BSD with minimal/no cooking?

[PenelopeFlintstone]

Just what the title says really. Has anyone done the BSD but with very little cooking?
I don't want to cook all the delicious recipes because I want to think about food less, rather than more.
Does anyone else feel the same?

[PenelopeFlintstone]

Does no-one else find that so much cooking makes them think of food all the time? That's what I was like with Weightwatchers.
I'll come back and post with a menu, in case it helps anyone else

[Fiddlemeonce]

Me. :) My two biggest challenges with BSD have been:

1. I hate cooking.
   
2. I am all about quantity (feeling full) over quality.
   
   I have a rotation of low-cal meals that I know will fill me up and take minimal time to cook. Note that I don't so much count carbs
   
   

• Low cal microwave meals dumped on top of frozen veg.
  
• Egg whites with veg/salad/cottage cheese/low cal bread/toast.
  
• Fruit cocktail in a can
  
• Huge portions (vats really!) of soup
  
• Measured yoghurt pots.
  
• Pre-cut courgetti/cauliflower rice in stir fries.
  
• Salsa is a fave condiment. Livens up most dishes.
  

I also tend to have two big-ish meals, rather than spread out over the day. It's all about pre-planning, so, as you say, you don't have to spend that much time thinking about it!

[thenewaveragebear1983]

Come and join us on our lovely BSD thread!
Blood sugar diet thread 8
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/fasting_diet/3020109-blood-sugar-diet-thread-8

Unfortunately pre prepped meals and BSD don't go well together as everything seems to have sugar in, or rice starch or things like that. Real honest ingredients are the way to go- so perhaps you need to switch around your meals a bit.

So- could you cook a chicken and portion up to use in several meals/lunches? Could you freeze/portion meals during the week or batch cook? Eggs in various forms are quick and easy to cook, such as Fritatta, hard boiled in salads etc. Simple meals such as chicken portions with curry powder, baked in the oven and served on cauliflower?

Jamie's new book is amazing, has lots of BSD friendly recipes that only use 5 ingredients. Failing that, some of the supermarket pre seasoned meats are ok, but avoid anything honey glazed, BBQ seasoned, Chinese seasoned etc as they tend to be high in sugar.

[thenewaveragebear1983]

Sorry, just to add- I can understand not wanting to think about food more, but planning your delicious meals really is what keeps you going on this plan. If you're eating 800 calories a day then food just tastes amazing and s lot of the book recipes are very quick and really delicious.

If you really don't want to think about food, you could use shakes as he suggests to get through the first few weeks but I don't know if anyone who has really done this

[PenelopeFlintstone]

Thanks for these replies and sorry I didn't see them earlier. I was looking again because I'm starting tomorrow.

[thenewaveragebear1983]

How are you getting on Penelope?

[pfrench]

When I first did bsd, I bought all my lunches from m and s. Eggs for breakfast then a combo of 'just add..' chicken and a v low cal salad from m and s. Bought them in bulk.

Cost more, but only had to think about one meal a day. Could do the same with ready made soups and their cooked chicken.

[PenelopeFlintstone]

Hi again
thanks for your replies! I'm on here because I'm going to start tomorrow. Sorry, I didn't know you'd replied.
I think that's what I'm going to do - buy a ton of frozen diet meals from the supermarket and just eat those with a yoghurt for breakfast.
I think 'simple' is what I need. I just need to not eat three at each meal! (Not that I've ever done that but I can see the temptation might be there!)

[bridgetreilly]

I'd be nervous about trying to do the BSD with no cooking. Lots of low calorie meals will still have a lot of carbs in them, and although the BSD is very low calorie, it's critical that those calories come from proteins and fats, rather than carbs. Otherwise (a) you'll still be hungry all the time and (b) you won't actually get the blood sugar benefits.

I think you could follow the recipes in the book without doing too much real cooking if you buy cooked chicken and prepared vegetables and so on. Quite a lot of them are assembling things on a plate, rather than actual cooking.

[Downtheroadfirstonleft]

Or just choose foods with low/ no carbs..

I've been using a lot of Cook readymeals and Waitrose prepared salads. It's working well and I don't have to spend ages thinking about food.

[lljkk]

Ooh, wish I had seen this thread before. I have same problem. FGS, I don't want to spend time learning elaborate recipes that produce tiny portions. And the dealing with food decisions will just remind me how restricted my choices are. I managed minimal but not NO cooking.

My strategy is cook about 550 grams of veg & grill some chicken the night before a starvation day. This takes about 45 minutes & it covers most of 2 meals. Heat these up with a bit of kidney beans, cups of tea (with milk) or a piece of bread for breakfast + lunch. (I don't like conventional breakfast foods).

Evening meal, DH cooks for the family, so there are more veg & I can choose 200 kcal from whatever not-veg is left. Maybe some potatoes or a fish finger.