🍓🥑🥦Anyone want to join me in losing some weight and eating more healthily?🥝🥬🫐

[MonkeyTennis34]

I would love to lose about a stone but I’m also focusing on more healthy foods.

Thinking about gut health..more fruit and veg, nuts and seeds, less ultra-processed foods and definitely less sugar (my weakness).
Also looking to improve my exercise and mindfulness habits.

Will aim to have a weigh-in on Fridays but I’m not looking for an unsustainable quick fix. Would love to (finally) get into good, long term healthiness.

I’m currently 10st 3lb.

Have you tried counting the plant foods you eat in a week? Getting a wide variety of these foods has been shown essential for gut health, and, well most health topics!

I aim for 40+ plant foods a week, though I regularly top 50 and occasionally hit 60! I keep myself a really simple spreadsheet to track it on.

Hi WeirdPookah
Yes, I’ve just started doing this. Aiming for 30 but already on 18 going from Saturday.
Wow, 50 and 60 is amazing!
What I’m not clear on is how much I need to eat.....does a handful of walnuts count?

I've read a few slightly conflicting articles about the amounts required. I personally don't count every different herb and spice. I feel that's such small amounts it's not enough. So I log myself 1 point for two entries of "general herbs", then "general spices", to cover all that I eat.

If I eat several slices of seeded bread over the week, I count the different componants to the blend that is in it. I eat mixed frozen berries to up the count too.

I read that testing can even detect if you eat something like tabasco sauce! So not something most people eat in vast amounts. I just count chili as a separate entry to the spices, then it covers the jalapeno's I put in the burrito we have for breakfast 4 days a week.

So quick answer, yes, I would count a handful of walnuts! You could make yourself a ready mixed blend of several nuts and seeds to make it easier to diversify.

That's encouraging.

I have mixed seeds with yoghurt for breakfast most days....think there are 4 different seeds.

I made a super worthy dinner last night. Veggie lasagne:
Mushrooms
Courgette
Red pepper
Tomatoes
Garlic
Mixed beans.

DS not too impressed...."Where's the meat?" Although he did finish the lot 😀

That is something else that counts as separate entries, different beans and lentils!

I’ll join you as I’m also on a quest to improve my diet & overall health. Losing some weight along the way would be nice (and I definitely need to!) but I don’t want that to take up all of my focus.

I started a few weeks ago and have had a few setbacks already. I reckon that’s just part of the process. I’m doing ok on the exercise, but lots of room for improvement on the food front. I like the sound of counting the number of different plants you eat.

Hi ChatteringStarling

Agreed re the focus not being entirely on weight loss.

Had a good day, although I didn't manage to get on the treadmill due to dentist, dinner and dog!
The plan is to go on it before breakfast tomorrow....

I started HRT just after Christmas, for brain fog and low mood - have only had one night sweat so far.
Not sure if it's the HRT or just the menopause but I've definitely developed a much sweeter tooth lately.

I find exercise hard to fit in, unless I make it my number one priority of the day. Easier said than done sometimes! When I decided I really needed to sort my life out, I drew up a 26 week exercise plan. I’m currently still in phase I, which is just about getting back into some kind of exercise habit, with three 30 minute sessions a week. I do a fair bit of walking too, so hopefully the two things combined will get me to a reasonable level of fitness. It’s certainly giving me more than enough muscle pain for now.

I’m the same with food really. I have to plan it out, or healthy choices just won’t happen! I started today off with some overnight oats and dug out a mixed berry mix from the depths of my freezer to add to it. Quite an enjoyable (and easy) way to up the number of different fruit & veg in the week. I just don’t think of doing that kind of stuff normally, judging by how deep the bag was buried 😂

Ha! I think there's some frozen berries buried in the depths of my freezer too!

I also walk every day with the dog probably 4km over 2 walks. Although my heart rate doesn't get up!

You're right re prioritising exercise....other things have taken over today.

Going to weigh in on Friday morning, feeling positive as I've really cut down on the rubbish this week and upped the good stuff.

Just had lunch, rather strange but I enjoyed it!

Some walnuts
Half a courgette
Small back of salted popcorn
A banana.

This was followed by a cup of oat milk latte and 2 malted milks but it's still an improvement 😀

That does sound like an interesting combination for lunch…😂

Are you counting calories @MonkeyTennis34 or just focussing on better choices?

I had a good day yesterday, made it to 15 different plant foods, which kind of surprised me. Mixed berries definitively helped!

Today I dug some sour cherries out of the freezer to add to my breakfast. They’re amazingly flavoursome even after a year of being frozen. I have a bean & vegetable soup in the pressure cooker right now, so reckon I’ll do ok on the fruit & veg today. Today is going to be an exercise day - 10 minutes on the cross trainer and 20 minutes on the exercise bike. Really looking forward to it 😊

ChatteringStarling I'm definitely NOT counting calories.

Have done that for so many years and I've had enough!
Yes, trying to make healthy choices.

Wow! That's a huge amount, well done!

Had a lovely HelloFresh meal last night. A noodle dish with mange tout, coleslaw mix and mushrooms. I chucked in some pumpkin seeds too.

