Weight loss help required

[wafter]

One of the most constructive things anyone can do is cook meals from fresh. I know that time pressures and lack of confidence with cooking can makes this difficult for a lot of people but it helps massively for anyone wanting to eat a well balanced diet. It allows you to control everything that goes into a dish; salt, fat, carbs etc. and also helps portion control (the other big issue as I suspect most people consume portions far bigger than they actually need). It also keeps you away from processed meals which as you say is a huge contributor to poor diet and weight gain.

I know people think buying fresh food is more costly, but unless you are buying large amounts of meat and/or fresh fish, it is much cheaper than ready meals. If you can batch cook you will also make food go further and save time with your own (far healthier) pre prepared meals.

Absolutely - in principle I agree entirely; although shamefully thanks to a range of factors I'm pretty much restricted to stuff out of packets. It's not as bad as it could be (I don't do ultra-processed / ready meals etc) but the closest I usually get to "preparing" a meal is taking some meat out of a packet, slinging it in the oven and serving it with veg or salad..

I can cook a mean soft-boiled egg and do fry-ups from scratch with decent meat from the butchers (yeah, nitrates etc). I'd love to have the skill and resolve of generations past to cook from absolutely base ingredients. Thats something I really admire and respect about my mum - we've had roadkill pheasant for dinner before, while she'll happily buy a whole chicken that's first roast, then stripped of meat for a pie before having the carcass boiled up for stock as a soup base. What little is discarded at the end is not edible in any case..

I hear you on the cost - even with ostensibly like-products you pay a lot for packaging and convenience... the stuff I get from the butchers for example is usually cheaper than / comparable to equivalents from the supermarket, but it's much better quality and there's less plastic waste. Veggies are also a great, low-cost ingredient.

Besides, the financial cost is only one part of the equation. I know a lot of people consider those who spend money on high quality food as snobbish, when in reality (for the most part) they're just buying decent quality while those who spend less are cheating themselves out of what their bodies need and will potentially pay with their health in the long term.

Hopefully one day I might be able to get a bit closer to the ideals you suggest

 

[Gwylan]

Absolutely - in principle I agree entirely; although shamefully thanks to a range of factors I'm pretty much restricted to stuff out of packets. It's not as bad as it could be (I don't do ultra-processed / ready meals etc) but the closest I usually get to "preparing" a meal is taking some meat out of a packet, slinging it in the oven and serving it with veg or salad..

I can cook a mean soft-boiled egg and do fry-ups from scratch with decent meat from the butchers (yeah, nitrates etc). I'd love to have the skill and resolve of generations past to cook from absolutely base ingredients. Thats something I really admire and respect about my mum - we've had roadkill pheasant for dinner before, while she'll happily buy a whole chicken that's first roast, then stripped of meat for a pie before having the carcass boiled up for stock as a soup base. What little is discarded at the end is not edible in any case..

I hear you on the cost - even with ostensibly like-products you pay a lot for packaging and convenience... the stuff I get from the butchers for example is usually cheaper than / comparable to equivalents from the supermarket, but it's much better quality and there's less plastic waste. Veggies are also a great, low-cost ingredient.

Besides, the financial cost is only one part of the equation. I know a lot of people consider those who spend money on high quality food as snobbish, when in reality (for the most part) they're just buying decent quality while those who spend less are cheating themselves out of what their bodies need and will potentially pay with their health in the long term.

Hopefully one day I might be able to get a bit closer to the ideals you suggest

Any journey starts with the first step. Decide what it might be.
Then take it!

But it's not easy.