Preparation is Key

For most of us, doing a low carb diet not only changes what we eat but how we live. In some cases this can be a little stressful as lifestyle changes often are.

When I began low carb almost a year ago, I didn’t go out to eat in fear of eating off-plan accidentally. This stopped me and my husband from doing one of the things we really enjoyed. We loved restaurant hopping and trying out new dishes – come to think of it, I partially blame that for making my weight balloon like it did. But when I was finally brave enough to try a restaurant, I realized it was only a matter of reading the menu carefully, not being afraid to ask questions and special requests.

Another thing that helped me was making a large batch of a dish and keeping the leftovers for those times when I didn’t feel like cooking. Trust me, that happened a lot. Mini cheesecakes are perfect for a grab and go breakfast with a nice cup of coffee. I made more than three meals out of Lindasue’s Coney Island Chili recipe. SugarFreesheila’s Amazing Induction Friendly Pancakes were a must have in my fridge because it was not only delicious but I could eat with just butter and cinnamon or go crazy with cream cheese mousse and sugar free jam. Whenever I manage to convince my husband to make his awesome burgers, he would make ten to twelve patties out of two pounds of ground beef and I absolutely LOVE these burgers and have been known to eat one for every meal!

These were timesavers and also lifesavers. I’ve been in that situation where I just didn’t wanna prepare something and to have leftovers in the fridge helped me out big time because it prevented me from eating off plan.

Planning and preparing for the week ahead will stop you from making poor choices when it comes to eating. This is very important and the key to succeed in this way of eating (WOE).

Tips:

1. Make sure you have space in your fridge or freezer.

2. Invest in small, one-serving microwaveable plastic containers and zip lock storage bags to store your food in properly.

3. Make a recipe you LOVE. By love, I mean something you wouldn’t mind eating more than once in a week. For me it would be burgers and SFS pancakes but I am willing to try out other recipes. I’ve goofed up and made large batches of things I only liked and I didn’t eat it so it was very wasteful. Shame on me.

4.Portion control is very important! Just because you have 24 mini cheesecakes in the fridge doesn’t mean you can eat three for breakfast, two for lunch and two for dinner. Stop yourself! I know it’s difficult especially with low carb desserts like the cheesecake or those yummy cream cheese balls but do practice portion control. Personally I allow myself ONE mini cheesecake every day, not every meal. If I want two, I wait until later on in the day to see if I still want it. If you are one of those people who feels like portion control is impossible, then I suggest you don’t do low carb desserts or sweets for this exercise. A nice stir fry with beef and vegetables might be a better choice.

5. Eat. Don’t forget to eat what you have painstakingly prepared. Don’t be wasteful. When you open your fridge to look for some grub, really look at what you’ve made and decide. Oftentimes, I would open and close the refrigerator lots of times because I “couldn’t” find anything to eat, which is not true. So eat!

So arm yourself to protect against off plan eating by planning ahead and preparing your meals ahead of time. This will make our journey bump-free and stress-free and I don’t know about you but that’s the way I like it.