To not understand why my healthy (I think) way of eating isn't making me feel energetic and fabulous

[LindyFoo]

AIBU to consider this is a healthy daily diet (not looking to lose weight as already a healthy weight). I want to feel more energetic and fabulous :-). Don't eat meat or drink alcohol. In my 60s, fit and well, very minimal stress.

AM
Smoothie with banana, kale, milk, peanut butter, avacado, skimmed milk powder, greek yoghurt
SNACK
Sourdough bread with peanut butter
MIDDAY
2 egg with onion, peppers, cheese and a mixed salad with olive oil dressing
5PM
Salmon with salad or brown rice with prawns and lots of vegetables and spices

What is missing? Or not helping?

OP still hasn't said how her life is negatively impacted by not feeling fabulous (enough) and energetic (enough).

TBH I think you are unrealistic to expect any diet/meal to make you feel 'energetic and fabulous'. That's going to be much more dependent on sleep, mood, work, family, weather etc. Have a lie in then off to a spa day? Feeling fabulous! Get up early to drive to work through roadworks then have a stressful meeting? Feeling tired, down and anxious. What you had for breakfast won't make much difference to those scenarios.

Bring back the 😂 button.

Exercise more. My biggest energy booster is vigorous exercise.

Your diet could use a few beans, seeds, and nuts IMO, but exercise needs to be added to get the fuel running better in your engine.

Do people think our forebears ate huge amounts of high-grade animal protein? They certainly ate more offal, but very few could afford red meat or chicken on a daily basis. It has been observed that the 1940s diet, dictated by rationing and very low in refined sugar, was very healthy. But it didn't, and couldn't, contain large quantities of meat.

Im 4 stone overweight- so obese and Im slowly changing my diet. First step.was to increase dietry fibre - thats making me feel a lot better.

You should feel really good on this diet- apart from it having nothing fun or tasty- I would say you either have a medical issue , or this diet is making you depressed-it would make me depressed.

It looks super healthy to me OP, I don't think it's your diet that you need to worry about - maybe iron though? Do you have red meat occasionally? If my iron gets low I know about it as I feel really tired. Soaked chia seeds in your smoothie could help too.

I'd look at exercise and sleep - I can tell you if I do an hours walk that includes a couple of good hills I sleep so well and have so much more energy. The difference it makes is quite amazing.

People should have to disclose their IQ before posting dietary advice

This reply should be saved and trotted out as a prime example of why crowd sourcing nutritional information on social media is a terrible idea.

@guestsareinvited Have you never run across oats, quinoa, sweet potatoes, chickpeas, lentils, brown rice, peas, potatoes or fruit (to name just a few)?

OP, I agree with the others - start with a blood test, including hormones. And how's your sleep? HRT status?

No where near enough protein, especially for breakfast!

I agree with other posters that its probably just expectation mismanagement, thinking that you're going to feel on top of the world (whatever you deciede that feels like)

And the general grunt and grind that affects everyone is an indicator that something is 'wrong', look how many posts are leaping to 'you're deficient in iron and b12'

She probably just feels like the majority of us do. Thats being human.

Always good to double check of course,

What are you actually talking about
how much protein do you think she should be eating?
Breakfast contains milk, milk powder, yoghurt and peanut butter. Since when is that not enough protein?

Couldn’t agree more.

If you’re not fuelling your workouts, you can’t perform.

How does one fuel workouts? Complex carbs.

All carbs are refined? What a crock

Carbs play a role in the production of thyroid hormones, and are therefore essential for optimal thyroid function. VLC/ketogenic diets may damage your thyroid.

The recommendation is 1g of protein per kg of weight as a minimum. More if the OP is older and trying to maintain her muscle. Those all are sources of protein, yes, and it does depend on portion sizes. But these are not particularly high protein sources except the salmon. If the OP weighs 60kg, she needs to get to 20g protein per meal. I would say more to feel energetic. I say this as someone who has lost 25kg in the past year eating 100g of protein a day. And I do eat carbs. I actually used to eat more like what she is describing and my dietician absolutely told me you are eating too little and not enough protein. I have never felt better, I am 53 and her advice has changed my life. Just trying to be helpful with my experience not saying I am an expert but I took an expert’s advice.

No kidding. She needs to eat more sugar for energy? Er, no.

This is true. And if you already have any kind of hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's, you particularly need carbs as they help convert T4 to T3, which is essential for Levothyroxine to be effective.

Because smoothies are blended you digest it quicker and doesn’t fill you up as long as. As well as the sugars in it makes it high GI. So you will get a sudden increase in blood sugar but an hour or so later the blood sugar goes down. It’s better to eat fruit spaced out throughout the day.

I'm similar age, my diet is similar and I'm very fit - I walk 5+ miles a day and do regular workouts. I couldn't understand why I often felt drained and was getting out of breath walking up hills. Someone suggested I was low on iron. A £5 blood test (from Amazon) confirmed that was the case. I've started taking a supplement and have also added more iron rich food to my diet and am hoping to get my zip back soon.

Meat but you might be a vegatarian. You need pulses annd legumes annd nuts. and you need to take a good supplement, look at British Supplements ‘stacks’ page. Maybe take a high strength Omega 3 supplement. My eye surgeon told me if he was in charge he’d have everyone on them. Try denser fish like haddock or monkfish.

My family all have iron deficiencies/anaemia and we often feel tired and exhausted despite eating the best diet. It's frustrating but on the other hand there's no point pouring your effort and energy into tweaking a pretty good diet when you need to be paying attention elsewhere (walks, fresh air, water, all free stuff, iron supplements if you need them, sleep).

As for that post on carbs, I'm still laughing...I eat sweet pots, basmati rice, stoneground flour from a local mill and lots of oats, bulgar wheat...lots of processed white carbs are terrible for you, but there's so many other carbs you can have, plus many foods have carbs and protein and fibre in them- beans and lentils for starters. I did a protein/vegetable diet for a year, I did lose weight but boy, I did not feel good.

Poster has obviously never heard of complex carbs, we need carbs for brain function, muscles etc. 45-65% of daily calories come from healthy carbohydrates. I’m 60 no health issues, bursting with life, I eat the old fashioned way and weigh 8st 12lb.

If this day of food represented around 1700 calories then around 90g of that would be protein. I doubt OP weighs more than 90kg if she's eating 1700 calories to maintain her weight. Of course she may be eating much larger or much smaller portions than that estimate but again, OP said she's not looking to lose weight which suggests this is her maintenance level from which we can extrapolate her approximate weight in proportion to the calories she is eating.
Basically, this is plenty of protein, even with the 1g per kg metric.

Why are you so invested in insisting this is enough protein? You cannot possibly calculate macros without knowing the exact portion of each food, so your calculation is at best just a guess. I seriously doubt this is 90g of protein, as someone who has been calculating macros for the past year and knowing how hard it is to hit that goal. I didn’t see anything about macros nor the calories. If I missed it sorry, calorie counting is useless imho. I’m not suggesting she lose weight at all. I was simply providing background on my situation and my lack of understanding about protein. My suggestion to the OP would be to calculate her macros and start from there.