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Help me work out a healthy diet
Tam
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My parents are going to be gone for the next two weeks. I figure this would be a prime opportunity to set out a healthy and simple to cook diet for when I move out in two months.
I'd like to set out a complete weekly diet/meal plan that makes sure I get all nutrition that I need. I don't have a lot of cooking skill, or money to buy cookware, so I'd like to keep cooking as simple as possible.
I don't have any dietary restrictions or allergies that I know of, but I simply have to have some kind of critter flesh.
I'd like to set out a complete weekly diet/meal plan that makes sure I get all nutrition that I need. I don't have a lot of cooking skill, or money to buy cookware, so I'd like to keep cooking as simple as possible.
I don't have any dietary restrictions or allergies that I know of, but I simply have to have some kind of critter flesh.
Tam on
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I usually just plan out meals based on what I'm feeling like, and its not hard usually to make healthy versions of those meals.
Chicken and rice for lunch
Steak and potato for dinner
Green vegetables with lunch and dinner
Well, I like fish and meat a lot. I like fruits of all kinds, and vegetables are welcome too, but I hate some of them- like eggplant.
I am going to do this today:
Breakfast:
1 bowl Cheerios (plain) with milk and banana pieces
3-4 strawberries
2 hard boiled eggs
1 slice toast
Lunch:
1 Chicken sandwich (4 slices deli cold cut with tomato, onion, pickle, mustard, and spinach in lieu of lettuce)
~1 oz boiled broccoli
1 orange
Dinner:
2 baked Tilapia fillets (garlic, lemon juice, and parsley added) with:
1 cup steamed rice
~3/4 oz spinach
Also, I figure I might need a snack at some point, but I have no idea what to munch on other than fruit.
Also also, I'd like to add a healthy tea to take around in a water bottle- any brand recommendations?
As for things like those bottles of ice tea and such, no no no
as for the others, I wouldn't know, one that tastes good I guess
My recommendation is to up your veggies as much as possible. Look around on low-carb sites to see the hundreds of ways to prepare veggies in a way that makes them taste awesome and not boring. Of course be careful, Atkins folk can handle butter and other fats with their veggies - you may not be able to do this.
In general though, a huge part of nutrition is getting enough water into your body. One thing I would ask though: when you're saying "healthy" diet, what's the point of your healthiness? Is it to lose weight? Gain muscle mass? Get more energy overall? (Coincidentally, these are usually all related) Because that could greatly affect what recommendations would be best for you.
Hopeless Gamer
Woaaah
How tall are you?
If anything you should likely be gaining weight, in muscle of course
edit: I thought 130lb was a good weight
let's see
okay, after some cursory research, around 136lbs is what I should shoot for
5 oz Romaine Lettuce
3-4 oz of chicken breast grilled in a foreman grill for about 5 minutes (make sure to cut out the fat before hand)
1 tablespoon of shredded lowfat/fat free mozzarella cheese
Couple of croutons.
Kraft Lite Catalina dressing
You can make 2 of these in under 10 minutes, and one keeps me full for hours(and I am a lot bigger than you!).
Currently painting: Slowly [flickr]
I might make the oatmeal tomorrow. Is it entirely flavorless without fruit?
possibly honey as well
also, major question: what is a better source of carbs: rice or bread?
Currently painting: Slowly [flickr]
As for a balanced, healthy meal, really the balanced part just comes down to the constituent parts. You should get about 30% protein, 30% fiber, and 40% carbohydrate. If you're trying to lose weight, you should reduce the carbohydrate a little bit and up the protein & fiber -- not because they're inherently better for you, but because they're lower calorie w/o being less food.
Your breakfast is pretty huge, IMO. You've got like 600 calories in that breakfast. I mean, it looks tasty, you could do a lot worse, but cereal + milk is not really that good for you calorically.
One trick that I do for breakfast is do scrambled eggs, using cooking-spray oil instead of butter, and by doing, say, 2 eggs but separating the yolk out of one of them.
