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! :)

Hi Super, yes join in!

I found a nice website today, only looked at it briefly but it's called lavender and lovage and seems to have nice recipes on it. I think it's a bit 5:2 but there's a lovely recipe for oat and blueberry American pancake recipe. I'm going to try it tomorrow.

I'm also going to make a mushroom sauce to go with chicken using yoghurt for tonight's dinner.

I've sort of lost my way recently. Going on holiday tomorrow for a week but will definitely be back in the mindset when I get back.

Welcome notmaisie - slowing down is hard isn't it! Most of us are so used to eating quickly, it takes a long time to undo the habit and even then sometimes self-reminders are needed .

Welcome Super, sounds like you have made a great change already.

Hi Neeko, nice to see you back. Why don't you use the holiday just to practice relaxing and slowing down with food as well as everything else? No restrictions, but not a 'sod it I'm on holiday so I'm going to eat everything in sight' more of a 'I'm on holiday, it's a time to relax, indulge and enjoy anything I feel like eating but slowly and sensually' make it hedonistic and languid rather than hedonistic food mayhem .

Still the trapeze was amazing, much scarier than I thought but yes I do want to go back! Very chuffed with myself. I have a video I will try and post....

Thanks Sleep. That's a good idea.

Thanks Sleep, I am truly astonished at how hard I'm finding it simply to keep my attention on the fact I'm eating... I think somewhere upthread you recommended a couple of books, but I didn't have the sense to note them down at the time and now I can't find them - would you mind giving the titles again?

notmaisie they were the Slow Down Diet and Nourishing Wisdom, both by Marc David. Similar in theme but the Slow Down Diet is more practical, giving steps each week towards the same sort of things as we are doing here, so that would probably be good one for you to start with . Nourishing Wisdom, is more about the ideas behind mind-body nutrition.

Thanks very much sleep, I shall take a look at them.

Thanks for the welcomes! I have had a mixed weekend foodwise. Had to go on a long trip to visit family yesterday, which is a whole other can or worms. Had a coffee and 2 grilled slices of bacon with 2 slices of wholemeal bread before going. Had lunch in the local bakery cafe when we got there, so i had a small white dinner roll filled with salad and a coffee. So far, okayish (though more bread than I have had all week) but then I had to fall off the wagon with a fresh cream and jam doughnut from the bakery with the coffee. I gave dh about a third of it but it was very delicious. Had a huge salad with cold roast chicken breast for dinner when we got home. And a G&T when dd was in bed. So, as I said mixed...

Today has not been good at all. Had a grilled bacon sandwich, crusty white bread from the bakery and a small gingerbread man for brunch (dh made it and brought it to me in bed so I could not refuse!)

And we are going to a nearby seaside town for a walk on the beach soon and dd has requested fish'n'chips from the excellent place in that town...so today is a bit of a lost cause.

Tomorrow should be better!
Hope you are all having a delicious, healthy weekend :-)

Enjoy those fish and chips though! :o

We went out for lunch today (basically because we had £20 off voucher about to expire!) and for the first time EVER I actually had the confidence to ask for a smaller portion of pasta. They did it happily and I was pleasantly surprised they reduced the cost significantly too.

We also got off the bus really early and walked the rest of the way, about 2.3km rather than getting the bus all the way there.

Hello everyone. I had a good-ish weekend eating-wise. I always allow myself to be flexible on weekends as that's when we do alot of socialising/going out. Had a lot of fresh fruit, plus homecooked dinners (DH made roasted peppers and aubergines topped with fresh grillled mackeral on Saturday night and spaghetti [wholemeal] bolognoise packed with tomatoes for tonight - both recipes from this month's Good Food magazine).

We ate out today at Wahaca on the Southbank (we live in London) and instead of a meat dish I fancied the veggie courgette & cactus burrito with wild rice. Of course, I then followed it up with churros & chocolate dipping sauce .

Also enjoyed some bitter dark chocolate with roasted almonds, and a scrummy Chelsea bun and Gruyere & chive scone from my local artisan bakery Gail's which I think is as good as homemade though not sure (better than Tesco or Gregg's I'm sure!).

Will try and hold off from white flour and sugar this week again. But all in all, I'm really happy with my eating choices this weekend.

Eek. Big party last night. Foodwise pretty good but drank an outrageous amount and have felt crappy all day. Am going to nourish myself well this week and drink lots... of water.

