Disgusting diet

[Disgracefuldiet]

My diet and lifestyle disgusts me but I've no idea where to start when it comes to changing it.

I have a one year old DC who is starting to pay attention to the food I eat and I don't want my DC following in my footsteps. It's also getting to the stage where we need to think about DC just eating what we are eating whereas currently DC has baby food pouches like Ella's Kitchen. Tbh, I'm not comfortable with DC eating the food we eat unless we seriously rethink our diet.

Just not sure where to start or how to make those changes.

A typical day for me includes:

No breakfast. Usually cave mid morning and snack on some chocolate and crisps.

Lunch, again usually nothing and might cave mid afternoon and eat more chocolate and crisps. Though occasionally I'll have chicken or tuna pasta. Heavy on the mayo. No veg included.

Dinner will be something like spaghetti Carbonara with about a ton of cheese and cheesy garlic bread. Or sausage egg and chips. Lots of mayo. Or lasagne and Garlic bread. Again hold the veg. Lots of cheese. Dinners always consist of meat, lots of carbs, the white variety, cheese if I can incorporate it somehow or mayo and 99% of the time 0 veggies.

I dont particularly like vegetables (or fruit) so always forget to do veg with dinner for DH because it just doesnt even enter my thought process.

Then dinner will usually be followed by more chocolate.

Drinks consist of 1.5 litres if caffeinated sugary, fizzy energy drinks and about 300ml of water before bed.

It's disgusting I know but I don't even know where to begin changing things but i desperately want to for my whole family.

Last night's dinner from our house:
Make a thin white sauce/thick gravy with skimmed milk, a tsp butter, flour, chicken stock cubes, dried sage.
fry off (not much oil at all as there's some in the bacon already) for each person: a chunky chopped onion , a chopped chicken breast and a rasher or two of streaky bacon. Add in a portion of peas and sweetcorn per person. Mix in the sauce and warm through.
Serve over baked potatoes (you won't need any more butter). That's 3 portions of veg per person in a meaty sauce. I had a small jacket, DS had a large one, hungry DH had 2. Even fussy DD had a good portion.
It's tasty and fairly low fat and definitely not chai seeds!

I'm not listing this to be smug, but hopefully to show that it isn't necessary to make a 'healthy' meal to make a low fat tasty meal with lots of veg in. Small changes and a 'turn down the butter and fat' are easily done for now. I say this as someone who sometimes realizes that I haven't offered my family a vegetable for 3 days straight!

The answer is to eat more vegetables, less processed food, and cook at home more.

Make a list of the things you'd like to ultimately achieve and then think about what small steps will get you there...for example

• ideally I'd like to be eating 5 portions of fruit and veg a day...could you manage two? Or is one realistic at this stage? If two feels hard, start with one.

• I'd like to cut out the energy drinks. Can you half the amount from tomorrow? If not, could you swap one drink for water? Do that.. or maybe aim to just drink more water/ say 'I can have an energy drink but only after I've drunk 500ml of water and thought about if I still want it'

• I need to eat less white carbohydrate. Stop double carbing. Choose your favourite and have only that. So no bread alongside pasta...then from there maybe white carbs only with one meal a day?

For people who say they don't like veg, roasting veg in olive oil can be a good way in, making it sweet and easy to eat. Pretty much anything can be roasted - mediterranean veg is lovely but cauliflower is delicious roasted and very different from steamed. Try asparagus or broccoli with garlic and perhaps chilli ...

Do you eat any other dishes apart from pasta?

Seeing as you like pasta, have a look at some pasta recipes and see if anything appeals to you.
There are also recipes for ‘hidden veg’ dishes
You can grate veg into home made pasta sauces.
Bbcgoodfood has tonnes of recipes.
Jamie Oliver is quite good too.

Have an aim of trying to eat 2-3 portions of fruit and veg a day. Don’t think about it too much and just put it on your plate and go for it.

I've got a mean spag bol recipe that has capsicum, courgette, onion, mushroom, carrot and spinach in it, and people don't even realise - even adults that proudly say they never eat veges, lol. If you want it, I'll give it to you.

Some really really helpful ideas. I'm so grateful! Thank you all.

Yes, I'd love your recipe! Sorry - I dont know how to tag.

Yes, I have a lot of potato dishes rather than pasta dishes. Probably more potato than pasta tbh. Alternate between jacket potatoes, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, chips, etc.

I like sweet potato mash too but prefer normal mash.

