Healthier dinners

lisacon

Hi everyone

Have been stalking the threads but not really posted much, but here i go!

Have booked a big holiday for sept so need to loose the belly and aim for a long term solution rather than a quick fix.

Currently weigh 68kg and need to loose for about 8/9, as Im short (5ft) every oz makes a difference, especially to my mid area as this is where all the fat decides to hang out :-(

I have the brekkie and lunch sussed, but the dinner and coming in from work is where my downfall is, I like quick and handy.

Here's a few of my recent dinners:

Spag Bol (dolmio sauce and white spaghetti)
chicken tikka (jar) with basmati rice and oven chips
burgers and sausages (BBQ)
Shep pie and spicy wedges
Chicken curry(mcdonnells) with basmati rice and oven chips
Pitta bread pizza things
Lasagne (all jars) and white pasta
Sunday roast, spuds, veg, gravy
A fry(but grilled) sausages, pudding, rashers , 1 slice of toast and beans

I know I need to cut out/down the carbs big time, i eat pretty much any veg but I need a sauce on my food, just can't handle dry food.

Also don't eat eggs or dairy (bar a small amount of mozzarella)

Any suggestions of tasty healthy dinners with some sort of sauce that wont take too much time?

Apologies for the long post people but need to shift this belly - also will be hitting the gym 4/5 times a wk.

Thanks again folks
Lisa

christmas2012

cut out the pizza and you will lose a few,spag bol and chicken tika(can be a bit fattening),arent too bad,spagetti is healthy lots of protein and good carbs

Tayla

I reckon one of your main problems is that you seem to double up on carbs for a lot of meals, you don't need chips and rice with curries and you don't need wedges with shepards pie. That's way too much carbs for one meal.

Mellor

Tayla wrote: »

I reckon one of your main problems is that you seem to double up on carbs for a lot of meals, you don't need chips and rice with curries and you don't need wedges with shepards pie. That's way too much carbs for one meal.

Agree. It's much easier to end up with oversized portions with 2 sides like that.
A half portion of chips and a half portion of rice is no better or worse than a full portion. So if you want both really be careful with portion size.

SunnyDub1

christmas2012 wrote: »

spagetti is healthy lots of protein and good carbs

There is no such thing has good carbs carbs are carbs

OP you are eating WAY to much carbs, if you are looking for healthy dinner recipes to lose weight I would suggest high protein, good fats, low carb dinners.

Try eating more lean meats, chicken, turkey, and my favorite is fish So many different kinds and all pretty tasty if cooked properly.
Instead of potatoes just add more veg, or try a sweet Potato
If you feel the need to add a little carbs, cut down on portion size ( for example 2 potatoes instead of 8)

you say the you are exercising 5 times a week, that doesn't matter. From my reading and understanding weight loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise.

Tayla

SunnyDub1 wrote: »

There is no such thing has good carbs carbs are carbs

That's not true, not everyone wants to eliminate carbs so they should try to choose the ones the best ones rather than the crap ones.

metamorphosis

Good and bad is relative to quantity and your overall eating habits.

At the same time, modern processed wheat in the form of pasta, bread etc is less desireable than say, rice, potatoes and fruit

OP - if you fill a lot of your plate up with fibrous veg, throw in some meat or fish, then you are off to a flying start

flikflak

Everything on your list is pre-made. Make the food yourself and use fresh ingredients you can even spend an hour or so on a Sunday making a curry and some bolognaise sauce which you can then just heat up and eat when you get home. Stir frys are also quick and easy but dont just reach for the ready made sauce use fresh vibrant ingredients to make something quick, tasty and nutritious. I only caught about 5 mins of it but Gok Wan was cooking some lovely fresh prawn stir fry on tv last night which took him a few minutes. If you prepare then you can have everything ready in the fridge to quickly cook when you get home.

SunnyDub1

Tayla wrote: »

That's not true, not everyone wants to eliminate carbs so they should try to choose the ones the best ones rather than the crap ones.

