BASIC LCHF

This is for Group members

Having come to a point that you have decided to try, or are trying, a LOW CARB - HIGH FAT DIET here is my take on the subject. You may be calling it a Paleo diet or a Keto diet or again a Mediterranean Diet. I tend to say Low Carb - High Fat (LCHF) Way of Eating (WOE). Each diet or WOE has a little more of this or little less of that. From eating all vegetables to munching through all meat. It is quite hard to decide where you may find the best diet for you. So if you are just thinking about starting a LCHF WOE, or restarting as it has not seemed to be going anywhere, or you have come off of the wagon and wonder where you went wrong, I suggest you take it back to square one and start with a very simple WOE. Basic Low Carb - High Fat.

The first thing we must do is consider why we want to try this WOE, is it to lose weight or because you are so ill you will try anything. Or maybe it is both because obesity and chronic illness seem to be partners in misery. If it is chronic illness you may have to think carefully before starting. For instance if you have diabetes and are on medications you must be ready to reduce them. This does mean talking to your doctor who may or not be sympathetic. You may be on other medications so consider them and with luck you may be able to leave them behind. I did after one month and am now only on one small medication for thyroid.

ANY ADVICE GIVEN HERE IS TAKEN AT YOUR OWN RISK. I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL. 

I ADVISE CONSULTING YOUR OWN DOCTOR AS TO ITS SUITABILITY FOR YOU.

Why is this different to all the diets that have gone before and will undoubtedly come again? Because it changes the way your body will fuel itself. We have been burning sugar in the form of Glucose from all the carbs we have been eating. When we feel tired, hungry and grumpy it is because we have run out of this fuel and need to stoke up again. Reach for that snack bar, eat that pie or sandwich. Or just pure sugar in the form of sweets and candy. If we don’t manage to get that carbohydrate what is the body going to live on? How will exist we until the next meal? Well it can exist quite well using your own body fat, food that you have already eaten and stored for future use. BUT your body has to remember how to get at those stores, how to burn them for fuel.  It knows exactly how to do it but something is stopping it happening. We have stopped the access to the fat by offering the body all those easy to eat carbs

Most of us having been enjoying all the wonderful looking, smelling, tasty food manufacturers have been offering us, accepted it with open mouths. We have left on the shelf good foods in their natural state and picked up the complete, easy to use, time saving, tasty products we all know and love so well. Some of them declare that they are healthy or have healthy ingredients. All your five a day, enriched with vitamins, made with organic ingredients they proclaim. What we haven’t realised is all the crap they have also put into it to produce it cheaply or ALL THE SUGAR THEY ADDED to everything. Sweet and savoury. 

The main thing these foods are full of is CARBOHYDRATE. And as our WOE is called Low Carbohydrate it obviously the first thing that has to go. Yes, even ‘healthy granola’. Until you have really come to terms with what this WOE is all about leave all the packet, tinned and manufactured stuff alone. This INCLUDES all types of bread, buns, pasta, pancakes, anything made with flour. PLUS TAKE AWAYS!!! Ready mades like pizzas in supermarket. Possibly the only one you can have is cold meats, bacon etc. Life is not much without bacon and it even makes vegetables taste better. There is disagreement about eating these cooked meats, you must research and choose whether to eat them or not.

The next hardest thing to not have is SUGAR. Oh I put honey/sweeteners/algarve in my tea/coffee, that’s not sugar is it? YES IT IS. Sugar comes in more that 50 different names and they are all sugar. If you really want to lose weight or be well again it is best to let it go. Put double cream in your coffee. Well the other bit of the name is High Fat. Go ahead have cream. (Some people are dairy sensitive. They can use Coconut cream or butter and Coconut oil).

This brings us to Breakfast. To eat or not. If you already don’t have breakfast then don’t start eating it. If you do and it has been carb loaded with cereals, breakfast toast or biscuits, waffles or pancakes, if you happen to be American, then you have quite a big hill to climb.You are going to have to find something else to eat! If you have the time the obvious answer is eggs and bacon with perhaps an avocado, tomato or mushroom. No time, the usual rush out the door clutching toast. Here you will need to pre make something that you can grab from the fridge. But not a banana! We will discuss fruit later.

There, I have put the hardest things first in starting a LCHF WOE. Cutting out all the things thought to make life good. Is being fat good? Is being ill with multiple disorders good? Always tired, stomach cramps, and the worst, having to inject yourself with insulin all the time. My personal experience is that having been incontinent and agoraphobic about going out because my IBS I came back to a normal life of even going on holiday without fear of embarrassing things happening. Plus many other things that got better. Who would want to go back to that when all it means is not eating a few of these pleasurable but devastating foods. Not me. So now I take great pleasure in the foods I can eat and they are many. Not only do they taste good but they also keep me satiated and without hunger rearing its ugly head. When you are eating carbs you can get what is being termed being ‘hangry’. Hungry and angry.

So we come to what you do eat on a LCHF WOE. Here are the basic foods which we can look at individually later.

NOTE: please adjust to your requirement for instance if you are a vegetarian or sensitive to a  particular food. 

Meat, Fowl, Fish, (particularly oily fish) seafoods, eggs, dairy, nuts, seeds, fruit, and ABOVE GROUND  VEGETABLES.

Straight away we can see NO WHITE POTATO. A bit of potato is like eating a lump of sugar, absolute carbohydrate. Sweet potato is what its name implies, Sweet. Possibly it can be added later in small quantities but not at first. So let us look at vegetables first. 

