What do I eat?

#1 TIP: Keep your water up throughout the day. It helps flush out toxins and waste from your body and DOES actually help you lose weight! I make sure I have a glass of water with my meals, it helps fill you up too so you don’t eat too much. Also, having a water bottle with you while you’re at work or in class is great too!
Breakfast: it’s Winter at the moment so I always feel like something warm… 1/3 cup of oats with 1 cup of So Good fat-free soy milk (only 5g sugar per 100g and “NIL” fat)..

I’m not lactose intolerant but after comparing the nutrition tables with my usual skim milk and this fat-free soy milk, there’s a great difference. Even though some people say “oh it’s only 4g of sugar/fat more” you need to remember – those figures add up! Over a week, the difference in the milk you have can be 28 g of extra sugar and fat! I drizzle a little honey on my oats too, it makes it a little sweet, and the honey sugar is natural to the honey anyway – not added.

Alternative is to have a poached egg on a toasted multi-grain piece of bread with a small sprinkle of salt and pepper for extra toast. No bacon, no sausages etc…

Lunch: I make a salad with lettuce, cherry tomatoes, red onion, capsicum (I think they’re known as ‘bell peppers’), baby spinach, zucchini or cucumber and mushrooms. Low fat vinegarette sometimes but usually, no salad dressing.

An alternative to the salad (again good for winter) is some pasta and spaghetti sauce that’s low in fat and sugar. Yes, there are carbs in this, but carbs aren’t as bad as everyone thinks – they’re bad, IMO, for dinner, but they’re fine for the middle of the day because you’re actually going to use them throughout the day!

Dinner: I tend to have grilled chicken (marinated with some herbs first – cumin’s always good with chicken! but it’s also fun to experiment) with some vegetables. Alternatively, rib-eye steak or ‘heart smart’ sausages, mashed potatoes – with skim milk, spinach (sauteed with a very light spray of cooking oil and garlic) and no butter – and steamed veges.

Snacks: Chewing on a carrot or some celery or make myself a big bowl of popcorn with no butter or salt added. Yes, popcorn is healthy for you and a great food to snack on – provided nothing’s added to it .

Eating no sooner than 4 hours before you’re going to bed (eg eating at 6 – 7 if you’re going to bed at 10 or 11pm) will let your body digest your meal so you’re not sleeping through that. This is actually one of the reasons many people have trouble losing weight at the rate that want to.

I will admit there were a couple of times of weakness when I would crave Indian or some other naughty take away meal. I must mention, however, that if you have a glass of water and wait 15 minutes, usually the cravings will pass. I did have one ‘mishap’ where I ate a ‘low fat’ Indian dish one night from my favorite Indian Restaurant and found (with my bodytype) that the 3-4 times a week of exercise at the gym helped me and I didn’t actually gain any weight from that one meal. However, I shared one ‘takeaway dish’ with another person to ensure I didn’t over-eat (it’s hard to stop eating your favorite naughty food sometimes) and after 20 mins from when I started eating, I was full!
If you have any questions, just write a comment

One of the authors of this blog has been wanting to lose weight for the last 6 months and finally, 2.5 months ago, found a simple way to lose weight… eating healthily and exercising!
It came down to simple common sense where I changed my diet to only be one mini-treat a week (eg. a small plate of low fat and reduced sugar ice cream, no chocolate sauce etc), with a large lunch and filling breakfast and then a smaller dinner (remember you’re eating to give your body fuel throughout the day – you don’t need to fuel yourself for sleeping ) with a couple of small snacks of fruit or popcorn (no butter or salt) in between main meals. Also added to the diet was at least 100 minutes of continuous aerobic exercise a week (usually done in 20 – 30 minute sessions), followed by 20 minutes of weights.

