Diet and exercise

[ElizabethCage]

Posting for traffic!

I hate cooking, I find it boring, there are no meals that I look forward to eating.
I don't exercise, again, boring and makes me feel crappy.
I have pcos and need to lose weight. I also want to set a good example for my children.

So quick, simple meals that are gluten free, vegetarian and dairy free if possible.
What exercise can i do? How do I make it more bearable?

Tips to break the habit of existing on crisps and coke?

Genuinely please help

Oven baked risotto. It's delicious and easy. Get more steps in.

The Green Roasting Tin cook book might help - loads of recipes where you basically dump the ingredients on a baking tray and roast for 20 mins or so. Half of the book is vegan, half veggie so while some of the ones with dairy won't work for you there should still be plenty to try.

On exercise, I would recommend either making it part of your routine as pp have suggested or finding something you do with other people which makes it more fun and keeps you accountable. Plus keep trying different things - moving your body can cover so many different activities there's bound to be some that you enjoy more. Getting outside into natural surroundings is really good for your mood and can take you to some beautiful places. Listening to podcasts or audio books can make the time pass faster, particularly if you choose a book that you only listen to when you're exercising so it motivates you to get back out and listen to it.

Exercise for health...you'll get stronger and healthier for your children and model good behaviour. Walks at the weekend with the kids. Walk more generally. Find something you can commit to, swimming, tennis, c25k....

Food, you probably need more protein. Fish finger wraps with pepper and shredded cabbage.

Chicken fajitas.

Soup.

Batch cook and freeze
Log everything with my fitness pal and there are lots of recipes on there
Don't buy crisps... if they're there you'll eat them
Get a soup maker, nice takes about 20 minutes
Another vote for yoga with adrienne
Listen to a podcast while you walk.... you will walk further
Create a playlist of upbeat music to listen to
Do squats while you're waiting for the kettle

If you don't like exercise for its own sake you just need to find something to do whilst you do it. Walking/jogging/swimming - listen to music/audio books. Teamsports - go for the chat and social aspect. Static exercise bike - watch TV.
Alternatively go for something very intense so you get it over with quickly. HIIT/aerobics/weight training.

Loads of people don't enjoy exercise but do it because they want to be healthy and live past 65. I hate going to work but I do it because I need to eat and pay the mortgage. That's life.

There's not a park run near me but I'm always seeing people run so there might be a running club or something? All shapes, sizes, ages and I still think that I would be the one who would get laughed at.“

Very much doubt it. All I feel when I see large people running is admiration.

I have coeliac disease so gluten is a no go, I've been vegetarian since I was a toddler and although I cook meat for the kids the process, the smell, everything makes me feel sick. I have a dairy intolerance which sends me running to the loo but thats the thing I'm happy to compromise on because I know my diet is limited

Thank you 💚

I second this. I've been fizzy pop free for 7 months now and my Dentist saw a difference in my teeth last week.

I did it by not buying coke and drinking fizzy water. Sometimes I'd add a small amount of fresh juice and top up with fizzy.

Now I drink mainly water with cucumber in, peppermint tea, chamomile tea and lattes

I've never had a good diet, even as a child it would be binging with my mum or plain pasta/potato because I wouldn't eat meat. Then I was homeless at 16 and lived off 9p noodles once a day.
I set alarms and make sure the kids eat well but they eat meat, gluten and dairy so it's easier whereas I just think I don't fancy anything so won't eat and then will binge on crisps in the evening or something. Its very unhealthy and at my age I really need to get a grip and start eating properly.

Thank you for everyone's advice it's really helpful

I do have a soda stream so that's a good idea, I could fizz up squash. I've just had a tooth pulled and can see a cavity in the one that it was next to. No dentists here so I had to go private, I literally can't afford the damage to my teeth!

I am 10 years sober this year (would be 15 years but there was a blip) and honestly I found quitting drink and drugs easier than quitting drinking coke.

I just bought an electric rice cooker which also functions as a steamer/slow cooker. I think it's going to be brilliant for easy meals. I don't dislike cooking, but I'm certainly fed up with endless meal planning.

There are loads of one-pot type recipes on Instagram, YouTube etc to cook in the rice cooker- mostly Asian, but lots of other stuff too. Whack in some rice, water and seasonings/sauce, then put veg or tofu etc in the tray over the top to steam or stir in beans etc. Press start. I'm dairy intolerant too, and I made an amazing rice pudding in it yesterday with coconut milk, orange zest and nutmeg. It's my new favourite toy!

Oh, and don't do it all at once.

If you decide you need to lose weight, .need to exercise, need to cook better etc then attempt it all at once on one day and something goes wrong, you give up on all of it.

