Lost perspective...what is normal food???

[daisiesdahlias]

So, I am obese and always eaten big portions of high calorie foods really. My parents were v young when they had me and have said they regret the food they raised me on, they didn't know how to cook and never thought about health. Not to blame them, just to give context of my idea of normal growing up.

So, I need to change how I eat. But I feel like I have no perspective on what is normal. A (slim and healthy) friend yesterday said she couldn't make dinner without going to the shop as she had no veg in. I thought - so?? Cheesy pasta, toasties, sausage and mash? I've lost all perspective.

So please tell me - in a normal busy week (not an 'ideal' or 'healthy' week) what are some normal things you have for breakfast lunch and dinner?

Breakfast is usually a bowl of cereal and milk. I don't get the highly sugared cereal that comes with bits of chocolate or sweets in it. If is totally plain eg porridge oats or bran flakes, I'll add two teaspoons of either sugar or honey. If I'm extra hungry I'll put fruit in it eg strawberries, blueberries or banana.

Dinner is something like a tin of beans on two toast. Or meat/fish with rice and vegetables, one portion of each. A portion is the size of the palm of your hand. Or jacket potato with knob of butter, half tin of tuna and some salad. Or half a medium sized pizza with salad. Or tuna/cheese salad. The salad is tomato, leaves, beetroot, onion, carrot etc. Vegetables have got most of the nutrition and hardly any calories (some exceptions) so you can't really overdo it on those.

Tea is a smaller meal. So toasted cheese and onion sandwich (if I didn't already have cheese) or a tin of soup and a piece of fruit for desert.

Snacks usually a yoghurt or 2-bar KitKat, piece of fruit, one small bag of crisps.

Drinks mostly water. One or two cups of tea with one sugar in. A glass of fruit juice.

This week (not the healthiest week by far!) is
lasagne and salad (tomato/ mushroom/ onion in the lasagna)
stirfry prawns and noodles (bag of stirfry veg in)
moroccan stew with couscous (chickpeas/ carrots/ onions/ peppers/ apricots in)
chicken and coleslaw pittas
steak, sweet potato fries, salad, mushrooms
meatballs and spaghetti (onion/ tomato/ garlic sauce)
salmon, Greek salad,
lentil dahl

Just saw you’re vegetarian. So is DD. Her lasagna has extra mushrooms and spinach, stirfry has edamame beans instead of prawns, she has halloumi instead of the salmon and has halloumi/ sweet chili and rocket/ olives in the pitta. Vegetarian sausage instead of steak. She’s not home on the meatball night…

What's wrong with any of that?

It would be great if the OP got to a position where her diet looked like that. Lots of normal food, cooked from scratch with plenty of vegetables.

The Hello Fresh or Gusto idea is really good, it would be a way to control portion size (as long as you say its for one person) and have vegetables automatically added to your meals.

For our family we have vegetables with almost every meal. The exception would be when we have steal cut oats for breakfast. Otherwise, every meal has at least one green as a rule but normally at least two or three. Last night we had pizza but the pizza wasn't the main part of the meal. Everyone had one slice + heaps of asparagus, raw red + orange pepper and broccoli. Today we had pasta for lunch but we used the pasta sparingly and mixed it with loads of kale and broccoli. So we aren't completely giving up carbs but they are used as a small side with vegetables and protein being the main meal.

For most lunches I try to have a massive salad with as many vegetables as possible. I make it a bit of a game to see how many I can add and keep trying to up it. For instance: baby kale, lettuce, parsley, spring onion, red pepper, orange pepper, yellow pepper, radish, asparagus, shaved sprouts, shredded carrot, beetroot, sauerkraut, radicchio, purple cabbage, tomato, avocado, green beans, cauliflower and then add beans + fish or chicken for protein and sprinkle with chia seeds, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds and a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice. It is so good, leaves you full for ages and is so nutrient dense. I also prep this every few days so I can just grab what I want from the refrigerator and quickly make a salad. Sometimes I use my food processor to just chop everything up too and save time on cutting.

On a normal week brunch would be scrambled eggs or beans on toast. Dinner would be stir fry, sausage, mash and vegetables, roast dinner, pasta bake, chicken thighs and rice, salmon, wedges and brocolli.

Every dinner would have at least 2 vegetables with it unless it was a takeaway (about once a month). Snacks would be berries, apples, cheese or sweet popcorn. A normal week would also involve a piece of cake/hot chocolate or something out too.

Breakfast I have toast/crumpets, porridge or a yoghurt, sometimes some juice or fruit or maybe something cooked like eggs, bacon etc.

Lunch A sandwich, soup or baked potato, sometimes and omelette, with salad or other veg, maybe some fruit

Dinner Meat/fish, small portion of carbs, 2 vegetables. Sometimes a yoghurt or small dessert.

I lose weight eating that if I don't snack on anything, and I gain weight when I add in some snacks and go heavier on the desserts.

