I find eating "right" completely mind boggling, I'm not sure where to start

TheChrissyT · January 2016

I was on MFP for a bit between when my daughter was born and when I got pregnant with my son and saw success, but I was also on a rigid eating menu from a personal trainer in that time, so it wasn't that hard to track and I just believed whatever he told me to eat was good for me because I'm completely clueless. I beefed back out after I got pregnant with my son, and am nearly 100lbs down from that (again). To lose the initial block of weight, I did the obvious things like cut out all fast food, soda, and cut way back on junk food.

Then I started working out regularly... here's where I get confused/overwhelmed. I am gaining muscle for sure, I haven't lost a single pound in several months but I've lost several inches. Right now I'm 247, and I know that even with muscle that I do not want to weight that much. I do want to see a loss on the scale. I also do want to see muscle gains because I don't want to have too much sagging skin.

So, now to my questions...

If you're a heavy girl like myself, and wanting to lose weight while reshaping with muscle, do I want to be eating a ton of protein? Or is it just important to make sure I"m staying within my calorie goals?

I'm afraid to believe the machines at the gym about how many calories Im burning, so I haven't even been tracking my food because I'm afraid I will over eat.... but I could be overeating anyway... do you guys go by the machines? Or do complex mathematical equations to see what you should eat that day? I'm so confused on how to get it right.

I'm the only one in my house who is trying to eat really healthy. I have a 1 and a 3 year old who do like specific veggies prepared in specific ways, but if you sit a zucchini boat on their plate it had better be on a pile of mac 'n cheese if you want them to eat anything. How do you go about affording to eat right for just you, and not have to eat the same veggie constantly before they go bad?

I'd really prefer not to eat too much processed prepackaged food, but I really struggle with accurately estimating my calories from home cooked portions. How do you people do this? What sorcery have you mastered that I haven't?

bonsai89 · January 2016

Just came across this post and I'm totally right there with you! I could have written this myself. Mind if I add you? While I just started my weightloss journey for the year, I feel I have some good ideas and am slowly but surely learning important information about nutrition and would love a few friends to support and cheer on.

I'm a 26 year old Nanny so I understand the struggle eating healthy while taking care of little ones. It's definitely hard but it's completely possible. I'm engaged and getting married THIS year in October.. coming up so soon!! Very shortly after am planning on starting a family, so this year is super important to me and I'm hoping to be able to post a success story on here at the end of the year. We can do it!!

seska422 · January 2016

Weight loss mostly happens in the kitchen. You need to consume fewer calories than your body uses over the course of the day to lose weight. The only way you'll lose weight is to have a calorie deficit.

Track what you eat. You don't know how many calories you are eating unless you track. Get a food scale if you don't already have one and use that to weigh your solid foods. Use the recipe builder for things that you cook so that you can figure out the calories for your portion.

As for protein, the US recommended amount of protein for women who aren't pregnant is 46 grams per day. IMO, 80-100 grams per day for a non-pregnant woman who isn't a professional body builder is plenty. Certainly no more than 1 gram per pound of your ideal weight.

Many on MFP recommend that you only eat back 25-50% of the calories shown on exercise machines or in the MFP database because they tend to overestimate the calories burned.

tomatoey · January 2016

If you have a lot of weight to lose, and you work out with a fair bit of intensity, I think you're ok with using the machine numbers for logging cardio in MFP. (If you're working out *consistently*, you could just do TDEE-20% and not log your exercise on MFP, because it's counted in. My favourite calculator - crazy accurate for me: http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced . Also http://www.iifym.com/tdee-calculator/). I lost my weight using the TDEE method, without any kind of tracking device. Didn't even really use a food scale (though I did use measuring cups).

Veggies: can you make casseroles or soups with them and freeze them?

WinoGelato · January 2016

OP have you read the stickied Helpful Posts at the top of the forum sections? There is so much good info in there, especially "Getting Started" and the Sexypants thread.

As far as a couple specific questions you asked:

To lose weight you need to be at a calorie deficit. To preserve lean muscle adequate protein is important. Many people start with losing weight, work on getting adequate nutrition, and strength train in the process. But you can't build muscle in a calorie deficit.

