Aussie in France

How I lost 20 kilos after 50 – for good – well, almost: Part 7

Where do all those extra kilos come from?

Appetite suppressants anyone? Some natural solutions

Intermittent fasting – for better health and less fat

Dieting, Food, French customs

Appetite Suppressants Anyone? Some Natural Solutions

May 29, 2013 Rosemary Kneipp 15 Comments

I’m not a newspaper-reader or a TV-watcher, but I do listen to the radio in the morning. France-Info is perfect for me because it’s an all-day news station which means that if I tune off (as I tend to do), I get a repeat fifteen minutes later. That way, I know what’s going on in the world – well, almost. They also have cultural and other snippets which is how I learnt about a book called Le Meilleur Médicament, c’est vous, by Doctor Frédéric Saldmann.

Lots of books have been written on being your own best medecine, but what Doctor Saldmann was saying in the interview about diet and sleep immediately struck home. So I downloaded an extract of the book onto my new Kindle Paperwhite (now I can read in the dark) and started reading the chapter on excess weight.

It seems that one person out of three in France is now overweight and that the world statistics are one in five. He goes on to talk about how detrimental excess weight is to our general health. Nothing new there. He then points out, to my dismay, that most people who lose weight put it back on again within two years. Ouch. Then comes the interesting bit: a sub-chapter called Appetite suppressants that combine pleasure and effectiveness. I nearly stopped reading because I definitely do not want to use appetite suppressants.

“There is no secret about it: to lose weight, you have to eat less”, he begins. “The difficulty is therefore reducing our appetite. There are two solutions. Either you accept being hungry for the first few days … or you find ways of gradually getting used to having fewer calories. Here are a few ‘appetite suppressant’ ideas that I’m sure you’ll find useful.” OK, that sounds better.

So what are his suggestions ? The first is 100% dark chocolate which, it seems, is miraculous. I’ve never actually seen 100% chocolate but you can order it on the internet. Studies have shown that people who eat 30 grams of dark chocolate (over 70%) per day show a significant reduction in appetite afterwards. It also seems that people who regularly consume dark chocolate are slimmer than those who don’t! No one has found an explanation yet.

You know, I have already noticed this. The French are the highest consumers of dark chocolate in the world – six times more than other countries – but have only half as many heart attacks as the Americans, for example. I know people who eat dark chocolate every day and are still slim. I had worked out all sorts of theories about how they did it but none of them seemed to apply. Now I know. I’m not sure I should tell Jean Michel this though. He’s one of those chocolate eaters that can’t stop until there is none left.

The next thing on the list is saffron which apparently contributes to feeling satieted. It can be added to rice, vegetables, meal and fish. OK, why not? It definitely seems less dangerous than chocolate!

We’re also supposed to drink lots of water, particularly before and during meals. Dr Saldmann suggests having a large glass of water before starting an apéritif or meal. I am already a large water drinker, so that isn’t going to create a revolution but I’ll try to remember to drink a glass systematically before I start eating or drinking alcohol.

The next suggestion on the list is the most convincing and very easy. If you pause for 5 minutes during a course or between courses, your body has time to register how much you’ve already eaten. This is particularly important before dessert. It seems that many restaurants have realised this and ask you to order your dessert at the beginning of the meal because by the time you’ve finished your main course and your plate has been cleared, you may no longer be hungry enough for anything else!

Salt is definitely to be avoided as it whettens your appetite and he suggests eliminating it altogether. However, chilli and pepper apparently have the opposite effect and improve digestion into the bargain. They also burn fat.

The next on the list is having a dessert for breakfast which apparently keeps you going until lunchtime without feeling the slightest urge to snack. He does say, however, that you should then abstain for dessert at night, replacing it with green tea which will keep you feeling satieted for an extra two hours after the meal.

The last suggestion is to savour every mouthful and make it a moment of pleasure, so you’re not just automatically putting food into your mouth. After all, there’s nothing worse than eating extra calories and putting on weight for something that you don’t even take the time to enjoy!

And, by the way, I’ve lost my first kilo despite two restaurants during the weekend (but no dessert). How about you?

My other posts on weight loss:

How I lost 20 kilos after 50 – for good – well, almost: Part 7

Where do all those extra kilos come from?

