The girlfriend is trying to lose some weight and has joined slimming world. It's an interesting diet system, but is tricky for me to plan meals for us that aren't going to eat into her "allowance".
I'm curious if any of you have some good recommendations for recipes that should be safe? Anything that requires a load of oil, or dairy, is probably a no-go.
A nice easy one that is ok-ish, is Mango Chilli Chicken.
Just dice up some chicken breast and mango, and skewer them alternately. The unhealthy bit is coating them in sweet chilli sauce, but I guess you can skip that bit. Bake at 200 degrees celcius for about 20 mins I think.
Surprisingly tasty!
I eat lots of Bolognese/Chilli, i fry some Olive oil in a pan with my meat (lean mince) sometimes i just pile in loads of veg without meat, and drain off the excess oil, i have lost weight eating this so it must be semi healthy :P, i always pile the veg in, literally whatever you fancy but i love Peas/Carrots/Mushrooms/Onions/Fresh sliced or chopped (tin) tomatoes and sauce or herb mix sauce.
I bundle this with Golden Veg Rice from Morrisons.
Stir fry's all day long, tiny amount of ground nut oil and rice noodles. Loads of veg with prawn / tofu / scallop / skinless chicken breast.
forget about the slimming/faddy dieting bollocks
nutrition isn't complicated despite an entire industry of so called 'nutritionists' trying to over-complicate and to some extent medicalise something that doesn't require it or promoting the latest vitamin tablet, super food or fish oil nonsense... (go pick up a copy of bad science)
"Eat food, not too much, mostly plants" - (Michael Pollan)
Cutting down on sugar, avoiding processed foods, avoiding trans fats not eating too much red meat would be fairly sensible in general - ditch the puddings... do some exercise (no point losing weight and then being skinny-fat... still out of shape albeit a bit narrower).
curb the portion sizes first. get used to eating smaller meals first!
Thanks for the suggestions. Kathryn pretty much knows all that though. Just as I am one of those annoying people who can eat whatever and never gain weight, Kathryn seems to be the exact opposite. We're not unhealthy by any means, she runs 5-10k a few times a week, we cycle at weekends, but and she's hoping to do a half marathon soon!
Did a nice turkey curry last night, first time from scratch and not a pre made sauce. No oil, lots of veg, looking forward to making more but with different spices!
http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/healthy
Haven't got any specific recipes but I subscribe to the newsletter from that site and they regularly have low calorie meals in there so might be worth having a dig throught their healthy section.
It depends entirely on what you deem healthy I suppose.
This probably wont get much of an audience here, but I've lost 2st doing it and have kept it off. I've now started being strict again and I'm hoping to lose the last 1/2 - 1st to get me to a position where I'm happy.
Basically its the paleo diet but I have been following marksdailyapple.com because it seems that a lot of stuff has been thoroughly worked through before posting. I've not bought any of the books or anything like that and I've not followed the fitness regime he ascribes to gaining optimal weight loss.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-shopping-list/ - thats the basic guide of what you should be eating. Now, it depends how far you wanna go but basically I only eat meat and vegetables nowadays, plenty of veg and salad with everything I eat. I have stopped eating potatos as much as I used to and all grains are off the menu.
It all started, for me, with a video of a talk by Gary Taubes about the process of storing fat in our body. This goes against the low fat mantra most people believe nowadays but a lot of recent research points to it being very healthy. I've read a decent amount on the subject over the last few months and think I've made an informed decision.
if she was going to look into diet chef, then http://www.lookwhatwefound.co.uk/landing is exactly the same stuff - just the dietchef is rebadged
Made a tikka masala tonight. It was actually rather good. Going to try and make a more extravagant curry at the weekend!
