MEAL PLANNING

Are you scared of meal planning? Does it feel overwhelming and hard? It doesn't have to be!
Meal planning can really help reduce stress and overwhelm the entire week once it's done.
Learn how I incorporate meal planning in my life & how you can too - in a way that works for you!

Change Your Life with a Daily Plan

02/22/2020

Back in my blogging days before I had my son, I used to create and share weekly meal plans. These plans showed what I was going to eat for EVERY meal and snack for all 7 days. Every week I complained about how hard it was. I also raved about how it saved me stress throughout the week but again complained that it was hard to stick to. I wonder why no one else ever wanted to do this meal planning thing with me?

What I’ve learned over the past year is that it doesn’t have to be hard AT ALL! The reason it felt hard was because I was trying to plan 49 different things (between meals & snacks) as well as figuring out all the points values and hoping nothing would change. Imagine me rolling on the floor laughing right now. THINGS ALWAYS CHANGE.

Now my weekly plans are more general. I list ideas of what I’ll eat and what I need to shop for, but I don’t get specific and commit to anything until the day before. Now my weekly plan is more of a guideline and my daily plan is what I commit to.

After my long hiatus with weight loss, I couldn’t even create a weekly plan. It was too much. When I restarted in May of 2019, I was focused entirely on daily plans. I did that for a long time and found lots of success on the scale by just making and following a daily plan. Then as I built more confidence, I moved into a new way to plan a little more in advance with my new version of a weekly plan.

When I followed Weight Watchers in 2009-2010, I was the queen of tracking. I was SO committed that not a single bite went in my mouth that wasn’t written down. Until the minute I slipped up and went over my points. Then it was an eating frenzy and NOTHING was written down.

I would feel like a failure and then sabotage myself. My inner voices loved these moments. Bingy Becky would encourage me to just eat and eat because she knew that tomorrow we’d be strict and deprived again. Hungry Helen would tell me I should keep eating because she was tired of being hungry and unsatisfied. Negative Nancy would say that I shouldn’t even bother trying because I’d already blown my day, and Scared Sarah would believe her and doubt if I’d EVER be able to get myself under control.

So ALL THAT DRAMA was wrapped up in overeating. Even if the overeating was small, it didn’t seem to matter. I liked the data that tracking provide me, but I obsessed over the numbers and didn’t give myself room for change or stumbles.

I’ve realized that my daily plans now are basically a version of pre-tracking like I did back in my WW days. However, my approach and mindset now is completely different. Making (and following) a plan helps me avoid impulse eating and decision drama, but I do not have any off limits foods and I do not feel deprived like I used to.

When you are ready to start, keep is SUPER simple. Write down the food you will eat for the following day. Be realistic and plan food you are willing to eat. Then follow that plan and don’t eat anything you didn’t plan for.

The free Quick Start Guide takes you through starting a daily plan in 4 easy steps.

The biggest lesson I had to learn was to stop making it so complicated. I used to think simple wasn’t good enough or wouldn’t get me results, but that’s not true! Consistently following a simple plan is way more effective than sometimes following a strict or complicated plan.

Now my plans are more realistic. My plans are not based on points or calories. I plan foods that I really want to eat, and I look forward to my meals. (No more dreading my tiny frozen meals!)

I plan for splurges but also don’t allow myself to eat mindlessly anymore. I have reconnected with my body’s hunger signals that I had ignored for years, so now my portions have naturally gotten smaller over time. I don’t mind smaller portions when I am mentally AND physically satisfied.

I do still try to make healthy choices most of the time, but I don’t have any rules about macros or a certain number of servings of one type of food. It all balances out. I never thought I’d be able to feel that way after obsessing so much about points and serving sizes and the number of servings I’d strive to eat per day, etc, but the daily plan helps me with that too. I’ve learned that following my plan combined with following my hunger scale leads to results.

Some people resist planning because they think it is restrictive, but for me it is actually freeing. I am eating foods I love and truly enjoying my meals. I don’t have to think about food all day or struggle with making “good” decisions in the moment because I just follow my plan. I don’t have as many cravings as I used to because nothing is off limits. If a craving comes up, I plan it for a future day. I don’t feel the need to eat everything I want the second I want it. I’m okay with delayed gratification.