Dieting

Where do those extra kilos come from?

May 20, 2013 Rosemary Kneipp 23 Comments

I don’t understand where those extra kilos come from. I don’t even have a sweet tooth! I hate to think what would happen if I did. Between November 2009 and January 2011, I lost 20 kilos. They stayed off for about 18 months, then very slowly, five crept back on. In January this year, I went back to see my nutritionist Dr Séjean and was determined to lose them. I even blogged about it!

But they are still there. The warmer weather has been slow in coming this year with only one advantage – I must just have time to fit back into my summer clothes before we go on holidays. I’m currently pouring myself into two pairs of stretch jeans, having alternated between two pairs of trousers all winter!

It’s Sunday night and we’re driving back from the Basque coast where I had hoped that cycling every day might help, but the weather dictated otherwise. “I can’t even remember what we used to eat before I put that weight back on”, I say to Jean Michel.

“Well”, he says, “you used to serve the meal in the kitchen and take the plates out to the dining room. That way, we couldn’t have seconds.” Ah, I had forgotten about that. With the ongoing renovations on our balcony in Paris, we had started eating in the kitchen to get away from the noise and then I spent quite a lot of time alone in Blois which disrupted my eating habits.

“Then we used to eat more fish”, he adds. That’s definitely true. Half our meals were based on fish and not meat but we haven’t found a good fishmonger in Blois yet. We used to buy fish at the Saint Eustache market every Sunday but we’ve had so many weekends away that the habit has been lost. But we’ll be spending the next three weekends in Paris so we can stock up.

Then there are the apéritifs. Our former diet Indian Tonic and canned button mushrooms or carrot sticks have somehow evolved into white wine and pringles. I groan inwardly. But I prefer white wine and pringles … I debate whether it’s better to give up the apéritif altogether or go back to the diet version. We’ll see.

“And maybe we’ve got back into the habit of having a glass of wine with our meal at night, particularly since we’ve been eating more meat.” Sigh. I like wine. I would love it to be calorie and alcohol-free! But I know that when I eat fish I don’t feel the same inclination to drink wine as I do when I have an entrecôte or côte de veau.

Maybe I could listen to that weight loss hypnosis recording again? It certainly helped the first time. I could listen to the relaxation and sleep ones as well. It’s much easier to lose weight when you’re not tired and stressed.

“And what about exercise?” says Jean Michel. “Are you still using the exercise bike and going power walking?” Hmm, when was the last time I use the exercise bike? And what happened to the power walking? I know what the problem was there – the terrible weather – but it’s getting a bit warmer now and I can use the exercise bike when it rains. It’ll put me in good training for cycling along the Danube in a month’s time.

And there you go, I have one month to lose 5 kilos. Wish me luck!

How I lost 20 kilos after 50 – for good – well, almost: Part 7

Dieting, Restaurants, Spain, Travelling, Wine

Off to Barcelona and one kilo down!

January 16, 2013 Rosemary Kneipp 13 Comments

We’re going to Barcelona for six days on a home exchange in February. I can’t wait. Apart from our trip to Australia in September, we haven’t been out of the country for a whole year. We haven’t even gone anywhere except Paris and Blois during that time which means that I’m travel-starved.

Blois from the cycle path on the banks of the Loire

During the same twelve month period in 2011, we went to Seville, to the south-west of France, to Normandy, to Angers and Loche in the Loire Valley, then on a four-week trip to Croatia in the summer that included 9 countries. After that, we went to “Wet” Champagne, then back to the Loire where we found Closerie Falaiseau. And we spent Christmas in Normandy.

So you can see why I’m so excited. One of the reasons I love living in Paris is its proximity to so many other countries. Over the years, we’ve been to Italy several times and have now started visting Spain. Ah yes, I forgot to mention Madrid in my list. We went there last March on our first home exchange. But it feels so long ago.

Harrap's Spanish method by Michel Thomas — Harrap’s Spanish method by Michel Thomas

Now that we’ve booked the airfares (we’re travelling with Easy Jet for the first time), Relationnel has started reading the guide book. He decides on how we fill our days, acts the tour guide and writes up the travel dairy while I organise accommodation, do the talking, find places to eat, take the photos, write blog posts and occasionally contribute to the diary. So I’d better start listening to my Spanish tapes again. I use Harraps’ Michel Thomas method. It’s a very effective, entirely audio method which exists for other languages as well. You can download ten free lessons to test it.

