Sport How can I improve my diet?

[KilgoreTrout]

Hello, I'm a bit new to the world of dieting, and although I took a few health classes in high school I'm not sure if I'm taking the right approaches to how I eat. I'm 19 years old at around 150 lbs, 5' 8.5". I'm a college student without the greatest budget, but I think I spend a little bit more on food to eat healthier.

My main goal is to lose the man boobs (ick) and belly fat I have. I've started an exercise program at the gym, which I will detail in another post. Essentially, I go to the gym every other morning to jog on the treadmill for a half hour, and I try to work both my upper and lower body twice a week each (four visits in all, never on the same day).

I tried cutting out what I saw to be the most problem foods in my routine... cookies, junk food, easy microwaveable dinners, etc. I think I've seen a bit of success, dropping a few pant sizes, but I'm still not there.

For breakfast each morning I either have a piece of fruit--a banana, some melon, or a bowl of grapes--or a bowl of oatmeal. Some mornings I have cereal and milk--Kashi brand cereal, 1% milk--but I'd like to transition entirely to oatmeal. Not sure if there is a whole lot more I could do here, but I've heard cereal can be deceptive.

For lunch I generally have a sandwich consisting of two slices of , sliced deli ham (2-3 pieces), a slice of deli muenster cheese, topped with baby spinach. I also eat a few carrot sticks with this lunch, and a glass of filtered water. Lunch generally happens 11am - noon.

I make various dinners for myself. I'm trying to cut back on a dinner centered around meat (like burgers, steaks, chicken tenders) and rather try to eat a little meat with pasta or rice or beans. Dinner happens from 5pm to 7pm, depending on my class schedule. The dinners I cook for myself are:

* Whole wheat pasta, one fresh italian sausage, with a white alfredo sauce or tomato sauce; I'm going to try spinach pasta soon.
* I cook white or jasmine rice in a rice cooker (no butter or salt) and mix with a meat: one chicken breast/cutlet (seasoned with garlic, pepper, sea salt), or a piece of tilapia/salmon (when it's on sale).
* I steam broccoli, sautee it with chicken in an olive oil/garlic sauce, add ww pasta, steam in a cup of chicken broth, drain for a chicken pasta.
* Bean soup, using a cubed ham steak, half a minced onion, two carrots, 1lb of white northern beans. I'm looking for further things to do with beans.

And that's pretty much it. Sometimes I open a can of soup for dinner when I'm drained from the day. When the dish I cook does not have a veggie in it, I either steam some broccoli florets or make a can of spinach or green beans. I try to avoid butter and try to substitute in canola oil when I can. I have a package of ramen noodles for rainy days, but I'm proud to say that I've been abstaining from fast food and mac n' cheese dinners for the past few months now. I permit myself to eat out with friends once a week, and when I do I try to resist fried foods, burgers, and whatnot... Also, no Coke! As someone who was practically raised on the sugary drink, I'm also proud to say that I've nixed the stuff entirely, first at home for monetary reasons and then even at restaurants when the soda doesn't even cost anything.

As far as snacks go, I've been trying to practice portion control more strictly, because it's so easy to over eat in between meals. I find that brewing a cup of tea in the afternoon or evening helps stave off hunger that occurs when I'm bored (the tea is loose leaf green and herbal teas, no sugar or honey). When I do snack, this is what I eat:
* Fruit: grapes, melons, tomatoes, and anything I happen to buy on sale.
* Yogurt, though I'm trying to experiment with making my own from plain yogurt and adding fruit/jelly for flavoring.
* Graham crackers with nutella
* Hummus with whole wheat pita bread
* Pretzels, though I only buy pretzels once every few weeks, or so.
* I'm going to start trying cheese and crackers (like brie cheese), which I assume is pretty fattening. So we'll see. Also, maybe Italian ices, if the nutritional information isn't so bad (I haven't checked).

I generally snack once per day, usually around 9-10pm, sometimes around 3pm. I'm trying to snack less, though.

So I'm sure there are loads of things I can improve on. I'm specifically interested in glaring oversights and dinner suggestions. It's hard to find something that's not expensive and healthy. I know this was a long post, but I tried to give as much detail as possible so that the full picture is available. I will of course give any clarification needed.

Thanks for reading.

 

[subdude]

Hello, I'm a bit new to the world of dieting, and although I took a few health classes in high school I'm not sure if I'm taking the right approaches to how I eat. I'm 19 years old at around 150 lbs, 5' 8.5". I'm a college student without the greatest budget, but I think I spend a little bit more on food to eat healthier...

