Its not surprising that none of the diets worked for you. If you can’t have a meal prepared from scratch, then you can’t really eat healthy food. End of story. If all you are given is frozen dinners, i feel really sorry for you and think you need to get the authorities to provide you with a bit more healthful food. You should at the very least be given lots of fresh fruit, natural unsweetened yoghurt, and fresh salads dressed with just olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I would urge everyone to look into you eating more beans, lentils and chickpeas. All vegetarians should be eating these foods in bulk. They are high protein, high in fibre, low in calories, satiating, versatile. They are low GI so they will keep you from being hungry for a good while – much better than bread and pasta. Buying the dried form of these foods is also very cheap. And its really no big deal to soak a cupful of one or the other overnight in a bowl of water.

If a carer has to be in and out of your place within an hour, and they are expected to do your meals and bathing and anything else in that time, then it seems you are not being looked after very well. But i hope your situation is not that grim.

Here is a dead easy but simple lentil soup recipe.

Soak red lentils over night. Drain and rinse.
Put in pot of water. Add plenty of water. About 2 cups to every cup of soaked lentils if i recall correctly. Or one cup water to one cup lentils . You can always add more later but don’t burn them.
When they are soft. Blend them up with a bar mix.
Add salt.
Eat.
Add a little yoghurt if you wish at the end.
Or squeeze some lemon juice of them.

I have tried cooking these lentils with other vegetables but i like it plain like this the best. Its how i ate in Turkey. And i love it. I still can’t make it quite as good as theirs and i don’t know quite why because i think theirs is this simple too.

I have this soup often as part of my breakfast but i eat it at any time of the day. YOu can make most bean/lentil/chickpea recipes in bulk and it only needs reheating for the 2nd 3rd and 4th meals.

Chickpea soup is just as easy but different. look up revithosoupa. Thats a greek version and there’s an italian version which is also delicious and includes a bit of fettucini. There are lots of variations on these on the web. The one i made has fresh rosemary in it. Lovely.

if you like chilli, the indians do millions of dishes with these foods.

I’ve just bought the mediterranean cookbook which i’m using a lot and loving all the recipes including a great variety of bean and lentil and chickpea recipes. That’s where i learnt about these chickpea soups which i’d never heard of before.

I think a good successful weight loss diet requires eating healthy, fresh, and good tasting food. It doesn’t have to be as gourmet as a restaurant but it should be good old fashioned food such as is found in greece, italy, southern france and spain and portugal. These countries really know food and its not too far from what we anglos are used to. But i also love middle eastern food. And asian foods. And well all traditional food really.

Ah i see. I thought you said your carers don’t have time to make food from scratch.

Yes most of us who get into an unhealthy weight range get there by eating too much junk.

It may help you to know that i have done very little exercise this year as part of my weight loss experience and i’ve been doing it since January. I lost most of my weight in the first three months. Though of course i can clearly burn more calories from just moving about than you.

I guess i don’t think this part sounds too good in your situation.

I’ve been gave gluten free toast with peanut butter and jam for breakfast. A double serving of gluten free sandwiches with calorific fillings for lunch and a healthy, but large size, dinner. I was topping this up with snacks and sugary drinks.

Instead of peanut but which usually has added vegetable oil, try some raw peanuts. I understand gluten free foods tend to have more calories and more added sugar. I’d skip them and eat oats as porridge. I can now enjoy porridge with cold milk with no sweeteners at all. Jam is just sugar and stimulates and appetite for more when you area already eating a lot of carbs. I rely on fruit now for most of my sugar. After a while i reintroduced small amounts of dried fruit like figs and medjool dates which are very sweet and delicious. i.e. just one piece.

For lunch, try a lentil salad made with say brown lentils or puy lentils, some greens, tomato, cucumber, small piece of feta cheese, and 5 walnut halves. dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. This works with other beans as well and the salad vegies can be varied each time. I found 2-3 vegetables was the best variety. The feta and nuts make this very tasty. Or you can sprinkle on a tsp of pumpkin seeds or other seeds. I would have this 2-3 times a week and it was a key meal in the beginning of my diet when i had most weight to lose and my diet wasn’t as good as it is now.

Obviously dinner should not be large. But it may be helpful for you to know that with dieting, if you eat an appropriate amount of calories and avoid hunger, you can get this big appetite back under control. And then fasting teaches you another approach to appetite restraint which is interesting and different. But this all might be a bit harder when you are going into this at the beginning of a diet. I’ve already lost most of my weight. Still i hope you find it good.

If you eat a lot from boredom, then that challenge will still be there. I usually try to make myself change activities/location when i get that boredom.

anyway good luck with this and i’m glad you’ve got good carers and things are not as bad as they came across to me.