Need advice on eating at home

Hi I dont have this problem as I eat every 3 hours or so . But I would try eating small meals or snacks through out the day. That way you can keep your metabolism up .

That's fine if it suits your personal preference, but you don't need to eat little and often to keep your metabolism up.

OP - to be honest, I don't think I'd be that motivated to eat if all I had in was lean cuisines. Is that the kind of food you enjoy the most? If not, maybe try stocking up on food you really like. It doesn't have to be "junk" if you're trying to avoid certain things, but it doesn't have to be all "diet" food either. Maybe that's the problem?

Is there an Asian grocery store anywhere near you? They might have some interesting things you could stock up on, like my Indian grocery store down the street has a ton of different shelf-stable and frozen meals. It might be worth a trip to get a few items and see if that helps.

You might also look for some simple recipes for things like Teriyaki chicken, because that sort of thing is pretty easy to make and might be a good place for you to start learning to cook.

What's hard about sushi? I mean, make a big pot of rice, add the japanese saki vinegar, buy some peices of sushi-quality fish, and seaweed- you don't even have to roll it up- just make the rice in to a ball and lay the seaweed and fish on top. But pickled ginger and wasabi- ta-da! at-home sushi.

Keep all the ingredients prepared in the fridge so all you have to do is assemble it at meal times.

Honestly, you have to eat. Just do it.

So often people say that when they're home alone, they eat way more than they should. Well, I have the opposite problem... whenever I'm home alone during the day, I just cannot seem to motivate myself to eat, even if I'm hungry. I eat breakfast (usually a bowl of cereal) not long after I get up, but then the rest of the day I won't eat unless I force myself. I went to the grocery store last week and stocked up on Lean Cuisine meals and soup, things that are quick and easy to prepare, in hopes that I would be more likely to eat them. But today, same thing happened as always: I look in the cupboards, I look in the fridge, and I say "eh...." There's plenty of food there, but I just don't want any of it. Nothing looks appealing, no matter how hungry I am. I could always have another bowl of cereal, but I talk myself out of it if I've already had one that morning. So I usually just end up not eating anything until dinner, which I know isn't good. And if my hubby weren't home for dinner, I probably wouldn't eat then, either.

Maybe that's the key. You need to make it LOOK appealing. Even the lean cuisines that are ok I don't think look very appealing. On the other hand, spend a few minutes on Pintrest searching for "healthy food" and I see all sorts of stuff that looks appealing that I want to eat right now! Could you try concentrating on making whatever you plan to eat look better? It could be just as simple as setting the table, microwaving a lean cuisine, but then re-plating it onto real dishes so that it's not in a cheap plastic dish. Eat and enjoy and then clean up. Studies show that looks matter when it comes to food. Looking at something tasty will make you hunger for it. Just be careful to focus on looking at things that aren't too bad for you when you do it.

Alternatively, you cook find a healthy recipe online (skinnytaste, pintrest, google, blogger) that looks good and then make that instead. All recipes .com has a pretty good search function. You can even search by ingredients (Hm, I have chicken and tomatoes... what I can I make with that?) and health criteria (calories, sodium, low carb, etc). Many recipes will have pictures. The reviews are also handy for learning tricks about the recipe. We use that all the time when we have a kitchen full of stuff but no idea what to do with it.

I know you said you don't cook, but you might actually enjoy it. Most of the basics are pretty easy to learn and there are lots of resources online to learn from. Sushi is surprisingly simple, as are a lot of Asian stir fry dishes.

What's wrong with me? On weekends or days when my husband is home, I eat normally. It's very strange. Not that I don't need to cut out some calories, but that's not the right way to do it. Any ideas or suggestions?

It could also be that you just don't enjoy eating alone. Could you invite company cover? I'm not a stay at home mom, but I know the ones that are in my neighborhood get together during the day when their husbands are at work.

Or, you could try packing a picnic lunch and then walk, bike or drive someplace nice to eat it. My old place was 2 miles from a water front park and pier owned by the city. In the summer when I wasn't teaching, I would sometimes wander down there with a sandwhich, fruit, a bottle of water and a book. It was a lot nicer to eat there alone than to eat alone in my apartment. Sometimes I even had conversations with strangers, learned about a local even coming up, or saw a neat ship or bird. I had a hard time keeping my spirits up when I was alone a lot in the summer, but the park was always a nice break when I though to use it. I wish I could have done the same when I was teaching online from home, but I didn't get that sort of time (had to stay online as per rules). If I'd had a yard I might have tried taking my laptop out there instead. You could also try window shopping at the mall and enjoy your picnic lunch at a table in the food court or outside (less temptation, but you'd likely need an outdoor mall for this). Go with the mindset that you aren't spending any money (leave your money at home if that helps) and that the mall is just a park where the local fauna are all humans and the flora grow in containers under skylights.

I actually don't eat that bad either. We never keep soda in the house and when we eat out I've long ordered water instead of sweet tea, even though I like sweet tea. Now, I will admit to overeating when I gained this weight, (thanks to my SO buying me sweets or breakfast from Chic-fil-a and trying to cheer me up or be "helpful" by taking us out for dinner--I didn't eat a lot, but what I did eat wasn't good for me. ) but I'm pretty sure that stress and lack of exercise was much or an even bigger factor in my gain than my diet.

I say that from personal experience because every time we went on a vacation I'd eat more and often worse than at home, but lose weight because my stress declined and because we have a tendency to walk a lot while exploring whatever town or country we were visiting. I once lost over 10 lbs in Germany over the course of 2 weeks. I was in HS at the time and it was an exchange program. I felt like I was being stuffed by my host family every day and literally could not eat anything more. And it wasn't "health food." It was bread and cheese and bratwurst and chocolate and all sorts of yummies, with what seemed like 4 full sized meals a day. Even so we walked or took public transportation everywhere, so I lost weight without trying. My parents saw me get off the plane after the trip and were stunned (I'd gone from 130s to the 120s--oh to be young again). They asked if the problem hadn't feed us enough and were stunned as we all said that actually our biggest problem was getting the families to believe we weren't that hungry.

I avoided breakfast like the plague, because cereals always made me ravenous. Then skipped lunches too since I can no longer eat bread so sandwiches are a no-no, but fruit smoothies have helped me eat healthy. It is NOT cooking. Put in an apple and a pear, 1 cup water, click the button. Done.
I was prescribed the Ultra Metagenics Anti Inflammatory powders which really require a smoothie but have kept up with it. My other favorite is banana/pear/ginger/water.
We chop up fresh ginger and freeze it ahead. Ginger is great anti-inflammatory.
Having one now.
Yum. Easy.
The other trick we use is making a HUGE salad, laced w/ bits of cabbage, raw veggies, etc., which makes a quick meal for several days. Not cooking.