Preplanned meals

Does anyone preplan their meals?What do you do to preplan them

I'm sorry to see you deactivated but hopefully you are still reading this.

Pre-planning meals is an important part of success.  When you are newly post-op it is important to plan out what you will eat and have everything you need to prepare your meals.  Spontaneous eating is what got a lot of us obese.  It is especially hard to eat right when you are hungry and don't have anything planned to eat.  My judgement isn't the greatest when I am hungry. 

While you are in the weight loss phase you need to follow whatever good plan your surgeon recommends.  If you don't know how to eat make an appointment with a nutritionist.  My insurance didn't pay for it but it was worth the money spent.  I saw her monthly to help plan out what I should be eating.

As you get closer to your goal weight is a good time to slowly increase your calories.  You will probably be getting a lot of feedback during this time about how you don't need to lose any more weight and you should eat more to keep from getting too skinny.

Don't buy into that.  Only you and your doctor can decide when you have lost too much.  By carefully planning your eating you can adjust your calories to suit your goals.  If you aren't losing weight or just a small amount that may be time to cut back a little.  If you are planning out your meals it should be easy to see what it is you are having that may be keeping you from reaching your goals.

Maintaining your weight loss is perhaps the hardest part of this journey and you will need to watch what you are eating closely and gradually increase your calories until what you are eating matches what your body requires to stay at a healthy weight.

It may seem like a pain in the neck at first but after a while you will like the convenience of not always wondering what you should be eating and when.  For me it takes one more decision out of life to worry about.  I know what I will be eating and I will have the stuff available to stick to it.

Of course there will be times when things happen and you aren't able to eat the way you planned but by having planned your eating for a while you should be able to wing it if you need to.

If your plans include eating out than it is easy to find the menu online for most places and you can plan ahead before you go out to eat so you know what you will be ordering.

It is all part of the learning process.  Since many of us were very undisciplined when it came to eating planning ahead helps us develop discipline around food.

My favorite saying is "Fail to plan is planning to fail."

It's not a matter of eating perfectly, it's a matter of learning how to eat in a way you can live with that will help you get to your weight goal and stay there.