Curry Recipes Online
Curry Chat => Lets Talk Curry => Topic started by: Razor on August 18, 2011, 03:02 PM
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Ok, finally realising that my diet in general is pretty poor, and not just down to the BIR style food, I plucked up the courage and joined 'Slimming World'. :(
I knew that I was weighty because all my clothes that fitted me perfectly a few months ago, was now all very snug. I've used every excuse in the book, from blaming the wife for shrinking them, to accusing the manufacturer of labelling the items incorrectly. Alas, the inevitable was nigh, and accepting the fact that I am the best part of 3 stone overweight is upon me.
Here is the dilemma. Not for one minute do I want to cut out my BIR style cooking, and my family back me up with that. So I need to make a few changes to the recipes eg; reduce the oil content, perhaps cut down on portion size and so on? Is this going to dramatically impact on the required flavour of the dish? I suspect that it will!
Not suggesting that any of you guy's are as poorly disciplined as me but how many of you would crave for a BIR type dish but omitting the unhealthy aspects of the dish? Is it indeed possible to recreate an healthy BIR dish such as Chicken Madras and retain a good amount of BIR flavour?
Going through my starter pack I would say, that it doesn't look completely out of the question. Anyone familiar to Slimming world will know that there are three different diet plans that you can follow; The Extra Easy Choice, The Green Choice or The Original Choice. I've opted to follow the Extra Easy choice plan. This plan allows me to eat as much rice, meat and veg as I want but does mark you down for the amount of oil you can use in the form of 'syns'. Now, I am allowed to have upto 15 syns a day but oil for instance, 1 tbs = 6 syns. So, before I even add my base sauce, I'm already upto 24 syns in one of my curries.
Over the next coming months, I'm going to try to develop some dishes that fit in with my diet plan, and if they are successful I would love to publish them on here but would any of you guy's be interested?
I think that the forum would benefit from an 'Healthy Options' section even for those not following any kind of diet plan. Has any of you guy's got an 'Healthy Option' style dish that you haven't posted because it doesn't follow the theme of the forum but is very good nonetheless?
IF any of you guy's are following a diet plan such as Weight Watchers, Slimming World, Fat Fighters, it would be very easy for you to cross reference the recipes and see how they fit with your diet plan.
It could be formated something like:
Chicken Madras, SW
Meaning, a Chicken Madras, following the Slimming World (SW) guidelines?
It doesn't have to be curry either, it could be Chinese, English, Thai, Italian....
Do you guy's think that there would be much mileage in such a section, or am I just trying to 'indulge' myself :P
Be great to have some feedback on this before I put it to Admin.
Thanks for reading,
Ray :)
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Hi Ray,
I'd certainly be interested in any recipes that taste good and are relatively healthy. I've spent my entire life fighting with my weight and am always looking for ways to reduce the calories :)
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Hi CM,
Thanks for the support mate. I've been really lucky with my weight as I've always been very active but about 4 years ago, I had a serious break to my ankle, whereby I had to have a lot of metal work fitted. Ever since then, I have virtually been inactive, certainly from a sporting perspective. Slowly but surely, the pounds piled on. In the last 12 months though, it really has caught up with me, so I think it's about time I acted, sharpish.
Hopefully, we will get a few more in support, I will then ask Admin/Stew, if he could dedicate a section to it. If it's not possible, I will still post the recipes but not quite sure as to where to post them at this stage?
Ray :)
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Hi
Excellent idea Mr R, A quick look at the Chinese stir fry, little oil then after adding the first batch add a little water to maintain the frying. Saut
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great idea
best, Rich
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Yes. Brilliant idea Razor. Plenty of mileage I would say with a healthy option section and a new challenge. To keep in keep with the rest of the site I do think that it should be limited to just Indian or Chinese cuisine and in particular the recreation of healthy BIR style dishes. Must say I had a rare take away Indian as a birthday treat the other day and was horrified at the amount of unnecessary oil in it. And the whole lot of it was inferior in taste and texture to what I can produce using probably a gallon or two less oil. Excessive oil is just lazy cooking - shocking. I certainly have got a few recipes and ideas up my sleeve to input into this and on another plus side Mrs Coogan could certainly do with loosing a few pounds. Good luck with your shrinkage.