Definitely going to try some of these ideas, slowly slowly, incorporating into my meal planning, which I already do but admittedly, quite badly!

Low effort alternative to energy drinks: switch to cola, then diet cola, then caffeine free some of the time, then lemonade, then squash. Introduce teas, coffee, other soft drinks. Baby steps.

Low effort alternative to mid morning carb slump: have an egg on a slice of toast every morning. Most successful diet I ever did (and should have stuck with) started every day with an egg on toast. (no butter but can have marmite or brown sauce or ketchup). It will see you through until lunch and avoid grabbing bad snacks!

Here you go:
1 Large tube of tomato paste
1 cup beef stock
Far too much sugar (5.5 - 6 tablespoons, gulp - I have a sweet savoury tooth, lol)
Good gloop of red wine - maybe about quarter of a cup?
Combine and stir well

600g mince (more if you have a cat who is far too spoilt)
1 Large onion finely chopped
1 - 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
1 Large carrot - grated
1 Large courgette - grated
1 Large red capsicum - finely chopped

Large gloop olive oil
Over a medium heat:
Brown the mince in the olive oil in a large heavy based fry pan. Remove, tipping off excess liquid.
Put in more olive oil if necessary, then pop the onion and garlic in, and fry until soft.
Put in the rest of the veges, and fry, stirring continuously until soft and reduced.

Put the meat back in and thoroughly combine

Add the sauce as previously mixed, plus a tin of chopped tomatoes.

Leave to simmer over a low heat, stirring frequently, for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

Just before serving, add a big handful of chopped spinach.

Serve on spaghetti cooked according to instructions, topped with cheese.

This makes enough for two adults and two teenagers for two servings, and is good for freezing, and therefore batch cooking.

Hope that helps! (And am expecting a flaming over the sugar.)

My terrible thing is being bored at my desk job and eating rubbish, what I find really works for me is rice cakes with peanut butter - 2 for breakfast 2 for lunch, and I take a bag of apples too.
Having had a son who loathed all veg, what I found worked was to cook homemade spaghetti bolognese and before I added the mince I liquidised all the veg, he never knew 😁
If you can make your own sauces from scratch you'll notice a difference as jars (especially low fat) are full of sugar.
Make little changes, one at a time, they all help 😍

The sugar is one thing but what I've noticed is you're having a LOT of caffeine.

That was me before ttc dd too.

When I tried to quit I stupidly went from 10-12 cups of STRONG coffee daily to 0 - BAD IDEA! There was an episode of eat well for less where the dad was similar (cola though) and even they didn't advocate going cold turkey! He was advised to see his dr and work out a plan to gradually reduce which I think he did over a period of about a month and even then he wasn't yet at none. Caffeine withdrawal can be horrific and can cause serious problems.

And if it's energy drinks they have other ingredients which can be similarly dangerous to go cold turkey on (honestly we have ingredients in our energy drinks here that are banned in other countries! Personally I think they should be banned here too).

So speak to your dr honestly about your energy drink consumption (it's actually quite a common issue) and how to wean yourself off safely.

On the veggies - I'm vegetarian and even I struggle with the 5 a day! And the only veg I don't like is Brussels sprouts, radishes and raw onion. For me it's due to mental health and motivation to prep food so I buy in ready prepped veg (I know sacrilege on mn! But it means I am at least eating 2-3 portions a day as "crudités")

Are there vegetables you've never tried? Maybe try a new one once a week? May help you find more you do like. Also as per pps experiment with how you cook them.

I'm not a fan of boiled veg myself - so boring! But love stir frys, roasted veg, stews/casseroles/curries, soups (if you blend like mad the texture isn't an issue I've been using soups for years to get "disliked" veg into dd 😉) also smoothies (again a small amount of veg well blended you won't even notice).

Sweetcorn isn't really a veg it's more of a carb really, baby corn is better and sweet to taste.

I've found the veggies most people like are the sweeter ones:

sweet peppers, carrots, garden peas, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, squashes (make lovely sweet creamy soups), beetroot, yams, red cabbage, cauliflower, parsnips (especially roasted)...

Roasting tends to make them taste sweeter and have a nice crispy texture on the outside at least.

