Hi everyone,

Planning meals and putting together a meal plan in range has not worked for me yet, but I know I have to do it in order to really lose weight. How did you guys put together your meals plans? I live alone and work/go to school. I don't mind cooking as long as it is stuff I can make ahead. But I have a hard time figuring out proper portions, etc.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
Annie

You should determine your calorie limits and see how many meals / snacks a day you need per day to start off

These are some common things that creep up on my grocery list weekly =)

Breakfast ideas: cereal, oatmeal, fruit, eggs, toast, milk, yogurt, juice..

Lunch/Dinner: Lean protein (chicken, fish, lean pork, lean beef, leen turkey) + different spices to jazz it up, vegetables (steamed, raw, sauteed), brown rice, whole wheat pasta, pita breads, whole wheat bread, wheat tortilla wraps

Snacks: Yogurt, Popcorn, Fruit, Veggie sticks, Dark chocolate, Nuts

I don't buy it but I've read some people just buy "healthy choice" (watch sodium).. or other pre-packaged food for days you REALLY can't do anything or plan. Keeping a few in the freezer might help you on days you are pressed for time.

Best of luck with you. I know pre-planning really helps me out =)

I just tried to come up with things that are what I would normally eat and alter them a bit to be more low cal/low fat...i.e. I love tacos, so I still have them, but skip the shredded cheese and use taco sauce instead to save calories/fat. And when I cook I just total up the overall number of calories in what I made, then divide that by how many portions I seperate it out into. The portions can be whatever you want, as long as the amount of calories in them is appropriate for one meal's worth of your daily allowance. And I put the portions directly into Gladware containers so I only have to count once, making mealtime much easier for the next few days. I also took the various size drinking glasses I have and used my measuring cup to pour 1 cup of water into them, so now I can easily eyeball how much one serving of juice or whatever is without having to measure each time. It gets easier as you go along and start to be able to eyeball portions without having to measure each time.

This has been a challenge of mine for a long time and sort of has become an obsession of mine. Here is what I have done that has worked well for me. I made a list of all the things that were consistent with my eating plan that I loved to eat and wouldn't mind eating on a regular basis. Then I decided what I thought was reasonable in terms of new recipes I could reasonably try in a week. I started with 1 per week and have since decided that 2 is not unreasonable. I print out a blank calendar. I then start filling in my 1 new or two new things per week and fill in the rest with the items off my favorites list. As I find new stuff I love, it gets added to the list. That doesn't happen a lot-thus the need to try something new every week. I have also organized my favorites list to help me know how to make better choices when I pick new things to try and I'm also working on figuring out what goes well in the freezer so I can pull it out later for quick meals when I don't have time to cook. Hope that was helpful.

All of the above advice is fantastic.

I particuarly agree with the idea that you should decide how many calories you want to stick to in a day and then decide what kinds of food you want to eat. This includes deciding what kinds of "bad food" that you still really, really want, and then figuring out a way to make a healthier version. (For example: I love mexican food. So I often buy fat free refried beans and tortillas and taco shells. But I'll make my fajitas with only a small amount of canola oil and only have one...no sour cream or cheese. And so forth.)

As far as portioning, once you figure out how many calories your daily limit is, follow portion sizes on the box. Such as - pasta is a great thing to make ahead. You can make a whole pound of it, portion it out in tupperware according to the pasta box, and eat on it for a few days. Casseroles are great make ahead items, too, as long as you make a healthy version (google healthy casserole recipes, and you'll find hundreds of them, usually with calorie counts included which will help with portioning for 2nd and 3rd and 4th meals).

Then you have to think about snacks. I always think it's a great idea to eat 6 times a day (including 3 snacks). Here are some of my favorite easy snacks that you can grab and throw in your lunch bag: no sugar added applesauce, sugarfree jello or pudding, 100 calorie snack bags (or buy a box of something like light wheat thins and portion them into 100 calorie snack baggies by following the nutritional info on the box), sunsweet ones, dark chocolate, lightly salted cashews, sugarfree or no sugar added fruit cups, fresh fruit, fresh veggies like carrots and celery with light ranch or natural peanut butter

I hope some of this is useful. I'm the self-proclaimed queen of pre-portioning (I keep ziplock snack baggies in business), so if you want any more advice on this, just message me!!

I have few recipes that only make 1 or 2 servings. Sometimes that is nice but to be honest-generally I am glad I have extra servings so I don't have to cook all the time. I am making something this weekend off my "favorites" list so its something I know I love that makes 12 servings. I'm going to put half immediately in the freezer for when I'm on call in a couple weeks and the other half I will have for a bunch of meals this week. Now I wouldn't recommend doing that unless it was something you KNEW you loved but sometimes it turns out to be handy. Most of the time I make 4-6 servings of things. Sometimes if it is a 6 serving recipe I cut the recipe in half so I only get 3 servings on purpose. When I make my meal plans for the month I know how many servings I'm going to get out of each one and plan accordingly.

Wow, you sound just like me Except I don't plan ahead for a month!