But surely carbs coming plenty of veg, fruit , beans is alot more healthier then pasta ?

Correct me of I'm Wrong

Tayla

SunnyDub1 wrote: »

But surely carbs coming plenty of veg, fruit , beans is alot more healthier then pasta ?

Correct me of I'm Wrong

But that's not what you said in the first place, you said that there is no such thing as good carbs

Stop using jars

buy some spices - not processed ones, basic ones like ginger, cumin, etc, and maybe some garam masala, and start cooking with those

the jar sauces are full of sh!te and while they may or may not affect your weight (probably do) you need to cut them out

buy frozen bags of mixed veg - the interesting ones with nothing added for stir frys, and make those with meat and spices
bell peppers, tomatos, onion - throw it all in. you'll be stuffed and you won't want to look at chips or rice again

don't eat processed stuff. cooked from scratch tastes nicer anyway

seamus

Yep, remove the jars. They're bulked out with sugars, oils and creams. If you look at the calorie info on them, you find that most of these sauces have 500 or 600 calories in one jar. Granted you're supposed to split it across a meal for 5 or 6 people, but in many cases you use the whole jar in a meal for two or three people. Ultimately you're dumping in calories to your meal which are doing absolutely nothing to fill you.

You can make a tomato sauce (for bolognese or lasanga) using a jar of passata (pureed tomatoes) and a few fresh herbs. No more than 200 calories in the whole jar that you're using in a meal for four.

Indian flavours depend more on the spices than the sauce. Use a few Indian spices as bluewolf mentions, and then a water and/or milk base for the "sauce". It doesn't need to be a watery sauce (yeuch), but it doesn't have to be thick as hell either. It's tempting to use coconut milk to make an Indian sauce (cos it's yum), and it would seem to be a "natural" and healthy ingredient, but it's ridiculously high in calories.

SunnyDub1

Tayla wrote: »

But that's not what you said in the first place, you said that there is no such thing as good carbs

what I meant was there was no good carbs in the majority of what the op was saying she was eating - ex. Pasta

rocky

SunnyDub1 wrote: »

T
you say the you are exercising 5 times a week, that doesn't matter. From my reading and understanding weight loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise.

Surely 20% matters?
x 5 times a week = 100% !!!111

christmas2012

dieting is for lazy people with but strong will power when it comes to food

seamus

20% would be the higher end of the scale. Like 5 x 60 minute hard cardio sessions per week - i.e. sweating and heart pumping in your ears all the way, not just going for a walk.

The reality is that for most people, simply doing some exercise without changing their diet will likely not cause them to lose any weight, or at least not a significant amount of weight.

There are two reasons for this:

1. Exercising doesn't burn as many calories as people think, especially when you're doing circuits of gym equipment.

2. People tend to eat to compensate. Having a Lucozade while you exercise? You're getting fitter but you're not burning any extra calories. You can afford to have some dessert because you've been good today? Nope, not really.

On the other hand, changing your diet without doing a single bit of exercise will lead to weight loss. If I was to put a percentage figure on it, it's probably closer to 90/10 for your average person. In other words, for every 10lbs lost, only 1 of them comes from your exercising. Not to be sniffed at of course, but if you were to condense five weeks of pain and suffering down, it would hardly seem worth it for one measly pound.

So why combine exercise and dieting? They complement eachother well. Exercise releases mood-improving endorphins. They're short-lived, but this is why you feel good about yourself after a workout. As you lose weight, exercising will become easier, and this improvement in your fitness will give you a natural boost. This causes you to work harder to get even better, which burns even more calories, and releases more endorphins. The loss of weight will make your body look better, and exercise will add more natural toning to your muscles. You feel better about yourself, you want to work harder.
It's a positive feedback loop.

