Meal Planning

Raise your hand if you wake up in the morning and say to yourself "I am not going to overeat today. I am going to have sensible meals and I am not going to overindulge in food that is not good for me". Now raise your other hand if, despite reciting this mantra to yourself on a daily basis, you still manage to eat 3 cookies, a piece of cake, and 25 candy corns before lunch. I have been battling with weight for as long as I can remember. I have been on: The Atkins Diet, The South Beach Diet, The Zone Diet, the Hollywood Juice Diet, the soup diet, and the eat a carrot stick followed by three gallons of water diet (ok the last one was an exaggeration but you get the idea). Here's the point - I don't want to battle anymore. I want to look good, I want to be healthy, and I don't want to kill myself doing it. In order to accomplish this, I had to change THE WAY I LIVE. What does this mean? For the most part, for me, it is about acceptance. I had to accept the fact that I lead a healthy lifestyle now and there are certain things that I won't do and certain foods that I just won't eat. I won't do it, that's it, done, end of story. Part of the process of getting to this point, in my opinion, is good meal planning. How many of you know the contents of all of the food that you put in your mouth? My guess is not too many and of course it's impossible to know it all but having a good understanding of food is helpful. This is where meal planning comes into play. I use a terrific website called MyFitnessPal that helps me plan my meals, sometimes days in advance. I won't bore you with the particulars of how the website works (although I do encourage you to check it out) but basically I input my meals either in their entirety or by individual ingredient and I find out the calorie, carb, protein, sugar, and sodium content. Now keep in mind, this is not an exact science, you are dependant on the accuracy of the food entries and some can be way off base but for the most part, it works. Now are you ready for the best part? IF YOU WORK OUT YOU GET TO EAT MORE! Kind of a "duh" statement I know, but the website keeps track of all of this for you. 


Since the holiday season is upon us, I thought this was an appropriate blog to write since people are constantly struggling with balancing the holiday eating with the holiday weight gain. I find that the best thing to do is plan ahead for that meal you know you are going to have and compensate for it by not eating as much at other time. But they key is, you have to plan it out. 


Finding patterns in the way you eat is essential to successful meal planning. For example, if you notice that one of your snacks is unreasonably high in sugar, consider substituting it for something else. Conversely, if you notice that what you are eating is still leaving you feeling hungry then consider swapping out some of your food for other food that might be slightly higher calorically but keeps you feeling full for longer. 


I asked my bestie, Kerri, to provide her daily food journal for one day - here is what she ate:
Egg Caserole -  2 squares 
Small homemade pumpkin muffin 
Tomato soup for lunch 
Cookie 
Subway turkey foot long with mustard 
-60 minutes of spin class 
I won't put her on the spot by revealing the particulars of her meals but with her spinning class, she has enough calories left over to treat herself to quite the large meal 


And if you don't believe me, here is what some others are saying about meal planning: 


Meal planning gives you a daily goal rather than always focusing on the big picture. It allows you to still eat the foods you love but by compensating for it throughout the day.  
                                                                                       -Kerri Silva 


I enjoy meal planning, it is fun and it makes you feel skinnier 
                                -The future Mrs. Ban 
  
Meal planning is like a box of chocolates you can only eat one but you really want to eat the whole box. 
                                                                -Kerri "Forrest Gump" Silva 


“I get really annoyed when Karina tells me I cant have any more carbs because I should have planned my meals better. She is the meal planning dictator.” 
                                                                                                                        -Anonymous 


So the moral of this blog is the following: 


Plan your meals and you can look like this: