Meal planning anxiety

HealthyVee

When I sit down to write up a grocery list to stock my fridge with healthy things, I get super anxious and just want to give up. I have no idea what to buy and I get frustrated when looking up recipes that call for several ingredients that I don't have and probably will never use for anything else. It really starts to add up at the register. If anyone has an example of what your list looks like and how you plan meals for the week, please share!

The other reason I get frustrated is because husband and I are on different shifts/sleep schedules. He's off to work at 2 pm and home at 2 a.m. so he's up much later than I am. I'm a school employee and off for the summer so I'm up early. I don't want to make a big healthy breakfast when it's just going to be me. Two hours later, he will wake up and want to eat when it's closer to lunch time and I am not hungry. This is also a problem for him since he is also trying to become healthier and lose weight. He doesn't have breakfast at all, eats around noon or 1, then doesn't eat dinner until 7. By the time he gets home he's starving and has a can of Campbells chunky soup or something else that isn't so great to eat 2 in the morning.

Maybe this has turned more into a vent! I just get so anxious when it comes to planning and grocery shopping. In the past, I have filled the cart with all sorts of proteins and fresh veggies and fruits and it's gone to waste because I buy without know what I'm going to do with any of it. I have no idea where to start. So I guess what I'm wondering is if there's anyone out there who has a simple grocery list to get started on eating healthier foods and some healthy options that would interest a meat and potatoes kind of guy. Any advice is very much appreciated.

Barbellerella

Breakfast is not mandatory! If you can wait a little while and eat your first meal when he does, than do it!. A lot of people do this on purpose, its called intermittent fasting. Also, staying under your calories doesn't have to be complicated. Try to keep it simple so that you aren't overwhelmed. Try greek yogurt and a handful of almonds. Throw a few veggies and a meat in a crockpot with some broth. Just don't give up!

MoreBean13

If you're just starting out, I would suggest picking a few staples that you like and could live with eating regularly, and learn a couple different ways to prepare it healthfully. Like without knowing anything about your particular taste, I would suggest getting:
chicken breast or other lean meats
eggs
rolled oats
a quality peanut butter
olive oil
Greek Yogurt
cottage cheese
Salsa
Balsamic vinegar
Mozzerella cheese sticks as snacks
A bar of high quality dark chocolate
Almonds
Some frozen fruit- berries in particular to make smoothies and throw in yogurt
2 or 3 fruits that you like
Some brown rice or other staple complex carbohydrate that you like
and an assortment of seasonal veggies- buy what's fresh and preferably on sale, and find recipes for it when you get home. I'm currently obsessed with kale, summer squash, cucumber, cauliflower, baby carrots (always), portabella mushrooms, and broccoli.

When you get comfortable adjusting your diet to eating your healthy food choices, you can pick new recipes and add some more variety, but it will be easier to start with basics. Note that the food list I suggested is pretty basic and tailored to what I consider basics, and will be different for everyone but the point is the same- find some basic things you like and basic recipes, and you can get creative once you're more comfortable.

baabaabetsy

For anyone trying to lose weight or fuel their bodies with working out, breakfast IS mandatory. Plus it just sucks to wait for two hours after waking up to eat AmandaElaine had a good recommendation--eat something simple. That, or make a big breakfast for yourself and let him eat something simple! There are also some really good breakfasts you can make ahead of time like overnight oatmeal, baked oatmeal (if you make a big casserol dish of it you can have it for several mornings--all you do is heat it up!), quiche, healthy scones or muffins... that way, it is a delicious breakfast but you don't have to feel like you're putting in a lot of time for just one person. Your husband can grab the same awesome breakfast a couple of hours later

As for being overwhelmed with shopping, I have a couple of suggestions. One is shop more frequently. Instead of shopping for the whole week, buy things for the next couple of days worth of meals. That way, you know what you need and what you can use. If that's not an option due to time, then you need to sit down before the week starts and figure out what you're going to make. Make a grocery list of what you're going to have that week. Make big meals so you can have leftovers for days. I actually only cook twice a week and eat the leftovers for a couple of days before cooking again. That is so much easier than cooking every night. Not only that, but your husband then has healthy options instead of going to nutritionally worthless cans of soup.