I'd be interested to know the recipes you're using, whenever I try curries they are more miss than hit.
anyone looking for a good cookbook :-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hawksmoor-Home-Breakfasts-Puddings-Cocktails/dp/1848093357 *may have reverse affects on weight loss*
4 diced chicken breasts
142g natural fat free yogurt
5 tbsp tikka curry powder
Finely chopped onion
4 crushed garlic cloves
2.5cm grated ginger
1 red chilli finely chopped
1 tsp, cumin
1tsp cinnamon
6 tbsp tomato puree
5 tbsp fat free fromage frais
255ml boiling water
Mix 3 tbsp curry powder, yogurt and chicken, marinate
Fry onions in low calorie spray, add garlic, ginger, cinnamon, cumin, chilli, and remaining curry powder, and cook for a few more mins
Stir in puree and water, cook for 15 mins
Grill chicken until cooked. Then add to the sauce.
Remove from heat and stir in the fromage frais.
Done!
I think we cooked the sauce Longer, which helped the flavour.
I'm going to try some recipes on cuzza, and they seem to look good :)
Quote from: zpyder on January 31, 2013, 07:35:46 AM
4 diced chicken breasts
142g natural fat free yogurt
5 tbsp tikka curry powder
Finely chopped onion
4 crushed garlic cloves
2.5cm grated ginger
1 red chilli finely chopped
1 tsp, cumin
1tsp cinnamon
6 tbsp tomato puree
5 tbsp fat free fromage frais
255ml boiling water
Mix 3 tbsp curry powder, yogurt and chicken, marinate
Fry onions in low calorie spray, add garlic, ginger, cinnamon, cumin, chilli, and remaining curry powder, and cook for a few more mins
Stir in puree and water, cook for 15 mins
Grill chicken until cooked. Then add to the sauce.
Remove from heat and stir in the fromage frais.
Done!
I think we cooked the sauce Longer, which helped the flavour.
thats a lot of chicken for 2 of you!
Yep.
Slimming world is weird. There are things that you can eat as much as you like and are "free". EG, Kathryn can eat as much smoked salmon as she likes. I think it's the same with Chicken. Beef and pork though are limited I think...
What we can't work out is why sushi isn't "free", yet rice, salmon, and seaweed is...
Basics is slimming is bad for you, once you start you just can't stop without a rebound effect. It is much healthier to maintain a stable weight, especially if you are female. Women tend to put on fat as safer stable deposits around the hips, whereas men put it in deposits around the waist.
If she does want to slim cut out processed sugary foods like white bread, potatoes, pasta. Avoid sauces, sweets, cakes and anything else that includes a lot of sugar.
Fats seems to be less suspect than they once were - some such as salmon are very good for you.
Seaweed contains very little fat or sugar, as such it is a filler. unfortunately there isn't much in sushi. What there is in plenty of sushi recipes is sugar, which is why it isn't included in the free options.
Find one that does not include added sugar. Oh and the type of rice might make a difference too, brown provides less calories than white.
Well I make the sushi so there's no added sugar, bar whatever is in the rice vinegar I use.
The stuff you mentioned with the sugars are pretty much the things that are excluded.
Another top tip is a pint of water with EVERY meal, drink it after half of the food, and you likely wont finish the rest :thumbup:
When I did Slimming World, I got a pack that included a book of 100 recipes for the different options. I found that people who stayed on the 'red' options tended to lose weight quicker than people on 'green'.
The biggest thing to remember is stay away from any white carbohydrates - they're the most fattening foods you can eat.
I don't know why sushi isn't free, but I know that smoothies etc were considered worse than eating raw fruits because it meant no effort involved on your body to eat/digest the foods.
Fruit smoothies are bad because its a massive hit of carbohydrate and the quantities put into them is usually more than you'd eat if it was whole fruit.
The way carbs are digested, to me anyway, screams that they should be restricted as part of a healthy diet. The amount of carbs we eat in standard diets is extremely high.
If you snack, snack on protein. You will basically just crap out what your body doesn't need for growth and repair.
nosh on a packet of cooked ham or chicken if you get peckish, on its own... Not in a sandwich.