In terms of your overall diet yes you need to actually eat 😂

Breakfast - doesn't have to be something too time consuming, healthier cereals, eggs, toast, crackers and cheese/pate, some fruit, fruit juice (a small glass is fine and though high in sugar healthier than the energy drinks)

Lunch - sandwiches, wraps, rolls filled with deli meat, eggs, cheese plus pickles are veggies too (I love sliced gherkins and pickled beetroot myself) you could also have things like coleslaw, sauerkraut or beetroot salad on the side. Some fruit again, a smoothie, crudités and dips (guacamole and salsa made from veggies too), also "on toast" - baked beans, avocado, creamed mushrooms, tomatoes & cheese (put tomato slices on first then grate cheese over and grill - yum!).

Dinners -

pasta is ok but not every day, even Italians don't have it every day but even when you do have it there are loads of veg based sauces you can have with it the usual is tomato but there's others.

On other nights -

sausage egg & chips are fine on occasion but you could poach the egg, do the sausages and chips in the oven (I love sausages done this way always have even when I was having meat ones - if you split them in half length ways they crisp up - lush!) and add baked beans (not the healthiest veg maybe BUT still a veg high in fibre, calcium and protein)

Casseroles - SO easy just quickly fry off meat to seal, pop in casserole dish, chop and add veggies - or be lazy like me and used pre-prepped veg it even frozen veg - add stock, herbs and flavourings either to own taste or follow a simple recipe (BBC good food are great for this) or even use a jar/packet you can even add the potatoes at this point so it all cooks together. Takes a couple hours to cook but you don't need to do anything with it just stick in oven and forget about it!

Curries - are basically spicy stews/casseroles

Chilli - again basically spicy casserole made with mince! Either find a simple recipe or use jar/packet. Veggies can include peppers, baby corn, normal corn, kidney beans even baked beans! With tinned tomatoes as the sauce base.

Stir frys - dead easy but give you an opportunity to try other veg like bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, mange tout, broccoli spears, bok choi, bean sprouts etc again simple sauces are easy to google and make but there's TONS of ready made available including quite good quality fresh ones in chilled aisles.

"Traditional" British food like shepherds pies you can add finely diced veg to.

BlueSkies I've NEVER used oil or fat when making scrambled eggs just eggs and a little milk and seasoning

You sound like a "picker" like my dd (with her it's due to her disability makes eating large meals cause discomfort) in which case definitely pre-prepped veg and fruit OR peel and slice chop to "prep" it yourself so when you want to "pick" you ca just grab eg carrot sticks, celery sticks, cucumber slices (you can't do these far in advance but could slice some of a morning for through the day), tomato wedges, pepper sticks, baby corn can be eaten raw too if you like raw carrot I suspect you'll like this, fruit (segment oranges, get an apple slicer/corer and do an apple in the morning for picking at through the day, grapes (frozen grapes in the summer are like mini sorbets...) keep it in a Tupperware dish or bowl in the fridge and whenever you want something to pick at its there.

The drinks again - gradually reduce. I noticed I was having too much caffeine again early last year (cola this time) and gradually switched from cola to fizzy water either plain or with a dash of pure lemon juice (jig lemon, dead easy to just add a squirt) or the OCCASIONAL non-caffeine sugar free fizzy drinks like fizzy orange or lemonade. I don't mind still drinks sometimes but I don't find them as satisfying and I end up being tempted toward cola again.

I still eat probably too much crisps and sweets too (I'm not a big choc person never have been but that doesn't make me virtuous as instead I like toffees and "kids" sweets like flying saucers and fizzy laces that kinda thing) but I eat less than I would if I didn't get in the pre-prepped veg, fruit, dips etc

I too think this is a great honest thread. Too often on mn people post "my diets awful I only ate chia seeds 5 times today" bollocks! 😂😂

Op if you like mash then mix other root veg when you boil potatoes. You can do mostly potatoes but try a bit (1/3?) of either swede, sweet potato, carrot or parsnip (or any combination) with it.
If you’re having a shepherds/cottage pie, you can do the mash like that and grate a courgette into the mince.

Jacket potatoes are good for having coleslaw, tuna or chicken with sweet corn and mayo, ratatouille, chilli with hidden veg or just a bit of salad.

I'm a former fizzy drink addict ( coke). I am now down to 2/3 cans a week. I won't lie, it was horrendous getting off it. Started forcing myself to drink water before breakfast so then I knew I'd had some. Around 11 when reaching for a can of coke, I'd drink diluted orange and have an apple. At lunch I'd have milk. I generally broke and would have a can when the kids were doing their homework ( I'd open it before they came in then hide it behind the bread bin and sneak drinks). Then I'd feel guilty and have more water, then at night I'd have another can. I thought about it all day and it took a long time to come off but now I drink my 2l water a day and my skin has totally improved. There's great advice here, but just take it small. Like people have said, a cereal or an egg for breakfast and move on from there. Check out the food pyramid and see if any of it looks appetising ( fruit, veg, yoghurt, eggs, cheese) Best of luck OP

My partner is a veg hater, my sneaky ways of getting more fruit and veg in are:

Houmous counts, have it with breadsticks and veg and that could be 2 of your 5 a day.

