The Low-Fad Diet · The Low-Fad Diet/Travers 8 The trouble with dieting Fad diets tend to promise miracles either with no effort, or with such a complex formula that no one can stick

The Low-Fad Diet/Travers 2

The Low-Fad Diet

The Low-Fad Diet

by Jo Travers


Contents

- Introduction

Who This Book Is For

The trouble with dieting

What To Expect From This Book

Back To Basics

What To Eat

When To Eat

The Standard Food Plan


How Much To Eat

Getting your head around it

Mindfulness

Food & Mood

Common Pitfalls

Trouble shooting


Introduction


Who this book is for

There are a lot of diet books around and I hesitated to add to this already saturated

market, but the need for this book becomes more and more apparent each February

when I find myself inundated with clients who haven’t managed to succeed with their

latest dieting attempt. Many of them had tried every diet going and still weighed more

than they did when they embarked on their very first weight loss scheme. I first decided

to put pen to paper when it became clear to me that people will always buy diet books

and I felt there needed to be a sensible one out there for people to choose. I first

wanted to help the yo-yo dieters and the people who feel like they are doomed to be “on

a diet” for the rest of their lives. And I wanted to help people who hate diets. But it has

evolved since then.

Its scope has expanded. This book is also for people who have a tricky relationship with

food. People who comfort eat and hate that they do it, and people who dread Christmas

because they can’t resist the non-stop nibbles. It is for everyone who wants to stop

thinking about food all day.

This book is for people who want to lose weight and be healthy but don’t have the time

or inclination to follow a complex diet dictated by a guru, but instead want a few basic


guidelines to help them make better choices.

Although this book is a kind of diet book, it isn’t solely to help people to lose weight. This

book is for anyone who wants to have a better understanding of basic nutrition for

everyday life. There will always be more you can learn about food and nutrition, but this

book provides an overview of the most relevant bits for most people.

It isn’t a long book – because it doesn’t need to be.


The trouble with dieting

Fad diets tend to promise miracles either with no effort, or with such a complex formula

that no one can stick to them. They do sometimes result in quick weight loss but it is

rarely maintained for long. Fad diets usually involve some kind of restriction – often of

whole food groups – and demonise specific foods while promoting other foods as the

key to everything. An example would be avoiding lentils like the plague and adding

butter to your coffee. It’s time to realise that there is no magic bullet and there probably

never will be but there is a way to eat well and it doesn’t have to be difficult.

Diets are usually thought of as a temporary thing, something to do for a while and then

when you reach a certain point, stop and go back to normal. This is an attractive idea

but it doesn’t really work that way for most people. The way it works for most people is

that they diet for a period of time, achieve their goal (or get fed up before they reach

their goal) and go back to the way they ate before. Shortly followed by going back to the

weight they were before. Often followed by going beyond the weight that they were

before. Just like those people who are miserable at work so to cheer themselves up go

on holiday but come back and are even more miserable, people who go on fad diets

and then stop them often end up, after a brief period of being a bit skinnier, more

overweight than they were in the first place.


I want to propose a new way of looking at things. I propose that you change the way

you eat forever – don’t get frightened by this. I am not going to ask you to never eat

carbs with protein forever, or to count points forever, I am going to ask you to enjoy food

in the right balance and the right amounts forever. I am going to ask you to give food

some priority in your life but not be a slave to a complex set of rules. There are

guidelines but they are easy to follow. You will have to make some changes, but you will

be healthier for it.


What to expect

It’s important to realise that everybody is different. Our genes play a huge role in how

our bodies respond to food and exercise and without genetic testing it can be difficult to

know what works best for you. Some people for example are predisposed to gain more

weight from carbohydrates and some are predisposed to gain more from fat. Some

people have a very strong hunger signal and some could go all day without eating.

However, those who can go for long periods without eating may also find that when they

do eat they never feel full.

There is a lot of variation and you are the best-placed person to figure out what works

and doesn’t work for you, but it is very difficult to do this without first making sure your

body is getting a balanced diet. This book gets back to basics and will help give you an

understanding of how our bodies use nutrients. It will provide an excellent basis for your

own experimentation, without all the endless noise from contradictory and complicated

fad diets.

Eating well is meant to be easy and all the information necessary to make the biggest

changes to health and wellbeing are in here. There will always be fine-tuning you can

do but the things that make a big difference are where you should start. For example, in


clinic I often see people who are fretting about eating late at night. They are so worried

that this is bad for them that they skip their evening meal. The benefits of not eating late

in the evening are massively outweighed by the negatives of not giving your body

nutrients.

