Is the "Lunchbox Diet" healthy??

confusedgirl

I am going to do the "Lunchbox Diet", it seems the most sensible diet I've come across that I will be able to stick to. Can anyone tell me whether they found the Lunchbox Diet good? The guy who wrote it is a personal trainer which I thought was a good sign.

Here is a synopsis of the diet for anyone that hasn't heard of it- does it sound ok??



Calcium
It allows you 250ml skimmed milk per day and tells you to get the rest of your calcium from salmon, leafy green veg, nuts and seeds, oranges, peas. Is this healthy? I am a bit concerned about osteoporosis in old age as women are prone to that-should I take a calcium tablet daily if I follow this diet? I have taken calcium tablets before but I would prefer to get the calcium from my food if at all possible. I do eat the other sources of calcium listed above though.



Fibre
The fibre content seems fine as you're allowed sweetcorn, beetroot, turnips, sweet potato, parsnip, oats, carrots, onions and some fruit. I was on a low carb diet before and I just didn't have enough fibre before and I had to start taking senna supplements, all bran, banana etc etc, it was a lot of hassle that I don't want again tbh! I'm not normally prone to digestive issues so it was definitely just diet related. This diet doesn't seem as low in carbs though so would this be an issue now? You can have pulse veg instead of animal protein if you're a vegetarian but he means either tinned/dried lentils, red kidney beans etc.



Typical Meals
He allows you to have porridge for breakfast which I eat anyway or some kind of eggs thing for protein or natural yoghurt and fruit, then 5 veg (he encourages you to eat different colours of veg), portion of protein (he only allows 1tbsp low fat cheese, presumably because its high in saturated fat?) and a tiny bit of homemade sauce, he doesn't specify quantities for the sauce but I'm presuming 1tbsp max?, possibly 1tsp if being good (either salsa/chutney or using ingredients like soy sauce etc), then 2 veg and protein for the dinner. And he says that carbs like ryvita, rice, bread etc are "active carbs", that you can have them if you work out a lot but otherwise he says you can only have a small cheat once a week.
He says that the more you work out, the more "cheats" and carbs you can have.




Portion Size


I also educated myself about portion size and eat half my plate of food at each meal and using a small plate which is probably the biggest thing. I learned to count the portion size using a tablespoon. (I used to weigh things with a weighing scale but thats a lot of hassle so I just use a tablespoon now). A tablespoon is 15ml/15g and I memorised the portion sizes of everything http://www.bupa.co.uk/individuals/health-information/directory/p/hi-portion-size because I genuinely didn't have a clue what a healthy portion size was before. I found this http://health.marksandspencer.com/uploads/pdfs/unlimited_foods.pdf on the Marks and Spencers website and it looks pretty ok for portion size (I'm ignoring the snack bit as I prefer eating three good meals to snacks).



Snacking?? Good Idea or not??
I know some people have three meals and two snacks but I'm not sure if this would work for me as I tend to graze a lot. The only snack that has worked for me is one apple and 3-5 almonds.




Cheat Meals? Good Idea or not??
I'm planning on having a "cheat" meal once a week. Here are some of my ideas:
*make my own curry with tinned tomatoes, veg, spices and cauliflower rice
*potatoes, corn on the cob or some homemade chips made out of potato, 1 tbsp salsa instead of ketchup
*fancy fruit salad-high carb fruit like banana, mango etc
*strawberry yoghurt
I don't want to have a cheat meal like a pizza etc as I don't currently do enough exercise for that but I think my cheat meals seem sensible enough but a bit more-ish Are they ok??


My Meal Plan
Breakfast: (I am not mad about eggs tbh!) 30g oats, 250ml skim milk (for the calcium..is that too much? I use 100ml at the moment), little bit of grounded cinnamon to sweeten the porridge, some blueberries or apple, 3 almonds. I pop oats in microwave-I use rolled oats at the moment but I'm going to try pinhead as I hear they're more nutritious.
Lunch: 1 tin of tuna in brine, spinach, celery, radish, tomato, peppers
Dinner: (lazy dinner would be repeat of lunch) or else some fish/chicken with veg like cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts.
(any snacks I'd have would be the one apple and 3-5 almonds, 1-2 times per day)

I don't drink alcohol and I drink 3 litres of water and lots of herbal tea. I am not great at sticking to exercise though so I would appreciate some ideas on that please too?


I'm looking for constructive criticism here so please fire away! Thanks

the groutch

the lunch and dinner are a little too light on the carbs front for my liking (is that part of the diet?)

confusedgirl

Yup, that is part of it. The diet doesn't ban carbs outright but has a section called "Active carbs" if you exercise a lot such as healthy carbs like wholegrains, potatoes, quinoa, ryvita, rice.

jam_mac_jam

Well that's funny, because I was going to say its too low fat. Its very hard to eat low carb and fat at once. So if you want to loose weight I would be having some fat with your tuna and veg and your chicken and veg. Its not bad but I dont know why you cant eat any fat, you will starve eating that.

confusedgirl

How much fat should I be using? Like 1-2 tsp of oil at lunch and dinner?

