talkhealth Blog

Last night was fun! I watched lots of dieting myths being busted on a Channel 4 show – Food Undercover.

I will sum it up in a not so nice nutshell for you here:

Sweetener = okay
Detoxing = bollocks
Cheese = okay
Juices = bollocks
Low fat foods = bollocks

And I will now discuss in a little more detail!

So, personally, I am not a fan of sweetener. They won’t poison you though! My tastes have changed so much that a tiny bit of sweetener makes my mouth go weird…kind of like a dogs bum! I just don’t do chemical sweeteners anymore…but there is nothing wrong with them – just as there is nothing wrong with most things in moderation. I have read studies regarding sweeteners that say they give your body the impression that sugar is coming; and so your body gets ready to deal with it…and when it doesn’t arrive it starts craving sugary simple carbohydrates. But that is about as bad as it gets from a ‘science’ perspective given the reading I have done on this sweet temptress! The UK is generally pretty hot with what should and shouldn’t be in our bodies…so I am not convinced that sweetener is the evil that some tout it to be…and neither were the professionals on the show last night. They could all be wrong of course…but there is no evidence to say that they are!

Detoxing – I have done it. I bought a kit from Boots one New Year and drank powdered drinks…and it made no difference whatsoever. I actually tweeted about this yesterday – something along the lines of “@weightlossbitch: I get very worried about ‘diets’ that contain the words fast, cleanse, detox…you need food; and your internal organs do the other bits!” Any of you who took a few biology lessons will know that your liver and kidneys cleanse your body…sending the stuff you don’t need right out of the poop-shoot. Detoxing is a myth! You simply cannot ‘detox’ your body like this. You could lay off the booze and shite food for a while…this would help give your internal cleansing organs a rest…but if you have a healthy and balanced diet then you simply don’t need to detox. And if you don’t have a healthy and balanced diet, then that would be the answer…not some pills, supplements, drinks, powders etc.

Mmmm…cheese. If you haven’t already figured this one out, I bloody love cheese. I love cheese so much that one reader of my blog took offence to the amount of it I ate one day…she was promptly put straight by my charming words – have a read of it here – it’s quite amusing! Despite people trying to convince us that cheese is bad, it isn’t. I have written about this before, and so won’t harp on about it. The calcium in cheese and other dairy products actually acts as a binder for fat…think of it like a sweeping brush that fat sticks to. It contributes to the prevention of fat absorption…and if I can eat such a tasty food that does this…why the heck not. There is no way that I could stick to a diet that stopped me from eating cheese – thank you, thank you, thank you Slimming World!

Juices and juicing…I have an issue with this sort of plan. Good old Aussie Joe who travelled to America and is converting the world to juicing has a lot to answer for. Yes, he lost weight, cured health ailments and looks fantastic…as do some of his followers…but what about the hidden dangers? Last nights show looked at the amount of sugar in a glass of juice – the same as in a glass of fizzy full sugar drink. You also saw an enlarged fatty liver – a condition caused by obesity…and by excessive sugar intake, along with alcoholism. This is something that you cannot see…so whilst you might look all svelte and slender and be feeling on top of the world from that juicing…your internal organs are screaming and crying out for a healthy and balanced diet. I have no issue with a smoothie a day for breakfast for example. I just choose not to have this kind of thing as I don’t like the sweetness of them anymore…but I used to…just as I used to eat shite food. But you move on and you come to realise that the only way forward is the not-so-sexy healthy and balanced diet! You might not need a posh juicer, or be able to hang out in a trendy – personally I couldn’t think of a more nobbish place to eat…even McDonalds would be preferable – juice bar…which serves ‘detox’ juices which also are a load of old wrinkly ball bags! True juicers use a lot of veggies…but most people in it for weight loss love the sweeter juices – I read a decent survey somewhere about this which I will try and find – and so their sugar consumption goes through the roof. There have been a number of cases of diabetes linked to people who juice too. So all is not as sweet as it seems in the world of juicing!

Finally, there was focus on low fat foods. A lovely group of ladies were opting for the low fat variety of pretty much everything, only to find out that more often than not, the low fat stuff contains more sugar and therefore more calories. Fat is not that bad for you! Certainly of the non-saturated variety. In my Slimming Group recently we looked at low fat options versus the ‘normal’ stuff and it was really surprising to find that there was little or no syn difference between the two. I also found this with the Total Greek yogurt that I was eating…I expected the full fat stuff to be loads higher in syns, but it really wasn’t. So – if you are interested in that kind of thing…I am a geek about it – take a look at some food labels when you next go shopping and compare the full fat and low fat options. For years, fat has been made to seem evil…but if you want a different viewpoint then take a read of a book called ‘Pure, White and Deadly’ which is written by John Yudkin and Robert Lustig…it was a real eye-opener!