Bon health
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Hi Ray
Great idea!
Cheers
Russ
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Good for you Razor. I suspect most of us face this issue. Portion control is my big thing especially ad I love to cook and indeed cook all the food at home. So by the time he Pakora gets to the table the extra portion has been scoffed in the kitchen. The same with the prawn crackers or my other trick of leaving a half portion of everything in the pans that I can scoff when I do the dishes.
I do know what works for me and I have lost ten pounds in just over two weeks by going low carb and having a walk or two most days. I have also enjoyed excellent curry meals, Chinese, chili and pasta dishes and even low carb bread. The big thing is while I have my perfect Ashoka Bhuna Karahi or Abdul's based Madras without reducing the oil I have my rice even pilou made from cauliflower and my pasta is made from courgette.
Believe it or not the rice substitute feels like the same thing in the mouth, looks the part and the taste is thankfully drowned by the curries.
I kicked the diet off with the usual protein only meals for about five days then just enjoyed experimenting with the countless low carb dishes found on you tube or on google while still fitting in my favourites.
So looking forward to this section hopefully being established provided too that it's just Indian, Chinese, Thai etc. Cheers PP
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I think this idea definitely has legs, Ray. Go for it I say! :D
Good for you Razor. I suspect most of us face this issue. Portion control is my big thing especially ad I love to cook and indeed cook all the food at home. So by the time he Pakora gets to the table the extra portion has been scoffed in the kitchen. The same with the prawn crackers or my other trick of leaving a half portion of everything in the pans that I can scoff when I do the dishes.
I do know what works for me and I have lost ten pounds in just over two weeks by going low carb and having a walk or two most days. I have also enjoyed excellent curry meals, Chinese, chili and pasta dishes and even low carb bread. The big thing is while I have my perfect Ashoka Bhuna Karahi or Abdul's based Madras without reducing the oil I have my rice even pilou made from cauliflower and my pasta is made from courgette.
Believe it or not the rice substitute feels like the same thing in the mouth, looks the part and the taste is thankfully drowned by the curries.
I kicked the diet off with the usual protein only meals for about five days then just enjoyed experimenting with the countless low carb dishes found on you tube or on google while still fitting in my favourites.
So looking forward to this section hopefully being established provided too that it's just Indian, Chinese, Thai etc. Cheers PP
Portion control is also my downfall. My diet tends to be pretty balanced - good amount of veg, fruit, protein, etc, but I like large portions.
Would you mind sharing how you substitute rice for cauliflower? I think this new section (if it goes ahead) should be all-encompassing - side dishes, starters, etc, and what can be changed/substituted to make them healthier/low calorie.
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Hi Guy's and thanks for the support.
It does seem that portion control is the 'biggie' along with way too much oil. I have actually been out and bought smaller plates (typical restaurant size) and got rid of my 'bin lid' sized ones.
I actually bought a Slimming world Curry cook book, and to be honest, some of the dishes look really nice. I've got a Pork Vindaloo marinating in the fridge as I type. It seems that the focus here is to rid the recipes of oil and replace with chicken stock? I guess I will report back later on how good it was.
Being a member of this forum as helped me understand what flavours are definitely required to achieve that BIR flavour and in this recipe, I have already identified what I need to replace in it to achieve that eg; 1 tsp chilli powder, 2 tsp madras curry powder, 1 clove ground, 2 cardamoms ground, 1 tsp of cinnamon. These have all been replaced with, 1 heaped tbs kashmiri mirch, 2 tsp of mixed powder and 1 tsp of garam masala. Simple replacements but we all know that they will work. The oil on the other hand is going to be the tricky one. Interested to see what using stock will bring to a dish.
Let me give it some thought on how best to put the idea to Stew, and see if he is up for it.
