Daily meal ideas

Let’s start with Breakfast

Breakfast is very important – don’t skip it. We’ve already looked at the reasons why. Now let’s see what you can eat for a healthy breakfast that will fuel you so that you don’t need sugary snacks mid morning. If you’re not very hungry first
thing, try a glass of water with squeezed lemon juice on waking – it will help stimulate your digestive juices.

Breakfast Ideas

I’ve listed in italics why these are good for you:

• Two portions of chopped fruit, with live yoghurt and a mix of seeds
  Say sesame, pumpkin and sunflower.
  Provides protein, essential fatty acids, fibre and two of your daily portions of fruit and vegetables
• Organic baked beans on wholemeal bread.
  Try Whole Earth beans, as they have no added sugar.
  One portion of fruit and vegetables, protein, iron and fibre
• Scrambled eggs on wholemeal toast.
  Or try boiled or poached eggs. If you use Columbus eggs, these are high in essential fatty acids.
  Protein, fibre, iron, essential fats.
• Grilled tomatoes or mushrooms on wholemeal bread, with a poached egg.
  Protein, fibre, one portion of fruit and vegetables.
• Muesli or wholegrain cereals.
  Try to avoid ones with wheat, as today’s wheat is grown to be high in gluten which irritates many people’s bowel. Or mix your own muesli, using oat, millet or brown rice flakes. Soak overnight with milk (dairy, soya, rice or oat), add some mixed seeds and maybe some nuts and fresh fruit.
  Protein, fibre, essential fats, one portion of fruit and vegetables.
• Kipper with grilled tomatoes, mushrooms and 1 slice of wholemeal toast.
  Or replace the kipper with a slice of lean grilled bacon.
  Protein, essential fats, two portions of fruit and vegetables, fibre.

A Look at Lunch

For those of us who work, lunch is often a sandwich but not always a healthy one! It is not difficult however to replace your current sandwich with a healthier and more delicious one. If you have access to cooking facilities – even very basic ones – the options for a healthy lunch are much wider.

No matter what you choose, a good way to finish lunch is with a portion of fresh fruit.

Lunch Ideas

Healthy Sandwiches

Some healthy, nutritious fillings include

• tuna
• hummus
• chicken
• egg or avocado with salad
• mashed avocado with salad and pumpkin seeds.

Avoid fillings with mayonnaise, such as Coronation chicken or egg mayo. Go for wholemeal bread rather than white, and have salad rather than pickle.

Cooked Lunches

If you have access to some basic cooking and/or food preparation facilities at work, which widens the scope for your lunches. Try the following:

• Jacket potato, with any of the following toppings: hummus, homemade curry, baked beans, cottage cheese or tuna. Avoid fatty toppings like grated cheese.
• Protein such as tuna, egg or lean chicken with salad and a wholemeal roll
• Homemade or a good quality bought soup (such as Covent Garden), wholemeal roll and small pot of plain yoghurt.
• Prepacked supermarket sushi.

Eat Leftovers!!

When cooking evening meals such as curry or stew, cook more than you need, and take a portion to work to heat up at lunchtime.

Your Evening Meal

For many people this is the main meal of the day and the only one for which there is any appreciable cooking time available. For now we will assume you’ll be eating your evening meal at home – we’ll look at eating out later.

Often all that is required to make your evening meal more healthy is to slightly alter the way you prepare it or a change in the ingredients you choose. Aim for your food to be as unprocessed as possible. I know that people today lead hectic lives, and may have to resort to convenience foods, but if you do, make it as healthy as you can. If you’re having a ready meal lasagne, for example, go for a veggie rather than a meat one, and team it with masses of salad or vegetables rather than chips.

Eat more fish or vegetarian based meals (always with lots of vegetables) in order to reduce unhealthy saturated fats and replace them with the healthy essential fats. If it’s fish and chips that you love, try grilled battered fish steaks with oven chips at home, and add a vegetable such as a portion of peas.

OK, it’s still not the healthiest meal around, but better than the chip shop version.

Evening Meal Ideas & Advice

• Poached salmon or other fish, new potatoes and three portions of vegetables
  Or try a portion of lean grilled chicken, or any other protein source that you fancy.
• Homemade quick curry
  Use a good quality curry sauce, such as Shere Khan. Stir in at least 3 portions of cooked vegetables, together with a protein source such as cashew nuts, diced tofu, pulses, or cubed lean chicken. Serve with steamed brown rice.
• Chilli, stews and casseroles
  Reduce the amount of meat you normally use and replace with mushrooms, diced peppers or Quorn mince.

