Help me fix my diet

[Kartoffelbrei]

I have decided to make some big changes to my eating habits. I have been binging on junk (think donuts, chicken nuggets, pizza - absolute stream of poor quality and convenience food, huge calorie excess) and am feeling rubbish.

So today was the start of a new habit. Pretty proud of my effort, but would be grateful for any advice on positives/negatives and other ways of eating like a grown up again.

I am a size 10/12 and while normally very active, now virtually sedentary with restrictions. I would like to lose weight but that is not the primary objective. I just want to be healthier again. Kcal are weighed out and calculated via MyFitnessPal.

Today's total
Kcal: 1457, no real exercise but forced myself to at least go on a half hour walk.

Breakfast: (259kcal)
1 Egg
2 'healthier' bacon rashers
1/2 can no added sugar beans

Lunch: (480kcal)
1 fresh crusty wholewheat roll
Low fat Lurpack spread
Shrimp
Cabbage broth (Homemade: cabbage, onion, veggie stock)

Dinner: (461kcal)
Thai-style pork, pak choi, pepper & green beans (Homemade)
Brown rice and quinoa (1/3 of microwave packet)

Snacks: (257kcal)
Applesauce (stewed, pureed apple), cinnamon & 125g quark
Banana
Sugarsnap Peas

I'd forget about healthy bacon and low sugar beans. Try to eat lots of fresh vegetables and fruit, aim for 2 portions of complex carbs (oats, wholemeal bread, brown rice etc) and 2 portions of protein.

Drink plenty of water and avoid sugar AND sweeteners. Try not to snack at all. Keep your food as close to natural as possible. Use olive oil, coconut oil or butter in small amounts.

Amelia Freer (author and nutritionist) has a healthy eating pyramid diagram online which is really helpful. Good luck with the plan!

Ooh thanks. Never heard of that, will check it out.

Any other advice?

Tbh I wouldn’t do everything at once and I’d forget about calories. Put the focus on treating your body well, whatever you eat, have the best quality you can afford. So artisan bread over commercialy produced and packaged, great quality high % cocoa over Cadburys’s..make simple changes and implement one at a time- so it becomes normal. Choose whole foods whenever possible, beans and pulses rather than processed flour, good quality meat over things like nuggets, porridge/eggs rather than cereal. Carbs are not evil but in general we tend to consume too much of them as a proportion. If our diet so try and reduce by keeping bread/pasta to no more than one meal a day..

Ultimate goal would be to have no processed food (avoiding anything pre packaged is a good start to this) and no added sugar. That’s really quite difficult but if you achieve it 80% plus of the time you’ll be doing well.

I think what you've eaten today sounds great. Of course there are always things you could do to make it even better but you've got veg, fruit, protein and some complex carbs in there and it sounds tasty, filling, balanced and sustainable.

Have you got a fitness band? Maybe start with getting to the old classic 10k steps a day to get moving too?

Way better than nuggets and donuts. Well done, keep it up (that's the hard bit).

See my problem is also a complete lack of control. So if I eg buy a nice loaf of bread, I will just keep eating it. That's kind of what lead to the deterioration in food quality, it felt like such a waste to buy nice food to then just binge on it and not even really enjoy it.

@nanbread

I think what you've eaten today sounds great. Of course there are always things you could do to make it even better but you've got veg, fruit, protein and some complex carbs in there and it sounds tasty, filling, balanced and sustainable.

Have you got a fitness band? Maybe start with getting to the old classic 10k steps a day to get moving too?

Way better than nuggets and donuts. Well done, keep it up (that's the hard bit).

Thank you! And the fitness band thing is a good idea. I need to get off my backside.

If you were happy with what you ate today then stick to that sort of thing for a bit. Make changes slowly, adding in a few more veg here and there over time, but the most important thing is that it's sustainable! Your menu for today is pretty good and the sort of eating day i would enjoy.

@Kartoffelbrei when you binge, what is going on? Are you sort of checked out/autopilot sort of thing? Is it a release after trying to not eat whatever it is?

[quote sleepwhenidie]@Kartoffelbrei when you binge, what is going on? Are you sort of checked out/autopilot sort of thing? Is it a release after trying to not eat whatever it is?[/quote]
Think it's just my way of dealing with being miserable.

If you post this in the weight loss section you'll get a lot more helpful advice www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weight_loss_chat

Thanks Tilly. Will try that.

@Kartoffelbrei - that's not unusual, does it help you feel less miserable?

If you're not doing it for weight loss, why such low calorie total?

That isn't a particularly low calorie intake even to maintain weight. I'm a similar dress size but might be taller or shorter than @Kartoffelbrei but my BMR is only around 1300 per day so with a half hour walk that would be about maintenance calories.
Your menu looks ok, personally I'd be starving an hour later on that breakfast but if you stick to lean protein, oily fish, nuts, seeds, wholegrain type carbs and fruit / veg you can't go far wrong.

[quote sleepwhenidie]@Kartoffelbrei - that's not unusual, does it help you feel less miserable?[/quote]
While I am eating, yes. Then I feel even more miserable for binging.

@howmanyroads

If you're not doing it for weight loss, why such low calorie total?

Because I am scared of gaining weight. I used to aim for no more than 1000, but then would be absolutely starving driving the binging on other days. Figured I should try and move to a healthy medium.

@emmathedilemma

That isn't a particularly low calorie intake even to maintain weight. I'm a similar dress size but might be taller or shorter than *@Kartoffelbrei* but my BMR is only around 1300 per day so with a half hour walk that would be about maintenance calories. Your menu looks ok, personally I'd be starving an hour later on that breakfast but if you stick to lean protein, oily fish, nuts, seeds, wholegrain type carbs and fruit / veg you can't go far wrong.

Finding it fairly easy to not eat in the morning. So will often have that as lunch and skip breakfast. I get hungry in the evening (whether or not I eat breakfast and lunch) so still end up with three meals, but just later in the day.

Would love some other breakfast suggestions though? I do also have porridge with frozen fruit and almond milk occasionally but I prefer savoury breakfasts.

I cal count on MFP. I don't add exercise calories and I look at my week overall, not worry too much on dailies.
I eat full fat cheese, use olive oil for cooking and try to factor nuts in a few times a week for healthy fats. I don't purposely buy anything low fat except for diet coke and sugar free squash.
I also drink 2 litres of water a day.
I exercise 3 times a week at the moment and my weight is decreasing.

i use my fitness pal to track calories and i got myself a fitbit to motivate me to exercise.

To be honest, that food diary you gave sounds pretty good to me. Dont start restricting anything too heavy as you will just get pissed off and binge. That's what i used to do. Fiber & protein filled meals and snacks are a good way forward

I sometimes have a light dinner and leave out the carbs ( im not doing a carb free diet and i dont believe in them) I just have some meat/fish and veg and then i have some calories left over to have a wee treat with a cuppa at night!
i dont do this all the time because i LOVE LOVE LOVE potato based accompaniments to my dinner