Ray :)
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Ramirez, there are plenty of you tube videos on making it. I found it in a low carb book years ago and have happily used it many many times. Break up the florets and put them in a food processor then whiz them till the contents are roughly the size of rice grains. Then pop them into the microwave with 1 or 2 tbs of water then nuke or 7 minutes, that's it. I've then used it for Chinese stir fry rice, for pilou etc,etc.. It works well alongside a general low card diet without changing any of your favourites from the site. I've also Successfully used it to make low carb bread but you will find all those goodies on YouTube, enjoy. PP
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Hi Ray,
Let me first say, that it's not just about eating healthy. I like you have enjoyed curries and other foods both eating out and cooking in for over 30 years. When I was in the forces and younger I probably ate what I wanted and as much as I wanted with no worries, but since I have aged, I still wanted to eat what I wanted and probably the same portions.
As we get older and slow down a little we say to ourselves, "that's ok, I'm getting a little older I can't do as many push ups as I used to or as many sit up's or I succumb to running round the block twice now as it suits my age and not what I used to achieve, and we get into that middle age thing accepting that we excercise a little less and maybe eat the same amount and maybe while we're sitting in the armchair of an evening we enjoy a glass or 2 more of what we fancy instead of doing that extra excercise we used to do when we were a few years younger....
I', not saying for one moment that this is what everyone does, but it certainly happened to me after 17 years in the Territorial army and holding down a full time job and having 3 young kids to please as well.....
So, like you my clothes got tighter, my passion for working out became lifting my right arm to drink that wine while I watched TV, and it came to the point where I had no energy at all. My Cholestrol went up, my blood pressure went up, I was losing sleep at night (probably because I was drinking too much, which affects you're sleep pattern) and it just becomes a downward spiral pattern that a lot of people who are getting older fall into.
I felt that I needed to do something about it. So, with my Indian cooking in particular, I cut the oil I put into a single dish down to 1-2 tbsp, and changed the oil from any cooking oil I picked up on the shelf to Rapeseed Oil, I also have cut down my portions, so instead of getting out a dinner plate which I felt compelled to fill, I now get a starter plate out, which I do fill, which not only looks satisfying, but also means I take in less food, and I have also with great discipline cut my alcohol intake down to 1-2 glasses of wine an evening.
However, cutting down you're intake of food and alcohol is not really enough to combat excess weight, which could lead to further health problems, like high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney failure.....
My wonderful girlfriend who is a bit of a health freak! (Sorry baby!!), but she put me onto a workout programme which you can do at home and is both cardiovascular, muscle building and a Yoga type/core synergistics programme all rolled out into one.
It's called the P90X extreme workout. Yes it's an American workout programme built for home use. It's aim is to produce a "Beach Body" in 90 days, hence the name of the programme.
I bought this set of DVD's and started working out and within 2 weeks felt such a difference to my vitality. I was more alert, my clothes did feel looser and I slept better at night too..
The only downside was that at aged 52, I found it hard to keep up now with the daily extreme workout, my body as it is right now cannot keep up with that of say a 32 year old.
So I have now re-named this workout as the P180 Extreme Workout. Designed for the over 50's :)
It means that now instead of working out 7 days a week, I work out probably nearer 3-4 days a week, which not only gives me a cardiovascular workout, but also keeps my muscles tones, and I get to sleep better because of my Yoga/core synergistics workout too....
I've still got a long way to go if I want to look like Twiggy, which I don't, but when I consider what I was like 4 months ago, I am more nearer my military day fitness now than I ever was.
I guess the moral is, don't just think about what you are feeding yourself, but think about what excercise you get, the amount of relaxtion you get and the quality of sleep you get too, to have a balanced life. The only other thing I would say here is that always try and think about the positive side of any daily situation in you're life rather than the negative, you'll be surprised how different your persona will be......
I hope this helps and I am no expert on life coaching, it's only what I have deduced from life myself over the years and practiced, it will always be different for each individual......
But don't forget to still enjoy you're curries :)
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Hi 976, brilliant feed, and I totally get where you are coming from.
Mine is a very similar background to yours. Was very active as a young lad, played all the usual sports, football, boxing, rugby and so on. I could eat what I wanted, drink what I wanted and never gained an ounce. This was pretty much the case up until about 4 years ago whereby I had a serious ankle break. I struggle to stand up for long periods of time, and walking anything over a mile is just painfull. So, as you can imagine, the weight has piled on at quite an alarming rate.
Excersise is certainly an option but I have to go with something very low impact such as swimming or cycling. Swimming was never my strongest field but cycling is certainly an option and I have just purchased a decent mountain bike, so that's going to be my excersise regime along side my healthy eating.
