I suck at eating healthy! Any tips? :P
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Hey mate, I'm a mad scientist as well. Very uncreative usually when it comes to non-sciency things. But I learned to like cooking. I treat it like an experiment: what happens if I follow this recipe: will I get something edible out or not? Ok, lets change some ingredients next time, etc. I don't cook every day, but usually spend about 20-30 minutes cooking one evening, and then I have enough food that I can simply warm up for one or two more days. It works, my groceries bill is low, and I get lots of fresh produce.4
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There are now larger ranges of healthier frozen/chilled meals if you have a big enough fridge or freezer. Add extra vegetables yourself because the veg portions of ready meals are always ridiculously tiny. A lot of kids' ready meals are healthier and the smaller portions are the size we adults used to eat 40 or 50 years ago. Again, bulk them up with veg (fresh, frozen or tinned). Tinned fruit in juice, not syrup, is also fine. I wouldn't recommend ready meals every day, but if you don't like cooking or don't have the time they can be a useful addition as long as you check that the calorie/fat/carb content fits your particular dietary requirements.0
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Heck, I was just thinking what @yirara said, turn your kitchen into a lab.
I love curries, from any country, and middle eastern spices so have a drawer full of small bottles full of magic.
Start by following recipes, then branch out to emphasize the flavours you like.
Plain old cooking is something I do; getting out spices, grinding them, piling them in colourful little cones, then blending and frying them off to concoct a toothsome meal is mad artist work for me, mad scientist for you.
Do enough batch cooking and you can have a different meal every night of the week, and take the occasional Sunday off.
Cheers, h.2 -
Losing weight is all about doing science on yourself. It might help inspire you if you shift into that mindset.3
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I prepare big batches of goto carbs - Blackbeans, hummus, quinoa, rice, lentils these are easily microwaveable.
I prepare a carton of hard boiled eggs great for salads and snacks. Speaking of salad I always keep a bag of spinach, kale and/or argula on hand.
I keep a good selections of nuts and seeds for snacks and salads.
I keep a good selection of pre cooked or canned meat available. smoked salmon, rotiserrie chicken, canned tuna, sardines, etc.
I keep my veggie and fruit crispers fully stocked and I eat an enormous amount of raw fruit and vegetables every day. people have asked how I can keep my produce from going bad and being wasteful. Its really simple. I eat it. All of it. Vegetable and fruit are low in calories, you can eat a ton of it everyday. And if you don't have to worry about cooking them. Wallah super easy for the extremely busy and lazy. Also, if you decide to cook they are super easy to roast in the oven or grill or steam anyway.
End result almost all of my food (75%) is raw or pre prepared so I can just weigh it ahead of time and eat. I make one microwaveable dish for lunch. I cook something on the grill or stove top for dinner. I keep dinner and lunch simple. Unless I feel creative.4 -
middlehaitch wrote: »Heck, I was just thinking what @yirara said, turn your kitchen into a lab.
I love curries, from any country, and middle eastern spices so have a drawer full of small bottles full of magic.
Start by following recipes, then branch out to emphasize the flavours you like.
Plain old cooking is something I do; getting out spices, grinding them, piling them in colourful little cones, then blending and frying them off to concoct a toothsome meal is mad artist work for me, mad scientist for you.
Do enough batch cooking and you can have a different meal every night of the week, and take the occasional Sunday off.
Cheers, h.
Yes! That's what I mean! just don't fall in the same trap as me and buy piles and piles of spices
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Right - so I've outlined my plans (though I've still to make the actual meal plan!):
I personally think that meal prep is the way to go - sundays are mostly "empty" days - I get my laundry done and do some minor housework - and then I do "whatever" - it's the day I plan nothing and deliberately don't do much on. There is NO reason (apart from lazyness) that I can't cook a week's food in that time. Two weeks food? Maybe.
The very first thing on my list is to defrost the freezer - I will start that tonight: this doesn't relate to healthy eating, but being able to open the drawers would be a very useful trait for a freezer to have!
Clean the kitchen - I will also do this tonight. It currently has rocket parts strewn over. Again - this isn't directly related to healthy eating - but it will make it much easier to do if I'm not tripping over things in the kitchen. Also, rocket parts are crunchy and I don't like them in my food
I also need to get a meal plan put together and get the shopping delivery organised. I can do that tonight as well.
