I completely agree that to be successful at eating healthy you need to plan your meals in advance. However, in practice, I find that my plans often get changed. The reasons vary - I may be late getting home and don’t want to cook - or – the meal I planned does not appeal at the moment- or – I think that I am so hungry that I can’t wait - or - sometimes I am just plain lazy.
Anyway, I have found life much easier when I plan for not planning. That means that I need to keep some quick easy foods on hand that can easily fit into my eating program.
My stash includes:
Frozen Laura's Lean Beef patties
Light Wheat Hamburger Buns
a couple of Lean Cuisine frozen meals
Tyson Mesquite Breast Fillets
Lean Pockets
Frozen broccoli
frozen corn
sandwich ham
canned pineapple in juice
I always have some type of fruit on hand.
My stash is also a big help when my husband comes home with something that would kill my program. For a long time I just kept the chicken breasts and broccoli in the freezer but I realized that I got off program way too often. Increasing the number of eating options that I always keep has really helped my stay on program.
Do you have an emergency food stash? What is in it?
Granola bars, apples, bananas, cup o' soup (cream of chicken), yogurt w/ granola, bag of spinach which I toss lightly with bleu cheese dressing, peanut butter and peach preserves. Frozen chicken breasts that can be quickly baked are a life saver.
I always have something that I can eat on the run - it's critical to my eating plan. I also divide up leftovers in pre-weighed amounts for a quick grab and go food item.
Today I found myself really wanting to order a pizza. I couldn't figure out why at first but it's because my cupboards are sort of bare and I don't have all the variety I like to keep on hand.
Last edited by rodeogirl; 12-06-2008 at 11:05 PM.
Reason: Accidentally hit send
I completely agree that to be successful at eating healthy you need to plan your meals in advance.
Hmmm. I'm going to have to disagree with this. I don't plan my meals at all, unless I'm making something special. When I shop, I buy staple foods that I'll end up using somehow over the week, but that's about the extent of it. Then I get home from work, open the fridge, and cook something or other.
This works out pretty well for me. If I had to plan every meal, there's no way I could do it. For a week, maybe, but after that, no.
I know planning works for a lot of people, and I think it's great. I'm all for doing what works. But I did want to stick my two cents in to say that what you call "planning not to plan" is pretty close to what I call a normal day.
Eggs. My no-plan fall back is always eggs. I can make an omelet, make a fritatta, or just scramble them. And I almost always have a couple of boiled eggs in the fridge.
There have been nights when I've come home and been so exhausted and frustrated and whatever ... that just throwing a couple of eggs and some veggies into a frying pan is about all I can manage.
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Last edited by PhotoChick; 12-06-2008 at 11:53 PM.
Foods I always have on hand and have the points pre-figured for:
skim milk
apples
peanut butter
eggs
bagels
granola bars-100 calorie low fat/low sugar
bagged salad
mushrooms
green and white onions
baby carrots
canned and frozen veggies
bananas
4 oz yogurt cups
mozzarella cheese sticks
cheddar cheese little square cubes
canned broth based soups-chicken tortilla by hungry man a fav!
Lean Cuisine-boxes and boxes of the Cheese Lasagna...to die for!
Kozy Shack 4 oz sugar free vanilla pudding cups
pre-cooked chicken breasts
spaghetti sauce
vanilla wafers (mix one Kozy Shack Pudding, 1 sliced banana, 5 Vanilla wafers for a fairly low point dessert)
Hawaiin Punch single serve (add to bottled water) fruit punch.
I have this all on hand and then roughly plan the meals for the week. I definitely plan the meals for the next day each evening...I keep granola bars, apples, bottled water or Diet 7-Up in the car for days when the plan doesn't work, I forget my lunch, or work later than planned and have no snack available.
I should probably not rely so much on pre-made, packaged foods but being so new to this lifestyle, my first step is to just get the damn eating under control, when it becomes a little easier I'll add more clean,whole foods :-)
Last edited by Michelle98272; 12-07-2008 at 01:16 AM.
You're planning not to plan and having a back-up plan, is indeed a PLAN.
Now me personally, I believe that "failing to plan is planning to fail" as eating healthy simply does not happen in our society by chance and must be thoroughly thought out in advance.
One way I do that is to have my home filled with healtlhy foods and ingredients so that I could whip up a healthy meal in minutes. I've got tons of veggies on hand - always - heads of cauliflower, zucchini, mushrooms, string beans, broccoli, carrots, romaine hearts, tomatoes, kirbys, onions, bell peppers and so on. Cans of tuna. One per serving bags in the freezer of salmon and chicken breasts. Eggs. Morning Star Farms veggie burger products. I keep homemade soup in the freezer.
So, at this point, I have a few different options for healthy meals and snacks. I have the right ingredients on hand to make either A, B or C, according to what I'm in the mood for. They all have equal calories and are all good choices. So if I've planned for A and wind up with B or C, no biggie.
