Help me get healthy!

[chubbmum]

Without boring you all with my backstory, I had a very sad and neglectful childhood and didn't eat healthily. I wasn't taught healthy tips and have always eaten quick meals, snacked lots and food is my friend.

Now I'm in my 40s, my weight has caught up with all my bad years of eating and I'm sick of being fat, tired and sluggish.

I don't eat any fruit at all and can't eat raw veg either (don't judge please) but I do like cooked veg. I'm a fairly fussy eater due to my past but I'm trying hard and do like quite a lot of food.

However, I just don't know what is best! I hear people talking about avoid carbs, eat brown food, protein shakes, snack on nuts etc. I just need somebody to simplify the whole thing for me and I'm too scared to look stupid by asking real life friends.

Please tell me what are healthy food habits. I have cereal every morning for breakfast, a sandwich or soup for lunch, a nice cooked dinner and lots and lots of chocolate and biscuits in between. What should I be doing? I'm just starving all the time! If I try and go without snacks between meals, I'm shaking with hunger and feeling sick. Please do help me if you're able. I can't change my upbringing but I'm in charge of my life now and I can change moving forward. Thanks

I want to thank you all for your help and update you a little!

Since your advice, this is now my new daily routine

Breakfast cereal (I couldn't give it up!) with a protein shake
Sandwich for lunch with a protein bar or stick of cheese
Mid-afternoon snack of either

• greek yoghurt with honey and pomegranate seeds
• crackers and cheese
• dried cranberries

Dinner - my usual Evening treat of some choccy or sweets

I can't believe I've reduced my daily worktime snacking to just 1 healthy snack! You were all right, with a bit of protein and more water to drink, I don't feel as hungry and without the sugar I'm not crashing at all. You've changed so much for me, and I ate pomegranates and cranberries! I've never eaten fruit in my life!

Thank you all hugely for the kind comments and support. It's only been a week or so but I feel I'm getting there

What a lovely update @chubbmum you’ve done amazing! Well done.

That is really well done OP! So brilliant that you're eating pomegranate and cranberries.

If you wanted to branch out with more consistent fruit you could consider:

Other dried fruits e.g raisins or dates.

Tinned fruit in juice (not syrup) as it's always consistent.... I like tinned pear, peaches and tinned mandarin segments.

You can also get those little snack pots of small pieces of chopped fruit in juice (like in clear yoghurt pots). I buy them for my children to take in packed lunches but they're nice for a snack. You could work up to swapping your evening sweets for one of those.

This is going to sound really strange, but I always used to have sweets in the evening after my dinner with a cup of tea in front of the TV. I now have 4 of the multivitamin "gummies" every day that genuinely taste like sweets and have those as my sweet treat with my evening cup of tea. I know it's ridiculous and they do still have sugar but am limited to one of each per day and at least I'm getting my vitamins into me! I take a multivitamin one, a vitamin D one, a collagen one and an omega 3 one.

Well done, I assumed you had run away due to an overload of advice.