Organization hacks for weight loss?

willow00 · November 2017

I’ve noticed many people describe organizational tips in their success stories. Some people eat the same thing every breakfast or pre-log the day or week. Meal planning has been a big help for me. What organizational tips have helped you to take the weight off?

empress_zhark · November 2017

Not sure if these count as “hacks”, but still

Pre-portioning. I buy large bags of frozen berries, but rather than storing the single large bag in the freezer, I’ll divide it into 150g portions in small plastic bags. No need for weighing every time I need to make a smoothie – saves time, which in turn removes a small barrier to making a healthy choice.

Similarly, with oats I have a half-cup scoop in in the plastic tub I keep the oats in. One level scoop = 50g, so again there’s no need to weigh.

Meal planning each week, and only shopping for the ingredients needed for those meals helps enormously. It eliminates the decision paralysis – what should I have for dinner? – which can easily lead to unhealthy choices.

Serving salad with every meal. If you fill half your plate with salad veggies (lettuce, tomato, cucumber) and the other half with your actual meal, you’ve got a full plate of food (and psychologically this can help with feeling like you’ve eaten a large meal) without filling your plate with heavy, calorific foods.

When I’m out and about, I always try to carry around an orange, as a test for hunger. If I’m actually hungry, I’ll eat the orange. If I’m not actually hungry, I won’t want to eat the orange and I’ll realise I’m just being tempted by the smell of the new burrito place, or the chocolate bars on display in the supermarket. (It helps that I’m not a huge fan of oranges – I tried the same thing with a banana, but that kept failing because I really like bananas and so would eat it anyway!)

Lounmoun · November 2017

I have always planned meals.
I prelog my food for the day every morning starting with dinner. Then lunch, breakfast and snacks last. It helps me make better choices.
I eat around the same times each day and about the same amount of calories at meals (500 calories for dinner). Having a routine and an idea of how many calories to have at my meals makes it easier for me.
I have weighed my pots and written it down.

toxikon · November 2017

Food scale hacks!

- Negative grams: Place (for example) peanut butter jar on scale. Tare. Use butter knife to scoop out desired amount of peanut butter. Use negative gram value as your peanut butter amount.
- Gram weight for "Servings" in Recipe Builder. Weigh all your ingredients as you go and add them normally to the Recipe. Then weigh the full final dish in grams and set that as your Servings value. Then when you eat some later, weigh the portion and set your Serving to the grams value in your diary.
- Weigh baking pans and dishes prior to cooking to easily subtract that value from the final cooked meal.

tinkerbellang83 · November 2017

Writing a meal plan up for the following week has been instrumental in my success so far, I stick to it maybe 90% of the time and sometimes swap days about, but it helps immensely because I only buy in what I need for the food plan, so as well as not having a bunch of extra food in that gets eaten for the sake of eating sake or throwing it out I am actually saving a lot of money on groceries. I use the same planning sheet to keep track of social events and exercise so I can plan around them.

Because I prep my lunches for the week on a Sunday, I am far less tempted to go to the shop to get a sandwich or snack and I have more time in the evenings to exercise, etc. I also prep a crockpot or make-ahead meal that does 2-3 meals that week and extra portions can be frozen for another week, again this helps in the evenings where I might have just thrown a more calorific, less nutritious ready meal in the microwave/oven or ordered takeaway.

I am a self-confessed snacker and that would previously have been my downfall, sitting munching on a bag of sweets or nuts with a total disregard for calories. Now I have a snack basket with pre-portioned (weighed) or individual snacks such as protein bars/mini chocolate bars.

tinkerbellang83 · November 2017

toxikon wrote: »

Food scale hacks!

- Gram weight for "Servings" in Recipe Builder. Weigh all your ingredients as you go and add them normally to the Recipe. Then weigh the full final dish in grams and set that as your Servings value. Then when you eat some later, weigh the portion and set your Serving to the grams value in your diary.

Never thought about doing it that way - great tip!

shangetsfitx · November 2017

These are all so helpful! I will be trying these tricks to make it easier for me to stick with my plan. I work early in the morning so I will pre log my day the night before and prep my breakfast and lunch so I can just grab it on the way out the door makes it easier in the morning so I don’t have to think about anything and saves me money from not ordering out!

janejellyroll · November 2017

Pre-logging: Each day I log what I plan to eat the next day so I know that I'll be at my calorie goal and in the range I prefer for my macros. I also use this time to enter any recipes I'll be using the next day that I don't already have logged.

Meal planning: Each Sunday I plan my dinners for the next week and make my shopping list. I do all my shopping on Sunday evening too.

kommodevaran · November 2017

Weight management became so easy after I found out that most of the advice we get is individual tips and tricks and tweaks - or hacks - "they work for me because" - these are some of mine:

I weigh myself every morning. (It keeps me accountable without causing panic. Big jump=water. Slow creep=fat.)

I plan my meals in varying degree according to circumstances. (I need some predictability, my situation allows me to plan ahead, and I love to look forward to what I'm going to eat.)

