LFC's Crazy ready meal diet

[LaurieFairyCake]

I posted yesterday about me here and my desire to lose weight without focusing on it too much - essentially I'm overweight because I can only have 1700 calories to maintain my weight and I have eaten a leetle bit extra every day for 20 years to put on the extra 4 stone.

I have occasionally tried to lose weight and I'm always successful when I give it plenty of focus (weighing/measuring/recording etc) but it isn't healthy for me to devote vast amounts of time to it when really I find it boring/am essentially happy with who I am and only want to lose weight to avoid the heart disease/diabetes/cancer problems that kill everyone in my family young.

My intention is to make it as easy as possible and buy prepared foods that I don't have to weigh/count/measure - if I could do one of those 'food delivered to your door' packages I would but I can't afford it - they start at £120 a week - I checked

I want to see if I can come to terms long-term with only eating 1700 calories (to maintain) - maybe it will be easier to exercise when I lose some weight - I don't know - maybe also if I do this long enough I will retrain my portion sizes to be happy with my 1700? Maybe I will end up being grateful for the extra 4 stone as it will take me long enough to lose it to maybe be happy with going up to 1700.

But for now I'm going to eat the 1256 calories to lose the 2lb a week.

I started last night and had M&S Salmon/watercress/potato salad for dinner - I'd eaten a large sandwich for lunch (before I decided to do this) so I didn't want much for dinner - it was 240 calories.

Today I had (ridiculously) M&S instant porridge in a pot (just add hot water) - I had a serious face on eating it this morning as it was £1.15 - but strangely that made me eat the entire thing - I am a massive breakfast avoider and would not make porridge for myself (faffy and the stuff sticks like glue to pans/bowls) - 240 calories

For lunch I had the same Salmon/Watercress/Potato salad - 240 calories plus a banana 60 calories

So this salmon salad ready meal only contains salmon/watercress/potato - the only 'processed' item is the mayonnaise - and I wouldn't have made that myself anyway

I can already anticipate a few problems which I'm going to have to find a way round - apart from fruit I'm going to need to have emergency (countable) snacks - babybels/nuts/dried fruit/yoghurts to supplement the calories - the ready meals range from 240 calories to 400 - if I just ate 3 of them I wouldn't get enough calories

Cash costs so far: £1.15 (ludicrous but it worked) for the instant oat porridge
£2.50 (twice - for dinner last night and lunch today) for the salmon salad

Tonights dinner (Mexican Roasted Chicken Salad - 360 calories) £2.50 and a Tomato side salad £1.75 (125 calories) plus an activia yoghurt (125 calories)

That gets me pretty close to my daily total

There are other reasons (not in the last thread) that I'm not cooking different meals for myself - wastage - dh and dd are both veggies/very active and eat lots of high carb foods - I know from experience that I do better with meat in my diet and not pasta/pizza.

I will re-post every day so that we can see if this way works for me.

It's 1020 calories to lose 2lb a week - wishful thinking there on my part

How are you doing on this?
I'm interested in using m&s healthy meals for my dinners.

I had one of those fuller longer menus the other night and it was delicious (thai chicken green curry) and it was only 400 odd calories!

Menus=meals!

This is how well the 'diet' is working for me - I've barely thought about food long enough to come back and post on this

I've eaten 2 M&S Ready Meals a day - I dropped the instant M&S porridge and have been eating yoghurt/banana/toast/eggs

First weigh in today - 3.5 lbs lost in a week - I actually didn't want to lose that much as I'd like a consistent 2lb loss but of course I'm very happy.

This has been the easiest food regime I've ever been on. I've spent £29 on food for me in the week - so a lot less than those 'deliver to home in a box' diets the celebs use.

I have not been hungry once but I have had to eat very regularly instead of waiting for ages for meals.

another 2.5lb loss (6 pound down now in 2 weeks)

Lots of 'fuller longer' M&S meals - some waitrose ready meals (whatever was on special offer - last night it was some salmon in pearl barley thing - nice)

I am basically making a ready meal and then plating it up so it looks nice with a giant salad.

Other knock on effects - skin and eyes very clear (must be all the salad and veg) - and every time I have one glass of wine I have a hangover the next morning (and I'm squiffy on one)

Costing me about £32 a week for my food - Frankly I think I'm saving money as I'm not buying extras and I'm buying whatevers on 3 for 2/cheap etc - I'm lucky to not be fussy about food.

Congrats LFC I can see that it would work for me as it takes away any thinking about food, i've just done the shred and had a detox juice for breakfast, off to m&s later. Got a stone to shift.

End of third week - another 1.5lb down - 7.5lbs in three weeks overall.

Very happy - plenty of M&S cumberland pie and lamb hot pot as it's been colder.

I've found I can make myself even fuller by having an M&S side salad (125 calories) for starter. And it makes it feel even more of a meal and more special - I never eat out the packets, always make it attractive on a plate. Tried a few waitrose ready meals too - higher calories but also keeping me full.

Still not costing me more than £30-ish a week.

It's still great not to think about food and not to weigh and count and looking at the meals there is very little apart from fresh food in them - all have best before dates of a couple of days so clearly very little preservative.

Roll on the first stone

So 13 years on I've found your post.. 10 yrs ago I did Diet Chef & lost 1stone.. and have kept it off BUT having tried to lose more in a decade and failed.. can't afford £400pm to do Diet Chef ( this without buying veg etc) I too thought of Supermarket Ready Meals..
And looked for anyone who had tried.. you seem to have stopped posting quite abruptly.. but seem to have 1) enjoyed the ease & the food & 2) to have success..