How do I eat healthy??

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  • Hazeyblue
    Hazeyblue Posts: 22
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    You got yourself the makings of a lovely fruit salad with your choice of fruits there, fling on a low fat topping of your choice and you have a great desert or breakfast.

    How do you cook your chicken? I like mine done in my george foreman, keeps it moist but crispy on the outside, you can even stick some veggies in the george, they come out like roasted ones, peppers, onions, mushrooms, anything else.

    Keep us informed how you are getting on, we are always here to help.
  • needamulligan
    needamulligan Posts: 558 Member
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    Lean proteins and unprocessed foods will help you keep your carbs and sodium down. The table salt you may add is nothing compared to what you'd find in processed food. Plus, the more lean protein you eat the more satiated you will feel (satisfied). Proteins include eggs, fish, beans, milk, yogurt, as well as chicken, beef, pork and cheese. If possible, stay away from meat that you purchase frozen because most of these are packed in some kind of sodium. I think that processed foods contain more calories than foods in their more natural state....and sodium, and preservatives....even if they are easier to log. I stopped eating cereal in the morning because it seemed that I could lower my morning calorie load while boosting my protein intake. Hard boiled eggs seem to hold be for a long time and are only 60 or 70 calories each. It helps a lot to cook at home. I peeked at your diary and saw that you ate at Red Lobster. Red Lobster is a great choice is you skip the bread and pastas. Pretty much any protein there is a, relatively, good choice!
  • joneswife09
    joneswife09 Posts: 208 Member
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    You got yourself the makings of a lovely fruit salad with your choice of fruits there, fling on a low fat topping of your choice and you have a great desert or breakfast.

    How do you cook your chicken? I like mine done in my george foreman, keeps it moist but crispy on the outside, you can even stick some veggies in the george, they come out like roasted ones, peppers, onions, mushrooms, anything else.

    Keep us informed how you are getting on, we are always here to help.

    We have a little toaster oven thing...haha. I don't even know what it's called. My husband is the cook. We put the chicken in there. We never fry our chicken. We cut it up into bite size pieces and eat it with different seasonings making sure not to add salt to it, but when I put it in my food diary it always seems to have a ton of salt even when we don't add it in. Is that normal?
  • lucky1ns
    lucky1ns Posts: 358 Member
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    I make a really healthy mac and cheese and an awesome low fat mashed potato.

    Have some fun with taking the foods you like to eat and changing them up a bit to make them more figure and heart friendly.

    Use the food tracker here and keep an eye on your totals at the bottom.

    If you are a little heavy on the carbs for the day, have some protein for dinner.

    I personally am consistently over on my protein and under on my carbs.

    When I take the time to level them out, I have a sure thing loss the next day.

    I have really gotten into the food network and have come accross some great recipe sites here like recipezaar, spark people, all recipes, and maybe someone will post some others.
  • Taliko
    Taliko Posts: 82 Member
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    We have a little toaster oven thing...haha. I don't even know what it's called. My husband is the cook. We put the chicken in there. We never fry our chicken. We cut it up into bite size pieces and eat it with different seasonings making sure not to add salt to it, but when I put it in my food diary it always seems to have a ton of salt even when we don't add it in. Is that normal?

    You need to be careful what type of chicken you're buying. Almost all frozen chicken is infused with salt water, it makes the pieces look larger and it keeps longer that way. Fresh chicken isn't quite as bad for that, but it still sometimes happens.

    I buy the superstore brand boneless/skinless frozen chicken, it has almost no salt added to it. I live in Canada, though.
  • ChavezCurse
    ChavezCurse Posts: 29
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    Kashi Go Lean cereal + non fat milk + banana
    Whole wheat english muffin, egg whites, and 1oz slice of cheddar cheese
    Whole wheat english muffin or toast, hard boiled eggs, and a side of pineapple
    Whole wheat bagel, low fat cream cheese, or peanut butter and a side of fruit
    PB&J with a glass of milk
    Oatmeal

    Celery, peanut butter and raisins
    Cheese stick, grapes and/or half small apple, with or without 5 crackers
    Baby carrots and/or celery (prepare these in baggies ahead of time so you can grab and go)
    Apple with peanut butter
    Mango with splash of lime and little salt possibly chile powder? (same for cucumbers, jicama, watermelon, melon, oranges, etc)
    Yogurt + fruit + wheat toast

    Baby spinach salad with sliced strawberries, raw walnuts, and raspberry vinaigrette (some add feta or dried cranberries instead of strawberries)
    Tilapia fillets(rinse well) add lime, adobo goya the one with red cap, and grill it (i swear it tastes like chicken), serve it with a pico de gallo and oven baked corn tostadas like Sanissimo
    Greek chicken, potatoes and steamed veggies
    Endless possibilities with chicken. Potatoes and corn are very starchy. So if you cook them try not to eat rice, bread or pasta with it.
    I grill chicken in large batches at the beginning of the week and use it for sandwiches, salads, wraps, tacos and quesadillas.

