Learning to eat healthily support thread

[questionssquestions]

I don't know what the name for this sort of eating is. 'Healthy' means different things to different people. Maybe 'normal', but most people in the UK are overweight, so normal is not ideal either.

Anyway, a lot of us need support in learning how to eat better, so I'm hoping there might be people who want to join this thread. This is not a weight loss thread, it is a healthy eating thread.

We try to:

• Eat 5+ fruit and veg a day
• Eat balanced meals (some starchy foods, fruit, veg, protein, dairy)
• Enjoy treats/desserts/puddings etc.
• Maximise our consumption of unprocessed and minimally processed foods
• Minimise our consumption of ultraprocessed foods
• Try to cook from scratch where we can
• Be mindful of portion sizes
• Build enjoyable exercise into our daily lives

We don't:

• Exclude food groups
• Talk of good/bad foods or being good/bad
• Calorie count, fast, detox, or join weight loss clubs
• Talk about our weight or clothes size

I'm hoping this can be a place for support, sharing of ideas and favourite recipes etc.

B - Toast and homemade jam

L - Bacon, lettuce and sweet chilli sauce wrap. Small blackberry oatmeal slice.

S - Salmon, courgettes, runner beans and potato salad followed by blackberry and apple crumble.

Sort of hits my five a day and was all so delicious I didn't snack at all. Feels good.

Terrified your meals sound lovely. I have some blackberries in the freezer but am hoping to top up with a bit of foraging this weekend.

Woke with loads of energy so did a cardio session before breakfast!
B: Raspberries, seeded toast
L: Pitta, homemade smoked mackerel pate, tomatoes, melon
D: Homemade chicken Kiev bake, cabbage, broccoli

Have quite a few odds and ends to eat up so planning to make soup and some other bits over the weekend.

This sort of thread is exactly what I’m looking for. I’m fed up with trying to diet. I want to eat lovely delicious food, and make sure I get lots of fruit and veg. I do want to try not to eat quite so many biscuits.

Today has looked like this.

B: Granary toast with marmalade
L: Ham sandwich with mayo and cucumber, KitKat, small piece banana bread.
D: Steak baguette with lots of rocket, spinach and watercress salad stuffed into it, Activia creamy yoghurt, 1 blueberry muffin biscuit, 1 chocolate and ginger biscuit.

Oooh smoked mackerel pate, not had that for ages! Yum!

Welcome Tooextra!

Another fascinating podcast by Dr Chatterjee about being calm. In it he states that lack of sleep leads to bad food choices which in turn leads to not wanting to exercise. It really hit the nail on the head at how circular it all is - by trying to fix one thing, you could improve it all.

Anyway, made Summer Squash soup by Deliciously Ella today to use up a small glut, and it was delicious! Rest has been frozen. Also stewed up some plums and portioned some off to freeze. I like the idea of having a variety of healthy choices at my fingertips.

Today has been rather mixed.

B: tiger bread with peanut butter and jam (my bad habit, bracing myself to switch back to porridge)
L: carrot 'fries' with amai sauce, pancakes with lime and sugar
D: hasselback squash with garlic rice
S: slice of banana bread

Dh and dd made the pancakes. They were delicious but he made a double batch so definitely ate too many of those.
I thought dinner was lovely but I was pretty much the only one. Ate too much of that too because no one else was.
Altogether it's not been a good week for my goal of not over eating.
Also feel a bit sad because I'm genuinely excited about trying new things to up our variety, but I feel like my family would prefer just sticking to the usual pasta/oven food. It's definitely not good for us though, some kind of change needs to happen.

B - 1 slice of granary toast with homemade jam
L - 4 homemade scones with butter and jam (!)
Snack - seal bar and a wacko bar
S - pasta and meatballs in a very veg heavy sauce with cheese sauce
I don't feel great to be honest. No fruit, not much veg. Mostly only ate when I was hungry but just feeling weird all day.

Hasselback squash sounds great - can I have a link to the recipe please?

www.eatyourbooks.com/library/recipes/2171260/hasselback-squash-with-burnt-garlic

B: Avocado on seeded toast
L: Pitta with hummus & salad
D: (not eaten yet) Spiced Roast Chicken, roast potatoes, peas, carrots, green beans
S: 2 biscuits

Also went for a 2 mile walk so feeling quite good.

Made up a batch of slow cooker braised red cabbage for the freezer because it was going over and I had already used some in a recipe.

Wilderness that sounds like a good day.

B: egg fried garlic rice (using up leftovers)
L: birdseye spicy chicken with steamfresh veg and yet more garlic rice (chips for the test of the family)
D: another Nadiya recipe, savoury french toast (a sort of croque Monsieur dipped in egg) which was a total success thankfully, and the left over pancakes with apple for pudding.
S: small piece of fridge cake
All a bit fast foody, but at least the family liked it all. Back on track tomorrow, more or less.

Ugh, I'm struggling not to crash diet right now. I definitely am an unhealthy weight and all these covid weight loss campaigns make me worried. I know I need a more sustainable approach though.

questions but crash diets never give long term results do they? I know what you mean though, I find it hard to imagine that I can actually get down to a healthy weight without some sort of extreme deprivation. My current goal is to get out of the obese category, I'm only a kilo or two over. Covid has been a motivator for us too. The way I see it though is that I want to improve my relationship with food, and whether I'm overeating or dieting that's still an unhealthy amount of time fixated on food. I want to ingrain the sense of what a health amount to eat is, so I don't have to constantly monitor. I'm not sure how possible that is after 30 odd years of bad habits but that's the goal anyway.

