🍓🥑🥦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.

Yes, I know that pain! Hubby is a good cook but he’s idea of a healthy dinner is chicken with stir fried vegetables (and endless variations of that)

I don’t eat much dairy. My overnight oats today were: rolled oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, dried mulberries, raw cocoa, chia and poppyseeds. Mixed with 100 ml of Oatly and 50 ml of onaka (that’s my dairy for today). I usually alternate the toppings but not so much, so after several weeks of going through a bag of poppyseed 5 grams at a time it does get old 😂.

We are on the way to Tivoli today (I live in Sweden) so except for the decent breakfast, it’s going to be fast food but also walking all day. I count calories so I try to be sensible.

Your overnight oats sound fantastic! I don't think I've ever seen a mulberry here.

I've started drinking oat milk...think it's healthier than cow's? I like the taste in a latte. Having one now after a dog walk on the first warm, sunny day this year!

My DH cooks twice a year, on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.....
He used to do the Sunday roast every week but somehow phased that out 🤨

Have a great time at Tivoli. We went to Tivoli in Copenhagen a few years ago, not sure if they're related.

Yes that’s the Tivoli! The same one.

Not sure if oat milk is healthier than cow’s but I was really into the classic/traditional Chinese medicine a couple of years ago, for health- but not weight-related reasons. In TCM milk is one of the bad guys so I stopped eating dairy. I’m now back to some yogurt/kefir/onaka with my overnight oats because Oatly just turns to disgusting watery substance overnight. I also eat cheese from time to time.
I like oat milk in my coffee as well, the taste is divine.

We found some decent food in Tivoli, we had really tasty and reasonably sized raw salmon poké bowls for dinner, kids loved theirs too. It would be an exceptionally good day for eating healthy if it wasn’t for a gigantic ice cream.

Re mulberries - I bought them online. They are usually available in Middle Eastern grocery stores, we used to have one nearby but it closed down so I get all the more exotic dried fruit online.

All my healthy eating has done me no good...I've got a cold and haven't had one in years!

To be fair, I'm pretty sure I caught it from DS2 but I thought my new improved immunity might shield me from it 😂

When we went to Tivoli I remember that we all had massive hot dogs (pinnacle of health) and they were extortionately priced! Denmark was veeeery expensive but lovely.

Sipping a cup of fruit tea, trying to find the energy to make my berries and yoghurt breakfast and not resort to marmalade on toast.

Have a good weekend everyone, weather here looks beautiful.

Oh no, hope you can do something nice for yourself this weekend to get better!

I’ve made this for lunch today: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-egg-muffins I use any vegetables I have at home and usually go easy on cheese, grated 21% fat mozzarella instead of cheddar.
My kids love them.

We are watching the Eurovision final from Malmö or DC are watching and I’m trying to read.

They look yummy!

Me and DH started watching Eurovision and got to the end of the songs! Had to go to sleep, feeling a bit better this morning....going to our beach hut to make a very unhealthy breakfast of bacon sandwiches 😀

DH will walk the hell hound and I'll cook the breakfast.

Aiming to watch the rest of Eurovision later today. My favourite bit is when the scores start to come in!

I predict Croatia for the win, very catchy and lots of audience participation.

I did get very excited when I thought ABBA would be performing!!
Wonder why they didn't??

We checked yesterday who won before going to bed and watched the winning song on YouTube. I was cheering Estonia (I love the language) so a bit disappointed tbh.

Marcus & Martinus didn’t do well, kids were disappointed but quickly recovered and told me they were Norwegian anyway 😅.

I could do with a toast! I don’t eat gluten (I was diagnosed coeliac as a kid, then seemingly “cured”, but was again found intolerant later in life, lots of my unexplained digestive issues disappeared after I went gluten-free)

We were naughty yesterday - I was on the way to drop some clothes off at the tailor and then discovered a Polish grocery store. We left with sausages and cheesecake 😊, so had some Polish sausages grilled for lunch today. Hoping to offset them with a large fennel stir-fried with a white miso paste and sesame seeds.

It’s been the second day this week when we had meat, so overall a good balance I think.

We're having a very carnivorous day here....bacon sandwiches for breakfast and roast lamb for dinner 🍖 😀

Beautiful weather here but I'm still recovering from a head cold so just pottering about the house sorting school uniform, encouraging DD to do some GCSE revision and eating some more of the apricot, almond and yoghurt cake I made yesterday.

All in all, a very unhealthy (but gorgeous) weekend!

Could you share the cake recipe? Sounds delicious!
We are also having lamb for dinner, just making burgers from some mince we bought from one of the local farms.
I’m also shredding cabbage for salad and making another salad with sprout beans, broad beans and onion.
Sunday is my running day, I did 12k (just a mere 20K more and I reach my goal 😅) and now I’m pretending that I help DH with dinner but I’m totally knackered.

I came back from holiday today. Didn’t do too badly - many slices of cake were resisted, a few were shared and one or two enjoyed in their entirety 😋 I did so much walking that the exercise should offset at least a few of the extra calories.

I was aiming to get completely back on plan by tomorrow, but the warm temperatures have completely killed my appetite so am actually doing much better today than anticipated.

I must say I like the sound of that cake too…Hope you feel much better soon @MonkeyTennis34

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/recipe/apricot-almond-yogurt-cake#rating

👆🏻Hope that works. First time I've tried using a link without the help of a teen!

