Diet plan for 85 year old self managing widower

[Leostevns]

No great interest in meal preparation for self to eat alone. Lost appetite. Eat at charitable clubs a couple of times a week. Broken back caused height reduction from 6'2" to 5'10.5" and weight reduction from 13stones to 10.5 stones. Not gaining weight. Need simple quick tasty meal (like porage) adequate nutritional weekly diet plan to avoid further weight loss.

[TheAwfulToad]

hmm ... what's your food budget?

Realistically 10.5 stone is not unreasonable considering your height and age. Just reading between the lines here, I'd say your immediate problem is to get out of the house and find some joy in life. Is your back injury healed? Has it affected your mobility? If not, have you considered joining a running club or a gym? Running meets can be a lot of fun (if you can find the right ability level for you) and regular intense exercise will help you maintain muscle mass, which is your other goal here. If you're unable to run, most gyms now support people with mobility issues.

I would make a serious attempt to get more interested in meal preparation, unless you have a busy life in other respects. Start with basic stuff and work your way up. A good British fry-up is a great way to kick off the day (especially as winter arrives). Couple of eggs, bacon, a sausage, mushrooms, maybe a small piece of wholemeal toast and butter. Not difficult once you get into the habit, and the fat and protein is exactly what you need to fuel a bit of activity and maintain muscle mass. Porage is not what you want unless (until?) you're doing 5K runs every morning: that's too much energy with noplace to go, which is likely to result in health problems.

If you really want to keep things simple, I'd invest in a slow-cooker. You can just throw stuff into it, wait 8 hours, and there's dinner. Meat suitable for slow cooking (eg., chuck steak or pork belly) is usually cheap, too.

[Zest]

Hi Leostevns

Welcome to the Healthy eating forum, and I would also recommend cooking meals in a slow-cooker - they are easy and delicious, and you can freeze portions too, so you don't have to cook as often.

I also love porridge for breakfast, it's my favourite choice.

Hope you enjoy the forum, and have a good look at the Topics and Pinned posts.

Zest

[Leostevns in reply to Zest]

Many thanks Zest. I do have a small ("Cookworks" 1.5litre) slow cooker which is very underused at present. What I need is a collection of quick simple recipes for it. Thanks again. Leo

[Zest in reply to Leostevns]

Hi Leostevns

What I often do is use my local library to access their cookery books, and there is a range of slow-cooker ones that are really good. That way, you can have a look to see what book you like, rather than ending up paying money. Libraries are such great resources I think.

Just a suggestion, and there are also many recipes online too. I use my slow-cooker more now - and I have really found the meals so much more flavoursome.

Zest

[Zest in reply to Leostevns]

I am just popping back with a link to some slow-cooker posts that were done on Healthy eating, incase you'd like to have a look:

healthunlocked.com/search/p...

Zest

[whatgoingon]

Thank you for this post. I am 67 and I hate cooking and when I do cook I don't like it. I don't have much of an appetite either, but I think it's from not eating. I will watch this post for ideas. I am going to check out the slow cooker link. Best of luck to both of us!!

[andyswarbs]

An alternative to a slow cooker is an instant pot. This does what it says. You can chuck anything in, put it on a timer and get on with your life. Brilliant for pulses, rice, you name it.

When I think of loss of appetite I think of a body saturated with that too much salt, sugar and fat and oils over the years. You can bring your taste buds back, if that's what you want to happen. It will take at least three months. Let me know if you are interested.

[Leostevns in reply to andyswarbs]

Sure would be interested to hear more.

[andyswarbs in reply to Leostevns]

Leo if you read any of my posts on HU or elsewhere you will see I advocate for a whole food plant based lifestyle ideally supported by hard exercise. Hard exercise gets the heart pumping which oxygenates the body. My own exercise is Bikram Yoga which I do four time a week minimum for 90 minutes at a time. But the best exercise is one you can/will actually do. Beyond oxygenation are a whole host of benefits, including wholly positive mental changes.

As a 65 yr old I used to be a vegetarian and move to a whole plant based approach to resolve my arthritis issues. What has amazed me is the unlooked for benefits. I hardly ever suffer with colds anymore, a sniffle is my maximum problem. My eyesight has improved, seeing all the details of colours and textures in trees and leaves for instance. And yes, I now find my taste buds have come back. No longer do I enjoy a sugar laden cake rather find the natural sweetness in fruit as much as I can take. This has meant that I enjoy other subtle flavours so much more. Beyond fruit the dark leafy greens I devour daily have a richness to them that whereas previously might only have been one or two leaves now is complete platefuls.

This change in tastebuds is driven 100% by your gut biome. That regrows entirely over a period of about three months. So as your diet changes and your gut becomes more populated by beneficial bacteria then your tastebuds will adapt naturally as mine have. For some people the change is not an easy one because their guts are full of bacteria that craves meat. But with persistence the change will happen. I would recommend a slow change, swapping one food out and another in will smooth the transition at a pace satisfactory to yourself. Indeed a whole transition could take a year perhaps, whatever you are comfortable with.