Seem like a good diet to you?

Acid_Violet

I posted here not too long ago, can't find that thread so a new one will do.

Ok, I'm 16, female, 169 cm (5' 6.5''), and somewhere between 10.5-11 stone. My clothes would range from xs to a size 12, I'd be mainly a size ten or twelve.

I used to eat a lot of junk, biscuits and chockie galore, and am trying to cut down, to get my act together before I balloon. The only real exercise I have is camogie which I play 1-3 nights a week (depending on matches). Then I do 30-45 press-ups every day or every other day, depending on whether I feel my muscles a bit sore.

So can y'all tell me if you think it's a good diet;

Breakfast;
Weetabix with a chopped banana on top and soya milk, green tea and then a ryvita (or some similar cracker I got in lidl) with some packaged ham and a bit of cheese.

11 o'clock;
Some fruit and green tea

Lunch; (something of theese things)
Salad with lots of veg (celery, lettuce, spring onions, sundried tomoatoes, tomatoes, peppers, olives, avocado, whatever's in the house really but a lot of green veg anyway) chickpeas, pasta, noodles, some bread, tuna or mackerel or similar fish, somre left-over ham or chicken from the dinner the night before, sunflower seeds, some pesto to taste. Ginger and lemon herbal tea, often some fruit juice before I go back to work.

4 o'clock;
Some fruit and green tea

Dinner; (something of these things)
The same foods from lunch and broccoli, potatoes, meat/ham/whatever meat is for dinner, cous-cous, fish, spinach, leeks, stuff like that.

I drink a lot of water during the day and would eat a fair bit of fruit also. I'd have a mug or two of hot milk before I go to bed. Because I sing I don't have dairy during the day. I'd treat myself to chocolate or something similar every now and again, whenever there'd be anything nice present in the house as opposed to going and getting any.

Any recommendations of what to change and what foods I'd benefit from? Any calcium sources that aren't dairy that anyone can tell me of?

justsomebloke

truthfully it's looks like a better then average diet for a 16 year old. The one thing that I would note is the lack of good fats in your diet so you could try and put some things like eggs, nuts, flax seed, fish oil, extra virgin olive oil (not for cooking though) and avocados.
Now depending on the amount of carbs you actually eat you may want to cut down on them but as I have no idea of the portion sizes I can't tell you.

Now with all that said you are 16 chances are your diet is going to go to pot over the next few years anyway so don't get to hung up on it and enjoy yourself

Money Shot

That looks like an incredibly healthy diet for a sixteen year old these days. It would be very picky to start finding fault with it. My advice to any sixteen year old would be to try and get into good habits and most importantly enjoy your food. You seem to be doing both. You might want to change things if you have a particular goal in mind, but you seem to be eating a lot of the right things.

For Calcium, dairy is obviously great, but tofu is supposed to have a lot of calcium in it. Most beans and some nuts (almonds) also have some calcium in it, as do some veggies. I think tofu is disgusting to eat, but some people like it.


This will help gauge the calcium in any food
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c218r.html

slicus ricus

Looks pretty good to me. Only thing i would suggest is to replace the weetabix with porridge, but thats not exactly major. What are your dietary goals at the moment? Are you trying to lose weight or are you just trying to eat as healthy as possible? Kinda need to know what you're trying to achieve to be able to offer advice.

Acid_Violet

I would like to lose a bit of weight, but nothing major. I'm more trying to prevent any weight, or more importantly fat gains.

My bust is quite small and legs are thin so it'd almost look weird if I lost weight in those places. My upper arms are quite flabby, as is the pit of my tummy occasionally. I'm slim as it is and I know you can't spot-lose weight but there must be some way to achieve and maintain better arms and tummy without a lot of all-round weight-loss. I do press-ups and try to do sit-ups if I remember to, in an effort to tone up. Any small, hardly noticeable change would be very appreciated even. Any recommendations?

I've cut down a lot on bread, may only have it every two days now because it makes me bloated. Judging from my diet and what I would ideally like to achieve, would it be recommended to cut down more on carbs or anything else?

justsomebloke

As I said it depends on the portion size of complex carbs you have but as you eat so much fruit and veg you should be able to cut out the things like pasta, potatoes and rice from your evening meal, just add even more veg.

Also maybe vary your workout so that you are getting a full body workout and add more body weight exercises like dips, squats, burpees walking lunges... google body weight exercises for lots of example

Sleepy

Excellent diet in this day and age. The only suggestion I'd make is to try and add in some protein to your mid morning and mid afternoon snack meals. A little lean chicken breast or a handful of nuts?

yomchi

Don't worry about the flabby bits, when you've stopped growing everything will fit into place nicely. Your diet is very good indeed.
Here is a website about calcium from non dairy
-> http://www.vegansociety.com/html/food/nutrition/calcium.php

->http://www.vegsoc.org/info/calcium.html

keep up the good work!

Acid_Violet

Jon wrote:

Don't worry about the flabby bits, when you've stopped growing everything will fit into place nicely.

