Is this a reasonable food diary?

[FloatyFlo]

I'm overweight by three stone. I'm unfit, kinda (okay a lot) lazy, fatigued all the time and just generally feeling shite.

I've really come to a point where I've just had enough. I've tried diets before and obviously failed. I am a massive binge eater. I eat for boredom, stress, comfort, whatever.

I'm not going to calorie count. Or weigh food. I get too restrictive and obsessive and then end up failing and going on a binge.

I've been reading 'Never binge again' by Glenn livingstone which has definitely enabled me to reflect on why I overeat and given me some mental positivity to tackle it.

Here is my food diary for the past three days. Where could I improve? What am I missing? Is this good enough to lose some weight? I've been drinking lots of water.

Friday -

Breakfast - Crunchy nut cornflakes with blue milk, An apple and a black coffee (no sugar)

Lunch - Broccoli and Stilton soup, 2 soup lies of toast (white bread - I know I know!) Cucumber and tomatoes.

Dinner - Pasta with Salad (Mixed leaf lettuce, Toms, cucumber, spoonful of colslaw)

(Evening - 4 double gins with lemonade, BAD IDEA as I ate a slice of quiche and a chunk of pork pie after) I don't actually often drink but if I do have a couple of glasses I will make sure I've got something healthy to snack on after -lesson learned!)

Saturday

B - Crunchy nut cornflakes and black coffee

L - Broccoli and Stilton soup
2 toast and salad

D - Vegetable pizza with Salad, beetroot and hummus.

After dinner - a banana and few strawbs

Sunday
B- 2 boiled eggs, 2 toast, rocket and small sprinkle of grated cheese.

L- Slice of vegetable pizza and a banana

D - One Youngs gasto basa fillet with new pots, broccoli, sweetcorn and roasted tomatoes

Breakfast today - I've got shot of the sugary cereal and had overnight oats with grated apple, half a banana, a spoonful of peanut butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

So this is really a starting point. It's a massive improvement on my usual diet which in a day before was - 2 cheese & ham toasties at mid morning, crisps and cake mid afternoon, burger and chips for dinner with heaps of choclate and biscuits in the eve. No water. Sugary coffee and coke throughout the day. Not a fruit or veggie in sight.

Even if I get no replies, I just need to get this down somewhere. So it's helping me all the same.

Once I can crack thsee terrible food habits and I can start to look at my exercise!

Ditch the sugary cereal!! Porridge with green milk instead.

Overnight oats is good to start with. Stick with no sugar and no refined foods (including white bread and cereals) as much as possible.

What are you planning for lunch and dinner? Try to include protein, veg, and some fat at every meal.

It's really high in carbs. That cereal alone is probably 60g of carbs.

Look at low carbing, try the bootcamp.

I agree. Don’t start your day with such high sugar. Crunchy nut cornflakes is about 35g of sugar per 100g? I’m sure you wouldn’t put that much sugar in your porridge.
Egg and toast or porridge is much better. Or fruit, yoghurt and some nuts.
The rest sounds fine.

I’m trying to eat healthier too. I’m aiming to eat 6 portions of veg and fruit a day and drink lots of water.

Good luck.

Right the sugary cereal is gone. Will pick up some green milk today! Have also got some brown bread in. Just buy and eat and white bread out of habit!

Dinner will be homemade spag bol made with quorn mince and lots of chopped veg in it. Salad on the side.

Also using smaller plates and bowls and making sure half my plate is veg.

Lunch - I don't actually know. Maybe a chesee salad sandwich? Or some fish and veg.

Cut back on the bread and buy whole meal or seeded not brown.
Check the soup ingredients, could be lots of fat / salt in it.

Great start with the changes already done. One thing that has helped me is swapping all regular potatoes for sweet potatoes. They are quite a bit healthier and you still get the full feeling from them. I use them baked/mash/wedges etc...

TBH without quantities none of what you have posted means anything. You could easily be putting away 3000+ calories a day based on what you have posted but it could also be significantly fewer depending on portion size and what you mean by pasta for example. A 'small sprinkle of grated cheese' can easily be the same calorie wise as mars bar if your portion control is off. If you are 3 stone overweight then the chances are you do not have a healthy idea of portion size.

lemonandlimes Totally get what you are saying. But I'm not looking to measure and weigh and calorie count right now. I just want to get into the habit of a regular healthy diet. I've got to break these food demons first. Then I'll move onto calorie counting and what not. I've used MFP before and I get so obsessive about everything I eat and end up depriving myself and then falling completely of the wagon.

I feed two children who are a healthy weight and are much better at eating their fruit and veg than I am! I actually think i do know whats a good portion size or not. Ive just been choosing not to do it for myself! But I will look into it portion size more in case I am way off.

Vegetable pizza is really not healthy as the amount of veg on it is minimal and the rest is carbs. I'd ditch the pizza and have a home-made veg soup or giant salad with protein instead.

Brown bread is no healthier than white - you really need to look for something with "wholegrains" on it.