I don't have frozen pizza or french fries, cookies or cakes or any of that stuff in my home. So there's no way if I'm too exhausted that I could just turn to "those off plan" foods. I have no choice but to turn to a healthy option.
I really, really think it's extra, extra, EXTRA crucial to plan for when I'm NOT at home. Cause there I'm really surrounded by unhealthy choices. Fast food, muffins, cakes, pizza, and candy bars all around us. I pack my lunches and snacks with me. I mean why make a difficult thing (losing and maintaining weight) even MORE difficult by not being prepared and having the right foods on hand? This lifestyle could never, ever work for me if I didn't have it all mapped out ahead of time. And yes, it IS work. A full time job in fact. But it's the most incredibly gratifying work on earth! The rewards are simply stupendous.
All this "work" talk reminds me, I recently saw a great signature here at 3FC. Right here at the 100 lb club. I hope GirlyGirlSebas doesn't mind me quoting her, but when I saw her signature, I laughed out loud. It was so right on the money and cute too: "Losing weight isn't for sissies" So very true.
Anyway, I believe it's very, VERY important to set oneself up for success and planning is a huge part of it. Even having that all important "back-up" plan.
Hey, they don't call it, "The Battle of the Bulge" for nothing, now do they? You wouldn't catch a solider headed into the battlefield without the proper gear and a strategy and a plan in place. Each and every time.
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I'm not so good at planning and sticking to menus, so what I do is make a lot of single-portion baggies out of bulk foods and freeze them. To make a meal, I grab a bag of veggies (or I could make a spinach salad instead), nuke that, put some fish or chicken in the microwave or oven to cook, and eat my veggies while I wait. I also usually have cooked brown rice, which is easy to reheat and eat.
I don't plan for not planning because I ALWAYS plan. I make crappy snap decisions when I don't have a plan. When I don't have a plan of what and when to eat I tend to go too long between meals and by the time I think of eating I am STARVING and grab something not healthy for me.
Now I ONLY have healthy foods in my house for my family and I. I do buy banana arrowroot cookies for the kids and multigrain pretzels for the hubby and we always have ice cream (the kind I don't like) but our staples are always healthy lean proteins, whole grain carbs, tons of fruits and veggies and healthy oils. So even if I REALLY don't feel like cooking tuna melts and sweet potato fries for dinner I can quickly check fit day, see how many calories that is and then substitute for say chicken quesadilla's... but still staying on plan and within calories.
For me NOT planning is planning to fail. Planning to make poor choices.
I'm not so good at planning and sticking to menus, so what I do is make a lot of single-portion baggies out of bulk foods and freeze them. To make a meal, I grab a bag of veggies (or I could make a spinach salad instead), nuke that, put some fish or chicken in the microwave or oven to cook, and eat my veggies while I wait. I also usually have cooked brown rice, which is easy to reheat and eat.
This is a great idea for someone like me that relies on prepackaged type convenience foods. I can get in the habit of using more healthy whole foods this way. Thanks for the tip!
Everyone has some sort of plan but I think what time2lose and others are getting at is some of us have very loose plans and some have more rigid plans.
Take for example Cfmama - she has a pretty rigid plan and that's what she has figured out works for her.
Me - I have a very loose plan which pretty much boils down to eat no more than my alloted calories for the day. This works great for someone with ADHD who see's a planned schedule or menu of any sort as something to rebel against.
So when it comes time for lunch I start thinking about what I want. Do I want to go out? Eat in? Pick something up at the store? It's fun to get to decide at the moment. CFmama, on the other hand, goes and makes whatever she preplanned.
We're both eating on plan. Both losing weigh. Both happy with our choices.
I dunno I just thought this was worth mentioning because sometimes as someone with a looser plan when I hear people saying "if you don't plan you will fail" it rubs me the wrong way because I interpret that to mean if you don't have a rigid menu plan you will fail. So it helps me to remind myself that having no plan and eating willy-nilly will lead to weight gain but that is not the same as having a loose plan.
You hit the nail on the head. You expressed my thoughts much better than I did. I have failed at weight loss so many times. In order to succeed this time, I tried to analyze why I did not succeed before. Lack of planning was a big problem.
I really think that "failing to plan is planning to fail" applied to me. So this time I started determined to have a rigid plan. But that did not work for me either. So I think I need something between a very loose plan and a rigid plan. I generally plan what and when I am going to eat. But there are times that I cannot stick to that plan for various reasons, so it is important that I also have backup foods at home and work. That is what I mean by “planning for not planning.”
I have gotten so many good ideas from all of you that I thought that if we shared our staples list that we might get new ideas. It worked too. I got some great ideas from ya’ll!
Yeah it all goes back to what so many wise chicks have said here before. You have to figure out what works for you and your body. Time2lose it sounds like you are really examining what works and what doesn't that's great! Keep up the good work.
Cfmama - Thanks for being my example! I was hoping you wouldn't mind me comparing us. We have so many things in common but the execution of our plans is so different and I think it's a great example of how many different ways there are to eat healthier and reach our goal weights.
Planning for not planning
