Oh dear been so busy and had 8 pages of posts to cath up on. Of course I could have just skipped to the end but I find it so interesting what everyone posts and says and thinks, and the meal plans... so yep, almost midnight (probably well past it once I've responded and posted) and I'm still here.
Life has been challenging with a difficult family funeral, but I can relax from that now.
I saw a couple of interesting posts about how life gets in the way of eating veg. Great posts from @nappiesandcontracts and @Sheraprincessofflower about geting a few portions of veg in first thing so that however your day turn out you've at least had some of that great nutrition. My breakfast favourites are avocado, mozerella, tomato, basil and olive oil; spinach cooked in butter with cheese and cream; mushroom, tomato, egg, bacon; vegetable soup. And I love a wee V8 juice (2.8g carn per 100g). Virgin Mary in the morning with celery, cucumber, tabasco, Lee & Perrins not so virgin in the evening with vodka
@lurknolinger your chicken dish sounded lovely and I loved you idea of the hispi cabbage with crispy chicken skin. I'll do that sometime.
@Magnolia82 you've already had lots of replies about the 30 plant based things. I try to keep an eye on this myself. When I'm in a maintenance phase, or close to a target, about once a week I eat a small amount of legumes (and less fat on that day) lentils, beans - the things that I miss. Or some more carby veg like peas or beetroot. But not all of them. Just what I'm missing most, or whatever goes best with the rest of the food I am planning. I love the 30 things because it reminds me how much I love fennel or pak choi, or baby sweetcorn, or olives, or red cabbage... And any of these inspire me to cook another delicious lchf dish. And I mainly avoid grains.
@Tubelight I wonder which carbs you think you are craving. Is it crisps? Try some 'cheeseies' or M&S serano ham crisps. Is it a savoury snack? Try cheese and ham rollitos or some olives or anchovies. Is it something 'bread-like'? Next week try a cheese and almond muffi spread with peanut butter.
@Gnomegnomegnome I think the bootcamp simple rules are such a great way to re-learn how to eat. Generally, we don't need to weigh anything, or count any calories. We learn to drink more water, always, whatever our weight. We know we can add back lentils, beans, beets, carrots - ocassionaly. Maybe once a week, not every meal or every day. And we wean ourselves away from the habit of having sugar in every bite (or even worse artificial sugars in every bite). We move away from the stupid idea that breakfast has to be a sweetened cereal followed by toast and jam. [I spent some time in Vietnam and deeloped a love for breakfast of vegetable soup]
@AllTheBlackCoffee Over the years I have found that ONE chip, the first chip, is delicious. The second chip is quite OK. The third chip is 'meh' - not so hot, a bit flabby, maybe I can taste the oil more than the chip. Bottom line - 3 chips is always enough.
And to many posters (because I'm a vegetable fan) I notice that SALAD makes up a lot of some people's day. Salad is good, salad is tasty, but we also need some dense veg for fibre and for healthy carbs. I don't think that yogurt for breakfast, then protein and salad is enough to keep up a healthy long term way of eating. Make sure you are having a lovely range of veg. We're approaching autumn so there will still be late summer courgettes and squashes, plus peppers and aubergines. Mushroom season! And we start getting into the late autumn veg - sprouts, cabbages, celeriac. Make the most of them all.