This is a true story about myself which I want to share with you. I am just a simple housewife and mother of two sons. My husband has been diabetic for the last 20 years and as soon as he was diagnosed, I radically changed my way of cooking. Needless to say, like most people today, everyone in my family loves to eat all the foods that most harm our bodies, like fried potatoes, bacon, ham, thick creamy cheeses, salty foods and chocolate and cream desserts.
But 20 years ago, when my second son was just two months old, my husband was diagnosed with diabetes, which he inherited from both his parents. Diabetes! I vaguely knew what it was, and since nobody in my circle of family and friends suffered from it, I never really interested myself in this illness. But I immediately went to the nearest bookshop and bought two books on diabetes and read them from cover to cover. I gathered that apart from the medical condition of your pancreas not producing enough of insulin, the main cause that can trigger diabetes is your diet and stress. My husband is Italian and while everyone knows that Italian food is considered one of the best Mediterranean diets, I noted that the average Italian eats way too much pasta (150g) at lunch and then again at dinner. They also eat very few vegetables, and the meats are always cooked with too much butter, soup cubes and salt. I lived in Italy for ten years, and have eaten with friends and family hundreds of times, apart from all the other hundreds of times we ate out at restaurants. Who doesn’t in Italy? The books set out a drastic diet where I was obliged to count and weigh every food. My older son was two and a half years old and my younger son just two months old. My husband worked very long hours and could only help me with the children late in the evenings. With two small children I really could not weigh and cook separately for my husband and the rest of us, so I decided to be sensible and resolve the probem like an educated adult. I decided that all of us in the family were going to eat healthily without drastically changing our diet. My husband had to eat a cholesterol-free diet; my children needed a well-balanced diet full of nourishment, vitamins, calcium, protein and carbohydrates and I personally needed much more energy than I had because I was still lactating my little baby. With all this in mind, I first decided that I was going to cut out completely from my shopping list certain foods like butter, soup cubes, full-fat cheeses, canned foods, cream and the very salty pre-cooked foods like cooked ham and sausages. I am very proud to say that even today after 20 years, I still do not buy these items. Here are the reasons for NOT EATING the above. Canned foods You might ask why canned foods? Being an expert cook and having made tons of conserves myself (bottled gherkins, aubergines, pickles, sauces, jams, etc.) I personally know how much more salt and sugar have to be added to properly conserve food, not counting all the preserving agents that are added by the canning companies to make the foodstuff in the cans last longer on the shelf! Butter To many people it must seem earth-shattering to do without butter and bacon. But I assure you that these two items alone are responsible for thousands of heart attacks, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancers and a host of other life-threatening illnesses. Now I’m not going to talk about polysaturated and monosaturated oils, etc. as for the average housewife and mother they are very difficult to understand. Let us just say that you can do without butter, by substituting low-fat margarines for sandwiches and toast, and olive, corn, colza or soya oil for cooking. At breakfast if you are used to buttering your toast, have an extra helping of jam instead. I use corn, colza or soya oil for cooking and olive oil for grilling or raw in salads. Bacon Bacon must be the No.1 comfort food after chocolate. And even the worst cook on the planet can make his/her food tasty by adding a few rashes of bacon. Believe me, if you need to lose weight, this has definitely got to be the main ingredient to leave out of your kitchen! Who doesn’t like a rasher or two with your eggs every morning? But you have to leave it out. Season your eggs with salt and pepper and add a couple of mushrooms and half a tomato instead. If you have the time a herb omelette is lovely for breakfast, lunch and dinner! The recipe for your pasta sauce asks for panceta or bacon or lard? Use a spoonful of minced meat and basil leaves instead and you’ll have a very tasty sauce. Systematically replace the bacon asked for in recipes with meat or chicken instead. Always keep minced beef, pork, lamb or chicken In your fridge and use them instead of bacon. Your dishes will automatically be tastier without the salt and fat! Soup cubes Yes, I agree that it is so much easier to make a litre of stock with a couple of soup cubes. But take the healthier option and once a week boil some chicken or beef in a large pot. Add some onion, carrot, celery and any other leafy vegetables. Boil for at least 45 minutes. Drain and place in the fridge. You can make several litres like this and use it for the rest of the week for all your soups, sauces and dishes. And use the vegetables and meat in a soup or stew. A more economical way to make stock is to use the leftover bones of a roast chicken or turkey and boil that instead. Or whenever you go to the butchers, ask for some bones. Bones are wonderful for stock as you also boil down the marrow. Also try and throw in a few bones (after washing them first of course) into a soup or stew, and discard them before serving. You will taste the authentic taste of the meat. Full-fat cheeses Oh so tasty! But you