Good for you for actually making a point to be disciplined about your diet at your age. When I was 19, I was in college and, like most college students, I ate whatever I felt like. Lots of fried food, cookies, pizza, ice cream, and soda pop. I was pretty thin when I graduated high school, and in college, I ran quite a bit, so my weight didn't shoot up in college or in the following years, but it crept up gradually over time. Eventually, by the time I was 28 or so, I was about 200 pounds. (I'm less than an inch shy of 6 feet.) At about this time, I succeeded in stopping further weight gain, but I never really lost a serious amount of weight until this year. Since the beginning of this year, I've lost over 20 pounds and am continuing to lose weight, mostly by following a low-carb diet and doing a lot of running.

Just to be clear, I’m not saying my diet is perfect or that it will work for you the way it has for me. However, I can tell you that I haven’t felt as good and as healthy as I do now since college. I feel younger today than I did ten years ago, and I believe it’s largely due to eating a diet that goes against some of the conventional wisdom.

Anyway, I really try to avoid sugar. Not just high fructose corn syrup, but also good ole natural sugar. Sugar in small quantities, especially when combined with fiber (such as in fruit), isn’t bad, but in general, I try to avoid foods and drinks that contain sugar. This includes most juices in addition to soda pop. When I want to eat or drink something sweet, I add Stevia. I am quite opposed to artificial sweeteners (e.g., nutrasweet and splenda), but Stevia is natural, and after doing some research on it, I became convinced that it was a safe and decent alternative to sugar.

I also avoid hydrogenated oils. If a food label says hydrogenated oil, I don’t eat it, even if it says 0 g of trans fat per serving. And in general, I try to avoid deep fried foods even if a non-hydrogenated oil is used. I appreciate that more and more food makers are using trans-fat free oils, but it’s not like French fries suddenly become a health food just because they’re free of trans-fat.

I also eat a lot of veggies. Steaming vegetables like broccoli as you do is excellent. In general, veggies are healthier when they are not over cooked, and steaming is one of the more gentle ways of cooking something. I also sometimes sauté veggies for a couple of minutes. Spinach, onions, tomatoes, and bell peppers are the produce items I eat most. (And if you ever find veggies to be too bland or bitter, most herbs and spices are healthy and can make veggies a lot more enjoyable. Depending on what I’m eating, I use a lot of garlic, cilantro, oregano, basil, curry powder, and hot peppers.)

For breakfast, I like to mix yogurt with nuts (usually sliced almonds) and berries. Unfortunately, nuts and berries can be sort of expensive when you’re on a budget. However, berries aren’t naturally high in sugar, and both berries and nuts are great foods.

So far, I haven’t gone against the conventional wisdom. Here’s where I do. I have come to believe that carbs, not fat, is what one should really watch. I especially have a dim view of white high-carb foods, such as white pasta, white bread, white rice, and potatoes (excl. sweet potatoes, which really aren’t potatoes and which are a much healthier alternative to normal potatoes). These foods are pretty low in fiber and tend to not have a lot of nutrition. Whole grain pasta and bread, brown rice, oats, and beans (incl. hummus) are definitely healthier choices, but I try to limit how much I eat of these foods as well.
The flip side of this is that I think that high-fat foods are given an undeserved bad reputation. Most people agree that nuts, olive oil, and avocado are healthy foods, all high in healthy monounsaturated fat, but the conventional wisdom is that even healthy fats need to be limited such that your total fat consumption isn’t more than about 20% of your calorie intake. I disagree. I never limit my consumption of nuts (except for some of the sweetened kinds that are sort of addictive and have a lot of sugar), avocado, and olive oil. (Don’t heat olive oil though. Just pour it on after your done cooking your food or use it on a salad.)

More controversial is saturated fat. I for one think saturated fat isn’t something to be avoided. The negative health effects of saturated fat are vastly overhyped. Saturated fat is quite stable when heated, unlike vegetable oils that degrade with heat. So, I’ll cook with butter or coconut oil. I also don’t shy away from fat in cheese or yogurt, and I don’t shy away from fatty meat. (I do, however, try to buy more natural meat, e.g., grass-fed beef, as much as possible, which may be harder for you to do.) Also, I never limit how many eggs I eat. My punishment for not caring about saturated fat and dietary cholesterol is a total cholesterol of 104, the lowest cholesterol I’ve ever had and the lowest cholesterol of anyone I know of personally.

In any case, I highly recommend a diet that limits carbs rather than fat. In my experience, fat fills me up more quickly than carbs and leave me feeling full longer. As a result, I consume fewer calories. And avoid the trap of believing that fat-free items are non-fattening. Your liver has no trouble converting carbohydrates into fat, as I found out during years of avoiding high-fat foods while continuing to gain weight.

In any case, good luck with your efforts to lose weight.

 

[kelly0403]

Well you can take online diet assessment from divine wellness.I actually took and believe me it was the best diet assessment and i still continue it.