
I want to take a minute to think about diet foods.
By this I mean food items specifically aimed at people losing weight, e.g. low fat yoghurts, low calorie bread etc.
My take on this I like to call the ‘rice cake phenomenon’.
I would rather eat less of something nice with actual TASTE than subject my mouth to the horror of a rice cake.
Take low fat yoghurts for example.
I like full fat yoghurts that are really creamy, which generally come in about 200 calories.
A low fat yoghurt generally comes in around 50 calories, which is obviously much less, but they taste awful.
I would much prefer to have one nice creamy yoghurt than four horrible ones.
So the question to ask yourself when thinking about switching to low fat food is ‘is it worth it?’.
I take sugar in my tea and recently thought maybe I should stop.
Then I discovered that there are only 16 calories in a teaspoon of sugar.
For the sake of 16 calories I decided to keep enjoying my sweet tea.
Rather than buying specialist diet versions of food, you can instead make some simple substitutions that will make a huge difference.
When I’m watching my weight I substitute a simple salad of rocket, tomato, peppers and cucumber for the white carbs part of a meal.
For example, fish and chips becomes fish and a salad.
You’ll be amazed at what a difference this
makes.
Now I’m not saying that there aren’t some foods that you should be wary off.
Be really careful with premade food, particularly ready meals and takeaways.
That’s not to say never eat them, but you should at least be aware of the amount of calories you are consuming.
So here are a couple of horror stories.
I love takeaway pizza, and could happily eat a medium pizza all to myself (although a couple of pieces might be kept cold for breakfast!).
The well-known brand that I buy from has 200 calories per slice of medium pepperoni pizza.
That doesn’t sound so bad does it?
But here’s the killer.
There are eight slices in a medium pizza so if you eat the whole thing that is a massive 1600 calories!
And supermarkets are no better.
I love a curry, and my local supermarket do a chicken tikka masala meal for one which includes the curry, rice, naan and onion bhaji.
It’s pretty tasty, but then it should be at 1150 calories.
Again, there’s no reason why you can’t eat a meal this fatty, but be aware of how many calories it is, and have it as a rare treat.
Something that I have always found a little worrying about dieting is the concept of good and bad days.
This leads to the attitude of ‘I went for a curry and had five drinks last night, so today I will eat only lettuce’.
This is not just unsustainable; it leads to a worrying trend where you feel constantly guilty about everything you do.
Do not hate yourself just because of food.
Really.
I don’t care if you are severely overweight, if you have to be lifted from your house by crane, you are NOT A BAD PERSON.
If a diet encourages you to go out to dinner with friends and sip on a tap water while miserably eating watercress soup, then quit immediately, it is not worth it.
You only get one life after all, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend it eating rice cakes.
So here’s where I swap the dreaded rice cakes for real, bona fide cake.
I love cake.
Any kind of cake, as long as it’s sugary and fattening.
But I also recognise that if I ate nothing but cake I would probably die, hugely fat and alone.
So my solution is pretty simple: friends.
If you want cake, invite your friends round.
That way you can buy a cake and share it, so that you won’t eat it all yourself (if there’s any left give out doggy bags!).
This is why with my menu suggestions I have one day that allows over 600 calories of cake.
Because sometimes food that we have been taught is ‘bad’ can be really, really good.
Plus friends come under the ‘not hating yourself’ category.
If life is no fun it’s easy to turn to the instant comfort of food to makes things better.
Every time you find yourself reaching for a mammoth chocolate bar or phoning a takeaway, call a friend instead.
Your waistline will shrink, and your life will be immeasurably better.
Here’s the nitty-gritty.
I’ve provided below some menu suggestions that work out around 1600 calories a day.
This is for people needing to lose weight.
If you don’t want to lose weight then you want to add in another 400 calories, or 900 if you’re a man.
You can do this by increasing the portion size, or by adding more healthy snacks.
These menus are very much a rough guide, and just let you know the sort of thing I would eat in an average week.
You’ll find the recipes for many of these meals at the back of the book.
Enjoy!
