Is my diet ok?

CFBL

Hi all,

Just looking for a bit of critical analysis of what I eat! I'm trying to be as healthy as possible and just wondering if I am heading in the right direction. Typical day for me:

Brekkie (fave meal of the day!)
All-bran with semi-skimmed milk or 2 weetabix
Tea

11am
Coffee (drop of semi-skimmed, no sugar)
Mandarin

Lunch
Wrap with tinned salmon, cottage cheese, lettuce, onion (or ham instead of salmon, occasionally would have scrambled eggs with 1 slice of wholegrain bread)
Pint of water with sugar free Mi-wadi

3.30pm
Tea or coffee
LF yoghurt

Dinner (normally about 7pm)
Typically, chicken or lean beef or pork. Would usually team the meat with some sort of home-made tomatoe sauce (tin of tomatoes, onion, peppers, garlic tsp of puree) and pasta or rice. Once or twice a week would have a fish pie (again sauce homemade).
Pint of water
2 rich tea biscuits and a cup of tea or sometimes a small glass of red wine

I know there are certain things I could certainly cut out (like the biscuits;)) but I don't want to become obsessed with never eating a bad thing 'cos I know that's not realistic (for me anyway)!

I exercise regularly - weights and cardio. I have off-days (where all the thoughts of healthiness and pushed to the very back of my mind) BUT in general am I doing ok? Is there anything I could improve?!

All advice/criticism gratefully received:D

Susie_Q

CFBL wrote: »

Hi all,

Just looking for a bit of critical analysis of what I eat! I'm trying to be as healthy as possible and just wondering if I am heading in the right direction. Typical day for me:

Brekkie (fave meal of the day!)
All-bran with semi-skimmed milk or 2 weetabix
Tea

11am
Coffee (drop of semi-skimmed, no sugar)
Mandarin

Lunch
Wrap with tinned salmon, cottage cheese, lettuce, onion (or ham instead of salmon, occasionally would have scrambled eggs with 1 slice of wholegrain bread)
Pint of water with sugar free Mi-wadi

3.30pm
Tea or coffee
LF yoghurt

Dinner (normally about 7pm)
Typically, chicken or lean beef or pork. Would usually team the meat with some sort of home-made tomatoe sauce (tin of tomatoes, onion, peppers, garlic tsp of puree) and pasta or rice. Once or twice a week would have a fish pie (again sauce homemade).
Pint of water
2 rich tea biscuits and a cup of tea or sometimes a small glass of red wine

I know there are certain things I could certainly cut out (like the biscuits;)) but I don't want to become obsessed with never eating a bad thing 'cos I know that's not realistic (for me anyway)!

I exercise regularly - weights and cardio. I have off-days (where all the thoughts of healthiness and pushed to the very back of my mind) BUT in general am I doing ok? Is there anything I could improve?!

All advice/criticism gratefully received:D

What are your goals? Are you looking to lose weight or just want to eat healthily?

Your breakfast could definitely be better; do you like porridge? I reckon either porridge or eggs are the best thing in the morning, they keep you full for ages and are ridiculously good for you.

Your lunch and dinner look fine, but if you're trying to lose weight maybe ditch the wrap/ bread/ pasta/ rice and add in extra salad or green vegetables. In general there doesn't seem to be a lot of vegetables in your diet - you could try snacking on raw veg like carrots or celery with hummus or guacamole.

Also, low-fat yogurts are totally rubbish. Full of sugar and little else. If you want to eat yogurts I'd go for full-fat natural or Greek.

CFBL

Thanks Susie Q. I suppose I'd like to lose about a half stone, all things considered - I'm not overweight at the moment so it's not essential. I want to be healthy though and have upped my exercise significantly in last couple of weeks to try to ensure that I'm as fit as possible.

Don't really have strong feelings on porridge either way but I try to be as time efficient as possible in the mornings (I have a long long long commute) so the cereal I suppose is just my way of ensuring I eat something that isn't a half tonne of bread but still convenient! I used to eat porridge as a child and I always remember thinking it didn't fill me up as much as a bowl of Weetabix. Is Weetabix and/or All Bran really bad?

I know what you mean about veggies - when I read it back it doesn't sound as if I eat any but I actually eat quite a lot of veg. I would generally pack them into any wrap, sandwich, salad at lunch and the same for evening meal but will definitely try and up them. I'm not mad about fruit and generally stick to mandarins or the odd apple which I know isn't great.

What could I use as a substitute for the bread/wrap/pasta/rice? I generally would have some carbs with dinner (wholemeal if possible) and I think I would be hungry without!

Susie_Q

If you want to keep your carbs with dinner then switch to brown rice/ brown pasta/ sweet potato and keep the portion of carbs small. Fill up on lean meat and literally as much green veg as you can. Beans (such as kidney beans, chickpeas etc) are a good option too, very filling and very good for you. You can chuck them into tomato sauces or a curry.