Does anyone pretty much eat the same things every day?
 

Like many that have posted I'm trying to figure out the easiest route. I know its mostly mental and mostly will power. I have many issues and am truly trying my best. With 2 preschoolers I feel that I don't have time to prepare all the meals and menus I find in diet books. Our days are so packed and so busy. I eat on the run, eating standing up, rarely eat at all, but the choices I make are awful. We have a huge house and I feel like I am always cleaning, doing laundry, taking time to play with kids, going to playdates, and not slowing down to eat right.:(
I think I could truly eat the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
My DH is in great shape, and any time he does need to lose weight, he does the same diet. 1 cup of any kind of cereal for breakfast with skim milk, and 1 cup of orange juice. For lunch its a turkey sandwich, with fat free cheese and fat free mayo on whole wheat bread, and for dinner he will eat a Lean Cuisne meal. Sometimes he'll snack on popcorn, but not much. He is actually a food scientist and he is always telling me to just eat the 1,000 calories a day and exercise.
Am I venting? Perhaps. I'm sorry. I did join this board to find support though, so I hope you don't mind. My original question had been, do any of you eat the same thing over and over day in and day out?

I began by eating the same thing every day. I lost weight that way. It became boring. So, now I try to switch it every once in awhile. But, I will say that it is much easier for me to eat the same foods. You have to do what works for you. :)

Oh yes, lots of folks do. I can't be certain of everyone's motivation but I think that it's a surefire method of portion control.
And I think it might be a pretty good idea for you. If you buy the things you need to eat and put them in portion sized containers .... you can eat on the run or standing up :)

Hi there 2B,

I would say I eat the same things every week, but not every day. I have about 3 different meals I eat for breakfast, 3 for lunch, and about 10 for dinner. These are meals I know how to make without a recipe and without much measuring. I have a treat meal once a week, so if I need a big departure that's the time. For a small departure, sometimes I'll change up a side dish or season an old favorite in a different way.

Sometimes I'll learn a new recipe that works in my food plan and it'll become part of the rotation, and sometimes I'll phase out something I'm bored with.

None of this is on purpose...it just kinda happened this way!

Best,
3Beans

I have a lot of "staple" meals that I rotate through each week. I don't necessarily eat the same thing every day, but I will eat the same meal week after week. My kids get a little bored with some of my "diet" meals at dinner, so I have to mix it up a bit. My calories tend to stay around 1200-1400 per day.

Great! I think that is the route I'm going to try. Since I joined this board, I have gained 5 pounds, and I just keep thinking 'HOW'...I am at my all time highest weight EVER...even when I was pregnant! I am at 214 this morning!
I want to be 135 !! (wedding weight before kids) Will I ever get there?? Ever? I have so little time to workout with the kids....:(
My only hope right now is to do the same meals over and over each day.
If I see the weight come off, I'll feel good.
Least I gave up soda...and have switched to flavored water.
Oh I feel so horrible.

Well, I don't have kids, so upfront I can say I can't relate to the specific difficulties that poses to a weightloss effort. But I can sympathize. It sounds tough.

However, I can relate to how frustrating weight loss can be! I really got it rolling when I started feeling positive about it, like it's an exciting challenge instead of a horrible slog. Also, instead of looking back to some weight I use to be and what my life was like then, I think ahead to my healthy future. My body has changed over the years and won't be like it was in high school no matter WHAT my weight, so that is NOT my goal!

HTH and good luck to you!

Thanks 3B. I know I will never be what I was in high school either, that was a long long long long time ago. Who knows, I might be a lot older than everyone on the board! LOL, I was thin all my life until I got pregnant with our first son 4 yrs ago, had a miscarriage after then, then got pregnant when he was 18 months old, and had a miscarriage when that baby was 6 months old. I gained a grand total of about 60 pounds? And haven't been able to lose an ounce, for me, knowing I was thin all my life and living like this is just depressing. Not clinically depressing, but it is depressing. I hate for people to see me with my DH out in public, he's in great shape and very cute and I'm sure people think "what is he doing with HER". Well so far today I have had -- um, hmm, actually nothing. I had a bottle of water and thats it.
I know I need to eat real food,...I'm just in a funk. Until I see at least a 10 pound loss, I don't think I'll bounce back. Don't even want to go "home" for the holidays, don't want other family to see me looking like this. I have 3 brothers, all married and their wives are all between a size 0 and a 4. I love them, but hate being around them.
Okay should I lay on a couch and finish typing since I seem to be spilling my life story! Sorry!!!!!! Shutting up now.