I've never been one to count the calories as such but taking a long hard look at my diet really made me think.
Typical weekly menu for me;
Sunday: Full breakfast, Sunday Lunch, Chicken and stuffing sandwiches
Monday: No Breakfast, 4 sandwiches 2 bags of crisp, chocolate bar, Large Donnor Kebab with seekh kebab starter.
Tuesday: No Breakfast, 4 sandwiches 2 bags of crisp, chocolate bar, Full english
Wednesday: No Breakfast, 4 sandwiches 2 bags of crisp, chocolate bar, Mid week BIR style curry, with starter.
Thursday: Full english breakfast, no dinner, Chinese TA
Friday: No Breakfast, 2 greggs sausage rolls and a meat & pot pasty. Friday night curry with starter washed down with a good6 - 8 cans of lager.
Saturday: No Breakfast, Meat pie, chips, peas & gravy, Hot & spicy pizza from Pizza Hut, again washed down with similar amounts of ale.
All of that with no excersise whatsoever :(
I figure by reducing my fat intake, getting a good balance of different foods, and drinking moderately, I should lose a fair old bit of timber, along side some gentle excersise and hopefully, I can get back to a weight of which I'm comfortable with.
Incidentally, I'm 5ft 7 and currently at 14stone :-\
Ideally, I want to get to 11.5 stone, i'd be more than chuffed with that. ;D
Ray :)
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I think a Healthy Eating section would be cool.
Ray, I'm sure you realise this, but without the exercise, you are going to have to cut back foodwise a great deal to actually lose weight.
From what you are eating at the moment, it is obviously making you gain weight.
So if you cut the oil and sizes of portions a bit, the other health benefits aside, at best you will stay the same weight, no loss or gain.
It'll need quite a reduction in your diet to actually lose weight.
The bike exercise would be great, and of course not only for the weight loss but obviously all round well being.
Martin
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Ramirez, there are plenty of you tube videos on making it. I found it in a low carb book years ago and have happily used it many many times. Break up the florets and put them in a food processor then whiz them till the contents are roughly the size of rice grains. Then pop them into the microwave with 1 or 2 tbs of water then nuke or 7 minutes, that's it. I've then used it for Chinese stir fry rice, for pilou etc,etc.. It works well alongside a general low card diet without changing any of your favourites from the site. I've also Successfully used it to make low carb bread but you will find all those goodies on YouTube, enjoy. PP
Thanks Panpot.
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To be honest Ray, I think you're doing well to be only 14st with that diet and no exercise. I think you would see quick gains by being stricter during the week with a bit of exercise and then having a few treats at the weekend (curry, lager, etc.).
Any news from Stew?
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Ramirez, I had Abdul's Madras and his Chicken Ceylon together with my lowcarb pilou. I Prepared the cauliflower rice as above then having heated 1&1/2 tbs of oil I placed in a heaped teaspoon of cumin seeds, 3 Bay leaves, 1 stick of cinnamon, 6 cloves and 6 green cardamon pods slightly crushed. I waited till the cumin was popping and the fragrance of the spices was being released before stirring in the nuked " rice" and stirred it through for about three or four minutes as I gently brought both curries back to serving heat. The wife and I like the rice in the middle of an oval plate with half of each curry either side. Marvellous and to be honest I don't miss the real rice but can really savour it when I do my real version coloured as well. Endless uses of the "rice" to be honest. PP
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Brilliant! Definitely going to give this a go. Thanks PP! :D
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Great post 976bar, think a lot of people will get something from reading that :)
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Hi 976, brilliant feed, and I totally get where you are coming from.
Mine is a very similar background to yours. Was very active as a young lad, played all the usual sports, football, boxing, rugby and so on. I could eat what I wanted, drink what I wanted and never gained an ounce. This was pretty much the case up until about 4 years ago whereby I had a serious ankle break. I struggle to stand up for long periods of time, and walking anything over a mile is just painfull. So, as you can imagine, the weight has piled on at quite an alarming rate.
I've never been one to count the calories as such but taking a long hard look at my diet really made me think.
