10 Foods I Eat on Repeat to Lose 100 Pounds After 60

If you watched my latest video about the foods I eat over and over again while trying to lose 100 pounds, you may have gotten to the end and thought, Well, duh, Trish. You just told me to eat meat and vegetables. And you would be right. There is nothing particularly revolutionary about this list. I haven't discovered some magical food that melts fat after 60, and there isn't a single thing on my grocery list that is going to make the weight fall off simply because I eat it.

But I actually think that's the point.

I have spent so many years making weight loss more complicated than it needed to be. There was always another diet to try, another list of foods I could or couldn't eat, another product that promised to make everything easier, or another Monday morning when I was going to completely overhaul my life. This time, as I work toward losing 100 pounds at 62, I'm trying to do almost the opposite. I'm simplifying everything I can, and food has been a huge part of that.

I want to have foods in my house that I know I like, that satisfy me, that help me get the protein I'm trying to eat every day, and that I can use in enough different ways that I don't feel like I'm eating the same boring meal over and over again. I'm eating higher protein and lower carb right now, and I track what I eat because that helps me understand what I'm actually putting into my body instead of guessing. But I also know myself well enough to know that if this starts feeling like punishment, I'm not going to do it for the rest of my life. And the rest of my life is really what I'm trying to change here.

The Proteins I Build Almost Everything Around

Beef is probably my number one when it comes to pure satisfaction. I don't know exactly what it is about beef, but when I have a burger, steak or a good bowl made with ground beef, I feel like I've eaten a real meal. I'm satisfied. I'm not wandering back into the kitchen an hour later wondering what I can have next. I use 85/15 ground beef quite a bit because I love it and because I can do so many things with it. I can make taco bowls, hamburger bowls, meatballs, a Big Mac bowl or just a really good burger without the bun. When people talk about eating food that keeps you satisfied instead of constantly chasing the next snack, beef does that for me.

Chicken is completely different. Chicken is my clean slate because I can make it taste like almost anything I'm craving. If I want Mexican, I can go in that direction. If I want Asian, Italian, Greek or something spicy, chicken works. One of the things I really want to avoid on this journey is getting into that mindset where I'm constantly saying, I can't have that anymore. I'm trying to train myself to ask a different question: How can I make a version of that which works for the way I'm eating now? I even make chicken nuggets using an egg wash and Parmesan cheese for the coating. They're easy, they're delicious, and I don't sit there eating them thinking about the chicken nuggets I'm supposedly missing.

Then there is fish. I know not everybody loves fish, but I really do. A beautiful piece of salmon somehow makes an ordinary dinner feel a little fancy to me, and I like that. I don't want every meal for the next year to scream, YOU ARE ON A DIET. Sometimes I want to sit down to a beautiful piece of salmon and vegetables and simply think, This is a really good dinner. I also keep canned tuna around, and I buy those individually flash-frozen wild-caught fish fillets because they're incredibly convenient. If I haven't planned dinner well, I can still pull together a good protein without deciding that I blew it and ordering something instead.

And then there are eggs, which may be the most useful food in my entire kitchen. I love eggs by themselves, but I also make egg bites, add them to recipes, use them as a coating and mix cottage cheese into scrambled eggs when I want an additional protein boost. I have also stopped caring whether something is technically a “breakfast food.” If eggs sound good for dinner, I eat eggs for dinner. Nobody is coming to my house to arrest me because I didn't have them before 10 a.m.

The Food That Lets Me Recreate Almost Anything

Cauliflower rice deserves its own conversation because I don't necessarily love cauliflower rice all by itself. What I love is what it allows me to do. Give me cauliflower rice, one of my proteins and the right seasonings and toppings, and suddenly I have the foundation for dozens of meals.

If I'm craving Chinese food, I can make an egg roll in a bowl. If I want Mexican food, I can make a taco bowl. If a Big Mac sounds amazing, I can make a Big Mac bowl. I've even figured out ways to make something reminiscent of a Reuben in a bowl. Is cauliflower rice actually rice? Of course not. I'm not going to insult you and tell you that it tastes exactly the same. But once everything else is in that bowl—the protein, seasonings, cheese, sauce, vegetables and all those familiar flavors—I don't feel like I'm sitting there eating a sad substitute for the food I really wanted.

That has been one of the biggest mindset changes for me this time around. Instead of building my diet around everything I can't have, I'm learning how to build meals around the flavors I actually want. There are hundreds of foods I could be craving, but I don't necessarily need hundreds of ingredients in my kitchen to create them.

My “I Need More Protein Today” Foods

Cottage cheese has become my protein rescue food. There are days when I look at what I've eaten and realize I'm coming up short on protein, and cottage cheese is such an easy thing to add. I can eat some alongside a meal, mix it into my eggs or use it in something else. And if you've spent five minutes on social media lately, you already know that people have apparently decided cottage cheese can become anything. They're making cottage cheese chips now. Chips! I haven't even begun to try all the things people are doing with it.

One of my favorite ways to eat cottage cheese isn't fancy at all. I mix it with sugar-free lime Jell-O, and it reminds me of that Jell-O salad my grandma used to make. There is something about food that brings back a memory that makes it so much more satisfying than eating something simply because a diet plan told you to. It feels familiar and comforting, and I'm still getting that protein I was looking for.

Greek yogurt plays a similar role for me. It's easy, it's creamy, it gives me another way to add protein, and I can take it in a sweet or savory direction. That's something I've started noticing about almost every food that has become a staple for me: it needs to earn its place. If I can only do one thing with an ingredient, eventually I'm probably going to get tired of it. If I can use it five or ten different ways, it becomes something I actually keep buying.