SO - by midnight tonight, I should have the following completed:
-Defrosted freezer, mostly empty
-Clean kitchen, mostly empty (do this while defrosting)
-Tesco booked (for early sunday delivery if possible)
Saturday:
-Buy new boots (I've worn through my current pair)
-Buy a decent pair of shoes for jogging (see the monday-friday plan)
-Refine cooking plan together (order of cooking)
Sunday:
-Weekly chores
-Follow cooking plan and make a minimum of 14 meals. 28, if we count lunches!
-Further refine meal plan and get shopping baskets made up for the next grocery shop in 2 weeks
Monday-Friday:
-Start of morning 30-minute jogging routine. (I have decided to start jogging: going to do 30 minutes (and this part is important!) BEFORE work each day in a field that is literally right beside where I work - might as well make use of the shower we have here! It also makes it hard for me to say "sod it, I just want to go home!")3 -
i like to cook two small chickens or even a small turkey on sunday and then freeze in small portions...great protein in a salad or a for a wrap...0
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marysabetournay wrote: »i like to cook two small chickens or even a small turkey on sunday and then freeze in small portions...great protein in a salad or a for a wrap...
I want turkey now... ::adds to list:: Say - does turkey go with lettuce? Aww cool! I was thinking of making a turkey and lettuce wrap... but apparantly you can add a drop of ginger, lemon, and garlic, and wrap the turkey IN the lettuce!
Mind blown!
I've just begged my mum to borrow her food processor: figured it'd save time when prepping large volumes of raw veg - it has cubing/grating/slicing attachments - I see no reason why I couldn't buy a bunch of raw veg, peel it, and fire it through that - and then package it in portions so I can add it to other meals.
I.e chicken + veg bag + carb bag = roast meal, or chicken + veg bag + veg bag + veg bag + water + slow cooker =pot au feu OR stew OR crockpot OR etc etc
Jeez - sunday is going to be tiring! I'm.... I'm looking forward to it actually! Excellent! That is hopefully a good sign!
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- 1. yes batch cooking is feasiblecprobertson12 wrote: »Ladies and Gentlemen, I admit it. I'm lazy a bachelor.
If you can't be bothered reading this ramble - feel free to skip right to the end, where I finally get to the point!
I'm a mad scientist: which creates the excuse problem that I spent my time doing mentally stimulating, technical, and taxing stuff than exercising - because exercise is boring is difficult to do while you are studying/sciencing/engineering.
Luckily, I walk the 2.1 mile trip to and from my work each day - and that 21 miles of walking has stopped me from turning into a pumpkin!
That said, I start diving training next week, and I need to get this bod in order!
I'll deal with the sitting exercise problem in a different thread - what I need is to get a plan in order so I can stop being lazy start eating healthier!
Right - so the basic problem is that I find cooking boring. As such, I often rely on takeaways - high calorie-density, large-portioned, magically-appearing-at-your-door goodness.
Dang! It's easy to get fat off that stuff! Luckily, it's also easy to cut out as part of the real problem - meal planning/preparation/cooking. Okay that's three problems, and they aren't easy to fix if you're really lazy busy :P
I've tried eating healthily in the past - cooking my own meals and whatnot - and it quickly fell by the wayside for two reasons:
1 - it takes time to cook.
2 - fresh food is hard for me to come by - I order groceries in once a month - and fresh food doesn't generally keep that long - I don't drive, and there are no shops nearby that sell fresh fruit and veg.
As a result, what happens is I quickly turn to frozen food that I can throw on a bacon tray. Okay that was a brainfart, but I like the idea of a bacon tray, so I'm keeping it. Frozen food that I can throw on a BAKING tray and be done with.
It's easy. Grab some carbs: chips, croquettes, a baked potato, whatever - grab some protein: fish, chicken, whatever that is, whatever - put it together - simple meal.
It's not great but it could be worse.
IF you combine this with low activity levels (I sit at a desk at work... I sit at a desk at home... and I stand at a workbench in my lab at home. There's like, NO activity except from walking back and forth to work! Jeez!) it is a recipe for big-belly.
Any suggestions on what I could do to eat healthily, that requires next to no effort? Damn. I'm going to have to put effort into this, aren't I? Hmmm...
- Is it feasible to batch-cook at the beginning of the month, freeze it, and eat that for the remainder of the month?
