• 7 Ways To Stick To A Meal Plan
  • 7 Ways To Stick To A Meal Plan

    I’m sure you’ve heard that diet is key when trying change your body, whether you want to lose weight or gain muscle. In fact diet is 70-80% important compared to exercise at 20-30%. You can’t out-exercise a bad diet and so I like to meal plan to keep me on track with my eating. If you’ve read my post How To Meal Plan for Beginners then you’ll know why I’m big on meal planning. But with temptations around every corner, it can be hard to stay on track with our meal plans sometimes so I thought I’d share my tips on how to stick to a meal plan. If you haven’t yet, make sure you download my free meal and workout planner so that you can make your very own meal plan.

    Know your ‘why’

    Remind yourself of the reason why you wanted to start meal planning in the first place. Do you want to save money on your groceries? Cut out the crap in your diet? Lose weight? Get better at cooking and experiment more in the kitchen? Improve your relationship with food? Whatever your reason, having a goal and remembering that goal is a great way to keep you on track. When you’re tempted to not eat your healthy snack and buy a chocolate bar instead, look at the bigger picture, remember your ‘why’.

    Eat foods you love

    If you make a meal plan cutting out all of the foods you love it will only be a matter of time before you fall off track with your meal plan. When I got stricter with my meals, I ate 100% clean 6.5 days a week and I would allow myself one cheat meal a week. This helped me to stick to my meal plan as it meant I could still go out with friends or I could still have a date night with the boyfriend and most importantly of all, I could still eat chocolate! Because well, a life without chocolate just doesn’t bare thinking about for me. I actually planned in my cheat meals just as I planned the rest of my meals, then the rest of the week I would eat healthy and clean, avoiding temptation knowing that I had my cheat meal to look forward to. The key here is not to be too restrictive with your meal plan.

    It’s all in the prep

    I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been tempted to get a takeaway, even when I haven’t fancied a takeaway, purely because I haven’t wanted to cook after work. Now, since having a meal plan I don’t get that temptation as I have healthy meals prepared. I spend some time on a Sunday prepping my meals for the week ahead, I grill a batch of chicken, chop and roast some vegetables, cook some brown rice or sweet potato, portion out some fruit for snacks and smoothies and more. When you have healthy meals and snacks ready to grab from the fridge, you’ll be less likely to give into temptations or the ‘easy’ option.

    How to stick to a meal plan and reach your healthy eating goals, by Simply Cantara - a healthy lifestyle blog

    Go with the flow

    Fancy lean beef chilli tonight even though it was planned for tomorrow? Have the chilli! Save tonight’s planned dinner for tomorrow or another night. If you’ve planned healthy meals for each day then there’s no harm in switching the order around as you go through the week. Unless you’re training for a bodybuilding/bikini competition where you’ll need to be super strict with every meal and your macros, do not be afraid to switch things up a little. If you really don’t fancy grilled chicken tonight then eat the chilli instead and feel happy in knowing you didn’t grab a takeaway instead.

    Eat enough calories

    I’ve seen and heard so many people, particularly women, say they are going to drastically cut your calories in a bid to lose weight. Whether it’s 3 lbs or 3 stone they are trying to lose. I could write a whole post on this topic (in fact I’m adding it to my list of post ideas right now!) but for now I’ll keep it simple. If you do not eat enough calories your body will go into starvation mode, you will be hungry, your willpower will wain and you will be tempted by anything and everything. Avoid this misery by eating enough calories of healthy, nourishing, good-for-you foods. If you aren’t sure of how many calories are in foods, or how many calories you’re actually eating, I highly recommend using MyFitnessPal for at least a week to get a better idea. Bottom line, plan for enough calories. Do not starve yourself.

    Be mindful of your eating

    Eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full. Believe me this is easier said than done sometimes, but just because your meal plan says you’re to have an afternoon snack it doesn’t mean you have to have one if you’re not hungry. If you want to have lunch at 1 instead of 12, it’s OK. Pay attention to your body and your hunger. When you do eat, give your food your full attention. If you eat whilst you’re distracted it can be easy to forget you’ve even eaten then you’ll be tempted to eat extra meals.

    Be accountable

    Tell people you’re eating healthier and following a meal plan. Tell a friend, share it on your social media, start a blog, post your plan and meals to Instagram. Let people know and ask for their support. It can be a lot easier to stick to your meal plan if you know you have others to answer to, if you know people will ask how you’re getting on with the plan. Putting that pressure on yourself will make that sneaky chocolate bar seem a lot less tempting.

    These are my tips on how to avoid temptation and stick to your meal plan. If you haven’t made a meal plan yet, download my FREE meal and workout planner and then read my post on How to Meal Plan for Beginners.


    If you’ve been meal planning for a while now let me know what you do to stick to your meal plan. What temptations get in the way of your meal plan? What do you do to avoid them? Share your tips in the comments below.


     

    8 Comments

    1. July 21, 2015 / 8:13 am

      Great tips – I really notice the difference hang a plan in advance makes. It takes the guesswork out of it and in the long run planning my week on a Sunday saves a load of time throughout the week! Will have to check out your meal planners – I’m a sucker for a pretty spreadsheet ;)

      • July 21, 2015 / 8:23 pm

        I’m the same, I don’t enjoy cooking during the week after work and the gym so I love that I can save time buy planning and cooking on a Sunday. Oooh you’ve just given me an idea Cat! At the moment my meal planner is a PDF download for you to print and fill in, but I do use a spreadsheet too so I’ll try to repurpose that to share with you all :) x

    2. emily couture
      July 21, 2015 / 8:09 pm

      these are some great tips and advice :)

      emily xx

      emilycouture95.blogspot.co.uk

    3. Sérgio Pontes
      July 28, 2015 / 3:14 pm

      Nice Tips!

    4. Kirsty McManus
      August 7, 2015 / 11:43 pm

      Your printed plan looks lovely, I find I respond so well to pretty things! Pretty workout clothes/pretty food plans and your on to a winner!

      Kirsty x

      • August 10, 2015 / 11:10 pm

        Aw thank you, I’m so glad you like it! I’m planning on creating and sharing more pretty things in the future so watch this space! :) x

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