Monday
Breakfast: Non-silly Cereal with Semi-Skimmed Milk (i.e. nothing that is chocolate, marshmallows, lard based, stick to Cornflakes, Weetabix etc.), Lunch: Hummus with Pitta Bread and Olives 250, Dinner: Ultimate Chilli 650, Snacks: Full Fat Yogurt, Glass of wine, Banana. (No time to make lunch?
A shop bought sandwich can be replaced for the Hummus, but you’ll have to skip the yogurt)
Tuesday
Breakfast: Boiled Egg and Toast, Lunch: Halloumi Bruschetta or supermarket sandwich if you don’t have time (try to get one with no more than 350 cals), Dinner: Couscous with Feta Cheese and a smoothie, Snacks: 2 jaffa cakes, packet of crisps, hot chocolate with semi-skimmed milk.
Wednesday
Breakfast: Full Fat Yogurt and an Apple, Lunch: Can of Heinz Tomato Soup, Dinner: Stir Fry, Snacks: Lovely homemade cakes with friends (e.g. a cupcake and a slice of carrot cake).
Thursday
Breakfast: Bacon sarnie, Lunch: Leftover Couscous with Feta Cheese (from Tuesday’s dinner), Dinner: Dad’s Potato Curry, Snacks: Scone with cream and strawberry jam.
Friday
Breakfast: Non-Silly Cereal with semi-skimmed milk, Lunch: Leftover Dad’s Potato Curry and a full fat yogurt, Dinner: Fish cooked in Foil with boiled rice, Snacks: Small fruit salad (e.g. half an apple, some strawberries and half a banana).
Saturday
Breakfast: It’s the weekend so treat yourself to some smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on buttered toast – you deserve it! Lunch: Can of Soup, Dinner: A grilled pork chop with some rocket leaves, fresh tomato and a baked potato, Snacks: Large glass of wine.
Sunday
Breakfast: Banana and Full Fat Yoghurt, Lunch: Tangy Smoked Salmon Salad, Dinner: Roast Chicken and all the trimmings, Snacks: You will not be needing snacks after having a massive roast dinner, honestly!
My dad always called this AKR, presumably the A Is for Aloo, but I have no idea what the K or the R stand for.
This is a great example of a meal that is low fat but satisfying.
It’s also very easy to make and tastes even better the next day.
I would sprinkle fresh chillies and coriander or parsley on the top, but dad wouldn’t hold with such fancy nonsense.
800g Potatoes
2 cans of chopped tomatoes
2 onions
1 teaspoon each of cumin, coriander, and chilli powder
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1 teaspoon of sugar
4 garlic cloves
1 vegetable stock cube
Peel your potatoes and boil them for 10 minutes or so.
In a large pan sweat the onions down with some oil, and add the garlic, cumin, coriander and chilli.
One softened, add the potatoes and then the tomatoes and the tomato puree.
Add a cup full of water then dissolve in a stock cube.
Simmer for at least 45 minutes, preferably a couple of hours, adding more water if necessary and salt and pepper to taste.
Again this serves four so tub up once cold.
When I wanted to lose a little weight for my wedding I ate this all the time.
If you’re not a smoked salmon fan then you can always substitute a pre-cooked chicken breast.
2 slices of smoked salmon cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon of capers
A large handful of rocket
A half red pepper, thinly sliced
2 small or one large tomato, chopped
Lemon juice
Extra virgin olive oil
Put the rocket, salmon, pepper and tomato into a bowl.
Add a good squeeze of lemon juice and a dash of olive oil.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Simple.
This is just one portion, double the quantities if you’re feeding a date.
I only discovered halloumi this year, and now I’m addicted!
50g Halloumi cheese or a couple of thick slices
1 tomato roughly chopped
Half a garlic clove
Lemon juice
A slice of bread (any kind, but crusty baguette works well) for toasting
2 teaspoons readymade pesto (or homemade if you’re very good)
Good Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Put a little oil in a hot pan, and fry the halloumi for a minute or two on each side until it starts to go golden brown.
Meanwhile, toast your bread, and when hot rub it a couple of times with the cut edge of the garlic.
Pile on the chopped tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, then top with the hot halloumi.
Drizzle over some nice olive oil, a good squeeze of lemon juice and the pesto.
Yum!