Help I need encouragement, I’m tired of eggs. Like yoghurt, fruit n seeds. But struggling ideas pls

Hi Aussiegirl, I presume you are talking about breakfasts. From your profile I dont think you have any diabetes problems so it would not hurt you to have porridge now and then. It is a high carb but slow burning but in order to keep within a low calorie range you wouldn’t have the recommended (by the manufacturer) portion of 35 to 40g, you could have between 20 and 25g. Not much I know but you can add half a pot of yoghurt and some fruit or a few seeds. Another nice addition, if you have time, is chop an apple or pear into small chunks, sprinkle with spice of choice, cinnamon, nutmeg etc, fry in a small amount of butter and serve on your oats with a blob of yoghurt. As you like the yoghurt have that a couple of times but switch up the fruit i.e. passionfruit and almond flakes one day, fresh or frozen berries with seeds another. One of my favorites when in season is grilled apricots with flakes almonds and yoghurt. You marinade the halved 2 halved apricots (or one peach or nectarine) in 1 teaspoon of olive oil, cinnamon and lime or lemon juice – leave overnight if you are organised, then grill until bubbling and serve with yoghurt. You might have to have eggs at least one day but change how you eat them. I like 2 scrambled in a little butter with chilli flakes and when nearly done grate in 1oz of a strong cheese. Another day I have a big dish of mushrooms, olive oil, grilled then served with a poached egg. Finally, when you have plenty of time, i.e. weekend, mash half an avocado with half a tin of tuna, chop in some spring onions and a squeeze of lemon and serve on sliced beef tomatoes. All these come out between 140 cals (apricot) to 210 cals (porridge and pear). Hope that is enough to be going on with and give you some inspiration. I think the secret is to be organised and plan ahead. Good luck.

What a lovely helpful posting 🙂 So comforting and supportive 🙂 I too do the scrambled eggs the same way made with a dollop of cream!!!! My brekkie mushrooms have bacon, shallots done in butter . . . with a dash of cream to make the BEAUTIFUL sauce!!!! Tomorrow for a main meal, Im roasting a turkey leg! I know roasted spuds will cross my mind but it will be accompanied by roasted onions, broccollini, cauliflower, and maybe some sauteed mushrooms as a sauce/gravy for the turkey 🙂 My other regular meal which makes me salivate . . . chilli prawns . . .(pack of large peeled frozen ones provides three meals!) – with of course the prawns, chilli flakes, coconut oil, shredded coconut, onions, shallot and/or leek and snow peas or asparagus and a handful of cashews right before serving . . . oh so decadent!!!

Aussiegirl

Feel your pain, all I can say from my experience the first few weeks are very difficult.
In the finish I made up a calorie list and from that made meals…. what worked for me from week hhhmmm say two was to only have two meals a day.
It meant I could have reasonable meals and I essentially by passed breakfast.
Not the solution for all, but it worked for me, I had a latte which is depending on size between 40 & 60 calories as my breakfast.

Hey there Aussie girl! Take heart my friend! Im assuming you are in Aus as well . . . Im 70+ and been 5 months on BSD now. Sounds like my persona reading yours! Kinda like a dont fence me in person! SO . . . thats how I approached this. Dont fence me in. Firstly from the lists, I chose all the foods I like. I researched online for carb content of others not mentioned. From this I “did my own thing!!!” There really were very few rules in my approach. I didnt count calories . . . just guesstimated. And like mid-fielder, two meals a day became the norm. I sometimes ate unconventional heavier breakfasts. Like this morning . . . – a lump of steak!!! Just steak!!! and a coffee with CREAM!!!!! THATS what I FELT like! SO I didnt deny myself. If peckish at say 4pm . . . dont have something to tide you over to “mealtime” actually have your dinner then!!! Play the demand feeding game like when raising children!!! My dinner will be (prepackaged from supermarket) – kale salad, with cold roast lamb which I cooked this morning! (This way I cut the association of hot roast meal with ROAST POTATOES, which if on the plate, rejection of them could/would feel to me like I was BEING DENIED and body will act up like a spoiled brat! Demanding!!!) Giving the body something the brain likes, the body DOES learn to accept it doesnt always get what it wants. Which is the way life is in reality!!! And so . . . there will be coffee maybe twice until dinner, while Im busy with housework, checking comp for messages and online-scrabble turns, BSD forums, and tidying/packing to go away! Being busy sees time go by without clock watching for previously religious meal times!!! Eat when hungry. Without exercise – (cos my feet give me grief!!!) – Ive still discarded AT LEAST 10 kgs. (I believe it was 12 then seemed to put some on and now have levelled at 83 for almost a month. Centimetres are still leaving! Clothes tell me that!) There are MANY helpful empathetic people here to support you if you need a hand or explanations 🙂 After all we are ALL on a new journey of discovery – mostly about ourselves!!! Onward and upward with gusto and good old Aussie Spirit!!!

