Come forward EatBetterers and unite - it's the second happy healthy eating thread!

[fuzzpig]

Here's the previous thread where it all began!

EatBetterers are trying to improve the diets of ourselves and our families. No weighing, restricting, calorie counting etc - just finding joy in nourishing ourselves by making positive changes one step at a time. All welcome! :)

Jem if you can, try and wade through all of this thread and the previous one. As well as lots if great meal ideas there's chats about caring for ourselves properly, nourishment of body and soul, not just through food , ideas underpinning this whole way of eating, mindfulness etc. We shouldn't let you get away with saying 'you let yourself go' for example-far too harsh on yourself! It sounds like you've had a rough time so be gentle and look after yourself, we all have times when we can't or just don't prioritise our own needs and health, it's not a failing

I agree with sleep. It's only just recently that im thinking of that idea about giving myself permission to look after myself. It is hard for me to think this way. Before these threads I didn't used to allow myself lunch! Not even a can of soup It still feels weird now tbh. Work in progress.

Thank you Sleep for being so nice. I haven't been looking after myself nearly as much as I should and it shows in how I look and feel! I said to myself that when dd gets to 2 I'm going to start doing more to look after me. Well she's just had her birthday so I've got to get motivated. I have got myself a little notebook and I'm going to work my way through the threads as you suggest and make notes. It's been great coming on here as I don't feel I can speak to anyone in real life about how I've been feeling.

Hi all, not got the energy to add much at the moment. I have got a chest infection - first illness since DH started work so I'm panicking about the school run etc :( my CFS and POTS symptoms are mostly under control but all it takes is one bug and it all goes horrible. There's some things I always get in when I'm ill, like crisps (scratches my itchy throat!) but I'm also reminding myself to get lots of nice fruit and nuts and things too.

Welcome Jem - not much to add really but I agree about small steps. The breakfast thing was actually my first change too, and it really set me up for the day so I wasn't craving sugar (as I was after eating cereal) and was therefore more able to think about healthy choices.

Still - so sorry to hear what your DS is going through, not fair that this keeps happening look after yourself xx

I'm the same BTW about not looking after myself, I've always tended to neglect myself due to rubbish self esteem (and not learning self care from my parents) but it totally spiralled after becoming a mum too.

This thread and the previous one has been brilliant, I don't really talk to anyone about it IRL either.

Jemster I wonder if you could start with breakfast on a non work day to kickstart the habit. I had a poached egg with steamed green beans and it felt like a treat! You can get creative with lunch - it can be a small version of another meal. Maybe I'm odd but I can happily eat cold leftovers for lunch. So is it worth you planning a nourishing evening meal that you could easily eat cold ( obv make sure you cool and refrigerate safely- I know nothing about meat and fish). Just chuck part of the eve meal into a lunch box as you prepare it and add to it. Eg if you are making chilli put some kidney beans in a lunch box then add cucumber etc while your chilli bubbles away. Just an idea. Mainly think about what you really like to eat and build on it. It can be tricky when you have a young family ( mine are 9 & 13) as their needs are so immediate. On the other hand it does mean that you really need to look after yourself to cope. I think decide on one thing you are going to do and see how you go from there.

Oh fuzz, a chest infection?! Have no advice except really look after yourself. Perhaps focus on doing one thing well? What could that be without depleting your energy stores? It could even be ignoring housework and getting enough rest, followed by giving the kids beans on toast for tea. (reading back it sounds a bit patronising but you know I've posted with best of intentions!).

Checking in after being incommunicado for a few weeks with visitors and trips etc.

Sorry about your Ds still, that sounds horrible. How old is he?

LOVING empathy calories!

Welcome jem, I'm a relative newcomer too, flitting between this and the 5:2 maintainers thread trying to learn how to achieve and keep a healthy balanced life.

It's just under 4weeks until I do my epic charity bike ride so seeing it as a good opportunity to sort my body out in terms of what I'm putting in it. Today was an ease in but the rest of the month will be spent eating vegan and clean as much as poss, no (non fruit) sugar or alcohol or dairy. Just very good stuff into my system. I'm going to try to kick the coffee habit too, or at least reduce it.

