Hi, I'm male, pushing 40, was a skinny kid (skeletal, actually), then for reasons I won't trouble you with I went up to ~300lbs, from ~150 (I'd gotten to my lightest-ever weight while unable to eat solid food after a car accident). I'm 6'4", but that was still WAY too much for my skinny frame. I doubled my weight and became basically half fat (extremely unhealthy, especially since it was mostly around my middle). I've lost ~120lbs now, and am at my perfect BMI weight (~180lbs), so I'm happy about that (but I still have a LOT of toning to do). Anyway, I've nearly lost something else with that weight: the desire to eat for pleasure. I'll elaborate on that below. It's nice to be here!
Here's the part that would've been another thread, if I knew the appropriate sub-forum to post it in...
I'm here looking for help to create a single, easily-prepared meal, which I will prepare in large amounts, weekly, and eat only that, every meal, every day (please read to the end before telling me that's a bad idea ). I'd like the meal to look something like this (amounts are daily):
--fat: max 40g; min 1/2 monounsaturated; max 1/4 saturated; no trans-fat
--carb: about 200g (whatever amount is necessary for desired calories, depending on fat & protein); max 1/4 sugar; lots of fiber
--protein: max 160g
--cholesterol: max 300mg
--sodium: max 2400mg
--omega-3: min 2g
--omega-6: max 4x omega-3
That'll give me about 1800 calories (I don't seem to need even that much to maintain my weight, despite moderate daily exercise... it's very strange), with a fat/carb/protein ratio of about 20/45/35.
I realize this goes against all conventional wisdom, which says that variety is absolutely necessary. But I'm determined to do this. I've heard about hardcore athletes who do this, so it's at least plausible that conventional wisdom is wrong (I'm convinced that it is). Suppose you logged your varied food intake for a week; now suppose you prepared all that again in advance for the next week, combined it all into one giant meal, and divided the results into actual meal-sized portions. Well, there's your variety, in the form of seemingly uniform meals. That's what I want to do: create a single meal of diverse ingredients and be done with it. Food is fuel to me now; I've just about tackled the mental aspects of treating food as pleasure (I understand that many people relish this aspect of food and don't find it detrimental to their dieting; that's great for them, but I no longer see food that way and I'm not going to question it); now I just want healthy fuel -- and easy shopping and preparation!
Thanks to anyone able and willing to help!