Zoe Nutrition Testing

[Wombat27A]

Not sure this is the right place for this...

Anyone else doing the Zoe Nutrition Testing?

My results were poor, so now I'm tackling my diet. I thought it was pretty good but it's clear it needs a major overhaul. So much information but finding it good.🙂

Has anyone got an good suggestions for evening meals? There’s 6 of us at home, some of the DC are fussy buggers and would eat the same 5 meals on rotation. Oldest DD is much more adventurous. We relied on pasta and rice and jacket spuds a lot. Not so great, for me at least.
Tonight I cooked a chicken, did homemade potato wedges, cooked sausages, ciabatta and salad. I had everything apart from the bread and potato and Zoe was not keen on my meal. She particularly took against my sausage and said I’d had too much fat although it was only one good quality one. I know sausage isn’t great, it’s a rare treat. However I was expecting the whole meal to be better.
Oh and I had an alcohol free beer too which didn’t score well.
I am thinking breakfast and lunch will be easy for me but dinner will be a challenge.

I'm always getting the fat warning...

Sausages & processed foods score badly for me. Think salami is a 2.

I'm doing the veggie curry with beans that I did before. I pass on the rice & sub with a small quantity of bulgar wheat.

Other meals are chilli beans with a homemade tortilla & salad/avocado/eggs/spinach combos.

Last night was a pearl barley & lamb stew but that's getting a bit too much. May use the leftovers as a base for a curry.

I've definitely gone veggie...

I've tried tofu, we didn't like it much.

Do like halloumi, probably why I get fat warnings. 😁

@Wombat27A I get the fat warnings if I avoid the carbs because I get hungry so eat cheese. Really haven't got the balancing act right yet.

What didn't you like about Tofu? I know a lot of people don't. I bake and freeze mine as it changes the texture then shove it in curry/stir fry with lots of other flavour.

Ta, yes, that's probably the reason. If I only eat veg, I'm too hungry. I like cheese too. 🧀😁😋

I think it was texture with the tofu. It's probably also newness, takes me a while to adapt...

Well we have a halloumi stir fry tonight so Zoe is going to love that!
I am finding the balance hard to achieve, as you all say, fat vs carbs.
Just had roasted veg with eggs and a sprinkling of cheese and she approved of that.
She did not however approve of my alcohol free beer yesterday 🫤

There are lots of internet tofu rabbit holes to go down if you fancy. Or don't - tempeh is a super green food for me and I'd rather eat nothing than that, vile stuff. Or kidney beans

@ladyandthechocolate she can be a right bitch I find. She didn't like my tonic water and I didn't even have a gin in it.

@lugeforlife very disapproving. I thought I was doing a Good Thing with it being alcohol free. Also I am sad because it’s my little routine where I have one of those while I prepare dinner. I can only imagine what she thought about your tonic water. Until it’s spinach based tonic water I can’t imagine she will like it.

When people ask what I'm eating, I say mainly spinach!

It's lots better than that and I'm also having a reasonable amount of non-compliant foods but spinach is generally the thing that springs to mind.

So the poo scale, does anything come of that?

Mine are less floaty, which is a "good thing" but are we aiming for 4s?

I feel judged by the poo scale. I think you are right in that 4 is the dream poo.

I have another question re how people are managing with variety practically. I have to eat the same stuff a few days in a row to use it up. Also it gets costly. I use a lot of frozen stuff which is helpful but how are others managing. Pulses are at least cheap!

My DH used to work away a lot and so I have a 2-day rule on food as it gets miserable eating constant leftovers.

Generally shoving veg curry in the freezer doesn't work that well, so try to keep the volume down. Think DH did eat it a lot the other week tho.

I was joking that "chef opened the can" for a lot of our meals recently. A can of black beans, one of kidney beans heated up with onions, garlic and spices on tortillas...

It's probably only the nuts that's way more cost. I already had a veg box come with lots of variety, tho that's diminished over the years as veg has gone up and now he's stopping doing veg altogether. So I'm going to go to Lidl and Aldi from now on.

I haven't kicked off the programme yet so I'm not getting Zoe's feedback yet. I'm sure I'm going to get lots of complaints!

Is variety a thing then? That's going to be a hassle for me as I tend to eat the same thing most days while I'm away for work.

I made some chickpea blondies during the testing and they didn't seem to score too badly, so I'll try them again when I start the programme. Also have a kidney bean brownie recipe I'll run through - maybe not one for you @lugeforlife! I am with you on the tempeh though, one of the most bizarre things I've eaten. Not to be repeated.

Ohhhhhh @chutneypig, do you have a recipe for the blondies? I did have some beetroot brownies in the freezer but they are too bitter really and I do like a bit of alternative baking. I amusingly kid myself dds will eat it and not all the processed stuff. They do not.

I think you are meant to aim for variety - 30 plants per week and all that. I think I may need to routinely go for the Lidl weekly offers to try different stuff cheaply.

Oh my god I haven’t seen anything about a poo scale yet 😱 @lugeforlife and I were about a day apart but I’ve broken away now as I had a week off for holiday. Have just started logging meals properly after getting my results last week.

Dinner today plummeted my score down which has surprised me as all but one food was green!! The flatbreads were actually homemade but cba to input the ingredients, maybe I should. I’m getting a bit stressed tbh because I can’t just live off salad can I? Today they were going on about variety and not eating the same thing day in day out.

I'll get it out when I get home @lugeforlife. I need to put it in more carefully as I estimated when I first logged it. It's essentially canned chickpeas, peanut butter, maple syrup whizzed up in a food processor then add some dark chocolate chips. I really like them so was pleased they didn't seem too bad!

@MassiveSalad22 lovely hope you had a nice time away. Once you have your start date they ask you some questions at the end of each day including an update on your poo and how it ranks on a scale, accompanied by some charming illustrations. It's a high spot.

And you won't have to eat salads I promise. Today I had an iced mocha in a coffee shop and also have curry and rice for dinner and I'm gonna end at 75. I had ploughman's and a good chunk of dds garlic bread and cheese yesterday and ended at high 60s and fish and chips last weekend and was about the same. My average for the week was 64 and that was a week filled with eating out and holiday food!

Remember you won't hit 75 every day. And you can find other things which work and feel like 'cheats' (the socca pizza I made yesterday, chutneys chickpea blondies etc). Do start your recipe builder, it's easy when you get into the swing of it.

I'd agree it's easier than say paleo or slimmer's world or pretty much any diet. That said I'm not particularly dieting...so not exactly exerting myself.

I should do more planning tho.

App says I will get my results by 26th August, did anyone get theirs earlier than the estimate?

Yes. I got mine almost a week earlier than I expected

Day 1 really didn't expect to bleed so much when I put my monitor on have zero confidence it'll stay on probably wake up tomorrow and it'll be gone

Bleed?

Eeek.

Have you put the big plaster on? I expected that to fall off or to be completely allergic to it but it was ok.

Yes plaster is on, fingers crossed

Good luck @hushiebaa. I hope it stays in all
Nice and snug.

I hope all's ok with the monitor this morning @hushiebaa

I'm busy planning for my kick off next week followed by another week camping. Happily I've just worked out what I can have for breakfast. Smoothies will be my go to generally but they're not very convenient in a tent.

@lugeforlife and @chutneypig thanks all still intact! Still trying to get my head around everything and hoping my body plays ball and produces a poop today! Now there's a nice thought to start your day 😳