Simple food, easy life, great success
CaliforniaAJ
Posts: 196 Member
Before I started LCHF, I was a foodie and loved to bake cakes & cookies, or create complicated recipes. I knew the only way I would succeed is by retraining myself and keeping things simple. The few things I have made (for instance low carb beef bolognese) I found the carbs add up so quickly with onions, peppers, etc. I found a compromise that tasted amazing, but I didn't want to attempt too many recipes.
Over the past 8 months, I have kept my diet really simple, such as:
Breakfast:
1 egg scrambled
3 bacon medallions
1 cream cheese pancake (1 egg, 1 oz soft goat cheese)
Lunch:
1 tin tuna + 1 tbsp Light Mayo + 1/2 Avocado
or
100g Coronation Chicken + 1/2 Avocado
or
Deli Sushi (100g sliced meat + arugula/spinach leaves + soft goat cheese, rolled up like sushi)
Dinner:
150g Chicken or Fish or Steak (grilled)
1 Portabello Mushroom Cap (roasted)
Plus any 2 of:
100g Roasted Courgette (zucchini)
100g Roasted Broccoli
100g Grilled Asparagus
Snacks:
10g Almonds
Sugar Free Jelly
7g (3 squares) 99% Dark Chocolate
Days that I deviate from this are few and far between. It allows me to keep fresh supplies and never waste food. I don't really have to spend much time planning. Best of all, I am not constantly searching for new and exciting things to cook and eat, which can lead to temptation.
I have lost 62lbs over 8 months and I am 10lbs from my target weight.
Anyone else like to keep it simple?
Over the past 8 months, I have kept my diet really simple, such as:
Breakfast:
1 egg scrambled
3 bacon medallions
1 cream cheese pancake (1 egg, 1 oz soft goat cheese)
Lunch:
1 tin tuna + 1 tbsp Light Mayo + 1/2 Avocado
or
100g Coronation Chicken + 1/2 Avocado
or
Deli Sushi (100g sliced meat + arugula/spinach leaves + soft goat cheese, rolled up like sushi)
Dinner:
150g Chicken or Fish or Steak (grilled)
1 Portabello Mushroom Cap (roasted)
Plus any 2 of:
100g Roasted Courgette (zucchini)
100g Roasted Broccoli
100g Grilled Asparagus
Snacks:
10g Almonds
Sugar Free Jelly
7g (3 squares) 99% Dark Chocolate
Days that I deviate from this are few and far between. It allows me to keep fresh supplies and never waste food. I don't really have to spend much time planning. Best of all, I am not constantly searching for new and exciting things to cook and eat, which can lead to temptation.
I have lost 62lbs over 8 months and I am 10lbs from my target weight.
Anyone else like to keep it simple?
7
Replies
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I too like to keep it simple because as much as I like to cook, I don't like to take a long time. For me, things have to take about fifteen minutes from start to finish.
That's why I love just having steak and butter. Veggies when I ate them such as spinach or broccoli.
I am over the super complicated recipes that I kept looking up when I started. I remember printing them and then never using them so that's when I discovered as much as I love to cook, I am a lazy cook lol!3 -
I have quite a few food intolerances, so things like coconut oil & flour are off the table for me. They seemed to be in every recipe I looked up, so I just stopped looking! No more craving 'alternative' muffins or pizza crust!
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Simple is what I like also! I roast, fry, grill meats and have greens of some sort if I am eating veggies. I eat lunch meat and tuna occasionally. I eat eggs on top of my meats as a sort of sauce.
Honestly I plan to go a step further. I plan to go zero carb and only eat meat and drink water. I have to really have enough meats ready to cook or cook ahead but other than quantity, the prep and cooking will be ultra easy.
I just need to finish up my Michelob Ultra tonight!!!
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dmariet116 wrote: »I plan to go zero carb and only eat meat and drink water.
Wow! I wish you great success with that. I'm not sure I could go that far. Turn the clock back 5 years and I hated vegetables. When I moved to California, everything tasted so good that I started to eat loads of veggies! Now they are part of my day. Even on a 'bad' day, I have to have at least one!