    This is kind of random and all over the place but it has some of the foods you like, and Im suggesting some you may like.
  • joneswife09
    joneswife09 Posts: 208 Member
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    Chavez Curse! That was wonderful. I loved the ideas. Sounds great. Very helpful. Thank you for taking the time to respond to my question. Seriously Thanks!
  • Holton
    Holton Posts: 1,018
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    My food diary is public so feel free to look it over, as in general I believe I eat healthy. Healthy for me is eating "the perimeter of the grocery store" if that helps. Vegetables, fruits, fish, chicken, yogurt, cheese, hummus, nuts. This does NOT mean that I don't eat things from the aisles, but those are just so limited and if I do eat pasta or bread, it is ONLY whole wheat. I steam most of my vegetables or eat them raw, can't get much simpler either way. Lemon juice, oregano, parmesan cheese, and other such items can really add more taste to the ones you may need to develop a taste for. Portion control is vital no matter what you eat. I have lost 36 pounds since January 4th so feel very successful with what I am doing. Key for me was giving up white flour and white sugar foods. Would be glad to chat if you ever want to send me a message. Good luck with your efforts to eating healthier!!!!
  • sofaking6
    sofaking6 Posts: 4,589 Member
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    I was in the exact same boat as you...I just learned to cook within the past 18 months (I'm 39), and before that my idea of healthy was a Lean Cuisine frozen meal.

    One thing I can tell you is that if you can wean yourself off the fatty, sweet and salty food, there's a VERY good chance that your taste buds will adjust and you will start to enjoy the flavors of foods that you can't stand (or can't taste) right now. I'm still a really picky eater (sensitive stomach) but I'm eating a much improved, well-rounded diet now and if I can do it, you definitely can.

    Everyone has had great suggestions..definitely start off by switching from white to wheat grains and pasta. You'll get better nutrition (more vitamins, protein and fiber) and less sugar, so a big reward for a small change.

    Fruit! I'd love to say I eat steamed veggies all the day long, but really I eat fruit and raw snack veggies...sugar peas, especially. mmm. They're at Costco!

    If you like burgers try swapping ground beef out for ground chicken, pork or tuna. Google around for tons of great burger recipes. Instead of a whole white bun, use half a whole wheat bun. Instant improvement :)
  • lucky1ns
    lucky1ns Posts: 358 Member
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    I have recently come to the conclusion that lemon is the seasoning of the gods.
  • joneswife09
    joneswife09 Posts: 208 Member
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    I found an extremely easy Tuna Burger recipe! I'm so excited to try it sometime this week! Way easy and I love Tuna so we'll see how it goes.
  • MysterriGal
    MysterriGal Posts: 52 Member
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    I was raised much like yourself, our version of healthy was a salad with half a bottle of dressing on it, half the salad consisting of cheese. Its a hard mind set to get out of for sure. I've gone from liking nothing healthy to loving alot of it.
    As someone else said, I'm starting to realise that healthy means real food. When I shop, I make myself read all the labels, and anything sounding like a chemical at all= bad for you, and the best way of all is in its original form. The more natural the product, the less sodium, and then at least the fats your getting are good ones.

    Grains are great in the morning, try to keep them unprocessed(ie whole wheat toast, bagels, wraps, whole grain cereals-Kashi is great). Egg whites are great for morning protein, and you can easily add things to them. Do you like salsa?? If you can get a low sodium salsa, a little goes a long way (On pretty much anything IMO) and can hide alot of veggie tastes you don't like. Egg white wraps or quesadillas are great, I use a little spinach, table spoon of cheese, and peppers. Side of some kind of fruit

    At lunch time soup is good, Find a recipe involving the veggies you like and make a batch and freeze it. In soups you can easily hide the veggies you don't like. Grilled chicken (Just measure it, I keep mine to 2 oz usually) on a wrap or whole wheat bread with whatever you'd put in the salads you said you love. A salad itsself. For work, its a good idea after you shop, cut up a bunch of stuff in bulk and have it ready to throw together. (Thats what I do when I'm actually organized) Throw in some protein like turkey bacon, or nuts (I like slivered almonds in my salads, I find about a tbsp enough) And try fruit and berries on your salads. Blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, apples, grapes. All great in salads.

