What we ate today in a calorie deficit - whole food edition (and how do we feel?)

[thenewaveragebear1983]

I am on a long running ‘what we ate today’ thread, but I am currently trying to cut out ultra processed foods and Eat a (mostly) whole food diet. Mainly because I am really suffering with a looooooong list of minor ailments that are not independently any issue but as a collective, they are really dragging me down. My plan is to do the next 30 days (barring a weekend away) and to see if I notice any improvements, while also sticking to my calorie and exercise goals.

@CortieTat sorry to hear that you had mastitis- hope yiu are feeling better. I used to supplement soya lecithin to unblock ducts, but not sure that’s recommended now. Love your meal pics - are the purple things radish sprouts - so pretty! I have never heard of Dubai chocolate - will need to look it up.

@thenewaveragebear1983 leftovers when they are unexpectedly delicious is one of those winning feelings!

@DilkushaKitchen i am aiming for similar to you but never come near 30g fibre, maybe 20 on a good day. Any tips?

@BigDahliaFan its so weird how we feel good making an effort with food, and enjoy it, but it’s still hard to keep it up. Thibk for me I just find it’s a plate I let smash when things get on top of me.

Will update food later

@Clearingaspace I'm not sure, because I find it quite easy to hit 30g, I average around 35g a day.

My tips are though - (gradually) switch to wholewheat bread, pasta, rice etc. My breakfast this morning of toast and almond butter had 16g of fibre! I have some nuts every day (about 25g), they are packed with fibre. I used to avoid nuts when I was calorie counting, but if your portion control is good, they are a really good addition. I have also found that if I eat more calories for my meals, instead of aiming for about 400kCals to leave room for extras then I don't need my snacks and sweet treats so much.

I eat at least one pulse/bean/lentil based dinner a week and one lunch.

I also have at least one portion of whole fruit every day, and quite a lot of veg. If my meal isn't veg based, then I would have at least three really good portions of vegetables with my meal.

I'll keep updating!

Yesterday

Cup of tea
Pistachio and passionfruit granola, raspberry yoghurt, raspberries

Coffee

Nigella's Vietnamese chicken and mint salad (includes lots of cabbage, bit of carrot, onion) with half a portion of udon noodles (very impressed with myself making this the night before!)

Cup of Tea

25g mixed nuts

Vegan Jambalaya (butterbeans, pepper, loads of celery, onion, tinned tomatoes, brown basmati, herbs and spices. From BBC Good Food)

125ml red wine

Was a bit peckish before bed so had a slice of Stilton and 10g of walnuts. No weird dreams though!

I don’t get a lot of fibre either and I do think it impacts my weight loss. I did read somewhere that even if you increase your protein intake to eg 100g a day you get better results if you also increase your fibre.

I had a good day today considering it’s my office day, I normally struggle but it was ok. I didn’t cond home and have a big crazy binge like I often do. I’m due on (imminently) and I’ve been a bit emotional today but also at times felt really happy. I had acupuncture yesterday and I’m really on board for the whole body energy thing, even though that’s not my original cause for having it.

food today was berries and Greek yoghurt and kiwi
lunch was a salad box, tuna, cheese, pickled red cabbage and fruit
I have had a protein shake after work, more because I wanted something ice cold to sip while out here in the sun. I added loads of frozen fruit.
dinner will be spicy chicken thighs

@CortieTat I also love the new potatoes, they remind me of summers on our caravan holidays. Mum would also do a huge bowl of them and we’d snack on them from the fridge like sweets 🤣 no wonder I’m such a carb monster

Who had the 30 plants app, was that @Clearingaspace? It sounds good, what is it called please?

I don’t think I’ve actually introduced myself, but I’ve been following the thread for a while, and am finding it helpful. I had a good stint at avoiding UPF for a while, but somehow it all fell apart, so I’m trying to get back on track.

At the weekend I made lasagne, and wholewheat bread to go with it. I don’t eat much bread as I found it was bloating me up horribly, and I blamed wheat, but I suspect now that it might be the UPF, so I’m tentatively trying a small amount of good bread here and there. I struggle to get enough fibre otherwise. I’m working on that too.

Today I’ve had a latte, the last of the lasagne, a few nuts, and am unexpectedly having sea bass for dinner, so I’m happy with that.

@thenewaveragebear1983 I’m a fan of carbs from the fridge, starch in potatoes, rice, all kinds of pasta turns into resistant starch after 8 hours in the fridge. It’s lower GI and loved by gut biome. It’s like turning beige food into superfood.

