I've been eating on the full plate diet for almost 2 months now and have lost 17 lbs so far. I feel mostly satisfied with the amount of good healthy food I'm eating to nourish my body. I'm very good about keeping healthy foods in the house and planning my meal plans in advance. Sometimes, though, I just get tired of planning every meal in advance and trying to keep things balanced. I'm facing eating out for dinner two times this weekend. This will be the first time I'm not planning in advance and honestly, I'm a little nervous about it.
Sometimes it gets me down to have to think so much about what I'm eating...do you ever get to a place where you don't have to plan so much?
Yes. I know how you feel. It can be exhausting but it's a necessary thing for those of us with food addictions and a lack of will-power.
It's such an integral part of weight loss. Though, I will say I have several places I fall back on when I don't feel like cooking or if I fail to plan (Subway and Salad Works). I know exactly how many points (I do WW) are in my standard meals there. That helps a lot. So much so that the folks at both places know me and my usual order. :P
Many blessings in this! You can do this. Planning will become easier with time.
It does get tiring, but not so nearly as tiring as being fat was--dreading going out in public, feeling like a freak, having a hateful internal monologue going on about how ugly I was, how weak and pathetic. Being embarrassed and ashamed just for existing.
It sucks that there isn't an easy way. But planning everything is the least painful alternative.
When I was heavy, I spent so much mental energy, wishing, hoping, longing to be thin. I probably spend way less mental energy planning meals. And it's positive, purposeful energy!
Sometimes it gets me down to have to think so much about what I'm eating...do you ever get to a place where you don't have to plan so much?
Planning does get much easier as it becomes an ingrained habit or a lifestyle. It's also gets much easier if you're not resentful about it, lots of things that we all have to do can be a pain if we think about them too much, basic hygiene is an effort but we all (mostly) accept that it's something that we gotta do and just do it without thinking about it too much.
Yes, I agree with everything that's been posted already!
It does get easier as it becomes more habitual. It's now just what I do and quite frankly "who I am". I couldn't imagine EVER doing without it. Just like I get up every morning, brush my teeth, shower, make the beds and a slew of other things that I do throughout the day to keep myself and my family running smoothly.
Planning ahead has been without a doubt the number one key to my *success*. I asterik-ed it because I hate that word.
Anyway. I also agree with it's time very well spent and not nearly as tiring as being overweight. Like anything that matters, it takes a conscious continual effort and pre-thought. Winging it, leaving it up to chance would be a recipe for disaster. I mean why leave something so vital as our health, our weight, our food intake up in the air?
I for one plan even when I go off plan. To me, it's just too important and the alternative is no longer an option for me. The circumstances may change, but the requirements don't. That's not to say that I sometimes don't veer off plan (planned and yes - UNplanned) but for the most part, I stick with my healthy eating habits.
As far as you going out for those two dinners, I would suggest that you plan those out as well. Don't walk into those restaurants without a good idea of what you'll be eating - and what you won't. Set yourself up some rules BEFORE you walk in there. No bread. No fried foods, no cream-y foods, no desserts, etc.. Perhaps plan to have an undressed salad with dressing on the side. Baked fish or chicken. Grilled veggies. Lots of water, diet soda or some hot tea. Eating out and socializing should and can be enjoyable - but it is no reason/'excuse to "blow your diet".
For just the first month or so, I planned. I used mypyramid.gov and planned balanced meals while cycling calories. At first, it was exciting. It was a sense of control I never had, and I took pride in preparing healthy balanced meals. With the weekly meal plan on my fridge, I found it easy to eat ONLY what was on the plan.
After awhile though, it got tedious. I'm a poor college kid, and my meal options are fairly limited. I frankly got bored with writing in the saaame old meals into the planner. So, I quit.
The month of meal planning was invaluable to me though. It taught me what to eat, how much to eat, how to put together balanced meals, etc. Once I got a grasp on that, I can do it on my own now. I still count up calories in my head, and I do still measure out many food portions, but for the most part, I just wing it. I've still been losing at the same rate I was when I was planning. And every once in awhile I'll plug in the meals and snacks I ate for the day into the meal planner to see how I'm doing. It's usually just as balanced and low calorie as it would be if I had planned it.
So, meal planning definitely got me jumpstarted, but I knew it wasn't a habit I could maintain. I didn't want to depend on recording every bite I ate and planning meals a week in advance for the rest of my life to lose weight and maintain it. So meal planning was like training wheels for me. Once I got the game figured out, I didn't need it as much anymore.
being a grad student, with limited funding/living on my own, planning every single meal is a fantastic tool for me.
i even plan all my main meals one week in advance to make sure i'll have what i am gonna need from the store and sniff out nice offers from the super market website before i even get there.
I didn't want to depend on recording every bite I ate and planning meals a week in advance for the rest of my life to lose weight and maintain it.
This is what I do basically. I don't write down a thing, not a thing. My calorie counting is all done in my head. Well, I really don't have to do that much either since I already know the calorie counts of the foods that I eat. I've already counted em'.
My breakfast always has the same amount of calories. Always. My lunches too. Dinners also. The food varies - but the calories are the same. Snacks - ditto. I switch around the foods but not the calories. That chicken dinner with soup and roasted cauliflower has the same exact calories as that other chicken dinner with that other soup and roasted brussel sprouts or the the soup with salmon and yet another type of veggie.
Planning did get tedious, but it really helped teach me what I could eat and how much. I haven't been "planning" lately, but I've been doing for the most part very good. Sometimes I realize "Hey, I've made bad choices all week!" And I go back into plan mode. Its really satisfying when you realise you're losing/maintaining without all thatmuch planning. I take it to mean Ive developped some good habits.
Enjoy your dinners out, make the best choices you can, and don't beat yourself up over it!
I find planning liberating---not confining. It frees up my brain for other things.
Very well said!
Not only does it free up my brain for other things, it's freed me up to get the most out of my life. It's freed me up to reach my hopes, dreams and goals. It's freed me up and out of my life of misery.
If I don't have healthy foods on hand, how can I adhere to a healthy lifestyle?
If I don't have healthy foods on hand, how can I adhere to a healthy lifestyle?
True!
I think the word "planning" has different meanings to different people. I plan but I also don't write everything down anymore. It's more of a mental planning (but yes, that gets tiring, too. lol)
When I fail to plan, I fall back on my old faithfuls (turkey on wheat from Subway etc). But, that became an old faithful due to research and planning.
I guess if you put in your (planning) time early on, you can work less going forward.
I think the word "planning" has different meanings to different people.
So very true!
At this point, I shop and have LOTS of healthy stuff on hand. Always. Always. Always. For the week ahead, perhaps, I'll buy broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, turnips, asparagus, string beans, etc. When I'm buying them I don't know which EXACT night I'll have the broccoli, which night I'll have the cauliflower, etc. So I'm planning what I'm having for the week, but not which food on which specific night. Some people need to/want to/have to know Monday they're eating this, and Tuesday they're eating that. Neither of them are wrong - just different. Still both planning to me.
Does planning ever get you down...
