How to not waste food?

I am looking for some advice. I have never been a person who cooked and instead ate out for almost every meal. Additionally, I split my time between two states and when I am in one state I live by myself. . As a part of my WLS journey I am committed to grocery shopping and cooking meals. While living alone there is no one to help eat this food I'm now buy. This mean that I am really struggling with how to keep from wasting food that I buy at the grocery store. To avoid this, I find myself eating the same thing lunch and dinner over several days. Sadly, I really am pretty darn ignorant when it comes to groceries and cooking. 

How do other people handle this? 

You can freeze stuff that will freeze well.  You can also halve recipes.  As you cook more, you'll come to learn which recipes are easily scalable and freezable.  That'll come with experience. :)

Thanks Gwen. Halving recipes seems like a good idea. I think i will have to work up to it. One of the main issues I am struggling with (and should have put in my original post.... i was tired) is that I tend to get a lot of freezer burn on items. Am I doing something wrong? Perhaps i just bought cheap tupperware? Zip Lock baggies don't seem to work a whole lot better either, but there is some improvement there. Any ideas? Maybe I just have a crappy freezer :)

It might help to put a layer of plastic film directly over the food before putting it into a container.  That'll help seal it better and keep it safer in the freezer.  Wrapping something tightly in foil before putting it into the freezer container can work as well.  

Thanks again Gwen. I will give those a try. I also read somewhere to wrap meat in wax paper before putting it in the ziplock back or container. These options were exactly what I needed. I appreciate it. 

Yup!  Anything to help prevent air contact with the food will help :)

And, seriously, don't worry about asking things like this.  We all have to learn how to cook (and everything associated with it) at some point.  It's great that you ARE learning instead of still trying to rely on convenience food.  You should be really proud of yourself.  There is a learning curve to everything, but I predict you'll stick with it and have great success :D

I make meals in a crock pot and freeze them in 4 oz containers.  I actually bought baby food containers in plastic trays and they work well for me.  I also have 2 oz containers that I put my frozen vegetables in.  I buy frozen vegetables to avoid wastage and frozen raw shrimp that I can separate into 4 oz servings for each meal.  I only thaw out what I need.  I also keep edamame in my freezer.  I can measure out what I need and the rest goes back into the freezer.  I also keep single serving tuna packets and canned sardines.  I wasted much more food before surgery, now I throw away very little.  

I was looking at frozen veggies today. Honestly, I thought once I opened the bag I was supposed to use the entire thing. It is good to learn that I can just use the portion I need. 

I know these are really basic questions for most people and I am fairly embarrassed to be asking them. I do appreciate the input!

I freeze a ton of stuff! I bought 6 ounce containers and I freeze roughly a 4 ounce portion. They come in handy and I have a variety stocked up in my freezer. 

What did you do/use when your portions were smaller? My portions are about 1 1/2 oz right now and sometimes I get up to 2 oz. Both my surgeon and my NUT think that it is likely that I will be in the portion range for the next 6 weeks or so. Did you use the same containers or something else? 

Thanks for responding.