Help!

felicianomnilsa
felicianomnilsa Posts: 1 Member
edited December 2024 in Recipes
Need to find a meal plan. I'm working out 4-5x a week but want to eat healthier!

Replies

  • snmitch1965
    snmitch1965 Posts: 3 Member
    I wouldn't sweat a meal plan as a starting point. I would start by getting calorie balance in/ out right for your target body fat %age / BMI. Once you have been doing that consistently a month, eating whatever you want but in the right energy qty, then you can work in swaps that are healthier options (nut butters instead of cream butters, whole grains instead of white flour, lower added sugar options, plant fats instead of animal fats, veggies galore (raw, cooked). Drop things you just don't need - one by one (Soda, juices, candy, syryp in drinks, sugar added to coffee). When you swap in healthy options, make one change at once and make it stick for two weeks before adding in others. Anything you choose not eat, remember to think "I choose to eat this, not that" and not "I can't have that!" You are using your brain to choose what's best in the long term for your goals over whats best in the short term for your over-stimulated pleasure centers.

    But as you add in the healthy swaps, remember that many of them are high calorie density, so get the quantity right and don't mess up the calorie balance.

    YMMV but for me a process of swapping in healthy options over a year and learning to like my new menu options worked best. Meal Plans = rules / diet = miserable for me, and I have come to the view meal plans are a substitute for being mindful about food qty and food quality. Took me two years to fix my diet in qty and quality, but the rewards were obvious to me and to all.

    First and foremost - how much you eat is the key thing for body composition (coupled with exercise). Food quality is the key thing for health (injury avoidance, long life, disease avoidance, high performance when pressed to perform etc).
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