- Would splitting my monthly shop into bimonthly shops help to increase the proportion of fresh food in my diet (while minimising freezer-space taken up by frozen X)?
- How effective are services like gusto (the kind that send you fresh food-in-a-box that you cook up)? Obviously I can't afford six meals a week with them - but would it be worth considering for boosting my existing diet?
- have your fresh groceries DELIEVERED
- yes those cooking things that show up at your door are great..healthy..EXPENSIVE.
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Lettuce stays at peak for a few days. Don’t buy two weeks of veggies all at once.
Romaine is sturdier than iceberg.
Cabbage could survive through a nuclear winter.1 -
You'd probably get a kick out of and learn a lot from Alton brown on the food network, he likes to look at the science behind food if I'm not mistaken. But he sure can't cook a freaking potato!0
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Just keep doing the 'grab some protein, grab some carbs' thing, and add some veggies (frozen veggies are awesome).
I almost never buy fresh veggies because it's just too expensive (and I hate chopping them). To be honest, the only reason I learned to cook is because I wanted to make what I like to eat and save calories (seriously can't order meatloaf anymore - it's too greasy and I can make a better one for half the calories, for example).
Of course if you like variety, you could make a bunch of things and freeze them too.
Also, 4 miles of walking a day isn't bad at all1 -
As a mad scientist you should love cooking unless you don't have tastebuds. Look up Alton Brown, he's the king of the lab when it comes to science + cooking. I'm nowhere close to the science aspect of things but I love my tastebuds so I took up every aspect of cooking and brewing. My tastebuds thank me every meal. :-D0
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katphi1618 wrote: »As a mad scientist you should love cooking unless you don't have tastebuds. Look up Alton Brown, he's the king of the lab when it comes to science + cooking. I'm nowhere close to the science aspect of things but I love my tastebuds so I took up every aspect of cooking and brewing. My tastebuds thank me every meal. :-D
Lol we said the same thing0 -
katphi1618 wrote: »As a mad scientist you should love cooking unless you don't have tastebuds. Look up Alton Brown, he's the king of the lab when it comes to science + cooking. I'm nowhere close to the science aspect of things but I love my tastebuds so I took up every aspect of cooking and brewing. My tastebuds thank me every meal. :-D
Lol we said the same thing
Lol xD I've bought it - on my kindle now - will start reading tonight!
Friday (yesterday)
✘Failed to defrost freezer (more stuff in it than anticipated - whoops O_o)
✔Kitchen cleaned
✘Tesco unbooked (moved to sunday)
Saturday (today):
✔ Boots puchased
✔ Trainers purchased
✘ Cooking plan is unrefined
BONUS: Cooked a bunch of the extra food from the stuff in the freezer
-8x portions of mystery-meat+carrot/turnip stew
-4x portions of carrot/turnip/potato soup (with added mystery-meat stock) (can be used as a base for other things)
-2x burger patties
-4x portions of diced chicken (from chicken breast)
-4x baked potatoes
-2x breaded chicken breasts
-1x failed chicken kiev (it tried to blow up - tasted alright though.)
Sunday (tomorrow):
? Weekly chores
✘ Follow cooking plan and make a minimum of 14 meals (see below)
? Further refine meal plan and get shopping baskets made up for the next grocery shop in 2 weeks
+ Fix the meal plan (see below)
+ Book Tesco
THIS is the important part: should I move the shop forward to next week given that I do in fact have food for this week, or should I book it for Monday/Tuesday and get this plan underway ASAP?
I think I'm going to push back the food-delivery to next weekend - that should give me time to a) eat a good portion of the food I cooked and b) defrost the freezer. The freezer is in desperate need of a defrost - I figure it's worth the wait =/
Do you folks think that's a terrible idea?
Monday-Friday:
? Start of morning 30-minute jogging routine (WOW - 8-weeks of sunshine, and right before I decide to start jogging, we get storms and a flood warning... really? Universe, was that really necessary? Well, jokes on you! I'm jogging anyway! Waterproof trousers to the rescue!)
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Good start to your plan.
Jog every other day. Maybe look up Nerdfitness and alternate the jog with a bodyweight workout, your muscles will love you.
Food, any chance you can go browse Tesco in person? It may give you further ideas.
