Eating sweets and no actual meals on some days??

[crispytowel]

Really embarrassed but I think I need some help with this one... I have a busy job in the NHS and two DC so I have a lot to juggle in one day. Not much time to eat mindfully and if I'm not organised enough to think ahead about lunch I often end up eating cookies and chocolate bars - and coffee. It's a slippery slope as the more I eat sugar the more I crave it. In the eve if DH is late I might skip dinner and eat more choc or ice cream... am I the only one? Is it complete madness?? How do I stop this? I am a healthy weight so that's not the issue but it makes me feel so ashamed and immature!!

If you are not bothered about a hot meal and like sweet, what about something like overnight oats?
I buy the frozen breakfast toppers in Aldi (full of fruit and seeds)and make while cleaning my teeth before bed. Chuck the oats straight from packet into container, chuck a bit of the frozen topper on and slop yoghurt from a big pot on top. I don't do measuring. Takes about 30 seconds and you could do a couple of days worth at once.

If you prefer to have mid morning and eat biscuits for lunch it looks quite acceptable!

Thank you all so much! I honestly though I must be the only grown up doing this. Never heard anyone talk about it. Granted, I don’t talk about it myself so there you go.

I am exactly the same!! I feel so bad but like you I work for the nhs and there literaly isn't enough time to be messing around and when you get home your utterly exhausted

Does it help you to think of this in terms of overerall wellbeing rather than weight? I would be really concerned about what kind of stress you body is under - both in terms of the fact you have no time to eat and in terms of the blood sugar spikes you are constantly managing.

YABU to concentrate on your weight as an indicator for whether this way of eating is an issue or not. Same for other PPs.

What about your sleep, anxiety levels, mood etc?

If this is a regular occurrence you may also be malnourished, regardless of your weight.

This is me right now. I’m very stressed with a house move and work. Today I just ate cereal, chocolate, biscuits and some sweets. I’m a size 8 so I’m not concerned about weight but I’m concerned that I’m eating no goodness at all. The more sweet stuff you eat the more you need and I find myself not even wanting anything savoury at all. I think I really need to try and make sure the first thing I eat is savoury tomorrow. Ideally!

Same! Like, I get to the point where I’d choose chocolate over stuff I really like such as pizza, cheese etc

I do that myself - more often than I should! Don't beat yourself up.

I’ve done this, in fact strange coincidence today I’ve had 3 bowls of chocolate ripple ice cream. And nothing else 😨😮

My kitchen is full of salad lettuces, vegetables, fruit, whole grains, Greek yogurt, proteins....
Ice cream is my one vice.

I've recently started buying big packs of mince and chicken, and one day I'll just make a big pan of bolognese, another day a pan of curry, or chilli, another day a pan of cheese sauce etc and freeze it in portions. On a day like you're speaking about, it takes around 10 minutes to defrost the bolognese in the microwave and then we have it with fresh pasta that cooks in 4 minutes. Also we make sure we keep some of the filled fresh pasta and fresh sauces in the freezer.

You must be exhausted, maybe the tiredness is causing the sugar cravings

Could you decide the day before what you’re going to eat the next day (or the entire week)..even if it’s not the healthiest so decide you’ll have toast & cheese for breakfast, youghurt & fruit for lunch and even a decent ready meal for dinner..? Just to get you started, no cooking. One week at a time. Sounds like now it’s all or nothing.

That’s a really good suggestion! I’ll give it a go. Deciding tomorrow’s meals now

I'm the same. I can't stop!

I buy a pot of hummus, packet of rivita thins, cherry toms and cheese. I shove in fridge at work and have that. Replace following week with pot of guacamole or similar. I never have to think about it or prepare it, other than order it in weekly shop. Would something like that work?

I do this all the time, although recently have been swapping to a muesli type bar. I also take a mega multi vit, vit d, Ginko, st johns wort and that eases my conscience somewhat! Weight, sleep, mood and energy levels fine!

