Does anyone on here know anything about human nutrition?

Gamebird

Gamebird

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Can anyone help me sort my diet out? I'm not out to lose major weight (though half a stone wouldn't hurt
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) but I'm finding it very hard to get my energy levels right. This week we've been very quiet at work so it's not a typical day, but to give you an idea of what I'm doing:

6am - glass orange juice
6.30am - light stable work (muck out one horse) then 20min run.
7.30am breakfast - three Weetabix, semi-skimmed milk, low-fat yogurt, cup of tea
11.30 - coffee and piece of shortbread with a client, 30min walking dogs (quickly) on beach
12.30 - three Weetabix, semi-skimmed milk, 2 bananas
3.00 - half an hour gardening, back to work
5.00 apple
5.30 ride x2 horses (hard work!)
8.00 grilled halibut, salad, new potatoes. 2 glasses white wine

I'm virtually never hungry and don't snack but have a major energy drop late afternoon to the point where my hands and legs shake. At this point it usually needs something salty (cheese, crisps) to put me right so I was wondering whether it was a salt thing rather than a sugar thing? I also feel very dozy and sleepy late morning.

I know I don't drink enough but my job involves driving my car around all day and I just need to pee all the time if I drink any more

Plus I'm not losing any weight
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Any suggestions - and please don't say knock off the wine, it's the only thing that keeps me sane!
 
You need a proper lunch- could you make a cold rice/pasta salad or cook something fairly simple like a baked potato and some filling etc. You're lacking protein in the main
 
I'm no expert!!! But you appear to be eating a lot of refined carbs (which will make your blood sugar unstable and could account for the lack of energy...? Do you take sugar in your coffee or on your weetabix (weetabix already have sugar added)? There is often lots in low fat yoghurts to so good idea to check label. Shortbread, wine etc would also count for refined carbs as could all fruit juices!! There is not much protein in your diet (not on this day anyway) and you don't appear to drink much water?

Best bet to keep blood sugar stable and to loose weight (and keep it off) is to eat complex carbs in the form of brown bread/past/rice (a hand sized amount is about the right size for a meal), good proteins like lean meat/chicken, essential fats (needed to combat the bad ones) from fatty fish or advocadoes etc and plenty of fresh veg, fruit and water. If you cut all bad stuff when loosing weight you could introduce some again when reaching your target weight
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.

Oh and if you don't loose any weight and still feel sluggish maybe a trip to the docs would be in order, just to check metabolism?

PS am very impressed by your morning run (I fins it hard enough to get up for horses) and yes I could do with following above advice to loose half a stone to but chocolate and sugar is just too nice
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6 Wheatabix a day! - Lucky you I love them!

Id eat lots more protein - meat / cheese and some calcium - the cereal is good!

Green vegetables & fruit!

Im on a diet of either cereal(musli) or fat free yog as much as I like for breaky with banana/strawbs/bluebs - nice fruit

Lunch is a protein over load - chicken brest/chese/ ham / beef what ever you like really - not carbs though
and supper of vegis vegis vegis and if I have to have carbs then they have to be wholegrain pasta/brown rice or potoato (baked idealy - though cheese is back)

basically shouldnt have anything heavy (carbs) or hard to digest (meats and proteins) in your stomach over night.

(Wine in my eyes is fine - I just drink a pint of water for every glass I have at home - to flush though)
Though the best least calorific drinks are Champagne (whoooopy!) and vodka lime soda so drink up!
 
Thanks. I guess I eat the Weetabix a lot as it's easy and I like it. I sometimes have Bran flakes. porridge or muesli instead if that helps! I don't put extra sugar on the cereal or in hot drinks.

So if I made the effort and made some salad to take for lunch with some tuna or rice or chicken or something in that would be a good thing? We grow quite a lot of veg and I've got an excess of lettuce, radishes and courgettes at the moment. We keep swapping lettuces for a neighbours' eggs so could I have egg in the salad too?

Bossanova - I do love baked potatoes, and if I'm in the office at lunchtime there's a microwave so I can cook them. The only problem is I like them with far too much butter and cheese to be good for me
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so I tend to avoid them.

