Clean eating.

Expect it to take time. In my BC years (before children) I didn't eat any vegies other than peas and carrots. When I fell pregnant I decided I wasn't just eating for me anymore, I had a baby to nourish too, so I FORCED myself to start eating all sorts of healthy things that I had previously HATED. These days you can often find me hanging out for or drooling over a big bowl of steamed vegies - the point is: YOU CAN CONDITION YOUR TASTEBUDS. It will take time but it can be done. And you know what? YOU'RE WORTH IT!!

My favourite saying is 'Feed your body, not your tongue'.

So basically, wanting to lose weight & get lean and toned - my current diet won't sabotage that & I don't NEED to eat clean?

All that is required is a calorie deficit, a reasonable one, not a big, huge one.

I've heard some of the most fit, and knowledgeable people on this site say not to worry about that too much. Eating "clean" isn't going to affect your weight loss. Eat the foods you enjoy as long as it fits into your calorie goals and you are hitting your macros numbers. They good thing about "eating clean" (for me anyways), is that I tend to feel more full when I eat "good" foods as opposed to microwave dinners or fast foods.

Smoothies are great- you can even sneak in stuck like handfuls of kale and not have to deal with texture. They taste delicious!

You might be able to lose weight on junk food but there's a ton more to health and feeling great than slimness....

What about bulk cooking? Find a recipe for the things you are buying as ready meals and then cook enough for (say) 4 people, e.g. lasagne/spaghetti bolognese. You can have one portion fresh and freeze the others, then when you come home you can bung a "ready meal" in the microwave and you're done.

It may not be gospel "eating clean" but at least you have a chance to control the ingredients (high quality meat, low sodium. etc.)

Your diet didn't seem too bad, my only suggestion would be to learn to cook if you don't know how already. That is really a big determining factor for a lot of people and why a lot tend to go for frozen ready made meals - they either don't like cooking or don't have the time. If you truly wanted a clean diet - and by me saying clean I am referring more to a whole foods approach - cooking is definitely a huge aspect. I eat this way, with a few exceptions, but I couldn't do it without my kitchen lol A big issue I have with the ready made meals, is the size. For the amount of cals it contains, I can have double, sometimes triple the amount of food for the same amount of cals. I rather get more bang for my buck lol

Soups and chili's are great ways to get a ton of veggies in a dish and these are great because no one veggie taste usually stands out, no matter what I put in my chili, it tastes like chili lol

Good luck hun!! Feel free to add me if you need some support or food ideas!

I am by no means a clean eating expert but I'd second some of things said already. One of the great things about myfitnesspal and similar systems is that you can make small changes and let it tell you have this affects your calories and your other nutrients rather than going on a whole unfamiliar diet that is hard to stick to.

Starting to cook your own meals would be a big improvement because once you do that the scope you have for making changes is much greater. On the subject of the ready meals my experience is that they tend to reasonable at being low fat, assuming that is what they advertise, but tend to be phsyically small portions for the calories, leave me feeling like I have not really eaten a full meal and slightly hungry. Having plenty of sugar in, as some do, won't help in that regard and putting in plenty of sugar to replace the missing fat is much cheaper than putting in other interesting ingredients.

On the cooking front again it is possible to take one step at a time. I quite like curry and to start with my approach was to use a ready made suace and just add the meat. After that I started using a paste with the spices in and adding more of the ingedients fresh and more recently stilll I have been cooking some completely from scratch. For a dish such as curry there can be a big difference in the calorie count between one made with a ready made sauce and one from scratch but one step at a time.

To be fair I do like vegetables anyway but in ordere to get other people in the house to eat them I do slip them into spcier dishes. Curry and chilli con carne will often stand extra vegetables added.

On the subject of your example diet you invited comment on, nothing stands out as being bad but some of the things on that list are the kind of things the manufacterer may have ladelled lots of sugar into though exactly how much depends on the manufacter. I don't know if it technical counts as a clean or not clean ingredient but as far as I am concerned it is something to be watched as, for me at least, it seems to promote hunger and make sticking to the diet harder.

I ate clean for a while but all the dusting and mopping got to be quite a chore. Now its all down and dirty and I'm so much happier.

What about bulk cooking? Find a recipe for the things you are buying as ready meals and then cook enough for (say) 4 people, e.g. lasagne/spaghetti bolognese. You can have one portion fresh and freeze the others, then when you come home you can bung a "ready meal" in the microwave and you're done.

It may not be gospel "eating clean" but at least you have a chance to control the ingredients (high quality meat, low sodium. etc.)

this is great advice, it's helps a lot to know what's going into your meals and having ready to go food is fantastic!

I do not think 100% clean eating is necessary.

Depends what "necessary" means. To lose weight? Nope, not necessary. To be as healthy as you can possibly be? Absolutely necessary.

That is why my breakfast had some clean Guinness and some clean Fine Scotch and a nice cigar! hehehe

Watch out for "low fat" as it's usually high sugar.

I do not think 100% clean eating is necessary.

Depends what "necessary" means. To lose weight? Nope, not necessary. To be as healthy as you can possibly be? Absolutely necessary.

That is why my breakfast had some clean Guinness and some clean Fine Scotch and a nice cigar! hehehe

All things I love! Just got a nice bottle of McCallan 17. Hey, if you are gonna cheat, I'm convinced a nice single malt is much better for you than some made-in-the-lab energy bar with 19 ingredients. That and a nice Partagas Series D.

Finally! some sanity is inserted into the debate! I'm going with Lagavulin and a nice R&J torpedo.