Food Journaling Planning and Your Go-To Meals [Ep 94]

0:00 This is the eat well think, well, live. Well podcast. I'm Lisa Salisbury and this is episode 94 food journaling planning and your go-to meals. Welcome to Eat Well, Think Well, Live Well; the podcast for women who want to lose weight, but are tired of counting and calculating all the food. I'm your host, Lisa Salsbury. I'm a certified health and weight loss coach and life coach, and most importantly a recovered chronic dieter. I'll teach you to figure out why you are eating when you aren't hungry, instead of worrying so much about what you are eating. Hey, friends and listeners out there. How are you today? I have a short and sweet episode for you today.

0:41 First. Though I was reading through some of the reviews on the podcast and I haven't asked for any lately, so those have kind of slowed down a bit. So feel free to pause and just hit that five star rating. And write a little something nice. If you're so inclined. I really love ER, D 80 threes. Review. They said, this is the best podcast I've found to help with improving my habits and mindset on health and wellness. I seriously can't believe I can get all this information for free. I would encourage anyone looking for further support to set up a free session with her. I got more help in one hour with her than I've gotten from hours and hours of counseling or with health consultants. It's not often that I listen to something and not only feel motivated, but also equipped to take an action that is doable and sustainable.

1:27 Wow. Thanks ERD 80. I'm not exactly sure who you are. But just by virtue of her saying that she spent an hour with me, um, means that she took advantage of the last time I was doing my free food planning sessions because. Those are longer than my free strategy session. So just because she said she had an hour. Um, just as a reminder, I am doing those again. I do them about twice a year. So don't delay, I've got about two weeks left for this round. So speaking of food planning, How is that going for you? Are you planning your meals ahead of time? My clients do sort of three levels of food planning and food journaling, depending on where they are with me in my program.

2:11 It's sort of a good, better, best situation. So first a good, good, good place to start is a simple food journal. This is just a record of what you eat. And it is so valuable. If you can just write down what you are eating after the fact that's great food journaling alone can actually contribute to you losing weight. According to Harvard health research shows that for people interested in losing weight. Keeping a journal can be a very effective tool to help change behavior. In one weight loss study of nearly 1700 participants. Those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records.

2:54 I don't know if the researchers in this study hypothesized about a cause for this, but I would assume it's for a couple of reasons, from what I see with my clients. First, when you know, you're going to write it down, you're less likely to grab snacks. You aren't really hungry for. And second, you have a record of what works. If you have a loss on any given week, you can go back and see what you ate and look for patterns. On weeks, you have a weight loss versus weeks that you maintain or have a gain. You can compare the types of foods and if you include the amounts, then you can look at that too. And see. What was different? Also with your food journal.

3:36 If you are using the tools I give you here for free on the podcast, you can also include your hunger scale numbers. I have lots of episodes where I teach you about that. So, what were you on the hunger scale prior to eating and then after. Rather than including cups and tablespoons of your food, you can always rely on your hunger scale to determine amounts, to be eaten. But if you are doing that, then for sure include those hunger scale numbers. On your food journal. Other information you might include is the time of day what you are feeling emotionally. And if you were doing anything else while eating such as watching TV or using your phone, To be truly effective.

4:18 You want to do this journal after each meal? But honestly, at the good level of my good, better, best end of day is fine. Your recall, won't be as good at the end of the day for your hunger scale or your emotional state. For sure. You may remember what you ate for the most part, but if you want more data, you've got to record that at the time of eating. Dietary recall has been shown to be nothing short of abysmal in studies. So recording at the time you eat is ideal. One note of creating this food journal. I don't recommend you do this in. A app, like for example, a diet app. If you're wanting to use your phone, then just use the notes app on your phone.

4:59 That's fine. But if you are logging in a diet app, you are forced to either weigh and measure your food or guests at your serving size. This creates a situation where you are tracking calories and or macros, whether you want to or not. Your brain sees the calories and most likely will make a judgment, especially if you are a recovered chronic dieters, such as myself, or if you have chronically tracked and weighed and measured in the past. And you are trying to get over that. You will see that and you will have thoughts like, Hm. That seems like a lot of calories for what I ate. Maybe I should adjust that serving size. Or that's not that much.

