I am 50 years female old and I've been on a healthy diet for the past three years. I eat the same healthy food every day.

- Morning: 1/2 avocado, 1/2 banana, 1/2 glass of oat milk, 1/2 glass of cashews milk. 2 egg white with spinach. I make fresh oat and cashews milk on the Nutr machine,

- Afternoon: a bowl of salad with quiona, tomato, kale, and a piece of either steam cod, salmon, tuna, or rock fish; a bowl of tomato or french onion soup

- Evening: a bowl of broccoli and cauliflower with either steam chicken breast or steam shrimp; a bow lentil soup; 12/ glass of pistachio milk.

I also walk 5 miles everyday and eating healthy really change my life. I am 5 feet 7 and 120 lbs.

OP, I think it’s awesome that you are trying to make some changes.

I’d just recommend starting slow. If you do fast food five nights a week, start by making something at home one night, then go from there. Trying to make a lot of big changes at once is setting yourself up for failure.

Good luck! You’ll feel better!

Anonymous wrote:The problem with your fast food suggestions is that the sodium is really high. The Baja chicken bowl for example has 1470 mg of sodium. All that sodium is probably contributing to your high blood pressure. Rotisserie chicken is really high in sodium too.

This. Why can’t you take one day and cook/food prep?

Sandwiches with Deli meat - turkey, whole grain bread. Lettuce, avocado, etc
Healthy Cereals & milk I like heritage flakes
Eggs - very easy & quick to make
Make a big batch of chicken, slice it up and use it for the week in salads, tortillas, in pasta etc.

Even making sub-par food at home is an improvement over fast-food/fast casual.

You got to stop eating food from these fast food places. There “healthy options” will leave you unsatisfied and undernourished. The ingredients in their dressing are straight up chemical garbage.

Honestly if you are “lazy”. Let’s put it nicely - you appreciate low effort - then do the meal service with ready to serve meals that you can eat hot or cold. Pick a service that values organically sourced and high nourishment food. You will be full and will lose weight and gain health relatively effortlessly.

Actually, let’s embrace the lazy game. I promise you if you approach this prioritizing nourishing and high quality foods this health kick, weight loss thing you are venturing on will be 10x easier. I kid you not! You will be so much less hungry, so much more energized, and lose weight much more and efficiently eating quality food.

The problem with fast food is everything is cooked in vegetable oil and dressings are filled with it. Nothing is organic so you are consuming additives, preservatives and pesticides. None of that is good and worst of all it triggers inflammation on a cellular level which reduces your bodies ability to metabolize and lose weight.

What you need to do is eat quality food. You can only do this with a meal service or doing it yourself. You can sprinkle in a few fast good options that are a bit better but that cannot be the foundation.

Otherwise you are looking at a really drawn out and high effort path to losing weight and getting fit.

I'm 65 and have maintained my weight in the ideal range by walking and biking anywhere within a reasonable distance that I need to go, and by changing the foods I'm addicted to from processed to ones that are good for me and that require no preparation (I'm lazy when it comes to cooking, too): apples, avocados, bananas, spinach/kale (salad bar base), berries, nuts, cheese, coffee (speeds up the metabolism), etc. It takes some time, but once you change your habits it's easy to learn to love pretty much any food (Brussels sprouts being an obvious exception!).

Anonymous wrote:No op TJ chicken is not better than chic fila. Cook your own chicken breast. It takes 5 minutes.

For real OP. COOK. Get a cookbook of “easy 30 min meals” if you need to. It isn’t hard or time consuming. But you need to start now. Grow up

Quick and easy salmon recipe -

Broil salmon for 8 minutes. Take it out of the oven and brush on a soy sauce-brown sugar mix. Broil 1 more minute. Delicious!

What do you feed your children? Do you cook for them or do they just eat fast food too? Are you married? Could you and your spouse take turns making healthy meals? We eat really healthy and it definitely helps me feel motivated to cook healthy meals knowing that it will be my DH's turn the next day.

No op TJ chicken is not better than chic fila. Cook your own chicken breast. It takes 5 minutes.

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. Thank you for all the responses. They are motivating me. Even the ones telling me to stop being lazy/-I am lazy 😂🤣. My New Years word is “movement.”

I’m not only any meds yet. Cholesterol has always been high, even when young. Now it’s over 200. Blood pressure has been increasing with weight gain. I was under 135 pounds at 5 ft 6 until I went on my first diet at age 42 to lose the 15 pounds I never lost after my second baby. I lost the weight but then start having new (to me) urges to binge. Now at 50 I’m 180.

