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 By: Jamie Eason
Your alarm goes off at 6 AM every week day morning. You hit the shower, quickly dry your hair and get dressed before making a mad dash for the door. Once again you have no time for breakfast and at your 8 AM meeting the donuts and danishes begin to beckon until you finally cave in. Sound familiar?
In today's world we are always rushing, which leaves little time to eat a regular meal. Morning comes and you are lucky to grab a cup of coffee, lunch time consists of fast food while catching up on emails, and by late afternoon you find yourself snacking on sugary snacks and empty calories from the vending machine. Finally, at dinner, you opt for a quick bowl of cereal or a frozen dinner before positioning yourself in front of the TV to finally unwind. Sadly, as you reflect on your day, remembering the foods you ate, you rationalize that you only had about 3 meals and you never really pigged out, so it could have been worse. News flash! Your diet stinks! You are destroying your metabolism and sabotaging much needed energy. After a day like that, with such poor food choices, you can forget about staying motivated to work out. You are setting yourself up to fail if you do not learn to plan ahead.
Any time you do something profound in life, to really create change, you make a plan. You don't go into a business presentation to land the biggest deal of your career without planning. If you move from city to city, generally, you have a plan. We plan weddings as well as vacations, so why not plan your meals to make healthy changes? Designate a day to do your grocery shopping for the week. It may take 15 - 20 minutes to plan a menu and up to an hour at the grocery store, but make time and make it a routine. Grocery Shopping: Make a shopping list that includes healthy breakfast options such as quick cooking oats, corn tortillas for breakfast tacos, and Ezekiel bread with natural peanut butter. Load up on protein like eggs, which you can hard boil for easy packing, fat free string cheese, fat free cottage cheese, nuts and a good low calorie, low sugar protein powder.
Celery and natural peanut butter are a great option to curb mid-day hunger pains. Ideally, plan small meals to pack for the day and get your body into the routine of eating every 3 or 4 hours. This will get your body into a rhythm, aid in controlling hunger pains, and most of all, help your metabolism. Do not become a slave to calorie counting, but be aware of portion control. When eating 5 - 6 times a day, instead of your usual 2 or 3, you will likely be able to resist the urge to binge. However, we are all only human, so that means that in times of stress or fatigue, when we are in need of a "pick me up", you must be prepared with healthy options on hand.
Eating for optimum health is like a marathon, you have to set a pace and stick with it to reach your goal. Slack off too much and you will never get there. Make it a sprint by going too hardcore and you will burn out before you reach the finish line.
Take it day by day and make fixing your eating habits a priority. The benefits you will experience will touch other areas of your life, perhaps motivating you to maintain your exercise routine or at the very least, encourage you to get out and enjoy your friend and family more.
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