I like making a big pot of food at the beginning of the week and having that all week.  It's easy, cheap, and usually delish!

It really helps that it takes a lot to make me bored of food though, haha!  

I have to plan meals because if I don't, I would not eat healthy. I suggest making soup of some kind or maybe a casserole. I make my weekly meal on Sunday while I am making our Sunday dinner - I kill 2 birds with one stone.

I have 4 kids and 2 sick parents, they eat as they call it "normal" food, such as shake & bake chicken or mac & cheese - things I refuse to eat. They eat their food and I eat whatever I have made myself for the week!

I'm not perfect at this by anymeans but I try to meal plan too. Mostly for supper.

Two things that I've found that helps for those nights that you know it's gonna be a long day and your gonna be starving when you get home.

1st is bring a snack to eat and hour or two before you'll get home, doesn't have to be anything complicated an apple or banana usually works best for me and helps to tide me over till supper is ready.

2nd is crock-pot meals. these are great cause they usually only take about 10 min. to toss in in the morning and then supper  is all ready when you get home, so you don't have to wait to eat and aren't tempted to snack instead.

also when I meal plan I only plan 4-5 meals(suppers) a week. The other nights are left over nights, so if I end up eating out I just scratch off one of the left over nights and put the meal I had planned for that night where the left overs were.

This may not work for most ppl....but being a creature of habit, I usually eat the same things for breakfast every day.  (usually coffee/special K bar/yogurt OR coffee/yogurt/oatmeal)

Lunch always consists of cooked veggies and salad or grape tomatoes.

Dinner always always always consists of some sort of vegetable, sometimes 2 or 3 kinds together plus a meat (protein) plus salad of some sort.

I am not eating any red meat as of lately.  I love chicken breast, tuna, shrimp, scallops, white fish (haddock).

Snacks are always a fruit/granola bar/tea

I just bought some sugar snap peas that I can't wait to try!!!!  Everyone is raving about how great a snack they make!

~H~

i am far from perfect but here is what ive been doing for the last few weeks -

i plan food in every 3 hours so i never get the chance to become over hungry or feel deprived. this helps me stick to the plan, even if it is something like "4pm apple and fruit tea". i also put my FAVOURITE healthy foods in my plan so that i look forward to eating them. 

for meals, try working out 3 or 4 different lunchs and dinners that fit in your calories, and then rotate them throughout the week maybe? 

good luck!

These are all really good ideas, I guess, strange as it is, I never thought of actually preparing the meals in advanced.  I'm excited to try this. Although, I do have to admit, I'm a bit of a snob about variety.

I like to have a lot of different things all the time.  But, I could have wildly different meals from week to week probably. Just the same thing for a week at time.

Quick preparation is key, I have a day job at an office, where I sit a lot and go home for my hour long lunch break. And then a night job as a waitress, where I'm tempted for hours while running around and completely exhausted (which doesn't help those carb cravings.)

I bought a weight watchers cookbook. Every sunday before my weekly grocery run, I go through and pick 6 dinner recipes for the week. I leave one space open for my hubby and I's weekly dinner out. I make my grocery list out of the ingredients on the menu for the week. Since the cookbook usually gives portions for 4 servings I set one serving aside as my lunch for the next day. I usually eat oatmeal or a slim fast bar for breakfast. Since its planned out in advance, I know just how much cooking I'll have to do when I get home.

I just started changing my habits, but I wind up freezing some things that I've made already.  Plus, I've been doing smoothies in the morning (started with ones that had oatmeal to help fill me up) but prep them as much as I can the night before.  I imagine this would work for lunch, depending what you do. 

But for dinner, the biggest thing is making something and eating again later in the week.  I like food and variety too much to eat the same thing every night.  But, I'll make the whole bag of veggies (two of us), and then eat them later in the week with different meats (fish tonight but pork later in the week).  I try to prep as much the night before, all the cutting, marinades, etc, especially for hubby to grill the following day. But, you could leave out the pots and pans, spices, measuring cups all ready for the following day.  If you are really hungry, have other prepped things for snacks.  I do celery when I get home if I'm really hungry which helps and holds me over til later.  And I like to think that during those times I feel hungry in between, I remind myself that my body is burning calories.  I think the other thing with planning things out is that I realize earlier in the day that I'm going to be able to eat more or at least more fun things.  So, since I'm having fish, veggies, and a low cal corn bread (from a cooking light cookbook =), I knew that I could do a sandwich for lunch, as long as I stuck with the right portions.

Eating out doesn't need to be problematic. Plenty of places offer healthy options. Even when they don't, you can specify as to what items you'd prefer left off, on the side, etc. 

I think it would help to learn how to select from a menu of options, knowing that you prefer variety and having the freedom to decide what to eat at the time you're going to eat it. Next time you are ordering, make a mental note of the different options that appealed to you and then go back online later and compare them. Would you have been better off ordering the fish, pasta or sandwich? Even when the site doesn't have the precise item for you to compare against, you can find the components easily enough to get a rough idea.

Personally, I find planning my week's meals out confining. When I try to do that, I get frustrated when Thursday I am not in the mood for the chicken I bought on Monday. I make something else or order out, the chicken goes to waste and I've spent twice as much on my food at the end of the week. Instead, I will keep my freezer stocked with several soups, sauces and freezer-friendly casseroles that I can count on when I am feeling too tired to cook something fresh.

I find that buy making a few staples and keeping frozen veggies or refridgerated veggies that I can make a variety of dishes.

I cooked flax noodles, so far I've made a noodle salad with shredded cabbage and carrots and chicken then used a thai peanut sauce for extra flavor.  Today I recreated a greek pasta salad, same noodles, same chicken, but I added cherry tomatoes, artichoke hearts, feta cheese, sea salt, and oregano.  Then sometimes I do just plan chicken and noodles and frozen broccoli or green beans.  I supplement with a quick meal here or there and sometimes a frozen pizza.

I am having the same issue at home.  I am the only one in my family of three eating healthy. 

So I normal have to make a meal for my wife and kid first like the regular junk food stuff, then I have to make a healthy meal for myself.

I have been grilling alot lately so that helps with the preparation time for my foods.