Another example is when people avoid fruit (because it can be high in sugar) but are

perfectly happy to have granola for their breakfast. Granola has a really high sugar

content without necessarily the benefits of the vitamins, fluid and fibre that you would

get from fruit. It’s important to think about perspective and what you are trying to

achieve.

If you are expecting miracle weight loss in a few weeks then please rethink your

expectations. If you have been on diets that promise you this and have lived up to that

promise then it’s unlikely you will have picked up this book! This book will help you to

lose weight but the weight won’t be falling off you in days. It’s a much more gradual

process. On the plus side you are far more likely to maintain your lower weight and it

really shouldn’t feel like a miserable, restrictive experience – plus, you will have learned

how to eat well and have built a positive and healthy relationship with food.


Part One: Back To Basics


A healthy, balanced diet

This chapter is probably the longest and most sciencey, but it’s definitely good to have a

bit of knowledge behind the rules.

I would argue that the pertinent word in “healthy balanced diet” is balanced. If your diet

isn’t balanced it’s pretty hard for it to be healthy. However, I have seen clients who have

managed to achieve a balanced diet from foods traditionally thought of as unhealthy, but

really what we want is both.

So what is this elusive “healthy balanced diet”? We are constantly bombarded with

headlines claiming breakthrough research into the latest health trends. The all-hailed

superfoods that promise to provide the elixir of health – if you include them in your diet

you will lose weight and live longer. Some things I’ve been asked to comment about

recently include the health “cheese” that contained no fat (and consequently a whole

array of ingredients that are not quite food), the benefits of eating avocado stones, and

a “cleanse” that involved eating nothing but potatoes. How do we know what to believe?

By its very nature, science is always making new discoveries, and thank goodness –

otherwise we’d all still be smoking in order to help our chesty cough. But you need to

have a degree in nutrition in order to decode the headlines and that’s where a dietitian


comes in really useful!

There are always some caveats. What is healthy depends an awful lot on your health

perspective and priorities, and this is where you will often find contradictions in the

advice. If you are trying to gain weight then full-fat dairy products are brilliant. If you are

trying to lower your cholesterol, not so much. White bread is a better source of iron than

wholemeal bread because the wholegrain part of the flour found in wholemeal bread

interferes with iron absorption. So if you are anaemic, white bread is a better choice

than wholemeal bread. If you are trying to lose weight and want to feel fuller for longer

then wholemeal is a better choice. It’s so important to think about the context of food

and nutrients rather than just blanket labelling them good or bad.

Some foods are associated with a greater risk of ill health than others though, so what

do you do about them? Red meat has been linked with an increased risk of colorectal,

prostate and pancreatic cancer1 but it’s also a great source of protein, iron, vitamin B12,

zinc etc. You can definitely get by without red meat but (unless you are vegetarian or

vegan) there is no need to exclude it all together. By the same reasoning it is perfectly

acceptable to eat ice cream as part of a healthy balanced diet. Although ice cream is a

source of sugar and saturated fat, it is also a source of energy, protein and calcium. If

eaten in moderation these foods are very unlikely to do you harm. Even processed pork,

one of the most denounced foods, was recently shown to increase the risk of colorectal

cancer by 18%, but to get that increased risk you had to eat more than 50g (about four

rashers of bacon or a hot dog) every day.2 The odd slice of ham in a sandwich is not


going to increase your risk by much at all.

Having said all this, the choices you make do have an affect on your health. It does

have an impact on whether you lose weight, keep cholesterol down, keep blood

pressure within safe limits, develop type 2 diabetes and other diet-related diseases.

A healthy balanced diet consists of three elements:

– What you eat

This is the different food groups, which provide all the nutrients necessary for health

– When you eat

This is your meal pattern

– How much you eat

This is your portion sizes from each food group

Without these three elements it’s pretty difficult to have a healthy balanced diet, so

that’s where I start with all my clients. The next chapters will look at these three

elements in depth.


Part Two: Getting your head around it


Common Pitfalls


Cravings

Cravings are common with most lifestyle changes, particularly if you are restricting too

much. Getting the right balance of nutrients (including carbs!) and eating regularly

should help to prevent them in the first place. But some people still do get cravings, and

often the cravings are for unhealthy foods. Fighting cravings is hard and can wear away

your motivation so sometimes it’s better to have whatever it is you want – but when you

do have it, you must give it your full attention! Eat mindfully, enjoy it and savour the

moment. Squeeze every last bit of satisfaction out of it so that you make the most of it.