ALL VEGETABLES ARE CARBOHYDRATE. (Avocados will be looked at under fats). There are three Macro nutrients, ProteIn, Fat and Carbohydrate. There are many Micro nutrients like vitamins, minerals etc. So if it is not a protein such as meat, fish, eggs and so on or a fat such as butter, lard or the fat in meat, then it is carbohydrate. The point being that leafy green vegetables grown above ground plus other veg like tomatoes, cucumber, have the least carbohydrates in them. This is simplifying it and there are some mixtures like nuts. But a good starting point can be ‘Is it grown above Ground?’ Add some of these veg to your meals so you will get their needed nutriments. At first you do not need to stint yourself on these veg, use things like long leaf lettuce as your bread to put cream cheese on. Salad is anything from radishes to lettuce, celery to bok choy. Try to have spinach and cabbage, kale is supposed to be a wonder veg but in truth I can’t eat it. Some smoothy it for breakfast. Lots of recipes on the internet.

This is NOT a high Protein way of eating like the Atkins Diet. It is Low Carb, MODERATE  Protein, High Fat. And then it does not mean you have to eats lumps of butter or have pints of Olive Oil. But we will come to fats later. Moderate Protein means a reasonable amount of meat, fish or seafood or dairy. Or it could be couple of eggs and bacon. Reasonable according to if you are male or female, large or small, old or young. There are internet sites and apps that will suggest measurement in this but meanwhile don’t  overdo protein but be sure that you get good quality protein every day. Like I said, it many be eggs which should be free range. 

For Fat, often the question is how much? You will notice I am not giving quantities. There are places you can find suggestions of how much. I find that if you cook with good fats, Olive Oil, Butter, Ghee and coconut oil it provides a fair amount. Add best Olive Oil as a salad dressing, have butter on your cooked veg, have meat that has fat rather than lean and you will have had plenty of fat to stop you from being hungry. Also good cream cheeses like Brie or Boursin. If that is not enough, cream in coffee and make some Fat Bombs. Recipe on group site. Fat is what stops you from being hungry, stops cravings and makes things taste great. Avocados are full of good oil, have two or three a week or more. Great with eggs and bacon.

DO NOT USE ANY OILS EXCEPT OLIVE OIL. No seed, canola, or man made oils. Particularly to cook with as heating them is very bad for your health.

Now if you are not or never have been a cook it is no problem. Most meals are very simple protein and veg or protein and salad. It is mostly preparation of the veg either for a salad or to cook. Wash all veg well to remove pesticides if not organic. Don't chop veg and meat on the same board or cut with the same knife. Many of these foods you can cook in a frying pan and a saucepan to boil the vegetables. Even living with a small cooking ring it is possible. Yes, I have in my time cooked on one gas ring. For instance, a chicken breast can be fried rather than baked. If you have a kitchen then you can spread your wings and make a cream cheese sauce to add to your meal.

Here is a suggested meal menu. It is only an idea to start you off. You can change it round but not add more things. In the first two weeks it is good to have something to abide by rather than wondering what to do. Look at the suggestions and make a shopping list. Do not go popping in granola bars on the pretext that they are healthy if you get hungry. Have small bits of cut cheese or slices of cooked meat or nuts ready if you feelings hunger, or more likely craving, grab you. Try very hard not to snack. Have coffees and tea but NO soda drinks, not even zero calorie drinks. Have fizzy water and lime juice.

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Sunday	Bacon & egg, + Tomato /mushrooms. Fried in butter.	Tin Salmon or Tuna & salad	Roast Pork & veg
Monday	Natural Live Yogurt (NLY) + Blue Berries or boiled egg, or bit of omelette veg frittta	2 Egg  & Cheese salad	Cauliflower rice & veg or meat curry
Tuesday	NLY + Blue Berries as Monday	Ham Omelette cook and take with you cold or heat in micro.	Chicken & veg
Wednesday	NLY + Blur Berries as Monday	Cauliflower rice salad and packet corn beef (or other packet meat.	Chicken breast and veg. Roast two one for tomorrow lunch
Thursday	NLY + Blue berries as Monday	Chicken salad	Fresh Salmon and veg
Friday	NLY + Blue berries as Monday	2 Cheese Salad	Small Beef Steak and veg
Saturday	NYL + Blue Berries or egg and sausage, bacon and avocado if not working	Egg and Bacon omelette if you didn’t have it for Breakfast. If not a homemade soup with veg in it.	Lamb burger & salad

NOTES: if you need a dessert after dinner then have berries of any kind and cream, possibly Live Yogurt as well. Yogurts MUST NOT BE LOW FAT. They have too much sugar in them. While we say it FULL FAT EVERYTHING from now on, cheese, milk, cream…..

Fruits should only be berries, leave all others alone for a while as they have too much sugar in them. So No bananas. Yes I know, hard and I do miss them too.

TREAT. DARK CHOCOLATE. You can have three small bit of dark chocolate in the evening, they must be more than 65% better over 70%. Green and Blacks very good or Lindt. 

Plus, if really necessary a small glass of red wine. This latter is not so good as it can quickly lower your resistance to coming off the wagon. If you do come off the wagon don’t beat yourself up about it. Get yourself quickly back on the wagon and keep going. You will only get that wonderful land of not feeling hungry, losing weight and feeling good by sticking with it. 

Copyright Julie Gale 2017
ANY ADVICE GIVEN HERE IS TAKEN AT YOUR OWN RISK. I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL. 

I ADVISE CONSULTING YOUR OWN DOCTOR AS TO ITS SUITABILITY FOR YOU