What's your diet like

[thespinnyseat]

I'm keen to know how others eat. Give me an idea of what you eat in a day, and how often you have 'treats'

I don't tend to eat breakfast because it makes me nauseous. If I get hungry before lunch at work I'll have fruit or some kind of drink eg cold coffee, a smoothie, etc.

I don't eat a lot of lunch if I'm working because I like a big dinner and like to have supper so I try to save my calories. If I have a "meal" I'll have a pot of fresh soup, Slimming World at Iceland does a gorgeous spicy sweet potato and Dhal soup and Lidl do a nice chicken and veg one. Otherwise, I tend just to snack when I'm peckish on fresh fruit and nuts and those raw fruit and nut bar-type things. There are times I get hungry at work and I'll pop over to Lidl and get one of their salad bowls or a microwave meal.

Dinner is typically some kind of chicken and veg meal. Sometimes just chicken and veg and gravy, sometimes stir-fry, and sometimes (but not often because I'm lazy) curry, I have cauliflower rice instead of normal rice because I'm not too keen on rice, I find it bland and dry.

Supper is a hot chocolate and a small biscuit or cake bar. I'm really into the Fibre One salted caramel snack bars atm.

On weekends I'll have king prawns stir-fried with garlic and chilli, spinach and feta omelette or sardines on seeded bread toast for brunch and usually make more of an effort with the chicken and veg dinner. I'll be more likely to have a curry or stir-fry on a weekend. I sometimes swap the chicken for salmon if I fancy it and am feeling rich.

Good netiquette says that you should tell us about yours first, OP.

Oh mine is terrible. I seem to eat lots of UPF, not deliberately but through handinesses and being very busy. I want to get back to a simpler healthy diet and I'm
Keen to hear how others eat x

I've gained a lot of weight lately and this is all probably down to my junk food intake

Every day of my life since 2000 I have eaten the same :

Breakfast: coffee, some kind of probiotic yogurt or yogurt drink, 1 apple ,

Lunch : salad and chocolate (only twix or Kit Kat)

Dinner : one of the following -
1 chicken breast , broccoli , green beans and rice OR
2 salmon fillets , broccoli, green beans and 8 mini new potatoes OR
Vegetable soup
For dessert always a banana

I take a lot of supplements because of having the exact same foods daily in case of any deficiencies

Water to drink throughout the day

I have ASD and due to a severe trauma it triggered off issues and I’ve also been diagnosed with ARFID

Generally not too bad, my weakness is coffee with sugar (at work I’ll have at least 4 a day) and biscuits/chocolate if there are any, but that’s probably only 2-3 times a week.

Normal day would be:
breakfast- soya yoghut with fruit or a piece of toast and marmite.
lunch- wholemeal bread sandwich, either cheese or some kind of fake quorn meat, or marmite.
Snacks- usually 2 pieces of fruit, sometimes a bag of sun bites, sometimes a cereal bar like nature valley.
Dinner- something home made but quick eg veggie bolognaise, chilli, soup, jacket potatoes, sausage and mash, veggie fajitas.

Drinks- tea, coffee, not enough water, probably too much gin!

When it comes to practicality homemade ready meals helped me massively. Either batch cook in one day or just make few extra potrions when cooking dinner.
I do not do "treats" . Food is food. If I want a piece of cheese, popcorn or some chocolate, I will eat it, if I start considering it treat I will end up having "reward" after any task😂

Curries, stir fry, chilli is my winter fave (sometime with potato mash with herbs not rice), egg fried rice with lots of veg, fish sith various sides and so on. Slads. I love salads.
And sometimes I just sit there and air fry bunch of chicken strips and add kwfir chili sauce😁

A tip that works for me is to let yourself eat as much "healthy" food as you like to break the addiction to sugar and upf, then you'll get a taste for it. Switching to healthier stuff AND restricting is too tough imo.

Personally, I don't have breakfast much but if I do a small amount of leftovers or yogurt with oats and seeds, or peanut butter on toast but I don't often have bread. Main meals are often lentils, wholemeal pasta, barley risotto, roasted veg or homemade soup, with fruit for dessert. Of course sometimes I have a treat like chocolate or bread sticks.

Today will be egg fried rice with prawns, veg and chicken and quick pickle for dinner.
Tomorrow sauerkraut potatoes and chicken. Yeah

I do batch cooking from scratch whenever I’ve got time, at the moment mainly curries & stews, then freeze portions so I’ve got home-cooked ready meals for lunch (I mainly WFH). Usually overnight oats with Greek yogurt, kefir, fruit & nuts for breakfast & ryvita or a sourdough roll for tea with something like cheese or almond butter.

I snack on fruit mostly.

