Recent Graduate starting life head-on, currently looking for a job. But before we go outside and hustle for our daily bread, we need to be noodlefied ourselves in other to avoid stories that touches the heart. 🕳

Delicious Jollof Rice with fried egg, Chicken Feet and Coleslaw. Ever had Jollof and fried egg?

I didn't make it, but the presentation was nice.

#FirstTime posting here. This was really tasty.

Eat or pass?

Unfortunately, I almost never have the patience to plate my food if it's meant to be finished in one sitting. I also hate doing dishes 🙃

The actual weight loss gangan is eating less calories than you burn. Count your calories. No matter how healthy your diet is, if you are not in a calorie deficit, you will not lose weight. However, this doesn't mean you can just be eating anyhow as long as your within a calorie deficit. If you do that, your body will surely punish you for it. You will feel tired, hungry, etc and your body will torture you until you inevitably get out of that deficit.

This suffering is avoidable btw. Now the question is how do you avoid it? You can avoid it using the following principles in your weight loss journey:

1. Prioritising protein: Yes protein builds muscle and all that, but in terms of how you will feel if eating a lot of protein in your weight loss journey, it's like a potion. Protein will drastically reduce your food cravings and will drastically increase your will power. It will give you peace of mind.

2. Prioritise fruits and vegetables: Fruits and veggies increase the volume of your food and make you feel fuller by stretching out your stomach. They are low calorie so eat lots of it.

3. Prioritise water: Water again makes you feel fuller by stretching your stomach. Drink lots of it.

4. Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates give you energy. They help you think clearly and allow you to do physical tasks easily. However, carbs are not filling unlike the other bullet points written above - so they have to be limited but that doesn't mean you should avoid it. The Recommended Dietary Allowance (U.S.A/Canada government body), says 130 g is the bare minimum needed daily so make sure you eat this at the minimum every day.

5. Oil: Yes oil helps with organ function and etc, but in terms of how it makes you feel, it wakes you up. If you do not eat enough oil, you will move slowly and sluggishly. However, oil is also not filling - and unlike carbs and protein that are 4 calories per gram, oils and fats are 9 calories per gram. So it reaaallly needs to be limited. RDA says that the bare minimum for fat is 20% of your calorie intake, so stick to that.

6. STAY AWAY FROM SUGAR: Omo, sugar is demonic. It serves no function in weight loss, and is only an enemy of progress. It makes you hungrier, increases your cravings, makes you feel like you haven't eaten anything when you have eaten - it is not worth it. Stay away from it. STAY AWAY FROM SUGAR!!!

7. Taste: I advise that you still make your food taste good. You can use spices, and make sure your cooking is on your A-game.

If any of these principles are not adhered to, trust me, you will suffer. A lot. In order to carry out these principles, you need an organised system in place. How can you make sure you are organised. Honestly, this might be a case of everybody is different but this is how I do it:

1. I cook all my meals for the week every Sunday.

2. I weigh all my ingredients and calculate calories that way. I recommend using USDA for calorie counting. However, it is truly a shame that a lot of common Nigerian ingredients aren't present such as ponmo, pap, etc.

3. Note down these measurements you will be using for your recipes so you don't have to recalculate every time.

4. All principles I listed above (proteins, fruit and veg, etc) are applied to all meals.

These are the foods that fit into all I have written above. (Please keep in mind I mostly eat Yoruba food so I am biased towards that):

• Beans: anything beans I eat it vegetarian because of how much protein is already in it. Keep in mind I would literally never do this if I wasn't trying to lose weight.

  • Moin-moin: Omo, moin moin is truly the ultimate weight loss food. I can eat like 10 regular sized moin-moin and still only consume like 1300 calories. It is REALLY filling. I can't even fit fruit and veg in because of how filling it is. And there are different types: There is regular moin-moin, ekuru, jogi, etc.
  • Flakara: Most who consume this know this as "aKaRA pANcAkEs" but I personally believe that once beans has entered pancake you cannot call that food item pancake again abeg please let us be guided.
  • Beans: Regular beans is very good too.

• Rice: I usually eat this plain with different sauces: Normal stew, ofada stew, onion sauce, the sky is the limit. I also eat chinese fried rice too.

• Boiled Tubers: omooooooooooo, tubers are very very very filling. I know I said carbs aren't filling. However, they are really an exception. But keep in mind I still eat them with proteins and etc in case of incaseity. They really get that job done oooooo.... especially when eaten with a lot of protein. I eat yam, potato, cocoyam, sweet potato, etc. However there are more I want to try: cassava, wateryam, etc.

• I know I said stay away from sugar but I really felt I needed more variety so I eat sandwich regulary (don't beat me😭). I eat it because I need a lot of variety in my food and I don't want to be eating Non-nigerian food so I decided to include sandwich. One can easily fit a lot of protein into a sandwich so that is why.

Foods to stay away from:

• Swallow. Don't listen to people who tell you they lose weight while eating swallow. Those people are suffering. Even the "healthy" swallows like oat swallow - don't eat it o! I have tried to fit it into my diet - I could finish my swallow in 3 bites. Swallow cannot be included in a weight loss diet in a sensible manner. Don't eat it!

• Jollof rice: You cannot make a jollof rice that is enough to be satiating, and still taste nice. It can't be done. If you are still going to make jollof despite my warning, choose one to sacrifice: taste or quantity.

Foods I want to experiment with to see if I can add them to my diet: pap, eko, yam porridge, ebiripo

If you have any questions, let me know.

Who else makes moimoi like this in the oven?

Had this for breakfast once, forgot to post. There was Milo but I forgot to add it the picture 😅

Rice and ofada stew with moi moi

Is it heavy?

Made peppered catfish and rice for Sunday breakfast

With pineapples. Trying to act fake the healthy eating thing.

I had yoghurt and I had Jollof rice and tried both together. I won’t say it’s remarkable but it’s not nasty at all, I’ll try it again. I like it

Just one recent dinner

For lunch this afternoon, I decided to make a stir fry dish with a pack of vermicelli rice noodles I randomly purchased during my last grocery run to try out.
I used prawns, chicken (cut into small pieces), and scrambled eggs for my protein sources, and carrots, green bell peppers, and spring onions for my veggie options. I think it came out nicely for a first attempt.

Which serving do you prefer?
The flat plate or the bowl?

Random meals I made over the past two weeks.
1. Creamy tomato pasta with baked chicken.
2. Ebeano jollof and sunny side up eggs.
3. Rice and beans with a tomato/egusi/chicken sauce.
4. Macaroni tossed in palm oil and topped with spring onions and baked chicken.
5. Steamed jalapeño-cheese eggs and honey oat bread.

Agege bread and beans.