How to Plan to Eat Healthy

In order to eat healthy, you must plan ahead. This may seem like a lot of work at first, but it does pay off later because you will know what you are going to eat and will not be tempted to go out for fast-food or other unhealthy choices. If you plan ahead, you decide what fuel you will put into your body, not just eating things by default because nothing else was available.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Shopping List
• Containers

1. On Sunday, plan ahead for the whole week. Decide in advance if you will be eating out or dining at other people's homes during the week. Eliminate those events from your planning list as you will not have to plan meals for that time slot. Plan to eat 3 meals and 2 snacks each day. There's a great magazine called Clean Eating that outlines a 2 week healthy eating plan including shopping list.

2. Breakfasts: You need items for 7 breakfasts. To keep it simple, have 2 or 3 different breakfast choices and repeat them. Write down your breakfast choices in advance, like a menu. Example: Breakfast #1: Healthy fiber/protein cereal, skim milk, banana. Breakfast #2: Whole wheat toast with peanut butter, fruit, skim milk. Breakfast #3: Oatmeal, banana, skim milk. Breakfast #4: Low-fat yogurt (no corn syrup), blueberries, flax-seed cereal.

3. Lunches: Pack your lunch, every day, every time. If you must go out to eat, choose something healthy, and you will then eat your packed lunch for dinner that night. Keep it in the refrigerator or a cooler. Lunch #1: Turkey wrap on whole-grain wrap with avocado, lettuce, red pepper, walnuts, orange juice. Lunch #2: Salad with cucumber, sunflower seeds, strawberries, low-fat cheese. Lunch #3: Tuna salad, raw vegetables, pineapple.

4. Dinner: Dinner will be a protein (meat or vegetarian), a vegetable and brown rice or wild rice. Choose chicken, fish, pork or vegetarian sunflower burger. Grill or bake using olive oil.

5. Snacks: Pack all of your snacks for the day the night before. This will help you to avoid the vending machine and the fast-food drive-through. Use zipper snack bags or other plastic food storage containers. Keep them in a cooler if necessary. Try to combine a protein and a carbohydrate in your snack. Snack #1: Low-fat string cheese, apple. Snack #2: Baby carrots and peanut butter for dipping. Snack #3: Low-fat chocolate milk and banana. Snack #4: Cottage cheese and pineapple. Snack #5: Low-fat yogurt with fresh strawberries.

Tips & Warnings

• Decide ahead of time what you will eat and when
• Always bring food with you because you don't know if healthy choices will be available
• Bring healthy snack bars or granola bars with you along with a homemade bag of snack mix (raisins, nuts, dark chocolate chips, cranberries)
• Check with your doctor or dietician before starting any new dietary or eating program

[eac913]

on 9/30/2009 Great information on how to plan to eat healthy. Have you found sugar free yogart without corn syrup? Thanks.

[turtledove]

on 7/29/2009 Another idea; if you do go out to eat, look at the website of the restaurant first. Many have nutrition guides now. You can even plan what you'll order ahead of time.

[rnhealthinfo]

on 7/23/2009 Great ideas, well written article and it works! 5*

[cygnetbrown]

on 6/28/2009 Great idea. As they say in business, work your plan and plan your work. I guess it's the same with meals. Fail to plan, plan to fail.

[EarthMother]

on 6/18/2009 How to Plan to Eat Healthy works. I've been doing it for 2 months now and have lost 15 pounds. Smile!