Help with eating healthy

Melisandre121

I really want to eat healthy but I'm struggling, which I know sounds silly, but I never know what foods to combine together. Particularly for lunch, I'd love to bring healthy lunches into work everyday but I have no idea what to make.

Any suggestions on what I can do?

Stheno

What do you normally eat each day?

Melisandre121

Stheno wrote: »

What do you normally eat each day?

For breakfast a bowl of porridge or a jambon. Lunch varies, usually Subway or a sandwich from a deli, dinner is usually something not great like a frozen pizza, or sometimes pasta.

KingBrian2

First off credit for eating porridge. That is really healthy. Then you go and ruin it all and eat pizza. Pizza is not healthay. I recommend plenty of fruit, vegetables & meat. Eat toast for tea. Too much tea or alcoholic beverages are toxic for your system. Water is the best drink to have and at all times avoid junk food. Chocolate is the only treat I eat and I eat lots of them.

Stheno

Swap the sandwich/subway at lunchtime for a salad?

I like one with not much lettuce,but loads of chopped peppers, carrots, red onions, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, an entire chicken breast and some chopped cheese. Sometimes I add in nuts like almonds or walnuts.

Melisandre121

Stheno wrote: »

Swap the sandwich/subway at lunchtime for a salad?

I like one with not much lettuce,but loads of chopped peppers, carrots, red onions, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, an entire chicken breast and some chopped cheese. Sometimes I add in nuts like almonds or walnuts.

Do you find this filling though?

Blacktie.

KingBrian2 wrote: »

First off credit for eating porridge. That is really healthy. Then you go and ruin it all and eat pizza. Pizza is not healthay. I recommend plenty of fruit, vegetables & meat. Eat toast for tea. Too much tea or alcoholic beverages are toxic for your system.

Really? Equating tea to alcohol!

Anyone ignoring that piece of tripe OP to eat healthy you want to have a good amount of fruit and veg, some meat, some nuts and very little processed food. They're ok for the occasional treat but should not be thought of as a staple in your diet.

For lunch at work I'd usually have left overs from dinner the night before. I make enough for two portions at least when cooking.

Alf Veedersane

KingBrian2 wrote: »

First off credit for eating porridge. That is really healthy. Then you go and ruin it all and eat pizza. Pizza is not healthay. I recommend plenty of fruit, vegetables & meat. Eat toast for tea. Too much tea or alcoholic beverages are toxic for your system. Water is the best drink to have and at all times avoid junk food. Chocolate is the only treat I eat and I eat lots of them.

Eat toast for tea.
Tea is toxic.
Eat lots of chocolate.

Marvellous advice. Can I pay you for a one-to -one?

KingBrian2

Just for the record I drink tea too, I drank it tonight but taking it excessively is not good.

Alf Veedersane

KingBrian2 wrote: »

Just for the record I drink tea too, I drank it tonight but taking it excessively is not good.

There's a lot of food and drink that is not good when taken to excess. Even seemingly good foods.

But you mentioned tea and alcohol to be avoided in excess as if they are in the same ball park.

Alf Veedersane

Anyway, OP, you should really check out the stickies to get a bit more info on proper nutrition:

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2055157091

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2055963342/

panda100

I make lunch my one meat-free meal a day. The key to a healthy lunch for me is preparation. I take an hour on Sunday evening to pre-cook all my lunch for the week and then I freeze it and take out the day before.

Some people are suggesting salads but at this time of year it's cold and I usually crave something warm and fulfilling for lunch.

This is what I made this week, with added chickpeas for more protein: http://deliciouslyella.com/cannellini-bean-stew/

I just re-heat it at work and it's delicious. I replace the Kale salad with quinoa. I make a big batch of quinoa on Sunday and that stores well for the week.

I also like this recipe from Patrick Holdford that is easy to make and freezes well :https://www.totallynourish.com/recipes/beany-bolognese/en

rob316

Suggesting to someone who is trying to eat healthy to eat a salad is just plain lazy and setting them up for failure. I'm 2 years into a lifestyle change and I would throw a salad at you still.

OP, you should learn to prep some meals, look up some healthy recipes online and make them. Make extra portions and have them there for your meals. Subway and frozen pizzas are junk, you will gain nothing from eating them.

I always advise someone to think of the things they like to eat, then try and make a healthy version of it. You shouldn't deny yourself the food you love, just be a bit more careful.

RedXIV

Have you access to a microwave in work OP? That will help guide people towards recipes/ideas that may suit you?

