Congrats! So what’s the change in dietary habits you’ve instigated?
Where do you start?
The easy bit - instant cutting out of fizzy drinks, fruit juices, cakes, biscuits, pastries, trifles etc. No snacks.
The straightforward bit - running down the carbs in the cupboard - potatoes, pasta - I swapped bread (half the slice size) and then cut it out altogether.
The fiddly bit - working out what I need to eat versus what I think I should be eating. For instance - a breakfast of 2 scrambled eggs with 2 rashers bacon. Reducing down to 1 rasher was fine but using only 1 egg? I was starving by lunchtime. Portion control has been the biggest headache. What I thought was an ok portion of soup was actually about 200-300g over. Today I swapped to a smaller bowl size so I can't overshoot. Sometimes I have been stuffed to the point of active pain, other times have got the balance wrong the other way and been crawling the walls ahead of the next meal.
I batch cook and am learning that habits like eating the same dish multiple times a day for 2 or 3 days consecutively, esp if carb heavy, is not the way to go. I now have 2 or three different things on the go over the same period so it is now far more balanced.
In place of the bread with soup or salads, I started using different nuts. I eat fruit - now mostly berries (but sometimes cherries or kiwi) by the handful instead of binging on a large pack during a day - sometimes with full fat greek yoghurt.
Added a lot more fish into the diet, simply prepared.
Trialling existing recipes I use regularly and seeing what happens - eg half portions of basmati rice or spaghetti on days when the other meals are very carb light.
The biggest joy out of all this is being able to use cream and cheese and eat meats with fatty cuts, whereas before this would not have dreamed of it.
In the first few weeks I made myself eat breakfast even if I didn't want any but intermittent fasting is my friend and now happy to miss a meal when I don't need it.
I've literally had 4 cheats in 6 weeks - one onion ring, a chicken strip and 1 gingerbread matchmaker on two separate occasions.
Some of the advice given on this forum has been awesome and such progress would not have been possible without your ideas and suggestions.
