User's comments:
A general day consists pretty much, with a variation here and there, as follows:
Breakfast:
1 slice of toast, either brown or white bread (no butter or margarine);
1 soft micro-waved egg;
A little tomato sauce (less than 1 teaspoon);
1 dried fig;
1 100% pure red grape juice, 200ml;
1 cup of Five Roses tea with fat free milk;
1 multi-vitamin, 1 omega3 and 6 capsule, 4 combination tissue salts.
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Mid-morning snack:
Any time between 10.30am and 12pm - 1 scone (no butter or margarine).
Lunch time:
I only eat lunch if I am feeling hungry (which is not often and depends on the weather). If I do have lunch, then it will be a large handful of frozen potato chips (should be baked in the oven, but I microwave them) with no salt or oil.
If that is not available then I have a 30g packet of Simba chips.
Mid-afternoon snack:
Most days I don’t have an afternoon snack but if I am really hungry then I have a weak cup of Nestle Nutren (type of meal replacement).
Dinner:
I usually eat early, before 6pm and my plate is full but not overloaded and consists mainly of veggies and potato.
Steamed in a steamer with a light sprinkling of salt I have:
1 small portion meat with tomato and onion;
Veggies - yellow and green;
Potato;
Bit of gravy made from the meat juice with cornmeal and Bisto added (100 ml);
No butter or margarine and no bread;
1 cup of Five Roses tea with fat free milk;
1 capsule of omega 3 and 6, four combination tissue salts;
1 sliver of glazed ginger.
Early evening snack:
I usually have this at about 7pm:
Handful of dried sultanas, or raisins, or other dried fruit;
On the odd occasion I may also have a 30g packet of Simba chips, or a a bit of chocolate (a row or two of a slab);
1 cup of Five Roses tea with fat free milk.
Liquid intake:
During the course of a working day I drink at least six cups of water with a teaspoon of Nestle Full Cream milk powder dissolved in each cup.
Exercise:
I don’t do much exercise other than gardening over the weekends, and a bit of walking.
Expert's comments:
Following a healthy lifestyle is not only about maintaining a fine balance with regard to the energy we consume and the energy we expend, but it is also about enjoying each aspect in order to achieve the balance, i.e. the food we eat and physical activity.
I may be mistaken but from your meal summary, it seems as though you are restricting yourself in terms of food choice.
My concern is that you will struggle to maintain this way of eating as, apart from certain nutritional deficits, it appears to be an extremely rigid, bland eating plan and has the potential of becoming very boring and unappetising.
Eating healthily should still be scrumptious. For any eating plan to be successful in achieving weight loss, weight maintenance and a healthy balance, it is imperative that it can be adapted to any situation you find yourself in e.g. a work function, Christmas dinner, holidays and high days, eating out at a restaurant and so on.
The same should apply to exercise or physical activity. Remember that physical activity must be sustainable so always choose activities that you enjoy.
You mentioned that you enjoy gardening and walking. These are excellent ways to stay active. In fact, brisk walking is still considered one of the best forms of exercises.
You should aim to be active for at least four to five days a week for 45 - 60 minutes a day. Try to also be more active on a day –to – day basis, e.g. climbing the stairs rather than take the lift, walking to the shops, doing chores around the house, gardening etc.
If you struggle to find a whole hour a day, the same benefit can be obtained from breaking your allocated exercise time up through out the day e.g. three sessions of 20 minutes instead of one session of 60 minutes.
Regarding the content of your daily eating regime, I would like to make the following comments:
You seem to have eliminated almost all fat from your diet. You are getting 3g of fat from the full cream milk powder and some essential fats from the omega 3 and 6 supplement (unclear how much).
In removing an entire food group, one runs the risk of having deficiencies in certain essential nutrients and the body may over compensate by needing more of other foods (you tend to ‘crave’ crisps which are laden with unhealthy fats).
Remember that fat is not the enemy and is in fact an essential component in our cell membranes, the brain and is necessary for fat soluble vitamin absorption and providing essential fatty acids which the body is unable to produce.
Regarding your fat intake, try to aim for ‘lower fat eating’ rather than no fat - overall fat intake should be limited but not eliminated.
Limit unhealthy fats, i.e. those fats obtained from animal products (saturated fat) and trans fatty acids (hard margarine, coffee creamers, coconut, crisps).
Include more healthy fats, i.e. monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, from plant oils (canola oil, olive oil, avocado pear, peanut butter).
Some suggestions to eating low fat but not fat free include:
Choose low fat or fat free milk and dairy products e.g. yoghurt, cottage cheese, evaporated milk. These options could replace cream in recipes.
