scampicat

I have just lost almost three stone, I started with Weightwatchers in July in the UK but am now continuing on my own. It is basically a low-fat (but not zero-fat) diet supplemented by exercise (in my case in the form of walking).

Since I started I have not had a week where I have put on any weight, although some weeks I have stayed the same if I have drunk more red wine than I should, for example.

As our WW leader in the UK said, if all you lose is 1/2lb a week, then that is nearly two stone by the end of the year. Slowly but surely is the key.

The thing i swith WW, it is about eating ordinary food, just controlling the portion sizes and in some cases preparing the food differently (dry- or spray-fry instead of deep-fry for example) and you can continue to eat that way for the rest of your life. It's about re-education.

I have had to accept that I will never be able to drown my salad in olive oil the way my husband does (at 62 he still weighs the same as he did forty years ago), nor eat tons of things like chorizo and biscuits like he does. He is the main cook and is very supportive and cooks me lovely low-fat meals. If we have for example spag bol, he will dish them both up and then pour oil on his portion, while I have mine plain. Last night he had a whole chocolate bar while I had one tiny square (yum!).

I have had to accept that I do put on weight easier than he does and have adjusted my eating accordingly.

So basically you have to do what is necesary for you, whilst maintaining a balanced diet, but in the end it boils down to calorie intake and exercise.

bil

Well, your weight plateaus under a number of factors. It balances input against output, and output changes with age, and fitness, and weight. It's all about the load on the system.

If you have the time and the energy to work hard and exercise hard, that's great, but it isn't for everyone.

You also have to accept that you have to eat a reduced diet, and that is going to vary for different people too.

JLFS

if you read my post properly, you will see that I did not say everything is fried, I said most things are fried.

And as for where I have been eating that is of no relevance because it is well known that Gallegos love their fried stuff.

Granted the portions are huge.

Raxo, zorza, both fried, and fried red peppers more often than not, also come with little fried potatoes, what is called asados like potatoes are not roasted as in the oven, but left bigger and cooked on the ring in oil, which makes it more or less fried.

Even the healtheir options like pinientos de pardon are fried. Cod with cauliflower and green beans with ham, in themselves healthy meals, but then the refrito is added so it becomes a high fat/calorie meal.

The various fish dishes that are served in sauce are nealy always coated and fried before being baked in the suace......so again fatty.

So I could ask you where have you been eating?????

goaty

Yes there is fried food, but I disagree that most things are fried.
I eat at my in-laws who are Galician so we eat all types of food, from meat dishes to seafood, caldos, stews, not much of it fried though. Do you actually eat at gallegos houses or are you speaking about eating out?

Lynn R

Very good advice, Scampicat - and the key is that you have continued your new way of eating rather than regarding a 'diet' as a short term fix plus taking some exercise,.

The Weight Watchers diet is a good one as you eat a balanced combination of all the necessary food groups, rather than the gimmicky ones encouraging you to eat only one kind of food at a time or the very low calorie meal replacement ones. Nobody is going to be able to stick to those kinds of diets for very long, nor would it be safe to do so and that is why people pile the weight back on once they abandon these diets.

For myself, I never worried about my weight until I hit my'30s, but I am a self-confessed greedy pig and then noticed the pounds creeping on. I did the Rosemary Conley Hip & Thigh Diet, a low fat but not zero fat like you say about Weight Watchers, and it worked fine for me. I never felt hungry on that diet which was amazing for someone with a prodigious appetite like mine, and after I had lost the amount I wanted to, I have carried on eating in broadly the same way for the next 20-odd years. I never bother about whether what I eat when I go out to a restaurant or someone's house for dinner is fattening or not, nor when I am on holiday, as I can't stand eating with people who are ordering stuff like a green salad, hold the dressing, but I am more careful when eating at home.

JLFS

I am Gallego.

cricketman

Most Spanish food is fried, no matter which part of the country it comes from. Even meat cooked in the oven may be seared first on a pan.

I have no idea why people think fried = bad though. Maybe because it dreams up images of all day English breakfasts and battered marsbars in the English language

Most of the stuff that is fried in Spain is done in just a tablespoon of delicious (and good for you) olive oil. With fish and meat you dont need to put hardly any olive oil on as they have their own oils/fat.

The advantage of frying is that the food doesnt dry out which happens so often with oven cooking which means things become overcooked and tasteless - and you need to put sauces on things in order to give them taste!

jimenato

I think there must be a difference between what the Spanish eat at home and what is generally available in Spanish restaurants. The shops are full of wonderful vegetables but you rarely see them in a restaurant - so I guess they must all be eaten at home. Around here (rural inland Cadiz/Malaga border) much of the food available in restaurants is fried (often deep fried) and served almost exclusively with chips. True you get a salad with it but I am wondering where all the cauli's, cabbages, leeks, carrots, broccoli and the like get to.

cricketman

Hmm, thats strange, I've been to some good ventas near you (near Olvera and the "ruta verde") and I'm sure I've eaten some salads.

Plus I've had berengenas, paellas, cocidos, lentejas etc etc full of vegetables.

In a good up-market Spanish restaurant they will hardly even serve chips (seen as rather common and cheap). While at a venta or asador they most often will, just depends where you go.

angiescarr

They go into the two dishes they make. The brown one and the red one

Lynn R

I'm not overly impressed by the food on offer in most of the restaurants around where I live in the Axarquia (although to be fair we are limited in our choice as my OH is vegetarian and won't go out for a meal only to eat tortilla de patatas or a salad sin atun).

However, I now find Malaga city centre much better than it was only 5 years ago, there are a number of more modern restaurants which have opened offering 'cocina creativa'. I had a good menu del dia in a restaurant called Sacacorchas last week - starter of salad with smoked salmon and mozarella with a really nice dressing, main course of risotto with salmon, prawns and asparagus, and a torta with pinenuts, served with ice cream, for dessert. It was 12.50€ without drinks but I thought it was worth it - and I didn't need to eat any more that day!

Pomelo on Calle Alamos is also good, and I read recently that Terra Sana have opened a new restaurant just off Plaza de la Merced, don't know exactly where. We have eaten in their cafe in the Larios Centre and enjoyed it, they do both vegetarian and meat dishes.

angiescarr

I empathise with you Lynn. I'm in the same position. I eat everything. But OH is strict Lacto ovo vegetarian. On top of that he can't bear anything cold made with garlic... or revuelto which he has renamed Revolto.

Lynn R

If I could change one thing about my OH, that would be it. He is strict Lacto ovo vegetarian as well, and will even complain in supermarkets if vegetarian items are on trays next to ones containing meat or fish on deli counters! I pretend I don't know him.

As I wasn't with him last week it was a real treat to be able to walk into a restaurant without bothering about whether there was anything vegetarian on the menu or not (there wasn't!).

bil

Oh boy, gonna have to ask.

I presume your respective partners refuse to eat products from farms that shoot rabbits and so on?

bil

Just bought 3 packs of peanuts, 250g a pack for 2 euros.

peanuts are 650 calories per 100g, so that is 650 x 7.5 = 4875 which is almost 2,500 calories a euro, a whole day's worth for a frigging euro.

Frightening, isn't it?