What’s been bothering you about nutrition? Have a question you need answered?
Found a great healthy recipe?
What is a CiCo?
All that and more on today's megathread!
My main reason for exercising is so I can keep eating good food and drinking beer without gaining 20 lbs a week.
Carefully rationing my calories during a cut so I can have one beer at the end of the day makes me feel like an alcoholic but damn it tastes good
It's a pretty good motivator. I sometimes tell myself I can have a couple beers if I run an extra mile or something like that. I don't really count calories. I should, since I'm really just maintaining and I'd like to lose a few pounds.
Started counting calories again last week, and I'm surprised by how much more than my daily limit I was eating. I had counted before, and felt confident that I had a good ballpark estimate of how many calories I was consuming, but I was clearly very wrong. We all suck at counting calories. If you're trying to lose weight, get a calorie tracker app. It's a bit annoying at the beginning, but it gets easier once you get the hang of it.
I'm currently using MyFitnessPal, not because it's particularly good or user-friendly, but because it's the most-downloaded one in the app store. That is relevant because you can scan barcodes with it and it'll automatically add the product's nutrition facts, and I think most of these are added by the community, rather than the people who manage the app.
Edit, forgot to add: I use the free version, which has ads and doesn't have a few advanced features like tracking micronutrients and some other stuff which I don't really care much about.
As part of my effort to reduce the dairy and meat in my diet, I've replaced the whey protein I used to take with a pea protein powder. In my opinion all protein powders taste pretty nasty until you make them into a smoothie so it's been an easy change. Anyway I've been tracking my diet for like 8 months now and while it's a chore, I do feel like it's been much easier to hit my weight and exercise goals while doing so.
My wife decided to go mostly vegetarian and now I need to learn some new staple meals to make when she's tired. I got really good at timing chicken breast + two sides in the oven for lazy days and now I can't exactly do that. She also quickly gets bored of meals so I can't do a rice&beans thing nightly.
I'm down to clown with mostly vegetarianism but she's having a bit of a depressive episode I'm trying to step up a little more. I just don't have any ideas for meals that aren't american style "just sides" or hours of prep work.
Any ideas?
I'll never give up my morning two links of brown n serve sausage though. Give me processed meat breakfast or give me death.
I've posted this before, as its my go to, but: Minestrone soup
Brown onions, garlic, maybe some carrots and celery if you have some, in a pot with olive oil.
Add broth and tomato paste.
Add whatever veggies you want. I like to do zucchini, squash, and tomato, but most veggies can be good, really I just do whatever is cheap.
Add pasta (preferably bowtie), and white beans, maybe some spinach or arugula
Add some Italian herbs, salt, pepper, some lelom juice, maybe cayenne or chili powder.
Best served with garlic bread or biscuits.
Other soups or chili are pretty easy, and my v lazy meal is just a 'whatever' stir fry; just whatever veggies we have, plus maybe tofu or TVP, plus sauce/spices. Throw some rice in the ricemaker at the beginning, or throw some rice noodles in the wok near the end of cooking. My fav sauce style is thai, and I keep a large container of Thai Curry paste in the fridge for that purpose (tho its hell to find one I can eat with a seafood and nut allergy :/), my parter prefer teriyaki, w/ chilli sauce and a bit of orange juice (if we have it) for a general tso's type flavor.
Oven roasted veggies are super easy too, and if you want protein, you can easily do tofu or tempeh in the oven alongside it.
Veggie lasanga isn't that much work, considering the lasanga noodles that don't need to precook are cheap and work more or less fine.
Minestrone is a good idea. We've made chili with both real beef and impossible "meat" in the same pot and I'm considering just going with impossible meat. I like making chili because the only work needed is pre-cooking the onions and garlic and some cutting.
We have a decent stock of cumin powder, masala powder, and curry powder because her family makes a lot of curries and I'm thinking about learning to get good with that because she has some aversion to actually making curries for whatever reason despite making them well.
Obviously, this depends on your tastes, but I don't really like impossible meat or its competitors, and usually just make Chili by adding extra beans and/or quinoa. If I need the extra protein, my go to substitute is TVP, which, if you haven't used it, is just basically chips of soy protein. It doesn't have any real taste of its own, like tofu, but has a texture when cooked that is basically ground meat. Its also much, much cheaper than impossible meat. If you do use it, you have to go a bit heavier on spices and oil to balance it, but I prefer a bigger focus on the vegetables and spices.
