Do you guys meal plan?

[CaptainCrunch]

So for the last year, I've been trying to eat a lot healthier, and I've dropped about 50 pounds, but would like to drop another 30. I've also reduced my blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesteral.


I still have a ways to go, and would like to find time for more work out stuff, and have recently gotten back into DDP Yoga.



But do you guys meal plan for the whole week?


For example


Monday Breakfast - 1 cup mixed fresh fruit, 2 slices of toast with peanut butter, Lunch - bowl of soup and half a sandwich, and dinner 1/2 cup rice, 1 cup protein, 1 cup veggies assorted.


Tuesday 1/2 cup of oatmeal, lunch 2 slices of whole wheat with peanut butter, dinner one chicken breast, baked, with vaious spices, 1 cup vegitables 1/2 cup brown rice.


And on through the week.


I would love to get tips and ideas, and maybe we can all share some healthier recipes and food buying tips, especially since eating healthier is really expensive.

[CaptainCrunch]

Also, I've gotten in the habit of drinking 4 to 5 liters of water a day, and people think I'm weird because I'm always carrying a huge water jug with me.

[Locke]

I mean...I plan to eat Meals.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Also, I've gotten in the habit of drinking 4 to 5 liters of water a day, and people think I'm weird because I'm always carrying a huge water jug with me.

I tried to do that, but I get a crazy headache if I drink that much water

[1qqaaz]

I do mostly because I'm lazy and this is the most efficient way to eat.
They also tend to be very healthy. I find ground turkey is the best at getting reheated.
My pets probably eat a richer variety of food than I do.

[CalgaryFan1988]

Originally Posted by btimbit

I tried to do that, but I get a crazy headache if I drink that much water

Really? I'm the opposite.

[bc-chris]

we plan our dinners out for the week - mostly so we only have to do 1 trip to superstore.

[Derek Sutton]

dp

[Derek Sutton]

Yes.

Meal planning helps on many different levels.
-Consistently eating healthy, diverse meals while expanding your flavours, cooking skills and palette. (Not every meal has to be healthy)
-Grocery Budgeting (meal plan around what is on sale, Flipp app).
-Reducing food waste by only buying ingredients you’re going to use
-Eliminating the nightly “what do you want for dinner?”


Carrying a huge water jug is weird though. I pack a one litre bottle fill it regularly, 4 litres/ day.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by CalgaryFan1988

Really? I'm the opposite.

Yours is definitely the more normal experience I'd say. No idea why I'm like that

[PaperBagger'14]

My family kind of does meal planning, but not strict stuff. My typical breakfast is either a banana or Greek yogurt and berries I make every night before work so that’s easy.

We meal prep mostly by picking out 5 meals to make throughout the week and making sure we have leftovers for lunch the next day. Sometimes it’s a Costco lasagna for convenience, or maybe it’s butter chicken or shrimp stir fry. Really we just get the ingredients, put them together and prep them for minimal cooking during the week.

The most versatile thing I’ll cook once a month or so is I’ll smoke a pork shoulder or 2 for 12 hours. The leftovers microwave incredibly well flavour wise and you can put some pork in almost any dish. Smoked pork and egg hash, pulled pork sandwiches, shredded pork ramen, that stuff can go in anything.

[nieuwy-89]

We meal plan our dinners. When we don’t we end up eating out or getting delivery.

A healthy food tip, try to incorporate eggs everyday. They are filling, and a good source of protein. Hard boil a bunch on Sunday and they are great for lunches.

[troutman]

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-l...r/art-20044256

So how much fluid does the average, healthy adult living in a temperate climate need? The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine determined that an adequate daily fluid intake is:

About 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) of fluids a day for men
About 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) of fluids a day for women

These recommendations cover fluids from water, other beverages and food. About 20% of daily fluid intake usually comes from food and the rest from drinks.

Captain, how many calories a day are you getting? That does not sound like very much.

Your Tuesday meal plan is about 875 calories. If you are exercising too, that could be a big calorie deficit.

An average man needs 2500 calories daily to maintain, and 2000 to lose one pound of weight per week

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by troutman

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-l...r/art-20044256



Captain, how many calories a day are you getting? That does not sound like very much.

Your Tuesday meal plan is about 875 calories. If you are exercising too, that could be a big calorie deficit.

An average man needs 2500 calories daily to maintain, and 2000 to lose one pound of weight per week

Its probably a little bit more then that, but yeah, I know right now, I'm below the 2000 calories a day, outside of walking, and I do between 4 and 5k steps in a day I do 30 to 40 minutes of Yoga a day as well.



Its funny, because it feels like a lot of food to me, and I'm never feeling hungry. Today, this morning I had a cup of chopped fruit and a glass of milk for breakfast, a couple of slices of bread and peanut butter for lunch and for dinner, I made a serving of pasta and home made tomato sauce with 4 home made meatballs and a side salad. And I had an apple and a orange for a snack tonight.