It’s funny how we want things more when we make them off limits. I used to have such issues with donuts. I loved them and had a hard time resisting them. I used to get angry when there were free donuts at work because in my mind they were off limits because they were too high in calories/points. But now that I’ve cut out all the extra eating I was doing when I was not really hungry, I don’t stress about the calories of an occasional donut. Now that donuts are not off limits and I know I can have one any time I plan for it, they are not as tempting. I can usually take it or leave it. That is a HUGE change for me, and it just happened gradually the longer I was following my daily plan and working on my thoughts about hunger, deprivation, and satisfaction. I know it might feel impossible in the beginning, but I’m telling you from experience that you can get there.

For me, the daily plan was a game changer. When I combined the daily plan and the hunger scale, it was life changing. I started losing weight without feeling deprived and it didn’t feel hard because I started small. I did not try to overhaul everything at once. I started simply by planning my food and then slowly made improvements (a little at a time) to the type of food and portion sizes I was eating.

What is stopping you from making a daily plan? Is your Negative Nancy inner voice working overtime? What thoughts are holding you back?

You don’t need a special planner.
I started with scrap paper and notes on my phone.
You don’t need tons of time.
It takes two minutes to jot down your food.
Aren’t you worth two minutes?
You don’t need to buy special food.
Plan your food with what you have on hand right now or plan what you will eat at a restaurant.
You don’t need to wait until Monday.
Start TODAY. There is nothing magical about a new week or a new month. When you’re ready to change your life, start that new life as soon as possible.
Stop telling yourself it is too hard.
We make it hard by thinking negative things. You can’t turn off those thoughts, but you can work on redirecting them to more helpful, positive thoughts. When your brain says “I can’t,” you say “Actually, I CAN!”

YOU CAN DO THIS! I’m here to help! Join the Facebook Community or connect with me through email (tanya {at} notreallyhungry {dot} com), voicemail (330-595-4662), or text message (330-595-4662).

Let me know what questions you have, what you’re struggling with, and what you need help with. I’ve got you! Also be sure to listen to the podcast for more ideas, support, and motivation so you can Eat Mindfully, Lose Weight, and Change Your Life!

Episode 4 – Plan & Reflect

09/16/2019

Episode 4 focuses on the second habit of The Core Four Method – Plan & Reflect.

Topics covered in this episode:

Benefits of planning
Why we resist planning
Weekly Plans
Daily Plans
Daily Reflections
Weekly Reflections
21 Day Challenge

Links mentioned during the episode:

Ways to Connect:

Email: podcast {at} notreallyhungry {dot} com
Voicemail: 330-595-4662
Leave a message and hear your question on a future podcast!

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Habits of a Loser ~ Plan & Reflect

06/14/2015

I’ve always been a big planner, but I haven’t always been great at actually following my plans. That’s the key right? What’s the point of having a plan if you can’t or won’t stick to it? I recently realized that I needed to stop trying to make the perfect plan and just make a plan I would actually follow.

PLAN

Planning should be fast, simple, & realistic. Don’t overthink it. What will you eat tomorrow? What are you WILLING to commit to? You can plan to eat the exact same thing you ate today if you want to. Just write down what you will eat, simple as that. My daily plans take 1-2 minutes.

You are not supposed to plan what you think a “diet” should look like. The important thing when you are starting is building the habit of commitment. Commit to a plan and follow through. You need to learn to count on yourself and keep promises you make to yourself…one day at a time!

REFLECT

Reflecting doesn’t have to be negative! It seems like we always want to beat ourselves up before anything else. Putting yourself down is not the purpose of reflecting.

The purpose of reflecting is to look back on your day or week without judgement to see what worked well and what didn’t. Then you know what you should continue doing and what you should consider changing.

If you don’t process your week, you don’t work through your thoughts and feelings that may be holding you back. Make sure to find positive things, no matter how small they seem. Celebrate every tiny victory!

The Core Four Approach

Planning your day and sticking to your plan is the most important part of planning in the beginning. Focus first on doing what you say you will do.

The Core Four approach to planning starts with a Weekly Plan and shopping list. The next step is the Daily Plan and Daily Reflections. The final step is a Weekly Reflection. This approach takes your through your week step by step with opportunity to learn and improve every step of the way.

Remember that you don’t need the perfect planner, notebook, journal, or app before you can start planning. Use a napkin or a post it note if you have to, but just do it. Don’t tell yourself that you can’t do it because you don’t have the right tools. If you have any kind of writing utensil and any kind of object to write on, you have the tools you need.

Weekly Plan

To make a weekly plan, just record your overall meal ideas for the week. Don’t worry about figuring out what day you will eat what at this point. Just get a general overview of your weekly food. This naturally leads you into preparing your shopping list. Once you know what you intend to eat, you know what you need to buy.

In addition to thinking about your meals, think about other areas of your life that affect your eating.

