The food we eat ...

10 September

Weight loss does have a few side effects to it you know. Having lost three stone, (42 lbs for the Yanks) I now have loads of lose hanging skin, usually in awkward places where they cause their own type of problems. At least I wasn’t the huge weight that the folks on telly have been before weight loss surgery. That lose skin problem is a heck of a lot worse than mine, but guess what, the NHS won’t par for surgery to remove it. I bet there’s over a stone that could be lost by removing it.

Right now the NHS is spending huge amounts on treating obesity and Type 2 diabetes, and some surgeons are advocating the use of gastro-surgery as a cheaper way of dealing with it. Maybe, but is it worth it if they are left with much skin left over that that it still causes problems, just different ones. The fix to the problem is a not simple, and the answer is just not to throw money at it, well, not just that.

It needs for all of us obese people to stop making excuses, to forget all our previous thoughts, beliefs and lifestyles. We will all need to cut back drastically one what we eat and why eat it. It’s hard work, you will need support, just as I did from Jan. My biggest help though, was to stop the booze, although that wasn’t for health reasons, oh no, I just simply lost the taste for it. Once the weight began to drop, I then made the choice to stay off it.

Next step was cut back on the grazing-type eating. Simple really, but oh not so easy to do. This is where we all need the help and support of everyone, including then food and drinks industries. Their problem is that they are there to make profit. Too do that they had work hard to make things as easy and quickly done as possible for all of us. Most folks these days are always in a rush to get to their next task, and they have so many to do they don’t have the time to set aside for food buying and preparation, let alone sitting and enjoying it.

At that point convenience foods come into their own. How much easier it is to stop off and buy a pizza for lunch, to sit and eat it in the car with a can of coke to wash it down before racing off to their next task. At home a TV dinner is put in the nuker or the oven as they go for a shower and get ready to go out, meet-up with friends and binge out on lots of booze. When the body starts to kick back and rebel, they wonder why.

Oh don’t get me wrong here, I’m a lazy sod by nature, and yes, I been there and done that. I’m one of the many who are now paying the price for being such an idiot years ago. At least I now make and effort in controlling what I eat and drink. However, what should be eat to remain health? There’s a lot of discussion about this these days, and advice is freely available, but hang on … so much of it contradictory. Oh no, it’s not – oh yes, it is – oh no … Well, you know what I mean.

Type 2 diabetics are being advised by some ‘experts’ as to the reduction of, or cutting out of carbohydrates from their diet; think perhaps of the old Atkins Diet. What the use of fat in our diet? For years we have been told to cut back on all fats, especially saturated fats; now we are being told in some places that the problems are told they are not as bad for us as we first thought. Red wine, tea, coffee and oh so many other items we have been warned about in the past, and yet now we told that they may actually be useful to us – in moderation. And that is the key word that so often gets forgotten, or ignored.      

So what do we do then if we want to eat healthily? We use our common sense and buy and eat just what we need, and not what we want, or fancy. How many of us will do it? Will I actually do it now that I am starting to regain weight? Well, I’m going to make a start today, that’s for damned sure!

Today’s photo …

A salad, just how I like it.

Today’s funny …

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Erza.
Erza who?
Erza no hope for me?