I’m just cooking for me though, which probably makes it a lot simpler.

Not great unfortunately. Depression has killed my appetite and the only things I can eat without feeling sick are chips, hash Browns or plain crisps. I've managed to eat one proper meal with meat and veg in 4 weeks although I have lost just under a stone so that's a bonus

I'm a lazy cook. I work full-time, I have a working breed dog to walk (for hours and hours in all weather) and I'm studying. My kids are older now so they'll normally cook for themselves/each other before I'm home. I get home quite early from work but go straight out with the dog and they don't like to wait until 8pm when I eat. They do offer to cook for me and leave a plate in the microwave but I'm weird about re-heated food.

I do tend to reach for convenience foods to make things easier but try to make healthier choices within that. My chicken and veg is frozen veg and the chicken is just dry fried in a non-stick pan with a bit of garlic and dried herbs. Ditto stir fry, I buy the stir fry veg packs from the supermarket so all I have to do is pour them into the pan with the chicken breast and stir.

Curry I usually chuck in the slow cooker in the morning. If I fancy it during the week I'll prep it the night before and leave it in a tupperware in the fridge overnight so all I need to do is pour it into the slow cooker and turn it on before I leave for work. My cauliflower rice is frozen from Iceland but I stir fry it with some garlic and/or chili rather than microwave it, to give it more flavour.

I absolutely love a peanut butter chicken stir fry someone on MN once gave me the recipe for. It's chicken breast, frozen savoy cabbage, onion, bell pepper, and whatever other veg I find in the fridge or freezer all chucked into the wok with a tablespoon of whole nut peanut butter, a good splash of dark soy sauce, and a pinch of dried chili flakes. It takes about 10 minutes to cook and is delicious.

I don't eat enough fruit and veg. In fact I don't really eat much, even though I am upper end of normal BMI.

Standard day: Toast with honey or bran flakes with milk. Two coffees. Bread with chicken or ham, sometimes scrambled egg, occasionally an apple, juice or kefir. Cup of tea, biscuit. Meat/fish with salad or a vegetable. Glass of plain water or cordial.

I rarely drink extra water either. Terrible.

I eat mostly healthy stuff but I definitely have a weakness for snacks and treats more often than I should. Been trying hard to cut down on upf lately. Feeling better for it but yet to see a change on the scales, alas.
Typically I would have something like -
Breakfast: weekdays - overnight oats with berries or yoghurt, berries and homemade granola. At the weekend, poached eggs on toast or pancakes. I use frozen berries in winter.
Lunch: things like soup, sandwiches, baked potato, beans on toast, tinned mackerel on toast, falafel and pitta bread, quiche and salad, etc
Dinners: spaghetti Bolognese, chilli, roast chicken, macaroni cheese, salmon with rice and veg, curries, stews, pasta bakes, homemade chicken goujons, etc. Always veg on the side.
I snack on fruit, hard boiled eggs, toast, oat bars. Trying to break the habit of a sweet treat in the evening. I find I can manage well until the week before my period then all bets are off! I can't have just a little of a treat, I always want it all, so I have to abstain totally. Mostly I brush my teeth after dinner now and just have herbal tea.

I’m quite happy to eat the same things over and over so in the mornings I’ll have overnight oats, chilli for lunch then chicken and veg for dinner.

I carb it up with wraps or rice when the mood takes me

im not a snacker but do drink a lot of Diet Coke

Breakfast decaf black coffee, toast with peanut butter, or crumpets with peanut butter, or some kind of egg on toast. I go for brown or seared bread for the fibre. Very occasionally I will have a treat of white bread.
limit bread to 2 slices a day if I have toast in the morning.

lunch, a sandwich or cheese and onion toastie, bag of crisps. Small bit of chocolate.
or
cous cous with chopped raw veg & salad & fruit.
beans on toast if I’ve had no breakfast.

Dinner, I always have the wholewheat pasta, weighed out to 100g, pasta sauce, sometimes homemade sometimes jar, always tomato. No cheese. Very occasionally a couple of pieces of garlic bread.
Homemade vegetable curry, lentils/ chick peas a shed tonne of other vegetables. Nearly always done in my slow cooker, batch cooked so I can freeze portions.
Sometimes have air fried frozen chicken in wraps or on a bread roll with loads of salad.

This has been my food list for years. I’ve gained about 4 stone in the last 8 years eating like this. Perimeno has not treated me well. I am 99% plant based, very occasional chicken.

Zero alcohol, lots of water, limit decaf coffee to 3 cups a day.

Gutted I’m so fat.

Gonna defo do that peanut butter chicken, it sounds bloody lovely.

Bad! I skip breakfast and sometimes lunch and I only drink sparkling water or my green tea all day.

