Practical meal ideas while using MJ

[AplineDaisies]

I have been on MJ for 2 months. I lost a stone in a month and nothing since then. I must admit that I am not eating properly - other than at breakfast.
I would really appreciate practical advice as to what I should be eating.
One big issue is meals that are family friendly to include fussy teens.
I starterd on MJ to get going with weight loss but I haven't put any good habits in place.
I have a severely disabled dd who takes up a lot of my mental and physical time. I also have a teenager who shouts and screams a lot to me.
DH does help but I just need help on what to eat.
If people say Xgrams of fibre or Ygrams of protein, that isn't concrete enough for me to put into place in terms of actual food ideas.
Thank you in advance.

ChatGPT is your friend here. Ask it to devise a meal plan menu that gives you at least 1g of protein per kg of your body weight and to build up to 30g of fibre per day (don’t try and start at 30g if you’re not used to it, you’ll get bloating and terrible wind). Tell it where you like to shop, what your budget it, what you like to eat as a family and what to avoid. It’ll do the rest including providing you with recipes and a shopping list.

It great you’ve lost weight but you do need to ensure you don’t become malnourished. Prioritise whole foods - cut out UPF’s, ensure you drink plenty of water and concentrate on your protein intake. You’ll also have lost muscle rather than fat in that time if you haven’t eaten enough or been doing weight bearing exercise. ChatGPT can give you a simple exercise plan too.

Thank you- that's a good idea

You mention the need to have family friendly meals because you have fussy teens.

I am speaking from experience when I say you need to make your own food a priority. I know how difficult that is, especially since you already have a lot of demands on your time and headspace. But it is necessary.

For years I had to cater to a fussy husband (now ex) and fussy children and my needs came last. As a result my diet was terrible because the extra effort to cook myself different food was too much.

Now I will ensure I have enough protein and fibre regardless of what the main meal is. I batch cook chicken breasts every couple of days so I can add one of those if the main meal is carb heavy for example. But mostly I eat a high protein lunch and then dinner is less of a worry.

I will always cook extra veg for myself now too. Frozen veg is my go to and its not too much extra effort to add some peas or green beans to the microwave when I am plating up.

Other things I do when I have no bandwidth for batch cooking or extra effort is buy the frozen chicken skewers in Iceland.

12 mins in the air fryer and two of them is a great protein source. I usually add them to a wrap, or sometimes just have them alongside houmous and rice cakes for my lunch.

I make my tuna mayo with (proper) greek yoghurt rather than mayo now, but it was an acquired taste and does need seasoning.

I add cottage cheese to scrambled eggs. I go back and forward on whether I like cottage cheese, but adding it to eggs is a good way to get the protein if I am having a day where it isn't appealing on its own.

I totally second what @captivate says.

I have a similar scenario with living with a teen with ASD who has disordered eating. I eat separately and cook separately.

I have a stash of hard boiled eggs/ cooked chicken breast/ prawns on hand and have greek yoghurt with chia & flax seed most days.

Oat cakes are also good, especially the seeded ones for fibre intake with hummus or cottage cheese.

The main thing is to cut complex carbs from meals and focus on protein and vegetables.

And drink all of the water.

I'm pretty sure you don't want to be cutting the complex carbs, they're the good ones!

@AplineDaisies definitely eat the whole grains, legumes and starchy veg that come under the complex carbs umbrella, that's where a lot of the fibre is.

It might be worth have a look at some of the Instagram accounts that focus on high protein high fibre recipes that are family friendly, there seem to be a lot of them, might give you inspiration.

As a previous poster says, ChatGPT is great for meal planning. I'm not much of a planner but I do use it a LOT for dinner ideas. I tell it what I have in the fridge and it gives me a few options and then it tweaks the recipes to my preferences. It gets to know my likes and dislikes and also what I tend to have in my fridge and cupboards, I really recommend it and have made some really amazing recipes lately, will attach pics.

I consciously try to add as big a volume of veg to my meals as possible whilst building the meal around a protein source. I'm 17 months into my journey (and coming up 11stone down) and I really believe cracking the healthy eating routine as early on as possible is the key to maintaining the loss going forward 🤞

@Fffreeeeezing , ha ha, you're absolutely right, I'm losing it! I meant cutting things like white bread, non wholemeal pasta etc.

I guessed you meant that🤣

Massive congratulations, by the way, on your amazing weight loss, absolutely inspirational!

We have Gousto boxes for dinners and I try to pick meals under 650 calories. Lots of rice based dishes which luckily we all enjoy. Fajitas (I will only have one wrap, the teen will have 3 or 4), sausages and mash with lots of veg, the JD seasoning meal kits are good. I also like the chicken skewers from Iceland, if we're having a freezer tea I'll have one of them with chips.

Lunch is always a protein bagel, with cream cheese or cottage cheese, and ham and tomatoes. I hate cottage cheese but Longley Farm is really bearable and full of protein, I really like the one with chives. Jacket potatoes also good for lunch.

What type of things do your teens usually eat, are they adaptable?

We enjoyed using the pinch of nom books for ideas. But I have cooked something different for me and then less healthy for the rest of the family but kind of using the same stuff. So we all have rice and veg but I have a different protein to them. They might have pasta and I don't.

It's a ball ache and I'm over it but needs must.

I think that it's worth having some supplements, like fibre, protein and a multivitamin if you think your diet is lacking, and then you could just have small portions of whatever everyone else is eating.