Do you plan to have a splurge this week? What will that look like?
Do you have any social events that will affect your meal plan?
Will you plan any activity this week? What type of activity?
Is there anything new you’d like to try this week?
It could be food or movement or even a new route to work.
What is your goal for this week? Make sure it is realistic. It could be as simple as adding in one more glass of water or going to bed 10 minutes early.

Strive for PROGRESS NOT PERFECTION. Do not compare yourself to anyone else. Be realistic. What small things can you do to improve from last week?

Daily Plan

The daily plan is where you get specific. Commit to what you will eat the following day, using ideas from your weekly plan or just by looking in your fridge. The most important thing is to keep it simple and realistic so it is something you can and will follow.

Sticking to a realistic plan builds momentum.
Failing to follow a strict plan leads to disappointment.

As you write your daily plan, make note of any splurges planned for the day. If you intend to drink alcohol, plan how much you will have.

Throughout the day, refer back to your plan and make notes. Did you eat what you planned? Why or why not? Assess your hunger levels before and after each meal. Were you physically hungry or was something else happening that was more emotional? This reflection can really help you Handle Your Hunger!

Also jot down how much sleep you had the night before and keep track as you drink water. Seeing it written down can be motivating and helps us focus on the goal of 8 glasses of water and 7 hours of sleep!

Daily Reflections

At the end of the day, take just a few minutes to think back on our day. Do not skip this step. Processing your day is important if you want real, lasting behavior change.

Be honest but kind. This should be a judgement free zone, and you should be looking for data, not drama. Answer three quick questions:

What went well today?
What could I have done better?
What will I do differently tomorrow?

Answer ALL the questions. It is important to find at least one positive from your day. Celebrate all of your successes, not matter how small they seem. If you chose water over pop even once during the day, that is a positive!

After you reflect on your day, you can move forward and make your next Daily Plan. Then just repeat the process each day.

Weekly Reflections

At the end of each week, think back on your week as a whole. You might even glance through your daily plans to remind yourself of the high and low points.

As with your daily reflections, be honest but kind. You should dig a little deeper during your weekly reflections. Answer these questions:

What went well this week? What am I proud of?
What was hard this week? What made it feel hard?
Was I able to stick to my plans this week? Why or why not?
What got in the way? Were my plans realistic?
Am I ready to change anything next week?
What physical changes did I notice this week?
Record measurements, pants size, scale weight, or energy levels

After you reflect on your week, you can move forward and make your next Weekly Plan. Then just repeat the process each week.

Helpful Tools

To help make this process easier, I created The Core Four Meal Planner and the Progress Not Perfection Journal. These tools are not required to follow the Core Four method, but they do provide support, organization, and consistency.

The meal planner covers twelve weeks and guides you through the Weekly Plan, Daily Plans, Daily Reflections, and Weekly Reflections. The planner will help you reach your weight loss goals by connecting you to the Core Four method each day.

The journal dives deeper into reflection to help you get to the root of your struggles. It gives you a place to process your thoughts and feelings so you can work on improving them. There are 60 different thought provoking questions provided, or you can create your own topics. The journal includes 100 reflection pages for you to explore the fears and challenges that are holding you back.

REMEMBER – KEEP IT FAST, SIMPLE, & POSITIVE. YOU CAN DO THIS!

3 Reasons to Pay Full Price for Pizza

04/08/2015

I was driving home from Weight Watchers the other night with a raging headache. I was thinking about how I just wanted to lay down. While I was stopped at a traffic light, I glanced at my phone and saw a notification of a new e-mail from a pizza place. Immediately I started thinking about how yummy and comforting pizza would be since I wasn’t feeling well. I decided right then that I needed to just unsubscribe from ALL pizza related e-mails.

Prior to seeing that e-mail, I was perfectly happy to be heading home to the taco salad I had planned. The meat was already cooked. All I had to do was throw it together…easy peasy! So why did I still feel like pizza sounded like a better/quicker/easier choice? It was no easier than what I had planned. In fact, it would have been out of my way to go get pizza! Something so simple as seeing an email turned into at least 30 minutes of debating and thinking about it and talking myself out of it. If I had never seen the email, I would have just gone home and happily had my salad without even having to entertain the idea of having pizza.

1. Avoid unnecessary temptation.
There are many food temptations beyond our control. Why give myself added temptation when I CAN control this? I don’t need to be alerted to sales or new flavors. I don’t need an email putting the idea in my head. Seeing a yummy picture or really great deal will just make me think about ordering pizza when I had no intention of doing so!

