The Lard Arms

Come Dine with Me

Maybe it's because I don't get out much anymore (!) or maybe because I don't watch much TV beyond Oprah and Casualty (!) but my husband started watching Come Dine with Me on Channel 4 (UK only, I think) and has got friends and family hooked!

It's utterly compelling TV, even though you might think it looks complete rubbish.  I can guarantee a few moments of wincing (the people watching is second to none) and the food, which usually looks really unappetising!!

It doesn't matter which diet you are following; I promise you won't be sent rushing to the fridge.

The format is simple. Five strangers from a town get to host a dinner party over a week.  Each week's winner (a different person cooks for everyone else each weekday evening) takes home £1,000.

It's just great entertainment, tucked away at a worker-unfriendly time - so just tape it, if you can!  Or, if you fancy your chances and are not camera shy, why not enter yourself?

Bon Appetit!

'Why don't some people get fat?'

Well, the BBC broadcast this documentary last night and I managed to see it.  Do read the article to see all the science stuff but the programme included an experiment with volunteers who had to endure 'enforced gluttony' for four weeks - 'gorging on as much pizza, chips, ice cream and chocolate as they could, while doing no exercise, and severely limiting the amount they walked'.

If you have access to the BBC's iPlayer, you can watch it here:

Several things struck me:

First, although the participants - in everyday life - could eat whatever they wanted, they all said the same thing - they wouldn't/couldn't eat, if they weren't hungry.  Simple as.  

Second, they were gobsmacked about HOW and WHEN they would find the time to eat all the food!  That was a sad moment for me - there are many days when I have made time to eat that volume of food - to the exclusion of everything else.  Somehow, I made the time.  What a waste.  

Third, they simply didn't have an emotional relationship with food.  Food was fuel for them and the women were particularly appalled by the effects of the extra pounds (caused by the experiment) - muffin tops, blah blah blah.  There was slight shame/embarrassment on the women's part (I felt) while the guys patted their expanded waistlines with pride.

Fourth, one guy commented on the fact that he now knew the calorific value of everything - much to the annoyance of his friends and girlfriend.  He could recite foods and their calorie content, followed by a comment along the lines of 'is it really worth it'.  Of course, serious dieters will know all about calorie content so the contrast (in his before and after) was fascinating.

The science stuff was more of what we know - once the fat cells are in our bodies, they are there for life. And for the serial dieter, those cells will expand at the whiff of a chocolate bar!  

There was lots of stuff about genes (which I need to understand) and whether being fat was a virus (and contagious).

The other main message that I got was that if weight maintenance is to be successful, getting used to living with a permanent feeling of hunger was a must.  

Blimey.

Some Must-See TV

Ever since I moved out of London, got the allotment and then re-did the garden, I've been much more connected with the land!

One of the highlights of our break was a trip to a fantastic National Trust property (not for the house tour) but for the amazing selection of plants they have on sale there. It's a relatively small selection but what they have is beautiful. I shall post some pics soon.

I also watched Gardeners World for the first time in my life. OMG - am I ageing faster than I would like?!

Gardening and the allotment have given me a really good distraction from the D word (the dreaded depression) and so, with my new-found interest, it was with absolute amazement that I watched this programme (presented by Jimmy Doherty of Jimmy's Farm fame) about farming in the UK.

You can catch it on the BBC's iPlayer for the next few days - I really urge you to sit down to watch it - because I thought it was really good TV. Sometimes, as my husband observed, it had a touch of the Open University about it - but I won't look at Bird's Eye frozen peas in quite the same way ever again.

Enjoy!

Ben Fogle's Extreme Dreams

If you check out BBC 2 at 6.30 pm, you will see Ben Fogle's Extreme Dreams. I've never watched this series before but this week a group of five people climb a mountain with Ben. They have all overcome some sort of adversity, including one woman who has lost more than 8 stone and wants some motivation to lose the rest.

In the first episode, she is nearly sent home for all sorts of reasons (her own health, jeopardising the group's progress, etc). I want to see if she gets to the top of the mountain. I really hope she does. She deserves to, not least because already, on day one, she had found herself wondering why she had let her weight hold her back in the past. That's something so many of us can recognise, isn't it?

Cook Yourself Thin

... but not if you are on LighterLife! Ha ha

Since moving to the B&B, I tend to live in the bedroom (we have an annexe ie the garage!). There's a TV (something we don't have at home ie in the bedroom) and I have it on for Big Brother and then leave it on. A trailer for a new programme starting on Channel Four next week caught my attention...Cook Yourself Thin.

Lisa McGarry of Unreality TV http://primetime.unrealitytv.co.uk/ writes:

"The average woman spends 30 years of her life dieting but 60% are still overweight. Clearly, diets don’t work, so forget them. Most of us are not obese, we don’t need to overhaul our diets, we just want to drop a dress size.

Cook Yourself Thin TV show is hosted by Harry, Gizzi, Sal and Sophie - 4 cool cooks who regularly have their cake, eat it and still look gorgeous.

Armed with their skinny secrets and a ballistic bomb calorie counter, they will prove that you can drop a dress size in six weeks and still enjoy your favourite foods.

The fabulous four are serious foodies, who won’t make any compromises when it comes to flavour - their dishes first and foremost must taste great. They will show you their tricks - how to double the taste whilst halving the calories. These girls don’t do denial. Burgers, curries, and chocolate cake are all on the menu and won’t pile on the pounds if you cook it their way.

So if you want to streamline those curves, get yourself back into the kitchen and Cook Yourself Thin."

I'm intrigued because I am going to have to learn how to "double the taste whilst halving the calories". Will it help me to enjoy cooking? Or will I be like a reformed alchoholic, entering a bar, fully intending to have a water but...

Well, you know what I am saying!