do-it-yourself pre-packaged meals?

I do this quite a lot. A frozen dinner and a quick salad (prewashed salad greens in a bag). A can of soup. There's some birds-eye veggie pasta that I like to buy that's microwavable. I get some frozen, diced chicken and make that quite often.

There's definitely a lot of ways to DIY your prepared food plan that's not something like Optavia. I do enjoy meal prep, but sometimes I need some reprieve and these options definitely make staying on plan a little easier.

I also do easy meal prep things like cottage cheese (easy to weigh and put in containers), blueberries (same), and frozen protein pancakes (Kodiak brand is good) for breakfast. I eat this nearly every day.

I'm a little confused about the original question. It sounds like what you want is a fairly standard meal plan, but you don't want to cook very much (which is fine, no judgment implied or intended). Is that accurate?

First, there is nothing at all wrong with eating prepackaged foods that you like and that fit into your goals and budget. You can eat frozen dinners every day if you want to do that. You will still lose weight if you're within your calorie goal.

There are also various middle ground areas between eating everything prepackaged and cooking everything from scratch. For example, if you don't like chopping veggies, your grocery store likely has various vegetables pre-cut. You may find that it's worth paying a little more for someone else to chop your vegetables if that makes the difference between eating them and not eating them.

Also, if you make a big batch of something that freezes well, you don't have to keep eating it all week. Crock pots are great for this. I use mine to make a big batch of vegetarian chili, which requires very little effort on my part--just dump the ingredients in and turn it on. Then I weigh it into freezer bags. There will be no temptation to eat more than you intended because you'll only thaw one preportioned bag at a time. It will keep in the freezer for several months, so you won't be eating chili every single day.

Regarding the temptation to eat more than you intended, I portion out the entire meal as soon as it's done cooking. If it makes four servings, then I put out two bowls and two boxes for leftovers. I divide the meal between the four containers, we eat what's in the bowls, and we put the boxes in the fridge or freezer. No more big pot of food to tempt you for seconds.

If you can tell us some things you like to eat, we may be able to suggest specific recipes that don't require a lot of prep and that freeze well.

I actually like to cook, but for work, I've started purchasing frozen meals (like Annie's, Lean Cuisine, or others) and just adding a bunch of greens to that. I definitely recommend the pre-washed green mixes - I usually have two in my fridge, one for spinach/mixes and the other for kale. I switch those up for texture and taste, but essentially use them as bulk fillers by putting 50gs or so (that's a nice handful) into a bowl and dumping the frozen meal atop, mix so the greens are coated by whatever sauce is on the frozen meal. That allows me to feel full and it takes only moments to prepare.

I’m going to vote for Lean Cuisine or some other similarly low calorie frozen dinners. With the exception of canned and also low calorie soup or the occasional meal out, I’ve been eating them for years. If you shop at Walmart, the Walmart brand frozen low calorie dinners are good as well.

Healthy Choice has some frozen meals that are bowls. They are good. Lean Cuisine also has several tasty options. I like canned soups too. Add a steamer bag of veggies to the frozen meal or canned soup to help increase the volume without adding a lot of calories.

I'm also a fan of Yogurt. My current favorite is Dannon Light Greek... vanilla, key lime pie, tiramisu, raspberry. They are only 80 calories but I find them very filling.

nocgirl72 wrote: »

What’s a McDonald’s McDouble? Both breakfast and lunch sound like they have a lot of sodium and not a lot of food for calories. No fruits or veggies or snacks at all?

I gather you don’t like to cook? I don’t either but there are a ton of options that take 5 min to make.

Quantity is not important for some people and unless a doctor is worried about your sodium you can pretty much ignore it.

paperpudding wrote: »

Peanut butter sandwich wouldn't have a lot of sodium.

And for most people sodium is not an issue anyway.

I didn't take it OP has no veggies or snacks - just that his breakfast and lunch and dinner are the things he mentioned.

I don't know why anyone cares about snacks anyway but even if the OP doesn't eat fruit and or vegetables that is a personal choice. Some people don't. Like you I didn't see a reason to jump to that conclusion though.

"Diet food" doesn't have to be bland and boring. Learn how to cook so you can turn your "diet food" into tasty meals or your chances of sticking to your plan will most likely fail.