Finding someone to help with healthy meal planning

Autum1031

I need to find someone who can help me develop a healthy meal plan but quite honestly I'm not sure who I need to locate. I realize I'll need to pay someone to help me, and I'm willing to do that.

I tried once previously when I was very serious about weight loss to see a nutritionist and it was a huge waste of time and money. She spent the entire session trying to teach me how to count calories and read food labels, which I already knew how to do. I explained that I needed someone to help me develop a healthy meal plan that I would actually follow (i.e. don't assign something that is difficult to cook with 20 different expensive ingredients) but she said, "I don't do things like that" and couldn't tell me who would. I don't have an interest in Weight Watchers or programs that make you buy their food/ prepackaged stuff. But maybe there are programs you can "buy" that help you plan meals, tailored to your situation? Or maybe I could see a better nutritionist or dietician?

I'm morbidly obese and have struggled to lose weight for about 10-15 years. Cooking healthy meals is by far my biggest stumbling block; I hate to cook, I get easily discouraged by the complexity and time consuming nature of most recipes, and tend to fall back on whatever is very easy (and usually really bad for you). Whenever I do manage to lose weight I always gain it back because I am tired of eating the 3 relatively healthy meals I know, and am willing, to cook.

Please, don't tell me to "look online" and "find meals for myself." If I haven't been able to do this for the past 15 years, I'm certainly not going to magically be able to do it now! :-) Any suggestions would be great.

DancingMoosie

Have you tried cookinglight or allrecipes? Cooking light has a weeknight meal planner, and both sites give you ingredients and nutritional info for all dishes.

Autum1031

I've looked at allrecipes and other recipe sites, but I become easily overwhelmed. I'm not looking for a recipe site or for anything in which I have to build the meal plan myself. I'm looking for someone who can actively help me choose meals that will be healthy, not crazy expensive and easy to make. At the minimum, I might try a site that would plan out meals for me after I plug in some data so it doesn't plan meals that simply will not work for me.

In essence I need someone to lead me by the hand, so I'm willing to pay a fee for this service, vs. simply going to a site and trying to figure it out myself. "Trying to figure it out myself" is one of the reasons I've been morbidly obese for 10+ years.

bunsen_honeydew

Which country are you in

bunsen_honeydew

Also nothing wrong with just eating the same things all the time.

Autum1031

I'm in the U.S. I don't have a ton of money, but I'm willing to take some of the money I'm blowing on fast food and other junk and instead spend it on a professional (or really good program) who can help me. I have lost count how many times I've tried to do this myself....really, it's not working.

bunsen_honeydew

This is a link to a group weight loss club but it was a free 7 day programme of meals. Actually 2 weeks as there is a vegetarian version.
http://www.slimmingworld.com/healthy-eating/non-vegetarian-menu.aspx

bunsen_honeydew

Also a uk site but may be accessible for you. You are only paying for the plan, and you buy and cook all the food yourself.
http://www.dietplan.co.uk/DietPlans/Home

kommodevaran

Maybe a professional isn't what you need. You don't have to pay someone or buy a plan to eat well. What do you like to eat? Most foods can be a part of a healthy diet. Cooking doesn't have to be difficult. Elaborate recipes will be difficult. Why not just make it simple? Every time you succeed, you will want to do it again. Every time you do something, you will be better at it.

For dinner you need a
starch, a
protein, and a
vegetable.
Combine to taste and heat or cut accordingly. Full fat protein and ordinary starch is easy to make tasty - only salt and pepper is mandatory, other seasonings are optional.

During the rest of the day, aim to get some from all of these groups:
Fruit
Vegetables
Dairy
Meat, fish, eggs, beans
Nuts or nut butter
Grains, potatoes, corn, sweet potato, bread, pasta, rice, oatmeal

Food should be as least processed as possible. As few additives as possible. Frozen, dried or canned is OK if it's not packed with sweeteners, salt, flour, etc.

For treats you can and should eat anything. Just be certain that amount and frequnecy doesn't erase all the good effort you've put into your plan.

bunsen_honeydew

This is an Australian book which seems to be available on US Amazon. I have it, and it contains 12 weeks of fully planned meals.
http://www.amazon.com/CSIRO-Total-Wellbeing-Manny-Noakes-ebook/dp/B00KQDHRQQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430682980&sr=8-1&keywords=csiro+diet

bunsen_honeydew

I have a spreadsheet where I basically distilled the structure of the csiro diet plan. PM me if you want a copy.

