Delicious dinners the family won’t guess are healthy

TODAY, in the fourth part of our groundbreaking series, NHS GP Dr David Unwin explains how to maintain and ‘personalise’ a low-carb diet to make it even easier to follow, while chef and food writer Katie Caldesi offers more exclusive low-carb recipes.

To stick to a healthy eating plan long-term and make it a lifestyle — not a diet — it’s important to make it work for you. We are all different in terms of our age, activity levels and physiology. so while our advice about how to do it will obviously be helpful, you will want to tweak your meal timings, portion sizes and foods to suit your goals, schedule, budget and preferences.

it’s also important to keep feeling motivated — and one of the best ways to achieve this is using feedback from the small improvements you will be making, which will give you a metaphorical pat on the back.

if your goal is weight loss — so often key for people with type 2 diabetes for getting their condition under control — then you might want to track progress by weighing yourself or taking your waist measurement each week.

if you have type 2 diabetes and you have a finger-prick device, then check your blood sugar levels two hours after a meal and note the foods that don’t cause them to spike. if you’re looking to improve your overall wellbeing, too, then each day perhaps make a rating out of ten for how you feel in yourself?

Feedback like this is important so that you can really notice what works — and what may need to change further. blood sugar levels still high? Reduce the grams of carbohy- drate a bit lower. People who need to be strictly low-carb will want to limit their intake, which includes starchy veg, such as sweet potato, to just 50g a day; those who are lean and healthy with an active lifestyle can go up to 130g — a slice of brown bread has about 12g of carbs.

Not losing weight? Perhaps cut out snacks and eat less often or reduce your portion size.

i found that my weight loss stalled a few years ago — giving up breakfasts got me back on track. also, try to vary your meals so that you don’t get bored of eating the same things every day and are tempted to go off the rails.

another key point, especially if you are trying to lose weight, is to be honest about the foods you find hard to eat in moderation. the best long-term strategy here is to give up those foods completely. For example, peanut butter is suitable for a low-carb diet, but for some people (like my wife Jen, an NHs consultant clinical health psychologist) it’s incredibly moreish, so it’s better to avoid it. some nuts, such as cashews, can be the same.

For others, cheese is the culprit — it’s very high in calories, so it can easily sabotage your weightloss efforts.

sweeteners can have a similar effect, encouraging us to overeat and perpetuating cravings for sweet things.

HOW TO CHANGE YOUR BAD HABITS

A PHENOMENON Jen and i have observed is where people are very successful initially and then stall as they become less strict about certain foods, such as cereals or bread, gradually slipping back into their old habits. We call this ‘carb creep’. again, if you start gaining weight it’s worth looking honestly at what you are eating.

make your life easier if you have a family where not everyone is low-carb by cooking the same meal for everyone (e.g. bolognese) then serving yours with green beans and theirs with pasta.

We found that over time, our