I don’t want to go on meds, and my last doc appt combined with taking to my cousin ( a diebetes nurse), and the fact my dad died at 62 with a heart attack has suddenly scared me.

I have eaten fast food regularly forever.

Today I went to Trader Joe’s. They have grilled chicken prepackaged and I got some. But is that any different than Perdue short cuts. Should I avoid both orf them? The saturated fat and sodium was not high on either.

I got frozen chicken wontons to make soup. Any suggestions for something else to add to the broth?

Thank you! As I said, before, I am familiar with calorie counts of things, and I’ve been able to lose weight. But just have never ever cared about the Health.

It stood out that your dad died for a heart attack young. I would say to eventually start some cardio but it’s too much change right now. I would definitely see a cardiologist and get a scan to check out your arteries.

Frozen salmon trick:
Buy the farmed frozen salmon bags from wegmans
Defrost 1-2 in sink by running trickling water (not hot) over bags in a bowl for about 20 min
Meanwhile preheat oven to 420
Debating fish, Add Salt and a solash of vinegar to fish and wrap in foil
Throw frozen potato/broccoli/veggies on an oven pan, liberal salt and/or spices and drizzle oil

Put both in oven for twenty minutes

What do you eat for lunch and breakfast? Snacks?

Given that you eat burgers and loaded fries and likely a soda you definitely could lose weight on fast food if you order differently. But if your goal is to live long, that's not smart. \

Maybe see about collecting Wendy's salad dressing if you like it and making your own salads. Have the fries once every 10 days with a green salad at home.

Be sure to not be starving at mealtime so you have time to get home and cook. If you need to eat after work to avoid being uncomfortable, have a cold non-calorie drink (tea, water, sparkling water, black decaf) waiting for you and a small snack such as a few nuts or raw veggies.

Meals you may like:
- frozen meat patties (veggie burger?) + bun + toppings + baked sweet potato fries + crudite
- bagged lettuce + grilled chicken (prepared however you like, even lightly breaded at home is better than Wendy's) + toppings and dressings of your choice. You can eat bottled dressing and croutons: just stick to a serving size.
- Soups! Panera soups from the store are fine. Just stick to a serving size of 1.5 serving size, and have a side salad. If you have break, have a 150 calorie roll or portion.
- Fish is good. Fish with bagged salad and bagged rice is great! TJs has a lot of sauces you might like: curries, etc...

Meal prep might be of interest to you. Search the internet for ideas.
Or consider ordering prepared meals from a service like Vegetable and Butcher (pricier than ff, but not by much).

Good luck!

OP here again. Thank you for all the responses. They are motivating me. Even the ones telling me to stop being lazy/-I am lazy 😂🤣. My New Years word is “movement.”

I’m not only any meds yet. Cholesterol has always been high, even when young. Now it’s over 200. Blood pressure has been increasing with weight gain. I was under 135 pounds at 5 ft 6 until I went on my first diet at age 42 to lose the 15 pounds I never lost after my second baby. I lost the weight but then start having new (to me) urges to binge. Now at 50 I’m 180.

I don’t want to go on meds, and my last doc appt combined with taking to my cousin ( a diebetes nurse), and the fact my dad died at 62 with a heart attack has suddenly scared me.

I have eaten fast food regularly forever.

Today I went to Trader Joe’s. They have grilled chicken prepackaged and I got some. But is that any different than Perdue short cuts. Should I avoid both orf them? The saturated fat and sodium was not high on either.

I got frozen chicken wontons to make soup. Any suggestions for something else to add to the broth?

Thank you! As I said, before, I am familiar with calorie counts of things, and I’ve been able to lose weight. But just have never ever cared about the Health.

I agree with making small, incremental changes that you can stick with. Don't try to overhaul everything at once.

The suggestion of making fast-food substitutes at home is a good one. If the cravings and hunger in your way home are the problem, I'll just suggest adding a deliberate and satisfying snack mid afternoon. I know, adding more food sounds like a silly way to lose weight. But I've found that a small bowl of soup or a container of dinner leftovers at 3pm really helps me be deliberate about dinner because I'm not famished and letting the hangriness make decision for me. For some people it's light popcorn, plain yogurt & fruit, or nuts & berries ... I like something hot, but ymmv.

Stop being lazy. Make your own food.