Post: #1

I see a lot of posts on dieting, but I am more interested in meal plans. If I plan ahead then I can better protect my diet and save some money. So here is mine and I am interested to see everyone's too.

This is my weekly plan

Breakfast:
1 doz eggs- $3
sausage(hillshire farms) or bacon(nitrate free)$3 or $6 for the bacon
Coffee- 2 cups kuerig w/french vanilla cream $5
Total $11 per week/$2.2 per meal

Lunch
Big salad- I prepare a salad on sunday night in two good size tupperware. I put a paper towel on top to help with condensation
Kale or baby spinach(I like spinach, its tough to eat raw kale for me.) $6
celery $2
carrots $2
yellow bell pepper $1.5
cucumber $1
tomato $1.5
2 lbs of chicken crock pot with enchilada $7
Total $21.00 per week/$5.25 per meal - I only plan for 4 meals a week, it gives me a cheat lunch which I use sometimes

Dinner
Zuccinni- $1.50 - I love the veggitti
Italian sauage or Whole foods type sausage- $6
Total $7.50 per week/$1.38 per meal- 4 meals again


So here is my plan about $40.00 per week. It covers me for about 5 days a week. I am single with no kids and I tend to go out a couple of times per week. I also get almonds and apples for snacks, unless I get chex mix. I would like more veggies, but when I buy too much it goes bad.

So any tips for meals that don't require a lot of ingredients and can only be prepared in a huge serving, I don't want to eat the same thing every night. But I am looking into getting a dutch oven and do some more recipes from four hour body.

Post: #2

Do you make scrambled eggs? They're so quick to make and a great protein source if you want something to eat (but not a whole meal) after a workout.

Post: #3

Daily

Breakfast -
3 eggs, scrambled with onions and mushrooms.
Bowl of Oatmeal
1 cup greek yogurt
Protein Shake
100mg Zinc + Creatine pill

around $2 in food.

Lunch -
One mason jar full of chili (made in big 10-12 serving batch whenever needed)
Protein Shake
GNC vitamin pack, not sure which one but its about 8 pills

around $2 in food

Dinner -
Medium sized steak/~.75 lb chicken breast/~4lb cornish hen/or a couple pork chops
Veggies - normally in the form of fresh green beans or asparagus
Mashed sweet potatoes or some from of flavored rice mix
Protein Shake
100mg Zinc + Creatine pill

around $4-5 in food.

Random snacks in between -
Handful of peanuts
tin of tuna fish/salmon/herring fillets



keep in mind that is an ideal day. However, the main thing I do is eat relatively the same thing over and over again. Chili for lunch everyday, sometimes I buy a small bag of chips to crush up in it. Breakfast is almost always exactly the same. Dinner rarely varies outside of a few different meat/veggie selections. I'm a simple man and it makes it super easy to shop for groceries.

Post: #4

Here's my diet, macros are pretty good for me.

Meal 1:
Turkey sausage, bacon, eggs, and oatmeal

Meal 2: PB&J, greek yoghurt, fruit (whatever's in season), and a banana

Meal 3: Protein shake with peanut butter and fruit.

Meal 4: A large dinner that has lots of protein in it. Changes daily.

Drink whole milk as your drink of choice outside of the gym. The caloric amount should be somewhere around ~3,000 calories.

Post: #5

My staples are:

Whole eggs
Chicken breast
Red peppers
Baby kale or spring mix
Butternut squash
Apples and bananas

Other things that I'll usually rotate week to week depending on what I'm in the mood for:
Broccoli
Tomatoes
Cantaloupe
Pears
Steakumms (frozen sandwich steak)
Fresh chicken sausages
Trader joes uncured beef franks
Bacon

I do a lot of different things with chicken, buffalo chicken, orange chicken, honey garlic chicken, chicken salad etc.

The only carbs I get that don't come from what's above are from penko breadcrumbs, that's pretty much it except for once or twice a week when I make a wrap or a sandwhich or have pasta.

I don't really count calories or watch my macro intake, I just make sure I'm consuming 1g per lb of body weight + or - 10 depending on how active I've been that day and how hungry I am. I eat when I'm hungry and I make sure my meals are filling, or I'll spread 6 meals out throughout the day so I'm never really hungry. I always make sure to get 4 or 5 servings of fruits and veggies a day. Also take a krill oil supplement and drink as much water as I can which usually ends up as a gallon per day. Mostly Cook with butter, olive oil, cinnamon, nutmeg, sea salt (not a lot), black pepper, rosemary, oregano and garlic.

Its not that strict but since I started eating like this I've never felt better, but that could also be from strength training.

Post: #6

I eat almost the same thing everyday. It took me a couple of weeks to dial in my diet and now I'm cutting at a good clip with no lean body mass loss so why mess with a good thing?

Breakfast:
80-90g of steel cut oats
1 tbsp heavy cream
8 strawberries

1 apple

3 extra large pasture raised eggs fried in butter
1 sandwich size english muffin (my indulgence for the day)

Lunch:
Chicken salad with at least 100g of chicken

Snack:
400 g of nonfat greek yogurt
50 g of black berries
50 g of raspberries

Dinner:
Beef or chicken (on a work out day)
Vegetable stir fry with whatever I have on hand - usually broccoli/spinach/etc.

With the exception of the english muffin everything else is local and minimally processed.

Post: #7

What do you use to add taste to simple chicken salads? Salad dressing?

I am a big fan of pesto but the calories are off the charts.

Post: #8

Mayonnaise, celery, dried cranberries, salt and pepper and maybe walnuts.

