Dear Dad,
“If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else."
The easiest way to overeat is walking into a kitchen without a plan.
Remember back to your wrestling days how you would attack a buffet the day after weigh-ins? Or, each year trying to restrict eating before a Thanksgiving feast? While overeating in those situations are somewhat justifiable exceptions; they certainly shouldn’t be the norm.
I remember my first days in a dining hall at Mercersburg Academy. The food options were endless. I could walk from walls of sugary cereals to a bar of luscious salad greens; I would eat hearty entrées and then be served chocolatey desserts. I learned quickly that if I didn’t enter the dining hall with a predetermined idea of what I was going to eat then I would exit in a food coma like a zombie. It was an important lesson to learn in high school because as an adult in the United States the food options are limitless like a buffet.
Boundaries must be set and that’s why having a Meal Plan is the fourth of 5 ways to change what you eat without changing anything that you eat. Let’s recap.
3. Set The Tone
4. Meal Plan
5. Make It Yourself
I know exactly what you’re thinking. You are not a planner! I’ll certainly concede that Mom and I have the planning genes, but don’t be deterred by such a flimsy excuse. If you have enough brainpower to make it to work on time, check the scores of last night’s games, or even run your own business for thirty years, then you can take a few seconds each day to decide what food you’re going to eat before you start shoveling it down.
But, what exactly is a meal plan?
It’s doesn’t have to be burdensome and does not require any real “plan” in the normative sense.
All I mean is that before it is time to eat be aware of what your food options are and set some guidelines of what you will eat and how much. This can be done in the car on your way home from work, checking the menu before going to a restaurant, or in the kitchen on Sunday evening preparing meals for the upcoming week. If you get in the habit of making your eating decisions at a time before it’s actually time to eat, you will be much more likely to eat the amount and type of food that promotes your health.
Like any “plan” sometimes it goes awry. Even now, after I get home from a long day of court I sometimes enter the kitchen in a flurry and inhale anything I can get in my belly quickly. This introduces the second important step to having a quality meal plan.
Plan what food will be available to you. Knowing it’s unavoidable to have a plan in every instance and that the urge to eat spontaneously will win on occasion, intentionally choose what foods you have around. You can only eat the food available, so rig your surroundings for healthy options. More often than not, when I get home from court and start inhaling food it’s not chips, cheese, or ice cream; but fresh fruit, pre-cut veggies, or a huge bowl of rice, beans, and salsa!
Having a meal plan is not restrictive; but rather, opens the door to finding the right balance between energy needed and food consumed. If you have a plan and stick to it consistently; you’ll nourish your body and easily avoid mindless snacking, the ghost calories that you’re unconsciously eating with no benefit.
Just as you would never walk into a business meeting un-prepared; why would you eat unprepared?
Keep calm, carry on, and have a plan.
With Love,
JSR
