Daily Meal Planning

Is it that time already? This is Week 3 of my goal to lose 30 pounds in 90 days and I am feeling much more confindent about my weekly weigh in. I had a good week staying with my diet plan and I managed to squeeze in six days of exercise. I felt really driven this week to try to lose weight because of my setback last week. Here goes…

My current weight as of this morning is 224 lbs

Wow, a I am so proud of myself this week. I lost six pounds over the past seven days and have lost a total of 13 pounds in three weeks. It’s starting to look like losing 30 pounds in 90 days (three months) is quite a realistic weight loss goal to set for myself and I am certainly feeling motivated to keep going.

Preparing healthy, lower-calorie meals for the whole family can be challenging, but also very rewarding.

I have tried dieting many times before, but this time feels very different. I have learned so much about losing weight, health and nutrition over the past couple of years and it is all coming together in this deeper understanding of what weight loss is all about.

I think the biggest difference between this weight loss effort and my other ones is that I am diligently tracking how many calories I eat every day. Planning my daily meals has become more like a science fair project, with adding up calories and trying to balance proteins and carbohydrates. This past weekend I spent three hours carefully planning my meals for this week and writing out a very specific grocery list for just the items I needed, nothing more. When I went shopping I bought only the items on my list, which kept me away from buying food I didn’t need.

I know that some families, particularly with young children, would have a hard time doing this kind of meal planning and strict grocery shopping. Many of my friends are in that boat and have a very difficult time controlling what they eat at meals when they have to make food for the whole family. In these situations, controlling your portion sizes at meals is extremely important.

I admit that even though it is just me and my husband (so far) in our family, planning out our meals and sticking to them can pose some real challenges. Since I am not willing to make two separate meals for us each night, my husband has been “forced” to “diet” along side me. Although he sometimes gripes about not eating the way we used to, he is also starting to lose weight and feel healthier too. So even though it may be difficult to change what you eat when you have a family to cook for, making healthier, lower-calorie meals will benefit everyone.