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! :)

Yum - I am eating those sugar free banana muffins I linked to the other day. This is my second batch, and I've added blueberries - even better.

I drink milk, eat honey, and a little wine becuase it is in the bible to do so.

Another nutritional approach I haven't fully explored ....could be interesting!

Oops sorry for going awol ready, not a great start!

I had a few very rough days, broke up and got back together with my partner about 3 times and each time led to mass out of control eating :(

I've decided to knock calorie counting on the head and see how I go - my general eating habits are better than ever but I'm finding calorie counting is stopping me eating according to my hunger and I obsess over it too much.

I know how I eat healthily and if I can do that and reduce if not eliminate the binges I will settle back at my natural happy weight so its pointless!

Today I had oatmeal with a tablespoon of pure peanut butter mixed with a banana and a handful of dried cranberries for breakfast

I had this at 8am and without counting calories, I wasn't thinking about food so much and therefore didn't get hungry until 2pm! I whipped up a quick bean and veg chilli which I had on a jacket potato with some cheese, a dollop of crème fraiche and salad on the side. I also had 2 satsumas.

Dinner is cooking - its baked risotto balls (they were leftover so dipped them in some beaten egg, then rolled in parmesan and homemade breadcrumbs). I'll have this with a bit of leftover broccoli and carrot, plus salad and some griddled asparagus dressed with lemon juice and parmesan! Yum :)

I had a glut of pears reaching the end of their edible state so I've made a "clean" pear crumble - with oats and wholemeal flour and honey for a sweetener so I'll see how that turns out. I have some frozen bananas so may blend one up to have as icecream.

I'm feeling very positive and energetic today, and I'm really enjoying channelling my passion for food into creating healthy, tasty food!

Forever-poor you, that sounds really stressful

Those meals sounds delicious foreverlexicon. I hope this week is better.

I had vegetable lasagne for dinner - the first white pasta I have had in a couple of weeks, but DH made it so would have been rude to refuse! Plus it contained lots of healthy vegetables and was all home-made. I don't know if wholemeal lasagne sheets would be quite the same but I will look out for them.

However I did go to a children's party this afternoon, and didn't have any pizza or cake or crisps. I find kids parties the worst for snacking! Everytime I was offered a piece of pizza I thought "do I really want this or need this?" and realised that actually I would have been eating it for the sake of it.

I did try some Lidl rye bread the other day and have to admit I really wasn't keen on it. Can anyone recommend a nice rye bread?

Like you foreverlexicon I am trying not to obsess about food which is why I don't want to calorie count. I am making a big effort only to eat when I am hungry, but to enjoy my meals more. If I start thinking about food in between meals I just try and think about something else. Doesn't always work though (e.g. when DH started a conversation about which brand of biscuits he prefers - I could have lamped him! I couldn't stop thinking about biscuits for ages after that!)

www.cleaneatingmag.com/recipes/plum-crumble/

Hello, Sleepwhenidie pointed me in this direction so here I am. Need to catch up on what's going on so sorry if I repeat what anybody else may have already said.

Welcome glitter

Today I'm eating a lot trying not to eat crap though. PMT

Breakfast-Greek yoga with strawberries, grapes and banana and ground almonds.

Lunch-spinach and courgette salad with prawn and spring onion pancakes. Yum

Hi Glitter!

I am just tucking into leftovers from cod, chickpea, chorizo last night, no cod left so I've put some tuna and grated cheese on top and heated it through, it's great.

Aaaargh. Really really struggling this weekend. DCs puking everywhere from Friday, then they had pretty scary fevers (were delirious - horrible). DH and I were fine until yesterday when we both got a lot of tummy pain and I felt very flu like.

The problem is I am emetophobic. It's not as bad as it was, but I still get very panicky if I think I might get sick. These last few days I have ended up too scared to eat or drink and, at times, literally too scared to move too :(. It has led to me feeling even worse because I feel weak, and today I have managed to eat a peeled pear and a couple of dry things, it's finding the balance between overdoing it and getting more panicky at the 'full' feeling, and feeling so empty that I feel sick anyway.

Ugggh I hate my brain :( just hoping against hope that I can get the DCs to school tomorrow and somehow make it through work.

Not being rude fuzzpig [and I barely know you on here], but what horrible thing happens if you are sick?

Don't know really. But then, part of the definition of a phobia is that it's irrational :( the horrible thing would be the being sick itself I guess. It completely terrifies me.

I know partly it's down to associations from when I was little. It's going to sound really stupid, but it is totally wound up with my grandad dying. Literally the last time I saw him he was being sick, next thing I knew he was in hospital dying and I wasn't allowed to see him, nobody would tell me what was happening until he was dead. And then the first time DD was sick (other than bringing up milk as a baby, which I was fine with) aged 18 months she ended up in hospital on a drip being tested for all sorts because it got so bad. So that obviously didn't help. I know it's irrational though and that most vomiting is, well, just vomiting.

I find it really humiliating too. Mum used to get randomly car sick due to painkillers and every time I would panic and squeeze my eyes tight shut and pretend to be asleep because for some reason I just couldn't handle it. I've never understood why I feel like that. It's just one manifestation of my OCD I think, which I'm still waiting on treatment for.