Try having no potatoes/pasta/rice/bread for a week - you may be surprised by how little you miss them. If you do feel that you absolutely can't do without them, choose unrefined versions, have small portions and try to limit them to once a day.

Focus on protein, veg, fruit and good fats and minimal amounts of everything else and it should fall into place.

Your diet now is clearly much healthier.

No one can answer your question if it's good enough to lose weight as there is no info on portions. The answer may be yes it is, no you will maintain or no you will gain. It's impossible to tell I'm sorry.

Okay so -

Lower carbs. Wholegrain not wholemeal? Or try to cut them out completely. Why are carbs so bad? Its so ingrained that they form a part of a healthy diet. Not sure I'm wanting to completely cut them out.

More proteins.

Healthy fats (again, so ingrained to avoid fats isn't it?)

Homemade soups.

Giant salads with protein.

Perhaps I need to look out counting calories and weighing ingredients then.

Personally I don't believe in cutting our carbs completely , but go for whole grain or seeded bread, oats and oatcakes , sweet pots and brown rice. Try to have less carb and more veg and lean protein.

Agree that the Stilton soup and veg pizza are an improvement but could be replaced by healthier options. Tesco and morrisons both do their own healthy living soups.

From your history I'd say calorie counting may be a step too far. Try and stick to 3 healthy meals per day with a price of fruit or carrots / hummus for snacks.

It's nearly impossible to cut out carbs completely. Even cucumber has carbs in it.

It's cutting out things like bread, pasta, rice, root veg, sugar etc that is the ideal.

Why don't you have a look at the low carb high fat boot camp that started today? There is no calorie counting there or portion control. The excel gives lots of meal ideas. See if you fancy it. When you remove those things from your diet your hunger reduces and you don't crave them any more due to no more insulin spikes.

There is over 220 folks started today for ten weeks, so uou will find it very supportive if you decide to give it a crack. You've nothing to lose but the weight. And it seems ideal if you don't want to calorie count or look at portion sizes.

When Ive calorie counted before, I've cheated. I've gone ah fuck it, I've got calories for today to have a mars bar. I just wont have that much for dinner. As ling as I stay under my calories, i can what I want! This isn't healthy I know. So really trying not to focus on calories too much. However I understand the importance of portion sizes. Will focus on that. Really although I want to be slim (so bad!) getting healthy food in me is priority.

Have taken on board advice about carbs though. Will switch to wholegrain unrefined for now and limit daily. Had a little read on the boot camp thread. Useful stuff to think about. Thanks all!

Can't believe I'm going to ask this - feeling very food stupid! Are oats carbs?

The thing about giving up carbs is yes, it works really well but, If you’re going to lose weight that way, then you have to maintain a low carb lifestyle. Most (not all) people I know who followed low carb, pile the weight back on as they go mad for carbs later.
Whatever you do, you’ll have to maintain it and it has to be a lifestyle change.
Just be sure you want to lose weight this way.

Oats are indeed carbs, but you may decide not to follow a low-carb diet as such but simply to cut right back on the unhealthier refined sugary carbs (cake, chocolate, sugary cereals, white pasta etc) and eat smaller portions of the healthier versions of the other ones (oats, wholegrains, sweet potatoes etc). That would be a reasonable balance you could perhaps try to begin with and see how you get on.

I really try not to eat too many carbs but in reality that means I eat a small slice (two max) of home-made multigrain bread once a week, I eat a tiny sprinkle of no-sugar granola (I do mean tiny - like a teaspoonful) with breakfast every morning and I eat a few really thin rye crackers every couple of days.

I don't eat pasta, rice or potatoes unless I'm out for dinner (and even then I try to avoid them and have something else). I never eat chips or crisps (but I don't like them much anyway so no sacrifice). I do eat cake/dessert if I'm out and fancy it but I don't eat it at home. If it's sunny and I fancy an ice cream I'll have one when I'm out but would never buy ice cream to eat at home. That way I can keep on top of things and make sure treats are treats (or for me, it's a slippery slope where cake and ice cream are concerned...). But that's just what's worked for me and other people find other things work better.

lurkingfromhome I like your approach thank you.

Will be cutting out the 'bad' carbs and slightly limiting the 'good'.

Those that cut carbs completely what do you eat for breakfast?

If your more into healthier options than calorie counting/portion control I’ll suggest blueberries to your oats vs apple. For the antioxidant value.
Choose really dark green veggies for your salad, Swiss chard or spinach.
Make your own salad dressing
Rather than cheese use avocado on toast. Use butter not marg or mayo....if you really dare use olive oil and a basting brush rather than butter.

Are you actually full off the porridge?

Carb free breakfasts

Full fat Greek yog, berries
Ham, cheese a la continental brekkie
Omelettes with cheese, ham, veg

I don't think many people cut carbs completely - the lowest I ever go is 20g a day. made up from leafy veggies, mostly. A typical low carb breakfast for me would be scrambled eggs and bacon, or smoked salmon rolled up around cream cheese, or a slice of crustless quiche, or thin cut steak and eggs - sometimes just a couple of hardboiled eggs dipped in Mayo if I've cooked them in advance.