Is there anyone who just eats normally?

[Peanutss]

I can't believe the amount of threads where the OP claims to eat only a boiled spinach shake for breakfast, plain cous cous for dinner and a salmon fillet with veg for tea. With of course, only an apple as a snack in between.

Is there anyone like me who just has a bowl of cornflakes for breakfast, a meal deal for lunch and then whatever I can be arsed putting in the oven for tea? I'm beginning to wonder if I'm massively unhealthy in comparison to most or whether people are just making this up.

Sadly lljkk without meds, I would be one of those people [even with meds, I'm sometimes one of those people!!]

The good thing is, I actually like 'healthy' food - I adore an avocado, thank god, and as far as I'm concerned a walnut is the food of the gods - I just get fed up with the sheer unending virtue of it all and wish it wouldn't matter if I just ate biscuits all day for once.

Jenny17 but the things you describe aren't the be all and end all to everyone. Do I have a six pack like her? No. Am I severely unhealthy because I'm not as strict as her? No. Does her diet and relationship with food look appealing to me? No.

I'm perfectly happy and healthy not being as fit as humanly possible.

Today ive had

Banana for breakfast
Porridge (a tiny individual pouch one) with a teaspoon of nutella no regrets
A cheese string
A cake bar
A penguin biscuit

2 boiled eggs and soldiers (buttered) for tea.

About 5 cups of tea!

I am a healthy weight, have never been overweight.

I eat plenty of fruit and veg but yes, I generally just eat whatever I want.

Today I had:

White toast with butter and Vegemite with a mug of milky coffee for breakfast.
Snack at work was two Jaffa cakes and several cups of milky tea.
Lunch was a jacket potato with cheese and tuna.
Second snack was more Jaffa cakes and tea.
Dinner was chippy - fish and chips today!

Not the healthiest but also not a big deal in the grand scheme of things!

I do plenty of exercise with the dog, I have a job where I'm on my feet for eight+ hours a day and other days I eat ten+ portions of veg. A good diet is one with plenty of variety - fish and chips might not be especially healthy but neither is spending your life counting calories and fretting over the amount of salt in your lunch.

SheldonTheWonderShlong no I'm sure I can't imagine what people must go through suffering with eating disorders or similar. I'm extremely grateful I've not experienced that before, I don't think that's always the basis for people eating/posting the way I described though. I'm sure it is for some.

But there is definitely a sense of healthy eating competitiveness here!

My eating routine is terrible right now.

Brunch: A cheese salad sandwich on warbutons white bread with a side of french fry crisps.

Dinner: A Tesco vegan tofu and grains and veg ready meal.

I'm annoyed at myself for not having any junk in the house to snack on!

I'm losing weight on this eating pattern, not really surprising.

I need to get back into a proper eating routine again.

Re lunches and the norm.

Last year Deliveroo did a survey online. Granted it was only about 1500 workers surveyed but their top 25 were:

TOP 25 MOST POPULAR LUNCHES

1. Ham sandwich
2. Cheese sandwich
3. Tuna mayo sandwich
4. Egg mayo sandwich
5. Superfood salad
6. Spicy chicken wrap
7. Jacket potato with filling
8. Fish and chips
9. Leftover pasta dish

10. Caesar salad 11. Pasty 12. Prawn sandwich 13. Tuna nicoise salad 14. Tomato soup and roll 15. Microwave noodles 16. Just toast 17. Carrot and coriander soup and roll 18. Coronation chicken baguette 19. Bacon and Brie baguette 20. Minestrone soup and roll 21. Jumbo sausage roll 22. Cous cous salad 23. Curry 24. Beans on toast 25. Duck wrap

4 of the top 5 were sandwiches.
9 of the top 25 were sandwiches in some form.

Another survey in the UK was done in 2015 and they had similar results. Top 5 in order were:
Cheese sandwich
Ham sandwich
Chicken sandwich
Salad
Other sandwich

Based on the staff room where I work (mainly women) sandwiches are by far the most popular lunch. DH says the same for his office (mixed). The school lunch hall (mixed) for packed lunches are about 90%+ sandwiches.

I really love food, but I really love healthy food too.

I'm no stranger to a curry or a Chinese takeaway as a treat, but generally I find unprocessed food more digestable.. ready meals make me feel really shit and my stomach bloat, so I dont eat them.

I do eat A LOT during the day as am at home, but its lots of healthy stuff generally like avacardos, houmous and nuts and things, which are still massively high in calories! ( myst be why I'm not losing those extra lbs put on over Xmas 🤔)

I probably drink too much wine ( my downfall) although not drinking booze this month to 'reset' myself again, with the intention of controlling what I drink after Jan a bit more.

I'll munch away on chocolate if its left unattended in the fridge too( live a Wispa!), but dont generally buy it for myself as not that fussed.

But don't you see how you're just the same in terms of competitiveness??!! It's very much like a reverse snobbery. I'm more normal than you etc.

Anyway like I said, it's not really a problem is it? You're happy with your choices and Mrs poached eggs/quinoa salad/salmon and spinach is happy too.

SheldonTheWonderShlong

Not really no, I'm not competing to be the most unhealthy. I'm just asking (because I'm shocked at the amount of MN threads you see) whether people actually eat like this or whether there are people like me.

And I've said about 10 times now that saying 'normal' was a poor choice of words in my OP and apologized for it.

You're happy with your choices and Mrs poached eggs/quinoa salad/salmon and spinach is happy too

But this is my point, you get jumped on (by some) for saying you prefer a sandwich and a bag of crisps because it's 'unhealthy' and costing the NHS etc. Etc.

I've also never really worked with anyone who has salad/quinoa/leftover salmon for lunch on a regular basis.

