Wednesday 1 June 2011

'Get Trimmer...' Week One: Nutrition Tips

We are going to take a step by step approach to this, you're not expected to start eating 100% healthy today (*ahem* I don't even eat 100% healthy). It's Wednesday today and it's only a couple of days to the weekend so this week:
  1. Please post today's breakfast in the comments section. If you usually don't eat breakfast, post that too.

  2. On Thursday and Friday, try any of these for breakfast:
    - an omelette (add tuna, vegetables, etc - I like salmon and eggs with tomatoes for breakfast once in a while)
    - A couple of boiled eggs and some vegetables
    - A handful of nuts (e.g cashews, almonds, walnuts) and some fruit (e.g. berries, an apple)
    - A piece (or two) of chicken, turkey <-- Actually the easiest for most people that cook ahead for the week.

    I remember the 1st time my Nutritionist friend (Keris of Fitter London) suggested protein for breakfast, my immediate reaction was - I NEED MY CARBS!
    Without going into too much boring detail, eating a protein rich breakfast means
    - you feel fuller for longer so you feel less peckish,
    - you don't get a sharp increase in your blood sugar which usually leads to a dip => you're peckish
    and
    - if you add vegetables which are a source of energy, you're good :)

  3. As this is a short week on the challenge, you have to *aim* to eat healthy on either Saturday or Sunday. Have one of those days off as your treat day.
  4. Eat every 2-3 hours: Breakfast, Snack (e.g. fruit or nuts), Lunch, Snack (e.g. 2nd half of your lunch, Dinner, Snack

This week's meal ideas include:

  • Meatballs in Tomato Sauce - I cooked this last night and it's yummy! I'll post the recipe later today.
    You could eat this with: Sweet Potatoes or Brown Rice. And Vegetables


  • Work in an office and have no choice but to eat at the cafeteria? Make things a little healthier by:
    - Eating (drinking?) Peppersoup - Chunks of meat/chicken with vegetables in soup. Perfect
    - Halving your usual portion of rice, pounded yam, etc and have an extra piece of chicken
    - If you're lucky enough to have a salad option, have your dressing on the side and use a teaspoon (max tablespoon) of dressing

Coming up in the next few weeks:
  • Snacking
  • 'Empty' Calories
  • Eating small but often
  • Recipes
  • Healthy Eating Out
    and more.

19 comments:

Ms zee said...

6am breakfast
1 cup oats in 2 tabspoons peak evapotated milk
1/2 apple
1 cup moin moin (my fist size is 1 cup)

10.30am Snack
1/2 cup almonds
1 big grape (white grape no pink in Nigeria) sweetened with 1 splenda cos that sheet is bitter man

1.00pm light lunch
1/4 cup couscous
1cup mixed veggies - brocolli, carrot, runner beans, 1 big tomato diced

1511th said...

Breakfast
1 Chicken Frankfurter
Banana
Grande Skinny Chai Latte

Snack
Weight watchers cheese puff
Banana

Lunch
Beef Burger with half a bun and carrots and sesame seeds

IntheMidstofher said...

Breakfast
1 cup of milk ( 90 cals)
1 large banana (110 cals)
--- Total 200cals

AM Snack
3 slices of Cantaloupe (50 cals)
4 slices of Honey dew(50 cals)
--- Total 100cals
Lunch
1 piece of yorgurt chicken breast(370 cals)
3 cups of raw spinach ( 21 cals)
1 tbs of dried cranberries(30 cals)
1 tbs of bacon bits( 21 cals)
--- Total 442cals

Anonymous said...

Breakfast:
Scrambled Eggs (3) with onions and tomatoes
white bread (quarter loaf)
water

Adura O. said...

Ms Zee - You're a pro, lol. You're snacking - good!
Next time have more moin moin and try taking out the oats (completely).

1511th - good to see you're snacking :)
Eat more for breakfast, try black coffee instead.
What kind of bun came with your burger?

inthemidstofher - yay another snacker :) Good!
Your breakfast and snack consist of sugary stuff (from fruits, yes but still a little high in sugar). Have some protein especially with your breakfast and another snack option: nuts.