You will hear stories about people who did nothing to their diet and went from 20st chubber to 12st muscle man in 12 months in the gym. But these are the freaks, an unusually focussed breed of person who can go from zero exercise to 3 hours a day and maintain that level of dedication for a year or more.
The vast majority of people do not have the time or focus to do anything like that and must rely on improving their diet to effect long-term weight loss.

ebixa82

lisacon wrote: »

Hi everyone

Have been stalking the threads but not really posted much, but here i go!

Have booked a big holiday for sept so need to loose the belly and aim for a long term solution rather than a quick fix.

Currently weigh 68kg and need to loose for about 8/9, as Im short (5ft) every oz makes a difference, especially to my mid area as this is where all the fat decides to hang out :-(

I have the brekkie and lunch sussed, but the dinner and coming in from work is where my downfall is, I like quick and handy.

Here's a few of my recent dinners:

Spag Bol (dolmio sauce and white spaghetti)
chicken tikka (jar) with basmati rice and oven chips
burgers and sausages (BBQ)
Shep pie and spicy wedges
Chicken curry(mcdonnells) with basmati rice and oven chips
Pitta bread pizza things
Lasagne (all jars) and white pasta
Sunday roast, spuds, veg, gravy
A fry(but grilled) sausages, pudding, rashers , 1 slice of toast and beans

I know I need to cut out/down the carbs big time, i eat pretty much any veg but I need a sauce on my food, just can't handle dry food.

Also don't eat eggs or dairy (bar a small amount of mozzarella)

Any suggestions of tasty healthy dinners with some sort of sauce that wont take too much time?

Apologies for the long post people but need to shift this belly - also will be hitting the gym 4/5 times a wk.

Thanks again folks
Lisa

:eek:

Truly shocking. You need to sort your diet out..and maybe get yourself checked for diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia.

How can anybody eat so much processed, carb heavy food and still function?

Shepards Pie AND wedges??
Curry, Rice AND chips?

Do you really need to come onto a forum to figure out what needs to be done here.

Eat fresh fruit and veg. Stop doubling up on carbs. Stop using so many salt and sugar loaded sauces. Cook fresh. It's not rocket science.

Stench Blossoms

ebixa82 wrote: »

:eek:

Truly shocking. You need to sort your diet out..and maybe get yourself checked for diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia.

How can anybody eat so much processed, carb heavy food and still function?

Shepards Pie AND wedges??
Curry, Rice AND chips?

Do you really need to come onto a forum to figure out what is wrong with this level of excessive, unhealthy eating going on here?

Oh for god sake will you give her a break.

She knows now that her diet isn't great and if she wants to see any changes she'll need to sort it out.

As Seamus and Bluewolf have said: cut out the jars. The homemade stuff is much nicer and you'll know exactly what your eating.

Try to plan meals around a source of protein and try not too double up on 'bad' carbs such a rice, pasta or chips.

Don't cut out everything straight away. Make small gradual changes and take it from there.

seamus

ebixa82 wrote: »

and maybe get yourself checked for diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia.

No real need for that unless the OP is 50 or over, or otherwise experiencing any health problems - shortness of breath, light-headedness, etc.
She's overweight but not massively so, there's no need to get a doctor involved.

How can anybody eat so much processed, carb heavy food and still function?

Most people are well capable of eating a lot of processed carbs without experiencing any issues. I did it for years. A few people find carbs "stodgy" or will report digestive issues when eating processed foods, but most people don't. That's why overconsumption is such a massive issue

Shepards Pie AND wedges??
Curry, Rice AND chips?

I suspect this is quite an Irish thing, cos I used to do it a lot too. With potatoes being a staple for so long, no meal was complete without your side of potatoes. You also have the "meat & two veg" idea. So people see "shepherds pie" as the meat, and throw in a few chips for the veg. Likewise, Curry = Meat, Rice + Chips = 2 veg.

Dietary education is also quite badly lacking in our schools. Aside from being able to point out meat, I imagine most people don't really understand what carbs are. If you were to ask them why chips are bad for you, they'd say it's because they're fatty.

ebixa82

Stench Blossoms wrote: »

Oh for god sake will you give her a break.

