Need help finding a meal plan

[bradford73]

I’m looking for some help on finding a simple to follow meal plan to help me lose the extra weight that I’m looking to shed. I need something simple to follow as I do not enjoy cooking and will not stick to something that’s not rigid.

I’ve been vegan for about 6 years now. About 5 years before I made the switch, I was around 300 lbs at my heaviest. I was able to lose about 120 lbs in the span of a year by doing an hour of cardio a day, 5x a week and by being on calorie reduced diet consisting of oatmeal, green smoothie, a salad and then a dinner of some sort. I wasn’t counting calories and I was pretty much following IF without realizing or trying to. I didn’t really know what I was doing, I just knew that weight was coming off.

Once I got to about 180lbs, I stopped doing cardio and started trying to do strength training. I also switched jobs with different hours and my eating schedule changed and I started to eat more calories but still didn’t monitor it as my weight was staying about the same. Decided in 2016 to go vegan for ethical reasons. Since that time, I’ve actually gained 20lbs and am walking around anywhere between 195-202. I think the reason for this is that I’m definitely a “junk food” vegan and tend to eat a lot more processed food because I don’t know I’m doing and hate to cook or meal plan!

Also in that time, I took up running as my main sport. Even with logging lots of KM and all my training, I can’t drop any weight. I did speak to a nutritionist this past year but that didn’t really help too much. I have tried logging my meals through Cronometer but find that I don’t stick with it once I start eating a few meals that aren’t packaged. Scanning the barcode makes logging packaged food a little too easy.

I’ve also cut out alcohol for the most part. I used to drink quite a bit of beer which I know wasn’t helping. I will have some wine every now and again but I’m even looking to cut that out.

Basically I just need some advice/help on picking a handful of the right types of meals that I should be eating to help me drop the excess weight and help me improve my performance when it comes to running. From there I should be able to put together a simple to follow and hopefully rigid (something I need) plan.

About me:
Age - 45
Height - 5’9”
Current weight - 197lbs
Ideal weight - 170lbs
Current BF% - about 30%
Ideal - a lot less than that!

Weekly training - run 3-4 x week, strength 2 x week, swim (45 minutes) 2 x week and sometimes 1-2 sessions of yoga. I also cycle and will switch out a run session for one on the bike.

I’ve calculated my TDEE at about 2600 calories and my macro targets at 25/55/20 Protein/Carbs/Fat but that of course might be wrong.

Thanks

 

[slspackers]

@bradford73 I know meal prep and cooking aren’t fun for some, but I think you are going to need it. The good news is you don’t have to make a huge meal every night, you can make a few basic ingredients and mix and match to create a variety of meals to eat throughout the week.

The sheet pan is your friend! Buy a couple of packs of tempeh, marinate, and bake. Simple, takes maybe 10 minutes of work, and you’ve got a great protein you can throw on some greens and boom - a meal!

Here are five easy ones!

Do the same with tofu

Do the same for carbs, you can roast literally any vegetable! They’ll keep for the week.

Do this, make some brown rice, buy some sauces.

You can also do the tempeh or tofu in slabs for sandwiches. Or crumble to put in pastas.

Pastas are another easy one, you can get a low-sodium primavera sauce and chickpea or lentil noodles, heat them up, throw in some spinach and that’s not half bad.

Bonus sandwich topping if you’re feeling ambitious: Chickpea Tuna Salad

 

[bradford73]

@slspackers Thank you, this is very helpful!