Your Meal Planning Guide
Your Guide To Being Able To Plan A Healthy Meal.
Learning how to plan a meal and just knowing what to eat is probably the single most difficult part of just about any diet. Depending on the diet that you are currently following this will most likely change a bit. Some can be extremely restrictive while others can be more relaxed If you would like to learn more about some of the popular diet plans that are out there, Just click the link below.
Here in this guide we are going to be focusing on diets plans based around calorie counting. We find that the more you restrict a diet the more difficult it becomes to actually keep to the diet plan long term. You most likely already know about the Carb diet, and how everyone complains that it’s so difficult. These diets literally can restrict your diet so much that even a a single donut or frozen coffee can destroy your diet planning for the next several days. These diets basically restrict any sort of grain and just about anything that contains sugar, including even fruit.
The last thing to understand is that a good diet plan is key. No matter how much you exercise it can be nearly impossible to work off a bad diet. I will start with a quick example here of bad diet vs exercise. Running is one of the exercises that can burn the most calories the fastest. Even with running you just can’t run off a bad diet. According to the American Council on Exercise, A 170 pound person running at a pace of 6 mph or 10 minutes per mile will burn about 771 calories in and hour. When you brake down those numbers That an astonishing 6 miles in a single hour (can you tell I’m not a runner). This works out to be about 12.85 calories a minute. A single donut can have 460 calories, this means you would have to run for over 35 minutes or 3.5 miles to burn off that one donut. You should know that is a pretty fast pace, and depending on where you live this is still probably faster than your drive to work during rush hour. In our plan we do not say that you can have donuts all the time but every once in a while you can find a place to sneak it in. If you would like to learn more about the American Council on Exercise a link to their site will be at the bottom of this page.
I will not dispute that exercise is important, because it is very important. But the key to a successful weight loss plan is a good diet plan.
I go over becoming more active and creating an exercise plan in another post that you can find by clicking the link just below. I go over different exercises, even others that don’t involve running for those of you like me that just don’t run.
Become more active / exercise guide
Now that we got all the above out of the way let’s get to actually creating a guide that you can use to help you keep towards your goals.
We are going to break this down into steps. This way if you already have some of the numbers or information, you can just jump ahead.
Before changing your diet or attempting any exercises you should first consult your doctor. Make sure you know your limitations. Remember to alway be healthy and nothing is more valuable than your health.
Step 1 – Numbers
Depending on where you came from on our site you may already have some of these numbers.
First Number
Number of calories you should be consuming. Below are two links, the first explains about getting your calorie intake number and the second is just the calculator. I recommend using the first.
How many Calories Should I Eat
Second Number
Get your current weight, ideal weight, and your measurements.
Below are the links to get these numbers. I recommend reading the first two links these will help you understand weight fluctuations and the importance of measurements.
How to Weigh and Measure Yourself
Third Number
Your Heart Rates
This doesn’t completely tie here to meal planning but you will need these number to be able to adjust your exercising and meal planing. And it’s really easy to get.
(Click Here For Our Hear Rate Calculator)
Step 2 – Calculating your goal
Now that you have all your numbers, let set a goal.
From reading “How to Weigh and Measure Yourself” and “How Fast Should I Lose Weight” you should know that weight isn’t the only number you should be looking atto measure progress. Usually for those that have more weight to lose you may see a bit more progress here at the beginning.
We are also going to use the 3,500 calories per pound of fat rule as a guide to weight loss. This means that a calorie deficit of 500 calories pre day should be able a loss of about 1 pound per week. Many experts recommend that you shouldn’t have a calorie deficit greater than 1,000 calories a day, and never go below consuming 1,200 calories per day. Technically this states that you should expect to lose about 8 pounds a month long term. You should note that from reading “How Fast Should I Lose Weight” you may experience much greater weight fluctuations in the beginning. Usually the closer you get to your ideal weight you will begin finding this 2 pound rule working. For many the first 10 pounds (sometimes more) can actually come much simpler, and much faster.