Today had a green smoothie, vegan split pea soup and half a vegan sandwich with beetroot, tomato, avocado and pesto. Then a WHOLE mango in the avo as I was starving. Was at a farewell dinner this eve at a sharing style restaurant with no vegan options so I partook of a little of each dish (bean stew, grilled artichokes with burrrata, mushrooms on toast, magarita pizza, gruyere and cameralised onion pizza, snap pea salad.... I didn't have the duck sausage, chips or any pud). Was hungry when I got home though so a handful of cashews

Onwards....

Hi Americas, how was the trip? Hope you had a lovely time. Sounds like you had another delicious dinner with friends! Just a thought but do you think you may have been hungry because not much protein? Also something to think about in terms of your recovery and performance cycling , your muscles won't cope well if you don't get enough.

How is everyone else doing? I haven't actually eaten much today, (although that certainly wasn't the case over the weekend ) - I really felt it at the gym this afternoon though, weak and not much energy, despite a decent lunch of roast chicken breast and courgette/parmesan salad. I should have had a proper breakfast but didn't have a chance today, it was chaotic here. I have just had a lovely solo dinner of poached eggs on toast with a pile of asparagus with lemon, butter and salt. Its so nice when DH is out in the evening occasionally, so easy!

Hi, I'd love to join if that's okay.

I'm struggling with recovering from bulimia - I have 10 years history of struggling on and off with eating disorders, both anorexia and bulimia. I fully recovered for a few years which was amazing, but relapsed badly in October with Anorexia after a nasty break up, and lost 35 pounds in 6 weeks. This then led to the return of bulimia.

I stopped purging around February, but continued binging and as a result I'm now 20 pounds above the weight where I feel comfortable with myself.

I find clean eating helps me keep a handle on the binges, although I'm trying to not get too black and white over it. I also think if I focus on clean, healthy eating and stopping the binges, I'll naturally lose this extra weight without having to count calories as I'm very active.

I am.very loosely counting calories - just kind of planning ahead what I'll eat for meals and then knowing approximately what I have left for snacks although I'm not really weighing food ect as don't want to get too obsessive. I'm aiming for around 2000 calories a day although allowing some more leniency during the weekends.

I have 2 horses and ride for other people freelance as a job. I also donweekly aerial silks and pole dancing classes, and try to do either an exercise video or 30 minutes on my stationary bike 3 times a week (so basically I work out monday-Friday).

I know this isn't a replacement for proper professional help, and I'm waiting for my referral to come through but I think the accountability and support will help - eating disorder and weight loss aside, I feel much happier in myself and better generally when I eat.mostly clean, and I'm an athlete (I compete the horses at a high level) so my body deserves to be treated as such!

I still have some.'unclean' snacks ect at home which I'll eat but will replace with better things when they run out.

I weigh in and measure on Wednesdays as that's the only day I can guarantee I wake up at home as my boyfriend is busy Tuesday nights so I don't stay at his :)

I hope this is okay and sorry for the essay!

Can I join? I would like to be accountable. I currently eat very healthy lunch and dinner, breakfast is usually a homemade muffin (full of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and fruit). My downfall is chocolate biscuits. Am not looking to lose weight as am normal-low BMI but to improve my snacking - eat more cleanly I think. Am quite into Dale Pinnocks books ATM which have some lovely clean type snacks. Love the atmosphere on this thread!

Welcome forever and cantdo, nice to have some newbies!

Wow, you sound pretty fit forever - aerial silks sounds amazing fun . Your mindset about treating your body properly sounds great - it will need lots of great quality nourishment to keep up with your schedule! With your history in mind, can I suggest a couple of things?

Firstly put the emphasis on the slow, mindful eating aspect of what we are doing - even more than on the actual food. Even, if possible, when you binge!

Second, can you get rid of the scales? Use body measurements if you must but we are pretty anti-weighing...it serves no purpose except to make us feel bad. Dame even managed to get weighed at the doctors and not look - but she knows she is dropping dress sizes

I'm not sure about totally getting rid of the 'unclean' snacks - only you can decide about whether they are a trigger food for you, but if you can be relaxed about having them there, so if you want them its fine to eat them then that's a good thing - they aren't evil! Sometimes we do crave the empathy calories and the sky won't fall in if we have them - this clean eating lark is a practice not a perfect (perfection doesn't exist!) Aim for the 80:20 balance .

Cantdo - your muffins sound good - are you eating enough protein generally? Just wondering if that is maybe what makes you hit the biscuits, is it genuine hunger and perhaps your meals could be more substantial, particularly on the protein front?

fuzz are you feeling better?