Hrm, yeah, I eat a lot of the same foods, but like 3Beans -- I have a few breakfasts I like, a number of different lunches, and about a dozen or so different dinners. I also try to 'mix it up' a bit on types of veggies and fruits, but I have my favorites I keep falling back on.

I make an effort NOT to eat the same things every day, because for me it slows down weight loss when I do.

I will eat in 'streaks' - like for 4 or 5 days I will eat the same thing for breakfast because that is what I want, when I stop wanting it I will supplement a meal of similar caloric value. Being consistant is what works best for me. I need to be on a schedule, and any deivation causes havock in my weight loss (and my mental health for that matter).

I, too, eat a lot of the same foods but have enough choices that I can rotate and not feel like a dog with another bowl of dog chow.

Regarding living healthfully with kids...you feed them, right? When they eat, you eat. When they rest (your oldest is four?), you exercise--get videos and do them in front of the tv. If you have a big house, find a place to put a treadmill, get some wireless headphones, and workout before the kids get up.

You can do it!

I read somewhere that studies have shown that people who eat pretty much the same stuff day in & day out lose more weight, b/c the tendency to overeat b/c something is a good flavor that we don't get very often is reduced.

I pack a lot of the same types of breakfasts & lunches for work - it's quick & easy. I have more variety in my evening meals.

I have some staples that I eat almost every day... they're filling, I like them, they're not too many calories, and some of them take a long time to eat. :smug:

PB&J on low calorie bread (200 cal per sandwich)
Frosted Mini Wheats Cereal with skim milk (250 calories)
Tuna with mayo on Matzo or bread
100 cal bags of microwave kettle corn with cheese seasoning on top (110 cal)
Large apple cut into as many slices as possible
Turkey sandwich on low calorie bread with mustard
Large salad with BBQ sauce and a tiny bit of ranch dressing

It's SO important for me to have a supply of foods that take a long time to eat! 'Cause reality is, I'm not always going to not eat just because I'm not hungry - so I have to have those "damage control" foods around. My favorite is air-popped popcorn - I can eat a whole batch so. . .slowly. . . and only have about 250 calories! :)

I think it is very important to keep a variety of foods in your diet for 2 reasons: (1) nutrition and (2) keep boredom at bay. When we get bored with our food, we tend to overeat. Those diet frozen meals do not have adequate nutrition for a meal. You need to add a vegetable and salad or piece of fruit.

There have been some studies done on this, and people that eat generally the same thing every day are more successful at weight loss. Also, the new book YOU The Diet notes this research and they suggest eating this way. If you go to the Maintainers forum, you'll read that some people also eat that way to keep their weight off - looking at food more as a fuel and less of a comfort or entertainment prevents some people from overeating.

I'd say i'm in the "phase" catagory. If I get a bug up my butt I can eat a batch of homemade hummus or yogurt cheese for days in a row. Like others I have my staples. I start every day with warm lemon/lime water, smoothies for breakfast that I can add different supplements to, a tossed field greens salad every day with either lunch or dinner, boneless/skinless chicken breasts, salmon, those types of things. I mix up things with different veggies, grains or beans.

I don't do it because something tells me I need to, it just works out that way. It's much quicker and easier. I cook things off, put them in the freezer and just grab as I want to. :D

I'm one of those people who can eat the same thing every day, even multiple meals a day. I hardly ever get bored with foods.

And I do tend to eat more if it's something new, and often have to face the consequences of having overeaten.

I eat the same thing for breakfast every day. I have three different cereals that I like but I'll buy the same one for literally months at a time. On Fridays I switch it up and have oatmeal (but I'm even consistent about that--only on Fridays and pretty much every Friday). On weekends I go crazy and have bacon, an English muffin, and fruit. Again, same thing every weekend (except I've been thinking about replacing the bacon with grits on Sundays). Yep, I'm a wild woman! :dizzy:

For lunch, I mix things up a bit but I almost always have a cucumber, tomato, and raspberry salad with whatever else I'm having. For a long time, I had a PB&J every day (and you pretty much can't get a faster lunch than that).

