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I need to sort my diet out lads. At the moment I'm just eating crap, ie bacon and sausage roll for breakfast, sarnie and crisps for dinner and I usually grab a takeaway on my way home from work.
I was wondering if any of you lot have a plan? I've gone down the salad route, but I'm still hungry after I've eaten it.
I'm a big lump (you'll be surprised to hear :hehe:) so eating tiny portions isn't really for me.
Can anyone guide me in the right direction, or am I a lost cause :hehe:
Have you tried weight watchers? Not just for ladies.
I think you need a bit of support to get your weight down.
Try being a veggie. I've been one for over two years. I love it.
Still a gutsy ****er though, just a healthy one. :hehe:
Try Apple Cider Vinegar (with the Mother) to help give you a kick-start. It has a huge amount of benefits, will help in detox and take the edge off your appetite. Just Google the benefits - it's great for lowering cholesterol too!Quote:
Originally Posted by valleys caveman
Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar is a good choice but whichever ACV you choose, make sure it has the Mother (it's a kind of sediment that contains a lot of the value).
ACV is extremely easy to make at home if you have the time. Then, of course, plan a sensible diet and get some exercise.
Good luck! :thumbup:
I’ve got that, how much do you take daily?Quote:
Originally Posted by Rock_Flock_of_Five
Are you trying to lose weight or be healthier?Quote:
Originally Posted by valleys caveman
You just need to find the diet that works for you. If you’re a big eater I’d suggest looking into slimming world or a high fat low carb diet as they are more filling than some of the calorie controlled diets such as the cabbage soup ones.
I tried the cabbage soup diet and didn’t make it to day 3.
I’ve cut out midweek drinking and that’s helped already.
Two tablespoons in the morning, mixed with honey (makes it more palatable) and warm water in a large glass. Use a straw when drinking it though, the acid content isn't so good for the teeth.
Forget diets etc, they're generally just fads. If you like your food, which is one of life's pleasures, learn to cook. There are so many good recipes you can pick up online. It's cheaper, tastes better, and people who cook are invariably healthier and fitter than those who buy read made rubbish.
And don't say you don't have time. Cooking is the best way to unwind at the end of the day..
The best way to unwind at the day is to fire one out off the wristQuote:
Originally Posted by A Quiet Monkfish
there are broadly two things here: quantity of calories and quality of calories.Quote:
Originally Posted by valleys caveman
I cannot comment on the first, other than to state the obvious which is that any level of exercise initially will help. You will obviously need to burn more than you consume to lose weight. "Burning more" is often forgotten as part of that equation when it comes to dieting.
On the latter- I hate the idea of a diet because it implies a temporary state of affairs before you go back to normal. A healthy diet should be sustainable and permanent. Also, taking multiple hundreds of calories out of your daily intake in one go is a bit of a shock.
So my suggestion would be super simple: do batch cooking on weekends to see you through the week so you can at least see what you are eating and make easy and obvious tweaks to improve things. Three obvious benefits: health, cost and taste. If you really want to you can start by making exactly what you currently eat. Seeing what goes into some takeaway meals can be quite a shock. If you fancy a curry that's fine - make a big one on the weekend that you can have 3 days in the week. But you can make simple changes that significantly improve the nutritional value: you don't need to use ghee and cocounut fat for example, and you can load it with veg and pulses too. A few grated carrots and spinach go into a lot of things I make in batches: bolognese, chili, curry, fish pie etc. Make some lunches too. That can be sandwiches if you like, but at least they will be made with fresher ingredients. And in time you can move to healther options by reducing bread intake etc.
If salads are not for you then no point in fighting it just yet. Far better to move to healthier versions of what you do like as you've got a far better chance of seeing that through. In time you may find that your appetite changes anyway but for now and you may need to tweak it further, but frankly your diet sounds pretty bad at the moment so
I would do it in steps, too. Where you do get your breakfast? Do they do porridge? if so it's an easy swap but I'd fix your lunch and evening meals first if I were you - whenever I've improved my diet the breakfast is always the last one to change!
finally - what do you drink? If you are a heavy drinker then reducing alcohol intake makes a big difference. i've never been a fan of sugary soft drinks but drpping them is obviously an easy way to kill crap calories.
Salad good but have a steak or grilled chicken or turkey with it.Quote:
Originally Posted by valleys caveman
Cauliflower also a good meat substitute.
