Pls comment on my normal food menu

Can I ask if you are in the UK?

Hi sammi well the white rice is ok and fish is ok but as for tea with full cream milk powder id swith to skimmed milk and you need to eat breakfast to get your metabolism going have sone cereal low fat with fruit in and skimmed milk butter cake a def no no have rice cakes low fat no gravy unless its a tiny bit fat free and no coconut milk unless its the low fat variety x

Hi sammi trust me i didnt realise your not in the uk at 1st before i sent what i was eating x welcome on board hope we can all advise you on here x

Hi Sammie, well the lovely ladies on this forum have given you some great advice so I shall now add my tuppence worth - sorry, that is a British coloquium! It is great that you cook most of your meals fresh - that is definitely the best way forward, but you need to make sure there is practically zero fat used to cook - no oils of any kind, no fats, butters, cheese or anything like that, but instead you can use a very low fat virgin olive oil. We have one here that we can use and it's an oil spray - a very fine mist - and it's almost zero calorie/fat and so it is brilliant for cooking with. You need to find something that you can use instead of any oils and fats. The full cream milk powder has to go I'm afraid, but you can use almond milk, or skimmed milk - any milk that is reduced fat will be fine. I also think as your day starts to early you really do need to have something to eat - even if it is just an apple or some other fresh fruit. The green tea is an excellent choice of drink and you can drink as much as this as you like throughout the day provided it doesn't have honey or sugar in it. In addition you can drink any amount of sugar free drinks throughout the day, water, black coffee with sweetners. Your lunch is very healthy but not sure what your potato curry has in it but you do need to make sure the fat content is very very low. You might also like to pack it out a bit with lots of other vegetables and not just the potato as potato can add up in calories if you eat too much of it, so if you add other fresh vegetables you won't eat as much potato. Not sure what veg you get in SA but you could add courgette, pumpkin, onions, cauliflour, carrots, peas, broccoli - really, any veg that is fresh and a medley of colours will give you lots of different vitamins. And make sure the fish is grilled or poached - not fried. You evening meal could also do with some fresh vegetables if you able to get them. Steamed or boiled rice with vegetables and herbs and spices is lovely - but again, no oils or fats. And you could add some more protein to that evening meal such as beans and pulses, lentils - that sort of thing (are you vegetarian). It is really good that you are making your own meals but from looking at what you've written I believe you do need to add quite a bit more fruit and veg, pulses, protein etc. For your snacks throughout the day you can snack on fruit of course, raw vegetables, fat free yogurt (do you get that) which you can add fruit to, salted popcorn - no butter. Sugar free sweets in moderation, and then there are some very low fat sweets such as jelly babys and marshmellow (but again, not sure if you get them in SA). I think you will need to do some investigating and trial and error, but for sure, increase the fresh fruit and veg, cut out the fat, add some variety with beans and pulses and herbs etc. and we would never eat at 11 p.m here in England - I think most of us are in bed by that time!!!! Even 9 is late to eat here although in my house we usually have our evening meal about 8 so not much earlier. I've given you an idea of my daily meals below to see what you think:

breakfast 8:00 a.m - porridge with fresh fruit using almond milk or skimmed milk, cup of herbal or redbush tea (yes, I have South African friends here in the UK and they got me onto Redbush tea - I think you call it roiboo???)

throughout the morning - herbal tea, sugar free squash, fresh fruit such as grapes or strawberries, and and apple or banana, or lots of raw vegetables like chopped up carrots and celery.

lunch 1.30 p.m - low fat soup (we can buy ready made cans of soup here that are really healthy and full of vegetables) and I either have a bowl of salad and a wholemeal pitta bread with it or add steamed vegetables and chopped up pieces of chicken to it - something like that.

throughout the afternoon - fresh fruit and vegetables

tea time 5:00 p.m - 2 rice cakes with low fat philadelphia and chopped tomatoes and cucumber or a low fat soup or yoghurt

dinner 8:00 p.m - grilled meat or fish, pasta or rice, and salad or boiled new pototoes with steamed vegetables and a bit of gravy - no fat used at all.

Of I make a large pot of stew - masses of vegetables, potato, sweet potato, chicken, pulses or lentils, in a broth - no fat used.

Or jacket potatoe with vegetarian chillie con carne

Or stir fry - loads of veg stir fried with chicken or fish on top of steamed fish

Then in the evening if I fancy it I have a low fat hot chocolate drink with 4 marshmellows or 4 jelly babys.

If I have had a cycle during the day, I may have some pretzels as a treat.

And some diet coke is a treat in the evening too.

Hope that helps and would love to hear your thoughts on all this as it's quite difficult to make suggestions as not sure what you can and cannot get in SA.

Bye for now. xx