So that’s it then…a healthy and balanced diet really does seem the way forwards.

Today has been good. I went back to that dreaded area in which I got lost then other day. In order to ensure that we didn’t get lost this time, we took a photo on Mr WLBs phone – genius…unless of course his phone had died…which has been known to happen! .

Anyway, this was the pretty little guide – it said it was a ‘moderate’ walk that required waterproof footwear and was a ‘muscle-stretcher’.

So nothing too taxing you might think. For the ‘average’ and ‘normal’ person – I am still yet to meet one of these! – perhaps not. I am not justifying my tantrums of today – of which there were a couple – but I couldn’t walk more than a few steps this time last year…so a moderate walk for me is pretty fecking hard! But off I set.

The first part of the walk was not without incident…and I have to hold my hands up ad admit that I called somebody an ‘ignorant fecking c-word’! He was walking past us…could see us coming for quite some time…and we had our dog on the lead, but his was running all over the place. I bit my lip – I usually shout in advance for them to watch their dog – and wondered what would happen – maybe his dog would just ignore mine and stay with the chap…no…it didn’t. He didn’t acknowledge us whatsoever, he let his dog run over to ours – who was clearly not happy – and proceeded to walk right past, not uttering a word to either us or his dog…not encouraging it to leave ours alone or to walk off with him. So I stopped, turned around and asked, “Can you please call your dog, or put it on a lead, and get it away from my dog?”…which he ignored and carried on walking – with his nose right up in the air…seriously! That was it, I saw red and just blurted out the dreaded c-word…which I quite secretly like!

My other half was not even mortified this time – which he usually is when I shout at other dog walkers – as he was quite angry too. It is not our fault that our dog was not socialised as a puppy – we didn’t get her until she was five, and we have no idea of her history, other than knowing that she was out on the streets for a while. I would never let my dog – nice with other dogs or not – off the lead around other dogs as you just never know; they might take a real funny with one dog in particular. Given that she is a Staffie, we have to be careful too…as she gets labelled as a devil dog – I had one woman call her that once when we were on the Isle of Skye…our dog was on a lead, her wasn’t and was trying to sniff my dogs arse…and when my dog took exception to this, she was branded a devil dog. I think I swore on that occasion too!

Anyway, once this drama was over, we carried on! There is some amazing scenery, but I have to admit to not noticing as much of it as I would like to. It was raining, cold, and I was a bit miserable! But here are some forest walk pictures for you…

The last picture makes me smile…when your legs are dead and you feel like you can’t go on (drama queen moment!) and you see a seemingly never-ending path through the trees like that…yes, I almost cried – but instead I just looked at my feet and willed them on!

Breakfast: Tomatoes on cheesy toast (HEA and 2 x HEB).

Lunch: Veggie stir fry with noodles.

Dinner: Chicken, roast marrow and roast potatoes with carrots and broccoli.

Snacks: Fruit and Total Greek yogurt, Eat Natural bar (10 syns) and French Fries (4 syns).

Exercise: About two hours of walking!

Thank you for reading,

Weight Loss Bitch xxx

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WeightLossBitch

On a health and fitness driven journey to lose over 32st / 448lbs / 203kgs – yes, it is a considerable amount – I am committed to losing my excess weight without the aid of weight loss surgery, diet pills, or quick fixes…as there aren’t any! Changing my eating habits and building up my fitness levels, along with addressing the ‘head issues’ will be crucial in order for me to achieve my goal. Living in England as a 31 year old super morbidly obese woman can be challenging to say the least. I have been shouted at in the street and verbally abused far too many times to mention; hence the name ‘Weight Loss Bitch’…the day I am just called a ‘bitch’ instead of a ‘fat bitch’ will be the day that I know I have cracked my weight loss! With many reasons to lose this weight I am documenting my journey for a number of reasons. Firstly, I would like to keep a record of the ups and downs, the highs and lows, and the challenges I face with such an enormous task to tackle. Secondly, I would also like to inspire and encourage other people who are in a similar situation and to show them that significant amounts of weight can be lost naturally…with a bit of motivation, hard work, dedication and will power. Thirdly, all of the blogging, Facebook-ing, Tweet-ing, Pinterest-ing and YouTube-ing keeps me occupied and keeps my fingers out of the fridge!