Low carb with intermittent fasting is what is working for me. When I say intermittent fasting I mean eating last food at 6pm and nothing thereafter until 12 noon next day. I thought this would be impossible to maintain but it can easily be done. I started off gently by having a breakfast every other day at 8.00am. It's surprising that you soon realise you aren't really hungry at 8.00am at all - it's just habit. I aim for max 100g of carbs per day. Some days I can barely eat enough to achieve that!
Eat loads of protein i.e. all kinds of meat mainly white meat, bacon, ham, eggs, cheese, salads, fish, vegetables, Greek yoghurt, berries (mainly strawberries and blueberries). Obviously no sugar, cakes, biscuits, bread, pasta and limited rice and potatoes and occasional dark chocolate (min 80% cocoa). Again I didn't think I could live without these but you can!
I have lost 10 lbs in 3 weeks and am enjoying my food - no more bloating or stomach aches late at night!
I should add forget about exercising unless it is purely for general fitness/muscle strength purposes. Just check how much exercise is required to burn off just 1 lb of fat!
There speaks the voice of experience.Quote:
Originally Posted by SLUDGE FACTORY
A little bird tells me you've abandoned your dawn trips to the swimming pool. Your health fads never last more than a few weeks. You would have become fitter and healthier had you completed length after length, but splashing around in the shallow end was of no benefit and, frankly, wearing those inflatable armbands were both unnecessary and quite bizarre.
Thanks for all the replies lads.
I've actually been off the bacon roll and takeaway diet since the beginning of the year, and replaced it with the Atkins diet (meat, eggs and fish). The low carb diet is making me feel tired and grouchy though, so I need to try something different. I've lost about a stone and a half (from 18st down to 16 and a half) but as mentioned above I'm finding it hard.
I was thinking of taking cereal to work with me, but wondered if the milk I add to it would make it a fattening choice?
Also, I was thinking of buying one of those air fryers so I could have chips when I get home :hehe:
As you can see I'm a lost cause, so any meal advice would be more than appreciated :thumbup:
As mentioned above fasting really helped me, I do a pretty easy one, 8/16 so i can eat between a 8 hour period a day, breakfast 10am, then last meal of the day before 6pm.
I didn't even change my diet that much, I just realised that i was eating to much towards the end of the day and just before bed, which is really bad for metabolism and doesn't burn off that well
For losing weight there's an app called Nutracheck which has helped lots of people I know. Logs all the food you eat (scan barcode) and tells you where you are against daily target. Eat what you want as long as the calories add up to less than total - exercise. I tend to eat loads of pita bread with various fillings as its easy to measure/manage, quick to make and filling.Quote:
Originally Posted by valleys caveman
Make yourself overnight oats for work - take loads of fruit - I also make a Massive 5 bean Chili (No meat) and take that for lunch, lasts me a week ....... healthy eating and fills you up :thumbup:Quote:
Originally Posted by valleys caveman
Check out the slimming world diet , it’s one of the best ones out there and easier to stick with as you eat real food , you can also have pasta potatoes and rice as a free food , I bought and air fryer too , best thing ever did ,Quote:
Originally Posted by valleys caveman
Go to the meetings as it will also give you the incentive to stick with it and it’s agreat feeling when you lose every week ,you can also have so many syns per day so if a choc freak life me me with my cuppa you are allowed to indulge
Set yourself a target. It'll aid your resolve and self-motivation. Here's the NHS Body Mass Index calculator https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy...mi-calculator/ the optimal healthy weight range is between 18.5 and 25.Quote:
Originally Posted by valleys caveman
The milk is ok, but cereals are loaded with carbs. If you only eat meat, eggs and fish then you aren't getting enough carbs. Aim for about 100g a day I think. I have made myself a list of all the common foods we eat and the carbohydrate content of each, so we can see at a glance what's what. I don't count calories but I do weigh most of the food. I wouldn't call it a diet plan, more a change of lifestyle. No need for all the fancy recipe books either, far too time consuming to prepare these kind of meals.Quote:
Originally Posted by valleys caveman
^ This.Quote:
Originally Posted by A Quiet Monkfish
Try the Hairy Dieters (Bikers) cook books. Easy, quick and very tasty. Not diet food - just healthy. I have dozens of cook books but these are the go-to every night of the week recipes for me.