What's your daily diet?

Without sounding too nosy, I am always curious to know what others eat day to day -what's a normal day for you?

My diet varies a lot and is mood dependant.

Breakfasts: Porridge, plain mixed fruit (especially in summer), nuts and seeds, smoothies, vegetable juices, eggs, mini grillup or toast.

Lunches: I have soup a lot (no cream/potato), having cut the majority of dairy foods out I tend to follow it with a mixed salad, banana or an apple. I might have last nights leftovers. I take a full salad during summer quite a lot, but not in winter. Sometimes I'll have a miso soup and some fruit if I'm not too hungry.

Evening meals: Vary a lot, I started replacing 1/2 the carbs with mixed veg a while back so tend to have 2-4 portions of veg on my evening meal, we have chicken a lot and red meat at least once a week. Other than the occasional takeaway we cook from scratch nearly all of the time.

Snacks vary, I always keep fruit to hand such as bananas or apples because they're easy to carry and eat. I always keep nuts and a nakd bar in my desk drawer, I won't necessarily eat them but it stops me snacking on anything worse.

Naughty snacks, I'm quite fond of galaxy chocolate and salt and vinegar crisps. The crisps are a lot easier to give up as I rarely eat them now. I manage to be reasonable most of the time with chocolate although when I slip I do it 'properly' and pig it!

I'm working on phasing out some foods at the moment, so this week has been very fruity, veggy and nutty. I've had to eat loads to keep the hunger at bay.

Sounds very healthy, from the rest of your diet you shouldn't even feel guilty about having some galaxy now and then!

I don't particularly feel guilty when I eat it, nothing worse than a bellyfull of chocolate to make you feel totally rubbish and sluggish though!

I am axactly the same with chocolate -once I crave it I eat a lot of it! I can easily say no to crisps, pastry/cream cakes, fizzy drinks, jelly sweets or takeaways, but chocolate/baked treats are my only vice really. But everyone is different. I think I'd rather eat an uber healthy meal as long as there's a pud and a brew to follow!

I can be worse with the jelly sweets sometimes! I do find them easier to avoid in a way because jelly sweets usually come in bigger bags, I don't often buy them because I can easily eat the lot. Chocolate bars come in loads of different sizes so it's easier to pick a more sensible choice most of the time.

Wish I didn't like the taste so much! I'm just glad I don't tend to get proper sweet cravings any more and can shut them up with fruit for the most part.

That's good how you've almost 'trained' your body not to crave them -at the end of the day we don't need any of it I suppose (but I think a want can be a need sometimes!). It's handy to be able to buy small chocolate portions like freddos or curly wurlys to satisfy a craving but you're right -fruit should always be your first port of call!

It's fairly easy to train your body not to crave rubbish, it thrives better on natural foods. You can get a 'taste' for something but not NEED to eat it. It's more a case of not listening to what your body needs that causes overeating of sweet, fatty or salty foods. Bodies naturally crave these kinds of foods, it's just unfortunate it's so easily available in processed forms.

 I also find the more I exercise the healthier I tend to eat, because I crave fruit and veg more.

I totally agree with that- the more I exercise the less I want rubbish. I always end up choosing herbal tea over normal tea and fruit over chocolate if I've been to the gym. What a great excuse to go to the gym!

Me too! I do tend to eat more, but it's often the healthier options. I think it's to do with the fact that I don't want to have to work that hard again for one bar of chocolate

I think it's partly psychological, you've worked hard so you don't want to undo the good work by eating chocolate. I think the rest is the body knowing what's better for it, my water, fruit and veg intake is generally higher when I'm active but I also crave specific things like celery, apples, bananas, tomatoes or nuts after certain workouts.

They're some healthy cravings you have there! But I guess it's just your body telling you what it wants. I'm the opposite to the prveious comment -I would always choose working harder at the gym for any amount of chocolate!

My daily diet is: cereal, sandwich with a yoghurt, fruit and cereal bars as snacks, then something like casserole, pasta or curry/chilli for dinner. And a few cups of tea thrown in and maybe a bit of chocolate. Verdict? Good/bad?

It's hard to say unless you're specific, to me it's not a great diet but you haven't given much detail either. 

Do you eat any vegetables? What goes into your sandwich fillings? Buttered bread? Brown/white bread? Low fat/normal yogurts? What milk do you use (if any)? Sugared tea? Brown or white pasta? What kind of meat? etc. Do you mix up your breakfasts and lunches? How much chocolate each day!

I love veg and have it with every evening meal. Sandwiches are brown bread with flora, salad leaves and ham. Low fat natural yog usually, maybe with some fresh fruit chopped in. Skimmed milk in tea and on my Weetabix. Mix of both pastas, meat is usually mince, chicken or pork loin. My breakfasts and lunches pretty much are the same every day. And probably a small kitkat/timeout each day.

That looks better, the biggest improvement would be variety and a bit more veg, so having different sandwich fillings would be a start, different lean meats and salmon for example. A range of soups or hot and cold salads would add variety and different veg and flavours. Try and take a veg snack too, your intake could be easily boosted during the day, eat as a snack or alongside your sandwich. Carrots, sugarsnaps, peppers, cucumber or cherry tomatoes are all portable and easy. Your weetabix could be boosted with bananas, berries, a glass of oj or a smoothie. Sandwiches are easy, but its easy to get into the same routine, with variety you get a wider range of nutrients.

Thanks, think I'll start adding veg into my snack options and add a bit of variety to my diet -I am admittedly stuck in a rut. If only I had a personal chef! I don't like spending too much time preparing my lunch in the morning you see!

I find it so much easier to include a variety of lunches if I make them up the night before, often preparing 2 days worth in one go. I frequently have salads and add salmon, chicken, cous cous or a pasta salad maybe with some roasted veg and pesto. It's easy to cook a little extra veg, fish, meat etc when you are cooking the evening meal, takes very little extra time and means I get a range of nutrients and variety which stops me from getting bored. There's so amny different things you caa do with a salad it need not be boring. Try experimenting with different combinations.

Some of my favourites are:

Greek salad

Pasta salad with raost veg and pesto

Salmon and cous cous

Chicken caesar salad

Occassionally I make sandwichs, filled pittas or wraps but alwasy add salad to these and usually have some cherry tomaotes on the side.

Soups are always a good option too. You make a big batch at the weeekend and keep in the fridge for lunch in the week and even freeze some for a later date when you havn't had time to make anything else.

Im similar, i bring leftovers in once or twice a week and that just needs plating up at night. A carton of soup lasts 2 days and is good if bulked with salad and a boiled egg, cous cous can be done with the morning cuppa as just needs hot water tipping on it, add leftover veg and salmon and warm for a min or 2 at work. Batch cooking soups is good. Chilli con carne and spag bol freeze well, rice and pasta is best done fresh if you want it. I have riceless chilli with extra beans and add fresh uncooked red + yellow pepper before eating to give it better texture and boost veg.