How do I eat healthy??

By looking at your diary it seems that you eat a lot of carbs and not the good kind. Try switching to multi grain or whole wheat. Also you should try eating more fresh fruits and veggies, they are better for you and keep you full longer. Lean protein is also the way to go, chicken/turkey breast, fish and lean red meat once a week! Good Luck!

One thing that I like is Fiber One Muffins. They are pretty filling and they are much better for you than a regular muffin. This doesn't hold me over for the entire morning, but I eat one usually around 8-9 and drink coffee & try to drink a bunch of water. This will usually hold me over till about 11, when I have a light & fit fat free yogurt. Between thse two I"m good till lunch.

It's hard to break the habit of fattening food, I really think its addicting, but once you give your body time to adjust to healthy food that is higher in fiber, like more fruits & vegetables and whole grains, you will notice that you will feel better. Especially your digestion & regularity.

Don't try to make a drastic change all at once, becasue you won't stick to it. Start small with something like whole grain bagles with low fat cream cheese, or whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce instead of regular pasta with cream sauce. If you start to slowly incorporate it, it will give you time to adjust.

FWIW - when I started MFP I made a list of all the foods I like. I was surprised at the amount. I then sat down and made a list each night of what I would eat the next day. I focused on calories. I tried to track carbs, protein, etc but drove my self nuts. I focus on the calories and what I like and what I can eat the next day. i did not want incorporate a bunch of new foods I may/may not eat. Focusing on calories helped me to eat less and eat more healthy. Anyways FWIW. Stick with it and you will see results ..fast!

I would suggest starting slow. Making a few changes a week and then adding more as you find ones you can live with. Since the love of "all things healthy" is not where you are at trying to change all at once may be too much for you. Make three goals a week and work towards them. At the end of the week look back and see if those things are changes you can live with. If they are keep them as new habits and make new goals. If they are not, re-evaluate, do you want to try the same goals again and see if it gets better? or do you want to try again with something new. Changing a lifestyle is hard work, don't give up!

I have the same problem, I was raised the exact same way mostly meat and potatoes, fast food, whatever my mom could cook the fastest. I have just been trying new things discovering what things I can tolerate what I cant, trying to switch to whole grains, using ground turkey or chicken, I have pretty much cut out red meat using what they call good fats like olive oil, Ive started cooking with more spices besides salt and pepper, baking instead of frying just little things like that Ive still have alot to learn but I love some of the recipes people put on this website and if you drink alot of water like everyone says eventually you get use to the smaller portions

mashed caluiflower is really really good. It looks and tastes like mashed potatoes.

about a year ago or so....
one night for dinner my son saw me steaming caluiflower while I was making dinner. when I was done making dinner and had it on the plate, he had been eating the mashed caluiflower then asked hey mom can I have some of the caluiflower you made with dinner please.

I told him he has it. He said no I have a tuna steak and mashed potatoes so can I please have some caluiflower with this.

I then told him that what he thought was mashed potatoes was the caluiflower, he was totally shocked and loved it.

First of all you are taking steps and that is awesome! Give yourself a pat on the back for that. You are taking the initiative to educate yourself and change! AWESOME! Secondly, take small steps and change one thing a week. It will take time to get use to eating differently. You can't be a health nut over night! Eat what you like and what is in season. You can use loads of seasonings without adding sodium or calories. I love to put garlic powder and onion powder on everything. If you don't like certain veggies raw try them slow roasted or BBQ (Think roasted bell peppers). Instead of white potatoes use sweet potatoes. Or Gold potatoes and 1/2 it with mashed cauliflowers and mashed carrots. Use non-fat plain yogurt in place of mayo, sour cream, and butter. Omit cheese, you honestly won't notice it's gone. Make sure all your grains are 100 whole wheat NOT enriched or bleached. Read read read labels. Look for things like high fructose corn syrup, modified corn starch, or corn syrup; if it's in it don't buy it! You can still eat yummy foods that you love, just make them healthy. For instance, my kids love fish sticks. Last night I made fish sticks and a mixed salad for dinner with a delic sesame sauce all very low in cal and fat. (If you want recipe I'll post )You are doing great keep up the great work! :flowerforyou:

A good place to start would be the "Cook This, Not That" book. I started by refusing to deep fry anything. I switched all of our pasta to whole wheat. I keep only extra-virgin olive oil and canola oil. I use Miracle Whip, or Dijon mustard instead of regular mayo on sandwiches, I "hide" vegetables in just about everything. I started with Healthnut bread, now I make my own bread. Stop buying soda pop. Read lables, try to avoid hydrogenated anything, high-fructose corn syrup and colors with numbers. I personally try to avoid artifical sweetners too, but that's a personal choice. I keep a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips to help with the sweet tooth. I usually will have 1-2 Tablespoons when I have a craving. Log EVERYTHING, otherwise it sneaks up on you.

You have done great to take the first step and that is acknowledging that you want/need to make improvements. I agree with everyone on here by starting with just little things. Cut down your portion sizes, Im not saying halve them overnight, but cut down slowly, and you may not even notice you are doing so. Get yourself a smaller plate, it fools your mind into thinking you still have a full size portion Paul McKenna says to try and eat without distractions, i.e. not while watching the telly, reading or on tinternet, which is what I am doing at the moment :embarassed: I tried this and it does work, your mind is listening to what your stomach is telling you, not what is on the telly.

If you cook a lot, get yourself a low fat cookbook which has healthy versions of all your favourite recipes in. Someone on here posted a recipe for healthier macaroni cheese the other day. I dont call myself a great meat eater, but I do like chilli and spag bol, so I try and make healthier versions by rinsing the mince in boiling water once its cooked to rinse the fat off.

With vegetables its all a matter of experimenting with dressings, seasonings and the way they are cooked. Im not a great veggie eater but I love roasted veggies which have already been mentioned, cooked with a little olive oil and whichever spices I fancy that day, I sometimes eat them with cuscus as a meal, mmm yummie. I dont like spinach cooked but I love it raw, I eat it as a salad item with chopped peppers, celary, spring onions, with some low fat salad dressing and a protein of my choice, usually cottage cheese or some cooked ham.

People on here are wonderful for giving advice and tips on what to eat and how to cook and prepare stuff. I apologise if I have repeated something that someone has already mentioned, I only skimmed through the posts quickly. Ask as many questions as you want, people are glad to help.

And remember, you are doing really well, small steps and you will get there.

Best wishes

You got yourself the makings of a lovely fruit salad with your choice of fruits there, fling on a low fat topping of your choice and you have a great desert or breakfast.

How do you cook your chicken? I like mine done in my george foreman, keeps it moist but crispy on the outside, you can even stick some veggies in the george, they come out like roasted ones, peppers, onions, mushrooms, anything else.

Keep us informed how you are getting on, we are always here to help.

We have a little toaster oven thing...haha. I don't even know what it's called. My husband is the cook. We put the chicken in there. We never fry our chicken. We cut it up into bite size pieces and eat it with different seasonings making sure not to add salt to it, but when I put it in my food diary it always seems to have a ton of salt even when we don't add it in. Is that normal?

You need to be careful what type of chicken you're buying. Almost all frozen chicken is infused with salt water, it makes the pieces look larger and it keeps longer that way. Fresh chicken isn't quite as bad for that, but it still sometimes happens.

I buy the superstore brand boneless/skinless frozen chicken, it has almost no salt added to it. I live in Canada, though.