Ultra processed food detox after Christmas. Anyone care to join me?

[LegoTherapy]

I'm not completely UPF free but I make my own bread for toast, pasta and pizza sauce, pizza bases, cakes, cookies, soups etc and eat minimal UPF except when I just really fancy something.

Over Christmas I've let that slide and I can't wait for the dc to be back at school on Monday and for normal service to resume. We've been eating at odd times of day and snacking.

I've put this is wright loss chat but for me it's about maintaining my weight and eating better.

I made soup today ready for dinner on Monday. I'll bake a loaf tomorrow, maybe two small ones and freeze one.
The big shop of good intentions arrives in the morning and with a ton of red pepper hummus (concentrated lemon juice in the only questionable item but I can't get excited about that) which I eat for lunch every day with Crosta and mollica breadsticks. If I'm feeling virtuous I have Greek yogurt with homemade fruit compote but it might take me a while to get back into that. Same with porridge. I've bought lots of ingredients and plan on making English muffins with Dd in the afternoon. We haven't made them before and I don't know how well they'll turn out but we are good bakers usually.

My gastric issues improve when eating better and I feel like I'm doing something positive for my health. If anyone wants to join me and share recipes that would be great.

Here's to a healthier 2025🎉

I'm in! I've eaten so badly over Xmas and need some encouragement to get back on the no UPF/healthy wagon 😀

Hurrah! Thank you for joining me. I've found anything chocolate very underwhelming, although my Yule log was pretty awesome if I do say so myself and not UPF.

I changed my veggie oxos to Kallo organic. I don't like them as much but until I get making my own stock then they will do. I might never get to making my own stock though. I don't see why oxo have to contains monosodium glutamate.

I started making bread in lockdown and carried on. Same with pizzas and sauces and the rest.
What changes are you making?

I'm trying to do this gradually this year, for me and the dc, like you gif health reasons mostly. I've done various paleo/whole foods type diets before and have always felt good on them. I've been really unwell over Christmas and am still not better so it's sort of put my plans on hold a bit as I am relying on things being made for me. But my intention is to drastically reduce the UPF in our diets. I'd like to lose a bit of weight too so hopefully a better quality diet will support that.

It definitely helps with weight because there's so much that's UPF in snacks and convenience foods. I only eat salted crisps if I eat them at all. Chocolate is my downfall but I have loads of montezumas buttons and they are UPF free. I don't drink alcohol or fizzy drinks or squash. Very occasionally I'll have some Belvoir raspberry and lemon cordial but mainly I drink water. I've done that for years, it's not a change, just what I prefer to drink.

I've found that UPFs don't taste great now. It's annoying in a way. I used to eat a lot of sweets but I don't enjoy them anymore. Frozen or ready made pizzas are like chewy cheesy cardboard, supermarket bread is awful as toast and I'm hungry again so quickly. Nothing beats a thick slice of homemade bread toast with butter and bonne maman raspberry jam.

The breakfast muffins are rising nicely and will hopefully turn out ok. They've been easy to make.
Dinner tonight is spinach and ricotta lasagne with homemade tomato sauce and cheese sauce.

I’m definitely in.
Don’t eat much upf anyway, prefer ‘actual food’
I work full time with a decent sized commute so don’t have as much time as I’d like for cooking, but do batch cook vats of bolognese, chilli, curry etc to freeze for weekday meals.
Bread, pizza bases, naans come from the bread maker.
Quite like a frittata for a quick meal filled with whatever veg is hanging about.
Soups are homemade- can’t cope with supermarket soups, even the posh ones are too salty.
What sorts of things do others make? It can be hard to keep it interesting - it’s easy to get stuck just eating the same things on rotation.

By the way, DH is making pea risotto for dinner

The breakfast muffins are great. I'll always make them instead of buying them now.
I started the day with Caroline Girwan workout and will be walking around 8 miles today which is normal for me on a work day.

Lunch is the aforementioned red pepper hummus and breadsticks with an apple.

Dinner is either lentil, carrot and celery soup or leftover spinach and ricotta lasagne. I'll see what I fancy later.

Snacks might not be eaten but likely to be another muffin rather than anything like crisps or chocolate but the day is young so we'll see. I'm not perfect.

What's on your menu today?

@LegoTherapy wow, that's a lot of steps at work! I am the total opposite, I wfh and struggle to do 2000 on a busy work day. I'm signed off at the moment so other than walking the dog and I doing nothing at all! Normally I just about hit 10-12k but only if I walk twice a day or do a run.

Food wise, I really do need to get my arse in gear. I weighed this morning and it was a big number that I don't want to see again. Food today will be

• melon and Parma ham for breakfast,
• baked potato and tuna for lunch
• roast chicken and salad for dinner.

I need to do some food prep for the week, I'm going to make some baked oats to have for breakfasts and some sort of chopped salad, and make stock with my chicken bones for soup. But I'm also not well and knackered so I may not get around to this today.

@thenewaveragebear1983 I don't drive so those steps are getting ds to and from school plus walking to and from work. I'm up to 6668 steps and all I've done is take ds to school. My shoes wear out quickly! I hope you feel better soon.

Can I join in? I’ve been watching the BBC Irresistible documentary and started researching how to improve. It’s very difficult to actually move away from UPF. I’m using OpenFoodFact app when shopping. Other than that, I’m doing a lot of eggs based meal, salad from scratch and veggie. Where I’m struggling the most is with breakfast and a solid alternative to oat milk.

Welcome @getoutofmyhead. My friend used to make her own oat milk from just oats and water. I eat porridge or homemade bread toast with butter and bonne maman raspberry jam for breakfast.