I would like some help with improving my family's diet

[MrsNouveauRichards]

But all the 'official' help out there seems geared towards the utterly clueless!

None of us are overweight, I am just within a healthy BMI, DH's BMI is 19 or something equally low! And the children are a healthy weight for their age/height.

I have been trying to lose a couple of pounds, and have turned to My Fitness Pal for some help.

Yesterday I thought I had done really well, with only a little slip up of a couple of biscuits in the afternoon.
Breakfast - Greek yoghurt, blueberries, honey and ground flaxseed. Cup of tea.

Lunch - carrot sticks, peppers, cucumber, raw cauliflower, tomatoes and yoghurt dip.

Biscuits and a cup of tea at a friend's house.

Dinner - stirfry with lots of veg and beansprouts, chicken and sauce (92cals per half a packet)

That took me to my full calorie allowance. I felt hungry all day.

The rest of the family had tuna mayo wraps for lunch.

Today we had wholemeal toast and Marmite for breakfast and lids had an innocent smoothie each,cheese and cucumber sandwiches for lunch and a couple of homemade biscuits. I had a flapjack at a friend's house, the kids had satsumas, and dinner was bacon and broccoli spaghetti. I am over my cals today.

I know the cakes and biscuits aren't great, but I have obviously got it all wrong, as I thought the rest of the diet was pretty good.

What can I change? I am not after criticism, but helpful advice, which will be very gratefully received :)

You need to stop eating any biscuits/cakes and eat protein (lean meat/chicken/fish) instead. You will be much less hungry calorie-for-calorie.

Thank you.

I did a low carb diet, and I felt a lot less hungry for certain, but I was so miserable! And I had gut ache almost constantly. I guess there is a happy medium though!

May I ask what you would eat in a typical day?

Ooh, hello.

Apologies for MASSIVE hijack but I actually came on the food board to start a support thread - aimed at creating a healthier family diet/lifestyle. Rules: no judging, no preaching!

What do you reckon to using this thread?

I am happy with that! :o

I have just been putting meals onto MFP and some have been surprising, bolognese less that 300cals, but shepherds pie, curry, jacket potatoes etc quite high.

We have a really good fruit and veg stall here on a Saturday and Tuesday, and DS is a complete fruit bat, so stocking up tomorrow.

I think I need to concentrate on fruit for snacks to start with, and less baked goods

I need a boost to stop eating cake to! Have lived on veggies and fruit with yoghurt and a lil bit of chicken last few days.

I think my DCs' diet is... ok. Would be more ok if they were more active but I'm ashamed to say they aren't. It's not their fault - DH has a severe back injury and doesn't get out much, and I am wasting the entire summer being ill I have viral myalgia and can barely get off the sofa. We don't have a garden so they are confined to the house mostly. They run around like mad things but I doubt they get the 60mins a day.

Anyway - food wise I think meals are fairly healthy, it's mostly home cooked with a decent amount of veg. Fruit is absolutely no problem - well apart from the fact we have to limit it or they'd eat the lot.

Main issues - variety. We like a lot of different food, but the DCs (5 and nearly 3) don't really. This year we've been coasting and sticking to staples so I think they're unused to trying new things now.

Other main issue is snacking. I think they eat too many snacks and then eat less of their dinner (even if it's something they like). I kind of blame DH for this - he is way too soft IMO!

I guess my aim is to just gradually make small changes.

A LOT of calories are hidden in bread- if you are wanting to cut down on the calories then danish syle bread is a lot lower, approx 50-60 cals a slice compared to 100-120 in a normal slice.

I try to make our own bread when possible, and failing that I try to get wholegrain.

I am actually surprised we are not all huge, going by the calorie counts on MFP!

I like veg, and will happily have a plateful for my meals, but if we are out and a friend has made cake, I simply cannot refuse! Also, if we have been out (park for example) and come home all starving, I immediately think "mmm....toast/crumpets/cake" not "oh, I'll have an apple" the kids however would be happy with an apple and a couple of crackers and peanut butter (boak)

Tomorrow is likely to be pancakes as is usual for a Saturday, but followed by a trip to the market and park, lunch will be bread based most likely, sandwiches filled with salad and cheese perhaps, off to the horses for the afternoon, a fair bit of exercise there, then home for dinner - chicken and salad I think, possibly fish fingers, sweetcorn and new potatoes for dcs.

One thing that concerns me a little is that I am prone to anemia, and my daughter is very fair with pale gums. She also suffers from eczema and I believe there is a link between the two.

