Weight loss tips - preferably of the less obvious kind

[PLB]

No its not. Milk is a good source of protein. If protein is only between 25 and 35% of your diet, why isn't a cup of milk adequate? I put mine on my cereal. Easy!

There is also protein in legumes, good bread, in yoghurt. There's also protein in your oats There is protein all over the place. There is no rule that says that protein has to be the main nutrient in the food to be counted.

I think the day will come when all this high protein stuff will be regarded as a mis-direction. Not that i mean to suggest that PBL is advocating high protein.

I say it's difficult because I come across this everyday with my clients. Yes, milk is a great source of protein! But not everyone can have it and alternative milk products are often (not always) lacking in protein. Yes oats have protein. Great point.

What I see most often is that my clients either a) don't eat breakfast at all, or b) eat processed breads or cereals, only fruit, only coffee, etc. There's not really much of a balance there, so I tend to focus on trying to get them to have foods that have higher protein content.

I'm in no way advocating a high protein diet, it's just that many people that I see don't get enough protein at breakfast. If you go back to post #21, at most, I state that there should be 1/3 protein in a meal...

I completely agree with you that 'good carbs' such as veggies, fruits and legumes should be the main part of a diet... which is why I advocate that these should be 1/3 to 1/2 of every meal... the largest portion of most meals.

I in no way advocate that carbs are bad, I try to steer people away from only PROCESSED or REFINED ones.

 

[fortyfour]

I didn't have any disagreement with you on the portion thingy. Just about how easy it is to get protein in at brekkie but now you've explained where you are coming from.

I thought of your tip today about asking the restaurant to take half the food off the plate before it got to the table. I didn't do that but when i had stuffed as much salad as I could down my gob, i did the doggy bag thing and brought the rest home. Luckily the nice waitress had already suggested that before the food came otherwise i probably wouldn't have done taht either - it was just salad after all. It was the hugest salad i have ever been served in my life. Must have been 4 cups there but it looked great with a piece of grilled atlantic salmon on top etc etc. A very big lunch i had but pretty darn healthy nevertheless. I thought of calling it the Salmon 'n' Salad Good Fats Bonanza.

It had the salmon, avocardo and slivered almonds. All that was lacking was some olive oil but i had yoghurt and dill dressing instead.

 

[fortyfour]

Learn how to cook

This ties in with making your food interesting. If you want interesting food, you either have to spend a lot of money or do it yourself.

Learning how to cook is not difficult. Use recipe books. Explore foreign foods such as North African, Middle eastern, mediterranean - greek, italian, french, spanish - indian, chinese. thai, malaysian, indonesian, vietnamese.

If you are worried about having to buy a lot of exotic ingredients, then do the whole region before working into other areas.

Pick recipes that are low fat. And don't even look in the dessert sections: it can only end in disaster.

Pick recipe books that are written by people originating in that country, or who have researched the area on the ground or, books with traditional recipes.

Avoid cookbooks by famous chefs. These often involve complicated expensive recipes that are high in fat. Maggie Beer, as much i like her and her food makes very high fat recipes so, for aussies, she is one author i would definitely avoid. I'd also avoid books by tv chefs. Sometimes i've noticed their recipes are just wrong. There's a bit of an art to picking a good recipe or a good recipe book. For this reason, its worth starting by borrowing books from libraries. I think using the net is a bit hit and miss.

A good author for Australians is Stephanie Alexander
A good Ssian cookbook for Australians is the one by Charmaine Solomon.
My best indian cookbooks are those i bought over there.
Elizabeth David is a famous English cookbook writer who has long gone but she wrote books about mediterranean food that i think are authentic though, not french or italian etc.
The French have a famous book by Larousse publishers. My ex french boyfriend has this book and we used it all the time when i was with him.

 

[fortyfour]

Salad for dieters

Its easy to make a salad yummy and low fat. Here's some tips

For dressing use either fresh squeeze lemon or balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar. Good vinegar makes a salad taste better.

Olive oil. 1 or 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil. I can't understand why anyone would undermine the quality of their salad dressing by using light olive oil or light dressing. Leave it out altogether if you don't want any oil but this type of oil is good for you anyway.

Some salad greens. Use a mixture of leaves, including lettuce, rocket, fresh basil, other fresh herbs. Just two of these makes for a nice salad. Alfalfa sprouts of mung bean sprouts are also good. As are any been sprouts.

Tomato and cucumber are nice basics to add.

Grated carrot is something i put in occasionally. Sliced mushrooms, capscium, or some steamed cooled vegetables are other additions.

A bit of thin sliced onion sometimes. It leaves a strong after taste though.

A tablespoon of canned peas, or a diced slice of canned beetroot, or a small serve of some other type of canned or bottled vegetable such as artichokes just for a bit of variety.

If you are having nuts and seeds in your diet, you could put some on your salad. But its overkill if you are already eating this salad with a protein food.

Some times of fish are nice on a salad. I've been having european pickled herrings the last two days. Or you can have smoked salmon or canned salmon or even tuna. If i was using canned fish in oil i wouldn't add more to my salad probably.

In lieu of fish and nuts, you could try a boiled diced egg.

You can also add canned beans. I'd recommend about 1/3 or 1/2 cup for one person.

I think its nice to eat a salad like this with a delicious bread roll with no butter. A meal like this would be wholesome, nutritious, filling and yummy.

Things i would not put on a salad for a someone on a diet include cheese, bacon, mayonnaise or cream dressings, fancy cold meats because they are usually high in fat and processed therefore lots of chemicals and high salt.