I hope the above has given you some ideas – with so many food choices available today, it’s impossible to go through everything. Remember to apply the healthy eating principles that you’ve learned in Module 2, think less fat, salt and sugar, more unrefined carbohydrates balanced with protein, and more vegetables and fruits, and you’ll begin to see results.

Always think how you can incorporate more fruit and vegetables onto your plate.

About Snacks

Snacks can be the spanner in the works of a health eating plan – but they don’t have to be! If you feel peckish during the day, you’ll want a quick snack to keep your energy levels up. Before diving for a bar of chocolate or a bag of crisps try
one of the following:

• Small pot of live yoghurt with either mixed seeds or chopped fruit.
• A handful of mixed nuts, raisins and mixed seeds. Make up a tub of these and keep it near you.
• A slice of wholemeal toast spread with hummus.
• Some dried or fresh fruit, with some protein – e.g. a small wedge of cheese or some nuts.

What to do when the urge for sugary snacks strikes?

This is almost certainly going to happen along the way – old habits die hard! Don’t beat yourself up about it. Go for one of the healthy snacks mentioned above of you can. If you do give in and have a chocolate bar, make it a small Kit Kat or a
small bar of plain chocolate. Remember, you’re not perfect – if you eat something unhealthy, don’t pour guilt on yourself, just carry on with an overall healthy eating plan. The urge to eat junk will fade in time.

About Drinks

Tea and coffee are stimulants that can play havoc with your blood sugar, which is just what you don’t want. Try to substitute mineral water or diluted fruit juice – they’ll refresh you much more, as well as being good for your skin.

Avoid fizzy drinks such as colas – they are laden with sugar and can play a part in osteoporosis. Alcohol is bad news for your body in any quantity. By all means enjoy a glass of wine or some beer with a meal or socially, but keep it under control.

A Word about Portion sizes

Be guided by the size of normal plate and bowl sizes! For an evening meal based on the traditional “something with potatoes and vegetables”, aim for a portion of protein such as chicken or a vegetarian savoury no bigger than the size of your fist, and a slightly bigger portion of starchy carbohydrates, such as rice, pasta or potatoes.

The rest of your plate should be covered with 2-3 of your daily portions of vegetables, aiming for different coloured ones to maximise both nutrients and visual appeal. If it’s something like curry and rice, again fill a normal sized plate, but don’t heap it high.

With breakfast, if it’s cereal have a standard sized bowl, and the same if you’re having something like fruit and yoghurt. For snacks, I’ve suggested ideas above, in sensible quantities.

The thorny question of dessert

Many people like to finish their meals with dessert – the problem is many are laden with sugar and it’s your sweet tooth that you are trying to kill off! Remember, if you don’t feed a sweet tooth, it will die.

Instead, think of dessert as a chance to improve your healthy eating skills and squeeze in another portion of fruit. Try either dried or fresh, or a cooked dessert such as baked apples or pears, maybe stuffed with nuts and raisins or perhaps poached in wine.

But I don’t like…

It’s usual for people who have been eating junk food not to like fruit and vegetables. Remember what we’ve said about habit and re – educating your taste buds!

There is such a huge variety of fruit and vegetables that there must surely be some that you like. Try getting extra into your diet by sneaky ways, such as added extra mushrooms or chopped peppers to chilli and reducing the amount of meat. The more you eat, the more you will grow to love fruit and vegetables.

Good digestion starts in the mouth

Remember that your stomach doesn’t have teeth! To get the most from your food, chew it thoroughly. You’ll be helping your digestion, and you’ll also enjoy your food more if you don’t gulp it down. Also, by eating slowly, your brain will have enough time to receive the message from the stomach that it’s full.

Be a label detective

Get in the habit of checking labels for hidden nasties. As a general rule, the longer the list of ingredients, and the more long scientific sounding names in the list, the more additives, preservatives and hidden salts, sugars and fats there will
be. As a devotee of healthy eating, you won’t want to eat foods like that, especially the hidden fats and sugars. Watch out for sugar in hidden forms, such as maltose, lactose or fructose.

What to avoid

• Processed or refined foods such as white bread, pasta or rice. Use the whole grain alternatives instead.
• Avoid sugar, whether in sugary snacks or hidden in foods, as described above.
• Don’t add salt to cooking or at the table. As with sugar, it’s a habit and once you stop using salt, your taste buds become very sensitive to it. You’ll be able to taste just how salty many prepacked meals are – when you don’t eat it regularly,
  it tastes disgusting and overpowering. Add extra taste with herbs, spices or lemon juice if cooking.
• Deep fried and fatty foods are another no – no. Go for grilled, baked or steamed foods rather than greasy fried foods, which will soon start to taste horrible anyway. For hot meals, vegetables are always best steamed. Sausages, even if grilled, are high in fat, salt and other nasties, even the vegetarian ones.

