Hi Pattience, thanks for replying to me
The nutritionist gave me a list of all sorts of ingedients and their fat content (per 100g). She said I should mostly stick to eating things that have 16% or lower... I can certainly eat cheese like mozzarella and cottage cheese and certain other naturally low-fat cheeses we have in Europe... if I want to have a fattier cheese sprinkled over a pasta bake or something, then I should have just half, mixed with mozzarella instead of having it pure. That I can certainly live with.
I'm allowed 2 "treats" a week, say some ice cream or a slice of cake, but I don't really mind not having those. I'm definitely a pasta and cheese person... so I'll tend to save my treats for those. But the list of stuff to avoid for heartburn is tough: tomato, leeks, garlic, onions, sweetcorn, cucumber, citrus fruit, vinegar, raw veg in general (I decided to ignore that one... it's impossible), alcohol. All I can drink at the moment really is herbal tea (nothing with cafeine in it, so no green tea either), 100% juice fruit juices (not easy to find, most of them are from concentrate) and water... it's getting old pretty quickly.
All of those I can cut down on but after a while it feels restrictive... I guess I just need to find what works and make compromises. I'm going to see her again on Tuesday to ask about adapting it. My heartburn is happening less often but some of the food on her list don't seem to trigger it... (I did sneak in a few tomatos, etc.)
She also told me to watch my portions, I have to eat more at lunchtime and less in the evening, and if I want something like pasta or other sorts of carbs, it's better to have it at lunchtime. I find that's working okay.
Well done for losing 20 pounds! I know I've lost 3kg in a month (7 pounds I guess?) and during that time I lost someone in my family, and we also ate out a bunch of times, so the circumstances weren't always ideal... but I'm fairly happy with the results so far. I need to try new recipes and not get too hung up on the hearburn list I think, because it's holding me back from enjoying healthy foods... but I'll see what the nutritionist has to say about it too.
It's nice to see that you feel comfortable about taking a break and carrying on later when it suits you, I think that's a sign of strength. Good luck with it!
xx