(Part 2) Best products from r/fitmeals

Excellent! I think problems are good to talk about in order to help people move past their barriers. I was a very picky eater growing up, but fortunately my taste buds changed around my early 20's & more foods magically started tasting better. In your case, it would be worth seeing why you have those aversions & then develop a technique for working around them so that you can enjoy more great foods!

There's nothing wrong with eating similar stuff all the time. Read up on macros in my link above, and then watch this documentary:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evcNPfZlrZs
  
  Obviously, it's best to eat real food, but you can survive just fine on fast food. I eat Burger King Whoppers all the time! Over a third of Americans eat out at fast food places every single day. You have to start with what works for you & then grow from there, instead of just feeling guilty about it. And there are ways to sneak in healthy stuff into your food & still have it taste good, such as putting sweet potatoes in brownies:
  
  
• https://foodal.com/recipes/desserts/healthy-sweet-potato-brownies/
  
  So basically, it's not monolithic - there are lots of different approach angles & nooks & crannies to climbing this mountain. The first step is deciding to work on it, which you've already done, so congrats there, and the second step is putting together a game-plan to helping yourself get to where you want to be! This might include:
  
  
• Talking to a therapist about the root cause of your food aversions
  
• Developing a technique for eating foods you don't care for & new foods
  
• Finding ways to sneak fruits & vegetables into your diet
  
• Trying out a meal-replacement drink like Soylent
  
• Learning about macros so that you at least know how much to feed yourself for weight-gain
  
• Building up a recipe notebook of foods that you actually enjoy eating, so that you can create some variety & have some options to choose from when it comes time to do meal-prep
  
• Include a multi-vitamin in your diet, or perhaps add an unflavored vitamin & mineral powder (sticker shock on that one, but costs about a buck a dose) into your food or drink every day
  
  There are ways to cope & manage & overcome pretty much any problem out there, if you're willing to try, and since you've hit the point where you're willing to try, there's plenty of stuff to work on! If you're interested in trying out macros, then report back with the following:
  
  
• Current weight
  
• Target weight (how much weight you want to gain)
  
• Calories & macro numbers from the IIFYM calculator (note that it requires an email & they'll send you marketing emails, so use a dummy address if you have one!)

Baking with stevia works but for things like cookies which depend on melted sugar to make it chewy don't turn out too well. Cookies turn out very flakey. But for things like oatmeal of sweetening protein shakes, it's wonderful. Did lots and lots of research for non gmo, non-bitter, additive free stevia and this is the best one I've found. Been using it everyday for four months but still not halfway through! :) http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005F9XFN0/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1420288490&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SY200_QL40

Like 95% of stevia has additives like malodextrin so you need to watch out. This is the one that reviewers on Amazon had the best taste, zero additives, and little aftertaste. I can attest to it. Hope you give it a try.

Hard boil eggs a few days in advance, bring 3/day as morning snacks. (they won't need refrigerating for a few hours)

Make a bowl of cottage cheese (4% ideal, 2% if you have to but never non-fat) and add fruit to it the night before. Put in fridge for a fast morning meal before you leave.

You can make a protein shake in the morning too - I like AllMax Hexapro because it takes a while to digest and it's thick but get whatever type you enjoy.

Doing the above, my breakfasts are about 450-Cal and keep me full until mid-morning or lunch when I tuck in to the eggs.

Ditch the Hamburger Helper - it's basically sugar, starch, and more sugar, with some spices.

Greek yogurt is GREAT! Just make sure you get the HIGH FAT type - something like 6-8%. Fat is NOT the enemy; sugar/carbs are.

FROZEN FRUIT: game-changer for me. Never goes bad, usually picked at peak ripeness. I stock the freezer up when it's on sale, then take a cup out the night before and let it thaw in the fridge.

There are some awesome insulated containers for keeping food cold on a commute:
https://www.amazon.com/THERMOS-Insulated-Stainless-10-Ounce-Charcoal/dp/B00LIRIZVU/

There are boxy ones with multiple compartments to:
https://www.amazon.com/Nucucina-Slim-Bento-Lunch-All/dp/B0160UGT9O/

Full disclosure: I used to love eating all the things I'm telling you not to! The game-changer for me (and I'm a 6'0" tall dude whose weight started near yours) was going LCHF (low-carb, high-fat). My macros are about 30% carb, 35%/35% fat/protein.

Hi! Proportions depends on your body and your goals. Here's a typical grocery list in my house:

PROTEIN

• Chicken breast
  
• ground chicken
  
• ground turkey
  
• Tilapia
  
• Beef (weekly)
  
• Tuna
  
• 0% greek yogurt
  
• Bean pasta (Explore Cuisine has 22g Protein per serving and <$4 a box)
  
• protein powder
  
  CARB
  
  
• quinoa
  
• brown rice
  
• white rice (moderation)
  
• salad
  
• beans
  
• onion/ peppers/ garlic (& other accompanying vegetables)
  
• spaghetti squash (instead of pasta, or in a tuna casserole)
  
• pasta sauce
  
• rice cakes
  
• oatmeal (1-minute & rolled)
  
• sweet potato
  
• FRUIT!
  
