to think good quality ready meals are quite healthy?

[Onlywayisupmaybe]

My diet is pretty bad generally so I’m trying to change to have regular meals as a first step.

Am I deluding myself to think that ready meals from M&S healthy ranges (eat well and count on me) are quite healthy or do they count as UPF?

I don’t have the motivation to cook from scratch so any tips on easier options which are reasonably healthy would be appreciated.

🤣 Thanks for the warning, I’ll steer clear of Budgens

I use them sometimes as I live alone
I always add a pile of vegetables to balance them out
I also take a daily multivitamin
I'm not particularly bothered about UPFs though as I had crispy pancakes etc when I was growing up!

What about also adding in simple easy to prepare meals?
Omelette
Jacket potato with a topping
Decent quality sliced ham with new potatoes and salad
Roast a chicken and use in salads, sandwiches

Read the thread room @soupfiend

Oh yes, fond memories. Findus crispy pancakes and pot noodles were my weekday staples when I was a child. Probably explains a lot 😆

OP is inclined to not feed herself, she isnt going to buy separate ingredients and be motivated to put them all together, hence her query about the easiest most straightforward way of feeding herself without too much thought

She hopefully will lead up to cooking at some point

There is nothing wrong with her plan.

And toast toppers in a little tin, they were gorgeous. Mushroom flavour I think.

As long as you have salad or nice fresh veg with it’s ok.

And apologies - I took your sarcasm the wrong way.

As someone who also struggles with food and a poor diet, the kindness, understanding and compassion in your post brought me to tears. Thank you. OP, well done on looking to make a change.

Just use your common sense op. If you can see that the meal is meat/fish, veg and mashed potato then that’s what it is. Ready meals are all completely different.

I'm assuming your eating disorder is "thinking for you" it must be exhausting.

Your body needs food to function I hope you manage to find a balance.

?

Thanks for understanding. You are so right @Mrsjayy . It is absolutely exhausting.

Start small until you are used to eating regularly
Cut up fruit, crackers and cheese, Greek yogurt,( my standby)
Things like tzatziki with cucumber and cherry tomatoes is light and fresh

But many people (not necessarily you) would have potato with tuna mayo and think that is better than a ready meal, but the mayo is mostly highly processed rapeseed oil. And if you want to be very pedantic (which I always do), the tuna contains mercury. Or they’d have baked beans which are full of sugar.

Bread is very highly processed and full of salt. Sliced ham, even good quality ham, contains sodium nitrites (although don’t eat ham or bacon without these if you don’t want food poisoning - I speak from experience).

Thanks @Normallynumb, that’s a good strategy.

A dietician advised me to have a ready meal a day so that I would get variety and some nutrients. (Autistic). So, no they're not that bad at all.

That’s interesting @Fimbledore. Did the dietician specify particular brands of ready meal?

Cook also do some child size portion meals so if you are struggling with eating some of those might also be a good idea. When I don't have much appetite I sometimes have one of these and just do some extra veg with them. Personally I use Cook ready meals - definitely better than a lot of the M&S ready meals

Not at all. She just wanted my system to get used to a variety of foods, and said any ready meals would do.
Good luck.xx

I didn't think it was the ingredients that made ready meals bad, but rather the high salt content? I think as long as people keep an eye on their salt in take ready meals are fine.

And this post is helpful to someone with an eating disorder how, exactly? OP needs to find ways to just eat something and not obsess about what's in it. Your post does the opposite.

Here are my easy and fairly healthy go tos. They are cheap as well and maybe something you could try now or work towards if they appeal to you.

Frozen jacket potatoes and beans. Nothing goes off and you always have it in. The timings are on the packet so you can't fo wrong

Quiches with salad and jacket potatoes. Very simple as you don't have any chopping and bar the salad you can freeze them. There are single portion Quiches too. Fish portions can also be microwaved or you could have eggs. So quick again.

Egg on toast has lots of protein as does omelette and you can pack in veg and add sauces to dip it in. Eggy bread/French toast is also good.

Another easy one is Egg fried rice. Get chopped frozen onion and garlic, fry them and add egg and a pack of microwave rice. Again it doesn't go off. Jazz it up with sesame oil and soy sauce. Add any veg to it, literally any veg and it will taste nice.

Stir fries from the supermarket are also an easy one and make 2 meals

Some of the frozen cheaper ready meals can be good as they are frozen they don't need preservatives. I've also noticed that some frozen pizzas don't appear to have UPF in

My understanding of UPF is that it's about how much of your diet it makes up as that is what gets talked about. Therefore if you balance it out with some fresh foods or less processed ones you're OK

If ready meals are what work for you, then do that and get use to eating again. Maybe the next step is try different ones and then add veggies or salad. I think that's what I would do it's better to not pressure yourself x