Quote from: Eggtastico on January 31, 2013, 07:53:40 AM
Quote from: zpyder on January 31, 2013, 07:35:46 AM
4 diced chicken breasts
142g natural fat free yogurt
5 tbsp tikka curry powder
Finely chopped onion
4 crushed garlic cloves
2.5cm grated ginger
1 red chilli finely chopped
1 tsp, cumin
1tsp cinnamon
6 tbsp tomato puree
5 tbsp fat free fromage frais
255ml boiling water
Mix 3 tbsp curry powder, yogurt and chicken, marinate
Fry onions in low calorie spray, add garlic, ginger, cinnamon, cumin, chilli, and remaining curry powder, and cook for a few more mins
Stir in puree and water, cook for 15 mins
Grill chicken until cooked. Then add to the sauce.
Remove from heat and stir in the fromage frais.
Done!
I think we cooked the sauce Longer, which helped the flavour.
thats a lot of chicken for 2 of you!
LOL, I've had 4 chicken breasts to myself in one go on more than one occasion before :P
Fats... A few people have touched on this, old diet plans saying avoid, some saying don't.
The issues is you have saturated and unsaturated fats. We NEED fats, but mainly the unsaturated ones, avoid the saturated ones. This also means, stay away from trans/hydrogenated fats.
Depending on who you believe saturated fat is still very much essential to us, trans fats definitely aren't good though.
A typical meal for me will usually include beef or lamb either slow cooked or a steak/chop cooked in dripping or lard. I will also generally eat a ton of leafy greens, so kale or cabbage. I always make sure I eat at least 2 or 3 portions of eggs and liver per week.
For lunch I usually have a salad with plenty of olive oil, meat and also some balsamic vinegar.
Following this basic plan I've lost just over 2 stone and haven't put it back on at all. I haven't changed my excercise pattern at all, I cycle to the station a few times a week and play foobtall on a Saturday. I am, eventually, planning on bringing some targetted excercise into my plans to try and lose the last little bit of weight I would like to.
There is plenty of documented studies that still say lard is healthier to eat and cook with than butter and most oils, as are duck fat, ghee and coconut oil. I really don't think the oil you cook with makes as much of a difference as the rest of ingredients though, considering the volume of oil you typically use.
Thats probably true Clock'd apart from when following a paleo diet. The lack of substantial carbohydrate means you have to supplement meals with extra fat, not stupid amounts sure but more than typical.
The idea is that your main source of energy is usually through carbs, but as the body can either use carbs or fat as your fuel source a paleo follower chooses to use fat. There is quite complex scientific reasoning behind why it isn't unhealthy, there again you can easily find many studies highlighting health concerns of a high fat diet too.
Too much fat will certainly clog the arteries. And your diet doesn't sound at all suitable for someone like me, training for a marathon and an ironman triathlon. :panic:
As the hairy dieters found out. Olive oil is still fat.
Paleo... That's the face diet yeah? "Does it have a face... eat it"
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Quote from: Walrusbonzo on March 07, 2013, 22:13:18 PM
Too much fat will certainly clog the arteries. And your diet doesn't sound at all suitable for someone like me, training for a marathon and an ironman triathlon. :panic:
Increasingly new studies are finding the cause of fat clogging arteries is actually inflammation which is caused by various factors. Its a very simplistic view to think fat in directly correlates to heart disease and this thread isnt the place to get bogged down in the detail.
Quote from: M3ta7h3ad on March 08, 2013, 07:56:17 AM
As the hairy dieters found out. Olive oil is still fat.
Paleo... That's the face diet yeah? "Does it have a face... eat it"
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
The food I eat consists of animals products and tons of vegetables. That means no vegetable oils or processed foods. There is more emphasis on quality over quantity too. That's an important point to note.
Strange to consider France has a lower heart disease rate than Britain but is a much larger consumer of saturated fat compared with the whole of Europe.
It's all interesting stuff, research moves on and evolves all the time.
I think one "rule" will always apply, balanced diet, not too much of any one thing. That's what I go by.