Like you I had lost all idea of a normal diet for a while and it's taken me a while to get into a regular pattern of eating with somewhere between 4 and 7 fruit and veg a day, I aim for 5 but sometimes fall short and sometimes have extra

Hi @daisiesdahlias, here are some meals I prepare:
salmon, baked potato and salad
spaghetti bolognese
chili con carne and brown rice
white fish, new potatoes, asparagus
steak, baked potato, broccoli & green beans
turkey chili and sweet potato mash
cottage pie with steamed veg
slow cooker casserole, mash and veg

I’m happy to message you some recipes if that would help? 💐

Oh and breakfast = fruit salad, raw muesli and fat free Greek yoghurt.
lunch = leftovers from dinner (usually the portions my children don’t eat!)

A game changer for me was stopping snacking. I used to snack on sweet things, have switched to carrots and cucumber and it’s (on the whole) stabilised my need for chocolate…except certain times of the month!

I’ve had a really bad upbringing around food and have also been obese and didn’t really know how to cook.
What has worked for me is the Fast 800 diet. I’ve lost 3 stone since September but, more importantly, it has taught me how to cook and plan meals. It’s based on the Mediterranean diet, so the food is healthy. There are less extreme versions of it (5:2, lifestyle) if you don’t want the calorie restriction.
I paid for the online subscription (£100 for first three months, then £10 a month) and although that sounds a lot, it has been the best money I ever spent.
There is a vegetarian plan on it, and you can tweak it to suit your tastes.
What I love about it is that it plans all your meals and sends you a shopping list, so it takes away a lot of the mental work associated with meal planning.
It really has been a revelation for me, and I feel loads more confident about cooking now (and thinner!)

Breakfast is a choice of Greek yogurt with fruit, bran flakes with semi skimmed milk and about once a week some sort of bacon and eggs type grill up.

Lunch is a salad or a sandwich with wholemeal bread or a clear noodle soup with veg and some sort of meat. Very occasionally a baked potato.

Recent dinners were
Sea bass with chilli butter, purple sprouting broccoli, mash potato, peas, carrots.

Steamed rice, chicken, bean sprouts, mushrooms, carrot, mange tout, baby sweetcorn stir friend in soy, ginger and garlic with spring onion

Noodle soup with strips of crispy fried pork, pak choi, carrot, onion, shredded cabbage, spring onion and a 5 spice egg

Noodles with chicken and spring onion, pork with shredded cabbage, in a chilli sauce and some chicken and sweet corn soup.

Chicken in red wine with mushrooms, mash potato, carrots broccoli, peas.

Puddings, we had apple pie and cream one day every other day it’s an orange.

I eat mainly Chinese food but it isn’t like the stuff you get in a take away, my Father was HK Chinese and owned a restaurant and taught me how to cook. My DH is English so we do have western food a couple of times a week.DS complains those nights.

I have never been overweight. Snacking was unacceptable in my family so it’s not a natural go to thing for me. My Mother used to make us drink the cabbage water for zero waste, she also drank it! Just eat lots of veg and some fruit with protein and I guarantee you eat too many carbs.

Our meals this week:
Monday - stir fry with lean beef and a shit tonne of veggies
Tuesday - orange glazed pork with med veg and rice (tray bake)
Wednesday - shredded chicken and chorizo with cream cheese stuffed peppers
Thursday - tuna jacket with salad
Friday - katsu curry (chicken but filling with beans and veg)
Saturday - pad Thai
Sunday - toad in the hole with swede and potato mash, peas and greens.

To me it's pretty standard to add at least 2 veggies to each meal. Even things like cheesy pasta as a quick meal I'll microwave some peas and add sweetcorn too.

Breakfast for us consists of normally
Poached egg on toast with avocado (I like a bit of tomato purée with mine)
Chia pudding with fruit
Granola or muesli
Porridge

I'll often do a 'fry up' on the weekends but use fry lite and I grill the bacon / tomatoes / sausages.

Sorry x posting with myself

We're a family of 3. Me DH and DD (2) who eats everything we eat.

My ‘normal’ main meal of the day always contains at least three helpings of veg and often more.
This doesn’t necessarily have to be fresh, frozen is fine, however the examples you have given don’t have any veg at all.
So my advice would just be add more veg. This can be cooked with your main meal or raw with lunch; eg some cherry tomatoes/sliced peppers with your sandwiches.

I'm going through something too and living on salads with a nice meat involved. Means it's very healthy but also very tasty.
I do sweetheart cabbage, cucumber, a pepper, then a meat, chicken, a can of fish, some steak, anything,

Then add in olives, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, boiled potatoes, coconut rice.....

I'm going back to basics.

Thanks for posting this OP. I could have written this myself. It's so eye opening to read the replies. I honestly hardly ever eat veg and clearly this needs to change! This thread has given me some ideas. As a child I just ate frozen beige food and I don't want that for my kids. Just wanted to send solidarity that you've not alone!

As a child I just ate frozen beige food and I don't want that for my kids

You can change it. My DC love pretty much all vegetables, including the ones even many adults would not eat as a part of their regular diet. When we go out, they will head for salad bar first. Not saying we are all super healthy, they like their junkfood occasionallty as well, but if you make sure a good variety of veggies prepared in various ways is offered, children will likely develop a taste for them.