Am I eating enough?

dee.

Right so I joined Slimming World last week (I understand its not for everyone, but its keeping me motivated so far and I haven't got bored yet, something I usually do after 2/3 days) I have a bit of weight to lose but mostly want to do it for my health. In the few months before I joined it I became VERY lazy... I was eating 1-2 takeaways a week, very little exercise and my dinners were usually oven chips, pizzas, lots of pre-packaged food and very little fruit/veg. I would have breakfast and then snack on things like crisps and peanuts to keep me going until dinner.
Since starting SW I have been trying to cook my own meals more often. I am vegetarian but have been eating lots of quorn (high protein) and logging all of my meals and exercise through myfitnesspal.

Now the thing is, I have been looking at other peoples food diaries who are also in Slimming World and some of them seem to be eating twice as much as me! I never feel hungry but i'm worried that maybe now I should be eating more? I'll post my food diary from the last couple of days below, please let me know if i'm eating enough or too little.

Saturday
Breakfast: red apple
Lunch: two laughing cow light cheese triangles and two slices of wholemeal bread
Dinner: potato slices oven baked with some paprika sprinkled on & quorn bolognese (made with passata, onion, garlic, celery, carrots, peppers, chillies, and some spices)
Snacks: Tayto velvet crunch and 130g of red grapes

Sunday
Breakfast: red apple
Lunch: 2 slices of wholemeal bread, 2 quorn sausages, 1 tablespoon ketchup
Dinner: Same as night before but pasta instead of potato
Snacks: Banana, 2 slices of scan bran with 1 triangle of laughing cow light cheese, tayto velvet crunch and 2 peanut m&m's (had to have a tiny chocolate fix on easter!)

Monday
Breakfast: Banana, muller light vanilla yogurt with 2 slices of scan bran mixed in (had half of this for breakfast and half as a snack in the evening)
Lunch: n/a
Dinner: Quorn chicken style pieces cooked with various spices and fresh veg (red/green chillies, red/yellow peppers and lots of onion)
Snacks: red apple

Tuesday/today
Breakfast: Banana, 2 slices of wholemeal bread with 2 triangles of laughing cow light cheese, couple of spoonfuls of baked beans
Lunch: 130g red grapes, velvet crunch crisps (i know i'm eating a lot of these but they're low in fat and calories, and i'm taking baby steps to completely cutting out crisps!)
Dinner: Same as yesterday, slices of potato oven baked with spices
Snacks: none yet, will probably have a piece of fruit in an hour or two


thank you

Blatter

I don't mean to sound harsh, but there's a shocking lack of protein in that diet.

dee.

Blatter wrote: »

I don't mean to sound harsh, but there's a shocking lack of protein in that diet.

No problem - I know what I eat is lacking in certain areas and I do want to improve it. The thing is - I don't eat meat/fish/eggs/milk so the only thing I can get protein from (to my knowledge) that I enjoy eating is quorn. I like soy too but its very rarely in stock in my local health shop.

I *think* (correct me if i'm wrong) chicken is about 20-30g protein per 100g, and quorn chicken pieces are 14g protein per 100g. Not as much but better than nothing!

SunnyDub1

Everyone's diet is different but my opinion:
Your breakfast and lunches are what I would have has a snack. An apple is not breakfast.

You need to be eating a more fuller breakfast and a more varied diet. You seem to be eating a lot of the same foods.
try intake as much protein(fish)veg,fruit and nuts as possible. You don't seem to be getting much protein.
The velvet crisps may be low in fat/calories but are also laced in salt.
3 main meals a day and 3 snacks.
The more you eat the more your metabolism will work if eating the right foods. Try also include excersise.


Fair play and good luck with the rest of your programe

Blatter

dee. wrote: »

No problem - I know what I eat is lacking in certain areas and I do want to improve it. The thing is - I don't eat meat/fish/eggs/milk so the only thing I can get protein from (to my knowledge) that I enjoy eating is quorn. I like soy too but its very rarely in stock in my local health shop.

I *think* (correct me if i'm wrong) chicken is about 20-30g protein per 100g, and quorn chicken pieces are 14g protein per 100g. Not as much but better than nothing!

Would you try protein powder in smoothies to try and up your protein intake? Or cottage cheese? I'd eat more chicken than ou currently are.

Just out of interest, do you not eat meat/fish/eggs/milk because you think you shouldn't or just don't like them?

dee.

SunnyDub1 wrote: »

Your breakfast and lunches are what I would have has a snack. An apple is not breakfast.

You need to be eating a more fuller breakfast and a more varied diet. You seem to be eating a lot of the same foods.
try intake as much protein(fish)veg,fruit and nuts as possible.
The velvet crisps may be low in fat/calories but are also laced in salt.
3 main meals a day and 3 snacks.
The more you eat the more your metabolism will work if eating the right foods. Try also include excersise.

Just my opinion.

Fair play and good luck with the rest of your programe

I'm doing 30-45 mins of circuit training each morning at the minute, only started last week so i'm going to keep it at this level for 2/3 weeks then up it to an hour a day.

I know velvet crunch aren't great and I am trying to cut out crisps completely but i'm doing it gradually. I'm having 3-4 bags a week now and before I would eat 2 bags a day! I plan to cut it down to 2 bags a week soon and then stop completely.

I have to eat similar food each day because nobody I live with eats the same as I do, and I have almost no freezer space (just enough for things like my quorn, bread, etc) so I can't make meals and freeze them. It just works out easier to make enough to last 2-3 dinners.

I don't eat fish (vegetarian) but will try eating more nuts, forgot about them actually!

