Making meals in advance....
 

Hi guys

I know this is a stupid question.

My boyfriend is a gym-a-holic.....he makes his meals in advance for the week - it usually consists of either chicken or beef, greens (like green beans) and potato.
Im wondering if anyone else does this and has had results from it. It looks an awfully boring diet eating the same thing three times a day but he also has a tidy breakfast and then a main meal as well (albeit smaller than usual) so he is having 5 meals a day as well as a protein shake before he works out and fruit snacks.
Does anyone else do this?

Im wondering if I might start following his example by having several smaller meals throughout the day.
A smoothie with breakfast rather than protein shake(breakfast is cereal , porridge or yoghurt and fruit)
A small snack of fruit about 11.
Lunch at 12.30 (sandwich, soup or a salad with a protein)
a snack of fruit about 2
another snack about 4 possibly dairy of some sort.
and then dinner at about 6 (meat and vegetables with carbs)

does anyone think this would work or would I just add weight from the extra portions?

I do - I make 12 mini egg muffins for breakfast for the entire week on Sunday night, I make a bunch of one pot meals for lunch or dinner (chili, stew, soup, etc), but I also make other things like marinara sauce, burgers, breakfast sausage, chicken nuggets, meatloaf muffins, meatballs, burritos, breakfast sandwiches, and cheese sauce.

All of the above incorporate vegetables right into the recipes - even the cheese sauce - so we're cutting calories by nature, but also so that I can make quick homemade meals within 10 minutes of getting home for anyone in my family. The one pot meals I like to divvy into portions to freeze, but everything else is flash frozen so we can take out one portion at a time or several.

I also don't get bored of eating the same meals because I may have 8 servings of chili, but I can eat them over a period of several months. I just grab what I want to eat.

I can't tell you how much money I've saved because we never let anything go bad!

I live out of a baggie myself. I make up baggies of food and mark them after I weigh them out. So it looks like Celery 8 oz 32 calories Strawberries 10 oz 90 calories etc, do that with my meats also. Weigh, cook, bag and tag :)
Makes it easy to just grab when needed baggies out of ice box and go. Also this way I choose what I want if I want a variety. But I am one of those that can eat the same thing over and over.

My step-dad ate the same foods everyday whenever he dieted so that he would not have a desire to eat since he knew it was going to be the same old thing day in day out. That took the temptation out of the equation.

My partner goes through a phase where he literally lives on chicken, rice and vegetables for about a week. Im not sure I could manage that but I'm thinking if I can make a weeks worth of food then it is only one day of a prep and it takes the food issues out of the equation for me as Id be tempted to run to the chip shop if theres nothing particular in that I fancied eating.

Also my daughters school is right next door to a local shop and the sweeties and crap in there are tempting when Im having a hungry day,

Least this way if I know I have something made to come home to I might not be so hungry.

If you plan out the calories/butrients and eat the same thing everyday, I think it's a very easy and effective model. But if you're going to bored and veer off, it's not worth it.

I don't think extra portions are bad. Successful weight loss is not just eating as little as possible. Do you train as much as your bf?

I always prepare advance meal whenever I don't have the time to do this in the morning. The only advance meal that I am doing is the breakfast and smoothie. I admire your boyfriend for being so good in making his advance meal. He is really a good example and I think you should do this too.

I wouldn't do it, it sounds too boring for me. And can cooked chicken keep in the refrigerator for a week? I wouldn't eat it, I like my food to be fresh. I keep lots of prep friendly ingredients in the fridge, I prep my salad leaves for example but you can buy those ready to eat organic lettuce boxes too. It doesn't take very long to cook up a chicken breast fresh and hot.

I freeze portions of soups and stews. Individually packed chicken breasts and frozen shrimp that can thaw in minutes. I keep deli meats around, and nice cheeses. Once every couple of weeks I make big batches of homemade chicken stock and freeze in portions so that I can make quick soups.

I couldn't eat leftovers for more than one day. I'd be bored out of my mind, but others seem to like it. I need freshly prepared food and have the time and skill to do it.

I'd get bored eating the exact same thing everyday too. The one thing I don't seem to tire of is eggs for breakfast, but I switch up what I put in the eggs.

Freezing is the way to go for many (but not all) of my meals. I also pack baggies of veggies with dip or sometimes cut fruit, but I do those the night before, so I can just grab my lunch box in the morning.

It can be a useful tool to have at least a few things that require little to no prep in order to eat.

I totally agree, and I rely on easy prep on a daily basis. Deli meats, cheeses, eggs, salads, those are all very easy to prep for me. I understand though that some people's idea of easy is different than mine. For the days that all I want to do is stick something in the microwave I have left overs or soup out of the freezers. But usually I'm not bothered by having to do a little knife work. These days I'm going through the trouble of taking out really pretty plates and set a real table for all my meals, it's part of my mindful eating practice. You have to go with what you're most comfortable with, I'm afraid that if I expect read-meals all the time that even that will become too difficult one day. Long gone are the days where we have to grow our own food, kill our own chickens and bake our own bread. But fast and easy is not the right way for me, a little effort is required in my world.

I never tire of eggs either, I eat them almost daily for breakfast too.

I completely agree. Some of our easiest and most common meals are salads, quesadillas, pita pizzas, stir fry/noodle bowls. Almost no work required!

The last thing I want to do when I get home at 6pm is start cooking something that takes anything more than 30 minutes, then cleaning pots/pans/kitchen while my child repeats "I'm HUNGRY" the entire time :dizzy:

Days like that I am so thankful that I have homemade chicken and veggie nuggets that I can pull out of my freezer, make a quick tomato salad, and maybe boil up some macaroni to mix with the cauliflower cheese sauce that I have already frozen in cubes, or maybe we take our turkey/veggie meatballs from the freezer, make some zucchini noodles, and pull some marinara that I've already made.

While I use food prep as a tool for weight loss and budget, I think it's much more effective as a mom tool for me! :D

I try to cook fresh every day. But some meals i do for few days (meat mostly). whne i started to eat healthy food i understood that fresh made meals taste much better;-)