Now using the number you received from the Calorie Calculator or our daily calorie number, subtract 500-1000 while still staying above 1,200 calories. (remember that as you lose weight and increase activity such as working out your calorie numbers are going to change)
Let’s say you come back with a number of 1,500 calories as your target calorie intake. We are going to use this number throughout our meal planning, but you can use yours. You may have to increase your activity/workout to increase your daily calorie number.
Step 3 – What to Cut
Now that we have every number we need to start planning out what to eat. It is no surprise that the first thing that we are going to say is try and cut the carbs. We aren’t saying eliminate them completely. But limiting them especially in the first few weeks will make a ton of deference and will get you on an awesome track. The first things that you are going to want to cut are things like sugary sweets, and liquid calories. This includes sodas, juices, and high calorie coffee drinks. We aren’t saying this is going to be permanent even thought it wouldn’t hurt. You want build a new norm of limiting these things.
I know that if I say cut every single unhealthy carb out of your life many of you are going to simply say that this is just not going to work. If you have the will power of a rock not to move I say go for cutting all of the bad carbs . But for the rest of us we have to find a way that we can make a diet plan last longer than a day or the amount of time it takes us to walk to the pantry. The first part of this plan is to find foods that are actually healthy and actually good.
Step 4 – What to eat
Ok now that I probably stated the obvious of “cut the unhealthy foods”. Your probably hungrier now and teetering on the back button but just give me a few more minutes. This is where we cover the topic of actually eating.
We have to treat the calories that we have almost as currency. We only get so much everyday and we have to cover our hungry and nutritional needs, if you go over remember you have to pay them back.
The veggies
The best first step is to find a few low calorie foods that we actually like. There are a ton of foods and you just have to pick some of your favorite. These are going to be the foods you use to basically take up space in your stomach and give you all the good nutrients and fiber. The first place you should look should be vegetables. The calories in them are massively low while still being able to fill your stomach. There is a reason why salads are thought of as healthy. Lettuce only has about 15 calories per 100g or about 68 calories a pound or about 120 calories per head of lettuce. If you had a calorie intake goal of 1,500 calories you would have to literally eat about 22 pounds of it or more just to satisfy your 1,500 calorie goal. Side note that’s 12 heads of lettuce a day, mind boggling right.
Im not saying that lettuce is the only thing, there are carrots, cucumber, celery, kale, lemons, limes, peppers, spinach, tomatoes, zucchini, broccoli. Theres still tons more but if you can find any of these to add to your diet, you can start saving a ton of calories.
The unhealthy Healthies
Remember to always count the additional calories of anything you add. Most dressings have massive amounts of calories and these basically reverse the benefit of a salad as a healthy option. Also know that if you opt for a salad at a restaurant, know the calories and what’s in it. You can get some salads at some restaurants that have well beyond 1,300 calories. Thats worse than a whopper! So just because it sounds healthy doesn’t make it healthy.
Just some tips on trying different ways of eating these.
Try different ways of preparing them. Try adding lime and a tiny amount of salt to things like lettuce, carrots and cucumber. Still really healthy and tastes really good.
My favorite way of eating salads is by mixing lettuce, tomatoes, onion and carrots. As a dressing I put a small amount of Thrive Algae Oil (or olive oil) and red wine vinegar, with black pepper and salt. Of course your can change yours up. just remember to count all the calories.
Also make sure you give steamed veggies a try if you haven’t. Make sure you give it a few tries because perfectly steamed veggies are 100% different from veggies that have been over or under cooked. And please try perfectly steamed veggies vs boiled.
The “Real” Food
There are many of you out there that just don’t like veggies. I don’t blame you. For a while I just couldn’t stand them but now steamed veggies and a salads are part of my regular meals. You can actually really learn to enjoy them especially when cooked well.
Now for the food that is considered the main course. Here this can be much simpler than many make this out to be. Many people think that options are minimal and you need to pay someone to pick food for you. The simple answer is no. You can basically eat just anything you want as long as its healthy. This is going to lead us to our next question.
What is Healthy
This idea of healthy can again confuse people because the word healthy really depends on who answers it. But, we are going to try and give a bit of guidance here. The healthiest things are going to be the things you make your self. Even though restaurants will advertise something as healthy or all natural many times large amounts of oil, butter and salt are added. This also goes for frozen foods. These usually also include many other ingredients, salts and preservatives.
