Anonymous wrote:another good tip for lazy people (like me).

Buy a pre-cut vegetable platter from the grocery store, and snack on it or use it for meals. I snack on it as I make dinner, or eat it with a bowl of soup for lunch, or whatever. Worth the extra cost IMO.

I do this. I also pay the extra for pre-cut veggies to cook with. Dumping a package of broccoli florets or cubed sweet potatoes on a baking sheet is just so easy compared to peeling, cutting, washing etc. Flame away but for me it's well worth it

Air fryer is super convenient. That’s a good first step.

Op I would suggest an airb fryer if you don’t have one, fast easy to clean and you can cook so much I. It. I will marinate salmon in soy and sprinkle sesame seeds and a bit of olive oil and cook in air fryer , maybe adding broccoli with olive oil spray and garlic salt. You can do frozen things all veggies all proteins. I find it mentally easier than hearing up my oven getting a lot of dishes dirty etc.

Other easy meals —our kids love Asian but I think it’s often full if sodium and fat so we somiueniwn. egg roll in a bowl (we do it with turkey). Lentil soup from trader joes is good. I will get a roast chicken and make Mexican chicken soup with kale with the leftover chicken.. I do curry sometimes with koys of veggies and Thai curry paste and coconut milk which has fat but is satiating. We do rice bowls with ground turkey with taco spice. Beans, lettuce etc. I think once you start cooking more and quit the fast food you develop a taste for Whole Foods and fast food will eventually seem gross. Except for pizza .

Oatmeal is good. Might not taste great but you test it out and see what ways is the best way to make it to your liking.
I actually prefer savory oatmeal so it tastes like soup.
If sweet, I'll add the almond vanilla or coconut milk. Add some nuts, berries, pumpkin seeds. Too hard to chew? Blend it and make them power form. Make it to the texture you like.
Eat a hard bowl egg.

You also have to move. Do some form of exercise. No need to think too much into this. Just start walking. And increase your speed, time and vigor on each walk.
It has to be part of your habit. Otherwise, your problems don't go away.

Anonymous wrote:OP again. A Wendy’s salad feels a like big step in the right direction since I would normally get a burger and bacon pub fries. But maybe it’s not as a good enough change as I thought.

To answer the question above, fast food is just habit and I really love it. Plus after a long day, I’m hungry and the thought of making something at home that won’t taste as good as a Taco Bell cheesy gordita crunch is hard.

But I’m now envisioning the crap food going to my heart and bringing me to an earlier death. This visualization has been working better than anything else I have tried to lose weight. I just am trying to hold on to it and move in the right direction.

You can do it! Take some of the suggestions and try to work them in but also don’t beat yourself up for taking small steps with some of the suggestions you initially posted. You are going to be far more successful long term if you ease in to these changes. For example, I used to do a salad and use the dressing provided thinking it was healthy. Over time I started carrying my own mix of avocado oil shaken with some balsamic or red wine vinegar. I will also toss in diced apples to add a bit of sweetness.

You’ve taken the best first step in realizing you need to make a change for your future. Slow and steady and allow yourself a cheat day or treat. It’s about making a long term change that you’ll stick with. Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:OMG to some of these responses! OP, don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. There are lots of small changes you can start with ... two fast food nights a week instead of five, salad instead of burger, snack on popcorn instead of cookies, water, tea, and coffee instead of sugary drinks, one high protein afternoon snack a day instead of several, and on and on.

And grocery store convenience items are not the devil -- buy the skinny pop, the pre-grilled TJs chicken, or the rotisserie chicken, or the bottled marinade, etc...if they replace even one fast food meal, you are winning!

The best diet is one you will stick to.

Good luck!

I agree with this advice. Small changes are important. I'd even switch up when you eat the fast food (obviously with the goal of cutting it out completely). If I eat fast food breakfast, I'm full for a long time and end up not eating lunch until later, which means no snacks at work. But if I eat fast food for dinner, there isn't a similar impact.

My big advice is get a big water bottle and drink from it regularly. Sometimes your body confuses thirst for hunger. You also just feel better when you're hydrated.