Our Spanish travel diary waiting for Barcelona!

I’ve checked the temperatures which should be 10 or 12°C during the day and it should be sunny which is fine by me. It’s 3°C and overcast in Paris at the moment. I’m not sure our home exchanger is getting the best deal, though she will have an unhindered view of the Palais Royal gardens. So any advice on places to see (particularly off the beaten track), things to do, tips for avoiding queues and things, and, especially, places to eat, are very welcome.

Le Comptoir de la Gastronomie Paris 1er arrondissement

And while we’re on the subject of eating, how’s the diet going? I’ve managed to lose a kilo this week, despite the galette des rois, an apéritif at Le Meurice (where I stuck to the olives and nuts and ignored the cheesy things), dinner at Le Mesturet (without dessert or café gourmand) and lunch at Le Comptoir de la Gastronomie (duck and café gourmand, I have to confess).

The main things that have changed this week are my greater intake of fresh fish from the market and no afternoon tea. I’ve also had fresh citrus fruit for breakfast as opposed to orange juice. I’ve been having a small portion of carbs at lunchtime and just protein and vegetables at night. Maybe a bit less wine as well. We also finished off our Christmas chocolates in Blois. We weren’t eating a lot, but two with coffee at lunch and dinner every day is definitely too much! The foie gras is finished too. There’s still the Christmas cake, but it’ll last a while yet.

Le Comptoir de la Gourmandise, restaurant and gourmet food store, 34 rue Montmartre, 75001 Paris, 01 42 33 31 32 http://www.comptoirdelagastronomie.com contact@comptoirdelagastronomie.com

Dieting

How I lost 20 kilos after 50, for good – well, almost – part 7

January 10, 2013 Rosemary Kneipp 17 Comments

You’ll be pleased to hear that the balcony renovations are finished and the scaffolding has moved over to the next set of windows. This doesn’t mean there is no noise. The same drilling and hammering is still going on, only it’s not right next to my office and I won’t hear the trade union fellow trying to convert his fellow workers any more. The worst case scenario is four months which means that, theoretically, it will all be gone by the end of April if not before.

But that’s not what I’m going to talk about in this post, though it is related. The subject is actually my unwanted weight gain since last April, which has crept up to an annoying five kilos. The problem is the change in my daily routine. Being part-time in Blois and part-time in Paris and going to Australia for 5 weeks holiday upset the apple cart completely. When in Blois, Relationel – it has to be his fault! – does far more physical work than in Paris so I have to feed him and it’s not always easy not to eat the same things as he does.

Also, when I’m gardening or renovating, I get hungry and don’t necessarily have the time (or energy) to cook or prepare appropriately nutritious food. Not to mention the periods when I was by myself in Blois. I certainly sympathise with people who regularly have to cook for and eat by themselves. Often I just didn’t feel like it. It obviously requires a different strategy when you’re alone.

One of the first things I did when I got back to Paris yesterday was to ring and get an appointment with Doctor Séjean, my nutritionist, who recommends the “four bowl diet” (see previous posts). I was able to see her practically straight away, to my great relief, because I want to get rid of these extra kilos before they set in. She was very pleased to see me after all this time (my last visit was in October 2011) and delighted to learn that I had been including her in my blog.

The first thing she suggested was to concentrate on chewing well to prevent bloating when eating raw vegetables and to eat more slowly, putting your cutlery down after every two mouthfuls. The idea is to pay more attention to the food you’re eating and take pleasure in every bite.

Four-bowl plate: 1 bol salmon, 1 bowl quinoa, 2 bolws of vegetables — Four-bowl plate: 1 bol salmon, 1 bowl quinoa, 2 bowls of cooked vegetables

She then said it would be a good idea to cut out all raw vegetables for the first one or two weeks of the diet and to have fresh citrus fruit rather than fruit juice at breakfast. I wasn’t sure if and when I should be eating carbs. She said to limit my intake to 3 to 6 tablespoons per meal (40 grams of bread) and have them at lunchtime rather than at night. I need one hundred to two hundred grams of protein and 1 to 2 tablespoons maximum of oil or butter at each meal.