Yes, I Eat Fat

Avocados are another staple because I want richness and texture in my meals. I'm not interested in eating dry chicken and plain vegetables for the next year just because I'm trying to lose weight. Avocado can completely change a bowl or salad for me, and I love it. I simply pay attention to how much I'm eating because avocados are calorie-dense, and I am still trying to create the calorie deficit I need to lose weight.

The same goes for butter and oils. I use real butter. I use olive oil, avocado oil and coconut oil. I spent years thinking that losing weight meant finding the lowest-fat, lowest-calorie imitation of whatever food I actually wanted, and I'm not particularly interested in doing that anymore. I would often rather have a reasonable amount of the real thing, track it and enjoy it. A little real butter can make vegetables or a sweet potato taste wonderful. The key for me isn't pretending calories don't matter because something is “healthy.” I measure it, I track it and I move on.

And Of Course, Vegetables

Vegetables are where I get a lot of the crunch and freshness I need. Cucumbers are one of my favorites because sometimes I just want something cold and crunchy next to a richer protein. I eat salads and plenty of other vegetables as well, although right now I tend to have the starchier vegetables like potatoes, peas and carrots less frequently because I'm keeping my total carbohydrates lower.

That doesn't mean I have decided carrots are bad or potatoes are evil. I really want to get away from assigning morality to food. I'm simply making choices based on what I'm trying to accomplish right now. There may be a time when I change those choices. This isn't a religion. It's food.

I Am Not Giving Up Dessert for the Rest of My Life

Now we need to talk about something sweet, because if the requirement for losing 100 pounds were that I could never have another dessert, we would have a problem.

One of my favorite little treats right now is almost embarrassingly simple: sugar-free Jell-O with a squirt of Cool Whip. Yes, it's processed. Yes, I eat it anyway. I'm not trying to win an award for the cleanest diet in America. Sometimes I want something that feels like dessert, and that little bowl does the job for me without turning into an entire evening of eating sweets.

When I want something more substantial, I love a baked sweet potato with real butter and a little stevia brown-sugar substitute. Sprinkle some pumpkin pie spice on there and it tastes almost like I'm eating pumpkin pie. Sweet potatoes have more carbohydrates than most of the foods I'm eating every day, so I don't pretend they don't count. I plan for one, enjoy it and usually keep it to an occasional treat rather than an everyday food.

That idea—I can plan for it—has been surprisingly important for me. There is a huge emotional difference between telling myself I can never have something again and deciding that something simply isn't an everyday food for me right now. I don't want to live in a world of “never again.” I want to become someone who can make choices without every choice turning into a three-day detour.

Even My Drinks Are Pretty Boring

I love my coffee, and I'm not giving that up either. I use real cream or Nutpods depending on how my stomach is behaving. I also love iced green tea, drink plenty of water and, if I have soda, I personally choose options sweetened with stevia rather than aspartame. I also include an electrolyte drink in my routine because hydration and keeping my electrolytes balanced are things I pay attention to.

And that's pretty much it.

When you look at this whole list together, what may be most interesting is what isn't on it. My everyday eating isn't built around protein bars, keto cakes, diet candies or a kitchen full of products that have been manufactured to resemble something else. That doesn't mean I'll never have any of those things. They're simply not the foundation.

The foundation is incredibly boring: beef, chicken, fish, eggs, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, vegetables, cauliflower rice, avocados, butter and oils. Then I have a few things around the edges that make life enjoyable and keep me from feeling like I'm serving a sentence until I lose the weight.

Maybe “Boring” Is Exactly What I Needed

The more I think about it, the more I believe simplicity may be one of the biggest differences in this attempt to lose weight.

I have started over so many times in my life. I've had those Sundays when I promised myself that Monday was going to be different. I've cleaned out the kitchen, bought all the special foods, made complicated meal plans and started programs with rules I already knew I didn't want to follow forever. Sometimes I did really well for a while. But eventually real life showed up, and the complicated system became harder and harder to maintain.

At 62, I don't want to get really good at dieting again. I want to get really good at living.

I need to know what I eat on a completely ordinary Tuesday when I'm tired and don't particularly feel like cooking. I need foods I can turn to when I'm hungry and haven't planned ahead. I need to be able to go out to dinner, travel, celebrate something, have a difficult week and then come right back to the way I normally eat without declaring that I've “blown it” and need to start over next Monday.

That is why these foods matter to me. They aren't magical. They're predictable. I like them. They satisfy me. I know how to use them, and I can combine them in enough different ways that I don't feel trapped.

I've already lost more than 25 pounds, and I still have a long way to go before I reach my goal of losing 100. I'm sure this list will evolve as I do. I'm learning about my body, I'm learning what keeps me satisfied, and maybe most importantly, I'm learning the difference between something I can do for a few months and something I could actually imagine doing for years.

So if your own comeback feels overwhelming right now, maybe don't start by trying to change everything. Maybe start by figuring out your foods. What are the foods you genuinely enjoy? What keeps you satisfied? What can you afford and easily keep in the house? What can you make when you have ten minutes and absolutely no desire to cook? What ingredients can become five or ten completely different meals depending on what you're craving?

Because I'm starting to believe I don't need hundreds of foods to lose this weight. I need a handful of foods I love that I can turn into hundreds of meals.

And maybe that's the boring little secret I've been looking for all along.

Care to check out the video? Find it here.

This is my comeback. And if you're working on yours too, I'm really glad you're here. ❤️

Comeback Over 50™ — Stronger. Fitter. Braver.

As always, I'm sharing my own experience and what is working for me, not prescribing a diet or giving medical or nutritional advice. Especially as we get older, our bodies, medications and medical needs can be very different, so work with your healthcare professional to determine what makes sense for you.