Have you set up MFP with accurate stats and reasonable goals? If so, when you log exercise you can compare what MFP tells you with what's on the machine and figure an average. MFP and those machines tend to overestimate, so many people eat back 50-75% of those calories. Not being confident in those estimates is no reason not to log anything though!

It's great that you are focusing on wanting to eat more nutrients but there are no bad foods, and you don't have to make separate leaps for you and your family. You can eat the same meal but smaller portions, or add more salad/veggies in. I save room for treats every day - wine, ice cream, etc.

The recipe builder is a great but sometimes glitchy tool to calculate the calories for meals you make yourself.

Good luck, check out those stickies, they are filled with lots more details that I haven't touched on!

mochapygmy · January 2016

You can buy frozen veggies so you only prepare what you want to eat that meal so you aren't eating the same veg all the time.

Personally I buy a variety of fresh veg and I find that as long as it's in the fridge it's good for quite some time. I have a head of cauliflower and a head of cabbage that have been in my fridge at least 3-4 weeks.

Don't worry so much about eating "right" now. Get a food scale and in the habit of weighing and logging food. You will be pretty surprised at how big or little serving sizes of foods are.

As far as estimating the calories in home cooked food: use the recipe builder in the diary and it will tell you exactly how many calories your dish has.

What I usually do is weigh the raw ingredients and enter that info in the recipe builder and as I cook in bulk I enter that there are 10 servings in my dish. Once the dish is cooked I weigh it again. Today I made chicken breasts in an enchilada sauce that the cooked portion weighed 1140 grams. So each "serving" is 114 grams and the recipe builder told me each "serving" was 200 calories or whatever. So when I fixed my plate I took whatever I wanted say 150 grams and then divided that by 114 to figure out how many "servings" I had to properly log it.

It sounds weird and time consuming at first but after a week or two you will be in the habit and it will take no time at all.

Orphia · January 2016

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10305332/when-food-guilt-is-ruining-your-life

and

"But what about when cutting?
A final objection that is often heard is that these values may be true during bulking or maintenance periods, but cutting requires more protein to maintain muscle mass. Walberg et al. (1988) studied cutting weightlifters and they still found 0.73g/lb [of protein] was sufficient to maintain lean body mass."

http://bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/

AntsyAngler · January 2016

No one else in my house is particularly interested in watching calories either. That said, we find a lot of common ground. My kids eat the same things that I do but they also eat other things that I don't (I skipped the cheese and cracker snacks today and opted for fresh fruit instead). All our meals have fruit and/or veggie components and some healthy carb side or some combination. I try and fill my plate with veggies and low calorie proteins and have a very small portion of the high calorie carbs and cheesy type things and often skip certain dishes and just bulk up my salad with some meat and or nuts/seeds/grain. Finding the dishes that are healthy and that everyone loves can be a challenge at first, but it sets great examples for your kid's healthy eating habits for life. My kids totally love cookies and chips etc, but they also really love grilled asparagus, roasted eggplant, homemade bread, yogurt and granola, fruits, oatmeal, olives etc.... I do the best I can to write down ingredients and amounts as I prepare food, pay attention to the volume of food and enter it as a recipe in mfp with the servings entered realistically. Often times I find that the food I buy especially for my healthy eating additions get gobbled up by my kids because they love it too. Stuff like nuts, dried fruits, tuna fish, avacodos, etc... Good luck. Keep trying and introduce your kids to new things. They are young enough that they'll find a bunch of things they like I bet. Complimenting them on being adventurous eaters when they try something really out of their comfort zone is sometimes helpful.

joinn68 · January 2016

TheChrissyT wrote: »

I'm afraid to believe the machines at the gym about how many calories Im burning, so I haven't even been tracking my food because I'm afraid I will over eat.... but I could be overeating anyway... do you guys go by the machines? Or do complex mathematical equations to see what you should eat that day? I'm so confused on how to get it right.

I'm the only one in my house who is trying to eat really healthy. I have a 1 and a 3 year old who do like specific veggies prepared in specific ways, but if you sit a zucchini boat on their plate it had better be on a pile of mac 'n cheese if you want them to eat anything. How do you go about affording to eat right for just you, and not have to eat the same veggie constantly before they go bad?