Aduke - Good breakfast, try it without bread next time and add more tomatoes to your scrambled eggs :)

IntheMidstofher said...

Adura,
I hear you loud and clear! I am a fruit-a-holic because I hate breakfast, fruit is light and easy to throw in my bag plus it satisfies my sweet tooth. i will def reduce the fruit and add protein.

....
Afternoon snack
Welch's fruit snacks (80 cals)
Dannon's Fat free yorgurt (80 cals) with Quaker granola 1/4cup: (105 cals)
-----Total: 265 cal


Dinner

Ramen Noodles 1/2 pk: 190 cals
Yorgurt chicken breast: 370
Stew
-----Total: 560 cal


Grand Total of the day 1605 cals.

* If I feel peckish later on tonite, I will have another 80 cal yorgurt

Foluso said...

Hi adura sorry about the very late response to the initial response to the email sent out to register for the challenge. I have been looking forward to it starting and I can't beleive I completely missed the start. Ok so this is to hoping I can still join in..This was what I ate yday.
I had two handful branflakes with 50ml soy milk (sweetened) breakfast was very late
handful salted peanuts (snack)
missed out lunch
dinner was Chargrilled chicken and 1 roasted plaintain.

ChysCurlz said...

I know you touched on this in a post but here are a few questions I have. I'm on weight watchers and I just want to kknow if you utilized the recipie builder. I mean I can cut down on oil and add more veggies when making soups/stews but how many POINTS is that, you know what I mean? That is the biggest problem I have with WW. So, I decided to reactivate my sparkpeople (I don't know if you are familiar) because it is calorie based vs. point-based. I mean if I'm making soups and stews with as little oil as possible and just making it healthier, will it work if I just work with portion sizes (like a cup of all soup and stews) vs. focusing on calorie counts?

I know,it's super long but hope you can give me some insight. I'm in the US if that helps in determining what I have access to.

PS.:So, gari, fufu, pounded yam, semolina, wheat, oats fufu(s)...to have them or not to? But how do you eat soup without any fufu? OMG...so many things I'm trying to figure out. Please help.

Chinwe.

ChysCurlz said...

Brkfst:Oatmeal,1cup skim milk, 3 packets splenda, 1 medium banana, 1cup cofee

10 cups of water

Lunch: 1 cup of white rice, 1/2 cup egusi soup

Snack: 1 medium corn-on-the-cob

Dinner: 1 cup of white rice with Egusi (same as lunch, it was so good!!)

Adura O. said...

Christabel - I'm not going to knock WW because it worked for me years ago BUT I've learned through my experience and others' that calorie counting, etc can get very frustrating and can sometimes be misleading. Because of calorie counting, some people run the risk of not getting the necessary nutrients, they just think more about calories no matter where from.

Yes - Cutting down processed carbohydrates (white rice, etc), bulking up meals with vegetables (which are usually very low points in WW) and eating more protein (aside from being filling, they also have nutritional benefits) will give you positive results.

No you shouldn't cut fufu, pounded yam, etc out. Just cut down the portions and frequency. Eg 1ce to 2ce a week and start by halving your usual portion.

Anonymous said...

Not sure if we are supposed to post our meals every day.

Wednesday's Lunch was kind of like a snack, I usually don't eat lunch. I've been reading the comments you left for the other ladies and I thinks I should probably eat more during the day and reduce my portion size.
Can you please give ideas for easy to cook meals? I don't cook *shame* so any beginner type of meal ideas will be good. Or even how to make stew and stuff *extra extra shame* (lol)

Wednesday's Lunch: Special K cereal (dry), Strawberry banana smoothie

Wednesday's Dinner: Snack size Chex mix, Krispy Kreme donuts (3), water


Thursday Breakfast: Special K cereal dry, strawberry banana smoothie

* I'm usually rushing out the door so I don't get to sit and have my cereal with milk so I eat it dry

IntheMidstofher said...

