My Daily Diet

Hi ladies,

My health is really important to me and I thought I'd share with you the kind of things I eat on a daily basis to try and stay healthy. I exercise at least 3 times a week (running/the gym/boxercise, etc) which allows me to eat more of the kinds of food I want.

I don't really believe in diets - I love food and I've been brought up to enjoy it. I'm half-Italian so I grew up eating quite a traditional, Mediterranean diet (lots of pasta, homemade pizza, tomatoes, olive oil, cheeses, bread, that kind of thing). You may immediately think that those are the kinds of foods that will make you put on weight, but they're actually incredibly good for you. Brits are 3 x more likely to be obese than Italians, who have the 2nd lowest obesity rates in the whole of Europe! If I really want to shift some weight for a holiday or whatever, I'll just up my exercise regime! I'd rather do that and be able to eat more of what I want.

I prefer to make small changes to my diet that I can implement on a daily basis. For example, I eat...

• Low-fat margarine instead of butter
• Skimmed milk instead of semi-skimmed/full-fat milk
• Wholemeal bread/pasta/rice instead of white bread/pasta/rice
• Half-fat cheese instead of full-fat cheese
• Sweetener instead of sugar

These are things that I don't even have to think about now which makes it really easy to stay healthy.

Here's a sample of what I eat daily...

Breakfast:

• Scrambled eggs with one slice of wholemeal bread (using 2 eggs)
• Omelette (same as above)
• Porridge with bananas & honey/apple & cinnamon/raisins
• Granola with natural yoghurt
• Muller light yoghurt + a banana

Porridge with bananas and honey...YUM!

For those of you who skip breakfast... DON'T DO IT!!! It's the most important meal of the day!

Lunch:

• Wholemeal pitta bread with ham & salad/tuna & sweetcorn/houmous & veg
• Wholemeal bagel with ham & low-fat cream cheese
• Healthy soup (New Covent Garden/Sainsbury's Be Good to Yourself) with a wholemeal roll

Wholemeal pitta bread with ham salad, Muller Light and Robinson's No Added Sugar Squash

Dinner:

• Breaded haddock with brown rice & veg
• Breaded cod with homemade potato wedges & veg
• Quiche with homemade potato wedges & sweetcorn
• Thai green curry with brown rice (chicken or prawns)
• Stir-fry with noodles & veg (chicken or prawns)
• Jacket potato with tuna & cheese/ ham salad / homemade chilli con carne
• Spaghetti bolognaise (using 250g mince, Dolmio low-fat bolognaise sauce + wholemeal spaghetti)
  
  
  Homemade chilli using chopped tomatoes, kidney beans, chilli flakes, onion & garlic...

I try not to snack but I do get peckish mid-morning, mid-afternoon and after dinner.

Snacks:

• Fruit (apple/banana)
• Muller Light yoghurt
• Muller Rice pot
• Ambrosia low-fat custard pot
• Raisins
• Cereal bar (Frusli/Go Ahead)

Drinks:

• Water
• Robinsons No Added Sugar Squash

I've cut caffeine!

I've also given up caffeine for Lent, which means no chocolate, coffee, tea, fizzy drinks or energy drinks for 40 days. I haven't found it that hard actually. I've found that where I thought I craved chocolate, I was actually just craving something sweet, and a pot of custard or Muller Rice usually does the trick. I used to drink a cup of coffee every morning and one mid-afternoon. I don't miss the morning coffee but sometimes, when I'm nearing that mid-afternoon slump, a cup of coffee would go down nicely! Remember, if you drink a lot of tea and coffee, try and use skimmed milk instead of semi-skimmed, and swap the sugar for sweetener or try and cut it out altogether! I've found that by cutting out caffeine I've been drinking a lot more water - you should aim for 2 litres a day! :)

I hope you've found this post helpful - I know a lot of people struggle with their weight, but what I've learnt recently is that I love food, but I also love exercise, and so hopefully by eating healthily and exercising regularly I can maintain my weight. By sticking to a healthy diet regularly, it also means I can afford to pig out when I want to and not have to beat myself up about it. Believe me, I love a tub of Haagen Daaz just as much as the next person...!

What do you think? Do you eat healthily or do you think improvements could be made to your diet?

Love,

Sophia

xo