A REAL look at a persons food?

It's not an all or nothing proposition. I'm busy as well. Some mornings if I get up really early for a run I eat overnight oats I prepped the night before. Sometimes I have cold cereal or oatmeal. Sometimes I cook breakfast - it depends.

I'm boring and usually have a simple sandwich or canned soup or maybe a frozen microwave meal for lunch.

Evenings are varied. Some nights we have Subway sandwiches or cold cereal. Some nights I cook the salmon, kale, and quinoa - I like it. Some meals are instant pot or crock pot meals.

The point is my diet isn't "perfect". I still managed to lose 80 pounds. I currently manage 5-9 hours a week of exercise and a full time job and have time for family. Oh, and I do all the majority of the cooking.

Dairy is open, feel free...

For breakfast I have a coffee/protein shake and blast some awesome music. Helps me wake up lol For snack I'll have a cheese stick and some fruit. Lunch I have tuna, whole wheat tortilla, chopped up celery, and hummus. Just throw it all together haha I'm lazy. Late Snack is usually carrots with hummus or carrots with Hidden Valley Ranch because that ranch is my FAVE. I don't overdo it though even though I would like to Dinner is shrimp with peppers and a salad and a Hawaiin bread roll. If my husband cooks I get a nice juicy steak, a baked potato with butter, and green beans. It is the only thing that he makes. I'm not complaining lol I do eat candy (chocolate and jolly ranchers) and I love starbucks (tall Iced Chai Tea Latte ). I also love chips especially tortilla chips with salsa. I do have binging trigger foods like hot cheetos, jelly bellys, and soda so I had to kick those out the door. Better safe than sorry. You got to know your limits and what doesn't work for you. Everyone is different Good luck!

Diary is open, but warning I'm just getting back in the swing of logging so there are missing meals/ days.

I meal prep because I refuse to stand over a stove every night. Most of my snacks are yogurt, precut fruit and veggies, and treats from the office candy jar.🙂 Breakfast is usually overnight oats, yogurt, grits, fruit, or toast, eaten at work or on the run. Lunch is usually a variation of a mason jar salad or leftovers. Dinner is whatever I cook for the family. They prefer chicken, one pot dishes like spaghetti or chili, and fish. Rice, potato, salad, and steamed or roasted veggies on the side. Depending on how many calories I have left I'll substitute cauliflower rice or veggie noodles for the starch. Halo top or pizelles for dessert. Fast food or seafood for lunch or dinner on weekends.

sf8813 wrote: »

I've been doing my thing for about 3 months, lost 10lbs so far. I just want to know a REAL persons diet. Not this salmon, kale, quinoa stuff. I'm talking someone like me who has a full time job, a household and children. Someone who doesn't have the time or energy to plan and prep every meal who has to rely on frozen, pre-prepped or even fast food sometimes. What are your meals like?

I think realizing I could eat my normal food just stick to the right calories was a pretty stunning revelation for me.

I plan dinners for the month and cook every day. I tend to eat the same things for breakfast lunches or snacks so don't plan them out but don't really meal prep days in advance either. I do not eat kale and rarely have salmon or quinoa. I have things like ramen, frozen pizza or a frozen burrito sometimes.

Breakfast- things like Greek yogurt, granola bars, cereal with milk, sandwich, dinner leftovers, fruit, cottage cheese (about 200-300 calories)
Lunch- sandwich, salad, or dinner leftovers usually (about 300-500 calories) I do eat lunch out one meal a week and can generally find sometying for about 400-500 calories.
Dinner- something different every night of the month. (about 500-600 calories) I have soup once a week usually. Casseroles. Tacos, pizza, spaghetti, burgers. I try to add larger portions of vegetables to my meals.
Snacks- things like fruit, chips, popcorn, pretzels, chocolate, cookies, granola bar, carrots, celery, broccoli, trail mix, deviled eggs, pickles, cottage cheese (about 100-300 calories)

I drink water or unsweetened tea mostly.

sf8813 wrote: »

I've been doing my thing for about 3 months, lost 10lbs so far. I just want to know a REAL persons diet. Not this salmon, kale, quinoa stuff. I'm talking someone like me who has a full time job, a household and children. Someone who doesn't have the time or energy to plan and prep every meal who has to rely on frozen, pre-prepped or even fast food sometimes. What are your meals like?

Fairly certain I'm "real". Salmon takes less than 15 minutes to prepare. Paired with a frozen steamer bag veggies and/or a potato, I have a meal in less than 30 minutes.

It doesn't take me more than 15 minutes in the morning to prepare my lunch. Often times, it's a huge salad with other goodies. Otherwise, I've been known to make a quick stir fry. Some chicken or shrimp, veggies, splash of sauce and I have a lunch in under 20 minutes.

I hard boil a dozen eggs at the beginning of the week for lunches or a fast breakfast on the go.