IMO the main advantage of the impossible meat stuff is that you can 1:1 replace ground meat with it in recipes, and the dish will turn mostly the same. And if it works for you, keep using it! I just found myself buying it less and less and just using beans, soy, and seiten for most of my protein.
Sometimes we'll make variations on 'stir fry,' light on oil, using peppers, crimini mushrooms, onions, carrots, and garbanzos.
Cut everything into forkable-size pieces. Brown the onions first, then add carrots, and let em go until they're almost looking ready to eat. The carrots really add a lot but you gotta cook em long enough until they get soft and caramel-y. Add salt and pepper early on. Then add sliced mushrooms and peppers, wait a bit, then season them too. Garlic salt, oregano, doesn't hurt. Bonus points if you get some zaatar. Add some drained garbanzo beans and season the beans again, maybe cumin. Have with rice or not.
We also like 'ratchet ratatouille.' Get the long yellow squashes and zucchinis, cut them up about a quarter inch thick or less. Don't get too many or they won't all cook in the pan. Fry it up really hot, with onions works too. Trim the green off some slicing or roma tomatoes and fry them; just mash them into the pan and break em apart. Season similar to the above. You can also add garbanzo beans to this for protein.
If she still eats eggs you can make a frittata with whatever is hanging out in the fridge (bits of veggies or cheese). Just make sure your non-stick pan is oven safe, most are these days. Serve with a green salad.
If you can chop up some cucumber, onion, parsley and tomato: tabbouleh salad. You can find a million recipes online. It comes together pretty fast and tastes better after it sits for a while. Add some chickpeas or cooked lentils for extra protein.
If she still eats cheese, you can't go wrong with a grilled cheese and tomato soup. If she doesn't eat cheese, I hear there are some good vegan cheese options out there. I will let our experienced vegans comment.
Make chickpea salad sandwich (like a tuna salad, but with beans): Crush chickpeas with a fork or potato masher, add mayo, fresh chopped onion, pickle relish, a little mustard. Serve on toasted bread with a fat slice of tomato.
Those are just a few quick meals off the top of my head.
She still eats eggs and fish so thats helpful. The chickpea idea is interesting. I totally forgot about frittatas. I mainly cook with cast iron so they're good 2 go in the oven. I even got a killer deal on some enameled cast iron that wont get coated in egg.
Not nutrition related, but I just want to post in the megathread.
All right, folks, my fitness has been backsliding for like 3 years with occasional bouts of healthy eating, but I've gone from scrawny guy who could actually jog a few miles and bike for half the day to doughy guy who gets winded after biking 5 miles. I'm going to try to stick to a 30 day fitness program and hopefully move onto another. Trying this program from darebee out to get into bodyweight strength training, and I love the way these are put together. In the spring, I'm going to really make myself ride on my bike and get back my long distance stamina. I miss being able to ride all day and feel great.
I am mostly posting this so it feels more real and I really have to commit to it. Wish me luck.
If you like making breakfast sandwiches with egg and bacon, or are like me and basically need to cut out bread in order to have even a chance at losing weight, try Franz keto bread. It's... It's not good, like it's quite Styrofoamy, but at 30 cals a slice it's like cheating to make you feel less hungry. I pile egg and bacon and cream cheese and salmon on these bad boys, and once you add toppings, the non-flavor of the 'bread' fades away. I really like it. Plus, it never goes stale or molds, because it's mostly air. The only bummer is it's almost double the cost of your average loaf, but at one quarter of the calories, it's worth the fact that it doesn't kill you
how can I eat healthy when i hate vegetables and im extremely lazy/drained/tired so it needs to be easy
nah its cool i get it. i think ill just eat shakes or something to get my veggies. im a carbivore currently lmfao
lazy/drained/tired so it needs to be easy
Meal replacement shakes, easiest meals you can make, plenty of flavour options, mostly sweet but some savoury stuff out now also, this has helped me to be much healthier in what I eat, I do about 1/2 shakes 1/2 food most days.
Have you tried the bag of microwaveable vegetables at grocery stores? They usually have like a mix of good stuff. You can just add like a little salt, pepper, and like either red pepper flakes or a tiny bit of honey depending on how you're feeling.
Getting a bunch of different hot sauces also lets you change what flavors you're eating even if it's with the same vegetables every time.
