The Conservative Cave
Interests => All Things Edible (and how to prepare them) => Topic started by: bijou on January 06, 2008, 09:38:50 AM
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(You may have seen this before ... but I thought it was a worthwhile topic)
It strikes me that many people wil be starting new diets or simply resolving to eat more fresh food in a New Year health kick. I always find dinner easy because I quite enjoy cooking in the evenings, but it's more difficult to find quick and healthy breakfast recipes and tend to just have a limited selection of muesli or bircher muesli (see below) yoghurt and fruit. Fine for a while but it lacks variety by about March.
Same goes for lunches. I like to take lunches to work as buying prepacked sandwiches is expensive and high carb so I'd love some new ideas for stuff I can make in advance and just take out of the fridge in the mornings.
Here's my recommendation
Ingredients - serves 2
2 heaped tbsp rolled oats
3 tbsp water or apple/grape juice
2-3 tbsp Greek-style yoghurt
a tablespoon of assorted seeds to taste (sesame/sunflower/ground flax are ones I like)
fresh fruit
Method
1. Soak the oats in the water or juice for at least 20 minutes.
2. Mix in the yoghurt, seeds and fruit.
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Lunches arond here tend to fall into 2 categories. The first is for Mr Flame, since he goes to work daily. I try to make sure there are enough leftovers from dinner to make a lunch. There is usually at least a choice of 2 different "leftover" that he can reheat at work.
The kids is another matter...they don't have access to a fridge or a micro, so their lunches have to fit different perameters. They like to do wraps, in flour tortillas, with turkey or ham and lettuce and tomato. Their stand by is always a peanutbutter sandwich, though.
Me, I'm home for lunch, and usually do something simple like a bowl of cream of wheat or something.
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That's my problem, I don't always have access to a microwave so it needs to be cold stuff.
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That's my problem, I don't always have access to a microwave so it needs to be cold stuff.
How about salads? Chicken salad? Egg Salad? Tuna Salad??
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You're right, I just need to be a bit more organised. I do have a chiller tub with a separate compartment for dressings I'll have to plan some time every couple of days to put stuff together that I can just pick up and go.
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What is a chiller tub
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What is a chiller tub
It is a doubleskinned plastic lunchbox and between the skins is a gel. So you put it in the freezer over night, put salad in in the morning and it is still chilled and fresh by lunch time.
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My post pregnancy diet (when I get around to feeling like it) is low carb wraps with grilled chicken and lettuce and cheese. Hubby BBQs a whole bunch of breasts for me at a time. I've noticed it is harder for me to shed the pounds this time around. They aren't flying off the way they used to. I have a whole bunch of suits I used to wear to work that I can't get into. Thankfully I can hide under my lab coat. :-)
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This year, I intend to watch my portions. In addition, I decided to go with soups and lean cuisines for the work week.
On weekends, I'll just try to choose healthier options. One day a week, I'll treat myself. This is important as I won't have a desire to binge if I restrict myself too much.
I'd like to lose 20lbs by summer.
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I'd like to lose 20lbs by summer.
I wish that was all I had to lose. I need to shed about 40-45 lbs. A combination of a lousy diet and no exercise did it to me. I took an honest inventory of my daily intake and saw I was eating about the equivalent of 4-5 regular meals a day. ANd now I have this embarrassing double chin.
A combination of calorie counting and exercise I started in mid December has me down from 230 to 225. I should be at about 185-190 by June first.
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slow and steady is always best for weight loss. I need to drop a few pounds myself, it's frustrating but I know a crash diet will be only short term.
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slow and steady is always best for weight loss. I need to drop a few pounds myself, it's frustrating but I know a crash diet will be only short term.
You know, that's exactly right! About 4 years ago I was fat and lazy. I'd start the latest fad diet, the latest exercise craze and about a month later I was back to my old habits again. And it really was a vicious circle. I'd start this or that program, get frustrated when it didn't work for me and then start eating crap again, telling myself it was okay because I was going to start dieting/exercising/both any day now. I'm only 5 feet tall so when I got to 210 lbs. I finally decided enough is enough. Still, I think that place is different for everyone and I think, more important that anything is to have the energy to do the things you want to do and feel good about yourself. If you're 20, 30, 50 (or whatever) lbs. heavier than you were when you were younger, but you're happy, have a good life, etc. then really, who cares? The problem for me is that I wasn't happy.
So over a period of about 2 years I lost 100lbs (went from a 3X to a size 4) and exercise every day. But I never, ever dieted (I still don't). I do, however, watch my portions and for the most part try to have MOST of my carbs at breakfast, my fat at lunch and a low/no fat dinner. Plus, I try to eat before 6pm...not always possible, but I still try. And I had to get to the point where it was more important to feel good and be healthy than to lose weight because the health benefits will come before the weight loss. For me, though, exercise was the key and it took forever to find what I liked. Stationary bike was too boring (even while watching TV...I just felt like a lazy, peddling fat person). I'm not wild about walking, either.
Weights were what got me hooked on exercise. I love the feeling of power and if you're consistent you can see the muscles build really quickly. The more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism and the more quickly you'll lose weight (it's probably why guys usually have an easier time losing weight than women). Plus, I really like the looks on guys faces when I go to the feed store and lift bales of hay that weigh almost as much as I do into the back of my truck. I started with on of those Total Gyms (an excellent choice if you need to avoid putting pressure on your knees). Now I do free weights, about an hour a day and I rotate between upper body/lower body/total body and also heavy weights lower reps, light weights, high reps. I also do Turbo Kick (a combination of martial arts and dance) and like it so much I'm getting my fitness certification so I can teach it. I'd rather exercise than deprive myself of food I love...steak and cheesecake are worth an extra hour of aerobics.
But you can't do anything until you're ready and you can't beat yourself up if you're not. There are too many wonderful things, too many joys to fret about a few (or more) extra pounds. There's definitely more to life than dieting.
Cindie
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I've lost about 8 lbs. since new year's. Just cut back on the junk, and got a hand me down Total Gym 1000 (yes, endorsed by Chuck Norris). Work out 4 times a week, eat healthy during the week, eat whatever I want on the weekend. Of course, I'm a man and we lose weight faster than you women. :tongue: