What's my food plan...let's see

No bread, rice, pasta, cereal, cake, cookies, ice cream, potatoes...other than that I eat whatever I want...which doesn't leave too much (that I want) because all I really want is a crossiant, some nachos, a cheeseburger & french fries.

You can get Omega-3s from walnuts too! My favorite breakfast (when I have time) is oatmeal with raisins, ground flaxseeds, and walnuts! Really high in Omega-3s.

I try to get at least one serving of protein a meal (I'm vegetarian), and not to eat everything in sight. Unfortunately, my meal plan isn't too set, and it needs to be: all the weight I've lost has been because of exercise. Soon - right after Spring Break - I am going to really concentrate on what I'm eating.

Great idea for a thread, giving me some good ideas for when I make the eating shift.

wow - thanks heaps everyone. very interesting to see what is going on in other peoples diets.

having just found out that OH's kids will be staying with us every other week instead of the usual 3 days a fortnight is going to make me pick up my act when it comes to meals. OH and I are so slack at the moment and with the budget really minimal i haven't been very creative.

i am looking at it as a good thing and hopefully it will encourage me to cook healthier.

An average day for me looks something like this:

Breakfast 6:30am - 3 x wholemeal/mutligrain toast with vegemite

Snack 10:30am - small handful of mixed nuts

Lunch 12:30pm - 500gm low-fat natural yoghurt topped with berries

Snack 3:30pm - small handful mixed nuts

Dinner 7pm - grilled polenta cake with ratatouille

Is it better to have the big meal for dinner, or for breakfast? I was always told that it is better to eat more breakfast, so I try to eat most of my calories by lunchtime.

I am a calorie counter and, although I try to stay within a certain percentage of protein, carbs, and fat and have a rule about getting at least 25 grams of fiber, I eat whatever I want. A typical day looks like this:
6:30a....Cheerios with skim milk
9:30a....Banana and a Light and Fit smoothie
12:30p..Cottage cheese, cucumbers and tomatoes, Diet Coke, and a small square of Ghiradelle dark chocolate(My favorite meal of the day..lol )
3:30p....Grapefruit and a no fat yogurt
6:00p...LARGE salad with chicken breast and balsamic vinegar and olive oil
9:00p...A small bag of 94% fat free popcorn

I sometimes eat peanuts, walnuts or soy nuts. I also sometimes eat McDonald's or Burger King. I just average my protein, fat, carbs, and calories so that by the last day of the week, I am on target. That way I can mix it up, go over, etc. I do calorie zig zags as well. It seems to work for me.

You'll hear some people say that it's better to eat early so you can burn the calories off during the day, or that if you eat too much later in the day, your body will store it as fat while you slepe instead of burning it off...phooey. Eat whenever you want--your body will still do what it will with the calories.

A major reason some suggest not eating as much at night is that a lot of people have difficulty with snacking or grazing throughout the evening after dinner. This is why Oprah stops eating by 6 or 7pm However, if you know that everything you eat throughout the entire day does not take you over your calorie limit, then it really doesn't matter what time you eat.

Of course, if you have weird dreams from eating more or certain foods at night, or you get heartburn or anything, then it makes more sense not to eat as much at night, but without extenuating circumstances, a calorie is a calorie no matter what time of day it is consumed

About the tuna/mercury thing - actually eating tuna too often can be a problem, particularly depending on the source. Tuna and other fish concentrate it in their tissues, and the bigger (hence older) the tuna/fish, the more mercury it will contain in its tissues. Canned tuna (at least in the U.S.) is tested/inspected/held to standards of how much mercury it can have in each can. Tuna canners will actually mix bigger tuna and smaller tuna to get the allowed amount of mercury in there. The EPA still recommends I think up to 12 oz./week of fish lower in mercury, less for pregnant women. However if your eating fresh tuna that's different. Bigger tuna (white albacore) are ideal for meals such as sushi, and they may contain even higher levels of mercury. Do a google search to find out what other fish are high on the list - I don't want to post any links b/c they'll get taken off. Swordfish and shark are on the "danger" list, and grouper is pretty high I think.

The good news - some fish with lots of omega 3's like salmon hardly less mercury, so eat up! Salmon and other fish with such short life cycles (a few years to a decade) aren't around long enough to get a lot of mercury in them before they end up on your plate.

I agree with jillybean720, it's calories in, calories out, period - with the exception of getting a good balance of the food groups - if you eat only carbs and no protein, for example, your body won't function as well, in my opinion.

That has nothing to do with my everday eating habits, the original question on this post. But now my fingers are tired from typing.

i'm following weight watchers to the best of my ability. my points are supposed to be 28 points a day, but usually i end up eating like 33 or 34 points. sometimes i exercise and get activity points, but sometimes i don't.

breakfast: usually 1/2 cup cottage cheese with 1/2 cup of fruit (like pineapples or strawberries). if i'm feeling really bad i add walnuts to it.

lunch: like a tuna wrap or salad or soup or cajun wraps

supper: usually something like meat and potato with a veg. i'm trying to get creative about supper foods, but i grew up with meat and potatoes so it's hard to think of healthier options to cook. i'm in love with chicken chilli right now so we probably have that once a week for supper and then 2 times for lunches.

