What i ate today...

[Zee]

Ok m8ey heres a list of what i've eaten today.

Breakfast:
1 Packet of McCoys 35g.
Glass of Robinsons sugar free Dilute Orange.

Lunch:
2 x Eggs on Toast (Bread = White x 4) With Flora and Tomato Sauce.
1 x Onion Rings Crisps 50g
1 x Peperami 25g
1 x Dairy Milk 30g
2 x Glasses of pure orange juice

Tea:
3 x Turkey Breast
Fine Beans
Mushrooms
Side Salad (Peppers Onions Tomatos Lettuce)

Supper:
2 x Glasses of Pure Orange Juice
1 x Glass of Water

*Plus 2-4 Coffees while at work with extra sugar (Maybe replace this with a litre of bottled water?)

Well thats all i've eaten today and if you take into consideration we need to go shopping so theres not much in the cupboards to tempt me. If theres a multi pack of crisps i might eat 3 bags in a day and a couple of bars of choccy.

Im not overweight im 6'1 and weight 12st 13. I sit on my ass all day too stuck in an art studio on a mac but i do surf 3-4 times a week when i can, like i said in a previous thread. I really want to change because i feel drained all day from eating alot of junk!

I can see the "junk" food has to stop but i need some ideas to replace these things, its the snacking thats doing the damage!

I think when i get home from lunch break is where i fall on me ass. If there wasn't eggs i would eat tinned beans or those hunger breaks with about 4 rounds of bread and butter.

I can handle a sudden change in my diet as i really do enjoy eating the healthy food (I even like dry ryvita! :D ), but i must admit i haven't tried those Quaker Oats but i'll buy some this weekend and give them a whirl for brekky.

Any advice mucho ha-preciated!!

[Cam]

watch that you are what you eat thing with that scary lady she gets em eating all sorts to feel more spritely.

celery always looks like fun.

[Dilbert]

That surfing must be burning some calories m8 (and i know it does cos ive done it myself a few times!) cos at first glance that looks like quite a lot of calories (although exactly how many is hard to determine without exact weights of some stuff etc) so thats good cos otherwise yah would be putting on some pounds I reckon.

I think if your feeling a bit iffy its possibly as a result of sugar spikes and also cos your not getting a lot of water so are possibly dehydrated. A decent way to determine how hydrated you are is to look at what colour your urine is when you go to the look (or when peeing in your wetsuit although that will be harder :) ) and it should be almost but with a slight yellow/straw coloured tint to it. Maybe try dilute your fruitjuice with some water to get more water into you cos as well as not drinking much water your not eating a lot of food that contains water .. fruit contains a high percentage of water and its certainly one of the things that your diet would benefit from some more of imo .. with what you have posted here anyway.

Have a quick looksie at this to see what i mean about water in fruit and other foods as well. http://waltonfeed.com/self/h2ocont.html

Breakfast - If I were you this is where I would start my changes. I am sure yah dont need me or anyone else for that matter to tell yah that a packet of crisps aint the best start to the day :)

So as yourself why do you have crisps for breckie m8ty ? and what are the alternatives and which of them would be easiest for you to try. Theres a million cereals to choose from that would be a step in the right direction. If you need something to eat at your desk or on the go then theres a ton of breakfast type bars that arent bad for that sort of thing either. Fruit is a very good option for first thing on a morning as its generally quite filling for the calories it contains and as already mentioned it contains a lot of water as well so gets some water into you straight away which is important as we all wake up lighter first thing in the morning and slightly dehydrated after the overnight fast. Personally during the week I cant really stomach breakfast straight away so tend to have water with some fruitjuice in it and maybe some fruit as I drive to work and then have my porridge when I get to work which sets me up for the day.. so to a large extent its what fits into your day best.

Lunch - Eggs have been in and out of food fashion in recent years, they used to form a large part of a weight watchers diet as they filled you up quite a lot but then people started saying you should only eat a couple a week cos they contained too much cholesterol, but now recent research has shown that the amount of cholesterol a food contains has little effect on your blood cholesterol and what really effects this is the amount of saturated fat that you eat. So your eggs are fine, but switching to wholegrain/wholewheat bread from white may be beneficial cos it stays in the stomach longer than white bread and takes longer to break down so releases its calories more slowly.

I need to get some sleep now so will carry this on in detail tomorrow but a few quick bits of advice in the meantime.

Drink More water
Find a substitute for some of the crisps - Mines raisins or dried fruit and seed mix
Spend some time in the fruit section of the supermarket finding some fruit you fancy. I didnt used to be into fruit at all but I love just about anything now. Current faves of mine Asian Pears (kinda like a cross between an apple and a pear) Lychees (love but they seem to have just gone out of season) Banana's - full of goodness, Braeburn apples, Plums.
Snacking isnt a bad thing, eating little and often is better for you imo than just meals a day, but what you snack on is important.

Dont take what I or anyone else says as prescriptive and dont try and change everything at once, small changes over time to get to where you want to be is the best plan imo .. and theres nothing wrong with the odd treat.

[tIMor`]

Porridge oats for breakfast with cinamon, made with skimmed milk or water. This should help you feel better during the day as the porridge will burn slowly giving you enough energy throughout the day.

Chicken breast with spinach, brocoli, carrots, etc. etc. for lunch/dinner

inbetween snacks of banana's, plain yogurt, nuts, apples, pears, avocadoss

You also want to eat six small meals a day around 3 ours apart, every meal should also contain some kinda protien, this is quite hard and a pain in the ass so sometimes you wanna go for protein shakes.

Look to drink about 4 litres of water a day if you're looking for a figure

[Dilbert]

See thats a nice ideal "diet" tim and I am sure some people could stick to that and a lot of it is the sort of thing that I eat now ... but its a bit too prescriptive so wont be for everyone and certainly if I had gone from where I was at 2 years ago straight into trying to stick to something lke that I would have given up within a few weeks cos its too much of a change at once so I would always advise people to try and do it gradually as I think you have more chance of it becoming a way of life rather than a diet that your doing.

Not disagreeing with anything you have said btw, just suggesting how to implement it.

Deffo agree on the porridge for breakfast .. love it ! semi skimmed milk for me though and Golden Syrup flavour :)

[Zee]

Thanks for the reponses guys, some great ideas there. First things first = water! deffo not drinking enough water each day. But 4 litres a day seems like alot! I was thinking 2 litres max!

I shall buy some fruit (apples pears and grapes) this weekend to replace the crisps and choccy and maybe some raisens too.

I have the crisps because there something i can grab out the cupboard and have a quick snack as i drive to work which is only a couple of miles.

Which yogurts are the best to buy? as i read somewhere that even these "healthy" yogurts have loads of sugar in them too even tho there low fat!

[Zee]

celery! lol cam! Now thats one thing i just cant eat! Yak :D Is there actually anyone out there that actually likes it??>??

[tIMor`]

Plain yogurt and put some fruit in yourself