Homemade salsa

Smoothies, frozen as a lolly are nice too.

He likes sweetcorn too so we have that with everything, whether it goes or not!

Veg and chickpea curry can easily have 3 portions of veg but the curry flavour overpowers the veg flavour.

Good luck.

It seems like snacking is your main issue from your posts, and the energy drinks.

Small, sustainable changes are the best way to tackle things. Don't try to cut everything out at once, and try and pile your plate with veg, it won't work. You'll last a week and be fed up and go back to how you were.

Pick one thing you want to change, just one. If it we're me it would be the energy drinks (they really are bloody awful for you, and so much sugar it's probably making your crave the other sugary things like chocolate etc.) Drop one out of your daily routine. Just one. For maybe 2/3 weeks. Don't replace it with sugar free, it's just substituting one crutch for another. Have water or squash if you're thirsty. Then after a couple of weeks drop the 2nd. Then when you're ready drop the third. Small incremental changes will make it easier (and lessen the sugar withdrawals).

Once you've got the energy drink habit kicked, look at something else. Maybe having breakfast? So wholemeal bread and some peanut butter, or egg on wholemeal bread? If you like any fruit have it with full fat greek yogurt (with honey it will hit your sweet tooth). Full fat will keep you full. As others have said, try and blend some veg into your meals. You can make a basic veg packed tomato sauce and freeze it to use with loads of meals (Spag Bol - just add mince and pasta, Chilli - Just add some spices, kidney beans (if you like them) mince and rice, use it as a basic pasta sauce for a cheese and tomato pasta bake, use it as a pizza base, buy pre-made pizza bases and add your own toppings with cheese or use a wrap / pitta bread). You could also blend veg into a curry sauce.

Get the little one involved with cooking from an early age too, it'll really help them explore food and textures etc.

@mbosnz
Not a flaming but what does all that sugar add?
My proportions for a similar dish would have more onion, garlic, carrot. celery and wine, maybe a teaspoon of sugar, an extra tin of toms and then if it was too thin a handful of oats 5 mins before serving (makes it cheaper too!)
Yours sounds delicious but soo sweet, would you really miss it if you added a bit less? OP wants to make things a bit better for her baby. 6 tbs of sugar will make his teeth fall out! Just hearing about it is making mine hurt.

Sweetness, lol, and it's an enduring argument between me and DH! Remember, that 6T is in 8 adult servings - quite often more.

And yes, the girls and I do miss it, when DH makes it and adds less!

But it's very much adjust according to taste. . .

Actually, thinking about it, it's down to 5 now!!!

I’m absolutely the same

I'm another former fizzy drinks addict. In my case it was Diet Coke and I would drink about eight cans a day, it turns my stomach when I think about it now. But I kidded myself it was healthy because it was 'diet'. I gradually cut back on it and went down to only one can a day. I did have moments where I caved and drank loads, but now Ive not had a Diet Coke in about four years. The main things I noticed was that my stomach bloating disappeared. I'd always assumed that I just had a belly and that was that, but really it was bloat from what's I was drinking.

To try and wean yourself off it I'd recommend drinking sparking water, with fruit to flavour. This is what worked for me.Lemon and lime is great, but my personal favourite it cucumber and fresh mint.

I agree disgusting is not appropriate word to describe OP's diet.
It reads like you're used to being down on yourself & thinking you don't deserve anything nice in your life, and can't achieve anything nice.

That would be a set of beliefs stuck in your head... they don't have anything to do with reality. Just unhelpful stuff you'd be used to believing (familiar beliefs & familiar bad feelings can be comforting, strangely enough).

Your diet is not disgusting! It is delicious but you are right that needs a bit of balance.

I like the eating suggestions above. Don't forget veg soups (creamy and delicious ... and made in batches so they are always there).

If you tend to 'cave' at mid morning - why not have your breakfast then? (No one said that breakfast had to be early).

Have lunch at mid afternoon.

Plan veg fir eve meals and then think about what meat/fish/ carbs to accompany them

(Veg tastes and feels better if you are hungry. )

Preplanning is your friend.