Lunch inspirations

[Sheperdess]

As some newbies have joined recently I thought you might like to see my lunch today. I only eat two meals a day, low carb, high fat. On the right is miso and sea vegetable soup 🥣 with fried cauliflower, spinach, mushrooms and cream, top is a cucumber, egg and spinach raita. On the left, nibbles were cheese 🧀 and salted peanuts 🥜 and at the bottom, dessert 🍨 was blueberries in full fat Greek yoghurt. Plus black coffee ☕️. MFP says 780 calories, 21g carbs. Dinner will be tofu, courgette and tomato curry with rice. Who says you can’t feel satisfied and lose weight? 😊 I do hope this inspires some of you that you really can do it too 🍀

[Lytham 3 stone]

Wow, that all looks delicious, making me feel quite hungry! lol I'll pop it in the Larder, ooh my belly has just rumbled! x

[Sheperdess Maintainer in reply to Lytham]

😂

[OilpainterUS]

Yum! This looks amazing! If I get flavor, I always eat less. Thank you for putting this up! The deliciousness oozes from your photo!

[BridgeGirl Administrator 2 stone]

Definitely inspiration, Sheperdess

[Diane2]

Fantastic, menu thanks for sharing and giving carb/cal content. I bought some sachets of miso soup a while ago but haven't got round to using yet. Will take courage from you and try tomorrow!!

[Sheperdess Maintainer in reply to Diane2]

That’s exactly what I’d thought. The soup sachets had been up on the shelf for a long time but I wanted to add a few ingredients to make it more interesting. Let us know what you do with yours 😋

[Diane2 in reply to Sheperdess]

I've got spinach,cream and mushrooms in fridge so those are looking promisjng to add; it's hard to imagine as Ive no idea what miso will taste like though people on here reassured me that it's not like seaweed(not that Ive ever eaten seaweed so no idea what that'd be like anyway!)

[Diane2 in reply to Diane2]

You've got me on a roll now, think Im going to try duck breast tomorrow with the left over chestnut soup I made the other day thats supposed to be good as a sauce for duck 🤞. My freezer is a bit crammed as stuck my keto cracker dough in there 😄

[Sheperdess Maintainer in reply to Diane2]

That sounds a great combo- good luck with it😀

[Craftyperson in reply to Diane2]

I've had deep fried seaweed in a Chinese restaurant. Loved it

[Sheperdess Maintainer in reply to Craftyperson]

Me too 😋

[Biomet Visitor]

Only two meals each day? So which meal do you miss out? Surely not breakfast! The food you have pictured looks quite a lot but I guess this is quite satisfying.

[Sheperdess Maintainer in reply to Biomet]

Yes, I am doing intermittent fasting (IF) with low carb, high fat (LCHF). There is a lot of evidence that having at least a 12-14 hour break from eating helps your body to start burning fat. I finish dinner by 7pm and eat next at 1pm so an 18 hour fast. I have several cups of black coffee ☕️ in the morning. It is a lot of food! It’s nutrient-rich too. Doesn’t look like a diet, doesn’t feel like a diet either but I’ve lost almost a stone this year so it really works.

[Biomet Visitor]

Well done. I am 66 would IF work for me? It would be good if there was something to follow ie choices for dinner, choices for lunch etc. Is there such a method of IF? I do a bit of walking for about 30 mins or so each day which helps too.

[TeamAdmin Administrator in reply to Biomet]

Intermittent Fasting for most, Biomet, just means reducing your eating window. It's not advised when eating a high carb diet, as you will feel hungry and find it difficult.

It's best done in easy stages and when your body feels ready for it, especially if weight loss is your aim.

Start by reducing your carbs, ie, bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, sugar and increasing healthy fats, ie, olive oil, coconut oil, butter, lard, dripping, avocado, nuts, full fat dairy, eggs, meat with the skin and fat on, oily fish.

Then stop any and all snacking, so that you're just eating your three main meals a day.

Move onto eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're full. You may find that you naturally miss meals, or at least go longer between meals and that's the start of intermittent fasting. It's not necessary to force yourself to miss meals, but take the time to listen to your body, ie, are you eating because you're hungry, or because the clock says it's time to eat?

[Subtle_badger in reply to Biomet]

Anyone can fast. Doing a long fast (ie days) or if you are on certain meds requires medical supervision, but shorter fasts are just normal human behaviour.

If you are snacking after dinner, then start by just fasting for 12 hours, eg 8pm to 8am. This is literally nothing; it's almost certainly how your grandparents ate. Once you are comfortable doing that, extend it by finishing dinner earlier and/or delaying breakfast. As time goes on, breakfast becomes brunch and then disappears entirely. You can see how your body is responding, and progress at your own speed. Water and unsweetened black tea and coffee can be consumed freely, and you can add some cream to your coffee if you need something.

healthunlocked.com/fasting-...

