I’m driving myself nuts eating like a little piggy every weekend even though I eat really healthy during the week. I even like my healthy food so it isn’t like I’m depriving myself. But I meal prep for M-F and don’t have it in me to cook on weekends so I eat tons of junk. So, does anyone else do this? Did anyone else get over this? Do you have some other food woes you want to get off your chest? Or some other random thing you would like to discuss?
You must log in or register to comment.
I happen to enjoy cooking, so I put effort into making meals on the weekends and I make enough to be able to eat them as leftovers midweek. Lots of meals taste better after a night or two in the fridge.
count your calories and you can eat what you want
It’s easiest to not eat junk by just not buying junk to begin with. I noticed I stopped eating TV dinners as often when I started taking them off my grocery list. That forces me to think about what I want to make. Might be as simple as whole wheat pasta for dinner with a smoothie (unflavored yogurt, milk, frozen berries, a banana, and spinach).
While I’ve certainly done it myself, I’ve noticed my SO tends to go to town on certain snacks like chips or Ritz over regular meals. This has helped me also realize that it would be beneficial to myself to also cut down on the amount of snacks foods I have. Going too far in the other direction (just having raw ingredients only) also incetivizes eating out though, so a balance must be struck.
I am also extremely guilty of going to town on junk food. I’ll wolf down ab entire bag of chips if I have one so I usually avoid buying them lol
To me this sounds like the preparation you do during the week maybe is a bit tiring or boring or both, so that even if you like the food you cook, the process is a chore. I’d include grocery shopping in “the process”.
If true, then you are amazing to keep on top of everything during the week, but it may provide some clues for arranging your weekend food into something you’re happier with.
Maybe you need simpler, faster recipes for the weekdays so you’re less fed up with cooking by the weekend? Maybe you need things which are more fun to cook, or which have more pleasurable sensory aspects, both in the preparation and in the eating? Maybe you could make some extra food during the week, that you can reheat or just turf onto a plate at the weekends?
Is it possible you are too strict during the week? Or that you’re not really getting enough calories over the week? What happens if you are more relaxed about how healthy your weekday meals are? What happens if you have small amounts of junky stuff during the week?
So actually I meal prep on Sunday morning and eat the same thing M-F which I’m ok with but 5 days is my limit and I don’t think the food would still be good by the next Saturday and Sunday anyway. But maybe you’re on to something and even though I think I’m ok with the same dinner every day, maybe I need to make like 4 days worth of food then do a quick and easy 3 day meal prep on Thursday to switch it up. Maybe it’s at least partially a psychological thing that I wasn’t even aware was happening.
Just curious, do you dislike cooking? Or are you really short on time every day? Because if you don’t hate cooking, and you love eating, then there’s no reason not to just cook fresh and something different daily. If time is an issue, then there are plenty of quick recipes with simple ingredients that you can use to whip up a dish in no time at all - Jamie Oliver has a few books and shows on this (15 Minute Meals / 5 Ingredients – Quick & Easy Food etc), if you need some inspiration.
Once you get into the habit of cooking fresh daily, then you won’t really differentiate between weekends and weekdays. Instead, you may even see weekends as a chance to cook those elaborate and fancy dishes you don’t have the time for during the weekends, or experiment with a new cuisine or even a cooking technique that you haven’t employed before.
Having the right gear also helps save a lot of time, such as a pressure cooker or an instant pot, an air fryer etc. Try and get your kitchen equipped with all the essentials, optimize the way you organize and access your ingredients, spices etc. Watch a few cooking shows like MasterChef to get ideas on how to streamline your kitchen and workbench, how to multi-task etc to get things done in the shortest possible time.
No, I actually like cooking but I have a problem with having enough energy. I also wake up by 5 am every day and I’m just tired after work. I meal prep so I have something good available and don’t have to think and act when I’m tired. I also have an issue with overeating more and eating more junk food when I’m tired so it helps with that.
I guess I also don’t want to have to plan and deal with making 5 to 7 separate meals every week, planning all that, buying that many groceries. I only cook for myself so that seems really like an excessive amount of shopping and cooking and things to buy when I can do it once and be done.
Edit: you know what I absolutely loathe though is cleaning and doing dishes and that’s high on the list of reasons not to cook every day. The cooking is nice but nothing that goes along with it is.
I’d include grocery shopping in “the process”.
Personally, this was the most exhausting part of cooking for me. My recipes are often complicated and call for a lot of somewhat obscure ingredients. Then the risk of forgetting something or buying the wrong thing is also there. Half the time, by the time I start actually cooking I’m already a little bit tired just because I could not find lime oil or whatever for the life of me.
I’ve started ordering all my ingredients for pickup now. I get a search bar so I’m not walking down isles hoping I’m in the right one, and I can check it against the recipe easily. I can pick it up on my bike ride and it just feels so much better.
I do the same thing… but on purpose. M-F is my healthy meal prep, and the weekend is when I go wild and allow myself to eat out a lot and get whatever I’d like. It’s like a treat for making it through the week.
I’m thinking of cutting back on my weekend eating out tho (cost reasons), so I might need to start prepping something a little different for the weekend to keep myself in check.
I’m liking the idea of freezing more healthy junk food. Maybe that would help you cut back on eating out too.
I try to set a time in which I can’t eat junk food until. Start with after lunch say 1pm and then try to extend that each day / weekend. I find having rules that I can judge myself on is better than goals when it comes to junk food.
I’m going to try that, thank you!
My wife and I meal prep M-F as well. We solved the weekend problem by ordering children portions or splitting a single adult order. The portion sizes served adults are far too large. When going to a sit down restaurant, we usually leave with leftovers.
It’s usually 2 or 3 meals on the plate!
Look into Soylent: powder food that you simply mix with water. I pretty much only use my stove to keep my coffee warm these days.
I’ll Google it but is that an actual product? This isn’t just a Soylent Green is people joke?
They swear it’s not made of people. It’s definitely made with soy protein and a proprietary blend of vitamins. Certainly not people. No way. Who told you that? What’s their last name, and where do they live?
Oh, ya know, it’s just an ugly rumor I heard.
