A good place to start

[Ultrageek]

     Firstly I apologise because this question has almost certainly been asked / answered before, possibly multiple times, but honestly I don't have the patience to trawl through every relevant looking topic to see if it's what I need.

     What I'm looking for is essentially a meal plan written by someone who knows their stuff. I do very well following instructions but significantly less well left to my own devices. Rightly or wrongly I chalk it up to being autistic.

     In any case, since the Internet can be used to provide 'scientific' evidence supporting more or less any theory you care to name or invent on the spot, I was hoping someone could either point me to an actually useful site which gives a sample meal plan for a day / week, preferably with things you can substitute for other things and why, or to a previous topic with the same or, failing that, write one. Might be asking for a lot on that last option. I honestly wouldn't know.

     I have a feeling food tends to change on workout days and rest days but I have no idea how. Basically I'm willing to throw out everything I ever knew, or thought I knew, about nutrition and start from scratch.

     If anyone reads this and believes they can help but need more info, my battle log lists my food intake for the last three days (correct at time of writing) and I'm happy to answer any questions. Things that might be relevant are: I work Monday to Friday, 8 - 12. I get up at 6:30 or so and go to bed at 9 before a work day 10 otherwise. I have a morning break at about 10 - 10:30. Weekends I get up about 8 - 9. I work out Monday, Wednesday and Friday doing Stronglifts 5x5. I live in England, so certain foods / brands are not available to me. I can't just drink glasses of water. I can't eat tomatoes. I am the father in a family of four so evening meals are shared, however my whole family could stand to lose anything from a few pounds upwards, except my son, the little git, he can eat anything and still be skinny. Damn him. Damn. Oh, one last, possibly important thing, I am ready, willing and able to cook at at least intermediate level.

     Thanking you in advance, whoever you might be.

[Ultrageek]

Okay, so no-one has seen this who feels they are qualified to comment. Possibly it's just asking too much as well. Either way, as luck would have it, today's NF email was diet related. So perhaps instead someone can tell me if the meal plan I am about to propose is okay. I'm thinking I might have read this wrong because from here it seems to say 'bacon and eggs for breakfast every day'. So let's see how this shapes up:

 

Breakfast - bacon and eggs

morning break at work - fruit

lunch - microwaved chicken and vegetables (ASDA sells bags of broccoli and carrots)

afternoon - nuts and raisin mix, probably made by buying separately and combining. I hear the pre-mixes include junk.

dinner - meat and vegetable kebabs eg. chicken + beef, peppers, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, courgettes, pineapple

 

Because if this is good, this is something I can really see myself being able to get behind. Please, please advise. I really am a rank newbie right now. If this is good just a 'looks good' would do. If not, I guess a 'try again' would be enough, but pointers on WHY I should try again and what I need to fix would be super helpful. 

Thanking you, once again, in advance, whoever you might be.

[BLACKBOARD MONITOR]

Your meal plan sounds good to me - that's what I'd aim for right now and be pleased with. Good shout on microwave supermarket vegetables, I'm going to stock up on some myself.

How do you get anything done with a family of 4?! We've got just one 7 month old and all the good habits fell apart instantly.

[Ultrageek]

Honestly, we roll along as best we can. Since I'm new to actively pursuing fitness, I'll let you know IF we get anything done. I'm thinking 'taking it one day at a time' for now. Honestly though now the kids are a little older (6 and 10) I'm thinking a diet without additives can only be a good thing for them. My daughter (10) definitely needs to shift a few pounds from her tummy before she goes to secondary school. I was a fat kid and it wasn't fun. My son somehow eats the same food in the same amount and at the same time and is bordering on underweight. Metabolism differences, maybe? And differences between boy and girl, of course. I'll be switching towards paleo for the family over the next few weeks since we have food in the house already which I can't stand to let go to waste. I'll post a summary here every few days and continue tracking my day-by-day progress on my battle log, if anyone is interested.

[BLACKBOARD MONITOR]

I'll keep checking in. You can be like the coal mine canary for the rest of us

I know what you mean about secondary schools, I teach and the girls especially seem incredibly aware of body image. Shame they don't realise how lucy they are, like your son!!

