Trying to be realistic with how much I can cut out. Balanced diet. Thoughts?

[justonesherryformedicinalpurpo]

Like many I am an all or nothing kind of person when it comes to being healthy. So when I'm healthy I am (in my opinion) really healthy, but the problem with that is I am quick to crave the naughty stuff. Very quick. And those junky days turn into weeks and then I realise I've hardly had anything nutritious. It's shocking really.

I am not overweight but I am 2 stone heavier than I would like to be. I almost 6ft tall so carry the weight well but I do think my metabolism is fairly good because I can get away with eating what I do better than some. And it seriously can be extortionate amounts.

I am trying a balanced approach. What do they say, 80% healthy and 20% unhealthy?

Example

Breakfast: porridge made with egg and water. Topped with berries and a tsp of honey / smoothie of half banana half avocado and yoghurt if we are out particularly early (or similar) / no added sugar muesli like the Alpen brand / maybe eggs on a slice of toast if I fancy it.

Lunch: wrap with houmous and roasted veg, maybe some meat and salad / homemade soup / vegetarian pasta/noodle dish if I can be bothered / carprese salad / roasted sweet potato with feta and salad

Dinner: cottage pie with sweet pot mash and green veg / chicken noodle soup / thai chicken curry with rice / steak with egg and sweet pot chips and greens / chicken pie with scrunched up filo pastry and veg etc. Need to include fish...

Snacks: no more than 2 a day. Some fruit. Nakd bar. Salted popcorn. Portion of nuts and cheese. Couple of hard boiled eggs with hot sauce.

Now the good bit...

Treats: share a big cake with DD after ballet on Tuesdays (a new habit but one we love).

Take away once a week. And probably share a Ben & Jerrys ice cream with DP (or similar). No fizzy drinks. I can easily cut this out tbh and I am not bothered about crisps either.

Now I have written those treats down I feel like it is a lot but compared with the rest of what I have listed it is balanaced. I think. And realistic. What do you all think? Too much or too little of something?

Today I had a homemade smoothie for brekkie as we were out early. Cake. And then a houmous, chicken and lettuce wrap for lunch. Probably will keep me going till dinner. And I've done about 1hr 20 mins fast paced walking with toddler and baby taking turns in the sling! And atm I don't feel desperate for more junk because I allowed and accepted the cake.. and thoroughly enjoyed it too.

Sorry for rambling and very likely boring you all and if you have read this till the end THANK YOU!

[justonesherryformedicinalpurpo]

Gosh that truly is one long post

[buckyou]

Not an expert but I don't think it's a diet I would lose weight on. Sounds nice though!

[Eolian]

I don't think I'd lose weight on that diet, especially with two snacks a day, a takeaway, a shared Ben & Jerry's (whole tub?) and a shared large cake! Do you really mean a whole large cake shared between just you and your dd?

[justonesherryformedicinalpurpo]

No no I meant a large slice of cake whooops ha! I suppose it isn't large either.. your normal serving size from a tea room really.

So one slice of cake, half tub of B&J plus one takeaway a week is still too much?! Damn

I thought the snacks would be fine as they are small and healthy compared to usual choc and biscuits. Wouldn't have them on same days that I have had a "treat". And only if I am hungry.

I thought it would be realistic because many woman eat a few treats a week no problem but then of course I don't know what they eat day to day and perhaps I need to lose the desired weight first..

[justonesherryformedicinalpurpo]

still laughing at cake typo!

[JennyOnAPlate]

The take away alone would be enough to stop me losing. If you're in no hurry you could try it your way for a month and then re-evaluate if it's not working?

[Shamoffour]

Would you consider joining slimming world?
I know it's not for everyone but it does factor in sweet treats or the occasional takeaway as long as you make sensible choices.
I've lost 3 stone on it.It quite often gets bad press on here as people think it's full of artificial sweetners and no portion control, which in fairness it can be but if you use your head and stay away from the muller lights and diet coke it can be a really healthy way of eating that can be done relatively easily long term.

[user1487519954]

I think what you're eating isn't as good as you think... bread, wraps, potatoes, pasta, noodles, rice, cake(!), takeaway(!), ice cream(!)... I mean it's not that unhealthy per se but it's a lot of carbs so you're probably not going to lose much/any weight.

[justonesherryformedicinalpurpo]

user see this is where I get confused! About the carb thing that is.

I have tried high fat diets, high protein diets (both less carb), drinking more water and eating more veg but I feel light headed unless I eat carb.

I guess I fall into "don't fear the carb" group and I choose complex carbs often and wholewheat varieties for more fibre.

Also the NHS website says 1/3 should be veg and 1/3 carb with less protein and fats. So although everyone forms their own opinions and learns what works for them I know cutting out carb isn't one of them for me atm.

I am 2 stone heavier than I'd like because of the excess carb and bad fats from all the junk.

This is a gradual approach for me so I don't want to drastically cut down on a food group.

That's a good tip jenny thank you.

Sadly shame it wasn't for me. I have discovered I don't do well at sticking to plans I pay for(!) but I did pick up some great tips from them and learn about balance.. although haven't quite applied it to myself yet!

[Bluebell9]

Have you looked at the sugar content of your diet?
no added sugar muesli like the Alpen brand - Still has 16g of sugar per 100g
tsp of honey - natural sugar
Nakd bar - only looked at one but it had 50g of sugar per 100g!

I am currently trying to lose a bit of weight, I've cut out anything with over 10g of sugar per 100g. Sugar is addictive so its tough at first but it gets easier, you can eat as much as you want of other food too so you don't go hungry.

