Healthier eating starts with planning

A lot of us happen to indulge in unhealthy eating habits, and we cannot really help but control ourselves because there is usually nothing to eat at home, and when you cannot think of anything, you cannot help but reach for the phone to call order food, or you will find yourself trying to get for cookies or the instant meal options in your cabinet. While there is nothing wrong with indulging occasionally, it becomes a problem when it is a part of your regular routine because you gain unhealthy weight and end up feeling lethargic. You hate yourself for doing it every single time, yet you cannot bring yourself to stop.

Well, the best way for you to stop is to start meal planning. The idea might seem impossible to us at first, but meal planning is actually practical. The most common myth about meal planning is that it is expensive, but it is quite the opposite. When you are planning meals, you know exactly what you need to buy at the grocery store, so you cannot pick extra or unhealthy items. This actually ends up saving you money. You return from the grocery store with exactly what you need and no extra snacks that might lead to unhealthy eating.

If planning your meals for a week or two weeks in advance sounds too overwhelming, you can start small and prepare your meals for the next two or three days. This will allow you to experiment, familiarize yourself with meal planning, and help you prepare for more extended meal plans. The first thing you need to do is recognize how you eat throughout the day. So, this means figuring out whether you only eat two or three proper meals a day, whether you eat several small meals throughout the day, or whether you like to include snacks between certain meals throughout the day. You can quickly identify your eating habits by replaying what you ate the last two or three days; this will help you determine how you eat so that you can plan your meals accordingly because you cannot force your body to eat at a schedule it is not accustomed to, and doing that will only cause you do not want to stick to the meal plan. You can check out ActivEats if you still find yourself in a rut and need help to devise a nutritious and filling meal plan.

The meal plan's next step is to write down what you will be eating. So, you need to write down what you will eat each meal and what you will have each snack. This sounds strict, but it is great practice in discipline and health. You can write down that you will have an egg for breakfast with one slice of buttered toast and a glass of coffee, tea, or orange juice. You can then put in a snack between breakfast and lunch, like an apple or a bowl of mixed nuts, and then move on to to lunch, where you can have a deli meat sandwich or a salad where you will list down all of the things you will add. You can then put in tea and a health bar or some other snack for the time between lunch and dinner, and then, during dinner, you can have vegetables, grilled fish, and so on. This is an elementary template of what a meal plan should look like; of course, if you happen to have different eating habits and if you happen to work out, then you will also need to include what you will be eating before and after your workout. The best thing you can do is to be as thorough and detailed as possible when creating your meal plan because this will help you while you are shopping and also when you are making your meals. So, instead of just writing grilled fish, also write down what kind of marinade you will be using to grill the fish so you can write down Greek grilled fish, and your marinade ingredients can be listed as olive oil, salt, pepper, olives, and so on. This way, things become even easier for you while you shop and cook your meals.

You want to make sure that your meal plan covers all of your basic dietary requirements, or you will find yourself feeling weak or hungry. So, you want to ensure that your meal plan has lots of protein, vegetables, fruits, and healthy fats and carbohydrates. You should also incorporate healthier sugars in your meal plan so you can prepare your own health bars or buy healthy bars that are sweetened naturally with ingredients like honey dates. This way, you also have sugar in your system and are not easily tempted by unhealthy, sweet options around you.

Of course, it is not going to be easy to stick to your meal plan at first. It can be really exhausting having to create your own meals every single time. this is where you can start incorporating meal prepping in your plan as well so that you do not have to cook every single day for every dinner, or you can just have the marinade and vegetables prepped and packed away. All you have to do is to cook them to get a meal ready. Regardless, meal planning is the best way to ensure that you have a healthy diet where you are only eating beneficial nutrients and are not consistently eating junk food and unhealthy meals all of the time. It is the best thing you can do to start your journey towards a healthier you and have a better relationship with food and your body.