Some of the sauces in the lunch do include a vingirette and the diet does allow oil, nuts and seeds but in small quantities. It says to measure olive oil out by a teaspoon so you don't use too much? There is the option of using 1tbsp cheese at lunch either but 1tbsp of cheese would just not be enough for me so I would rather just not have the cheese if that makes sense. I love grated cheddar which is quite high in saturated fat so I don't buy it. The diet recommends low fat cheeses like feta and mozzarella which I suppose I could try but I don't have a huge love of them, I tend to prefer stronger tasting hard cheeses like the cheddar cheese for example.

The diet also allows avocado however I'm a bit scared of avocado, in case I eat too much of it! I don't think avocado is even that nice so I doubt I would eat that much-how much would be a recommended portion btw? A slice? I know I could stick it in the salad for lunch. I know you can make guacamole out of avocado however not a fan of guacamole..no idea what else to do with an avocado lol!

Alternatively, I could put 3-5 almonds in my salad for lunch? Is this on track now? I really want to eat healthy as well as be skinny. I am in a bit of a "fat is bad" mindset as I've tended to eat more carbohydrates before. I do find cutting the carbs hard and I do find I'm a bit hungry however I find I can't go below a size 10-12 if I eat a lot of carbs regularly, without carbs I'm a size 6-8 quite easily.

I do find the apple and almonds very satisfying as a snack, I must say. If I have the apple on its own, I'm still hungry however once I add in the almonds, I'm satisfied.

Are my cheat meals ok? I was thinking they were a bit "too healthy" but I'm a bit afraid of pigging out tbh!! I like the Glenisk organic strawberry yoghurts so I was thinking of having one of those as a cheat meal option. They're nice and creamy I don't want to eat Mullerlights as they're full of sweetners however I'm figuring that Glenisk will be a healthier choice.

Oh jam mac jam, what do you think of the diet in terms of the calcium intake? I thought it was a bit low on calcium and that was the most worrying aspect for me, hence this post. I don't want to ruin my health just for the sake of vanity lol!

I have a distorted attitude towards food in general so if anyone could give me some wisdom on that also, I would appreciate it!

Thanks again

Mellor

The guy who wrote it is a personal trainer which I thought was a good sign.

Becoming a personal trainer isn't difficult (becomign a very good PT is, but thats different). A huge majority of the bad advice out there is stuff reguritated by PTs. often those trying to peddle a product or service.


As for the diet.
Oats and eggs for breakfast.
Protein and veg for lunch and dinner. Encourages protein sources, restricts carbs centric meals unlesss you are very active. Avoid processes sauces etc

That's a pretty standard diet recomendation. If somebody is taking credit for "writing" this diet. They are probably trying to get money from you. A quick googel confirms that. There is nothing in that diet that isn;t recomended here regualrly for free.

confusedgirl

Thanks for the responses I'm going to have 3 almonds with the tuna and veg and either 3 almonds or 1tsp of oil with my vegetables in the evening. I may try 1tsp sunflower/pumpkin seeds on my salad to vary it up.

Brian?

If you're worried about osteoperosis in later life and you're trying to lose weight, you should consider some weight training. Weight training is proven to increase bone density.

confusedgirl

Thanks Brian, I didn't know that about weight training.

I know all women say this but I don't want to get too bulky looking. I know I would need to do an awful lot of weight training to get really bulky however its still a bit of a concern for me. Would pilates or yoga be any good for bones? I know that pilates is good for posture.. What kind of weight training would I need to do to keep my bones strong? And how many times a week?

Brian?

confusedgirl wrote: »

Thanks Brian, I didn't know that about weight training.

I know all women say this but I don't want to get too bulky looking. I know I would need to do an awful lot of weight training to get really bulky however its still a bit of a concern for me. Would pilates or yoga be any good for bones? I know that pilates is good for posture.. What kind of weight training would I need to do to keep my bones strong? And how many times a week?

AFAIK the more the better really, the heavier you lift the denser the bones basically. I don't know about pilates and yoga, they're grand in their own way but with regards to bone density I haven't a clue.

I promise you, you will not get bulky lifting weights. I rarely promise things on tinternet, but I can promise you that quite safely.

This woman is a professional weight lifter, she could handily out lift 99% of men and I'd hardly call her bulky:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ53Bi5iOpk&feature=player_embedded

It's almost like this thread is aimed at you :

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056232328

howtomake

briankeating wrote: »

AFAIK the more the better really, the heavier you lift the denser the bones basically. I don't know about pilates and yoga, they're grand in their own way but with regards to bone density I haven't a clue.

I promise you, you will not get bulky lifting weights. I rarely promise things on tinternet, but I can promise you that quite safely.

This woman is a professional weight lifter, she could handily out lift 99% of men and I'd hardly call her bulky:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ53Bi5iOpk&feature=player_embedded

It's almost like this thread is aimed at you :

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056232328

^^^^ x 1,000,000,000 You won't get bulky and you'll do nothing but good things for your bones. You are right to be concerned. From understanding what my dad has done & what my mom is going through, many of the daily mundane complaints one has of getting older is usually just due to lack of consistent movement/exercise.

confusedgirl

Thanks brian and howtomake:) I've dieted too much in the past and I've heard of women who dieted too much getting osteoporosis when they were in their late 30s! I'm a bit worried I've caused damage to my body dieting so I'm focusing on nutrition and my health a lot more now.