You Can Be Thin: The Ultimate Programme to End Dieting... Forever (20 page)

Another reason to avoid fast food is that the incidence of diabetes is rising in the West and its rise is linked to eating fast food. A new medical study shows that eating in fast food restaurants more than twice a week increases the risk of diabetes because it increases insulin resistance. Syndrome X, a pre-diabetic condition that leaves sufferers feeling lethargic and generally unwell, is also rising dramatically. Syndrome X happens when blood cells become overrun with sugars and can no longer burn off enough of the sugar, so it becomes stored as fat instead. Fast food is full of sugar and it’s easy to eat too much sugar as it doesn’t fill us up.

The message about the damaging effects of fast food is finally hitting home because many fast food restaurants are trying to reverse some of their negative publicity by promoting salads. However, some McDonald’s salads are loaded with sugar and fat in the dressings and are just as high in calories as a burger. It’s also worth noting that Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream had triple bypass surgery at the age of forty-three. The founder of Baskin Robbins had diabetes at an early age while his brother who worked alongside him in the ice cream industry died of a heart attack at sixty.

Try a different kind of fast food. Some of my favourite dishes are cooked fast; scrambled eggs, omelettes, stir-fried vegetables, seared tuna, grilled fish, stir fried chicken or turkey fillets are all dishes that can be cooked in minutes but they are healthy and will not lead to weight gain.

You have to take this eating plan seriously. Saying, ‘Oh they only had pizza so I had no choice but to eat it’ is an excuse. A vegan or Muslim would never say, ‘I had to eat the pork, it was all that was available and I didn’t want to hurt their feelings’. Nuts, fruit and seeds are nature’s portable food. I always carry unsalted almonds, pumpkin seeds and fruit when I am travelling. J Lo or Madonna would never eat cake because nothing else was available. They put themselves first and make sure what they want is available. When Princess Diana visited everyday people in their homes she would have a member of her staff call them in advance to let them know that she liked to be served bananas, pears and black coffee. This was food that she liked, that was inexpensive and always available so her hosts could always provide it without anyone feeling embarrassed. She also ensured that her staff always carried some healthy food that she could eat and would not eat cakes or pastries just because they were offered. She was frequently given homemade cakes and boxes of chocolates by people who had gone to a lot of effort to make them for her and she always accepted them very graciously saying that she would have them later or save them for her boys or ladies in waiting. You don’t need to be a princess to do the same thing, you can graciously accept food that is offered but you don’t have to eat it and you can graciously decline it.

You must make your needs more important than those of your host. Your need to be slim, healthy and live a long life has to be more important than your need to please someone else. Some of my clients can’t even ask a waiter they don’t know and will never see again to prepare their food differently. Those in the food service industry will accommodate your needs if you ask them nicely and appreciate their efforts. At other people’s homes as long as you refuse food graciously and ask for something simple like some eggs or even offer something you have with you nobody will mind. Eat like a star, like a celebrity. Movie stars and athletes have no problem requesting special food because they know they are worth it, that they will get it and it is important to them. Making it important is the same belief that allows people with allergies or religious needs to ask for different food. Do you think Brad Pitt or David Beckham can’t ask for special food? Celebrities are not embarrassed about being different in fact they like being different, they know they are worth it. You are worth it too.

Wheat flour does not agree with me but I don’t tell anyone it makes me gain weight like a sumo wrestler because I always get back comments like, ‘Oh one little bit won’t hurt’ or, ‘You could do with gaining weight’ or, ‘Well go on a diet tomorrow I made it especially’ or, ‘Just taste it, have a little to please me’, ‘This is organic healthy flour you will like it’. When you say, ‘Wheat makes me ill and gives me chronic headaches’ you will get a much more sympathetic reaction. No one is going to reply, ‘So what, just stay in bed all day tomorrow and take medication’ or, ‘I have some painkillers in the bathroom why don’t you have some for later’. If you said I have a dangerous reaction to nuts you will not hear back ‘Oh go on, it’s only one, who cares if you go into anaphylactic shock later?’