Choose soft rather than hard margarines; wait until toast has cooled down before spreading margarine or butter and spread it thinly.
If you use fat, choose low fat options for mayonnaise, salad dressing and margarine and use sparingly. Never use two ‘fats’ to spread on your bread i.e. margarine/ low fat mayonnaise/ peanut butter/ avocado pear - spread thinly and use alone.
Aim to eat less red meat (2 - 3 times a week). Use lean meat options, e.g. lean mince, lean beef or lamb, ostrich, venison or Soya mince. The fattiest meat is lamb, followed by beef, pork, chicken, ostrich and venison.
Avoid processed meats like sausages, polony and salami.
Remove all visible fat from meat before preparation. Avoid the skin of the chicken and ideally remove prior to cooking.
Limit the addition of any form of extra fat during food preparation (e.g. margarine, butter, cream, mayonnaise, oil and cheese), limit gravies and sauces.
Read food labels to assess fat content. A product is low fat if it contains < 3g fat/ 100 g and fat free has < 0.5g fat/ 100 g.
Practically, choose foods that contain fat between 3 – 10% and try to keep to about 10 – 13 g fat/ meal. This can be achieved by adding only one fat to a meal and following the above mentioned cooking methods.
Steaming vegetables is an excellent method to retain as many nutrients as possible. I would like to suggest that you try to vary your overall food preparation a little though, as steaming certain foods, particularly meats, can result in a very bland and unappetising end product.
Other low fat cooking methods include boiling, grilling, braaiing over the coals, baking in the oven, poaching, stir-frying.
Continue to avoid frying of food. Herbs and spices, lemon juice and olive oil can be used to great effect for adding flavour to a dish.
Although supplements have their place in complimenting dietary intake, nutrients are always better absorbed when obtained in their food-form.
Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids are ‘essential’ fats as our bodies are unable to produce them and they must hence be obtained from dietary means. Again, ingestion of these fatty acids requires a fine balance for an optimal wellness nutrition plan. In the modern Western diet, omega 6 is seldom deficient and can be obtained from vegetable oils and fats e.g. sunflower, canola and olive oil, peanuts and tree nuts, nut butters.
Many of us, however, do not obtain sufficient amounts of omega 3 which has been shown to help prevent heart disease, high blood pressure and inflammatory conditions as well as being necessary for brain development and visual acuity in infants.
Fish (herring, butterfish, salmon, pilchards, sardines, mackerel, anchovy, snoek pate, tuna, trout, and haddock) is an excellent source of omega 3 – aim to eat fresh or canned fish at least twice a week.
Other good sources of omega 3 fat include omega-3 enriched eggs, avocado pear, canola or olive oil, flaxseed, walnuts and walnut oil.
Essentially, we all need to eat for sustained energy levels to maintain a constant blood sugar level. This will help ensure that you experience no dips in energy or fatigue, no cravings for sugar, and fat laden foods (in your case you tend to go for crisps), have better concentration and should also limit risk for developing certain conditions such as diabetes.
To achieve this, you need to eat three meals a day as well as 2 - 3 healthy snacks in between if you are hungry (you are basically starving yourself from 10.30 am to 7pm at the moment).
Each meal (and snack where possible) should contain a combination of a lean protein, a fibre-rich carbohydrate/ starch, a little healthy fat, vegetables and/ or fruit.
If I look at content, your dinner is currently your most appropriate meal.
If you choose to take a meal replacement such as Nutren, it defeats the purpose to dilute it. As with missing a meal, you will not be providing your body with much needed balance of nutrients to function optimally.
Your diet seems to be lacking fresh fruit. Try to eat 5-a-day when it comes to fruit and vegetables.
My last concern is that of calcium. You obtain 111 mg calcium from the teaspoons of full cream milk powder but apart from that, you seem to have very little dairy.
I am not sure of your age, but generally a woman requires approximately 1 000 mg calcium a day in order to preserve bones. One glass (200 ml) of low fat milk contains approximately 240 mg calcium.
If you do not eat adequate dairy and calcium-rich foods, which appear to be the case, you should take a calcium supplement to provide at least 800 mg elemental calcium and should contain vitamin D and magnesium to aid digestion and absorption.
As previously mentioned vitamins and minerals are always absorbed better when obtained from food so please consider incorporating more low fat dairy and calcium rich foods (pilchards, sardines, canned salmon with the bones, tofu, fortified Soya products, broccoli, carrots, green beans, oranges) in your daily eating plan.
Good luck and remember to enjoy the balance of good health.
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