I'm tired of having to think about what I eat all the time. If I could, I'd pay someone to organize a balanced diet for me. I thought about trying something like nutrasystem, but I really can't afford something like that.

Anyone feel the same way? Have you found a eating plan that allows you to sit in the passenger's seat?

Can't you just make your own plan? Figure out what you're going to eat, buy just that and be done with it? You could eat the same thing or rotate through three options. If you sat down on Sunday, wrote out a food plan and posted it on the wall, you'd have your own plan, with your own food.

So, eat the same breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks every day. Done.

You don't need a program/meal delivery, if you think you can stick to what you set up.

I seriously eat the same food all the time LOL. I'm not the type that really needs my food to entertain me, so it works for me.

I eat about 1 of 3 things for breakfast, and 1 of about 3 things for lunch. Where I get my variety is dinner, but even at that, we have about 10-15 dinners we rotate through.

I make up extra calories, or save up extra calories, through my snacks. If I'm having a heavier dinner, I'll snack really light, and choose a lighter lunch and breakfast. And the opposite is true!

This is me as well (the bolded part).

I can relate to what you are saying. At first, I wanted somebody to deliver food to me so I wouldn't think about food. Since I didn't have that kind of money, I went on a Lean Cuisine diet for awhile. But I don't need that anymore. I prepare simple meals with an abundance of produce & protein and I'm set.

I think it helps to plan in advance. That way you aren't faced with a decision every time you want to eat. Also, planning ahead helps you make good choices. A lot of the veterans on 3FC recommend planning in advance and I agree with them.

I do that and to keep it simple, I pretty much eat the same thing every day. When I go grocery shopping, it takes 10 minutes because I buy the same stuff over and over. And eat the same portions. The only thing I vary are the spices, the vegetables, and for fun, I might buy a fruit I've never eaten before.

Eating the same healthy foods repeatedly has made me crave them. It's weird, but I salivate at the thought of a lush, abundant salad & fish.

Two words: Lean Cuisine.

No, really. It's how I lost my weight. I didn't rely solely on them, but they sure helped. I'm not someone who likes to cook, so I'm not going to try to put together something "creative" for every meal. Usually I would have a salad or an extra vegetable with the LC. Lots of choices there. And as I said, they weren't the only things I ate.

I also like frozen, microwave-in-the-bag green beans and such. I'll occasionally cook up fresh broccoli, but sometimes even that is a lot of trouble.

Jay

I often feel the same way Kelly - I would love to have a professional chef cook healthy and delicous meals for me every day. Unfortunately that cannot happen. I find planning my meals every week, cooking large portions and freezing them very helpful.

I eat the same things every day. I also don't eat "meals"--planing a meal is intimidating. I just eat food--cottage cheese when I wake up, some crackers a few hours later, some cucumbers an hour after that, then some roasted chicken. I got home from work a few minutes ago and ate a bowl of squash. In a couple hours I'll eat some more chicken. I never really have a "meal"--it's just eating one thing after another, mostly the same things every day.

This is exactly what I do as well.

My kids would balk if we ate the same thing every day, so I'm stuck looking for variety. Occasionally I'll make them something like mac and cheese and veggies and I'll eat some chicken and brown rice with a veggie (my go-to meal when I don't know what to make), but usually I'm making the same thing for everyone. Some exercise programs come with meal plans. For instance, Turbo Jam comes with the 10 day slim down plan that has every meal planned, and it also has a general meal plan that you pick 1 breakfast, 1 lunch, 1 dinner and 2 snacks from a list and go with that. Very easy to follow. I like to do that for a few days every week to relieve the pressure of being creative and coming up with healthy dishes everyone will like.

I always eat the same general things basically as well. I just mix up the vegetables and seasonings..

Breakfast:

Either grits or scrambled eggs, with a piece of toast. Sometimes Total cereal with skim milk.