In the morning I dont always feel hungry but so I try to have a piece of fruit. Before now my breakfast (or early lunch) would just be slices of processed cheese and white bread but the fruit is definitely more satisfying. Would having 2 pieces of fruit for breakfast be sufficient?

SunnyDub1

dee. wrote: »

Blatter wrote: »

I don't mean to sound harsh, but there's a shocking lack of protein in that diet.

No problem - I know what I eat is lacking in certain areas and I do want to improve it. The thing is - I don't eat meat/fish/eggs/milk so the only thing I can get protein from (to my knowledge) that I enjoy eating is quorn. I like soy too but its very rarely in stock in my local health shop.

I *think* (correct me if i'm wrong) chicken is about 20-30g protein per 100g, and quorn chicken pieces are 14g protein per 100g. Not as much but better than nothing!

Maxitone have a protein shake especially for woman. Cant think of the name off hand it's In a pink tub. Would highly recommend it. Goes in great with smoothies leaves you feeling fuller for longer and good amount of protein. Also includes green tea and the likes to help boost weight loss. Worth giving it a look

dee.

I don't eat meat/fish because I can't hold it down. Ever since I was a kid, red meat would make me throw up. I really enjoyed chicken (loved it infact!) until my early teens, but then whenever I ate it I would just think of the animals and get sick.

Eggs..well its mostly the look, texture and taste..so I pretty much hate them. I made an omelette with two eggs for lunch last week and had to force myself to eat it, I didn't enjoy it at all. Milk is the same, I just don't like the taste. I've tried full fat, low fat, semi, skimmed..all of them and they all taste horrible. Its odd because I used to sit down with big massive pint glasses of milk with my dinner when I was a child/teenager.

I will look into the protein shakes, I always assumed they were only for body builders lol. Can I get them in a health shop?

SunnyDub1

There's also different types of beans that can be bought that are high in protein - kidney beans etc.

Holland and Barretts do it. Take a look on the maxi tone site there's different shakes.
You should look into them all and see which would suit you best.

I use to think the same myself about the shakes then I discovered the more protein I was eating the fuller I was feeling and noticed loss, also great for restoring and tonning the mussels when you reach your weight goal.

Try having one of these shakes for breakfast.

dee.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TYxTrnrzg5M/S7M9Z13ZVNI/AAAAAAAABgs/o9GTIW4ArPQ/s1600/sculptress.jpg

Is that the protein shake there? Its the only pink one I could see

SunnyDub1

dee. wrote: »

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TYxTrnrzg5M/S7M9Z13ZVNI/AAAAAAAABgs/o9GTIW4ArPQ/s1600/sculptress.jpg

Is that the protein shake there? Its the only pink one I could see

Yep that's one i'm currently using.
Check the site for more

http://www.maxitone.ie/

dee.

Thanks a million so if I use that for breakfast would I be eating enough then?

confusedgirl

As you're a vegetarian, you need to include sources of protein, calcium and iron into your diet. I was considering going vegetarian a while ago myself so I researched the different sources of protein etc ages ago.

For your breakfast, have porridge (oats have calcium in them), rice milk (calcium), pinch of cinnamon (calcium), nuts/seeds (protein) and a piece of fruit (fibre). You can cook 30g oats on the hob along with 200ml rice milk and add a pinch of cinnamon to it (you can use less milk if you like but that's about the average amount people have). You could try having natural yoghurt (calcium) or a soy yoghurt (calcium) and berries with some dried oats for breakfast either. Or the protein smoothie option mentioned above. Make sure you get the rice milk that's "enriched with calcium".

For your lunch, good options would include a bean salad (protein), lentil soup (protein). You should aim to have beans/nuts with some vegetables for your lunch and dinner. Baked beans do have protein in them too! Sprouted seeds have protein in them so you can stick them in a salad too. The quorn sausage sandwich and the laughing cow sandwich aren't the best options tbh but if you're going to have them, then I would put them with a side salad of lettuce/spinach, tomato, red onion, peppers etc so as you're getting more vegetables in at lunch.

For your dinner, good options would include tofu stir-fry (buy the firm tofu if you want to use it to make a stir fry) or a veg bean chilli (both sources of protein).

You can get protein from your snacks too: celery and carrot sticks with hummus (the hummus has protein in it) or an apple with 5 almonds (almonds has protein in it).

You can also get protein from wholegrains: quinoa, brown rice. You could get omega 3 from nuts and seeds. You can get iron from pumpkin seeds, flaxseeds, edamame (soy beans-they're in Japanese food a lot), quinoa, spinach, canned beans. Other sources of calcium include soy milk, soy yoghurts, rice milk, cinnamon, oats, tofu, leafy green vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, almonds, sesame seeds.

You can sprinkle nuts/seeds into a stir fry/salad/porridge or have with a piece of apple/celery stick/carrot stick as a snack.

I think these vegetarian recipes here http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/vegetarian-recipes/bean-recipes.php look pretty nice. I just googled "vegetarian recipes" very quickly there..there are tons of vegetarian cookbooks out on the market and vegetarian recipes online.. I would say learn how to cook vegetarian recipes.

I would also eliminate the fake food like the velvet crunch and the mullerlight..try using natural yoghurt with some berries instead. It may take a while to get used to the plain taste of the natural yoghurt but after a while you will, and will eventually think the mullerlight is too sweet-this is exactly what happened to me! The quorn is synthetic so I'm not a fan but if it's your main source of protein, then so be it. The tofu and beans would be more natural sources of vegetarian protein. If you want chocolate, then 1-2 squares of dark chocolate (at least 70%) such as Green and Blacks is fine once-twice a week.