Prepackaged meals/snacks

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  • posted by PandorasXbox
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    Hello.

    I have terrible shift patterns so cooking myself is near impossible. I also think having calories already calculated would help, as I easily over-do it.

    What prepackaged meals/snacks would you recommend?

    Thank you.

  • posted by stelae
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    You have probably already thought of this, but do you have access to freezer space? It might be easiest to cook stuff like soups and stews in bulk on your days off and parcel it up as individual meals. That way, you’re in charge of the calories and portions, and you only have to assemble a salad at most. (It must be said, one of the downsides of this way of eating is you can’t escape the prep-work, at least, that’s how it is in Aus. It might be different where you are) . Atkins has pre-prep low-carb meals and bars you can buy, but I don’t know if they are suitable to your situation, let alone if they are any good. My standby if I’m stuck away from home is a hamburger with the lot and no sauce, but I don’t eat the bun; that way it’s just grilled meat, cheese, maybe an egg and salad vegies.

    I’ve tried this sort of eating before, and I’m a big believer in cheese and nuts for snacks; they have enough fat in them to make you feel full. A matchbox sized piece of cheese, or a dozen almonds eaten slowly, one by one (I put either of these in old Altoid tins; they are sturdy and lock well, and fit in your pocket, and the size is about right) are enough to keep you going.

  • posted by SunnyB
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    Hi PandorasXBox – Stelae has offered some really sound advice. It really is best to avoid pre-prepared snacks/meals as most are too high in carbs and those that aren’t are often full of suspect fillers and chemicals. Much better to batch cook some food and freeze for later use.

    I often make almond crackers, which only takes approx. half an hour, these work great with dips, spreads, cheese, either as a small snack or bulked up with salad for a lunch. You’ll find recipes for almond crackers in the recipe section if you’re interested. Natural full fat yogurt and berries, nuts and /or seeds is also something you could use as an instant and quick meal.

    Hope you find a solution that works for you, so that you can give this way of eating your best shot. Best wishes to you.

  • posted by Esnecca
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    I second the batch cooking idea. I don’t want to be a negative nelly because it’s important that you take this first step no matter how you do it, but the God’s honest truth is that pre-packaged foods are all terrible. Even Atkins fills products like bacon and egg scramble and beef stew with multiple starches and sugars. The ingredient labels are a nightmare. If you madebeef stew or bacon and eggs at home, there would be zero sugars or starches. Unfortunately these kind of additives are endemic to processed foods, even ones from branded low carb lines.

    Do you think you’d have the time to cook up a bunch of stuff on your days off? There are a myriad things you could make with little effort, like soups, stews, frittatas, egg muffins, all easily frozen or refrigerated for reheating and eating at work. Do you have a slow cooker? That would be enormously helpful to make big batches and in giving you some great food to come home to as well.

  • posted by JackieM
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    Hi there, I am a big fan of not cooking, but I don’t eat pre-packed meals, more like just eat ingredients. Like slices of cheese or a bag of spinach, or a one portion size of Greek yoghurt or a pack of ham. I’m home a lot more than you, but if out I would have sliced beef with cream cheese and cucumber or roll some ham up with something palatable and/or healthy in the middle. I would avoid pre-made sandwich fillings, as the mayo they use has sugar in (though potentially not much) but there are non-sugar ones out there too. My friend was talking about wrapping a boiled egg in spinach as a snack. Smoked salmon is good, there’s a lot of pre-cut veg out there as well, if you are really pushed for time.

    I guess it all depends what you like eating. Maybe see if you can keep some element of what you like whilst ditching the carbs. I can definitely walk into a supermarket and come out with a low carb meal, but like I say it is more a bunch of ingredients I can eat without cooking.

  • posted by PandorasXbox
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    Thank you for the replies.

    Being home to batch cook would also be a struggle TBH.

    I could easily do a 800 cal meal plan with outside foods but everything seems to be high in carbs, even soups.

