Bill Daniels explains how meal planning prevents overeating by stopping impulsive choices when hungry. Write out all meals and snacks, shop with a list, and eat slowly to improve nutrient absorption. Flexibility and self-forgiveness matter more than perfection.
Hey everybody, and welcome to the video about meal planning. This is one of the most valuable tips I can give you if struggling— if you're struggling to get your nutrition under control. Okay, so I want you to take a look at this picture I have right here. It's actually the whiteboard that we have in my kitchen, just right down the hall here. And what we do is we plan out all of our meals, and it really helps us to stay on track. And we're gonna dive into this a little bit more here. So, even those of us with the best intentions can be distracted and find ourselves hungry and ready to eat anything that is easy to prepare. There's a whole hormonal response that happens when you're hungry and you don't know what to eat. If you find yourself in a hurry, if you find yourself super hungry and you haven't decided in advance What you're gonna eat, your brain is gonna go for whatever is easiest and whatever is sugariest. Okay, so it's doing that because it's a starvation mode survival technique, and it's there because your, your body says, I need carbohydrates to survive, and the quickest carbohydrates to digest are the sugary ones, and you end up making poor decisions when you're eating if you're in that state. So your blood sugar will actually drop And in response to your blood sugar, that creates the carbohydrate craving because that's what's gonna drive your blood sugar back up, okay? The high glycemic, fast-acting carbohydrates are generally the sugary ones or some grains, even a few fruits like bananas are higher glycemic. Now, this doesn't mean that all high glycemic foods are bad, but mostly the processed carbohydrates are what are the bad carbohydrates, and those are the easy things to grab. Usually, they're in a wrapper and you can run right out the door with it. So, it's important to keep that in mind that high glycemic foods are okay, but you wanna try and plan those out in advance so you're not just throwing those foods down to just get your blood sugar back up, 'cause it creates that whole cycle of spiking and crashing, okay? If you're grocery shopping, When you are also hungry, you're gonna end up doing the same thing. Even though you may not eat it necessarily in the store, your brain is gonna see it and say, let's buy that, let's get that. You throw it in your cart, you get it home, next thing you know, it's sitting on your shelf. Next time you're hungry, boom, you're grabbing that Twinkie or whatever that food might be, and you're throwing it down, and then you end up regretting it, okay? Your eating habits will end up suffering if you are not planning out your food, okay? Your food is chewed less than normal. So what happens is you will end up not breaking down the food in the first portion of digestion, which happens in your mouth. So you end up missing out on certain digestive things, certain nutrients that you would get from the food there. Okay? That also creates poor digestion because then you get bigger chunks of food in your digestive system. So it's harder for your body to break it down. Okay, you get, you'll get, you won't be able to absorb the value of what you're actually eating, even if it's good food, okay? So, you don't wanna just wolf down a banana when you're hungry, because again, if you're not breaking that down, you're not gonna be able to absorb the fibers and all the vitamins and nutrients that can come from that, okay? Eating fast will often end in you feeling like you ate too much. The hunger, And fullness response come from a couple hormones, ghrelin and leptin primarily. And it takes a little while. So ghrelin tells you you're hungry, leptin tells you you're full. And if you just eat really, really fast while ghrelin's up high, it takes a little while for the leptin to respond and inhibit the ghrelin. So what ends up happening is you eat too much. And then all of a sudden the leptin catches up and you're like, oh God, I just filled up my stomach way more than I should have. Okay? This will make you feel, one, like you ate too much, and two, guilty that you didn't stick to your program. So, you'll wanna make sure that when you plan food out, you also try to plan out the timing and that you have it ready to go. 'Cause you don't wanna end up in those situations, okay? So, here's the solution. One, there are gonna be times where something happens and you aren't able to stick to your meal plan. Okay? You're going to have to forgive yourself. I've said this in other videos. I say this to my clients all the time. You will make mistakes. You are not gonna eat perfect the rest of your life every single day. But, when you do make those mistakes, don't throw the whole program in the garbage. Give yourself a break. Forgive yourself. Move on to the next meal. Get back on track, okay? Plan your meals with whatever method works best for you. Okay? So, we use the whiteboard. We will actually plan out all of our meals, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks in advance, and then we will go to the grocery store and buy the foods for that. Now, I like the whiteboard because if we go to the grocery store and we planned to have chicken one night and for some reason the store didn't have the chicken we were looking for and we need to make a change, we buy whatever else we can and then we come back and we can Erase it and change it up. You know, and then things will happen. Maybe a night pops up where you have unexpected guests and you can't make the meal you were planning. Whatever it is, I like the whiteboard because you can make the changes as you go if needed. But it's written out and we see it, so if we come home after a long day and we're like, oh, what's for dinner? I'm so hungry. There's no guesswork. It's right there. It's all laid out. Okay? If you don't like the whiteboard, I've had people that I've trained who didn't wanna put a whiteboard up in their kitchen. They just didn't feel like it fit. You can write it on a piece of paper, put it on your refrigerator or on your desk. Whatever is gonna work for you. You wanna make sure it's somewhere where you can see it, okay? I've also had people use an app to plan their meals. I don't have any particular recommendations on that right now, but that is also another option. There are plenty of apps out there you can play with. My best advice to you though is try to keep it as simple as possible and make sure that it's somewhere where it's accessible and you can't miss it. Okay. When you plan your meals in advance, you set yourself up for success. And you set yourself up for success because you don't have these moments where you're freaking out and saying, oh no, I don't know what to do. I'm really hungry. I know I need to make this meal, but I'm so hungry I need to eat something right now. Don't put yourself in that situation. You just go and check the meal plan. It takes the guesswork away. And just make what's on the menu. That's the most valuable thing that comes from this meal planning. In addition to that, you'll actually end up saving some money. You won't be wasting food. So, there's a lot of valuable things that come out of planning your meals, okay? So, write them out before you go shopping. You won't buy the extra things, so you save some money that way. It's not only good for your health, but you won't waste food. It's better for the environment in that way too, and you save some money, and it really pays off on your health in the long run. Okay? If you have any questions, please feel free to email me as always, and otherwise, I will see you on the next video, which is all about drinking your water, why it's important, how to decide how much to drink, and so on. We'll see you over there. Thank you, Bill.
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