I have lost weight during the lockdown, a significant amount as well. That’s in spite of the (slightly, possibly) increased wine intake and several excess skinny margaritas (they might be skinny, they’re still margaritas at a hundred-odd cal. per cocktail). It demonstrates quite forcibly how much obesity is owed to eating out; NB I have not been getting any takeaways either.
When you cook, you know exactly what you put in the pot; when you eat out there is always the danger that a/ restaurant food will be tastier than yours so you’ll eat more than should be your fill, b/ you’ll be tempted by a pudding or c/ there are malicious restaurant gremlins that pack your food full of extra calories.
So once I’d noticed the weight loss I was encouraged to keep it up which is the best motivation in the world. Happily we are in season for close-to-zero calories strawberries, asparagus, new spring cabbage and new season carrots so it’s easier to subsist on salads than in the bleak midwinter. Raw asparagus salad or zingy raw carrots can be made often for lunch or side; meat can be just an add-on like in the crispy pork and beans salad, and fish grilled whole or pan fried in fillets.
If you fancy chicken Milanese one day this week, hold the mushroom risotto and have it as a separate meal on another day. Spring cabbage and prawn Vietnamese salad comes with rice but only a little at the bottom of the bowl. Instead of bread, bake some seed crackers or rye crispbread this week. And if you crave sweets, have them for breakfast in the form of semolina porridge.
Skip cake if you’re diet-conscious but one sable biscuit with cocoa nibs at a time won’t hurt; likewise one jewelled cookie. We have to have something to cheer us up these days after all, don’t we? Stay safe!