Very hard to eat healthy without veggies. https://www.precisionnutrition.com/dont-like-vegetables talks about what to do if you don't like vegetables, but I haven't tried this myself
I've been eating Hungarian pastries for breakfast every morning this week and suddenly have a faint ab outline, is this gorilla mindset?
Have any of you tried intermittent fasting and does it really work? The only diet plan I've had success with is low carb but I wasn't very happy because I missed baking bread, pasta, and other comfort foods for me my husband. It's not that I can't go without carbs for a day or a meal, but to cut it out indefinitely is a real bummer. I'm an omnivore who loves pretty much any vegetable. Right now I'm eating a delicious sweet potato & black bean curry with tofu and coconut milk. It rocks your ass off.
I lost 20 pounds one summer in highschool because I inadvertently discovered intermittent fasting. I'd start my day with this trader joes chiabatta bread thing, then drink coffee and not eat till dinner.
It worked in some form.
a couple of years back I lost around 65lbs in around a semester doing IF and calorie restriction. my eating habits became sort of disordered, so that's something important to note. my disordered eating had a lot more to do with mental health issues than what my diet of choice tho. I liked IF because for me it's easier to just not eat when you're fasted than you just had a meal, especially if you're stuck at home for whatever reason. if I have a meal there's a greater chance I'll get something sweet after or snack after a couple of hours, whereas if I simply not eat I can willpower fasting until when I planned my meal.
there have also been some studies that claim IF is really, really good for your overall health and longevity, so that's also a plus.Yes, I had a lot of disordered eating in my late teens and early twenties. It wasn't intermittent fasting so much as just plain starving myself and the occasional binge session. I'm in a lot healthier place now, mentally speaking. I don't think I'll go back to that extreme. Looking back, it was very mentally taxing to be so hard on myself all the time. I don't have the willpower to hate myself that much anymore, if that makes sense. I've grown soft, inside and outside!
yeah, my weight loss was definitely powered by self-hatred, as was your experience with disordered eating :agony:
if you think your mental health is in check i'd highly advise trying IF out and, if you enjoyed it, not only doing it for dieting but for the rest of your life for health reasons
I'm doing IF right now.
Disclaimer - There's a ton reading out there for those interested, but not much research. Or at least research that agrees. Also, like most studies regarding food, you aren't going to easily find the sponsors of current research around the topic. My point is - if you're talking to (whom you believe is) a real person on the internet who has tried it, in my experience the feedback is pretty positive. But if you read around on the internet you'll get the vague sense that cutting back on your calories is bad, and you should keep buying - er - we mean, you should keep eating a "balanced" diet.
So with that out of the way, I can say that so far I've enjoyed the experience. I feel less bloated throughout my day, and I have a little more energy during the afternoon slump than I normally do. I have lost about 3 pounds since I started last week, and I'm hopefully that trend will continue. My biggest challenge is that I had to figure when to have my calorie intake window. A lot of "research" says you should do early intake - like 8am to 2pm; but I just couldn't get that to work. Partially because I have dinner eaters in my house and I usually give in and eat with them, but also because I like to drink on the weekends. And if I tried to restrict my calorie intake after 2pm on Saturday night, I would start drinking around 7-8pm and then be so hungry that I would snack and just go waaay over my calorie budget for like 3 days. Now I'm pushing my window back. I don't eat until 1pm, and I try to cutoff the food by 7pm. It's working better, and I don't go crazy snacking when having an evening beer.
Just my two cents. Don't be afraid to try different things to see what works best for you. I think the most important thing for seeing results is just to be consistent. Give your body the 16 hour break and let the rest happen on it's own.
Thanks for your reply. Do you also work out? And if so, do you time your workouts during the eating window or fasting window? Or does it not matter? I prefer to workout in the mornings but like you I would rather eat later in the day than have to go without after 3pm.
I am getting into a workout routine, and I like to workout early as well. I've only done it once during this stretch, but I worked out at 9am and was able to hold off until 2pm on breaking the fast. It wasn't too bad.
random bits of nutrition i've learned: if you're doing weight training and trying to add mass, you need to eat at least one gram of protein per lb of bodyweight
I've been making a lot of Oyakodon lately. It's pretty healthy, relatively inexpensive, good protein, filling, and tastes great. It's also pretty easy to make. I realize a lot of people don't make dashi on the reg, but it's a great base ingredient for a lot of Japanese cooking so give it a shot!
https://tastingmenu.wordpress.com/2017/03/04/iron-chef-morimotos-oyako-don-for-two/
