Meal Prepping Versus Meal Planning

Schedule some time each week to think about your meals for the next week. If planning food so far ahead seems foreign to you, consider writing down your menu for the week. You can use paper, smartphone, spreadsheet, or specially made meal-planning notepads. If you know you’re going to a certain restaurant, skim the menu online and pick what sounds best to you before you’re there, as people tend to make less-healthy choices when they’re disinhibited (like when you’re hungry, rushed, or feeling social pressure to eat).

A written or electronic calendar may be helpful in jogging your memory about social obligations, which tend to revolve around food. Is there an office happy hour? Are you catching up with a friend over lunch? Think about how these occasions will alter your normal diet and routine.

It will serve you best to be honest with yourself. Even if food doesn’t follow a day-to-day routine, we create habits around activities that we may not even realize. Plan for these indulgences throughout the week. For example, if you always have popcorn at the movies, plan on getting a small bag. If you always get drinks with your friends, plan on having one cocktail instead of three. Or better yet, could you substitute for sparkling water instead? These considerations are hugely helpful in step 3.

Work backwards from your unavoidable events and see how you can plan a healthy day around them. If you’re having cake for a coworker’s birthday, pack a low-carb, low-sugar lunch to create some balance. If you’re celebrating an anniversary at a steak house, pack a lighter lunch with healthy, fiber-rich carb sources.

Remember that it’s not healthy or effective to over-exercise to negate excessive food intake. Exercise accounts for a relatively small amount of calories burned in a day, and may result in a person being hungrier afterward. People tend to under-estimate the calories contained in their meals (especially large meals), and activity trackers tend to over-estimate the calories burned in a day, creating a losing combination when trying to drop pounds.