Meal Planning

Greetings Friends!

It's weight loss Wednesday yet again and today's topic is food glorious food! I've recently started back trying to really watch what I eat. From the different things that I've read, quite a few recommend not counting calories and that there's no need to if you are eating healthy whole foods. Let's be real here... That's all great in theory, but in this food obsessed nation that's all a magical magical lie!

Losing weight is all about expending more energy than calories consumed, right? Right.

And what's that called?

Math!

What do you do with math??

You count!

Now were back to counting calories...

Now don't get me wrong, that might be the way to go once you've mastered adding those 5-6 fruits and vegetables and 8 glasses of H2O into your everyday diet. As for my beginner ass, that's not gonna work so much.. My mind says, "Oh! We're not counting calories? Okay.. Let's not count that foot-long chili cheese dog and fries, because it's okay. We're not counting anyway. Bwahaha!"


I will admit something to you. Just like an adolescent boy that thinks about sex every other minute, I too do this... but with food! The hamster wheel goes something like this:

• 7 AM ~ I should eat breakfast, although I'm not hungry. It is the most important meal of the day after all.  
• 8:30 AM ~ Hmm.. is it time to eat again?? They say your body goes into starvation mode after 2-3 hrs. Oh! It's not 9:30 yet? I'll wait till then.
• 9:25 AM ~ Well, it's close enough to 9:30. I'm gonna snack now. Nom Nom Nom.
• 11:00 AM ~ Damn! Why didn't I pack another snack??? Lunch isn't until 1 PM and I'm starving! I'll just grab one fun size Snicker bar from the candy lady. It's only 50 calories. It's fine.
• 11:30 AM ~ Aw, man.... I ate 3 fun size Snickers. Probably shouldn't have done that.
• 1 PM ~ Whoo Hoo! Sweet freedom it's finally lunch time! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat dooooooo IIIIIIII eaaaaaaaat!?! I can't decide on what to eat and my precious lunch hour is whittling away. I'll just grab some Wendy's since it's close by. I should get a 'healthy' sub from Subway, but I really don't want that. I want that burger I saw on tv last night! Yes... that will be really good.
• 1:45 PM ~ WHYYYYYY? Why did I eat that big burger and fries. Now I feel sleepy and heavy and bloated. Okay. Let's just get some coffee to make it through the afternoon.

Etc, etc, etc.. on and on it goes! All day. Every day. Sounds exhausting, no? This is the plight of the emotional eater. :) So what can we do to fix this problem?

Meal Plan

It's comes down to that old saying of "Fail to plan and you plan to fail". It's so much easier for me not to obsess about food when I already know what I'm eating throughout the day. If you're like me, here are some great links to help you get started! 

Wiki-How has a very detailed process on how to meal plan.

Loved Parade's explanation of meal planning. They make it like a smooth and easy process.  

Eating Well tells you what to eat, if you don't want to have to think about it.

You can be walked through it in baby steps with Organized Home.


So do you do meal planning? I've found that I really like it, because all I have to do is follow the plan. 


Ciao!