Typical weekly menu for me;
Sunday: Full breakfast, Sunday Lunch, Chicken and stuffing sandwiches
Monday: No Breakfast, 4 sandwiches 2 bags of crisp, chocolate bar, Large Donnor Kebab with seekh kebab starter.
Tuesday: No Breakfast, 4 sandwiches 2 bags of crisp, chocolate bar, Full english
Wednesday: No Breakfast, 4 sandwiches 2 bags of crisp, chocolate bar, Mid week BIR style curry, with starter.
Thursday: Full english breakfast, no dinner, Chinese TA
Friday: No Breakfast, 2 greggs sausage rolls and a meat & pot pasty. Friday night curry with starter washed down with a good6 - 8 cans of lager.
Saturday: No Breakfast, Meat pie, chips, peas & gravy, Hot & spicy pizza from Pizza Hut, again washed down with similar amounts of ale.
All of that with no excersise whatsoever :(
Ray :)
Hi Ray,
Certainly looking at your old menu, is definitely a recipe for disaster. Firstly, Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and depending upon what you choose, will determine the way the rest of your day pans out.
Full English breakfast? I love them, but now I discipline myself to one a week, which I normally have at weekends, it gives me something to look forward to.
Secondly and my girlfriend introduced me to this is an Omlette. Except it's made out of egg whites and not the yolk. Now I battled hard with this as I can't stand the taste of egg white believe it or not it makes me heave. I can eat it in scrambled egg or an omlette as long as it's camoflouged with cheese :)
So, we compromised, and I now have 4 egg whites scrambled in a pan, and I use the yolk from one. I put the slightest oil in the pan add the beaten eggs and just scramble them. As they are near complete, we add a little grated cheese and when it's on the plate I add a dolop of Ketchup.
Now what I am getting here for breakfast is a rather good portion of protein to set up my day with a little bit of fat from the cheese and ketchup, so if you can eat just egg white, all the better for you. I normally wash this down with Black filtered coffee, no sugar.
You can reserve the yolks in a cup and stick them in the fridge for something else later.
Also, eat a banana, which releases it's energy slowly into the blood stream. You'll find that you probably won't want anything until lunchtime.
Another good breakfast is a nice bowl of porridge made with 2 percent semi skimmed milk. I add chopped strawberries, bluberries, raspberries or even a chopped up banana to mine and NO SUGAR!! It tastes wonderful and is really healthy for you.
When buying bread, buy granary bread, not only is it more healthy for you as it's a low GI product as compared with wholemeal and white bread which are both high in GI factors, but it also tastes far better too. As for fillings, go for chicken breast with light mayo, I mix mayo with french mustard to make a mustardaise which goes lovely with chicken, and just stuff some salad leaves in with it as well.
Try and avoid crisps, yes I know they are lovely but incredibly fattening. Instead, buy a bag of natural almonds, or walnuts or brazil nuts or a combination of the lot. Add some dried cranberries to them and have them instead of crisps.
These also make a good snack which everyone should have between meals, just a small handful. This keeps the meatoblism going which stops you from storing fat. If the body thinks it's only going to get fed 3 times a day at the same time, then it stores whatever you eat, until you have the next meal. But if you have a small snack of healthy nuts and some fruit it tells your metabolism to keep going, thereby telling your body not to store so much fat as well.
Don't buy cashew nuts, peanuts, pistachio's etc as they have a far higher fat content than the ones I mentioned above.
Tuna, mixed with a little vinegar and light mayo then freshly ground black pepper is another great sandwich filler.
Try and avoid the Cheese/ham/bacon/sausage sandwiches etc......
You can still have these once a week as a treat, which is not going to do any great harm and I think it also stops you from getting bored with a diet too.
Evening meals? I love Greek salad with feta cheese, green pepper, red onion, tomato, olives and i sprinkle some dried oregano over the top then drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil (another oil that is good for you) I also love beetroot with feta cheese too.
I have some really nice healthy Italian dishes as well if anyone is interested for dinners. Just let me know and I'll post them.
But whatever you eat, as I said previously try and cut your portions in half by using a starter plate and soon your stomach will shrink to a size whereby if you do eat a large plate of food you will actually feel rather uncomfortable :)
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Bob
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Just one other thing thinking about Indian Food is....