Limiting the Anything rule?
The anything”ish” rule has very few rules that are very easy to live by.
The first rule is the single ingredient rule. This is basically rules out most prepackage foods. The steak that you added salt, pepper and a small amount of oil is still a single ingredient. As long as you add the items it’s still fine.
The single ingredient items are eggs, chicken, beef, veggies, fruits, nuts, basically anything that you can eat as is or with minimal preparation.
The second rule is just pick healthy versions of your ingredients. This just means that you should know what you’re purchasing.
Let’s take chicken for this example. It is a regular practice to say chicken is healthy. But, know there are parts of the chicken that are much healthier that the others. Chicken Breast is considered the healthiest part, while things like the dark meat and skin can have much more calories and fat. In Steak or even ground beef you can achieve healthier options just by purchasing leaner versions, or just trimming the excess fat.
If you are a person that just needs to have a good portion of meat, chicken and fish can be your best friends. They are much lower lower in calories and they have a countless ways to cook them. Just for reference: many kinds of fish can have less than half the calories of beef. And, skinless chicken breast can have almost a third less calories than a sirloin. These calories add up fast and can really help you in you weight loss goals.
But What about the Carbs and Junk Food
This is where you have to really understand a bit of restraint. This is usually where many people just quit diets altogether and winding up in a worse condition than they started in. This is the main reason why I advise against a solely carb based diet. If you are on a crab based diet you are basically cut off just about everything people like to enjoy. This includes almost all fruits, pastas, breads, and just about anything sweet. I believe that if you are cut off from these 100% it only takes a snack to have a failure. I think dieting should be seen as a way to change your eating habits towards a healthier path that you can live with.
I think for the first few weeks you really should cut as many carbs as you can, while still having a healthy balance diet. Carbs can contribute a lot towards your appetite and having a smaller one can really help.
The main thing to take from this section of carbs is that you should really focus on cutting the junk food, and sugary drinks.
Lets Put Everything together and plan a meal
We have finally made it to the part that you actually get to eat something. This is the part that just about everyone over complicates. But once you get the hang of it its actually quite simple.
You probably already expect it, but there is going to be good news and bad news. Here we are going to start with the bad news so that we can just get that out of the way.
The level of how bad this news is really depends on your starting point. After reading the above you probably already got your calories intake number. If you just skipped ahead and didn’t grab that number you can click here for it
The Short Version – Calorie Calculator
Recommended Version – How Many Calories Should I Eat
Now that you have this number you subtract 500-1000 and if that number is still above 1,500ish then this means it may be a bit easier to start. Remember It is generally advised that regardless the diet plan you are on you never drop below 1,200 calories pre day. Other professionals also state that even this number is too low and should be 1,500 for women, and 1,800 for men. So we are going to use 1,500 calories per day. If the number you get after subtracting 500-1000 calories is under 1,200 or 1,500, this means you’re probably going to have to take up some sort of exercise. In the beginning this can be as little as walking, but what ever exercise your do will have to be something that gets your heart rate up. For more information on how to burn some extra calories, click below.
Becoming more active and exercise guide
Now for the bad news that really feels like the gut punch. You really have to find the places to cut calories. This usually means sweets and most liquid calories (ie soda and juices)
If that was the really bad news you were already expecting that you are really ahead and this is going to be much easier.
Building a Meal Example
Quick Note: To get calories you can google just about any food and just type calories after it “apple nutrition” or “How many calories are in an apple”.
Because everyones meal plans and calorie needs are going to be different we are going to show you on how to actually build a meal to your liking and needs. It’s much easier than you may think.
This is like only one of two times that we really recommend buying something. Many of you may already have one but and you can get them super cheap almost anywhere. It’s a simple food scale. I will post a link to one that can be a really informative and looks great.
I would recommend at least for a week to a few weeks to work with a scale. This way you can learn what a serving really is and how to measure the calories you eat.
I also recommend using a pen and paper to write out what you want to eat. This helps you spot many calories that are often overlooked. Learning from above as long as you stick to healthier foods you will notice tat you can eat a surprising amount of food. We are going to build an example here and I recommend you do one to. Build a full day in advance in the order of Dinner / Lunch / Morning / Snacks
Remember the options are endless you just have to learn how to balance them.