I always have the same green salad with my dinner but I do make a lot of different entres.

I eat the same snacks every day. In the AM it's coffee or tea and sometimes some fruit. In the afternoon it's a fiber cake from Trader Joe's and after working out (usually late afternoon), it's a bowl of NF yogurt with raspberries. I finish every day with a cup of tea and sometimes a low cal pudding cup before going to bed.

One thing that helps me is making meals that last for multiple days. I'll frequently make something for lunch that will last three or four days. And anything I make for dinner absolutely has to feed us for two days. I have some recipes that feed us for three or four days (after the second or third day I usually freeze the rest in individual servings because my SO requires more variety in his diet). This gives me some quick meals that I can pull out of the freezer.

If you live near a Trader Joe's, they are a great source of low calorie, easy and quick to prepare foods. Some of the staples I rely on for quick meals include their frozen brown rice, pre-made Indian dishes, frozen salmon patties, Gerhardt's turkey sausage, pre-cut and washed veggies, and their pre-made salads. I don't get it from Trader Joe's, but pre-seasoned pork tenderloin is another super easy, low calorie meal. Just take it out of the package and stick it in the oven.

I would like to add, that for your current weight of over 200 pounds-1000 calories a day is WAY to little. You can start out at a higher calorie level than that and lose a couple pounds a week for a while. I would personally try about 1600-1700 a day and see what happens. 1000 calories is very low-I never go below 1200 on a regular basis-only on the occasional day where I don't have time to eat.
The more you weigh, the more calories you burn doing things. If a 200 pound woman, and a 130 pound woman both walk a mile-the 200 pound woman burns more calories doing the same thing, because she is carrying around 70 pounds more resistance. Start out at a higher calorie level-NOT 1000-and then when your weight loss slows down to 1/2 pound a week or less, drop it by 100 calories a day.
1200 calories is about the lowest you want to end up at on a regular basis-and this is when you are getting to the last 10-20 pounds.

I do eat the same things each day, pretty much. But when I'm no longer enjoying them, I mix it up and try something new. But for some reason I never get tired of my salad for lunch... I look forward to it each day.

Way back when (I think in 2001 or 2002)........

When I lost weight on Weight Watchers (which is actually the last time I was "able" to lose weight, come to think of it) I ate pretty much the same thing every day--and it was almost identical to your husband's "diet."

I would eat:

Breakfast--1 c raisin bran, 1 c skim milk and 1 c orange juice
Snack--FF pudding cup & 1 apple, sliced not peeled
Lunch--Roast beef sandwich w/cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles (sometimes Subway and sometimes home-made) OR a BLT with 4 slices of bacon, romaine lettuce or spinach leaves and roma tomato with FF chips
Snack--yogurt cup or banana
Supper--Some kind of Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice (preferably a larger one)
Bedtime snack--usually an ice cream "treat"

The one "day off" meal I had was every Tuesday after weigh in--I'd eat tuna with REAL mayo and pickles with either King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls (all FOUR in the small package) or a whole bag of Dorito's Wow's (which I think are "Light" now).

Anyway, I went from 236 to 208 eating that way. I was never hungry. Ask me why I stopped eating that way and gained all my weight back plus more...........I have no idea. I wasn't bored with those foods and when the new year starts I plan on trying to go back to that WOE and see what happens.

I eat the same breakfast every day - mostly because it took a loooong time to figure out what breakfast would keep my bloodsugar steady all morning. I eat oatmeal and an eggbeater omelet with light cheese. The only variation is what veggies are in the omelet, that varies by what I have prechopped in the freezer.

After that though, my days vary quite a bit, but for snacks and lunch I probably have a short list of "options" (like lunch almost ALWAYS starts with a salad) dinner is very varied. I dont do well with boredom or too much structure.

I eat the same breakfast everyday, I now mix 2 cereals together - Kashi go lean and quaker essentials crunch corn bran cereal.

I have about 3 or 4 different lunches that I choose from. And one of several dinners that I rotate as well. And I have 3 or 4 different snacks that I eat.

I am happy with my choices, they have the right nutrition counts. They are tasty. They satisfy me. They have the right number of calories, so I always know what they are and I don't have to be concerned that I'm overstepping my calories. I tjust makes it easier for me to plan my week and to stay on track.