The weights included 3 seconds of pulling/pushing where the exercise had the most resistance, then hold for one second, then back slowly to starting position. 12-15 reps of this, where the used muscles are shaking is enough to tone up those areas, burn calories (you’ll notice this because your heart is pumping in between exercises), and build strength which is awesome if you have children and want to have more energy and strength to play with them.WithWith

With regard to the food, eating smaller amounts helped me to lose weight. Having a ‘big stomach’ and being able to eat more than my friends (who were bigger than me) made it tough to reduce because I wouldn’t feel full afterwards. But as the old saying goes “wait 20 minutes and your stomach will consider itself full” and I put this to the test and successful.
So, starting at 74kg, being 170cm tall, BMI indicates this is overweight – the largest i have ever been, I kept up a steady diet, healthy snacks and regular exercise and lost 10kg so far in just over 2 months and I’m feeling happier, healthier and full of endorphins and adrenaline all the time.  I’m seldom hungry and yet my metabolism has increased!  By doing pectorial weight exercises (helps lift the breasts), my chest size hasn’t decreased very much either – I’m still the same cup size AND my fingernails have grown longer and now look sexy and feminine – I used to be a nervous chewer!

I’ll write another post with what I eat shortly

The easiest and most effective changes that you can make to your diet is to eat more fiber rich foods, and fewer foods rich in fat. Why boost fiber intake? There are many reasons to boost the intake of fiber while controlling fat, including increased exercise, decreased your weight and maintain a healthier lifestyle.

The fact of the matter is most people consume too much of the bad stuff– things like sugar, salt and fat, and not enough of the good stuff – like vegetables, fruits, and whole foods. This means that many people are not getting sufficient fiber in their everyday diets, and they may suffer a variety of heath effects because of it.

Well, before you can eat more fiber you need to know where that fiber comes from. You should get in the habit of reading nutritional labels. This will be one way to start the high fiber count and low fat. Most packaged and processed foods in the grocery store must carry these labels, and they label such things as fiber, fat, calories and nutrient values. Getting familiar with these nutritional labels is a necessary first step to getting rid of the fat intake and increasing your fiber.

Ok! Increasing fiber and decreasing fat is certainly a great goal, it is best to take things gradually until your body has time to adjust. Those accustomed to low levels of fiber often experience bloating, cramps, gas and abdominal pain when suddenly boosting the amount of fiber in their diet. However with time and increasing levels slowly you will decrease some of these side effects.

Some of the foods that are highest in fiber, usually contain more than 7 grams per serving, include foods such as dried beans, legumes, dried peas, dried fruits, nuts and sunflower seeds. These foods can be great sources of fiber.

Most vegetables or fruits can also be sources of fiber. Most of these foods contain from 3 to 5 grams of fiber.

It is also very important to take fiber content into account as you do your grocery shopping. Reading labels and choosing high fiber foods is the best way to make a long term commitment to healthier eating and better overall health.

Choosing the right cereals that are rich in fiber is a great way to increase the level of fiber intake while still getting that breakfast every morning. Most of today’s cereals that contain wheat bran and oat bran can be great sources of fiber.

Lots of people have the assumption that cooking or heating up vegetables and other fiber rich foods destroys their fiber content, however this is not the true. While it is true that overcooking certain vegetables can result in some loss of nutrients, cooking has no effect whatsoever on fiber content. So enjoy what you eat, but make sure that you think first about those fiber foods and low fat meals. exercise-diet.com.

Most of us check the nutrition tables on the back of food packages. Many products promote having “low fat” and “reduced fat” but these two terms don’t mean the same thing and can set you back on your efforts to be a smart and healthy eater.

Here’s a helpful guide:
Fat-free: Less than 0.5g fat per serving (this is excellent. But then you have to take into consideration if you eat just ONE serving or if the servings they suggest are too small).
Low saturated fat: 2g or less per serving (this is also good but depending on the above also)
Low fat: 5g or less per serving
Reduced fat: At least 25% less fat than regular version (although some products say 20%)
Light in fat: Half the fat (or less) of regular version (usually specified with % on front of the packet)
Remember not just the fat to watch out for, it’s the sugar content as well. Also, when comparing BRANDS and the amount of fat contained within the product, we recommend you dont’ read the “per serving” column of the nutrition table because many brands have different sized servings and even though ‘per serve’ they may have that 4g less fat than the other brand, they can often be smaller servings too. So it is best to measure per 100g and compare amounts of fat this way when between brand names.