I've realized that I spend wayyyyy too much time thinking about, planning, weighing and calculating the calorie count of my meals so I've decided to try an experiment for the next 2 weeks where I am going to eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch everyday and switch up dinner. I'm hoping that not having to think about what to eat will help me be more focused and I will be less tempted to eat other things.
Wish me luck!

Good luck! Have you tried cooking in bulk and freezing portions? Once you've calculated the calories for that meal, you can just eat it again without having to fret about it. It's less work, too. Right now I have portions of Thai curry, Indian mango curry, minestrone soup and stuffed peppers in the freezer, for instance.

I have done it before, but since I live with other people it's limited freezer space so that didn't work out all that good lol.

I been doing something similar and it really is nice not having to think about it constantly. It's been working great for me, hope it works out for you too. =)

I pretty much eat *only the same things*. Not for every meal, but I have a mental bank of all the things I can eat, and what their calories are, and then I don't have to worry. I'd rather eat repetitively and know what I'm getting, and not have to count, calculate all the time, than try and figure out calories in every single meal every day. I don't really mind boring meals though. If I'm gonna eat exciting, I'll have a "day off" and not calorie count. Regular days, I eat boring now, it's worked really well for me.

I think thats a good idea. I tend to eat the same thing until I get bored of it. Breakfast had been for a few weeks a smoothie. Now it is a granola bar and fruit. Lunch 4 days out of 5 is a greek salad. Do it. When you get bored, find the next thing you can stick with. Having variety for dinner makes it easier to stick with the same B&L. Good luck.

good luck!!!

I'm trying something similar. Not eating exactly the same foods every day or at any of my meals, because a wide variety keeps me from equating my weight loss food plan with deprivation and punishment. In the past, one of the main reasons I would fall off a diet was feeling bored and/or deprived.

I also shop on based on whatever is on sale, so I don't buy the same foods every week. I buy about the same amount of meat/proteins each week but I write "meat/protein" on my list instead of specific types (the same for fruits and vegetables).

I use an exchange plan, because it's a "short-hand" way to count calories, but I have mostly eaten randomly throughout the day and, just checking off each exchange as I ate it.

What I'm trying this week, is sticking to a set formula for each meal (and possibly snacks), so that my calories are more evenly distributed throughout the day, and so that meal planning is easier and can be done more quickly (and yet less spur of the moment).

For example, this week I plan on eating

breakfast: 3 protein, 1 starch, 1 dairy and 1 fruit (420 calories).

lunch: 3 protein, 3 vegetable, 2 fat, 1 fruit (415 calories).

dinner: 4 protein, 3 vegetables, 1 starch, 2 fat, 1 fruit (550).


I haven't decided whether to plan snacks and snack times too, or whether to deal with snacks on an "as needed" basis.

I eat a very limited menu - the same thing every day for breakfast, one of about 3 or 4 different lunches (but often the same thing 3 or 4 days in a row) and then 3 or 4 different things for supper.

I LOVE doing this. I spent so much more time thinking about food when I was calorie counting and eating a greater variety. This way, I have my set foods that are on my plan. I like them all, I eat when I am hungry, but then I move on. Food is enjoyable but it's not entertainment any more. And I think it's a huge factor in my being able to successfully stay on plan and get good results.

I pretty much eat the same thing every day, and it works well for me. I get cheap lunch where i work, so it costs me about the same to eat there, or fix something at home. Most days, I don't care for what's on the menu, so I have salad. I use an on line program for keeping track of my calories, so that helps. Once I enter in a food, it adds to my list, so I just select it each time I eat it, and I can change serving size as necessary.

I think you have a good plan! I hope it works!

I have actually thought about doing this. I usually approach weight loss the same way, tried 3x. First a little jump start, like IF, no real planning, then watching calories, then I settle into something more sustainable and easy to track. I like the exchange system, I turned to that after I got tired of calculating weight watcher points (I taught myself the formulas and kept an excel spreadsheet)

Good idea! After much trial and error, and one too many times on WW, I think I need to try this. Breakfast is already fairly limited, but lunch/snack/dinner is all over the place. I'm counting calories after the fact instead of planning ahead...and that gets me no where but fat. Basically.

I eat the same things for breakfast and lunch (Weight Control oatmeal or peanut butter toast for breakfast and a turkey sandwich or SmartOnes for lunch) most days. I also eat the same snacks most days. It helps!

Thanks for all the input! I wish I had started doing this earlier. I think initially the calorie counting and meal planning was helpful to me as I had no idea how many calories was in most things and it was helpful to put everything in the tracker and then see how much I had eate, But 8 months later I kind of have a general idea and it just seems so much like work to me.
Day 1 worked great for me. I had a great breakfast of turkey bacon, eggbeaters, a wheat waffle and sugar free syrup. I felt like I had a decadent feast all for about 300 calories. For lunch I had shredded chicken breast with a little bbq sauce stuffed in a 140 cal pita. I was actually so full from breakfast that I gave half of my lunch to my 16 yr old! I think these are things that I can eat fairly often without feeling too bored.

That is what I'm trying to do right now... I am so sick of tracking every little thing I eat, and having to constantly THINK about food, when I really don't want to FOCUS on it anymore. I don't want to CARE about food so much (because then I end up caring about what I'm NOT eating... like chocolate...). I hope this works for us!