After a few years of failing at counting calories, for each meal, both me and my wife needed a new solution.
Our solution was to create a list of breakfast, lunch, dinner ingredients that are 400-500 calories. And also a list of snacks that are 100 calories or less and even fast food options for when we’re on the go and have “no choice” but to get it.
Each drop down has the list of ingredients and the amounts to use. Most of the items are per serving but some allow for prepping multiple meals for several days (like for pasta, instead of weighing for 1 serving, just use the whole pack and make 6 plates for 3 days- 2 can be used for dinner, leaving 2 days of lunch/dinner with the remaining 4 plates).
Each ingredient also has its respective link to the item page on HEB (our grocery store) so ordering online has never been easier!
A huge help is also the cutdown of any drink with calories. We’ve switched to using Stur in our water which actually tastes great and is dietitian approved. Pam non-stick also helps.
What’s great about this list (for us) is that it takes into account the recipes that we are already used to making and simply caps each serving at 400 calories or 100 calories for snacks. So as long as we stick to 3 meals and 3 snacks a day, we’re limiting ourselves to 1200-1500 calories. As long as we portion our ingredients, we don’t need to count calories per serving or for snacks. If we don’t have the food in the fridge, there’s also no excuse to ordering exactly what we need!
Remember, this works for us. It may not work for you but it’s important to find a solution you can stick to in the long term consistently! Consistency is key.
by _BallsDeep69_