Help! How do I break my convenience addiction??!

VTRutz

I pinterest all of my "on the go" ideas. Salads in mason jars. PB containers with celery. an "emergency" snack kit in my purse (with nuts/crackers/ other healthy non-perishables).... being prepared is HARD to start with.

KellySue67

Here's what I do sometimes. When I cook in the evenings I will put some aside for lunch the next day before we eat. My hubs often finishes a lot of my leftovers, but if I portion them out and pack my lunch before we even eat then I have what I need for lunch. I have found it to be very helpful.

In terms of losing weight, I have to agree with several other posters, it's all about how much you eat. You can work out for hours but if you eat like crazy and eat things that don't really satisfy (like fast food) it doesn't do one bit of good. I do eat fast food occasionally. I try to plan for it when I know that I will be eating there, but it often leaves me with wanting something else so I really try to limit how often I do that.

Good luck to you!

TeaBea

Salads are my lazy lunches......this is 2 days worth

Buy a Dole salad kit. They have Caesar, Southwest, Asian, Spinach Cherry, etc.

Buy a bag of Tyson grilled chicken strips. This is more economical if you marinate & grill your own.....cube it & place in baggies. George Foreman grill works well.

Caesar kit has lettuce, croutons, dressing......just add grilled chicken & parmesan

The Asian kit is good with mandarin oranges & snap peas added.

If you like a lighter dressing....they have a couple of those too.

bfox13

Meal prep=no excuses

allbarrett

Cook more at night (dinner) and pack some into individual containers for lunch throughout the week. Seriously, you can have that lasagna, meatloaf, stir fry, curry or whatever for lunch. Just pack it up before you serve out dinner (so you don't mess with your portions) and voila!

Some weeks, when I'm really organized, I cook up a big pot of pulled pork (slow cooker FTW). I have it as a recipe in MFP so I know the calories per gram, then I dole out appropriate servings all week in my lunches (with crackers or sliced baguette, usually). Cook up several chicken breasts at once (it isn't like it is more work to do 3 than one), then put them in individual containers and take them for lunches later in the week. Open a can of tuna and make sandwiches (the cans I buy are 120 calories for a can of tuna...good protein, you can make it into a salad or a sandwich easily or just mix it up with some vegetables and mayo and serve on crackers).

Leftovers are what makes home-made lunch convenient though, at least for me. Helps with logging (you make your dinner and log it at the same time, then carry it forward to the next day as well), doubling your recipe takes virtually no extra time (most of the time, anyway), and home-cooked just tastes better.

SoreTodayStrongTomorrow222

self control

FireOpalCO

You don't need leftovers to have a nice lunch box.

My usual lunch: a sandwich thin with mustard and 2 ounces of rare roast beef from the deli counter, a stick of string cheese, a Chobani, fresh carrot sticks (usually 100g) or leftover steamed veggies from the night before. That lands me at under 400 calories and very full.

It takes next to nothing to pack a lunch in the morning, even with kids in the house. You can clean and cut up carrots enough carrots for several days in about 5 minutes the night before. Since I have a mini-fridge at work I can keep extra yogurts and cheeses at work. I throw some fresh fruit into a container and take it with me, deal with washing it and cutting it up when it's time to eat at work. Again, that takes no time, it's just "pour a pile of blueberries into a reusable container" and toss it into my bag. It takes me less then 5 minutes to pack a lunch and that's while I'm also getting my son breakfast and having my protein shake for breakfast.

Always keep a bar in your purse for when hungry hits.

If you are really ending the night with no leftovers, portion control may be an issue. When I make dinner I use the little plates and measure out servings. If my husband wants seconds fine, but I push him towards the veggies first. I make sure to wait 20 minutes and see if I really am hungry. This is making a huge difference in how much I eat at night.

NaturallyandProperly

Log your food at the beginning of the day. See where your calories are about to go. That's what helped me. Plan your meals ahead of time. Maybe save the money you're spending on convenience, in a jar and use it as a reward for a new pair of shoes or get your hair done. Health or Not. That's up to you.

kikityme

I eat out every single weekday. EVERY single Monday to Friday. It gets me out of the office, which by noon is a necessary "I'm too pretty for jail" tactic.

I walk past a McDonalds, Subway, Tim Hortons and Harvey's and get my butt into the grocery store. The one here has all kinds of packaged lunches from decent sushi to chicken dinners. Half the time there's enough left over for dinner. And, well, I'm Canadian, I stop at the Tim Horton's for coffee on the way back

There are other options.

SherryTeach

There are two angles to the excuse of not having enough time to eat well. First is to look at where your time is going. We all have the same 24 hours. Analyze your time and cut out the things that aren't that important. I was very strict with how many activities I allowed my children to participate in away from home. I did not want a family life spent in the car every night of the week. I also turned off the TV. Even today, I look very carefully at my life and only agree to do things that are genuinely worth my time.

