Suggestions for dieting as a single girl??

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  • rednailvarnish
    rednailvarnish Posts: 36 Member
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    I am a single girl and I don’t buy ready meals – I tend to eat more at lunch time and have a lighter snack/meal in the evenings - Such as baked potato/omelette/soup. And I buy either chicken breasts or salmon and have it with veg 2-3 nights a week. I tend to buy frozen spinach and other veg to bulk up my meals.
    Before I came back to MFP I was eating a lot of pasta and sauce as it was cheap, quick, easy to store and I thought it was healthy (how wrong was I).
  • gramarye
    gramarye Posts: 586 Member
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    I try to make things that work easy for leftovers, or come up with meals that easily make one serving. I also cook for friends when I'm feeling like trying a new recipe, that way there's more of it to get eaten. (I also cook for my four-year-old most nights, though he rarely eats what I make.)

    It's mostly the leftovers thing, though. That was a hard thing for me to teach myself, and sometimes my food still gets wasted, which drives me nuts.
  • bc2ct
    bc2ct Posts: 222 Member
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    I think portion control is much easier when you eat alone because you're less likely to get into the "must finish all the food I cooked" mentality. Instead you can portion things out, freeze or refrigerate the extras, and eat a single serving.

    Highly recommended - home made pasta sauce with extra lean ground beef...CRAZY low in fat, high in fiber (throw in a ton of veg) and high in protein. Also, it's easy to make a massive pot and freeze or refrigerate the extras.
  • ironanimal
    ironanimal Posts: 5,922 Member
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    Cook... less?
  • bc2ct
    bc2ct Posts: 222 Member
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    Cook... less?

    Practically speaking, this isn't the best idea. Generally food (even the raw ingredients) is cheaper in bulk and if you cook "single" meals you will probably lose a lot of money as food spoils. Better to cook normal amounts of food and portion it out/use your freezer.
  • emmaedwards7528610
    emmaedwards7528610 Posts: 38
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    I find it easier to keep slim as a single girl, as you don't have to worry about feeding anyone diet food, or someone feeding you things that you know will pile on the pounds. (not to mention less eating out, booze and chocolate - shame about missing out on sex calorie-burning though :-/)

    I am subsequently a constant snacker and grazer. I keep food in which is great to eat in small quantities and then don't really bother about making meals (nuts, fruit, seeds and dried fruit, yoghurt, eggs, cooked meats, rice cakes and salad items etc)

    Then when I have friends over for dinner or I go out to eat, I relax and have a meal, but just have a dainty portion or choose something healthy. Don't buy ready meals, I know they are convenient and easy to diet with because of their information, but it really is better to keep real good fresh food to hand.
  • lindsayk324
    lindsayk324 Posts: 54 Member
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    Fellow bachelorette here. Agreeing with everyone's points on freezing EVERYTHING. To be honest, I think it's easier to diet and stay in shape as a bachelorette -- ain't got nobody to rush home to, so I can spend all my time focusing on ME!

    1. Most of what I eat can be frozen or portioned out easily. Big pots of chili or soup, salads, steak tips or chicken breast from the store. I will eat the same thing for a week or more.

    2. Veggies like carrots, celery, onions, and cauliflower are awesome for "spiking" into a soup or chili base. They don't add a huge amount of flavor, but they'll absorb the flavors in your base. This'll make whatever you're cooking up more nutritious AND lower calorie while also stretching how many portions you'll get out of it!

    3. Invest in various portion sizes of tupperware. Get a nice tupperware for salad, a nice thermos for soups/chili, some 1cup sized tupperware, some 1-2oz tupperware. This way, you have a lot of vessels to fill your portions with.

