A Post for Hubby

I haven’t done a post on our diet for a while, and following a blood test and weigh in today, Hubby has discovered his weight has rocketed by 10 kilos which has thrown his medication out, not to mention causing more problems for his circulatory issues.
If you’re looking for quick weight loss tips and trendy diets, this post is not for you.
Neither am I a nutritionist or health professional.
What has helped my weight loss in the past has been a combination of change of lifestyle, means of cooking, a variety of foods, circumstances, and that all important matter of MONEY.

To be honest, my weight has gone up too, but not to the extent of Hubby’s, so this has to be addressed and what better way to do it than in a post filled with numbers, observations and my theory that our change in eating habits has contributed to these increases.
If you intend to read on, I suggest you get yourself a cuppa and grab the biscuits (I promise not to drool, honest) because this might be a longer post than normal.

      

We have no freezer, and although there is an under-worktop full size fridge, I do not use the small freezer compartment therein as when we leave the boat for any length of time, we turn off the power as a safety precaution.
So, I can no longer bulk buy meat and divide it up as I used to in the house. We have discovered that the smaller portions cost twice, if not three times as much, and so apart from my tomato pasta and any sweet and sour/curry dishes I make from scratch, our main meal usually comes out of a tin. Oh dear.
My theory is therefore that because we no longer have control over the ingredients, The Tin Diet has been bad for us and is responsible for the majority of our weight gain.
But is it?
There are charts and summaries, pretty pictures, lists and guidelines in abundance on the internet. I am only going to mention what applies to us though.

There are some things that can be addressed immediately, so from today, biscuits, chocolate, crisps and sticky buns are off the menu. It will be difficult because we both have a sweet tooth, but if they are not in the boat, we won’t want them (well, we will, so I’ll change that to we can’t have them). I have a large bag of apples in the fridge, and they will have to do.
Hubby admits to not doing as much exercise as he has done. This is because he has been suffering with his ankle recently, and previously pains in his back and side. For my part though, I have been walking the dog more on my own, and actually walking further so has my weight gain been less because of this, or perhaps as is well known that fat has turned to muscle mass, which in turn weighs heavier. I am not making excuses, I ate the goodies too.

Now some figures for you.
The RDA for adults is as follows: (source Health Challenge NPT)

Recommended Daily Amounts Made Easy

	Women	Men
Calories (Kcals)	2000	2500
Total fat	70g	95g
Saturated fat	20g	30g
Unsaturated fats	50g	60g
Carbohydrates	300g	300g
Protein	45g	55g
Fruit and Veg	At least 5 portions	At least 5 portions
Salt (sodium)	5g max (2g sodium)	7g max (2.8g sodium)
Fluids (ideally Water but also includes squash, fruit juices, milk, tea and coffee etc.)	6 – 8 glasses (1.2 litres)	6 – 8 glasses (1.2 litres)
Alcohol	2-3 units max (but no more than 14 units in a week)	3-4 units max (but no more than 21 units in a week)

Alcohol doesn’t apply to us, and we drink tea or coffee with UHT skimmed milk, no sugar.

We fall down on the fruit and veg, but then this was always the case until we started to grow our own. We intend to grow veg in pots on the boat later.
We buy white sliced bread as by trial and error it keeps best for our sandwiches. Fillings are either ham or cheese, but we have no butter, sauce or spread of any description, items I no longer buy.
Out of a 400g pack of smoked wafer thin ham (cost £1.49), I can get at least 8 sandwiches.
Per 100g, calories are 99, fat 3.7g (of which saturated fats 1.4g), carbs 0.5g (of which all is sugars), fibre 0.5g, protein 16g, and salt 1.8g. So for each sandwich, you can halve that.
For our lunch today, we shall be having a slice of bread, and tin of soup at 96 calories, 3.8g fat, 13.8g carbs (sugars 8.4g), fibre 1.4g, protein 1g and salt 1.3g per portion.
Tonight, we’re having a tin of beef bolognese (cost £1.29 for 400g), cals 145, 4.8g fat (saturates 2g), carbs 9.8g (sugars 6.2g), fibre 1.9g, protein 14.8g and salt 1.3g per portion.
To go with it will be an 80g portion of noodles: cals 380, fat 16.2g, carbs 50.1, protein 9.5g, salt not listed with value, just as an ingredient.

We have a lot of rice (40p for a kilo) and pasta quills (29p for 500g) rather than potatoes.
Rice per 100g portion : cals 347, fat 0.8g, carbs 76g (trace sugar), fibre 3.1g, protein 7.3g, salt trace.
Pasta per 100g portion: cals 157, fat 1g, carbs 29.8 (sugars nil), fibre 2.4g, protein 6.1g, salt trace.

Tins that go with either are curry (£1.29), chicken korma (also £1.29) and chilli (56p).
We also buy tins of corned beef hash at £1 each and I add a tin of baked beans  (4 pack for £1.15) and an onion.

My conclusion is that maybe the tinned stuff isn’t so bad for us after all.
If you are calorie counting, it’s easy as everything is listed and your portion size is controlled.
For us, it is also cost effective as I cannot buy (or store) the ingredients to make from scratch for the cost of a tin. A small chicken breast for instance can be over £2, though I will make this into a meal of some description for the two of us.
Once in a while we will have a proper meal out (meat and two veg) or I’ll buy a plated TV microwave dinner of the same for £1.99 each.

Hubby has a month before his next blood test and weigh in. It will be interesting to see how things progress between now and then.
Watch this space…………………………………

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