Please critique my diet

[nanbread]

Today I had:

Apple with large spoonful of peanut butter and a few tablespoons of kefir

Ratatouille with sardines and half a slice of homemade bread

Quinoa with spinach, avocado, butternut squash, pomegranate seeds, lime juice, soy sauce

A few almonds, walnuts, Brazil nuts

Half a satsuma

2 squares dark choc

Small glass of red wine

1 coffee with oat milk

2 teas with oat milk

I feel ok but quite hungry... I'm usually a total carb addict but am trying to stabilise my blood sugar.

I don't eat meat except fish.

I'm no nutritionist but I do consider myself to have a fairly balanced view of food and what makes a good diet.

I'd judge that as a pretty decent days food, if slightly on the low side.

If you're aiming to lose weight without starving yourself I think it's perfect.

If this is your normal every day food then unless you're small I think it is low on calories though does look like the calories you are having pack a good punch of nutrients.

V interested to see what others say

Quantity wise I think this is good if you're trying to loose weight, but it doesn't seem like a large amount compared to what a lot of people eat.

I'm not a nutrition expert although it sounds great to me in terms of the good foods you're eating, but do you think you're consuming enough protein?

It's all very nutrient dense, but there's also a lot of stuff here that's really calorie dense: avocado, nuts, peanut butter could easily be adding 800/900 calories to your daily intake

If weight loss is your aim then Snack on high volume low calorie food, celery, brocolli, radish, cabbage

really i would want to know the amount of these items.
your salad sounds great if that is what it is? did you use dressing and what sized bowl did it fill?
because otherwise it really means nothing. a 1/4 of ratatouille, with a tiny sardine and bread sliced like paper could be what you had.
do you like what you ate?
for an everyday total amount (three meals) it seems weird enough to not be sustainable for a few decades.

Thanks all. I got a shop delivered today with celery, broccoli and cabbage included - but also crisps, chocolate and loads of alcohol!

I had about 1/4 medium small avocado, and maybe 5 or 6 nuts in total plus the pb. So I reckon no more than 400 cal in those.

Tonight's dinner wasn't v high in protein, ideally I would have had an egg as well.

I don't need to lose a lot of weight - I'm about 9st and 5'5, size 8-10 - it's more for health reasons. I can snack compulsively and I know that's not healthy, and I definitely get "triggered" by lots of carbs.

It’s ok but in my opinion you need more protein and more fat. The fat will keep you full for longer. Cut out the bread. I also wouldn’t eat quinoa because of the carbs if I was looking to loose weight but it does have some good nutrients in there so it’s not all bad.
I would eat more fish and seafood and I would add eggs in every day. I would also eat cheese- halloumi , feta etc. Just one Adding poached egg for breakfast will fill you up a lot more. Or add a hard boiled egg to your lunch. So nutrient dense and fills you up for much longer

Also swap to sugar free almond butter. Do not eat peanut butter that is packed with sugar

If you are not worried about weight so much a banana with almond butter is a great snack

I have to know what happened to the other half of the satsuma?

@fallfallfall these are meals we all eat as a family anyway tbh, my kids love them, ha! If that's what you mean by weird. I do go through phases of eating pb for breakfast but more recently it's been a bowl of cereal, porridge, pancakes or toast, the pb fills me up about as much.

I had half a tin of Ratatouille, about half a normal tin of sardines maybe a bit less, and half a medium slice of sourdough. The quinoa thing filled one of our shallow cereal bowls which I'd say were a medium size. So vague, ha!

I forgot there was a bit of avocado oil on the quinoa too as well as lime and soy

I really really CBA to weigh my food. Wouldn't hurt to lose a little weight but mostly I just want to eat healthily.

@Chachang my children happened! Ha

@Time2change2 none of my nut butters contain any added sugar or anything else, they're made from just nuts.

Also we have some sourdough left over so bread will definitely feature again in small amounts! Maybe I could try a few bread - free days a week though

if your okay with your weight what aspect of your health are you trying to focus on?
how is the weight and health of the rest of the family?
i'm not spotting anything glaringly obviously out of line here.
it seems low on meat protein and starting the day with an apple with nut butter is more of a mid day snack but what we eat is very individual.

@fallfallfall I'd like to improve my general health and just look after myself, prevent diabetes and inflammatory diseases etc as much as I can through diet. I also feel very tired a lot and get "crashes" after eating a lot of carbs.

I say I'm not motivated by weight loss but I'm conscious I'm in my 40s and about 10lb has crept on in past two years (and a few more since lockdown), my jeans are very tight at the moment so wouldn't mind losing that, and importantly I want to stop this slow gain!

Usually I'd eat similar lunch and dinner to above but have eg more bread and then snack on crisps, biscuits etc on top. Also more white carbs which I want to cut out.

My husband is v thin, but also v tall.

My children are 4 and 7 and I would say are fairly sturdy, not skinny, they eat a lot and eat mostly healthy foods. My older one especially is a total carb fiend like me. But they're not classed as overweight on BMI or anything and don't have rolls of fat etc. They both have other health issues. I've seen a nutritionist who advised me to give them more protein and good fats.

I don't eat much meat or cheese so that's a challenge protein wise.

Haha that's okay then, I would say having just half of a small fruit if it was due to trying to restrict calories etc would be edging into worrying territory. Children is perfectly understandable though!

For health reasons I’d avoid tins, tinned fish tinned veg.
And speaking of veg do you eat a full compliment of root veg? Good nutrition is about fresh and variety. Quality over quantity.

Thanks for replying... What's wrong with tinned stuff @fallfallfall? I thought it was more or less the same but if not would be good to know why.

Most of the fruit and veg we eat is still fresh but relying a bit more on tins ATM because of lockdown, poor availability of certain items and only getting to shops once a fortnight (had a pretty good stash already before I get accused of panic buying ;) )

Ate a bit more protein (and nothing tinned ;) ) today, but also snaffled a large handful of crisps and a g&t...

Large handful of salt and vinegar crisps

A gin and naturally light tonic

one step forward and ten back...crisps and G&T that is your nutrition mishap.
although understandable.

I met a friend in the park for a "evening out"

Total disaster today. Ended up stress eating due to horrible morning with children. Trying not to beat myself up as know it's counter productive, tomorrow is a new day!

@fallfallfall - what's wrong with tinned food? I understand there can / may be issued with mercury in fish but what's the problem with everything else?