What I've learned by planning one whole week ahead and how to do it
tenazhsc
Posts: 70 Member
-- Planning one week ahead --
In the off chance that someone may benefit from reading this, including my future self, I’ll take the time to outline the process of planning one week ahead and the benefits.
I’m fully aware that the concept is not new and it’s different from meal prepping which involves cooking and freezing a whole bunch of meals at once. I’m not quite yet at a point where I’d exchange the comfort of a fresh meal or last night’s leftover compared to a frozen meal for the sake of getting fit. Perhaps I haven’t learned how to do it correctly and I guess I haven’t even tried mainly because I don’t have the freezer room, the tupperware, I haven’t made the time etc. I’m not ruling it out. It’s just not what this post is about.
The old adage says “fail to plan, plan to fail”. This means a lot of different things. I can have a general plan for this week that I’ll eat under the calorie goal and that I’ll ‘find time’ to squeeze 3 workouts. Sounds like a plan? Hardly! Hundreds if not thousands of goal-setting and productive books will tell you that the more specific (think numbers) you are, the higher chance of success. What shorts and shoes are you wearing for that workout? What date and time? Will you put off something else? Do you need someone else’s help to do it? The more numbers you attach to that particular goal, the better. It’s also a good idea to anticipate pitfalls and design fallbacks. There’s no perfect or infallabel plan, or at least its execution won’t be.
When it comes to planning meals in the realm of myfitnesspal, the initial process can take quite a bit of work but you ought to know that it will only take a fraction of the time and effort the next time around. This is true in general for any fitness, dieting and wellness process. The first time you plan and execute it, it’s going to take some extra effort to break the force of inertia, you’ll have to spend some time researching, you’ll feel a bit confused and clumsy. This is normal. The second time you do the same routine it will be much easier, and the third time will be even easier than the second and so on.
First of all you would’ve set your general goals in the settings > diet/fitness profile. You would’ve gotten a calorie deficit goal based on your goals.
I have sliced my goal and actually named my meals like this
* Breakfast 200
* Lunch 500
* Dinner 800
* Snacks 150
This amounts to 1,650 which leaves 50 cals unaccounted for. This is by design. My OCD’s would tell me everything needs to be perfect. Learn to live with a little inexactitude, with little flaws. I’ve noticed that some of the most commonly asked questions by newbies are “how accurate is the MFP food database?” and “How can I buy the most accurate scale?”. The answer almost always will be “they are accurate enough”. Learn to leave with that feeling and give yourself a little wiggle room. This last piece of advice may seem counterintuitive. Let me clarify. The plan will be laid out in detail, anticipate everything, measure everything, log everything, account for every pitfall that you can imagine. It won’t end up working exactly as planned but that’s no reason to give up. That’s what “making friends with inaccuracies” mean.
If you feel the need to mess with the numbers, underestimate your calories burned and overestimate your calorie intake. I do light “workouts” everyday. These are brisk 20 minute walks on hilly terrain. I don’t even log the calorie burn. But I can do this everyday while building up to, or while doing more strenuous workouts. I’ve been there before doing 3-4 workouts with calorie burns in the thousands of calories. These are fine but if you’re starting over, it’s my opinion that monster workouts can be counterproductive. You didn’t accumulate the pounds overnight and burning it so quickly sets us up for yo-yoing, because you either burn out or injure yourself. Easy going workouts that you can do 5-6 days a week, I feel, are the way to go for people starting out. Yes, eventually you’ll become an athlete and you can go for it then. Learning a routine of challenging but light activities that you can do everyday also sets you up for when your body can no longer do the big workouts e.g. when you get older. Father time is undefeated.