[Ultrageek]

Okay! So, the microwave is out and the steamer is in! (I didn't actually throw my microwave out, just changed my mind about using it.)Got a fantastic 2-tier steamer for the hob from Argos. A bargain at £9.99. Tonight for dinner we had cold roast chicken (personal preference. Bought pre-cooked and we just wanted to eat ASAP because it was late by the time we got our supplies back) with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and flower sprouts. Flower sprouts, by the way, are amazing! I discovered them today when I went round to my mum's house to do some more work on my next LARP costume* and said, "This might sound odd, but do you have any veggies?" Her friend who's helping look after her since she had a fall steamed me up some carrot sticks and some of these flower sprouts along with something else very dark green which I missed the name of but also need more of in my life. Delicious! Also this was where I found out about steaming, which had been missing from my life knowledge. Such a quick and easy way to cook veggies without damaging their nutrients. MIGHT have gone a little nuts with the buying veggies actually. We had some leftovers (my son finished his veg before touching his meat, even the sprouts, and then had second vegetables. I love that kid! Daughter has an upset tummy so no food for now) that we didn't even cook. So plenty for tomorrow. No longer doing a weekly food shop. Instead I'll be popping in to the market after work and getting a few new things to try for dinner every night. I urge you to find a real green-grocer, if you can. The next thing to do is to get more vegetables into breakfast. I'm thinking spinach and mushroom omelettes. Maybe some red bell pepper just for good measure. That'll be Wednesday's breakfast though, with any luck. Too late now to get the spinach, mushrooms and pepper. If I were to try to do a week's shop now I'd need a whole shelf just for eggs, I think. So, check back for progress, setbacks and solutions. This could some day be a valuable guide for the man on the street switching to paleo. Or not. I'll be keeping the journal anyway. Check out my battle log for each day's menus as they happen! 

*My mother is highly experienced at costume making and I'm not. They taught dressmaking at school in her day. She helps tell me what to do and I do it. Next time I'll know how to do it myself. In theory.

[BLACKBOARD MONITOR]

Okay! So, the microwave is out and the steamer is in! (I didn't actually throw my microwave out, just changed my mind about using it.)Got a fantastic 2-tier steamer for the hob from Argos. A bargain at £9.99. Tonight for dinner we had cold roast chicken (personal preference. Bought pre-cooked and we just wanted to eat ASAP because it was late by the time we got our supplies back) with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and flower sprouts. Flower sprouts, by the way, are amazing! I discovered them today when I went round to my mum's house to do some more work on my next LARP costume* and said, "This might sound odd, but do you have any veggies?" Her friend who's helping look after her since she had a fall steamed me up some carrot sticks and some of these flower sprouts along with something else very dark green which I missed the name of but also need more of in my life. Delicious! Also this was where I found out about steaming, which had been missing from my life knowledge. Such a quick and easy way to cook veggies without damaging their nutrients. MIGHT have gone a little nuts with the buying veggies actually. We had some leftovers (my son finished his veg before touching his meat, even the sprouts, and then had second vegetables. I love that kid! Daughter has an upset tummy so no food for now) that we didn't even cook. So plenty for tomorrow. No longer doing a weekly food shop. Instead I'll be popping in to the market after work and getting a few new things to try for dinner every night. I urge you to find a real green-grocer, if you can. The next thing to do is to get more vegetables into breakfast. I'm thinking spinach and mushroom omelettes. Maybe some red bell pepper just for good measure. That'll be Wednesday's breakfast though, with any luck. Too late now to get the spinach, mushrooms and pepper. If I were to try to do a week's shop now I'd need a whole shelf just for eggs, I think. So, check back for progress, setbacks and solutions. This could some day be a valuable guide for the man on the street switching to paleo. Or not. I'll be keeping the journal anyway. Check out my battle log for each day's menus as they happen! 

*My mother is highly experienced at costume making and I'm not. They taught dressmaking at school in her day. She helps tell me what to do and I do it. Next time I'll know how to do it myself. In theory.

That sounds ace. I'm going to look fo flower sprouts - are they anything like Brussels?

[Noname123]

You ask for a meal plan and show what you're eating but don't go into goals. 

 

There's different diets for performance, aesthetics and strength. Outline what you want a little more and I'm sure you'll get some bites on food suggestions.