Meal Prep?

People at work think I am the most boring eater there is. I literally eat the same exact thing every day for lunch.

Every Sunday I cook 5 pieces of chicken after I remove most of the fat. Then I open 2 cans of beans, typically pinto. Then I cook brown rice. I put those in 5 glad containers and my lunch is set for the week.

Its hard to explain to people that the relationship you have with food is so much different. When they ask how I eat the same thing every week, I always compare it to a car. I said if you go to a different gas station and get the same quality gas, does your car really care? It just needs the fuel.

I just need something to fill the stomach up so it doesn't hurt anymore. Now I "choose" to not fill it with junk food but its really all food is to me now.

I also don't understand how people don't get their water intake. If I don't get a minimum of 120 oz, I feel terrible. Luckily I work somewhere where its easy to go to the restroom whenever I need. Except for the occasional almond milk with cereal, its all I drink. Again, same concept, I just need that liquid intake.

Anyone else feel like this?

Three things at one meal? What are you, a Rockefeller? That sounds like a really diverse menu to me.

A couple of years ago I ate nothing but ham for 9 days. I had a big spiral sliced ham, and ate until it was done.

The only time I eat more than one thing at a meal is if it's a burger, and I have cheese on it.

lol..no not a Rockefeller. I forgot to add that I eat my "first lunch" at 12 and then the rest of it at 3. Thats one 5-6 oz chicken breast, 1 cup of brown rice and whatever two cans of beans are divided by 5.

I never learned properly how to NOT cook for an army (I'm improving!), so I just make one meal on Sunday night and pack up the leftovers for that weeks lunches. So my coworkers also think I just eat the same thing all week. It's different from week to week, depending on what I cook, but it takes a lot of guesswork out of what I'm eating and I obsess about it less.

I meal prep on Sundays during the school year, saves a lot of time and it's just easier in the long run. However, I don't eat the same thing every day. I do like a little diversity in my food choices.

Since I am a teacher it is harder for me to get 100 ounces of water in during the day because I can't leave the classroom anytime I want to use the restroom. I sure do try to make up for it when I get home!

My wife and I both had the same surgery, hers was 4 years before mine and she is also a Kindergarten teacher and always complains she cant go to the restroom as often as she would want.

I'm pretty much the exact opposite. I cook in very large batches, individually portion, and freeze. But I always have at least 3-5 dishes (or more) on hand, so I pick whichever one sounds best that day for lunch and rarely need to repeat during the week. But people should definitely embrace whatever works for them! To me, it's simply the act of prepping that is absolutely critical. I know that I would not be successful if I didn't invest the time in prepping. Rather that's prepping one meal repeated everyday, or a variety of meals, the success comes in having the appropriate food on-hand at all times.

I'm also the opposite in the number of foods in a single meal, haha, I must be a Rockefeller!

I am eating my lunch right now, and in addition to the salad (which had 3 types of greens, mushrooms, onions, peppers (orange and red!), black eyed peas, black beans, blueberries, grapes and blackberries!) the dish I'm eating has: rice, lentils, onions, Yukon Gold potatoes, sweet potatoes, celery, peas, and collard greens! That's like 20 different foods in a single meal! It probably goes without saying they are quite small portions of each of those 20 different foods.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who finds lunches tricky, I still make sandwiches for my DH everyday and will take the same meat if it's something I like, I'm used to having salads most days for lunch but now I have to remember to make the protein the main chunk of my meal. Somedays I think it would be so easy to just have an egg salad or PB&J but I have trouble with bread so that's out, which is probably good anyways, I do have small containers of leftovers in the freezer but when it's so hot out, the hot lunch isn't terribly appealing.

I try to get as much of my water in the daytime so I'm not up at night so often.

My mom who is one of those people who has pretty much been normal weighted her entire life, also eats the same thing for lunch every day. It's a thing people do.

Sorry your coworkers feel the need to critique your food choices!