I like this thread!

I found quark to be such a handy thing. Lots of flavour for the calories, it is naturally fat free (I get lots of fat from other things, so no worries there) and it's versatile. I really like the flavour. It's nice and fresh.

Really tasty summer dinner: can of sardines (drained), finely chopped onion, finely chopped sour pickle (or a tiny bit of vinegar instead), finely chopped tomato and some finely chopped leaves like spinach/cress etc. Mix all together, add some spicy salsa. Toast nice bread. On a bread spread some quark, don't be stingy with it, and top it up with the sardine mix. Top up with spring onion if you fancy and a squeeze of lemon.
Bloody delicious. It made enough for 2 toasts and I had some extra cucumber on a side.

@GlumyGloomer I'm in exactly the same situation as you.

I've given it some thought and decided to make some healthy tweaks:

• I've recently started C25K and I'm going to resolve to keep up with that. As a mum of two very little ones it is hard, but great for my own mental health. I might add in a Pilates class too, I did one before lockdown and miss it.
• No more cans of soda. I've been drinking more and more during the hot weather, but that is over now.
• Re-focus on eating 5+ fruit and veg a day. This often crowds out some of my less healthy eating habits.
• I have some hazy idea of focusing more on proper meals and snacks, rather than grazing, but again, with two very little ones, sometimes that means you don't get to eat.

So it's definitely not a diet, but some healthy habits that I can hopefully continue for life. Maybe it will lead to weight loss, maybe not. But I know I will be healthier for it. And especially the running will be good for my respiratory health, which is obviously important right now.

Questionsquestions I’m glad you’ve changed your mind about crash dieting -it’s not sustainable really. I think refocusing on your 5 a day might really work. That’s what I’m trying to do and I’m starting to find that I don’t need the starchy carbs quite as much. For example, only 1 slice of toast needed if I have some fruit as well for breakfast.

ShroedingersImmigrant haven’t had sardines in ages, think I might add it to my shopping list. Will also look at Quark.

@Wildernesstips sardines are really good and cheap. Very versatile too. I think it's Ramsey who has recipe for lovely spaghetti with it. They are also good in a salad. ASDA has skinless and boneless ones.

Also, courgetti instead of a part of spaghetti. It's equally tasty and filling, BUT it's so much lighter on a stomach!

I agree with avoiding crash diets. They just won't do what you are looking for, OP. Get some good food habits, maybe do some diet, but nothing brutal and the weight will shift. My issue were portions. Still sometimes are.

Also, make sure you have good levels of vitamin D.

B: Seeded toast with peanut butter, raspberries, kiwi
L: Chicken & Avocado sandwich, tomatoes, melon
D: Brown butter cod with grains, leeks & spinach recipe from www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/b/brown-butter-codloinwithleeksspinachandgrains.html, red wine

Oh, photo didn’t post. DS had white rice and breaded cod 🙄!

Ooh, that looks great.
B: toast with peanut butter and marmalade. This was an experiment, it did not work.
L: noodles with omelette
D: fish pie. I'm not a huge fan due to the texture. Dh on the other hand loves mash and yummed it up. Both dd's not convinced.
S: fridge cake and chocolate buttons, sigh.

I've realised how closely linked my snacking is to my general happiness. When the house is a mess and I feel like I'm failing at life I eat say more than when I feel on top of things. Tomorrow I'm going for no snacks, and tonight I'm cleaning the kitchen. Hold me accountable please

Re: rice, specifically white rice & whether it's a healthy food, I saw something recently. I think it was one of these lifestyle & fitness vloggers, she's Korean (I think). She pointed out that approximately half the world eat white rice as not only their main carb but their primary source of calories, as many eat a diet fairly low in fat, added sugars, & don't eat much meat as it's expensive. Yet the majority (of Asians) are traditionally slim. There are many reasons for the difference, but really it boiled down to: eating lots of vegetables, regular mealtimes with friends & family (not in front of the TV), using chopsticks & therefore eating more slowly. No snacking. Good food practices in schools. Also, serving yourself a small portion (of possibly several dishes in the centre of the table), eating it slowly while chatting with family etc, then deciding if you want more, rather than loading a plate up at the start.

I did mean only to mention about the rice. But I thought the other stuff really interesting too. Anyway, I've stopped stressing about white rice not being healthy now.

Yesterday was a bad day. I've had a migraine the last few days (I get really unhelpful ones that cause a lot of ongoing nerve pain). I'm not sure if my back pain is just due to the migraine or if my back is officially Playing Up Again.
Had a nectarine, cup of tea (slept most of the day)
Leftover roast chicken thigh, salad, coleslaw. Yum.
Bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes. My Achilles heel...
Later, DH made me a hot chocolate but it was too sweet & thick so I only drank half.

Today - determined to get up & moving. Can't take ibuprofen, going to pharmacy to ask for suggestions.
I fancy again for dinner. I had it a few days ago... it's definitely going to be one of my regular meals. So easy. I just did mine in a normal pan. You do need a properly ripe tomato, maybe use one that's gone too soft for salad. I put a rasher of smoked bacon in mine & had it with an egg, but pretty much followed the suggestions in the YT video otherwise.

@SisyphusAndTheRockOfUntidiness oh yes. There is nothing wrong with white rice. You are right. I have brown rice just occasionally and rather for taste than healthy angle, most of the time I eat white rice. I think it's all marketing ploy😂

Your tomato rice sounds lovely!