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- Calories per day – 1,500
- Dinner:
- Lunch:
- Morining:
- Snacks:
The Break Down:
I recommend starting with Dinner then Lunch then Morning and finally snacks.
Dinner:
The Protein:
Here fish, chicken, eggs, and especially egg whites are going to be your best friends. These will be the most filling and you will get the most food for the calorie with these proteins.
Note: We are going to use 5 oz of the protein (this doesn’t account for any oil you use).
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- Cod – 116 calories
- Grouper – 167 calories
- Talipia – 181 calories
- Chicken Breast – 234
- Egg – 78 calories
- Egg White – 17 calories
- Eye of Round Steak – 258
- Sirloin Steak – 345
The Sides:
Of course you already know that a healthy side is going to be vegetables, but depending on the diet plan your options can be much greater. Just remember that the more calories you place here the more its going to take form your daily allowance. Some of these examples I’m going to provide here are going to be high in carbs.
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- Lettuce salad – 18 calories ( 1/3 head of lettuce)
- Steamed
- Broccoli – 31 Calories ( per 1 cup chopped)
- Baby Carrots – 48 Calories ( about 12 baby carrots 4 calories each)
- Cauliflower – 27 Calories ( about 1 cup chopped)
- Sweet Corn – 77 Calories (1 ear about 7 inches)
- SweetCorn – 132 Calories ( about 1 cup)
- Frozen mixed veggies – 50 calories ( 2/3 cup – yours may vary)
- Potatoes – 110 Calories ( 1 medium potato)
- Brown Rice – 170 Calories ( measured at 1/4 cup raw – 3/4 cooked)
Dinner overview
That wasn’t too difficult and there are still tons of options other than these. In our example lets do a baked chicken breast veggies and brown rice I had for dinner. If you’re looking to lower carbs swap the rice for something else. Now lets count the Calories
Chicken breast:
One serving of chicken is only about 3 oz but here I’m splurging a bit at 5oz a small/normal chicken breast (not the giant ones in some packages). = 234 calories
baked and very little butter. I didn’t use an entire table spoon of butter for one chicken breast. But I will count 1 tbsp = 50 Calories
Veggies
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-
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- I mixed about 6 baby carrots / 1 cup of broccoli = 55 calories
- Brown Rice
- I really enjoy rice but it is not carb friendly = 170 Calories
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Total Dinner Calories = 509 calories
If I wanted to cut calories, here are some changes you could make.
Instead of chicken make a good Baked Cod fillet. Seasonings such as salt and pepper don’t add calories but salt can increase the body’s water retention in the short term.
Cod fillet with 1 tbsp of butter per recipe would be = 160 calories
If you still wanted to lower the calories, we can swap out the rice for even more veggies. Even if you double the veggies you would still save 115 calories.
Lower Calorie Dinner = 276 calories
Our entire dinner would now only be 276 calories with good portions. Even if you splurged on veggies and some more cod you would still have a lot of room here. Now let’s move on to Lunch.
Lunch
This can really vary on what you like. Many people like eating a salad or some fruit as its lite and doesn’t make you feel tired for the rest of the day. But if you planned your dinner well you still have a good amount of room here.
personally I like salads or some fruit for lunch. Here I will give some examples of lunches.
Salad: 188 calories
Here is my favorite way to prepare my salad its pretty big. Prepared:2 serving of mix salad 30 calories (1/2 the small bags of pre washed kinds at most grocery stores) about 5 grape tomatoes about 10 calories (cut in half because the vinegar reacts with the tomatoes to create a different flavor) some chopped onion about 28 Calories, about 1 tbs of Thrive Algae Oil 120 calories ( about the same as olive oil but I just think the algae oil is better), red wine vinegar 0 calories, salt, pepper
Here the salad is 188 calories with about 120 of those coming just from the oil. If you got rid of the oil that makes the entire salad only 68 calories.
Side note: Be carful with salad dressings because they can contain a lot of calories, but one that I have liked is the store bought Olive Garden Dressing. Its about 80 calories for 2 tbsp. And if you can keep it to 2 tbsp or less, your salad with dressing can be 148 calories.