can live without them. Buy the half-fat ones instead and use emmental instead of parmesan where grated cheese is called for. In countries where you practically only get cheddar, only buy the low-fat kind, even though they aren’t as tasty as the mature kind. Cooked ham There’s nothing better than a ham sandwich, but instead of cooked ham why not use any of the numerous smoked hams available, or just plain old-fashioned roast beef or roast chicken or turkey? Don’t forget to add tons of fresh lettuce and tomato. Cream Another ingredient that so makes the life of any cook easier. But I have learned that you can cook without it at home and also professionally in a restaurant, and yet ensure tasty dishes. Some of the replacements I use are flour, oats or coconut milk. Conclusion So to continue then, the first thing I did was to cut out all the above foods from our diet but at the same time ensure that we were all eating healthily. Next I decided that it was important to cut down on the quantties of food we were eating, especially my husband. This we did right from breakfast and carried on to lunch, tea and dinner. Please understand we certainly did not fast or deprive ourselves of any nutrition. We only started eating smaller portions. For instance, we only have had half-fat milk for the last 20 years. My husband has a smaller bowl of cereal, and we now only buy corn flakes, bran flakes, wheat cakes and oats, nothing that contains too much salt or sugar. All the sugared kind have far too much sugar and salt added, besides the preserving agents (if you don’t believe me check the ingredients on the box covers). For lunch then if we have pasta, we will only have 60g per person, the sauce is cooked with olive oil, tomatoes, herbs and maybe some minced meat or fish. For our main course we will have a piece of grilled meat or fish with several vegetables. On any one day I will cook three of four different seasonal vegetables. For 4 o’clock tea I usually make a cake using very little sugar and no flour, (yes it is possible to make cakes without flour. Try it!) or else we have a few biscuits with our tea. For dinner again, it is usually meat or fish with lots of vegetables, rice or mashed potatoes. I have not fried potatoes for 20 years and never will again. I sometimes roast them with a little oil and herbs, but never fry them. The husband and his diabetes So I’m sure you now want to know how my husband fared with our new diet. Would you believe it? When he was diagnosed his values were 500, but two months later they slowly came down to a normal 120, which he has kept for the last 20 years. He leads a perfectly normal life, is full of energy and has never had a crisis. He will be on insulin for the rest of his life because of the type of diabetes that he has. But apart from the two shots a day that he has to have, you couldn’t tell that he is diabetic. He eats everything that we eat, but if he has a dessert he will of course have smaller quantities. Sometimes on an occasion he will even have a glass of wine, but that is the limit of his alcohol intake. He is full of energy and very nimble for his 68 years. He often climbs up roofs and trees and can beat any 30-year old. Luckily he is very fond of DIY and is constantly starting a new project-¦ When I think of all the other people we know who are diabetic and who are not doing as well, I am so thankful that my diet worked for my husband. Our two sons grew up to be strong and healthy with no major health problems apart from the normal children’s illnesses like flu and chicken pox. Now to yours truly! I have always been skinny for most of my life, with very thin arms and legs. I take a size 5 (European 35) shoe size. But after my pregnancy and the birth of my first son, I didn’t lose the flab as I was way too tired to exercise because I started lactating my son right from the clinic and only stopped seven and a half months later. By the eighth month I was already pregnant with my second son! There were only 18 months between the births of my two sons and my tummy never went back to normal. Over the years my -˜tummy tire’ grew larger and larger until I had to start wearing a size 16 (European) in trousers. I started to have back problems and found I couldn’t walk elegantly any more but was waddling. The rest of my body was thin as I’ve always been all my life. It was only this large tummy I was carrying that forced me to wear larger sizes in trousers, all of which gave the impression that I was fat! Besides my weight went up to 92kg – I couldn’t believe that the flab around my tummy weighed so much! Last November I decided to buy a resturant as both the boys are now at university. I bought a lovely little chic restaurant in the south of France and we specialize in fresh fish. So as I buy many kinds of fish on a daily basis, my husband and I naturally started eating fish every day for lunch and dinner. I keep the fish very simple and mainly grill them with light seasoning. I still do not use butter or cream, just olive oil. I also continue to cook several vegetables and rice every day. Since 21 November 2007 I have only eaten fish, vegetables and rice every day for lunch and dinner. After a few weeks, I noticed my trousers were a wee bit loose, but thought nothing of it. Christmas and New Year came and went and most of the festivities ended when our sons went back to their respective universities. By the end of January I found that my trousers were getting even looser, so I started wearing belts to keep them up. I was pleased, but thought it was just a phase and that perhaps I had worked too hard over the Christmas season, as we were busier than usual at the restaurant. By March I had lost even more weight around my tummy and I