How Meal Planning Keeps Me From Binge Eating

Do you think you’re too busy to make healthy eating choices, or that your life is too chaotic to pack a lunch, cook dinner, or prepare healthy snacks? Do you have a sedentary job that is starting to pose a risk to your health and your waistline?

Now is not the time to throw in the towel, because you don’t need extra time to be healthy and lose weight; you just need to use your time a little more wisely.

Here is how I used to meal planning to get my life and my eating habits on the right track to healthy living.

Tip 1 – Cook in Batches and Store in Containers

Determine which is your “slowest” day of the week. On that day, “batch cook” your meals for the week, then separate them into containers and store them in the freezer. This will ensure that you have a healthy meal option at the ready and prevent you from reaching for those unhealthy, processed foods.

Tip 2 – Get a Stylish Meal Bag

Splurge on a super-stylish lunch bag or cooler that you WANT to take with you. Now give yourself a reason to take it to work, vacation, anywhere—fill it up! Eat leftovers from last night's healthy dinner, or get creative and pull together something healthy from your fridge. Having your lunch in a cute bag will deter you from heading for the drive-thru.

Tip 3 – Drink Up

Water, water, water! You should be drinking 8-10 glasses of water a day, more if you are trying to lose weight and curb cravings. Not only does it hydrate you and keep your body working smoothly, but it can help abate cravings and help your body flush out harmful toxins. I actually am a huge proponent of adding minerals to your water. I use CellCore CT Minerals and Ion Biome daily! You NEED minerals for the water to be absorbed into your cells.

Tip 4 – Add More Protein

Adding more protein to your daily diet can help you calm your hunger and ultimately lead to weight loss. You can buy protein supplements to avoid the excessive calories, or simply substitute some high-protein foods for others you currently eat. For those with a metabolism that needs higher protein to carbs, if you are in a protein deficit you can actually be slowing down your metabolism, making it really difficult to produce energy at the cellular level. All systems will suffer for this. You could be in a calorie restricted diet and still not lose weight.

Tip 5 – Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple Cider Vinegar that is fermented and contains 'the mother" is a probiotic and enzyme rich acidic solution that could help to stimulate digestive acids to help you digest your food, which can be used as a weight loss tonic to help you shed extra pounds and water weight and promote a healthy lifestyle.

Tip 6 – Handle the Cravings

It happens almost every time you try to stop binge eating – you start craving food like chocolate, cookies, and other high-calorie food. These food cravings are both physiological and psychological. Here are some ways to help tame them:

• Eat protein: Have a high protein snack like skinless chicken or turkey, fish, eggs, or low-fat cheese. Be sure to start including more protein in your meals to keep you fuller longer. You may need higher purine foods such as kidney, liver or heart, anchovies or sardines.

• Find a distraction: Many times, cravings are psychological, caused by boredom, anxiety, or other emotions. Find another activity to take your mind off them.

• Chew gum: Studies have shown that chewing sugar-free gum may help reduce cravings for sugary foods.

• Pamper yourself: Take some time to treat yourself. When you feel better about your body and your health, you’re more likely to make better choices regarding what you put into it.

• Brush your teeth: Brushing and flossing your teeth can help mitigate your cravings to eat.

• Refine your palate: Add more whole grains and nuts, beans, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and whole-wheat foods to your diet and snacks. These will be lower in calories but fill you up.

Planning your meals and knowing how to handle cravings are two proactive ways you can start leading a healthier lifestyle. Meal planning keeps you from grabbing for that fast food at the last minute, and it helps give you a holistic picture of your diet. Knowing how to handle cravings will help keep you on track with your bigger plan! Most of the time cravings are because your body is not getting the proper energy building macro nutrient ratios that your body needs. You could be following the same keto diet that your friend is following and lose some weight, but you will plateau if your metabolic type does not prefer to burn higher carbs to proteins and fats. All the while you are stressing your body out by not giving it the fuel it prefers. Eating the wrong types of foods, along with chronic yo-yo dieting and dieting pills and herbs will do nothing for your weight loss sustainability.

In our Functional Life Rx VIP program, we are teaching women to learn the proper fuel for their bodies by teaching them to understand their metabolic type by assessing a mineral analysis, nervous system, and food choices and behaviors.

Investing the time, effort and understanding in what fuels your body will give you the tools you need to learn to intuitively eat so you can kick counting calories, counting macros, taking diet pills, and being afraid to eat to the curb forever!