But my big question was what to do at afternoon tea time when we’re in Blois and are gardening or renovating. We usually have Gerblé raisin biscuits (when there isn’t any Christmas cake!), which are very compact low-sugar biscuits that are supposed to give you vitality. Sadly, they have to be eliminated and replaced with 5 to 7 walnuts and some protein or fruit.

My new jacket from Un Jour Ailleurs that I’ll be able to wear when I’ve lost 3 kilos

I came out feeling motivated again and stopped in at the store where I bought one of the winter jackets that disappeared with my lost suitcase. I was delighted because they had practically the same model on sale and I was able to buy it because I know it will fit me properly when I’ve lost those extra kilos!

Who’s going to join me in my weight loss? If you have never used Doctor Séjean’s four-bowl diet, you should go back and read my other posts first, because the present diet is aimed at losing weight fairly soon after putting it back on.

Art, Dieting, Food, French customs

A French woman’s secret to staying slim – Saint Malo – Dali’s restrospective at Beaubourg

December 4, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp Leave a comment

In this Wednesday’s bloggers’ round-up, New Zealander Rebecca Russel (now living in Nice), tells us in a post on My French Life how French women manage to stay slim while American blogger in Paris, Sylvia from Finding Noon, who “likes food a lot”, suggests places to find slimming things like crèpes and butter in Saint Malo in Brittany. On an entirely different subject, Pierre from Paris on Demand describes the Dali retrospective at the Pompidou Centre this winter. The last one was at least 33 years ago (I know – I went to it!), so this year’s is not to be missed! Enjoy!

A French woman’s secret to staying slim

by Rebecca Russel, who lives in Nice on the Côte d’Azur, and is the Director of a property search company, Côte Abode. While looking for French Riviera property on behalf of international clients, she also keeps a keen eye on the latest places to eat, shop and simply enjoy visiting.

I was reminded of how French women eat while dining at a restaurant with an American friend recently. Halfway through our meal he noticed that as each course arrived I would methodically divide up the food and set aside a third.

He meanwhile wolfed into snails in garlic butter (well, he did want to try something French), followed by a whole fish encased in crushed almonds and cooked (again) in butter, accompanied by my leftover pureed potatoes with truffle oil. He finished the entire bread basket before the mains had arrived. We followed this up with cheese and dessert. Read more

Saint Malo

by Finding Noon, an American living in Paris who appreciates fine art, good music, succulent food, and breath taking scenery

Two weekends ago we went to Cancale, and I raved about our trip, and it was fantastic, but then life happened and I start writing about more timely stuff, like the Paris Photo Festival, which I really encourage you to go see, which means I got side tracked and didn’t fully finish talking about our trip, which is fine, because, well, do you really care about every little thing we saw and tasted and experienced? I hope not, for your sake! On the other hand, I do like food an awful lot and we had some great meals on this trip that I really want to remember so I can book places for our next trip, so today, I am indulging myself and making a list of my St Malo favorite foods. First, the fish that got away. Read more.

Dali’s retrospective at Beaubourg

by Pierre from Paris on Demand, aimed at helping tourists and Paris lovers to get to know the city of Light under a different perspective, offering news and updates on exhibitions, museums, restaurants, off-the-beaten-track addresses, events and tips to prepare their trip and understand the Parisian way of life.

The Beaubourg Museum will definitely be one of the hot spots in town this winter with the Dali retrospective which will display more than 150 pieces of art by the eccentric artist who was a prolific painter, sculptor and writer.Along with the paintings, visitors will have the opportunity to watch unreleased videos of the artist, TV commercials he directed, photographs…

This exhibition is an unprecedented tribute to the most famous surrealist artist who was a pioneer and an example for future generations.

http://blog.paris-on-demand.com/2012/11/28/dalis-retrospective-at-beaubourg/

Dieting, Food, France, French customs, Paris, Sightseeing, Wine

Can Bacon be a Vegetable? – Free Walking Tours given by Parisian Volunteers – Sipping on Saturday

May 22, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp 2 Comments

Welcome to Wednesday’s other blogs! This week, Bread is Pain talks about the problems of weight gain and loss when living in France, while Kathy Stanford from Femmes Francophiles describes a novel way of getting to know Paris. Gwen Evans, guest posting on Like a Home in Paris, which features vacation apartment rentals in Paris, describes a wine tasting session in the capital. Thank you to my fellow bloggers!