However my actual food is carb heavy and I'm vegetarian so mainly sandwiches, cheese, beans, toast, pasta, rice, jacket potato. Zero fruit and not much veg. My dinner portions are small but I do eat a lot (a lot!) crisps which are my worst habit!

It’s so much easier now DC at uni

A piece of toast mid morning if I’m not too busy at work (WFH). Or a banana

Hummus and crudities/flatbread for lunch or a sandwich

Supper is one of jacket potato with tuna salad, mushroom omelette or salmon/sea bass with veg. Sometimes with potatoes or brown rice if hungry.

Eat Natural bar either mid afternoon or after supper and an apple

2 short coffees (cortado) a day plus about 4-5 cups of tea.

Breakfast: two slices of seeded bread toasted with peanut butter, two lattes

Lunch: eggs / cheese on toast / soup / beans on toast

Snack: a biscuit or small chocolate bar with a cup of tea

Dinnner: pasta / chicken curry / meatballs and spaghetti / omelette / fajitas / chicken pie (mashed potato top) / pizza

Dessert: yogurt and fruit / ice cream / chocolate - depends on the day and my mood

I try to limit UPF and get my 5 a day within the above

Well we’re dairy and meat free, we also have allergies in the mix so most nuts are a no as is kiwi. Due to that we eat very little ready made stuff as such a small amount is safe for us all to eat.

Yesterday
Scrambled eggs with black beans for breakfast (the kids also had roti).
Lunch was roasted sweet potatoes with chilli beans and guac.
Tea homemade pizza and salad

Today
breakfast out so no proper lunch
Tea some sort of biryani and aloo gobi

I eat a lot of vegetables.
Meals tend to be brunch, snack then dinner.

Brunch: omelette with several vegetables, fruit fritters made with gram flour, soup, leftovers.

Snack: pitta with houmous and salad, soup, leftovers, salad and beans or sardines.

Dinner: Lentil and peppers cooked in red wine with sides of red cabbage and mashed swede. Breaded fish with roasted brussels and sweet potatoes, Stir fried green veg and gnocchi with hot smoked salmon. Cauliflower and bean curry with rice and an onion salad.

I batch cook components every two or three days. There is always something quick to grab out the fridge.
Breakfast this morning was the last of the borsch mixed with the last of the red cabbage to make soup.

I don't eat many treats, crisps a couple of times a week and at this time of the year - mince pies.

A typical day for me is something like this:

Breakfast: Poached eggs on toast (homemade bread)/omelette/yoghurt with berries. Or sometimes nothing, depends on my mood. Strong black coffee.

Lunch: Homemade soup of some form, or a sandwich/wrap with hummus/cheese and veg/salad. Depends what I had for breakfast. If I've not had anything I'll usually be hungrier and maybe have a bigger lunch. Other times I can't be bothered and just have a cracker and hummus.

Dinner: Wildly varies. Salmon with veg and potatoes, a seafood/bean salad, curry, Pho, Ful Medames, shackshuka. We eat a lot of fish and seafood and lots of beans and pulses - no meat. Lots of veg, and everything is homemade. Some we batch cook and some we just do on the night.

I drink a lot of water. Very rare I have a "treat" as I don't have much of a sweet tooth at all. A treat would probably be a glass of wine or hot buttery toast/tray of cheese. Probably a few coffees/herbal teas a day. No snacks really, I'm not hungry between meals but I do usually have a piece of fruit with lunch or breakfast.

My diet is poor and I know I need to change but I find it so hard to get motivated and break old habits.

Breakfast is especially bad as I never "fancy" the healthy options, so usually go for a pastry or biscuits with a latté.

Lunch might be a sandwich, beans on toast, sushi, veggie burger and chips, cheese on toast.. something quick.

I may snack on some berries or apple the kids haven't finished.

Dinner is anything: Pizza, pasta and chicken, paella, salmon and potatoes, lasagne, stir fry...
I'll try to have a veg on the side e.g. olives, brocoli or steamed carrots

Evenings are BAD. I WFH so graze while on my laptop and kids are asleep. Might be a glass of prosecco and nuts and crisps, or a tea with a big bar of chocolate.
I've go not off switch for chocolate, especially as I'm still BFing my 2nd.

I have no idea how I'm slim, but I'm guessing once I hit my 40s, that might change.

I so want to give up UPFs and eat better but I just can't seem to be able.

I did give up all dairy for 2 years when BFing my eldest who has an allergy, so I can be strict with food. I also used to do "lent" and give up all sweet things. I just can't make it a consistent lifestyle change. :(

Any tips very greatly welcomed.

It does. I’m going to try it with tofu.