A Guide to Eating Out

Eating our is one of the great pleasures in life! By eating more healthily, you’ll gain a greater appreciation of good food, far more than if you eat fatty sugary junk. And it’s very possible to eat out and still eat healthily – I
know, because I eat out a lot, as I love combining food and socialising!

So let’s start by looking at different types of food, and how you can make healthy food choices from restaurant menus.

Indian Restaurants

• For starters, go for dhal soup or chicken tikka, rather than fried starters such as bhajis or samosas.
• Avoid curries cooked with cream or butter, such as pasandas or kormas, and go for curries with tomato based sauces, such as rogan josh, jalfrezi or dupiaza.
• Team your curry with plain boiled rice rather than nan breads or pilau rice – it’s healthier, and the plainness of the rice provides a better contrast with the main dish.
• Try a tandoori dish with salad and chapattis.
• If you have a vegetable based curry, you’ll be packing more vegetables into your day, and you avoid the unhealthy saturated fat that comes with meat based dishes.

Chinese Restaurants

• Avoid fried starters such as deep fried won ton or spring rolls or greasy ones like satay chicken. Try one of the hot and sour soups or barbecued spare ribs instead.
• For the main course, avoid fried foods and duck dishes (duck is a very fatty meat). Other unhealthy options are the sweet and sour dishes. Aim for seafood or vegetable dishes and team them with plain rice. Try king prawn with mixed vegetables, or chicken with bamboo shoots and water chestnuts.

Italian Restaurants

• Go for the fish dishes with potatoes and salad or vegetables.
• If you’re having pasta, make sure it’s with a tomato and herb based sauce, rather than a creamy one such as carbonara.
• Avoid or limit the garlic bread, or ask for bruschetta topped with tomatoes and extra garlic. If going for a pizza, avoid the meat based toppings in favour of the vegetable ones – they’re healthier and you’ll be helping to pack more nutrient rich vegetables into your day.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for your pizza without cheese, therefore cutting out a lot of saturated fat. Pile on the tomatoes, extra vegetables and herbs and you’ll have a far healthier and less fatty pizza.

French Restaurants

Go for plain cuts of meat or fish with vegetables or salad, rather than fatty casseroles.

Mexican Restaurants

Go for the vegetable fajitas or burros, and fill with plenty of vegetables, limiting the amount of sour cream. If you’re having chilli, go for the vegetable rather than a meat based one – more vegetables towards your quota, and less unhealthy fat.

Barbecues

Aim for veggie kebabs, grilled sweet corn and peppers, jacket potatoes and chicken legs or barbecued steak, with plenty of salad and wholemeal bread. Avoid sausages (they are full of extra fat, salt and additives). Avoid creamy dips in favour of tomato based ones such as salsa.

Actions of the Week

Actions of the Week

1. Make a list of ways in which you can incorporate the ideas above into your daily life.

Start with breakfast – how can you change and adapt this to healthy principles? What can you do about lunch, and your evening meals?

Come up with at least 6 ideas for each meal throughout the day, as well as snacks. Use the ideas outlined here and come up with more of your own. Think about any restaurant meals out that you have planned – how can you choose healthily whilst still having a delicious meal?

Think ahead, and you’ll be less likely to succumb to unhealthy choices when you’re there.

2. Have you bought your vitamin supplement and are you taking it regularly?

Place it in a prominent position in your kitchen, so you’ll remember it each day.

3. Now that you know about how to eat for health and weight, you’re ready to start.

Make sure your progress chart is somewhere where you’ll see it every day. You can reread your motivating factors for getting slim, to remind yourself why you’re doing this. Never lose sight of the benefits of being slim and healthy – including the chance to live a more fulfilling life!

4. Go shopping!

Now that you know what you’ll replace your old choices with, clear the cupboards of the junk…and buy lots of healthy, delicious replacements, as outlined above. Fill your cupboards with fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and enjoy healthy eating!

Next Week

To be effective, weight loss should be teamed with exercise, to help melt away the flab and tone up your body. We’ll be looking at how to incorporate exercise into a busy life, and what you should do. Don’t worry, you won’t be sentenced to hours in a gym if that’s not your scene – we’ll find something that will suit you!