It really is not unhealthy for you....
Spices? No fat content there...
Vegetables? No fat content there.... (as long as you boil them) For onions/peppers etc just 1 tbsp oil is all that's needed and that's going to be shared among'st other people too.
Take Chili's as an example, they have more vitamin C than oranges, and they are so good for opening up the blood vessels in the body to make for better circulation too!
Meat? Yes but depending on how you cook it, then it can make lean chicken breast quite healthy if grilled first then added to the final dish. Lamb - a once in a while treat. Fish and prawns grilled will be fine.
Oil? Yes unhealthy, so cut it back to 1 or 2 tbsp per portion instead of 5-6. Each tbsp oil carries between 95-125 calories per tbsp depending upon which oil you use.
Bread? unfortunately Naan breads have quite a high calorific value. Try using chapatti's instead which are a low GI product and just need to be warmed up in a pan, and don't spread with ghee afterwards, but use the juices in the curry sauce for mopping up with.
Also, now when I have a curry at home I now either just use plain boiled rice or a chapatti, I don't have rice and chapatti (During the week).
At weekends I allow myself whatever rice I want and I do have a naan bread although I still restrict myself to half a naan bread.
This way I can still eat curry 2-4 times a week and not have to worry about it :)
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This way I can still eat curry 2-4 times a week and not have to worry about it :)
Well, I'm not really one for "healthy eating", so I fear I won't be contributing much to this thread, but I did think that in the light of 976bar's comment (above) about how he can eat curry 2-4 times a week and not have to worry, I should offer my own method :
1) Cook a really good curry (e.g., a Chicken Madras) using free-range chicken and as much oil (any type) / ghee / whatever as you like.
2) Add a good quantity of chopped coriander stalks for the final couple of minutes.
3) Serve with sag aloo and pilau rice / frozen stuffed paratha / chapatti / naan / as you prefer.
4) Eat with Chinthe Burmese Lime Pickle and Onion Salad, and wash down with one or two Clausthaler Extra Herb alkoholfrei beers.
Repeat as desired.
Now what is the secret ? The secret is NOT TO WORRY : just eat it and enjoy it. The chicken is free-range, so you don't have to worry about the ethics of eating battery hen; you have added coriander stalks, potatoes, spinach, lime pickles and raw onion, so you have ensured a more-than-adequate daily intake of vegetables; you have drunk low-alcohol beer, so you can legally drive to the nearest A&E if you feel the cholesterol clogging up your arteries; and you have enjoyed a wonderful meal, so you feel relaxed and contented. And as contentment is the secret to longevity, you also don't have to worry about the risk of an early demise.
** Phil (searching desperately for "tongue-in-cheek" emoticon and failing to find one) !
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This way I can still eat curry 2-4 times a week and not have to worry about it :)
Well, I'm not really one for "healthy eating", so I fear I won't be contributing much to this thread, but I did think that in the light of 976bar's comment (above) about how he can eat curry 2-4 times a week and not have to worry, I should offer my own method :
1) Cook a really good curry (e.g., a Chicken Madras) using free-range chicken and as much oil (any type) / ghee / whatever as you like.
2) Add a good quantity of chopped coriander stalks for the final couple of minutes.
3) Serve with sag aloo and pilau rice / frozen stuffed paratha / chapatti / naan / as you prefer.
4) Eat with Chinthe Burmese Lime Pickle and Onion Salad, and wash down with one or two Clausthaler Extra Herb alkoholfrei beers.
Repeat as desired.
Now what is the secret ? The secret is NOT TO WORRY : just eat it and enjoy it. The chicken is free-range, so you don't have to worry about the ethics of eating battery hen; you have added coriander stalks, potatoes, spinach, lime pickles and raw onion, so you have ensured a more-than-adequate daily intake of vegetables; you have drunk low-alcohol beer, so you can legally drive to the nearest A&E if you feel the cholesterol clogging up your arteries; and you have enjoyed a wonderful meal, so you feel relaxed and contented. And as contentment is the secret to longevity, you also don't have to worry about the risk of an early demise.