Lool, that's such a mammy thing to say.

Thanks very much for all the advice everyone, it's really helpful:)

yomchi

Lool, that's such a mammy thing to say

could you not have said daddy instead.. i feel femine now

Anyways its true!

where do you play Camogie btw?

Acid_Violet

Kilmacud Crokes. I miss the training though cos I'm doing a course on the same day, so it's two matches per week, unless the matches are cancelled. Should really do more exercise!

yomchi

watch out for Naomh Finbarra this year! Cabra Abú and all that GAA jazz

Acid_Violet

jsb wrote:

As I said it depends on the portion size of complex carbs you have but as you eat so much fruit and veg you should be able to cut out the things like pasta, potatoes and rice from your evening meal, just add even more veg.

Ok, could you tell me what the kind of carb/protein intake would be in this meal. This'd be fairly typical, I had it for lunch today except the portion may've been a little bigger than I normally have. I'd a twelve inch diameter plate filled with lettuce, scallions, chicken (with garlic on it), olives, tomatoes, some weird yellow tomatoes, courgette, sunflower seeds and some parmesan to flavour. I'm still quite full after it tbh and it's rare that I'm full after a meal! (I'd say 1.25 cups of chicken pieces and almost a mug of vegetables would've made up the meal and there was loadsa lettuce in it.)

If I get a good idea of what the nutritional intake would've been in that, I'll have a good idea of what portions and foods I should be eating in the future.

Sleepy

From what I know that's pretty much a perfect meal Acid_Violet. Wish I had your discipline when it came to diet!

Zzippy

Jon wrote:

watch out for Naomh Finbarra this year! Cabra Abú and all that GAA jazz

Those feckers! At least you're not playing against the lads, had a hurl smashed over my knee by one of em years ago. And no, the ball was nowhere near at the time! He got his comeuppance tho... hehe

OP, diet looks pretty damn good for a 16 year old, when I was that age I ate loads of cr*p. Keep it up, and keep up the camogie, great sport!

justsomebloke

no that would pretty much spot of lunch maybe a bit of olive oil for a bit of additional fat to go with the seeds. But other then that you have a protein source coming from the chicken and plenty of different kinds of veg. Also with your snacks add in a small amount of nuts aswell

What you could do is use something like fitday.com for a couple of weeks to check you calorie intake and the split between protein/fats/carbs and if you have any queries post up.

But as I said earlier you are still young so don't obsess about your diet just try and make the majority of it clean and you will be fine but as such you seem to have a good base diet anyway

Acid_Violet

It's not discipline, I really don't know how I do it, I'm always tempted to take a hobnob from the buscuit tin at work, never know how I avoid it.

Acid_Violet

Galwayguy99 wrote:

Those feckers! At least you're not playing against the lads, had a hurl smashed over my knee by one of em years ago. And no, the ball was nowhere near at the time! He got his comeuppance tho... hehe

Camogie is a dirty, dirty sport. My once lovely legs have been destroyed with bruises and cuts from angry, sad dykes on opposition teams.....well come on, camogie has a reputation for those kind of participants!

slicus ricus

That's pretty much spot on all round - that lunch meal you had covers everything really. Fair play Acid_Violet, keep up the good work.

yomchi

Acid_Violet wrote:

Camogie is a dirty, dirty sport. My once lovely legs have been destroyed with bruises and cuts from angry, sad dykes on opposition teams.....well come on, camogie has a reputation for those kind of participants!

LOL thats mean! of course they're all lovable lassies on your team

Those feckers! At least you're not playing against the lads, had a hurl smashed over my knee by one of em years ago. And no, the ball was nowhere near at the time! He got his comeuppance tho... hehe

i heard they're a dirty bunch alright! :eek:

Acid_Violet

Jon wrote:

LOL thats mean! of course they're all lovable lassies on your team

Ah no, to be fair camogie is full of sad old women in every club in the county . The players in my club who used to play inter-county and who do now are all happy married sound women, yet the not so good ones are bitter old hags.....says it all. We've one of the most masculine things I've ever seen playing on my team, but she's an absolute legend, thoroughly cool and lovely. I'm very fair in my prejudices .

yomchi

I'm very fair in my prejudices

quote of the day!

Hermione*

Acid_Violet wrote:

I'd a twelve inch diameter plate filled with lettuce, scallions, chicken (with garlic on it), olives, tomatoes, some weird yellow tomatoes, courgette, sunflower seeds and some parmesan to flavour. I'm still quite full after it tbh and it's rare that I'm full after a meal! (I'd say 1.25 cups of chicken pieces and almost a mug of vegetables would've made up the meal and there was loadsa lettuce in it.

That sounds so yummy! You're obviously much more developed in your food tastes and kitchen ability than most 16 year olds! The only thing I would suggest is maybe replacing the lettuce with baby spinach or rocket as there's more nutrients like iron and vitamin a in them than in lettuce, but if you don't like either, don't worry- you seem to be getting plenty of veg as it is! Go you