New Year dieting

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Posted at 1:15PM, 05 January 2009 by Christine Hayes - Editor, olive magazine

I blame Alex James. The floppy-haired bloke from Blur might have been rubbish at conducting but he's pretty good at making cheese. Chef Mark Hix reckons Blue Monday, a gorgonzola-esque little beauty, is good with pears and walnut. I say it's delicious after dinner with a glass of chilled sweet wine, and I've been eating it a bit too enthusiastically over the Christmas hols.

Now the cheese fest is over and I've got a few pounds to lose. My plan is to follow the Japanese diet. This way of eating works for me because, like Victoria Beckham, I really like the clean, light flavours of Japanese food. Unlike Victoria I can't afford to eat at Nobu everyday. So I'm dusting off my copy of the book Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat.

The writing is a bit saccharine for my taste - "I am drenched in the subtle, sweet and earthy fragrances I've tasted since I was a little girl. The kitchen smells like the earth, the sea and the mountains...it smells like life" - but the advice is practical and easy to follow. In a nutshell, if you eat sensible amounts of brown rice, fruit and veg, fish, soy and green tea, eat until you're 80 per cent full, and build into your everyday routine some do-able exercise (eg walk more, drive less) you'll lose weight. Making time to prepare each meal, presenting everything in small bowls and eating with chopsticks take a bit of getting used to, but it allows you focus on what you're eating and savour every mouthful. After Christmas stodge, eating things like tuna with wasabi noodles and cucumber and wakame salad is just what I fancy. And as I enjoy hunting down interesting ingredients such as black cod and trying new recipes it doesn't feel like hard work.

So what have you been overdoing over Christmas and any tips for losing the muffin top painlessly?

Comments

Andy Lynes

5 January 2009, 4:54PM
Andy Lynes

Incredibly, we still have two panettones,three Xmas puds, a bottle of pink champagne and various boxes of chocolates about the place, so we can't have overdone it too much this year. That said, I did make Alastair Little's panettonne bread and butter pudding and my wife has just used a Terry Chocolate Orange to make a version of Jeannie Rankin's chocolate brownies (the best chocolate brownie recipe ever in my estimation) so we're not completely without sin. My weight loss plan, which is alreay in operation, is to drink less, eat more fruit and walk the dog more.

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Emily

5 January 2009, 5:52PM
Emily

Sadly I have no willpower, which makes dieting an impossible task. I was thinking healthy thoughts of a Thai-style soup for dinner, when someone announced that a Bakewell tart had just come out of the test kitchen...

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Amy

5 January 2009, 6:05PM
Amy

Eat the same. Move more. Works everytime for me, and there's no need to deny yourselves what we all love most! :)

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sioden

6 January 2009, 8:36AM
sioden

I try to cut out snacking on bad foods, and carry on eating all the things I love (in moderation of course!) and as Amy said - move more - it really does work!

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Gillian

6 January 2009, 10:21AM
Gillian

Excellent advice about using chopsticks to slow down the eating process and make it a more zen experience. Except when you can't separate the two wooden chopsticks that you get at a well-know chain and - crossly - end up snapping them into splintery-sharp sticks. Then you use the fork to mop up the noodles very, very fast! Agree the change of pace from English stodge to Eastern delicacy is wonderful at this time of year, though.

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alfie

6 January 2009, 1:12PM
alfie

Drank too much wine (bottle a day easy) and whisky (nice 10 year old Glennorangie lasted 3 nights). Ate more sweets and selection boxes than the kids. Only moved off the sofa to hit the TV/AV button on top of the telly to switch from cable to Bluray as none of my 6 remotes can do that. Plan of action is switch to wine I dont really like, no beer on the train home, Just one portion of whatever is for dinner, play footy 3 times a week instead of 2. Target weight loss 10 lbs in 6 weeks.

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Misti

6 January 2009, 4:20PM
Misti

I couldn't agree more with Amy. The more excercise you do, the less you have to suffer at dinner time. One little dietry change i've found that makes a big bit of difference - especially once you start moving about more - is to eat bigger breakfasts and lunches and smaller dinners. Try to only eat meat, veg and pulses after lunch - so afternoon snacks and evening meal. You can eat as much veg as you like in the evening but if you eat your breads, rices, oats, pastas or whatever at breakfast and lunch you'll find you acually have a smaller appetite at night. Not taking in carbs and sugars (fruit counts as sugar too in this case!) before you sleep means that you're not immediately storing the excess as fat and it also helps teach your body to use the energy you take in better. I've been using this as a guideline - I tend to have one bad meal a fortnight - and doing a bit more cardio and I lost 4kg in 2-3 months and I generally feel much more energetic.

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Misti

6 January 2009, 4:22PM
Misti

sorry, i should clarify: "Try to only eat meat, veg and pulses after lunch" sounds a bit confusing. What I mean is, after lunch the only things you should be eating are meat, veg and pulses. You can, of course, eat meat veg and pulses all day long if you wish!

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christine

6 January 2009, 5:05PM
christine

Misti, 'after lunch the only things you should be eating are meat, veg and pulses'...and a glass of wine or two? Perhaps not Alfie's Christmas consumption, but I need something to warm up these freezing January nights.

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Belit

6 January 2009, 5:30PM
Belit

My top tip is to never buy big packs of biscuits, icecream, chocolate and suchlike to keep handy in the cupboard. Instead, whenever the craving must be met, leave the house (walking or biking perhaps?!) and treat yourself to one serving of luxury cake/icecream/sweets/whatever it is you want, from a really good supplier. This should limit total sugar intake AND make your taste snobbish enough to reject cheap and abundant snacks!

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littleveghead

8 January 2009, 12:50AM
littleveghead

At this time of year, I love nothing more than a big pot of vegetable soup. I puree some of the veggies to make it thicker and serve it over small pasta shells (or rice! see below) with some good grating cheese on top. With that, a bitter green salad with orange slices and a tangy/tart homemade olive oil/balsamic vinegar dressing, and a great loaf of warm crusty bread for dipping in both the soup and the salad! Pudding might be a sorbet, or maybe some rice pudding made with the leftover rice from the soup.

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Jenni

12 January 2009, 3:03PM
Jenni

Someone from 'a famous dieting organisation' once told me that they don't get an influx of people who've suddenly resolved to lose weight in the New Year because they want to eat up all their Christmas chocolates and cakes and consequently don't sign up until the middle of February! I don't know if that's still the case, it was quite a long time ago.

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christine

12 January 2009, 7:35PM
christine

The olive office is awash with chocolate at the moment as we are working on our Easter issue....but chocolate and chopsticks are not happy bedfellows so I'm doing my best to stay on the Japanese path. One week on and I feel a little lighter and still enjoying plenty of fish, veg and noodles.

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becky

13 January 2009, 1:08PM
becky

This year i have decided to make a healthy change having been one to eat nothing or everything I am now having the set three meals a day, having fish and a vege meal plus one new dish every week and walking more the weight seems to be dropping off, I will still have the odd glass/bottle of wine to counter balance this I put my head phones in and jump round like a mad woman for 1/2 loving the new year !!

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