Saturday 28 May 2022

The baby plum / grape tomato diet

During the pandemic, and resultant lockdowns, with a shift to mostly homeworking for me, I put on quite a bit of weight. Recently I thought I really needed to find something low in fat and calories to fill me up. But what?

Then it occurred to me - baby plum (aka grape) tomatoes. High in vitamin A and C they have a great mouthfeel when eaten at room temperature and kill hunger pangs fast. 

I now eat three packs a day instead of almost all other snacks. I still have a light lunch and a good dinner, mostly vegetarian dishes these days, but snack on the wee gems in between.

Previously I'd tried the popcorn diet but it was too much of a faff to make each batch, and I quickly got tired of eating so much dry stuff, but the little sweet tomatoes are cheap, readily available, and easy to store, rinse and eat. 

They are more like a fruit than a savoury. I just wish I could buy them without all the plastic packaging. Currently snacking on Moroccan Sweetelle from Morrisons, but I also get a regular delivery from Tesco each week, and sometimes buy them in the Coop too. When you look into it they are a surprisingly new thing.

So far I've been losing about 1 kilo a week. That's 2.2 lbs in old money. Hopefully this will continue until I reach my desired weight. At this rate that will be the winter! If you don't like them then I suggest you find something that fits the bill instead. Happy low fat, low calorie eating that fills you up :-)

P.S. Some folk have asked what else I'm eating apart from the light lunch & good dinner. Quite often lunch is homemade vegetarian soup. I think that probably helps! I do also allow myself some cornflakes with milk, and a wee supper of pickled herring and hard bread...  

P.P.S. Tesco changed supply mid-July to a UK Caramelo variant, which are too thin-skinned and mushy for my taste, so I've switched to Asda who are selling a UK variant similar to the Moroccan Angelle.

 

Thursday 19 May 2022

Top non-fiction books & how to access them for free

Most of us are used to films being ranked on IMDb, but how do we know which are the most valued books? A while ago I did a search and found a number of partial lists scattered around the internet which I pulled into one and standardised the rankings to produce this top 100 spreadsheet.

So how can folk access the material without cost? Well, the Internet Archive's Open Library offers a service where registered users can borrow books to read and/or listen to for free. Here are the links for the top five science books, which I'd strongly recommend for everyone -

2. Cosmos, Carl Sagan
5. The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch

The audio option is quite good, and can be sped up, but please note it is computer-generated. Happy reading/listening! I'll extend the list with the next 5 when I get time...