Can Bacon be a Vegetable?

by Bread is Pain

“Mwah! Look at me, I am a big sausage!” I am walking through the room dramatically, landing hard on each of my feet. “Watch out, my fat sausage tread might bring the house down!”

“Quoi?” MB is amused but not sure why.

“What do you mean “quoi”,” I ask. “I’m a sausage person…obviously.”

“I don’t know what this is, a “sausage person”.” Read more

Free Walking Tours given by Parisian Volunteers

by Kathy Stanford at Femmes Francophiles

Always looking for an opportunity to combine practising French and to visit parts of Paris that I have not previously seen in detail I decided to do a walking tour of Paris with ‘Parisien d’un jour – Paris Greeter‘.

Contact is made through their website specifying what language you want to do the tour in, availability and interests. The walks are provided free of charge by volunteers who are all Parisians passionate about their city. You can however make a donation to the association if you wish. Offers for various tours of 2 of 3 hours based on your interests are emailed to you and you choose which one you want. The group is limited to 6 people. Read more.

Sipping on Saturday: French Wine Tasting class with Preston Mohr

by Gwen Evans guest posting on Like Home in Paris

If you are like most American visitors to Paris, one of the big pluses is being able to sample wonderful French wines at very reasonable prices. The downside of that is that it can quite confusing and intimidating when faced with so many choices — many of which are unfamiliar to us from the States. Add to that the fact that a lot of the wine labels have very little if any helpful information, and it’s a bit of a gamble when you are at the store. In my 20 plus trips to Paris I have tried (mostly at random) lots and lots of different wines, both red and white, and have never really had a bad bottle; for between 4 and 10 euros you can get some amazingly good wine. Even the equivalent of “2 buck chuck” here is a whole lot better than the stuff back home. Read more.

Dieting, Food, Lifestyle

How I lost 20 kilos after 50 – for good: Part 6

March 28, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp 15 Comments

This week has been like mid-summer in Paris, yet we’re only just moving into spring! So I’ve been swapping over my wardrobe from winter to summer. Strange, I didn’t realise that extra kilo or two had sneaked in there. My winter clothes weren’t getting tight but I have a couple of pairs of summer trousers that are more closely fitting. I guess I haven’t been exercising as much lately (I haven’t been swimming for a while) and maybe the trip to Madrid didn’t help either!

So what to do? One of the most important things when you lose weight is to make sure that you nip any subsequent weight gain in the bud immediately. Thinking “well, I’ll just wear some looser clothes for a bit and it’ll come off all by itself” is courting danger! You need to apply the “200 grammes of protein at each meal and no carbs” rule for a day or two. If you’ve only gained a kilo, it should come off pretty quickly. You should then continue the 200 g protein day once week until your weight is stabilised again. It’s even a good idea to do it regularly.

If that extra kilo or so turns out to be a bit more stubborn though, you could start writing down what you eat again as I explained in Part 2. Either you’ll automatically adjust your eating pattern or you’ll be able to see where the extras are coming from. You can also cut out wheat-based products for a couple of weeks. That should be the trick! If it doesn’t, you’ll need to analyse what’s really going on.

Maybe that snack-reflex has come back again recently for some reason – a new source of stress or extra fatigue in your life. Each time you see yourself wandering towards the kitchen, stop, turn around and go into the living room. Sit down, close your eyes and imagine yourself on a beach or in a forest. Breathe deeply and relax. Then go back to what you were doing before you felt like snacking. At mealtime, remember to serve food in the kitchen and take it to the table so you won’t be tempted to seconds.

It usually takes a month to get rid of a habit so you may have to persist a little. You might need to start listening to your hypnosis tapes again too. And if you’ve kept any of your “bigger” clothes “just in case”, it’s probably the moment to get rid of them altogether!