Oooh I know how you are feeling, hang in there, my thought is if I even out my calories properly then I can eat dinner at breakfast, or lunch at dinner if I want, we don’t want to have restrictions to ‘breakfast’ type meals, difficult for me – does tht sound about right, we were brought up on tea, toast and marmite – oh my I miss my marmite, but scrambled eggs are still a bit of a novelty for me, I feel like I’m being naughty we were only allowed eggs on high days and holidays (strict or reasonably so scottish upbringing LOL) my difficult day was yesterday (day 3) , arghhh I would have eaten a rotten smelly shoe LOL! Hang in there, really the forums are awesome, so pleased I found this support, otherwise I don’t think I would have ever got through the first day.

Ewe2lambs, I couldn’t agree with you more that this journey goes far beyond the numbers we read on
the scales everyday. There are no hard and fast rules for what to eat when, and if this flexibility didn’t
exist, I don’t know if I would have persisted until 50% of my body weight had been dispensed with.
How much do the grain and sugar lobbies effect what we’ve always perceived as “breakfast” food?
Worldwide, Asians typically eat noodles for breakfast, and Koreans include kimchi! Design what makes
you happy on your plate….There are no rules except low carb, moderate protein, and high (healthy) fat.
With some pre planning, everything falls into place! Some of us have tossed the concept of “breakfast
is the most important meal of the day” right out the window. It clearly isn’t 🙂 Applaud yourself! You
have more inner strength than you realize…And if you have a wobbly day, we are all here to lift you up
to get past it. You are really doing so well, and if you just put one foot in front of the other, the BSD will
take you absolutely anywhere you want to go. Seeing the confidence grow, day by day, in new members to
the community, lifts us all up, and keeps the learning fresh and new…Very best to you 🙂

Allie

Yes you hit the nail on the head wiTh not liking being boxed in. I thi o that is why I have struggled with eating plans before. I will try again as havnt been doing well this week. It’s so important for me to loose weight for many reasons but mainly my kids m grandkids. I’m all they have got! Thanks for the following encouragement x

Allie than you so much I feel so alone on this journey I really need support. I need to check in here more. New day today! I’m also stressing cos I don’t have work ATM and are worried about spending money on food. It’s so easy to fill up on carbs you have in the cupboard! I will do my best x

Thanks for your reply. I forgot about looking on this forum so basically this week I gave up but will start again today x

Hello again Aussiegirl! Remember you are doing this for yourself hun . . . There is an old saying take care of yourself so you can take care of others. The children and grandchildren will be OK . . . you will take care of whatever is necessary for them, however you can . . . and if you recruit their assistance they will understand you are in this for them all. Maybe when you do your BSD (new way of eating) shopping . . . it most likely will be very different to before . . . so make it a pleasurable time . . . a learning time and when checking labels give yourself a tick of approval for checking the carbs first – not the sugar or fat content!!! Shoestring shopping can be a challenge but make it a positive one. Show “them” and yourself yu can manage . . . its your street smarts we need to uncover 🙂 Any fresh veges you purchase, try blanching and freezing excess. Bacon is a great standby. A large pack of middlecut . . ? (the one without the tails?) – is very economical and divided into smaller quantities for freezing. Can then be grilled, sauteed in a pan, served with eggs or mushrooms or shallots . . . if you have a wholesale butcher closeby, maybe buy a large roasting piece of pork. I do this and ask the butcher to slice 1/3 and dice 1/3 and leave 1/3. This gives me steaks and stirfry and a small roast for cold meat to add to salads. Corned beef/silverside is inexpensive and a great standby. Have it hot right after its been cooked. Then there are cold cuts for other uses. Canned salmon or tuna . . . add to salads. Do you have a Community Pantry shop nearby? They have reclaimed excess groceries/fruit and vege at MUCH reduced prices. (The larger supermarkets send their almost use by, and excess items to a Food Bank for re-purposing) . Plant some lettuce seedlings, a couple of tomato bushes, herbs etc and feel the joy of “feeding yourself” if only with a small contribution. Not all suggestions will suit but start with what you can see will work for you and build from there. Im in Southern Highlands of NSW. Id like to know where you are if you wish to share 🙂 Hang in there! Its all going to be well worth it! And once the ball starts rolling . . . it will be a much happier time you will be sharing 🙂

