Decide on a Nutritional Plan
This plan needs to be specific as possible and requires a good amount of planning. Meaning you must determine in advance the type of food and in what quantities you’ll eat.
Planning
In the planning stages you’ll decided how many meals you’ll have per day (I recommend 3-4), what will be in the meals (I recommend each meal contain a lean protein, a complex carb, a high-quality fat and a vegetable) and in what quantities. You’ll also need to create a grocery list, decide when you’ll go to the store, when you will cook and when you will portion out your meals.
To plan correctly you must be honest with yourself. If you don’t have a huge chunk of time to prep you may want to create the meal plan, create a grocery list, go to the store, cook and portion out meals all on separate days.
Take a good look at where you are currently and create a plan that capitalizes on your current nutritional habits then over weeks systematically tweak your nutritional plan. This reflection process hones your nutrition plan.
Example case:
Breakfast: You might always make time for breakfast, in this case just portioning out its components is all you really need to do. A cup of this, a ¼ cup of that and a 1tbs of this, and you’re done. Portion out breakfast like this every day.
Lunch: If you find that you are chronically skipping lunch make it easier to succeed. Keep a protein bar in your bag ready to go, set an alarm for 1pm and eat it when the alarm goes off. Repeat every day.
Dinner: when you get home you may always feel like you’re scrambling because nothing is made, you’re tired and stressed and just thinking about what you want to eat is burdensome. In most cases you do one of following things, 1) you just skip dinner altogether, 2) you mindlessly snack, or 3) you order out.
To combat these…
Skipping dinner - have food cooked in the fridge. This might look like a big container of rice, steamed carrots, cubed chicken and shredded cheese. If you find you’re self not able to properly portion out food you may want to consider pre-proportioning these items into sandwich baggies to the amounts you need. Or you may want to consider a premade frozen dinner. Either way you make dinner decision easy, grab, nuke and eat.
Mindless snacking - If you mindlessly snack you can make it a healthier choice by switching it to a more nutritionally dense option, try having have a huge bag of raw carrots or a jar of pickles handy.
Ordering out – Look at the menu and make a decision in advance. Have it written is down as your go-to. Pick these meal(s) when you are emotionally calm. Making sure they work within your plan. If you order from a few different places do a little bit of research and figure out which ones work within your plan and stick with it.
Conclusion
When you decide on a fitting plan it is your duty to create the correct environment for success. This mean anticipating bumps in the road and coming up with a solution for it before the emotional rollercoaster starts moving. You want a plan that relies on the smallest amount of willpower possible, preferable a plan that is grab and go, with close to no thinking required. A good environment will allow you to easily make the right decision. When it’s tough to make the right decision that’s when you’ll give up. Keep in mind we want to keep adherence as high as possible because that is what produces results.