[Biomet Visitor in reply to Subtle_badger]

Thank you Subtle-badger and to Team Admin. S11 (maintainer) was extremely thoughtful with all the info given, I feel like I’m in information overload, but thank you so much to everybody who has offered advice.

[Subtle_badger in reply to Biomet]

I know what you mean.

But fasting is the simplest diet when you get down to it. What could be simpler than just not eating?

Of course, take your time to decide what is best for your.

[BridgeGirl Administrator 2 stone in reply to Biomet]

I followed the pattern suggested by TeamAdmin.

Fasting doesn't need to be a goal in itself. The first step is getting your food choices right by cutting out bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and introducing healthy fats. Then you start getting a proper sense of your appetite. At that stage, for me, I realised I wasn't hungry in the morning so I dropped my breakfast.

I eat two meals a day, around 1 and 7, and have a couple of coffees with cream in the morning. Some people call that "intermittent fasting" but I just call it eating

[Sheperdess Maintainer in reply to BridgeGirl]

That’s why dropping breakfast wasn’t a problem for me either. It felt like I was eating just for the sake of it. Now I can even eat lunch later. I see why some people often move to only eat one meal a day (OMAD). 😋

[S11m in reply to Biomet]

Hi, Biomet , I am 70 - and IF/LCHF worked for me.

If you "slim smart" weight loss is not so hard! It is not all about motivation and masochism.

Some of us here find that what works is a combination of The Low Carbohydrate, High-Fat (LCHF) diet (see the forum here on Health Unlocked) and Not Snacking All Day AKA Intermittent Fasting (IF). See:

Newbies IF FAQ:

healthunlocked.com/fasting-...

The Fasting and Furious Forum, here on Health Unlocked:

healthunlocked.com/fasting-...

[Sheperdess Maintainer]

I am sure it would work for you too, as I am almost your age 😉 Maybe TeamAdmin could help point you to the Fasting and Furious community on here which will give you more information. Also, try dietdoctor.com (type fasting in the search box) for more information on IF. There are also some good YouTube videos about it. Good luck with it 🍀

[Biomet Visitor]

Thank you for your advice, Sheperdess.

[Noosat Visitor]

I so not fast, however I eat as you do, add more such as a vegetable soup or large green salad with nuts and a few legumes so the total calories for the day do not exceed 1,000. This is split into 3 meals with no snacking. I find this a very easy way to lose weight and then maintain that level

[BridgeGirl Administrator 2 stone in reply to Noosat]

Good to hear your plan is working for you

Maybe you're short and don't have much weight to lose but 1000 calories is likely to be way below what the majority of people would need, if they are relying on a calorie counting plan.

[Noosat Visitor in reply to BridgeGirl]

I was 5'5' but with age am now 5'2". The way I organized my daily diet was to eat three meals that were nutritious and satisfying to me. Then I looked at the calorie content, which came to between 900 and 1,000 calories. So why eat more? Why look at my height, weight and sex and go by that calorie number, if I don't need it? I exercise, take the dog to river park where she can run free while I walk. I go to the gym and do yoga.

[BridgeGirl Administrator 2 stone in reply to Noosat]

You're right, you've found a plan that works for you

I was really making the point for the poster and others that most people can lose weight steadily and permanently eating well above that level. And many find that, after a period of undereating, their weight loss grinds to a halt and it is difficult to get things moving again.

By the way, if you're now at a level you're happy to maintain at. you'd be very welcome to join the Maintainers' Club. You'll find it in Pinned Posts, along with all the other clubs and activities

[Noosat Visitor in reply to BridgeGirl]

Thanks for the offer. I actually go on the site for people with autoimmune diseases. I have PMR which will never go away. One has to try to keep the flareup symptoms at bay. I had to start taking prednisone 14 months ago. this is not a cure just helps with the flare up pain. I have tapered from 40mg down to 3.5mg in fourteen months. I saw this group when I wanted to lose the weight brought on by the prednisone and forced inactivity. I found that my healthy PMR diet fits in very well with losing weight. No fad diet just lots of vegetables, good fats, moderate protein and grains/legumes. and fruit. Absolutely no sugar. Sugar acts as a poison in my body. I keep some organic Stevia on hand. A person needs to find a "diet" that can continue for the rest of life. Through observation and reading I see that people who go on fad diets may lose weight at first but cannot stay on that diet forever and gain back the weight. Also one must be as active as possible, not a couch potato. Good Luck !

[BridgeGirl Administrator 2 stone in reply to Noosat]

Good luck to you, too

[Craftyperson]

All looks good