I'm 5'10" and here's a typical day's meal for me:
Egg + egg white, scrambled w/ a little hot sauce: 130cal
Kiwi fruit: 60cal
Lean cuisine lunch: 300cal
two handfuls of peanuts for a snack (or similar): 300cal
Grilled salmon (cedar plank ftw) w/ butter basting: 250cal
Steamed artichoke: 60cal (ok I add mayo too, about 1tbsp for 90cal)
A glass of red wine: 140cal
total cal: 1270
When I stick to this type of diet, I lose weight; I'm currently 5'10" at 160lbs (down from 178) and run 4+ miles in the morning 5x a week. Often, though, I have an extra glass of red wine, perhaps an extra snack in the afternoon or when I get home from work, and will be closer to 1500 cal. 160 is a good weight for me, though, so I'm trying to not lose too much more. But as you can see, I eat a pretty balanced meal that is pretty low in carbohydrates, and there's space for wine which is a love of mine. You could put a dessert there too if you have a sweet tooth.
Oh, what do I drink? Diet root beer or a glass of water. I will sometimes have a 5oz glass of OJ with breakfast after a run.
I love carby things like oatmeal and breads and such, but it's really easy to overeat carbs. Steel-cut oatmeal is 160cal per 1/4 cup, for example. So I try not to have carbs be a part of my regular diet; that makes them more of a treat when I do eat them, so I actually appreciate them instead of just wolf them down. And most of the frozen lunch options out there include some nice carby things in moderation.
edit: the "source for carbs/protein/fiber" is largely irrelevant as it really just comes down to the nutrition info for the portion you're eating -- in other words, the stuff IN the food is more important than what the food is, since digestion is all about breaking the food down anyway. Get used to looking at your Nutrition Information labels, and if possible try to keep your diet focused on things you actually like eating. It's much easier to stick with a dietary change if you actually like what you consume.
That calorie count is really low even for a diet, isn't it? I'm bigger (6'3", 194lbs), but my caloric intake is somewhere in the 2500-3000 range. I exercise at a moderate level 4 or 5 times a week.
To the OP, I'd suggest making small changes to your diet and activity level. If your goal is weight loss take it really slow. Everybody is different, but I had success dropping from 202 to 194 over the last six months by changing only two things:
1) one less snack during the work day
2) a slight increase in exercise frequency, and a shift to more cardio focused training
My understanding is that your metabolism is at a certain point right now, say 2000 calories a day. A change in diet that drops that number too much is going to cause your body to lower your metabolism to compensate, which means you can't go back to your old eating habits without regaining weight or increasing your exercise. After a couple months of hard dieting, for example, your body may adapt to only burn 1800 calories a day. Go back to the 2000 calorie diet with no increase in exercise and you'll put on a couple pounds a month.
I have no idea what your diet was like prior to this, but one thing jumped out at me from the one day plan you listed. You'd be better off snacking between breakfast and lunch and lunch and dinner, maybe cutting back a bit of food from breakfast to compensate.
I don't think a small healthy snack after dinner is as bad as some people say either, depending on how much time you have between dinner and bed.
Not really; it's to actually lose weight, and counteract any overeating on the weekends (where my wife and I will typically meet up with friends at least one night). But you've also got 5" of height on me, so you should weigh more. Your 2500 is probably close to maintenance for someone of your height. When I'm maintaining my weight, my calorie count bumps up closer to 2000.
The other thing about calorie counting is that it's nearly impossible to be exact. Are you SURE you didn't add 25 calories of oil for this meal? Are you SURE you had exactly 28g of chips? More than likely, people naturally overeat when on a diet because they're hungry, so they fudge on the side of more food. So while my count is 1270 on that particular day, it might be closer to 1400 based on what I actually ate. Since it's so hard to know exactly what you ate (and 200 calories can often undo any positive effects of dieting), you should try hedge your bets on the side of fewer calories. That way the worst that could happen is you lose an extra pound or two, rather than dieting with no results (which is demoralizing).