Hi Everyone,

I have been hovering around this forum for a while and thought it polite to introduce myself.

I am english and currently living in France, having also lived in Denmark and the USA.
I left the UK 10 years ago - but having travelled lots - I can tell you that NOWHERE do you find the wonderful wicked sense of humour of the Brits! So lovely and sarcastic and rude!!! Lavatory humour as my mum used to sigh as we all rolled around the dining table in stitches.

As you can imagine, following this diet in France can be hard! Only this morning, two huge bags of lush pastries were delivered to our coffee room. Pain chocolate (sounds kinky put like that..) the size of pillow, fresh baked praline buns etc.

BUT I was very good. 'Non Merci - I'm fine just with my boiled egg thank you..no really, I am'

Of course, my biggest downfall, and one of my favourite things in life, is red wine. Well what can a girl do? With fab bordeaux for under 2 quid, it would be rude not to drink it, really. I see it as integrating into society (actually, most french girls appear to think that more than an egg-cup a day makes you a lush, but whatever)

So, anyway, hello from me

Hi Liz

Bonjour, bienvenue a forum Anglais! (No really; my French is truly atrocious and rusty... please don't test it further than that! )

Oh boy do you have my sincere admiration! I can resist most things in life, but pain au chocolat... even the crappy impersonation they sell over here... is a definite weakness of mine!

Still, I suppose you could make a passable variation on the theme if you really set your mind to it?

Totally understandable about the wine... well it'd be rude not to really, wouldn't it?! Especially as you have the British reputation to keep up: it'd never do for them to think we weren't all lushes over here!

Congratulations on the lbs so far! Keep up the good work!

PS... Apologies to resident Scots, Welsh, Irish, Cornish et al... Anglais was the best I could do without looking a word up!

Hi Liz, welcome to the madhouse

I think you might find a few of us here with more than a passing interest in wine - *must tip the last of this red in the chilli*

hello liz,think you'll be happy here,chocolate and booze figure a lot in our threads.we just like "talking" about the stuff!

Hi Liz and welcome.

Sarcastic and rude eh? Well you are most definitly in the right place.

You must have some will power too say no to those goodies. The offices where i used to work are above a french bakery, used to sit there waiting for the smell of pain au chocolat to drift up telling me they were fresh out the oven! Was total hell though sitting and smelling that after i started LC

Does it have to be red wine? vodka or barcardi would be better on the carb count, but be warned alcohol and LC don't really mix as Lynda and myself discovered, one almighty hangover from hell is the nice way i refer to it!

Well I shall put my fourpenneth in! Red wine, a glass a day anyway is supposed to be good for the heart.

But! and this is a big BUT (according to Atkins) You can drink alcohol, it won't put the weight on but it will prevent you from losing weight.
Only for a few days, but it will create its own stall. I discovered that and was non too impressed with myself lol. I haven't touched a drop since! Actually can't say I miss it all that much.

But back to the positive at least it is red wine, which is fairly low in the carbs stakes and also good for the heart, so you can't go far wrong really can you?

Hi Liz,

If it is lavatorial humour you are after, you are in the right place

No seriously, we do talk about other things too, like Atkins Bashing (a national sport in the UK at present), 101 things to do with Ketostix, chocolate, alcohol, how men lose weight when they cheat and we don't .

Well done on your weight loss so far. I can just see all those pastries and fruit tarts .

Hope we'll see you around again soon.

I went to France and cheated. Those pastries were irresistable - well, especially if that's all there is to eat for breakfast.

I've been drinking red wine for weeks and it doesn't seem to stop me losing weight - thankfully!

Hi Liz and welcome to this forum. I see that you have had many greet you already.

Gave up wine drinking around 4 years ago, so now don't find this a problem. But as already said it can be a problem for some and stall their weight loss.

Look forward to seeing you around.

Actually - praise the lord, hallujah and all that - red wine doesn't seem to interfere with me most of the time .

