January 25, 2011

Nutritional Planning for the New Year Part 3

In Nutritional Planning for the New Year Part 2 we talked about planning and creating grocery lists. Today in Part 3 we are going to talk about meal timing, cravings and prepared foods.

In past posts we have talked about what your daily eating plan should look like. In case you didn’t read those or maybe don’t remember let’s review a bit before we talk about the new information.

Rather than eating 3 larger meals a day you need to be breaking your food down into 5-6 smaller meals spread out throughout the day.

This allows your body to be fueled all day.

If you remember in some of the last posts I gave the example of a wood burning stove. You can’t just put a bunch of wood on the fire a couple times a day and expect it to continue burning hot. You need to feed it a little bit throughout the day. Our body reacts the same way, if we eat a very large breakfast we have immediate fuel, but to much fuel to handle all at once. So, unlike the fire fizzling out quickly, we store the excess fuel (in the form of fat) and fizzle out a few hours later.

Keeping your body fueled all day also helps with weight loss as it helps to keep your metabolism firing on all cylinders.

Lastly, but maybe one of the most important factors about eating all those small meals a day is how well it helps with cravings.

Cravings, you know what I’m talking about everybody has had them. They are dreadful, sitting at your desk, 3:00 rolls around, and you still have another 2-3 hours before you can go home. That vending machine is just staring you in the face and truly mocking you. And you think to yourself, its only day 3 of my new diet.

When you fuel your body all day long you are less likely to be hungry and it is much easier to say no to the vending machine. You have to understand and remember the hungrier you allow yourself to become the worse the cravings will hit, which in turn makes it very difficult on your part to choose healthy.

Food Choices are just as important as eating the 5-6 small meals a day. If you are not fueling with the correct foods you may as well go back to your old habits. Vegetables should be the largest portion of every meal. Be sure to include a lean protein and supplement with healthy whole grains and fruit.

A meal or snack centered around carbs (healthy or not) will leave you feeling hungry and unsatisfied shortly after eating. Add veggies and some protein to that carb and you will not only feel more satisfied, but your cravings will go away and you will feel full for a longer period of time.

I promise if you have carefully read this entire series and implement the tips and practices you have learned you will feel better and lose some weight. Good luck!

Stay Motivated,

Karen