Creating the change!

How could I change my diet and be able to stick to it for as long as needed to lose the needed weight? I felt it would take many years. And the risk of getting tired and give up would be great if putting on too much pressure or trying to do something too fast or expecting too fast results even. And also how would I be able to stick to it to not gain again, if ever I would reach my goal?

What did I really need to change? There are so many diets and so many ideas about this. 

Advertisements I could see everywhere about things you can buy to drink and eat and you are supposed to lose weight. Some promise miracles. But does it really work? Anyways I did not have money to buy these expensive miracle cures anyways.  Some join groups to get help and support. It costs money and also you need time. And I didn`t have this possibility either.

I also felt I didn’t want to do something that would feel like a straitjacket since then I would not be able to stick to it over time. That is how my thinking was going. I decided to make up my own way of going about it all. And I tried to just think what do I need to remove to lose weight?

I simply decided I would try to remove all the ingredients I knew myself from the top of my head. It would definitely be sugar. So the first thing I removed was any drink with sugar as well as any food with sugar. It would definitely be fat. So I decided to remove butter. It would definitely be carbohydrates. So I decided to remove potatoes, rice, pasta, and anything with wheat flour.

These ingredients are part of almost anything we eat here in Sweden and even in Norway where I grew up. So it is all very much part of my food culture. And the Scandinavian food I did see as quite healthy really. Also I have always made food from scratch, so I was not into fast food or junk food.

Removing these things, what could I than eat?

I did not want to go around feeling hungry since I knew anybody would get tired after a while and give up.

I did want to make sure I got all the nutrients I needed. And how would I be able to get that with removing so many dishes really that I was used to eating, if I would remove these ingredients.

What could I replace with instead and get all needed nutrients and still lose weight. I really needed to study. So I was reading about what does the body use to make us going? It is carbs the body burns as fuel. So when I was overweight and I added more carbs with my food, I would burn the carbs I had eaten, but not lose weight. Since I would just burn the newly added, but not the one´s stored. And if the body didn´t need all the carbs it would be stored! So the goal was to use the stored one´s as fuel and burn those, still be able to eat and feel good and not go around hungry!

Last fall I had experimented a little with Vietnamese dishes. It started with me looking for receipts for Mooncakes for the Moonfestival celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese in September. And I found an interest in Vietnamese dishes. Also I have been in China working and know how healthy the food there is.

So I started to think about these cuisines that we just normally really go to Asien restaurants to enjoy. And it seems all hard and “foreign” to make for oneself. Also I was used to thinking of it as expensive, due to the fact it was restaurant food, and I simply couldn´t afford that lifestyle either.

I also started to study different foodstuffs to see what nutrients they really have and how to combine ingredients that would give all I needed and still at the same time make me lose weight. What foodstuffs had the least carbohydrates for instance?

Salad is of course a safe thing if you want to eat both healthy and lose weight. But I knew I will not like to only eat a cold salad every day for years!

I will write a little along the way what I have learnt. For now I will start with one dish that I have used a lot.

The thing I could see about Asian and Vietnamese food was that it was almost all vegetables, however prepared as hot meals. So I decided to try some Vietnamese receipt and make them at home.

For now I will give you one of the first dishes I made and that I have used a lot!

Vietnamese Springrolls

http://ohemmabjorg.blogspot.se/2012/11/vietnamese-vegetarian-spring-rolls.html