Day 15 of 25 Days of Fitness: Plan to Succeed!
Nutrition planning is the key to helping make positive choices on a daily basis.
You always have a choice between doing what is good for you in the long term versus doing what feels or tastes good to you in the short term. Living a fat loss lifestyle influences these choices for the greater good. And nutrition planning is the number one way to ensure you stick to your goals!
I am a planner by nature but for some reason I struggle with good nutrition planning. Before I began my fat loss journey, I would just throw meals together and prepare each meal right before eating. This often lead to snacking on chips or other not-so-healthy choices while my food was cooking. By the time it was done, I would be full of the bad stuff and not eat nearly as much of the good stuff.
So, to tackle this issue, I decided to plan just one week in advance. I planned before I went to the grocery store what I would have at each meal for the week. I made my list and stuck to it (I even saved money too!)
On Sunday afternoon I spent about 2 hours in the kitchen and prepared everything I had just bought (chili, baked chicken, roasted veggies, hard boiled eggs, etc.). My fridge filled up with many containers of pre-portioned meals.
WOW!!! Did this routine ever change my life! I had multiple meals to choose from that just needed heating up, required very little clean up, and left me with so much free time in the evenings! If you are not currently doing this I HIGHLY recommend trying it out for a week.
Planning ALWAYS helps us make healthier choices!
Knowing I have food waiting for me at home makes me less likely to stop at the drive thru because I am starving. But let’s be realistic, sometimes things come up that we just couldn’t have planned or maybe you want to meet a friend for lunch. You can find a fat loss friendly meal almost anywhere!
Fat Loss Friendly Restaurant or Drive Thru Options
- Salad loaded with veggies and lean meat (grilled chicken or fish)
- Ask for dressing on the side and opt for the oil-based dressing instead of creamier ones.
- Grilled chicken sandwich
- Remove the bun and use the lettuce as a wrap. Skip the fattening condiments like mayo and maybe choose mustard instead. Hold the fries and get a side salad or fresh fruit.
- Eating Mexican or Japanese? Get grilled lean protein and veggies. Hold the rice or noodles.
Nutrition Planning for Success
- Carry a small container of Stevia for unexpected coffee dates.
- Bring sliced apples and natural peanut butter to the movies. (Shhh don’t tell!)
- Carry almonds or a protein bar so that no matter what others are snacking on, you can stick to your goals!
- ALWAYS have your water bottle…ALWAYS!
IF YOU PLAN FOR SUCCESS YOU WILL BE SUCCESSFUL!
Life isn’t all about food though. Some other things that should be planned in order to help you with your good decision making are sleep, working out, and any other area that might be a challenge for you…
Sleep: With sleep you want to aim for 7-9 hours a night. This might mean skipping an episode of something on tv and watching it tomorrow instead. I don’t watch any shows in real time anymore simply because they come on too late. If you have DVR you can record it and watch it the next day or like me, you can watch your favorite shows on t he internet.
Workouts: As far as your workouts go all you need is 30 minutes, 3x’s a week of fat burning exercise (check out some of Coach Blair’s workout blogs.) Pick your days and times and stick to them. I schedule mine for first thing in the morning that no excuses can pop up throughout the day.
WHEN IN DOUBT, GO WORKOUT!
Once you start to see and feel changes it will help you to make better choices without even thinking much about it and that’s why this becomes a lifestyle.You won’t always be perfect but who is?!
If you make a bad choice you always have the power to make a better choice the next time.
Live and learn my friends. 🙂 What is your plan? What are you going to choose today?
Kira O’Donnell