Anxiety over homemade meals?

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ChristinaR720
ChristinaR720 Posts: 1,186
in Food and Nutrition
I am just starting my weight loss journey, and am doing well so far. This is my first week, and I think I have lost 6 pounds, which I realize is primarily water weight.

I am finding that I am really nervous about making homemade meals, due to the potential caloric intake this might involve. Everything I have eaten has been very basic with few ingredients. I absolutely love to cook, and I am at a loss as to how to make healthy, low-calorie meals that my family and I will enjoy.

Did anyone else experience this at the beginning of their weight loss journey? Any suggestions for healthy, low-calorie meals?
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Replies

  • javagsd
    javagsd Posts: 82
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    If you like to cook, I think you'll find this one of the most satisfying parts of your journey. There's a whole lot of great meal ideas here and links to wonderful resources like skinnytaste.com
  • rsm535
    rsm535 Posts: 12 Member
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    When I cook for the family, I use the recipe function on the MFP app. You'd be surprised at how "low cal" a lot of homemade recipes are. Simple recipes like grilled chicken breast with either fresh or frozen veggies are awesome. Maybe throw in some whole wheat pasta. Try to stay away from canned foods, they are usually high in sodium. Just use simple ingredients, read your labels, and use common sense. There is a wealth of information in the Internet about healthy cooking and recipes. But, just remember moderation is the key! You can eat ice cream, but only about a half cup at a time :-)

    Good luck!
  • SmallMimi
    SmallMimi Posts: 541 Member
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    You like to cook, that is a plus. There are so many choices you can make that are healthy. Look at the normal recipes you cooked and try to reformulate them into lower calorie and fat recipes. Always watch your portion control and you should be fine.
  • Gr8ChangesAhead
    Gr8ChangesAhead Posts: 836 Member
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    If you cook it you will know exactly what is in it vs estimating takeout
  • ProjectSara
    ProjectSara Posts: 83 Member
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    skinnytaste.com
  • ChristineS_51
    ChristineS_51 Posts: 872 Member
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    Most recipes can be tweaked with less calorie-laden options. Punch in your recipes into the MFP recipe calculator, it will work out the calories etc for you. There is also a recipe section in the Community Forum - that might have some ideas for you as well. Good luck and congratulations on a great start to your new life :smile:
  • laceybrobie
    laceybrobie Posts: 495 Member
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    Homemade meals are way better. You know exactly what's in them. How much etc. My recommendation is to add a recipe to mfp with everything in it. How many servings it makes etc. Then when you cook and eat it. It's all there.
  • keem88
    keem88 Posts: 1,689 Member
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    i am actually the opposite, if i do not make it then i experience anxiety because i have no idea what is in it
  • BurtHuttz
    BurtHuttz Posts: 3,653 Member
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    Don't be nervous! The things that you will make in your kitchen will be more nourishing per-calorie than anything you'll find outside the farm itself. So as far as that part goes, relax.

    It takes a little experimentation to find out what works in recipes and what doesn't. One aspect is ingredients. You can, for instance, substitute fat free Greek yogurt in most recipes that call for sour cream with no change to taste or texture but hugely less calories and fat and much more protein. Another aspect is serving sizes. Ease up on a fatty entree and increase the veggies on the side.

    If you come from a tradition of southern-style/high-fat/high-calorie cooking, it could take some calibration of your recipes in order to get optimal results. That will come with time.

    Log your calories religiously. If you're making a dish for the family, enter the recipe into MFP exactly as you made it so you can see how the components of the recipe add up. I'll tell you what, you'll start using a lot less oil in your cooking! If it's just to keep stuff from sticking to the pan, you don't need 3 TBSP and 400 calories from it!

    Anyway, the great part about the journey is that it's a long one. Since it's impossible for you to get results overnight, you'll have time to learn as you go. What that means is, every little tweak and enhancement you make is actually an improvement on what you used to do.

    That's how a lifestyle change happens.
  • mamasmaltz3
    mamasmaltz3 Posts: 1,111 Member
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    I love using the Create Recipe function for my meals. I make lots of homemade soups and I just plug in the amounts of ingredients as I make them. Then the next time I make it the work is already done. You'll get the hang of it!
  • ChristinaR720
    ChristinaR720 Posts: 1,186
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    Thank you so much for the comments so far! I just bookmarked www.skinnytaste.com, and will definitely start using the MFP recipe function. I knew it was there, but wasn't sure what it was for!
  • wibutterflymagic
    wibutterflymagic Posts: 788 Member
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    At this point I'm pretty basic with my meals too. A lean meat/fish, a vegetable and maybe rice or potato. I never thought I would actually eat "light" anything but there are some things out there that I've substituted for my higher calorie counterparts and don't see a difference. Homemade meals are way better then anything bought because you can control the ingredients.

