When personal & professional collide

A couple of weeks ago I wrote of the gratification of having my approach to healthy menopausal weight loss underpinned by a formal review of the evidence.

Today (actually Sunday as I write this), I’m adding my personal experience to the picture.

Because of an impending hospital procedure, I am currently labouring under some enforced dietary changes. For the last day or so I haven’t been allowed to consume any fibre, & I’m presently on a 24-hour fast.

Lunch yesterday consisted of 2 boiled eggs on a toasted, bog-standard, white bap, and dinner was the innards of a large, baked potato (no skin allowed), & a pot of cottage cheese. Breakfast this morning was 3 scrambled eggs on one of the same (crappy) baps, & I also necked a load of plain Greek yogurt before the fast kicked in.

Apart from being childishly grumpy and bored, I’ve also been flipping starving! Within 2-3 hours of my white/beige meals my tummy is growling and I can’t think of anything but food. I’m craving apples and dates and all the stuff in the fridge that I’m not allowed to eat.

If I ever doubted that fibre is the answer to most of our health woes, the last 36 hours have proved to me beyond doubt that it’s borderline impossible to stop food noise without it.

Certain influencers would probably describe me as a ‘volume eater’, & it’s true that I do eat A LOT.

This morning’s eggs, which sat very tidying on top of their toasted nest, would usually be an embarrassingly large, messy pile of eggs, adulterated with chard, (maybe) onions & peppers, mushrooms, spices, some herbs if they’re in the fridge. This would be barely contained on the plate and the base of seeded/nutty bread would be utterly buried. Crucially, the whole thing would be delicious.

Not surprisingly this would keep me full for long hours and the veggies would have barely made a dent in my daily calorie intake.

We know that protein is central to satiety and healthy weight management, but removing fibre from the picture and relying solely on protein, or thinking that fibre is secondary, makes life so much harder - & much less interesting too.

I’ve always had women on my course MenoMelt comment how their food noise has stopped &/or they’ve realised that they’re not carb junkies after all. Most of that has been because of an increase in fibre intake.

We also know that introducing or increasing fibre is an important element of lifestyle change when we’re taking weight loss meds, and successful weight maintenance post-meds. Fibre keeps us full and triggers release of satiety signals. It shuts off food noise.

I’ve long known of the need for fibre in a healthy diet.

I have long enjoyed how eating a lot of fibre via vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, etc makes me feel.

But this is the first time that I have physically felt its LACK from my diet, & physically felt how excluding fibre can very easily lead to overconsumption of the items that DO make a large dent in our calorie intake, and can readily lead to unwanted weight gain.

Whether you work with me or not; whether you’re trying to lose weight or not; for whatever your health objective, make fibre your friend. It won’t let you down!

If you would like practical help with dietary change, a free 30 minutes in my diary is always yours to grab.