How have your eating habits changed in retirement? (relative, retired, diabetes)

[cb2008]

The pandemic changed our eating habits - to the better. We cooked at home more and made healthy choices. And we still do the same and have lost the desire to eat out. when we do we usually go for breakfast or lunch at new places that have opened and serve great choices and fresh food.
apart from that, which i think is true for many, we eat a lot less. That has nothing to do with the isolation, but part of aging I believe. Our orations are smaller and if we have good breakfast and lunch i often skip dinner or it is very light. we both have lost weight.

[skimbro000]

I thought I didn’t like to cook when I was working because I was tired when I got home. It turns out I really just don’t like to cook. Therefore, when I do cook, I freeze the extra portions for several more meals. We also grill year round. I cook on average about twice a week. The other nights I pull an entree out of the freezer and add a salad or roasted veggies or we grill chicken/salmon/steak/burgers. We usually do take out or eat out once a week.

[Charlie&Rose]

Well now there is high cholestrol, and inching up blood sugar. I have cutdown on pasta and breads, fried food. Not much left.

[Parnassia]

Hasn't changed all that much except possibly when I eat. I hated to cook while employed and I still hate it now. More available time didn't change anything. I still like and dislike the same foods (home cooked or not) and generally prefer simpler fare. The usual health parameters affected by diet haven't shifted much. Now that a job doesn't dictate most of my waking hours, I mostly eat when I'm hungry. I don't feel forced to eat just to fuel a schedule.

[brightdoglover]

I hate cooking and am lousy at it. After failures, I now get meals delivered from a service called Factor75 (owned by Hello Fresh). Very happy with the meals and am no longer picking at whatever showed up at 3 am on my night shifts. I am much healthier and slowly losing the pounds I need to lose. Who knew that sleeping and eating could be such difficult things to get right while working!

[BellaDL]

We have definitely eating a lot better since my retirement because I have more time to cook, to check out new recipes and to shop for unusual ingredients. I cook main dishes from scratch at least 4-5 days a week with the remaining days consuming reheated frozen leftovers. However, our meals are always varied with different side vegetable dishes and fruits.

It's a coincidence that the pandemic started when we were building raised beds to significantly enlarging our vegetable gardens. We eat even better and healthier during the pandemic with our prolific organic vegetable garden.

The shortage of yeast got me into whole-wheat sourdough baking. I have not bought any commercial bake goods in the last 2 years since getting back to making English muffins, French baguette, popovers and bagels (have to keep the sourdough starter going). I have also tried to add healthy ingredients like almond flour, oat four and brown rice flour to our baked good. Two days ago, I made a traditional St. Patrick day meal (corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots served with my high-protein, low carb Irish soda bread). I was very happy to get a fasting blood sugar reading of 90 the next morning. Yes, you can eat very well and stay healthy with a home cook meal.

In some ways, eating better means eating less food because savoring the flavor slows down the gulping ;-)

Popular American foods and recipes are usually loaded with fat, carb, salt and sugar so experimenting with international cuisine can help one to eat much more healthy. Bland vegetables and legumes can taste amazingly good with different spices, herbs or methods of cooking.

I know that quite a few retirees are just tired of cooking. Some eat out more because they have more fun things to do than cooking. Eating out also give people a chance to get out of the house and/or to socialize. Typical restaurant foods are not healthy and the portions can be huge. I recall being serve a huge bowl of calamari pasta which can feed at least 8 people during a diving trip. We were staying at a hotel w/o a fridge/coooking facility near the dive boat so I felt terrible in seeing 90% of the food being wasted!

My guess is that the pandemic also changed some people's eating habit for the better like the OP's.

I think the aging process also affect our eating habit since we can no longer tolerate very spicy food, slow-to-digest rich food or too much food. Some people also have to modify their diets due to or to prevent metabolic syndrome like high blood pressure, diabetes etc.

As mentioned in another thread, I myself had changed my eating habits from 3 'standard' meals/3 snacks a day to 3 low-carb meals with a 14/10 pattern to bring my blood sugar down to pre-diabetic level. My 'sweets' are mostly fruits and sometimes a small amount of dark chocolate almonds for desserts. My total daily food intake amount is at least the same as before this diet change but I have also upped my activity levels (added daily treadmill and weight lifting every other day). I lost 7 lbs in the first 6 months of this new routine but have gained back 2 lbs last month by eating more proteins.

[Teacher Terry]

I lost 50lbs by eating 1600/calories a day and one day eating what I wanted to keep my body confused. My main meal is lunch and then I have a snack at night. I have kept off the weight for 2 years. I have always exercised.

[Disgustedman]

I "started" the carnivore diet. So, finally as the participants will attest (including Joe Rogan) it's not a question about if you'll poop your pants, but when.

So, after a week of colon roulette, I've added 1/2 cup uncooked rice to cauldron when I have my steak. I get enough warning to hit the bathroom in time.

Plus, it's once a day eating. 1-1 1/2 lbs of steak, half cup rice and maybe 2 cups coffee at 9am and 5 pm. (S & W and dry creamer) as I said before, no shacking. I have some water flavoring powder and plain water.

Plus my trips around the lot don't know if I've lost weight, but feel a tad better and surprised I'm so resilient to making a hard rule of no sweets and sticking to it every shopping trip.

[marino760]

When I first retired and moved here I was in food heaven. I love the local food, greasy mom and pop places to eat, and there were festivals going most weekends which involved food. Baked goods and BBQ are my favorites. I ate everything in front of me and loved every minute of it.

9 months later, I'm more careful what I eat. I now eat more fruits and vegetables than ever before. I limit my daily calories and fat/sugar intake. I've cut back on carbs quite a bit. I'm now at a good weight for my height and no one looking at me would call me overweight. I like to cook and finally in retirement have the time to cook good healthy meals for myself so I do so. That doesn't mean I won't occasionally indulge in baked goods or chicken wings.
I refuse to drink my calories, so no soda, beer or full glasses of fruit juice. Sometimes I'll mix a small amount of fruit juice into a glass of carbonated water and there's my soda substitute. Unsweetened coffee and tea are still consumed. I limit my fast food intake to one meal per month as a treat.

I really enjoy being retired and want it to last as long as possible in a relatively healthy body. I recently had things checked out and have normal blood sugar and relatively low cholesterol. I'd like to keep it that way.

The pandemic played no role in how I eat, what I eat or how I get my food.

[jim9251]

Don't eat any fast food because the closest fast food places (McDonald's Arbys KFC etc) are 30 miles away and now I have time to cook, which I am very good at. I eat when I'm hungry, not on a set schedule and I can take my time instead of wolfing it down in 20 minutes.

I can have an adult beverage at a cafe at lunch too!