Healthy eating for beginners.

Would you define what you mean by junk food and healthy food?

Just being prepared/packaged doesn't necessarily make it healthy or unhealthy. Just being restaurant food doesn't automatically make it unhealthy.

And it sounds like you're saying you vomit when you try to eat healthy food. Vomiting is a bad sign. Maybe talk to a medical professional?

Eat more whole foods...start cooking.

I think people often dislike "healthy" food because they've had it prepared in ways that make it bland, have a gross texture, or perhaps they've had it forced upon them as a child.

You could start by incorporating more whole foods, but prepare them in different ways. Using different sauces, and spices changes tastes. Stir fries with lean meats, loads of vegies (still with some crunch), perhaps some nuts for fat, and a sauce (store bought is fine). Roasting most vegies with some oil makes them taste amazing - paired with some protein, you have a great dinner. Use cheese on vegies - yum!

What types of meals do you currently eat? You can make healthier pizzas, burgers, Mexican etc - it takes some time and effort in the kitchen, but it's worth it!

aishaugas wrote: »

Hey, I am 19 and new to this whole lifestyle, but I have to start to lose weight. I want to eat healthy but I have been eating a LOT of junk food for a LONG time. It's to the point where I don't like the taste of regular and can't even hold down healthy food. I don't know where to start, what recommendations you guys have. I admire the people who lose weight buy eating healthy food, and I don't have anyone to ask for help. Thank you.

I wonder from your post if you have some foods defined as "healthy" in your mind and some defined as "unhealthy" and probably the "healthy" are things that are super plain and low cal.

A better way to look at it, IMO, is to focus on overall diet. You want to be eating a certain amount of protein (for weight loss .8 g/lb of healthy goal weight is a reasonable goal, although it doesn't have to be so high if that is difficult). You want to be getting to your fiber goal, which shouldn't be tough if the rest of your diet is in place. You want to be including healthy fats like nuts, seeds, fatty fish, avocado, olive, olive oil, and generally don't need to be afraid of fats from whole foods (I'd avoid getting lots of fat from packaged things other than dairy, although nothing has to be 100%). You will of course want to eat a good amount and variety of vegetables -- I like to focus on having some with all meals and a significant amount at dinner especially, but you will figure out what works for you. Having some fruit is good too. You don't need to cut out refined carbs (I think pasta is a healthy choice if what is in the sauce is healthy), but trying to get a lot of your carbs from whole foods like potatoes and legumes (beans) and whole grains is a good idea.

So for me a healthy diet ends up not made up of boring plain "healthy" foods but is a regular delicious meal. Some things I eat are a 2 egg omelet with vegetables in it, plus a little cheese, with cottage cheese or fruit (or avocado) on the side. A salad with cheese and olives in it, plus some protein and a delicious homemade dressing. For dinner, a pasta dish with meat (shrimp is delicious) and lots of vegetables and some olive oil and feta cheese and pine nuts or a meat or fish course with sweet potatoes and vegetables on the side (often with a delicious sauce).

Some of this, of course, is about learning to cook, so you will want to start slowly and maybe focus on one meal at a time, and your own personal preferences will be what you work with in deciding what to eat.

For nutrition advice, here's a good source: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/

Oh, and I still eat favorites like ice cream and cheese and so on too. But my overall diet is nutrient dense.

Great starter cooking book is Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.

Hi...
I have a diet plan.
7am protein shake with skim milk
9am boiled egg
11am fruit
Lunch a bowl of mix salad...different everyday
3pm fruit with some nuts
7pm dinner - Assorted mild curry with rye chspati...
Before going to bed a cup of skim milk with cocoa.

I'm in the same position you are in. I'm starting off small, but you can't look at it as something small because even though it may be to other people, it's something big for YOU, right?
Keep up on tracking. Tracking everything you eat will encourage you. Start slow by eliminating sugary drinks, switch to anything whole grain you can, if you drink 2% milk drop down to 1%, stuff like that. I know it might be discouraging when you've adjusted to eating junk food and snacks for such a long time, but just small changes will surprise you when you eventually stop craving all of the bad stuff.

Small sustainable changes . Start by logging what you normally eat then make smart swaps. So do you normally eat two bags of chips at lunch ok swap to 1 bag of chips and an orange. Try a new fruit or vegetable or preparation once a week. Get slow small sustainable changes.