Eatbetterers part 3 -gather around healthy people !

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

Third thread of healthy eating, no calorie counting just good, healthy food for us and our families.

Vampiric energy drainers really strikes a chord with me. I do know people like that - I am getting good at filtering them out more though! I guess you're right Sleep that food works similarly - we need it to uplift and nourish - but also we need to not obsess about it... Thanks for the tips. I made banana flapjack tonight for us all to snack on (will post recipe if anyone wants it - very little added sugar needed) and I am thinking of snacking on cheese/peanut butter etc. I do take breaks but tend to spend them browsing the net - which is not ideal clearly...

Neeko, I've been giving this subject some thought. Have you seen the FB posts about the nicknames we call our daughters? How we tend to call them princess rather than warrior, bossy rather than seeing confidence as a positive attribute, and yes, seeing a flattened out body shape as desirable rather than emphasizing strength and potential...

Can't. I don't agree with Facebook in any way so have never had an account. I do call my DDs princess but also emphasise their brains, their swimming ability, their bravery, how funny they are...

Hi can't. I have a desk job. I sit still and have to concentrate on the same thing for hours (its like an endurance test!). When I worked in the actual office I worked flat out no breaks. Now I work from home I work longer hours and I've come to realise that getting outside makes a massive difference to my energy levels.

I take 40 mins break and do running in intervals. I have the advantage of being able to sit back at my desk all red and...ahem glowing... But make it a priority to get outside just waking round the block if you can - it makes a massive difference to me

Those Facebook posts are terrible. I'm trying to be careful what messages I give to dd. She has seen me muck about with my diet lately, but she knows that was because of an allergy, so I guess that's different. If I ever talk about eating habits in relation to health and fitness in front of her, I always do it from an 'energy levels' and getting good protein and vitamins etc point of view rather than talking about weight loss. Fortunately dd (9) is a bit of a tomboy and very independent-minded - she is very at anyone who treats girls differently to boys or who thinks it's more important to look pretty than be your own person. I don't credit myself for her excellent attitude really - she just seems to be made that way!

Serendipity - good that you're feeling at home here! stilllearnin - I agree about getting outside. I've been so busy decluttering pre-move that my exercise routine has gone out of the window and I'm shut in the house all day. It's a beautiful sunny morning today though, and I must get out for a run. Trouble is, this house move is really getting to me now. I'm constantly agitated and not sleeping well - I looked at myself in the mirror this morning and I look grey and haggard. Of course the best way to prevent that is eat well, exercise and go to bed early, but my stressy brain is telling me to eat chocolate, distract myself with social media and generally indulge the bad habits which I had pretty much kicked. Notmaisie - was yours a big move? Are you all settled now?

Thanks Neeko and Holmes. It was our sixth move in five years and this time it was to a flat two thirds the size of our previous one. So we've been doing lots of decluttering. I sincerely hope we don't move again any time soon... We are settling in well here though, it's a pretty seaside town, so I'm loving going to the beach every day, and there's much more sense of community than we had when we lived in the city.

You're all right about the importance of getting outside and getting some exercise, but I definitely go through phases where I just can't make myself do what I know will make me feel better. Today I have a bad cold and for the last couple of nights dd woke me at 3 and was awake until 5, so I'm just trying to get through the day in one piece and cover the basics.

That sounds like a lovely location Notmaisie! I'm going to be by the sea too, and the lakes and mountains. Can't wait!

Notmaisie a decluttered flat by the seaside sounds divine. Here's hoping you stay put for a while. I hear you on not being able to muster the energy/willpower/whatever to do what you know will make you feel better -- that's exactly where I am at the moment but trying to be kind to myself about it. Perhaps right now you need rest and home time after lots of moving around a bit more than you need time outside and exercise.

Struggling myself today after 2 very late nights at work. So far I have resisted the call of the biscuit tin in the office kitchen (chocolate covered Hob Nobs should be illegal) and am calling that success. Have a lunch meeting scheduled at a lovely Italian restaurant that is low on veggie dishes and heavy on gorgeous pasta, bread and desserts. Hmm. Have decided that if there's a healthy non-pasta option I'll go for it, but if not I will mindfully select something delicious and savour it.

Still, your endurance work sounds much like mine (minus the glowing)! Working at home with running breaks sounds ideal. Well, winning the lottery and retiring with running breaks sounds ideal, but I'll take the working at home part.

Winning the lottery and retiring with running breaks sounds good here too Serendipity! Well done in resisting the biscuits and enjoy your lunch.

Holmes. Don't be so hard on yourself. You have a lot going on. Congratulate yourself on small successes like healthy soup for lunch or a short walk and don't worry about the big picture until you are settled.

Notmaisie. The new place sounds lovely. I hope you settle there a while.

There was a really interesting article in this month's Women and Fitness magazine (that I bought for the first time) about the creation of a food substitute drink that replaces all your meals. It has been created as a possible solution to the future food crisis. It sounds awful. The article also touches on the Pallin idea that food is greater nutritionally than the sum of its parts.

I wrote a blog post about that (Soylent) last week funnily enough Neeko. I can see it having a place where real food isn't an option for people but I came at it from the pov of the weird situation where food becomes purely a functional thing..but then you are cutting a whole social, cultural and pleasurable element from your life and that must have a knock on effect on your health-not to mention, as you say, all those mysterious things science still doesn't know about nutrition and how the body processes food.

Thanks Neeko. You're right - I need to be a bit kinder to myself atm.