5:39 I could probably eat more. You end up checking your app to see if you should eat more instead of checking in with your body. That's why I recommend paper and pencil, or if you'd like to use your phone, the notes app on your phone works great. A food journal is ultimately an excellent nutritional study that you do on yourself. In fact, it's the most important nutritional study you will ever read is your own food journal. A better way. So that was good. A better way is the beginning of food planning, planning ahead on your food. You decide what you will eat for your next meal, right after finishing your current meal.

6:22 For example, when you're cleaning up your breakfast dishes, peek in the fridge, decide what you'll eat for lunch. Write that down in your food journal and stick to it. While you have your food journal, open note down your hunger scale numbers for the meal that you just completed. Now. As a caveat that assumes that you're home for both breakfast and lunch, which obviously many, many, many of us are not. So you may be either packing your lunch for work. So you're already deciding what you're eating for lunch, but you might be doing this then for dinner. The next meal you're going to have at home. The other option is if you know that you're going to be going out for lunch, or you always eat out when you are working or perhaps you eat in your company's cafeteria.

7:10 You can just decide at that moment, like, okay, today at the cafeteria, I'm going to get the entree today at the cafeteria. I'm going to get the salad bar, or if you know what restaurant you're going to, you can kind of make a mental plan for that as well. So just because you're not packing your lunch or fixing your lunch at home does not mean you can't do this. Okay. So doing this, you're going to have your food journal open in order to plan the next meal. And that way you can also note down any changes you made to the current meal. You're eating. And you can note down your current hunger scale and then you'll be deciding in advance what the next meal will be. So this puts you in a lot of abundance for your food choices, and you are less likely to need that little sweet treat after lunch.

7:55 When you already know what you're planning for dinner. It calms your brain down from the idea that while we're eating now and who knows when the next meal will be. So we bestie everything we can while it's here. It's not that we have these thoughts verbatim. It's just that it's the feeling that we should probably eat more. Now that we're here eating in the kitchen. And so having a plan gives you an abundant feeling and you are able to sort of let that go. And the more you do this, the more abundance that you will feel. The best level of food, journaling and planning is actually creating a 24 hour plan for all the food you will eat. In the next 24 hours.

8:37 You can do this in the evening for the next day. Or in the morning prior to breakfast. I even have one client and the past that she had the most free time at lunch. So she planned her dinner for that day, plus breakfast and lunch for the next, after each meal, revisit the journal to note down your hunger scale ratings and anything you were feeling that you were trying to keep track of. This also goes for digestive symptoms. If you are trying to figure out gas, bloating, constipation, et cetera, and you are trying to track that. Obviously you can do that in your food journal as well. At first, your brain will be like this as much too hard. And your brain will create a lot of drama about this 24 hour plan.

9:18 Which is why easing in is really nice. This is why I do this kind of good, better, best method. We start with food journaling. We start with just a record. But ultimately planning your food for 24 hours actually frees up tons of brain space for you to think about something other than food. And it leads to less drama about what you are eating. Hear me out. I know it sounds like if I'm planning in advance, it's going to cause a lot of drama. And I'm going to be thinking about it a lot, but I promise what happens is you will learn to trust yourself around food. Your brain starts to believe that when you say you're having oatmeal for breakfast and a leftover burrito bowl for lunch.

10:01 There's no convincing you otherwise. That's what you eat. Many of my clients have told me that doing their 24 hour plan helps them to not think about food. Because they're not in wonder, they're not like I wonder what I'm going to have for lunch. I wonder what's in the fridge. I wonder what I can get away with. Right. All that we're doing is deciding for 10 minutes in the morning. This is what I'm going to eat today. And then you're done making those decisions. It's the decision making. That's exhausting. If you have been holding onto a decision and we've been kind of going back and forth, not about food, but about something else in your life. Am I going to do this thing or am I not going to do this thing?

10:42 Do you know what the most exhausting part of that is? It's the making of the decision. It's not actually the doing the thing. Usually. It's exhausting to have an unmade decision in your head, and this is how it can be with food. You can just make all of your decisions. And then not have to worry about it for the rest of the day. The other main benefit of this is that you are always then using your higher brain. To make your food decisions because and this is the only way it's possible. Because we cannot plan ahead with our lower brain. It does not have that capability. And so just by virtue of planning ahead. That puts your higher brain in charge that puts your best brain.

