My life-long depression and anxiety have made it difficult to prepare ahead when I am trying to eat better. I'll fail to eat breakfast and pack a lunch, then I feel unprepared to make dinner and eat a TON of convenience foods in the evening.

I want to cook foods ahead of time, maybe a weekly batch of steamed veggies, brown rice, beans, etc. Then I would like to pack snacks and three meals about two days ahead of time. That way, if I have a day when I feel paralyzed by anxiety, I already have a day's worth of food portioned out.

I entered college 8 years ago at 120 pounds, not underweight but in the lower end of the normal range. I still had a bad relationship with food. There was never food at my home growing up and I had developed anorexia my senior year of high school. Since high school, I have gained about 10 lbs per year for the last 8 years.

My depression is worse when I don't have routines, but I'm not always self-motivated. I think that a food prep and storage routine would help me for the downer days when I can't think straight. Does anyone have any advice as to how to create a plan to prepare food ahead of time, in a simple and non-intimidating way, that will help me get through the bad days in the week?

I skip dinner and prepare my breakfast and lunch for the next day every evening.

For breakfast, I eat oats and fish.

For lunch I have fish and a salad.

I vary the fish.

I find keeping the foods relatively the same with some variety helps me to stick to the routine as it's easier that way (not too much thinking about meals).

I also find preparing the foods at the same time each day helps.

If I know I have a very busy/stressful day coming up when I won't be able to prepare the meals for the following day I may prepare 2 breakfasts and 2 lunches in one evening.

I also cook foods at the weekend and freeze them. So I have, like, 10 crab cakes and 10 pieces of tuna in my freezer. I can just pull one of these out for dinner the next day.

Just find your routine. And keep things simple. Good luck.

Thanks for the tips! I plan on just having a protein shake in the morning, protein at lunch (greek yogurt, quinoa patty, or hard boiled eggs), raw fruit and veg at lunch (easy to chop varieties), then something similar for dinner. I have a Naturebox subscription and started to portion my snacks, I only order nuts (mostly sunflower seeds and cashews) from them so I can count on a nutty snack every day.

I like the idea of keeping it simple and eating slight variations of the same thing every day...

Sounds good. Once you get into the routine, you could also start swopping out one thing or adding in another to make things interesting. That way you build a whole range of healthy foods to eat in an easy, manageable, low-stress way. So, for the protein, you could try tofu one day. Or dried fruits for your fruit. Or hummus with your veg. You get my drift.

It will stop you getting bored.

Hello All,

Just checking in and reading a number of comments, it helps me to read these as I feel like I am getting support when I read success stories and feel for those who are struggling.

I have been done this road before and slipped for several reasons. I read on someone's comment that it is mostly mental, yes I agree. Although, I would have to say that it is more emotional.

There is no definitive diet and we are all different, wether it be body type or medical. What works for one, doesn't always work for another. For me the same diet that I did in my teens (calorie counting) doesn't work anymore. However, I have been very successful with a low carb approach. For me, it is all about what the calories are.

To address those who are feeling down. I too can suffer from the lows. I came across a free on line book years ago and it really helped me. It is called, The Way Up from Down, and is about natural treatments for depression. I started taking the recommended amino acids and within 2 days, felt great.

Wishing Everyone Good Health

Sorry I you asked about routines.
I have printed off calendars for the next 4 months and enter my weight and goal weight for every week. I weight myself every morning and every day I tick off, food, exercise and water. It helps me keep track and it is like a contract to be accountable for my day.

(When I am not at work)
*Coffee, then 30 min treadmill
*breakfast protein drink
*Lunch, salad-with protein-chicken,eggs,etc
*dinner,cooked veg-usually spinach or cauliflower and protein
*I try to go to bed early, so I get my sleep, but also so I wouldn't snack
*I drink at least 9 glasses of water per day.
*If you get really hungry, you can have more protein drinks.

Your diet is up to you. For me the low carbs work. I like the speed of loosing weight. When I am on this diet, I usually loose 5 pounds pre week.

I basically follow the Dr. Tran Tien Diet. His diet is on line. Ideal protein uses his plan, however Ideal protein is packages of food, expensive and not as healthy as doing it your self. I modified it a little to suit me. I spilt the meat protein between lunch and dinner.

(when I am at work)
It is very difficult, as I travel for a living and must contend with restaurant food and don't have access to cook.
The only thing I can do is watch my carb intake and drink protein drinks

I like to cook and freeze dishes. To start, pick a one pot meal - stew, chili, curries, or soup (easiest to get the hang of) - cook, cool, portion into individual containers, and freeze. Sauces like marinara, enchilada sauce, or BBQ sauce can be frozen the same way.

You can also freeze things like meatballs, homemade burritos, breakfast sandwiches, nuggets, taquitos, mini-pot pies, or mini-meatloves by cooking, cooling, freezing on a baking sheet (flash freeze) then transferring the frozen items into a freezer bag. The baking sheet keeps them from freezing together so you can take out as many or as few as you want to eat at that time.

Casseroles can be frozen for a few hours until semi solid, then cut into portions and you can put the portioned squares into a freezer bag to take out one serving at a time.

Batch/freezer cooking has been my savior. details here. I've done it for about 7 years and I'll never look back. I cook VERY rarely during the week. Occasionally I cook something that isn't freezer friendly - like stuffed zucchini boats - at night after eating dinner so that we can just pop it in the oven the following day.

You can also prep crockpot meals at one time so that you can easily throw them into a crockpot in the morning with no prep like this.

Oh, and my routine is basically some kind of egg/vegetable for breakfast - I either make this that morning or make something like quiche cupcakes on a Sunday so that I have two for breakfast all week. Just microwave for 30 seconds.

Snack #1 - a serving of fruit

Lunch - a cup of frozen soup that I've cooked and portioned on the weekend.

Snack # 2 - vegetables with dip

Dinner - varies, but usually is one of my freezer meals - if it's a curry I may cook up some rice or cauliflower rice (also in my freezer), or if it's a chili I may add some cheese, jalapeno, lime, sour cream and crushed tortilla chips, etc.
Sometimes it's as easy as frozen veggies mixed with pasta and maybe a little neufchatel cheese to make a creamy sauce, or frozen veggies topping a microwave baked potato.

Snack # 3 - I usually don't eat a last snack, but I do make sure I have things like popcorn or calbees baked peas on hand pre-portioned (28g) into small snack bags, so I can grab one without "accidentally" eating the entire bag.