Introducing myself ~ advice on meals needed?

Hi all :) I'm a 30 yr old mom of two little boys, a 3 yr old and 10 month old. I have PCOS, Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, hypertension, and sleep apnea which was satisfactorally resolved by surgery. My husband is a skinny guy, but recently put on about 50 extra pounds himself. I deal with chronic fatigue, chronic pain, occasional migraines, and the hermit disease (I feel like a fat slob so I rarely leave the house).  I am at my heaviest non-pregnant weight right now of 289.5 lbs. I'm here giving it one more serious try at weight loss the "natural" way before I pursue surgery. At my husband's request!  If it weren't for him, I'd be at the surgeon's office next week! I am going to do 2 weeks on a 1000-1200 calorie liquid diet, and then slowly start introducing real food again at one meal a week. I am doing a double punch effort here because I'm also going to start back on my glucophage at the same time (something I haven't taken since my latest child was born).  I'm hoping that the malabsorption the gluc. causes combined with the low calorie diet will kick my metabolism in the gut and get things moving.  I need early success or I will not be able to continue. My main concern is that I am not a foodie. I do not cook and have never had interest in it. I have studied and searched, and I know the fundamentals, and have cookbooks, but I just cannot get my mind wrapped around being creative with food. I go to the grocery store, and go blank on what to buy. I look in the fridge, and can't see anything to eat.  For my diet to work I need to have recipes and meal plans in advance. I need to be able to sit down and draw up a schedule of what to eat at what time every day. This means I need to gather as many low-calorie meal ideas as possible. If any of you have good resources you can share for this, I'm all ears. The easier and quicker to prepare, the best. I want to stick with fresh foods if possible, low carb and low fat.  I don't mind sauteeing, steaming or baking stuff, but if I have to season, find a bunch of weird ingredients like eggplant or whatever, grind my own pesto or what have you, I will fail, lol. I'm no Martha Stewart! For example I like the idea of making "sandwiches" out of a couple of slices of low fat turkey, triscuits, and low fat cottage cheese. Quick, simple, and I don't have to cook. :D  My daily diet goals for the first two weeks: 100g protein 120 oz water I'm going low sugar low fat, fiber is fine. I'll be starting this the week of Sept. 10. Wish me luck! :D

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH CARBS! I had to say that out loud because for the person who doesn't want to cook, fresh fruit and vegetables are the easiest thing for you to eat.  Mixing fruit with cottage cheese - EASY! The carbs that are not so good - cookies, cake, candy - food with energy but no nutrients. OK, my feelings aside.  Let me give you a couple pointers on the meal plan. 1. Make it real - if you are going to leave yourself starving it won't work for long.  If you are currently taking in say. 2000 kcals (because, of course you have journaled your current intake) why not cut that by 500 kcals a day for a start. 2. follow the 5-10-15 rule - We as humans are creatures of habit.  We tend to have about 5 different breakfasts, 10 different lunches, 15 different dinners.  If you add in a 100 kcal snack 2-3 times a day you should have approximately 400 kcals to work with at each meal.  Plan to have 5 - 400 kcal breakfasts, 10 - 400 kcal lunches, and 15 - 400 kcal dinners.  Play with the calories in a way that works for you.  Typically having 5 days of menus is adequate if you have extra choices at dinner & lunch. 3. Have one meal per week where you can have anything you want.  If you want a "like-it" serving at Cold Stone for that meal, by golly, have it!  Give yourself a specific meal on a specific day where you can order whatever you want. 4. Consider talking to a dietitian who knows about weight loss.  I happen to know a few... There are a million things I could say in response to your post.  I hope I have helped a little.  Good Luck! Danielle Halewijn RD eNutritioncare.com

Hi Danielle. Thanks for your response. I'm insulin resistant and a reactive hypoglycemic when dealing with carbohydrates. I react strongly to food that causes an insulin spike, so I have to be very careful with carbs. I tend more towards a low glycemic-index diet than a low carb diet, which is why I specified "low sugar".  I have chronicled which foods cause most trouble for me, so I know what to avoid. I appreciate your thoughts on meal plans. The 5-10-15 rule is something I have not heard of before. I will work to keep it in mind.