LKArgh

I know there are companies who supply meals for you (I am not American, but I bet you have them there too) but this (1) can be expensive and (2) will not help at all on the long run.
I cannot imagine how a dietician could provide recipes for you. Guidelines on how to prepare meals, sample menus etc, sure, but actuall recipes and cooking instructions?
How old are you and what have you tried so far? Is the problem not knowing what a daily menu should look like, or not knowing how to cook at all?
If the problem is the first, I imagine a dieticial will give you guidelines on what each meal should include (from my experience), so it is a matter of googling recipes with these basic ingredients or excluding ingredients you should be avoiding. Or you could try here: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-eating-plate/ for guidelines on what your menus should ideally look like, what to try to include and what to avoid. They do also have a recipes section.
If the problem is cooking, have you googled recipes, have you tried any sort of cooking, watched videos on how ot cook? Maybe try cooking lessons?

Autum1031

Thank you for the suggestions on the plans and books, I'll take a look at them.

Yes, of course I know what a daily menu should look like, and I've googled recipes for hours and hours and hours. I understand completely how a meal should be structured. I just don't know of any super easy recipes to achieve this that I have time to cook, can afford to buy ingredients for, and will actually eat. I don't like cooking, period. In fact, I hate it. I can't possibly afford it, but if I ever had lots of disposable income I would hire someone to cook for me daily. That is how much I dislike cooking.

At any rate, I thought I'd give this forum a try, but I guess I'll continue to do my own research into finding a professional who can help me. I do appreciate the suggestions thrown my way, thank you for taking the time to respond. My point is simply that I can't do it myself, which is why the suggestions of recipe sites and DIY guidelines aren't working for me. Most meals are too complicated and contain foods I wouldn't ever want to eat, period, or contain ingredients I can't afford to buy. I'm the person who goes to Subway and gets the wheat sandwich with chicken and cheese, and that's it. That's really all that I want. No sauces, no seasonings, no nothing. Now I add in lettuce in a small attempt to get some veggies, but it's really a futile effort.

Anyway....I'll keep looking. Thanks.

kommodevaran

Well in that case, it's not going to be easy. Good luck then

Just wanted to ask, how come you have the money for a plan or a person to tell you what to eat, but not to buy ingredients for foods you want to eat? Do you think a professional will tell you something else than people on the forum? Would you take that person's advice? HOW pressed for time are you? WHAT can you eat? Would you eat if someone else cooks the food? What are you eating now? What are the ingredients you deem too expensive? What could you afford that you could eat? Why don't you just force yourself to boil some potatoes and heat up a fish filet, and eat a more varied diet, if you want to eat healthy?

ForeverSunshine09

I still eat all the things I ate before just smaller portions and throw in some fruits and veggies and you are good to go. I also hate cooking. Its boring and I am hungry and I just don't like it. Basically all my recipes I make have 7 ingredients or less usually less because too many ingredients usually means too many steps of chopping and stirring and separating and combining for my brain really to want to do the work.

julescba04

What about ready made meals from supermarket?
Im in New Zealand and we have website here where you pay x amount of dollar's and they deliver ALL ingredients and recipes for five meals.

nanush_mk

If you go on instagram, there are bunch of sites for bodybuilders. A lot of them sell workout schedules and meal planning. Their meals tend to be very simple but they repeat every day, and they are effective. I'll high recommend it. They will build you a custom meal based on the things that you like to eat.

bunsen_honeydew

julescba04 wrote: »

Im in New Zealand and we have website here where you pay x amount of dollar's and they deliver ALL ingredients and recipes for five meals.

I have that too (uk) but it will be too "complicated" for the OP to cook, I suspect.

LKArgh

Autum1031 wrote: »

Thank you for the suggestions on the plans and books, I'll take a look at them.

Yes, of course I know what a daily menu should look like, and I've googled recipes for hours and hours and hours. I understand completely how a meal should be structured. I just don't know of any super easy recipes to achieve this that I have time to cook, can afford to buy ingredients for, and will actually eat. I don't like cooking, period. In fact, I hate it. I can't possibly afford it, but if I ever had lots of disposable income I would hire someone to cook for me daily. That is how much I dislike cooking.