This isn't to say make this the ONLY thing you do, but make it part of it. Water. Ever single day.

another good tip for lazy people (like me).

Buy a pre-cut vegetable platter from the grocery store, and snack on it or use it for meals. I snack on it as I make dinner, or eat it with a bowl of soup for lunch, or whatever. Worth the extra cost IMO.

Way to go OP! That is awesome!

I am PP who said embrace the lazy and think long term that high quality, nourishing foods will actually get you to your end goal so much faster and with less effort.

In regards to hunger try and focus on fat, fiber and protein in all your meals. This will keep you full for so much longer. For breakfast I usually eat 3 eggs and an avocado. The eggs I preboil 20 at the beginning of the week. It takes 3 minutes to prep and I am easily full for 5 hrs. Versus if I do yogurt with fruit and nuts I am hungry again after 2.

I really think fat has a bad rap. Good quality fats like from salmon, olive oil and avocado are what keep you feeling full. Mix in the fiber and protein and you are gold for hours. The key here though with cholesterol is to avoid sugar, especially processed white sugar. It’s the sugar that triggers all the problems. I’m not sciencey enough to explain it but here is an article-

https://www.centrastate.com/blog/sugar-can-wreak-havoc-on-your-cholesterol-levels/

This is OP. I appreciate all the responses. Even the harsh ones are a nice reality check as I am an eternal optimist and think oh no, a heart attack won’t happen to me. I keep the visualization of the crap food clogging my arteries whenever I am tempted and that’s been working.

I’m already doing better. I haven’t had fast food this week. I was tempted today on my way home from work as I was starving and wanted something fast before my book club. But I ate an apple in the car. Then at home I ate Ezekiel bread with avocado mash and a banana. Which is a big step for me, and I think the Ezekiel bread is okay if I toast it. I have been very hungry lately now that I am not constantly binging sweets, so that has been an adjustment.

One of the book club members is a dietician so she helped me with some ideas tonight. And we looked at sodium in the Wendy’s salad vs the Perdue shortcuts vs Trader Joe’s refrigerated grilled chicken.

I have to keep the momentum and keep going to the grocery store and buying the healthy food. My kids eat with my MIL several evenings when I work late, then we go to my mom’s for dinner one night and dinner at our neighbor’s house another night, and then out to eat the rest of the time, so except for breakfast stuff and fruit I haven’t done my grocery shopping.

My next project is figuring what I can cook as I never cook. Or a meal service.

OMG to some of these responses! OP, don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. There are lots of small changes you can start with ... two fast food nights a week instead of five, salad instead of burger, snack on popcorn instead of cookies, water, tea, and coffee instead of sugary drinks, one high protein afternoon snack a day instead of several, and on and on.

And grocery store convenience items are not the devil -- buy the skinny pop, the pre-grilled TJs chicken, or the rotisserie chicken, or the bottled marinade, etc...if they replace even one fast food meal, you are winning!

The best diet is one you will stick to.

Good luck!

Anonymous wrote: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.

None of this quinoa is necessary and kale and cauliflower. OP can't get herself to have a baked or boiled potatoes. It is not like she will become a fan of rock fish overnight and know how to cook it! Even homemade mashed would be a step in the right direct6ion if she drops the butter.

Anonymous wrote: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!

100%.

I'm not in the exact same situation as you, OP, but I am trying to improve some things about my already pretty good diet (I am on a medication that causes weight gain and I'd prefer to not gain weight). The kinds of things I'm doing are cutting the amount of olive oil I use when pan frying or sautéing in half (if a recipe says 2TBS, I use one, for example) and snacking on vegetables when I cook instead of the assorted stuff I'd normally snack on. I think incremental change is definitely the way to start because otherwise it just can be depressing. So, if you sub a salad for a burger/fries at Wendy's, that's a great start (and for PP who said that a salad has a lot of sodium, that's true, but no doubt it's less than what she's currently consuming! Someone who primarily eats fast food won't succeed in going from that to plain air fried chicken breasts over night, it's just too drastic).