My issue was feeling the need to have dessert after every meal and eating a lot of fried foods. So knocking out those two things with increased walking will definitely have me losing 5 or more pounds before March 1st.
For that matter, so is a bran muffin. Loads of sugar and fat to make the bran seem edible.
Light bread, PB, and a banana sliced on it. I eat bananas on PB sandwiches all the time, and they have to be toasted. I can’t stand PB and jelly, but I like PB straight, or with bananas.
A couple table spoons of peanut butter or almond butter. Mmm mm mmm.
4kad
One thing that I found very helpful, on the suggestion of a friend, was to make time for a good long visit to the supermarket, and take the time to read all the nutrition panels of the cereals and other stuff that I liked, and then the ones that I habitually did not buy.
It gave me the reassurance to know that my fave Brand X had twice the sugar and crap of Brand Y. A very easy saving made by changing to the tastes-the-same Brand Y. My challenge with food shopping was always agonising about what was better and invariably messing my routine about and making bad decisions under pressure.
And if you drive to work, park the car a block further out.
Porridge for breakfast: two dessert-spoons of rolled oats, skimmed milk to cover, a couple of minutes in the microwave (you may need to use a high-sided bowl in case it decides to boil over, and to stop partway through and stir before finishing it off). It’s said it’s a slow release of energy and helps deal with sugars in the system, but I do like to add a handful of dried fruit and a teaspoon of honey at the end. Or you could put any sliced/diced fresh fruit in, to your taste.
A reasonable point for many values of muffin. Not sure if that site defines what counts as a bran muffin anywhere.
I usually have a smoothie for breakfast.
1/2 cup of yogurt
1 banana
1/2 cup of frozen raspberries
1 cup frozen mango
2 dates
1/8 cup chia seeds
3 to 5 mint leaves
This makes 2 mornings worth. Along with a cup of tea it keeps me going in the morning (I used to snack on an apple or something 2 to 3 hours after but seem to have lost the need to do so) and keeps my blood sugar at about 6.5 or so after breakfast which seems to be the hardest time for me to keep my blood sugar in check.
I like bran flakes, as they have a natural sweetness and are vitamin fortified. About a cup topped with sliced banana and raspberries, some sliced almonds or walnuts and milk is pretty filling. If you find that it needs further sweetening, try Stevia or one of the other artificial sweeteners.
Another good breakfast is savory oatmeal. Cook up about a third of a cup or so (I prefer steel cut oats) with some dried thyme and top it with a fried egg. Or top it with fruit. Very filling and tasty.
I usually alternate between two healthy breakfast choices:
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Old fashioned or quick oats (not instant) with fresh or frozen (unsweetened) fruit, lowfat milk, and spices. No sugar, syrup, honey, or other natural or artificial sweetener. The fruit alone makes it sweet enough for me.
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Any combination of lowfat dairy products (plain yogurt, plain Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, or ricotta cheese) with unsweetened fruit. I stay away from vanilla and fruit yogurts because they are typically loaded with added sugar.
Somehow I find it easy to eat a healthy breakfast. I wish I found it as easy to eat healthy the rest of the day.
For lunch, roll up ham or turkey slices around some pickles and mustard, or a little cream cheese. You can have several of these without a huge calorie impact, and it eliminates the bread. Supplement with a honey crisp apple.
Those Granola bars tend to be high in sugar, fat and salt. The other problem is that after a few bites, they are gone. Psychologically, we need lots of “chewing” to calm our brain’s cravings. A few bites of a protein bars are just not going to cut it. Chewing all the fruit that you have piled on top of the little bit of granola in you bowl will go a long way toward satisfying the craving.
Two Bananas and a Bottle water?
Need some protein in there. Milk, yogurt, eggs, etc.
My recommendation for losing weight is to maintain a low carbohydrate diet. Like any other diet change, it takes discipline, creativity and, indeed, sacrifice. However, I’m 100% convinced that it works and it the right choice for most people. I’ve been keeping it up (on and off, mostly on, though) for about five years now and, during those periods that my discipline gets shaky and I indulge, the consequences are obvious at the scale and the belt notch. Of course, the mirror doesn’t lie, either (the brutally honest bastard).
Some earlier threads:
Breakfast:
Talk to me about low carb diets:
Same here. I’m reading all these creative suggestions for making lower sugar cereals, and I’m just thinking of: eggs, steak, cheese wrapped in salami, full fat plain yogurt, and so on.
