Meals

I am having a hard time putting together meals, does anyone have any ideas what I can do? I have to make a strict meal plan and go with it or I won't accomplish, losing weight and quitting smoking t the same time! I am terrified to gain any weight! I actuall have about 30 pounds to lose and have never dieted before and need help, please!!

Replies

  • elleloch
    elleloch Posts: 739 Member
    Before I got married about two years ago I didn't do much meal planning or cooking, but about a year ago I really started getting into it. You just got to start putting together recipes and stuff for meals. Get some cookbooks with healthy recipes. I use Pinterest for recipes. Skinnytaste.com is a great website for healthy recipes! Then you just have to plan out your meals for the week and go shopping. I always shop on Sunday nights. I can cook on average every other night and we have leftovers the other nights I don't cook. It can be a little daunting when you first start out but it gets easier and now I can't imagine not having a weekly meal plan. Finding my recipes took time, but everyone has to start somewhere :) plus I am always trying new ones too. I try to find a new recipe every week.

    Does this help?
  • emailjayne
    emailjayne Posts: 13 Member
    I find allrecipes.com to be a great website. They post nutritional information about their recipes and you can do a variety of types of searches. Also, I love the componant of the site that lets you put in a few ingredients that you have on hand and it searches for recipes for those ingredients! That's very handy when I don't plan well and only have something crazy like okra and oreos in the house (ok, so that's an exagerration, but it does come up with some cool stuff!)
  • Yes, Ty! At least I have a starting point!
  • zozzabubba
    zozzabubba Posts: 137 Member
    Depends what your calorie allowance is but the best thing to do I'd say is find 3 different possible meals for each meal of the day, that each have the right amount of cals for you. For instance, for me, I'd do about 400 cals at breakfast, 300-400 at lunch, and 500 at dinner plus snacks throughout the day if I need them.

    So, my go-to breakfasts are:
    cereal, berries and milk
    banana, yogurt and nuts
    wholegrain toast with pesto and tomato slices and egg whites.

    Lunches
    Salad with mixed lettuce, tomato, onion, peppers, turkey breast
    Chopped veggie sticks and hummus
    Fruit salad and yogurt

    Dinners
    Beef tenderloin with roasted veggies (and potatoes if I have the cals/carbs for it)
    Tofu and veggies with soy sauce shirataki noodles (or rice if I have the cals/carbs for it)
    Chicken and veggies with pesto shirataki noodles (or spaghetti/pasta if i have the cals/carbs for it)

    I've found that this is what works for me, and i can stay with these every day. It varies when I go out, which is maybe one or two meals a week, and that's enough variety for me - I love all these meals :) so find yourrr go-to meals and stick with them :)
  • My go to b-fast usually include like protein pancakes (different recipes each time), cereal (Go lean or Special K), or Ezekial bread (Which is DELICIOUS) with egg whites and coffee.
    For lunch normally i have sandwiches, i use turkey, grilled chicken, hummus, light mayo or tuna sandwiches.
    Dinner is the hard part. I eat alot of fish and meat. But i try to do portion control because my family doesnt really make healthy sides haha:P