The Lychee Lads - 10 / 10 thread

[FrannyandZooey]

For anyone who wants a boost to their general health. The suggested goals are:

EAT 10 PORTIONS OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES EVERY DAY - if you don't usually eat much fruit and veg I would build up gradually or you could upset your digestion.

DO (AT LEAST) 10 MINUTES OF EXERCISE EVERY DAY - can be yoga, stretching or something more energetic. The plan is that the idea of doing 10 minutes is not too daunting, and having started you may well find you want to do more.

There are no restrictions on what you eat so long as you get your 10 fruit and veg as well. The focus is not on weight loss but on improving our energy levels and hopefully our general mood and well-being. Sign up below and post here to tell us how you're getting on and how you are feeling.

Basic guidance on what constitutes a portion of fruit and veg here and you can download more detailed information by following the link at the very bottom of the page

We cut down on other things. No drinks in lunch boxes anymore, dd gets a cup and has water, no crisps or bars, just a sandwich and a banana and an apple. She has a big bowl of porridge for breakfast and an orange for break. They eat lots of fruit but we don't really have other snacks, like biscuits etc, - just occasionally. We cut down on juice too and that's rationed or they'd drink pints of it. We also stopped pudding - it's fruit only. sometimes yoghurt.

We have greengrocer in village for emergency casserole but it's expensive and not very good, fine for emergencies though. Fruit and vegetables most expensive part of shopping. I try to do one meat and one fish a week, the rest vegetarian as it's cheaper.

I haven't read the books so I can't compare. It did seem a bit rushed and predictable but still sad. Things kept making me do little glum sighs, not just with the obvious stuff and I felt flat afterwards on both counts.

We had been having such a laugh previously too. I thought Kate Winslet looked old, thin but old, and I remembered what I was doing when I watched Titanic, loads of us hungover and taking the piss out of it and YOUNG and then I felt old and glum again.

Anyway, I never meal plan, do spreadsheets, or organise my food shopping so I spend all my money on food and I need to stop.

Sorry, am off focus.

Meat once a week, Boco? There would be outrage here if I did that. I would like that though. I am not going to say how much I spend, tbh I don't know but it's too much

God now i sound glum next to your post Guad, banning pudding and fun food and budgeting and making lists and crossing all the nice things off, compared to you and your no planning and spending all your money on food (and surprise sausage dogs discovered in blue french wardrobes)

I might go and buy a frivolous mousse.

No, you sound sensible. I want to be thin and save money, instead I read cookbooks hu ngrily and eat what I like and drive 100 mile round trip across counties to get a particular cut of meat. I am a fool.

That's sounds good, and sensible Boco. Money isn't as much the issue for me, I do plans because I try to be efficient and so householding doesn't take up too much time - and even though our weekly budget is a lot it's not really working because I seem to spend quite a lot, and though we don't ever throw food out, we don't have quite enough either. So I'm doing something seriously wrong.

They eat the bananas in a day, then we all wait a week for the fruit to arrive. I should ration it, or find other things to fill them up. But sensible things. It's like I've planned for time, rather than planning for pleasure or sense - or even finances. I should be able to do this better, I think it needs attention.

I think fruit is one of the things that can't be bought once a week though. I top up fruit at the co-op in the village during the week. I often get what's on offer, there's a shelf of reduced fruit and veg every afternoon, so things like cherries or raspberries are often reduced to 50p from £2.99 as they're on the sell by date, and if you're buying every couple of days then it's possible. But that's not so good for you as it's not time efficient, I do this on the way home from the school run and just see what's there.

I find toast the best home from school filler. They sometimes have toast and honey and a hot drink or fruit, depending on hunger, and we eat later.

I have started to do toast and even a mug of soup after school as we were getting through so many cakes and biscuits it was ridiculous.

They just get them out of the cupboard.

They didn't want the broccoli and stilton yesterday though.

Yes we do toast too. That's when they eat the WHOLE loaf. So that's five loaves a week - or it would be, if I didn't step in and throw bananas at them. They eat SO much at the minute, it's alarming.