For me, breakfast is the easiest and most enjoyable meal. I just do things like coffee with cream but no sugar, omelets w/ pretty much anything except bread, steak by itself, steak and eggs, eggs and bacon (just no toast or bagel, fries, etc). I don’t do super low carb, so I’ll have some berries sometimes with yogurt.
For lunch I like salads and find it hard to go too wrong with any combination of vegetables, meats, cheese, etc. I avoid croutons, sometimes use the commercially available cheese crisps. Dressing is probably the only part where you can make a bad choice. I avoid all low calorie and light stuff, as it’s all higher in sugar. And I personally eat a high fat diet. So I go for all fat, no sugar. For lower fat, skip fatty meats and cheeses and use no dressing or a small amount of oil. Same applies to eggs/breakfast. Though my second favorite lunch is rolling up meats and cheeses.
Here’s what I do:
I alternate my breakfasts. On odd number days I eat a big ol’ bowl of high-fiber cereal with skim milk. I also add a scoop of protein powder to it. On even number days I eat two eggs and some fresh cantaloupe.
For lunch at work I eat the same thing every day: chicken, yogurt, and an apple. The chicken is Tyson “Grilled & Ready” chicken breast. It is not breaded, precooked, and all I have to do is heat it up in the microwave oven for a couple minutes. The yogurt is Oikos “Triple Zero.”
Also, take a glass of (plain) water before each meal. Not only is it good to keep you hydrated, but it has a filling effect on the stomach, making your appetite decrease a bit.
Wrt the change in diet: if you find it too rough to quit current eating habits cold turkey, choose the alternate day routine first for a while: eating as you are used to (if you have to) one day, and the new diet the next.
A low carb diet worked for me. Lost over 40 lbs over a few months and was ‘never’ hungry. For reference I went to the Aktins website to get a general guideline and I believe there were two basic options. Eat less than 20 Net carbs per day was the ‘strict’ plan and less than 40 net carbs per day was other one.
My plan was essentially to eat between 20 and 40 net carbs/day and once I started reading labels I couldn’t believe how much sugar is in ‘everything’. Before September my diet was literally soda, fast food burgers and fries, subs, and pizza. I ate salads and drank water as well but anything healthy was far outweighed(pun intended) by junk.
Now it’s chicken wings(baked), steak, a lot of eggs, and turkey burgers/bacon.
For example, a typical breakfast will be one egg(over easy) and two strips of turkey bacon. This keeps me satisfied until lunch(if not, i’ll have some celery and/or a slice of cheese). Lunch is usually a salad and dinner might be a turkey burger, turkey bacon, cheese, pickles, and some low carb salad dressing or sometimes baked buffalo wings(I think I’ve perfected this by now) with celery and blue cheese dressing. At least once a week I treat myself to a nice grilled steak and a bottle of wine. Point is, I’ve never eaten better in my life both from a health standpoint as well as the quality of the food I eat.
After a while I learned which products have added sugars and which ones don’t. You’d be amazed how two prodcuts(like buffalo sauce for instance) can look/taste the same but one is loaded with sugars while the other is not.
The best part of this is that I never ‘go hungry’. If I’m hungry, I eat and it’s that simple. In fact, I actually dont consider this a diet but rather a different way of thinking about food. I also don’t weigh myself very often. After a couple weeks I noticed my clothes fit better and a couple weeks after that I started to get comments from people who noticed. No scale reading can compete with that!
I also go out to dinner as much as I used to and to the same restaurants. I just order differently. I frequent a Chinese restaurant but instead of Mai-Tai’s, chicken fingers, and crab rangoons, it is now Mai-Tai’s, chicken teriyaki, and spare ribs.
Anyways, this is what worked for me so look into it if you think it will work for you. I dont have a cholesterol problem so you may need to adjust to fit your needs.
The easiest/best suggestion I can make is that if you drink soda then stop. I think you would notice a difference after a while just from that. I honestly think this contributed to losing at least 20lbs.
An added bonus is going through old clothes that fit once again… my wardrobe has tripled recently w/out spending a dime.
Good luck.
I know it’s not a such thing is eating healthy at a SB party so I will have to take sunday off from eating healthy and go back to it on monday