Hotel Living...how to eat

Toche_Howard

Hi guys! I'm military and living in a hotel currently. I only have a microwave and a mini fridge. I'll be here for 2 months. How can I eat to lose weight?????

SuzySunshine99

To lose weight, you just have to stay in a calorie deficit. What exactly you eat is up to you, based on your personal preferences and what keeps you satisfied.

With a mini fridge and microwave at your disposal, I would hit a grocery store.

For breakfast, you could do yogurt, fruit, eggs (can be microwaved), cereal, oatmeal, etc.
For lunch, you could get sandwich fixings, soup, salads, etc.
Dinners...most grocery stores have refrigerated pre-made meals that you can reheat.

I'd make sure you have some microwave safe bowls and plates.

In a hotel, it's tempting and easy to just order out or pick up fast food. There's nothing wrong with that sometimes, but it might make it harder for you to stay within your calories.

Just count the calories and make sure you are within your calorie goal.

Also, I'm not sure what your work entails...if you have a physically active job, make sure to account for that in your calorie goal. If it's not active, you might want to use the hotel gym if they have one, or go out for walks, hikes, or any other physical activity in your free time.

Xellercin

When I'm stuck in a hotel, I bring Vega One shakes with me and have those with plain yogurt for one or two meals a day. Then I often make pasta (I have a microwave pasta maker) and basic jar sauce, plus some vegetables (esp those that don't need to be in the fridge: tomatoes, avocados, bell peppers). I also make eggs (I have a microwave egg maker).

This minimizes what takes up space in the fridge.

acpgee

I would use instant ramen pimped up with veg that doesn't require a lot of chopping such as bean sprouts or snow peas and lean sandwich meat and poached eggs. Get the instant ramen with bean thread vermicelli or rice noodles. Wheat noodles need to be fried to make them instant. Not the case with bean or rice noodles, so that saves about a third of the calories.

You could make instant ramen with poached egg either in the microwave or the coffee machine for filter coffee.

Tinned soup with whole grain crackers with some crudites dipped in store bought ranch is another easy meal that can be cooked in the microwave or with the coffee maker.

dontlikepeople

Something like Huel may be beneficial in your situation.

Otherwise there's plenty of calorie friendly pre made frozen meals at the grocer. You can snack on fresh veggies.

cwolfman13

The most important thing is just controlling your calories. There aren't any special foods that help you lose weight. I used to travel about 25 weeks of the year for business and I ate a lot of premade salads, sandwiches, canned soups, etc. Not very exciting but it kept me from going out all of the time to eat and away from fast food all of the time. I tried to make it so that only one meal per day was out. I also made good use of the hotel fitness centers

I'm not sure what you do in the military, but when I was in the Marines I was incredibly active and it honestly didn't matter what I ate really...I always had a hard time just keeping weight on.

MsCzar

For a two-month stay, I'd be tempted to buy one of those small George Foreman grills that I'd keep unplugged and out of sight when not in use.
But with only a microwave, you can easily poach eggs and fish, 'bake' potatoes, steam veggies and heat up tinned soups. If your fridge has a freezer compartment, there is a whole world of frozen veg and portioned pre-cooked proteins - everything from sliced fajita meats to shrimp and grilled chicken breasts. Re-package boxed foods in plastic zipper bags to save space.

Get yourself a chopping board, a kitchen knife and a few microwave safe plates and bowls. Use the bowls and plates like lids for each other. Grab some basic spices, a can of cooking spray, a small bottle of good olive oil, some low cal tortillas, a box of Ziploc bags (large and small), a silicone oven glove, dish washing liquid, paper napkins, a manual can opener and depending on your tastes, some low cal salad dressings and/or ready sauces. Did you know that you can microwave plain popcorn in a brown paper bag?

Always be sure to be super fastidious about clean-up and cooking odors to stay on the right side of the hotel management. I'd probably take any food-related garbage with me when I leave each day and dispose of it outside of my hotel room. I'd also buy a couple of cheap kitchen towels for washing up to avoid staining the hotel towels.

PAPYRUS3

@Toche_Howard - so....how's it going so far?

cmriverside

Why not buy some inexpensive appliances like a one-burner stove, a small toaster oven or a crockpot or electric griddle? I could live for a very long time without a stove/oven with those appliances.

wilson10102018

Buy an electric skillet. Non stick with lid.

Cheapo is best do you don't trip circuits. $30 on Amazon. Anything can be cooked in an electric skillet that can be cooked on a stove top, oven, electric kettle, rice cooker, slow cooker, or grill. I was holed up for 6 months.

AdahGreen2022

I'd buy an electric kettle and coffee,tea, instant oatmeal or cereal, nuts,milk, bananas,eggs, butter, peanut butter, deli meat, salad veggies, bread and healthy soups. & Maybe a few frozen dinners.

AdahGreen2022

And microwavable rice and beans...

perryc05

Do you have a clothing iron in your apartment? You can wrap raw protein like meat, chicken or fish in aluminium foil parcels and then leave the hot iron in each side for 10 minutes or so depending on the thickness. You can also packed finely chopped veggies into the parcel for an all in one meal. Usually best to do the cooking on a dinner plate rather than an ironing board. You can usually purchase microwave rice satchels if you want a few carbs. For breakfasts try overnight oats with fruits and yoghurt. Lunches — whole grain breads and salad sandwiches. Microwaved scrambled eggs are also easy to do. If you have a kettle it’s also easy to pimp some instant noodles with with fresh shredded veggies and rotisserie chicken meat. Tinned beans are always a good option too.

perryc05

perryc05 wrote: »

Do you have a clothing iron in your apartment?

Just a bit extra. These aren't healthy recipes but will give you some ideas about cooking with a clothes iron:
https://spoonuniversity.com/recipe/5-recipes-cook-using-clothes-iron
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMbD7Qjm2uM
https://www.jauntyeverywhere.com/cooking-with-a-hotel-iron/

ColoradoBringItOn

When we go on business trips, my husband and I hit up the local natural grocers, sprouts or Whole Foods and get premade salads, small veggie trays, cold chicken or sushi trays, the juice bar for fresh fruit or green smoothies or fresh juice. They also have hot food bars that have healthy options like sweet potatoes and rice and cooked veggies plus proteins. We just get as much as will fit in the mini fridge for a couple days. We even invested in a plug in cooler so we can have basically a small fridge in the car for road trips and then we bring that into the hotel rooms for even more food storage. When it's your lifestyle there are no excuses

MsCzar

Microwaved sweet potatoes are one of my all time fave fast breakfast (or any time) foods. Sprinkle on a little cinnamon and it's pure warm heaven. They don't need to be refrigerated and last quite a while.

VegjoyP

I love traveling because with limited options I get really clean eating!
- Fresh garden salads with just veggies
- microwave veggies
- swreet potato( easy microwave option!)
- cut up veggies
- plant protein powder
- tofu!,Tempeh( warm in microwave)
- soups( grab a ceramic bowl from dollar store!)
- Oatmeal, Beans, lentils;
- Nuts, Seeds, nutbutters
- protein bars
- fruits
- we order Chinese, ask for STEAMED, sauce on side so you can dip fork in and use sparingly
- some hotels have continental. I get bananas, oatmeal or grits, Apple and coffee