@Clearingaspace I also manage at least 35 grams of fiber on a worse day and over 40 when I’m eating like a saint - from what I noticed the biggest source is my breakfast: 25g of rolled oats, 20g of chia and 5g each of sunflower, flax and hemp seeds plus a 100-120g banana contain around 15g of fiber in total; then avocado 🥑 and dense leafy green vegetables like cabbages, leek and so on. And pulses of course.

Dubai chocolate is/was a viral thing, I think it went viral on tiktok, my kids know it from YT. I said over my dead body to buying a tiny and extremely overpriced bar once they started appearing in shops and now it’s become easier to buy raw ingredients.

@Castlerigg the app is called Plantversify- I really like it, but it was free when I signed up but I am not sure if it still is. The icon I think is a cartoon stomach with little veggies inside.

interesting about your bloating, I find I have less issues when I avoid bread, but tight now they are bad despite not eating much bread so I think it’s my protein shakes/bars possibly at the moment - so that tracks with your upf thought.

@CortieTat my youngest dd (14) just told me she has heard of Dubai chocolate and really wants to try it! She thinks lidl sell it but are always ds out.

Glad you had a good day @thenewaveragebear1983 - interesting about upping fibre alongside protein. I guess fat has to take a bit more of a back seat then?

@DilkushaKitchen your granola sounds delicious! I am going to experiment with more bread I think. I had a slice yesterday and it was ok, but it seems to be a trigger/ gateway food for me (sorry to be dramatic!)

Yesterday
skyr, lizi no sugar granola. Blueberries
steak, roasted veg, baby leaf salad
protein shake, latt and coffee

today - a lot of food! Need to work out cals!
boiled eggs, Parma ham and avocado
A sort of pho but no noodles and fish sauce - used broth and chicken from Sunday roast and lots of veg, pak choy, bn squash, carrots, mushrooms, coriander, lime and a tiny bit of honey - but way too much crushed chili - it made my nose run!
dinner was just pasta pesto, peas and broccoli
just had a slice of dh’s seedy sourdough with peanut butter - for fibre!

exercise - I signed up for Caroline G app free trial and did beginner work out 1

@Clearingaspace I need to check the app, I like tracking things.
It’s interesting what you said about soy lecithin, I have not heard of this. It’s the first time I have mastitis when breastfeeding and I latched the little one on the affected side so she cleared it out. The fever part is peculiar, yesterday I got very high (39) fever really fast but then everything went back to normal within hours, I got up without any symptoms in the morning.

Yes, the pink things are sprouts, I think the variety is called China Rose. I have a simple glass sprouting jar.

Thank you @Clearingaspace - the app was 99p, I can stretch to that 🙂

@CortieTat i guess you must be clearing it, which is great given you had got to the fever stage. Maybe you need a little more rest, it’s amazing what sleep can do when we are ill.

@Castlerigg 😆 not even £1, that’s not too bad at all!

Whst i ate today.

Fruit smoothie.
Baked potato with cheese
Strawberries
Two oat biscuits.

Im 14 stone, i have 2 stone to lose

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/weightlosschat/5327267-clean-eating

I recently started his thread about clean eating but it's very quiet.
Thanks @thenewaveragebear1983 for directing me to this one.

Not done so well on the whole food eating today. My meals were mostly good but I had some party rings biscuits ( 🤦‍♀️) and a few other bits. I have gone over my calorie allowance today too. I’m really tired and hormonal and some days it’s just too hard. On the plus side I did a pretty fast 5km this morning, took 25 seconds off my time of the same route last week and the fastest I’ve done it in more than a year!

my meals tomorrow are all sorted, I need to drink some more water though early in the day. If I leave it till later it doesn’t curb my appetite in the same way, plus I’m up all night needing the toilet!

@Arina22 you need to eat some veg. It will stop you feeling very very hungry indeed

Hi everyone.

1200 kcal

Banana
4 rolls of sliced chicken (80g)
Cucumber
Tomato
Seeded wholemeal sourdough (47g slice)

Apple

3 cups of tea with a splash of milk

Spatzl (100g)
Beef mince and onions in gravy.

@thenewaveragebear1983 congratulations on your great run, 25 seconds faster is a lot!

Yesterday:

Overnight oats

Two slices of crisp bread (grovknäcke) with liver pate, cheese and ham; radishes, brussel sprouts, smoked tofu

We were out in the evening to cheer DC2 who participated in a run for children so I had a chevre salad from the local Max (it’s the Swedish McDonalds). It’s not great but the only reasonably healthy option they have.

