People asked about my "diet", so I'll write about it, good thing I've got a free hour.
A diet, in case anyone doesn't know, is simply a nutrition regimen. The goals of diets vary, it's not necessarily about bringing yourself to a "skin and bones" state.
My diet is designed to
1. Not be completely tasteless
2. Not be too high in calories
3. Reduce meat consumption
4. Increase vitamin intake
5. Provide a varied diet
Unfortunately, I don't have anywhere near enough willpower to stick to the ideal diet, especially in winter.
So I'll write down how it should be, and how it actually turns out.
1. In the morning I always eat porridge made from various grains: primarily oatmeal and millet. Often also a "five-grain mix". Less frequently - porridge from quick flakes (rice, oat, buckwheat). Sometimes, just plain rice porridge. I try to buy rice that is either Parboiled (steam-treated) or brown (conversely, lightly processed); in both cases, the process preserves vitamins.
Ideally, the porridge should be made with water and without additives, but that's just too depressing. Right now I make it half with milk, add a little butter (generally it's bad for you, but at the same time good, if used in moderation). Usually I put in raisins, sometimes frozen berries, just a little, otherwise it gets too sour.
I measure all this with a special little cup so as not to overdo it, but this is a recent innovation. A Teflon saucepan helps very, very much with boiling the porridge; it's my best purchase of the last year.
Also in the morning I sometimes eat cottage cheese, used to be two packs, now one. The cottage cheese varies, from 0.5% to 9%, whatever I come across. I add kefir to it, sometimes "plain" yogurt (without sugar and additives).
2. For lunch I eat what I prepared in advance for a few days, back when I had more time. Usually it's fried meat (not too much) with rice. Sometimes fried vegetables from a bag, or soup. As a side dish it's also not bad to have corn, pickled cucumbers or sauerkraut, but it's important not to overdo it with the amount. I eat processed meat (sausage and ham) very rarely, I almost never buy it myself, unless someone brings some over.
I plan to switch to stewed vegetables and meat. Fried food, as you know, is unhealthy, and besides, it involves oil. I try to reduce meat in my diet, sometimes I don't eat it for lunch, which automatically means I don't eat it all day. True, instead of it I eat mac and cheese, which of course doesn't help with weight loss, but on the other hand, it's varied and tasty.
For dessert at lunch I eat a couple of/one apple and one carrot (can't really fit in any more).
3. In the evening I eat a salad of fresh vegetables and greens, with a little olive or sunflower oil as a dressing. In general I try not to eat bread, but sometimes I buy the darker kind and consume it with the salad.
If I didn't manage to buy vegetables, or I'm not in the mood to eat them, I make microwave popcorn. In general, popcorn is a very good and healthy food, all the harm is added to it by butter, salt, and sugar. So sometimes it's okay to munch on that too.
Another important point - I don't buy and try not to eat sweets (pastries, candy, etc.) on weekdays. I do, however, buy and eat fruits, but I try to limit myself. I also bought and eat nuts as a snack, but it's hard to hold back and eat fewer of them, so I'll probably stop this practice.
In conclusion, so that I'm not considered a sick-in-the-head proponent of "healthy eating", I want to announce that on weekends I eat whatever I want (at the moment, at least), because otherwise life is a bit too boring.
In addition, I don't count calories, I eat as much as I want. This, of course, very much slows down the movement towards fewer kilograms, but I haven't yet matured enough for other options, especially in winter, when everything around is so depressing.
Overall, I break the schedule relatively often, especially if I'm sick. For instance, at work I eat sweets when someone treats me, and sandwiches with white bread too.
It's easy to improve my diet: I need to reduce portions, remove things fried in oil, remove butter and milk from porridges, remove (temporarily) nuts, and most importantly - make no exceptions for the weekends.
I'll tell you kids the most important thing, in case you don't already know the obvious. No diets allow you to lose weight and then maintain it at that mark if you go back to your old habits. A diet is for life. I had a plan to stick to a stricter version before I lost weight, and then ease up on it, but overall not change the underlying ideas. The plan is failing so far, but there's hope for the summer, when on weekends instead of visiting eateries I'll be busting out 200 km on my bike over the weekend, as long as the weather permits.
I sure did write quite a lot though, guess I missed blogging.