But, in the end, all that matters is being at a caloric deficit. Doesn't matter if there is pre-packaged, fast, or frozen foods on there.

I litterally eat bread with cheese at work and dinner in the evening. Some little snacks inbetween and that's basically it for me. I've already lost more than 25kg's by doing it this way. It just works for me and I don't have time to prep everything.

sf8813 wrote: »

I've been doing my thing for about 3 months, lost 10lbs so far. I just want to know a REAL persons diet. Not this salmon, kale, quinoa stuff. I'm talking someone like me who has a full time job, a household and children. Someone who doesn't have the time or energy to plan and prep every meal who has to rely on frozen, pre-prepped or even fast food sometimes. What are your meals like?

Your post made me laugh - currently in the midst of decluttering/reorganizing, and it seems like every blog or article features a 6000 sq ft home with mudrooms and laundry rooms the size of my kitchen. I feel your frustration.

In our house, meals are not very creative, and tend to be built around our activities. We don't do fast food, so no advice there. One thing that is helpful is that we get family packs of meats and break them up into meal sizes - I have 1 lb packs of ground beef, 4 chicken breasts, 2 chops, etc, in the freezer, and can just pull those out to defrost for dinner. If you keep breading or marinades in the house, you can whip up a meal pretty easily. They also make pre-trimmed, marinaded, vacuum-sealed chicken breasts that are a little more expensive, but you could defrost those and just pop them in the oven. Frozen veggies are not a bad choice, and many can just be microwaved. There's a pretty good selection of 90 second microwave rices out there (some even have quinoa). Frozen pizza is always an easy choice, and you can just add a bagged salad to that. My kids are huge fans of brinner (breakfast at dinner). We usually do tacos once a week. Pasta, frozen meatballs, and sauce are easy to keep in the house for long periods and don't take long to make.

Since you don't have a lot of time or energy to plan or prep, do you have any go-to casserole type meals you can make and freeze on the days you do have time? Creating a stockpile of those from time to time could be helpful, and then you'd have something for those days when putting something in the oven is all you can handle between other obligations.

Here is a example of what I consider a healthy easy meal that will last me for 5 days for lunch. I fill a pot to the lid with cherry tomatoes and pour in two cups of water and your favorite seasoning. Cook until the tomatoes split open. Let them cool then put them all in the Ninja and blend until as creamy as you like. Brown 1 pound of goat meat or whatever meat you prefer. Cook 5 servings of whole wheat noodles. Pour noodles, meat, and two cups of tomato sauce into Tupperware and throw them into the fridge. Total prep time less than 1 hour and you've got 5 days of lunch. I work rotating 12 hour day/night shifts and have a small farm so you just need to try and make time. If that means late nights or early mornings you just have to make those sacrifices. If living a healthy fit lifestyle was easy everyone would be ripped and active.
** Calories with my portions 420 +/-.

sf8813 wrote: »

I'm talking someone like me who has a full time job, a household and children. Someone who doesn't have the time or energy to plan and prep every meal who has to rely on frozen, pre-prepped or even fast food sometimes. What are your meals like?

I've had medical issues the past few years and minimize prep time as much as possible. My energy has to go toward paying work. But when younger, I used to cook up batches of rice and millet and baked white/sweet potatoes, zucchini, pasta, etc., for example, and portion them into 1-cup glass Pyrex bowls with tight lids. Ditto for any actual meals I made (like millet, garlic, and Fordhook lima beans....) Then I would just take off the lids and microwave. I'm just one person, though, so you would do that differently with a family unless you need to eat differently than the rest. But you could just use bigger family size portions and containers.

I also don't bother with fancy sauces or recipes. My idea of macaroni and cheese is cooked macaroni plus pieces of cheese melted in the convection oven or microwave, maybe with some veg added.... I'm allergic to dairy milk so it never has occurred to me to use it for anything! Your family might rebel if you went super simple, though.

Millet is really nice because it cooks as fast as white rice but is whole grain. So it actually is easy to just put some in a Pyrex measuring cup or even a bowl and microwave (I. Installments, stirring in between). I do pasta that way also (I have a variety of non-wheat as well as wheat pastas). I actually don't have a stove. For my old 500W microwave, I usually cook pasta in two or three 4-minute installments, stirring between each one. Would go quicker in a higher power microwave. Not as much water is needed in the microwave. Usually 2 ounces of dry pasta just needs about a cup of water or a little more. I use 2-cup Pyrex measuring cups to avoid overflow.

I've always liked to get veg blends in boxes or bags for microwaving, though. I would actually eat one 10 oz box of Green Giant blends when I could get them cheap on sale and just add some other protein if needed, like a veggie burger or beans (I eat almost vegan, except for a little dairy cheese). I keep well stocked in canned beans and soups, and I freeze leftovers for later. Also now there are good precooked blends in microwaveable but shelf-stable bags. TastyBite has a lot of them, for example, but there are other brands.