Right, I'm going now to do a householding spread sheet. It's going to be wonderful. I think I might be buying the wrong things - or spending money on expensive things which isn't necessary - and perhaps, now I'm wondering if I just am not buying enough and need to redistribute and spend the money more wisely? Suddenly I have an 11 and 9 y-o in my house, and I'm still feeding them like they're 4 and 6 - and I clearly have to make a mid-week stop too.

Am going to re-jig my meal planner. Will report back. Thanks for help, it's been really useful.

Well, it is cold. Maybe they need it and they are getting bigger. I have to remember this with ds1.

I might get a spreadsheet.

I'm worried that dd2 has some kind of deficiency, she has white lines on some of her finger nails, what does that mean, what do I need to feed her?

Boco, we have a similar policy with lunches - sandwich, fruit, salad and usually a piece of malt loaf or flapjack or cereal bar.
I make scones each week for after school. Or they get fruit.

I do a weekly shop, then usually pop to Co op or Aldi for fruit and veg another day. Have milk delivered.

I meal plan in a loose fashion.
Mainly eat vegetarina but i od meat for the rest of them a couple of times a week. And dh is away mid week, so gets his meat then !!!!

Boco, they used ot say it was calcium but I am not sure f that is right.

Has she banged then at all?

Depends I think. Those white spots and lines are really common, and usually are a sign of where the nail was damaged, or the nail bed was, then the nail grows over it. It isn't necessarily a vitamin or calcium thing.

100 why do you have 3 adults in your house?

after school crumpets are good (very wartime boco) they are really cheap and you can keep them in the freezer adn they are a bit more filing than toast and a bit more, um, wintery.

our f+v buying and consumption is all wrong and i will try and remedy it in due course.

I actually read the link about portion sizes having ignored it for three years- it wsa quite helpful.

boco i tried to look in my optimun nutrition bible about white lines but couldn't find it associated with calcium deifceny and then i read somethin about magnesium and low levels found in people with heart attacks or something and got scared and stopped looking.

I don't know if i eat any magnesium.

The beach volleyball playing au pair is back, she comes and gos. She's been in NZ since November. She is lovely, and back for two months I think, I hope.

LOL. I might go and look at that portions link too? We are coming to this late Bee.

Shall I tell you what my new re-jigged, flexible, well-organized, economical meal planner looks like? I've got high expectations at the minute. 101 uses for a mushroom, to last the week, that kind of thing. And less expensive meat. Same price, more food or your money back.

You need magnesium to absorb calcium, and vit c and most other things. Most multi-vits have magnesium. There's not much point in taking fish oils for instance, if you don't also take magnesium. Magnesium good for muscles and co-ordination things - I know about it because of ds2. I don't know if its true though ifyswim.

White lines could be low iron I think, or malnutrition, but it won't be that, or it can be a sign of liver disease. But it isn't that, it's the marks left from damage to the nail bed.

My god. What's happening Bee? I'm turning into a health freak.

Ok. Back to new weekly list.

Or Boco - I googled so you don't - a sign of a recent lung infection, something about oxygen supply.

focus 100!!

I budget weakly...

how about flapjacks? (or dwarf bread as she is known in this house...)

Piss easy - melt butter and golden syrup, add to oatas - and raisin, sunflour seeds, sesame seeds, linseed, cherries and whatever the hell else you want. Bake in oven for 12-15 mins. Lasts all week. Very sustaining.

ds2 has discovered weetabix (or rather cheap supermarket variation of) for the first time in over 8 years. He eats it everytime I tell him he can't have any more bread as a snakc. The downside to that is our milk bill is now increasing. 3 pints a day.

White lines are oten damage I think, but they can be zinc deficiency?

I am about to eat yesterdays bitter old soup in an attempt to start new eficient eating regime. I NEVER eat things when I don't want to. I want cheese on toast and I am going to have soup.

We have one treat in the lunchboxes, flapjack, bun, cereal bar or very occasionally, crisps.

and may I see your meal planner when you have done it? I know exactly what you mean about 11 and 9 yr old and still thinking in terms of what 5 year olds' eat. Even ds1 who is a picky eater, is putting away adult portions. And I think fondly of the days when 1 chicken breast fed both of them.....

and if they haven't eaten all the sandwich fruit and veg then then no treat the next day.

There is also no treat the next day if they don't put their sandwich debris back in the bag or bin because it REALLY annoys me picking bits of bleeding lunch out each day.