Most people try to eat healthy. No one intentionally starts their day with a list of bad foods they are going to try to eat before they collapse into bed at night. The problem with healthy eating is that many people don’t take the time necessary to create healthy meal plans for those on the go that will fit their lifestyles or habits.
The first step for planning a healthy meal involves knowing what, and when a person is eating. It is important to spend a week writing down everything that one eats. Some people drink three or four cups of coffee in the morning, have a donut at work for breakfast, and eat a granola bar or three before lunch. They don’t have a lot of time, so most grab a quick burger and fries for lunch. After eating the rest of the box of granola bars in the afternoon, around three they’ll eat a candy bar or two so they will have the energy to go home and eat something that they either have picked up or can cook in less than thirty minutes. After dinner, they may have to go to a meeting where they will drink more coffee, have cake or cookies, then go home and go to bed after a relaxing bowl of ice cream.
When this person jumps on the healthy eating wagon, two things are going to happen immediately. First, they will start experiencing an excruciating headache because they will be cutting out an enormous amount of sugar that their body has become addicted to. Secondly, they will experience withdrawal symptoms from the chemicals that they have become addicted to that are contained in all of the fast and junk food they’ve been eating.
For these reasons, and the fact that the term “healthy meals” is associated with a lot of time intensive work, most people don’t eat healthy. Effective healthy meal plans must begin with the assumption that the person planning the meals has been eating for awhile. They must include a “plan” that includes ways to avoid the cravings, withdrawal, and headaches that follow getting off bad foods “cold turkey”.
The key to healthy meal plans for those on the go is to start simply. Some people find that planning one part of their meals at a time and following the plan for a week or two, then gradually expanding to include more meals, is much more successful than creating a structured meal plan. This is totally a matter of personal style.
Healthy meal plans often do not take into consideration that for many people snacks are a meal. By planning for snacks just as one would for a meal, they will be more successful in implementing an effective plan. So, start creating a healthy meal plan with some basic changes that are going to help the body be prepared for additional healthy meals.