11:25 In charge of your food decisions. Don't we want our best human brain, the human part of our brain. The one that makes all of our best decisions has our best interest at heart has our future self in mind. Don't we want that part of our brain always making our food decisions. I know I do. So I want to teach you now where your go-to meals come into. All of this. Many of you have downloaded my go-to meal guide. And so, you know what I'm talking about. This is ideal for the in-between stage of planning every single day from scratch. And getting to ultimate lifestyle change where everything is a habit, which by the way, I'm still not at right, because that sounds like robotic perfection.

12:08 Your go-to meals though are always on plan. And what I mean by that is they are the kinds of foods that you want to be eating to continue on your fat loss, weight loss trajectory. So these are the kinds of meals that prioritize protein and fiber, and that, you know, keep you satisfied until your next meal. You figure out what these meals are based on your food journal. That, uh, another reason to keep that food journal. If you look back and see, Hey, oh, I've eaten protein oatmeal for four days last week. And I had weight loss and I was totally satisfied during the morning hours before lunch. So.

12:49 That seems like a perfect go-to meal. Write it down in your go-to meals guide that you're going to download from the show notes, if you haven't already. So there's an, uh, a blank worksheet in that guide and, So you're going to write down that go-to meal, protein, oatmeal. And then when you go in the kitchen and you're like, oh, I didn't plan my meals. You can check your go-to meals guide and be like, oh yeah, these are the things that I like to eat for breakfast. Protein oatmeal. Greek yogurt with granola and, and some fruits or eggs and toast. Those are my three go-to male breakfasts. If you're anything like me when it's time to actually eat or cook something, I walk into the kitchen and think, Hmm.

13:33 I've never made anything good in my life. And I have no idea what to eat. Keeping a food journal has changed all of that for me. It helps me to look at ideas from the past. And that food journal also helps, helped me originally create my own go-to meals by looking at the things that I like to eat. Looking at the things that work for me really well. And by the way, work for me really well also means. They're easy. There's nothing on my go-to meals list for myself, that takes a really long time to prepare because that doesn't make it easy and go to for me. So this tool will actually help eliminate a lot of this ambiguity for you.

14:15 Okay. Now, what about long-term? Do we have to do go to meals or 24 hour plans for the rest of our lives? I have had this question from some clients, like, but what happens like in a few weeks from now six weeks, six months from now in a year from now, like, am I still planning every single day? So the answer is it depends. There's a happy medium of food, journaling and food planning. This is for those of you that have been on this fat loss journey for quite some time, you have things totally dialed in. You're properly processing cravings. And for the most part, they've decreased because you know, you can eat all foods and that nothing is truly off limits.

14:56 You're also prioritizing protein and sleep and both of those things also help limit cravings. Um, but this is not an, actually an episode about cravings, but I just know that that is kind of when we know that things are really working when our cravings are down. So, what I'm saying is that you have gotten to the point where on days where you don't get to planning. It's not a problem because you eat what you would have eaten. Had you planned. This is when you know that you have changed your lifestyle and your actual eating habits, when you're go to desires, like what actually sounds good and filling, and that will give you energy for your day.

15:39 Aligns with your fat loss goals. Your probably still planning dinners at this point. So you can go to the grocery store for ingredients once a week or so, and then you automatically make sure you have the things on hand. For your go-to breakfast and lunches and make sure the pantry is stocked for go-to dinners as well. In case things go awry. Like I always have the ingredients to make spaghetti and a couple other like go-to meals that are what I consider pantry. Pantry meals. I have those things in my cabinet. This is a great stage where your go-to meals have become habits. Many of you may not be at this point because, well, you're listening to this podcast because you're still in a weight loss or fat loss phase.

16:26 If that is you, I I'd love to help you. I'd love to help you get from still struggling, still trying to work on keeping a food journal or still trying to work on this 24 hour plan. Into lifestyle change. That is my ultimate goal for my clients. I want them to be not thinking about food so often that is the ultimate level of success for me. Is when they're like, I just barely think about food because I eat the things that I like. And I know that those I can have those chips tomorrow. If I want them, I don't ever feel like I have to finish the bag of cookies right now because it's no problem.

17:07 I can just have them again another day. That's ultimately what I want for you. So for sure, grab that free download in the show notes. If you haven't already, like I said, the go-to meals guide and then get signed up for that free food planning session with me. This is actually about specific foods, especially for you. So it's nothing that we covered today. Actually, these sessions are totally tailored to help you. Get started losing weight this week That's it for now and as always, thanks for listening and sharing the Eat Well, Think Well, Live Well podcast.