went out and bought a pair of trousers in a smaller size 14. I only bought one pair as I was convinced that it was just a phase. I was eating just the same food as before, fish, vegetables and rice. Sometimes we had pasta instead of rice, but always fish and vegetables. By this time I weighed 84kg. I continued to very slowly and naturally lose weight around my tummy. By May I had to buy trousers two sizes smaller in size 12. This time I bought two pairs of trousers! One can always hope! Life continued and summer began and with it came the many, many tourists. We were even busier than ever. There were tons more varieties of fish available and I had a lot of fun finding the best ways to cook them all. All our clients love the way I cook fish and have often said they have never tasted fish cooked to perfection like I do. I had hardly been open for a few months when my restaurant was cited in several national food and restaurant guides, which is quite a feather in my cap. By the end of summer I had almost lost my -˜tummy tire’, and now two months later, my tummy is flat and I can actually wear clothes that I used to wear before my first son was born! I now weigh 72kg. My husband keeps telling me I now have the figure of a young girl! Young girl indeed! I am 58 years old! So there you have it. The only great change in my life and habits was my diet of fish and vegetables. I am convinced that was the reason for my weight loss. Apart from my diet there have been no other changes. I haven’t undertaken any form of fitness regime and have no time to exercise. And to think I was seriously thinking of having liposuction or a tummy tuck! Thank goodness that idea was put on the back burner when I bought my restaurant! I must have been mad to even think of surgery of any sort, me who has always disliked doctors and medication. I am very proud to say that I have truthfully lost 20kg slowly, naturally and without any medication, surgery or extreme diet or fitness program. So here I have told you my own true story. I hope it will help to give you another alternative if you are planning surgery of any sort. Why not try a simple diet of fish and vegetables first. I know fresh fish can be very expensive, but you can always buy the frozen kind which are more reasonable. Just remember to thaw out a piece of frozen fish thoroughly before grilling it. Mackerel and sardines are much cheaper than the other fish and also contain a lot more omega oils, which are good for you and also good for the memory, so eat a lot of those. While I buy the other fancier fish for our clients, I often buy mackerel and sardines for ourselves. And if you cannot at all afford fish of any kind, why not try eating grilled meat or chicken with vegetables and rice instead. You will not get all the goodness of fish, but meat and chicken are excellent sources of protein, as long as you buy the leaner cuts. Always remove the skin and excess fat off chicken before you cook it. As you may know there are literally thousands of weight loss programs on the internet and elsewhere, all promising you that their program will work. Of course if you do like to exercise and have the time, some of those programs will work wonders for you. But like any doctor will tell you, exercising is not enough and together with a fitness program you will DEFINITELY need to accompany it with a good sensible diet. All the fitness programs in the world will not work if your diet is not good. And I repeat here, your diet is the most important aspect of your well being. Needless to say it should be accompanied with a sensible lifestyle that includes something physical, even if that only means a lot of housework, gardening and some walking. Our bodies do need to burn the calories you feed it, and if these calories are not burned, they will turn into fat cells. So, if like myself, you do not like to exercise then do something else that will keep you fit instead. 1. Vacuum your house daily instead of once a week. 2. Sweep and mop your kitchen and bathroom floors twice instead of once a day. 3. Walk your dog several more times than you do normally. 4. Mow the lawn more often. 5. Plough the earth in your flower beds instead of just weeding them. 6. Wash your car yourself manually. 7. Walk to the shops to buy that carton of milk instead of taking the car. 8. Wash your windows more often – this is a wonderful exercise for the arms. And try walking up stairs instead of taking the elevator – this is a best all-round exercise as told to me by a graduate of West Point. He said that the best exercise was to walk up and down stairs, but never jog on an even road or track as you will end up with a slipped disc. 9. Place crockery and cutlery you use daily in the last shelf of a cupboard at the bottom. That way you will have to bend often to get at them – and work your abdomen. 10. Go out into your garden several times a day and prune or deadhead a plant – this way you get some fresh air into your lungs and you will automatically have a feeling of wellbeing just being outdoors surrounded by green plants and trees. Goodness! After all that hard work you will find you have a great fitness program right there in your home which is free! I wish you well and great success in losing that excess weight naturally. Email me with your stories and questions, I would love to hear from you at ern [at] fastmail [dot] com. If you would like to learn some of my recipes, then why not attend my cooking courses right here in the south of France. [Iona D’Souza is a Chef and Owner of an exclusive fish restaurant in the south of France. Her restaurant has been acclaimed in seven national restaurant guides. Lose weight the natural way
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