Don't know why I feel that I have to support the industry single-handedly though!

On another subject - to do with living in France surrounded by lots of petite (trying buying knickers here if you want to depress yourself) women....I have read recently that the French are thinner than other nations because they eat less.

Well, from where I am - I would have to say 'Cobblers' to that one. You should see the amounts that they put away - OK, so maybe plates/portions are smaller - but a typical menu is 4 courses (starter, main, cheese, dessert). I've lived in the States for years too so know how much folks can eat over there- and I am still surprised by how much the most daintiest little person can trough over here!!

Liz

Liz

I believe a lot is written about French cooking mainly being from natural ingredients rather than containing lots of manufactured goodies and take aways. That being so then many of the good bits of nutrition are already present in their diet. I've not got enough experience to comment on this one however. Portion size can be important, but what the portion contains is even more so.

That's very true Anne. Also the basic quality of ingredients is infinitely higher than in Britain. (As I first discovered to my horror when the Nestle Crunch bars I had so loved in Spain appeared over here tasting nothing like the original! )

Alas Britain decided to follow America in terms of diet, rather than our European neighbours. They actually change the recipe of Europe-wide brands to ship it to Britain because... wait for it... we didn't like the taste of the higher quality European foods and opted for our msg-laden American style trash in preference!

It's why I buy things like Lavazza coffee as one of the few brands to survive in its original form when its shipped over here.

There's an awful lot of re-education of the British palette to be done if we're to have a hope of properly improving our standard of natural health. Then there's the re-education of the British shopper, who will only change the supermarket's ways by voting with their feet... or at least voting with their "loyalty" (I think most folk have caught on to the real reason for those now) card!

Also, on the whole, France (like many European countries) never stopped being a meat-eating, cheese loving nation... here's to them never abandoning their way of eating in favour of a Big Mac 'n' fries the way we so shamefully did.

I'm going to whisht now though. I can rant on the subject of food in a manner that would rival any Italian trying to shop in our country! Er... some of you may have noticed that already...

You are right, I know. I have always been amazed by why they don't put on weight - as often the main courses (around here - Beaujolais country) are lots of meat/sausages/fat and the vegetable is more often than not French fries or Gratin Dauphinois (I often joke that I would fall over if I was offered Broccoli)- followed by cheese and bread, and then something like creme bruléé rather than fruit (Quite Atkins already!)But, the first course is often a huge salad.

Ready-made meals are creeping in - but I have to say that the fresh markets heave on a Sunday - and there is a great deal of 'home-made' produce. My favourites are the little old ladies selling 4 leeks, a dozen eggs, one dead chicken and two bunches of flowers - whatever they have in their garden at the time. Butter is far more plentiful than spreads, and free-range chickens etc are not terribly expensive.

Another thing that I notice is how many yogurts are eaten per capita per day. A lot. I wonder whether their gut flora is in a better state than 'ours' and whether this has anything to do with it. Plus, they don't seem to snack so much. They also drink vast quantities of water.

Our local MacDonalds makes me smile. Yes, they have the usual crap that the UK/USA has but with a twist. For example, they often run special meals - a burger with a wholemeal bun and goat, or maybe roquefort cheese for example. The 'meal-deal' comes with it's own little glass bottle of Beaujolais!!

We also don't have Chinese/Indian takeaways or many home deliveries, which helps!

Having said all that though, I work with maybe 12 English people. We are weighed once yearly by the company doctor. The vast majority of us put on weight (average 2kg/year) for the one to three years! I certainly did......

I too am English living in France - have been here for about 30 years. I agree with everything that has been said about the French petite people being able to eat huge amounts and stay petite. When I worked, I went regularly to the staff cantine. My tray would have carefully-chosen items on it and never a dessert (always had a weight problem), while my slimline French colleagues would have trays weighed down with chips accompanied by many and varied other titbits, and often a dessert. I even had a slim colleague who had a very sweet tooth and took TWO desserts most days. I think it must be in the genes!??