Hello :)

Found things hard the last week or so with meds etc. Settling down a bit now and feel half normal today so will make cod and chorizo/chickpeas later. I have celery soup on the hob atm.

Hello new people, welcome :)

Dame even managed to get weighed at the doctors and not look

I'm so proud

I think weight loss for me has slowed down a bit but still continuing BUT skin, hair and nails look fab -if I do say so myself-and I feel great, apart from dodgy meds.

well done Dame - its especially impressive what you are achieving, given the medication, high bp etc .

Thank you :)

The reason I want to keep weighing weekly is without that accountability I only too easily fall into a total binge pattern whereas I find it helpful knowing I have to face up to it every week - I don't mind how long it takes as this is the way I feel best eating so its certainly not a 'diet' as such.

Re. getting rid of the unclean snacks, I'm just much more inclined to grab a packet of crisps if they're there opposed to roasting some chickpeas (which I love), purely because its more effort, and I'm really enjoying experimenting with making "clean" deserts as chocolate mousse made with banana, avocado and cocoa powder, but if I have some aero mousse's in the fridge, I'll grab one instead. It's just because I feel better eating that way, but if I need to grab a quick lunch from a shop on occasion I wouldn't be unhappy if I grabbed a packet of crisps if that made sense?

My food today so far has been oatmeal with a tablespoon of pure peanut butter (literally just peanuts), I did unfortunately have a small binge/purge as found some trigger food - I need to figure out a way of stopping to think before I dive in as then I realise its not worth it and makes me unhappy and I don't even enjoy the food. However instead of calling the day ruined I've gone straight back on the wagon.

I had some roast chickpeas and a pear for a snack and lunch was a wholegrain seedy wrap with chicken, pesto and salad. I had that with my last packet of sunbite crisps and a bowl of pineapple.

Dinner will be roast butternut squash stuffed with a mushroom/crème fraiche/wild rice mix, topped with a little parmesan and pine nuts, with carrots and broccoli. Probably an aero mousse for desert as still working through them!

Wow this thread has been busy since I last popped in! I also like the ethos of this thread - so many of the mums I know are on such strict diets, but I need something more realistic.

Love all the food ideas. Has anyone got a good healthy muffin recipe they would like to share? I've been doing pretty well keeping off the biscuits and cakes, but still find myself snacking a lot particularly in the afternoons, generally I will have nuts/fruit/rye/homous but need a bit of variety so was wondering about some healthy muffins. I still seem to find it impossible to go between meals without some sort of snack. Is this normal?

Have generally done quite well over the past few days.
Yesterday was a bit of a blip - was absolutely starving all day, maybe because it was the first day of my period? I started off with sushi for lunch but that didn't help, tried to keep snacks healthy eg rye with salmon, nuts, fruit. But then I went to a children's birthday tea after school and just couldn't resist a few crisps however I did stay off the cakes

stillearnin - I often eat leftovers for lunch the next day, my favourite kind of meal!

jemster I find the DCs aren't always welcoming of my new healthy eating ideas, but I just try not to worry about it! It is early days. They will gradually learn by example. I try and adapt the meals a bit, but they do also have quite a sweet tooth. Younger children are more active so burn more calories, and of course low calorie / high fibre diets are not suitable for small children anyway. As long as they are eating well generally a bit of sweet food will not hurt, and sometimes banning something completely just makes them want it more, I find.

Perhaps we could all post some ideas of meals that work for our 'better eating' plans, whilst still keeping our fussy DCs happy? I will try and think of some.

PS I didn't mean to imply everyone else's DCs are fussy - just know that mine are!

Cod and chorizo was declared 'gorgeous' by Dh

Took 20 mins start to finish-my kind of cooking!

don't - I have printed off this recipe for banana muffins with sweetness from maple syrup which I am definitely going to try this week (just haven't found time yet!).

Saute an onion and garlic then chorizo.

Bung in a can of chick peas

Then a can of tomatoes

Then a bag of spinach

Transfer to an oven proof dish and place seasoned cod in top and cook for about 15 mins.

Briefly, Dame, I do a similar recipe but add a chopped up roasted pepper which really adds to the flavour. Yum!

More later - morning rush here!

i can't eat peppers at all, they make me very sick but I can imagine they add a nice flavour.