Hello allie! You are such a wonderful person . . . always with a kind word, encouraging, supporting and reassuring us ALL when we need a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold an ear to listen. Then Ive seen others take your lead and repeat with holding newbies or oldies returning hands as they too learn/relearn the ropes, sharing their experiences and the disciplines and start taking their first tentative steps . . . SO MANY walking together and the footsteps are becoming a “drumming” for me . . . as I approach my 6 month anniversary of discovery. Today I went to a performance by the singing group I used to a part of. There is always a magnificent afternoon tea provided by the singers – almost “country” B&B mentality towards food and special “teas!” . . . you get the picture . . .generous servings with delicious delicacies of all sorts laid out before us 🙂 Well . . . I scanned the 20ft long table end to end . . . remembered the tastes and flavours of those delicacies from past concerts . . . and there at the 3/4 mark was a plate of celery and carrot sticks, chips, and and a bowl of chilli philli!!!!! I was in my element!!! SO proud of myself for not even being tempted by the other “stuff” . . . even though the memories of times gone by were sweet to savour. Have a lovely weekend allie 🙂

Duckie – hope you were able to sing your heart out too, you’ll probably notice that with the weight loss your voice will change, by putting your diaphargm into use more you’ll be able to have more stamina and have a different but better quality of voice – should be exciting.

ha ha dh just said to me, you don’t need to do the diet, you’re fine as you are, you just need to sort your weight out – hmmm, is that not what I’m doing, on diets with higher calorie intake I NEVER EVER lose weight, so I am trying to do something and then he says I’m mad, I wonder if folk ever really reflect on what they say?? LOL I hope that this is successful for me, so that I can prove to him that my weight and health go hand in hand, hopefully he’ll pay attention and start the diet too so that we can help his rheumatoid arthritis. Think I may have to wait a while for that.

Wish me luck for today we’re going into Paris (arghhhh) with my son’s rugby team, so worried about the riots etc, but it seems calmer than last week and we’re taking the long way around to avoid the hot spots in the centre. Fingers crossed that all goes well.

Hi AussieGirl,
I used to use the myfatsecret app on my mobile phone when I started out. By entering in each ingredient (before using it) I could easily calculate the level of carbs. – I wasn’t able to follow the diet plan in the book being a veggie anyway, so just made it up as I went along.
I understand how you feel about budgets and food sitting in cupboards. But I promise you, if you keep your carb intake right down, you will not feel as hungry, will be able to skip meals and focus your money on buying nice none carb ingredients for the meals you do eat. Now I am used to eating low carb I am spending about half the amount on food each week than I used to.
An idea I recently came across is thinking of your fat as being a store cupboard of food just like your kitchen cupboards. Your fat is food you have bought and every lb of fat is 3500 calories of energy stored. its good budgeting to use that up.

Great tips thanks. I’m in Perth Western Australia. Yes planting some stuff would be good. If they grow haha time for me to go to bed busy day with beach with kids. Didn’t do too bad today. Will plan to do better tomorrow
Night

I like that idea about th fat storage

Good morning ewe2 🙂 Throat issues which curtailed my altosection of the choir participation came as a result of a tracheostomy/tracheotomy which saved my life 🙂 I can still talk and sing but my voice can become very raspy very quickly when put to steady controlled use for extended periods of time. Given that joining the group was a way of meeting people when I first moved to this area, I feel a great attachment to the group and attending their charity/fund raising performances which I attend religiously was part of my promise when I needed to move on. I have one very close friend made there whom I see outside these performances. And it is so lovely to renew the other connections with long-time members still there . . . the fondness with which Im greeted is humbling. Life is good 🙂 Been seeing the horrors of riots etc and wish you safe travels. Sadly, not the world I knew growing up.

Duckie – I’m delighted that you can still enjoy the wonders of singing even though your vocal chords have scar tissue on them, it happens, pro singers often carry children’s trachy things with them as a ‘just in case’ as the thicker adults ones do do a lot of damage to the chords which unfortunately after some rather brusque movements by the practioner can damage the chords and leave scar tissue, which is much thicker and less elastic than undamaged tissue, I wish more medics knew this, the scar tissue makes the voice much ‘thicker’ and lets lots of air pass through, you could have an ORL have a look and see if some of the thicker scar tissue could be removed, gentle practice could give you the possibility of integrating back into the choir – if you wish, of course. Anyway I thought you’d be interested.

LOVE the thought of the fat storage, that is such a good thing to bare in mind – really thank you for that.