However, giving in to cravings all the time is not going to help you reach your weight

goals. But as I said it’s hard to deny yourself the thing you want. It’s actually much

easier to not want it in the first place. And that too is easier than it sounds! It’s a

question of thinking about your short-term goal (eating the thing you are craving) and

your long-term goal (getting to your ideal weight) and which you want more. When you

are deciding whether to eat something, try to make a mindful decision about which thing

you want more: the nice taste or to get to the weight you want to be. Sometimes just

asking yourself this question is enough to change the pattern of behaviour.

Remember to look out for taste satiety as well. If the rush of pleasure has subsided


somewhat, try to stop eating. You could always finish it if you get the craving later. Re-

read the chapter on Mindfulness for more help.


Big events

There are three main ways to deal with big events that involve a lot of food. I’m talking

about things such as weddings, or Christmas or holidays.

1. You can either take a break from the eating well and let go and relax.

This way may mean it takes a longer time to reach your goals but it may also give you a

necessary break from the strain of being strict all the time. Also, planning to have a day

off is often better for self-esteem than trying to eat well and not managing it.

2. Stick completely to the eating well.

This way will help keep you on track for your goals but may be challenging. Challenging

is great if you are feeling up for it because you will feel brilliant if you succeed, but on

the other hand can be somewhat miserable if you are missing out on a Michelin-starred

braised lamb with garlic butter mushrooms.

3. Have a moderate approach.

This way is a bit like damage limitation. You relax a bit but don’t go crazy. For example,

you might choose to have all three courses but you have the most balanced options, or

you choose the less healthy options but have only two courses. This approach should


leave you feeling in control without feeling deprived.

For a two-week holiday you may employ all three ways at different times. Some days

you eat moderately and then on the days where you choose to have a blowout it won’t

have so much impact on your weight. The same is true for a string of weddings or

Christmas parties.


Being hard on yourself

The feeling of guilt does serve a purpose. For most people, feeling guilty is pretty

horrible and it makes us think about our actions. In an evolutionary sense this is very

useful as it helps us get along with others. However, it can be blown out of all proportion

and dwelling on feelings of guilt and being hard on yourself as a result is not helpful. In

fact, it can make life a bit miserable.

Sometimes you won’t do everything you mean to, but punishing yourself isn’t going to

change the past. It’s what you do next time that counts. There is a great tool that can be

used for reflecting on things that didn’t go as well as you hoped. It will help you to work

through what happened and how you could deal with it next time.

You start by asking yourself three questions:

What happened? Use this to briefly outline what went wrong.

So what? This line should outline why it was a problem.

What now? This bit should be your plan for the future.


Let’s look at an example:

What happened?

Had a long week at work and didn’t have any food in the house because I hadn’t had

time to go to the supermarket. I ordered a pizza and ate three quarters of it.

So what?

The meal wasn’t balanced and was much higher in calories than I needed. It will mean

that it will take longer to get to my goal weight and I feel guilty for not being organised

enough to have anything decent to eat in the house. I didn’t even enjoy the pizza.

What next?

I am going to set myself up with an online shopping list including some freezer food and

quick meals so that there will always be something good to eat in the house even if I

don’t have time to go to the supermarket.

Here we have acknowledged that something went a bit wrong and we have made a plan

so it won’t happen again. And that should be the end of it. Don’t beat yourself up about it

and make yourself miserable – it doesn’t often help!


Black & white thinking

Black and white thinking can be really detrimental to weight loss and I want to

encourage you to recognise when you are doing it and stop. There are two main types

of black and white thinking.

The first type is the “I have already eaten badly today so I might as well continue”. It is

easy to do, particularly if you are looking for an excuse to indulge! But it doesn’t have to

be this way. You don’t have to either eat perfectly or not care about what you eat. You

could eat badly in the morning and then eat well in the afternoon. You could have great

meals and bad snacks. There is a whole spectrum in between eating perfectly and

eating badly and it is so much better to do some damage limitation than to completely

cut loose.

The second type of black and white thinking, and also one of the most common reasons

I see for people for giving up on a diet, is that they were putting in so much effort and

didn’t lose as much as they hoped.