The nice thing about todays meal, is I got to freeze a bunch of meatballs and sauce of later this week.

[photon]

I generally don't meal plan down to the meal, I'm just too lazy for that.

So what I usually do is have a basic set of things that I always keep around so that I have things available that fit within my goals that are easy.

These I had to build over time so at the start there was a bit of planning and research, but that was usually more along the lines of closely tracking every single thing I ate, the portion sizes, macros of those portions, etc. The side benefit of very closely journaling is you really get a sense of how much more food you can eat when you make good choices. You can usually either eat a lot more volume for the same calories or significantly reduce the calories for a given item by making it at home. And I found after loosing a lot that choosing things based on volume helps keep me from feeling hungry.

I always have some bran buds, eggs, Costco turkey sausages and fruit around for breakfasts for example. Some days I'll chop veggies for an omelet, some days I'll use some high protein whole wheat pancake mix, some days oats or an English muffin are involved, but if I'm simply feeling too lazy bran buds, turkey sausage and fruit are always there to get my protein, fiber and energy for the morning.

Same thing for the other meals, I have a set of 4-5 different things that are always easy to make and I like.

Then when shopping I'll usually have a some other things in mind that I want to do that week.

Then I'm usually swapping back and forth between the 4-5 go-to's for that meal and the one that is something I've specifically shopped for. I eat a lot less beef so now it's a specific purchase of "Oh I haven't had a steak for a while" for example. Or get more eggs because I'm craving egg salad.

That might not work for a lot of people though because I'm ok with a pretty narrow set of things.. I can go months with the exact same breakfast. Some people would go INSANE on that though.

Also good question about the calories.. I think in general the larger the calorie deficit and the quicker the weight loss the harder it is to keep it over time.. in the bariatric program they wanted us to target 1lb a week as a good level as they find people maintain their losses longer.

Plus it feels like a reasonable calorie deficit fits more within the "lifestyle change" regime of things rather than being a drastic diet. All the times I've lost weight in the past (and regained it) weren't sustainable, where now I eat mostly healthy and normal, just at levels to maintain that 1lb per week or so worth of deficit.

[photon]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Its funny, because it feels like a lot of food to me, and I'm never feeling hungry.

I think that's the craziest thing for me.. I look at how much food I used to eat and I honestly can't believe it. Once you get used to eating better portion sizes from eating out are just crazy.

As long as I get enough fiber and protein I'm usually fine and never feel really hungry.

Healthy foods are just generally less calorie dense. It's crazy that I can either have 1/4 cup of hazel nuts, or literally more strawberries than I can consume at once for the same calories.

Lol I hardly ever eat nuts anymore, they're too depressingly calorie dense.

[photon]

On water yeah I try to make an effort to always be drinking a little more than what I would if I just went on thirst. Maybe not at the 4-5L per day level but 2-3 is probably typical.

I do find that if my weight loss seems to be stalling out a bit it kind of correlates with not being as diligent drinking water, but the sample size is pretty small so hard to say if that's real.

[Zary's-Mustache]

I plan to eat fast food 5 times a week, does this count?

[Dion]

I'm not one for meal planning.

For breakfast I have a bowl of Shredded Wheat with 1% milk and some raisins mixed in. That doesn't change very often and I can eat the same for months on end.

The deals I can find at the grocery store for beef, pork or chicken often decide what I have for dinner that week. Throw in a potato or rice and some veggies and that is my meal.

Eating out can be a challenge as the choices are not always the healthiest. I do karaoke twice a week and dinner out with friends, so I have to make up for the greasy food by eating healthy the rest of the week. I used to eat a lot of ice cream for dessert but i've cut that out of my diet.

I'm quite active in the summer with golf so walking the course helps to keep the pounds of and helps to lose a few at the same time.

I drink a lot water on a daily basis. When i'm playing golf it's just water and no beer.

[Muta]

I meal plan, have been for many years. I have peanut butter mixed with oatmeal at work every morning; when I'm lifting (bulking) I make sure to incorporate potatoes into the morning routine - the slow release starches in potatoes provide ample energy all day.

For lunch, I usually have a protein (chicken breast or chicken thighs), a green like broccoli or asparagus, and either a carb like brown rice or a quinoa/lentil combination. I meal prep every Sunday evening for these. Often times I make stir frys as well with similar ingredients. Making your lunch daily helps save money instead of buying lunch, which I don't do anymore (too expensive!).

For dinner, I usually have a light meal like, a modified Greek salad with chickpeas. I work out at 9:30 PM so I don't want anything to bloat me.

Probably the greatest thing I've done for my waistline and getting built is eating only between 8 PM and 6:30 PM. That restricted (intermittent fasting) time period has been terrific. If you go to bed on an empty stomach, your body isn't wasting energy digesting food; it's repairing your muscles and preventing excessive cortisol buildup.

Also, buy properly portioned tupperware - this was so damn helpful in my journey to proper meal planning when lifting.