If you're planning to eat healthier come the new year, what will you be buying / avoiding in your shopping

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I've not been feeling great nor had much of an appetite all over Christmas and it's kinda spurred me on to try and kick start my weight loss plan a bit earlier.

I'm playing about with my Tesco online shop but I'm running low on ideas for back to work lunches / evening meals etc .

Can I steal some of yours please?

I follow Slimming World so will be basing my meals around the free foods. I lost 3 stone this year on it and have kept it off but over the last few weeks I've overindulged. So I'm looking forward to getting back to it and eating clean again. High protein meat and fish, low fat dairy, potatoes, rice, pasta, lots of fruit and veg with the occasional treat.

No bread, pasta, sugar, alcohol - 21 day no sugar plan.

Soup for lunch - I'll make a batch on Sundays. Fish (with salad) or veg stir fry/casserole for dinner work days. No snacking on fruit for me.

I'm hoping to ttc in 2025 so I want to be as healthy as possible in 2024.

I'm buying oranges and avocados for folic acid (saw it on Tiktok so must be true).

I want to add in more fish but I'm not really a fish person at all.

Well I've just ordered McDonald's delivery because I don't fancy loading the dishwasher, so in dire need to join this thread and get motivated! Will be deleting the delivery apps on the 1st for a start.

Try to make your meals about 40% lean protein, 40% veg and 20% wholegrains. No added sugar, no alcohol, no caffeine.

I have been trying to eat healthier for three months as I was diagnosed with high cholesterol, thyroid related but also diet related.

I have cut out all booze, cheese, butter. No red meat. Eating lots more salmon, mackerel, avocado. Lots of overnight oats made with fat free yoghurt, berries and almonds. Minimising cakes, biscuits, chocolate. Nothing else completely forbidden.

TBH healthy eating isn't complicated. Less processed stuff. Less fried stuff. More fruit/vegetables, less cakes and ice cream.

Overnight oats is ideal for a lunch as well and really fills you up. Loads of recipes online, experiment to find one you like. Tuna nicoise salad with olives and a boiled egg also ideal for lunch.

Low or no sugar treats, more protein and reduced carbs and more fruit and veg really! Also I've discovered something that may help me drink more water 💧 which I definitely need to do.

Also no more alcohol except an occasional glass of red wine with a meal. Not that I drink much anyway.

I've lost nearly 3 stone this year on slimming world and haven't drunk alcohol either but I can tell I've overindulged now as I feel awful, bloated and fat. I'm dreading weigh in tomorrow morning so back to it

I've been reading Ultra Processed People by Chris Van Tulleken, it is something of an eye opener. Having battled with my weight and relationship with food for my whole adult life, it's been interesting to learn about modern food manufacturing and how this leads us into addiction. Even by eating some foods which we think are healthy, eg seeded bread, we are fooling ourselves brains into thinking we are getting nutrition whilst never feeling fully satisfied.

So to answer your question, I am trying hard to eat real food, cooked from scratch, with no UPFs.

Why no caffeine? That's like saying "no nuts". Good advice if you have a medical problem with them, but otherwise a health-giving part of a balanced diet.

I pretty much cook my own meals anyway but I will be doing more of this rather than relying on precooked prepackaged processed foods.

Buying
Lean meats, red meats, fish
Eggs
Sourdough
Natural full fat yoghurt
Sweet potato
Avocado
Olives

Avoiding
Cereals, granola, porridge
White bread
Anything marketed as ' high in protein' i.e shakes, yoghurts etc
Oykos and other fruit yoghurts which I love btw so this will be hard
Biscuits, cakes (will make my own)

I'll be cutting out refined carbs as much as possible. No biscuits, cakes, Chorleywood bread, chips, crisps, shop bought sandwiches. I'll allow myself new potatoes, roast potatoes, white rice and pasta because otherwise family meals will be impractical. No fruit juice or sugar.

Low carbing starting 2nd week Jan.
So no bread,rice,pasta, ridding the Christmas sweet treats out of the house.

Meal planning, will cook more from scratch.

Once it kicks in will miss breakfast and simply eat when Im hungry.

Well, for a start I'll be back to proper meal planning instead of oozing round the shop like a cheese-filled slug picking up anything that looks delicious 😁

Oats, fat free Greek yoghurt, frozen berries and bananas for porridge, smoothies and overnight oats.

Loads of salad plus chicken, tuna, and eggs, wholemeal pitta and soup for lunches.

Chicken, fish, loads of veg for dinners plus ingredients for some spicy meals with less starch than pasta bakes or jacket potatoes. I'll eat almost anything if it comes with dhal. Frozen prawns for stir frying, plus cashews and some big packs of pre-prepared stir fry veg for convenience.

No alcohol, fizzy drinks, or fruit juices - water, tea, coffee.

Fruit for snacks.

I have stomach issues, am waiting for further tests. I currently cannot eat more than 100g per day of fruits or vegetables. None juiced at all.

Any ideas for healthy eating? I'm stuck in a rut of pasta & cheese, bread & cheese with my 100g.

I'm also vegetarian and cannot tolerate soy currently. Brown pasta, rice & bread are all out too.

I'm sick of toast, bread, pasta, rice and various cheeses!

Also I love vegetables, so, so, so much! It's very sad.

It can affect your blood pressure and throw your system out of whack and it can affect sleep as well, which is an important part of maintaining a healthy weight. Cutting it out, or at least down, can be really beneficial as part of a plan to be healthier.

Large quantities of caffeine (4 cups a day or more) can affect your blood pressure, and caffeine in the evening or late afternoon can affect your sleep, but in moderation, at a time that doesn't impair your sleep, it's not harmful, and coffee and tea overall have wide ranging health benefits as long as you don't have them with three spoons of sugar.

I'm going to try to go back on the anti-inflammatory diet. I have seborrheic dermatitis with a touch of rosacea and it REALLY helped last time I did it. My skin was glowing and I could almost do without foundation for the first time ever. I felt bloody great too, not as bloated or gassy.

My biggest issue is living with DH and 2 young adult sons who love everything that DOESN'T form part of the anti-inflammatory diet. So it makes joint meal times quite difficult sometime. And meal planning harder, it takes more time and I don't have a lot of time or energy when I@m working.

How wierd, all your toast, bread, pasta and rice would give me real stomach problems if that was my main diet.

I'm planning to vaguely follow this diet. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-weight/diet-reviews/mind-diet/

In a nutshell, I'll replace refined carbs with wholegrain ones e.g. brown rice / pasta. I'll eat more beans, lettuce, spinach, nuts, olive oil and berries and less red meat, cheese, butter, sugar and processed food.

Except when I cook for my toddlers I'm going to abandon all that and eat what I'm cooking for them. So I won't be giving any of those things up fully, particularly cheese which is the main dairy food they will eat so good for various nutrients for them.

I'm also thinking some food swaps i.e. cauliflower rice instead of actual rice, and butterbean mash instead of potato mash. Anyone got other swap ideas?

I’ll be doing the hated by MN Slimming World again - so reduced carbs, less fat, more protein, far more veg and fruit and the occasional treat within my allowance.