    4. Figure out the foods you like that help you stick to the healthy lifestyle. Then think about how you can tweak them to make them even healthier. For example, I found I really liked yogurt parfaits. Slowly that evolved from sugared-up varieties of super processed yogurt --> plain yogurt with fresh fruit --> greek yogurt with fresh fruit --> greek yogurt with protein powder mixed in... same with salads! Iceburg lettuce with high sugar high calorie dressing --> baby spinach with high sugar high calorie dressing --> baby spinach with low cal dressing --> baby spinach with balsamic and EVOO --> baby spinach with goat cheese and steak strips...

    5. Experiment! That delicious Roasted Turkey Harvest salad from Panera? Recreate it at home! The delicious baked tofu from the Korean place last week? Grab some tofu and try it yourself!


    The good thing about being single and switching to a healthy lifestyle is that YOU are the only one that matters -- you don't have to worry about making kids try the mashed cauliflower or a husband complaining that he wants french fries, not honey-roasted carrots. Really, we've got it easy! :p
  • gabbygirl78
    gabbygirl78 Posts: 936 Member
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    I normally don't use the lean cuisine or ready meals but it 's only because I like to cook. This week I actually bought a lot of the Weight Watchers smart ones because I was low on money and it was on sale.... seriously tho why should I not eat these? I see everyone frowning on them and it has me concerned
  • Keto_T
    Keto_T Posts: 673 Member
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    Love this advice.

    I'm not single but hubby and I are practically empty nesters so we don't cook large meals anymore. We use our toaster over A LOT for roasting meats and veggies. Pork chop or chicken breast in olive oil with some cauliflower or broccoli.

    In the past we used the George Foreman for quick and easy meals but found it takes too much room on the counter. I don't mind eating the same things over and over but hubby will eat something for the first time, lunch the next day and that's about it.

    Big batches of soup and chili freeze easily. Individual servings of lasagna or casseroles can be frozen as well. Do you have friends you could do a serving food exchange with? Or get together and cook all day and split the various dishes half and half? That offers more diversity without more money or work.
  • tx_megan
    tx_megan Posts: 7 Member
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    I was the same way for a long time, eating all lean cuisine / frozen pre-packaged foods. I've worked mostly out of that mode though, and only eat them maybe 1 or 2 times a week (or less). It's all about planning ahead of time. Like several people have said, make a recipe for 2-4 people (I personally rarely do more than 2, because I don't want to see the same meal 3 or 4 times in a row... LOL), and freeze or refrigerate the extra. I've also gotten to making items that require minimal to zero cooking, and make more than one serving at a time. Lately, I've been addicted to spaghetti squash. I use it as my 'base' probably 3 or 4 times a week. Pretty much any spaghetti based recipe, just sub spaghetti squash and cut the calories and carbs by probably 60-70%. And it's really good, makes me feel like I'm 'cheating". Another regular on my rotation is my hack of the Jimmy John's (sandwich shop) #12 Beach Club 'unwich' (lettuce wrap). Super simple... just iceburg or romaine for the wrap, turkey, provolone, avocado, cucumber, and tomato (I sub out the mayo for mustard). I'll make 2 or 3 of those at a time and toss the extras in the fridge... there is no bread, so it doesn't get mushy, and the avocado actually keeps really well as long as you eat within 2-3 days. My other favorite thing right now is my morning 'green smoothies'. It is a concoction I came up with, a mixture of several recipes I found on Pinterest. It's 1/2 cup cooked oatmeal (cooked and refrigerated the night before so it's cold), 1 frozen, cut up banana, 2 cups spinach or mixed greens, 1 cup plain, unsweetened almond milk, and 2 Tbsp natural peanut butter. Blend it all up, and voila! This is my breakfast several days a week, and you can make and freeze these (works out to apx 3 cups). It ends up being about 500 Healthy calories, but it is yummy (tastes just like peanut butter banana milkshake to me) and SO filling. Plus, for me... now that I'm eating heathier and working out a lot, I'm finding it difficult getting in my calories for the day so this one is really helpful.

    Hope this helps... great post, I'm always looking for new 'single girl' meal ideas to mix things up! :)

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