Soldato
Hi all,
Im about to embark on a weightlifting programme. Ive done it before, and managed to gain a fair bit of weight but I relied on a lot of milk and chocolate based snacks to get the required calories and thus also got quite podgy.
I want to try and do more batch cooking to get the calories in real food and less fat.
Problem is I am a very fussy eater. That's not a problem in itself because Im quite happy eating the same meal every day. I prefer simple foods.
Where I work we have a canteen so lunch is fine, I either have a sandwich or a hot meal. For eveninig meal I will usually have some form of oven cooked meal or ready meal, so a microwave curry for example, or jacket potatoes, some griddled steak or chicken, a pie and chips. etc. I only cook for one.
The meals I therefore need to cater for are breakfast and an afternoon snack. I need an afternoon snack to get the calories in, and because i need to eat a couple of hours before training session.
I am terrible with breakfast. Im just not hungry early in the morning and am often in a rush to get out the house.
So my plan is something along the following lines:
Breakfast - something that I can eat quickly, along with a glass of milk, and that isn't too stodgy. I'd like to get about 700 calories from breakfast, milk will be half of that so I need another 350 from somewhere.
Lunch - this will be in work canteen, either sandwich or hot meal. This could vary between say 400 to 800 calories depending on what's on the menu.
Afternoon snack - I'll need something I can take with me to work, heat in the microwave in its own container, and eat at about 4pm. I'd like to get about 700 calories from this.
Evening meal - if all has gone to plan I'll have about 1000 calories to find here. I'll cook some oven food at home (examples, frozen pizza; jacket potato; pasta; meat; ready meal; frozen fish/chicken). I'll have another glass of milk here and maybe a cake for desert.
This all should total up to about 3200 calories. I don't mind throwing in the odd chocolate bar, but previously I was having to gorge on a pack of biscuits at 11pm because i'd not reached my calorie target in the day.
I pretty resigned to my afternoon meal being some form of flavoured chicken (examples tikka, cajun, piri piri) that I have cooked then split into portions, along with either rice or pasta, and some veg (for example brocoli or cauliflower). Problems are:
1. It takes quite a lot of chicken, rice or pasta to get 700 calories from it.
2. I don't know how best to batch cook and what the reheating times are for microwave if all this is in a single container.
3. I do have a slow cooker but not really sure what to cook in it apart from a curry or stew.
I have no idea what to do for breakfast. I could keep boiled eggs in the fridge and eat two before leaving, which is about 150 calories, plus a glass milk. Im still short here without throwing in biscuits or chocolate.
I will need to spend a chunk of money up front on containers (need microwavable ones), and I'd need to build up a shopping list which is mostly the same every week. At the moment I have no routine here, I just go to the shops without a list, and irregularly.
Thanks for any tips.
Im about to embark on a weightlifting programme. Ive done it before, and managed to gain a fair bit of weight but I relied on a lot of milk and chocolate based snacks to get the required calories and thus also got quite podgy.
I want to try and do more batch cooking to get the calories in real food and less fat.
Problem is I am a very fussy eater. That's not a problem in itself because Im quite happy eating the same meal every day. I prefer simple foods.
Where I work we have a canteen so lunch is fine, I either have a sandwich or a hot meal. For eveninig meal I will usually have some form of oven cooked meal or ready meal, so a microwave curry for example, or jacket potatoes, some griddled steak or chicken, a pie and chips. etc. I only cook for one.
The meals I therefore need to cater for are breakfast and an afternoon snack. I need an afternoon snack to get the calories in, and because i need to eat a couple of hours before training session.
I am terrible with breakfast. Im just not hungry early in the morning and am often in a rush to get out the house.
So my plan is something along the following lines:
Breakfast - something that I can eat quickly, along with a glass of milk, and that isn't too stodgy. I'd like to get about 700 calories from breakfast, milk will be half of that so I need another 350 from somewhere.
Lunch - this will be in work canteen, either sandwich or hot meal. This could vary between say 400 to 800 calories depending on what's on the menu.
Afternoon snack - I'll need something I can take with me to work, heat in the microwave in its own container, and eat at about 4pm. I'd like to get about 700 calories from this.
Evening meal - if all has gone to plan I'll have about 1000 calories to find here. I'll cook some oven food at home (examples, frozen pizza; jacket potato; pasta; meat; ready meal; frozen fish/chicken). I'll have another glass of milk here and maybe a cake for desert.
This all should total up to about 3200 calories. I don't mind throwing in the odd chocolate bar, but previously I was having to gorge on a pack of biscuits at 11pm because i'd not reached my calorie target in the day.
I pretty resigned to my afternoon meal being some form of flavoured chicken (examples tikka, cajun, piri piri) that I have cooked then split into portions, along with either rice or pasta, and some veg (for example brocoli or cauliflower). Problems are:
1. It takes quite a lot of chicken, rice or pasta to get 700 calories from it.
2. I don't know how best to batch cook and what the reheating times are for microwave if all this is in a single container.
3. I do have a slow cooker but not really sure what to cook in it apart from a curry or stew.
I have no idea what to do for breakfast. I could keep boiled eggs in the fridge and eat two before leaving, which is about 150 calories, plus a glass milk. Im still short here without throwing in biscuits or chocolate.
I will need to spend a chunk of money up front on containers (need microwavable ones), and I'd need to build up a shopping list which is mostly the same every week. At the moment I have no routine here, I just go to the shops without a list, and irregularly.
Thanks for any tips.