Is this you? You started the week out with your willpower in check and all set to follow an 80:20 philosophy with your food. Somewhere around mid-week though, your energy levels tanked and your cravings soared.
Emotional and binge eating is a train wreck waiting to happen especially when you have no time to pay attention to what you’ve been eating. Instead, you go for the easy option, the “I deserve a treat” option, in other words, the convenient catastrophe.
How do you prevent a crisis like that? You prevent it the way you prevent all crises: a crisis management program or as we like to call it, meal planning. It helps prevent you from derailing from your goals and gives you easy plans to fall back on. When your energy feels depleted and your willpower is shot, the old you had already figured it out for you. All is not lost however because you still have tools to fall back on.
Are you convinced that advance planning would make your life easier? Well, just in case let’s break down the possible advantages of planning your meals in advance.
Energy
Like any of the resources that are integral to our survival, our willpower is non-renewable. We start out our days and weeks with a preset amount of willpower that gets used up rapidly in small decision-making tasks from what we should wear to what we should say. When we resort to cooking up something, we fall back on old reliable fast foods and unhealthy comfort foods.
Meal planning prevents you from crashing midway because you have plan A, B, and Z to resort to when you cannot figure what will be healthy and tasty options for you to have for dinner. Meal planning takes one thing off your daily to-do list, freeing up time for you to de-stress and take care of yourself.
Portion Planning
Meal planning allows you to give all the important things their rightful place in your menu. When you plan a menu beforehand, you get to choose what goes in there. Meal planning gives you the opportunity to treat your body right and having your doctors’ recommended portion of fruits and vegetables. Even on days when you feel like putting no effort into cooking, or eating whatever your first craving is, a meal plan reminds you that there is an alternative healthy meal. Not only will you be initially satisfied, but you will be grateful after you eat too.
Treat Yourself
There will always be “those” days where you may want to throw something together just to get through the day and eat for the sake of survival. With meal plans, you can take the time to plan a meal that you know you will enjoy. This pre-planned blessing might just be the meal that turns your awful week around because you took the time to prepare a meal that was nutritious and delicious.
The Tension
When we don’t plan and prep, we ultimately wind up more stressed. On the other hand, when we do plan ahead we can avoid the stress and instead relax and allow ourselves some freedom to experiment and try new things.
I would like to help you with your meal planning conundrum. If you would like to have 4-weeks of healthy and delicious meals planned out for you then you’re in luck. I have created an awesome meal plan package for you including a fabulous Recipe Book, 4-weekly Suggested Meals and a Shopping List. To learn more and sign up for this package click here.
Just to give you a sneak peek, here is a sample of one of the Breakfast Recipes:
BANANA PANCAKES
Ingredients:
- 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats
- ¼ cup nondairy milk
- 1 banana
- 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Directions:
Combine all the ingredients in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth. Allow the batter to sit on the counter for 5 minutes.
While the batter is sitting place a pan over medium heat and melt the coconut oil.
Once the batter is ready, cook 3 mini pancakes at a time. Cook for about 2 minutes per side.
Repeat until the batter is done.
Next, add your favorite pancake toppings! These may include but is not limited to, berries, almond butter, coconut flakes and chopped nuts.
Enjoy!
Yours In Good Health,