    I've only glanced at skinnytaste.com but it does look like they have a lot of good recipes. About the only thing that I have changed in the way I prepare my meals from before to now is that I use less oil/butter and I'm trying to bake my meats more then pan frying but that has been the hardest habit for me to break.

    So unless you usually deep fry your food or cover it in cheese, butter and sour cream then you are probably doing just fine. Anything you made before you can make now but maybe just tweak it a little by changing to lower-fat counterparts or decreasing the amount of some of the ingredients if they are high fat and you don't want the light version. For me, I will not eat low-fat cheese. I'm from WI and I think it's sacrilegious, lol, so I have to eat less of it.

    If you weren't aware yet, there is a tab under the food section where you can enter a recipe with all the ingredients, note how many servings it will make and it calculates how many calories, carbs etc each serving has.
  • prpljellybean
    prpljellybean Posts: 68 Member
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    i am actually the opposite, if i do not make it then i experience anxiety because i have no idea what is in it

    Same here...I have anxiety about eating and and will only go to about three place at this point because I know they have low cal options that I like.

    I like to cook and get bored with the "same old thing". There are several websites and blogs out there that offer some wonderful low cal recipes. Also I use lighter versions or use swaps for many ingredients and then run through the recipe builder and am usually pleasantly surprised at what I can still eat and stay within my calorie range. The family never even knows that I have "tweaked" their favorite foods hahaha....

    Good luck!
  • BuckeyeBabe10
    BuckeyeBabe10 Posts: 204 Member
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    Skinnytaste.com - Love this site and the different, healthy versions of recipes. There's also a recipe forum on here as well if you wanted to look into that for ideas.

    I feel like people who are often successful or those who train for a living eat a lot of the same, plain things because they know exactly what's in it, what it does or doesn't do for their bodies, etc. I know the family element kind of makes things different, so I think you'll just have to do your research on things, make sure you do your measurements for portion control (buy a food scale if you haven't - I swear by mine). :o)

    Good luck!
  • ChristinaR720
    ChristinaR720 Posts: 1,186
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    My husband is Mexican, so some of those recipes may be difficult to tweak enough for them to be healthy, but I'm definitely going to try! For the recipes I can't make healthy enough, I'll just forgo and make a different meal for myself. I made Pan de Jamon (Venezuelan ham bread) for the family the other night, and I just ate something different. :)
  • stines72
    stines72 Posts: 853 Member
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    also you might want to invest in a food scale just so you know exactly how much you are consuming
  • momentsend
    momentsend Posts: 11
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    I use recipes from Allrecipes.com which tells you how many calories are in each serving. So far each of the recipes I've used I've found in the MyFitnessPal food database.

    But outside of that, you should begin paying close attention to the nutritional information of the products you cook with. While you don't need to know precisely how many calories you consumed you need to have a good idea. It also helps to have a kitchen scale.

    EDIT: You may be able to use Allrecipes..com to figure out the math for you. Just create an account then add your recipe and let the site do the math for you.
  • momentsend
    momentsend Posts: 11
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    My husband is Mexican, so some of those recipes may be difficult to tweak enough for them to be healthy, but I'm definitely going to try! For the recipes I can't make healthy enough, I'll just forgo and make a different meal for myself. I made Pan de Jamon (Venezuelan ham bread) for the family the other night, and I just ate something different. :)

    'Healthy' is a weasel word when it comes to nutrition. Just take a gander at counting up all the calories you put into your cooking and then divide that number up by the total number of servings possible for the calories per serving.
  • ChristinaR720
    ChristinaR720 Posts: 1,186
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    @momentsend - I've never thought of the word "healthy" that way...Interesting!

    I try to be as precise as possible in terms of counting calories, but usually estimate on the high side when I don't know the exact number of calories. I figure if I am eating fewer calories than I actually think I am, that can't be a bad thing, right?
  • momentsend
    momentsend Posts: 11
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    @momentsend - I've never thought of the word "healthy" that way...Interesting!

    I try to be as precise as possible in terms of counting calories, but usually estimate on the high side when I don't know the exact number of calories. I figure if I am eating fewer calories than I actually think I am, that can't be a bad thing, right?

    That's what I do. So no need for the anxiety.
    If you want more interesting take a college level nutrition class. You'll be blown away by how wrong the common understanding of nutrition is.

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