    Dinner Again grilled chicken is great. Being creative is key with that not getting boring. I don't really like apricots, peas, or dijon mustard, but I tried a recipe (From kraft.ca)that consisted mostly of those things and it was one of the best chicken recipes I've ever had. Brown rice with some sauteed veggies is a great side. With rice, even a tea spoon of a sauce can make a difference.
    Substituting and adding things into your regular food is always great too. For example if you like alfredo, or a similar pasta sauce, substitute your regular ingrediants for low fat, low sodium varieties, use whole wheat pasta, and throw in some spinach and broccoli (both well hidden by the heavy sauce). Or cut veggies up really small and add into other kinds of sauces. And that way a serving of those things should be less sodium and fat, not to mention more vitamins, because the bad things don't make up the bulk of ingrediants anymore.

    Something to research too is ways to hide food. Theres lots of different ways of hiding healthy food from kids, for example. Tricky ways moms get their kids veggies. Sure your not a kid, but what they DON'T say is that the moms are often almost as bad or worse than the kids. And if it can trick a kid completely, you just might be able to trick your tongue??? I just googled "hidden vegetable recipes" and got a whole bunch of sites with lots of hints. Not 100% healthy all the time, but it can really help introduce new foods, especially if you slowly increase the amount you use each time. Its a slow journey!
    Sorry for the long post, but I hope some of my "reformed picky eater" babbling helped!
  • selbyhutch
    selbyhutch Posts: 531 Member
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    You have a ton of good information here from everyone. My advice, like others is to eat clean and stay away from processed foods. Don't be afraid to try new things. Get in the kitchen & start cooking too! There are a lot of healthy cookbooks out there... I'm a fan of South Beach & have them all. I don't follow the diet, but like the stage 2 & 3 recipes. Keep watching the message board here for recipes too.

    Good luck.
  • selbyhutch
    selbyhutch Posts: 531 Member
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    Oh & I forgot to add - if you love cheese try the Laughing Cow wedges!
  • LaTerri
    LaTerri Posts: 42
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    You can try ground turkey instead of hamburger. What about flank steak, that is sort of like chicken breast for consistency and more juicy.

    I agree with eating real food and staying away from packaged junk.

    My first suggestion would be to try sauces. You can hide a lot of stuff that is good for you in them, and you make them at home, so you control the salt that goes in, etc... here are the recipes:

    You can make these and then freeze them in 3/4 portions and put them on top of your chicken, make a turkey chili with rice, add to pasta and ground meat for pasta night, etc... You can use these sauces to make just about anything taste good and you are not eating pre-packaged garbage...

    Tomato Sauce

    Get the large soup pot from your cooking set. Put that on the stove and add over med heat:

    1. 2-3 tablespoons of Olive Oil
    2. 6-8 cloves of garlic from the garlic press
    3. a Large Onion sliced
    4. two leaks sliced
    5. 2 Large bell peppers chopped, not too small, you are going to liquify in the end anyway, don't waste your time, 1" squares
    let that cook until the onions are soft
    in the mean time, open 3 cans of stewed tomatoes, flavor italian, into your blender, if you have a large one, all three will fit with room to spare at the top, stuff the rest of the space with baby spinach from a bag. This is about 1-2 cups. Blend that together until the tomatoes and spinach are all chopped up into small tiny pieces, like a soup.
    6. add that to the pot and some water to thin it out to soup consistency
    7. while that is heating up, chop up 3 med or 2 large or 4 small or 8 baby zuchinnis, again not too small and not too big, remember, just pick one size to chop, not all that I listed.
    8. cook on med/high heat until the zuchinnis are soft.
    9. If you have a hand blender, break that out and liquify the sauce in the pot until you get the consistency you like. If you can't stand the sight of any veggies at all, you know what to do... if you are ok with a little chunkiness, don't mix for as long... just do it unitl you get the consistency you like. If it is too thick, add water to thin it out.
    10. Let cool on stove for a few hours and then divide into ziplock sandwich bags 3/4 cup portions and freeze

    This sauce is great with rice and ground turkey. Foster farms Lean is the best one in my opinion. You can also put this over fish [I know you said NO to fish] or that baked chicken. You can put this over the chicken before you bake it, just remember to put foil over it so that the sauce does not evaporate. Don't add any seasoning to the chicken, just the sauce and you are done.