It is getting better gradually, purely because in the last few years I have been sick more (had an iron stomach before having DCs), so I've had to get used to it, but the panic is still there. For example if DD says somebody was sick at school I'll get instantly convinced that it's norovirus and really panicky no matter how much I tell myself there are all sorts of other reasons for it. I am funny about germs anyway, and anything sickness related is ten times worse. One time I saw one of the regular checkout staff at the local supermarket throw up at the checkout. Couldn't actually go to her for about a year afterwards, I'd always choose a different checkout line.

Sorry for epic waffle there. It's really embarrassing. Even these last few days I've been trying to tell myself that it would actually be better once I'd been sick, because then I wouldn't have the pain and the horrible prickly heat feeling that you get beforehand, but I still couldn't make myself eat. I was too scared :(

Shouldn't have gone on like that sorry

Thats ok
The way you have described it doesnt sound irrational at all.

Oh fuzz, fuzz, fuzz, no need to be sorry or embarrassed! That is very tricky and I think the experiences you have had cannot have helped. I hope you can get some proper help with it.

Fuzz - that sounds like a nightmare, hope you feel better soon!

Breakfast today was some eggs (not sure how much as it was leftovers from what I dipped my risotto balls in the other day - seemed a shame to waste it! I used 2 originally so maybe 1?), scrambled with half a courgette and some mushrooms, in a wholewheat pitta with a little mayo. Also had some blueberries and a small banana chopped up with maple syrup.

I had an apple and some pistachios mid morning for a snack.

I had a nap before lunch as started work at 6am and it was hectic (rode 4 horses and mucked out 6!) and woke up feeling really bingey. Luckily I had some prepped salad so took some of that and dumped yesterdays leftover pasta topping on it, and had 2 leftover risotto balls with it. Also topped it with some bbq chicken. It felt almost like a binge as I felt quite "rawrrr" about it and started shovelling it in, and the plateful definitely seemed too much for lunch....Then about 2/3 through I thought right that's enough. If I eat all of it, I will of overeaten and I'll feel pants so I put the rest in the fridge for tomorrow. Feel very pleased I did that!

Then I had a friend come over to do my hair and he brought a huge slab of popcorn chocolate (500g!). I had a piece and really savoured it - its made with milk chocolate so not ideal but I'm a chocolate fiend so milk chocolate will be staying in my life! Then made my boyfriend hide the rest - he can give me rations. Unfortunately I don't trust myself to keep it somewhere I know...I'll end up picking bits of it until I feel I've had too much and then I'll b/p on it whereas if someone rations it for me I'll actually enjoy it as part of a healthy diet :) So feeling pleased with myself!

Am making the hairy dieters chicken korma for dinner with wholegrain rice and still have healthy pear crumble left for desert, yum!

Thanks all starting to feel a bit more human now! With any luck I'll manage a proper meal tonight :)

Oh fuzz, you poor old thing. Glad you're on the mend x

I have used mapmyrun for quite a while to record exercise and there is a food section now so I've been adding in my food to pinpoint where I slump and reach for the not so good snack choices. I'm also trying to cut down the amount of tea I drink and have water instead.

Good Lord I had a dreadful day yesterday!

Ate well at meal times but OMG the snacking was dreadful, and I don't snack usually 4, yes FOUR pieces of fruit cake and WHITE bread! I could've eaten the furniture!!!!! Not had a day like that since I started.

Anyway, woke up and felt crap and bloated so not doing that today - eggs for breakfast and quiche and huge spinach/courgette/apple and carrot/avacado salad with banana, grapes and Greek yog with a drizzle of maple syrup to curb my sweet tooth.

Onwards and upwards :)

Hi all, thanks again for all the well wishes. I feel pretty much better now and made it through my shift. Still felt really dodgy until mid morning when period arrived - wonder if that was making me feel worse, emetophobia-wise, as PMT does do crazy stuff to my mood and anxiety etc. Ah well at least I seem to have missed the eating-everything-in-sight day that usually occurs with it :o

So hopefully back to normal now. Need to figure out what I'm doing food wise, I think some food got wasted because none of us were well enough to eat it :(

On a positive note I started using my pedometer today and it turns out that to the school and back is just over 2,500 steps. I've done nearly 9,000 today.

Hi everyone, glad you are feeling back to your normal self Dame - look at yesterday as part of the 20% it won't do any harm.

Fuzz I just saw this thread and thought of you, I don't know if you have any advice or just a little solidarity to help her? That's brilliant you are walking so much! So pleased you are feeling better.

Food today - breakfast out - egg mayo with asparagus and watercress on sourdough (yum) with tea (I am trying a week without coffee, just to see if I feel any different, I don't think I am so far), spinach and watercress soup with parmesan shaved on top for lunch, just had a satsuma and a handful of nuts. I am making ras-al-hanout chicken with yoghurt dip and lentils/veg for dinner, chicken is marinading, I just need to run out and get sumac and pomegranate seeds/rocket for the dip and topping.

A challenging weekend coming up. I am working away from 9am Friday to 10pm Sunday, with little time to eat, and rubbish shops. I am planning on taking:

• A vat of couscous with pine nuts, beans and seeds
• several packets of oatcakes and chickpea crackers
• a bag of almonds
• a pot of dried fruits
• a sliced loaf of spelt bread with a little pot of butter
• several bananas

I just know it's going to be a carby weekend with not enough protein, but hopefully I can keep it reasonably healthy, and then make up for it next week. There's no fridge where I'm going either (music festival in a rural church) so I can't take anything that will spoil if it has to live in my car for three days!

Wish me luck!