She knows now that her diet isn't great and if she wants to see any changes she'll need to sort it out.

As Seamus and Bluewolf have said: cut out the jars. The homemade stuff is much nicer and you'll know exactly what your eating.

Try to plan meals around a source of protein and try not too double up on 'bad' carbs such a rice, pasta or chips.

Don't cut out everything straight away. Make small gradual changes and take it from there.

I would have to disagree and say cut out all of that list and make drastic not gradual changes.

In particular the fry ups, chips, wedges and pizzas...

It's not an issue of weight loss here, it's an issue of preventing type 2 diabetes etc

i don't think sausages and rashers are going to give anyone diabetes

Stench Blossoms

ebixa82 wrote: »

I would have to disagree and say cut out all of that list and make drastic not gradual changes.

In particular the fry ups, chips, wedges and pizzas...

It's not an issue of weight loss here, it's an issue of preventing type 2 diabetes etc

If she cuts out everything straight away then she'll more than likely crave them and end up binging on them.

Steady pace wins the race

Also, I agree with Seamus. I think carb loading is an Irish thing. Everyday I see people in our canteen get pasta + chips or rice + chips.

Sure even Chinese's do a 3 in 1 (rice chips and curry sauce).

People are just poorly educated when it comes to nutrition.

i can't imagine doing that
i saw someone getting a lamb & rice dish in the canteen the other day and a bowl of chips on the side

seamus

It's difficult to explain how awesomely tasty curry sauce, rice & chips is if that's not something you enjoy. It is of course absolutely ridiculous, but I reckon it's on a par with heroin, it's that bloody good.

That's the problem with carbs, your body doesn't know when enough is enough. Most people wouldn't order two fillet steaks cos they'd be stuffed, but they'd always have room for a helping of chips.

ebixa82

bluewolf wrote: »

i don't think sausages and rashers are going to give anyone diabetes

You don't think sausages and rashers contribute to obesity?

Stench Blossoms wrote: »

If she cuts out everything straight away then she'll more than likely crave them and end up binging on them.

Steady pace wins the race

Also, I agree with Seamus. I think carb loading is an Irish thing. Everyday I see people in our canteen get pasta + chips or rice + chips.

Sure even Chinese's do a 3 in 1 (rice chips and curry sauce).

People are just poorly educated when it comes to nutrition.

Definitly an Irish thing, particularly pub grub etc.

But in this day and age surely we know that just because it's an Irish thing doesn't make it acceptable.

Stench Blossoms

ebixa82 wrote: »

You don't think sausages and rashers contribute to obesity?

I eat rashers and sausages and I'm far from obese.

I don't think your getting at what we're saying.

Too much of anything is bad. But everything in moderation is fine.

ebixa82 wrote: »

Definitly an Irish thing, particularly pub grub etc.

But in this day and age surely we know that just because it's an Irish thing doesn't make it acceptable.

I never said it was acceptable. I personally wouldn't eat like that anymore but I have in the past when I was silly.

ebixa82

ebixa82 wrote: »

You don't think sausages and rashers contribute to obesity?

You said diabetes
I said diabetes

and no, I don't think it remotely contributes to obesity on its own

rocky

seamus wrote: »

If you were to ask them why chips are bad for you, they'd say it's because they're fatty.

why are they bad for you, because they're 'carby'?

cbyrd

Half your portion size of meat and dump the processed ones like the sausages and puddings.. aim for 2 portions of carbs like bread and potato rice or pasta in a day.. remembering 1 slice of bread is a portion

Load up on free veg such as cauliflower broccoli spinach mushrooms peppers tomatoes scallions etc.. go easy on spuds carrots peas rice and pasta. use lemon and lime juice and zest, light balsamic vinegar low sugar salsa's and light soy sauce for flavourings instead of oils salts and mayonnaise's. make sure you have a protein with every meal as they'll keep you filled for longer.. beans (not just baked) eggs chicken tuna salmon turkey lean beef or quorn.. and don't leave any more than 4 hour max inbetween meals.. drink lots of water