I wrote down what I needed to change, decided what was priority started from that point and made sure it became habit before introducing something else

For weight loss I have found time restricted eating, also known as intermittent fasting very helpful. You just set an eating window of eight hours (but if your new to this you might set yourself a longer eating window of 10 hours and work on getting it down to 8 hours). Say I can eat from 10am to 6pm, I'm a bit careful about what I eat but not massively, still have some chocolate, cake, crisps in that time as well as normal meals. Then from 6pm to 10am next day no food, only water or black teas/herbal teas, coffee with no milk or sugar. I found this really helped jump start weight loss then more motivated to exercise on top.

I had horrible headaches, worse than normal for a good 4 weeks after stopping coke and really had to push through it.

I'm not minimising your recovering from alcohol addiction by the way!

It makes me wonder what it is in coke that makes it that hard to give up?! It can't be great for us!

And 10 years sober js absolutely bloody brilliant!!!!!!!! That's done more for your health than you realise.

I don't know how old you are, I'm 43 and I think potentially entering perimenopause. I find the method you mention really helps me when it comes to sleeping of a night.

Until I turned 40, I had no problems with eating and sleeping. My evening meal is usually around 730pm because of work, then all of a sudden everything felt heavy in my tummy and couldn't get off to sleep and constantly felt too full. Now I don't eat after 5pm and can go to sleep easily. I wake earlier but I've started getting into the habit of getting up and moving rather than trying to get back to sleep

If you genuinely do not care about food tastes at all then I'd recommend Huel - balanced nutrition, unbelievably easy as long as you have a blender, easy to control calories.

If there are no meals you look forward to and find cooking boring you're at an advantage as you're all primed for the 'food as fuel' approach. If no meal is that great and you don't enjoy cooking anything, you might as well cook and eat healthy low calorie stuff as anything else. I'd suggest curry from garlic, onions, curry powder, tin of tomatoes, tin of beans and any other veg you have handy thrown in. Serve with while grain rice. Microwave packet is fine. Stir fry, noodles, peanuts or cashews and pack of stir fry veg with garlic, ginger and soy sauce. If you're really not bothered to cook, whole grain toast with beans and mushrooms followed by fruit and Greek yoghurt. Jacket sweet potato with beans is good as sweet potato counts towards 5 a day. You can even improve a basic tin of soup by chucking in a big handful of spinach. Goes to nothing and you barely know its there. Cold food can be just as good, sandwiches with salad, roasted veg on wraps with hummus. Eat a portion of frozen berries every day.

Also, just to add - listening to Zoe podcasts and reading Ultra Processed People has helped me rethink my relationship with junk food and has been really useful in my decision making processes around food. Would recommend. Neither are as dull and dry as they sound!

Try c25k, the nhs app. it's easily manageable and the c25k facebook group is an amazingly supportive community where you will not feel judged when starting a new exercise.

Re diet, what can you substitute the coke and crisps for when you need a snack? Easier said than done I know. Hummous and breadsticks / fruit like grapes, cherry tomatoes, blueberries / nuts etc. are easy to prepare when on the go and while they still have fat and calories it's healthy fat and calories you'll need if you're starting new exercise.

Try not to do too much at once, small changes will help you be much more successful than making lots of drastic changes all at once x

Get a bicycle and use it
gardening
gym or run with headphones
dance !

BOL does high protein vegan soups, much better than covent garden. They also do pot meals. Will take some getting used to for you but at least it requires zero cooking and is healthy.

Also it doesn't need to be complicated - how about scrambled eggs and baked beans or avocado on wholewheat bread? That's quick and reasonably balanced, add some veg too if you can bear to.

I think protein will be your friend here.

To drink you could try Dash water, which is sparkling water with a hint of fruit. I think a few brands do that now and it will wean you off the sweet taste.

The children will have porridge, banana and small orange juice for breakfast. Soup/salad/wraps/stirfry/leftovers for lunch.
Spaghetti bolognaise/chilli/curry/roast/casserole/fish/stew for dinner (that's this week's menu)
Snacks are fruit/yogurt/hummus/veg sticks

I even bake bread for them and we'll make homemade pizzas etc

I have such a weird relationship with food starting from being malnourished as a child. So even though I know you'll all say 'eat what they eat just make the pasta gluten free or use quorn etc' it's like force feeding myself raw brains or something, it's a mental block I really need to get past and I hope with some ideas on here (soup, huel, overnight oats are what I'm looking at at the moment) I can try and eat 3 meals a day. Then go from the simple foods to eating more of what the kids eat etc and build up from there