Another diet help question

frag420

Its prob been coverd before but I need to clear a few things up so bear with me folks..................

Bread/Pasta..............I dont eat too much of it. Maybe for breaky I have a slice or two and if I have veg soup at lunch I will have some too as a filler. I eat the wholegrain brown bread from superquinn. Am I right in thinking that wholegrain is the best type?? Regarding pasta I dont eat it too often and when I do its brown pasta. Is brown rice a good option also?

Dairy................I used to drink loads of milk, min one litre a day low fat. I have cut this out and maybe enjoy a glass with dinner every other day. I do include it in tea/coffee or porridge. Should I cut it out completely?

Protein.............I want to increase my protein intake(while decreasing carbs). I use protein shakes to compliment my intake which can vary daily. Some evenings I have fish with is breaded and has oats and seeds on it too(superquin). Others evenings I may throw some homemade butcher beef burgers on the george forman and have them with some peas/green beans or reg baked beans. I try to have at least one green veg here. Trying to introduce brocoli but it is taking longer than expected. I want to try tuna. Never eat it before as when I was young it looked like grey crap in a tin. What would be the closest meat to it texture wise? I figure one tin at lunch time would be a good start.

Treats.............in the evenings I may have a yogurt as a treat. sometimes a bar of choc(i know i know)

On top of all this I do bootcamp twice a week. I have not been in gym (started in Jan) for a month due to this but intend to start back in to gym tomorow to compliment the bootcamp as I want to lose a weight (6'4, 16 St) and tone up.

I see the above as my stumbling blocks. Can some of you good folks address the above food issues and tweak it for me so that I get the most out of my diet and workout.

frAg

Torakx

From the start of your post, regarding soup and breakfast, it sounds like your fairly dependant on bread with those times and meals.
Im not sure about how much better wholegrain is,it may be all the same.

Imagine the food your eating for breakfast breaking down in your stomach, compared to say a steak with veg.
Which do you think will keep you going throughout the day?

My thinking is that you should try keep the carbs to before and after exercise if you can.
And for the rest of the day sort your diet so that you are full after you eat, or atleast satisfied enough that you dont need to eat bread with your soup.
Im sure no harm in eating small amounts of bread, i just found it easier to go low carb when i changed my diet habits first.

If you wake up in the morning and start your day on easily broken down carbs, i think that will set the mood eating wise for your hunger for the rest of the day.
Then its reinforced maybe at lunchtime.

Have you considered maybe going with eggs for breakfast?
You could have eggs,maybe a bit of bacon to help it down or to get into the habit and a side of salad or some other cooked veg.
If so id use coconut oil instead of vegetable oil.
Ive been known to have what other people call dinners, for my breakfast and it lasts me quite a long time into the day compared to a few eggs and rice or veg.

If you can do that in the morning and had something like meat and salads for lunch(im presuming you work 9-5), you could then get then save your carbs for when you need them for exercise.

Im not sure if its best to have carbs before or after exercise or both.

Im on a low carb diet myself.
I find i can exercise ok just eating 2 or 3 eggs boiled an hour before a jog and then i cook a nice dinner afterwards where i sometimes will throw in some rice and ussually lots of veg.

Sounds like you have the right idea for treats.

Wouldnt do any harm to get off the dairy it think.
I managed to give up tea by drinking some herbal tea i found with some added xylitol sweetner.

Tayla

I buy low Gi bread, I presume all wholegrain bread is low GI but they're probably not all created equal if you know what I mean, I don't really eat it myself but my OH does and it doesn't bloat him and doesn't give you that crappy feeling that normal white bread does, Yep brown rice is a good option, it takes ages to cook it though, a lot longer than white rice.

What is it you're worried about with the milk? Calories?
I've been thinking about giving it up myself just as an experiment to see how I feel, I had some almond milk last week from tesco which was really nice but it's quite expensive so I might try to make my own.

I don't eat fish at all but I do make chicken goujons with parmesan/almond crust so they're low carb, high fat, high calories and high protein and they're really nice. I presume you could you the same coating on fish.

If you're in the habit of eating chocolate in the evening well that's a hard habit to break, go to aldi and get one of their 70% chocolate bars, if you don't like it to begin with stick with it and you will like it after a few days and you'll think normal chocolate tastes too sweet.
Then you can work up to the 85% etc.

To be honest I don't think you will need to change your diet too drastically if you're going to be going to the bootcamp and the gym.

I think even cutting out the bread, switching the chocolate to dark and maybe giving up yogurt (depending on what kind it is) alone would make a massive difference along with your increased exercise.

frag420

Hi Guys,

Cheers for your replies.

Ragarding the bread I would only have two slices a day either with soup at lunch or in the morning(with crunchy nut butter) with tea (if i dont feel like porridge). Just to note I eat in the office when I get in. The thing regarding breakfast is that I dont have a good protein source as I dont eat eggs. I am considering having a shake in the morn to increase protien intake early in the day.

I am led to believe and I am open to correction that I should have some sort of carbs a few hrs beofore bootcamp to give me energy. After a workout/bootcamp I usually have some sort of protein(griled steak burger/fish/chicken) with some veg(peas, green beans, fajitas-peppers/onions etc). I am thinking portion size may be an issue as i have a huge appetite after workout/bootcamp and it tends to be late by the time i get to eat(close to 9pm)

The yogurt I usually eat is a spelga apple crumble. Its sweeet so it kills the crazings and is only 146 cl.

I am going to get the green or herbal tea today as I wont consume sugar in them or dairy. I also dont have sugar in coffee so this could also be an option.

I have made chicken goujons before and grilled them. I used a mix of coconut flakes, ground almonds and crushed wheatabix or cornflake to give it some crunch!! Delish!!

If you guys have any other suggestions then I am all ears,

thanks

frAg