Eating 1x day to stay under calories

I haven't read the whole thread (lack of time), but thought if offer my ideas...

1. Find your healthiest/low-cal options that your family WILL eat. Find ways to make minimal adjustments to keep them happy and meet your needs. A few ideas: Do they like tacos? Rinse the cheaper 80/20 beef after cooking, then add seasonings. Lowers fat/calories. Serve yours as a salad or wrapped in lettuce (or on 1/2 tortilla?), serve theirs regularly. You eat lots of pasta? Portion yours out to the correct calories, add some rinsed ground beef to keep you full, skip the garlic bread, add extra frozen veggies to your plate. If they won't eat them, good--save the leftovers for your lunch. Oatmeal for breakfast? Serve yours before adding sugar and added calories to theirs. Eggs? Let them have cheese and sausage and juice with theirs, add a few leftover veggies to yours and skip the high cal add-ons. Do they like teriyaki chicken or stir fry? Add extra veggies to yours and go easy on the sauce to save calories. If they won't eat veggies, let them pick them out or don't add them to theirs. Hotdogs for dinner? Skip the bun and chips (if necessary to save calories), add veggies and fruit, or whatever you can.

You CAN find ways to eat foods they like that will meet your calorie requirements. "Perfect" foods aren't a requirement to lose weight and be healthier. Sure, Ramens aren't yourbest option, but eat a little less, add veggies and maybe don't eat it as often. But you CAN do it without having to make separate meals or sabatoging yourself. But it will take initiative and being proactive. And a little creativity.

2. Prepping or doubling meals is going to be your best friend. Either take one day a week, or do a little extra when you do cook. Making tacos? Double the meat, portion 1/2 and freeze it for another day. Making lasagna? Make a double batch and freeze a pan for the next week. Cooking pasta for dinner? Make an extra portion and save for the next day's lunch. Cutting an onion for a dish? Chop an extra a stick it in your fridge. Marinating chicken? Marinate a few extra in a separate container and freeze them for another busy night. It hardly takes any more to chop an extra onion if you're already doing it. It is easy to grill two extra breasts for lunch. And don't underestimate the crockpot.

3. Don't let your family be an excuse. A huge percentage of people who make lifestyle changes start off doing so by themselves, working around daily temptations from family, friends, co-workers, etc. You can do it if you really work for it. Be proactive, get creative, and think outside the box. You can do it.

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

rosebette wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

KurumiSophia wrote: »

I put myself below everyone else. I absolutely sacrifice myself so others in my family can have more then me.

MIL is not old enough to retire. As it is, she is living off her 401K since she is currently out of work.

Does anyone know if the MIL having 401k assets makes her ineligible for SNAP? @shell1005 ?

To address OP's comment -- these are the words of a depressed person with extremely low self-worth. What are you teaching your daughter about valuing herself if you're putting yourself at the bottom and saying you deserve only one meal a day of Ramen noodles? To those who say you can survive on one meal a day -- yes, but only if that meal is high in nutrition, not Ramen noodles.

Regarding SNAP, usually it's based on the income for the entire household. So, the salaries of OP, the husband, and if MIL is getting some kind of income from her 401K, like an annuity. My mom has income but it's less than $1000 a month, so she qualifies. If MIL isn't working and her 401K assets are enough to disqualify the family from aid, then perhaps she needs to be providing something every month toward room and board. My husband's family had his grandmother living with them; she was getting Social Security and a small pension, and she paid his dad $250 a month for her room and board. What I'm seeing is OP being forced to either starve or make poor food choices (and model those choices for her daughter) in subservience to the needs of everyone else in the household.

How is she being forced to make poor food choices?

She's not being forced in actuality but feels like she is.

You will blow your weekly budget with just the diet pills (Stay away). I'll echo the Lean Cuisine idea. I did that for a while. They are high in sodium though. Crockpot meals are great too. You can make a large amount in one shot, portion them out so they last all week, and generally are inexpensive per serving. http://homemakinghacks.com/2013/07/slow-cooker-recipes-with-4-ingredients-or-less.html

In this thread: People continuing to spread rumors that Intermittent Fasting is dangerous.

Double post

When I dieted before I used to be like that. But, this time around I changed to high protein diet. Protein saves on calories and crushes your appetite. I buy a bag of 10-15 chicken breast at BJ's for $10. Chicken sausage, ground turkey, and fish and shrimp are also good too. When I need carbs though, I get them through fruit and veggies and rice.

