Well, the final post Covid bonus was a diagnosis of Celiac to go with my pre existing autoimmune and connective tissue stuff and dairy issues (also very common with celiac as the part of the digestion that deals with lactose gets destroyed), so I cut out wheat/oats/barley. I think the reason gluten free has been painted as a weight loss thing is due to how that instantly eliminates so many very calorifically dense foods and redirects you towards others; I'm definitely a minimum time in the kitchen person anyway, as I've gone wobbly or actually ended up in a heap far too many times for comfort. And waking up feeling like I'd been hit by a bus, scraped up and put into a cement mixer with twenty concrete lego bricks the size of breezeblocks instead of sleeping was my life from my late teens.
The majority of stuff I eat is very easy - it costs, convenience always does, but it's worth it for me.
Ready to drink protein shakes for breakfast and as a handy emergency 'tit, I'm about to pass out again' thing. High protein snack bars were also useful when I felt like I was about to crash before dinner.
Lunches - precooked fish/seafood, rice & hardboiled eggs done in the rice cooker so they take about 50 seconds to get going and about 120 more after I've sat down for ages to put into a lunchbox, add salad, add sesame seeds.
Dinners - anything from soup and some GF bread to chicken breast/pork steak/etc in a pan with optional spices or herbs, onto a plate with rice/potatoes and vegetables from Birdseye or with microwave instructions. Nowt wrong with a jacket potato and beans/chilli. Egg and GF oven chips. Rice noodle soups (stock, tamari, sake, mirin, rice noodles, frozen peas/edamame/beans, prawns/chicken/leftover pork, mushrooms, spring onion, coriander, miso, seaweed).
Weekend stuff - decent brunch (which is bacon, avocado, egg for me), then something like marinated chicken in the slow cooker, curry (no dairy/cream/bhajis/naan, but definitely GF poppadoms and rice), sausages in a tomato/onion/courgette/pepper/harissa casserole, slow cooker roasts with veg cooked in a tower steamer, GF burger (no bun, I'd rather eat more chips or a second burger), mushrooms, salad, pickles, GF chips/wedges, steak/pork/chicken/turkey in a pan with rice/spuds/veg/salad.
Basically, because it's too much like hard work to go in search of GF alternatives, it's minimal effort fresh stuff, things that don't need fannying about with for ages and a few just open the packet and put on the plate things. With the odd holy grail item like GF scampi or a pie once in a blue moon. I'm eating far more regularly, I'm not getting as dizzy and overeating in an attempt to give myself an energy boost, better nutrition, and most of all, nobody is spending time and energy in the kitchen if it can be avoided.
My exercise started with 'sitting back in the office chair, see if you can feel your stomach and arse muscles' (I couldn't) and 'see if you can get part of the way out of the bath before needing to take a break - too hard? How about ''sit in the bath with the shower running over your head and think about washing your hair before somebody comes along to help you''? Still too much? Go to bed and stretch your legs or wiggle your toes and fingers whilst laying down'.
I still believe strongly that conservation of energy is vital - but the impact of those incremental changes and one instant one (the gluten business) has been significant over the last year.
www.goodfood.com.au