    I’ve looked at Atkins but I’m confused because everything seems to be carbs, oats.. rice flour etc. And no-go things like chocolate.

    I thought about adding things like fruit roll ups but then read natural sugars are bad for you. Thought about yogurt and mini Babybels but dairy is secretly high in carbs.

    Reads like I can’t eat anything if I don’t have time to cook. It’s depressing me even before I start.

  • posted by alliecat
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    Pandorasxbox, have you read MMosley’s book on the Fast800?

  • posted by PandorasXbox
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    Not yet. I watched his documentary and was looking into if this was even do-able for me, because I really need to do something to sort my weight/health out.

  • posted by Esnecca
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    Milk is high in carbs. Most cheeses are not. One Mini Babybel Original is 70 calories and 0 carbs. The mozzarella style Babybel (no idea what mozzarella “style” means) is just 50 calories, 0 carbs. Plain Greek yogurt has 9-10 grams of sugar per serving, but the serving size is quite high at a cup. Get the full fat variety, and you could easily eat half the serving size topped with 6 of the lowest carb nuts (pecans, macadamias, Brazil nuts, almonds), a tablespoon of chia seeds or pumpkin seeds and it would be nice and filling.

    Atkins has frozen meals that aren’t based in carb-heavy foods, like the eggs and beef stew I mentioned, but like I said, they adulterate them with added sugars and starches. The only fruits you should consider at this stage are berries —
    raspberries, blueberries, blackberries — but you can only eat a few of them because of their sugar content, so they won’t be very filling. They could work for you as an additional yogurt topping, but we’re talking like 4 or 5 individual berries. Definitely forget fruit rollups which have added sugar on top of the high level of natural sugars in the fruit.

    Jackie’s advice is excellent. Couldn’t you get some sliced roast beef, top it with horseradish (not the creamy kind, the kind that’s plain grated) and a thin slice of cheese like Swiss or smoked Gouda? That’s something you can get at the grocery store and all you have to do is layer it on a plate. Or how about buying one of those pre-made rotisserie chickens? You could carve off a bit for lunches and dinners in a second. Buy the pre-washed bags of romaine lettuce or spinach and you have a salad good to go. All you need to dress it is a couple of teaspoons of olive oil, 1 tsp vinegar, salt, pepper and an herb like oregano or basil. Throw in an ounce (28 grams) of crumbed feta cheese for a filling treat. What about canned tuna? Two tablespoons of full-fat mayo mixed in with salt and pepper, or even cheaper in calories, a tablespoon of vinegar mixed in, makes for a great addition to a basic green salad.

  • posted by alliecat
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    Pandora, I think getting a copy and then reading it carefully is the place to start. The Fast800 is a totally different
    way of thinking about health and nutrition, and it corrects many of the false truths that we’ve been taught about
    weight loss. It is not simply a weight loss program, but a new way of life, or lifestyle, if you will. With anything new,
    there is a bit of a learning curve to be negotiated. This may or may not be for you, but there is great wisdom,
    knowledge and experience on the forums to offer you support and encouragement along the way. Without
    knowing your weight and health concerns though, it’s difficult to offer advice. 🙂
    Best wishes,
    Allie

  • posted by JackieM
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    Canned tuna, yes! Forgot about that. Ate that a lot, it’s good and filling and add a bit of spinach and that’s a meal.

    Are you UK or US based? Do you like hot or cold food? Do you prep your meals you have at work or buy direct from supermarket?

    Maybe the very first thing you should do is just cut out obvious carbs – bread, cake, biscuits, rice, pastry. See what that leaves you with, do it for a week. Then after a week see if you can cut the stuff out with sugar added like the soups. You won’t lose weight as fast but you probably will lose weight. My friend did this after endless conversations with me and lost weight.