Let us know how you get on
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I love to keep it simple. The more I get into recipes, etc., the more I have food on my mind. Most mornings are eggs with bacon or lc sausage. Lunch is usually almond butter or hard cheese (not too much of either) and dinner is meat and the occasional lc green vegetable. I have found a lc yogurt so I sometimes substitute that for lunch or breakfast. I am 10 lbs from goal, but a very slow loser so it may take me 3 months to lose the 10. I have to keep my carbs close to 20ish but in a way that is good because it limits my food choices and seems to work into my simple menu.1
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CaliforniaAJ wrote: »dmariet116 wrote: »I plan to go zero carb and only eat meat and drink water.
Wow! I wish you great success with that. I'm not sure I could go that far. Turn the clock back 5 years and I hated vegetables. When I moved to California, everything tasted so good that I started to eat loads of veggies! Now they are part of my day. Even on a 'bad' day, I have to have at least one!
Let us know how you get on
I will! I have been following a few very inspirational blogs and FB groups. I will start a dedicated thread when I make the final leap to zero carb! I really am excited!4 -
I'm very simple as well. Even more simple than your typical day. Lol
I don't ever make anything that requires and mixing. Lol
If you can't grill it or fry or sear it in a pan, I pretty much don't eat it.4 -
I've channeled my own life-long love of cooking into trying for variety in our main meal of the day and dreaming up tasty breakfasts for my husband. Everything else I eat is pretty much on automatic pilot. I went through a phase of experimenting with baked goods using coconut and almond flours and finally settled on two good recipes that I can make in batches and freeze. And even those are starting to feel like more trouble than they're worth.1
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I'm a simple man, lol. Breakfast is almost always an Aidells smoked chicken sausage and 3 eggs. Lunch is baby spinach and either tuna/mayo, or ground pork and cheese (liking the pork much more than the tuna). Dinner is another chicken sausage, 2 eggs, cheese and 2 low carb/high fiber tortillas.
Weekends I switch it up a bit, will often experiment with low carb recipes. Made a fathead pizza this weekend, it was awesome.
But I hit my macros better when I keep it simple.3 -
Good food is good food no matter how few ingredients or how often you eat it.
... And why not eat good food the most often, right?
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I love to cook but I pretty much always keep it simple. I am a BPC girl for breakfast or just eggs/bacon/sausage. I rarely eat much for lunch and if I do it is "keto junk food" it seems...wrong I know. Dinner is almost always about 4 ounces of whatever meat I cook with butter; maybe a light salad.2
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The first month plus was salad and stir fry or stir fry and salad... I'm getting a little more adventurous 2.5 months in now as that got a bit boring... I fear I'm a life long foodie at heart...1
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I'm a carnivore. After being so for over a year I've found that veggies make me bloated. I love the simplicity of cooking meat and adding some fat (if needed). It's become second nature now!
Even the hubby notices what veggies do to him at this point! When he passes gas, now, I ask him what he has eaten!! Lol!2 -
I'm a pretty adventurous eater but, when it comes to the daily grind, I'm all for simple.
Don't laugh: Most of my meals this past month have included garlic chicken thighs. I have a batch made at all times. I'll occasionally have eggs or shrimp but - 9 times out of 10 - my protein source is that chicken paired with LC veggies and a drizzle of oil. It's delicious, cheap, easy, and always ready. I may burn out on it someday but, for now, I actually crave it.
If you're curious, it's just a large package of boneless chicken thighs, a few tbsp of olive oil, garlic cloves (I use a lot), salt/pepper, and enough broth to cover it all. Throw it in the crockpot, cook on low for 6 hours, and enjoy. It stores well in the fridge and I usually get about 3 days of meals out of one batch. So good.
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I'm a total foodie too. Cooking used to be my hobby... no wonder I got so fat lol. I've actually put aside my gourmet obsessions and definitely keep it simple for now. I've always aimed for a really clean diet, even when I was eating lots of carbs, so I avoid most processed foods, with bacon and super dark chocolate being the big exception to the rule. Breakfast is usually eggs and bacon, lunch is raw salad veggies and some fatty chicken or beef and dinner is a lump of fatty meat and some veg sauteed in plenty of fat. My ingredient list is pretty much just meat, veg, eggs, fats.7
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Sounds like my diet @PaleoInScotland - we're on the same page!2
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I keep things fairly simple myself. The only more involved recipes I make regularly are fathead pizza and occasional waffles on Sunday.2
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I've moved into a more simple plan for breakfast and lunch. Dinner is the only time I deviate much but that is because I am eating with my hubby and he likes the variety. Even then I try to keep it fairly simple.0
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