To think it is so difficult to eat healthy?

[Backtonature]

I have been trying to eat healthy since leaving home 7 years ago, but I am finding it impossible.

For example when living at home I used to eat for breakfast coco pops with full fat milk, white toast with butter and a cup of hot Blackcurrant squash. That was my breaskast from a toddler up until the age of 25!! when left home I started to eat 2 slices of wholemeal toast with sunflower spread and a glass of pure apple juice. About a year ago I discovered bread was "bad" and the same with juice. So I changed to porridge with raisins and a herbal tea. Now apparently raisins have bad sugar and cows milk is not great. So am now eating porridge with soya milk and fresh berries. Now hsve seen porridge is not great as it is not natural for humans. Dame with soya milk it's not a natural product. Do I have to eat veg for breakfast to be healthy????

Maybe if I meal planned better and spent more time on that we could eat more variety!

I work on the principle of everything in moderation. So if I want a few biscuits, ill have few biscuits, but eating two packets of biscuits a day would be bad. Same with fruit, veg etc, eating an apple and a banana during the afternoon as part of 5 a day is okay, but eating 4 bananas and 6 apples a day is over doing it.

goodnessgraciousgoudaoriginal, your post is very offensive...and you are incorrect.

After your most gracious (see what I did there?) instruction about adverb/adjective usage, you note that confusing the two is "one of those horrendous bastardisations from the US". I assure you that we teach grammar in our schools, and that educated Americans understand the difference between adjectives and adverbs, and know when to use each. I can only assume that you have met a handful of Americans who might not have been very educated, or you watched American TV programs featuring less educated characters, and you then concluded that every American is the same. Imagine how offended you would be if I listed a few grammar mistakes made by a handful of British people, and then asserted that the grammar mistakes are "bastardisations from the UK". What if I made ANY negative generalization about all of the people of a certain country?

Have a proper English breakfast, bacon and eggs etc... The fat will fill you up so you feel less hungry.

Actually no trinity , it's the protein in the bacon & eggs (which should be grilled/poached not fried) that fills you up.

So what I eat today is on the right track??
Breakfast: porridge with soya milk and raisins
Snack: grapes
Lunch: ham sandwich, carrot sticks, banana, yogurt
Dinner: roast chicken, potatoes, carrots, peas, stuffing, Yorkshire. Apple crumble and custard.
Drinks: water and red berry tea throughout the day

That sounds fine and normal to me. Would it help to focus less on the healthiness of particular foods and more on how healthy you are in general? If are able to eat when you're hungry, you're not finding that you're suffering any adverse effects from the food you eat, you're getting your five/seven/ten (depending on how ambitious you are) and you're not overweight or underweight and not gaining weight, it's probably fine.

Sorry that should be five etc a day

I had a private medical health check and the nurse said my stomach measurements put me at risk of health problems (I have a pot belly!) but I thought that could be due to having a c section two years ago? As that's when it became sticky out. In also very unfit. I can't even run. I get out of breath doing the hoovering. I'm not over weight. So maybe I should focus on exercise!

at the moment I'm trying to eat food low in saturated fat and non processed.

Also trying to lower my meat consumption. I made a veggie chilli out of carrot, chilli, kidney and black beans, passata and had it with brown rice. Really delicious and filling too.

I have porridge with hazelnut milk and honey for breakfast and it definitely keeps me going until lunch.

Yum that chilli sounds good

backtonature I think you need to increase your exercise. Current research indicates that exercise is very important for health (not specifically weight loss) www.nhs.uk/Livewell/fitness/Pages/Whybeactive.aspx

Thanks for the link

Does housework count as exercise? I need to do more of that, maybe I could turn that into exercise?

Have you tried the couch to 5k programmes?

I am not a runner, but I was able to keep up with the programme. I struggled to run the whole 5k in one go at the end, but going out for half an hour 3 times a week made me feel amazing. then I got lazy, then I got pregnant. Honestly, try it!

Thanks I will have a look at that!

Everything in moderation I say! I'm not going to lie, I'm overweight, but that's largely due to my penchant for chocolate and wine, plus an under active thyroid, not my diet in general.

I try not to eat processed foods as much as possible and cook from scratch. We will eat porridge, eggs, yoghurt, fruit for breakfast, I have jacket potato with cheese/tuna/chilli/beans and salad for lunch, roast dinners, pasta bakes, stir fries, casseroles, fish pies etc for tea. We don't eat puddings regularly, don't have crisps, cakes etc in the house else I would eat them all and rarely eat takeaways/convenience foods. A lot of the reasoning for that is that I'm off work at the minute with a bad back and only have £25 a week left for shopping, but as a rule I don't tend to buy ready made meals and convenience foods. Ds is a picky bugger so it's easier to make from scratch as I know he'll eat it!

And, yes, will second the C25K thing. I was doing brilliantly on that until I did my back in.

Everything in moderation.

Really easy to eat healthily at home. Bloomin difficult when you are out though.

At a beefeater. Just had a steak. Came with chips. No choice of a jacket and what were those fake excuse for chips things I've just eaten because I was starving.

How hard it is to get a bag of frozen, raw cut up chipped potatoes and bung them In A fryer.

This is the last place on earth we would eat...but travelling and needs must!

I switch my breakfast between granola & yogurt, toast & peanut butter, and scrambled eggs through the week, I reckon they're all pretty healthy. My dinners are appallingly unhealthy though

Definitely exercise is good, though, it has more impact on your health than most things, plus it always makes me think more about whether I really want to wipe out all that sweat and pain with a huge pizza...!

Are there any sports you have ever enjoyed doing? eg I hate running, but love badminton and judo.

Housework does count and do al ot of heavy lifting at home and carrying shopping bags from the bug stop (and toddlers).

Breakfast: porridge with soya milk and raisins.
I would go for just eggs though.

Snack: grapes No snacks, No need for snacks. your snack is fructose - sugar.

Lunch: ham sandwich, carrot sticks, banana, yogurt - have the ham without the banana and yoghust and carrot sticks, add a large fresh salad.

Dinner: roast chicken, potatoes, carrots, peas, stuffing, Yorkshire. Apple crumble and custard.

Have no pudding. Don't have the stuffing, yoskrhire or potatoes.

Drinks: water and red berry tea throughout the day - sounds good. I just drink tap water.

OP, there's no need to cut out the potato, stuffing or yorkshire. Maybe have stuffing or yorkshire rather than both.

We're talking a lot about healthy eating at the moment with our Dd who has decided to become pescatarian. (Doesn't eat meat but fish is ok).

Our guidelines are: everything in moderation, use a wholemeal/whole grain variation wherever possible and eat whole, natural foods (so butter instead of spread, brown sugar instead of sweetener) and eat at least 5 portions of fruit and veg a day.