First of all I need to confess that I’m not a chef, cook or nutritionist!  However this diet does stem from a visit to a nutritionist.

In my 20’s I suffered from a great deal of water infections (UTI’s, cystitis) and kidney infections (pyelonephritis).  I was given all sorts of scans, urology appointments, a cystoscopy and lots and lots of antibiotics.  I was given the advice to give up caffeine which I have done since 2010 and lots of other advice about hygiene etc which didn’t seem to work.  I was becoming immune to the antibiotics and it seemed as though my infections never ever went completely.

So I sought the advice of an amazing nutritionist that was recommended to me and worked wonders on my sister in law.  She told me to give up sugar, yeast, alcohol, processed/refined food – everything on the “about” page for 3 months.  I also had to take lots of expensive vitamin and mineral powders that she recommended to me.  It was hard work especially at the weekends when everyone was eating what they liked and drinking around me.  However I did it and I was UTI free for a year.  A side effect was that I lost an incredible amount of weight.  I can’t remember how heavy I was to start with but I went down to the lowest I’ve been in my adult life, 8 stone 11.  I’m 5’8″.  I said to my nutritionist, “how can I stop losing weight it’s too much?” and she said to eat a great big bag of nuts every day which I did but I still lost weight.

Needless to say, after the 3 months I started eating what I liked, the sugar cravings came back and put the weight back on.

Having tried various diets, I found the only one that has worked so far was this one (unintentionally) and the Atkins diet.  However, I found the Atkins too restrictive and was worried about its bad press.  I found other diets that allowed treats and sugary snacks or meal substitutes just led me to binge sugary foods when I was hungry.  I like this diet as I can eat both fat and carbs (albeit wholegrains), I don’t need to measure or count anything and I don’t crave anything or feel hungry on it at all!

January 1st 2016 I decided to give up sugary foods like chocolate, cakes, biscuits, desserts and sweets.  Also, anything else my nutritionist counted as sugary: dried fruit, fruit juice, blended or pureed fruit, honey, maple syrup and sugar substitutes.  I didn’t lose any weight but it was good to go cold turkey as I didn’t crave sugar at all.  Eating whole or chopped fruit did not affect my sugar cravings at all.

Week 2: Also cut out bread as it was making me feel bloated.

Week 3: Also made sure I got 5 servings of fruit and veg a day

Week 4: Also cut out cheese

Week 5: Also cut out processed/refined food – this is when I started losing weight.

I decided to follow my nutritionist’s diet but relax at the weekends as it’s impractical for me not to eat out or have the occasional bit of processed food.  I enjoy drinking a glass of wine with dinner at the weekend and sometimes I let my hair down a little more.

I wouldn’t say it has totally eliminated my UTI’s but they are far less frequent. I’m not sure if the reason that they haven’t gone completely is because I cheat at the weekends.  I don’t want to go down to 8 stone 11 again though so I’m keeping my diet as it is with cheat days and upping my water intake to 2 litres a day and seeing how I go.

I’m also now including some non sugary tasting processed foods with less than 5 ingredients that aren’t artificial colours and preservatives.  For example, tacos, tortilla chips, natural no added sugar peanut butter.  It became impractical to try and create these kind of things from scratch.  I’m now also working on recipes that are quicker to make so these foods will help me in that.