Going away this weekend so will be off-piste for a couple of days.
Back on it on Monday 👍🏻

That sounds like a lovely dinner. Great idea to add some pumpkin seeds. They’re so nutritious. I have a lovely recipe for pumpkin seed butter somewhere. I love peanut butter etc, but pumpkin seed butter is in a league of its own. It’s surprising how nice it is as the raw seeds don’t really have that much flavour, but the butter does. Not sure how that’s possible!

Yesterday didn’t quite go to plan for me. I was stuck in meetings for so long that I didn’t have lunch, or did any exercise. Not great.

I’m about to go away for a week, but as it’s self catering in the UK, I’ve actually meal planned to stop me from eating too much crap. Just need to stop myself from having too many cake breaks. DH is fully signed up, which should help. He thinks we shouldn’t have any cake at all, but that’s a bit too extreme for me 😂

Ooh can I join?

I am about a stone heavier than I'd like, and can't fit half my summer clothes

Last year I kept track of my 30 plants, and was doing quite well, but I've got into bad habits again.

I'm aiming for 11,000 steps a day, 30 plants, exercise (at least 20mins) each day, and 2 litres of water.

Need to cut down on wine, and crisps.

Am Currently 10 stone 7lb.

Welcome to the thread @poshme ! It’s so easy to fall back into old habits again, isn’t it? I’m in the same boat as you. Half my Summer clothes no longer me fit either. Sounds like you have a sensible, achievable plan in place.

Can I join? Needed my Domino's thin crust pizza tonight to trigger 'That's enough!!' and lose a stone.

Has to be all or nothing with me so jumping straight in tomorrow eating from 3-7pm. I'm 9 stone and 5'6 and can't get anywhere near my summer skirts/trousers.

Welcome all!

Hope everyone is enjoying the tail end of the weekend. It was beautiful here yesterday....just a tease as it's now back to grey clouds and rain forecast later.

Didn't have a major weight gain from my night away. The dinner was a tasting menu so not huge portions and the food itself was full of veg...I even opted for the lighter dessert, Earl Grey tea ice cream 😇

I'm now 10st 1.25lb so down by 1.75lb since starting.
Would be great to get sub-10 by the weekend.

ohthejoys21 Wow, that's an impressively tiny eating window.
Do you eat 3 meals in 4 hours?!

poshme
It's so easy to take your eye off the prize re 30 plants. I often forget to record what I'm eating.
Wonder if there's an app out there specifically for eating 30+ plants a week?

@MonkeyTennis34 I found an app yesterday... and deleted it today as it didn't seem to store any info so you can't look back for the whole week.

I was doing quite well today, porridge for breakfast, whole meal bread and avocado for lunch until DS brought home a reduced price apple turnover. My problem is no willpower.

My willpower can be elusive but I'd like to get to a place where I'm eating healthily 80% of the time.

I don't want to completely cut out treats. For me, that's not realistic or desirable.

For the past few months, my unhealthy foods have definitely been outweighing my healthy foods.

I'm enjoying an M and S huge choc chip cookie as I write this and I'm not going to feel guilty.
Breakfast was my usual yoghurt, berries and seeds and dinner will be a chicken salad.

Exercise not great so far today as it started pelting it down on the dog walk so I came home early.

Yes it's a case of making small healthy changes isn't it/ I'm definitely trying to increase vegetable intake, salads for lunch etc and increase fruit intake.
I have done a reasonably long walk with the dogs so maybe Apple turnover hasn't done too much damage ! Just disappointed with myself as I have zero willpower.

Morning all!
Weighed in this morning at 9st 13.75lb so all this veg is working!

Had a tasty dinner last night, prawn and lemon linguine. I added in peas and some mushrooms and had just one small slice of onion bread and butter.

Still not cutting out sugar completely.
Malted milk biscuits with a cup of oat milk latte are one of life's essentials!

Can I join?
I’m already at my goal weight but looking for some inspiration for healthy meals. I like cooking but the whole meal planning exercise is exhausting, I often run out of ideas and we end up cooking around 12 dinners over and over again. My breakfasts are also quite boring, I have had overnight oats for several years now.

My goal for this year is to eat more fish and incorporate more Japanese dishes into our family diet. So far my attempts at working with tofu have produced mixed results but I don’t give up easily.

I also have two fitness goals: one is learning to do cartwheels, it’s been something I wanted since I was little! Another one is I want to be able to run to my favourite little village which is 16.8 km away. So it’s a bit more than half marathon to get there and back.

It’s Friday, my weight is 50,5 kg.

Welcome CortieTat

Healthy dinners.....and finding things that everyone in the family will like is a headache.
The DC would happily tuck into Spag Bol, shepherd's pie, chilli con carne etc every night of the week!

I can honestly say that dipping in and out of HelloFresh is fab.
I only use it when they send me a discount but I keep the recipe cards and use them, buying my own ingredients.
The recipes use loads of veg, and there are definitely tofu-based ones.

Another healthy breakfast that I tend to eat most days is Greek yoghurt (I've started adding some kefir to it too), mixed seeds, goji berries, some turmeric, with some warmed up berries added on top.
Delicious!

When I don't have has much time I gave a slice of wholemeal bread with crunchy peanut butter.
The peanut butter is from Aldi and peanuts are the only ingredient.