Post: #9

(10-27-2014 05:32 PM)Ensam Wrote:  Lunch:
Chicken salad with at least 100g of chicken

What does that look like? I'm guessing it's an entire breast?

Post: #10

Yeah, it's about one breast. My work has a salad bar in the cafeteria with sliced cooked chicken as an option. I use a pocket scale to weigh it out.

Post: #11

(10-28-2014 10:24 AM)Ensam Wrote:  Yeah, it's about one breast. My work has a salad bar in the cafeteria with sliced cooked chicken as an option. I use a pocket scale to weigh it out.

Dang that's a ton of chicken. Do you run into the problem of getting sick of it from time to time? I have to modify my meals because I end up getting nauseous from eating it.

Post: #12

(10-28-2014 10:24 AM)Ensam Wrote:  Yeah, it's about one breast. My work has a salad bar in the cafeteria with sliced cooked chicken as an option. I use a pocket scale to weigh it out.

How can 100g be a chicken breast? How big is it? I am eating chicken breasts that weigh about 450 grams....

Post: #13

There's quite a bit of variability in chicken sizes and what people mean by a chicken breast.


This is what I mean by a chicken breast:


It's technically half a breast and it's boneless and skinless. The ones I get at home are usually about 150 g uncooked and probably cook down to a little over 100g. At work I'm weighing out cooked meat.

Post: #14

My diet has been kind of weird as of late. I have been eating a lot of dense foods such as eggs and Thai curry cut with a shit ton of coconut powder (which FYI has been a good new staple for smoothies since it takes the heavy and density away from coconut milk while still having all the good healthy fats present).

Nothing "healthy" about those to the traditional/mainstream diet. The UK is full of fatties whom eat butter chicken curry each day, but I balance mine with using a clean curry paste, and basically just pounding it down with healthy coconut fats that my body utilizes. No cream or other bullshit garbage in my curry.

The curries will rotate with either fish (Sardines, Shrimp, or a white fish), Chick peas and Kale, Spinach and Potato, but typically its fish since I still keep the protein going and I don't mind it, and typically sardines because they are a super-food on a god level.

Smoothies are big part of my breakfast now due to the schedule and I will have a blueberry and parsley smoothie with cocoa, protein, hemp, and chia seeds, flax added in to bump the micro nutrient profile.

I also will have either purple sweet potatoes, or rice as my main carb sources for the day. I will eat rice twice a day with either eggs, or the curries.

As noted Eggs are a big part of the diet. I am eating around 4-6 per day lately.

More protein comes from tuna, or chicken and pork cutlets which grill quickly, I throw them on rice and eat with a salad and a soft egg.

Veggies are from green beans, spinach, roasted peppers.

This is healthy no frills eating at its best. When things get boring I just rotate back to old standards such as the whole chickens, tortillas with braised chicken, and what not. Its tough but you can eat healthy if you are slick and have a broad pallet to track down foods you will like. Some things are not cheap though. Example is the eggs, though "cheap" ...do add up, and the frozen berries end up costing more then meat, same with veggies at times like the peppers. I am spending around $50 on food a week right now sometimes it gets bumped as high as $65.

Post: #15

(10-28-2014 10:41 AM)frenchie Wrote:  

(10-28-2014 10:24 AM)Ensam Wrote:  Yeah, it's about one breast. My work has a salad bar in the cafeteria with sliced cooked chicken as an option. I use a pocket scale to weigh it out.

Dang that's a ton of chicken. Do you run into the problem of getting sick of it from time to time? I have to modify my meals because I end up getting nauseous from eating it.

Yeah, it can get a little old. I try and switch up the dressings and other ingredients in order to keep it interesting. I also have business lunches at least once or twice a week and then I eat whatever is being served so that helps.

Post: #16

I've come to realise the beauty of eating simple yet nutritious food. I used to cook fancy shit almost every day, but that's something I reserve for the weekend now.

Every couple of weeks I make a huge batch of what could loosely be described as chili. It's basically this recipe, but I also throw in a couple of bags of frozen shredded spinach, chopped veges (carrots, capsicum etc) and pureed liver for their nutritional value. Usually I will add a pile of chopped sweet potato for carbohydrates. I freeze these in meal size batches so I never have an excuse to eat rubbish. I just heat it up, add a couple of sliced avocados on top, and a big bowl for dinner will usually keep me more than satisfied until lunch next day.

I also regularly make chicken stock using a whole chicken. I use some of it while making the "chili" and freeze the rest for use during the weekends when I'm cooking fancier stuff. Sometimes I just drink it as it is - during my drinking days I found it to be an excellent hangover cure. The whole chicken I use to make the stock will be used in salads.

So a couple of days might look like this:

Day 1

Breakfast: Usually don't eat much as I'm never hungry and I start work very early. At most I will eat a banana if I need it.

Lunch: Bring a portion of chili to work and eat it as is.

Post workout: Smoothie with 1 litre whole milk, frozen berries, protein powder, creatine.

Dinner: Enormous salad (spinach, tomato, egg, avocado, capsicum, olives, feta .... whatever I fancy) with either a steak or some of the chicken from the stock. I make enough salad and cook a second steak (sliced) to bring to work for lunch the next day.

Day 2

Breakfast: Most likely nothing.

Lunch: Salad from yesterday (with beef or chicken)

Post workout: Same as normal.

Dinner: Huge bowl of "chili" as described above.

And is doesn't differ much from that. Perhaps once a week I will eat salmon. I've found that eating predictably like this has helped keep me on track with my nutrition goals. And by still cooking nicer meals during the weekends, it still keeps me in practice for when I have a girl at my place.