How do I get away from boxed food?

[benjaminsweet]

I saw something interesting today. It said that one reason you may not be losing stomach fat is because "most of the food you eat is boxed".

My freezer is chock full of boxed food. I don't cook. I microwave stuff and throw things in the oven.

Not everything in my freezer is terrible. Some of it is boxed frozen vegetables. But a lot of it is taquitos, pizza, lean cuisine, etc.

How do I move away from the boxed food (without getting into cooking)? Going with pre-made grocery store meals doesn't seem like it'd be a better option.

[Bill_k]

I buy packages of boneless ,unprocessed,unbreaded  chicken thighs,fish fillets, steaks,etc and throw them into freezer bags in single meal quantities .

Then i can just throw them into microwave and defrost them and then into oven or microwave them or fry them when i feel like it.

It's easy to nuke veggies as well.

You just have to break yourself off of  eating the high sodium,high fat,high carb 'boxed ' foods even if they do taste good.

[MagsOnTheBeach]

Be choosey with your boxed food.  Select plain vegetables without sauces or salt added.  Buy frozen meat/fish with no added sodium or other ingredients.  

Unless you hire a personal chef, you are going to need to learn or make time to cook.  No company has your best interest at heart, they all want to catch your business by offering you things that taste good with lots of salt and sugar and sometimes fat.  They do not care about you or your health.  they care about your wallet.

The trick is to learn to make a couple items that you like easily and quickly.  If you make more than one serving, you can freeze extras and create your own boxed meals.  A quick dinner is to put a sweet potato or other potato that you have stabbed with a fork in the microwave, use prewashed greens for a salad and saute a chicken breast, pork chop or or other protein.  You can do an ear of corn the same way - leave it in the husk and microwave it.  Dinner in about 10 minutes.  

[Esya]

As @MagsOnTheBeach said you better start cooking. I think she has some great suggestions to get started if you are not that familiar with the other parts of your kitchen yet or lack time. I would also like to suggest to log your food, both if it is boxed or cooked. That way you learn why the boxed foods might be blocking your weight loss and how much less of them you can eat in comparison to cooked foods (apart from the veggies and the other plain ingredients ofcourse).

There are plenty of easy and fast recipes and maybe you find a new hobby. If you are really new to cooking, I suggest to stay away from the recipes with a lot of ingredients. The more ingredients the more complicated a recipe typically is.

[Mukluk4]

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@benjaminsweet wrote:

I saw something interesting today. It said that one reason you may not be losing stomach fat is because "most of the food you eat is boxed".

How do I move away from the boxed food (without getting into cooking)? Going with pre-made grocery store meals doesn't seem like it'd be a better option.

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Eggs, Bacon, Toast.  George Foreman whatever meat you want.  You don't have to get rid of all of it (I eat McD's twice a week and can still lose weight), but you can't eat it ALL the time.

[SunsetRunner]

If you lack time during the week to prep your meals, find a day where you can spend an afternoon to prep or even cook full meals. Freeze these into smaller portions. If you cook everything ahead of time, you just have to microwave your dinner and enjoy it! I do freezer meals a lot, because I keep myself very busy and never have a lot of time to cook full meals when I get off work.

[A_Lurker]

Labeling rules could mean that your packaged foods could be up to (I believe) 20% higher calories than it says.  Not to say you can't be off with unprocessed foods, but perhaps not as much.  I'm with the people who tell you that you probably do need to get into cooking.  I actually like to cook from scratch each night but between work, working out, gardening now, and still wanting to have a swim each night... well, I spend some time preparing stuff on the weekend.  I usually put together a big tray of roasted veggies, which I eat from all week.  I go to Costco and purchase a couple of trays of boneless chicken thighs, season them and grill them (then vac seal them).  I do the same with boneless pork, homemade turkey burgers, etc.  I did a big container of pasta (cheese tortellini, peas, onion, bacon, sauce) and divided it into slightly under 2 cups and froze it.  I'll also stew some beef up the same way.  I've got frozen homemade pasta - and yes, this is all in my kitchen freezer.  I've done some crockpot meals too, and they're outside in the garage freezer with some locally sourced beef, pork, chicken.  Also a couple of emergency lasagnas from a butcher I pass by sometimes.  It's mostly ground beef (leftovers I'm assuming) with a small amount of pasta and tomato sauce.  Lunches I do the same kind of thing - make a grain-based salad with peppers, onions, celery - which I mix with fresh stuff at lunch and chop in some of the grilled meat I've made up.

I only list these things as I'm not a dieter who eats salad only and chicken breasts.  I wouldn't last if I couldn't.

[lteg]

I think all the suggestions on how to get cooking are great, but if you're like me and know you'll never keep up with all that cooking I would recommend trying out a meal replacement drink like Super Body Fuel or Soylent. I've been doing that for two weeks as a way to get healthy breakfasts and lunches (I still like to cook something for dinner) and it's been so liberating! For 2/3 of my eating I can know I'm getting a healthy amount of macro and micro nutrients without spending all the time shopping and cooking! It's also super easy to precisely portion out a particular amount of calories.

[219Liz]

My rule is to never go down any aisles at the grocery store. I only buy things on the sides and back wall. I miss the aisles for the extra steps but if I dont go down them I dont know what I am missing.