** Phil (searching desperately for "tongue-in-cheek" emoticon and failing to find one) !
That's probably because your tongue is up you're Ar*e Phil!!!! ;D ;D ;D
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** Phil (searching desperately for "tongue-in-cheek" emoticon and failing to find one) !
That's probably because your tongue is up you're Ar*e Phil!!!! ;D ;D ;D
Ah, wrong sort of "cheek" : I was thinking of of the buccal region rather than the nates !
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Ray, I tend to agree with 976bar and few would suggest otherwise and if I may here's my wee tip. From 25 years of working with all the fads to keep my weight down while enjoying my food and drink I have figured it out for myself.
I feel you need to get a relative quick result to keep you motivated and that's why I use a protein only 5 day kick off then I move to low carb for a couple of weeks. Entering my third week I do 2 day fast using Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar and honey drink with water. I then more or less stay on the low carb over the week with the usual breakout on Saturday. Even in the low carb routine I can enjoy all manner of lovely food from Pizzas to Chinese to the best recipes on here. This morning I had a large low carb BLT sandwich with bread I made in the Microwave in 2 minutes.
As I have said before I walk most days or given your ankle you could cycle or better still go on You Tube and learn how to do Power Yoga. Good Luck but whatever you do you certainly need to seriously review your diet. Thanks one and all for your input I think we could all learn from this proposal while still enjoying the main site.PP
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Hi guys, brilliant feedback and quite a diverse thought process coming through across the members.
Yeah, my old diet was terrible, just bone idleness on my part. If I can change that then I do expect to see some results. I get what Martin says with regards to sustaining my current weight but experience tells me that I should loose something as my body will start to consume my own fat reserves but exercise is definitely on the agenda.
The way the slimming world 'Extra Easy' plan works is, eat as much meat, fish, eggs, rice, pasta as you want. Cut down on wheat and flour products such as breads and omit or reduce oils. I am allowed what they call 'syns' to a maximum of 15 per day. For balance I have to choose a portion off what they call their A and B menu, so a typical day could look like this;
A choice; 250ml of skimmed milk
B choice; 2 pieces of brown bread from a 400g loaf.
Breakfast; " boiled eggs served on 2 pieces of brown bread (from my B choice menu) that has low fat spread on each. A portion of smoked haddock and a grilled tomato and a cup of tea using sweeteners and the milk from my A choice menu.....syn value = 1 (the spread)
Lunch; a bowl of cock a leeky soup, oriental chicken noodle salad with a soy sauce dressing, 1 apple and a banana, sugar free soft drink.....syn value = 0
Dinner; Grilled 8oz sirloin steak (all visible fat removed) served with Slimming world method chips, crispy Mediterranean style salad, drizzled with a fat free Italian or French dressing. And for dessert, a bowl of fruit tipped with low fat yogurt or fat free fromage frais.....syn value = 0
Treat; 1 can of lager (500ml).....syn value = 8.5
Treat; As many cups of tea as I wish using the amount of milk in my A choice menu and sweeteners.....syn value = 0
So, I would have used 9.5 of my syns, carrying over 5.5 to the next day, allowing me 20.5 syns and so on upto a maximum of 7 days. So, you can see, there is a well balanced choice of foods available and as long as you're disciplined, the rewards are there for you at the end of the week in the shape of banked syns!
I haven't yet contacted Stew about this as I still feel as though I'm indulging myself but if you guy's think it has it's merits, then I will PM him and see what he thinks.
Ray :)
BTW, the Pork Vindaloo recipe was quite possibly the worst thing I've ever tasted in my life :(
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Dinner; Grilled 8oz sirloin steak (all visible fat removed) served with Slimming world method chips, crispy Mediterranean style salad, drizzled with a fat free Italian or French dressing. And for dessert, a bowl of fruit tipped with low fat yogurt or fat free fromage frais.....syn value = 0
Hi Ray,
I Know Fillet Steak is more expensive but it does have less fat that Sirloin and is a cut I prefer anyways. Also you could use Pork Tenderloin as an alternative to Steak which is nice too :)
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Yeah, fillet or sirloin or any meat really, just as long as you trim off the fat before cooking, is absolutely fine.
Even extra lean minced beef or lamb is 'syn' free on this Slimming world programme.
Ray :)