Sleep. It frightens me that the social aspect of eating could be further reduced in this way. I see the effects every day of poor diet (a bag of crisps, a Mars bar and a can of Monster for breakfast ) and lack of sitting together as a family and enjoying a meal. It's really not pretty. I hope it never becomes common to "eat" that way.

Holmes. Glad you are seeing sense.

I've just made a lovely batch of (made up recipe) Butternut Squash, red lentil and cabbage soup with chill and paprika - yumm. Autumn here we come!

hello all. over indulgent day yesterday but due to not having nasties in the house the indulgence was somewhat limited to a very nice glass of Rose and some leftover cheese and chutney.

Out tonight for cocktail and peruvian hole-in-the-wall so made myself a ridiculously tasty and filling smoothie for lunch - I have finally mastered it after playing around with ingredients for aaaaaaaages. I wanted to make a coffee smoothie that was filling but nutritious with at least a decent mug-sized amount of coffee and please to post the results:

large mug of coffee (we have a filter machine) cooled in the fridge
5 dates soaked in the coffee
almond milk (normal amount you'd put in a mug of coffee)
1 frozen banana
1.5tspns almond butter (finally found a brand I really like)

bloody delicious....already soaking dates in a mug of coffee to make another for breakfast tomorrow morning!

Mmm. Liking the sound of that smoothie, Americas! I have had a bacon sandwich for breakfast. The dc ate theirs in a tree house! We have come to visit dh for a long weekend at the place where he's staying, 30 mins from where we will be living. It's beautiful here and I've chilled out a bit. Plus we finally have a moving date - 8th October. Hurrah!

Hi all -- hope everyone had a nice weekend! I am trying to plan for the week ahead and would love ideas for fast prep and/or make ahead meals. I have a sneaky feeling this week will be like last, meaning at best I'm home around 9 or so, famished, whereupon I find it hard to resist the old habit of pizza/pasta/sandwiches. At worst I'm at the office until the wee hours, meaning takeaway unless I've managed to tote something with me. Any ideas from the EatBetterer experts?

Have any of you got Annie Bell's Low Carb Revolution? I'm looking for a cookbook to help to unwed me from pasta and rice and to start including more veggies in our meals. I've also looked at Anna Jones' Modern Way to Eat, but every other recipe needs a food processor and ours is in deep storage for the next few months...

our meal plan this week is:

Monday - home made sweetpotato and sweetcorn soup with added pasta for DC
Tuesday - Down'n'Dirty Cajun Rice a la Jamie Oliver
Wednesday - veggie tagine and couscous
Thursday - Chicken Curry
Friday - mezze and nibbles as we have people round so probably a lot of things like houmous, roasted chickpeas, guacamole etc etc

Prob not that helpful though as 3 of those meals are in the freezer from batch cooking

Hi all,

Sleep I think so many people already view food as functional. I makes me so chuffing sad as I LOVE sitting down to eat, prepping it, the whole shebang really.

Serendipity if I'm on til late (I work in retail) I tend to take a proper dinner to work with me and then just have something light like ryvitas and pate or some cheese on oatcakes when I get in. I have a little lunch bag and a microwaveable pot in it with things like beef and broccoli, venison sausage and lentil casserole or chilli and brown rice in. I batch cook them or stick them in my slow cooker and then just defrost the night before. This is how I keep well and full of energy over Christmas when we're working crazy hours. HTH.

Hello - how are we all doing? We've finally exchanged contracts and set a moving date for next Thursday - woo hoo!
That means, among other things, that I need to use up everything in the freezer over the next week.

Sooo... anyone got any particularly delicious and nutritious (but fairly simple) ways to use up:

salmon fillets
prawns
pork steaks
chicken breasts ?

I'm feeling in need of some inspiration - brain definitely not on full power atm!

Yay Holmes. Congratulations.

Salmon steaks wrapped in tinfoil with some soy sauce and chilli flakes are good. Prawns are good in a stirfry.

Sorry. I am loaded with the cold and that's as much as my mind can do!

One last gasp . The pulled pork in 100 days of real food is good. We also like it done in the slow cooker with onions, peppers, carrots and baby corn mixed with a tin of chopped tomatoes, a veg stock cube, some garlic and tomato purée and some chilli flakes. Nice served with rice and tacos.

Congrats on the moving date Holmes! With your ingredients, I would do:
Thai green curry with prawns & wild rice
Fajitas/wraps with diced grilled chicken and other bits (salsa, salad etc)
Terriyaki salmon fillet
Grilled pork with pesto on top

But pulled pork sounds yum. I don't have a slow cooker - might have to get one!

Thanks - just what I needed!

Hi all. Yikes it's been ages since I've posted.

Things have been really bad here - have had a relapse of my ME :( really struggling with everything TBH.

Food wise, I'm still doing better than I was before becoming an EatBetterer :) at least the meals I'm doing are generally still more veg-filled. Breakfast is sorted - we had cereal for a bit because we product-tested the new Bear cereal for MN, but once it was gone (two boxes between three of us) it was no problem to go back.

I've also managed to get more fish into the DCs - I'm getting fillets of salmon and cod (frozen as it's cheaper), steaming them, then flaking them into my homemade tomato/veg or cheese sauce. DS doesn't even notice (he will unquestioningly eat any sauce if there's a bit of pasta in it!) which is great because he would never choose to eat fish :o

The thing I struggle with at the moment is snacking. I'd got a lot better at reducing it, but I seem to have fallen back into the trap of sugar as comfort... I just don't feel strong enough to tackle it right now.