Critique my lunch!

purplecow1977 · 11-05-2014 4:04pm #1

So I'm usually a member of the 'ham and cheese sandwich' brigade normally as it's tasty (I think so) and easy to fling into the toaster at work. Got a new lunch box in Aldi during the week so have been trying out something different! Today and yesterday I also had something similar for lunch. Opinions please?

(I'm trying to lose weight and am usually a carb fiend but wondering if something like this is okay)

Oh and it might not look it but it's a small plate - larger than a saucer though.
Had: Lettuce, cherry tomatoes, walnuts, pumpkin & sunflower seeds, 1 boiled egg mixed with a teaspoon of light mayonnaise, 2 slices ham and some green olives.

siochain · 11-05-2014 7:02pm

Good lunch only thing I would change would be the mayo. I'd swap wih olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

In terms of our goals it's hard to fully assess without knowing your full diet.

Typer Monkey · 11-05-2014 8:21pm

I have a salad for my lunch too. You could bulk it up with some roasted veg (peppers, courgette etc)..will keep ya fuller without much of a calorie cost. You could also substitute a chicken fillet for the ham slices.

As Siochan says above though looking at one meal in isolation is difficult. Are you using a calorie counter like myfitnesspal to track your daily calorie intake? What's the rest of your meals like?

Also watch the quantities of nuts/seeds. They pack quite a calorie punch.

purplecow1977 · 11-05-2014 8:52pm

Thanks everyone.
I find tracking things via MFP so time consuming unless you eat the same things every day!

I was going to suggest that I'd swap the ham for chicken fillet but normally the ham is more accessible as I freeze my chicken fillets & also normally eat chicken 6 days out of 7 so ... maybe not for lunch :-)

I'm glad to hear that's a decent lunch that can keep me on track. My diet overall isn't by any means perfect. But if I can work on changing things slowly, then I should be able to maintain the changes. Actually was full enough after it. Yesterday I had almost the same (but had 2 eggs, no olives, and I had 1 slice wholemeal bread but decided I didn't need it today)

Breakfast: 2 weetabix, low fat milk (bf won't drink skimmed) and a drizzle of honey

Lunch: Varies, used to ALWAYS be a ham & cheese wholegrain sandwich but I need a change so going to try the above, maybe with some tuna instead of ham, or salmon. Could probably do without the mayo to be honest, perhaps it's just habit to mash up the egg but I could do without it.

Dinner: Normally chicken with stirfried veg and pasta/rice (definitely need to eat a bit less of these)
Bananas/strawberries are usually snacks. Sometimes around 9pm, especially if I've been to the gym, I'll be peckish and eat crackers & some cheese (Need to eliminate this too - maybe just a coffee to get rid of the 'hunger'?) Or I might have a packet of multi-pack meanies and I know they're not v bad calorie wise though probably not great overall.

I know that nuts/seeds can be quite high in calories and it was really just a sprinkle.

Weekends it's not as restrictive so I hope that it's not my downfall overall - I'm hoping if I eat well during the week it will balance out. Fridays are always homemade burgers & homemade chips, and Saturdays could be fajitas or half a pizza with a load of my own toppings. Sundays = roast chicken, roast potatoes, roast carrots & gravy (usually).

I hate exercise and I have a 1 hour commute each way from work so I am sometimes too tired (and lazy) to go but I am about 3 stone overweight and have recently renewed my membership for 2 months so determined to use it! Went 3 times since Tuesday so that's a start.

I also need to drink more water.

Typer Monkey · 12-05-2014 8:16am

Tracking your calories is initially a bit time consuming but I don't think you can sustainably loose weight without it. It shows you where you're going wrong, teaches you about portion sizes & keeps you on the right path. Realistically once you've tracked everything for a few weeks you'll have entered pretty much everything you eat on a regular basis and selecting items from your 'recent foods' is quick and simple. You can also copy meals from day to day (like your salad or breakfast) and create and save 'meals' so it's easy to just select your dinners from a list. I put on almost 5 stone while pregnant and lost it using MFP to track and I'm a huge fan of it still for monitoring how much protein, carbs and fat I'm eating (I'm at my target weight and am trying to get my body fat down now)

Have you calculated your daily calorie requirement? All the info is available online and in the stickies. Eat 300-500 calories under that and you'll loose weight.

The meanies are pretty terrible

but I think there's no harm in including a little of what you fancy to keep you on the straight and narrow. I used to have a fun size chocolate bar or two Jaffa cakes with a cup of tea in the evenings. I'd look forward to it and helped me stay otherwise on track. Also don't avoid fat altogether. In fact 30% of your intake should be made up of fat. Good fats include butter, coconut or olive oil, cheese, eggs etc. Avoid 'low fat' products as they generally are high in sugar to compensate. The only exception I made was skimmed milk. I drink a lot of tea and didn't want to take the calorie hit of full fat milk!

Have you considered weight training? I hated dragging my ass to the gym to do endless cardio but I love weight training. I enjoy the challenge and see real changes to my body shape. I had some sessions with a personal trainer who specialises in weight training to learn the lifts and put a program together. I see it as a great investment anyway

Good luck

Critique my lunch!

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