2. Paying full price makes you think twice!
Why make it easier on myself to make a less healthy choice? We have all been guilty of saying “I couldn’t pass up the sale…!” Paying full price makes me stop and think twice. It gives me a chance to ask myself:
~ Do I really want it?
~ Is it really worth the money?
~ Do I really HAVE the money to spend?
~ Is it more important to save money or to save calories/points?

3. Avoid buying too much.
Having a coupon often encouarges us to buy more! Maybe we were going to order a medium pizza but there’s some amazing coupon for a large pizza PLUS garlic bread. Of course we will be inclined to get more food at a bargain price! When we have too much food, we will eat too much food. Then we will have leftovers so we will have more temptation later that day or the next day. Instead of one high calorie meal, it could become two or three high calorie meals. This is especially true if you won’t throw it away because you don’t want to waste it.

I’m not hating on pizza. I like pizza! It’s just usually high in calories for a small quantity of food. You can totally work pizza into any healthy eating plan. The key distinction for me is that I want to have pizza when it is the right thing for me and when I have planned for it, not when it’s an emotional decision and I’m looking for comfort food. I’m trying to break the habit of turning to food for comfort. Hopefully removing this one extra temptation will help with that!

My solution is to unsubscribe from those e-mails. If you are a bargain hunter who won’t buy anything without a coupon or a sale, maybe you could set up e-mail filters instead of unsubscribing. (Check out the instructions to set up filters for Gmail and Yahoo.) The filters would then send those e-mails to a specific folder instead of your inbox. When you decide you want pizza, you can go to that folder and look for coupons rather than being tempted by seeing those coupons at a potentially weak moment.

What do you think? Is this a good way to avoid temptation? What’s your best tip for avoiding something that is a temptation for you?

Meal Planning Templates

01/03/2015

If you read my blog, you know that I like to prepare a meal plan each week. This helps me get organized, know what groceries I need to buy, and brainstorm where I might need or want to spend extra points throughout the week. If you are not sure where to get started, check out my post on the 8 Step Meal Plan.

I thought it might be helpful to give you a printable template that you can use to create your own meal plan! I created just a few so far. Let me know if you like them and want to see more!

You can click on the photo or the link to open the PDF version of the template. From there, you can print or save the template! The colors printed much lighter for me than they appear on the screen, so you can write on them and see the ink very easily.

I hope you find these templates to be a helpful tool in your meal planning. Let me know if you have any questions! 🙂

Pink Flowers Meal Plan Template

Blue Swirls Meal Plan Template

Not Really Hungry Colors Meal Plan Template

Purple Flowers Meal Plan Template

Pepperplate Love (Import Recipes)

11/23/2014

Last year I wrote a post about Pepperplate and why I love it for my online recipe storage. I just discovered that I love it even more now!! Now you can import recipes from other sites directly into your Pepperplate account!!

Even if the website isn’t listed on their page of supported sites, it sometimes still works! You just click the “bookmarklet” button and it will import the recipe data into your Pepperplate account! This post is long, but it walks you through getting started and using Pepperplate!

The first thing you need to do is get the Pepperplate Bookmarklet. What’s a bookmarklet? Odd name, right? I had never heard the term before I saw it on Pepperplate. It is just a “small software application stored as a bookmark in a web browser.” Essentially, it is just a shortcut to perform a specific task. In this case, it imports my recipe into your Pepperplate account with the click of a button.

If you don’t have a Pepperplate account, you should sign up for one first. It is completely free! Once you have an account, you can view any saved recipes in a web browser or on your phone or tablet!! From the Pepperplate home page, click the JOIN button:

Complete the form and click the Join button at the bottom (or Join with FaceBook if you prefer).

Once you have joined, you are brought to your “recipe list” page (which is blank for now of course). On this page, there is a link to “get the Pepperplate Bookmarklet.”

If you join but decide not to install the bookmarklet yet, you can always get back to the link when you are on your recipe list page.

If you do not see the link to get the bookmarklet, just click here to go straight to the bookmarklet page. Once you are on the bookmarklet page, you just click and drag the “ADD TO PEPPERPLATE” bookmarklet button to your bookmarks bar. (I use Google Chrome, so things may look a little different for you if you use another browser. If you scroll down the page, there are instructions for various browsers.)

Here is a snippet of the instructions. Please see the full instructions on the Pepperplate Bookmarklet page!

That’s it! Now that you have the button, it’s time to start adding recipes. This is the fun part. Go to your favorite recipe post and click the “Add to Pepperplate” button to transfer the key recipe information into your Pepperplate account. PLEASE NOTE that this doesn’t work from the home page! You need to be viewing a specific recipe/post in order for the data to transfer properly!

