Salad Dodger!

Okay, so this will most likely be a slightly controversial post as I should not be giving out diet tips, having had no training in nutrition. Alas, I shall be telling you about my general food routine, which to be perfectly honest is not that strict at all! Unfortunately there are no tips I can give you to get a tiny waist as I was born with one, and it has stayed the same size since I was about 10, however as my blog title suggests, all the lard I eat travels directly to my bum and thighs, so when you look at me and think I don't need to diet, you're right! Im not attempting to lose tons of weight, I'm merely keeping my thighs from chaffing!!

My first major tip is to download 'myfitnesspal' app. Even if you don't wanna diet, just start logging each item you eat and seeing how many calories/grams of saturated fat each thing is, and it will scare the life out of you! Which can only be a good thing as eating so much saturated fat is incredibly unhealthy. Sometimes you don't even realise how bad some stuff, for instance a bag of Haribo Starmix is an entire days allowance on the weight-watchers scheme! Its pure sugar, and unless you manage to burn 688 calories (roughly two aerobics classes) and eat nothing else for the rest of the day then you're not going to lose any weight, and for some people, you'll put it on! The app asks you to type in your weight and age etc, and works out how many calories you can eat a day in order to achieve your goal. Mine is set at 1200 (which is a bit extreme) but at least when I slightly go over this, Im still under my allowance in order to lose weight.

Breakfast- I have fallen in love with Apple and Raspberry Alpen. For hardcore diets, it recommends you have 30g, but if you see how much that is in a bowl, it looks like its about 4 table spoons! So I measure out 60g which seems to be just enough, its 223 calories and 0.5g (out of my 18g allowance) of saturated fat. So all in all, a pretty skimpy meal! It would seem easy then to fall into the trap of having this for every meal, however its quite high in sugar (which turns to fat) so one bowl is enough for the day.
Another breakfast fave of mine is Oats So Simple Golden Syrup, this comes in 30g portions but mixed with milk is filling enough! I only drink red milk (0.1% fat), and tend to only have it with my breakfast in the morning. This comes to 155 calories, which leaves me loads of calories for lunch and dinner, however again its quite high in sugar so limit yourself of sugary foods after this.

Lunch- I am trying to cut down on carbs but finding it highly impossible to leave them completely. The first point to make is I NEVER eat white bread anymore. Believe me I used to be a white bread addict and hated the taste of brown bread, but after forcing myself into the habit, I find white bread quite bland! So if I am to have a sandwich, I avoid cheese and mayo like the plague! Even though I absolutely love cheese, it is effectively pure fat. In order to gain protein, I choose to have ham (and mustard), smoked salmon slices and/or cottage cheese! Cottage cheese in an acquired taste, but if you like it, stock up on it as you can eat so much of it as its barely any calories or fat!
If I'm being really good, I'll just have some carrot sticks and reduced fat hummus, which is pure vegetables meaning its so low calories and actually really good for you. Just to note I don't even like the taste of carrot really but you can only really taste the hummus which I love!!!
Another really low calorie lunch is soup, the pure vegetable ones are so nutritious and low calorie, however you do need some protein in your diet, so one with meat in is fine! (Just avoid really creamy or cheesy soups!) If you're anything like me though, I like to actually chew food so the thought of drinking lunch doesn't always satisfy me!

Dinner- So I try to leave myself a big allowance for dinner as not only is it my favourite meal of the day, but also where I have to generally cook for my dad as well, he does not enjoy diet foods! However, my favourite meals are homemade chilli with lots of kidney beans, extra lean mince or quorn mince (even less fat and more protein!!!), onions and mushrooms! Another favourite is chicken curry, with chickpeas! The key to low fat curry is the sauce, try to have vegetable based sauces such as Dopiaza (onion based) or Rogan Josh (tomato based) as opposed to Masala which is cream based! A take away curry or even tesco ready made curry can be up to 900 calories without an naan or pomadoms which is nearly all my daily allowance and 15.5g of saturate fat out of 18g RDA.
So I havent really got set diet friendly dinners I have but generally I try and have a small portion, homemade so I know whats in it, rich in vegetables and protein and I look it up on my app to check its not over my allowance! One major habit that I adopted from dating a half Iranian, is eating Greek Yoghurt with EVERYTHING. Its low in fat, and barely any calories and tastes so amazing with curry and chilli and all spicy dishes! It is one of my food addictions!

