Gred is 60 years old. He rises at 6.30am, and then works from 8am to 3-4pm renovating his properties. He has lunch (usually leftovers) at home and admits he eats it very quickly so he can attend to emails and business calls. He has to watch his stress levels and the amount of physical labour he does as he has congestive heart failure. Even so, he still lifts heavy weights and is on the go all day. Most nights he’ll have a glass of wine with dinner and 2-3 drinks on a weekend night if he goes out. He’d love to lose some weight, but finds it hard to shift. He rarely eats butter, but doesn’t hold back on the olive oil! He hardly has his favourite, bacon and eggs, for breakfast anymore. After dinner he often craves something sweet, so will sneak a couple of pieces of chocolate or a couple of biscuits.
7am
1 piece Vogel’s toast with peanut butter. Cup of black tea. At home reading the Herald.
10am
1 sweet biscuit, 3 Brazil nuts, 3 almonds, black coffee and a glass of water at work.
12.30pm
2 fillets gurnard leftover from dinner in a French bread roll with mayo. Handful of potatoes. Glass of water. I have lunch at home so I can make the most of leftovers.
3pm
1 apple, 1 kiwifruit. A glass of water. Back at work.
7.30pm
Big helping of spaghetti with lots of shredded cabbage, pancetta lardons and mozzarella.
10.30pm
Cup of ginger tea and a piece of chocolate.
Nadia Lim’s nutrition quick fix
I think you could include more vegetables throughout your day, instead of leaving it all to the last meal. Include some vegetables at breakfast (how about some sliced tomato and avocado on your toast?), and in snacks and lunch, as well as dinner. If you want to lose some weight, ensure you have no more than a ‘fist’ size of carbohydrates at each meal (which means no bread AND potatoes at the same meal), and not too big a portion of spaghetti. Instead, replace the bulk of the meal with vegetables. As for cutting out butter to help reduce your cholesterol, be just as careful with the lardons – they’re very high in saturated fat too, so keep it to just a little bit for flavour or garnish.
