How healthy is what you're eating?

So, we're on this journey to lose weight, slim down and generally be more healthful people. But a discussion we had in my Weight Watchers meeting this week got me thinking how healthy I really am, or rather how healthy is the food I'm eating. Sure, I've lost 40lbs, but you can do that simply by restricting your calories (or points in my case) - so you could eat one 1000 calorie burger in a day and nothing else, and still lose weight. But it's not exactly healthy, is it?

Give yourself a number on a scale of 1-10, of how healthy you think you are, food wise. If you think everything you eat is 100% spot on, go for 10. If you're a member of the burger club, it'd be much less! Remember that number.

Guidelines (here in the UK at least, but I think they're a good pointer) detail 5 things you should be doing every day to maximise the health benefits you get from your food. These are:

1. Eating a variety of 5 portions of fruit and veg a day.
2. Drinking 6-8 200ml glasses of water (or other fluids) a day.
3. Eating 2 portions of lean protein a day (meat, poultry, fish, beans, pulses, dairy).
4. Eating 2 portions of wholegrains a day (fibre-rich foods such as wholemeal pasta and rice, wholegrain cereals, wholemeal bread).
5. Consuming 2 portions of dairy a day (especially important for women).

There are also things you should be cutting down or restricting your intake of:

1. Salt. No more than 6g a day.
2. Alcohol. Your intake should not regularly exceed 2-3 units per day for women, 3-4 for men. See here for a guide to alcohol units.
3. Refined sugars. These contain no nutritional benefit, other than calories!

Now start from 0 and give yourself a point for each of the following:

• 3 or 4 portions of fruit and veg
• 5+ portions of fruit and veg
• 6 or 7 glasses of water a day (1200-1400ml)
• 8+ glasses of water a day (1600ml +)
• 1 portion of lean protein (a portion is equivalent to a peice of meat or fish the size of a pack of playing cards, two eggs, four tablespoons of lentils or beans, 100g cottage cheese)
• 2 portions of lean protein
• 1 portion of wholegrain (a portion can be 3 heaped tbsps wholegrain breakfast cereal, 1 heaped tbsp uncooked porridge oats, 1 medium slice wholemeal bread, 1 small wholemeal roll, 2 heaped tbsps cooked brown rice,2 heaped tbsps cooked wild rice, 3 heaped tbsps cooked brown pasta, ½ wholemeal pitta bread or 2 rye crispbreads)
• 2 portions of wholegrain
• 1 portion of dairy (a medium-size glass of milk, a small pot of yoghurt, or a small matchbox-sized piece of cheese)
• 2 portions of dairy 

Now take off a point if you:

• Consume too much salt
• Consume more than the recommended amount of alcohol regularly
• Consume too much processed sugar (use your own judgement as to what is too much!)

So, what was your "score"? Was it higher or lower than you initially thought? Initially, I thought I was around a 6 or 7, but actually it's higher than that. I always without fail get my 5 a day now, and usually by lunchtime. I've got the water nailed, at 2 litres a day. I always get at least 1 portion of protein and dairy, and my wholegrain intake is good. I didn't have to take off any points either, leaving me with a score of 8 or 9 (most days!). I don't always get enough dairy, and sometimes protein, but I think I'm doing all right! Food for thought.

If you can get all that within your calorie "budget", then you can officially say you're healthy! Of course, you need to add in exercise/activity, not smoke, do anything else remotely risky and factor in any medical conditions! This healthy business is a full time job!

Hx

Menu plans

I'm slowly getting into the habit of menu planning although this week's one is incomplete so far. I'm going out on Friday night and I don't know what food choices there will be at the place I'm going to. So because I undoubtably wont be able to restrain myself, and will be drinking alcohol (which I rarely do now) I'm trimming my points for the rest of the week. Weight Watchers say this isn't the way to follow the plan, and give you a weekly points allowance for times like these, but it has worked for me in the past and seems like "damage limitation" to me. I will be having a good old dance to burn some of the calories off though!

There also isn't a planned meal for Monday evening either. I weigh in on a Tuesday morning, so I usually have something very light such as fish and salad or chicken and steamed veg on a Monday night, and Mr FGS has something different - so I don't have a "meal" to plan as such. I have some quorn fillets in the freezer and there is always fresh veg in the fridge, so I know that's there and I don't have to "plan" it as such.

Snacks are the same. I have plenty of fresh fruit and veg - celery, carrots, apples, bananas, grapes, mango - and things like plain fat free yoghurt and cottage cheese, as well as low-fat crisps and Weight Watchers snack bars.

Getting my mojo back this week! For my new exercise I ordered a skipping rope! Once it comes I plan to do 5-10 minutes of skipping a day and I think this is manageable. I'm restricted to doing exercise in the evenings once the children are in bed which means my time with Mr FGS is cut into, but 5 minutes of skipping I can fit in while DS1 is at pre-school and DS2 is safely strapped into his highchair eating lunch or whatever. I can't wait for Spring when I can rely a bit more on the weather being better.

How is your menu shaping up for the week? Link me to it if you've posted one!

Hx

This week's menu plan...

Morning!

