Trying to lose weight and eat less UPF, help?

[somsaa]

I'm overweight, so trying to lose weight, we also eat way too much UPF.

Both me and husband work full time, have 2 young children, and I feel like trying to find the time to cook from scratch is hard.

Any tips or ideas how to help?

I also have sensory food issues.

Anyone?

Meal plan for the week as much as poss. Have consistent meals, no need to reinvent the wheel every day if you find something you like. Weekly food shop and stop yourself from doing unnecessary top ups to buy crap. Cooking from scratch does not have to be time consuming - get a repertoire of quick and easy meals and rotate them 4/5 days a week then do something more adventurous on the other 2 if you have a bit more time. Plenty of fresh fruit, veg and other whole foods. Avoid as much pre made stuff as poss. Scrutinise labels to educate yourself as to what is UPF and what isn't. It's a change in habits but commit to it for a month and you'll find it less burden after that. No harm in the occasional treat but be realistic as to how many of those you're having. Increase your activity levels at the same time (extra walk each day, extra bit of time at a class/gym/whatever your thing is).

Buy and eat more veg. And pulses. Roasted veg with chickpeas. Dal. Have a salad with every dinner. Make veg soups.

One of my biggest issues is bread. While I love to bake, I need bread at 7am in the morning.
So we got a breadmaker, same ingredients as if I do it by hand, I put it on early in the evening, it's ready when I go to bed and it's enough for 2 days.

Some breadmakers are ok for overnight, ours is not that good.

Plenty of biscuit dough can be frozen and then easily baked on a Sunday evening for snacks for the next week.

If you cook pasta sauces or curries, double the portion and freeze. Lots of sauces are easy to do.

Think about portion sizes, don't overfil your plate, lower the carbs and increase veg and protein. If you like, snack on vegetables like carrots, pepper, cucumber.
Get full fat plain joghurt, eat with oats and fruit. It fills up a lot longer than the fat free full of crap ones.

We have a bread maker, which tbh I should use more!
I have issues with fruit and veg with my sensory issues.

I hate any leafy veg, tomatoes, so salads are hard, fruit I'm even more restrictive with, strawberries and apples are the only 2 I will eat!

I need to eat more protein.

What foods do you like ?

what fruit and vegetables can you eat .

it is easier to talk about what things you like .

do you like sauces - tomato sauces are so easy to make from tinned tomatoes and purées

Try using ChatGPT for menu planning - you can tell it what you like, how long you have to cook etc and it will give you suggestions. Keep talking to it until you get a plan you like. Then ask it for recipes for anything you need.

It's a lot of fun!

So while I don't like raw tomatoes, I will eat them in sauces etc if smooth etc

My go to us roasted veg, so just stick it all in the tray and bake. Stuff like peppers, onion, tomato, carrots, parsnips, potato, sweet potato, leeks etc and then stick some fish/chicken in the oven with it too. Or some halloumi.

We have a version of this 3-4 times a week. You can make it more "exciting" by adding different herbs and spices to the protein/veg. And yes it takes up to half an hour before you can eat, but active prep is 10 mins at most (chopping veg)

Oh and the tray goes in the dishwasher afterwards!

DH is the cook in our household.

When he is away I normally make a big batch of meat sauce and eat it over a few days with rice / grilled veg / cauliflower/ a baked potato.

If you like cauliflower then you can oven cook it from frozen for about 30 mins, put a big pile of cheese on and return it to the oven to melt the cheese.

You can also get shop bought sauces etc without additives, check the ingredients list.