I'd really prefer not to eat too much processed prepackaged food, but I really struggle with accurately estimating my calories from home cooked portions. How do you people do this? What sorcery have you mastered that I haven't?

I am not sure exactly how you tracking will MAKE you overeat as opposed to when you don't track. I've read somewhere here "even if you are not tracking your food, your body is tracking for you"

About your 1 and 3 year old: I am sorry to say but YOU are the one giving them habits. They didn't know Mac n Cheese until YOU prepared it for them. They don't or shouldn't have an opinion as they don't even know what's out there. It's not like they'll go out and buy some mac n cheese if they don't have it on their plate.

If you are trying to lose weight stay within calorie goal. period.

Nobody has mastered any sorcery. To tell you how much we all don't know: I didn't realise you could weigh eggs on your food scale; I just went by small/medium/large for a long time. Or I didn't realise my food scale actually had units other than grams... Was totally clueless! Experience, experience. I am down 30 lbs and come back here every single day and learn more every single day.

You say you don't track so I am curious to see HOW you use MFP right now if not for tracking. If you DO track SOME things, how do you do it? Might be a good starting point. Maybe give us a recipe you use or something you like to eat and I am pretty sure people will give you an idea on how to logpost that.

Not to repeat the responses you've had already bu read the stickies. I encourage you, not only for your sake but (even more) for your children's sake to learn a tiny bit more about nutrition

ModernRock · January 2016

TheChrissyT wrote: »

I'd really prefer not to eat too much processed prepackaged food, but I really struggle with accurately estimating my calories from home cooked portions.

Any ill health effects of common food preservatives pales in comparison to the known ill health effects of obesity. Besides, there are plenty of ready to eat canned and frozen foods with calories listed and minimal added/preservative ingredients.

Tracking the calories in recipes isn't too bad once you've built up your own history of ingredients in MFP and get handy with a food scale. The process actually encourages me to make and package extra portions so that I'll have food later in the week with a known calorie content. That saves time and money in the long run. Not only that, but whatever time I spend focusing on achieving and maintaining a healthy, fit body will presumably pay off in the long run with less time spent in a doctor's office and more years of quality, active life.

A tip:

For items I'm not going to eat regularly, but know the calorie count from a package or website, I sometimes don't bother to search the MFP food database. I have a "Misc. 100 calorie" ingredient and will enter .5 servings for 50 calories, 2 servings for 200 calories, 2.5 servings for 250 calories, and so on. If I eat lunch at a restaurant with the nutritional content listed on the menu and I'm in a rush, or the restaurant isn't in the database, then I might not take the time to search for it, much less take the time to add a new entry to the MFP database. I'll total it in my head and, for example, enter a 6.25 serving of my "100 misc. calorie" ingredient to represent those 625 calories. (I know my mix of macro and micro nutrients is generally fine, so I don't worry about my "100 calorie" ingredient throwing them off on occasion.) Same deal if it is a recipe I won't make often (or ever again). I write down the calories for each ingredient, total them, divide them and the food into servings, and log a servings worth of calories each time I eat one.

lemurcat12 · January 2016

TheChrissyT wrote: »

I beefed back out after I got pregnant with my son, and am nearly 100lbs down from that (again). To lose the initial block of weight, I did the obvious things like cut out all fast food, soda, and cut way back on junk food.

Congrats! Great job.

Then I started working out regularly... here's where I get confused/overwhelmed. I am gaining muscle for sure, I haven't lost a single pound in several months but I've lost several inches. Right now I'm 247, and I know that even with muscle that I do not want to weight that much. I do want to see a loss on the scale. I also do want to see muscle gains because I don't want to have too much sagging skin.

So, now to my questions...

If you're a heavy girl like myself, and wanting to lose weight while reshaping with muscle, do I want to be eating a ton of protein? Or is it just important to make sure I"m staying within my calorie goals?

The protein goal to avoid losing more muscle than necessary is .65-.85 g of protein per lb of healthy body weight (I'd use goal weight or BMI 24).

I'm afraid to believe the machines at the gym about how many calories Im burning, so I haven't even been tracking my food because I'm afraid I will over eat.... but I could be overeating anyway... do you guys go by the machines? Or do complex mathematical equations to see what you should eat that day? I'm so confused on how to get it right.

