Know nothing

Do you have Netflix? I love all the documentaries on there. My favorites are Sugar Coated, Food Matters, Forks Over Knives, Fed Up and Hungry for Change (it had a silly story line in between all the people they interview but other than that there is a lot of good info).

Don't watch so-called documentaries. They have agendas and are very skewed and don't give really accurate info. Google healthy meals, check the USDA website for recommended healthy diet information.

For weight loss, you can eat almost anything as long as you eat fewer calories than you expend in ordinary daily life plus exercise.

For nutrition, though, there is a lot of misinformation around. Personally, I am fond of Michael Pollan's advice to eat real food, prepared from ingredients found on the outside of the supermarket (vegetables, fruits, meat, dairy), not the more processed foods in the center of the supermarket (presuming your supermarket is laid out like most US markets). See his book In Defense of Food for an explanation. The Oldways organization provides some useful guides and recipes for several traditional ways of eating.

Another useful resource is Dr. Yoni Freedhoff's book The Diet Fix, which focuses on making sustainable changes to your lifestyle, instead of "going on a diet" and then returning to your old habits when you reach a weight goal.

Since your goal is ultimately a lifestyle change, take small steps. Don't try to make a radical break; most people find that unsustainable. Learn how to cook a few tasty, simple meals from scratch, and try them from time to time. As you get more experienced, your repertory will expand and your tastes will slowly change.

If you're used to eating mostly fast food and convenience food, food made from scratch might initially strike you as bland. It's OK to add some Sriracha! And a final tip: if you think you don't like vegetables, try chopping them up, tossing them with some salt, pepper, and olive oil, and roasting them until they're tender. It brings out the natural sugars. I was in my 40s before I really learned to like Brussels sprouts!

Congratulations on taking the first step!! These forums are a wealth of knowledge. Read the stickies, and check out the MFP blog (Hello Healthy). There is a lot of great information there on nutrition and exercise, and lots of great recipes.

AlyM725 wrote: »

Congratulations on taking the first step!! These forums are a wealth of knowledge. Read the stickies, and check out the MFP blog (Hello Healthy). There is a lot of great information there on nutrition and exercise, and lots of great recipes.

Oh, no, stay away from the Hello Healthy blog. A very high percentage of the articles on there are the same of kind of nonsense you can find in click-bait stories--it seldom rises above telling you that you have to do something that, while it may be helpful for some or even a lot of people as essentially a behavioral management tool, is not necessary for either weight loss or health. And if you really don't have a good knowledge base, you won't know which parts are real and which aren't. (I recently adjusted my email options so that they would stop sending me the alerts on the new blog posts, because invariably on the rare occasions I would see something that sounded like it might be interesting or useful, it turned out to have a good proportion of hooey in it.)

I haven't read all of the stickies posted above by diannethegeek, but the ones I have read have generally been sensible, no-nonsense posts, and often debunk the click-bait nonsense. And for the ones I haven't read, I don't think dianne would steer you wrong.