To think my diet is possibly worse than any other 32 year old's?

[mytartanscarf]

The title makes it sound like I am proud of it and I am not - but I do need help (as gently as you can, for AIBU!) as have never spoken of this before.

By some miracle, my teeth are all good (confirmed by dentist to my shock!) and I am overweight but only marginally - weigh 10 stone 8lbs; I am 5 foot 3 inches.

It's hard to talk about a typical day so to give an idea I'm either hungry or I am not - if I'm not hungry I generally won't eat anything until the evening and it's usually porridge, made with water, and a low cal hot chocolate. I'll generally have a snack sized chocolate bar in the day. Drinks - diet coke by the gallon.

If I AM hungry, I'll eat - sugary cereal, sweets (haribo/wine gums) crisps, chocolate. Maybe a McDonalds or a pie. Drinks - diet coke by the gallon. Sometimes I'll heat some soup up and have it with bread & butter.

I know it's awful and I'm trying to think how things got this bad, I know I have a lot of guilt/strange feelings with food. Also I live on a boat so don't have a fridge or microwave (no room) so shopping has to be done daily and I often don't have time or nowhere to store leftovers. I work a weird job with shifts all over the shop. I'm not veggie in the strictest sense of the word but I do find it hard to disassociate feelings about the animal. I HATE green veg apart from spinach and cabbage, there are other foods I dislike though none spring to mind right now.

I do enjoy fresh fruit, and some veg especially onion, mushroom, sweet potato and carrots.

I think the main problem is lack of organisation with food. I just don't recognise hunger, so when I do want food it's an emotional "want" - like a childhood thing?

I know you can help. Just PLEASE don't yell at me if I can't do something as I'm sure I've missed off some information, but not on purpose!

Yeah it is a vegetable, I really like it. Doesnt taste much different to broccoli, but is nice and chunky and filling.

Oh I really don't like broccoli but thanks :)

Asparagus with cheese melted over it,mmmn < makes a face like Homer>

Could you invest in a (lockable?) coolbox and chain it to the bow with a bike lock? At this time of year that would be a perfectly adequate fridge facility.

Then cheese, yogurt, milk, meat, salad veg etc can be stored.

Ahh bugger

Maybe crap :)

1/ do not go cold turkey on the diet coke.
. Does not matter how bad it is for you cutting caffeine cold is worse for you. It will as you have observed make you ill. It can also make you psychotic. Cut it down gradually.

2/ dried fruit, nuts and trail mixes are you friend. Lots of vitamins, b vits, minerals, fibre. Easy to store, ideal for snacking and they keep your sugars even.

Eat the ducks? mmm tasty. Chuck in some orange. No scurvy

Mink - they are cute but yes I do love duck and orange sauce

I know a family who don't have a fridge and shop daily and they manage.

The student cookbook is a good idea. I used to have a meals for one book.

As you don't seem to be into cooking I wouldn't bother baking or cooking from scratch at the moment. I would just start trying to eat more healthily eg more fruit, nuts, seeds, tinned veg, the healthy ready meals is a good idea, just add veg then fruit and yogurt.

Also get into the habit of eating regularly even on days you are not hungry.

If a cool box locked outside is a possibility, do you live on a canal or at a marina? If it's a marina, are there facilities to freeze ice packs for you like campsites do? This would make a cool box a year round solution.

Instead of a fridge, how about a cool box? Get ice from a supermarket you can keep things cool overnight .

Haven't read the entire thread, but a lot of things don't need to be stored in a fridge. Potatoes, onions and carrots, for example. And couldn't you, at this time of year, store somethings outside in a box or something.

Other things, like stews and soups, can be brought to a boil everyday to avoid them going off, for a few days at least.

Some other easy foods, some that are tinned or just need a kettle but that are reasonably nutritious (apologies if repeatng another poster):

• tinned mixed beans (turn into to bean salad with addition of spring onion, peppers etc, or to a quick bean chili with a jar of premade tomato sauce and a dash or two of hot sauce)
• instant miso soup. Easy to pimp up with sliced veg (spring onions, mushrooms, shavings of carrot), tofu etc.
• hummus and carrot, cucumber, red pepper sticks. If you get a small pot if hummus and treat it as one meal, you get plenty of reasonable calories and no fridge required. Ditto a small tub of cottage cheese.
• eggs. Brilliant for easy food. Not just omelettes or scrambled - plain old boiled eggs are great. Have them sliced on ryvita with some chutney or mayonnaise, and add salad if you can face it.
• grated carrot and cheddar with a good squeeze of lemon jiuce, in grilled pita breads.

With the fridge issue, I'd try to plan to use up perishables in consecutive meals, even if that means that they're a bit samey.

I'd also use coconut oil in preference to butter as it lasts longer unrefrigerated.

Yes I may look into getting the cool box.

Sunday - how DO they manage? It's a nightmare. I have to dash in in between work shifts and so it's always something I can grab and run with.

(If there is a freezer at work you could cheekily freeze coolblocks there )

Ps could you hang a sturdy bag over the bow into the water to keep some things chilled?

Crap I don't have a workplace as such, my job is car based.

Believe me I would not eat ANYTHING that had gone in this water!

The diet coke is the worst thing about my post by far. Try and develop a taste for herbal teas or natural derived squash if you really can't bear water on its own.

Ah! Fair enough

Hi OP

Just wanting to second what others have said re the caffiene. Caffeine is truly a very addictive substance and there are very real and unpleasant side effects of withdrawing.

However I really really feel that if you do not tackle this first, then you will be stuck Ina. Perpetual cycle of sugar highs and Lows and also feeling full with empty calories ( making it harder to feel motivated to eat proper food).

The fizzy drinks will also be messing up your calcium levels and will in the longer run make your bones and teeth significantly less dense, maybe not a big concern now but it will be as you age into your fourties.

My suggestion would be to give yourself a definate allowance per day ( so maybe if you currently drink a max of four big bottles per day maybe say, for week one you will not drink any more than three. Tackle any withdrawal headaches with the melt able form of nurofen ( place under the tongue and they welt almost immediately so not possibility of throwing them up).

Then the next week set a limit of two big bottles and so on.

With regards the diet, definately invest In a Good quality multi vit. There will be other posters who could advise on what to get and what extra bits would help with sugar regulation etc. Eating what you are and with all the fizzy drink your brain chemistry is probably a bit off balance anyway and especially a lack of vit B.

Longer term, is there any way at all you could modify, reorganise or sacrifice something else on the boat to allow for a fridge. I am all for life on the boat but it has to be sustainable health wise and a fridge really is a must.

Good luck!

For the amount you must be spending on the food you are eating, could you grab a baked potato from a shop, or a ready made salad? Do you like cherry tomatoes, cucumber, coleslaw, peanuts or other salted/unsalted nuts, dried fruit (apricots/raisins/pineapple/apple/dates), humus, taramasalata, smoked salmon off-cuts, wholemeal bread, cheeses, yoghurt, seeds, halva, baked beans, ham etc? (you can tell that I didn't cook pre-children unless I needed to!).

Weeeell ... I could, in theory, but the sort of shops that sell ready made salads aren't really in abundance. I mean, I'd have to make a special journey and I just can't do that at work.

But I could make a salad following that rough description - I don't like cucumber though :)

Never mind your diet.....you live on a boat

Please can I come and live with you?

Seriously though...if you have a car get a little portable fridge that plugs into your car to charge? Then it can keep stuff cool in the day, bring it into the boat at night.