I also find freezing meals helps. I make big pots of soup and put serving size portions into tupperware containers into the fridge. Then if for example you run out of ingredients and don't want to go shopping or are just too busy, you can grab a serving very easily and you'll never have to turn to unhealthy options.

Planning and shopping for healthy meals takes a bit of time and practice but it really pays off. You'll get into the groove of things--I had a very similar problem of buying too much at a time and I'd have fruit going bad on me. Now I know what I can eat in a week and I buy my food accordingly. It just takes practice!

Enigmatica

Although I love fresh veggies and fruits, I've found it far more efficient and economical to use frozen veggies and berries. Pretty much zero waste. Frozen veggies are awesome for convenience factor too - heat and eat! Frozen blueberries, strawberries and cherries work great in my breakfast smoothie. Most fruit isn't fitting into my diet right now (too much sugar) anyway so I rarely buy it these days.

I had to deal with trying to feed someone on a different schedule when my son was home from college. He'd wake up between breakfast and lunch and want a big breakfast... um... I'm not dealing with that when it comes to another fully functional adult, son or no. What I do is cook up a value pack of chicken breasts on the weekend, slice them up, weigh them into 3 oz portions and put them in snack-size ziplock bags that go right into the freezer. I'd also cook up pork and beef for my son, put 1-2 day's worth in fridge and the rest in the freezer. I rarely do that now because I don't eat much red meat.

When you have good healthy food choices that you can pull out of the freezer and have ready in a matter of minutes, it saves you a lot of time (and bad food) during the week when you're rushed and frazzled. You don't have to invest in a whole store's worth of special ingredients. I use Mrs Dash salt-free seasonings a lot, or occasionally some BBQ or other sauce that works for me.

Part of this comes down to deciding how you want to approach the whole concept of food. Is food to feed your body the best nutrition you can reasonably afford in healthy sensible portions? Or is it something you're going to use to "prove" something that has nothing to do with nutrition, economy and practicality?

MoreBean13

For anyone trying to lose weight or fuel their bodies with working out, breakfast IS mandatory. Plus it just sucks to wait for two hours after waking up to eat

I disagree, I do IF style eating and I haven't eaten breakfast before noon in like 2 months. I lost zero weight when I was eating small meals and have subsequently lost 13 lbs in the two months since I switched to IF, and I do regular BIG calorie burning workouts- running and lifting. I'm not saying you do or don't have to eat breakfast, but that not everybody has to. I prefer eating fewer big meals and skipping breakfast in the IF style allows me to do that.

Although I love fresh veggies and fruits, I've found it far more efficient and economical to use frozen veggies and berries. Pretty much zero waste. Frozen veggies are awesome for convenience factor too - heat and eat! Frozen blueberries, strawberries and cherries work great in my breakfast smoothie. Most fruit isn't fitting into my diet right now (too much sugar) anyway so I rarely buy it these days.

I realized after I wrote my little list that it implied I'm against frozen veggies- I'm not at all, I totally agree that they're great. I guess just because of whats available fresh right now where I live I have been leaning towards fresh, but frozen is great too.

Barbellerella

I'm sorry, I'll reword it. Breakfast is "mandatory", because all it means is to "break your fast"...

We all eat our "breakfast" at some point, some of us later in the day than others You do not have to eat right when you get up in order to lose weight or "stoke your metabolism"... Gotta love Broscience!!!

Wonderob

For anyone trying to lose weight or fuel their bodies with working out, breakfast IS mandatory.

Couldn't disagree more. Your body needs fuel for working out for sure but doesn't have to be from breakfast. You certainly don't need it to lose weight either, the 'jump starts your metabolism' thing has long since been disproved.

If you're at home surrounded by your healthy food choices and later at work you will be surrounded by vending machine rubbish then it makes sense to eat a healthy breakfast at home. Otherwise it isn't in the slightest bit necessary.

Wonderob

I'm sorry, I'll reword it. Breakfast is "mandatory", because all it means is to "break your fast"...

We all eat our "breakfast" at some point, some of us later in the day than others You do not have to eat right when you get up in order to lose weight or "stoke your metabolism"... Gotta love Broscience!!!

Eh? If you mean it's mandatory to at some stage break your fast then yes, eating at some stage is mandatory or you'll ermmmm starve to death!

teachertmb

First as far as breakfast goes, I find that one scrambled egg that you microwave on the sandwich thins that they now sell with one slice of cheese makes a very, nice fairly low calorie breakfast. You can add some ketchup or a small amount of mayonnaise if you prefer not to have a dry.

