Changing my diet and eating habits?

Jlawson118

Myself and my girlfriend have put on a fair bit of weight over the last few months and we want to get into shape before we go away towards the end of March.
Now I wouldn't say we have a bad diet, I do cook relatively healthy meals each day. I never cook ready meals, nor use sauces from jars, everything is done fresh, we rarely get takeaways or eat out, maybe once a month if that. But our major fallback is we both have a sweet tooth and as much as we have quite active jobs, I think we don't really do much exercise from home. So in the new year we've both agreed to eat healthier, cut out the snacking and start going swimming together. I do have a gym membership that I don't really use so I'll be jumping back onto that.

I've been using Gousto since July, which was always a temporary measure to get new recipe ideas and learn how to make sauces from scratch. But I'm aiming to cut this out in the New Year to cut costs. I had a week without it a few months ago and making 8 of the recipes again from scratch, cost me £30 in the supermarket, whereas 4 from Gousto each week is costing £35, which is getting a little excessive.

But I've been wondering how much of the recipes I could cook again that would be healthy to eat on a diet. I've just saved a fair few of my favourites which range between 400 - 650 calories per meal, is this okay for an evening meal?
But then I am a little confused as to what would be healthy to make again, I know many of these meals have vegetables in them, but then sometimes they contain things like soft cheese to make a sauce creamier, or there's a chicken meal with roasted vegetables that I really enjoyed, but the chicken was then coated in a pesto sauce and then mozzarella cheese? I know I wouldn't have to add it but it's something that does add that flavour.

But then things like my breakfast and lunch habits I know I'll have to change. Many times I skip breakfast which is a no no. And I know if I am getting back to the gym then I'll have to start eating regularly to keep my energy levels in tact. For my lunch I typically will have a sandwich, if I was to switch to brown bread, what sort of healthy things could I have in it?

EssexHebridean

My suggestion would be that for a start, resist the temptation to "go on a diet" - by their very nature, a diet for weight loss is a closed-ended thing - meaning that generally, when people stop dieting, they gain back the weight they've lost.

You've already said that you intend to increase your activity levels - first thing I'll suggest is that you make a start on that now, not put if off until the new year (when there will be other reasons to delay!) - I bet you can find at least one evening a week to do something like, as you said, swimming, or the gym, even with the business of Christmas coming up? Stuff like swimming where you can go together so it becomes a social thing as well is great.

On the food thing, you know already by the sound of it that you're eating a lot of snacks - so why not have a thought about the sorts of things that you might be able to swap out for healthier alternatives? More fresh fruit perhaps - in place of things like chocolate? (without knowing what sort of things you tend to eat I'm generalising). Similarly things as simple as reducing the amount of meat you eat to a few days a week and adding more veggies into your usual meals is a good way of boosting health for many people. Do you currently eat the recommended 5 a day fruit & veg? if n ot then that would be a great first thing to aim for!

Instead of soft cheese to make a sauce creamy, try a zero fat greek yogurt (but watch that the sugar levels haven't been increased - often this is the case - actual greek rather than Greek style can be better on that) just make sure to not let it boil or it will split.

If you can change the way you are eating a bit, and increase your activity levels as well, then I suspect you will start to see a difference fairly quickly, and without the "going on a diet" thing that leaves you feeling restricted and as though the fun has been stripped out of life! You are also then putting in place a longer term change of lifestyle - a permanent change for the better.

kayeb

I reformed my eating habits following toothache 2-3 months ago. I wasn't really overweight, just a bit porky. My reforms were as follows & I've lost a stone without really trying too hard.

1) Cut out nearly all sweet stuff, choc, biscuits, & cake. Still have the odd treat at weekends though.

2) Stopped eating between meals & during the evenings.

3) Ate bigger meals to keep me going.

4) Porridge for breakfast, soup & bread & butter or sandwich for lunch then fresh fruit. Tea is usually meat, fish or chicken plus loads of veg, but low in carbs (potatoes, rice etc).

5) Incorporate exercise into my daily routine, 30-60 mins of walking most days, an hour's swim twice a week.

After an initial period of hunger the first week or two I've found it quite easy. I'm not bragging, just explaining that you don't need complicated diets to lose weight at a steady rate.

Good luck to both of you.

angela110660

Good books/ websites that Have been helpful for our family's healthier meals are Pinch of Nom and also Hairy Dieters - great flavourful recipes and not too complicated.

theoretica

Pretty much anything can be part of a good diet - but it depends how much of it you eat. If you like the creamy stuff maybe eat smaller portions and fill up more on vegetables.

littlegreenparrot

How you decide to eat your calories through the day is up to you. I think it's worth having enough for dinner that you don't feel hungry afterwards.

I would look at cooking tomato based sauces rather than creamy ones, they will be lighter. Also worth looking at some vegetarian dishes, lentil dahl, chickpea curries for example can be very filling.

You don't have to eat breakfast, if I don't I will eat everything I can get my hands on mid morning, but if you're fine then it doesn't matter. It's worth looking at your snacks, fruit or yoghurt for example might help.

Lunch - soup, leftovers from dinner, oatcakes with hummus and crudities. Robust salad - include grains, variety of veg, some protein source. I like wraps or rolls, with salad, sliced hard boiled eggs, falafel, leftover roast chicken, anything you fancy.

I find it helpful to get cookbooks out of the library for inspiration.

fitforfun

Since i am now over 40 I have also been struggling with my weight. I have been currently trying a Keto Diet along with light full body exercising and have been seeing some results, has anyone else tried this? Here is an article: healthyliving468943570.wordpress.com/

gozaimasu

How about time sensitive eating? Only eat within an 8 hour window and fast for the rest of it. So between 12pm and 8pm every day you can eat what you want. Or whatever other time window you choose depending on your lifestyle. The hunger pangs quickly go away especially if you can spend most of your non-eating window sleeping.
That way you also get to eat what you want without cutting out any food groups so you won't feel deprived. But just giving your body the time without food will help improve insulin sensitivity and regulate hunger hormones over time.

fitforfun wrote: »

Since i am now over 40 I have also been struggling with my weight. I have been currently trying a Keto Diet along with light full body exercising and have been seeing some results, has anyone else tried this? Here is an article: healthyliving468943570.wordpress.com/

https://www.marksdailyapple.com/keto-articles/

This guy's been doing keto for years and has some very interesting, well-informed articles and blog entries. Personally I find that kind of eating unsustainable.

Sea_Shell

Although swimming is very good for you, don't overestimate how many calories you burn doing it.

Eg. If I swim (front crawl) non stop for 55 mins (1 mile), that's only about 350 calories worth. As opposed to a hours jogging, which would be nearer 600 calories worth.

There are numerous activity calculators on line that can give you an idea of what burns what, based on your age, sex and weight.

pollypenny

OH and I found that Michael Mosley's 5:2 set us on the right path. We used the recipe books, I lost 2st, he lost 3 st and have maintained since September 2016.

It taught us new eating habits, including using lovely new flavours.

GBNI

My Fitness Pal is a great app for calculating how many calories you eat a day. You should also be aiming to walk at least 10k steps per day.