Jacwhite22 wrote: »

NerineLuna wrote: »

My usual lunch at the moment is 2 whole wheat wraps, one with peanut butter + apple slices (I like granny smith because they're slightly sour), one with chicken/turkey (those sandwich/deli slices) + bell pepper. You will use about half a small apple or half a bell pepper per wrap. The cost of peanut butter is rather negligible, and you can buy a whole bunch of whole wheat wraps once they're on sale. For those two wraps, I come in at about 400-500 calories, depending on how much butter and peanut butter you use.

Quick totals and cost estimates:
Let's say you're eating this every day - I would not recommend eating the same thing every day, but just for cost analysis - that's 7x2 = 14 wraps. So 3.5 bell peppers and 3.5 apples. Make that 7 apples so you can eat the other half of the apple together with your lunch, which will make you feel more filled without adding a whole lot of calories. One jar of peanut butter will last you a couple of weeks, and one package of sandwich/deli sliced chicken/turkey should probably last you a week as well.

14 wraps = 3 dollars
4 bell peppers = 2 dollar
7 apples = 2 dollars
chicken/turkey = 1 dollar
1 jar of peanut butter = 2 dollars
Total = 10 dollars, 8 if you already have the peanut butter.

So depending on your local prices (and whether you can stock up on things like wraps and peanut butter during a sale), you would come in around the same price as your current ramen, a bit lower on calories, and on average just a whole lot healthier than plain ramen.

Chicken/turkey $1 dollar? seriously? for how much exactly? Im not sure I would trust eating that.

Hi there! It's sliced in these sandwich/deli slices? I'm not sure if maybe this is not a thing in many countries outside my own though, I'll get you a picture because I think you're having something different in mind than me! I can assure you, it's perfectly safe

https://www.google.nl/imgres?imgurl=https://www.ah.nl.kpnis.nl/static/product/AHI_434d50303738333131_2_LowRes_JPG.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.ah.nl/producten/product/wi132220/ah-kipfilet&h=708&w=708&tbnid=vwJpO2ccy1h7fM:&docid=Fh8m0Egq_CKFxM&ei=7FiMVuvyL4KePP7siaAF&tbm=isch&ved=0ahUKEwjrmIy_8JPKAhUCDw8KHX52AlQQMwgpKAUwBQ

It's like what's shown in the link above (this particualr picture being chicken), so you have slices of about 1mm thick, and they're usually eaten as part of a sandwich. It's made by making like a rolled roast of chicken, and then slicing it up, and is available in pretty much every single supermarket here in the Netherlands. (The Dutch are really big on having bread with this type of sliced meat or cheese as their lunch, and even as breakfast.) So here in the Netherlands this stuff is really quite cheap (also because the actual amount of meat in a package is obviously not that big), but if this is not a thing you really recognise from your own grocery stores, I guess buying regular chicken breasts or whatever you want, cooking/grilling them, and then slicing them in thin strips yourself would work as filling for wraps like I described as well.

It look similar to roast deli chicken in the states. However, that kind of product is more expensive here. Deli chicken is usually around $6.00 a lb., and it takes about 2 ounces to make a sandwich, so the price would be a bit higher here. I have to admit deli meat, even the less expensive stuff, tends to go pretty quickly in my house, as other family members (the guys) will make big sandwiches and use most of it up.

You should also save any bones or bits of veggies in a bag in the freezer for soup. When the bags full, just dump it in a pot and cover with water. Its basically free since its things that would have been thrown away.


You can use a crock pot too.

chelsy0587 wrote: »

As weird as it sounds you have to eat to lose weight, keeping yourself from eating all day will only result in you stuffing your belly at night, right before bed... so it will sit on your stomach all night... At least if you eat a higher calorie breakfast you have all day long to work it off.

For the first 6 months of my weight loss I ate 1200 to 1400 calories and because it was mainly high protein foods I was left feeling full, not wanting anything more. Though I did have a protein shake daily that amounted to 400 to 500 calories.

It doesnt matter what time you eat, as long as you dont go over your calories. So as long as it doesnt impede your ability to sleep and you dont go over your calories....it doesnt matter hiw much you eat in the evening.