• Bananas (yep, deserve a separate line)
  
• FROZEN FRUIT!!
  
• frozen veggies (peas & corn mostly)
  
• bread (in moderate amounts)
  
• almond milk
  
  FATS
  
  
• eggs
  
• avocado
  
• nuts (raw)
  
• peanut butter
  
• almond butter (MAPLE ALMOND BUTTER)
  
• half & half (in your coffee)
  
• cheese (moderate amounts)
  
• olive oil
  
• coconut oil
  
• other oils
  
  RESOURCES
  
  
• skinnytaste recipes
  
• the only cookbook you'll ever need
  
• simply shredded athlete interviews (they all talk about their diet)
  
  MEAL IDEAS
  
  
• bean pasta and pasta sauce
  
• fillet of chicken (or fish) plus a carb
  
• enormous salad (beans, green onions, peppers) with chicken
  
• protein smoothie
  
• • 1/2 frozen banana (key to smoothieness)
    
• • 1 serving frozen fruit (I mix kinds for a total of 1 serving)
    
• • 1 serving rolled oats
    
• • 1 scoop protein powder
    
• • almond milk
    
• spaghetti squash tuna casserole
  
• • (I literally make this up every time I'm happy to write it out if you like)
    
• one skillet sweet potato burrito bowl (add chicken, modify the recipe however you like)
  
  TIPS
  
  
• portion and bake 3lbs of chicken & 3lbs of tilapia at once. let cool and freeze on baking sheet. Transfer when frozen solid to a freezer bag. Defrost a portion overnight.
  
• you can replace anything white with 0% greek yogurt (sour cream, mayo, whipped cream)
  
• pick up a carton of your favorite protein bars and save them for emergencies (when you couldn't shop or prep)
  
• make perusing recipe resources a regular habit to maintain inspiration
  
• you can shred chicken with an electric mixer (it's kind of amazing)
  
• make an enormous salad on Sundays, eat for 4 days
  
• sweet potato microwaves easily, just throw one in your lunch bag with your fillet and you're set
  
• chili is your best friend!
  
• so is mustard! All the kinds
  
• so are pickles (except for bread and butter pickles... the best kind)
  
• so is hot sauce!
  
• anything you make with ground beef you can make with ground chicken or ground turkey (sloppy joes, tacos, chili)
  
• keep a list of all of your favorite recipes/ meal ideas (things to try) where you can easily review it and build your shopping list. I do it all in one place here and organize my grocery list by department to make shopping happen faster.
  
  That's a lot of info, I got a little carried away. Sorry.
  
  Baby steps. Start with whatever. When you find yourself dreading your meals, spice it up. If meal prep stresses you out figure out how to make it easier (that's how I learned about shredding chicken with a mixer). When you falter (you will) figure out what went wrong and how you can improve.
  

Little late to the party, but I am a huge iced coffee fan and I'll tell you what worked for me.

I loved Starbucks Iced Coffees but they got too expensive after a while. I initially used regular VIA packets (not the Iced Coffee one) in a 32 ounce bottle filled with ice water, they were good, but again, got too expensive.

I then found this: [Cafe Bustelo Instant Coffee] (http://www.amazon.com/Cafe-Bustelo-Instant-Espresso-3-5-Ounce/dp/B001E95KUQ/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1376341585&sr=8-6&keywords=cafe+bustelo) Makes strong, tasty iced coffee.

If you need it sweet, add a scoop or two of Protein Powder (chocolate or vanilla). Makes it a Iced cafe mocha.

Muscle Milk is the best brand for this recipe (although higher in calories).

Ok, here are a few easy suggestions:

Most veggies can be oven roasted for extra flavour. I often toss a bunch of "about to go bad" veggies into a cast iron oven like this tossed with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. Add anything you can think of - sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, onions, whole cloves of garlic are awesome - the more colours the better. Let it all sit in the oven for ~1h at 350 and you have an amazing pot full of nutritional goodness. I'll often have just these veggies with a piece of meat I've cooked separately, or sometimes I add meat to the pot (peameal bacon, chopped steak).

It's a very easy way to get a lot of great vegetables into you :)

Another one of my favourite recipes for using a ton of veggies is stuffed peppers. I posted it here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/fitmeals/comments/ilp7p/stuffed_peppers/

I usually cook on Saturday or Sunday, sometimes both days. The last few weeks have been rough, but this coming weekend I am going to get back into the routine.

I am going to give you some advice, buy a pressure cooker. You can make something that would take 8 hours, in about 2 and a half hours. That means you can have awesome pulled pork sandwiches, with a homemade cole slaw in about three hours total, including prep time.

I mainly love my pressure cooker, because I can make my pulled pork, clean it out, then make barbacoa and if I start all of this at 8 AM, I can be done with it all by 2 PM or so. This includes making side dishes, and almost anything else I need. I'll usually clean my house at the same time, play a video game, or whatever else I might want to do. I sometimes even take a nap, and wake up to the smell of cooked meat.

