d**t food inspiration please

carrieparkinson

hi im under orders from my doc to lose weight as im fat. fairy snuff....
easier said than done for me.... i know i need to make better food options blah blah... but (and this but is nearly as big as mine) i need to find meals that i will actually eat.
so thats why im asking for your guys help as i know you lot like a challenge

i do not eat vegetables , nor salad things... unless its a baked bean or a potato.. the odd hidden carrot will get eaten if its buried....
i also do not eat most sauces, i will have curry sauce, gravy, bolognaise, chasseur and a basic white sauce.
sooo now you see why im a little stuck,... i live on meat, potatoes, pasta, pizza and ive just talked myself into eating rice with tuna.
soooo you lovely people what can i eat??? i need it to be cheap too as my food budget isnt large. the rest of the family (OH n 3 kids) can eat normally. i can cook and bake if that helps???
TIA.

Klug

Hi Carrie
Good luck with your change of lifestyle plan....
I too have bad eating habits (no salad,don't like veg etc.), but I have managed to lose 3 stone in a year with the support of Sainsburys Diets online.
They run a meal plan option or you can fill in a food diary and the system will monitor your calories and fat etc. I pay a monthly fee but it's not much.
Apart from that - look at the back of packets - under the nutrition details per 100g, you need to aim for less than 5% fat per 100g to lose weight healthily.
Some of my favourite dinners are:
Chicken chasseur (Colmans mix) with potatoes and carrots (peas maybe), Roast chicken (small amount of roasties), casseroles of many descriptions, chicken breast with slice of bacon wrapped round it with garlic wedges (Schwartz mix).
Bananas and sugar free custard (from packet mix) are welcoming and warm and Shape delights chocolate are yummy.
Good luck and take one day at a time.

arbroath_lass

The simplest diet would be to eat less. That way you can have what you normally eat. I think we are asking for trouble when we try to change our eating habits too much in one go. It's not easy. If it were I'd be slim too!

Can you get yourself a smaller plate? How about once a month you try a new vegetable a few times? Cook it in different ways. Don't force yourself if you don't like it! You'll just put yourself off again.

If you can add in/increase your exercise a little too that would help. A walk in the park with OH and the kids, swimming etc. Make it fun. If you're not a keen swimmer, for example, you'll get fed up of lengths but messing about with the kids - races etc all count as exercise.

Meadows

Forget the weight issue but if you do not eat fruit and vegetables your body must no be getting the right nutrients.

Most sauces will contain hidden fats and sugars and these things will cause the body to burn them up quicker making you hungrier sooner therefore eating more than you should (athletes fill up on carbs just before a race or a match so they have that instant energy but it is soon used very quickly by the body).

Learn to add fruit and vegetables to your diet even if it means by liquidising into drinks or as a base for a sauce.

Pasta, potatoes, bread, rice etc are all good when used as part of a balance diet but should not be the bulk of a meal. Carbs should be 1/4 of the plate, protein 1/4 and the other half of the plate should be Vegetables.

If you gradually start to increase your fruit and vegetable intake daily (even hidden in other things then you will find yourself full for longer and therefore eat less and weight will come off.

There are many diets and plans out there that may suit you be it Weight Watchers, Slimming World or any number of others but they will not work, work well or be sustained unless you change your eating habits and eat all the food groups for a balanced diet.

Also losing weight has to be for you and for no one else, if you mind set is not right you will not succeed.

Good Luck I hope you manage to shift the 1lbs

happycamel_2

I'd say exercise is the first answer here, resistance exercise is good if you're not fit as it doesn't make you breathless, I found body pump good and good fun. Of you like dancing then try Zumba, I lost loads doing the Wii Zumba game when my dd was a baby and I couldn't get to classes.

Try different veggies in cooked in different ways, it's a matter of retraining your palate. I used to hate broccoli but I made myself have one piece every time I cooked it (at least once a week) and while I'll never love it I can eat it now so my kids can't play the "you don't, so why should I" card.

when you do bolognese try 50% soya mince and 50% beef mince. Buy the soya mince dried and rehydrate with beef stock. Reduce carbs (potatoes, pasta, rice etc) and replace with beans and lentils (butter beans, pue lentils, kidney beans etc).

If you really want to stay with a diet of calorie dense food (which is what you eat at the moment) then weight watchers is the best because you can eat what you want but only up to your points limit and you can earn extra points through exercise.

Good luck, I've just restarted WW after having my son - 3 stone to lose (eek)!

Idiophreak

A few thoughts:

1) Not all pizzas are created equal...read the dietry info. Weirdly, I've found a couple of the Pizza Express pizzas to be lower in fat and calories than the "healthy living" versions. The same goes for all pre-processed food...always read the labels.

(I'll also give a shout out to the M&S "fuller for longer" meals. a) they taste really good, b) they're quite good for you and c) they actually work at filling you up more for consuming less food. They're also quite often on offer, makes them affordable. )

2) Use the 0% fat greek yoghurt. Great replacement for cream (in creamy curry sauces for instance...we make a lamb "rogan josh" using spices, onion, lamb, tomatoes and 0% yoghurt - yummy) or sour cream (in fajitas...beef, onion, pepper, spices, "healthy" wrap, 0% yoghurt).

3) Switch to skimmed milk. Only a small thing, but small things add up. At first, I thought "eew, it's so watery"...but you get used to it. Having semi-skimmed on my cereal feels like christmas now - it's like covering it in cream....would be quite gross every day, actually.