I can be quite bad with just eating chocolate and crisps. If you can start the day before work with some scrambled eggs (with some ham or chorizo or cheese) that really helps me. Takes a minute or two to cook and a minute or two to eat. At least if you start off well you won’t feel so bad about what else you eat.
ive just bought some super healthy meal replacement powder from a company called garden of life, the protein all comes from sprouted seeds and such like and there’s loads of super greens and probiotics and enzymes in there. It’s pretty sweet (stevia so healthy) esp when blended with a banana and some cocoa powder.
I also make up smoothie packs for the freezer. I use strawberries and bananas or pineapples, mango and coconut milk. If you make them yourself from properly ripe fruit they are much sweeter and cheaper than packs you can buy from the supermarket.
I do all this and still have bad days though I must admit

This is sugar addiction, plain and simple.
the only way to break it is to eat no sugar AT ALL. I know this is horrific but you will feel 1000% better

You said you have children, so I don't understand how this works. Surely you aren't giving them sweets for dinner? Why aren't you eating with them?

I Denmark you can buy (relatively) healthy pre-made meals in the grocery stores. Often either too "adult" (no way a toddler is eating pulled salmon with chickpeas for lunch) or too salty for young children, but certainly better than chocolate bars for adult. Is that an option for you? I have a DS (8 months), but also a chronic disease that requires me to eat somewhat healthy and at the very least consistently, so I rely heavily on easy options like either store-bought pre-prepped meals, or a quick oatmeal with some apple-bits for breakfast, wholegrain sandwich-bread with stuff like boiled eggs, creamcheese or chicken breast (store-bought sandwich topping kind) for lunch, and quick wholegrain-pasta dishes for dinner. Fruits like apples and pears can last for days just lying around in the kitchen, and need no preparation. Avocados with some salt on require no preparation either, and satisfy a craving for fat and salt, but are rather espensive and go bad in the blink of an eye.
If you do need very quick and nutrition-dense snacks to get through your day, you can opt for nuts and dried fruit. Dates with cocoa powder and almonds taste just like candy, but will provide you with at least some nutrients.

No, I'm not doing all of this consistently, I too resort to snacking om chocolate bars sometimes, and I definitely don't want to preach in any way. But maybe just one of these ideas could be useful to make a small change and get at least one meal of real food in a day.

This might be out of budget but can you afford to buy healthy pre-made meals?
We arranged this for an older family member who was diagnosed with diabetes due to their poor diet from over working and eating junk food.
They had a weeks worth of meals delivered and just sorted them in the freezer and threw them in the oven even needed.
I know it’s not the cheapest option but if you can afford it it might be a temporary help?

I do this too! I either replace meals with sweets or let myself get over hungry and they just eat chocolate or cake! I’m underweight though so it really doesn’t show but I’ve been doing it since I was 18. Probably does me no good on the inside and I’m always tired (exhausted!!!). I feel like a fragile bird with no energy and likely to break at any moment 😂 but it’s an addiction and I don’t have any other vices in life and it makes me fleetingly happy but I do feel like nothing is sweet enough anymore!!

I did this in my 20s. Worked crazy hours, lived on muesli bars, chocolate, diet coke, and biscuits. The only proper food I ever ate was a white bread, ham , and yoghurt, and that was infrequent.

I looked slim and healthy, but I was anything but with numerous health problems developing as a result of my awful diet. Malnutrition affected my teeth and bones, hormones, and resulted in my becoming border line diabetic.

An endocrinologist gave me a stern talking too as to where my life was heading if I didn't wise up. I went pretty much sugar free overnight. It wasn't easy but it was worth it.

If you are always tired and underweight, have you had your blood sugars checked? Sounds like diabetes.

Can you just make sure your other meals are really healthy? Say muesli and fresh fruit salad for breakfast and a healthy dinner with 3 veg for tea. Then the unhealthy lunch matter far, far less

I'm really pleased at how this threads gone. I'm so used to posters attacking the OP on mumsnet now I opened this expecting a barrage of comments shaming the OP for her diet. Nice to see so many responding in support and going through the same thing. Hope you can resolve this if its making you miserable OP and PPs.