I want you to picture weight loss as a journey. Let’s say the journey is your daily

commute to work. You walk to the station but when you get there you see your train is


delayed by 10 minutes. Your journey to work is now going to take you a bit longer than

you hoped but you don’t turn around and walk home again. You maintain the progress

you have made, wait for the train to come and arrive at work a bit late. This is how it

should be with weight loss.

For example, you start off with 15kg to lose. You do really well for the first month or so

and lose 5kg and now you only have 10kg to lose. Then weight loss slows down (even

though you are doing really well with your eating) and you lose only half a kilo one week

when you were expecting it to be more. Please, please don’t immediately decide to go

back to eating the way you were! You are still half a kilo closer to your goal than you

were the week before and you still have an amazing 5.5kg loss overall that you need to

protect! Even if you eat really well and you don’t lose anything one week, it can be easy

to feel completely nihilistic and eat a whole cake but it makes no sense. Unless of

course being overweight is better for you in the long run than being the right weight. And

you probably wouldn’t be reading this book if you were happy with being overweight.


Getting derailed by the scales

The scales are just one way to measure weight loss and not a very precise one at that.

When we talk about weight loss what we really mean is fat loss and that’s what we want

to measure. But you can’t measure this from day to day – it needs to be measured from

week to week or month to month so you can see a trend in weight changes. Your weight

will fluctuate considerably over a day, depending mainly on fluid changes. If you weigh

yourself every morning then you aren’t really going to get a true reading of weight loss,

because of natural fluctuations. If you drink a pint of water you are going to be half a kilo

heavier. This doesn’t mean you have gained half a kilo. Equally if you go to the loo,

which makes you lighter, you haven’t lost weight.

The other thing that often derails people is that they feel great and they feel like they

look better and their clothes are looser but they get on the scales and they haven’t lost

weight. This does not mean that they haven’t lost fat. When it comes to weight loss,

don’t let what the scales say override what you can see when you look in the mirror or

feel with the fit of your clothes.


Expecting to be perfect

Don’t expect to be perfect immediately. It takes a lifetime to build your habits and it

takes time to change them too. At first, changing your habits and behaviours can take

effort and concentration but with time they become easy.

There are going to be times when you are tired or stressed or other times when your

defences are low and you take the path of least resistance. At first, this path will be your

old habits, such as not having breakfast and having to eat the pastries in the morning

meeting because you are so hungry. But the more you practise your new way of eating,

the more habitual it becomes and then that becomes your path of least resistance.


Testimonials


Paul Harvey, London

“Before I met Jo, my eating habits were a result of information that I had cobbled

together from lifestyle magazines, hearsay, and my own opinion: no wonder I was left

with something that didn’t work and I wasn’t happy with. Following Jo’s plan was a

revelation: I thought healthy eating had to be difficult and torturous, but Jo showed me

that keeping a varied, balanced, and healthy diet can be simple as well as enjoyable!

The principles of the plan are clear and easy to put in practice, even at the busiest of

times – I think that’s what makes this a life-long sustainable plan. Furthermore, there is

scientific, medical evidence behind the plan, which I think matters when committing to it.

Jo’s plan has transformed my relationship with food to a positive, healthy and happy

one and I am sure it will do the same for others!”


Beth, London

“At the point when I first went to see Jo I was pretty desperate. I’d been bingeing on

huge amounts of chocolate, cake, biscuits... anything bad! And not eating much else.

I was seriously low generally, I felt awful about the way I looked and I was also

desperately hungry – starving myself to gain back the calories I’d consumed bingeing

meant I was ravenous (not that I realised at the time) and would eventually give in and

binge again. This is basically the vicious cycle I’ve been in for years with food: and

getting bigger and bigger as a result. Jo was, and has been, extremely patient and kind.

And she listened. She recognised the emotional side of my eating and has helped me to

gradually change my relationship with food – but, while I’d known this already – I don’t

think I’d ever realised how much was actually very practically resolved – by eating

proper food regularly.

