Frozen dinners anyone

Does anyone use frozen dinners like Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice to take to work to eat for lunch?  Protein first of course.

First NUT: Too much sodium

2nd NUT: You can have 2 a day for your preop diet.

Since surgery, I am thinking they are too much food. Maybe I could eat half of one.

I will eat an occasional Lean Cuisine......

If you think about it, this whole thing is about food.... what we eat, both in content and quantity.

The only way to really know what your eating is to prepare meals yourself with good ingredients..... even than sometimes we don't know the whole story.

Taking the time to prepare your meals is a big part of this thing. Eating processed prepared food loaded with sodium and what ever else can't be good.

I didn't take the time to really try my hand at cooking till almost a year after WLS when I realized food prep was a matter of survival.

A lean Cuisine in a pinch, not bad. Home cooked planned meals..... better !!!!

I remember pre-op first of the year diet days and Lean Cuisine was always on sale, I'd buy about 50 of them at a time..... wasn't pretty.

Try and make an effort to bring your food to work. Many here have great great ways to do this.

frisco

Years ago (many years ago) a lady at a weigh****chers meeting complained she had gained three pounds that week, but she ate nothing but weigh****chers and lean cuisine for lunch and dinner.  The leader explained all the sodium caused her to retain fluids.

That's why they tell you it's healthier to shop the perimeter of the supermarket and stay away from proceed foods.

Besides, most of those meals are low protein, high carb.  Loads of macaroni, bits of meat.

I ate one last week for the first time since surgery.  I didn't have any good protein options in the house and had a frozen Lean Cuisine left over from my pre op diet days.  I found it to be tasteless and soggy.  I think I'm so used to cooking my own food and eating fresh vegetables that anything processed just tastes bland and non-foodlike to me anymore.  

For my lunch, I cook different meals in my crock pot on the weekend, portion it out into containers and freeze them to bring to work.  I enjoy it so much more than eating prepackaged food.  Some of my favorites are pork chili verde with vegetarian refried beans, pot roast with mashed cauliflower and chicken salsa with guacamole.  Check out recipes at The World According to Eggface, or look for GwenMo's blog with links to her recipes for great ideas.

These are good points.  I didn't really think about the sodium.  I went on LC's website and was looking at meals with at least 20g of protein (they have a search engine that helps you pick).  Since I can't eat even a half cup of food I figured maybe I could pick out the chicken pieces and veggies if I have room and just trash the rest.  I didn't really think about all the salt though.  Thanks.

The biggest problem I have found with those meals (which I loved pre-op) would be the carbs.  I am abstaining from pasta, rice, potatoes and bread, etc and most of those meals seem to have pasta, rice or potatoes. :-( So at least for now, none for me! Maybe during maintenance - who knows. I'm just trying to get the most weight loss I can in my first year out of weight loss surgery - since they say that is the time will you will likely be able to lose the most. 

They are total crap - make your own and reap the rewards, chemical free.

I have yet to find any that have good stats and ingredients for me.  When I'm cooking things that are easily freezable, I just try to cook extra so I'll have easy meals to go to in a pinch. 

I don't eat these because they're such Frankenfoods. If you have a Roche Bros, Whole Foods, or Trader Joe's you can find ready made meals that are of much better quality. People rant about Whole Foods' prices, but they have prepared eggplant parm, for example for 10.99, will serve 4-6.

Bon apetit!