So today was all about protein...
Breakfast
Granola and yorgurt: 205 cals

AM Snack
Welch's fruit: 80 Cals

Lunch
Tilapia (2 pieces): 380cals
Lamb curry: 100 cals

To be continued...

Adura O. said...

@Aduke Especially for you - I'll put up a couple of easy recipes on Sunday :)

@InTheMidstOfHer Looking good :) Add some vegetables :) Was the Lamb Curry homemade :)
Try berries and yoghurt tomorrow morning if you can :)

ChysCurlz said...

Hiya, thanks so much for your response. While I do agree with you that counting clories can amount to a lot of obsessing over calories vs. nutrition, I still like and understand the reasoning that weight loss is basically calories out > caloriess in. So, from that standpoint, I would understand why the most successful programs focus on eating less calories than your what your BMR is (to a amount to 3500 calories deeficit for 1lb). Having said that, I also agree that long-term, being able to recognize appropriate potion sizes will be the key in maintaining for me.

So, while I work on loosing for now(and learn appropriate portion size), I will like to pick your brains on how YOU made WW work for you. Did u resort to meals that you could easily figure out point values or did you "guesstimate" (they say you could be off by a lot by just eyeballing) with the Nigerian dishes. Also, what are your thoughts on points vs. calorie counting? I'm currently doing both but I find that calories might be easier (I cook ALL my food, so, making it nutritious would not be a problem if I reduce oils and increase veggies and protien, Please let me know what your thought are. Thanks much.

PS.: Thanks on the tip to fufu to 1 or 2 times a week. BUT what do I eat on the other days? (white rice, plantains?) I guess I have this mentality that I can't eat or soup by itself. Or can I?

ChysCurlz said...

Hi, This is Christabel now Chy'sCurlz...yes, I'm addicted to everything natural hair. If only I was as committed to healthy eating :(

Adura O. said...

@Chy'sCurlz I did just that - WW have a huge directory of points values for a lot of foods so I used that to help guesstimate points values.

It's a difficult choice between points and calories. Points are calculated using calories *and* saturated fat while calories are just calories. But at the same time fat is NOT always bad for you, coconut oil for eg is high in fat but it's highly recommended over vegetable oils and some others. Same goes for coconut milk. So, bearing that in mind, I'd say use what works better for you - good results and convenience.

Plantains, sweet potatos are options.

Also try making your efo with a lot of meat or fish... that way you can eat that on its own. A chicken salad is a suitable lunch so efo with meat/fish/chicken is too.

Foluso said...

Today was real nice started with 30mins cardio early this morning.. Had about 40g branflakes with 100ml sweetened soya milk and a kiwi (I love kiwis!). Not too big on havin lunch, so all I had was some strawberries (really enjoyed them too!). For dinner I had broadbeans, peas and carrot steamed, then mixed with 1/2 a mug of wholegrain penne to which I added 1 boiled egg. Then a pot of ww desert style yoghurt.

Anonymous said...

Thursday: Skipped lunch. Dinner: bread and eggs with onions and tomatoes. I know you mentioned that I should skip the bread but I haven't mastered that art of eating eggs alone lol.
(Hopefully next week isn't as busy so I could find time to get decent food from the store.

Friday Morning: Smoothie and water. I'm leaving for a retreat in an hour, and I can almost bet that we will not be eating healthy food, but in case they have healthy options, I will try my best to get those :)
Why do I always end up giving my life story when the task was to post just meals??? Lol.

Thanks Adura, I'll be looking forward to your recipes.

Adura O. said...

Good to see you're eating well ladies :)

Foluso - Try to eat more for lunch... think of it as being important and try to make yourself eat something. Where do you live? (country?). Next week's post will be on lunch ideas :)

Aduke - Lunch is good ;) Good luck at the retreat! Back to eating well on Monday :)
Add more to your eggs e.g. more vegetables and fish or chicken.

I'm looking forward to recipe Sunday ;)

Have a Nice Weekend Ladies!!!