Second, I discovered the beauty of ground turkey. Any recipe that calls for hamburger can be substituted with ground turkey. The ground turkey is so much less caloric that it really helps you keep your calorie count down. Then you can make things like turkey tacos, spaghetti, chili, and shepherds pie with the ground turkey. All of those recipes reheat very well or create leftovers which works really well if you have people on different schedules or eating at different times.

Finally, I find the way to make a grocery list is to plan dinners. I recommend starting with one or two recipes that you are comfortable with and that you like or that you know you can become good at and working with those. Have the items for those things on hand then you can gradually add to that list of recipes as you become more comfortable. Again try to come up with things that would allow you to make a plate for your husband to keep in the fridge to reheat or that make leftovers for you to have at lunch the next day. Then you're planning becomes much easier. Also, remember that with your husband working odd hours, his breakfast lunch and dinner times are much later than yours. It sounds like his breakfast time is actually around noon. His lunch is around seven and his dinner is around one or two. Eating a meal at two isn't bad for you if that is more or less your dinner time because of your work schedule. I think it might work well for you if he had the meal you made for your dinner available to him at what is technically his dinner time.

For me, I eat the same small little breakfast every day that is fast and easy. My lunches usually come from leftovers from dinner meals. And then my dinners are really the only things I have to plan for and create a grocery list regarding.

Barbellerella

I'm sorry, I'll reword it. Breakfast is "mandatory", because all it means is to "break your fast"...

We all eat our "breakfast" at some point, some of us later in the day than others You do not have to eat right when you get up in order to lose weight or "stoke your metabolism"... Gotta love Broscience!!!

Eh? If you mean it's mandatory to at some stage break your fast then yes, eating at some stage is mandatory or you'll ermmmm starve to death!

Exactly! However I was responding to the person who was trying to argue with me that you have to have breakfast to be successful.

Wonderob

I'm sorry, I'll reword it. Breakfast is "mandatory", because all it means is to "break your fast"...

We all eat our "breakfast" at some point, some of us later in the day than others You do not have to eat right when you get up in order to lose weight or "stoke your metabolism"... Gotta love Broscience!!!

Eh? If you mean it's mandatory to at some stage break your fast then yes, eating at some stage is mandatory or you'll ermmmm starve to death!

Exactly! However I was responding to the person who was trying to argue with me that you have to have breakfast to be successful.

Yeah I see now that we are on the same wavelength

baabaabetsy

I'm not trying to argue with you. I should have said that for the large majority of people, eating breakfast helps with weight loss. Generally people who don't eat breakfast eat more later and it affects their energy levels. I personally don't like to go for long periods of time between meals or snacks because my goal is muscle growth. Obviously, not everyone has the same goal. If you can skip breakfast and still feel good and not binge later, then by all means, don't eat breakfast.

MoreBean13

I'm not trying to argue with you. I should have said that for the large majority of people, eating breakfast helps with weight loss. Generally people who don't eat breakfast eat more later and it affects their energy levels. I personally don't like to go for long periods of time between meals or snacks because my goal is muscle growth. Obviously, not everyone has the same goal. If you can skip breakfast and still feel good and not binge later, then by all means, don't eat breakfast.

I don't even agree with this- the reason breakfast is supposed to help with weight loss is the idea that if you skip breakfast, you will unwittingly overconsume at lunch (or whenever you break your fast). Assuming everyone participating in this discussion is honestly tracking calories using MFP, mindless calorie consumption should be a non-issue. As for being ravenously hungry by the time lunch comes, forcing you to blow your calories or whatever, that has not been my experience except for a few days in the very beginning. For most of us hunger is learned, and you get hungry at certain times based on past experience and when your body expects food. If you follow a regular schedule and don't eat until later, you simply don't get hungry until later. Lets face it, most of us on this site are not going to starve to death in 3 hours.

The need and importance of breakfast is a marketing campaign to sell breakfast foods. Don't take nutrition advice from anyone trying to sell you something. If you want to eat breakfast and it works for you, Great! Go for it! But don't tell others they have to to be successful- they need to do what works for their lives just like you need to do you.