Opinions On My Diet

TheCatcher

Hi, all,
Longtime lurker here!
I've been making general steps to improve my diet, but am aware that's it's a long way off being perfect. Not that I'm aiming for perfect. What I'm hoping to do is eat a good balance of foods, get all my nutritional requirements, not eat too much, and indulge myself in the occasional treat when I feel like it. My main concern is that I'm eating too many sugars from fruit etc. but I can't really find any reccoandation for the amount of sugar you should eat in a day.
I'm female, nineteen, 5"7.5(:P)' and currently weigh between 8.10-8.13 stone. I'd like to lose around half a stone, but my efforts have been quite half-hearted as of late.
I figure I'll post what I've eaten in the last few days and some details of what I eat, and would love to get feedback on it. Thanks.

Today:
Breakfast: 40g porridge + 200ml skim milk + 1 orange - 450kal
Snack: 1 large apple + 2 tbsp natural peanut butter - 300kal
Lunch: 2 medium poached eggs + 1.5 slices dark brown bread (ABC health loaf) + lettuice, rocket, snap peas, cucumber + 1 orange + 1 large square 46% chocolate - 650
Dinner: Not sure yet, maybe chicken breast + butternut squash wedges + broccoli

Total (-dinner): 1400 kal

Yesterday:
Breakfast: porridge as above + 10g raisins + 10g seeds + banana - 500kal
Snack: 2 tbsp pb + banana - 300 kal
Lunch: 2 scrambled eggs + 1 slice ABC bread + salad - 450kal
Snack: 1 large square chocolate - 50kal
Dinner: Salmon darn + lettuce, tomato, lemon juice, cucumber, snap peas, pickle, etc. 400 kal
Snack: Clemintine - 50 + 2 squares chocolate - 150 kal
Total: 1850kal

Typical Day:
Breakfast: 40g porridge + 200ml skim milk + 1 tbsp pb/20g raisins and seeds. approx 400 kal
Banana 100kal

Snack: 2 tbsp peanut butter + banana/glenisk low-fat yoghurt + 1 tbsp all fruit jam/naked coco bar (absoloutly love these, but they are pricey and hard to get).

Lunch: 2 slices (100-130gs) ABC bread (350-400kal?) + 2 eggs (200kal)/baked beans(150 kal)/turkey + 30g cheese (200kal)/Cully and Sully soup (100kal) + salad (50-100kal)

Dinner: baked salmon/chicken breast/turkey breast + 100-150g sweet potoato + broccoli/green beans/peas/spinich OR 40g pasta/wholewheet noodles/brown rice + chicken/tofu/beans and veg

Dessert: 70-80% chocolate (out of it at the moment and am stuck with 46%)/glenisk low-fat yoghurt + 1 tbsp fruit spread/apple/orange/ 1 tbsp peanut butter

Some questions:
I use Connoct Gold spread on bread. Would I be better off with Butter?
I have no idea how healthy ABC Health Loaf actually is, and no idea about calories
I eat a lot of peanut butter. Too much? The stuff I have is around 96%peanuts, 3%palm oil, and 1% salt. I know 100% peanut is probably better, but I don't like the texture
Does cooking oats take away from their nutritional value?
Are Naked bars high in sugar?
Is two bananas in one day too much?
Is low fat milk better than full fat? And yoghurt?
I fry my chicken in a small bit of olive oil. Good/bad?

Sorry for the LONG post.

Sapsorrow

TheCatcher wrote: »

I'm female, nineteen, 5"7.5(:P)' and currently weigh between 8.10-8.13 stone. I'd like to lose around half a stone, but my efforts have been quite half-hearted as of late.

:eek::eek::eek: Are you serious? Your BMI is already only 17.6 if you weigh 8.13 stone! You're already well into the underweight catergory! There is no way in hell you should be trying to lose weight.

TheCatcher

Sorry, I think I wrote it wrong. I know that my bmi is around 19-20. Perhaps I should write it as 8 stone 10-13lbs? Basically nine stone.

Sapsorrow

TheCatcher wrote: »

Sorry, I think I wrote it wrong. I know that my bmi is around 19-20. Perhaps I should write it as 8 stone 10-13lbs? Basically nine stone.

Oh ok I calculated it as 8.13 stone. Still though there is no way you need to lose weight at your height you sound perfect, maybe just try and tone up at the gym! You're diet's already really good.

corkcomp

your diet looks good .. needs more vegetables but otherwise okay. if you want to lose (a very small ammount!) of weight just cut portion sizes slighly

TheCatcher

khrystyna100 wrote: »

Oh ok I calculated it as 8.13 stone. Still though there is no way you need to lose weight at your height you sound perfect, maybe just try and tone up at the gym! You're diet's already really good.

