Healthy meal planning

meal planning tips

Meal planning to lose weight is a waste of time. Let’s look at the facts: A UCLA research study concluded  that people on special diets did lose weight, but within two years 83% had gained back more weight than lost. Their research concluded people who did not go on a diet, were better off from a health standpoint than those who did.

I know healthy meal planning sounds like a smart idea. Here’s why it doesn’t work:

It’s way too much hassle.

As the facts prove, sooner or later people get tired of looking at charts, diagrams, and planners- and go back to their old habits. Here’s meal planning made easy:

DO NOT WASTE TIME MEAL PLANNING

Meal planning for weight loss needs to be so simple and so easy that it’s not something that takes any special effort whatsoever. If you put together some special healthy weight loss meal plan- the odds are sooner or later you’ll get tired of the whole concept of custom meal planning, and you’ll stop doing it!

Does that mean we should abandon the healthy weight loss meal or diet plan? No. It just means we need to replace it with easy meal planning- which is no planning at all. No matter if you call it fast meal planning or busy meal planning- you're still planning!
And planning is still work. So don’t meal plan- just eat healthy!

You don’t need to put much thought or effort into healthy food. Don’t make a new body and life more complicated with manufactured foods. I put as little thought into eating as I can. I never “meal plan.” With a full schedule, two kids and two dogs, I can’t plan on what will be happening two hours from now. I’m sure your life is the same way. Knowing what’s healthy made weight loss easy. I simply eat what and I like. Every meal is decided on in about three seconds, if that long. It can become that simple for you also.

Permanent weight loss does not take any special meal planning tips. It takes a change in your eating habits. You do not need to pay for a personalized meal plan from a giant weight loss company. Just buy natural food at the grocery store. That’s all you have to do!

It’s not the $100 “meal planning for busy moms” software that’s going to make you lose weight. It’s the changing of your grocery shopping and eating habits that are going to make you [and your family] lose weight. If past food habits caused weight gain, you can’t expect to not change the habits and lose weight.  Keep it simple! Simple is easy. Simple is totally doable. Buy more healthy food and less unhealthy foods, meaning more natural food and less processed food. Buying fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, eggs, skim milk, cheese, chicken, fish, lean meats, and so on- does not take planning. Your life is the same, only simpler and better [and you get to eat more].

Every meal compounds over time to help or hurt you. It might take some time before you’re totally rewired to make healthy choices all or most of the time. That’s okay. It will become easier. You have to start someplace, so start by shopping smarter. Buying the same quantity of junk food you always bought is a very bad idea. The next time you go grocery shopping, make conscious choices. Don’t shop from past habits. Be very honest about what goes in that grocery cart. Do not kid yourself here. If it goes in the cart, it goes home, and it will be right there tempting you 24/7.

Want to get off to the fastest start possible? Stop buying man made junk and processed food for the first couple months until cleaning up that diet is relearned. Then after the time needed to develop better habits, you won’t have any problem ignoring the junk. If junk food is in the house and still being eaten, all you’re doing is dragging out the process of cleaning up that diet [while progress is sabotaged at the same time].

Don’t even think in terms of a fast or quick meal planning. Don’t plan at all! Just shop smarter. The more natural foods you eat, the faster you’ll lose weight. To succeed at healthy meal planning and weight loss, don’t make life more complex, make it simpler.