I plan meals I like. (I don't deliberately prepare things I know I hate just because it's supposed to be "healthy" - not anymore.)

I eat regularly and try to not let calorie intake oscillate wildly from day to day; I split intake roughly into 1/4 each for breakfast and lunch and 1/2 for dinner. I alternate between only two/three setups for breakfasts and lunches every day, but the details vary according to what I have on hand.

I balance my meals, build them up with protein+fat+vegetables, and add on so that I get food from all the food groups every day, "5 a day". (I want every meal to look like a real meal, and be delicious too. I will overeat later if I'm not satisfied.)

I have weekday dinner themes. It helps with variety as well as structure. (Good nutrition is important for good health, including brain function, including impulse control.)

I schedule grocery shopping to reduce temptation and still get everything I need. (Five minutes of temptation at the store is manageable. 24/7 at home, not so much.)

I cook quite a bit from scratch (but not everything; I just make the easy and fun things).

I have one set of rules for everyday meals and a slightly different set of vacation, celebration, restaurant meals.

My aim is to feel good, not virtuous. (I can keep up "healthy eating and exercising" for a year, tops.)

I make exercise part of my day (instead of finding time to exercise).

I accept and love my body. (Moving my body makes me more aware of it, and I can't do much of that if I feel disgusted by it.)

I practice gratitude every day. (It's an effective guard against self-pity and envy... which I'm sometimes a bit prone to).

LindaGilpin59 · November 2017

I make up my salads and bags of vegetables for the week all at once then it is grab and go each morning. Usually takes me 30-45 minutes to do so.

Plan your shopping and limit stops at the grocery store to lessen the temptation to buy extra snacks. They put the candy at the checkout line for a reason.

Make it a mindset to exercise every day. My favorite type of exercise is Biking and last year I rode everyday from May until Mid-November, It becomes somewhat of a game or challenge to figure out how to get a ride in every day with work schedules and weather issues (got wet about 6 times last year). Also during the winter I plan to go to my works wellness center every day that I work. Not that I don't miss on occasion but if you have the mindset to do it every day then it lessens the excuses or the thought that I don't feel like it so will go tomorrow and tomorrow never comes. (Spent way too much time on the Tomorrow diet)

Find a friend or group to be accountable to helps as well.

JennJ323 · November 2017

I plan out my meals weeks in advance, so I know what each week coming up will be like. I also eat the same things daily for breakfast & lunch, dinner I do different stuff every day (but I do plan out all my dinners at month at a time). I prep my breakfasts & lunches Sunday afternoon, then I'm able to just grab containers & go during the work week. It makes it a no-brainer on what I'm eating and saves me time during the week. I've been doing this for almost a year, it's working good for me and my family, so I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. I also log everything in the morning, so I can tweak it as I go and know what wiggle room I have.

Lizakabibbis · November 2017

Meal planning is my saving grace. I prep everything on Sunday - eat the same breakfast/lunch/snacks all week and then have my ideas ready for dinner. If I don't have a plan I can pretty much guarantee that day will be a failure. Even my weekends - I know what I'm eating. It really helps me keep my eye on the prize!

NorthCascades · November 2017

janejellyroll wrote: »

Pre-logging: Each day I log what I plan to eat the next day so I know that I'll be at my calorie goal and in the range I prefer for my macros. I also use this time to enter any recipes I'll be using the next day that I don't already have logged.

I've dinner this (pre logging) a few times, and invariably lost or forgot my wallet the next day. In my case it seems to be a great fasting tool!

willow00 · November 2017

Great ideas! Thanks for sharing

I try to cut up veggies when I’m unpacking groceries. That way they’re prepped for meals or snacking. I’ve also been making soup on the weekends and freezing in lunch sized portions. I usually have 3-4 different soups to choose from each day.

litoria · November 2017

So many great ideas here.
What's been fabulous for me is meal planning and preparation: really takes the "poor decision, impulse control when hungry" out of the equation. Spend a few hours making delicious food really sets you up for the week

MoveitlikeManda · November 2017

every now and then I make a massive pot of something like chicken stew or mince and veg weighing everything as it goes in in the pan.

I then divide it in to portions to go in to the freezer and divide the calories by the number of portions I do so when it comes to eating them they are easy to log as info already there.

atm I have 2 chicken curries, 4 chicken stew, 6 spag bols (without the pasta as like that cooked fresh) and 2 lamb stews already to be defrosted, heated up and eaten...........only thing is Im not the best at remembering to take what I want out the freezer the night before Im planning to eat it lol. maybe I should set an alarm on my phone to remind before I go to bed

I also make 4 days of breakfast oats at a time to go in the frideg, weigh everything in a big bowl the divide in to portion.

Make a big tub of grated carrot, cucumber, celery and onion, each item weighed and then I divide by 6 and log over the 5 days, meaning I have a giant salad that I can pick at as I want when peckish, have with meals etc and know the calories are counting and logged so dont need to worry about checking before I eat any of it

Organization hacks for weight loss?

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