    You can use chicken broth in the sauce, but it will make the salt level go up.

    Ii put in all the ingredients in to MFP and here is what I got for the nutritional content... I did not add olive oil to mine, so the fat would be higher if you add olive oil.

    Generic - Zuchinni, Tomato, Spinach Sauce, 3/4 Cup cooked 99 calories 4 protein 19carbs 1fat 545sodium 12sugar

    Cheese sauce

    I know this got your attention... :) I make this for my 2yr old and she eats it right up. Actually, these recipes are variations of baby food I used to make for her. I realized I could make them for my diet and BAM... I don't actually eat this sauce, so I don't know the calories for it, but I imagine it is less than regular cheese sauces and you get veggies...

    1. cut up a large butternut squash into 1" cubes
    2. boil it in that same soup pot from your cooking set
    3. when the squash is soft, drain and save the water
    4. put squash back in pan, use that hand mixer to mash it up
    5. add cooking water back in to get a thick soup consistency or chicken broth [salt?]
    6. add 1/2 cup of non fat milk
    7 add 3-4 cups of low fat cheddar cheese

    Add the water/broth, milk and cheese little by little until you get the consistency / flavor you like. This sauce is great over brocolli, ground turkey and brocolli and pasta, like a macaroni helper type of thing. You can also just eat it with pasta. To get more veggies in, you can just cut off the little tips of the brocolli, I mean just the little dots in the beginning until you get used to the flavor...then make the pieces bigger and bigger...

    You can package this sauce up the same as you do for the tomatoe one in baggies in the freezer... Each bag has already been measured, so you know exactly how much salt, etc... it has, so just log it as one of your foods...

    I hope this helps...
  • smuehlbauer
    smuehlbauer Posts: 1,041 Member
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    Shop on the outside! The out side of the grocery store. The produce department, the meat department, the dair department. I try to avoid processed food at all cost. Yes, that means that you have to cook. But you would be amazed what happens with your sodium level when you do cook. You control it!

    Buy some cook books. There are some Weight Watcher cook books that have simple and good meals in it! And try new things! You've taken the steps to be here - go all out! Step outside of your comfort zone.
  • sorellabella
    sorellabella Posts: 133 Member
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    Shop on the outside! The out side of the grocery store. The produce department, the meat department, the dair department. I try to avoid processed food at all cost. Yes, that means that you have to cook. But you would be amazed what happens with your sodium level when you do cook. You control it!

    Buy some cook books. There are some Weight Watcher cook books that have simple and good meals in it! And try new things! You've taken the steps to be here - go all out! Step outside of your comfort zone.

    I agree with this completely especially with the weight watchers cookbooks. You can also find great recipes on the site below:

    http://www.laaloosh.com/ct/health-and-food/food-recipes/
  • NaturalMom
    NaturalMom Posts: 85
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    People here all have a different idea of what "healthy" is. I would recommend that you check out a variety "diets" and begin by getting informed on what their version of "healthy" is and then decide from there what is right for you. To me, healthy is organic, whole foods - locally raised and sustainably harvested. But I came to that conclusion after a lot of research and it isn't easy to stick with, especially if you were raised in the McDonald's generation. I learned a lot from reading Dr. Oz's books, The Beck Diet Solution, Nourishing Traditions and, ultimately, by talking to a dietician. I have tried SlimFast, NutriSystem, Weight Watchers, South Beach and a doctor-monitored weight loss program. All of them taught me a little something but ultimately my health ideas are a sum of everything I learned about myself along the way. You'll get there. As long as you are trying, you are doing the right thing. :) Best of luck!!!
  • selbyhutch
    selbyhutch Posts: 531 Member
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    Shop on the outside! The out side of the grocery store. The produce department, the meat department, the dair department. I try to avoid processed food at all cost. Yes, that means that you have to cook. But you would be amazed what happens with your sodium level when you do cook. You control it!

    Shop on the outside! I love it.

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