Trying to improve nutrition

Yes, more veg and variety in fruit.

Your protein is low too, as you know. A couple of easy ones for protein are change to a Greek yogurt or skyr. Both offer between 17-22g protein for a 175g serving at 120-150 cals.

Eggs, I know sad, but try making a 3 egg omelette. 210 cals 21g protein. Good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Can even be pre cooked and reheated in a microwave.
Stuff it with chopped veg and cheese, ham, shrimp, or chicken, and you have a good nutritious meal. Great with salad and/or baby new potatoes.

Cottage cheese, tuna and prawns/shrimp are versatile and full of protein for relatively few cals. Great bang for your buck.

For your fruit, there are some great frozen fruits now. I love the mango with my yogurt. Try different ones.
If fresh is your thing, when getting your bananas get 2 other pieces of fruit, or a basket of berries.

Finger veg and cottage cheese is a great lunch, or just take some with you to have with your sandwich.

If meat isn't appealing all the time try lentils and beans in soups and casseroles, along with a mix of veg.

I noticed you are not always meeting your cal goal, never mind eating back exercise cals. Try to eat more, (a consistent amount of exercise cals will help you work out your actual burn, not your device's estimate)
if you are not using a food scale for everything you may find it will help you get a better handle on how many cals you should be eating.

Cheers, h.

I'm a fan of "if it works for you, do it." Yes, adding variety is good, but I'll admit at least for breakfast I have 1 or 2 "go-to" items everyday, and that helps me a lot since I know the nutrition information already by heart. Either a homemade egg wrap or a "breakfast muffin sandwich" that is 300 calories or less if I'm on the go.

Yet dinnertime, while I plan ahead, I tend to mix it up there. Lunch is usually last night's leftovers, or frozen leftovers from a prior meal.

The keys are nutritional balance. Add more veggies, but also make sure it's ones you like and don't mind adding. The worst thing you can do is say "I'll add more squash because it's low calorie and nutritious" when you hate it. That will cause you to swing further away. Find what you like that fits your plan the best.

tracengel wrote: »

Adding eggs and eggy things would probably be a good idea, but I just can't do it. They make me sad.

I'm curious.... why does that make you sad? I come from a family that raised chickens. I see you also had chicken for one meal, so that really confuses me. Maybe this will help:

https://www.chowhound.com/food-news/54729/whats-the-difference-between-fertilized-and-unfertilized-eggs/

Most eggs on the market are unfertilized, so "baby chicken" should not be a factor there I would think.

Unfortunately I can't look at your food log (I'm not sure if you have it open or not but I'm on mobile and it won't let me look regardless) so forgive me if any of this is stuff you're already doing.

You say your diet is fairly carb heavy. I know for me, protein, fat, and fiber keep me really full. It may help with both issues to focus on getting more protein. Whenever I conciously plan my day around getting higher protein it seems to work the best for me so maybe preloggingg as @Lounmoun mentioned could help.

One thing I love doing is making a batch of taco chicken in the Crock-Pot. It's literally chicken, peppers, and onions topped with taco seasoning and a can of diced tomatoes. I'll put some of it on salads with some salsa, no dressing needed. Tasty and filling! Since you aren't big on meat, you could do a smoothie that utilizes things like Greek yogurt or skyr like @middlehaitch mentioned, 2% fairlife milk has 13g per cup, tera whey protein has I think 22g per serving, pbfit has a decent amount. Those are all things you could mix into oatmeal as well and I think oatmeal even has something like 6g per serving.

(Edited for clarity)

It took me a few weeks to get accustomed to eating a big breakfast, and I'm glad I persevered because it has made a few positive changes I like:
1. energy and productivity at work is much improved
2. 1/3 of of my daily calories are already consumed, making it easier to be sure I"ll get in my full dose of needed calories in the remainder of the day.
3. enjoying any kind of food for breakfast is OKAY - it doesn't have to be cereal or other traditional breakfast foods. THe other day I had shrimp and grits, and anther day I had rice.beans and chicken. Today I had grits with eggs, and a side of yogurt.

bottom line for me is: while food is my fuel for living, it doesn't have to be boring to my taste buds.

while it may seem boring that all i eat are the same foods over and over, what isn't reflected in my food diary is the variations of flavoring achieved through the addition of spices, herbs and interesting combinations of food stuffs.