    Yesterday’s Times ran an report showing a low fat or a low carb diet could be effective as long as you stop eating processed food.. I’d be surprised if any diet would work long term if you keep eating the sugar and trans fats in ready meals. Sorry to tell you that but it’s true.

    I lost 3 stone in less than 6 months, it really does work but you have to do it properly.

  • posted by stelae
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    Just popping in to say I LOVE the rotisserie chicken idea! That and a bag of salad, and oil and vinegar dressing, and you’re golden for days.

    I’m pondering extending the idea to Chinese roast duck, BBQ pork and the like; obviously you have to watch your portion sizes, but they are so rich and delicious you don’t need a lot. I suspect the char siew (sp?) pork (as opposed to straight BBQ) has a lot of sugar in it … but the other stuff should be OK. (I love living in Melbourne).

    Good Luck, Pandora; I’m sure you can make this work. It’s a big change for the better, even just cutting out simple/white carbs; do what you can, and don’t beat yourself up about what you can’t. And remember; cheese and nuts are your friends.

  • posted by Esnecca
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    The first ingredient is wheat, albeit not refined. The 7th is added sugar. Quinoa is a grain and while it is whole, depending on whether you have any blood sugar concerns, it could still cause you problems. Even if you don’t worry about blood sugar, this meal is extremely high in carbs at 26 grams a serving and not BSD-friendly. I don’t eat 20 grams of carbs in a whole day.

  • posted by MAC2474
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    See, this is where I get confused. I’m still very new to this and barely pre-diabetic. I have been looking at the GI levels and the percentage of sugar in the carbs as my indicator when looking at foods. I did a search for wheat and found refined wheat is a no-no but whole un-processed wheat was only 38 on the GI. I did see the sugar bit but thought 1.2% wasn’t too bad. Please put me straight.

  • posted by SunnyB
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    Think the whole GI thing is not applicable when it comes to the BSD, what you need to look at is sugar content and over all carbs. Try to avoid the sugars as much as possible, regardless of the percentage they represent and look to keep your overall carb intake low – how low depends on how your body reacts to them and many of us only find out by experimentation where our carb level needs to be. Some people find they lose weight at 50g a day, some need to push lower.

    As a general rule, it’s best to avoid cereals regardless of whether they are refined or not. Even whole grain cereals are high in carbs. Finally, reading food labelling needs to become an ingrained habit, with a weather eye on sugars and carbs. It does take a while to get to grips with the new BSD way of thinking, but once there it will very quickly become second nature.

  • posted by Esnecca
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    On the BSD, carb count matters more than calorie count. If you were doing a diet solely for weight loss, you could be a little looser on how many grams of carbs a day you eat, but since you are pre-diabetic, it is important that you count total carbs, period. The GI stuff, the whole grains being better than refined ones, all the noise about glycemic load vs. glycemic index can be whittled down to this one element: watch your carb grams like a hawk and keep them as low as you can. Many people on the forum use 50 grams a day as their ceiling because it seems to be a sweet spot that keeps you in a fat-burning state rather than a carb-burning state. Because I have been insulin resistant for 25 years at least, I needed to keep my carb count to less than 20 grams a day to drop my insulin levels as low as possible and see real weight loss results.

    Your mileage may vary, of course, but given your diagnosis, in my opinion you should wave goodbye to grains, at least for the 8 weeks, and seek out a new way of eating that will encourage weight loss and keep you healthy for the long-term.

  • posted by alliecat
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    Hello, Mac. This isn’t a diet where low glycemic index places a role. If you are doing the Fast800, calories and
    carbs are the key calculations. Most people use an app to track them. Neither is it low fat; it is healthy fat however,
    which is important to get you burning body fat for fuel, instead of carbs. Weighing and measuring your food is
    essential, but it will become second nature before you know it. Some of us have had to drop our carbs to 20 to
    get the results we were looking for, but 50 is a good place to start, and you can adjust downward if necessary.
    Wish you the best!

    Allie

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