Am going to nourish myself well this week

That's the perfect way of putting it holmes. I love the idea of nourishing myself and it helps me stick with the healthy eating. Also, I don't feel guilty when I eat not-so-nourishingly because my next meal/day is another opportunity to redress the balance. And life is all about balance, isn't it :)

I've got a poorly DP and what looks like the beginnings of a poorly DS too, so the past few days haven't been great food wise. Yesterday I had puffed rice and wheat free toast for breakfast, Roast lamb for lunch and egg and chips on my break at work (the menu isn't very wheat free friendly, I'm struggling!). Saturday wasn't too bad - puffed rice, pork chops with sweet potato and veg, dinner out was sweet chilli chicken with veg.

Need to try and fill my poorly fellas with nutritious food so hoping to do a little better today, as well as playing nurse.

Bit of a lost weekend for me, food wise too , visiting family, PIL on Friday, lovely MIL has (sort of) bought into the less carbs idea so steak and veg, not too bad. Saturday my DM , like someone said, whole other subject...small portion of cottage pie but too much . Then dinner at SIL- take away fish and chips, which really is my favourite. Really enjoyed it but felt like I could have been rolled home (fast asleep) . Yesterday very hit and miss, kids party that I had to stay at so cheese and pineapple and a couple of ham sandwiches, then dinner on the run driving home last night. Veggie count definitely not high! Have a green smoothie planned for lunch, once I've shopped and hauled my tummy round the gym . You are right Bssh it's all about balance, the crime would be to beat yourself up with guilt and 'shouldn't' about eating less nourishing foods from time to time. In the scheme of a mostly nutrient-dense way of eating, it won't hurt.

My favourite soup is more like a stew really, start with a base of olive oil, garlic and ginger, then add any veg you want to soften up - then add a load of dry red lentils and plenty of water, bring to the boil and then simmer until the lentils are cooked.

Other favourite is leek and potato, which I blend after cooking. I sometimes add other veg while it's cooking but always have more leek.

Hmm - I typed an enthusiastic soup-related post, but it disappeared. Anyway, I love love love soup! Some of my favourites are in Hugh F-W's Veg Every Day book (which is a fab book). Parsnip and ginger, roast beetroot with horseradish cream, fennel and celeriac with orange zest. I also love making plain red lentil soup and minestrone with a big dollop of pesto stirred in. Yum.
Omelette for breakfast for me. Planning to do some weights and possibly a cycle ride today.

Gawd, I haven't posted for so long that this fell off my "Threads I'm On"!! Bit of a rubbish weekend as we were camping with school and most of what was on offer was BBQed meat in white rolls (bit like the one you went to holmes!). Trying to make up for it this morning with a loaf of rye & wholemeal bread in the breadmaker and plans for a massive salad with lettuce, grated carrot & seeds.

One thing that perplexes me - if I stray into other threads about ways of eating eg. 5:2 (which I can see some merits in as a simple way of losing weight) there's lots of talk about calories and adult women only needing 1500 - 1700 calories per day. I'm SURE I eat many more than that (although I don't count them) but I don't put on weight, and if I'm not careful I lose it. I'm thinking this is because everyone's metabolism is different, but some people seem very fervent about the calories required to maintain weight being fairly low...

Depends on what kind of calories you are eating Bram (welcome back btw - also what your dieting history is like. If you have been on and off diets for years (if not decades) and have that 'pure' calorie counting mentality then there is likely to be some impact on your metabolism (google metabolic damage), although this can be undone. Part of the problem is that repeated dieting leads to a decrease in the proportion of lean muscle:fat ratio - each time you diet you will lose muscle as well as fat - but when you regain weight it is proportionally much higher in fat - and less muscle means less calories burned, so diet several times over and you will compound this effect.

Our bodies do different things with different sources of calories - with sugar all it is useful for is a burst of energy, beyond that it gets stored as fat. Whereas fat and protein and veg all have multiple essential roles to fulfil so there are less 'wasted' calories left over to store if that makes sense? Sort of more bang for your buck, nutritionally speaking . Obviously there is still the fact that if we overeat anything we will gain weight, but it's less of a problem if your diet mainly consists of protein, good fat and fruit and veg, with wholefood carbs, rather than processed, sugary crap and a high proportion of starchy carbs.

Fuzz - thank you, you know why .

Bramshot I think everyone's different - a lot of dieters have been dieting on and off for many years and I imagine they're metabolisms have weakened as a result so they need less calories to lose/maintain weight. I loads of weight eating 1800-2000 calories at 5ft 4 but lost easily because I'd never dieted before. I can still lose/maintain on more than 2000 even without exercise.

*their metabolisms, not they're

X-posted with sleep :)