Eat regularly – every 4 hours is a good guide. Don’t skip meals or snacks – you are almost certain to pay for it by overeating or making poor food choices later.
Eat a good variety of foods – try new things – there are so many fabulous foods out there!
Get ‘slow-carb savvy’ and learn to swap high-GL foods for low-GL ones (see page 80).
Keep hydrated – remember to get 1 1/2–2 litres of fluid a day.
Try to avoid food with added sugar, glucose, glucose syrups and high fructose corn syrups (not to be confused with fructose). Get your sweetness from fruits and the occasional piece of high-cocoa dark chocolate (70 per cent or more cocoa). Sweeten recipes with natural agave syrup or fructose.
A lapse is just a lapse, don’t turn it into a relapse!
Memory Box
Eat every 4 hours
5-a-day fruit and veg
Avoid added sugar
Avoid added salt
Minimum 1 1/2 litres of fluid a day
Eat at least one portion of oily fish a week
Eat a good variety of protein foods
Cut right down on the booze!
A Week’s Worth of Tips
Have a read-through of the tips below to help you get on the right track, then check out the sample weekly plans (pages 15 and 19, and you can also print these from our website, www.dietfreedom.co.uk) to help you manage your weekly food intake.
Breakfast
Keep a batch of muesli made up for when you are in a hurry.
Not very hungry? Have a smoothie – a great way of getting some fruit and dairy portions into the day.
Have a small glass of fruit juice topped up with water if you’re struggling with getting your 5-a-day fruit and veg.
How about some good old-fashioned porridge?
Choose something yoghurt based – a small portion of yoghurt is 1 of your 3 daily dairy portions for healthy bones.
Got a bit more time to spare today? Treat yourself to a healthy cooked breakfast (see page 142).
Feeling decadent? Smoked salmon counts as a portion of heart-friendly oily fish. How about a lazy breakfast of smoked salmon, eggs and rye toast? (See page 165.)
Mid-Morning Snack
Keep forgetting to have your snacks? Use your mobile, palm pilot or email to send yourself a reminder.
After a lighter breakfast, a more substantial snack like a couple of oat cakes and some houmous or smoked fish paté will fit the bill.
Some crudités and a yoghurt or houmous dip will count as 1 of your 5 fruit and veg for the day.
Got a craving for something sweet? Try 4–5 dried apricots.
Next time you go to the loo check the colour of your urine – if it’s darker than straw, you are not drinking enough water.
If you miss your snack, you are far more likely to end up in the biscuit barrel or at the vending machine.
Hey! Don’t forget you can eat chocolate! Choose a small portion (2 squares) of dark chocolate with 70% or more cocoa solids.
Mixed toasted seeds are delicious and nutritious!
Lunch
How about chickpea salad (page 216) to get 1 of your 3 portions of pulses a week?
If you’re going for something with pasta, remember cooking it al dente helps keep the GL lower.
Don’t forget, you don’t need to add salt to your food. Use the guide to using herbs and spices in Chapter 5.
Sandwich on the run? Make it an open one to keep the GL low.
Never made your own soup? Try our recipe for ‘No-fuss Lentil Soup’ (page 130) – it’s quick to prepare and tastes divine!
Friends coming round for lunch? Why not whip up a healthy low-GL soup such as the fennel soup on page 124?
Family roast? No problem, check out our recipes on pages 192–5.
Mid-Afternoon Snack
A matchbox-sized piece of cheese counts as 1 of your 3 portions of dairy foods a day.
Keep a bowl of fruit on your desk – if it’s under your nose you’re more likely to eat it!
30g of unsalted nuts has been shown to reduce hunger later in the day.
Guacamole makes another great topping on an oatcake or rye cracker, and counts as another portion of veg.
Cottage cheese is a great dairy source and tastes great with fresh pineapple or mango.
How’s that fruit bowl looking? About ready for topping up?
Getting fed up with oat cakes? Try rye crispbreads such as Ryvita with some sugar-free peanut butter for a change.
Dinner
Fancy something fishy? A 120-g portion of oily fish counts as one of your 2 portions for the week.
If you are going to struggle to get time to make lunch tomorrow, make a little extra tonight so you’ve got some leftovers. The Crustless Spinach Tart (page 186) is great for this.
When you’re choosing meats, select the leanest cuts and ask for any visible fat to be trimmed.
Out to dinner tonight? Make sure you have all your meals and snacks today, and order a large glass of water to sip while you look at the menu – trust us, it really helps!
When shopping for fruit and veg choose as many different colours as possible to get the best mix of protective antioxidants – ‘Eat a rainbow’ every day!
Fancy rice tonight? Try pearl barley as an alternative, or mix some lentils with the lower-GL brown or wild rice.
We all like the odd night chilling in front of the TV. Try our Pork with Mustard Sauce and Pasta dish on page 116
Sample Weekly Plan for Meat-eaters
This is to give you an idea of how to put together a healthy low-GL week.
*Where the following are mentioned in the sample plans below, recommended portion sizes are –
MEN: oatcakes/crispbreads up to 4, bread up to 2 slices
WOMEN: oatcakes/crispbreads up to 2, bread 1 slice
Sample Weekly Plan for Vegetarians
This is to give you an idea of how to put together a healthy, low-GL week.