LOSE WEIGHT WITH ME
Back to Blog

Plan to Maintain

Jul 08, 2020

 


 

Yesterday I spent a few hours planning my work projects for the next couple of months.

 

It felt sooooo good.

Creating order out of chaos.

 

I’d noticed myself procrastinating the last few days.

I had big ideas I wanted to make happen but it all felt overwhelming, so I wallowed in confusion instead.

 

There’s a big advantage to wallowing in confusion: It allows me to stay in inaction.

I can’t do anything if I don’t know what to do!

 

The problem with that is twofold:

  1. Nothing gets done
  2. I live in a constant state of low-level anxiety, knowing I have a goal but not doing anything to move toward it.

 

Can you relate?

 

There are many places we can see this pattern: Confusion, Inaction, Anxiety.

Food, weight loss and maintenance of weight loss to name a few.

 

The antidote is always the same: PLANNING.

 

Setting your goal and creating a path to take you there gives you the structure you need to get the job done.

 

When we’re talking about food and weight, planning what you’re going to eat during the week ahead is a sure path to your weight goals.

 

Creating a plan for your food week does 3 things:

 

  1. It allows you to decide what kind of week it’s going to be: weight loss, maintenance, weight gain. No more anxiety about how the week will turn out. You’re in control. Stringing the weeks together will get you to your goal.

 

  1. It helps you prepare for the week by creating a grocery list. You’ll have everything you need on hand. No scrambling or worrying about supplies.

 

  1. It calms the hunger beast. You know what you’re going to eat when. So even if you get over-hungry, you’re calm knowing exactly what to put in your mouth.

 

The more detailed the plan the better, but even if you only decide which meals you’re making at home and which meals are “out” (not made by you), it’ll go a long way to balancing out the calories of your food week.

 

High calorie meals need to be balanced by lower calorie ones. Making those decisions at the beginning of your week protects your goals while allowing you to enjoy your food.

 

Our planning brain is generally calmer and infinitely better at making decisions than our hungry, desperate brain. We can trust the planning brain so much more.

 

Without planning you’re hobbling yourself when it comes to your food. Always in the dark about what to eat and how it all fits together.

 

Experience the sweet relief of a plan.

Give it a shot, tweak as needed and watch any food anxiety (and the scale) go down.