As a result of the special offer for ex clients in last month’s newsletter I’ve caught up with quite a few clients looking for help to get them back on track again.

Most of the clients wanted help to lose varying amounts of weight that has crept back on again, in some cases just a few kilos, in other cases more than 15 kilos.

• How did that happen?

• What went wrong?

All the usual things that lead to regaining lost weight happened.

Did you know that the stats for ‘dieters’ keeping lost weight off are pretty grim, with only about 5% achieving long term success. How sad and dispiriting is that.

Does it have to happen?

Of course not, but you have to realise that whatever you did to lose weight in the first instance has to become a long term habit. That is why it is absolutely essential to find a way of eating and living that you can follow (most of the time), basically forever.

Fad diets, very restrictive diets, or eating in way that isn’t part of a normal life for you will never work in the long term.

When I asked my returning clients what they thought went wrong this is what they told me.

• I took my eye off the ball. I stayed the same weight for a while, then I went up just a couple of kilos and before I knew it that couple of kilos had become 10 (or more).

• Once I’d gained 5 kilos it just seemed all too hard to go back and lose it again.

• I stopped my regular exercise (you weren’t there to push me!).

• My portion control got out of control.

• I had a health or family issue that took precedence and then I just never got back to eating as I had done.

• I got back into bad habits with my alcohol intake.

• I got lazy with meal planning and ended up bulking up meals with more starchy carbs like pasta or rice and I ate less fibrous veggies.

Let’s face it, the good habits had been in place for a much shorter time than the old habits had and in most cases it was a gradual slide backwards. Sometimes it was an occasion like a holiday that de-railed plans and then despite best intentions the person never got back to their previous helpful habits again.

My own experience of weight gain and weight loss in the past always came down to my slipping back into bad habits. Several times I lost 20 kilos, or more, and then slowly slid back into old habits and re-gained that 20 kilos the following year. It wasn’t until nearly 20 years ago that I finally found the right way to eat for me and have kept within a kilo or so of the same weight ever since. So I know it is absolutely possible, but I also know that you have to accept eating well is a way of life, not a short term thing.

If you can relate and want some help and accountability, then let’s get on to it now because my next bit of news is that I am going to be away for 7 weeks from mid June. That gives us just 6 weeks to get some good habits re-established.

My holiday dates

My last day of work will be Thursday 13 June and my first day back will be a half day on Saturday 3 August, with normal hours and days from Tuesday 6 August.

If you follow my Facebook page, you will be able to follow our adventures again.

Winter food

Now that it is starting to cool down, after an amazing summer and so far, autumn, we are starting to think of warmer, more satisfying types of meals. But, we still don’t want to spend ages in the kitchen.

I’m a big fan of leftovers and meal prep. Making a main meal that will last a couple of nights and then you only have to add veggies.

Here are a couple of ideas:

• Put a big piece of meat in the slow cooker and let is simmer away all day. This morning I put a piece of pork leg in the slow cooker, chopped up a large orange and scattered it around the meat, ground salt and pepper over the meat and poured a small amount of water in and left it to cook slowly for about 7 hours.
  
  It has freed me up to be out and about during the morning and in my office all afternoon. Equally it could have been a whole chicken with a lemon stuffed inside it. Literally 10 minutes in the morning and there will be meat for a few nights.
  

• Or, prepare some kind of casserole the night before and plop it into the slow cooker the next morning. Prep time 15 minutes and leave it to do its own thing while you are at work. Just add veggies when serving.
  

• Do a big roasting dish of veggies. The photo below is of some lower carb veggies that I roasted a couple of weeks ago. Again it did us a few nights. You can roast just about anything, including cauliflower and broccoli, as well as carrots, parsnips, pumpkin, onions, garlic, etc.
  

• Make a big pot of soup. Soup is a great way to use up veggies and you can use pretty much anything. This soup used ¼ of a pumpkin, two carrots (no need to peel), a few sticks of celery, two leeks (but onions are fine), two cans of diced tomatoes, 2L of chicken stock, salt and pepper and I also added about 1 Tbs of smoked paprika.
  
  When the veggies were tender I used a stick blender and ended up with a lovely thick mixture. This made two big containers, one of which is in the freezer, about 14 servings in all.
  
  We added 100g of cooked, shredded chicken to each serving and warmed it through. A blob of plain yoghurt on top when serving is yummy.

Remember that there are lots of recipes on my website if you are looking for new ideas.

Low carb porridge

I’ve been trying to make an acceptable version of hot porridge for low carbers. I can’t say I’ve come up with anything I like as much as the real deal, but this one that I made yesterday is the closest.

You could vary the ingredients (i.e use L.S.A. instead of ground linseed, add more cinnamon, etc), to see if you like it enough to use for a hot winter ‘cereal’.

It makes quite a decent sized serving so I put half in the fridge to see if it would work as an overnight kind of breakfast. Nope, it was too gluey!

That’s it for this month. Remember if you want some help to re-establish good habits over the next few weeks, you need to book now as I will be away for 7 weeks from 13 June.