[Bluebell9]

I use Lizis Granola as it has 9.1g sugar per 100g

[MrsPMT]

Hi, if its less food than you usually eat, then you will lose weight. I lost 2 stone a couple of years ago by cutting down on snacks, still had a takeaway with wine once a week.

[justonesherryformedicinalpurpo]

I like the 10g tip!

Gaah I've tried to cut it out but it is so difficult but I know it is possible!

[Eolian]

Try cutting fat and sugar a bit then. I had to go v low fat due to gallstones and the weight fell off me, even though I was eating a fair amount of sugary stuff to compensate! But cutting both sugar and fat moderately, rather than cutting one or the other severely seems sensible and more doable to me.

[justonesherryformedicinalpurpo]

Thank you mrspmt. It is still a massive change so I will surely lose weight. Albeit slower than some other methods.


eolian yes I can definitely not restrict any but you are right about cutting down at least. Thank you

[KindDogsTail]

That sounds a nutritious and balanced diet, but in a way the 20%...30% treats were already included daily before you added the other treats - so that was not good for losing weight.

20% -30% or more treats were already in these:
honey, banana, naked bar, what fruit?

and of these starchy carbohydrates, do you think you have too much? :
Porridge, rice , sweet potato mash, noodles,

Then: you are adding the chocolate cake, take away, icecream,
your normal serving size from a tea room really. Normal serving sizes are pretty big.

Nuts, eggs avocados, are all good but to lose weight you are having quite a lot of carbohydrates.

The NHS website is perhaps not quite right for you. This has come up in threads before. !/3 carbohydrates in the form of starchy carbohydrates like sweet potato, rice, noodles, bread, filoo pastry etc plus carbohydrates in the form of leafy vegetables, plus carbohydrates in the form of sweet fruits plus some sugar in honey, naked bars and cakes, and too little protein, means there is very much more than 1/3 carbohydrate in reality. Probably it end up being well more than half.

Too many carbohydrates without enough protein and fats and fibre may cause hunger.

The Food Doctor book and The Blood Sugar Diet would give some explanations. (The Food Doctor is probably more for you as it definitely includes carbohydrate but in a different balance from you are having <a class="break-all" href="//www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Doctor-Diet-Ian-Marber/dp/1405301422)?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">//www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Doctor-Diet-Ian-Marber/dp/1405301422)?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[MrsPMT]

You can also reassess if you need to make bigger changes if you don't lose anything over a month or so. Its also more of a healthy long term plan & not a "diet" IMO.

[KindDogsTail]

One poster here has mentioned she has gallstones and needs to cut fats from her diet but now people think that generally speaking cutting healthy fat can be a mistake.

Some olive oil, coconut oil, hemp oil, full fat yogurt, avocados, eggs, nuts, seeds, give satiety as well as needed nutrients. These are far more important than sugar/too much carbohydrate, which drives hunger, If you eat these fats plus plenty of leafy vegetables and fibre to feel full, and adequate protein, with less sweet fruit or dark chocolate as a treat, it is surprising how a sweet tooth, or being hungry for toast and butter, say, can gradually go away.

[Eolian]

KindDogsTail - I no longer have gallstones (or indeed a gallbladder ) but in any case I wasn't advising cutting out fat, but cutting down on it.

It does astonish me when people say "Ooh no, you musn't cut down on fat - it's really good for you!" Bearing in mind that the vast majority of the fat eaten by people in this country is probably in the form of pastry, takeaways, chocolate, mayonnaise, cheese sandwiches, sausage rolls etc, I think we can all probably pretty safely cut down quite significantly and healthily on fat by quitting most of that crap and adding moderate amounts of lovely olive oil and avocado. For most people, that would actually be cutting down on fat.

[justonesherryformedicinalpurpo]

kind you are right. Thank you for letting me see this from a different perspective. And I'll check that book out. Thanks again for your suggestions.

[KindDogsTail]

Sorry, Eolian, I misunderstood as I thought you meant all fats generally. I am glad you are better now too.

(I meant for example that low fat yogurt filled with sugar would be better replaced by full fat yogurt with no sugar.)

Good luck, Justonesherry.

[user1487519954]

Yeah and ideally all those carbs should be complex carbs rather than refined.
Complex is stuff like brown rice, brown pasta, brown bread (basiacally the browner the better!)
Refined is stuff like white rice and pasta, white flour (so cake, biscuits).
And you do get a lot of sugar, which is what carbs break down to, so your body doesn't need it at all.
You will get headaches if you cut down on sugar/carbs, but they'll ease off after a few days.
I did the south beach diet a couple of years ago, which I found quite helpful. You kind of "reset" your sugar/carb dependency

[Eolian]

No probs, KindDogs - I just think that the 'don't cut down on fat' message is not always a great one. We eat a lot of crappy fatty stuff. It would be better to say 'Cut down on sugary and most fatty foods, but include some olive oil, nuts and oily fish in your diet.

[Nancy91]

As boring as it is, I think counting calories is the way forward as then you won't be cutting out any foods at all. You can eat what you want as long as you stay within your calorie allowance. Most people lose weight on about 1200 a day but that number can vary.

[Backt0Black]

I'd be quite hungry on that, overall its quite carb heavy. I'd need a better ratio of protein to keep me satiated and stop me snacking.

I don't advocate atkins but I do (when not preg) weightlift and track my macros to stay lean year round. I tend to aim for 40 carbs 30 fat 40 protein, changing to 20 carbs 40 fat 40 protein if I was 'cutting' a little bodyfat. I'd say put your food honestly for a full week into myfitnesspal and have a look at the reports, they're really interesting..... the nakd bars, the popcorn, ben jerrys all quite carb heavy and would knock me right off.