One thing that is worth my time is taking care of my health. I batch cook, mostly on the weekends, and portion all recipes into single serve containers. Some I put in the fridge for immediate use. The rest goes in the freezer. When I get home from work, I can easily decide between about 6 dishes what I want. Every morning before I leave for work, I pack a big felted bag with granola, fruit, whatever container I'm having for lunch, string cheese, walnuts or almonds, a bit of chocolate. I can be away from home all day without worrying about getting caught hungry.

And I have given up ever going through a drive through. Eating and enjoying food is too important to do it in the car.

alfiedn

What if you packed up your lunch with what was supposed to be leftover from dinner before you ate dinner? Perhaps not having that food available for dinner will help with your dinner portion control and give you a great tasty lunch?

kikityme

What if you packed up your lunch with what was supposed to be leftover from dinner before you ate dinner? Perhaps not having that food available for dinner will help with your dinner portion control and give you a great tasty lunch?

Brilliance!

ASKyle

Awwww to you too! Yes it does somedays feel like I'm the only one working this hard, ugh, that sounds selfish but we've all been there.
Yes! I need to really truly think of food as fuel too, not something else, and I really don't know what I think of it as, but I think too much about it I know lol.
I've thought about doing that food prep thing ahead of time and I know I'd want something different then I'd wait to long to use the mushrooms or something and they'd be icky.

I swear today as I ate my modified meatloaf, no crackers, or bbq sauce/ketchup, just venison, onions and mushrooms...and my greek yogurt, the maintenance guy walks by with these gorgeous chili dogs....I mean I seriously wanted to cry. Bread!!! I havent had bread in foooooooreeever....so emotional!!! :sad:

Hon, you're gonna have to get away from the notion that you are depriving yourself - crying over bread? Seriously? That's a sure way to set yourself up to fail. Work bread into your daily plan. Or you will sabotage yourself, and the pattern will start all over again.

"modified meatloaf' is just regular meatloaf to me. Only extra lean ground beef, not venison. ;-)

Good luck.

I have to agree with this. I have several friends (that I love dearly!) that just play the victim to their weight. Until you take responsibility for your health and habits, you will not be ready to change.

That said, way to take these comments like a champ. So many people on here ask questions like you did and then get defensive, hurt and angry over the answers. Honesty (from others and with yourself) will get you a long way. Good luck!

sparklefrogz

the other night I seriously found myself saying as I'm chopping up veggies for whatever it was we made, that "ugh, this takes so much time I could have just popped something easier in the oven and did the dishes in the sink or another load of laundry." then I had to mentally remind myself that this is how it's supposed to be.

Learning something new is hard, and I'm finding this is the hardest thing I've ever attempted

It is very hard to begin with, I won't lie. But food prep gets quicker, I promise! The other thing is, getting takeout or drive thru often only feels faster because you can distract yourself while you're driving/waiting. Use a timer to actually time yourself prepping a dinner salad or grilled meat + veg vs the moment you leave the house to get fast food/the moment you order takeout until it arrives. It's not nearly as big a difference as you think.

Also, if you just don't have the time to prep, use a slow cooker. Or find dishes that require little active prep time and just sit in the oven until they're done (roasts, whole chicken, etc.). If you need a shorter cooking time, look for thinner fish fillets, stuff you can grill, and marinate everything the day you go grocery shopping, so it's ready to go whenever you need it.

If you have children who are preteen or older, or a supportive partner or other adult living with you, you can enlist them to help you -- you prep the met while they chop the veg, for example.

nicjustine

Meal-Prepping is awesome. It takes some time once a week or so, but having ready-to-go meals that are healthy, quick alternatives helps a lot.

Eating small meals frequently (eating/snacking every two hours or so on good stuff), protein, and fiber, combined with always drinking water really helps keep you full and satisfied and helps reduce the urge to grab something you don't need.

Definitely stock your fridge with healthy alternatives, fruits, veggies, hummus, etc. so you can at least have the option to grab something good for you.

If you're on the go, definitely pack healthy snacks like fruits and almonds before you go so you can help fight junk food urges. I often drive 3 hours one way on weekends and used to have the urge to stop and get food at mcdonalds or gas stations, but that urge is basically gone now that I pack healthy snacks to-go and water.

Good luck! The longer you do it, the easier it gets.

Jayma375

I can certainly relate to your situation. We have a nutritional coach we see twice a month and I think we put her through her paces because of our need to have "grab and go" type of food. Some of the things I've been bringing to work are:

- ready to eat tuna salad in the pouch. I also bring whole wheat bagel thins to make a sandwich. Together that gives me 210 calories and 17 grams of protein.

- Love Quest bars especially the Strawberry Cheesecake and double chocolate

- Dill pickles very low calories but a nice treat with lunch

- I actually bring 2 uncooked eggs and scramble them in a bowl and microwave for a minute for breakfast (I don't like hard boiled eggs but that's an option too). I could add a little cheese but I haven't done that yet.

- fat free greek yogurt and I add sweetener and strawberries

Just a few options, again, we are pretty lazy and have been able to do this for the last few weeks and I don't think it should be a problem continuing to do it.

Good luck!!