I'm just back in the swing of it now and I fully agree with Blacktie. Best bet is to make enough healthy dinner to give you lunch in the following day.

garden

Do you have access to microwave at work if so its much easier

So some ideas:

Soups (homemade, tomato,veg,chicken dont use butter to fry veg or add cream) slice of wholemeal bread

Left over noodles and veg/stir frys/currys/baked potato

Sandwiches on wholemeal bread (chicken, egg, salads, tuna, alternate)

Homemade low sugar flapjacks (low sugar by using bananas recipes on google and substitute butter with low fat marg (it kills me to do this)

Homemade low sugar muffins

Bring water.

Natural yoghurt and fruit.

I'm following slimming world plan its brilliant and as a result have been making OHs lunch following the SW plan. Hes not over weight but has gained a few christmas lbs, in the last week he has lost 6 lbs by bringing lunches as above and cutting out coffees and lattes and deli crap.

cullenswood

garden wrote: »

substitute butter with low fat marg (it kills me to do this)

Possibly because you are doing it the wrong way around .... butter > low fat marg

Irish_rat

I agree with most of gardens post except for the low fat. Eat full fat dairy, it's heavy in cals but it's more natural than the low fat stuff. Don't buy into the low fat, low sugar nonsense. Just monitor your cals through good food.

You can't go wrong with Soups and stew this time of the year. If you are lazy cooking soup buy the cully & sully ones but homemade is 10 times better obviously.

Omlettes are great the odd time aswell, I pack a load of veg into them.

Eat a sandwich from brown bread but limit your slices a day. Bread ain't great for you.

Two dark chocolate squares the odd day are fine but a better idea is to make a granola bar or just snack on the nuts instead. My usual desert is full fat natural youghurt, clementine, raspberry, strawberry and a few almonds and macadamia nuts.

I think if you cut out the processed stuff, takeaways and sweets you'll find your food plan is much healthier. But your breakfast is healthy so that's a good start :-)

Check out MyFitnessPal, you can add what you eat during the day, there is a barcode scanner in the app, scan the pizza and see the nutritional value it brings up. I use the app often when I do very long runs to make sure I'm intaking enough calories for the ones lost.

Alf Veedersane

Irish_rat wrote: »

If you are lazy cooking soup buy the cully & sully ones

If someone is too lazy to put in the minimal effort it takes to make soup, then they'll find it very hard to make many changes.

strelok

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

If someone is too lazy to put in the minimal effort it takes to make soup, then they'll find it very hard to make many changes.

chopping all those bloody vegetables is hardly minimal effort. it takes bloody ages.

maybe I need a better knife

syklops

Aaaaand we have another train wreck of a thread in Nutrition and Dieting.

Tea is bad for you. Eat toast for tea. Yay chocolate!

syklops

strelok wrote: »

chopping all those bloody vegetables is hardly minimal effort. it takes bloody ages.

maybe I need a better knife

Learn how to chop vegetables. Theres video on YouTube.

To chop the veg for 5 days worth of soups for lunch for one person should take a couple of minutes.

sbsquarepants

KingBrian2 wrote: »

First off credit for eating porridge. That is really healthy. Then you go and ruin it all and eat pizza. Pizza is not healthay. I recommend plenty of fruit, vegetables & meat. Eat toast for tea. Too much tea or alcoholic beverages are toxic for your system. Water is the best drink to have and at all times avoid junk food. Chocolate is the only treat I eat and I eat lots of them.

Tea is fine - tea (pretty much any tea) is one of the healthiest things you can put into your system. It may as well be called miracle live forever juice!:)

Op if you want to eat healthy it's fairly simple. You've got to remember 2 keywords. Variety and Moderation.

Eat plants, any plants you can stomach, fruits, vegetables, nuts & seeds as wide a variety as possible. Vegetables eat as much as you like, fruit don't be a savage, remember broadly speaking it's packed with sugar. Nuts + seeds tend to be extremely calorie dense.
Stay away from processed crap, make your own meals - they'll taste better and provided you don't just fry everything will be infinitely healthier. Limit the fizzy drinks and the alcohol, stay away entirely from alcoholic fizzy drinks they are poison in a bottle.
Fat is not bad for you generally speaking - excess fat is bad for you - if you're cooking for yourself and eating a wide variety of foods, cooked in a wide variety of styles, all in moderation it won't be a problem, don't even think about it. There is no need to ever eat low fat anything, it's nothing more than a gimmick.
Again variety and moderation are the key words, eat as wide a variety as you can and don't concentrate on any one thing, or any one cooking method, fry, boil, bake, steam, grill - do it all.
You're an omnivore, you can eat pretty much anything without a problem - the problems however WILL arise when you start to exclude some things and favour others.

Finally - remember, nobody lives forever, no matter how healthy they live - so every now and then get yourself a chipper and have a few pints - they won't kill you!

strelok

syklops wrote: »

Learn how to chop vegetables. Theres video on YouTube.