Use a smaller plate and load up on salads with previous mentioned dressings.. put herbs like basil and dill in with the lettuce for flavour.. you'll drops lbs in weeks specially off your tummy if you don't eat the cakes and sweets and fats and alcohol .. good luck.. it depends on how badly you want it

Mellor

Stench Blossoms wrote: »

Also, I agree with Seamus. I think carb loading is an Irish thing. Everyday I see people in our canteen get pasta + chips or rice + chips.

Sure even Chinese's do a 3 in 1 (rice chips and curry sauce).

Having lived abroad for a few years now, its not just an irish thing. It's a cost thing. Carb sources are cheap in general. The standard aussie pub grub meals are pretty similar to our own. It's cheap to do big portions that way, and provide a false value for money.

There's nothing wrong with have carbs from two sources with a meal, only he total carbs matter. Eg, a Chinese 3 in 1 is (roughly) no better or worse than the chips and curry, or rice and curry that comes in the same sized tray.

I might have chips and rice the odd time when I have curry (normally just rice). I'd be certain that it's still far better than the average dinner for most people as I weigh out a proper portion of the two combined, which its actually pretty small.

Jimoslimos

seamus wrote: »

Indian flavours depend more on the spices than the sauce. Use a few Indian spices as bluewolf mentions, and then a water and/or milk base for the "sauce". It doesn't need to be a watery sauce (yeuch), but it doesn't have to be thick as hell either. It's tempting to use coconut milk to make an Indian sauce (cos it's yum), and it would seem to be a "natural" and healthy ingredient, but it's ridiculously high in calories.

+1 to this.

I use tinned chopped tomatoes as a base along with a dash of cream/coconut cream.

Mellor

seamus wrote: »

It's tempting to use coconut milk to make an Indian sauce (cos it's yum), and it would seem to be a "natural" and healthy ingredient, but it's ridiculously high in calories.

You can get light coconut milk that has the cream portion removed. Pretty good quality and the cals are much lower.
Or there is also a coconut flavoured condensed milk that works too. It's fairly low in cals, but if you find a good brand of light coconut milk its should be lower.

lynchy101

SunnyDub1 wrote: »

There is no such thing has good carbs carbs are carbs

OP you are eating WAY to much carbs, if you are looking for healthy dinner recipes to lose weight I would suggest high protein, good fats, low carb dinners.

Try eating more lean meats, chicken, turkey, and my favorite is fish So many different kinds and all pretty tasty if cooked properly.
Instead of potatoes just add more veg, or try a sweet Potato
If you feel the need to add a little carbs, cut down on portion size ( for example 2 potatoes instead of 8)

you say the you are exercising 5 times a week, that doesn't matter. From my reading and understanding weight loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise.

Also spaghetti has no protein whatsoever.

cbyrd

Just as a matter of interest.. in the last 4 weeks i've changed my eating habits and hit the gym 3 times a week.. i've lost 15lbs.. 3 inches off my waist and people are starting to notice.. and before people say oh that's too much.. it's a prescribed plan that's monitored weekly and the gym is structured to suit me.. goes to show when you dump the carbs and alcohol and up the protein and keep a record of what you're eating the results are amazing. .

lisacon

Hi everyone, thanks very much for all the replies - just like to let everyone knew I'm down 3.5 kg and its all down to saying goodbye to carbs - pretty much the only carbs I have is for brekkie and then one carby dinner over the weekend.

Have to say it was really tough to get used to no carbs and I have to plan all my meals now, if not i know I'll go for the convenient high cal option - Also I was one cranky and tired woman for the first two weeks, well I'm blaming the change of diet anyway!!

Just one last question, do I need to be taking any form of supplements? The only ones I take at present is calcium as I dont take in much calcium - the very odd bit of cheese.

Thanks again folks
Lisa 😊