As a Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Sikh or Rastafarian you would refuse certain foods because of your religious beliefs and your needs would be respected and accommodated, likewise as a vegetarian or a diabetic. But if you feel uncomfortable refusing food because you are on a programme to shed weight I totally understand that it can feel awkward making special requests and being selective about what you will or won’t eat. The easiest solution is to just say, ‘It does not agree with me and makes me really unwell’. You will be telling the truth, if you are overweight or have had a lifelong issue with weight I would put money on the fact that the wrong foods are part if not all of the cause. Always remind yourself of how important you are.

One of the major contributory factors to gaining weight is that people eat on the run, they snack all the time. Over 50 per cent of the calories in our diets come from snack food and junk food. My own research found that people break their diets when they are too tired to wait to eat so they grab sugary snacks or the nearest available food or anything to boost their flagging energy. When people are on the move or out and about and don’t have access to the foods on their exclusion or restriction diet they will eat anything. Not you though, you will break the vicious circle of being tired from eating indigestible nutritionally empty food when you have the right foods available to you all the time. Having portable food with you will smash the negative pattern and free you from the vicious cycle while giving you the energy to live your life. You must get into the habit of having some of the right food with you and once you start to do this it becomes second nature.

When my daughter was a baby I would never have left the house without my baby bag that contained food and drinks for her. I could not stop at a garage and buy her a snack so I took the things she needed with me everywhere I went. All mothers do this – go to any park and you will see them unpacking food for the baby and snacks for the toddlers. It would be inconceivable not to do that and because it’s necessary it simply becomes part of a mother’s routine. Get into the same routine of carrying some foods for you, simple portable things like fruit and nuts. I have clients who even carry a snack and a bottle of water for their dog but think it is too much work to carry food for themselves.

One in four people visiting their doctor report being tired all the time and this is mostly caused by a poor diet or the wrong diet for that person. Diet books promote eating three healthy meals a day around the table and while this is a wonderful ideal it just is not going to happen for everyone. I have clients who never cook and instead they only ever heat food up or buy ready meals and take outs. The amount of convenience food on sale nowadays shows what a burgeoning market it has become and how the number of people who don’t cook has increased. People working ten to fourteen hours a day are not going to start preparing and cooking food unless it is quick. Indeed, recent studies show that a third of Britons never cook at all. Rather than insisting on a total change, this book works with your way of life. This section will show you how to snack and still lose weight and stay healthy by eating instant healthy food. My clients love my advice on portable foods and what food items to have in your fridge, pantry and freezer. We need to get into a lifelong habit of having the right food in our car, bag, office, desk, locker or travel bag etc., as well as having the right food at home. They all tell me this was life changing for them. Having the right food to hand, having the right food at home, having it in bulk and having healthy food they could prepare in minutes. We assume people know how to eat and how to shop when in fact they often don’t, hence a resulting weight problem. Guidelines are very useful in resolving weight issues but they need to be suited to your life on a long-term basis, which is why diets work for a limited time only and are too restricting to stay with long term.

So, if you want to keep the weight off and look and feel fabulous you need to buy portable food and always have it to hand. Make sure you bulk buy raw (unsalted and unsmoked) almonds and tins of ring-pull tuna, crab, salmon, sardines and mackerel. When you are rushing out of the door it’s so easy to grab a can of fish, some cherry tomatoes, an avocado and some fruit and nuts and you have something very healthy and sustaining to eat. It may not be the best food you have ever eaten but if your alternative is prepackaged sandwiches and a packet of crisps you have already made a massive improvement. If you keep nuts and canned fish (you can also buy tuna and salmon in foil pouches) in your car and keep some canned fish, some nuts and seeds, fruit and cartons of soya milk and soya yogurt (long life obviously) in your desk or locker at work you will always have something to eat in an emergency situation.

