Can you prep all your food one day a week?

My husband lives out of country so I've been playing single, full time student, mom for the last year.

I found a local organic farm that delivers every week (LIFESAVER). So, on Wednesday night I prep everything and organize it into meals. Some of them get popped into the crockpot, and some are easy to just pop into the oven or pan when I get us home and settled for the evening. It takes me a couple hours on Wednesday evenings but it saves me so much time during the rest of the week. Our eating style probably wouldn't suit you (I've stripped it down to protein + veggie + fruit for our dinners) but there are a lot of blogs and recipes online for once a week, or once a month prepping. There are some with freezer meals too. I used to do that, and it worked out great! We only eat out once a week now, tops. Even with the organic food delivery I've saved TONS of money not grabbing stuff on the go all the time.

A great way to incorporate veggies into your life is with homemade soups. You can make a big pot of it and have enough for a dinner one night, and a couple of lunches to bring to work during the week too. Pair it with some whole wheat bread and a bit of cheese, and you have a great, portable, easy-on-the-budget and incredibly healthy meal.

I got into soup making because of my first child, a very picky eater and veggie-hater. Turns out he will eat virtually any vegetable, as long as it is cooked and pureed into a soup. So we have soup once a week, and I eat it fairly often as lunch or a small cup to supplement a dinner for either me or my son.

It's easy to make, just follow this general recipe:

1. Chop (and if you find chopping time consuming, invest in a food processor) onions, celery and carrots into small pieces.

2. Saute in olive oil (measure out a tablespoon or two, depending on how many veggies) in a non stick pan until halfway cooked but not brown.

3. Add other veggie of choice - your 'star of the week'. It could be a whole bunch of carrots, even a whole bunch more celery, a head of broccoli, a couple of pounds of tomatoes, some butternut squash. Really - whatever catches your eye or is on sale at the grocery store!

4. Add chicken or beef stock to cover - either liquid or stock cubes. Just keep an eye on salt count as you add the stock - some are worse than others.

5. Simmer for 10-20 minutes or until everything is tender.

6. Puree with a hand blender (a must-have. They're cheap, easy to clean, and SO convenient).

7. Taste and adjust seasonings. Top with something to make it special and pretty - a tablespoonful of shredded cheese, a spoonful of yogurt or sour cream, a few croutons, even just a few nice crackers.

GL and hope you like it!

Hi Melissa,

It could be that you have low energy and that is why you don't want to prep food as in wash it. Being overweight saps your energy. One thing you can do is just start with apples and banana's Those are fairly low prep. Use the Loseit! app or any calorie counter you want and track all that goes in your mouth. Start out with what you eat then the better you feel the more you will want to eat right. Also do baby steps... start out with just counting your calories. then the next week change it up a little say eat an apple everyday. Every week or so set a goal and do that goal til it's stuck. It may take longer then a week. I know for me it takes a couple weeks or I start to feel overwhelmed and give up.

Also the only person that can make you change is yourself. You have to want this. You have to stop making excuses and just do it. Why haven't you changed or lost weight up until now? Take that reason and make the necessary changes. When you don't feel like eating an apple and want to eat a cookie. Think about this reason again and eat the apple. =) We never really WANT to do what is good for us. Sometimes we do like to but mostly we don't. DO IT ANYWAY. =)

Here's what I did - maybe this can help you, too.

I decided that calorie counting was the way to go, because the math is simple and I find it fairly easy to add.

3500 calories = 1 pound. We all know this.
It takes X amount of calories for me to maintain my weight.
And if I eat too many calories per day, then I gain weight.
To lose weight, I need to decrease my calories, or "create a calorie deficit."
Take in less food; expend more energy = calorie deficit.
See? Simple.
But HOW to apply that simplicity?

First, I kept track of my normal eating habits - not trying to diet at all! - for about a month. I thought I was averaging around 1500 or so calories per day. HA! -Then I entered everything into FitDay, to my surprise I was eating about 2300+ (heavy on the plus!) calories PER DAY! No wonder I was fat! ACK!!!

Then after that part of my "experiment" was over, I sat down with a good old fashioned pen & paper. I proceeded to write down every single thing I could think of that I enjoyed eating (or drinking!!) I mean everything! Fruit, veggies, meats, desserts, beverages, condiments, etc. EVERYTHING.

The point is I wrote down EVERYTHING that I would consider putting in my mouth. And I decided what I could "substitute" & still be happy (Diet Mtn Dew instead of regular Mtn Dew, for instance ... but not fat-free ranch dressing... icky poo!!!- but I do like Hidden Valley Ranch LITE ) Then I went on-line & looked up the calorie count for a regular serving of all those foods. Some are harder than others to decipher, because hey... I make my own sweet tea and I put 1.5 cups sugar to a gallon, and I am not math-minded enough to decipher what an 8oz serving glass would equal in calories. And going out to eat can be pretty tricky sometimes. But with some practice (& looking up everything online! - & coming here for guidance! ) I finally got the hang of it.