Snacks- So I do love eating, which means I can't get away with eating three tiny meals a day and not starving! So although I try to be good if I do snack I will eat Pom Bears! These little bears of air are only 90 calories and bag and cooked in sunflower oil mean they have virtually no fat in them! Another equivalent is Quavers at only 88 calories, however I swear you only get about ten in a bag! These snacks are carbs and carbs should generally only be consumed on a day when you're planning to exercise. Another snack I have is a 70 calorie Chocolate and Orange alpen bar. Its high in sugar, and so its not exactly a healthy snack but at 70 calories, its a lot lighter than giving into a real chocolate craving and eating a bar of dairy milk! Ofcourse any fruit/vegetable is a perfect snack, so if you love them then shovel them in!

Drinks- Im now going to reveal to you the secret of happiness = GREEN TEA. I warn you though, plain green tea taste like the water from boiling vegetables so definitely opt for the fruit infused ones! My favourite are Twinings Pineapple and Grapefruit, Twinings Cranberry and Clippers fairtrade green tea with strawberry! Not having milk in your tea saves a lot of dairy intake and calories, its also a lot more refreshing than normal tea! And once addicted, you find that those times when you eat out of boredom, become the times you have a hot mug of green tea out of boredom! I only leave the teabag in for a few seconds as I don't like it super strong but you'll have to just work out your preference for yourself!  Green Tea also is meant to have many anti-oxidants which reap the beauty benefits!
A bad habit I tend to have, it not drinking enough water! I find its harder in summer as water is cold and drinking water cools your body temperature now, so it's much easier in summer. However, when I did get to the point where I was drinking around 1.5l-2l a day, I had NO cellulite anymore and my skin was a million times better which is rare for my problem skin! It also fills you up a lot so you dont eat as much.
A final note to add, which I'd argue is a fundamental flaw in most peoples diet is alcohol, I barely drink it at all! You can spend all week not eating, and then completely ruin your diet in one night out. Not only is alcohol quite high in sugar, but it slows your metabolism down and most importantly of all nobody really drinks spirits straight. So the real evil in this story is the mixers! In a club, theres no such thing as low-calorie lemonade/coke. A Vodka and Lemonade is 123 calories on average, so now calculate how many calories you consume depending on how many drinks you'd have on a night out. You may as well not bother dieting, never mind the side effect of needing a fry up/greasy foods the next day!!

Exercise- My exercise routine varies depending on circumstance, during busy periods such as christmas or final deadlines, and to be honest even during winter it seems to dramatically reduce compared to my summer routine. But generally on a really good week, I'll go to body conditioning on a monday, Zumba on a tuesday, Wednesday I'll either go to a spin class or just to the gym to do cardio and weights, thursday off as its my longest day at uni, friday I used to do Zumba again but the class has just been moved so Im at a bit of a loss! But in summer when its lighter and warmer, I'll go an early morning spin class which actually is very revitalising! And although I hate to publicly admit this, I do nothing on the weekends!! The key is to burn more calories than you eat, I burn around 1000 calories naturally in my sleep and just daily breathing etc, so a class on top of this gives me an extra 350ish calories burnt off! Classes vary in how many calories you burn, a hardcore session of spin or circuit training can burn off around 500+ calories, however a low level aerobics class will only burn off around 250-300 calories. I personally think classes are better than working out alone, as they push you more than you'd push yourself!

So thats about all I have to say, I'd like to exaggerate that this is in no way a diet plan, or nutritional tips, but more of my personal preferences when it comes to food and little changes which make a huge difference! Equally, I am always going over my allowance as I never deny myself a family lunch or dinner out and if I'm emotionally on the edge, I will eat chocolate regardless of the fat or calories in order to save myself! So don't actually starve yourself! But having an ideal makes it easy to stay on the path at least!