Yeah, they often overstate. When eating back exercise, I cut it down some depending on what it is. Start with 50% and then adjust based on how much you lose vs. your goal. You can also follow the TDEE method, which estimates exercise upfront so you don't need to eat it back -- I did that for the second half of my weight loss.

I'm the only one in my house who is trying to eat really healthy. I have a 1 and a 3 year old who do like specific veggies prepared in specific ways, but if you sit a zucchini boat on their plate it had better be on a pile of mac 'n cheese if you want them to eat anything. How do you go about affording to eat right for just you, and not have to eat the same veggie constantly before they go bad?

I get veggies from a CSA box (community supported agriculture) during the season and that means basically eating what's available before it goes bad -- you get used to it. But I also find that if you eat lots of veg it's not hard to eat up what you have and still have a good variety -- I eat greens plus 100-200 g of other veg at most meals. When cooking for others I tend to reduce my own portion of starches (not eliminate) and increase my portion of veg. You'll get the hang of it, and I think it's great you are working on making veg appealing for your kids.

I'd really prefer not to eat too much processed prepackaged food, but I really struggle with accurately estimating my calories from home cooked portions. How do you people do this? What sorcery have you mastered that I haven't?

I find these the easiest -- the USDA entries are great once you learn to recognize them. Broccoli, raw or broccoli, cooked, dry heat, roasted, are hints to what the entries look like.

TheChrissyT · January 2016

joinn68 wrote: »

TheChrissyT wrote: »

I'm afraid to believe the machines at the gym about how many calories Im burning, so I haven't even been tracking my food because I'm afraid I will over eat.... but I could be overeating anyway... do you guys go by the machines? Or do complex mathematical equations to see what you should eat that day? I'm so confused on how to get it right.

I'm the only one in my house who is trying to eat really healthy. I have a 1 and a 3 year old who do like specific veggies prepared in specific ways, but if you sit a zucchini boat on their plate it had better be on a pile of mac 'n cheese if you want them to eat anything. How do you go about affording to eat right for just you, and not have to eat the same veggie constantly before they go bad?

I'd really prefer not to eat too much processed prepackaged food, but I really struggle with accurately estimating my calories from home cooked portions. How do you people do this? What sorcery have you mastered that I haven't?

I am not sure exactly how you tracking will MAKE you overeat as opposed to when you don't track. I've read somewhere here "even if you are not tracking your food, your body is tracking for you"

About your 1 and 3 year old: I am sorry to say but YOU are the one giving them habits. They didn't know Mac n Cheese until YOU prepared it for them. They don't or shouldn't have an opinion as they don't even know what's out there. It's not like they'll go out and buy some mac n cheese if they don't have it on their plate.

If you are trying to lose weight stay within calorie goal. period.

Nobody has mastered any sorcery. To tell you how much we all don't know: I didn't realise you could weigh eggs on your food scale; I just went by small/medium/large for a long time. Or I didn't realise my food scale actually had units other than grams... Was totally clueless! Experience, experience. I am down 30 lbs and come back here every single day and learn more every single day.

You say you don't track so I am curious to see HOW you use MFP right now if not for tracking. If you DO track SOME things, how do you do it? Might be a good starting point. Maybe give us a recipe you use or something you like to eat and I am pretty sure people will give you an idea on how to logpost that.

Not to repeat the responses you've had already bu read the stickies. I encourage you, not only for your sake but (even more) for your children's sake to learn a tiny bit more about nutrition

Well that's why I'm here, to learn about nutrition yeah? It's 5 am and I've been up since 3:30 with one of my little ones, so I don't mean to sound defensive in this (but I know that I probably will), just please don't take offense to any of this.

I wasn't raised to eat well... AT ALL. I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm really an all in kind of gal, and so over the last couple of months, when I have spare time, I've been on here and the rest of the internet reading what people who probably know more than me have to say about what a person needs to eat to be healthy. I do want to lose weight, yes... but I want to eat healthy. I want to get the nutrients I need from my food. I've used MFP before, but I was just staying under my calorie goal. So that meant I might hardly eat all day and then have taco bell for dinner and call it a good day because I was under.

