Diet change newbie

PerrinV2

Hey guys,I basically being trying to make a few changes to my diet.I've read some of the stickies and tried to implement some changes allready.I managed to cut out the pasta and changed from white to brown bread

So I think i've fixed breakfast,I've been trying to make some oatmeal pancakes(the recipe needs refinement) so i think my breakfast is ok.

Dinner is my problem area,everyday i have potatoes and either chicken/steak with carrots and this has to go.I guess I'm wondering can anyone direct to some website with alterior healthy dinners? the stickies seem to point towards veg and some form of fish

Later on in the evening I usually have a brown bread with ham sandwich

EileenG

Chicken or steak is fine. Carrots and potatoes are fine too, but in moderation. Try throwing in a decent portion of green or leafy veg as well. Broccoli, spinach, chard, cauliflower, green beans, asparagus, kale, fennel, lettuce are all good.

I think a bigger problem might be a lot of bread. Brown is better than white, but not by much. I'd work to cut down the amount of bread and see can you replace it with something better.

Is the ham deli ham? What do you eat for lunch? Breakfast? Snacks?

PerrinV2

EileenG wrote: »

Chicken or steak is fine. Carrots and potatoes are fine too, but in moderation. Try throwing in a decent portion of green or leafy veg as well. Broccoli, spinach, chard, cauliflower, green beans, asparagus, kale, fennel, lettuce are all good.

I think a bigger problem might be a lot of bread. Brown is better than white, but not by much. I'd work to cut down the amount of bread and see can you replace it with something better.

Is the ham deli ham? What do you eat for lunch? Breakfast? Snacks?

Yes the ham is deli ham,to summerise my diet:
Breakfast:I started making oatmeal pancakes for breakfast so I have those
Dinner: Potatoes,carrots with either chicken or steak an about a litre of meal
Supper:Brown bread sandwich with ham

The only snacks I'd have are maybe a banana or apple between dinner and supper.
The thing about the diet is its the same every day,usually the same breakfast,dinner and supper every day
Also from what Ive read in other threads,I thought potatoes weren't too good(too much starch or something),so maybe I should replace that in my dinner with some of the green veg

EileenG

Potatoes are one of the higher carb veg, but they are still way better than most of the refined carbs that most people eat all day long. It's better than the bread. Vary your veg a bit and eat more green veg.

There were a couple of studies recently that deli ham and processed meat is not nearly as good as fresh.

What's in your oatmeal pancake?

PerrinV2

Well the reason I was thinking of dropping the potatoes for a while is because I'm trying to drop some weight and just wondering what to replace them with

I use 30g oats,an egg and 50ml milk for the pancakes but i've just started making them so I'll be making refinements to it as I go along

EileenG

Just a thought, it might be more filling to eat the ingredients of your pancake separately?

PerrinV2

EileenG wrote: »

Just a thought, it might be more filling to eat the ingredients of your pancake separately?

Handiest I suppose,also is wheatabix a good/bad cereal to eat?
And does anyone know what the best fish to eat with the green veg is?
I normally eat donegal catch whitting

EileenG

If you must eat cereal, then it's one of the better ones. Just remember that farmers feed grains to cattle to fatten them up.

Go for fresh fish, not anything that comes with a coating. I like salmon and trout, but mackerel has an amazing amount of Omega 3.

Bleedin Delish

Hey guys what is a good substitute for sandwiches for lunch? Im trying to cut out bread too but finding it really difficult at lunch time as I dont have much time for lunch at work and don't find green salads filling enough. What can I add to a salad protein wise that would be low in fat?

EileenG

Cottage cheeee. Tuna.

Salmon and sardines are higher fat, but great for cutting.

PerrinV2

Bleedin Delish wrote: »

Hey guys what is a good substitute for sandwiches for lunch? Im trying to cut out bread too but finding it really difficult at lunch time as I dont have much time for lunch at work and don't find green salads filling enough. What can I add to a salad protein wise that would be low in fat?

Same here,I trying to cut the sandwiches too,I thought I was great switching from white to brown but its best appartenely to avoid them altogether but are salads the only alternative?

EileenG

Of course not, it's just easy to buy a bag of salad on the way to work. You can cook extra at dinner and eat it for lunch (grilled steak tastes completely different if cooled, sliced and eaten with horseradish)

I like using celery stalks as spoons for eating messy stuff so I don't have to bother about forks.

PerrinV2

What are good salads to make considering I'm tryin to drop weight? (I've never made or I think eaten a salad in my life)

EileenG

They're nicer than you think!

The easy version is a bag of washed leaves, lots of different ones out there. I'd go for some of the slightly spicy ones, so you have an interesting taste. But at a pinch, one of the McDonald's side salads will do the job.

Of course, you can get creative with home made salads, and put all sorts of things in.