4) Think "whole day" - cutting calories from breakfast and lunch can actually be the easiest way of trimming them out. Not all cereals are created equal..some are *much* better for you than others...and the "recommended" portion sizes are ridiculously small...I eat around 5 times as much as they suggest, if I'm not careful. For this reason, I've switched to wheatabix (or own brand equivalent) - they're not too bad for you, plus it's really easy to control your portions. (because you just have 2 and know exactly what you're eating) You can also have them hot in the winter and cold in summer - best of both worlds. Likewise, skipping things like butter, cheese and mayo in sandwiches, using wholemeal bread (fills you up more) and including plenty of protein will make a difference. If you can get your lunch and breakfast down to 1000 calories combined...that theoretically leaves you with 1500+ for dinner - meaning you really don't have to be that careful what you have.

5) Watch drinks. Seriously, drinks can be awful for you. I switched from orange juice in the mornings to berocca - cuts an awful lot of sugar out of my diet. Even half juice, half water (takes a little getting used to) is much better for you. I've switched from regular tea to Lady Grey, so I can drink without milk. I've completely cut out fizzy drinks as they're just so bad for you (and I really don't trust the **** they put in "diet" versions). Water is your friend - not only is it fat and calorie free, but it also keeps you hydrated, flushes toxins through your body faster, makes you feel less hungry and prevents fat absorption. Finally, I try not to drink as much beer as I used to when possible...

6) Focus on protein - not only does protein fill you up better, it helps to build muscles - and muscles burn energy...so if you're combining healthy eating with exercise, your protein intake is vital. Your body is capable of absorbing far more protein than you'd expect.

7) Give yourself treats - come on, life's for living at the end of the day. Personally, I cut around 400 calories (and plenty of sugar!) from my breakfast, cut out 4 cans of pop per day (800 calories, much more sugar), reduced fat and calories at lunch (probably only 200 calories saved) and take things easy for dinner. If I have a (sensible) bowl of ice cream for pudding, I really don't feel it's the end of the world - and the worst thing in the world is feeling like you can't eat what you want the whole time...A little bit of what you like does you good.

carrieparkinson

thanks for posting

ive been told that my portion sizes are small. my average meal can be eaten off a childs plastic plate... . thepractice nurse has told me i have to eat more to lose weight !!! (not cake nor chocolate )
i was force fed veg by 2 or 3 dinnerladies every day when at school and i associate veg with being sick as i used to either spit it back at them or make myself sick if theyd managed to get some in. so trying new veg isnt going to work. i really dont like the taste, smell not feel of them in my mouth. ive done bulima as a teen and its not somewhere im going again.
ive lost 7kg so far and thats a miracle in my eyes but doc wants more ( i need to lose about 7 more stones to be normal ish ).
ive begun to exxxxxise a bit ( i work in a call centre becoming more active is a little difficult) but 20 mins on an exercise bikes a few nights week is a start i suppose... (could do more but my hips hurt so 20mins is a starting point)

ive an app on my phone that tracks what ive eaten n calories eaten / burned which helps a lot.. ive got it set at 1550 cals a day (it says its that to lose 1.5lbs a week) but we will see ( im on high dose thyroxin a day)

ive just found a risotto recipe online... it looks simple and quick so ive added that to my list of possibilites...
im currently living on 11p noodles, chicken sandwiches, pasta and jacket potates and its getting boring.

carrieparkinson

ive switched to weetabix for breakfast with about 150 ml of semi skimmed milk..( working on the skimmed stuff... i was a full fat milk kinda gal ) then a bit of fruit about an hour or 2 later. lunch is a sandwich switched to nimble loaf @ 55cals a slice x2 with the faintest hint of spread then a slice or 2 of chicken roll or ham. then a small pot of jelly (used to be a yogurt or muller rice) and a packet of french fries ( used to be hula hoops). a light babybel is if i remember /have them.. and a bit of fruit for an afternoon snack (used to be chocolate)

so the balls rolling... its main meals that im stuck with....
ive stopped drinking fizzy drinks, i drink dilute. or pure with breakfast. coffee is around 3 cups a day. is tea 'better?' what about sweetners?? ive never had them... is it 1 sweetner per teaspoon of sugar??

oh yeah, cant do bouncy exercise... theres no sports bra in an L cup. (ive looked )

im hopeless i know.

ooh ive looked at the weight watchers stuff but out of the whole range of stuff i eat the curry and the lasagne. the rest contain veg or sauces and taste like bleurgh!

carrieparkinson

can anyone give me a list of protein foods?? i can only think fish n chicken... (i dont do eggs unless theyre in something)

Idiophreak

carrieparkinson wrote: »

can anyone give me a list of protein foods?? i can only think fish n chicken... (i dont do eggs unless theyre in something)

Fish, meat (especially red meat), eggs, cheese, nuts, beans, tofu...

Obviously, with pretty much all of those, you have to balance the protein against fat - get lean meat, don't eat too many egg yolks, careful on the cheese, nuts can be high in fats (albeit "good fats"), watch beans in sugary sauce and tofu...well, I find a bit minging

carrieparkinson

whats tofu??? is it vegetarian muck i.e quorn ???

oooh i like red meat nuts cheese (hoping to get some low fat proper cheese when i go shopping tomorrow), can do fish n chicken

all s not lost then