Yeah, I think toning may be half my problem, but unfortunatley I can't afford the gym more than once a week and am finding some of the exercise guidelines that I have in books/online very hard to follow, especially in relation to doing crunches without damaging your back. I can't cycle where I live either.

Thanks, but I think 'really' is a bit of an exaggeration. I think there must be too much sugar in there because of all the fruit esp. the bananas, and I do tend to go overboard on the peanut butter :P

TheCatcher

corkcomp wrote: »

your diet looks good .. needs more vegetables but otherwise okay. if you want to lose (a very small ammount!) of weight just cut portion sizes slighly

Probably not a bad idea. My main problem is that I always want a nibble (usually sweet) after my breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

TheCatcher

Today was a good example of how my eating gets mixed up at the weekend, but I can't really work out how bad the amount of sugar is.

Morning: 40g porridge + 200ml skim milk + 1tbsp pb - 400cal
1 banana - 100kal
1 apple - 100 cal
Natural youghurt + 1tbsp fruit spread - 100cal
I felt really sick after this

Mid-day: 1/2 35g bar green and blacks dark chocolate - 150kal

Dinner: 1 medium potato (ran out of sweet ones) + 1 chicken breast + a ton of broccoli + ketchup + beetroot - 650cal

Snacks: yogurt + 1tbsp fruit spread + 1 lindor + small amount of seeds - 300kal

1800kal

pinkypinky

I like to have a sweet taste with every meal and something that helps me is sugar free jelly. It tastes exactly the same as normal jelly. I make up a batch and have a couple of spoonfuls after each meal. I second what the others have said, you probably need to tone up rather than lose weight, you sound very slim already for your height.

Ciaran500

TheCatcher wrote: »

Yeah, I think toning may be half my problem, but unfortunatley I can't afford the gym more than once a week and am finding some of the exercise guidelines that I have in books/online very hard to follow, especially in relation to doing crunches without damaging your back. I can't cycle where I live either.

Thanks, but I think 'really' is a bit of an exaggeration. I think there must be too much sugar in there because of all the fruit esp. the bananas, and I do tend to go overboard on the peanut butter :P

http://thetransformationcatalyst.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/10kg-dumbbell-set-for-just-e20/

Some simple exercises to do at home with some minimal equipment.

TheCatcher

Ciaran500 wrote: »

http://thetransformationcatalyst.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/10kg-dumbbell-set-for-just-e20/

Some simple exercises to do at home with some minimal equipment.

Thanks for the link, Ciaran, unfortunately it won't load for me. Would you have a link to any other website that would be suitable for somebody like me who has never really exercised properly apart from walking and swimming occasionally? I really want to start to get fit but don't know where to begin and what's reasonable to do.

Today's food was possibly a little better, but I'm still wondering about the 'hidden' sugars. Is there a reccomended amount of natural sugar that you should avoid going over? I ate at least four pieces of fruit yesterday! Two bananas, a gala apple, and an orange, plus a little bit of pineapple.

Today:
Breakfast: 40g porridge + 150ml skim milk + 1tbsp natural PB + 1/2 banana. 500kal
Snack: 1 glenisk low-fat natural yogurt (does this have sugar added because it's low fat?) + 2 tbsp natural PB. 300kal
Lunch: Parsnip soup + large salad of leaves, cucumber, pepper, and lemon juice + 2 ryvita. 400kal
1 glenisk yogurt + 1tbsp fruit spread 100kal
Dinner: Probably salmon + salad + small sweet potato + fruit to finish. Approx 500-600kal
Total: 1800-1900kal
Too much for someone who only works four hours a day as a waitress?

TheCatcher

Today I worked from 9:30 'til four in the cafe, but found myself feeling pretty exhausted by 7:39.

Breakfast: 40g porridge (150kal)+ 150ml skim milk(150kal) + 1 tbsp pb(100kal) + glenisk low-fat natural yogurt (80)+ 1 tbsp fruit spread (30)
Total: 530)

Lunch: 2 ryevita (60) + 1 slice ham (50kal) + salad (10) + 1 small banana (100) + 2 tbsp pb (200)
Total: 410

Snack: 1 small banana (100kal) + 1 natural youghurt (80) + 1 tbsp fruit spread (30)
Total: 230

Dinner: 120g sweet potato (100) + chicken breast fried in a little olive oil (300) + broccoli (100) + cabbadge (50) + ballymaloe relish
Tota: 600kal

Snack: large apple with cinamon (100kal)

Day's total: Approx 200kal.