One last side note, croutons can contain a lot of calories, so make sure you count those carefully.
Other Lunch Ideas
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- Fruit:
- Green Grapes: 62 Calories ( per 10 / 52 grapes per pound)
- Strawberries: 38 Calories ( per 1/4 pound / 150 calories per pound )
- Apple: 95 Calories (1 medium 3 inch diameter )
- Pomelo: 231 Calories ( 1 fruit / 1.34 pounds)
- Salad no dressing
- Mixed salad pre packaged: 15 calories (per 1/4 bag of mixed salad)
- Tomatoes: 41 calories ( per 1/2 pound)
- Cucumber: 50 calories ( 11 oz cucumber / 72 calories per pound)
- Fruit:
Lunch Overview:
Here you can see that there are a lot of options to have a healthy lunch for very few calories. My favorite lunch is usually the salad or pomelo. But as you can see that you can choose a lunch that really fits your taste for the day. But in this example we can choose the salad.
Total Lunch Calories = 188 Calories
If you still had a taste for the salad and decided to maybe have it without the oil you could cut about 120 calories.
Other quick tip: If you’re looking for a few new ideas. I sometimes like to substitute the dressings for some fresh squeezed limes and a bit of salt ( fresh limes taste really different from lime juice). You can also try cucumbers with some lime and salt. These are great low calorie alternatives.
New Lower calorie Lunch = 68 Calories
When you subtract things like dressings and oil you can see you can eat massive amounts of salad without adding on the calories.
Just about done
We really are just about done. Our total calorie count for this day is right now at 697 calories. This is even with out trying to lower it further. For instance if we wanted to use the lower calorie options we would be at 344 calories.
Truthfully we are still really too low so let’s finish up the day.
Morning
This can vary from person to person. It is common for many people to skip this meal of the day, but you should be having a good breakfast every morning. Even if it’s a quick healthy oatmeal, of some fruit. You should make it a priority to eat something healthy in the morning. Studies show that eating a healthy breakfast can actually aid in weight loss. So let’s pick something to eat.
- Coffee
- Plain: 1 calorie ( Plain coffee has nearly 0 calories, its what you add to it)
- Prepared my way: 60 Calories ( 8 oz)
- ( I like warmed almond milk with a hint of Nescafe instant coffee)
- Creamer: 35 calories (per 1 tbsp This can add up fast)
- I recommend to measuring a few times to get an idea of how much you use)
- sugar: 15 calories (per 1 teaspoon)
- Sugar isn’t so bad in small amounts. Drinks with sugar already in them can have tons of it already mixed in. 1 can of soda can have 10 teaspoons!
- brown sugar: 15 calories (per 1 teaspoon)
- milk: 120 calories (1 cup / 8 oz)
- almond milk: 60 calories (1 cup / 8 oz)
- TEA!!!: 0 calories (try to add this to your diet)
- Hot Breakfast:
- Simple oat meal: 150 calories (1/2 cup dry)
- Prepared oat meal: 160 calories (1 small packet)
- Whole Egg: 78 calories (1 whole egg)
- Egg White: 17 calories (1 egg white)
- Toast: 70 calories (1 slice of whole grain)
- Regular bacon: 45 calories ( per one slice)
- Breakfast Sausage Link: 70 calories ( per 1 link)
- Fuit
- banana: 105 calories ( 1 medium 7.5 inch)
- Grapefruit: 104 calories (1 fruit 3.5in diameter)
- Strawberries: 38 Calories ( per 1/4 pound / 150 calories per pound )
- Blueberries: 85 calories (per cup / about 80 berries)
- Some Home made ideas
- Sausage, bacon egg white omelet: 183 calories: ( 3 egg whites, 2 strips of bacon, 1 sausage link)
- I like to chop the bacon and sausage into the omelet.
- Banana smoothie: 83 calories
- Strawberry smoothie: 68 calories
- Sausage, bacon egg white omelet: 183 calories: ( 3 egg whites, 2 strips of bacon, 1 sausage link)
Morning Overview:
Here you can see that you really can have quite a few options. You don’t even need a lot of time. For our example here we will use a good sized omelet with chopped bacon, sausage, and 4 egg whites (1/2 cup). And of course we can’t forget about a cup of coffee.