Lunch and Dinners:

Either ground turkey (burgers, meatloaf, stuffed bell peppers etc) chicken (baked with lemon pepper, mustard etc..), salmon, tuna, dried beans (lima, black, red, pinto) for a protein; broccoli, asparagus, carrots, green beans, cauliflower, yellow squash (possibilities are basically endless) for a vegetable; and brown rice, cous cous and sweet potatoes as a carb. And of course always water to drink. Sometimes maybe once or twice a week I will have a Diet Crush Orange, because I am trying to stay away from Aspartame.

Snacks: I do not eat snacks usually... Rarely I will have a veggie if I am hungry in between. My schedule doesn't allow for 5-6 meals a day. I do good if I get around to eating 3 meals a day haha.

I have pretty much been eating variations of the same foods for the last month. Sometimes I eat them in a slightly diff order, but it all pretty much stays the same, unless I plan something diff.
I will have to change it up a bit when school starts.

morning
Yogurt and 1/2 cup go lean crunch
fruit

snack
3 egg whites 1 egg (sometimes with chopped vegis occasionally on toast)

lunch
1/2 avocado, 1 diced tomato, onions, green peppers occasionally on toast.
or
whole wheat pasta - sometimes dry sometimes with sauce.
or
a small portion of whatever we had for dinner and I put away for lunch.

pm snack
yogurt if I did not have the go lean crunch in the morning or am feeling snacky, I will eat the go lean crunch dry.
or
tomatos and cucumbers and some other fruit fruit.
or
granolla bar

dinner
whatever I am making - chicken, spaghetti, stuffed cabbage, hamburger and any variation of vegis.

I do this. Most days I have a yogurt for breakfast. I'll have 10 bby carrots and 15 thin slices of cucumber for lunch, with my baked redskin potato (with gran. garlic and soy-parm cheese!)... I'm always satisfied on that. If I forget or run out of time to make that, I have a stash of easy mac at work.

It keeps me to about 450 - 500 cals for breakfast and lunch. Rarely I'll have a snack when I get home, but its never more than 200 cals if I do - I might have cereal dry, or another yogurt, fruit, veggies with low-cal ranch... I buy a lot of veggies.

Also, I don't generally eat meat during the day. I save meat for dinner, if I even have it there. I'm okay without it, and sometimes I prefer it.

Tonight's dinner is this: http://www.hungry-girl.com/week/week....php?isid=1074 Hungry Girl's Turkey Reuben. I don't like 'kraut, so I use angel hair cabbage in kraft FF thousand island dressing. I also just got low cal swiss cheese, I'm not going to try to get DH to use veggie-cheese-slices... I also use whole wheat tortillas.

Every Saturday I sit down with my Walmart, Target, and grocery store (Acme and Giant Eagle!!) fliers and plan, to the T, what DH and I will eat. I generally spend about $75 a week on food for us. It's a lot, but I make everything, save 1 meal on Saturday nights. Most, like 80%, of my money goes to veggies and "fresh" things. I plan out every side, like how much lettuce we'll need to have a salad every night, and more if my Dad will be over. I only buy whole grain - when I can help it. I also go to my local farmers market when I can, it SO great and saves $$!

Planning it all used to take me an hour. It takes me about 15 mins now. We go through about 35 recipies, trying new ones here and there, but generally its the same, so I know what to buy and what I'll need.

I like the plan-ahead aspect of it, and I know waaay ahead of time what my calories are going to be for the day.

Good luck! It can be done.

Well I kinda got tired of being so fat, lol. When I don't think about what I'm eating, if I leave my food choices up in the air- it makes for poor results.

Eating well, eating healthy won't happen on it's own. You can't wing it. It needs to be planned for. It takes a continuous, on going effort. But it's worthy of the time. The time I spend planning my food in advance, frees me up to have a better life. Also having planned it out ahead of time, I don't have to think about it when the time comes.

I don't ever want to be in the passengers seat. I am THRILLED that I am the one who is in charge. Me - I'm in control.

That being said, I really don't have to think about it all that much anymore. All my thinking has been done eons ago.

I've long ago discovered foods that I love and work well for me. Not much to think about any more. Like others have said - I eat the same breakfast every day. One of several different lunches, same goes with dinners. I also have my repertoire of snacks down pat.