How do I find the right meal plan?

OddPiety

Something I am really struggling with is finding the right meal plan that is affordable and that I can stick with and fits my needs. I do not have any special dietary restrictions, I'm not vegetarian or vegan or anything but I do prefer whole REAL foods as opposed to processed "diet" foods. I cannot eat the same thing everyday and I don't believe in low-fat or artificial sweeteners. But I also can't cook worth a damn and I don't have the time and energy to do so every night. I've thought about joining one of those meal subscriptions to take the guess work out of it but they're too expensive. I'm also struggling with a hard-core sugar addiction. Searching for recipes, compiling a grocery list and a meal plan from scratch is mind-boggling to me. Any suggestions out there to make this process easier? What meal-plan do you follow?

malibu927

I don't follow any meal plan. I eat the same things I ate before, just in more appropriate quantities.

BusyRaeNOTBusty

I have an excel file that lists all the meals I know how to cook easily (with recipes). When it's time to shop, I look at what's on sale, what I have coupons for and then pick some meals from my list that I haven't made for a while, make a shopping list based on these. I then eat appropriate portions of the meals I cook.

kommodevaran

I think you'll keep struggling if you want a meal plan you don't make yourself - they are all designed to some specific need and/or from someone's idea of good nutrition. If you don't have any special needs, you're free to eat whatever you want. If you just want to eat well and varied and affordable, and accept simple meals, and prefer "real food", that's easy. You will have to do some basic cooking, but it isn't that difficult; you don't need a lot of recipes, and using a food scale, the recipe builder and your food diary means there is no guess work. You're compiling your grocery list as you plan your meals.

Also figure out if sugar addiction is a thing or just something you've been told is a thing. Many people struggle with limiting intake of certain desirable foods simply because they deem them off limits, and failure to abstain makes them think they are dangerous.

seska422

Building a meal plan from scratch that suits your needs and wants isn't hard if you do it a little bit at a time. You start with a little bit of data and expand until you have a record of the big picture and then you can start making small adjustments here and there.

Record things starting from right now. Log everything you eat, record what and how much your buy at the store, record what recipes you use to utilize the things you bought at the store.

Did you ever do a science project at school? You can treat this like that. Get a big posterboard and pretend that you are trying to explain to other people how your eating plan meets your needs. Use index cards so that you can switch things around at will. Use colored pencils to draw diagrams or color-coordinate recipes. Get fancy or simple, whatever works for you.

serindipte

I eat the same stuff as before, just reorganized. I eat less of the fattening stuff, more of the less fattening stuff.