I KNOW that my kids aren't going to make their own mac n cheese. I KNOW that they can only eat what I put in front of them and I KNOW that all the choices that I've made for them haven't been as healthy as they could be. How am I going to make healthy choices for them if I haven't figured out how to do it for me yet? That's why I'm asking questions and reading what I can find, but as I said, it's overwhelming for me. Maybe it's a personality type thing, but if I'm going to do it at all I want to be doing it right. My daughter was extremely under weight when she was my sons age. Enough so that I was taking her to a nutritionist a couple of times a month and bringing HER food log. She loves healthy food, back then all she wanted to eat was broccoli, corn, and cheese and only food that she could feed herself from 6mo on. She would not eat if you tried to spoon feed her. That's how things like mac 'n cheese came in... because I needed her to eat and have a little extra weight to fight with when she gets sick. Anyway, this post isn't really about all this, I just feel defensive because I feel judgment when I'm doing the best I know how right now.

I wasn't saying that tracking will MAKE me overeat like that. I was saying that because I'm not sure how to track my exercise calories I have not been tracking. My fear being that I track the exercise and it tells me that I have an extra 600 calories when in reality I have 300. I see that 600 though and feel like I NEED to eat those. That I'm entitled to those calories. That has led me to make bad choices in the past because I'm still developing a real willpower. I've been trying to listen to my body and make healthy choices, but I want to be more committed now, even if I struggle with accuracy. That hasn't STOPPED serving me well yet, but I've been leveling off and I know that changes and more effort will be necessary to see continued progress. I've been using MFP since I came back to track my exercise and measurements only. I like to visual of the reports... and I of course have been reading the forums to gain what wisdom I can from others on the same journey.

For instance, this site has a ton of different tools to help you, and somehow it never really registered to me the way to use the recipe builder. I'm not an idiot, I'm just a busy sleep deprived mom and totally prone to overlooking things or misunderstanding them completely. I guess it's time to try to wrestle this baby back into bed. I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my post. I hope that I am not coming off in a hostile way, I just wanted to better explain my reasons for some things.

mochapygmy · January 2016

I, like you, like to do things "right" but sometimes wanting to things "right" used to cause me to do nothing which doesn't help me at all.

I was once very hungry and walked around a grocery store looking for the best thing to eat for 30 minutes. I got hungrier and more irritable until it finally dawned on me that maybe the best thing to eat that minute was anything that was decent so I freaking ate instead of searching for something with the best macros, low sodium decent calories etc.

My goal is to do better than yesterday. You learn as you go on. Keep reading the forums for helpful nutrition. Consider going to your local library for books on nutrition/ meal options that you can check out for free. I was feeling burnt out on my variety of veggies so I borrowed some veggie cooking books to give me some new ideas.

Or try just picking a random veggie or lean protein at the grocery store, taking it home and searching for a recipe. Will this always turn out great? No it won't but it will probably be okay and you will discover what you and your family likes. A so so meal won't hurt anyone and no one will remember it in 2 weeks.

Often my dinner is over the course of 60 minutes. Why? First I steam some veg and eat that while I am preparing fish or chicken, cook that and then eat it. Is it a nice sit down meal? No. Does it get something healthy in my body and work for my goals. Yes, and that is all that matters.

As far as exercise machines: If I walked on the treadmill for 60 minutes I would enter it in my diary as 30 minutes and eat those calories and I still lost weight. If you do this for a few weeks and it isn't working you can change what you are doing. No choice is permanent, you can change your mind later.

I also try and avoid processed food but I usually have 2-3 items in my freezer that I can eat in a hurry or if I just can't face cooking. The items I pick have decent calories, decent salt, decent macros. When you first start reading nutrition labels it will take some time to compare but now I know which items have met my standards and just grab them and go. I'm doing better today than I was yesterday. I'm not looking for perfection but a little improvement. It's a process and you will do fine.

mochapygmy · January 2016

One last thing. You don't have to eliminate things like fast food, soda, "junk" food unless you want to. I know plenty of successful, fit people at healthy weights that eat that stuff. There aren't good or bad foods. That sets up a bad dynamic that implies you are good or bad if you eat good or bad foods. Yes, some foods are better nutritionally and do better things for your body but nothing is forbidden unless you have a trigger food.

