Let’s talk about the importance of planning your meals today.
Breakfast – spinach omlette Soy milk coffee Lunch – tuna salad wrapped in roti Snack – carrots & hummus
I love food. Yes, I love all kinds of food.
I also get very easily tempted by food. Creamy and cheesy food is my absolute weakness. You bring a rich cheesecake in front of me, and my mind goes into an obsessive craving to eat it.
I also get very hangry, very fast. If I am not well fed, I get irritable and cranky. And I end up eating the first thing I see infront of me. No, I won’t eat you don’t worry!!!
Yes, I realize the above traits are not healthy traits but hear me out.
As much as I love food, I also love my body and I like to take care of what is going on inside my body. My idea of self-love is to build the best version of my body and work hard at it.
Having said the above (possible contradictory) points about food and health, I have found myself in this situation many times, when I was super hungry and ended up eating something I regretted later.
Examples like, its 4pm, I had lunch at 12 at work and now am super hungry and my team brought donuts to celebrate someone’s birthday. I grabbed one mindlessly because of hunger and regretted it later.
I get home from work around 7pm, starving as I had lunch at 1pm and nothing since then. I spend the first 10 minutes debating what to cook for dinner, and meanwhile I munch on some nuts, then I start to cook rice and a curry, and finish an entire bag of potato chips while cooking.
Now, I am not saying that you should not indulge in these foods once in a while. But if this has become a habit, you are harming your body with these highly refined and processed foods. And also because – this situation is totally avoidable and you can handle it better just with a little bit of planning!
It is very easy to plan out all the meals you are going to have over the next week. This is how I do it –
On Sundays, I take out 30-40 minutes to plan for the week. I write down all the meals I want to have over the week. Something like this –
I would then note down what things I need from the grocery store to be available in my kitchen for these meals. If possible, I prep some stuff too. Like, chopping up vegetables, making an onion-tomato masala for Indian curries, marinating any chicken or fish, making dough (atta) for rotis, making any sauce or chutney or hummus.
Often, I also pack my snack boxes for the week. This is one thing which is the easiest thing to do and gives me the maximum benefit. I divide berries and carrots into 5 small boxes or ziploc bags. I add in peanut butter or hummus into each of them. I can then just grab one of these boxes before going to work. This greatly reduces chances of indulging in something unhealthy through the day. And let’s face it, snacks can get the unhealthiest of meals, with donuts, cookies, chocolates lying around the office all day.
With a written meal plan, even if I am starving by night I do not have to waste time to think what to eat and can jump right in and avoid the extra munchies.
Meal planning helps a great deal, especially if you live by yourself or have a small family. Trust me, you would not realize it until you try it yourself! So try it out, you can get a lot of meal ideas on my Instagram account (@foodgetyoufit) where I try to bring you meals which are under your fitness goals as well as super delicious.
Tag me in your creations.
