Planning

This is a two part blog on planning: blog topics and food. Blog

Do people plan their topics ahead of time or do you live in the moment? Since I am so new to this, I have enough ideas right now. But, once I have been doing this for awhile, what would the plan be then? I guess I am doing my own version of planning by asking about it now before reaching that point and saying “What now?”

So please fellow bloggers, pass on any comments you may have…

Food

I find personally that if I plan my day or week out in advance I have a much higher success rate than if I try to wing it. I think having the food log page on this blog is really keeping me honest. Like last night, my wife and I went out to dinner and I still wrote down everything I drank and ate. If I don’t track truthfully, I am not hurting anyone, but myself.

On Sunday nights or Monday mornings, I like to take a good look at my upcoming week and find out where the tough spots would be: nights out with friends, a work lunch I can’t escape, travel, etc. If I can pinpoint the “trouble” moments ahead of time, I can better prepare for them.

This week for example, I knew I would allow myself two nights out where I could use weekly points. Originally it was going to be Friday and Saturday, but with the nice weather yesterday and the need for some family time. I swapped. So now Friday, I will be eating on plan. But knowing that I could make the swap and be okay, put me at ease and allowed me to just be in the night out rather than worrying about the week.

I am a creature of habit. So I basically have the same thing for breakfast, lunch and snacks everyday. Why change when you have the points down to a science and you are hitting all your healthy checks. J But being this way saves me time from having to plan the rest of my day. I really just need to plan seven dinners rather than seven full days of meals. I usually find out when my wife and I will actually be eating together, plan those out with some variety: chicken one night, pasta another, sushi on a weekend, etc. This helps both of us stay on program and keep the meals fresh. Once those nights are set, I can then wrap up the “alone” meals and be done.

Of course this is life, things come up. But having something in place beforehand is great for unannounced adventures. If I decide to meet a friend for a drink after work today, I would make sure to deduct those weekly points from my night out Saturday, etc.

If I know I am going to be going out to dinner during the week, I will make sure to check out the restaurants menu online ahead of time. Nine times out of 10 they have their nutrition facts on there so you can figure out how many points their dishes are. So I will pick my meal out and then adjust my day around that. This ends the possibility of me looking at the menu, getting a craving and veering off course. Now, I go places and don’t even touch the menu.

For me, I would much rather adjust a plan I already have in place than piece a plan together during the course of the day. I always feel knowing my luck, I would get to dinner and only have three points left.

Do you plan any meals out ahead of time? Any tricks work best for you?