Plan of Eating - It’s Only for Today

Last week I talked a bit about keeping promises. By learning to keep your promise you begin building trust within yourself. And you can’t have a relationship without trust. Up until this point you may have had a pretty terrible relationship with food. You may have used food as a way to deal with emotions. You may have let it comfort you in times of sadness, celebrate with you in times of happiness, or help keep you busy and awake when you were bored and tired. (Or at least that was my relationship with food.)

I say all of this because I want to talk about developing a plan of eating. This is very different from meal planning and prepping. Meal prepping and planning can happen weeks in advance. It saves time and energy and really helps people stay on track with what they’re eating.

But a plan of eating is a daily promise to yourself of what you will consume. It is the conscious decision to say you will do something and then doing it. And it’s only for today.

Every day I sit down and I write out my plan of eating (usually the night before). I think about what if anything I craved the day before, about what I may be craving now, where I will be, how long I will be gone, if I need to pack breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack, or if I want to eat something special like go out to a nice restaurant. I plan everything out and log my food into the app on my phone. Then I make a promise to myself that for today I will eat what I have planned.

In this way, I continue to build trust in myself that I will do what I say I am going to do. What about the unexpected, or the cravings? I follow my plan and keep my promise. I can always incorporate a craved food into my plan of eating tomorrow, but for today this is my commitment.

What if I planned to eat a certain meal at a restaurant and they’re sold out, or instead my lunch date changes the restaurant all together…make the next closest decision and do it thoughtfully. (If your plan was to eat a bowl of vegetable soup and it was sold out, order another soup or steamed vegetables. Don’t order the fried chicken and onion rings with a milkshake… Get my point?)

Start small with your promises and plan of eating, and remember it’s only for today.