Meal Planning

I'm still on soft foods for now, but one of my biggest problems before WLS was eating out. It was much easier to hit a drive thru and be done. I have to break that habit. I'm looking for tips/idea on how everyone does their meal planning and prep. I'm wondering if you plan and prep the food for the whole week, day by day or do half of the week and then mid-week do the rest?

I meal prep for my husband and I on Sunday afternoons. He is 3 months out from RNY and I'm in the pre-op process. I keep it fairly simple though, mostly just portioning things out in individual containers. I might cook a couple chicken breasts (maybe I'll bread one in Parmesan cheese and add a bit of marinara to the bottom of the container and the other marinated and grilled) and divide them into 3-4 oz portions. If ground beef or turkey agree with your pouch, try cooking up a pound, portioning it out, then adding different flavors to each portion--taco seasoning in one, maybe marinara in another, savory gravy in yet another, etc.

you can't eat much now, so don't worry about getting fancy with recipes, it will only make meal prep seem stressful. It's less about recipes for us and more about having those portions ready to pop in the microwave.

Correct. I want to be able to go and grab something when I feel hungry and not have to worry about going and trying to figure out what I can have and making sure that I have all of my protein for the day. I was thinking about using different colors for each day of the week that way I can count my protein and cals. and not have to worry about it anymore.

Lol you might be over complicating it with the color coding, but do what will make you feel most accountable. I really only worry about protein and carbs, and the things I usually add to the protein-of-choice won't be enough quantity-wise for the carbs to matter a whole lot. Marinara has some sugar, but I found one that is lower at Trader Joe's, and I only use about a teaspoon. 3 oz of lean ground turkey or diced chicken breast will be about the same protein count (18-20) so as long as I have it portioned correctly ahead of time, I can just grab and go.

So I do the same thing. I might make crack chicken for a family meal, and I purposely make the recipe double... after the family eats, I take little containers and I portion out 3-4 ounces of it and then throw them in the freezer... when we have pork chops, I make up a couple extra, cut up the meat, and freeze it in little baggies... I will portion out just about anything I make for dinner into my size servings with any leftovers... and then I freeze probably 80% of them. They reheat in less than a minute (I mean, 4 ounces of anything doesn't take long! LOL)

At wor****ep a couple of extra 'freezer treats' in the freezer for days that I might not want what I brought, so I have variety. I

Even leftover taco meat turns into a lunch for me, I add 3-4 ounces of meat, a teaspoon or so of salsa and top it with a bit of cheese and throw it into the freezer... it's perfect and yummy!

You can also keep cheese sticks, yogurts, baggies of deli meats pre portioned out, pepperoni, etc... all pre portioned and ready to grab

What little containers do you use for the freezer?

I have these little containers... I still use the 4 ounce size, even at 15 months out from surgery...

Glad Containers

I have them in the "Frozen" theme and the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" ones

This was my biggest downfall prior to surgery as well. I'm only 11 days out so hubby has been great so far about cooking and planning the dinners, but I need to follow this post for ideas! I did get groceries yesterday and cooked dinner tonight so I'm coming back around! One thing I loved in the past with planning a weekly menu ahead of time was how much I saved on groceries!

HAHA we save a ton now that we're both in this process and no kids ;) when one chicken breast can be 2 1/2 meals...

we plan on kids, but hopefully after both going through WLS we can raise them with healthy habits

We have a 17 year old that is never at home. So he eats where ever he is and my husband has started his process for WLS so I understand the food going a long ways now.