To make a meal plan for the whole week you’ll need to know what you have available in your fridge. This in turn sets you up to make a groceries run if you need to. MFP’s food log has great features but you can only copy meals a few days back and forth. So you will have to go and add meals. If your log is empty then you’ll have to figure out meals for the whole week. This is a lot of work for one seating. It might even be better to wait a couple of weeks before you try planning the whole week. There is a feature under a meal called “Remember meal”. Go back to your previous logged days when you met your calorie goal and find meals that worked well. I have saved “Salmon and vegetables”, “Chicken burger and home fries”, heck I even saved a couple of ‘cheat meals’. I know I’ll eat this stuff from time to time so I saved it as a meal, it’ll help me plan it, log it and follow it.
In my case I start laying out the dinners Monday thru Sunday. My lunch is almost always dinner leftovers. But I’ll find out if any dinner from the previous day doesn’t have any left.
Schedule you cheat meals. By doing this I’ve gotten to the point where ‘cheat meals’ don’t really put me over my calorie goal. I work the rest of my meals and workouts around it BEFORE so that my intake is still close to the goal. I either do light meals, or OMAD or workout a bit extra in advance. Deprivation, starvation and working out after as punishment for overeating does not really work for me and I’m sure it doesn’t work for most people. This is why planning ahead offers such an advantage.
By planning the whole week ahead you can look at your SO’s schedule and get them involved. Eating is a social activity. You set yourself up for success when you get those around you on board.
By planning the whole week ahead you can look at the weather and see if it’ll affect your routine in any way.
By planning the whole week ahead you can plan cheat meals and use them as a beacon to be disciplined now so you can enjoy a little bit later.
By planning the whole week ahead you can look at your work calendar and see if there’s any work function that will interfere with your goals.
By planning the whole week ahead you can plan and buy anything that you need to get it done. You may need to buy food, buy a raincoat, buy tupperware, etc.
When you plan in advance you can just review the plan the night before and use your willpower mostly for executing it and not for making decisions, which has been proven to spend your willpower reservoir.
In review
* Add numbers and specifics to your plan.
* Check and plan for specific
* Plan 7 days ahead.
* Layout the dinners first
* Schedule your workouts
* Save meals that work for you
* Anticipate pitfalls
* Schedule your cheat meals
In the off chance that someone may benefit from reading this, including my future self, I’ll take the time to outline the process of planning one week ahead and the benefits.
I’m fully aware that the concept is not new and it’s different from meal prepping which involves cooking and freezing a whole bunch of meals at once. I’m not quite yet at a point where I’d exchange the comfort of a fresh meal or last night’s leftover compared to a frozen meal for the sake of getting fit. Perhaps I haven’t learned how to do it correctly and I guess I haven’t even tried mainly because I don’t have the freezer room, the tupperware, I haven’t made the time etc. I’m not ruling it out. It’s just not what this post is about.
The old adage says “fail to plan, plan to fail”. This means a lot of different things. I can have a general plan for this week that I’ll eat under the calorie goal and that I’ll ‘find time’ to squeeze 3 workouts. Sounds like a plan? Hardly! Hundreds if not thousands of goal-setting and productive books will tell you that the more specific (think numbers) you are, the higher chance of success. What shorts and shoes are you wearing for that workout? What date and time? Will you put off something else? Do you need someone else’s help to do it? The more numbers you attach to that particular goal, the better. It’s also a good idea to anticipate pitfalls and design fallbacks. There’s no perfect or infallabel plan, or at least its execution won’t be.
When it comes to planning meals in the realm of myfitnesspal, the initial process can take quite a bit of work but you ought to know that it will only take a fraction of the time and effort the next time around. This is true in general for any fitness, dieting and wellness process. The first time you plan and execute it, it’s going to take some extra effort to break the force of inertia, you’ll have to spend some time researching, you’ll feel a bit confused and clumsy. This is normal. The second time you do the same routine it will be much easier, and the third time will be even easier than the second and so on.
First of all you would’ve set your general goals in the settings > diet/fitness profile. You would’ve gotten a calorie deficit goal based on your goals.
