Atropos
Gold Member
One of the discoveries I've made on this diet is that I need to cook for myself if I'm going to be charge of my weight.
I've realised that the two great weight-related problems I've had in my life both came from not cooking or forgetting how to cook.
The first was when I left home for the first time (and was worried about leaving my mum and sisters in a bad place as well). I was sharing a kitchen with a kettle, a fridge, a single ring and a toaster with 20 other girls, had no pans, knives, spoons, and had never fended for myself. The only shop was a newsagents with a shelf of long life groceries. I tried to live on bread, marmite and apples, and surprise surprise - within 4 month I had shrunk to 6 stone. I looked like Gollum with pink hair.
Slowly, slowly I started to cook - eggs, tuna, pasta. Most of it tasted disgusting, because I had no idea what I was doing. But I also used to read about food - and on quiet afternoons I'd get so hungry I'd be inspired to try out something I'd read about.
After three years I was 8 stone and giving dinner parties (well, picnic parties, because I had no table and everyone sat on the floor!
All was well for the next 15 years - I had a job which didn't pay much, but left me free for most of the day - so I could visit street markets and discount stores, cook and keep stuff for later. I stayed 9 stone all that time.
Then I changed job so I was sitting at a desk 10 hours a day. I started eating biscuits, sandwiches and started drinking lattes. And I forgot how to cook - "no time, no time" - dash to the door at 7am, collapse back in at 8pm. Pasta, cereals, humus, crackers, ready made salads, takeaway treats. My knife got blunt, my saucepan stayed in the back of the cupboard...
And before I knew I was almost 14 stone, and still going up, up, up...
Discovering Dukan forced me to cook the way I used to cook 10 years before. Not fancy difficult food, not the stuff you see on Nigella or Jamie or Saturday Kitchen - just combining simple ingredients in simple quick ways that I liked.
(And yes, I'm still leaving the house at 7 and coming back at 9 or 8 - the biggest shock is that I can make an omelette or a gallete in the same time it takes my flatmate to microwave her instant porridge.
I've realised that the two great weight-related problems I've had in my life both came from not cooking or forgetting how to cook.
The first was when I left home for the first time (and was worried about leaving my mum and sisters in a bad place as well). I was sharing a kitchen with a kettle, a fridge, a single ring and a toaster with 20 other girls, had no pans, knives, spoons, and had never fended for myself. The only shop was a newsagents with a shelf of long life groceries. I tried to live on bread, marmite and apples, and surprise surprise - within 4 month I had shrunk to 6 stone. I looked like Gollum with pink hair.
Slowly, slowly I started to cook - eggs, tuna, pasta. Most of it tasted disgusting, because I had no idea what I was doing. But I also used to read about food - and on quiet afternoons I'd get so hungry I'd be inspired to try out something I'd read about.
After three years I was 8 stone and giving dinner parties (well, picnic parties, because I had no table and everyone sat on the floor!
All was well for the next 15 years - I had a job which didn't pay much, but left me free for most of the day - so I could visit street markets and discount stores, cook and keep stuff for later. I stayed 9 stone all that time.
Then I changed job so I was sitting at a desk 10 hours a day. I started eating biscuits, sandwiches and started drinking lattes. And I forgot how to cook - "no time, no time" - dash to the door at 7am, collapse back in at 8pm. Pasta, cereals, humus, crackers, ready made salads, takeaway treats. My knife got blunt, my saucepan stayed in the back of the cupboard...
And before I knew I was almost 14 stone, and still going up, up, up...
Discovering Dukan forced me to cook the way I used to cook 10 years before. Not fancy difficult food, not the stuff you see on Nigella or Jamie or Saturday Kitchen - just combining simple ingredients in simple quick ways that I liked.
(And yes, I'm still leaving the house at 7 and coming back at 9 or 8 - the biggest shock is that I can make an omelette or a gallete in the same time it takes my flatmate to microwave her instant porridge.