PerrinV2

Does anyone have a link to one or two healthy salad recipes I can make at home? I'd be willing to try anything

(23yr old college guy is my poor excuse for lack of cooking skills/knowledge)

EileenG

Cucumber, tomato, olives, feta cheese, splash of olive oil and some herbs = Greek salad.

Chop some nice broccoli finely, dress with yogurt and tabasco and throw in some hazelnuts.

Avocado and cottage cheese.

Grate a carrot and toss in some fresh dressing.

Lettuce or spinach, a couple of boiled potatoes, hard boiled eggs, green beans, anchovies.

PerrinV2

What would be good do put on the dinner(which now comprises of broccali,green beans,peas,carrots and some meat) for flavour? I'm a demon for the salt and I'm trying to get rid of that,pepper?

Salads slowly getting better,contains usually lettuce,red onion,carrots,cheddar cheese and either ham/chicken or poached egg.

And I've started having Danone Activia yogurts as a snack each day(usually one),are these good/bad?

EileenG

Salt is not bad, you really need it, and if you are active then you need more. Anyone who can scrape salt crystals off their face after a hard workout, obviously needs a lot more salt than the RDA.

Lack of salt can give you some very nasty cramps.

The big problem with salt is that it can be used to make junk food tasty and appealing. Particularly when combined with sugar. The main sources of salt for the average person are bread, breakfast cereal (read the packets, it's scary) and ready meals.

If you are eating a diet that is mainly fresh whole food, then you can salt to taste. But pepper and other spices are good for flavour too.

If they are the yogurts I'm thinking about, they wouldn't be my favourite. They usually have prune or other things in them, right? Or are they the low fat ones with added sweetener? Your best bet is a nice natural yogurt.

JackieO

Eileen

I'd love to know more about salt. I try to avoid adding it to food where I don't have to - i.e. I'm not one of these people that automatically adds salt to my dinner before I even taste it.

However, I cook a lot of stuff from scratch - particularly soups and it really is necessary to add salt a lot of the time.

Sounds like this might be actually ok?

I read on a thread here recently some criticism of the lo-salt, I'd be interested to know what people think of it.

OP - sorry for dragging your thread off topic!

PerrinV2

O right,I always thought salt was bad,always used to throw it on the dinner

This is the yougarts I'm eating
http://www.activia.ie/index.php/products/13#/products/fat-free/peach-/57

No worries Jackie

EileenG

PerrinV2 wrote: »

O right,I always thought salt was bad,always used to throw it on the dinner

This is the yougarts I'm eating
http://www.activia.ie/index.php/products/13#/products/fat-free/peach-/57

No worries Jackie

You really want to eat something with that number of dubious ingredients? I'd go with a nice plain yogurt.

EileenG

JackieO wrote: »

Eileen

I'd love to know more about salt. I try to avoid adding it to food where I don't have to - i.e. I'm not one of these people that automatically adds salt to my dinner before I even taste it.

However, I cook a lot of stuff from scratch - particularly soups and it really is necessary to add salt a lot of the time.

Sounds like this might be actually ok?

I read on a thread here recently some criticism of the lo-salt, I'd be interested to know what people think of it.

OP - sorry for dragging your thread off topic!

Unless you have high blood pressure or are taking medications that involve salt, I'd salt to taste while cooking from scratch.

I think I eat a lot of salt, because I never eat eggs or meat without a good twist of salt on it, but when I eat a ready meal, it tastes disgustingly salty to me.

Interestingly, I find that if I'm doing a lot of cycling (and hence sweating), I seem to need more salt before the food tastes right. When I'm inactive, I that amount tastes too salty.

PerrinV2

EileenG wrote: »

You really want to eat something with that number of dubious ingredients? I'd go with a nice plain yogurt.

I don't even know what any of those ingredients mean,so is this yogurt bad for me?

On another note,whats a good dressing to put on salad?(low in fat preferably)
Salad usually contains carrot,cheese,lettuce,some other leafy stuff red onion and either chicken or boiled egg.not a big fan of tomato,peppers or cucumber

EileenG

Go back to the links you sent me, and read the list of ingredients. Yogurt should contain milk, culture and nothing else.

You can make salad dressing from all sorts of things. A quick low fat one would be plain yogurt with some tabasco, maybe some salt and pepper, garlic or ginger optional.

PerrinV2

I've been throwing in sweetcorn into the dinner mix lately,thats a good food isn't it?

EileenG

Not as good as green veg. Technically, corn is a grain, not a vegetable. If you must eat it, then go for the baby sweetcorn, where you eat the whole thing. Less sugar, more fiber.

PerrinV2

I presume brussel sprouts are a good food to be adding to any diet?

EileenG

Excellent. They make great soup too. I live on Brussel sprout soup at this time of year.

PerrinV2

I've not tried them in soup form yet,something to ponder,although I find sometimes I get a strong aftertaste(not sure aftertaste is the right word there) off the odd one

EileenG

Liquidise in a bit of chicken stock, and they are a different animal.