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Hello, I understand your need for variety. I am currently eating low carb and was giving the advice of meal prep.

I felt just like you I needed a variety. Sooooooo.. what I do is meal prep my breakfast and lunch which leaves dinner open. This allows me to save my meals that I eat consistently and log them consistently at work .

As for dinner Even if I dont meal prep it by physically cooking -I try to plan out a couple of days of what I am going to cook for dinner this leave no questions and minimal space for error when you arrive home from a long day .

Last advice is meal prep doest have to be the same thing for 7 days straight . Make a few of ya fav breaksfast dishes and mix it up and do the same for lunch . Once you feel the difference in your body you will be fine as you will understand what works best for you .


Best of Wishes on your journey!

try pinterest, search for meal prep. Lots of good links on there. Once you get in the groove of it, it's so easy. I spend about 4 hours once a week prepping now (for a family of 6) and now I know even when I work until 9 at night everyone will have a good home cooked meal. I recently bought a freezer and now can do so much more!!!

I also keep snacks in my car, mostly almonds or fruit that I pack in my lunch. Breakfast for me is always a smoothie that I make in the morning, lunch is leftover from dinner. I plan my dinners for the week on Sunday.

aligarmizo wrote: »

Good morning everyone! I hope you're having a bright sunshiny day! I'm recently new to my fitness pal and I've struggled with recording my foods late in the day. I'm also trying to loose some weight. Right now my short term goal is to lose 10 pounds and my longterm goal is 30. I always start out good weighing everything I eat for breakfast and lunch then dinner just goes straight down the drain. When coming home from work or school, I end up getting so hungry and just eating whatever. I've tried meal prepping but I like a variety and most meal preps don't have that. I was wondering if anyone has some tips in meal prepping and some of your recipies or shopping lists that you take to the store.

Thanks for your replys!!!

-Ali

Hi there! So I meal prep every week and it saves me not only time, but soooo much money because I buy in bulk. Further to that, can I make a suggestion that's outside of meal prepping based on your situation? If you don't like it, that's kool no hard feelings just a suggestion based on my experiencing something similar.

So what happens a lot of times when people are starting out planning their meals or counting calories is they have an imbalance in terms of caloric intake during the day. So for example, they wake up and eat a tiny little breakfast that's "healthy" then they maybe eat a little snack - like 100 calories - and then they eat a small lunch - maybe 300 - 400 calories and then perhaps not even an afternoon snack but when they get home they GORGE because they're so freaking hungry it's like they can't control their intake.

This, in my experience, is because your - let's call it "scale" of caloric intake during the day is super imbalanced, with dinner weighing so much that side bottoms out. When I first started working with a registered dietitian she confirmed my habits: spread your calories out. If you have 2,000/day - let's say - each meal should be around 500 calories, and then each snack around 250 calories. This way, you're replenishing your fuel essentially during the day and when you get home you won't feel so hungry and eat whatever is the easiest . .. you will be able to mentally wait to cook some chicken or heat something up that's a much more nutritionally sound choice.

I also eat within 30 minutes of waking up. I am not a night snacker so it's potentially like 12 hours from dinner to waking up for me and that's a while to go without eating, especially when during the day I eat every 3-4 hours. I go to the gym in the morning so eating within 30 minutes helps to break the fast and my body wants to perform better when it has some fuel in it - going to the gym after not eating for 12 hours is like asking your car to drive for 3 hours when you really only have 2 hours worth of fuel left. You'll get somewhere, but not exactly where you want to be. Once I started eating a small snack before the gym my morning runs got way better my days look something like this in terms of eating schedule: 6am - snack 9:30 am - breakfast 12:30pm - lunch 3pm - snack 6:30 - 7 pm - dinner. I've been able to control what I eat much better and I find I'm not as hungry when I get home so I can wait to cook something without bingeing on everything in sight.

As to what I eat . . . here's some ideas that I've found are great for meal prepping and can last the week

Snack # 1 - vanilla greek yogurt with 1/2 banana or any kind of berries really; gluten free PB and Banana muffins (have the recipe, can send if you'd like)

Breakfast: I make my own protein oatmeal with rolled oats, chia seeds, protein powder, etc (can also send you the recipe if you'd like) and then with grapes, or slice a banana on top if I didn't eat a banana during my first snack

Lunches: mini turkey meatloaf with home made sweet potato fries and roasted cauliflower; spaghetti squash with ground turkey sauce and tons of veggies in the sauce; home made sweet and sour chicken with brown rice and broccoli, BBQ chicken with home made sweet potato fries and broccoli/cauliflower; tuna sandwhiches (assemble day of) with cucumber and hummus, pasta with ground turkey and a side garden salad; stirfry with BBQ chicken and tons of veggies like zucchini, tomatoes, peas, broccoli, celery, etc. Most things will stay ok for 5 days . . . the only exception is cauliflower - I roast enough for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and then Wednesday night I cook for Thursday Friday but it's already chopped and prepped, just gotta throw it in the oven.

Snack # 2 - apple with PB, cucumbers and hummus, tortilla chips and hummus, greek yogurt and fruit, cheese and crackers, crackers and kielbasa, etc.

The way I look at it is each snack should be made up of a protein and a carb (IE - cheese (protein) and crackers (carb)), and each meal should be half veggies, one quarter protein and one quarter carb. Ensure you're getting enough of each macro nutrient in there.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions though I've learned a lot in my journey and working with a registered dietitian so if you need support or just wanna chat, I'm always here. Good Luck

i've found lately that the bulk sections at the markets are good for me...dried fruit, nuts....stuff good for keeping you from getting so hungry...I know that feeling....Great day then get home and shovel down what ever i can find...I'm trying to break that too...good luck...