This blog is going to explore the idea of planned eating. In planned eating you decide beforehand what you are going to eat and when. Perhaps you write it down, perhaps you are like me and track it in Sparkpeople.com or perhaps you just know it by heart. Whatever the case may be, this is how it will help.
This blog is part of a seven part series. Read the first four blogs here:
Treating Overeating
How to Reverse the Habit
Food Rehab: Creating Rules
Food Rehab: Creating Associations
Planned eating will keep you away from cues that drive you to mindless eating. It tells you exactly what is allowed & what isn’t so that you don’t have to make a spontaneous decision when cued with salient food. It also gives you repeatable behaviors to make a habit of to help guide you past temptation. So if you have already packed your lunch for work, when the boss surprises you with a pizza lunch, you already have your food and you would not want to waste it!
Planned eating gives you a “parallel food universe” so you can participate in normal activities without stress. I remember when I first began eating clean I got so stressed when I went to a friend’s house for taco night. Instead of eating what was there, I brought my own whole wheat wraps (plus extra to share) as well as plenty of veggies to add to the lean turkey that I knew would be there anyway.
Or if you know you are going to dinner for girls’ night, you look over the menu online before you go. That way you still can go to dinner, and you have planned out what you will eat to keep it healthy. Trust me, you don’t want to sit-out these events because you will grow to resent your nutrition guidelines and you will either cave or binge.
Mentally rehearsing what you will do in a high-risk situation will be very helpful. Here you envision your routines & game plans before putting them to use. This will help you stay motivated, build confidence and keep your eyes on the prize. You will already have a game plan for when you are cued too! So for example, when the bread basket is passed around at dinner, you already have your mind made up that you will not be partaking!!
David Kessler makes note that, “Instead of facing a day filled with the unplanned eating opportunities that drive out of control behavior, you must develop a set of meal plans and repertoire of satisfying foods.” So not only does he want you to have the meals planned, but they also need to be foods that you like. These meals must be filling, have variety and be foods you want to eat. Bottom line, if you are following a meal plan that you hate, you won’t stick with it. So if someone told me I could only be lean if I ate tilapia and asparagus 5 times a day, I would never stick with it.
So it’s your job to determine exactly what you eat at each meal or snack, and when you need to eat. If it is not on your diet – YOU DO NOT EAT IT. Of course at first this will probably need to be very rigid and structured, but once you feel less temptation from those salient foods you can open yourself up to other foods. So if peanut butter is your trigger, you need to steer clear of it completely. But once you can enjoy it without binging perhaps you can add it back into your diet a tablespoon at a time. So rather than mowing down an entire dessert on your own, you can introduce them back into your repertoire and not feel guilt when you share one with your date!
Read the sixth blog here: deciding what to eat.
Your Coach,
Kyra
P.S. Do you plan your eating ahead of time?
If so, has it helped you? Leave a comment below.