You have to decide what is important to you. Personally I don't drink soda because I don't think using calories for that is worth it to me. I would rather save my calories for ice cream. I won't eat the crappy ice cream either. I get the premium stuff that is made from real ingredients and have less of that. To me that is worth it. For my best friend she would rather have her daily root beer. Different rules for different people and different times.

I don't eat fast food a lot so when I have it, it is a treat. I used to LOVE Taco Bell. Love it! However the last couple of times I had it for my special treat it was crappy. The taco shells were stale and the taco meat greasy and I was Pissed. Really really pissed because it was my special treat. I realized I couldn't count on my Taco Bell to consistently make a good taco and I wasn't willing to waste my treat calories on something that might be good if I was lucky. I haven't been to Taco Bell in over a year and don't miss it (after the first month or two). I haven't had McDonald's in a year because I realized I only ate there when I was starving after the gym and didn't have anything prepared/ a quick meal at home. Also they took my favorite sandwich off the menu. I started cooking in bulk and kept a couple frozen meals at home and McDonald's isn't even a temptation to me. I still have occasional fast food but at a local place where the food is amazing every time so it feels like a treat.

One day I may need to have Taco Bell or McDonald's again if I am somewhere on a trip or if friends insist on going but that's fine. Do the best you can in the circumstances you are in.

joinn68 · January 2016

TheChrissyT wrote: »

I wasn't saying that tracking will MAKE me overeat like that. I was saying that because I'm not sure how to track my exercise calories I have not been tracking. My fear being that I track the exercise and it tells me that I have an extra 600 calories when in reality I have 300. I see that 600 though and feel like I NEED to eat those. That I'm entitled to those calories. That has led me to make bad choices in the past because I'm still developing a real willpower. I've been trying to listen to my body and make healthy choices, but I want to be more committed now, even if I struggle with accuracy.

For instance, this site has a ton of different tools to help you, and somehow it never really registered to me the way to use the recipe builder. I'm not an idiot, I'm just a busy sleep deprived mom and totally prone to overlooking things or misunderstanding them completely. I guess it's time to try to wrestle this baby back into bed. I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my post. I hope that I am not coming off in a hostile way, I just wanted to better explain my reasons for some things.

OP, I didn't mean to be offensive; my post totally came across as such and you have every right to be defensive. I am here because I am FAT too; and I don't have any excuse at all, I just plain gained by eating too much and too much of the wrong things. I also don't have a job so I have all the time in the world to cook and eat right and exercise... and yet I am here. I have done and still do a lot of things totally wrong. As I pointed out in my post, with all that time in my hands it still took me 3 months here to realize that my scale had different units, or to figure out how to do easily log batch cookings!

I missed the part where you specified not tracking and/or eating back your exercise calories. I thought you meant tracking your food. But I did mean the question "How are you using MFP right now". You've had some success so there are some things you are doing great already.

As you've had some good replies I won't add much. Unfortunately MFP does have lots of inaccuracies so you'll read the recommendation often to only eat back 25-50% of your exercise calories and to be even more accurate as you near your goal weight, both with being more careful which entries you chose, and by using a food scale if you weren't already (some people don't find it necessary from the very beginning).

Congrats on all your weight loss so far and good luck with the rest of the weight that WILL certainly come off

tomatoey · January 2016

You sound like a good mom who's doing her best.

"How do you go about affording to eat right for just you, and not have to eat the same veggie constantly before they go bad?"

I think just make some fresh that day, then cook a soup or something and freeze that for later, and find ways to sneak it into other dishes. And there are overlaps. I think it would be good if you could just cook one thing for everyone, and adjust it.

I'm single, so it's different, but say I bought a can of lentils, asparagus (comes in bunches here), and a box of spinach. I could have some of the spinach in a salad, but maybe I don't want 900 spinach salads in a row. It's going to wilt unless I find other ways to use it where the focus on spinachiness isn't as strong, like putting some in my eggs with another flavour (maybe bit of cheese), or in a sandwich. The lentils, I might cook some as a side, put some of what's left into a salad or soup or spaghetti sauce. Asparagus, might steam fresh to have with eggs one day, put half of the rest into that same soup as the lentils.

When recipes change all the time like that, sometimes it's easier to log it as a Meal, then "remember" that meal to save it. Then it's easier to tweak as you go.

