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Meal Planning for Healthier Eating

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Meal Planning for Healthier Eating

Success in just about any endeavor where you are trying to make a change comes down to honesty, consistency, tracking and planning ahead. Planning ahead makes it much easier to honestly stick to your plan, be consistent about it, and also easier to track since you’ve thought about it ahead of time. Planning out your meals in advance is a great way to get ahead of the game. I’ve written about preparing meals ahead of time, but this is about planning things out before you even get to the grocery store.

Promise me something

I want you to make a vow right now to never again head to the grocery store without a list. No more just “winging” it. No more just buying whatever you feel like. Even if you are only going in for a couple things, make a list. I find that when I only need a few things, I think I can remember them all, and also since my list is short, I figure I can pick up a few random extra things, and then I inevitably forget one of the items I actually meant to buy. Make. A. List. Decide what meals you will make for the week, and add the ingredients you don’t already have in the pantry or fridge to the list. You can use a pen an paper list, or one of the many list apps out there. There are even apps that will store your ingredient lists for meals, so you simply select which meals you plan to make, and it automatically adds what you need to your list for that shopping trip.

Make a meal list

This is different from your grocery list, but will help you tremendously in planning your meals for the week. Make a master list of easy to prepare, healthy meals. (To help you get started, fill out the form below to get three free recipes!) This list also keeps your meal rotation from getting too boring, as you can reference it for a meal you haven’t had in a while. Pinterest is a great place for finding easy meals for the slow cooker, or one pan oven meals. Keeping the recipes for these meals is handy when it comes time to make your shopping list so you can be sure you don’t forget any main ingredients. It also gives you the opportunity to be sure you have enough of a particular ingredient on hand rather than getting to the store and trying to remember if you have lentils at home or not and if you do, if you have enough to cover the amount the recipe calls for.

Don’t over complicate it

While your meal list can help you with keeping your menu fresh, don’t try to make it too complicated by trying to come up with too many different meals. It’s a great idea to have at least one go-to meal that is super simple each week. In our household, we alternate between chicken thighs and wings each week, but we have them every single week. (I’ve included this one in the recipes below) Also, try to keep most of the meals themselves relatively simple. The idea here is to make it as easy as possible to cook a healthy meal at home rather than going out to eat. The easier a meal is to prepare, the more likely you are to choose that option.

Plan ahead with the sales flyer

If you live near a supermarket, you likely get a flyer from them in the mail each week. You can also use this flyer to help you plan out your meals, especially if you are on a budget. Just cross-reference what’s on sale with the meals in your lineup, and then add those items to your grocery list.

Stick to the list

I’m sure you’ve heard this one before, but once you’ve consulted your meal index and the store flyer and created your shopping list, ONLY BUY WHAT’S ON THE LIST. For one, this will get you in and out of the grocery store faster. Also, if you avoid buying extras, then you won’t be tempted by having them in the house. Healthy eating starts in the grocery store. If you don’t put it in your cart, you won’t put it in your mouth.

For more tips on planning out your meals, including how to build a Meal Library, check out my Ultimate Guide to Meal Prep.

Working Out Is Not a Free Pass for a Poor Diet

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Working Out Is Not a Free Pass for a Poor Diet

No matter how much you work out, if you don’t eat right, you’re not going to achieve the body you want. There was a time in my life that I was doing CrossFit five times a week, marathon training three times a week, and taking a horseback riding lesson once a week (getting a one-ton animal to do what you want with just your legs is a HUGE workout). That’s NINE workouts of an hour or more each week. I didn’t lose any weight during this time, although I certainly had some excess fat to lose. And that’s because I didn’t really watch what I ate. I ate mostly “healthy” foods, but I didn’t really regulate how much I ate. I didn’t even know how much I should have been eating. Working out is not a free pass for a poor diet. Working out is also not a punishment or some trial that you get rewarded for after with snacks. Don’t undo all your hard work!

Dieting is Like Dating

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dieting-is-like-dating-you-have-to-be-honest-you-have-to-be-faithful-and-you-have-to-be-committed

While I’m not a fan of the term “diet”, your eating habits will determine upwards of 80% of your weight loss success. A successful “diet” is a lot like a successful relationship.

You have to be honest. If you’re not honest with yourself about EVERYTHING you eat, and aren’t honest about how MUCH you are eating, then you’re basically telling yourself “I’m just not that into you.”

You have to be faithful. No “cheating”. That said, if you pre-plan to build in “cheat” meals, then it’s not really cheating. It’s more like an open relationship that everyone agrees to. That said, if you’re not being HONEST (see above) about those planned indulgences, then it’s just plain cheating and it isn’t going to work out.

You have to be committed. This needs to be a long-term, lifestyle change. This isn’t just some two week fling. If you aren’t willing to stick with it, through the good times and the hard times, then you aren’t going to ever reap the benefits.

Achieve Your Body Goals by Focusing on the Process, not the Results

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focus-on-the-process-and-you-will-achieve-your-goals

Goals are a fantastic thing to have. And I’m sure you’ve heard about SMART goals, but just in case, here’s a refresher. Goals should be:

Specific – Not just “I wanna be healthy”, but “I want to be healthier by losing weight”.

Measurable – Not just “I want to lose weight”, but “I want to lose 20 lbs”. Or “I want to drop my cholesterol by 3 points”.

Attainable – Is your goal even possible? Have you achieved it in the past? Do you know others who have gotten there?

Realistic – Even if a goal is possible (running a marathon in under 3 hours, say), it might not be realistic for you.