ChatterlingStarling
Sounds like you were very good on holiday, I usually go into pig at the trough mode on holiday. Well done 👏🏻

CortieTat
12K? That's amazing. I'm in awe!
I did Couch to 5K in the first lockdown and have been trying to use the treadmill but willpower is proving elusive when it comes to exercise lately...

The cake is really easy to make and very very delectable.

It's by no means healthy but I was able to add apricots to my weekly plant count, which ended up being 32.

@MonkeyTennis34 thank you for the recipe, it’s unfortunately with flour but I usually get inspired and search for gluten-free alternatives, gluten-free flour tastes like sand.

TBH I hate running! I really like strength training and would gladly avoid any type of cardio but I try to be sensible and tell myself that it is also strength training but for my heart. I also did Couch to 5K last year, after a friend signed me up for a New Year’s 5K run, and I picked up from there. I live in a valley by a lake so I either run on a completely flat trail along the lake or take a shorter, 10K run over the hills (it sucks)

@ChatteringStarling I’m travelling for the next three days, your willpower is inspiring!

I need to count my plants! Do seeds and nuts also count or is it vegetables only?

CortieTat

Seeds, nuts, pulses, fruits, spices (apparently!) all count!

I hope you find a suitable alternative for the cake!

Grains count towards the 30 plants goal too, but I guess that’s only of limited use to you @CortieTat? I’m really impressed you manage to motivate yourself to do something you don’t actually enjoy doing. That’s some serious willpower.

It makes sense to me that spices count too @MonkeyTennis34. Many of those are so full of antioxidants, anti inflammatories etc that they are used medicinally. So even a small amount will do something.

I’m going to aim for the 30 plant-target this week - if all goes to plan I should make it to 10 today (oats, banana, peanuts, cinnamon, peas, cashews, cucumber, lentils, carrots, apple). I suspect that adding new plant-foods will get a lot harder as the week progresses!

I’m also planning to increase my exercise levels this week - 3 x 40 minutes, instead of 3 x 30. My ultimate aim is to re-introduce rowing to my exercise regime, but I need to be fitter and physically stronger than I currently am. The next six weeks will be focussed on getting me there (hopefully!)💪

I love this idea of counting plants, makes me very motivated! @ChatteringStarling I am very goal-oriented to the point of being miserable in other areas of life, so at the beginning I was cheating myself by doing cardio only to get the endorphin kick at the end, and then since I started running I always run somewhere - to the red shed, to the yellow house, to the bright white birch tree, to the big stone - it can be anything but once I have a goal, I do it!

There are grains I can count and eat: rice, oats, quinoa, millet, buckwheat and maize.

I use a spreadsheet to track my plant food counts for the week.

I don't track herbs and spices separately, just track 2 entries each week, unless it's something like eating fresh fenugreek as a whole dish to make saag. I do track my homemade kimchi on it's own since it's so good for you.

Tea, real coffee (not instant), proper cocoa powder (unsweetened, not hot chocolate), tofu, miso, cornmeal... some wild cards you may not be counting!

I got 66 last week!

It opens your thoughts to doing things such as I made dal, but I used 4 different lentils instead of 1, batch cooked refried beans and used 5 different beans, swapping to mixed berries rather than single varieties, that adds 5 to my totals, instead of 1.

This got me really motivated, I was on airport/train station food all day and I managed to get 14 :-), by eating soba noodles with wakame, shiitake mushrooms and some unidentified objects for breakfast and then a veggie poké bowl for dinner, so I managed to stick to reasonably healthy choices.
Soba was not great though, cut with a lot of wheat because my stomach tells me I’ve been naughty.

@WeirdPookah I also make kimchi at home, I try to ferment everything that’s not meat 😅.

WeirdPookah
I probably drink about 6 cups of tea a day, so that's good news!

CortieTat
14 in one day is impressive!

It was surprisingly easy! I had wakame, shiitake, scallions, something that looked like bamboo and black sesame seeds for breakfast (that’s 5) then a smoothie with ginger, grapefruit and apple (3) and red cabbage, tomatoes, sunflower seeds, radishes, radish sprouts and spinach for dinner (6). I also had real coffee and grains which I didn’t count. It’s changed so much in the past few years, ten years ago I could choose between sandwiches and sandwiches when travelling.

Just treated myself to this!
Will report back when I e had a chance to look at the recipes.

I've enjoyed the 10-a-Day the Easy Way by James Wong.

The lentil bolognaise is a standard recipe in my house now.

Ooh that looks like an interesting book @MonkeyTennis34

I love James Wong too @WeirdPookah I planted an amarena cherry tree a few years ago, after reading in one of his books that sour cherries are packed full of vitamins & antioxidants. Growing that tree and getting it to produce fruit is one of the few things that makes me feel like a competent adult 😂

I’ve not managed to add much to my 30 a week list today. Just sour cherries, bean sprouts, peppers and the coconut I forgot to add to yesterday’s list, so that’s 14 so far this week.

Don’t get me started on being goal oriented @CortieTat. I do practically nothing unless I have a goal, but have to be clever about how many & what goals I set as I have a tendency to become completely fixated once I do 😬 Do you participate if any running competition? Or is it just you against yourself?