To use food to feel better?

[forgeti]

I’m currently in a stressful job that requires me to travel to London and the Midlands 1 day weekly each, then I WFH for 3 of the days.

AIBU to eat out or order takeaway meals a lot and never bother with going grocery shopping?

Since being at this job, I’ve put on around 10kg as I mentally feel like I don’t have time to cook or exercise. Also when something stressful happens at work, i tend to automatically order a nice meal so any diet goes out the window. Has anyone else been through similar and managed to snap out of it?

In terms of your health YABU.
Weight aside, heavily processed, salty, calorific food is going to play havoc with your general health & put you at risk of CVD, diabetes, cancer etc… what answers were you expecting?

If you are age between 40-74 with no underlying health issues you are eligible for an NHS health check. If your GP practice aren’t offering them, many pharmacies do. It might be worth having this mini MOT to see if you can get back on track. They measure BP, cholesterol and do a diabetes check. They are available every 5 years to those eligible.

We drifted into too many takeaways when very busy.
A regular HelloFresh box really helped us get back into cooking as the right amount of food and recipes arrived on the doorstep.
It meant dc and DH all did more cooking.

it's a slippery slope OP, been there done that myself. I am finding that intermittent fasting - for me, specifically OMAD or alternate day fasting - works for me. I too am in a situation whereby life is stressful and I have little time to cook. Eating one meal a day, or even eating on alternate days gives me more time to think about what I am going to have, prepare the healthy food ahead of time (as less meals to make overall), and then allow my body a lot of recovery time during which you don't eat so it stabilises insulin. there are less rules about what you can eat when you do eat, so the odd bad days or meals are not the end of the world. I started off extending my non-eating window slowly each day to get used to it. You're allowed black tea or black coffee, herbal tea, water etc to help you through. Second nature now. And helps you redefine when you eat and change ingrained habits around stress eating. It's helped me lose 1.5stone ish since Jan!

Honestly I guess I just wanted to talk about it/get a kick up the bum!

I’m 26 with no underlying issues luckily. I had blood tests in December and nothing flagged. Also I used to be skinny before so with the extra weight, I’m not obese but an average weight for my height. The weight gain at this stage is more embarrassing than causing long term issues. (But if I keep gaining, I’m sure I’d cause myself more problems).

@goldenotter thank you for that - i could IF on the days I WFH perhaps then eat more substantially on the days where I’m being active

It's a dangerous habit to get into. You don't have to spend hours cooking at home, but takeaway, in particular, is going to be pretty unhealthy. OK every so often but not as a perpetual diet.

If you don't like to cook, or don't want to cook, or have no time to cook, I'd suggest you buy a load of soups. There are lots of supermarket soups that are packed full of veg, and low on additives. 5 minutes from when you arrive home to eating something warm and satisfying and nutritious.

If you like to cook - then make your own soup and freeze it.

Then around that work out what you can buy as 'snacks' that might fill you up but not be the carb/salt/sugar fest thatis takeaway.. for example (all from M&S) rollitos with ham wrapped around cheese; carrots to dip in hummous; apples to dip in peanut butter; prawns to dip in mayonnaise.

If you like to cook (even occasionally) grab the stir fry veg from the supermarket, add some protein (chicken/ prawns / tofu / halloumi). Add a flavour sauce - some soy, or chilli, or lemongrass...

None of that take much grocery shopping. Just get out of the habit of takeaway. You might be surprised by how much less stressed you feel if you are eating less proccessed food.