It’s a good idea to take some foodstuff along these lines when you are travelling. Recently on a flight I wanted to buy something to eat but ended up buying nothing as all the airline had to sell were crisps, chocolates, sandwiches, muffins and fizzy drinks. Trains are not much better, their staple fare is pizza, sandwiches, burgers, biscuits and crisps because there is so much profit to be made selling these foods and they don’t have to worry about their shelf life. As this type of junk food seems to be the norm, it’s much safer to take your own healthy alternatives. I am amazed at how many of my clients say they would be too embarrassed to eat their own food in public but would not be embarrassed to eat jumbo bags of crisps and bars of chocolate even when they are overweight. You can take a Tupperware of chicken or tuna salad on a flight or train but if you are too self conscious some nuts, seeds and fruit will sustain you until you can eat proper food.

I always carry food with me because carrying my own food means I can eat what I want when I want to. If I am out and I get hungry I will buy a packet of prawns or chicken and eat it wherever I am. I have often done this in supermarkets rather than buy chocolate or cakes. It doesn’t look any worse than walking round a store eating crisps, and if you’re worried about any mess then just buy baby wipes for your fingers afterwards. I keep a carrier bag in my car that always has in it some unsalted almonds, some mixed seeds, some foil pouches of fish and a packet of sun-dried tomatoes and some small cartons of rice milk. When I am rushing out of the house and may be gone all day it’s so easy to grab some fruit like an apple, a pear and a banana and maybe an avocado or box of cherry tomatoes and add them to my bag then I know I have enough food to last me all day wherever I am.

I was lecturing in a barn in the middle of nowhere last year and the caterer didn’t show up so the host sent out for pizzas. I was so glad I could make myself something I love to eat from my bag. I hate pizza – it gives me indigestion and makes me want to go to sleep soon after eating it and since I had to lecture all afternoon I needed to be alert. I don’t care about being different – I care much more about looking and feeling healthy and I never make a big deal of it so no one takes much notice at all. I have frequently been in meetings that have overrun so sandwiches are brought in or been on film sets where the host has made a huge bowl of pasta for us or gone to dinner parties where pasta is the only thing on the menu. Because I always have some canned fish in the car I just ask them if I can have that with some nuts or salad. No one has ever minded because I ask nicely and explain that wheat flour makes me ill. Without making a fuss you can say I’m sorry but wheat gives me the most dreadful headaches, it looks so delicious but I can’t risk it so could I have a tin of tuna fish and a bit of salad or some eggs instead? As long as you refuse food graciously and ask for something simple like some eggs or even offer something you have with you it will be fine. At a restaurant you will have some choices. If you are going to a dinner party it is fine to phone ahead to tell your host you cannot eat wheat flour while offering to bring something to eat or share.

I have sat in meetings pulling the bread away from sandwiches and eating only the filling. Vegetarians would pull out the filling if it was meat and eat just the bread and no one really cares. Even in sandwich bars I just ask for a selection of the fillings. In pizza restaurants I do the same, I just enjoy a variety of the toppings. I would much rather feel a little different than be overweight and I’m sure you would too. I have been both and I know a little inconvenience is much easier to live with than being fat. Waiters don’t mind at all as long as you are polite and appreciative. Even if I was in a fish and chip shop I would order just fish and get them to take the batter off the fish or do it myself. I have been able to do this in the most challenging situations like being on the road all week or touring Italy and Cornwall with my family, and it really is easy once you know it’s the right thing for you.

Taking this programme seriously means thinking ahead and preparing. Be your own PA and make sure you have the right foods in your fridge or in your bag. You have to have the correct foods in your fridge and pantry and you have to have the incorrect foods gone. It is no good buying one can of fish and one bag of nuts and seeds. You need to buy ten packets of nuts and seeds and ten cans of fish. I am amazed when I tell my patients how to eat and they say, ‘Well I took your advice and I bought a packet of prawns and some nuts but then I ran out of them so I had to eat the biscuits instead’. Take it seriously and buy your essential items in triplicate so that you never run out of anything.