How To Make Time For Meal Planning

How To Make Time For Meal Planning

Meal Planning may seem like a daunting task.  For many of us, this is a task we put off until late Sunday out of dread.  There is no doubt though, that meal planning is an essential step for a successful weight loss program.

Remember the part of your brain involved in meal planning is the rational part.  It is like the supervising mother for the toddler (primitive brain) that just wants to run free playing happily.  The rational part of your brain wants you to achieve your long term goals, and knows what is best for you.  If you neglect to plan your meals, then when you are tired, hungry, or stressed your primitive brain will try to convince you to grab whatever is available – usually not something in line with your protocol.  If you have already planned ahead, you are much better equipped to stay on plan despite whatever unexpected challenges come your way.

How can we make meal planning a priority?  The key is using the abundance model of thinking.  When you think to yourself “meal planning takes too much time”, or “I’m too busy,” this comes from a place of scarcity.  The scarcity model is what we often go to first out of habit.  In the scarcity line of thinking, we feel that there is never enough.  If we take the time to meal plan, we have to give up something else.  However, we are in control of our thoughts, and can choose to look at this through the lens of abundance.  What if you told yourself, “there is plenty of time to plan my meals for the week”?  Or “I have all the time I need this week to plan my meals.”  How does that feel? 

If you break down the actual time – there are 168 hours in each week.  If you subtract 50 hrs of work (for the overachievers!) and 8 hrs of sleep each night from that, we are still left with 62 hours each week.  62 hours seems like a huge number – where does it all go?  For many of us, if we are not intentional about planning our time, we will lose many of these hours checking social media, watching Netflix, etc.  In order to reap the full rewards of your free time, you need to be diligent about scheduling in what is most important to you. 

Each week, look at your calendar and schedule the following items first:

• ·       Something to further your career or self learning - taking a class, reading an article, learning a new skill, etc
• ·       Something to further your health goals - meal planning, meal prep, exercise, physical therapy – whatever is that is important to you
• ·       Something to further your relationships – date night, a special outing with your child, calling a friend you haven’t seen in years

Make sure you add a few hours of time to each category.  Even if you only devoted 3 hrs over the week to each category, you should still have 53 hours of “free” time each week!  Imagine how much you could accomplish with you career, health, and relationships just by prioritizing 3 hrs a week.  You will be on your way to reaching your weight loss goals in no time, while enjoying a much richer personal life. 

Spend some time with the calendar this week and make your goals a priority.