Total Morning Calories = 243 Calories
It is important to get a good breakfast in the mornings. A good breakfast can help keep your appetite under control during the day. If you were looking to lower you morning calories, you can opt for a plain omelet, at just 17 calories per egg white, you can have a really good sized omelet. You could also choose to drink some tea instead of a high calorie coffee.
Lower Calorie Breakfast = 68 calories (4 egg white omelet and all the tea you can drink)
Just make sure when counting calories for things like omelets you count what you put into them.
Snacks
it is actually a good idea to plan some sort of snacks. This way you don’t have to go foraging for what ever food packaging looks good. Foraging will usually end up with the sweetest candy that’s easy to get. A good way to limit our snacks is by just knowing how many calories we have left over after planning our other meals. If we add up or regular meal calories (not the lower options) we come up with 940 calories total. If our target was 1,500 calories, we would then still have 560 calories left over. All of the meals that we have chosen so far are actually a good sized but you can use these extra 560 calories to add to those meals or as a snack. For instance we can add another chicken breast (5oz) at 234 calories. Or we can choose to add a bit more of bacon to our morning breakfast at just 45 calories per slice (look at your packaging). But when choosing snacks you really should be trying to avoid sugary foods and drinks. These kinds of foods can be like a slippery slope. When you have one, it becomes so easy to just have a few more. And with sweets not only do they add a lot of calories, they can effect your appetite and blood sugars quite significantly. But here we are going to give a few healthy options.
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- Grapes: 62 Calories ( per 10 / 52 grapes per pound)
- Strawberries: 38 Calories ( per 1/4 pound / 150 calories per pound )
- Banana: 105 calories ( 1 medium 7.5 inch)
- Apple: 95 Calories (1 medium 3 inch diameter )
- Orange: 62 calories (1 medium 2.5 inch diameter)
- Blueberries: 85 calories (per cup / about 80 berries)
- Popcorn: 30 calories (per 1 cup air popped, no oil/butter)
- Pecans: 200 calories (per 1/4 cup)
- These are healthy and can really curve hunger. But just know that they are pretty high in calories and they can add up really fast. So pick them wisely.
- Rice cakes: 30-60 calories (check your packaging)
- Granola Bar: 100-150 calories (check your packaging)
- Mini M&M 120 calories (per 25g or about 1 calorie each)
These are a treat that I like, I eat them slowly and 1 at a time so they feel like a very satisfying sweet treat. But they can add up very fast, especially if eaten a handful at a time.
Snack Overview:
Just like any other meals we planned today we have many options. For our example here we are going to pick my favorite, M&M minis and some strawberries. Of courses not together but as things I tend to snack on during the day. Im going to include a serving of M&M’s and 1/3 pound of strawberries.
Total Snack Calories = 157 calories
Of course if we wanted a lower calorie snack we can easily swap the M&M’s for maybe double the strawberries or even some popcorn.
New Lower Calorie Snack = 75 calories (1/2lb strawberries)
Again like in every other meal we went over today. The options are endless. It’s great to pick a snake that makes you feel comfortable with stick with a weight loss plan.
Our Grand Total Meal:
As you can see by the meals that we put here you can see that you don’t need to starve to lose weight. You just have to know what you’re eating. In the meal we planned above we put together two versions of it. One with a higher calorie option, and one that showed us what a substitution would look like. Lets quickly run through them.
Higher Calorie Options:
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- Breakfast: 243 calories
- Lunch: 188 calories
- Dinner: 509 calories
- Snacks: 157 calories
- 1,097 calories
In the examples we used you can see that we are still over 400 calories under our goal of 1,500 calories per day. You can really use these calories anywhere through out the day. And, I’ll state it again the options are just about endless. So eat away at anything healthy.
You really should eat more!
Even if you are not hungry you should still understand that many health professionals advise never to go below 1,200 daily calorie intake, while some say even this number maybe too low and should be 1,500 for women and 1,800 for men.