I've managed a menu plan again, but am doing it a little different this week. I decided that planning my snacks wasn't working - I rarely ate what I had planned and swapped the planned things for other days when I wanted them, so instead I have left the snack area blank and just written how many points I have left for the day after my main meals have been taken into consideration. On some of the days I've left more points for snacks than I have included for meals! But, in reality, it probably wont work out like that, and I'm not intending to use all my points every day. Once again, if there are any specific recipes you'd like to see please ask!

I have had to repeat meals and lunches more this week, for reasons I'll go into in a later post, but I don't mind and it means less cooking!

For snacks, as well as fresh fruit and veg and a huge batch of 0pp veg soup and fruit smoothies I will have the following options available:

WW rich toffee bar 2         Ryvita 1

WW crisps 2                     60g cottage cheese 1

150g lf plain yogurt 2         Tbsp lf hummus 2

Rich tea biscuit 1               Boiled egg 2

6 mini breadsticks 1           Cooked veggie sausage 2

I struggle for snack ideas, so if you have any suggestions please share! I am a big snacker and while I know I shouldn't be reaching for the crisps I can't help it! But as long as my choices are measured and accounted for, I'm not too worried. I'm trying to include more protein in my choices too.

Have you planned this week? I found it really helpful last week, knowing what to have and when, and it helped me spend less too.

Hx

Recipe of the Week - 5 minute lasagne

Ok, so it takes a bit more than 5 minutes to cook it, but only 5 minutes to prepare, which is a good thing in my book. It means I can get the kids to bed, throw it together and get it in the oven, and have time to exercise before it's ready. It's vegetarian, very low fat and tasty!

Serves 4. 7 ProPoints per serving

300 grams Quorn mince (tvp mince)
6 lasagne sheets
500g carton of passata
250g virtually fat free soft cheese (I used Quark)
80g half fat cheddar

In a lasagne dish layer a quarter of the passata, a third of the mince and two lasagne sheets. Repeat 2 more times and finish with the remaining passata.

Mix the cream cheese with a little water and spread on top of the final layer.

Top with the grated cheese and bake at 200/400 gas 6 for 30-45 mins or until the pasta is tender and it looks like this.

So easy, and really tasty. Mr F-G-S hates Quorn mince but he didn't even realise it wasn't beef (and I'm not telling him either ;) )! Sneaky Helly! If you have more than 5 minutes a chopped onion, mushrooms or peppers added to the mince would be a welcome addition, and you could chuck some dried herbs (basil or oregano would be the ones I'd use) in the passata, but actually it was pretty tasty without it. Serve with a big salad, and you'd never tell it wasn't the real thing!

If you don't want the extra cheese on top, leave it off. The PP value would then be 6 per serving. You don't have to remember any weights and measurements because (here in the UK at least) most of the ingredients come in packages of the size you need. Just a simple, healthy, tasty meal! Yum.

Hx

Recipe of the Week - Cheats Carbonara

Hello and welcome to another weekly feature that I probably wont keep up! Ha! I love cooking, and creating low fat meals on a budget has become a bit of an obsession. And you can't get more budget busting than pasta. Unfortunately, it's quite a gut buster too, clocking up 1 ProPoint per 10g on Weight Watchers! Compare this to potatoes for example, which are 1 ProPoint per 50g and you can see why I don't eat much pasta any more. But I was in the mood for comfort food, so I created this cheats carbonara which is tasty, quick and cheap! A real carbonara, with eggs, cream and fat-filled parmesan is one of my favourite things to cook out of the question for me at the moment, but this is a great substitute. It comes out at 9 ProPoints per serving.

Ingredients:

100g dried spaghetti (10 ProPoints)
100g extra light cream cheese with garlic and herbs (I used Tesco - 2 ProPoints)
1 gammon round (I used Tesco Value), chopped into small squares (6 ProPoints)
1 red pepper, chopped
A few mushrooms, chopped (optional)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Serves 2

1. Cook the spaghetti according to pack instructions, reserving about half a cup of the cooking water.
2. Meanwhile, heat a frying pan and spray with fry light or cooking spray. Cook the gammon, peppers and mushrooms until the gammon is cooked and vegetables softened.
3. Add the cream cheese to the ham and veg, along with a small amount of the pasta cooking water and stir to combine.
4. Combine the pasta and the sauce and season to taste, remembering that if your pasta water was salted you probably wont need much salt!

Although I've not tried it I'm sure this would also work with bacon (2 bacon medallions are only 1PP, to serve 2 people you'd need at least 4), chicken (a medium chicken breast is 4 PP) or prawns (60g for 1PP) so you could make it "cheaper" on ProPoints if you need to, as the gammon round is 6PP.

I served mine with steamed marrow and a garlic bread slice (I used Tesco for 3PP). Some other serving suggestions:

• brocolli, green beans or courgette could be boiled or steamed and either mixed through the pasta or served on the side (0PP)
• Weight Watchers Petite Pains for 3PP each
• green side salad with balsamic vinegar dressing to contrast the creaminess (0PP)
• 20g of grated half fat cheddar sprinkled on top (1PP)
• a nice cold glass of white wine! (3PP for a small 125ml glass)

Super simple and tasty! Will you be trying it? How do you make pasta fit in your diet?

Hx