At any rate, I thought I'd give this forum a try, but I guess I'll continue to do my own research into finding a professional who can help me. I do appreciate the suggestions thrown my way, thank you for taking the time to respond. My point is simply that I can't do it myself, which is why the suggestions of recipe sites and DIY guidelines aren't working for me. Most meals are too complicated and contain foods I wouldn't ever want to eat, period, or contain ingredients I can't afford to buy. I'm the person who goes to Subway and gets the wheat sandwich with chicken and cheese, and that's it. That's really all that I want. No sauces, no seasonings, no nothing. Now I add in lettuce in a small attempt to get some veggies, but it's really a futile effort.

Anyway....I'll keep looking. Thanks.

Sorry, but no. You are not obese and staying obese because you hate cooking and all recipes are complicated.
You would not be thin if you were able to hire a cook.
If your weight and healht were things you were honestly concerned about, instead of googling recipes for hours and hours, you would have spend 10-20 minutes simply cooking one of these recipes. And would have gone to buy the snacks you know are healthy, instead of getting fast food or whatever it is you are eating. Pasta, salads, sandwiches, omelettes, grilled meat/fish, steamed vegetables, stir fries, rice, yoghurt, fruit, these are things that need 0 to no more than 20 minutes to prepare. It is easier and less time consuming than eating out.
If weight was something you wanted to change, and you had absolutely no way to prepare anything, like no kitchen at all, you would have found places offering healthy-ish food, or would have picked healthier choices from your favourite places. You can eat every day foods you do not prepare yourself and still make good choices and lose weight.
But, I suspect blaming it on hating to cook and not being able to afford a cook, or not being able to find a good nutritioninst or dietician, it is as good an excuse as any. Because you know all these people who are at a healthy-ish weight, they all absolutely adore cooking and spend their days preparing 12 course meals. Yes, this is sarcasm.

bunsen_honeydew

Word.

My dinner last night was literally 5 ingredients, 10 mins of prep (slow peeler) and 30 mins in oven. Chicken, pesto from a jar, grated cheese (which I buy pre grated), new potatoes because I'm too lazy to chop up big potatoes and a carrot

swift13b

I saw someone recommend this website in another thread, I thought it looked interesting but couldn't be bothered getting out my credit card to continue with the "free" trial.

https://www.eatthismuch.com/

You tell it how many calories you want to eat, how many meals, any foods you don't want to eat and then it comes up with a meal plan for you.

C0ffeeBreak

Do you have a primary care doctor? They can direct you or even give you a basic food plan to follow.

DancingMoosie

You don't have to cook if you absolutely refuse to. Go to Subway, get your chicken and cheese, just eat a smaller portion. The grocery store sells lots of items pre-cooked: chicken breasts, fajita meat, hamburger patties(I bought some vegan boca patties yesterday)--you just microwave them. Look for coupons or sign up for coupons online. Same thing with veggies or fruit, or buy the ones that don't need cooking. Apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, peaches, avocados, spinach(salad), baby carrots, celery, cherry or grape tomatoes--whatever you like that's easy. You can get instant brown rice and oatmeal for starches.

Lounmoun

Weight loss depends on calories. You can eat what you like as long as it fits your calorie goal to lose weight.
Healthy is a vague term that means different things to different people.

I don't know who would be able to give you completely custom meal plans that you don't have to cook if a dietician would not work for you.
You can do a search for "<whatever calorie> sample meal plan" and use the foods that look easy to you.
Sparkpeople offers meal plans- I don't know how complicated they are. I don't remember them being filled with very complex recipes.
There are plenty of web sites and books with healthy no cook recipes. Search for no cook recipes, no cook meal plan or no cook diet.
You could try cooking just one day a week or month and portioning out food in the freezer or refrigerator. Soup can be healthy, easy, reheats well and freezes well. Slow cooker recipes tend to be very easy.
lifehacker.com/5890818/healthy-eating-for-people-who-hate-cooking
You can eat simple food like yogurt, eggs, cereal, sandwiches, raw fruit/vegetables/salad, plain baked/grilled chicken or fish, canned beans, or eat pre made foods from the grocery store or restaurants that fit your calories.
Post asking for friends with open diaries with the same calorie goal who do not cook so you can get meal ideas.

If you are trying to drastically change the kind of food you eat all at once it could be hard to stick to. So maybe say that you will reduce portion sizes and add a fruit or vegetable to each meal, only drink water or unsweetened tea, or some other small change to begin with.

Maybe pre-log a day to see if it fits your calorie goal well. Try to get enough protein, fiber and fats to help you feel satisfied. You can print that day out (button at the bottom of the food diary page). Delete the entries after you print it and enter different foods you like until you have 14 days or so printed out.