Everyone in my current workplace has a variation on the following:

Soup and bread/a sandwich.
Jacket potato with filling.
Meal deal.
Takeaway.
Sandwiches from home.
Leftovers (normally in the shape of pasta)
Pot of pasta salad from the closest supermarket.
Fish and chips.

I think those kinds of meals are far more common than poached eggs or quinoa salad or whatever, mainly because they're easy to transport to work, quick to prepare and eat and filling, and don't require the use of a microwave/oven/stove which most offices don't have.

Same here! I’m suffering with pretty bad morning sickness currently, which is impacting my diet as I am trying to eat what I can keep down basically!

Breakfast: a pear (much smaller than what I’d normally eat)
No snack
Lunch: roast chicken sandwich, bag of Doritos and a cup of apple juice
Snack: two raw carrots and an apple.
Tea: one fish cake (I did have chips and salad to accompany but couldn’t stomach it)
Supper: bowl of angel delight and bag of bacon crisps.

OP as you will have already been told, several times I’m sure, people with food issues and orthorexics (hope I got that right) are just far more likely to want to post. I eat fairly normally but had a pretty screwed up relationship with food into my late 20s. I still get a bit over-involved in it all.
Today I’ve eaten:
B: porridge (sweet), tea & milky coffee.
L: homemade leek n potato soup, wholemeal bread, a baby bel. Diet Coke.
D: homemade chicken curry & brown rice, side salad, diet lemonade.
Snack: a pear & a tangerine.

I ate a whole load of rubbish on Saturday and am trying to get back to my NY resolution to eat more healthily. I love these threads! Bit sad for a middle aged woman I know. Like you, I can hardly believe the women who post ‘had an avocado for breakfast and grilled chicken salad at night, drank water’. But then it dawns on my these are probably the ‘skinny women’, with willpower of steel!

I've had it worked out for me that I should be on 1700 calories a day. I can eat anything i want as long as I stick to that, but obviously there's guidance on how I should split that into carbs, fat, protein, fibre and sugar.

What shocked me most was what actually constitutes a portion size. I was eating healthy food, but massively overeating. Healthy food still has calories, so you can gain weight from it!

I'm now losing 1.5lbs a week and don't feel deprived. It should take me about 3 months to reach my goal at this rate, but I know I'll fall off the wagon at times, so I'm giving myself 8 months, just in time to be bridesmaid at my DSis wedding.

I think if we all just stuck to everything moderation, correct portion sizes and the right level of calories that we individually need we'd all be fine and very surprised.

Today I had

Breakfast: bran flakes, blueberries and skimmed milk

Lunch: leftover spag bol

Dinner: diet coke chicken, green beans and rice

Snacks: tea and a muller light

Guess which diet I'm on This isn't normal eating for me. I would love crisps or chocolate and all the bread but I have gained 2 stone in 2 years by eating what I thought was normally.

I wish I could eat normally. I am totally screwed up about food and feel guilty about whatever I eat.

My best friend for example is so obsessed with weight and exercise. She looks great, amazing in fact. But it's so strict, she herself despises it sometimes because she can't have x y or z

But some of us would rather be slim than enjoy food and yes, it's shit sometimes but then I try clothes on and am pleased with how I look and I'm more than happy to have missed that cake or (😉) sandwich.

I love biscuits, cakes, crisps and wouldn't eat much fruit and veg ever again if I could but I don't eat this way as I'd rather look the way I do and sacrifice food for it.

I eat normally. Life is too short to diet and faff around with faddy eating. That said everything in moderation. Today I had Weetabix and fruit for breakfast, cheese and chilli chutney sandwiches for lunch. Yoghurt and mince pie for snacks ( not together), curry with rice for tea and just having a cuppa and mini Toblerone for pud.

People make stuff up on the internet

^

They also make it up re: digestives for brekkie, kitkat for lunch and pie chips and peas for supper. Works both ways!

I think I eat relatively normally.

Breakfast- Slice of toast with marmite and a boiled egg.
Snack- Packet of crisps
Lunch- Pulled pork sandwich with salad
Dinner- Homemade fish pie with peas
Drinks- Cup of tea, a few glasses of weak squash, glass of water and a small glass of wine.
Some days are better, some days are worse but i’m a size 12 and exercise regularly so find it all evens out in the end.

I think there are a lot of lies embellishment on MN food threads. At least, that's what I like to tell myself

Today, I've had:
B: Toast with Jam
L: Lidl own brand tomato soup with crusty baguette and grated cheese
T: Cauliflower bake (from freezer) with chips and lettuce.
Tescos own brand Cornetto for pudding and a Babybel and grapes for a mid morning snack.

My toddler is having a Dairylea sandwich AND Wotsits in her lunchbox tomorrow. The horror!

In all honesty it is hard eating healthy 80% of the time but it is so much easier than being overweight, prediabetic and miserable.

As a pp once famously said, pick your hard!

@MrsJ I couldn't agree with you more! OF COURSE I'd love to eat what the vast majority of PP have posted, but i would end up being the size of a beached whale.

So even though I cast envious looks at the deathwich eaters, it is worth it (for me!) to like what I see when I look in the mirror.

I'm still waiting to find out why daily sandwiches = crap parenting.

My mum made me sandwiches every day for school and if you told me she was a shit mum to my face then we'd be having a full and frank discussion in the pub car park about this.

And what about the children who refuse to eat anything else but sandwiches, be they NT or SN (the kids, not the butties...)? Are their mothers shit too, for not sending them in with a bento box full of grainy shite?

My habits? Well I'm ill, underweight and can't get much down me. I'm under strict instructions to eat whatever I can, even if it's crap. Reading about women who unashamedly enjoy food is cheering me up no end though, in fact I'm thinking about having a little something myself and I usually need to be prompted. So thanks for that Peanutss, you've helped me to feel a little bit, well, normal