Hi there! I am also a busy mom.  and I dont cook much...  but I do prepare my foods in advance so that I dont have to worry... this is my menu for today...  I dont vary it much during the day... I sometimes switch up the veggies with my chicken for dinner (and sometimes I skip them alltogether - shhhh).  My meal plan is higer in protein, lower in fat and moderate in carbs.  I drink 64 oz of water a day minimum.  Eating every 2 hours helps keep my metabolism going.  I have, as of today, lost 16.2 lbs since August 1. to help me keep on track I make up my food well in advance and put it into portion cups in the fridge.  I write the time on top of each cup so that when it is time to eat I can just grab what I need and go on with my day.  I portion EVERYTHING, even my coffee creamer.  Last night while watching TV I was measuring hummus onto turkey slices and rolling them up...  2 per baggie for my lunches.  I cannot afford to leave anything to chance at this stage.  I just dont trust myself yet. I recommend that you start measuring and logging everything you eat into a program like fitday or the daily plate.  this will help you look back and see what you did right or wrong. Good Luck! and welcome.

Breakfast - 8:30 am 12 oz coffee 1T vanilla caramel creamer Yoplait Light Fat Free yogurt Snack - 10:30 am 1 wasa crisp bread 1 hard boiled egg 1T miracle whip Lunch - 12:30 pm 2 wasa crisp bread 2 slices turkey  2T hummus ½ C pinto beans 2T BBQ sauce

Snack - 2:30 pm  2 wasa crisp bread  2 oz tuna  2T miracle whip  Snack - 4:30  ½ C cottage cheese

Dinner - 6:30 4 oz chicken breast  1 red bell pepper  ½ cup onion 2t fajita seasoning Dessert - 7:30 ½ C sorbet

Snack - 8:30  ½ C cottage cheese

Hi there, first of all, welcome and good luck! when you start at the base of a mountain like this, you feel like taking even a hundred steps upward will do you no good...the results feel small at first, and it can be so frustrating. It's not easy to stick with it, but you need to give yourself a large chunk of concentrated effort to "get somewhere." My favorite (and really easy!) low-fat/calorie meal is as follows: get a steamer steam up some mixed frozen veggies, put aside in the same steamer, put in plain, unseasoned raw chicken and steam it until it's cooked...the time varies on the thickness of the chicken breast, I would start with 5-10 minutes on each side and then cut it in half and make sure that it's cooked through the middle. Cook some brown rice (I like basmati, but any brown rice...just follow the directions on how to cook it) go to the store and pick out any kind of low sodium/low calorie sauce. I like ginger sauces and teriyaki sauces...if you have a trader joe's near you, get their veri teryaki...mmm. Also, while you're there, get their frozen chicken breast...they only cost about $7.99 and there are probably 30 breasts in one bag. Okay, so put one serving size of the sauce in a bowl, then dip the chicken in it as you eat it. also, load up on the veggies and eat a serving of the brown rice. it's my favorite lunch-time and dinner-time meal. Finally, sorry for the long descriptions..i'm very bad at explaining recipes!! again, good luck and keep us updated! -Julie

Welcome to our little family. I too am like you and don't know how to cook, but I took some recipes out of the South Beach quick and easy cookbook. That is my route to go - South Beach and so far I'm enjoying it. Snuggle just sent me a great south beach excel sheet with meal planner, grocery list and SB safe foods. Sugar free Jello is my fav right now, lol.  Try sparkpeople.com - you can register there to track your calories for the day, calories burned through exercise and have access so a bunch of good recipes!

Hi! Well, I logged my calories yesterday on Fitday. This is my "regular eating" calorie count. I got just around 2100 calories in over the course of the day.   According to fitday my BMR is something like 3400 or whatever so I should lose weight on a 2100 calorie diet. ;)  Anyway I'm planning to go ahead with diet as planned. Thank you all for your food suggestions so far, I really appreciate it!