Timely – There needs to be a time limit. A goal is a dream with a deadline. Without that time aspect, you can find yourself pushing out your goal forever.

So do you have your SMART goal now? Great! Now, we want to focus on the PROCESS that will get us to that goal. HOW will you reach your goal? You might say something like “I will lose 20 lbs in 4 months by eating no more than 1500 calories per day and exercising for 30 minutes 3 times a week.” Your goal is losing weight. The process you have is your diet and exercise plan. The idea here is that if you completely ignored your goal, but still stuck to your process, you would get to your destination regardless.

Many small wins

Focusing solely on your goal means that nothing but that matters. It makes the journey to get there a slog and no fun. This increases the likelihood that you get burned out. By focusing on our process instead, we give ourselves the chance to get many small wins. Every trip to the gym is a victory. Every day you hit your eating goals is a triumph.  Every healthier choice is a success!

Lifestyle thinking

I’m sure you’ve also seen plenty of motivational images about how healthy living is a lifestyle. And it is! If you go on a diet merely to reach a goal, and once there, you stop and go back to your old habits, you’ll end up right back where you started. Goals are fantastic, but we must be cautious of having them be this huge end all be all for us. I trained for and ran a marathon once. After the race, I had no other running goals, and decided to take a short break from running to “reward” myself and recover. I meant for it to be a month. I didn’t run again for over a year! Fall in love with the process instead, and you’ll find it so much easier to keep up your habits well beyond once you’ve reached your goals.

In order to have permanent change, the changes we make must be permanent. This is why it is so important to find a process that works for YOU. In that vein, I’ve created a 13-diet comparison guide that goes through the pros and cons of some of today’s most popular eating plans and give my recommendations on each so you can determine which might work best for you for the long haul. It’s free, so check it out!

A Different Kind of Meal Prep

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how-to-stick-to-your-diet-when-eating-out

Meal prepping is one of the best things you can do to help you achieve your weight loss goals.  But what about when you’re not at home? Unfortunately, it is far too easy to go way over your limits with even just one dish at some dining establishments. Today I want to look at a few ways we can prep before going out to eat, so we don’t end the night feeling like one meal has completely derailed all our progress.

Plan ahead

The key here, as is often repeated, is to plan ahead. Either plan to eat foods that fit into your allowance for the day, or if you can plan way ahead, you can eat less during the day/week leading up to it, so you can eat what you want without worry. So if you know your birthday dinner is this coming weekend, and you absolutely must have the tiramisu at your favorite Italian joint, keep the rest of your meals for the week on the lighter side to “make room” for that decadent dessert. If a dinner out is more of a spur of the moment decision, then plan to pick something off the menu that fits into your diet plan for the day. So, how can we make sure we’re sticking to our plan?

Pre-peruse the menu

These days, every chain restaurant has the nutrition information of their menus posted on their website. Before heading out, take a look at the online menu and decide ahead of time what you are going to order. Now, while this is an easy tip, it’s really hard to stick to. It’s easy to look at the menu and say “oh, I’ll order the grilled salmon!” but then once you get there and smell all those wonderful smells, it becomes very difficult to not order the smokehouse burger and cheese fries instead. This is where it helps to go back up to planning ahead. If you’re not going out for a few days, you have time to build in some wiggle room so you can order what you really want to eat, rather than having to settle for something yummy, but that doesn’t quite “hit the spot”. If you are going to a more “mom and pop” local joint, you can still look up a similar chain online to get a decent estimate of menu items.

Promise to go halfsies

Another option when going out to eat is to promise yourself ahead of time you’ll only eat half of your meal. Many restaurants these days give you huge portions that are more befitting of two meals than just one. You can ask for a box up front to box up half of the food right away so that it’s not even on your plate anymore. This lets you basically cut the calorie/macro count of the dish in half right off the bat. Just be sure to also plan ahead for what you will do with the leftovers. Alternatively, you can offer to split the dish with a dining partner so there aren’t any leftovers.

These are just a few tricks you can use next time you dine out so that you can eat what you really want, but still continue making progress toward your goals!

For more ideas on how to handle eating out with coworkers, check out my Ultimate Guide to Meal Prep.

Eating Healthy does NOT Equal Losing Weight

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eating healthy does not equal losing weight

Saying you are going to eat healthy to lose weight is a lot like saying you are going to eat “less”. It’s rather nebulous. What constitutes “healthy” foods? Even the government doesn’t know. Not to mention, guidelines seem to change constantly. First eggs are bad for you, then they are good for you, then they are bad for you again. Fat is bad, but then olive oil is good, and then coconut oil is the new olive oil, and we should all be eating avocados and almonds all the time because they are “good fats”. It gets very confusing very quickly.

It is possible to gain weight while eating a healthy diet. Weightlifters do this all the time. You can have too much of a good thing. It might be harder to overeat on salad, chicken breast, and rice, but it is possible.  Then there is the caution around foods that seem healthy but really aren’t, like the 2000 Calorie salads at some restaurants. Or foods that start out healthy, (like a simple baked potato) but end up not healthy once you add condiments (such as butter, sour cream, cheese and bacon).

This is why it is so important to track what you are doing. You may think you are on the right road, but without accurate data, there’s no way of knowing if you are going in the right direction or not.

I also implore you to try not to get frustrated with ever-changing guidelines. That scientists are constantly doing studies and trying to learn more about how our bodies react to certain foods is a FANTASTIC thing! The more informed we are, the better decisions we can make to truly be healthy.

What healthy foods are you guilty of over-indulging in? Let me know in the comments! (For me, it’s grapes!)