The FastDay Forum

Hi all,

When I was introduced to the fast diet by a friend she explained how she ate a weight watchers meal in the evening which made the diet really easy to manage. So when I started I relied on ready meals for my meal in the evening and packet soups for lunch.

Yesterday I made a home cooked carrot, ginger and coriander soup and WOW - low cal but AMAZING compared to the packets.

I'm wondering if I should start cooking my evening meals too? My worry though is that I will go crazy during the prep and over eat - somehow the ready meals help as I don't need to think about food on a fast day and this makes it much easier.

I'd love to hear how others manage to cook and fast on the same day

[Debs]

Hi there office monkey, and welcome!
You will get varying answers on this, but here is my tuppence worth for you!
Do whatever works for you. If you think you might find it too much of a temptation cooking on a fast day, prepare your meal the day before. Make up a batch and freeze it to use over several fasts if it's easier. If you don't like calorie counting, use prepared meals if you want to. I have protein shakes as I am away from home and am unable to measure anything. Just my way of managing.
There is no right or wrong way, whatever is easiest for you!

I cook everything from scratch, I always have. There are lots of calorie counted meals out there & on here and when you get into the swing of it the recipes become second nature. It's only a bit tricky to start with, but if you never start you won't know. Home made, for me at least, is always tastier and I like knowing what went into it, because it's going into me!

Hi OfficeMonkey,

I make up batches of Fast day meals and freeze them. I use MyFitnessPal to build a recipe so that I know how many calories I'm getting. Having said that I had a break over Christmas so my stocks are gone and I'm having a Waitrose Love Life thing tonight with a huge pile of veg.
Most of the ready meals are quite carb heavy, and you can get a much more satisfying plateful if you make it yourself with the emphasis on vegetables and some lean protein. Curries and Chillis are good and I add even more bulk with Slim Rice.

well for me it depends wether its a working day or not, if working I have a 2 hours drive and by the time I get home I am very hungry and tired, so it'll have to be something easy and quick to make
call me lazy, but that works for me!
and contrary to some beliefs some ready meals are quite tasty and well balanced and having them once in a while won't do any long term damage... anyway that's me...

Be flexible, it'll depend on where you are in your head, time available and whatever else is going on.

It's possibly optimal to be all organised and I do mostly cook from scratch but the occasional beans on toast turns up too. I don't even taste if I'm cooking on a fast day until it's past 5pm.

This is a way of eating that benefits from the "good enough" principle, aiming for perfection is not good in the long term.

Hi. @OfficeMonkey For me its home cooked from scratch on all meals we don't know exactly what crap goes into some of the prepacked meals and if they were easier and more tasty and cheaper the just maybe but how often do we get all 3 of those together, I'm sure you've answered your own question by saying just how tasty your meal was.

Hello Office Monkey. I'm currently using M&S Fuller Longer ready meals for my one meal on fast day. I really resent cooking a low cal meal because when I cook I want to do so without any restrictions but maybe that will change in the future.
I have to say though, some of the M&S meals are just delicious!

I do the same as dands because the fuller longer meals are mostly delicious, microwaveable & calorie counted & it keeps me out of the kitchen on fast days.

[Tracieknits]

Hi and welcome!

I cook our meals from scratch. We're picky and spoilt and don't find the packet meals to be particularly appetizing. Sometimes I will cook up a pot of something, like a lovely veggie curry on Sunday night, so I don't have to cook on Monday and Wednesday. but more often I just cook on Monday and we have the leftovers on Wednesday. I often make things like black beans and veggies, or turkey chili or veggie curry - a pot of something warm and filling with lots of veggies in it. In the summers, we tend to have large salads with a piece of lean meat, like chicken. Those I simply make fresh. On fast days, we don't eat before dinner at 6pm. We find it controls our hunger better and then we like the freedom of eating all of our calories at night and going to bed satisfied.

[Betsysgr8]

Good advice here. Do what works for you. If you are really worried about snacking during prep then do as much prep ahead of time. I make my meals from scratch and find the prep to actually calm my tummy rumbles to the point that once it's ready to eat I'm actually not that hungry (but I eat my meal anyway).

I do both depending on time and mood. Monday it was chorizo and butter bean stew (from recipe section on this forum) and tonight it's an M&S Fuller For Longer meal - cod rogan balti - my favourite of those I have tried

I try to cook from scratch. I often cook a meal for my family but do myself something simple for myself on fast days. Tonight's I am having spinach, tomato and chilli frittata with large water cress, cucumber, beetroot, tomato and red onion salad.

I cook almost all our meals from scratch since I simply don't like package meals (except for a certain fresh brands mash and meatballs) which have me in the kitchen 355 days per year, the other days are take away

I probably stick my neck out here, but I don't find it necessary to cook special fast day meals. Most of the recipes I use for weekday dinners comes from a Swedish store chain called ICA and they give how many kcal each 100gr of every meal contains. So it's just to bring out your kitchen scale - or wing it ;o
Since we are not much on vegs, it tend to be a lot meat and potatoes/ rice/pasta. But if I skip these carbs on fast day, I get a bit more of the meaty things I'm the only bean eater, so I made a bean salad on Monday that I have a small portion left of today, plus I'm making a broccoli and onion soup with chili and garlic for my dinner (son has opted for frozen pizza - gahhh). That can't be many kcal, way below the 500 I'm sure

These replies are great! Thank you all. I think I'll start trying to branch out a bit and cook myself, but keep those ready meals for days when it's just too much of a struggle.