I would be happy with a bigger lunch and less for tea, in fact I would often be happy not to have tea, but my husband gets grumpy if he's not fed so I have to cook for him anyway. I do try not to have toad in the hole and mash when I make it for him though!
 
My OH is the same. I'd much rather have a bigger lunch and something small and light for tea. Especially because once i'm home from work and done the horses it's oftern 8.30/9pm.

So i end up eating what he likes so saussage/mash/pasta ete, making a seperate meal for myself or not having anything because it's too late.. He won't eat salad!! Therefore i blame him for not being thinner!!
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I have my OH diet sheet here, its designed to help him gain weight. I know thats the opposite of what you want to do but its healthy eating if you cut down the quantaties it should be fine!!!
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His breakfast is HUGE and supposed to be eaten at 6.30am, but essentially is weetabix, fruit and youghurt, with milk or water.
AM snack for after training/9.30 natural low fat cereal bar, fruit, and youghurt.
Lunch again his HUGE eaten at 12, but is basically 2 filled rolls or a cold meat salad, fruit and milk.
PM snack 2pm-3pm on his sheet it is VERY random and says baked beans/tuna with low fat crackes??? So Im guessing some form of protein type thingy here!
Dinner at 6pm is supposed to be equal thirds of meat,veg and crabs.

He is banned from eating white bread, instant pasta/noodles and soft drinks, and 75% of his daily food intake is supposed to be before 4pm. He is also supposed to have 3 protein shakes a day, but I don't think you need them!!!
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Or you could do what one of the rugby lads used to do, eat your meals in reverse, dinner for breakfast, breakfast for dinner! Although I can't imagine anything worse than spag bol at 6am!!! Apparently it really worked though!

Sorry if thats no help.
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I agree with everyone with the eat more for lunch and not too much fibre ie the weetabix! My bf tends to like having cold pasta mixed with tuna, sweetcorn and mayonaise, obviously if you are trying to lose wait you don't want loads and loads of mayo, but it is quite a filling lunch. Also perhaps before you go ride the horses have a cereal bar eg the Go Ahead bars that are less than 3% fat, they are so incredibly yummy and have hardly any calories. Also do give you a sugar boost, I eat them at events between disiplines! Is your job quite active?
 
Have you been to the doctors you may have problems with your insulin? There is an organisation called the womens nutritional health service who do phone consultations with a nutritionalist for a small fee. They helped me a lot I would give them a try. I had a similar problem, they got me to cut out wheat, introduce more variety and take a load of vitamins.
 
I don't know much about nutrition but I do know when I was doing my own yard full-time I used to eat less than I do now but weighed a good stone more! My diet was similar to yours, loads of what I thought were low cal high fibre foods and I never had any energy. Try more protein, whether it's cheese, ham or chicken or tuna (it makes you feel full and satisfied and you don't get hungry again later), with lots of veg and not too much of an overload of rice/potatoes/bread. I love the latter but too much and I get really "stuffy". Try it for a while and you'll find you can listen to your body a bit more.......must go, my body is saying "I want wine".
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[ QUOTE ]

Dinner at 6pm is supposed to be equal thirds of meat,veg and crabs.


Sorry Hen, I did LOL when I read crabs.....

I think the main thing you are lacking is protein... to put it in horsey analogy... looks like you are on hifi (weetabix)... and you need some competition mix!!!

If you can get some meat, cheese, fish or egg into lunch, and make sure dinner has something substantial (fish and salad may be a bit light if that is a common dinner most days), then you'll have more energy. Once you have more energy, you won't have the cravings for quick energy-fixes which are usually self-defeating.

Think fuel, not food!
 
Thanks for all your help!
I can eat brown rice fine but I'm afraid brown pasta is the work of the devil
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I've got some ideas now which basically mean I can have a much better lunch (yippee!) even if it might take a bit more work to organise. I'll start a trial and update you in a few weeks!

It all sounds very sensible, but sometimes you need to see it all written down for it to penetrate!
 
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