Yes. if you have enough food for this week delay the food order and get the freezer done. It will give you chance to refine your shopping list too.
Keep reporting back, I love your enthusiasm.
Cheers, h.1 -
Enthusiasm is fleeting! I must use it while it lasts!
Merdfombness. I tried to type "nerdfitness" but one of my hands was in the wrong position and I was touch-typing. However, I like the word "merdfombness" so I'm going to stick to it.
Anyway... Merdfombness! Looking it up just now. I'm also considering taking daily measurements and documenting my body-changes as well - who doesn't like graphs!? Don't answer that...
Sunday (tomorrow):
✔ Weekly chores
✘ Follow cooking plan and make a minimum of 14 meals (moved forward)
IN PROGRESS Further refine meal plan and get shopping baskets made up for the next grocery shop in 2 weeks
IN PROGRESS Fix the meal plan (see below)
✘ Book Tesco (moved forward)
Monday
? Morning 30-min jog - looking good, weather's improved. Hopefully it will stay dry long enough that my field won't be too soggy underfoot! I've looked out a nearby road I can jog along if it's too soggy: worst case scenario I scare some random folk who witness me jogging; I hear it looks like a cross between a rubber chicken having a seizure, and a Lovecraftian horror being born
? Book Tesco - third time lucky!
Right - I'm going to split this thread off into a separate thread - I've drifted off of my food laziness and onto my ongoing rolling schedule
Now... do you reckon I should do that on my personal page, or on a forum thread - and if the latter, which forum? "General Health, Fitness and Diet" perhaps?
-Edit: Sorry! Just want to include some working for my own records
Work starts at 0730:
15 minutes for showering = 0715
10 minutes walking from to and from exercise point = 0705
10 minutes leeway = 0655
45 minutes walking to work = 0610
30 minutes breakfast + ironing = 0540
10 minutes "Urgh I hate waking up!" = 0530
30 minutes exercise = 0500.
Nice - I usually get up between 0545 and 0600 - so that's not that early! Excellent
::sets alarm clock::4 -
middlehaitch wrote: »Good start to your plan.
Jog every other day. Maybe look up Nerdfitness and alternate the jog with a bodyweight workout, your muscles will love you.
Food, any chance you can go browse Tesco in person? It may give you further ideas.
Yes. if you have enough food for this week delay the food order and get the freezer done. It will give you chance to refine your shopping list too.
Keep reporting back, I love your enthusiasm.
Cheers, h.
Oops I forgot about nerdfitness - I got distracted by a brainwave...
Aye, my bad - should have heeded your advice! Going to jog every other day - the morning jog didn't go so well... I mean, I done it - but I nearly twisted my ankle in a rabbithole, got followed by a horse, met some magpies, fell down a different rabbithole, and got laughed at by a foal.
I jogged for about 50% of a circuit and walked the other 50% - so my duty-cycle isn't very high yet - but that's all in the game!
I also discovered that somebody has stolen the showerhead off the work shower... well the jokes on them; they have to work with me today
Seriously... who steals a showerhead?
Ps - why yes, I did just copy that from my other thread :P
As for going to tesco in person - I can do that, BUT it leaves me with the problem of getting it back. I'm limited by what I can carry on my back - when I was regularly hiking I wouldn't bat an eyelid at carrying 20kg - not sure I'd be alright with that nowadays! However, scuba training is going to involve carrying heavy stuff over distances - so it will certainly be feasible in future. In fact...
You know something, I reckon I could carry a backpack on my way to work - weigh it down with some bottles of water - maybe 2kg to start with and I can work my way up: once I run out of space I can replace the water with sand - and then wet sand (water is 995 kg/m^3, dry sand 1555 kg/m^3 and wet sand 1905 kg/m^3) which would mean I'd have just under 12kg in a 6-litre space. If I added salt to the water in the wet-sand I could probably get it a little higher as well (the salt makes it denser - which is why you float more in salt water in than in freshwater :P)
ANYWAY that's a plan for another day Possibly tomorrow. I'll weigh up the pros and cons (and the mass xD Get it?)
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all the comments already contain what I wanted to say about YES to the batch cooking, Nothing wrong with frozen veggies, What do you think Healthy Eating is - it might not be what you think, and Why not look at your food like a science experiment.
I just wanted to add I am a fan of your Bacon Tray, and would be interested in using one myself 0
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