The Natural Skinnies and Us
How I lost 20 kilos after 50, for good – Part I
How I lost 20 kilos after 50, for good – Part 2
How I lost 20 kilos after 50, for good – Part 3
How I lost 20 kilos after 50, for good – Part 4

Dieting, Food, Italy, Lifestyle

How I lost 20 kilos after 50, for good – Part 5

March 14, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp 19 Comments

fraussie_pre_diet — In October, just before I started the diet (I didn't know I was in the photo!)

A month ago, I talked to you about my discovery of the benefits of fish for which I have gradually developed a real liking and which have certainly helped me lose weight and keep it off. Christmas was also approaching and I was a bit concerned about a backslide. As it turned out, I needn’t have worried. I was able to enjoy a couple of côtes de boeuf and lamb chops cooked in the open fire, foie gras, Rozan chocolates from the Pyrenees (my favourites), wine at night and other goodies and still lose 1 ½ kilos by mid-January. I could gradually see the centimetres coming off as well.

The clothing situation when you’re losing weight is a bit tricky unless you have an unlimited clothes budget. Fortunately I had kept a few things from the next two sizes down so the first winter wasn’t too much of a problem. As spring came, I was a little short though but determined not to buy too many clothes that I would only wear for a brief period. In seven months, between mid-October and mid-May, I lost 12 kilos and it was beginning to show!

fraussie_italy — In Italy, after losing 12 kilos

For the first few months, only my family and close friends had really noticed anything, but I can remember going to a get-together at the university in May wearing a new outfit I had splurged on after my last appointment with Doctor Séjean. I suddenly had women swarming around me, telling me how great I looked and asking me how I’d done it. They, too, had been told that after 50, it was pointless even trying to lose weight. That was probably the greatest kick I got out of my diet and was enough to keep me going while I lost the next 8 kilos!

With the warmer weather, I had started cycling again but probably the most effective move was to go back to the swimming pool. I now felt that I could face up to seeing myself in a swimsuit again. I decided to take things slowly and convinced Relationnel into going with me on Saturday or Sunday. Once I was doing 15 x 50 metre laps, I started going a second time during the week by myself. I gradually worked up to 30 laps, which is what I used to do many years ago, but I was much slower than before (age maybe?). In the end, I decided to go back to 20 laps because I was also getting too tired. Doctor Séjean regularly prescribed blood tests and gave me magnesium, vitamin B6 and vitamin D supplements accordingly.

Very soon after, we went to Italy for a month, moving around quite a lot. Doctor Séjean had told me just to take it easy, eat as much fish and vegetables as possible and pasta too if I wanted because it’s made with durum wheat which is easier to digest than fresh bread. We were mainly staying in B&Bs, with a week in an apartment on the Bay of Naples and the weather was very nice so we tried to only have one meal out a day. The rest of the time we bought picnic food from the markets or local shops, mostly salad vegetables, raw fish and cold meats. We had a glass or two of wine with our meals as well.

I guess we were getting a lot of exercise from walking but I was surprised when I came home to discover I was the same weight as when I left. In Italy, it’s quite easy to get vegetables in restaurants, particularly grilled zucchinis, eggplant and capsicums. One of the main things I had noticed after a few of months of dieting was that I no longer wanted carbs with each meal so I usually only had them once a day.

By then, any desire to binge or snack had totally disppeared!

If you enjoyed this post, you might like to read

How I lost 20 kilos after 50, for good – Part 6

Dieting, Food, Lifestyle

How I lost 20 kilos after 50, for good – Part 4

February 7, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp 21 Comments

Two weeks ago, in part 2, I told you about my visit to Dr Séjean, a touchy-feely encouraging nutritionist from Martinique. She basically told me to cut out all wheat-based products for three weeks and divide my plate into four: ½ protein, ½ carbs (the contents of a Chinese bowl) and ½ cooked vegetables (cooking and storage tips in part 3). The result was astonishing. I’d lost 2 ½ kilos and 4 cm from my waist and tummy! She’d also told me to note down everything I ate. Of course, this in itself caused me to modify my diet. What’s more, it hadn’t seemed difficult at all because there wasn’t anything I wasn’t allowed to eat (apart from wheat). I could still have côte de boeuf and oysters on Sunday.

