It's still working :)

[wendy w.]

Menu sounds delicious and not like a diet at all. Lorchen you are saving your life, compliments from someone tasty is a bonus too

[Hannelore N.]

Terry, I don't count calories. Everything on that list of yesterdays food and drink is fine in any quantity, except for the muesli and the Maltesers. If I had to count calories, I'd fall off the waggon in no time. Even the carbs are fine, but the pasta has to be cooked from dried pasta, not fresh. Fresh pasta seems to contain the wrong type of flour and sometimes oil.

Terry, my son's wedding last May and how I looked and felt was one of the final straws. But it still took me from May to September to actually get started.

And now I better sort out my boxed salad for lunch, and get to work.......

[Hannelore N.]

Terry if you start counting calories and go onto a 'starvation diet' - which is what all calorie counting is! you are setting yourself up to fail over the long term, because sooner or later you will fall off the wagon.... and regain what you have lost plus about 10% more.

Personally I am following 'The Harcombe Diet' which looks at how the body reacts and uses food. I don't count anything (except maybe the hours between eating a carb based meal and a fat/protein based meal which need to be 3-4 hours apart) I eat real food - nothing factory processed, avoid as many sugars and 'oses' as possible, enjoy butter, cheese, roasted belly pork and olive oil laden salads and occasionally a glass of red wine &/or a square of very dark (minimum 70%) chocolate. It is supremely simple to follow, although getting my head around the 'don't mix carbs with fats' rule has taken a bit of time.

Here is an excerpt from Zoe Harcombe's latest club newsletter, in which she explains how and why she developed the 'diet'

The final question in the puzzle to ask and answer was – why did I get these three conditions? Why did I become a condition driven food addict?

The final piece in the jigsaw was a show stopper. I got these three conditions because I had been dieting – calorie counting to be precise. I started trying to lose weight at the age of 15 and became an obsessive calorie counter within weeks of starting a calorie controlled diet. Nothing mattered to me, except trying to eat less (and trying to do more as often as possible without physically collapsing). I did lose weight at first, but not the promised 2lbs a week, week in week out. It wasn't long before weight loss stopped and I found that I had to eat less and less to try to induce any further weight loss. I was a 16 year old, playing hockey, tennis, rounders and athletics for the school and working as a lifeguard, training for further lifesaving qualifications and playing the clarinet and piano to Grade 8 level and taking O-Levels – on no more than 1,000 calories a day. I would take four small apples and two slices of dry bread to school for lunch. Before long, I'd realised that I could save 150 calories a day if I threw the bread to the birds at lunchtime. Even without being able to avoid a family dinner in the evening, I could often get away with 600-800 calories a day. I got to the point that I would gain weight eating any more than this.

What I didn't know at the time was that I was setting myself up for the three conditions beautifully:

- Candida: The weakened immune system alone, from months of eating too little, had caused Candida. My chosen diet foods of fruit, crisp breads, vinegar – not oil – on salads, fat free sweets, etc. had fuelled Candida further.

- Food Intolerance: Calorie counters need to get 'the biggest bang for the buck' – the most food for the fewest calories – otherwise the sense of deprivation is intolerable. I ate the same things every day – the same calorie counted cereal, the same bread, the same cole slaw and low calorie salad dressing – even the same type of apple daily (Granny Smith). Food Intolerance is, by definition, eating too much of the same thing and too often – that's how calorie counters get Food Intolerance.

- Hypoglycaemia: Because, as a calorie counter I had shunned fat (why have fat with approximately nine calories per gram when you can have carbs with approximately four calories per gram?), I had inevitably embraced carbs instead. Eating carbs impacts blood glucose levels and makes the calorie counter more likely to be lurching from one sugar high to the next or one sugar low to the next. Worse, as a calorie counter, I was continuously grazing. To make the hunger more manageable I tried to eat all the time – making a fruit gum last as long as possible, cutting an apple into tiny pieces and making it seem like a meal. Calorie counters are the ultimate grazers and they are, therefore, messing up blood glucose levels the whole time.

The calorie counter is virtually guaranteed to develop the three conditions that cause insatiable cravings. It is no coincidence that calorie deficit dieters cannot maintain their weight loss – the cravings are so overwhelming, try as the dieter might, they cannot resist the urge to eat. The former calorie counter is absolutely determined to stay slim, but they are now also a food addict, with virtually no chance of resisting the many drivers to eat.

You may well be familiar with this situation – you lost weight, were determined to keep it off, and then biscuits, crisps and/or chocolate were 'talking to you' and you just couldn't silence them. You gave in – just today, only today – determined that you would be back on track tomorrow. However, giving in to the biscuits, crisps and/or chocolate nicely fed Candida, nicely embedded Food Intolerance and nicely continued your Hypoglycaemia. You woke up the next day just as likely to crave and binge on processed carbohydrates as the day before. And the day after. And so on.

It is not your fault that you lost some weight, but couldn't keep it off. Now you know – counting calories turned you into a food addict. On The Harcombe Diet you won't eat less, you won't develop the three conditions – on the contrary – you are doing the perfect diet to overcome the three conditions and to make sure that you end food addiction forever. This is why you are only ever going to start one last diet – The Harcombe Diet.

You are not going to count calories, but you are going to make sure that every calorie counts!
Until the next time

Zoë

For further information:
http://www.zoeharcombe.com/
http://www.theharcombedietclub.com/

Copyright © 2013 Zoe Harcombe

It is working for me - it is working for DH even better (he loves the fact that a full fried breakfast is highly recommended :wink: :roll: ) Follow this up if you wish, but just remember that not all calories are the same - you don't imagine that your body would treat a calorie of cheese in exactly the same way as it would treat a calorie of apple - do you?

[Hannelore N.]

Great points (quilt comrades). Thanks. I keep a journal, helps me be accountable.
Portion control with common sense, planning and keep moving, all fit
in the equation for me. And i do love my chocolate and coffee :lol: :roll: :lol:
A good reminder about the carb/ fat rule. Good and not so good carbs ( turn into sugar :?: :?: ).
Lifestyle change

[Hannelore N.]

Great points (quilt comrades). Thanks. I keep a journal, helps me be accountable.
Portion control with common sense, planning and keep moving, all fit
in the equation for me. And i do love my chocolate and coffee :lol: :roll: :lol:
A good reminder about the carb/ fat rule. Good and not so good carbs ( turn into sugar :?: :?: ).
Lifestyle change

All carbs affect the body by raising the blood sugar levels, thus causing the body to release insulin. Insulin will convert sugars into ready use energy, and while it is there it will put any fats energy into long term 'storage facilities'.

Caffine also triggers insulin release and thus should be considered a carb! :shock:

Sweetners affect insulin release in a similar way to sugars, so in fact they are actually not helping at all - besides keeping up your need for 'sweetened' foods. Sugar (and any other 'oses' - maltose, dextrose, lactose, fructose etc) we know are empty calories, because they have no vitamins or minerals associated with them, that the body actually needs.