[jk17]

in addition to all of the posts below a key is to have a huge variety of pre-cooked proteins.  I know you said you don't cook. it is a time consuming endeavor.  I cook a large batch of protein (except fish which i always cook fresh) like chicken or turkey sausage or hamburgers on the grill and then freeze each batch in an airtight bag. take one out for dinner or lunch and pair it with as much fresh salad types of greens i can.  It works; it is nutritious (better than boxed in flavor and price and end nutrients), and i can control what is inside.  It is work though.  Good luck! 

[jk17]

In addition to all of the posts below a key is to have a huge variety of pre-cooked proteins.  I know you said you don't cook. it is a time consuming endeavor.  

I cook a large batch of protein (except fish which i always cook fresh) like chicken or turkey sausage or hamburgers on the grill and then freeze each batch in an airtight bag. Any time i bake or grill i do extra amounts. Take one out for dinner or lunch and pair it with as much fresh salad types of greens i can.  It works; it is nutritious (better than boxed in flavor and price and end nutrients), and i can control what is inside.  

It is work though.  Good luck! 

[jk17]

You got this! I like you ideas.  When i am back into pasta i will try this.  I also do the pre-cooking of proteins but tend to do my veggies fresh/steamed/sauted.  

jk

[SunsetRunner]

Cooking is essential if you want to lose or maintain your weight. I know however that not everyone is into cooking but while on diet it may be necessary to learn and find a bit of time for it. I'm one of those who have no time to cook but I can cook and want to. Usually what I do is cooking larger batches of chicken, beef, even fishes. Each carefully counted in terms of calories and nutrients. Same with other stuff like quinoa, couscous, sweet potatoes, veggies and other "companion" stuff. Then I can mix and match to create the different meal sets. I can very easy cook 4-8 dishes in one evening ( 2 hours max ) and freeze them for later use. Weight loss or not, it simply became my habit to know what I eat. If I spend half a day during the weekend I can stock myself for nearly two weeks with food. Only breakfasts I make every morning from scratch but I pick dishes which preparation doesn't take longer than 15 minutes. Cooking is fun 🙂

[Shravan1]

Start Eating raw non processed food! Have more of salads, and im sure cooked meat which you get in stores near you must be good! 

Consume lot of water, and make sure you don't give up working out 🙂

What i mean by raw is have salads, fruits and ready made meat but less spicy, This will surely help 🙂 

[Walking_in_heel]

Can you open a can? Cut a few veggies? Then you can throw things into a crockpot and let it do the cooking for you! If you're on Pinterest, just search Easy Crockpot Recipes and seek out the healthy options. Make a big batch and freeze some. If you can make just 3 crock pot recipes, you're good for a week or two. 

[FriendlystNinja]

Your post sounds very familiar, it's my exact experience. I don't know if my fix is your fix.

I started with a nutribullet. I started making fruit and vegetable smoothies every morning. After getting used that one change I felt more empowered to take another step.

 I hate cooking as well, it's really all the dishes. I'm doing better using my grill outside. The nutribullet and BBQ grill don't leave much to clean. I like to grill 3 chicken breasts at once so I have some ready. Packaged fresh salads are easy and not hard to switch to making yourself later. Boxed foods have sodium, sugars, etc at levels that cause cravings. Eating healthy and often can help reduce cravings for something quick.

I suggest baby steps and get comfortable with one meal at a time. Just my opinion.

Go to the store with a plan and a list, don't buy boxed food and you will eat something else.

Frozen pizza just has to stay away:(

[Jeff2017]

Well if your really wanting to lose weight and be healthy your going to have to force yourself to start cooking fresh foods. Just use the food log part of this and the important part is to be 100% honest with everything you input. I bet you anything you would be shocked at the amount of SODIUM you consume in them BOXED foods. Not to mention there are reasons they stay good for so long even frozen. they add so many chemicals. A friend of mine who is doing the Keto thing for over 2 years and has lost 120lbs had this to say. Dont shop in the middle of the grocery store, shop the outside aisles. If you think about it what is on the outside isles. Fruits and Veggies and your Meats. What do you find mostly in the inner aisles is boxed stuff filled with additives. Just my two cents change is hard, how bad do you want it?

[NyFade]

Cheese, nuts like pistachios or almond, and hard boiled eggs make great snacks. Fresh veggies and dip.

Protein shakes. Throw some lemon juice and rosemary on a fish or your choice and pop it in the oven. It's quick and easy. Yogurt topped with flax seeds or chia seeds.

[SantiR]

Is there any diet/healthy restaurants nearby your place? You could try spending some of your money there and the rest of the days you can try cooking simple stuff. I guess there should be some awesome Youtube videos that can show you how to cook in a simple and quicker way.

I think, if you want to get away from boxed food you need to either buy healthy dishes at restaurants or cook your own food! 

[Ray_Hively]

We started subscribing to a couple of the meal delivery services, Hello Fresh and Blue Apron.  They both have a lot of veggies, decent portions, and you do the cooking so you can control what goes into your meal.  For us we have a lot less wasted food. It's quick. It's home cooked, and we can add to the meals if we want to.