I have sliced my goal and actually named my meals like this
* Breakfast 200
* Lunch 500
* Dinner 800
* Snacks 150
This amounts to 1,650 which leaves 50 cals unaccounted for. This is by design. My OCD’s would tell me everything needs to be perfect. Learn to live with a little inexactitude, with little flaws. I’ve noticed that some of the most commonly asked questions by newbies are “how accurate is the MFP food database?” and “How can I buy the most accurate scale?”. The answer almost always will be “they are accurate enough”. Learn to leave with that feeling and give yourself a little wiggle room. This last piece of advice may seem counterintuitive. Let me clarify. The plan will be laid out in detail, anticipate everything, measure everything, log everything, account for every pitfall that you can imagine. It won’t end up working exactly as planned but that’s no reason to give up. That’s what “making friends with inaccuracies” mean.
If you feel the need to mess with the numbers, underestimate your calories burned and overestimate your calorie intake. I do light “workouts” everyday. These are brisk 20 minute walks on hilly terrain. I don’t even log the calorie burn. But I can do this everyday while building up to, or while doing more strenuous workouts. I’ve been there before doing 3-4 workouts with calorie burns in the thousands of calories. These are fine but if you’re starting over, it’s my opinion that monster workouts can be counterproductive. You didn’t accumulate the pounds overnight and burning it so quickly sets us up for yo-yoing, because you either burn out or injure yourself. Easy going workouts that you can do 5-6 days a week, I feel, are the way to go for people starting out. Yes, eventually you’ll become an athlete and you can go for it then. Learning a routine of challenging but light activities that you can do everyday also sets you up for when your body can no longer do the big workouts e.g. when you get older. Father time is undefeated.
To make a meal plan for the whole week you’ll need to know what you have available in your fridge. This in turn sets you up to make a groceries run if you need to. MFP’s food log has great features but you can only copy meals a few days back and forth. So you will have to go and add meals. If your log is empty then you’ll have to figure out meals for the whole week. This is a lot of work for one seating. It might even be better to wait a couple of weeks before you try planning the whole week. There is a feature under a meal called “Remember meal”. Go back to your previous logged days when you met your calorie goal and find meals that worked well. I have saved “Salmon and vegetables”, “Chicken burger and home fries”, heck I even saved a couple of ‘cheat meals’. I know I’ll eat this stuff from time to time so I saved it as a meal, it’ll help me plan it, log it and follow it.
In my case I start laying out the dinners Monday thru Sunday. My lunch is almost always dinner leftovers. But I’ll find out if any dinner from the previous day doesn’t have any left.
Schedule you cheat meals. By doing this I’ve gotten to the point where ‘cheat meals’ don’t really put me over my calorie goal. I work the rest of my meals and workouts around it BEFORE so that my intake is still close to the goal. I either do light meals, or OMAD or workout a bit extra in advance. Deprivation, starvation and working out after as punishment for overeating does not really work for me and I’m sure it doesn’t work for most people. This is why planning ahead offers such an advantage.
By planning the whole week ahead you can look at your SO’s schedule and get them involved. Eating is a social activity. You set yourself up for success when you get those around you on board.
By planning the whole week ahead you can look at the weather and see if it’ll affect your routine in any way.
By planning the whole week ahead you can plan cheat meals and use them as a beacon to be disciplined now so you can enjoy a little bit later.
By planning the whole week ahead you can look at your work calendar and see if there’s any work function that will interfere with your goals.
By planning the whole week ahead you can plan and buy anything that you need to get it done. You may need to buy food, buy a raincoat, buy tupperware, etc.
When you plan in advance you can just review the plan the night before and use your willpower mostly for executing it and not for making decisions, which has been proven to spend your willpower reservoir.
In review
* Add numbers and specifics to your plan.
* Check and plan for specific
- * Dates
- * Times
- * Meals
- * Calories
- * People
- * Weather
- * Setbacks
* Plan 7 days ahead.
* Layout the dinners first
* Schedule your workouts
* Save meals that work for you
* Anticipate pitfalls
* Schedule your cheat meals
- * Save calories leading up to it (not later)
- * Workout a bit extra before (not after)
8
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