Tips sharing to make it easier

mariluny

Hi!

It took me a while to figure out a way to stay within 1200-1400 cals that was working well for me. I struggled a bit at the beginning, having meals ready for work that were within my calorie goals or just having different snack options was a big issue for me. I finally worked something that is good for me but I'm curious to know what other people are doing and maybe i'll pick up a tip or 2 to the help me even more.

I have a busy busy life, I work full time and go to school at night which means that I have to pack on average 8-9 meals a week to eat outside of home. That includes 1-2 breakfast, 5 lunches and 2-3 dinners.

Since I eat lunches and dinners at work and at school so often, I make sure to have many different options in the freezer. When I cook dinner at home, I'll make sure to cook enough to pack 2-3 or more lunches in individual portion and I add the calorie count/MFP name of the recipe/date of the entry on a post-it on the tupperwear so I can easily log it again when I end up eating that meal 2 weeks later. On the week-end I'll usually cook a lot in prevision of the week ahead and fill in the freezer. Having many different options is nice, I don't get tired of eating the same thing 4 times in a row, I don't feel guilty about going over my goal with pre-made food or take out and since the food stays in the freezer about 2-3 weeks or less it doesn't have time to taste like frozen food.

For breakfast, since I have to be at work really early once or twice a week and i'm just NOT hungry at 6am, I bake muffin or bread (like babana or zucchini bread) that I also freeze so I can just grab one and eat it at work with a yogurt and some fruits.

As for snacks I'm lucky enough to be able to keep some at work, I have almonds, canned peaches in water and I usually bring 1 or 2 apple at the beginning of the week that i'll end up eating throught the week. I also keep almonds in my purse so even if i'm not home or at work and I get hungry, I can munch on something. I find that when I don't eat when I start getting hungry it leads me to make really bad choices about food later in the day.

Anybody else have tips to share?

JustSomeEm

Sounds like you have a good handle on things. I always make sure to have a can or two of soup in my backpack - high sodium, but lower calorie option, just in case I forget to pack something or need a meal I hadn't planned on. Truthfully, I have soups more often than just about anything else - they can be anywhere from 160 to 400 calories for an entire can and they're pretty filling and require no forethought... I'm basically lazy, so I don't mind the extra sodium. BUT I only do that for lunches. The rest of my meals are generally much more 'healthy'.