After you click the “Add to Pepperplate” button, a new window pops up for you to login to your Pepperplate account. Enter your login information and click the “Submit” button.

You should get a message that says “Recipe successfully added!” Yay!! You just imported your first recipe into your Pepperplate account! You can click the link “View this recipe in Pepperplate” to be taken directly to this recipe in your Pepperplate account.

Here is the recipe shown in Pepperplate. You can edit recipe details by clicking any of the blue pencil icons. Importing the recipe will import the photo, recipe title, number of servings, recipe time, ingredients, and instructions. It does not import the recipe description, notes, or nutrition information. If you want these details, be sure to manually copy & paste that info in your recipe.

Once you have the recipe saved in Pepperplate, you can pretty much modify anything you want! You can add a description, add notes (at the bottom), and even upload your own photo if you prefer. You can also assign categories to your recipes, which I LOVE. I like things to be organized, and this suits me well. I have multiple categories (similar to post tags or hashtags) assigned to each recipe so I can sort them in a variety of ways.

You can see that I have this recipe assigned to 7 different categories! This makes it SO easy to find what you are looking for. I might need to look for just a specific points+ value, or I might want to view only casserole recipes. I love the flexibility of having multiple categories assigned to each recipe!! My categories are not imported with the recipe, so you can assign them to your own categories!

To view recipes for a specific category (or multiple categories), first go to your recipe list.

From the recipe list, click the link called “CATEGORIES” to view a drop down list of all the categories you have created.

From the list, simply check the boxes for the categories you want to view, and a list of recipes in that category will display. To clear the category and view all of your recipes again, you can simply click the “recipe list” link.

When you are viewing a specific recipe, there are some pretty cool things you can do too. In the sidebar to the right of your recipe, you can add the recipe to your shopping list or mark it as a favorite. Marking recipes as favorites is another way to sort them (in addition to categories). This would allow you to view all recipes marked as a favorite, regardless of the category they are assigned to.

You can also print or share the recipe. I love the sharing feature! I have used this to share recipes with friends and family many times!!! You can share via e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter. I have used the e-mail option most often. When you share a recipe via e-mail, all you need to do is enter the e-mail address to send it to. You can add your own message also if you want to explain anything to the recipient.

The e-mail will be sent from Pepperplate (not from you), so you might want to let the person know to watch for it, so they don’t think it’s spam! The recipient doesn’t have to have a Pepperplate account to view the basic recipe (ingredients & instructions). That information is included in the e-mail. The e-mail will look like this:

The recipient just clicks the link in the e-mail to view the recipe on Pepperplate. This opens a browser and displays the basic recipe.

If the person you are sharing with has a Pepperplate account, all they have to do is click the link “Add this Recipe” to save the recipe to their account! Once they do that, a message will display that the recipe has been added to their account. EASY PEASY!!!

In addition to sharing the recipe with others, Pepperplate gives you an easy link back to the original recipe. Just under the “Share” option is an option to “View Original Recipe.” This will take you back to the original recipe if you need to see more details from the author. In my case, going back to the original post may provide step by step photos and explain certain steps in greater detail.

The other awesome feature in Pepperplate is the option to scale the recipe. This is in the right sidebar as well. If you want to make a larger or smaller batch, the ingredients will automatically be adjusted for you! If you want to double the recipe, just click the number 2. If you want to cook 1/2 the recipe, click the 1/2! This is an AWESOME feature to use before you go shopping!

PLEASE NOTE that scaling only changes the first quantity! If I have a recipe that calls for 16 oz of meat, I might write it as: 16 oz (1 lb). When this is doubled, it displays as 32 oz (1 lb) instead of showing 32 oz (2 lb) because it sees the (1 lb) notation as part of the ingredient name. This is not a huge issue for me because I would prefer to have my hints, but it can be confusing when you are in the middle of cooking. If you don’t like this, feel free to tweak the ingredients to remove the hints.

I have not used the shopping list and meal planner much yet because I already had other solutions in place for these things. I may explore these features in the future. If you use these features, please comment and let me know what you think of them!!

I should also mention that if you are at a site that is not formatted to allow it to import automatically, you can still manually copy & paste the recipe details into the Pepperplate window that opens for you.

I didn’t intend for this post to be so long, but I just felt like I shouldn’t tell you that you COULD save recipes without showing you HOW to do it. I hope you love Pepperplate as much as I do!!