This hasn’t happened overnight – but we have found that every time I’ve started

bingeing again I’ve needed to return to the completely obvious idea of this basic eating

plan – 3 meals a day. Carbs, proteins and veg. Every time I have forgotten, Jo’s

reminded me how to get back on track. It now seems so simple – but it’s taken a while

to change my eating patterns as I’ve had to retrain myself after years of terrible eating


habits that had gradually formed from following unsustainable diets. I’ve needed Jo’s

input – and it’s been amazing how it now feels like I am eating the way I will always eat:

as in it feels sustainable (not like when you are thinking ahead to the end of a diet and

being able to eat normally again!!) and I’ve gradually lost around 3 stone doing it. I’ve

got more to go. I do other things like exercise too. But because I eat normally and

healthily now I have enough energy to exercise lots. I love eating now in a way I could

never do before – I felt guilty whatever I ate – whereas now it seems normal to eat a full,

proper meal and to have treats now and then and be able to control it. Still not

completely there yet – but after years of trying and failing I feel really happy in myself

and it’s a huge relief – in massive part thanks to Jo’s way of doing things.”


Tomás Fernandez, London

“I was really pleased with the results of my diet, and Jo´s approach to nutrition was so

accurate and easy to adapt to my lifestyle. She has been by far one of the best

nutritionists I have met and I am so happy I had the chance to change my diet habits for

the rest of my life.

I found Jo´s sessions very helpful, there was always something new to learn. I would

suggest everyone interested in changing diet habits for life, to approach Jo and work

together with her in achieving goals.”


Daniela, London

“I met Jo around four years ago when my weight at that time had gone through the roof

and when I reached 90 kgs, I was desperate and morbidly obese. I looked into different

nutritionists, but Jo came across absolutely like the perfect guide. She wasn't only a

dietitian, she also taught me to eat meaningfully and to treat food as fuel and not as

comfort only. In around a year, thankfully to her support, guidance, tips and amazing

knowledge I dropped 25kg and from a size 18 I went down to a size 10.

I could never recommend enough her method and her as a person. Jo supported me in

good and bad moments. It was a tough journey, I had many sets back and many times I

slipped into bad habits again, but she has always been at the other end ready to make

me think and analyse where the problem was and how we could, together, overcome it."


Amanda Hutcherson, London

“Like so many people in this technical age a desperate problem led me to seek internet

solutions. I was suffering from a severe lack of energy and some health problems that

made it almost impossible to fulfil my full time, rather challenging employment. I had

undergone a complete medical workup and started on medication to reduce my

symptoms but remained very uncomfortable, exhausted and despairing. Over the

previous two years my weight had risen sufficiently to put my body mass index into the

obese category, colleagues tried to tempt me to experiment with removing various foods

from my diet and my physiotherapist suggested that a nutritionist should help with this to

ensure that I got it right.

As a healthcare professional and teacher of health care subjects I wanted to find

support from someone who had dietetic qualifications and who would be sympathetic to

my reluctance to accept that food allergies might be the cause of my problems. I

searched, I found Jo and all I can really say is thank you so much Jo. Thank you for

your back to basics knowledge and your firm but caring, accommodating style. I knew

about the standard plate, I knew about the dangers of refined sugar and empty calories

but I was at a complete loss when it came to applying those ideas to my own diet.


Then it came to exercise! I knew about this too. I had got to such a low level of fitness

that I could not even contemplate organised exercise. We agreed, Jo and I, that I ‘must’

have accessed some physical activities that I enjoyed by the next time that we met. I

heard the word ‘must’ kindly spoken but definite and I did it! I took up church bell ringing,

I joined aqua exercise and Pilates groups and I started a compulsory twenty minute

daily walk or outdoor activity. It worked, Jo reassured me that I could manage on my

own and said goodbye – a sad day.

Over the following six months my weight dropped by 10kg and I developed new active

hobbies. My energy and my ability to do my job gradually improved, I found the space to

make changes to my professional role and feel like a different person. I am not perfect; I

can slip back to old habits, especially when out of my controlled environment on

business trips or holiday. However I now have the motivation and skills to get back on

track, I am in control of my eating and my weight.

Thank you Jo, I booked an appointment with you as a final, doubting attempt to manage

my gastric symptoms and lose weight and, within five months, I found a whole new

lifestyle that I thought was for others, not for me.”

1. Bouvard, V., et al. (2015), Carcinogenicity of consumption of red and processed

meat. The Lancet Oncology, 16: Issue 16, 1599-1600

2. Bouvard, V., et al. (2015), Carcinogenicity of consumption of red and processed


meat. The Lancet Oncology, 16: Issue 16, 1599-1600

Documents

The Low-Fad Diet · The Low-Fad Diet/Travers 8 The trouble with dieting Fad diets tend to promise miracles either with no effort, or with such a complex formula that no one can stick