Snacks: Dubai chocolate from the other day (being a parent sucks, only 15 grams left for me!), two coffees with oat milk, winegums (45g), homemade kombucha.

2381 kcal. 6 km brisk walk with baby and LM BodyBalance.

@Clearingaspace I also bought the app! I know I eat 30 plants a week but it was 9 crowns so the equivalent of roughly 70p. I wanted to know how it’s like to buy something cheaper than elsewhere for a change 😅😝

Hi new joiners @TourangaLeila , @Woraloralaughs @Arina22

@CortieTat hope you enjoy, it’s fun to do once in a while - I got to 45 this week and you can see a record of week to week so Ideally I would use this when I am off the rails to make sure I am eating some fruit and veg, but not sure if that will happen!

another good app for making choices in the supermarket when buying upf stuff is yuka. This is free but I have a paid version now as I was using the free version quite a bit and wanted to support. For example my dds love pesto and lidl pesto was rated orange poor, but another brand is rated green good (I make pesto occasionally but it’s handy to have). Dh likes filled pasta so we go for ones that are scored excellent 90 out of 100 - but they are still so try not to have all the time.

Yesterday I ate a bit too much bread to up my fibre and didn’t track my cals or fibre, but the scale was ok this am.

bf Parma ham and mushroom omelette with some avocado on sourdough toast

lunch mackerel and salad, with decent amount of actual veg added

Snacks seedy toast and peanut butter 100% type, caramel latte (I find it hard to get a basic coffee when it’s the loyalty freebie) and protein bar

CG beginner workout 2

Today
bf blueberries, roast veg and chicken reheated and turned into frittata, almond milk coffee

Late lunch seafood and M&S peashoot stir fried vegetables

snacks apple, latte and protein bar

free/sample beachbody Sean T cycle workout

Yesterday:

Overnight oats

Ran out of Buldak so made my own and hopefully both more fancy and natural version - baby was sleeping so I could make everything from scratch including own dashi. Sweet potato noodles + tofu, savoy cabbage, wakame and hijiki seaweed, chili paste, shiitake, broad beans, soybeans, three leftover prawns and some parsley found in the fridge.

Lamb vindaloo

Snacks: two coffees with oat milk, “energy drink”: coffee, turmeric, raw cocoa and oat milk; beetroot juice with ginger, crisp bread with liver pate and sour cucumber, small (25g) doughnut.

2096 kcal. Short walk (around 3km) and a lovely relaxing qigong session.

Yesterday:

Overnight oats, same as usual. Two weeks ago (inspired by lovely PPs on this thread) I started eating less rolled oats and more chia seeds (25g oats/20g chia, had 30/10 before). I get more fibre and I don’t feel peckish an hour before lunch.

Baguette with avocado and some stuff (out running admin errands for the baby so it was a cafe lunch) Gluten free bread is vile.

Homemade sushi 🍣 We used to roll every Friday, a big family thing. This was the first time we made sushi since the little one was born. Wakame salad bought from a local sushi place.

Snacks: three coffees (oat milk), avocado/banana mousse, 1 slice of cheese, mini donut (25g).

2295 kcal (found the baguette online at 658, looks reasonable to me). LM Shapes #2

Wow I am very impressed by your sushi rolling skills @CortieTat family! We have made it a few times, but just with vegetables, and it’s always been pretty messy!

yesterday was not good - best to just gloss over that!

BF samphire, poached egg, and cold roast salmon

L tofu and stir fry veg (pak Choi, edamame, mushrooms etc) small amount of rice noodles

S protein shake, latte and lentil cakes with red pepper hummus

i am not sure about dinner - I might fast as it’s Eurovision snacks and pizza tonight

Morning walk done, possibly a CG workout plus another walk this afternoon

Oh also had some berries and frozen fruit!

Food-wise I had the worst day in a long time today, only the breakfast was decent and the rest just assorted leftovers.

Overnight oats

Korv stroganoff with potatoes (this is a Swedish “specialty”, children like it), carrots.

Lamb vindaloo and sprout beans (half of the takeaway we had on Thursday)

Two coffees with oat milk, winegums, one slice of cheese, 15g of chocolate (we are making Dubai chocolate again).

I was done eating at 7 pm today but I’m going to have 1/4 of wine bottle (188 ml) while watching Eurovision.

2669 kcal, 4 km walk, fantastic Body Attack workout. I feel at more or less 60% of my pre-pregnancy fitness level which means that I can already put a lot into Body Attack and get a proper endorphin bliss at the end.

I’m rooting for Kaj today, very excited and proud of them!