I also will use commercial frozen entrees, usually saving half or more by freezing in portions if I don't want to eat the whole thing. Frozen veg can be added to those as a base. I've even added veg to them if it fits while they are cooking in the microwave.


I'm much less organized now. I've even been using paper bowls a lot.... (don't hate me). But I keep stocked with frozen veg in bags and if I get to the store, will also buy and cut up different colors of bell peppers, onions, shallots, white and sweet potatoe, wrap them in portions and freeze. I even do this with rinsed canned beans, so I can just grab a pack and add it to anything. I also use precooked rice and sometimes get frozen grain/veg blends on sale. BirdsEye has quite a few interesting ones. Since I've had to chop frozen blocks of veg or fruit too often, I actually wrap individual portions (usually 1/4 of a 1 lb bag of veg). So I can just grab a variety of veg portions and rice (I also pack 1/4 of the 2-serving shelf-stable bags of precooked rice individually, for example) and fill up a bowl and microwave for a meal. I might add nuts or seeds or peanuts or beans or some other vegan protein food, and sometimes an ounce of cheese (which I also separate into portions and freeze).

I even freeze avocado, since I don't always want to just eat the whole thing.... I got used to simple meals when my allergies were diagnosed, and discovered avocados as an easy small meal. Cut open, find clean spoon, and eat from shell.... Or mash up with lemon juice or lime juice or some pineapple and enjoy. When freezing, I mash up a bunch of avocados with lemon juice. About half a mashed Haas avocado fits flat inside a zip snack bag and that's pretty fast for spreading on crackers.

I also freeze fruits in portions also, makes them handy for the vitamix or for eating directly. Most freeze nicely with no prep except cutting up melon or slicing strawberries if they're really big or peeling citrus and separating into sections. Can also portion out prepackaged frozen fruits this way.

I do have a big standup freezer, which makes things easier, but that doesn't mean you can't do this with a refrigerator's freezer especially if you can reliably get to the store more often than I can. My freezer is terribly disorganized....

I also will portion out raw veg like baby carrots for easy grabbing in the refrigerator. They seem to keep better than way. I usually eat 1/4 lb at a time. Other raw veg can be kept intact with the right containers.

Annie_01 wrote: »

sf8813 wrote: »

I've been doing my thing for about 3 months, lost 10lbs so far. I just want to know a REAL persons diet. Not this salmon, kale, quinoa stuff. I'm talking someone like me who has a full time job, a household and children. Someone who doesn't have the time or energy to plan and prep every meal who has to rely on frozen, pre-prepped or even fast food sometimes. What are your meals like?

I noticed that you have not been back. I hope however that you are at least reading along and have gotten some ideas on what you can cook that won't take up much of your time. There have been some great ideas on how you can manage this with your schedule. I like trying new recipes and new things so a lot of my meals take time. I do however keep stocked on things that are quick such as tacos, ground beef and pasta and I use my instant pot.

I did this recipe last night...

https://www.skinnytaste.com/angel-hair-with-zucchini-and-tomatoes-5/

Took about 15 minutes to prep and about 10 minutes to cook. I thawed some frozen cooked shrimp to add protein...roasted some broccoli and I was done. It made 5 servings so I have enough for another meal. It was great.

Good choice supplementing that recipe with shrimp. I could also see crabmeat or chunks of fresh fish such as Halibut, cod or trout in that dish.

MikePTY wrote: »

I think you're over-complicating this whole cooking thing. Not every meal has to be some 30 ingredient pinterest recipe where you feel like a gourmet chef. Salmon is super easy to make. Takes about 60 seconds to prep. Pre-heat the oven. Put the salmon fillets on a baking sheet. Add a few spices. Put in the oven. Take out when it's ready. Quinoa you just boil on the stove. They don't really take any more effort than making a frozen meal. I don't exactly know what you do with kale but my understanding is it's not that hard either.

My diary is open and you won't find a whole lot of kale/quinoa/salmon meals. A lot of what I do is simple and easy, and that includes the things I cook.

Ya, my salmon recipe takes no more than 5 min to prep and then 20 minutes in the oven at 325 degrees. I'd eat salmon more often if it weren't so much more expensive than chicken. Fresh salmon is on sale this weekend at Shaw's for $6.99 a pound, which is a decent price for fresh salmon, but not when compared to chicken.

Quinoa is a lot more expensive than rice, which I prefer anyway.

But kale - give me some kale! I have 6 regular curly scotch kale in the garden right now and may get another 6 pack of dinosaur kale. Once that starts popping I will have that and Swiss chard (and a bunch of other stuff) in my smoothies for lunch. I also like kale in Thai beef salad, and other salads.

I bought bagged & chopped kale at the supermarket - once. it was tough and awful. "Baby" kale from the supermarket is much more palatable, but expensive.