Right now I'm searching the depths of the internet and digging through the library catalog to find books and information on eating healthy. My boyfriend and I need to start eating healthy in general, however he needs to lose weight. I am a normal weight and "skinny", but he is overweight and very much wants to combat his pounds. I just need to eat better. And we both need to exercise more.
Right now we've decided we need to exercise more and eat better, however its the food that's causing the most issues. He knows what he needs to be doing in way of getting active and I LOVE to cook. I just don't know what to be making.
We know three small meals with snacks. But, that's about as far as I've gotten. I am under the impression I need to add more fresh fruits and veggies to our diet and plan on getting those into the house (Which will be much easier come next month when I live there as well). He wants me to cook low fat, limiting himself to 30 grams of fat per day. But, without me there monitaring what he's eating and cooking the foods, I don't think that will happen for the time being. Plus, I work two jobs.
My main goal here is gather the resources to be able to develop an eating plan and diet to help him lose weight and to work more healthy items into my diet.
I highly recommend using an online tool like TheDailyPlate or FitDay for him to count his calories. It's completely changed how I view eating. I can now look at what I eat over the course of a day (and what I plan to eat later) and think about it in terms of many factors, nutritional value, volume, the pleasure it brings me, etc.
This also helps as you are making those changes to your diet, you can make changes slowly by targeting the worst offenders.
One thing that also helps is on days off the two of you could cook things for the week. Like cook chicken breasts and salmon and have them ready in individual portions that can be heated up. He also just has to take a more active role in preparing food if you don't have the time.
I suggest having him track calories on a site like sparkpeople.com (it's free). 30 grams of fat is low but can be done if you are diligent. When he signs up he puts in his goals and it'll set up a program of calories for him to follow- it's very easy
Thank you for the website suggestions, I think they'll help. He especially needs to take a more active role. Its great that he's decided to do something, but deciding and then starting to do something are two different things.
Its just very hard right now, like I said I'm working the two jobs and he works overnights. The weekends I believe are going to prove to be the best time for us to get together and work on dishes. Cooking over the weekend and having things to reheat for the first part of the week will be best, and he'll be able to pack a lunch for the late nights.
Heck, I'm at one job right now. lol Its a library, so I'm itching for the next hour to be over with so I can run upstairs and grab all the books I want.
How come the man's not here himself? Just sayin'. We do have other male members, so he won't get "girl cooties" from all the fat chicks & formerly fat chicks on the site.
It's just that, in my experience, losing a lot of weight is one of those things where nothing beats taking complete personal responsibility & not leaving anything to any other one person in the world. Not even one's significant other. Not even one's parents.
But, okay, anyway, when I was looking to develop a repertoire of healthy recipes, I found several books helpful:
"Eat, Drink & Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating"
by Willett & Skerrett
"Eat Out, Eat Right! A Guide to Healthier Restaurant Eating" by Hope Warshaw
"Superfoods Rx: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life" by Stephen G. Pratt
"What to Eat" by Marion Nestle
"Eat This, Not That" Can't remember the author, but he's been on nearly every media outlet known to man promoting this.
I do the research my way and he does it his way. But, thank you for the concern. We are doing it in our own special way and I tend to gravitate towards forums, websites and he runs to the books and talks to people offline.
I'd appriciate it if there was no judgement in the fact that I came here instead.
Here for a man.