I went online to find a calorie calculator - to find out how many calories *I* should eat for my size & to lose weight (healthy, safely!). Then I built my own food log in FitDay (just one of many calorie trackers out there!!!) and now I adjust that caloric intake for however much weight I lose so I can keep on losing, until I'm ready to maintain. (192 lb me ate a different amount of calories than the current 153 lb me eats.)

I EAT ALL THE FOODS I LOVE. I never eat anything I don't like! No "puffy rice cake" shall ever pass these lips!! No gagging-reflex crappy low-fat anything! Is it OK for me to eat a cheeseburger from time to time? YOU BETCHA! I enjoy pretty much everything - just less of it. And it also makes it easy for me when it comes down to "Do I REALLY want a frozen margarita for 700 calories?" - usually I choose NOT to imbibe, but have a nice 150 calorie glass of wine or a 100 calorie light beer instead.

This is working for me. My weight is decreasing slower than some, but I'll take it... as opposed to not decreasing at all, or worse yet... gaining. And I KNOW I can do this "for the rest of my life" because when you eat what you love, there's no "going back to old eating habits". Is it a perfect plan? NO of course not. There are still times when I eat too much. I can pretty much never say no to a bigger portion of macaroni & cheese (3/4 cup... puh-leeze!!!) and sometimes I DO have that 700 calorie frozen margarita... But the basic bottom line? "the perfect diet is the foods you'll eat"

I love to mix my veggies into my meals - good for kids and non-veggie lovers. Squash and zucchini can be grated into ground meat to make meatballs, grated into ground chicken and coated with breadcrumbs to make baked chicken nuggets, grated into burgers, peeled into ribbons and mixed with pasta with sauce, and cut into pieces in chili.

Cauliflower is great to mash with potatoes, baked potato soup, puree and mix into cheese sauce for macaroni and cheese, grate to make faux rice, chop finely and add into ground chicken for baked chicken nuggets.

Food-processed mushrooms can be mixed 50:50 with ground beef in shepherd's pie, "beefaroni," etc.

All kinds of vegetables can be pureed and mixed into tomato sauce without detection, and soup is always a good way to get in veggies.

Roasting vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, kale are great ways to get picky eaters to eat them. Just a little olive oil, fresh cracked salt and pepper and a 425 oven for 12+ minutes until they're done.

I keep sliced mushrooms, peppers, and fresh spinach on-hand to saute and toss into nearly everything from eggs to pasta, pizza or polenta toppings.

Amen, sistah! I think this is the best diet advice anyone can give. None of this "must do this" and "can't do that" rules that sabotage long-term weight control. Just eating less. That's all it takes.

F.

I understand your challenges. From my experience, it takes a long time to really change habits and tastes. For the past fifteen years or so, I haven't regularly drank soda---just water, coffee, and wine. Same for sugar in my coffee---haven't touched it for years. Same for actually enjoying fruits & veggies (have been for more than 20 years). In my 20's, I only consumed the aforementioned regularly when I was formally "on a diet." But somewhere along the line, I started liking water, no sugar in my coffee, and fruits & veggies---so much so that even when I was in full regain mode (aka eating anything and everything in sight as part of diet rebound), I still drank water, had no sugar in my coffee, and ate plenty of fruits and veggies regularly. The moral to that story is that sometimes it takes years to change habits (for some it may be faster; for me, it has taken years). That's why, I'm glad to hear that you aren't considering fad diets and plan to start slowly. Good habits do take hold eventually, so be patient for the first several months.

Why not decide on a goal weight, use an online calorie calculator to figure out the maintenance calories for that goal weight (freedieting is a good site for this), and eat at that level until you get to your goal? This idea is explored in book called Calorie Queens; a mother and daughter who lost approx. 100 lbs. each by doing that. The idea is that most people tend to start losing on a low calorie level that is difficult to stick with. But if you start by eating the maintenance calories for your goal weight, not only do you eat more calories (so you're less likely to fail on your plan) but the mindset of this really being a LIFESTYLE change hits home. Since there's no difference in calorie level when you finally do reach goal, you see it as a lifestyle change from the beginning. Yes, you lose more slowly, but hopefully permanently. You can get the book on Amazon (someone on here recommended it to me). (BTW, I don't agree with everything in that book---just the recommendation to start at one's goal weight maintenance calories).

Best wishes!

You don't have to do fad diets to lose weight, in fact I'd stay away from fad diets because they're the main cause of yo-yo dieting. It's great that you've analyzed your situation, you know your strong points and you weak points, that's a good start! As for being picky with your food, there's nothing wrong with that, but I suggest getting out of your comfort zone and trying foods you don't believe you'd like. For instance, I always imagined I'd hate steamed vegetables, especially carrots and broccoli. One time though I was out at a restaurant with a friend and she had steamed broccoli, I tried some and I loved it! Try out different foods, experiment a bit and you might be surprised. Your taste changes over time, so if you didn't enjoy something a few years ago, you might really like it now.

I understand that you have a busy schedule, but a healthy breakfast doesn't have to take too long to prepare. If it does, try and do some of the work in the evening (or at least plan what you're going to have for breakfast).