To chop the veg for 5 days worth of soups for lunch for one person should take a couple of minutes.

a couple of minutes? jesus it takes me about an hour every time

syklops

strelok wrote: »

a couple of minutes? jesus it takes me about an hour every time

An hour?!?!?! What are you doing with them?

strelok

syklops wrote: »

An hour?!?!?! What are you doing with them?

failing, clearly

Penny Tration

strelok wrote: »

a couple of minutes? jesus it takes me about an hour every time

Are you using a butter knife?!

Takes me about ten minutes to peel, chop and dice veg for a week's worth of soup!

strelok

just your standard enough "sharp knife", i've tried a couple of different ones that are in the drawer

i guess the time is extended a bit by cutting things up small enough so that everything fits into the slow cooker but still, the likes of swede and parsnip are just bastards to get through.

Penny Tration

strelok wrote: »

just your standard enough "sharp knife", i've tried a couple of different ones that are in the drawer

i guess the time is extended a bit by cutting things up small enough so that everything fits into the slow cooker but still, the likes of swede and parsnip are just bastards to get through.

With a decent knife, they're very quick and easy to dice. Get yourself a decent set of knives and watch some YouTube videos on how to chop properly. It's not something people can instinctively do!

syklops

strelok wrote: »

just your standard enough "sharp knife", i've tried a couple of different ones that are in the drawer

i guess the time is extended a bit by cutting things up small enough so that everything fits into the slow cooker but still, the likes of swede and parsnip are just bastards to get through.

Is it actually sharp, or are you having to saw through carrots? Parsnips and swedes should be the easiest ones to cut.

Alf Veedersane

strelok wrote: »

the likes of swede and parsnip are just bastards to get through.

Peeling takes no time. Then just whittle them down around the outside rather than trying to carve in half then quarters and so on. Much quicker.

Slice a chunk off outside, dice. Rinse and repeat. The whole thing is done in the time it's taking you to saw down through the middle.

strelok

well then, to amazon I go.

syklops

strelok wrote: »

well then, to amazon I go.

Chop a parsnip.

I didnt find one for a swede just yet.

You don't necessarily need to go buy a new knife, maybe just sharpen the one you have.

carltonleon

KingBrian2 wrote: »

Pizza is not healthay.

That is a massive generalisation. Pizza can be exceptionally healthy, if done properly. Not the frozen crap or the take away rubbish. good quality flour and a good tomato sauce, not too much cheese or none at all.
I make my own Pizza bases with a very strong white flour and fresh yeast purchased from the local bakery.
600grms Strong white flour
30/35 grms fresh yeast
350mls tepid water
Good Glug of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
teaspoon of salt
That is is enough for 5/6 200grm pizza bases. I normally batch up and do about 6 batches and then portion some single 200grm bases for when myself or Mrs Carlton get the munchies and do some 700grm batches (2 adults + 2 kids) for a Saturday night. Put them into freezer bags and into the freezer. They keep brilliantly.
For a simple tomato sauce, tin of plum tomatoes with some basil and cooked over a simmer with 2 cloves of garlic. Remove garlic and blitz. Perfect sauce and again freezes brilliantly.

For toppings I normally have a little Parma ham, roasted beetroot and carmelised onions and a little mozzarella. Beautiful.
Mrs Carlton will have parma ham and when cooked some rocket and a little parmesan shavings and then drizzled with a balsamic vinegar and good quality extra virgin olive oil. Makes TakeAway pizza seem like cow dung

groovyg

strelok wrote: »

well then, to amazon I go.

I don't think you need to go on amazon to get sharp knives, the best chopping knife I have is from tescos and it was only around five or six quid. You can some really good expensive ones in Arnotts but I wouldn't have any use for them. If your chopping knife is not chopping properly it might just need to be sharpened.

Alf Veedersane

groovyg wrote: »

I don't think you need to go on amazon to get sharp knives, the best chopping knife I have is from tescos and it was only around five or six quid. You can some really good expensive ones in Arnotts but I wouldn't have any use for them. If your chopping knife is not chopping properly it might just need to be sharpened.

Yup. I use my cheapo Tesco knife for peeling and chopping veg.

The fancy knives are used for meat. And my thumb.

Green Peter

panda100 wrote:

I also like this recipe from Patrick Holdford that is easy to make and freezes well :

What nuts are healthy, I love all sorts of nuts but I've been told they are full of fat, anyone know a healthy packet to buy in one of the main stores?

syklops

Green Peter wrote: »

What nuts are healthy, I love all sorts of nuts but I've been told they are full of fat, anyone know a healthy packet to buy in one of the main stores?

All nuts are healthy. Yes they have fat in them.

Dtp1979

Green Peter wrote: »

What nuts are healthy, I love all sorts of nuts but I've been told they are full of fat, anyone know a healthy packet to buy in one of the main stores?

Fat is not bad.
Nuts are good, just high in calories