When you are on a calorie restricted diet–portion control is king. This can be a challenge to keep you from overeating or eating the wrong foods. Here we will explore the way to deal with portion control and what the best ways to deal with it is.
What about diets that mail you food?
At one point, these diets were all the rave. They are quite convenient and quite easy to deal with. Most people who are very busy or who have families that they cook for will like these prepackaged diet foods. However, they are still expensive and the least healthy option. These prepackaged diet foods have to have at least sodium to keep them preserved.
How to make your own frozen dinners for weight loss
This is good for those who like to cook. You may have to take a few things into consideration first though. You may need to make some extra room in your freezer and make sure you have enough room to defrost in your fridge. If you have a family and have an extra freeze in your garage–then all the better. But these are just pluses-anyone can do this for the week simply and easily.
So, what should these meals consist of?
These dinners can consist of anything you desire as long as you are portion controlled. Protein the size of a deck of cards. Starch, 4 oz and veggies any amount. Now, you must also realize you have to eat in a balanced way during the day. You can’t just eat and eat and no exercise then pop in a dinner. Your whole day has to be balanced.
Ideas for frozen dinners for weight loss
You may want to cook things without too much water content, veggies don’t actually freeze well if they are zucchini or squashes or any little veggies. The ones that do are broccoli or cauliflower. They are harder veggies. Potatoes are not the best to freeze either they tend to turn color. If you do freeze them, make sure you pour a little lemon juice over them. This way they don’t turn brown. You should also use meat or fowl that is whole and not ground. This way they don’t freezer burn. You should also look into very high-quality containers so that no oxygen gets into the food and ends up tasting like the freezer.
What if you think you don’t have enough time?
I’m more than aware that we can’t all just spend tons of time just to make your own frozen dinners. The whole reason we want these meals in the first place is that we don’t have time to make them from scratch every evening. Even when we do have a bit of extra time, we’re usually so tired from all the other busy days that we don’t have the energy or motivation to give it everything we’ve got.
The good news is that you don’t have to spend much time on this effort at all. In fact, the more you keep up this habit, the less time you will need to do it over passing months. All in all, it will end up requiring far less time and effort from you per meal than making even a handful of meals per week. Use these real-people-friendly, Joe-tested tips to make your own frozen dinners without needing extra time.
Make Double or Triple Batches
This is the big one. This is the key to doing it right. When you’ve already got the ingredients out, the chopping board, the knife, and so on, just make two or three times as much as you usually would. It takes much less time than it would to make each meal separately, plus, once you do, it’s done, and you’ll already have another meal or two made.
Do this every single time you make a meal that will freeze. Even if it means just tossing a couple of extra burgers or sausages on the barbecue. Believe it or not, they heat up great in the microwave. And if you don’t want them for dinner, they’ll make a perfect lunch, instead.
Keep it Up
Just because you make your own frozen dinners two or three times, it doesn’t mean you should stop there. Make a habit of preparing large batches of food every time. Label everything with a sticker on your reusable containers, or just write on zipper seal bags with a permanent marker. That way, you’ll know what it is and how long it has been in there. You’ll be amazed at how similar certain very different things start to look once they’re frozen in a fogged container!
Keep contributing to your stockpile until you’ve used an appropriate amount of freezer space. This way, you’ll start to create quite a selection for yourself and you’ll be able to choose what you feel like, not just what’s there. Even better, once you get a big enough number of meals, you’ll be able to cook 2 to 3 times per week but enjoy an already prepared meal 4 or 5 times per week. All without having to open a package or look up the local take-out menu.