My boyfriend and I purchased a Ninja Prep Master set-up for around $30 at Walmart on Black Friday two years ago. Blades are still incredibly sharp after two years of heavy use although we accidently broke the smaller container somehow as the bottom as a small crack in it. I still use the larger container for blending for almost everything. Sauces come out velvety and smooth, chops very clean but leans toward more of a mince if blended too long (depends on your food item, too.) It does blend very quickly and evenly, so when using it I recommend in trying to use small bursts to get the consistency you want and plan ahead. It has one button, using one speed but if you are good with timing, it's worth the price. http://www.amazon.com/Ninja-QB900B-Master-Revolutionary-Drink/dp/B003XU3C7M/ref=sr_1_5?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1372350187&sr=1-5&keywords=blenders

If you are looking for something more variety, speed control and want a good value, Oster is very good quality for not a lot of money: http://www.amazon.com/Oster-BVCB07-Z-Counterforms-7-Speed-Stainless/dp/B002RBXHSC/ref=sr_1_4?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1372350187&sr=1-4&keywords=blenders I have used Oster in the past and no complaints save for the motor dying but that model was over 10 years old!

I hope this helps!

Fun fact: The macros can be improved a bit by substituting a little bit of honey for the brown sugar, and Huy Fong chili garlic sauce for the Frank's stuff (which I think has added sugar, no?). That's how I usually make it, and I've never felt like it lacked sweetness.

I've also made basically this same recipe without coconut milk, slaw, or lentils, and it's still awesome. Try adding thinly sliced jalapeños and grated carrots sometime. It's excellent.

If I have room for carbs, my favorite way to eat it is over long grain white rice (skipping any non-vegetable carbs in the recipe, obviously). Without room for carbs, try serving it over cauliflower rice. Green Giant sells frozen riced cauliflower now to save you the trouble of ricing it yourself. It's pretty good.

Just made this for dinner tonight. Really delicious and filling comfort food that is relatively low calorie and high fiber thanks to the FiberGourmet noodles. The FiberGourmet brands use modified ("resistant") wheat starch in the place of semolina flour. They taste nearly identical and work really well in the recipe. (Plus they make you incredibly full)

**
The Recipe

Vegetable-oil cooking spray

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 lb ground lean turkey breast

3 cups tomato sauce (I used Mario Batali's Tomato Basil pasta sauce since it has no added sugar. It's great)

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp red pepper flakes

Freshly ground black pepper (to taste)


1 cup chopped white mushrooms

6 cups chopped fresh spinach

2 cups fat-free ricotta

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 package [FiberGourmet Lasagna noodles] (http://www.amazon.com/FiberGourmet-Light-Lasagna-8-Ounce-Boxes/dp/B003S1WSD0/ref=sr_1_1?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1343431667&sr=1-1&keywords=fibergourmet+lasagna)

2 cups (8 oz) shredded part-skim mozzarella


Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray a medium-sized nonstick skillet with cooking spray.
Sauté onion for 2 minutes until translucent, then add turkey and cook until slightly browned (5-7 minutes on med-high heat). In a separate pan, cook mushrooms until browned an tender. Add tomato sauce, all seasonings and mushrooms and simmer 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat. In a bowl, combine spinach, ricotta, and nutmeg. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and rinse with cool water. Coat a 9" x 13" baking pan with cooking spray. Arrange 1/3 lasagna noodles (3 noodles) on the bottom of the pan. Spread a layer of ricotta mixture, then turkey mixture, then 1/3 mozzarella. Repeat layers, ending with mozzarella. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until cheese bubbles. Cool at least 5 minutes before cutting.

**
The Breakdown
8 servings per recipe (from the CalorieCount online recipe calculator)

Amount per serving:

Calories 363
Calories from Fat 107
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 11.9g
Saturated Fat 4.4g
Trans Fat 0.0g
Cholesterol 70mg
Sodium 430mg
Total Carbohydrates 33.3g
Dietary Fiber 9.7g
Sugars 5.0g
Protein 33.6g
Vitamin A 64% • Vitamin C 27%
Calcium 38% • Iron 15%



Make it! It's really good!

You mention a small fortune on Ninjas, but this is what I bought : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003VWXXXK/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. It's only $100, so not insane, but not cheapo.

I blend ice fine, make green smoothies everyday. I love it. Plus the central spindal with the blades makes it super duper easy to clean.

More of a general suggestion for cooking, but I highly "How to Cook Without a Book". It breaks down types of foods into groups by type/method, and then presents a basic "recipe" for how to do it. For example, it shows you the method behind how to make a basic stir fry or a stew, and then all you have to do is plug your seasonal ingredients into the equation, you don't need to go searching for a specific recipe anymore. More of a "teach a man to fish" approach to cooking.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Without-Book-Techniques/dp/0767902793