Many of you have talked to me about your weight problems since the last post and one of the main concerns seems to be binge eating. Once I started the diet, I no longer had a problem with that, but as I explained in part 1, I had been listening to hypnosis tapes for a few months and I’m sure they were extremely effective. However, it does seem that making sure you get enough protein, particularly at breakfast, can definitely help.

There are various ways to combat the urge to binge. First, you need to analyse what’s causing the problem. Most people binge from stress so you need to find a way to destress yourself. Relaxation cassettes, yoga, exercise, cycling, soaking in a hot bath, having a shower, going on a buying spree, having a cup of tea – there are all sorts of things you can do instead of eating. It takes one month to change a habit, Leonardo tells me, so if you can get past that first month, you’re halfway there. One method that I had found useful in the past was to go and sit in a comfortable chair if I felt the urge to raid the fridge. I’d close my eyes and breathe deeply, thinking zen thoughts. After a few minutes, the urge would disappear. Most of the time.

And one thing to remember – it’s not because you binged one day that all is lost. If you really want to lose weight and not put it back on, you have to be nice to yourself. OK, so today you ate all those biscuits or foie gras or whatever. But tomorrow’s another day. In fact, tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life! Pretty good, huh? It means you can always begin again.

coquilles_saint_jacques — Coquilles Saint Jacques

Doctor Séjean looked at the list of what I’d eaten during the previous two weeks and noticed that I didn’t eat much fish. What I like is seafood (especially oysters on Sunda and coquilles Saint Jacques), reef fish and salmon, not those insipid white fish you find in France. If you have to add beurre nantais, there doesn’t seem to be much point in eating bar (bass) instead of entrecôte. However, I had tasted raw fish in the form of capaccio in Venise the year before and figured I could give it ago.

I soon discovered that most fish is overcooked, particularly in restaurants and that when it’s raw, it’s delicious. Also, it doesn’t smell out the kitchen. I’d ask the fishmonger on the market each week for the freshest fish and had soon tasted practically everything tartare, sprinkled with a bit of lemon and olive oil. And after about a year, I started liking it lightly cooked as well. Now we buy different types of fish on the market on Sunday that we eat at each lunch and dinner until Tuesday night. I mainly like mackerel, limande (lemon-sole), rouget (red mullet), carrelet (plaice), lotte (monk-fish) and turbot, and I dislike colin (hake) and cabillaud (cod). I prefer bar (bass), dorade (sea-bream) and tuna uncooked. I deep-freeze fresh salmon and defreeze it and cook it in the microwave. It’s really easy and delicious when it’s not overcooked. So I guess that I now eat fish at about half my meals.

But Christmas was coming up and I was a bit worried about putting back on my newly-lost kilos. Dr Séjean told me not to worry, that I should just make sure that if I drank alcohol, I always ate something with it. That was a surprise but she explained that the food absorbs the sugar whereas if you just have a glass of wine by itself, you store the calories immediately. She said that if I ate foie gras (as if I wouldn’t!) I should have it with toasted bread and, generally speaking, if I was going to have bread, I should have it toasted whenever possible because that way, it doesn’t have a bloating effect.

aperitif_mushrooms — Wild mushrooms on toast for apéritif

We were planning a few côtes de boeuf of course but she advised me to eat them with vegetables and not just potatoes, for example. She reminded me not to forget the carbs and said I could re-introduce wheat-based foods after another week. But in the meantime, I’d got used to eating quinoa and polenta so I wasn’t really missing the wheat very much except for home-made fresh bread. Another thing she told me is that I should have at least 2 tablespoons of oil a day.

Having recharged my batteries, I took another appointment for a month later. Watch out for Part 5 and let me know how it’s going!

Polenta recipe

Polenta is really simple to make. You boil 2 cups of water in a saucepan then add 1/2 cup of polenta stirring quickly with a whisk. It thickens almost immediately. Pour into a recipient (such as a Ziploc) until it’s solid then put it in the fridge for a couple of hours. Tip out onto a board and slice horizontally so that it’s about 1 ½ cm thick. Cut into large squares. Cook in a little oil until the outside is brown and crisp.