I thought we had an ok diet, but needing a few improvements. MFP is telling me I am getting only about 20% of my iron, which would suggest we are all low.

Need to look up some iron rich meals.....

I might have been using it wrong but mfp when I used it said to have 1200 kcals a day which is very small. To maintain weight (not lose it) I think you need 1800/1900.

I'm not really thinking in terms of calories TBH. Not for the DCs anyway.

I get confused by portion sizes though - no idea how much to give them.

Lopsided the 1200 may have been your net calories - because it also records exercise ie calories burned. IIRC it doesn't actually tell you how many calories to eat, or how many to burn, it just gives you the target for daily net calories (what's left over after exercise) - it is up to you how to achieve it. So if you wanted a lazy day doing no exercise you could only eat 1200, but if you did say 500 calories worth of exercise then you could eat 1700 that day.

Watching this thread with interest.
DH and DTs are slim, I am 5 st overweight.
I don't eat meat, but do eat fish, otherwise we have a very similar diet.

I want to cut down on unhealthy snacks (eg crisps). Otherwise, we have a very good diet, I think - the Dts (who are 3) will happily eat all fruit and veg, all fish and meat, pretty much everything.

Would love to hear some of your healthy family meal suggestions.
Our staples are:
Baked salmon and veg with new potatoes
Pasta and vegetable sauce
Fishfingers and oven chips (once a week)
Smoked haddock in milk
Chick pea and spinach risotto
Roast chicken and veg (I have quorn with this)

If confined to the sofa all day due to illness, the OP's calorie needs will be much lower though.

MrsN is it help with a healthier diet for your family you want, or weight loss for you? The former would probably result in weight loss too only over a much longer period - probably more sustainable in the long term though, if you can make a permanent change.

Something that I find v helpful for ensuring that we all eat enough veg is to have a large organic veg box every week. We eat some bizarre things sometimes but it means we get more variety than we would if I just went to the greengrocer and chose what I fancy. It forces me to be much more creative to use everything up.

My advice would be to make breakfast more substantial (white toast/marmite and a smoothie is a lot of sugar but not much else to keep you going) - porridge is your friend here, and eggs. And to swap all white bread/pasta/rice etc for wholemeal versions, and to try to eat more of other kinds of cereals than just wheat.

We tend to have either wholegrain bread, or make our own. I usually have porridge or toast for breakfast.

Essentially I want a healthier diet, but with some weightloss as an added benefit.

Definitely not confined to sofa I have a nearly 2 year old and 4yr old, and 2 horses which equates to very little time spent staying still!

I like to bake, and then tend to nibble, so I suppose healthier baking is a good start :o

Instead of a roast today, we are having a slow BBQed pork joint, with sweet potato mash and cabbage.

Sorry TPL, you meant fuzzpig being ill

Yeah it's me who is sofa-bound ATM, so agree about eating less... though it's been taken out of my hands anyway as even the act of eating is exhausting and I feel sick anyway (sorry for moaning! Just sick of this )

For the most part I just want to focus on helping the DCs eat more healthily and making little simple changes, neither of us are capable of a massive diet/activity overhaul right now (and at least in terms of diet I don't think it's needed)

Baby steps :) as TPL says, more sustainable.

It was my mix up, sorry Fuzzpig, I'm sorry you feel so ill - is it something that is likely to improve any time soon?

MrsN we bake our own bread too but I insist on having 50% rye/50% white at least half the time, because although home made bread is nicer and better for you than shop bought, if you just use white flour it still isn't that great for you. It's a lot of calories but not a lot of goodness and it doesn't fill you up for as long.

Doctor said it was viral myalgia caused by a very long chest infection - says two weeks but I'm going back to talk about the fact that I've been suffering similar symptoms for over a year as it looks like it may be something more like ME. Bit scared TBH :(

Anyway. Funny you mention bread as I decided today to stick to whole bread rather than white. DCs don't seem bothered either way - it'll be me who has trouble! I like granary etc but some things just taste better on thick white unhealthy bread

Oh they undoubtedly do! Especially toasted cheese sandwiches, mmmm.

That does sound rough, you poor thing. Try not to worry too much yet though - I had all the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis for 18 months but I have been tested 3 times now and all negative. I haven't had any symptoms for a few months now, so hopefully it was just a self limiting condition. Eating well can only make you feel better, whether it turns out to be ME or not. I think a lot of us run on very low nutrition without realising it, or noticing how bad we feel.