7 Ways to Start each Week out Right

I know I will have a successful week of weight management and exercise if I plan ahead. What I eat matters! Exercise matters also. But exercise cannot make up for an unhealthy diet.

Plan ahead to have low calorie nutritious fruit AND VEGGIES each week.

It’s not simply a matter of tracking caloric intake each day for weight loss or maintenance. If it were then it might be relatively easy. However, given the number of overweight or obese individuals in the U.S., it’s quite clear that calorie counting is not enough. I’ve known many dieters who are better at tracking calorie count than me but that all too often does not translate into weight loss success.

Here is the problem. The most significant challenge for most people is not simply how much they eat but WHAT THEY EAT. I’m not saying calories don’t matter because they do. However, what you eat INFLUENCES on HOW MUCH you eat. Yes. What you eat influences your hunger and desire for food. Choosing to eat healthy food can make the difference between winning at weight loss or not.

To give myself the greatest chance of staying on track, I like to begin each week with a plan. When I have a system in place it is so much easier to do what I need to do to eat properly and exercise. I mean honestly, how often do your weeks go by without some kind of unexpected challenge? Not often for me! When the unexpected comes up, healthy eating and exercise can fall by the wayside if I don’t have a plan.

Here are some of the things I do to be prepared. Maybe you’ll find an idea or two you haven’t thought of before to start each week out right.

1. I ask myself which protein foods I will plan my meals and snacks around in the coming week. I often choose lean chicken or turkey, eggs, beans, and sometimes fish.

I don’t eat fish as often as I might like because I have a hard time finding fish to purchase that I can trust from the grocery stores where I live. A LOT of the fresh/frozen fish sold in these stores comes from China and other far eastern countries where food safety is not as closely regulated as it is here in the United States (and we are far from perfect!).

2. I determine whether or not I have enough healthy snack foods on hand for eating at home and away. My planning helps me ensure I have enough fruit, cut up veggies, low fat cottage cheese or low fat plain yogurt, nutrition bars (both homemade and store bought), dried fruit, whole grain crackers, or low fat cheese.

3. I ask what I might need to do or prepare in advance.

I might make homemade nutrition bars (peanut butter bars or other), hard-boiled eggs, low calorie muffins, breakfast cookies, homemade instant oatmeal, or freeze bananas to use in making smoothies or instant ice cream (for those days when having just a little will satisfy my desire and I don’t have to keep a whole carton in my freezer). I will typically only need to do advance preparation with one or two of these each week to keep things on track.

Something else I might do to enhance my chances of eating lots of low calorie healthy veggies is to make sure I have some fresh cut up veggies ready to eat. Or I might roast or grill veggies by first washing and cutting up a bunch then tossing them in a little olive oil and seasoning. This is so easy to do. I then have roasted or grilled veggies I can use throughout the week to make a quick salad, add to a sandwich, or serve as a side dish with lunch or dinner.

4. We review recipe lists/notebooks for meal ideas.

My husband and I determine what meal or two he is willing to prepare for supper. Will the meal(s) make enough to have more than one meal of what I call “planned overs”?

Then I decide which two or three meals I am willing to prepare. Will there be planned overs? Do I have the time to try a new recipe?

How many total meals will we have? We typically eat out once a week so we often need 6 suppers. It will vary if one or the other of us is away from home for one or more evening meals.

If we plan on actually COOKING three meals, will we have enough planned overs to cover the other three meals without having to cook? If not, will I need to have a quick meal or two? If so, this might be a week to include something we’ve frozen from a planned over in the past 1-3 months. Or we might choose to make a quick to prepare “no cooking necessary” meal. For example, sandwiches served with a low sodium canned soup or an easy chef salad might be two possibilities.

Planning for breakfasts and lunches is quite simple. If you’d like to learn more about this part of my system you might want to read: Healthy Low Calorie Meals. By having a system we keep the time necessary to plan and prepare meals and snacks to a minimum.

5. We make a grocery list.

Writing up a grocery list once we have a plan for our meals and snacks is quite easy. But we do need to re-stock our pantry each week if the system is to function at it’s best. Recently we haven’t been doing this as well I would like.

So this year I have promised myself I will make up a pantry list. My husband does more of the grocery shopping than I do and he’s done an awesome job of keeping us well stocked over the years with whatever we might need. However, ahem…, we are getting older or maybe the issue is that we have been too busy. Whatever the reason, we find ourselves forgetting to replenish the pantry with this or that. Having a checklist will help me make sure I have what I need on hand when I need it!

6. I decide if I have the time to try a new recipe that fits the season.

If I am making a new recipe I’m careful to choose something that fits the season of the year. Will the fruits or vegetables I need be available at a reasonable price at this time of year? Which ones might make the best choice for including in my diet? (See high fiber fruits and vegetables or veggies for breakfast)

7. I decide what exercise I would like to do in the coming week.

The exercise I do varies from one season to another and sometimes from week to week or even day to day. I do try to get some walking in each week preferably outdoors no matter what the temperature but it doesn’t always work out. When the weather is not cooperating, I will sometimes do my walking at an indoor mall or track. At other times I choose to ride on a stationary bike instead.

Other exercises I like to do on a regular basis includes yoga or pilates, kettlebells for weight loss, or a variety of DVD exercise routines.

These are seven things that help keep me on track with managing my weight and achieving better fitness and overall health. Planning ahead also saves me time and energy. What do you do each week to improve your chances for success? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Tagged as: diet plan, exercise, healthy eating, healthy foods, meal plan, meal planning system, planning