Meal planning for a family is hard on a budget. There are some resources for that, I'm sure... I did find this cookbook. No idea about how well it addresses the budget side of things, but it looks good & has great reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Feeding-Whole-Family-Recipes-Children/dp/157061525X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8 Apparently she has something about picky eaters and getting kids to eat veg.

snowflake954 · January 2016

I may be able to give you a little help. I live in Italy where the Mediterraean diet is king. I have 3 grown sons and cook alot of food everyday.
Breakfast is a choice. You should eat what you like, carbs or protein.
We usually have a mid-morning snack. It is usually cappucino.
However, for lunch I make a carb--pasta or risotto or you could make potatoes. Then we have a salad or vegetables, fruit and desert (for those who can afford the calories). I, personally, like a square of dark chocolate 72%.
Then we have another small snack mid-afternoon.
For the evening meal I make a protein--meat or fish or eggs or beans with a salad or veggies and fruit again.

You need to track on MFP and weigh and measure everything for yourself. It makes it easier to split carbs (lunch) and protein (evening). Eating well is just a habit. Watching your portions-another habit. Make small changes to begin with. Don't worry, your kids will grow up and you won't always be sleep deprived. I thought it would go on for the rest of my life when they were in that stage. Good luck.

rlwart · January 2016

I'm the only one in my house who is trying to eat really healthy. I have a 1 and a 3 year old who do like specific veggies prepared in specific ways, but if you sit a zucchini boat on their plate it had better be on a pile of mac 'n cheese if you want them to eat anything. How do you go about affording to eat right for just you, and not have to eat the same veggie constantly before they go bad?

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Hi there! I am with you in the mommy wants to cook healthy realm. Your babies are so little and impressionable, now is the PERFECT time to start introducing the veggies, you might need to add the sauce to the veggies at first but scale it back gradually over time, they will learn to eat healthy food at this age. My two youngest boys are ages 13 and 14 and the oldest is 20 this month and I'm here to say, they will eat real food! My children have always eaten whatever I give them, it's a matter of teaching them how to eat. It is possible to make a non-processed sauce to put on any vegetable to add some of that creamy flavor they crave, and it is also possible to gradually cut down on that sauce. Although, the more veggies they eat, the better, and really the sauce isn't too bad, it's just a matter of finding one or two recipes they like. A little cheese goes a long way. Use your influence to raise children who eat well! I would recommend Tosca Reno's family oriented Eat Clean cookbook. Her recipes are wonderful. I like the Taste of Home Simple and Delicious cookbook too,(not one of the magazine ones, an actual book) because it has meals planned out a week at a time with a shopping list for each week. I also have the shopping lists planned out in a google doc for each week, and the recipes are available for free on the Taste of Home website. The trick is, be aware of portion size, don't make more than the recipe calls for, and add extra frozen veggies to your portion, and it becomes a really filling meal.

As far as "veggies going bad" I buy the steamable veggies in the freezer section. If you are on a super strict budget, there are huge bags of really good varieties of veggies, like the Normandy Blend or California Mix, and you can throw them in a little bit of water and steam them on the stovetop. If you're just buying chicken and frozen veggies and some fruit, though, it's not as expensive as it could be, since you won't be spending $5 on a bag of chips or cookies or cans of soda.

rlwart · January 2016

Here is my link to two weeks of grocery lists in google docs and the recipes with links. https://www.facebook.com/wainwrightlauren/posts/10208144143067630

kimny72 · January 2016

OP, I understand wanting to be "all in", but if that makes it too difficult to actually achieve, it's counter-productive. You don't need to be perfect to eat healthier, you just have to be better. Eating 50% better and sticking to it for the rest of your life is a lot better than eating 100% better and giving up after a few months!

I don't have kids, so I'm no help there.

Frozen veggies are affordable and don't spoil. You can mix frozen peas, corn, lima beans, chopped broccoli into anything. I also find prepping raw veggies and keeping them front and center helpful in reminding me to add them to meals, like carrot sticks, sliced sweet peppers, cucumber discs, cherry tomatoes. I always have cans of chickpeas and pinto beans on hand, and a jar of tomato sauce and a jar of salsa in the fridge.

You'll figure it out, just hang in there...

I find eating "right" completely mind boggling, I'm not sure where to start

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