I'm on Jenny Craig!!!

But I always choose the same foods for my menu, despite the choices I get. Haha.

A typical day:

B: Triple Grain Crisp cereal with 1/2 cup milk
S: Peanut butter chocolate bar
L: Pesto Pizza
S: Fruit of any kind
D: Chicken Fettucini Alfredo with LOTS of vegetables
Dessert: Cookies n cream cheesecake.

ladyjames-- I don't think it really matters when you get your calories in. I've never heard about eating more in the morning, but I've heard that you should definitely EAT in the morning. Breakfast gets your metabolism going for the day, so you burn more calories, but that's about it. So whenever you get the most desire to eat, I would say that that's when you should eat the most calories. If you eat a whole bunch in the morning, then have an attack of the 7 PM-munchies, that kind of screws you for the day. Just listen to your own body.

I'm working on tailoring my diet, refining my food choices. So I'll post what I ate today, which is a huge improvement over my normal day's intake:

10 a.m. 3 packets instant oatmeal
4 p.m. 1 1/2 cups mac & cheeze
8 p.m. 2 cups spagetti

I know that's a lot of starch. But it's a start toward actually eating 3-5 non sugary, chocolate & salt coated meals a day.

Tomorrow is planned to look like this:

10 a.m. 2 pkts. oatmeal
12 p.m. 1 cup chicken noodle soup
3:30 p.m. iceberg lettuce w/ shred carrots & french dressing
6:30 p.m. 92/8 hamburger pan cooked with lite Pam spray & mixed with home made 'manwich' style mix
9 p.m. 3 cups stove popped popcorn w/o salt or butter

I make an effort to avoid junk food, but other than that I don't have any set plan. I eat a ton of fruit, probably more carbs than I really need, and definitely more grilled cheese sandwiches than absolutely necessary. I've never been a big eater but I always had a major sweet tooth so if I avoid the sugary treats my calories pretty much regulate themselves. I'm aware of how much I eat in the back of my head, but I will occasionally pop over to fitday if it's midnight and I'm hungry to see whether it's because I've only had 900 calories so far or if I just need a handful of baby carrots and a nice big glass of water and to get my mind off of food.

I don't function well without breakfast, so that always happens. I did notice that if I stay near the lower end of my calorie range (1200-1500) that I'm not hungry the day that I eat that little, but am ravenous when I wake up the next morning.

I'm a calorie-counter, too, so I tend to vary my dinners a lot, but my breakfasts and lunches are pretty much the same;
Breakfast: shake with berries, fat-free yogurt, and original fresh soy milk
Lunch: a can of sundried tomato tuna with multigrain wheat thins or a whole wheat wrap with salad, low fat feta, and sliced chicken breast
Dinner: usually fish (I LOVE salmon) or chicken breast with steamed veggies or braised greens - these are my fall-backs, but I like to try new stuff - soups, cassaroles, pretty much anything. I eat sushi about once a week 9just the raw fish and rice, though - none of the mayo stuff)
Snacks: fruit and veggies, cocoa Urban Wafers, cottage cheese... and about 10 cups of coffee! And i go for a handful of Sour Cream and Chive crispy minis about once a week to satisfy the salty/crunchy craving.

Basically I'm trying to avoid sugars and processed carbs... I'm using weight watchers as a guideline, and I'm supposed to be on 22 points per day - I usually make up at least 10 of these with dinner, and find I tend to have to add a snack after dinner to make it to 22, since a lot of my snacks are 0 or 1 pointers. I make sure I have one dinner a week where I don't worry about it 9tomorrow it's homemade perogies - yum!)
As for the tuna, I've heard that if you keep it to twice/week it's okay, but anything beyond that and the mercury levels get dangerous. Smaller fish are safer since they're not so high up on the food chain, so the mercury levels in them aren't so concentrated.

This thread was a great idea - it's great seeing what other people eat!

I learn so much from you guys! :-) Thanks!

As for my eating habits, I eat a ton of food -- I have found that I need to eat every two hours (give or take 30 mins) or I get horrible stomach cramps that take twice as much food to get rid of. (But then I feel too full, which also sucks.) As I cannot follow routines too well, I have been slipping more fruits and veggies into my diet, and stopping eating when I am full. That last is actually a biggie for me, because I would previously stop eating when I felt emotionally satisfied. I have also begun cutting out candy in favor of pastries, which I hope I can eventually replace with fruit; I limit my bread intake; and I cook or bake whatever I want to eat, to avoid preservatives and eating out.