Easy ways to add a few dense calories in our example would be by adding some more chicken or even some pecans (just about any type of nuts but pecans are my favorite). Many types of nuts are really healthy in both the nutrients they contain and they way they can curve hunger, but they can pack a ton of calories in just a handful. So add these to your diet wisely.
Too Much Food?
Lower Calorie Options:
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- Breakfast: 68 calories
- Lunch: 68 calories
- Dinner: 276 calories
- Snacks: 75 calories
- 487 calories
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In this example we actually would have eaten a lot of food but just by looking at our calorie total you can already tell that we are far below our daily calorie goal. You should never attempt to lower you daily calorie intake to such low numbers. It just isn’t healthy. You should make sure you add in some more healthy calories anywhere you can. Just like above, this can be a few handfuls of pecans, more of you main dish, more sides. basically anything healthy that get your calorie intake up.
Side note this can be great meal plan to incorporate when you get a surprise pizza party at work. This way you don’t have to stare at everyone eating pizza.
Don’t Starve Yourself
It may sometimes seem like a good idea to eat so little to lose weight, but it is important not starve yourself for a few reasons.
First – If you starve yourself you will begin finding it much harder to actually stick to any meal plan.
Second – It will become easier to cheat, and this can snowball into tons of calories.
Third – When we starve our body we can cause sometimes sever damage. Our bodies can become much more susceptible to muscle, skeletal, and even organ damage. Especially when exercising, it is important to have a healthy diet. Our body needs healthy foods to maintain and strengthen our muscles. You never want to exercise and burn muscle instead of fat.
Fourth – This is the one that is a bit hard to believe sometimes. But, lowing our calories too far can actually make us gain weight. Our bodies have an amazing ability to adapt to just about anything we can throw at them. From exercises ( we explain a bit more in our exercise planning guide) to the foods that we eat. If we lower our calorie intake too far, we can actually cause our body to think we are starving. And when this happens we are basically battling our body in weight loss. Our body can begin slowing our metabolism and store as much fat as it possibly can. This just becomes a losing battle that you don’t really want to have.
Wheres My Sugary Drinks!
This could have easily been over looked if you were reading though this for a few reasons.When many of us think about eating calories we tend to over look the fact that we also drink them. Liquid calories are the easiest way to ruin just about any meal plan.
- Quick example: 16.9 oz bottle of coke is equal to:
- 1.25 pounds of strawberries
- 3 pounds of lettuce
- about 250 blue berries
- nearly 12 egg whites
- nearly 7 cups of popcorn
We really didn’t go over sugary drinks in the meal planning because they really don’t have any room on any plan. But, I know that dropping our favorite drink from one day to another is sometimes much harder said than done. When you feel like you really want to add these to your plan try and add them as a treat. You can even try and make a deal with yourself. You can try and tell your self you will exercise those particular calories off (extra workout). Or you can tell yourself that before any can of soda (the half size cans can work too) that you will drink “X” amount of water.
Moving to 0 calorie drinks shouldn’t be a workaround because the sweeteners in these drinks can also have tons effects on our bodies. Some of these can really work against our weight loss goals and even have other healthy effects that just work against us. So treat these as their high calorie counterpart.
One option that helped me limit the amount of sugary drinks I would consume everyday, was by always having two drinks available. For me, sweet tea was my kryptonite. It can be just as unhealthy as soda and sometimes sweet tea can contain even more sugar than most sodas, so look at them labels. Whenever I sit down to eat and have a taste for sweet tea I will sever my self two cups. One will have sweet tea and the other unsweetened tea. When thirsty I drink the unsweetened tea and when I have a taste for the sweet tea, I will drink it slowly and actually enjoy it. If you still want to enjoy your sugary drinks, try and look at them a bit different. Don’t use them to quench a thirst, have them to enjoy them.
Conclusion
Meal Planning really isn’t as difficult many people make it out to be. The reason this article may have felt so long is that it covers topics that would have taken multiple sites to sometimes cover. The main goal of this article to help anyone make an informed decision without the need to pay anyone. Healthy life choices should be available to everyone, even those that can’t afford subscriptions or plans.
As a final note it is always recommend you speak to you doctor and know your limitations. They should be happy to hear you are trying to start a healthier life style and may even become your personal cheerleader.