To think I eat healthily? My DH doesn't!

[Virtualcareerchanger]

I think I eat a well balanced healthy diet. Me and DH are trying to get fit and I said I don't need to change what I eat I just need to start exercising, however my DH disagrees and thinks we need to cut out carbs as carbs are sugar. He said he thinks we eat too much carbs and dairy. I thought I would bring this to the mumsnet aibu jury. Here is what I have eaten (and DH) over the last two days. Am I being unreasonable to think this is fine for someone trying to eat healthily?

Day 1
Breakfast: porridge oats made with semi skimmed milk a teaspoon of honey and 3 tablespoons of blueberries
Lunch: cheese salad sandwich on wholemeal bread with a scraping of vitalight spread, a raw carrot and an apple
Snack: a banana
Dinner: salmon, sweet potato and brocoli

Day 2
Breakfast: porridge oats with semi skimmed milk a teaspoon of honey and 3 tablespoons of raspberries
Lunch: tin of carrot and butterbean soup, a wholemeal roll with a scraping of vitalight spread, an orange
Snack: raisins and almonds
Dinner: homemade Thai chicken curry with rice

SandyRose - can you post a typical day's eating for you? Sounds like it might be worth emulating!

Haha! Well, sadly it's not as easy as replicating the same 'diet' for everyone - nutrition if it's to be done successfully has to be individualised. It depends very much on what issues or health goals you have as well. But happy to share what I eat on a typical day.

Breakfast would be some sort of egg based meal, I make sure I have a few servings of veg so either spinach, kale or mushrooms sautéed or tomatoes or 1/2 avocado usually. Drizzle of olive oil, lemon and pinch of salt on top. Or we have gluten free protein pancakes with some berries.

Lunch would often be soup but I blend in, say 5 tablespoons of oil to make it filling or I make a coconut milk based soup with some leftover chicken, ginger, garlic, chilli, lime and veg. I usually make my own lunch but if I have to grab something it'll be a salad with a protein or perhaps some hommous and a falafel.

Dinner is often a curry - I love the Spice Tailor sauces which are really quick. I'll add lamb or chicken or aubergine, peppers and at least a bag of spinach if not two near the end of cooking. No bread or rice needed with that. Or it's a salad with some roast veg and goats cheese added at the last minute. Or we have a variation of whatever the kids had.

I'm sure you can pick holes in this but it's what works for me personally. We don't eat any sugar, and nor do my kids, other than what's naturally occurring in fruit and berries (but we limit those to 1 or 2 portions/day max).

What you'll find is that I add oil to almost everything. Good oil, olive oil, macadamia oil and avocado oil are good choices. Great for skin, brain and hormonal health.

I love the spice Taylor range too. Expensive but quick and easy and no junk. I like the whole spices and herbs that come with them.

There are similar Thai red and green curry kits that are very good too, low carb, lots of flavour and they make a quick meal with a pile of stir fried veg and fish/meat.

Coconut oil is good for stir fry Thai and Asian dishes as there's often coconut in them. I'm less keen on coconut oil in European dishes - a good butter (Kerry gold or similar) is better.

And spinach - yes to that, BAGS of it (well it cooks down so small) in all curries - a superfood but fairly cheap!

Yes I agree re coconut oil, it has a place in oriental dishes but don't believe the hype and go crazy on it. Ghee or plain old butter is fine for cooking with on a high heat. Stay away from the artificial margarines and seed oils as they are very processed.

OP, your diet looks fine.
Just use your common sense, no need to read any books or consult a nutritionist. 5 a day (mainly veg) , some food high in protein, eg salmon (remember virtually all food contains protein In varying amounts, so no need to eat large amounts of meat or eggs unless you're a bodybuilder) and small amounts of bread/potatoes, etc. People really obsess over diet nowadays, totally unneccesary.
Can recommend swimming for 'toning up'.

Sandy rose I like your description of what you eat, sounds great. Can I ask two things

first - what is the recipe for your gluten free protein pancakes?

second - what do your kids eat on a typical day, would like some ideas for boosting my kids' meals for extra health. One has to eat gf (coeliac).

My recipe is similar to this but I use coconut flour and no sweetener (apart from the banana). goodfood.uktv.co.uk/recipe/flour-free-banana-and-coconut-pancakes/

One of my kids is coeliac too so we mainly eat gf as a family. I use buckwheat in a lot of recipes or gram flour. Ground almond is so delicious for making 'breaded' chicken or fish - just dip in a bit of whisked up egg and then in the flour and bake. I serve them up with sweet potato chips and guacamole.

The kids have the same breakfast as us. For lunch they have lots of hommous, veg, falafels, sweet corn patties, sardines, that sort of thing if I haven't got time to cook. Soups are popular. If they have pasta I'll use chickpea, buckwheat or chickpea pasta (available in health food shops and waitrose) and make sure there's a lot of sauce and protein with it too. Rice paper wraps are great for lunch boxes. There are some great recipes for gluten free bread online (the shop bought ones are generally not great). Stir fries with buckwheat noodles are usually popular. Hard to think what we actually do eat now, but it's not that far from the usual but with some modifications. Feel free to pm me if you want any specific recipe ideas and I'll have a proper think when I've got more time.

Thanks Sandy. Your DC sound much more willing to eat good things than mine (perhaps because yours did that from the start?) I have one incredibly conservative eater in the mix. For example, I make quite a bit of homemade soup (which I think is delicious) but the DC won't touch anything other than Heinz tomato soup ...I am determined to move them all on a bit though, so will have a look at all the things you mention. Anything else you can suggest would be gratefully received too.

Ok, so fussy eaters are one of my specialities! One of my children is also extremely fussy, won't eat anything 'mixed' ie bolognese, stews etc. He'd live on oatcakes and hommous! The trick is to start from where they are now, so if he's on Heinz tomato soup, start by slowly mixing in a spoon of your soup, next time a bit more etc. If he's really unwilling to try new things, get him to interact with the food away from the dinner table without expecting him to try any. Get him to help in the kitchen or even lay out a tray with a range of foods in the living room for the kids to mess around with (the more mess the better)! Then you can slowly move onto perhaps asking him to have a piece of the food on his plate without any expectation to taste it...and so on. For some kids it's about control, so let him plate up himself - perhaps from a communal bowl on the table. There's a book called 'My Child Won't Eat' by Gonzales which I would highly recommend.

That all sounds very good advice Sandy. I think I probably try and push too much change too quickly. I will have a go at your soup suggestion.